Following Marthosh went quickly until they arrived at the Velvet District made of many streets. One such street was Runic Street, known for its shopping departments that were away from the bustling places where many beings flocked together. As its name suggested, Runic Street was a place for magic and magic shops, giving many crafters places to make stuff, do their business, and safe operations. Mostly remote and old, it wasn't very popular because it wasn't an exciting place with a lot of variety. Instead, it was a place with a lot of hidden faces, companies, and talents waiting to shine.
Some companies—be they private or public—used such places as their hidden main headquarters or bases, with main shops being in more populated districts where wealth circled much better.
That sort of approach made this street barren and dark, yet neat at the same time because there was a certain edge over having fewer people and more mysteries around dark alleys. It had its clarity and awareness of what to offer, or what business conducted.
Places that specialized in single fortes were often better than those that offered dozens of various interests. Hence, the majority of buildings here were various workshops and businesses operating on a smaller scale. Less selling happened here, apart from businesses between some people. It had its good validation, all thanks to the flow of money where companies were the embodiment of important people. Selling stuff was simply far easier for the big sharks in the better part of the city, yet when small companies wanted to do business, clashes were inevitable.
Velvet District was one of the smallest districts, though it was at least pretty to the naked eye, shining in many lights around the street, with Runic Street being the dullest. But if one looked closely or visited hundreds of workshops, things were different. This was where talented people flocked, greed resided, and business ruled without obvious light. It might be the best place that wasn't as obvious, for it was housing a variety of unknowns.
Lisa liked this place for that purpose.
Some of the buildings were looking much better from her memory, making Runic Street much nicer, even in a minority. Glowing signs and made-up runic formation showed the names of some workshops, or points of interest for some companies. Catching customers didn't work all that much here, yet setting some advertisements went hand in hand with reputation and business.
Lisa viewed this old place in high regard because that was where people mattered more than some ego or power. Coincidentally, it was also a place where some money and wealth had some value, but that was a secondary problem for her.
It was common to seek such places on the Surface as well since the need for services of knowledge was needed everywhere. Where people and magic clicked like a fine machine, Lisa knew how to grasp it to her advantage. Of course, that meant others could do so as well.
Magic Association was quite prominent on the Surface, second to Adventure Guild, and various mercenary establishments. Flocking people with close interests worked for a reason, and this place had their branches as well, albeit chaotic and hellish in their worth.
Race didn't matter. It was no Surface, nor it was a clear Hell. It was where various clashing forces lived under the stone ceiling, protecting the worth of a Hell God Ruler, Levenadis of Thousand Graves.
That meant certain things might happen outside of the standards. Like a human becoming a worker for her cause. It wasn't off the chart, though it was unlikely to be a cooperative idea for the normal denizens. An ordinary human couldn't get here that easily, yet in many instances, acting well for her causes and ideas, it was better to accept them than leave them aside.
Those who wanted to follow her either used the vision of this temple and became a Challenger. The second option was to establish a certain connection with Hell and work from there. Providing their services, power, or worth for their life, becoming her tool, soldier, or crafter was a possibility even for humans.
For most outsiders, entering this place more than twice in a lifetime was impossible. For those who hoped for power or wealth, some would remain here forever in many ways, unable to leave, or unwilling to change their ways.
Because of the business and wealth, many connections in the Surface went through human merchants or already established connections. It was about money most of the time. Not politics, or the Hell itself. No religion usually involved human business, but it incentivized it very well.
Most businesses had some history stemming from the Surface, for Hells were older and poorer in comparison. It was said to be beneath the Hells. However laughable it sounded. This sort of appeal always moved against the morality of Mortal or Holy Wars. or the hearts of men or demons.
Lisa changed her mind about some of her plans the moment she realized where Marthosh was leading her, and how these shops around the street could help her. Perhaps she could use this place to her advantage, but it wouldn't happen until her plans had some clarity.
She already had someone and something in mind for that, yet she doubted how feasible she could take everything when this time and world was hardly normal. Maybe everything will change with that Hunt or Razmund would crash everything.
Marthosh arrived at a dark alley among many ordinary workshops, which looked ordinary and held many boxes all around.
Lisa didn't speak. Murai couldn't do it at all; he was busy hanging on hand and under the armpit of Marthosh.
