Royal protection.

"You really can't help it? I mean, I know I should have expected this," said Anna.

"What?" replied John.

"What? Really? Nothing strange about the fact that the cute and busty swinging lady just gave you her phone number?" she replied, getting a smile from Tricia, standing behind Anna with her arms crossed.

"This has nothing to do with that," he defended himself.

"Really? So what was it?" she asked, taking apparent glee in grilling him like this. Her smile showed clearly that she wasn't really mad at him though.

"Diplomacy. We are a small faction with few allies of weight. These Hunters of Artemis are an interesting faction, they are based not far from us, seem friendly and don't look like the kind to **** our hand on things. Besides, Dargon made a friend, and even if I fear what would happen if we put those two together again, it would have been rude to close this door by refusing her number," he explained. The couple they had met belonged to a faction of hunters that were based in the forest that bordered Springfield but at the edge of another city, 10 miles away.

"So, nothing to do with the MILF asking me to borrow you for a night?" she added, poking his ribs with an accusatory finger.

"Nope, just diplomacy," he concluded, trying to keep a straight face.

"A shame, she seemed very interested by our dress code and wanted to visit with her daughter. They were intrigued about all the strange creatures to hunt in your little kingdom," she said laughing at John whose face was a final admission of his defeat in this little word fight bout.

"Well... As a monarch, one might have to sacrifice himself for the good of the realm. And if having her prance around naked with her no doubt sexy daughter is the price to pay to maintain the relationship between our two factions, I guess that I will have no other choice than to endure it," he declared in his most regal voice. It triggered a burst of laughter from the three girls following him. It was all played for laughs, and John was happy to see Tricia relaxed enough to enjoy herself like that.

"Jokes aside, I got the parts for the device in your lab from my supplier. So we can leave as soon as you get your armor back. Unless there's something else that you need to do here," explained Tricia.

Vesta had been put in charge of not letting Dargon out of her sight and physically holding his hand as much as possible until they left the mall; they really did not want another incident.

It would have been nice to say that they went directly to the store and then left to get back to Arcadia. Of course, he was in a giant mall with three girls that had serious arguments to convince him to part with his hard earned money, all in their own way. John ended up leaving behind almost 10k in various clothes shops, buying a few things for some of the other girls at the same time. They also had to find toilets, the drinks and snacks had taken their toll, and it was apparently as hard in an Abyssal mall as in a mundane one. In the end they resorted to using the ones from another Café (customers only) which resulted in yet another break and more snacks.

Hours later they ended back where they had started and entered the Lambda Security office.

"Welcome back," said Stella, seeming more cheerful than the first time they had entered the store.

She was standing at the back of the place next to a cylindrical, mat black, holographic field.

"You really don't go cheap on materials for the upgrade. Your initial armor was sort of low grade but with really interesting perks, you did it yourself, right?" she asked.

"My king is really smart and talented, he crafts very good items," said Vesta, defending her savior, lover, ruler.

"I made it. It was already an upgraded version of an earlier design. I had been **** to work with lesser materials, but I recently lucked out and got some pretty good stuff," explained John.

"Bullshit, no one who worked on something like this gets mats so precious and the 60k to drop on the upgrade by luck alone. I'll go with what your nice little elf said, I guess you're that good. The materials were a true pleasure to work with and I got no issue with the integration process. And now for the reveal!" she said, dropping the holo-field to reveal John's new armor.

It was a full body armor that looked slightly padded if it was made to his size. The material alternated between something looking like matte black leather and some pieces of blackened steel for the few reinforced plates on the chest, shoulders, arms and legs. The gauntlets he had purchased had been integrated into the design and had received the same finish as the other metallic parts. The headgear was a completely sealed mask out of reflective black material, covering the whole head. Some shards of both the power gem but also the dark one were integrated in various parts of the armor.

"Wahoo, this is so cool!" said Anna, beating John to it.

"This is stunning, but I guess there's more to it than what we see," said John with a smile, prompting Stella to continue her unveiling.

