Those Who Eat Worlds

Z was stuck. Her plan with Felix had fallen through, and she suspected with it, the assistance of the demon. Even if the oni was willing to be stuck in his harem, she suspected Felix didn't want to deal with her. This meant her original plan was no longer on the table, and so Z was on the hunt for new options. It was in that stew of frustration she came face to face with... Paisley.

"Why are you here?" Z asked. "I haven't touched the goblin, so I don't know what you expect me to say."

"I'm here to renegotiate your contract," Paisley said. "I was willing to wait to see if the demon's setup would allow you to exit, but that option has failed. Felix is indeed capable of resisting temptation and of putting himself through great pain if it meant someone like you doesn't get to further degrade, or worse control, his world."

"I'm surprised you care so much," Z said, in a mocking tone. "Should I expect similar benefits? Or am I just lucky to get to leave the harem with my mind and body mostly intact?"

Paisley rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't be good for the harem's dynamics, and the contestants are in far too fragile of a mental state to withstand another elimination. Given how your contract was written, I'll see about letting you know the location of some weapons, and then letting you loose on a world that can no longer resist you."

"I'll take that deal," Z said. "Assuming it doesn't cost my soul or something."

"Of course not," Paisley said. "You do still have to train the goblin though, and there may be some time shenanigans with that sort of thing. But then you should be familiar with how much Harem Hotel messes with time at this point."

"Additional labor?" Z asked with sarcasm. "Why am I not surprised. Still, at least I won't be in this bunker anymore."

"No," Paisley said. "You won't even be as tied to Felix, given your unique nature as being part of another contestant, rather than a contestant in your own right under the rules. However, I must warn you that such loopholes can have unforeseen drawbacks."

"Then I guess I'll have to take my chances," Z said. "Now, how do I get out of here?"

"There's a door only you can see in this bunker," Paisley said. "Just open it and walk on through..."

Hailey had found a lot in the burnt out remnants of a refugee convoy. There were some leftover assault rifles from the remnants of those escorting the refugees, that were similar but not the same to her world's M16A2 assault rifle. She suspected certain weapons showed up repeatedly across the multiverse for the simple reason that there were only so many ways of doing something optimally in the context of firearms engineering, especially if one wasn't dealing with magic, or some bizarre technology. After swapping out parts until she got one in optimal condition, and scavenging for some ammo, she indeed had a far better firearm for dealing with the hordes of undead than she had before. In the process, she found other guns that, while less useful in the moment, she suspected would be useful in the future. It was a pair of PDWs, weapons that on the surface looked like SMGs. Unlike SMGs, they had armor piercing ammo that was a bit too light to deal with all the regenerating monsters she had to fight, but would be quite useful if she ran into more human scaled opposition. Besides, the guns just felt right in her hands, and like something she'd want to modify once she got the chance to ensure they were deadly enough to deserve her special attention.

The other find was a lot more information on the Architect, the man who had killed this world, or at least all the people in it. Information about him and his various experiments was spread across newspaper articles, scientific papers she found in a mobile laboratory, and video footage. The last was usable at all because one of the other vehicles in the convoy was a news van, and it had a working TV inside, along with this universe’s equivalent of a DVD player. After hours of reading news articles, scientific documents, and watching news footage, Hailey was able to put together a timeline of how this figure had, on accident, destroyed this world. Far from redeeming him, the accidental nature showed the Architect's callous nature. The nature of a man out of touch, because he was too powerful to care who he hurt.

It all started with the Architect's initial invasion. That happened several decades ago, with a bombastic announcement transmitted to several television screens throughout the world. He threatened a plague that would create superhuman mutants if they didn't give in to some vague demand. The governments of the world refused, as was to be expected, and so the Architect followed through with a series of plagues unleashed upon the world as part of a giant experiment. It was an experiment that resulted in ever escalating plagues creating ever stronger violent mutants, until eventually the Architect lost control over them. Each type of evidence she found dived into a different aspect of the invasion, but they all pointed to the same failure.

