30 minutes later

The news of the Fumetsu no Oni's defeat shook Zifang quite a bit.

The only times that the controller of this beast was ever defeated was when the opposing side either...

A: Made the Fumetsu no Oni burn through all of the mana of its summoners

OR

B: When the opposing side ignored the Oni outright and murdered the controller and summoners.

In the thousands of years the Fumetsu no Oni has graced its presence in hundreds of thousands of battlefields, never has it been damaged, let alone killed.

Yet 30 minutes ago, it was blown to smithereens.

Blood, guts and the occasional body part was sprinkled all over the capital in the most grizzly fashion possible.

To those people who believed so fervently in the Fumetsu no Oni's invincibility, this event was traumatic.

But the more shocking thing was the surprise mechanic hidden when it does die.

Theo initially thought that the oni was just stinky by nature, but the stench was actually a weapon in on itself.

When it died, it released a cloud of gut wrenching odor spread to approximately a 1 kilometer radius. All inside the AOE would feel an irresistible urge to vomit.

Now you're probably thinking: 'Simple solution. Gas Masks!'

Theo thought that as well. He called down one of his spy drone armories and equipped his helmet.

It didn't work.

In fact, it caused him to puke inside his helmet.

Fun fact: Drowning in one's own vomit does not feel good at all.

Since this was the first time in known history that the Fumetsu no Oni was ever defeated, no one had any idea what the vile fog was.

A couple of this were certain though.

First: The fog was some sort of curse, thus the Onmyoji's were needed to dispel it.

Till then, the capital's business district was off limits.

Second: For some reason, this fog did not go down the sewers.

Though Theo was thankful of this since this was his primary means of escaping the ZSDF, he still found the river of floating shit utterly disgusting.

This is only his unsubstantiated theory, but he believed that the stench would only appear where the blood of the oni was spilled.

Since the blast was directed skywards, the blood droplets were carried by the wind and scattered all over.

Theo felt guilty of subjecting the good people of the capital to such a horrific fate. He wouldn't wish the unbearable stench on his enemies. That's just how bad it was.

Anyways, with the Fumetsu no Oni indisposed, the greatest roadblock to the Imperial Palace has been removed.

For the next few minutes, he peacefully navigated through the sewers until he was exactly beneath the Imperial Palace.

After forcing down his signature lethally high calorie bars, Theo transmuted his way into what seemed to be an antiquated wooden cellar. Based on the scent of grapes in the air, it was probably a wine cellar.

He wasn't big on drinking so he had no idea if these were high quality or not.

If he could recall, wine often got more expensive as they aged.

The whole 'it aged like fine wine' saying came to his mind as he stealthily made his way through the cellar.

A idea did come to his mind as to how to abuse wine to his own advantage, but he decided to shelve the thought for now.

He had a job to do.

He asked the Hassan I Sabbah's infiltrators via coms for directions to his contact.

Surprisingly enough, meeting the Ex-Emperor was both easy and blatant.

A Hassan I Sabbah infiltrator came to get him from the cellar and led him, quite openly and brazenly, to a fancy waiting room at the middle part of the skyscrapper-like Zifang Imperial Castle.

The vast majority that he met on the way knelt as if he was some king or something.

Those who didn't kneel were confused at their colleagues' actions but simply shrugged it off and went about their business.

The infiltrator that led him told him that all who knelt were all Jabir clones of varying generation. Some looked like him, purple hair and dark skin, while most looked like Zifang natives.

Theo never ceased to be impressed by Jabir's skill as a fellow Midas Alchemist. Truly the ancient alchemist was someone to look up to.

After about 5 minutes of waiting, an old man and 4 scary looking samurai clad individuals walked in.

The old man was frail and had to use a cane to walk. Despite that, Theo's survival instincts were telling him that jumping off the window was a wise choice than being in the same room as the old man.

He knew this feeling oh so well.

He felt it from Nosferatu, Freya, Du Al Ryien and even La Ren Sithra.

The feeling that in front of a monster beyond comprehension.

And as a lowly little human at the ass end of the food chain, associating with such individuals was extremely detrimental to his physical and mental well being.

Nevertheless, there's a nuclear war coming and monsters such as the old man were exactly what they needed.

"Greetings young warrior. I am Takihiro Daisoujo, former emperor of Zifang. A pleasure to meet you." said the old man in a voice that was barely a whisper.

