7.6.3502, 10:00, Votal, Mireta merchant company's headquarters in a basement room.

Seated at a sturdy table, Blur was waiting for the other head executives to arrive for the meeting and absentmindedly inspected her surroundings. She was currently in the head executives’ meeting room. The walls were covered with bookshelves, making the room appear more in line with a study than with a meeting room, but that was intentional. Having information readily available was key to organizing, planning and scheming.

Sensing a familiar presence enter the room, she retracted her gaze from the mountains of knowledge and curled the corners of her mouth into a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Has someone recovered from her hangover?”

As Dupe, clad in her usual black silken robes, stepped out of the shadows, a monotone voice rang out from under the peculiar mask.

“More or less.”

With these few words she sat down next to Blur and minutes of silence elapsed. Under the shine of bright light bulbs, the both of them waited for the furred Sliver to arrive.

Although the Arcane Operatives had four head executives, it was seldom that all of them were present at a meeting. Currently only Sliver and Blur were stationed in Votal.

The other two had matters of their own to attend to, Smoothtalker was still managing everything in Stean And the last one, Veil, was handling a delicate long-term mission somewhere in Nyxara.

Matters relating to financial management, member allocation and the like were handled by the head executives. But since it was impractical to require all four of them to decide on things, only two needed to be present in order to handle things.

Today's meeting was like always joined by Dupe, the puppeteer. Despite her only being a regular member, she still took part in the meetings. But considering her importance that was to be expected. Due to her ability, the erratic woman was simply indispensable.

While the both of them were waiting, Dupe let out a muted snicker. After sobering up she had begun communicating with her puppets’ neural network. And her processing of the puppets’ memories had just reached the recent bar incident.

“You better watch your back in the coming days, that furball will try to get his revenge one way or another.”

“I'm looking forward to him attempting it.”

Just as these words left the pale scientist’s mouth a black silhouette outlined itself on a chair opposite to her. Sliver had arrived.

“Is that so?”

His baritone voice hid an icy undertone and a chilly aura permeated the room. His vermillion eyes were fixed upon the cause of his humiliation, looking daggers at her.

Feigning shock Blur covered her mouth. The faked reaction was scarily realistic and would have fooled most, but to those who knew her the spark of humor in her eyes was obvious. Besides the fact that, unless it was for quips and jests, she never had such reactions in the first place.

Unimpressed by the reaction, Sliver didn’t linger on the subject and instead faced the masked Dupe.

“Any new information on the target?”

Going off this question the two of them began to exchange information, Blur just listening quietly. After they had finished that, the three of them discussed the tomorrow’s mission plans. At last financial management and other topics were discussed between the three of them.

Somewhere along the line, when the conversation shifted to more mundane topics her thoughts began to wander and she went through everything she knew about the mission.

The target Sliver had mentioned earlier was the failed experiment of the Corrupted that had been captured by Avalon. Ever since she had confirmed her participation in the mission, Sliver and Dupe had refined the mission plan by gathering more information about the prison’s premises and the captive.

During their preparations they had discovered a hole in the prison’s defenses. This lead the current change of plans.

Instead of waiting for the day of the execution, which would have been in eleven days, they were going to break into the prison and steal the captive. In fact the mission Sliver mentioned at the bar a few hours prior had been this exact one and it would all go down tomorrow.

Monday 8.6.3502 at 2:00 in the dead of night Avalon would lose their captive.

Should the trio succeed in extracting the captive alive, gleaning valuable information was nearly guaranteed. While all new information was of value, anything having to do with the Corrupted’s power was simply another league.

There weren’t many criminal organizations which existed for more than a few years and the Corrupted were on of those special few.

Being able to exist under the Zenitan’s rule, considering what they were doing, was a feat to be marveled at in of itself. One couldn’t survive the royals’ wrath without strength. But they still paled in comparison to the Arcane Operatives, who weren’t even on the radar of the officials. Neither the royals nor the police knew of them, apart from some speculations. However even those had no idea of the sheer scale of the organization.

This undertaking filled Blur with excitement, after all this time there was a prime chance to answer age-old questions of hers. Of course it all depended on everything going smoothly.

