[Video | Public]

[otakuro]

Hey.  Looks like I've got this working.

[Atsuro's face appears on the network under somewhat inadequate lighting.  An astute guess would place him in his room illuminated only by the backlight of his laptop.] 

Everyone get out of that first mission OK?  I can't speak for anyone else, but geez, I think I slept for a few days straight there.  If they, uh, wanted a report or anything, the research labs are fine.  ...Probably.

[He stifles a yawn before continuing on, the camera zooming out slightly to reveal a lot of bedhead and a conspicuously absent trademark floppy hat.]

Hnn...  Sorry.

So!  Anyway.  I've been thinking a lot.  About what they've told us and about... what they haven't.  Hah, I'm still surprised this place isn't some weird hallucination.  It's a little unreal, right?  Like they're asking us to act out a game or a fantasy novel.  But... even if it seems like it might be fun to stick around, I think we need to find out what it is we're really getting into.  ...There's something I want to say about all this.

You've all run into the monsters by now, right?  They talk, they cast magic, they do tricks.  Not all of them are bad, but they're things we've heard of in myths and stories from different cultures all across the globe - Cerberus, the hound of Hades.  British pixies and kobolds.  Nekomata and other youkai from Japan.  So... what gives?  What're they doing here?

...I'm not gonna get into details, but I should say that these guys - the exact same identical demons - have popped up in at least two other worlds that I know of.  And both times.... they showed up because the world was about to end.

I'm not saying this place is the same way, but... maybe that's why they need our help badly.

[addendum a few minutes later]

Ah, someone reminded me - if you guys want to see a database of all the demons I've ever met, you can drop by my room.  Libra 5-07.

Comments

[drakenguard]

Divine plan...

[Similar to Polaris then? Although there wasn't anything divine about the Administrator - they had just been corrupted data in need of deleting to him, neither did he have legions of angels at his beck and call. It was all manner of demons and alien entities]

Was there something called an Administrator in your world? He may have been called 'Polaris'.

[otakuro]

...I heard about that from your friends. No, we got something a little... better represented in the literature than an alien administrator.

[drakenguard]

So God himself, I presume.

[Hrm, what was the difference, really? They would be considered aliens and powerful entities that held great sway over humans...]

[otakuro]

One of them, anyway. ...The Christian god.

[He decides that the story of Cain and Abel, while highly relevant to their circumstances, wasn't worth bringing up at the moment.]

...All of the Japanese deities were just minor 'demons', I guess. It's too bad we didn't get to see Amaterasu duke it out with Yehowah or anything.

[drakenguard]

All Gods are demons, and those that aren't are something extraterrestrial. That is my conclusion in any case. Your 'God' could have been something similar to Polaris. They both held power over humans, held the ability to modify human conscience - I presume with your God - and could control legions of demons, Divine class included. Is this correct?

[otakuro]

We just use 'demon' as shorthand for 'anything supernatural', though. There's still a... head demon that's in charge of all the rest. Or at least a large group of them.

We never interacted with God directly. We just saw his angels.

[drakenguard]

A head demon?

[There were some demons that could control a group of demons, and those were usually the powerful ones like the sealed demons. Demons were too of a fractious bunch to obey one master...ah wait]

The King of Bel?

[otakuro]

The King of Bel would have control over all demons. ...Excluding the Divines and maybe some other 'good'-aligned ones. The idea was that he would raise an army to fight against God and his angels for dominion of the Earth.

[Curious that Atsuro would use 'he' rather than 'it'.]

[drakenguard]

[Curious indeed]

I see. That is a great amount of power...do they have to be a demon to become King of Bel?

[otakuro]

...They'd have to become demonic.

[Atsuro shrugs slightly.]

Honestly, though... with the variety of demons there are and with the way people can behave... there might not be too much of a difference.

[drakenguard]

[Yamato logs that away]

...Do you know who the victor was?

[otakuro]

[Atsuro isn't the best at lying, but the ease with which he shakes his head surprises even him.]

No.

[He could never truly think of his best friend whom he had known for years as the King of Bel. And it was true. He had rejected the title, leaving the competition in limbo.]

We stopped focusing on the competition after a while in favor of dealing with the bigger threat.

[drakenguard]

Despite knowing the advantages of winning the throne would give?

[Yamato would have gone for the competition, to be honest. That power would have helped greatly during the Invasion...]

[otakuro]

We weren't out to rule the demons with an iron fist.

[Atsuro shakes his head slightly.]

We just... wanted them out of our lives. Things going back to the way they used to be would've been good enough.

[drakenguard]

I see...

[Well, that was a loss of a good resource in Yamato's opinion. But different strokes. In any case he logged away that information to muse over later. King of Bel...a fascinating phenomenon...]

[otakuro]

...

[After a brief pause, Atsuro continues on.]

Anyway. I already promised to make a paper copy for someone else, so if you want a photocopy of this later or something...

[drakenguard]

Hm, yes, that would be helpful.

[Yamato was beginning to tire - it was hard to socialise with people for more than a few minutes, even if it was discussing interesting things]

I will leave you to it.

[otakuro]

[He isn't terribly surprised that Yamato was only here for business. Atsuro nods and stands politely, assuming the other boy meant to leave.]

I'll let you know when I'm done. See ya around.

[drakenguard]

[Yamato gives a curt nod and - leaves. Yeah guy doesn't know how to say goodbye properly. Sorry Atsuro]