Forum Thread

Of course there was something interesting. Not another cockroach but another demon. Someone who unfortunately was also as old as he was. Just seeing that freakishly tall beanpole and his stupid tattoos made him want to turn back around but he had already been spotted so too late for that. "Of course you would be the one to burn something down." Belphie groaned, yawning as he jostled his prey at the reminder of it. "Pot, meet kettle. Remind me who's the one who plays with their food between the two of us? This is bait, not food." Belphie actually kind of hated that Aster was staying far enough that his lethargy wouldn't affect the other demon too much, not that it would do much even if they were touching considering both their skill and power. But it didn't really matter if he liked the other demon or not, Aster was there and that was good enough.

"Speaking of playing with your food... Looks like you played to hard and let one slip." He intoned almost as if talking about the weather, glancing pointedly at Aster's hand. It was funny, seeing one of the most sadistic demons being taken down a peg by a mere cockroach but it was also a reminder that sometimes not taking things too seriously could be detrimental. A nice sentiment, but he was confident enough that he could just laugh at Aster. Or well, huff out a joke of a snicker before walking closer. "Need a hand? I don't mind rubbing it in your face that you let one cockroach... no. Not a cockroach is it? A rat, perhaps? Yes... you let a silly little rat bite you in the hand."

---

"Wow, it sure is nice up here." Sobble gazes at the trees. "I should go find some friends though, like human companions." Sobble leaps across tree to tree at a blistering speed.

---

Abyss started up the stove.

"Just sit tight and I'll cook up somethin' for you to eat."

Internally, Abyss was suspicious.

The girl's aura reeked of danger.

Of...

Ah.

She was one of those people.

That's why her aura was so familiar.

He perked up when she mentioned her wound.

He could hear the artificial desperation in her voice.

He could hear the slight pauses in her speech when brining up common medicinal items.

It just confirmed his suspicions.

Quietly, he pulled a small vial out of a pocket.

A sleeping drug to be ingested through foods or drinks.

It took a few minutes to work properly, and it only knocked them out for an hour, but it should do.

He walked over to the table, with an omelet and four glasses of water. All tainted with the drug, of course.

"Here you go, Lilac, and have some water, y'all."

His smile was hollow.

He took a seat and watched them eat.

He didn't have any worries about them figuring out what he had done.

The drug was undetectable, anyways.

He just needed to stall.

One sip and they were out.

He did feel some remorse, but buried it in the back of his mind.

Feelings came later.

---

"Wow, it sure gets lonely up here."

---

Cath raised her eyebrows when the newcomer fell to the table. She had barely gotten to meet them. "Lilac." Everyone chose such stupid names. Abyss, Nox, Lilac... at least her nickname was a natural derivation from her given name. Sure, in moderation, they were cool, but they were 100% overused in this universe.

"Was that... justified? I know I may lack front line experience, but was she really that dangerous?" She had seen Neo's sleight of hand trick, only because she had lived with him for years. Lost memories flowing back into her brain. And she had let it happen, trusting him.

Their army was growing. Nox and Abyss had agreed to work together. For now. She couldn't quite suppress the feeling that this was going to go very wrong somehow. And they still had to find Athena. But what if...

The Professor deftly slid a hand into the pocket of her lab coat, and pressed a small button. It was one of her oldest inventions, but that didn't mean it wasn't still in perfect condition. She sent a short transmitter pulse on the rotating encoded frequency she had set up for emergencies. Athena would receive the summons, and understand that while it was urgent, it wasn't a life or death situation.

Before you must begin, you must first assemble all the pieces on the chess board... Professor Kauri had taught her well. She could remember warm afternoons at teatime, when the scientists paused their work for a glorious half hour. The simple wooden chess board, the grooves of a knight between her fingers, the laughter that accompanied each checkmate.

She had played against a master everyday for four years. Caerthynna Elysium only beat him once. It was the day before the demons came. She could remember gaping at the board in surprise, a chance remark that the world had turned upside down... And then it did.

This time Cath was playing to win. She turned her attention back to her accomplices(?) and continued to eat, taking small bites of her food.

---

Abyss watched the people at the table carefully.

He had known that he could never trick Cath. She knew him too well for that.

Of course, he had backups for his backups.

What kind of mercenary would he be if he didn't have plans?

Abyss noticed Cath pressing the button.

he sighed.

"The hard way it is."

"So... Cath. Anything you'd like to share? Any... imminent threats?"

---

She smiled sardonically. Whatever his name was, her friend never missed a trick. "Merely... summoning the last member of our new resistance. Answer my question: what were they, and why did you do that?"

