Author's note: This chapter is a little chaotic, I guess? I apologize. While I finished the exams at the WS23/24, I became sick. Lucky me (actually lucky) :) If you think this chapter is really badly written, I will gladly rewrite it. Have fun, however!

Oh yeah, on another note, I tried to write with the neutral they/them when describing an individual in this chapter, which felt weird for me as a non-native speaker, but this is apparently common. So please don't be confused like I was when I researched it.

...

???

A smell, too familiar, was invading the nose of a boy with snow-white hair and fur—waves of iron that swirled around burning flesh and separated guts—calming and feral, a contrast he didn't know he could feel.

He always wanted to feel like this but couldn't. His emotions were suppressed by arrogance, pride, and honor—a contrast to his animalistic side, coming from years and years of living as a human and noble.

'Sweet.'

He knew it was disgusting, but he did enjoy it while all those suppressing thoughts became blurry. He had his eyes closed, enjoying the smell and stillness of death, which enchanted him to just lay down beside the corpses he could sense around him and sleep while a lullaby played, calming the coming insanity while sharpening it.

'Peaceful.'

How long was it that he felt so free? There was no pressure anymore, no thoughts that invaded him, always thinking, planning, and scheming what he needed to do next. He could just be.

Yet, those pesky emotions slowly returned, rational and logical, making him realize something was wrong. Alexander slowly opened his eyes; all the smells were gone, and he found himself inside what looked like a giant elongated cabin with walls made of massive tree trunks bound together with rope. He stood on a rug made out of an enormous, skinned bear. As he felt its fur, he almost cut his feet like they were as hard as steel, obviously a monster.

He observed the environment more closely, seeing head ornaments of various monsters, sapient beings, and animals hanging on the walls beside various weapons, clearly used as scratches, knicks, and other wear were seen on them. Banners, flags of countries, and fiefs were ripped apart, hanging as mocking gestures and warnings to everyone should they enter this sanctum of conquest and death.

Looking up, multiple chandeliers made of bones, horns, and various other materials hung in a straight line, illuminating this place. At the end of this barbaric hall was a wooden throne, looking robust and simple, elegant but rough, perfect for the person sitting on it.

Alexander couldn't see the individual's face as it was darkened, but looking closely, they had features resembling a beast-kin, only too diverse to identify what subrace. They had ears that were mammal-like but unidentifiable, four pairs of wings, avian and insect-kin, and three different tails stuck out, with fur, scales, and something like a matt, inky shadow, not knowing what it could be.

The person supported their head with their fist and looked down on Alexander. Their hands had fur and claws, with some patches of scales. It was all he could identify, as the rest was concealed through plate and leather armor, which looked like it went through thousands of battles, rendered practically useless.

However, the smell was one of a kind. Every beast-kin subrace had a particular smell through some of their individualistic body parts. Still, this being had them all, making Alexander avoid smelling them as they overwhelmed him.

Whatever or whoever it was, it was an amalgamation of every best-kin subrace, looking down on him with overwhelming barbaric might and elegance. Rough and wise, giving Alexander an animalistic sense of fear, wanting to kneel.

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

The voice was full of eloquence but filled with wrath. It was like a barbarian chief trying to pressure Alexander to the floor, making the air heavy with only some words, something he only felt coming from his Grandmother but not even close to this extent.

As he was about to kneel, dazed from the pressure, something awakened inside Alexander. He opened his eyes wide, and his neck hair stood up. His inner self was trying to take over, which immediately repulsed him.

He clearly remembered the infuriating sense of being powerless when his bloodline took over, an uncanny feeling. He recalled it too well, fearing it would take over day in and day out. The reason he went through the demonic baptism in the first place.

Alexander felt incredible disgust, even considering reducing himself to a servant—impossible. He wouldn't let it control him. His very being and personality prevented him from bowing. The sense of arrogance and pride was ingrained into his very being, even without any skills, would never let him bow down to something lesser, something that would force him to act against all his morals.

Alexander straightened up, even though the pressure of the being pushed him down, making him sink deeper into what felt like insanity, clouding his mind, like putting a wet blanket over his thoughts. He stared at the being sitting on the throne, full of hate and disgust.

"You are the curse."

The overwhelming being sounded curious, resonating through the hall.

"Do you try to resist me?"

Alexander smiled, not wanting to give into the being as the pressure increased from what was obviously a representation of his bloodline because Bartholomew had killed all his mental fortitude skills, making him unable to use them, thus, also probably being driven into this insanity.

