"Who the fuck are you?"

Those were the only words to escape Odin's mouth as he entered the normal enough looking conference room in the nondescript bar tucked away in one of the shadier regions of Hargeon town. His words were directed towards the only other person in the room as he entered: a little girl, maybe just starting her teenage years, sat at the head of the table, where he was expecting Carnage, the oldest of the Grimoire Heart mages, to be sitting. Next to the young girl, who was almost swamped by the table they sat at, was a massive, badass executioner's blade, stuck in the ground and much taller than the girl was, in fact it was a fair amount taller than Odin himself, and probably even Lucifer's form, although likely not by a huge amount if held by the long handle. Sitting down on one of the seats, the closest one to the little girl on the door side, as Odin knew he was in the right place, the olive haired mage filled his glass with the red wine on the table, swirling it before taking a sip, surprised at how nice the wine actually was before focusing his attention back on the girl.

"Huh, it's almost as good as the Swineherd's, impressive. Now, about you, little girl. I'm looking for a woman who said she'd be here waiting for us, I imagine that big sword there belongs to her. She might also have a flying skull with her, seen anyone that fits that description? Also, are you one of us, or just her grandchild that she had to bring along for the day?"

Knowing Yumi, which Odin admittedly didn't, this girl could've have either one of the two options, and was no doubt actually a third. She could've been a member of Grimoire Heart, which meant that she was either really good at whatever it was she did, or Icarus didn't have an age rating on what it was they did. Or it could've been the other option, although Odin doubted this girl was Carnage's granddaughter, simply because of the fact that the old bag didn't seem much like the kind of person to settle down and start a family. She was very business focused after all.

As he took another sip of his wine, Odin adjusted the bow tie at his neck. He'd decided to wear his bar attire out for the day, consisting of a white shirt and then a black waistcoat, bow tie, pair of trousers and dress shoes. For now, the sleeves remained down, but as the other arrived and the room became warmer, it was likely that Odin would roll them up.

Honestly, Index never really planned on meeting her guild mates anytime soon. She had expected to come across them, but never actually know if they're part of the guild or not due to how secretive everyone is required to be. Hell, the lady at the market in which Index had crossed through to get here could have been part of the guild and she would have never known.

But then opportunity kicked down her door and handed her a letter signed by Carnage. It sounds like a twisted metaphor but it was, in fact, all literal. So when she had arrived at the described location she opened the door to be faced by two people, both of them looking pretty shady.

"Oh! Uh... hi. I think I'm in the wrong place, unless one of you is named Carnage? Gosh, your parents must have really hated you to give you such a shitty name." But then she decided to start taking a good look at her surrounding. To address the elephant in the room, there was a giant sword next to a girl that looked to be about her age maybe a tad bit younger. Next to her sat a man dressed in a suit, drinking wine. Despite not knowing anyone in particular that was present in the room, she decided to take the seat closest to girl, feeling safer if she was closer to the person with the giant sword. Looking at the girl, she decided to speak once again. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you were the person who sent the letter, Miss Carnage? Didn't expect someone of your age nor appearance to be here, but then again here I am." She donned a grin onto her face while sticking her hand out to the girl. "Even if you are the wrong person, it's nice to meet you."

Well that was dramatic.

Odin hadn't been in the room too long, only having taken a few sips of his wine, before the next member appeared, someone he'd never seen before but obviously a member of the guild by how they spoke and the fact they arrived. Her lack of tact or elegance as she entered also suggested this, as she blatantly spoke Carnage's name to the group, despite not truly knowing if they were who she may have thought they were. It mattered little, as she was correct in her assumption, and so Odin paid it no heed as all her words seemed directed at the little girl, who she assumed was Carnage. Not quite sure why he didn't look like someone who could fit the title, Odin simply poured himself another glass, as no one had required him to speak yet since he had spoken to the girl, with her still having not answered any of his questions. If she wished to be the silent type, that was her decision, as even the new girl didn't evoke any words from her, as she stayed in her seat, only motioning by way of greeting when the girl moved to her seat. Then they waited.

And waited...

And waited.

