Chapter 01 [arc zero]

(This arc is a prologue before the main story)

The ogre king flicked his lighter once, twice, before lining up his cigarette properly and smoking it. The cloudy, smog-infested sky sat dully above him as he leaned against the park railing. Across from him at an abandoned slide and swing set, a group of school children fooled around. They looked to be in high school from the plaid uniforms they wore. One of the students, a girl with long kinky hair, held a pipe in her hand and swung it. Her friends jumped out of the way and laughed. The girl kept doing this until they grew bored and moved on to climbing the rusty slide.

If anyone from outside the city saw such a display, they'd scoff. They would make remarks about how bad the area was. How the trees were slowly wilting away and the trash cans nearby were overfilled. Plastic cups and silverware from a coffee shop were spread along the grass lazily. The place was a dump to those who lived outside it. The slide shook alarmingly as the girl jumped off it. Her friends followed and cheered her on for being such a daredevil. They still had on their school bags, which were smudged from the muck. Some of their jacket sleeves had become rusty. To a stranger, they would look awfully out of place.

He took another drag of his cigarette and looked off into the unknown. The world has changed so much in the past decade. The internet was a solace for billions that survived the Fifth World War. Birth rates hit a sudden decline, and it didn't look like things were going to get better anytime soon. Everywhere you looked, people bore the pure white eyes of the genetically enhanced. He still remembered the ridicule you'd get for not bothering to wear contacts. Now the city was dying so rapidly no one bothered to care about what color or size your eyes were. They were all drowning in their own demise.

"You look depressing standing there watching nothing, boss."

Wearing a leather miniskirt and trench coat, his blonde secretary walked over. She poked her tongue out at him playfully and smacked his side with her clutch. The man rolled his eyes and flicked his cigarette onto the ground. After years of working with the demon, he was used to her antics. She pretended to be an idiot at times. The woman loved to obviously answer questions and blurt out the strangest of things. When he asked her why she did, she would simply laugh. He had no idea she was in the neighborhood, but her presence didn't alarm him. She was largely harmless when properly entertained.

"What are you doing here, Lili?" The ogre king asked in a lazy tone. To a stranger or an outsider, he came off as rude. But in reality, he was teasing her. "I gave you a month off."

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She shrugged and wrapped her arms around his body in a poor attempt at a hug. They both knew she did it to make him uncomfortable. "I don't know. I went to the spa and I guess I missed my uptight, stick-in-the-butt employer."

He gave her a look. "Be serious with me here."

The man already knew why she was here by the look in her eyes. All of his staff had been acting nervous recently when they realized what time it was. The king was due for a visit from the shaman, and that meant he was going to be in a mood when he got back. Whether it was a good or bad one was unknown to the man. But he didn't give a damn, as he wanted to know what was up. That damn woman had sent her disciples to bother him in his office about the visit. They claimed that their lady stated that whoever she was seeing was very important. That they would change the trajectory of everything he held dear.

His foot crunched his cigarette, and he felt the blonde let go. She twirled in the air, annoying him with her childish behavior momentarily. He was debating whether to bring her with him. Easily, the king could give her a look and she would leave him alone. The blonde would march her ass back into the office and eat all his good shit. But if he brought her along, he'd have a witness to the shaman's odd characteristics. The older woman had been acting like this session would be a life-or-death situation. The ogre king had heard this numerous times from numerous women and demons before her.

Just thinking about the panicked, fast-paced words of her disciples made him scoff. They proclaimed that this sacrificial maiden would be different. He had taken twenty maidens in his lifetime, and each time, they failed. Sometimes the woman agreed with his plans and worked their hardest to achieve them. But they were unable to complete his wishes and became obsolete. Others ran, thinking he was a madman, and he had to start over. By now, it exhausted him from the constant redheads that went in and out of his life. He was struggling to see them as anything other than living puppets at his disposal.

Lilibet pouted and stopped twirling. "Okay, okay. Are you going to take me or not?" The blonde stamped her feet and gave him a knowing look.

He shrugged. "I don't see why not." The demon woman started to celebrate, but he held up a hand. "But you need to behave. It's a holy place."

Playfully, she leaned forward and pressed her hands together in prayer. "Yes, sir!"

The ogre king rolled his eyes and gave her a slap on the back of the head. He ignored her pouting as he started to walk back to his car. The shaman would lose her shit, seeing he brought someone, but he didn't care. He was well past caring about the formalities of the session. After so many years, and decades of waiting, he had lost hope. Sometimes he wondered if the shamans were lying about the maidens' purpose. That they were meant to do something else, like save the world or end it. But even if that was the truth, he wouldn't mind it. The man had accepted his fate long ago.