The Shadow of the shadow society

For the first time since he got his powers John awoke to no surprise waiting. No strange men waking him up on a train, no succubus killing someone else next to him. Just a comfortable bed on which the rising sun was shining her light. It felt good for once.

Half an hour and one morning routine in the weirdly looking bathroom later - Who puts another colour of paint on each wall of one room - John met the secretary, Victoria, on the floor.

"John Newman. The Hero Maker informs you that he will be attending to your briefing shortly. Until then, I am required to gather additional information from you. It has proven difficult to find and bring the being you stated of the name Layklé. Please state her whereabouts." John raised his eyebrows. Had this girl spoken at all the day before? He couldn't remember her doing it, but now that she did, it sounded weird. Her voice was soft, as if reading a story to a baby, but the choice of words made her sound distant and uncaring. An unfitting combination that put John off.

"I left her in a barrier... wait, no, that was before I learned those so... I guess I left her in a dimensional rift. She just walked out of it though, so I assume she is in a parallel world? Does that mean she can't come back now? I created the rift near my old school. I think I closed it again, but maybe you can track her with that?" Victoria nodded and turned around. Her outfit had not changed since yesterday, so John once again was flashed by her nude butt. Following an instinct he tried to do the same as the Hero Maker did back then and slapped her ass.

To his own surprise, it worked. His hand hit her bare backside and rested on it. His eyes went wide while his hand thoroughly started to feel and grope the cheeks he had put it on, just as if it was developing a life on its own. Victoria did not seem to mind enough as she just turned her head back at him and spoke over her shoulder.

"If you are in need of physical contact to the female body, due to pent up sexual energy, I conclude that we will both be available in 8 hours. If it is your wish, I will be serving you at that time. Do not restrain yourself from using my biological form to your pleasure at any time." And with that she walked off, not letting John reply in any form.

Did he just got a booty call for this afternoon? Well, if someone in this house would do it, then probably Victoria or Many. Though Many most likely would rather just jump on his dick without the 8 hour wait. Speaking of which, where were the others?

Yet another hour and a breakfast later John was guided into an empty room by Henrietta. They hadn't gotten to talk much during breakfast, so he had no idea what was going on. Following the events so far in this castle, John had his hopes up for her stripping down for a fuck now. Or to castrate him. So far it looked as if the entire castle was filled with two teams. One tried to get Johns dick inside of them, whereas the other tried everything to stop him from doing so. And Henrietta clearly belonged to the second team.

"Sit down and listen to me. What I am about to tell you is important." Okay, where was this coming from? A minute ago they were casually walking through the castle and now this? But he obeyed for now, sitting on one of the boxes that stood around in the room.

"You remember how I explained you what the abyss is? A shadow society ruling beneath?" John nodded. So far it had proven to be correct. "Well, that was not the whole story. But for you to understand it, I better start at the beginning.

The abyss is seperated in five, roughly according to the continents. The Western Abyss is where we live. It contains America, north and south, excluding greenland. The Northern Abyss contains the area from greenland to denmark, including the UK and Ireland. The eastern Abyss is basically only Russia. The Japanese, Chinese and other 'eastern states' all belong to the southern abyss, as do Australia and most of Africa. The rest belongs to the center." John smiled at this.

"So basically, I could have been correct." She raised an eyebrow, not understanding what he was referring to. "Well, when you first came to my house and asked me where in the abyss I stood. I told you I was in the center. It could have been that I was an agent from there, couldn't it?" Now Henrietta laughed.

"No, because no abyss agent would have hired another abyss member as a hooker for a game night. They wouldn't be so stupid." Ouch. Thanks, bitch. "Anyway, each of these areas have representatives and councils among themselves. I won't be going into detail about how each of them is structured, but every part has a leading guild. These five guilds, for as long as they lead the corresponding area, are ruling over this planet."

"So it was them who made the Hero Maker the most wanted?" John asked and Henrietta nodded.

