'Seed of Chaos' System

Excited, Orochi ignored the boring old Chaos Demon's exit and seized the PAD on the table, quickly pulling up some of his favorite streams to watch concurrently. As always, the participants in Zorhellian's Games had no inkling that they were being watched 24/7 by the patrons. Minor gods, demigods, mortals, demons, genies, ghosts, aliens and more… Anyone with enough power and money, as well as the right attitude to enjoy the Games, was invited to spectate. Orochi still didn't know how Zorhellian found his patrons, but somehow, the crafty Demon had made quite the name for himself in the right circles throughout the Dimensions. Or was it just the Galaxy? Or Galaxies? Maybe the Multiverse? He really didn't know. Nor did he care; it was both too complicated and not interesting enough for him to bother. 

Whatever and however it was done, Orochi loved spectating. The Necromancer kid, Keenan, was always fun to watch these days -- he'd gone rogue a few weeks ago, and seeing how the humans freaked out when attacked by a horde of undead led by a Hero was always entertaining. Jake, the Dragon Knight, was also interesting, since he'd been meticulously cultivating a harem while acting rather self-righteously. Orochi giggled as he thought about the women's ulterior motives for letting the Hero treat them like pretty toys. 

Oh? What was this?

When he pulled up Jake's stream, the boy was actively cutting through a horde of undead, shouting about honor and how Keenan had betrayed the trust of the innocent.

Orochi kicked his feet in delight, rolling to lay down on the couch. He expertly folded his wings so that it was comfortable even though he was laying on them. He watched as Jake activated various impressive, dragon-themed skills. Jake summoned dragons made of flames, transformed into a humanoid dragon, breathed fire, launched spikes from his tail and made quick work of hundreds upon hundreds of skeletons, zombies and ghouls. It was useless, however. He eventually grew weary under the endless onslaught of tireless undead foes. If it weren't for the timely arrival of Cadence the Saintess and a few other Heroes, he would never have given up; but they forced him to. Still, while rescuing Jake, dozens of regular soldiers died in order to cover their retreat. Jake had apparently gone off to chase down Keenan on his own, without consulting anyone else. He was currently getting scolded for his recklessness.

"Boring," Orochi yawned, upset about the rescue. He had wanted to see a Hero die. "Who else have we got?"

He thought briefly about checking on Alesha, the Participant who had caught his eye during the Soul Harvest Story, but decided against it. Ever since her soul had been sealed inside the sword, her stream had been relentlessly boring. That hadn't changed after Captain Swallow was given the sword… she was decidedly unentertaining compared to Alesha. Incredibly diligent and utterly predictable.

What about a Monster's stream, then? Unknown to the Hero Participants, exactly half of the Participants (or Players, whichever term you prefer) had been summoned as "Monster Heroes" using the Hero Summoning technique the Demon King had supposedly stolen from the Kingdom. Little did the demons' side realize the technique had actually been leaked by Zorhellian in preparation for the Storytelling Games a few rounds ago. After all, it made for a much more interesting spectacle if there were "protagonists" on both sides of a conflict.

In addition, there was not only one "End" that could bring about the conclusion to Zorhellian's "Hero Summoning" Story, and thereby the Players' participation in the human-demon war, but two: either kill the Demon King, or kill the human King. Neither death would end the war -- but either would upset the balance.

Navigating to the Monster Hero streams, Orochi selected the stream of Collin, one of three Vampire Lords who had unexpectedly formed a close bond with one another. Apparently, they'd been incredible fans of manga and anime before the Games began and had found solace in their shared interests. Collin, Thomas and Caleb were their names. Orochi found their spontaneous otaku friendship, and the incongruity it had with the classic "feel" or "aura" of the Demon Lord's Army, incredibly fun to spectate.

Orochi chortled when he saw what they were up to. They were in the midst of performing a play for their Vampire Thralls -- in other words, re-enacting one of their favorite anime for the benefit of people who were supposedly not only their slaves, but also their livestock. These people had been purposefully kidnapped from some of the most miserable places in the Kingdom, then provided with land, food, and shelter and required to work. Apparently they were treated better by the Vampire Lords than they'd been treated by their human ones. As such, they were happy to follow the geeky Vampire Lords, abandoning loyalty to the Kingdom they'd once lived in and freely allowing the Vampires to feed on them when needed. 

As Orochi watched, Collin summoned shadowy humanoid forms to strike at Thomas, who stood impassively as the intangible figures wailed on him, acting like they were trying to kill him. Caleb, dressed in a woman's outfit, was lying on the stage behind Thomas, acting helpless. "Are you done?" Thomas asked, tilting his head to look at Collin. "The seven of you together deal a maximum of 300 damage per second, but I passively heal 1600 damage every 4 seconds. You can't even scratch me."

"Impossible!!" Collin yelled, dramatizing the word by clutching his hair and staggering backwards, making a lot of unnecessary, overblown supporting actions in the process. It looked rather ridiculous. "We're all level 40! Who the hell are you?!"

"Me?" Thomas replied nonchalantly, reaching for an oversized black sword on his back. "I'm-"

As he tried to pull out the sword, it got stuck in its scabbard. It was far too long to be removed with his arms. Attempting to cover up for his mistake (but not quickly enough to avoid a ripple of laughter from the watching Thralls), Thomas used magic to unsheathe the sword and place it in his hands, still trying to look cool. He made what he clearly considered to be a 'stoic' expression and said, while holding the oversized sword casually with one hand, "I'm the Beater in Black."

Collin gasped dramatically, waving his fingers to control the shadowy forms, making them step back from Thomas as if in horror. "No- no way!! He's on the Upper Floors, trying to clear the Tower! There's no way you're him! You're lying!!"

Orochi was, by this point, laughing so uncontrollably that he couldn't see straight anymore. What the hell were they doing?! This was so fun to watch!!