Devils Walk the Earth

  A large empty waiting room before twin office doors. The lights are on but no one is there. A red demonic sigil appears in the middle of the floor, two figures rise from it. One is a woman in a buisiness suit, the other a middle aged gentleman in suit and tie with slicked back hair and a goatee. The woman cringes as she looks at her hands.

   "Isn't it wonderful," says the man spreading out his arms and taking a deep breath, "they are all gone."

   "I...feel so...human...so weak," says the woman.

   "They really did it," says the man, "all the gods are gone, the Eldritch are gone, and everything that remains is reduced to human."

   "How will we get home master?" asks the woman who flinches as the man turns and glares at her.

  He smiles and lifts his hand showing his red glowing ring, "The Devil's Signet Ring," says the man, "a special gift from those fools...I should have set something like this in motion...centuries ago, millenia ago. To think...all it took was some overly eager power grabbing Eldritch taking out a few of those obelisks and I could convince them to send in their true might and turn this world into a wonderfully mundane Earth."

   He looks out the window over the city, bustling with activity, "so few know there has been any changes...their secrecy has availed them naught..hm...Hah...Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...AHHHHHH!"

  He clutches his chest as his suit bursts into flames. The woman also screams as her entire body suddenly morphs into some hideously beautiful bio-mechanical S&M abomination. The man's clothes burn and rip away as he turns into a red giant with red fur covered cloven hoof laden legs, a goat's tail, hair on his chest and down his abdomen but no where else; a pair of monstrously huge black horns adorning his head.

   He *huffs* out black smoke and flames, "What? What just...happeneded?"

  He looks up, "No...no...NO! What is this?!"

 He shoves open the office doors and there stands a very pale woman with milky white hair, wearing a white suit, and beside her is a man looking very much the same.

   "Albiornesh!" growls the red devil, "No...you do not have the power to do this! You...how...how is this possible?"

   "They are all coming back..." says Albiornesh, "somewhat anti-climatic wouldn't you say? Barely landed on their various new worlds...and are already back...."

  Albiornesh looks up, "Can't you sense it Lahk Fhar? Oh ruler of the Burning Hell...or a burning hell to be honest...not very unique even with your floating rocks and..."

  "What...happened?" growls Lahk Fhar, "The Dimension Police agreed with me! That Eldritch these creatures called Chaos...it broke an obelisk...and then some summoned things destroyed three more..there were only five left...and that temporal anomaly...they agreed...this world was only cut off for a few months, and then barely a year before I could reconnect my Hell to this Earth...they agreed that you creatures didn't belong here! Your spawn! These Eldritch! These monsters do not belong on this Earth!"

   "Oh that is right," comes a woman's voice appearing from the shadows, the source being the black toxic slime queen Hydera Dredge, "I had heard about you...how every world that you have linked your domain to that turned out to be a....fantasy world as you put it...has...beaten you...sent heroes, and champions...and how each time with these openings...you have lost the Overlord Tournament to decide whose domain would be that world's new Hell...to think a low class Gol Devil like you was behind this annoyance."

   "Not you either, queen of toxic shit!" growls Lahk Fhar, "They sent their best...their strongest... TWENTY! Twenty devices each supperior to a hundred obelisks like those, those pitiful space cops had put here!"

   "The Overlord of the Faerie Realm," says Albiornesh, "She and two of her offspring showed up, almost immediatly...and destroyed them."

  "No..." says Lahk Fhar as he shifts back into a human like form, as does his assistant, "that...is impossible...I know for a fact she was hibernating! That...Netherworld Empress...NO!...this world is mine! Its souls are mine! It is not for..."

   "calm yourself," says Hydera Dredge, "you are so eagerly ruining your image as the subtle manipulator. You tried to circumvent the Overlord Tournament to regain control of this world's Hell...and were too eager...you tried to remove all the competition here as well...the Tournament of Darkness rulers...I've told you before Lahk Fhar...you should have just participated in that tournament if you didn't like how the supernatural creatures were doing things here...but alas..."

   "No," says Lahk Fhar creating his sigil, "You are all external forces here. They agreed with me...and will side with me...you will not have my Earth."

   With that he vanishes with his consort, as do Hydera Dredge and Albiornesh, leaving Echidaria in her office.

   "Well then," says Echidaria, "better contact the others...seems they didn't appear here like I did...no doubt my father wanted me to witness this...and know what was behind all this."

    ******


   Stratos, Tyros, Suranaku, and Violet the Dullahan stand before a large desk in a fabolous room. Behind this desk are three people, the dog faced chief Stratos, Tyros, and Suranaku know; a woman with rainbow colored hair wearing a blue jump suit who is known to Violet as her chief, and a large woman with pastel violet, pink, and red hair, wearing an odd armored leotard.

