A man approached the desk of a high rise building, dressed in a suit, carrying papers. A badge for the Helmar energy group.
The man sitting behind the desk, middle aged, with a suit more expensive than an apartment.
He cocked an eyebrow, his face wrinkling. "So, any progress?"
"Well er..." The person carrying the papers sweated bullets.
"I don't think Pathos got us the right Sigils and summoning mantras..."
"What!?" He shouted. "What did the demon do!?"
"Er... It said, and I quote."
'Ah yes, rich with wit—
A poet makes finest banker.
Shall I mint you rhymes?'
"Wait... Is that a riddle? Or... A negotiation?" He asked, standing up.
"No no, sir Alvin, we looked a bit into it and-"
"Outta my way, I'll negotiate with the damn demon." He said proceeding to push the other man out of the way and walk out of the room.
"S-Sir...! You don't need to!" He followed.
"Ah don't worry" Alvin cracked his knuckles "I've got a silver tongue when it comes to negotiations. This demon won't know what hit him."
He entered one of the lab-like occult testing rooms with many masked men, covered head to toe in hazard gear, his assistant followed.
On the floor were many Sigils, one in the front was charged, glowing with energy and in its middle a demon.
A bird that appeared as if a human sized, the sharpness of an eagle, the shape of a rooster and the grace of a swan, wings of fire and orange feathers with burning eyes, its tail was long and flat like a fan.
Alvin approached and asked.
"What? You want, a position of power? I could do you better than a banker If you just give me the money." He smiled practiced, like conducting business.
The demon looked disappointed and sighed, It spoke with the voice like that of a child, melodic and soft.
"Gold? How charmingly small—
You summon stars for pocket change.
Bravo, learned one."
"What"
"What is this bird talking about?" He asked his Assistant, confused.
"Sir I was trying to tell you... We did some research and... That's Phenex, the demon of science and-"
"SCIENCE!?" He shouted.
"That damn Pathos told us it was a demon of wealth! Why did he recover the sigil of some science demon for us!?"
The demon spoke again, measured and soft.
"Phenex, bird of song…
You beg coins from singing beaks?
Clever, mortal sage."
"!?"
"Why does it talk... Like that!?" He asked, clearly getting mad now.
"Sir calm down... You didn't let me finish, it's the demon of science... and poetry."
"P-Poetry?"
"Yes sir he's been reciting haikus at us."
"..."
"Such wisdom you hold—
Summon the wrong art for wealth.
Truly… inspired choice."
"You shut up birdbrain!" He shouted pointing at the demon before sighing.
"Tch... I wanna see the other one." He sneered.
"Sir we're still making progress with that one-"
"Good, since I'm here it'll speed things up! Or we let em go if it comes to that!"
They went towards one of the other active circles in the room. Only to find one of his business associates already there, interacting with the demon.
The demon had the head of a lion and the body of a human with a strict diet of steroids and protein shakes, covered in ornate obsidian armour made of various gems and skulls, a sword was sheathed at the hilt with a bronze handle emblazoned with some strange ruby.
"Ah Byron." The man spoke to his colleague. "Didn't think you'd be visiting."
Byron, his associate was a tanned man with slick black hair and a near 7 foot tall build, almost reaching the height of the demon, dressed in a suit just slightly more expensive enough to bug Alvin.
"Ah, Cooks." Byron said, "Pleased to meet you."
"What's the occasion?" Alvin said, shaking Byron's hand firmly.
"Oh nothing, just dropped by to check on progress. Synkronos is nothing without its parts now is it?"
"That's right sir. But... Why are you really here?"
"Well see... Sir Mann wanted some proper advancements on our project regarding the conjunction and the prophecy..."
Alvin gulped, Sir Mann, the mysterious and alluring CEO of Fuzon Sykronos, the untouchable one, one of the richest men in the world yet his existence is known very lowly. But this also presented an opportunity.
That was right, this was the moment to impress the higher ups, especially someone from Fuzon Sykronos, would guarantee a promotion.
Alvin began "This is one of the demons we summoned, uhhh..."
"Sabnock." His assistant finished.
"Yeah that..."
"Interesting so what's your plan with him?" Byron inquired.
"Well you see?" Alvin began. "I did some research on demonology!"
His assistant looked disappointed.
