“Why do you lie so much?” the doctor in white had asked Rael Leger. “Sooner or later... you’ll start believing your own lies.”

  “I doubt that.”

  To the present.

  Rael stood in front of Pure Love, a massive building with paintings of women of all kinds and races on the left side. They weren’t naked. Authorities had forced them to change it, so all the women had strings covering their nipples and private areas.

  The right side of the building was the opposite, a mural of a bunch of buffed, tall, slim, and nearly feminine-looking men.

  His best friend had worked at a women’s love club once.

  He had explained that the major difference was that the men who catered to women primarily targeted their desire for companionship and love. The order depended on the woman’s beauty. If she were beautiful, sexual advances were common to her, so they never led with that. If the woman was ugly, they led with lust, since many mistook lust for love. Confidence also played a role.

  Whatever.

  Rael had never understood these clubs or brothels. He wasn’t a prude; he couldn’t be one with the fiancée he had.

  He just never liked them.

  Anyway, he made his way to the women’s section. He doubted Velun would be at the men’s side, but who knew? It was his business after all.

  Rael approached the door and ignored the line that seemed to stretch forever. The two bodyguards standing beside the door received a flick of his wrist that sent them rolling across the pavement.

  He pushed the double doors open and was met with darkness lit by flashing red, blue, and orange lights.

  Music blasted, almost too loud for his ears. And the vulgarity of it reminded him of what his best friend often forced him to listen to.

  Which was still better than the gibberish and savage screaming Tesla always played.

  “I walk up to the spot, who's gonna do a thing? Got two beauties on my side, got everyone glaring.”

  Rael stood looking around, trying to spot the stairs that went up. But... he had to say, it was quite a view.

  There were elevated circular platforms with powerful fans below them, pushing the nude dancers into the air, where they twirled, spun, and danced.

  “Wishing they were me, rich like me, smooth like me.”

  From an entertainment point of view, he could get it. They had grace to their movements.

  "Shake that ass!" a punchio, barely old enough to be there, anxiously shouted. He was with two older boys: a julioes with greyish hair, and a Terrafallen human.

  They were all grinning and practically jumping, but not too much. They didn't want the alcohol in their glass to spill.

  “But they ain't ever gonna be like me. 'Cause there's only one me.”

  Yes, Rael could not understand this. He had only been to one of these clubs about three times in his life. On his first time, he was with a group of friends who had developed an interest in women before he did. He had been a late bloomer. Obviously, he had wanted to fit in with them.

  But when they entered and he saw how excited they were, he couldn't relate. He couldn't get it. Just staring at naked women? What the hell was fun about that?

  He had once wondered if he was broken.

  He remembered when Kel, the most timid and shy friend in their group, had said Miss Tauila, their history teacher that every guy in class secretly lusted after, had a sexy ass.

  Rael had just stared at him, confused, thinking something didn’t make sense.

  Kel was shy, so damn shy you'd think he would never develop an interest in the opposite sex. Yet there he was, being normal. Proper. Right.

  Normal... fucking normal.

  That had really done a number on Rael, because he had wondered why the hell he was the different one. The weird one.

  Why not Kel?

  He had been envious. Or perhaps he had looked down on him and thought he would be similar to him, worse than him. It was most likely both.

  Then one day during recess, when he saw Omar, the smartass in math class, had gotten a boyfriend—an ugly guy—Rael had wondered if he was gay too.

  It had been the only thing that made sense. He wasn't abnormal. He had just been trying to open the door with the wrong key.

  So he had gone to a men’s strip club with Omar. Omar often went there, saving his monthly allowance for those moments. When Rael sat on the long red couch near him, observing his cheers and wooing, he realized something.

  Other men's dicks and balls were... repulsive.

  Which had confused him even more.

  To say the least, when he was sixteen and finally started working properly, actually developing an interest in women and sex, he had been more than excited. He could fit in better. He would soon be able to understand the obsession his friends had with sex, girls, porn magazines.

  And so he had gone to another strip club, this time with his cousin. However, as he leaned against the wall watching the punchio woman flip in the air multiple times, seeing all of her body with no restriction, watching the way her breasts moved, how her hair twirled above her head like it was alive, the tattoo on her left ass cheek, he had thought:

  He felt nothing.

