[Hospital Ward A-1, Room 15 - Leukemia Treatment]

There were supposed to be 20 top-tier agents for the mission in the Dimension 1-Æ-01 - Tier 3 - Category 4 - Human Elven Conflict - Year: 4023. Now it might be 21.

It wasn’t my style to go off my plan. It wasn’t my style to consider a retired agent’s offer. It wasn’t my style to follow with what other say but Katarina is different. To me she is more than just an agent, she’s also my friend and proved to be a very capable friend indeed. If my memory serves me correctly she was an agent who specialized in communicating effectively with other agents. Capable of gathering a team of talented individuals, maximize their strengths and covering their weaknesses. She was a key component in most missions because even if Grishika gathered the most talented individuals if they don’t work together then it is rather pointless. Katarina was extremely helpful in most missions, even ones that weren’t assigned to her, she helped quell quarrels and she was the one who taught Grishika how to communicate his thoughts to mortals and other agents without being so cold and indifferent. She taught him how to be human, and that’s something that Grishika treasures.

I wanted to make sure that this girl was what Katarina said she was. She has a sufficient understanding of the mission at hand, but my concern was that she was still too young. This girl, 'Ashley' suffered a lot within the earlier parts of her life. Born in a small city both her parents were seriously poor. Her Mom worked really hard for the family but the father would beat up the mother and waste the money on alcohol. When the mom tried to run away Ashley would be used as a hostage to keep the mom from running and thus that was Ashley’s lifestyle in the first few baby years. She learnt that love was caring for the person who beats you up by observing her parents and then her childhood became a mess. When playing with the other kids she would constantly come home bleeding from being beaten up by her peers and she considered that loving them despite getting beaten up was the epitome of love. Her mom couldn't stand up to the other kids as her dad would punch her for putting out a bad image. This toxic life of hers continued until they decided that they would move into the bigger city for Ashley's education at the age of 5.

On the road to the city she encountered with a miracle disguised as an accident. As her parents were driving to the city they had an argument which led her dad to suddenly punch Ashley’s mom while driving steering them into a tree. As if by fate Katarina was nearby when the crash happened which caused her to stop her car and treat Ashley’s injuries calling for 119. By the time the ambulance arrived both of her parents were dead and she was promptly sent to a foster home under Katarina’s recommendation. Within the foster home, when the caretakers and friends actually cared for her she felt uncomfortable and confused which made her even more out of place. She would often get into trouble intentionally to have someone scold her but instead all she got was a small warning.

Soon after a month Katarina came and adopted her as her own sister. With Katarina’s powers of the mind she slowly helped Ashley understand what love meant and taught her to deal with her past trauma showing her what true love looked like. Although her first 5 years were a disaster, the rest of her 13 years were a joy with Katarina. The first few were tough because she felt uncomfortable if Katarina didn’t scold her or be mean to her but Katarina was patient with her in many ways. In a way Katarina became Ashley’s Psychiatrist slowly working on her trauma and building new memories with her. Ashley was now 18 and diagnosed with Stage 2 Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and bed ridden in a premium hospital. She’s been in the hospital for a year now but she has her sister taking care of her. With Katarina’s high income she sent Ashley to a prestigious school where she became friends with a lot of people from the higher income bracket. In the beginning of summer most of her friends would come and hangout within her hospital room but as of lately most of her friends were overseas travelling or going to college in other parts of the world. Ashley often enjoyed reading autobiographies and interviewing people in her life before being hospitalized, using Katarina as a connection she would be able to talk with other high profile personal and ask them questions about their work and life.

Grishika realized that Katarina was setting up Ashley as her successor to be the next in line, but directly sending a new agent with little to no experience into a Tier 3 Crisis is something even Grishika was skeptical about. A Tier 3 crisis described within the Tryphant Agent handbooks is an event so catastrophic that it will be recorded as a major event in history. These events can either strengthen a civilization or ruin one. If we used Earth as an example the black death is a tier 3 crisis where the immediate effects are the deaths of the european nation but it also brought the end to serfdom and the upheaval of the social structure. The Tier 3 crisis on Escala (Human planet) and Lyria (Elven Planet) is a threat to the coexistence between both of these races. The political, economical and social consequences of this crisis will bring the indirect death of hundreds of millions of Elves and Humans and the stagnation in technology for at least a few hundred years.