"Of course. Your dark stuff plus the weird properties of your former armor allow you to do this," she said. She removed one of the gauntlets that had some controls on it and manipulated it. The mask all but disappeared, and after another input, most of the armor began to do the same. In the darkly lit office, the armor looked to literally absorb ambient light; it looked like those videos John had seen of objects coated in Vantablack paint designed to reflect no light, except for the fact that the effects were spreading farther than the actual armor.

"So, that's stealth handled. But wait, there's more! That's good when you don't want to be seen, but I guess that's not you all the time," she said pointing at John's extravagant suit. "You can customize it, but I took the liberty to set it to your colors. Those nanites that you gave me are pretty nifty; I'm sure you already know that with those two around" She was now pointing at Vesta and Tricia, which made him wonder how much her artificial eye could see.

John understood why no metal bit was left in its original state now that his new armor completely transformed. The face mask became totally see through for a second, which amazed John given the material involved in it, before taking a golden mirror aspect like the ones worn by astronauts. The leather parts took purple colors and the various pieces of metal started shifting to the same shiny golden color as the mask.

"With this you can scare enemies shitless in the night, or impress the ladies at a gala. And that's not all. The next part I'm sure you'll like. Hard to enjoy your drink or flirt with the girls with the face mask, so..." At the press of a button, the mask simply vanished, leaving the armor intact but without headgear. It was all too familiar to John, used to his inventory system, but seeing someone else do it was intriguing.

"No idea how you make the magicky things work. I only use this baby, doesn't mean I know how it works. But you have spatial magic with a series of small confined subspaces in it. Which is ridiculous given the grade of your stuff. So I took some liberty with it. I'm sure you don't want to walk around with a bulky respirator, water pack, control unit etc., plus you'd look ridiculous having to carry your helmet under your arm. I got a combined element that includes all of the life support and necessary gizmos I would have had to spread around making the thing all bulky, which is nicely tucked up in one of the subspaces, and there’s another one used to store the helmet when not in use," she explained, very proud of herself. John would have probably done the same, putting it in his inventory, but having it integrated into the armor was pretty ingenious from someone who didn't know all of his skill set.

"So there's life support and hydration in it too, very nicely made," said John, smiling while he looked at his new toy.

"That and the comms, visual and audio enhancements we agreed upon. Loudspeaker on toggle, sound amplification, night vision, thermal vision, target identification with heads up display and targeting assistance. And you think that's everything to it?" she replied, getting John to raise an eyebrow. "It was cheap because you had most of the materials, but it would be a rip off to make you pay that much for a low grade fab work. There's more. First, the slimy material you brought is awesome; the entirety of the inside is coated with it, mixed with a few nanites and some sensors. It gives you awesome connectivity and comfort while wearing the armor and should even absorb sweat or other fluids. The downside, if you can even call it one, is that you have to wear it with nothing under the armor for peak efficiency. The two other bonuses are that it also should act as a shock absorber and artificial muscles. It won't make you superman like some power armor, but it lessens the effort of everything you do in it and gives a small boost when needed, plus it gives you quicker reflexes. And the last part is... Most of the armor can self repair from light damage as long as there isn't too much material missing."

"That's truly some royal protection you got there," said Tricia, wrapping herself around John's right arm.

"Can you please try one gauntlet?" asked the vendor. John put it on his left hand and was impressed by the dexterity. The claws on the tips of the fingers could move slightly in and out seemingly on a simple thought when moving his fingers. Back in for delicate moves, fully out when tensing his fingers. And even stranger, he could feel what he touched as if he wasn't wearing gloves. The small coating of slime inside was apparently mimicking the texture of what came in contact with the gauntlets. On her command he charged the gauntlet with electricity while she was touching it with her tail.

What came next scared John for a second. It looked like she just got shocked by the power building up, but he soon realized that it was something else, something he had recently gotten more familiar with. Did she really cum from getting shocked by electricity?

"Awww yass. Sorry, we... You should try it as an ensemble, to see if the fitting is right and how feels," she said. She tapped the ground and the platform holding the armor upright slid into the backroom/workshop of the store. There, John wouldn't be visible from the door, but none of the girls around here seemed interested in giving him any privacy to change into his new armor. John simply stripped naked, giving the ladies the show that they were yearning for. All four seemed both excited and a little bit embarrassed about it. John made it last longer, finally taking the time to Observe the armor in its finished state before putting it on.

