Nine was led by his small horde of Imps to where they had set up a sleeping area and was met with irritated sounds upon their arrival, the corner was full of bed frames, and a single Imp crawled out from under one upon seeing the group's arrival.
"I'm sorry," was all she managed to say before Nine made her a blood dress, she had been without so much as a scrap of cloth to cover her shame, "Oh it's you," She said in excitement, though her eyes still looked hurt, "I'm so sorry, we set up an area for you to sleep in, but once everyone got word you were coming and headed out to greet you, a horde of demons stripped everything down, even me,"
Judging by all the other Imps she had probably been wearing an old burlap sack, and Nine found he didn't much appreciate the idea.
Unlike the General's Divide, this one didn't have a lot of room, just one massive sleeping area, with a lot of bunk beds, the corner he, his Ratricks, and his Imps all stood in had indeed been stripped of everything, only the bed frames reminded of the beds. Judging by their sizes he figured they could probably fit four or five Imps to a mattress, or eight to ten to a bunk bed, as a total of eight full Bunk Beds had been stripped; he figured that had been the basic plan.
"Hey," he called out loudly, not fully caring about the missing beds, "Who assaulted my Imp?" He heard some amount of laughter in response, and changed tactics, "If no one fesses up I'm just gonna hunt down everyone with more than one mattress and kick their teeth in," He called out angrily, earning even more laughter as a few demons started moving in on the group.
"Oh look at her," A group of five Demonling's aprached and looked Nine up and down, "Hey baby, how about you ditch the shrimp squad and lay with a real man?"
"I am a man," Nine replied blandly, earning a howl of laughter from the other five Demonlings.
"Tragic," The first one chuckled, "Humans did a number on your face that's for sure," He shrugged as he walked forward and reached for an Imp, "Hey I need a napkin, mind if I-" His intentions clearly to start tearing the dresses off the Imps for seemingly no reason other than he didn't seem to think they could stop him, Nine took care not to rip his new dress and only used his arm as he sent blood out to grab the Demonlings hand.
"Oh gross," he practically screamed as he tried to pull his hand back, Nine forcefully pushed him away before putting a blood wall around his Imps, his Ratricks already loading their hands with Frying pans,
"Who the hell do you think you are touching me!" He demanded in outrage, "I've been here for almost two whole years, You're just an overgrown Imp," he pointed to himself with his small upper left arm, his large Right arm trying to shake the blood off it. "I outrank you greenhorns, I outrank all of you in seniority, you lucky I don't take a few more back with me and-" At the statement Nine used his powers to feel the beating hearts of only Imps, in doing so it allowed him to take count.
He turned sharply to the Imps as a new panic hit him, "I'm missing Imps," he realized angrily, the Imps sounded confused for a moment before he clarified, "Four from the caravan, Forty-two from the coast, I should have Forty-six Imps, there's only Forty-four!"
No one was more impressed than Nine at the fact he had remembered the exact count from both groups.
At being told two were missing, all the Imps paired up with familiar faces, and once they all came together, two from the coastal town were unaccounted for.
"Who has the balls," He demanded angrily as he turned to the large common area, the Demonling snickering.
"Oh, well maybe we'll give you them back, we'll start the negotiations with chores, big larry mucked up the good tub, so we might give you one of them back in exchange-" Nine didn't even pretend to listen to the demands as he used his Blood magic to locate all Imps in the area, he counted a total of three outside his group.
Figuring one too many was better than two missing, Both of Nine's hands turned into massive blood grabbers and he took care to grab the Demonling trying to negotiate that Nine needed to do several dozen tasks to see his Imps again.
he smashed him into the ground before causing mass chaos, knocking over beds and demons alike, his left blood arm split into two and after a moment he grabbed all three Imps and pulled them all in, two of them had red eyes from crying, having been stripped he set them next to him and clothed them in a blood dress before setting down the third imp, she had a broken horn, and was staring at him in shock, awe, and fear.
To call her a mess was an understatement, she was so caked in dirt her hair and skin looked to be a different shade than all the other imps.
"Forty-seven Imps," he declared, "One too many but now no one's missing," He sat down the mess of an Imp as she was inspected by the crowd with interest as he held the two crying ones, "Did they do anything to you,"
"They…they told me they were gonna boil me into a stew," One held him tightly, "It was the same thing the slave drivers said they were gonna do to me,"
"One of them touched me," the other one's voice was quivering, "I didn't like it," a sound like a cracking gemstone could be heard as Nine's gem eyes showed they were capable of moving as they narrowed.
"Who the fuck touched you?" Nine demanded, angry at how swiftly things had turned from nice to terrible, turning to the Demonling who had just been pulled out of his crater. "You touched my Imp?"
"Whoa," the Demonling took a step back, "You need to chill, a perfectly boiled Imp is-" He took a few steps back, but a bloody hand grabbed his leg and held him in place as another covered his mouth to cut off his story of boiled imps.
