Inside a building that took the shape of a pulsing heart, with the second floor being a brain that sparked with electricity, four beings sat around a round table, sitting in chairs that could only be described as evil.
One of these beings- a crimson demon- happened to be watching footage on a screen in front of him.
"Hmm.... it seems like the Determined has taken an interesting approach to the ratmen village. How devilish. She pretended like she was going to save everyone only to reveal her true form, inspiring terror into their hearts. I can't say that I dislike it.", he stated with a sinister grin.
"I don't believe that was her intention. It was likely a mishap which happened to end well. She got lucky, that was all.", responded a female succubus whose skin was tainted with a turquoise shade.
While these two demons were focused on the screens in front of them which showed video camera feed from around 12 different locations at once, two more beings were sitting across from one another with a chess board in between them.
One of them was an elf wearing a suit and tie, with glasses so square that the corners might cut your finger if you were to touch it. The other was a girl wearing a ragged dress with hair so messy that it was a wonder as to how it was even possible for something so chaotic to exist. Hey eyes drooped with black lines under them, so thick it appeared as if someone took a marker and drew them onto her.
Despite her ragged appearance, this girl- whose skin was transparent- had a victoriously smug grin.
"Heh heh heh.... well? That's check."
The elf who happened to be wearing the glasses seemed stressed as his eyes glazed across the board.
"Mmmm.... right back at you. Check."
Taking his turn, he seemed to be holding his breath as he watched the transparent girl giggle with glee.
"Hehehe.... and this is checkmate."
The elf stood up, turning around with frustration.
"13,823 moves.... I considered every possible outcome, thinking 10,000 moves ahead..... and yet I still lost! Among every single move, never once did you perform any mistakes. Every single move was the optimal move for the situation. Through intuition alone, you managed to defeat the equivalent of a computer based AI. Ludicrous."
Stunned with the result, the man pushed up his glasses and laughed at his own defeat.
"Haha.... well, I suppose that's why intuition is so terrifying."
The transparent girl looked up with bored eyes, raising an eyebrow.
"Really? I mean, it was really obvious what you were trying to do with each move. I just sorta went with the flow. Every move I just thought 'What would piss him off the most?', and I kept on doing that. Eventually, I won.", she crackled.
"Like I said. Terrifying."
The two demons looked up from the screen they were focusing on to address the other two.
"Ah, are you two finally done?", the male demon asked. "It's been 6 hours now. Theo, will you take a look at the footage retrieved from the ratmen village? Everything happened exactly according to your predictions."
The man grinned as he clicked his own screen, setting up his own view of the footage.
"Well, at least something is going my way. If I'm not wrong, the Determined should be contacting us at any moment. Tomorrow we make our way onto the stage."
"Sounds good.", the teal demon replied.
These four beings were the antiheroes, and right now they were resting after a hard day of managing multiple cities.
After building the highway system connecting their cities, Garett and Samantha focused their efforts on the collection of information on all of their subordinates, who had now spread across the world.
"We're everywhere now. It's going to be difficult to not attract any attention from possible enemies after this.", Garett mused.
"There is no gain without risk. We cannot stay hidden in our shell forever. After all, we are an entire nation at this point- with multiple cities to govern. The humans haven't found out about us quite yet, and I would like to keep things this way, but at this rate...."
Trevor became slightly concerned.
"Well, this has already been taken account of, but there will be some turbulence in the human realm soon enough. In a worst case scenario we will intervene, but we shouldn't need to, especially with Oraguth and Coran present to inform us of any movements. More importantly, our flag has been spread among all the nearby villages at this point. The name of the antiheroes is now well known across the entire monster realm. And this will draw out our enemies all across the realm."
Samantha nodded.
"Let's take them for everything they have."
The four began to laugh maniacally together.
"Heh heh heh...."
"Hahaha!!"
"Keh keh keh...."
"AHAHA!!!"
After wiping their tears of laughter, the sound of a ringing phone vibrated throughout the room.
"It's the Determined, right on time."
"Helloooo? How's it going, angel woman?", Ashley said sarcastically as she answered.
[Ah, hello! I.... I've made some good progress here in the ratmen village.]
"We've already seen. So you wish for us to attend a presentation tomorrow morning?"
[Ah, you are fast to catch on! I guess that makes things easier. Yes. I want you all to come to the arena tomorrow morning to officially inaugurate the ratmen village into our domain.]
