“I’m back.”
“Welcome back, Demon.”
“So, any good or bad news?”
“There are multiple reports that fall into either category.”
“Hmm… hit me with the bad news, then.”
“Currently, seven avatars that were aligned with us have defected. Two, the Saboteur and the Jester, are now presumed dead. I went and personally dealt with the Saboteur, and the Jester should have been dealt by Evelyn. There is a possibility the Jester is now under Evelyn, but the Saboteur is confirmed dead.”
“What about the other five?”
“The Puppeteer, the Thief, and the Knight were seen leaving the premises together, however promptly disappeared. Most likely through the abilities of the Thief. The last two defectors are the Pirate and the Magician. The Pirate has decided to go off on her own in the oceans. Meanwhile, the Magician has simply put, disappeared.”
“Well, that’s annoying, but whatever. There was no way Puppeteer would’ve been our puppet, and the rest, although competent, were too rowdy. What about the good news?”
“Ares is dead. I killed him with the prototype weapon Hephaestus was working on. As I have confirmed it works against Gods, I have sent some avatars to deal with Hephaestus and retrieve the test subject of his experiments. I feel she has interesting information. Unfortunately, the Soldier, who was in Ares’ care, had managed to slip away, and her location is currently unknown. Although capturing the Soldier would allow for further progress towards our goal, it is still continuing on as normal. Currently, the Greek pantheon is being dwindled, and soon we shall move onto other pantheons.”
“Okay then. Then let the plan follow as natural. Oh, any news about Evelyn knowing about us?”
“No worries. According to the bug I had implanted on the Samurai, they have yet to discuss our organisation. The Jester is no worry, as I had left her in the dark.”
“Well, good. I’m off to have a bath, so continue doing whatever you do, Robot.”
“That I will.”
“...”
“...”
“Allowed out?”
“Yes.”
“Lied. Why?”
“Because she doesn’t need to know. You are a one-man army, Soldier. A fool with power is a tool, but a fool with too much power is a liability.”
“Understood. Back to hiding.”
“Good.”
“What a nice crib ya got here, Lyn. A shame about the drunkard, though.”
“Oh, shut the fuck up, you fucking goat. I’ll fucking skin you.”
“Try it, biiiiinch.”
Chaos quickly stood up and pounced at the Devil but froze in mid-air. “Haha! Too slow!” He slowly turned his head towards me, a devilish grin still plastered onto his face. “Now, let us get serious. I’m here to crack jokes and beat up some avatars, and I’m all out of jokes.”
The Devil snapped his fingers, and I found myself sitting at a table, the Devil opposite me and Mori beside me. Chaos was still frozen and was floating beside the Devil. “So… how are the kids? They doing well?” he said, in a suburban mom tone. Both Mori and I looked at him with confused faces. “Go on, spill the beans.”
“They’re doing fine,” replied Mori.
“I thought you were getting serious?”
“Well, I was just asking. You never know. They might disappear,” he said, his large grin growing larger.
“Hey Mara, I know you’re there.” Out from my shadow rose Mara. She was looking at the Devil like she suspected something, and I suspected something too. “Go check on everyone, please.”
“On it.” She saluted, then sunk into my shadow.
“In the meantime, let me discuss our target, Evelyn, and also a change to the contract.”
“Contract? There was a contract?”
“No, but I’m the Devil, so yes.” The grin he wore went away, and he put his chin on both his hands. “Simply put, we are no longer going to help ya with gathering an Avatar. We just want you to deal with our problems.”
“Wait, how is that fair?!”
“You didn’t let me finish. In exchange, we, the Roundtable, will help directly. We’re breaking some rules here, but some of them had reasons, it appears. As for me… anytime I can get that Old Man to break the rules is a good day. That and I want to make this problem disappear as quickly as possible.”
“What made you guys change the plans? How come I wasn’t alerted?”
The Devil looked at Mori. “You see Mori, you don’t have any Avatar problems. You aren’t actually part of this arrangement. You are merely here with Evelyn of your own accord. So as far as we are concerned, this whole thing has nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me.”
“Haha… no. You’re just here because you want to be, and can be, since no one is above you. Now, there’s no need for us to get all heated up. The fun hasn’t begun yet. First thing first, Evelyn.” He faced me, his grin returning to his face, then spat into my eyes.
“Argh! What was that for?!”
“I hate you, and it gave you something new.” I opened my eyes and started seeing a transparent grey mist everywhere. I glared at the Devil and saw he had a strong red mist around him, then looked at the still floating Chaos and saw a mist constantly changing colour. Finally, I turned to my side and saw a thicker grey mist emanating from Mori. “Honestly, I could’ve just told you how to awaken Divine Sight since it’s a thing anyone with enough Divinity can do, but I thought it’d be funnier to spit in your eyes. It was fucking hilarious, and you should be grateful. I know a ton of people who’d want the Devil to spit on them in various places.”
Mara came out of my shadow, and around her was a thick mist with all sorts of colour, but black was the dominating force. “So… bad news, mom. I can’t find anyone. Not even Kageko or Amaterasu, and they never leave their room.”
“Hahaha!” The Devil was slapping the table. “I love this. Perfect timing. Hey Evelyn, with those new fancy pancy eyes of yours now, turn it to Dream Vision. You should be able to peek into the Dreamrealm with it. Just think about dreams, and it’ll do the rest.”
“Okay?” I started thinking about dreams, and around me, the world turned grey. Everything was the same besides being a bit transparent, but when I looked at Chaos, I could see transparent wine bottles floating around her and a transparent version of herself drinking from the bottles.
“Can you see us now?” I turned around and saw Phoebe with the robotic Mari standing next to her. “Huh, you can. Ello there, Phoebe here. A friend wanted to say hi.”
