Deep in a makeshift world, a world built in the image of despair and gloom, void of hope and light. A mansion stood, decrepit, old, and neglected from any form of care. A home for those who invited hopelessness without any care. A home of darkness devoid of light.
Inside the mansion was the same, no love within it at all. Hollow with no signs of anyone living occupying the rooms. The main room of the house was empty at first, inside was a table with a spread of food and drink with extravagant chairs and cups, each one in a unique style to the owner of them.
An old maid attended the chairs, laying out the food and liquor for the owners to enjoy. The door to the room opened, and coming inside was a young man in black with a bag of cooked grasshoppers to eat. The man was Viral, he made his way to his personal chair, an older still clinic chair from the 19th century, his cup a beaker filled with different medical drugs mixed with the liquor poured for him.
Next was Kouki, who wore a religious robe with different religious symbols stitched on the sleeves, his long black and silver hair standing out.
Kouki sat in a chair designed like a throne, even his cup was made into an extravagant chalice with wine and blood mixed in. The maid gave him a set of sweets to enjoy.
Kouki sat with a smile at Viral, between the two, Viral was a sickly youth, disgusting to others. Kouki had the face of a cherub, the demeanor of someone who would follow without hesitation even if he had the mind of Charles Manson hiding behind his beautiful face.
"Ara, where's your precious sister? Is she still being scolded for her blunder all those years ago and wasting a precious moment of freedom to kidnap a hostage for her little scheme hehe."
The cockiness Kouki had knew no bounds. He loved seeing Viral in trouble, mostly to tease him about Shiina. Viral always took responsibility for Shiina's actions, no one else would be patient with her as much as he would. Viral sat quietly, continuing to eat the grasshoppers through the bandages around his mouth. He wasn't going to play games with Kouki, he fell for that once and lost his first body in the process. Took him centuries to readjust to his new one going over his poison immunities all over again.
Kouki leaned with his hands under his chin, trying to get a rise out of Viral, he was more immature in Shiina, enjoying every minute he could screw with Viral or the other Jaakou when he wasn't around.
"So, where is your precious sister Viral? She's not coming to our little meet-up? Hmm, is she trying to torture that woman to get out of her slump? Hmm?" Kouki kept pestering hoping some emotion would come out. He was always envious of how calm Viral could be despite his greediness for dangerous drugs and diseases to consume to satisfy him.
"Ask her yourself."Viral stopped eating, pointing behind Kouki. Kouki turned around to see an angry Shiina standing behind him, with her face filled with unrestrained hate. She sliced his lower jaw off with her nails, grabbed the piece off the table she made her way to sit in her chair.
Her chair and cup as expected for her personality resembled the ones made for a child with a twisted sense of humor. The maid gave her a plate of multiple roasted boar heads with her cup being juice since she detested alcohol.
Shiina looked at Kouki, Kouki's face healed instantly, still holding a confident smile as Shiro began eating the broken jaw she cut off him before her real dish.
"Ara Ara, did I touch a nerve? Hehe sorry little one. It's all only for the sake of having fun. That's ok with you right, Miss Evils of Heartless Youth Murderers."
Shiina always hated Kouki, he was a tease who felt invincible for aiding in Raimei's death even if he didn't do it on his own. He always found ways to get credit for work that wasn't his, his jealousy of being weak physically to the others hurt his ego. He used his schemes to compensate for his lack of confidence.
The door opened again and two other vassals walked in.
One was fat, wearing coveralls and a bib around his neck, and he was carrying a bag of assorted meats. His chair was a large metal chair bigger than his body, with a cup as large as a bucket filled with beer.
This one was Gorge, the Evils of Insatiable Hungers. The loud thudding that was made from him sitting down shook the floor beneath the other Jaakou. The other one that walked in with him wore tight leather clothing in the style of bondage gear, a mask, and messy makeup.
She sat in a BDSM-made chair with her cup shaped like two lovers embracing each other.
This vassal was Domina, Evils of the Hedonistic Drive.
"Kouki, sweetie, please don't tease little Shiina. She is the embodiment of wrath after all, don't be so mean to her unless you want her to kill you for eternity."Domina scolded with a slow speech pronunciation mixed with a seductive voice.
"Hehe, my apologies. It's just fun seeing how one who loves to commit unapologetic killing looks so bummed at the moment, teehee."