“We are a bit secretive, but this place is nice and secluded since no wide place could be the heart of Lost Brothers. It goes along with my master and boss, you see. He is always on the move. Most humans like him are.” Marthosh shot Lisa a curious glance, but she wasn't that impressed by such style of tactics, nor his words.
She gestured for him to get going, so he did. She followed Marthosh to an ordinary room, littered with trashed constructs, old piles of books, materials that lost their luster, and various rooms. It seemed to be a deserted and old workshop.
It wasn't tidy nor pristine, and it wasn't anything great in qualities and worthwhile creations. Only so much could be recycled in terms of forging some equipment and runes, making constructs out of many materials, or engraving things with magic. The art of creation was very complicated and something that Lisa knew by heart.
She had no eyes for that for now. The interiors of the room she entered were simple, functioning as some storage facility that was part of multiple workshops, which were aside from wider and bigger rooms. The only advantage it had was its size. It had high ceilings and wide rooms, with stacked shelves full of needless troublesome mess. Many wooden boxes, stone jars, and crates with materials or bottles acted as barebone storage methods.
Marthosh walked further, ignoring these rooms since he had nothing to do with them. These workshops weren't working or belonging to Lost Brothers for sure, which Lisa almost believed at first. There was nobody here, thought someone must be somewhere. It wasn't at least a trap.
Marthosh walked into their room just around the corner, revealing a cozy and much better place. It was a wide room with decors close to a mansion, surprising Lisa with a nice sofa, stools, tables, and even offices aside. Still, there were many crates and chests for storage, and around one side of the wall, there was a conference corner that acted as a meeting space. That was their target, as a person was already there, waiting for Marthosh.
With chairs and a big table, there was a wide sofa for sitting. Along the walls were all kinds of information-gathering reports, pictures, rumors, and many papers or wanted posters. All in steady order of importance, they looked to be important, written on paper, or carved into a piece of wood.
There, sitting on the sofa, Lisa took a big note of a man she had expected and hoped to meet. Wearing a white furry coat and revealing a bit of his fatty belly, the man didn't care much for weight or manners. At least the coat was luxurious, neatly going over his figure just fine, although it looked to be the expensive kind that one would expect on rich merchants.
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“Oh, Marthosh?” He caught Marthosh's arrival, turning to him in an open laughter. “You are here so soon. That means you either failed miserably or saw the world aflame, or...well, the Hellscape is bustling like always, but that would be different. Oh, you've caught the customer I wanted?”
“Hello, boss. Here we go,” Marthosh laughed and pointed to Lisa and Murai under his armpit, still sleeping.
“Hm? What's up with that ghost!? Are you seriously following it? What a catch! They could fetch for a nice price to any chaos runesmith or those necromancers around the corner. Hilarious,” The man laughed after finding this situation kind of hilarious, though it was hard to assume if he was serious or joking.
He was laughing alone.
With Murai under his shoulder, Marthosh didn't dare to laugh, while Lisa had different ideas about this situation as a whole. She gazed at this man behind Marthosh, who suddenly felt a fear beyond his back and in many places. Everything was coming from this ghost in question. Lisa shivered in her sona like ice turning back to the water and her whole personality and face changed.
“Hello to you as well, Marching David,” Lisa said to the fatty, greeting him with cold words and clear waves of sona that acted like her irritation. It tensed the air, frightened Marthosh, and stopped the laughing man, who felt a weird chill in his mind and back. He lost his voice and wits.
“Oh, does the ghost know me? Shoud I feel honered?” David said, thinking of some joke for the next exchange, yet something deep in him moved. Something strange.
“Well, unfortunately, yes,” Lisa sighed and calmed down. “You look different, but who would expect something else from more than a seventy-year-old man?”
“Hey! That was rude! I don't look that old,” David's pride got hurt before he stuttered and nearly fell from the sofa. “Wait, who the hell are you!?”
Lisa flew forth, closing on David who felt shocked. “As unexpected as the End goes, we meet again after a long time. Long dead, I came back to hunt you like I used to do. Partly because I want it, partly because you found us first, but mainly because of this thing,” She pointed to Marthosh's armpit; a still-sleeping Murai rested like never.
