The grand office inside the Dawinton Palace was suffocatingly quiet.
Rayn sat casually in the Town Leader's lavish, high-backed leather chair. He leaned his head back, letting out a dark, completely unhinged laugh that echoed off the vaulted ceilings.
He was vividly imagining the absolute, sheer terror on the Bandit Leader's face as he opened that canvas bag and found his spy's tongueless, severed head.
Dawinton and Vespera stood entirely still in the center of the room. They watched Rayn laughing like an absolute psychopath. They exchanged a look of profound confusion.
"What exactly are you two thinking about?" Rayn asked, his laughter instantly vanishing into a cold, terrifying calm. "You are wondering exactly how I knew the absolute coordinates of the bandit's hidden base, aren't you?"
Vespera silently nodded, her golden eyes narrowing.
"I know their exact location because of Matthew," Rayn said softly.
He reached into his blood-stained robes. He pulled out a heavily crumpled, blood-soaked piece of parchment and tossed it casually onto the massive oak desk.
"Before I violently ended his suffering, Matthew slipped this directly into my palm," Rayn explained.
Dawinton nervously stepped forward, peering at the bloody map. His eyes widened in absolute recognition.
"Yes..." Dawinton whispered, tracing a trembling finger over the crimson stains. "This is the exact geographic center point between the Sterling, Ashburg, and Oakhaven domains. It is a massive, heavily forested valley."
"Exactly," Rayn said, completely leaning over the desk. "When Chandler previously mentioned that absolute blind spot between the three towns, I had a strategic suspicion that the bandits were using it as a staging ground. I didn't know how Matthew managed to secure their exact coordinates before they butchered him, but this map is our absolute key to their annihilation."
Vespera crossed her arms, her ancient spatial Gnosis slightly flaring.
"Okay, Rayn," Vespera said, her voice completely devoid of mercy. "What is the absolute course of action? We have to violently answer for every single drop of blood they spilled in this town."
Rayn slowly turned his gaze to Vespera. He flashed a demonic, heaven-defying smile. The ambient temperature in the room instantly plummeted to absolute zero.
"Why exactly do you think I demanded we return to the Dawinton Palace?" Rayn asked. "We are going to completely butcher those motherfuckers. But to do that, we absolutely must alter Dawinton's physical vessel."
Vespera's eyes flashed with absolute understanding. "You want me to completely disguise him?"
"Yes," Rayn commanded. "We have to permanently change his physical identity. If the town or the captains realize the old Town Leader is still alive, it will completely shatter my absolute authority. Disguise him first. Then, we plan the massacre."
Vespera let out a soft, dark laugh. She completely understood Rayn's ruthless, sociopathic manipulation.
Dawinton watched the two of them laughing. A primal, suffocating fear violently gripped his old heart. He suddenly felt like a pathetic lamb locked in a room with two ancient, starving wolves.
Vespera didn't hesitate. She elegantly raised her hand and violently sealed every single door and window in the massive room with a spatial lock.
Suddenly, a terrifying, heavy atmospheric pressure violently built up inside the office. It was so incredibly dense that Dawinton was physically forced to his knees, completely unable to breathe.
Vespera closed her golden eyes. She aggressively tapped into the darkest, most ancient depths of her supreme Dao.
In her right palm, a sphere of pure, highly concentrated black smoke violently materialized. It crackled with absolute, terrifying energy. Slowly, she compressed the massive sphere, forcing it to shrink violently until it was the exact size of a small, pitch-black marble.
She opened her eyes. They glowed with a terrifying, unholy light.
In a fraction of a millisecond, she violently hurled the black smoke ball directly into the center of Dawinton's forehead.
THWACK!
Dawinton didn't even have time to scream. The absolute power of the sphere violently invaded his meridians. His eyes instantly turned pitch black. He was immediately knocked completely unconscious.
The black smoke violently erupted from his pores, completely wrapping his old body in a thick, pulsating black cocoon. The sheer kinetic force of the transformation began to violently shatter the expensive furniture in the room.
Outside the heavy oak doors, the elite palace guards heard the violent smashing of wood and the heavy thuds echoing from the office.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Lord Rayn!" a guard shouted through the heavy door, his voice laced with panic. "Are you absolutely alright in there?! We hear the room breaking! Do you need assistance?!"
Rayn casually leaned back in his chair, completely ignoring the terrifying, pulsating black egg in the center of the room.
"We are absolutely fine, guards," Rayn called out, injecting a highly suggestive, irritated tone into his voice. "We are just... intimately busy. Do not interrupt us again. Leave the hallway immediately."
Outside, the guards paused. They looked at each other, their faces immediately flushing with embarrassment.
The new Lord and his terrifying wife are having an absolute, wild moment in the office, the lead guard thought, violently suppressing a laugh. Her Gnosis is so strong she's literally breaking the furniture.
