The reason for going out to gather everyone whose souls they owned was rather simple. They needed to establish a foothold in Stardom, and what is better than an army of a few thousand people whose souls you owned?
It was rather annoying trying to track everyone, however, and because of the fact they don't have any viable means of getting their voices out there, they couldn't so easily
While on their way to Lozenge, one of the petty Overlords that technically worked for the Plaza, Jalaha carefully spoke up, "Mehira, if I may ask…"
Glancing at him briefly, Mehira nodded, "Go ahead."
"Why did you choose to bet on a losing Overlord?"
The Witch just chuckled at the question. That's something she asked herself a few times already too.
Sure, she's been mostly solo for her entire career, only really having a few successes that added up over her lifetime. There really wasn't an issue if she just kept going at it. With a sinner's soul, she wouldn't age.
But if she had to explain to someone what her reason for deciding to keep Plaze around…
"We're both dumbasses, I suppose," Gently smiling, Mehira told him, "We both want to aim for the top, and he made me realize that it's better if we worked together on it instead of going at it alone. The fact that he had completely lost at that point… Well, we can recover. If we couldn't, we had no business in trying for the top anyhow."
Digesting the answer, Jalaha hummed as he summed it up in his own words, "So you two are fools from the same deck. An admirable partnership. My brother and I were much the same."
His face fell once he mentioned his own brother, "It is a shame that we were not as strong as you."
"Want to talk about it?" She offered. There was no reason to be unfriendly to someone who was now in their inner circle.
Thinning his lips, the African declined, "No thank you. I will carry this burden on my own… Although, if you are aiming for the top, you will one day clash with Valentino, yes?"
"That's likely to occur, yes," Mehira confirmed.
Jalaha closed his eyes, imagining the scene in his head, "Then please… When that day comes, let me witness his demise firsthand."
There were no words that needed to be exchanged. They both knew her answer.
Silently, they entered the building that Lozenge was hiding out in. It was particularly easy to find because it was the same building Plaze found him in when he first took his soul.
The Deer Sinner was on the first floor partying with 8 of his members who were with them at the moment.
The reason for their party was stated quite clearly in their cheers.
"FUCK YOU PLAZE! FUCK YOU PLAZE! FUCK YOU PLAZE!" Lozenge shouted out in ecstasy as he downed another bottle of beer.
Although Mehira came in extremely quickly to secure his soul, just one of many who were owned by Plaze within Las Demonios, it seemed he was still quite happy about Plaze's presumed death.
One of Lozenge's underlings then cheered out, "We get to be ordered by a hot succubus now!"
"I hate women in leadership, but that is a fine lady!"
"Hear, hear!"
Lozenge laughed loudly, "Yeah! Hope our new boss doesn't treat us… Poorly?"
Oh. It seemed as though they noticed her standing at the doorway.
"Fuck me, you're treating us poorly," Lozenge resignedly said, dropping his beer bottle onto the floor, the bottle being smashed to bits, "Okay, why the fuck are you here bothering us? I barely even quantify as a petty Overlord at this point. Hell, I can't even be called a gang leader on Earth, can I?"
"We're calling everyone I can to Stardom," Mehira flatly said, leaning onto the wall, "Just find a place to crash there. If you find others who are owned by Plaze or I, team up with them. Your job is to create chaos when Chroma dies. Don't reveal anything I say to anyone."
Scowling, Lozenge asked her, "What? You're trying to kill an Overlord? And isn't Plaze dead?"
"No, just get to Stardom and be ready, That's all," Mehira turned around, Jalaha following.
As Lozenge threw expletives at them, Jalaha blandly remarked, "These soul contracts are quite the foul chains. It sickens me to see people unable to defy orders."
"The Pride Ring is meant to be a punishment," Mehira said as though it was obvious, "Why should these animals have free will? They don't deserve it."
By the look on his face, Jalaha wanted to disagree. But he doesn't speak up.
After all, she was partially right. It was Hell. Everyone would reap their karma sooner or later.
For a city that prides itself on being a capital of entertainment, Stardom itself has a whole lot of empty buildings and streets.
Of course, that was the natural grounds for turf wars to occur, so there was always a fight around every corner that Herta and Himeko had to avoid.
"Geeze, did Plaze really have to send us out with no muscle in a territory like this?" Herta complained as they cut through another alleyway to avoid a fight occurring in the middle of the street.
She knew that Plaze did place a lot of value in them, so it wasn't like he was trying to get them killed. In fact, it was probably more like an acknowledgement of their capabilities to not die.
Meanwhile, Himiko lightly nudged her arm, "Herta! We can't say that about the boss!"
Thinning her lips, she lightly admonished the red haired sinner, "Himiko, you heard him yourself. We're part of the inner circle now. We can complain all we want. He owns our soul, but he can't control our words. You should utilize that freedom."
Himiko was part of the batch that came in after Sergeant Hammer was defeated. Maybe her lack of resistance comes from whatever toxic work culture that Hammer festered under her grip.
But to the kitty's credit, Herta herself came into Hell and immediately fell into Plaze's grasp because he lied to her and claimed that her soul wasn't very valuable down here to trick her into giving it to him. If she had to work for another Overlord, maybe it would shine a light on whether Plaze treated his people better or not in comparison.
Lightly whining, Himiko cautiously told her, "Look, every Overlord might say things like that, but you can't trust them! They own thousands of human souls, only completely deranged people would believe their words! I stayed because I liked the work and he recognizes my abilities, but what if that changes one day?"
"Considering that you stayed despite being offered to work at the much more successful Overlord's company, and given how he probably despises the betrayal that most of his former employees subjected him to, I think your loyalty is what he values most now," Herta applied basic common sense into the matter, "Jalaha is a completely worthless employee, but I have a hard time seeing him get sidelined. Plaze will find something for him to do, because he knows he has his loyalty."
