Their disguises were simple enough, high class merchant attire for Demiurge, and similar clothing befitting a daughter of such a man for Albedo, with bright colors, a strand of gold chains that hung around Albedo's forehead and dangled a single emerald just above her eyes, and a full round dress that hung down to just above her ankles… along with a few magic items to disguise her power.
Demiurge wore a suit, simple black but with diamonds for buttons and a cane with an ivory head… and similar magic items in the form of rings on his fingers to disguise his appearance and any power that might be detectable by nosy observers.
They looked one another up and down, and looked at the mirror Pandora's Actor held up in front of them. "What wonderful clothing! What marvels! You both look amazing!" He said and struck a pose with one leg bent at the knee behind him while his opposite arm was outstretched above his head.
"But will these really let us blend in there?" Albedo asked and touched at the hip of her dress, it was comfortable enough with enchantments for days, but she couldn't help but feel her doubts touch her heart about Pandora's Actor's choice.
"Yes of course! I have gotten to speak with Master Stronoff and Little Enri, and of course you know how I love clothing! So I spoke of the fashions worn among the monied and this!" he stopped his sentence in a nonsensical place and straightened up, leveling his finger at them each one at a time he started up again, "Das ist perfekt!"
"I see." Demiurge said before he flicked his finger at one of the buttons, but he was less displeased than Albedo. It rattled back and forth, bouncing against the tight fabric. It was if anything, fairly close to his customary dress… except for one small detail.
"But do I really need this?" He asked and pointed up at the tophat on his head.
"Ja! The hat is an essential part of the ensemble!" Pandora's Actor proclaimed, and Demiurge let his hand fall away and back down to his side.
Questioning the creation of Lord Momonga was far too close to blasphemy for either of them, so with that, they opened the [Gate] and stepped through.
They emerged in an alley, their nose immediately assaulted badly enough that they feared they would take damage if they didn't remove themselves at once. The smell of human and animal waste, fetid garbage, and rot.
"Dust… got some dust…" A raspy voice gasped out like a ghost, instinctively the Guardians looked toward the noise and saw a human, or what passed for one. He was covered in open sores, some of his flesh was rotting as if he were dead, his teeth were missing. His face was a patchwork of scraggly filth riddled hair through which maggots crawled. There were no teeth. His eyes were sunken and his limbs were not much more than skin coating bone.
"C'mon… I'll do anything for some duuuuust…" He crawled on his belly toward the pair, scraping open sores over the filth until he was nearly at their feet.
His phrase seemed nonsensical, 'There is dirt everywhere… why is he asking for 'dust' of all things?' Albedo wondered, until a memory clicked of the supreme beings speaking about addictive narcotics. 'Dust must be a local variety.' She realized, her eyes shot up to meet those of her comrade.
'He knew.' Demiurge could read Albedo's thoughts as if they were his own. 'Somehow he knew we would find a degenerate here, degenerate filth are easily used…' And with that thought, Demiurge suppressed his urge to kick the filth away as it crawled closer to him, and instead he crouched down so that his crystalline eyes were staring through his glasses into the hollow empty place that once served as the seat of a pathetic human soul.
Those hollow eyes stared back, and as maggots wiggled behind the human's gums, the ruined lips whispered, "Duuuusssst…"
Demiurge reached into his coin pouch and withdrew a single coin of gold, the human's eyes centered on it as if the glittering gold was an angel's light. A trembling hand reached for it, and Demiurge pulled it just out of reach.
"First you must tell me, who provides this 'dust' to you? Where can I find them. Tell me that, and lead me there, and this coin is yours. Or refuse, and?" He flipped the coin up into the air, head and tails spun for a timeless moment only for him to catch it in his palm and close his fist around it, removing the glittering reflective light of gold from the desperate eyes of the pathetic wretch.
"I c-can't stand…" The human protested. "Pl-Please…"
"You can't get blood from a stone." Albedo pointed out when she felt the sadistic urge of the archdevil beside her. While hurting someone enough often made them compliant, it didn't make the immobile mobile.
With that thought, she drew a potion from her storage container, and before his mystified eyes, she splashed it over his body, the glow was gone no sooner than it began, and the wretch began to move his legs a little, wiggling them, a smile spread over his pathetic, gaunt face.
