'Neighbourhood of Silence.' Three days later. Monday.
"The boss wants to see you." - The gruff voice of a smoky factory worker distracted William from walking through his neighbourhood.
William had spotted the intruders anyway, his 'police' had done it long ago, and the 'cameras' of the Crawlers had spotted the important-looking humanoid sharks three streets away as they walked as if they were delivering a message from God himself to Jesus.
"And whose are you gentlemen?" - William said with a little laziness, turning to the three men in business suits. Deftly turning on one leg, lightly hitting the rock with his cane, he folded his two hands on the top, looking intently at the sharks that were a head and a half taller than him.
He wasn't a biologist, it was closer to that Righteous Octopus, but he had definitely seen a 'regular' shark from the films... A hammerhead shark, if he remembered the name of that species correctly, with a 't-shaped' face.....
Scars on their faces, cigarettes in their teeth, like one consciousness for everyone and red eyes so cheeky....
William immediately remembered his days in London when he saw... the 'showdown' of the real 'blokes' on the streets of the city.
"We're from Cinderella, the lady who pimped that bitch you killed a couple of days ago." - Half growl, half talk, from the man in charge. - "We need to go over a few issues, and then, if you survive the Boss's wrath, you can go back to your... shack." - Sinner stammered, looking around.
His boys, too, finally noticed his neighbourhood. It was like they were on Earth, where there was grass and wind and sunlight. They didn't give any sign of it, especially the Chief, but they were... not shocked, but dissonance caught for sure.
"As the lady wishes, but, when will" William nodded softly to the three ambles, to which the Chief immediately took him roughly by the arm, beginning to lead the way.
"Right now, now be chorus... AH YOU WERE A HINID...!" - before he could finish his speech, he immediately lost the brush that grabbed his expensive cloak.
William may have wanted to be a better version of his past self, but he knew that this environment demanded its own type of behaviour. No politeness without the use of brute force and brutality, or these brutes simply wouldn't understand his words.
The hand literally squeezed into the inside of his forearm as the Chief howled in pain, glaring angrily at William, who only shook off the crumpled part of his cloak. The Main's two men recoiled in fear.
"I don't like rudeness, gentlemen." - William said softly, smiling slightly. The fact that all three of them shivered with fear was not his problem. - "If your Mistress is ready for an audience, who am I to refuse a lady.." William ostensibly waved his hands, at the same time reassuring the Sinners, the Dwellers, of his neighbourhood.
They may have been biom trash, but this trash was loyal to him. He didn't demand anything from them, most had even stopped paying him 'tribute', just staying out of his way and out of his way.
No, in their own way, they were thanking him. They were protecting him, his Constructs, and each other. They must have thought it was a new gang or something, since they almost mobbed the three of them.
The Constructs, especially the Watcher type, were ready to chop them up at their first words, luckily their Chief wasn't as dumb as the other idiots before him. His only mistake was rudely taking William by the shoulder, and so... A polite and sociable little fellow William got!
'Small?', a strange thought ran through William's mind. He took a closer look at the souls of these Sinners, the Chief of whom, still holding his damaged brush, gingerly led the way.
The brush could be repaired. Sort of. Just go to the nearest polyclinic, they treat more than that. His Crawler had done some scouting there, he knows!
William roughly estimated his age and compared it to theirs...
'Me, all things considered... seventy-three... give or take, and these... about forty in total... I'm that old, by Earth standards...? How quickly time has flown by.', William thought to himself in surprise.
They were walking somewhere to the west, towards a large... 'skyscraper'? No, he'd seen those everywhere in Paradise, but here... in this Hole?
William hummed, startling the ambles a little, and followed them towards his first 'Main' Overlord.
...
A beautiful room filled with luxury, greenery, and most importantly, a large window replacing the wall of the room that was on the highest floor of this building.
Dark green-grey colours from the palette filled this room. A grey floor with a beige and expensive fur rug. Two beautiful beige leather sofas in the centre with a small but well maintained glass coffee table between them.
The walls were done in some sort of Victorian style, with beautiful and probably very deep meaning in the symbols and white patterns on the purple and green walls, decorated with various long plants and vines.
A beautiful white chandelier in the form of some star filled the whole office with light, and the scent of tobacco, expensive perfume and... The importance and businesslike nature of the Mistress of this office.
