BXBX NOVEL Chapter 457: The Mines
Chapter 457: The Mines
"I'm sorry… what?" said Kat with a distinctly hostile edge. Though really… this was skipping ahead a bit.
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Once Kat had finished off her second slice of pizza she found herself full. Kamiko managed to finish off four easily, while her dad had a whole pizza spread across the three taking pieces from each of them before the meal was done. They didn't really share any more stories over dinner. Kat did speak about the orphanage somewhat, but she found that all very standard.
Once they'd finished eating a wave of fatigue seemed to hit both Kat and Kamiko so they retired for the night, with Kamiko also draining her energy beside Kat. Once that was done they snuggled up together and went to sleep. In the morning they skipped over breakfast completely and headed straight for the Sloth compound.
Or, as they would find, just a lone building somewhere in the Hub. It was surrounded by other buildings of course, but… they didn't seem to be specifically for Sloth. It was all high rises, and Kat was shocked at just how normal it looked. They'd been deposited in front of a five story tall building with the word "Sloth" stamped on the front in black letters. The building itself was mostly white with black tinted windows and a few balconies on the sides, one on each level.
Sharing a glance, they walked inside to find a normal receptionist desk with a living shadow sitting at it. They were pitch black, of course, with bright white eyes and a thin line for a mouth. They lacked any other distinguishing features, and Kat had no idea how she'd ever tell them apart if she found herself in a room with multiple.
The strange thing about it, was how it was sitting at the desk. It was practically plastered onto the chair, and looked like a real shadow, pressed into the chair back. It's legs ran down the front, then leaned backwards and ran down the central supporting part of the swivel chair it had claimed. The arms were stuck to the arm rest with just a short gap in the middle before switching over to the desk as its preferred surface, with a number of fingers resting on the keys.
"Greetings and welcome to Sloth building number 12314451, how may I help you today?" spoke the shadow. Its voice sounding strange, and reminding Kat, surprisingly, more of the Angel then anything else. When it spoke, it was almost like she could hear velvet. The voice was smooth, but at the same time, heavier than it should be. Their just seemed to be weight behind the demon's words, despite them being soft spoken. It was like her demonic energy was telling her one thing and her ears another.
Kat was so freaked out by the sensation that it was actually Kamiko who recovered first and answered "We're the two demons scheduled for Punishment at Sloth today"
The living shadow tapped away at its keyboard before clicking a few times on the mouse, likely bringing up some document Kat was unable to see. After a few more minutes of searching the demon evidently found what it was looking for. "Ok, I can see you both here in the system. Please head up to floor four, then turn right and knock on the fifth door you see please" said the receptionist. After a moment they added, "Oh, and the elevators are that way"
The shadow seemed to warp as suddenly their arm appeared to shudder in place before appearing on the back wall with the fingers pointing to a large doorway on the left side of the receptionist desk. Kamiko and Kat nodded, before heading towards the doorway. The elevators were easy to find, and operate so it wasn't long before they got out on the fourth floor.
Kat and Kamiko didn't really have time to share any words as the elevators were much more efficient than human ones, arriving on the ground floor instantly and taking only a few seconds to drop them off at the fourth floor. The hallway was nondescript with basic grey carpet and slightly off white walls. The doors were all a boring grey colour that made them look like many other office buildings.
They quickly found their door and knocked. A silent thirty seconds past where nobody moved, then it opened up for them. What Kat found there was a relatively normal office for a very abnormal demon.
There was a book shelf on the right just as they entered with three chairs laid out before the desk lined up and slightly angled towards the left wall so that there was plenty of space for people to walk to the main desk. That's where things got a little stranger.
The desk itself took up the entire back wall. It didn't leave any way for someone to get on the other side of it. There was space at the back of the desk, and their was a demon there, but really, only that demon could ever manage to get there.
This was because they must have been some strange cousin of a beholder. They mostly consisted of two eyes and a faint mist. The eyes were expressive, and somehow had the ability to blink despite being glowing orbs in space with nothing attached to them. The left eye was a deep green with a red iris, while the other was the opposite, bright red with a dark green iris.
The rest of the demon's 'body' if it could even be called that was a indistinct cloud of energy that seemed to switch colours continually as you looked at it, with a more solid looking energy mist heading towards the computer nearby.
"Hello, are you both here for the Punishment duty?" asked the cloud
"Yes" said Kat and Kamiko, mostly in sync.
"That's great my name is Ealvis and I'm so I'm happy to inform you that you'll be sent to the mines for your punishment" said the Sloth demon.
"I'm sorry… what?" said Kat with a distinctly hostile edge.
Kat felt her mind starting to speed up. This was everything she'd been worried about. *The other things were all so reasonable dammit. I'd forgotten this was demonic punishment. I can't believe I thought this wasn't going to be so bad. Heck, what about Kamiko. She's a sweet girl, she doesn't really deserve hard work in the mines!*
"Ah, I see your distress" said Ealvis, and Kat returned that with a look that basically said 'yes, yes you do' but somehow gave the impression of smiling. "Please don't think we're using you for hard labour, we have machines and operators for that."
"Ok…" said Kat letting the skeptisism leak into her voice. A quick glance at Kamiko showed that she was also rather confused as to what was going on.
Ealvis let out what must be a sigh, but sounded more like a small dust tornado as the air was let out of them. "Right, allow me to explain. The diggers have managed to find a Swarm Rat nest. We'd like you to clear them out."
Kat chewed on her lip, and took the chance "Why?"
Ealvis tilted slightly to one side before righting itself. "I suppose that's a valid question. See, we don't get on with Wrath so don't really want to go with them. Plus, if we did go for that, we'd also have to worry about damage to the mines. They just go at the job without worrying about the stability of the walls or other 'inconvenient things'
"Following that, none of the miners want to do it. They aren't combatants really, they got away from that life early and came to work for us as soon as they could in most cases, so they want nothing to do with it.
"Finally, this also helps us prevent theft. Because you are here on punishment, you won't be able to take any ore that you might find in the mines because you'd be breaking that Punishment contract. Not that we don't trust you necessarily, it's just another layer of defence."
*I don't really like this. I mean sure, this all seems like a completely reasonable request. Go into the mines and kill some rats but it feels iffy for some reason. Plus the whole 'not taking stuff' thing makes me wonder if it extends to the rats as well. They might have valuables or something, I guess. Still… sounds somewhat dangerous.*
"Is there anything else we need to know?" asked Kat
"A few things actually" responded Ealvis "But those will all be covered by the foreman at the site. I'm just here to make sure you can do the job. I have a list of things to send you on if you couldn't go to the mines for whatever reason."
*I wonder if those other jobs are better or worse…*