Her voice turned softer like the ways of her sona. So much so that David got to his feet, squinted his eyes, and shook in so many ways, that he didn't know what to do. He gazed at her and didn't utter his upcoming joke since not only did her face look familiar, but the way her voice and tone carried her face rejuvenated some lost memories. This ghost looked like someone very dear to him from a very long time ago.
“Lisa? Like that one?” He mumbled, widening his eyes in disbelief, and pointing at her.
Lisa could see and understand such disbelief, as she died long ago, and hadn't expected to see this fool of all people. Sighing and floating towards him a little closer, she even enlarged her body a little to enunciate the features of her face.
Not far for her to touch him, but enough to see closely, both met more than half a century later.
“It's been a long time,” Lisa said. “I doubt you remember me in a flattering way or memories, but I sure remember the little human kid who had all sorts of dreams on the Surface. I've returned to hunt you back as promised. Do you dare to take me on?” She forced a smile, thinking that this was a bit weird to meet him in this manner. After all, she wasn't sure if her former connection even lived or survived.
Now, some did. It was an unexpected one, yet it was better than none. She realized she wasn't prepared for her past that could linger in this world. Regrets too, most likely. Now, she was different. Very different.
David kept pointing his finger forward, backing his head a little away. “T-that was a long time ago.”
“Indeed it was. Now,” Lisa clasped her palms, “looking at your belly, I can tell you have your life together, unlike me. For someone like you to change, who used to be a franny little brat who couldn't even handle a sword, let alone a woman, you grew up.”
David looked down because, at some point, he slipped to the ground. Noticing a clear belly that she looked at, his cheeks reddened in fluster and embarrassment.
Grunting, he got to his feet to not embarrass himself more than he would prefer, but he knew that if Lisa wanted, he could shoot his ego down to the bottom of Hell.
Through his act, his belly swayed and flattened a little as he flexed, but it didn't help him much. It didn't look that bad when he closed his nice coat.
It was still protruding like a little mountain in his abdomen. “T-this is just natural for me, degree of my age, and status in this city. Got older too. Got business to run, mission to crash, and people to worry about. It is a sign of a well-off man, let me tell you that.” He reasoned his belly, but Lisa didn't care for any of his thoughts.
She smiled, floating before him with a tinge of melancholy in her eyes. This man before her was old by human standards, surely well over the age of seventy, but this world had different signs for the elderly. It was because of power and mana.
Those who survived living in this world for long enough, let alone in these Hells, held power and reputation and should never be fine to underestimate. The older some got, the more impressive some things about them were.
Lisa was glad David had survived after she disappeared from this world altogether. She wondered how many of her connections were left, or if some of her weaker links ended up.... like this, worse, or better.
David had no wrinkles on his face even if he was old in his human race. His head was full of hair and he was even two meters tall with quite some size and bulk. It was just his belly that was a bit out of place, although his arms were thick like his legs. They hide muscles under some fat, but she was almost sure this was either intentional fat, caused by technique or a Path, or he simply had it because he was a fat pig who loved to eat and not work his ass off for what he had achieved.
Which pissed her off a little if that was the case. She thought she taught him better than this, even though they had known each other for years. And some of these years were better than others. Not for her, but for David.
“Anyway,” Lisa said, ending the silence, and glancing at Marthosh. “Your kid told me some interesting things and promises, and while it might be surprising to see you here, it gives us an interesting moment. I guess I will take any help I can get, so... agreed? Have anything to tell me, the one who found us in this state of world and our mess? You want the piece of us, don't you?”
David winced his sight from his belly to her. “Help?” David uttered as if he didn't know what that word even meant right now. “Ah! Help! Of course. Of course. A company of the Lost Brothers is at your service, Lisa. Of course,” He awkwardly laughed, bringing in his usual face and voice even if it sounded forceful.
He couldn't help but hide the shock of seeing her again, hearing the voice that he dreaded, dreamed of, and revered at the same time. He hid it for the sake of a businessman that came back to his face.
“What I can help you with, or... wait a second,” David hesitated. “What about you? Is your appearance one of the reasons for coming here? I doubt I can help you with... that.”
