The city of Orario was relatively quiet and inactive despite the sun having fully crested the horizon and walls. Shops were just now opening, their front doors opening and signs being put out front. The streets were largely empty of traffic though, save for the earnest few adventurers who started their day early compared to the others.

Of course some of them, such as Lili, had little choice but to start this early. Lili was a supporter, someone who didn't fight on the front lines but instead carried loot, weapons, and other equipment for the actual adventurers. Her job was to make their job easier and safer.

Not that many adventurers appreciated her for that. Some did, but even the ones that didn't try to pay her less than she deserved belittled her and looked down on her.

Still, she didn't have much other choice. She was too weak to foray into the Dungeon alone or to fight alongside others. And teaming up with her Familia members was just begging to get robbed or conned.

So she came out to Babel, the tower erected over the Dungeon, early every morning to find a group to act as a supporter for. She didn't stick with any one group for too long. Eventually they'd grow resentful of the price she asked for being a supporter and either cut her off, try to negotiate her down, or just come up with reasons they couldn't pay her.

Instead, Lili had taken to sticking with them for a while before stealing their stuff and pawning it off. It meant having to act as a supporter in disguise, but that wasn't too difficult for her. Her magic, Cinder Ella, let her transform and easily disguise herself as a child of another race, rather than a teenage pallum.

She had just sold a fairly nice sword last night that she had stolen from the latest group she had attached herself to, and now she was headed for Babel to find a new group. Not many adventurers were there yet, but that was expected. Adventurers were people that stayed up late drinking and carousing and slept in the next morning.

There were a few groups standing around outside of the tower. Most of them were likely waiting for others, or doing one last check of their equipment before going inside. Lili ignored them. Groups that arrived this earlier tended to be a bit more alert, and more difficult to trick and steal from. Instead she found a tree to stand under and waited for more foolhardy looking adventurers.

Except that wasn't to be. As Lili stood there she spotted two adventurers who seemed to stand out for a reason she couldn't quite figure out. Both were girls. One was wearing a red and white outfit with a few light armor plates. The other was wearing a similarly light outfit, though in black, purple, and gold, and the armor was distributed a bit differently. Both looked expensive and high quality.

The red and white one had a sword at her hip, but Lili didn't see a weapon on the other one. She examined them closer, idly trying to come up with a plan to steal their armor, but she wasn't going to really try. High quality equipment meant they were high level, and it was better to leave those sorts of adventurers alone.

So she averted her eyes when the one in red and white glanced over at her. But it seemed like they had different plans. The one that looked at Lili nudged her companion and she looked over as well before the two of them started heading over to her.

Lili spent a moment contemplating running before dismissing the idea with an internal sigh. Running would just look suspicious. She'd have to come up with an excuse to make them go away.

She looked back at them, trying to figure out more about them now that she didn't need to pretend not to notice them. She didn't figure out much. The taller one in red and white with auburn hair walked half a step behind the smaller one with blue hair, obviously deferring to the other girl. The blue haired one wore a gentle smile, but there was something about her eyes that put Lili a little on edge. The taller girl just looked grumpy. Both were human though.

"Hello there, Miss Supporter," the blue-haired one said as they came to a stop in front of her. "My name is Morgan. Could I have a moment of your time?"

Lili hesitated. "...Lili supposes. Lili's name is Lili. What can Lili help you with?"

The taller one blinked at her, perplexed, but Morgan just smiled. "Well, Lili, I've come to recruit you."

Lili frowned. "Lili can only act as a supporter for the upper floors. She's not strong enough to go deeper than the twelfth."

But the girl didn't seem put off at all. "Sorry, I suppose I should have been more specific. I don't want to hire you as a supporter. I want you in your entirety, Liliruca Arde."

Lili tensed, hand twitching as she resisted the urge to grab the knife attached to the giant bag she wore on her back. "Who are you? How do you know Lili's full name?" she demanded as she frantically tried to remember if she had ever met either of the girls in front of her. But nothing came to mind.

"Because I know everything about you," Morgan continued casually, either ignoring or not noticing Lili's tension. "Born into the Soma Familia without a choice. Orphaned there too, left to fend for yourself because everyone else was too busy competing for another sip of Soma's good stuff."

