The hideout of Sasani's gang was silent, and the air was full of blood. Mbakulini Enam infused more mana into the symbols written on the papyrium to stabilise the orb-web concealing the voi-den. He made it so even the 5th Floor’s sun-elf priests would have trouble detecting the abundance of dark magic in this area.

He looked around. He had killed many people in his life, but right now, looking at the bodies beneath his feet, even he could barely hide his revulsion. The bodies of over thirty men, women, and even a few unfortunate children littered the floor. The walls were smeared with blood, the floor covered in severed limbs, lifeless eyes staring blankly into the air. Even though he had performed countless rituals in order to earn the power of corruption, and sacrificed plenty of lives to make himself stronger, the sheer brutality of this slaughter was overwhelming. Just because he was an assassin did not mean he had to enjoy murder.

Poor things; it would have been better for them if they never heard the name Perinda Housci.

Mbakulini took a deep breath and cradled his Void Emerald, the dark, persuasive voice inside it calling out to him. If he did not get his fix now, he was in danger of being consumed. He reached out to the sealed corruption of the Void Emerald and assimilated some of it into himself. He could feel the corrupted energy inside him burning his veins as he absorbed the karma from the dead. He took in just enough to sate the void inside his mana core, no more. It wouldn't do to relapse into addiction at this stage. He had to remain in control, especially considering who was there with him.

Perinda Housci stood up, his blade still covered with fresh blood. He was dripping wet, his black robes flowing with blood as if he were an angel of death, especially with the horn on his forehead. His eyes, cold and dilated with corruption, scanned the bloody room with satisfaction. It reminded Mbakulini of the first time they met, five years ago, in the tutorial. Perinda let the blood on his blade drip onto the floor as soon as Sasani finished off the last member of the gang. Sasani's whole body was trembling, his face soaked with sweat as he took in the slaughter of his people, the gang he had once led with pride. Even though Perinda and Mbakulini had done the bulk of the work, he had killed a lot of his subordinates too.

“I know this was necessary, what with Jandri Kila Kaurion ruthlessly sniffing our guild outposts and sending her forces to raid our voi-dens but…” Sasani looked down at the dead. “They trusted me. They swore their lives to me. Couldn’t we have moved the base?”

Mbakulini resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"I do not want to hear a word from someone like you. You went and got yourself killed by two level 10 rookies,” Perinda said, his voice unusually low.

For someone prone to mood swings, he was too calm for Mbakulini's liking, so he stepped away from the two of them. He retreated to the far edge of the orb-web so he would not be caught up in whatever attack the demonkin was planning.

“10?" Sasani blanched. "No, they were at least level 13. B-besides, they may be rookies, but they are rankers. I was outnumbered! That's why I awakened, but that Langa Zulu... could wield corruption without a Void Gem!"

That statement made Mbakulini blink in surprise. Branded. There were no mortals he hated more than those. In his world, they were actively hunted, and any child born with the Brand of corruption died in the cradle. Those who slipped through the gaps—those who had any dark magic at all—naturally turned their power against the world. He'd been a weak child when he watched the Branded terrorist who called himself The Artist tear down the entire system of his world, taking away the 30th Floor's access to magic before integration.

The world had despaired its loss, turning to science to replace magic, but Mbakulini craved the power of corruption for himself. The Branded had no idea how lucky they were to bathe in the ashes of the creator of the lost race. They had no idea how hard regular people had to work to get a taste of that power, how much they had to sacrifice, being labelled as voidents, and losing alignment just to obtain a sliver of that precious power.

They took the gift for granted, and he hated them for it. So now hearing that a stupid rookie had only managed to best Sasani, who had spent years painstakingly raising the rank of his Void Gem, just because he was Branded, awoke the anger in his heart. It awoke his desire to become connected to a greater purpose by using the Branded as a sacrifice to raise the rank of his Void Gem.

He closed his eyes, feeling the stolen corruption inside him flare up. He had to calm down. When he opened his eyes, Sasani and Perinda were still talking.

