“Well, spit it out!”
“I was thinking... We should make our own settlement in the living world. You know, so we can spread our influence.”
Hmm, I like the sound of that. “Allright then, it can’t be much worse than being stuck doing politics with these fools. What exactly did you have in mind?”
Luca looked a little nervous, almost as if he didn’t want to say what was on his mind. “Well first off, you’ll have to share body with me once again.”
I sighed. Not because I had to share a body with Luca, but because I already knew what his plan was.
“So, you plan on having me blend in with the humans and basically lie to their face about my true intentions.” I rubbed my forehead with my fiery fingers.
“Allright, how bad could it be. Let’s do this.”
-
“A mere week ago I would never have imagined myself as anything other than human, and now I suddenly feel weird being inside that very same body. Life is confusing indeed.”
It’s only as confusing as you let it be, my dear Anders.
‘Also, the fact that hearing your voice in my head has become more of a normality now is slightly concerning.’
Luca snickered. To think all this started when you interrupted a simple summoning ritual.
Luca then summoned David and Jesse. ‘Do you have separation anxiety with these two or something? It’s actually a little creepy.’
N... No? Luca paused for a moment. Stupid... You have separation anxiety... Grumbles.
‘Did you seriously just say grumbles out loud...?’
If I could see Luca’s face right now, he would probably be as red as a tomato. I closed my mouth from laughing out loud and shook my head. ‘Sorry, sorry. Let’s just summon the portal already.’
I reached out my two hands and summoned the portal.
To my surprise, Jesse and David changed their pattern. This time Jesse was the one to jump into the portal while David calmly walked into it. Strange.
I followed right after the two.
Anders, I must tell you something. There will be a full moon tonight. For us demons it doesn’t really do much, we can more easily swoon unwilling subjects to our will though.
Unwilling individuals or monsters are always weaker when taken under control though, so I don’t exactly see the use in it. The god of this universe must have a really ironic sense of humor, or something. Such a rare event and nothing special happens.
‘It’s almost as if they felt it was too much of a bother to think of something clever. Oh well, I guess it's just another day then.’
No, it isn’t. We still have our plan, remember?
‘Oh right, I forgot. Creating a new settlement and all that.’
-
Luca told me we needed an alibi for some reason, and he convinced me to stand in the middle of the market. Getting a spot to set up shop was easy, we just bribed one of the stall owners and took his spot.
Our cover story was about me being a security guard for Jesse and David, who were attempting to sell meth. It worked well enough.
‘Hey Luca, I never had the chance to ask but when we met, didn’t you say something about some blood sacrifice or whatever?’
To be honest, I was just joking with you. I just felt like drinking blood that night. Hope you’re not too upset!
Eh. He’s done worse.
After standing around for a while, there was a lady who walked into the market, keeping some yellow cows in a leash. On her shoulder she was carrying what looked like a tent.
Interesting.
-
Nothing really happened until nightfall. The marketplace started emptying with people who were all probably going to their homes for the night.
Eventually, even the stalls closed for the night. Only our place and the newcomers were still open for business.
Interesting. I know she sold magical items, but did she have something that let her go without sleeping? Eh, whatever. It didn’t matter.
Come the following day, I spotted the Cowboy from Pillan walking into the marketplace.
Perfect. I’ll have Jesse distract him. We need him for my plan to go smoothly.
Following this comment, Jesse went over to the cowboy, tapping his shoulder.
"You want some of the... Stuff?" He asked.
The cowboy looked baffled. "What... What's this?"
Jesse, being the goober he is, immediately revealed to the entire market that we were, indeed, selling meth.
“Uh, no thanks. I don’t even know what ‘meth’ is.”
David, also being who he is, began berating Jesse on his selling strategies.
"Shut up! You might be the one importing the stuff, but you have never truly sold anything yourself!" Jesse replied, before telling the cowboy that David was the ‘Drug cartel’ of the town.
David was apparently in on the act and smashed his bandola into the stall counter. "Did you seriously tell this random stranger I'm the drug cartel?? Jesse, you fucking idiot!"
The two continued screaming insults at one another, and I caught eye-contact with the cowboy. I nodded briefly, before I felt David’s arm grab my arm. “Anders! Can you believe this guy?”