"You have five minutes to go gather up everyone involved in this, or I'm deboning you," Nine turned his back on the Demonling and sat down, the third Imp who had been left to guard the beds was now holding onto his side, having escaped being taken away the one who had managed to hide was still shaking at having been forcefully stripped down.
Not fully understanding but sensing his rage the Ratricks went into full defense mode, as the Imps were touching him without him fighting them off they took in that it was the Imps that needed to be defended.
Off to the side, a large green somewhat overweight creature began walking towards the mass of Imps, upon getting close he roared.
"Debbie," the Troll called out angrily, "Get your scrawny ass over here," Nine glared at the Troll, who smacked his chest in response, "What you want some?" It challenged, "Fuck you, touching my shit," Nine felt something and looked down to see that the Messy Imp, apparently named Debbie, had shoved her face into his maid's dress in what he assumed was an attempt to hide.
"Toss her over jack-ass," The Troll demanded, "In fact toss a few more after her, you got more than enough of 'em,"
"Fuck you," Nine called back at being told to hand away his Imps, having been referring to them as His, it was under to notion that they were his fan club, not his property. "This is Demona, you can't own slaves,"
"Slaves?" The Troll laughed, "Lesser Demons can't be slaves, Imps barely qualify as pets, now hand her over before I break your little wall down and-" Nine set his traumatized Imps down, and let Debbie remain where she was as he cracked his knuckles.
He proceeded to lean down to one of his Ratricks and held out his hand, the Big guy of the Ratrick group handed him a cutting board, and without hesitation Nine threw it at the Troll, he easily battered it aside and made to walk forward, only to met with a sea of knives as the Ratricks entered full guard the wall mode.
"Do you want to go back with your…friend?" Nine asked Debbie, who just grabbed his leg and shivered against it, "Ok," Nine patted her head as he talked to her in as soft of a tone as he could, "You can stay with my friends and me,"
The Troll eventually ran off and once he got far enough away the Ratricks ceased fire, as a result of the Ratricks the Common area fell into chaos as most beds were left abandoned, Nine took the opportunity to use his new big bloody grabber hands to swipe any mattresses off any nearby beds that had more than they were supposed to, stealing all their blankets as retribution for their crimes.
The Imps got to work setting up the beds as Nine repositioned the Bed framed, keeping them all huddled up in the corner he set his three traumatized Imps and Debbie in the cornermost bottom bunk.
"Where did they touch you?" Nine asked in a soft tone, after a moment the Imp put her hand over her eye and spoke.
"They forced open my eyelid and poked my eye," She cried out, "They said they were gonna pop it out and turn it into jam!"
"Those bastards," Nine was shaking with rage, having been forced to experience having his eyes gouged out more than a few times, he found great offense in the threat, empty or not. "You're running out of time Jerkface," His Ratricks on defense and his Imps making a Bed fort to protect the emotionally injured as they set to work using their blood magic to turn Nine's blood into a type of yarn for knitting new clothes for the four in the middle.
Just as his time was about to run out the Demonling ran back to Nine, who unlatched his bloody hand from their leg and had it crawl into the mattress fort to be turned into yarn.
"The Big man's comin' down," The Demonling told him, "You're gonna regret messing with him, he basically owns the first floor,"
"Wait, wouldn't that make me his boss?" Nine waited and a large Orange man walked up to him, he had large ears, his Green hair little more than peach fuzz as he came to a stop just outside of Nine's wall.
"Drop the wall, new meat," He demanded flatly, Nine instead made it bigger and spikier to make sure the guy couldn't walk over it unimpeded. "Let me tell you how this works," The guy pointed behind him, "General Eight is a joke, and working under her makes us all look like a joke, do you want to spend your entire career here working on the baby floor?" The man motioned around "We got a system, and it works, I've basically been running the first floor for the past seven years, I could easily become General Nine if I felt like it, but I have too much self-respect to take such a bitch ass title, I'm better than the baby floor and I plan to get out of here the moment I get the chance to show off my skills,"
"Fuck you," Nine replied, "Stay away from my Imps,"
"You don't own those Imps," the creature replied, "Not anymore, they were assigned to the first floor, I own that floor, so I own them, and with the revival field and that many Imps we can feast like kings every night,"
"You don't own shit," Nine informed him firmly, "And I don't own them either, I didn't turn an entire city to dust-freeing slaves just so you could fucking eat them!" Nine let out an angry huff.
"Oh," The Creature suddenly looked disgusted, "You're that Hyper Evolved Imp thingy I've heard talk about," he turned instead to the Deamonling, "Clark you dip ass why are you wasting my time talking with a glorified appetizer?"
"Cleaning duty," Clark told Nine, "That's your job, maybe if you good job we won't add you to the menu with your-" Nine's wall grew a fist and grabbed both Clark and the other guy, who swung his hand into the Blood, easily destabilizing it as it froze and shattered at his touch.
"Lesser trash," he attempted to leave but Nine pulled his feet out from underneath him.
"Fight me, Coward," Nine demanded as he slammed Clark into the floor again, his eyes glaring at the supposed boss of the first floor.
