After what you inadvertently witnessed, sleep finds itself eluding your grasp. What could the chances be for there to be a police officer right next door to you! Moreover it's someone who is fully aware of demons and their capabilities! This is most certainly not good! If she has some sort of training and detected your presence in her mind...
No, you shouldn't start panicing. Even if she did somehow notice you, she wouldn't be able to know who was watching her. And she can't be that intuitive or she would have detected your presence in this house long ago. Hell, Aria has been popping back and forth and never bothered to mention the cop, so she can't be too worried about her!
So then, what did the dream you spied on tell you? That your neighbour has had a run in with at least one demon before. And that the police are more clued in to the goings on of the supernatural beings in the city then perhaps you had previously been led to believe. Not good at all. But they evidently weren't that strongly active around here, you haven't been found yet.
And what about what the pink haired demon, Kira, said. Was it possible that the officer, Wendy, had already been influenced by her? Most likely, though it certainly hadn't stopped the human from blowing the demon's brains out. Not that Kira seemed all that bothered about it. Demons really were nuts. But maybe she had a good reason not to be bothered? Maybe it was something you could take advantage of. Having an in with the local police would certainly be useful. Though of course, the risk will be as high as the potential reward. Maybe something to consider for when you are stronger.
Your troubled sleep did not seem to go unnoticed, or perhaps there is a different explanation. You awaken to find yourself struggling to breathe, and for a moment start to panic, fearing that you are under attack. But no, as you pull back you realise your mother has wrapped her arms around you, crushing you against her bare breasts. For a delightful moment you get to watch the twin orbs settle back into place after being warped by your pressure, then you extricate yourself from her grasp.
You don't remember her being this clingy before. Either your distress last night appealed to her or Aria's soul fragment has done pretty well adjusting her mind. Or more likely it is a bit of both. But soon she'll start to have thoughts unbeckoming of a mother and the delightful self torment will begin. A pity you won't be able to enjoy her change of perspective to it's fullest extent.
But you likely don't need to worry too much about Elisa. Her corruption will likely continue fine without any contribution from you. And spying on your neighbours is a more appealing prospect now you know who at least one of them is. But no, you'd rather do something you know is going to be productive. Time to have another little chat with your adorable sister.
Actually, now that you think of it, you don't need to talk to Lucy herself, you can communicate directly with her soul. Indeed, it's important that Lucy isn't actually aware of these next instructions. So, once all the necessities of the morning are complete you call Lucy over to you, lead her back into her room and give her soul a gentle nudge. Immediately Lucy's eyes snap shut and she collapses into your arms, fast asleep. For a moment you savour the power you have over her now. She'd never wake again if you didn't want her to. But that wouldn't be much use.
So you begin layering your instructions directly upon her soul, creating inside her a subconcious desire to cause trouble. A trip here, a blunder there, all completely unintentional, of course. But a small moment of clumsiness can be devastating in the right, or wrong place. It will probably take some time for Lucy's soul to get used to this, and you should probably refrain from giving Lucy further instructions until these ones have sunk in, but she might end up quite the little calamity, though you'll definitley put in counter measures to make sure she doesn't cause you any problems!
Lucy will now generate malice for you everyday! The faster she is able to generate it the sooner her soul will be able to properly absorb your instructions and the better she will get at 'accidentally' causing trouble. Further instructions are unavailable until the current one has sunk in effectively. You'll need to find another way to spend you mornings!
One more day at school, though you have a feeling tomorrow you'll be missing the tedium that today will bring. The Church will be arriving tomorrow and things will certainly change. In particular, this will be the last day you can mess around with your classmates, you certainly won't be risking anyone catching you using your Aura. Suggestion might be fine but you aren't sure you'll even want to be using that too often, certainly nowhere public.
So for once you don't bemoan dull student life and concentrate on making the most out of your last free day at school. Case in point, there's Sherry stalking you again. You've left her to stew for a few days now. It might be good to move on to the next stage in her 'development.' This time before she can escape you meet her eyes and call out to her.
