Chapter 10 A Deal with a Demon
author: Veyanne - yellow , Overlord - red , Blackguard - violet
Hell's hot kitchen roared with flesh-searing flame. The bodies of the damned were spiked and chained to the walls and ceiling. A horrible creature with mottled red skin and shiny teeth slithered toward one of the lost souls. It looked in his eyes expecting to see pain and fear but instead saw neither.
"Welcome back, overlord.", it spoke in a hideous growl, saying the man's name with derision and scorn. "So nice to see you again."
"Don't get too close flame-boy.", the overlord said with a smirk. "It's not safe for the weak."
The enraged demon reached back. The overlord looked at its muscular arm and hooked claws. He winced, but only a little, and prepared for the impact.
"Golgan,", a voice called from nearby. "did our guest get the better of you?"
The huge demon relaxed. It hung its head. It seemed ashamed.
"Run along now Golgan.", the slightly built creature waved his hand at the large beast. It turned and lumbered off.
The overlord looked at the creature who spared him. He looked somewhat like a human but with red skin, horns, and the lower half of a goat. It approached him smiling.
"Are you ready to be tortured for all eternity?", he asked.
"That's a load of crap and you know it.", the overlord sneered.
"Not another atheist." the satyr said almost whining, "Why can't you believe? We spent so much time and effort convincing you humans that we're supernatural divine creatures and you atheists have to go around ruining it for everyone. I swear. What's the matter with you? Don't you want to be enslaved to your deepest fears?"
The overlord stared at him, "I have no fear."
"What-EVER.", the satyr said rolling his eyes, "I am so sure that you don't. Guys like you come in here all the time. They're all so big and strong and confident and don't have any fear and think that they're just going to waltz through hell like nothing bad is going to happen to them, Geeyawd! They are SOOO full of shit. Look, tough guy, we're going to find your deepest fear, beat it out of you if we have to, and then were going to rub it in your face until the day you die. The rest of your life is going to be like a living hell, because that's where you are. Get used to it."
"Fuck off.", was the reply.
"Yeah your sorceress friend really sold you up the river didn't she. Made a deal with the devil didn't she? There you were stuck to a fancy-shmancy silver cross getting totally tortured by that idiot Cruciator, Jeeze what a lamer, and the next thing you see is none other than the grand high exalted one breathing fire and brimstone, pointing his pitchfork at Chris saying 'Your soul is mine, boy!', and laughing hysterically. I swear Chris crapped in his pants. He nearly died of a heart attack."
"So we took you and him and anyone else too stupid to run away down here. We tortured Chris for five minutes before he cracked. He was no fun at all. We had to kill him. Like I said, what a lamer. You, on the other hand, were delivered to the sorceress for a time as part of the deal, and what a sweet deal it was. She must really want you bad duuuuude. So what evil things did she do to you up there? Inquiring minds what to know."
"Shut up you moron."
"Didn't score hunh? That's too bad. She cares about you a lot. You humans are funny like that. You care about each other. What a joke that is. You see, down here in hell were all selfish bastards and that's cool because everybody is very open about it. You know everyone's going to try to screw you over so you don't trust anyone. It works great. You never have to worry about whether or not someone's lying to you or trying to cheat you or is plotting to stab you in the back because they are. You humans can't handle that. You have to have someone you trust and care about and love and honor and respect and all that silly crap. Face it, you're weak. That's probably all you're thinking about right now, getting back to your dearest love so you can make kissy-faces and fondle each other and over-populate the surface world with ugly little clones of yourselves. Sheesh, how did evolution ever choose you over monkeys?"
"We're stronger because we care.", the overlord spoke up.
"Oh Puh-lease. You're stronger because of your machine half and you know it. Look when the chips are down and everything is hanging in the balance what do you do? You shut off your emotions and let your machine half do all the work. Why? Because it's the only part of you that can get the job done when the whole world is going to hell all around you, that's why."
