The Story of a Protoss

[Protagonist]

It is, honestly, a very simple process.

Some blinding light. Some golden shackles. An exchange of blood. Some soul tearing pain and the whole thing is done.

No seriously. It hurts. What your doing is you subjugate a whole soul and fuse it into yourself. You take a small part of your soul and integrate it into your servant's soul. They both fuse and because of the contract, the conditions for the fusion are predetermined. No way for any one of the parties to try and turn the tables.

The golden shackles are a physical representation of the "Laws" dictating the conditions. They are made of runes of an unimaginably superior quality. My parents made them and based on my estimation they are unbreakable as long as you are not at least a realm above my parents.

The good thing about runes and glyphs is that with time and dedication you can create and produce a result that is far above your current strength.

It demands more energy, time and effort but it is a lifesaver. if you're about to die because your heart was ripped out you can use runes to save your life. They are dangerous, expensive and hard to make but they exist.

So if you are lucky and your opponent doesn't immediately finish you off you can use such rules and turn the fight around.

The golden shackles here are on a much higher level than I can even imagine. Of course, they are since I have no insights in "Laws", the Dao and am at the starting point of my cultivation.

But they impress me. I have access to the very basic runes and now that I see the potential of runes and glyphs, I am stumped. It is as beautiful as it is dangerous. Just amazing!

As I said the process is simple. After she accepted the contract and she willingly offered her being, which is just a matter of "willing" yourself, the golden shackles stretched out of her chest and did the rest.

One of them stretched onto my arm and drew my blood. The blood fused into the golden chains and shackles and formed a bloody dagger.

This dagger is immaterial. Ethereal even. This dagger was thrust into Madelyn's heart and fused my blood and the painfully extracted part of my soul into her body.

The ensuing feeling was weird.

It was like a bridge between us.

Her part of the bridge was blocked by a massive "gate". She can feel my presence and intention if I want her to, but I feel everything. Every thought, desire, and emotion. It was...overwhelming!

The restrictions that were placed on her were non-existent for me. I felt all powerful. A single thought of mine would dictate her actions, thoughts, and opinion.

It was disturbing! The feeling of absolute control was not as pleasant as I imagined.

An innate feeling or thought inside me reared its head and I instantly collapsed the connection.

Madelyn must have felt the broken connection because she instantly raised her head and threw me a concerned look. No not concerned. Terrified. A terror that something could have happened to me.

An utmost concern, to the extent that I felt suffocated by it.

I imagined some sort of basic satisfaction by having such control. I thought that it would be exciting. A reaction that I considered normal. The few memories I have seen that concern slavery and servants often display the master or contractor as pleased. As satisfied. I thought it would be normal.

*Answering*

The host is not wrong. Most beings subconsciously feel pleased to a certain aspect by having someone or something under their control. An innate emotion is stirred that feels pleased by dominating or suppressing something.

Most beings have a lesser version of such emotions but some races are especially influenced by such emotions. An example of such races are Demons and Devils, Elves and Humans as well as Dragons and other ancient races and beings.

Most demon and devil societies are based on the supremacy system and strength. Because of this belief, they have an innate desire to suppress and dominate. While most of them abhor slavery, a high amount of subordinates represents strength and glory.

Elves are an ancient race and have a very strict social structure. In such a situation the social position is of the utmost importance. Family and lovers come after your own social position and while they are peaceful this society paints a massive contrast to this statement.

Some High Elf kingdoms or empires even possess a slavery system which shows how varied their beliefs can be.

The Dark Elves on the other side are, contrary to the common belief, the more peaceful and tolerant race. Slavery is strictly forbidden and what we would consider servants are non-existent, in the sense that they are of low-status. In their countries. A servant is a job that is highly respected because of their hard work and dedication to other elves. As such there are fewer servants, as a Dark Elf servant requires years of extensive training before they start their official work.

Humans are a very unique race. They have evolved into a race with a lot of different facets.

A prime example of the human races bad development is their extensive slavery system and racism.

While other races due differentiate between for example Dark and High Elves, they do not discriminate and even the fact that someone might be of lower status does not mean that he will be treated as an unqualified member of society.

The innate sense of superiority is very strong in human countries. No other race has made their own race suffer as much as humans did and do.

Dragons and other ancient and primordial races have a sense of supremacy due to their heritage.

