[Heromux] Well of Souls Part 1 - Cutscene - Too Long Didn't Read

The acolyte walked around in circles round the ancient chamber. He sounded the gong that had been sounded a thousand times before. Everyone in the Hall knew what it meant....a petitioner was coming. Someone sought to enter the doorway between worlds, through the back channels known only to those informed of the hall's purpose; to realms beyond the world....

*******

 Kilroy sat in his study, meditating, adding notes to the files as he found them. He had learned of Mammon's little ring of children, and human or demon, he was determined to bring it down. The demon would suffer. There was a smell of brimstone in the air.

"Learning about some of my exploits I see?"

Kilroy looked up and saw the demon Mammon, compound eyes set in golden flesh. His appearance seemed to change every time he looked, but this one was relatively neutral with bat wings and a muscled nine foot tall appearance. The only thing that set him aside from the stereotype was the way the gold dripped from his flesh.

"We have nothing to talk about Mammon, go away."

*******

 The subway was empty except for the three individuals who couldn't get out of this shift. It was the hour of vampires and ghosts, but right now they just sipped their coffee and wanted to go home. As the car sped out of the city, the lights flickered on, then off, and then on again.

Suddenly, the car was not empty. The place smelled of human sweat and fear, and row upon row of human cattle, all dressed in a bright orange, a blood orange jump suit, male and female with numbers placed on their forehead and wrist in as many different languages as there were people sat, and wept and pounded against the glass...

*******
  "You are causing suffering." Mammon leaned its body against Kilroy's wall, leaving golden slime. He moved himself up and down like a bear scratching his body against a large tree. "Untold amounts of suffering."

"I want nothing to do with you." Kilroy kept writing and entering numbers into his computer.

"Your father found our arrangement quite beneficial. There are things your powers can't give you. Things your father found quite...handy."

Kilroy took a large document out from underneath the table, papyrus, musty and bound with twine, "Yes. I know. I read the contract. I'm still not interested."

"I do not understand you?!" The Demon's eyes glared red as it stopped scratching and moved across the room in the blink of an eye, shaking Kilroy on the couch, "You call yourself a hero and yet you let-"

"I call myself nothing of the kind. I do what my grandfather would have done, and he wanted nothing to do with you either."

"Mammon balled his fists in frustration, "Six seconds. Six seconds of blessing and millions of souls would work right again. Another sorcerer just won't do! Not after seeing what your family can do..."

"No."

"You know your grandfather was not as pure as-"

Now Kilroy looked up. "Shut your mouth about my Grandfather. Leave. Now."

*******

The lights flicker again and just like that the dead souls are gone. The three human's hair has turned stark white, and all check themselves in to a facility for mental health within the next 24 hours...Across town, a woman who hasn't seen her father's murderer for twenty years screams when she checks the noise in the attic. "I was there! I was there when they put you in the chair! You're dead! You're dead you bas-Where did you go? Where are you?" There was only silence in the attic but the woman did not leave it until dawn. She put the house for sale up that day.

*******

"Do you think I don't know what you're doing Kilroy Capital Conneticut? I can see into your mind. You seek to destroy my minion's assets...foolish mortal? Do you think you can beat the demon of money and wealth with MONEY AND WEALTH? Are you a fool?"

The demon waved a hand, and in another monitor in the room, a prominent stock market index fluctuated up and down several times, shaping out a malevolent face with a smile. "I *AM* money mortal. I was there when the first city was built, when the first coins changed hands. I will be here when you are dead and long after you are dust. What do you have to say to that?"

Kilroy ignored the demon and kept scribbling on the sheets of paper.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" The demon's rage shoot the room, "Why can't you be reasonable? The Angel Providence understands. We've had an accord for centuries. Gods understand. We work together just fine. The territories are well marked. Your father understood. Even your grandfather, even though we fought during your 'great war', even he accorded me more re-" Kilroy put his pen down and looked at the demon, "Again, I tell thee leave my demesne."

Mammon shut up. Something was wrong here. Maybe the mortal had read the contract after all...

******* The child wandered the alley's singing forlornly. Just old enough to be accountable, not taken care of in time for theological reset, the eery nursery rhyme kept the orphans quite awake for quite some time, for they knew the child in question, and knew how she had died. No one talked about it, no one wanted to talk about it.

No one slept either. It was hard to tell when the singing stopped and when it was only the echoes of the music ringing inside their head again and again.

Candles were lit for the dead that should have been lit a long time ago. No one was sure if it did any good. The singing still rang in their ears...

*******

What was in the contract again? Damn. The boy's father had been so thorough. No boiler point contract on that one. A thousand pages long with the best lawyers from both sides spending weeks on it...wasn't there something about-

"You're going to lose, you know."

Mammon stopped thinking and glared at Kilroy, "Lose what Mortal?"

"A great deal of what you care about. Quite possibly everything."

Mammon roared, his snout flaring out, hyena like as it threw Kilroy's couch through a wall. He grabbed Kilroy by the throat and snarled, "We shall see what we shall see Mortal."

Claws at the ready, Kilroy coughed and tried to say something.

Mammon almost didn't care. Only his greed kept the youngling alive as he set him down and said, "You are lucky I need something from you."

"You have made three mistakes Mammon." Kilroy smiled and pointed to the contract.

 Mammon felt his temper rise, almost ready to shred Kilroy despite himself. "Silence Mortal. Now let us be done with this. You tire me!"

"The first mistake...is that this is a set of quarters above the New York Stock Exchange...my powers are enhanced here."

Mammon...stopped. He looked around. He'd just teleported to Kilroy's location. Almost no barriers could stop him so he hadn't been worried. It had been too long since a mortal had seriously challenged him. They all wanted his services...this was bad. This was very bad.

"The second mistake you made was attacking me in my home. Legally, this is my home right now. That means I get to exercise a penalty under the contract. And third...don't think I don't know about your threats on my loved ones and businesses...that violates your little 'protocol' agreed among the other powers...which lets me do THIS..."

 Like dominoes, falling one by one, a set of well hidden and extremely complicated transactions began taking place in dark money markets around the world. Assets bought, assets traded, and in the process of a few seconds, a green light lit on Kilroy's terminal. "I wasn't able to destroy all of your assets Mammon...but that ring you had? The one you set up 150 years ago? Your favorite? It's mine now."

He pushed a button and Mammon only had a look of horror as the count of billions ran down to zero.
"I'm coming for you Mammon. I'm coming and you can't stop me. Fear the mortal Mammon. Fear what the mortal can do. You may be money incarnate, but money without an Economy...is NOTHING.

" And with that Mammon found himself thrust by the power of his own contract down to his own demesne...."FETCH ME THE COLD HARD CASH CONTRACT!" He had to prepare....he had to prepare...what had he wrought? WHAT HAD HE DONE?!

*******

The gong was run a second time and the portal was readied. The stones were set, and the stars were in alignment. The petitioner would soon come forth.