The temple was an enormous domed building. The walls and the ceiling were Devices themselves. On the walls were moving murals depicting an empty bed and large amounts of people prostrating before it. Even with third vision, Corn could follow the outlines of the murals.

All seating was arranged in concentric circles. At the centre of the temple were ten sculptures around an empty bed. One of these sculptures had such ridiculously large, flowing breasts that Corn just couldn’t stop staring at them.

‘What in Abyss is wrong with me?’ He shifted his focus to the bottom of the statue.

Three priestesses, each wearing stiff, shiny, elaborate garb stood solemnly.

A woman kneeled in front of them. Her robes were wrapped around her in multiple layers like petals on a rose. Even though Corn couldn’t see her red hair and green eyes, he could match her for her facial symmetry. It was MoonLily.

The gangs were not after her. Despite the rich elegance of her wedding dress (every bit was a Device), they only planned to steal one thing.

The ring on her pinky finger.

If he had only seen the threads of mana looped around the small band of metal, Corn would have assumed it was only simple mana made spell circle. But when Night had told them how much it was worth, even he felt like stealing it.

“We have gathered here to welcome a new bride for the Lord Chosen One. Child, say your vow,” announced one of the priestesses and placed her hand on the woman’s head.

“I, MoonLily, promise to uphold all my vows. I promise to obey and to be faithful to the Chosen One. I promise to be one with the Infinite Harem. I promise to be …” and on she went but Corn lost focus.

To stop himself from staring at the sculpture, he adjusted his googles and looked back at Night who was sitting to this left in a ridiculous suit. Corn’s grey skin with his googles and bald head made him look like a wealthy, old nymph. A perfect disguise. He had even sent Wall to hide in the Abyss. As long as neither of them opened their mouths no one would suspect that they were crazies.

“When the Chosen One may be found,” said Moon.

“When the Chosen One may be found,” repeated everybody else (Corn merely mumbled).

Corn turned back. The woman stood up and went to sit with her family. They were surrounded by ten armoured bodyguards. Each of them had Strength and one other Stat. If their information was correct, there were thirty such body guards guarding them at all times.

Thirty people with two Stats and sober minds was not a simple force.

Corn went back to staring at the sculpture.

As the initiation ceremony ended, people began to stream out of the temple. As Corn left, a priestess smiled and said, “The Goddess responds to any prayers.”

Corn cocked his head, unsure.

“I saw you staring.”

Oh shit.

“Nothing wrong with devotion. A devotee isn’t part of the Infinite Harem,” she said, but Corn had run off.

Forty five crazies sat in a sauna.

“You’ve verified the information? Good. Your gang will be the bait,” said the tall orc Barren Lord and poured more water onto the hot rocks.

All the Barren Lords sat at the centre of the sauna. The ordinary members of Blood Falls, Blade’s Edge and Fallen Bridge sat to the sides, on higher seating. Corn sat with them.

Night nodded and said, “And the initial payment?”

“We changed our minds. Your gang is falling apart. We don’t have to give you a single crystal until the job is done.”

“You promised us,” shouted Bull, leaping up. Like every other orc in the sauna, she was wearing all her clothes.

A troll Barren Lord shrugged, “Not according to the oaths. Rules are rules.”

“You jest. We’re bombarding an outer harem member of a pantheon. A pantheon!” said Night, his tone as cold and slick as ever. Unlike everyone else in the sauna, Night did not have the decency to wear a towel.

“Or else what? You’re going leave? Then leave,” the tall orc smirked.

All of the members of Blood Falls went silent. They already lost their base. Now that the other gangs were ostracizing them, they were bleeding dry. They had no choice. Besides, most of them reasoned, it was the ‘Infinite’ Harem, how much difference could one member make?

The orcs and trolls in the sauna smirked and laughed evilly. It was a provocation of course. Even though there were fifteen members of each gang, unlike Blood Falls the other two gangs were mostly homogenous. That meant they had a greater battle power.

“So what is the plan?” asked Night.

The orc cleared his throat, “Part one of the plan: you attack and make sure that everyone knows that Blood Falls is responsible for the attack.”

The villa was a simple two storey building with enough space for four bedrooms.

Even though their villa was the most fortified area, with Moon and her bodyguards turtling there immediately after the ceremony, the Blood Falls had no choice.

It was located in the suburbs right next to the centaur plantations and exits of the Border Reserves. Row after row of manicured lawns and large, elaborate villas were arranged in a grid like pattern.

A resurrection altar was just a few blocks away.

Corn was pretty sure that the people here were rich. Not as powerful as those living in Iridi but there were certainly no Purpose Slaves living here. During his time as a harvester, he’d never passed by these pockets of suburbs.

The first van drove in front of the villa. The door burst open and three trolls ran out. They used Endurance to fling three metallic balls onto the villa. The balls sailed into the air only to stop at a barrier.

It was invisible to the floam driving the van but not to Corn and the trolls. The barrier covering the house was a patchwork of smaller barriers that formed a larger whole.

Without pause, three more metallic balls whooshed into the air. Like sentient guns, the trolls kept flinging metal balls into the joining parts of the patch work. The weak points.

