Chapter 1698 - Protheus (Part 2)

One sure-fire method to get away with anything is to hire a gorgeous young woman as his personal maid.

"After your husband has a bit of fun and gets tired of her, he will feel guilty and forgive you just to clear his conscience."

"What if he falls for her, instead?" Just the idea of Orion with another woman made Jirni want to kill the Countess for suggesting it, yet her face blushed from the alleged embarrassment and fear. "I'm not young anymore, what if he chooses her over me?"

"That's why I said to find him a commoner." Metra said with a scoff. "A man like your husband can't fall for an uncultured woman for long and even if he does, his status requires a spouse to match. Lord Ernas-"

The moment the Doppelganger had died in the City Lord's office, a few members of the house staff waiting at the tables of the noble guests lost their human appearance. They shapeshifted into human-sized monstrous creatures that seemed comprised of parts from different Emperor Beasts and even monsters.

'Those aren't just any parts.' Jirni thought while standing in front of her annoying guest to protect her. 'Those are traits from creatures specialized in killing their prey with a single strike.'

She recognized the venomous quills typical of Manticores, the fangs of Clackers, and even the head of an acid-spitting Nidhogg.

The Doppelgangers ignored the guests, focusing only on the Countess and the Marquis. Their fingers extended into meters long snakes whose heads bared their fangs at the hapless nobles.

"We need backup, now!" Orion took his handkerchief out of the breast pocket that turned into an Adamant shield while his white tie suit reverted to its true form of a Featherwalker armor.

The razor-sharp wings cut the snakes in mid-air while the shield intercepted the charge of the closest Doppelganger, sending it flying. The severed heads slithered toward their mark, leaving Orion flabbergasted.

"Stop! I order you to stop!" Beilin was too scared to worry about the consequences of his words.

His only hope of survival was that the Mad Queen hadn't lied to him when she had guaranteed the Marquis that the Doppelgangers would be his obedient slaves. When the creatures ignored his words and continued attacking, he knew that all was lost.

Even if Beilin survived the Doppelgangers, the Kingdom would execute him the moment the Constables were done with him. Yet while facing the terror and chaos that those mindless monsters inspired, the Marquis stuck with Orion.

Except that the Doppelgangers were neither monsters nor mindless.

Thrud Griffon had achieved something that no other Awakened before her had ever had the guts and the wits to do.

She had given the slimes that lived in the Golden Griffon the gift of Awakening and with it sentience. The reason why not even Manohar nor Quylla had recognized their life force was that Doppelgangers were a new species.

Thrud had used the Undying Loyalty array to force the slimes to obey her orders and then a mind link to give them instructions in a form that they could comprehend: thought.

The slave spell compelled them to perform the breathing technique and the mana geyser below the academy did the rest.

In their natural state, Doppelgangers had no given form. They resembled a living mass of colorless, translucent jelly the size of a wooden trunk that could only move around by crawling.

At first, Thrud had deemed her experiment a failure, believing that the slimes had just become bigger. Then, when she neared the First Doppelganger to examine them with Invigoration, the creature assumed a humanoid form.

It still looked like jelly, but the longer Thrud stood still the more the Doppelganger mimicked her appearance and movements. Its head grew long tendrils to resemble her hair while the extremities of their limbs split into fingers.

The moment their hands touched, Thrud realized that her experiment had succeeded. The evolved slime had now a perfectly developed mana core which could only mean that her creation wasn't mindless, just as naïve as a baby.

While she was still rejoicing in her success, the Doppelganger's hand kept moving forward, overlapping with Thrud's.

'The slime has just evolved and has no experience of the outside world. It probably mistook me for food, but it's not like a red-cored creature can pose any threat to me.' Thrud thought until the Doppelganger digested her dead skin and turned into an exact copy of her.

It was like watching herself in a mirror.

A mirror whose reflection could walk out of the glass and take the place of the original, though. The Doppelganger-Thrud had a cruel look in her eyes and her smug grin made Thrud feel like prey in front of its predator.

'Good gods, what have I done? If my creation is like a Skinwalker and can steal my spells, memory, and physical abilities, I've doomed not just my plans of conquest but the entire Mogar.' A cold shiver ran down her spine as she imagined the rise of a new master race.

Then she saw the Doppelganger's expression become worried as if it was suddenly afraid of her.

Thrud furrowed her brown in confusion and so did her double. It took her a few more tries to confirm that the creature had no ill intentions, it just mimicked everything she did. Yet it was still too early to sigh in relief.

'I must understand this creature's powers and abilities before its intelligence fully develops. If this is the perfect form of a Skinwalker, then I must destroy my creation before it's too late.' Thrud touched the creature again to study it with her breathing technique, Royal Flow.

The Doppelganger smiled at the frowning Thrud, expressing the first emotion of its own. Yet she found it creepy because it showed that the creature was not only  sentient, but also a quick learner.

Only after Royal Flow showed her that the Doppelganger had mirrored only her appearance while its mana core was still red and its life force had none of the features of her own did Thrud allow herself to relax.

"Can you speak?" She asked.

The Doppelganger moved its lips, but only a gurgling sound came out.

Then Thrud twirled her fingers and conjured a small flame with chore magic. Once again, the creature mirrored only her movements, failing to wave the simplest of spells.

'The good news is that my creation doesn't pose a threat to Mogar. Just like a Skinwalker, it cannot mimic mana organs which means it cannot copy bloodline abilities.

'On top of that, it cannot even copy the memories of its prey, making it a much cheaper copy of the original. The bad news is that I have no use for it in my plans and that I still have to be careful around it.

'Unlike a Skinwalker, my creation is an Awakened. If it reproduces like a slime and has even one powerful bloodline ability, it might become dangerous.' She thought.

"Follow me, Protheus." Thrud said while stepping forward.

The Doppelganger looked at her in confusion without moving from their spot.

'I'm Thrud and your name is Protheus. Now follow me..' She used a mind link to overcome the language barrier.