Drim was the only one of the group who entered the Power Station through the front door. It didn’t take him long to find the hidden entrance to the sublevels, still open from when the slew of guards had rushed out earlier. Everyone else was meeting varying levels of resistance, but not him.
When he took the last step down to the first sublevel, he found nearly a hundred individuals prostrating in front of him on the floor, surrendering—the fruits of Victori’s labors. Most of them seemed to be scientists, but there were a few guards and other operators.
It was a big batch of morality too, and would be quite the burden to sort through on the spot. Instead, Drim restrained them all with vines against the walls. He had more pressing matters to attend to at the moment, but they’d still chosen the correct path, so he’d make sure they got due credence.
Even if some were evil, they at least had the guilt and sense to surrender when justice came knocking. That meant there was the possibility for redemption. But any who were left against them at this point, they had no hope, and Drim wouldn’t feel bad for any actions he had to take.
Notably, there were two rather sinister moralities up ahead standing next to a mixed one. For the most part, Drim couldn’t feel the presence of those who weren’t evil. He had the ability to do so, but he just naturally got used to filtering them out. It was something he sort of regretted in hindsight, because it made it that more difficult now when he wanted to hone in on one to find an unsuspicious individual.
But at least now he had a direction. There were a few other evil signatures on this floor, but if someone was in trouble or being held captive, that took priority.
This first sublevel of the Power Station was mostly still a facade. It was probably meant for inspectors who wanted to see the piping and other utilities that would naturally be underground. Besides those facilities, there were a lot of offices. It wasn’t unheard of for places like this to have their administration underground as well, especially when the manufacturing happened upstairs, but it also wasn’t too common, so it was immediately suspicious.
Drim quickly found the source of two evils in the form of two guards guarding what looked like a very inconspicuous closet. How conspicuous. But what should he do? Should he kill them? It’d be no effort at all, and the morality reading he was getting from them, the world would almost certainly be better off.
It was an issue Drim was still struggling with, but one he’d been flip-flopping on quite consistently lately. More and more often it seemed like it would just be better to do the dirty work himself. In this alleged world of peace, justice seemed to be absent more than it ever was. What’s worse is that he knew it was getting only easier for him to do it, but it still ate at him.
Meanwhile, Kada and Xard, as well as some of the more recent members were now able to kill someone without barely a second thought. Yet before joining the group, they had only killed someone in the most drastic situations which led to them being Fiends. Maybe the Fiends For Hire was just a toxic environment that was breeding mass murderers, or maybe he’d been reading too many contrarian articles on their group lately.
For the case of these two, Drim had to weigh the ethics of letting them live more than killing them. Given how secretive the Power Station had been, there was no question that someone of high-standing was behind or at least funding it. There was a good chance that they could get these criminals insane legal representation that could possibly lead to them walking free. That or they’d end up getting killed anyways to preserve their secrets.
Ultimately, Drim decided to kill the more evil of the two. Vines shot through his torso and neck, taking the second guard by surprise. But before she could do anything, the vines grabbed her and pinned her to the wall. Maybe the trauma from this could lead towards repentance down the line for her, but the boy didn’t hold high hopes.
After having his vines clean up a bit of the mess, Drim opened the closet and scowled. A man was sitting inside, blindfolded, gagged, and restrained. Half of his body was inserted into some odd device that looked like a human shape had been cookie-cuttered out of it. A convenient sign read ‘Aura Field Generator’, and this man was just the battery.
At least he didn’t seem to be in any pain, but after Drim disabled the device and pulled the Lesser free, he was completely despondent. It was like he was in a coma, but his eyes were still open and unblinking. “Phon, I should have deactivated the aura field, can you teleport this man next to me to safety?” He called into his earpiece on the siblings’ private channel.
The man vanished, confirming that her Curse was working properly again. Drim then took a few pictures of the device and plugged his phone to it in an attempt to download some specs. If this technology became widespread, it could be quite a roadblock in the future, especially since it affected more than just Phon’s Curse. Imagine if criminals started using them for protection, or if the entire CP headquarters became enshrouded in it. That would be a nightmare.
Drim made quick progress through the rest of the floor. There were still plenty of morality twinges bothering him—a lot of people hiding in offices, many clearly by the door waiting to ambush him when he went inside. But they’d be left waiting. There was a grand prize that Drim couldn’t let escape, so he couldn’t drag his heels.
For now, he just barricaded the doors of any room where he felt someone was inside with vines and wood so they couldn’t escape. It’d make a fire marshall cry, but if they knew what was going on in this facility, they’d be the ones setting the building ablaze.
Once Drim felt the area was secured, he sauntered over to the double doors at the end of a long hall. Why did all villains love double doors? They were just that much easier to break down. These doors put up a bit more of a fight, clearly reinforced with a barricade on the other side.