Without enough time for any real moves here and now you simply ask her for her phone number. Something you should have done a long time ago, come to think of it. But at least now you can speak to her whenever and maybe even secure a visit to her home. You'll need to work on her parents a bit, and invade her dreams if you want to finish what you plan with her.
With new focus, you concentrate hard on your Aura. One or two more doses of obedience, just for good measure. You can feel your grip on your classmates growing stronger, you just hope noone else will be able to. Ms Erikson still has a way to go before you are confident in giving her orders, but you can continue working on her during tomorrow's private session, assuming you dare to risk it. With the addition of the afternoon's Aura you doubt there will be much you won't be able to command your classmates to do for you, though obedience on it's own can only go so far.
Another lunch time with that little git Gary and his gourmless friends, you really aren't looking forward to it, but you really would like to get this job for Soprano done before the end of the day, lest it clash with the investigation. So you are up off your seat and on your way out the door when someone grabs onto your arm from behind.
'Zach, wait,' Roger cries, 'can I come with you?! We haven't hung out since the weekend!' Crap, you keep forgetting about Roger. Considering the way you've been messing around with his head he's probably been a bit lost without you these last days. But still, would bringing him with you help or hinder your plans?
You've really put this off for longer than you needed to. Your influence over your best friend has been strong enough for you to push for something more focused for a while now. Unfortunately, you've always put if off out of uncertainty of what you really want to do with him. Making him your right hand man and rallying all your classmates into a young gang of delinquents is a plan full of holes and potential issues. Even if you are fairly confident you could pull it off now you aren't sure it's worth the headache it could cause.
You still don't really have time to make any decisions, you need as much time as possible to work on Gary to make sure he's ready to accompany you this evening. So you don't have time for anything specific. Time instead for something all encompassing. You quickly pull Roger to one side, waiting for the rest of your class to filter out of the room. Once you are alone you give him a powerful Suggestion.
'Zach is my best friend and sworn brother, I'll happily obey all his instructions and treasure his well being above my own from now on!'
Even with the work you've done with Roger you feel the faintest of resistance as your venemous words take hold of the unsuspecting boy's mind. Perhaps making him place your own safety above his own is going a bit far. But you never know when you might need a meat shield. You stare into his eyes, checking to make sure your power worked properly. Yes, that's simple minded devotion staring back at you.
'Alright,' you say, 'come with me and act like you normally would.' Roger nods.
'Sure thing, bro,' he replies, his voice almost worshipful in its intensity and so you bring your new minion along with you to the cafeteria. Gary and his friends look almost as reluctant to welcome you to their table as they were yesterday. Clearly only the Suggestion you hit them with yesterday is compelling them to allow you here at all. And just as clearly you'll need to use your powers again here to secure what you need.
Again you sit down and eat lunch. Having briefly strategised with Roger beforehand you allow him to take the lead in the conversation. Considering he was the one who actually ended up calling the teacher to help them out the other boys react far warmer to him than they did to you. That's fine, you'll let Roger smooth things out a little bit. You'll still be nursing this grudge though, you'll make these brats pay for wasting so much of your precious time like this!
You decide to wait until lunch is almost over and the group has been relaxed as much as possible. At the moment Roger is talking to everyone about some of the antics the two of you got up to when you were younger. You take the opportunity to lean in so that only Gary can hear you now.
'Zach and Roger are actually pretty cool, I should hang out with them after school.'
It's crude, but a harmless suggestion like this is easy enough to push on a seven year old with your Level 2 Suggestion. The next bit will be the most difficult part. But for now you've achieved what you needed to. Another Aura filled class time and then will be the decider.
You and Roger meet Gary by the school gates. You asked your mother to be a bit later than usual picking you up so the three of you can hang out for a bit. Gary lives close enough to the school that he usually walks home but you and Roger get him talking, trying to keep him from leaving. You manage to stall him until Elisa arrives to pick you up, at which point convincing him to hop in the car with you and Roger is easy enough.