They are descendants of the first beings to have ever considered which results in one of the strongest bloodlines in existence as well as an innate sense of supremacy.

Despite that, they can be very amiable, as evident from Ancestor 371's memories. He fully integrated into a dragon community and was accepted as a member despite not being a dragon himself.

Their amazing intelligence and wisdom make them a wise and calm race.

The stories of rampaging and treasure-hoarding dragons originate from stories about lesser dragons who lack such intelligence. This does not mean they are stupid. They are highly intelligent but more likely to be driven by their desires.

*Information on other races available. Do you wish for more information?*

(No. You should rather tell me why the connection was broken and I felt this innate sense of disgust towards the contract!)

*Answering*

Searching for Authorization

.

.

Access granted

[The History of Malak'Ran]

Malak'Ran is one of the first ancestors to have ever sealed his memories into what is now known as [The Hive].

The Hive is a collective database made by the combined effort of 13 Protoss. They made the Hive at the peak of their strength and sacrificed parts of their life force and Dao to create it.

The Hive was made to guarantee the survival of the Protoss, as the race was rapidly dwindling in number.

Some 6424 Years prior, Malak'Ran noticed that there were only 259 Protoss alive. In all known Universes. The number previously sat at around 1423 Protoss at a time.

Noticing this rapid decline in numbers, he used over 200 years to gather 13 Protoss.

His project, which he named [The Hive], was meant to be a connection for all living Protoss.

This proved to be impossible, which is the reason that the 13 Protoss decided to not fight the cause but create a "Cure". By offering their knowledge, experience, and advice to the future Protoss, they hoped for them to grow stronger than ever and achieve what they could not.

Identify and destroy the cause of their decline.

The project worked out and over the years the number of Protoss rose to 489 where it reached its peak. Any attempt at raising their number above this failed.

At least the Hive identified the cause of their decline. Another race was actively hunting the Protoss.

The reason as to why they were hunting the Protoss is still unclear but they are actively searching for Protoss and due to the memories of Ancestor 5312 the reason is slightly revealed.

The race seems to use Protoss for various reasons. One of them seems to be breeding. The race reproduces by using the Protoss as a sort of incubator.

The Protoss innate physique and energy based structure serve as the best-known medium.

They also seem to eat the Protoss after some time.

Ancestor 5312 was the first Protoss that was able to relay this information into the hive. The previously captured Protoss had their connection severed or were simply unable to infuse their inheritance.

Some were mentally broken and unable to make the connection.

After the revelation through Ancestor 5312, Malak'Ran used the Hive to create a Protoss community.

The location is locked and not accessible.

They build an army and started to actively destroy the camps, cities and other locations of this unknown race. The race is still largely unknown. They are genderless and their skin varies in color. They may have black, white, orange or transparent skin. They do not possess a mouth or nose.

Their cultivation is inherently different and they do not seem to possess insight into the Dao.

Their use of energy is non-existent. They somehow produce a form of matter inside their bodies which they use as a replacement for energy.

This method seems to be very slow but they face virtually no bottleneck. They may take tens or hundreds of years to breakthrough but they have unlimited potential to grow.

They are incapable of reproducing by themselves but are not interested in a diplomatic conclusion.

Malak'Ran had organized a diplomatic entourage to discuss peace.

While he was able to speak with them the only conversation was a refusal of peace and the demand to unconditionally surrender and offer themselves as incubators and food.

The race is highly intelligent and capable of social structure but unwilling to cooperate with any other race.

Up to now the destruction of 12,413,513 races and societies has been registered by the hive.

*More detailed information is locked*

Wow.

This is a lot to take in.

Just now I was enjoying the fact that I have nothing to fear from Madelyn and will even benefit and now such a bomb gets dropped.

Right after telling me all this information it showed me several pictures of this race.

They vary in height and range from 2.2 meters up to 7.6 meters.

There have been larger individuals but they seem to be variants of their race.

The biggest and most prominent feature of their body is their skin.

It frankly doesn't even look like skin, it is more like a rubber surface stretched onto a body.

They have either 3,7 or 9 arms and one pair of legs and feet. Their head is shaped like a human's head but the back protrudes by around 30 centimeters.

They do not have a mouth, ears, a nose or eyebrows. Their face is almost empty aside from their eyes. They are a uniform black color and have no similarity to the eyes of most races. Simply a black mass that is not even formed like an eye.