Lili tensed further, hand actually going back to rest on the hilt of her knife. But the taller girl glanced at her and shifted her weight. Lili was very aware of the sword on her hip. But Lili didn't plan on fighting. The knife was a feint, a way to distract them for just a moment so she could run away.

Morgan kept talking though, her only reaction a slight widening of her smile. "There you tried to make do as a supporter, only for your Familia members to screw you over. So you turned to a life of crime, stealing from adventurers, stealing their stuff, and selling it off in exchange for gnome jewels that you keep in a locker, all so you can buy your way out."

All thoughts of fleeing left Lili's mind as she froze. "...how?" she managed to squeeze out of her frozen lungs. There should have only been two people who knew about those gems, herself and the gnome she pawned her stuff to, and she always did that disguised as a male pallum.

Morgan leaned in closer and lowered his voice. "Like I said. I know everything about you. Your history, your name, your feelings, and your magic, Cinder Ella. And, knowing that, here's what I'm offering you. I can take you out of Orario, never to return. I can update your Falna and provide you a better way to improve yourself. I can provide you a place to sleep, three meals a day, and a much safer job working for me. How does that sound?"

Lili was still panicking over how much she knew about her when she tried so hard to live a life of secrecy and going unnoticed. She was too weak to live otherwise. But this girl had torn away the shadows she hid in and left her exposed.

But that didn't stop her from processing what Morgan was offering, from understanding her proposition. Part of her was tempted. She was offering everything Lili wanted, or most of it anyway. But the more cynical part of her, the smarter part, knew better.

"Lili thinks it sounds too good to be true," she replied. "Next time don't claim you can do something impossible like updating a Falna." The magical mark on her back given to her by her useless god Soma could only be updated by him. And it had been far too long since she had earned enough valis to have her Falna updated, causing her abilities to stagnate.

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong," Morgan said. "I can do the impossible. I can do that and more. All it would take is a little bit of magic to transfer control over your Falna from that shithead over to me."

Lili frowned. It wasn't very likely, but magic that could transfer a Falna's ownership was theoretically, maybe, possible. Lili severely doubted it though, not performed by two humans, and not for a cost low enough to be worth using on Lili.

"Well, it's clear that you don't believe me," Morgan continued after a moment of silence. "But that's why I brought Asuna here. Now, in full disclosure, Asuna here is bound to me and has to obey me. So with that in mind… Asuna, ignore any orders to the contrary I might have given you, though I didn't, and answer my next two questions truthfully. How do you feel about me? And can I do what I claim?"

The taller girl, Asuna, glared at Morgan. "I hate you. I think you're a disgusting and twisted person. You are the scummiest person I've ever met, and I've met several absolutely vile people. If you hadn't enslaved me I would kill you and make the world a better and safer place."

Lili watched the exchange carefully, though she was confused. Asuna's words felt genuine. If she was acting, it was the best acting Lili had ever seen. And yet, Morgan seemed more amused than anything, simply nodding like it was the expected answer.

And then Asuna sighed and turned to Lili. "But yes, if he says he can do it, then he probably can."

Lili started. "He?" She looked back at Morgan, eyes squinting. Morgan's chest was pretty flat, but they looked young enough that Lili hadn't thought twice about it. But no matter how hard she looked, Morgan clearly looked like a girl.

"Yes, he," Asuna confirmed, annoyed. Morgan nodded in agreement, an amused expression on he- his face. He opened his mouth but Asuna kept going. "And that's not the only thing he's lied about. When he says he wants you, he means to enslave you, rape you, and make you fight for him. He will steal you from your home, your life, twist your mind to make you love him, and use you."

"Hey, that's not fair," Morgan said with a pout that was far cuter than it should have been, given the context. "I didn't lie about any of those, I just didn't get into the specifics. It was misleading through omission at worst."

If Lili had been nervous before, she was very alarmed now. "You… what? Why would Lili agree to that?" It was possible that it was still an act, an elaborate ploy. But Lili didn't see the benefit of it, she couldn't see how claiming what they did was a viable con, and neither struck Lili as idiots.

She glanced at Asuna, a sword on her hip and unable to deny a command. "Unless… this is a situation where refusal isn't an option?"