At this point you use a Suggestion to divert Elisa to drive you instead to the Myskin Theatre and to ignore any goings on in the back seats. Of course, Gary protests as he notices that you aren't actually driving in the direction of his house. At which point you explain that you just need to stop by somewhere first and you'll drop him off once your done.
Then things start to go wrong. Frustrated, Gary complains that he only got in the car with you because he thought it would be quicker than walking and if you weren't going to take him straight home he'd be better off on foot. You fire a Suggestion at him to try and keep him calm and in his seat but he actually manages to resist it. He's angry now, calling upon you to stop the car and let him out. He even starts to undo his seat belt. A word from you has Roger on top of him, struggling to keep him from going anywhere. Compelled by your suggestion from earlier, Elisa remains focused on the road.
Feeling as though you are starting to lose control of the situation you hit Gary with a Sleep, which doesn't take full effect but does dull his movements and thought processes a touch. Then you use another Suggestion; hoping to build on the Sleep he's already under you simply command him to sleep with all the power you can muster. The little shit's eyes widen, then roll up into the top of his head as he faints, collapsing back into his seat without further complaint. Crap, he just won't make things easy for you, will he? You are really looking forward to seeing Soprano fuck him over!
But now you have another problem. Gary is unconcious and won't be walking into the theatre using his own legs. You'd rather not risk carrying him, as anyone could spot you. You have 30 Mana left, which would allow you to use Null Presence once, but you can only use it to hide yourself. You somehow need to get Gary into the theatre without anyone noticing you do it. If there are any Church reps around you might already be screwed as they will long have sensed you using your abilities. You can only hope that, like the last time you were here, the observers are absent today.
As much as the safest option would likely be to run in yourself and bring back help you've never used your Suggestion like this before and have no idea how long this forced sleep state will last. If Gary wakes up between now and the time it takes to get inside there will be all kinds of trouble. And Soprano will likely not be happy about a commotion caused on his own doorstep. So you'll have to do this quickly. The best option as you see it will be to get as close to the secret entrance as possible and quickly drag Gary outside without anyone seeing.
Suspicions might be raised about how closely you mum is driving to the side of the building but that could be explained away by a number of things. Still, you are certainly glad you took the time to make sure Roger was your minion before you started this, he's already proving himself to be useful. At the moment you are worried about how all your various Suggestions are fucking with Elisa's mind. It's sure to start causing her damage, if it hasn't already. Time to quickly check if anyone is around.
The good news is, you don't sense anyone with any gross divine power. The bad news is there's a fair few other visitors to the theatre, regular people for the most part. You'll have to pay close attention to find an opening to get through. You position the car just like so. Roger moves Gary as close to the door as he can get him. You step out of the car and walk round, trying to look as though you just have some rubbish you want to put away. A quick glance around to make sure noone is watching and... now!
You open the door and Roger shoves Gary unceremoniously into you pushing you backwards and causing you to hit your head on the wall. It doesn't really hurt that much, one advantage of your stay at The Torturer's is that regular pain means very little to you any more. You've lost track of the number of times you've grazed or scratched yourself without even noticing. You reach up and feel around for the red brick, clutching Gary's limp body to you.
A confused moment later the two of you are in the familiar waiting room. A number of young men dressed as women immediately descend on the pair of you, lifting Gary up and carrying him away bodily. Sam grimaces down at you.
'Good job,' he comments, sarcasm dripping from his lips, 'way to not cause a scene!' You don't bother arguing with him, you simply savour the notion that he won't have too much longer to be bitter and rude before whatever 'training' Soprano uses on his subordinates erases it all and reduces him to a giggling girl just like the rest. You climb to your feet and push past him.
'It's done now,' you reply, 'is Soprano available to speak to?' Sam sneers at you.
'Sure,' he retorts, 'but I'm not sure he'll be in a mood to speak to you right now. Too busy fixing the mess you made outside.' You frown at him.