The Mistress that now stood looking out the large window at the view of Pentagram City that was almost entirely from this spot.
Cinderella. The High Lord in charge of almost the entire service industry of the Ring of Pride.
Clothes, shoes, food shops, jewellery, toys, cosmetics and much, much more. It's all about her.
Some might say she's the strongest and most powerful Overlord of this century, but William disagrees.
Out of the entire 'Sinister Six' Lords, Cinderella, or Isabella, her real name, was somewhere in a confident third place.
She acted and held herself as if she occupied the first, but would get quite pissed off if she was reminded of that.
'Bitch, hysterical (in places), evil bitch that would sell even her own mother for a profit. It's all about her.', once again refreshing his memory of this Overlord, William thought as he was at the entrance to her office. Neither of them uttered a word.
'She may be a cruel and overbearing scum, but that bitch can be negotiated with, the key is to give her the illusion of control and lick her arse... figuratively.'
It's amazing how wasteful and careless the Overlords are about their defences against magic - 'Though it's not magic, it's more than that,' William thought carelessly as he looked around the office - and in a way that William had no trouble recognising what every Sinner so carefully guarded - their true name.
What was the importance of the name? The contract of souls. If one inscribes a true name, one can naturally take possession of a Sinner's soul, which is how Overlords become Overlords. Gaining soul energy through contracts that amplify the Sinner's abilities to limits unimaginable to demons.
Some Overlords could even compete with Goetia. Not with the strongest of them, but the fact itself... Truly, these were the most prominent individuals. 'Dracula', Ivan the Terrible, Alexander the Great, or the most recent one - Napoleon, but he was quickly killed...
By the way, the air began to smell of weed... This Sinner liked to smoke expensive tobacco, apparently.
"Good afternoon, honoured low-ranking Overlord." - Isabella began her speech without turning round. - "I hope my men were polite to you when they passed on my invitation to me." - Cinderella asked in passing, not at all interested in the details.
"Your Chief needs to have his brush replaced for his rudeness, but barring that... I am honoured by such welcoming souls, Mistress." - Bowing lightly, tilting his cylinder, William replied.
"I am delighted, , Signor Zephyr." - Isabella replied in a deceptively soft voice. She didn't care about the details. - "For the sake of such a meeting, I have prepared some sweets, would you like to taste them with me?" - Sinderella finally turned round and smiled charmingly with her sharp fangs.
"It would be my pleasure." - William nodded easily, sitting down behind the couch.
Cinderella called for a servant with a flick, sitting down at the opposite couch. Her desk was by the window, on a row of two armchairs. One by the window, a rich chair made of expensive leather, and the other a guest chair, cheaper and coarser, same leather, but it was immediately obvious that the chair was not meant for the comfort of a guest.
They chatted 'about nothing.' About the weather, about the latest news, about everything that did not concern the main issue for which he had been invited by such a 'high' person.
For William, it was an amusing one-actor show, because this... The woman who looked like an anthropomorphic fish amused him. She had fish fins instead of ears, violet eyes with no pupils, and a green and white tail of hair arranged in a luxurious quiff laid back on her right side.
A beautiful grey dress with white fur at the chest matched her grey skin perfectly, with tiny white dots on it like pearls scattered at the bottom of the ocean. Gold bling around her neck like a collar, stud earrings or whatever. Beautifully styled eyelashes and black lipstick on her lips.
Isabella. The lordess that wanted to come out to Goetia, who didn't care about her. They didn't care about the Sinners at all. Especially after Heaven and Hell had made a treaty forbidding Goetia from using Sinners as part of their armies.
- ...Then I suggest we get down to what I called you here for, Senor. - Cinderella finished her part of the speech softly, with a hint of irritation.
They had been chatting about nothing for ten minutes now, while William was playing with words, unable to see the hints of this soul that she wanted to... 'stealthily lead' him to the right question, so that he would ask the question she wanted him to ask.
'A naive girl whose cunning is as good as the moon to a man, compared to the very ordinary Archangel who didn't want to accept the project of the Sin Department in the seventeenth year... It's funny to watch this, though it would seem... Hell should be sharks of deceit and cunning, and here you are...', William thought, almost without laughing.
