Lucifer sat down on his throne as Asmodeus took to standing by him. Lilith, Legion, Belial and Reyna stood below the steps taking to the throne facing Kyle, Death, Sly and Birse who were glancing around the throne room. The room wasn't excessively large having previously been a meeting room but the Dezol had made due.
"Down to business then!" Exclaimed Lucifer with a grin "What kind of relationship are you looking for then? Being mercenaries I'd guess at a temporary contract for each mission?"
Birse turned from studying the room to looking up at Lucifer "We were hoping to make a long-term deal actually."
Lucifer made a waving gesture "Speak."
"I'm sure you understand our current predicament as adventurers but I'd like to make my guild's personal goal very clear." as Birse began to explain the other three also turned to line up behind him "Unlike most of the other adventurers, not all of us wish to leave Chaoz. Many of my guild wish to stay and us such we cannot simply leave this world a wreckage bound in war.
So I ask, what are your general plans for Barik, Ruk and everything else?"
Lucifer leaned back in his throne as he scratched his chin "I understand that you have made yourselves enemies of the alliance, so you do not have much to gain from knowing our general plan for the people." He glanced at Asmodeus then looked back at them "Ruk was a need, we needed land and resources to fund our plans. Barik- No Tempres is sentimental, it is our home ever since leaving the hells."
He slammed his fist down on the stone throne "There is no point in exterminating the races that have done us wrong, the individuals that have…died long ago. But we will not stand for our remaining lands to be desecrated by their filth, this land is ours and we will take it back.
We have one single goal. One thing our people deserve after all the hate, blood and death this world caused us. A home where we can live without fearing the monsters in the dark, a land where we do not need to fear the empires over the sea."
Lucifer's expression grew cold and his eyes distant "Be it through fear, military might or magical prowess. We will conquer Chaoz."
Birse smirked "Conquer? From my understanding the Dezol can't even land on the other continents, the Elven navy has their seas under control while the Orges have their fortresses keeping yours at bay. Then there's the Orcs and their militia hording the beaches whenever you appear. Conquest sounds a bit too farfetched don't you think?"
Lucifer focused his gaze on Birse "Your intel gathering is much wider than I thought it was."
"With the alliance being what it is? Information leaks continuously, all I had to do was set buckets to collect those leaks." replied Birse.
Lucifer nodded as his grin returned "Indeed we have been having…issues pressing our lines further."
"That is where we can help. We aren't Demons or Devils, working behind the enemy lines is our speciality. There are many ways to win a war, some can even be won before the battle itself." Birse chuckled as he presented his offer "All we ask is for my guild to have a place with you, military and civilian.
Of course, we won't accept being common soldiers. You'll also find that our tactics and quality follow more the lines of assassins or agents if you will. Our capabilities have been proven several times over with the defence of Il'e, defeat of Abaddon and her enslaver, manipulation of the city of Eslet and arriving here in one piece through the alliance's front lines and powerful air force."
"Along with defeating Dagon and having him vouch for us, you'll find that his thoughts on the subject won't change even after being extracted from my dungeon." added Kyle.
Lucifer continued to study them quietly as Belial suddenly began to speak "Our own agents haven't been getting very far within Elven and Ogre lands, I wouldn't dismiss their being lightly brother." he seemed to have calmed down.
"They could also be of use here on Tempres, you already have ties with the royal family do you not?" asked Asmodeus with a wolfish grin.
"We have ties with Esfelt and New Ruk, although damaged there are ways…" replied Birse.
"As a minimum though we ask to be able to lead ourselves and the option to decline missions." Death spoke for the first time throughout this negotiation, he was paying attention to the details throughout.
Lucifer began to chuckle, a wicked laugh as he held his face. He suddenly stood up "And here I was worried you'd ask for something ridiculous!" he raised his right hand towards them "Then how about this?
You will be considered allies of the legions, contracted agents for the Dezol. You have your own right of leadership but are required to act for the legion and never against. You are expected to make daily reports and will be given a salary similar to our own agents."
"What about housing, access to resources and such?" asked Birse.
Lucifer briefly considered the question before clapping his hands, a demon walked out of some unknown corner. With long green hair, dark red skin and equally red eyes, she wore a suit similar to a butler's. "How may I assist master?" she asked while politely bowing.