She watched her companions carefully. How long would their fragile alliance last? It wasn't based in trust. They were all hiding secrets. They were all doomed to fail. The Professor took the transmitter out of her pocket and slid it over to Abyss.

"If you still don't trust me, here. You know enough about machines to ascertain its purpose."

---

A slightly surprised and impressed look appears on Nox's face when the girl had boldly walked inside. She sits up slightly and shoots Abyss a questioning look, but his gaze revealed nothing. So instead, she focuses on Liliac. "Heh, guess he likes you" she had said while laughing, she had a sincere expression on her face. Nox glances down at the starving dog, her frown deepening.

Sure, it wasn't like there were tons of food available to them but still, something about this starved dog was giving her red flags. Her gaze softens a bit when Liliac brings attention to her wound, but stays sharp when the girl requests stiches. What happened to you that you need to close a wound that deep? She couldn't figure this girl out. Was she dangerous? Or did she seriously need their help? Her heart begged her to believe Liliac, but her gut said otherwise.

Then there was Cath and Abyss, who seemed to be having a silent conversation between them. Some things made sense, others did not. She sits back, ignoring the water for now and continues to silently listen to the three. Keep your cards close and allow them to slowly, and foolishly reveal their hand. She knew she could trust Cath. But Abyss and Liliac? She would have to keep a close eye on the two.
...
Aster giggles at Belphi's words. He felt an odd sense of pride for being caught commiting arson and manipulating his prey. "Alright, you caught me!" He says while holding his hands up, wincing from the sharp pain in his right one. "But playing with your food is fun. If you ask me, baiting other humans is a waste of time." He lowers his head in shame, his pride taking a hit from Belphi ever so kindly pointing out his injured hand. "This human is different" Aster growls. "She has an ability that allows her to cloak herself in shadows. I can assure you, if she were any normal rat she would be dead by now!" He pauses and sniffs the air. He grins to himself and glances at Belphi with a daring expression. "She is somewhat close, with other humans nearby. Why don't we pay them a visit? You can see for yourself just how powerful she really is!"

Raising an eyebrow at how easy it was to goad the other into admitting weakness, wasn't Aster usually much more prideful than this, Belphi muled over what the other said. A human who blended in with the shadows seemed interesting enough and even subconsciously, Belphi licked his lips at the thought. Ah, but it also sounded like so much work and if Aster was already injured, he didn't want to take too many chances. "Hnn, tell you what let's compromise." He counter offered. "I deliver this thing to their doorstep - the poor human who lay forgotten on Belphi's back was rudely jostled, drawing a low moan from the thing- and say something about 'oh no a big bad demon is chasing us help' and we can strike from two fronts. We both get our fun that way."

---

A cruel smile appears on Aster's lips. He practically felt ready to jump for joy at the mere thought of the plan. "Let's do it!" He manages to keep his voice calm. He was itching for revenge and a proper meal. This was going to be an incredibly easy way to get both. "I'm quite excited to work with you Belphi, these humans won't stand a chance against us!"

Whispers began flooding her ears, whispers so loud and random that it almost gave her a headache. The shadows were talking once again, talking about a drug. Darkness could see things that Mei couldn't, that's how she had survived this long. A mutual agreement was between the two, one so fragile and easily broken. It took her years to learn that her supposed ally had its own mind, it didn't like to be contained or controlled. It took her even longer to build trust with it. She fueled the fire, and the fire helped her burn down her enemies. That was the relationship she had with the shadows.

This was quite the predicament, wasn't it? That one slip-up, not even knowing a common, modern term could be the death of her. Could. She couldn't flat-out reject the food, that would be highly suspicious, and pointing it out would be too. It was an undetectable drug, and when she inspected the water, she couldn't even tell it was there. She only knew because of the darkness.

"Thank you kindly," Mei smiled, accepting the food seemingly without any suspicion. She had a plan, and she knew it would work.

Wait... What the hell?

The whispers didn't stop, there was something else she needed to know. Abyss drugged everyone's water. Why would he do that? Weren't they all buddies or something? No... She was foolish not to see deeper into this. Abyss really was similar to her, backstabbing people who at least somewhat trusted him. She had to hand it to him, it was a good move, and she would've applauded him if she didn't have an act to play.

"Was that... justified? I know I may lack front-line experience, but was she really that dangerous?"

Mei looked over at Cath while slowly eating her omelet. Did she really defend Mei that easily? Anyone who survived this war would be hardened by the elements, not acting like an idiot. Wasn't that suspicious enough? Anyways... She would've fed some food to the dog, but the drug was more potent to him than it was to her. She really didn't want her only friend in this room knocked out. Mei wasn't even eating the food really, she swallowed it whole, all while making a small void in her throat. It blocked her airways momentarily while she did the trick, but at least she wasn't being drugged. She did the same with the water, letting the void swallow the liquid instead. Sure, it would've been suspicious that she wasn't knocked out, but they were already suspicious of her anyways. Besides, it wasn't like she was intending on doing anything to them. Yet.

