Chapter 449: Lesser Kin

Following the instructions that had been ingrained into her mind, Belladonna bit her thumb and drew a few drops of blood from it.

She held her hand out, letting the blood drops fall as she activated the skill, which drew out four drops in total.

The droplets fell a few feet before stopping half way down and hovering in the air, their globule masses quivering with the anticipation of what they would become.

The four of them separated, forming a line in front of Belladonna before finally hitting the ground and spreading out into blood red magic circles that Belladonna did her best to quickly memorise before they were obscured by the bodies that rose from the circles like portals.

Once the bodies were fully through, the circles vanished, leaving the four ’Lesser Kin’ standing before Belladonna.

They were not human, that much was clear.

They were creatures made of pure stone, from head to toe, and easily stood at 8 foot tall despite the visible hunch that they had. Even the hearts that Belladonna could hear thumbing within their chests were somehow made of stone.

They had long, digitigrade legs that ended in three thick toes and short, pencil thin arms that had the same amount of fingers.

All of them stood with their arms held up to their chest like praying mantis’, although it looked less like they were ready to strike and more like these arms were some kind of failure of a transition from wings to functional limbs.

It reminded her of the old history holo’s she used to see of dinosaurs.

Their faces were flat, with upturned pig-like noses and thin lips that were twisted in a permanant snarl, showing the small pair of fangs that they had within their mouths.

Large pointed ears framed either side of their head, and big beady eyes that stared at Belladonna with a mixture of awe and expectation.

Looking over them, Belladonna hid the small amount of disgust she had at their grotesque appearance, and seriously wondered how she could be related to such a thing.

It looked as if someone had combined a bat with a man, had them inbreed for a few generations and then petrified the result out of disappointment that it somehow didn’t make something worthwhile.

How could any amount of blood dilution lead to her being related to living statues? It really didn’t make sense.

The creatures pressed their hands against their stomachs and rose as high onto their toes as possible. They stuck their chins up to the sky, which was difficult for them considering the large, beach ball sized hump each of them had, but they did their best.

"We live to serve you, Oh great Matriarch." One of them muttered, their voices like gravel scratching against itself.

"Relax, be at ease." Belladonna commanded, feeling an odd sense of familiarity from this situation despite its strangeness.

Even if they were showing it in a strange way, Their reverence was just like when she had converted Bai Yin into her thrall. It had made her uncomfortable back then, but perhaps that was out of guilt. Now, it was feeling rather nice.

Still, she couldn’t have them calling her Matriarch. Absolutely not. She was not even risking anyone over hearing and mistaking her for the actual Matriarch, gods know what kind of trouble that could lead to.

"You will refer to me as Your Lady, Not Matriarch. That is what I wish for all my kin to call me."

"Yes My Lady." Another one of them muttered, as all four of them lowered themselves back down to a more relaxed position and resumed their hunched, shrimp posture that actually reminded Belladonna a bit of herself whenever she used to play games at her desk.

That thought immediately made her stand up straighter and become painfully aware of her posture.

"First, tell me your names."

The creature who had spoken raised his head again, puffing out his chest in his odd display of shame,

"We have not yet earned the honour of a name, that is something only Your Ladyship may bestow onto us.

But we as a species are called Grotesques. We are ashamed to say we are one of the lowest of your kin, but we shall make up for our failures with absolute loyalty to our lady, even if it costs us our worthless lives it shall be a sacrifice we are most pleased to offer."

A little intense, but she could respect the commitment. It was much better than having summons that would try to kill her or would disobey her orders.

If that was the case, then this would have been an absolute waste and Golems would be her only option.

She wasn’t too broken up about them being the weakest of the kin, as she had only tried the skill using the absolute bare minimum amount of mana that it required as a baseline. Although it did make her curious about the upper-limits, but that would have to wait until she was finished here.

Glancing between them all, Belladonna found that they were not all identical. Even if they were grotesque creatures by name and summons by nature, they had some small differences. The way they stood, how much they looked her in the eye. One of them, the one that was doing most of the speaking, even had the hints of a scar across their mouths.

How strange.

"Where did you come from? Will someone notice your absence and come looking for you?"

The scarred Grotesque shook his head again,

"We come from the Abyss. No one will miss us, as we are created by you for you."

"Meaning that when I deactivate the skill..."

"We will return to the Abyss, and hope that you find use for us once again." The Grotesque said, with a hint of sadness in his voice that was hard to make out on his bat-like face.

Belladonna nodded softly as she focused on her connection to the foursome of statues. There was definitely a bond between them. Similar to her bond to Beans, but much weaker and completely one sided.

Anything they killed, would have its XP transferred completely to her. They gained absolutely nothing from the bond, other than existence itself. Although one could argue that meant that they gained everything from such a bond, but that was a matter for philosophy.

Testing the bond subtly, Belladonna could feel that - if she wanted - she could simply sever the bond without any issue or harm to herself. That was good, however she left it alone for the moment and instead turned back to the squad of statues.

"I have heard that you are the weakest, yet you expect me to summon you again," She said, puffing out her chest and putting on the superior air of the Baroness,

"This city is to be cleansed for my rule. Eliminate it of the beasts infesting it, but do not touch the Orc or any other sentient species.

Show me the worth of the weakest of my kin."

"Yes My Lady!" The Scarred Grotesque shouted, its twisted mouth peeling back into a demented smile as it pushed its chin as high to the sky as possible, along with its more silent brothers.

They all turned in unison and leapt into the air, clearing dozens of buildings in a single leap, not letting their lack of wings or the fact they were supposed to be the ’weakest’ hold them back.