"Your words mean nothing to me," He replied as he got back up, "I am Gorvo the Second, a great Hobgoblin, an evolved Goblin, a proper Demon, you're just a tall Imp, even if a lesser Demon evolves, it doesn't make it anything more than a slightly better meal,"
"Oh please, My Ratricks have better moves than you," Nine struck a pose and his boys surrounded him, doing the same dance they had when they had knocked the guard off the roof in the coastal city, "Fight me, Coward, or Run away in fear,"
Nine had, if nothing else, drawn out the conversation long enough for other demons to return to the area and start spectating.
"Kick his ass Gorvo," The Troll from earlier called out, "I was just about to make some Debbie Jam, I'll share some if you get her back,"
"She not going back with you," Nine shot back angrily, "Especially not so you can turn her into a jam, what's wrong with you, you shouldn't eat creatures that can talk!"
"Whatever," Gorvo sighed as he crossed his arms, "Come on Leech, now a good a time as any to see if Evolved Imp tastes any better than normal Imp,"
"You're gross," Nine complained, "Fight now, Hands only no magic," Nine Drew his wall back so it was only a little way from the corner, still in wall defense mode as his Ratrick took up positions, knives at the ready should anyone try to and get too close.
Gorvo and Nine stood apart from one another.
"Sure," Gorvo raised a hand, "No Magic," Nine wondered what he was doing as he held up one finger, he thought he was about to brag about how he had killed a guy with one poke or something, only to feel something hit his side, looking down he found an arrow had pierced his side.
"Lucky for you there's a Revival field," Gorvo turned towards the Imp bunker, "Make sure his meat is stored at the prop-" A horrible cracking sound, like dozens of china plates shattering made even Gorvo take a step back, if for no other reason than surprise at the sudden ear-splitting sound.
"This stupid dress is the only thing anyone's ever given me," He cried out, his gem eyes twitching and creating more terrible sounds as they began glowing slightly in response to his outrage at the large tear in the only present he could ever remember being given, "This was supposed to be a fist fight you worthless maggot," Nine raised his hand and it shot off his body, blood claws cut into Gorvo's side, who cried out in pain as Nine called out to him in a mocking tone, "Lucky for you there's a Revival field," Nine spat before saying one last thing, "Hand Grenade,"
Gorvo began screaming as his Biomass was violently ripped apart, and proceed to pop like a water balloon. Nine held up his stump and sucked up all the bone shrapnel before it could hit anyone.
"Any one else wanna fuck with my Imps?" He demanded angrily, his Ratricks banging pans together in celebration, Clark was long gone, all other spectators rushing to the opposite side of the large sleeping area as Nine turned to pet his Ratricks one at a time.
"Lucky the General's Divide's so big," He said as he joined his Imps in the bed fort, a few sheets hiding the first bunks from view as the Imps on the upper bunks acted as lookouts, "If I only get one room I'll make sure you're all safe inside it if I get more than one I'll make sure you all get to be my neighbor so I can hear anyone trying to be a problem," He picked at the tear in his dress, having already expanded in size just from his attacking.
"I'll make you a new outfit," An Imp called out, hurriedly followed by more Imps joining in the cause.
"Let's focus on the bigger problems first," Nine told them softly, "a simple tear is nothing to being left fully exposed,"
Nine told them all to finish up and get a good night's sleep as he left his Ratricks in charge of guarding the bed base, leaving them as he headed back to the Teleportal Mirror to ask his Imps be relocated at the earliest convenience.
As he began walking away, the Imps, the ones not helping hide the shame of the night's victims, began checking out the spare Imp Nine had ended up reeling in, having originally been but in the corner mattress she had seemingly vanished.
It took them a moment to find her but found she was when they checked under the bunk beds and found her curled up in the corner.
The four Imps who had been designated the leaders of the group due to being the original four from Nine's Caravan all stuck their heads under the bed, taking care to stick to only one side so Debbie didn't feel like they were boxing her in.
"Hi there," One of the four said in a whisper to avoid startling her. She made a noise to indicate she'd heard them but otherwise didn't speak as she stuffed herself more into the corner.
"We brought you a blanket," another Imp assured her as they pushed the bedding in closer and then back out from under the bed, they watched and, after a moment, the blanket was accepted as it was dragged closer.
"You don't have to hide down there," One of them waved back, "I heard your name is Debbie?" Debbie made a noise but still refrained from speaking.
"I think it's impressive you have a name," Debbie didn't make any noises as she cuddled in the blanket she had been given, "Most Imps don't have names, how did you get yours?"
Another sound could be heard now, a consistent one.
"She fell asleep," One of them sighed in defeat, "Oh Well, I'm sure she'll become a chatterbox once He comes back!"
"Did you see the craftsmanship in those hands, it's always a pleasure to watch his blood flow!" Once one Imp started, soon all the Imps started squealing in excitement as they talked about Nine's use of Blood Magic, and theorized where he had gone and what he was doing, all the while the Ratricks stood guard, knives and cutting board at the ready.