[Servant of the Dark Lord System]: Every tyrant needs servants worthy of their greatness. A Dark Lord tolerates no weakness; only the strongest survive. Through the servant bond, your soldiers evolve, transcend, and march toward legend.

  Name: Angie

  Level: 0

  Race: Stone Angel

  Rank: F

  Class: —

  Titles: [Servant of the Dark Lord]

  **Full information will be processed once the Servant’s Class is selected.**

  “I first needed to offer myself to you completely,” she said. “A servant kneels before a sovereign, and the sovereign must elevate them, like a queen tapping a knight’s shoulders with a blade. You had to finish conferring my title. At least, that’s what I felt through our connection. I believe you must have done the same with Charlie to fully unlock her system.”

  He remembered it well. He’d needed to touch Charlie’s forehead, her skeletal skull, before her notification had appeared.

  “Angelica, we need to talk about your situation,” he said quietly.

  “I’m not Angelica, my lord. I’m Angie. I’m the angel who accompanied you for months as a mask. Because I was soulbound to you, I slept inside your soul, drifting in and out of awareness, always with you. And that angel, me, received a fragment of Angelica’s soul when I reanimated this body. So now I’m seventy percent angel, twenty percent Angelica, and ten percent the power I absorbed when I killed the archangel’s soul.”

  She stepped closer, slow and deliberate. “I have all of Angelica’s memories. Her quirks, her habits, the parts of her you cherished. I preserved everything I could for you, because you cared about her. And so she and I became Angie. I would like you to call me that, my lord.”

  She was so close the blanket slipped off her shoulders and fell to the floor, leaving her completely naked. She didn’t flinch. Luke immediately looked away.

  “Angelica,” he tried again, “now that you’re back, I was able to finish what you wanted. I saved the people from Haven.”

  “I do not care much for them, but I thank you on Angelica’s behalf,” Angie replied.

  “So now you can return to Texas and live your life again. I don’t really know how to help you reintegrate into human society since you’re, well, gray and have wings,” he said.

  Angie tilted her head, quietly thinking. “If the wings become inconvenient, don’t worry. At higher levels, I know I’ll gain a skill to hide them. But… I have no intention of going to Texas.”

  “I figured. Angelica didn’t have family except for her brother. Maybe you want to stay here in the New World. I can help you find a place. I have plenty of gold, and half of it is yours. Don’t worry, Angelica. I’ll help you. I owe you that much after what I did to you…”

  After all, he had killed her.

  The Stone Angel stepped in again, so close Luke backed up until he nearly fell onto the bed. Her face was suddenly solemn, deeply intense.

  “My lord, I have no intention of abandoning you,” she said. “I may look like Angelica, and in some ways I am her. But I’m also the same angel who once accepted becoming your servant and couldn’t finish the ritual because I was only a weak soul. Now I’m here. I have a body. I accepted you as my first and only master.”

  Her voice lowered, growing fierce.

  “And I will never… never… never leave you. I won’t go with Haven. I won’t go to Texas. I won’t go anywhere in this entire multiverse. The only place I want to be is at your side.”

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  “Look… Angelica,” he began, trying to find the right words.

  “I understand, my lord.” Her voice was soft, steady. “I tried to act like Angelica for you when I came back to life, because you were hurting so much from having used her body in that process. And I was sincere. I can emulate Angelica perfectly if that’s what you want. But… I’m Angie. Your Angie. And I don’t want to leave you.”

  He sat back down on the bed, gently pulling the blanket over her to cover her nudity. She was stubborn, and she had clearly made up her mind.

  “Angelica… I mean, Angie. I want to help you have a normal life. You and Charlie. Things were different in the tutorial, when death was always hanging over our heads. But now there’s no reason for either of you to keep living like soldiers waiting to die. I’m going to help her build a real life, whatever that looks like for her. And I’ll help you too. You don’t have to stay with me out of obligation.”

  She paused, thinking. Even with the gray tone of her skin, her face was still Angelica’s face. It was the same person rebuilt from a fusion of angelic essence and a human soul. A little different here and there, longer hair, sharper features… but still her. The only innocent he had ever killed. And he couldn’t unsee that.

  “I can’t speak for Charlie,” she said. “And don’t worry, I know everything. I’ve been with you both for months. Even though I have Angelica’s memories, where she thought Charlie was just a knight, I know the truth. I know what Charlie really is under that armor. I was with you long before you killed the Beast Lord.”

  She stepped closer again, folding her wings behind her as she reached out and took Luke’s hand. “I don’t want a normal life, my lord. Not unless you want one. My life is wherever you are. That’s my choice.”

  Luke felt the confusion knotting inside him, tangled up with guilt he couldn’t fully name.

  “Are you only saying that because you’re a slave to my skill? Is that it? Did my power somehow change your mind to turn you into a slave?” he asked.

  She had accepted becoming his servant, just as Charlie once had. But he feared what his skill truly did to those who took that vow. Whether it robbed them of something vital.

  “No,” she said firmly. “Even if I hadn’t become your servant through your skill, I still would have chosen you as my master. Eternally and without regret. That’s what my race is. An angel chooses someone to guard, and that bond is forever.”

  He didn’t know how to respond. It was too much. Too complicated. Too dangerous.

  “It’s all right, my lord,” she murmured. “I’ll stay with you until you’re comfortable with me. I’ll prove I chose this.”

  “That’s exactly what I don’t want,” he said. “I want you to be free. And maybe I am being influenced by your appearance. Probably. But even then, I want you to have your own life.”

  “And what if the life I want is the one at your side?” she asked. “Are you going to take that away from me?”

  “Damn it… that’s such an unfair argument,” he muttered.

  She eased back a little, still seated on the bed. “Everything happened so fast for us, and you have so much to deal with. Your priority right now is going back to your family, and I understand that. I’m secondary to you, my lord. But at least… let me stay with you.”

  She leaned forward again, close enough that her breath brushed his lips. “Let me remain in your soul, even if you never plan to summon me again. If the choice is between leaving you or staying inside your soul, I would rather stay there forever.”

  Luke swallowed hard. She wasn’t just devoted; she was resolute to a terrifying degree. She would rather spend an entire lifetime sealed inside his soul than a single minute apart. And he could feel it. Through the servant-master bond, her conviction pulsed with absolute certainty. Angie’s greatest desire was to remain at his side. The intensity of it washed over him so completely that guilt began to crawl up his spine.

  Because he didn’t feel anything like that for her. Not even the friendship he’d had with the real Angelica came close to matching what Angie radiated toward him. It was like being the center of someone’s universe without wanting to be.

  “Things are happening way too fast,” he muttered, pulling back a little. “I’ll at least try to show you the world and help you figure out your own path without being… chained to me. Right now everything is too new.”

  “And I’ll use that time to prove I deserve to stay at your side,” she replied, even more determined, countering him with a conviction he had no idea how to respond to.

  A notification shimmered into existence.

  [Choose the Class of Your Second Servant: Angie (Stone Angel)]

  “As I’m level zero, I don’t have a class yet,” Angie said softly. “I ask that you choose one for me, my lord.”

  Five class options unfolded before him.

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