Hell Contractor: Rise of the Last God

Past Labors.

The mayor of Neon Bridge was known to frequent Black Vermilion Club due to the gambling and prostitutes who work there, but his true intentions were connected with the Grey Bazaar, who had illicit dealings with the mayor who provided them protection from any prying eyes. Whenever the mayor made his visits to Black Vermilion Club, he didn't hide this from anybody since everyone of the residents of Neon Bridge wouldn't dare risk their lives revealing his appearances there. The mayor would always bring Rome along with his Golden Warriors, so that he would have extra assurances of keeping people silent about his misdeeds.

The mayor was followed closely by Rome and the Golden Warriors, as they brazenly used their status in Neon Bridge to part a way through the crowded streets, and enter Black Vermilion Club peacefully. Rome had been scanning the random people on the street, and fortunately Ayanda stopped using his concealment skill in order to not make his suspicious. Levy had already been summoned back but was wary of how strong Rome could have been, so he made sure Ayanda didn't act shady in any way for now.

After the mayor and Rome had entered Black Vermilion Club, they were attended by two beautiful hostesses who guided the party to their own private dining area, which was prepared in advance. Inside, there was a burly dark skinned man who had a deep scar over his left eye was smoking a cigar slowly, with a pungent smoke wafting in the air giving off a rare herbal aroma. He was casually dressed in his own black regal robe, along with a necklace which had a grey tooth attached to it.

"Cobra! I see you didn't spare any expense in welcoming me tonight!" the mayor praised him loudly, with a haughty voice. Rome followed the mayor inside and swept the room with his keen senses, ensuring that nobody else was around.

"Tonight is a special night of course. Even if it's about business, we still deserve to enjoy the finest luxuries." Cobra laughed as he welcomed the mayor and Rome, but was clearly more arrogant in his demeanor as he barely showed the mayor any respectful gesture or greeting. 

Cobra was the owner of Black Vermilion Club, as well as the mayor's connection to the Grey Bazaar, a deeply rooted underworld trading business which is it's own hegemony behind the Four States. The origins of the Grey Bazaar weren't known by anyone, not even the merchants who work for it, but what is known is that they can buy and sell goods from various places, as well as fulfil assassination orders if necessary. The Grey Bazaar is one organization, but has two different groups within; the Grey Merchants, and the Grey Mercenaries. Cobra is a Grey Merchant who's been given his own region in Neon Bridge, and over the years he has been building a great rapport with the mayor in hopes of becoming the most powerful merchant in his area.

The mayor made himself comfortable while allowing the servants to bring him fine delicacies and wine, with Rome remaining in the background of their meeting. Cobra poured himself some wine into a goblet with dragon engravings on it, and took  hearty swig as he sat opposite the mayor, slowly reclining in his seat. There was a slight glimmer in the eyes of the mayor when he glanced at Cobra's goblet, which didn't go unnoticed.

"Are you interested in purchasing your own Dragon Seeking Urn?" Cobra asked with a sly smile revealed on his face.

"Dragon Seeking Urn? Is that truly the legendary Dragon Seeker's heirloom?" the mayor asked with an intrigued stare.

"Not quite. The Dragon Seeking Urn isn't an heirloom to the Dragon Seeker's, that is merely a rumor spread around to fool people into purchasing the knock-off's. A Dragon Seeking Urn was a reward passed down by the last Great Chief of the Dragon Seeker's, as a way to give valiant Dragon Seeker's prestige when they had their Great Feast's after hunting dragon's." Cobra explained calmly while taking another swig of wine.

"So, you have more of these Dragon Seeking Urn's to sell?" the mayor asked.

"Naturally. This one is from my own collection of rare treasure's, and our Grey Bazaar will only ever sell one to their most trusted clients. If I make the request, I can have one bought over for you, but it will be quite expensive considering how difficult it is to come into possession of a real Dragon Seeking Urn." Cobra implied with a serious tone.

Rome had a frown and suddenly asked, "According to the legends, a Dragon Seeking Urn's may have only been rewards, but could only be passed down through Dragon Seeker's lineage. How did the Grey Bazaar come across them?".

"Our master is very mysterious, but unbelievably powerful. Within the Grey Bazaar, these Dragon Seeking Urn's are spoils of his exploits. We were only allowed to bring them out recently as we were assured that the Dragon Seeker's no longer exist, so the Dragon Seeking Urn's have no lineage to obey now." Cobra answered honestly without a single hint of lying.

