The voice of Devil’s Daughter was deeper than Jack had expected it to be, though had a melodic quality to it
“You have a strange way of showing it,” Jack replied, not aggressively as he might have a few moments prior, but genuinely curious.
“I will explain my actions to you, but for now I would suggest this chamber be locked down before the dregs of the Cult of the Destroyer dare to check on their leader,” Devil’s Daughter replied calmingly, perfectly aware of Jack’s bead on her.
“Electronically activated siege system,” Sephy whispered over subvocal comms, having used her cybernetics to check. “Closed circuit. All connected to a lever attached to the pillar closest to Devil’s Daughter.”
“How do you want to play this?” Jack asked the others.
“I’ll go for it, you shoot her if she tries anything,” Nika confirmed.
“I understand your caution,” Devil’s Daughter called to them as she slowly lifted a hand, which glowed with pale red light. “I swear on my power that I speak the truth and mean you no harm.”
“We can trust that,” Alora confirmed to the group. “That was a magically binding oath.”
Confirmed. Chiyo concurred. She’s here to help.
“If you’re sure…” Jack replied sceptically. “If that’s the case, then we need to check your injuries.”
“Help them out once we’re clear, Jack, I’ll get on Alora,” Nika agreed, before whispering on subvocal comms, “Sephy, keep on Devil’s Daughter just in case.”
“Gotcha, I’m unhurt,” the Skritta confirmed as she kept as much focus as she could on the Stygian vigilante. Nika kept her shotgun pointed at her as well as she backed towards the emergency lever, before quickly yanking it down. All around the chamber, fitted doors of solid slabs of metal began to quickly slam shut and lock in place, a sound echoed all throughout the chamber.
“Alright.” Alora sighed. “We’re in the clear.”
Devil’s Daughter nodded. “Do what you need to do to take care of yourselves, I need to check the console, then we’ll talk.”
“I’ll join you,” Sephy interjected. “We’re here for answers too!”
*****
Jack was checking Chiyo’s leg wound, doing his best to not cause any more pain than necessary as he bandaged it up, tearing strips of cleanish-looking cloth from the clothing of one of the dead slashers, before wrapping them tight around the nasty cut Chiyo had received. It had been very painful looking and, as Alora was finding out the hard way, had some sort of resistance against healing magics that stopped the skin from knitting back together.
Jack was not completely confident he was doing the right thing here, barely remembering his very brief first aid lessons with the Scouts, but he tried not to show it, telling Chiyo what he was doing as he did it. Chiyo’s blood didn’t clot as well as human blood, and the Ilithii had several large bruises and signs of swelling all over her thanks to the drow and their beasts, so Jack didn’t hesitate to start with what felt right.
Thanks, Jack, you’re doing well! Chiyo smiled faintly as she rested against a pillar. And more importantly, I think you‘re doing it right!
“Thanks!” Jack sighed in relief as he gave Chiyo a reassuring grin. “I’ve done what I can with what we have as far as cleaning goes, but unless Alora is able to do it better, we should probably check it again when we get back. I’m pretty sure for now putting pressure on the wound and stopping the bleeding is good enough.
This wasn’t how I pictured you getting handsy with me but I’ll take it! Chiyo cheekily replied with a sly smile well hidden from the others.
“Careful!” Jack whispered back with a wink as he moved on to Dante. “Last thing we need is you causing another quake when we’re deep underground!”
******
“Stop whining!” Alora fussed as Nika reluctantly accepted her help.
“You’re not cutting my fur to better apply bandages,” Nika growled. “Especially while Jack’s around. I’ll look ridiculous.”
“I never said I was going to do that!” Alora stifled a chuckle as she went over a few of the more minor cuts she was able to deal with using her healing focus.
“That didn’t stop you last time!” Nika raised her eyebrows as she in turn looked over Alora’s wounds, most of which had faded somewhat upon her celestial form dissipating, the damage dealt to Alora’s energy levels and mental state rather than her body, though it still itched like hell.
