I explained what I’d seen to Trista back there after we settled in. The shiny flower, the tether string to Ash, and my theory about his bashed up head being rooted to it keeping him alive. Trista said she’d never heard of a restoration method such as that one, and insisted that Ash only had vanish, shapeshift, and telekinesis in his repertoire, features she was confident wouldn’t be a problem for me. “He learned a few things down the road. Demons advance. That’s normal, isn’t it?” I asked Trista as I sat by her on her work bench. Wren was with Lumi in her bedroom observing her recovery, and Ruby was in her own bedroom with Ash’s meat suit, doing god knows what.

“Not for him,” she said, clacking away on her laptop. “There’s something you need to learn about demons. Even at a high rank, there’s only so many specialties they could have. Having one is a luxury. For instance, I am a seer. This power isn’t driven by magic, like my lightning mage capabilities. I’m more of a mid-low rank demon, and my seer ability was given to me when I leveled up from Tier five, the lowest rank, to tier four. The selection for specials is totally random. Same goes for Ruby. She’s a tier two demon with two specialties—animate and telepathy with a mind control extension. Wren is no different. She’s also a tier two demon with two specials, telekinesis and shadow dancer. Lumi doesn’t have any specialties. Her ability to transform into a cat is part of her natural design. All demons have a human disguise, which also doesn’t count as a special, and as for her super speed, also natural. She’s a low tier demon, tier five. Ash is a top tier demon, so he has three specialties, the three that I mentioned before. Anything outside of the three chambers that you’re given at that rank to store specials is considered magic usage.”

“What about that mind melding thing your girls were talking about?”

“Considered magic. If it’s not something that was given to you when ranking up, it is considered as temporary, stolen, whatever. But when Wren suggested it was stolen, I was skeptical. If there’s one thing that is black and white with demon anatomy it is that once you’re beheaded, you’re dead. No question about it. But this flower hoodoo is something I’ve never seen before. Too strong to be sourced by magic alone. So I was wondering if he acquired it by another method.”

“Like, a swap out? No, that wouldn’t make sense. He used all four specials tonight.”

“He opened up another slot. It’s unheard of. Even at tier 1, you cap out at three specials. It’s the natural order of things. A demon works hard leveling up to get to that rank. We sign contracts, we train and get stronger. There are a few tier 1s out there who don’t even have one specialty, because they aren’t warriors. Like I said, it’s a luxury. This gift is given to those who show promise of strength and determination.”

“What does that mean for us? When someone like fucking Ash gets four?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s one of those things that got broken when our realm fell apart.”

“I can’t believe it, I was so close! I lost Ash. He fucking smoked out!” I growled, slamming my fist on the bench. “That was my only chance and I botched it up!”

“We saw how you portaled for the first time. That was progress at least, right?”

“You don’t understand. Ash went into hiding. Which means my mom is going to die on my birthday!”

“Don’t beat yourself up, Isaac. You gave it your all.”

“Don’t give me that!” I snapped. “He needed to be dead! That was the mission! No death, no terminated contract. There’s no way he’s going to show his face again; he knows I can kill him!”

“That’s why I’m reaching out to my connections to see where we can find him.”

“And?”

Her eyes saddened. “Aside from the strip club, Ash keeps a low profile. I’m trying though, Isaac. Just give me some time.”

I sighed. “I’m not bashing you about it, Trista. I know you’re trying, and I appreciate it. I’m just… fuming inside. I couldn’t seal the fight.”

“There was no way of knowing he had a way to come back.” She stopped typing for a second and turned to me with a warm smile. “All things considered though, you did really good out there.”

I smiled. “Thanks.”

“Seriously. You are adjusting to your flames well. You didn’t torch your clothes, you put up a flame wall. Hell, you even leveled up your power output potential. Blue flames? Not an easy task to do. The old you only pulled that out of that hate maybe three to four times.”

“I don’t know what to say. All of that just came naturally to me. And… I have you to thank for that.”

“Me?”

“My harem. You girls have a lot of confidence in me, and that means a lot.”

“I’m glad we can help.”

“How about you take a break? I noticed you haven’t snacked on anything yet.”

“When I’m really nervous, I tend to not eat.”

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“I don’t want my problems stressing you out.”

“Your problems are our problems. It’s how a family works. And don’t think I don’t see you periodically checking your phone. You’re worried about Ava, right?”

“She hasn’t reached back out to me yet.”

“Well, she’s on a covert mission, give her time.”

“All day, though? A simple text wouldn’t jeopardize anything. I just want her to—” I stopped short, Trista’s hand on my thigh intercepting my train of thought. When I looked back up to her, her glasses fogged up, and a not so subtle blush crept up on her cheeks.

“This is me, flirting…” she said frankly, but her posture and tone of voice were serious.

