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Chapter 94: Yikes. Demons Are So Fucking Annoying
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Adam swallowed his chip. "Do what? The chips? It's all in the kettle-cooking. Creates a more robust structural integrity for flavor adhesion. It's good shit. Guess you wouldn't know since you guys only know to eat each other out. Not gonna lie, that takes bravery."
Mephisto's gaze was a physical weight. "You know of what I speak, little moth. I always knew you were… special. A fascinating deviation from the predictable mortal script. But this?"
A subtle gesture encompassed Adam's pristine, powerful form. "This borders on the insolent. You achieved a state I believed impossible for one such as you."
"A vampire that walks in the sun? I hadn't expected you to escape the Vampire Lord's calculations, yet you've gone further."
Adam shrugged, brushing salt from his fingers. "God did it. Simple as. I'm one of his first drafts, you know? Adam. Prime real estate."
"He looked down, saw I'd gotten myself into a bit of a tiff with a hell-lord and a bloodsucker, felt a pang of paternal guilt. Waved his hand, forgave my sins, granted me his blessing. So honestly..."
He said, turning to meet Mephisto's gaze directly, his eyes utterly flat, "Don't be too surprised when it feels like I have plot armor. It's a given. Divine provenance."
Talking to Adam, Mephisto realized, was like trying to nail smoke to a wall. Irritating, but revealing in its evasion.
"I would know if you were that Adam," Mephisto said, his patience a deep, cold well. "You are not. It is something else."
He leaned forward slightly. "What intrigues me more is your inaction. Why do you not play the game?"
"I move my pieces; your reputation, your business, your name dragged through the filth of mortal opinion. And you… you allow it. You seem to… enjoy it. Why?"
Adam raised an eyebrow, a gesture of genuine curiosity. "That's your big question? I'm kinda an attention whore, Mephy."
"I don't discriminate. Good press, bad press, it's all just data streams pointing at me. 'All publicity is good publicity.' The phrase was basically invented for people like me. Suits me well."
Mephisto hummed, a sound like stones grinding in a deep cairn. He was deducing, piecing together a puzzle with pieces only he could sense.
"I have always known you were hiding something. A core truth. And now… I perceive a correlation. You are happier with the bad publicity."
"The goal of my machinations, and those of your mundane enemies, was to destroy what you built. To break your spirit. Yet, the one who seems most delighted by the spectacle of your impending ruin… is you."
Adam's frown was one of theatrical annoyance. He stroked his chin. "Tch. Dealing with you is truly troublesome. It's like you're cheating. How did you figure it out?"
The confirmation, subtle as it was, caused a flicker of cold triumph in Mephisto's ancient eyes.
"You were fanning the flames of your own demise. Amplifying the opposition."
"Your happiness was genuine, but not born of mere masochism or narcissism. No. There is a benefit. The attention itself fuels you. It empowers you in a tangible way."
He leaned closer, the chill radiating from him making the air brittle. "I know much about you. Hydra's whispers were thorough, yet incomplete. They misjudged your mutant power."
"In fact, It seems everyone has. Me included. 'Envy.' A curious name. Just how broad is its definition? What, precisely, can it do?"
Adam merely smiled, a shark's smile in a handsome face. "There's a second, equally plausible explanation... reverse psychology."
"I want you to put out the fires. So I let you catch a glimpse, let you think you've unraveled a core secret."
"Now you'll work to stifle the very noise you created, believing it helps me. See? Multiple layers. Fun, isn't it?"
[Thank god Mephisto isn't an idiot and seems to be very dangerous. Entertain us, Mephisto!]
[My boy Mephisto rocks! And the style, very Italian, chef's kiss.]
[Traitors!!]
[But Mephisto is an idiot, no? He's going after Adam, isn't it game over?]
[True, how strong is Envy exactly? It seems broken, even giving him abilities like technopathy.]
[Could it be that Envy absorbs negative emotions to achieve something? Otherwise, why would Adam, as Mephisto said, enjoy the negativity?]
[The mystery is beginning to unravel! I knew there was more to Envy.]
Mephisto did not rise to the bait. His gaze grew distant, introspective. "Envy… Envy…" He murmured, the word a key he was trying to turn in a lock he couldn't see.
"Why would it crave attention? What does it envy? The spotlight? The notoriety?"