"My name is Theodore Lorne. Nice to meet your acquaintance. Let's not waste time shall we? What do you want?" replied Theo.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Hahaha! Right down to business huh? Normally people would ask what's wrong with my voice! And to answer that, I often replied with 'A failed assassination attempt'. Poison specifically made for spirit mediums such as myself does horrible things to the body."

"I see.... I didn't ask about it though."

"Indeed you didn't my friend. But when you get so powerful both in politics and in the battlefield as I have, people whom you can talk to as equals are few. Just consider me as an old man that likes to talk to much."

"'Equals' huh... Aside from some cybernetics, I'm mostly human you know?"

"True. But you are also the first person in history to destroy the supposedly Fumetsu no Oni. You may human, but you are most certainly not normal. And that's if we ignore that you are an apostle of the Machine God. So yes, we are equals."

"Huh... If you say so..." said Theo as he squirmed under the Machine God crap. "Still, I am in a country where I cant understand the language and where everyone is pretty much my enemy. I'd like to conclude our business ASAP."

"If you put it that way, then I understand. Long story short: I want you to stop my son's marriage."

"Ugh. Predictable. And I guess the reason is equally boring."

"Right you are, but please listen anyway. Quite simply, I love my son. He is my only child after all, so it goes without saying that I care for his well being. Sadly, he's a bad judge of character. That's probably why he has a very good impression of my wife."

"Hmm. That that you mention it, I don't ever recall any news about your wife."

"Of course you haven't since the news has been suppressed. That unfaithful whore has been sleeping with other men behind my back. In fact, me and my son have no blood relations."

"Not open to the idea of being a part of a harem?"

"While Zifang has made large strides in libertarian thinking, we're still very much a conservative society. Monogamy is the only status of marriage we recognize."

"I understand. If I wasn't such a perv, I'd probably be in the same boat. By the way, what happened to your wife?"

"I gifted my wife and her many boyfriends some concrete shoes. Let's leave it at that."

"So be it. Anyways, let's go back to the job. My mission is to murder your son's wife right? No problem."

"Heavens no! While it's pretty damn obvious that that Jade woman is a spy, she's too incompetent to be a professional. I'd say she's closer to an unwitting honey trap than an actual operative."

"Okay? ... I still don't get what I'm suppose to do." replied Theo while knowing that he has watched enough hentai to know where this was going.

"Quite simply, I want you to kidnap Princess Xaio Ning and 'convince' her to abandon her pursuit of my son Akatsuki."

"Shit! I knew it!"

Theo despised the whole idea of stealing someone else's lover out of pure principle. He may be a scum, but there were lows he refused to go down to even if its for the sake of the mission.

He's a vanilla guy through and through.

He decided to probe the ex-emperor to see if there was a way out of this unsavory course of action.

"I see.... Torture huh? Not my cup of tea but I guess it cant be helped." said Theo in an attempt to shift the plan away from cucking.

"... You're a violent one, arent you... What I meant to say is that you seduce her to your side. Based on the Hassan I Sabbah's info and my own understanding, Xaoi Ning is what you call an 'easy girl'. She's about 1 or 2 years younger than you, thus her hormones will be the dominant factor of her decision making. She'll be easy pickings for someone like you who has some training in these types of things."

"Hoooold up! Isn't your son at his late 30's?"

"39 to be exact. What of it?"

"Dude! He's double her age!"

"So what? .... Ah... Right. I forgot about the difference in our culture. Since ancient times, there has been no age restrictions to marriages amongst the royalty. Marriage is for political power after all. Akatsuki's marriage, however, is not like that. Apparently it was love at first sight. The girl probably feels the same thing but it's not as intense as my son's feelings for her. As such, swaying her is very much a possibility."

"Gah! I DONT CARE! Why do I have steal someone else's lover?! Cant we just threaten or blackmail her? Take a family member hostage or something?"

"We cant. This is a princess of the Jade Empire we're talking about here. She's nothing more than a throw away piece just like anyone outside the little emperor's circle, and she knows it. She'll probably be happy if we do kill anyone of her family members."

"Damn... That's messed up."

"Indeed. Returning home will kill her. Marrying into my family will make her a spy. Killing her makes you a murderer of the innocent. The best way to remove her from the equation and get some valuable information about the secretive Jade Court, we need her to reveal it willingly. What she needs is a safe place to go home to and here in Zifang where the influence of the Jade Empire is very much present is not that place."

"I see.... Oh! What about Vivi? That guy can pretty much stick his dick inside any hole."