"Understood. Anything else?", Trevor asked.
[Mmm.... well, nothing in particular. If you already know how things went, then I don't really have much to say. This city.... they have a load of problems, but I want to help the people here. I want to help them to live good lives without conflict or having to put their lives on the line just to get by each day.]
"We will only help those who graciously accept us as their overlords. Tomorrow that decision will be made clear. Now then, I suppose you have plans as well for tonight if I am not wrong. I'll let you go for now."
[Ah, ok! You're right actually. I did have one more place to go for the night. Then, I'll see you all tomorrow!]
The call ended, and the four were left to look at one another.
Trevor brought up a map of the world as discovered by the group thus far, and this one was color coded.
Some places were green, with the Dictatorship and it's surroundings shaded a dark green. Some places were a bright red, and others were yellow or orange.
"This is a map of the world as of right now. The places which are green are those who have accepted our absolute rule, and the places which are red are those who view us as nothing more than the ultimate evil beings, and wish for our swift elimination."
Currently, almost the entire human realm was red aside from a single green dot in a particular village.
The monster realm was strewn with a flurry of colors in all the locations which the four had not yet visited, however none were green. Some were yellow, others orange, and some red.
The ratmen village was currently orange.
"It seems like we still have a ways to go before we can truly call them a part of the Dictatorship. Of course, that is the whole purpose of tomorrow. As far as the others...."
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Trevor glanced over to the snakemen village which Lance and his group had been sent to.
It was red- and even more so than before.
"I am excited to see how things play out there. I'm sure you all will find it to be very entertaining, to say the least.", he said with a trailing laugh.
With this, the four stood up from their seats and began to make their way to the dining hall.
"It's been a long day. I wonder what's on the menu?", Garett asked. "Ah wait, I suppose there is only one type of meat that currently lines our storehouses. Even so, the meals are different each day. That chef is quite something. She can take the same piece of livestock and make so many different things from it. It was the right decision to hire her."
Trevor looked over to Garett with a smug grin.
"Of course it was. Did you think any decision approved by myself would be an incorrect one?"
"As long as I approve of it first.", Ashley tacked on.
----
Claire found herself riding through the streets of the ratmen village in her carriage.
'Ah.... it's nice and quiet now. All the fighting has stopped!! I did it! Well.... I suppose all the killing is now over, but the reason for it still remains. The problems haven't actually been fixed yet. Resources are still scarce. The people are still afraid of the outside world. But hopefully the antiheroes will be able to ease everyone's worries tomorrow.'
Claire smiled to herself as she rode along, heading toward the home of Mori.
'But right now, I have some people to visit! I have to apologize to everyone. If I were better at this sort of thing, I would have been able to come about to a more peaceful and gradual solution, but unfortunately....'
Claire remembered back to how Clarice ran rampid, terrorizing all the people in the arena.
'That didn't happen. I don't regret it, but I still have to apologize. If only I was smarter maybe I would have been able to find a better solution.'
Claire nodded to herself.
'Maybe that is the case, but isn't everything fine as it is?', Clarice whispered. 'It ended up much better than I thought. Maybe you were right.... to an extent. We need each other. I can't do anything good, and you can't do anything evil. But together.... we can find the right balance, and create the perfect solution.... even if that solution is imperfect.'
'What does that even mean?'
'There's no such thing as a 'perfect' solution where nobody gets hurt. But there is a 'best' solution where the least amount of people suffer. We need to strive for that.'
'So we ditch the minorities for the sake of the majority?'
'I never said anything like that. If the majority are all scum I would slaughter them in an instant. That might just be the best solution.'
'You're scaring me, Clarice.... are you really a part of me!? Do I really think such things!?!'
'Of course you do.'
'Ugh....'
Claire continued her ride through the streets as the lighting became darker.
The smog covered the entire city, completely blocking out the sunlight, so the darkness of night was only slightly darker than the light of day.
'Here we are...', Claire thought as she looked up to where she pinpointed Ramrod to be. Before he had left, Claire had set a condition on him such that she could track his location.
'Alright... let's do this.'
'This is called stalking Claire. Tracking of location without permission.'
'No!! I just…. I… uh…'
'But I suppose you are the law of the land. So I suppose it could go under…. government tracking?'