He refocused on Adam. "I have been… hasty. I should have endeavored to understand the instrument before attempting to play it."
"No matter. Time is a currency of which I have an endless supply. The game has become infinitely more interesting. You are a more worthy opponent than I initially presumed."
A slow, eerie smile touched his lips. "Perhaps, when the time is right, we can discuss a legitimate deal. A partnership, between equals. For now… goodbye."
He made to move, to dissolve back into the ether from whence he came.
"Hold on," Adam said, his voice cutting through the gathering unreality. "Since you're here, and we're having such a lovely chat, I've got a question that's been bugging me."
He popped another chip. "You're a demon. A blight on creation. A cosmic leech, a contractor of damned souls, a glorified used-car salesman of eternity. All that."
Mephisto went very still, his expression unreadable.
"Yet," Adam continued, "you haven't gone after the people around me. Domino. The X-Men. Stark, now."
"That's Demon 101. Target the loved ones, apply pressure, break the will. You're usually quite adept at that. So… why not?"
Mephisto studied him for a long, silent moment. Then he smiled, a terrible, understanding smile.
"Little Adam. I am a demon. My true power is not fire or brimstone, but perception. I see the nature of things. The desires creatures may not even know they have, And when I look at you…"
He leaned in, his voice dropping to an intimate, chilling whisper. "…I see shadows of my more… self-interested colleagues back home."
"You care, in your own twisted way. But you would never sacrifice yourself for them. Your core philosophy is one of sublime, rational selfishness."
"You think, 'If they die, it is regrettable. I will be sad. And then, when I am powerful enough, I will simply reach into the well of eternity and pull them back.'"
"You do not rely on them. They are amenities. Luxuries. Pleasant distractions."
He leaned back, the cruel smile still in place. "Targeting something you do not rely on is inefficient. A waste of good torment. It would not break you; it would merely annoy you."
"And an annoyed Adam Cypher is a… creatively destructive force, as Dracula learned."
He paused, letting the truth of his assessment sink in. "But where there is a will, there is a way. And if there is one thing no being in any realm lacks… it is weaknesses. Take care, my… friend."
Indeed, Mephisto understands the importance of timing, and he also understands the human mind.
In his view, Adam may not care much now, but with time, he will fall to the thing no human managed to escape, feelings, and then, he can strike.
With a silent pop of displaced air that wasn't quite a sound, he vanished. The chill lingered for a few seconds before the car's climate control fought it back.
Adam was left alone, frowning thoughtfully. He stroked his chin, contemplating Mephisto's words as if they were a complex theorem.
He nodded slowly, a student who has just grasped a difficult lesson. "Hmm. Interesting perspective."
Then he let out a sharp "Tch!" And shook his head. "Yikes. Demons are so fucking annoying."
His expression shifted. The playful mask fell away, replaced by a stark, emotionless void.
His eyes, one real and one artificial, stared at nothing. Am I that bad? The thought was clinical, not remorseful.
He turned the demon's assessment over in his mind. His trust in anyone but himself was, indeed, in the negatives.
He expected nothing, which meant every act of loyalty and devotion was a pleasant surprise, and every betrayal was a confirmed hypothesis.
His certainty in his own eventual ascension was absolute. If he reached the pinnacle; the Absolute; any regret, any loss, could be unmade.
It was a simple equation. Therefore, the journey itself was the only thing that mattered. The experience. The show. If things went south, it was merely a plot twist, a darker act in the drama.
He nodded to himself. It was… extremely logical.
[He's… Agreeing with the devil's assessment.]
[No, his thought process is more twisted than the devil described.]
[Merely a plot twist... I don't like that. His thought process is too dark.]
["If they die… I'll just bring them back later." I like the sound of that.]
[He sees his own life as a show he's both starring in and directing. That's a level of fourth wall abusing I haven't seen before.]
[I hope Adam grows to have more empathy, else we're fucked if he penetrates the screen and reaches us.]
[Oh god...] [I think I'm gonna start using fent.] [...]
Mephisto had been right about many things. The attention did fuel him. Adam had never fought the negative publicity because he was feasting on it.
But the demon had been crucially, magnificently wrong about one thing.
It wasn't Envy that thrummed at the center of Adam's power, hungry for the spotlight.
It was [Information].
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