“Hm, Oscarion?” The Fae Queen commented, turning her head to face the windows casually.

  Aurelius’s terrified eyes almost popped out of its sockets at this statement.

  Oscarion? The Devil King? Was He summoned? Contracted?

  The Commission actually sacrificed enough people to call upon that deity?

  “I suppose He’ll be joining me soon…” The Queen mused, smiling darkly, her eyes turning to glance over at the nearly dead corpse of Mrs. Tona.

  Standing up from her couch, She placed her wine glass back onto the coffee table. Then, with elegant steps that felt alien in Mr. Tona’s body, The Queen sauntered over to Aurelius.

  She knelt down in front of Aurelius, the stench of cigarette smoke still reeking from Mr. Tona’s trench coat.

  “Hmm… I suppose I should prepare to turn you.” She commented, summoning a glowing, glassy orb into Her hands.

  Aurelius recognised it as a soul imaging crystal… Except that its surface was carved and inlaid with geometric patterns that hurt to look at.

  Aurelius could almost physically feel the mana currents around it bend and change based on the indents of its surface…

  And…

  Oh gods, that damn thing was tugging at his soul!

  With a subtle, almost unnoticeable twist of her fingers, Aurelius’s hands were yanked upwards, and a geometric shape carved itself into Aurelius’s hands, causing Aurelius to yelp pathetically in pain.

  The Queen dropped the orb into his now outstretched and bleeding hands casually.

  “AHHHHHH-”

  The pain was insane.

  Aurelius could physically feel his soul squirm in his body as his blood made contact with the sphere. In the carvings of flesh that the orb touched, he could feel his skin fuse with the sphere, and the blistering sensation travelled across his body, leaving all of his skin in a feeling akin to burning alive.

  “That is truly wasted on you, boy.” The Queen said, bopping the screaming Aurelius on his nose with a smile.

  “Try not to die before the orb is full. I can’t turn you without breaking that damn contract of yours, courtesy of your damned Djinns.” She spat contemptuously.

  “As for the Lost God’s present, I’d say we start with 100,000 souls and see where we go from there.” She mused, waving one of Her hands elegantly and casually, and using one of Her fingers to curiously poke at Aurelius’s terrified eyes.

  That particular pain in his eyes didn’t exactly register for Aurelius, given that he was too busy screaming his head off from the crystal on his hands.

  “Did you know that the average human knows 500 other humans?” The Queen asked, completely unbothered by the screaming Aurelius in front of Her face.

  The Queen actually pondered upon this statement, enunciating each word with peculiar interest, almost as if she could not imagine such a strange idea.

  “That means that every single one of you insects are connected by 6 degrees of separation, or so I’m told.” She mused, talking to Herself, rather than the screaming Aurelius in front of Her

  “I would have waited until our pets had infected a few hundred million more of you…”

  “Then we truly could have had every single one of you wail the names of your loved ones, friends, acquaintances as we killed you.” She mused, seemingly annoyed by the fact that her hypothetical scenario did not manage to come to pass.

  “Unfortunately, it seems that you ruined what little joy I have in my existence.” She said, crossing her legs across from Aurelius, and continuing to prod at his eyes.

  “How endlessly annoying.” She commented, standing up.

  Looking down scornfully on Aurelius, the Queen ran Her hands through her hair, and with some contemplation, She pulled her left leg back.

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  The kick was almost supersonic, the air pressure booming across the room and piercing Aurelius’s eardrums.

  But the Queen stopped the kick at the last minute, mere millimetres away from Aurelius’s chest. And with the softest push of her feet, She gently tapped where his heart was with Her feet, a raging inferno of irritation passing through Her eyes in the process.

  ???

  Varian Greenwich smiled.

  He had erected the statue with joy.

  Inserting the charm into its heart, he let his souls leave his staff, creating a magic circle around its holy feet enthusiastically.

  The city had not evacuated all of its citizens yet.

  In fact, of the 4 million residents of Tlacualtzin, nearly 500,000 citizens were still stuck, being processed in the evacuation centers.

  The chaos of their beautiful pets, Soul Worms, as he liked to call it, had meant that the Commission was now hesitant to continue the evacuation efforts with the enthusiasm it had undertaken the task just minutes before.

