I'm pretty dumb. I forgot to make a chapter this week. Sorry for this delay.
Chapter 11
"Middle Problems"
Lucifugus now kept on scribing. It was going rather smoothly in an odd way. Sometimes Pen had to be put down to be healed and then Lucifugus took another Pen from the box. All the while he was telling this Healer another story of his.
"My lord I need to ask. WHY are you using these poor Low Devils as your Pens? It's such a barbaric way of doing things that I'm sure we could work around with how much we were able to develop our society, partially thanks to you."
That fucking healer talks again.
"...Who are you again?" Lucifugus was confused about this character gaining relevancy "Why are you talking to me?"
And why are we not punishing her?
"I asked you a question my Lord." Healer said in strangely stern tone
"(The fucking insolence!)" The rage was great in his mind "(I'm killing this bi-)"
"We were doing it for a LOOOONG time." Pen spoke up as he grabbed this Healer's hands that were healing his head and looked up at her from his sitting position "It would be awkward to switch to different material to write this and I'm actually pretty happy with this."
He had a big smile on his face. Probably thought it would persuade her.
"Of course you are Pen, but others are not." Healer stated to the pitiful low "I actually bothered to talk to them, granted most of their answers were grunts, but they were painful grunts, I swear even with more intelligence this Low Devil is still quite dumb or just naive and somehow completely innocent"
"Where are you going with this Healer?" Lucifugus was irritated "I've been doing that for as long as I remember. Opinion of one Middle wont change my ways. I'm surprised how many opinions you have, fucking Middle."
"For your information my lord, my opinion is shared by many Devils in Underworld, we appreciate the effort of making everything more stable, but you are, with all respects, terrible at keeping it stable." Healer brought down the fucking hammer on the nail that was Lucifugus
Kill her
"MY LORD IS CAPABLE GOVERNOR!" Pen stood up and started protesting against her " HE IS THE BEST WE EVER GOT!"
"HE IS THE ONLY ONE WE EVER GOT PEN!" Healer screamed back at him and yet she still kept on healing him, she was dedicated "OPEN YOUR EYES YOU BRAINDEAD-"
*SLAM*
Lucifugus closed the book with such force it was like a loud thunder striking the entire Underworld. The Devil that he used for now as replacement run back to the box. Healer and Pen both became quiet. Then Lucifugus put pen on his black energy skin and looked straight at this insolent Middle healer. Pen just stick his tongue out as he looked at her while Lucifugus's eyes were full of fury. Healer was visibly shaken by it. But as Lucifugus's hand was ready to squash her she somehow regained composure.
"If you kill me my lord, you will not prove anything other than that I'm right." Healers stated as she got closer to her soon to be killer "This is some-"
Lucifugus quickly picked her up with force enough to silence her, but not bad enough to kill her. He truly wanted to make it as slow as possible.
"Me and Pen already told you." Lucifugus got his head really close to this Middle, as if he wanted to eat her alive "I never chose this job, I'm here because of that drunken moron's delusion, I'm here because I don't have any other choice and no matter how much you don't like it, how much you may complain to me, insult me or try to show me the wrongs of my ways, let me tell you, I'm not the best thing you got, I'm not the only thing that you got, I'm EVERYTHING that you will ever get and you have to live with it. So next time you better remember that or I will turn you into my new Pen that I will use often with GREAT delight."
Now he saw fear in her eyes, mixed with shock and oh so sweet despair. But then for some reason she calmed down and her eyes started being filled with...pity?
Pity!?
"(That fucking bitch.)" Lucifugus mind was now overwhelmed with feeling of rage and... confusion... WHY was this Middle pitying him!? "(Stay afraid for at least 1 minute so I can enjoy it to the fullest, this Middle is seriously pissing me off, but I really don't want to look for another Devil with healing magic)"
Lucifugus slwoly put her down. As he released her she at first had to catch her breath and after a short segment of deep breaths and painful screams she regained her composure again and looked at Lucifugus.
"Well my Lord, I see your Point of View and I understand your frustrations, but I still believe you need to improve your skills." And went back to her criticisms
"And let me guess, YOU will be the one to help me improve?" You could almost hear the held back laughter in his voice "Train me? Hmph."
"No, I'm not a good teacher and I don't believe I can teach you anything, but I can offer you my advice." Healer said to him, this time with much more careful tone "Help adjusting the rules and the way you shape this world."
"(Lucifero Dammit, now I have a Devil looking over my shoulder ready to criticize everything I do.") This was frustrating on all levels "Why not just kill her? Yes. WHY not just kill her? Ah yeah, you are too fucking lazy to find another Healing Devil, absolute disgrace..)"
"Alright, you can do that, but speak too often and you will become a pen, Healer." Lucifugus regained enough composure to speak calmly to her
"My name is not Healer, I'm-"
"No one cares, your name is Healer now, changed it at this very moment." Lucifugus said as he took Pen from his chest and wrote "The Middle with Healing magic now in service of Lucifugus is now named Healer. Until the end of her or Lucifugus's life"
"Wh-What? But I-"
"YAY!" Pen suddenly screamed with joy and got off on his own from Lucifugus's grasp and ran up to confused Middle and hugged her. "WE ARE COMPANIONS NOW!"
