We didn't have to wait long for our activities to bear fruit. The first cannon blasts rang out at four in the morning, a distant rolling BOOM that shook the walls of our base and sent dirt raining onto our roof. I startled up with a snerk, instantly alert. But as the rapport continued, the tension eased from my back. I grinned.

"Wha-?" Angel rolled out of bed almost as fast as I had, groping for her weapons.

"Listen. The Cents attacked Oil Town, trying to root us out." Tail lashing excitedly, I went over to Lulu and nudged her. Her cute burbly snore cut as she jolted awake. "Distraction accomplished. Come on, kid. It's show time."

"Ooo?" Lulu quivered, then reluctantly rolled from her bed and plopped onto the floor. "Koo-koo-noos?"

"Karkinos. You got it." I put my front legs down, lifted my butt, and flexed my back in until my ribs touched the floor, yawning widely.

"Biiiig stretch!" Angel signed from across the room.

"..." I froze in place, realizing that I had, in fact, done the 'big stretch' thing. I glanced at my chat. All of them were repeating it over and over. "... Goddammit. I'm getting used to being a monster."

"Do remember being human?" Angel paused to sign in between throwing on the armor and other gear she'd made for our fight with Karkinos.

"No," I admitted. "A few scattered memories here and there. Vague shit, mostly about this Dimitri guy, or someone who worked for him. A couple ghostly memories of my sister."

"Oh. Sorry." Angel made a face, and buckled her weapon harness across her chest. "Any idea what might have happened to her?"

I flicked my tentacles to align them neatly down along my back. "Nothing good. If we're lucky, they haven't found her. Whoever 'they' are. This ‘Paragon Society’, maybe, or Solonov's people. Only have one really clear memory of her."

Angel paused, a little awkwardly. "... Anything you want to talk about?"

"Doesn't make me sad, if that's what you're worried about." I shrugged, settling down to sit on my haunches. My preparations were a lot simpler than hers, given I couldn't use any tools. "Worried, maybe. I remember standing in her kitchen, this really nice big apartment kitchen, with a breakfast bench-type deal. And I am just beating the absolute SHIT out of this guy in there. I mean, I was sending blood and teeth flying. My sister was yelling and signing at me, trying to get me to stop."

"Was he fighting back?" Angel looked back over her shoulder, her blue-white eyes wide with curiousity.

"I..." I thought back to the scene. One hand gripping the man's fancy suit jacket, the other plunging into his face, over and over. And he... he was...

A chill passed over my skin.

"No. No, he wasn't fighting back,” I said. “He was just taking it, while my sister tried to pull me off him. Taking it and grinning."

Angel shrugged. "You know, a lot of the guys here are criminals. Maybe you knew Dimitri personally, you know?"

"I wasn't a felon" I snapped. "Or a bad person. Not… not like that. Besides, Dimitri Dearest said I'm some kind of agent, not like... someone he worked with. I was in opposition to him, to the Solonovs. I'm pretty sure I was involved in something big, some kind of sting or investigation into human trafficking in Asia."

"Owooo..." Lulu made a sad little sound.

"My second guess was going to be 'cop'." Angel laughed softly. "There's only three kinds of guys who regularly beat the crap out of other guys. Criminals, cops, and boxers."

"And bouncers." I let out a wheezy sigh through my nostrils. “And soldiers.”

"Bouncers and soldiers count as cops."

"They do not." I bristled instinctively. Maybe I couldn’t remember dick about my past life, but the tribalism within the different law enforcement branches ran deep. And I knew I wasn’t military, or a rent-a-cop. "Not unless they're military police. Which I don't think I was."

"Why not?"

"I dunno. Just know." I closed my eyes, and groped back into the void of memory. "No... I was something else. Something more... private. Secretive. I'm not even sure I knew exactly what this 'agency' was."

"I hope we can meet someone along the way who knows something about you," Angel signed. She paused to sweep her plaited hair up into a Mexican-style braid around the back of her head, pinning it with clips made of bone. "Maybe there's more people from this 'agency' of yours here."

The letter from Cold_Fox was still burning a hole in my inventory. "Maybe. But no point ruminating about it. We have to focus on Karkinos."

"I've made everything I can think of to arm us. Iron weapons and ammunition, armor, heals," Angel signed. "You've got water and air attacks, which should help against fire. Lulu's inherently strong against the Fire and Water elements, so... unless we can find some kind of specialized water-element ice ammunition or something, I think we're about as ready as we can be. We just have to try and conserve as much gear as we can before the actual boss arena."

"Got it." I'd taken a few healing potions before getting a well-deserved Noodlenap, and between that and food, my health and stamina were full. "We can afford to die once or twice."

"No, we can’t. We need every life we can conserve. There's four more realms after this one, and the lives don’t replenish when you ascend." Angel's eyes hardened as she glanced at the ring of nine stars tattooed on the inside of her wrist.

