As Rex was enjoying the his time with the kitsune by his side, Izumi looked at him and spoke

"Were you serious when you offered to help my nation?" she had been mullinh over their conversation, and she could not help but hope he indeed was not against the idea to help the kitsunes out.

"For the most part." and seeing her silently waiting he explained in further detail "I had teh feeling you would eventually ask regardless, and to ensure it does not happen after a tragedy that would wound you, I believed it better to ensure you know you have the right to ask. There is however a caviat. Rex would not move to solve the issue. Only Neo could possibly take on such task. And that demands an appropriate sacrifice from the kitsunes. There is no way such a person would move for anything ordinary. He is soloing the deep floors after all."

izumi nodded to his words. Since Rex wandted to keep the true archon a seperate persona in the view of the world, Neos actions needed solid reasoning.

"So that what you meant with a few more kitsune princeses. Since Neo is an aquintance and a business partner, he would inevitably encounter either me or Milie. And since we are extremely exotic and desired, it would make sense for him to agree to help, provided he gets a few of our princeses as payment for services provided."

"Precisely. And you know I would demand the best. The qeustion is, are your people ready to sacrifice some of their most beautifull flowers to end the war? Neo would have to raid and anihilate a sect or two in a rather show off style to ensure the opposing side doesnt even think of repeating the war at a later time."

"I will persuade them. We wish to experience as little pointless bloodshed as possible. And seeing the casuallities on both sides duting the year we have been skirmishing, the war would end with extreme cassualities on both sides. If we have to sacrifice our people regardless, I believe it is the duty of the noble clans to shoulder the cost, if it means a couple of lives sacrificed would save countless others while also maintaining our way of life."

"Two of the most beautifull girls. Seven tails like yourself."

"Neo is quite greedy, is he not?" izumi responded to his price, and he in return grinned, explaining his reasoning

"Of course. He is a true archon, who had just wiped out Echlisiarchy's embasy after he was attacked, so he is more sure of himself than ever. Next, he will have to take out at least one sect, possibly more, so thats a lot of work. Third, Rex has two kitsunes, so he wants two as well, but he has to be able to show off to Rex. manly pride."

"And why would he allow me to negotiate? I am deeply involved after all."

"Precisely why. He trusts Rex, and he knows you would not dare to fuck him over, when it comes to the safety of your people. Also, raise the number to three girls."

"Huh? Why?"

"The third one is your choice. The first two must be absolute beauties. The gems among your princeses. The third is for you to vent."

"Explain." izumi spoke, her eyes slightly squinted.

"Any girl ever annoyed or bullied you enough to dream of getting even? Pick the guilty party. I will make her your slave so you can vent the grievances."

"Just for that?" she asked in confusion.

"Just for that. A gift to my sweet and hardworking Izumi." Rex answered and kissed her forehead. An evil smile adorned her beautifull face, some unpleasant memories resurfacing, then she spoke, mischief in her voice

"I might have a person in mind, who would be perfect as my personal slave." She then got up on Rex, her hips grinding against Rex. "The ways I would have her serve you." she bit her lip, immagining many different scenarios. "if the council agrees, and i am sure they will eventually, you will have your three peerless beauties, one of which will be mine to command." seeing Rex raised eyebrow she explained "My slave is also and exceptionaly beautifull. She just so happens to be a bitch." They spent another hour after that to quench the trist izumi had awakened after the gift Rex had chose for her. Then, after a quick bath they both set off to their own tasks.

Nothing of note happened and so the next day arrived, and with it, the envoys from Al Merhads. They had brought over the two branding targets, and that part was quickly sorted out. And before the merchants left, Rex informed them they might have a visitor soon. An anquintance of his, a mercenary by the name of Neo would be coming by. The man is a true archon so it would be easy to recognize him among many other people because of his eyes. Rex added the huys could possibly solve their issue of the warlord, but regarding conditions and rewards they would have to talk and negotiate on their own.

Another couple of days later an archon approached the gate building of the Al Merhad clan. And without much delay, the archon spoke as soon as the guards were prepearing to question the approaching man.

"The name's Neo. I believe your people should have warned of my eventual arrival."

"One moment sir." The older of the guards spoke, and signaled to a young guy, dressed in a very light armor "hope you dont mind waiting for a short moment. Juts sent the kid after our supperior. He should be in the know regarding such things."

