Getting another phone call during her dinner with Jessie and Herta, Mehira quickly answered.

Then, she hears the news. Plaze was defeated at the hands of Vox, stealing most of his employees right from him. Apparently, the fight wasn't even close and lasted barely a few minutes.

Miraculously, Vox didn't bring an angelic weapon, and so Plaze was still alive, although reforming in the nebulous afterlife that sinners' souls go to after they suffer death with their bodies torn apart.

Essentially, it went all as she predicted it would.

Hanging up, she looked towards the two sinners, "Why don't we pay the bill and talk about this elsewhere?"

Raising an eyebrow, Herta asked, "What happened?"

"I'll explain it after we get to a more secluded area," She said, taking out her wallet to place the money on the table, calling for the waitress.

"You didn't take us out for dinner just for fun, did you?" Jessie figured her out, but she didn't yet realize that it was for her benefit.

After the bill was paid, they all stood up as Mehira simply stated, "I didn't. But again, let's find ourselves somewhere else before we talk about this."


"Haahahaa!" Vox was laughing, telling the story to Valentino over a drink, "He really didn't know about soul contracts! Man, I have to send Carmilla my thanks, because that shit was so easy!"

Still disinterested, Valentino simply asked, "So, what? You get the arcade and game industry now?"

With an eager smile, he nodded as he explained, "I already set up a building with all of the equipment they need. Now, we have VoxGames! And, Heheh, Plaze is going to be fucking surprised when he sees all of his old employees working for me! Basically only like 3 of them stayed! What idiots, they're just going to be stuck working at a dead-end job for the next few decades while I keep him alive for fun."

They weren't going to get famous, get rich, or even be a little bit influential. The only thing they got for staying was the peace of mind they got that, despite it all, they were still loyal to their master until the end.

"You didn't go back and kill him with an angelic weapon?" Valentino sounded a bit surprised as he asked this, "Usually you're more thorough than that."

Scoffing, Vox told him, "Val, there is nothing that Plaze can do to hurt me. Not in a year, not in a decade, not even in a CENTURY! He's at rock bottom and he's going to stay there for a looooong time."

Hell, maybe for fun, he'll tell the new guys to use the old characters that Plaze created as the bad guys for their games. Hah, that would be hilarious!

Though, as Vox said this, a few possibilities churned through his head.

For example, he has no idea what that succubus witch was doing now. Or even what she was doing with Plaze in the first place.

Considering Plaze was going to be able to reform and will likely be at rock bottom, it was possible that she might be doing something…

But still, she was a hellborn demon, not a sinner. Hell, he can just shoot her with a regular ass gun and she'd die. She's not a threat at all.

On the topic of hellborn demons, amusedly, Vox asked Valentino, "Say, have you managed to find a succubus that'll work for you yet?"

He hit a nerve with Val as he gritted his teeth, "Fucking hellborn elitists don't want to work for me. I tried taking a look at Imp City, but yeah, it's mostly imps there. Even then, only a few imps actually wanted to work for me."

Rolling his eyes, Vox agreed with him, "Yeah, elitist pricks."

It was no secret that there was a hidden barrier between the sinners and hellborn. There were a few reasons for it, but the main reason was that the average sinner was more insane than the average hellborn, so less people wanted to work in the Pride Ring.

There were also just a lot of elitist hellborn who thought themselves better than the sinners.

Vox scowled as he remembered his first and only meeting with the Sin of Greed, Mammon.

Piece of shit stealing his technology right in front of him… Couldn't even do jack shit against him because he was quite literally one of the seven deadly sins.

Because of that guy, plus the lack of hellborn working for him, VoxTech had basically no chance to be able to sell anything in the other rings of Hell. After all, they somehow made it cheaper, quicker, and branded by a Sin.

Deciding to perish that thought, he went back to thinking about how Plaze would react once he finally came to terms with his ass being beat.

Oh, how glorious.


"Breaking news!" Carmilla's VoxTech TV suddenly turned on because Vox himself willed it to, "The Newest Overlord on the block, Plaze, the Gaming Overlord, has just been beaten by Vox himself!"

This happened a bit later than expected, but she knew it would've happened eventually.

She doesn't really need to know the details of what happened, so she went off to turn the TV. But before she can do so, Vox himself appears over the broadcast.

With a grin, he happily said, "Thanks, Carmilla! We'll model a game after you, maybe. I dunno. Thanks for leaving him out to dry though!"

Then, the TV properly turns off, his address to her over.

Sighing, she got back to work.

The simple fact of the matter is, Plaze held a technology that was too new and too close to Vox's sphere of influence for him to just not take it.

She could've tried to contest the industry for herself, knowing full well that it didn't fit her brand of being the weapon company. But then Vox, and maybe even the other TV Overlords, would all be targeting her for just the opportunity to take a niche off of her for themselves. Especially considering that it looks like she would've had to get into the TV industry just for the consoles to work.

That would've never ended well.

Not to mention, Plaze, albeit somewhat arrogant, had a decent head on him and had a good amount of luck. He could make a plan and follow through with it, and that led to them teaming up with each other to take down what was really just a minor Overlord that wasn't doing anything wrong except messing with the wrong person.