The various scientific papers she found went over the mutants themselves, and the supers plague that created them. These mutants were always aggressive, but with each iteration of the plague, they grew stronger, faster, and more durable. The last was through a series of adjustments to damage, initially being faster healing, than stronger bones, and then a general increase in toughness that gradually reduced the ability to efficiently destroy them. When these mutants became resistant to pressure waves from explosives, and artillery fragments were rendered mostly ineffective, they became out of control, as hordes of them could not be destroyed efficiently. Along the way, they had become resistant enough to chemical weapons for that to be deemed insufficient as a means by which to destroy them, and nuclear weapons could not destroy enough of them because they refused to clump up enough to be taken out through such means. Before the fall of civilization, the search for a cure had been replaced by the search for a biological weapon that could kill them in turn. Society had fallen before such efforts could bare fruit, but it was rumored there was a facility with such a weapon available.

However, the very mutations that had made these mutants such a threat caused the Architect to lose control over them. While he was safe, his servants and subordinates on Earth were not. Scattered throughout news clippings, and even a lightly classified report that someone leading the convoy had access to, was the knowledge the Architect had been recruiting people. It was rumored these people had been promised the opportunity to rule the world in return for aiding the Architect in gathering data about his various experiments. The one classified report got more specific about it, and suggested that at least one of those figures was in the bunker the convoy was headed to. After all, the Architect would've wanted elites to gather data from, not low level soldiers or civilians who would lack access to classified intelligence, or other sources of data.

Hailey finished off with news videos. Most of them just showed different versions of the mutants, or the horrific damage these mutants did to society. They were hard to watch, but ultimately showed little except all the innocent people who died, or string of failed military operations to stop the mutant plague. However, a single broadcast stood out. It was a broadcast where the Architect had an announcement.

"The foolish actions of your governments have lead you here," The Architect said. "Enjoy the rotten fruits of your victory, for your resistance has rendered your world useless for my experiments. Enjoy your last days as a civilization..."

Nox was stuck. The goblin's life had in many ways gotten better, as she hadn't interacted with Z as much, but she still had no memory of what had made Felix mad at her. She could remember talking about the incident with others, but no details about it before those mentioned in Harem Hotel came to mind. For something with such a large impact on her relationship with Felix, and the broader group, that was a problem. It left Nox without a clue as to what she needed to get forgiveness for, much less how to get a better relationship with Felix.

It was in that place of contemplation that the goblin chose to read a letter. It was in response to one Nox had sent a ways back after getting the chance to watch some of Harem Hotel: the HH, and seeing the story of Norah. A woman who had been in a far worse position than Nox had ever been in during her life, but who was also in a much better position in Harem Hotel than the goblin had ever been able to enjoy. Norah was someone Nox simultaneously envied and respected, as they had taken a rough start in life into a successful life in Silicon Valley whereas the goblin had been a spoiled brat of an athlete.

Nox,

Short is fine. Short is good, actually — most people bury the useful part in three paragraphs of preamble.

You're not on my shit list, for what it's worth. Anyone who can identify the problem clearly enough to warn a stranger about it in two sentences has done more useful thinking about it than most people manage in a lifetime. The bit about losing your name landed. I've been "the daughter of" for long enough that I know exactly what you mean, even if my version came with a different price tag than yours.

I'm sorry about the oni. That part you didn't have to include, and you did anyway. I won't pretend I know what that's like. But I hope the distance between you and her is growing.

Norah

Nox found the response uplifting, but also depressing. After all, the goblin was still stuck with the oni, and on top of that, had her ancestor to deal with. Still, it mattered that, despite her spoiled nature, Norah still found her, and her position, sympathetic. It was something that helped her get it together for another day in the bunker. Another day before she would have to face her ancestor again, and another day she would have to get through whatever grueling training the oni had prepared for her.

"Nox," Paisley's voice called out, "remember when I said I could help you with the transformation? I've made some serious progress on that. Enough that you can now reconnect with Felix."

The news shocked Nox so much that she didn't believe. Couldn't believe it. How could Z be out of her life without any of the conditions of Monstrous Leader With a Student being fulfilled. Her ancestor had accepted changes to the deal that lead to the transformation, but the conditions requiring her to learn how to fight, how to lead, and how to fuck remained. One of those had been taken over by the Ancestor, and one of those may have had changes to its conditions, but the requirements remained unfulfilled. All of this lead Nox to ask a single question. "How?"

"Z got to leave the bunker early," Paisley said while approaching Nox. "You will still have to visit her for your leadership training outside of the bunker, but that will be in far shorter intervals than when you were stuck with her for most of the day. Your combat training meanwhile I think will mostly be taken over by your ancestor and as for your sexual training... well."

