As if appearing out of thin air, four beings appeared inside the room on the top floor of the building.
The room atop this twisted tower had guards stationed all around it's walls, all of whom seemed to be eagerly awaiting someone.
Particularly, their queen.
If they were startled at the sudden appearance of the four beings, their eyes did not show it, as they did not move a muscle.
'They came out of nowhere.....'
'These are the antiheroes..... and our queen has taken it upon herself to speak with them head on.....'
'How brave and wonderful she is....'
Samantha, the teal succubus who wore her hair in a bun with a human finger as a pin, overheard the anxiety within the minds of these guards.
'They're doing a good job at hiding their true emotions. I suppose their desire to serve their queen is at least that great?'
In front of the four was an empty demonic throne that rose higher than a normal seat, presumably the one prepared for the queen of spirits.
"No seats for us?"
Ashley, the only spirit among the four who had arrived, spoke this question with a lazy look in her eyes, grimacing with annoyance at the guards around her.
"We did arrive uninvited. Wouldn't it be expecting too much for someone to be prepared for our arrival when we've sprung up out of nowhere like this?", the elven figure asked with a smirk. "After all, no matter how intelligent and magnificent a ruler is, nobody can predict the future... well, with a few people aside. Myself included."
The one who said this was Trevor, a professionally dressed elven man. His attire spoke of the high class demeanor which he took- aside from the single bracelet he wore which was lined with the toes of a human, with a fang as the centerpiece.
As he made this comment, Samantha could hear some unease in the minds of the guards around her.
'Are they saying that the queen is not good enough as a leader?'
'Are they saying that she has made a mistake?'
With a casual smirk, Samantha laughed off the ignorance of the spiritual guards around her. Flicking her hand, four seats were created just as she had before.
"Even if this queen was prepared for our reception, she would know well that there would be no need to prepare seats for us. Although, it would be a worthy sign..... after all, a lower being should make preparations for those above them, even when they are not necessary. No?"
Sitting down with these words and closing her eyes as she crossed one leg over another, Samantha listened into the clearly irritated minds of the people around her, who were currently using every ounce of their own self control to prevent themselves from rushing forward and slugging Samantha then and there.
'Pathetic worms..... they are filled with such a filthy desire to serve their queen that they do not understand the difference in our status. I will enjoy..... toying with them.'
The other three sat down as well, each taking their own respective posture.
Garett sat with his arms on the arms of the chair, allowing his demonic hands to hang freely off the edges of the seat.
Ashley slumped back to the point where she was almost laying down, her hair chaotically landing at every possible location, almost completely covering both her face and the seat behind her.
Trevor sat with his back straight as a rod, and after pushing up his glasses he checked the time on his new watch.
"I suppose we will have to wait a bit more."
Looking around to all the guards around him, Trevor spoke up.
"Will none of you inform your queen that we are waiting on her? Ah, but I suppose that your queen is of a higher status in your minds than ourselves. Indeed, it would be rude to force you to interrupt her- and for such a reason as some guests of a lower ranking are waiting on her.... if one of my subordinates were to inform me that my guests were growing impatient, then I might just have the heads of the guests taken before even speaking with them."
Trevor folded his delicate elven hands, peacefully closing his eyes as he waited.
"Then, I suppose nothing can be done. We shall wait for your queen. She is the leader of this domain, no? Then, as fellow rulers of a nation, it is our duty to give her the respect she deserves."
"Ah ah..... always formal....."
Ashley, whose eyes could not be seen as her face was completely covered in hair, spoke in a grizzled tone that shook the hearts of the guards.
'That spirit....'
'She is a spirit, isn't she?'
'How is it..... how is it that she is not alongside us, serving our queen?'
'But more importantly..... why is her voice so ear wrenching?'
The guards felt as if their very ears were being attacked when they heard the voice of the spirit sitting in the throne without a single care.
Never before had they heard a voice that was so scratchy, so guttural, and so filled with a bloodthirsty sadism.
