On the floor of a black cage, a black-haired man sat with crossed legs and closed eyes. Suddenly, his eyes opened, and a bright amber gaze shone into his surroundings.

After a few hours of training and getting used to his transformed body, Kane had decided to check up on the outside world, because he'd received a message from Ella.

Luna was awake.

With a small smile, he quickly stood up, and walked to the bars. Through them, he noticed the white-haired catling was standing up and looking around in confusion while touching her own collar.

"Luna," he said telepathically. "Are you alright?"

"Master!" the catling responded enthusiastically while looking around frantically until she finally noticed him in his cage. When she did, she smiled at him with relief. "There you are! I was afraid you'd be gone again like last time… Anyway, I'm fine."

Kane chuckled wryly, "Yeah, I had visions of your skewered body when I couldn't find you at first." Once again, the sight of that elf skewering her body swam in front of his eyes, causing pain and anger to rise inside him.

But he quickly calmed down again and shook his head, "When we get out of this place, we're going to take a few days and just take it easy… we deserve it after all this crap."

Luna could only enthusiastically nod her head in agreement, "You need to fuck me good, Master! I need something to relax after all this!"

Kane laughed softly in exasperation at Luna's ability to shrug off bad times and focus on having a good time. Suddenly, he realized that perhaps Luna really would make a good desire host…

Meanwhile, the catling herself was looking around, "Anyway, where are we now? I don't like being in cage… And there's even a collar! I swear, whoever's responsible for this…" At this point, she narrowed her eyes with anger and bloodlust while showing off her small, catling claws.

Suddenly losing her anger, she turned back to Kane curiously and with expectation, "So when are we getting out of here?"

Her confidence in his ability to get them out of bad situations caused Kane to smile softly, "It's being worked on."

He'd already asked for a status update from Ella, and she told him she was getting the hang of controlling her new sort-of-body, and that she'd soon start on cracking the security of this place.

So, for the moment, Kane wasn't worried. Ella had a sixth stage soul, and was currently controlling an extremely sophisticated piece of technology, so he was confident in her ability to take control of this place.

While his surroundings also looked quite advanced, it was clearly all ancient, and from the look of those guards, he doubted they had any clue how it all worked, beyond maybe on and off.

Luna simply nodded, taking him at his word and assuming they'd be out of there soon.

"Let's sit down," Kane then told her when he noticed one of the guards looking their way. "We don't want to draw attention until we're ready to get out of here."

Luna quickly followed his suggestion, and bef0re long, they started sharing their version of what happened in Alfheim. They'd given each other a quick summary when they were still there and finally established contact, but now it was time to get into the details.

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After they were done, Kane mumbled thoughtfully through their telepathy, "We still need to figure out what exactly happened with those nanites when we first fell into Alfheim. But I'll ask Ella about that after we've finally taken back control of our lives."

Luna nodded confidently, trusting him to figure out what happened, and make sure it didn't happen again.

Then, Kane sighed, already suspecting what Luna's response was going to be, "In the meantime, what do you think about that desire shard stuff I told you?"

Immediately, Luna's face split into a wide, excited grin, "Do you even need to ask?"

Kane smirked wryly, "No, I suppose not. You do remember all that stuff about going crazy, and being hunted, right?"

But Luna's grin didn't waver, "Yeah, but it also sounds like a lot of fun! Not to mention that they'll simply be hunting us both then, and it's not like I'd abandon you if you were the only one being hunted, so what changes, really? Besides, if this wasn't the perfect task for a Valkyrie, what would be?"

Kane realized she wasn't going to be persuaded otherwise, so he smiled indulgently, "Fine… but we still need to find this person and take their shard, so take this time to think it over, alright?"

Luna scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Sure, sure. I'll totally do that." Her intention to do nothing of the sort was clear, causing Kane to chuckle at her defiance.

While she was more than willing to follow Kane's orders in the grand scheme of things, in day-to-day activities she was actually quite recalcitrant. But Kane had gotten used to that already, and even liked her like that. If she was nothing but an obedient yes-woman, that wouldn't be any fun.

After that, they talked a little more about nothing, before Kane decided to go back to his training. He didn't know how many people he and Luna were going to have to plough through after their cages opened, after all.

* * *

Several hours later, the situation had changed considerably. Kane was seething as he stood in the middle of his cage.

"They did what?!" he roared into the surroundings, causing the guards to jump up in fright.

"They're only just gone, Kane," Ella sounded in his head. "Just give me a few more seconds, and I can unlock both of your collars."

Just a few seconds earlier, he was still training peacefully in his soul world, when Ella suddenly warned him that Luna was being taken away to their captor's leader for something unknown.

Naturally, Kane had responded in an understandingly calm manner.

"Luna?" he exclaimed through their telepathic link. "You alright?"

The response was immediate, "I'm fine, Master. But I'm not sure where they're taking me."

"If Ella unlocks your collar, can you take down your guards?" he quickly asked as time was of the essence.

Luna chuckled confidently, "Easy!"

Kane shortly grinned at her confidence, but then frowned seriously again.

"Hurry it up, Ella!" he threatened out loud. "Let me down now, and you and I are gonna have a problem!"

Ella mentally gulped, knowing the next few hours could make or break their future relationship.

Meanwhile, one of the guards had come over to see what all the ruckus was about. This was a beastling wearing a shield and a weapon that looked a little like a flail.

He bashed the shield against the bars and scowled at Kane, "Hey! Keep it down in there! You can roar all you want when we sell you in Castrum, you'll be your new master's problem then!"

Kane glared at him defiantly, inwardly realizing these people really were like bandits or slavers, before scoffing, "And what are you gonna do about it?"

The beastling grinned sadistically, and presented something that looked like a remote. "I'm gonna make you hurt," he growled and pressed the button.

Kane tensed his body… but nothing happened.

Instead, the collar on his neck beeped before unlocking and falling to the ground. Then, the cage made a similar sound, and one of the sides clicked open.

Ella was done.

Instantly, Kane decided that Ella was already proving her worth. If his mind wasn't currently in rage mode, he'd likely think about how to make this transition easier for her.

But, his mind 'was' in rage mode. All he could think about right now was getting to Luna before anything happened to her.

Thus, with the collar and cage unlocked, he stepped forward and kicked the cage door open. The door blasted against the man with the remote, who screamed as he flew backward through the air.

It was time for blood.