CLEAVER OF SIN-Chapter 609: Branch

Malrik and Asher continued to talk, time flowed smoothly and almost imperceptibly, both of them still standing at the window as they gazed at the scene outside with quiet attentiveness and subtle contemplation.

"Can I ask a question?" Asher spoke as he gazed at a butterfly that was flying past the window, its delicate wings fluttering softly as it drifted along the gentle current of air.

"Ask away," Malrik replied flatly, his tone carrying no particular interest nor disinterest, remaining as composed and neutral as ever.

"The guy that I fought, Debro, do you know anything about his organisation?" Asher asked, his purple eyes turning to Malrik briefly before they returned back to the scenery beyond, as though the outside view still held a quiet grip on his attention.

Malrik stayed silent for a moment, his gaze lowering slightly as though considering something carefully, then he sighed, "that Debro guy is probably from a branch of the main organisation," he stated with a faint sigh that carried a trace of underlying seriousness.

"A branch?" Asher asked, his tone containing the confusion within him, his brows knitting slightly as he tried to process the implication behind that single word.

"Yes, a branch," Malrik confirmed, "nobody really knows the real name of the organisation, but the world calls them ’The Maddened’ or ’The Corrupted’ or ’The Consumed’," Malrik explained with a calm and measured tone, his words flowing steadily without hesitation.

Asher’s expression shifted, forming into one of clear confusion as he tried to make sense of those names, the weight behind them not immediately apparent yet undeniably unsettling.

Malrik, noticing his confusion, simply continued, "I’m sure you know Emovirae are divided into Positive and Negative Emovirae. The Positive Emovirae call the Negative Emovirae ’The Affected’ because they are simply affected by their thoughts and desire for destruction and chaos," Malrik paused for a moment, his gaze momentarily drifting before he continued, "in that same way, we call this group of people ’The Maddened’ or ’The Consumed’ or ’The Corrupted’ because they’ve given in to their dark desires, completely and utterly," he explained.

Malrik’s gaze shifted towards Asher as he continued to speak, his expression remaining composed, "according to your experience, you saw the ones that ate human body parts, that’s cannibalism, that isn’t normal. The ones that like beating up and torturing people to an extreme degree without restraint. The ones that take sexual pleasure in the screams of the dying, deriving satisfaction from suffering itself. The ones that simply love blood and even drink of it like it’s an elixir of life or something far more twisted," Malrik paused again before he continued, his tone remaining steady.

"All of these are the reasons why they are known by such names, simply because they’ve given in to these desires without control, without resistance, and without any form of restraint. And that organisation is a group that is made entirely of them. That guy Debro, although he sleeps with men, I’m sure that is not his own dark side, there is certainly another side you just never found out; within their organisation, there are certainly people that are worse than your greatest imagination, far worse than anything you have already witnessed," Malrik stated in finality.

Asher stayed silent at Malrik’s words, his thoughts swirling and churning within his mind as he didn’t really know what to say, nor did he feel there was anything appropriate to say in response. The fact that Malrik said that people that were worse than what he had just witnessed existed was... extremely disturbing and deeply sickening to him. Personally, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what could be much worse than what he had already seen with his own eyes.

There was already cannibalism and nigh-necrophilia on the table. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Asher sighed, ’but to think that’s only one branch, damn,’ he couldn’t help but think to himself, a faint sense of unease settling deeper within him.

Turning to Malrik, he asked, "what are the other branches and how many are they?" his curiosity burning subtly within his voice, though it was mixed with a hint of caution.

Malrik paused for a second or two as though thinking, his eyes narrowing slightly before he spoke, "nobody really knows, the branch you met was certainly just one of their Experiment branch, which we already know about. They also have their Annihilation branch, responsible for wiping out their enemies, a few noble houses have been attacked by this branch in the past. The Resource branch, responsible for gathering resources across the Empire in various hidden ways. The Instigator branch, responsible for scheming, intelligence gathering, and anything that requires thinking and information manipulation," Malrik sighed as he spoke, as though even explaining this much was mildly exhausting.

Asher’s mind couldn’t help but spin as Malrik listed these branches, the man had listed four branches already, and Asher could already guess that these branches weren’t just like a single building made up of twenty people, an organisation this large probably had hundreds, if not thousands, of people in a single branch alone. After all, if the organisation wasn’t absurdly huge, why would they divide themselves into various branches with such complexity and deliberate structure.

"We don’t know how many more branches they have, for all we know, they could have ten or twenty more," Malrik added, his eyes fixed outside as though he was speaking of some random small-time organisation, despite the gravity of the subject.

Asher frowned, honestly, he should have guessed that an organisation like this existed, after all, it was one of the cliches in novels or fantasy settings. There was always a group that worked with the enemy, or against their home world in whatever way for various reasons. The next moment, he shook his head, whether he guessed it or not didn’t change anything, after all, it wasn’t as though he possessed the power to change anything of real significance at this point.

’So hidden nobody even knows their collective name,’ Asher mused internally, ’surely, ’The Maddened’, ’The Corrupted’, and ’The Consumed’ fit them perfectly well, since they only recruit sick people,’ Asher thought as he shook his head with a quiet sigh.

"What’s their end goal? Like death to humanity? Unification of Man and Emovirae?" Asher asked without missing a beat, after all, knowing their end goal was a way to further understand this organisation, to know how far they would go for their goal, and also how truly maddened they truly were at their core.

Malrik paused for a moment as though he didn’t know how to reply to the question, his expression remaining unchanged, after a moment, he spoke, "nobody knows," a sigh escaping his lips as he shook his head slowly.

Asher couldn’t believe what he had heard, surely with numerous overpowered characters within the Empire, they should have found out the goal of this organisation by now, or at the very least uncovered fragments of it.

"The organisation has been around for way too long to know, it even existed before I was born. Before father even became the Duke, I don’t know exactly how many years they’ve been around, and even then, information about them has always been scarce," Malrik added with a calm tone as though completely unbothered, as though he had long since accepted this uncertainty as a normal part of their reality.