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Avatar Renli was currently in her nature-themed room, greeting the assassin she had hired. A grim sort of man, he still had blood on his clothes from what she presumed to be his execution of Trithmund. He was carrying what looked to be a body on his shoulder, with a beaker on his hip filled with a red liquid. A strange person, to be sure.
"I've already received reports of your deeds in the city of Truthmis. Well done. Now, show me Trithumd."
The man dropped the body at the feet of Avatar Renli. She studied it, then noticed a crucial detail.
"…Where's his head?" She asked.
He grabbed the beaker off his belt and placed it on the table. Renli stared at it for several minutes, before finally saying "I said I wanted his head, not whatever… this is."
"You never said it had to be in one piece," the assassin replied. "There it is."
Renli was silent for another awkward moment. 'What had he done to put the head of an Avatar in this state?' She sighed. "Fine." She pulled a pouch from a pocket and handed it to him. "Your payment, in full."
"Pleasured doing business with you," he said, moving to the door.
"Hold on."
He stopped at the door, looking back at her questioningly. She returned the gaze, her expression as serious as could be.
"You've proven yourself more than capable enough. How'd you like another?" Renli asked. 'This is dangerous,' her thoughts whispered. 'He could be one of them.'
'It's not like I have a choice.'
The assassin glanced at the hallway outside the door, then shrugged and sat back on the couch. "I'm listening."
"Trithmund was part of an organization," she told him. "A ruthless one, intent on mastering the 'mysteries of the universe' and creating the 'perfect being. I recently discovered they've been working in the shadows for centuries, slowly building up to… something. What, I don't know.'"
The assassin straightened in his seat, eyes narrowing.
"This organization. They call themselves the Advanced?" He asked seriously.
"Wh- yes. How did you know?" 'Is he one of them? If he is…' She looked at Trithmund's corpse on the floor, then at his brain matter in the beaker. 'I would've been taken out sooner or later either way.'
He leaned forward, looking at her with his piercing blue pupils, accentuated by the deep black surrounding them. Avatar Renli shivered. She could feel his Divine Energy grow restless and agitated. She could tell that suddenly, he wanted to kill.
"Doesn't matter. Just give me the details."
'So, they sunk their teeth into this planet too, huh?' Fate thought as he left the castle. 'They're more spread out than we thought.'
Avatar Renli had explained to him every piece of information she had gathered on the Advanced over the past twelve years of her investigation. According to her, they had bases and labs hidden everywhere in every city. They had nobles, guards, commoners, and even Embodiments under the command, with evidence to suggest that at least one of the three Incarnations on this planet was pulling the strings. A tall task, to be sure, but luckily, he wasn't hired to take the man out.
Yet.
Instead, Avatar Renli had hired him to take out yet another Avatar, this one named Gregovich. An Embodiment with a Guilt Manifestation, Gregovich used to be a friend of Renli's, according to her. Several years ago, she noticed he had started acting erratically.
He would miss scheduled meetings, stay holed up in his castle for days at a time, and he got thinner and thinner each time she saw him. Eventually, she cut ties with him when she stumbled upon his lab.
Based on Renli's description, it was a lab even more horrific than Trithmund's.
When she stumbled upon this lab, Gregovich found her, and she was forced to flee. She never initiated contact with him again after that.
After he disposed of Gregovich, Fate was to scour his castle for information on the Advanced. He didn't have a problem with that; he would have done it anyway.
He made his way to his ship and flew over to the town Gregovich controlled. Parking the ship behind a large hill and switching on the cloak, he entered the city.
Or at least, he tried to.
The line into the city was almost a mile long, the guards shouting every five minutes for the next person to step up. Fate sighed and stepped to the back of the line. He placed a hand on his stomach, where Trithmund's Manifestation had entrenched itself.
Avatar Renli had healed it before he left, but he still remembered how his underestimation of the man had nearly killed him. He reminded himself to be more careful this time.
He stood in line, mask off, and wearing contact lenses that made his eyes appear normal. He had found them in Trithmund's lab, next to dozens of pairs of spectacles. It was an interesting pair of lenses. With a thought, he could change the color of them to whatever he wished.
Based on the signature of Divine Energy in them, he expected them to be made with some form of Earth Manifestation, enchanted to change the plastic's color, size, and magnification, molding to the needs of the wearer. This meant they were one-size-fits-all, with a single pair capable of being used to correct horrible eyesight or just look nice.
"Boring, huh?" He turned around, finding the speaker to be a short blonde woman that looked to be in her late teens. Her honey-colored eyes watched him with interest. "I don't know why they don't just open the other gate. It would make this go a lot faster. I'm Robna," she said, extending her hand. "You look like someone to pay attention to."
"Fate," he replied, shaking her hand. His eyes narrowed when he felt a flash of Divine Energy. He tightened his grip, causing Robna to wince.
"Hey, easy. Haven't you ever been told to be nice to ladies?"
"What did you do just now?" Fate said sternly.
"Relax, I just used my Divine ability to give you a love tag."
"A what?"
"A love tag. It's what my ability is. I put them on people I find interesting, and the love tag tells me what they like." She gave him a smile. "You have a weird fixation with these 'vidd eog ames.'"
"Video games."
"That's how you say it?" She scratched her chin, appearing thoughtful. "I like mine better. Anyway, you saw my lovely self and you didn't feel even the slightest bit of lust?" She pouted.
Fate looked her up and down. "I've seen better," he said.
And it was true. Maya was easily the prettiest woman he had ever seen, and Autumn was a beauty in her own right. Living side by side with those two for years, along with getting the occasional contract to kill a cheating wife, had desensitized him to looks.
Not to mention that with his occupation, dating was just a way to accelerate the death of whoever he went out with. Tom had learned that the hard way and Fate didn't plan on putting himself through that.
"NEXT!" The guard at the gate shouted. Everyone in line shuffled forward. Fate measured the distance between him and the gate, sighing again. This was going to be a long day.