The three Enforcers eventually fell asleep in Talen’s living room.

Then, they were awakened as Eros’s foot slammed onto the ground. Uriel removed his head from a pillow on his lone side of the couch, rubbing the gunk out the corner of his eye.

Tal groaned, throwing Alora off him.

“Dad…? What’s wrong? Isn’t it… Friday?” he asked.

The old man nodded. “Truth be told, I’d much rather let you all rest for today and the weekend, but it looks like duty calls. All three of you freshen up and return here in ten minutes for a mission debriefing with Valentina. The Displacement you three intercepted yesterday has returned. And this time… it’s incarnated.”

Ten minutes later and outside the House, the trio sat on the steps leading up to the porch. Alora sat on the highest one with both cheeks squished under the pressure of both palms while Talen and Uriel sat far away from one another on the same step lower than her.

Across from them was Valentina, both arms crossed behind her back, “Last night, in Barronia’s neighboring kingdom, a slaughter occurred. Without explanation, three whole city blocks of the kingdom of Arronsburg suddenly imploded. The destruction was random and widespread. While the explosions were instant, the victims didn’t instantly disintegrate and instead suffered until their inevitable demise from the burns they sustained. When all was said and done, the perpetrator was identified by the supposed vessel for Malum Monstrum: Anthony Whitlock. Your mission is to locate the boy… and eliminate him.”

Alora perked her head. “Eliminate him? Isn’t that a bit too hasty of us? Ain’t it possible to maintain some type of… control against this Monstrum dude?” She looked down at the boys. “Right, guys?”

The duo of Talen and Uriel looked at each other only once before shrugging.

The Prince sniffled. “Well, it’s not like we know this kid. If killing him brings about the end of the Monstrum threat as a whole, I see no other choice but extermination.”

Tal yawned, head leaned back. “Who cares? We have a job to do and we might as well do it right. Plus, depending on the mission’s danger level, we get paid accordingly, right? How dangerous is this guy when he’s incarnated?”

Val scratched her chin with closed eyes. “Well, it’s hard to say. Back when Ava and Samael fought him, I believe he’d only consumed one of his arms. That puts him at High-Rank 1. And now, thanks to eyewitness reports, we can confirm he’s consumed another. That puts him at… another Rank 0.”

Uriel straightened his head, Alora felt her eyes burst wide. Sitting up from his slouch, the Unconquerable boy widely grinned.

‘Finally,’ he thought. ‘A challenge…’

Sometime later…

The register inside the the supermarket dinged open once the cash was thrown onto the counter. Mechanical doors automatically opened as Alora left the store first with the boys lagging behind her. Uriel reluctantly carried the bags while Talen cracked open a Coke with one finger.

The girl groaned. “This is unbelievable! I thought the Syndicate was supposed to be better than the Enforcers! Instead, we’re forced to adhere to the same regulations and are ordered around by the same stupid people. Blehhh, it’s all so irritating…”

Uriel relinquished the bags. “Complaining isn’t going to solve anything. If you want to get over this quickly, focus your attention on the mission and not how irritating it is. If all you do is complain, I pity what type of adult you’ll become.”

“That’s easy for you to say. Someone like you who has their future already set as the ‘Prince of Barronia’ can talk all he wants. The rest of us have to try our hardest to match your standards…” Alora said.

Uri sighed. “Wait, I… I didn’t mean to be rude—“

“It’s fine. I get it. We’re all a little stressed. This summer has been more chaotic than most, I reckon.”

“I guess we can both agree on that. Then again, with someone like him—“ Uri and Alora stared at Talen. “—things always get settled rather quickly, don’t they?”

He looked at them both. “What?” asked Talen.

“Well, I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while. But Talen, you should be more mindful of how you treat other people. Mocking allies who’ve fallen during battle is a good way to get them to dislike you. And if you’re the reason your family loses its praiseworthy acclaim, even I won’t be able to stop Eros for you,” Uriel said.

Tal rolled his eyes. “What a pain…”

The sun had set by the time they had approached the gate to leave the Capitol kingdom. Flashing their badges at the stationed knights at both far sides of the towering battlement granted them access to the world beyond the walls of confined Barronia. A dirt trail led them straight ahead; two grass fields laid flat beside them for miles and miles without showing an end.

