Alvirtue Parts was located on the edge of the abandoned zone, closer to the city's outskirts than the center. It was close to the Shav Gang's territory, which was ruled by a Demi-Dominator rumored to have swapped his entire body for cyberware.
Only a minority of people went all-out on body implants, but surprisingly, five of the Fifty Hegemons had gone that path, another seven had more cyberware than natural limbs, and most of the others used one thing or another. There should be something to cyberware that Shen and E'livia hadn't uncovered yet, or it just happened that the cultivators willing to sacrifice the most for their bodies were the ones who had no qualms about giving up everything for power.
Whitemetal Park, which was merely an open space with benches scattered around and no greenery, occupied a considerable chunk of the Whitemetal District. It had been built with white alloys but patched with different shades of gray metal over time. The poor and destitute Initiates, who should not be on that city floor except for working, had taken over the area and built a dense shacktown of shitty metal dwellings. Only one business could be found there, right in the middle: Alvirtue Parts.
The vehicle workshop was wide, taking a massive part of the shacktown. It was three stories tall with two underground floors. The underground was the most illegal part, as no one was allowed to expand downwards on any city level; the annexes looked too ugly from below. Only multi-city-level buildings could bypass that rule. However, Alvirtue Parts had been used as a gang headquarters before, with a Demi-Dominator ruler who had some pull. After the gang fell, the powers-that-be allowed the underground floors to remain for a fee.
Shen enjoyed learning about Cylek's history. Despite all its deaths, the city felt alive in a way he had never seen in another place. People were ambitious and driven, and different dreams had clashed for countless years until the city shifted into its current form. Every cubic inch had been fought for before. Everyone wanted to leave their mark in the city as they cultivated ever forward.
There was a single "road" leading to Alvirtue in Whitemetal Town, as the shacktown ended up being called, though it was more of a maze of wide spaces without any buildings. Nobody flew over the houses, and Conceptualizers wearing the blue and silver of Alvirtue Parts didn't try to hide where they stood guard, on top of multiple places, checking any potential passerby. Four Overlords watched over everything from the four corners of Alvirtue's concrete-looking building.
Usually, only one Overlord would be there. Those four were the strongest combatants of Alvirtue, though none were even close to mastering a single Law. Shen had killed the female Proven Overlord—mastered Laws without a Domain—who owned the place when he took over because she had used the underground space for forced sex labor.
That was one thing he didn't get about Cylek: the focus on carnal pleasure. Sure, his times with E'livia were crazily pleasurable, but that didn't explain why people would be so desperate for such services that tyrants would resort to forcing others to work to meet the demand. Shen was pretty sure his time with E'livia differed from what others experienced, as it satiated him for a long while—though he, obviously, enjoyed more of it whenever he could—and didn't leave him wanting for others.
Anyway, Shen flew over Whitemetal Town as if he owned the place, which he did. The men of Alvirtue bowed or nodded to him. He landed on the rooftop, and the four Overlords bowed deeper than anyone had bowed to him today, even the Conceptualizers he had just flown by.
Shen smiled while shaking his head. They had never been as outright antagonistic to him as the dojo guys had been, but they were also nowhere near that respectful the last time he visited. Obviously, news had spread from how he had dealt with the traitors.
The four Overlords were lavils, a word that was a direct mix of lava and evil. Lavils were a race of lava elementals that had once been akin to Earth's folklore of devils or demons. Shen had yet to find any evidence of lavils being any worse than any other "neutral" race, as those without strong tendencies were called, except for them not caring about the former leader's forced labor. The female leader had been a water elemental, a race considered to counterbalance lavils' evilness. There had been no indication that the lavils had influenced the water elemental in any way.
The stronger a lavil was, the redder the lava of its body became. The four lavils present were all a mix of orange and yellow, with one having red hues on his face. The lava didn't move around in their bodies; it was fixed and mostly solid without becoming actual rocks. Their faces were humanoid like the rest of their bodies, and their faces were too similar; Shen could pinpoint differences here and there, but it was still easier to differentiate between them using their Paths.
They wore blue and silver plate armor without helmets. The plates and the lavils' frames were thick, making them look like badasses.
"Number One, report," Shen commanded.
Lavils' names were actually impossible to pronounce using biological lips. Shen could use qi to utter them, but lavils were used to being nicknamed. If any of the four had a personal issue with that, they hadn't shown it even before Shen killed the traitors in the dojo. They certainly wouldn't voice it from now on, either.
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Number One, the strongest lavil, stood straight and replied, "We received news of what happened to Binay's Dojo." Right, that's what that place was called. "Numbers Three and Four voted for us to assist as soon as the news arrived. Number Two abstained. I decided against it. Everyone knows you own Binay's—or used to own it. Anyone attacking it would be prepared to deal with your wrath. They would also be prepared for backup. Fortifying this more valued position and waiting for your command was the best play."