"Zheila take our guests here to meet with the commandant." He told her before looking back at the adventurers "Xien will walk you through everything accounting wise. Zoekul I will expect you to be ready to leave with Asmo in two days."
Kyle, Death and Birse glanced at Sly, he wore a distracted expression as he gazed off at the floor "I will be." he replied solemnly.
"Oh and one more thing." began Birse having found the right time "We have learned from Draxxer that the alliance plans to use some sort of poison to afflict your barrier. I suggest you set up patrols, it sounded deadly even to you."
Lucifer snorted "I will do so, not to underestimate the mage guilds but they seem to underestimate the complexity of my magic. Thank you for the warning though, Zheila show them the way." He gestured at the servant.
Zheila gestured for them to follow her "This way please."
Before they could do so Asmodues called out "Ah we'll be needing to speak with the Dark Hero, we have some…questions about Dagon and such."
Kyle looked back at the Devils, ("Better now than later…") he guessed at what they actually wanted to speak about. Glancing back at the others he assured them "I'll meet you outside, go ahead."
"You sure?" asked Death as the others simply nodded and followed the demoness.
"Yeah I'll be fine, go on." He replied before turning back to the throne, reluctantly he stalked towards them.
Lucifer glanced down at Reyna as she nodded at him, the actions causing some surprise to Kyle as he watched. Reyna turned to Kyle and spoke "Um, I'm not sure how much I should be explaining so I'll just ask…How much do you know about mistress Liliana's plans? As a hero, how much has your God told you?"
Kyle studied her shy expression as he inspected her for the first time in a while.
Reyna [Priestess]-[{Chosen of Change}] (Hero of changing reign) Level 92As he had guessed she had gained her hero based class along with the title, only one of which he had gained so far due to not having had time to visit an obelisk in the past days. Her level had also increased as he had expected, it did not compare to his less so to the other heroes but level didn't seem to say much but an average of someone's strength.
One thing that piqued his interest though was her title ("Reign? Not Rain? Fuck Draxxer does have a bit of an accent huh?") he was expecting a water or weather based power from her but this changed his expectations of her abilities. He had no clue as to what the Hero of changing Reign could or was expected to do.
Seeing that she grew uncomfortable from his glare he decided to answer "Liliana wishes to change this world to her view, she wants to use the grand quest as a tool to empower her army of Demons lead by Devils. Except that the old hero Scythe tricked her in the veil and took the artefact that would let her accomplish this, leaving the process of fully starting the grand quest halted until further use of the artefact.
Along with all that Scythe also somehow made it so more than us heroes were sent here to Chaoz, for what reason I do not know."
Reyna nodded "That's the gist of it but…you're missing a lot too. Scythe's goal with sending all of our people here was to catch the Elven empire's attention and force them into action, this will take more time than he probably planned as the quest was set to start here on BTempres by Liliana before Scythe could do anything about it."
Kyle thought over what this meant "Why would he want to move the Elves' attention to here? Wouldn't that leave an opening in their front lines for the Dezol to exploit?"
"That is not an issue for the Elven empire, currently our forces have only been dealing with the Forest Court of Wood Elves, the Tundra Court of Frost Elves and Night Court of Dark Elves have their hands free." explained Asmodues with disdain in his tone.
"Yeah, the Frost and Dark Elves don't see the Dezol as a threat yet but once they find out that a grand quest was started then everything will change." continued Reyna.
"So you urgently need to recover the artefact before that happens?" guessed Kyle with a smirk.
Reyna solemnly nodded "We need to go back home and find it but…So far all demon souls sent to retrieve it have been lost…I can track the artefact but…retrieving it is a whole different skill set I don't possess."
Kyle wrecked his mind to understand her statement just now "Wait wait, what killed the demons? How exactly can YOU track the artefact?!"
Reyna's expression grew dark as her eyes faltered to the floor "Scythe is working for the military, even demons end up nothing more than magicless mortals in our realm so they've had…no standing chance."
Kyle's eyes widened as he held back a grimace along with holding back his rage "How do you know this? Why have you sided with the Dezol? Who are you?"
Reyna took a step back as his cold glare settled entirely on her, he terrified her very core.
