{LICHT KING POV}
The [Demon Lord] rapped the fingers of one hand on top of the armrest on the left of his throne, meanwhile, the chin of its skull rested on top of the right hand, elbow poised against the other armrest. A slouched, almost lazy posture, and yet the subject in front of them trembled in fear.
“So… not only was the result of your experiment unsatisfactory, but due to your ineptitude our plans for the exploitations of the [Wild Area] might soon be exposed”, a gravely whispered escaped its crystalline body.
“But-“ That was all the massive spider could utter before she was pushed to the ground by unimaginable pressure. She tried screaming in pain, or to beg her liege to stop, but after the first screech the pressure heightened, and keeping things on the inside was suddenly all she could afford to do.
“I’m not one to kill subordinates needlessly, but you’re forcing my hand here, [Skulldigger]…” The [Demon Lord] stood up in a fluid motion, almost as if to ridicule its gangly appearance, with blue and green fire dancing within its previously empty orbits.
With a very deliberately calm step, it started getting closer to the [High Demon], who, at this point, couldn’t do anything besides softly hiss in fear. Once its bony toes came almost to rest within her mandibles it finally stopped advancing, and instead inclined its waist downward, further than a ninety-degree angle, bringing their heads so close that they were almost touching.
“What am I supposed to do with you?” Asked the [Licht King], its [Abyssal Breath] shaving off a bit of chitin from her exoskeleton.
A terrifying feat, since, as a creature of the [Void], she should have been naturally resistant to it.
As soon as it was done speaking, the incredible pressure lessened, and the spider instinctively took a raspy breath, even though it didn’t need to breathe to live anymore. She knew, that this was her only chance to influence whether she would die here, or if she would live to serve another day.
And so she abandoned her plans for retrieving that rare specimen for later use as a mate, and instead threw him under the skeleton as a sacrificial scapegoat. Truth be told, she was convinced that he was integral to the series of events that brought her plans to an abrupt end, so she wasn’t exactly lying, but she obviously would need to exaggerate things or too much blame could still be leveraged against her.
“It was all fault of that tiny, weird-eyed, [Human]!” She screamed, as loudly as she dared, while still remaining respectful in front of her Lord.
But something unexpected happened.
The [Demon Lord] flinched.
The fire in its eyes went out with a pathetic sputter.
And then it paused, completely motionless, for an uncomfortably long time.
And as suddenly as it had appeared, the pressure squashing [Skulldigger] like a bug completely disappeared.
“Black hair? Differently colored eyes?” the [Licht King] asked in an uncharacteristically meek tone, for however meek one that had a voice that seemed like it wanted to crawl out of its own grave might sound.
“Y-yes, he did look like that… but how did your highness know-“
“Enough! Stop questioning me this instant. Know that the [Human] you talk to is a problem, but one that is best kept alive… for now”, the skeleton was quick in putting a mental leash back on the spider, ensuring that it wouldn’t dig too deeply into the matter.
“Yes, my lord! Next time I meet the interloper I will capture him alive!” Fortunately [Skulldigger] wanted to keep that specific [Human] alive as a breeding pet in the first place, so she didn’t particularly care if he were allowed to live past when she was done with him.
The eagerness to get her appendages on such a succulent specimen made her forget the weird way the [Demon Lord] acted when speaking about him.
“Good… good. Now leave us, but don’t think that your failure has been forgotten”, a menacing aura erupted anew from the skeleton, inciting the other [Demon] to scapper away as fast as her spindly legs allowed her.
“Y-yes, my liege!”
And with that, she was gone, leaving the powerful evil entity all alone in the chamber that it had constructed within a moment of its arrival in the [Nexus].
Alone.
The [Licht King] never liked how lonely its existence was, and the familiar yet unknown [Human] pulled at unseen strings the perfect way to exacerbate that uncomfortable feeling.
And yet… he felt like he was better when feeling the heightened sensation than he was before.
To distract itself it went to check on its biggest project, which it reached easily enough through the hidden passage behind its throne. The initial castle had undergone many renovations, last one worthy of note was when a [Demon] with a penchant for architecture successfully made its way here through the [Void], and proved itself to be quite useful in making projects for hidden rooms and twisting hallways, which technically will help if they arrived at the point that they were put under siege.
Personally, the [Licht King] just liked the looks, but it was unwilling to undermine the work of someone competent, so it didn’t comment outside of making the courteous thing of appreciating the effort that went into it.
Past the hidden corridors and the hidden traps, the [Licht King] was faced once again with the weight of its ambitions.
“This time… this time I’ll make it work”, it said, its slightly see-through body glowing with the reflection of the tainted purple energy.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
* * *
{JEOFF’S POV}
Useless.
Again and again, the word kept repeating within the young Jeofferneys’ head, his mood worsening with each repetition, but he couldn’t stop himself even if he wanted to.
Those madmen of [Purity] had been so annoyingly efficient in reining in his violent tendencies, because he had noticed when they tried to distract him, but then they had ruined everything at the first opportunity themselves!
Trentietta and two lackeys had been captured alive, the local [Knights] were on a hunt for their brothers and sisters, and it was only a matter of time before they also started coming after him.
There was no doubt in his mind that it was all the fault of that [Demon] with the bewitching eyes. Those eyes which seemed to want to reveal the secrets of the world, as long as he was willing to get lost in them. Those eyes tormented almost his every waking moment, and even followed after him in his sleep, constantly within reach of his mind.
Those eyes… made Jeoff question things… things that he wasn’t even sure could have normally been questioned to begin with.
He slammed his fist against the table in front of him, the noise and the feeling of the grain of the rock under his hand both helped in centering him.
Well, it centered him, but it almost made the attendant that brought him the news jump a full foot in the air out of fright at his reaction, which probably looked excessive to someone not privy to his inner turmoils.