He found this conversation highly amusing, much to Cinderella's annoyance, who saw his attitude perfectly well. But she did nothing. She must have needed to get something from him, since SHE, the Supreme Lord, tolerated the behaviour of some 'insolent asshole' (Isabella's thoughts).
William had already even realised what she needed, but wanted to see how she would phrase it.
Cinderella twitched her eye irritably, watching William's stoic face, in whose eyes she could find a spark of laughter, but said nothing more.
"Then, let me get to the point." - William was beginning to like the irritated note in her voice. Isabella began her long and ornate speech that could be summarised into a couple of sentences.
She wanted his landscaping abilities for her main outlets. 'Supermarkets' as they proudly called these... boxes with multiple sections for commerce.
She wanted to make Sinners feel 'at home' or 'like they never died' once they got to Hell... Seeing how popular my area was with a small and 'cheap' version of the necessary charms... She wanted to do the same.
After all, in order to do such a thing, it is necessary to contact either specialised demons or Goetia, who will drag greens from Earth here, but it still needs to be preserved and grown, so in Hell they created and traded 'substitutes', the same greens from Sinderella's office - 'copy' of the one from Earth, it does not have the properties of plants from Earth, only imitates, even the smell does not give without energy feeding.
Which makes it very expensive, as Goetia literally rips the last trousers off Sinners. The Overlords are literally 'discounting' to get something from Earth. It's not that the Goetia care about the Ring of Pride market, it's just fun for them... Or something else, because for some reason they keep doing business with the Sinners.
"...Quite an interesting proposition, señorita..." William said calmly, stretching his words and sipping from his glass. The mask simply split the liquid, preventing it from entering his mouth.
'I won't drink that stuff, even if it was served by Lucifer himself.'
"Then let me answer that with a counter offer..." the smile on his face grew wider, and William leans closer to the interested Isabella.
His terms were simple. She would recognise the independence of his territory from her, ludicrous terms for Cinderella to agree to immediately. She must not touch him personally or the Inhabitants, in any form or intent, to which Cinderella snorted, agreeing to the condition 'Unless your subjects themselves provoke conflict, then I reserve the right to a proportionate response.' To which, William agreed.
What they argued about was the defence of his territory. Cinderella should not be guarding as much as preventing unnecessary disturbances and conflicts with all his might. To keep others from harming his territory, to keep the most brazen Sinners away, and to keep them from entering his territory without William's request. Permissions will need to be obtained from his 'servant', the Overseer.
To summarise their argument for an hour and a half, this was the gist of it. Isabella was strictly reluctant to be given extra duties, not wanting to add extra work, accepting the earlier terms as not burdening her at all.
He simply asked to be left alone. William had immediately stated that he did not wish to participate in any way in the Lords games, much to Cinderella's surprise. She simply couldn't believe that a Sinner capable of 'such a thing' could simply wish for peace. But the latter quickly pulled herself together.
They shook hands, signing their agreement on paper. No intentions other than the deal. As Cinderella herself had said, she despised such vile and low tricks.
'The deal is sacred, at least something that separates them from the animals,' she said then.
William made his first alliance, gaining more attention to his person.
He kept up his end of the bargain, and Cinderella didn't let him down and did the same, because she basically didn't have to do anything. Just forget about the existence of this part of the city and strictly forbid her subordinates to harm the Residents and the Overlord himself in any way. No riots or scuffles, and so on.....
William didn't care how Cinderella used her blue sky, how she advertised her new green grass, or whether it made her any profit.
It had brought, as William found out through the Crawlers.
The messengers put him in touch with Cinderella, which periodically asked for a correction or some other minor request. Once she found out, 'in confidence, for his very first partner', that he could get to Earth... Just him, but still.
She strictly forbade him from harming his people in any way, and like a guard dog, she drove away Lords of 'lesser calibre' from him. She got her greens and food from Earth, she got fashion news and textbooks. And when she found out that he could, like a Genie from fairy tales, create money for her...
She was all his.
That's when, William came up with the idea... inspired by the situation and how easily souls can be betrayed in this place... He created his little masterpiece....
'A little gift,' so to speak.