While she hasn't experienced any real hardship since her child days where she was bored out of her mind in school, Herta has seen what loyal friends look like when their other friends were at rock bottom.
Plaze, having hit rock bottom, will value them much more than he did before.
Continuing, Herta told the older sinner, "Well, just think about it. Even if Plaze doesn't become the King of Hell, he'll at least be a decently successful, if local, Overlord. There's a lot of benefits to being a higher-up in a company like that, you know?"
"Plaze is trying to become the King of Hell?"
"No-" Herta paused, "Well, I don't know exactly what he and Mehira are concocting in their private conversations. At most, we'll probably be trying to kill Vox and take his place, which is basically as equivalent as you can get to being the King of Hell."
At least, she hopes that's the most they'll do.
If they tried to take on Satan- Or rather, Lucifer…
Well, she isn't interested in dying permanently.
Himiko seemed a bit less worried now, as she thoughtfully hummed and slightly shifted the conversation, "The King of Hell… Speaking of which, I've never seen Lucifer in person before… But I've seen a picture of him, he doesn't look like he looks on Earth."
Accepting the change in conversation, Herta quickly measured the distance between where she wanted to go and their current location and figured it was fine to talk for a while longer, "Oh? There are pictures of him?"
Nodding, Himiko said, "Yeah. In hellborn magazines, I think. It's a bit of a black market item since it's from the lower rings, but I can probably find it if you want?"
"That would be great, thanks," The puppet sinner then suddenly grimaced, "Wait, are there pictures of Satan too? Or is he like God, in that he's just an idea that we can never see?"
"...I don't know, I'll ask."
If Satan isn't real but Lucifer is, Herta is going to personally burn the Bible. What a book of misinformation…
"Ah, we're here," Herta interrupted her own thoughts to point out the massive factory that stood in front of them, "One of Varvideniye's television factories."
After a singular look of a map of the city, they were able to find this cell of factories sitting conveniently close to the edge of the city. The entire area belonged to Chroma, but it was one of the smaller sections of his scattered territory.
In fact, Stardom was quite odd in its unique trait for its premier Overlord's production sites to be present throughout the entire city despite their company not being that strong.
If Herta had to guess…
"I bet the only reason it's out here is because it was cheap and all of the other Overlords took their means of production with them to other cities when they outgrew Stardom, so this area of the city is mostly empty in competition," She hypothesized out loud, confusing Himiko with her sudden statement.
The cat sinner confusedly looked at her partner, "Huh? What do you mean by taking their production? Wouldn't it be better to like… Expand?"
"I doubt most Overlords are capable of being able to protect more than just a few close areas at a time," Herta said, "If you spread your production out, the more vulnerable those production sites are to being attacked by your competition. The more powerful Overlords like Carmilla can basically do whatever they want, though. It's the weaker Overlords that have to be mindful of their placement… But it looks like Chroma has big fish small pond syndrome and isn't protecting his factories properly."
Looking at the factory, and back to her, Himiko asked, "...Wouldn't it make more sense for all of the guards to be inside?"
"It's the intuition of a genius, Himiko."
Either way, this was the perfect place for The Plaza to regain its footing. They would just have to take over some of the other buildings nearby, maybe force the current workers into working for The Plaza, and it'd essentially come out complete.
Of course, they would need another factory to make the consoles… One of the empty buildings nearby will have to do. They just have to figure out how to make the machines.
"I think our mission is done," Herta concluded, beginning to walk away.
Himiko glared at her back, deadpanning, "Please share your thoughts with me before coming to a conclusion like that."
Plaze's radar ability seemed to have 0 relation to whatever the hell is meant to be his design theme. Why does a robot that can turn into a weird virophage in its Overlord form have a way to accurately track anything in Hell with a radio on their head?
He didn't really have an answer for that. But it sure as hell was useful. He just chalked it up as an equivalent exchange of body dysmorphia for power.
As he followed the signs that would lead him to Chroma, Jessie asked him, "So, why are you wearing that, uh, cloak?"
"Trying not to be recognized here," Plaze said, taking a look around them before continuing, "Our entire strategy revolves around setting up shot fast enough before the city descended into chaos and people pin the blame on me."
Raising an eyebrow, the engineer pointed out, "A lot of people think you're dead because Vox usually doesn't leave his victims alive. They might just think you're a lookalike."
Believing this was ridiculous, Plaze pointed to his very distinct face.
"Okay, maybe you are distinct enough," Jessie conceded before moving on, "Also, is this really worth trying? Chroma is a lot stronger than you right now. I think he's almost at a hundred thousand souls in his possession. If he attacks, even with an angelic weapon, are you sure you can get me away?"
"Just put your trust in me," Plaze said, their final destination of the journey at hand, "My luck is outstanding. It's helped me meet you, Mehira, Herta…"
"It helped you meet Vox."
"Fuck you."
As they both suddenly witnessed Chroma walking into his own home, their little spat came to an end.
Their only objective was to see if Chroma was the type of person willing to submit to him. Is it dangerous? Yes. But all things in Hell were somewhat dangerous.
If they win, they gain a powerful ally. If not, then they'll kill him as planned.
Grinning, Plaze told her, "Jessie, stay out here. If there's a fight, call Mehira, then Herta. As for me, I'll scout out the target myself."
AN:
Hmm I wonder how that conversation will go.
Also, it took me a full day to write this and 31. If I have to spend a full day writing for 33, 34, 35 each, that's really not ideal for me. Hopefully I can finally get them all done on time tomorrow.
Written February 17th.
[No, I didn't get them done on time that day. It happened like 2 days later.]
[We're back to not rereading my chapters woo. I sure do hope past Skryb knew what he was doing.]