After several more moments of socializing, talking, and depositing pieces of luggage into more appropriate places, Zhen Liu and his allies eventually got seated around Axer's surprisingly large table.

Their purpose: to discuss and plan what the fuck they were all doing in Rainbowden and if there was any way they could help each other.

So far the answer was...maybe.

Zhen Liu and his friends had arrived to Rainbowden with two clear goals in mind, maybe three.

They were going to secure the Rainbowsmith's legacy down in the catacombs of the city, they were going to see if it was possible to fix up or upgrade Lythero's swords before or after the aforementioned legacy was secure, and they were possibly going to kill the shit out of several old enemies of theirs.

As far as curators knew, most of them were in the city in one way or another, and Zhen Liu figured it was about time to bury the hatchet in a more literal sense.

As for Alicia, Harriet, Bellona, and Alice, their goal was to simply assist Axer in securing the money he needed to pay for protections while also investigating a recent series of murders disguised as natural deaths.

Evidently, it was right when the girls mentioned this part about how a whole bunch of people suddenly died from [Mandrake Tears] that Zhen Liu and his group realized that there was an overlap in their experiences and possible goals.

A rather obvious one at that.

"Wait a minute… did you just say that those guys were killed with a special poison meant to prep corpses for aether puppet conversion?" Lythero asked with a mildly rhetorical twinge to his voice.

"Yes."

"Didn't…didn't we roll into town with some guys calling themselves the Beautiful Marionette Society?" Antonio asked.

"Yes. Yes, we did."

"Huh."

To the newcomers, Taurna and Leona, and the outsiders, Axer, Zhong Wei, and Olstenna, this was just a weird coincidence that was fortunate to both sides.

To the ones that were close to Zhen Liu, though, aka his cousins, friends, and lovers, they couldn't help but to collectively direct a gaze in Zhen Liu's direction.

The man had a tendency to attract trouble through no fault of his own, but it was kind of shocking how often it happened.

"What are you guys looking at me for?"

"Nothing, just… do you have any input?"

"If you're wondering if I think that there's a chance that the guys we need to deal with are somehow involved with the guys we traveled with and may very well also be the guys who decided to commit poisonous murders, then…maybe," Zhen Liu admitted. "But the chances of that are very slim… I will still need eyes on them to determine the validity of this suspicion, though. If we're lucky, there will be probably unrelated."

At the exact moment Zhen Liu made that last statement for all of the world to hear, the sound of thunder suddenly echoed from outside.

"What the fuck?"

"Oh, that's probably one of the Thundersmiths," Axer explained. "They're always loud at this time of day."

"Huh…"

Hilarious coincidence aside, these suspicions of the group were about to become incredibly true.

______ Behold, advanced jinxing ______

Rainbowden is the city of artisans, but not all artisans were welcomed here.

At least, not openly.

For every orthodox craftsman that made sure everything was on the up-and-up, that every material was ethically sourced, and that every fee related to their workspace was paid off to its fullest, there was another craftsman that flew in the face of all of these restrictions and worked however they pleased without giving a damn about the consequences.

These fellows would normally include practitioners of hidden crafting techniques, the kind that required regular and bloody sacrifices, or artisans who make more extreme versions of well-known products, such as aether puppets made from fresh mortal corpses.

These radical artisans were not welcome on the city streets of Rainbowden, so many of them moved to the labyrinth-like underground that seemed to expand every few years for some unclear reason.

For the most part, these forbidden craftsmen were content being independent radicals. But these same radicals understood that there was strength to be found in numbers and working together, so those of similar ideals would form their own sects focused on shared interests.

For the most part, this would help to protect one another from the judgement of others.

However, this also made them targets for certain individuals.

After all, many of these artisans needed rare and dangerous materials to ply their craft, and many of these artisans would be a boon to any organization that managed to recruit them regardless of the methodology.

In other words, sometimes that strength in numbers just made them better targets.

...

After parting ways with the fallen nobles from the [Mines of Malevolence], the members of the Beautiful Marionette Society brought their focus back onto their main task: delivering the latest shipment of [Malevolent Gold] to the society's headquarters.

This wasn't necessarily a hard task, but still a bit of a pain in the ass since it involved navigating the catacombs of Rainbowden.

"Hey, are we there yet? This gold is starting to leak a rather nasty aura."

"We should be. All we have to do is take a right here and—"

BOOM!

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Right when the two warriors were about to enter the chamber where their headquarters was located, a black blur was suddenly sent flying towards the right of the only doorway connecting their home to the rest of the catacombs.

Once the blur had impacted the wall, and all the dust had settled, the two warriors could see who precisely was sent flying in such a brutally violent manner.

"Who the fuck—no...no way..."

"It can't be..."

"You...two..."

Because the person who was just impacted into a wall was none other than their leader, Puppet-Maker Elias.

"Help...me...help my...Ella..."

It was in that instant that the two warriors felt their skin crawl like a million ants and their blood run colder than ice.

Puppet-Maker Elias was not only an Aether Emperor, the most powerful warrior in their entire sect, but also his personal aether corpse puppet that was made from his deceased wife, Ella, was one that had managed to reach the vaunted Platinum tier of aether treasures after years and years of meticulous care and even better planned upgrades.

In other words, the number of people in the world that could render him a bloody mess like this was small, and the number of people who could defeat him in this city was even smaller.

[Well, aren't you tenacious? Then again, I suppose it had to do with the fact that your little love doll here took most of the blow for you.]

"Who the fuck are you?!" The newcomers shouted in an attempt to make themselves brave as they took on fighting stances and summoned their own personal puppets.

Because of their actions, though, they couldn't hear their scent leader instruct them to run.

[Oh. And I see you brought friends. How lovely.]

The source of this voice was a strange warrior that neither of the foolish puppeteers had ever seen before.

Illuminated by underground torches, the warrior clearly had skin that was as dark and smooth as obsidian but marked with lines and patterns of gold, eyes that seemed to resemble mirrors of the purest glass that reflected one's soul as opposed to one's looks, and all wrapped in a strange suit of clothes that appeared to be made from the skin of a jaguar.

With the broken halves of the corpse puppet Ella in his hands, the sight of their fellow sect members either lying dead on the floor or held captive by warriors that seemed way too professional for a shitty place like this, the two newcomers couldn't help but feel as if they were staring at a demon from hell, rising from the underworld to punish them for their sins.

Of course, like any underworld devil, there was actually going to be a deal involved.

[Well, wait a happy-go-lucky minute, is that shipment in your hands Malevolent Gold by any chance?] The warrior asked with a tone that was in sharp contrast to the brutal atmosphere. [Heh. If you two had arrived just a day earlier, then maybe your leader here could've upgraded his puppet to last longer than they did. Of course, that increase would only constitute a minute at best.]

To emphasize the futility of their resistance, the strange warrior tossed the two halves of the Platinum-tier corpse puppet to their feet.

The naturally glassy eyes of the puppet seemed even duller than before.

[But with that out of the way, I suggest that you two surrender now if you wish to live,] the warrior said as he suddenly turned away from the duo. [After all, the Duke and I prefer to have such elements under heel as opposed to underground.]

___________________________________

Now, back to the guy who should've sent scouts the moment they entered the city...

"I'm fairly certain that this is going to be a separate manner, but hey, if it's not, that makes our lives easier."

"How so?"

"Less logistical planning."

"Ah."