Chapter 27: In Search Of Vox Videos

June 16th. Me and my friends were in Café du Pécheur for breakfast. We saw Overlord Vox on the TV with his morning show. He was talking about the Phantom Thieves.

"Phantom Thieves Of Hell, huh?! What a bunch of half-ass myths!" He said on the channel, "Shouldn't these so-called thieves be suffering in their hell holes instead of "stealing our hearts" or whatever the fuck they do?!"

An audience in the show laughed. Lars sighed.

"Everywhere I go, I see this fucker's face." He said, "He keeps pissing me off."

"Same here." Willow said, "This guy needs to shut up already."

"Ah…" I said as I saw someone familiar looking at something and then at us.

"Hmm?" Lars wondered as he saw what seemed to be Boris, "What the hell?!"

Boris was watching us outside of the café. He then walked away.

"Oh great!" Lars said, "This guy is stalking us now?!"

"Are we really that suspicious of him?!" Cattleya shouted,

"Or is he a sore loser?" Willow wonder,

"I saw him looking at someone before us." I said,

"Really? Who did he see?"

I got up and looked around, only to then see another Hellhound on a laptop, drinking iced tea. I walked over to the Hellhound.

"Hey." I said,

"Oh, hey." He said to me,

I looked at his laptop screen. It was The Phantom Phan-site!

"Is that The Phantom Phan-site?" I asked,

"Oh, yeah, it is." He replied, "I created the site. Lindsey Alpha by the way."

"Ren Amamiya."

"So, what brings you here?"

"Can I look at the site?"

"Sure!"

I looked at the site. There's a lot of people that wanted The Phantom Thieves to change the heart of Overlord Vox, surprisingly.

"Huh, interesting." I said,

"Yeah, people are rumoring that Overlord Vox might be responsible for these accidents I've been seeing." Lindsey said, "But I'm not sure if I would believe that."

"...Ok, where would Vox Videos be?"

"I don't know. I have never been there before."

"I see, well, thanks for showing me the site."

"You're welcome."

I walked back to my friends to tell them who Lindsey was.

"That's the creator of the Phan-site?" Lars said, "And he's Boris's brother…"

"From the looks of it, his last name is also Alpha." Cattleya said,

"But he looked a little different from Boris." Willow said, "Both of them have to look different from their parents, huh?"

"Seems likely, for now let's just find some answers on our own, because we got another heart to steal judging from the votes you saw on the Phan-site."

"How will we do that?" Lars asked,

"Some of us have to be brave enough to talk to some of Boris's pack members."

"You gotta be kidding me."

It was decided. We are gonna steal Vox's heart.

Later, I was at the Hazbin Hotel lobby as me, Vaggie and Angel Dust were watching Vox on his Evening Show.

"Let me tell you all something! The Phantom Thieves are nothing but Artificial Intelligence! Or A.I. for short!" Vox said, "They just randomly decide who to steal the heart of and decided it on my two colleagues! Bunch of bullshit!"

An audience laughed as Vaggie changed the channel.

"Fucking Overlords…" She said,

I looked to see someone I couldn't swear we had bumped into a while ago. He was talking to Charlie. I walked over to him.

"Yes, sir, we will find a decent enough room for you to stay!" Charlie said to the man,

"Oh, thank you." He said,

I patted him on the back.

"Excuse me?" I asked,

He turned around. He was some sort of angler fish demon.

"Oh? I think I saw your face!" He said to me, "Yes! We bumped into each other!"

"Have we?" I said,

"Ha ha ha, don't lie! We have! My name is Baxter, by the way! Nice to meet you!"

"Ren Amamiya. Call me Ren."

"Hey, can we talk outside? I want this to be between us."

What was he talking about.

"Sure." I replied,

Me and Baxter went outside of the hotel. Charlie seemed confused, but went with it.

"So, what's up?" I wonder,

"Well, you noticed that these Phantom Thieves are changing the hearts of Overlords Velvette and Valentino?" Baxter asked me,

"Oh yeah, and now they're going after Overlord Vox."

"Of course, which is why I am researching this whole psychotic breakdown and mental shutdown phenomenon that's been happening down here! And I am doing this all for Lucifer as he wanted to get to the bottom of this…"

Lucifer…

"Hey, can I ask you something?" I asked Baxter,

"What is it?" Baxter wonder,

"Where is Vox Videos?"

