The Villain's Story

Chapter 984: Sacramento.

Sacramento, the former capital of the state of California, had suffered the most during the invasion of the demons. Thousands of portals had descended upon the city, allowing the demons to vastly outnumber the populace.

Unlike in other cities, the demons didn’t slaughter them all, but forced them into submission through contracts, or other means. The humans of Sacramento, under the influence of the demonic underwent many transformations, and even now, the city was home to many that most wouldn’t consider human.

Unusual mutations, even the few inhuman races on Earth thrust onto the planet by dungeon portals usually found their home in Sacramento. It was a city ruled by two things.

Strength and Money. If you were strong you enough, you could do anything. The inhabitants worshipped the saying of ‘Might is Right’.

Furthermore, if you were rich enough, you could do anything, if you can afford the price, nothing is forbidden. The city was where the Black Market originated from, and had frequent dealings with Terra Damnum, the Obelisk, and even the abyss to a certain extent.

Sacramento was considered an independent state, although it was still considered part of the World Government. It was a special city that had a unique history, after all.

When humanity was gaining the upper hand in the war against the demons, Sacramento, all of it, rebelled against the demons, swiftly executing the few demons who remained to manage it and help humanity against the forces of the abyss by trading important information and items for the right of sovereignty.

It had evolved to become a sprawling metropolis where ambition, greed, cruelty, and deceit were not considered crimes, rather currencies. If you were foolish enough to fall for a scam, you deserved it.

Ruled by powerful Demonic Humans and Mafia lords, the city has no true government. Instead, its districts are divided between crime families, demonic aristocrats, corrupt officials, and merchants who have learned that everything has a price. Assassination, extortion, smuggling, gambling, slavery, and forbidden trade flourish openly behind elegant façades.

Every street has its own rules. Every merchant has a hidden agenda. Every smiling stranger might be a con artist, informant, or assassin.

Yet the city is not simply chaotic. It is organized, extremely organized. Mafia families maintain territories, enforce contracts, collect protection money, and wage wars through assassins and hired mercenaries. Demonic Humans occupy the highest levels of society, using their power and influence to manipulate the criminal underworld from behind the scenes. Every organization within the city has a deal with each other, and they maintain the peace.

Honestly speaking, it isn’t the worst place to live in, in fact, the city is… abundant, in both population and opportunities, the average man is still the sucker in the city, but nobody who lives in Sacramento for long is average, most are dead if they are.

And the worst of the worst crimes are still outlawed, courtesy of Harrison and his iron fist. Realistically speaking, the expedition has no reason to really go there, considering people like them wouldn’t be well-received…

Alan and Amanda, two of the youngest SSS and S ranks respectively, were made to be sent here simply because Harrison wanted to send a message. The man in charge didn’t care what their ideologies and customs were, they were given the right to independence, or free reign for as long as they wanted as long as they didn’t cross the worst of lines.

Frankly speaking, Harrison couldn’t care less for the city, they were allowed to do whatever they believed in, he just needed an assurance, an assurance that Sacramento wouldn’t do the same to him as they did to the demons during the first war. He didn’t want to deal with an eyesore whilst his focus was on the main front, and so, he sent two individuals who showed a lot of potential.

Sending a newly evolved S-rank would send some waves, but it would be a little warning at best to a city ruled by a Demonic Human at the top of SSS-rank. Sending Alan Peccator, however, was a declaration.

Alan Peccator was not only the youngest SSS-rank in the history of Earth, known to be incredibly formidable with a multitude of achievements under his belt, he was also the student of not one, but two men who were known to hate demons to their core, and were the most active in the war.

He was the best student of Arken Miller, the Demon Bane, and to a certain extent, Oliver Olsfer, the War Sage. Sending him was a declaration that Harrison was hell-bent on doing if it was needed.

An old man opened the letter with his nails… or rather, devilish claws, cutting the seal perfectly as he read the contents.

I don’t care about you, about what you do, or how you do it. Your free to do as you please in your territory, but if you dare do the same shit to me as you did to the demons all those years ago, I will drop as many nukes or meteors as I want to on your city, and will make sure that your bloodlines are eradicated before we lose to the demonic onslaught.

The message was simple, and the old but somehow lively eyes belonging to the man who read it grew serious. A hint of scorn marred his wrinkled face as he burned the contents with a purple flame. A maid next to him recited the contents of the letter to the people in the room.

A total of twelve, eight of them being demonic humans, two who were beastkin, and the other two which were demons themselves listened carefully. They were all the people in charge, the lords of the city who looked at the bag of bones that opened the letter.

“Well, there you have it. That’s what the big boss said.”

A raspy voice exited his… mouth. The man wasn’t human, or at the very least, not anymore. Jyle Hikkins, the Demonic Human that had led the revolutions against the demons half a century and more ago said, easing back into his chair.

He was a lich, who had the strange habit of wearing his old skin whenever he had to meet the lords of his city, the little babies that almost always bit of more than they could chew. There was nothing beneath that old skin, no muscles, no flesh, only bone, and it was quite evident by how it… clung to them. He chuckled slightly, enjoying the feeling of terror evident in the eyes of everybody the moment they laid eyes on him.

One of the twelve, a young man that had recently risen to the place after killing the former owner of the seat, raised his hand. He was one of the few that was only a little creeped out by the sight of Jyle. Everybody turned to look at him, along with the eerie bag of bones.

“Surely he’s joking, isn’t he? Sure, he’ll do something if we do step out of lines, but he isn’t crazy enough to actually nuke the city, is he? And what was that about meteors?”

He had an odd sense of fashion, wearing a discolored suit and most importantly, a head half full of hair. Yes, one half of it was bald, while the other was full of luscious hair. It wasn’t a condition that made it like this, but simply his preference.

One of the older members of the council laughed at it, he was one of the two demons, who corrected the younger member.

“No, he’ll fucking do it. If we did rebel and did at a bad timing, you can bet he’ll nuke not only our city but the entire state, along with some of the surrounding states just to be sure.”

The older members nodded at the statement, shivering in their seats.

The younger man who posed the question scoffed.

“Is he fucking crazy? He’ll nuke a city with a population of millions just like that?”

The demon nodded, chuckling at it.

“Harrison has been at the top of the food chain for the longest time, he has every organization on a tight leash, and the loyalty of all the SSS-ranked beings currently on Earth. He’ll do it, and do you know what’s worse?

He won’t even hesitate. If he seriously believes that we would betray him, and judge us to be a nuisance to deal with along with my brothers from the abyss, he’d nuke the city and everywhere close in a heartbeat.

He doesn’t give a single fuck about a city of demonic humans and monsters, in fact, he’d be glad to do it, we just need to give him a reason.”

A few in the room perked up at this, not at the fact that the head of the Association and the leader of humanity would be willing to drop a nuke on their heads if they misbehaved, but at another part of his words.

“All of the SSS-ranked beings?”

They turned to Jyle, who chuckled creepily, the flaps of his dead skin colliding against the living skeleton underneath.