Chapter 2: A day in service
“Why not at the Heaven and Hell Competitions.”(Diuscrucis)
“Sounds good to me but first, remove all these swords. I have calmed down enough to not feel the need to stab you.”(Samantha)
Smiling he casually waved his right hand causing all the swords to turn into puffs of grey smoke before disappearing. Taking this opportunity to move freely I walk up the steps to the table they are playing cards at and gently touch the shoulder of this multi winged bastard. Giving him my kindest smile I harden my grip on his shoulder and throw him across the room. Easily blasting him through two of the room’s many columns before he hits a wall and slides onto the floor.
“The fuck was that for?”(Diuscrucis)
“I said I wouldn’t stab you. Nothing about not harming you was ever stated.”(Samantha)
With a sigh of relief and a small giggle I plop down on his chair and make myself comfortable, or at least I tried to. As I move around the seat, Diuscrucis walks up to my new chair and turns the remaining arm rest slightly while grumbling to himself. As the arm rest turns I feel the backrest start to lean back and the front of the throne extend until it looks like I’m on a lounge chair.
“Oh this is nice.”(Samantha)
Happy with my new seat, I look up at the two men in the room and see Death getting another game of cards ready while Diuscrucis gently flaps his wings and floats next to me.
“So who’s Lulu?”(Samantha)
“My pet dungeon.”(Diuscrucis)
“Oh ya. I totally forgot you have one of those.”(Samantha)
“Everyone does. Although I can never understand why…. Now let’s stop getting distracted and start this story already! I hope you don’t mind but I will be starting from right before the competitions.”(Diuscrucis)
“Go ahead.”(Samantha)
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* Several thousand years earlier in Hell’s capital city, Dinsor -
* Diuscrucis’s POV -
It's the day of the competitions and I still can’t find a present to give Lady Katana. I know giving gifts to the rulers of both Heaven and Hell is tradition, and as a direct subordinate of a Ruler of Hell I don’t need to offer gifts. I still want to give her something though. I've done so every year since she hired me and I refuse to stop now. I guess I should ask Suzi if we can make a few pit stops before the competitions. She did want to spend today shopping until the competitions started so a few extra stops shouldn’t be a problem. Going with this plan I quickly change into my velvet suit and a pair of forest green sneakers before leaving my room. I am currently a 7 and a half ft. tall, tan skinned man, with red slit eyes, blotchy black and white short hair, and a black 5 foot long scaled tail. Lady Katana and her daughter live in a giant emerald green mansion with a large garden and a black electric fence around the outside of the property. They have been kind for letting me live in one of the spare rooms for only a fourth of my regular pay. Walking through the halls I approach her room quickly but stop my steps when I hear her yelling coming from further down a different hallway up ahead. Hastening my steps I turn a corner and see her pacing around the servant break room. This one always has the best deserts in the mansion. Not wanting to interrupt her call in fear that she would freak out and attack me again, I just lean on the doorframe and admire what she is wearing. Suzi is a 5 foot tall, pale skinned girl with red slit eyes, black and white hair that seems to spiral outward from the top of her skull to the tip of her hair that goes down to her shoulders, and a 3 foot long black scaled tail. She also has two fairly small dragon wings that come out from the center of her back, but they seem to be hidden for some reason. She is wearing a red dress and a matching pair of heels that makes her look very attractive. Now that I think about it….she looks like she’s dressed up for a date, but I don’t remember her talking about any girls recently and isn't it too early to dress like that? Oh No!
“If you are unwilling to do your job then, I will find someone to do this job for you! ‘Beep’ “I need to concentrate. Straighten my hair, dust off my dress, sit on a chair facing the door, purse on my lap with hands gently holding it, legs together at a 45 degree angle to the right, and smile while shyly looking towards the door to optimize my beauty. This will surely make him fall for me this time.”(Suzi)
This is worse than I thought. She’s super horny and is just begging for my attention. If I’m not careful she is going to jump me. Come on Diuscrucis! You got this! Don’t let there be a repeat of last time!
‘Knock Knock’ “Ready to head out or are you swiping another danish from the stack?”(Diuscrucis)
“Diuscrucis your here! How do I look? Are you ready to go shopping?”(Suzi)
“Of course I am. Now let's head out before the lines get too long. You look great by the way. Also, I hope you don’t mind that I stop at a few stores for myself. ”(Diuscrucis)
“Depends on what you're trying to buy. It better not be for some toys. I keep telling you that all you need to do is ask me and I would be more than willing to help you find some… relief.”(Suzi)
“Mind out of the gutter Suzi! ‘Deep breath’ I need to find a gift for Lady Katana and I was hoping to find one while we are out. ”(Diuscrucis)
When I started talking I saw her left eye twitch the moment I mentioned the Lady, she looked pissed. Her eyes had a fire in them and I could see her teeth grinding against each other, however after a moment, her eyes were nothing but stars and glitter.
