NOVEL WEB Chapter 31: Worries and plans
Plexion sat on Jack's desk, touching one of the screens before him. By making contact with the screen, he could see around the area where a screen would be if a person had it open. It was a strange view, positioned slightly away from a person's head, but it allowed him to see the beautiful world of Drowl again. He was observing one of the soldiers near Jack and the priests, watching his killers closely. Lexen's group were exactly the kind of people he had thought them to be, faithful and dedicated workers.
He was angry at them, and rightfully so in his mind. They had killed him, he was allowed to be mad about that. The High Deity hadn't even said anything remotely close to 'kill Plexion' or anything like that. Plexion shook his fist in their direction, incredibly tempted to have the butterflies delete everything on their status screens. Then he shook his head and sighed, messing with things that much would get Jack in trouble.
Jack was pretty much his sole hope in all this mess. Plexion had created a method of magic to hide himself from the High Deity, but the problem was that it worked after death as well. The High Deity recycled souls, reincarnating people back down to Drowl in new forms as new people. Plexion though? He had gone and made his soul impossible to find. He couldn't be reincarnated because the High Deity couldn't find him, it was rather unfortunate. Plexion didn't want to spend the rest of eternity stuck in this white void of nothingness, occasionally spotting Deis as he floated around.
Plexion took a moment to look around the god's domain, searching for the cloak. He spotted Deis looking at a screen, a little ways away from Jack's workstation. Curious, Plexion sauntered over, completely undetectable to the God of gods. He peered at the screen before freezing, shock overcoming his nonchalant attitude. The screen belonged to Deis, his name was on it and everything. Most of the information wasn't filled in, the stats and skills totally empty, but the god looked at it with focus and intent. The screen fuzzed slightly and Plexion could see the text distort and change, words becoming foreign characters and things appearing all over the blue box.
Plexion watched, a mix of awe and curiosity churning in his mind, before slowly reaching out a hand. Before he could make contact with the screen, however, Deis suddenly closed the screen and whisked away. Plexion flinched despite himself, the sudden actions Deis took always made him feel like he had been caught. Plexion pondered that screen, it had seemed...wrong. Not the clear and concise system that Jack had intended, but something alien and different. Plexion wanted to touch it, to interact with it, to study it. Maybe he could ask Jack to have Deis summon the screen for him.
Turning back to the desk and the growing list of screens that popped up here anytime someone granted a status, Plexion looked through them until he found a specific one. The status screen of Lexen the demon. The de facto leader of the group that had killed him, and the guy that was going on some holy crusade to convert the world. Plexion didn't know why Lexen had the [Chosen of the Status] skill, but he was pretty sure that Lexen was going to do some things he wasn't supposed to.
Deis did not like to interfere directly in the lives of his people. He would visit or direct individuals if asked but chose not to interfere of his own accord unless it was important. His direct intervention had stopped no less than six impending world-ending events by individuals who wished for the destruction of everything and everyone. Plexion had been a different story. The idea that Deis could not oversee his people was ridiculous, he made them, and they were a part of him. Every part of Drowl was a part of him, it would be like if one of a person's fingernails disappeared, leaving a note saying that it had hidden itself somewhere on your body. It had been unacceptable, and a dangerous precedent. If people could simply vanish from his sight, how would he know whether they were going to ruin his beautiful world or not?
The idea that Deis could not see the area around Jack bothered him. He had seen people enter the blind spot, but as long as Jack's spirit was down there, then Deis couldn't observe the situation. Lexen and his group had entered, but only Lexen himself had left. Deis was annoyed that the demon had the [Chosen of the Status] skill, he had specifically told Jack not to give that skill to anyone who wasn't a priest. He would have punished Jack for his insolence already by obliterating his soul, but he was only half convinced that it was the earthling's fault. Deis knew of the dedication given to Lexen by his followers, the possibility existed that they pitied him and granted him the skill.
Lexen was a devout follower, passionate and faithful. The only area in which he was lacking was how he interpreted the things Deis commanded of him. He seemed to view the god as the pinnacle of grace, mercy, and righteousness. Deis agreed, of course, he was the perfect, almighty God of Drowl. But Lexen often let the God's kind nature overwrite certain words or tones, giving his messages completely different meanings. Deis would not confront Lexen for now, the man's goal was to spread the system and bring glory to Deis. This was acceptable, but Deis would need to keep an eye on the situation to make sure nothing too dangerous happened,
Deis idly wondered if Frox had been discovered yet. Evanna would likely force him to be given a status sheet which would break his cover. Deis didn't feel especially strongly about the man getting caught or not, it was simply the way of the world. He would allow events to shape themselves without picking a side, only acting to stop truly catastrophic things from occurring. He knew each and every person of Drowl and loved them all equally, he would never help one person over another, even if it meant saving someone's life.
Frox sat in chains, anxiously awaiting his fate. Hours had passed and night was falling now. He could only sit and think about what kind of torture was to come. The Queen would personally torture him no doubt. He knew for a fact that she didn't keep a torturer on her staff purposefully, opting to do the job herself when she could. He respected that part of her, she wasn't afraid to dirty her hands if it meant getting what she wanted, it was very demonic of her.
He was similar to her in that regard, he had been posing as a butler for almost fifteen years, living in the human kingdom for almost ten years before that in order to have a shot at working in the palace. The majority of his life was spent pretending to be someone else. All so that he could occasionally hear some secret or rumor that he could report to his home kingdom. He had always wanted to be useful, to serve the Queen of all demons in any way he could. When he had been chosen for an infiltration program that spanned every corner of Drowl, he had been thrilled. A real chance to make a difference and serve the glorious empire! Much like the Queen, he wasn't afraid to do whatever it took to get the answers he wanted.
But now he had been caught. The torture wouldn't accomplish much, he truly didn't know anything about the current state of the demonlands. He had left there as a child and had never been given word as to current events there. He sighed internally, idly wondering if there was any way he could be useful ever again.
"Psst." a voice whispered from nearby. "Hey, Frox was it? Got a job for you if you want out."
Frox perked up. A chance to escape, he would take one if he could. His mouth was gagged to prevent the casting of spells, so he just nodded his head and hoped that his rescuer could see him.
The locks of his chains silently undid themselves and floated gently to the floor. His chains also silently lowered themselves as Frox stared in surprise. This level of magical control was very good, truly the caster was someone very skilled in the magical arts. Quietly, Frox made his way over to where he had heard the whispering coming from, being very careful to not alert the guards to his escape. There was no one that he could see outside of the carriage, but Frox supposed they might be making themselves invisible.
The whisper returned. "Before we let you out, we need you to agree to our terms. Do you understand?" Frox nodded his head seriously. "Good. We need someone killed, is that something you're confident in?" The voice was strange, likely obscured by magic. Frox couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, nor any identifying characteristics that he could usually try to identify people with. It wasn't deep or high, it wasn't fast or slow. These people had gone to great lengths to conceal themselves.
Frox nodded again, he had killed before. He worked as one of the human Queen's hidden blades, a group of killers among the Queen's staff. Sometimes they were called to assassinate key figures or fight off those who wished her harm.
"Perfect!" The whispers sounded very pleased with this news. "The person we want you to kill is the one who outed you. We want you to kill Jack, the triple internal type bore-bot. If you're fine with that, we'll let you out of here. Do we have a deal?"
Frox thought about it for a long moment. Then he nodded his head in agreement.