Ch57: Poisoning the Larne

In a heavenly realm far from the Fusion Realm.

Here, the ground did not exist. Or perhaps, it would be more accurate so say that the clouds and mists were the ground itself. There was no up or down. A triangular-capped building of silvery pearl and noble gold was flipped upside down, another tower of the same theme at an odd-slanted angle.

Despite many structures at different angles, there was still a golden ratio to their placement, creating an orderly three-dimensional surrounding spherical cluster of sorts.

An ephemeral group of goddesses moved around, and with a single step on a 'wall', their orientation in space changed, and the group appeared as if they now were gliding across a 'wall'.

All these buildings surrounded one singular massive spherical structure in the middle with towers that stretched in every direction. This was the heart of this heavenly realm, the Heaven's Palace!

If one were given the opportunity to enter the Heaven's Palace, they would find themselves traveling through many connected small worlds contained within. One might be a lush-green forest, another might be an endless ocean.

A flowing gold and silver bearded man entered a space that contained a star map surrounding a platform in an encasing dome. He was dressed in a full jet-black robe with silver and gold-gilded edges.

"Allfather," a woman stood from her cross-legged position and greeted the man by prostrating to the ground, her forehead knocking against the floor. This woman was dressed similar to the Allfather, but her robe had more pearl-white lines that created a pattern across the jet-black robe.

The highest in the Hall of Heroes was given the jet-black color to represent the fear they placed in the hearts of their enemies. Even the devils and demons of darkness, feared these robes.

The woman pointed at a star whose brightness seemed to be obscured in a haze on the star map.

"Allfather, the Fusion Realm suddenly became unclear. It may not be uncommon for some realms to occasionally become hazy, but I recall our mission in the Fusion Realm, and thus thought to notify you of this incident," the woman said.

"The echo of the goddess of fate is with you, is it not?" Allfather stroked his beard in thought.

"I…"

"Pull on the strings of fate as you always have. Inform me if the Fusion Realm continues to kilter off its intended path. Do not fear. If you fail, that only means an old enemy of fate has appeared."

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The very next morning, Rein disconnected himself from Suey's tight resting embrace. His hands could not resist roughly manhandling parts of her exquisite slender form with curves in all the right places, before he took himself to the cleaning room. He activated the inscriptions that gathered water and released a sky shower.

He had much to contemplate after Suey's revelation. Are her claims of these other future timelines true? Are some of these results inevitable? She had even claimed that he would become an advancer stuck in the outer stage. Had even attributed that to a woman he'd come across in all these futures. If true, does that mean his meeting with this other woman was inevitable?

He had considered the possibility that Suey was just a madwoman. Historically speaking, it was always difficult to separate the madness of one's mind from true seers. Yet, Jory the twin sister seemed to believe in her sister's words. Her participation in cooperating with him to treat her older twin like a 'sex slave' of sorts had demonstrated that.

Rein honestly felt incredibly burdened by this task. He had come across many women during his merchant days who had put their beauty and seduction to use. He naturally knew early on that these women had other personal and relatable desires behind their masks.

This Suey had literally requested him to desensitize her to all possible sexual tasks of her supposed future fate! How was he to know if it would be too much, if he would cross a line? It would be far better to just save the supposed backwater home of hers.

Wait. Rein suddenly realized. Perhaps Suey had chosen her course of action precisely to place the idea of saving her home in his mind. If that was her manipulation… Rein felt somewhat irked. He promised himself that he would punish her for this manipulation!

HIs thoughts turned once again to fate, for if Suey's words are true, then that must mean the Golden Desert Town was fated to be destroyed. Thinking this, his thoughts recalled Jeihr Meynan, his fiance back before the disaster and his decision to enter the advancer world. He hoped she was doing well. With Steward Xeer beside her and her father, they should have a safe future. He still very much remembered the fun times he had with the beautiful Meynan.

Rein was drawn out of his thoughts by the sensation of two soft pillows on his back. A pair of dainty hands reached forward and wrapped around the rod between his legs.

"My celest," Suey huskily whispered in his right ear. "What is on your mind? It's the duty of this servant to satisfy this beast of destruction of yours."

Rein remained silent. Surely, he shouldn't mention Meynan with Suey's hands around his manhood. However, she did mention he was to treat her as just a….

"I am thinking of an old flame of the mortal day before my hometown was destroyed. Oh, the fun I had back in those days…"

Rein thought that Suey's jealousy would be ignited by this statement. He was proven wrong.

"Oh? Do tell me about it." Suey whispered as she pleasured his shaft with her skillful hands. This was another reason Rein believed her visions of all these possible futures to be true. She must have gained much experience from said visions…

He proceeded to speak of his hometown, of Meynan, the Hehrs and the Jeihrs.

It was truly odd yet arousing that he was speaking of his antics with Meynan while being pleasured by Suey.

