In some ways, the Organization had set themselves up for disaster. In propping me up against overwhelming odds again and again for their amusement, I had just learned to overcome them. Grown stronger and more efficient. Now the prospect of fighting across the city to wherever they were hidden in the Middle region of Hell didn’t even move the dial. I relished it, even. Comfort in killing all demons.

A burst of dust and stone dropped down from the ceiling above. Our new friend intending to get down to us as fast as his little powers could take him.

//Five demons on their way from the stairs, floor above. Many more to follow.

The Hunter might try to use his Domain. At this amount of power, they must have one. I’d need to save Wight’s until we were up against the Org proper… or as a last-ditch attempt to keep me alive. That meant having to beat our opponent at their own game.

“I’ll get the demons,” Pearl said, drawing her sword into her offhand. “I’ll catch you both up.”

I nodded, and she ran ahead onto the stairs, with us close behind. The door on the next landing blew open and a demon with some manner of machine gun stepped out. Back of his head painted the wall, tiles splitting and clattering to the floor as Pearl flicked the level-action on her rifle one-handed. Flourishing, she stepped into the corridor rapidly filling with other demons.

We continued up past her onto the next set of stairs. Seemed a shame not to stick together when she looked so attractive in battle, but we’d have to divide and conquer if we wanted to avoid being bogged down.

//Hunter two floors up.

Red lines flickered around the white walls of the stairwell. I leaped to the side, almost knocking Wight back down from where we had ascended. The stonework cracked and darkened where the glowing crimson had appeared. As if the Hunter had just slashed through the building itself.

Revolver spun in my hand, the cylinder clicking around before I aimed it at the underside of the stairs above us. Ten bright beams of radiant light fired at once, scoring straight through the concrete and to whatever was waiting for us above.

A couple of groans of pain, and a demon bounced down, rolling around the top of the next flight. As much as I was content to see the blood leaking from him, he wasn’t the Hunter. More fool for me for firing blindly, but…

I rolled to the floor, flattening myself against the warm tiles. A sixth sense alerting me of the danger - right before five long blades burst through the wall from the outside. Claws trying to grasp me out into the open. As I got back up to my feet, something rushed towards me.

My wings burst out and shielded me as a wave of force took me off my feet, slamming into the wall that shattered and fell through. As vertigo took me, my wings spread out to slow my fall into the street below. A figure stepped into the new opening, a cloud of dust washing away to reveal a woman. Mechanical legs and left arm in a dark metal flecked with odd runes that could only be demonic. Some part-helmet obscured one eye and part of her head.

“Your patron grants you wings? How cute.”

My feet touched the ground, and my wings relaxed. “Oh no. My patron’s power is to satiate my thirst for blood.”

“What?” She raised her mechanical arm, some manner of in-built cannon powering up. “Clearly you’re not right in the head to get this far and still betray the-”

Her admonishment was cut short by the sound of a shotgun blast. Her human shoulder and collarbone bloomed bright red, as flesh was rent from her body. My wings opened wide to catch the drops of blood. There we go - my thirst was quenched. The Hunter turned to face Wight just as he barreled into her, causing her to tip from the precipice.

The cannon-blast went awry, scoring up into the amber sky and bursting like a firework. Or a flare.

As she fell and my revolver rose to meet her descent, she twisted, pain and anger in her face. “Now, Logrez!”

Before I could pull the trigger, a wave of energy washed over me. I blinked a couple of times to see that the apartments and streets had vanished, to leave us in what looked like a large junkyard. Miscellaneous pieces of metal and machinery lay from my feet all the way to the horizon. Endless.

I turned my head to see that Wight was standing beside me, his arms crossed.

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“Nice shot, Wight.”

[I dropped my shotgun before I got pulled in here.]

With a smile, I looked over to the wounded Hunter. Lucky we didn’t pull in Pearl or more demons. She would have been pissed.

“Wipe that smile off your filthy face, you f-fuck!” The woman seethed, still struggling with some of the pain. As she vibrated with demonic power, parts of the scrap around us started to gravitate toward her, clanking and melding in place to start to build… oh, a reasonably cool mechanical walker.

“You know…” I looked back at my patron. “We’ll probably see a few Domains before this is all done.”

[I hope they are more impressive than this one.]

“My thoughts exactly.” I smiled wider as two sets of rocket-launching platforms rose over the Hunter’s shoulders. Sixteen missiles, eight a piece? Oversized pizza-cutter in one metallic arm, and the other was a six-foot long drill.

