CaTastrophy427

Sorry this took so long, I came down with aseptic meningitis and, uh, that took me right out of commission for quite a while. With that out of the way, enjoy the first side story. Not sure when/if I'll do another, but I'm 100% sure it won't be in Book 1. As it's a side story, it's a bit shorter than normal (It's actually gonna bring down my average word count a tiny bit, I think) and has little impact on the story overall, but it does give insight into the inner workings of the Shadows Guild, an organization which, spoiler alert (if you hadn't already guessed it), is gonna play a big role in future books, not just the rest of this book. So, yes, you can skip it, but if you're interested in the lore and/or a boatload of hidden references to other works - if you spot them, put it in the appropriate channel in my discord server for a spot in the hall of fame - read it, you won't regret it

“For fuck’s sake, stop turning in completion reports for that goddamn bounty at my desk! There’re eight others, use those! Why is it always me...”

Of course, I wasn’t saying that out loud, that’d be very unprofessional of me, and I can’t afford to lose this job too. After all, I can’t return to being an active black gold blood shadow without my legs. Hell, I’m lucky I was able to get a job as a receptionist with the guild as compensation for that misrepresented request, I normally would’ve gotten a pittance in terms of severance pay - a few months’ of my average earnings and that’s it.

“Of course. The current prize pool on Tama’s assassination is 419 4th-grade spirit stones and 5 3rd grade, plus some change. Can we see your proof of completion?”

“I cut this spatial ring off of his corpse’s finger. He knew he was dying, so he blew the internal space to destroy the contents, but you can clearly tell that his spiritual mark on it is almost gone”

“Hmm... you’re quite lucky, any further attempts will need the next step of proof, tier 5. This barely counts, so we’ll have to send it back to the appraisers to verify it”

“This ought to be enough, no? Spatial rings have been eagerly accepted proof for all of my previous requests”

“This is the fifth one of his rings that have been handed in. It’s not that we believe there’re fakes circulating, but that he has some tricks up his sleeves to fool you all”

After slamming his mallet-like hairy fists on the counter between us, the lycan in front of me stormed off, but not before yelling back over his shoulder at me.

“I’ll be back in three hours, I expect to see a deposit of over four hundred thousand into my account when I do. I’M THE BLOODY IRON FANG, the hottest rookie in this country! I’m a silver rank!”

“Stupid silver idiot... NEXT! It’s not even like silver is that high a rank, it’s the lower end of average in the guild as a whole...”

As the next person in the waiting area - a kinda hot dude, gotta admit - was walking over to me, I put the ring into a box, wrote a note on it, and dropped the box into a chute leading to the internal appraisal area.

“Hi, how can I help you today?”

“I’d like to accept this bounty request -"

I turned around, grabbed the small pillow I had nearby for just this purpose, held it to my mouth, and screamed into it for a good 10 seconds or more.

“Sorry about that, I’m assuming you mean the Tama bounty?”

“No, I’m interested in the Bounty titled Fallen Angels actually”

“Oh, that’s an odd choice, but sure, a job is a job is a job, the signup fee is 100 spirit crystals, you have two weeks to capture or kill as many as possible. You’ll get 1/5th of the bounty for each one you kill, and 1/4 for each one you capture alive. Current bounty is 70 thousand flat. Proof of assassination is an imaging bead of a recognizable dead corpse or better - such as a record bead showing the assassination itself. If the corpse cannot be recognized, be it charred, dissolved, or partially obliterated, bring in the rest for appraisal”

“Standard tier 2 procedure, sounds good. See you in a week or two”

At least it wasn’t - 

“Labs have a package for you, miss Lavi”

“Oh, thank you”

“No problem miss, just doing our jobs. I’m truly sorry about what happened to your legs”

“It’s not your fault, don’t beat yourself up over it. I didn’t pride myself on them like Lana did, after all, so it’s not that big a deal in any case”

After accepting the package, I opened it up and was unsurprised to discover the box I’d just sent down with the ring, and a new note, this one detailing the findings... which, unsurprisingly (given past events), showed that the owner’s connection with the ring was getting stronger. It didn’t take long to determine that the owner was still alive, so the completion was nulled and marked as a failure.