But the classification of missions isn’t important now, what’s important is whether or not Ashley lived up to my expectations. By Lady Katarina’s words Ashley was indeed an important asset in this following mission but each agent I recruit has to meet my standard. She was only 18 years old, such a young tender child shouldn’t be in the field yet. Much less a tier 3 mission. Giving such a young child the responsibility of saving millions of people isn’t something wise but if she somehow has at least a stable foundation we can start to build off that. A simple test is to test her worldviews and her reaction to extreme situation. For example, meeting a devil. Will she judge me as a person? So back we go into the distorted world of Ashley. She should be seeing the world in a distorted mess with me in the middle, with whatever image of a devil she had in her mind. I stared at her eyes which was coloured with an expression of fear, shock and fright. She was clearly scared even if she tried to hide it, it showed on her face. With a stutter she slowly appeared to say something, faintly I heard,

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“A-Are you the devil that they mention in history books?”

‘Interesting’ I thought to myself, ‘She doesn’t assume that I’m the same devil in her mind, yet she’s also subtly trying to gain control over the conversation by asking a question. I’ll entertain her for a bit’

“I’m far worse than the devils in your history books.”

She stammered out another line, “I-I never knew Devils read history books”

‘HAHAHAHA, What an interesting lad!’ I thought to myself 'Trying to diminsh that I'm far worse than the devil in the history book and divert the conversation elsewhere'

“Knowledge is universal for all creatures, information is the most powerful tool in the universe” I snapped back, “Of course an intellectual like me will know what mortals describe me as”

“Then as an intellectual can we talk about how I can help you?” she pleaded, there was less fear in her eyes now but still a sense of weariness.

‘How amusing’ I smirked in my head, ‘She’s behaving exactly how Katarina said she would’

“You can help by answering this question. What do devils do?” I taunted her, “What do you think devils are known for?”

Ashley thought for a while before her eyes were suddenly filled with terror, “A-Are you going to steal my soul” Ashley stuttered, “I know I might die, but can I see my sister first before you take me?”

“If I wanted to hurt you dear, .‌̙̹̞͕͒͂̂̓̃̓͋̚IÌ̢͖̣̱̦͚̽̆̆͊͟‌̱͓̙̫͓́̆̉̿͋̓͗̅̾͠ ‌̸̘̥̰͖͍͔̮̘̉̃̄̐́͗̾̔̒͟w̸̢̢͇̣̜͖̥̫̲̔͌͐̋̂͜͠ơ̞͕̞̙̫̋̇̾͘͠ǘ̢̡̬͕̤̠͕̎̃̊͘͠͝ĺ̸̹̩̹̪̉͛͗͟͡d̵̜͍̜͍̒͂̋͐̌̔͌̕̚͟’̸͇̙̤̞͎̭͙̥̟͂̎́̉͆͘̚͜͝v̴̡̘̹̭̯̦̼̋̃̂̽̕͟ḛ̝͈̬͉̭̎̾͗̅̚͟͜͟‌̨̧̟͈͔̻͕̖̳̮̇̽̇́̈͘͝ ‌̶̬̗̯̺͚̓̀̈̔̈́͒̏d̴̬͕̞̥̹̀̔̋̎͆͌o͔̺̦̯̤͇̠̹̩̽͌̽̕͝͠n̬̯̙̝̜͋͆̋̾̓͆̿͗̔͜͠ͅḛ̡̢̢̘̫̗̲͇͚͆̔̒́̑̋̾͡‌̶̱̥̫͉͕̭̽̇͋͒̾ͅ ‌̘̥̳̝͔̃̏͒̍̇͒͌̑͞͠š͍̩̹͖̖̟̤̩́͂͑̎̑̽͜ͅơ̸̭̯̜̙͔̳͌̾̊́͒‌̨̧̱̤͕̰̖́̿͛̈̏͝ ‌̴̳̦̯͙͉̞̹̟̋̉̒̅̂̂͘̚̚a̻̩̪̘̠̯̭͒̈͘͟͢͞͡ḻ̸̡̲̱͍̣̬̣̺̦̽̄͆͌͒̎̍́͝͠ŗ̷͓̪̩͙̬̮̦̑̄̿̈̂̎̎͋̀ͅe̟͔̼̬͇͇͍͚͗̾̓̑͗͡ą̵͈͕͕̮̹͈̜͎͖̇̊̿͊̽̓͠͠ď̢̰͍̭̣̋̕̚͢͡͡͝y̫̟̭͋̑̎͋͑̓̋͟͟͝” I shrieked with a maniacal laughter twisting her world into an apocalyptic chaos. 

