Demonic City Builder - Cattacomb - Chapter 103 - Compounding Dividends

The moment Shiny got those words out, a whirlwind of power stirred to life in the council chamber. So much so that the air felt thick and syrupy.

Kairon’s first middle manager was on the precipice of evolution. If he let matters sit right now, right here, it would happen. He could taste it.

But why not push his claws on the scales just a bit more? Tip the balances just a little further in their favor?

“Well…” began Kairon. “As CEO, I suppose you would be entitled to a more active reward system. Say… A one percent ownership in the company.” Like throwing a fishing line in the pond, he let the bait splash out and sit.

Shiny breathed in, bringing motes of green and golden lights only Kairon could see to his mouth. Staring at his master with those big eyes, he tasted the percent offered.

Based on the expression he made, the little monster not only liked the taste.

He wanted more.

“Not enough, master. Not. Enough.” The broodful energy collected, this time visible to the entire room.

Nod yelped as he fell back from his chair, Veron squeaked and covered his head with his golden arms, and the other imps all stared in disbelief.

“How about two percent then?” asked Kairon.

“Two? Master, master, master.” Shiny breathed out slowly. “Two percent is for… Bargain. This not bargain. This deal. Deal of lifetime. For you.”

After a moment of hesitation, Kairon made his next counter-offer. “How about three percent then?”

He wasn’t truly that against giving Shiny more ownership. He was more interested in seeing how it impacted the evolution and the process.

“Three?” asked Shiny. “Three?!” Shaking his claws, he tilted his head back and chuckled. “No, master. No. You want me CEO? You want the brood to run? Then more… Much more.”

The sounds of the brood were louder than the drums of war called upon by the forge calling now. Nod had his claws clamped over his ears, The Twins were huddled together in the corner barely able to keep the pact witnessed, and Bean wasn’t smiling anymore. His curious eyes now displayed a glint of something Kairon hadn’t seen in a while from his most eager demon.

Fear.

“How much, Shiny?” asked Kairon slowly.

“Well, now that ask… Add a zero.”

“That’s a big ask… You understand that with more ownership comes more expectations?” asked Kairon slowly. “And what you’re proposing is an exponential increase in that equation. If I give you this, I expect a return, Shiny. A return on my investment.”

Shiny only stared at him, unflinching. “Add the zero.”

“Very well.” Then, letting the sourceful power stir in his body, Kairon willed it to be. “I offer Shiny the position of CEO, with a thirty percent ownership stake in the new LLC.”

The room shook, and golden lines of power blazed, once again altering the pact that was now floating across the table.

Shiny climbed atop it, breathing in greedily as strings of multicolored power flooded into his body. The scent of acidic fluids and gases filled the room, and verdant tinted steam began wafting up from the stone in the flooring.

“What is happening?!” shouted Veron. “Kairon!”

No one answered the golem, however.

Shiny’s body began to float, the powers of brood coating him in a sheen of emerald. Green lightning arched up and down his back, and the pact floating above the table shivered.

“Twin One! Twin Two! Come! I need you to focus!” said Kairon urgently to the pact brothers. He waved wildly, getting their attention. He was just about to forcefully issue a command with Sovereign Eye when they finally broke through the trance, the duo gathering their courage and stepping forward.

“Y-Yes! We here!” said Twin One.

“No problem!” agreed Twin Two.

They lifted their arms and let their blue lines of pact energy resound, the connection remaining strong.

Meanwhile, Shiny was trying to feast upon all the new power and corruption encapsulating his runtish body. Beam after beam of it began to fold into him.

“Master!” shouted Shiny. His jaw was tight, and blazing pupils dilated. “I want more! Give more! You say partner? Partner with Sythara? Partner with Veron? Now… Partner with Shiny! I want… Fifty percent!”

Above Shiny’s head, a hazy picture of an emerald maw began to form. It was larger than Veron, with teeth that radiated pure hunger.

As for Shiny’s demand?

Kairon knew it was ambitious. Too ambitious, really. The city lord couldn’t have that. For his plans to come to fruition, he needed to maintain a controlling stake in the company or this would all be hardly more than a glorified science experiment.

A fruitful, fascinating, and very entertaining science experiment. But a science experiment nonetheless.

Yet, Shiny had made a new demand. At this stage, he couldn’t shut him down.

He needed to counter.

“Forty percent, Shiny. For all you’ve done, and all I am investing in you to do, I can make it forty percent.”

Green energy pulsating and his tiny body now floating across the room like gravity meant nothing, he shook his head. “Fifty percent.”

Only this time, it wasn’t Shiny that spoke. It was the enormous maw above him. It boomed through the room, echoing off the stone.

“Forty-five,” said Kairon.

Shiny smirked, his red claws and skin beginning to morph and shine brighter and brighter. “Forty-nine and an ask.”

“Depends. What would you ask, Shiny?”

The little imp’s smirk turned into a widespread, devilish grin. Over his head, the great maw of brood seemed to do the same.

“What I tell Bean. You see, master. Brood only strong together. Not alone.” Breathing in sharply, the imp lifted both claws. “All future changes. All future demands. All future revisions to rule. If concern brood, brood must have say.”