“Favi, can you handle this without me for a bit? I’m gonna go take a break for half an hour or so”

“Yeah, no problem sis” 

After half an hour spent eating and relieving myself, I returned just in time to see the angry idiot come stomping back.

“Aight devil bitch, you got my money yet?”

“I’ve got the official notice that you failed your request. Congrats on your demotion to copper”

“Now hold on just one stinking minute, what authority do you have to do that?”

“It’s my job to punish idiots like you, and don’t try getting physical, yes, I might be legless, but I’m still a black gold blood shadow of the pride hall. You’re just a blood copper shadow from the envy hall, 16 levels below me. I could squash you in an instant, so take the demotion from silver to copper, unless you’d like to be demoted from a lycan to meat paste”

As I spoke, I put some pressure on him - not much, I just doubled the force of gravity within a foot or so of him. He backed down, but still grumbled when I had him hand over his standard-issue silver pendant to be replaced with one made out of greenish oxidized copper. I’m glad he didn’t have a custom piece, that’d be a huge pain to replace if he had thrown out the old one, as he couldn’t keep his current mark while the next custom piece was ordered, but... no, it’s just a massive headache for us overall.

After sending him scurrying away with his tail literally between his legs, another person came to my window, but at least he was polite, unlike the other guy.

“I’d like to report a failed request and a fallen shadow”

“Aight. Who died and who didn’t die?”

“My partner died... her codename is - was - Red Ribbon Reaper. We failed trying to kill Tama”

“Caught by the guards, or did you seriously lose to a level 11 that badly?”

“Hey, it’s not nice to mock the dead. But, yes, she died at Tama’s hands - except I couldn’t see what the fuck he did, he waved his hand and jumped back, and when 3R gave chase, she got cut in half by absolutely nothing, but however he did it, he managed to cut through her ribcage like those bones were tofu”

Oh. OH. That’s new, extra valuable information if it’s true. So far, the three he’s killed have all died from lacerations made by daggers hot enough to cauterize the wounds or cold enough to cause frostbite of the veins as the victim’s blood freezes inside of their body, stabs to vitals with the same weapons, or an inhaled poison produced by pills. The same injuries were present on all the ones he’s managed to injure, with the addition of blunt force injuries from a stone club he can extend from out of nowhere and break apart into projectiles. Even so, never has he cut invisibly, nor has he cut through bones before. Broken bones with that club, yes, but that’s as close as he’s come.

The two plausible possibilities are an expert helped him from the shadows, which wouldn’t explain the hand gesture nor how this one managed to escape, or that he obtained a new, extremely powerful spirit tool - it’d have to be high grade at least, if it could boost a tier 2’s combat abilities that much. After all, 3R was at level 34 last I’d heard.

“Is there any other information you have? A sound, a direction the blood splattered, a residue left in the wound, anything?”

“No... well... wait... yeah, there is. There was no blood spilled whatsoever. Not from the initial cut, nor later, after her body had fallen over. I could clearly see the sliced bones, the muscle fibers, and even the little holes in her lungs. No blood leaked out at all, even though I could see some in her severed arteries, not a drop came to the surface of her wound, as though there was a sheet of glass providing a window to the inside of her body while blocking anything from leaking out”

“That’s... extremely strange. Forgive me, I’m having trouble believing this, as it matches absolutely nothing I’ve ever encountered before. I’ll make a note of it, but... I’ll mark it as a rumor”

He nodded, and then started trembling as he appeared to remember something.

“There’s something else... it feels like... he’s completely unafraid of dying, not that he doesn’t think he could die, but that death itself isn’t scary. He’s mad, and he’s absolutely terrifying”

“I’ve heard that over a dozen times so far, I really have to wonder just how he’s so used to being around death”

“I don’t think I want to know...”

It couldn’t have been because of us, right? This bounty may have made him face death almost 90 times now, but surely that’s not enough to give him nerves of steel... if he didn’t have them to begin with, he couldn’t have survived this long. His background can’t be as simple as what information we’ve got... not that we’ve got much information beyond what others heard from him. It’s like he didn’t exist until he suddenly appeared in the Alchemist Association a few months ago.