If the gaming industry was inevitable, she preferred Vox to not have Plaze.

Plus, there were a few positives to this. The spies she sent into the Plaza were now in VoxTech. She still was threatening their friends and family, and their souls being owned by someone else didn't change that. It was also less likely that their allegiances would be revealed because Vox is oftentimes too arrogant to check the true allegiance of those who betrayed others to join his side.

It also didn't sound like Vox managed to permanently kill Plaze, though. Seemingly forgetting to bring an angelic weapon to the meeting.

Perhaps, a mistake on his part.

He doubted that such a man, combined with Mehira, would ever back down as long as they were alive. Their slogan was "Take your future into your own hands," was it not?

They would meet again. Perhaps as enemies, next time.

With her thoughts concluded, she forgot about Plaze, deciding to not bother with him until he stabilizes his position as Overlord once more.


The bird sinner, Aeries, watched the news with a bored look on his face. The most interesting thing that happened today was that Plaze, the Gaming Overlord, was killed by Vox.

He should've guessed it would happen the moment he figured out that he had to plug in his console into his TV, Vox would've come in to take it all.

At least the games were fun. Hopefully they don't immediately die on him now that Plaze was no longer in charge.

Hell, maybe these are valuable collector's items now. Maybe he should take a crack at selling them?

As Aeries checked his console and games, he heard on the TV, "Now introducing VoxGames! The newest hub of interactive entertainment!"

Immediately, his face fell. Looks like what was old was what was new. He doubted that they were just going to waste these old games by throwing them into the trash.

Overlords rose and fell all the time. Plaze was no different than any other man in Hell.


Finding themselves on a roof, Jessie finally demanded, "Alright Mehira. Explain yourself before I shoot you."

Despite not finding the situation that urgent, Herta nodded alongside her co-worker, "Make sure to make it detailed. You obviously think this is important."

Amused, Mehira revealed the most important part of the situation, "Plaze was just killed, only temporarily, by Vox. Now, most of his employees and all of his work was stolen by Vox."

The reactions on their faces were particularly revealing. Jessie seemed devastated by the news, gasping and putting her hands to her mouth.

Meanwhile, Herta was much less affected by it, her expression stayed the same and conveyed a feeling of "So?"

"Is my mom okay?" Was the first question Jessie asked, not even worried about Plaze or her intentions.

Nodding, she told her, "I believe she is one of the few who stayed behind, yes."

Visibly sighing relief, Jessie breathed a bit easier, "That's good to hear… Well, alright, what now? Why did you bring us away from there?"

Mehira gestured to them, "Well, for you, if one of the other employees told Vox about how valuable you were to the company, particularly in making the consoles, I doubt you would've been given a choice to come with him. As for Herta… Well, you're the most competent employee Plaze had, but I know you would've gone over to Vox the moment Plaze died."

"Well, I was thinking about it," Herta plainly confessed, obviously not caring about perception, "Seems like you want me to stay, though."

"More than that," Mehira reached out with her hand, "Once a soul owner is dead, even temporarily, soul contracts not bound by paper can be broken. Plaze never found out about this, so I would like to take advantage of that and take ownership of your souls."

The Engineer immediately declined, "Absolutely not!"

The Prodigy shrugged, "Sure, I don't mind working for you."

With a shocked look, Jessie asked her, "Seriously?"

"It's just a simple shift in allegiance, it's not that complicated," Herta said, not at all offended by her look, "I would've preferred to go to Vox, but given my options, I would rather not be on a sinking ship."

Jessie understood that, but she still didn't look happy.

Bidding Herta to come over to her with her hand, she does so, taking Mehira's hand.

Wordlessly, the two came to an agreement, and now Herta's soul belonged to her.

After that, the doll demon accused her, "You know, I remember you saying that your plans didn't hurt Plaze at all. This seems pretty different from that."

She shrugged. She still meant those words.

Everyone who was led to ruin wasn't led there by Mehira. They did it to themselves. All she did was bring them a sort of salvation.

"I will give him peace," She said, looking out into the distance, "I am not responsible for his fall, but I will help him attain peace after death."

Narrowing her eyes, Jessie figured it out, "Ah, I guess that's why you have so many people under you."

Smiling, she rhetorically asked, "Is the goal of humanity not to obtain peace for themselves? What's so wrong with that?"

Not having a response for that, she instead asked, "So, what now?"

"We wait," Mehira said, "He will reform in time. Until then, I'll pick apart those who made a name for themselves in the shadows of Plaze. Then, I'll speak to him."

"But where will he reform?" Herta was the one to ask, seemingly just curious about the answer.

Smiling, she pointed towards the place where she knew Plaze had the most attachments, "A sinner will reform in a place that has great attachment to them. And where else would that be for Plaze, other than the place where he declared himself to walk the path of becoming an Overlord?"


AN:

Sometimes you forget that Plaze's future wife is Mehira.

Written December 25th.

[I intended to touch up these chapters but I kinda thought of that too late and procrastinated days too much so I guess I'll just let it rip lmao.]

[2 chapters of backlog left, I think I'll get to 1 chapter left before I start writing Game Development again lol.]