Crash and his friends trembled as they desperately tried to move. Their horrified gazes could see shadowy tendrils crawling across each other's bodies, forcing them to conclude that the same thing was happening to their own bodies.
It was these tendrils that bound them in place. Their weak, human, mystless and unaugmented bodies were completely unable to resist Damian's power. They'd never felt this helpless before, and it terrified them to no end.
Damian smirked lazily as he turned to look at Aurora. "Harm them?" he shrugged indifferently. "I suppose that depends on your definition of the term. Exactly what do you think I'd do to them?"
An uncertain frown appeared on Aurora's brow. "I—"
"Don't worry, Mom. I— I don't know why he's doing this, but I'm sure he won't harm them!" Tilly interrupted her in a surprisingly confident tone. With stubbornly narrowed eyes, she glared at Damian. "Right?"
Damian's smirk turned mysterious. "You seem awfully sure of that, Tilly," he chuckled as he grew a long, extremely sharp nail of crimson blood on one hand, and slowly scraped it across Crash's neck without drawing blood.
Crash trembled harder, his eyes wide. If he could, he would have screamed, cursed, or done anything at all. But as it stood, all he could do was tremble and pray to uncaring gods that they'd all make it through the next few hours alive.
However, Damian and Tilly ignored his struggle as they were locked in a staring contest. Only Aurora and Crash's friends looked at the nail at his neck with horror, the former didn't dare to make a move, even though her body wasn't bound.
Tilly said nothing about Damian's move and simply continued staring at him stubbornly. No doubt entered her gaze at all, though whether that was purely because of her willfulness or actual knowledge was unclear.
Regardless, it took only a few moments for the winner to be determined. With a defeated sigh, Damian retracted his nail and shrugged. "Well, you're right. I really do wonder why you're so sure about that, though."
Tilly's face immediately lit up. "Hehe, I just know!" she grinned widely and hopped closer to Damian and her brother.
"Tilly, stop!" Aurora cried out after her, but she didn't listen.
"I don't know if you're a good person or not, but I know you don't mean us any harm!" she smiled brightly, before pouting a little. "I'm sorry about my brother… He's like a tuned-up version of Mom sometimes, but please don't blame him. He's just protective."
Smirking lazily, Damian shrugged and turned to the panicking Crash. "Don't worry," he said, while patting Crash on his shoulder warmly. "I don't mind. In fact, I fully approve of his actions. You need to be ruthless in protecting your family."
He turned around and let himself sag down onto the couch with a shrug. "In fact, you should be ruthless in all your goals. It opens up a lot of avenues to pursue, you know?"
Tilly stood next to her frozen brother, arms crossed. She was still pouting, but for a different reason now. "I don't think you're as ruthless as all that. Why else would you help us as much as you did?"
Damian, the eternal smirk still gracing his lips, spread his arms wide on the couch's backrest and waved his hand at his surroundings. "Because I wanted to meet your brother and his friends."
With narrowed eyes, Tilly sat next to him on the couch with her legs crossed, her body facing his. "You didn't need to be nice for that! You could have easily forced us! I'm not sure why you wanted to meet Crash, but even now," she continued, pointing at her brother, "you could just threaten us to get what you want, but you won't!"
Damian turned to her with curiosity twinkling in his eyes. "I really do wonder where you get all that intuition from, Tilly."
'Either she's just naturally intuitive, or… It's related to whatever Eldkin blood flows through her veins,' he thought to himself.
Tilly puffed up her chest in pride and grinned smugly. "That's my super power!"
"Hah!" Damian barked a laugh. "I believe you!"
Meanwhile, Aurora looked at their interaction with disbelief. "What— What the hell is happening right now?" she muttered, as her eyes flew between her frozen son, his friends, and the casually talking pair on the couch.
"Anyway, I guess you're right," Damian sighed in resignation as he waved his hand. "I do prefer taking the nicer path whenever possible, even if it takes a little more work."
Then, he frowned. "But don't misunderstand me, Tilly. I'll still do whatever it takes to get ahead. The only reason I'm not using more force is because there's no need. Either they accept my offer, or I move on to the next down-on-their-luck family, which I'm sure I'll practically trip over in this district."
"That's okay!" Tilly assured him, still smiling brightly. Yet, she didn't offer any clarification of her stance.
Damian smiled at her. He was getting more and more intrigued by this girl.
Suddenly, a trembling but determined Aurora took a seat between them, gulping as she faced Damian's amusement. She didn't say a word, but her meaning was clear.
"It's like you think I'm going to eat her," Damian chuckled, but didn't mind. "Well, I suppose it's time to get started, anyway," he sighed, before waving his hand.
While Tilly glared at her distrustful mother, the five suspended factory workers started moving again. Except, not of their own will. The tendrils binding them floated in the air and took their bodies with them. After a quick rearrangement of his panicking victims, they were now all hanging upside down in front of him.
If it hadn't been clear to them before how much control Damian had over their lives right now, it certainly became clearer with every second that passed.
"What are you doing?" Tilly asked with surprisingly more curiosity than concern. For some reason, she really did trust him quite a bit.
"I want to know exactly who I'm dealing with," Damian smiled, and waved his hand again. Crash left the lineup of bruisers and started floating in front of him, his eyes wide and filled with a chaotic mixture of emotions.
His body trembled and wriggled, still attempting to break free, but Damian ignored him. Instead, he once again grew a sharp nail of shadow, and quickly raked it across Crash's cheek to draw a drop of blood.
"Ah!" Aurora yelped and tried to lunge forward, afraid of what Damian as doing, but more shadowy tendrils stopped her, and Damian continued as if nothing happened. Then, under everyone's astonished gaze, he calmly licked the blood from his nail.