I slid across the floor as three consecutive blasts erupted out of the roof just behind me. Rolling back up to my feet, the cylinders on both my revolvers clacked together and spun around, discarding faux empty casings.

The trio of metal balls hovered back over to the outstretched hand of my assailant. A male Hunter, tanned head slick with sweat, his beige ghi now muddied with the dark red of our brief combat.

"Shame you're on the losing side," I said with a wide grin. "The Org has played us for fools all this time."

"I'll hear none of it." His reflective spheres hovered and rotated in the air. "Cease your betrayal and die."

I didn't want to - so I wouldn't. His orbs sprung toward me, the first bouncing from my weapon with a spray of sparks. Second hit my side - a dull pain that radiated through my organs. third didn't make the cut.

A patch of the roof decayed away as Wight hit it with Entropy, causing the Hunter to drop to the floor below. I emptied both revolvers into the ground at an angle to try to catch him. My dodge gave me warning, and my wings burst me over to the side with a wide sweep as the spheres came back up where I had been standing.

[We shouldn't waste too much time on weaklings, Eric.]

"Yeah, I know." In truth, for as powerful as these Hunters were - against the three of us, they had little hope.

Last Lantern. Avatar of Darkness. Grand Executioner.

Even the best Hunter was still a human tied to stolen power. Able to survive in the Mids, sure. Probably had been through as much shit as I had, if not more, given their seniority.

I also made up what Wight was - it was what was had been whispered to me in demonic when he had first enacted his Domain, so felt like a fitting title. Whether that was any signifier of his true self was neither here nor there.

The Hunter leaped up from the floor below back to the roof before I had any further chance to pace around inside my skull. More bloodied now - some of my shots had hit, and they weren't best pleased.

Pearl was having no issues her side of the roof, I was sure. Perhaps just waiting for me to seal the deal before ending her Hunter so that we could move on.

Revolver went up.

"Suffer, betrayer," he hissed in response, the power of his Domain washing over us.

I looked down to see that my wrists and ankles were now chained to the ground - an expanse of gray stone with a dull sky overhead. Couldn't raise my gun up like this - it was all but pinned to my side.

To my right was Wight. A scowl was on his face beneath his hat and his feathered arms were crossed. Chained just as I was, his shotgun laying on the floor so that he could properly show his disdain.

"Oh, no you fucking didn't."

Craned my neck to see Pearl, fury blazing in her eyes. It looked as though dragging her into a Domain had offended her greatly.

She stomped forward; the chains melting off of her limbs as she pulled against them.

And then she vanished.

The Hunter looked rather perplexed, pausing instead of attacking us directly. Probably wounded his pride a little that someone wasn't playing along with his little show of power. It would probably irk me too, all things told.

"Sorry," I apologized. "This isn't really her kind of scene."

Any response he was possibly concocting was cut short as a red line ran across his neck. The Domain faded away just as soon as his head fell from the rest of his body, leaving Pearl standing beside him. The inert body collapsed to the floor as the pact demon bound to him filtered back to the Org with a scream.

[Did you just willingly remove yourself from a Domain?]

"Grand Executioner shit." She shrugged. "Would be terrible at hunting Higher demons if they could just Domain up and kill me. Not that it's usually that easy - that pact Domain was very weak in comparison to what I'd usually have to go against."

I nodded eagerly. Very useful thing to have - assuming our enemies continued to make the mistake of involving both of us in their Domains. He got greedy - or maybe his power wasn't accurate enough.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Looking back behind us, the female Hunter that Pearl had been fighting was in bad shape. Already at death's door - she might have been kept alive in case she had any potential information for us.

"Probably be a bad idea to use your Domain," I said, as our group turned to face her.

"No... need," she panted between deep breaths. "Too weak... would die... anyway."

A mercy we could grant her, at least. As my revolver rose up, her face became pained. Not the shock of my aggression, nor the fear of death, however. She writhed and twitched as though she had insects crawling beneath her skin.

Not so far from the truth.

With an intense ripping sound, her body tore and split in half. A twisted figure rose from her remains. Ruddy skin, dark horns, and a handful of baleful yellow eyes. Tiny wings that had no chance of allowing it flight.

A hissing pop exploded her left arm, followed by the intense smell of burned ozone.

"Ah, at last! I am free of the cursed pact." The demon ran a long tongue across his sharp teeth. "Perhaps I can return the favour, little one?"

