Beheading The Beast[Job/Solo]

Spoiler:

It had only been a few days since Yakuroro shattered the communications and coordinations operations of the Brotherhood of Ash. The base hidden in the mountains contained enough supplies and weapons to start a revolution, but thanks to the Imuchakk's efforts those dangers were now buried under a mountain of stone and dirt where they would eventually be forgotten by the passage of time. The men who ran the hide out were turned over to Zou Imperial forces and sent to the prisons beneath the capital to rot for the rest of their lives. Yet despite this victory, Yakuroro felt no more closer to ending the threat of the brotherhood than he had when he first learned of their presence in Zou.

Through defeating the coordination unit, Yaku learned of one last powerful figure among the Brotherhood of Ash agents still working in Zou. A powerful politician and advisor whom was in the emperor's good graces, Zajil Morais, was the local leader for the brotherhood. So long as that man remained in power it would only be a matter of time before another brotherhood foot hold was established and this time they would likely be far better hidden and defended. Thankfully, news of Yakuroro's success would not reach the capital before he could by way of flying carpet. This created an opportunity. An opening. A time window for Yakuroro to weed out and defeat Zajil before he even knew there was someone hunting him and his brothers.

~247/1500~

Yakuroro arrived in the capital three days ahead of the guards he'd turned the brotherhood agents over to. This gave him a few moons to figure out how to handle Zajil. The Imuchakk made his way to an inn not too far from the imperial palace and settled in for a large meal and a good nights sleep. There was a sense of urgency, however he'd been flying all day and hardly had any rest since he'd defeated the brotherhood's communications group. Yaku's bones were weary, his muscles sore, his shoulder still wounded, and his magoi depleted. It would be foolish for him to waltz into the palace to confront Zajil right now so the smartest thing was to relax and recuperate.

"Inn keep! I'd like four meals and a mug of your finest ale." Yakuroro called out from the den where guests could order food and warm up by the fire. The inn keep was about to ask if he was expecting company, but upon seeing Yakuroro's large size, the old man realized all four meals were for Yakuroro alone. The giant Imuchakk grinned as he awaited his meal whilst considering his options for approaching Zajil when he overhead some other guests.

"Can you believe that Zajil guy? We already paid the trade tariffs when we entered the capital, what's the big idea refusing us our merchant registration!?" It was an upset traveling merchant who happened to be talking about Yakuroro's target. The merchant's companion then spoke up, "I hear he owns the storage warehouses where we had to leave our goods while the paperwork is pending. It was probably so we'd have to pay his ridiculous storage fees..." The Blue magician kept his big stupid grin plastered on his face, but mentally took a much more serious tone as he listened further for any more information. Unfortunately the talk summed up to be little more than complaining before changing subjects. There was nothing vital Yaku overheard, but at least now he knew that this Zajil person was corrupt for sure. Even if the information about his connection to the brotherhood was false, it sounded like justice called for Zajil's retirement from office.

~630/1500~

The next morning, Yakuroro approached the imperial palace on the premise that he was a merchant looking to discuss storage of high value goods. This facade was supported by his previous meeting with a Prince of Zou where his occupation as a merchant had already been established. A wealthy trader from foreign lands with supposed need of storing expensive and exotic merchandise was all it took for Zajil to show himself to the investigative Imuchakk. Yakuroro was only speaking to the manager of the warehouse for a few minutes before the young Brotherhood of Ash operative stepped out from the back and greeted Yakuroro to handle his accounts personally.

"Please forgive my subordinates, they don't know how to treat such valued customers like yourself! I'm told you wish to keep you most expensive wares here? Please, please, come with me and we can discus the details."

The man was dressed like a noble and a grin plastered over his face, but false appearances were Yakuroro's forte. He immediately recognized the greed behind the man's appearance as he sought how to best leak gold from Yaku's pockets. The Imuchakk noded a few times and began to walk with Zajil speaking lies about his apparent stock, "Yes, I have brought a number of spices and and exotic foods with me that must be kept cool. I've done some dabbling in magic so I'm able to produce enough ice on my own, but the normal warehouses in Zou don't offer such services and I'd prefer not to waste my time and energy. Can your warehouse accomodate this?"

~894/1500~

Yakuroro had intended his request to be one which was impossible for the greedy young man to fulfill. This made the surprise which took over the Imuchakk's face uncharacteristically genuine as Zajil showed his toothy grin even wider and gestured for Yakuroro to follow him into a back room. "I believe we can accommodate your wares just fine my good sir, please follow me and see for yourself." Yakuroro was then led into a large chamber where the temperature suddenly dropped drastically. Frost covered the floors and walls and Yaku saw his breath on the air as they entered a large freezer. Throught his nature as a magician, Yakuroro was able to see blue rukh flowing into the room through vents near the ceiling, he followed the flow with his eyes and noticed that it was all coming from one side of the room where a large locked door stood.

Zajil had been going on about how the warehouse was capable of storing up to several tons of cooled goods and listed off ridiculous prices that honestly weren't so ridiculous considering how exclusive and advanced such a service was in these times. But the blue magician didn't even listen and instead pointed to the closed door, "What's behind there? Blue magicians?" Yakuroro asked. Zajil stumbled over his words and tried to deflect the issue, "-coming to a total of 50,000 huwawawhy does it matter? We keep the place cool right? That's all that is important...Lets talk money my good sir~"

Yakuroro crossed his arms and glared at Zajil before making an ultimatum, "Let me see the quality of your magicians. Any one can cast a frost spell for a few hours but I find it hard to believe that you have enough people on your staff trained in magic that you could have this magic running all day and night."