"Another problem for future us." I lifted my head and drew a deep breath. "Come here and saddle up. We've got a crab to boil."

I swam with Angel and Lulu to the surface, and breached the surface of the water carefully. To our north, the battle was raging: the distant pop of guns and the booming of cannons continued as the Centurions and Pigs tore at one another. Our gambit had paid off, and now it was time to do what Reapers did best, other than kill. Sneak.

I paddled quietly through the marsh, and followed my trail to the outskirts of Fossil Springs. The sky was an angry red-black, and the wind reeked of smoke and gunpowder. The watchtowers were on fire, the roar of burning wood so loud it partially drowned the screams of men battling at the base of the rocky outcrop. The Centurions had weapons, but the Pigs had terrain - they were holding Oil Town from the forest of rocks, the volcanic tuff strong enough to soak even cannon fire. But the Centurions were in through at least one of the gates. I angled straight for it, sprinting low to the ground like a cheetah. Angel bent over my back, head down, as I nimbly dodged a pack of screeching war-raptors, vaulted over a line of ballistae, and hit the ground on the other side. The soldiers were busy fighting for their lives. They barely paid us any mind.

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“Don’t look up!” I raced low to the earth, feet churning up clods of soil as my claws dug in for traction. Angel clung with all four limbs as I cut around a familiar outcrop of boulders leading to the wall up into Fossil Springs... and nearly crashed into a pair of brawling Legions and their trainers. A Testudo and a Kassevanto - not Merc's - were locked in mortal combat. The human trainers were both in battle trance and oblivious to anything but the fight. They didn't see us, but the Legions did. I dashed straight for them.

The Kassevanto bellowed, drool swinging in ropes from his jaws, but could only swipe ineffectually as I zig-zagged around his clumsy sloth-like claws and leaped up, using him like a shaggy springboard to jump to the edge of the monolith wall. I hit it awkwardly, feet scrambling before my tentacles found anchor points. Groaning, I pushed myself up to the nearest horizontal surface - yelping as a torso-sized ball of mud and sharp stones slammed into the rocks just next to me, sending it tumbling to the ground below.

"Come on! We can make it!" Angel frantically signed out to one side.

Lulu pitched in, helping to drag us over the edge while I clawed my way up. I’d barely found traction when a whistling ball of pitch sailed past and crashed into a Pigs watchtower, sending it tumbling in a shower of splinters, oil, and roaring flames.

"You know, I can't believe this actually worked." I had to appreciate the sheer chaos as Pigs - not even seeing us through the veil of smoke - scrambled past us in screeching warbands toward the fight. "Like seriously, I didn't expect they'd actually be this dumb."

"Thoo cruminuls! Cruminuls nuu smurt," Lulu replied sagely.

“You’re right, pumpkin. Criminals, not known for being smart.”

Oil Town itself was in shambles. Some of the town's slaves were joining in the fight, attacking the Pigs or Centurions or both. A mob of rioting slaves were pulling over and burning the oil rigs. Just the sight of a Brute charging toward them scattered almost all the cowardly, agitated men. A gang of six carrying torches and pipes screamed and fled to the sides of the filthy alley as I ran past. The one idiot who tried to step in, brandishing flames at me got tentacle-swatted to the side. I didn't even break step. Notifications, distractions, PM alerts... they all receded into the background as I focused on our goal. The only place that wasn’t under intense assault. The inner fort.

Soldiers formed a grim, heavily armed line on the upper walls of the open-roofed fort. They were loaded. Iron armor, rifles, repeating crossbows, traps, machine gun turrets… tech above and beyond anything either side normally wielded. The results were starkly demonstrated by the heaps of mowed-down corpses strewn outside of the gate. Hell Pig AND Centurion corpses, I couldn’t help but notice.

“We have to find a way around those turrets. They’ll slaughter us,” I thought. “Hang on. I’m taking us around the port side.”

By way of reply, Angel pulled one of her rifles around, loaded it, and closed the breech with a satisfying snap.

Most of the fortress garrison had come to the front of the star-shaped perimeter, the better to defend it from rebellious slaves and marauding dinosaurs. Guards were posted the whole way around, but at the back of the fort – where it was partly built into the wall of the volcano – there were only four troops, a whole lot of barbed wire, and one turret. I curled my tentacles around and plunged them into Lulu. She squeaked, tensing with surprise while I rifled through her roster of moves, and picked Shadow Cloak. This time, I dropped it over myself, and focused on the rough cliff wall. "Hold onto your fanny packs, girls and girls."

