chapter 87. Greed (A)

Everly stared at Alec flopping pathetically on the ground and tried to feel anything other than satisfaction at a cruel job well done.

If there had ever been a time when she'd been a gentler person than this, she struggled to recall it. It was true that she'd been quite violent in her previous life on Earth as well, but never to this extent. She'd just parted a man from his lower body and the only thing she felt was enjoyment of the deed.

Everly was just going to have to admit it. She wasn't the cartoonish villain she'd originally set out to be. Saturday morning programming could explain her motives but not her methods. She was a step beyond. Somewhere along the way, she'd evolved past her more earnest ambitions and had become the genuine deal. Everly had truly become a fucking monster.

All her prior denials and hesitancy at accepting such a blatantly obvious fact was now embodied in the dying man that she'd mutilated. The man who rightly hated her so much due to the injustice that she'd dealt him years ago and forgotten about. She wasn't like the charming villains she'd grown up being delighted by on her television screen.

In this moment, she realized that this was who she was. A murdering bully who did whatever she wanted with no remorse. The worst that humanity had to offer the world. That was what Everly Skolder represented.

And yet, this realization didn't move her heart. She didn't care what she'd done to this weakling, just as she didn't care about all the other lives that she had trampled over.

She only wanted to be entertained.

With that in mind, Everly knelt before Alec, staining her clothing in his blood as she did so, and carefully joined the two separated sections of his body back together before casting a powerful healing spell that began mending what her hands had torn apart. When she was finished, Alec's body was completely restored.

A smile began quivering at the corner of Everly's lips as she stared at her toy. She leaned down and gave him a warm hug, before saying, "That was fun, Alec. I enjoyed that a lot. Did you enjoy it as much as I did?"

Alec looked back at her in confusion and said nothing in response, which only made Everly's smile grow wider.

Now Alec's eyes grew fearful. "What do you want from me?" he asked her. "You've already ruined everything that I am."

"I know," Everly said in agreement. "You're tainted with demonic magic, Alec. I can smell it coming out of your pores. You seemed like such a righteous man when I first met you. I guess all the time spent in the hole I dug for you burned your faith away, huh? I feel so bad for you. It had to be a horrible thing to realize you aren't the person you thought you were."

When Alec refused to respond, Everly felt a spark of delight beginning to grow in her center. Why was it so much fun to hurt him? Was it satisfaction from knowing how thoroughly she'd broken him? How she'd changed him from a warrior of faith into this tainted, broken wretch?

It had to be.

"I know it was Anne who discovered you," Everly continued. "Was she the one who delivered you to Pride? Is that the one you've sworn yourself to? What a lamentable descent that is! To think you were once the squire of magnificent Lady Sylvain, only to become some demon's toy. It's enough to make me weep."

"Don't say her name!" Alec suddenly shouted as he threw his hands around the collar of Every's cloak and pulled himself up to face her. "Don't you ever mention her name again, monster! You aren't worthy to speak it! You aren't worthy to–"

He choked off when Everly flicked him on the forehead, rendering him unconscious. "Lady Sylvain," she said. "You know, now that I think about it, I don't believe we've come across her corpse, yet. Where could she be?"

Dullahan shrugged in response. "You're asking me? I don't pay attention to dead bodies. That's gross."

"You know, you were forged through the dark arts of necromancy, dummy," replied Everly. "Dead bodies come hand in hand with the family profession."

"They're still gross. I choose not to dwell on them," Dullahan said stubbornly.

Everly bit her tongue to keep herself from making a hurtful comment. Today was a good day for Dullahan. She'd finally come out of her room and had made a genuinely useful contribution. It was progress; but one sharply worded rebuke could easily undo her progress.

Everly didn't know why she'd become so tolerant of her creation's sensitive moods. In true evil overlord style, it probably made more sense just to kill Dullahan and replace her with something more useful. But she couldn't find it within herself to do such a thing.

Maybe she just had a fondness for broken things?

"Everly? What are you looking at?" Dullahan suddenly asked her.

"Huh?" Everly asked her. "What do you mean?"

"You were staring at me," Dullahan said.

"Oh," Everly said. "I think your armor looks cool."

"You do?" Dullahan asked in surprise.

"I said I did, didn't I?" Everly said as she rose to her feet. "Take them both," she said as she gestured to Alec and Devere. "Alec has questions we need answered and Devere has introductions to make for us."

"You're really going to take a chance on this one?" Dullahan asked. "I was picking up some massive fuckboy vibes from him."

"I don't like that kind of salty language, young lady," Everly smirked. "In this organization we don't make judgements about others. We take advantage of them if they're useful and toss them aside once there's no longer a need for them."

"What if he isn't useful?" Dullahan asked.

"Meh, Matty could always use some fresh protein," Everly shrugged.

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The next evening in the memory palace, in the receiving room that Everly created for the occasion, a shape began to gradually take form before her eyes, as Devere slowly chanted in a language foreign to her ears, extolling his master, Greed of the cardinal sins to favor them with his presence.

It was a slow process, which Everly found mildly annoying. The room was filled with chests of gold and rare gems that Everly had created specifically to entice the old thing into paying them a visit. All the wealth she was throwing at him should have prompted a faster reply.

Eventually, Greed finished materializing and stepped out of the portal that his servant had prepared for him. What faced Everly now was what one could consider the quintessential sandy haired fox. A grinning man wearing cargo shorts and sandals along with a wide brimmed straw hat, and an unbuttoned flower-printed shirt.

He looks like one of those obnoxious retirees who like pricing native hawaiians out of their own area codes, Everly thought to herself.

He reminded her strongly of her own father. Which made his greeting to her feel even more unsettling.

"Well, hello there, child of my line," he said merrily. "I've been wondering when you were going to pick up the phone and give us a call. Papaw was beginning to feel well and truly excluded."

Child of his line? Was he claiming to be related to her? As if!

"Okay, you can stop that bullshit right there," Everly said immediately. "I know for a fact that my paternal grandfather was murdered by my dad two decades ago. You're not a surprise relation, so don't think for a moment that I'll fall for that crap."

"Jeez, kid, I said you were a child of my line, not my granddaughter," Greed said in a hurt tone. "I did father one of the Van Belsar ancestors about four or five hundred years back, so I'm possibly your great times eight great-grandfather, not that you seem inclined to care about that."

"Ugh," said Everly in dismay. "This opens up the possibility of me having thousands of unwanted relatives."

"Heh, yeah," Greed said merrily. "More than ANYONE else."

"Yeeeah, I might have to schedule a purge."

"Really? Why?"

"People who brag about quantity have no appreciation for quality," Everly said.

"I love both!"

"I suppose you would."

"Oh, shut up and tell me what you want, brat," Greed said with a sigh of growing irritation.

"Uh, obviously everything," Everly replied as though it weren't obvious.

"See? Told you, you were one of mine," chuckled Greed, who began to cheer back up. "Don't be so bent out of shape over it, either. In this world, humanity is directly descended from the seven kings. No one made your kind out of dust this time around. There's not a person alive who hasn't got some of us running through their veins."

"Wow. That feels like a real burst of lore," Everly nodded indifferently. "Should I be taking notes?"

"Uh, I am sharing a massive secret about the origin of your species with you," Greed said. "You could at least pretend to be impressed."

"Yeah, but the fact that you want me to be impressed is really making me resist it," Everly said sadly.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're a bit of a handful?" asked Greed.

"I'm just a product of the times," Everly said. "So, with that in mind, would you please tell me what the hell is going on?"