"Did I not teach you never to fight a losing battle? If you saw that you were cornered, why didn't you do the cowardly thing and run?" Perinda asked.

"They killed my Piria. She didn't have any respawns left, and they killed her," said Sasani, his voice rising. "I'll never forgive them for it. Send me back down, sir. I’ll bring you their heads, I swear.”

"You've got to be fucking pulling my horn," Perinda said, and immediately, his karma intensified, exerting pressure on the surroundings as his anger grew. It was all Mbakulini could do to grit his teeth and ensure that the orb-web remained standing amid the karma pressure of a Tier 2 player much stronger than him. The walls of the treehouse crumbled under it, and Sasani staggered until he fell to his knees.

"Sir? Why are you doing this?" Sasani croaked out, confused. The fact that he even had to ask was exasperating to Mbakulini.

“The Vonelle Heilliege Guild means everything to me. I helped Hintazo build it into the mercenary empire it is today. I was the one who found us a way to elevate it to the top ten of this Tower,” he said. “I did the same for you. You were nothing, Sasani-Zine. I created you, built you up, and trained you from the goodness of my heart. I made you our liaison to the Accari Crows on this Storey because I trusted you. I promised Hintazo that you would be discreet. I promised her that the guild would always come first for you, but what? You lost it because of a fucking familiar?!”

Looking at his outraged face, Mbakulini couldn't help but remember that, at first, Perinda had worked so hard on the guild because he was angry that he hadn't been allowed to join The Hallow Reapers, but with time, it became a passion of his. It was something he had achieved on his own without his brother's help, so he was proud of the guild. It was something Mbakulini could relate to, given how close-knit his crew was.

Sasani's head hung low. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to disappoint you. Please give me a chance to make it up to you."

“I'm glad you said that, Sasani, because you have disgraced me. Your inability to protect the guild has put me in a very difficult situation," Perinda said, looking down at him and withdrawing his karma pressure. "To sway public opinion, we need to show the Tower and the Guardians that we, as The Vonelle Heilliege Guild, do not tolerate voidents in our guild. Your head will be proof enough.”

It was at that moment that Sasani finally understood his predicament. Mbakulini shook his head. The fool should have fled instead of running back to his mentor for help. Sure Perinda was a voident too, but in public, he was a rogue former member of The Vonelle Heilliege guild, running loose and tarnishing their good name.

"Perinda, please." Sasani's voice was a desperate whisper, his hands held up. "I made a mistake, I know, but we can fix this. We can—"

Seeing the unimpressed look on Perinda’s face, Sasani knew that there was no changing his mind. There was only one way to save himself, and that was to fight back. If he was panicking this much, it meant that he did not have any respawns left and was desperately looking for a way to survive. There was a significant level difference between them, and there was no way to win against the person who taught him his magic. Of course, such rational thoughts were discarded when his life was in danger.

The flow of lucents in the air was disturbed as Sasani hurriedly activated his divine skill, covering his body in impenetrable earthen armour. Perinda's lip curled into a sneer, and then there was a tiny flash of light in the otherwise dark orb-web. When Mbakulini blinked, Perinda's divine artefact, Valefar's Ghostblade dagger, was plunged into Sasani’s throat.

The armour Sasani was so proud of, the armour that had saved his life countless times and made him a fearsome opponent, was penetrated as easily as butter by the ghost blade. Perinda's movements were quick and merciless, his expression unchanging as he twisted the blade and ripped it out, blood pouring out out of the gaping wound.

Mbakulini tried not to flinch. Even he had no defence against Perinda’s divine artefact or many of his maladies. Making an enemy of a monster like him was foolishness. Sasani crumpled to the ground, clutching his throat. "Please... don't," he choked out, his eyes pleading.

The only thing Perinda did not do was hesitate. He covered his hand in a black shadow and drove it into Sasani's chest through his muscle and bone. The sound was a wet sickening noise as Perinda's hand plunged into the wound, and tore out Sasani's heart. The organ pulsed weakly in his grasp, blood dripping from his fingers onto the floor.

