Gamodren left the two kids in Tiffany's care at a park as he went to take care of the mole on his own.

The mansion belonging to Captain Vendral was nearly on par with a noble's estate, only it was a touch more modern. It had been built a year after he obtained the rank due to various acts of valor. He had been gifted some land and a mine along with the estate.

"And now he's using it to hide slaves and terrorists. This reeks of puppetry, and by someone strong, but clearly not capable of finding competent help." Gamodren mumbled as a fog washed over the estate.

The two guards outside the building had eyes glossed over as Gamodren quietly entered through the front door using the ring of keys from an addled guard.

The entryway was gaudy and expensive as various pelts, art, and decorative weapons covered the wall while statues filled the ground. The door was quietly shut, and Gamodren covered his body in smoke, causing it to disappear.

The young man's first victim was a guard that had gotten out of the john at a really inconvenient time, his body slumping to the ground outside the bathroom. The heavy smell of alcohol from his mouth and no sign of a struggle would make even the most skeptical shake their head and move on.

The second victim wasn't so lucky. A lion with a tail that resembled a serpent's head and the head of a goat protruding from its torso made eye contact with Gamodren, who drew his cane and vanished in a puff of smoke as flames coated the hallway where he'd once been.

Gamodren had put his hand down on the chimera's serpent tail and pulled, snapping it off easily." Only a practitioner. Huh."

Instead of running to attack from the shadows, Gamodren slapped his staff into the creature, cutting it in half as though it were a blade. Then, with a wave of his hand, the mess vanished. Still, the fire did its job and alerted the others in the building, which made this messy. Gamodren hated when missions got messy. So he altered the crime scene. When it came to creating chimera, if something went wrong in their creation, then it could explode randomly.

By the time the guards made it, they had found no signs of a fight and assumed that this chimera had expired. Gamodren, staying unseen, trailed the two guards putting them in a trance as he approached them.

Gamoderen's hands gripped the skulls of both guards as he asked a simple question. "Where is your master?"

"Floor two, central wing." Said one guard in a monotone before it passed out.

The second guard resisted, his eyes widening before it self-destructed. Taking out itself and the other guard, but not harming Gamodren in the slightest.

Gamodren stepped out of the gory mess and cleaned himself off with a flicker of mana before moving on. Making sure to step on the white worms that were attempting to escape.

The sound of footsteps could be heard, and the expert did not have much time to escape. So Gamodren didn't try to escape. The remains of the guards vanished and were replaced by copies of both guards.

"Whats going on?"

"The chimera exploded." The false guards stated.

"Yes but there was another explosion."

Gamodren watched as one of the guards seemed to scowl and draw their weapon.

As it went to kill the false guard, Gamodren made the fake swap places with another guard, which led to confusion and paranoia as the guards began fighting each other. Chaos filled the hallway as the cause went unhindered to the next floor.

The second floor was full of hidden traps and secret alarms that would only work on an amateur. Gamodren was no amateur, and as he casually stepped through the wards and traps. Not a single one triggered. This section of the hallway was probably the easiest for him.

Arriving at the location, Gamodren closed his eyes to get a clear picture of the room. There was a corpse on the bed; from his senses, it had been dead for over a few days. Another figure in the room erupted into movement as it noticed something was off.

Gamodren let fog wash over the room as he appeared behind the imposter, his hand on the head of his cane. The stick soon found its way in front of the man's adam's apple as the captain was placed into a lock.

"Who do you work for?" Gamodren said in a venomous tone.

"The king. I serve the king." It said truthfully.

"Which king, parasite?"

"You already know who I serve." The captain slipped a stiletto down his sleeve in preparation to strike.

In an instant, a spatter of blood began to pour from the captain's neck as Gamodren held a long thin blade that seemed to have been pulled from the cane.

The captain was pushed forward as Gamodren approached, slicing tendons and removing the creature's ability to fight back.

"You can die from blood loss, or I can put you out of your misery. The latter requires that you answer a few of my questions." Gamodren stabbed his blade in their abdominal cavity and began to twist.

"Aggg!"

Gamodren stopped and waited, his eyes locked onto his prey.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"I'd rather die than tell you anything."

"Is that so. Fine go. You have two minutes to run. If you can escape, parasite, the military will kill you on the spot and are already arriving. You can last maybe ten minutes before you go into shock. Since you can live on shortly after the body dies. Believe it or not, you being here as all but confirmed their involvement." Gscamodren drew back his blade and resealed it in his cane. As he left the room, a bored expression could be seen.

"What do you want? Don't have time."

"If you tell me everything I need to know I'll help you disappear. It isn't much."

"Like what?"

"Do you serve the emperor or its consort?" Gamodren asked.

The creature's eyes widened as green flames erupted from its body, turning it into ash as a circle formed.

A woman with golden eyes locked on to Gamodren the rest of her body, an amorphous fog.

"Found you, my son. It's time for you to come home? This is an order. You have sixteen hours to gather your things. Aren't I so benevolent to a traitor like you?" Said a painted voice.