“Last time I couldn’t heal that well and you decided to bang yourself up being dumb and sliding down a rubbish chute!” Alora reasoned. “And you kept it longer and knotted so I didn’t have much choice!”
“Good times…” Nika replied with a smile, reminiscing.
“Less dangerous, more idiocy,” Alora agreed. “Shame we never get less of both. Are we good for now?”
“For now,” Nika agreed. “It gets a more thorough look when we get back. You and Chiyo need to take a stim though.” She raised her voice so Chiyo could hear, who quickly nodded in agreement, taking a green pill out of one of her pockets and downing it with some water as Alora did the same, almost immediately perking back up with the rush of chemical energy.
Getting back up, they approached the console Devil’s Daughter was working on, where Sephy had been constantly trying to engage her in small talk as she copied the vast streams of data, while not-so-subtly trying to see what information Devil’s Daughter was looking for.
“So,” Jack asked, getting straight to the point. “It turns out you don’t want to take the fat bounty on me.”
Devil’s Daughter turned and nodded her confirmation. “I never had any intention of chasing it, but many individuals did, so that is why I added my Hunter’s Mark. My reputation holds weight, and it kept many others from coming after you until now.”
“Yeah.” Jack nodded, seeing the logic. “I saw you take on the Killer Klown on the news, and my friend Nya swore you must have had some kind of ulterior motive. It makes sense most hunters wouldn’t want to risk a fight with you.”
“Most, but not not all,” Nika pointed out.
“Not all,” Devil’s Daughter agreed. “And you have my apologies. Dr Grine resurfacing was unexpected and unfortunate, and I didn’t even fathom this…Killer Kush being stupid enough to get involved.”
“He’s down though!” Sephy grinned. “Jack threw him out a window!”
Devil’s Daughter raised her eyebrows at that, but didn’t comment.
“So you did it to help me out,” Jack reasoned. “Thanks for that, we would probably be swimming in constant shootouts had you not, but you could have told me someh-”
“I attempted to. Twice,” the Stygian replied, not sounding impressed. “I wanted to make contact and warn you that your DNA was being used to target and track you, though thankfully any magical efforts have been minimally effective. I sent a letter to your school locker that went unopened, and I attempted to dreamwalk to you during the week-”
“So you did try to fuck with my dreams!” Jack interrupted.
“Just the once. I saw the Pallid Pit and your unexpected reaction dissuaded me from attempting it again.”
Jack has been targeted in his dreams all week. Chiyo pointed out, gesturing towards the melted body of The Prophet. We thought it was you, but it turns out it was her masquerading as you.
Devil’s Daughter nodded, more to herself as if confirming something on her mind. Perhaps she was communicating subvocally with someone just like they did.
“So why exactly are you going to all this trouble to help us?” Jack asked.
“Because I suspect we have a mutual enemy,” she confirmed. “The one who placed the bounty on you. What do you know of them?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Not enough, that’s why we came here,” Alora interjected. “They’re a code slicer of some kind that was working with a former priest of Nekdon during our last run and took control of their cybernetics when we defeated them, and just a few hours ago we hired another slicer to track their signal to here. The rest is speculation, we heavily believe them to be the one behind Jack’s extensive bounty and that they’re working with the drow of House Mal’Kar.”
“Whoever they are, they aren’t here,” Jack added. “Tracing the signal let them know we were onto them, so though we hoped to find them, we figured they’d probably run. Wherever the location ended up being we figured it would be within a few hour’s travel distance and they wouldn’t have had enough time to get rid of all the clues and evidence before we got there.”
That woman did refer to them as ‘The One Who Hates’ a few times now. Chiyo reasoned. Maybe a higher-up within the Cult of the Destroyer?
Devil’s Daughter nodded slowly, taking the information in.
“I have a suspicion I know who they are,” she finally replied. “And many of you will have heard the name before.”
She took a sigh before looking to Alora.
“What do you know about Malakiel?”
That garnered several sharp intakes of breath from the girls, though Jack had no idea what Devil’s Daughter was talking about. He turned to give the others a questioning look.
