Outside Leviathan's great room, the corridor was noted for its plainness, in sharp contrast with the luxurious interior.
The walls appeared to have been suffused with a smooth, dark substance that absorbed whatever little light fell on them from unknown sources. Quirk moved fast, silent, and graceful, with airy, nimble strides, while I felt heavy-footed and graceless in comparison.
The rarefied atmosphere felt different too; there was no trace of faintly sulfurous sweetness associated with the grand room. Instead, a dry scent hit my nostrils: petrified wood, and something I could not quite place-maybe the essence of the city.
We passed door after door, all identical to one another, providing no clues as to what lay beyond. No sound of the sorts of activity one would expect in a busy corridor, no chatter, and no footsteps other than ours. The silence was deafening, magnifying the wild, panicky thoughts still racing in my head.
Dad? Sold my soul? Build an Internet? Surely, the whole thing was becoming distasteful.
Quirk halted at last in front of a door that was like all the others, with a subtle shimmer at the edges that was almost imperceptible. Still expressionless, he turned slightly toward me, inclining his head to suggest that I should go in. He didn't explain, which told me that he must not have fancied making small talk with me.
With a deep breath, I pushed through and entered.
The room was…unexpected.
This was not the dark and forbidding chamber that I had subconsciously painted. Instead, the room was spacious and bright, though that illumination was soothing and wrapped in a golden hue reminiscent of the magic that Leviathan had wielded.
The walls were the same dark substance as the corridor, but here they seemed to gently absorb the light and ruminate it, producing an almost tranquil sense of being.
In the middle of the room was an enormous
bed that looked extraordinarily comfortable, draped with something that shimmered like spun. There was a desk made from a smooth-looking material akin to obsidian and shelves built into the walls, but they were all currently empty.
The one wall claimed a magnificent presence of a window overlooking the demon city.
The view drew me forward. The city spread beneath me like a fabric of impossible architecture of demonkind, where black skewers of rocks were stabbing the sky tied together with bridges made of translucent energy.
Bizarre, glowing symbols were splashed on the surface of the buildings and pulsated with a light of their own. Rather than roads, what I saw were a whole bunch of teleportation pads or maybe pathways made of solidified shadow, along which demons seemed to glide.
Above, the sky was a vortex of swirling deep purple and red, with no sun or moon lights in sight (though it had moon and sun). And yet the city itself glowed with an unearthly light, as if the very air itself bore illumination.
Starkly beautiful, coldly otherworldly, and undeniably alien. An involuntary shiver skittered down my spine somewhere between awe and dread itself.
This was real. This was going to be my new reality.
I kept walking until I reached the window. The view was breathtaking. There lay the city sprawling before me, an expanse of towering structures that would put human architecture to shame.
Sentries of black rock jutted into the sky connected by bridges of shining energy; strange glowing symbols adorned the buildings and pulsed their inner light into the air.
those things were not roads as I knew them but a network of what looked like teleportation pads or perhaps solidified pathways of shadow that demons seem to glide along.
No sun, no moon lights - just a roiling mass of deep purples and reds above, and below, the hollow, radiant city was as if it glowed by the luminous atmosphere itself.
Beautiful, in a cold, alien way, and yet, there was no denying how very, very foreign it was. A shiver crept down my spine - awe wrapping closely around apprehension.
This is the real thing. This is my new reality.
I turned back to the room and tried to drink it in. It was more luxurious than anything I had ever owned, yet it felt strangely impersonal. Here was an empty canvas waiting for me to paint it into a work of art completely individual to me.
My thoughts quickly bounced back to Leviathan's mission. Building an internet. Yes, the sheer arrogance of the task was still sinking in. Where would I even start? What kind of technology did they have here? Did they have anything close to electricity as I knew it?
I sat on the edge of the bed, the spun moonlight surprisingly soft beneath me.
The task felt mammoth, practically impossible. Yet, there was a flicker of excitement too. I had always been fascinated by technology and the intricate workings of networks.
To build one from scratch in an entirely new world was a challenge unlike any I had faced before.
But the resources... Leviathan had said not to worry about them. What did that really mean, in this context? Did they have materials I couldn't even imagine? Would they provide me assistants, with demon engineers? These questions swirled around my head, a chaotic mingling of curiosity and doubt.
My human education... Leviathan had called me wise. Maybe my knowledge in network architecture, of protocols and data transferring might come in handy here.
Perhaps, the basic principles would be the same, albeit different technologies.
I got up and started walking around the room, my thoughts dizzy. I needed information, I needed to understand the way this world's infrastructure worked, their means of communication, their energy sources, tools and materials available to me.
My parents' thought flitted through my mind; pain with memory on what brought me here. Sold your soul. Those words still had a sting - a betrayal I could not fully understand.
Yet, Leviathan had said he told them he would treat me nicely. Was that some form of his care? It was a twisted protection, though, bought and paid for.
But then, that other thought followed: if they could so easily sell me, what kind of life would I have had with them anyway? Perhaps in some strange and convoluted way, this new beginning wasn't such a bad thing.
At least it gave purpose, challenge. And I had... a father? The title still sounded foreign to me. Absurd even, but the warmth in Leviathan's eyes when I called him "Dad" had felt genuine. [Note: you mean more like daddy (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧ ]
I turned back to the window and looked at the alien city (bro WTF). This is my new home. These, in a way, are my people.
A mission, a purpose, and a father-such a powerful demon lord. It was strange and terrifying; strange yet full of possibility.
Why should I get time to explore this city, to understand this world? Leviathan permits me to rest and explore, so that is what I'm going to do. For starters, I would try to get the basics, the fundamental building blocks of this demonic realm.
Standing there, gazing out at the swirling purple sky, my mind began to congeal into determination. I may be a human in a demon world, but I was also the one who has to build their internet, and I shall not back out of anything.
Immediately after I turned towards the exit, I would start exploring the world outside, but it suddenly occurred to me that I did not even know how to navigate this city. Would Quirk be here waiting for me? Or will I have to find my way?
And then with a deep breath, I again opened the door and returned to the silent corridor. Quirk was there; he stood still waiting as if he had never left. He would not make it difficult for me to read his expression or understand that he was still a little neutral. Just with another slight nod, he signaled me to follow.
I was careful this time as I followed him with said above-mentioned mindset. Walls were not wholly smooth; on closer inspection, I could see complex etchings on their dark stones, nearly like microscopic circuits. The soft pulsed glow emanates form these engravings.