Asuna grimaced, seemingly confirming Lili's fears that she'd be taken by force even if she tried to say no.

"No, no, you can turn me down if you want, and that'll be that."

Both Lili and Asuna gaped at him. "She can?" "Lili can?"

"Sure, if you want. But you would be missing out. See, I'm not just a perverted slaver. I am, but more than that, I'm also just like you."

Lili narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you mean by that?"

Morgan grinned. "Because just like you, I am the enemy of all adventurers."

Once again, Lili froze. Not in fright this time, but in surprise. Shock that he would claim that, shock that he knew about the feelings burning in her heart that had never been spoken, and shocked at just how much she believed his words.

Morgan took her silence as permission to continue. "See, I'm making a dungeon of my own. Not quite like the one here in Orario, but similar. I'm going to fill it with monsters and my followers, and then I'm going to invite adventurers into it, all for the express purpose of crushing them."

Morgan's expression shifted into something that Lili could only describe as manic and perverted zeal. "I want to lure them in with promises of treasure and glory only to break them under my heel, to destroy their pride and have them beg for their lives, only for me to deny them. I want them to acknowledge just how useless they are compared to me, how trash being an adventurer is. I am the Dark Queen Morgan, future creator of the multiverse's scariest dungeon, and I want you to join me."

Lili felt lightheaded. It was all too much to take in, too unbelievable.

But his words resonated with her.

Their hate for adventurers wasn't the same, but they were compatible, they could exist as comrades and help each other. Lili could get her revenge for every time an adventurer looked down on her, called her useless, yelled at her, or scammed her of her money. She could make them pay for her suffering.

Yet it was not their shared passion that caught her attention. It was the last line. "You… want Lili?" she asked in a quiet and unsure voice.

"I do," he confirmed. He reached out to her, fingers brushing against her cheek. She flinched, but she didn't pull back as he touched her. "I want your body. I want your magic. I want your clever mind. And most of all, I want that heart of yours that is filled to the brim with hate and contempt for adventurers. I want you, Lili, all of you."

Lili nearly gave in and agreed right then and there. She had never been wanted before, never desired. Her parents were more focused on acquiring more of Soma's wine than taking care of her, and when they died no one else in the Familia wanted her. No one even wanted to take advantage of her, to leverage her skills for their own gain. They just spat on her and called her useless.

But Morgan wanted her. He wanted her as a woman, which was novel but brought a confusing mess of emotions she couldn't untangle right now. But he wanted her skills as well, all of them. And he knew her.

"How do you know Lili's secrets?" she found herself asking. The fact that he did was undeniable, but she couldn't accept it.

"I've seen your past, and I've seen your future," Morgan replied, hand still caressing her cheek. He brought his face closer to hers and whispered. "Do you want to know? What the future holds for you? What I'm saving you from?"

Lili hesitated again, afraid this time. But she nodded.

"A few weeks from now you'll meet a boy. Like always, you'll try to scam him, to steal his stuff. You do so, but on the way out of the Dungeon where you left him to die, your Familia ambushes you, steals your gems, and leaves you to die in turn."

Lili tensed again. It was easy to see it happening. If one of them caught wind of her plan, and if she was vulnerable in the Dungeon… there was very little Soma adventurer's wouldn't do to get ahead of the others.

"You survive though. The boy you scammed was naive and an idiot. But he's pure, a hero, and he saves you. You admit your crimes and apologize, but he accepts you. You fall in love with him. You disguise yourself, fake your death, and continue supporting him."

That was harder to believe. Her, falling in love with an idiot like that? Even if he saved her at a low point, to accept Lili after she confessed to stealing from him and trying to kill him was dangerously foolish. But even if it was hard to believe, she didn't for a second think that Morgan was lying.

"Eventually, after some troubles, you do manage to free yourself from Soma. You join the boy's Familia and continue to stay by his side. A happy ending, no?"

Lili pondered that, but then frowned. "It's not, is it?"

Morgan's grin widened. "That's right. It isn't. It is, in fact, quite tragic. First, the boy is already in love, and it's not with you. It's with Aiz Wallenstein, the Sword Princess. No matter how much you support him, no matter how much time you spend by his side, no matter what you say or do, he will only ever have eyes for her. Your love will be forever unrequited."

