Chapter 281: Pure Companionship

The *Soul Memory Copy* Power Rune was finally ready.

After the deluxe treatment Priam had given them, those two were completely destroyed. Their bodies, minds, and spirits had all been reduced to scraps.

Pulling them out of the well, Priam condensed two identical runes and pressed one against each of their foreheads. Seconds later, the runes pulsed with a vibrant blue mystical glow.

Without wasting any time, he retrieved and absorbed them. The very next instant, a colossal flood of information invaded his consciousness.

In practice, the rune created an almost perfect replica of everything the targets had experienced throughout their lives. As expected, 99% of that content was pure garbage about the meaningless routines of those idiots.

Fortunately, an advanced-level synthesis from the System wasn’t something simple.

The structure of the memories worked like a digital encyclopedia, making it incredibly easy to find whatever he wanted. Priam could quickly browse through the pages with complete freedom, using mental keywords to locate any specific event within a fraction of a second. Basically, everything those two knew now belonged to him.

Of course, achieving such absurd efficiency required that whole exhausting process of completely breaking down the target—something Priam preferred to avoid as much as possible. However, if the situation demanded it, he would do it all over again without hesitation.

Priam spent several minutes immersed in that ocean of data.

As he assimilated the information, his expression grew darker and darker.

The good news was that Elder Leader Validar and the upper echelons of the 8th Branch had absolutely no involvement with the Sorcerers. That brought him genuine relief. If important figures within the Sect were corrupt to that extent, Priam would have to urgently reconsider whether bringing his family to such a rotten place was worth it.

The truth was that Dioma and his family had been secretly working as traitors for a long time, serving as informants for the Sorcerers within the outer branch.

There were several rotten apples scattered throughout the Sect, but the corruption was limited to disciples and low-ranking figures. The upper echelons were monitored with extreme rigor. So much so that Dioma had to tread carefully around any Elder and had never shown signs of having any connections at the top.

He had planned every detail before the mission. But the decisive factor that made everything possible was Validar’s blind trust in him. Validar considered him his direct disciple and had granted him unprecedented authority.

Priam realized that Validar was a tragic figure. Long ago, he had a wife and three children, but they had all died during a Sorcerer attack on the Sect. That event had left a deep mark on him, driving him to become stronger and eventually turn into the greatest Sorcerer killer in the outer branch.

He was never the same afterward. He never remarried, and few people could stay close to him because of his personality.

Knowing all this, Dioma had played his part perfectly, using his intelligence to win Validar over by acting like a new son to him.

Dioma really did have talent. He had managed to master the most complex Chaotic-Level Magic Art for Alchemists in the branch—a feat that only Validar had accomplished over several generations. It was precisely this technique that multiplied his combat power when consuming pills.

Everything seemed to go perfectly, and Dioma gained more and more prestige and power within the outer branch.

Because of this, no disciple of the 8th Branch would dare question his orders.

For this mission, all the members of the 8th Branch carried an extremely high-level inscription device, allowing Dioma to transmit direct orders at any time.

As soon as he stepped into this world, Dioma used the disciple network to search the territory until he found a high-ranking Sorcerer. Once he approached him, all he had to do was reveal his lineage and his identity as an informant.

The Sorcerers trusted him completely, since his entire family had a long-standing connection with them.

Dioma would never dare betray them. After learning about the Corrupted Beasts, Dioma immediately struck a deal with the enemies: by joining forces, the mission would finally be completed, and everyone would benefit... or so they thought.

Dioma revealed nothing about this alliance to his subordinates. He simply made pacts with the 4th Branch and other allied branches, ordering the unrestricted hunting of members of the 11th Branch and allowing the others to be looted.

By the way, Elder Leader Validar, before leaving the branch with his disciples, had given them the opposite order, telling them to treat the people from the 11th Branch as rivals they should honestly surpass.

It was surprising for Priam to discover that Validar wasn’t a completely rotten bastard without limits. He was arrogant, thought he was above everyone else, and deserved a beating every now and then. But he wasn’t a traitor or someone genuinely malicious.

Back to Dioma, the only strange order he gave the disciples under his command was to avoid the Sorcerers at all costs. If they saw one, they were to flee immediately, not fight.

To ensure the purge was carried out efficiently, he organized disciples from several branches into well-distributed squads, ensuring mutual support and covering a vast hunting area.

Priam clenched his fists, his eyes flashing with a cold light.

Dioma was undoubtedly the mastermind behind all that filth.

But the other disciples had simply followed the orders without question, taking part in hunting and robbing the other disciples with smiles on their faces. They all had brains to think and enough judgment to know right from wrong. In other words, none of them were innocent.

Opening his eyes, Priam looked at the half-dead pair lying on the ground and let out a disdainful snort.

Suddenly, a brilliant—and rather cruel—idea lit up in his mind.

He remembered a "special stockpile" he kept stored away: more than twenty extremely venomous snakes that he had captured as soon as he entered this world. (Chapter 238)

They were already dead, but their venom glands were still filled with highly concentrated paralyzing venom.

Priam’s eyes lit up as he remembered a new synthesis recipe.

He extracted all the paralyzing toxin, sending it straight into the Nexus Seed. Then he fused the compound with the Power Rune containing the Calamity Poison and added a few more peculiar energies to put the finishing touch on it.

Moments later, two Power Runes took shape. It was the *Living Poison Curse*.

This bizarre creation allowed different types of poison to be mixed together and programmed beforehand as a curse, determining how they would react inside the host’s body.

He could add countless poisons with different effects and make them work together toward an even greater form of harm. Because of that, the possibilities for torment were practically endless.

Without wasting any time, Priam channeled his Ether into the runes, engraving his will into them with precision.

First, the paralyzing toxin would act gradually. It would allow a minimum amount of sensitivity, but the more the target tried to move, the stronger the paralysis would become, until it completely locked them in place.

Second, the Calamity Poison would silently devour any drop of Ether or energy they attempted to circulate, killing them very slowly.

In short: both of them would be almost completely paralyzed, powerless, voiceless, and with no chance of healing themselves or escaping. With no fluctuations of energy and no way to make even a single whimper, no Mage nearby would be able to sense their presence.

Priam gave a satisfied smile. To put the finishing touch on the spectacle, he stripped away all the clothes and belongings the two still had. He left them naked as they came into the world, implanted the poisonous runes into each of their chests, and threw them down the well.

*SPLASH!*

As for what two naked men, almost completely immobilized and stuck together, would do at the bottom of a dark three-hundred-meter-deep hole... Priam didn’t even want to know. Surely, their final moments would be unforgettable moments of pure companionship.

To put the cherry on top, Priam took several dozen Wild Spirit Stones from his spatial ring and tossed them down the hole.

That dense, enticing scent would undoubtedly attract the hungry beasts of the forest to the well. Surely, before it was time to return to the outside world, they would be found by the beasts.

Once the monsters got there and found two naked and helpless "snacks"... their fate would be sealed.

Job done.

Priam rolled the giant stone back into place to seal the entrance, gave the rock a little pat, and calmly walked away, ready for the next step.