"Understood, my Lord!" the guard shouted back. They immediately retreated, leaving the hallway completely empty.
Inside the ruined office, Rayn and Vespera shared a dark, knowing smile.
Rayn looked down at the massive, pulsating black egg. "Hey, Vespera. Is he going to hatch as a man or a woman?"
"I have absolutely no idea," Vespera replied, gracefully dusting off her hands. "I only possess the absolute authority to initiate the biological reconstruction. The final physical form is entirely dictated by his own subconscious will and his deepest, innermost desires."
Rayn raised an eyebrow. "You possess terrifying, heaven-defying spatial magic... and you are telling me that my current physical disguise—this white hair and these body—is actually a reflection of my own subconscious imagination?"
"Yes," Vespera replied simply. "You were the one who subconsciously molded that exact appearance when I rebuilt you."
Rayn was entirely shocked.
How the hell is that possible? Rayn thought, staring at his hands. In my entire life on Earth, I never once saw a man who looked like this. Where did this absolute demonic form come from and it exactly looks like Vespera master?
Before he could spiral any deeper into his fractured memories, the massive black cocoon violently cracked.
CRACK.
It sounded exactly like a colossal, ancient egg breaking open. Thick, disgusting black liquid violently poured out onto the expensive rugs.
Through the steaming, acidic liquid, a completely new silhouette slowly pushed its way out of the shadows.
The heavy cocoon completely shattered. Dawinton's new physical vessel stood entirely naked in the center of the ruined office.
He was no longer a fat, pathetic old man.
The figure standing before them was a terrifyingly aesthetic young man. He possessed flawless, heavily tanned skin, sharp, piercing green eyes, and messy, pitch-black hair. His body was entirely shredded, boasting a muscular, Phase 5 cultivator's physique with a perfectly defined six-pack.
Dawinton slowly opened his new, green eyes. He looked down at his own hands.
"How... how do I look?" Dawinton rasped, his voice significantly deeper and smoother than before.
Rayn casually kicked a large, shattered piece of a silver mirror across the floor. It stopped directly at Dawinton's feet.
Dawinton looked down at his reflection. He violently gasped in absolute shock. He touched his sharp jawline, entirely mesmerized by his new, youthful face and his violently muscular physique.
"Listen closely, Dawinton," Vespera said, her voice turning completely icy. "Your entire existence is now permanently bound to this physical body. I didn't simply cast an illusion over your old skin. I violently ripped your original skin off and biologically reconstructed your cellular structure based on your own pathetic vanity. You are stuck like this."
Dawinton's green eyes widened in absolute terror. "What are you talking about?! I can't eventually change back into my original self?!"
"No, man. You absolutely cannot," Rayn replied, completely shattering his hopes. "Only Vespera or I can forcibly revert the transformation."
"Why?!" Dawinton demanded.
"Because our absolute, demonic Will is infinitely stronger than your pathetic, crying soul," Rayn sneered.
Rayn reached into his spatial ring and violently threw a pile of clothes directly at Dawinton's chest—a crisp white shirt, black tactical pants, and heavy combat boots. He also tossed a heavy, profound silver ring.
"Put those on. That ring is heavily forged with my Gnosis. It will stabilize your new muscular density," Rayn ordered. "Get dressed. Then, call the captains into the room."
A few minutes later, the heavy oak doors violently swung open.
Victus, Freddy, and Chandler marched into the ruined office. They immediately stopped in their tracks, entirely shocked by the presence of the beautiful, incredibly dangerous-looking young man standing behind Rayn.
The three captains immediately dropped to one knee, bowing their heads respectfully to the Conqueror.
"Captains," Rayn said, gesturing to the tanned, black-haired youth. "I want you to officially meet the Royal Guard friend I told you about. He has finally arrived from Whispering Pines. His name is Peter."
The entire elite team immediately greeted the new arrival.
"It is an absolute honor to meet you, Lord Peter," Victus said respectfully.
"Hello, everyone," 'Peter' replied, forcing a confident nod, desperately trying to mask the terrified old man hiding inside his mind.
Rayn violently slammed his fist onto the surviving edge of the desk, instantly commanding absolute silence.
"Enough with the pathetic, formal greetings," Rayn decreed, his crimson eyes locking onto his executioners. "I want to explicitly plan the absolute massacre of this bandit coalition."
Rayn's killing intent violently leaked into the room, dropping the temperature.
"And after we completely butcher all ten thousand of them," Rayn continued, his voice ringing with absolute, dictatorial authority, "we are going to violently display their rotting corpses to the world. We have to make absolutely sure that every single surrounding town in this entire fucking country is completely terrified of Ashburg before the Grand Ceremony begins in exactly three weeks."
Rayn smiled his dark, heaven-defying smile.
"I am going to violently force this town to the absolute top of the hierarchy... and we are going to pave the way with their blood."