by Sarah Lin
"That's right, but I'm here on personal business. I was wondering if you could help me with something."
"Oh, I'd be happy to help you with all sorts of things..." She stepped closer to him, but immediately lowered her gaze coquettishly when he looked back at her. That was different, though not really. Rick sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"I'm really not looking to be seduced here. I just want to talk to a couple of melted frog looking demons."
That threw the succubus off her usual patterns, blinking at him, then frowning. "You mean... any demons with that appearance? That is... a strange fetish, but I suppose we ca-"
"What? No! They're... business associates, but they don't live here. I haven't been able to contact them from the human realm, but I assume you have a way to do that here."
"Oh! Then perhaps I can be helpful after all." The succubus completely dropped all attempt at being seductive, but her gaze was still predatory. "There are places where you can contact anyone anywhere in the demon realm. There's simply the matter of payment... a little blood would be more than sufficient..."
"Normally I would accept, but I misplaced my device the last time I was here." Rick raised a hand to stop her when she started to offer something else. "I think you'll understand why I want to be cautious."
"You're no fun at all. Why play around if you're just going to use your demon mass to pay?"
"My what?" The next second he felt like an idiot when he remembered the stray item in his portfolio. Since he'd steadfastly refused all demonic bond offers except for the brothers, it had remained there. He'd already blown the chance to look savvy, so he figured there was no point pretending. "I didn't realize that I could use that to pay for things."
"You can think of it as a denomination of lucrim here." The succubus sighed and scratched at her tails. "I can take you to the right place and help you make the transfer, if you pay me 50 lucrim of it."
Though that seemed a high price for information he should have known, Rick decided that he could afford to sacrifice it. He hadn't known that was money at all until that point, so she was still saving him overall. Plus, if it let him do business in the demon realm without giving out his blood, that itself was worth something.
The succubus guided him upward to one of the upside-down buildings, which was easy since she could fly and Rick could float. It took a powerful leap sailing over the city, but he eventually floated within range of one of the rooftops. There was a balcony with a large railing that he suspected was used for that purpose. A glance inside proved that the rooms themselves weren't upside-down, the building was simply built from the ceiling. Why exactly they would do that, he wasn't sure, but gravity was clearly not the same sort of concern here.
Finding the correct store required navigating the outside of the groundscraper, and the place itself was one he would have never looked at twice, so the succubus justified her payment. Once inside, several bonded humans helped him extract some of the demonic mass, which he gave to the succubus. She flitted away to find some other mark while they took him to a small booth.
Though for a moment he expected something as mundane as a phone, instead a series of glass shards lifted into the air and formed a fragmented mirror that reflected a starry sky instead of him or the room. One of the bonded men gestured to a series of bulbous spheres on the floor, but they meant nothing to Rick.
"What demons did you say you wanted to contact?" the bonded man asked.
"Their names are Bftgage and Ythsil. They live in demonic Branton. Uh, in the United States."
"No exact number is necessary." The assistant rapidly twisted several of the spheres, which made the glass shards shiver and shift through the color spectrum. "You will be finding them by their fundamental identity. Place your hand on the mirror and focus on them. They will appear in the reflection, assuming that they accept your message, and that they are still alive."
With that ominous message, the aide left and pulled closed a curtain, leaving Rick alone with the mirror shards. He touched them cautiously, but found them so dull that they wouldn't even have cut someone without a defensive core. Instead he closed his eyes and focused on the two demons he hadn't seen in so long. When nothing happened, he muttered their names under his breath and tried to concentrate his aura further.
Eventually he felt a pulse from his hand. Rick pulled it back and saw a ripple passing through the shards. It rolled like a wave to the end, then repeated a second time, then a third. Frowning, he watched the shifting shards, hoping that wasn't some sort of error message. Just when he thought it might have failed, the shards froze in place and the sky in the reflection gave way to something else.
Bftgage and Ythsil were larger than he remembered, sitting on top of an insect-like desk and looking roughly the size of dogs. Since the last time, Bftgage's lip had twisted further, revealing a pulsating inner membrane, while Ythsil had grown a third eye in the center of his forehead.
"Rick! Rick, we thought we'd never see you again!" Both of them began blubbering over one another, happily vomiting up mucus of various colors. Rick found himself smiling broadly, though he was also glad he was on the other side of the mirror.
"I'm glad to see you too."
Ythsil suddenly went still, all three eyes wide. "You aren't stuck in the demon realm again, are you?"
"No, this time I'm just visiting. But I wanted to talk to you... about everything, I guess."
"We've been moving up in the world!" Bftgage said proudly. "We managed to move out of the mines, especially because you accepted our bond. It wasn't enough for us to go to your world, but it gave us a little income!"
"And it seems to be going well? I saw that the bond has increased several times since I first received it."
"No!" Ythsil shook back and forth, releasing a shower of blue mucus. "We wanted to offer more bonds, but none of the demonic firms will take us! And we can't afford to send more messages through to your realm, so there's no way of getting any clients!"
