"What... what did you just say?"
Kara couldn't believe what Kenbi had just told her.
East Sealed Prison Island — a place where only the most hardened, irredeemable criminals were sent. Thieves carrying Mana Materials too dangerous for ordinary prisons, members of massive organizations whose influence made them too risky to hold anywhere else — all ended up here.
Kara and Kenbi, bosses of the secret organization known as the "Nine-Tailed Shadow Fox," had been captured by two Level 8s working with a Code and imprisoned about a month ago. In that single month, the Fox's forces — which had initially numbered only a handful — had swollen to the point where they now controlled half the prison.
Currently, within these walls, there was no one who didn't know the Nine-Tailed Shadow Fox — who didn't know Kara and Kenbi.
It was an absurd situation for a secret organization, but there was no helping it. They still hadn't found a way to break out of this prison.
"Thousand Transformations has been imprisoned here, I said. The Serpent tried to seize their food supply and launch a retaliation, but they failed — so the report should be credible."
The Serpent — the Eight-Headed Serpent — was a massive organization, different from the Fox in nature but no less formidable. Their combat forces were every bit as deep as the Fox's.
As it happened, it was a high-ranking Serpent fighter who had interfered with what should have been an easy jailbreak. After engaging the Serpent in battle right after their imprisonment, Kara and her group had been so severely weakened that escape had become impossible.
Even now, the thought made her blood boil — but she set it aside for the moment.
If Thousand Transformations had truly arrived, the threat he posed was a hundred times worse than the Serpent's, and there was plenty of grudge to go around.
After all, Kara had been defeated by that man twice — once at the Martial Emperor Festival and once during the Code.
She couldn't imagine Zebuldia would send the man who had captured two bosses of the Nine-Tailed Shadow Fox to the prison island.
The Empire was a nation of laws, but the Emperor held absolute power, and the current emperor, Radlick Atrum Zebuldia, was a shrewd operator. Even if another country had captured Thousand Transformations and wanted to send him to the prison island, Zebuldia would surely refuse.
"Is this some kind of scheme? Are they trying to obstruct us again?"
Or had the truth finally come out — that Thousand Transformations' actions at the Martial Emperor Festival, where he had used the Key of the Earth and nearly destroyed the world, were actually his doing?
If that were the case, she could understand... but learning the truth now offered Kara no comfort whatsoever.
Quite the opposite — the timing was abysmal. That man was, without question, a plague upon her.
As Kara furrowed her brow, Kenbi shrugged.
"No, apparently he actually committed a serious crime. According to information from outside, he merged the Imperial Capital with the Treasure Hall."
"...Huh? ...You're joking."
"It's the truth. Apparently the Imperial Capital was in complete chaos."
He merged the Imperial Capital with the Treasure Hall???
Was he an idiot? Was that man truly an idiot? How had he even done it — and more importantly, why?
She couldn't... she simply couldn't comprehend it. Her head was starting to genuinely ache.
"He apparently put the citizens of the Imperial Capital through the Thousand Trials or something. With all that, do you still think him being here is some kind of scheme?"
"............"
No matter how you looked at it, what Thousand Transformations had done was far more problematic than anything the Fox had pulled.
He was a criminal of such magnitude that all his previous accomplishments were rendered meaningless. Rather than receiving the death penalty, he was lucky that Zebuldia had shown any restraint at all.
She felt sick. Was that man a plague not just to her, but to everyone?
Even if the merger of the Treasure Hall and the Imperial Capital was some kind of Thousand Transformations' scheme, there was not a shred of justification for it. He was as insane as when he had tried to forcibly activate the Key of the Earth.
Had there been someone in Kara's position before — someone who tried to stop Thousand Transformations and failed?
It was a wild guess, but given what Kara had experienced of the man's methods, it was entirely plausible.
Kenbi cracked his neck and spoke.
"So, what do we do? Whatever his intentions, it's certain that Thousand Transformations came to this prison island alone. And plenty of people here have a grudge against him. Heh... I, for one, don't have any, though."
"What do you mean, 'what do we do'?"
In the roughly one month since their imprisonment, the Fox had recruited criminals who weren't affiliated with the Serpent, building themselves into a major force. All of it was for the purpose of escaping this godforsaken prison.
The Serpent was doing the same thing, plotting and planning.
The Fox and the Serpent were at each other's throats. If the Serpent escaped first, they would use every means at their disposal to prevent Kara's group from following.
That was why the Fox had to escape before the Serpent, no matter what it took.
"If the Blue Serpents get out of the prison, things will get ugly. If they rebuild their organization, we might start losing defectors too."
When the heads of the Eight-Headed Serpent had all been captured and the organization collapsed, the Fox had picked up powerful former Serpent fighters and added them to their ranks. But those fighters only followed the Fox because the Serpent had fallen — if the organization was rebuilt, there would undoubtedly be those who tried to leave.
And rebuilding wasn't impossible.
The only ones captured from the Eight-Headed Serpent were the top executives and some high-ranking fighters; the bulk of their assets and personnel remained intact. The only reason the organization still hadn't reformed was because the Fox had been sabotaging it.
If the Blue Serpents made it outside, everything the Fox had accomplished would be wasted. Worse yet, those brute-force types would likely turn against the Fox entirely.
The Fox was currently weakened — Kara and Kenbi had been captured, the long-planned infiltration of the Code had failed, and the organization was shaking.
Kara furrowed her brow and spoke to Kenbi.
"...What are you trying to say? Get to the point."
