The Devil Kings' Domains

Jack pointed to the castle and said "We hope that answers are in there".

edited 29th Jan '15 10:24:13 AM by deadpool616

Ellie looked at the growing group, then made a decision and shook her high-heeled shoes off. It's not like they actually offered any protection to her feet and now she could walk.
“Right,” she said, “after me!”
With that, she continued toward the castle, setting a brusque pace. She was smiling.

edited 29th Jan '15 10:50:29 AM by desdendelle

Gerard was one of the last to arrive- having shouted "Just let me go already!" to a slightly unbalanced potential client- and he was rather confused as he stood at the edge of the group in a dress shirt, slacks with suspenders, and nice shoes.

"I... Nothing good ever happens when I lose my temper," he grumbled.

Eleanor kept up after Ellie, glad she was wearing hiking boots. "Alright then. Be careful you don't step on a rock," she said.

Rachel nodded and began to walk towards the castle. After a few steps and a deadpan "oh." She stopped, looked over her shoulder, and told the man in the suit "my name's Rachel by the way."

Jack was suprised when he realized that he hadn't bothered to so much as introduce himself. "Sorry, I'm Jack. Overlord's mind or not, the situation is pretty distracting."

edited 30th Jan '15 5:28:20 AM by deadpool616

"I'm Anna," she smiled back at them, having set off on a brisk trot.

"Right; castle", he said and finally started walking.

“I'll be fine,” Ellie told Eleanor. “Stepping on something isn't as bad as, say, finding someone stole all of your pens, your computer isn't working, and you have a report due today.”
She looked over her shoulder. It seemed that other people, aside from the guy in the three-piece suit, were following her and Eleanor, and she guessed they also encountered a similar floating box.
“I wonder how much time it will take us to arrive at the castle?” she asked, the question directed at nobody in particular.

As the explorers came ever closer to the castle, more details could be seen. It was rather small for a castle, and looked quite a bit more like the kind that was made to be lived in as more of an estate rather than a control center. The fact that it lacked any sort of outer walls, gate, or moat was added to the fact and the surrounding countryside showed no sign of habitation, not even a village. It wasn't all that much impressive, but the stonework seemed solid and the architecture clean and young. Situated upon a plateau that situated it just directly in fuller moon, the structure was a solid fixture of the environs despite its size and gave off the feeling of capability just waiting to awakened.

As the party made their way to the entrance, lighting grew forth in the form of blue fairy fire and will-o-wisps that cast the surroundings with a light that caused shadows to dance about wildly. And then, a pale figure blinked into existence directly in front of the gate. Most who would look upon his countenance would liken him to that of a raptor, due to his rather sizable and pointed nose along with the sharp pairs of horn-rimmed glasses covered eyes that seemed to home in and look through the whole group. He was dapper, dressed up in the manner that many could associate with old European aristocrats consisting of a ruffled white linen shirt over black trousers along with sporting slicked silver hair that intensified the semblance to a bird of prey's head. Another key figure to the lined and elderly man's appearance was the fact that he was thin and ramrod straight with a posture that seemed natural, and the fact that save for his glinting ruby eyes, the rest of his frame was pale- and slightly transparent.

"Welcome. I am the recording of the Castle Oerngrad's previous owner. I am to answer any and all questions you might have, as per the rules of the Covenant." Clasping a hand over his chest and performing a curt half bow with his other hand spread grandly to the side, the seeming phantom awaited the coming interrogation. Those that looked upon him would find floating text appointing the castle's chaplain as <The Shade of Rubis Shannaro the Dark Sage, Devil King of the 41st Generation>.

Eleanor walked forward. "Exactly what kind of covenant are we under? And what is this place, anyways?"

Rachel preformed a small curtsy with all the seriousness and attitude of a martial artist about to spar. She took note of all the possible exits she could find and added "are you the cause of this?"

So this strange apparition of a person, who at least looked mostly human, was a previous Demon King, and this had been his castle. This was a wonderful chance to get more information.

"What is a Demon King, and why have we been offered the possibility to become one? What is meant by the word "Demon"? And how did you perform the feat of contacting us and transporting us here?"

George had to stop himself to let the shade answer. There was so much he wanted to ask!

