Grim had just finished piling all of the bodies into one of the crucibles. They would be safe from any animals there, for a while at least. And he could use the raw materials later for making some basic demons such as imps and gnarls.
Wiping the gore off his hands, he floated back down to the floor and flicked his eyes over to Rat. The newly appointed Anubis Demon had insisted that he keep his name. He was, technically, a dog demon so Rat was hardly a fit but Grim wasn’t about to gainsay him over a name.
That would just be petty.
“How is it coming along so far Rat?” he asked.
Rat flexed his hand, then held it out flat. Dozens of mice and rats came streaming out of the walls and from outside the building through the front doors. They lined up in neat rows in front of him, standing at attention.
“My abilities are way, way stronger Boss,” he growled. “I am also quite a bit stronger. Maybe a Class II, borderline Class III. But… somethings weird. I feel like I could be stronger.”
Grim nodded, “Yeah. That’s the demonic line within you. Demons are odd creatures. They don’t really die, not real demons anyway. You might, I’m actually unsure, but I don’t want to test it. You were expensive. Regardless, demons get stronger by killing and absorbing the energy that comes from those deaths. Souls here are weird though, so once again I’m not sure if that’s what will make you stronger or not. Outside of absorbing kills, other demons just get stronger over time the more they are active.”
“You mean I could possibly just work out and get OP?” Rat asked incredulously.
Grim made a funny face and thought about it for a second. “Kind of. If by OP you mean over powered, then probably not? I mean, not within this century at least. Again, this world is all brand new territory for me. There’s no System here, so I have no idea what-“
A massive, and clearly feminine, roar echoed from outside.
“Oh for fucks sake, just stand the fuck up and get in here. Goddamn make enough noise to raise the dead,” yelled Grim out the main doors of the factory as Rat looked on in fear.
Soft footfalls were the only response to his command, as the clearly feline creature that walked through the main doors exuded grace beyond what was normal in an average human being. Grim whistled as Rat looked on in shock. The ex-female super had become some kind of feline demon hybrid.
Dark black fur covered her body where her suit was torn or skin exposed, occasionally giving off red streaks of fur highlighting the various contours of her body. Her head was feline in nature, and Grim could clearly see the fangs in her mouth. But her eyes were on fire, glowing orange embers that seemed to personify her very being. But the biggest surprise were the large, prehensile demon wings coming off her back.
“Can you use those things?” Grim wondered, pointing at her wings.
She paused, looking back at the two large appendages in shock, having just realized that they were there. “I… I think so? Maybe? I’m not sure,” she admitted. Then she looked over at Rats micro army. “Are those… rats?”
Grim shook his head. “Testing later. And yes, those are rats. Rat controls rats. Probably other things too. What’s your name and what can you do?” he asked, ignoring her questioning look.
“Tetra. My name is… Tetra. I uh… I can do things with mechanical engineering. Build stuff. Robots used to be my specialty,” she said, still a bit stunned. “My… but I feel different now. Stronger. I look at everything now and realize I can use it for different things. How to use it for different things. What would work and wont work… and why.” She stood there, shell shocked and weaving back and forth.
Grim nodded. “Right. Ok. Here is the deal. You two are mine now. That was the agreement, and yes Rat we will get your sister. It was also part of the deal. And I don’t break my deals,” he said, cutting off the Anubis Demon. “My goal is to escape this place. My secondary goal is to figure out why the fuck this place is so goddamn strange.”
“What do you mean by strange Boss?” asked Rat while raising his hand.
“Put that hand down if you don’t want to lose it, we are all fucking adults here,” grunted Grim in response. “When I got here, all you super powered pukes attacked me. Now, I’ve been on worlds, planes, and universes with supers before. Places with the System, gods who ran admin in the background, other standard shit. None of that exists here, and I want to know why.”
Tetra began purring, then slapped a hand over her mouth. Then purred some more. Clearing her throat she said, “I uh, I’ve never heard of there being gods before. I mean sure, there’s religions and stuff, but never a real-life god. And I have no idea what the System is.”
“Sorry Boss, me either. On both things,” agreed Rat. “There’s nothing I’ve heard of like that here.”