Rome was far more astonished than the mayor, as his questioning was for his own ease of mind. Rome knew all about the might of the legendary Dragon Seeker's, but couldn't fathom how the master of the Grey Bazaar was able to wipe them out completely as though they were an ordinary clan or sect. What was even scarier in his mind, was the fact that the master of the Grey Bazaar was able to pull that off and acquire the Dragon Seeking Urn's, since only the Great Chief of the Dragon Seeker's was a legend among all legendary figures in The Dragon Province, which was named by him before his clan faced various power struggles against the Phoenix Sect. The Phoenix Sect as the current ruler's have ensured that the Dragon Seekers have fallen into obscurity, but they knew of the incredible power the Dragon Seekers had at their peak. 

"If Cobra is able to procure a Dragon Seeking Urn, then I am willing to pay any price, but of course it can't be attached to any of the future deals we make." the mayor made his request very plainly.

"Naturally. As a merchant, I would never want to pollute any of my deals with unnecessary strings attached." Cobra replied calmly, but continued before the mayor could add anything, "Although, the issue of the Thousand Year Jowar is something I would like to clear up before we go onto any discussions.".

The mayor had a heavy frown on his face before responding, "In the next three days, I will definitely get my hands on it, and honor our original agreement. It's not possible for me to hand over anymore Cosmic Key's, they're crucial to my personal deposits." he spoke with a solemn tone.

"I can understand where you're coming from, but the deal was supposed to be concluded a week ago and you still haven't made any progress in reaching Nimbus Garden. Perhaps my forces in the Grey Bazaar can provide some help." Cobra proposed with a curled smile.

The mayor stiffened up and froze before turning to stare harshly at Rome, who remained indifferent but shook his head slightly.

"Don't worry mayor, it wasn't anybody from your side that leaked anything. Don't forget, we have an invested interest in sharing the gains of the legendary Thousand Year Jowar, so we have our own eyes and ears around Neon Bridge, especially since it's taken much longer than promised." Cobra said.

"What do you propose?" the mayor asked.

"There's a researcher who has a past connection to Nimbus Garden, but you've only been keeping her at a distance. Why not leverage her so you can get entry and even force the gardener to hand it over." Cobra laid out his idea.

"That's not possible. We've kept our eye on her, but she's clearly got her own motives for working for us. We haven't been able to get close to the gardener even with her help." the mayor said flatly.

"At this point, do you have a better plan?" Cobra asked while taking another swig out of his goblet.

The mayor started to mull it over, glancing over to Rome who shrugged calmly to gesture that he had nothing to add.

"It won't be easy to fool her while having her follow our demands." the mayor added some of his own doubts.

"Leave that to me." Cobra spoke while pulling out a vial filled with a dark liquid which gives off a faint whiff of death.

Rome was the first one to react quickly, arriving next to the mayor in a blink, but Cobra tossed the vial over to the mayor calmly. Rome caught it before it could reach the mayor, and examined it carefully.

"This poison is my own creation. I concocted it using a mixture of my design, it's very lethal, and only my companion beast can cure it. Once it enters her system, she will only have three day's to live." Cobra confidently said. 

"And how will you poison her?" Rome asked instead of the mayor, since he's been in charge of keeping his eye on Qiniso all these years.

"Well, as you said, she's been hiding her true motives all these years, and as I said, we've been keeping an eye on matters relating to the Thousand Year Jowar recently. She's here at my club tonight, most likely hoping to follow you to where Nimbus Garden is being kept. Naturally, I don't have to explain how she's practically walking right into our hands at this point." Cobra had an evil smile as he explained his intentions.

The mayor and Rome glanced at each other for a second. As much as they wanted to deny Cobra, they have also realized how they've walked right into his devious plot. If they don't use the poison, it would cause some friction between Neon Bridge and the Grey Bazaar, which could force Cobra into becoming their enemy. With such a lethal poison at his disposal, who knows where else he may have planted it, and since he's already aware of Qiniso's existence, they can no longer hide the fact that they've been struggling to get anywhere on their own.

"So we let her follow us back, then take her to Nimbus Garden as a hostage once she's poisoned? If you're the only one who can cure her, why would the gardener listen to us?" Rome asked.

