Standing outside of the TV factory in the western outskirts of Stardom, Plaze inspected the still working building with some amount of suspicion.

Looking back to Herta, he asked for more clarification, "Are you sure there's no guards in this factory? It seems like a trap. Chroma was the third TV Overlord where Vox was trying to get a monopoly. Why would one of his TV factories be empty?"

"Chroma also chose Stardom because there are barely any notable Overlords in this city," Herta explained, looking as though she explained this already, "If the petty Overlords in Stardom tried to mess with Varvideniye, they would have to deal with Chroma, who wasn't a pushover in his own right. That's why he could get away with not having guards."

That just sounds stupid, though? He sure isn't going to try it, anyway. He was already paranoid that Vox was going to show up again and try to put him down for good.

Stuffing his TV shaped fears down, Plaze shrugged and took her word for it, "Alright then, let's go."

Calmly opening the doors of the factory, Plaze immediately frowned at the tired and disinterested looks of the workers as they assembled the televisions on the factory line. At the very least, they were warm bodies that knew how to assemble a television. That would be enough.

Standing in front of his inner circle, Plaze shouted out, "LISTEN UP!"

Getting all of their attention simultaneously, he began to explain to them, "Chroma is dead! Killed by an angelic weapon! As such, all of your souls are now your own again!"

Brief surprise, then a bit of joy.

Plaze immediately squashes it as he asks, "You are all now unemployed! But I am interested in keeping this factory and its output! So, if you all sign my contract-" He immediately produces one with his magic, "I will employ you here immediately! At the cost of your soul, I will make sure your pay will stay the same or even better by the end of the month, and I will assure you that you will not be fired! If I fail to make good on these promises, your souls will immediately be freed by the first of next month!"

Was it a particularly good deal for Plaze? Not really. He could've used cheaper workers. He didn't even know how much Chroma paid them. But he was in a disadvantageous position and he really needed them to work.

That was why they weren't going to be paid hourly. Rather, they would pay them at the end of the month so the contract isn't invalidated.

Where were they going to get the money for that? That would be figured out later. It was still February 11th, after all.

The workers all quietly chatted amongst themselves about the deal. Some of them looked apprehensive. Some recognized Plaze as that one Overlord Vox kicked out of Pentagram City. Others didn't really care much at all as long as their paycheck would still be paid out.

Eventually, a few workers stepped up to sign their new contracts. Then, everyone began to sign on as only one worker, whose name Plaze didn't bother to ask for, chose to voluntarily leave.

Plaze smiled as the last sinner signed their contract.

As the inner circle quickly isolated themselves in the manager's office, Plaze turned to Jessie and asked her, "I can trust you to find new suppliers and manage this factory, right?"

His Engineer dutifully nodded, "Yep! Some of our former suppliers may not be as willing to work with us now that Vox made his stance on us clear. But as long as we can find the money, they'll take it. Although, where are we going to get the money…?"

"Varvideniye will probably devour itself as Chroma's management, whoever they are, try to get all of their money from their assets before they're stolen," Plaze said, tapping his smooth, circular chin, "After we secure our spot in the outskirts here, I'm sure we can find one of those executives and rob them blind."

Speaking of which…

They had a plan that involved trying to get the executives on their side. But none of them seem interested because they didn't think Plaze or the Plaza would actually be able to pull it off.

So, now they can safely be classified as their enemies.

"Jalaha, you're in charge of finding some of those executives," Plaze suddenly said, causing him to suddenly straighten his back in alert, "Feel free to order around anyone whose souls I own if you come across them."

Quickly bowing, Jalaha dutifully said, "It will be done."

He quickly leaves, ensuring that the majority of Chroma's management won't get out of the city before Jalaha finds them.

Watching him leave, Jessie questioned, "Wouldn't your search ability be faster and better than just sending out Jalaha and hoping he finds someone?"

"...I'll call him once we stabilize our position here," Plaze amended, doing his best to pretend that was not a spur of the moment decision that completely forgot about his magical ability to just find shit, "Anyway, you can fit in a console factory around here, right?"

"I can, I have the schematics for all of the inner workings memorized, but again, we'll have issues with money," Jessie restated, then looking to the boxed televisions, "We could sell some of these televisions right now, and they might stand a chance in the market if we rebranded them to, uh, Plaza TVs? But that still won't cover the costs to build a new factory."

Ah, right, Plaze still hadn't thought about what to name his television brand. His competitors are both lazy and had it as the company name TVs, so perhaps Plaze will just follow their lead as well.

He'll figure it out later, "That's fine, as long as the interest rates aren't ludicrous, we can go into debt for a while."

"Sir, this is Hell. All interest rates are ludicrous."

"Damn it," So they really did need to cannibalize Varvideniye's corpse some more…

Then, Mehira suddenly spoke up, "I think I could call in a few favors from the lower rings to help with the money and construction problem. I've run a lot of errands for people wanting to move goods around the rings. Influential people. I can likely get a good loan from them that doesn't have too many strings attached."

Smiling at his equal, Plaze nodded, "That would be great. Speaking of the lower rings, I know we didn't really try to sell anything down there before because we were using Carmilla's logistics, but I think we need to make it a focus in this new situation."

Crossing her arms, Mehira thought about it for a second before revealing her thoughts, "Now that we're in Stardom, that becomes much more difficult to do, since, if I recall correctly, the nearest available Hellavator is several hours away and I don't know if it could even transport the amount of goods we want to sell down there. If we want to sell things at a profitable rate in the lower rings, we would need to make a factory closer to a large enough Hellavator, or… Try and contact someone more influential down there to see if we can strike a deal."

