The Lesser One: Chapter 25: Deal

Deal

The wall that will surround the S-class portal in the park is nearing construction. It’s been five hours since we exited after taking over thirty casualties. Rows of body bags line the edge of the grass and are being handled by the local police force.

Firemen, the military, and SWAT teams are standing by to engage. There are hundreds of people milling around, preparing for the moment that will come in five hours, when the portal prolapses.

I wonder what Alice is doing inside there. My anima vison picked up a faint residue left by her passing inside the dungeon’s first level. It was almost too faint for me to notice, but when we were pulling out, I determined that it must have been her.

I sit on a bench next to Derwyn, Tonan, and Jozunen. We are simply waiting for what is to come. Not much needs to be said. As the two S-class adventurers here, it is our job to be the spearhead when the portal releases its contents into the world.

Carl approaches us.

“The military has been able to acquire two Dungeon Striker missiles,” he says.

He hands a spotting device to me and the other to Derwyn.

“You two are most likely to survive in an all-out battle. Since portal beings don’t appear on electronic sensors, you’re going to have to guide these missiles. The device should give you the exact time the missile is bound to strike. Make sure to take down the biggest baddies you can.” He nods. “Make them count.”

I turn to Derwyn. His expression is serious. I know that many people are likely to die during this encounter. It is technically my fault, but I don’t need to think about what could have happened. Instead, I need to face forward and deal with the problems at hand.

The box around the portal is capped with a thick barrier of rolled steel. I hold the missile spotting device in my hand, remembering the feeling back before I defeated the balrog.

This “Dungeon Striker” missile couldn’t take down a high A-class monster completely, even with a direct strike. How is it going to deal with an S-class?

Whatever the case, this is our best bet, besides building another Sou’frican wall. I don’t think the UK would appreciate a large swath of its land being controlled by portal monsters. Plus, walls like that are expensive to build.

There is a “arm” button on the spotter. Presumably, once I press that button, the missile will be fired from whatever plane is carrying it up above the clouds.

The night summer heat, boosted by moonlight, reflects off the sheet steel that is being used for the containment box. Dozens of workers are welding pieces together, building layers above the already completed first box. The foundations for five layers of steel have been laid. Once the monsters break through the first container, they will face four more steel walls.

More tanks roll up next to the park. Attack helicopters rove around the suburban homes. Hundreds of soldiers arrive in armored personnel carriers, taking up firing positions and building foxholes. The atmosphere hangs on a wire.

The guilds Green Blazes and Rocking Shooters arrive, each guild fielding about sixty adventurers. That brings our total to almost two hundred. A good portion of those are A-class.

We’re as ready as we’ll ever be.

I count down the minutes, then hours. My internal energy battery begins to fill up again.

About an hour before the portal is due to open, I stand from the bench. Dawn has come, and the light of the new day shimmers.

“I need to take care of something,” I say, getting up from the bench.

Derwyn nods, not asking questions. Tonan follows me as I walk behind a house and fence.

I’ve never summoned all my devils at once. I have about one hundred and fifty left inside my personal pocket dimension.

Tonan doesn’t speak, instead just nodding at me.

I summon my devils in groups of five. It takes about half an hour before they are mostly summoned. I keep a group of ten to be my bodyguards, so that I can summon them when I need them, but the rest are out there in the world now.

The devils I summoned aren’t going to join the defense around the portal. That would raise too many questions. Instead, they are taking positions around the town and surrounding countryside. They will act as an unseen barrier to defend against the onslaught of monsters, and probably work behind the scenes to coordinate a better defense.

I walk back around the hidden corner and return to the field. Less than half an hour remains before the portal prolapses. I sit down on the bench next to Derwyn.

Derwyn cracks his knuckles. “I’ve killed a lot of monsters in my career,” he says, “But I never thought I’d be fighting an S-class portal prolapsing in my own homeland.”

“You’re from Wales?” I say to Derwyn.

“Obviously,” he says. “My name’s Derwyn, after all.”

“You don’t have much of an accent,” I say.

“An American telling me that doesn’t flatter me,” Derwyn says, with a smile. He sighs, standing up. “I think we should do a bit of stretching before we put our lives on the line.”

I agree. I stand up with Derwyn and we do a couple of pre-workout stretches. This is the first time I’ve done something like this, but I need to do something to keep the feeling of dread from overwhelming me.

The soldiers surrounding the park look at me like I’m crazy. In my opinion, though, they’re the crazy ones for going up against A and S-class monsters with modern weaponry. Magic blocks all forms of weaponry invented after the middle ages, excepting the Dungeon Striker missiles, and those probably utilize some loophole.

So the main line of defense against the monsters will be the adventurers from the five guilds gathered here. There are also nearly two hundred adventurers who aren’t with their guild at this moment and answered the call for help. Most of them were already in the surrounding area. I mean, if they’re here, they might as well fight.

