Chapter 159: I Go Where I Want
Five figures hung suspended in the chains, one on each pillar. They were female in shape, or had been. Skin the color of old bruises. Hair like dry ash.
Their eyes were closed. No breath moved their chests. Yet the Sovereign Sigil pulsed once, hard, the moment Levi stepped fully into the cavern.
[Unclaimed Cluster Detected]
[Classification: Bound Remnants – Pre-Witch Era]
[Status: Dormant / Sealed]
[Warning: Simultaneous awakening possible]
Lucy’s voice was low. "They are not dead."
"No," Vespera answered. "They were never allowed to die."
Serakel’s third eye opened fully. "These were sealed longer than the one you just claimed. The red chains are older than the Mother’s white."
Isha’s slime shifted uneasily along her arms. The Reverend Mother Superior’s remaining light stayed quiet under the golden mark.
Levi walked down the tiers toward the central depression. The five women followed. The dull red chains did not move. The suspended figures did not open their eyes.
’Five of them. Same number as the witches I already own. Convenient.’
He stopped at the edge of the depression. The Sovereign Domain expanded in a slow pulse. Gold light washed across the nearest pillar. The dull red chains trembled once, then went still again.
[Expending 3,000 Aether]
[Sovereign Domain: Probe]
The gold light sank into the red metal. A thin crack of resistance met it and held. The suspended figure on that pillar twitched. Ash-colored hair shifted. Bruised eyelids fluttered but did not open.
’They feel it. Even dormant they feel the mark.’
Levi stepped down into the depression. The air here was thicker, almost syrupy. The dull red chains gave off a faint heat that did not match the cold of the cavern.
He reached out and closed one hand around a link of the nearest chain. The metal was hot and slightly soft, like flesh that had been forced into the shape of iron. The Sovereign Sigil burned hotter.
[Expending 5,000 Aether]
[Direct Override Attempt]
Gold light flooded the chain. The dull red color began to darken and shift. The suspended figure’s eyes snapped open.
They were the same pure black as the entity he had just claimed, but clouded, as if something still slept behind them.
A dry sound left her throat. Not a word. Not yet.
The other four figures stirred in the same moment. Eyelids opened. Black eyes fixed on Levi. The dull red chains across all five pillars tightened with a low metallic groan.
Lucy moved up on his right, blade ready. "Master."
"Hold," Levi said. "They are still bound. For now."
He kept his grip on the chain and pushed more of the Sovereign Domain into it. The gold light spread from link to link.
The dull red fought it, but the fight was slower than the living shadow had been. The first figure’s clouded black eyes cleared a fraction. A thin gold rim began to form at the edges.
[Target Cluster: Bound Remnants]
[Desire Level: 0% → 6%]
[Note: Simultaneous claim pressure applied]
’Good. They can be taken together.’
The first figure’s mouth opened. A voice like dry leaves scraped across stone filled the air.
"Sovereign... you should not... have come this deep."
Levi met the black gaze. "I go where I want."
He released the chain and stepped back. The gold light remained inside the metal, continuing to spread on its own.
The other four pillars began to show the same slow change. Dull red darkened. Thin gold veins crawled along the links.
The five suspended figures watched him. Their bodies remained limp in the chains, but their eyes tracked every movement.
Serakel spoke quietly. "If they wake fully while still bound in the old metal, the backlash could reach the surface levels."
’Then I finish the claim before that happens.’
Levi raised both hands. The Sovereign Domain expanded to cover the entire central depression.
[Expending 10,000 Aether]
[Sovereign Domain: Wide Claim Field]
Gold light flooded the space between the five pillars. The dull red chains screamed. Links cracked and blackened.
The suspended figures arched in their bindings as the old metal began to fail. Black eyes widened. Thin gold rims brightened in all five pairs at once.
The first figure’s dry voice rose again, clearer now. "We were sealed... to keep the deepest dark... from rising. If you free us..."
"I am not freeing you," Levi said. "I am taking you."
He walked to the first pillar, gripped the cracking red chains, and pulled. Gold light flared. The chains shattered outward in a rain of blackened metal.
The figure dropped into his arms, light as ash and cold as the stone floor. Bruised skin. Ash hair.
Full breasts that rose with a first real breath in longer than any of the witches had existed. Black eyes with bright gold rims stared up at him.
[Target: Bound Remnant One]
[Desire Level: 6% → 19%]
[Claim initiated]
Levi set her on her feet and kept one hand on her shoulder. The gold mark of the Sovereign Domain burned into her skin beneath his palm. She shuddered once and did not pull away.
The other four chains were failing under the wide claim field. Levi moved to the second pillar and repeated the process. Shattered red metal.
A second ash-haired figure caught and marked. Then the third. The fourth. The fifth.
When the last chain broke, the central depression was littered with blackened metal and five newly claimed remnants standing on unsteady legs.
All of them carried the same gold-rimmed black eyes. All of them breathed. All of them watched him in silence.
[Target Cluster: Bound Remnants]
[Desire Level: 19% → 34%]
[Cluster claim progressing]
Lucy lowered her blade a fraction. "They are awake."
"They are mine," Levi answered.
He looked at the five ash-haired figures. "You will remain here and hold this depth under my mark. Nothing rises. Nothing leaves without my order. When I call, you answer."
Five dry voices spoke as one. "As you command, Sovereign."
The gold light in the cavern settled. The broken red metal dulled and went cold. The pressure that had hung over the central depression eased.
Levi turned back to Lucy, Vespera, Serakel, Isha, and the Reverend Mother Superior. The five new marks behind him glowed in quiet answer to the ones already on their skin.
’The outer dark is larger still. But every layer falls the same way.’
He started toward the next tunnel that opened on the far side of the cavern. The original five women fell in behind him without a word.
The newly claimed remnants remained in the depression as ordered, gold-rimmed eyes watching the group until the darkness of the next tunnel swallowed them.