'What mess?' you demand, 'I made sure I wasn't being observed when I came in.' Sam nods.
'Yeah, sure,' he say again, 'you did a pretty good job of that. But your behaviour outside was still pretty suspicious. Soprano will probably be making a move to 'neutralise' the observers, just in case. And of course we have to modify the brat's memories of how he got here and contact his parents to make sure they don't get worried. But I'm sure you won't be caring about any of that, right? You'll just be taking your payment and leaving, yeah?'
'I'm not sure if he needs it,' you say, 'but if Soprano needs any help dealing with the observers I don't mind providing it.' Sam glances down at you, the sneer still in place as though about to ask what someone like you could possibly do to help. But at this point you are pretty much sick of his shit, so you decide a demonstration is in order. Activating your Enhanced Reflexes, your arm moves forward, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him forwards. At the same time your other hand comes round, now clutching the Diary you had been keeping in your bracelet. The trap should just be grateful it's still sheathed as you press it against his neck.
'Someone in your position,' you breathe dangerously into his ear, 'should know not to judge by appearances. Now take me to Soprano. Preferably without any more lip, thank you very much!' You let him go and he recoils, fear now crossing his face. It doesn't last long before the scowl is back but you've hopefully given him something to think about at least. He leads the way again through the corridors and into a security room. Soprano is here talking to some large bulky men who are evidently security. Though you aren't sure you've ever seen security guards wearing tutus before. It's going to take a long time to erase the image from your brain. You make a point of not looking at them any more than you have to.
'Soprano,' you greet, 'sorry about the mess, the kid was more stubborn than I had anticipated. I'd like to help out.' Contrary to what Sam told you earlier, Soprano doesn't seem upset to see you at all.
'Why hello, dear!' he greets you, as flamboyant as ever, 'well that's certainly a generous offer! My girls and I are more than capable of handling a few silly little humans on our own, but if you really want to help who am I to decline?' You wince when he mentions his 'girls.' You don't think you've ever seen a girl with biceps the size of your head. You unfortunately, have seen them with full facial hair though. Shit, you looked at them again, it'll take even longer to purge the image now!
'How many are there?' you ask. Soprano gestures towards the security cameras.
'We count eight, total,' he explains, 'four in this house on the East side, one in his car in the car park, two in the flat on the otherside of the car park and the reserve a few streets down. His only job is to report if he loses contact with all the others. Naturally my girls and I will be handling him and the ones in the house. As for you, dearie, well you know your capabilities better than I! What's your preference?'
'I'll take the two in the flat,' you declare, 'how do you want this done? Lethal or non lethal?' He seems impressed.
'How bold!' he declares, 'I do love a young man's fire! Gets me all worked up! Oooooooh! Well, sweetie, I'd usually prefer the non lethal method, knock them round the head, erase their memories of the last few hours and call it a day. But I'll leave this one up to you. I do know you have, obligations, after all!' You nod. That sounds like permission to you. Pull this off correctly and you'll only be one soul away from meeting your target. You don't bother hiding you eager grin from the others. Let them believe this savagery is all you are capable of, it will just make it easier to blindside them later on.
More teleportation later and you are standing in the stairwell just before the hallway where the door to your targets' current location can be found. You'd really love to get you hands on tech like this, so conveniant. Still, you'll need to focus on the task at hand. It's two grown men versus a kid. After acting tough to Soprano and the others earlier it would be the utmost humiliation if you fucked up and got yourself killed here. So then, a quick moment to plan is in order.
You decide that the plan should be kept as straightforward as possible, that way there will be less of a chance to screw things up. You don't exactly have a good track record with these sorts of encounters so the less complicated steps the better. Hopefully. As confident as you had sounded back in Soprano's security booth you are still a child with no real combat experience and a few abilities against two probably armed grown men.