Kairon wasn’t sure about this one. “Shiny… What you’re referring to is frowned upon in most corners of the entire galaxy. Are you seriously suggesting what I think you are?”

Then, Shiny said a word Kairon never would have mentioned. Not in his wildest dreams. Yet, he must have, for how else could Shiny have learned it?

“You mean like… Union?”

Drawing back, Kairon hissed. He nearly refused outright. Only, he considered why.

Why would he refuse his most trusted middle manager the control of having a say in his brethren’s futures?

He needed to decide right now and here if he was ready to trust Shiny. Not just as an investment, not just as a middle manager, but as his favorite little imp.

One of the original ten, and if he could help it, one of the last to remain standing on this world he was transported to.

When he really thought about it like that, the price wasn’t so steep anymore. It was just a bigger investment.

Besides, the bigger the investment, the larger the payout. And if his gut was right, this one included dividends.

“Alright, Shiny. Alright. I agree. Forty-nine percent, and the formation of The Brood Unionization under your leadership. Officially. All changes to brood social norms and requirements within the city will be discussed with brood union representation. While I reserve right of ultimate veto, I will see to it that this is not a role just in name, but in true form. You have my word.”

A spherical cone of neon green corruption blasted outwards from the center of the table, right where the pact was lighting up like a miniature comet.

Bean slammed backfirst into the wall, the Twins were sent scattering, and Kairon felt a sharp pain in his rear as he hit the floor hard.

Veron roared something, but whatever it was got drowned out by the tear in reality above the table itself. A new presence peeked inside, taking in the scene. A void of never ending darkness that seemed to writhe and pool, sucking in reality itself to its depths.

A pillar of power erupted from floor to ceiling, the midair form of Shiny’s greedy eyes and oversized ethereal maw at its center.

Time seemed to freeze, as a judgement took place.

The plane saw what should be a brood imp. An imp that it made not months ago, given in haste to a city lord in a contested realm that was never meant to survive.

But instead of a little worker imp, it found a ravenous being that demanded everything up to the final percent of it.

A CEO, true and true.

Shiny’s body shifted. His red skin darkened more and more, then changed pitch. It went from crimson, to brown, to verdant. By the time it was done, Shiny had become the first brood creature in the city to wear its rightful color.

Green.

Out of nowhere, a tailor-made infernal suit of soft velvet fit with a little tie covered the naked imp patch by patch until only his claws, neck, and feet remained unmarred. On his chest, a blazing circle of green energy was carved, burning away the newly made fabric and leaving a hole to the skin.

Then, four more such circles were made on Shiny’s chest. Orange, blue, purple, red.

The aspects.

After they were made, each went dim. Only the central broodful one stayed green.

Shiny’s features morphed. The childish, impish ones melded into a sharper, sleeker, more defined structure.

By the time it was finalizing, the imp that remained was nearly unrecognizable.

Nearly.

A part of Shiny still remained. When you looked hard enough, it was there. Buried under the new monster this world had given birth to.

Faintly, a sense of approval echoed through the world. Then, without warning, the rend in reality closed and The Plane witnessed no longer.

Pact complete with Shiny The Devouring Dividend.

Vorathrex was outside the city training the wrath imps when it happened. For the third time, the fledgling had skipped the newborn phase and given birth to a demon that should not be.

In his mindscape, he watched as the pillar of gold and surrounding planets gained a new friend.

Only, unlike the three existing planets—one of purple, one of red, and one a mixed halo of green and orange—something more akin to an ethereal green black hole was created. Focusing on it seemed to suck in all the nearby stars and specks, before throwing Vorathrex straight from his own internal senses.

Despite himself, he felt a bead of sweat roll down his spine.

As he listened to the drilling imps, clambering of claws, and drilling of the wrath, he found it very difficult to pay it much heed.

Instead, he found himself far more concerned with his nest.

Not in fear, but anticipation.

Yes, said the voice inside. The one of reason and schemes.

We’ve chosen quite the nest to take root in, haven’t we?

“Yes. Yes, we have,” echoed Vorathrex aloud.

For better or for worse, he’d chosen his side in what was to come.

The Demonic Plane - Domain of The Vaunt

“Witnessing!” said the pact imp on duty. “Book of names!”

A leather-bound book opened, pages flipping and flipping. With a violent green light, a new name was written. Each letter flowed from one to the next, until all were a connected line of blood and script.

‘Shiny The Devouring Dividend — Rank 1’

The little robed imp stared down, snatching the quill from the cup and copying down on the nearby parchment.

Then, he turned to the dictionary of traits, and made another tally. “Ninety-fourth devouring.” Each time a demon was named, the pact imps of The Vaunt were to keep track of what words they were titled with. Devouring was a pretty common one.

Flipping a bit further, he searched for ‘Dividend.’

Now that word was not. The imp could tell even without looking. Just the sound of the word itself was odd. One the pact imp had never heard of before. But he searched nonetheless.

Yet, when he got to the spot it ought to be at, there was no trace of it.

Brow scrunching, he began to double check. Then triple checked.

No matter how many times he went through those lines, the truth didn’t change. This was a new name.

“Oh shit.”