  It is this semi-giantess who speaks first, "You four were called here for a unique request due to being familiar with the world in question...Midgardia, Earth-M, we have a special task..."

   "That didn't take long," mutters Tyros.

   "Excuse me?" asks the woman, "do you know something about what we are about to ask you officer?"

  "Only this," says Tyros clinching his fist as a few blue flames spark and go out from his fingers, "what you pulled on that planet is complete and utter horse shit. I looked at the dossier, they were there for over two hundred thousand years...that is...an insane amount of time. My own people have been on our world for a little under three thousand...would you one day try to kick us out of our homes? Those beings had just as much of a right to be there as anyone living there...hell I think the human race as it currently is on that planet isn't even that old technically."

   "He has a point," says the dog faced chief, "although I suspect...never mind."

  "Any way," says the giant woman, "That is irrelevant, they are all back. All the supernatural creatures returned to Midgardia..."

   "What?" growls Suranaku.

  "Excuse me?" asks Violet, "but...did you just say you tried to evict all the supernatural creatures on Midgardia?"

   "With those ultimate limiters," says Suranaku, "How...why did you deactivate them? What was the point of removing those monsters..."

   "Officers!" commands the woman silencing them, "Firstly...what we did was done to try and save that world. You yourselves read what was coming...Suranaku and Tyros...making that world look mundane as well as placing those limiters would give us the time to realign their Hell after that temporal quake had knocked it off for over five hundred years of its time...but only months locally...the Overlord Tournament was coming. Sending the creatures back to their own worlds was an act of mercy...they would have been as weak as humans...many of them would have been unable to survive like that...besides."

  She has a solemn look in her eyes, "we didn't remove the limiters...one of the Demon Overlords...with some assistance by two of her offspring...showed up immediatly and destroyed the limiters. The backlash grabbed up and returned everything that had been removed, rendering the entire thing...pointless."

   "Impossible..." mutters Suranaku, "What...what kind of monster could..."

   "The Empress of the Faerie Realm," says the woman, "we also know her as the Architect of the First Hell, and Supreme Overlord of the Dark Netherworld...she is..."

   "Rhulan," whispers Tyros to Stratos.

   "What?!" shouts Suranaku over hearing them, "Chiefs! These two are in league with a demon...who may very well be in league with the thing you described."

   "Officers?" asks the woman looking at Tyros and Stratos as she has her plastic like clear tablet device bring up their dossiers, "Oh..you are both from....Aesperia...well that complicates things."

   She looks at Suranaku, and back at them, "So then...you both...hmm, tell me do you know an entity called Rhulan Rokonaka?"

   "Yes," says Tyros, "She is a powerful sorceress....and goddess apparently. She is a member of the Imperial Family of the Ravashira Empire. We have a rotating rulership going, Stratos and I are off...which as our chief knows is how we can be here...although my grandfather here was supposed to go back, but..."

   Stratos speaks up, "I have decided to not interfere with the affairs of my descendents...as I clearly inherited my mother's immortality. Rhulan also mainly keeps to herself and her mansion, she used to rule our world a long time ago by herself but....well her dossier speaks for its self."

   The three chiefs exchange looks, oddly worried looks.

  "I knew it," scowls Suranaku, "you all do keep their information segregated...only telling us based on how they act within your own precent regions..."

   "They arn't regions," says the giant woman, "officers...as this is relevant and will be an issue in what we actually called you here for...each precient actually deals with different...levels of events. The Overlord Tournament as we told you is when various Demon lords come together, those that either rule or will rule different Netherworlds and similar worlds to those compete to decide whose world will be a mundane world's Hell...our entire mission was to keep the status quo on Earth-M to prevent this tournament...these arn't the types of beings one wants fighting each other...where ever they choose to be a battleground...will be altered...the very laws of physics sometimes changed...some worlds become filled with monsters and magic such as Jenna and Peres did."

   She looks right at Suranaku as she named his home planet.

   "What we called you here for," she says, "is that only the first twenty...if that many show up, such beings to reach a planet may take part in the tournament. As our initial plan failed...we intend to send our own officers to the planet with Devil Signets to take part in the tournament...with the intent that in the event we win...we will give control of Earth-M's Netherworld status back to its original owner. Which has worked out well enough so far. If we allowed the beings already there to stay there...some of them would have tried...and in fact from Violet's report."

  "Oh am I here too?" she asks bored, "sorry...I mean...yes chief."

  "Right," says the woman, "from her report we have reason to believe several were camping there...several rather nasty ones...taking part in another tournament to take control of the supernatural forces while waiting for the Overlord Tournament to begin. There is little time to lose...we need."