"Yes, or rather the ones before them did. He has been around for a bit now, and the people who declared him most wanted are already replaced by new ones, who just kept him at that spot. They would seem weak or be in question of collusion if they pardoned the enemy #1 suddenly, so don't expect them to change it." Okay, all that made sense, but John still didn't understand why he needed that info. But given the situation he was in, he was not really picky. He was clearly outmatched in terms of strength, experience and knowledge against anyone in this castle. So any piece he could get in any of those criteria was pure gold to him, even if it seemed useless at the time.

"Then why did he even become the most wanted? What did he do?" John asked, hoping to get the conversation away form the general topic towards something he could maybe use. After all, he had not fully commited himself to these heroes. As long as there was no contract that was formed, he was free to go at any time. He knew that better than anyone.

"Multiple charges of **** on high ranked members of Abyss guilds." Henrietta stated coldly. "He, or rather we, kill people, and sometimes we don't manage to hide the fact who did it." Now it was Johns turn to get big eyes. "Relax. We don't akame ga kill the society or anything." He chuckled at the reference. "The problem is much bigger, than just fighting against a corrupt system. Sure, the abyss is corrupt and tainted by sin down to the last man, but it has always been that way. We can't change the nature of it, and we are not trying." She sighed.

"Let me ask you like this, John. What do you think is the most dangerous thing that could happen in the abyss?" Oh god no. She was making this an interactive lesson? Fuck no, she was horrible at teaching, he had already figured that from learning barriers from her.

"I guess an all out war? Everyone dies?" She chuckled.

"I said the same thing as the Hero Maker asked me. But there is something worse than that. A war would really kill all the abyss parts off, every strong guild would die, the warriors fall and even those who aren't in the abyss would most likely have millions if not billions of deaths. But it wouldn't be the worst. No, the worst thing would come afterwards. What if one guild won the war. If one single guild was capable of controling the entire abyss. If they were leading every part of the alliance, they could control them against each other, and would stand unchallenged. It would be easy for them to control the planet. A global dictator with unlimited magical powers. Imagine the third reich if it succeeded in getting world domination. And now you get three tries to guess what we try to prevent from happening." She made a short pause for him to guess, but John already thought one step ahead.

"So who is winning the war? The Nazis? Given the politics in the world, it would make sense that it has to come from somewhere." Henrietta just laughed at him. Rude.

"John, we are not in a video game. The Nazis are dead. Sure, there are neo nazis and all that but the people following Hitler are gone, even from the abyss. But you were not listening earlier. I said a war would cause billions of deaths. Have you noticed something like that recently? We are not at war, it's worse. The abyss doesn't even acknowledge their existence. They call themself the chosen ones. And they are infiltrating the mightiest guilds in the abyss. Only waiting to take them over. Sleeper agent style." John thought about this for a second, before spotting an error in this.

"How do sleeper agents work? I mean, we are talking about a society of mages, warriors and fantasy beings. Every guild who takes in new members must have some magic protection against that, have they not? What about mind readers? Or fortune tellers who can see if the person betrays them? Especially the most powerfull guilds. You can't tell me that the people at the top are unprotected like that, can you?" Henrietta sighed.

"I wish it were that easy. But the problem is that they DO have the security. But the chosen ones have a very important member among them. We know how she looks, we will give you a picture later. Her ability makes it impossible to detect them. She can simply alter the memories of her targets. She makes the sleeper agents forget their training, their loyalty and everything. And when she needs them active, she just gives the memories back. Everyone could be already turned by them. In the past we just stood at alert, waiting for some of them to reveal themself. That is how he got his most wanted status. You know, if we observe a guild and then have to take out a high ranking member, leaving behind either a corpse or a trusted member who declares us traitors, we have little choice but to be the bad guys." This sucked, John had to admit.

"So why do you need me? Do you think I can figure out who is a sleeper agent? Or find the chosen ones' secret hideout?" Henrietta laughed.

"Neither actually. The Hero Maker has told me that he needs you for a different mission. He will tell you about it once he returns. Until then, I can introduce your teammates to you." She was casually avoiding to give him details. Typical. Well at least he got to know some people. Henrietta whistled through her fingers and the door opened again.