  And then the third time, he tried a brothel. Some clubs had them merged; the one he visited did not. His experience had been horrible.

  He felt nothing while having sex with a woman he did not know. Did not care to know. Would not remember.

  No pleasure. No joy. But at least he would be able to tell his friends he had fucked a chick with a really big ass. Perhaps lie and say it was a julioes. A lot of them secretly fetishized the pinks.

  This place really brought back memories.

  Walking toward him was a naked brown woman with curly hair, a Holvion. It was rare to see one of them in Terrafall. But at a brothel or strip club, that made more sense.

  Rael did not like Holvions, and the feeling was most definitely mutual. To be fair, Holvious had a stronger reason to hate Terrafall. But still, when your army commander spreads rumors about a king of his, how was he not supposed to hate them with every fiber of his being?

  And he suspected, spotting another Holvion among the dancers, that Velun was trying to capitalize on the hatred for Holvions.

  He could imagine the advertisement: Hate Holvions? Come over to Pure Love, where you can dominate one in bed.

  Or perhaps that had been an advertisement some of those slave markets used in the past. Relations with Holvious were being worked on, so selling and keeping Holvion slaves had been made illegal half a decade ago, in exchange for Terrafallen slaves being freed in Holvious. Obviously, he was talking about personal slaves, not prison ones.

  Rael turned his focus back to the woman, already able to smell the strong alcohol from the drinks she held on her massive plate.

  He would rather kill himself than drink alcohol that strong. Did she mistake him for a punchio?

  He eyed a surgery-cut scar on her breasts before noticing the reddish color around the smiley stickers that covered her nipples.

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  He greeted her, “Hello, miss. Can you do me a favor?”

  She stood with her weight on her right foot. “Depends on how much you're paying...” She smiled seductively. “I could do a lot of favors.”

  “Really? Your boss. Mind telling me the way to him?”

  Her smile broke, and she pulled her head back, almost baffled. “Oh. Um.”

  “It’s for business. I'm having this after party for my employees. I want to have a wild party, get what I mean?”

  She nodded quickly, perhaps thinking she could make a good buck if she got hired for it. She pointed to her left. “Just continue walking until you meet the wall. You'll see some stairs. Tell Zaluk what you came for and, well... the guard will do what he does.”

  “Thank you.”

  She smiled and walked toward a woman with greying hair.

  The way the lady clutched the front of her brown fur jacket and held that pipe, blue smoke curling from its tip, made it look like she was under serious stress.

  Anyway, Rael took the direction the woman gave him and made his way left, weaving through crowds, sometimes having to push through clusters mesmerized by—

  He looked up and saw a woman with long, pointy ears.

  An elf.

  Rael stopped and looked too. Instead of gliding through the air, this pale-skinned woman, as pale as a corpse, was performing on invisible flat stairs.

  Her ass was flat as they came, her hips like those of a man. Her chest like that of a human girl who had only gone through puberty for two years.

  Her body wasn’t one the regular human man lusted over.

  But the gentle smile that face was attached to was one of pure beauty. Of course, it couldn't rival a Vlandos or Star blood. Regardless, it was still beautiful.

  Nowhere near as close to Tesla, though. But his emotions and attachments played with his view of Tesla, so he couldn’t be objective about that. Didn’t want to, either.

  Her head swung back, causing her dark blonde hair to fan out on what appeared to be invisible ground.

  Despite their tradition of braiding hair when it became too long, hers was loose. Wild.

  She moved from toe to toe, stretching her leg out before placing a heel on her knee. Then she spun and spun.

  There wasn’t a trace of sex appeal from her. But then again, Rael couldn’t get turned on by strangers. Though he suspected most of those lost in her performance felt the same. They watched as if it were sport.

  An elf.

  A fucking elf.

  What was wrong with some people? Rael shook his head. How long would it take before another elf found out and then killed her, claiming it was to maintain elf pride and tradition?

  But who knew? Perhaps her circumstances limited her choices. No, it clearly did. No elf would risk their life for fun, to rebel against tradition.

