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"It looks good on you."

The Eastern dragon turned to look at Veridis, raising an eyebrow.

"You mean it? I don't think it's doing much."

The lion shrugged. When he'd acquired that ebony collar, he'd done so knowing his friend might not particularly enjoy the idea of wearing it around. It wasn't too discreet, to say something. The four cubic chunks of dark wood that were linked together like some kind of caterpillar were covered in mysterious symbols, but even then, the accessory felt rough, at best.

"I saw it and thought of you," Veridis explained. He wasn't lying, but perhaps he was taking the meaning of 'thinking of a friend' too liberally.

"Really?" The dragon looked surprised at this.

"What's the matter, Hyena? Can't a lion think of a friend and buy him a nice present for once?" the lion asked, grinning.

Hyena shook his head.

"I guess he can, but I'm not used to getting this kind of attention. From you. Not in exchange of nothing, at least."

Veridis chuckled. He couldn't help but notice the dragon was painting him in a bit of a bad light, but he didn't correct him. At least, he thought, he'd gotten to the point quicker than he'd anticipated.

"So what do you think I may have bought this for, if not to give it to you out of the boundless generosity of my heart?"

Hyena held the lion's gaze.

"I don't know. Are you going to tell me?"

The grin on Veridis' face only grew wider as he stepped towards Hyena, one of his paws rising to grab the dragon's chin gently and force him to look up. His other hand slowly moved to the collar - then paused at the last second, as if he'd had second thoughts. The lion's eyes lit up behind his glasses, a pulsing light blue glow hitting Hyena's pupils.

"Am I?"

The dragon held Veridis' gaze without blinking, light blue becoming a deeper, darker shade in a matter of seconds. His lips parted slightly as his eyes mirrored the lion's like perfectly still lakes and then, just when the glow was about to change back into a lighter shade, Hyena frowned and took a step back.

"Really. So straightforward? You gotta try a lot harder than that. Your pretty gaze isn't going to work on me anymore, you know?"

Veridis chuckled, the glow fading from his eyes as if it'd never been there.

"Hmm? Well, can you blame me for trying?"

"I've grown resistant over time," the dragon insisted. "Perhaps that trick could have served you a few years ago, but you'll need something more elaborate if you intend to hypnotize me now."

"Oh, is that so?" Veridis asked, a big grin on his face.

His eyes darted a quick glance at the collar around Hyena's neck. Conveniently, the dragon seemed to have forgotten about the accessory he was wearing.

Perhaps it was time to remind him, the lion thought.

"And here I was, thinking I could have you all zonked out for myself," Veridis purred, one of his paws moving to Hyena's stomach. A playful claw drew a meandering line as it climbed to the dragon's chest. "How naïve of me..."

Hyena held his gaze again, feeling a trap somewhere close, but unable to identify where exactly it was hidden.

"You're plotting something," he pointed out.

Veridis tilted his head, his claw reaching even higher, close to the dragon's neck.

"Well, I guess that's enough tension built," he whispered, winking an eye at Hyena.

The dragon opened his mouth to speak, but he didn't have enough time to speak his mind before a loud snap shattered his thoughts in half. For a split second, he could see the lion standing in front of him from two different perspectives... until his vision stabilized and he was able to actually see what was going on.

"W... what?!" he asked, taking another step back.

Doubly so.

Suddenly, Veridis and he weren't alone in the room. Another dragon was standing next to Hyena - a dragon who looked exactly like him.

"What's this?" the other dragon asked. "What have you done to me?"

"I gave you a gift," Veridis answered, shrugging.

Both dragons looked down to their necks. The four pieces of the segmented collar weren't snapped together anymore - in fact, they were now grouped in pairs. Veridis must have separated them when Hyena wasn't paying attention. The symbols carved on the dark wood were glowing with a mysterious dark blue reminiscent of a certain lion's gaze.

"Who is that?" Hyena asked, pointing at the other dragon.

"I think I should be the one asking that question," the other Hyena complained.

Veridis chuckled.

"Can't you guess? You both have the collar I gave you."

Hyena realized his friend was right. Slightly taken aback, he reached for the other dragon and touched his shoulder, as if to check whether he was real or not. There was an idea forming at the back of his mind, but he wasn't entirely sure he understood it all.

"I think the collar's called The Segmented Replicator," Veridis informed. "Which means it must have replicated you, if I'm not mistaken."

"You cloned me?!" both Hyenas shouted at the same time, turning to the lion with an angry look in their faces.

Veridis remained perfectly calm, however.

"Not all of you. You see, according to the legend told about this artifact, it can only fully replicate your body. Bodies are easy, but minds? Apparently, they're much more complicated." Veridis snorted. "No idea why. The thing is, instead of replicating your mind, this collar splits it in half and gives a more or less functioning half to each of you."

"A more or less functioning half?" Hyena repeated, paling. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that," Veridis answered, dismissing Hyena's anxiety with a wave of his paw. "Here's a quick demonstration though. I choose... you."

He stepped closer to one of the Hyenas and put a strong arm around his lower back, bringing it close to his body.

"Let's try this again, okay?" he purred, one of his claws gently tipping the dragon's head upwards. His eyes began to glow blue.

The Hyena who remained free from the lion's grasp watched as his other self fought back, much like he must have been fighting a few minutes ago. However, he could immediately tell something was wrong. The other dragon was blinking a lot, his heavy eyelids losing the battle and practically closing every now and then. After a short while, the tension in his body began to melt, his shoulders rolling back as his body grew a bit more limp in Veridis' arms.

"How are you feeling?" the lion asked.

It took Hyena a moment to understand the question was meant for his other self.

