Game of Monsters - 179

I Am Not a Saint-

He worked in silence, aware of the eyes fixed on his back but not giving them any importance.

Not that there was much else for him to do, but it paid to keep an eye on the process all the same. Most of it was in his spell’s metaphorical hands, and he didn’t mean Friday’s. The magic had been laid out and now it was just the array and the patient, slowly going through the process of cutting off the connection between the devil and the Sleep Disease. Still though, one never knew when something unexpected could happen, so Joshua kept an close eye on how things were going.

Every devil was different, after all, and not just in the same way every human was different. There was an extra layer to that due to the fact that bloodlines made devils significantly different from one to the other. Magic that worked one way with one of them could work entirely different in another, like they were completely different species except for the very, very tiny detail that they were devils. This wasn’t a trait specific to them though, of course, because youkai were significantly different from one line to the other, even more so than devils, really, but still.

It made the delicate process of curing the Sleep Disease all the more tense.

So far, he’d treated a bunch of devils and he’d had to step in through the process to make adjustments here and there a few times. Most of those had been with pureblood devils, which made sense since those were the ones most likely to have some bloodline interfering, but there had been a few reincarnated devils too, and it was unsurprising that those had been from species that weren’t quite what one would call “basic”, such as humans.

Thankfully, this one time, Joshua didn’t have to do much of anything other than sitting there and being prepared just in case. He was tense through the whole thing, but it was otherwise easy to do. So, when the whole thing was done, he leaned back from where he’d been, slightly hunched forward to be closer to the patient. Relaxing his shoulders, he cracked his neck and stretched a little. He could feel the family of the devil behind him as they waited for him to tell them something. To their credit, they didn’t rush him or anything even when he changed posture and moved.

Some of his other patients’ families could be rather… well, impatient.

Taking a deep breath in, he glanced at the devil and checked everything his spells and him could sense.

Then he nodded to himself.

“He’s fine,” he announced, standing up and stretching a little more. He’d been there for a while already, after all. “He’s been under the effects of the disease for a while, so it might take him a bit to wake up and even more to recover, but he’ll get there. I imagine he’ll be opening his eyes sometime in the next day, and he might speak sometime in the next two days. It might happen when there’s no one around though, but it’ll all progress from there,” he explained, speaking slowly and clearly to the family who were looking at him even more intently than how they had when he was curing the man.

“Anything we should do?” the wife asked him hesitantly, almost as if she were afraid to say or do anything.

“Be there for him. He’ll need time to recover in a number of ways, but the hardest part is done. He should be back to hundred percent relatively soon, so long as you all help him,” he said and he smiled a little at how concerned they were. He’d treated the one woman that only had her son caring about her. The rest of the family seemed as if they’d prefer her to keep sleeping. And that was only one example, not even the worst one either.

Despicable.

“That doesn’t mean you have to coddle him. He’ll need to put in effort to recover his musculature, magic power and more abstract tolls the disease takes. Progress should be steady, so if it seems like he’s stuck without getting better anymore, that’s when you need to call someone to check on him. Make sure he doesn’t try to do too much and set himself back though,” he told them, aware that he was being a little contradictory there. That’s how it was though. “If you’re not sure how much to let him push himself, I’m sure there are more capable people in this field that can help him. If you think the disease is coming back though, don’t hesitate to call me, but so far that hasn’t happened, no matter how many scares people go through, so don’t be worried about that.”

The annoying thing about the Sleep Disease was that it had the relatively mundane symptom of being tired and sleepy. So, whenever one of his patients got a little tired or sleepy, the families and the patients themselves would panic. So far, every single call had been a false alarm, but he didn’t want to discourage people from calling him too much.

He was earning favor in the Underworld, after all, so that’d come in handy in the future. Especially considering Project Ascension’s fast approaching consequences. Joshua found himself, for once, properly thankful for the opportunity to have people in his debt.

That aside, Joshua talked a bit more with the family, going over things as best he could before saying his goodbyes and leaving them with the now cured patient.