Despite being unable to see herself falling in love at all, and especially not someone like Morgan was describing, she grimaced. That alone did sound like a tragic ending, a pyrrhic victory that doomed her to despair.

"And second… the boy is too pure, too good. Every day you spend with him will diminish those flames of hate and revenge you hold deep in your chest. They will quickly be reduced to embers, and even those embers will be snuffed out. You will never get your revenge. You will never achieve your dream. You will give up everything that makes you you while chasing the back of a boy who will never turn to face you. A truly terrible fate."

Lili could see it. Without the pressure of the Soma Familia, desperately trying to earn the love and affection of someone who would surely not approve of her dark desires, giving up more and more of herself day by day. Until she stopped thinking about revenge. Until she only despaired that he didn't love her.

"Unless Lili goes with you," the supporter whispered.

"That's right. I want to save you from that fate. I want you to fulfill your dreams and desires. I want you by my side. Will you come with me? Will you give everything to me, and get everything in return?"

One final time, Lili hesitated. She knew that he could be lying to her, but she was convinced he wasn't. She couldn't say why, but she knew that he was speaking nothing but the truth. But was that enough? Was it worth enslaving herself to this perverse and amoral man? Was her desire for revenge worth giving up her freedom?

Lili glanced at Asuna, who was looking at the two of them with horror and disgust. Lili didn't know anything about the other girl, but it was clear that she was against what Morgan was doing. And yet… the fact that she could be against him, that she could try to ruin Morgan's plans and dissuade Lili from joining him said a lot. Whatever means he used, it wouldn't erase Lili's feelings, her thoughts. She would still be Lili. She would just have to do what Morgan told her to.

And if he was telling the truth, both about what he could and what he would do…

"Lili accepts," she said as she turned her gaze to meet Morgan's. She straightened her back and set her shoulders. "Take her body, her mind, her magic. Take all of Lili. She will do anything to get her revenge."

Asuna sighed. "God dammit. I tried. I tried so hard. Don't come complaining to me when you regret it."

Morgan ignored her and smiled at Lili before he finally let go of her face. "Welcome aboard Lili. Come on, let's go update your Falna before we get to work. You're long overdue for it." He reached out his hand, offering it to her.

She was scared, nervous, and unsure. But… she felt more alive than she had in years. For the first time, hope was within reach. For the first time, revenge could finally be hers.

She took his hand.

Lili followed, her hand in Morgan's, as he led her south from Babel, taking the main road. More adventurers were starting to make their way towards Babel to enter the Dungeon, but none of them paid their group any mind even though they were heading in the opposite direction.

She didn't pay them much mind either. Her mind felt hazy and her emotions were overwhelmed. She was excited, nervous, hopeful, afraid, and much much more all at the same time. She had made a huge decision, one she was still unsure about, one that was going to change her life.

She contemplated backing out multiple times. To not take the risk, to keep going and to just play it safe for the next couple months to avoid the fate that Morgan described. But every time she pictured that, returning to a life of being looked down on and struggling to accomplish her goals, her resolve was hardened. A large risk was worth the chance at escaping that.

They didn't stay on the south street for long. Morgan soon led her down a side road to the west, and then through an alley. There they stopped at a manhole cover, which Morgan lifted with ease and carefully set it aside.

He then looked up at her. "Sorry. We had to prepare a spot away from prying eyes and prying ears. I'd say it's not suspicious, but we're up to suspicious things, are we not?"

Lili shrugged, but eyed the hole. "Lili's backpack won't fit," she said, indicating the pack that was larger than her.

Morgan frowned. "Guess it won't, huh? Well, if you trust me with it, I can hold on to it for you."

Lili paused for a moment before shrugging it off. She was trusting him with a lot more. A largely empty backpack save for a few emergency supplies was nothing in comparison. She handed it over to him and watched as he pulled a slate of some kind from his jacket pocket. Then, suddenly, her bag disappeared.

Lili's eyes widened. "Is that a Skill?"

Morgan grinned. "Nope. We don't have time for the full explanation, but I don't have a Falna. Neither does Asuna there. Our abilities come from other sources, so leave behind the preconceptions you have about what is and isn't possible. You're about to enter not just one new world, but many."

