I had given up on fighting against destiny. While I hated the idea that I was fated to do the things I would, I now figured that I might as well have a little fun. Things would work out if it was fate? I’d believe it, if it meant there was a slice of my sanity left at the end of the day.

[You never asked what the Pearl’s vocation was, did you?]

“I… it never really came up.” Probably demon-business was my best guess. Rule the Hells and want her revenge. Torture lost souls? I was beginning to think I missed out on a lot of lore and exposition somewhere between melting my body down in the Sea and having my brains blown out in that office.

[Short answer. An executioner of demons.]

‘Ah.’

I was glad he fed that information directly into my head rather than let the Org hear it. We were already flirting with disaster by killing things off with a display of our powers. I’d rather not let them know she was from the Higher Hells. Her apparent day job was something I could talk with her later tonight. Or whatever time of the day it was.

My legs took me into a slide across the floor as a tentacle whipped around in an arc to strike us. As soon as it passed, my gun was up toward the looming structure. Deep pockets of amber illumination inside a handful of the windows. An open crack along the middle, the brickwork parting to form a mouth. Open and hungry for what I had.

If we were going to make a show of power, then I was eager to join in. Apparently enough to be its own thing, I used my balance to fill the shot with both demonic and divine energy, just like my normal shots.

The orb, which pulsed with red and golden light, arced through the air—expertly aimed to land in the open maw of the creature.

A flash of white light was quickly joined by a shockwave of air and crack of burst energy. Brickwork pelted the surrounding area, as a continuous shriek sounded from the mimic. My eyes adjusted to see the damage I had wrought—and I wasn’t the only one to take notice. Every demon present had turned towards the source of flash and spent power.

The explosion had blown out the back of the building, the distant horizon visible through the open and surprised maw. Most of the internal floors had collapsed, and as it continue to screech out into the faux-night, it sunk and clattered over to the floor.

[That seemed to work well enough.]

“Yeah.” I furrowed my brow. Almost felt… perfect—and I didn’t even mean the arc or shot placement—the whole process of using energy was… smooth. It made sense in the way that using the powers on their lonesome hadn’t. While it used energy, and I was sure I was still limited, but it didn’t feel draining. The balance hadn’t changed.

A second one blazed through the air to strike the next mimic on the side. Another flash and that whole side of them had burst through, either crumbling to the street blow or contributing to the now lopsided weight of them.

From the left side, a building stopped as if shocked by my explosive efforts. A white line ran from their tentacled base straight up to their roof, bright as the sun. With a loud crack, the whole building cracked into two parts, each side toppling over, the demonic energy holding the monster together burning away where it had been sliced.

“Is that…” I caught my tongue, realizing we still had unwelcome ears on the line. “Two left,” I diverted course. “Let’s get this tied up.”

[Targets in the diner were all eliminated.]

I nodded, although I wasn’t sure how much they counted since they were inert parts of the mimic now. Presumably they’d been nabbed up unawares and the Org hadn’t received updated information.

Another Mortar would tie up my side of things. There didn’t seem to be many non-chewed crocs or truckers left. I was eager to stretch my itchy trigger finger, so I started to run closer to the next building. While I could arc the explosive shots at greater range, the normal shots were still a little more limited.

Wight joined me, his knife flipping around in his clawed hand.

I leaped over dead tentacles, sliding down the other side to roll.

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//Incoming to your right.

Sneaky building. Although it was the size of a house, it shouldn’t be able to sneak up on me, really, unless I let it. I turned on the loose gravel and powdered glass to see a handful of large tentacles swinging down upon us. Just enough time for a quick grin.

[The fuck are you doing?]

His admonishment came too late, and he stepped away from me in disgust. He could feel the divine energy and didn’t like it. Beams of light pierced the encroaching limbs and burst through them where struck. Effective, like a shotgun blast.

Problem was, I felt even more disgusted by it than he had.

I narrowed my eyes at the bird-demon as he glared at me and stepped away. There were burning questions in my mind that I didn’t even dare to ask telepathically. It’d have to wait until we were home.

“Let’s just kill this one and get the Quest done,” I said diplomatically, through clenched teeth.

[Okay.]

He still didn’t look pleased about it. Waves of heat washed over us as spikes of red hot energy burst from the street to our left, impaling the last house-mimic. Or we could just wait and let Pearl deal with it. No, I wasn’t done having fun. This time I wouldn’t annoy Wight.

