106: Demonic Presence

Nina watched the scene from above in the second floor of the hotel, a pleased look on her face. Seeing the scene while watching like this gave her the sort of feeling that winning a fight or making successful deals couldn’t compare to.

The feeling of dominance, of absolute control.

“Yikes, don’t you think he took it a bit too far?”

Nicky commented off the side, also looking down, albeit with a completely opposite look on her face. She grimaced at the sight, the dome of spikes spinning about while containing the belligerent man screaming in pain.

Nicky was about halfway ready to jump in there to defend Haley’s honor, which Nina had to stop since she knew Aidan was nearby. He usually returned at this hour, and while he didn’t know exactly what was happening, she knew he would be watching to take his chance. She was considerably surprised at the level of dedication Nicky had for Haley, who at first suspected Nicky to only want her Talent to achieve her short-term goals.

“Apparently, that’s how he usually handles rowdy customers,” Nina said, smirking at the sight still ongoing. She already saw various adventurers retching and ready to hurl from the sight, expecting to see something more than gruesome at the end of it. “But don’t worry–it only looks bad, but it’s not actually bad.”

“If you say so,” Nicky shook her head, putting aside the imagery she was imagining herself. “But surely you would know what kind of customers they were when you let them in, right? You always make sure to check every person that comes and stays here. I’d thought you could tell how sleazy they look or something.”

“Sometimes you have to make a spectacle in order to send a message,” Nina simply said. “Words alone aren’t enough. You have to show what you offer so that it sticks.”

“...Wait, are you saying you knew this was gonna happen?” Nicky raised a brow at her. Nina only offered back a small smirk in response.

“There are always bad apples in the bunch no matter what business you run. Especially a business for adventurers. You know that by heart, don’t you? 

“I know that,” Nicky replied, implying that it was obvious. “Even so, wasn’t that dangerous?”

“If I was scared of the risks, I wouldn’t have bothered making a hotel in the first place.”

“Yeah… yeah, you got me there,” Nicky waved her hand. “Only you would think about making a damn hotel with the help of an almighty being that can create whatever you can imagine. And color me surprised that you somehow managed to get teleportation under your wing and get everyone here to work in your suddenly newly born business in a freaking dungeon of all things!”

Nicky was clearly letting out some steam, to which Nina let her be. It certainly took  a lot of mental processing to go through the sort of things Nina had done. Nina was used to it, and even relished in the feeling of it.

“But isn’t it kinda risky in another way?” Nicky asked. “Even I know that making a business in the Leafair dungeon, especially something of this scale, requires jumping a lot of hoops to get it established. Going through the merchant guild, then receiving a permit, acquiring the license to even build it, and so on and so forth. You guys only left for less than a month. There’s no way you got all that done in Palestorm before you make this stuff up.”

Nina continued to watch the show, seeing it all come undone a few moments later. As the situation was cleaning itself up on the ground, Nina answered Nicky while still looking outside.

“Like I said. It’s to send a message.”

“What kind of message is that?” Nicky asked, reasonably curious.

“That no matter what rules I have to break, I do what I want,” Nina turned to Nicky, seeing her shiver as she smiled back. “And no matter who stands in my way, I get what I want. That’s the Nina Alcatrox way.”

…..

Aidan rested on his bed after the busy day he had, which included cleaning up the place under Nina’s orders after the nice patch of garden they carefully made to present the hotel was covered in sticky red blood.

Naturally, the owner of said blood was nowhere to be seen. He only had a few points of health left when the eventual dome of slaughter finished, forcing his party to pick up his near corpse and run away. After that, Nina presented herself and made it a rule that should anyone repeat what that man had done to her workers, they would suffer the same fate.

Not that anyone would dare do such a thing to their favorite server, but seeing the scattered bits of blood, followed by a massive pool of it drenching the grass, was good enough to send an image to their brains if they even thought of committing such acts. Cleaning up the blood was easy enough, as all he had to do was craft the blood away and make it disperse into the air.