Honestly, Odin didn't mind the silence, he was accustomed to it and even enjoyed it every once and a while, as it left him to ponder his own thoughts and, in this instance, sip his wine in peace. What did irritate him, however, was the little girl's constant finger tapping as she waited, which lasted an entire hour, not allowing Odin to contemplate anything, and instead keeping his focus completely in the room, and on the annoying thud her fingers constantly made with the wood of the table. It finally subsided, but only when the girl threw a temper tantrum, but on an almighty scale. She sent cracks throughout the entire table, and even shattered the glass she was drinking out of as she shouted in frustration, not directly at the two gathered, but more into the air, listing off a great many names -some of whom Odin recognised as past members and the rest he assumed were too- before getting shards of glass stuck in her hand. What made this different from an ordinary temper tantrum was the invisible wave of darkness that overcame Odin, and no doubt the other girl to a greater extent. He felt weaker, and his vision blurred for a moment, before the girl took deep breaths and calmed herself.

With this amount of power, both magically and physically, not to mention her great knowledge of Grimoire Heart...surely not. It was: the young girl introduced herself as Carnage, after having mentioned that she had gone through a transformation, and what a bloody impressive one it had been. She was unrecognisable, other than her power and knowledge. The experience of an elder, in the body of a child. How cliché, despite this being the first time Odin had seen it in person. He took another sip of his wine before he spoke, unless the new girl wished to speak ahead of him, in which case he would stay silent.

"Well that's not something you see every day, at least I was right about you being related to her. Always a pleasure, never a chore Carnage. And as for you", Odin leaned back in his seat and raised his glass as he addressed the brunette, "we should probably get introductions out of the way as soon as possible. I am Lucifer, proud owner of the Swineherd Pub in Oak. And you are?"

Out of nowhere, the girl that Index was talking to ended up exploding into a fit of frustration. Or at least from where she was sitting it looked like frustration. It seemed like the girl had completely ignored Index, something she gets a lot so she doesn't particularly blame her, and started talking about how their size was slowly but surely dwindling. She really didn't know what they were talking about; she was the new girl so there wasn't really a reason for her to know the past members.

Luckily, her assumption that the little girl was Carnage was correct. Apparently though, she's not the age she looks. From what she had said, she's been a really old member despite her appearance. The man from across the table seemed to have also known Carnage before the meeting, but from the way he was phrasing things, he doesn't know her personally. So only Index was out of the loop.

Lucifer, as she now knows him, decided to get the introductions rolling. Luckily he did, because if Index had started the introductions she knew that she was going to drag them along longer than needed. Out of the three, Index was the only mystery to the group. "Oh!" She shoots straight up, her chair flying behind her. "I'm Pandora. I'm new to the guild, so it might take me a while to get everyone's name to a face. Also, you guys have really cool names, makes me wish that I got a better one."

Once Yumi finished cleaning the glass off her hand she grabbed the bottle of scotch and a new glass. There were three on her tray as if she had prepared herself for a temper tantrum. The demon poured a new glass and raised it to her lips downing the alcohol inside to calm her growing anger that was threatening to bubble to the surface. Swallowing the drink she felt a coolness wash over her and a calm to encompass her enraging mind. The demon exhaled releasing the breath she had been holding before leaning back in the chair as her two colleagues went around introducing themselves. The new girl went by the name of Pandora, Pandora being the codename assigned to her by the guild. Unlike Pandora, Yumi and Odin aka Carnage and Lucifer their codenames were connected to something that was apart of them.

"Understandable. Lucifer and I hold an external connection to the names we were given. Whether you are aware of not Lucifer is a take over mage, if he ever desires to reveal it to you that is up to him." spoke the old woman in a young woman's body as she swirled the glass of scotch in her left hand while resting her right hand on her right knee, right leg folded over the left. She appeared ever the image of a dainty noble young woman, "As for me I hold a deep connection to the name 'Carnage' as it is apart of my Epithet. You know me as Carnage, the world knows me as The Witch of Carnage."