"What?" Gamodren tried to retreat, but his eyes went from gold to red before his body froze. Moments later, the feeling passed, and Gamodren was somewhat released.

"Your order has been given. See you soon." The fire faded, and Gamodren's eyes went dim. His body fell to the floor against his will.

He couldn't rest long as the military was already beginning to make their way through the building. The young man took a few documents relating to the equipment Cecil had sold to the man, among other things.

As the door creaked open, guards rushed in. Finding the charred corpse of their guard captain next to some documents. Moments later, attention had been turned towards the copse on the bed.

"Who did this? What sort of monster could do such a thing!" That guard picked up a stray red hair of unusual color from off the bed.

----------------------------------------

Gamodren reappeared a bit shaken as he returned to Tiffany, who was busy babysitting two babies at the park.

"Tiffany?" Gamodren's complexion had significantly paled.

"Yes? Whats wrong you don't look right?"

"Something came up. I'll have to leave Kyrion in your care."

"He can take care of himself." Tiffany said bluntly.

"No he can't. The brat would get himself killed trying to help others."

"This is no time for jokes. What do you expect me to do?"

"You're probably the most adept at strategy and subterfuge. You have a nose for these things. Keep him from making stupid decions like adoping an orphanage full of people he can't look after or trying to save someone like me from a fate they deserve."

"You are bloody serious. What did you get involved in? I swear you're worse than Kyrion." Tiffany threw her arms up.

"This would have happened eventually. I'd rather it be like this then at an inconvenient time. Also lead the kids to Kyrion's room. It's his job is to find his guest lodging." Gamodren passes a key to Tiffany.

"How can you trust me with something like this? I'm pretty sure I could sell this on the black market for a bit of coin."

"You wouldn't be here if you were the type to do something like that." Gamodren said slyly as he left the area.

"Ugg. Guess I'll go find Kyrion then. Do you know where…" Tiffany heard a scream, looked up, and saw a familiar red-haired young man with someone on his back falling from over fifty feet in the air.

"Good luck." Gamodren vanished without his usual smoke. It was as though his body disintegrated into bits of red light.

"Hmm…"

Tiffany watched Bastion describe how Kyrion just entered the middle of a confrontation and beat up the slavers that kept him and some others captive. Which sounded like Kyrion was using an ability to hide from others. She'd seen him activate it and, through training and effort, managed to somewhat recreate said technique. She had also gained a sixth sense for finding him when he did use that ability. So a random kid being able to detect Kyrion when he was purposely hiding was ridiculous.

Tiffany seemed to turn invisible light refracted around her form, creating a barrier that made it seem like she had never been there. Testing the waters. She moved slowly, eliminating all sound from her movements. In moments she appeared ten feet behind Eden.

Tiffany quietly stepped towards her target, first unarmed and nonchalant.

Bastion seemed to look up, but that could have been anything as he immediately switched his attention back to his conversation.

"And then he went woosh. Making the beast swallow a fire pepper." Bastion was now rolling his arms to simulate the burbling in its stomach.

Eden seemed entranced.

Tiffany stood right behind the girl as she drew her silver rapier. That was when she noticed that Bastion had stopped his story as he looked at her in confusion. Not fear but confusion.

Tiffany thrust her blade forward, piercing through. The child with ease.

Eden looked down. Her eyes widened as she began frothing at the mouth in panic and passed out. Her body fell through the rapier without much resistance. Not even a wound or the usual shedding of blood.

Bastion just scowled with an unperturbed look on his face. "That was mean? Why'd you have to go and spook Eden. She's a bit jumpy."

"I just stabbed your friend." Tiffany reappeared in front of Bastion.

"No. You didn't. That attack wasn't real." Bastion was looking to his right where the real Tiffany stood, her sword still hidden.

"How can you tell?" Tiffany asked curiously.

Bastion threw up his hands and shrugged. "Kyrion has some mean girlfriends."

"Two words, and you aren't wrong. I was actually coming to get you both. Didn't expect her to pass out from an illusion." Can you give me a hand?

Bastion looked at Eden, who was a few inches taller than himself, and then at Tiffany.

"Fine." Tiffany picked up Eden and threw the kid over her shoulder.

"That doesn't look very comfortable." Bastion said.

"Well, you didn't want to help. Let's go. We're going to go meet up with Kyrion.

"Will I get to hear stories about him?"

"I don't want you to be too disappointed by your Idol." Tiffany said soundly.

Bastion scowled. "Mr. Kyrion could never disappoint me.

Tiffany put her other hand on Bastion's right shoulder. "I remember when I thought the same."

Bastion's scowl deepened, and his eyebrows furrowed.

"Scary aren't you with those eyes. It's like I'm looking at two people instead of one. I heard a long time ago that eyes are the windows to a soul. What does having two different eyes mean?" Tiffany poked the boy between the brows.

Bastion crossed his arms.