“I will help you find mom a gift, under the condition that you will owe me one and you treat this shopping trip like a date.”(Suzi)
“No! That’s not even close to a fair trade.”(Diuscrucis)
“How badly do you want my help and for me to stay quiet about it?”(Suzi)
Why do I feel like I’m making a deal to sell my soul?
‘ heavy sigh’ “I refuse.”(Diuscrucis)
“A favor, I keep quiet, and I choose all the stores with no complaints from you.”(Suzi)
“...Fine.”(Diuscrucis)
Resigning to my fate I step aside and lead Suzi into the city right after she swipes another danish from the servant break room.
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“You're picking up bad habits from Samantha, Mistress Suzi.”(Diuscrucis)
“You say that but, ‘munch munch’ she’s in better shape than all of us. Now let's get this date started! There is a lovely flower shop just up ahead that just opened up.”(Suzi)
“Not a date!”(Diuscrucis)
Giggling She pulled me by the arm with a smile on her face and we started shopping. Entering the city marketplace we went from store to stall looking at jewels and snacking on junk food. The marketplace we are in has different sectors for whether you're rich or poor. The poorer sector sells all the food and simple tools. The buildings are made of wood and stone while the items they sell cost only a handful of gold. The middle class sector has buildings made of cement and they sell weapons, armors, and pets for a fair bit of gold. The high class sector buildings were made of metal and had entertainment for all ages. They sold clothes, and jewelry that they sell for far more than they are actually worth. Now guess where we went shopping………………………………………………………………………………………………You guessed it. The high class sector. She’s going to fucking make me have to pay for everything isn't she? There we had the pleasure of going to clothing stores to “try on” dresses; had a plasma gun fight at an arcade with expert snipers. Those fucking cheaters. We had lunch at a fancy restaurant with terrible food; and last but not least we beat the shit out of a bunch of dumbasses who tried to mug us. All this happened before she decided to start taking me to stores to find a gift. Seeing me start to get into a bad mood after multiple failed attempts, Suzi quickly finished a smoothie that she was trying to get me to drink with her and took me to a store where she claimed I could find a gift for Lady Katana. The building was two stories tall and had no door or windows. It just looked like a box made with black wood that seemed to move on its own. It had an opening on one side to mark the entrance. When we walked inside I saw that the inside of the building was completely white with grey shelves that seemed to go on for miles in every direction. hundreds of wooden models of creatures, animals, objects, and people lining the shelves. The wooden figures had gems in very specific locations throughout their bodies. For example: swords had a gem at the top of their handles, while people had gems for eyes. In the center of the room sat a tall pale skinned, blond hair, blue eyed elf. He was young looking but I se a honed cunning flash in his eyes when he saw us enter.
“So it’s that kind of building.”(Diuscrucis)
“Hello customer. Please let me know if there is anything you would like to buy.”(Elf)
“We will, old man. Now Discrucis, my favorite servant…”(Suzi)
“I’m your only servant.”(Diuscrucis)
“... Look around as much as you like, but remember the competitions start in half an hour.”(Suzi)
“I despise you sometimes madam.”(Diuscrucis)
With our last words said we split up. I go looking through the shelves and she goes to talk to the elf. Walking by the shelves, I can’t help but admire how well done these wooden figures have been made. They have so much detail that if they were painted they would look exactly like the real thing but only smaller. I spent nearly twenty minutes looking before I settled on what I wanted. The small wooden figure is of a man on top of a mountain of corpses with a sword in his left hand pointed toward the sky. His right hand is holding a skull and all around the man’s feet are several half naked women that appear to be trying to grab him and get his attention. All their eyes, the outline of the sword, and the skull in his hand seem to be made of ruby. Lady Katana has always been one for the dramatic. Something like this will be perfect for her. Grabbing the work of art I went back to where the elf was and found both him and Suzi in a staring contest. Well I say staring contest but in reality there is so much killing intent between them that if they glare at each other any harder, they might learn how to use heat vision. As I get closer to them I look down the other rows of shelves and see several people on the floor foaming at the mouth.
“Mistress Suzi if you could please stop glaring at the good man. If you two keep going you're probably going to start killing customers.”(Diuscrucis)
At that comment they both look at me with wide smiles and seem to be pretending that they were not trying to kill each other through sheer force of will.
“Excellent the cost for both statues will be 45,000 gold. Please pay up front and in coin.”(Elf)
“I can work with the price but what do you mean by both statues?”(Diuscrucis)
He quickly pulls out a blue box from beneath the counter and shows it to me.
“Your girlfriend here asked me to make a piece for her a while back and most of the cost is from the construction of it. “(Elf)
“Firstly she is not my girlfriend. She’s the daughter of my employer who i’m in charge of watching over.” (Diuscrucis)
Don’t you dare give me that bashful look. And don’t act like you did nothing wrong Suzi!
