Zeki strolled a room lined with masks, calmly swinging his cane as he walked. He stopped picking up a mask in particular, eyeing as he held it up in the light, looking almost diappointed.

"Huh, Landris. Wonder no one has picked you up yet, you were one of my favoirtes. Nobody appreciates the simplicity it. Always wanting to be quicker, tougher, not minding the unique things."

A voice called out behind him.

"Sir, employees only back here! I'm going to have to ask you to put that down."

Zeki turned to see an angel behind him. She was looking defensive as if she'd caught an intruder. Zeki lowered his glasses with his cane looking her in the eyes.

"You do know who I am, don't you? Mr. Glaedwine. Besides which, I'm a demon, surely you can tell, no personal use for these little fun toys. I'm here for business with Azoth, but I was early, Maria was taking care of the shop so well I figured might as well see the product line. Life's boring if you don't stop to smell the roses."

The angel looked surprised.

"Well, yes Mr. Glaedwine, but I can't have someone in this area unsupervised, I'm sure you understand, proper business and all that. I shall attend you."

He signed, putting down the mask.

"And like that, my interest is gone. No need to follow me. I'll be a good boy and head off to see Azoth in his office."

Zeki walked off, slightly annoyed. Angels were something he didn't generally deal with, he didn't understand them enough. On top of that, today he was in a bad mood. He was on edge from Szayeis and wanted to deal with all his problems quickly.

A rap sounded at Azoth's door.

"Mr. Glaedwine. You called?"

The rhytmic sound of polished shoes started on the other side, steadily approaching the door. As the steps came close another sound joined the first - an impassive but somewhat urgent hustle of Azoth's voice. At first the door did a good job to mask the words, however soon enough it was swung open to invite the newcomer in. He had a phone in hand and his voice held its usual slightly obnoxious sweetness, thought he seemed to have toned it down.

"Yes, I realise we can't wait much longer. I don't think I need you to remind me how to do my job, Selena." The man threw Zeki a sidelong glance, gesturing to a nearby chair. "We'll be there shortly, keep him entertained." The hint of a scoff was clearly shown in his grin as he hung up, not waiting for a response. Selena was a smart girl and she'd probably find a way to get back at him later, be it by poisoning his coffee or posting naked pictures of him online, but in all honesty, it only made his days more interesting. Azoth sat behind his desk and slid the phone across the polished surface until it hit а speaker with a dull thud and was immediately forgotten.

"Welcome, my friend, I haven't seen you in ages. You look great as usual."

Zeki strutted inside the office, looking around it. It had been a little while, hadn't it? That was probably a good thing on Azoth's part, it meant no worries. Zeki as he was, was only called by the interesting, which normally meant something going horribly wrong. Or for development of some radical idea. Masks were something that could catch Zeki's interest. A million souls tended to be alike by themselves, but putting two together, any number of results could ensue. The only boring part was the why. Masks were pricey, and the only reason Zeki could figure for using one was power. How boring.

Zeki shook it off and returned the greeting.

"To you as well. I love the suit, been thinking of putting on some new ritz myself. One just can't feel like a businessman if he doesn't dress like one. Is that Italian?"

Zeki took a seat as comfortably as if it had been his own office, hiding what was bothering him from the business. It'd be unprofessional to let the little incident with Szayeis derail his business attitude, and that was exactly what the little troglodyte would like. He would do business the same no matter what circumstance.

"So Mr. Azoth, how can I help? Something's either gone horribly wrong or right I'm going to assume, which is it?"
Azoth ran a hand over the lapel of his suit, pleased with the compliment. It had been very expensive, though the asking price had been lower than what he'd paid. It was a commission to a retired gentleman who had lost his business years ago to loan sharks, his family struggling ever since. He'd been hard to track but happy to accept the offer he was presented with, and even happier about the cheque that ensued. It was a little form of social justice Azoth could afford to play around with.

“I can provide you with a business card later, the man indeed has superb tailoring skills. Anyway, to the matter at hand. I couldn't tell you if you're here because something went right or wrong. On the one hand, we have a nouveau riche whose mask trial didn't go exactly as planned and is probably currently losing his mind at a rapid speed. On the other hand, we received our payment in advance and given his circumstances it seems like his survival could be described as a “sad” outcome just as much as his death.” Azoth smirked, locking his fingers. “Care for a cup of coffee before we get to work?”

Zeki let out a small chuckle at hearing that. He could always use a good laugh. This is why it was in his opinion not best to pay in advance. Business was a dance, having it all done at once was unspectacular and left no wanting. If one wanted something done well, they would leave the other wanting something more.

"I'd love a cup, seems there's no rush. If you did want a better customer review, I could drain the mask I suppose. I'd ask what good is the word of a madman, but look at us."

Zeki played with his cane between his fingers as he spoke. He pointed it to himself as he said look at us.

"So, my friend, what would you have me do?"

Azel snickered as he dialled a code into the phone that would automatically alert his secretary that they required two espressos ASAP and leaned in his chair. The painting behind him always caught the visitors' attention but it was only people like Zeki who understood the true meaning behind it.

“I say we gamble. People like us need a little spice in life or it becomes dull rather quick, don't you think? I ordered us two espressos, I believe it gives the poor soul a good chance at redemption to ward off his own demons for the time it takes us to finish our drinks. If he's still alive and kicking by the time we get to him, well, then I'm sure Fate has favoured him and he deserves all the help we can provide. Unless, of course, you're in a more compassionate mood today.”

Zeki turned to the secretary, calmly taking his coffee, and drinking it before putting it down to let it cool.

"Compassionate? Depending on your meaning perhaps. If he indeed has the will, I see no reason why not. I agree on the spice of life to ones such as us, so many years.... so many years. The humans pass away so quickly... I like them, I wish I could live more like them personally, they have more spice in their short life than any demon I've ever met. But there's something I can't stand from either demon or human."

Zeki waved his cane at the window of the office, towards where in the factory the testing was.

"Perhaps this man wanted power quickly, and bought a mask in an effort to be stronger than everyone else, using his money to gain an advantage of others. If that's the case his will is weak and he will snap like a twig. Those who want power for power's sake are the bane of this world, and don't have the will to carry it."

Zeki left his coffee on where it was, standing up to look at the painting more closely, putting his hand above, but not touching the point of the painting where a demon's hand and a human's almost meet.

"But let's say he's one of these humans that interest me. Then he has some reason for wanting the mask, some reason I can't guess from here, in all my years of experience. Then his will is strong enough to interest me, and I will of course rescue him. If his will is that strong, like the few who have interested me in the past, then a mere little hour will hardly matter."

Zeki walked back towards the coffee, taking a sip of it.

"Mr. Azoth. Should this man live, and should I rescue him, would you mind me posing my own fee on him for having done so? I need a strong willed human momentarily, just momentarily. Assuming he's strong willed in the first place."

Azoth was honestly a bit surprised at how long Zeki suggested they leave the gentleman wait, but the smile that twisted his lips meant he wasn't against it in the least. The other man always had a way of entertaining him, be it with his actions or lack of such. His philosophical nature was something Azoth himself didn't quite share, despite the painting on the wall, but he enjoyed the musings nonetheless. It seems like he should have ordered cappuccinos instead.

“Of course you'd me more than welcome to ask the man for any sum you think his life is worth, although I suggest you let him make the offer. I have the feeling after over an hour in hell he'd be willing to pay his saviour more than what you could even imagine.” He stirred his coffee before taking a small sip. “You're also entitled to a share of the sum we've already received, even if this particular human isn't what you were looking for. For your sake, I hope it is. But if not, I'll be sure to keep my eyes open for you. May I be curious as to why you need such an individual?”

Zeki reached into his suit, and pulled out a small sack, placing it on the table.

"Have you ever heard of the Lord of Hell, Szayeis? Well, the troglodyte struck a deal with me recently. Somethings scaring even the likes of him, so naturally I'm there to laugh at him, and agreed.

I'm normally not one for end of the world predictions, I've survived more doomsday predictions than most human have years. Still, Szayeis is scared and that is not normal. He claims a god, the lord of the void, Inaniae is to try to destroy everything. Appearantly it's broken right now, so my jobs to keep it broken, looking for little fragments of it, find some way to purge them.

I am to find those little fragments for him, and he gave me this orb to do it. He requested I put my insignia on it. I am a little less than willing to directly do so, I would like to use a proxy instead. If he ever tries to use the insignia against me, it would backfire on the human instead. I want a strong willed human, because those tend to last longer, and if this one survives, he's stronger than most. It would make the proxy more convincing. My insignia's very strong, naturally, and I have no fear using against mere mortals. Some little Troglodyte however might remember times when such things were made, and he might find a way to unmake it."

Azoth's eyebrows rose at the object on the table, and even more so at the explanation behind it. The thought of the Western lord resurfacing made his skin crawl with an unpleasant feeling, perhaps even stronger because he knew the man personally and it was a more tangible treat to himself than the supposed lord of the Void. After all, being tortured was worse than being obliterated in one snap of the fingers. Azoth's eyes rose to Zeki's, his expression serious.

“I understand your worry and like your plan. My only question is, are you certain the man is worthy of saving? Didn't expect you to be one to trust those such as him.”

Zeki calmly continued sipping his coffee, he was mostly through the cup.

"Oh, I don't trust him, why I'm doing it this way, but I do read him. See, people like him want one thing. They want to control other people, and therefore power. What's the scariest thing to a man like that? Someone controlling him, someone stronger. The irony is his controlling tendencies makes him easy to control. Just point him towards what he thinks is greater power, and he'll follow like a lemming. I'm just here to watch him jump off a cliff.
Besides, I don't intend on getting too closely involved. I hate getting my hands dirty, the angel Lindum being an exception. Just find a few fragments and get rid of them, not too hard."

The mention of his ex-lover's name sent a thrill down Azoth's spine, not an entirely unpleasant one despite the mixed emotions he harboured towards her. It served to remind him just how indebted he was to the other man. What he'd said about Szayeis pleased him greatly and returned the smile to his face. “I am a very lucky man to have you on my side, Mr. Glaedwine. One such as myself wouldn't fare well on your bad one. Then again, few would.”

He picked up the phone and checked it with a swipe of his finger. Twenty-seven missed calls. And twelve messages, some of them... his eyes scrolled down... quite crude. He smirked, glad to have invested in the special spells that kept this room both impenetrable and sound proof. Selena was an angel and as such she was quite the caring person. Perhaps why he was so fond of screwing with her. He asked Zeki to excuse him as he finally called her back and said they'll be there shortly, not bothering to provide an explanation of why they'd taken so long. She would find out from the secretary eventually.

Putting the phone to the side again, Azoth smiled back at Zeki. “Our test-subject seems to be alive still, though his state is questionable.”

"Well, let's go see his welfare. He seems to fall under the category of 'interesting'. Perfect. What mask is this by chance? Might be nice for future reference. I'll weaken the masks essense, and put my own into the man, so that he can be strong enough for a quick moment of respite."

Zeki put his the orb back into his suit, and pulled out a few slips of paper with his insignia in them. He just needed to get two off.
“The name is Albellee.” Azoth said, referring to the mask and not the wearer. “It's a tamer angel.” He said, not working to hide his disgust. “She wasn't our strongest one but his motivations didn't strike me as befitting of such. He claimed he needed it in order to keep the demons in his town in check.” Azoth shrugged. “Perhaps by the end of this experiment he'll brainstorm of better methods of achieving his goals, whatever they are. In any case, you're free to have him and do with him as you please. As I mentioned, not even his relatives will miss him much.” A thin and sly smirk spilled over his features. “At least not for long.” There was a reason why he's the head of his company and it certainly had all to do with his demonic gifts. He pulled out a yellow file and slid it across the desk. “This is the initial report. I'm sure once you get to the Isolation room Selena will provide you with more details on how the bonding process went.”
Zeki groaned.

"Tamer Angel.... of course.... That would have been nice to know beforehand. I don't like punching myself too much. And angel essence is so thick, it feels like I'm trying to drink a steak through a straw with it. Still, if this was easy, it wouldn't be fun.
Don't put him as missing yet, if he's gone through this long with madness, he's got some reason. Of course, the irony is not lost on me. He's putting on a mask to keep demons in check, and it's demons who will keep keep him in check for trying. Give me an hour, then you can make disappear anyone who would give bad reviews."

Zeki stepped through towards the isolation room, noticing an angel nearby.

"Ah, Selena, beautiful as always! I'm hear in regards to Albellee. "
Bloody angels....

“About time you got here, I was really starting to miss you.” Selena's eye twitched as she faked a sweet smile, teeth clenched behind it. “I hope you've fastened your seat belt, this will be a hell of a ride.”
************
1 hour later
************
“How was the steak?” Azoth teased an hour later as Zeki emerged from the Isolator, the living but unconscious body of his client following suit on a stretcher.

Zeki looked up with an annoyed expression. His clothes were in shambles, and sweat ruined the shirt. He didn't look fancy, therefore he didn't feel fancy.

"Tough. I had a dislike for tamer angels. Upgrade that to loathing. I planned for quickly weakening the mask, and leave without trouble."

He motioned at the stretcher to show it didn't go quite as planned.

"That last blow to the head was less to calm him down, and more from the bloodrage. Still, as soon as he's up, I'll have everything I need, and I suppose I can't complain about that. I suppose even a blue collar like myself has to do some manual labor every once in a while. Do you have that business card to that tailor?"

It had taken less time for someone to answer the door at Darius’s arrival than it had for Masha to answer the phone. The phone was in her bedroom after all, and everyone knew better than to enter there without permission. It wouldn't have ended well for whoever would have tried. But the front door was another thing.

A pretty, fair haired human girl, unlikely no more than twenty had opened the door for Darius and without hesitation she showed the fox in, and into a nice den, furnished with fluffy couches and shelves starting to overflow with books and very old, very fragile records.

The girl left him there, murmuring that she would be back soon with drinks and her mistress. The drinks, unexpected came first, then Masha about ten minutes later. The vampiress was dressed now, mostly, in a flowing dress that looked more like a nightgown than a street dress. Her hair was still a little bed ruffled, and her face looking a little annoyed until she set her golden eyes on Darius. Then something like a pleasant smile appeared.

"My my old friend," she purred, coming towards him with a gait almost like a prowling cat. "You do know how to make an entrance." Her sharp eyes traveled his form, narrowing some, but she said nothing until she got to the basket he held. "You at least know how to make up for coming to my door so early in the day."

Darius bowed his head and followed the woman inside, quietly. His ear flickered at his own shoes echoed across the hall and into the den, his paws held the wriggling basket firmly. It didn't help the little rascals were restless. Every so often, one of their small heads had started to pop out of the basket, mewling their protest, only to have Darius push them back inside. Though he doubted Masha would've mind him leaving the small ones to roam their future new home, it was in his nature to respect his hostess' home first. When her permission was gained, he fully intended to introduce them to Masha as her birthday present.

On entering the elegantly decorated den, his ear catching the murmuring about drinks and returning. He gave the pretty thing a gentle smile with a quick show of appreciation. “Thank you.”

When the woman left, his golden eyes idly studied the den he no found himself in. Several couches, from floral patterns to solid colors, place strategically the large room's outer edges and prevented a crowded aura within the room. The sight of the traditional and well worn books, a thing that has long since been erased in the modern era, with the more fragile ones tucked away into the cabinets causing him to give a low, amused chuckle. Naturally the drinks arrived before Masha while he reached for one, but instead shifted the basket then drink. He didn't insult the girl's intelligence else she might've made the drinks smaller. It wasn't her fault, many humans and angels, even a few demons, rarely knew much about his race or more specifically the fact it was dangerous to consume beverages or food in large amounts. Thankfully small ones were acceptable time to time.

One thing he about Masha was the fact, unlike many of his associates, she worked on her own time frame. No one made Masha hurry or jump when she didn't want. A matter he learned was that what she wanted, the vampire usually got and rarely had anything escaped becoming so. He took a small sip, tasting the liquid burning his tongue until it faded. The wait was shorter than he expected it would've been, setting the glass down when he caught the sweet, alluring scent made by her person. It filled his attention easily as he turned around, his mind followed with images from his past at seeing her current state.

His paw tracing her skin, her pleased and gentle moans, and even his blood's own warm sensation...the history brought a warm glow to his heart at the fun they had during his earlier years within Kenan. How time had changed them both was slightly amazing. Darius' eyes traced her curves under the flowing dress, the end skirted and flowed behind in a small trail, enhancing her beauty despite her face looking slightly irked at him. The expression lasted a moment before it melted away.

All thoughts of age and years faded from his mind when she glided forward, her habits untouched by the changing times. It made him feel less like a relic, unable to remove his eyes from her, when he re-positioned the basket for her to examine the kittens within. Of course, without Darius pushing them back down, a small, brazen female one pushed herself up and meowed hungrily at Masha. Her face tilted and stared at the vampiress with bright blue eyes, expectantly. Casually he replied when his telekinesis raised the rose as she brought it to gently brushing her cheek then held out for her to take. “I can't forget the birthday girl after all and I knew you would've killed me if I let your gifts starve for much longer. Not that some of your punishments haven't be quite... remember-able after all.”

Her smile grew, surprisingly, sweet, at the touch of the rose against her cheek. She picked it out of the air, and looked down at the wiggling form poking her head out. "I'm glad that even after all these years you haven't forgotten my birthday." And though she meant the words, her tone was distracted.

"And still know what to get me. Aren't you a cutie," she purred, picking the kitten up with her free hand. "And there are more of you too." Her voice had become almost childishly giddy. She nuzzled the little fuzz ball, not even noticing the razor sharp claws in her flesh. "I'll get you all something good to eat."

She called for the girl who'd brought Darius in, taking the kitten over to a couch and settling down with her. The girl popped her head in, leaving after taking her orders from her mistress who rattled them off in Russian.

"So what brought you to me in such a rush?" Masha asked the fox, looking up at him, switching back to English seamlessly. "My birthday isn't for sixteen days, but who's counting? And you didn't even clean up the...mess you made before you came." She wrinkled her nose a little, not of course that he smelt bad, but she could smell every little thing on him. Especially the blood he hadn't cleaned up. "You miss me too much?"

Darius' eye widened in in question at her tone, but said nothing else to note it. It would something to ponder on later as he settled on seeing her pluck the rose and pick up the kitten, nuzzling it in her cute way. Unlike him, she had a particular way with animals, namely cats, which he lacked heavily in. He couldn't help but smile, a tooth or two showed through his black lips, at her reaction when she noted the others in the basket.

He followed her to the couch, lowering himself beside the vampire, and set the basket down between the pair. More so to give Masha full access to the kittens, their paws starting to climb out and naturally started to edge onto her. In a short time it wouldn't surprise Darius that she would've be covered in them when she finished rattling off her Russian instruction. Any pleasantries were halted the moment Masha scorned his appearance, reminding him of the fact he had forgotten to change and his eyes lowered to take in his current state.

He could feel his jawline's crusted and matted, as well as the several bullet holes lining his chest. Each stained with gunpowder and his blood, his whole suit showing clear signs of his struggle this morning. He silently cursed his haste in forgetting to tidying up his appearance before meeting with Masha, pushing his awareness to the side to reply. “I will admit it was careless of me not to clean up after the little conflict this morning. Sadly the loss was more than simply structural, which complicates matters, something I intend to deal with in time. It didn't help I was thinking of the past and recent events have made me realize how much I miss the simplicity of it. Of course, it brought my mind easily back to you as the one thing I missed the most.”

A bitter chuckle crossed his muzzle as his eyes settled on Masha's image. “I'm still planning on giving you a gift on the correct day, my dear Masha. I had contacted a small, elegant necklace cat pendant and perhaps a shopping trip. Sadly, the one I brought the kittens from perished in the earlier mentioned conflict. The mother cat was easily taken in by the neighbor man, but due to his old age, these small young ones would've been a problem. You know how humans have such fleeing lifespans after all. Well, I knew you would've rather have a early birthday gift rather than I risk something happening to them. I rather you get a deserving present then have you furious at me for taking the risk, or has time changed what I remember?”

His tone was soft and curious, though not in anyway accusing.

"I would take a present everyday if someone would get me one," she chuckled. "Not that I don't get something every day. Bryce is a good pet. He knows how to please his mistress. But sometimes, regrettably short lives. They break so easy sometimes.

When Masha mentioned how fragile humans were, Darius’ mind went to Emmet and the damage the boy had endured over the years he was employed. He was a human that proved without a doubt of their potential to survive even if they were short lived. About to open his muzzle, Darius closed it when he heard the door open and someone enter.

The girl came back in with a tray of soft cat food and a bowl of milk, putting it down on a footstool that she pushed over near to the couch for easy reach.

"Not like I mind the smell," she laughed, the sound a little off. Something a small slide away from pleasant. "Just, it is very unlike you to be so out of sorts like this." She looked up at him from scratching at the ears of one or the other little kittens who'd climbed into her lap. "What happened? Or is it beyond me knowing? You know how much I like to hear about other people's suffering. Almost as good as seeing it in person."

Darius’ head lowered a moment, mentally determining how much would’ve been suitable to tell, before her lifted it upright again. Why wasn’t he surprised only she would’ve noticed his discomfort or really want to know? His body turned toward her, his leg crossed over the other, and begin to speak while one of the curious kittens had found the food and milk quickly. It wouldn’t have taken long before the others would follow. “You know me far too well. Time can pass and change everything, but never how well we knew each other. Does it?”

He didn’t wait too long, his words continuing to add more. “It takes a lot to rattle me since Judas’ War, Masha. Recent knowledge, sadly, has managed to create a truth. One I much rather not accept as mine, or anyone else’s, fate to come. Everyone knows Aaurus, the God who created all three worlds, but not everyone knows of a being named Inaniae. Also known as the Void, the place where all human souls are consumed after death. It seems the prison he was once confined to is slowly coming undone and now, he threatens to erase us all. Now, you’ve known me to never believe in myths or paranoid fantasies without undeniable proof. However the source I gained this from is very reliable. It is why I am so rattled of late as I fear what the future holds for those I love.”

His paw wiped his pant leg, dusting off the grim while he concluded. “Right now, my main goals are to locate any nightwalkers and start calling favors for the needed muscle to the war that is going to happen.”

She listened without looking at him, watching the kittens make their way to the food and milk. But slowly, she brought her head up, gold eyes a little wide as she took in what he was saying. He was right, she knew he’d never been one for mystical ways of thinking. Which made sense as he was a demon after all, and he knew what was real and what wasn’t.

"What are you saying, Darius? Are you saying that we’re going to...to die? All of us?" She was quiet for just a moment before she stood, the fear in her eyes sparked into something like anger. "Because I'm not down for that. I refuse to have some wanna be god eat me like some Galactus mimic."

She paced from one side of the room to the other a few times, looking rather annoyed. "This will not do at all."

Darius was silent for a moment, thoughts absorbed her melt into anger. While she paced, he made a bitter, toothy snarl at the thought. "Indeed, rather annoying I agree. Though death would've meant we had existed, Masha my dear. That's the difference between what Inaniae is going to do and change. Something a person in my position would learn to deal with and expect to happen one day. No, death would've been merciful. It doesn't aim to just kill us all but a more destructive means by erasing us, this world, and every single trace of essence from it. It would be as if we never lived at all..."

Feeling her anger from her body language, he instinctively pushed off the couch and rose to his feet. His shoes stretch over the floor bring him into Masha's pacing path, his paws hanging from his pant pockets. "I for one don't aim to go down without a fight. Especially when it comes to losing what I've worked so hard to gain. So, can I count you into helping me gather muscle? We have a war to win after all."

She was quiet, standing in front of him, looking up into his face. But she nodded, a flicker of something mischievous flashing across her eyes. "I'll do what I can, but you know I'm not much of a fighter myself. There is a reason I sought you out years ago. But I'm not on my own any longer either."

"We all have our roles, Masha. However I know when you're cornered and desperate, you won't cut and run when it counts the most." Darius said calmly, his golden eyes softened at her comment. It was true, Masha needed muscle and a driver when they first met which he was willingly both. Part of the habits he picked up in his youth from Szayeis was the enjoyment of doing his own dirty work and Masha provided that option while learning on the job. "Something that was refreshing for me during our work together."

She turned from him and made her way back to the couch. "Is this really why you came today? To ask for my help? Or is there something more you're after?"

It was rare anyone was able to guess his actions always had multiple motivates which made his schemes flow easily and usually undetected, including his latest one. Darius wasn't even sure if Sazyeis suspect the bigger game he played in the thick of everything. His claws dipped in everything to some degree that would make many question what he was aiming to gain from it all. However, unlike his pact holder, his method were much more subtle and easily unnoticed. It didn't make them any less dangerous for those involved in them. Something passed on and ingrained into his life lessons by the Western Lord no doubt.

So Darius' face flickered, briefly, with surprised at Mash's words. It faded almost instantly into a boyish grin. "You never stop surprising me and pleasure to know time hasn't made me fade from memory completely."

He breathed in, his shoulders rose and fell with it before he continued. "There's many reasons, most of them driven on by nostalgia to see you again. Though you are correct in assuming these aren't my only reasons for contacting you again. Seeing my pact holder again has made things complicated and I've learned it is best to keep the allies you cherish close at hand. Even if they can only pass you the blade when you keep your enemies closer."

Darius's body once again faced Masha while he glided to the sofa side, resting his paw there. "I was hoping you help me with any additional information on the one who appears to have instigated the attack this morning. Unlike Kenan, were no one can hide or du for long, my claws fail to reach very far into Loom. Despite my associations with the Academy's earlier foundations, I'm not the clear authority here so poking around by myself will likely draw unwanted attention. Something that would hurt our present goal."