Shadewalker Stalker Suit: Mastercrafted set armor 1/4
This set of armor is a marvel of technology, using Praxian technology to meld existing armor, magic materials, technology and living materials.
Stealth circuit: Using Obscurite orb fragments, this armor can absorb all light and heat emissions around it, making the wearer invisible in the darkness.
Chameleon skin: The nanites and slime material integrated in the armor allow the wearer to reprogram the texture, appearance and color of this armor.
Synth-muscles: The lining of slime material, woven with special fibers and powered by Hyperium shards, can boost the physical attributes of the wearer, increasing their strength, reflexes and endurance.
Living Armor: The armor will remain perfectly comfortable to the wearer by keeping them clean and regulating the temperature. It will also automatically seal itself and self repair as long as not too much material is missing.
80 armor torso, arms and legs
+15 agility
+15 strength
+15 endurance
+2 inventory slots when worn
+2 durability regen per hour
500/500 durability

Cerebral Bastion: Mastercrafted set helmet 1/4
This helmet is designed with both survivability and strategy in mind by protecting its wearer’s most important asset: their brain. Designed to be be worn in conjunction with the Shadewalker Stalker Suit.
Life support: This helmet can filter simple contaminants from the air around the wearer, allowing them to breathe freely. In addition it can operate for one and a half hours in total autonomy by using the rebreather contained in the armor. Also contains a hydration pack with 4 days of water.
Integrated Storage module: This helmet can be automatically stored inside the set armor when not worn.
Stealth Circuit
Chameleon Skin
Living Armor
Audio-Visual Amplification: The helmet can enhance the hearing and sight of the wearer, including night and thermal vision. In addition it can emit light and act as a loudspeaker.
Targeting array: The heads up display of the helmet identifies and tags potential threats as well as keeping track of the position of targets. It can also display ingoing and outgoing vectors for projectiles.
Tactical assistant: The helmet contains an integrated computer with full communication systems. It allows the wearer to access the various functions of the armor through voice commands. It can be set to interface with other devices.
100 armor head
+10 intelligence
+25% accuracy with ranged weapons
+25% to dodge versus projectiles
+2 durability regen per hour (except for damage on the glass part)
400/400 durability

Shadowcat-Step Boots: Mastercrafted set boots 1/4
These boots make the wearer move around like a cat: rapid, silent and full of spring. Of course a cat always falls back on its feet. These boots have been upgraded as part of the Shadewalker set.
Soft Paws: The wearer makes no sounds while walking and can get their footing after a fall or jump, as the boots absorb the shock from the impact (70%).
Swift Steps: Major increase in running speed (+100%), climbing ability (+100%) as well as length and height of jumps (+150%).
Stealth Circuit
Chameleon Skin
Living Armor
Armored Tips: The boots have been reinforced with armored tips to both protect the feet of the wearer and increase damage while performing kicks.
80 armor feet
+20% dmg for foot attacks
+2 durability regen per hour
300/300 durability

Thunderlord Gauntlets: Mastercrafted set gauntlets 1/4
These heavily modified Eg-201 shocker gauntlets have been reworked to operate without the standard battery and to be more adapted to magic users.
Haptic Feedback: The internal slime lining and external sensors allow the wearer to touch and manipulate items as delicately and with the same feedback as they would barehanded. Can be disabled on command.
Wrist Controls: Some functions of the armor can be activated through a few buttons and tactile areas on the wrist part of the gauntlets. Can be disabled.
Storm Claws: Each finger is tipped by a semi retractable sharp claw made of reinforced, highly conductive alloy. This allows the wearer to deal heavy damage in unarmed combat as well as to channel electricity or magic.
Hyperium Charged: These gauntlets contain multiple shards and fragments of a Hyperium crystal. They act as a mana battery and allow the use of non lethal shocks without the use of external mana.
Arcane Circuit: Some of the electronic circuitry of the stock gauntlets has been swapped with golden plates of runic circuitry to optimize magic use and spellcasting. They are connected to the claws and Hyperium shards.
Stealth Circuit
Chameleon Skin
Living Armor
Synth-muscles
100 armor hands
+5 strength
+30 dmg (piercing, cutting) unarmed combat only.
+30% effect on electricity based spell
+20% effect on other spells
-20% mana cost on electricity based spells
-10% mana cost on other spells
100/100 mana battery (recharged from any mana source)
+2 durability regen per hour (except for missing parts or heavy dmg on metal parts)
400/400 durability

