The Scumbags Guide to Enslaving Demon's

It started with the Core Claim wiping everything else away.

The black stone beneath Austin Veyron’s feet split apart in a perfect circle. Chains erupted up around the ring’s perimeter not Malrec’s glowing green tendrils but the older neutral metal of the actual territorial claim itself. They swallowed pavement and ash and blood soaking up every last trace of the outer district until nothing remained but two men standing atop a black stone disc.

Austin Veyron felt the entire root network underneath Grand Meridian go silent.

He couldn’t hear Elena’s heartbeat beneath the floor anymore. Couldn’t sense Rin out on the roofline or Seven at the gate. Not even the stolen lord fragment clenched tight in his fist anymore—it still thrummed warm and toxic against his palm but every advantage he’d gained over Malrec had been stripped away.

Malrec stared back at him across the shrinking distance between them with an open wound around his chest where his chain- core used to be.

”You learn nothing about contracts?” Malrec asked.

”Demons like games.” Austin Veyron flexed his claws.

”No. You learn that contracts are settled when there’s nothing left to save you.”

Above them the rules of their challenge flooded the street.

[CORE CLAIM ACTIVE.]

[EXTERNAL ASSETS SUPPRESSED.]

[COMBATANTS MUST PROTECT THEIR AUTHORITY SOURCE.]

[TERMINATION CONDITION:RETRIEVAL,DESTRUCTION,OR FORFEITURE OF OPPONENT CORE.]

Malrec smiled thinly. ”You still have the option to walk away. Surrender the hotel. Surrender the creatures you raised inside. Remain in your human body and whatever delusions of morality you think make you better than me.”

Austin Veyron’s mouth twisted in distaste. ”You’re offering me a mercy gift?”

”I am offering you advice.”

Malrec shrugged his shredded black coat off his shoulders and away from his back. Skin underneath was stitched together with old chains buried deep in scar tissue. Every link in every chain was scratched full of names—contract brands or command words Austin Veyron could smell the harvest of obedience ripped out of people who’d never been strong enough to fight back.

”You are already transforming.” Malrec’s voice dropped to a whisper now. ”Let the hunger teach you what I could not. You will stop wondering why people want to follow you. You will decide who matters and feed them. That is mercy. Kindness.” He grinned down at Austin Veyron. ” Be. Cleaner.”

Austin Veyron felt the stolen sliver of authority lodged into his chest pulse under his fingers.

The reason that offer had been dangerous became clear to him now. Not because it hadn’t sounded appealing. Because Austin Veyron wanted to take it. No words. No risk of someone turning on you. No weaknesses introduced by giving someone else free reign over their head.

Then Austin Veyron remembered Rin dropping to a knee in the ash-covered street.

Then he remembered Elena’s fear and how she still hadn’t left.

”You’re wrong.” Austin Veyron growled his voice.

”I am becoming less than I already was.” He squeezed his eyes shut. ” But I won’t become you.”

Malrec’s smile faded as if he hadn’t heard.

The lord attacked.

No chains falling all around them this time. No anchors of command rooting Austin Veyron to the ground in place. He stepped forwards easily deadly smooth with his chain armor closing around his arm with a manic finality as he swung for Austin Veyron’s core.

Austin twisted out of the way. Contact clipped clean through his ribs sending tremors skittering across the Root-Graft webbing underneath his skin. Austin responded in turn both hands now one swipe across Malrec’s forearm the other clutching at the halo of light leaking across his stomach where his core was nestled safely behind torturous flesh.

Malrec caught his wrist instead.

Stronger than hell.

”You think choice gives them a reason to follow you?” Malrec growled back into the strike. ” Choice gives them a reason to leave.”

Austin shoved his knee into Malrec’s stomach.

The lord didn’t let go. Austin kicked again forcing Malrec backwards before he used his trapped wrist to hook around the lord’s shoulder and snap his head clean against the ground.

Green blood stained the pavement.

Malrec lurched away.

Austin activated DEVOUR.

His own core buzzed against his skin—a spiral lock of malice and authority wrapped tight around itself. The entire city beneath them screamed across his nerves Elena’s cries. Seven kneeling behind them Rin’s head snapping back against fists. Branded riders at the elevator gate Leash hounds insector soldiers flooding past beyond the district borders. Their rider.

Malrec had fed on all of them.

And beyond even Malrec himself...

One thin silver line tethering the Beast-Queen heir back to this death throne.

Austin froze.