“Damage control! Go, now!” Jeoff shouted a command, and the servant almost tripped over himself in the hurry to comply.
As soon as the nervous Nymph was out of the room, another one took its place, this one already looking about just as nervous as his predecessor. Naturally, both were [Earth Nymph], although with the lighter earthy color befit of servants.
“You!” Jeoff pointed at the new man, making him jump in surprise. “Get in touch with those guys from [Demi-God of Purity] though the means they provided us, and try to figure out why in the [True Gods]’ name they did what they did”.
“A-at once, my lord!” The servant stuttered a salute and then he too was off.
The [Noble Earth Nymph] waited another couple of seconds for a new servant to pop their head in, but when nobody came he began grumbling about the frustrating lack of personnel.
“It always comes down to doing things on my own, doesn’t it?”
* * *
{TIMOTHY’S POV}
Eggings was asked to lead, but everything he did almost always led to at least some loss of life.
And he hated it.
It all started well enough: After reaching [Level 5] his [Class] revealed itself to be much better than most expected, and he took the change in stride, catapulting his position from among the middling [Humans], to almost the very top.
Of course, the very top was reserved for those [Aberrant] people that defied common sense even among the original inhabitants of the [Nexus]: Like the Japanese woman that had pitch black arcs following after her katana, which obliterated anything they touched, ignoring most, if not all, defenses it met with the greatest of ease; or even like the American man that thought himself as a modern Super-Hero, and how could you blame him when his sheer [Strenght] always seemed to rise to the occasion, and when he was capable of almost limitless flight.
But there was no point comparing yourself to those outliers because they were the exception, not the standard. And among those that could be considered ‘normal’, in this strange world with [Magic], he rose to be the very best.
And with power came responsibilities, in his case it was in the form of a position of command that early on looked pretty promising, but the longer he was in charge the worse the people assigned to him seemed to fare. The last straw, in his mind, was when everybody surpassed the [Level 10] milestone and got extra [Stats]: The [Demons], as if this was a thing they were waiting for, responded with unprecedented fury, massacring his platoon, and only because the [Army] was hanging around was his subordinates spared utter extermination.
Tim decided that moping in bed helped nobody, so he might as well get up and lay down a new training regiment for his platoon. Him moving the sheets had the unfortunate side-effect of waking up who felt like the last shining light that kept dragging him along all this muck.
“Mhh… Tim?” A sleepy voice came from the still bundled burrito next to him.
“Sorry Eve, didn’t want to wake you, was just getting something ready in the wee hours of day” " he said with a guilty smile, but without stopping from dressing himself in the ever-clean clothes, a blessing really when you were forced to live in moving temporary residences for months on end.
Maybe the true perk of being an [Army Captain] was having a big enough private tent that it could have visitors.
“Nngh. You’re such a busybody, even when the sun has yet to rise…” A mournful moan from beneath the bunched-up blankets made him chuckle.
“You know what they say: The early bird catches the worm!” For some reason, Tim never lost an opportunity to revive some culture from his home world, but while he didn’t know why he had such a strange compulsion he was glad that it kept the memories alive.
“You’re such a dork”, and with those words the bedflower bloomed, revealing an Elven beauty with Dark-green hair, and love-struck eyes.
“Yup, and you still chose me!” Eggings responded with an easy-going smile, feeling revitalized from the quick exchange with his lover and colleague.
“Get out! This lady needs a bit more time to prepare herself”, Eve said while laughing, throwing a leather helmet at him that he deftly caught and put on in a single swift motion.
“Your wish is my command.”
The mock bow that followed his words earned him a less gentle throw made with a harder object. That one he failed to react to fast enough.
Running out of the tent with an aching shoulder Timothy had to remind himself that Evergreen didn’t like it when one pointed out her political weight.
Turn out that ladies of every [Race] did not like talking about ‘weight’ in every shape or form.
* * *
{“THAT ONE FAT [PRIEST] THAT HAS YET TO BE CLEAR ABOUT HIS NAME” ‘S POV}
“War it is, then”, the Nymph with the chalky skin muttered to himself while stroking his black beard in a villainous way.
In the passing days, the equivalent of five or so private forces congealed around the [Temple of Water], and the stream of people going and coming from the building gradually diminished to a trickle.
Pun intended.
“Fighting a [Demi-God] on the doorstep to its [Domain] is foolish at best, and suicidal in most cases.
Just what makes them so confident to take us on?” He asked the air.
And voices only he, and a selected few, could hear whispered the answer to him.
“Hm? You choose now to tell me something? Must be losing my [Necrotic Touch]”, the [Priest] chortled to himself, and yet the smile didn’t seem to reach his usually calm eyes. Eyes that now showed a glint of anger in their depth.
“Check the position of key figures and start making plans to eliminate them as discretely as possible” " he suddenly commanded with a wave of a hand and a group of [Cleaners] shimmered into view long enough to bow in the affirmative before they were gone as silently as they appeared.
The old {Priest] nodded appreciatively: At least the [Cleaners] he had a hand in training were all competent and, maybe most important of all, none among them turned out to have betrayed them.
He suddenly pulled out a token from a hidden pocket beneath his clothes. The token had an extremely detailed skull with a spiky halo on one side, while the other looked like a normal mirror. A simple gesture from his hand right above it was all it took to activate the complex [Enchantment] on the [Artifact].
And within the token appeared the image of his [High Priestess], along with some other useful information about her surroundings.
“Mhh, that annoying [Witch] is at least a woman of her word… when she wants to be”, he commented with a grimace when he caught sight of her and she sent him a very obvious wink right at him.
At that moment he wished all the troubles that the [Fulcrum] might bring upon her to come true.