“Good work as usual, Mr. Davis,” Ravel commented, dutifully walking beside him with her trusty notepad in hand. “There’s plenty of people with Sleep Disease out there, but you’ve been progressing very well. Soon, we’ll have healed all the influential people in the… list,” she informed him, wilting a little when he turned to give her a look at the last part. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

She knew he didn’t care for the influential part.

Much as he was happy to have some more pull on devil society to help him deal with annoying things like politics, it still wasn’t Joshua’s main focus. If it were up to him, he’d have healed people at random, but… Well, it was necessary, sort of. It wouldn’t do for some of those people to think they’d been put aside for “lesser devils”, much as Joshua despised that kind of thought process.

“It’s fine,” he said, sighing and rolling his eyes. “Now, what’s next on our day?”

“Hopefully not much,” a voice answered and it wasn’t Ravel. Pausing, Joshua turned and raised an eyebrow even as his secretary froze in place. “Do you have time to talk, perhaps?” the devil asked him and he found himself even more confused. Alas, he didn’t think he had many options to answer that with.

Still though…

“Is it worth anything to ask how you’re here?” he asked, taking a deep breath in and straightening his back. He wasn’t too worried, but this was not a person he wanted to underestimate. Just because they had reached some strange kind of truce didn’t mean he wasn’t wary of the guy.

“Is that really what you want to ask? Or is it why?”

“I want to ask both, but I thought I’d start with something simple,” Joshua answered with a wry smile. “Push the headache for later.”

“If you say so,” Zekram Bael told him, giving him a strange smile. “We can walk and talk, if you have somewhere to be,” the devil added, glancing towards Ravel, who’d more or less frozen where she stood.

“Ravel,” Joshua said and the girl snapped out of her surprise immediately. “Do we have somewhere to be?”

“Ah, no, sir,” she answered nervously, falling into her “sir” instead of the usual “Mr. Davis”. Very telling, that, but Joshua couldn’t really address that at the moment. “You were going to go back home, work on your projects and, hm, other than that-”

“Meaning I’m free,” he said, not wanting her to mention Kunou. His daughter had even met Zekram before, but Joshua didn’t want to involve his family with the man more than he needed to. Maybe it was paranoid of him, but he’d prefer to err on the side of caution. ‘I’ll have to make it up to Kunou later though,’ he thought, holding back a sigh. “So, we can go somewhere in this city, if you wanted to talk, Great King.”

“Zekram is fine, Lord Davis,” the devil said and it almost sounded friendly. To Joshua though, the words might as well have been wrapped in razor wire. Alas…

“Call me Joshua then,” he replied with a smile on his face. Neither of them liked each other, so he didn’t know what kind of game the Bael wanted to play. Alas, he’d have to roll with the punches as best he could and hope that’d be enough, by the look of things.

God did he wish he could have prepared for that meeting like he had his meetings with Carmilla, but alas, no such luck for him.

“Joshua then,” Zekram agreed easily with a nod. “Truth is, I know a great many people, as you might guess. It wasn’t hard to convince some people to inform me when you started doing your rounds so that I could meet you again,” the devil explained as they walked side by side through the halls of the mansion. Ravel, meanwhile, was a good few steps behind with Cheshire and Morag keeping her company, the latter of which was even hanging from her back. “As for the next natural question, I’m here because you’ve been a busy man. A rising figure in my own society is worth a little scheming for a meeting, wouldn’t you say?”

Joshua almost wanted to ask Nephthys for a beer, because he was clearly not drunk enough for the conversation at hand. Alas, even if the goddess had been amenable to that, he couldn’t afford to. He’d just have to be happy getting the beverage as a reward after everything was said and done.

“Was that all, meeting me for the sake of meeting me?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and not at all buying what the devil was trying to sell him. There had to be some kind of play going on, he was sure. “You don’t expect me to believe that, do you?”