The title Witch of Carnage was one that had been floating around for over sixty years around fiore. It flew through towns whispered with an edge of fear. KNow one knew who the Witch was only that it was a woman with devilish red eyes. Everywhere she went she would leave behind a trail of blood, gore and corpses that filled the streets. Yumi had left behind sixty years worth of corpses in her career and now that she had her youth back it would only increase. With her new youthful body, many would suspect the Witch to be an old woman now not someone so young in appearance. Even if they did find out her name they perhaps would only assume the Witch of Carnage was a name passed down through generations of women.

"Enough about that, I suppose I should get straight to the matter of this meeting. It is only a pity more did not show" Spoke the demon turning serious as she put her glass down and cleared her throat, "The guild is in decline. We are letting the light guilds step all over us. We were once the top guild, the strongest players but we have fallen, especially with the vanishing of many of our members. To rectify this we must increase our strength. We need more power in order to show those pitiful Light Mage's we will not be bullied, we will not be forced aside and we will not be stopped!" Shouted the lolita in a strong voice that carried over the room.

The new girl, a rather excitable one, rose from her chair at such speeds that the chair itself fell back to the floor, releasing a dull thud as she began to speak, introducing herself as Pandora, as well as stating that she was indeed new. She also wished that she'd been given a 'cooler' name like Odin and Yumi, an honestly very strange desire, given the way that Grimoire Heart worked, or at least did work in the past. Odin's moniker, as well as Yumi's, had come from their own connections, as the latter was about to explain. While Odin didn't care much about a guild mate knowing what kind of magic he used, it felt strange to hear Yumi so casually state it, but she also said that it was up to Odin whether or not he revealed the true power of of his magic, before stating that her pseudonym came from the name everyone in Fiore knew her as. 'The Witch of Carnage', which was something Odin didn't yet possess, not that he really cared, but he did stand as Yumi finished speaking, taking a large gulp of his wine glass and finishing it before sitting it down on the table. "I will gladly show you what I can do." Cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders backwards, Odin spoke the simple incantation that changed him from a man into a demon.

"Superbia."

The change was instant, and not nearly as painful as it once had been for the dark mage, who grew three inches, as well as the horns protruding from the top of his head, and the pair of wings sprouting from behind him. His face more more angular and elegant, his figure much slimmer, and his voice became so soft, as if the words themselves were spoken by an angel. On top of all this, wavy golden locks replaced his olive hair, falling from his head towards his back in perfect formation. He was as beautiful as he was deadly. "Lucifer Morningstar, a pleasure."

Sitting back down in his chair, or technically sitting down on the chair for the first time, Lucifer listened to Carnage speak, pouring himself another glass of red wine as she did so. She said what everyone was thinking, everyone in Fiore that was: the guild was weak. The attack on Blue Pegasus had failed, turning the light guild into heroes and the dark organisation into pathetic villains. Lucifer knew it as well as anyone, and Yumi seemed to desire them all to be more powerful, and that the guild would become the strongest once more. Once she had finished shouting, the demon decided to pose a question to her.

"And how exactly do you suppose we go about that?"

Index stood and watched as Lucifer turned into what she assumed to be a demon. Mainly due to the fact that she doesn't know anything else in the world that has horns and glows red. Honestly, she was pretty impressed by the transformation. She's never seen anything like it before, and that means it has to be pretty strong right? It's always the rare ones that end up being the most powerful.

After Lucifer finished showing off his magic, Index turned around and picked her chair up off the ground. She didn't notice that it had fell, the short burst of adrenaline must have blocked out the sound of it falling. Anyways, Index sat and listened to Carnage as she exclaimed how the guild used to be the strongest in the past but was now dwindling, which was pretty obvious due to the amount of people who even showed up to the meeting. Honestly, Index could care less if there were a large or small amount of people in the guild. Granted they would be screwed if any of the good guilds with a larger population decided to come looking for them. It wouldn't be hard either, they travel around in a giant airship.

"How do you recommend we recruit some new members? It's not like we can walk up and ask them if they want to join, we're supposed to be secretive. Hence the code names."