Someone used the mark bond to tie Sarielle’s spine directly into Malrec’s core.

Direct command thread slicing underneath the lord’s skin all the way across miles of demon territory and down into the heart of the moving war camp behind the abandoned streets.

One ticking time bomb.

Malrec noticed him.

”You found her.” Malrec said softly.

Austin squeezed his hold on Malrec’s wrist.

”What did you do to her?”

”I protected myself.”

The silver thread pulsed.

One last moment.

Enough time to spare. A vision bloomed across Austin’s eyes: a cage hovering atop a wagon sprung open and resettling against Sarielle’s body wires digging into her shoulders muzzle slamming against her lips. In the silver cage was a woman with lion ears streaks of blood smeared across her mouth. One dark chip no bigger than a freckle lodged tight beneath her breastbone. Green sigils flaring to life around the base of her helm.

”If my core is destroyed,” Malrec rasped out, ”the tracker implants heart explodes.”

Don’t think. Just act.

Austin lunged forwards before Malrec could react grabbed the lord clean through his shoulder with one claw and used his free hand to slide underneath Austin’s armpit ripping him off of his feet and over the cliff side of the core challenge ring.

Stone grated against Austin’s elbows as he rolled. Green radiance sprouted up around him inches from his skin hungry and sharp like a snake. He pushed up through the gap between his legs Malrec long since on his feet to watch where the thread latched onto the Beast-Queen heir pulsed full bright in response.

They both only had seconds left now.

[REMOTE CONTRACT TRIGGER DETECTED.]

[TARGET: SARIELLE, BEAST-QUEEN HEIR.]

[LETHAL DETONATION LINKED TO LORD MALREC’S CORE INTEGRITY.]

The System wasn’t intervening.

His hunger was.

Eat Malrec whole until you find the thread feeding that command down into his body. Tear it out and swallow Malrecdown into your gut until there wasn’t even parts of him strong enough to listen to her.

Austin knew what doing that would do to him.

Every core changed you took from someone else even if Austin couldn’t pinpoint how. The Siege Core had shown him how much he enjoyed breaking heads. Taking the lord fragment had just conditioned him to want obedience in the first place. Taking Malrec’s entire chain-core now would let an entire demon lord take root in his mind.

Hell itself would claim him whole just like Malrec was going to murder Sarielle.

But he might also survive.

He might end this right now if he was willing to feed.

Malrec rose up over him in triumph its injuries irrelevant given victory.

”I will give you one chance,” Malrec spat down at him. ”Let the Beast-Queen heir die and keep the pathetic scraps of conscience you’re so proud of. Or devour me and show me just how far you were worse than me from the start.”

Austin pushed himself up into one knee.

Somewhere behind the sensory wards barricading Grand Meridian city... Austin genuinely believed every person who had ever followed him held their breath and waited for him to decide Elena thumping her fist against the floor Seven trembled harder against Rin’s side. Kaela. Maelis. Every freed prisoner willing to take a risk when someone gave them the option to just run instead.

He didn’t have to take pride of ownership over them to be cursed for failing them if he walked away.

Austin straightened to his feet.

”I am claiming the core.”

His voice didn’t shake.

Malrec’s chest flared up with radiance.

”But under my rules.” Austin keyed into Malrec’s signal network overlapping their combat ring with a moment of Territorial Defiance and extracted DETONATE ON CORE LOSS from his programming layers. The violation ripped through Austin’s mind screaming red and silver hot with the instinct to obey.

It hadn’t overwritten the contract completely. Not quite. But it jammed up against whatever made the contract work anyway.

Malrec’s eyes flickered uncertainly.

”Do it then.” Malrec growled back.

One. Two.

Austin exploded forwards through Malrec’s defensive barrier.

Green-roots erupted out from underneath Austin’s own clothes flexing spine hot and ready to snap. Malrec stepped forwards to meet him squarely no longer granting enough distance to strike properly but just as invested in ending this as Austin promised to be. They crashed together chest to chest claws tearing blue as one final round went out atop the shattered soil of the core challenge ring.

Austin chained clean through Malrec’s shoulder.

Allowed it to drag him flush up against Malrec’s chest before both of Austin’s hands connected over the abyss where Malrec’s core had once rested hidden away from the world.

Malrec howled a voice ripped from his throat by the sheer force of his own defeat.

And somewhere between Austin’s teeth and Malrec’s saving grace that single silver thread ignited across the empty battlefield behind them. Ignited into the heart of one lioness.