Sasani's eyes glazed over, his body going limp. Perinda raised the heart to his mouth and bit down on the pink flesh, blood dripping down his mouth. He ate it without caring that he was being watched and licked the blood off his lips. Once he was done, he wiped his bloodied hand on his robes.

Disgusting. Mbakulini thought. It was even more unsettling when Perinda turned to Mbakulini, his eyes cold and indifferent as if he hadn’t just killed one of his most precious subordinates.

In times like this, Perinda reminded Mbakulini of his brother. It reminded him that no matter how ruthless and cold he could be, Perinda was the much, much tamer of the two. He was playful at times but passionate about what he loved and unforgiving to those who crossed him.

At his current workplace, Mbakulini specialised more in espionage and political sabotage, with once-off assassinations here and there. It had been a while since he had seen such slaughter. He was getting rusty, but he didn’t think that was a bad thing. Still, he reminded himself to live with this because Perinda paid well. In their line of work, loyalty was often bought with coin rather than respect.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Go ahead and clean this shit up. We can't leave any traces behind. Or else those damn elves will be on our asses."

Mbakulini nodded. This was the real reason he’d been hired, after all. The killing was just an added extra for more pay. He made an opening for Perinda and himself to exit the orb-web so he could do the cleanup.

The outside was a floating grassland populated by pretty flying butterflies and glowflies. The sun shone lazily in the sky, making the entire area bright and warm. To Mbakulini, this was almost as revolting as the murder scene, especially once Perinda took down his void veil.

The reason they had used his orb-web instead of just a void veil was because of how sensitive the 5th Floor was to dark magic. The sun elves worshipped the unsleeping golden sun as if it were a god. Anyone who used unauthorised dark magic was hunted down and brought before the sun priests. Mbakulini understood why they placed so much importance on the sun, after all, there was never night in this place, it was sunny all day long. He hated this Floor with a passion. How did they even tell the time with such a shitty daylight system?

Once he was done cursing the scorching sun, he got to work.

First, Mbakulini drank a mana potion and then he wrote a khatt on the papyrium and uttered the incantation. His mana core was in the shape of a spiderweb, and it allowed his mana to follow specific directions at his command with his mana circulation method. Once the incantation was active, the orb-web surrounding them came alive, wrapping all the dead bodies inside it and then crushing them. He then poured digestive juice over the body and liquefied it. He did not feel comfortable using the juice in front of Perinda so he poured it into a jar and stored it inside his inventory. Once he was done, he turned to see the demonkin speaking to someone on his comcer.

"Yeah, I killed him too; it was one less loose end," he said. "Don’t worry, Hintazo, there is nothing to fret about," he said. He listened for a moment, then turned to look at Mbakulini with a smile. “The assassin? Of course, I killed him too; I’m not stupid. You just concentrate on playing the victim card. It always works. Everybody loves you.”

Mbakulini snorted as Perinda took another pause. “No. I keep telling you that it isn’t the right time for us to abandon the light. I’ll let you know when we’re ready to crush them,” he said, then laughed. “You know me; I’m optimistic. Alright. I’ll be careful.”

He sighed once he ended the call.

“She doesn’t know that I’m the one you hired, does she?” Mbakulini asked. If Hintazo knew, she would have been against it because Perinda wouldn’t kill him after the job was done. “You could have called any other disposable assassin, so why me?”

Instead of answering, however, Perinda levelled him with a shrewd gaze. “You make enough money at your regular job. You didn’t need to take this job, so why did you come?”

He shrugged. “More money is always welcome,” he said, dodging the question. “Speaking of money, when are you paying me?”

“Alright, calm down.” Perinda fiddled with his comcer for a moment, and then Mbakulini’s comcer beeped as the silver was deposited into his coin purse.

“It was lovely doing business with you,” Mbakulini said, eager to return home.

