As we walked towards the Holy Grail district, people scurried away from us like rats fleeing a sinking ship when they saw the faces of two men, one that has seen the face of Hell and the worst,that has seen the worst that Avalon has to offer next to the face of a man that would do anything for family-and after seeing both of us, they couldn't decide who they feared more. 

We walked with fast but confident steps that ate up the miles like a beast that knew that her son was in trouble and may God have mercy on their souls because we sure as Hell won't. I saw what it was like to be feared not because I was a monster but to be feared because I knew what I was doing was right. Lionel really became a lion beside me as his back stood straighter than any time before in his life and as his ice filled with icy steel.

If you were to ask me why we walked and didn't take a cab, I would've said "Does a knight ride to battle on a coach or does he blaze a fiery path?"

We walked in deadly silence like that until we finally reached our destination, the oldest establishment in all Avalon, The Dragon's Den. 

"Lionel, you know that I would fight by your side in this, but you have to understand what we are getting ourselves into because I need you to act now and not be acted on," 

After hearing a silence that told me that he wanted me to continue, I said "This is where the most despicable men and women gathered when Merlin first created Avalon. They practiced their horrors here, from mating with demons to torturing unicorns to burning noble creatures, all to gain otherworldly power. While they no longer practice this flagrantly since the rest of us knew what would happen if we allowed such evil to persist, they still hold a power in the politics in of Avalon unparalleled by anyone else. I have seen Saints from Avalons in different universes that have braved countless perils, only to fall here as they simply couldn't comprehend the depravity of it all. So I ask you again,"

"Are. You. Ready,"

Lionel stared at me like a man that simply couldn't understand why someone was asking them the simplest question ever asked in history.

We nodded a quick nod at each other as we strode up as men ready to die at a moment's notice. I passed Lionel an extra gun I had picked up from one of my previous cases and told him "This six-shooter may look like any other but since it's loaded with quantum bullets, it'll hit like a bull. So make sure you aren't holding this close to your face and to count your bullets since I don't have any more," He looked at it oddly like a man that has never held a weapon before in his life but here he was, ready to kill any comers without hesitation.

After giving it an once-over, he held it loosely in his hand and we strode up to the doors of The Dragon's Den as men that have made their peace who were ready to die.

Normally, I would have laughed in your face and poured my drink in my face if you told that I would ever try to fight a Cyclops but here I was, ready to face off against not one but two children of Gods. They saw that we wanted a fight and laughed in our face since what could a pair of mortal men do?

Quite a lot was the answer. I whipped my Athame and quickly cut my left hand, that was quickly acquiring an impressive set of scars, and let the blood collect on the blade. The hemoglobin coalesced around my blade like a red whirlwind of Death and I threw it in a lazy movement that sent it flying more quickly than was possible thanks to my force magic. 

Being a child of the Gods, a normal weapon wouldn't have even tickled them but this was a sacrificial knife doused with the blood of its master who was on a righteous crusade and it pierced the head of the first Cyclops handily. In fact, it cut right through his head and sank up to its hilt in the brick wall behind him.

Shouting angrily at us for killing his brother, he flew into a blood rage and rushed at us swinging his twin cleavers around him but Lionel pulled up his gun and waiting until the last moment where the Cyclops was but feet away to shoot. The gun recoiled back fiercely and spewed out a cloud of white smoke as the bullet went careening out and sunk into the Cyclops like a fist. The bullet left a ruby mushroom cloud of blood as it penetrated his skin and flew out of his body before sinking cleanly into the door of The Dragon's Den which sent out blue and yellow sparks that signified that there was more protecting the place then mere Demigods.

My heart should have been beating erratically by now but it remained steady as a pendulum since we were not even within The Dragon's Den yet and we knew that if they were the most that they could muster then we would be blessed men.

Unfortunately, we knew that was too naïve and I moved up to the door, stepping on the bodies like they weren't even there, and plucked out my athame. The door itself was a gaudy affair, with gaping demons carved with life-like accuracy clutching screaming mortals in their claws and a devilish crown with iron thorns rested on top of the door as the centerpiece. 

I opened up my Third Eye and tried to see what was beneath the brick-and-mortar exterior. It allowed me to see past the flimsy mortal world and see down to the quantum level of quarks and neutrinos. It allowed me to gaze upon Gods in their full terrible glory. And now it allowed me to pick lock the magical wards on the door and spare us from being blown into tiny indistinct-able chunks.

At least, that was what I intended but what actually happened is that since so many powerful witches gathered at The Dragon's Den, they finally managed to make a proto-intelligent ward. So when it finally sensed my careful attempts to defuse it it blew up in my face.

Luckily, I managed to disable most of the more dangerous wards but what was left still managed to send me reeling back, break at least one of my ribs, and sending debris flying everywhere to cut huge valleys across my face.

"Well, that's one way to make an entrance I guess," I said drunkenly on the hormones flooding my body. Shaking his head, Lionel he stepped over the blocks of building materials that managed to not get disintegrated by the explosion said to me "Didn't that completely ruin the element of surprise that could have saved our sad, little lives if they are as strong as you say they are?"

