"We're here, boss." Riley said, as she stopped the car outside a club.
"How many times have I told you to drive slow, if we're not in a hurry?" Rio said as he yawned and stretched his hands.
"Brother would've handled everything himself if we got late." Riley said as she opened up the car door and gestured to him to come out.
Hearing her answer Rio didn't comment again, as he understood how that idiot's brain worked. "Where is he anyway? I told him to wait?" Rio said as he looked around and didn't see Ryan anywhere near the gate waiting for him.
"He's probably inside gambling or playing with someone?" Riley said with an annoyed look and threw the car keys at the guard who came forward to park the car.
Rylie and her twin brother Ryan, two of Rio's personal confidantes, who've been serving under him for the last 4 years. They swore loyalty to him and had been doing all kinds of things on his order.
The last time Rio joined the academy, he arranged for them to follow him. On his orders they had to establish themselves in the underground and the black market, and create a network for them to easily handle all the shady things he needed done in the floating islands.
Angel was the company which could help him with all the things in an above board manner, then the twins needed to raise themselves enough that by the time the plot started everyone on the dark side of the floating islands should've heard of their name.
Since the twins were both young, only 21 years old at that time, and didn't have the necessary strength to conquer everything by force. The only other way to make themselves superior was resources. That's why all the profits Angel earned through every deal on the floating islands and with Zenith Academy, would go into the pockets of the twins, for them to manage everything.
Rio also hired some other people who were introduced in the novel, and some whom he had chosen from the Blake and Raven families, to help the twins. He had given them enough profits and resources for them to do whatever he wanted without restraints and hesitation.
Obviously every one of them were bound by mana contracts and blood oaths, that would kill them instantly if they ever tried to betray him.
He would've liked to see the progress of these minions himself and manage them all according to the events of the academy arcs, but just after settling them down in the first year, he got trapped in that dungeon and all his plans were only left in his head.
Since he didn't trust anyone enough to share every detail of what he wanted, he doubted these guys could achieve the perfect results he needed.
But there was nothing he could do about that.
[You gotta work with what you have.]
It's been 3 years since he established these guys, and 2 years since he last saw them, it was time to see how much progress they had made.
'These idiots didn't just waste all my money in the air, did they?' Rio suddenly thought and wondered. 'Because a month after I'm back and there's already trouble.'
[Hahaha]
[Well you did leave a heroine, who's Leon's first sex partner, and her brother who was supposed to be dead in charge of everything. I'm sure everything's fine.] System said, trying to control its laughter and calming its host down.
'I'll beat their asses black and blue if they got me into loss.' Rio said, as he looked at Riley walking ahead.
Rio looked at himself in the side mirror, to confirm that the mask artifact which altered his facial features worked perfectly fine or not, and if it gave him a new appearance.
He fixed his hair a little and smiled at the reflection which showed the face of someone else smiling back.
'No matter how many times I see it, this appearance is flawless.'
[Well, technically it is your own appearance, so no need to be that shocked about it.]System said, as a matter of fact, tone.
After all, the appearance he chose was that of Shiva's.
Rio's short styled white hair were now changed into disheveled jet black hair. His black eyes which used to resemble the allure of the abyss, were now rugged, as if they had seen the multitudes of emotions and had lived through everything. His face bearing the expression that seemed like he was too lazy to care about anything, and everything was a drag.
A little scar covered his left eye, leaving a straight mark over his pupil and eyebrows. This was something he got after he first used this mask and he had a fight with some people over the interests of his new company. He could've healed the scar and removed it, but Riley said it looked nice and he was too lazy to fix it. After all, doing that meant putting this mask on a cooldown and find a repairer, or ask help from Loki, both of these were things too troublesome and unreliable.
The noble and elegant aura which Rio exuded, always making him look superior, was gone now. And in its place was a constant bloodlust that seemed to ooze out of his every pore, giving him the vibe that only the warriors and criminals who fought many battles had.
Even his clothes had changed from a rich styled suit and jacket to the normal attire. His physical features were changed too. Before he looked his age of 18 and had a trained perfect physique, then now he was in his middle age years, with a body that didn't seem anything special.
The mask he had was the artifact of Loki, called Mask of Deception.
The Mask of Deception allows its user to change their appearance entirely, taking on the guise of anyone or anything they can imagine.
But as always, a trickster's gift came with a trick.
This artifact could only work, if the user himself believes himself to be looking like that. So in essence one needed to deceive themselves first, before they could deceive others.
Meaning it simply turned the imagination of the user into reality. If the user couldn't imagine himself in that appearance perfectly, the artifact won't work. So if you want to fake someone else's face, you'd need to change your whole personality and imagination to fall into that person's character.
This is where the risk of using this artifact comes into effect too. Since the user believes himself to be the person he changes his appearance into, then the long term use of this mask could affect the users mental stability, and there's a risk he might forget who he truly is.
This artifact might seem useless to many, as the conditions to use it are too harsh. And the side effects are scary too.
But what it lacks in limitations, it makes up in its quality. Unlike other artifacts which high ranking awakeners could easily see through, or those which came with the user's rank limitations - this artifact could be used by anyone and could also fool anyone.
Even if an F rank uses it, and manages to perfectly control it, he could fool everyone, as long as he has mana that is.
"What's the name of the idiot we're here to settle?" Rio asked, as he entered the club filled with crowd.
"Dante." Riley replied, amplifying her voice with mana, so he could still hear her despite the loud sound coming from the music and people all around them.
"He took a loan from us a year ago, and this was his second due date. I tried to contact him, but the dude's been ignoring me. And when some of the guys came here to handle it, his minions started a riot and a fight broke out. So Ryan wanted to handle it himself this time. But then you asked to settle it yourself." Riley said, explaining everything in one breathe.
"Dante, is that the guy from the followers of Den of Devils?" Rio thought as he remembered a character from the novel with the same name.
"Who?" Riley asked, a little confused with that murmur of his, since she couldn't hear what he said.
"Well doesn't matter who he is? It's time for pay back." Rio said, and started walking forward with his hands in his pockets.
"That's the entrance." Riley said, as she pointed towards a door. Rio glanced at a man who was guarding a door which was termed VIPs only.
"What's the code?" The burly man, towering over Rio and Riley asked, waving his hand to stop them from entering.
Rio looked upwards, met his eyes. A smirk came to his face, as without saying anything, he kicked the man in the stomach, sending him flying along with the broken door.
"Hmm so that was the code huh" Rio said, as he saw open entrance and walked inside.
[Show me a scene of carnage.] Hela requested, the moment he entered inside.
'That's the plan'
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