Shiin was halfway done eating the old jaw from Kouki, and she spat some of the molars at him like sunflower seeds in retaliation for his comments.
Gorge spoke next, his words always sounded muffled because of his fat mouth and larger tongue messing up his words.
"Maid, where are the other two? We are missing Laze and boss Orgullo. Are they not aware of our meeting?"
The maid spoke as ordered. She was a doll, created to serve the Jaakou in all their needs and preparations. She had no soul, no personality, and her way of talking was robotic and deadpan. She lived only to serve.
"Mistress Laze is still working on destroying the barrier completely. The brief tears she creates in it are becoming fewer just enough for me to gather supplies for nourishment. Master Orgullo is continuing his training with his new host for perfect body dominance." The maid told them in her report of the events that transpired at the moment.
"Eh, so the old man is trying to get used to being in a young man's body now. Guess you can teach an old dog new tricks teehee."
Kouki felt a sharp force pierce through his neck, severing his vocal cords. He wheezed trying to get air, his smile not going away. His eyes darted to Shiina, her facial expression was twisted with hate. She had reached her breaking point.
"Say one more bad thing about Orgullo-Oyaji, and you'll play infinite hell with me, got it jealousy boy."
Kouki still coughed for air as he made small crude chortles keeping his confidence untainted. Shiina viewed certain vassals as family, Viral was the big brother, Domina the big sister, Gorge the uncle, Laze the aunt, and Orgullo as her papa. Kouki was like the cousin she didn't want around, his existence was a pain to hers.
"Shiina that's enough sweetie," Domina announced. "And Kouki, I understand your sense of humor, but in respect, Orgullo is the oldest of us and strongest. If not for that Guardian Deity and Ronin he would never have lost his old body. Please refrain from disrespecting him. Remember, if he kills you, you'll cease to exist as the Kouki you are now."
Kouki did as he was told. Orgullo was the firstborn of the Jaakou. He was born in the 10th century of the Heian Period around 800 AD. He was born to prideful samurai who wanted to prove they were the strongest, even if it meant death duels or nonsensical violence. Many of the Jaakou were born at different periods of time from their evils. Domina was the second, Gorge the third, Viral the fourth, Laze the fifth, Kouki the sixth, and finally Shiina.
Orgullo was special in that if he killed any of the Jaakou, the original personality would be erased and a new one would be born. He did this many a time to the others, save for Shiina, when they proved either too weak or got out of line.
"Shiina, let him go. We have matters to discuss right now." Viral asked her in his brother-like request to calm Shiina down. She did as instructed, she released her nails from Kouki's throat, his wounds healed instantly again, his pompous attitude unscathed.
"Now then shall we begin. First, we know that the barrier is weakening more with Laze's efforts, soon we shall be free of this place for good and create a new pocket dimension. When that happens we shall reclaim our Master's host for them to be born again. Have the Monarchs made their move?" Domina asked.
"Yes Domina, they're the last left now. From what I've gathered they're not in agreement. Seems Kouki's plan to kill the Lightning Monarch worked. The replacement refuses to work alongside his brethren, and he also tries to kill Master Ankou's host. The Monarchs are no longer a real threat now other than their pathetic barrier." Viral reported more.
"I see. What about Grand Lich Noir? I heard he sent his precious knights to retrieve the host recently and failed. He also lost a precious weapon in Astarok, only two blades are left now, one of them being Orgullo's sword."
"From the information gathered thanks to my network of spies I was able to contact, the host is growing in strength. Seems he's evolving the more battles he's in. The Prime Caliber factor is helping in this. Although we strengthened the body and soul as we did before with the last hosts, this is the first one born a Prime Caliber, I think an outside influence affected this. It's of no concern though it'll be more beneficial to our master." Viral was pleased with this one. It was a great change in their plans to come for their own benefit.
"I see. But tell me Viral, how did the host die again and somehow come back to life? That was a hindrance to our plans, it's only by luck that the boy came back to life. Had that been permanent we would have had to wait longer for the barrier to break to make a new host."
Viral did not have a good answer to this. When he heard Kousuke had died the Jaakou were angered at the notion. But hearing he was brought back again overjoyed them in that their chances of rebirthing their Master were still a possibility.