Before she could reply, he jumped down into the manhole. Lili heard him land almost immediately, it wasn't very deep. She looked down to confirm it and then followed them. The manhole slid back into place above her, plunging the tunnel into darkness.

"She isn't coming?" Lili asked, referring to Asuna, as her eyes adjusted.

"She's keeping watch," he said. There was a faint noise and suddenly a dim light sprouted in Morgan's hands. Lili blinked, clearing her vision, and saw that he was now holding a book of some kind that was glowing.

She opened her mouth to ask about it, but closed it without speaking. Based on his words earlier, Lili had the impression that if she asked about everything she didn't understand, they'd be here all day, and Lili didn't want to delay more than she had to.

The light also revealed the sewer tunnels they had entered. Lili typically avoided them, as most of the time when she transformed to disguise herself it was into a type of beast-person with a heightened sense of smell, and no matter how clean they were, the stink was too much. But with her relatively weak pallum nose, it was bearable. Mostly.

"Come on, this way." Morgan took her hand again and led her down the tunnel, walking along the paths present on the side of the flowing water and refuse.

Thankfully, they didn't have to go far. They turned a corner and then found themselves face to face with a door that looked out of place. It was made of the same stone of the surrounding walls, but decorated regally, with a handle in the shape of the head of a lion with a ring in its mouth.

Morgan pulled it open and led the two of them inside. Thankfully, once the door was shut behind them, the smell of waste disappeared entirely, but Lili was too busy looking around the inside of the room to notice.

"You're back!" said a white haired girl the same apparent age as Morgan, but wearing a skimpy black outfit that struck Lili as something not even an Amazon would wear.

"Yo," greeted the other girl in the room, a blonde haired and gold eyed girl in black clothes and a heavy red jacket. "Looks like you convinced her."

The room itself was even more strange than the inhabitants though. Lanterns and candles lit up the smooth stone walls and ceiling, but those weren't the interesting part. The interesting part was what the room contained.

It was split into two sections. The right section was empty save for a pedestal in the middle of the floor. The pedestal and the floor both were inscribed with a spiral that confused Lili's eyes when she looked at it, the thin and tightly packed lines seeming to move every time she shifted her gaze.

The left half of the room also had a structure jutting from the center of it, but rather than a pedestal it was more of a pole. The floor surrounding it was etched with a ritual circle. The pole was situated in the middle of a blank circle that was maybe 100 celches in diameter. But outside of that was an array of symbols, shapes, and interconnecting lines that she didn't understand. To the side, against the wall, was a large trough filled with water.

"Is this… where you'll do the magic that lets you update Lili's Falna?" she asked.

Morgan turned to her. "That's right. Which I'll do with a ritual that will make you mine, in a way even deeper than that Falna on your back makes you Soma's. Since you're willing, it'll be fairly quick. So just follow my instructions, okay?"

Lili swallowed nervously, but nodded. It felt much more real now that she was seeing a prepared ritual site. She knew that Falna-less magic was done through rituals like this, and that it was much harder to do but very powerful. Some of her doubt faded.

"Hold on, introductions first!" the white haired girl said. "Hi, I'm Maria! I'm Master's loyal succubus and sex slave!"

Lili blinked at her, entirely not sure how to react to that declaration. "Lili is Lili. She's… the newest sex slave?" She was pretty sure that was what she was signing up for, though her feelings on that were still a mess. She continued to ignore them though, focusing on her desire for revenge.

"Don't mind her, she's the horniest one here," the blonde girl said. "My name is Ed, I'm an Alchemist. Welcome to our little family."

Lili breathed an internal sight of relief. Someone who made potions or other magical items was something much easier to understand. "Lili looks forward to working with you."

Ed tilted her head. "What's with the third person?"

Lili frowned. "Is there a problem with how Lili speaks?"

"No, there's not," Morgan cut in. Then he looked at Ed. "It's a cultural thing, Maria or I can explain it to you later. Or Asuna, but she might refuse out of principle."

Ed shrugged. "Fair enough. I know time is tight, so let's get started. Come on, over here, you need to stand in the center." Ed led her over to the left half of the room.