“Well, thanks for the information. If it’s able to be verified, we’ll credit you and give you a bit whenever someone buys it. If not, we still will, but it’ll be far cheaper”

“Then, about the request failure fee-”

“You’re not getting that back. I didn’t even get mine back when the supposedly level 36 target turned out to be near the peak of tier 5 with two similarly-leveled guards. I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do”

Well, I could waive the fee, I do have the ability to do that, but... it’s kinda risky. For me, not risky for him. I’m still new here, so if it’s reviewed and deemed to be inappropriate, I could lose my job. Not that I’m gonna tell anyone all this, word would spread and I’d be asked to waive fees left and right. No way, nuh-uh, not doing that.

“It’s her, what’s going on?”

“Shh... don’t look at her you idiot!”

“Who?”

“The Liberator! Now shut up, and above all else, don’t give her a carrot... or hold one in general... or talk to her. Don’t get her attention at all. She hates low-levels like us”

“28 and 31 are considered low?”

“Compared to her, yes. She’s level 46, last I heard”

Oh great. It’s Eve. Are there... there are no other women working today, she’s gonna come to my window for sure. AAARRRGGGHHH, this suuuucks.

“Mission complete. It’s all here”

With just a few words, she tossed over a small crystal - a record bead - and then turned to look at the bounty board.

“I’ll process this right away. Anything else I can do for you today, Miss Eve?”

“Carrot?”

Fuck.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any that were up to your standard last time I checked. I’m truly sorry about that”

“A good carrot is hard to find... just like a decent request”

She’s getting annoyed, I gotta do something to appease her... wait... I can take out one major annoyance or the other like this. With the latest report, she might be interested... yeah. Worst case scenario, I get chopped... oh wait, that’s pretty bad.

“Find me a good bounty, or a good carrot. Your choice, but hop to it. Now”

“Errm... well, there is one... a low-level who doesn’t know his place. Try as they might, dozens of people twice his level couldn’t take him out for good. He’s even got - now, this is unverified, but somewhat credible - some strange new weapon that can cut tier 4 blood shadows in half without a sound. We haven’t seen it either, but it leaves an interesting wound, to say the least. Are you interested?”

“Low-levels should just die”

I’ll take that as a yes.

“Okay, here are the files, and now... good luck!”

“For a low-level? I won’t need luck”

With those parting words, she took the slate and left, her powerful thighs reeling in every man’s gaze, like trout caught in her fishnet stockings. I have to wonder if she kills with kicks or some other way, the record beads she gives us don’t show the assassination method itself, just the end result and her cutting up the corpse with her bare hands.

This should go without saying, but... I hate her more than words can describe. She’s pretty simple - or rather, her mind seems to only have two tracks, one for carrots, and the other for whatever she finds interesting at the time, usually combat - but if you misjudge her, she’ll kill you without a second thought. She’s twisted, but not so much she can’t act in a way that would make you forget her perverse personality. If you didn’t know any better, you’d treat her like a child... and die for it.

I hope that bitch dies at Tama’s hands, so I’d never have to deal with her again, and headquarters would be forced to send someone to investigate the abnormality of his bounty. But, of course, there’s no chance of that, right? She’s level 46 and a blood gold shadow, he is at most level 15, and according to everything we’ve found, he doesn’t even have a spirit companion - the only evidence to the contrary is the fact that he’s reached tier 2.

“Fuck you”

I was going to tell Eve that that’s not a nice greeting, but I guess it’s justified given the three crystals she handed over, each one showing her dismembering Tama in a different way, place, and time of day.

“Okay... this is indeed a problem. I think this bounty ought to go directly to tier 6 proof from now on - so, if you want to keep trying, bring in his severed head”

“I can do that”

But will you? That’s the real question...

“Lavi, why don’t you send this off to the pride hall directly? He may be weaker than them from a pure level standpoint, but they will likely have a few overlook that given the strength of those that have failed, as well as some who’d do it as a favor to you”

“Erm... boss? Wha- what brings you out here?”

“I heard someone mention tier 6, and regardless of if that’s someone’s level or the verification process, that’s something important enough for me to get involved”

I mean, yes, but you wouldn’t have overheard that unless you were already out here, or were actively spying on what I was doing from elsewhere in the building - and that wouldn’t work, because you got here in about three seconds.

“Yes sir... I think we should see if we can figure anything out from bringing his head back to the labs, then decide if it’s something to send to the pride hall, or something to contact HQ about”

“You think this might warrant HQ getting involved?”