Paisley paused to give a devilish grin. "I think Felix should get the opportunity to be the judge of that..."

Hailey traveled to the bunker, driven by a different objective than she had before. She still scrounged for weapons and ammo while killing off the rampaging mutants, but that wasn't the dominant goal anymore. Even leaving this dimension took a beat seat to finding the bunker discussed in the refugee column's papers. It was a place where elites had retreated to, and far earlier than this refugee convoy had been able to leave. And she knew that someone there had helped the Architect destroy their society. Even if the only aid given by this traitor was that of a spy, it was still too deep of a betrayal.

So Hailey traveled, first on foot, but eventually by motorcycle. It was a dirt bike she found in the remnants of a pickup truck, but it proved capable of navigating the ground next to the highway, allowing her to dodge an ungodly amount of wrecked crap, and while it was a bit loud, it was enough to let her outrun the mutants... at least when she had a good position. That was important, as even scrounging for ammo, she only had so many bullets, whereas these mutants at times seemed never ending.

When Hailey arrived at the outskirts of the bunker, she was met with another screen. Once again, the demon sought to talk to her.

"Hailey," The demon spoke again from a recording, "I hope you managed to get here. It is a long trip, but you are a much more powerful person than the scared girl who I took a mere three weeks ago, although it will be longer for you by now."

The knowledge of how long Hailey had been entrapped by this demon infuriated her, but she managed to control herself. If this recording was anything like the prior one, she would learn a lot, including access to some very potent tools to use in the future.

"This place used to be a playground for the rich, and powerful." The demon said. "A bunker to wait out the apocalypse outside, as they figured the mutants would starve to death. However, the plague had mutated so that the mutants went into hibernation. instead This made the plan of waiting them out futile, and at that point, things got desperate. A bunch of them killed each other, and the rest... well, they ruled over everyone remaining. What you will find in there will disgust you Hailey. Are you ready for that?"

Hailey, wanting to save ammunition, picked up a nearby rock and threw it through the screen. "Yeah, I'm ready."

Inside the bunker proper, Hailey found much worse than she anticipated. Initially, it reminded her of the place she came from, albeit with far less technology, and far more servants. Well, former servants, everywhere she went seemed to have bodies. Some were thin corpses next to doors covered in scratches from their fingernails, others were dead from more violent means. All of them had clothing that suggested they were servants to somebody, but whom?

As Hailey traveled ever further into the bunker, a picture started to emerge. The bunker was divided by class, with poorer members in the outer reaches, while those deeper in the bunker steadily climbed in wealth, military rank, or rarely, some kind of prestige that gave them access like that. It was a system littered with inefficiency, as it meant the facility had to waste immense amounts of space and resources on ever more luxurious bedrooms, along with repeating facilities like mess halls. Judging by the number of bodies Hailey had seen, the facility could've been much, much smaller without it.

Along the way, whenever Hailey encountered a locked door, she was able to get access by violently forcing her way into shatter proof glass that had the keys. They were guarded by a security system, but a few extra bullets took out the meager defenses laid out for these keys. She could find those keys quite easily because almost without fail, she found a body near of them of someone who had clearly been desperately trying to get in before the security system had killed them.

This process continued until she got to the very last door. Before entering, Hailey chose to take out the S&W 629. It had limited ammo, but it was the closest thing to a handgun she had, and something about that was more personal. She justified it to herself by thinking she would need a hand free, but she knew in practice it was to be more personal. After inserting the key, she entered a room... with rich people. She could tell as they were still well fed, and wore clothes that looked rather expensive. They were all cowering in a corner of the room, as they had apparently been watching footage on the monitors.

"Would someone care to explain to me why there are so many dead people in the outskirts of the bunker?" Hailey asked. "For that matter, how do you all still have supplies? There hasn't been any recent resupply, and I should know given how I got here. Anyone going to answer me?"

While asking, she pointed the S&W 629 at them. Responses were slow, and mumbled, but eventually, one of their number, a well dressed man, spoke up. "We had stockpiled enough to last years, and that amount extended when we... let the others die."

"Why did you let them die?" Hailey asked. "They looked like they were here to serve you, and accepted far worse living conditions than the ones I bet you have here."