"In other words... we have two options. One is to eliminate Thousand Transformations. The other is to recruit Thousand Transformations as an ally and use his power to escape this prison."
Kara answered without a moment's hesitation.
"Out of the question. Bringing that man into our ranks is absolutely, positively out of the question!"
The pain Thousand Transformations had inflicted upon Kara.
It was all because of that man. Ever since he appeared, Kara's long-laid plans had crumbled, the organization's strength had been severely diminished, and she had been humiliated as a traitor. She had managed to convince Kenbi, but the other bosses probably still considered her a traitor.
And now... recruit that man?
"Calm down. Heh... You're not the type to lose your composure over anger. If Thousand Transformations' schemes surpass Kara's, then we need his power even more. If the Serpent gets to him first, we'll be in trouble."
He had a point... He absolutely did.
The Serpent's ability to formulate and execute plans was poor, but they still possessed enough strength that even with both Kara and Kenbi present, the Fox couldn't wipe them out.
They even had more fighters than the Fox. For the Serpent, Thousand Transformations — a man who wielded cunning strategies — could be the missing piece they needed.
If that happened, the Serpent would be much closer to breaking out.
"But it's out of the question. That man is a plague. I will never ally with him."
Merging the Imperial Capital with the Treasure Hall — she couldn't even fathom what it would take to pull off something like that.
But at the very least, the moves he had made at the Martial Emperor Festival were, in every sense of the word, the worst. Compared to those, even the bad reputation surrounding the Mourning Specter looked tame.
"Hehehe... Understood. Then, we eliminate that man. That's what you want?"
"Yes... no, wait."
That man's strategies were chaotic. But at the same time, every single one had exceeded Kara's expectations.
That man was a threat. Eliminating him now — when she had no Party or Clan members to protect her — was unquestionably the best timing. The sooner she got rid of him, the better. That much was certain.
But when she forced herself to calm down and think about it again, wouldn't that be far too predictable from his perspective?
"What will you do?"
That man had to understand how Kara viewed him... Once his existence was revealed, he would have to anticipate that she would come to kill him rather than recruit him.
And he would play the move Kara feared most. With a man like Thousand Transformations, that level of trust was warranted.
Right now, Kara was being corroded by this land, weakened to the point where she couldn't escape the prison.
Kenbi, a pure fighter and swordsman, hadn't lost as much strength as Kara — but without a weapon, he couldn't fight at full capacity either.
That meant the worst-case scenario was— She let her thoughts race for a few seconds.
The moves that man could make. The one that would make Kara feel the most wretched when she realized it.
And then, Kara made a decision that the old her would never have made.
"...We're partnering with the Serpent."
"Excuse me!?"
Kenbi — who never lost his composure — eyes went wide and he let out an absurd shout.
The Nine-Tailed Shadow Fox and the Eight-Headed Serpent were different in every conceivable way. The two organizations, which had been at each other's throats, forming an alliance was something that should have been absolutely impossible.
But precisely because of that — they could outmaneuver that man.
"I've read it all. Thousand Transformations is already — on the verge of exchanging the Oath Cup with the Serpent. So we need to get ahead of him."
The Oath Cup was a ritual the Serpent performed with partners with whom they formed a binding alliance. For the Serpent's members, exchanging the Oath Cup was synonymous with declaring someone a brother — and they would never abandon the one with whom the cup had been exchanged.
If Kara's group attacked Thousand Transformations after he had exchanged the Oath Cup, the Serpent would mobilize every last soldier to protect him, regardless of the cost to themselves. And if they clashed with a full-power Serpent, Kara, Kenbi, and of course the Serpent's high-ranking fighters would all pay a heavy price.
In the end, the only one who would profit was Thousand Transformations.
This — was the worst-case scenario.
"But the Serpent had their food taken and their retaliation failed, didn't they?"
"That's precisely why the cup hasn't been exchanged yet. If we move now, we can still form an alliance. It's infuriating, but it's our only option."
It was a stalemate. If the Fox and the Serpent joined forces, crushing Thousand Transformations would be easy — but the price was that neither side could interfere with the other's escape. This was a significant risk.
If the other Fox bosses found out, Kara would face severe censure.
But it was the only way to crush that man's plans.
At the very least, Thousand Transformations could be eliminated this way, and Kara's plan to escape from this prison could still proceed.
The quickest way to escape this prison island was, in any case, to somehow gather Mana Materials. The Serpent was probably working on a similar plan.
That said, the Fox's plan was likely further along — but beggars couldn't be choosers.
Kenbi was silent for a while, then sighed softly and shrugged.
"...Fine. It's not exactly an exciting strategy, but I owe you. For mistakenly thinking you were a traitor — I owe you that."
"That's enough. Finally, we can make him pay the price for looking down on the Fox."
Kenbi was a born warrior. Fighting was his job, his hobby, and his pleasure.
He had been advocating for a ceasefire ever since the exhausting battle with the Serpent, but allying with the Serpent meant he wouldn't have to fight their high-ranking fighters anymore. For Kenbi, that was like having his enjoyment taken away.
But the agreement had been secured. Making Kara appear a traitor had been Thousand Transformations' scheme.
It was all that man's own doing — reaping what he had sowed.
The string of infuriating defeats flashed through her mind — from the Martial Emperor Festival to... no, starting from the assassination plot against the Emperor.
Kara clenched her fists, conjuring the image of Thousand Transformations' idiotic face in her mind, and declared with venom: "I will sever every thread of fate between us. I will offer Thousand Transformations as a blood sacrifice and present him as an offering to our God."