[Speak to me again and I will erase you.]

"Oh, so eager to be cucked by these middling mortals that-"

A wide beam of entropic power burst out from Wight, erasing the long legs of the demon and causing him to collapse onto the heated roof. Wight stepped up to the struggling monster.

[Your disgust for the weak is your undoing. I have learned that our differences can make me stronger. Let this be your final realization.]

With his clawed hands, he gripped the snarling head of the demon. A sharp movement and a crack - and he stabbed the pact escapee through the skull with his beak. Whispers of black mist swirled around him as the light from the demon's eyes faded away.

Pearl stepped up beside me. "You know, if this wasn't such a doomsday scenario, us three would be quite the power house down here in the Mids."

"Have something like Redd Death, you mean?" Part of me missed the crocodile-demons. It was a shame they were stuck in the Lowers and couldn't lend us a hand here. As much as I loved to come up with new bullshit I was capable of doing, being able to elevate a whole group of demons from one layer of Hell to another was way beyond reasonable.

"Something like that. Maybe a little less Wild West and a bit more Private Security."

"Killers for hire," I murmured, as Wight finished his meal and joined us.

"There's nuance to these things. But before we soar like birds, let's walk." She gestured towards the floating Org still some way off.

[Like birds with no wings.]

Despite not being able to land on a concise metaphor, the rooftops seemed like our best bet to approach the Org. Gave us a decent line of sight to what lay ahead, while avoiding getting bogged down in the streets with combat. Although Pearl couldn't fly, she had enough power to leap across large gaps with no issue like some kind of superhero. Wight hovered across while my wings guided my travels.

//Threats fading away, you are out-pacing everything.

The demons knew where we were. Amber would have surely let as many people know about us as possible - so our next likely conflict would either be a barricade they'd hastily prepared on one of the rooftops, or someone powerful would come to knock us down.

Given what I knew of demons, the latter seemed more likely.

Not that our planning was much better. With my energy levels close to running on fumes, strolling up to the Org and playing knock-knock with as many explosives as we could muster was as basic as it got. Sometimes you needed that amount of simplicity.

"How many Highers do you reckon we're up against?" I called out to Pearl as I touched down ahead of her.

"My intel suggests a group of five still living, with one dead or in exile."

That'd be the chump with the loose lips in the pit fighting arena. Amber, two others, and then the head honcho Makkari himself. Five demons who had wronged us both. Five bullets in the revolver.

By the end of this, both would be empty and spent.

Still, despite destiny and bravado pushing me forward - I wasn't sure how I fancied my chances against a Higher demon, let alone five. Demons were too prideful to work together, so might come at us one-by-one, but based on my prior experiences, I still felt like I wasn't powerful enough.

Pearl slid up beside me as we waited for Wight, and I half expected her to be able to read my mind and give me assurance over my ability. Instead, her sword swung around in a blazing arc.

A clang and then something dropped to the rooftop a handful of feet away from me. An arrow - although with the size and thickness of it, I could have been convinced that it came from a ballista.

//Too far out of my range to detect.

Pearl pointed her sword out to the far distance, a shadowed figure perched on a rooftop what might be a quarter of a mile away.

"First of the five is here," she said.

I clicked the hammer back on my revolver. "Let's go say hello, then."

"Chances are, they are aiming just to distract us." Pearl readied her sword, awaiting the next potential attack.

Seemed reasonable. It was almost a right angle from our designated path - any time spent going after them was delaying our arrival at the Org. But I wasn't too sure about letting them have free rein to pelt us from afar.

[A bow is an odd choice for a demon.]

Pearl nodded. "Yep. Most prefer melee combat or magic. For some reason, ranged weapons are beneath most - which narrows down who this might be."

I tilted my head. "It's not beneath you, right?"

With a flourish of her sword, she grinned, drawing her rifle up. One eye narrowed, she fired. The demonic bullet rocketed through the air, bursting the figure into a cloud of dust that faded away.

//Behind.

We both felt is just as he said it, twisting in place to see a burst of sparkling dust reform into the shape of a large demon.

A sleek dog-like head, sheen black fur and twisting horns of ivory. His body was wrapped in straps of dark leather, wearing little else other than a long quiver on his back. In his clawed hands was a bow almost twice my height, constantly aflame with dark energy. I could feel the thrum of his power from here - almost thirty feet away.

"Seems I will get the taste of mortal flesh a little earlier than the rest," he growled.