“I’m not sure. Something fishy¹AN: I was kinda tempted to have Tama appear out of nowhere upon hearing the mention of fish, but then I remembered that this is an explicitly Tama-less side story chapter, plus, that'd be the ultimate suicide method given the bounty on his head is definitely going on, but what exactly that is remains to be seen”

“Any ideas?”

“Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that he’s immortal, but if that were the case, why are our people able to kill him? A tier 10’s body is naturally reinforced with so much spirit that it’s basically impervious to anything under tier 6. So, with that option eliminated, that leaves illusions, clones, temporal fuckery, and... I guess a massive prank played by several dozen blood shadows, as ridiculous as that may sound. As the age-old adage goes, if all that is plausible is ruled out, the implausible must be the truth”

After a few seconds of thinking, Lord Thirteen looked at me, his eyebrows rising as his head cocked to the side a bit.

“You think him messing with the flow of time is as plausible as illusions and clone techniques?”

“No. Low level isn’t turning back time. He remembered me. Automatically activated time rewinds don’t let you keep your memories of the rewound time. You taught me that, Thirteen”

“Thank you, Eve. Illusions are unlikely because his combat style somewhat relies on projectiles and he is very good at making use of the terrain, two things that often break the immersion of people seeing an illusion. Clones, meanwhile, are a rather high-level technique - but it does make some amount of sense, actually”

The way he said that seemed to imply that he realized something, something I’d likely not figured out when I suggested it as a possibility.

“How so?”

“Well, clones are usually at least a tier weaker than the original, so all of the 2nd tier clones dying wouldn’t be incompatible with some of the 2nd and 3rd tier shadows being killed by him, if they happened to encounter his real body, which is likely at the peak of tier 3 or somewhere in tier 4”

“Hmm... That is an interesting idea. I’ll put that speculation into the file - speaking of, I think that we need a bigger mainslate for him. He has the largest record I’ve ever seen on a bounty target besides those closely connected to the emperor”

“Send the forms to R&R, they’ll handle it. I’m going back to my own paperwork”

“I did send it to Resources & Requisitions a week ago, sir. They denied the request, but now, if anyone else takes the bounty, there won’t be enough space to store all of his information. Could you talk to them?”

Lord Thirteen groaned, but agreed to do so as he sauntered away. I put up a sign to indicate that I was busy and couldn’t help anyone, and proceeded to add the recent speculation and proof tier increase to Tama’s file, as well as updating the bounty posting - causing it to edge out the only similarly priced bounty to claim first place amongst active bounties, with a reward of 422 4th-grade spirit stones exactly. When that was done, my shift was long over, and I went back to the guild staff dorms to enjoy my much needed three day weekend.

[Sis... SIS... Wake up. C’mon Lavi, get up, you’re late]

“Ugghhh... I don’t wanna go... Is it really Fireday already?”

[Yes, it is. But more importantly! Get up! Someone just delivered Tama’s severed head to the labs for assessment, and the results are probably gonna be coming out any moment now]

Oh shit. I’m not missing that, that’s huge.

“Coming!”

I tossed my blanket off, pulled my nightgown over my head, and looked around to try to figure out where I’d tossed my clothes.

[Here, sis. They were on the ground, I figured you wouldn’t want to have to get up to grab them]

I accepted the pile of cloth handed to me, sorted through it, and put on my bra - wait a moment...

“Favi... why’d you hand me your own bra?”

[Yours are so much more comfortable, okay?]

“You don’t need a bra, why’d you take mine! Just go without one if you find yours uncomfortable!”

[You’re flat too, sis]

I- I’m not flat. I’m at least a little bit... okay, fine, I’m a washboard.

“I’ll grow, you won’t. I ought to get used to them before that happens, you have no reason to”

[We’re twins, if I won’t grow, neither will you]

“Bro. I’m a girl, you’re not, no matter how much you dress like one”

[I- but- no, that’s not the point, we’re 23 years old, we’re not gonna grow any more than this]

Oops. I lost my temper a bit, he hates being called my brother. He doesn’t identify as female, but he doesn’t really like anything about being male either. I don’t know what to do with him - but, he always patches me up after I get into a fight, and he helps out when I’m having issues due to my... legs.

“A girl can dream, can’t she?”

[I can dream too, right?]