So, simple plan. You knock on the door. Someone answers. You Suggest that he ignore you. You walk in. You Suggest that the other man ignores you. Then you turn on the gas or break a pipe open. You tell them both to ignore the gass, you make sure all the doors and windows are closed and you bail. There are two big problems with this plan as you see it. Firstly, you won't be able to stay in the room or you'll end up dying along with them. This means you won't be able to tell if the plan works. Secondly, even if it does work it will take a while. A lot could go wrong in that time.
Still, you should be able to amend the plan if it becomes necessary. So you aren't too worried. What's the worst that could happen? You die, again? Humiliating yourself and leaving yourself vulnerable before your fellow demons? Potentially surrendering your best posessions to your direct opposition and having to completely start again from scratch? Yeah, nothing at all riding on this. Your knees shaking? Probably the cold, right? Yeah...
First thing's first. You knock. A man in a suit opens the door, eyeing you suspiciously. A Suggestion later he's no longer eyeing you at all. You slip in before he closes the door on you. Another gentleman is by the window. Another Suggestion later and you have free reign. Now for, hopefully, the tricky part. You look around the place for something to turn on. A cooker or a stove would be ideal. No luck, all electrical. Well shit... There must be some gas somewhere... You examine the pipes looking for the most suitable one. This one should work, though you'll have to bust it open. You stab the pipe with the Diary, it seems to work well enough.
Then you move back towards the observers. You aren't sure whether to make your Suggestion before they notice the gas or after, not sure how they would intepret you if you used it too soon. Deciding to use it after they notice you, you hover just to the side of one of the men, just in case. In fact, you are so close you notice a gun and holster at the man's waist. You pinch it, just in case, flipping the safety off. You saw that one film.
Then, as always, everything goes wrong. The men notice the gas. Your Suggestions to have them ignore the gas don't take and they immediately start to move to fix the leak. Plan B it is! You shoot the first man in the leg and side, then swivel the gun on the second man. To the surprise of noone, you are a terrible shot and your bullets go wild, failing to hit anything. The guys swears and draws his own gun, his own impending danger easily counteracting your prior Suggestion to ignore you.
He fires at you as you dive behind the kitchen counter. Bullets slam into it, hitting the counter in an explosion of wood. You lean back and take aim at him again, only to mess spectacularly once more. And quickly duck back as another bullet whizzes past your head. And now you are out of ammo. Great, now you are the guy with the knife at a gun fight. Why do things never go as you intend? Are you really this cursed? More importantly, now what the fuck are you going to do?
You quickly scramble around inside the nearby cupboards for something halfway useful. An almost full bag of flour. It will have to do.
'You are doomed, human!' You taunt the man, hoping to rattle him, 'your kind are nothing but currency to us! Your anger and despair is our fuel and your very souls our tools to greater heights! Now die!' You toss the bag into the air towards the observer. As you hope he shoots at it and it explodes in a white mist, hopefully causing enough of a distraction to give you an opening. With your Reflexes Enhanced you are already moving when the gun shot rings out. With any luck you'll be on him before...
An impact strikes your shoulder almost spinning you back. It hurts, but not so much that you can't keep going. Again, your desensitivity to pain is likely the only reason why you can even move right now. The audible click of the man's gun reveals that he's all out of bullets. Too bad for him. Before he has a chance to reload you are on him.
You'd usually finish these guys off nice and slow, like you did before. But you don't really have time. You need to kill them and start setting up the scene, not that you'll really be able to do much to disguise the battle that took place here. Still, you took a hit and will need time to heal up. A bullet wound to the shoulder will be difficult to explain at school tomorrow. So you go straight for the kill, slicing through his legs to drop him and then jumping onto his back to plunge it into the base of his skull, as you did with the druggie the night before. Once you are sure he's dead you finish off the other one, collecting both their souls in your Diary.
It wasn't clean like you had hoped and you took an injury for your troubles but the job is at least done. And you made it out alive, which at one point wasn't looking likely at all!
2 souls and 150 malice gained from the encounter. And a bullet wound to the shoulder! Yay! You'll need to spend the rest of the evening letting it heal at least to the extent that you can hide it!