This voice filled their hearts with a desire to escape the room, leaving their queen in order to get away from this woman.
'I don't wish to be near her.....'
'That spirit.... what on earth is she?'
'I would like to get out of here.... but I cannot....'
'That would be betrayal of my queen....'
Despite their overwhelming desire to run away from the horrid being in front of them, they stood firm, their desire to protect their queen greater than even the discomfort that filled their hearts.
'It's as if being around that spirit is tearing away at my very mind.... my head aches and I am becoming dizzy..... I feel weaker just being near her..... and every time she speaks....'
"Are you sure we have to wait this long? Why don't we just barge in and drag her out here at this point? Or maybe instead..."
'Agh!!!! Please!!! Stop talking!!!!!'
"We should just burn this whole place down and leave? Keh heh....."
Many of the men around the room began to hold their heads in pain as Ashley spoke.
On hearing the strange shuffling, the slumped girl began to look around herself.
"Hey, what's wrong with them?", she asked.
As soon as she said these words, a few people fell to their knees, unable to take it.
It was as if a small explosion was being triggered within their minds each time she said anything.
"How strange.... is seems that they cannot handle your presence, Ally.", Samantha explained. "How to put this..... your voice is painful for them to hear."
"Ehh? How rude. I know I'm not exactly the cutest girl in the world, but do they have to go that far?"
Ashley said this without a hint of emotion in her voice. Though her words would suggest that she had been offended, her tone suggested otherwise.
Looking to the side of him, Garett noticed her lips curl up just ever so slightly.
"Are you doing something to them?", he asked.
"Nah. I'm containing everything as far as I can tell. I guess this is just what happens when your charisma is really bad."
"Heh heh..... so everyone around you can't even stand to hear your voice?"
"Something like that."
As if she got an idea, Ashley blew the hair out of the way of her face and Garett noticed a glint in her green eyes.
"Heh heh heh..... while this queen is taking so long do you mind if I have a little fun with them?", Ashley asked Trevor while barely glancing over.
"Please do not completely destroy them. We are about to enter a negotiation here. What kind of negotiator wrecks the property of the person they are negotiating with beforehand?"
"So boring... but what about after?"
"Hmm..."
Trevor seemed to be giving Ashley's question some thought, and sighed.
"Do what you want now, but only if you can fix it. Depending on how things go, you may do as you please afterwards."
"Keh heh keh....."
Standing up on top of her seat, the girls baggy nightgown drooped over her arms as she began to flip the sleeves around.
"Ahaha!!!! Hey, spirits!!!! How are you all feeling today? Are your minds doing alright? What's wrong? What's with all the pained expressions?"
Looking around, Ashley watched as one by one the people fell to their knees, breathing heavily while covering their ears.
They were sweating, if such a thing was possible for a spiritual person, and they closed their eyes in terror.
However, they did not make a statement.
'It..... is our duty to serve our queen.... nothing more. Our queen is to receive these guests, and we are not to lay a single hand on them..... we are merely to sit here and await her arrival, and stand by her side to protect her.... that is all.....'
Biting their lips to the point where they began to bleed, the people endured the horrible sounds which filled their very minds with grief.
'The exact opposite.....'
'This woman is the exact opposite of our own queen....'
'The voice of the queen is soft and soothing to the ear..... just hearing it fills me with delight, as if I am taking a warm bath after a long day at work.... yet the voice of this woman..... it is as if that bath water has turned into a pool of insects, wriggling around and crawling about my own body!!!!'
'The queen is young and beautiful, and just seeing her bright eyes are enough to fill me with motivation.... yet the baggy and darkened eyes of that thing..... they are chilling just to look at..... it is as if I am staring into the soul of a monster that is trying to consume me alive.....'
'Her skin is pale and unhealthy, whereas the skin of the queen is as white as the snow.... her hair is a mess, whereas the hair of the queen is perfectly taken care of.... if the queen is a miracle..... then this woman is a disaster.'
The woman let out a wicked laugh, the guttural voice gnawing away at the minds of the people around her.