"Why is time tight?" Lili asked as she followed. She stopped in the center of the circle and allowed Ed to reposition her so her back was to the pole.

"We've only got until midnight to get what we need in Orario, and we have a lot planned today," Morgan explained as he took up a spot right in front of her. She noticed that he was standing on one of the largest symbols inscribed on the floor. It looked like a triangle with a cross attached to the bottom of it.

She glanced to her left and right, where Ed and Maria had also taken up positions over prominent symbols slightly behind her, equidistant from Morgan and each other. The symbol under Maria's feet was a simple circle divided in half by a straight line. The one under Ed's was a circle with a cross on the bottom and an open half circle on the top.

"Are you ready, Lili?" Morgan asked.

Lili took a deep breath and then slowly released it. She recalled her life. She recalled Morgan's description of her future. She recalled her burning hatred.

She looked at Morgan. "Lili is ready."

Immediately a charge filled the air, a sense of readiness and potential. Lili felt a jolt of surprise, shock, and excitement.

"Then stand there, and don't resist," Morgan said. He stepped forward to her. She looked at him nervously as he approached, heart beating, unsure why but knowing something was about to happen.

What happened wasn't at all what she expected though. Morgan reached for her chest, grabbed hold of her cloak, and carefully opened it. She blushed when she realized what he wanted, but didn't resist as he took it off, sliding it off of her arms.

She was surprised when he left it at that, taking her cloak with him and dropping it outside of the circle before returning to his spot in front of her.

As soon as he was back in position, Ed approached her. She remained still and compliant as the blonde haired girl carefully and silently pulled the gloves off of Lili's hands, which she also dropped outside of the circle before returning to her spot.

Lili's eyes immediately shifted to Maria, who was already moving towards her. Maria looked at Lili with a mischievous grin before grabbing the bottom of her top and pulling it up. Lili's blushed deepened, but still she didn't resist as the succubus bared her chest to the others.

Maria grinned and winked at her before turning around to discard the article of clothing and retake her position. And then the cycle started again as Morgan approached her. She lifted her arms to cover herself, but Morgan shook his head and Lili forced her arms down again. She was embarrassed, but unwilling to mess this up.

And a voice in the back of her mind said that he would see it all, and more, sooner or later anyway, so why bother hiding it now?

One by one, they took off the rest of her clothes, each removed item making the charge in the air stronger, more potent. Lili's excitement grew as well, though she wasn't sure whether that was because of the ritual or because she was exposing herself.

Morgan took off her boots, Ed took off her thigh high socks, and Maria removed her skirt, leaving her in just her plain white panties. She shivered. It was neither particularly warm nor cold in the room, but every brush of air against her exposed skin sent goosebumps crawling over her.

And then Morgan approached for one final time. He smiled at her knowingly as he walked up to her. Her heart beat in her chest like a drum, and her head was fuzzy. Was this what it felt like to be aroused? She knew plenty about sex, it was impossible to be part of the Soma Familia and not be familiar with vices like that. But she had never felt the urge to explore it on her own. She had never felt safe enough to do so.

But now her body was warm and the energy in the air was resonating with a heat that was coiled up in her lower stomach. Each step closer Morgan got, the hotter she grew.

He stopped before her and then knelt down. She felt his fingers against the skin of her hips as he slipped them under the sides of her panties. Then, without any preamble, he pulled them down. She struggled not to reflexively close her legs to stop him, and trembled with a medley of barely constrained feelings as he slid them down her legs. When they reached her feet, she forced her feet to move, so she could step out of them.

Her entire body was red as she blushed. But she stayed quiet, and she didn't move. She wanted this. She wanted to give herself to him so she could get her revenge. All doubts had fled her mind as soon as she felt the energy of the ritual prepare. She was committed now.

Morgan deposited her panties outside of the circle and then took his position once again. "You have been bared to us, your entire being exposed to us by our hand," he intoned, voice echoing through the chamber and resonating with the energy in the air. "We see you. Now we wash away your previous connections."

Morgan moved again, but he didn't head for her. Instead, he walked to the side of the room where the trough of water was. He grabbed a goblet that was sitting on the side of it, scooped it full of water, and then walked back to Lili. There he slowly poured it over her head.

