"Are you guys already done?" Asked a person standing half in the shadow of an alley. Only his white teeth were visible.

The person who came to the alley nodded. He was none other than the head of Hydra's assassin unit.

There were two more people. Curious, they looked at him.

"Do we have a new mission?" Asked one of the people. He was also standing half in the shadows, wearing a mask over his face.

"Yes. It's That. We have to place it in the Jura Forest." Said the head and sighed.

"What?" Now everyone was staring at him. "We're supposed to go to the Jura Forest with the goddamn thing?"

"We have no other choice. The others didn't even object when I suggested it. The head of slavery fucked up. It wasn't really his fault, but now we have to deal with it." Again he let out a resigned sigh.

"What is this thing anyway?" Asked one of the people in the shadows. "All I ever hear is That and That."

The reason the head talked about it so openly was simple. He wasn't the only leader of the Assassin unit. He was only the one chosen to impersonate the head. All four were brothers. No one knew about it, but that's what made them so effective.

There was no trust in criminal organizations. If there was a chance to profit from it, you immediately had a dagger in your back. But not with the Assassins. And so they made a name for themselves. Ruthlessly they did whatever they were told to do. And fast enough they were a Pillar of Hydra.

They were born and raised in the Eastern Kingdom. But they had to flee. Due to their brutal behavior, they fell into the wrong hands and a large bounty was placed on their heads. Even in the western states they were not safe. Therefore, they joined a young criminal group. The group already had contacts and the four brothers needed a backing.

Not only that, they got rich quickly and had a better life than in the Eastern Kingdom. They just needed to do the most dirty work for Hydra. Morality did not exist for them and they showed pity to no one. Only the four brothers always stood together. And they shared their information.

"I've been researching this." One of the brothers began to explain. He was the one of the group who cared about information. "You know about the Insectoid race, right?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"God... Read a book you idiots..." He said and sighed before continuing. "The Insectoid race was born to fight. No one knows where they come from, but sometimes they come out of nowhere. All of them have an incredibly hard carapace, fighting abilities and skills designed only to kill. That is a prison. A prison for one of the most dangerous races, even among insectoids. A giant hornet queen."

"But... I assume Hydra wants to use it to harm the Demonlord. No matter how strong it is, it won't be able to harm a Demonlord or Veldora, right? So, what's the point of all of this?" Asked one of the brothers.

The researcher nodded, not bothered by the interruption. "Because it's a queen. Only the queen is rated as a special A monster. But what makes them most dangerous are their reproductive abilities. Leave one of the queens alone for a few months and she builds a nest and creates hundreds of giant hornets. That's what makes them so dangerous."

Silence followed. Everyone thought about what they had just heard.

"Currently the queen is trapped in an artifact found in some dungeon. If we release her in the Jura Forest and wait a few months, that should be able to inflict massive damage on even the army of the monsterland."

"Makes sense. So our job is to place this item in a remote location and wait for it to decimate parts of the Demonlord's army." Summed up the head. "So we can enter the forest again."

"Well, that's why we were chosen. We can move through the forest better than anyone else. The good thing about That is that there's no way to trace it. No one knows we have it. Besides the other heads. Even if it's found, it'll just be an artifact. Even if they realize it was put there on purpose, it won't make any difference to us." Explained the head.

All the brothers nodded, it was not a bad idea. They agreed on that. But... sneaking through the forest for weeks with this artifact. Of course, they were not enthusiastic about it.

"How big is it?" Asked one of the brothers.

"It's a small chest, we can carry it in a backpack. It won't be a problem. The queen is trapped in a dimensional space." All of them knew that such an artifact was incredibly valuable. Even without the queen.

"So we'll do it like we always do. You stay here and we'll take care of it?" All of them were about the same strength. Already individually they would be able to take on almost any adventurer. But that was also their greatest strength. Fighting against people. They had much less experience against monsters. It was definitely not a mission for one person.

"No, this time I'm coming with you. The other heads will insist." Said the head.

"So, the four brothers finally united again." Said one of the brothers, laughing loudly and slamming his fist into the flat of his hand. "This could be fun."

The three other brothers sighed. "Do you always have to be like this?"

He shrugged and kept smiling.

"When do we start?"

"Now."

"What, really now? I thought we were going out for a drink to celebrate..."

"Celebration of the day?"

"Our Reunion!"

"I wish we could do that. But the sooner we place the artifact, the more damage it will do. Tempest's power is growing every day. We can't take any chances."

"Okay, okay. I get it. But when we come back we're definitely going for a drink!"

Everyone nodded with a smile.