"Relax…" Anniel whispered, massaging her husband's shoulders in their bedroom, gently pulling him into her embrace. 

“Thanks… haahh… Ren sent over a lot of names; I did not expect that so many people were working against the Empire!" Feynor sighed, already understanding why his father was so keen to step down from the throne.

"We have almost 300 million subjects; compared to them, these numbers are nothing." His wife whispered, trying to ease his worried mind.

"I know; that is why I try to set up more and more schools to expand our pool of talent we can draw from. I don't want to let the Empire that stood for so long to fall into bickering between families! To let the nobles think it was their right to be rich and powerful. I'll start with these families on the list and slowly weed them out. Stale water is the breeding ground for diseases. There are other young people who are already showcasing talent to replace them!"

"Won't it cause more unrest between the noble houses?" Anniel asked.

"So what?" Feynor chuckled. "If I let it fester, sooner or later, they are going to protest in the open, too! Instead of waiting for that, let me speed things up and skip the unnecessary waiting time. They forgot who leads this Empire! I'll expose some of them and the others who stand up for them… two can play this game, and I'll take on the plan Ren suggested. After hundreds of years of peace, they take the Emperor's peaceful governing as a weakness, it seems! I am not my great-grandfather, but I can be wrathful if someone endangers the peace of our home!" 

"Believe me, most of the people are behind you!" She hugged him gently, caressing his chest. 

"My only concern is those spies from the Kingdom. I hate to admit it, but they have the advantage in this field! I'll need to ask Forefather for help with this. Finding them is something only he can do. He has the experience against their methods!"

"Don't worry; there were harder times when it looked like the Empire was going to fall!" Anniel chuckled.

"You are right!" he sighed, letting his troubling thoughts go, "Let's just relax and enjoy the night~" he stretched his tired arms as they snuggled closely. 

Meanwhile, back at the sect, the three still living, captured gang leaders sat in their cell, waiting for the time someone finally came for them. 01 did not lie; Batku was just sitting in the corner, looking forward, murmuring incomprehensible words, not reacting to any noise the others made. Eisen was hanging from the ceiling, upside down like a bat. She was holding onto their small room's barred lightbulb with her naked feet while Sezel was sitting, hugging her legs on her short cot with a bored face, watching her doing it.

"I'm surprised you still did not faint," Sezel said.

"I'm trying to do just that! This is the longest time I missed taking a shot, and it is getting on my nerves; it's fucking irritating! More than that dickhead's mumbling in the corner! If this goes on, I'll gut him myself." she answered with an annoyed voice, her eyes twitching.

"Count me out; I won't clean up after your mess! I still have nightmares wiping the sticky fat of that bastard off of the walls!" Sezel groaned, retching a little. Just thinking back to the smell and scenery when they were forced to clean up the interrogation room was like a nightmare.

"Oh, come on, like it was a big deal!" Eisen laughed. "He got what he deserved! We shouldn't have trusted him to keep our tracks hidden. Fucking idiot! Now we are back to square one, without any underlings AND in captivity." sighed. "And without my usual fix!" 

"Then why did you come? Any of us could've refused!" She blamed not just herself but herself, too.

"You are seriously asking this? I'm usually high as a kite on my own stuff!" Eisen grinned. "And you ask me to think rationally? Please! I had people doing that for me! Also, birds die for food; we die for riches." 

"You are not as stupid as you look, huh?" Sezel murmured a bit sarcastically.

"What, you go by the looks?" Eisen grinned, looking at her, checking out the gray overall they were wearing. On Sezel, it was bulging at the right places, while hers was down to her waist, tied to it with the sleeves, leaving her heavily tattooed top completely bare. "Believe it or not, I was a pretty witty kid while growing up!"

"I bet!" she rolled her eyes. "I am amazed how you reached the realm you are in!"

"50% luck, 50% effort." Eisen laughed, jumping down, landing on her feet like a cat, walking before Sezel. "What about you babe? You slept your way up or by backstabbing?" 

"Why can't it be both?" Sezel asked as she looked into her eyes with a smirk.

"Ouch, little scorpion, eh?" Eisen grinned, but then both of their ears perked up as they heard someone arriving from above. Soon, it was Ren who walked up to their cell, standing behind the iron bars separating them from the outside. 

"You!" Batku screamed out, slamming right into it, holding them with all of his might, trying to bend them just to reach Ren.

As soon as he did, the bars lit up with inscriptions, resisting his force no matter how hard he tried, and the slave collar on him reduced his strength to a laughable level. 

"What?" Ren tilted her head, watching Batku's bloodshot eyes. 

"You killed my brothers and my family! I'll avenge them; I'll rip you to shreds!" 

"First, it was my disciple who did it." Ren sighed, watching him like one would watch a clown performing.

"I'll kill her too and wear her skin as underwear!" Batku shouted, foaming from the mouth.

"Second." Ren smiled, continuing without a flinch, stepping closer to him. "If you miss them so much, go and meet with them!" 

A loud, thundering boom resounded in the underground prison, deafening Eisen and Sezel. It nearly blasted out their eardrums as they squinted, holding their ears with pain on their faces. When they looked, Ren was reaching through Batku's chest, still holding his heart, squishing it, while looking into his eyes. "Fuck you." She said, then just pulled out her arm, letting the already dead man collapse onto the ground. "As it is quieter now, we can finally talk." Ren turned towards the two women while taking out a handkerchief, wiping off the blood and fleshy chunks from her arm.

They looked at each other, turning more serious before they walked up to the bars. Looking at Ren, they were trying to figure out if they were going to meet the same fate as Batku or not. They knew, wearing the slave collars, it was impossible to resist if Ren wanted to slaughter them, but neither Eisen nor Sezel wanted to die in such a way. 

