-Alexander Smith

Inside of his own private Barrier, John seethed. Literally and figuratively - with the Shard of Bishamonten activated as it was, and with John not able to calm down enough to deactivate it, his skin was still emitting constant flames. That was the reason John had retired to his own private Barrier - though the damage was minimal, with over two hours until he could use World Shift again, it would not have been possible to stick around his allies.

He thought of conjuring a Barrier with enemies, trying to burn off some steam by killing his way through them, but that seemed like a foolhardy idea. John's anger had yet to be quelled by killing, only fueled, and that would leave his mana reserves rather low if he bothered to make a dungeon worth crawling through. Assuming his Purify hadn't gone completely awry, which he had no reason to believe, he was going up against an unknown creation at level 15. Even after his training with Kim, that was double his own level. Seras and Sophia would be in charge of most of the combat, but he had no intentions of making himself even more of a liability.

No one would disturb him here. John was the only one who could see his ability's cooldown, and neither Tricia nor Moira could bother John after he shattered his phone. So, with his anger rising and desire to kill following closely, John ran over plans in his head. Step by step, over and over, until each possibility was considered in its own time. First was the man's nature.

"It's my first male creation. What was the meaning? Were the others all female? Doubtful… but not impossible. I don't know the gender of the werecats, the bat, or the gnoll that I purified," John considered, reminiscing on his prior Purify spells. "Besides, the ability only specifies that they were of a 'similar' species. Doubt sex carries over anyway… it's probably more about intent. I was hoping to make my next Purify cast something I was focused on to try and learn how to control it. All I was thinking about was Kim when I cast it, so I doubt it had any impact…"

Red eyes. Red eyes resonated in John's thoughts. Possibility after possibility played in his mind as he wondered what he would be facing.

"A demon? Surely not," John scoffed, ignoring his base instinct. "Lord Brighton told me that demons were a specific instance of a magical anomaly, given sapience by virtue of their nature. Although… none of my other abilities fit with Abyssal terminology, and this is clearly a new race of something. Perhaps a new name is in order? No… no need. This one will likely be dead by sunset, and I'll pretend he never existed in the first place."

That thought warmed John's heart, kindling the flames of his rage as he went over battle plans. He had no knowledge of this man save that he had dispatched of Tricia's lone drone with a single swipe of his hand. John planned out combat positions for himself, Seras, and Sophia against a melee opponent, a ranged opponent, and an opponent who could switch between the two at will. John travelled the terrain around his home a hundred times, and the layout within a thousand. Rage and concern for Lunaya drove him onward until he had perceived every reaction his body could muster to each action he imagined the man was capable of. Time slowed and sped up in unreliable increments as John paced back and forth, losing himself to thoughts of **** as often as he wallowed in thoughts of loss.

"Master Newman, the cooldown on your World Shift ability has reset, as you requested me to noti-"

Evellyn's words were lost in the sound of John's Barrier shattering as he dismissed it, finding himself again within the confines of his commandeered Order safehouse. Seras already had her rifle in hand and Sophia stood in full battle raiment, metal glistening as she flexed her extended wings across the large bedroom. Despite the fires raging across his body never having caught the furniture or structure in his private Barrier on fire, John took care not to stray too closely to the bedsheets as he approached the other two.

"It's time. Are you ready? I don't want to hurt either of you if you need time to prepare."

"We are both prepared, Father," Sophia vowed, clenching her fists. "Let us go now."

"Kinda surprised the Order 'asn't shown up yet," Seras grunted, eyeing the doorway. "Guess they aren't too worried about us takin' care of our own."

"Tricia might not have even told them," John said with a long growl. Given how little Tricia appreciated being stuck in the Order's manor, and how Moira had reacted to John's last creation, she might have taken it upon herself to not share the details of these happenings at all with Moira. For a moment John's anger got the better of him, and he wished Moira had shown up after all. For once, her wrath was a welcome addition to his own.

"It doesn't matter now. Let's go, before it's too late."

World Shift carried the three of them across realms, depositing them back outside of their base. The house was only a few dozen yards away from where they stood, and all of them were on high alert. As they strode toward the front door, the house was suspiciously silent and quiet.

"Can't see anythin', but I- ah, I hear something. Like grunts, moanin' or somethin'… sounds like Lunaya!"