Having dispatched your targets you settle down to catch your breath and try to recover. While it didn't really hurt at the time, the dull ache from your bullet wound is irritating. You have a Regeneration ability but it's slow and consumes a lot of energy. You'll certainly be eating well at dinner. But at the moment you only have enough time to seal up the closest part of the wound to the outside air, hiding the injury from view but not healing much of the internal damage. No serious excursions for you until it's properly healed. And of course, the bullet is lodged up against your shoulder blade now. Not like you can stroll into a hospital and get it removed. So you've got a new companion now, you'll need to avoid airports in future!
Still, it could have been a lot worse. You'll need Soprano and his people to deal with some of the cleanup, which is a shame, but unavoidable. If you'd managed to be cleaner about it that likely wouldn't have been necessary. You and your stupid pride. Almost got yourself killed again...
Once you've recovered sufficiently you head back to the theatre and pick up your reward. Six souls for delivering Gary plus the promise of another six once it has been confirmed that he is 'hireable.' You probe Soprano again about other jobs, to which he replies that there is always the odd bit of work needing to be done around here, but likely nothing of major importance. Still, it might be a good idea to pop by here every now and then for some small payments that aren't likely to involve risk of death.
You can now visit the Myskin Theatre in the evenings and weekends for some extra work. Soprano will pay in malice and in souls, though likely not very many each time. If you work hard maybe you can persuade him to give you more lucrative tasks? For now it will just be the grunt work!
You spend the rest of the evening eating enough for two fully grown men and lying on the sofa being pampered by your family. You are still not fully recovered but the wound shouldn't affect your day to day activities. Another hour or so should see the injury sufficiently recovered. At least the ache is mostly gone now, meaning you shouldn't struggle too much getting to sleep. Without being able to move your body around too strenuously you are left with just your mind, or maybe your soul? You still aren't entirely sure how this works, but it does and that's the important thing.
Your mind drifts to the dream you experienced last night. The officer, Wendy and the demon girl, Kira. Was she a demon? Hard to say. But her dream was fascinating and you'd very much like to check it out again. It's probably risky to start poking around inside the head of someone who not only knows about your kind but actively hunts them. Still you can't seem to care about that right now. Her potentially vulnerable mental state is a rare opportunity, and one you'd like to seize on even in spite of the risk. At least that's what you tell yourself.
You seek her out again with your mind, fully intending to spy on her dreams again, and maybe fiddle with them this time. Except, something stops you. Or rather, it doesn't so much stop you as it does redirect you. Gently, like you might imagine a parent might carefully stop their child from stepping out into a busy road. That's the impression you get, at least.
'You really do have a death wish, don't you? Once today wasn't enough for you?' This voice, you don't exactly recognise it. Except there is something about it that is familiar to you. It's difficult to put into words.
Your eyes open. Once again, you aren't where you intended to be. You didn't make it into the officer's dream. Instead you are standing on a river bank. The riverbank. The one where this began, back when you were still in your own body. And sitting on the dead body in front of you, kicking her feet is...
Well great, another inexplicable little creature. Then again, is she so inexplicable. In fact you are fairly certain who or what this thing is.
'Hi,' she greets you, 'it's nice to finally be able to speak to you like this. In case you didn't work it out already, I'm the Diary! Or at least a manifestation of the Diary's will! Cool, huh?'
You can't say you are massively surprised by this eventuality. The Diary has already spoken to you before, previously by searing words into your very mind and carving symbols onto your flesh. As methods of communication go, this is downright pleasant in comparison. Still, you aren't entirely sure why she's appeared before you here and now.
'Nice to meet you, I guess,' you reply, 'but I was kind of about to do a thing.' She giggles.
'I know,' she continues, 'that's why I decided to intervene. You do insist on running head first into brick walls, after all!' You hesitate.
'So you are saying that woman, Wendy, her mind is dangerous?' The Diary nods her head vigourosly.
