Beneath The Surface

Final Act 53 - The true finale

Normal text
Thinking
Onomatopoeia

Astaroth's POV
"Thank you very much for your time. We look forward to working with you in the future. Have a great day!"

Astaroth ignored the disingenuous pleasantries and walked out of the bank. She glanced at the worthless black card in her hand. Instead of preparing for the dreaded war in no man's land, she's over here, liquefying every asset in her name. All the wealth accumulated over the years of investing in hextech, the riches confiscated from aristocrats who evaded tax and the dirty money seized from drug lords. Everything. Converted to cold hard cash and transferred to a joint account. Astaroth had set it up during their vacation in Valoran City. So as to facilitate the others to spend her money like water. Because it got annoying very quickly when Kali's constantly pestering her to buy something as small as ice cream. Fortunately, it came in handy to syphon every one of her assets away from grubby hands.

She knew her assets might be frozen the moment she showed her fangs. So despite having a bleeding stomach and a busted hand, Astaroth immediately transferred out her capital from Piltover. Once it's out of reach from the authorities, everything was sold off. If she was destined to die, she'd make sure not a single cent fell into the pockets of those revolting scums. Besides, it's easy for her to die but what about her people? They can't possibly survive off air and water, can they? They need money to continue living like kings and queens. And that's where the sheer wealth she amassed during her heyday comes in. See? She's being useful again.

Walking to a deserted alleyway, Astaroth took off the contacts hiding her permanently ruined eyes and riftwalked back to her colony. The moment she stepped foot outside of her alternate dimension, her ears were immediately blasted by shrieks and wails. They even echoed infinitely in her mind. Curse the hive mind. Hordes of mutated rejects gathered in masses. The plains they're in had been completely sucked dry. Used to provide for the voracious Void-constructs. But even that wasn't enough. There were pockets of scuffles amongst her army. Voidlings going at each other, chomping and gnawing like rabid mutts. They were undeniably starving. Hungry for organic food. In the game of capture the flag with Bel'Veth, Astaroth was losing terribly. Because the empress had no qualms with killing off everyone to fund her regime. Unlike Astaroth. She's only doing the bare minimum to contest with the power-hungry stingray. Starve it of living essence. However, she wasn't entirely committed to sinking the whole of Runeterra. There were certain hotspots she couldn't bear to touch. And as a result, her army was growing desperate.

For one, she avoided Kali's homeland, even though Astaroth personally didn't have good feelings for a certain motherfucker who stole the ninja away. Neither did she touch her dream city. She mostly took potshots at Noxus. The hateful empire. Thankfully, being the bad guy gave her a valid excuse to sink that godforsaken region. However, even this wasn't sufficient. She needs more life essence. Honestly, she could have just targeted the progressive city. That's a large congregation of livestock to support her sovereignty. Just devouring it would be enough to power her army for all eternity. But a certain sheriff duo made her hesitate. That silly Caitlyn who's trying her best to fix the corrupted and heartless nature of the gloomy city. Astaroth didn't want to demolish her house of sticks. She mustn't hurt the people who have helped her. That would be ungrateful. The true evil.

From the corner of her eyes, she observed a couple stray remoras hanging in the outskirts of her colony. Bel'Veth's watching her. It has been suspicious of her ever since she suggested a temporary alliance. And the doubts haven't lessened even after her spectacular betrayal. That stingray's way too cautious.

Tch.

She flicked a stream of bluish hellfire towards them, cooking the piranhas alive. She doesn't need more stalkers in her life. A cockroach and a fish ball were enough of a handful already.