Just a swirling mass of blackness where eyes would be.

Ok, I can't!

I have to think about this later.

Forcefully cramming these thoughts into the back of my head, I turn my attention back to Madelyn. Not much time has passed but she has calmed down.

The connection was not fully severed. It simply collapsed in itself. Madelyn was able to feel that there was nothing wrong with me and that I was lost in my thoughts. She waited until I would speak to here.

While I did focus back on reality I still had not gotten my answer.

(I wanted to know the reason as to why the connection collapsed. Would you answer me now?)

*Answering*

Please do not worry host. These information were necessary to understand this reason.

The Hive is not only a storage for information it has evolved over time.

At the start, it was incapable of building a connection with every Protoss. Communication was impossible but after the ancestors started to infuse their heritage into the hive the Hive evolved.

The Hive became an entity that acted in the interest of all Protoss.

Similar to a guardian. If a Protoss acted in a detrimental way, a way that would harm the Protoss. The Hive would cut his or her connection to the hive and inform all Protoss about its actions.

Because this happened a few times the Hive decided to prevent it.

One of the main reasons as to why a Protoss would act like this was an obsessive desire for various things.

Pleasure, wealth and strength for example. These could and should not be erased but the ancestors and the hive decided to educate the younger children in a passive way.

The feeling of disgust that you experienced, was a safety measure implemented that would cause the information I relayed to you to appear. You would then have the choice to go through with your action and do whatever you wish.

The problem that most young Protoss experience is that while they might be more mature than most races at birth they are still very much weak against outside impressions.

An unprotected connection such as the one you just made with Madelyn would have caused you to develop a positive feeling towards domination and enslavement, as the subconscious pleasure of dominating something would have been imprinted in your mind.

Your particular existence would have been less influenced because all incoming sensations are processed by yourself and me. I would have acted similarly to this safety measure should it have failed to appear. I can also erase such an impression if you so wish.

As said previously, the choice is still yours but you are offered a second choice as your first one is made on an uninformed basis.

*Commence Removal?*

Should I? Is it necessary?

(...No. Don't remove it. I think I can use it for reference. It might help improve my mental fortitude and resistance against such impressions until my mind is mature enough to resist them by itself.

But do notify me should it influence me too much.)

*Noted*

(I have to focus now. I have been drifting away with my thoughts. And you are not helping much!)

Madelyn was still kneeling in front of me. She had calmed down and was simply waiting for me.

It was weird. She was kneeling in front of me like it is the most comfortable she could do.

I noticed how dangerous and massive the changes are the contract implements.

The absolute submission and eternal servitude is no joke.

If I ordered her she'd happily kneel there forever.

"Stand up Madelyn."

I ordered her to stand up, I would have to think about how I would use the contract. During the short time during which the A.I informed me, I thought about the restrictions of the contract.

I knew that a full submission is necessary for the contract to work but I do not want to change her personality nor her desires. The contract automatically informed me about any potentially detrimental thoughts and desires, Madelyn might have. It was not necessary for me to "adjust" her thoughts and personality.

Furthermore, I think I would feel uncomfortable if she would act like this.

It is not like she desires my death or anything similar. It is safe to assume that she would support me fully and to her utmost extent even if I restored her personality.

Speaking of that! The scary part is that her personality did not involve any fancy shenanigans.

The instant the connection was built her personality became what she currently is.

A servant that would do EVERYTHING for me. Unconditionally!

"I will restore your personality and afterward we can go into one of the rooms and finish your end of the deal."

Restoring her personality was easy. My parents seemed to be sure that I would resist the temptation of absolute control. The contract had a clause that saved her personality and I could restore it instantly.

Willing myself to build the connection, the "bridge" reappeared.

The feeling of connection was much more subdued. I only willed it to connect us. No transmission of thoughts. I could vividly feel her emotions but that's it.

The bridge could be said to be something like a control entity. Sending my intentions over the bridge, Madelyn's soul would fulfill them.

Doing so I sent the intention for Madelyn to restore her own personality.

It was another weird feeling.

I was a distant observer on how Madelyn's soul stirred.

Her emotions surfaced and her thoughts reappeared. A wondrous scene of "color"

It was a truly fascinating experience.