Shadewalker Stalker Set: Mastercrafted set.
When all four items are worn together, the suit of armor is perfectly sealed. It protects the wearer from an environmental hazard unable to puncture the armor as well as contact or liquid toxins. The set worn as a whole has really advanced stealth capacities and very high mobility. Power derived from Hyperium shards is shared between elements and some effects can lose in efficiency if items are worn separately or too many functions are used at once. Each set item is fitted with unmarked plates of a magical alloy, allowing for further customization by inscribing them with runes (limit of 3 runes per item).

The armor felt weird at first. John quickly understood why. It was designed so well that between the slime lining and the artificial muscles, the armor barely rested on him. He didn't feel like he was wearing some armor, or even clothes, he felt like he wasn't wearing anything, yet it was a bit sticky. The armor was even regulating temperature so there wasn't any build up from his body heat. Despite all of that it was both reacting instantly to his moves and somehow supporting him, like if he was floating and it took less effort to stand or move than usual.

"Very impressive equipment," he complimented Stella, flexing his claws and charging them both with energy before dissipating it. It required a lot less mana than it would barehanded and was also more powerful. In addition, the gauntlets themselves would shred through unarmored targets and easily damage light and medium armor at even a low charge.

John noticed that she was suddenly changing attitude, getting twitchy and looking around suspiciously. He saw her plug her tail into at wall and all the yellow tinted lights of the office shut off, replaced by less numerous, even dimmer red ones.

"What the fuck?" exclaimed John.

---

Thorn mall, public walkway, New York.

Dramar hated this place, he really did. He longed for jungles, deserts, plains, even mountains, anything but this. Tens of thousands of individuals of hundreds of races walking around between hundreds of stores all selling magical devices or services. A ground made of steel and concrete with a self cleaning enchantment on it. With so many scents, magical trails, people... How was he supposed to track down his prey?

He had caught the scent and on occasion the magic trail of the bride and her captor, but they had separated, and more than once while following a trail, he noticed the same trail crossing itself. It would probably help if he knew what they were looking for here, but he only knew that they had come to this place.

He had to stop multiple times and backtrack to follow more promising leads after many dead ends. This place was so saturated that the low traces of their essence couldn't even let him know in which direction they were going when spotting their path.

In the end, like always, he managed to figure it out. There was a place where the signal was stronger, with multiple paths going to it and traces that they had stayed there for a long time.

The only issue was that the place seemed to be closed; he could not see much light from inside and the doors were shut. It was a dangerous gamble, to act that way in such an environment could have catastrophic consequences, but he had ****. He couldn't bear the idea of letting go this chance of finding her; coming home in failure was inconceivable.

He picked something from his side pouch, another trinket he had acquired during his many travels in service of his lord. The small disc of metal began to shine brightly and disappeared inside of the door, making it melt to leave a perfectly circular hole big enough for him to step through.

As soon as he set foot inside, the lights turned on, accompanied by a few flashing orange ones and some sirens. Suddenly an announcement was made by a loudspeaker in a robotic voice.

"This office is a property of Lambda Security which is a Megacorp of Praxis. According to article 1337-42.69 of Praxian regulation on foreign enclaves, you are trespassing on Praxian sovereign soil. Please remain steady for your termination."

A series of turrets came out from behind panels in the walls or ceiling and turned to target him. With a touch of his left bracelet, Dramar was suddenly engulfed in a fiery haze. He then rushed forward and cleaved two of the weapons in half before any of them opened fire.

After a short flurry of laser and plasma bursts, the place finally became silent. Dramar was standing in the middle of the empty shop, a few light wounds and scorch marks on his scales, his fire shield bracelet all spent, surrounded by broken machinery. He had to bash some huge computer multiple times before the alarms had finally shut down. Before the inevitable arrival of the mall's security team, he had made sure that no one was in the shop. He was certain that they had been there, but all the proof he could find was two items of discarded clothing with the clear scent of the bride, made of the skin of some his brethren.