"H... heavy..." Hyena replied, his gaze lost in the lion's blue eyes. The glow alternated from dark to light blue - each iteration seemingly sending the dragon deeper into his pleasant slumber. "Hard to think... Goood..."

"Yeah. That's what I thought." Veridis chuckled. "You're still trying to fight it, though. I can feel the tension, right... here." The lion raised a paw and gently pressed one of his fingers between Hyena's eyebrows, rubbing in small circles. The dragon let out a soft sigh and his eyes rolled slightly upwards, more tension evaporating from his body. "There we go. That's much better, isn't it?"

Hyena nodded, the tip of his tongue showing through his open mouth. For any observer, the dragon would have seemed like he was on the brink of a deep, powerful trance

And so it seemed to the other Hyena, who was still watching the scene in awe. Why wasn't his other self resisting? He'd managed to do that just fine plenty of other times.

Was that what Veridis had been talking about when he'd said the Segmented Replicator was supposed to split his mind in two? He wasn't sure he understood how it worked, but there were other things to worry about at the moment.

Watching himself unravel in the arms of the lion was taking a toll. He could feel a soft fuzziness settling in his mind, a vague sense of direction pointing towards immediate obedience. And the sight of himself being so absolutely helpless was definitely doing things between his legs, too. Hyena tried to hide it, but when he noticed the tent on his clone's pants was much more noticeable, he gave up.

"Well, that was much easier," Veridis said. He turned towards the Hyena who remained awake. "What do you think?"

The dragon tried to get rid of the weird feelings brewing inside him to deliver a coherent response.

"So, by segmenting the collar, you make me easier to hypnotize?"

"That's the idea, yes."

"What if I take it off now?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the lion warned him. "The effect is reversible as long as you both have the collar on. If you take it off, chances are you'll be stuck like this forever."

The dragon gulped. He couldn't help but notice the collar had two additional segments - meaning Veridis could, if he so wanted, make two additional clones. If the resistance of the dragon drooling his brains on Veridis' arms meant something, Hyena couldn't imagine how extremely susceptible those clones would be to the lion's naturally firm hypnotic grip.

"You're feeling something too, right?" Veridis asked.

Hyena nodded.

"Yeah, I can tell you're enjoying it," the lion teased him.

"I don't mean that," the hyena replied, embarrassed. "I mean in my head. Like, watching myself be zonked like that is... sending me places."

Veridis raised an eyebrow.

"Places?"

"Yeah. Don't make me describe it, because I don't think I can."

Veridis chuckled.

"I wonder if there'll be anything you'll be able to do on your own once I'm done with you."

Hyena felt a chill run up his spine.

"What are you going to do?" he asked, slightly nervous.

"Let's hope it's nothing that can be undone," Veridis said with a devious smile. Hyena noticed he was licking one of his fangs and then, suddenly?

Another snap.

And another.

He could see the lion from four different places momentarily, the vision dizzying him, and then he was himself again.

Only he wasn't entirely himself.

He noticed Veridis was staring deep into the eyes of the clone he was holding in his arms. Even from his point of view, Hyena could tell that the lion was pushing deeper, much deeper this time - his eyes pulsing with a much more powerful glow than before. The hypnotized clone's body shivered and squirmed helplessly, thick drool dripping down his chin onto his chest. And then, suddenly, something seemed to break and his body stopped moving. His gaze was vacant.

The space behind it, empty.

"Next," the lion said simply, licking his lips.

One by one, Hyena watched as Veridis broke each and every one of the clones. Each deep stare, each mind-shattering moment thickened the fog in his own head, making it harder to think, making it harder to protest.

By then, however, he wasn't sure he wanted to do that. A quick glance at one of his broken clones rewarded him with the vision of a blissful empty shell - and he could tell, simply by looking at it, that it must have been extremely content in its emptiness. Did he want that too? Or was he simply conditioned by watching his other selves go there? He didn't have the time or the ability to think about it.

When Veridis turned to him, the deep dark blue glow in his eyes filling everything Hyena knew, he barely had a second before his conscience escaped somewhere else. He felt himself sink - down, down where all the other clones must have gone, deeper into the abyss - and then everything was dark blue. And then light blue. And then?

?nothing.

"Good boys," the lion's voice broke through the emptiness. "Now, seeing you all this broken and needy, the first thing that comes to my mind is that you should be put to use. You." The word came accompanied by a gentle pat on Hyena's shoulder. "Undress me. Now."

Hyena did as he was told, his eyes opening to see the lion's clothes without really registering them. At some point he was unbuttoning his shirt - the next second he'd forgotten there'd been a shirt there to begin with. He then did the same with the lion's pants and his underwear, revealing an erection that rivaled Hyena's - and Hyena's clone's, too.

A firm paw fell on his head.

"Suck."

The command clicked right into place and Hyena followed it. The firm grip on his head guided him even when the lion decided to lie down somewhere else. Hyena kept on doing what he was supposed to do, doing his best to please the lion who had kidnapped the fragments of his shattered mind.

"Seems like you need some help down there. You. Join him will you?"

Another head appeared next to Hyena's but he didn't stop. He barely noticed two of his other selves were now kissing the lion's neck and caressing his chest, pleasuring him in other ways. He didn't envy them or compare their tasks with the one that had been assigned to him - the only thing in his head was the deep glow that had stolen his thoughts and the voice that had issued the commands he must follow.

The rest was empty, shattered. Fragmented.

Eventually, Veridis' voice broke through the emptiness.

"Well, maybe I'll keep you like this for a while, eh?"

"Yes, Master!" came four eager voices Hyena recognized as his own.

Veridis chuckled softly, placing a paw on the back of one of the clones and pressing him tighter against his body.

"That's what I thought," he purred.