BadBoyHalo: The 808th Demon

-Chapter 15- A Further Insight

Jef's thudding could be easily heard in the echoey corridors of the Shrine. He sprang into the throne room, performing several perfect cartwheels before scurrying up to his Abyssian client.

"So you haven't found it yet, I assume," 807 huffed, picking off random pieces of mildew (it was quite a problem there).

"Not yet, but I will! Don't you worry!"

"What makes you think I ever worry?"

To this Jef gave a caustic chortle before bouncing around the room again. 807 only sat back and stared at his pathetic gown. Stupid piece of garbage; oh how he deserved better. As if that wasn't already a blow to his ego, now the only person he had to solve this whole mess was a hunk-dory jolly rancher on crack. And that isn't even figure of speech— as he soon was reminded when Jef came bounding over to him, grinning wildly.

"C'mon, you know what you owe me for my work," he jeered, holding out his grubby hand.

"You're a leech," 807 snarled, reaching for a small packet of... DreamXD knows what. Charred and crinkled on the outside, gooey on the inside. What wasn't covered in burns was speckled with mauve, ruddy globs oozing off into his hand. I could go into a downward spiral trying to explain to you what such a horrid thing was like to see and touch, let alone even dare to eat it. All you really need to know is that it smelled strongly similar to motor oil and peanuts. He flung it at him, wiping the residue on the arm of his chair. Jef took it gladly, sinking into it like a rabid animal. And it only went downhill from there.

807 had never seen a spirit go that berserk. He shook violently in place, drooling uncontrollably. Whatever fantasy he was living in had to have been good, because he wouldn't stop pawing at the air and chanting "Fun fun fun fun..." in a gushing manner. It wasn't even all too bad until the kid started lumbering his way to 807. He sank into his seat, desperately dodging the vines, but of course it didn't help any. Jef planted himself right in his lap, and reached for his ear.

"So floppy..." he batted at it slowly.

"Get off!" 807 yanked his hand away, only to be met with more of his stupid vines feeling around his face. He spat more curses as he tried harder and harder to break free. But all attempts ended in getting even more entangled. Jef was in complete euphoria, and the tired demon was not a fan of it.

As if right on cue, a single, croaked "Ahem!" rang through the throne room.

807 grabbed Jef's shoulder and knees and practically slammed him onto the floor. He responded to the Elders with a forced cough, smoothening out his robe and straightening his crown.

"Yes, what is it?"

"I have more questions than I did previously," 612 jittered, etching into his tablet.

"So what exactly is your plan?" groaned the head Elder.

"I see no point in explaining if your eyes are doubtful."

"Your Twistedness, the people, they are beginning to gray!" he growled. "You better prove you know what you are doing. And this friend of yours..." Jef toddled over to the band of old demons. "Is this who you are putting your trust in to aid you?"

"Do not mudsling the potential he carries," 807 whipped back, gripping on of the vines to send a small shock. Jef recoiled and retuned to the right of his throne, still slightly out of it, but sobering up quickly. "I heard he used a fellow spirit to track the possible whereabouts of what I am looking for. I'd say that's pretty smart if you were to ask me. Right, Jef?"

"That mineral-faced doppelgänger didn't stand a chance..." he drifted airily. "Fun fun fun fun..."

The Elders only stared blankly, slowly swaying their heads back and forth, a common habit among them when they think deeply. 612 looked the most fearful, frantically engraving his tablet of the laments that play in his head. The silence never felt so loud, so intense; but then the head Elder began to walk. Each clack of his talons seemed to become more and more deafening to the White Menace as he approached closer, approached higher.

"We have our eyes on you." His words were his rearing rod. Warnings are much more terrifying than the punishment always seems to be. "Abbysians' lives are in your hands. Do you realize that? For perspective, some are beginning to look like you. They are dying, Your Highness. They need souls." He leaned down, white eyes on black. "If you dare even make an iota of a mistake, I will personally kill you and your brother."

"If you say so," he leaned back confidently in his seat. "How much of a loon would you have to be to think that I would stoop down so low as to betray my own world! I would never."

At the time he meant that. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

"Good." the head Elder stood upright and rejoined the others. They had parted without another word spoken, for the doors creaked a shallow goodbye for them. 807 glanced back at Jef, who had fallen asleep and turned into his spirit form. "What a joke," he thought. "If only I didn't have a time limit. Do they not know that this takes time? I am the first demon to do what I am about to, and they don't put any trust in me!" He slammed his fist onto the arm, and sent a wave of light illuminating the entire room. It channeled through the cracks and crevices of each stone, and what revealed sent him aback.

It was a mystery how he never saw if before, and wondered if anyone else had. He couldn't make much of what it was supposed to be, but it inspired him of a goal he didn't even set. It was a picture he thought he should remember, whatever it meant. The light was redirected by the strange carvings and condensed into a single point right above him, and it fell into a droplet on his head. It felt heavy and full of power. Interesting. But what did it mean?

What did it mean.