"That's not promising," John noted, but his anger didn't allow him the time to contemplate. "Seras, go around the house. Search through the windows. He has no idea how many of us there are. Get a shot and take it any time you feel like it's deserved."

John strode to the front door, eyes on every open window, but not spotting any movement. John grabbed the handle and threw the door open, subtlety and stealth abandoned for a bold announcement of his presence.

"This is your only warning. You're in my house, my domain. You've already destroyed a drone and refused to give me an audience with a very close friend. If you've so much as scratched the wood, I'm going to make you regret it - if you've even thought about hurting Lunaya, I'm going to personally take a deep pleasure in what I will do to you."

"Well, it's always nice to meet someone who shares the sentiments! My apologies, I would have answered the door, but you seem to have taken care of that part on your own, and my mistress is quite occupying me at the moment. When I attempted to disengage, she was quite insistent I remain."

The voice came from deeper in the house, one of the back rooms. In John's old home that this was modeled after, it would have been an office - here it was where Lunaya had deigned to sleep most often. John grit his teeth and marched through the living room, toward the back hallway. As he walked closer, stomping his feet both out of sheer rage and as an attempt to focus all attention on himself, John began to catch the sound of the man's voice speaking in hushed tones.

"Milady, shall I intercept them? You seem quite comfortable unclothed, but he is going to see you shortly- ah, quite common for you, then. Very well! In that case, it seems our visitor is arriving!"

"I am no visitor," John seethed, stepping into the doorway to the backroom. What he saw set him off balance, if only for an instant. Lunaya was lying on a table - from whence it had come, John was unsure, as Lunaya had never requested any tables from John, and he could not recall making one for the other residents either. Had it been conjured in the same manner as the stranger's clothes? Regardless, it was there, and Lunaya's bared form lay upon it, apparently quite happily, judging by the look on her face. Her hair hung luxuriously to the side, dangling off the table in long, silver strands. The man stood to Lunaya's side, across from the table...

Massaging her.

The man's gloved hands worked expertly up and down Lunaya's back, massaging everything from her neck all the way down to her waist. John's eyes twitched a little bit every time that his hands ventured too far for his tastes, no matter how restrained the man appeared to be.

"Well, this may be your abode, but my Mistress has been quite firm that this is her own room. As such, you are a visitor to her personal quarters. As a proper butler, I must ensure that protocols are followed - though I must apologize again for being too occupied to greet you and escort you in myself."

Status Effect Lost: Shard of Bishamonten [50%]

The flames around John died - he cursed the visual indicator of his hesitation and confusion. He'd come here prepared to slaughter a man for his insolent behavior, and here he was greeted by Lunaya being quite happily attended to. Not only that but this man repeatedly expressed her control over him… and even went so far as to call himself her "butler".

"Ah, I was wondering when you would cease singing the interior. I will gladly clean up the scorch marks you've left inside the doorway, but I'm afraid the rest of the house is your area to tend to, unless you would be willing to forfeit ownership of this dwelling to my Mistress in exchange for my impeccable cleaning services? I can assure you that they may in fact be more valuable than the timber and construction that went into this mild home."

There it was again. Though the man assumed a submissive nature and chose words to reinforce that belief, the way that he spoke, the tone of his voice, even the way those ruby eyes glistened… he was practically taunting John. About his entrance, about how little the man cared for John, about how little he respected his house, his drones, and his world. Though the boiling blood in his body still warned him to assail the obvious threat within his own home, John stopped for a moment and considered everything he knew of the man. Everything that made him unique. Starting with his Observe sheet.

Unnamed Creation
Level 15 Demon Butler
<John's Creation, Lunaya's Loyal Servant>
315 / 315 HP
Relationship: -17
Alignment: 0
Status Effects: Sated

"So, he is a demon after all… and not a weak one. Seras or Sophia could still take him down in an instant; I'd probably have a good chance myself, if I had more recovery time." John's health and mana were still depleted, even after the waiting period for his World Shift, but the thought of Seras likely outside somewhere with a gun pointed at this man's head was a pleasing thought.

"That won't be necessary. I can take care of this realm myself quite easily." Perhaps more a petty show of power than a proper display of capability and dominance, all the same John tapped through a quick Craft menu and used the wood in his inventory to repair the scorch marks his footsteps had left, all the way to the entrance.

