It's like being in a thicker water. I felt suspended in nothingness. The shadow realm, or something like that. Erebus finally taught me how to enter them. Almost any shadow could be entered with this technique. The shadow in question had to have some opacity couldn't just be a bleak soft shadow. Though once I was in I was super comfortable. It felt natural. Shadow Stepping is what I would call it. The process of going into the shadow realm through a shadow.

The first time I floated in the shadow realm I realized I had little means of escaping it. I had to think, perhaps exiting to Erebus would do it. I would hit the ground hard as I came out into my high-rise apartment. After eating the floor I stood up rubbing my face.

"It stings!" I groaned with a high-pitched squeal turning to look up at Erebus. Who rolled his eyes, I was about to hit him when he handed me my phone. It had a message from the boss. "Are you ready?" In that familiar font.

I replied "Sure".

A few hours later I was in front of him. Clean clothes, freshly washed, and unsure of the future to come.

"You see that blue building out there?" He said turning away in his chair, directing at the view from his office.

"Sure. What about it?" I said bluntly.

"Need you to raid it and just stick a USB into one of their servers. Pull it out. Then come back. That easy." he said turning to me and sliding a metal USB type C over to me.

I pocketed it and stood there a moment. "Sounds easy, what happens if I get pinched?" I said as Ramon nodded and slid over another thing. A trigger.

"Whatever you want, I will not take responsibility for your actions. Only if you succeed on your assignment."

There was something in his voice, It was different from when we first met. Perhaps this was what he chose to help me for, beats what else he could be doing it for. I was going to be a spy. A corporate spy or I could go back and be a runner from Maine, trying to leave the whole time.

I installed the new trigger.

I bought a bunch of cheap black clothes online. All of them were somewhat edgy and from various gothic alternative clothing brands but comfortable enough while concealing my identity. Though I could have easily bought a shiesty, instead I chose a cowl, a witch's cowl to cover my overall head.

It was edgy, but honestly, I didn't look much different from any other alt-fashion wearer. I would make my way to the tower where eventually I would notice fewer people looked like me and more wealthy men and women overall better dressed. They were usually older looking as well making it to where I stuck out like a sore thumb. This wasn't the worst. I just needed to not get caught. I needed to focus on not fucking up.

From the street I could see into the lobby I just focused on the shadow of a man who walked past security with ease. I shadow-stepped into a nearby shadow of a tree. In the shadow realm, the shadows I knew were the ones I could step too. Erebus being the exception, No matter where he was I could leave through him. I would slowly stick my head past his shadow to see where he was.

He was in an elevator on his phone, I would move with his shadow which due to his jerky movements was nauseating, which made me return to the realm until I felt better, a side effect of heightened senses was higher peaks I wasn't used to.

I would tap my head and step out of the executive's shadow as he exited luckily enough and snuck into a broom closet. I covered the closet light with my cowl blacking out the room. From here I simply ordered Erebus to find the nearest server room from the vents. All I needed to do was hold the door until he found it. It was all so easy until I felt someone jiggle the handle. Then I heard a muffled curse as I held the door shut easily but it was drawing attention at this point. Erebus was trying but the building was huge, it rivaled Ramon's tower.

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I just kept my gaze on the vent Erebus slithered away awaiting to see his eyes. Eventually, I could feel a key inserted into the door. It wasn't locked but I suppose they just assumed it was, I was out of time. I wouldn't be able to scope out the server room but it didn't matter. I kicked off the door and grabbed my cowl before shadow-stepping quickly as the door opened.

I would peer my head through Erebus and see a clean room. Every cord was nicely wrapped and fed into big black machines whirring and sprinkled with pretty lights. Hit the ground falling from Erebus as he was protruding from a vent rather than being in the room. It was irritating, but I was at my goal and stuck the USB into the server room.

I really didn't know what I was waiting for. I just pulled it out and was about to leave until Erebus sprung forth blocking someone's hand from grabbing me, It was a big fucker.

"Who are you, what are you doing here?" The man said resisting Erebus. Who had to absorb the shadows in the room to match this guy.

"UBER!" I yelled as I punched the guy in the jaw trying to shadow-step into Erebus only for him to grab me and toss me into a wall.

I made an indent in the wall itself and stood back up to see him hit Erebus in the head, I could sense it hurt him. This dude was a monster. Must be Security I was about to reach for my gun but I figured now wasn't the time. I cracked my neck and thought back to several videos I had seen on fighting theory and figured I was enhanced so we should be even.

I would charge at him and jump up attempting an awkward superman punch only for him to dive under and reverse it into a body slam. The floor itself was dented. I was squished like a bug. He stood over me and from there he could see my gun in my waist our eyes met and I saw him look at my gun. He was about to strike me in the head but Erebus stopped him again. Which pissed him off and he stood up off me.

I would get up and jump onto his back. "Fuck off already!" Shouting in his ear as I tried to strangle him but my arm couldn't choke his thick neck. He threw his head back into my face and cut Erebus forcing him to detach from me. It was the damned thing. I couldn't fit in the thing shadowy tail that attached us, but seeing us completely break off from each other made me panic. Such a rare feeling.

I would start hitting the man in the head over and over again. Fighting theory completely out the window. This guy had knocked out a shadow demon. I did not want to know what he was about to do to me. He started to bleed from me hitting him, but it wasn't enough. "Should I fucking shoot him?" I kept thinking, asking Erebus and myself. He backed up into a server and it sparked causing a lot of heat for me. Physical weakness crept into me. A feeling that warned me of injury due to pain's absence. He gripped my head with both his meaty hands and flung me into the ground face first, and then soccer ball kicked my head causing me to roll.

With that, Erebus reattached to me. I crept back up, my world was spinning. I could see where he entered, an open door leading to the hallway. Me and Erebus could escape if he was forced through it. As he advanced with a haymaker Erebus caught his fist and then the opposite fist. With that, I screamed a war cry that the very Gods could hear, as well as anyone on the floor. I started throwing fist after fist into his body which barely pushed him back until I started aiming lower and lower.

I was unleashing a barrage on his ballsack which made him scream and wail and finally, he was failing and being pushed back right through the door. Erebus shoved him through and I shut the door as he drew his gun. Several people were arriving at the scene as bullets went through the fine metal door. It was too late though as me and Erebus escaped in the shadows.

We made it safely to the streets after various shadow steps. I would find a nearby coffee shop and order some food before falling into a chair and slumping taking my cowl off. I was not out of place here as much as I thought. I even got a passing comment. "Nice contacts."

Made me smile even if I was worn out.

I met Cabatta on the roof. The same place he found me. An angry face plastered on Erebus' face as I spoke. "Explain everything now. Or I'm done."

"Like what?" He said in a confused tone.

"Why was I did I have to do that?" I said waving my arms to show how pissed I was despite a permanent montone voice. Which was mimicked by Erebus.

"Oh, Mine requires knowledge to make correct predictions." He said moving his hair once again to show the parasite protruding from his ear. "And you just connected me to some so I can decide what to do regarding that company and it's subsidiaries." Ramon had a look of pride in his eyes, and a smile on his face. "And you just made yourself a hefty check. 60 grand sound good?"

I stopped, that was easily a year's salary for people twice my age. I was also blatantly being taken advantage of. I was off the grid as well. I rarely showed my face or used my name. They could have seen my bare face and found fingerprints but I would not ever be found, and I was just offered a significant amount of money to do it all over again. "I guess, that's enough for now." Erebus calmed down too. That just left us standing there.

"Go visit your parents for a week, I'm going to go do the same while mine crunches the numbers." He dismissed me like a soldier, but I listened and went on a run back to Maine.