Lucifer cleared his throat "Dark hero please mind your manners, using aura to inflict fear upon one of our mistress's subjects will incur…" a heart wrenching aura fell upon Kyle suffocating his very existence "The equal response." before entirely disappearing as quickly as it appeared.
Kyle fell to his knees breathing unevenly, his anger had immediately been quenched and turned to utter terror. He hadn't expected such power, after defeating Belial he had grown too lax around these Devils. Kyle then realised something ("Belial…back there…never used magic!") he looked up at the Devil in question.
"I excuse myself for my unrestraint, I hadn't noticed my aura leaking." said Kyle as he stood back up.
Lucifer snorted "As such happens when one doesn't frequently check their progress, aura doesn't simply leak boy. Make sure to fully understand your aura skills, they aren't toys to leave behind in a box."
Kyle took note of his warning, he'd go through all his notifications later to see what incurred that surge of his aura.
Reyna was still mildly shaking at the assault of aura, she closed her eyes briefly and let a light wash over herself before refocusing on Kyle. She took in a deep breath "I am the chosen hero of changing reign, chosen by the Half-Goddess Liliana, my path is to change the laws of this world!" with her cheeks flushed red she ended her self introduction.
Kyle slow clapped "Not bad."
Reyna turned even redder "Don't clap at that dammit!" she shouted at him before her expression turned dark again "I'm also…" she grimaced unable to continue.
Kyle sighed at her reluctance "You're also? I won't judge, hell I just tricked and scammed how many people exactly? Can't judge." he said with a quick shrug.
"It has nothing…to d-do with that…It's…who I am back…home" Reyna slowly replied.
Kyle frowned ("How bad can it be?") he thought before speaking "Back home I'm a monster that controls frost and fire, I've iced and burned almost everything in my life except for my family. Injured more people than I actually know, then turned tail and hid for the rest of my life. Can't get any shittier." He explained bitterly.
Reyna studied his expression with swelling eyes, she seemed at the brink of crying.
("Did I say something wrong? Shit what do I do!? I don't deal with crying chicks! I usually just ignore them!") Kyle began to mentally panic as he watched her wipe her eyes with her sleeves.
Lilith gently grabbed her left arm "Back straight, head high and speak clearly." she told her before whispering "It is alright, you can be strong. They cannot hurt you here." She gave Reyna an innocent smile, it creeped out Kyle.
Reyna glanced down at the Devil and nodded with a weak smile "I know…" she looked back at Kyle and spoke as clearly as she could muster "I am Carla Von Sweiss, daughter of Herald Von Sweiss president of the joint mars colonies."
Kyle lost his footing and fell back on his ass as he stared at Reyna with a completely baffled expression "W-wait…HIM?! THE V-Von Sweiss!? The fucking dictator of all humanity!?"
Reyna nodded without saying another word.
"Wait…I thought he didn't even have a wife?!" Kyle exclaimed as he tried to stand back up, almost tripping in the process.
"I'm…illegitimate…I don't even know her…my Ma…For as long as I remember...I've only ever seen one room…Until I came here." Reluctantly Reyna explained.
Kyle chuckled "So he knocked up some wh- woman and kept the kid? Locked you up though? Why?"
Reyna briefly stared at him as she thought of what to say, her memories flowed in causing her eyes to widen and tremble. Immediately she crouched down and held onto her head with both hands.
Lilith moved to crouch down by her and hugged her close "Enough questions, she cannot take anymore." she hissed at Kyle, her cold stern expression returning in full as she glared at him.
Kyle raised his hands in front of himself "Woah there I didn't do anything, didn't mean to bring shit up."
Legion rolled his eyes and stepped over to stand beside them "Do you require me to carry her out?"
"If you want her to snap at you again. No, I'll deal with this Legion." replied Lilith as she cooed Reyna to calm down.
Kyle watched anxiously as he knew well that there was no way in hell she was acting, Reyna was having an actual panic attack. His ability to sense other's emotions told him exactly how she was feeling as he focused it entirely on her, something he noted to test further later.
She took scattered breaths in and quickly out, the moments passed as a sense of calm finally came over her. Reyna glanced around herself while still crouched down and being softly spoken to by Lilith, she grimaced at her sorry state ("Who am I kidding? I'm no hero…Just a broken girl…A broken toy…").