“One of the Top 10 bounties on Hive Station Bastilla,” Nika confirmed. “And they’ve been there a while, I think they’re Number 6 at the moment.”
“Damn,” Jack replied, almost in awe. From what he knew of the Top 10 bounties, the Killer Klown had been ‘promoted’ to the 8th spot - and that was after he led his devastating massacre the previous week. Just how much worse was this ‘Malakiel’?
“Malakiel is believed to be a highly malevolent Artificial Intelligence,” Alora told Jack, answering his obvious confusion. “And unfortunately, it makes perfect sense for them to be involved.”
More like an Abominable Intelligence. Chiyo added with a shudder.
“Yes,” Devil’s Daughter confirmed. “Malakiel’s schemes and motivations are completely bizarre and mysterious, but have nearly always resulted in dire catastrophe. ‘The One Who Hates’ is an apt name for them, though they have gone by many others across many schemes. It’s likely whatever you were up to interrupted one of them and they’ve deemed you a high-level threat.”
“So if they’re an AI, are they…in there?” Jack asked uncertainty, pointing to the console.
“No,” Devil’s Daughter replied, shaking her head. “Unfortunately, this is simply a staging outpost for Malakiel’s operations for this city and the surrounding area. Their overall reach is believed to cover the entire ring, or at least most of it.”
“So this is basically some kind of relay or something?” Jack asked, trying to wrap his head around what he was being told.
“Yes,” Devil’s Daughter confirmed. “Once taken down it will be a long time before Malakiel is able to come back from this. I suggest that you don’t try copying any information over.” She quickly pointed her finger to Sephy, who was attempting to do just that, and looking like she was struggling.
“Yeah, I can see all the viruses and protections they’ve placed here,” Sephy replied, visibly annoyed. “But there’s just one thing I’ve gotta do first!”
You’re not trying to drain the accounts, are you!? Chiyo asked in a panic. Don’t! Malakiel can trace you with that!
“Aaaaaaand done!” Sephy grinned. “All the previously unknown accounts putting bounties on Jack have been confirmed to be false and have been rendered void, and I’ve got the logs from the manual users of this console!”
“Clever!” Alora praised Sephy’s thinking.
“Agreed.” Devil’s Daughter nodded. “Now you can sleep easier…” She looked down to the dead body of The Prophet. “In more ways than one.”
“There’s that at least.” Jack shrugged. “Still have a few bounties on me, mostly from the drow, but at least it’s not as ridiculous anymore, and my friends are less likely to be caught in the crossfire.”
“Indeed,” Devil’s Daughter agreed. “Though speaking of bounties, I suspect you wish to partake of the various items collected on the shelves here, though much of what the Cult of the Destroyer has gathered will likely be cursed and should be left. I have my own reasons for being here, so when we are all done I can create a portal to a safe location and destroy what is left behind.”
“Shame we can’t copy over the primary data streams...” Sephy pouted
“Even if you could, most of it would be heavily encrypted and beyond your comprehension,” Devil’s Daughter warned. “I know what I seek, but I will obtain that information magically.”
What information do you seek? Chiyo asked.
Devil’s Daughter seemed to pause, as if contemplating telling them, before apparently deciding to do so.
“There are limited facilities for cyberware here, so I believe there are other locations Malakiel has hidden away. While they are blinded, it would be a good idea to strike out against them, whether directly or by leaking information. I also seek more information from House Mal’Kar, since I know they’ve made contact with Dr Grine, and like many other drow houses they’re recruiting third parties for an unknown purpose. I don’t like it.”
“Like Svaartal,” Nika pointed out to the others.
“Quite possibly.” She nodded with a sly smile. “But I won’t know until I ask them nicely…”
******
The group left Devil’s Daughter to her investigations, trusting that she knew what she was doing while they explored the many shelves and hidden places of the cult’s sanctum.
“Anything?” Alora asked Nika as the Kizun scanned several of the dead Slashers.
“Nothing,” she replied. “No known aliases, any possible identifying features have been altered or removed, and DNA scans bring up nothing on the open system. They’re all nobodies. This one is going to be a hard one to explain.”
