Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen

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Cernunnos relaxed at his desk, made of Hamadryad Oak, and reviewed his caseload.

Technically he was Middle Management, his days of overseeing Agents long over, though he, like his peers, still plucked up promising new talent from time to time, to guide and shape them on their journeys onwards and upwards, into powers themselves.

After all, the Wild Hunt was always recruiting.

But, day to day, he was in charge of the Faire Folke that worked, and he used that term loosely, in the departments that made up his Domain.

At least it wasn't Court.

Riding herd on his employees was always a bit of a struggle, the complex web of ever-shifting politics, favor trading, and offended 'feelings' that made up Class B of The Company taking up more of his employees' efforts than the jobs they were supposed to be doing, but, realistically speaking, keeping people like him, and them, entertained and distracted was as much the goal of his employers as their Agents' collection of 'Notable Talent', and the reasons that those Crusaders that stormed the Multiverse left him and his alone, as they were, in all ways, the lesser evil.

And at least they weren't Class A.

Those departments were, to use the Agent's own parlance, A-holes, the lot of them, and while he had to deal with B-itches in the office, it was a small price to pay, and the Horned Lord was well aware of his own… Fey Nature.

So now, instead of managing Agents, he now managed their managers, with some, like Malekith, riding those under his purview a little too hard, showing Class E tendencies, while others, like Maeve, liked their charges a little too much and had to be brought back, as having a relationship with one of your Agents was allowed, even sometimes encouraged; having one with three at once was a bit much, though doable; but at twenty-seven one had to admit one had a problem, and it didn't matter if they were effective at gathering new Talent, their stories had merged to the point that they became the one thing that every Manager was to avoid at all costs.

Boring.

Because not only did his employers sell those that their Agents Captured, as well as clones created from their copied Engrams, The Company also monetized their Agents' journeys, formatted into a manner that beings beyond the constraints of time and space, all-knowing and all-seeing, could enjoy.

For the hidden threat that toppled the greatest of powers was rarely a bigger fish, or corruption, or some plucky young hero.

No, it was ennui.

As such, though they did not tell their Agents, a Manager's job was to arrange things in such a way that continued their charge's stories, in one way or another, either helping, or hindering, them in order to maximize the value of their journey.

Or, at least that's what his departmental cluster focused on, as The Company's Multiversal nature meant that they had very few hard rules, most of which merely… guidelines, and his most of his people did their best to follow them.

And then there was The Spider.

That woman was effective, finding talent that was normally outside of their typical recruitment parameters, many of those she signed on bearing a heroic bent that made for interesting outcomes, one way or another.

And then she broke them.

The woman found the destruction of those with a virtuous aspirations nearly orgasmic, as they crumbled, their morals cracking under the pressures of their circumstances, giving in to temptation over and over until nothing was left of their former selves, at which point their journey would come to an end, sometimes with a bang, but usually with a whimper.

But there was a market for that too.

However, doing so was a dangerous game, and one that had earned her a number of powerful enemies, as those that survived her attentions, escaping her grasp not through overt strength but as she grew bored and left a partially destroyed Agent behind to pursue a new toy, often another clone of the same Agent, came back stronger for the experience, which, in turn, also made her valuable as a 'training tool', according to Titania.

While he did not necessarily agree with his Manager, Cernunnos had to admit that, if The Company did not weaponize such destructive behaviors, they would have long ago stopped making Stacys.

So, with her newest acquisition, the Horned Lord expected another round of tragedies, this 'Lee' going hard in his Basic Training, which boded well for him, but the Final Exam was what separated the wheat from the chaff, and, with the man heading to a Sailor Scout-less Sailor Moon dimension, expectations were low.

Only for the man to achieve a perfect score.

Every member of his Squad survived, every target was collected, and, above and beyond that, the entire dimensional branch was saved, no longer a Doomed World, as the group of twenty-five Tier Two prospective Agents somehow managed to slay the Tier Seven Queen Beryl.

And, suddenly, The Spider had a way to pay back all of the favors that she had accrued, when, given in merely another century, it all would've come crashing down. Her discovery had saved the woman from her hubris a scant few strokes from metaphoric midnight.

