NOVEL NEXT Protocol Jenkins
3/17 Evening
I brought my mistress with me into a timeline designated useless to me during preliminary surveys. It was a world in which Me’dan, the son of Medivh, was locked in a prolonged conflict with C’thun and the Twilight’s Hammer. In theory Me’dan would be quite a prize, as he was quite the little Mary Sue, but the relative speed of this timeline was similar to that of the ancient timeline I have colonized in reverse. As such, one hour here was two thirds of a day in our main timeline and nearly 11 days in Zin’Azshari or my Isekai worlds.
All operations would be running at 1/16th speed, so basically any other timeline would be better to deploy troops to. If one actively wished to run down the clock at a subjectively high speed, however, it was absolutely perfect. I happily sat in front of the mistress’s gemstone and learned my place in the world. It was all extremely informative to learn that my purpose was to provide her with pleasure and assistance, though I honestly could have guessed that myself.
••••••••••
The barrage of fire bolts did a marvelous job of thinning the tide of the undead. Onyxia couldn’t be seen as her true self or Katrana Prestor defending Southshore, but “Drusilla” had nothing to do with the Prestor family. No sirree. Far, far more important was that she could teach her signature “first flame” spell to the defenders any time she was out of mana and the elves from Dalaran tagged in to assist.
Sally was glad that the ship was doing a great job of carrying away the civilians. Her task here would be done very soon, and then she’d be able to abandon this town with only a few people dead… relatively speaking. The last ship out would no doubt be overcrowded, but more than half of the town would survive. That was good enough for Sally.
They were saved by the fact that this was the early Scourge. They had numbers, but little else, and were treating this as a recruitment drive. To the north, Prince Arthas was leading the Cult of the Damned, with all the backing that the Lich King could spare, against Silvermoon City.
If Southshore had been facing that army, they would have been promptly destroyed. Their walls would have been battered down by siege weapons, assuming that giant undead spiders didn’t simply climb over them. The zombies they killed would have already evolved into far stronger ghouls, which would have been coordinated and led by elite necromancers instead of quite literally trying to batter the doors down with their bare hands. Alexei Barov, the commander in this region, didn’t care enough about Southshore to lose more troops than he would gain by taking the city, so he settled into a siege and slaughtered the smaller villages in the region instead.
On the thirtieth day of the siege, more than a week after Tony left, Sally woke to find a staff at the side of her bed. Benediction hummed with power, though nowhere near as much as Light’s Wrath. Powerful, but safe for a relative novice to use if they could maintain a normal level of focus. In the primary timeline a few hundred townsfolk appeared in the middle of a snowy field, proving extremely disruptive to the ongoing military actions being staged from there.
Sally breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that her family was safe now. She could finally abandon this town, as the buildings were less important than the people. It had been a surprisingly cathartic experience. On the way to her post on the walls, she checked for her next mission, assuming from her conversations with Tony that there would be one.
Into the Realm Eternal, Brutal Difficulty
Prevent the fall of Silvermoon City
Reward: Choice of Ranger General Sylvanas Skin, Kael’thas Sunstrider Skin, Farstrider Hanzo Skin, or Spellbreaker Johanna skin
Patron: Felo’Melorn, runeblade of the Sunstrider dynasty.
Well then. It seemed that Sally would need to face the full might of the Scourge after all. Hopefully Tony would finish up soon; the crusade could use a few more dragons.
••••••••••
“I’m sorry!” I apologized profusely to my mistress. “I didn’t mean to… I don’t know what came over me!”
When mistress Nefaria ordered me to pleasure her, I went temporarily mad. She seemed to have been expecting that, and subdued me quickly enough, but I shocked her anyway. I’d used a disposable stamp from my inventory, which I’d somehow forgotten about, and attempted to mar her perfect skin with it by pressing my palm against one of her tentacles. What’s worse, I’d succeeded.
“Explain!” She demanded, “What does this do?”
“It will capture you in three days.” I replied, shamed. “All that is mine should be yours by then, however. Within two more hours here, you should be victorious. The stamp runs off of your own personal timeline, so you have three days to finish me off. I will die for you, if you’d like.”
“Don’t be stupid. I don’t want a corpse, I want my foe humbled before me.” My mistress snapped at me, then turned pensive, “So that was your backup plan. Get close to me and then use this binding? Hmm. I won’t be making this same mistake again. I’m in far more danger than I’d like.”
