A Dark Knight's Devotion (Inanimate + Dark Knight TFs)

“I can’t believe this place hasn’t been looted already! You’d think that a jackpot like this would have been picked clean ages ago, wouldn’t you, Evan?” The young woman in leather armor said with a grin as she pocketed yet another pouch of gold.

“Tanya, there’s a good reason people avoid this place.” Her comrade, an older man wearing robes and bearing an oak-wood staff, replied.

“Is it your usual hippie druid reasons or real reasons?” Tanya asked, pulling out a pole to test the ground ahead for traps.

“Real reasons. Such as, for instance, the dark lord who built this dungeon still being alive, for one.” The druid sighed.

“And that has what, exactly, to do with it? He ain’t here, is he?”

“Do you think he just picked up and moved on a whim? That he didn’t care what was left here?”

“If he cared, then he wouldn’t have left the door unlocked.” Tanya pulled back the pole as arrows shot out. “Besides, so far, it’s been really mundane traps.”

“The loot’s probably cursed,” Evan insisted, “Either because he wanted to make sure nobody used it or just from being near him. And for all we know, he could come back any time! Or send his generals to recover something left behind!”

“Friend, that’s why you’re here, to detect any funky magic with that druid purity and crap.” Tanya shrugged, testing the tiles ahead to see if there was a second set of traps.

Evan had no idea why he’d befriended this troublesome woman. Ever since they’d met she’d dragged him into problem after problem. He was wanted in two towns by association! And a third because he actually had done something when she took advantage of his sheltered upbringing! And yet, he couldn’t make himself cut ties - she meant well, and usually the victims had deserved it… and he would have felt bad to leave her without anyone to keep her out of trouble.

Still, he’d really considered it this time. They’d entered the last town in the middle of the third day straight of celebrations - a local ‘dark lord’ had recently vacated the dungeon nearby, freeing the town from the threat of nightly monster incursions and random deaths and attacks. Evan had had a sinking feeling as the man explained, even moreso as he could practically see the gold in Tanya’s eyes - a quick exit meant a sloppy one, and that meant some top-tier treasure left behind.

And that was how the pair had ended up, after a lot of arguing followed by Tanya deciding “I’m going, come or don’t, your call”, in the abandoned previous home of a megalomaniacal dark lord, creeping through the dark by torchlight and magic-light and looking for anything that looked both valuable and not overly cursed.

So far, that had mostly boiled down to loose bags of coins scattered about, and some startlingly decadent platinum cutlery in the kitchen. A surprisingly decent haul for what had so far been a milk run of an adventure - the only fights they’d had had been on the way to the dungeon, not inside of it - but hardly the treasure trove Tanya had hoped for.

“We’ve gotten enough loot to profit off the trip,” Evan said diplomatically, “We should stop while we’re ahead, instead of continuing to risk it.”

“You’re boring, Evan. Boring.” Tanya scoffed, pushing open the next door. “But fine, if you’re so sure about it. We’ll loot this last room then go…”

The next room was nothing special. It was some combination of bedroom and office, from the look of it - a spartan bed in the corner, a stone desk and wooden chair, an empty armor and weapon rack. And most importantly for the adventurers, a rather ornate looking chest in the back.

“Finally! This place looks like someone important stayed here, so that chest better have good loot!” Tanya said, dashing forward to the chest and looking over it for any obvious traps.

“It’s probably empty. If they were such an important person, why did they only get one room?”

“Workaholic that wanted their office and their bedroom in one space?” Tanya suggested with a shrug. “It’s not a small room.”

The chest seemed safe enough, and Tanya picked the lock to it quickly and efficiently. It was actually a surprisingly heavy-duty lock, but still nothing to a dedicated thief’s skills. It popped open with a very satisfying ‘click’ and Tanya hurriedly looked into the contents.

It was… mostly empty, actually. There was some gold, but nothing greater than what they’d found so far. “Aw…”

“We agreed on one more room, and this has been one more room.” Evan said. “Take the gold so we can get going.”

“Right, right…” Tanya grumbled, shoveling it into her bag. But then she hit on something that was definitely not just coinage. “Wait, what’s this here?” She pulled out a metallic bracelet, studded with gems. “Oooh, this feels weird… I think it’s magic! Cool...”

“Wait, Tanya-” Evan said. That item felt wrong somehow, just incredibly bad. It must have been cursed.

But Tanya slipped it on all the same. After a few moments, nothing happened. She smirked. “What did I tell you? It’s fi-Ah!” she was cut off as the bracelet glowed bright. The light grew brighter and brighter, until it blinded both adventurers as the curse took effect.

Dark metal spread out from the bracelet across Tanya’s clothes, climbing up her sleeve and all across the leather armor she wore, flowing rapidly across her. Wherever it touched her body went rigid, locked in place by the blackened steel. Moving her arm, or any limb, was impossible - and that made any efforts to take the changing armor off entirely futile. It spread in nearly an instant down her chest and onto both her other arm, and onto her leggings and boots.