~1206/1500~

Zajil bit his lower lip in frustration that things could not go his way, but the show of displeasure was quickly suppressed and replaced with his previous greedy grin. "Very well, but you will find an answer rather different from what you were expecting..." The youn man walked over the the locked door and pulled a necklace from under his robes which held a key on its loop. The teeth of the golden piece entered the lock and shifted its tumblers before turning. There was a dull clicking noise and the lock came undone allowing Zajil to open the double doors and then gesture for Yakuroro to enter inside. The Imuchakk wasn't sure what he would find inside thanks to Zajil's warning so he took slow deliberate step towards the entrance before ducking his head inside. "Unlike what you assumed, we do not employ magician's here. To do so all day would be far too expensive..." Zajil explained as he entered the room behind the giant Imuchakk.

It was difficult, even for Yaku, to keep his true feelings hidden from his expression as he laid eyes upon what was hiding behind the doors. A large machine of sorts sat on one end of the room spanning the length of almost the entire wall. Many tubes were running from this machine along the wall and into the ceiling at the same points where the vents in the cooled storage room had been. Yakuroro could see magoi buzzing around inside belly of the large metal object through a view port window but that was not what horrified him. It was the source of that magoi. The Blue magician's jaw dropped as he observed children and elderly folk sitting in a row along side the machine holding tubes. Each of these poor individuals were taking deep breaths before blowing into tubes extending from the machine which would pull magoi from their breath. The magoi suppliers didn't even seem to noticed anyone entered the room as they were too exhausted to do anything but continue supplying power to the beast of steel and magic before them. On the other side of the room were even more folk, all too weak or poor to do anything about their situation. These people all turned to see who had come for them and a large group immediately ran up to Zajil prostrating themselves as they begged to be let out or to see their families. "Get back! And have the next group switch out! You all know what happens if you let a group work the furnace for too long...I don't feel like losing more 'batteries' as the empire only has so many debt slaves such as yourselves to send me!"

~1500+/1500~

"I've seen enough..." Yakuroro said before turning around and leaving the magoi production chamber and returning to the center of the cooled storage room. Seeing how upset Yakuroro was, Zajil quickly moved after him and only stopped to close and lock the door while trying to convince Yakuroro that everything was just and fair. "I know that it looks bad, but please understand that those folk were considered the scum of society before they came here. Orphans and people who would not pay their taxes or debts. Instead of being thrown in the dungeons they were all given a choice to come here and work for me. We pay them with food and housing so they are better off here than they were on the streets or behind bars." It was disgusting how Zajil seemed to truly believe what he was saying. While in the room Yakuroro has seen the stale bread and filthy cups of water the people there were being given as sustenance. He saw the veins stressed on their body from over working their magoi systems. He'd observed the dirty cots and the bruises several people had from beatings. These conditions were worse than those of most slaves in Zou!

"I understand sir..." Yakuroro said as he turned his back to Zajil for a moment. The greedy young man smiled wider at the words, "Wonderful! Wonderful! I was worried you had been offended. Now about payment for you wa-

"I understand how you ended up as head of the Brotherhood of Ash in this area. You're just the kind of scum they like employing. Slipping Sleet!" Yakuroro whipped around and pointed his staff at Zajil summoning water from the air to splash across the ground knocking the merchant's feet out from under him. The water closest to the ground then froze into a slippery icy path before the current of the water reversed and washed Zajil back towards Yakuroro. The Imuchak roared in anger as he punched with his left fist slamming it into the helpless merchant who was now flying towards him at 15m/s. The B-tier strength of the spell and B-tier strenght of Yakuroro's fist would combine for an A-tier impact which would have crushed Zajil's bones and left him in mortal condition. However the merchant was unexpectedly protected by a sudden shell of magoi. A Borg. Zajil was a magician!

The Borg shattered from the blow but Zajil remained unharmed giving him time to reach into his robes and grasp his wand. A flight spell was activated and Zajil ascended into the air 10 meters away from Yakuroro but the Imuchakk was not going to let Zajil get way. "Shackling Shock!" Zajil shouted as lightning ruhk gathered around his wand obeying his commands. He was going to try and take advantage of the water now beneath Yakuroro's feet however this plan would backfire as Yakuroro cast his own "spell", "Flood Domain!" All the water on the floor was pulled into the air forming a sphere between Yakuroro and Zajil which intercepted his lightning based spell and charged the water with electricity. The sphere then quickly grew as it took in more water from the atmosphere only to slam into the airborne Zajil. The merchant mage was shocked by his own spell and tossed around in the water currents before being slammed into the warehouse wall dealing A-tier damage total in burns and broken bones.

Yakuroro then ended his spell and walked over to Zajil who was now slumped against the wall coughing up blood. He was not long for this world. Yaku kicked the man's wand away just in case and then ripped the key around his neck away before unlocking the door to the magoi production room. "You're all free now. Do what you will with your lives and try to turn them around so you aren't taken advantage of like this again. Find honest lives and live proud!"

140/200 Magoi

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