“I... sure. Sure thing. Now give me back my bra, please. And don’t tell me you took my panties too”

[I would never - okay, there was that one time...]

“Ah, found ‘em”

Getting dressed, I got into my wheelchair and raced over to the labs with Favi struggling to keep up - Sohee may be a sociopath, but she does make some cool things now and then, this wheelchair included - only to slow down when I heard shouting through three sets of closed doors.

“... gone! Do you ... FUCKING SEVERED HEAD ... legs out ... EARS ... and WALKED AWAY ... SINGLE ONE ... NINCOMPOOPS ...”

Oh, someone’s mad. It sounds like head tech Oh-Shag-Hennesy, and I’m staying well away from that.

[Si- sis, why’d you - why’d you stop?]

“Shaggy’s mad”

[Oh fuck, let’s just... let’s just go do something else, shall we?

Waterday, around noon, someone put a melon-sized sack on the counter in front of me, which landed with a wet thud.

“What’s this?”

“Tier 6 proof. Tama’s dead”

“You’re the second one I know of to physically bring in his head”

“... I’m sorry, what the fuck?”

“No need to be sorry, that’s my reaction too. This bounty is really weird, and I’m so sick and tired of its bullshit”

“So, what happened to his first head - wow, that’s weird to say”

“Good question. Uhh... lemme ask. HEY JAY?”

“ME!?”

Nope, I’m asking for the female lab tech, not the male receptionist.

“NO, JAY QUELLIN!”

“YEAH!? HOLD ON, I’LL BE RIGHT THERE!”

About 20 seconds later, one of the lab techs ran over from another receptionist, her blonde hair a bit disheveled for whatever reason.

“What happened to Tama’s head?”

“Uhh... I’m not sure, I’d have to ask Balakay, he was the one doing the monitoring”

“Sure thing. When you go ask, take this with you, okay?”

I handed her the bag (which I’d checked to see if it contained the right face while she was running over) only to get a raised hand and a strange, half questioning, half disgusted expression in reply, and that was before she even opened her mouth to say anything.

“What’s this?”

“Tama’s head. Again”

“Oh. OH. I see. I’ll, uh, just hold it a bit more carefully... and away from me. You know me, I deal with the technological side of things, not the biological. Uhh... bye! I’ll be back in a minute or two with Balakay’s answer, ‘kay?”

“Yep. See ya in a few!”

With that, she ran off, holding the bag with both hands, but separated from her torso by a solid foot of air in addition to the two layers of waterproof sack.

“Err... Should I step aside to let another person handle their stuff, go away and just come back later, or simply wait here and make small talk for a bit?”

“I’m not good with small talk, but I’d take that over having to deal with another person. I’m supposed to have you come back later, but, uh, stay here and pretend like you’re asking questions about your next job or something”

I hope my boss didn’t hear me. I really hope he didn’t. I’m pretty sure he’s out today, but you never know with Thirteen.

“Yeah... so, what’s a good job for a sniper you’d recommend? Level 30 tops, I can’t handle a tier 4 reliably”

“I could see that from your file... you know, I believe I said pretend to ask me questions. You don’t have to actually do so”

“But I actually want to know. I gotta take another at some point, after all”

I hate it when people make sense. Almost as much as I hate answering questions I’ve answered several dozen times already.

“Hais... fine. So... there’s this one for the VP of the Evoker Society Englos. The target is known to visit the markets often, if you’re comfortable taking action in that region. If not, there’s a sizable bounty on Idris von Ignos, which is mostly difficult due to his guards - though the northern district is also a spot you might hesitate to take action in. If you insist on the middle ring, the southern district, or the western district, there’s these four here. Read over the files, ask me any questions you come up with, you know the drill”

“Uhhh... I can’t read. Can you...”

“Oh my fucking - no, you’re representing the guild, you can’t get mad at such a thing... breathe, Lavi, breathe”

After calming down, I painstakingly read every bit of information about each suggestion I’d made, which took more than enough time for Jay to come back with a folder and a man with dirty blond curls and a pair of lab goggles on his forehead.

“Okay, so you two were wanting to know about specimen 0093714209?”