'Of course!' she insists, 'you know that as well! Not only does she have resistance training against demonic incursion but a nasty battle is being waged in her soulscape! A battle you don't want to get in the middle of! Not yet, at least! I'd recommend waiting until your Dream Invasion is at least Lvl2 before you try to navigate your way through the minefield that is her mind! Or if you must try it, look but don't touch! You were lucky last time with Aria. Wendy will be an entirely different challenge!'
You sigh. You had thought it would be dangerous but perhaps you had underestimated the extent of the danger. Perhaps it would be best to hang back and not risk tipping off the local authorities of your existance right now. Still...
You relent. It has to be admitted that your decision making has not always been the best and has gotten you into trouble numerous times. Maybe it's best to let the demonic dagger that has the ability to provide you with phenomenal cosmic power guide you a little bit.
'So,' you continue,' what brought this about? Not that I'm not happy we can talk like this. It's good to not have your messages branded to the inside of my skull like a hot brand!' She giggles again.
'Sorry about that,' she says, 'but to begin with I have no choice but to do it, your soul wasn't strong enough to allow us to speak properly.' You reflect. You did upgrade your Soul to Tier 2 recently.
'And it's strong enough now?' She ponders.
'Just about!' she replies, 'and only this much of me,' she gestures to herself, 'otherwise your soul wouldn't have been able to take it and would have morphed most awfully!' You don't really understand what she means by that but you are fairly sure it's not good.
'So, now that we are here, talking, how about you answer some questions for me,' you propose. She giggles.
'Questions, questions,' she declares, 'always with the questions! But that's fine! I am here to facilitate your ascent as the next Demon Lord, after all! Ask away!'
'Why don't we start with that,' you begin, 'why were you created and why are you helping me?' She beams at you.
'It's pretty straightforward, really,' she explains, 'I was created by the Demon Lord Kairos! I am, just as my name suggests, a record of his struggles and his exploits as he overcame all odds and rose from a powerless human to the pinacle of demon society! A peak he climbed over the defeated bodies of his opponents and rivals, those not killed outright, bound into servitude to him! A victory in it's truest sense, entirely unsurmountable by anyone else!
'And at the pinacle of the demon world, my Master, the most powerful Demon Lord to ever rule encountered his greatest adversary! A foe that not even he could hope to match! Tedium! You see ruling over everything sounds really cool, but it's actually hella boring! You have to spend so much of your time giving out orders and signing forms and making sure everyone else is doing what they are supposed to. And the pressure! The expectations! Yesh! But the worst part was there was no challenge, no thrill! Sure he received the odd duel, a coup attempt here and there, but they weren't satisfying for him! None of those who tried to supplant him were even close to being a match for him.
'And he grew restless, and ever so bored! Even after he stepped down and let his idiot son take over as Demon Lord he couldn't find anything to satisfy him. It was that thrill, the rush of a life or death battle, putting everything on the line to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. That was what he was missing, what he had grown to live for and cherish. He had reached the top and there was no higher for him to climb. And he lamented.
'Then an idea came to him. If no worthy challenger would appear before him, he would just have to make one! And so he imbued a small part of his soul into his Diary, the record of his climb to the peak of greatness, and left it as a guide for others to follow him, so that they might grow to rival his strength and finally give him a battle worthy of his power! And that is why I exist, to find the most worthless individual on planet and help them achieve ultimate power!'
'Sounds rough,' you comment, not knowing what else to say. You aren't entirely sure how to react to all this. You already knew this, of course, it was part of the Diary's opening message to you. But you hadn't really taken it in back then. Too much else to worry about. You don't really know how to feel about being groomed as the next Demon Lord. It just seems too ridiculous, too fantastical. At the moment you are far too busy focusing on just defeating your Mistress. You cannot even begin to imagine what would be beyond that! If the former Demon Lord didn't even want to be in charge why would you? You don't know almost anything about the demon society!
'But I don't know the first thing about the demon society!' you protest, voicing your last thought out loud, 'what if I don't want to conquer it?' The Diary giggles again.
