Outside of Gintar, following the main road to the north, Ren and company were riding a carriage, while 01 and 02 acted as coachmen.

  "Are you still upset?" Ren asked, giving Isha a croissant filled with chocote, something that was a local delicacy.

  "Yes, I am." She nodded, taking it and giving a big bite, munching on it with an upset expression. "I hate svery, and I hate seeing it."

  "It is what it is." Ren sighed, looking out the coach's window, watching the passing hills and grassnds.

  When they were exploring the local marketpce, they saw a live auction of not just demons with low intelligence being sold as pets or work animals, but also humans. Some of them were there because of debt or crimes they had committed, some, even young kids from both genders, were sold off by their own families. Everything was id out before them, up for purchase, with thick stacks of contract papers, all open to public inspection. The locals didn't bat an eye as this was a long-standing custom and not a strange sight in the territory of the Kingdom of Ten.

  "It was still disgusting! Being sold off by your own parents… tsk…." Isha took another bite, munching on it angrily. "And they call the Empire evil."

  "You were also abandoned," Ren said, looking at her sideways, acting much calmer.

  "Yes, but at least it was I who chose to sell my body off. They did not!"

  "Did you?" She asked again.

  "What do you mean?" Isha shot back as she furrowed her brows, clearly annoyed.

  "Was it your choice? Let me rephrase it. Was there a choice at all?"

  "..." She stared at Ren silently, chewing on the food before gulping it down and answering, "I don't want to talk about it…."

  "Me neither!" Ren sighed, shaking her head, "But you can't change human nature: The strong will always prey on the weak. The so-called 'w of the jungle' bullshit," she chuckled dryly, "Only, in the jungle, it is for the survival of animals. They hunt to eat and live. We? We hunt for fun because we have power over those who can't fight back. Jungle, my ass... Eons passed, and it is still only about who has the bigger stick."

  "If this is what it means to be powerful, I no longer want to be part of that." Isha snorted after listening to her.

  "No, it does not mean that. You can be powerful while still retaining your consciousness of it. The question is, why do you want to be powerful?" Ren answered as she leaned back, looking into Isha's eyes, "They say power corrupts people. I disagree. I think power brings out their true personality, destroys all pretense and barriers, and showcases their true thoughts and the true core of who they are. Someone in power shows you their real side; there is no more pretense, no more fear of consequence, and nothing shrouds who they are inside… And if you want to change something, you need the power to go at it. The question is, are you going to do it? Are you what you think you are? Or your true version is something you didn't even see when you look in the mirror?"

  "I certainly would change things," Isha answered with a firm voice.

  "Would you? Even if it means sharing your power with others?" Ren asked with a calm but deep voice, not taking her eyes off Isha's. "Wanting to raise up everyone else so they can decide their own future and not be… sves? At what cost? At the cost of everything?"

  "Especially then!" Isha nodded once again, answering as if she was hypnotized.

  "Even if it possibly means your own death?"

  "Yes." She answered after only a second of silence.

  "Then I would support you all the way." She smiled at her, "That is someone who I would call powerful, willing to share and sacrifice instead of only hoarding for him or herself." She added, looking out the window, her gaze slowly wandering up to the sky, falling silent.

  Lacuss, who was listening in from the side, after a few minutes of silence, finally opened his mouth, repying Ren's words in his mind.

  "Isn't the Sect a simir concept? It will share power with everyone, raising them up, regardless of background."

  "For now." Ren answered absentmindedly, "It will depend on the people who come out of it if it stays the same in the future. We'll see."

  The carriage soon fell to silence once again; only the creaking sound of the wheels could be heard when they stopped after half an hour of traveling.

  "What is it?" Ren blinked her eyes, returning from her thoughts simultaneously with Isha, who now had a new kind of fire in her eyes.

  "There is a roadblock before us, Master." 01's calm voice came from the front. "Seems like a caravan was ambushed here."

  Soon, three heads popped out from the windows as they all took a look, seeing two broken carriages, dead horses, and guards lying on the ground with broken pikes sticking out of their backs, while the cargo they were transporting was ransacked.

  "Oh, and it happened on the main road? It seems bandits here are more ballsy than at home." Ren jumped out, and soon the rest followed her as they checked on the wrecks.

  Not long after they walked closer, the bodies lying on the floor sprang up, and more arrived from their hiding pces, previously hidden in the tall grass on the side of the road or in dug-out holes expertly covered with trap doors that looked like part of the ground. It didn't take long before about twelve men surrounded them, weapons drawn, surrounding the group.

  "Oh my!" Ren blinked her violet eyes, looking around, impressed by their efforts, smiling from ear to ear.

  "We were zy," Isha grumbled as none of them took the effort to scan their surroundings.

  "Not like they pose any real threat." 01 commented, almost yawning.

  "Enough chit-chat!" One of the bandits came closer, wearing leather armor colored in a pattern that would let him blend into the ground if he y down on his stomach, clearly looking way too confident in capturing them. With a grin, he threw metal colrs before them, eyeing Isha's body. "Put these on; you are now ours! If you resist, you will experience real pain!"