A hand touched his shoulder. “Please wait. I’m not feeling too good right now." Perinda produced two vials of purple powder from his bag and held them out. "Maybe you and I could-”

“No,” Mbakulini said firmly. If Perinda did not move his hand, he would release his third arm and burn it off.

Perhaps Perinda's instincts warned him of the danger because he instantly let go. “Are you still mad about Miliana's bad voilus powder? That was a long time ago.”

Mbakulini closed his eyes. “That’s not it. I just have a little more self-respect now. I don't use that crap anymore, so get it out of my face. Do you really want to burn bridges with me, considering I'm the only friend you have?"

"After everything we've been through together, are we ever really going to be just friends?" Perinda asked, with a somewhat sad look in his eyes.

"Don't say it like that, it sounds weird." Mbakulini took a deep breath. "Are we done here?”

“Fine,” Perinda pouted. “But there is something I want to talk to you about.”

”What?” he asked in annoyance.

“I have a confession to make,” Perinda said, looking up at the sun. How was it not burning him in those stifling black robes?

”Keep it to yourself or go to The Sullied Demon Cloud‘s temple. I don’t want to hear it,” he muttered.

Of course, Perinda ignored him. “This entire situation was actually kinda my fault. I was playing around taunting the Guardians and at the same time trying to recruit a rookie,” he said. “How was I supposed to know he’d resent me and plunge the whole guild into chaos? The truth is, Sasani was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and I put him there.”

That was typical of him. ”So? Do you want me to say you're forgiven? Because you're not—not for this, I don't care about Sasani, but for Kerafonika,” Mbakulini told him. It was true. He hated his part in that tragedy, and it all started with Perinda playing around with other people’s lives, as he always did.

“Enam. She made her choice. I’ve told you this multiple times before, but you and I were just stepping stones that Anarchist used to turn this Tower into disarray,” he said quietly. “No one knows or cares about our part in that story.”

Did he have any idea how cruel those words were? “It must be nice not to feel guilt.”

”What’s something useless like guilt going to do for me?” Perinda asked with a shrug.

Gods, he was infuriating. “If there is nothing else, I’m leaving,” Mbakulini said as he put his mask back on.

”Wait,” Perinda called out. “I’d like to hire you for a job.”

"Oh? Who do you want me to kill?”

“This is a serious job, it’s not just a kill. I want a permakill. No respawns left,” he said. “The target is the rookie named Langa Zulu. He amused me, and I wanted to see where his path went, but this time, he pissed me off. I’ll pay you extra if you can also permakill the one named SynnForessa.”

Oh, so he wanted to get rid of the two players who defeated Sasani and exposed the Vonelle Heilliege Guild’s voident ties? Mbakulini was admittedly tempted by the opportunity to snuff out the potential of a Branded rookie and turn him into nothing more than karma for himself. But what if the Branded rookie took control of his Void Emerald as he did to Sasani? This was a risky job, and it was surprising that Perinda was not jumping down to handle them himself.

“I’ve never known you to shy away from bullying those weaker than you. Are you afraid of the backlash? Is that why you won’t do it yourself?” He asked suspiciously.

“No. I'm not going down to the lower Floors anymore. I’m done with this Storey,” he said. “It’s time to Ascend. The 12th Floor is waiting for me.”

Even though he was a master at concealing his emotions, Mbakulini could not help but let out a gasp of surprise. Why did Perinda want to brave The Great Tree that was the First Storey? Was he insane? He was not even level 25 yet!

Mbakulini liked the Ground Storey because it was filled with rookies, cowards from Batch three, and untalented stragglers from the first two batches. Here, as a high ranker from Batch 3, Mbakulini was one of the strongest players, especially on his home base on the 3rd Floor.

“Why?” he asked in surprise.

Perinda grinned. “Unlike you, I’m not fond of being a big fish in a small pond, Enam. It makes me uncomfortable being the strongest down here while he continues to climb and grow stronger. We entered this Tower together yet he's on the 21st Floor now. That’s the curse of growing up with a monster, I guess.”

