Chapter Text
It was utterly humiliating.
It was disgraceful.
He was Sir Pentious!
The Most Dastardly Inventor in all of the Pride Ring!
The Vilest Villain in Pentagram City!
Hell’s Greatest Criminal Mind!
And here he was.
Searching dead bodies in the aftermath of an Extermination to get what little material and money they might have to offer.
He gently flipped the body of the dead Sinner over and checked his pockets.
A knife, some money and the remains of a non-Carmine handgun.
“Take those and add it to the pile,” Pentious gestured at an Egg Boi.
The Egg saluted as Pentious slithered away.
——
He passed another Angelic spear.
It was tempting. Salvaging Angelic Steel would give him an edge in his business….
But he knew better.
He glanced around: a sinner ran by, a bundle of angelic weapons on her back.
One of Carmilla Carmine’s runners. The top weapon dealer in all of Hell. The Armory Overlord.
Someone who would skin him alive and use it as leg warmers if he so much as annoyed her.
Which is why he had to ignore it.
Stick to-
“Boss!”
Pentious glanced down at the Egg Boi.
“What?”
“I found a body.” The Egg Boi proudly stated, oblivious to the corpses around him.
Sir Pentious sighed.
“Yess, you idiot, we are in a killing field.”
“No Boss, this one is breathing.”
“Next time start with that! Show me…”
——
Whoever she was, she had been lucky. Most Exorcists were thorough, Sir Pentious had never heard of an Exorcist failing to finish a target.
She was badly wounded: a pair of gaping wounds on her back, and her eye had been torn out. She was unconscious.
“What do you want us to do, Boss?” An Egg Boi asked.
“Silence fool, I’m thinking.”
He could use another henchman. Someone competent. Someone who didn’t need to be told every little detail.
But he would need a soul contract for that. There was no guarantee that they would just want to work for him.
But if they owed him, it would be easier to get them to sign it with him.
But why would they owe him anything? He would have to do something…
Something like saving their life.
“You, you, you and you,” Sir Pentious pointed at several Egg Boiz.
“Pick her up gently and bring her with us. When we get back to base, clean her and tend to her wounds. No, I’ll tend to her wounds.
If we save her life, then she’ll owe it to us…”
Sir Pentious chuckled as the Egg Boiz saluted and ran off.
——-
She heard their laughter.
The last words they spoke to her.
She woke up with a start.
A dream.
It had all been a dream.
She-
Searing pain erupted from her back. More pain from her face, her eye.
The one that Lute had torn out in the dream…
No, not a dream.
It had happened.
It actually happened.
She brought her hand to her face and felt the bandage over her eye. Not the scraps of cloth she had used to cover the wound, a proper cloth bandage.
Someone had helped her.
She glanced around her surroundings:
A lavishly decorated room; a desk and chair surrounded by blueprints, metallic scraps, gears and other mechanical parts. Books piled up. Piles of gears, scrap metal, and-
“Hi there!” A small, Egg shaped creature suddenly appeared before her.
She screamed and shot to her feet. With a gesture, she-
Her legs gave way and she hit the ground.
“Yeah, you shouldn’t have done that. I’ll get the Boss!”
The Egg ran off as she looked down.
Her clothes were gone, replaced with a shapeless dress. The underwear she had on itched.
“Ah, so you have survived your ordeal,” an unfamiliar voice spoke.
She glanced up at the speaker: a grey skinned Snake-like sinner, with a cobra hood. He wore a suit jacket and undershirt, as well as a tophat. He looked smug as he moved closer.
“So, what do you ha-“
He screamed in panic as the spear appeared in her hand and she pointed it at him.
“Wait, wait! Don’t kill me, I just saved you!”
She paused and struggled to sit up, spear pointed at him.
“What?” Her voice was hoarse.
“I saved you! I found you dying in the alleyway, and I brought you here!”
She paused.
A moment later, she lowered the spear.
“What?”
“You were left behind! I found you in an alleyway, bleeding out from your wounds!”
“And we brought you to the secret base!” An Egg yelled.
“But you weren’t supposed to know that!” Another Egg yelled.
She blinked.
“What do you want?”
“Was I supposed to leave you dying in the garbage? I could have!”
“Boss said we should help you to make you his henchmen!”
“Shut up!” He hissed at the egg.
The sinner facepalmed for a moment and turned his attention back to her.
“Yes. I did save you from dying and yes, I have my motives. But….”
“But?”
“You are right to be suspicious… and you are in no condition to leave. You have my word as a gentleman that you will remain unharmed and safe, until you recover and then you can go rejoin whatever or whomever you were with.”
She paused.
“There’s nobody to go back to.”
“Oh.”
The sinner paused again.
“Well, you are welcome to stay here if you choose.”
With a gesture, the spear vanished.
“…Huh. How did you do that?” He asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Well then, let’s get you off the floor,”
He slithered over and offered her a hand.
“I am Sir Pentious. And you are?”
“Vaggie.”