"I do love a sentimental man," Suey surprised Rein with this comment. "If you remember that mortal woman even as you climb the advancer world, then you might remember me as well…"

Rein was quite certain he'd remember her… but he found it ridiculous for that to be attributed to his sentimentality.

She changed her position and kneeled before Rein, the sky shower rinsing her silky raven hair backwards. She closed her eyes to block out the water from her eyes, and blindly massaged Rein's dragon with her face before giving it a few kisses.

"My celest," she mumbled. "Think of what you would have done to that mortal woman while giving me a hand~"

Rein obliged, placing his hands on her head.

Not long after, Suey was lying down on the smooth rock ground, her lips a bubbling mess, with water still raining upon her body.

Running his eyes across her body and her lustful eyes, Rein could not resist placing his foot on her head and putting his weight down to press her face into the ground. Was this too much?

Apparently not. The minx moaned instead and began playing with her own flower obscenely with Rein's foot pressing into her face.

Crazy. Rein massaged her cheek with his foot until she brought herself to release, and he left her lying under the sky shower as he left to get dressed for the day.

He waited patiently, yet after two hundred heartbeats, the sound of the sky shower continued and Suey had yet to appear.

He returned to that room and discovered that the minx was still pleasuring herself. When he met eyes with her, she once again brought herself to another body-wrecking release.

Rein sighed. He went forth, performed a quick rinsing between the woman's legs, deactivated the inscriptions of the sky shower, and carried Suey back to the fur-covered stone bed. With a cloth, he dried the body of the woman.

With Suey out, Jory could now use the sky shower privately, and Rein put on his typical frontally knotted black outfit he inherited from Blacksmith Teihr before wrapping the gray Halls of Heroes robe around.

When he did so, the watcher sounded in his ears.

"Rein. The Halls bid you to control your woman. Leeway can be given due to the initial fear of devils targeting virgins, but properness befitting a Halls member must be shown."

Rein sighed. As if he really had control of Suey. That was just the perception of outsiders.

"Did you hear the words of the watcher?" He questioned Suey, who had also put on the Halls robe.

"If you so order, my celest," replied the woman.

"I do so order, yes." Rein groaned in his mind.

After Jory cleaned herself, Rein escorted the twins back to their abode. Suey needed to find some proper wear aside from the two pieces of lingerie she had with her.

She now actually wore a proper leather armor outfit. "This is no fun," she whined at Rein.

"Complete your daily tasks and do not cause trouble for me," Rein sternly stated. "Fun can be had tonight." Rein planned to execute his plans for Rekcen this very night. With Suey, he had adjusted the plan to further cover his tracks.

For the rest of the day, Rein peacefully attended to his tasks with the alchemist and the blacksmith. He also spent time to advance his strength in heavy wood aurae-concentrated areas in the Halls' mountains. He found an area with a waterfall that struck and compressed the strength of his body like the fists of Arhz, the man who had submitted himself to Beincen.

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Nightfall came.

Rein accompanied Suey as they left the front doors of the Halls' labyrinth. Jory did not come along and had returned to the twins' cave.

Suey called her outfit this night as 'easy access'. She wore a loose crop top that hung loosely at the bottom, and a knee-length skirt with a high left slit that displayed the entire length of her toned left thigh.

She had requested her celest to test what 'easy access' meant. Rein soon discovered that she wore no undergarments. He could easily reach his right hand under that loose crop top to fondle her tits, and his left hand could easily reach in between her legs to play with her flower. Suey pressed herself against the right side of his toned muscular body. She seemed to prefer being on this side of Rein.

At least this was not like that all-revealing lingerie outfit the day before, Rein sighed. At least the minx was covered.

He brought Suey to the brothel hidden in the corner of the Halls plaza, and rented a private room. Many, seeking to play without being under the eyes of the watcher within the labyrinth, would come here to perform unspeakable debaucherous acts.

The private room was decorated as a dungeon with faux prison bars lining the door and the window. The brothel also had many toys for use…

Rein blindfolded Suey and secured the woman with her legs wide open using ropes hanging down from above in the middle of the dungeon room. He then tied a ball-gag to somewhat quieten the minx's lovely moans, and inserted a few of these inscribed toys into her two bottom mouths.

"I'll be back," he whispered into the writhing minx's ear.

With that, he wore the 'Shifting Mask' given to him by Baejenh, detached the fake prison bars on the window and vanished into the city.

He had already scouted the Larne Mansion. A blackish-purple sphere spun and he soon arrived on the tiled roof of a guard tower with the appearance of an elderly woman, under the cloudy night sky. He had such good control of his origin skill that the guard under the roof heard nothing but a light tap. The guard dismissed this as nothing but a creak of the tower structure in the wind.

