David and Hikari arrived at the city of Rurnne three days later. The journey took them longer than expected due to bumping into several demonic beast hordes along the way, causing them to need to circle around them. The two of them could most likely dealt with the demonic beast hordes, but that would have caused them to take unnecessary injuries. This was even more true for David, who was rather certain that he would have to face a notorious demon in the near future.

The city itself was a sight to behold on the outside. The city wall of stone towered over people, and on top of it, guards were regularly patrolling. David and Hikari lined up behind a demon at the end of the long queue of people that were waiting to be checked before entering the city.

After waiting for ten minutes or so, Hikari begun to assault David with questions about himself.

“How old are you?”

“What are your hobbies?”

“How did you react when you first found out about magic and demons and the like?”

“Do you have a lot of friends back home?”

“What’s it like living in Hong Kong?”

“What types of girls are you into?”

“What’s school like?”

David answered each and every one of those questions in the least number of words possible, but when it came to the last question, he frowned and looked at Hikari. He had expected to see a mocking life, as if that question was a way to make fun of him, instead he saw genuine curiosity in her eyes. “It’s just like school everywhere. Boring for the most part, but it is fun while I’m with friends. As for the academics part, I find it alright, since I am pretty smart, even if I do say so myself. But that also make lessons much more boring for me, since a lot of the stuff is simple to understand, and sometimes I even wonder why does it need to be explicitly taught. Why do you ask?”

Hikari smiled wryly, “To be honest, I never went to school before. I always wondered what a normal life would be like. For you who does to school, lessons might seem like a boring studious task, but for me, your type of lessons are things to yearn for. I… I live a life unlike others, for us exorcists, especially for those of us that belong to a specific organisation, we can’t life normal lives. We spend night and day learning to fight and kill. The closest to normal for us is the learning the teachings of God, and hearing the preachers of the priests.

That’s why, whenever I go on missions, everything seems so surreal to me. Seeing couples on the street, hearing people laugh about random things, pointless chitchat that people indulge in to pass time. It doesn’t seem like it is something that would ever come into my life. It’s like I’m watching a movie, I’m so far detached from it all. Moreover, the auxiliary members that aid us don’t help things get better either. They usually are all to live rather normal lives, and I just want them to share it with me, and help me do things that girls my age would do. But it never works. They know who I am, and permanently treat me with respect, always keeping me at a distance.

That’s why I want to know. I know it seems like I’m pestering you, but please answer my questions in as much details as possible. You’re the first person I’ve met outside the organisation that has treated me like a normal person, and is willing to answer my questions.”

David nodded. He didn’t really know how to react to what she had said. What he felt right now was pity, and a bit of guilt. He had treated her like an annoyance, and had kept her at bay, assuming that she was chosen to keep an eye out on him, but she seemed to be facing him with genuine intentions, wishing to help him, and hoping to understand about the “normal” life.

Fortunately, just as he started to feel awkward about not replying to her, the guards at the gate beckoned the to go over.

“Name and purpose?” one of the guards asked while eying the pair of them.

“I’m Adrian, and that’s Jane, my sister. We’re human magicians that have come to Rurnne after hearing about the opportunity to purchase powerful familiars here,” David answered quickly as he felt a shiver down his spine.

He looked around, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. However, instincts told him that something was watching him, and he didn’t think it was just baseless paranoia, there had to be something there. What he wanted to do most right now get into the city as quickly as possible without much trouble, and get way from the gate.

The guard nodded, not having found anything too suspicious with David’s answer. Although humans were infrequent visitors at Enox, at larger cities such as Rurnne, there were quite a lot of human visitors, most of them being magicians that have come to trade goods, or even to visit.

After getting searched by the guards, David and Hikari entered the city, and immediately found, then settled down in a cheap inn. The layout of its interiors were plain and nearly identical to the Azureus Terra, which they had stayed in for a night at Enox.

“David, what are we going to do next?” asked Hikari.

“Gather information for now.”

“But you know where she is don’t you?”

David didn’t reply to that. Hikari was right, after they neared Rurnne, Lucifer had already pointed out where Helaine was. He sensed that Helaine was in the fortress at the centre of the city. After hearing that, David had impulsively wanted to go directly there, only to be stopped by Lucifer, who pointed out that the fortress was very well guarded and although he could fight his way in, he would end up in no condition to escape. Instead, it was far more appropriate to rest for a bit, then find a method to sneak in.

“She’s in the fortress. It’s my gut feeling, and that hasn’t been wrong.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go and inspect the area for now, and see what we can find.”

Within a large throne room, the man sitting on a throne smiled sinisterly.

“Has he arrived?” asked the clown-faced man in a suit.

“Yeah, he’s here. Gary, go and fetch him.”

“As you wish, my lord,” after taking a deep bow, Emmet Wayne Gacy turned and walked off.

“Now, now, Cecelia, don’t give me that expression. Shouldn’t you be happy that your friend, ah no, your love is here?” Mephistopheles chuckled.

The only other person in the room replied to his question with a glare, “Leave him out of this. You wanted information, so I gave it to you. Can you just leave David out of this?”

“You finally admit that you know Lucifer’s host?”

“I didn’t know that David was Lucifer’s host. Just please, leave him out of this, I’ll find a way for them to break the contract, so call Gacy back.”

Mephistopheles chuckled, “You won’t find a way. The contract can only be broken by Lucifer himself. I won’t hurt the human, he isn’t worth the trouble. All I want is to talk to Lucifer.”

After several hours, David and Hikari returned to the inn. They didn’t manage to find anything too helpful, but that wasn’t too surprising. Expecting to find a method to infiltrate into a fortress at the centre of the city was easier said than done. The only useful thing that saw was the guards changing once. It implied that the guards did have a fixed schedule, and with a bit of luck, that a way to infiltrate into the fortress might be able to be found with that piece of information. Of course, that that piece of information wasn’t enough alone, but Hikari managed to convince David to gather information for a few days first before acting.

As the two of them walked up the stairs to their room, David sensed something amiss. The inn was far too quiet. Unnaturally quiet and empty. It was as if everyone had been chased out of the inn by something… or like if everyone had died.

David reached into his pocket and held onto the knife. Then he turned to Hikari. It seems like she noticed the abnormality too, and was looking around alertly. Clearly, being an exorcist was not just for show.

When they arrived in front of their room. David didn’t immediately open the door. He noticed a familiar tingling. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, it was something that David had subconsciously remembered. Both times he had felt this, he had felt completely and utterly helpless.

“It’s the clown,” Lucifer said.

That confirmed his thoughts. Taking a deep breath, David entered the key into the keyhole and signalled Hikari to get ready to attack.

He twisted the key and pushed.