Chapter 887

The Eredar Twins saw the Rift much the same way Evenson did.

It was a weapon to be hidden, deployed sparingly, and saved for the moment when it could produce the greatest possible effect.

They had conquered the Rift and now commanded nearly a hundred thousand demons. That gave them considerable strength.

But they had never made the mistake of believing they were invincible.

The Burning Legion was undeniably powerful, but the forces stationed in this single Rift were nothing compared with the Legion as a whole. The Rift had been abandoned and forgotten by the Legion long ago. Its entire army amounted to little more than a drop in an ocean.

Its most powerful artillery was G’noth’s fel cannon battery. They had no way of deploying something on the scale of Argus’s planet-destroying weapons, nor did they possess any fel warships.

G’noth had more than a thousand engines in storage, and he was capable of building more.

But capable of building something wasn’t the same as having already built it.

The genuinely powerful demons currently available to them could be counted on one hand.

Charging headfirst into a major conflict with that force would be—

Evenson imagined it for a moment.

I have a huge advantage.

I charge in.

The momentum is unstoppable.

Then I die.

Game over.

He and the Twins would obviously retreat if things went badly, but they would still be reduced to starting from scratch, leaving behind a trail of destruction and wasted resources.

It wasn’t worth it.

The Rift was far more valuable as a hidden trump card.

They should continue accumulating strength in secret, then unleash it at exactly the right moment.

That was when it would truly matter.

Sagras, Queen of the Nerubians, occupied a somewhat unusual middle ground among the demons.

She wasn’t particularly fond of elaborate schemes like the Eredar Twins and Agatha. At the same time, she wasn’t like Haimondas, who believed every problem could be solved by hitting it harder.

Sagras was willing to use whatever method worked.

And that attitude showed most clearly in how readily she followed the Twins’ orders.

Once they had established the strategy, Sagras stopped arguing.

"Well..."

The business discussion eventually came to an end, and one of the Twins sighed.

"No matter how many times I come here, the Rift is still unbearably monotonous."

Her gaze drifted toward the horizon.

"The planet isn’t much better. It’s exhausting just looking at it."

She could hardly be blamed for complaining.

The Rift was essentially one enormous slab of black rock. There wasn’t even proper soil.

The planet itself wasn’t much better. The land was dead, covered almost entirely by gray dust and barren earth.

The Twin waved a hand.

"From now on, keep working on the environment here. At the very least, start some basic terraforming and plant something."

"Change the environment? Landscaping?"

Dester’s enormous eyeball rotated once.

He immediately understood.

"Understood. Leave it to me."

"We’re heading back."

The Twins clearly had no desire to remain there any longer. They rose and waved dismissively.

"Agatha and Sagras are coming with us. Dester, you’ll oversee things here for now."

"Understood."

"Wait a moment, please."

Agatha and Sagras bowed.

Dester, however, hesitated.

"At the beginning, your warlock promised me something. About that..."

Evenson had indeed made Dester a promise.

He had told the demon that, in the future, he would do his best to accommodate one of Dester’s particular interests.

Dester had remembered that promise.

Back when he’d been trapped in the Rift, he’d been forced to suppress that particular desire for a very long time. He had suppressed it so thoroughly that he’d nearly achieved spiritual enlightenment through sheer restraint.

Unfortunately, he was already a demon.

There was nowhere lower for him to fall.

So now that the opportunity had finally presented itself, Dester was understandably eager to know when Evenson intended to fulfill his promise.

Evenson leaned toward the Eredar Twins and quietly explained the matter.

Their eyes shifted.

Then one of them smiled.

"Take care of things here first. We’ve already made arrangements. It won’t be long before your little hobby is fully accommodated."

"Excellent."

Dester’s enormous eye narrowed into a delighted crescent.

Even the tentacles hanging beneath him twitched with excitement.

"In that case, I’ll patiently await the good news."

The Eredar Twins then took Agatha and Sagras with them and returned through the portal with Evenson.

"Ah... much better."

The moment they returned to the Final Doctrine, one of the Twins dropped onto the couch.

She pulled out a thick cigar and took a long drag.

Then she handed one to Agatha and another to Sagras.

Soon, the four female demons were sitting around the room in a cloud of smoke.

Evenson quietly activated his Infinite Breath.

My lungs are my responsibility. If I don’t take care of them, who will?

Once everyone had settled down, he looked at Agatha and Sagras.

"Since you’re both going to be operating here from now on, you should change your appearances. Human forms would make things easier."

Neither demon objected.

They each produced a Disguise Orb and transformed themselves.

It was immediately obvious why Agatha had been chosen to oversee operations in India.

In human form, she looked remarkably like an Indian woman wearing a veil, complete with a red bindi between her eyebrows.

Combined with her pale complexion, she looked like an exceptionally high-status woman from one of the upper castes.

Her figure was elegant and graceful.

Unfortunately, the effect was somewhat ruined by one small detail.

She was still roughly seven feet tall.