"Keh heh heh.... ehehehe..... ha... haha.... heh....."
After having her fun, the woman dropped back down, slumping back in her seat with a smile on her face.
'Is.... is it over?'
The people looked around, the pain in their minds slowly retracting.
'I.... think she is done.....'
'Urg.... my head.....'
Samantha was left wondering at why such a thing had happened.
The people were literally harmed just at hearing the very voice of Ashley.
'Is this really because her charisma is so bad.... that it hurts people just to hear her?'
Closing her eyes, Samantha could do nothing but smile.
'How unfortunate..... and yet how fortunate. For most, such a thing would be a curse.'
"Ally, can you turn it off?"
Ashley looked at Samantha with a raised eyebrow before realizing what she was referring to.
She nodded 'no'.
"I see...."
Looking on her own comrade, Samantha felt a bit of sadness in her heart.
'Nobody will ever be able to tolerate her anymore? Is that the way it is? No, wait..... if I remember correctly, there was a stipulation, wasn't there? Something to do with..... probability.'
Remembering back to such a long time ago, Samantha wracked her brain, trying to think of how Garett explained it.
'Ah, that's right..... the lower one's charisma is, the more they will succeed in things that will require low charisma.'
Looking over to the girl, Samantha could tell that she was happy.
If such a scene had happened before she came to this world, she would have likely been crying.
She would have been terrified, humiliated, and brought to tears at seeing those around her unable to even so much as tolerate her existence.
The once antisocial and incompetent girl would have been driven into her own safe spot, playing video games and biting her nails while shivering with a blanket covering her, eyes reddened with veins and darkened with bags.
Yet right now, not a single bit of that showed in the girl.
Even after witnessing people who literally knelt down in horror just by hearing her voice, she was not offended or driven to self doubt.
She was instead empowered.
'Perhaps to anyone else, such a thing would be a curse.....'
Samantha recalled her own life and her previous goals of pleasing anyone and everyone around her.
Looking back to the girl who was giggling with happiness, Samantha did not sense any of the pain which the people around her were supposedly experiencing.
'But to her.... it's nothing more than a blessing.'
With a shrug, Samantha placed her own hand on the hair of the girl, rubbing it around in an overly friendly manner.
"Ububububub... why are you doing that?"
"Mmm..... no reason. I just felt like it."
"Uh, ok?"
Despite being given an evil eye, Samantha felt no malice.
Even if she was a girl who was hated by all, not only because of who she was, but because of the very thing she was, she would remain as a precious comrade to Samantha.
For they were the antiheroes.
They were beings of evil, destined to destroy the world and fill it with chaos.
'For even the wicked will be kind to those who are kind to them.'
Sitting up, Samantha readied herself as the thoughts of a certain woman entered the fray of minds around her.
"Ah, it seems that she's arrived.", both Samantha, Trevor, and Ashley all said at the same time.
Garett merely chuckled at their simultaneous predictions, all of which had been made through completely different methods.
And yet all of them were correct.
For just as they said these words, the door opened, revealing a figure which would have blown the four off their own feet, stunning them with the beauty with which they were faced.
Yet even in the face of such a figure, not a single one of the antiheroes flinched.
For they were the beings who would consume the very world itself, spreading chaos throughout it's lands.
----
The bright white skin of the spiritual woman dazzled with radiance as she exited her own room, each step taken with elegance and meaning.
She wore a short cut dress with long and baggy sleeves that had more than enough room for her short arms.
Her bright red lipstick and nails complemented her perfectly white skin, and atop her head was a plaid baker boys cap- also colored red and white, matching her dress.
Black shoes which resembled a mix between boots and sandals wrapped around her legs like wires in a crisscross pattern.
Her sharpened eyes were inverted, the sclera colored black and her irises a bright white, the same color as her skin.
She took a seat without hesitation, smiling with confidence even when faced with the four beings before her.
"Two demons.... an elf.... and what's this? A spirit just like myself. I never imagined that one of my kind would be among you, antiheroes."