  Only a fool would. A walking corpse, that she was. And for some reason... that annoyed him. Angered him.

  Life was so short. So easy to end. One day, you were alive. The next, your guts lay on the ground.

  "Godverdomde verrader... Vieze Huidenblootlegger," a man behind him muttered.

  Rael recognized the language and accent. This fellow was from Lumion. Most definitely an elf.

  To translate, he had called her a traitor and skin-exposer. To translate further, not to another language but into common sense: she was dead.

  As Rael walked away, he took a glimpse at the elf, noticing he had a hoodie on, most likely to hide his ears and the texture of his hair.

  Rael didn’t think he was there to kill her. He simply didn’t want to be caught in there, then killed for lusting over non-elf women. Or did they simply have their members cut off for it?

  He reached the stairs, which showed a path to the second floor, blocked by a Vlandos bodyguard.

  He was quite the tall fellow. Almost taller than Rael. He stood there with his arms crossed, veins bulging across his muscles.

  He looked down at Rael like he was an insignificant bug. “What do you want?”

  Level 19.

  He was significantly above the average level for a Vlandos who did regular work. That made Rael wonder about his friend's claim that the Zone Guard who got his nose bashed in by the brown-haired girl had been level 30.

  His friend had most definitely been lied to. Rael, too, often lied about his level. Tesla always did, adding ten to hers. Rael was more realistic, only adding about four.

  Rael asked the man, “Just checking on a fellow man. Not many of us out there. We gotta stick together, you know?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “In Sundawn, we're everywhere.”

  “Yeah... but I mean in general, not just the big cities.”

  Those cities often had the best job opportunities for Vlandos, so obviously the population of Vlandos there was incredibly high. So high you’d think Vlandos were only a tiny bit rare.

  “Yeah? Then fuck off.”

  Rael sighed. “Move aside. I don’t want to cause a scene.”

  “Who the fuck do you—”

  Rael rushed up, and the guard reacted fairly fast. His arms moved to block the punch coming for his temple.

  Sadly for him, it was a feint.

  Rael’s knee crashed into his guts, and sounds of pure agony nearly rushed out of the man’s mouth. Rael couldn’t allow that, so he caught the man’s mouth, then punched his chin hard enough to knock him out.

  Rael didn’t look to see if anyone saw that and went up the stairs.

  He reached the top and was met with a door.

  He did the courteous thing and knocked on it. He waited a couple of seconds, and then he thought, fuck that.

  He kicked the thick steel door with all his willpower, making it cave in a bit.

  After a couple more kicks, it fell down along with the piece of wall it was attached to.

  Rael looked inside, ignoring the regular bodyguards, and saw… hm.

  A naked man covered in a lot of blood, his stomach torn open, his intestines hanging out.

  And standing above the corpse, hurriedly putting pants on, was a woman with a really big forehead.

  Rael broke the silence with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Hello.”

  She swiped her hair forward, sending a bunch of it over her forehead, cutting the exposure in half. “You’re going to die!”

  What kind of insecurity did this chick have for that to be her first response to an aggressive intruder?

  Rael couldn’t look away as her blood- and organ-smeared black underwear got hidden by brown leather pants.

  She jumped on a single leg, desperately trying to get her pants on, before giving up and slashing her elbow in his direction, which glowed white.

  Rael was baffled that they had enough pull to bribe some corrupt scholar at a Balash temple. It was the only way to explain the non-existent safety zone.

  From Rael’s mouth came a bright flash of white.

  Before their monsters could materialize, the man behind a black table stood up in a panic. “Wait, wait, wait!”

  “Wait what?!” she asked.

  “Yeah, for what?” Rael wasn’t taking this seriously, although he should have been. Her level was greater than his.

  She stood at level 33, about five levels higher than him, which was significant.

  Anyway, Rael still had his seal active.

  The man said, “What… do you want? We can talk. Have a discussion. We don’t have to rush into violence.”

  Rael’s eyes drifted to the dead man, now noticing his mouth split down to his ears.

  The man noticed Rael’s gaze. “Yeah. That’s a hard sight. It’s… complicated.” He then stopped talking, like he realized something that could ruin him. “You’re not here for him… right?”