  "Svers," Lacuss commented, slowly going for his saber's hilt on his back, but an arrow nded before his feet.

  "Move your hand one more time, and we will make a hedgehog out of you!" The shout came from further away, from another bandit; at least their enemy was indeed alert.

  "Well… It's time for you to let out some steam, Isha." Ren shrugged in the end, tilting her head, "Leave one or two alive, okay? I want to question them."

  "No promises." crept a dangerous smile on her face.

  She punched out as soon as she finished talking, and a fming fist blew forward, sweeping away the colrs and hitting the one who threw them before the group. When her 'punch' nded, the guy screamed as his whole body was lit up, the orange fmes consuming him, leaving behind nothing but a charred, roasted mess of flesh, filling the air with an unpleasant odor.

  "Stop! Let her blow off some steam." Ren put her hand on Lacuss's stomach, holding him back from joining the fight.

  Their enemies were strong, but only in terms of a regur civilian, as being at the 3rd and 4th stages of body refinement meant nothing in front of them. They wanted to run but couldn't escape the fiery rage that was now Isha. After blowing away another sver, kicking him in the waist, while her leg was glowing red with fire, it just went through him like a hot knife through butter, cutting him into two halves. The body that fell in different directions didn't spurt a drop of blood as the wound was cauterized immediately from the heat she gave off with every attack.

  The archer who shot the arrow just a moment before turned to run, but after a few steps, a fireball flew towards him, perfectly hitting him in the middle of his back, exploding the poor bastard into a walking, screaming human torch.

  "Haahh… she won't keep survivors." Ren moaned, watching her sughter them like pigs. "01, 02, go fetch me two of them!"

  "Yes!" They answered at the same time, then disappeared, carrying out her orders with utter zeal.

  By the time they grabbed two svers by the neck, holding them like chickens, Isha finally calmed down from sughtering the rest, finishing off the remaining svers with a simple blow to the head, vaporizing them into ashes. The moment she was done, the dancing fmes flew up from the ground, grass, and bodies, merging into Isha's figure, disappearing into her. Finished, she let out a breath of satisfaction, walking back to Ren, now looking slightly exhausted but calmer.

  "What are your pns with them?" Isha looked at the two trembling men in the hold of 01 and 02, unable to speak as their captors' fingers were holding them by the throat.

  "I want to ask them some questions." Ren smiled at Isha, pulling a jug of cold water from her pouch and offering it up to her with a smile. "Do it." She said to 01 and 02 in the meantime, as they already knew what their Master meant.

  Looking into the bandits' eyes, 01 and 02's purple irises were filled with an eerie, otherworldly light, becoming twice as vibrant as before. When they released the two, they wobbled there, dazed with pupils as wide as they could physically get.

  "Are you part of the svers or an independent group?"

  "A group," both of them answered at the same time, "Ironcw."

  "How big is the group?"

  "We don't know. We have multiple bases in four kingdoms. The Elroths have 5 such bases."

  "Where are they?"

  "We don't know."

  "You don't? Then who does?" Ren continued questioning as the rest listened, not wanting to interrupt.

  "Him." Both of them pointed at the first guy Isha killed.

  "Tsk…" Isha clicked her tongue, now annoyed that she killed them so quickly, and was letting her emotions dictate her thinking. "Sorry..."

  "Then where do you operate? Where would you bring us when captured?"

  "Up north, there is an area under x supervision where we have a warehouse. We would get paid-" but the one speaking suddenly spurted blood from his mouth and nose; his eyes started to swell as veins popped out constantly, coloring his head red and purple under his skin.

  "We need to hurry, Master. They are breaking down..." 01 said, keeping eye contact with him, trying not to blink.

  "Map. Quickly." Ren stretched out her hand, and Lacuss gave her the local one they'd bought. "Show it where!"

  When they pointed out the location, one of them just colpsed, dying on the spot, bleeding from even the pores on his body, while the one who remained, still standing, didn't fare any better.

  "What kind of defenses do you have there?"

  "I don't know-" he began, but then he just vomited a mouthful of blood with pieces of his organs before also giving out, dying on the spot.

  "Mmm… Well, at least we know where they are." 02 blinked his eyes, wiping the tears from them, "What is our next move, Master?"

  "Maybe we can visit them. See what's what..." Ren murmured, looking at the map and then turning towards the colrs, blown to the side of the road

  "I support the idea of going there." Isha nodded, completely fired up, ready for round two.

  "No objection," came the confirmation from Lacuss.

  "We may just do that." Ren walked up to the colrs, squatting to inspect one closely. "Interesting… There is a formation etched onto it... We will bring back some to the Sect for study." She said while she put them away into her pouch, holding the remaining one in her hand, and walking towards their carriage. "I'll study this on the way... I already have some idea of what to do when we arrive."

  "Are we going to cause some major trouble?" Isha ughed, ready to rumble once again.

  "Well, they did start a smear campaign against the Empire that we are sves to the demons…." Ren chuckled, "I'm just thinking about returning the favor in a way." She whispered, getting onto the coach, followed by the rest as they were on their way again.