"Even if we could," Bftgage explained, "we don't have the proper licenses. Everyone is entitled to one bond through the usual channels, but more than that..."
Rick listened quietly as the two of them explained their problems. It was very similar to small businesses in Branton... depressingly similar. Though he didn't want to interrupt them when they were so eager to explain, there was nothing he could do about any of that. When they finally slowed down, Rick managed to break in.
"Is there anything I can do to help you? Is it possible to... ship human blood through the demon realm, I guess?"
Bftgage immediately shook his head. "It would just be stolen. And we don't want to take anything from you, we want to give back! The bond we gave you is worth almost 1000 lucrim in the human realm! That helps, right?"
Somehow Rick managed a smile. "Yes, that was... a big help. But I can't stay here for too long, so if we're going to attempt something, we need to do it now. Is there anything we can set up?"
"If you could help us travel..." Bftgage paused for a time, drooling in thought. "We can't afford to travel anywhere on our own, but if a human asked for us specifically, there are programs for that. But the problem is... your message is coming from the Qinlands. They don't accept outside demons there, not unless you have impossible amounts of money."
"The Showdown moves every month," Rick said, beginning to smile. "I'd be happy to send you anywhere we're going, but I don't actually know most of our locations. I think... we're going somewhere I don't remember next month, but then Siberia the month after that. Does that help?"
Immediately the demonic brothers turned and spoke to one another in a conversation that seemed to be more mucus spittle than sound. Eventually Bftgage turned back and nodded his entire body. "We think this Sibeerya is the equivalent of the place we call the Burning Snow. It is very different than Branton there. There are no licenses, no businesses. Anyone who can contact a human can make a contract."
"Humans and demons fuse there!" Ythsil boun
ced excitedly, eventually unbalancing and rolling over onto his head. "They don't let anyone do that here! Actually being in the same body sounds amazing!"
"It's also nearly permanent." Bftgage was silent for a time, the nodded again. "Rick, this is what I think we should do. Say that you want to form a contract with us now, but from the Burning Snow. We will go ahead of you and find our way. When you arrive in your human Sibeerya, we will have something for you."
"Do we have enough money for that?" Ythsil asked.
"I have been saving some." Bftgage opened his mouth and vomited out a wrapped sack. "Our expenses will use up most of it, but this opportunity... the Burning Snow is our best chance to make something more of ourselves. Rick will help us."
Rick immediately felt a strange ache, knowing that the brothers were putting so much trust in him. He was just an idiot good at taking hits, trying to blunder his way through life. And now, that somehow made him the savior of a pair of demonic frogs. Though he wanted to ask them some more questions, Bftgage seemed to have made his decision.
"We can speak in the Burning Snow, Rick. This call will be very expensive, so you should not spend any more of your money. Simply request us as I said and we will gladly repay you everything we can."
"If you think it's a good plan, that's what we'll do." Rick smiled at the two of them. "See you in Siberia."
He wasn't sure how to stop the call, but it was severed from the other end, leaving him staring at the blank sky again. Rick stood there for a while, just thinking over the conversation. Honestly, it had never occurred to him that the demon realm could be so fundamentally different in various places, but in retrospect it was obvious.
Before he could reflect for long, the aide came in and escorted him out. The call actually only cost 37 lucrim from his total of 500, leaving him to wonder if the succubus had ripped him off. But soon after, he decided that it didn't matter. She'd let him talk to Bftgage and Ythsil again, and perhaps even set up something that could help them both.
But soon Rick would have to leave the demon realm, and though it might be part of the world, it wasn't really part of his reality. That reality was that he'd gone directly against his mentor and would be throwing himself into a dangerous competition with nothing but a tiny bond from a pair of demonic frogs.
The joy in their faces had been worth something. But it wouldn't be enough if this all went bad.
Chapter 18: Showdown on the Line
Though H was no longer so irritated when they both returned to the hotel, the new scorn in his eyes was worse. Growling was simply the way H communicated, but now Rick heard real skepticism in the sounds. The idea of failing out of the Showdown bothered him, but he told himself that he'd done everything he could in the negotiation. At worst he would ruin his future chances, but he would still come out richer and stronger than before.
Except that was no longer true. Now he would disappoint Bftgage and Ythsil, which might ruin them financially if it didn't do worse. His life had become strange.
In any case, H didn't repeat the arguments, simply set forth an aggressive program of training. Aside from a little more polish on his footwork, it was almost entirely focused on the final stage of the Triune Golden Spheres. The process involved drawing the crystal spheres into his lucrima soul, actually watching them disappear into his body in a way he couldn't explain.
That wasn't the end, however. The true purpose of the final step was to let the spheres rotate within him, churning within his own aura. Almost immediately he could feel the filled sphere directly, surging along with his defensive core. Yet H still wasn't satisfied.
When it finally clicked, Rick opened his eyes and then stared. Three translucent spheres glowed around him, visibly passing through his body though he felt nothing but the circular flow within him. They overlapped around his torso, leaving him bathed in light and surrounded by the circling spheres. It was more dramatic than he had expected, even with only one sphere filled.