And Pen started to hug her tighter until she started coughing up blood.
"Th..that's enough...PEN!" Seems like she was dying
"(Oh sweet, maybe he will kill her for me, I guess I wont have a choice if he does the killing)" Lucifugus thought to himself
*Knock* *Knock*
Sound of knocking quickly make Pen release Healer.
"For all the... Do I even have a door?!" Lucifugus was both confused and frustrated now
And then 2 Devils came in from the very real door that had smaller doors in it as well for smaller Devils to enter. One Middle who seemed pretty fat with big wings and a top hat of some sort and one Low Devil on a leash who was sniffing everything and biting his toes.
"(Good lord, more of those)" Lucifugus was in incredible pain "What is it? Do you have an appointment with me?"
"Yes my lord, I do have an appointment, I've been waiting for it for a while. Here." Middle one showed a paper that had a date of appointment written on it with Lucifugus's signature.
"Ah yeah. But why do you have that Low one with you?" Lucifugus asked him and pointed at the Low one that was now biting his own tail
"It's my pet, my wife told me to take it for a walk." Unhappy citizen answered as he slightly pulled the leash to make it stop
"Wife? (We have marriage in this shithole?)" That was terribly confusing
"Ugh, YES wife." Seems like this comment hurt his feelings a little. Who cares? "I may not look like much my Lord, but... Why do I even talk about it? I have a problem that requires your attention!"
"Okay, speak." Lucifugus just waved his hand allowing the Fat Devil to begin his complaints that Lucifugus will be more than happy to forget
"It's about security of my home. I've assigned a certain security group of Middles to protect my farm of -?Ż?-?ˇ~?-?Ż?-? and after I paid them in advance they stopped protecting it, my house has been raided twice at this point and many of my animals just disappeared as if some idiot was summoning them to some other realm." Fat Devil was lumping around as he continued his rant, Low one loyally followed him "When I confronted them about this they said they raised the price of their services and now I have to pay them more. Outrageous. And when I confronted them about it they said that it is written that "Each business can set their own price and make their own rules". I'm here to call out this falsehood by talking to you my lord."
"I sadly have to confirm that it is written like that and so I can't punish them for doing so." He said as the memory of writing that law came back "(Ah yeah, that law, hehe, yeah I made it so vague because I knew it would happen, it's always funny to see misery on other Devils)"
"My lord... This is horrendous!" Fat Devil said loudly, trying to get the point across how badly he is displeasured with this law "My family could be killed off at this very moment because of this-"
"Wait! Family?" This was getting better and better
"Wh- YES family! You think we do not have families?" Fat one was greatly weirded out from the looks of it
Healer looked at Lucifugus with rather disappointed look while Pen was playing with that Low Devil now. Then Healer spoke for him for some reason.
"Concept of family is something not known to our lord, a factor of time took a toll on his well being in his psyche." Healer said as she flew down to the Fat Devil "Please excuse our Lords currently ignorant state."
"(PLEASE EXCUSE?!)" that was humiliating "(What the fuck are you doing?!)"
"What!?" Surprise was great in this one "My Lord, do you know ANYTHING about your own people?!"
"Less than I should, more than I want to." This was the only way he could possibly answer
"This is unbelievable, how can you govern our society when someone like me apparently knows about it more than the likes of you!?" Fat one screamed out
Then everything went silent. Healer quickly became stiff and flew back to the desk as Lucifugus looked at fat Middle. Pen and Low Pet still played though.
"Pen, stop." His tone grew cold
Then Pen stopped playing with it and quickly came back to Lucifugus. Fat Middle became more nervous. This silence could even give deaf man chills. Then Lucifugus spoke again
"Did you know that the more Low Devil loses their brain, the more intelligent they become?" He asked nonchalantly
Fat middle became confused
"What?"
"Here, let me show you.
Lucifugus came down from his chair and put his finger against Low Devils head and then quickly snapped his finger which send big chunk of Low Devils head fly away to the wall.
"EEP!" Middle pathetically screamed, but Low one suddenly stood on two feet and
"THANK YOU MY LORD!" He quickly saluted towards Lucifugus "I feel much better now."
"Uh uh" Lucifugus was just done with this and sat down at his desk again
"Wha...? HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE!?" Then Middle became even more confused
"You tell me. You are the one that supposedly knows more about Devils than me." Cheeky Lucifugus "Also if you want justice being served to them then I suggest you to talk with Creep or Lucifero."
"Creep? You mean Space Lord?" Fat one answered
"Yes (does ANYONE knows what his name is?!)" I know, but I will make it relevant later
"I don't believe Space Lord can help me in this, but I would like to talk with Lucifero. Yes." Fat One considered his words
"Okay, give me a moment." Lucifugus said as he turned away
Then Low Devil Pet spoke to his master.