The woman spoke in a mature voice, her own mental fortitude not dropping for a moment.
'It is impressive indeed. Not many exist within this world who can look sit across from us at the table of negotiation without cowering in fear.'
Trevor appraised the woman, watching her carefully as she crossed one leg over another, sitting almost exactly in the same manner as Samantha.
'And even among those who do not fear us, the majority are the fools who cannot possibly comprehend the reality before them, attacking without thought.'
Grinning in approval, Trevor felt an urge that he had not felt in a long time.
'Finally, a worthy opponent. This will be interesting.'
Trevor was a businessman at heart, yet even if he did not consider physical strength, he had not yet found someone who held the same charisma at the table of negotiation which he obtained through his years of struggle in the jungle of the American economy.
'It was truly a den of thieves, where each and every person around me was a predator waiting to swallow me whole. And I suppose in the end.... someone did.'
Trevor felt the urge to laugh at his own failure in the past, but restrained himself.
'It seems that within this realm of monsters, negotiation is not something which happens all too often. Strength is the only law here, even among those who are intelligent. How infuriating it has been to be surrounded by nothing more than fools who cannot understand the true value of things. Yet this one..... I feel that she is able to at least comprehend that much.'
With a smile, Trevor was about to speak up, however the woman before him spoke without hesitation, taking the first word for herself.
"Welcome to my castle, antiheroes. I wonder just why you have decided to set my own location as your destination? I am Lustia, Queen of Spirits and Host of Lust. It is a pleasure to meet you all."
The woman spoke with proper respect, not giving an inch when it came to charismatic appeal and professional demeanor.
There were no flaws or areas of her performance for Trevor to pick at.
"I see that you are already aware of our identities. Although, this was likely due to your own servants who reported this information to you, so I will reintroduce myself. I go by Theo, and I am gladdened to have been received so heartily. Ah, excuse me. I should use my own title, should I not?"
With a smirk, Trevor stood up with a bow.
"I am known as the Overlord of Exploitation."
Sitting down, he pushed up his glasses and fixed his own tuft of hair, slicking it back with his hand.
"How proper of you. Is it all right for me to simply call you by Theo?"
"By all means. Then, may I refer to you as Lustia?"
"Very well."
The two finished their exchange and Trevor then passed the torch over to another. Noticing his motion, Samantha began to speak.
"You may refer to me as Sarah. I'll begin by answering your first question. Why have we bothered to come all the way to this castle of yours? It is quite simple, really. We are aware of many things. We have been informed of a certain..... pact which has been formed against us. I am sure you are aware of such a thing, as you were likely present in the discussion yourself. No?"
"You are very direct, and do not waste any time with pleasantries, Sarah. Quite unlike the gentleman by your side."
"Please save the bullshit for another time and answer my question."
Samantha said this with a smile, not batting an eye as she stated something so vulgar.
The room was filled with silence at the outburst, to the point where even a pin could be heard dropping.
"I see.... very well. I shall answer your question, rude woman. Yes, I was indeed present at such a discussion. I am sure you know then that the Hosts of Sin were called together?"
"We are aware of that much."
Samantha continued speaking with Lustia as if her vulgar outburst had never happened in the first place.
However, inside her mind she was bombarded by a series of furious complaints by all the men and women around her.
'How dare she....'
'Taking such a tone with the queen.....'
Even so, Samantha continued smiling, for she could read the very mind of the woman in front of her.
She put on a perfect act, with a flawless poker face.
She acted as if such a thing had not been said, and treated it with maturity, glossing over it without causing a fuss.
Yet the statement that Samantha made had put the mind of the woman before her in turmoil.
'W...why would she say that? Even if she wanted to get an answer quickly, how would such a tone benefit her in this conversation!? Doesn't that just make her look like a bitch!?'
Lustia was unaware that this manipulation of the internal workings of her mind were too part of Samantha's plan.
The plan to destroy this woman without laying a single finger on her.