"In the seduction phase, Vivi Cornielo would have been ideal. However, aside from controlling the Garden of Eden, that's really the only thing he can do. I doubt he could take down the Fumetsu no Oni, nor could he have caused enough mayhem to force my son to postpone the wedding a couple of hours as he dealt with the threat."

"Eh? The wedding was postpone?"

"Of course. You just destroyed one of Zifang's pride and joy. The government now views you as a threat like no other and they will act accordingly."

Theo groaned loudly.

It seems that his blacklist has been upgraded to wanted criminal free of charge.

As a weeb, being labeled as a public enemy in the land of otaku culture stung quite a bit.

"Don't despair young one. Aside from the media backlash, you will receive no repercussions in this incident." said Takihiro Daisoujo, giving Theo some ray of hope.

"For real?!"

"I am hardly the only one that opposes this union. While the public supports the marriage between Akatsuki and Xiao Ning, those who can see beyond the worthless lovey dovey garbage can see the first step to a long subversion campaign. Though Akatsuki will bitch and moan at the start, I and many who actually have brains would go through the motions but will make sure that nothing will be accomplished. All you need to do is lay low for awhile. I'm sure Lord Jabir ibn Hayan and Lord Nosferatu can make you disappear for a couple of months. And given the major event on the horizon, I think we need to focus on our preparations."

"Hmm... You make a good point..." said Theo before something unexpected happened.

Without warning, the temperature spiked to that of a hot summer day. A clear sign that the winds of magic were in use.

On top of that, the feeling of being squashed by an unseen pressure pressed all over Theo's body. This was a signature for Chi based powers.

In front of him, he could see that Takihiro Daisoujo and his men were experiencing the same thing.

Suddenly, a massive shadow blacked out the clear and starry skies.

Theo immediately knew what this was.

"So this is the Garden of Eden huh. Impressive as advertised." said Takihiro as he stood at the window.

"This is also my chance to finish my mission. Tell me where this Xiao Ning is while everyone's attention is on the big scary floating island." said Theo as he geared up as fast as possible.

"Very well. Good hunting my friend."

-:-

On top of skyscraper-like Imperial Castle was a room reserved for the royal family.

It was approximately 3 normal hotel rooms in size and had the fanciest furniture befitting the royalty.

Aside from the 4 armed guards just outside the door and reinforced bullet proof glass for the window, the security was fairly low.

But then again, with the absurd levels of security inside every floor, only a madman would try to get to the top floor the traditional way.

As such, Theo used his grappling guns to climbed up from the outside.

Normally there would be flying stone golems stationed on the walls, but the ex-emperor had them secretly turned off.

Thank the hentai gods for that.

Inside the room was a beautiful girl. She wore a pure white Chang' ao (a classical Jade Empire formal wear), was approximately half a head shorter than Theo, had short red hair and physical appearance could be described in one word.... THICC.

She had big breasts and had a body that curved in all the right places.

Based on ex-emp Takihiro and the Hassan I Sabbah reports, she was a socially awkward girl that spent most of her time either playing computer games, watching anime or masturbating to hentai.

No wonder the Jade Empire was more than happy to throw her to the wolves.

Calling her the black sheep of the royal family was an understatement.

In short, she was someone Theo would get along splendidly.

How the Emperor got this otaku girl to agree to marry was a mystery.

After checking through all of the games Xiao Ning has ever played, Theo was able to come up with a script that would end their meeting without resorting to violence.

He transmuted a human sized hole in the bullet proof glass and climbed right in.

Naturally, Xiao Ning felt the sudden gust of wind and turned to face him.

"W-who are y-?!" said the clearly terrified girl.

Theo fired his grappling arm and skillfully covered her mouth before she could make any noise.

He dragged her towards him, and before the soon-to-be Zifang empress could react, he copied one of the characters in one of her favorite games and gave her a very deep french kiss.

Xiao Ning resisted at first, but a relentless 30 second assault on her orifice made her docile. Just to be sure, Theo continued for another 30 seconds until her legs lost power, her breathing ragged and her eyes (and probably her loins) were moist.

"*huff* *huff*.... Who... are you?" asked Xiao Ning in a manner of a love struck maiden.

Theo proceeded with his short yet impactful script.

"I'm Theodore Lorne. Xiao Ning, it's time to set you free."

With a blushing face filled that screamed 'love at first sight', Theo swept Xiao Ning off her feet.

Seriously, this girl is waaaaay too easy!