"By the way Master, I do not appreciate you and lady master hitting me constantly so I'm going to slice your necks when both of you are asleep." He was blunt to say the least
"Umm, okay." How can you react to this?
"Ahhh, This one just gained sentience and already sets goals for himself." Lucifugus sounded almost impressed "You should be proud. Now you have less work to do with pushing ideas into his head and giving him talks about him finding goals in his life. I envy you."
Then Lucifugus looked at Pen for a moment and then started looking into his desk. Then pulled out another Devil
Middle was confused
"What is it?"
Pen got excited
"Ohh, OOH, PLEASE EXPLAIN MY LORD!"
And Healer got annoyed
"Another heartless role for our kind I presume"
"This is a spatial Devil. Creep is capable of going between levels without effort, but spatial devils like this one can also do some things." Lucifugus said as he sligthly shook the Devil in his hand, causing him some discomfort "For instance creating portals between levels or places through which we can talk with Devils on different levels for a limited time. This one's head will explode if talk goes on for more than 5 minutes."
"Aren't we on our lords level?" He asked Lucifugus
"Creep brought you here huh? For a while I've been stuck on one of the lower levels after Creep put me in here with my workshop." He waved his hand across the room to better explain his point "I don't really know where I am at this point. Maybe he put me back... maybe I'm not even on any level and all of use are just floating in space between them... I don't know... But either way, I'm calling now. You call Lucifero."
Small Devil started shaking as Lucifugus reinforced him with some of his own magic and small gap in space appeared before him. There was Lucifero and he-
"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" Was very stable at the moment
"Oh boy, something failed again" This was getting better and better "(There will be LOTS of drinking afterwards I presume, 2 entire bottles. Ah who am I kidding he wont get to the half of the first one)
"Listen Lucifero, could you please lower the volume and take care of certain unhappy Middle one that annoys me with his problems?" Lucifugus asked his now sligthly annoyed boss
"WHAT!? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?" He took it pretty well "If you haven't noticed I'm BUSY!"
"Yeah, busy screaming your lungs out at your failures, listen I really need you to get this guy off of me." Lucifugus pointed at the Fat Devil "He wants help with something I can't be bothered to help with and I see that you have a break right now."
"I swear to Me Lucifugus I will murder you if this will go on any further!" And as always was very humble
"Just send Creep here and make him take this guy to you ." Then he started to whisper "You may add him and his pet to your throne if you want"
"What did you say my lord?" Middle became concerned
Lucifero then spoke
"Okay, I'll meet this guy. Maybe he will amuse me or something." He finally gave in "Now please disconnect. I have lots of screaming left."
"Just don't drink too much again moron." Lucifugus just didn't care anymore
"I swear Luci-"
Then it disconnected and Spatial Devil was visibly bleeding from his head. Lucifugus quickly dropped him on top of Healer which she quickly dodged.
"Fix it, I don't want to lose my phone." He politely ordered her
And she did start to heal it
"Even as a Devil this is too much, how can you be this cruel to everyone around you and yet..."
She looks at excited Pen, who started to play with Low Pet again, this time both played in sort of weird hand sign game where if one showed wrong sign the winning one punched the loser, of course it didn't make healing any easier for her, but it seemed like they had fun.
"Why is this one so... okay with this?" This was all kinds of wrong for her
Then sound of spatial magic was heard and everyone turned to the portal behind them where Creep stood. Middle one quickly ran up to him with his pet and made a small bow. Pen was kinda sad because his playmate was going away, but quickly jumped closer to Lucifero.
"Thank you my lord. We will get there right away." Fat Devil waved his hand as a farewell. Lucifugus did that too in much less enthusiastic way
And they went into the portal while Creep just kept looking at Lucifugus. He said nothing, he didn't moved an inch, but his eyes were visibly filled with contempt. Lucifugus felt it radiating off of him, and then for some reason... he stood up.
What are you doing?!
"Listen..." He had to find right words "I..."
But Creep didn't listen and went into the portal that closed just as fast as it appeared. Lucifugus was filled with confusion and... disappointment?
"(What I just tried to do? Apologize? It's not like I did anything wrong, he just put me in this place after I asked him about that band... Ugh, it's so confusing... But...)
Lucifugus then went back to his desk, picked Pen up and started writing again. Then Healer went on top of his shoulder to watch what he writes. This is the first time he noticed that her lower half was that of a snake... Curious.
"(I have work to continue...)" Lucifugus steeled himself before another try at this dull work
Then something hit Lucifugus.
"Wait... what was Lucifero this angry about?"
TBC in Chapter 12
"Lucifero's annoyance. Severe annoyance"
I'm sorry again for this delay. Totally my fault. I got too into beating Black Mesa and get Rarest Specimen. That hat will hunt my fucking Nightmares. But I do hope everyone that made it here enjoyed it. Fav, follow or leave a review if you liked it. I really appreciate those.