Chapter 98: Hekatra

“It seems to want to capture us for some reason.” Compass Carburettor shouted through telepathy, having sensed the emotions behind the Mental Energy stream Hekatra directed at him.

“I’ll return to my original form and fight to the death against it. Lord Spirit, I’ll create an opportunity for you to escape.” Duchess shouted in return, hitting the insides of the energy blade wrapped around her to see that it was sturdy.

“If you do that, you’ll be killed. Let us wait and see what happens.” Compass Carburettor urged her, noticing that Duchess seemed unwilling to listen to his words. Her immense loyalty towards him caused her to pay heed to his safety with the topmost priority.

“If we are brought to somewhere with more Haggons, your death is guaranteed. I’m breaking out!” She shouted, returning to her Grogar form as she exerted all her physical strength, bellowing a primal roar as her massive body destroyed the energy blade wrapped around her.

Her head flashed towards a nearby rock, picking it up as she hurled it towards Hekatra with all her might, causing it to slam into the other party and send it tumbling back by 4-5 metres.

Her neck then coiled around the arm of the energy blade whose hands were wrapped around Compass Carburettor, exerting strength to shatter it into pieces. She then grabbed hold of Compass Carburettor, intending to send him flying high up into the air, “Lord Spirit, please take out your Katia while in the air and fly towards safety. I bid you farewell.”

But, right as she was about to hurl him towards the sky, Hekatra’s two hands—condensed from energy blades—wrapped around them. One of them had expanded in size to grab hold of Duchess’s body while the other wrapped around Compass Carburettor, using a couple of its fingers to choke the neck of Duchess.

Hekatra regained sanity, recalling from memory the scene of Duchess transforming into her Grogar form from a human form, shocked as she retracted her energy blades, observing the eyes of Duchess to see that she maintained perfect clarity of mind.

Moreover, she noticed that the horn on Duchess’s forehead was only a regular Darble horn possessed by every Dungeon Monster, ‘It isn’t a Warble. Besides, how did her body morph from a human into a monster? Besides, her weight as a human was only as much as a regular human. But now, she’s almost as heavy as me. How is this possible?’

She observed the look of fear on the faces of the two people before her, opening her mouth to speak, gazing at Duchess, “How did you transform from a human into a Dungeon Monster?”

Upon hearing Hekatra speak the human tongue, both were shocked. The gears in his brain spun as Compass Carburettor connected all the dots, immediately asking, “Are you a citizen of the Great Megwest Empire?”

“Yes,” Hekatra said while turning around to look at Compass Carburettor.

Sensing the numerous emotional fluctuations in the Mental Energy stream trailing from her when she said it, Compass Carburettor thought hurriedly, saying, “There is an ability to turn Dungeon Monsters into humans.”

“An ability?” She was surprised for a moment, saying, “Tell me more about it?”

“Can I know the reason you captured us in the first place?” Compass Carburettor asked, immediately regretting his decision as he hurriedly changed his tone, waving his hands in a fluster as he said, “If you wish to learn this ability, it is pretty simple. I can show you the method.”

“Show it then,” Hekatra said casually, watching Compass Carburettor hurry towards the bag in his camp.

He then returned with the symbol of Secret Society, presenting it to Hekatra, “If you pray towards this symbol and pledge a certain level of loyalty towards it, you’ll obtain the ability to transform into a human automatically.”

“Is that how you gained it?” She gazed at Duchess, asking.

Knowing what Compass Carburettor had planned, Duchess nodded, expending 100 Darlac as she turned back into a human, showing that she could freely switch states when necessary.

For more than ten seconds, Duchess and Hekatra made eye contact, staring at each other without subverting their gazes.

‘If this is actually possible, it would prove a solution to our situation. It would allow His Majesty to regain his former glory.’ She thought, gently taking the symbol from Compass Carburettor as she looked at it, ‘I can experiment by using my life. Whether it is true or not, I’ll come to know soon enough.’

She then placed the symbol before her, reverently bowing towards it as she proclaimed, “From henceforth, I, Hekatra, pledge my loyalty to you.”

She then stared at the symbol, experiencing no changes in her.

Duchess interjected, “An oath won’t work. Only when you actually feel loyalty towards it would you be bestowed with the ability. It works on a mysterious concept.”

“I see,” Hekatra said after a moment of thought, “Will anything change once I become loyal towards this symbol?”

“You’ll become stronger,” Duchess said with a boast, “I’m a Level 1 Dungeon Boss.”

“Level 1 Dungeon Boss?” Hekatra was surprised, stating with a mild shock, “It would have made sense if you were a Level 2 Dungeon Boss.”

‘This firms it.’ She thought, recalling her memories of the past few decades where her humanity was slowly slipping away as her colleagues, friends, and family slowly lost their selves, becoming a monster husk of their former selves, ‘If they can become human once again while still maintaining their monster powers, it’s what we had sought all along. It’s worth the gamble.’

As she thought of it, her desire caused her heart to thump, moving her emotional fluctuations, her beliefs, and her disposition towards the symbol, slowly causing it to have meaning and importance in her mind.

Compass Carburettor was observing the loyalty stream between them, watching the reddish stream slowly turn great as he was relieved, expending his Mental Energy reserves as he condensed the symbol of Secret Society, approaching Hekatra casually.

As she was aware that none of them were capable of harming her, she focused on the task of establishing her loyalty towards the symbol. And right at this time, Compass Carburettor placed the symbol on her, watching it sink into her body.

As if she had been waiting for it earnestly all along, Hekatra instinctively understood the concept at play as she felt a mysterious power well up from within her. She followed the notion, expending some Darlac as her body shone with a resplendent radiance, vanishing immediately.

And in that place stood a humanoid woman in her early forties, jubilant as she looked at her appearance, tearing up.