A woman that enormous was enough to make most men reconsider their life choices.

Evenson was around six feet himself, and standing beside her did absolutely nothing for his confidence.

Sagras, by contrast, had taken on an ordinary human-sized body.

Her appearance wasn’t particularly beautiful, though.

She had spent most of her existence as an insectoid demon, and some of that otherworldly severity had clearly carried over.

She looked stern enough to make a tax collector nervous.

"For the time being, you can use this place as your base."

Oleses waved a hand generously.

"Don’t be shy. The alcohol, cigarettes, and anything else here are yours to use."

She paused.

"But no eating people."

Her gaze shifted toward Sagras.

"Yes, I’m looking at you."

Agatha was harmless enough in that regard.

Sagras, however, had eaten plenty of humanoids in the past.

"I understand."

Sagras shrugged.

"They’re food. It’s not as though I need humanoids specifically."

She paused.

"Honestly, if I’m not trying to satisfy my appetite, I don’t even need to eat."

Evenson’s eyes immediately lit up.

She doesn’t need food?

Excellent.

One less mouth on the company expense account.

The Twins, however, weren’t about to let their subordinate starve herself.

"There’s plenty of good food in this world. I’m sure you’ll find something you like."

Oleses took another drag from her cigar.

"And not eating humans is for your own benefit. Their bodies contain far too many heavy metals and other chemical contaminants. Eating too much of that garbage can’t possibly be healthy."

She gave a satisfied little hum.

"Anyway..."

Salorass stubbed out her cigarette.

"Agatha, you’ve got a lot of responsibility ahead of you. Spend the next few days studying. I want you ready to start working as soon as possible."

"I understand."

Agatha nodded.

"I won’t disappoint you."

"As for you, Sagras..."

Salorass turned toward the Nerubian Queen.

"I have another use for you."

"Please tell me what you have in mind."

Sagras was beginning to feel uneasy.

She had been summoned here without knowing why.

Her suggestion of simply crushing their enemies had been rejected, and if the Twins needed someone to handle intrigue and manipulation, Agatha was clearly better suited to the job.

So what exactly did they want her to do?

Perhaps they intended to make her Agatha’s assistant?

That didn’t seem right, either.

"We have a daughter here."

The Twins suddenly changed subjects.

"She’s adopted, but she’s still our daughter."

"Then she is fortunate indeed to have earned the affection of both of you."

Sagras carefully watched their expressions.

The Twins exchanged a glance.

"This world is going to become more chaotic."

Salorass sighed.

"And it’s only going to get worse."

She looked at Sagras.

"I’m worried about her safety. So I want you to work as a teacher at her school."

Her tone became firm.

"Your primary responsibility will be protecting her."

Evenson raised an eyebrow.

The Twins really did care about their adopted daughter.

She already had a private car taking her to and from the public school in Queens every day, along with security personnel.

After the previous incident involving a stalker, even Agent 76 had spent some time acting as her driver.

The journey to and from school was therefore well protected.

But what about inside the school?

What if there was a school shooting?

It wasn’t impossible.

This was America.

Guns and school shootings were hardly an unimaginable combination.

Having someone from their own organization inside the school as a covert bodyguard made sense.

What didn’t make sense was assigning an extremely powerful demon like Sagras to the job.

Unless they were expecting trouble.

"School?"

Sagras considered the idea.

Then she smiled.

"Interesting. I could teach them how to prepare various poisons."

Her smile widened.

"And which soft parts of the human body provide the best sensation when stabbed."

"That’s a normal school, not an assassin academy."

Evenson immediately cut in.

"You could teach physical education. Or maybe a life-skills class. Sewing, crafts, something like that."

He pointed at her.

"But remember: human anatomy is not the same as spider anatomy."

"Don’t break the children."

"Hmm."

Sagras frowned.

"I’ll try."

She clearly wasn’t thrilled.

"It sounds considerably less interesting."

Even so, she understood the real assignment.

She wasn’t being sent there for entertainment.

She was being sent there to protect the Twins’ little princess.

"All right. I’ve already prepared rooms for both of you."

Oleses waved them away.

"Go study the necessary material for now. Come back tonight and we’ll have a few drinks."

She paused.

"And we’ll try some of the stronger stuff."

The Twins exchanged mischievous looks.

Then Oleses opened a drawer.

Inside was an assortment of brightly packaged snacks and jars of chili sauce.

"We only discovered these recently."

She looked delighted.

"Mixing them together is incredible. We can’t stop eating them."

Evenson immediately turned his face away.

He couldn’t watch.

Still, he supposed it was better than some of the hobbies they’d had before.

Once Agatha and Sagras left, the Twins suddenly turned back toward him.

"While you were gone, S.H.I.E.L.D. contacted you again."

"Oh?"

Evenson looked up.

He was genuinely surprised.

Before entering the Rift, he’d left his phone here to charge. He had expected to be gone for only an afternoon.

Because of the time discrepancy, he’d actually been gone for an entire week.

