Madeline drove the machete through the head of the demon. Black blood spurted from the gaping wound in the skull, coating Madeline’s arms in a blackness so thick it may have been torn from a midnight sky. Good thing she wore black clothes today. At least it didn’t matter if the blood stained. Her thick blonde hair was situated in a single braid snaking around her skull.

The sky was a thick, boiling red. The screams were deafening -- desperation tore through every sound. Madeline dragged the demon into the remnants of the burnt church and tossed it down the aisle. She bent over and, with a firm jerk, tore one horn from the head. Then she used the hole it produced to crack the head open further, exposing the gray, fleshy brain, still pulsating. Once she tore the brain from the brain stem, the life drained from it.

Madeline was not a daemonics practitioner, but she wasn’t stupid. She took the basics. Everyone in the practitioning university did. She knew that demons can regenerate.

Madeline tore a chunk of the brain and, suppressing her gag reflex, shoved it into her mouth.

Victor’s Basics of Practitioning

Anti-Enerium Survival Basics

If you ever face a group of hell demons, be aware that they have the ability to cause mental turmoil, madness, fear, and rage -- an especially powerful demon can control your emotions to its whim. Assume that all demons you face are especially powerful. There are several ways to use daemonics to suppress this power of a demon.

If you are unfamiliar with these methods, which you shouldn’t be at your level of study, then eat part of the brain of one of the hell demons. If you manage to do this, you will be immune to mental attacks for two hours.

Madeline couldn’t handle the first bite. After wiping her mouth, she went back and tore another piece of brain from the hell demon. This time, the piece went down, and Madeline was ready.

She needed to save her bullets. Madeline didn’t have the chance to change the magazine. She needed to find other weapons.

Madeline slammed the severed horn into the church pew, shattering it into dozens of glittering fragments. Demon horns were made of some of the purest sources of anti-enerium that could be found on the earth. They functioned exactly like daemonic crystallics. She knew one spell.

Madeline pushed the handle of her machete through a belt loop and dashed out of the church. Striking red pools coated the streets, draining through gaps in the cobblestone like veins. Bodies were strewn about, gashes sliced across their throats or through their stomachs. Keeping close to the buildings, where dark shadows obscured her amidst the rising sun, she darted down the sidewalk. Death was pulsating through Seer City.

“Help me!” a woman screamed, her legs trapped by toppled debris. Her hips were sinking in. “Please! Please help me!”

“You need to stop screaming,” Madeline hissed. “They’ll find you faster if you don’t stop.”

“Please!” the woman wailed, tears cutting through her dusty cheeks. Blood was pooling fast beside her legs. “Please help me! Move the rocks!”

“Those aren’t rocks,” Madeline explained. “Those are huge boulders. I can’t get you out of there without killing you on impact. I don’t have the precision you need. Try waiting for someone else.”

“Please!” The woman’s cries carried down the street.

Madeline approached the woman and sliced the machete through her neck.

“I’ll kill you!” Winnie’s screams. “I swear on my life I’ll kill you!”

Winnie’s body lying face down on the grass. How had she gotten in that position? Why hadn’t she fallen backwards? She was lying face down on the grass.

Madeline feels nothing. There is nothing to feel. Winnie’s body is lying on the grass. What would there be to feel except relief? Nothing.

Winnie’s face was lying face down on the grass.

Madeline shook her head, annoyed. Why had that scene unfolded in her mind's eye yet again? She couldn’t understand why that kept happening. If Winnie’s death had been some traumatic event that had left Madeline riddled with guilt or sadness or anything of that nature, then Madeline would understand why she kept receiving these flashbacks.

But, there was nothing associated with those memories. No tragedy, no regret. There was no sadness. The strongest emotion that arose from the memory was a smidgeon of annoyance. Winnie had threatened and inconvenienced her. That was all there was to it.

So, why did this memory haunt her?

But, it didn’t haunt her. It just kept returning to the forefront of her mind during events like this.

Unfortunately, despite Madeline’s quick work to silence the woman, a demon emerged from behind a building. Just as the demon before them, this demon donned a white mask outlining a humanoid face, the features distorted grotesquely.

Madeline idly wondered what the purpose of such a mask was. The demons committed no crime. The government had no choice but to permit this Annihilation. They didn’t want to deal with the consequences. Madeline understood that. Self-preservation is key.

Drawing a deep breath, Madeline touched the purple stone glittering on her choker. Her body was immediately engulfed by dreamy excitement. Once she thought she could not bear the energy of the stone, she launched herself forward, machete extended.

The world contorted around her, colors blurring into an incomprehensible haze. Hardly feeling the impact, Madeline sliced the sword through the demon’s neck. Black blood coated her gloves.