'Y-yeah! That's… I mean that isn't much better… but fine. I'll take that. I'm tracking down my slaves!!'
'That made it way worse. Haha!'
'Eh!? Did it!?'
After her interaction with Clarice, Claire hopped down from the carriage as the horses came to a stop, and walked over to the door, knocking.
"Who the hell could it be at this time of night!? I'll let you know-"
Ramrod seemed irritated but as the door creaked open revealing the figure of Claire, his face which was slightly reddened with drunkenness turned pale.
"D-determined!? No.... your eminence!? W-what may I do for you?"
"Ah.... Ramrod. Well.... actually two things.... the first thing is that I wanted to talk with you and the other two. But the second thing is.... I actually don't really have any place to stay for the night."
Claire stuck out her tongue and bopped her head with her fist in a ditzy manner.
"Ah!! P-please, come in! We have a guest room which you are free to use, but allow us to prepare it for you first!!"
"No need. I'll take it as is. I don't want to be treated like some queen. Just let me hang out here like an old friend or something, ok?"
Ramrod was confused as to her strange demands, but agreed.
"Alright. I understand."
He opened the door, letting Claire in to reveal the two men who she had seen earlier, sitting at the table.
"Ah, it's the angel."
"It's the one who supposedly became a demon and took over the city."
"Yes, that's the one."
"You two!!! Mind your manners around her eminence!!"
Claire looked at the two with a light smile.
"I told you, I don't want to be treated like a queen!! Just treat me normally for now, ok?"
Ramrod, remembering her orders, nodded quickly.
"I see.... alright. I get it. Then.... why don't I fix you something to drink? Or some food?"
"Ah, actually that would be great. I'm starving, you know!! What do you all eat usually? Just the cheese? Or is there anything else?"
"Well.... yes, all we eat in this city is the factory produced cheese."
"Hmm.... I see. Well, let me try a little bit at least. No need to give me too much!"
Ramrod quickly rushed off to the kitchen to fix her a plate.
"How do you make the alcohol without any farms?", Claire questioned, seeing a tall glass on the table.
"Well actually it's distilled from some of the biproducts of the factory."
"Isn't that.... really unhealthy?"
"We ratmen don't usually live long enough to die of bad health. Not with all the fighting in this city.", one of the men at the table said.
"Ah...."
Claire looked down sadly as she sat at the table.
She was brought a plate of cheese and a beer, which she first stuck her demonic finger into.
It seemed to suck up all the impurities within the drink, turning color from a dark brown to a bright yellow.
"Uwah.... there was so much filth in there....", Claire said out loud. "That's gotto be bad for you...."
Claire then placed her own hand on the cheese, which too was a dark brown, and it changed color as a swirling black essence seemed to enter her demonic arm, empowering it.
'I don't really get it, but it seems like you power up due to toxic energy or something', Claire thought.
'Something like that.', Clarice replied. 'But this stuff... it's horrible. Even I don't like powering up with something this disgusting.'
'Uwah....'
The three around her watched in amazement as the cheese and drink transformed into some strange unseen specimen as it became purified with the touch of the demonic hand.
"W-what did you just do to it!?", Ramrod asked.
"Ah, I just removed the impurities or something like that...", Claire answered. "Why don't you try it?"
Claire used her demonic claw to slice the cheese into four pieces, and held out the plate to the three.
"Well... if you insist..."
'Claire that's disgusting. Ain't nobody wants to eat that shit that you just cut up with my hand.'
'Ah!! Is that so!?'
Claire didn't have time to take it back as they each took a piece, consuming it, and their eyes became wide with astonishment.
"This is.... the best cheese I've ever consumed in my life!!!!!"
"It's delectable."
"Delightful."
Claire smiled, forgetting her previous plight once she saw the happy faces on the men. Taking her own piece and eating some of it, she nodded in satisfaction.
"I'm glad you like it!"
'You sure they aren't just saying that because they're scared of you?'
A vein appeared on the head of Claire, and she all of a sudden yelled out to herself.
"WILL YOU SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY!?!?!"
The men around Claire looked around in confusion and terror, immediately becoming silent.
As if their hearts had been jolted with electricity, they felt as if their very lives were being held by a thin string.
They didn't so much as dare to ask what was wrong. Even breathing too loudly might be enough to sever that string.
