Sorry for the late this week. I hope this chapter was worth this wait though. This is the start of a new mini arc. Have fun.
Chapter 18
"Troubles of broken Pens"
Another day has passed, everyone got ready to work again and the writing continues. The stuff with letters is being addressed and changed. Now it should be more coherent to make sure there will be no more of those not very amusing pranks. Then Lucifugus starts to look over the other laws and adds some changes to those with guidance of Healer, it worked quite well, although Lucifugus wasn't very fond of some of the changes she wanted him to make, he liked the problems some of them would cause, but sadly it seemed necessary to change them.
Why? What is the point for us doing it?
"(Do you really need a why?)" Lucifugus answered in his mind
...
"(Hmph... Thought so)"
You make a big mistake...
Seems like he started to piss off this strange voice... But it was strange, it didn't sound angry just... disappointed. But he had to focus on his work now. It goes on and on, finally they had a short break and then it continues on again for while until finally the letters stop appearing.
"Ugh...What is it now?" Lucifugus asked Pen
"No more blood, My Lord!" Pen answered in his usual cheerful tone
Definitely he was excited because that meant another meal to refill his lost blood. On the other hand Lucifugus was rather annoyed at unfinished page. He put Pen down, in the meantime Healer came down to him and gave him one body part from some deceased Devil and started healing his skull.
"Hehe... Tickles..." Pen laughed a little
"..." Healer didn't answer, but she was staring at his broken head in a strange way
Weird. Pen never said that before when she was healing him or seem to feel anything. Then again who knows what he thinks at this point. Lucifugus grabbed the box with Pens to use another one, but then he noticed something. It was empty.
"What?! What is it?" Lucifugus shook the box to make sure there is no Devil there... There was none "Where did those Pens go!?"
Lucifugus was quite angry now. Those insubordinate little shits! Once he finds them he will crush their little-
"Did any other Pen arrived here today My Lord?" Healer asked in a soft tone as she kept healing Pen which made Lucifugus remember.
No. Other than them no Pen came here today. Something is.. off here. But that doesn't matter though. Pen will be fixed soon and he will get on with this job and then find those damn Pens and break them into tiny pieces. Then again... this lack of Pens may be a trouble. And he REALLY doesn't want to go out of the workshop now and look for them... But then he realized something.
"Pen!" Lucifugus screamed out even though Pen and Healer were on the desk
"Yes *crunch* My Lord?" Pen got excited again as he chewed on some Devils leg.
"Once you are done with this I command you to look for a new Pen outside, for insubordination of the previous Pens I need to fire them which leaves me with only you." Lucifugus pointed at him and then the doors behind them "So now you shall go out and look for another one! At best he should have no horns and if he does make sure they are not going from top of his head, it's annoying to write with those. If they don't want to come here, force them."
Lucifugus commanded as he slammed his clenched into fist right hand onto his open left hand. Strangely enough Healer looked... worried. More so than usual.
"M..My lord!" She begun to speak, she seemed very nervous "I'm sorry, but i don't think that's-"
But then Pen quickly jumped up and knocked her back causing her to fall to the ground. He finished his meal and it seemed like his wounds were mostly healed as well.
"YES MY LORD!" He saluted to Lucifugus "I'M GOING MY LORD!"
He shouted happily before jumping off the desk and running off to the doors. Healer quickly got up and tried to go after him.
"Pen! WAI-"
But Lucifugus's hand blocked her way.
"Don't worry about him." He said in dismissive tone "There are no Devils in this place that can possibly threaten him. All of them rejects from across the lower levels...or higher... I don't know anymore how that works..."
Lucifugus grabbed his head and tried to figure it out. All the while Healer seemed to get very annoyed with him.
"My Lord! With all due respect he is still a 1st level Low. I don't think it's smart to-"
"But you DID feel his strength right?"
Lucifugus asked and Healer was shut down yet again, but that did awakened a question in her.
"I did, but... I don't know exactly what it is. Is this some sort of magic... if it is then it's still very dangerous." She flew up to Lucifugus's face, causing him to slowly lean his head back "This kind of power could only be achieved by some... great storage of energy that can be released only once. But once he releases it he will be left helpless."
"Wrong." Lucifugus put his finger on her head and made her go back down on the desk "It's something else."
"Eh?"
Healer now was even more confused. Did he know something about Pen's strength? Wait. Of course he did.
"I've been thinking about it for a while until I finally realized. His magic. It's Pain Magic." Lucifugus said it like it's the most obvious thing in the world
"Pain?" Healer grabbed her chin with her hand and started thinking for a moment "Ah yes, I heard of Devils with magic like that, horrible Pain transforms into strength, but I never heard of a Low Devil getting this strong because of it."