"And...! I found out this was a demon of weapons, magic, fighting! All that good stuff! And I had finally found a solution to the greatest problem facing our kind..."
"And that is?" Byron asked.
"You know when the apocalypse happens? At the end of days, the climate destroys the environment, nuclear winter, whatever apocalypse comes from the prophecy... Well we have bunkers for that but... What about defence!? We can only hold out for so long even with weapons with the homeless savages clawing at our doors! And with no value on money... Who would protect us!?"
"I can attest, those poor people are dangerous sir." His assistant said.
"I once asked one for some change since I was a bit short and didn't wanna give anything extra, also I forgot my card in my car... Anyways when I asked the man for some money he said 'I'm broke man' and 'to show proof' he pulled out his wallet and like the gates of hell, that foul relic released upon me the rotting swarm of beelzebub!"
"..."
"Anyways." Alvin continued, pointing at the demon as if showing off a product, its nerves bulging even as it stood still.
"No money, just a good old deal of giving over the lives of others to seal a permanent contract. No way to back out. We told him to kill all the poor people when the apocalypse hits!"
"The terms were... Killing all the poor people?" Byron asked.
"Uh yes?"
"Did you give it any parameters under the limits of 'poor'? It is rather subjective..."
"Eh..." Alvin shrugged. "I think it becomes not subjective when we're millionaires, I'll ask it to calm your nerves down."
He approached the demon. "Hey, who do you consider as poor?"
The demon did not move, but only spoke in a booming voice.
"Everyone on this plane."
Alvin was taken back. "Er... Everyone? I'm a millionaire, I think I'm definitely richer to the people complaining about egg prices."
"A large fish in a small pond sees only those smaller than them. From my perspective you're no different." Sabnock spoke, his voice without emotion.
"You're...!? What's your perspective then huh!?" Alvin blurted out, losing his patience.
"From my perspective it makes no difference in the quantity of matter you have. Where I come from there is no matter; without space, all things become equally endless and immeasurable, and without time they are not not changed. You can stack your paper and gold as much as you wish; yet a lie repeated and stacked will never reach the truth, on the nature of it being a lie, it will rot, it will be gone."
"You cannot measure happiness, you cannot describe despair in numbers or economical figures, not truthfully anyways."
"You are finite, I am infinite; millions, billions, trillions, all are closer to zero than infinity, a single finite point soon to be forgotten. You are as poor as everyone else, you have nothing. So I shall keep the end of our deal as we've stated. For the lives of 7 veterans of war and the near death or deathly accident of a child I shall kill all poor people until my vessel runs its course or is killed. Only after the apocalypse hits."
"I-I-I-I-" Alvin stuttered.
"Wait... What's your definition of the apocalypse?" The assistant asked, concerned at the wording.
"By Veualiah's commands I can only say this, it is The Dark Night of the Soul, The Putrefaction; at least seconds, minutes, hours and months left until now in the sense of time ."
"W-what, how many...?" The assistant asked, confused.
"Many Indeed."
"..."
Alvin felt Byron's hand on his shoulders,. gripping just below the threshold of discomfort.
"Oh and I should inform you Mr. Mann is going to come himself to oversee the progress made... Adjustments, reducing costs, increasing efficiency, you know."
"..."
"HE'S COMING!?"
"Yup, 3 weeks. He's set that as the deadline for overseeing the current project for the R2 AI's data feeding and algorithm."
He patted his back.
"Hope to see you soon buddy." He left waving.
"..."
"Dean..." Alvin asked
"Yes sir?" The assistant, dean went up.
"Can we break off the deal with the demon?"
"No sir, as you said the contract is permanent on both ends..."
"..."
They heard a sound, a serene voice from the other side of the room.
"Poor child, grasping dirt—
Eternity laughs at gold.
Would you like a verse?"
"..."
"I'm gonna kill Pathos when he gets back..."
"You know we can't sir... There's nothing we can threaten him with..."
"..."
"What the hell is he even doing right now, didn't we tell him to specifically not directly interfere in our mission to capture the 2nd Chosen One!? He probably killed the secondary group after the primary decoy group actually managed to fool them into thinking they were the only ones!"
"Sir calm down, let's go back..." Dean started to walk him out of the room.
"I hope he hits his head and becomes a vegetable or something, he'd be more useful then!"