The Horned Lord had wished to have that Agent for himself, but, sadly, she retained control over him, managing a perfect scorer coming with its own prestige, and so her Manager had instead taken over the second in the line, who finished his own exam with flying colors, though not perfectly, and who had already been deployed to My Hero Academia before Cernunnos took over his case.

In the meantime, Lees had been traded to every Class, A through E, as he had qualities that could let him function alongside all of them, the young man always taking the required Seminars for every Class, and thus fitting in to lesser or greater degrees.

As of now his line had killed several of their Managers, but those killings were always declared acceptable, and he had never gone full ROBBY, declaring war on The Company itself, so his line was considered a prime asset, if one with a warning label.

From Cyberpunk to Naruto, from Runeterra to Aincrad, they had spread far and wide, and even the one that had been Skyblocked was accruing interest from The Company's clients. As such, his clones had been distributed out through a hundred branches of The Company, paying off millennia of debts, and then some.

But The Spider was playing with fire.

Especially as her personal Lee had become a Dragon of Creation.

While there were no true proscribed lists, there were a number of options that certainly raised red flags, especially when paired with others, that Managers were supposed to be wary of, and, when put alongside the man's psyche profile, disjointed as he was, that was one of them.

Because the man was already broken, before he had ever been recruited, but not in a way that The Spider understood, and, if she were not careful, and she was not, the witch would cut herself on the man's issues, as several others working under accelerated time-scales already had.

But the woman was arrogant to a fault, and while Cernunnos saw danger, she saw a challenge, focused on the Prime Clone that even now strode through Remnant, the breaking of his heroic drive the crowning jewel of her career, as he was to be the last Agent she would oversee before retiring into Middle Management, like the Horned Lord had, her favor-trading enough to secure for her the promotion she'd so desired.

It was all the God of the Wild Hunt had done to make sure that, if that blew back on The Spider, it would only blow back upon The Spider, spending favors of his own to counter hers, because, while the poisoner was skilled at manipulating heroes, sprites, and elves, the mortal-born Manager did not truly understand what it meant to be an Archfey.

However, Agent 'Jauncifer' was of no concern to him, past his potential damage dealt in the future.

No, it was Agent 'Dencifer' that was his concern.

The boy had struggled, mightily, and, having 'completed' his first world, Cernunnos had gone to lift that block on his memories, checking him for the standard Class B mindwipe that his people favored as their go-to initiation, or prank, or hazing, depending on who you asked, yet the scans had come up clean, which meant he went through it all knowing he could request assistance, but without ever doing so.

Which spoke even more to his potentiality, as a member of the God's Hunt.

Because hunting your prey when they were unknowing of the danger was simple, striking with overwhelming force was easy, and winning a contest that was rigged from the start? Well, it was boring, and spoke nothing to one's commitment.

No, the Horned Lord had dealt with those types enough, pampered dandies who thought themselves invincible, who flinched at the first blood drawn, and who abandoned the Hunt the second any real danger reared its regal head.

A Hunt without danger was not a challenge, it was a slaughter, and too many of Every Court Cernunnos had pulled from had not respected their prey, but had merely wished to terrify, to hurt, to kill, to lord their superiority over others, when, if one was truly superior, they did not need to prove so, even to themselves, one merely was.

And what a Hunt his Agent had gone on!

While powerful, had those 'Villains' his charge had stalked gotten lucky, had the lightning-clad boy been a touch slower, there was a good chance he would have died in that forest, yet he had torn forward, a one-man Hunt that Cernunnos had watched several times, had ridden along within the boy's own perspective, as anger, and rage, and hate had spurred him forward, directed both at his enemies and at himself, not just boiling over but evaporating completely, leaving a wasteland that was seemingly cold, yet deathly hot, only banked to save his allies, which, itself, showed a control that the Horned God approved of, as Berserkers, while they had their place, were almost as poor Huntmates as the Young Masters who were offended at the thought of having to bleed their own blood.

They could never understand the unadulterated ecstasy of being struck through, yet, instead of backing away in fear and terror, of trying to minimize the damage, of pulling oneself along the shaft of their impalement to tear their would-be killer to bloody shreds!

