Chapter 20: Unwelcome Revelations
Dyen had fairly run out of people to kill when Cato asked for his help.
There was no point in going after the low ranking Tornok Clan. They were weak, useless things, and only the higher ranks were worthy of his time. All of them would die eventually, of course, but to spend effort massacring hapless Coppers and Silvers would be to demean himself — and undermine his vengeance. At the same time, he’d found that the upper ranking Tornok Clan – the ones who had given the orders, who encouraged the behavior, and the ones who were ultimately responsible – were out of reach.
They were Azoth, on a planet full of Bismuths and Azoths, in Estates that had System protections he was far from being able to bypass. For the most part he had busied himself with hunting down other assassins to rank up, having absolutely no loyalty to the Assassin’s Guild. More the reverse, given how virtually every contract seemed to be motivated by spite and pique rather than justified revenge.
Targeting assassins meant that none of his kills would result in the sort of random destruction that had killed his wife, and the capelet made finding assassins simplicity itself — or at least it had until he noticed System-produced versions appearing here and there. Cato had ensured that Dyen’s was part of his body, and thus superior, but the equipment he had recovered from several of his theoretical compatriots was obviously inspired by the original version.
[Revelatory Companion: B-Tier Companion Beast
Improves passive senses and provides extra sensory input]
His was better, but it still meant that hunting down the high-rank assassins, those who had somehow found out about this new piece of equipment and procured their own, was no longer straightforward. His usual approaches having stalled out, he was glad to have an actual reason to stray away from Tornok Clan space — and have help promised for when it finally came time to deliver the final retribution to those who had taken his wife from him.
After Cato contacted him through the incredibly odd not-quite-a-Skill, he stretched out and invoked his Skills before leaving his bolthole. Dyen passed through worlds like a shadow, flitting from portal to portal under full stealth and with Skills that meant he was barely corporeal most of the time. Most people who ascended to Bismuth looked forward to the opportunities of the core worlds, but Dyen had never had any interest and never would. He cared little for the increasing grandeur of the capital cities as he approached the inner worlds, where the network of portals narrowed down to a central convergence, nor did the higher-rank essence signatures make him feel like he was in the company of his peers. All he cared about was reaching his target.
A concern that went up in flames when he crossed the portal to the inner worlds, and everything unraveled.