Normally someone of my level would not be able to come in contact with the soul until he was far above even Madelyn's strength. This opportunity was given to me by my parents and it was more than just beneficial.

The soul is the one factor that decides the strength of your bottleneck. Almost every race faces them but depending on your mental fortitude, conviction and the strength of your soul, the strength of your bottleneck varies.

Seeing how Madelyn's soul "resurfaced" and spread was truly beautiful and enlightening.

I was unable to comprehend all of what I saw but I knew that this was a unique scene.

Truly beautiful.

As I once again drifted between my thoughts and savoring the beauty of her soul, I was awakened by a cough.

Madelyn was standing in front of me and was curiously looking at me. She was perplexed. She probably did not expect me to restore her personality. Or at least not so fast.

"Surprised?", I asked her with a smirk on my face. I do not know why I smiled. I was still new and uncomfortable with these emotions but the more I interacted with Idan and other people, the more they simply appeared.

Shit! Idan! Where is Idan?! How could I not think about him until now! I'm awake for an hour? A bit less? I have not spend a single thought on Idan! I don't even know about his safety or health!

He's a beast! Who knows what they might have done with him!

"Idan! Where is Idan?! The squirrel that was with me! Where is he?!"

My outburst surprised her. She flinched because of my raised voice and probably the fact that the person who can dictate even your thoughts is clearly getting agitated.

"T-The squirrel is safe. He actually awoke before you but still has to rest. The slash that took your eye also hit him. Luckily he only suffered a cut and some poisoning from the Death Energy. If he had been hit by the soul mass that entered your eye he would have died."

"Thank god!", a giant sigh of relief overcame me. While I was sure that he was still alive due to my connection to him, this connection had yet to mature. It also could not display his health. I would know he is alive but I would not know whether or not he had all limbs or if he lost an ear, his tail, a few fingers etc.

"Ok. I want to get done with this and visit Idan. get us a private room and we'll finish this whole stuff.

This was exhausting and the day is not even over yet."

Feeling exhausted from the truly giant influx of information, I just wanted to meet with Idan and sleep.

This was the first time in my life that I was mentally exhausted and it was certainly not a pleasing condition.

Madelyn bowed lightly and took up her clothes. After covering her scarved body she ordered the servant, Mina, to prepare her personal room.

She ordered the other servant, who was called Dua, to go and bring Idan to her personal chamber and empty the two nearest rooms for my personal and Idan's use.

Having ordered her servants, she turned to me and told me that we can go.

She leads the way and we first went deeper into the garden. The scenery was ever changing and despite it still being the same garden it felt vastly different after every step.

We only walked for a few minutes before we arrived at a door made of leaves. The door was inscribed with runes and looked ancient.

I threw a questioning look at Madelyn since this did not look like something that belonged into this world.

I did not have access to the higher leveled runes but I could at least identify their rough level and strength.

With a small smile, she told me about them. Apparently, they were another benefit from my parents for her.

"These are minor space runes. The worst of them all but in this world, they can be used to create these short distance doorways.

In higher worlds, they would at most be able to cross a few meters of distance but here in this world, they can cover this whole city. I discovered their use while testing and experimenting with the available parts of my...payment."

I made a mental note to check on these doorways once I had some time, but right now my priorities were placed somewhere else.

"They will lead us to your room?"

"Strictly speaking it is my courtyard but yes they will lead us there."

Madelyn placed her hands on the doorway and chanted a small spell.

I could not make out the exact words as they were a different language and not Germani.

She removed her hand from the ancient looking door made of leaves.

The leaves stirred and wrinkled until they moved into the doorway's arc and the view was replaced by the sight of a tree, a small house, and a flower bed.

The view was slightly distorted, similar to looking through a water screen.

Madelyn moved first and was about to step through the screen.

She paused for a second and turned back.

"I almost forgot. The first few times you may experience a slight discomfort that would at most result in a bit of motion sickness. The spatial shifting is a rather delicate process and being shifted causes some people to feel a bit sick. But some don't have a problem with it."

Informing me, she immediately stepped through the screen. it was a fluid movement and she immediately appeared on the other side.

No abrupt disappearance and reappearance.

One fluid movement.

Today I am really getting flooded with new stuff. I hope this does not become a trend. This is exhausting and annoying.

(Well, here we go.)