"Haha, how fun!"

Yet, he looked down on the being that could crush him, only for them to laugh loudly, overwhelming his mind with an aura of fear and bloodlust. The ornaments started coming alive, laughing and making noise, causing him to feel as if he was getting crazy.

"Haha! Do you want me to go crazy? I will show you what it means to try to suppress me!"

Out of nowhere, Alexander also started to laugh manically as fear and anxiety invaded him. However, he conjured a dagger with the last bit of his sanity, needing to stop this quickly.

Alexander's bloodline made him an unhinged beast, devoid of any morals, but through the bit of rationale and stubbornness he had left, he could barely hold onto his sanity. He couldn't allow it, his pride and arrogance couldn't allow it, and most importantly, he was a petty asshole, never giving someone who wanted to force him the satisfaction of achieving their goal.

"Haha!"

The laughter became louder, almost deafening Alexander, pressuring him even more. His feral side became more pronounced, almost wanting to go wild against the being.

"You want to fight and win against me?"

The voice boomed while laughing manically, increasing the pressure to the point where he could see how all the ornaments fell, being crushed and weapons bent. The air was thick, almost like water, pressuring him.

However, Alexander only smirked at them, ramming the dagger immediately into the part of his body where his pheromone glands were, trying to cut them out while laughing wildly.

"Keugh! Haha! I only don't need to be the only one to lose!"

The being's smile widened, almost to the point of madness, looking fascinated at Alexander, like he was some small animal trying to escape a trap by biting its leg off.

Alexander used the dagger and his subpar medical skills to cut into his neckbone, knowing exactly where his glands were, reducing them to a mess of mangled flesh.

Besides the pain, it felt terrible, like he lost another sense, but it didn't matter. Looking at the being, he pulled out the dagger, puking a massive amount of blood.

"Keugh! You little shit will not control me."

Everything started to dissolve, with Alexander hearing the being mumbling to itself. Even though he couldn't understand them, the tone changed into an emotion he didn't want them to have: interest.

However, before he could analyze his situation, everything slowly returned to normal. Everyone looked at him and was astounded while Ipe ran to him in panic. Yet Alexander only looked at the little snake with batwings, full of hatred and spite, overflowing with the will to rip it apart.

'I will kill this bastard!'

His killing intent exploded, producing the absolute maximum he could with what was left of his glands, making the air tint red in the arena and making Bartholomew flinch, "Wha..."

Interrupting it, Alexander flashed, using all his stamina and mana to use the propulsion spell to appear before Bartholomew. With the last bit of mana, he conjured his ignition construct, making his dagger ignite with a massive flame, with the weapon's construct barely holding together.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The serpent looked surprised, stunned, and clearly confused about what was happening, but this was no concern for Alexander, as he wanted it dead.

Alexander stabbed his scorching dagger into the serpent's eye, even using a propulsion spell, making his mana veins scream in agony, on the pommel to try to pierce its brain while screaming, trying to end it for good.

"Die!"

The serpent immediately screeched and threw Alexander away, using his energy to stop him from going deeper inside, only to look at him astounded.

However, before it could do anything, an enormous canine, three meters (~10ft) in height, appeared before it, looking down and flenching its teeth. Its fur stood up, blood red, emitting an aura of death. She wanted to rip the snake apart, as her voice sounded almost gnarling. Ethereally, it invaded everyone's mind, terrifying those who didn't have strong mental fortitude skills and making them shake in terror.

"Aren't you a little too cocky to use such skills on a pup?"

The serpent widely smiled while healing its stabbed eye, "Look at him..." It stared at Alexander, who was lying on the ground, gasping for air, with no mana or stamina left, "He could've just accepted the loss and been done, but no. He destroyed his pheromone gland so he could attack and kill me..." The serpent smiled giddily at Lili, "...isn't it fun?"

Lili didn't find it funny, letting her energy condense on her teeth, making them nightmarish, "Bart, you are de..." Before she could end the sentence, a joyous voice came from a blood-gurgling Alexander, "I won, hehe, urgh!"

While the wound was hurting, Alexander did not cut into the more vital points in the last bit of his sanity. While it wasn't pleasant, it wasn't even close to the kind of pain he had felt before. It was a calculative move that worked for once, as he imagined.

When he was injured after the assassination attack and couldn't move, his pheromone gland barely worked. While on drugs and with the injury, he could suddenly control his aura, as it was significantly weakened.

