Kane smiled at her, "Just keep talking with Ella. I want you two to figure out everything you can about this bunker, starting with the power management. This place is now on a finite source of emergency power, and I want to know how long that can last, and what we're loosing out on by not using the main generator."
Instantly, Anna smiled happily and nodded, "Alright!" before turning to the holographic Ella with a bright smile as well, "I think we'll be friends!"
She didn't want to say it out loud, for fear of offending Ella, but she loved the fact that Ella wasn't made of flesh and blood, because it meant she felt no lust at all towards her.
In a surprising move, Kane then stepped forward, and petted Anna's head. "Good girl," he grinned slightly.
Once again, Anna instantly stiffened in fear. Yet, when no barrage of lust threatened to overwhelm her, she trembled and felt herself enjoying his touch immensely. "H— How are you doing that?" she asked again while poking her fingers together and instinctively leaning into his hand.
"I'll tell you later," Kane grinned mischievously, before turning around and walking towards the exit. "Ella will tell you when it's time to head for the training room."
Meanwhile, Luna followed quickly after him, while Kane thought to himself, 'Now I need to figure out how to get these techniques out of my head, and onto some kind of readable material.'
* * *
About an hour later, Kane was walking through the now well-lit corridors of his new home base. On his left side was Luna, and on his right were Anna, and a holographic Ella. Although, Ella was also on his shoulder.
“So can you tell me anything about the power management yet?” Kane asked thoughtfully.
An excited Anna nodded, “Yeah! Ella really is amazing! It took her almost no time!” She quickly turned to the woman next to her, “Go on, tell him!”
Ella blushed a little and smiled awkwardly, “I— uhm. A— Anna’s amazing, too. It wouldn’t have been so quick without her. She really knows these systems extremely well for someone who’s only spent a week with them.”
An amused Kane chuckled response, “I’m glad you two are getting along, but can someone actually tell me something I don’t already know?”
“R— Right,” Ella nodded quickly. “So, the emergency power gives us access to only the necessities, like lights, doors, etc. Unfortunately, the pure Aurum we have stored right now, should give us no more than a few months of power.”
Instantly, Kane raised an eyebrow and turned to the doll-sized Ella on his shoulder, “Aurum?”
Ella shrugged nonchalantly, “It’s what they call Aether. I figure we should adopt the local customs for now.”
Kane nodded understandingly, “Good thinking,” before focusing back on the conversation, because Anna was responding to Ella.
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The hareling rolled her eyes, “What Miss Humble here forgets to mention, is that we originally only had a few weeks at most! She managed to find and shut down a massive number of redundant systems to keep the energy consumption low!”
Ella blushed and smiled slightly, “It was mostly a lot of human interfaces that aren’t really necessary with me running things.”
“Skynet? Is that you?” Kane couldn’t help but chuckle through his link to Luna, causing the catling to giggle. Since they became prevalent in the 21 century, stories of rogue AI had remained a major presence in the media. Fortunately, so far, Earth had managed to avoid any doom scenarios.
Outwardly, however, he just smiled and nodded, “Good job, Ella.” At that point, they also arrived at their destination, so he continued, “It’s good we have a few months of wiggle room, but I’ll need to talk to Aelia soon about how to get more of those Aurum Crystals.”
Before anyone could answer, Ella opened the door for him, and he stepped inside. In front of him was a large hall divided into two parts.
On one end was a large cluster of small, soundproof, and completely sealable cubicles. Those were intended for those living in the communal areas of the bunker to get some private time for meditation and strengthening their cores.
On the other end was something akin to a large boxing ring. This was likely intended for people to fight and train with each other.
A large group of women was gathered in the middle, totalling at least fifty, but they were divided into two groups, a smaller one of about twenty beastlings, and one bigger group containing the remaining mixture of humans and beastlings.
In front of these groups stood his first subordinates, Aelia, Mira, and Lyra.
As soon as he entered, they all looked at Kane with various gazes, ranging from fear, to respect, to curiosity, to anger. Unsurprisingly, the ones who’d seen his beast form were those showing the most fear. However, he also noticed some looks containing awe coming from the beastlings.
Ella was drawing the second most stares, as they’d already heard stories of the woman now essentially controlling their base.
However, Luna was a close third, as many beastlings stared at her as well and, specifically, at the blood oath tattoo on her arm.
Ignoring their stares, Kane walked up to Aelia, Mira, and Lyra.
“There you are,” Aelia nodded sternly, while Mira and Lyra greeted him a little more cheerily.
“I’ve got good news for you,” she continued, while waving her arm across the larger of the two groups. “These have decided to stay, assuming you can actually provide the techniques you promised.”
Then she turned to the smaller group with a strange expression, “And they would even stay if you had no techniques. Apparently this beastling lord thing really is a big deal.”
Kane was surprised at how many of them appeared unconcerned about the fact he was an escaped prisoner they’d been fighting just a few hours ago. Although perhaps the life of an outlaw did demand flexible minds and loyalties.
'Fortunately, my mark will take care of that,' he grinned inwardly with confidence.
“Are you really a lord?!” one of the beastlings suddenly exclaimed excitedly while taking a step forward. This appeared to be a catling like Luna, who now looked at both of them with shining eyes. “And you, his Valkyrie?” she continued while turning to Luna.
Before Kane could answer, it was Luna who did. She thrust out her chest in pride and grinned widely, “Of course he is, and of course I am!” She held up the tattoo for everyone to see, “And there’s the proof!”
The beastlings all looked at the blood oath with reverence and awe, confusing the humans, who felt forced to wonder if it wasn’t just a normal tattoo, made to look like the real thing.
But that was impossible. Beastlings felt their very soul resonate with the power hidden in a blood oath. They knew it was real, and after lords were believed to not only have gone extinct, but to have also stopped appearing all together, the current situation was even more awe-inspiring for them.
Even if Kane was not a beastling.