Dreadwolf, Lord of Runes

With that, the female leadership of this band of outlaws was brought under heel, and Kane was well under way to establishing himself in this new world.

As for the female leadership in question, they appeared eager for the future. None of them really cared for the men who died during the fighting, and Kane had presented an intriguing image of an all-female group led by Aelia.

Anna and Mira in particular were excited, not only because someone who was blessed by the mother had appeared again, but because they got the chance to serve under him from the ground up.

Aelia remained a little grumpy over the unnecessary kissing, but generally, even she viewed this development as tentatively positive, so long as Kane kept his word.

After all four women had picked their weapons back up, Kane looked them over one by one. They all wore more or less the same type of functionally-focused clothing, with belts, tunics, tight yet flexible pants, and combat boots.

As for weapons, Aelia wielded two warhammers, Lyra had a bow strapped to her back, which surprised him a little, Mira went for a sword-shield combination, and finally, Anna picked up an agile looking glaive.

Then, he nodded at Mira, to answer her question, "Next, we're going to the generator room." As soon as he made that statement, he simply walked off into the half-way propped open blast door that the bandit leadership had previously opened, with a relaxed Luna by his side.

A little surprised at their new leader's departure, the four bandits shared a confused look before quickly following after them.

Meanwhile, despite her outwardly relaxed and confident attitude, Luna spoke to Kane telepathically, with a slight pout, "You need to help me get my cores up, Master. I can't be both your Valkyrie, and much weaker than that Aelia. How will they ever respect me!"

Kane could hear the jealousy in her telepathic voice, causing him to chuckle. "There's no need to be jealous of her. In fact, it should be the other way around," he told her mysteriously, with an amused tone.

Luna suddenly frowned, a little angry, "Since when do we placate each other with bullshit! Of course there's a need to be jealous, just like there's a need to be jealous of anyone with higher core ranks or Mystic stages compared to us!"

A desire for more power often went accompanied with jealousy of those who already have that power, and it was no different for Luna.

That comment made Kane laugh out loud a little, and nod in agreement, "Fair enough. But that's not what I meant."

Luna blinked in surprise and halted her step for a moment. Then, she quickly caught up again. "Then what did you mean?" she wondered curiously.

"You'll see…" Kane muttered mysteriously, causing Luna to pout once again, while she rolled her eyes.

If Luna enjoyed playing around and give Kane reasons to punish her, then Kane liked being a little mysterious, and leaving her in the dark on some unimportant details, just to see her awe and surprise when his plans came together.

Still, Luna knew the deal by now. Realizing she wasn't going to get any more out of him, she decided to just wait and see what he had in mind.

While they talked telepathically, they leisurely moved through the dark corridors, which was now being lit up by a combination of Kane's Cyberstrap, and the headlamp that still shone from on top of Anna's head, just behind them.

At the same time, the four newly subjugated bandits were muttering softly with each other, until Aelia suddenly broke away form them, and started walking next to Erik.

She turned to him with narrowed eyes that held only a fraction of her previous anger, instead, now simply looking at him with curiosity, and some suspicion. "So… what are you?" she asked, rather indelicately. "How did you end up under all those rocks, and where do you come from?"

It appeared the girls had decided they wanted to know a little more about this man they had apparently aligned themselves with.

And Kane could understand. But, that didn't mean he was going to spill all his secrets. Although Aelia was now unable to betray him by sharing those secrets willingly, that still didn't mean others couldn't force the knowledge out of her instead.

So, that's what he told her. "I can't tell you just yet," he began, his brows furrowed in a thoughtful expression. "All I can say, is that I'm not from around here. I'll probably need you and the others to fill me in on the local factions and powers."

Aelia frowned as well, clearly unhappy with the lack of information. "Anyone on Primaterra knows all of that," she grumbled.

Kane simply smirked, and raised an eyebrow. "Primaterra? Is that where we are?" he asked, clearly indicating he had no idea what she meant.

'Although, now that I think about it, Terra is a term that's also being use on Earth…' he then thought to himself. 'I think unstable rifts may have opened the way for some cultural exchanges to take place between this world and mine…'

Aelia's eyes now went bug-eyed. "You…!" she exclaimed, before falling silent, and beginning to look at him with incredulity.

After a moment of silence, she shook her head, "It's impossible for you to not be from Primaterra. All the other continents were destroyed during the ancient Immortal Wars. There's only ocean and sunken land masses out there now."

Instantly, Kane's ears perked up as he internalized this new information, but stored it away to deal with later.

"Do you actually know that for sure, or is that just the prevailing theory?" Kane asked with a slight smirk, and a condescending edge. Naturally, he had no idea if there actually was any more land out there, but it was as good a cover as any.

"That..." Aelia instantly began, wanting to dispute his words by claiming she knew for sure, but then fell silent. She didn't know for sure. It was just… common knowledge.

So instead, she sighed in resignation, "Fine… let's say that's true. How did you come here then?"

But, Kane shook his head, "I can't say any more."

Any information getting out about him being a volfar, having the ability to change shape, or coming from another world, would be make it far easier for the desire shard owner to find him in five years.

Although a newly arisen all-female group of outlaws would be somewhat of an indicator, it should be fine so long as no one linked it to him.

Aelia's nose wrinkled as her face contorted in anger, "What the hell is the point in not saying anything now?! You've already fucking marked us, we couldn't tell anyone if we wanted to!"

Kane lips curled up into a smirk, and his tone became a little more cruel, "So you're absolutely sure it's impossible for anyone to rip that information out of your skull, mind, or soul, because of that mark?"

Aelia flinched and her eyebrows twitched, "N— No, of course not, but why would anyone even bother trying? No one would suspect a tiny group of outlaws like ours to hide a secret about other continents."

He chuckled in response, "Tiny? Right now, sure, but I plan on changing that…"