His words didn’t bother Mbakulini. He liked going into battles he knew he could win; it wasn’t cowardice, but instead being smart enough to choose his battles. “When will you start living for yourself and stop chasing your brother? You and I both know he doesn't care about you."

"That's right coming from you. V-...Anarchist cares for me, in his own way. He would never let anything happen to me,” Perinda said sadly. “Even if I were to tell him how much I hate him, he wouldn’t take me seriously because I wouldn’t truly believe it.”

“Then why are you walking into a psychopath’s den for someone like that? Aren’t you scared to enter Na'koma’s hunting grounds?” Mbakulini asked.

Everyone knew the bounty hunter considered the First Storey his hunting ground, and any voident gangs he targeted were annihilated without a trace. Na'koma was rumoured to be in late Tier 2, so Perinda would be easy prey for him.

A lazy smirk graced the demonkin’s face. “Are you worried about me, Enam?”

“No,” Mbakulini said sharply. “Good luck climbing The Great Tree. As for the job, sorry, but you know I’m too busy to go down to the 1st Floor to hunt some rookies for you.”

Perinda gave him a pointed stare. “Come now; we both know you are addicted to hunting the Branded. Besides, I’m sure the 3rd Floor’s royal family can spare you for a couple of days.”

“I said no,” he told him firmly.

“Fine, then I guess it’s your loss,” Perinda said with a shrug. “If you permakilled Langa Zulu and SynnForessa, I would have considered your debt paid.”

Mbakulini turned to him sharply. Was he serious? For two years, he had owed Perinda a massive debt that cost more than his life for his help in clearing the 6th Floor. Living with the burden of not knowing when the demonkin would call in his favour was nerve-wracking.

“If I do this, I won’t owe you a damn thing anymore, right? You swear it?” Mbakulini asked.

“On The Sullied Demon Cloud's honour," he swore.

“Fine. I guess I’ll be making a trip to the 1st Floor then,” he said. He needed to find their respawn points first to know how to permakill them. “Is it an urgent job?”

“No. You don’t have to go down to the 1st Floor. They will reach the 3rd Floor within a few months, then you can take them out. Get them to let their guard down a little,” Perinda said.

Well, if he wasn’t in a hurry, then Mbakulini could wait too. Even though he was itching to get his hands on the Branded player, he firmly believed that the longer the chase, the more satisfying the catch. “Alright. I’ll let you know when it’s done.”

“The Guardian Knight will be making an announcement condemning our guild for working with voidents soon,” Perinda told him. "I hear she plans to go hard on us to make us an example in her passive-aggressive war with The Hallow Reapers. I sure hope Khan can salvage this situation."

The Guardian Knight was known for her ruthlessness, and Mbakulini knew that while The Vonelle Heilliege guild would not completely disappear, it would be heavily crippled. Mbakulini wondered if he could use the desperate Vonelle Heilliege members to peddle auzone for him or to assist with his plans for the 3rd Floor. He wasn't going to tell Perinda that, of course, but desperate people made for cheap labour, and he was nothing if not thrifty.

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked.

Perinda shrugged. “Just, if you want to get hold of me, do so through Discord's connections.”

Mbakulini couldn’t help but feel the repulsion that filled his entire body at the mention of that name. Meeting that person once every three months was more than enough.

“No, I’ll wait for you to contact me. Be careful, Perinda,” he said.

“Oh, my dear Enam. I knew you still cared about me,” Perinda said with a smile.

Mbakulini activated his Silken Veil, writing the khatt in his papyrium scroll. The veil wove around him, and he went into his stealth state.

As he made his way home, Mbakulini allowed himself to be excited about hunting a Branded player. How much could Mbakulini torture him to bring out the monster inside? How delightful would it be to feel and destroy Langa Zulu's entire being? Ah, Mbakulini's karma stirred, tempting the addiction he'd worked so hard to temper.

He would savour the moment life left his eyes and his Void Emerald absorbed whatever corruption remained inside his Brand.