With a bitter taste in his mouth and without a word, the hunter had to flee the scene, using one of his precious amulets to make himself less noticeable as he disappeared in the crowd in search of an exit.

---

Lambda Security office, one hour earlier.

"What did you do! Explain yourself!" shouted John, a lot louder than intended as his helmet boosted his voice after somehow detecting his anger.

"Calm down! I mean no harm. I just... Well... I need to ask you something, I only need a few minutes of your time and a few answers. We'll have to do it fast while they can't see or hear us," she said. She seemed truthful and with the amount of tech in this place, John decided that if it was an ambush it would probably have been a lot more threatening than just dimming the lights.

"Speak!" he said keeping his voice at a normal level. "Who can't see us? What are you even talking about?"

"The owners... My owners... Praxis, my homeworld, it's a crappy place if you are not born in the Spires. My parents died leaving me with a lot of their debts, and no matter how much I work, I will never be free of it. I had one chance, one good opportunity to settle it; I would have still worked for them, but not as... Well, I failed, no fault of my own. The thing screwed up and I ended here. Same job, every day of the week, every week of the year, every year of my life. No promotion, no advancement, no pay raise, just barely enough to survive after they dock most of my pay to settle a debt that only keeps growing anyway," she explained.

"That's really sad, but what does it have to do with me? Are you asking for some money?" he replied.

"Listen, I'm getting crazy in here. Anything would be better than this. You're smart, you're rich, you're cute, you keep at least three happily fucked ladies around, including one I’ve only ever seen as a serious and kinda gloomy emotionless girl. The thing that fucked up, well, I need power to go along now, mana infused electricity. Regular is like eating dirt, and yours... It fucking felt so good you made me cum! They called you king, so I'll be blunt. Do you really have a kingdom?" she asked, her voice sounding almost as if she was begging him. John shrugged; it would make little sense denying it at this point.

"Yes, I'm the ruler of a small kingdom. Why are you asking?" he replied with a smile.

"I want out. You look like my best shot for this since they sent me here. Anywhere I would go, they would track me down. But you... You don't exist. They keep a database of factions, kingdoms and rulers, for many reasons. Selling Intel, making sure they don't sell weapons or lend mercenaries to the wrong people, those kinds of things. You are not in it and I'm pretty sure your kingdom is not in it either, or I would have found you. I'm asking you to take me, to grant me asylum, your royal protection. I'll work for you, I'll fight to defend the place, and it's not really my thing, but if it's how it works, tell me how often it is my turn to let you fuck me. Anything will be better than staying a **** here until they judge I'm too old and broken to work and they get rid of me," she implored him. John removed his helmet and looked at Anna who slightly nodded, giving her agreement but leaving him the choice.

"There's no... There isn't a fuck schedule with mandatory attendance. This is not expected of you. But more seriously, what about us coming here? The armor? Won't they link it to your disappearance and track us down?" he asked, thinking of his and his loved ones safety first.

"I can fudge some of the data. Danielle can check once I'm done. I can't make you disappear, you'll have to pay for your stuff or they will look for you as a thief, of course. But I can change a few details about you or the materials that you brought. It'll look as if you were a random customer that got himself a pretty standard fab job and left. I can splice some footage around to make it look like you left hours ago and that I'll still be there for hours, maybe even add some footage of other people that wouldn't buy anything in between. Listen, I thought of a way to get away from here since the end of my third month in this place and it's been three years. I even switched my augments to low grade ones, replacing every bit that would be so pricey that they would put some tracers in it," she explained.

"Danielle, can you check that we would get away clean?" he asked Tricia, having to catch himself before using her real name.

"If she stays logged in with her own account, I should be able to check if the job is done correctly and even fix it if I catch something," she replied.

"How long would it take and how would we do it? This place is a real consumerist trap maze; we can't exit except at designated points," he pointed out.