He had rather enjoyed having Zangetsu with him, the man's philosophy so fitting: 'Abandon your fear. Look forward. Hesitate and you will age; retreat and you will die.' However he had made a deal with the being, and, after a millennia of enthusiastic service from the introverted man, the spirit had retired, incarnated on a peaceful world and raising children of his own, but, should he tire, there would be a place for him once more at the Horned Lord's side, and an opportunity to join for any children the spirit deemed worthy enough for the Hunt.

And, while Dencifer did not yet understand the truth of such a saying, he was further along than most of the Agents the God had overseen.

After all, that confrontation with the Tier Seven being, All-For-One, a being who lacked Queen Beryl's weaknesses, hyperspecialized as she was into her Mage build?

Watching the Agent not giving up in the face of certain death, of tearing up his Soul to defeat his enemy in a last, desperate move?

It spoke to Cernunnos, on a deep, primal level.

Dencifer's Soul Defense kept him from metaphysically bleeding out, and his recovery would be a slow, painful experience if left untreated, but that itself made the Agent's decision that much more impactful.

And entertainment like that?

It deserved to be rewarded.

While his charge used an older version of the Catalog, the base structures were similar enough that later options could be added without too much of an issue. Additionally, the Added Potential of Elemental Bending would help the noumenic wound he'd suffered, giving the young man an additional spiritual source to lean upon, as well as empowering his Harem, small as it currently was, something that his current agreement was lacking in, and very much needed.

After all, while solitary Hunts could be refreshing, one needed a party to truly enjoy oneself!

Furthermore, the sub-branch of 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' that he had sent his charge into was one that would certainly be more… interesting than the standard dimensional line would have been, and getting 'paid' twice, both for the entertainment provided and for future amusements?

Well, Cernunnos was one of the Faire Folk, deity or not, and he did not get to his position by making bad deals, now did he?

And Dencifer was a very productive Agent, especially for his line, Capturing dozens of new talent, even if most of it was off-brand personnel, but The Company had use for them as well, for everything from low-level workers to fodder for lower end empowerment services, and he had already secured Ms. Ashido, seeming to be taking an 'Empower first than Capture' approach, as Jauncifer was, which was relatively rare, but the creation of empowered variants of standard Talent was a serious driver of product, making them 'Collector's Editions', in a way.

It would take longer for the investment made into the Agent to pay off, but if there was anything The Company had in abundance, it was time, and only the wet-behind-the-ears Managers rushed their Agents, usually to their detriment.

While it would require an entire Tier-up before the Agent saw any profit from it, the jump from Tier 4 to 5 was small enough that mere skill with one's special ability could account for that, unlike Tier 5 to 6, which usually required outside assistance.

There was also the issue that, using the older version of the Premium Contract, his Stamp only worked on the sex that the Agent was attracted to, which, in most settings, drastically limited its usability, though that was a restriction that Cernunnos heartily approved of, as its overuse simplified far, far too many journeys, making them rich in Captured Talent, yes, but not only were the tales of such Agents short, they often burned themselves out rapidly, either retiring or becoming unbalanced, gathering raw power but lacking in skill, which meant the first time they faced an opponent they couldn't purchase their way into overpowering?

They died.

Because, while The Company was powerful, it was by no means the only player in the Multiverse, and Agents lived on the ragged edge of its coverage. On one hand, that meant they were often overlooked when their enemies struck Company holdings, but, in turn, it meant that if the Agents were targeted themselves, most departments would not care, as long as the attacks were minor enough on a mass scale, instead of the starting of another Multidimensional War. Worse, Company Defenses, marketed as absolute, in the face of threats such as Vae Victis, The LCH, The Knights of Continuity, and others, could fail, and those who had learned to allow effects to harmlessly wash over themselves were killed, or worse, in an instant.