A silk construct, or shawl. A shawl... An anthropomorphic line of cloth that is woven into the shape of a human figure. No face, instead a void. A construct based almost entirely on Entropy. It had identical abilities to the Watcher, with the exception of its trump card...
He could penetrate between the tiniest crevices, physical or magical, and also... blend in with his surroundings like a chameleon from the films of Paradise.
The same was true of souls. The Shawl could... merge or 'submerge', settling around the soul of the Sinner. Presented as an additional 'defence' for Cinderella, it gained over her... if not complete, then maximum control.
Disguised as another 'favour', providing protection for her 'first and loyal' business partner, something Cinderella accepted gladly. For it was indeed a defence for her soul. As William told her - 'If you ever perish, you are not without strength.'
He knows her thoughts, can see around her shell (William ignores all those sex and toilet moments, although when having sex he uses the recording to extract useful information) and... He can kill her shell and steal her soul.
She called him Gene herself, but she must have forgotten that in folklore they're evil demons that always grant wishes to the detriment of the wishing party. They were trapped in lamps for a reason. Now... Cinderella or Isabella will learn this truth in her own way.
When, and no other way, she decides to betray him. He will make an example of her. When he just snaps his fingers and she explodes, never to return.
Yes... William already loved the image he was creating. The silent gentleman that just wants peace, that could kill the King himself if disturbed or angered.
They don't need to know that the Elder Lords, united, could kill him. They don't need to know that he's a Fallen Angel, which is why he can open portals to Earth. They'll know that he can send his servants there, that he can get anything he wants from Earth.
Beyond that, they don't need to know anything.
...
Pentagram City. One month later. Rakuss Fight Club. 1930.
Evening, if he understood the time in Hell correctly.
Almost night, in his neighbourhood the stars were supposed to be peeking out and the 'moon was coming out' by now.
What made this evening different from William's usual evening was that he was once again approached by the handmaidens of one of the High Lords. Not Cinderella, who was enjoying the success of her dots getting starry skies and green grass.
No, it was a different Overlord this time.
Rakuss or Richard. The fifth most powerful Overlord. Leerds subordinate (unofficially).
In charge of all the 'informal' and 'unofficial' gangs and groups of the Ring. The entire underworld of similar, 'lower' level crime runs through Rakuss. Drugs, rapes, shootings, confrontations, settlements, and so on. It's all on him. It's all his responsibility and his field of control.
William was distracted... from something, for lately these... this Overlord job had been taking up time. Constant conflict, twitching, and just plain complaining. Not to him, just Sinners complaining, and he, stupid and naive former Angel, decided to listen and solve them. So there they rode him like a donkey. William was thinking of reconsidering such a decision when he was distracted. Distracted by Rakuss, or rather his 'gang'.
It was his men, Rakuss's 'main gang' that approached him. Two very polite wolves. Very large and muscular wolves, scarred, burned, one was missing an ear and the other was missing an eye.
William, as usual, didn't remember the names, nor did the ones who did introduce themselves.
'Don Zephyr?' they said to him then.
Extremely polite Sinners, no rudeness. Their Lord had obviously heard what had happened to the last idiot who had dared to be rude to him. William was beginning to realise Adam's rudeness towards souls. If a couple of good examples imprinted themselves so wonderfully on the memory of others, he should have pulled something like this back in Paradise instead of wasting so much time....
Those thugs took him to the 'residence' of the Lord of the Gangs. Somewhere in the east, south of his neighbourhood. Thirty kilometres away, to be precise.
The neighbourhood itself was identical to his master's. Dirt, partial ruin, but... some order. Street order, to use the word. Other than that, an ordinary small town in the Europe of his time. William would even say it was a town from the nineteenth century, if not the eighteenth.
Shabby roofs with variable shingles, as if someone had tried to change or replace something, but had given up trying. The plaster of the walls was chipping away, and some of the windows of the quite abandoned houses were broken.
And the 'residence' of Rakuss itself was... No better. Maybe a little cleaner, a little richer, a little more decent, but no more. A simple pub-beer house of the time.
The basement was where Rakuss's 'office' was and where the Overlord himself sat.
William looked at Rakuss. He looked at him.
Both were sizing each other up, trying to figure out something different.
Rakuss himself was... not to say a doll, but close.