He pulled up his cellphone, a small, rectangular glass window and flickered a single claw across it. Tapping a few more times he brought the camera's imagery of the man last seen at the gate and bluntly attacking Darius's guards openly. "He calls himself Crow, I believe."

She had scooped up a kitten as he explained the rest of his reasons for being there. She scratched behind his ears and listened to the small slightly stilted little purr, feeling the vibrations of his chest on her slim fingers. He was after info. And she was so very good at getting that. So very good.

But then, aside from finding out they were on the verge of being wiped from existing, he said the most shocking thing she thought he could say to her.

And she laughed.

She laughed so very much. Tilting her head back, eyes closed and everything. When she finally calmed, she looked at him with tears on her lashline. "You have got to be kidding me. He put you up to this, didn't he. Wanted to laugh along too. You been talking with Bryce as well? Setting me up a birthday surprise?"

But when she looked again, she saw he was serious. "Alright," she relented, even though there was still amusement in her voice. "His name is Crow. But I have a very hard time believing that he did this. Because he's my...boss of sorts. I consider it more of a partnership. That he admittedly gets the better part of the deal from..."

Darius’ eyebrow had raised at Masha’s reaction, his head tilted in a curious manner while he waited for the laughter to die down. His look showed nothing that indicated his amusement or the fact he was in league with some sort of joke, a matter that remained on his furry features. Her outburst died when she caught his look, clearly showing it was a fortunate thing she and he had a respectable relationship and listened to her explanation.

His thumb slide across the screen, pocketing the phone, while digesting the information. It was certainly something he grew wary of and since Masha had little to gain by lying, he liked it even less for being the truth. “I wish I found this as amusing as you did, my dear. The estate damages and near death situation was the last of my worries during that little event. Though I did suspect, based on police files, something was strange when the actions doesn’t fit the profile’s description.”

The fox’s paw ruffled through his head fur, voice still continuing. “Now, that brings into question exactly who attacked my residence and why they took on Crow’s, of all people, image. As you know well enough, I don’t believe in coincidences. Most of all the shape shifter’s current shape was far too perfect and unlikely from any photograph, meaning they likely met in person at some point. The demon is also likely connected to another, one I aim to deal with personally and put things back to rights…after all, there’s many things far worse than death.”

At his last sentence his expression was difficult to read. His, however, tone became cold and venomous, classified as purely dangerous. Looking on Masha, his eyes darkened to sharpness rarely seen within his usual gentlemen air. Something… voided of sanity and primally feral.

She found herself smiling a different kind of smile at the look in his eyes. She'd seen hints of it before in him, but never quite like this. And she had to admit, she liked it. She was no stranger to the darkness herself. Never had been. Even as a human she'd been around it.

"Well the whys seem fairly obvious," she shrugged. "You're a big to do, he's a big to do. Either someone wanted you to start a war without thinking too much about it. Or they're trying to distract you from something else. Possibly both of those things. So really, the question is: who has it out against the both of you?"

“There’s only one, I’m aware, who would gain from the distraction. After exploring the property, vandalism wasn’t the only aftermath and I’m fairly certain a man named Mr. Barrette was involved.” Darius’ irises flared for a moment while his eyes closed, his face tranquil for a moment. His ears flickering to Masha’s movements as she adjusted.

The vampiress shifted in her seat, stretching out her slim legs until her bare feet settled right next to his legs. "I'm not for certain who could have gotten close enough to Crow who could do such things. I'm not involved in a whole lot of his business after all. But I could make inquiries. Possibly introductions if wanted."

Darius’ eyes opened, slowly, his leg backs feeling her feet resting behind him. Naturally, more an impulse and awaking habit than to engage flattery, his head tilted to her direction. He brushed over her upper calf where he followed upward, tracing the thigh, hip and every curve until he finally reached her face. There he settled when he spoke, his glint faded from the surface as it always did whenever it sparked up willingly to surface. “It would be likely easier than me using the resources I have within Loom, saving some time and effort. That is, if it wouldn’t inconvenience you as I rather hear the man’s explanation myself. Impressions are easier to read when in person and as we’ve seen, words are easy twisted. Now that only leaves two last things on my to do list, not including checking on my daughters in the meanwhile.”

She smiled up at him, meeting his eyes when they reached hers. It was always nice to be appreciated. Even by someone who had appreciated you for a long time. "I'll make some calls, see if he's free for a chat. Ask around the minions and see what they know."

"Daughters?" She asked, slightly confused. She'd heard some rumors, but the rumors hadn't been about one of his own kind. He wouldn’t do that she knew. "What’s that other thing you came for?"

Darius nodded at her offer, acknowledging her offer, when her expression shifted. Inwardly his mind shifted and weighing the worth in telling the truth for a few moments. Masha, he knew, wasn’t ignorant despite the fact she indulged, by personal choice, in habits which were stigmatized illy by most of society as negative. In time, or through the right channels, she would’ve discovered the truth sooner or later. It wasn’t like it wasn’t public knowledge he had adopted a young human named Olivia Matthews, though a rare few felt her brother was a better choice though likely only because he was human, making Darius’ case win just a spit in the eyes of some officials higher up in the legal branch.

“Besides seeing you, Masha?” Darius asked, though his question was more of a statement. He inhaled and continued, revealing the main reasons he came to Loom in the order they were most important. “I had four motivations to come to Loom. One, as you can tell, was seeing you. The second is gain more muscle, namely to help strengthen what my own contributions on the table by calling in favors, reconnecting with old faces, and whatever means it took. The third reason was learning and possibly meeting with suspect in my estate’s current state, sating my curiosity. The last was a personal one. The perk was you cover about three of my main motivations for being here enabling me to visit my daughters, both currently located at the Academy.”

He tried to make the last reason, the personal one, the least important of the four while he continued. “Inaniae’s threat won’t go away on its own and while we have some time, how much exactly is unknown. Time is not on our side...” He remarked as he rotated on his heel, bring himself to face Masha’s sitting form. Returning to her confusion’s origin, he elaborated further on the details about his daughters, namely Olivia’s, mention. “I’m sure you’ve heard rumors about my daughter, Olivia. The one whom I won the legal adoption right for? I had assumed you knew since it caused quite a stir because of some unsavory and unreasonable concerns, those pompous officials viewed my guardianship as harmful for her future.”

Disgust laced into his tone when he thought about the accusations, unethical and ridiculous, the courts made to negate his rights to adopting Olivia. It was local news and a terrible mess, one of the few times his power failed but in the end it was an impressive victory. Especially when he won on their playing court rather than his own, denying any of them rights to overrule what their legal system had placed without toppling their empire. His eyes shifted to the clock ticking noting the time was edging to later in the day, almost midday. It didn’t feel like their conversation had lasted that long but then again, time was a fickle mistress when she wanted to be. His time to be going was drawing nearer.

"I'd heard something, but never paid it much mind." Which was normal. If it didn't directly involve Masha, she didn't pay it much attention. "I'm happy for you," she went on, surprisingly sounding like she meant it. She did have some feelings after all.

Darius smiled, genuinely, at her comment about his adoption of Olivia which made a warmth fill his core. It was clear he cherished Masha’s thoughts more than he should because it meant it could influence him more than he should’ve allowed, a matter unavoidable with someone you valued and enjoyed. “Thank you. She gives me a reason, beyond my obsession with control, to keep a tight leash in Kenan.”

She saw the glance at the clock and frowned a little. Of course she would have loved more of his time and attention, but he was right about time. "You should be going, I take it." And it wasn't about question. She sat herself up more, place the kitten back with the others. "I can call you after I talk with Crow. Perhaps have him call you to set up a time?"

“Sadly, yes. I rather not after such a long time away, but if I don’t then things can become rather messy in the future. Perhaps after this is all over, I’ll take you out for a night in Kenan.” Darius said, giving hope they all would make it through this. “So don’t plan on anything else I might snatch you away.”

He thought about her proposal, his mind ticking, before he replied. “That will do nicely, though could you have him call tomorrow. From there we’ll set up a scheduled meeting and place of neutrality we can agree on. Merely to make things more comfortable. Though it might be ideal if I changed before going much further.”

He glanced down at his suit, still noting the disarray it was in and the effect it would have on his public image. It screamed assassination on a small scale, likely a failed one. Any idea where I can acquire another suit.”

He merely asked due to the reason he knew she had good tastes and quality, a fact he often asked her opinion on his own attire back in the day. Her experience in the matter was extremely appreciated, part of him suspected it was because she liked dressing her pets’ up time to time.

"Of course," she grinned. She understood wanting to look better when meeting a potential enemy for the first time. And doing so on neutral ground. "I'll keep my plans open. Pencil things in and all. I'd almost always drop plans for you anyways."

She looked him over at his fashion question. As girly, and seemingly unlike Masha as it was, she loved clothing. And indeed, dressing up her pets from time to time. They were a reflection of her after all. They had to look good without her being right next to them. "I might have something in your size in a box perhaps," she shrugged. "Nothing too new as my current pet is a bit taller than you. Surprisingly, almost as red as you though. I'll have Bryce take a look for you."

So saying, she called his name and he was stepping in within the minute. She was right, he was taller than Darius by at least three to four inches, his muscled and lean form cover in a half buttoned dress shirt and dark slacks with suspenders hanging down his legs. His still bed tousled red hair was very fox like in color. He smiled charmingly at Darius, nodding his head in greeting. "Or if you rather," Masha went on, "I'd suggest my tailor down on Fourth and Magnolia. You mention you know me and not only will you get a great price, he'll give you his best work."

Darius' head looked at the man, his expression shift into a more business like air, yellow irises flexed and narrowed upon recent arrival. Masha always had decent taste in pets, a fact he noted well, as he absorbed the man's image from tussled red locks to casually dressed pants. It was clear what the two had been up to before his visit. The sight reminded him how fun Masha was in that area, his instinct and possessiveness flaring up a bit, when his throat cleared to speak.

"I will likely still stop by the tailor's after my meeting, regrettably it is time sensitive and delaying too much might have severe consequences. So I'll make due though I can't promise it will come back in the same condition." Darius stated in a firm tone, his eyes removed from Bryce as he carefully stepped toward Masha. His paw reached out to her free hand, lifting her wrist to his muzzle where he gently kissed her. "If you would be so kind and thank you for clearing your important schedule just for an enchanting time in your company."

Slowly he pulled away and once more straighten upright.

Bryce, for his part, didn't flinch at the fox’s look. He didn't move until Masha gestured him out. He'd been eavesdropping in the hall she knew, she didn't need to actually tell him what she needed. He just had to see Darius for himself.

Masha smiled up at Darius, standing up as he straightened to stand right in front of him, almost touching they were so close. "Like I said, I'd almost always make time for you." In reality she would likely always do it. He had been good to her, and still could be. She liked him well enough to still flirt with him even after all this time.

It was hard for Darius not to notice his core heating with Masha so close to him. It was like old times almost and his heart slightly ache to touch her, a need he respectively reined in. One thing he knew about Masha was if she wanted something, or someone, bad enough she would make her desires known.

Bryce was back a few moments later, offering a few boxes with a pressed dress shirt on top of them to Darius. "I believe these should fit," he shrugged.

"And don't worry if they get messed up," Masha added. "I'm not too attached to them or anything. Do what you need to."

Darius merely nodded and took the items from Bryce, noting his shrug but paying it little mind to it. He did smirk at Masha's addition, however, while he faced her. "I'd ask you to help me get dress but I know it would further delay me, not that I would mind the distraction. So.." He need his goodbye in a language he knew Masha might acknowledge as flattery. "Do svidaniya, lyubov'. I'll see you again, soon."

With that last word, Darius turned and departed.

Masha grinned at him at his parting words, even more so when he spoke in her native tongue. "Charming old fox," she murmured to Bryce when Darius was gone, settling down on his lap on the couch to enjoy the rest of the afternoon. Even if she was still up too early for her liking.

Juan’s pace had increased, his shoes slapping the pavement vigorously in his attempt to keep a fair distance between him and his tail. On hearing Damon’s words, his head quickly turned backwards and noted the stalkers’ number. Six. Darius, Darius… Juan inwardly chided at the low yet manageable number. The fox was underestimating him severely by sending a small number but his mind, surprisingly connecting possibilities, wondered if the earlier scorch marks had anything to do with the meager amount now chasing them. Either way he wasn’t about to bitch about it.

His lips curled into a wicked smile, answering Damon’s question with a vague answer instead of reassurance. Most stupid and inexperienced demons would’ve scrambled past him, leaving him to the foxes to be rendered to pieces, but that was what made Damon different. The shapeshifter’s interest was sparked and unless his curiosity was stated, the demon would likely stick to him for a bit. “That’s where I have to disagree with you, hun. It’s the best place to lead them to and you’ll see why in a moment.”

When he was feet from the door, his hand raised to his side. A thick, sulfuric smell filled the air and in moments his blade chain appeared within his grasp. His fingers wrapped about the blade ready to wield it. Wasting no time, his weapon ripped to his front and slashed across his other hand’s fingertips. It drew fresh blood. Wet and warm, the tar like substance oozed to the surface where it lingered there in small droplets. Juan ignored the sting licking across his mind, instead he reached out his wounded hand. In a brief, delicate stroke, he brushed the forefinger across the double doors’ center. At first it seemed nothing was there. At least until he finished the downward stroke and an arcane symbol appeared. It glowed bright gold, shimmering while it hung there for a moment. Suddenly it vanished. Absorbed into the door when Juan pressed his palms and shoved the doors away as he walked a few feet inside. Then he came to an abrupt stop.

The chimera whispered in warning. “Stay still and don’t react, Damon, until I state otherwise. No matter what.”

There was no windows within the warehouse as everything was shrouded within darkness, a pitch black seemed to drown the pair. Tick...tick… Juan counted the seconds passing by. Outside the foxes snarled and snapped, hesitate on going inside. Their confusion worsened in their waiting. Juan merely stood there in wait, never once moving. His mind still ticking down the time until the doors started to rumble quietly, squeaking open again when one of the foxes peered in. Bright, white eyes narrowed on the man’s exposed back. Its lips curled back and revealed several teeth in fury. Juan didn’t seemed to knowledge the fox was there. Driven by the lacking of reaction to its presence, the fox pushed in further, followed by the five others, and started toward Juan. Its paws gently tapped the hard concrete floor with its nails before it paused right behind him. Suddenly it lunged at his exposed back.

Juan never moved a muscle. The moment he was supposed to feel the canine teeth on his neck, his blood leaking down his neck and worse, the fox gave an ear piercing bark. Its sound vibrated off the walls and seemed to fade into the building. Shortly, it was followed by two, then three until finally the rest of the foxes had gone eerily quiet. Bright yellow light flooded the once dark building and illuminated Juan, his body turned to glimpse the image behind him. When the foxes attacked, the warehouse defenses kicked in. From key and randomized points, ten to twelve light beams lanced into each creature as they stood motionless and pinned in place. Like insects put on display. It kept them frozen in place and harmless now.

Slowly Juan stepped to the side, his avoiding the frozen prey and removing himself from the entrance. “Damon, sweetie, you can move now. It won’t active again until I reset it.”

Juan inhaled deeply, his head turned to skim the familiar mess left in his office. It was just like when he last left it. Several shelving units, mostly crude, metal structures, made basic bookcases to storage for numerous office supplies. Though unlike most people who kept just the commonly found pens, paper, and files, Juan had also had jars filled by everything from various powders to floating parts in preserving liquid, and even books written in strange languages. Most the walls, like those that separated the laboratory and bathroom, were temporary inserts. Flimsy, thin and lacking sound proof abilities which made him grateful the building’s original walls were much, much thicker. Edging to the desk in office corner, Juan reached over and flipped on a light switch. The overhanging fluorescent bulbs buzzed alive and filled the room with bright, overwhelming light everywhere.

“Now that our company is currently occupied, we can gather our supplies quickly and make our exit. Most of what we need is in the laboratory which is that way.” He said, pointing toward it, his voice included a bit more information. “Also, Damon...there might be a mess back there dearie so be careful.”

Removing himself from Juan’s shadow Damon looked over at the foxes. He could likely consume all of them in one go, it’ll take less than a second. But those lights… Damon’s sense told him he shouldn’t mess with those. At least not until he can figure out what exactly Juan just did. ”Say Juan, shouldn’t we kill them? I don’t know much about these shadow foxes, but it wouldn’t do us any good if they could return to Darius.” Though in truth Damon also wanted to eat one. Even if they were more shadow-like than actual foxes, the fact that they took on a physical form meant that Damon could consume them, and with it their knowledge and creation. Could be useful.

"I aim to but you see, hun, then I would have to shut off the only defense we currently have. I'm sure you rather enjoy your meal then have to eat, rush and likely fail getting everything we need. You know how I hate having to do things a second time when it it’s not done right the first." Juan state though he had a feeling Damon had more motives than just playing it safe. As talented as Damon could be, if he thought by consuming the foxes it would’ve given him the ability to create more than he would’ve been disappointed. It was the kitsune that made them and due to the earlier encounters with ‘Lola’ it was clear it was different depending on the individual or so he guessed. He casted the thought away, noting Damon could at least use the mass, while skimming the shelves for something. His eyes carefully monitoring the shapeshifter while his fingers reached for the first jar. It was filled with bloody feathers, their color slightly a mother of pearl and seemed to have a faded glow. Like a light struggling to keep on but would dim and die in time.

Regardless Damon headed over to the laboratory. Sure enough the place has seen better days and better organization. This wasn’t even controlled chaos as far as Damon could tell; it was like robbers just ransacked the place. Which might have happened, but one could never be certain with Juan. ”Alright Juan, what do you need and what should I not touch?” Cause Damon could use some more mass, and if he can’t get it from the foxes, he was going to help himself to some of Juan’s stuff.

Juan, as if he could read Damon's mind, added in the demon's wake one last thing. "Also, Damon, try not to consume my things unless we need to carry them. Some of them have protection sigils and others have been altered to point I have no idea what they will do to you. It might end up killing you and we can't have that, can we?"

”I’ve eaten silver before Juan. And stuff that was on fire. Hurts like hell, but I don’t get tougher by playing it safe, ya know?” Damon joked. he would be smiling if he wasn’t in his amorphous form right now, which had a lack of a face. He carefully stepped over some of the things on the ground and tried to make sense of where everything was and should be at.

“True, but something’s bound to kill you and I rather not risk it happening in my lab. I might actually miss your charming personality.” He paused in gathering, his mind thoughtfully considering what Damon might need before adding at last. "I have a little black medical emergency bag in the cabinet by the countersink. Defibrillator, heart monitor, a bag rack, and..."

He continued trying to recall Emmet's condition, making a judgement call. It seemed medical beyond mere patching was more difficult in this state, his body turned and settled against the shelving unit for a moment in thought. "Not completely sure since I'm not clear on how much the Doc can mend or heal, though it might be a good idea to replenish the bandages, stitches, and sort like that. Adrenaline might a good idea as well. By way, don't upset the giant leech in the tank on your way through. Thing's more sour than Emmet is at times. The corpse on the operation table, however, has already been stripped of the needed elements so feel free to devour that if you feel peckish."

Juan snatched a bag and set it on the table, alongside the selected jars, random equipment, and papers. He was starting to pile the gathered materials into it, namely something to help occupy his mind and enabling Kasain some breathing room without his fidgeting or worrisome form hovering over the demon's shoulder.

Damon went over to the counter and cabinets and find the items Juan had asked him to. Fairly unimpressive all things considered, since Damon had consumed these sort of things before. Still, maybe they were unique to Juan, so he consumed those for the purpose of recreating them later. Juan also told him about a leech to avoid and a corpse on the operation table. Damon noted it when he came in, but he wasn’t certain Juan was willing to let him go at it. Stepping gingerly to the corpse Damon first observed the eviscerated body. It was obvious that Juan had been operating on this person. Turning him over Damon noticed scars on it’s back; this person was once an angel. Was once an angel that is, before it’s wings were cut off. Whether or not he died an angel or fell Damon wasn’t sure. He was about to find out.

A four pairs of large clawed hands made of some sort of bone-like material bursted form Damon’s body. They worked together to grab and lift the body straight into Damon’s mouth, which he formed shortly after he created his arms to it’ll be easier for him to digest the body. One second later and Damon had consumed the body of the angel, and a flood of memories entered his head. Normally he could skip this, but he decided to enjoy the angel’s lasts moments before his unfortunate fate that got him into Juan’s hands.

In Damon’s mind, he saw a tavern. Or more like a bar, like a stereotypical biker bar. Strangely not very busy despite it being late into the hour, but Damon didn’t bother to dig further for exact details. He did see the angel however. He had his wings which poked out from his back. He seemed to be drinking alone and sad. Damon rooted around for memories and he discovered that the angel had been feeling depressed. Seemed like he was laid off his job and now was out of work. This angel seemed to once have been some sort of volunteer, or perhaps a first-responder of sorts, before he got fired. Apparently he was overzealous about handling crisis when they occurred, as more memories revealed that this angel had a bad tendency of showing up to a disaster before the rest of his team and trying to take charge, often making things worse. Damon guessed that his bosses were tired of him trying to play hero and kicked him off the force, leaving him here at the bar.

But for the angel, that wasn’t the worst of it. No, the worse was who replaced him. A human of all things. A human with no magic, no notable physical abilities, just a sob story and a desire to do something about it. Digging through the memories Damon couldn’t find much about this guy aside from what this angel had learned. The human was a homosexual, kicked out from his family, lived on the streets, got picked up by an organization that helped the homeless, and managed to get his life back on track thanks to them. A nice story to Damon, but obviously not for the angel. He felt angry that he was being replaced by a sad gay human just because he had a hard life with no skills to back it up. At least that’s what the angel figured, and Damon couldn’t really figure out what the human could do since it seemed like the angel only saw the guy once. So now the angel had a chip on his shoulder, which would explain what happened in the next scene.

Someone came inside and the angel didn’t see who, so Damon couldn’t see either. From the sound however the newcomer decided to take a seat by the angel. And that’s when Damon heard the all too familiar voice of Juan. He seemed to be flirting with the angel and trying to bed him, but the angel was getting angrier. A lot of homophobic thoughts later, and the angel just snapped and tried to attack Juan. Fight didn’t even last more than two minutes before the angel got himself gutted and left bleeding on the floor. But that wasn’t the end of it. While he was bleeding out and his vision was getting blurry, both he and Damon could feel his body getting dragged away. Damon figured that Juan was going to take the body away. The angel’s lasts memories were staring into the night skies, and a whispered prayer for forgiveness and another chance. Given his fate, Damon was going to take a wild guess that redemption wasn’t going to happen..

Damon came back to reality as the memory passed. Hardly a second went by before he returned to Juan. ”I got the stuff. You know, if it’s just plain medical equipment, I can easily make those. Is there anything in particular here we need? Like, magic stuff? Things that I couldn’t say, get by visiting a hospital for a few minutes?”

"True but that also takes mass from you, which I assume could be used in better ways. Also, I'm familiar with the machines and can easily take them apart and alter them if needed in the future. Namely with black market magitech so trying to explain them in details would be more hassle.." Juan answered, finishing up than closing his bag. "I've covered the magic aspect on my bit."

Juan didn't mention he had notes as well, merely because he knew Damon was curious and he wasn't ready to reveal his suspicions quite yet. His hand move again to the shelve and reached for a bottle, ready to replace the removed enchantment. He smirked and looked to the foxes still imprisoned over his shoulder. "Well, time to head out then. When I release this you have a few seconds while I replace it, then we need to leave. Might want to stand near them and get ready to snatch them quickly."

Nodding to Juan, Damon positioned himself to the shadow foxes. He wasn’t sure if they would notice what he was about to do with them, to to be better safe than sorry he positioned himself in such a way that he could fall down on top of them and consume them as he hits the ground. This way they couldn’t fight him effectively from the front and puts him out of harm’s way in case something goes wrong with Juan’s security measures. Frozen in place Damon was practically waiting to strike the same moment the foxes could move again. ”Ready when you are.”

Juan moved, in one hand he held the plastic bottle and the other was the heavy bag, toward the doorway. Carefully avoiding the light beams and ensnared foxes, he managed his way to the side wall. He made one last glance to Damon than with one fast swipe, he removed the invisible sigil.

"Alright, enjoy the feast."

The light beams faded as the six beasts dropped to the ground. Their muscles twitched and flickered to life, heads turned up just in time to see Damon's next move. Juan returned his focus to the doorway as his hand holding the bottle pressed and glided along the surface, his eyes following the movements while Damon finished up. The fluid was clear, invisible leaving only a lemon scent trace that it was there at all. The last touch was to pour his magic into the mark.

The moment the foxes were released they would be embraced by the mass of darkness that was Damon. His formly body produced tendrils that coiled around each fox, preventing them from falling onto the ground on their own. Instead they were pulled towards Damon’s considerable mass, who himself plummeted towards the ground. He slammed the foxes between the floor and his own tar-like torso, crushing them nearly to death. And shortly following the blunt force trauma would be the burning pain of Damon consuming them. It was not like any stomach acid or consuming fire. Damon’s digestive fluids, which he could easily produce on the surface of his body, were breaking down the shadow foxes by both their physical and magical components. Fortunately for them it was a quick process. Their bodies joined Damon’s mass the moment they hit the floor, and any pain they felt (If they could feel pain) was stopped as soon as he had consumed their heads, taking not only the mass but whatever serves as their memories and thoughts. Through the consumption of their heads Damon's discovered the source of their creation, the method to produce them himself. And while he may currently lack the means to do so, he now has the knowledge to create these very same foxes should such an opportunity present itself.