From her past experiences of dealing with the Corrupted she knew that the prison’s guards would be the smaller issue, even if it was only a failed experiment, nothing related to the Corrupted was ever simple let alone safe.

Her introspective thoughts were interrupted by an unnervingly familiar voice. It resonated through her mind only for her to hear, eerily similar to her own voice.

Eradicate all that is vile. Cleanse the world.

Blur's face contorted for a brief moment, a dangerous spark of fanaticism igniting in the depths of her grey irises. In the recesses if her mind two consciousnesses battled against each other. One surging in from a desolate, nearly forgotten corner and the other pressing it down with indomitable might. The intruder was promptly expelled, banished to where it came from.

This mental battle took only a few seconds, but when the pale scientist was able to ground herself again, her two companions had disappeared and the table in front of her laid in splintered pieces. The sturdy wood had been utterly obliterated, looking like it was hit with a battering ram.

Upon seeing this scene Blur breathed in heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose. She would need to satisfy the fanatic voice today, going on an important mission in this state would be suicidal.

Simultaneously with her visibly regaining control, Dupe and Sliver reappeared. The former from the shadows and the later from out of nowhere.

Stepping into the light and dusting a few pieces of destroyed table from her robes, the puppeteer addressed Blur with her usual lack of emotion.

“So which gang is going to disappear this time? Judge of the vile, Fleshweaver.”

A crooked smirk appeared on Blur’s face at the mention of her nickname and her voice was tinged with eccentric glee, when she spoke.

“Any suggestions?”

Mimicking the eccentricism, Dupe answered ardently and full of dark vigor.

“I have many.”

An hour later.

Dense black smoke poured upwards, scorching flames ate away at wooden support beams and a loud bell sounded from afar.

In front of the burning three-story building a lone in blood covered figure stood. It was a tall, muscular man with rugged features and a thick scar running diagonally over his face. Brown hair shimmering in an amber glow amidst the shine of the blazing conflagration.

As he stared into the fire, neon green flames licked at his tear glands and a fanatical expression marked his toned complexion.

Then, without the slightest hint of hesitation, he turned around and stepped into a narrow alley.

The moment the hulking man left the sunlight and set foot in the desolate alley, his body morphed and squirmed.

Muscles shrank, facial features softened, toned skin whitened and short brown hair grew and darkened. Even the fanatical spark disappeared. All this took mere seconds.

And before long a seasoned gangster had transformed into a pale young lady. If there had been any unsuspecting onlookers to witness this transformation they would have been left deeply disturbed, the process radiated harrowing bizarreness.

But the sole observer of this scene only showed fanatical glee in her emerald eyes. Clad in black silken robes, that reminded of a priest's garments, one of Dupe's puppets rapidly approached the returnee.

Falling down to one knee and bowing her head in the wake of Blur, she showed utmost reverence.

Although Blur felt slightly irritated by this, she had bigger issues right now. The bloodied clothes were tailored to fit a bulky man and thus were rather uncomfortable now that she had changed her physique back.

What a mess.

As the bell's chiming grew louder, she looked down at the still kneeling puppet.

“Quit the acting and just give me my cloak. The fire fighters will be here any minute now.”

With a sullen look on her face the puppet handed her the grey cloak but not without expressing her discontent.

“Ever righteous Fleshweaver, I assure you that I harbor nothing, but the purest of devotion towards our cause. For our great cause I'm even willing to sacrifice myself. May all vileness be vanquished.”

A faint cracking resounded from the puppet's mouth. Then she collapsed into her own shadow and disappeared into nothingness. Only a punctured poison capsule remained, laying where just a moment ago a young woman had stood.

Unamused by this display of fanaticism, be it acted, Blur donned her cloak and disappeared into the vast shadows that covered most of the alley.

While she moved through the lightless expanse, the fire fighters finally reached the scene behind her, albeit too late. Even though the fire hadn't spread to adjacent structures, it had still reached vital support beams and throughout history, wood seldom beat fire.

With a deafening crash the building collapsed, dust and debris flying everywhere.