“Not really, no,” Zekram answered, looking amused of all things. “But it’s mostly the reason all the same. The only other reason is that I thought it might be worth interacting with you to get a measure of your character, of the person that’s making waves in the world, including my own faction.”

“And how’s that going for you so far?” Joshua asked, turning forward for a moment, not really all that interested in the conversation now that he figured what it was all about.

Could the Bael have some third or fourth reason? Probably, but he wasn’t going to get it out of the man and none of his senses picked up a lie so far. Cheshire was also silent, so there was that. With all that in mind, he decided that it wasn’t worth worrying and stressing over. 

Thus, he was able to relax.

“I do believe I have nothing to worry about with you,” Zekram said, as if that were some kind of fascinating realization. Sometimes Joshua thought supernatural people wished for conflict. “At least, for as long as Khaos Brigade exists. Afterwards, things might change and that makes you a dangerous man, if a future one.”

“But you’re not going to deal with me anyway,” Joshua replied, somewhat surprised by that fact. Because Zekram didn’t seem at all confrontational or aggressive and Cheshire was still not picking up on anything worth telling him about. He guessed he now understood how Zekram felt about things a little better.

“No, I won’t, because of your relationship with Sairaorg,” the Bael told him, making him tilt his head. “You’re pushing him. I already was starting to suspect he’d go far, but now? Now I’m certain, just like I’m certain I can prevent you from becoming an enemy. And just like I’m certain that you can be a great ally. So, you could say I’m very happy with what I see in you, Joshua Davis.”

“Glad to hear that,” he said dryly, not at all meaning what he said nor impressed with what Zekram said. “Do make it worth my while though, will you?”

“I’m sure that can be arranged,” Bael answered, waving him off with a smile. However, a second later, his expression – borderline friendly as it had been, disturbingly enough – turned into something much colder, much more dangerous. “The same goes for you, however, Joshua.”

“I’m sure that can be arranged, Zekram,” he replied with his own glacial smile.

[}-o-{]

“You’ve been giving wings to the angels already,” Azazel said, not quite accusing him, but Joshua knew he was, because he was even more certain that it hadn’t been a question of any kind. Ravel certainly thought so too, if the spike in her emotions was anything to go by. The little devil was smart enough to keep her thoughts to herself though, because she was capable like that.

“Have I?” Joshua asked distractedly as he worked to set up the array that would give one of Azazel’s people an extra pair of wings. He knew, after all, that the fallen governor didn’t have any proof of what he was saying. The angels hadn’t babbled and the process was highly private for the moment.

So, Azazel was guessing.

Guessing right, of course, but guessing all the same.

“Don’t play dumb, Davis. It doesn’t suit you,” Azazel told him and while his tone remained friendly, he knew it was anything but that on the inside. The fallen was not happy with Joshua, evidently, but that was too bad for him. He was beyond caring for his feelings at that point.

It was kind of funny, the situation, considering Azazel was generally perceived as a “good guy” character and Zekram was generally perceived as a “bad guy” character. Yet there was Joshua, with a relatively friendly relationship with the Great King and anything but that with the Governor of Grigori. How perspective and specific situations could change things, he supposed. A nudge here and he was at odds with the fallen, a step there and the devil was almost on his side.

Granted, it was all almosts and ifs and maybes. It wasn’t like he considered Azazel an enemy or anything. Moreover, with time, his anger was passing – like always – and Joshua was leaning more and more towards neutral grounds. It also wasn’t like he was allies with Zekram, really. He was still highly suspicious of the guy, but he was tentatively putting him in a slightly positive, neutral space in his mind.

Still though…

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Joshua replied, because even though he was no longer entertaining murderous thoughts every time Azazel or the fallen came up in conversation – much –, that didn’t mean he was just going to forgive them. Far from it, because the man was unrepentant and Vali was still out there doing who the fuck knew what, with the full permission of Azazel to boot.

So no, Joshua was unlikely to ever let go of his negative opinion of the fallen for as long as all that remained the case.