Lifting his body off the ground Damon took on his human guise, looking spick and span. He doesn’t even look like he fell on the floor. ”Thank you for the meal! Now then, we should be off, no?”

Juan’s face was now turned to Damon, his lips smirked, while he waited until the shapeshifter finished his meal. When Damon stretched off the floor and utter his thanks, he pushed off his position against the wall. “After yesterday, the least I could’ve done was offer you dinner.”

With those words, he tightened his grip on the carrying bag and headed to the door. In a gentlemanly fashion he pushed one arm out, allowing Damon to walk through first then followed him into the light. When they started off, like clockwork Zi found them just like she stated. Juan didn’t seem surprised as Damon provided the transport and they were gone, making their way towards Emmet and Kasain within the safehouse.

---

Standing outside the medbay, Zeki looked down at the man he'd just beaten into submission after the mask on him had gone horribly wrong. Zeki was ruffled, and annoyed, as the fight had ruined his suit. Still, the man had survived, and Zeki's plan was going well. Pacing down the hall, and looking at him again. The man was still muttering to himself, a sign he was still shocked from the madness the masks could bring on.

He turned to an angel by him, the same one who had reprimanded him for looking at the masks earlier.


"And how is Mr. Scott Johnson's health? Any news?"

She looked down at him, almost glaring.

"After the beating, and your delayed help, I'm surprised he's alive. We haven't sent him to the hospital, he's going to live. His mental health is recovering a bit at a time as well. Do you have to be so violent?"

Zeki sighed.

"I'm just a simple businessman. I dislike fighting at all. It's rather disappointing to me that he had to be dealt with so roughly. I was hoping he would break out of it in the time I gave him."

"Why do I think you're lying on why you waited?"


"Why DO you think I'm lying? In any case, I need to know when he'll be together enough for me to talk to him."

"Give him a little bit of rest, poor sod has a broken arm, a concussion, and a wade of madness to sort through. Oh, and some insidious seal drained him of his essence, he'll need that returned, demon."


"Racist, aren't you?"

"Mr. Glaedwine, I work for a demon in a factory that grants humans powers of angels and demons."

"For a pretty penny too, in any case, I've dealt with worse. I'll be on the phone, come get me if he gets up."

The angel shook her her head, and her wings moved similiar to a 'whatever' stance from a human throwing up their hands.

Zeki on the other hand picked up his phone, and a couple presses later, had it against his ear.

"Hey, Maria, how's business."

He moved his ear away as a torrent of yells came down the phone, in a mixture of English and Spanish. From the couple of catchable words, it seems like she was pissed he'd left her with so many customers.

"You know, most bosses wouldn't tolerate this kind of abuse."

"Que Caray! Most bosses don't leave a single employee with 12 customers at once and say 'it looks like you've got it'. Besides, your contracts are the best job security, you can't break them."

"No, I don't want to break them. I'm perfectly able. Besides, even the backlash hitting me for breaking it, how would you like to look your age?"

"... Yes sir. What do you need? I doubt it's just checking up on me, though that would have been nice 30 customers ago."

"30 customers? Wow, we hardly get 12 in a day, that new site must be working."

"Don't get your hopes up, most left when they found out your best contracts are outside of their reach. What do you need?"

Zeki sighed. "Right to the point aren't you? I need you to come to Mr. Azoth's mask factory, and-"

"HIJO DE MA-! Do you know what I'm putting up with?"

"Close the shop."

"Close the shop?"

"Close the shop."

"...Mr. Glaedwine, I've never once shut it early, not in my 20 years here. Why?"

"Maybe if you didn't yell at me, I would have told you. Pick me up a new suit on the way by the way. This one's tattered. Pity, I liked these ritz."

"What's going on?"

"You're getting a new co-worker."

"A new co-worker...?"

Silence was on the other end before Zeki hung up.

Turning back to the bed his victim was laying in, Zeki finally entered the room. The other man was conscience, and a mask sat on the bed next to him. The man looked confused.

"Mr. Johnson, how are you feeling?"

"The voices.... they stopped... What's going on!?"

"You had an incompatible mask. It's rare, but it happens sometimes. The soul inside this mask, Albelee, " Zeki tapped it with his cane "didn't get along well with you. It was ripping apart your sanity. As soon as my friend here, Azoth told me, I came rushing to help remove it. Azoth is very concerned for his customers, and I'm a friend of his. You are lucky I did helped when I did. You were at the brink."

"You saved me?"


"Well, I tried, I'm sad I didn't manage to save you sooner, if I only I could have. If I may asked, what is it you need the mask for."

"Demons! That's right, there were demons! A gang, the Dabura brothers, they were terrorizing my town, I needed the mask at all cost, they have my daughter hostage! I need that mask!"

The man reached for it, only for Zeki to swat his hand away with his cane. He was honestly tempted not to. Afterall, a human ready to go back through hell, wanting to go through the same experience again, just on the offhand chance it worked? Interesting, Zeki hadn't expected that reaction, and he was sad he had to stop it.


"Not so fast my friend. You'll only end up with more injuries."

"But I have to save her!"

Zeki put his hand up to his chin, seemingly thinking, though to him this was all a game. He'd thought out how he was going to milk it from the beginning.

"I can help you, but only if you let me."

"How? How can a businessman help against vile demons."

Zeki flashed a small smile at the man, tipping his hat with his cane. From outside the room a ghostly blue light illuminated the hall. Back inside the room, the man was shocked and stammering as he looked at Zeki, who looked completely normal once again.

"Y-you! You're not human! You're a demon too! You're one of them!"

"I assure you, I'm not one of them. I am here to help you. I swear I'll get your daugher back."

The man's fear turned to gratitude.

"Really, would you? You, you're not tricking me are you?"

"Oh, it's no problem really. Trust me, your daughter will be back by the end of the night. I'll have it done quickly, wouldn't want her hurt. I'll slay those evil demons because I'm a nice one. What is your daughter's name?"

"Julia Johnson."

Zeki finished the text.


Crow, I need a favor. A couple of demons are annoying me, could you do me a favor and have them unannoy me? They are called the Dabura brothers, they stole a human's daughter, Julia. Name the price, I'll pay you later.
~Hell's Broker

He closed his phone as he finished.

"Done. I don't expect this to take long. Would you mind if I ask a favor in return?"

"Are you doing this just to force me into doing something for you?"

"Of course not my friend. But I figured you are going to have a problem after this. With your arm like this you can hardly work. I suspect you took out a loan to pay for that mask, correct? I want to help with that too."

"How did you know that? Have you been spying on me?"

Zeki obsessively glanced back at his phone as a response came in.

"No, no, nothing like that. It was just a guess. You seem to love your daughter very much. I just suspected you did whatever it takes to help her. Right? You do love her."

"Of course I do!"


"Well, I don't want her, or you suffer for this. It was very noble of you. How would you like to work for me?"

"What could you possibly want me for? I trade stocks for a living."

"Well, as I told you, I want to help you. You do have one thing I could use though. You have a heroic spirit. I found an ancient artifact, it can only be used by a human like that."

Zeki flat out lied on that last part. Only he was suppose to be able to use the item, but he wanted to have the man feel good about himself, and he wanted it too seem like Zeki was unable to do so, not unwilling to do so. As he told him of this 'legendary artifact', so legendary that Szayeis had made it probably recently with little time or effort, he pulled out the orb from his ruined suit. As he did so and unwrapped it, yelling was heard down the hall. Definitely Maria. She probably found the angel from earlier. Maria hated angels more than Zeki did. They hadn't grant her wish when she prayed to them. Zeki, a demon, had.

He sighed, and tied it back up.


"We need your daughter rescued first anyways. My friend said he'd do it before tommorrow."

"Who is that?"


"Oh, it's one of my employees, Maria Lopez Estrada de los Reyes."

As he said that, she walked into the room, carrying a brand new suit in one arm. She had an angry look on her face.

"I'd like an explanation, Mr. Glaedwine."

Zeki spun his cane in his hand, amused at the response.


"Would you like a ticket? I believe this man wants one as well. Would you mind explaining a few things to him? I have a few matters of business to attend to. I don't expect an answer from him until his daughter is back, but might as well fill him in."

With that, Zeki got up, picked up the new suit, and left the room, dialing on his phone incessantly.

Both Maria and Scott looked at eachother, neither quite sure what to say. Zeki was always a hard man to understand.

-----

---

Darius, once more changed and crisp, straight up his tie as he walked from Masha’s home and down the steps. His shoes clipped the pavement and skirted toward the car within a few paces, ducking inside the driver's side smoothly. He had one more stop to make before addressing the meeting to come: the local police station. He wanted to see in person the efforts done to retain order within his territory. Even more, the fact some creature, a demon no doubt, had cause such hell in his area made the kitsune rather furious. Starting up the engine with a click of his claw, his fingers tightened hard on the steering wheel at the thought as Darius guided the car easily through the oncoming traffic.

His golden eyes flickered from one direction to another, being a defensive driver, while zipping into the nearest parking spot. Just outside the station was a his contact stood with a smug look. The half angel's wings were curled up and folded behind him, his blue eyes studying the fox's exiting from his brand new car. Slamming the door down quietly, Darius made his way up the stairway toward the ex-guardian angel's position. Mr. Patrick wasn't fazed or intimidated by Darius' presence but instead peeled himself off his nearby perch and started his way downwards. His shoulder brushed Darius' as his hand snapped against the suit's side, subtly slipping a small thumb drive into the fox's pocket and briskly twisted about to apologize, his steps still taking him away.

"Pardon, Mr. Cain." He called out as he flashed Darius a cheeky smile. Darius' contact barely stopped his pace while his figure shortly ducked into the nearest cop car.

Darius' look only hardened for a moment before he inhaled sharply, his body continued into the station. It only took a few hours to chatter with the chief, an old friend, then he was heading back out once more. He still had one last problem to deal with, more pressing than the slaughter of several gang members in a single district.

Sadly fox hadn’t expected his little problem to be so bold.

His paw had just turned the car into a one way lane, pulling a far distance from the police station, when something smacked into the side window. Crack! Glass immediately spider wedded and busted inward. Shards shattered and broke, flying over his side and into his face. Pain thumped into his face side as he jerked it to the side followed by another deadening sound. Another shot ripped through the car's armored plating and into his side. He could feel heat, followed by bones cracking as something small embedded itself snapped through his ribs into his heart. Terror filled him to realized was still. Completely dead.

Impulsive and survival driven, his hand jerked to the side. sending the car to grind against the guard railing. Bright sparks flew and paint smeared, the grinding sensations sending flaring movements through his body. Darius’ teeth had been driven hard into his bottom lip but his mind was on getting the hell out of there.

His paw reached out and jerked on the gear shift, hauling it backwards and foot floored the gas. The Bentley made a loud roar like a wounded lion then bolted for escape. Several more pops whipped along the rear end and left numerous bullet holes as they nearly missed him.

Part of him was grateful Olivia wasn't in the back seat during this, his teeth flashed his anger while his hand jerked the car off the railing. Shortly two sedans, their windows tilted and drivers hot on his tail materialized from nowhere. A chimera, from Darius' first glance, pulled his top half out of the rolled down window. In his hand was a modified gun pointed at Darius' head.

Not willing to let the bastard get a shot off, one hand realized from the steering wheel. It jerked up extracting a gun hidden between the seats. The weapon floated there then flicker its nuzzle behind and opened fire. Using the side and rear mirror, Darius estimated the shots perfectly. Pop..pop! The rear window exploded. Immediately the chimera crumbled, hanging , dead, from the window while the driver raced onwards.

Darius wasn't done yet. He spotted the sharp turn off into a dangerous side road called "Hellion's Spine".

Aptly named, it was a neck break and wounding road filled with sharp corners and deadly conditions. Darius whipped the shaft into neutral as he whipped the steering to the right hard. The Bentley geared her gears in protest but obeyed just the same. Her wheels drifted smoothly and turned into the crooked road from hell.

The two sedans screeched in surprise, missing the turn off. Their wheels turning to stop, reverse and follow much to Darius' amusement. He pushed further on his gas to gain what speed he could from the top of the line vehicle.

On entrance he nearly collided with the first right corner, barely missing when he jerked it left. Up the misshapen spine, he drove recklessly with his two tails behind him. His car skills showed his old skills returning when he managed to switch his front to face his attackers during a drifting corner then right it again. Gun muzzles as bullets were exchanged causing one car to veer off the unprotected side and down the several feet cliff. The sedan went up in blazes.

Darius was becoming confident he might actually get away. A mistake on his part when his car finally erupted out the exit and was slammed into by a eighteen wheeler.

It caught Darius' car on the side, flipping it off the cliff's top. Darius felt his world shift abruptly. His eyes widened in surprise as his body was slammed against the door, his body toss viciously within the driver's seat. Any windows remaining intact were now broke, their shards spilling to the right with the impact. Metal grind and squealed at being remolded in the violence.

When things finally stopped spinning, darkness rapidly filled Darius' vision.

---

Pins and needles tingled all through his fur and flesh, their tips pressing deeper until the areas were numbed soon after. It was the first thing Darius noticed on his awakening. His mind still groggy and hazy, eyes edging open to see nothing more than a blurry and mangled interior of the car. Colors and shapes mingled together, making it difficult to identify anything right away. However, minutes passing started to make things clear again.

The next thing he was aware of was the fact the seat belt pinned him to his seat. It was suspending his figure above the glass covered roof as his arms hung down, the knuckles treated to the slicing shards below. Mentally his mind was gradually taking stock of his own condition.

His inner awareness trailed down his ears, through his torso, and down to his legs where it came to rest within his feet. He noted the sensation of matted blood, various wounds and numbness all through his form. At the moment, the worse spot was around his chest area. His head, still saddled with vertigo, tilted upward to expect to see a small bullet hole in square of his chest.

That wasn't the case.

Where the hole was, part of the metal framing the window had found its way into his sternum. Blood spread throughout the once clean suit, his fangs drawn into a snarl at his state and declining day.

Darius stirred. His hands lifted weakly upward and clawed at his seat belt, though he knew the likelihood of escaping was impossible. The metal rod pinned his body against the seat preventing a clean fall onto the roof. When his mind slowly realizing this, his paws took hold of the iron bar and started to remove it.

His jaws clamped hard while his fingers wrapped about the smooth object. He gave it a sharp tug making himself flinch. The red stained pipe edged itself out only an inch after several straining moments struggling with it. That small effort was exhausting and excruciating but he couldn't leave it in. It prevented him from healing fully and so, he began to wiggle, jerk and work the end from within him. The process was made more painful as he had to peel away the closed wounds and open it once more.

While he worked, Darius mused over the odd fact by all natural physics, he should've been dead. No air, blood or more pumped through his veins during the chase's whole scene yet he was still alive. A perk of being a demon it seemed was he could survive what would've killed most.

Blood leaked from his muzzle and drizzled across his black stained lips, finally feeling the framing rip away from his body. The end gave away and it clattered to the ground.

For several moments, Darius just hung there. Blood still leaked down and stained the roof with crimson freely. It would seem like he would never move until something caught his eyes.

On the hill side, surveying the carnage below and swaying its tail in apprehension. It seemed his little problem, an upstart chimera between a dragon and human, Seth Ripper, had gotten wind of Darius' visit. It seemed he decided to set a trap. Watching eagerly for the hunt as the creature's tail flickered forward. Suddenly several young, arrogant chimeras appeared at the leader's side. Mostly werewolves, draconian, and other numerous chimeras tired of his iron grip.

Noting Darius' movement, Seth jerked his tail forward. "Git 'im."

The words echoed through the hill as twenty chimeras flooded down the hazardous trail, their claws, wings and more tearing up the terrain on their way. Darius felt a rush of adrenaline purge through his being at the sight. Immediately his claws jerked up and the shadows stirred, several formed into foxes that lounged at the first wave of chimeras. Jaws snapped and claws sliced down on dark fur and flesh alike, drawing blood.

Darius' paws found the belt, severing the cloth causing him to plop free from his seat. His eyes closed to protect themselves while glass sliced his eyelids and face. He moaned, ignoring the clashes of his fixes and the threat baring down on him, and started to crawl outside the driver side window. The shards crinkled with each push forward to the exit. In the background, his foxes one by one started dying bit by bit, their numbers dwindling while thinning out the chimeras.

Darius could smell the blood filled the air and saturated it with its thick rustic, coppery scent. On the outside he was wounded and edging his way out, freeing himself from the metal trap that was once his car.

However on the inside of his mind, Darius felt a familiar sensation edge to the surface. His fear hissed and bit, recoiling from the thing rising up from his subconscious. Screams, his own and Aeris followed by countless others, followed by vivid images from his past flooding into his head.

Darius gripped the ground harder and tugged up the gravel as he wobbled upright. The more he rose, the harder his legs threatened to give out underneath him. All his limbs shivered at the disturbing melody crying out inside his mind, echoing endlessly in a loop, making his hands twitch and jerk erratically.

Wild, yellow eyes peered at the remaining chimeras were stampeding at him. The sounds in his ears went dead silent. His muzzle curled back into a sincere smirk, wild and thirsty for blood, before the closest one lunged at him.

Darius' paw sliced forward in front of him. A loud screech came when the metal rocketed from the twisted frame, snapping free with surprising ease. A gray streak was all the first chimera saw before he crumbled. The sharpen edge was sticking from his eye, embedded only an inch deep and bleeding profusely. It howled out in pain as it stumbled back, struggling to tear the metal free, lips snarling at Darius through the miserable cries. Wasting little time, Darius closed the gap and focused on manipulating the metal. His hand furled and unfurled his fingers, bring the metal cutting deeper into flesh. It inched slowly through the beast's eye, drawing new blood and making it howl anew. The sounds echoed through the scene but seemed to have little effect on Darius’ enjoyment.

He moved past as he jerked the metal more with his telepathy. Each subtle movement and slight flicker was intending for tormenting the wolfish beast. Its painful sounds were left in Darius's wake while he moved onto the next victim, this one a more minotaur like beast. His form’s height almost double that of Darius’ as the fox’s eyes brushed from the digitigrade legs ending in sharp, split hooves up to the bulky arms and several foot long horns protruding from its skull. In one hand, it held an axe, rusted by blood and gore from its last victim. The beast bellowed a dull roar revealing razor teeth as it charged forward.

Darius merely deepened his grin when his mind focused on the next victim before him. A brief flash in his golden eyes and the bull came to a complete halt. Its muzzle briefly flatten against some invisible force. It shook its head, stunned for a moment, and failed to notice Darius’ hand reach for his own ribs. His voice hummed a familiar melody as he sank into it, his clawed hand already reached for his side and suddenly buried itself into his side. Blood poured from the fresh wound while his fingers pushed past the muscle, ripping the fibers apart until he hit something hard. A rib. Still stepping forward, he gripped the bone tightly making himself flinch at the heated pain flaring in his mind. He pushed it away easily, driving by the song in his mind, when he snapped the fragile thing easily.

His eyes watched the stunned beast shake free from the shock just as he sank his splintered rib into the bull’s neck.With the bone still lodged, Darius' knee came up into the shocked being's abdomen, knocking the breath from it. Darius grinned at warmth from the blood seeping into the skin beyond his fur. Tugging the bone free, he stabbed the head back where the spine connected with the skull. Once...twice... Each time his grin became wider. It infected his muzzle and slight foam collected at the edges, adding to his rabid actions. The target collapsed but he wasn't done.

Darius let the body drop. His foot lifted to curb stomp into the fractured skull and cracking it further, the skull almost giving away under the new pressure at where he grinded a bit. Bit by bit the bone crackled while blood, skull fragments and gray matter stained his shoe. Standing ankle deep, still bleeding, his sights moved to the last ones.

Their hunched raised at the remains of their companions’ and ceased their pace until they came to a full stop just feet from him. No longer acting like wild animals set on the hunt. Darius felt the song play louder, though he couldn't’ place the words to them. Those would come in time. The longer it played, the sooner a voice would creep into his consciousness and drive him closer to the edge. A small, meek voice trying to chase the demons of his childhood away without any success.

Ignoring his inner war, Darius’ eyes flickered dangerously between each target. His mind summoned the broken rib, the new one already replacing the old, back to his hand currently now stained with blood. Closing his eyes, his shadow shimmered and shifted like a living thing. Impatience finally got the better of one of them causing a single one to break his position. The last one whipped her head in the attacking one’s direction, her expression wild with confusion at the stupidity. Darius paid it no mind. His mind sharpened by the song, his foot taking a step back while his hand pushed out, seeming to defend himself against the teeth. The chimera never reached him. Instead it was met by Darius’ shadow stopping the idiotic animal in his tracks. Two foxes leapt halfway out, their jaws snagged on the wolf beast’s hind legs and tore him back into the ground with extreme force. Sadly, unlike the foxes who materialized back in the shadows flawlessly, the beast was solid mass. Bones cracked, tendons shattered, and muscle was easily ripped crippling the chimera in a smooth move.

The shadow created by Darius’ hand shivered.

It all happened so fast. One moment there was imaginable pain and next, there was a numb, deadness within the beast’s senses. Slowly beast’s eyes lowered his blood spotted muzzle to his chest. His eyes widened in horror at the chest hole, starting off small and growing wider out the back. Weakly twisting his head about, he spotted the crimson shadow fox smirking back at him from behind. It shook his blood off as the chimera realized he couldn’t sense his back attached to himself anymore and toppled over. Shaking and trembling, Darius casually stepped over the quivering mass towards the last one.

She bolted creating a reason for Darius to smile at her retreating tail. His eyes rose to the figure still standing upon the slope’s top, Seth glaring down in full hatred for several minutes until he too, took off. At the chimera’s departure, his foxes no longer sensing his essence, Darius’ figure finally gave out. He crumbled into a ball. His claws holding his head and digging in deeper to purge his mind of it, withering in the echoes shaking his sanity like the cub he once had been. This continued for a few more hours, ending when he finally fell into the peaceful darkness of unconsciousness.

Rains were heavy in the air all around her. Moisture stuck around and weighed it down within the stone corridors, there was little escaping the wetness left behind in the wake of the erratic patterns since spring. Outside, though she couldn’t see it, clouds seemed to tumble and gathered overhead where they loomed over Loom’s Public Cemetery . Their swirling, grey masses seemed to to have a mind of their own hovering over the little cemetery. Waiting and watching, the seconds crawling forward when the time it due to happen drew closer. It seemed fate intended to hide it from the very prying eyes of Heaven’s ruins above which made the necromancer muse briefly, her dread lock head rested against the nearest wall and leaned harder. Mist had started to form and create a chill. Any creature, human or beyond it, could tell it wasn’t natural. To most, it added in casting an eerie sensation throughout her territory. It made spying quite difficult when the mistress in this world didn’t allow it. Even the shadows would only hear what she wanted them to and to the outside world, this graveyard was completely empty.

Things were changing, her mind knowing deep inside, as it seemed the change in weather pattern proved it. Loom had been without a weather angel for a long time and now, the city was paying the price since there wasn’t anything to regulate the rains or detour the harsher weather. Afua took a moment to listen to the scritching and scratching noises made by hidden beasts in dark corners, her mind enjoying the fear flooding her human instinct to run and flee. Rarely had things that went bump in the night ever scared since she became involved. Still, it was fun to indulge in the human emotion she had long forgotten and glanced to the side on seeing a figure emerge from the eerie fog. His steps echoed through the stone architecture and shattered the serenity of the place, betraying his presence to her. Afua had crossed her arms over her middle, dressed in a low cut, form fitting shirt and low rider jeans, her head turned to his direction.

A light, sickly green glowed from a wand at his hand as his pace neither changed or was influenced by the increasing sounds of movement all around the pair. On exiting the thickest area of the fog, she studied his image quickly. Man in his late twenties or early thirties with white hair, dark circles under his steel grey eyes, and lanky in figure. He was dressed in older fashion clothes compared to Kenan style which likely would’ve made Macros and Ames feel a little homesick for the old days. At the thought of the pair, she let her smile deepen then pushed off the wall to stand upright for the transaction.

Her boots not affected by her illusion, she started to meet the man halfway and stopped just within conversation distance, “It be lovely weather, don’t you think?”

When she spoke, everything went still.

James smiled and glanced about. “A tad too wet for my tastes, but it has its appeals. Madame Sane, I presume. I am James and I’ll be Sir’s representative in this meeting.” He bowed in her direction. “Given your reputation, I’m not surprised we’re here. I am surprised that it’s abandoned however. Did you evict the previous owners or did you find it like this?” As he spoke his eyes scanned the area around them, looking for signs of betrayal. It wasn’t fear that made him do this, simply prudence. He had been alive long enough to realize not everyone had his manners, eloquence, and decency. The tip of his wand made small, circular motions in the air. He was excited. Ashley has failed, but she had always been too trusting of children. Too easily able to assume they were her long dead students she had failed to protect. Now though, with the necromancer’s help, getting Olivia from the grasp of the Musician College should be fairly easy. And then, Mary will come out of guilt and Sir will have two subjects. All in a nice little package. He thought.

“I be like my privacy, James. Namely because it makes creating my little...pets easier. As for the state, this place be assumed haunted after all and I be tend to keep it that,” Her eyes studied his head swirling about and seeming to seek something, making her smile curl more. She put her lips together then let out a soft, inaudible whistle.

In the hazy background, thousands of bright yellow eye pairs emerged and shadows shifted enough to turn to the human’s direction. “Like yourself, I am over cautious. So… unless you aim in harming my impressions of you and end this deal, you need not be so nervous.”