Eh, I didn’t feel like helping them in the act. I bent down and whispered into his ear. “This is pretty funny, keep it going.”
Not too long after, the magical woman who’d just set up shop here took ahold of the cowboy and began chatting with him. I couldn’t hear what they were saying over the screaming of Jesse and David though.
Apparently, it was something insulting, because not long after Jesse turned around and began yelling at her to mind her own business.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, here selling your goofy banana milkshakes? Everyone knows they're not even magical! You're just a scam!" David said.
The woman looked angrily back at him. "Well I wonder what people would have said when they figure out your meth isn't even pure!" She snapped back.
I noticed that the cowboy was leaving the market. Before he left, he looked at me for a moment, blushing. Was he gay or something?
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it was still kind of weird.
I decided to take matters into my own hands and snuck out of the argument. After finding a nice place out of view, i jumped on top of the rooftops.
Looking down at the man, I noticed he was walking beside a woman who shared the same wolfish features as him. Perhaps I was wrong in assuming his sexuality so quickly.
-
After following the two for a while, I noticed they stopped at an inn. Hm, curious.
As far as I know when it comes to werewolves, they prefer living in the forest. I guess these two are an exception.
‘Strange indeed. We should apprehend him as he leaves the building tomorrow.’
Jesse and David then teleported beside me on the rooftops. “What’s going on?” They asked me.
“Well, your lord Luca has this idea of making a village. Apparently, this guy is a vital part of that whole plan.”
“Ah I see. Since Luca was the one to suggest the idea, I'll immediately admit it’s a good one. So, what do we do now, boss?”
Luca manifested his head outside mine.
“Jesse, you jump him when he leaves the inn again. Me and Anders will handle it from there.”
With that said, all three of us sat down on the rooftops. I was starting to feel a little fatigued but shrugged it off. We can sleep later.
After spending the entire rest of the afternoon and night planning for tomorrow, the sun finally began to rise again. “Ah perfect. Let’s go sit down outside and wait for our werewolf friend to arrive.”
-
We’d sat around for a good two hours, and finally the front door opened.
It was the cowboy, and Jesse immediately began to recite what we had practiced during the night.
"Hey dude! Sorry about yesterday. We didn't mean to create a bad first impression or anything. Ah yes, we should introduce ourselves. My name is Jesse, the muscular Colombian right there is David."
Jesse introduced me as well, and I felt like being a little extra, so I bowed. “That’s Anders. Don’t get on his nerves if you know what’s good for you.”
I was slightly annoyed by his comment, but as he was correct, I let it go.
The cowboy asked what we wanted of him. Jesse answered that we were planning on making a settlement claiming we lacked manpower. Of course, this was a lie.
I could summon every demon in hell, and they would comply without a second thought.
Regardless, we needed this guy. Ah, you're wondering why? Well, it's mostly because we could have someone else to blame if shit hit the fan.
-
Having acquainted ourselves with the man, we had walked to the spot in the forest Luca had picked out.
Jesse, acting like the ‘leader of the group’ began explaining how me and the cowboy would cut down trees to build walls. Of course, it made the most sense considering we were the strongest there.
Jesse asked me to demonstrate felling a tree. Of course, I agreed.
To think your practice with punching trees would come in handy. Well, go ahead, show ‘em how it's done.
I cracked my knuckles and hit the log with my fist. It didn’t do much, but then I infused the wood with some demonic energy. The tree shot forward into the forest until it hit a cliff. The cliff then collapsed.
Well, that’s one tree down.
Me and the cowboy had cut down a lot of trees after five hours had passed. I’d come to learn his name was Faron.
David spoke up. “To make the perimeter wall, we should cut the trees in half and sharpen the ends of them."
It was all part of the plan, and I had Luca manifest a knife for me to whittle the wood. The knife eventually broke, as expected. My idea was to test if Faron was willing to offer his weapons to people he had just met.
Surprisingly, he did, and pulled out a knife for me to use. I nodded my thanks and got back to whittling.
Faron showed us something we hadn’t seen before at this point, the fact that he could turn into a wolf. After changing form, he got to the floor and started whittling the logs with his claws.
