MAKING A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
MAKING A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
"The school must be responsible for the safety of our children. You must be held accountable", Lord Yenen screamed at our headmaster, Mr. Hagger.
Mr. Hagger held his head low as he faced the furious reproach from the parents of the school, whose children were missing or killed in the graduation test held in the abandoned mine.
"We are sorry for what happened in the mine, but we have done everything possible to ensure the student's safety. We never expected there will be a monster ant infestation inside the mine", headmaster Hagger explained to us.
Yasidee and basically every student in my school were all missing after the abandoned mine was attacked by demons.
"What happened in the mine? I demand to know the truth," a parent whose child was missing asked the headmaster again.
"We have a survivor who escaped the mine, you can ask him what happened, he's the only remaining witness", headmaster Hagger told the parents as I was asked to come forward.
"Oriese, please tell us what happened in the mine?" Hagger asked me.
"Erm… I followed the teachers to the mine, but I came out early. I really don't know what happened after that", I told the parents and teachers.
"We must save our children who are trapped in the mine", another parent asked the headmaster.
"We really want to but the entrance to the mine is destroyed, and the mine is infested by monster creatures. We can't go back there ourselves without the support of the Apostles", Headmaster Hagger told the parents.
"Why haven't the darn Apostles come yet?" Lord Yenen screamed at the meeting of teachers and parents.
"Damn those Apostles, what is the point of paying them tithes every year if they can't protect us", another parent screamed out in frustration.
After the meeting ended, I went to the headmaster's office again.
"Headmaster Hagger, these are my tokens", I said to the headmaster as I handed him several tokens that I picked up in the mine.
"Oh, I'm sorry this was the last thing on my mind right now. But rest assured you have passed the graduation test", he told me.
"Really? I passed", I asked him.
"Yes, you are also probably the only one who passed this year", he told me sadly.
After I came out from the Headmaster's office, to my surprise someone unexpected was waiting for me.
"You are Oriese, my son's friend?" Lord Yenen asked me.
"Yes, Yasidee is my friend", I replied to me.
"Follow me, there is someone who wants to see you", he told me to my surprise and shock.
I followed Lord Yenen back to his family mansion where someone there was waiting for me to my surprise.
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The atmosphere within the Ermane mansion's hall exuded a stifling humidity, even though no furnaces were present. The oppressive heat seemed to emanate from a solitary figure seated in the center—the true master of the estate.
This was no ordinary master, nor was he human.
Towering over normal proportions, he possessed colossal wings sprouting from his back. Three formidable horns adorned his head, curving backward and concealed beneath a cascade of fiery red manes. His countenance mirrored the ghastly visages depicted in demonic paintings.
Indeed, this was a genuine demon—the Demonlord Nomzenes.
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"Damnit, why is the Demonlord asking to see me? Is this a trap?" I asked myself.
I have a history of beef with the demon army, especially with her Queen, Emerald. I killed her once in the deserts of Arrakis, but she was reborn. Her army has grown stronger ever since and they are now challenging the strongest forces in the Ten-Kingdoms, the Church of All-seeing.
"Are you Oriese, the son of Kaleon, I heard many great things about you", Lord Nomzenes said to me to my surprise.
"That is not the kind of opening statement if there was hostility between us", I told myself.
So, I'll play along with this line of conversation.
"It is my honor to meet you, a Demonlord General", I said to Nomzenes.
"You are not afraid of me?" he asked me.
"Why should I be afraid? We will soon meet you and your army in Staari city", I told the Demonlord without fear.
"Hahaha, you are an interesting character", he laughed and said to me.
"Did the Demonlord General invite me here just for tea?" I asked him as I took a seat in front of the Demonlord and signaled to Lord Yenen to have a cup of tea.
Lord Yenen was shocked by my behavior and complied immediately, asking his servants to bring me some refreshments.
"You are not surprised at all to see me, you seem to be expecting me?" Nomzenes asked me.
"Eventually, someone from the Queen's army will look for me. After all I did make quite a few crazy trades and investments in the city recently", I told the Demonlord.
I knew now why the demons wanted to see me. They realized that I made a few good trades that anticipated the arrival of the demon invasion. They must want to extract some benefit from me or make me their goon.
"What makes you think we will seek you? You are only the son of a Trader", he asked me.
"Didn't Yasidee mention to you about the treasures of the Church yet? That is the reason you called me, isn't it?" I asked the Demonlord.
I now remembered that when I talked to this demon before, disguised as Yasidee, I dangled to him a bait about the Church's treasures in Starri city. This was the reason they came to me now.
"Did you let Yasidee know about the Church's treasures on purpose? Why?" he asked me in surprise.
"Yasidee did mention something about demon collusion in his family and I guessed he was the best person to pass my message to your excellency", I told Nomzenes.
"You wanted this meeting with me?" Nomzenes asked me.
"No, I want a share of the Church's treasures and you are the only ones who can get it for me", I told the Demonlord whose eyes opened wide to my suggestion.
"I am all ears", Demonlord Nomzenes said to me.
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"This mine is sealed", a guard told us when we wanted to access the abandoned mine that took the life of all the students at our school during the graduation test.
"We have an authorization from the Cardinal", I told the guard as I passed him a letter from the Church.
All the parents of the deceased students who were lost in the abandoned mine were unsatisfied with the actions taken by the city and the Church.
So, they protested to the Church.
The Church did not plan to provide any assistance to help retrieve the lost students or their bodies, although they relented to allow us to mount our own rescue operations, at our own risk.
"Parents and teachers, our Kaleon family has hired more than a hundred guards and militias to open the abandoned mine to rescue my friends or at the very least retrieve their bodies", I told the parents and teachers solemnly about my purpose here.
At my own cost, I brought in more than a hundred dexterous workers who quickly opened the mine again. In a coordinated effort, they went into the mine to rescue any lost students that they could find in an operation that may last for days.
As the parents waited outside of the mine waiting inside their camps and tents, we went inside the mine, me and the Temple of Solomon worshippers. The Temple people were hired by me to run this operation.
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"What are your orders, Young master?" Camliden, the leader of this operation asked me.
"We scour this place and look for the remains of the students. If we are fortunate, we might find a survivor or two but that could well be unlikely", I said to Camliden as I gave to him a map of the mine.
I've already mapped this mine with the help of my wristband. My wristband is one of the technologies of the 23rd century Earth which acted as both an AI assistant and a positioning system.
"What about the other mission?" Camliden asked me.
"Select about twenty of your best men to follow me to the annex mine, the Mithrium mine. Once there your men will wait for the prisoners who goes into the mine and we coordinate the rescue from there", I told Camliden.
"Yes, young master, we await your instructions", Camliden told me.
In the cover of rescuing the lost and dead students in the abandoned mine, I sent in the Temple of Solomon worshippers and thieves. They would recover the bodies of the dead students but at the same time they have another mission.
They would go into the Mithrium mine, which is an annex to the abandoned mine, to wait for the miners to come and establish communication. Once communication is established, we would plan the operation to rescue all the Temple worshippers who were imprisoned in the Mithrium mine.
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