"What did they want?"

"They said they wanted you to help track down an important target."

The Twins’ expressions became slightly strange.

"Apparently the target’s codename is Clairvoyant."

"Really?"

Evenson didn’t sound particularly disappointed.

"That’s a shame. I guess I missed it."

He certainly didn’t look disappointed.

At one point, he’d been interested in Clairvoyant.

Someone supposedly capable of seeing the future and knowing almost everything sounded rather useful.

But after his dealings with Raina, he’d begun to suspect that Clairvoyant was nothing more than a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with unusually high-level access.

And if that was true, there was a good chance Hydra was behind the whole thing.

His interest had vanished.

The revelation did, however, make him understand why the Twins had assigned Sagras to protect their adopted daughter.

Although Evenson was the one who normally handled matters involving S.H.I.E.L.D., the Twins weren’t nearly as uninformed about current events as they appeared.

They had been watching.

They knew what had happened during the Ghost operation.

They knew Hydra had now begun actively pursuing Clairvoyant.

Putting all the information together led to an obvious conclusion.

Hydra was getting ready to reveal itself.

And because the previous incident involving the Ghost had already exposed the Twins to Hydra’s attention, there was a very real possibility that Hydra would come after them when the organization finally made its move.

The Twins had simply prepared in advance.

"You don’t need to feel bad about missing it, though."

Salorass suddenly smiled.

"That little wildcat went in your place."

"What?"

Evenson stared.

"Clea?"

"How did she end up going?"

He looked genuinely surprised.

"She’s even less interested in S.H.I.E.L.D. affairs than you two are."

Oleses laughed.

"She’s angry with you."

"Why?"

"Because you went to the Rift without taking her with you."

Clea had always wanted to prove herself.

Whether she was competing with the Eredar Twins or simply trying to demonstrate that she wasn’t some sheltered little bird being kept in a gilded cage, the result was the same.

She wanted to contribute.

She wanted to prove that she could carry some of Evenson’s burdens herself.

And recently, after studying those forbidden teachings, her power had skyrocketed.

She had taken command of Kamar-Taj and spent considerable time stabilizing the situation there.

A few days earlier, she had finally decided that things were running smoothly enough for her to return.

She had been looking forward to coming back and showing Evenson just how much progress she’d made.

Instead, she discovered that he’d abandoned her again.

He had gone off to explore a new dungeon.

Without her.

Clea had spent all that time increasing her level, improving her equipment, and accumulating power.

Yet when something genuinely important happened, Evenson had still left her behind.

It hurt.

It annoyed her.

And when she happened to hear the message left on Evenson’s phone, she made a decision.

She would take the mission herself.

"Well..."

Evenson sighed.

"I didn’t bring her because I was trying to keep her safe."

He shrugged.

"But whatever. With Clea’s current strength, handling a S.H.I.E.L.D. operation should be easy for her."

He leaned back.

"There’s nothing to worry about."

"Mm."

The Twins nodded.

"Nothing to worry about."

They said nothing else.

They simply stared at him.

The room fell silent.

One minute passed.

Then another.

Evenson finally slapped his thigh and stood.

"Nope."

He shook his head.

"I’m going to check on her."

He’d lasted longer than he expected.

Still, if he simply charged in, he’d only make things worse.

Clea was already upset that he didn’t trust her enough to bring her along.

Showing up immediately would only reinforce that impression.

So when he left the room, Evenson decided he wouldn’t interfere directly.

He’d stay nearby.

If necessary, he could quietly tip the scales.

"Has Agent Carter gone home?"

He stopped someone in the hallway and asked.

This involved S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, and the so-called Insight Plan Hydra was apparently preparing to launch.

He wanted to speak with Peggy Carter and coordinate their response.

The answer surprised him.

Peggy hadn’t left.

After returning, she’d gone directly to her room and stayed there.

Evenson frowned.

That was strange.

When she’d left earlier, she had looked desperate to get home as quickly as possible.

How had she suddenly found the patience to stay?

Curious, he headed toward her room.

As he approached the door, he heard something from inside.

"Mm... mm...!"

A strained, muffled groan.

It sounded painful.

Not the kind of scream produced by someone simply shouting at the top of their lungs.

More like someone clenching their teeth while their entire body convulsed.

Evenson’s expression changed.

Did the battle finally catch up with her?

Some kind of magical backlash?

He immediately pushed the door open.

Then froze.

Dottie, the Black Widow, was lying on the bed.

She was wearing very little clothing, with what looked like a net spread over her body.

Peggy Carter sat beside the bed with an expression of absolute indifference.

A control device rested in her hand.

She pressed the button.

Electricity surged through the net.

Dottie’s entire body jerked.

It looked painful.

Extremely painful.

And yet, for some inexplicable reason, Dottie’s cheeks were flushed with a strange, almost dreamy expression.

Evenson stared.

Silence.

Then he very carefully stepped backward.

"Sorry."

He pulled the door toward himself.

"Didn’t mean to interrupt."