“Uhhh... if that’s a severed head, probably”

“Yeah, that’s a severed head. Initial measurements showed a few obvious things, first being that there were no vital signs, second being that it weighed about ten and a half pounds, and third being that it had a pretty normal density, about 8% denser than average. As for abnormal things, a quick investigation found that there was no mind palace to be found. It’s as though a consciousness wasn’t bound to this body through normal means, rendering it more like a puppet body than anything else... if it wasn’t for the fact that, structurally, it was almost indistinguishable from an actual human body, if you exclude the missing mind palace”

“So, is it useless to gather severed heads from him as well?”

He grinned, pearly white teeth glinting in the sunlight. Nobody knows why, but everyone working in the lab had uncannily white, perfectly straight teeth.

“Not quite. We’ll get to that soon. So, in lieu of a mind palace, direct soul control was considered, and traces of a soul could be found throughout the sample. However, the soul matched the body without a single hint of rejection, meaning either that this was that soul’s original body, or a perfect clone of it. Additionally, the traces hinted at the soul being extremely fragmented - and I’m not talking dozens of pieces, I’m talking tens of millions at least, possibly billions or even trillions of fragments. And yet, somehow, the soul is strong enough that it hasn’t collapsed. The soul gets stronger as you age and as you cultivate, but this is ridiculous, to achieve that level of soul strength would suggest either an age or a cultivation level that implies actual immortality, or that one is a soul-based lifeform like an elemental, shade, or, given that he’s most likely a cultivator, an Astralane. However, such fragmentation... even ignoring the fact that any body such a lifeform inhabited would show some signs of rejection, no soul-based lifeform could withstand such damage to the most core aspect of its very being. Thus, that explanation can be discounted, initially leaving us with just the idea of this being an immortal”

Everyone listening, myself included, sucked in a breath at that.

“But, no. The more likely explanation is that this soul was intentionally damaged, a few tiny pieces - ones not even amounting to a hundredth of a percent of the whole soul - were split off, and those pieces were then split into hundreds of pieces to be used as mediums with which to control various things. The main soul is mostly unharmed, and there’re enough fragments to spread around. Still, intentionally damaging your soul like that requires incredible resolve and mastery of your own spirit realm”

“If - and this is a hypothetical - if this were a puppet body, a clone, would it have a normal spirit realm, or...”

“Depending on the technique, it could share the main body’s spirit realm, have a void spirit realm, or even a spirit realm of its own, with a high-level technique inherited from a certain few major powers in other realms”

Oh my... this means...

“In that case... it’s possible that the being we’ve been chasing after with this bounty is just an easily-replaceable clone, and the main body is completely different? Someone who doesn’t have a void spirit realm? That would explain how he could be level 12 despite his claims to a void spirit realm”

“What’s the standard procedure in that case? The bounty would be fundamentally impossible to claim unless the main body could be tracked down, but the main body might have an identity that has no bounty on it whatsoever... Lavi? Any info you’ve got?”

“Oh fuck, you’re right... I have no idea. I’d have to ask Lord Thirteen, and even then, he might have to ask HQ”

Balakay raised his hand somewhat gingerly - and that’s not a jab at his hair color, I mean he was ducking and moving slowly and cautiously, for reasons I may never know - and when we all turned to look at him, he spoke, albeit a bit hesitantly.

“Uhh... that’s the preliminary investigation. Shall I get onto the main report?”

“Oh, that’s not... yes please, I’m so sorry for-”

“Nono, it’s fine. So. Specimen 0093714209, log entry 5 - 1 through 4 were respectively the initial optical description plus physical measurements, and the preliminary investigation parts 1, 2, and 3 - goes... Well, the important bits are that, due to the soul traces, it was decided to place it under extended observation, and that the soul fragments occasionally showed tiny traces of activity, and would do so entirely synchronously. Logs 6 through 10 are nothing much, detailing hourly checks on soul activity and degradation, the latter was found to be about 0.002% per hour, something well within the error range of ±0.17%. As such, it’s basically not a factor we can do anything with, so log 10 mentioned a change to checking that part every six hours”

So far, so boring...

