Azaroth froze. A deal? He hadn’t been expecting that. He studied the man and counted what he knew about him— first, the man was a spy who interfered with his crypt hunting test and he might have died. Second, the man had the uncanny ability to appear where he shouldn’t.

Third, he was a powerful Awakener but Azaroth couldn’t get a feel of his power. Fourthly, he belongs to one of the powers on the continent.

And he probably wanted something from Azaroth. "What kind of deal?"

"I want you to kill somebody for me." He said.

Azaroth stared at him, surely he was joking? Did this man think he would be able to kill anyone now? Even the weakest of the Hounds here will have him for breakfast.

"Why?" Azaroth asked. "You are powerful you should be able to handle it yourself."

The man gestured forward in a ’don’t flatter me’. "Oh, stop. I don’t do well with compliments you know..."

Azaroth waited patiently for him to finish his drama and answered his question.

"....yes I am powerful but have you ever heard of enchantment?" The man asked.

Azaroth shrugged, Kael had covered it in their studies while they were training. "They are written with essence and are done to do specific things. They aren’t powerful for offense but they are good in defense and strengthening."

Kael had taught them that enchanters were rare in Awakeners because you had to have real talent for it as it is a very complex technique to master.

Every powerful outpost had enchanters to help in shielding warding or just general locking. They can also be used for enchanting weapons.

"Exactly! There are powerful places here that I couldn’t get to because of powerful enchantment." The man said.

Azaroth filed that away. He didn’t know enchantment was so powerful, even though he didn’t know this man’s rank. He was sure he was a very powerful person.

"Well. I could enter by brute force but that wouldn’t be advisable, even though the Hounds are laughable as a supposedly powerful fighting force of the Inferno Legion, they have numbers to their name. Not to talk of those three captains and then there’s Apex." The man spread his hand.

Azaroth narrowed his eyes. "Why are you telling me all this?"

The man tilted his head up innocently. "Telling you what?"

"I don’t know how powerful you are but I know you could probably take care of the Hounds and maybe the Captains too. I don’t know about Commander Apex." Azaroth said flatly.

A spy who was deep in the enemy’s territory wouldn’t be this nonchalant in their abode. That tells Azaroth something, the spy was sure of himself.

The man laughed again, kicking his feet on Azaroth’s bed. The man was slender and even while lying down he carried himself with grace.

Then he stopped laughing and he was a Hound again. "As I said you are smart. You kept your head down and pretended you were a good Hound but you are planning something, aren’t you? Your eyes could not fully hide it you know."

Azaroth snorted. "Is this another part of your "hit a weak spot" technique? You should know better by now."

"No, this is only the truth." The man studied Azaroth. "That girl, Stallus she carried her own on her sleeves and I’m sure the Hounds didn’t trust her. Well, the Hounds trusted none of you anyway."

"I refuse," Azaroth said, his voice was cool. He thought as much, this spy cared about his interests only and that was why he was observing him and not only him, but others as well.

"You didn’t even hear the end of the deal." The man protested.

"I don’t need to know your ridiculous plan." Azaroth didn’t want something like this to spoil his future chance at revenge. Whoever this spy wanted dead, Azaroth could kill him when he became powerful.

Why should he spoil his chance at harvesting a heavy bounty because of one apple?

"Oh... but the deal might end up favoring you."

"I doubt that. There’s nothing I need now." Azaroth answered.

"Or there’s something you didn’t know you needed." The man played with the crest of the Inferno Legion on his chest.

Azaroth shrugged. "Nothing I can think of."

"Even if it’s something you’ve been thinking about?" The spy said.

"I have been thinking a lot," Azaroth replied.

"I’m sure you’ve been thinking about this particular one a lot too. Something about the Inferno Legion giving powerful tools to Hounds. The Yama." The man said, his voice smug.

Azaroth paused, his red eyes narrowed. He had indeed been thinking about that. He said casually. "How will they do that? They have a safeguard somewhere to control us."

"Probably." The man said just as casually. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"And I should assume you know this?" Azaroth demanded.

"That’s only Natural. That is my job. Knowing things." The man said.

Azaroth sheathed his sword. "Tell me."

The man stared at him and then said with a hardened voice. "It must be part of the deal."

Of course, it is, Azaroth nearly snorted. "I can’t kill. I’m not powerful enough to do so." He pointed out.

"Of course, you are not. You are only to carry the thing that would do the killing inside the enchanted area." The man said, sitting upright.

"And why would I be allowed inside an enchanted area?"

"It is the place where you would be turned into a real Hound. Normally even you won’t get the chance but since you are part of this new Yama project you will get a one-in-a-thousand chance." The man said.

"Who are you killing?" Azaroth asked.

"Do we have a deal?" The man asked.

"Well, I never agreed to anything." Azaroth pointed out.

The man paused and the room suddenly filled with tension as they both started at each other. Azaroth knew he was playing a dangerous game with a man that could kill him with a single strike but he also knew the man needed him. He was betting on that.

When the man laughed, Azaroth relaxed his tensed muscles.

"You are very interesting, Azaroth. Very interesting!" The man laughed.