The demon in disguise gave a wave of her free hand in a nonchalant manner as Odin revealed the purpose behind his moniker as he transformed using his Take Over Magic. Yumi had lived long enough to witness countless types of magic, she was rarely surprised by anything these days. The demon raised her glass of scotch to her tender lips and sipped softly, enjoying the taste as the two members of her guild that had been kind enough to appear spoke, one after the other. Both of them were asking questions, Lucifer asking just how they went about increasing their own strength, while Pandora inquired into the recruitment of members, especially when they were a secretive guild.

The demon sat the glass of scotch down after downing the last of it. She grabbed the bottle she poured from, removed the lid and started refilling her glass as she thought on how to answer them. She mulled her words over in her head, carefully configuring them before she would relay them. She needed to pick what she said carefully. "There are perhaps only a handful of ways to not only bolster our current strength but to recruit. First, in regards to recruitment, we can't just recruit anyone off the streets, they must be skilled enough to enter our ranks. Strength doesn't necessarily matter if they have capabilities in other areas. For now, recruitment will be left to the higher ranks, Black, Lucifer and myself. However, the lower ranks if you spot someone worthy please do inform us and we shall scout them to see if they are worthy to join." started the tiny demon as she recorked the bottle of scotch and picked up her glass. Yumi swirled the liquid inside before taking a sip.

"If necessary scout from the other guilds, turn people to our views by choice or by force." added the demon after taking a sip of her scotch. "As for gaining strength, work hard. Master your magic, strength your physical abilities, master the use of a weapon, expand your magical reserves, gain experience with quests and temper your soul." THe demon downed the scotch in her glass before slamming the glass on the table, "That is all I have to say. Since so few of us gathered, I will bring the meeting to a close. Should you stumble upon our colleagues pass the message onto them."

The demon stood up before grabbing her swords handle with her right hand. The demon ripped the blade out of the floorboards and swung it up through the air and onto her back with a single hand. Yumi fixed it onto her back locking it in with a leather strap and walked around the table, "I will leave first. I plan to travel soon to Dahlia, it is a place where we can thrive." with that the demon would walk out the door and leave the inn.

[EXIT]

To add to the questions already asked by the demon Lucifer, the new girl wished to know how they could go about recruiting members to the guild, as it was a gamble to even reveal the guild's existence. If an offer to join was presented to a potential member and they refused, then they would not be allowed to live through that interaction. Grimoire Heart had to, above all, remain a secret. People now knew its name, and knew what it was capable of, but none could know of its members, strength, or location. Above all else, one had to be sure that, if they mentioned the guild's name, the receiver would accept and join the ranks. That is mostly why Odin had yet to recruit anyone himself, as well as having never met anyone that seemed willing to gain new power, regardless of the moral requirements.

Yumi had an easy answer to this question, as she stated that they had to recruit more members, more powerful members into the guild. That was obvious, but then she said that, for the time being, recruitment would be handled by Yumi, Black and Odin himself, an interesting but logical proposition, as those three could find the best ways to phrase their words without giving away too much, and could also test the new member before considering them. If a younger member had an idea of who they could recruit, they were to share that name with one of those three, who would then test them to see if they were worthy. It made sense overall, and Lucifer had no reason to object, taking a drink of the wine, impressed by the taste as it was very different to that served in Oak.

What followed was a statement about recruiting from another guild, swaying members to follow a new path to gain power. Realistically, that would mean gaining members from the reserves of Phantom Lord, as all other guilds were less likely to have people willing. Lucifer had not yet met anyone from that guild, but he knew he could convince people if they wished to be convinced. Finding someone who had plateaued in power, and weren't able to increase it anymore, they were the easiest to convince that a drastic change of scenery was the best course of action. The little demon then listed off the easiest ways to become stronger, most of which Odin was already planning on addressing. As for tempering his soul, that was a shared item currently, which meant the duality between Odin and Lucifer would also have to increase.

Collecting her sword, Yumi then called the meeting to a close, stating that she was next heading to Dahlia: a place Odin had heard much about but had not yet visited, and also somewhere Lucifer was very interested in, as it was full of both lycans and vampires, which would no doubt mean a few demons roamed the area. As Yumi left, Lucifer began Odin once more, and finished his glass of wine, before leaving the room, not saying anything to Pandora as there was nothing left to say. The time for talk had passed, it was now time for action.

-Exit-