••••••••••
Anthony was doing an excellent job as an assistant in the lab. Nefarian was certain that the dragonspawn was funneling spy reports back to Onyxia, but to be perfectly frank he wasn’t really that bothered. Anthony was quick on the uptake, learned extremely quickly for a dragonspawn, and just generally brought a good energy into any room he entered. He was also just full of fascinating ideas about magic runes, which seemed to be a personal interest of his. He seemed to be enjoy carving them into random surfaces, though Nefarian couldn’t sense any magic coming off of them. Finally, while an alchemical concoction was brewing, Nefarian asked Anthony what the purpose of the runes was.
“Well, boss, you caught me.” Anthony admitted. “Ya see, my mistress is working on a new kind of magic. It’s supposed to bind people to her service with these runes, you see? She has me trying out different variations, but I’m just a simple dragonspawn going through your notes on shadow magic. I’m sure you could refine the process far more effectively than me if you studied one.”
It was an intriguing prospect, to be sure, but Nefarian was no fool.
“Oh? What is to stop you from using one of them on me?”
“Ah, that’s easy.” Anthony soothed Nefarian’s concerns, “These amulets are inert until you activate them. I can show you the process on anyone you like, so you know what they look like when they are active. You just keep that one on ya, if you’re really worried don’t look at it or think about it.”
Nefarian nodded agreeably and lodged the small rune inscribed stone under one of his scales, in a natural pocket he sometimes used for magical items. He instantly forgot about it.
••••••••••
My mistress finished placing me into a containment field. It wasn’t too difficult; she went to the home of her parallel in this world with a quick teleport. They used the same beacons, and both guarded the chambers with black dragonspawn, so she could just walk in and demand the use of the holding cell. I went along with it placidly. I was fairly sure that I’d only lashed out because she attempted to have sex with me. I would have liked to comply, but if I was a danger to her? Perish the thought.
I sat in the middle of the arcane circle, and phantom chains wrapped around me. Perhaps I could have escaped, but they prevented my teleportation off spellcasting. It wouldn’t be easy. Anyway, I settled in and stared at the crystal so that more programming could sink in, chanting my love of my mistress the whole time.
••••••••••
The dedicated ops team for Protocol Jenkins cheered as Nefarian sealed his fate. The small disk was in fact already active, but it’s magic was undetectable to those of tier 6 and lower. Siren’s song was doing its work quite well, pushing Nefarian to accept suggestions and orders that he’d never countenance otherwise, even from his favorite dragonspawn.
“Alright. Do we have a timetable on that one?” Vanessa asked.
“Uh… with the preliminary work Tony did before now it looks like eight days to him. That’s 12 hours on our end.” Kathy answered. “Well within the margin of error.”
“Excellent. Shame it’ll push into Neffie’s next flawless escape, but I think we might have this one.” Vanessa was beaming. “Any signs that the Master or his newest bitch are suspicious?”
“No, nothing that’s likely to manifest in the next 45 minutes for them. I’m still worried. Are you sure this will work?”
“Trust the master. Lividia and the assault team are practicing right now. Uhhh… do another reset on the master. We don’t want anything to sink in that could be dangerous.”
••••••••••
My mistress came back to check on me after around thirty minutes, taking away the beautiful crystal for her own purposes. I was disappointed to lose the crystal, but elated to see my mistress.
“Mistress, I think I’ve fully submitted to you this time.” I proudly announced. “I had a thought, since we cannot have sex until you find true love, perhaps we could cuddle?”
I wilted under the withering look my mistress turned upon me. I knew better than to keep talking. That said, perhaps I should have. My mistress might have noticed if I’d suddenly stopped speaking mid sentence. I might have warned her, at least a little. All of a sudden I was in what appeared to be a cell in the Stormwind Vault. The seals were very similar, but my body was suddenly both ethereal and very feminine.
“Alright Selena.” Vanessa gently spoke to the ghost who had believed herself to be me. “I’m resetting you to your saved preset but I think we need to keep you in there until the master reigns supreme. For what it’s worth, you did good. I’m sure the master will reward you with anything you like.”
“Oh… oh no…” Selena’s mouth hung open with sheer horror. “I’ve betrayed my mistress… I almost betrayed my master…”
••••••••••
Selena was ripped away from my body, taking with her all of the brainwashing my suppressed mind had been fully absent for. When a ghost fully possesses someone, they have access to their abilities, but can not consent on their behalf. It had been a lesson learned the hard way, and a pain in the ass on more than one occasion. I tried to maintain a vacant smile as Neffie fiddled with her crystal, probably consulting her menu, and took in the scene. It was time for the final phase of Operation Jenkins to begin, before she noticed that something was amiss.
••••••••••
It has been determined that Lividia shall have the body and skillset of the alchemist Arcadia, but some have noted that she is not exactly well suited to an administrative role like “small business owner.” As such, we have the option of giving Talaada the Arcadia body so she can act in a support role while Lividia acts as the field companion. Only if you’re interested, of course.