Hollywood Zenith

Samuel was in agony for half an hour as the woman watched, waiting for him to die. She didn't have an ounce of sympathy for him, knowing how disastrous it would be if their ultimate secret leaked to the world.

It was their ultimate anonymity that led them to have such a grand reputation. The amount of bodies they buried throughout centuries was the foundation of what they were today.

In their history, they had seen more bigger families than Rothschild fall, so getting rid of a young fledgeling was easy.

Still, she was waiting for him to beg for his life or say something other than curse words, but he strangely persevered for half an hour, which was already impressive.

The part she didn't understand was why was not blaming her for everything. She had heard it plenty of times when taking life. Instead of thinking about their families or the evil they spread in the world, they would in turn blame her: The Messenger of Death!

Some did lament about their kin, while others were prepared to die, knowing death is the one thing in the world that's inevitable.

The young man fought for his life harder than anyone. She was the one that concoted the venom, so the cure also lies in her hand. It was her specialty that could take a life in a few hours while delivering hell-like agony, which perfectly fitted her way of doing things.

Even facing death shouldn't be too quick, or else there would be no resolution for the souls affected by the person.

She who was remembering the past noticed Samuel changing positions. He was now kneeling with all four limbs touching the ground as he coughed violently.

It seemed like he wanted to throw up probably blood, as his insides should be melting at this point. This was his final struggle, but the woman started to notice changes that weren't supposed to happen.

His skin color, which had turned black, was slowly turning gray at a rapid rate, and she could see the rashes that he got due to poison were also fading.

He was making less noise, only coughing violently like he was trying to get something out of the body. When she realized what he was doing, she almost stumbled back on her chair.

As she expected, he spat out more than a liter of black liquid, which, upon hitting the ground, started slowly changing color. Everything in this room needs to be adjusted so that her poison wouldn't harm innocent people, so she also designed something that would give out a clear indication of which parts she needed to clean if she ever spilled something dangerous.

For a few seconds, he kept spitting out the same strange liquid while his body was getting paler and paler soon reaching it's original shade.

He wasn't wearing anything; even the pants he wore seemed to have melted away, just barely hiding his private parts.

He stood up and gave her the same smile that he gave her before—a calm and serene like he didn't just cheat death right before her eyes!

"I bet you would have never expected this." He said it nonchalantly. This was among the few of them times he was closest to death.

The poison was deadly, the deadliest one he faced, but due to his ability, which makes any disease and poison ineffective on him. Since he had beaten this particular poison, the woman wouldn't be able to hurt him.

Although he was banking on the fact that she wouldn't attack him when he was in his poisoned state. If she had pulled out a gun or something, Samuel would surely be dead, as this time no matter how much he tried, he wasn't able to activate his magic shield like last night against Talia's people.

"No, this is not possible. How, why, I don't understand...this is impossible." The woman looked like she had seen a ghost.

Her prized poison was beaten by a kid? She would never believe it if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes!

"Anything is possible in this world. Since you have meticulously developed the poison and also made yourself immune to it by injecting small doses, there would be other people on whom no poison would work. I am from that group of people." He said, taking his seat, knowing she would want to talk to him this time.

As the name suggests, the Vishkanya was an ancient organization that was mainly comprised of young girls. The reason why Samuel was so surprised when he first heard it was their year of inception.

Their roots lay in ancient India, while their purpose was to eliminate strong enemies.

After so much time, people could only speculate, but it was said, Their blood and bodily fluids were purportedly poisonous to other humans, as was mentioned in the ancient Indian treaties on statecraft, Arthashastra, written by Chanakya, an adviser and a prime minister to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta.

It was said the organization worked for the first Emperor and were highly loyal to him. What's crazy was the fact he ruled from the year 340–293 BC!

According to other Indian historical sources, the Vishakanya was used by Nanda Dynasty founder Mahapadma Nanda to kill the last ruler of Shishunaga Dynasty, Kalashoka, both of which belonged to the Magadha Kingdom. This was the only record that marked their last conquest, which was around 200 CE.

They would have been hiding in the shadows for more than eighteen hundred years if he were to believe Talia's account that these were the real Vishkanyas.

He wouldn't call them direct descendants as it would be impossible for most of these ladies to ever get close to a man in fear of poisoning them with their touch, but he could clearly tell the old woman wasn't like what was written in the text.

It was a mild version of her using poison while having some immunity to it, but her body wouldn't be poisonous. It made sense that they really wanted to survive for generations.

Either way, if they had real heritage, he could only imagine how much they must know about his real enemy. They would surely have records about unusual finds or might have even had a run-in with them!

This was a crucial reason why he wanted to make friends and not be their enemy. The information alone would make him relive the pain he experienced a few minutes earlier.

"Who are you? There is no human who could stand after ingesting my venom." The woman regained some of her dignity and retorted even harder than before.

"I am just a normal person who can do things. But that's not what's important. I came here to tell you that Talia is safe with me, and I would need to hire more of your people to help me with something big." He went straight to the point, but he kept the things about mysterious organization to himself for now.

Who is to say that they are not an extension of them or aren't working for them? He needed to be careful and supervise their movements before trusting them fully.

For now, his money and his spectacular demonstration would be enough to push her to his side.

"Are we talking business already? I want to know how you did it. No matter what you say to me, there must be a secret after all; Rothschilds are famous for their ingenuity, or else they would be standing the topic with just a century of history." She smiled and even leaned in his direction.

Seeing the old woman act like a seductress was something else. She just tried to kill him, but now she was ready to let go of her prejudice if she could discover his secret.

Samuel only smiled and repeated his words. It was better to stay mysterious and keep her guessing.

"By the way, you can call me Rani. No last name." The woman finally introduced herself.

"Doesn't that mean Queen in your language?"

"So? I have been raised in many places, so the name is the only thing that is keeping me rooted in place. Beside, we don't operate in that region, not after the British took over. Now look at us; we have a whole facility in the heart of London with enough power to completely wipe out this city in hours. Isn't it ironic how what comes around always goes around in circles?" She said it with a smile.

"If you are signaling if I have any loyalty to the crown, then you would be wrong. There is a familiar connection, but I wouldn't go around mentioning you, so please don't threaten me with such a dangerous ultimatum!" He almost lost balance and hurriedly said to appease her.

He couldn't tell a soul, not even his team or his family, about these people. They are dangerous, not to mention their way of killing wouldn't even give others a chance to escape!