  And the chain of events had followed almost to the tee of what his Masters had planned.

  He had served The Blood Emperor, Manus Greenwich. And had been blessed with power beyond his wildest imagination.

  And he would return his grace as he slaughtered every last one of these fleeing traitors.

  Spilling the blood of these filthy ‘Aethernalian’ creatures would herald the glorious return of his King, his Emperor, and his gods…

  ???

  The Devil King walked through the air, breathing in the cold mountain breeze with satisfaction.

  Every spirit creature desired to walk their neighbouring plane, and to follow the nature of their primal Dragon Fathers and herald change upon the realm.

  And today, He would do just that, following that voice in His heart to reap souls with His might.

  All of the spirit realm would peer in jealousy as He devoured the million souls offered to Him.

  All of Humanity would pray to Him, to spare them today, ignoring the gaze of those Obnoxious Draconic abominations.

  All of these human cities would tremble before His flames.

  Oscarion, Devil King, Contractor.

  “█ █ █ █” He commands.

  ???

  “He’s started.” Andrew reports, shuddering in horror as he peered through his rodent eyes into the world.

  He could see the cities of the Western continent, where shoppers and diners started to drop dead across its streets.

  He saw a small child, no more than 8 years old, lost in the streets of the Southern Empire, falling to his undersized knees.

  He witnessed workers, craftsmen, bureaucrats die one after another, every death indiscriminate and random.

  His eyes, imbued with Earth Magic could peer into their souls, and he saw it squirm and burn up together with the horrible pests that infested their souls.

  Yet, he felt no satisfaction as these disgusting parasites burned, withering and dissipating into mana around the surroundings, almost as if they were alive.

  He saw the fragments of their souls travel up, and disappear into nowhere, teleported to feed the piggish desires of a repellent, amoral god.

  Mages stood confused and dumbfounded as they felt the mana around them bend and flicker into flames of destruction, sentencing their friends and acquaintances to a death that could not possibly have been foretold.

  Screams rang through the cities, none quite sure of what was going on.

  Citizens dropped to their knees, praying to the gods who would be unable to answer, nor help.

  It was not fair in the slightest.

  And he was responsible for causing this disgusting display of fireworks.

  Archsage Livia didn’t respond to Andrew’s statement of horror, instead taking in the feeling of the mana around her curl up.

  She felt the divine magic brush up against her soul, searching for its tinder all across its grooves and raised geometric patterns.

  She smiled at its touch, her eyes burning in flames of pure hate at its perversion.

  She flicked her wand wordlessly, immediately dissipating its disgusting tendrils.

  Then, with a wave of her hands, an explosion rang out under her feet, launching her at incredible speed into the air.

  Her clothes fluttered in the swift winds that sketched across the fabric.

  At the exact moment of weightlessness, white fire, almost tangibly liquid formed under the soles of her shoes, stopping the woman in mid-air.

  “I’m doing it.” She declared into the spirit realm.

  “R-Roger…” The operator answered, as sounds of yelling commands rang across the operator room.

  With a snap of her fingers, she teleported the earth elemental mage next to her.

  Her colleague summoned a tiny marble of metal, and stretched it into a platform, as he solemnly stared at the smiling woman.

  With a terrible fire burning through her monocle, Archsage Livia tapped her wand against the air.

  All 5 devils materialised.

  With another unholy wave of her wand, a ball of fire, no larger than a beach ball formed in the air beneath her, and golden threads started to stretch themselves against this ball, wrapping it and confining it like a present.

  Archsage Andrew stood next to her, and tapped his staff against his metal platform.

  These golden threads started to glow a deep, dark green, and started to squirm, and methodically slither across the diameter of the fireball, and plunged its mana tendrils into it like a worm digging into an apple.

  Livia beckoned one of her devils to the fireball.

  She slashed her wand across its neck once more, dripping ichor against this strange, burning ball.

  Droplets of devil-blood floated across its surface, orbiting it like a planet would with the Sun.

  With an insane smile, and glint in her monocle, Archsage Livia then proceeded to fire the first devastating shot against the deity known as the Fae Queen.

  “█ █ █ █” She commanded.