Kyle focused on her sense of dread, depression and self loathing. He fully understood what she felt, he'd had blamed himself for his past before too. Until meeting with the gang of mischievous monsters he now called friends and guild mates, their way of seeing the world had caused him to become who he was today.
Lucifer sighed "Being a spirit beast you can understand why we cannot let her retrieve the artefact alone. Her weak physicality aside, her mentality is on a whole other level of-"
"I do fully understand the situation." Kyle cut in much to Lucifer's chagrin "But to further fuel her depression won't help anyone. There is many things you all still need to explain but first." He stepped towards Reyna as Lilith turned to glare fiercely at him, like a mother bear defending her cub.
He ignored Lilith and stared down at Reyna "Re- No, Carla. I do not know what you have gone through, I do not know what you'll have to go through. But one thing I do know. If you allow the hatred, the self loathing and depression to take hold then it will never let go.
Don't blame yourself for your weakness, don't blame yourself for your inability to fight back. Instead blame those who abused their strength to stomp you down, make use of your hatred, let it burn bright within you and use it to help you stand. Don't blame yourself, that is a waste of time. Instead use that time to get stronger.
Your mind is your own, you only need to will it and the cold debilitating hatred will turn into a warm empowering rage. It is for you to decide how to use that power, but that power is something you do have. So stop sulking at your past, stop fearing what they can do to you and instead plot, plan behind their damn backs to what YOU can do to them!"
Kyle forwarded his hand to her, it trembled slightly under Lilith's fierce glare. "I cannot allow those bastards to come to Chaoz, I will not allow them to. It doesn't matter what I have to do, how much blood I must dirty my hands with. This fantastical world of magic, myth and legend. Will not be sullied by their greed and shit. For that purpose, lend me your help in stopping them. And for that purpose, I will lend you my power and protection."
Reyna stared up at his hand, baffled by his dramatic speech.
Kyle grinned "Will you help me?"
Reyna slowly stood up, she wiped her face off the collection of sweat and tears. Shakily she took his hand with her own "Y-Yeah…".
Kyle shook her hand briefly then opened his arms wide "Now all we have to do is beat their collective asses right?" he declared with a wicked grin, causing Reyna to chuckle weakly and some of the Devils to roll their eyes.
"But I still have some questions that need answering. The first, why did you not speak about this before my guild mates left? Why the secrecy?" he then asked while looking up at Lucifer and Asmodeus, he thought it would do Reyna good to think things over right now ("I might have over done it with that speech…") he thought.
Asmodeus was the one to answer "Hhm, well for one. Mistress allowed us to only speak of this with her chosen and an adventurer that could be of combative use. And for second, your Devilling friend seemed too rash to allow with this information. It would do Zeokul no good to return to his actual body, with his current state it might kill him."
"Ah, I see your point." Kyle stated as he thought over Sly's behaviour and what he'd be capable of doing if he knew what this world was endangered of. "Before I fully agree to help though, I need to know a couple more things. Actually it would be better if I could ask this to Liliana herself."
Lucifer shook his head "Our mistress is incapable of doing so at the moment, ever since the start of the grand quest her Godly blood has been negatively effecting her health. She has been out of consciousness for prolonged periods since then, each time getting worse. Me and Asmo should be fully capable of answering any of your questions in her stead."
Kyle frowned at this development, he'd have to satisfy himself with second hand information "Very well, then I'd like these questions answered in full. First, what was the point of that speech she gave soon after our summoning?"
Lucifer cleared his throat seemingly embarrassed at the mentioning of that event "Well you see…Mistress Liliana can be…Quiet eccentric not unlike yourself… After Scythe's betrayal we've had to find a way to deal with the massive appearance of summoned on Tempres. To make you understand our reasons…" he sighed "Well I'll have to explain our plan in full."
Lucifer raised his right hand forward as black mana flowed out of his palm, the mana formed a large ethereal map in front of them. Suddenly Kyle's map window opened in front of himself.
Map progress: 15%"This is most of Chaoz, without the details. I'm sure your map has been updated with what I have just summoned." explained Lucifer.