…Quite frankly, Plaze didn't even know there were more than one Hellavator. So Plaze started to ask a few more questions, "What city is the nearest Hellavator in?"

"It's in Falhaus. There are 5 big Overlords there who we'd have to be careful about not stepping on their toes if we want to try and set up production there," She replied.

Eugh, more Overlords he had no clue about. Plaze really didn't want to come in conflict with more Overlords just yet, so he then asked, "And who do you have in mind if we want to try and contact someone in the lower rings to ask them to help us?"

"Mostly the bigwigs in the Greed Ring," Mehira hummed as she thought it through more, "Our easiest avenue, but our least profitable, would be going to Mammon, the Sin of Greed. He's a sucker for anything that generates profit, but he'll probably give us only a 5%, maybe 10% if we're lucky, cut. Then there are a few mafia-esque companies that might be more willing to invest in us if we don't mind them becoming competitors in a few years."

Competitors? Hell, they have the opportunity to create a monopoly in the lower rings. Why would they want to make their own competitors?

And that fact about Mammon is just depressing. Plaze hopes Vox had to find out about it the hard way.

"So no good options is what you're saying."

"Yes, there are no good options in the Greed Ring. Only slightly less bad options."

Frowning, the odds of being able to strike it big in the lower rings seem less and less possible by the second.

Thinking it over, Mehira had a worried look on her face as she proposed another option, "Although… This would be a bit difficult to pull off… We may be able to petition one of the Ars Goetia to construct a Hellavator in Stardom."

Ah… The Ars Goetia? Plaze figured that they wouldn't even listen to anything a sinner said.

Although, it was odd for Mehira to bring it up.

"Don't you hate the Ars Goetia?" He asked, recalling a certain moment in her backstory, "Didn't they kill your teacher?"

She frowned as she said, "Just because I hate the Ars Goetia doesn't mean I can't entertain the possibility of them being useful to us. I just have to make sure they don't recognize me, and considering that their grudge against me ended with my master, that should be easy enough…"

Ah, that makes sense, then.

"Do we want to ask a specific member of the Ars Goetia, then?" Plaze asked, curious on how possible this option was, "Or do we just hope we get a good royal on our case?"

"Depends on what we can offer and how vain they are," Mehira said, once again looking to the TVs through the window to the factory, "Taking a bribe from a sinner or hellborn isn't strictly forbidden, as far as I can recall, but it is frowned upon. Especially to create a Hellavator for them… Our best bet is to just ask the nearest member of the Ars Goetia who lives on the Pride Ring, and hope that they're vain enough to accept the bribe of being able to, say, design their own game or become an executive at the Plaza. Or whatever else we can give them."

"And if they aren't?"

"Well, they probably won't sentence us to Pandemonium for trying," Mehira shrugged, not exactly sure either, "At worst, they'll try to kill us as we run away."

Well, that wasn't very reassuring. But in Plaze's mind, that seemed almost nothing compared to being sentenced to permanent death.

"Sure, we can try contacting one of them," Plaze agreed, asking her, "Can I have you find one of these Ars Goetia people while we deal with our situation in Stardom?"

Mehira nodded, "I'll take a look at a map. I'll also check in with the rumor mill to see if any of the Ars Goetia seem to be interested in technology so if our first attempt falls through, we can try a longer shot."

Getting a sudden call on his phone (VoxTech. He needs to replace it later.) he quickly picked up the call, "Hello, Plaze speaking."

"Sir," It was Jalaha, who sounded somewhat concerned, "There is a small gang of around 20 members heading to your current location. Unfortunately, I do not have the strength to deal with them…"

Ah, the turf war.

Turning to Mehira, he asked her, "Is it possible to maybe funnel souls into him from here?"

"We can," Mehira confirmed, "We could also redo our soul contracts and allow them to take a certain amount of souls when they're in danger later."

Ah, that sounds good. He would hate it if his inner circle got hurt because he didn't grant them enough power to deal with the situation.

"I'll give you the power of 100- No, 500 souls. That should be enough to take care of those punks, right?" Plaze asked, already feeling his power being stripped away from him as he funnels it towards Jalaha's soul.

Jalaha hummed for a moment, likely feeling the massive increase in power, "Yes… This should be enough. Thank you, sir."

Then, Jalaha hangs up, likely dealing with the issue.

As Plaze pocketed the phone, he told them all their orders, "Alright. Jessie, Himiko, Pam, you stay here and keep this factory safe. Himiko, you're in charge of making sure the workers are all still working while the other 2 look at the defenses. Mehira, Herta, and I will go out and participate in the turf war to get some territory around here."

Pam quickly objected to a part of it, "Won't Mehira get hurt? Wouldn't it be safer for her to deal with the Ars Goetia stuff now?"

The Witch answered herself, "We're not in a position to make a good deal with the Ars Goetia right now, so it can be saved for later. Besides… I'm not that weak, you know? I can punch above my weight class. Not to mention- This city should be swarming with the sinners we own now."

Then, as though she remembered something, Mehira told Plaze, "We'll be pulling some of those sinners back here. While their main purpose is to cause chaos in the city for a few days, we still do need to consolidate our position."

"Got it," Plaze agreed with her request, "Now, if that's everything… Let's go."

AN:

Reactions to Chroma's death next chapter.

Cutting it a bit close with the deadline, lol.

I think I'll get to like chapter 38, then I can focus on my other fics until the last 10 days of April where I'll just write Game Development for 10 days straight to see how far I get.

Written April 2nd.

[Ooh, I updated 2 hours early so I can sleep early and wake up early.]