Chương 22: Swallowing the Heavens 2

Kivu nudged him, her massive head pressing against his side. He glanced at her and saw something in her eyes… determination. And a darkness that probably he could not even fathom. Somehow he understood…

"You want me to take revenge," Zimo said, his voice steadying but coming out very soft to her. "But not now. We're not ready."

Kivu blinked once, slowly, in agreement. But it was not agreeing with the second part of Zimo's statement, only the first one. Zimo chuckled… So she felt like they were ready. ZImo thought differently. When tackling problems it was important to gather information and requirements on what was necessary to solve those problems.

Zimo exhaled, his breath fogging in the cold air. "We're not ready yet. We'll watch them. Learn their strengths, their weaknesses. And when the time comes…" He clenched his fists tighter. "We'll take them down."

Kivu crouched low, her body coiling like a spring. Zimo climbed back onto her, his heart pounding in his chest. And then they left, disappearing into the shadows.

— Meanwhile, in the Building —

Maya stood in front of a crowd of terrified survivors. Her Beast, Phoebe, loomed behind her… a monstrous creature with purple fur and eyes that seemed to look like the coldest things in the universe.

However, at that moment, it was not Phoebe who was excusing coldness colder than anything else. It was Maya, who was looking at all of them like they were dirt under her feet. It was pretty interesting to see.

If Zimo was around he would have been utterly confused. After all, that kind of behaviour was something he had never seen from her…

But he would have soon understood... She was like him. She was being infected by the Beastly nature of the Beast that she had tamed. And it was making her colder.

"You're all pathetic," Maya sneered, her voice cutting through the air like a knife. "If you want to survive in this world, you need Strength. Loyalty. Obedience. You can only earn that thing here with us!"

Jacques stood beside her, his newly acquired Beast, a sleek, serpentine creature wreathed in smoke, slithering behind him. He smirked, his eyes scanning the room. This felt so good. It would feel even better if he was the one standing in front. But he was not complaining. He still had time to make her bend the knee.

Maya continued. "And if you don't have those… well, you're just food for the strong. Food for people like us… for the truly dangerous people out there. You're nothing. At the end of the day, if you have nothing and you are nothing. Are you really okay with that?"

The crowd murmured nervously, their eyes darting between the two tyrants and their terrifying Beasts. This was not the thing they had expected. But at the same time, they should have known a long time ago. After all, absolute power corrupts absolutely. It had corrupted the people who stood behind them before, the executives, and this time it was corrupting the new people who were leading them.

There was something wrong going on here. Maya was not like this before. And neither was Jacques who used to smile and be bossy. Now there was something fiery to his nature, to both their natures with Maya being colder. And it felt like there was a lot to do with the Beasts who stood behind them.

Maya stepped forward, her necklace-adorned neck glinting in the firelight. "Prove yourselves," she demanded. "Or die. You choose. I don't know about you, but I would hate to share with people who are nothing more than open mouths and empty hands. They do nothing other than just stand there waiting for handouts... How disgusting would that be?"

Everyone heard those words and knew she was talking about them. But at the same time, what were they going to do? Those things out there were too scary, and it was clear that they had the power. Why not just go out there and clear them out? Why come back and bully weak people who deserve to be protected like them?

Maya seemed to have been reading their minds at that moment. "What do you think this is? Charity? No, this is survival. I want you all to become Level 1 within two days. And after that I want some of you to start taming Beasts so that we can build something. A community. But before you level up and become useful you can all fuck off! Now fuck off!!!"

"Grooaarrr!!"

Phoebe let out a deafening roar, and the crowd scattered like rats, their fear palpable.

Maya stood there looking at them scurrying away like rats with her ample chest puffed up high. She was so happy at that moment. She turned to the man who stood next to her with a smirk, and when the man saw that smirk, he smirked at her too. But she might not have noticed this... his smirk was a bit more restrained. A bit more planful.

Meanwhile, the other team members and the intern stood at the side, their faces complicated. This was the new world they lived in now. Especially after what happened the last few hours as a wave of Deadspawn came for them.

They could only rely on these strong people to defend them. Even if those people treated them like trash, they were somewhat right. They were somewhat telling the truth. The idea was simple. While they were weak they would be ignored. Hey had to be strong.

Maya turned her head to them, seeing their complicated expressions and she couldn't help but sigh… How difficult. Being weak was so difficult. Just look at them, having to hang their heads low in their presence. She and Jacque had become royalty to those peasants.

The more she looked at them the more unwilling she was to be one of them. She really couldn't bear to be around weaklings like that. It felt like they were infecting her with their weakness. Turning to Jacques, she left, and he left after her, turning to those people and waving at them to disperse and handle the rest.

They sighed and got to work. They could get waved around like that now... Well, their strength was part of the reason. The other part was the fact that they controlled all the food that was being brought back by them from any of their expeditions.

Soon enough, the two people found themselves in another place. In a hidden room, Maya and Jacques sat together, their voices low but heated.

"Zimo's dead," Jacques said, leaning back in his chair. "We don't need to worry about him." Even though he said this, he did not believe it. At least not truly.

He wanted Maya to believe it because he had noticed her tense mental state. He wanted to believe it too, but there was just something wrong with Zimo… It felt like he was special. That was part of the reason why Jacques would occasionally suppress him not just for Maya, but to feel better about such a high performer.

Maya frowned, her eyes narrowing as a bad feeling came to her. She couldn't understand where this bad feeling was coming from but she did know that it was pretty annoying for her to feel like this.. "You don't know that. He's a cockroach. He always finds a way to crawl back. It's probably the same this time."

Jacques smirked, standing up and heading over to her, leaning closer to her. "And if he does… You won't have to raise a finger. After what you did for me, I'll kill him. For good this time."

Maya's lips curled into a wicked smile, staring deep into this man's eyes. "I'd like to see that."

Unbeknownst to them, Zimo and Kivu watched from the shadows, their eyes fixed on the tyrannical pair. Zimo had a sry smile on his face, looking at them with a weird look on his face. He smirked. How funny.

Wasn't Maya grinding on the crotch of another man only a few hours ago? And now it seemed she and Jacques were having a very close relationship. It would have been fine if this was it, but that was not the case There was more to this. No. The man she was grinding on that other time, was Jacques Uncle.

Zimo's voice was a low whisper, barely audible over the crackling fire. "They think I'm dead."

Kivu's growl was soft but menacing. To Zimo the meaning was obvious. Isn't that great? Zimo thought so too.

Information was everything in warfare and strategy. Since they were experiencing a deficit of information they would never expect him to come for them, especially not so soon, only 4 hours after they did those things to him.

But... Zimo was not going to attack just yet. If he was going to take revenge on them, he had to take away the thing that made them feel powerful… he needed to take away their Beasts.

Would he kill them? Well, there was that one mission. He could knock off a few missions if he did this right. He guessed he would have to do things in the right way, to make sure to do things in a way that was both impressive and incredible.

"Good," Zimo said, a cold smile spreading across his face. "Let them think that. It'll make it easier to take them down."

Kivu's shadows stretched out, enveloping them both as they melted back into the darkness, a trick that Zimo was only now embracing… He was learning how to do this too, and although he wasn't as good as Kivu, he was getting there. Manipulating the darkness was so cool.

The last thing visible was the gleam of her emerald eyes, promising vengeance for ZImo. It was unfortunate though, that they didn't see her eyes. But ZImo saw something else making her stop just before she was about to leave.

Was that… no way. Maya had gotten on Jacques's lap and he had been kissing her. They had begun making out and ruffling each other's clothes…

Were they about to fuck?