Working his way through the crowd, he managed to find eight more he’d missed before, who thankfully were simple to deal with. Without bringing their plans into motion, they were all easy to talk out of trying anything the second he was in their head, letting him focus on the last few groups filtering in and let him watch as others around did the last bit of setup, placing a few seats for those who would need them, even if it looked like most of the crowd would be standing, as well as placing prepared plates of food all along one of the tables behind where the ceremony was to take place, letting Ben see the poisoned meal at the heart of it.

  Okay, and I really do need to figure out how I’m dealing with that. If I get into another dark elf’s head and see how it should taste then I could go sneak a bite of the current one and compare flavours to see if I can tell the poison from the taste difference alone and if not, well, fuck me cause then it looks like I’m just trying to remake the stupid thing with the ingredients I have on hand.

  Which was thankfully plenty. Twenty spatial rings on his finger, each of them holding a volume of a good-sized house, meant that he had plenty to keep within. Not one was close to full, and he always made sure he had something for any given occasion, be it raw ingredients or finished meals kept hot under the effect of the time enchantment on them, he would just have to rearrange them in a way that would match both the look and flavour profile.

  Which also means cooking a whole goddamn meal without being noticed, so we’re going to save that for the backup plan. It’s fine, I can still make this work.

  With the beginning of the ceremony coming closer, new arrivals dropping to a trickle, it gave Ben just a moment to relax until he spotted someone he hadn’t thought for a second he’d encounter. Greed’s son Cheele, a convert to Myriad and the very crab who’d once kidnapped him and tried to eat Greed.

  That was in the past though. As surprising as it was, Ben had no intention of holding a grudge. It was the woman beside him who was a far bigger concern.

  While Cheele himself seemed large to him, being nearly up to Ben’s knees when standing, with a body half a meter wide, the woman was a giant in comparison, reaching Ben’s shoulders in height with claws big enough to clip him in half. Cheele’s mother, not sharing her son’s ruby shell but then, she never would have. Despite holding the same crab body plan as Greed, the two were different species evolved on different worlds, with her own shell a brilliant bioluminescent blue, even if none of that was nearly as important as the dangers in her mind.

  While some had come with weapons and plans to see Greed die, she came with determination, with collateral damage not a thought in her head. Similar to another, she’d seen fit to poison his wedding meal, but unlike that other, she hadn’t known which one it was. It seemed she hadn’t been aware that there was a separate, special meal for the bride and groom at all, meaning that instead she’d poisoned every other one, using a chemical cocktail of toxins acquired by a subordinate, once more not knowing exactly what had gone in it.

  Which means that, even if I can neutralize or extract whatever’s poisoned Greed’s dish, I’m not getting out of having to remake the rest. Just fucking great.

  When he was done there, he was going to have to go to where the dark elves were gathered to see if the food for the guests held any special significance that he’d either need to do his best to replicate or if he could afford to be a bit more flexible with it but unfortunately, he couldn’t end things so easily with her there. The poison was her backup plan, with enough others in her head to leave her a clear threat.

  Either crushing Greed in her claws or else under her weight, she intended to see him die, and those weren’t even the main choices she held. Just looking in her head, he could see that her kind produced a natural, powerful acid they could spit. A biological tool for hunting and digestion that he couldn’t preemptively neutralize when it was a part of her biology and left Ben hanging his head.

  Honestly, how dare anyone compare my luck with Greed’s. He’s gone around, spending years developing bad relationships with the scariest women on the planet, yet he’s still alive. The guy’s a walking miracle for not having been taken out sooner.

  Although that one in particular took the cake, activating Ben’s authorities just by being near her in the same way the puzzle had, something he’d only felt in significantly smaller extents when it came to many of the others there, practically ignorable in comparison. Still, he had to try and talk her out of those other bits at least, so he did the same he’d done to the rest, connected to her and ramped up her thought speed, giving his warning in her head.

  I see what you’re planning on doing and I’m telling you to stop, Ben thought in her mind. On my authority as the apostle of Myriad, listen to what I have to say. Forget about Greed and leave. This doesn’t have to be a bigger issue.

  Oh my, he heard her think back. How exciting. I’ve never gotten the chance to murder an apostle before.

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  He could tell she knew him to be the one who’d helped her son grow a proper shell, just as much as he could tell she didn’t care. Not one thought of hers was a lie and all of it was violent, she would murder him in a heartbeat if he got in her way and seeing the depths of her evil and that there was no changing her mind, he rapidly switched gears, erasing her memory of the brief exchange as he walked up to the two with a smile on his face, greeting them like old friends.