The body itself was black, and a white skin-bag seemed to braid the body reluctantly. The face, though more like a muzzle, was completely black. Red eyes with yellow whites, the muzzle was 'embroidered' into two parts, 'stitched' with two threads, and the maw, no other way to call it, was dotted with many crooked and long, but undoubtedly sharp, fang teeth.
A hunched figure, with black or white spikes everywhere. White skin, no, it was clothing, like a white shirt from a mental hospital, adorned the black body of the Sinner.
He gave the impression of a complete psychopath, which made William ready to elude the Overlord from the first moments. He was about to check his arrangements with Cinderella, that she should protect him from this sort of thing, taking on this level of opponent, until the Overlord spoke...
"What do you want?" - The Overlord's hoarse voice cut through the silence of this basement. His voice seemed to be squeezed out of his throat as if it was an old puppet trying to speak. Hoarse and... old age, that's his voice.
Just a basement with pipes on the ceiling, but well-maintained in its own way. A cellar, as William would call it if he still lived in London. Old and shabby things. It hardly looked like an office, more like the sort of place one might live in. Just a cheap house, though that was a compliment to this one... Two couches, a table with paper, a hammock, some posters with a beautiful demoness, signs and symbols. A couple of chairs, one of which was barely standing. So much for the High Lord's 'residence.'
"I beg your pardon, sir?" - William tilted his head, looking at the hunchbacked figure of the Overlord with a question in his gaze. There was no change in William's face, just as there was a thin line in place of a mouth on the mask, and still was, but William could definitely see that Rakuss had realised everything.
He'd read him once. And better than the 'most powerful and influential' Overlord, at that.
"You know who I am, you know my name." - Rakuss began to walk slowly around the room, examining the pipes, but constantly lowering his eyes to William, as if examining him from different angles. - "You know my abilities, you know everything in general..." the husky voice gave away the mockery.
" Sir? "- William let more incomprehension into his voice, to which Rakuss laughed a laugh that was like kicking a bag of dust.
"You know my name is Richard Price, you know about my Thread powers, you know that I can and will definitely lose to you, because you have your own army and obscure powers..." the Overlord's voice sounded... doomed? William couldn't believe he'd heard those notes in the voice of one of the Ring's strongest Sinners. Especially about himself.
"You once turned the dumb bitch Cinderella's head, she literally became your poodle."- he chuckled at the end, as if he'd heard a good joke- "Always doing something, always circling around those trees and flowers..." Rakuss sighed, placing his hand on the wall, looking upwards.
"So say it, Zephyr." - He turned his head towards William. - "What do you want, having such power?" - The question was not asked threateningly. It was as if Rakuss was asking a passerby for time.
"...You do realise that I could have simply not known all this and you just told me your name for no reason?" - If he could, William would have raised an eyebrow. Had to make do with eyes and pupils. Rakuss...froze in astonishment.
"..Fuck..." Rakuss sighed, turning his whole body towards William in a sort of doomed way. - "You really didn't know?" - Rakuss asked tiredly.
"I knew, I just wanted to understand your logic." - Rakuss growled mockingly, waving his paw.
"Drop the officiousness and manner, I don't give a fuck about that shit." - With a nod from William, he went to the large hammock that was secured between the two walls. Laying down, with a thud as the rope was pulled taut, he put his paws behind his face, nodding to William at the nearest couch.
That one was as one would expect from the furniture in this room. Used, shabby, but workable. It should have been replaced a long time ago, but like an old friend and comrade, it continued its service.
"..To answer your question - Rest. "- said William in a calm voice. No emotion slipped through, just a polite tone. Rakuss nodded, covering his eyes.
"Rest is good..." Rakuss stretched out the words slowly. - "Tell me, Zephyr, what do you call peace?" - Rakuss asked in passing.
"Silence, no unnecessary fiddling or distractions. No fights, no conflicts, just you and your business." - At William's words, Rakuss nodded respectfully.
"That's good..." - Rakuss stretched out, a moment later opening his eyes sharply like the devil out of a snuffbox. - "But what are you going to do if I come knocking on your door?" - The hoarseness was replaced by a threatening squeak. William grinned.
"I'll just kill you." - At that answer, Rakuss laughed.
He leaned back on the hammock, laughing as if he had heard a good joke. William politely let him laugh it off, analysing his soul and abilities along the way.