"That's because most of them die while trying to get stronger." Lucifugus picked up one of the empty bottles left from his drinking from the floor and crushed it in his hand to make a point "Pain magic is a peculiar type of magic. It allows it's user to gain strength from pain, but this pain must be VERY terrible. Devils with this magic though often crave pain like no other. They desire it. They search for it. Their masochistic tendencies are greater than those of any other Devil. But this crave almost always leads to their deaths. Too much pain means too many wounds and too many wounds are equal to death. That is unless this Devil is healed or is allowed recovery. Which almost never happens in this bleak world."
"Except here." Healer realized
"Yes." Lucifugus sat down again on his chair "Maybe this was the reason this Low Devil took this job at one point. Promise of severe pain. (I wonder how much it has changed now) It is quite shameful to admit it, but I very often got into a fit of rage."
"That's not very surprising my Lord." Healer said bluntly.
Lucifugus ignored that and continued (but it was hard)
"For as long as I remember I had this Low as my Pen, I always did something to him. Threw at the wall, crush some of his bones, smashed him against the desk and of course... I wrote with him so much I cracked his skull and let parts of his brain spill out on the pages. But I always made sure that he would live. Up until he lost sense of Pain. It's the first time it ever happened."
He explained... But something felt... missing
Do not dwell on it
"Wasn't that caused by writing with him too much?" Healer asked him
"I thought it was, but now I think it's something else." He leaned back in his chair "I think I hit the limit on how strong he can possibly be. His strength is as great as it can ever be now so Pain was no longer needed."
"So...what does that mean?" Healer asked, but she most likely knew the answer already
"By accident I created the Highest Low of all time." Lucifugus scratched his cheek where Pen hit him, there was no pain there, but that experience is something he couldn't forget "So, compared to all of the other Devils here besides me there is nothing he should be afraid of. And neither should you."
"Right..." She seemed to be uncertain
She is not telling us something
"Is there something you want to tell me?"
And Lucifugus needed to know
"..."
Silence was the answer
"Healer..." Lucifugus stopped leaning back and got himself closer to her "I command you to answer me"
"Pen is dying..." She said in a somber tone
And silence returned once again, not leaving for a long minute
"Excuse me?" Lucifugus didn't understand
"Pen will die soon." Her tone didn't change, she just started looking down at the desk
"... I'm sorry, but I think I must have misheard." He started scratching one of his ears "You are saying he is dying? When I hired you to make sure it DOESN'T HAPPEN!"
"Yes..." She answered and still looked down in shame
"THEN FIX HIM ONCE HE COMES BACK!" He commanded her and slammed his hand on the desk "You of all Devils should be capable of that!"
"My lord..." She looked at him again, her face was filled with grief "I can't fix it."
"What the fuck are you talking about!?" Lucifugus was getting VERY angry now
"Okay..." She raised both of her hands and closed her eyes, took a deep breath and released. She had to prepare herself for this "So I got to look closely at the inside of his head and... I saw his brain or what remains little of it..."
This mental image seemed to be hard for her to remember, the way she looked at Lucifugus made him deeply uncomfortable.
What an insolent little-
"My lord, there is almost nothing there anymore. The remains of it I could hold with my one hand." She showed her small hand with her 3 slender black fingers. Lucifugus understood "When I looked at it now... My Lord, if you write with him even one more page he is going to die."
Healer's tone was incredibly serious
"... Wait... You are a healing Devil, you definitely can restore that brain!" Lucifugus argued with this nonsense
"My Lord, our Healing Magic works like this when we use it on ourselves, for me to restore his brain I would have to know how it looked before, how it worked." she pointed at her own head "Besides only Low Devils have and need a brain since they have the least amount of magic and so are the closest to physical realm. I don't know how to restore it. At best I could restore parts of the brain that will be destroyed from this point on."
Lucifugus was slowly more and more frustrated... WHY?!
"Then I will tear out that last remain and shove another one inside!" Lucifugus made a tearing out motion with his hands
"Lord Lucifugus..." Healer's voice became more somber "If you do that... then it wont be Pen anymore."
"I... I knew that..." Lucifugus tried to remain composed as he looked away from her "I just-"
Lucifugus was now looking at this book, that unfinished page, then he looked back at Healer again. There it was again, that damn pity.
Pity for what?! Who do you think we are!?
"My Lord..." She got a bit closer to his hand that now rested on the desk and touched it with her own "You can't write with him anymore."
"Ghk...Grrr..." He pulled his hand away quickly and looked away from her "Why does that matter?!"
"Huh?"