As such, he guessed that his beast-kin-specific bloodline was overstimulating his pheromone glands in a particular way, making him into a rage-filled monster. Thus, he took a considerable risk, which paid off.

What about his hallucinations? He hoped dearly that they were not some otherworldly nonsense and that they were just him going through an episode.

Also, if Alexander was honest, it was a risky gamble. Still, he would rather risk a non-threatening injury over a loss and going insane because of his bloodline or whatever it was that greeted him after he lost all mental fortitude skills.

Alexander came out of his thoughts, feeling much better when Ipe started healing and panicking, "Mr. Alexander, please don't speak! I need some hours to heal your injury!"

While lying on the floor, he waved his hand in dismissal, "Hehe, I wait for you to give me something far greater..." His voice became venomous while staring at the serpent, which was still healing itself, "...and if I don't like it, I will cancel the deal with you, and trust me, I will do everything in my power to bleed your territory dry."

Alexander loved to help, but he wasn't fond of getting fucked with. The moment Bartholomew went overboard, trying to throw him into the darkness of his mind, Alexander wanted a pound of flesh.

Sometimes, it was easy to forgive, especially when it came to accidental mistakes. Still, this one was unforgivable, especially since it was aimed not just at the physical aspect but also at Bartholomew's desire to break him for whatever reason.

He heard Lili laughing, with her voice sounding many octaves deeper, "Haha! This is truly Mistress's grandson..." The giant hound turned to the serpent, who was frowning, "...you will not run away from what you promised? Something far greater than a favor, right?"

Bartholomew slowly transformed into his beast-kin form, walking beside Lili toward Alexander. Standing over him, he scratched his neck and smiled sheepishly, "Before I give you something, let me first apologize..." He sighed, "...I had no idea you had the ancient bloodline. Otherwise, I wouldn't have done what I did."

Alexander looked at him, raising an eyebrow, 'Damn it. Now, I don't want to destroy him.'

However, Bartholomew fully de-escalated the situation, saying coldly, "Let's destroy the contracts. I will let you do whatever your charity and school want in my fief. This much I owe you."

...

Hours later, Lady's and Lord's training grounds, Leonandra Estate

"Turn into your strongest form."

Bartholomew panicked, "Listen, everything went well, right?"

"I said turn into your strongest form, or I will kill you."

Marisia exerted immense pressure on Bartholomew, making him feel the pressure without any emotions attached to it. Only those who had masterful control over their aura and feelings could do it. Fortunately, it was relatively weak, even if it could kill puppies when they felt it, but it was endurable for him.

'I created a mess, damn it.'

After hearing what happened in his spar with Alexander, she immediately brought him down here, wanting to have a spar. Bartholomew knew what it meant and wasn't surprised by his senior, even though he had a good reason, initially at least.

After days of intense negotiations, Bartholomew slowly began to trust Alexander fully, seeing another person in him. He knew someone as idealistic and proud as him, Marisia, his Mother. It was a mirror image of her, but she was always silent, never revealing her plans, but in weak moments, talked after their training decades ago.

She would, barely awake and half dead, talk about how she wanted to bring her sister back. Many things needed to be done for this, which made Bartholomew only laugh at her back then, finding her plan stupid, as Elisabeth was an outcast who was never allowed back into major hubs or to the estate, but it seemed that Marisia followed her plan to the end, even showing some progress.

Alexander was also obsessed in the same way, without needing or wanting any crumbs of pity, as his arrogance and pride showed. However, the puppy was also overly eccentric and impulsive, making Bartholomew skeptical about how much he could amiably negotiate after saying he wanted to let the boy freely do his projects in his fief.

Yet, Bartholomew trusted him for many more reasons. One of those was that he worked hard without any previous agreement on bringing Nila and him together and even put up a written argument for the court with which they could marry without losing their territory. Even Noriken found it excellent and achievable.

Ultimately, his gut feeling, which saved his life many times, told him to trust Alexander. As such, Bartholomew planned for a spar to happen and a bet, where he could lose on purpose so Alexander could feel as if he had accomplished something, trying to show off his pride and gracefulness, trying to put an end to those negotiations which he already decided were nonsensical.

Bartholomew's goal was and would always be to rebuild his fief, making it as glorious as before so that his puppies would not be embarrassed to inherit it.

However, what happened while sparring was far outside of Bartholomew's calculations. Calling Alexander a genius was an understatement, as the puppy avoided him in the same way like Scarlett and Marisia did, but much more sloppily, where they would move in crazy and fast ways around him, bending their bodies absurdly.