Yet while the destination was very clearly directly in front of them, the trek there was still hours long. Meaning the trio stopped in their tracks and set up camp under fall of night. While the white and black-haired pair set up the tent on a patch of green land to the right of the main dirt road, Alora was set to keep watch on the higher hill close to the lower patch of camp, head tilting to glare at any bypassing onlookers nosy enough to glance her way.

Uriel walked up to stand beside her. “Anything?”

“Not from where I’m standing.” Alora shrugged. “Then again, maybe you’re more suited for this. Can’t you use those Angels of yours to keep watch?”

“I could. But I’d have to exert myself to share the vision with them like Lily. Speaking of which, where is she?” Uri scratched his chin.

“Dunno.” She shrugged. “You’d have to ask Tal ‘bout that one.”

The Prince turned back around, striding back toward Talen. “Hey, where’s Lil, man? Last I heard, your mom assigned her outside Barronia.”

The young man sat in front of the crackling and completed fireplace lighting his caramel face and dark green eyes while toiling at it with a wooden stick.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Beats me. She texted last week but she’s starting to get dry… if she keeps on with that shit, might just have to block ‘er or something.”

“Again?” Uri scoffed. “How many girls are you gonna ghost before you finally find a wife?”

“Who said I wanted one? S’long as I get my pick of the litter, I’m satisfied,” Tal said.

“Oh, how I wish I could’ve recorded you saying that,” Alora said, squatting to sit across from him next to the Prince.

Uri shook his head. “Honestly, I can’t understand having that type of mindset. All of us met Lily and love her. You gonna find another girl as good as her, introduce her to everyone you like, then ruin that, too?”

“Hey, hey, hey, watch yourself, Princey,” Talen pointed the stick at him. “I didn’t do anything wrong this time. We had a good first date and I thought she was sweet. What, you assumed I was immediately gonna go back to being a promiscuous piece of shit? I tried. Not everyone can find and have a girl as perfect as yours.”

“No idea what you’re talking about,” Uriel said.

Alora snickered under her hand. “Is that what you say to Daddy when he asks why you’ve been making out with one of his council members?”

“If he knew about it he would,” Uriel said. “He’s just jealous that Raven wanted me when he liked her. Clearly picked the better cousin out of the two—“

That was when the stick smacked the Prince in the face. Alora fell over laughing with a hand over her stomach while Uriel groaned, rubbing the side of his head and then looking up through blurry vision at the Unconquerable across from them.

“What?” Talen smirked. “Talk shit, get hit.”

Uriel glared, blue gleaming from the calm azure color within each eye. “You better watch yourself carefully from this point on…”

“Or what? You’ll try and beat me? Don’t make me laugh! Let’s not get ahead of our weak selves now.” Talen peered over the dark shading his glasses. “Wouldn’t wanna call your girl and have her cry at the sight of your bloodily beaten body…”

“Hey, guys, if you’re seriously gonna fight over a white girl? Might have to rethink your priorities.” Alora, sat up, inhaled from the end of one newly ignited blunt.

“Don’t worry, you’ll find a pretty black one like me, Tal. Also, your snow bunny is definitely super duper gorgeous, Uri. Now both of you shut the fuck up, sit down, and stand being around one another at least for a few more hours. Until we finish this stupid mission.”

“Ugh…” Talen leaned back. “Trust me, nobody wants any girl like you, Lora. Pretty and black I could go for, though.”

“I hear Helena, Ruler of Helenheim, is still alive.” Uriel reclined, rubbed the bruise on his forehead. “Maybe she’s your type?”

“If I’m even old enough for her,” Talen uttered.

“Ooh, I know some girls from college!” Alora winced. “Most of them are kinda slutty though.”

“Ah, yes,” Talen said. “Give me Lily but better or nothing.”

“Y’know,” Uriel said. “I can’t help but feel like that’s a shitty thing to say, but since you’re so nonchalant about it and have zero amounts of shame, it’s normal to the both of us at this point.”

“Agreed,” Lora said.

Tal shrugged, propping up his glasses. “Whatever. She’s the one who ghosted me. You gonna pass that, crazy?”

Rising from next to Uri, she handed it over to Talen, who reached for what she was giving him before his other arm wrapped around her neck to pull her into a headlock.

Lora faked choking. “Agh! Come on, no fair, no fair!” She tapped against his arm.

“I’m witnessing an abuse,” the Prince deadpanned. “Should I call the police?”

Talen smiled, releasing his arm from over her neck so Alora could smoothly recline and lay the back of her head on top of his arm, facing away from him while still right beside her brother. Having taken the spliff from her grip, smoke flew from his pursed together lips and wavered in swirling clouds of gray above them, mystifying the white stars barely visible amid the deep black sky.