"The scrub and mess job with the data and video? Less than a few minutes. I already prepared data for it on a non networked device, I just need to upload it. I do it, you check, I click a button and we continue the sale. You pay, I get you on video leaving the store and everything with the rest preloaded for afterwards. You go directly to the elevator, two levels down almost at the vertical of this store, exit 21. You wait for me outside 15 minutes after leaving the store. I'll use the maintenance tunnels and the backdoor of the store to get there unnoticed. Then I'll depend on you to get to your place. But since you brought 4 extra people, I bet you have an easy way to move around," she told him.

"My kingdom has a system where I gain advantages the more people I have. You won't be a ****, but the condition to come is to accept to be my subject and obey the law. You will not be **** to have sex, with me or with anyone. I'd rather know you a bit more before anything like that happens, actually. There will be multiple ways for you to get supplied on power there. I guess given the precautions that you take, that you won't bring anything from here, tech wise?" he asked. She shook her head. "You can work as a technician and assist either Danielle or me in various crafting tasks for now, we'll see about teaching you other stuff later. Do you agree to these terms?"

"Yes, I swear I'll do everything you ask," she said, sounding ****.

"Alright, I'd welcome you to my kingdom here, but I'd rather not say its name before we're back, just in case. Do your thing. Danielle, check on her. Let's get this thing rolling. I can't do anything in the mall, but as soon as we meet outside, you'll be under my protection, Stella Kivoura," he declared.

"Thank you you so much! Wait how the fuck does he know my name... " she muttered as Tricia pushed her towards the computer.

A few minutes and a thumbs up later, everyone returned to their position and the lighting came back on. John declared his love for his new gear, and after changing back to his suit (the slow and regular way, the less he showed of his powers on camera the better) getting yet a few more giggles from the girls, he went to pay for it (a small fortune but worth every cent of it).

The group then said its goodbyes and left. Stella then went in one of the rare blind spots of the store just in time for the spliced footage showing her coming out from it. The final edit would show John and company coming back to the shop hours earlier than they had and add a few people entering the shop to get some information without making any logged purchases and then hours of Stella lazing around in the shop waiting for customers until the end of her shift.

Before leaving, she had to turn the security settings on, otherwise the backdoor couldn't be unlocked, but the computer would still think that the store was open until closing time.

---

"And you continue collecting beautiful women... Are you trying to become some sort of harem king?" taunted Anna as they rode the elevator down.

"Hey, you agreed to take her! That's not fair!" he replied.

"Only save her, not because she wants to cum using your sparkly fingers or your huge lightning rod!" She said.

"Didn't you hear me telling her no one would **** her to anything and that I wouldn't touch her without knowing her more? I am rescuing a generational **** from a dystopian capitalist tech-corporation and you make it sound like I'm only thinking about sex," he said with a smirk.

"Sure, you had only pure humanitarian thoughts for the girl that cums from your touch and said she'd offer her body to you?" she egged him on.

"Help? How do I reply to that?" he asked turning to Tricia.

"Don't ask me, people are a mystery to me. But she has a point. You kind of have a tendency to gather women to put them in your bed. Just like poor old me, I came to you pure and innocent and look at what you did to me!" she snickered.

"It is treason then!" he declared. Getting a laugh from Anna and Tricia, who he then kissed. Vesta and Dargon were watching the scene dumbfounded, wondering what was so funny about it, but reassured that the trio wasn't actually fighting each other.

Once they reached the exit, they appeared in a dark hallway that looked like a dead end. A flight of stairs would probably lead them out to an alley somewhere in New York, but there was absolutely no clue as to what this place was for.

A few minutes later, Stella joined them. She had changed her clothes and was now wearing a very oversized grey hoodie with a pair of ugly, loose sweatpants. This was probably to hide her various cybernetic parts.

"I'm here," she said.

"I see. Ready to pledge yourself to be my subject?" John asked her.

"Yes, I swear that I will join your kingdom as your subject and obey your laws," she said. She then was startled to see some sort of hologram appear in front of her, with some text asking her if she was agreeing to become the subject of a John Newman the First, King of Arcadia. She tentatively pressed the accept part of the display, surprised to be able to actually feel it before it disappeared.

She then saw the three girls and the little dragon blooded creature vanish into thin air. Her new king approached her, clad in his ridiculously snazzy suit, and touched her cheek with his fingers before everything around her flashed.

She was now standing in a large room with walls of white marble and gold.

"Well then..." he said.