Just as Drim was about to break through, his instincts flared and he whirled around just in time to dodge a crossbow bolt that pierced into the door. He then hoisted his blades to block as two pickaxes clanged against them, his attacker dropping down from the ceiling.
“Hmm… a disguised Lesser Fiend who uses pickaxes that turn into a crossbow,” Drim uttered after he got a good look at the assailant. “I know someone who’s looking for you.”
Even though their face was covered, Drim noticed a glance of surprise at his words. Before they could try and do anything, the Fiend broke their clash and grabbed the Lesser’s wrists so they couldn’t escape. “I’ll be sure to deliver you to her in a nice package.”
Drim made a portal appear beneath their feet. Before his foe could try and shuffle out of the way, roots had sprouted to grab them. Once they were stuck firmly in place, the roots began to grow and spawn more, wrapping around the assassin’s entire body. Not long after, Drim was left with a fairly realistic wooden statue.
There were enough gaps to let them breathe, and it wasn’t too tight to the point that they couldn’t shift around and try and get more comfortable. While Drim wouldn’t keep them stuck like this for the entire journey he was planning, they’d be restrained completely until he finished his business here.
Back to the door, Drim broke it down with one great push. He shielded himself with a bit of wooden armor, expecting to be shot at. But he merely found the director of the Power Station sitting at his desk with his fingers laced—another classic villain habit.
“So you’ve come to shut me down, have you?” the man tried to act suave. Drim took a moment to scan the fellow with his phone to learn his name—someone he’d never heard of. Getting more personal information didn’t matter now, since Phontext could just look it up later. But Drim had to at least try and learn some connections.
“I certainly have,” Drim acted calm in return. “While I’m sure you’ve desperately tried to avoid this day, you had to know it was coming eventually. Even if you think Lessers and Fiends are disposable monsters, there will always be someone looking for them.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“The downfall of empathetic society,” Drim rolled his eyes at the man’s philosophical nonsense. “Not using every resource they have to advance will only lead to collapse. Surely you can understand, the strives your group has made towards advancement.”
“Can we skip the part where you try to appeal to my greed and ambitions, and you just tell me who you’re working for?” The Fiend wanted to get this over with as soon as possible, eager to leave unpleasant company.
“What makes you think I’m working for anyone?” The man seemed to be under some misconception that just because they didn’t have everything figured out, he could get away with this.
“We had one of our members do a deep dive into your financials,” Drim was happy to inform him. “For starters, this facility already uses up more power than it exports. Based on how much you’re profiting, you should barely be keeping the lights on at the public side. From that alone you’re not generating any real revenue.”
“Let’s assume that some of your innovations are being sold and laundered back to you, based on our market analysis, it wouldn’t be nearly enough to cover all the employees working here, let alone all the fancy tech and your own private army through the Red Eyes Gang. No, you’d be roughly a few billion in debt.”
“So let me ask again, who are you working for?”
“Ha, you think I’d tell you?!” the director whipped out a trigger from their jacket and held it up threateningly. Sadly, he never got the chance to actually issue a proper threat.
Drim had been expecting this. So the entire time he’d been talking, he’d been slowly creeping a vine towards the director down on the ground. The vine had been in the middle of crawling up his body when the man made his move. It then dropped all stealthiness and jumped out of his pants, grabbed the trigger, and tossed it over to its master. He had to guess it was to blow the facility up with everyone still inside.
“So let me ask you a third time, and I hope you don’t make it a fourth. Who are you working for?”
“A Central Peace Representative,” the director finally answered as the vine ‘gently coaxed’ him into sitting back in his chair. It was hard to hear. They had suspected as much, but they just didn’t want to believe it. What was supposed to be the world’s salvation still had corruption at its core. Just how deep rooted was this tumor? It probably wasn’t for them to find out, but they also couldn’t ignore it depending on the circumstances.
“Who is it?” Drim asked for more clarity.
“I… don’t know,” the man answered with a distressed look on his face.
❝Tell me their name.❞ It turned into a demand.
“I really don’t know!” he told the truth, for he could no longer lie. It seemed the remnants of the demand strained his brain to try and force an answer, bringing him to the edge of a breakdown. Since he rarely used it, Drim didn’t have very much control over the severity of his mother’s power.
How very vexing. There was an extent to how well Phon’s Curse could dig things up. If the director really had no more hints beyond that, even Phontext wouldn’t be able to link them to the culprit. Their hopes would now lie in there being unredacted intel that Roque had found. They could interrogate any other surviving members, but it was unlikely they’d get anything more if even the man in charge didn’t know.
“Well then, you’re of no further use to me,” Drim turned around to leave.
“You fool, you should never turn your back on the enemy!” The director whirled out a gun, but Drim didn’t look back right away. He didn’t need to, already knowing what the man’s fate would be.