We finished after about two hours of work.
We then got to work sticking the logs into the ground in a circular pattern, making a crude wall.
After finishing up at the front gate, Faron took a step back to admire what we had done. "Well boys, would you look at that. This place looks pretty good if I do say so myself."
Eh, it was all right. It was still the equivalent of an empty shell at this point. There weren’t even houses inside the walls.
"Okay guys, what should we call this place, then?" Faron asked.
Hm, we hadn’t decided on that yet. Luca told Jesse to ask Faron for suggestions.
The huge wolf sat questioning for a few moments, before speaking up. "Valentine."
Yeah, that could work.
We all agreed to return to the nearby city for the night. Faron told us he had to go change form back to human and hid behind a bush. ‘Imagine needing to go nude in order to change form. Couldn’t be me, am I right??’ I jokingly asked Luca.
He did not respond.
‘Hey, it wasn’t that bad of a joke...’
After Faron was done changing into his clothes again, we began walking toward the city.
Faron and I were walking side-by-side on the road. Suddenly he spoke. "So, Anders. How did you get so strong as to be able to punch down trees like that?"
Hm, no point in lying I suppose. "Well, I'm possessed by a demonic entity. It's similar to how you werewolves perceive your wolves."
Wait, how did I know that? Never mind. I’m sure he got what I meant.
I told him that the demon i had inside me was called Luca. I wasn’t technically lying to him; I was just keeping the full truth from him. I mean, as the lord of hell, I’m naturally really strong.
I did tell him a lie though, that Luca would manifest if I got really angry. Eh, no matter. It’s easy to keep that lie going, as long as Luca was the one inhabiting this body, with or without me.
-
When we arrived in town, Faron told us he had to go check up on some stuff.
After standing around for a while, the woman I had seen with Faron yesterday walked out of the inn and came over to us. Apparently, she saw the scene from inside the inn. We explained what was going on, like our plans to create a new city and all that.
Not long after Alex arrived, Faron came back. "Hey Alex, did the guys tell you about our plans?"
"Yeah, I think it's a great idea! We probably need more supplies if we're going to be making houses there, but we can start small with tents and the like I suppose. We're no strangers to sleeping rough, are we Faron?" Alex replied with a smile.
"No, indeed we aren't." Faron commented. "Okay team, let's go back to valentine then!"
Ah, simple fool. He thinks he’s in control...
-
When we arrived back at Valentine, people began spreading out setting up tents and the like. Faron and Alex said they were going to go cut down some more trees to build houses out of, and that was fine by me. It only meant that there was less work I had to do.
-
I was busy setting up my tent, when I suddenly heard Faron's voice scream out into the forest. He was calling his wolf's name. Strange.
"Jesse, did you hear that?"
Jesse looked up from in-between the different tent supplies with a concerned look. "Yeah. He must be in trouble. You should go look for him. if anything happens, Luca will let me know.”
I sat down the supplies I was holding.
‘Luca, where do you think he went?’
Probably somewhere around about right in front of you.
I looked at the path of destruction shooting into the forest. There was a neat line of felled trees going south from Valentine.
Deciding not to waste time in case it was urgent, I used demonic energy to shoot into the forest.
-
I arrived at a small clearing.
Anders, there is a fairy nearby. I can feel its holy presence. Be careful, Holy beings like it are extremely effective against my demonic energy.
'Allright, just tell me where it is.'
Sure, activating holy-detect vision.
My vision went black for a moment, and then it was restored again. This time, the only colors I saw were grey and red.
The fairy will show up in your vision as a green dot.
I nodded and squinted my eyes.
Suddenly, a green dot flared up. I pointed out a finger and launched a bolt of demonic energy at the fairy.
It missed.
I pointed out all my fingers and requested Luca to guide my shots.
Hm, I like how you're thinking. I’ll guide the shots, just shoot some bullets.
I released 10 bolts from my fingers, all flying in seemingly random directions, before they began snaking through the forest.
Almost got it... There!
A large red explosion occurred behind a tree.
'Do you always have to be so flashy?'
Suddenly the tree flared up with neon-red flames, and it was reduced to ash in a matter of seconds.
In it to win it, baby!
Allright then.