Aria keeps her foot on the accelerator as the Devil sits in the seat next to her, cigarette smoldering between his thin lips. On the horizon, she can see the bright lights of Vegas and the vast steel walls that surround it.

‘The artifact you’re after is called the sinner's heart,’ says the devil through a cloud of smoke.

Aria pulls a few strands of her auburn hair from her mouth as the wind blows through the glassless windows of the car.

‘What does it look like,’ she asks.

‘I don’t know. When they're brought into this world they change to be more in keeping with their surroundings. But don’t you worry about that. I’ll know it by just touching it,’ explains the devil as he flicks his cigarette butt away into the wasteland.

Frustrated, Aria grips the steering wheel tighter.

‘Ok, then who is my target?’

‘Some useless prick called Nigel Bozy. He’s a conman that works the street outside of the Lucky six casino,’ says the Devil another cigarette between his lips, ‘make sure you end him, failure isn’t an option.’

Aria turns just in time to see the devil disappear in a cloud of black smoke. She guesses that must be all she needs to know.

****

A short distance away from the city walls is the remains of a small suburban area of twelve houses. Some of them have long collapsed into rubble, others have become the permanent residence of wastelander’s and others are used as overnight stops for those visiting the city.

Aria brings her car to a stop in the space between two of the houses that are still standing. There is no light coming from within the buildings so she knows that it's unlikely anyone has seen her so far. Not like that worried her too much since most wastelander’s rarely got in the way of each other unless there was a bounty up for grabs.

She reaches under the car's steering column and pulls the red wire apart. She doubts anyone will know how to hot wire a car since there are so few working cars outside of the city. With that done all she needed to do now was make her way to the city.

****

The guard bot accepts the ten-dollar bill that Aria feeds into its opening below the screen it uses as a face. There’s a shudder as the city gates slide open. Once there is enough space she slips into the city where people make their way between the various casinos and bars.

It takes another five minutes of walking before Aria finally arrives at the Lucky Six casino, which is a surprisingly small building. People dressed in salvaged suits and dresses make their way inside the building while two men armed with shotguns stand guard at the front doors.

Aria scans the area looking for the con man the Devil said was her next target. In the wasteland, there is plenty of people who will be more than happy to take your money and leave you for dead, so spotting Nigel probably won't be as easy as she hopes.

‘Hey young lady, you interested in buying some fine jewelry?’ says a gruff voice.

Aria turns to see an overweight man with thinning black hair and a permanent layer of sweat on his face. Could it be this easy? Could this be the man she has been sent to kill?

‘Are you Nigel?’ Asks Aria, trying to figure out how someone like him has managed to survive so long.

‘That depends, who’s asking?’ Says the con man, he starts to shuffle nervously in place. His eyes seem to dart in all directions.

‘My good friend miss pistol here,’ says Aria, motioning to the small pistol tucked between the waistband of her torn jeans.

‘Oh shit, you ain't getting me,’ cries Nigel and he suddenly breaks into a run.

‘Come back here you fat fucker,’ shouts Aria as she gives chase.

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Despite his appearance, Nigel has more power in his legs than Aria gives him credit for. He runs like his life depends on it, and in this case, it did. It doesn’t take long before the casinos and bars are a memory and the buildings surrounding them become bleak, bombed-out shells of their previous glory.

Nigel heads for a large, brick building with most of its roof missing. Breathing hard, Aria pulls out her pistol and continues to give chase. But somehow the fat con man is still quicker than her and he disappears inside the building.

Catching her breath, aria slows her pace down to a walk and enters the building through a broken window. The room she finds herself in looks to have been an office at some point in history. Computer terminals lay broken on the floor with desks and chairs piled up randomly in the far corner of the room. In the distance, somewhere inside the building, she can hear Nigel trying desperately to catch his breath.

‘There’s no point in running, Nigel,’ shouts Aria, her pistol at the ready.

‘Fuck you, I didn’t do anything to you,’ shouts Nigel, his voice quivering with fear.