She had moments to figure out what had happened, and less time to notice that the metal had spread onto her skin. In a flash, it seeped through the inside of her armor and onto her body. It spread up from her collar, covering her neck, her face, and then her whole head. Where once a plucky thief had stood was now a mere black-steel statue.

Tanya could still, somehow, think and feel. Which meant she could feel the hammer blows raining across her body, as it heated to metal-melting temperatures. Every time the magical, unseen force hit her, it let out a loud clang as it shaped her metal body, a clang that disrupted her thoughts and rapidly broke her mind - she was being shaped, like any chunk of metal. She was supposed to be human, but how could a human be the subject of forging?

Her disordered mind couldn’t rebut this invasive thought, and accepted it. She was mere metal. She was magical metal, but metal all the same. As the spectral hammer hit her again and again and again, beating her features out from her head and beginning to hollow her out, she realized she had been wrong again. She segmented, arms separating from her shoulders as they turned into gauntlets, legs splitting from her hips as greaves, and her whole body splitting into assorted black armor plates, which promptly clattered to the ground.

She wasn’t just metal, it turned out. She was a set of armor, strong armor. Armor that belonged to…

“Tanya? Tanya, where did you go?” Evan called, looking around. His friend had vanished into thin air, leaving an empty suit of armor in her place. He could sense magic from the armor, but it couldn’t have…

He stepped just a bit too close. The armor plates leapt up from the ground, and onto Evan’s body. He shouted and toppled backwards as the segments locked into place. Their magic eviscerated his clothes,  leaving Evan naked but for the living armor. And it certainly wasn’t comfortable - it was bigger than he was, and while it was clearly of quality make, it was also clearly made for a woman.

“But you are a woman,” a voice in his mind said, as a helmet formed and clamped shut over his head.

Of course, he was- wait, what? He felt the presence in his mind, the pressure as the armor’s magic went to work. He felt himself changing under the pressure of the armor, as it practically sculpted his body. Masculinity scraped away, while at the same time growing larger. “T-Tanya, is that you-”

“You’re a strong woman, a warrior woman…” the voice insisted, heedless of his questions. The armor had to fix it’s owner - she didn’t look, sound, or feel right. Something must have happened to her. The armor’s magic seeped into Evan’s body, darkening his pale skin and fair hair as it fixed his proportions so that the armor wouldn’t be too uncomfortable, lengthening legs and narrowing shoulders.

“N-No, stop…” Evan gasped. He was trying to remember the remove curse spell he’d practiced for just such an occasion, but it seemed to slip right from his mind as he tried to grasp it. His staff clattered to the ground as the armor siphoned his skills and knowledge. At the same time, beneath the helmet his formerly blonde, now brown and darkening further, hair grew out rapidly, as he started to bulk up, an eight-pack abdomen forming while biceps began to bulge.

Something else didn’t do much bulging anymore, as the armor forced Evan’s manhood to shrink further and further, until it was completely gone and rapidly being replaced by it’s feminine equivalent - which, combined with the armor’s erosion of his mind to match, firmly turned Evan from ‘he’ to ‘she’. “You don’t need any of that useless, ‘nature magic’ nonsense. Why use magic when you can beat someone’s head in? Or stab them, or slash them? It’s worked for you in the past and it will keep working long into the future, for a woman like you.”

“I… Why…?” she stammered. She was forgetting so much… or was she remembering? The tribe of warrior women that was her home… She was remembering that now. Long hours of training, brutal physical conditioning, and then going out into the world to take whatever and whoever she pleased by strength of arms.

“That’s right. That’s who you are, Eleri. Your tribe made me for you, and we’ve been together for years upon years… and we entered his service together.”

Their Dark Lord. That was who the armor meant. Eleri could remember clearly, her beloved Master, the man who had tempered her rage and might from a careless club to that of a precise sword, directed into the hearts of his enemies. He was the reason she was a Dark Knight, his Dark Knight…

Eleri’s bust grew out to a size that, while it would be huge on any other woman, was surprisingly modest for her build, snugly fitting in the armor custom-made for her, and always adjusting to her. She remembered now, the fire of devotion alighting within her heart. Her Master. Her mission, her purpose in life. Whatever was left of Evan withered away under the heat of Eleri’s loyalty.

The helmet faded away, revealing Eleri’s long black hair and attractive tanned face. A sadistic smile curled on her lip as she remembered the many, many deeds she’d committed in her lord’s name… “We’ve been away too long, my armor. There’s nothing left of value here.”

“I agree, of course, Eleri.” The armor said. “We should go back to Master. He’ll be waiting for us.”

The Dark Knight nodded, and left her old room behind her, an oak wood staff lying forgotten on the floor being the only sign the place had ever been disturbed.