In response, metal shutters went down the windows. Corn was close enough to see a flurry of activity. Some of the bodyguards ran to the family, others stood along the doors and prepared Devices.

None of them stepped outside.

Half a minute later, the balls tore a hole. Two orcs stepped out and pounded the barrier with Mauled machetes. As pieces of the barrier disappeared, the hole expanded. The body guards, maintaining that part of the barrier, were struggling.

The orcs roared in triumph and ran towards the door. Before they could reach, a second barrier sprang up. This barrier was smooth and most certainly made by a Device.

Before the orcs could break the new barrier, the door opened and two armoured bodyguards walked out. They were holding a large flame thrower. Flames spewed right through the second barrier and directly onto the orcs. Only a Device made barrier could do that.

Regardless of how much Strength practitioner could distort space and Maul their bodies, they had one obvious weakness: their skin. Of course, they could make skin harder but that wouldn’t stop it from burning.

Since most armour made from Beast skin was not resistant to magical fire, both orcs hobbled back to the van, screaming in pain. The outer barrier broke down to let the flames follow the orcs.

As soon as the orcs were close enough, the trolls put a patchwork barrier around the van. The flames were repulsed.

Corn jumped out of the van to get a closer look at the flame thrower. He’d seen self-sufficient Devices plenty of times on statues, walls and everywhere else. But he’d never seen someone use the powers of a Device without the relevant Stat.

Mauled weapons could be held by anyone, but they wouldn’t be harder or faster if someone didn’t have Speed or Strength. So how in Abyss were two people without Magic spewing fire mana?

Using second vision, he could see three stars of ambient mana. The ambient mana from most wands were too bright to see in second vision. Was the flame thrower weaker than a wand?

“Let me out, let me out,” cried Corn to the troll.

“You’re crazy,” said the troll, but he released the back end of the barrier.

Corn jumped out and ran in front of the flames. He opened his mouth and swallowed.

‘Ha ha, I was right!’ The fire from a wand would have scorched his mouth. But in these flames, the spice was just right.

The duo lowered the flame thrower and Corn immediately crouched to ensure all the flames went straight into his mouth.

The fire stopped while the two stood in shock.

“What’s wrong? More, more! Feed me more!”

Corn laughed and ran towards the flame thrower.

As he got close enough, he could see that body guards inside the villa preparing another flame thrower. They had another six such Devices.

Fuck! Fuck!

Corn immediately closed his mouth and changed trajectory. He ran back to the van and pounded on the barrier, “Let me back in, let me back in.”

Tires screeched as a second van approached the back of the villa. Night, sitting on the roof of a van with only rows of spare magazines on his body, shot a few rounds at the barrier.

Naturally vampires were useless in such attacks, but the trolls that exited the van were not. They quickly exited the van and starting hurling projectiles onto the barrier.

The body guards were soon diverted to the back.

Seizing the lull, Corn ran back to the flamethrower. A spell circle hung in the air, as Corn flung an enormous ice blade at the bodyguards.

The blade tore through the barrier, the house and pierced an unsuspecting bodyguard inside the house. The house was obviously not mana made.

The two outside had seen Corn draw the circle in the air and dodged with ease. But seeing such potent magic being flung like that made them pause.

Seizing that pause, Wall jumped out of the Abyss, right behind the two, and stuck her hands into the two of them, attacking their souls. The soul eater had explained that the younger the soul the more protected it was. So the opposite was also true.

As the two of them sunk to their knees, eyes glazed, Corn stuck his hands into the gap and stole the flamethrower.

Wall jumped right back into the Abyss.

More bodyguards ran out of the villa and flung out daggers. Corn used the flamethrower to swat the dagger flung using Endurance. As he ran, he left the range the daggers could be controlled.

But three daggers were flung using Speed. Two of them merely scratched at the amour, but one pierced his lungs.

Without stopping, Corn ran up to the van and the barrier opened up.

With a flamethrower in the hands of the enemies, the bodyguards retailed in force. Two streams of flames were trained at both vans, trapping them in their own barriers. While others came out and attacked the barriers across the vans.

Corn fiddled with all the switches on the flamethrower. The flamethrower itself was just a large, hollow cylinder with one end sealed. The sealed end contained three blazing crystals which was the source of all that fire. The question was: how did it work?

Corn tried studying the way the bodyguards were using it. Before he could make progress the barrier broke.

Clutching the flamethrower, Corn ran and ate one of the streams of fire. The other stream burned through the van’s rear end, but not for long. Corn jumped back into the van and the floam drove the van out of the range of the flamethrowers.

When the barrier across Night’s van flickered, their van also screeched away from the villa.

Blood Falls had played their part as bait. Night had made himself as visible as possible. With a vampire and a mix of different crazies, if anyone wondered who was behind the kidnapping, they would think it was Blood Falls. The body guards wouldn’t pursue.

They had finished the first part of the plan.

Both the vans quickly headed to different highways.

The orcs, trolls and Corn had to crouch to ensure they didn’t fall of. He kept hosing the van with mana water to ensure the tires did not burn.

But the van screeched to a stop anyway.

The whole highway was blockaded by a large, smooth barrier.

“This is the Guard. All members of the Blood Falls are under arrest.”