"You don't have to tell the gardener or her that. All you need to show them is that she'll die unless they hand it over. Regardless of whether they agree, they'll definitely give you a gap to either break in, or they'll hand it over without putting her in any further danger." Cobra explained, then quickly snapped his fingers for one of the woman serving them to bring over a jade box which has an icy aura.

"Once you retrieve the Thousand Year Jowar, place it in this box in order to preserve it's cosmic vitality. Nothing will leak out of this box and it will also be safe from anyone grabbing it." Cobra added.

"This- Is this Glacier Jade?" Rome was somewhat astonished as he received the jade box.

Cobra smiled without responding, and gestured to the mayor to wait for his final response. The mayor was thinking carefully before sighing out reluctantly, "Fine, we'll follow your plan. As long as we can get our hands on it, will the Grey Bazaar keep up their original agreement?" the mayor asked nervously.

"Naturally. Our agreement will not change. Our Grey Bazaar will transfer the ten million high grade vitality gems once we receive our jade box back with the Thousand Year Jowar." Cobra promised the mayor confidently.

"Alright. We'll continue to act as we normally here, then lure her out to my estate." the mayor said, with Rome sighing softly while keeping his eye on Cobra.

At the bar area inside Black Vermilion Club some time later, Qiniso was keeping her eyes out for the mayor while casually enjoying a drink. There weren't too many crowding the place, and soon she noticed the mayor and Rome making their way out while followed by the Golden Warriors. Qiniso slipped out of Black Vermilion Club as stealthily as she could, and started to follow them back to the mayors estate.

Ayanda had been waiting much further away from Black Vermilion Club, and wasn't particularly surprised to see Qiniso tailing the mayor and his entourage. What confused Ayanda though was that he noticed how the mayor was going in a different direction from where he had come from, and it seemed as though he was actually making his way to Lily Garden. Nevertheless, Ayanda continued to follow them without being detected as he had been using his concealment skill ever since the mayor entered Black Vermilion Club, so his presence was hardly noticeable by Rome, who was completely focused on scanning the surroundings for the mayor to spring their trap.

As the mayor and Rome lead Qiniso into a wide but deserted alleyway, they stopped suddenly without turning around.

"Were you planning on following us until you found Quake?" the mayor asked out loud, ensuring that Qiniso could pick up on it.

Before Qiniso had a chance to react, the mysterious woman in a purple burqa who met her in the lab before appeared behind her and her metallic gecko launched it's silvery tongue at Qiniso's back, thrusting her forwards. As Qiniso was about to retaliate, Rome appeared in front of her instantly, then the Golden Warriors blocked off any escape routes she could make. Qinsio was now cornered, even though she though she could get away from the mayor, Rome and the Golden Warriors, she didn't anticipate the mysterious woman would be there with them.

"Excellent work Venus." the mayor commented towards the mysterious woman, who nodded slightly while keeping her eyes locked onto Qiniso. 

Rome quickly unleashed his sacred art, which appeared to allow him to control the earth beneath their feet, and imprisoned Qiniso by wrapping her body isolating her completely. As Qiniso was about to scream in pain, Rome grabbed her head to pour the poison from the vial Cobra gave them, into her mouth and guiding it into her blood stream directly. Rome then released her from his sacred art's earth control, while keeping his sinister eyes over her.

Venus on the side slightly turned to look at Ayanda's direction, but frowned when she realized that whatever she sensed had already vanished somehow, so she turned back to focus on Qiniso as well. Ayanda was still concealed, but when he saw Qiniso being poisoned, his concealment skill fluctuated due to the worry that developed in his heart in that moment. Ayanda wanted to act, but Levy warned him to stop before he exposed himself. Watching Qiniso being captured by Rome was difficult for Ayanda to bear with, but he slowly accepted that he was very powerless to do much.

After being poisoned so quickly, Qiniso was only able to catch her breath once she was released, but as soon as she tried to circulate her spiritual vitality, an immense pain shot through her body which felt like someone electrocuting her nervous system from the inside-out. Qiniso fell to her knees weakly, gasping for air, and Rome observed her carefully with a smug look on his face, then turned to nod at the mayor who became relaxed. The mayor stepped forward with his Golden Warriors and looked down on Qiniso.