“Log 11, here’s where it gets interesting. Physical measurements were done to check the decay rate, an abnormality of which could lend credence to the clone idea. A 14% loss in mass was discovered, as well as a 3cm reduction in height - height being measured from neck to crown, as if standing. Other dimensions were almost the same, more or less within the margin of error, so such a change was cause for protocol to be revised, changing physical measurements to hourly, instead of every six hours. Logs 12 through 16 were more of the same, with 16 showing a total mass loss of 49% and height loss - well, it was easily visible to the naked eye, the lowest part left was the lower nasal cavity, roughly the same height as the ears. The interior was holding together, even the brain wasn’t spilling out of the cranium when one would’ve expected it to, but the vanishing portion was expanding as though it was the outer edge of a sphere”

Jay left, her face green and her throat constantly moving up and down - and I don’t blame her, this is a particularly disgusting specimen report, which is saying something.

“Log 17, the Spirit Imaging Cage was finally freed up from another specimen. No spirit usage could be detected with other tools, and even the SIC found that this phenomenon had nothing to do with changes in, or abnormal motions of, either the specimen’s intrinsic spirit or environmental spirit. Log frequency was raised to every half hour. Log 18 was similar to 16, so moving on to 19, the remaining 36% of a head was placed into a Spirit Seal Safe. 20 through 22 detailed observations through the crystal wall, which showed that even in an environment where both spirit and matter were trapped in a confined space with no gaps for anything to escape, the total mass of the safe’s contents diminished, as did the spirit density, meaning the force and medium of disintegration involved some abnormal spatial mechanics. Log 23, Oh-Shag-Hennesy unloaded some... choice words onto the techs for the second time regarding this case, but the first time during a log entry period. Nothing much to see there, he was just surprised to discover his specimen had more than half vanished without any explanation”

Is that what I’d heard a few days ago, regarding the legs and the ears?

“Logs 24 through 33 were all similar, and log 34 detailed the so-called final vigil, where two techs were watching it constantly at all times. In that log, it finally vanished completely, with no useful data. Log 35 was the final entry for specimen 0093714209, summarizing everything and ending with the line ‘the ratio of questions raised to questions answered is infinitesimally close to that of specimen volume at the start of observation to specimen volume at the end of observation’ which I think is just brilliant. Great job A’Ay Ron”

Do all the lab techs here have weird names? Balakay and Jay are decently normal, but A’Ay Ron, Oh-Shag-Hennesy, Tym’o Thie, and Deen-Ice... unusual to say the least. Oh, I guess Supervisor Garvey has a normal name too... well, maybe not, I’m not sure of his personal name, everyone calls him Mr. Garvey.

“So, I just sent what may well be the same head in... what’s gonna happen to it this time?”

“Probably an immediate dissection”

“Uh-oh... that’s exactly where Jay went”

“Oh shit, you’re right, that’s hilarious”

“Balakay, that’s not a nice thing to say”

“You want nice, go talk to Tym’o, he’s super nice, even when he’s lying through his teeth. Ha! He doesn’t even have a daughter... oh, but don’t tell Mr. Garvey that”

So... why tell us? And I’m not even sure why he’d lie about having a daughter.

“So... no reward for bringing in this head?”

“Probably not. I’ll have to talk to Lord Thirteen, but I think this bounty should be taken down in light of the discovery of the fact that, well, we’ve been chasing after a clone with no idea of the original’s physical appearance, identity, or affiliation. We’ve also lost contact with the one who posted the bounty in the first place, meaning... well, it’s uncertain if we’d be able to be reimbursed for the bounty when we give it to whoever completes the task”

“Isn’t it a prize-pool mission though?”

“Bah, it is, but it’s matched 3 to 2 by the client, and we take the excess - about 25% of what the winning shadow takes. If the client doesn’t pay, we lose double what we would’ve gained - though if it runs past the max the client’s contract specified he could pay, we collect the whole pool, the client gets their deposit back, and the bounty is taken down, treated as a win for the target. That being said, the max here is 1000 4th-grade spirit stones, so it’s barely halfway there right now”

And yes, that is privileged information about the client’s contract I just shared, but it doesn’t matter, he’s all but confirmed to be dead without a corpse. Last contact he made was the day before a third of the building he lived in vanished in broad daylight, his employer declared him dead to that incident and that he would not be missed as he was a traitor, and then he missed both scheduled meetings in the month since then.