Kyle held his breath at the vastness of Chaoz, so much of the world he had yet to see. In comparison to the other three continents Barik was an island, Hasharr and Ruk in comparison to Il'tel where also small.
"As you might have noticed, Tempres- or as you know it- Barik is in quiet the spot." pointed out Lucifer "The perfect spot for our legions to set as a forward base to Il'tel and Hasharr, we could very well attack the Elven Empire's core through here. But unfortunately, there is quite a few problems with accomplishing this.
The first is the resistance we are currently taking from the inhabitants of Barik, along with their ability to resurrect from those damned lode stones. We will require two or more legions to fully take over the continent.
The second is the Mers and their sea monsters, creatures vastly larger than our two sea serpent dragons. We lost too many of my and Asmo's legion to come to Barik, even more to take Oberon back to Ruk. With the Mers now also enlisting their cousins, the Nymphs and their Avian allies…A journey over the sea is suicide." he sighed in exasperation before continuing.
"The third problem is the constant pressure on our main forces back on Ruk. The Elves constantly barrage our shores from the sea while the Ogre's fortresses along their coasts are armed with magical weapons that can reach our own. Throughout these four decades we've also been at a constant war of attrition with the surviving Dwarves."
Asmodeus jumped into the explanation "They hide and reinforce their underground kingdoms, making it almost impossible to fight them. It is quite vexing!"
Lucifer nodded in agreement "We have stayed strong but in truth…our numbers are dwindling. For almost four decades we held our shores while holding back in the inside threats that are the Dwarves. We waited for so long so we could activate the Grand Quest, complete the damn thing and gain the power to push every one of them back!" his tone became extravagant.
"We were to make it so that the quest's goal was to take back our home continent! The reward for the quest would depend on the feat accomplished to finish it! Then Scythe betrayed us, leaving the process halfway. Not only that but also reinforcing Barik with more forces and threatening to bring even more and worse." His tone then descended into bitterness.
"Us adventurers, and threatening to bring the military later on…" added Reyna solemnly.
Kyle began to get a clear picture "So you went straight into salvage mode, began planning how to get the situation back on track. The speech was meant to install fear in the new forces, confuse them and disperse them."
"Indeed." Legion was the one to speak now "But for some reason, an adventurer decided to speak up. Ruining.Her.Damn.Speech!" he exclaimed with a fierce glare at Kyle.
Lucifer groaned in annoyance "Ignore his fit, he was the one to write it up." he waved a gesture dismissing Legion's statement "But yes, that is what we did. Using some of the Dark Fae spies we scattered across Barik, newborns with no knowledge of what they were and what they had been sent there to do, sacrificing their mana bodies as resource we activated a large scale visual illusion."
"Something Dagon said before still bugs me…" Kyle cut in with a worried expression "That I didn't allow Lilior, my fairy companion, to be reborn. She was one of those 'Dark Fae' you used, I had already contracted with her by then and was the cause of my 'Soul Wail'. What did he mean by that? Rebirth?"
Lucifer stared at him thoughtfully for a brief moment before nodding to himself "So you did not entrap the Fae before rebirth on purpose… It was one of the reasons we had sent Dagon after you fearing you'd try and torture the creature into revealing what it knew. The mistress herself had requested it fearing the worst."
Kyle wanted to slap himself at this point "So…Lilior…Jior would have been reborn?"
Lucifer nodded "Fae on death become Sprites, from then they can be reborn with a new body at their EverFae. EverFae are to a Fae what a core is to a monster. Although no memories are kept of their previous body, a new body can be made."
"So companion Fae don't…like…remain haunting their master for eternity?" Kyle began searching back in his memory for the shopkeeper's face and name ("So what have I learned today? Oh don't trust tales of some random ass shop keepers…")
"Err…That is only a folklore tale…" said Lucifer with an awkward tone "We had fully planned to aid the Sprites in recollecting mana to rebuild their bodies. We never thought any of them would befriend someone to the point of companionship."
"Huh" Kyle's expression was complicated, a mix of disbelief, twitching, amusement and annoyance.
("So we're basically all complete morans who kept this misunderstanding grow like fucking weeds in a jungle...") Kyle thought.
("I'm still killing that dark elf bitch. In the most gruesome fucking way.") he then promised himself.