It never failed to amuse the god, darkly, how, despite being a Multiversal Corporation made up of Devils, Fae, Lovecraftian Horrors, Undead, and Divine Bureaucracy, their new hires not only so often took what they were told at face value, they also believed that the most charitable interpretation of things for their personal benefit had to be the correct one. Their cultures were rife with stories on the nature of such beings, having idioms like 'a deal with the devil' and such, yet when monsters from times long past, thought nothing more than mere stories, came to offer them power, most recruits took every word as if it were the gospel truth, as if such beings could not lie merely because doing so would weaken them, not stop them completely, and that was only in a small share of circumstances!

So, while their Defences would 'always' function, that was only true against standard threats, and only against the lower subsections of ability, that which could be charted onto Tiers, because all things could be circumvented, with enough wit, madness, and/or power, but so many Agents believed that, as The Company was Multiversal, and beyond the scope of their limited understanding, that it was so large that it encompassed the entire Infinite Multiverse, something that was definitionally impossible.

Worse, these fools somehow believed that The Company, whose True Name was Slutlife, not that they told their new hires that unless prompted, was 'beyond morality', and, being as such, would treat them kindly.

That beings who engaged in slavery would care about their rights, their choices, and would act, by default, Good.

Truly, many Mortals were as to children, and while his people oft treated literal infants kindly, grown men, women, and others who had the minds of children were fair game, and their stock in trade.

Some had enough understanding to argue terms, to investigate, to discover the options that existed, like the Work Contracts that were available if one but asked, and which the -cifer line had missed, though this restriction was not because the various employees of The Company were somehow bound to total honesty, as if any sufficiently skilled practitioner couldn't trap their target in a web of lies without ever speaking a single untruth. No, they merely did so because it was funnier that way, as well as giving one's own kin a leg up while still appearing 'fair' to the moral busybodies that attempted to patrol the Multiverse, a fool's errand by any stretch of the imagination.

Regardless, in terms of profit, longer, more eventful journeys were far better, both in sales and in the cultivation of assets, as the rush, and ability, to rise through the lower echelons of raw power meant that, to borrow the Class E phrase, Agents who did so would not 'get gud', not even burning brightly, but merely flaring up, before going out, or fading away.

And it appeared that Dencifer would burn very brightly before his journey was completed.

As such, Cernunnos had… pulled a few strings, himself.

Normally, an Agent's 'Sweet Home' was an Island in the Sea of Time, some of the newer versions built in the dimensional shadows of explored settings to save on construction costs, but the ones worth a damn were separated, able to tether themselves to the dimensional sub-variances they gained access to, all clustered together to a central point in order to move in tandem, time passing in all of them at the same rate, to avoid the issues that so often plagued lesser Feywildes, where years could pass in a single day.

However… there were prototypes that did not have those restrictions.

So, when the request came up from his Agent, the Horned Lord did not supply his charge with an Island.

No, the God provided a Ship.

For what member of the Wild Hunt did not have an appropriate means of transportation?

There were limitations, of course, the controls set to autopilot until the Agent was able to conquer his starting location in full. While his Multidimensional Craft could theoretically travel up the timestream, doing so was almost always more trouble than it was worth, and without at least a five-dimensional outlook it was akin to wandering through a minefield, naked and blindfolded, holding up a metal rod while calling the local Storm God a limp-dicked pussy who didn't have the balls to strike you down.

And he had not invested this much into his Agent only to have him foolishly kill himself in his ignorance.

Pouring himself a glass of Verdant Nectar, the deity smiled, and opened a message from one of his fellow managers, who had found a piece of media that she believed embodied the Agent experience, and allowed it to play.

Reviewing the latest logs, his charge had found the functionality of his new Domain, and, torn as the man's soul was, he still pressed forward, just as Cernunnos knew he would.

Listening as the ballad played, indeed, the Manager mentally congratulated the Agent on his bit of success, welcoming the young man to the Eternal Theater.

Above all else, however, the God could not wait to see What He Did Next.

Music –
Cernunnos relaxed at his desk, - The Feywild | Magical Forest Ambient Music | D&D Fantasy Background Music | Music & Sound Effects
Allowed it to play - AJR - Finale (Can't Wait To See What You Do Next) [Official Audio]

AN: And now you know, at least a little, what's happening in the background, not that Dencifer knows it, though even the Gods can be mistaken. As usual, the next four chapters are up on and Subscribestar!