Grim sighed, “Fucking grand. Ok. New short-term plan. I need materials and energy to repair my weapons. I also need fucking souls. Bad guys, good guys, doesn’t matter. Super souls seem to have way more energy than normal, average, everyday people. Would have to kill a billion of them just to make a gauntlet. That’s how big the difference is. So I need information. Find me gangs, evils, heroes, bases, mad scientists, tech, whatever you can. We are going to tear this city a new asshole to repower me, build a base of operations, and maybe even get a Hell Spike in place.”
Rat began to raise his hand but Tetra quickly slapped it down when Grim turned to glare at him. “Thanks,” he muttered to the cat demon. “So uh, Boss, what’s a Hell Spike?”
“Converts a large chunk of land into a Hell Scape and allows me to summon demons directly from home, contact my family, or do other things. It also gives me constant energy so I don’t have to fuck around with souls to do anything,” he said. “Its material intensive to make, takes a lot of time to activate, and can be incredibly vulnerable when finally running. Which means we need a small army, power, probably a shit ton of money, and a safe base of operations.”
The two nodded along, having followed so far. “Rat, you know what gangs are around here. I am going to reforge one of my gauntlets into a battery and you are going to wipe them out, gather their souls and energy and bring them back to me. Easy peasy,” ordered Grim.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Rat did something Grim had never seen an Anubis Demon do. He blanched.
“Boss… don’t… don’t you think that’s a bit much for me? I mean… I don’t really know how to fight and-“ he began but was cut off.
“Rat. Ratty boy. Rat-a-tat-tatta… you’re a fucking demon now. Just find a small group and kill everyone. If you happen to find someone of use, or someone you think would make another good soldier or minion, knock them the fuck out and drag them back here,” Grim said slowly. “Its not rocket science.”
He turned to Tetra, whose eyes were wide with… excitement? “You seem a bit more positive,” remarked Grim.
“Yeah. Yeah boss I am. I’m looking at your armor and my powers are… they are saying it shouldn’t be possible… then telling me how it can be,” she said excitedly. “The more you talked about souls and energy, the more shit came into my brain. I think… I think I can build a battery without your gauntlets for that. But if you give me the other gauntlet… I think I can improve on them.”
Grim smiled for the first time since arriving. It sent chills down the spines of Rat and Tetra, terrifying them to their core as their boss’s smile stretched wider than should have been physically possible under the helmet.
“Wonderful Tetra. Your task, then, is to figure out how to acquire, make more of, or improve upon my armor and the materials they are made of,” he said. He slipped off a gauntlet and handed it to the now extremely excited woman. Turning to Rat, he pulled off his other gauntlet. “Wait one second.”
“Bag, can you regulate the energy flow while I convert this into a big fucking battery?” he asked mentally to his demon assistant.
With a grunt, he pulled the energy from within himself and fed it into the gauntlet. It rapidly turned into a puddle of goop, even as the two new demons looked on in shock. Then he fed the instructions that Bag helped him with, feeding energy into the soon to be new construct slowly. A cylinder took shape with outlines and designs carved on the outside of it. These regulated the energy flow, turning the once gauntlet into a giant sponge for energy.
“Here, take this. Keep it on you and the minute anyone dies it should just… suck them up. Or explode. But I hope the former happens,” said Grim, handing off the device to Rat. The Anubis Demon held it like he was holding a live bomb.
Which he was.
“Now shoo. If you run into anything come back immediately. It’s not like I am overly attached to this place to begin with,” he ordered.
Rat nodded and took off at a loping run, his army of rats following closely behind him. Grim and Tetra watched them go, one slightly disgusted and the other amused.
“That never gets old,” Grim grunted. He liked to grunt. Talking nicely took too much effort, and he gave no fucks about what someone thought about him. Grunting was the way of life.
“Boss?” Tetra asked, curious.
He waved her off. “See what you can scavenge or build. A vehicle of some kind would be nice. I doubt we will be leaving the docks for some time. Maybe you can make something that could help us find or built a long term base,” he said, ignoring her question.
She nodded quickly and took off, eager to explore the factory and what it may contain. If there were enough parts left laying around, or if she could disassemble some of the equipment here, she would certainly be able to achieve both those goals. Not to mention whatever the Boss had done to her had given her a serious boost in her powers that she was equally as eager to explore.