  "I'm out," says Tyros, "sorry...like my grandfather I intended to do good out here while staying out of the way of my descendents but...this...this is insane...also..."

   "Understood," says the woman, "Aesperia is in Other World after all...the Faerie Realm...competing against your world's own Overlord....even if she is playing some game on your particular land mass...is understood."

   "Wait..." says Suranaku letting the implication sink in, as well as everything he has learned over the centuries from his varied encounters, her power, Eldritch status, "Why...Sorceress...Demon...Witch...Eldritch..." he pauses, "ruler of a Hell!"

  "No," says the woman, "like I said you'd advocate that title back to..."

  "Not that!" shouts Suranaku, "Are you telling us...that...that witch...the witch I sealed in a cave that started all of this? Sealed so many times only to learn was playing some game where she was limiting her own power to less than one percent of its total...is also...a fucking Overlord!"

   The woman looks at the dog faced chief, "I thought you said he knew that already?"

   The chief *shrugs*, "I figured he figured it out by now."

  The chief speaks, "Officer Suranaku, you know as well as anyone how meaningless titles are, and how diverse some of these Netherworlds...pocket universes, can get. Given this being is also well known as Chaos...or Mother of Chaos...it shouldn't be that big of a surprise...although I suppose learning that she has any involvement with an after life given her worlds are normally inhabited by living beings....well, time is wasting, are you in?"

  Tyros and Stratos are out, Violet and Suranaku however are in, and sent to Midgardia immediatly.

   ******

   "You dare show your face here," growls Lohln, "after what your people did?"

  Suranaku stands before the three goddesses in charge of the supernatural elements of Midgardia, and nonchalantly asks, "Have you ever heard of the Overlord Tournament?"

   "You mean the tournament of Darkness?" asks Lohln.

   "No, he doesn't," says Echidaria, "When Chaos destroyed one Obelisk it created a temporal quake...as we gathered here know of course from this one's previous visit. When that happened other dimensions connected to our world were also disconnected for over five centuries of their time, the summoning worlds, the battle zone...and even Hell...for most of these worlds it was irrelevant, for Hell however...not so much. Nothing happened for almost a year thanks to the other obelisks masking this...the destruction of three more however acted as a beacon alerting...well...a rather complicated system, of the disconnect. This world's souls and the position of being this world's Hell was up for grabs...which meant the Overlord Tournament. The first twenty Overlords, Demon lords, and such entities to come here would trigger the Tournament to begin...Lahk Fhar played the Dimension Police for fools, to not only insure his Hell remained this world's Hell...but to also remove his competition that was already here."

   "Dare we ask," says Shahara.

   Echidaria smiles, "I am in the Tournament," she says, "As are my father...and my sisters...Paramalia...and even Albia who has inherited...although she does not know it yet, a Netherworld all her own. Between us, Apole, Hydera Dredge, and Lahk Fhar of course, that only left thirteen positions for others to rush here...he knew he was already out classed...so tricked these fools into going to such insane extremes."

   "The devil," says Shahara, "you are competing to be the devil? and THAT was cause for them to try and deport us all?!"

   "External influences of distinctly evil nature," starts Suranaku.

   "he's in the tournament," states Echidaria.

  "What?" exclaims Shahara and Lohln together.

  Suranaku is genuinly surprised.

  "Devil's Signet," says Echidaria indicating his hand, "Think of it as a claim flag...usually for weaker beings whom the automated system normally wouldn't register...or those not a demonic or otherwise supernatural nature...of course."

   "Why would you..." stats Shahara speaking to Suranaku.

  "It is in this world's best interest..." starts Surnaku.

  "More devilish trickery," states Echidaria, "not that it matters, Lahk Fhar had no idea that Rokonaka had an avatar on this planet already...the mighty Supreme Overlord of the Faerie Realm...not that her apperance was necissary...Endara Terata has been camping out on our moon...watching us...even now."

   "I have no idea what you are talking about," states Lohln, a statement that gives her cause to pause in contemplation, "Which...worries me."

  "You could compete," says Echidaria, "Lohln...your library where you send troublesome souls into books...would work nicely as a Hell...and give us a chance at a rematch."

  Lohln smiles, "Interesting prospect...an Arachne Goddess....ruler of the Underworld...for real...such a prospect...sure."

  A red orb flashes in front of Lohln and speaks in a chilling woman's voice, "Lohln, Goddess of the Web of Time, accepted."

  Suranaku sneers and presses a device on his wrist, "No point in continuing this conversation." and vanishes.

  "Hold on a second," says Shahara, "You said an Overlord of a Faerie realm destroyed the Obelisks...but...that was MewMew...."

   a flash of a memory of the cloaked man and two horned women on Mirai's roof.

  "beacon..." whispers Shahara.