“Maybe the investigating factions keep that information hidden from the public? We have the masks and knives, at the very least the knowledge that it’s a group of killers rather than one will be worthwhile,” Alora reasoned. “Though there is no way to be sure if all the victims received justice this day.”
“Yeah,” Nika nodded grimly. “Because how do we know for sure if we got all of the bastards?”
“We might not have,” Alora put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “But I’m sure we made a very good difference. We’ll compile all the information we can and let the investigators work it out. I’m just happy we might have stopped the killings for good.”
“Same,” Nika agreed. “Though the reward money doesn’t hurt either.”
“I can’t argue with that.” Alora smiled, before it faded again as her eyes fell upon the body of The Prophet. “What about her?”
Nika shook her head. “We can only speculate. She was obviously the High Priestess here. Chiyo says she’s the one that fucked with Jack’s head and made him think she was Devil’s Daughter, probably to try and push him to try and kill her if given the chance.”
“Using one enemy to take out another,” Alora nodded. “Devious, but a smart contingency to have. Good thing it didn’t work.”
“Agreed. I’d say he and Devil’s Daughter are evenly matched, so maybe they were hoping for a mutual kill if Jack refused to become a Hero of The Destroyer.”
“Flawed logic.” Alora sighed. “Though what else would you expect from death cultists?”
*****
“What’s this?” Jack queried Sephy, having been drawn to a strange blue orb of swirling shades on one of the shelves. It certainly made for a refreshing change to the rows upon rows of musty, mostly illegible books and the various trinkets they had been stuffing into the bags. They were almost completely stocked up at this point, having worked fast.
“Chiyo! You’re gonna want to check this out!” Sephy called back, and the Ilithii quickly floated over, eyes bulging at what she was looking at.
I need it!
She quickly moved closer, not even paying attention to them as she stared at the orb, moving towards it as if entranced.
“What is it?” Jack asked.
This is a primal elemental essence made manifest! Chiyo replied distractedly. I can absorb its power!
“Sure,” Jack slowly replied, a little weirded out by Chiyo’s demeanour. “I can stick it in a bag and-”
No! Chiyo snapped, before looking at Jack with wide eyes and calming down. I’m sorry. This is far too important, it needs to stay with me so I can enhance my power with it! I’m not leaving it in a bag!
“Fair enough, it’s clearly important to you.” Jack nodded, as they heard a few noises from where the sealed doors were. “Shit. We’d better hurry up!”
There is one thing I have noticed. Chiyo added, as she wrapped the orb in a bundle of cloth.
“What’s that?” Sephy asked.
The Gloom Cauldron. Chiyo pointed out simply, indicating an empty space on one of the shelves. It was here at one point but not for very long….
Suddenly, a loud rumble growled from one of the sealed entrances to the chamber, as the room shook.
“Company!” Nika warned.
“We should depart this place,” Devil’s Daughter called out to everyone. “Come to me!”
The group did so, and Devil’s Daughter thrust her staff into the ground and chanted some words of power under her breath as they heard a crash to the side of them as cultists tried to blast their way into the sanctum, before with a flash of bright red, they suddenly teleported, appearing in a forest glade, the familiar sounds of the city close by.
“And that’s the end of that.” Devil’s Daughter sighed. “I cast a glyph to trigger a powerful blast a few moments after leaving the area. There will be nothing left for the Cult of the Destroyer to recover.”
“Thank you for your help,” Alora replied in gratitude, and Devil’s Daughter nodded in reply.
“It is I who should thank you for leading the way. I require strong allies in my mission, and I hope our paths cross once again under better circumstances.” She turned to walk away. “I wish you all good fortune.”
“There’s one thing you haven’t mentioned,” Jack called out to Devil’s Daughter, suddenly alert. “How were you able to find us?”
Devil’s Daughter turned to him and smiled as she summoned a portal for herself. “Perhaps the better question to ask is - How did the Drow find you?”
Once the Stygian had teleported away Jack looked to the others, who racked their brains for a moment before Nika grimly spoke up.
“Someone must have told them…”