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Something funny? A little more mania before your inevitable defeat?”

Part of me wanted to clue her in and see if she’d change sides, but she didn’t seem like she’d really listen to me if I tried. Oh well.

“Thing is,” I began, as I lifted my revolver up. “I don’t really see the point of a Domain if you’re not in control.”

“I am in control. This is my Domain.”

My gun burst into dark flame, as if it was swathed in shadows. “Oh, then why can I do this?”

In my empty hand, bright radiant light start to form. Something odd to attempt on the fly, but I’d spent enough time with my revolver to get a feel for it. Like I knew its very soul. As the demonic runes upon it blazed vibrant red, a golden version of my weapon formed in my off-hand. Flickering with pale white energy.

“Always wanted two of these,” I murmured, catching Wight’s attentive gaze.

The Hunter had no further words, nor understanding for what was happening. Did I? To some degree, sure. She burst forward, a salvo of rockets ejecting and powering their way over to where we stood. Sure, I already knew that a more powerful Domain could overwrite another… but could raw force alone just ignore the pocket of demonic energy too?

I held both weapons together as she powered toward me over the countless piles of debris. Of course, none of it was real, in some sense. A conjured reality. All that was needed was for someone to pull back the curtain if they could just find the edges of it…

As the rockets zoomed ever closer, my aim erred off to the side.

Both triggers pulled, prompting a twirling beam of merging powers to swirl out and hit an invisible wall before the horizon. With a quick twist, I ran the continuous beam over the sky, bright amber light flooding in behind it.

Like a giant zipper, I undid the Domain, leaving the woman just standing in her usual outfit around two dozen feet away. The rockets vanished along with the rest of the conjured picture.

“W-what? How?”

I held out my own conjured power, and the answer came in the form of the radiant revolver turning into a foot-wide beam of force, removing her head and any further questions from the picture.

//Hunter neutralized, Pearl is on her way.

With a raised eyebrow, I looked around us. A little more of a spectacle that I would have liked - and not entirely my fault. Little I could do to cover it up at this stage.

[Impressive energy manipulation, Eric. No doubt Pearl’s soul has done you wonders.]

“I’m kinda a demon, right? Maybe I have my own Domain?”

[No. More likely is that with your Lantern powers, you are able to resist Domains to a greater degree.]

I shrugged. Shame. Not sure what my own personal Domain would entail. Actually, it would probably resemble the saloon in Misery. I could never avoid a cliche. We both looked up as Pearl stepped into the opening that had been blasted through the side of the building.

“Shortcut?” she asked.

Wight tilted his head and turned like a compass. With a nod, he then pointed his feathered arm out down the alleyway. Might keep us out of sight.

The demon dropped down to the ground, the concrete floor cracking to absorb the force, and she handed Wight his shotgun. “You get up to much while I got carried away killing demons? Sure is difficult to stop once you get started.”

I noticed now that she was covered in blood, and her fangs had grown out a little longer. “Oh, just erased the Domain of whatever weak demon that Hunter had.” My thumb jerked back to the spend corpse of the woman as we continued our trek.

“Wow. I’d like to see you erase my Domain.”

The blank expression I returned seemed to take whatever train off the rails in her head.

“I mean…” She furrowed her brow. “It won’t be so easy against the Higher demons.”

“Naturally. I’m not sure it would work on anything but the neutered pact versions.”

[You couldn’t erase my Domain.]

I nodded. “Nor would I want to.” Unless he went rogue and tried to kill me—which, at this stage—good for him for having such patience.

//Church are here now, David is explaining everything to them.

//It’s… awkward.

//They don’t look like they’re going to shoot or kidnap me, so yay?

“Keep us updated, Rods.” No doubt they’ll want us to filter messages back and forth to know what was going on. When we weren’t busy getting bloodied, at least.

“Might want to put your wings away, dear.” Pearl smiled, the bloodlust now all but faded from her expression.

I used one side to wrap around and push her closer to me. “Only if you don’t run off next time. Partners in battle, right?”

She bit her lip. “I promise.”

With a gesture, I dismissed them. Energy vibrated through the air as they vanished into nothing, leaving me with my long leather jacket surprisingly unblemished. If you ignored the stone dust and Hunter blood - which I always did.

//Careful what you wish for.

//Large force moving toward you.

//More than… twenty? I can’t… without Passage…

“Don’t sweat it.” I smiled and spun the cylinder in the revolver. “I was starting to think they weren’t going to take us seriously."

The ground around us started to vibrate, the hum of something large coming our way.