The Bounty Hunter

Chapter 82: The Next Step in the Plan

July 20th, 2089

Dantes POV

In a lovely castle in Denmark situated on the coast of the North Sea, I was casually sitting upon a throne of bones.  These bones were generously donated by the previous owners of this castle and drastically helped improve the feng shui.  All 666 demons of Pandemonium were kneeled before me, a delightful smorgasbord of horns, tentacles, talons and other ghastly appendages.  My eyes, however, were focused on my 6 chosen lieutenants.  These 6 were the ones I had to beat down early on to bring the gang together and they were naturally the strongest after me.

Cerberus, the three-headed dog, was currently possessing the body of a human since he would be way too large to fit in here otherwise.  Standing at 4-stories tall, he is the largest demon in Pandemonium.  He looks like a gigantic pure black Rottweiler, if you ignore the fact he has 3 heads and a creepy tail.  Hes a dumb dog, but he is obedient.  Sparky, a storm demon, was a humanoid being of crackling lightning wearing dark grey clouds like a trench coat.  He stands at about 7 feet tall with 3 long, slender fingers per hand.  He is the definition of hyperactive. 

Susan, a classic yuki-onna, was looking smoking hot in her rather revealing pseudo-kimono.  Her skin was as white as snow and her silvery-blue hair that nearly touches the floor reminds one of ice.  Her eyes matched her hair and even her voice was cold and monotonous.  Unlike what one would expect, she has an extremely volatile and fiery personality.  Although she can only talk in a monotone voice, making it kind of hard to take notice when shes getting angry.  Which then results in severe frostbite as she is forced to resort to violence to communicate her wrath.

Ibaraki-doji, the one-armed oni, looked imposing as he towered over the others.  Standing at a good 2-stories, if he were any larger he too would have to possess a human to fit in here.  Fortunately, this property has high-vaulted ceilings.  Then theres Jumbo, a fat little imp that looks like a cross between a bat and an obese goblin.  His skin is an off-putting shade of mauve and his slanted gray eyes reveal creepy square-shaped pupils.  Hes the weakest of the group but by far the most conniving.  And lastly there was Mannequin, a faceless doll that looks exactly like her namesake.  She was a dream demoness that had been particularly defiant, forcing me to nearly eradicate her before she submitted.  The damage was so great she had to possess a nearby mannequin to survive.  Shell recover enough to take her corporeal form again eventually.  And it is one hell of a corporeal form, Im getting a hard-on just thinking about it.

Anyways, we had a grand entrance and made quite the splash on the global stage, but its nowhere near close enough to what I want.  While I and my strongest demons were occupying the nearby military base, I had sent the low-level demons to possess random members of the Sao Paulo populace.  They took guns, knives and other assorted weaponry and proceeded to kill as many people as they could before help from a different military base arrived.  I sent Mannequin along with them to target and exterminate the various firefighting stations in the city.  Then, right before we all pulled out, I had my minions set fires throughout the city.

It took ages for the off-duty firefighters to organize and by the time they did and military help arrived, there was a massive amount of damage done.  There were also quite a few additional deaths due to the fire.  Most importantly was the fact that Pandemonium suffered no casualties.  This is of paramount importance since there arent any additional demons with which we can replenish our ranks.  That mana calamity and the enormous negative emotions that gave birth to all of us was a one-off deal.  There isnt enough free mana for a natural occurring birth of a demon to occur in the world.  I have to be careful not to be wasteful with even the weakest of my minions for now at least. 

Eventually we will be able to control enough human pawns to make my lesser kin who can barely even possess someone unnecessary.  Ive already sent out some recruiting promotions to try and attract all the sociopaths, psychos and other degenerates of society.  I have no qualms about busting some promising recruits out of prison if they are willing to join.  I also plan on making friends in low places and leveraging their own influence and lackeys to my advantage.  A well-placed possession by a minion can result in me taking over an entire criminal enterprise without much effort.  I could also use remote possession to acquire additional volunteers, but the more possessions I have ongoing the less magic I can access at the same time.  Ill save that for only when its necessary.

To better improve our burgeoning infamy, select minions were filming the whole city assault and I personally edited the footage for the greatest impact (and to make sure no hints of the supernatural were there) before posting online.  And to my great surprise, Pandemonium visits San Pauolo fucking got only the second most views this month.  We were like 2 million views behind Mr. Tinkles takes a Nap.  A damn fucking cat ruined my efforts to gain notoriety!!!  I had to fucking track down and force a hacker to set up our site and to post our video without it being removed and that effort was for fucking second place?!?!  FUCK!!!!!  Thankfully, our most recently posted video named Mr. Tinkles, his Owner and their Family take a Dirt Nap after 3 Hours of Torture looks to be on pace to break the internet, so I should calm down.

Other than those two videos, however, Pandemonium has been quiet.  I wanted to observe how the world reacts before starting to plan our moves for the next few months.  Apart from a variety of denouncements of our actions and the Brazilian government vowing to track us down, nothing has happened.  We are also officially on the Council of Nines list of significant terror threats, which is almost unheard of for such a new group like ourselves.  But considering we had just conducted the worst terror attack in history with a total of over 100,000 people dead (that fire racked up the death toll, LOL) its understandable. 

The reactions were all as expected, so it is now time to get things into motion and to do what leaders do best:  delegate.  Jumbo, take 87 demons and go to the Central African Confederacy.  You already know the list of targets.  Do not act until I tell you to.  Sure thing, boss.  Jumbo croaked out like a frog before flying away. 

Cerberus, take 113 demons and head to Germany.  Youll be the first to move so be ready.  Cerberus barked an affirmative and left. Mannequin, your assignment is North America.  Take 100 demons and set up like the others.  Mannequin nodded before silently vanishing.  Susan and Sparky, I want you both in China along with 306 demons.  Follow my directions there to the letter.  Our operations there will have priority for the foreseeable future. 

The two also left, leaving Ibaraki-doji, myself and only 60 demons remaining.  Ibaraki-doji, go build the set for the show.  I want to film the first episode now.  AS YOU COMMAND MY LORD!!!!!!!!  Ibaraki-dojis overenthusiastic roar literally blew me off my throne.  I forgot that this guy can only speak in ALL CAPS!  Oi, take it down a few notches!  This isnt a fuckin spirit competition!!  You do not get bonus points for enthusiasm! A suitably chastised Ibaraki-doji left to set things up as I sat back on my throne and continued my pondering.  Its times like these where I wish I had a goatee I could stroke in contemplation.

I plan to make Pandemonium strong enough to openly challenge the Council of Nine.  They are the key peace-keepers in this world.  It is due to their recent efforts that no wars have started these past five years.  In other words, they are a major buzz kill.  As long as that organization has a unified front it will be difficult to start an inferno of fun. 

Luckily, the members have a large amount of animosity towards one another.  I just need to undermine the Councils authority amongst the non-member nations, get them to suspect one another of ulterior motives and then toss one betrayal into that mess to create my desired inferno.  There is already so much kindling from past grievances and oppression, all it needs is one little spark to start burning.

Fufufu, I cant help it.  Thinking about my evil plot in my ominous castle makes me want to do a maniacal laugh.  MWHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!  Ahhh, that was refreshing.  I idly unrolled a map as I tried to decide on where I wanted to take my personal troops.  A month of minimal violence has made me kind of jumpy, like a junkie who hasnt had their fix for a while.  I will hold off for a little bit longer until things start rolling for Pandemonium, but then I can really let loose.  And I know just the place for it.