Bartholomew wanted to act out and get hit multiple times, but it became ridiculous as his demonic forms were shredded into pieces. While he didn't use energy, even other Tier 2 or 3 soldiers could barely scratch him that way.

So, in his immaturity, he pushed Alexander a little to see how far he could go. But after the hypnosis skill from his serpent form, Alexander went insane, and to break it, he cut his pheromone glands out.

Bartholomew immediately regretted it, seeing the ancient bloodline, which he could quickly identify by Alexander's intense killing intent. Such an amount was not something puppies had. Yet, it didn't end there, as he recklessly flashed at him at a ridiculous speed, surprising him and almost stabbing his brain if he stood still for a moment longer.

Regardless of those minor mishaps, his plan worked, and Alexander was overly joyous and proud since he won, agreeing to what Bartholomew was ready to give. Now, he had a trustworthy ally, while his future fiancé, whose younger sister was, from what he understood, also basically engaged with Alexander, made them family. It was a perfect situation for Bartholomew.

Yet, as he tried apologizing to Marisia, she didn't let him, "Listen..." Before he could end his sentence, she flashed toward him, and before he could even do something, she punched his solar plexus with an incredible force, which made him fly away.

Boom!

He crashed into the other side of the arena, only to hear Marisia's venomous and stoic voice, which she always had when getting serious, "Do it, or I will rip out your arms."

Bartholomew stood up and obliged with her wish. He slowly transformed into a smaller monster, 2m (6.5ft) in height, one that looked like an abomination of a mantis, with sharp blades that could even slice mithril. It was perfect against her, as her strongest suit was her insane mobility and speed.

He knew she wanted to punish him, but he wouldn't let her. After they finished their training with Scarlett decades ago, he was constantly on the battlefield, fighting and risking his life, while she only did administrative work, 'You think you can bully me like before?!'

He flashed toward her, not using any energy since it was a spar, and went for a horizontal slash. However, she used her palm to push his sickle upwards, tapping it slightly from below, making it slash over her head, redirecting it.

'No way could she become stronger?!'

However, she flashed away before he could analyze her and appeared behind him. His exoskeleton slowly cracked, and intense pressure pushed him to the side.

'She is faster.'

Boom!

He flew to the other side of the room. After lying again in debris and healing himself, he saw how Marisia stood casually and looked coldly down on him.

'Damn it, she is stronger!'

He stood slowly up, seeing Marisia smiling, which made him feel a chill in his spine, "Let me treat you like you treated my son."

She disappeared, with Bartholomew's instinct going haywire, only to feel how she landed on his back, grabbing his sickle hands. Even though he exerted all his strength, it was no use. She was like in the past. A damn monster.

Even though she was much less talented than him, she trained twice as hard and had a mindset made out of steel. She endured far worse body strengthening than he, and her attributes alone, when they once compared them, were far higher than his.

Even her skills had mostly the absolute prefix, making them incredibly strong and efficient. However, he thought being together with Kairoso made her softer, but it did not seem to be the case.

Before she ripped his arms out, he started to use energy, but she interrupted him by kicking against his back, cracking his exoskeleton, "If you dare to try and go serious against me, I will show you Outer Circle."

After she said that, she ripped his arms out, with him screaming in pain, "Argh! Are you fucking insane?! I never did something like this to Alex?!"

She jumped down and held a sickle against his throat, "Are you sure? You did something worse. So you know, he has the ancient bloodline, and you disabling his skills made him almost kill himself just to get you."

Bartholomew knew it now and already apologized, knowing he went overboard, "Wai..." Before he could end his sentence, she took the other sickle, slicing his legs off, "...argh! Damn it! I didn't know this then, and I already apologized!"

Marisia stood there coldly, slowly crushing the sicles as she watched how he regenerated. After another moment, she sighed, "Fine, I know you did not do this on purpose."

Bartholomew sighed, happy that it was over. But as she walked into the middle of the arena, she stopped and looked at him, waiting, "What now? I said I was sorry!"

She shrugged, "I need to put you in your place. Don't think that because you are a Lord now, you are not my junior. I give you enough dignity by making this spar private. Now heal and stand up; we have a long night before us."

Bartholomew smiled slightly, trying to increase his regeneration while thinking about their past, "Well, like good old times, I guess? Do you want me to take out my more brutal forms?"

Marisia also smiled, "Sure. Let's see if you can draw any blood from me."