"Why does that matter?! HE is just a fucking Pen! My tool! For me he lives and dies, why would that matter!?" he was screaming loudly now. It almost felt like Workshop was shaking because of his voice "It doesn't! His life doesn't matter!"
"..."
Healer could tell. There was great frustration in his voice. Not pointed at anyone... besides himself.
"So why... Why? Why does it matter?" His body and voice started to relax... He couldn't tell why
Lucifugus felt as if he was about to fall down from his chair. He grabbed it just in case it doesn't happen. Damn it... It was the first time he felt so... vulnerable.
"..."
This was the first time Healer saw him so vulnerable. The last time she saw something like this was with... Warmonger.
"My Lord." Suddenly she felt very compelled to help him "Maybe you can give him some other role besides-"
But before she could finish she was quickly silenced by Lucifugus raising his arm at her.
"I'm going now." He put his hand down and he looked up in the direction of the doors "I will fire him."
"Wh- What did you say my Lord?!"
Healer couldn't believe what she just heard.
"From this point on he will cease to be my Pen." Those words sounded like they barely got out of his mouth "After that... we shall see."
Lucifugus said as he got up from his chair. Rather rare sight for Healer, but she felt good when she did saw it, it made her smile a bit. Like a great weight was lifted off of her. But then she thought how Pen will feel about it. How can she even call him Pen now?
"But my Lord... How do you think he will feel." She couldn't ignore that either.
"I SAID..." He almost exploded again, but managed to calm down "*sigh* We shall see."
This was definitely not easy for him. But she decided to go along with him and flew up to his right shoulder and sat on it. But before they could get to the door they saw a them open and through them came an imposing Devil with emotionless face. It was him.
"Fucking Creep." Lucifugus said as he looked at Lord of Space
He stood there like a statue. With his dead eyes staring at them as if there was nothing, but void before him. And for the first time Lucifugus also noticed something in his eyes, as if small stars were floating inside them, floating in endless void. But that's not important now. Why was he here?!
"What are you doing here!?" He couldn't pick the absolute worst moment
"..."
He said nothing besides stretching out his arm. Then a small hole in reality formed above it. Lucifugus quickly prepared himself to fight, but then...
"HEY LUCIFUGUS!"
Lucifero appeared in the hole and waved at him in a very mocking way. He came to send a message. Lucifugus wasn't happy to see him, but was quite amazed that he bothered to send Creep here instead of coming himself.
"King Lucifero...!" Healer became very scared now.
"You know normally I would be amused, but right now I don't have time so if you would be so kind..." But Lucifugus was just annoyed and tried to leave, but Beelzebub blocked their way
"There is no kindness here Lucifugus. You should know that by now..." his voice became far more serious "Listen. I know we have our differences, but I need ot discuss some-"
"OOH! PRETTY HOLE!" Suddenly a Low Devil showed up before him "HEY, IT'S LORD LUCIFUGUS! HEY BITTER LUCI!"
For some reason that small Low Devil who got half of his head blown off in half by Lucifugus was talking there and was waving at him. Why is he there? But quickly Lucifero pushed him away. He seemed to barely contain in his frustration now
"As I was saying-"
"Listen I REALLY don't care!" Lucifugus had none of it "Right now I need to-"
Then it hit him
"Wait... When did you arrive?" Lucifugus asked Creep
Healer also realized that. Creep raised his left hand with 5 fingers. 5 minutes. Just enough time for... Shit!
"When you arrived did a small Devil with a cracked head went into your portal?" Lucifugus asked him
Creep just nodded. This small act made both Healer and Lucifugus frozen in place.
"And you came from 7th level?" He asked another important question
He nodded again.
"We need to go My Lord!"
Healer said and Lucifugus agreed. They were about to move until the portal with Lucifero floated in their way and he started to talk again.
"Lucifugus... I NEED to tell you something." Lucifero demanded attention.
"Can it wait until about never, I need to go somewhere!" Lucifugus tried to swap the portal away and go, but...
"You were right about Megicula."
Then Lucifugus stopped and looked at Lucifero inside the reality hole. Healer became scared now.
"My lord!" She tried to shake his head... to no avail "Please no-"
"Hmm... Go on."
"DAMMIT!" She grabbed her hair and hid her face in them
On the 7th level with Pen
Pen was happily going through this new level. He saw all kinds of things, tall mountains, rivers of blood, interesting moving pieces of metal in the ground that made noises, some pieces of metal that made no noises, lots of Devils blowing each other up, one even seemed to have a small bar open with some fried body parts. Pen wanted to buy one, but sadly he had no Stone Horns on him so he was quickly told to "FUCK OFF!" by the owner. Pen was pretty sad about it, but the sights on this level kind of made up for it and the prettiest sight of them all had to be the giant castle on top of a big mountain in the center of this level. Pen wanted to go there and look at the view from it. Must be very pretty.