H promptly tested his control by attacking him aggressively. The first time, one of the ghostly spheres soon shattered under the assault and Rick felt the crystal spheres within immediately drop out of sync. But the second time he kept up his flow, lasting much longer. Every time it became more and more difficult for H to break his control.
Though Rick struggled to master the technique, he was surprised at how good his body felt afterward. Even though he was repeatedly taking powerful blows, he didn't have so much as a scratch. Presumably H was holding back so as not to injure him, but he was still impressed. It really was like he'd added over ten thousand lucrim to his defensive core.
Imagining the completed technique, Rick threw himself into gathering Formula T into the sphere so that it would be full. That was the one thing that didn't go as well. Unlike the first time he'd been in the demon realm, he had strange headaches and mood swings as he recovered from the experience. Soon he was back to normal, however, and focused fully on his training.
When the day came, he was as ready as he thought he could be. As they left the hotel to attend the night's Showdown, Rick looked over his portfolio one more time.
[Name: Rick Hunter
Ether Tier: 12th
Ether Score: 451
Lucrim Generation: 89,350
Enhanced Generation: 105,100
Current Lucrim: 17,200]
[Rick Hunter's Lucrima Portfolio
Foundation: 3700 (Lv VI)
Dark Blood Kettle: 17,650 (Lv IV)
Triune Golden Spheres: 15,750
- Defensive Sphere: 15,750
- Second Sphere: 0
- Third Sphere: 0
Offensive Lucore: 13,800 (Lv VII)
Defensive Lucore: 37,600 (Lv IX)
Bunyan's Step: 15,900 (Lv VIII)
Graham's Stake: 28,075 (Lv IV)
Demonic Bond (Bftgage & Ythsil): 800 (Stage I)
Demon Mass: 413 (N/A)
Total Lucrim: 117,475
Enhanced Total: 133,225]
Not much progress other than the Triune Golden Spheres. The most significant boost had actually been H giving him the next monthly payment for Graham's Stake. It took the form of a pill that almost seemed like solid ether, unloading a substantial amount of stiff lucrim that packed directly into his generation Lucore. Becoming a perpetual soul still seemed ridiculously far off, but each month he got a little closer. And if he managed to win more seals, he'd jump closer yet.
Looking at the numbers, he couldn't help but focus on the fact that with a demonic bond, he would have had a six digit generation rate even without the spheres. He could flood that raw power into all of his Lucores, strengthening them across the board. Though he couldn't be sure exactly how it would feel, there was no question that it would have helped bridge the gap between him and stronger competitors.
To keep his mind off that, he tried to focus on all his other progress. The Triune Golden Spheres might not have increased his generation rate, but he'd finished the defensive sphere. H said that he could continue to make it stronger once all three were complete, but for now it was still 15,000 extra lucrim supporting his defenses. Based on their sparring, he hoped the technique would hold.
His footwork had been declared adequate, the Dark Blood Kettle had absorbed all his recent experiences, and he'd polished his lucrima soul. That was as ready as he could be.
H went with him to the venue, having summoned a private taxi. They rode in absolute silence, leaving Rick with nothing to do but look outside and try to figure out where the stadium could be hiding. Soon he realized that they must be heading toward the large temple compound that he'd seen when they arrived.
As they passed through the gates, he did his best to look at the buildings and figure out if it meant anything. Rick was not an expert in Chinese architecture, but he expected certain things from temples, like Buddhist statues. This one had some similar elements of construction, like the towering slanted roofs, but the iconography was completely foreign. Having been in demonic Odiyu, he strongly
suspected that the origins of it were not human.
Their vehicle stopped in a discreet parking lot and they walked the remaining distance on foot. There were other contestants now, all forced to walk in together, unlike the usual stadiums. More Chinese contestants than usual, which he supposed shouldn't surprise him. The only person he recognized personally was Raggest, who waved cheerfully to him.
In the end, they were led to a massive open courtyard, but the contestants were guided to the porches that surrounded it instead of the center. He understood soon after when screens of aura began to appear around the sides. Through them, he could see a pitch black stadium filled with crowds of eager demons. He strongly suspected that they could see through as well, this event an exotic glimpse into the human world for them.
As the events began, Rick decided that this was actually better for concentration. No roaring crowds, no burning lights, just a peaceful courtyard. The sight of so many demons around them might be grotesque to some, but Rick was mostly accustomed to them by now.
From the first event, it was clear that things would be different from South Africa. Each round was calmly introduced by a fully bonded monk, without excessive fanfare. Since the first events involved lifting weights, Rick's attention wandered, instead examining the crowds. The way their eyes moved, he suspected that they had an announcer and screens on their side.
"What are the demons seeing?" he asked H. His mentor showed him a tablet with a split screen, which included some of the elements he'd expected, though it had a strange vibe different from any sporting event Rick had seen. Before he could examine it, H pulled the tablet away.
"You don't have time to worry about that. Get mentally ready, because the Unlimited Defensive Ring will be soon." His tone was calm, but the threat was clear enough. Rick took his advice and closed his eyes to focus on his own lucrima soul.