"More than likely and this is theoretical, the Monarchs had a hand in it or the host has a stronger soul than we anticipated. This makes obtaining him more desirable for Master Ankou. Right now we need to get out soon before the host makes contact again with the Hunter Monarch. If he achieves a Celestial Bond with him it'll make it harder for Master Ankou to take over his body."
The Jaakou contemplated this notion. They needed to get out of their pocket dimension and retrieve Kousuke soon. The maid exited the room to retrieve Laze and Orgullo for the end of the meeting. The vassals continued their conversation, and then a loud thud was heard outside.
The vassals assumed Noir made it to the meeting, he always killed every doll during his introduction, and he hated anything that wasn't in his control. The doors to the meeting room opened, and the head of the maid doll flew across till it hit the table, rolling along to the other end in front of Kouki and Viral. The Jaakou looked to see who did that. Noir killed the dolls, but his style was more incinerating them to ash than cutting their heads off.
This felt weird to them, they were on their guard now for whatever walked through. The footsteps were clearer till they stopped when the intruders walked into the meeting room. They were two intruders, young ones looking into their teen years, both had ivory skin and lavender-colored hair with silver-colored eyes. One was a girl in a white nun habit, her hair was long down to her hips, and she had a chained whip at her side with a bible on the other. The other was a boy with short hair, he wore a body suit that looked similar to motorcycle armor, his left arm was heavily modified, and the sound of ticking was heard from him like an old clock.
Viral examined both of them carefully, they felt odd to him, not normal humans or even resurrected beings. More so they looked like twins, both had such androgynous features that anyone could swap their hair and they would look the same save for the height difference. Viral looked closer, the boy had lines under his eyes to the sides of his face, and he saw a twitching movement in his eyes, Viral knew what the boy was now, and it made him nervous at the sight.
"I know who they are, but why are the dolls of Heaven here? Nothing should be able to get past that barrier without those openings."
The young girl looked to Viral, she was soft-spoken and formal in her speech, the purity of innocence in her was unsettling to the Jaakou.
"The barrier only works on sinners like you. It has no effect on us that serve Heaven and its King."
"Why are you here? Only we know this dimension's location how did you find it? The Monarchs put up the barrier but we moved it in time to hide it from them." Viral had no idea how this was possible, their plans to stay hidden went up in smoke with no idea who sent the twins to them.
"We don't answer the questions of sinners. We are here to punish you for killing the mother of that boy and to stop your ambitions for freedom. We've also found the other mother along the way here. We will be taking her back home to her children once we're done."
Shiina's eyes bulged, hearing that they found Mana and were taking her away. Her plans to lure Kousuke were wasted, a half-baked plan at most, but something at least to get his attention went down the drain in an instant.
"Brother, the pale one, she looked disappointed hearing me. She must be the one who killed the Primary Mother and kidnapped the other. Please, give her the last rites first."
The boy nodded, his face plain and expressionless. The girl reached behind him, grabbed a dial embedded in the middle of his back, and she wound it about four times. Mechanisms inside the boy's body began to work, and the sounds of gears moving could be heard. The boy's eyes twitched more as they stared at Shiina locking in on their target.
"Target, locked on. Mission, purification of sinners. Genocide mode, active." The boy's left arm changed. It went from a mechanical arm to a compact piledriver aimed at the Jaakou. Shiina and the others were ready for a fight, but the boy did not go to them yet, he was alerted to the motion of another body approaching from the shadows. The twins looked together to see who was coming, approaching them was a man wearing broken samurai armor coated in black with red rope around the waist and arms. The young man with tied gray hair, wearing a demon mask around the mouth. Dual swords to his side, one a wakizashi and the other a nodachi. The one who approached them was Orgullo, halting his training to deal with the intruders.
"Brother, he's the leader of them. Hold him off while I secure the woman to safety. Escape if he proves to much for you. We must meet the boy when this is over. He is our chosen Leader."
Orgullo flicked his nodachi's guard to open it from the sheath. He was ready to test the results of his unfinished training.
The boy changed his target to Orgullo now. It was more important for them to rescue Mana now that their element of surprise was ruined.
"Target locked on." The boy readied his weapon as did Orgullo, he wanted answers as to why they were here and who sent them. Heaven-made dolls like them at such a degree of detail could only be done with help from an Archangel. The Monarchs did not send them, meaning to Orgullo someone else from the other side did without their consent. It was just finding out who the doll master of these peculiar dolls would be the answer clue once he was down with them.