Calming down, Claire sat back down with an angelic smile.
"Ah, sorry. I was just talking to myself. Pay it no mind."
'P...pay it no mind!?'
'I thought we were dead…'
'I can't breathe…'
The men finally let out sighs of relief as they watched Claire relax.
They were filled with confusion, but without a doubt her anger had resided the moment it came about.
She drank a sip of her drink, washing it down with satisfaction before looking at Ramrod seriously.
"I came here to apologize. I didn't take into account the problems of this city, and ended up having to take drastic measures. I understand that stopping the fighting won't just solve all the problems, but I am going to work hard with my colleagues to make sure that there is no more need for fighting. Starting with this food issue."
Ramrod was in disbelief at this proclamation. Especially given her strange and bipolar personality, he had no idea what to make of her words. Even so, he could not help but believe in her due to her astounding powers which she had just displayed.
Resolving his own terrified heart, he spoke up with elegance.
"I will trust in you, Determined. I was suspicious at first, and didn't believe you would be able to make any change in this city. But I feel that I was wrong. I look forward to seeing what you do for us."
Claire laughed cheerfully.
"Great!! Now then.... I have to go speak to the two young ones as well.... I owe them an apology as well for not being able to predict the future.... after all, if I knew this would have happened, I would have Determined it not to be so."
'How can she just speak such insane things with such confidence!? That she is apologizing for… not being able to predict the future? This woman....'
Ramrod found himself trembling, hiding his shaking hand underneath the table.
'She truly is beyond our realm of understanding....', Ramrod thought.
----
Mori held Lisa tightly in his arms.
He didn't feel like letting her go.
He felt like if he let her go, he would fall back asleep and she would be left alone- which he couldn't stand.
He didn't want that.
'I have to.... stay... awake....'
Mori's arms fell, and Lisa let go of him, sitting next to the bed in a chair.
It was then that a knock was heard at the door.
"Um.... Lisa? Mori? You're in there, right? Can I come in?"
It was the voice of C.
That same angelic and innocent voice as before.
The door opened, revealing her smiling face.
"Ah... Mori... I heard you were wounded but this is...."
Claire stepped in the room, but as she did so, Lisa reeled back.
Her eyes were shaking as if she had seen a ghost, and she fell back into the corner, curling up into a ball and shaking with fear.
"W-what are you doing here, C?", she asked, terrified.
Claire was deeply saddened at this reaction.
'Ah... so it seems that showing off Clarice…. showing off my true self... has put her in this condition....'
Lisa seemed to be glancing at the left hand of Claire, which continuously reminded all that a demon was present inside her- waiting to burst out.
Claire spoke calmly in a soothing manner, trying not to startle the scared girl in front of her.
"Wait just a minute, Lisa. I know you're scared of that demon, but.... that was a part of me. We all have a dark side.... and I don't really like admitting that I have one myself.... but now you've seen it. But isn't everyone that way? Doesn't everyone have some horrible side to them that they don't want anyone to see? That's how it is. But even though every person has a dark side to them, does that make them a monster? Or a demon? If you look for the good in people... then perhaps you will be able to see past that darkness."
The girl was still frightened, but she seemed to raise her head, looking into the eyes of Claire.
She saw a pure expression- one filled with care and compassion. It was nothing like the demon she witnessed earlier.
"Is that.... true?"
Claire smiled sweetly.
"It is. I promise. I won't ever hurt either of you, and even if there is a demon inside of me..... she is still me. She can't do anything that goes against my own will."
Claire walked over to Mori with a sad expression, placing her hand on his side where the bullet wound was.
"He's been shot.... it's still crazy that they have guns here in this city...."
[Set condition: Unwounded]
Mori, who was just barely on the verge of falling asleep, suddenly felt a jolt of energy as his wound healed and the infection seemed to exit as if it were a red gas, being sucked up by the demonic arm of Claire.
"C.... just what are you?", he asked as he sat up.
Without response to Mori's question, Claire smiled kindly as she walked over to Lisa, reaching her hand out.
The young mouse girl reluctantly grabbed it, averting her eyes as she was helped up.
"Why would you ask a girl something like that? It can hurt quite a bit, you know."
Claire smiled bitterly, placing her right hand on the head of Lisa and her left on the head of Mori.
"I don't even know the answer to that question myself."