Lady Awesome: Man, little bro, you got the strangest requests, but hey, whatever tickles your fantasies.

  Walter’s Fine: No, Noel! I am being serious right now!

  Lady Awesome: Dunno why you’re still so shy about it, but you know I’m always gonna be here for ya! And from what you told me of that woman… damn, she sounds like a natural! Leave this to Noel, I’ll make the perfect wingman!

  I grumbled to myself and forced a sigh down. There was just no reasoning with that woman, and I don’t think Noel’ll ever get over the fact that I didn’t have certain extreme kinks. Whatever, it was more of a headache trying to reason with her in any case, let the crazy lady think what she wants.

  It didn’t take long for Noel to show up after Claire and I made it back to our starting point. But when I said to make a dramatic entrance, I think she took that way too literally. Noel, in all her infinite wisdom, decided to swoop in in her demonic-looking flame form. That much I expected. What I didn't expect was that she had somehow gained the ability to expand her form to encompass half of the basement. She looked like some kind of vengeful god coming down from the skies to smite her foes, which was cool and all, except for the part where all of her flames were eating the literal guild building.

  Chunks of rebar and concrete started to fall off and I swore if she stayed like that any longer, the whole bloody building would fall on us. I had to use close to 800 Luck Charges to manipulate the flames so that none of the crucial bits of the building were destroyed. I couldn't keep this huge expenditure up.

  Claire and I looked at the approaching figure with disbelief but for altogether different reasons.

  Walter’s Fine: Holy shit, I know I told you to make an entrance, but don’t burn down our HQ! I think that’s one of the load-bearing beams that you’re turning into molasses! Our fucking guild HQ's about to collapse! Stop burning things!

  Lady Awesome: Oh… crap. Uh…

  Noel looked over to a segment of the wall and quickly retracted her flames. Now it was only half dissolved instead of being completely gone. I’ll have to get one of Q’s people to fix that immediately…

  Walter’s Fine: Never mind, I’ll fix it, just take her away. Go now!

  Lady Awesome: Got it! Knock her out and I'll do my thing!

  I gave a brief nod to Noel and allowed Noe to do her thing. With the Emotional Redux ability, amping Claire’s levels of lethargy to the extreme worked better than any conventional sleep aid and she passed out almost immediately. Noe’s ability should last until she's out of here, but it’ll be up to Noel to keep her occupied after. I did tell her what I needed her to do to ensure that Claire didn’t have any ideas of escape, but after seeing the idiot in action I was a little hesitant about trusting the redhead to do much of anything.

  Lady Awesome: Wow, she's passed out cold, and you didn’t even need to touch her! I’m impressed with your skills, little bro, and the lengths you would go to satisfy your needs. You’re a pro!

  Walter's Fine: Now is not the time to make remarks like that, Noel! Now please leave before you really do irreparable damage!

  Lady Awesome: Er, good point. Sorry, little bro!

  I sighed and started to contact Q's people the second Noel was out of view. The workers were not pleased to see the state of the building, to say the least, but it wasn't like they would ever voice that opinion to a Lord Arbiter in any case. Still, once the worst of the situation was contained and I was able to think clearly again, what the crazy, building-burning idiot said did make some sense. Being able to knock out anyone I wanted, coupled with my unfortunate sprouting tentacles might give people the wrong impression about my morals.

  Walter’s Fine: Remember to put her away from the men in the guild, Noel. And I don’t believe I have to ask this, but you didn’t add any strange additions to the meeting room, right?

  Lady Awesome: I thought I’d make some changes, but I heard from the boss that Yoona’s gonna be there too. *sigh* I know, I know, you wanted some more fun, but we got work to do, unfortunately.

  Walter’s Fine: Did you just… type a sigh?

  Lady Awesome: It’s not like there’s emojis on this thing. *shrug*

  Walter’s Fine: Never mind… just go. She should wake up in a few minutes. You remember what to do once I’m gone?

  Lady Awesome: Of course! You can count on Noel!

  Walter's Fine: To burn down our home?

  Lady Awesome: Uh... Gotta go, little bro! Toodles!

  Sighing, I took the exit to leave the basement the normal way after saying goodbye to Q's workers. What I told Noel was true, I was covered in grime and bits of gore from killing those creatures that Q brought over. I also had to work Noe's perception abilities to the limits since there were still some Aspirants remaining, and by the time I was done cleaning up Noel's mess, I was down to 100 Luck Charges. Wonderful. I left one final message to Q's staff before leaving the basement for good.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  The message was simple enough: purge any surviving individuals after the allotted 12 hours. The ones who didn’t escape by that time, that is to say, the ones that I couldn’t brainwash completely, needed to disappear. I hope the lesser doppelgangers didn’t mess things up too badly because some of those Aspirants did have promise.

  I decided it was best to get changed as quickly as possible - into something a little more presentable since I was meeting Claire for the “first time”, which also meant a quick trip to the store. I hadn’t noticed it yet, but my wardrobe was filled with nothing but casual wear; it’s always been the Regressor and his sister who interacted with the populace at large while I worked in the shadows, so dressing professionally had never been a concern of mine.

  All in all, it took about an hour before I could see Claire. I had kept her in one of the various empty meeting rooms and had Noel distract her to ensure that she didn’t cause any trouble while I was getting ready, and I just had to hover out of sight to see if the crazy redhead was following instructions.

  “Ugh, I know!” I heard Noel say, “Can you believe how stupid they can be? I swear, we’re the strongest guild around, but they still don’t think we’re the best option? I don’t know if everyone’s just suicidal or stupid!”

  A familiar sigh languished through the closed door. “I find that the general populace is less intelligent than first thought. Wesley, that guy I was with… he seems like he’s a little off in the IQ department. No offense to your friend.”