"Okey" was all Neo said, and he moved a bit to the side where multiple benches were located and sat down on one. He enjoyed the nice weather the world had blessed him with this day. And just a few minutes later he heard steps approaching, and once his eyes opened and saw the aproaching man, he was greeted with a rather deep bow from the one coming to Rex. The man had seen his eyes, so it was clear an archon the masn was, so haing already been informed, the supervisor bowed and greeted Neo.

"It is our honor to meet someone as exceptional as you. All procedures had been gone through, so please come with me , so you can travel to our beautifull capital Desharan." Neo nodded and followed the man. A few minutes later he crossed the gate, and once he had exited the building on the other side, a new world came into his view. While he could feel the desert heat in the air, there were quite a few palm trees, or a relative of theirs, were planted alongside the paved and expansive streets. Shade could be found on every street, giving a place to hide from the merciless sun of the place. Uniquely built carts with well covered roofs, creating a pleasant shade where to hide from the sun while dealing with the skotkeepers, regardless if buying, hagling or selling some goods off.

The streets were packed with people moving about with their own plans and actions. Once Neo had a general knowledge regarding the dirrection to go, he just found and aquired a map of sorts and used it to traverse the unknown area. With the map and a letter from the supervisor of the gate in Blythe he followed the route he had decided to take, sometimes stopping at some street vendor to examine some small trinket due to its weird energy signature. There were countless such things sold by the vendors, so Neo bought a few, deciding to check it in full detail and perhaps figure out its purpose and maybee figure a proper way to utilize them.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Not long after he arrived in front of a rather splendid building and after a small moment of appreciating the precision with which it was built, Neo entered it. He was greeted by a rather large hall, a counter at the far end of it. The building served as a hub for mercenaries. Since here adventurers were much rarer, mercenaries had somehow taken over the most of the things adventurers would do. So since Rex already had a plan of action, he moved to a corner of the counter, where a man in guards uniform sat. Al Merhads had a seperate dude working here for requests made with the clan as one part, and he also evaluated and exchanged the the spoils of the hunters expedition.

Neo placed the sealed letter on the counter in front of the guard

"Explanation is inside." with his words over the guard slowly opened the parcel when he was sure it was indeed a letter and not some sort of shenenigans. Quickly reading throught its content, the guard excused himself, apologising he had to bring a more qualified person to handle the sittuation. A while later appeared a well dressed and well endowed woman of arabic descent. She then spent almost an hour beofore Neo could leave. They had moved to a private room where the lady explained him what was known about the snake people movement and the largest traffic. Also the known locations marked on a map where some sort of strategic recourses were being grown, and many other important places of interest. That included the few actual camp sites used by the snake people giving Neo a few possible ways to plan ahead. This time he was alone since he would be quite bloodthirtsy it was better to move as such.

With enough knowledge aquired and armed with map, he proceeded to leave the city to start his exploring. He had grown a lot and now he no longer had the same issues he used to have when needing to navigate. Now he could do it quite efficiently, so he had no need for a guide who would be left in the dust very soon after departure. He spent a few hours going with quite scary speeds. And while innitially his search showed no results, he had finaly found a group of snake people scouts. The naga like creatures had much dryer skin, if compared to aquatic life. They had addopted increadibly well to the dry terrain of their home. Remaining quite the distance away Neo continiued to follow the group, and close to the night he was lead to some cave entrances, cut in the side of a small desert mountain.

He had noticed the way the scouts moved and evaluated many different aspects, noting many different locations, that Neo asumed were some sort of trading routes. Every time they marked their maps they had stopped at some sort of a notable landmark, that could be used to orient oneself in the desert area. Large, almost rib like stones that protruded out of the sands, hundreds of meters high, old and gigantic stumps of dryed up trees and many other such locations. Rex knew he would have to drain quite a few of these snakepeople to learn their language since they were not using common. He knew they could speak it but among themselves it was not used.

So Rex waited for a few more hours, and once a night had begun, he saw another party leave the caves. This one was much better armed, and Rex asumed it was not just a scouting party but either a hunting group or a raiding party. And so Neo trailed the group, untill a few hours later they had reached their destination. A small oasis was not far from the group, and Rex could see decent sized caravan of sorts camped there for the night. Guards were patrolling, ensuring noone would sneak up on the fifty something sleeping members.