“That’s how you want to do this, huh?” Azazel mused out loud, almost like he was talking to himself.

“Everything’s ready. You can bring your woman,” Joshua said, ignoring the man’s previous words and standing up, not even trying to appear like he cared. Azazel stared at him for a long moment before shaking his head and waving for Penemue to do her thing, which she dutifully did, even as her eyes warily flickered between her boss and Joshua himself.

The process went smoothly, all things considered and he didn’t try to make small talk with anyone. Nothing against the fallen, maybe the woman had been selected because of how “nice” she was or something, but Joshua didn’t care enough to let her try and earn points with him. He just did what he’d gone there to do and pushed to get out of there as soon as possible. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Not even going to try and respect us in our own home, are you?”

“Don’t talk to me about respect and homes, Azazel,” Joshua told the governor, cracking his neck after all was said and done. Normally, he found some sort of enjoyment or interest in every big spell he cast, even if it was one that he’d cast a bunch of times already. This one time though, despite being only the second time to cast said spell on a fallen and only the first time after testing… Joshua was more uncomfortable than anything.

“Joshua-”

“I’m still waiting,” he interrupted with, turning and giving Azazel a wry half-smile.

“For an apology? I can do that, no problem. I’ve even already apologized, but I can do that again,” the governor said and there was something very annoying about the dismissive way the man spoke. It was what stopped Joshua from taking his apology in the first place, actually.

However…

“I’m still waiting for the great results you thought having a spy in Khaos Brigade were worth putting my family in danger for,” Joshua said, whatever was there of his smile vanishing from his face and left only a dispassionate expression. “You’re getting us information, but I haven’t seen enough of it to warrant the shitshow that you caused for us. Funny how none of that flak hit you or your people, huh?” he pointed out with a raised eyebrow. “Very funny.”

“Joshua-”

“I don’t have time for your excuses. Do something useful with your little spy before I kill him, Azazel,” he told the man, cracking his neck and readying to leave. “My anger is going away, so maybe I won’t hunt him down. But if I come across him on the battlefield, you can bet that he’ll be dead along with the rest of them. Either that, or in a cell for me to get as much information out of him as I can. Like your buddy, Kokabiel,” he said and for the first time, he saw a flicker of anger behind Azazel’s eyes. He saw the clenching of his jaw, the twitch of his hands and the tensing of his shoulders. So did Nagini and both of them reacted much the same, with dark amusement.

“You’re hellbent on being belligerent, aren’t you?”

“I’m hellbent on holding you accountable for your actions. Having a spy on the enemy organization is all well and good, right up until the price is too much for too little reward. Maybe I reacted poorly at the start and my anger got the better of me. That’s going away now though and your little spy project still isn’t worth it to me,” Joshua explained as best he could, swapping his title for Great Column and drawing on Horus and every other high deity of the Egyptians that felt generous enough to back him up on what was almost a whim. “Now is when you should be worried, Azazel. Because I can be angry a lot, but it goes away, you have seen that in Mittelt and Kalawarna. Now though, it’s going away and I’m still pissed. So… do something, or don’t be surprised if your faction and your standing with me and mine remains the same or worse.”

“Not like you’re giving me much of a chance, are you?” Azazel asked and Joshua had to commend his fucking gall, because that was… That was something else.

“Me interrupting your excuses is not the same as me not giving you a chance. I’m just not giving you a chance to bullshit your way out of this,” he replied, shaking his head and turning to look at Nagini, who had come with him for the job together with Margalo. The bird took the glance as a sign and flew to perch herself on his shoulder. “Do something, Azazel, or don’t. But stop trying to play games with me, because it won’t end well.”

“Just like the games you’re playing? I know you’ve been giving wings to the angels,” the governor accused – for real this time – and Joshua snorted. “Your project has been done for a while already, but somehow this is the first time we hear of this? You’re punishing me and my faction, favoring them. That wasn’t the agreement-”

“Funny. Our alliance agreement didn’t involve you setting us up as some kind of puppets either,” Joshua commented, tilting his head. “Maybe you decided that playing a little with the semantics game was a good idea. But I have something to tell you about that. Two can play the same game. I said I’d give both sides extra wings. I never said anything about doing it equally though.”