"We thought the mutants were going to break into the bunker, and so we steadily sealed off the outer portions of the facility from the inner one," The man said. "In order to avoid tipping them off, we said we were trying to root out a traitor-"

"Like whoever betrayed this world to the Architect?" Hailey asked. "But go on."

While she was managing to keep her face cold and calm, Hailey was boiling. These people had betrayed those who served them, and given how worthless money likely was in this world, must have done so at least in part out of a sense of obligation.

"That was a ruse," A woman spoke up out of nowhere. "The truth was... most of us had been working with the Architect."

The rest of the group glared daggers at her. Hailey meanwhile lost her composure. "Most of you worked with the Architect? The man who had sent the plagues that destroyed your civilization, and had created the mutants you were scared of in the first place?"

Her voice steadily increased in volume, as Hailey's rage continued to build and boil. All the while, she stared at the woman who had spoken up, a woman with blonde hair, big breasts, hourglass body shape, and just a general look that screamed trophy wife. This woman had chosen to tell the truth that she suspected the rest of the group was going to hide.

"We were going to lose everything!" A third man screamed out of nowhere. "Our money, our land, our way of life! We just thought the Architect wanted to conquer this world, and we would be the new middle management. Instead he..."

"How fucking stupid and selfish are you to think that the Architect wouldn't throw you under the bus?" Hailey asked in disbelief. "Besides, not one of you fuckers have demonstrated that you deserved to have a dime of that wealth-"

"OUR FAMILIES EARNED THAT!" A scream emerged from within the crowd, cutting off Hailey, and soon, most of the others joined in. They went on angry tirades about taxes, about lazy youth that had no respect for their elders, and so on. Soon, various conspiracy theories joined in, such as a deal between socialists that wanted to nationalize their assets and liberals that wanted to destroy the country's morals. Given the miniskirts she saw on some of the servants on her way over, she rather doubted sexual mores was something this group cared about unless they were on TV. Another conspiracy was about a cabal made up of a religious minority Hailey didn't recognize, but had the outline of antisemitic horseshit of the type spewed by Nazis. By the end of the screaming, the tirades, the rants, Hailey came to a conclusion. One she announced by cocking the hammer on her magnum revolver, and firing.

The round silenced the room, and the man it had landed in. "I thought I was going to save the last of the bullets I have in this gun for something special. Well, congratulations fuckers, all eighteen of my remaining .44 Magnum rounds are going to find a sweet, loving home blowing apart your bodies, because you all became something special."

The shots that rang out were deafening in the confined quarters of the bunker, and final. It wasn't a fight, but an execution with reloads, given her opposition. Even when they scattered through the bunker, they couldn't hide, as they were all too spoiled and pampered to have any chance of hiding properly. They couldn't without people who had actual security training, all of whom they had killed through their own decisions. The same went for their attempts to fight, although those at least made it easier for Hailey to kill them without feeling an ounce of guilt. It was hard to feel bad for someone trying to shoot you with a diamond encrusted handgun, or worse, the weapon of a security team they had allowed to die.

By the end, the only person left alive was the trophy wife, although her eardrums were probably blown out. Hailey found the woman crying in a bathtub, expecting to die. Instead she just left her with a single statement. "Have the place to yourself, you earned it by telling the truth."

Hailey then left, and went to a media room in the bunker. Tired, and bereft of options, she slumped into a couch while staring at the various luxurious televisions. She still held the magnum, despite every round of it having been spent. It made her wonder if the demon knew there had been nineteen people left, and that Hailey would only want to spare one of them?

"Well Hailey, I think you've learned everything you can from that season," The demon's voice rang out, her face showing up on the TV in front of Hailey. "I'll let you continue your journey but ask that you only take three weapons with you from this world. Everything else you should just leave here."

Hailey unceremoniously dropped the empty magnum on the floor. It was followed by the assault rifle she had found in the convoy, and a myriad of other weapons until the only guns she had left on her person were the two PDWs, and a pump action shotgun. It was an easy decision to make, as it was likely easier to find ammunition for the shotgun, and the other guns she wanted to tinker with once she got access to better tools with which to do it. It was then a glowing portal appeared in the doorway of the room she had just entered. In another time, Hailey would've approached it with caution, but, perhaps because the violence of what she had just done began to catch up with her, she chose to just walk on through. She didn't want to spend another moment in a world where its richest, most powerful members had betrayed it to a man like the Architect because they were scared of losing their privileges...