“Sorry about that,” Tal said. “If I told you to come over, you would’ve been suspicious. At least you’re back where you properly belong now.”

Lora scoffed. “Loser,” she said while he ruffled her short gray hair.

“Maybe you were right,” Uriel said, rising from where he sat. “I’ll try and see if I can share my sight with the Angels. Take up your shift keeping watch.”

Alora kept her eyes trained on the Prince as he stood, split ends of his long black coat flowing around the back of his legs in front of the flickering fireplace while after he turned around and walked away, the locks of his fluffy white hair flew with the breeze.

Stopping at the steep high his comrade had perched upon earlier, he crossed both arms, and silently invoked the sky-blue aura dormant within. Producing a small golden portal at the side of his foot that spat out something akin to an insect-shaped Angel with feathered wings repeatedly flicking at the back of their miniature appearance.

Smiling at it, Uriel blinked and illuminated his eyes with the Angels’, so both would share an identical brightness emanating from the duplicated palette of their gazes. Following that? The young Prince shifted on his feet, turned back around, and rejoined his allies breathing the cloud of smoke swirling above their camp accentuated by the makeshift fireplace burning at the middle.

Beneath veil of night, the moonlight shone on all beings equally. Even those unfortunately cursed with the malevolence signature to that of demons, Monsters, and thousand-year-old schemers.

Deep within spotlights enlightening the dark clouds and black sky dominating the airspace over Arronsburg, Monstrum limped. Across the middle line of where a road would lay within the city, instead pated and replaced by gray stone tiles until the end of the path, however distant that may be. Rectangular blocks along with similar and dissimilar contortions for buildings towered over him on either side of the road, windows meant to peek within devoid of any light signifying conscious activity.

‘Shit.’

His injured form collapsed. Even attempting to stand up was fruitless once sharpened pain pierced into his every corner, withholding him from rising at all. A man towered over the beaten Monster.

“C’mon. You’re supposed to be much stronger than that, right?”

Monstrum couldn’t help but snicker. ‘Well, that’s new. I suppressed him yet… there’s something about this kid. Didn’t I destroy his brain when overtaking his body? I suppose not. Is this another part of your scheme… Atlas?’ He looked up.

The human casting a shadow over the pitiful creature was none other than his vessel: Anthony Whitlock. Long brown hair and all, red hoodie, crossed arms, smug appearance. No mistaking it.

“Oh, so you finally have the balls to look me in the eye,” Tony smirked. “You look confused. I kinda am too. I thought I was dead but… feels like I’m still here. Maybe my new purpose is to bother you as a ghost for the rest of eternity,” the boy said.

‘This brat. He has an unnatural brazenness to him. I don’t understand. How is he able to co-exist with me…?’

“Brat. Do you… know why I’m hurting so much?” asked Monstrum.

Anthony shrugged. “Maybe spending too much time in the driver's seat is overwhelming my body? If your crazy strength continues directing it, you’ll die so—“

“You have to take control. So be it.”

Tony simply opened his eyes and regained control of his body. No more wounds or pain plagued his spotless form. Now sat at the edge, awed at his palms shaking before both eyes.

“I’m surprised that worked,” he said.

Tony sighed and stood from the curb, looking back and then forward, around the rest of his surroundings before resuming the walk.

“Where are we headed? Somewhere useful?” asked Monstrum floating behind.

“Not for you. There’s a reason I’m not freaking out about this situation. My family are Fate users. They’ll probably be able to help us,” Tony said.

Through the corners and streets of Arronsburg’s lowest district, surveyed by inanimate giant slabs of concrete possessing innumerable sleeping bodies, Anthony was being watched from a higher peak atop one skyscraper; leg hanging from the edge and fingers making a circle for his green eyes to peek though.

“It looks like things are still proceeding as planned. Though—“ Moloch looked back to face the Progenitor’s future utterly clouded in darkness. “—are we sure this is how we want things to go?”

“I understand your hesitation since Monstrum isn’t exactly the most predictable person so it’s lucky that we’re using that to our advantage. His chaos works in tandem with what we desire.”

Moloch nodded. “Right. Then all we can do is wait for now?”

“Indeed. Have patience for what you seek and keep waiting…” Atlas said, emerging from the shadows behind the Displacement. “…until the time is ripe.”