i shook my head. “i still don’t understand. she was dying...”


    the man named dirage made a sour expression. “yes, i was in the process of converting her soul into a karmic soul. this is a dangerous process, one that most people who attempt it fail. she insisted on taking the risk though.”


    lydia blushed as she glanced at me. “i didn’t want master to leave me behind. since master has a god soul, then i needed to work hard to deserve to stay by master.”


    “lydia...” i reached out, and her hand gently took mine.


    “to learn the techniques, i wanted to teach her, she had to have a god soul. i was careful though. i cut her soul so that her dark half didn’t have any memory of you. first off, attachments would have distracted her and led to weaknesses. this increased her chance. besides, if it failed, only half of her soul would have died, but the half that contained her relationship with you would have survived. she’d never fight again, but your woman would have still existed in some form.”


    “i see...” my hand tightened on lydia’s as he described just how dangerous what he had done had been. “but why did she almost die.”


    “because of you.” he sniffed. “you attempted to interfere with her miasma. however, when you attempted to use your mana to probe her soul, something happened that i didn’t expect. her soul recognized your mana. no, it’s more accurate to say her soul was inescapably drawn to you. it caused her to fall into complete disorder!”


    with that, he shimmered away. i could feel he left the dungeon completely. he didn’t even use portal, and he didn’t have a blessing that allowed him to cross-dimensional barriers. he was a mystery.


    “enough! stop wasting my time!” the lioness queen was getting agitated over being ignored and pointed her sword at lydia. “it seems like you belong to this man too! it doesn’t matter if there is one more of you. you’ll still all die! prepare yourself!”


    “i will!” lydia pulled her hand away and picked up her spear. “i’ll do my best to protect my master.... oh! time out!”


    “t-time out?” the lioness was once again shocked as lydia turned her back on her.


    “just one second!” lydia shot the other woman a look before turning to me. “master... there is something i want from you! i’m not complete. can you... take me?”


    i smiled, reaching out with my hand and grabbing the end of her spear which was still close enough for me to grab. “you bet your butt i will.”


    i pulled the spear, and lydia let out a girlish cry as she fell into my grasp and i planted a kiss on her. at the same time, i began enslavement, claiming her soul as mine.