‘You stole from my boss and he doesn’t like people who take things from him,’ says Aria, walking through a doorway and into the main part of the building. It takes her a second to realize that she’s in what used to be a slaughterhouse.

How fitting.

‘Fuck you, I didn’t steal anything from anyone,’ shouts the conman, his voice now closer than before.

The tiled walls are still splattered with the blood of the many animals that pass through the building. Aria puts her pistol away and grabs a meathook laying on the floor near her feet. As she bends down to pick it up, she can see Nigel’s shadow behind the wall she is closest to.

‘Well, that’s not what my boss says and he’s never wrong,’ says Aria moving closer to the edge of the wall.

‘Screw your boss. He’s a dumbass,’ says Nigel, oblivious to who he’s talking about.

Aria tightens her grip on the handle of the meathook, ready to take a swing.

‘You can tell him that yourself,’ she says and in one quick motion, she steps past the wall and lashes out with the meathook.

The air fills with the sound of Nigel’s agonized scream as the hook pierces his temple and comes out through his eye socket.

‘Get out here you piece of shit,’ growls Aria as she pulls on the hook.

Crying in pain, Nigel stumbles into the light and falls to his knees. Blood runs down his cheek from his ruptured eye socket. Aria frees the hook from his face which elicits another agonized scream from the con man.

‘Where is the artifact?’ Demands Aria, she can feel the ancient symbols tattooed around her wrists begin to throb which she took to mean that it was very close.

‘What are you talking about?’ Nigel cups his hands around his damaged eye, blood oozing between his fingers.

‘Stop playing dumb with me, it's over. You’re finished,’ says Aria, hatred for the pathetic man before her fills her soul on a level she never thought possible.

‘Look the only thing I got recently was this stupid chain with a heart on it,’ Nigel uses his free hand to show Aria the necklace he is wearing.

Aria looks at her wrists. The symbols are now glowing at the sight of the chain and the small heart attached to it. She reaches out, grabs it, and pulls it off the man's neck. Holding it in her hand, she can feel nothing but contempt for the man before her, as if he had personally stolen it from her.

‘Where did you get this?’ She asks, tightening her grip around the hook again.

‘Some guy in a black robe gave it to me yesterday. Don’t ask me what he looked like ‘cause I couldn’t see anything in the damn hood except darkness. That’s the truth I promise,’ says Nigel, squirming on his knees.

For a brief moment, Aria is confused. The man he is talking about sounds exactly like the black monk Myrle. But why would he come to this world to give a con man a sacred artifact? That makes no sense. And it is something she will have to try and figure out later. She still had one final part of her job to do.

‘I believe you,’ says Aria and in one swift motion, she brings the meathook down hard on the con man's skull. There is a sickening crack as the tip of the hook pierces Nigel’s head and lodges itself deep in his brain.

Blood pours from Nigel’s mouth and nose as he slumps forward and face-plants the floor. Aria watches the blood pool around his head before sticking the chain and heart into her pocket. Something deep inside her is telling her that she should keep it for herself. But surely the Devil will know she has it.

As that question forms in her mind, a cloud of black smoke erupts from out of nowhere and within seconds the Devil is standing next to her. A smile draped across his gaunt face.

‘Well done Aria, you are turning out to be one of the best souls I’ve worked with so far,’ says the Devil as he kicks Nigel’s lifeless body hard enough to make him flop onto his back.

‘Well, I aim to please,’ says Aria begrudgingly. She can feel a sense of anxiety build within her as she watches the Devil search the dead man's body.

‘Ah, there you are,’ says the Devil gleefully as he sticks his hand into the inside pocket of Nigel’s coat and pulls out a simple gold chain. ‘I’ll be keeping this safe from now on.’

‘That’s it?’ Asks Aria, quietly surprised that he hasn’t noticed she has the real artifact in her pocket.

‘Yep. It looks simple enough but it contains a huge amount of power that doesn’t belong in this world,’ says the Devil, a black cloud slowly beginning to envelop him. ‘You should get some rest. You look tired. I’ll be in touch when I have another errand for you to do.’

And with that he disappears, leaving Aria alone with the dead body and a head full of questions.