Rakuss he could defeat one-on-one, but only with initiative and full knowledge of his abilities. Maybe two squads of 'police' wouldn't hurt. If he wanted to kill him, he'd need to prepare and draw his bandits away from here....
"You know, I'm just a simple Sinner." - Rakuss said, jumping up from the hammock sharply, too nimble for his figure, swinging like a monkey. - "If I want to kill, I kill; if I want to eat, I eat; if I want to fuck, I fuck." - he slowly approached William, who didn't move a muscle.
"...You did something for Cinderella, something more than just planting a blade of grass." - Rakuss said in a low, husky voice, tilting his head sideways. -"I don't give a fuck." - The pressure abruptly disappeared, and he collapsed next to William on the couch.
"I appreciate honesty and openness. So tell me, Zephyr - are you going to be a pain in the arse?" - he clearly meant more than that, to which William simply nodded.
"All I want is rest. I don't want to be touched by Sinners, or Lords, or philistines. I don't want to play Ring games, I don't want to measure the length of my dicks, I don't want to disturb others. Just mind my own business." - William answered with his eyes closed, under Rakuss's scrutiny.
"And tell me, what 'your own business'?" - His muzzle tilted to the side again, almost dangerously, and his posture began to resemble that of a tiger about to leap.
"Research, experiments, development in magic, engineering." - William shrugged, and Rakuss... sighed heavily, relaxing, muttering something to himself. He leaned back on the couch, his hand summoning a pair of threads that drew the two glass bottles together.
"..You know, I'm not a man of words, more of a man of action, so why don't we talk business like real men...?" - he held out the second bottle, and with a sharp movement of his finger he opened his own bottle, the cap of which flew off somewhere to the side with a hiss.
Taking the glass container and opening it, he and William chugged and began to discuss.
It really was easy with Rakuss.
He was interested in William because he was interested in his Godfather, Lirds, the third most powerful Overlord in the Ring. Cinderella, despite her claims was fourth in pure power, but third in influence.
Influence on ordinary life. Lirds, on the other hand, according to the same Rakuss that had told William a story or two about this Overlord, was the King of the Ring's antechamber world. Everything passed through him, the remains were on Rakuss.
His share was the gambling industry. Casinos, cards, shops, even drugs. It was all on him. He'd taken an interest in the young Overlord when he'd learnt that he could get stuff from Earth, to which Rakuss had honestly stated that he 'didn't give a shit, just don't touch my guys'.
Rakuss was fine with a similar pact with Cinderella. He doesn't touch Viliam, recognises the independence of Viliam's territory, keeps his own (which is pretty much all of the Ring's scum) out of harm's way. In return, he has the privilege of calling out William's 'boys' that have proven so effective.
Rakuss gave fair warning that he would use them for his own affairs, sometimes against Cinderella, Aphrodite (the weakest Overlord), maybe something else.
William agreed, but warned that he would inform Cinderella herself, to which Rakuss nodded in agreement and shook William's hand.
The contract was a paper enchanted by William. An oath that Rakuss had unknowingly made. That he himself, with his soul, would not break their agreement.
William left the 'club' with mixed feelings.
On the one hand, he was glad that he had made a deal with yet another High Ranking Overlord, but on the other...
'It's like being drenched in slop,' William thought grimly as he stepped behind an alleyway and simply teleported into his neighbourhood. In his mansion, he immediately took a shower of the purest water from Earth.
'No way will I cross paths with that...', William didn't understand exactly, but even though Sinner had distinguished himself with principles, distinguished himself with intelligence that helped the man notice his knowledge... Though how could he?
William... honestly admitted he hadn't achieved anything meaningful. His police did a fine job of dealing with the scum that Rakuss called his 'boys'... Homeless or just... low-level thugs? No, there were nuggets, because the smartest and most dangerous ones sent them to him.
It was amusing to watch their reactions, especially when they had no souls left to command.
But more importantly... Another Overlord, the one who mattered, wanted to see William. The drug lord and casino owner...
William was glad that at least Cinderella didn't bother him, piously (naturally) honouring their agreement. He might even stop influencing her mind...
Experimentation should never stop.
But how it pisses him off that he's constantly distracted...