After that, Aidan retreated into his room to rest for a few hours before he would launch himself out to find more customers. Some part of himself urged him to continue doing it without rest, as there could be adventurer parties out there that could die due to their own ignorance.

But another part of him refrained himself from doing exactly that. If he tried to save all the parties that foolishly entered the dungeon without proper preparation, he would never see the end of it. Not to mention that even if he saved them once, if they were so foolish enough to usher into a dungeon without prep and end up dying, he didn’t expect them to keep surviving even after leaving the hotel.

Even Nina seemed to think so as she certainly didn’t rush him to keep moving. Whether she thought he needed a rest or that the hotel was already filling up to the brim with humanity, he couldn’t really guess. Though the sheer brightness and shine of her soul over the success of her hotel was proof that she was quite happy with everything so far.

Everything was going right and dandy for the most part, so Aidan decided to take the time to actually rest and close his eyes, but not before giving one final pulse of Sense Vibrations across the area for one more check around the forest and–

He stood up on his bed, his eyes shot wide open. His heart hammered when he felt a presence that radiated powerful vibrations in return. But more than that, there was weight to them.

It was far away, but was soon closing in towards their vicinity. Did it perhaps know about the hotel’s whereabouts? Either way, he sent another scan to the location where that powerful presence was at.

The soul was unlike anything he had ever seen. It was to the point where he started to differentiate that it was not a human, or any of the races he had seen so far. He wasn’t able to see many different races as the majority of the people he met so far were humans, but this one was definitely not human.

It wasn’t a monster either, but something more profound and hard to describe. He got up from his bed and put on his cloak before reaching downstairs.

The lobby he found himself in was filled with life. Many adventurers and service workers flitted across the room, but in Aidan’s mind, they might as well be just white noise as he kept focusing on the entity approaching them. They would soon arrive at their hotel in about an hour or so, and the closer they got, the more Aidan tensed up.

Because he finally recognized bits of what that soul contained. Malicious energy. And a lot of it. A demon?

Was an actual demon right here in this realm with the other humans? Considering that no other souls were snuffed out in its vicinity, it was just casually walking over here like the many adventurers that come and go to their hotel. That only made Aidan more confused and worried as he hurried himself over to the employee’s room behind the lounge counter.

Nicky was at the front along with Bill, greeting the adventurers asking for either services or to resolve an issue. When Nicky noticed Aidan, she lifted her hand to wave.

“Hey, Aidan. You seriously went above and beyond just now, huh? Was it really necessary to go that far to–”

It was obvious she was speaking about the event, but she stopped herself when she fully saw Aidan’s expression. He wasn’t sure what he was putting on, but it was enough for the savvy Nicky to notice.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, prompting Bill beside her to turn to them. He also noticed his deepening frown, his shoulders tensing.

“Call Nina. Now, please.”

He didn’t mean to sound so curt, but regardless, Nicky nodded enthusiastically as she and Bill rushed to where Nina was at. A couple of seconds later, Aidan found himself constantly tapping his foot on the floor.

He discovered that he was making his own sense of vibrations, similar to a melody, to counter the emotions rising within him. The demonic energy became more pronounced and obvious, putting him on edge. It wasn’t the wild, feral sort of demonic energy he was used to from the demons that attacked Forontia. It was controlled, practically tamed, which only made him more nervous.

A well-controlled source of demonic energy is by far more dangerous than wild, uncontained demonic energy. While the wild aspect just scattered everywhere, trying to corrupt everything that stood in its way, something that was under strict authority would become a tangible weapon that Aidan wasn’t sure he could properly defend against. He already had a tough time before, losing his limbs in the process.

Nina quickly came out, Nicky and Bill following after her. There was a look of concentration on her face as she found Aidan.

“Aidan, what’s wrong?”

Aidan gestured with his chin. Nina followed him in response to get themselves alone and away from the others. He felt bad for leaving Nicky and Bill away, but considering how nervous he was, he didn’t want to spread it out to everyone around him. Nina, however, had to know.

“Something’s coming. Or someone,” Aidan answered.

Nina’s brows rose. “You make it sound like it’s bad. Who is it?”