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Laughing wildly, I cackled out "They probably knew we were coming before we ever decided to come to The Dragon's Den in the first place, plots within plots and games within games and all that fancy jazz,"

Seeing that the crown somehow managed to survive, I absentmindedly took it up from the ground and placed it on my head lopsidedly.

I yelled back at Lionel, "Get a move on you lard! They won't wait forever!"

"I regret doing this already," he muttered out in a fake whisper aimed at me.

Smiling like The Mad Conjured himself, I strutted into The Dragon's Den like I was some hot shit and announced with a loud smile "Who the fuck is in charge of this place! Never mind, just give us back Lionel here his sister or we'll get cranky!"

After the dust had cleared and I could clearly see the five 15-meter tall war golems arranged in a semi-circle looking at us with beady jewels-for-eyes, my smile grew crooked and my knees got shaky. "Jesus-fucking-Christ, what the Hell have I gotten myself into?" I thought to myself a bit deliriously.

I knew that The Dragon's Den was an organization that was wealthy from years of illicit businesses and careful investment, but By God the price for a single war golem of that size was dizzyingly astronomical. For comparison, one of those monstrosities could be as pricy as the fucking Empire State Building. 

What made it worse was that there would be more things like this for us to face before we finally manage to rescue Sandra, or maybe she was already dead.

Lionel managed to shake me out of my reverie my marching forward with stiff arms and promptly shot at the center golem with the gun that sent loud roars of sound con cussing throughout the relatively small space. 

My ears forgot how loud the damned thing could be and were ringing long after the first golem fell. I think the only reason that Lionel stopped firing was the resounding click of the hammer falling on the empty chambers.

I said to Lionel "I thought I said to save your bloody bullets since I don't have anymore," to dispel my own fear.

"Sorry. But I don't think that unless I used all of it, the golem would die," he replied weakly while looking at me sideways.

Considering how the golem only barely managed to fall down after five bullets that had killed the Cyclops before with only a single one, I decided that he was completely correct and decided to be more concerned with the four other golems that were finally standing up at last.

"We should probably be paying more attention to the other golems that look kinda pissed at us for breaking and entering The Dragon's Den," I said limply as they drew closer to us.

"Yeah. That'll be a...yeah that's a umm yeah....good idea," he said haltingly as he started to develop a nervous tic in the face of the Godkillers that stalked towards us.

Smirking at the fact that while I may be scared out of my wits, I wasn't the only one and while I may be looking like I was confident I was just good at hiding my emotions. I wondered if my luck was at an end as I knew I couldn't out bluff the uncaring sculptures of violence that came ever closer to us.

I took a deep breath and tried to muster up a miraculous plan to pull our balls out of the vise it was in. I didn't muster up one and was swatted by the rightmost golem like a fly. I had never seen a golem move so fast. They were usually huge, lumbering giants of doom. Leave it to The Dragon's Den to make a deadly combination of power and speed. 

I hit the wall like a bug on a speeding car's windshield. 

"Oooooh. I'm gonna feel that in the morning," I gasped out half out of my mind from pain. I fumbled into my leather coat's jacket and found the thing I was looking for-a herbal concoction that while it may not heal my wounds at least allowed me to function with a modicum of grace.

I tried reaching out with my Gift to separate the bonds of the rock holding them together then I was slapped across the room again. Albeit, a little less roughly since I was actually watching for it so I could at least twist my body a bit out of the way and instead of being liquified by the force, I was merely in agonizing pain. 

As I tumbled around, I saw a pill bottle roll out of one of my many pockets and realized that it was a bottle I had swiped from weeks ago when I was injured again on one of my cases. Praying to God that it wasn't expired, I opened the bottle of regeneration pills and desperately gulped it down.

I could feel my crushed-to-dust bones knitting themselves back together and I could finally stand on my on power. "Jason, you wonderful fuck. I fucking love you," I thought to myself.

But my elation was short-lived as I was surrounded by the golems again and I waited to be pounded like dough again.

But suddenly one of the golems crumbled to large, cube-like pieces of rock. Then another. Then another. And finally another. When I saw that Lionel was standing behind them gasping for breath with a screwdriver in his hand, I quirked one eyebrow at him in question at what just happened.

With a blush creeping up his neck, he said "Before I started up my business I was an amateur geologist so I noticed that the golems were made from Galena. It made them extremely flexible and as an effect of that, fast. But also extremely brittle and will shatter when hit in the right place.

With a mischievous grin, I said "You lovable egg-head. You saved my ass," 

"Thanks," he said embarrassed.

Cackling as I walked up to him, I slapped his back and said "Then if you're finished, let's get your sister back,"

We walked together happily down the stairs to the main parlor of The Dragon's Den as men that had escaped the hounds of Death by a hair's breath. Surely nothing could be worse than what we just encountered. Right?