"And you know, you KNOW that the only way you're going to survive down here is if you completely shut down your human side and just be a like a machine for the rest of your life. Never give in duuuude, never give in. Just keep repeating that phrase in your mind until your brain completely shuts off. You'll live, yeah, you'll live, if you can call it living."
The overlord just stared at him.
"But have I got a deal for you." said the satyr switching into a Monty Hall voice, "We can make you better. We can make you stronger. We'll even let you out of here. All you have to do is sell us your eternal soul!"
The lame joke fell on deaf ears.
"I'm kidding. No the deal is this mister I-have-no-fear. We take away what's left of your human half, not much left of it anyway, and replace it with a nice shiny new machine half twice as good as what you've got now. Think about it duuuude. You'll be a remorseless, fearless, flame-breathing, Christian-maiming, killing machine. Nothing will stand in your way. When you want something you'll just take it. If someone tries to stop you you'll just smash their face in. You'll be feared. You'll be cursed. You'll be respected by all. You'll be da bomb baby, da bomb!!!"
"And no more of those silly emotions to get in your way. Don't think we don't know how you ended up on that cross in the first place. Don't think we don't know why you ended up here. Your weak human half screwed you over again. How many times are you going to let it get away with that? How many times are you going to play the fool for your emotions? One more time maybe? This is your last chance, don't screw it up too."
"Oh yeah, I know you want revenge too. Guys like you always do. You'll be free to get all the revenge you want and more. You'll get to see everyone who wronged you get exactly what they deserve, and more if that's what you want. So what do you say duuuude? Here's your one chance to finally get your whole life straightened out. Whadayasay overlord?"
Machines clicked before he could answer. Once more the monitors came to life and the red lens started glowing. What had happened? The machine that once was a human being, sat up and stroked his face. This was weird, a machine dreaming, well, that is possible. he could also think and he did feel like the same person as before... But dreaming this stuff, that was weird and it had been going on for days now.
"Hypatia, diagnosis please..."
The machines whirred and clicked and the green vector head of the care-taker hologram appeared.
"All is within normal perimeters my Lord. But there were some erratic brain patterns. They occured only a second before you woke up."
Like dreaming alright. But why? And what was this shit? Like he would ever argue like that in real life. Get real! 'We're stronger because we care'.... Hah! That sort of shit could be expected from a theist. he would most certainly never hold a position like that.
The overlord had proven that to himself. Every bond he'd made with
anyone had always come back to hurt him."Hypatia, check for viral agents."
More clicking and whirring.
"Nothing out of the ordinary detected. All adjustments have been perfectly integrated and accepted by the original host-tissue."
The machine went on for a while with lots of data, figures and projections, but the overlord was no longer listening. There must be something causing this, he thought. And the key could probably be found within the dreams themselves. Who were those characters that kept popping up inside his head? Well, one made some sort of sense of course, the sorceress. Is she somehow influencing his dreams?
"Check for any sort of transmissions, anything..."
The machine did it's job...
"Hello?", said the satyr rapping on the overlord's metallic skull. "Hello? Anyone home? It's no fair going crazy before we've had a chance to torture you. Hello?"
"Hypatia, it's happening again.", mumbled the overlord, "Check the power readings. The sorceress' spell would register on them."
"Who the hell is Hypatia?", the annoyed satyr asked, "Some dream girl you're doing the nasty with? It's time to wake up."
The satyr continued knocking on the overlord's skull, "Is anyone in there?"
"Hypatia, the dream is getting more intense. I can actually feel what I'm dreaming." The overlord's voice got more emphatic, "Hypatia? Hypatia?"
The overlord's eyes opened wide. He stared into the yellow snake-like eyes of the satyr just inches away.
"Does this seem like a dream?", the satyr's voice rose as he spoke.
The overlord felt the satyr's breath. It smelled awful.
"Hypatia, this is really intense...", the overlord was getting nervous, "It's like I'm really there."