“Secondly what did you make it out of exactly?”(Diuscrucis)
“Interesting, that is not what she has told me…….. Anyway they were materials which I would never normally make carvings with.”(Elf)
‘Sigh’ “tell You what. You put the statue in my hand, in its own box and I will pay what it actually cost you to make these statues.”(Diuscrucis)
“What?! But I spent so long to make him lower the price for us!”(Suzi)
“You gotta deal, kid! That will mean that the cost is 100,000 gold.”(Elf)
I should have kept my mouth shut. That was a 55% discount. I paid the elf with some mumblings from Suzi and we said our farewells while we went to the arena for the competitions. On the way there I gave her the statue she had wanted and told her that she owed me big time since that cost me almost all my personal savings. She nodded and we walked the rest of the way in silence. The arena is a giant cylinder with hundreds of thousands of seats to hold guests. The building has large archways all around it as well as multiple changing sections inside to hold many smaller events or one large event all on one stage. It is made of stone and the outside of the building is lined with large TVs so the people who couldn't get into the arena can still see what is happening. In the center of the arena and hundreds of feet up are eight large screens that show everyone in the stands what is happening below. When we arrived we walked to Lady Katana’s personal viewing room overlooking the stadium, and saw the Lady herself lounging around on a large comfortable looking couch with an orange haired succubus maid feeding her grapes. Out of all the Rulers of Hell, she is the one that looks the most human. She is 6 and a half feet tall, with black hair, red eyes, and cream skin. She also has two white goat horns coming out of the side of her head and they are always on fire with a dark green flame. Seeing us she jumps off the couch and tackles me to the floor.
‘Owf’ “Why me!? Why not her!? You never tackle her!”(Diuscrucis)
“She would always turn it into a sparring match and you only complain about it so, ya.”(Lady Katana)
“Can you at least get your ass off my crotch!?”(Diuscrucis)
“Awwwww! Are you getting a hard on baby? Why don’t you let mommy handle it? Wouldn’t want you distracted during the competitions.”(Lady Katana)
“Mom! Get your aphrodisiac laden fingers off my servant!”(Suzi)
“Oh Suzi. I pay him. So I’m his employer and he is my direct subordinate. Which means he works directly under me. I gave him the specific job to be your friend and servant but don't get it wrong. I have dibs on him.”(Lady Katana)
“Ok that's it!”(Diuscrucis)
Saying that I shapeshift into heavy smoke and slip from her grasp. Going by the couch I change back and place the figure I got for her on a nearby table.
“I was not hired to be some boy toy and refuse to be treated as such! Here is the gift I got for you Lady Katana. I hope you like it.”(Diuscrucis)
“But we could have haaaad Oh my! This looks wonderful!”(Lady Katana)
Getting off the floor Lady Katana rushes over to the table. Quickly picking up the figure and examining it happily before showing it off to Suzi.
“This is just perfect! You’ve outdid yourself this year Discrucis! I’m so proud of you! See this Suzi? Why can’t you show appreciation like this? This is why I love him more. Now if only he was my child and not you.”(Lady Katana)
“I’m standing right here! Stop talking like i’m not in the room!”(Diuscrucis)
I say while broadly gesturing to myself. Like seriously. Suzi on on the other hand clenched her fists so hard that her hands started to bleed.
“I love you too mom.”(Suzi)
With a strained smile from Suzi staring off against Lady Katana’s sarcastic one. Their non-committal glares raising the tension in the room. Not wanting to see this become another bloody shouting match, I decide to speak up while heading towards the door.
“Sorry to cut this meeting so short Lady Katana but Mistress Suzi and I really need to get ready for the competitions. Don’t we ma’am?”(Diuscrucis)
Giving me a confused look for a moment, Suzi smiles gently and turns away from Lady Katana.
“We absolutely should. Wish us luck mom.”(Suzi)
“Ha ha! No need. It’s not like either of you are going to need it. Kick their asses.”(Lady Katana)
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* Present Day -
* Star’s POV -
“And that is enough of that. You should have more than enough information to get you started.”(Narrator)
“What! But, aren't you going to continue? What about the competition?”(Star)
“Now what’s the point if I told you everything right here? No, I told you everything you need to start your investigation. Everything else is on you.”(Narrator)
After saying that, Narrator faded away. Getting up from my chair, I left the castle to find myself a hotel to stay at. Outside is still dark and I just decide to wander aimlessly in hopes that I would find people close by. After walking for close to an hour, I saw a wolf beastman. After talking to him, he pointed me in a direction of a hotel. Saying my thanks I followed the directions he gave me, only to see someone I wasn't expecting.
“Hey Star. I'm glad to see that you made it to the city.”(Suzi)