No waver in their eyes.

  Jack noted it with mild interest. He could count on two hands the number of cultivators who didn't surrender immediately on this excursion.

  The number of those that withstood a gravity crush. One.

  And they were begging a moment ago.

  He dug a hand into the inner fold of his robe, no urgency as he watched the little bandit approach with bombs nearly as big as himself.

  “I don't suppose you'd just say we escaped!” Agazoz yelled as he arched his hands into the shape of a circle.

  [Toro Dart Burst]

  Water detonated between his palms, forcing them apart. Ten cigar-shaped projectiles condensed from the wave, hovering within the arc of his embrace.

  Ah.

  Jack pulled out two dark yellow papers with intricate purple scribbles.

  Talismans

  Agazoz recognized them instantly as Magog closed the distance.

  SHHRRKK*

  They tore apart and evaporated in a puff of purple smoke—a familiar sight to both Magog and Agazoz.

  Dominion talismans!

  “You fat fuck.” Magog had seen enough. Two man-sized water orbs were hurled through the air as the purple mist began to take shape—and Jack disappeared.

  “Not bad.”

  Shi—

  A simple backhand and Magog's world shifted. He felt no impact from the slap as he was sent sprawling through the air. The only thing he was able to perceive was the feeling of it. Nothing.

  Then he felt the world. Bounced along the ground as if he was a pebble down the river.

  Each crash juggled him in and out of consciousness. The sound of him skidding to a stop drowned out by the detonation of his own water orbs in the distance.

  Barely conscious, he lay on his side.

  So warm

  An instinctive thought as his face rested close to the ground. Too close.

  Move.

  His body didn't answer him as he slipped into unconsciousness.

  So warm.

  Magog had lost his left arm. Complete obliteration in the blink of an eye.

  Decent output. Jack deemed, as he peered back to see an infuriated Agazoz and four Toro darts speeding toward his eyes.

  Crushed into nothing, not even a drop remained.

  [Toro Burst]

  Fifty darts shot out from his burst, forty zigzagging at Jack, and ten in a straight line towards the two condensing clouds of purple smoke left in his wake.

  Not again.

  Agazoz slid across the grass towards Magog as he tried to stand, with the help of 6 toro darts sent earlier bracing him.

  We’ll get out of here with a dust screen, get help from Azure Fist.

  Agazoz’s darts got to work, kicking up plumes of dirt as they erratically grazed along the ground and dispersed the purple mist.

  “Oh? You need both for that.”

  Wha—barely anytime to react to the words.

  Agazoz's world didn't tilt. It disappeared. Warmth rolled down his right cheek as he stumbled.

  Magog fell onto his elbow and knees with a groan, the support from Agazoz’s toro darts vanished as they dissipated in a puff of water.

  Jack glanced up at the moon, flicking the remnants of an eye from his pinky.

  The blue fingers must not value this region.

  “Ah, finally.” Jack said as he looked at where he tore the talismans.

  Agazoz followed his gaze, squirming on the ground.

  No.

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  Two golf-ball-sized purple floating octopuses, with bodies of ethereal smoke floating in the air towards them, tentacles swinging as if swimming in water. Red x symbols were where eyes would normally be.

  No!

  Agazoz winced in horror at the memory of the familiar sight.

  “Good, I won’t have to explain much.”

  Agazoz was crawling away towards Magog when the weight came down. A foot the size of his back pinned him to the ground as all the air in his lungs rushed to escape in a harrowing gasp.

  Unable to do anything as they slowly made their way over to Jack's outstretched hand. They both landed in his palm and began to glow an eerie dark purple aura. Agazoz clawed the dirt under the giant's foot to escape, to no avail. There would be no miracles tonight.

  “Dominion contractors,” Jack said as he dug Agazoz harder into the ground, just enough to hear a crack.

  “Different species than you're used to, I'm sure. These form a heart pact, harder to break than most others but require the enslaved to accept them.”

  The pressure on his spine, gone.

  A brief momentary rest. It lasted less than a heartbeat.

  Blinding pain tore through his ribs as Jack’s foot hooked and flipped him over.

  He's… still smiling…

  From the moment he landed—

  to beating them.

  To humiliating them.

  Only to crush them again.

  Even when he brought them back from the brink of death, just to beat them again.

  He never stopped smiling.

  “Open your qi,” Jack ordered as he started down at Agazoz.

  No!

  “Y-you…think I'd o-o-open my qi to that?” he stuttered out though gasps.

  “N-never.”

  Agazoz's bold proclamation was met with a casual whistle.

  “Strong words, sounds like something he would say.” Jack nodded towards the body of Magog, blood pooling under him fast. The realization sent Agazoz’s heart plummeting.

  “Open your qi,” Jack said lightly as he tilted his head to the side.

  “or watch him die.”

  Dammit.

  Agazoz's tears mixed with blood as he thought about the hollow choice.

  He wouldn't want this either.

  He'd rather die too.

  Dammit.

  Magog would indeed rather die than be used as leverage in a slave pact. Agazoz knew this to be true just as he knew it for himself.

  And still, he wouldn't do it. Knowing wasn’t the same as accepting.

  He couldn’t live with being the reason. No matter how short that torment might be.

  Dammit all.

  There was no choice.

  Jack snickered as he felt Agazoz's qi soften. With a pop, one of the floating octopuses detached from his palm and floated down to lie at the center of Agazoz's forehead.

  “Bow to my will. Accept your servitude.”

  The octopus's illumination grew as Jack spoke.

  “I-I,” Agazoz stammered but he had no choice. He couldn't be the reason.

  “I bow to your will and accept my servitude.”

  The world fell apart.

  The soil, the sky, Magog, Jack, his pain—everything melted into purple sludge, dripping away until only a purple haze surrounded him.

  Agazoz was floating alone.

  “Hello, Agazoz.”

  Until he wasn't. A familiar voice that he couldn't place beckoned to him.

  “Answer me, Agazoz.”

  The voice had come from all directions.

  The haze. Agazoz thought. That seemed to be a trigger. Once it clicked, the purple fog rushed inward, folding and compressing, merging into a single mass that shrank—then began to take shape.

  Into an octopus.

  “Agazoz.”

  The third time hearing it was all he needed.

  That's my voi—

  “This is our voice, Agazoz.”

  “Accept me into your heart Agazoz. Accept your servitude.”

  Dammit all to hell. No choice. Again.

  “I accept you into my heart…”

  “I accept my servitude.”

  A blink and the octopus was gone.

  In its place was a mirror image of himself, with red X's for eyes.

  “Dammit,” Agazoz's eye widened as they said in unison and began drifting towards one another.

  “Until death or equal release—”

  Their eyes turned black.

  “—for the betterment of our master—”

  Their noses touched.

  “—we will act and obey—”

  There was no clone.

  “—or I will pay the price.”

  Agazoz opened his eye, a viscous stirring lingered in his chest, faint but impossible to ignore.

  “You will stay in the area until you receive word from one of the sect disciples.” Jack said.

  Agazoz hadn't noticed Magog sitting on his right side when he woke up. Ideas had already formed in his head at the note. The obvious being, he himself was also used as leverage.

  He never asked the specifics. Perceptive Agazoz.

  Jack didn't wait for a response before he snapped his fingers. Neither Agazoz or Magog paid the noise any mind, they were focused on the new marks on their chests. Two glowing, purple pinky-sized X’s almost directly in the center, slightly skewed to the left.

  Dammit all.

  Scarred mentally and physically. Agazoz and Magog were slaves once more.