The basalt cliffs were much rougher and grippier than the walls of the Umbrella Crevasse. With an eye on my stamina, I threw myself into a leap and briefly ran along the wall before kicking off it into a high, soaring arc. I remembered Angel telling me there were no ridable flying legions. But a Level 20 Reaper was almost the same thing. When I crashed onto the fortress parapet and the Shadow Cloak dissolved, it birthed a fresh round of chaos. Four men screaming, fumbling rifles. Angel lifted herself and centered as she sighted down. I tried to keep my back as level as possible, bracing for the sensation of metal tearing through my body as the girl on my back aimed and fired. She dropped one man flawlessly, knocking him back off the parapet in a plume of blood and brain matter as the others opened fire. Then I was moving again, trusting the feel of the wind through my whiskers while the rounds whipped past. Dodging, leaning like a racing motorcycle through the brief hail of bullets. Every second, I expected to feel the molten pain of metal. Every second, I somehow managed to avoid getting hit.

I swatted a Pig from the walkway and sent him flying away, screaming the whole way down. Angel fired again, but I had to zag instead of zig and she missed, sending the Pigs Elite cowering down against the crenelations. I had a second to see the whites of his eyes before his head exploded with a second well-placed shot.

"We are fucking PROS!" I roared, bounding along the palisade walkway with my tentacles raised. The one surviving Pig didn't even bother trying to shoot. He yelled incoherently, threw his [Shotgun] at the ground, and ran.

“Get me that gun!” Angel burst out.

“Sure thing. Here.” I scooped it across and lifted it up for her with a tentacle, careful not to crush it.

“It’s only crude, but… this is a game changer,” Angel said. “If I can make ammo for it. Probably don’t have the materials for slugs, but-“

"Nuudle! Whuupuu!" Lulu squeaked.

"Wha-?" She was urging me to look to our left, tugging on that side of my neck. I'd been so caught up in running down Mr Piggy that I'd forgotten about the boss we were here to fight. But as I laid eyes on what Lulu had spotted, I suddenly remembered what we were here for. And when I saw what we had to do...

"Hey, champ. Did you bring that breathing bag-thing?" I telepathically poked Angel.

"Sure. Why?" She stopped drooling over her new gun and looked over the edge of the inner fort wall, and her eyes widened. "Oh."

The fort was, indeed, protecting Oil Town's water source. But it wasn't a spring. It was a cenote: a giant hole-like cavern in the ground, with a brilliant turquoise blue lake at the bottom. But unlike most cenotes, this wasn't some placid little mirrored waterhole. Five small waterfalls poured from cracks in the wall of the cavern and fed into the water below. There were all kinds of pipes coming out of it - but what was most notable was the giant fucking whirlpool that spun at the center of the pool. Like a drain that never emptied, the near-silent water tornado circled around and around, sucking and crushing anything that might fall into its heart.

"Do we have to go down there? Or do we have to avoid that fucking thing?" I searched for stairs leading down. The Pigs had lighted scaffolding that went into the dry parts of the cenote cavern, but there was no obvious entry point to a dungeon that could be seen from the fort battlements.

Angel's eyes scanned the cenote, flicking from one waterfall to another. "I don't know. That can't be the way in, though. If we don't drown, we'll be crushed to death."

"Guess they call it the demise for a reason." I was a strong swimmer, but even I balked at the thought of jumping fifty feet down into a whirlpool. But even as we watched, there was a shuddering impact from behind us. I staggered forward a step, turning to look back over the wall. Balls of flaming pitch soared over the walls of the town, the volley smashing into buildings, people, and infrastructure. An oil pipeline burst and ignited, spraying fire across a row of huts. Within seconds, a wall of fire would engulf Oil Town.

"Fuck." I opened my menu and checked my betting screen for hints as to what we should do. It was no good. We had over a hundred thousand people watching us, but all the bets were variations of 'Noodles loses his first life in a watery grave trying to get into the Demise'. "No way to go but down. Get your airbag ready! Lulu, hold onto Angel with your life!"

"OoOOH!" Lulu jiggled with determination - then paused for a second, as if thinking.

"What?" I grunted, backing up to prepare for the jump.

"Ooo!" The slime quivered briefly - then suddenly oozed up over Angel and inflated like an airplane life vest.

I sighed. "That's great, safety first and all that. But we need to swim DOWN."

"Nuu. Bruuthe!" Lulu chirped back.

"Bruu... ohh. Breathe. You’re right. Extra air." I rumbled in agreement. "Well, let's try it and see."

Fear crawled up my spine at the thought of jumping such a long way down into this death trap. Angel clutched her bag nervously as I backed up and wiggled my butt like a cat. I counted to three, legs jerking and tensing as I battled with my own nervous system for the first two seconds... and then broke into a sprint. Head low, claws churning up splinters of wood, I reached the edge of the walkway and leaped out as more explosions rocketed out from behind us, lighting up the sky and the swirling water. Angel let out a short, involuntary scream as we sailed down toward the distant whirlpool.

All I could do was gulp my last breath of air and surrender as the Demise swallowed us whole.