She skidded to a halt, deep impressions in the earth trailing after her. After a moment of hesitation, Madeline darted over to the demon and examined the severed head. The horns were too small to break easily. This must be a fiend, not a hell demon. Madeline sighed, cursing her luck. She should have broken the other horn from the demon she left at the church. Then she could sell the rest of the fragments for a good price.

Madeline hacked her machete into the demon’s head, butchering the brain until it resembled nothing more than gray mush. There was no time for Madeline to relax now.

Without warning, Madeline felt a thrust of energy launch her into the sky. Pain sliced through her spine, vibrating into her skull. Panic seized her throat, she extended her hands before her. Before she could splatter to the earth, she concentrated all willpower toward her feet. In her mind's eye, gravity shifted, launching her further into the rising day.

This became reality. She catapulted further into the sky, flying in a wide arc until she stumbled onto the roof of a building split down the middle. Her heart was racing, adrenaline pounding through her veins. Madeline dashed to the edge of the roof, casting her gaze down to behold her assaulter.

A circle of demons had appeared before the building, aiming active crystallic carriers at her position. Before Madeline could react, they fired. The building crumpled from beneath Madeline. She cried out in shock as she tumbled to the floor with the debris toppling rapidly down after her. The demons rounded on her, brandishing their weapons.

It was not difficult for Madeline to kill them, and so she did. The axe was stained onyx, but shimmered with a red hue in the soupy, lava sky.

As Madeline sped across the streets slick with blood, slipping over puddles and toppling into buildings, a familiar figure came into view.

“Marquitta!” Madeline exclaimed, dashing over to her, extending her arms for a hug. “You came here to save me!”

Marquitta sidestepped Madeline and offered her an awkward pat on the shoulder.

Madeline blinked at Marquitta. “Are you not happy to see me?”

“You are covered in blood, dear,” Marquitta said. “Did you not notice?”

Madeline glanced at the black dripping from her skin, smudged over nearly every crevice of her body. “Oh...I am. Sorry to get your clothes dirty, then.”

“I…” Marquitta shook her head. “Whatever. I am here to get you out. So you should follow me now then, dear.”

Madeline crossed her arms behind her back and trailed after Marquitta. Demons no longer approached her. They leered at them from corners, trailing them with what Madeline could only assume to be their eyes, but they never approached. It was as if Marquitta emenated a repulsive odor.

“It’s nice that you get to walk through an Annihilation without getting harassed,” Madeline said after humming cheerfully to herself. “That’s a nice superpower to have, you know!”

Marquitta glanced over her shoulder at her. “Would you mind not speaking, dear?”

Madeline bounced in front of Marquitta, a frantic gleam dancing in her wide eyes. “You don’t want me to talk? Oh boo...That makes me really sad, you know! You should let me speak!”

“Well, I just do not think you have many interesting things to say,” Marquitta said, cocking an eyebrow.

“Oh, but I do have interesting things to say!” Madeline exclaimed, jumping behind Marquitta again when a demon lashed out at her, only to be shunted back by Marquitta. “Like, I have a question for you!”

“And what would that be, dear?”

“Why were you planning to let me die?”

Marquitta stopped walking. Madeline barreled past her, exposing herself to the carnage. When Madeline noticed Marquitta had stopped, she turned around to face her, arms firmly behind her back. “Are you gonna answer me?”

“‘I’m sorry, Victor’,” Marquitta muttered. “‘She was dead when I found her. There was nothing I could do.’”

Madeline smiled. “That would’ve been a pretty convincing story, right? It’s totally reasonable for me to die here! I see why you would do that.”

“I wanted to embellish it a little bit,” Marquitta said. “Maybe describe how much effort I put into trying to save you...I could even cry while telling the story.”

Madeline clasped her hands in front of herself excitedly. “Oh! Maybe you could talk about how I jumped out in front of you to try to save you! And you were saved but poor Madeline…”

“Well, let us not delve into the world of fantasy,” Marquitta snorted. “We have to be realistic, or he will not believe us.”

“But you know you can’t kill me now,” Madeline said, puffing out her lower lip. “You made the decision not to kill me, right? For some reason.”

Marquitta sighed. “You are not a trustworthy person. I would like to eliminate you so you cannot hurt Victor in the future, you know.”

Madeline shrugged. “I mean, that’s reasonable. But you shouldn’t be giving me tasks that require you to trust me.”

“As for why I did not let you die…” Marquitta muttered. “Well, it is because you found me.”

Madeline tapped a finger against her chin. “You let me live because I ran into you? That’s pretty lucky of me!”

“Killing you directly would be a poor decision on my part,” Marquitta said, eyes cold. “That would be cruelty that Victor would not forgive. He is good at detecting lies. I could not deceive him that way.”