While Tetra wandered off doing whatever it was that geniuses did, Grim headed back up to the offices and the attached barracks. It was time to have a conversation with Solaria. Well… her soul at least.
Souls were such an interesting, complicated thing. They retained sentience, but long-term memory suffered immensely. The brain was built to house such memories but the soul itself used intuition, feeling, and association to recall events. He was under no such illusions that the moment they began speaking she would recall her untimely death at his hands.
Settling in on one of the bunks, he reached he mentally reached out to the container housing her soul, somewhat curious as to how this would go. He didn’t have to wait long, as she reacted immediately.
“Fuck you! You sleazy, scummy, nasty, disgusting fucker!” she screeched at him, the rage so palpable it nearly echoed within the containment vessel.
His mental projection appeared within the confines of the device, frowning at her as her wispy female form coalesced into something vaguely humanoid. Powerful trained souls could form full bodies relevant to their race, or even change at will. The most powerful souls could attack, damage, and even possess other sentients.
Solaria was none of those things. Not yet at least.
“Wow, now that’s a bit of a greeting,” he grunted out, crossing his arms.
She hurled more obscenities at him, not even bothering to slow down. Grim bore it in silence for all of thirty seconds, then he interrupted her.
“Knock it off. The tantrum you’re throwing is making me have second thoughts about giving you an opportunity to have a new body,” he said.
That shut her up. She was silent for a moment, eyeballing him. “You killed me, now you want to give me a new body? Can you even do that? And why would you? You are definitely a villain, in every essence of the word. I don’t work with villains,” she said suddenly with no additional preamble.
“Hero. Villain. Its all the same thing if you dig deep enough,” Grim said, shrugging. “And yeah, your powers, ability, and soul purity are, frankly speaking, great. I could use more people on my side while I figure out what the fuck is wrong with this reality. So yeah, I have an offer. You serve me, on my terms, for as long as I see fit, and I will give you a new body, expand your powers, and provide you new opportunities to grow stronger.”
She stared at him. “You can give me stronger powers? What about new ones? I mean, no, wait… I don’t work with villains!” she said, flip flopping on just what she wanted.
Grim grinned. One great thing about talking in a soul scape is that lying was just about impossible. You, quite literally, wore your emotions and thoughts on your sleeve. It took immense training, concentration, and careful speaking to pull the wool over someone’s eyes in such a place. It was a good thing that he had such training and expertise, not that he needed it here of course.
“I’m not sure about the new powers… that’s not something I’ve considered really,” he admitted. “But making you stronger? Yeah. The others that have converted to demonic bodies have shown an immediate increase in strength.”
“Others?” she questioned.
Grim shrugged. ‘Like I said, I need help. I cant be everywhere at once, gather all the materials myself, or get money on my own. Its more efficient to have an organization around me. Particularly if I am trapped here,” he explained. A small brush on his mind from Bag had him move his attention over to the demon.
“Hold that thought Bag. I’m gonna close the deal here, then we can go over what you’ve found,” he sent back. He could practically feel the leer from the demon. “Not like that. Don’t have any time for that shit.”
He returned his attention to Solaria, catching just the end of what she was saying.
“- suppose that wouldn’t be too bad. But you cant order me to do villainous things,” she said, finishing the last part of what was obviously a list of demands.
Grim just rolled his eyes. “Well you heard my terms. Take it or leave it. Just know that if you leave it I am going to use your soul to power something. Or eat it. One of the two,” he said nonchalantly.
If a soul could blanche, Solaria’s did so. “R… right. Consider the deal accepted,” she squeaked.
“Read and sign… ah right, no blood. Hmm… touch the contract if you accept. Yeah, that should do it,” he explained, puzzling through how to offer a contract no an incorporeal being such as a soul. Generally he need blood… but he supposed intent was good enough. At least for this deal.
Summoning the gilded scroll with gold and red-letter filigree, Solaria touched it without hesitation. Immediately she was turned into a small blue orb. Curious, Grim watched as she floated to the top of the container and waited. Probably to be released.
He sighed. The work was never ending. Now he needed to make a body for her. While annoying… it could be fun.