At least two thousand personnel end up encircling the locked-down dungeon, standing in co-centric circles. Fifty tanks and APCs have their main guns trained on the portal. Two dozen helicopters, both news and military, rotate around the park. Some attack aircraft are roving the skies, slipping in between clouds.

The portal prolapses. A huge “ding” sounds as the monsters inside fight the steel encasing them. The walls bulge outwards. The bulge gets bigger.

“Hold! Steady!” I hear the officers telling their men.

Two attack helicopters fly in low, their chain guns spinning.

The bulge blows out and a gorilla of King Kong proportions flies out in a spray of steel. He crushes a Challenger tank with one foot, sending a dozen soldiers flying.

I shoot at the monster, knowing that it’s probably futile. This giant gorilla is probably a high A-class.

Dozens of smaller monkeys, tigers, panthers, and anacondas spill out of the break.

The other side of the containment block blows out. A stone golem taller than a four-story building rises from the wreckage. Brass automatons march through the breach.

And then comes the S-class. A wooly mammoth the size of an aircraft carrier. It takes two whole minutes for its body to emerge from the portal, like a baby from a mother’s womb. Its trumpet is blisteringly loud.

The two A-class mini-bosses pave the way for the S-class floor boss. Tanks back up from them, as they leave gigantic footprints in the grass of the park. The gorilla topples the playground with a few steps.

I don’t even know how we’re going to begin to face this mess.

I aim the missile spotter at the mammoth’s head, right in between its eyes.

The missile strikes in less than thirty seconds. The whole park explodes in a blast of scorching fire.

 A minute later, the second missile strikes the stone golem.

And that’s that. Neither missile has resulted in a kill, and we’re losing dozens of people a minute.

Carl approaches me, dodging a blast of acid. “The government is evacuating the surrounding fifty kilometers. They’re going to enact Plan Orange.”

Derwyn’s face goes pale. I don’t know what “Plan Orange” is, but I take it that it’s horrific.

A helicopter goes down ten feet from us and explodes in a flash of metal and fire. A rotor blade flies past me. I duck, covering myself.

“What the hell is Plan Orange?” I say, as I duck.

Carl shakes his head. “The government is going to drop a nuke,” he says.

My face goes as pale as Derwyn’s. “No. That can’t happen!”

“Even an S-class can’t survive a nuclear fireball,” says Carl. He motions. “Come on. They’re getting the adventurers out in the armored personnel carriers.”

This is my fault. It’s all my fault that Wales is going to get nuked.

And what is going to happen to Alice? She’s inside that portal! Will she be turned into fiery dust?

I follow Derwyn to the APC. Just as I enter the back of the vehicle, I think I see Alice.

It’s probably just my imagination.

The door closes, and we drive away from the portal at full speed.

“They’re probably going to have to build a wall,” says Derwyn. “Those monsters may be kept a bay for a while by a nuclear explosion, but they will keep emerging afterwards. They tried nukes in Hawaii, but the portals survived.”

I had heard of that. The American government had nuked Hawaii three times, and the portal recovered the monster population in less than a week.

The nukes are only a patch. The monsters will return. Only Japan and Mongolia have ever defeated S-class portals, and no one knows how they did it. Perhaps they used the same method that Brine Ward used.

Brine Ward! They must have a solution to this! That blackened bone, it might have something to do with defeating the portal!

Jozunen is in the APC with me. I turn to him.

“Get someone important on the line,” I say. “I have a possible solution.”

Jozunen nods, and hands me the same kind of earpiece that Sebastian used.

Me: Jirgrar! I say. Put me in contact with Carl, the leader of the Blue Dryads!

Jirgrar: As you wish.

Two minutes later, a soldier hands me a satellite phone. “Someone important wants to talk to you,” he says.

I take the phone. “Carl!” I say.

“Markus, are you okay?” he says.

“Yes!” I say. “I’m safe. I have a way to beat the portal. At least, I think.”

Carl doesn’t speak for a moment. “What is it?”

“Do you know about Brine Ward?” I say.

“I think so,” says Carl. “The mafia family that wanted to open the portal. Why?”

“They had a solution!” I say. “They were going to open the portal and subdue the beings somehow!”

“I don’t think the government is going to be happy about cooperating with mafia,” says Carl. “But I’ll see what I can do.” He hangs up.

Five minutes later the same soldier hands me the phone. I pick it up.

“Markus Red,” says a deep, male voice. “I hear you have a solution to the portal problem.”

“Um, yes,” I say. “Who is this?”

“The Prime Minister,” says the voice.

Oh. Wow, okay. Calm down. Calm down.

“Do you know about Brine Ward?” I ask.

“I was briefed, yes,” says the Prime Minister. “What about it?”