  “Cheele, it’s been a while, welcome!” he called out. “And you must be his lovely mother! It’s a pleasure. I’m your son’s apostle.”

  “Oh, hello there,” she greeted back, just as friendly in tone now that the prior exchange was erased from her mind, even if it didn’t strip her of the darkness within. “Thank you so much for what you’ve done for my boy. He always had such a complex because of that awful bastard not filling his fatherly role. It’s only a shame that Greed didn’t have to die to solve it.”

  “... Right. Well, I know he’s a controversial figure, so I won’t hold that against you, but would you mind if I borrowed your boy for a bit? There’s not many of my faith here, I’d love the chance to catch up and exchange a few words.”

  “Oh, be my guest. I’ll just be off admiring the main course, so find me when you’re done.”

  Ben waved her off, a picture of a friendly apostle that Cheele politely bowed to.

  “Apostle,” he greeted. “I didn’t get the chance to thank you for your help with leveling the last time. Despite the… unique experience of it, me and my men appreciate the levels we’ve gained.”

  “Happy you got something out of it and I hope you show up the next time we do something like that again, Cheele,” Ben told him, trying to open with a bit of small talk, even as he kept a subtle eye on the other’s mother using the eyes of the crowd he was in range to connect to, seeing her look far too excited about a meal she’d already poisoned. “But I’ve gotta be honest, the last time I saw you and Greed together, I never expected to see you two in the same area again. What changed?”

  “Mmh, I never expected it either,” he acknowledged. “But as for what changed? Honestly, he did something I’d never expected of him. He reached out. When I got the letter, I was initially going to just throw it away, but I didn’t and I read it and, well, I suppose I found it properly earnest. He apologized without casting blame and said if I was open to it he’d like the chance to meet. The first time, I’ll admit I’d expected a trap, but that didn’t happen and kept not happening in the times since and well, now I’m here.”

  “Oh, wow. So are you and your dad… I don’t know, better?”

  “Mmh, I can’t decide,” the crab told him, staring off towards the waiting wedding setup. “Rather rich for a man who never wanted to be a part of my life to come into it now when I don’t need him, but I’ll admit, a part of me appreciates the effort. If you’re worried at all about bad blood then you needn’t be, I won’t be watching him die today.”

  “And that is genuinely so, so nice to hear compared to just how many other attempted murders I’ve already had to stop,” Ben sighed, knowing his fellow believer was speaking the truth, even if his own statement got a small reaction. “But you didn’t exactly come with someone holding the same innocent intentions.”

  “Mother,” he sighed. “What’s she planning?”

  “Well, from the looks of it she’s already had all of the meals except the one that Greed would actually be eating laced with such a complex mix of poisons that I’m afraid it would even make it past my biological resistance to them and other than that, she’s planning on killing him in any way she can. Out of curiosity, can you also spit acid?”

  “I can’t. I’m comfortable saying I’ve gotten the worst traits of both parents.”

  “Depressing but okay. Slightly related topic, could you pretty pretty please ask her to not murder your father during his wedding day or any day after it either for that matter?”

  “Are you kidding? No.”

  “Why? You just said I don’t need to worry about bad blood, you can’t still want to see him die, right?”

  “No, while I can’t say for sure that I’d feel bad about it, I think I’d rather him live.”

  “Okay, then?”

  “If you looked into her mind then you should know. That psychotic woman scares the hell out of me.”

  “... Alright, fair. In that case, out of consideration to you, given that she’s your mother and that you’re by all accounts a good and proper believer of Myriad, would you take it personally if I captured her and threw her into prison?”

  “If you can then be my guest,” Cheele chuckled. “She’s the only thing stopping me from getting complete control of our organization and taming some of its, shall we say, more distasteful affairs. I wouldn’t want to see her die either, but I’m comfortable saying that we’d all feel a lot safer with her behind bars.”

  Oh thank god.

  He hadn’t captured the last few to keep from disturbing the wedding, lest anyone they came with noticed them going missing but given that she’d only come with her son and that he was all for it, that made things infinitely easier as he took a few steps to the side, bringing her just within his range and shut down her mind before walking her body over to trap in one of his rings, made harmless until he’d get the chance to let her out and sent to the proper authorities, all while Cheele wordlessly watched.

  “You know, you really are a very scary man.”

  “There’s something more than a little strange about hearing that from the new head of a crime family. Congrats on your coming promotion, by the way.”

  “I owe it all to my faith,” he said with a wicked expression, the fact that his mother would soon be out of the way allowing him to plan the changes he’d thought he’d need her to pass away to start enacting, all while making Ben’s job just a bit easier too. At the very least, the most psychotic threat was now out of the way, leaving only to clean up after her.