Later that day, I spoke to Thirteen, and he agreed that, given the circumstances, taking the bounty down and not contacting HQ about it made the most sense. We would keep around the file on this “Tama” identity, but other than that, nothing more would be done, and that’d be the end of it... or so we thought. Not three days after the bounty was taken down did we have a three meter tall pile of bald, brainless muscles come in, demanding to know why the bounty was taken down, and upon explaining that the client couldn’t fulfill their end of the contract, he went and opened up a new bounty on Tama himself. Lovely. Of course, I wasn’t the one to handle him, he went to our public-facing location by the northern gate, as opposed to the members-only main building in the south where I work. 

So, a new bounty had to go up, but this time, the difficulty rating was adjusted to T4G+... basically, only Blood Gold Shadows at or above level 31, or Blood Silver Shadows at or above level 41, could take the request in the first place. In this country, the number of shadows who fit that description could almost be counted on one’s fingers, so odds are I’d have to deal with at most one severed head - or not, as the proof tier was designated to start at 7 and would go up by 1 every time the number of people who delivered properly doubled when the target somehow still remained on the loose. 7, a full corpse, would provide the lab with a better specimen to observe, 8, a soul seal, should allow them to figure out exactly how much of a soul controlled these clones. 

Meanwhile, 9... 9 is basically just “call HQ”. 10 has only ever been executed on someone below level 60 three times in the history of the Shadows Guild, and I’m not talking about this branch, I’m talking every branch in the entire nine realms, since the dawn of time - or rather, since the establishment of the Blood Hall by Dong Mingyu. If we need to call down an actual Immortal - a tier 10 Immortal - I’m not sure if even the emperor could pay for that service.

It only took a matter of hours for someone to bring in a full corpse, and a single day was all it took to disintegrate from the inside out, being nothing but a collection of skin - held in the shape of a full corpse by force of, uh... unexplainable fuckery - after only 18 hours, and then that skin thinned to the point of ephemerality over the next four hours. At the end, in the span of two minutes and twelve seconds, it went from the first new hole in the skin to no residual skin left whatsoever.

Not six hours later, his corpse, barring a hand that fell into a sewer drain, was brought in again, and this time, it disintegrated starting from the missing limb and eating away directly connected tissue at an even rate. Eighteen hours later, nothing was left, and we updated the requirements to a soul seal... and as a special deal, those who took the bounty got a discount when buying soul sealing devices from our black market affiliates. That was a directive from high up, so someone really wants Tama dead and the weight of his bounty off our shoulders.

“Are you Lavi? The scrivener... Lahn, I think her name was? She told me to talk to you”

“What about?”

“The guild has been sending a lot of people to buy my Sealing Frames at a discount lately, and almost everyone has come asking for a refund!”

“So? It means your product has some defects, I don’t see what that has to do with me”

“My products are fine. Its your guild that has defects!”

This probably has to do with Tama, doesn’t it...

“Even if - and this is just a hypothetical, but IF - the guild does, why me in particular?”

“Because, everyone who’s returned my products had taken one particular bounty, and you’re the go-to expert on that one, according to Lahn”

Yep, it’s the Tama bounty. Goddamnit.

“Unfortunately, I am, assuming I know which bounty we’re talking about. So. If the soul seal doesn’t work at all, that’s a big problem, but I know exactly where the problem lies, and it’s squarely on the target’s shoulders, not the guild’s. Uhh... like, I’m sorry there’s nothing I can do for you - don’t even ask, literally the only thing I can do is stop sending people your way for this bounty - but thanks for the info. That being said, my life just became a whole lot more annoying. Anything else we can do for you?”

“Well, I mean, I’d say kill that bastard for me, but someone else has dibs on that, and it’s not like you can kill him twice, so...”

“For this fucker, yeah, we can kill him twice. We’ve already killed him, uh... 28 times. An even 30 wouldn’t be too hard to get. The problem is having him stay dead. We’ve tried, can’t do it. Hoped the soul seal would help us figure out a way to do so, but... that’s a nonstarter”

I groaned, but updated that stupidly large file once more, and sent a message to Thirteen so he could contact HQ. With that... it’s now fully out of my hands... or it will be, once I turn the semi-private bounty into a fully private internal bounty.

CaTastrophy427

I hope you liked this... unusual style of chapter. Chapter 10 is gonna be a long one (hopefully I won't have to split it) and so will take a while. Maybe longer because I might work on chapter 4 of GotDL. Speaking of, I already linked my discord server earlier, but I'm doing it again, alongside my aforementioned other novel, because I'm shameless like that.