“They had some sort of magical implement that they were going to use to subdue the portal,” I say.

There is a long pause. “Thanks. Your contribution will not be forgotten.” He hangs up.

Jirgrar: The government is making moves to negotiate with Brine Ward.

Me: This is fast! It hasn’t even been ten minutes!

Jirgrar: You underestimate the power of an entire government.

Me: So do you think they’ll be able to use that bone?

Jirgrar: It remains to be seen.

I turn to the soldier who handed me the phone.

“Thanks,” I say.

The soldier nods. “I hope my family isn’t in town. They live in the exclusion zone.”

“We might not have to drop a nuke,” I say. “There might be an alternative.”

 The soldier looks at me like I’m crazy. “That’s an S-class portal,” he says. “You saw that gigantic mammoth. Not to mention the golem and gorilla.”

I shake my head. “I don’t know for certain. But there is hope.”

The soldier looks as afraid as I am. He is shivering. “I never knew monsters could be that huge,” he says.

I cough. “I don’t know,” I say. “I’ve never seen anything that big. I mostly spent my time being a porter in D-class dungeons. Even the balrog I killed wasn’t nearly as big as that mammoth.”

The soldier leans against the hard wall of the APC.

The sound of a low-flying supersonic jet tears through the air. I hope they aren’t delivering the warhead now. We still have a chance if Brine Ward’s solution works.

Ten minutes pass. The APC stops. The doors open. We are several miles away from the portal at this point.

An armored car has pulled up next to the APC. Barley steps out, as well as Sebastian.

Sebastian bows. “Master, Brine Ward has requested your presence in the negotiations.”

I step out, nodding to Derwyn and Jozunen.

Derwyn waves. “Good luck,” he says. “The fate of Britain rests on you.”

Sebastian leads me into the government armored car. Barley sits in the front seat and I get into the back. There are two men in black beside me.

“We’re heading to a prearranged area picked by Brine Ward,” says Barley. “They requested you specifically.”

The government driver takes us to a small secluded plot of land, covered in dirty concrete and grass growing through cracks. Gena and three Shinigami are standing there.

Gena smiles as I get out of the vehicle.

“Did everything go as planned?” she says.

“As planned?” I say.

Gena smiles sweetly. “Did you really think that your invisibility trick fooled us?”

I am starting to sweat. “So you used me?” I say.

“Of course,” says Gena. “And you did a great job. I won’t make you a villain, but you did screw everything up in a glorious fashion.”

“Was Alice part of this?” I ask. Everything is falling apart.

Gena laughs. “Of course. I was the one who convinced her to open the portal. I promised that I’d be able to bring her mother back.” She scoffs. “A little airhead is what she is. Maybe she has financial smarts, but that doesn’t mean she has any wherewithal.”

I am ready to break down. “You mean, you used her too,” I say.

Gena shrugs. “I’m a mafia don. Of course I use people.” She turns to Barley, wearing a saccharin smile. “You can’t prosecute me. I’m going to make a deal with you. I stop the portal monsters from taking over a third of the United Kingdom. And, you give me and my organization amnesty.”

Barley is gritting his teeth. The two government agents beside him are equally frustrated.

Gena appears satisfied. “We’ll bring all the paperwork for you to sign. We’re going to turn into a legitimate corporation from here on out. Don’t worry. We won’t do anything stupid.”

Barley frowns. “So how are you going to defeat the portal monsters?” he says.

Gena motions, and Valya steps out from behind an old signpost. He is carrying a black sword.

Gena points to Valya. “Give it to me.”

Valya presents the blade to Gena. Gena swipes the blade back and forth. “This is the ruler’s blade,” she says. “The monsters of the Dominionia will bow before it.”

“So you’re going to have control over an army of monsters,” says Barley. “We can’t let you do that.”

“Would you rather Wales be overrun with beasts, and lose millions of your citizens in the process? Would you like to destroy part of your nation with nukes, only to still lose?”

Gena’s smile is dangerous. “I wasn’t the one to open the portal,” she says. “If you had let me keep the key, I would have gone along my way without causing billions of pounds in damage. This is all your fault, as you were the ones who sent Markus to infiltrate our compound and steal the key. We are not culpable.”

“But we can still prosecute you for what you’ve done!” says Barley.

Gena laughs. “Try it, and you’ll see a good portion of your population trampled under the feat of the monsters of Dominionia.”

Barley is in a quandary. He turns away. “I’ll get approval from the government. But, please, hurry. There are lives depending on this.”

Gena’s smile becomes even more dangerous. “After we sign the paperwork,” she says.

“Paperwork won’t protect you for long,” says Barley. “We’ll find a way to get you.” He steps into the government car. I am about to follow.

“No, you stay here,” says Barley. “Keep an eye on that wily worm. You and your network should be able to keep her from doing anything terrible.” He closes the car door, and they drive away.