And while the caravan had a few B class guards, there were not many of them, and the snakemen group even had a couple of A ranks. Neo did nothing to interfere for the time being, since he was not sure of the modus operandi of the snakemen. He was quite sure they planned to raid the caravan, but the specific tactics, approach and teh way of handling the aftermath was unknown to him. So he decided to watch it unfold, so he could plan accordingly his actions in response to the way the raiders acted. If they would killa few guards, then rob the caravan he might have to evaluate the group more to come with an apropriate response.

He soon realized that he had wasted some of his brainpower in his previous ministrations. What he had heard from the representative of Al Merhads back in Blythe seemed to be true. He would need a larger sample size to finalize his own opinion, but for now he had to agree that the male snakepeople were nothing more than ravenous beasts. They charged at the caravan guards, not even trying much to hide their approach. The few A class snakemen led the charge and quickly killed the guards tearing them apart in the process. The first spilling of blood seemed to awaken even more of their bestial instincts, driving them into a frenzy. Limbs were torn from the deffenders and parts were swallowed right then and there. It did not matter whether male, female or a child got in their way. All to the last were killed and torn apart. That included the pack animals as well. At least those that did not manage to tear away from their bindings and run away in fear and terror.

Once only snakemen were among the living in the now empty camp, their blood frenzy calmed down and as they were chopmping down a bodypart here or there, they collected their quary in space rings and bags. Once everything was looted another among them stayed in the now empty place filled with blood stains. It murmured while holding its staff, and a few minutes later, the blood soaked sand patches sunk into the ground, leaving behind no traces of the recent slaughter. It was quite fascinating how not a single of the plans was sunk alongside the blood, but Neo reasoned that it was most likely water magic that pulled the blood deeper into the earth, and not soil itself moving. Therewas no way otherwise the plants would remain as is.

Neo then followed the raiding party back to the caves where he waited a bit away from the place untill dawn. He was also slowly seeping his mana into the surroundings. He was prepearing the place for a senaky barrier. He needed full knowledge of the size and layout of the caves as well as the structure and lifestyle of the denizens. Just a bit after the dawn he was done with his preparations, and scouting. His fine mana control had allowed him to envelop the entire cave complex in his mana without alarming anyone to his actions. And with that foundation in place he could erect a barrier just as sneakily and from then on fully evaluate the place enveloped and everything going on inside.

The cave complex was rather expansive, sicne he noticed a little more than five hundred beings inside. What was quite peculiar was that out of those five hundred only aproximately thirty were females, separated in three groups. Two groups, twelve and twelve were in what looked like birthing chambers. In each of the rooms the women, who looked like beautifull humans with the lover body of a snake could be divided in two categories. One, where they were heavily pregnant and laying eggs, with some who moved the egs to some sort of incubation chambers as they were birthed. The other group were chained, each to a bed of their own, and some members of the returning raid had come during the night to rape them untill satisfied. Indicated by the way they pushed them down and held quite brutaly as they had their fun. The third group of eight were nursing a set of eggs as well, but the procedure seemed much different than the other two chambers. Rex would know what all that was about as he would have a nice talk with the women oce he was done with the purge. he only hoped that snakepeople were similar to dungeon orcs- with a much more powerfull leader they could become more civil, as even with his twisted morals the way they treated their own women felt just incredibly wrong, if not retarded.

As he approached the barrier and entered the sealed space, he withdrew his terasured sword Limitless. It would drink its fill of blood today. As he exaled, prepeared for the slaughter, he dashed forward. His movement drew attention from the huards at the entrence, but it mattered little. as a blurr, he appeared in front of them, swinging his swords and ending their lives in an instant. His practice with the space and soul magic had birthed a new technique. One he would use exclusively as Neo. Cosmic ravens he named it. It was a variation of his mana constructs, mixed with his space attribute. They were seperate automatons, that fly around like ravens, and performed the same function as his mana chains. They would be used as the medium for Rex to use drain without touching every single corpse he wanted to drain. The only similarity an outsider could see between his mana chains and cosmic ravens was the disintegration and mana dust of the corpses as they scattered. But many different magic spells resulted in similar, if not the same result, just with varying degrees of intensity, so he was not too worried about someone connecting the dots.

And so, he spent the entirety of the day, immersed in his slaughter, since even when the compound was on alert due to his slaughter, the sheer size of the complex of caves ensured Neo had to do quite a bit of legwork to move from one group to the next. And so, around midnight he had finally finished with his cleansing. Only the thirty odd women were remaining in their three chambers. Neo would first visit the two with twelve women within and then, once he had more awareness whats up with the situation would he move to where the six were with the couple of eggs in their care.