"If you want the antidote, you'd better follow us unless you want to die in two days time." the mayor demanded calmly, and before Qiniso could even respond, he continued, "You'll be able to see Quake as long as help us get the Thousand Year Jowar. I'm sure you don't want to ruin any touching reunion you could possibly have right?" he finished in a condescending tone.

Qinsio gave the mayor a vengeful glare at first, but reluctantly nodded in agreement, without reacting to his tone, and allowed herself to be apprehended by the Golden Warriors. Rome and Venus became shadows ahead of the mayor, in order to clear any suspicious people who may come across them. Ayanda trailed behind them carefully while he remained concealed, considering what to do in case the current situation would change, leaving Qiniso in further danger.

The mayor went straight to his estate with his Golden Warriors, but the Palace Guards on duty were concerned about Qiniso being there considering she was only a researcher.

"There isn't anything to be worried about. Pass my order to Captain Wood that Dr. Khanyile's lab should remained locked for the next few days, and that he must ship over all of her most recent findings as well as her computations." the mayor spoke to the Palace Guards sternly. The Palace Guards immediately set off to follow the mayors orders.

"Venus, go make sure everything is handled properly. Rome, prepare the back up Golden Warriors before we depart for Nimbus Garden." the mayor ordered in a much softer voice. When Qiniso heard the mention of Nimbus Garden, she trembled for a second, but remained as still as she could while under the Golden Warrior's vigilant watch. Venus and Rome both agreed then disappeared instantly. The mayor continued into his estate followed by the Golden Warriors, with Ayanda tailing them much more closely than he was before.

"Seems like we'll be able to find Nimbus Garden sooner than we thought. But why do they need more of these Golden Warriors with them?" Ayanda asked Levy telepathically as they crept inside.

"Don't ask me. All I can tell is that these Golden Warriors aren't as strong as that Rome or Venus, so they could be easier to deal with. If you want to rescue Qiniso, maybe you should go ahead with your plan to impersonate the mayor now by taking his place before they set off." Levy suggested in reply.

As if the lightbulb switched on above Ayanda, he understood exactly what Levy meant. Since he wanted to rescue Qiniso and also help her find Quake, it would make sense for him to go for his plan now rather than later, with this small window of opportunity presenting itself unexpectedly. His only worry now was figuring out how he could mimic the mayor accurately, but that might not be completely necessary since he's followed him recently, while taking in his mannerisms and how he treats his subordinates. Since the mayor is barely any stronger than the Golden Warriors, all Ayanda would have to do is suppress his other vitalities while focusing on his Taboo Slayer Divine Art to keep his appearance going as the mayor's.

"As long as you can capture that mayor bozo, you can use the illusionary skills to absorb his essence and replicate it for yourself. Then nobody will be able to tell the difference as long as you don't wear out your mortal vitality." Levy added so as to help Ayanda relieve his thoughts.

Ayanda steeled himself then decided to keep following the mayor as he took Qiniso with him to his private room. The mayor basically lowered his guard since he was in his own estate, and left Qiniso with the Golden Warriors outside, so she won't get any ideas. Little did he realize that Ayanda had already snuck into his private room ahead of him, and as soon as the doors closed, Ayanda struck out, knocking the mayor out before he could even shout out for help. With the mayor knocked out cold, Ayanda quickly absorbed the mayor's mortal vitality, then used some rope he found in the mayors room to tie him up after stripping him down and pocketing the Glacier Jade box. Ayanda threw the mayor into his own large walk in closet, then changed into the clothes the mayor was dressed in, then quickly transformed himself using the new illusion ability Levy recently acquired with the Taboo Slayer Divine Art.

"Bring her inside!" Ayanda ordered, testing out his voice and demeanor as he mimicked the mayor. The Golden Warriors outside complied and brought Qiniso into the mayor's private room without suspecting Ayanda at all, then left accordingly.

Qinsio was weakened at the moment, but still glared at the mayor in front of her fiercely as she contemplated what he wanted from her inside his private room without anybody else around, "Don't think that just because I'm in this state, you can do whatever you like." she muttered softly.

Ayanda chuckled for a moment as the mayor, then quickly changed his facial appearance back to his own face, then quickly shifted it back. Qiniso was astonished, but then suddenly realized that the fake mayor in front of her as actually Ayanda instead.