Her voice was sweet in her reply as she bent down, her hand reached to level with the ground where something fat and ugly scurried quickly into her grasp. It was a rat. The fur worn away and revealed the muscles, tendons, and intestines under the partly rotted outside. An eye looked to have been ripped from its socket showing the interior of the white skull and rancid stank emitting from it. Turning its head, it seemed to give James a toothy smirk while Afua held it and gently stroked its disfigured back while lifting it upright. The spine made the once smooth back squish with each movement across the ridge bone sticking out.

“So, I take it Sir be agreeing with my terms?” She said sweetly, still petting the filthy pet.

James chuckled, glancing at the hordes of eyes and Afua’s disgusting pet. Yes, she’ll do nicely. “I’m not nervous, my dear. I’m simply prudent. You and I both know that these meetings have a nasty habit of suddenly turning violent due to one thing or another. While I highly doubt you will be so crass as to actually do that, it never hurts to be safe. And yes, Sir agreed to your original terms. Then things…changed.”

Afua nodded her head, her braids bobbed in her gesture and her finger continued to trance the rat’s spine. Gently she transferred the beastie to her shoulder where her eyebrow raised on mention of change. She didn’t seem to like that notion at all as it meant complications and things often become sticky after that, harder to detangle when needed. Patiently she waited for the man to finish, letting her arms cross over her front while her right hand idly toyed with a dragon pendant on her neck base. “I be listening.”

James’ wand began to glow brighter. “Sir is willing to offer you unlimited access to one of his burial pits. The dumping grounds for all of his victims and pieces of them. There are quite a lot of them, I must say. Human parts, dead animals, whatever materials you need, you can probably get. In return, Sir wants you to help me and several of my companions recover a girl that has escaped his grasp. There is one slight problem, however. The girl is being kept in the Musician College and appears to have endeared herself to several of the more powerful inhabitants there. The Kasio siblings in particular.” James clapped his hands together, keeping a careful grip on his wand. “So! Do you accept our offer for one simple pick up?”

The woman was quiet. Her mind absorbing the details and seemed lost in thought, recollecting any information she knew about the Kasio siblings. Or at least what he had told her. It was clear she didn’t like where this addition was heading and her lips frowned, inwardly debating on the risk. It was hard enough to gain new materials without exposing herself, even harder were graveyards with a wide range of corpses from animal to human to piece together. Most the pet cemeteries were picked clean by her midnight raids that her little pets had been forced to bring back fresher corpses. She bit her lip a little longer before her reply came.

“Musicians be quite dangerous, James. Especially those sent to police the world after all and if this child has managed to befriend them, be the risk really worth it? Who be this girl that’s so important to Sir to attempt a dangerous venture?” Afua’s eyes narrowed on his clasped together hands and continued, “My forte be not direct combat, but illusion and sending my little ones to the task. I won’t be risking my life, even for an over generous offer. Though the best I be willing to do be setting the stage and aid from the sidelines. Acceptable enough? To even the deal, I’ll take a cut in access to the grave in exchange for less involvement.”

James watched Afua weigh the risks. She was a cautious one, something he could appreciate. “Everyone in this world is dangerous nowadays Afua, you must know that. Musicians are simply the most dangerous humans. Sir’s mind is his own. All I know is that he wants this Olivia badly, and we will get her for him.” James grinned. “Our offer still stands, however. We never expected you to fight the Musicians toe to toe. That will be our job. All we request is your help in distracting her guards and delaying them if necessary. One of ours will be fast enough to get Olivia and get out in time, especially with our help. It should be a quick operation, provided nothing goes horribly wrong. Something will go wrong, I expect. These are the Kasio siblings and musicians we’re talking about. But as long as we delay them just long enough, a few minutes at most, we should be able to then leave as quickly as possible.”

He held out his hand, the one without the wand. “So, do we have a deal?”

“Olivia Matthews… interesting,” Afua said gently, almost seductively in tone, as she gently patted the undead rat on her shoulder. It nuzzled her and scrambled across, moving to the other side. The beady, red eyes glared at the man when he held out his hand, making it hiss. Afua chuckled kindly and added more something to her rider, her eyes hiding something. “I wonder, pet… is this a happy accident?”

It screeched and backed up on hind legs, what was left of the rat’s nose and whiskers twitching then edged to her ear, seeming to whisper. “I agree, my pet, it seems so.”

Her head turned to the man and let her smile return, her hand edged to reach out, “One thing I might add is if you see the brother, don’t underestimate him. He won’t allow his little sister to be taken easily should he show up. So with that in mind, I might suggest you give a location where I can set the field in our favor. Than my pets and your companions can lead Olivia there. After all, we can’t have the Sanguine tracking the pair back to your master’s lair, do we? At least not before he’s gotten what he wants.”

Her hand raised to shake and paused, just a bit out of reach, to endure her words were included, “If you agree to that, we’ve got a deal.”

James kept his grin in place and didn’t show any reaction to Afua’s use of Olivia’s last name. On the outside. This, this might be a problem. We’ll have to keep an eye on her, make sure Sir doesn’t lose his test subject before he’s good and ready. “I can promise our location to be set in our favor, but only one person will be taking Olivia to Sir in Loom. She’s very fast you see, and more than capable of taking the girl to Sir in under a day. Sir wants Mairyell to follow. He wants both Kasios and others to follow, in fact. Some grand plan he hasn’t informed me of yet. If you’re worried about the brother tracking Sir down, don’t. Mairyell won’t find Sir until he wants to be found. Sir has been watching Mairyell for these last two hundred years, and Loom is smothered in Sir’s magical stench. Kasio trying to find where Sir resides would be like trying to find a magical needle in a magical haystack. Not to mention the harassment that would happen when they enter our territory. Enough of an Agreement?”

Afua eyes sharpened slightly, she could guess James had noted the little ‘mistake’ though it wasn’t his reaction that betrayed him. Rather it was the total opposite and it meant he misunderstood something, on a grave level. She chuckled some to let the man finish, slightly amused by his reaction, then took his hand. “Very well. It matters little to what happens to Darius’... pet. So don’t be misunderstanding it’s her I be caring about. Besides, you can’t expect you’re the only one that does his research, can you? Considering you’ve already mentioned a fail attempt, not to mention what my sources tell… It’s not hard to put the dots together.”

She lingered her hand in the shake a bit, her nails biting into his flesh, as she locked their eyes. It wasn’t hard to see there was more to this but she wasn’t telling. Finally she released her grip and retracted to pet the corpse sitting on her shoulder, watching his reaction. Her arms returned to fold across her middle in a casual stance. “Now, if you be want me be useful then you might want to show me where be setting up my illusions, shouldn’t you?”

"Ah... This brings back memories."

Noel looked around the academy. It had been so long since he's been here, and yet it was both familiar and strange. New faces, new sights, but that old school feel. Noel himself certainly stood out, looking like a character straight from a fantasy. Like he was a twentith level bard or something. Hew earned some starts and shot back a charm of his own, earning some giggles and laughs. It was nice being back, but he was loath to staying. He rather liked his independance and couldn't really agree with the notion of being a glorifed hitman. But perhaps things have changed?

That's when a student came up to Noel. He had a message asking Noel to head to the Essence's office. The student didn't know what for and he didn't ask, so Noel was going in blind. If he wanted to run away this would be the best time to do so, but he elected to stay. He had to report his actions in after all, plus he wanted to check in on Olivia. As it stands he was the only one who knew about her magic and if he was going to leave her mind, he'd at least want to make sure she could take care of herself first.

Only getting lost once on the way to the Essence's office, Noel reached the massive door. He wondered why Hazumi would want to see him. Lily perhaps, she was the headmaster after all. Or at least he thinks she still was. He honestly hasn't been keeping track of the academy since he left, so who knows what has happened here. Takinga deep breath and knocking loudly on the door Noel made his presence known. "This is Noel."


Hazumi was expecting him, and so was a teapot with two cups on each side of the coffee-table. For once Hazumi had decided to ignore her duties for a while and sit there instead – she needed some energy.

“Hello Noel.” She greeted cheerfully despite the tired note in her voice. Standing up she gestured to the couch across. “Please, take a seat. Glad to see you're doing well for yourself.”

Bowing his head at Hazumi Noel placed his Fragment behind the couch. He allowed himself to relax, but also made sure he didn't come off as disrespectful in Hazumi's presence. No need to be a slob after all. "I'm glad to see you well Hazumi. I would hope that these past few years haven't been more stressful than usual?" Twas just a conversational peice, as he knew these past few yeasr have been hard on everyone. Hazumi was no different, despite the power she held inside herself. If anything it only made things even more difficult.

"Ah ha ha ha, what am I saying? We're all working hard. But that's life."

“Indeed.” Hazumi smiled. Each of them had their own little duty – she was coping with gods while Noel and the musicians were making sure the weak and vulnerable were protected. After all, not even a demigod could have her eyes on everything at the same time and the graduated musicians were practically the extensions of herself that kept an eye on the small picture.

“I'd like to congratulate you on rescuing Olivia Matthews. You might not realise it but your actions have probably saved more than one person, possibly even preventing a demon war, though there have been casualties.” She stirred her tea and took a long sip, her eyes evaluating the young man in front of her. He seemed different than last time she saw him. His face had lost most of its boyish softness and there was something mature in his eyes, though the passion for adventures was still clearly visible in his attire. “I was wondering if you'd managed to get any remotely useful information about the assault.”

Taking a sip from the tea Noel listened carefully and tried his best to remember what had happened. "Well... I will be honest when I say that saving Olivia was not my original intention. That is, I was simply on patrol when I came across her, trapped inside a house. The windows and doors were being blocked by some sort of web-like substance. I could not get a good view of whoever was the one who kidnapped her. My first priority was to save her, which I gladly did." While Noel didn't exactly plan on saving Olivia, he was looking for such a siotuation to get himself involved in. He's now accepted that he's part of Olivia and whatever trouble she's in now. There was no backing out for him, even if it was an option.

Recalling other memories Noel involved Hazumi the best he could. "As you may know, one of my magical abilities involves divining knowledge from others. I did this on Olivia to see if I could identify whoever had taken her, but it seemed that she was stolen by someone who could hide their identidy. She was fortunate enough to have temporaily stun her captor shortly before I had come across her. Beyond that I only know as much about her captors as Olivia does. As I said, my first priority was to ensure her safety. I never bothered to figure out who took her in the first place." Noel informed Hazumi solmnly. In hindsight he should have returned to the scene after Olivia was whisked away by Aeris, but somehow get himself entangled with a meeting with Aluvia the Weather Angel.

"I take it that Olivia's relationship with the figure known as Darius has something to do with this demon war you spoke of? I'm familiar with the name and Olivia told me she is a close family member of his. I discovered this much when I was trying to dicern what the motivation behind her kidnapping would have been. There's also the matter of her..." Noel hesitated for a moment. He shouldn't have mentioned that. Olivia's powers probally weren't important, and it's not as though Noel knew enough about it to tell Hazumi more. He had to finish his sentence however so he switched out his topic. "Brother. Enalias. She has told me that he has gone missing, and worries about him. I suspect that he may have dropped off the radar to pursue Olivia's captors, and without any way to contact him, he may have found himself in a dire situation in which he needn't be involved in."

Hazumi sat and listened, appreciating that Noel was being as through as possible. It was disappointing that he didn't know much about the incident. Then again, the matter was largely solved as Olivia was safe and Darius was surely working his magic already on finding out who was behind it all. While the mention of the girl's brother going missing was unfortunate, it hardly held any importance to her. “Darius is indeed one of the players in this game and we'd be right to try and prevent him from acting all on his own. While the man does a good job at keeping the peace in Kenan, he has a specific way of doing so which involves a degree of... pressure. Given how we don't have much to go on, I think we should leave him do some part of the investigation while we try to beat him to finding the culprit. I wouldn't trust him with the life of the man who abducted Olivia.” Hazumi took another sip of tea, contemplating for a moment. When she set the cup down, her eyes locked with Noel's and her tone was serious.

“The woman who abducted Olivia survived. She is no longer at the site where you left her but she is a lead we can use. Noel, can I ask you to lead the investigation on our part? I think our chances are good to get to the person behind all this.”

Noel was... Surprised to say the least. Hardly here for a day and he's already been given another job. He supposed that it would make sense however. A Musician's work is never done. "I'd be honored to. Olivia was taken from the academy, and I would like to do all I can to ensure that no one else suffers a similar fate." Admitidly a bit nervous, Noel swallowed his fear and accepted the job nonetheless. He was their best lead so far after all, and it's not like he had anything else to do.

“I will give you the coordinates of Olivia's abductor's current position. If she doesn't move too quickly you will be able to catch up with her. And then, I want you to find a way to get a sample of her essence. You don't have to fight her, I'd prefer it if you don't raise any suspicion. Set up a trap and bleed her or find a way to have her touch your Instrument and whisk a strand away. I don't need much but I need it fast. Once you give me the sample I'll be able to determine the individuals she meets on a regular basis based on the residue of essence over hers. With any luck she'll be an accomplice and not just a mercenary, in which case tracking her master will be easy enough. Of course.. if things get serious, you should try to apprehend her, as long as you're not risking your own safety. I'd rather we use the element of surprise and don't tip off the mastermind but your safety comes first.”

"Of course, Hazumi. I am, if nothing else, full of surprises." Reading the mind of Olivia's abductor would be easy enough for Noel, but to extract something from her to scan for essence... A bit harder, but nothing he can't accomplish with time and preperation. It may take him days, if not weeks, but the more he can discover the better for the academy. He just hopes he won't be too late.

His eyes closed, body in chair, Kasain was at peace. His patient hadn't moved, and so he had not had to act during the absence of his allies. He sensed their return, his placed needles notifying him that their essences had crossed the boundary. Then senses he barely had noted something else, further away, far outside of what he was normally able to sense.

Eyes snapping open he made a call to one of Crow's men, and then rose to his feet, hiding his phone. Whether Juan liked it or not, they needed to leave this hideout in favor of a safer locale. Walking towards the door, Kasain waited a moment for their final approach then opened it. "Welcome back, get packed up, we're not staying long," there was a fierce look in the demon's eyes, his fingers twitching at a feverish pace so it looked like waves rippled through his body as the twitching spread.

This wasn't good.

Juan was the first to exit the car. His hand reached out and clicked the handle, releasing the thick door before pulling out with the bag in his other. He pulled out and let it slam behind him carelessly, unworried about the sound. The main reason why was because he was pretty sure Kasain would've noted their arrival by now. Either by the sounds of the car pulling up, the loud slam or totally different methods altogether, he couldn't be completely sure. The doc was a mystery to him for the most part after all. Juan didn't bother waiting to see if the other two would follow him when he casually walked his way to the door. In the back of his mind, he was coming up with excuses to why he allowed the stray kitten to tag along. Each step he was rehearsing his words, replaying the possible scenarios and finally bracing for the worst outcome.

It only took a few minutes until his figure halted at the safehouse's door, his hand readily reached out only to spot the door already open before he touched it. Immediately, his hand jerked back and his eyes met with the doctor currently in the frame. His eyebrow arched at the demon's state, questioning if Kasain hadn't gone insane. His eyes looked past the wiggling flesh mass, spying Emmet still motionless on the bed and seemingly alright. Though he couldn't know for sure without inspecting him briefly.

For now, he blinked at the words uttered, unexpected by the doctor. The hairs on Juan's neck rose in alarm, the words echoing in his head. Something wasn't right. That much Juan could tell as he cautiously padded in, watching the demon's eyes like a hyena watched a lion. The deeper he went into the safehouse, the whiter his knuckles had gotten when it tightened on his bag. It turned them ashy gray practically while his mind turned back to their uninvited guest. His eyes twisted back to glimpse Zi, noting her location, and likely getting into a rush to Emmet's side if she hadn't already. His head turned back to reply directed to the doctor. “You look terrible Doc, didn't rest well I take it? Maybe I should've tucked you in before I left. ”

He left little time for an answer and moved onto the next one, taking a step inside. His thumb gestured toward Zi, his tone casual and pleasant, while he attempted to lessen the damage his recklessness started. “We have an uninvited guest. She goes by the name of Zi and before you ask we didn't have much of a choice as disposing of her would've been attention getting and telling her no was impossible.”

He strolled over to Emmet, adding another question he knew only the doc could answer fully. “Considering how much trouble we went through to stabilize him the first time, is it wise to move him?”

Zi was still standing at the door and in front of the doctor. Her mouth was dry with worry and her shoulders had started a slight tremble the moment the door had opened and her senses had caught glimpse of Emmet. She couldn't tell without concentrating what his exact condition was, and she didn't want to risk putting her abilities on display so she let go of her control over the silvery mist of essence that had entered the room before her, letting it blend in with the surrounding air and willing herself to stop prying. She didn't know who this demon was, but Juan had made it clear he was in charge of Emmet's condition and while she didn't respect Juan, she was wise enough to listen to his words.

She saw Juan snake past the demon and approach Emmet, but let him talk and didn't follow. She had been quiet the whole while, her eyes darting between the bizarre doctor and the place where she could see Emmet lay. All she wanted was to dash past him and to Emmet's side, wrap her arms around him and make sure nothing bad could befall him anymore. Her heart was struggling to keep a steady beat as she spotted the blood and her trembling became more visible. She'd forgotten all about Damon and how he tried to assault her earlier, none of it holding any meaning at the current time, neither his threat, nor her exposed back.

“I'm his friend. Can I please approach him?” She croаked, her throat full of glass that her voice caught on. Her eyes were pleading on the doctors', willpower barely keeping her from collapsing into a miserable weeping heap.

"Hold yourself together Zi. We already have one guy laid out, we don't need two." Damon said jokingly. The moment he came inside after consuming the car, he could feel the tension in the air as thick as cement. He guessed that Kasain said something that made Juan's natural paranoia go up, not helped by the fact Zi's here. Damon still wasn't sure what Zi's relationship with either Emmet or Juan is, aside from "Very close and very beligerant" respectively. He returned to his true form walking inside the hide out, taking note of anything out of the ordinary. Well, more so anyways.

"What's going on, doc? Base been compromised already?" As far as Damon knew, their base was safe enough as it is. Perhaps not exactly the best hide out, but as long as no one knew they were here they should be fine... Unless someone's figured out their location. "If it's about equipment, me and Juan took care of that. If we're moving Emmet anywhere, it'll only be when he's ready to start walking on his own. Can't have him keel over just because we disregarded our own orders for him to get some rest."

Kasain's jaw tightened as Juan strode past him to survey his patient. His teeth ground together and his eyes only briefly noted Zi's presence. Even as she asked him a question he turned away, ignoring her. However, he did move out of the doorway, allowing her entry. "His state is fragile, but if we don't move him, I suspect that within the next two hours all of us will be dead," the doctor said, his voice filled with the kind of tension only brought forth by a form of panic. Luckily, Kasain wasn't normal and panic only drove him to action. It was not debilitating like it was to some, but that didn't mean there wasn't a feeling of absolute dread coursing through his body.

"I'm surprised you didn't notice it on your way in, but then again...I noticed it only just now. We're lucky, because whomever somehow managed to track us here and start towards us is currently being interrupted by someone else. I don't know who they are, who they work for anymore than any of you, but this place isn't safe." The doctor's hands were grasping at air, clenching and unclenching almost reflexively, desperately wanting to do something.

Then he got an idea. All his movements stopped as he closed his eyes. All the vermin in the area, including homeless people, demons, humans, and any angels that had somehow found themselves on the streets, were suddenly assailed by his essence. Telekinetically dozens of needles moved from his labcoat and flew out the still open door, disappearing into the night air. They began to strike out at choice targets, primarily humans. Once he'd gathered at least eight his essence was pulled to the anchored needles and sent through the bodies they had pierced. He began commanding the individuals to gather nearby.

He was the FleshShaper's protege, one of the oh so few who had not only survived, but had picked up enough of the former lord's skills that if he put his mind to it he would be considered equally a threat. He would assemble something from the raw materials of the humans he had just gathered, turning their bodies into a support structure for Emmet. The others wouldn't like it. It would certainly be disgusting, that was for sure, and he got the feeling that the woman, Zi, would find it absolutely horrible.

He intended to return the people back to normal later. He didn't want to get on the radar of the Peacekeepers. "Don't move him, I'll take care of that, just pack up whatever we need from this place, make it look like we were never here. Clean off any blood, remove any trace of our essence you can, Juan...Damon. We need to leave as soon as possible. The longer the wait, the more likely we are to be tracked again." He couldn't believe he'd been so foolish as to think he had gotten off scott free. With his old friend there was always a catch....

Juan didn't like how fidgety Kasain was becoming the longer he talked. Even less when his needles suddenly began to float in mid-air then shoot towards the open door, vanishing into several directions from his sight. Wondering what had made the demon say what he did, he let himself relax and spread his senses over the place. A chill, dark and familar essence, shook his very core when he came to realize why Kasain was so terrified. Immediately all color drained from his face as he snapped his head toward the doctor, there was stress within it and his earlier flirting escaped his tone. "Fine, but you have some questions to answer later."

He turned to Damon. "You absorb the sheets, equipment attached to Emmet, and the bloodied needles. Leave nothing behind that's been into direct contact with Emmet, me or yourself. If it can't be moved without looking out of place, just wipe it down with chemicals found in the safehouse. That includes the counters, sinks, toilet, and more. Make it look like we never arrived else we'll be seeing a old friend from this morning."

His body turned to Zi next, his eyes studying her for a moment, then turned to the fridge. "Zi, there's several blood bags in the fridge filled with Emmet's blood. I need you to take the cooler in the bottom drawer and fill it with the plasma, blood and more then wipe it down. Then take it outside with my bag." As he said that, he pushed the bag into her hand and turned her about toward the fridge.

Meanwhile he went about his own task and that was to wipe down any enchantments placed. Easy since he knew exactly where each was placed and to most demons, very few would draw attention to them. Sadly, he believed the demon from this morning was much different. His hand retrieved a rag and bleach, something to easily destroy and wipe away the essence, pouring the liqud into the rag's surface before doing a hasty wipe over the fridge's surface. His body rushed to the door next, repeating his earlier gesture. Several times over the walls, doors, and even the table, he wiped them all down leaving no trace. Finally he wiped down his hands with pure bleach as it peeled off any possible remains from his hands. It stung like hell but he didn't seem to be phased by it in the least.

Zi had sank next to Emmet, not knowing how she got there. Her hand reached out gingerly to stroke his cheek, the skin underneath feeling cold as stone. The feeling scared her and she pulled back. Her eyes were running over his beaten body but her mind refusing to process what she saw. Perhaps it was the only way she could keep herself from breaking down completely. Relief and dread were raging inside her in a whirlwind that was confusing and brain-numbing. She didn't care about anything that was said, not even when she vaguely noticed the urgency with which the men began moving. All that mattered were Emmet's closed eyes and the fact he was breathing.

She was done. All the energy that was driving her here, the energy that threatened demons or killed or evaded them evaporated and left her a hollow shell. Hearing her name snapped her out of the trance but didn't return the feeling to her numb fingers. She gave Juan a blank stare before getting to her feet and doing as instructed. She took the bag and went to the fridge.

The sight of all the blood, the blood of her Emmet, upset her stomach and almost made her vomit but she feebly managed to retain some control. She reached out and got a blood bank which made a weird sound as it slipped right in between her fingers and hit the floor. Luckily it was strong enough not to burst so Zi apologised under her breath and continued working on her task. She was resigned to whatever would happen from now on. All she wished was for all this to be over soon. It had to be.

Sighing, Damon got to work. Covering his tracks was something he learned to do; had to otherwise he'd constantly be pestered by musicians and vigilantes. His body stretched out and started to absorb or clean various objects and surfaces. If he had to guess, whoever was on their tail could track them through Essence. "Always essence. Why couldn't they just use DNA or something?" If he didn't think it would leave him evidence of himself, he would have simply consumed the entire room (Sans the inhabitants of course) and recreate everything to leave no evidence. But that was time consuming and he needed to finish this ASAP. At least his amorphous body allowed him to work on everything at once.

Cleaning up after Emmet was going to be a bit of the hard part, seeing that he was still attatched to most of his equipment. But if Juan said to do it, Damon assumed it would be safe to do so. So he started to consume the various equipment Emmet was attached to, and once he was moved Damon would also consume the bed and replace it with a different one. Damon did the same with the needles, but also took note of the blood samples he was absorbing. Not quite the same as absorbing a whole person, but if there wasn't anything left in the stains Damon would get an idea of what it was. If they were going to meet Mr. Shadow man from earlier today, Damon wasn't about to face him down with the same set of skills he had before.

As for the cleaning Damon wiped the place down, but he also added a layer of dust. It was there when Damon first arrived, so putting it back would make it seem like no one disturbed it in quite some time. He didn't just get rid of evidence; Damon was practically reversing time, or at least something similar. Once he was finished getting rid of any evidence that they were here Damon returned to Juan.

He spoke softly so that only Juan could hear him. "Don't you think it's a bit odd for Kasain to just now notice that we've been followed? I understand that we should always be on the move, but something tells me Kasain knows more than you about who's following us, how they're doing so, and why he hasn't told us if you haven't figured it out already." Damon didn't quite share Juan's rampant paranoia, but he still doesn't like walking into traps. As far as Damon cared Kasain was supposed to be helping Juan, but that could easily be used against his friend if his "Help" required them to be at his mercy. To be powerless against his suggestions, and that's not how Damon operated.