“Help with my life? I am quite alive if I say so myself, and researching or resurrecting the dead is a bit forbidden for your kin. Do you wanna die that badly, even for me when it isn't needed? Call me surprised or old-fashioned, but that is stupid.” Lisa said, furrowing her brows and knowing very well she was no ghost. There were many races in the universe, so one way or the other, she had no qualms to give besides thinking of her race as something special.
“Oh well, I would try my best for you anyway, but if you insist on....”
“Well,” Lisa put her hand up and clutched her physicality, momentarily becoming firm and close to a fleshly succubus, albeit still radiating the azure light of sona, “I do well for myself at the moment, though I have some worries when we speak about it.”
“That is interesting. What have you ended up like? How? What happened?” David asked openly, not hiding his curiosity about what became of her, or how she ended up dead. He didn't know much about what became of her after she separated herself from his life for unknown reasons.
“A ghost,” she smiled at him as she ceased this stress loose. She practiced a lot with her physicality and sona, but it wasn't that easy to depend on it; she wasn't that familiar with it, let alone masterful. Her Soul Render needed to eat, after all, grow up, manifest its properties, and reach its next advancements and evolutions. Her familiarity with it had been neglectful. Purposefully, of course.
“Anyway, I take it as your case is that sleeping duck...I mean Anatidae?” David asked. “You ended up as its... lackey, so that could answer a lot of things. You are a Life Companion who came back from...”
“Sure enough,” Lisa shouted, unwilling to hear him mention it. “There are a lot of things besides that, but you know some gossip around this place, I bet. Considering your boy found us so fast and well, I take your information gathering isn't half that bad as your flesh. Could it be even good?”
“It's passable for you. I've grown it as I could, thinking that your teachings and everything about Hells and Chaos went surprisingly well with clutched fists and wits.” David smiled, scratching his chin in a good mood, with pride, and confidence over his life. He couldn't wait to see what she would think of his work and achievements. He had a lifetime's worth of stories and questions for her, but it seemed Lisa had new worries and things outside of his league. Some things never changed, and David realized that something insane was brewing from this meeting. A lot of connections clicked together.
Hearing any praise from her felt like he turned decades younger. Which was, in his senses, not wrong.
“I will see your work and worth, David, but business goes first at the moment. I have a lot to worry about and think about. I am no longer your... master, or how to think of that past. Agreed?”
“If you say so.”
“How badly my little animal will go on in this Gate? The world is shaking, but this Gate is still standing. Hunt is yet to start, unsurprisingly. Will it change? I doubt it wouldn't, so I bet you have better ideas about it than I do. Part of my hope is to seek information from someone who gets some shit done.” Lisa spoke straight to the point.
“Well, My services aren't...”
“Free? I can pay, but would you dare to give me such care? Sounds terrible, so...” Lisa stopped smiling and floated closer to David to touch his cheeks. Her physicality allowed her to change to physical realms whenever she wanted, so she squished his face a little. Considering she wasn't all that big, nor her pals were wide or too firm, she was half successful.
Gazing at him, something in David moved once more.
“I whudn't dahe.” David mumbled, accepting her touch. Sweat appeared on his forehead and cheeks when expanding memories resurfaced in his mind. This Lisa?! She went back in time, hadn't she? Her touch, eyes, and ideas felt so wild.
It wasn't pleasant most of the time, nor that terrible. Her firm grasp felt powerful. Her unhinged Will to go forward. It was like a curse or poison going to the mind and flesh, or seeping to the bones.
He missed someone with this sort of attitude. No one ever came close to this.
“Oh, I bet you would dare, but I am making myself clearer because you owe me something. Perhaps it wasn't that good... or it isn't time for that right now, but I need something that you know all about. Against this world, Gate, or nothing or everything, there are a couple of things that I want besides some trust. You came like lighting and an unexpected storm. Thanks to the Longing Merchants that have your name, I realized that there is something for you and me. It is time to get together once more and shake some things up. Agreed?”
“Longing Group?” David asked, figuring that Lisa must have her reasons to be like that as she always did.
She pulled her hand back. “I want to hear some valuable information and get some work done, David. The real deal of not only this Gate but what goes deeper or above. I bet a lot of things changed. Well, a lot of things changed since I've arrived in this world with this body. I am not fooling myself or you.”