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He hadn't had this many new toys in ages. He sometimes found it difficult to choose between them.

Lamont the Iceheart was undoubtedly the most deadly among his current captives, and so it was no surprise that Jercash had been messaging him constantly about it, telling him to at least kill Iceheart, if no one else.

But ol' Jerky didn't understand. Not everything was about military strategy. Sure, it would've been the wisest move as far as this continental war was concerned, but there was a bigger picture to think about. Test subjects like this weren't so easy to come by.

Lamont would be invaluable for limit testing the next upgrades for the Roberts. Morgunov planned to start with the Robert that had retrieved Qorvass. That was a deserving boy if ever there was one, eheh. Recovering a lost reaper was no minor feat. And for as long as Qorvass had been missing, that chase must've lasted for hours upon hours through solid rock. It wouldn't surprise him if the Robert had ended up tunneling all the way through to the Undercrust while following him.

The gap did leave a bit of a mystery, though. Theoretically, Qorvass could have contacted someone during that time. Not for long, obviously, if he was being chased, but it wasn't outside the realm of possibility.

Which meant that someone might have followed Qorvass and the Robert back here.

It was unlikely, of course. He'd personally canvassed the area a half-dozen times by now and found no such evidence, but still. He hated little, nagging possibilities like that.

Even he couldn't be entirely free of an emperor's paranoia, it seemed.

Agh. So irritating. He didn't want to share that quality with the others. He was different from them. He was the Mad Demon. He didn't let things like that bother him.