As the broken tentacles fell to the street, I leaped atop one and ran along it towards the building proper. Emptied my cylinder on the approach, but other than bursts of masonry falling from the looming structure, it didn’t do a lot.

A beam of white light scored a hole straight through the mimic. Fun, but not really damaging enough. I wouldn’t hit the True version for fear of causing us both more discomfort, but at this point, I could guess what it would look like. Instead, I just hammered away normal shots at the building, bursting away brickwork.

Blown to smithereens. I stumbled slightly as the ground shook where it collapsed. A little lightheaded from all the energy use—it had been tiring, but I was still balanced. Just needed to wait for my reserves to build back up.

Pearl finished off the last mimic and then came over to us.

“Ah, now that felt good.” Her eyes were even brighter than normal, and her teeth were sharper, her fangs more pronounced.

I smiled and nodded. “Confirm status, Rods.”

//All hostiles eliminated. Hold for… Org has confirmed, you can return.

With my energy, I felt their connection drop away. The tether keeping track of my actions was now disconnected.

“Alright gang, we are no longer under watch.” I spun the revolver and put it into the holster.

//They disconnected my end too.

I groaned and stretched out. What a mission. “Sorry that we couldn’t get all the information from Gunther.” It felt odd talking to the nether. We could just return home.

//You did what you could. I have some closure.

Pearl raised an eyebrow, and I realized she couldn’t hear the Blank. “Any reason we are still standing here?”

[The ambience is not desirable and we have much to discuss.]

Ignoring his glare, I rolled my eyes. “Just waiting for something to come back from Rodney. I apologize for the wait.”

They didn’t seem too convinced, but I had taken the initiative. Even if us staying here didn’t achieve anything, I didn’t want to rock the boat before we knew how deep in the water we were. “You were great, by the way, Pearl.”

“I’m apprehensive.” Her smile softened. “Letting myself be seen by the Org again, especially with some of my actual power. But… if it helps the cause, then letting my hair down was quite fun for a change.”

“You don’t get the chance in the Mids?” I actually wanted to ask if there was more power she still hadn’t shown us, but I was willing to bet the answer was yes. Which was both exciting and horrifying at the same time. I shared a bed with this woman, yet was in the dark about what she could truly do. In combat, I meant, the other things, well…

//Alright, return when ready.

Not super informative, but we’d see when we got there.

“Time to head back, gang. Proud of you all.” I tipped my hat as the three seconds were up and I vanished, to step out into the basement.

Immediately I stretched out and relaxed, the cooler air and soft lighting pleasant as anything. Wight began to pool in beside me as a flash of pink preceded Pearl arriving.

Rodney looked a mess. Whatever stoic professionalism we had heard was a front for a young man stressed from the Org looming over every step, and trying to deal with his mother’s murder being erased.

“You alright, Rodney?”

“Yeah.” His eyes darted up to me and back down. “Yeah. Just give me a few… I’m… calculating.”

I nodded. All revealed soon enough. Pearl and Wight both looked out of the loop as to what was going on between us two. “Wight, let’s have that chat now?”

[Which one. Be more specific.]

A little snappy for him. “When I tried to borrow your power to use the True version of the Lantern shots, it wasn’t fun for either of us.”

[Oh, that.]

He shrugged and looked away, his clawed arms folding.

Pearl tilted her head. “You’ve got some new abilities?”

“Not exactly.” I pushed my hat up to rub at my forehead. “The powers Wight grants me, I funneled both divine and demonic energy in, kept stable by the balance stuff. It seems to improve them, especially against demons… but when I actually have to draw on Wight’s assistance, neither of us enjoyed the process.”

“Where usually it’s seamless?”

I nodded. “It’s the whole ‘Lantern’ thing, right?” I raised an eyebrow at my patron.

[We are intended to be opposites at our peak. The eternal night and the bright spark of life against it.]

“So trying to join those doesn’t work as well.” That made sense on the surface. We were meant to be opposed to bring out the best of each other. My true power didn’t play well with his demonic gifts. An unwanted guiding hand in the bowl of… something.

Rodney shuffled awkwardly. “Okay. Okay… I got it. Fuck. Fuck.”

He didn’t need to tell me. His expletives could only mean one thing, what I had thought. What I had got him to try to track while the connection was watching us.

His eyes were wide, illuminated by his screens as he looked up at us.

“The Organization headquarters is located in Hell.”