His wounds closed up, his teeth regrew, and he began sputtering and spitting out the maggots crawling around behind his gums. "Gods be praised…" He whispered, and began to rise up to his feet, his limbs were shaky to put it mildly, he half fell to one side and caught himself against the wall, shooting out his hand to stop from falling over.
"What's one more?" Albedo asked rhetorically, "We don't have all day." She removed another potion from her storage and splashed it over the little waif of a human. The stamina potion worked as swiftly as the healing potion, and he began to dance a jig where he stood, clapping his hands as vanished strength returned to him, his hollowed out eyes sparkled like new polished rubies and he spoke with more vigor than could have been managed by a hundred of him even moments before.
"You want the dust dealers? I can show you where they are but… m'lady, sir, they are dangerous… don't get caught up in the stuff." He touched his head where lustrous dark hair was regrown where only filthy patches once were. He looked at his filthy, disgusting body and crinkled his nose at his own unwashed stench.
"I wasn't always this…" He muttered, clearly only to himself, his eyes were still sunken from malnourishment but the potion would at least give him stamina enough to do what Albedo needed him to do.
"Just take us." Albedo said and the rag clad human rushed on dirty bare feet over stone that was little cleaner than himself, and behind him she and Demiurge followed with steady steps, easily keeping pace with the one they sought.
In the back of their minds the instructions to meet with Princess Renner loomed large, but with the opportunity so obvious before their eyes, and some potential leverage over their intended target? No, neither considered refusing.
Ahead of them, their unlooked for guide chattered on, "Eight Fingers handles the dust trade for the whole Kingdom, not only that, but prostitution, the slave trade, gambling, racketeering, they're the Lords of Vice, and have connections all the way to the Empire. Rumor has it even the nobility play ball with them." They didn't need to see his face to feel his bitterness when he spat, "The rumors are true…"
The more he chattered on, the greater the opportunity for a coup seemed to be.
But there were still questions, "Why has nobody stopped them?" Demiurge asked, "Surely you have guards and soldiers?"
"Zero… he's an adamantite class warrior, nothing less than the warrior captain could take him, and there are others… it's like if adamantite adventurers went rogue. Go after them? It's lucky they haven't just taken over the Kingdom." Their guide spat into the street in disgust, and then resumed the tales of the Eight Fingers' activities and hold over the city, it didn't take long to conclude he was trying to discourage their 'visit', with his lurid tales of their amateurish attempts at torture, battle prowess, and far reaching influence.
But all he did was convince them further that a 'visit' was warranted.
Finally they reached their destination, a large manor house that spanned no less than a hundred paces across with a wall and metal gate obscuring or obstructing passage.
He leaned against a corner wall, the building showed some sign of activity, at least there was noise from within, but those who walked the streets in front of it were giving it a very wide berth, as if some invisible force compelled them to walk on the far side of the road even though they had to rub elbows against each other. Nobody spread out until they were well beyond its walls.
"That's it, m'lord. M'lady." He said and looking up at the wealthy pair, "I beg of you… don't go in and get yourselves killed, dealing with them… nobody comes out whole, they either don't come out, or they're all hollow inside… they're like demons." He pled.
But Demiurge only smirked, pushed his glasses close to his eyes, and flipped the gold coin toward their tool. "That's no problem," he said, "not for a devil. Now go."
The gold piece landed in the hands of the filthy ruin of a man who stared at it as if it were all the treasury of Nazarick. "I-" He began.
"Go. And see what becomes of you." Demiurge smirked, barely baring just the hint of sharp teeth, and the man fell quiet for a moment, then bowed, and backed away, remaining bowed until he could round a corner and vanish.
"You actually gave him the coin?" Albedo asked, "I expected you to just be rid of him."
Demiurge watched the alley where the human vanished out of view again, he was quiet until he was sure the creature was gone. "I made an offer," he said and drew himself up with back straight, giving a light, dignified tug on his lapels, "and a proper archdevil always keeps his contracts. Besides, coins are like double edged swords, he'll make or break himself with it in his own time. The best suffering is always self-inflicted."
"I beg to differ… but to each their own." The succubus answered and eyed the gate, she put her arm out and let the dignified archdevil, her favorite among the guardians, take her arm. He tapped his cane once upon the stone, shattering it with a featherlike touch and with a spring in his step, he approached the gate.
"Let's get to work." Demiurge said with a contented smile that was mirrored by the radiant evil smile of Albedo.