Juan sensed, more than saw, as Damon settled down to 'help' him. Listening to the shapeshifter, he peeked behind his shoulder briefly to see where Zi was. The white haired woman seemed to be running on fumes compared to her earlier spark, namely when she tried to choke him, and looked like a pitiful shadow of herself. In the past, it never occurred to him if she was a threat... At least until recently. Now he wasn't so sure.

Any more thoughts were put on pause as he returned his attention to Damon, catching the concern. "I don't doubt that, Damon. I figured that since the incident at Darius but I'm not interested in history's details. My worry is more about how much danger being around Kasain will mean for us. After all, he didn't have to warn us and easily taken Emmet and left. For now, getting out of here ASAP should be our main focus because if that thing catches up with us, it likely won't matter anymore."

Juan had finished up marring the essence before Damon absorbed the remains, he stood upright and gestured kindly for the shapeshifter to get rid of the rest. "Now to get our friend's ass in gear."

Bearing in mind they all needed to focus on surviving, Juan casually walked over to Zi. His figure standing over her as he spoke. "You know, moping won't keep him alive."

His eyes closed, Kasain could clearly hear Juan and Damon's conversation. Had they not had a deadline he would have had words for the two, but for now there were more important things, which desired his attention. Namely the flesh-construct he was creating out of sight outside. He finished around the time that Juan had done his work over of the room.

The Doctor's eyes shot open and he strode to the door, placing all four of his arms on either side of the frame and then promptly, and unceremoniously, pushing the wall straight off of the building. There was a loud creaking sound, accompanied by a sloshing and churning of flesh as something stopped the wall's descent, laying it gently onto the ground. The monstrosity then walked to the edge of where the house's floor met the sidewalk. Kasain turned, his mass back to normal, and strode over to Emmet's bed. Unlike Juan, his voice was not gentle when he spoke to Zi, "Rise, make yourself useful. You can grieve when we're all alive and assured we will be living for the next few days, rather than just the next few minutes."

If she rose and moved aside he would bother her no further, but if she did not, then his arms would pull her to her feet, and shove her away, likely into Juan. Either way he would get to Emmet, use his four arms to lift him from his bed, as gently, and fluidly as one might the most fragile of infants, before he totted him towards the massive hole he had rent in the house. Anyone who attempted to get in his way would not merely be shoved aside, but incapacitated with one of his needles in a deft movement that would make one think their eyes were betraying them.

One did not simply get in the way of the Doctor and his patient.

Unmolested or not, Kasain would reach the monstrosity. Not even flinching as it almost lunged forwards, Kasain lifted Emmet, allowing the construct's mass to melt and churn over him, before solidifying. His eyes turned to Juan in the next moment, the beast having retracted from over and around him--leaving more bloody stains on his labcoat. "Juan, two bags of Emmet's blood, now." He reached his hand out, "Too slow and I'll use a needle to make you get them." There was an intensity in the demonic Doctor's eyes that refused to be ignored. It was not insanity, and it was not delight like the others had seen when he was working before. No, it was intense, unyielding will, and it was not something to protest against.

Zi's eyes snapped at Juan as he spoke to her. She hadn't even realised she'd returned back to Emmet's side and the man's words did little to clear her glazed-over eyes. It was clear she found it hard to care about anything right now but as the walls were pushed aside the noise of the building's protests made her return to her senses somewhat. She stared in disbelief and as the doctor approached her, she stumbled over her feet to get out of his way. She did trust him, after all, and the words he spoke made it clear enough that it wasn't a good idea to just stand around.

She took a better grip of Emmet's resources, trying to ignore the ghostly cold his blood exhumed, trying not to think about how soon it could be the only living thing left of him. As Kasain took hold of Emmet and carried him to the door, she quickly followed. Then as she reached the door, her breath caught.

On instinct, as soon as she saw the construct, her magic snatched at the essence around and pulled it towards her and Emmet. To a very perceptive demon or human, it would seem like the air in the room froze for a second before rushing towards her and condensing in a tough, if make-shift shield. It stood between Emmet and the construct in an attempt to protect her beloved. Of course, it wasn't strong enough to stop the whole thing and it was quick to crumble. The woman let out a tiny squeak as it did, but before she knew it, the thing was melting away, absorbed by the doctor and the patient.

This doesn't make sense. Zi stared as she slowly straightened her back, shock clear on her face. Then realization snapped back and she imagined how odd her behaviour might seem to those who did not perceive essence well. Hopefully everyone in this room. Getting her wits back, she quickly, tried to cover what she'd just done by turning to Juan. “Did you mention someone's after us? Who?”

She had to know. She remembered now that they'd said something about “covering their tracks” and there was nobody better fitted for the job. Of course, that would mean risking revealing her secret to at least one dangerous demon and if the threat wasn't big enough, she'd rather not. It was bad enough that her rash behaviour would seem to the more gifted like an explosion of essence for no apparent reason and while they were working together right now and seemed to have a reason to keep Emmet alive, she was sure they could turn on her just as easily.

Eyes darting to Zi while he waited for Juan to hand him the blood, Kasain's voice rang out before the other demon could think to reply, "I will inform you when we are safe. If there is anything else you'd like to contribute, please do so. We have to treat this as if we're dealing with someone who is a near perfect tracker, essence and otherwise things considered." His eyes snapped back to Juan, insistent.

"Swell. So now you tell us that we're being chased down by a guy with pratical omniscience." Damon sighed. His body began to churl and bubble, revealing two bags of Emmet's blood. "Fuck it. Let's just get out of here, since obviously we don't need to worry about cover if you're blowing holes into walls. And I'm certain you know what's after us, doctor. I'm guessing it's that shadow guy from before, or one of his lackies?" Damon tossed the blood bags down to Kasain as the amorphous demon took on a vaguely human form. "And since you seem so scared, I'm hoping you have a good idea to get away from this guy that's better than 'leave it to me' or something like that. Seems like letting you keep your secrets gets us into more surprises than we'd ask for."

Catching the bag he punctured a small hole in the top then fed it into the fleshy monstrosity that now housed Emmet. His fingers twitched and flickered with movement and the beast began to shrink somewhat. As if on cue, a large truck and a car arrived on scene, pulling up in front of the house. Kasain glanced back at the shifter, "I can elaborate later. Our safety is more important than knowing who it is, trust me on that account." The doctor began leading the beast to the back of the large truck, which looked like something someone might hire for moving furniture into a new house. The ramp extended down as the back opened and the beast began crawling up it, the metal creaking with its weight. "This is my plan, I had already called Crow, and he's quite resourceful. I'll pay the difference and for the new safehouse, Juan. I'd not want you getting the wrong idea about me," he glanced over the other three, "If you'd please get in the car, I'd like to be out of here immediately."

Kasain watched as the back of the truck was closed and the ramp retracted. He commanded the flesh construct to extend sticky limbs and protrusions inside the back of the truck, effectively making it immovable, but also allowing it to compensate for the movement's of the truck. Emmet wouldn't even know he was in motion. Kasain walked over to the truck and got into the passenger seat.

Zi scanned the room but she wasn't really looking for anything in particular. Sure, she could see the essence in the room clearly and had heard what the doctor said, but didn't make a move to do anything about the essence particles the men's auras were exuding as they breathed. It was clear enough that whoever was onto them meant trouble but the doctor had refused to explain just how much trouble and thus she couldn't risk exposing herself. The demons were doing a well enough job at covering their tracks and few creatures ever could see essence in such detail that Zi could. Likelihood was, whoever was after them wouldn't notice the traces left behind.

And what if he did?

She was warring with herself for minutes while her body moved around mechanically, gathering and replacing items around the room. The screeching of the van made her glance back over her shoulder but she didn't show her unease, nor her desire to join Emmet in the back and keep him safe. She knew rationally that she should consider those men a part of her team. They were all risking their well-being for Emmet, that was clear enough. However why remained unanswered. The way that Damon changed forms, the way that Kasain played with death and the way Juan had consumed the sniper earlier today, all gave her very, very good reasons to be weary. Few things could unnerve her at her age, but those demons remained one of them. Even if the one coming after them was scarier than all of them combined, it didn't mean she was ready to let her guard down in front of them. She was far from ready to strike an alliance, no matter how shaky.

Still, Emmet mattered. More than them, perhaps even more than her own life. Him she had to keep safe. So she wouldn't just stand there and do nothing. But she would wait for the men to leave. Only once they were all a few meters away would she make a net of essence around the building and literally enclose it within. It would take some energy but provided with a seat it shouldn't show much on her face. She wouldn't just carelessly pull the essence out and disperse it, experience had taught her that the best hunters could still sniff you out, even if the traces of you are but a thin cloud drifting away. She wouldn't return the residual essence to the people it belonged to, either, that would only strengthen them and make them unnaturally bright compared to usual. Instead, she would slowly break down their essence. The net would be specially constructed to put pressure on everything within and with a short but powerful blast of energy she would break down the particles, making them blend in with the age-old essence torrents that littered the world. It was lucky that there were no angels among them, though Zi's own essence bore the trace remains of one. Human and demonic essence were easy enough to break if you knew what you were doing and within a few seconds would blend in like sand on a beach. It did require some precision, especially since the initial explosion of energy could be caught if one put too much energy into it or acted too rashly. Nothing screams suspicious than a blast of energy that obliterates essence but leaves the physical objects intact. Of course, no less suspicious was a slow-working acid-like essence slowly breaking down the one in a radius.

So it had to be just right. Just the right timing for Damon, Juan and Kasain not to notice and just the right amount of force for their pursuer not to notice.

Hoping that the men would just let her get into a car and not distract her once she started, Zi let out a small sigh and waited for her chance to get to work.

Juan had nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Kasain tear apart the wall, his attention taken from the moment Zi had started to stir. His natural reaction was aggression, something he had learned was best over the years, and his hand flickered out to summon his blade into his hand. The moment the sulfuric scent filled the air and smoke erupted from his palm, he noted exactly who had caused the commotion. He immediately relaxed. For a terrible instant, his worse fears had filled his mind and he jumped to conclusion the one hunting them had caught up sooner than expected. It didn't help he wasn't counting on the sudden scene the doc had created on entering, followed by the construct that edged behind. At first Juan thought it would hustle completely in until it stopped at the sidewalk's edge.

Engrossed in the thing's shape, mass and how unnatural it looked, Juan missed Zi and Kasain's brief interaction with one another. When Kasain managed to submerge Emmet into the abomination he had created, Juan paled slightly at watching it. He wasn't worried for the damage the thing might do to his subject but rather, what Emmet might end up doing to the thing. After all, the human rejected both demon and angelic infections so it was hard to determine the reaction with a human taint. Absorbed in making sure Emmet didn't react, he almost didn't catch Kasain's words at first.

As if an instinctive sense went off in his brain, Juan's attention shifted to the doctor. He gave Kasain a look of complete confusion before walking toward the cooler. He had started to bend down when Damon saved him the trouble. The shape shifter already had produced two large bags and tossed them over by the time Juan started to get one, making his efforts pointless. Shrugging off the interruption, Juan stood back upright. He was quiet as Damon's and Kasain's interaction played out. He felt Kasain's eyes upon him causing the man to turn and face his last

“Sadly, you said we're on a time limit. I only have one way I can eliminate our essence trail without a trace and that requires at least several hours preparation which we don't have. Else, any sloppiness would result in spreading our essence from here to over half the city if done incorrectly. Something that wouldn't be helpful at all.” Juan stating the obvious as he crossed over his arms in front of him. His face meeting Kasain's intense stare with one of his own, not backing down one bit, and watched doctor feed the monstrosity.

On hearing the truck, any further conversation was delayed when Doctor answered Damon. Juan watched the demon start to puppet the beast into the truck back, putting him at ease for the first time as Kasain mentioned Crow's cost for the move and new safe house was on him. The last thing Juan wanted was more debt to a bastard he had yet to meet face to face. It was bad enough he was already on Darius' shit list now. Giving one last glance at the closing truck doors, he hopped into the back seat and waited for the other two, taking his bags and anything else he felt was needed to eliminate his essence from the area.

He was hoping it was enough. Even more, he also hoped Emmet wouldn't awaken from his slumber. There would no telling what damage the man might cause if he was a witness to the gruesome sight within that truck and with no one he trusted about, it wasn't likely to be pleasant.

"Bleh. No time for questions? Talking is a free action anyways!" Damon complained, though only to himself. While he found the entire situation shady he still did as Kasain said and went to the car Juan sat in. Though instead of sitting in the car, Damon hopped onto the roof of the car and consumed a small nickle sized hole at the center of the roof. He than changed his shape into said nickle-sized peice of car roof, allowing him to stay somewhere where he could both converse with Juan inside the car, as well as deal with outside threats should they come.

Feeling slightly calmer now that everyone was moving into the vehicles, Kasain closed his eyes once more, focusing on the few remaining needles he'd utilized as a perimeter around the building. However, as he did so he noted the movements of the essence within. As he had surmised, this Zi was not normal. He'd bright it up later.

With a twitch of his influence the needles began slowly removing themselves from the ground. When the girl had finished and found her way into a vehicle, he would pull ahead of the car, driving towards the new safehouse in a round about fashion. Just as the group got out of sight of their old safehouse his needles would fully extract themselves and it was in that moment that the gradual process of pulling any and all essence within 1/4th of a block's radius occurred, being absorbed into the needles. It was filtered and then released, weaving it outwards into the surroundings. Oddly, what he'd done did not tamper with Zi's work.

What it did do was extract the entirety of his and Emmet's essence from the area. Yes, in his way, he had lied to the others. He was fully capable of expunging their presences. The thing was, he hadn't survived as long as he had by telling everyone his secrets. No, he had survived by being cautious, secretive, and making others think him more than just a little insane.

He had fooled people by making it seem like his skills centered entirely on medical work, that he was capable only of mending or altering biological structures.

The truth was far more daunting. Kasain was powerful, but not in the way that people like their pursuer, Szayeis, were. No, Kasain was powerful because he was versatile, perhaps more versatile than a great many demons. It was one of his best guarded secrets.

Even Szayeis didn't know.

Kasain picked up his phone, using one of his free arms to do so, and dialed Juan. He needed to communicate with the man, and doing so when the others couldn't overhear his own speech was optimal. Juan's responses could be tempered...he only needed ask. Ring...ring...ring the phone droned in his ear.

He waited.

Juan wasn't expecting a call, from Darius or anyone. So when his cell vibrated within his pocket, he was more than a little surprised to notice its movement for his attention and gingerly pulled it free. Glimpsing the label, he turned it about while he pressed it to his ear. This call was odd and knowing what little he did of the Doctor, he felt there had to be a deeper reason for the unusual way to gain his attention without the others. "Hello dear, you realize you picked a very terrible time to gain my attention. Currently in a bit of trouble so unless it's a life or death emergency, couldn't it wait until later?."

Kasain almost grinned, the man was clever, he admitted with a form of relief. "You and Damon are right to assume it was the nightwalker from earlier tracking us. I did not think he would come after us, but he's unpredictable. I'll make sure to lay down proper concealing measures at our next safehouse. Apologies on that matter," the Doctor paused a moment as the driver turned a corner.

"The construct I've made around Emmet will keep him stable...and unconscious. I'm using the hormones of the bodies that make it up to produce something similar to anesthesia. Oh, and I'll be reassembling the people I used to make the construct. No one will be the wiser, it'll make sure that the Academy doesn't get wind of us. I'll need to talk to you, and eventually Zi, further...and seperate from the others. Later though. I don't think our...pursuer is following us now. Someone seems to have occupied him. We're lucky, in a sense." Kasain then stopped, waiting for Juan's response, if any.

Juan listened, closely, his ears soaking up the conversation like a sponge. In the back of his mind, his words were being chosen in the same caution as when he was dealing with Crow or one of Darius’ informant. It was clear Kasain didn’t want Damon to know about this which made him wonder if the demon had heard their earlier conversation.

“Luck isn’t something I would call it to be honest. More like annoyance. Well since you put it that way, this seems to be a life or death matter. I was hoping your ex-boy would’ve stayed away after he caught us during one little one nighter. “ Juan said, referring to Szayeis in a discreet manner without alerting Damon. He leaned deeper into the window, his eyes peering out it to seem like his paranoid nature had heightened tenfold. “It’s never nice when a ghost from the past comes knocking. Namely one that nasty, dearie, which makes me think you might be a bit of a curse hun. One that could be rather troublesome to continue keeping in contact with. Though you’ve shown you’ve got your uses in keeping your recent catch in check, a matter I’m glad as he would’ve made the situation worse without realizing it.”

He let the demon put together what he was hinting at and a chance to defend himself. Including the bit about Emmet, inwardly hoping that Kasain might be willing to aid him somewhat in. Not being able to leave, a matter he assumed would be the case from here on out, would make it rather hard to gather any missing items he would need to examine Emmet’s essence further. He was hoping the demon’s skills might make it easier to cover the missing tools and figure out how his project had come to fruition so he could repeat it. It was a risk no doubt but one he was willing to take in the long run. “So, before you get your little redhead in a tizzy Charlotte, tell me what you had in mind for your next steps when you reach your next destination. Running and hiding from him isn’t exactly going to solve it forever, is it? You wouldn’t have called if you believed so.” While he talked, his thumb moved across the screen to text a message that would pop up shortly after the call concluded.

‘When we get there, I need you help to examine Emmet beyond the necessities. It will give you your chance to talk as I’ve got something in mind to get Damon distracted.’

“When you finish, I'll talk and then I need to go my dear. I’ve got my own problems to deal with as it is.”

Listening intently and swiftly decoding the man's hidden messages, Kasain nodded, despite knowing the other demon could not see it. "A curse, hardly. I'll be making sure that there is no chance he can find us a second time, guaranteed. If not, well...presuming I survive you can have my livers," he chuckled slightly the laugh sounding more nervous than amused. "As to the patient, I'd be delighted to assist, especially given the danger this recent...occurrence has put us through." The Doctor made no further attempts to defend himself, he knew how compromising a situation he had put Juan in, but he also knew that the man couldn't keep Emmet stable or in control like he could--like only he could.

"Upon return the first steps that must be taken are of stealth. We need to establish measures to hide our essences if we leave the safehouse, and to make the safe house effectively invisible to his senses. Also, I will inform you that our little...guest, is more than she appears, if you didn't catch that already. Don't scare her off, I get the feeling that she'd rather no one know, but we do need to address it at some point. I'm not sure about you, but I prefer to keep unknown elements away from my patients if at all possible."

“Ummm, very well and I will keep that in mind. Though I already figured that out years ago but couldn’t puzzle it out. As for your concern, easier said than done but I don’t think it would hurt him. She’s been helping to patch your little friend since before I met him. He tends to like to get damaged often. In fact keeping them apart might be rather ill advised from what I’ve seen. He gets rather rebellious as you know, and she gets rather aggressive when he’s being pushed around. So cross that bridge when you come to it but I suggest to be sensitive about it.” Juan revealed as he looked at his watch, seeing the time tick away. “Think it’s time I get going hun, so good luck with your trouble. Apologies I couldn’t be helpful to you right now. So I hope things work out. I'll talk to you later."

With that, Juan clicked the phone then turned to look at Damon, observing the demon should he have been listening into the coversation. It wasn't something he would've been surprised at though he would've found it rather annoying.

On the other end Kasain nodded, closing the phone and pocketing it before he turned to his driver and in a movement faster than the eye could see, stabbed him through the skull with a needle. It didn't kill him, the man barely faltered in his driving of the vehicle. A moment passed and then he extracted the needle, the damage not even manifesting. The man continued driving, totally unaware of what had just transpired.

Kasain had erased his memories of the entire conversation and altered them so there was no evidence of tampering. How he'd done it? Well, that was a trade secret now wasn't it.

Damon didn't say much during the ride, even as Juan spoke to whoever over the phone. He guessed Kasain, and it annoyed him that the demon didn't bother to explain things to him either. So when Juan hung up Damon was quick to get briefed on what he discovered. "That was the doctor, wasn't it? I knew that bastard had something to do with this. I should have shook him down for information on that shadowy monster when we first got back to base. But whatever. What the hell is on our tail Juan? And what are we going to do about it? Cause I swear, if it involves some bait-and-switch shanigan where the doctor pretends to turn us in with this shadowy guy, I'm going to eat him alive." Damon's voice came from above Juan, speaking rather clearly. He was aware of the other driver and intended to eat him later, if no one else could wipe his memories.

"He's an interesting fellow, that is for sure." Juan answered, smoothly sidestepping the conversation's dangerous grounds. He didn't deny or feed his friend's paranoid. "Though you're jumping to conclusion, Damon, without proof. Do you recall the last time you assumed every little thing and it ended with me being eaten? And not in the fun way, it wasn’t fun slowly being digested by a Grootslang demon.”

Juan shuddered involuntarily, recalling the incident while he put away his phone. His eyes darted behind him and spotted the black fox, the very they managed to swipe from Darius, sleeping in the back seat obvious to the danger coming. For the moment, he wondered if the creature coming would sense Darius’ essence within the safe house. It was logical thought since the shadow fox was made from their master’s power and being, but Juan casted away the thought. He didn’t dare risk that during his clean up to test his theory. Even if it tossed this being off their trail, it wasn’t worth the risk. He was already in deep enough mess as it was and no point in making it worse. He turned back to Damon on the roof. “As for your worries, I don’t think he would want do a bait-and-switch. This whole evac attempt takes too much energy, effort and more to bother with. If he was going to simply turn us over then why bother getting us out of the hot zone? Besides, I get the feeling it’s not us that is in deep trouble.”

The more Juan thought about Kasain words to his actions, the less he believed it was Damon and him that was in deep trouble. The pieces, so spread and transparent once now started to solidify then with a little effort, they started to fit into place. Though there was still many gaps. It pulled at Juan’s curiosity and made his mind tick the longer he was trying to solve this rather dangerous mystery. “Either way, we stil need more information and with Emmet in his current condition, eliminating Kasain from the thick of things will do more harm than good. Who is to say this creature won’t come after us. We were seen with him and hoping to gain information to where he’s at, and do much worse? If I recall, we didn’t fair too well against it the last time.”

He was bitter at easily they were made helpless within the creature's gasp. They couldn't defend each other let alone themselves, making any attempts to fight back pointless. All they could hope to do was run and fun until they either gain a plan to defeat it or purge its interest altogether. The latter was something Juan felt was likely the hardest with recent interactions.

"Hey! At least we found a Groot Demon! You have to admit I was at least right in that we'd find one. And how was I suppose to know they were capable of swallowing you whole? I thought it'll at least need to spend some thing chewing you up first!" He chuckled at the memory. Just one of many that Juan had him tag along with. Damon then listened to Juan's reasoning, still feeling uneasy about all of this. Truth be told Damon doesn't deal with demons a lot. Most of the time he worked with largely powerless humans. Being Dark Matter gave him an edge over the powerless humans. If Damon had a human form he would have shrugged at Juan's words. "Frankly, if whatever this thing is is after Kasain, I don't care about it. My priority is getting you to safety, and by extension Emmet. I suppose if we need to stick with Kasain I won't make too much arguements... But the longer we stay with him, the longer we are indebted to Crow by proxy. I feel more comfortable getting dropped off the radar than running it with those fellas."

"I won't argue with you on that. Though honestly there's much more fun ways to be eaten, do you agree?" He sighed, his head turned back to the window but still talking.

"Sadly, do you really see a clean way of getting out of this? As for Crow, his deal was with me and I made sure the bargain was for Emmet's rescue. Beyond that, it isn't my concern because I didn't pay for it and if he seems to press the issue, I'll just 'die'. He can't get money from a corpse after all." Juan said, though he was discreetly reaching into his pocket for a vile. It had a murky, white color that seemed to be like curdled milk. In side the aging glass, there was the essence of Emmet, himself and their little fox friend in back already mixed within it. All it needed was to be delivered by smashing it onto flesh to activate. His eyes shifted from the item in his relaxed palm to Damon, hinting for the shapeshifter to take and absorb it. When Damon did, he would learn the contents were used for eliminating memories of those individuals who were within the vile. He only hoped Damon would realized he only needed to add a piece of himself into the vile to completely.

"I suggest you only use it should we actually need it first." Juan stated gently, a gesture for Damon to trust him. "I've dealt with Demons before, my friend else I wouldn't be sticking around as long as I did."

Damon picked up the subtle note and snatched the bottle from Juan's hands. He absorbed it, getting an idea of its creation and purpose. And how to improve on it, namely adding himself to the original recipe. Damon said nothing and couldn't even nod at Juan's suggestion and chose to change subjects. "You know sometimes I wish the simpler life. Just roaming the world, looking for conflicts, arming both sides, watching them kill each other... It was calming." A joke on Damon's part. Replacing the hole in the roof with an identical replica Damon took on the form of a white cat and landed in Juan's lap. "This has all really been a wild day. So business as usual. Maybe something weirder would happen, like doing our laundry or go out for italian food, eh?" Damon rubbed himself against Juan, meowing lightly as he laided on top of Juan's lap. He felt his fingers brush against Damon's back, through his bristly and fur. "Nyaaaaa~" Damon laid streched out as Juan rubbed him gently at first, but then firm and fast.

In Loom, a gang of three headed down the streets, looking for a certain man. What would be weird was that only two of them would be able to be felt by those good with essence, weak and just a little bit weird. One man, with something in his shadow, and one woman, who looked 20. The 3rd was like a ghost, not there, or rather everywhere. Either way, it could not be pinpointed in his base of Loom, making him show up as an anomoly to those who could feel essence.

Tipping his hat with his cane, he stopped as he saw the man he was looking for. The tipping was half a weird gesture of the demon Zeki, and half having his 'weapon' infront of him. Most people would hardly consider a cane a dangerous weapon, but Zeki was hardly most people.