  “Eh, he’s more like a friend of a friend,” Noel answered, actually following the script, “I only rescued him ‘cause my little bro told me to, he’s the dude you’re meeting by the way.”

  “Thank you again, and for answering my questions. I know that it’s probably strange telling so much of your guild to a stranger.”

  “It’s fine, it’s fine. Any enemy of Ryan is a friend of the Abyss! We'll look into his activities, so we should be thanking you for the new intel!”

  “I see… and I haven’t had a chance to ask yet, but what happened to Wesley?”

  “Oh, he’s dead.”

  I frowned. That wasn’t a part of the script!

  “He… died?” I heard Claire ask, there was more confusion in her voice than concern, so I guess that told me about how she felt about my passing away.

  “Yup, I felt something wrong with his body - I have an ability that lets me see abnormalities by the way - and killed him. Turned him into goop, it's quite a horrible way to go. I think someone infected Wesley with a curse to spy on us, probably from Ryan! I mean, the only other person around was you.”

  “Ah… Yes, it must have been, uh, Ryan.”

  “But don’t you worry, with me around, no one can screw with the minds or bodies of the Abyss guild!”

  Well, I did tell Noel to unnerve and subtly put pressure on the woman, and what she just did will certainly do the trick, but did she have to kill me off that easily? Still, I should be glad for Noel’s quick thinking here. This will make Claire second guess trying to use her abilities on us unless she was absolutely desperate, and I wasn’t afraid that she’d try to retaliate against Noel. After the redhead’s entrance, Claire would have to be suicidal to try to fight her. It seems Noel’s a little more intelligent than I give her credit for, although I can’t say the same about the way she normally acts.

  Seeing no other reason to wait, I opened the door and strolled into the office. Noel eyed me quickly, and seeing that I was dressed in a neat suit, chose not to greet me in her normal manner. I could also see Claire automatically tense up when she saw me - there was no recognition in her eyes thank goodness - and weighed the idea of charming me before a quick glance at Noel made her think otherwise. Well, it didn’t matter if she did try, I had other ideas in mind if that were to happen.

  “Ah, you must be the one that Wesley told me about,” I said with a professional smile. I went up to shake her hand, which she obliged.

  “I’m Walter, one of the execs and founding members of the Abyss guild, and you have already met my peer Noel,” I gave the redhead a quick nod.

  “I apologize for the loss of your friend, Walter,” Claire said quickly, “I just heard about his, um, curse.”

  “That’s fine,” I said with that same easy smile on my face, “We weren’t particularly close; he was just someone I’ve known since the second Trial. Still, losing an old teammate is still an insult to me and my guild, and I believe that you said Ryan was involved?”

  Claire nodded and started to recount her experience in the mini-trial. To be fair to her, she was telling things without too many embellishments or inaccuracies, but of course, she chose to completely redact her abilities and private conversations with Wesley. She was more forthcoming than I thought, or maybe it was just that my perception of her was tinted because she hated my guts so much before. At least she seemed more anxious about meeting “Walter” than anything else.

  “I see…” I muttered, pretending to ponder the implications of what Claire had recounted. “I’ll bring this up with the Guild Master. And I believe that it is your wish to join our forces?”

  “Y-yes, sir, if that’s alright. You’ll find my abilities to be helpful to your cause.”

  I eyed her, letting Noe amp up her anxiety a few notches while doing so. “And what are those abilities?”

  “It’s…” she paused, finally realizing that she’d driven herself in a corner. She couldn’t say that she could charm people, what with having just lied about Ryan cursing Wesley, and she didn’t know how to bullshit her way out of this predicament.

  I saved her and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter for now. We’ll test it when all of the executives are together.”

  I saw her visible ease at the news. How she chooses to answer that next test will determine if she’ll be included as someone we can actually trust or not. Hopefully, she’ll realize that lying or misconstruing what she can do will not benefit her in any way.

  “Okay,” she whispered. It was still strange seeing the vicious woman look so meek.

  “That is because you and Noel exude a lot of pressure on normal Aspirants, my Host,” Noe decided to say, “You are not usually cognizant of this, but the special Trials that the members of Abyss have experienced have set them apart from the other humans. Without consciously masking this Aura, you naturally intimidate most people. While Claire’s abilities may be unique, and she may grow to be a force in the future, but that is not the case now. ”

  Huh, good to know. Thanks, Noe. Guess Claire’s still a small fry at the moment; I should let the Regressor know.

  “Normally,” I continued, ignoring Claire’s discomfort, “The recruitment of new members to our guild is tightly regulated, especially with the influx of new Aspirants.”

  Claire’s face visibly shrank.

  “But,” I added, “Since it was the request - no, it was the last request from my late friend, then I can bend some rules. I can put you on a probation period for now, and I won’t lie to you about what that means. We’ll be watching you. Lately, there’s been an excess of Aspirants from other guilds and organizations wishing to infiltrate our forces to harm our structure. I cannot rule that out for you yet.”

  “No, that’s fine!”

  “And I have also heard that you have someone who needs the attention of our physician?”

  “It’s…” she hesitated but shook her head, “It’s my little brother, sir. He’s sick from something that happened in the third Trial. He’s hanging on right now, but he’s suffering. Please, I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him.”

  I nodded my head. “I see… and he is not in critical condition at the moment?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Then I’ll see to it that he gets the treatment that he needs if you complete the probation.”

  “Thank you, sir!” Claire said with genuine emotion now. “Sorry to ask, but when will that be?”

  “After the election period,” I said with a smile, “If we win, then I can guarantee you our support. You’ll be helping out on that front for now, and if we see that you are genuinely trying to help, then I will personally see to it that your brother is saved. So how about it? Are you interested in helping out our guild?”

  I held out a hand; she didn’t even hesitate to shake it.

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