Lavils had no vocal cords and spoke using their Paths, moving the air to produce sound. They chose how to make their "voices" sound, and it was usual to see such an imposing guy speak with such a thin voice.
"You did well," Shen replied.
Evidently, Number One hadn't cared about helping Shen, as he could've sent news to Shen sooner. But this was Shen's way of saying to let bygones be bygones. Shen had never officially merged or structured the forces under him, so it did make sense for them not to fight for each other. After all, his lack of structure meant he didn't care enough for them to act as one force under him.
"Things will change from now on," Shen continued. "I'm funding a new gang. It shall be called Blackhall." It was as good a gang name as any, though he only picked it because the region was called Whitemetal, and he was feeling sassy. He saw no reason to overthink his new gang's name."Alvirtue shall become Blackhall's temporary headquarters. Paint the building black and swap the blue of Alvirtue's uniforms for black. Our insignia will be a black crown. Get it drawn and displayed everywhere. Send Conceptualizers to order representatives from all my thirty-seven businesses to come here. Establish a scouting and information network. I want to be informed as soon as we're attacked."
There was a lot of work to do, but Shen discovered that he found it soothing.
It turned out that he really enjoyed bossing people around.
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Whoever had burned the dojo was playing the long game. They went a while without attacking again, likely hoping for Shen to grow lax. Instead, he used the time to beat a proper force out of his new subordinates.
Shen's businesses stopped being "outposts" with a limited area of influence around them and became parts of a proper, whole territory on that floor, including many other businesses in between that he took over. He left legitimate businesses alone but defeated or killed a lot of bad actors.
Alvirtue became the headquarters despite being on the edge of the area. There was little choice in the matter, as it was also the most valuable spot. Shen couldn't lose it, both because of the money it generated and the humiliation it would represent.
At least, that's what he made it look like.
Cylek had fast internal communication structures, but Shen had yet to find any he trusted. He used the most common telephone-like one, but only for inconsequential matters, as it could be easily listened upon or jammed. E'livia was working on getting them a trustworthy comms system, but for now, he depended on good old messengers—which could also be easily intercepted.
Establishing fail-safes for interception was easier than dealing with communication enchantments, so it was no surprise that Shen did get word when the next attack came.
It happened precisely one month after the first attack. A weak, four-armed dwarven Overlord rushed into Shen's office in Alvirtue and informed, "Symphonia is under attack."
That was a low blow. Symphonia was a charity project to take people out of addiction and into music. Such places were often ignored in gang wars because addicts were useless to everyone except drug lords.
It didn't escape Shen's notice that the Shav Gang dealt heavily with drugs, and Blackhall was very close to their territory.
Attacking Symphonia was, above all, a statement that accepting help from Blackhall meant death. It was twice as effective as any other attack on a similar place because Symponia was close to the center of Blackhall territory. The enemy had infiltrated and attacked it unnoticed, and all communications had been blocked during the attack. Shen would still be in the dark if not for that dwarf's Bloodtwin Imprint.
Bloodtwin Imprint was a special technique that required twin cultivators to have the Axioms of Water in their Path, with a Law related to blood. They also had to have a similar level of power. It could be triggered in multiple ways, the most valuable of which, which could bypass most anti-communication techniques, required one of the twins to die. A slightly weaker effect could be triggered by sacrificing a drop of their blood essence.
That was another thing Shen liked about the Shaft: so many interesting techniques!
The excitement was muted by what Shen could see in the dwarf's desperate eyes. The guy hoped his twin had used his blood essence and was still alive.
Shen stood up and rushed to the rooftop. Numbers Three and Number Four were waiting up there. He could feel within his domain that Numbers One and Two had already started rushing to the rooftop when Shen left his office. They would replace Three and Four, who left flying with Shen, just in case he was surrounded and needed a distraction.
Blackhall Town had been rebuilt from the ground up. Shen allowed the former residents to remain there—as a distraction for his enemies—but the place was now built with multiple walls of enchanted defenses, with the inner circles being guard posts or actual thick walls rather than residences. A flying cultivator could bypass all that but would become an easier target. Dozens of Conceptualizers and two dozen Overlords were stationed throughout the town.
Shen and the two lavils flew straight to Symphonia. They felt a shockwave of a big explosion halfway through there. A moment later, as Shen reached where Symphonia had been, Shen saw a heavily injured finac—a kind of very thin shark beastman—in the epicenter of an explosion.
Shen had obviously known the Shav Gang dealt with drugs and might resent the most recent gang to sprout so close, so he had set up a trap in Symphonia, among many others. The worst of them was in Alvirtue, as making him leave his headquarters to then attack it was the oldest book in the play. That was part of the reason Shen made sure to value the place so overtly and publicly—
A massive shockwave shook the very air Shen was floating on, quickly followed by light and plasma. Shen turned to see a purple and green plasma mushroom growing from Blackhall's direction.