Ashley’s eyes flashed in horror before turning into a calm peaceful look as if resigning herself to the inevitable.

I bring her world back to a stable level of distortion before continuing, "I want to help you. Devils make contracts, and I’m here to offer you a contract. I know what you want, and I can give it to you. I can make the bones stop hurting. I can make you diseaseless. I can even make your accomplished sister proud of you. I can even bring you to a fantasy world you’ve always dreamt of. All of these things, I can fulfill for you and much more” I jeered before sarcastically bowing to her.

A hint of greed flashed in her eyes before it turned into an incredulous wariness once more. She was definitely a warry girl cautious at every corner but is she willing to take the risk? This was something I wanted to find out, life isn’t always about finding the perfect decisions. Just the ones you think are best.

“May I ask what do you get out of this deal?” she probed without restraint.

“Nothing much, all I need is your cooperation. I think what you should ask is what do you want my child” I jeered with a playful laugh. I clapped, distorting her consciousness into a dream. I showed her in a position over the Katarina Revivo skyscraper as the CEO with Katarina hugging her in pride. Her eyes shone with an emotion of fulfillment and satisfaction tears started forming on the corner of her eyes. I clapped once more, showing her living an extravagant life on a yacht with her friends around her. She was rich, famous and beautiful in this dream. I clapped once more, transporting her consciousness into the fantasy world of the book she was reading. Here adventure lied in every resting corner and magic filled the air. Her eyes now glowed with excitement and restlessness. I let her experience magic and erase all of the suffering she has gone through letting her roam free for a while before clapping once more bringing her back to the distorted world where the world wrapped upon itself and colours were faded painting the world in shades of white and black.

She was frightened, but excited. She was profusely sweating, her hands were shaking, her heart was beating but her eyes were awfully clear. She was scared, but she wanted to take this opportunity to make a deal with the devil. I smirked in my mind thinking that she’s like the seed to a great tree only needing enough time and resources before she blossomed into a magnificent tree. I only hope she doesn’t get blinded by greed or else I’ll have to wipe her memory.

A minute passed. She stayed silent in deep thought.

3 minutes passed. She continued to stay in deep thought.

5 minutes passed. She appeared to want to say something, but went back into deep thought.

8 minutes passed. I’m not impatient, I literally have all the time in the world to wait. I can wait as long as a year if I need to.

15 minutes passed. Ashley now had both of her eyes closed in deep thought contemplating all of the information she’s received.

30 minutes passed before she finally stuttered a question, “I-I want to consult with my sister first” Her eyes were filled with a mixture of unease and an unwavering resilliance. She pretended to sound unsure but I can sense a firm resolution in the back of her mind.

“You can have money, fame or power, you could even be cured of your disease, yet you choose to know about your sister? Won't you regret this decision? I responded with obvious disgust disguising my glee.

“Yes. I want to know the truth behind my sister” She responded with an astute determination.

The truth. I thought to myself. Maybe she really is smarter than she looks. I responded to her question with a bright devilish grin, “Anything is possible through me" Her world started to fall, time began to stop and space started to rip apart.