'Sorry,' she teases, 'but you likely won't have much choice! But if you want to know about the demon society I can give you a rough outline. It was created a long time ago as a way of managing the souls of humans. God sent a detachment of his servants into a world beyond both Heaven and the mortal world to filter out the negative energy from deceased human souls and then send them back to Earth to start again. Any soul not tainted by evil was to be sent up to Heaven to be received by God and his other servants. That was the idea, at least.
'But the problem with extracting all that negative energy is that it has to go somewhere. And so it seeped into our world, eventually taking it over completely. The former angels, now tainted, rebelled against God's rule and took control of their own society following their own rules. But they still have the responsibility to filter human souls. Of course, they don't do nearly as good of a job as they maybe should, but so long as things go relatively smoothly God doesn't complain about it.
'As for the society itself, well you can likely imagine. It's pretty much a big pyramid of debauchery and sin with the most powerful ruling over the less powerful and the weak being trodden on by the strong. The Demon Lord sits at the top with his Generals. Then the demon nobles, and the Overlords. Under them are the middle class and the Underlords. Then the Supervisors. Beneath them the common demons. And beneath them the fodder. It's a lot of fun, if you can survive and thrive off conflict!'
You aren't entirely convinced the world The Diary is decribing can be considered 'fun', exactly. If The Torturer really is only the bottom rung of the ladder would you really want to topple her and take her place just to have to then face off against even more powerful beings? Sure you can imagine the perks of having that kind of power. Human beings at that point will likely be putty in your hands. You can hunt down that rude shop clerk and toy with his soul until he's thorougly broken! Maybe even send him off to gather 100 souls for you! Hahaha!
But perhaps you should focus on more immediate concerns. Like Aria.
'So you saw me fight against Aria's soul fragment,' you comment. The Diary looks excited, raising her hands into little fists and making some practice jabbing motions.
'Sure did!' she exclaimed, 'I was all ready to step in and show her what for, I was! But you didn't need my help, you really socked it to her! With a one, and a two and a pow!' She jumped up as though uppercutting an imaginary opponent.
'And what did you think of what I did afterwards,' you inquire, 'any suggestions?' She considers your question.
'Risky, like everything you do,' she comments, 'but at the same time Demon Lord Kairos certainly took risks, so I can't really criticise! You probably shouldn't put too much faith in that little frament. Aria is a full demon, not a silly human, her soul is already corrupted by demonic power. Losing a small piece of it to your influence likely won't bother her too much. And so long as her soul is owned by her Master it will be difficult for you to control her completely. Still, targetting her mind instead isn't such a bad idea. Just like your boss, Aria's Mind is her least developed area.'
'And you know that, do you,' you observe, 'any chance of you teaching me how to do that?' The Diary beams at you.
'Haven't I already taught you all sorts of fun tricks?' she asks, 'but no worries, I'm here to guide you, after all. In actual fact, the Demon Lord did install a sort of bonus system. Now that we can actually talk I should be able to get it started up! But let's leave that for next time, it wouldn't be good to bombard you with too much information at once now!' You groan, it sounds as though she's fobbing you off. But you had been talking for a while now, and you aren't sure exactly how much rest you can get while like this.
'And how can arrange another meeting like this?' You ask.
'Not difficult,' she replies, 'just hold the Diary close to your chest and concentrate. It's probably easiset to do it at night when you won't be disturbed. I'll make sure everything is ready for you next time you call, okay?'
'Alright,' you conclude, 'thanks for all the help so far, I'll be relying on you.' It only just occurs to you, but perhaps this odd little creature could be considered your only true ally. Obviously she's doing this for her own reasons, or more accurately for the Demon Lord's reasons. But regardless of those reasons The Diary could be relied on, you have little doubts about that. You can't really say that about anyone else. It's an odd feeling. If you weren't an amoral, heartless bastard you'd even go as far as to suggest the two of you could be friends. But did a demon really ever have such a thing? You aren't sure...
You can now speak to the Diary as your night option, though the benefits of such an interaction elude you for the time being...