Rein could see directly into Rekcen's room within the cluster of buildings making up the Larne Mansion. This wasn't surprising-- often, open air was considered beneficial to recovering patients.

His sharp eyes observed an attendant mixing a steaming medicinal liquid. There was also other cookery and bamboo tubes carrying medicinal powder within Rekcen's room.

The attendant placed down the steaming bowl of medicinal liquid. She took a cursory examination of the room and confirmed that nothing was out of place, before leaving the small building to complete other tasks while waiting for the medicine to cool. Rekcen himself appeared to be asleep with a wrinkly and deflated magically-reformed arm.

Rein first transformed himself into the appearance of that female attendant. He then stuck his head downwards from the edge of the tower roof to check on the guard. The guard had his eyes squinted in concentration, studying a piece of paper in his hands.

Rein immediately activated his origin skill and teleported into the building, and he appeared no different than the female attendant as he popped up beside that bowl of steaming medicinal liquid. He had completely bypassed all the defenses in the Larne Mansion. Such was the power of his origin skill.

He immediately took out his own bamboo container and opened it. Within the bamboo container was the crystalline sand of beastkin cores, along with a spatula.

He quickly spooned up that crystalline sand and sprinkled it into the medicinal liquid. He did not dare to touch anything with his bare hands. Instead, he picked up a few pieces of cloth floating about in a warm bucket of water that was already in the room, and used these to hold the original spatula and stirred the medicinal liquid.

He was careful to place this spatula belonging to the Larne Mansion in its original exact position. Not at all difficult given his improved mind as an advancer.

He proceeded to open a few of the other bamboo containers within the room, and ensured to contaminate some of the herbal powder within, scooping and mixing some of the crystalline sand from his own bamboo container.

Rein did not contaminate every single bamboo chute of herbal powder-- that would appear as too suspicious. Investigators would suspect that House Larne was specially targeted if he took such an action.

He ensured that everything was back in their original position, including the damp towels that he had used to cover his hands. He rinsed the towels to get rid of any potential chance of his lingering aura on these towels. The bucket of water was likely often changed.

"Aunt Einz?" Rekcen's voice sounded. 

Had the man awakened because of the sounds of water? A drop of sweat rolled down Rein's forehead.

He inwardly calmed his rising heart rate. His appearance should be the very same as that attendant.

He moved beside the bed and checked on Rekcen. Rekcen's eyes had opened, but they seemed unfocused.

"My arm is still burning with pain…" The man moaned, half-delirious.

Rein relaxed. The man must be drugged up for pain in his healing arm as well. This would be nothing but a forgettable dream, probably. Plus, he had the appearance of the attendant. He simply smiled, and Rekcen closed his eyes again.

He meticulously examined his surroundings and ensured everything was back in their original positions again.

He looked back up to that guard tower, and with a light tap, returned atop the roof of the guard tower. All this only took sixty heartbeats. He calmed his thumping chest as he observed the attendant returning. The attendant noticed nothing out of place and began feeding the medicinal liquid into Rekcen's mouth.

Did the guard on this guard tower notice anything? Those sixty heartbeats had seemed to pass incredibly slowly. 

He peered below the roof again. The guard was still studying that piece of parchment intently.

Rein transformed himself into the appearance of a child.

That night, he would proceed to contaminate many medicinal houses in the city. Tehr Medicinal House, Lonhr Medicinal House, The Restive Pavilion, and more. There were a few he dared not enter, primarily because he couldn't see a safe spot to teleport to.

Many of these centers had stone statues with many inscriptions spanning their bodies. Some also had wooden puppets that patrolled and protected the medicine stores. Rein could only contaminate the medicinal stores if he had direct sight into the storehouse, and thus could use his origin ability to enter those storehouses and bypass all defenses.

He was quite careful with what he contaminated. He made sure to mix the crystalline beastkin core sand with not only the herbal powder that he had seen in Rekcen's room, but also various random ones.

If he only contaminated the herbal powder used by Rekcen, that would definitely arouse suspicions. Despite the potential harm brought to others, Rein had to do this to obscure his own hand. He reasoned that the crystalline sand being of low-level beastkin cores should not cause any permanent harm unless one had a serious injury, such as growing an arm like Rekcen.

As a side note, he felt some joy from recognizing some of these herbal powders. Rein had been studying the vision egg given to him by the alchemist instructor.

His task done, he returned back through the open window of the brothel, and reattached the fake prison bars.

Seeing the writhing form of Suey hanging in the air by the ropes, Rein could not resist smacking the minx's round and firm bum a number of times. Each spank elicited a whine from the blindfolded and ball-gagged woman.

"MMMkmm, mmm."

She must be saying welcome back, Rein figured as he removed the ball-gag. Another smack was delivered and the woman squealed in pleasure.

His alibi was set, his debauchery his shield.