“You’ll regret this, Joshua.”

“Maybe I will,” he agreed, nodding for Ravel and Nagini to follow him. “But I’m going to make sure you regret what you did too, while I’m at it. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, Azazel,” he said, stopping next to the fallen and giving him a sardonic smile. “Don’t bother, alright? I know the way out.”

And with that, he left the room and he was grateful when Azazel didn’t seem like he’d follow him. That is, until he heard the door behind him open and close and he rolled his eyes. Talking with the governor was tiring, in all honesty, because it was a constant battle to not hear his bullshit. The man seemed incapable of realizing that he wasn’t going to argue his way out of the mess he created.

To hear his partners talking, Azazel had cornered himself and now he didn’t have a way out. His plans cracked in his hands and it took him by surprise. They were flawed and now he was paying the price for that. The fallen didn’t have anything to do other than try and fix things, but that was easier said than done. So, in the end, he could only scramble to try and keep at least a little face and not alienate everyone. The problem was that he didn’t have anything to defend himself with, really.

It was… sad, but Joshua was done caring, quite honestly.

“This is a surprise,” he commented idly. “I really did think Azazel would keep trying.”

“No, sir. Just me,” Penemue said, speaking in the same way that Ravel did when she was nervous and tense. He turned and gave her a raised eyebrow. Why had she followed after him? “You know the way, but it’s bad manners not to accompany guests all the same.”

“I’m the rude one here, Penemue. I’m the one that left without being dismissed,” he pointed out to her with a snort. Even he knew that much, and even if he didn’t, he’d have learned about it when he poked Carmilla with that same thing. “So, why did you really come after us?” he asked curiously.

“You’re an ally of my faction, sir. Maybe not in good terms as of late,” she answered, grimacing and even hunching over the smallest bit as she said that last part. “But an ally all the same. I make it a point to be respectful to allies.”

“Shame the rest of your faction doesn’t agree,” he said, sending a jab towards Azazel. Was it petty to do that with the man’s secretary? Yes, it definitely was. Even with his anger waning, his annoyance remained and it wasn't helped by the man’s refusal to acknowledge that he’d screwed up.

Shockingly, Penemue didn’t even try to argue.

“I hope you can find it in you to forgive our faction, sir,” she said instead and he raised both eyebrows. It almost sounded to him like she was excluding Azazel from that. Surely not though, right? Maybe he’d have to check with Ravel and his partners. Good thing the Phenex was right there to witness that with her own eyes. Maybe she’d explain better. “During times like this, everyone needs as much strength as they can manage to find.”

“Entirely depending on your faction, Penemue,” he replied, reaching the room where he’d teleported in and where he would teleport out. “Do something worth my while and maybe I’ll look past this… mess. For now though, I have better things to do than being annoyed and uncomfortable,” he explained with a shrug.

As he went to teleport though, he didn’t miss the thoughtful look on Penemue’s face.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, the scenes in this chapter got away from me, both of them. I’d already started them thinking they’d be long, sure, but I didn’t think they’d occupy the whole chapter. Alas, here we are, I guess.

Fortunately, I’m actually very happy with this chapter. Zekram is an interesting character to write because even I don’t know what’s going on there half the time. And then there’s Azazel, who… Honestly, I think he brought things on himself. Maybe people don’t like that I’m kind of slapping his character on the face, but the muse is sometimes kind and sometimes she’s a bitch.

Unlucky him.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: How’re you feeling at the moment of reading this? Weather’s a little hot here, but nothing like we were having about a weak ago, fortunately. Other than that, I have a slight cough that’s more annoying than anything. Beyond that, I’m a little hungry, but I’m trying not to eat so much, since I should try to lose weight. “Should” and “try” being the operative words there.

See you.