Beat

"They've asked all the questions I can think of."

Gerard frowned. "Why are we qualified to be Devil Kings? Why Devils, and why Kings?"

"Wait, I thought of two: where do we go from here and how can you answer questions if you're a recording?", Jack asked.

Gerard looked at Jack. "'Devil Kings', birdmen, holograms, old castles... I think the answer to your question is magic. Witchcraft. Voodoo, juju, feng shui... A Wizard Did It."

At the mention of magic Rachel blinked and realized she had been relying on being able to outrun the old man when really anything could happen. She brought her hand to her chin in a look of intense concentration. After a few moments she made her decision and without ever taking her eyes off of the devil king's recording she carefully changed her position so that she was safely behind Jack.

edited 1st Feb '15 8:07:41 PM by Yewleaf

"As flattered as I am that a pretty girl is seeking protection from me, I really don't think that you should have have signed up for Devil Kingship without expecting danger", Jack said, mistaking Rachel's view of him as a meat shield for... something else.

edited 1st Feb '15 8:55:37 PM by deadpool616

Eleanor glanced at Jack. "Wow, way to jump to a creepy conclusion. She's like half your age." The 'what is wrong with you' was unsaid but heavily implied.

"In accordance to your questions, you are on the continent of Rassilon, in the country of Arasov, and in the region formally known as the Seda Plains. In other words, you're on another world that is not Earth. I presume that without knowing much about this world's histories this data means nothing to you, so I shall move onto the meat of the matter." Rubis Shannaro remarked with a twinkle in his eyes before becoming serious once more.

"The [Covenant] is a set of [Laws]," The elderly phantom stated with great graveness and respect in tone, inclining his head ever so slightly at the mention of that phrase. "It is also the mutual agreement between [Light] and [Dark] that there will always be one where there is the other no matter what. Recently the forces of Light, or "The Race of Men" have spread far. Much too far... They have overstepped their boundaries and have slain all the native Devil Kings, even I. And thus, the Covenant comes into play. A counterforce to this invasive force... the resurgence of Darkness so powerful that all excess light pollution shall be snuffed out like candles in the night."

The former Devil King then looked at the group with a gleam in his eyes. "And thus, here we are. You have all been chosen for characteristics that are a boon to the Dark. Humans from another world, untainted by the teachings of the Church nor the conceit of this world's humanity. And so full of potential that can rock this very world... Ideas, innovations, and even inventions. You can provide these things and build up our abused and downtrodden people to greatness once more. And along the way, you will amass great fortunes and powers... Even if you don't want such things, it is in your best interest to do so for at the moment, none have the power to return to your original world." The phantasm stated bluntly, withholding nothing back. "Though I will not force you to do anything you don't want to, going along with this is the much better alternative as then you shall receive formal training and resources. Please decide among yourself what you want to do."

"I'm in," Gerard said. "I'm not really sure what all this is, but I'd rather be taught than learn the hard way."

This... this was serious, right? Good and evil surely did not exist in such blatant, binary concepts. Light? Dark? That was absurd. And... even if Anna did accept that premise, what happened if this 'counterforce' of darkness ended up being too much? Even though Anna had not played video games within the past 3 years or so... she imagined that it would end up being something like the starting plot to one.

Evil Overlord ushering in a thousand years of darkness, killing millions upon millions of people... etc etc.

Besides, this guy, this... force that summoned her here, was essentially holding her hostage, many many miles or years or whatever from her home, in order to coerce her cooperation.

Given this, was it a surprise that Anna vented her displeasure? "What. No. This is stupid," she said flatly.

“Consider the alternatives,” Ellie told Anna. “It's either an elaborate prank, some sort of weird multi-participant illusion, or, as weird as this sounds, something real.” A pause. “Since this feels real enough and illusions don't work that way, it would do better to take this seriously.”
She turned to the phantom. “It does not look like we have a lot of choice in the matter, so we might as well make the best out of a bad situation. I'm in, I guess.”

One by one, Jack whisperd something in the ears of his future allies, " I don't like the idea of supporting the dark side, but if we don't, this guy will have other people do it. If we accept, we can control the darkness and devils and use the hit m in the most ethical way possible." He then spoke aloud to the phantom, "I'm in."