"Impressive. May I say that you would certainly make one hell of a butler?"

"You may not." John narrowed his eyes at the man, firming up his stance. "Let's make one thing clear - your first impression in my world was to prevent me from surveying my own home, destroying my property, and taunting me."

"I do believe the young Miss Gorbachev specified that the drone was very much her own property."

"Everything here is either my property or my guest," John said loudly, his voice reverberating in the room. Lunaya's ears perked up, and the relaxation she had been enjoying stopped as she glanced up. Rather than seeming annoyed, though, she held up a hand to her masseur, who stopped his actions immediately. She then stared at John, waiting.

"Some far more welcome than others," John said, his voice a bit softer, before returning his eyes to the tall man and resuming his harsh tone, "but this house and this world are where I keep my family. I promised someone important to me that I would make this into a home, a place one yearned to be, somewhere to escape the horrors of the world.

"I will not have someone playing games with us, recognizing no one but their chosen "mistress" or destroying property at their leisure in the name of convenience or some godforsaken sense of duty. You are a demon, of that much we are quite aware already. I want to know why you chose Lunaya as your mistress, what that entails… and how you've been feeding on her. If I don't like any of your answers, I will not hesitate to erase you like those scorch marks."

The well-dressed butler evaluated John for a long moment before sighing at last. "Very well. If you already know so much, I would've thought the rest would be quite easy to guess. I am a demon, it's true - but none so harmful as the devils and betrayers I work with, I assure you. I am merely a high-level Incubus, quite uninclined toward **** or trickery to get what I want. I merely feed on pleasure; however I may serve my Mistress, I will do so. It is, quite literally, what I was made for, and I take a great deal of pride in that."

"An Incubus? Don't they-"

"Old stories and legends, without any truth to them," the man interrupted with a wave of his hand. "Human souls are only good for two things - slaves and making more demons. Oddly enough, I can't actually seem to activate my portals to my personal domain within Hell… perhaps it has something to do with this being a private dimension of your own? Regardless, that renders conversion impossible to perform. Even if it were possible, I have no inclination to do either of those things. Conversion is mostly done to gain favor with one's Overlords, who apparently cannot reach this place, and Incubi such as myself have little need of slaves. We gain power from the pleasure we can deliver to others - delegating tasks is a highly unusual idea to us."

Nothing the man was saying was making John feel any better. He doubted that he could trust anything the man was saying to begin with, but even if he believed him about the impossibilities of enslavement or conversion of mortal souls… he was an Incubus. John was growing used to the idea of his creations sharing each other at this point, but a very primal urge within himself revolted at the idea of his first male creation joining in on such open sharing. Something else, though… something deeper… John had come to slay this man for his actions, but he could no longer justify such. Despite the man's obvious two-faced nature and the fact that he was so indifferent toward John and all of his other creations aside from Lunaya herself, one thing stuck out in John's mind.

Alignment: 0

"Everything I create here is the beginning of a new form of life. Everything I do here is setting an example for that life… if I cull him here over what turned out to be a few damaged pieces of property and a service not unwanted by another creation, I establish myself and my realm as a place of harsh and quick justice. Worse, justice that overreaches. This man can't be trusted, yet, but… Lunaya attacked me when she first formed, and I didn't fault her for it. His methods are asinine, his personality a thin veneer of politeness over absolute cunning and drive, but he's not… evil. Yet."

With a great deal of hesitance, John extended a hand. The unnamed man stared at it, somewhat uncertain, given John's outward silence.

"If what you say is true… I cannot say that I have no issues with it… but I will not fault you for your existence, nor for your nature. What I will fault you for are your attempts to deny me access and control over my own domain, my communication with my creations in attempts to assure myself of their well-being, and your seeming disdain for my very existence. In spite of those things…"

John strode closer to the man, until - despite their slight difference in height - they were very much eye to eye with each other. John kept his hand out and stiff, never breaking his gaze away. Every moment that the taller, paler man's gaze was focused on his felt like a victory to John. Despite clear dislike for the leverage John held over him, the man could do nothing except smile back.

"…in spite of those things, I'm willing to give you a chance. I hope that you will prove worthy of this mercy."

The pale man gave a bow that was almost as much of a frown as the one upon his face, sweeping an arm wide as he nearly knelt to John Newman.