Things were pretty uneventful as people just returned to their room one by one in the past hours. When an hour or two have passed without anyone else showing signs of wakefulness in their respective rooms, I collect my stuff from behind the drawer, place the extra bullets in my pocket, and wear my gloves and mask. Then, I proceed to the bathroom to get my pistol and put it on my waist.

Sure enough, by midnight, Mother Heidi and Cardinal Suarez exit the office and walk through the yard.

This is it.

Mother Heidi kneels by the statue, and there was a low rumble. I see the statue slide backward. Mother Heidi and Cardinal Suarez appear to walk down a set of stairs where the statue once stood. A few minutes later—I assume when they reach the bottom of the stairs—a low rumble occurs again and the statue moves back to its place.

So that's how it is.

After five minutes, I make my move. When the backups will arrive, I do not know, but the time to move is now. So, I make my way across the yard and kneel on the tile before the Guardian of Hell's statue. This will disturb them down below, for sure, so I take my gun before making my way down.

"What was that?"

"Is there someone else who's supposed to know this?"

"Who else is coming?"

"Did you fucking let someone see us come down?"

These remarks I hear as I descend the stairs. When I see the light at the end of the staircase, I position my gun and pull the trigger on anyone who is not Cardinal Suarez, Mother Heidi, and Waterlily the Nun.

So this is the Underground Farm...

By now, eight farmers are down. I notice that the tables arranged in four rows by four columns are basically worktables where farmers—or technically scientists—are growing their test subject poppies and producing their beta versions of opium.

"Take him down! TAKE HIM DOWN!" Cardinal Suarez orders the farmers.

One farmer tosses a handful of opium powder in my direction. Dumb fuck, I'm wearing a mask. The farmer only succeeded in choking (and probably drugging) all the other farmers, and Cardinal Suarez, Mother Heidi, and Waterlily the Nun.

I point and shoot at that farmer, and shoot the leg of Mother Heidi who attempts to race up the staircase. I immediately run to the lever by the staircase and pull it down to close the exit.

"You fucking BASTARD!" She hoarsely screams at me.

Cardinal Suarez pulls out his own handgun and begins shooting at me.

Shit. He's a sharp shooter.

I duck and run towards the tables, and pull one down as a shield. One farmer sneaks on my right side holding an Erlenmeyer flask, probably attempting to shatter it on my head in hopes of knocking me out.

Sorry, buddy.

I easily pull his arm down to force him to either shatter or let go of the flask, knock his head on the ground, and pull him up as a human shield so I can stand and shoot at the remaining farmers.

I successfully take down four more farmers before Cardinal Suarez tries to shoot at me again, thereby killing my farmer human shield. He, then, snatches a farmer and uses him as a human shield too. I dive back to my table, dragging my human shield beside me.

"Not so conspicuous, are you, Azure?"

I did not respond. Idle chat is not my purpose here anyway.

"Did you think you're so brilliant?" He continues anyway, "The Knight of the Cross, the best the Chapel has to offer, the greatest of all time?" His voice is rising more and more with each word he says. "DID YOU THINK YOU CAN OUTSMART US?" he shouts.

I sneak a peek at the final farmer I have to take down. Two more bullets.

I grab my human shield, push my table, and storm forward to force all of them to disperse in random directions. The final farmer ran to my left. Bang.

Cardinal Suarez's human shield is wide awake but frozen scared. Before the Cardinal can raise his gun at me, I shoot his human shield between the eyes to force Cardinal to instinctively toss the poor farmer aside and expose himself to my pistol.

"You really think you're so smart, aren't you?" Cardinal Suarez says as he shoots and I run behind another table. I let go of my human shield, spring my magazine free, and put in my extra five bullets.

"Maybe I am." I stand, shoot the Cardinal's hand to render him incapable of holding a gun, and shoot at Waterlily the Nun's right leg.

I casually walk towards them and kick the Cardinal's gun aside.

I lightly kick Waterlily the Nun's right leg, she shrieks. "Speak," I urge her.

Her forehead is crumpled both in pain and in frustration. She growls, "What do you want from me?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Hmp," she smirks and looks away.

I use my gun to push her head back to look at me. I look into her eyes and say in a low voice, "Better speak now before the Pope himself comes and... interrogates you himself."

Fear surfaces in her eyes after a flash of annoyance.

Just when she opens her mouth after a defeated sigh, Mother Heidi interjects, "Don't you sell us out now, you bitch!"

"What the fuck should I do then?" Waterlily the Nun looks at her. "They're here now, anyway. If you want that fucking Pope to interrogate you, then you do it! Don't drag me down to hell—"

"We're already in the FUCKING HELL—!!!"

I harshly kick Mother Heidi's wounded leg to shut her up. She cries in pain.

"Now speak," I urge Waterlily the Nun again.

She smirks. "It's all done anyway. What difference does it make if I speak?"

I stomp on her gunshot wound, and she screams.

"That's the difference."

She tries to reach for my leg, probably to scratch me or hurt me in some way; and she fails.