"It was nice of Space Lord to get me here." He scratched his head a bit "Now. Need to look for new Pen. New friend. No Horns or horns not from the top. I will find it my Lord!"
Pen announced to himself as he went on. He saw lots of explosions. Sometimes they happened a bit too close to him and he had to jump back from them. Still he had to keep on looking. Some Devils seemed good for the job, but they quickly blew up most of the time. Sometimes he tried to talk to one, but he quickly ran off and then his body parts rained from the sky. But then he saw another one. He seemed a bit scared and was hiding under some rocks. His horns were sticking out of the sides of his skull and were not that big. Pretty good pick for a Pen.
"HEY YOU!"
Pen screamed at him. Devil looked back with terror in his eyes.
"WANNA BE A PEN!?"
Pen screamed at him again to make sure he hears him. That Devil started flaying his hands around, sometimes putting a finger onto his mouth. Must be calling him to get closer.
"OKAY!"
Pen screamed and rushed to him. He seemed very happy. He tried his hardest to get out of the rubble. But before he did Pen was already next to him he laid down in front of him to look at his face.
"Wanna be a Pen?"
Pen asked him with a big smile.
"What the fuck are you-"
*BOOM*
Then an explosion happened. It blew off all of the rocks this Devil hid under and Pen was also pushed back a bit, thankfully he wasn't harmed. The Devil from under the rocks was quite big in fact, with 2 crab like arms. Maybe a Middle from this level. He quickly got up and tried to run, but Pen grabbed one of his hands.
"Wanna be a Pen?"
Pen asked him again. He seemed quite scared for some reason. He tried to get away, but to his evident surprise he couldn't shake off Pen's grip. Pen didn't understand it that well either.
"Listen idiot we are both about to die if you wont-"
But then he saw him behind Pen. A giant Devil with no horns towering over Pen and him. A High One given away by his long Black Hair that were almost reaching his shoulders. He seemed strong enough to rip both of them in half with one finger. Pen looked behind and saw him.
"HEY!" Pen pointed at his head "YOU HAVE NO HORNS!"
Pen said which seemed to upset this High Devil, but he quickly regained composure.
"Good observation." He smiled at Pen "Do you want to die?"
"Nope." Pen shook his head at this silly question "My Lord needs a Pen. You will be a good one!"
This answer was unbelievable to the Middle. He decided to run away quickly as far as he could. So he cut off the arm held by this psycho and ran off. But before he knew it he saw the High One in front of him.
"Why would you run away?" High one took a step towards the Middle "It's not a very polite thing to do."
Middle one was terrified.
"I AGREE!"
And Pen screamed at them from the distance further increasing this Devils fear.
"Hmm. You seem to be quite scared." High One scratched his chin a bit "How about... a smile."
The High Devil smiled at the Middle. He was terribly scared. He was about to die and... wait... he felt something. This strange warm feeling. His face moved on it's own, creating a grin and with that he felt something, it was sweet and nice and made him see himself, not dead, away from this horror, in peace... he was happy now. And so he started laughing.
"Hehe... It's nicer like this isn't it?" High one asked still having this smile
Middle never answered with anything else, but his laughter. Pen was confused, but felt pretty happy too.
"I like when people are happy." Pen told this nice High
"Me too."
High Devil answered while the Middle still laughed. And then
*SMASH*
He punched him right in the head and it exploded in a fountain of blood and gore. The High Devil's face also quickly changed his expression to complete indifference.
"But I have my limit." He said as he looked at his bloody fist and then pointed at Pen "Now you... Low one."
"My name is Pen!"
Pen said as cheerful as ever.
"Right... Let me answer your question. I wont be a Pen."
High One said as he spread his arms
"I am an Emissary. And you are a Fly ready to be crushed!" High one called Emissary said in threatening tone
Pen seemed to be pretty confused. But he knew what to do. If they wont agree, he has to force them. And so he charged in. He landed a punch to his gut with incredible speed and power. There was blood and coming from this Emissary's mouth. And he himself was launched back several meters away.
"WH...WHAT!" Emissary grabbed his mouth from where blood was coming from and looked at Pen "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?"
Emissary screamed as he looked at Pen with tons of anger in his eyes. It reminded Pen of Lucifugus. Pen was happy when he thought of him.
TBC in chapter 19
"Struggles of Broken Pens"
Again sorry for this being late. I had some things to do and I had my excitement cut down recently, but it was restored and now I come back with this chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it and get ready for a pretty lengthy fight.