Mike hung slightly back as Cassandane and Marius descended towards the self-described demon.

"Spiral clockwise and upwise," Cassandane said. "Then down through normal space and corkscrew for another pass. Follow my lead and lean into it heavy to disrupt his corona."

Apparently the words made sense to Marius, because their coronas phased out in an odd effect that almost caused Mike to tumble from the air. Before and below them, a mighty corona extended, pushing Mike's out of the way and batting him to the ground with casual effort. Mike hardened his body in preparation of a long fall, but Nallit's corona suddenly faltered around them. Momentarily in control once more, Mike halted his fall and flew in closer to the ground in case another disruption hit him.

"How cute," Nallit spat. The man's corona phased back to normal, feeling as immense and unstoppable as that of Marius had seemed when Mike first attuned.

Once more, the demon's corona faltered. Rage twisted the man's features for a moment before an affable smile concealed it. "Well done, my students. I'm impressed as always with the creative solutions of my Aoleyen. But it's time to stop playing now."

A meme blast nearly knocked Mike unconscious. He managed to hang onto his awareness by flooding ever more nous into his mindvasting. The meme blast continued as Nallit's corona phased normal once more, this time smacking Mike firmly into the ground before Cassandane and Marius forced it away again. Mike tumbled across the ground before coming to a stop. Nallit landed beside him and knelt as if to inspect an insect. "Who the fuck are you?"

Mike struggled to bring forth his corona, but being in the range of the other's corona wrestling, he could do nothing.

"I asked you a question, ass licker." Nallit flicked Mike in the nose, the casual action joining with a heavy pull of gravitas to invite forth a spray of blood.

"Mike Dombroski."

"Greetings, Mike. Are you from this world?"

Mike glared at the man above him, struggling almost as much to resist the urge to physically attack the man as he did to bring his corona forth. "I'm local."

"I was here once for a few years. Had to leave early due to politics. Ancient history now." Nallit flicked Mike in the shoulder, flaying open a gash four inches long that revealed layers of tissue all the way from t-shirt down to bone. "Who taught you? One of mine?"

"Marius is my teacher." Mike used the teleotic talent to heal the shoulder wound. Because his corona had been locked up by the efforts of Cassandane and Marius, he had to use his free hand to push the edges of the wound together.

"So I'm like a grandpa or something. You like being tortured? Go ahead and be honest, cause your answer won't change shit, honey."

As his corona came briefly back into phase, Nallit slammed the two hovering ten feet above them to the ground with such incredible force that they were unable to halt themselves before they landed. Nallit clapped his hands and hopped towards his targets to land a kick on the side of Marius which sounded like matchsticks breaking. Marius fell with the momentum of the kick and moaned until all the air had left his lungs. Meanwhile, Nallit seized the ankle of Cassandane as she sought to fly. There was a crack and Cassandane's ankle twisted at a wrong angle. The woman kicked back with her free foot, but Nallit accepted the strike as he spun and tossed her to the ground.

Kneeling on top of Cassandane, Nallit clapped his hands, a mean smile all that remained of his previous good humor. "Very brave, Cassandane. Your clever little trick just wasn't enough. I promise I will think of you in the future when I use your method. And probably laugh. You know I get all giggly when I recall hurtin' folk. Speaking of which, I think we are at the point where I start the fun."

Cassandane blinked up at the man above her. "I completed the mission."

A blink and Nallit was back to smiles. "You got me a name?"

"You guaranteed our freedom from you if we were successful," Cassandane said.

"And then you tried to murder me like a cunt," Nallit said.

Cassandane's ankle returned to a normal orientation. "In my defense, I was trained by you."

After a moment, Nallit began to cackle. "You were trained by me. Yes, you were. Ballsy bitch. Fine. You get your freedom in exchange for the identity of that Angelship. I just hope you're not bullshitting me."

"Marius and Mike go free as well," Cassandane said.

"Uh, fuck no." Nallit rolled his eyes dramatically. "The way this works is you either walk away by yourself or I just torture everyone. The information will come out. Trust me."