"Speak and maybe I won't hurt you anymore and I can get the Pope to redeem you."

At that, her eyes light up.

"Don't fall for that stupid shit!" Cardinal Suarez says.

I stomp on Waterlily the Nun's wound again. She screams either to me or to them, I do not know, "JUST STOP! STOP! JUST STOP, OKAY!"

She leans on the wall and breathes hard, "You can kill me if you want, I don't care anymore. I'm tired."

She pushes herself up to sit taller and says, "I succeeded anyway, so I win." She smirks. "I got Nerosia's greatest assassin to kill the Governor of Dimmertown, so your dearly beloved Poppy Contract can go to hell." She coughs, and then sighs, "You think destroying all these—" she gestures to the Underground Farm and continues, "—would do anything? It won't. Genetically mutated poppies and alpha versions of the good opium were aaaall delivered to the Empire already. Dimmertown stays with them. They'll rule over the Grand Market, then worm their way to Hoxwell.

"The Chapel will fall and I'll get my revenge on ALL OF YOU!!! EVEN FROM THE GRAVE!!!"

"...what...? What do you mean you got the Governor killed?" Mother Heidi is apparently listening despite looking pale and confused.

Cardinal Suarez starts laughing. "Oh, dear. Ohhh dear old Mother Heidi. Why do you think we're doing all this?"

"You only said this will be for personal profit and business, you didn't fucking say we're colluding with the Empire!" Mother Heidi slaps Cardinal Suarez, and Cardinal Suarez punches her in the face.

I kick his wounded hand and he instantly cries.

"What do you know?" I ask Mother Heidi.

She only angrily looks at me, so I say, "Clearly, they're working behind your back and undermining your authority, so just tell me what you know and we can work this out with the Pope."

She huffs and begins, "Señor Zeus only told me we were doing business of our own so we can gain more authority within the Chapel. I did not know anything about helping those Empire shitheads and killing the Governor. I swear!"

"You're begging on your knees now for mercy?" Cardinal Suarez looks disgusted at Mother Heidi. "Have some shred of dignity, you old hag!"

I kick Cardinal Suarez's face and kneel one knee in front of him so I can see eye to eye with him. I force his chin up to look and me, then smash his head on the wall. I'm growing tired of this man's arrogance.

"You wanted the Governor killed?" I ask.

"Huh? That wasn't part of my plan." He smirks. "But Liliana already did it anyway after the first two years of our collusion. What can I do? Revive the dead?"

I step on his wounded hand again, this time, longer than I did before. I did not let go until he started crying real tears, begging, "Stop! STOP! STOP!!!"

I allow him to breathe for a while. "Are you going to talk properly now?"

He looks at me like he wants to kill me (of course, he does), and finally tells his tale properly, "You know, if you want your people to treat you properly, then you shouldn't fucking make their lives miserable as hell before asking them to join you. Dimmertown is my hometown, and I'm only glad it didn't fall in the hands of the Chapel. When I heard about the Poppy Contract extending to Dimmertown, I tried everything to convince the Pope not to go into my hometown. I even stole the original contract from the Vatican and sent it to the Governor to let him know what he's getting himself into. But what do you know? His greed won. And when he was about to sign it, the Assassin swoops in. At first, I was mad. That stupid Liliana ruining my plan. You bitch." He looks at Waterlily the Nun with frustration, and in turn, she only smirks at him.

Cardinal Suarez continues, "But all's well that ends well. The Chapel can no longer deal with a dead governor, and a new governor means sizing them up first to see if they can be taken in to the dark side. The Poppy Contract has gone askew."

Cardinal Suarez smirks. Then, a booming voice comes from the stairs, "Tell me, Suarez: Are you the Jester?"

Cold fear passes through Cardinal Suarez's face and the three traitors go pale.

...Jester? That makes sense... A jester is, in simple terms, the Empire's double agent. They send a jester to gather valuable information and do significant damage from the inside of an enemy organization, at the risk of the jester spilling some valuable information too from the Empire itself to build trust and maybe for survival like this. High risk, high reward.

"Where's that confident arrogance now, hm?" The Pope appears from the dark staircase followed by a squad of deacons. I move away to give them access to the three traitors. "Even using the Chapel lines to collude with these bitches." He harshly squeezes the women's faces, then playfully slaps Cardinal Suarez's face. "Señor Zeus, is it?"

The Pope reaches down a hand, inviting Cardinal Suarez to stand. "My closest aide," he says with a smile that a father has after he has forgiven his son who went astray. Cardinal Suarez suddenly has a hopeful look in his eyes. . He takes the Pope's hand with his uninjured one and pulls himself up to stand. The Pope holds his hand close and pats his back. Then, he faces me and says, "Did you know he allowed me his secret that he is Señor Zeus so we can sign partnerships with the government institutions undetected?"

He smiles grandly at me, and then to Cardinal Suarez, and then he punches him in the face so strongly that his skull opens on the floor.

"Deliver judgment as you see fit."

And so my three remaining bullets find home in each of the traitors' head.