"Szayeis, how have you been? I've been looking for you."

His form laid with back against a wall, feet planted on the ground, arms crossed and eyes closed Szayeis had hardly expected company. Nonetheless, he had seen them coming. One eye flashing open for a brief moment, revealing its stirring white iris. Szayeis had acknowledged their presence and once he had his eye shut once more,[b] [color=#00001A]"Fine, Zeki. What is it you require?"[/b][/color] While he spoke his attention was in thousands of other places. He was using shadows as a conduit for his perception. It was an advanced form of shadow sense.

So many things to keep track of, he could not waste a single moment.

Zeki sighed. Such a hard man to deal with. His two shopkeepers were wide eyed at the event. They didn't know too much of essence but they could feel something was wrong. Zeki however KNEW what a monster was, and talking with one hardly aggrevated him. Not after how long he'd been alive.

"Not very talkative, are you? I don't know how you've stayed sane all these years. Fine, skip the friendly hellos, and we'll get down to business. What I 'require' is how to use the gift you gave me. It took me months to learn how to use this phone, I'm not exactly 'hip' with tech. How do I know when I've found a fragment?"

Though while it was true that Zeki was older than alot of technology, and therefore not the fastest with them(He still couldn't understand the fascination with cats on the internet), it was more the fact that he hadn't tried to use the orb. He'd pawned it off to his new male assistant, Scott Johnson. Zeki was smart with magic, he probably could have figured something out with enough effort.

A small smile spread over Szayeis' lips as Zeki asked the question, "What are you playing at, Zeki?" He pushed himself from the wall, his eyes opening as he turned to the man, "You've been alive far too long to be this inept. I would not have come to you were you useless," he said, a small measure of amusement in his voice, accompanied closely by condescension and curiosity.

He strolled towards the demon, his eyes briefly glancing over the two who walked alongside him. There was a flicker of interest in his eyes, but barely for a moment.

Zeki shrugged.

"I guess being up here so long's made me dull. I couldn't possibly hope to keep up with the likes of you, Lord of the Western Realm, Terror of the Night, Lord of Fear, Master of- shut up and give me an example of how this works. You still haven't proven to me your story is true, that's what I'm playing at. This is the fastest way. You get my trust, you get access to my full abilities.

"Scott, come here."

Zeki motioned with his cane to come.

"Come on, he's a big friendly guy, look at that smile."

Zeki's voice had hints of frustration.

Scott whispered to Maria.

"Are his dealings always so scary?"

She shook. "Not generally this bad. Go on, you don't want to see Mr. Glaedwine angry, nice as he is."

Scott shook his head, and walked forward. Zeki poked his shadow with the top of his cane, and the orb started to float out of it.

"Your trust, eh? Amusing," the lord responded, appearing to have ignored everything else, including the man's jab--if you could call it that. He didn't elaborate as to whether he believed Zeki or not, nor as to why he found the statement amusing. Instead he motioned for Scott to come closer, the Orb would move ahead of him, beckoned by the same hand motion that the lord was using to invite Scott.

Raising his other hand to chest level, palm facing upwards, he closed his fingers around his palm, then opened them in a swift motion. A shadowy essence manifested, billowing up from his hand as if it were smoke. He gestured towards the orb and the shadows moved, not that he needed to, it was all an act.

Just as the shadows touched the orb it began to release a faint glow, which gradually increased in its intensity. Then the small wisps of darkness expanded in a split second, engulfing all of them. Zeki's unfortunate employees would be veiled in Szayeis' Dread Aura while the lord stared his ally down, his expression no longer amused. "I admit, you are a skilled actor, Amrit, but this truly is no time for your little games," he stated plainly, all sound outside the darkness which surrounded, but did not touch them was muted almost entirely. Scott and Maria would be unable to hear or see anything within the mire of shadows.

"Do not presume to be able to trick me Amrit. It was not I who coined the title, 'Master of the Game,'" he stated matter of factly, his voice cold and unforgiving.

Zeki looked at his fingers as he spoke, which were drumming on his cane.

"You seem to have broken my assistants."

A blue light started to light the darkness, a faint blue will-o-wisp, before more and more started to show. They started flowing in and out of the shadows, and several sucked from the realm Maria and Scott were in, and the two would feel a burning pain before passing out. Zeki continued to drum his cane, his gaze fixed on it.

" 'Master of the Game', I prefer to be called Mr. Glaedwine. Perhaps Zeki, should one know me. You haven't spoken with Amrit. You've never met Amrit.

"There are things that you don't know about in this world, Lord of Hell. Old things, ancient things, from our time, not the time of these humans. And it is their time now, not ours. It's been their time ever since Judas Iscariot proved they are not weak cockroaches. I don't know of any similiar fame from the Western Lord. Doesn't that just eat you?"

All across Loom, people felt a burning sensation as the drain of essence increased, all of them customers of Mr. Glaedwine, and all of them felt the burning start at their contract stamps. Inside Szayeis shadow, more and more will-o-the-wisps floated harmlessly around. Zeki stopped drumming, and looked up at Szayeis from behind his glasses.

"So, I will ask you one last time. I have ' truly no time for your little games'. Will you show me this orb's workings, and save this world of magnificant humans, or continue to pout that a simple business man has seen your little show one too many times, and isn't amused?"

Szayeis grit his teeth, sensing the wisps floating about within the darkness, his face a glower. He took in a deep breath and then smiled. As he did so the shadows began to dissipate, though their voices remained muted to anyone nearby, not that there were many. Szayeis had picked this spot because it was seldom traveled. "You must be losing your edge, Vital Sovereign," the smile didn't reach his eyes despite his words. He could have made it do so, but he wasn't trying to fool the demon, it wasn't worth the effort. "I already showed you. Proximity will cause the orb to react," he stated, laying the palm of his hand over the surface of the object. It began glowing, the glow increasing in its intensity the longer his hand was on it.

"I know you're up to something, Glaedwine," he stated with an eerie calm, his emotions unreadable behind the smiling facade he wore, "Oh and I haven't broken your...minions. They'll remember this for a long time though," longer than you think.

Glancing at the wisps that surrounded them, now in plain sight, the Western lord let out a small chuckle, "You don't scare me, not in the least, but don't let that fool you Sovereign. This isn't me underestimating you," it's my forcing you to, in anger, reveal the cards you have in hand, "...as I don't make a habit of doing something so foolish, you are the Sovereign for a reason. We've faced one another before, but know this. Should you stand in my way, the outcome will not result in your survival this time. If you wish to contact me again, touch the orb." He turned from the man, "Oh...and do it yourself. Anyone else who touches it will meet an untimely end," he lied seamlessly, his head turning slightly as if he were looking back at Zeki. It was only half true. Others wouldn't die, but they would be pulled into the orb, and thus into Szayeis. They would be his and that was a fate far worse than death.

His attention shifted and he walked away, his smile fading to a subtle grin, though the look of his eyes was hard, his body language tense. His hands made to clench and relax repeatedly, as if restless.

He wasn't.

Zeki walked forward at the demon infront of him. The one who uttered word after word. He tipped his hat downward, before thrusting his cane forward.

Resting right below the orb, he picked up with the top curve of the cane, never touching it himself.Not a word he had to spare for Szayeis.

He walked towards where he felt his contracts, and therefore employees. Zeki sighed as he saw the two of them.

"You two aren't going to be very happy when you wake up. Still, you'll be alright. You humans are magnificant, I doubt you'll break. More magnificant than any demon. You make the world worth saving. If it was for all of hell, I just might be tempted to let it burn..."
Zeki put the orb back into Scott's shadow, then managed to stick his cane in Scott's belt loop, before throwin him over his shoulder. Struggling as he held him fireman style, he bent down towards Maria.

"You had better not be eating the Golden Taco, chica."

He grunted as he grabbed her as well. A few of the wisps entered his body, taking with them essense from his various contracts.

He didn't turn to face him even now, and simply continued towards his shop

"Crow, I really hope you bring your friend some good news soon."

Luciana walked through Loom, marveling slightly at how the city had recovered from the devastation that had visited it 200 years before. Watching the devastation first hand had convinced her that there was no way the city would ever recover. Once again, however, the humans had surprised her. Truth be told, she had no real reason for being here other than she wanted to see how Loom had fared while she had been dead. She had expected a ruin, sheltering only the desperate and the evil. What she had gotten was a thriving community, bearing it's scars proudly, and looking to the future. She felt optomistic for Loom, and humanity in general from just seeing how the city had survived and moved onwards.

Luciana didn't exactly know where she was, given that Loom had changed over 200 years. Finally she sat down on the nearby sidewalk, her back against the wall, and pulled out her harp, staring at it for a few moments. This was the last remnants of Melody. Hell's gatekeeper. Her sister. Luciana was beyond tears at this point. She started playing for no particular reason other than she could. There was no magic in the music, just simple skill. It's nice to know I haven't lost my skills. She thought, smilling sadly.

Miles away the music would reach someone who wasn't even supposed to be able to hear it. In fact, she truly wasn't able to hear it, but she could feel it. On the very basic physical level, Hazumi's back suddenly stiffened and something deep inside her felt pulled and released like the strings under Luciana's fingers. It made her heart vibrate in an unfamiliar and definitely unpleasant manner. The woman smiled and gripped her shirt.

Getting out of her chair, Hazumi walked to the window and opened it. Her lips moved but no words came out, the wind catching the inexistent sounds caught by the wind and carried straight to Luciana.

"Would you stop that, please? It's actually physically unpleasant."

Luciana stopped playing the instant she heard Hazumi's voice, turning her head to frown slightly at the direction of the voice. In an instant she was in her third form, buzzing in one giant cloud towards Hazumi. Within a few moments, she was in the room with Hazumi, turning back to her human form in a flash of white. She smiled at "Hazumi! Last time I saw you was just before I, uh, killed myself to make sure that the Humans had a chance of surviving all the chaos after Judas was killed. Two hundred years fly by when you're dead." She smiled again, for some reason incredibly nervous. "So...what has happened in the years I've been, uh, scattered? And why does playing the harp cause you pain? I can't be that bad." Luciana chuckled weakly.

Hazumi was clearly shocked, ogling at Luciana with a pen half-suspended in mid-air, ready to slip right out of her fingers.

“Pardon me?” She asked, finding her words again. “You don't remember ever asking me to build this future?”

Luciana frowned, both at Hazumi's surprise, and in an attempt to remember what she had said during that time. "I'm sorry. Ever since I came back from the dead the memories from actually killing myself are hazy and only slowly getting more clear. This isn't helped by the fact that I met our father, whose a complete bastard, and I may or may not have cursed him out during our entire conversation. So, what exactly did I ask you to do?"

Hazumi seemed to relax a bit, a sigh escaping her, though her frown remained. "Oh, you met him too? I have to agree on the diagnosis. What did he tell you?"

Luciana sighed in relief, gald that Hazumi wasn't worshipping Aaurus. This conversation would have been much more awkward if she had been. "He told me the world was ending, I was a failure, and that he purposely let Melody and Chime die. That irritated me a good amount, and I kind of let out a torrent of curses and insults. Eventually he just sent me back to work with Solus to save the world. Afterwards I'm going to kill him. Anyways, what'd I say to you when before I died?"

Hazumi smiled, the casual approach helping her relax in front of the last Gatekeeper, whom she still deemed superior and somewhat intimidating. "Seems like although your meeting with him was just as unpleasant, at least it ended better than mine. With you managing to at least give him a piece of your mind and all." The smile widened at the thought of the bastard dying by Luciana's hand. It would be an adequite ending. "You said humans deserve a chance. That they've been opressed so long and that if anyone is worthy of more power, it's them. That, and that power corrupts and I shouldn't keep it all to myself. The second part took longer to set in." She grinned with embarassment at the memory of her (violent) first few years at the Academy.

Luciana smiled back, delighted things were going so well with her sister (that's how she thought of Hazumi at least). "Oh, it can't have ended better than yours. He just muttered some more mumbo jumbo about me being a failure, and then sent me flying back into this world. Upon which I cursed some more." She tilted her head, considering. "I believe that's the most I've ever cursed as long as I've lived. It's easy to say not to keep power all to yourself when you're about to die, and you've only had emotions for a year or two. Don't be embarrassed if it took a bit. I rarely ever cursed before I started getting human emotions. But we'll keep that our little secret. " She winked at Hazumi.

Two quick steps, grabbing a chair along the way, and she was sitting in front of the the girl. "So, what've I missed while being cosmic dust, and why is playing with a piece of Melody's harp physically unpleasant to you?"

Hazumi smiled, genuinely appreciating how easygoing Luciana seemed. A lesson she could learn from, the Gatekeeper's attitude seeming naturally pleasant and relaxing. It still made Hazumi a bit uncomfortable, knowing that she was mere fractions of what remained of this woman's real family, but at the same time it made her oddly proud.

"It's reassuring to know I'm not the only one." She smiled in reference to human emotions. "Though I still don't curse. Maybe you should teach me some, like a good big sis." She winked and followed Luciana's movement as she pulled up a chair and posed her next question. "Well.." She hesitated, wondering how to explain. "Some part of it is still in there." She placed a hand on her chest frowning. "And it resonates when you play. For better or worse." She smiled appologetically, "But I might have exaggerated a bit."

"Don't tempt me. We can't have the leader of this Musicians College swearing like a sailor in front of her students, can we?" Luciana teased, before listening as Hazumi explained what was going on. After she finished, Luciana frowned, slightly puzzled. "Hmm. I don't have any idea why that would happen.I preferred guns to the Instruments those two loved to play. Then again, I was the one who did the most murdering out of the three of us. I'll try to keep the harp playing to the minimum, but you never know what kind of idiot you might come across. Speaking of that, are the Angels and Demons playing nice with each other? They were never good at that, as I recall."

Hazumi realised she had new appreciation for Luciana as she kept talking. She was almost human, with all their flexibility, and at the same time very assertive and didn't shy away from letting anyone know what she thought. Be it via words or bullets. She was a person Hazumi could respect and she remembered why she'd agreed to giving up on most of her power as well. "Do you think they are?" Hazumi rose an eyebrow at her latest question. "They are trying but so many are failing it's sad. They still haven't given up on trying to kill each other, especially the more stubborn ones. You'd recognise Lucien as one of them, he's still at it. And even some of our own teachers like Aeris and her brother, don't seem to realise the need for change in their perceptions. Meanwhile we're giving power to the humans... who end up questioning our instructions. I had a child question me this very morning on the morality of solving murder with more murder. Right after a God threatened me with such." She smiled bitterly. "Szayeis by the way..." her expression became more serious as she looked up at the other woman. "Is asking to be saved. What is your opinion on that?"

Luciana sighed. Not at how the Angels and Demons were still killing each other, she had expected that. After all, she had long ago learned that they were only good at killing. The Last Gatekeeper was sighing at the mention of Lucien. The last time she had seen him he was going for an Archangel during the final battle against Judas, centuries after she had seen him fall into the spiral of hate and bloodlust. "Lucien was a good man, Angel. Before the Great War that is. Then, well, you know what happened and he became what he is now. There is still vestiges of that goodness, as you well know. He still considers you his daughter, for example. Likely will consider any being that has a piece of her in them his daughter."

She chuckled gently. "Listen to the humans. They are wiser than most give them credit. Perhaps in time we can approach things differently. But right now, I suspect continuing the current course is the best. Still, don't be so quick to brush off the questions of the humans. Debate with them, and with yourself. Doubt is healthy, especially considering the power you wield." Luciana paused.

She stiffened at the mention of Szayeis, anger and hatred clear in her body and face. When she finally spoke, it was slowly. "Do not leave his fate to me. I promise you I will let him die. Leave his fate to someone unbiased, unaffected by his crimes. As for what I think? Let him die. Just because he suddenly fears death does not make up for what he has done." Her smile was paper thin. "Frankly, I think he's a cowardly bastard whose just realized that the Void claims everything. Even those with the pretentions to godhood. But of course, I'm biased."

She shrugged. "But enough of that. How is Lucien? I know he has to have visited you at least once during the 200 years I've been dead."

Hazumi took note of every word Luciana spoke, the wisdom and warning seeping into her consciousness without her usual guards to seethe it through. It wasn't many creatures she displayed such trust to, but having met the Gatekeeper again after so many years made her remember just how much Hazumi respected her. The opinion on Szayeis made her smirk with amusement, though she took a mental note that whatever sympathy she felt for the creature, it wasn't shared by her half-sister.

As for Lucien... "...He's holding on. The parasite in his wings has eaten away on his soul and there's nothing we can do about it. Well, nothing other than turn him into a chimera, surely against his will." The words stung, especially after Luciana had brought forth the feelings she harbored for the man. "However, I might be able to give him some peace of mind before he goes. I'll try to gather whatever remains of his daughter and place them in a single body..." Hazumi eyed Luciana cautiously, worried that the Gatekeeper might be against such a dangerous game. After all, it could cost some Musicians their mental stability, or their jobs. "He's stubborn and refuses to change, he will pursue the remaining Archangels to the end of the Earth and I'm worried he won't even stop there. Perhaps the only way to control him is to channel his drive to something more constructive." She reasoned, hiding the simple truth behind cold reason: she cared about Lucien and wanted to help him the best she could.

Luciana eyed Hazumi. There was something off, she could feel it. As Hazumi continued to speak, the Last Gatekeeper looked suspiciously at her sister before giving a knowing smile. She had her. "Lucien set himself upon this path knowingly. He could have went to get help when the parasite was in the early stages, but instead chose to go to war. He ended up in Onyx for it. I feel sorry for him, I really do. But he knew what would happen when he began. And he didn't care. Still doesn't. Eventually, you're going to have to kill him or kill the Archangels, you know that right? He's not going to stop until he dies or they die. Even if you bring back his daughter. Which, by the way, I know is going to be extremely dangerous and playing with fire. My advice? Don't bring his daughter back. It'd cause too much pain to too many people, and we both know Lucien wouldn't approve. You can help him other ways, and still not let your feelings for him make you do something drastic."

Luciana raised an eyebrow at Hazumi, daring her to deny it.

Hazumi wasn't overly happy with how easily Luciana read her but decided not to bother pretending anymore. She leaned back in her chair and let out a deep sigh.

“Other ways like what? I don't like having to choose between him and the remaining of the Council. I'm not sure which one I would pick. I'm hoping his daughter being around will make him drop his revenge act. From what I've heard she was a nice person, and hopefully fell very far from the tree in that regard.” She eyed Luciana carefully. “I don't intend to back on my word. However, I do share your worries. If you're willing to help me reunite him with his daughter, I would be very appreciative. And I apologise that I can't follow your advise.”

Luciana shrugged. "Try talking him down. Make him see that his daughter, who I've met and was a nice girl, wouldn't approve. She'd see him as a monster, not a father. Do you really think that bringing her back, and having her see what her father has become, would be good for him? No. That would break him." She sighed. "But if you wish, continue on this path. Try to figure out a way that won't cause irrepairable harm to your Musicians hmm? Trust is a major thing in organizations like this."

Hazumi thought that over for a moment. It hadn't occurred to her that even if his daughter was resurrected, Lucien might still have difficulty with adapting to this new world order. Then again, she had to try, Luciana was wise and she knew more about the people in question, however she wasn't a clairvoyant and not even she could predict what would happen.

The Essence heaved another sigh and got to her feet.

“I will keep you updated, Luciana. Thank you for not immediately dismissing my idea. I pray for the best possible outcome and will do my best to achieve it."

His legs were shaking and unstable, he wasn't used to feeling virtually nothing down there. Then again, he never had his limbs blown off and shot in the head 4 times for good measure. It was a miracle he was alive right now. His new, self-proclaimed personal surgeon, Kain, said that Solus was the first living subject that he ever manipulated essence within in such a way. That thought alone made Solus hazily wonder what kind of fucked up experiments that machine man was doing before he got his rubber gloved hands on Solus. "God damn..." He grunted as his knees almost buckled under his weight. He grabbed a tree just in time, only for his arm to effortlessly rip a chunk out of it, making him to fall to his knees anyway. "Gonna get used to these my ass..." He mumbled, mocking Kain's earlier comment. He slowly got back up again, yet still uneasy on his feet.

As he walked the old forest of Mt. Jigger that he remembered well, both his natural senses, and his HUD, picked up a powerful presence in the forest. His own, biological senses, reminded him of someone he knew. And his presence here made Solus uneasy, especially when he was this weak. "Szayeis..." He mumbled under his breath.

"Solus," the nightwalker replied, his form bleeding upwards from the shadow of a tree only meters from the hunter, where it took to a position, with its back leaned against the tree. His features solidified into his human guise, eyes cast sideways to gaze upon Solus. "You're looking rather grey, you bite off more than you could chew," there was a certain smugness in his tone. As if he somehow already knew exactly what had happened.

"Well... Good to see you are up and about. At least now I know we have some extra time to save the world, and your sorry translucent ass. Couldn't say the same for myself though..." He replied as he stretched his cyberlimbs and back.

Szayeis chuckled, "You really do look pitiful you know. Was it that chimera that took you down a notch? I felt someone notable a few hours ago, thought maybe it was you. Guess not," he smirked and looked away, glancing up at the moon. "Nonetheless, weakened state or not, we have work to do. Things to discuss, so why don't we call it a truce for now and I'll help you back to your...house, if you can call it that. The place looks terrible you know."

"Bah, I plan to demolish it anyway... Way beyond repair. Might as well start fresh..." He continued to walk, a little better on his feet now that relief of Szayeis not being dead, ironic and strange as that was, washed over him. "So... I'm surprised Inaniae hasn't consumed you, I'm guessing you found a way to keep him at bay..." He said casually, seemingly unaffected by Szayeis' presence.

"Mmm, if I felt like it I could snatch a nightwalker and force it to rebuild the whole thing using its own body as material. Then I'd kill the nightwalker when it was finished of course. Still, I'm hardly that nice," his expression was dry, as if he had rather quickly gotten bored with the idea. "As to Inaniae...heh, yes you could say that. A certain someone was nice enough to distract him just long enough for me to redistribute my focus. It was all I needed," the grin on his face showed just how pleased he was with the result. "Still, I don't know how long it will last exactly, so we're not even remotely in the clear."

He continued to lead Solus, having draped one of the hunter's arms over his shoulder for support. While the closeness was slightly annoying, it'd be more troublesome to wait for the hunter to get to the delapidated mansion.

"As long as he's still alive, we will never be." He agreed. He didn't really bother to thank him for helping him walk the rest of the way, there was no point. "So what brings you to this small piece of hell, hmm? Knowing you, you didn't just come here for a chat about our good friend, the Void."

"Oh no, I came to check on your wellbeing. Unfortunately the fate of the three realms, and thus my life, hinges on the success of yourself and several others. I'm sure you understand that it would be foolish of me to trust only you with the fate of the world." He led Solus to a couch inside the building and let him fall into it, walking several feet away before twirling his hand in the air,shadows swirling from their surroundings till they formed a chair, which he then turned and sat in so he faced the hunter. "In all seriousness, I am here to check on your progress. I also figured it would be prudent of me to make sure you had survived that nasty encounter you had later," the lord stated simply, shrugging.

"Hah..." Solus smirked as he sunk into the two century old couch. "I didn't know you cared. But whoever that bloke was, he was damn good."

"Yes, and I hope your failure to defeat that damn good bastard isn't going to impede what matters," Szayeis retorted, his tone shifting to a more serious cadence.

"The world ending. I know." Solus replied. "So, you wanted to discuss things..."

"Yes, exactly what steps have you taken in averting this crisis?" The lord folded his hands before him, his elbows pressed against the arms of the chair, his white irised eyes gazing through the hunter.

"Well, I got Luciana back in action. Her powers should come in handy... once she gets them back, that is. I have also cooked a small plan to build some masks, not something you will care about, but specific masks will give anyone we bring along a huge advantage. And a bunch of other plans I have yet to get around to. Luciana getting her abilities back takes priority."

Nodding slowly, Szayeis acknowledged the man's actions. It was a start, "I have called in a few...favors, from some rivals and old acquaintances, Hazumi among them. I intend to meet with Lily tomorrow when she's more...available." He closed his eyes, thinking.

"The Musicians won't cut it, you know that. Kids trying to contain a Primordial... Inaniae would be in hysterics." Solus countered.

Szayeis' lips curled into a grin and his eyes opened, a look of dangerous amusement in them, "You're funny Solus, I thought you were smarter than that. The Peacekeepers are an International Organization concerned with keeping the peace, and maintaining Order across Surface. The Academy is merely one branch, even if it is where it all began. I've done my research. I won't be asking Lily to send the children, I'll be asking her to contact the true leaders, the ones who could potentially summon an army of what amount to manipulaters of the psyche. If the children are also brought, I'll get to laugh as they're culled. It's a win-win situation really," his grin remained, eyes ever calculating.

"Nonetheless, I suggest that you take my choices a bit more seriously, Solus. You may have killed Mephisto, but I assure you I am beyond him in ways you could hardly understand. If you take it for granted that I've been alive for over 5200 years, with constant opposition from him in addition to the constant nagging influence of Inaniae, you will regret it. Presuming you survive this that is." As he finished his eyes closed again and he returned to his thoughts.

"Like I give a flying fuck how old you are..." He retorted tiredly, and completely unimpressed. "Those instruments are far slower than a bullet to the head, or even a sword swing, but then again, Alerium bullets don't exist yet... and we will sure as hell need those if Aaurus' powers are anything to go by."