Lili flinched as the cold water made its way past her hair and onto her scalp, where it trickled down her face and neck in rivulets. The water continued further, trailing paths down the swells of her breast and down the middle of her back, then down her thighs and legs until the last few drops not clinging to her skin dripped onto the ground.

Morgan then returned the goblet to the trough and took up his position once more. Ed moved next, repeating Morgan's actions and also pouring the water over her head. Some of it followed the same paths as the water before, and some of it trailed new paths, causing her to shiver again as the cold water ran over her.

Finally, Maria did the same, but she poured her water directly onto Lili's boobs. Lili gasped at the sudden cold. She could feel her nipples hardening in reaction, and water dripped from them onto the floor. Maria grinned, satisfied, and Lili blushed.

Once Maria returned the goblet and went back to her spot in the circle, the energy in the air changed again. Lili could tell that another step had been completed. She also knew that the next one was the last. If she was to back out, to end the ritual and change her mind, this was her last chance.

She remained silent and unmoving.

"You have been cleansed of your past connections," Morgan intoned. His voice echoed in her head and in the room. "Now, we form your new ones, to us, where you belong."

All three of them approached her this time. Lili's heart continued to beat like a drum, but her nervousness was gone. Now she was just excited.

Ed and Maria stopped behind her, slightly to either side of her, and Morgan came to a stop right in front of her. Lili looked up at him, waiting expectantly. Morgan smiled at her, and Lili wasn't surprised when he leaned down to bring his face to hers. She closed her eyes and accepted it.

Morgan's lips on hers brought the twin sensation of softness and electricity. This kiss was soft and warm, but all of the energy of the ritual seemed to be channeled through it, passing from Morgan and into her. She barely registered the feeling of hands on her body, two different pairs of hands reaching up to cup her breasts and butt. Her entire being was focused on Morgan's lips pressing against hers, and the taste of his breath.

Lili couldn't say how long the kiss lasted. Forever, maybe. She lost all sense of time, only regaining herself when he pulled away. She barely noticed. She could feel the energy inside of her, settling into her very being, her soul.

Finally, it stopped. Everything was in its correct place, herself included. She wasn't part of Soma's Familia anymore. She was part of Morgan's family. She was where she belonged. She basked in that unfamiliar feeling, truly relaxing and feeling happy for the first time she could ever remember.

"How does it feel?" Morgan asked.

Lili opened her eyes. She no longer cared about her nudity, not in front of her family. Instead she smiled at him. "Lili feels happy. She has no regrets."

Morgan smiled. "That is excellent to hear. I'll make sure you won't have any either. But I'm sorry, I'll have to ruin the moment a bit. Like I mentioned earlier, we're on something of a timetable, and the next step relies on you."

Lili nodded. "Lili is ready to do whatever you need."

"In that case, I need you to tell me about every goddess currently in Orario. Because our next step is to make one of them mine, by any means necessary."

Those words helped Lili understand her new Master a bit more. They offered a flash of insight about the scope of his desires and the extent to which he would go to achieve his goals. Kidnapping a goddess was a bold act, one that risked the wrath of the heavens. But Morgan declared his intention without any hesitation.

Rather than scare her, it reassured her that he could do what he claimed, and bring her the revenge she desperately sought. So she smiled.

"Gladly."

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AN: Danmachi! A series I only had a vague interest in until I started reading the novels to do some research for this trip. For some reason I could never get through much of the anime at a time, but I've really been enjoying the light novels. Too bad our time here is so limited, but oh well. We've got two more chapters worth of things to get through. And I've already chosen the goddess they'll grab.

Lili is officially ranked as T4, but in my opinion she should be higher based on her later novel developments. She's an effective T4 right now, but her list price should be T5 and that's what I'm valuing her at. I admit she's right there on the edge though.

This chapter shows off why I wanted to write Tantric Arts. Coming up with the ritual and then writing Lili's experience with it was a lot of fun. It's a very neat system and I'll be showing off more and more of it in this fic. Maybe I dragged it out a little long, but that's kind of what I do, and I had fun writing it.

Bold dialogue is because of Alluring Whisper, which Morgan purchased off screen. It'll get mentioned in the next chapter, when we're back to his PoV.