"You made the guarantee to all of your disciples, not just me. That covers Marius."

Nallit's corona, no longer impeded, dragged Marius closer. "The two of you always had that 'will they, won't they' vibe. I had hoped you were too good to play that game with this silly fuckboy. Tell you what. If Marius can tell me the name without your intervention, then you both go free. How does that sound? Otherwise, ole Marius is gonna get grounded."

Marius squeezed his eyes shut.

"He's got nothing, Cassandane. Give me the fucking name before I lose my patience with you."

Cassandane nodded. "Very well. The Navigator said 'Kerzon'."

"Kerzon? I've been following fucking Kerzon all this time? I hate that twat. And not in a satisfying way, either. Just . . . ugh, he's so . . . ugh. Fine. Whatever. I knew there was only a one in ten chance it was my frenemy. Still, even Drake would be better. At least I could pretend I was stalking his coward ass all over the place." Nallit shook his head, then looked down at Cassandane. "In case your power of deducation aren't up to par, I accept the name as legitimate. I won't go after you so long as you don't try to kill me. If you go after my disciples again . . . actually, now that I think on it, a proxy war could be fun. How about this for an agreement? We don't directly attack each other. Instead, we train some soldiers up at set them loose on each other. Like a game of cops and robbers." Nallit gave a thumbs-up at the woman seated before him. "I sold myself on the idea. We're doing it."

"I will need competent disciples if you want this to be competitive." Cassandane's gaze slid to Mike and Marius.

"One."

Cassandane climbed to her feet. "Excuse me?"

"Choose one of them."

Mike, silent up to this point, exhaled suddenly. "Aw, shit."

A stream of giggles worked their way free of Nallit. The man winked at Mike. "Someone doesn't like his chances."

Mike stood and planted his feet in a boxer's stance, tucking his chin as he brought his hands up.

"Oh, Mike's got some fight in him." Nallit's smile grew fierce. "Let's make this interesting. You can do anything you want to me for five minutes and I won't defend myself. When the time is up, it's my turn. Or, if you try to run, game's over. You ready, mister Mike?"

Mike glanced to Cassandane, whose tight features gave nothing away, then down at Marius, who winced. "Sorry, Mike. You just screwed yourself."

Nallit laughed and assumed a wide stance, arms folded across his abdomen. "Come on, Mike. Make me respect you and I might be less horrible to you."

"Fight him, Mike," Cassandane said. "It will be worse otherwise."

In a flash, Mike stepped in and jabbed Nallit's face. Then he drew back his fist to cradle it. After pushing the bones back into place, he welded them together with a touch of gravitas. Mike looked at the smirk on Nallit's face for a moment, then strode around to stand behind him.

Mike stepped forward and wrapped his arm around Nallit's neck. With deliberate purpose, he positioned the crook of his elbow around Nallit's windpipe, ensuring his bicep and forearm would each pinch one carotid artery. He pulled his choking arm towards himself so that his fingers touched his own shoulder, then wove the other arm in tight to grap the bicep, pushing into the back of Nallit's neck tightly with the hard end of his forearm. The nonresistance of his opponent let him tighten it to a greater extent than he had ever managed in live rolling. Mike drove his forehead into the back of Nallit's head, took a deep breath to expand his rib cage, and squeezed.

For a moment, he thought nothing was happening, that his effort would result in nothing more than further mocking in a sick lead-up to torture. But then Nallit's hands spasmed up to pull at Mike's hands and he knew the choke had an effect. "You promised no resisting," Mike growled as he felt the stirrings of an immense corona.

Seconds ticked by as Mike squeezed with everything he had in him, his heart thundering in his chest.

The body in his grip wobbled.

Mike struck out with his kinetic talent the moment Nallit lost consciousness. He felt brain smash beneath his corona. The corpse crumpled to the ground. Mike took a deep, shuddering breath and looked towards the others. "Well . . . that was fortunate."

"That would not have worked on me," Marius said.

"Nor me," Cassandane said.