Szayeis merely shook his head, eyes remaining closed. The man was too stubborn for his own good. Oh well, he'd let the man learn the hard way, or die. Either suited his ends really. "The instruments can do what no bullet can. Namely, they can wrestle with Inaniae's psyche. If I can do it, then a fragment of the Essence can do it, particularly if a great many do so. However, you're right on one point," his eyes opened, his gaze measured. "Alerium bullets would do more physical damage to him, than the musicians would. Nonetheless, I find both resources necessary for any measure of success. With one or the other, in addition to assuming your full combat abilities and my own, the chances of success are roughly 33.5 percent. Not terribly high. We'd more likely die, and leave the world with two less beings who could contest with the bastard, than make an headway."

He made a mental note on another matter as he continued, "With Luciana's added assistance, assuming her abilities remain intact, would give us an additional 8%, putting us at 41.5% at best. Even then most of those who participate are likely to die even if we succeed. A minor sacrifice, but one I'd hope to circumvent." He glanced at Solus a moment, before closing his eyes again. He was doing it for a reason, it wasn't just for the sake of mental focus, it was because it was night time, and this was the period wherein he could see, or be, wherever he wanted. It merely required focus to maintain.

"What I mean to say is..." Solus began to explain. "They'll die before they can even use them. If I can kill one with my hands behind my back, Inaniae can kill a whole group with the snap of his fingers." He adjusted himself on the couch as he thought about another one of his plans for a moment. "Attempting to kill Inaniae, if he even can be killed, is a last resort. He'll just go back to the void and remember everything anyway, as Aaurus told me. The only real option, I feel, is to imprison him again. With a different method."

"You imprison him again and he'll find another way to escape," he did not open his eyes as he continued, "He survived a false evolution ritual shattering his soul into fragments, and that particular tidbit, from what I could glean from the bastard's psyche, was Aaurus' doing. If your god knew how to imprison Inaniae, he would have done it already." A small smile formed on his lips. It was amusing to think that either Aaurus was not giving his emissary all the information, or the supposedly divine being was unaware of a great many facts about the being that Inaniae was.

"Let me tell you something about Inaniae," Szayeis said, meeting Solus' eyes, he had found what he wanted. "Each of his fragments has been partially immortal, but primarily mortal in nature. The fragment only constitutes for a part of the soul, not all of it. Inaniae, each time he has overtaken one of his fragments, has absorbed this mortality. It is perhaps his only weakness. I have been capitalizing on it for a very...very long time. His body, despite its state of near perfection, cannot properly assimilate mortal essence unless it naturally dies, and I can inform you that none of his fragments died naturally by the standards of the Abstract. If we can manipulate that mortal essence inside him to weaken his hold on this plane, make him temporarily a full blown mortal. We can kill him. He will not be able to return. He has been patient because he knows that had my predecessors discovered his influence on them, they would have done as I have."

He paused a moment, as if collecting his thoughts. He knew he had to tell Solus these things, even if they might put him at a slight disadvantage. It was however, better to win the war, than the battle. "Should we merely imprison him, he will escape once more, as I said. Each time he escapes he will be stronger, and angrier. However...should we kill him, he will cease to care. Have you not realized that once something dies it loses itself? That is why angels come back without the personality of their former lives. They can't. It is why they struggle to remember, and it may drive them mad. It is not natural. Inaniae only possesses feelings of anger and betrayel, and a will to destroy this world, because he is incarnated in a partially mortal vessel. Only mortals truly have emotions. I know this for one reason. I felt a similar fear in Inaniae that I, while I hate to admit it, possess myself. Fear of cessation. Not death, but the fear that all that I am will cease to be. My identity. It possesses the same fear. I imagine I got it from him to begin with. Without personality, he will hold no reason to destroy this world, despite possessing the power to do so."

Szayeis fell silent, watching Solus, listening for his response. If the hunter was so foolish to ignore this than perhaps his assistance was not nearly as valuable as he'd initially presumed.

Perhaps he would kill him here were that the case.

After all, Szayeis hated wasting his time.

"Alright... if that's what you propose." Nekro paused, wondering if the other threat below this very house would be an even greater threat than Inaniae right now. Hell, even the Vault failing and letting all of the boogiemen out would be just as bad as Inaniae. "Hazumi, Aaurus, and his opposite, the Terminus, are the only ones who could manipulate Inaniae's essence in said way. Hazumi has a strange... fetish... for the Gods and the Primordial. She would be easy to manipulate if Inaniae got his hands on her. Aaurus... an angry tantruming child, he would destroy the Three Worlds and have it all over with in no time, which means if he got involved, his anger alone would be our downfall. The Terminus. A clown in wolf's clothing who seemingly forgets everything and has to use paper notes just to remember what the fuck he's even talking about. I only met him once. He does have an interesting collection of Lieutenants though. However, Slyre, his former right hand Reaper, will be a massive problem for both of us... he was kicked out of Brom's little circle on quite a bad note." Solus presented the options available to them. A wacky collection of circus freaks.

The demon did not respond for a long while, leaving the room in silence. "Hazumi seems the best option. Some of her nature is still that of a tool, I think we can use that," not to mention the fact that he knew she had recently made contact with Jayh--something that would not have happened unless he had told her what he had. His eyes opened and he gazed at Solus, "I presume you care about as much what methods I use, as you care about my age, yes?" He smiled slightly, amused by the comparison.

"Methods and age, are completely different things." Solus replied, mentally, quite concerned.

Szayeis' smile did not disappear, "You understand that the well being of any single person pales in comparison to the survival of this world, yes? If so, I believe you will find that my methods are far more pleasant then existence's cessation. You may not fear death, or ceasing to exist, and you may not really care that the world is ending, but I do not think you are so foolish as to not try to stop it through any means available. Or did I peg you wrong, Grim?"

Solus outstretched his arms with a flaming, almost maddening grin. "I'm just here for the ride. Trying to save the world before I die? It's part of the fun."

"Good," Szayeis rose to his feet, the chair fading into shadows, which returned, seeming somehow thinner, to the places the nightwalker had drawn them from. "Is there anything else we should discuss? Will you attempt to contact the Terminus, or perhaps Slyre?" He figured that despite Slyre being on bad terms with the man, that if he could find him, he could find a way to work with him. Until then, he'd just have to have Hazumi locate the other fragments while he went and visited a friend...one he'd seen this morning.

Perhaps he'd have to lose that friend for his ends, but it hardly mattered.

His survival was more important than the Doctor's.

"Slyre wants us both dead. He's not worth talking to. The Terminus on the other had, he will be willing to listen." Nekro replied, the word Slyre dripping from his jagged lips with venom.

Deciding not to query till a more relevant time, Szayeis nodded, "I see. How would we go about contacting a being such as he?"

"The Terminus seeks to kill Slyre with my help. Once I get the word that he's ready, I'll mention our more pressing issue after the deed is done." Solus explained. "If Slyre isn't out of the picture, he will be just as bad as Inaniae..."

"Well, then you best take care of that then," Szayeis responded, walking to the door. He suddenly smirked and spoke as he exited the room, "Get well soon Solus," his laugh could be heard as he departed, walking through a shadow just outside the door.

---

Returning from his brief visit to the hunter, Szayeis emerged from a shadow in a street at the edge of Loom's downtown area. Briefly casting his eyes about he began walking towards the outskirts where the last traces of the Doctor's essence could be found. The man must have hidden himself in some form of essence deadzone, or he'd easily be able to locate him. His form the same humanoid guise as usual, Szayeis walked lazily through the streets, his demeanor relaxed. He did enjoy the night. It was when he was strongest.

But something lurked in the darkness, something strangely equal and sinister. Szayeis would feel that same essence signature that he felt half a day ago, silently lurking behind him. "Going for a midnight stroll? No surprise. Less people, and the night makes you stronger. All the better, really. Makes it more challenging, and interesting..." Said a voice from behind him.

Szayeis didn't turn around, he just kept walking, almost as if he had not heard the man. He knew that essence signature, it was the same one that Solus had smelled of. He'd also felt it approach. After all, as the man said, he was stronger at night, not to mention the fact that Szayeis' grasp of shadow manipulation was so great that during the night he was omnipresent. The Nightwalker began humming quietly, it was something of a haunting tune, but also slightly jovial, like something one might've heard at halloween.

Suddenly, a humanoid silhouette appeared before him, standing a good ten feet away, appearing virtually out of nowhere. "You know, Szayeis... Ignoring your company is a very... very... bad idea..." The creature spoke again, waiting for a response from the Lord.

He didn't smile, "I hardly think you could be called company and even if you were, not only would you be uninvited, you'd be unwelcome." The nightwalker had stopped walking, his white eyes almost looking through the chimera. "So, do you intend to offer your name? I see you already know mine, so I won't bother. If you're here for the same reason you visited Solus, I will inform you, that your essence, and whatever firepower you possess, is insufficient to kill or incapacitate me."

"You won't remember my name if you're dead..." The Chimera replied.

"I won't need to. If you attack me. I will devour you, and you will know that death is a blessing."

"Cocky..." Said the Chimera as a hand raised towards Szayeis, his palm facing the Demon, as if he was about to cast a spell. "Looks like I'll need to show you your place..." Just as he finished speaking a blast of energy escaped a Sigil on the palm of his hand, blasting towards Szayeis' ethereal body with a dispell.

Szayeis chuckled, throwing up a solidifed wall of shadow, then disconnecting it from his essence. The attack struck, then passed through the Logan's own shadow, attempting to strike him instead. "You're hilarious. You must be young. I've been alive for quite awhile, chimera. Your abilities are inferior to mine. Did you really think I'd easily let you hit me with that? Did you think greater beings hadn't tried?" As he spoke his presence began manifesting in other places within the area. His body, in the same moments, becoming ethereal, releasing wispy tendrils of darkness. This would be amusing, he hadn't been truly challenged in quite awhile. It would be fun to actually use the power he so infrequently could.

The Chimera was already behind him, instantly reappearing with another spell discharge towards Szayeis' ethereal back. This creature was surely fast as the tendrils swiped nothing but air, the Chimera vanishing with each attack, seemingly stepping through Szayeis' own darkness.

The body dissolved into darkness, it was no longer the main one. "Predictable," Szayeis' voice stated, resounding from all directions. Within the space of 12 blocks, screams began to sound, as people were devoured by his shadows. He only kept his presence in any given shadow for not even a second at a time.

He was gathering essence.

The Chimera stood in the darkness, casually pulling out a bottle out of some substance that looked like liquid Mercury. Gulping the substance down, the Chimera groaned as his insides twisted and turned, trying to reject whatever he had just swallowed. However the pain quickly subsided. Cracking his neck, he closed his eyes and scanned the essence around him, waiting for Szayeis to return to a nearby shadow. Soon enough, the moment he needed had arrived. His arm shot out towards Szayeis' nearby essence, as a beam of blue light snaked towards the Demon Lord, grasping his essence and pulling on it, preventing him from moving to another shadow. Szayeis may not have a physical body, but his essence has some solid form.

"Oh, that's cute," he said, another wall of shadow blocking the strike and disconnecting as before. Szayeis' essence grabbed onto the chimera's as well and as it did, it emitted its own dispell, striking point blank. He then attempted to pierce Logan with several hundred materialized tendrils of shadow. Both actions almost happening in the same moment. But the dispell did nothing, and as the tendrils struck, it was as if they smashed against steel. Under the Chimera's skin, crawled millions of nanomachines, dispelling, hardening his flesh, healing, doing everything simultaneously, making him practically immune. However, such power would only last a short time. The Chimera knew he had to make his move.

"Hmm, odd." Szayeis disconnected the essence that the Chimera had grabbed and appeared elsewhere. As he appeared again his form had shifted, but he immediately noticed it was not as complete as he would have liked. While the shadow was there, the horns seemed damaged and various portions of his body were improperly formed. It had become his shattered path. He sighed slightly, materializing the massive shadow that was cast over the surface of the ground below him. It began to feed on the building he was standing on, devouring it at a rather terrifying speed. "I'll have you know, that you're not all that impressive," Szayeis said, sounding less amused, and more bored now.

"Just what Solus said, too." His right hand entered his trench coat pocket, and slowly pulled out a handheld device. "Ciao." He pulled a trigger on it and Szayeis suddenly felt an emptiness, not only below his feet, but gripping around his very soul too. A bright orange explosion was consuming... no... vaporizing the building right below his feet, and the orange flames were coming for him, fast.

As they came, he felt shadows be obliterated. His own cut off and he reversed its flow, curling it into a sphere around himself. The flames washed over the sphere, and oddly they never entered it. They should have torn it apart, due to the properties they held. Furthermore, the bombs within the parts of the building he'd already consumed did not respond to the detonation whatsoever. Instead his essence had already dissolved them, translated them into ultra pure essence, and assimilated them. He felt a rush of power flow through him. His voice emanated outwards, "Yes, but I am far more powerful than Solus is, and also more experienced than the both of you combined." At his own comment he smiled slightly, despite his enemy's inability to see it.

He'd just noticed some other intriguing things about this individual.

If it were not for the nightwalker essence, the man would've felt remarkably like Solus.

Then it hit him, a nagging pain. He noted as it broke down essence. Smiling he slowed the process and isolated it within his vastness, watching what it did. He made no comment and gave no indication that the alerium worked on him.

"Now you can feel it..." The Chimera replied. "Why don't you just fight me, instead of prancing around like a little Nightwalker Princess."

"Meh," he said, appearing behind him and slamming his fist towards the man. If it missed or the Chimera attempted to appear anywhere nearby him, he'd be buffered by a powerful shockwave of vibrations, which would likely upset the nanomachines as a nice side effect of the ability. Szayeis indeed missed, but the Chimera reappeared at a decent range, immediately drawing his weapon, a large handgun, and pulling the trigger. A bolt of molten plasma. If it hit, it would melt the armor right off Szayeis' hide.

His hand swipped to the side and as it did a wave of force struck the bolt, hitting it aside. Szayeis turned and began walking towards the chimera. "I'm wondering why you even bother," the demon stated, almost as if asking a question. He was curious as to why the man was attacking him to begin with. Sure, he had plenty of enemies, thousands probably, and was surely wanted dead by anyone who knew he was alive, but what drove this man? "I thought you were going to make sure I died." He smiled slightly. The Chimera simply smiled in response, no point in answering a deadman's questions. Instead he continued to annoy Szayeis with pointless attacks, that was the plan after all. He wanted to see the Demon in full swing. His defence, and attacks, were child's play to him.

Given no response, Szayeis sighed, "How smug of you." The man was playing him for a fool, and clearly knew better than to think he was one in truth. "I'm not going to go out of my way to amuse you, nor to take you seriously. I have far more important things to do than play with a child," each word was said with a certain amount of disdain. Meanwhile, Szayeis' influence continued to spread, the shadows being eclipsed by his power. A shell of pure darkness began to gather, the very air seeming to coagulate with a thick mire of essence. Szayeis' aura began to expand into the field.

He did not expect to terrify the man, the figure was far too aloof and had faced down Solus, so that possibility was exceptionally unlikely. However, his essence had other ramifications aside from fear.

One of them was chaos. Those who remained alive within the area were devoured by the terror as it swept over them, losing their minds, their forms twisting. Tonight there would be an epidemic of a sort. One that resulted in the creation of many sires of shadow.

The Chimera chuckled. "Nice trick. You want a name to remember me by? Well, here's one for you. Sundowner..." Suddenly he vanished again, only to reappear instantly right infront of Szayeis, a fist coming straight at him.

The fist connected with a surface, but it was merely a shell of darkness. Szayeis' form, moving just as fast as the Chimera had, and having started his motion at the same time as the punch--though non physically--grabbed his arm and sent vibrations throughout his body, not letting go. The material which made him up making it impossible for this Sundowner to teleport away without dragging Szayeis with him, which he couldn't do. The Chimera whispered something familiar into Szayeis' ears, and just as he did so, Szayeis' hand was blasted off of him. Sundowner quickly drew his gun again, and fired, but not directly at Szayeis, just missing his head. Surprisingly the projectile exploded right behind it, threatening to cover Szayeis' skull in molten plasma.

The shadow snapped upwards in the air and struck the bolt aside, sending it hurtling towards a building. "You're still playing. If you continue, I'm going to leave you to someone who has time for petty games," he stated as his form re-materialized a few meters away, arms crossed.

"Yeah..." The Chimera said as a hand casually opened beside his hip. It was clearly time to cast the oldest trick in the book. Szayeis had become careless and bored, which was perfect for what he had in mind. The fool didn't even witness his essence fully, seemingly unware of the Miracle essence lingering within. "I'm done testing you..." A bright light began eminating from his hand, the buildings and the ground below their feet began to glow in a blinding white light, eliminating the shadows all around them in an area of 4 blocks, all but the sphere of darkness dissipated before the onslaught of light. With no shadow in sight, Logan pulled a pair of sunglasses from his pocket, and put them on, giving him the much needed reprieve from the blinding light. The surrounding and engulfing brightness would force Szayeis into a solid state, while it limited his powers, as the Chimera's own abilities were also limited. Steam floated upwards from the Chimera's body, as his bodily fluids condensated from the sudden 130 degree fahrenheit heat.

The nightwalker growled from the searing heat for a moment as the light burned at the sphere of darkness around him. He condensed it inwards over his flesh, making it conform to his body and as he did so he found himself smiling once more. "Amusing, so you have miracle essence as well as the others. A gross oversight, but one mistake I'll not be making again," he began walking towards Logan, his pace measured. "Shall we dance?"

Sundowner spread out his arms in delight, "Lets." He began to walk towards the Demonic Lord at a brisk pace, which quickly turned into a sprint that lead him directly to Szayeis in moments. As he was about to be right on top of him, his right shoulder leaned over for his arm to grab the handle of a sword. He quickly pulled on it and revealed a blade of seemingly pure light, Szayeis would be able to feel the air literally being cut by its sharpness right as Sundowner swung his sword from unsheathing into an attacking slash in one fluid motion.

The Nightwalker's smile broadened, showing wicked, but orderly, teeth as he, at the same pace, began raising his arm. As the blade approached the dark mire that coated his flesh expanded slightly. The blade touched the arm that impeded it and began cutting the darkness, then slipped into it, coming out as the strike finished, its momentum considerably lessened. Szayeis however, had not stopped moving and opened his mouth even as his fist moved to collide with the center of Logan's chest, moving at blinding speeds. The sound that emanated from his form was deafening. It shook the surrounding buildings, and the ground, sending clutter flying away, causing the air to ripple, glass to shatter, and anyone within eight blocks to suddenly collapse in pain as their eardrums ruptured.

Furthermore, and likely more immediately worrisome to his opponent, the very essence of miracle light shuddered and simultaneously a shock wave erupted from Szayeis' fist even before it collided. It appeared that while the removal of darkness certainly nullified some of his more basic abilities, it did nothing to lessen the sheer amount of destruction he could wrought. All it changed was the scope of such.

Of course, to Sundowner that did not truly matter. His artificial ears immediately shut off, leaving him deaf, unbeknowst to Szayeis. However, the attacking fist connected with the Chimera's chest, with the shockwave passing straight through his body in such a way that the back of his trench coat bloated and fluttered behind him. A powerful blow, against a powerful opponent. Sundowner wasn't all flesh, below the skin the nanomachines within him continued to do their work, as his carbon-nanotube ribs absorbed the blow. The cerebral chip in his head, getting a much needed dose of Adrenaline to charge its abilities. Pain fueled his technological capabilities. And this was all he needed.

With a sudden burst of speed and near immediate recovery from the blow, his own fist charged towards Szayeis' face-plate, and if he attempted to counter it, the limb would simply change direction, maintaining it's momentum and stopping power.

Suddenly, due to Logan's poor decision to not dodge, the vibrations that had been emitting from Szayeis' mouth and all sound within the radius he'd been emitting the vibration ceased. There was a sound like a thunderclap as all of the vibrations snapped into the nightwalker's body and conducted right into Logan's. The nanomachines may have healed Logan, but if they were disabled, then he could hardly heal him again. As such, the nightwalker took the blow to his face plate, augmenting it by redistributing a portion of his mass. Furthermore, as Logan made contact with his body his fist only partially punctured the shadow that coated the lord's form. The force behind his blow was lessened by over half and the nightwalker's smile grew as he continued with the momentum from Logan's strike to make distance.

As he slid back the nightwalker spoke, "You're going to have to pull all the stops, Sundowner if you want to kill me, because what you're doing now isn't even close to enough." The nightwalker slammed his foot against the ground, sending essence into it.

Nothing happened. Szayeis rushed forwards again, moving to close the distance between them, any damage he'd taken, already healed. While the lord could tell that the chimera and him had the same amount of raw essence, whether the fool could kill him or not was not a matter of power, it was a matter of skill...and it was far from likely that the man had as much as Szayeis.

After all, he'd been amassing his for over 5200 years, it was hard to top that.

Auto-Repair Nanites disabled was the message that flashed across Sundowner's artificial eyes as the thundering sound wave shattered the nano sized machines to pieces. No matter, they were about to shutdown anyway. Now that Szayeis' form was solid, Sundowner's weapon would now be deadly.

He quickly reached over his back to grab his 40mm Railgun, and all he had to do was nail the bastard with a Uranium Rod. His aim was instant, the holographic dot resting right over Szayeis' rushing body as he pulled the trigger. The magnetic coils surged in power as the 4cm thick rod was mass accelerated out of the weapon, leaving the barrel at a speed of Mach 10.

It was too bad Szayeis was no longer there. The poor little chimera had forgotten some details, which was funny because his prime consciousness derived from one of the lord's kin. Granted, most of his kind never used this tactic. Too bad, as it was terribly simple.

Remerging directly behind the chimera, Szayeis' claws raked upwards at his spine whilst his shadow expanded outwards to engulf the man. He wouldn't kill Logan, and he decided he wouldn't devour him either. No, he decided he'd teach him a lesson instead. It was rude to assault your betters, and it seemed this Sundowner had never been taught proper etiquette. His mouth was slightly ajar.

The Chimera was already reloading his weapon as he felt Szayeis' essence 'fade' behind him despite the abundance of light. An interesting trick, but the self-proclamed Sundowner had his own. As the shadows surrounded him, he suddenly 'fell' through the asphalt road below his feet, as if the very earth swallowed him. Szayeis would notice a peculiar blue aura that vanished as quickly as it came right where Sundowner once stood. And almost immediately, the felt the cold steel of his Railgun, and the click of the trigger being pulled.

Szayeis sensed the vibrations around him, the essence, and the darkness inside and upon all things. It was thus amusing as the railgun pressed against his flesh. The projectile fired, but it never hit, instead the shadow ate it, then spat it out the other side of Szayeis' body even as he thrust his foot backwards and likely into his opponent's rib-cage. His mouth remained open.

The kick connected, but not to the intended target. Szayeis felt a sticky substance against the sole of his foot, and then a sudden detonation of an explosive, electrical charge.

There was a prickling sensation, it flooded through him, dispersing outwards along his flesh. Rather than move his body to regain his stance, his foot suddenly was just in place again. There had been no movement, not even a flicker. Had he eyes and assorted facial features, the nightwalker would have raised an eyebrow at the action. "You're an idiot," he stated bluntly. His mouth didn't entirely close after he'd spoken.

The nightwalker stood there, amidst the miracle essence...and sighed. The blinding essence began to gradually dim. Szayeis sighed once more, "You're beginning to bore me again."

He suddenly felt a palm slap against his lips as a glass capsule entered his mouth and broke, releasing some truely foul tasting fluid that, against his will, 'crawled' down his throat. Sundowner walked around into Szayeis' view, simply stating. "Should have kept your mouth closed."

The lord briefly choked on the substance, then his body noted what it was and immediately he opened his mouth wider, the amorphous shadow being devoured by his body. He shuddered, "Disgusting," then he felt his shard react. It did so just as the miracle essence was fully pulled into the ground. If his body had been larger the sensation of two infinitely immense forces wrestling each other might not have been as sickening, but that was not the case.

The face plate shifted away from his visage, lengthening the horns and revealing his eyes which burned a furious white. "I am...going to make you suffer for that," something more pure and untainted than darkness, then substance itself, began to billow and flow from his form. The shadow he devoured had taken to his shard and the shard had done something that terrified him. It had caused the connection to Inaniae back in the Citadel to open. Purity beyond the concept of pureness flooded the shadow, within him, intercepted the taint that was trying to use his essence to spread. Split it apart, isolated it, and then he threw the shadow up.

He couldn't get all of it, but most of it was out. He clenched his teeth and then his form began flickering, from its grey, black, and tan colors, to pure white. The shadow released the taint, but not back into reality...somewhere else. Szayeis hadn't even known it could do that, but it nonetheless did. The shadow was pure again and it slammed into him, infusing into his physical form, but as it did so he shifted colors again...flickering between what seemed his Origin State and...something else. He glanced upwards, though there was no movement for him to do so as he had no pupils and hardly needed to move his neck.

His body straightened. "It won't be today. Or tomorrow, or even within the month," the demonic lord growled, his form shifting more frantically, settling on the white darkness more often than it did his alleged Origin State, "But I will take you, and your entire organization apart. I'll let them know I'm doing it, I'll let them feel the disappointment as everything falls through their hands like sand. I'll make sure they know they're powerless first, then I'll slaughter them." His form made the final shift, becoming a pure white silhouette, the material billowing upwards from his form as if it were burning.

It was.

He walked towards Sundowner, the moon shining overhead...but seeming to dim as time passed.