  Rael deactivated his seal. “No. Couldn’t care less. I’m here to…” His eyes shifted to the woman, noting her seal was still glowing. “Can you get the little miss to turn that off? I don’t mind the braless part. That can stay.”

  Obviously, he was just talking shit.

  “Fuck you, you little bitch,” the woman snarled.

  The man waved his hands at her. “Just… relax. Put on a shirt.”

  She took careful steps backward, grabbed a black vest and put it on, then layered a long-sleeve checkered shirt over it.

  Rael took a seat on a white couch. When he sank into it, it felt like heaven.

  He commented, “Holy shit. What brand is this?”

  The man answered, “Blessed Furs. Bought it from Majestic Feelings.”

  “Ah…” Rael opened his [Personal Space] and pulled out two white fabric gloves. “Ex gave me one of those a couple years back. I don’t really see the hype. Just seems expensive for no reason. Fairy something.”

  The man slowly nodded in fear. He knew Rael worked with a government defense agency, so he was playing it smart.

  Even if his friend could beat Rael, it would lead to a storm of Rael’s fellow mates blasting in there. Rael doubted the man thought he was a Vanquisher. He would be far more afraid if he did.

  “Anyway, Bahmos,” Rael said. “Where is he?”

  All of a sudden, the man’s fear disappeared. “What did he do?”

  Rael said, “Don’t know. I just want to know where he is.”

  Velun looked at him for a while. He tried to remain confident, to hide his thoughts, but his eyes told a story. He wasn’t going to sell out his little brother.

  “I don’t know,” Velun said.

  Rael stood up. “Don’t play with me.”

  “I don’t know, damn it! He...” Velun’s hands clenched. “I just haven’t seen him in a long while.”

  “I see...” Rael lowered his head and shook it. “I wish things went smoothly.”

  Then suddenly, the woman groaned in anger and began furiously clawing at her back. Her elbow was about to glow white, but it was too late.

  Her mouth opened in fear and confusion, her hands digging into her back. She turned awkwardly, then suddenly froze in motion.

  She was still breathing, of course.

  The good part about having a monster seal in Rael’s mouth was that summoning a monster could be done silently.

  Even better when the cockroach monster could shrink.

  Rael walked over to her, drawing a blade from his personal space, and placed it on her neck. “I bet she costs a lot of money. If I killed her, you wouldn’t mind?”

  Velun remained calm. “That wouldn’t work on me.”

  The sharp edge of Rael’s blade touched her neck.

  Velun’s finger twitched. “I told you, I—”

  Rael’s blade went in, and blood ran along his silver knife.

  Suddenly, Velun bit his tongue and almost panicked. “I’m telling the damn truth! He hasn’t come to us. He... he...” He struggled to say the rest. “Was supposed to visit me a while back. I didn’t see him.”

  Rael asked, “About two days ago?”

  “Yeah... how’d you know?”

  “He was in the city.”

  “Bullshit. If he was, he would have come to me immediately.”

  Rael didn’t honestly believe him. But from the information he had gathered, Velun had been paired with this woman for a long time. Apparently, they had worked together since they were teens, before she reduced her height.

  He most likely wouldn’t risk her life.

  Of course, Rael had only mentioned the cost because there was no need for Velun to know he understood their history.

  Rael released her, leaving her in a statue-like state until the venom would fade away. “If he shows up, when he does, ask him about a girl called Vernisha Holinestone. Natasha and Caren as her parents.”

  Velun agreed. “Of course.”

  This was annoying. Rael needed proper information. He had spent time learning about Velun before making his move for a damn reason.

  And what did he get from it? Nothing. Fucking nothing.

  Lo’jul was the next target. That damn man better have something. Better have everything.

  Rael forced himself to keep his patience. Follow the smart route and everything would play out well. It was easier to kill than to work behind the scenes. He had to remind himself of that. But he didn’t have the luxury of the simple path.

  He exited the building, walking past a certain individual with a hoodie on, knife in hand. The man was staring at an elf in their sanctity veil.

  Rael’s mood was ruined. He backhanded the side of the man’s face so hard his neck twisted, and the man collapsed onto the dirty concrete ground.

  Lo’jul. Rael was coming for him.