Supremacy Games

1429 The Negativity Fuelers.

"Please."

The Maid gestured with her hand politely the moment they had arrived in front of a closed-shut red wooden door...Then, she took her leave.

Knock Knock!

Boss Alves knocked twice and opened the door gently before asking for permission. "May I come in?"

"Enter."

Boss Alves went forward and closed the door behind him. He looked in front and greeted, "I am grateful for the invitation, Duke."

Duke Humphrey made an acknowledgment noise as he sat at his desk, his tall, imposing figure silhouetted against the vast window that framed the skyline of Astralis city.

With his back to the entrance, he seemed engrossed in the world outside, his silver-streaked hair catching the room's ambient light.

The meticulous arrangement of his office, from the aged tomes to the ornate artifacts, reflected a man of order and discipline.

Yet, there was an air of contemplation about him, as if the weight of the city's matters pressed heavily on his shoulders.

With how Karra described her abuse, no one would ever paint the image of a villain capable of such a heinous crime on this dignified elder.

"Sit." He ordered, turning his chair slowly to face Boss Alves.

Boss Alves sat down in front of him and remained silent, his heartbeats increasing in speed, but his expression remained unfazed.

"First, how are you treating my previous servant's dilemma? Is she on the streets?" Duke Humphry asked.

"As I have told you before, I have already blacklisted her master, which made her stay on the streets for a couple of weeks." Boss Alves shook his head, "Unfortunately, my plan was foiled with that Lunatic detective Sanae's intervention. She has hired the boy and allowed him to stay in her place with his servants."

"In conclusion, she isn't on the street and nowhere near getting kicked out, correct?" Duke Humphrey narrowed his eyes.

It was like he didn't care about the excuses brought out by Boss Alves and was more interested in only the results.

"Not yet, not yet, I am handling it at the moment, investing the best of my people." Boss Alves replied, his pupils thinning in distress.

"You should work even harder on it, this issue involves you as much as it involves me." Duke Humphrey disclosed.

"What do you mean?" Boss Alves suddenly felt a chill course on his spine after asking the question, already knowing that the answer was bound to ruin his night.

He wasn't wrong in his assumption...

"That little one was one of the first subjects turned into a Negativaty Fueler. She had seen too much and knows too much." Duke Humphrey said calmly.

'Negativity Fueler! No wonder he is attempting to kick her out of the plane!' Boss Alves sucked a deep breath in shock.

He always knew that it was weird for Duke Humphrey to focus on a little servant this hard, but he didn't expect the reason to be this damning.

"But that's impossible! Negativity Fuelers never survive the process and always end up wishing to be kicked out of the plane!" Boss Alves expressed.

He was certain about this since he had overseen a negative energy harvesting process.

His memory was still vivid to this day.

***

Three Decades Ago...

Boss Alves stood atop a raised platform, overlooking the dimly lit, vast chamber below.

Rows upon rows of Negativity Fuelers were bound, their once vibrant auras now dulled to a shadowy gray.

Mechanisms and contraptions surrounded each spirit, with thin tendrils drawing out wisps of dark, smoky energy from their beings.

The process was not a silent one; the chamber echoed with the harrowing cries and wails of these spirits as they underwent unbearable pain and torment.

Some were physically restrained, while others seemed to be trapped in horrific mental simulations, their expressions reflecting their unspeakable traumas.

'What in the horror is this...'

Boss Alves's entire body shivered in fear and doubt as he continued hearing those harrowing wails, making him feel like his entire body was thrown into a freezer.

"You wanted to know where we get our negative energy to create fallen specters, this is how." Duke Humphrey was standing next to him, his hands held behind his back.

His visage was as stern and unmoving as ever like the pitiful screams of the spirits below meant nothing to him.

"But, but, those are your own servants...How can..."

"How can I?" Duke Humphrey eyed him weirdly, "Am I doing anything wrong? I have given them a written contract explaining clearly that their stay under me wasn't going to be a pleasant experience in the slightest and law enforcers wouldn't be involved. Yet, more and more servants keep flocking to be accepted by me."

"It's not my fault that their greed for Lumus outweighed their sense of risk."

'How can he say this with a straight face, he is a madman...He is actually a madman!'

Boss Alves' thoughts were condemning Duke's reasoning, but on the exterior, he was nodding his head in agreement.

He understood that those poor servants believed that the moment they work under an Ethereal Elder, their lives would be set and they could even become golden spirits in the future with his assistance.

As for the dangers? All of them were willing to suffer some pain under him, thinking that it would be all worth it in the end.

But none of them would have dared to apply to work under him if they had any idea that his notion of unpleasant experience meant direct torture!

All of them assumed that it would be surviving some of his angry rants or beatdowns, something many servants were already used to it under the hands of other masters.

But not this...Not this at all.

"I WANNA DIE!! I WANNA DIE!!"

Suddenly, Boss Alves' attention was drawn to a nearby spirit in one of the glass chambers, screaming at the top of his lung while banging on the glass with skinless bloodied hands.

His entire skin was gone, exposing his flesh to the outside and this wasn't all. He had many thick needles pricking him nonstop directly in his never endings...

"AAAA!!! EXPELL ME!! EXPELL ME!! EXPELL MEEEEEE!!!"

Alves watched with a cold expression, but the depth of his eyes couldn't hide the emotional turmoil he was going through.

"Damn it, looks like we will be losing another one." Duke Humphrey sighed in disappointment.

"What do you me..."

Before he could finish his question, Boss Alves was shocked at the spirit's light flickering weakly before they went completely dark.

Then, a swirling vortex of energy formed beneath it, creating a vacuum that tugged at the spirit, pulling it down.

The onlookers, including other spirits under the torture, witnessed with a mix of terror and despair as one of their own getting dragged into the swirling vortex, his feeble cries echoing throughout the chamber before being consumed by the portal.

With a final flash of light, the portal sealed, leaving behind a void where the spirit once was.

The skinless spirit was no longer a part of the heavenly plane, expelled and cast away into the vast unknowns of the spirit realm, banished to become a mindless wandering spirit yet again...

"What did just happen..." Boss Alves muttered, his stunned eyes refraining from blinking even once.

"This is a phenomenon I have discovered." Duke Humphrey clarified with a impartial tone, "When a spirit goes through a literal hell of pain and he couldn't survive it. If his will was strong enough to desire death, the heavenly plane automatically fulfills his wish and banishes him."

"..." Boss Alves found no words to use after hearing his statement.

All he could think of was, 'All spirits fear the expulsion from the heavenly plane more than they fear Lord Hades...For him to wish such fate on himself, what kind of hell, what kind of sicking agony he was going through?'

Boss ALves's heart turned icer and icer as he turned to stare at Duke Humphrey from the side.

'Most importantly, what kind of diabolical monster does this to others after already reaching the peak of authority in the heavenly plane? Is he doing this for fun?'