"My objective has been completed... Kind regards from the One, the Elder of Deceit. You have just joined a War that has been long in the making... and your Master Inaniae, won't save you forever..." His words echoed in Szayeis' mind. An Elder, an abomination that Inaniae's first son created with his own hands, was here, on the surface, living among the people. Plotting, watching, waiting... for Illmasi's return. That prospect alone, is something you don't just worry about, it's something you immediately begin preparing for. With the darkness restored, Sundowner attempted his retreat into the shadow, yet, it failed. Impressive. was his thought, as he just discovered a new evolution that stood before him.

One moment Szayeis was far away, the next he wasn't. He stood, unmoving, before Logan, then he smiled. The same speed the same instantaneous action and the chimera would feel about as sick as Szayeis had. A small amount of the taint dripping to the ground from the man's lips...even as smoke billowed from the same place. "He is not my master, filth. now begone, before I decide you deserve more."

The taint, and the tiniest sliver of void had been implanted into Logan's body. They would feed off his essence, growing, and unlike what coursed through Szayeis, the bit of void had no intention of helping its host.

Nothing would get rid of them and nothing would tame them either.

Szayeis was done, and he vanished. The moon flickered, becoming invisible for the briefest of milliseconds. Its light taken so completely that the eye didn't see it, before it returned again.

Sundowner felt it deep within, the rise in an essence far beyond his own. "You have no idea what you have just brought about..." He mumbled as he slowly began to walk. Curiously, he never casually walked, but the sudden overwhelming feeling of divinity made him do so.... The pain that he should have felt was numbed by the shock and the awe of the visions that coursed through his brain, he would feel it later... But no matter... HE was coming....

Luciana

Kenan

Early morning

She smiled at her sister. "So do I Hazumi. So do I. Now I need to go. Things to see. People to save. Time to catch up on." With that The Last Gatekeeper turned into her Angel and flew out the window, heading towards Kenan. She hadn't seen the gambling city in a couple hundred years, and was curious to see if anything had changed or if it remained the same corrupt cesspit it had always been. She had almost been tempted to let Judas take the city, to purge it of all it's corruption. But there would have been too much death, to many innocents slaughtered. So she had helped the city resist the invasion. With herself, several Angels and demons, and some of the Casino owners working together, they managed to beat back the attempt to take the city. And then they had started pressing the attack, which eventually lead to her death. I was screwed no matter what I did, wasn't I? Lose and Judas kills me, win and I had to sacrifice myself to bring a measure of balance to the world. Luciana smirked. The price of being 'The keeper of the Balance' Glancing down over the landscape, as she finally (after hours of unnecessary stops and sight seeings)drew near the outskirts of Kenan Luciana suddenly brought herself to a halt in mid air.

There was a torn and ruin path heading down a slanted cliff. What's more, it looked fairly fresh. Her curiosity getting the better of her, Luciana flew down to where the end of the path of the wreck was. There, surrounded by the corpses of Chimeras, was one of the owners who helped her defend the city 200 years ago. Luciana landed gently, looking around for any sign of survivors. "What happened here?" She asked aloud. A few short steps lead her to Darius who was, amazingly, still alive. "You lucky son of a gun." Luciana said as she picked the fox up and took off. She'd heal him later, in a place she knew was safe. This was too open, and the corpses were too likely to have friends wondering who killed them all and left their rib bone behind.

As Hazumi walked into the Western realm an eerie silence would fall over her, broken only by her breathing, hearbeat, and the infrequent sound of creatures moving about nearby. This area of the West, while dark like the rest, had a faint red and purple light that seemed to dance in and out of one's vision. There was a forest there, but it was no normal forest, no, in fact every tree was bent at impossible angles and all of them were barren, though they each emitted a slight pulsating glow. The ground at the feet of the trees was all solid rock and gravel. The trees should have been incapable of growing, which might have explained why all of them were barren--as if some force had magically fed the trees to maturity, or had suddenly turned all the soil into stone.

Regardless, the place was bizarre.

However, even more bizarre were what would look like lights far off in the distance in three directions. They were tiny floating clusters of white and yellow light that, every few minutes, would move to new locations, or blink out of existence, then pop up elsewhere, though always the same rough distance from her. All in all it was an odd place, made even more so by the fact that it would be the first time the Essence had seen it.

Hazumi looked around cautiously, taking the forest in before slowly stepping forwards, one foot leading the other. She found it curious that last time she visited nothing could surprise her. She still thought herself invincible at the time, and even though she might still be such, now her steps were a bit more hesitant.

The West had always been a bizarre place in her mind. Not only were Nightwalkers one of few creatures the Fleshshaper had never acquired, but even the pre-existing knowledge of the Gates and Gatekeepers didn't penetrate all the way through the darkness.

Seeing the light flicker at the corner of her vision her head turned and she had to wonder if it was her own mind playing tricks on her by importing images of things that weren't there. She considered for a moment trying to go after them but at the first step she made, the lights flickered and changed its location. Deciding that they would approach her if they want to, she ignored him for the time being and went deeper into the woods.

"Lletari, dear Essence, they are called Lletari," a voice proclaimed from directly behind her.

So she wasn't alone after all. The woman calmly looked over her shoulder and explored the newcomer.

Standing uncomfortably close was a rather disturbing looking fellow. His essence was whirling about frantically, but seemed oddly...lacking. There would be an apparent branching of energy from his body downwards from his feet and into the ground much like roots. If she followed them she'd notice that the entire surrounding area was suffused with the man's essence, something that was not typically possible for any average demon. So clearly this man was not average.

Thus, as he stood not two inches from her person, looking down at her from his 6'5 height, he spoke once more, "Those lights are Lletari. This forest is the Copse of Lit Fears and I am Jayh Durvasarieghe." He smiled at her calmly, seemingly unphased by her nature and by the multitude of...pins protruding from his flesh. "What business is it that you bring to the lord's domain?"

Hazumi's eyes ran up and down the demon and then strayed slightly along the ground to the nearby tree. There were places and creatures in the world that she still hadn't seen, with all the eyes and knowledge she'd received from her countless components. The West was among the few places she knew almost nothing about, the demons there seeming to have eluded the Fleshshaper's greedy claws. It gave her a peculiar feeling, between excitement and anxiety, to explore everything hidden by this darkness.

“Which lord are you referring to?”

The demon turned its head to the side slightly, as if regarding her from another angle. "Come with me," Jayh suddenly said, then turned around and began to walk towards the strange forest.

I hope he realises that whatever the outcome, one of his lords will perish. Hazumi thought and silently followed.

With his back turned, the demon spoke again, a smile carried in his tone, "Of such I am quite aware, Hazumi, though I thank you for such thoughtfulness." He slowed so she could catch up to him somewhat, and hopefully walk alongside him. His smile was a kind one, if she happened to look upon his face. "We are going down below, to the underdark of this forest. I think there is something there that would serve you well in your task."

It seemed he had dropped his earlier pretense of knowing not why she had come.

"You are a wise man." Hazumi almost smiled at his expression. She wasn't sure if he knew what he knew because he had been informed of her coming long ago or because he could guess her intentions. Heck, she didn't even know if her coming here wouldn't flip her plans on their head. However, she did know that for now she should follow the demon, his attitude inspiring trust even despite his peculiar appearance. One came to expect that of Hellions and it had never bothered her. One couldn't recognise the monsters in this world if they were only looking skin-deep.

"What's happening to this realm now that the Lord is absent?" She questioned, referring to Szayeis.

"I am but a humble watcher," Jayh responded, before falling silent once more. He could feel the mechanisms of her being moving, processing, grinding, and debating within her. Some about the current state of affairs, but most moved for other issues, other people. He continued to smile, giving no hint that he could, in fact, read her existence as if it were a book he had long ago committed to memory. "The inhabitants are uneasy and though the Citadel holds Void well, it cannot hold all of it."

Jayh gestured towards the Chaos barrier, the veil that all must pass through to enter the Western Realm, "It is composed of Inaniae's essence, crafted long ago from the ancient founder's aura." He turned his eyes to the Citadel then, "It is composed of his will and his ever altered nature, but in an impure form. The Citadel, one could say, is, or once was, composed of the Void's flesh, if flesh one could call its substance." He shook his head, "It may only contain him so long, and while this realm's inhabitants, 'cept the wardens and myself, are unaware of its nature or perhaps existence, they are uneasy nonetheless." The demon's eyelids lowered slightly as he shook his head, looking solemn.

He suddenly stopped before a tree, one which was taller, but thinner, than all the others. He raised his hands over its faintly glowing bark, not truly touching it, and whispered words that Hazumi, as the Essence, should have understood...but did not. It was a soundless noise, one that she would recognize, though through unfamiliar vessel it had emanated.

It was the sound of a gatekeeper's instrument...but not quite. Something was off, something about it was even more enigmatic...and it was free. There was no restraint on it, but alas it only lasted a moment before it was gone once more.

Her mind would attempt to forget it against her will, but would fail...for now.

"Come," he lowered his arm and stepped aside, gesturing towards the tree, "Walk into it, I will follow." The tree's glow had become a fierce glare, and expanded to take up a larger space than the tree itself did. There was an eerie look to the light, but all at once it was welcoming. This copse was a strange one, and its master...even more so, it seemed.

At first Hazumi felt gratitude and the warm sense of appreciation towards the demon. His lack of hostility and willingness to explain were qualities she found invaluable and ones that came as a refreshingly pleasant surprise in Hell. It was true that with her current status there weren't that many willing to question her authority but she knew how inhospitable Hellions could be. His words also made sense, it explained what she'd felt when she first came to this realm, a sense of home and a sense of hostility both. The veil and the Citadel both were pieces of her father and in a way she'd always known that.

She was lost in thought when Jayh started to chant and her mind went blank for a second, her eyes widening in surprise. She knew precisely what she was hearing, the only question was whether he was created first or the Gates. As he beckoned her to step towards the tree she obeyed, her eyes fixed on the demon instead of on the portal in front.

Jayh did not meet her gaze, but rather stared directly through it. He smiled lightly, gently, in a friendly manner, as she passed him and entered the portal. He followed moments after.

---

As she emerged on the other side she would find herself in a cavern, the glow the same as what the trees had emitted up above. They were beneath the forest now, in the underdark of the Unseen, a place few souls had ever been. Only Jayh could grant entrance after all.

"Whheelcome Eessence," a sonorous voice echoed through the cavern. Jayh did not react, 'cept to briefly bow his head, then silently step passed Hazumi to tread further into the cavern, whose ceiling was alight with the roots of the trees from above. One wouldn't think that they were miles underground. As the Watcher strode forth, the far off walls, seeming barely to exist at all, began to glow just barely within perception. Hazumi, if she reached out with her senses, would feel...nothing. It was as if this place had no boundaries at all, despite those clear before her: Ceiling and floor.

"The Fears have waited, one who has been named...Hazumi," the voice boomed once more. Jayh continued forwards, appearing not to mind whether or not she followed, the voice would reach her all the same.

Hazumi's senses explored the space and came up largely empty. The welcoming didn't surprise her, though being unable to tell where or who the voice came from was slightly unsettling after years of knowing pretty much everything.

The second phrase threw her off and made her brows furrow. Being referred to both as “Essence” and “Hazumi” was peculiar in the sense that most creatures viewed her as either-or in any particular situation. After all, the two were distinctly different: one was an object, the other one was an individual. At least that's what she thought most of the time. Sometimes even she wasn't sure if there was a difference, really. Perhaps it was all in her head.

She fell in toe next to Jayh and pushed her musings away in favour of trying to figure out what was going on. “What is this place?”

He did not reply, his pace steady as they walked, side-by-side, his charge just barely flagging behind. After what might have felt like minutes, Jayh's mouth opened, but no sound came out. Instead, the voice spoke once more, and as it did, Jayh's own lips moved, though the voice was certainly not his, nor did it seem to come from him at all. "This is the Underdark of the Unseen," the voice boomed, "...herein lies the Litany of knowledge, a repository of this world's truths, all in one place, untouched by the hands of mortals in their wholeness." The voice rebounded throughout the cavern for several seconds after it had stopped speaking, but Jayh's lips kept moving, his own voice coming out once more, quieter, though it did echo, in the cavern than the unknown entity that had spoken before. "Not any can be ferried into this abyss, only those whose conscience is clear, whose essence is marred, but without flaw, and whose form is immaterial and without any true meaning," Jayh, for the first time since they had entered the cavern, turned to look at her. His calm eyes were glowing faintly, and it seemed that with every step their glow became more fierce, more pronounced. Yet there was something strange about this light, for his eyes were not changing.

It would be as if one could see both illusion and reality in the same frame, but there was not another frame, there was no line between the two. "You are one such being, Hazumi...Essence," a smile touched his lips, small and gentle--calm, but serious all the same.

"This is the Vault, the plane outside," Jayh's lips moved, but the voice boomed outwards, it was the entity's rather than his own. "The Grim Hunter, who you know as Solus now, has never tread these halls. This is a Vault beyond even that which lies hidden beneath his home of two hundred years past. Do you know why you are here?" A subtle resonance began to hum into existence within the cavern, an almost imperceptible drone. No matter how one altered their essence or physiology, it did not change, or become easier to detect. The light had begun to dim, and were her eyes to look ahead, she would notice that it became only darker on the path ahead, though the lights never seemed to truly disappear, despite the lack of illumination.

It was a phenomena that likely made no sense to her mind, nor any other. This was an ancient place, and whatever, wherever, it was it was easily apparent that it was something more ancient than anything else.

It was the Realm of Watchers.

Hazumi's steps didn't slow, an odd sense of calm washing over her the deeper they went into this unknown place. She didn't know what to expect, not even if it was safe to proceed or if she wasn't willingly following a stranger to her death. But it didn't matter. In a life where everything was control, cause and effect, a constant chain of meaningful choices, to be robbed of responsibility and idly drift down the stream of fate was a welcome and liberating feeling. A smile found its way to her face, a deep breath seeming like the first in a long time.

“I know why I came.” She answered, a childish curiosity layered under her words. “But I don't know why you brought me here nor what I'll find. ”

"You seek perception of the Old One, the forsaken child. The Father of Gods. You know him as Inaniae, we as the Primordial," Jayh's lips moved in-sync, though he did not speak. "You have been brought here to understand his essence and the method of both his entrance to this realm, and his fall from grace." There was an imperceptible shift as the two figures, Jayh and Hazumi, took their next step. It was hard to tell when. It might have been when their feet touched ground again, it may have been in the middle of their steps, or the moment just after they raised their foot for the next one.

It was impossible to tell. Time was vague here.

All at once, but nonetheless a smooth transition in its own paradoxical fashion, the lights shifted colors and vanished. Hazumi's common sense would tell her that the room was dark, as if her instincts knew there was no light, better than her senses did. Her eyes on the otherhand would note that the lights had shifted to a white coloration. Should she attempt to gaze directly open any source of illumination it would be merely another black spot in her vision. She could only see the lights in her peripheral vision. Jayh seemed unfazed.

The cavern's walls seemed to become nearer the further forwards they walked, the path expanding. Yet her spatial awareness would tell her differently, it was not that the cavern's form had changed at all. The senses of essence, which she possessed would not confirm either impression. "We near the Articulate's Sigil," Jayh said, his voice returned to him, the cavern held in an eerie silence aside from the muted noise of their footsteps, and of course their breath.

Several moments passed and as they did it would feel as if they had entered another room, despite her senses telling her that was impossible. As her instincts notified her of this shift in scenary, it occurred around her, as if slipping into existence. Before her in the center of the now circular space they stood within, was a 2x2 meter cubical prism that reached almost halfway up the height of the room only to be met in its center by an identical, though inverted, prism of the same height, which extended down from the ceiling. Her essence sight would notify her of the miniscule amount of space held just between the tips of the two elongated prisms, each which, while black, reflected light throughout the room. The ceiling, floor, and walls seemed to absorb this light, and were she to look at them with her peripheral vision she would notice what appeared to be all manner of essences swirling, mixing, and separating beneath the surface of the room's boundaries. Were she to look directly at any of the surfaces in any other way, they would merely be a stark white, no details, no apparent texture, and no sign of aging whatsoever.

The place had an air that was both comfortable and unsettling. It was the calm of the place coupled with its strangeness. "This is the Articulate's Sigil," the Watcher's guardian spoke, his gentle eyes glancing at Hazumi. It was Jayh's voice that came from the body this time.

As if on cue the two prisms began to retract into their respective surfaces, widening the space between their tips, and gradually revealing something as they did. At first it was just a shimmering black dot, but as it grew in size, almost as if stretched by the retreating prisms, it became apparent that it had angular facets, and when it was finally four meters from point to point, it was very clear that it was some kind of crystal, though not like anything the Essence had ever seen. It looked much like obsidian, but its essence was totally alien as far as crystals went. It was both like looking at nothing, at the void, and as if one were gazing upon the very essence of substance itself. It was like looking at an idea given form.

The reason was because that's exactly what it was. "I doubt you have ever heard tell of this place, let alone this object, if you can call it by such a mundane term. This place, wherein we stand, is the only place where the Abstract touches the Primordial. It is their sole place of contact and communication. You could say it was created, but that would not be quite...accurate. It came to be in the same manner as the Primordial and the Abstract, but has been as constant as Time. What matters to you, is here you may come to learn anything you desire." Jayh paused a moment, letting the gravity of that sink in before he glanced to the Articulate's sigil once more, its shimmering black surface remaining complacent, even as it warped the perception of most anyone who looked directly upon it. "You have been granted two tokens. One by the Will of Aaurus, your father, and the other by the grace and kindness of Lucy, who so infrequently visits the domain of her children." Jayh seemed to smile slightly, as if the thought of Lucy's visit was a comforting memory to him.

"These tokens may be spent in two manners. The first will grant you a unique experience during your lifetime, that is sure to occur no matter your own choices. You may choose whether to know what this experience will give you, or you may choose what this experience is." He did not clarify what either meant, "The second possibility of these tokens may grant you any piece of knowledge that the Abstract possesses in as complete a form as your mind can process without overload or cessation of your modus operandi, prime function." He stopped momentarily, watching her reaction, before he spoke again, saying simply, "Choose wisely. I will wait outside." He then began to turn on his heel and tread in the space they had just crossed.

Hazumi's heart sped up, as they progressed into the cave, and it was with both anticipation and worry. There was something bizarrely exciting about the whole experience and even though the place was no wonderland, part of her was tempted to stay and forget about all the obligations and worries.

None of that. She mentally slapped herself as she gave up trying to understand what was going on and simply followed. The sight of the pyramids was interesting, but not as much as the explanation of what they were – creation taken shape. She felt compelled to run a hand along the smooth surface of the thing but knew better than to attempt it. As Jayh instructed her on what her choices were, she listened carefully and nodded stoically and as he moved out, she sat on the ground, staring at the prisms.

It was a tough choice and it would definitely take time to make her mind up. While the first option was playing on her curiosity, it was the second one she was more interested in. Knowledge was more important than anything, even her own life, yet the precise questions she wanted to ask were hard to pin down.

There were many things she wanted to know – would the wars ever end, would Lucien survive the year, was there a way for the musicians to use their instruments safer than they did now, was there a way for her to be truly happy... But she had to concentrate on the important things. First and foremost, it was about the matter at hand – Inaniae. But was the question how to defeat him or how to detect him? Or was it 'Is there a way to erase his identity'?

In the end she settled for 'How can I recognise the fragments of Inaniae?' Hopefully that was the right question, based on the assumption that Szayeis did in fact hold the knowledge of what to do once those were gathered.

And speaking of Szayeis, it was very tempting to use the second token to find out what his end game is. Could he be trusted? Who was he? What would he do after this is all over? Interesting questions but perhaps not as important in the long run.

Hazumi sighed, looking up to the two prisms. 'Is my identity worth more than my powers?' was something she'd always wondered. Was she better off as a person, or as a tool? Then again, would this be the right way of finding that out? And besides, wasn't the answer pretty obvious?

Making up her mind, she got to her feet and tilted her chin up like Lily had taught her. Look proud even if chances are you're about to make a mistake.

“How can I recognize the fragments of Inaniae? and What is my legacy and the most important thing I can do in my life?” She spoke to the object and waited anxiously for the answers.

Immediately her senses would swim, her sense of balance going first, likely causing her to topple to the ground. At first the awareness would be like she had been connected to a vast, no, infinite reservoir of information, before that vanished entirely and was replaced by a single concept. It would feel like water, flowing into her mind, but also like shards of glass, spearing at her thoughts, before it shifted again, parting any stray bits of her psyche and then flooding her with the knowledge.

After several minutes the sensations of pain and discomfort would fade, leaving behind a sense of rightness and of learning. The knowledge of the first question had suffused her, become part of her on a level deeper than she might have liked before it had happened, but now was unavoidable. Much like Szayeis, or any other fragment aware of themselves, Hazumi would not be capable of identifying any number of Inaniae's fragments by merely seeing them. It would be an immediate response, no delay, no doubt, unquestionable and absolute.

After another minute had passed it would be like she could suddenly feel her body again, though she may not have even realized she couldn't feel it, and all her senses would return to her.

Oddly, despite the suddenness of it, it would cause no adverse reactions, no sense of overload.

The room seemed not at all changed. Except for the fact, of course, that she now had sand in her hair.

Hazumi picked herself up and blinked a few times, the lack of leftover pain striking her as odd. It had been a familiar sensation, her body and mind recognising it from the time she'd been the Fleshshaper's plaything, forcefully fed souls that didn't belong. Of course, the millennia that had passed since then had blurred the memory but she was quite certain that the Void, or the Abstract, or Jayh or whoever was giving her this knowledge now, knew a nicer way of doing it. Still, it made her think twice of using the second token. Oh well, too late now anyway. It seemed to be worth it in the end - the fact that she would immediately know a fragment when she sees one was reassuring, even if it didn't provide any information on where to look.

Her second question was an interesting one, as its implications were greater than she realized. It had to do more with an event and how it would influence her future, than it had been a true question. She had unwittingly used her second token for an experience.

So it was that even as she regained her composure, the room began to swim around her, lurring together and becoming like a soupy liquid. Her sense of location would fail, and it would be much like she were floating in a vast ocean, but one composed purely of knowledge and of experience, of causal meaning and immutability. Your legacy will only be known to you in your last moments, for all that you have caused in your wake will be too great for the mind you possess in life to comprehend. The world's Essence will change, you will leave behind many who love you, and perhaps as many that may harbor for you hatred. However, your longevity is a gift as much as a curse, for you will bring about both happiness and discord to this world. As your term ends, with assistance of those who have kept you company, you will have gained what you now so desperately seek. Your legacy will be a great one. It was less as if something spoke to her, and more as if the core meaning of what was needed flooded into her mind.

This time the process was seamless and without pain or any form of suffering. It merely was.

There is no one thing, which you could do that would be more important than the others. Time is not so linear or set in stone. Destiny may be altered with diligence. The importance of your actions is dictated both by how they influence your own being, and how the ripples spread throughout the worlds. The Abstract may not peer into Time's flow just as the Primordial, creation's Grandfather, cannot. Your fate could be as the saviour to this world, a bystander, or you could very well cause its destruction. All that remains once knowledge is gained...is the choices. Will you make them? The flow of information stopped, events slipping into, through, and then out of her mind's eye within timeframes that she would be unable to know. As if they could have lasted seconds...or milennia.

As the room began to gradually solidify around her, she would perhaps, upon looking, notice that it was different. The light of the essence which swirled beneath the surface of the black walls was more apparent now. The Articulate's Sigil in the center of the room seemed as if it were not merely refracting light and essence now, but as if there were many images superimposed over its existence, shifting in and out of her perception. It would last, for her eyes, only a fickle eight seconds, before the impression seemed to fade from existence.

Unknown is the breadth of the world,
Unseen is the linchpin, which holds it fast,
The Essence dwells therein, but who knows its last?
Her form is battered here, seeking to be curled,
She hides away from future, dwelling on the past,

What is her purpose
What is her path
Who is her saviour,
If one she has.

Legacies are built, but they can be broken,
Without choice, one leaves behind....
Unknown words, unspoken.

Is her free will mute?
Is she Hazumi, or the Essence,
Or perhaps is there no truth to either,
Their forms as changeable as water on silt,

Unknown and enigmatic is the answer,
Unless its simplicity is hidden, buried in past guilt.

What is her purpose
What is her path
Who is her saviour,
Is it another, or the self, she thinks the Tool of Essence has killed?

The room was silent and it was not that the words had spilled into her consciousness, it was more like...they had always been there, and she had merely not noticed. When she left this place, she would be unable to understand when she had learned it, but it would nonetheless be there.

Jayh waited outside.

Hazumi found with some surprise that she was able to walk without wobbling. Her head was swimming still, however everything was crisp and clear, no fatigue or dizziness remaining from the weird experience. It felt like her body had been disintegrated and put together again, and at the same time it felt like nothing much had happened at all, like she'd just remembered a long-forgotten fact.

The words, however, remained and they were floating around her consciousness like snowflakes coming in and out of focus. It would take a long time for them to settle, and yet it was made clear that she never would find out until it's too late. Choices... In the end it all boiled down to that, and part of her was relieved at that knowledge more than any other. Knowing that she would make an impact, that her existence would matter. That it wasn't wrong that she wanted to make it count.

Stepping out of the room, she willed her eyes to turn to Jayh, a sudden cotton-soft weariness seeping in her bones. “Thank you, Jayh. You have given me enormous help and I will be forever grateful. Is there any way I can repay you?”

The demon shook his head, his eyes glowing fiercely. As she looked at him his essence would seem less normal than it had before, like her perception had been expanded slightly. "No need, it is my pleasure. Come, I know you have much to do, no use staying here any longer." He began walking back along the path, towards the exit, which was not yet visible in the distance.

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