I turn to Sebastian. “Um, so, are my agents doing okay?”

“No casualties yet,” says Sebastian. “Our network has mostly been evacuating citizens. Although we have power, we are not strong enough to fight the contents of an S-class portal on our own.”

That should be enough. Now to confront Gena. I turn to her. “You manipulated Alice,” I say.

Gena shrugs. “It’s all a game. You just have to know how to play it.” She runs her finger along the tip of the bone sword. “Alice was stupid to allow me to influence her.”

“You promised her something you can’t deliver!” I say. “You tricked her!”

Gena shows her teeth. “That, my dear, is the way of the world.”

I am shaking right now. If I had been offered the ability to revive my dead mother and believed it, what would I have done?

I can’t blame Alice for falling for a stupid trick like that.

But I have to know. “How did you know about Alice?” I say.

Gena begins pacing back and forth. “Do you really want to know?” she says.

I nod. “Tell me.”

“Well, it won’t hurt,” says Gena. “You see, I’ve been looking into you for quite some time. You’re a very interesting person, after all. A nobody with poor stats all around was able to defeat a balrog. I know that Dungeon Striker missile didn’t do the job. Those things are trash, not worth anything. They can barely kill a B-class.” Gena sits on an exposed piece of concrete. “And you were able to absorb a ten thousand year spirit without any acclimation and without suffering Pewter’s Syndrome.”

I turn my gaze away.

Gena continues. “And I knew that you would be able to help me in this. You were recognized as an S-class, and that excludes you from many laws that would have taken effect otherwise.” Gena rests her chin on her fist. “You are very lucky to be an S-class in this situation. Thus, you are a perfect agent.” The sides of her lips curl up. “I want to offer you what I offered your double back when you were wandering invisible around my compound. I want to offer you a deal.”

I shake my head. “I can’t deal with—”

Gena holds up her hand. “Don’t. Wait until I’m done giving you my offer.” She tilts her head. “I want entrance into—”

Gena says a word and I can’t understand it. Pain lances through my head. I grasp my temples and fall to my knees.

“Whoops,” says Gena. “Haha. I forgot about that effect.” She says another phrase. “There we are,” she says.

The pain is gone. I remember the word.

Silverbones.

Gena’s face lights up. “Yes, the Silverbones,” she says. “All of their members have immortality. But, one must earn entry. If three current members vote you in, you become immortal as well.” She looks at her fingernails. “Of course I want immortality. But more than that, I want power.” She runs her finger along her nails. “I want to be able to say something and have it happen.” She looks up at me. “Do you understand?” She then smiles sweetly. “I’m willing to help you get in yourself if you cooperate with me. All I need you to do is stand by and let things happen. You’ve already helped me enough.”

I shake my head. “I can’t make deals with a—”

Gena stands up, brushing her hands. “With a what?” she says. “A mafia boss?” She tilts her head, making eye contact with me. “You can’t defeat me. I have the key to ending the Dominionia portal’s prolapse. What difference does it make that all the monsters will answer to me if I use the object?”

I have a choice to make. Either I fight, or I stand by and watch as a Russian mafia boss obtains ultimate power.

I have made my choice. I approach Gena.

“I’m not going to bow to you,” I say.

Sebastian and three of my devils stand between me and Gena’s Shinigami.

Two dozen Shinigami appear out of nowhere and begin surrounding us. I can’t call back my devils—they are too far away.

“So you have made your choice,” says Gena. “I’m not going to kill you now, but mark my words. You will regret choosing this route.”

Sebastian turns to me. “I will die for you, master,” he says.

I nod. I summon the ten devils that are still inside of me.

At least fifty Shinigami against me and fourteen devils. This isn’t a fair match.

“Run,” says Sebastian.

I turn and run. There is no escaping it—I am at a loss.

The battle starts. The devils fight the Shinigami. Two devils die almost instantly, taking a Shinigami with them.

I burst through the edge of the battlefield. I am almost free.

My body freezes. A piece of netting weighed down with balls has caught me. I collapse into a heap on the ground.

Two Shinigami pick me up and bring me to Gena. Sebastian is kneeling beside her, his face covered in blood. Only five of my devils are still alive.

Gena looks at me, wearing a pleased expression. “If you don’t want your favorite servant to die, then call off the rest of your devils. We don’t want to fight more than we have to.”

I eye the black sword that is next to her. There’s no way I’m getting it anytime soon. I cringe.

“Call them off,” I say.

Sebastian looks devastated. “Master!” he says.

A Shinigami pushes him down. “No talking!” says the monster.

I cringe again. The ropes around me are tight.

Gena nods, satisfied. “Pick him up and put him in the car,” she says.

Two Shinigami pick me up and shove me into the back of an unmarked black van.

I don’t know where I’m going. All I know is that I failed.