Even if she did want to do something, it wasn't like she could. Everyone was already onto her, and Abyss was pretty much guaranteed to know who she was by now. There was no fooling him, that's for sure. She also had a demon on her tail, maybe even two by now. God, this was annoying... She hadn't even done anything yet...

"Aha, a group. Time to jump down." Sobble jumps down onto the ground and looks at the group of "Hello there." Sobble uses a ninja cloning technique.

---

Abyss sighed.

This would be tougher than he thought.

As he thought, this girl was not normal.

Should he bring out the tranquilizer?

nah.

He ignored Cath's last question.

He didn't need to explain his actions.

She knew that he never did anything without a reason.

he wasn't gonna hurt the girl.

All he wanted to do was to make sure he knew who he was dealing with.

---

"I'm Sobble, who are you?"

---

It was like watching a dog get all excited for a walk. Kind of pathetic but adorable. Only if you were the owner of said dog. Which Belphi was decidedly not. Goddess, this was going to be exhausting and Belphi could already feel himself drifting off. He barely fended off a yawn as he started walking. "Well, glad to hear it I suppose. You'll have to lead the way though. I'm not the one with a freakishly good nose." Hefting the bait a bit higher, he coaxed answers out of the delirious little cockroach who's name was apparently Lorelei so there was that. Belphi could remember that, if only because he needed the information for the frankly convoluted plan that they had. It was going to be such a hassle to actually pull off

---

They didn't respond. "You guys are dumb bye."

---

Aster nods and races forward to lead the way. He tries to keep himself under control, which was difficult, because his instincts were screaming at him to race forward by himself. He slows his pace so Belphi could keep up, afterall, Belphi was carrying a human. The added weight would likely slow him down.

Aster almost couldn't believe it. He was working together with Belphi of all demons. He rarely got the chance to interact with Belphi... Mainly because the demon was either half asleep or fully asleep. Aster was actually pretty impressed that the demon was awake right now. He couldn't have picked a better time to have awakened. The demons hunting humans in this world were weak, they weren't nearly as strong as Aster and Belphi. Most normal demons struggled against one human!

-You mean like how you struggled to attack that girl? A dark thought reminds Aster. The memory makes him growl. He would get his revenge soon. He glances back at Belphi, just to make sure the other demon was keeping up before continuing forward. They were nearly there...

Nox was suspicious of him.

Justifiably so.

She was the only one in this room who didn't know what he was up to.

Lilac wasn't knocked out.

he could tell exactly what she had done.

Cath was avoiding the tainted drinks.

She knew him too well.

Abyss sighed.

What a waste of a drug.

He knew it wouldn't've worked well anyways.

He just wanted to make completely sure that all the people at this table were a threat.

---

"Man, this is really lonely." Sobble sees a cat. "Hello there cutie, you sure are cute." Sobble pats the cat.

Ugh, this was soooo boring, could someone do something for once? Yeah sure, everyone in the room almost got drugged, and Abyss was having a silent war with the girl who hadn't been named yet, but she couldn't do anything with that!

Fine, guess she had to do it herself. It was pointless to keep trying to hide what was already known.

Since Mei was decently far away from everyone else, she could probably do this without eyes on her for a second or two. While no one was looking directly her way, she sunk into her chair and crawled her way behind Abyss, completely undetected. She had no intentions to harm him or anything, she just wanted to shake things up a bit. She was starting to like this group, a bunch of random people who had almost no trust in each other, it was fun to be around. The lies would be entertaining to spot, and watching said lies unfold would be exciting. Maybe she wouldn't kill them...

She was behind Abyss, silently sitting in the wall behind him. This was probably incredibly risky, he was clearly not one to mess with. His reaction time might be absurd, which she didn't account for before doing this, but hers was too. She would be fine... right?

"It's not nice to drug a poor lady's meal like that, Abyss..." Mei whispered, almost directly in his ear

A haunting giggle followed right after, echoing in the room, seemingly getting louder the further out the sound went. She had no clue why her words did that, but it was fun so she didn't mind.

What she did mind though was that damn dog. Cerberus was terrified by her little trick, barking with fear as it cowered behind Nox's chair. Now she felt bad... She had just got him to not hate her, but guess all of that was undone once she showed exactly why he was afraid of her. She'd have to make it up to Cerberus later...