"Well duh with a capital DUH, metal man", spat out the satyr. "OK smart guy. I'll let you figure it out. Which one is the dream? The one where you're safe and sound while your mechanical half gets serviced by state-of-the-art high-tech computer and your human half gets serviced by some dream-babe named Hypatia; or the one where you're in hell about to be tortured to death? Oh yeah, I'm so sure that you're there dreaming that you're here. Yeah, that makes sense."
The overlord couldn't hear Hypatia anymore. He decided to go along with the dream until she could get things fixed.
"Awake or not the question still remains overlord.", the satyr's voice changed to a more serious tone. "Do you want to be perfect? Do you want to be 100% machine? Or do you want to be tortured for the rest of your life? You have to choose."
"Caring makes us weak.", the overlord said staring into the satyr's face.
"Good. Does that mean you want to be all machine?", replied the satyr tasting victory.
"I'll let you know. Don't hold your breath. Check that. Hold your breath. It stinks on ice.", the overlord smiled.
"I'm already 88% machine. so I..."
"Ninety percent.", the hologram spoke. "I'm sorry overlord. Things were pretty bad in there. We had to do a lot of cutting."
The overlord's eyes refocused. Hypatia's words sunk in. He panicked. He started searching through his memories. There were more gaps. Every time they touched his brain that happened. He hated it. It felt like who he was was slowly disappearing. He wondered what he was becoming.
"It's stable now. The malfunctioning areas have been replaced.", Hypatia said dispassionately, "Are you OK?"
"Malfunctioning areas.", he thought to himself. Even his human side was starting to seem like a machine.
"Yeah.", the overlord replied. "I'll be fine. It just takes a while to adjust."
Just then the room lights dimmed, down to almost nothing. The Overlord tried to peer through the darkness, thinking this to be another hallucination. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, until he was fully operational he would have to treat everything he saw as the possible truth.
He saw a from slip into the darkness, one that just seemed to come out of nowhere. And as suddenly as it came, the darkness disappeared but it left behind a passenger.
He looked over the body of the Overlord, with mild amusement, running a black gloved hand over the gleaming metal.
"They sure did a number on you didn't they Old man?" he asked.
The Overlord was silent, but this didn't bother his visitor. He sat down on a nearby console and continued on as if nothing had happened.
"Did you finally figure out why you got that report on the devices? Are you aware that EAC headquarters is still functional, long after the 18 hour deadline you told us about? It was a ploy, one to get you alone, one to separate you from the rest of us. Of course we didn't know anything about this. I actually went through with my mission, but as soon as my battle with my brother started, I lost contact with EACheadquarters and the rest of the DDF. I thought that they had been killed or captured, but I finished my mission anyway. Did you know that I had to kill my brother in order to do so? No, it's true, I had to kill him, " he paused and got a far away look in his eyes. The Overlord was a little stunned by this revelation. After all, this man had killed more people than he could possibly remember, and this was the first time he had even shown the slightest hint of remorse. It somehow made him seem more, human.
The visitor sighed deeply and was once more the dark killing machine that he was before. "Yeah, once it was done we searched the room for the devices and just found a transponder giving off a false signal. Of course by then the Crustycator had shown up and we had our hands full with him and his minions. Of course he didn't last very long, but you probably knew that didn't you? Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you were still alive and all that. Didn't want to make a bid for leadership until I knew you were out of the picture. Better luck next time."
He got up to leave, but before he did he turned once more to the Overlord and said, "by the way, your kids were given to the Witch Queen". He rubbed his gloved palm absently, whenever he thought about her his palm still itched but damn could that woman fight! "I'd go after them if I were you, Henos shouldn't be in trouble since she's not crazy enough to cross you AND the sorceress. But Thenna is a different story. She's a girl, and the Witch Queen will try to turn her to her side. Once she gets her claws in you, it's almost impossible to escape." Again, he rubbed at his palm remembering when she had cut him there so long ago.
The darkness intensified and when it had disappeared, Blackguard had disappeared along with it.
"I hate it when he does that, " muttered the Overlord. "Hypatia, " he called.
"Yes my Lord?" the hologram asked.
"I want this room shielded until further notice. That ought to keep that bastard out until I'm ready to deal with him."