“A few things.” She closed the grimoire. “If you reject the favor I ask for, you will be cursed. Your body will fail, and your soul will be ripped from your bodies and fed to the grimoire.”

“And you tell us this after forcing us to sign it.” Dalton murmured.

“Well, if I told you, you wouldn’t sign it,” she said.

Dalton closed his eyes tightly. “After you forced us to sign it.”

Ozul chuckled weakly. He had resisted signing it after Dalton did, but with the tendril, his neck was nearly crushed before he signed it too. His voice, like his chuckle, came out weak.

“She’s telling us, because she wants us to know that we’re fucked if we don’t do her favor.”

“I know that.”

“Anyways, you don’t need to worry about this Boulder Punching Man you’ve told me of. I’ll handle it.” She opened her terminal and a portal opened up to the world Ozul sent him to.

“How did you do that without my password?” Dalton asked.

“I don’t need to use passwords. While you two were weeping from signing the contract, I used one of my favors to gain special access to all worlds.” She paused and then looked slightly over her shoulders at them. “I’m sure this has been traumatic to you. You may go home to rest.”

“You don’t say.” Ozul coughed.

“I wasn’t talking to you. You still have paperwork to do.”

Then with that. Eira stepped into the portal, and it winked shut behind her.

“Bitch.” Ozul murmured.

#

Eira crouched down at the edge of a cliff. The lingering cold air behind her dissipated when the portal closed. She dressed in a cloak and wore a marble white mask to cover her face.

With the contract signed, Eira watched Eichi and his little party. From the reports she read, he became more and more influential. His favorite weapon was the boulder, which he used to smash his victims into a bloody pasty pulp.

Exhibits of his odd cruelty were recorded from his victories against all four heavenly kings. Reports also showed that he intended to do the same to the Demon King.

Normally, employees would never be allowed in their world, much less someone else’s. There were rare cases which they were authorized to do so. A few months ago, she had been required to go to one, and thus used one of her many favors to give her a pass that allowed her to go into any world.

There were of course limits placed upon her. She couldn’t kill the otherworlder. She couldn’t use her full power. But she could kill the rest of his companions. She had double checked to make sure none of them were otherworlders, taking note of the positions they were in.

After another confirmation, she opened her grimoire and summoned frozen miasma in the shape of knives. She allowed her terminal to make the necessary calculations. Then, with a flick of her hand, the knives ripped through the Boulder Man’s party, killing them instantly and incapacitating the Hero.

Confirming once more that everyone was dead other than the hero, she jumped from the cliff and landed a few feet away from the carnage.

The people she killed had died instantly. All of her knives had left a hole through the head. A mercy that she allowed. She did not like unwanted suffering. Which was a shame because that was what she had done to the Hero.

He was leaning against the boulder, his muscles in his arms and legs were torn with precision so he could not escape or fight back. Leaning back against the boulder he cherished, he looked like a cornered wolf.

“The hero, I presume?” The mask changed her voice to sound like a man’s.

“You killed everyone!” His voice filled with hatred and sorrow. “How dare you do this! How dare you! I will take this boulder and turn you into a bloody paste!”

“Foolish. You won’t be able to do anything like that.”

The frozen miasma of course, disrupted the mana circuitry of the individual it hit.

“Watch me!”

His spirt was commendable. He tried to lift the boulder, but mana and blood spurted from his open wounds. The boulder lifted just a millimeter. A miracle on its own right.

But that was enough. She flashstepped next to the hero and chopped the back of his neck. His eyes bulged and then they closed. His body flopped against the boulder stained in blood.