“It is bad, or at least, I think so,” Aidan muttered. He closed his eyes for a moment, keeping his head straight as he answered. “I feel demonic energy coming from that someone. Powerful demonic energy.”

Her soul instantly rose in agitation in response, but her face kept neutral as she only frowned. “Are they coming here?”

“Yes, and it’s confusing me like hell. I don’t sense it killing anything around it. It’s just walking to where we are like everyone else.”

“Is it in disguise?”

“I think so,” Aidan guessed. “I’m not entirely sure. The demonic energy is distorting my senses, and I don’t think I can check it fully from a distance. I think we need to be on guard when they arrive, just in case.”

Nina kept quiet for a few seconds, stewing in her thoughts. The slightest hint of concern marred her beautiful face, but it quickly vanished before facing Aidan again.

“Make sure to stay on guard. I’ll report to the others. How strong do you think it is?”

“I’m not sure, but it feels like a demon. Whatever it is, we need to stay cautious. No matter what it does, make sure nobody does anything without my say so.”

“Alright.”

The following moments were full of hurried but careful precision. The siblings Haley and Van instantly grew cautious, each of their movements riddled with anxiety. The Wise Guys also followed suit, displaying wonderful mastery of their outward personality by keeping the hotel running as usual.

As the hour slowly passed, the door finally opened wide that got Aidan to look over, his eyes fully centered on the beings appearing.

It was a group of four individuals. They each wore black attire that reminded Aidan of the uniforms their servants were wearing, but were laced with golden threads and shimmering accessories that screamed of tasteful opulence. Out of the four, two were not human. One of them was obvious, reminding him of that wolfman beastfolk that was killed back at the Palestorm marketplace.

But instead of wild and untamed matted fur, it was a brilliantly combed white fur, styled in a certain way that made it appear almost mythical. His tail shifted slightly, showing that same splendid care on the fur as well. He looked rugged, his yellow eyes sharp and ferocious, but it was the sort that was contained under pristine gentle care hidden within the dark attire.

The other two humans were women wearing beautiful dresses, with one appearing more like a maid while the other a lady of well-renown. The maid-looking girl was shorter, and looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here where there was so much life around her. The lady stood in the front, showing no sign of nervousness. Instead, she showed up like a queen who was expected to arrive, and did so flawlessly.

The last non-human figure was the one raising Aidan’s hackles this entire time. He wore a hood over his head, resembling that of a young looking man taller than even the six foot high wolfman beside him. He wore leather armor that covered every part of his body, showing no signs of weapons on his person. Anything metal was adorned on his shoulders, forearms and forelegs, with multiple straps wrapped around his body.

But it was as if the clothing held in all the malicious dark energy that radiated off of him. Aidan wondered for a fraction of a second if the reason why it felt so compressed and controlled was due to the straps around his body, but he put that thought aside. That was just ordinary, or perhaps enchanted equipment, which did nothing to contain the aura of demonic energy radiating off of this man, or this creature.

Aidan kept himself invisible through Vanish, keeping a steady eye on the lobby while Nina and the others waited beside him. He told her that they had arrived, but quickly realized something.

For once, Nina’s face showed complete and utter shock, her spirit mirroring, or perhaps surpassing, the level of shock on her face. Following along that, a hint of dread, panic, and an overwhelming feeling of anger fumed and raged from within, which was followed by her brows furrowing, her eyes sharpening straight at them.

Or rather, at the woman standing at the front as though she owned the place.

“It can’t be…”

She muttered to herself, perhaps not realizing that Aidan was right beside her. This level of emotional imbalance surprised Aidan enough to deter him from staring at the potential threat, instead growing concern at his boss.

Then the queen-like woman turned to them, and noticed Nina’s gaze. Rather than being put off by her hardened expression, she lightly smiled and closed in towards her, her group following behind. Once they got close enough to bridge the gap, a few feet in between them, the woman started.

“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?” The woman said, her voice sweet and melodious, with a hint of sultry in her tone. It was then that Aidan recognized the similarities in her appearance.

She looked just like–

“It certainly has, dear sister.”