“You should take your own advice, director,” Drim mentioned casually when he heard the piercing of flesh. He turned around finally when he heard a meaty thump hit the floor. “And how are you feeling about all this, Kaizu?”
“Frustrated and unsatisfied.” She checked the puny Curse Mark she’d just gotten on the back of her leg and frowned. “Ever since I got this damned glove, each kill brings me less joy than the last. Something about being given permission ruins the satisfaction I suppose. It’s been more like feeding the beast lately than doing it for fun.”
“Well, it seems the rehabilitation is working then,” he couldn’t help but be a little self-satisfied that something had come from all their efforts. If the worst of them could be helped, maybe he didn’t have to worry about the complexities of it all too much.
◆◆◆
Drim personally swept through every floor after leaving the director’s office. He made sure there were no more captives, and that any remaining adversaries had been sufficiently detained. By the time he made it down to the last floor, Kada and Niloy had wrecked it to bits.
By the time he climbed back up, Phon had already teleported away all those he’d captured. She met up with him the moment he stepped back outside the building. “Quite a few of the captives tried to make a break for it the moment they felt fresh air, about a third. I made sure to get all of their names before they got too far away.”
She then flashed a dart before breaking it so that it dissolved into dust. “They’ll all think that the woods are strangely full of bugs biting them too. Any children that tried to run, I made sure to bring back.” The two siblings then joined the rest of their party at the rallying point.
As soon as they got near, the dreary countryside on this gray day turned into a bright and cheery, sunshiny landscape thanks to Rezin’s Curse. All those rescued were currently being loaded onto a bus by his and Senli’s direction, and Itsy was lumbering into the driver’s seat.
“So how do you feel now that you’ve been saved?” Chorus had finally shown their face publicly and was interviewing some of the former captives.
“What’s with the bombs?” Drim couldn’t help but question the pile that Kada and Xard were stacking.
“Not too long ago, a skycraft buzzed overhead and tried to bomb the place,” Xard answered as he heaved the last bomb onto the stack. “I managed to make an energy cushion to catch them all. And then Itsy threw a bomb back at the skycraft when it tried to do a second pass. The pilot didn’t make it, but you can find the wreckage still smoldering over yonder.”
“Alright, Kada if you don’t mind, go ahead and move it over to the pit when you’re free,” Drim directed her. The pit was quite a sad necessity. Niloy had made a pool of acid to throw any bodies and dangerous debris into and dissolve them. Afterwards, she’d turn it back into pure water.
Really, the deceased should either be left to the authorities or given a proper burial elsewhere, but there were just too many. In the meantime, they couldn’t leave them lying around to decay and contaminate the area or become monster bait.
Through Roque, The Fiends For Hire had become acquaintances with a body removal and crime cleanup business that was run by Lessers. For the odd occasion when they left a mess that was best to not let the police find. Drim and Phon had done background checks on them personally first to make sure they were people that could be trusted, but even this job would be too much.
Speaking of Roque, Drim made sure to meet with him next to see what he’d dug up. “Pretty much what we expected,” Roque reported. “All the crazy new tech has come from this place; aura sensors, draining handcuffs, some of those new body enhancing drugs.”
“They’ve also put a lot of research into both trying to make Lessers and Fiends artificially without having to kill someone, as well as trying to revert them back into human. No real progress made on the latter front, though. It goes into some weird occult stuff too since they’ve confirmed we’re dealing with the supernatural. There’s still a lot to dig through, so I’ll pass it over to Rusa when we get back.”
Lastly, Drim got on the bus to do a quick check of all the people they were bringing back to the compound. None of them were evil, though there were a few headed in that direction. It was most likely because of the extreme circumstances that would eventually lead to them snapping past the point of no return. Hopefully with proper time and rehabilitation, they could all be comfortably moved back to being mentally stable and productive members of society.
He did a short run up and down the aisle, replenishing the life of a few who needed it. Before he got off the bus, though, he gave a little speech. “Hello everyone, I’m Drim Drazah, leader of the Fiends For Hire. I just want to let you all know that we will be taking you back to our estate, to somewhere safe. There you’ll get a nice meal and a warm bed to sleep in for tonight.”
“Tomorrow, or whenever you’re ready, we’ll have personal discussions with each of you to decide your next steps. Whether you stay, need help returning home, or want a fresh start somewhere else, it’s up to you. More than anything else, I want to stress that your lives are now back in your own hands, and only you get to decide your future.”
◆◆◆
At a certain gas station the next morning, the clerk wondered why it was only ever when she was on duty that they received deliveries of people shipped in crates. It had been about a year since she opened up the crate with a green-haired knight inside, so she thought the worst was behind her. But now that she found an assassin entombed in wood, she'd seriously need to consider finding a new job if this was going to be a recurring thing.