"Oh! Vox Videos is this address!"

Baxter then showed me the address.

"I wanted to show the address to Lucifer to have a meeting with Vox himself, but I can make another." He replied,

"Thanks." I said,

"No problem, kid! You're pretty nice after all!"

"It's nothing.

Me and Baxter have felt some sort of connection about to form.

Fast forwarding to many months later. Bernie was still interrogating me.

"A former high school student achieving this sort of heist is worrying and surprising, not to mention your proceedings of acting" He said to me, "There's gotta be someone who helped you with your mental state, right?"

I was silent.

"Give me a name!" Bernie shouted,

Back to the present moment. A voice spoke to me.

"I am thou... Thou art I…

Thou hast acquired a new vow…

It shall become the wings of rebellion

That breaketh thy chains of captivity.

With the birth of the Life Persona

I have obtained the winds of blessing that

shall lead to freedom and new power…"

Me and Baxter have formed a bond together.

"Oh, if you need me, I'll be staying here at this hotel for a while." Baxter said to me, "I can talk to you about some mentalities or something. After all, I am a scientist."

"Sounds good." I said,

Baxter walked away as he parted ways with me.

June 17th. Me and my friends were walking together to Vox Videos.

"So you're now friends with a scientist as he gave you the address to Vox Videos…" Cattleya said, "And he once had it for Lucifer?"

"That's what he said." I replied, "What did you three get?"

"Me and Willow went to talk to some Hellhounds who were friends with some members of Boris' pack." Lars replied, "Didn't get anything about Vox Videos because their friends don't know anything about Boris except he's the leader."

"I tried talking to anyone that knows Vox or the accidents." Cattleya said, "Unfortunately, that didn't go well as one of them kicked me out due to their trauma with Vox."

"If Vox really was the cause of these accidents, then he almost killed my mom!"

"And that's why we're gonna get revenge on him! By stealing his heart!"

While walking, Boris watched us without us knowing.

"Those four must have known from my pack…" He said, "Whoever it was will be sorry… I will get to Vox before these four do!"

We arrived outside of Vox Videos.

"Well, here it is, Vox Videos." Lars said, "Looks huge for a tech giant company."

"Aren't all tech giants huge?" I asked,

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"Well, whatever, let's open the metaNav app and see if Vox has a palace."

I opened up the metaNav app on my phone. Boris was watching us from an alleyway.

"What the hell are they doing?" He wonders, "What does that nerd's phone have to do with anything?"

I given my phone to Cattleya.

"Ok… Overlord Vox of The VVVOverlords." She said,

"Hit." The metaNav app said,

"CEO of Vox Videos." Lars said,

"Hit."

"Let's see… Uses his power to play with citizens?" Willow said,

"No, that won't work." Cattleya said, "Needs to be more specific."

"Hmmm… Lazily silent on any accidents that's been happening resulting in death."

"Hit." The metaNav app said,

"Well that's not more specific, but it somehow worked."

"Well he could be responsible anyways." Lars said,

Boris was confused.

"Vox…" He said, "Are they serious?"

Willow scratches her head.

"Now we need something to describe his palace…" She said, "Let's see… Hospital?"

"Results not found." The metaNav app said,

"Nope, not a hospital." Lars said, "What about a… Uhh… Yeah, I got nothing."

What could Vox's palace resemble? I then got a flashback to last night where me, Vaggie and Angel Dust were watching Vox on his Evening Show.

"Let me tell you all something! The Phantom Thieves are nothing but Artificial Intelligence! Or A.I. for short!" Vox said in my flashback, "They just randomly decide who to steal the heart of and decided it on my two colleagues! Bunch of bullshit!"

Flashback has ended. I then say the words.

"Artificial Intelligence…" I said,

"Huh?" Willow said, "What about it? They're robots, aren't they?"

"Robots… Wait! Now I know!"

"What is it?!" Cattleya said,

"...Factory."

"Results found." The metaNav app said,

"A factory?!" Lars shouted, "Out of all the structures we could resemble Vox's palace, it's a factory?!"

"Beginning navigation."

"Well, no time to waste, here we go." Cattleya said,

Boris got a little closer to us from the alleyway.

"Come on, do something!" He said, quietly, "Are you four gonna get Vox or not?!"