I laughed, realizing that Trista was not only the shy type, but she was terrible at initiation as well. “Heh, I could see that.”

“I wanted to make you feel better…”

“I think you’re going to have to do more than just put your hand on my leg.”

“Don’t patronize me, Isaac! This is hard enough for me to do!” she whispered through her clamped jaw, and I swear I saw a bead of sweat trickle down her temple.

I chuckled. “I’m not patronizing you. Not on purpose, at least. If that’s your mark, then I can play along for now.” I took her hand and gave her a gentle squeeze. “After we get rid of my hit list, we should go out. Have a nice date. Get to know each other. Maybe you’d get more comfortable around me, then. Deal?”

She nodded timidly. “Yeah, that sounds great. I know a ton of nice places to eat, even outside of Ether City.” She peeled back from me and continued on her computer. “I’ll find Ash, Isaac. I promise.”

“I still say you should take a break.” I got up from my seat and went to the kitchen. “How does a nice sandwich sound?”

She looked back at me like I had three heads. “What?”

“Or were you in the mood for something else?”

“No-no-no!” she chirped expressively, waving her hands in the air. “Heh, a sandwich is fine! T-that’s considerate of you, Isaac. Thank you.”

“No problem!”

After I made her a sandwich with a side of fries, I popped into her bedroom to check in on Lumi. She was still on the bed, but her wound had finally healed. I took a seat on her bedside with Wren sitting across from me on a chair, the both of us waiting for her fifth life to kick in.

“Got a status report?”

“Nothing yet.”

“Something tells me it doesn’t take this long.”

“It progressively slows down the more she uses it. It also depends on what state she’d been in before she died.”

I grinded down on my jaw. “Now I have another reason to torch that fucker.”

“The civ who did this to Lumi… I noticed he had a stab wound behind him. He was already dead. Ash must have drawn him out from a corner somewhere and turned him into a weapon.”

“You have telekinetic powers too, right? That sounds like a bit of an overreach. Can you do the same thing?”

“No. Ash is at a higher rank than I am, so he’d have a higher proficiency as well.”

I sighed. “Makes sense.”

“I hate seeing her like this,” Wren admitted softly, her eyes glossing over to Lumi on the bed. “She’s the weakest out of us four. It’s our job to protect her.”

“How do you think I feel?”

“These demons are advancing. It isn’t like before where things were simple. True demons tend to be stronger, the meaty ones are easy to take out. If they have a special, analyze how many. Don’t engage until you know you can overpower them. High ranks are obvious—stay away. Don’t solo match them. Stay with the pack, strategize. Now these demons are full of surprises. They might be reckless, but the weaker ones are being adopted into bigger factions, and the stronger ones are finding ways to add more specials under their belt.”

“No one said it was going to be easy. Isn’t that what you once told me?”

“I suppose so…”

“Did you go visit my mother before we left?”

She looked up to me with a pause before she curved the topic. “How’s that job working for you?”

I smiled. “I put in all of my vacation time. This is more important. Finding Ash and Persallus. Nice try in changing the topic, though.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call this a vacation.”

“How is she doing, by the way?”

“Still with us.”

“Thanks for that, Wren.”

“The subjugation of Greece to the Roman Empire in 146 BC!” Lumi blurted out, jumping up on her bed. She nearly gave me a god damn heart attack the way she sprung up, clenching the bed sheets in her fists impulsively.

“Lumi!” I gasped, cupping her face and trying to calm her down. Her chest went in and out, the poor girl looking around the room like she was lost. “Lumi, it’s all right. You’re with us, back at the apartment.”

“Wha? Wh-whe-how did I—”

“Just take a breath. Relax.” I instructed her.

“Isaac?” She panted. “I was in my Greek History class and then—oh, no… I—”

“Glad to have you back,” Wren said, getting up off her seat.

“I died, didn’t I?”

“You’re at five lives,” Wren clarified. “Don’t you remember what happened an hour ago?”

She sulked. “Someone snuck up on me…” She clenched her chest.

“You need me to get you some blood?” Wren asked.

“N-no, I’m fine.”

“Don’t do the Isaac.” Wren teased.

“Really, I don’t feel weak.” She smiled. “I’m okay. Just a little bummed out that I let my guard down, is all.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Lumi.” I smiled. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“I’ll recover. Besides, I can’t stay bummed for long. We killed Ash!”

“Awkward,” Wren said, darting her eyes away from Lumi.

“No, we didn’t,” I said flatly. “Ash escaped.”

She jumped. “What?!?! How?! I saw you cap the guy’s head off!”

“Super powers, I mean, super flower.”

“Short answer is we don’t know how,” Wren said. “He smoked out, so we need to find him, and fast.”

“You mean I took a fist to the chest for nothing?!”

“Not for nothing!” Ruby chimed, walking in with bubbling excitement. “I know where Ash might be!”