"I take your silence as that you are willing to listen. I plan to release you two." Ren smiled softly.

"What's the catch?" Eisen asked without flinching.

"You are to work together, build up a gang, and try to get in contact with the same people who are trying to support the likes of you to cause trouble in the Empire."

"Yeah! Sure!" Sezel rolled her eyes. "And they are going to believe we were let go! Oh, better yet, they won't question the slave collars! Woah, we escaped, but we can't get this off; we are not working with outsiders; oh no, trust us! This is a fashion statement! Ooooh~" she mocked Ren's words.

"Ehehe, I'm starting to like you, babe, ~" Eisen chuckled while Ren just waited patiently, letting her vent a little.

"I'll take those off, of course." she continued after a short pause, making them look at each other. 

"And we are going to flee at the first opportunity, you know that!" Eisen crossed her arms.

"Maybe. Maybe not." Ren said, tilting her left and right. "I am taking a risk here; I am well aware of that. Yet it's not a big problem; sooner or later, I will find you and kill you if you betray me. It is that simple." 

"Charming! You would make a great bandit leader, girl!" Eisen giggled, licking her lips. "But you need to tell us more; you got my attention. At least I'm listening!"

"I'll leave a jade slip with you, which can reach me any time, anywhere. I'll feed you information about caravans and places to rob. You need to build up your forces from the ground up; I'll provide where and how to do it!"

"You are sending us out to rob people?" Sezel blinked her eyes, getting larger with surprise.

"Yeah." Ren smiled. "But only to targets, I point out to you. You rob someone else, and I'll come for you! Don't worry, you can keep everything you put your hands on, I won't ask for any share! Except for documents. I want a copy of everything you come across, and I want you to build up a pretty sizable gang! You can name them and whatever; you are going to be the joint leaders of it!"

"Can we-" Sezel tried to ask something, but Ren cut in with a wave of her hand.

"No drugs, no slaves, no kidnapping, nothing of that kind of shit! I point you in a direction, and you go and rob it. Got it?"

"Tsk… joykiller." Eisen clicked her tongue, a bit frustrated. 

"I'll always tell you when you need to move or find a new hiding place so you can avoid the troops of the nobles or the Empire. If you don't listen and get slaughtered, I consider it a failure and eliminate the rest of you myself." Ren warned them, crossing her arms before her chest.

"If I guess correctly, we are going to rob those who stepped onto your toes, aren't we?" Sezel asked.

"Something like that. Let's just say we got a lot of names from the fatty." she smiled with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"So, two survivors from a raid by yours truly… and we go and rob those who we worked for before. Not suspicious. At all!" Sezel groaned, tussling her hair.

"If they ask, your motivation is revenge for setting you up! But they won't ask." Ren shook her head. "Their goal is to cause chaos and unrest. They don't care about who causes trouble; they just let there be enough distraction so they can operate and carry out their real objectives more easily. Cause enough stir, and someone will come looking for you, just like before, with an… offer of employment. That is when you contact me. I'll take over from that point!"

"I'm getting interested!" Eisen nodded. "Soooo… after we are to be hired, to go after their targets, we tell you… aaaaand?"

"I'll tell you then. Don't rush so far ahead!" Ren smirked. "Don't worry, my main objective is getting my hand on some high-ranking relatives of mine, playing spy games and secret operations in the Empire… and when I do, I can start my own version of it~" she chuckled softly, confusing the two. They were not privy to a lot of things, and it was going over their heads. "For now, I want you to continue as bandits, build up a force big enough to be contacted by those I am looking for. Easy enough, no?"

"I'm in." Eisen nodded, shrugging a little. "It is a better alternative than rotting away here!" 

"Not like I have another choice, do I?" Shezel also shook her head.

"Relax, babe!" Eisen grabbed onto her hand. "This is going to be a fucking joyride! Two bad bitches raping a new hole into the corrupt nobles, like… in the fairy tales! With more blood, gore, and sex!" 

"It is ripping and not raping… and why must it include those fetishes?" Sezel groaned, but she just shook her head. Again.

"Good! Now, as for the catch you asked…" Ren licked her lips as electricity started to jump between her fingers. "You need to be a bit battered before we throw you out into the wild! Who would believe you escaped without any injuries?" she asked as she opened the cell, and soon, screams filled the prison area.

…

….

…..

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Leinor asked while they were watching the sunrise together.

"Not my best, that's for sure," Ren admitted.

"Then why?"

"Because I am going to help out Feynor." she leaned on him. "Fight fire with fire? Or something like that~ A dangerous gang in a region is a valid cause for intervention. He can send in the military! Makes it easier to clean up some corrupt noble houses that happened to… sponsor said, gang. Oh my, what a weird coincidence!" 

"You little devil!" Leinor knocked on her head playfully. 

"Uhum~ Also, I hope they take the bait and make contact with them. I don't really bet on that, but that would be a true bonus for me! I need some high-ranking people from them so I can start dismantling their operations! I don't want to let them dig in further and risk any of my friends or family members' lives because they want to get to me through them! I hate their approach, and that is why when I step into the next stage, I'll go directly after them! Then, even if someone at the third stage of Harmony appears, I could keep my life."

"I'll be right beside you! Don't worry; nobody can kill you while I'm breathing!"

"Ahaha, my own knight in shining armor, with a giant sword! But you need to keep up then~" she chuckled, stealing a kiss quickly while Eisen and Sezel were already far away, still moaning and groaning after what they went through. They were in pretty bad shape, looking like they just escaped from the jaws of death, cursing Ren's name with every move they made, sending pain through their bodies.