Madeline glanced at her as they strode across the invisible barrier dividing the city from the rest of the state. The sky on the other side of the barrier was a milky blue, the sun struggling to rise in the horizon. The moment they crossed the threshold from hell into freedom, Madeline fell to the floor, propping herself up by her arms and knees, breathing deeply.

Marquitta looked down at her, a puzzled expression on her face. “What are you doing?”

“I just realized how tired I was,” Madeline said with a laugh. “I’m so tired. Fighting those demons really drained me.”

Marquitta helped Madeline to her feet, but since the danger had passed, the adrenaline pushing Madeline forward seemed to have dissipated, leaving behind residual manic energy and extreme fatigue. She struggled to remain standing, staggering over herself, limbs trembling.

Marquitta pressed on wordlessly, Madeline trailing behind her.

“Hey, hey, Miss Marquitta,” Madeline said, her words somewhat slurred, heavy with strain. “I have another question for you.”

“Of course, dear.”

“Why do you think I should die?”

Marquitta cast her a sidelong glance. “I do not think you should die. I think there is no alternative. As long as you are a member of Cupcake Inc, you are a liability. If you left Victor alone, then you would not have to die.”

Madeline yawned. “I guess so. But Victor wants me around. Is he still alive, by the way?”

Marquitta stared at her. “Yes, he is.”

“That’s nice to hear,” Madeline said, rubbing her eyes. “I thought he might’ve gotten killed during the Annihilation. It’s nice to hear that he’s alive.”

Marquitta sighed. “You are too far damaged to be saved, I am afraid.”

Madeline cast a sad glance to the ground. “Maybe that doesn’t have to be true. I want to be a good person, you know.”

“Why do you want to be a good person?”

Madeline blinked. “My granny told me to be a good person.”

“Why do you care about what your granny wants?”

Madeline smiled. “That’s easy. She saved my life and was kind to me, so I owe her that much. To do what she wanted. She said that being cruel to others will cause people to resent me and make them reluctant to helping me, you know.”

“Is that the case?”

Madeline nodded. “If people resent me, they won’t want to spend time with me, and they may try to hurt me. But if I’m kind to people, they will be more likely to help me, but it’s also more difficult to choose a path of kindness...So my granny said that since both paths are difficult, she wants me to choose the path of kindness.”

“I saw what you did to that woman,” Marquitta said. “You killed a woman for screaming.”

A baffled look came upon Madeline’s face. “Huh? Was I not supposed to do that? I didn’t want to get found. I know she made the demon find us anyway, but...”

“Think about how she would have felt,” Marquitta said. “She saw someone who could save her life. And she was betrayed by that person. How do you think she felt in her last moments of being alive?”

Madeline blinked. “I don’t know.”

“You do not know?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know.” After a pause where she recognized Marquitta’s dissatisfaction with her response, Madeline cleared her throat and said, “Not great. Right?”

“When you asked me if Victor was alive, you didn’t seem to care about the answer,” Marquitta said. “Do you know how Victor would feel knowing that you don’t care about him?”

Madeline pouted. “I do care about him. Why do you think I don’t?”

“You asked the question as if you did not care. How do you explain that?”

Madeline blinked. “If he dies, I can’t do anything about it. What will feeling bad do to help me? Nothing. I don’t understand your questions.” Her frustration seemed to grow more pronounced. “I know you don’t think I should be alive. I don’t care that you feel that way, because you’re right. I won’t risk my life or safety for anything or anyone.”

Marquitta sighed. “I know that.”

Madeline shrugged. “I don’t really see that as much of a problem with that. No one else is going to prioritize my life above all else. Only I can. So I should take advantage of that.”

“You cannot simply shoot people that you think may at some point threaten you,” Marquitta said. “You cannot just hurt people for no solid reason.”

“What do you want from me?” Madeline said.

Marquitta shook her head. “I just want you to take care of Victor.”

“I already agreed to do that,” Madeline said. “Why do you doubt me?”

“You would abandon him if it would save your life.”

“I wouldn’t throw away my life for him. He told me he wouldn’t want that anyway.”

Marquitta sighed. “Will you take on an assignment for me?”

“An assignment?” Madeline replied.

“From now on, whenever you hurt someone…” Marquitta said. “I want you to think about how they would have felt.”

“Sure!” Madeline exclaimed, her voice excited despite the pain evident in her tone. “Of course I can do that! That sounds like an easy task. Thanks for giving me a chance, Marquitta!”

The two walked through the cobblestone pathways carved through the dense forest, listening to the soft whispers of the life teeming in each crevice. After a long time, Marquitta spoke again.

“You should be angry with me,” Marquitta said. Sadness was heavy in her voice, eyes sagging with pity. “You should not be happy to follow me.”

“Why?” Madeline said.

“Because I have been cruel to you,” Marquitta said. “That should make you angry. I basically told you that you should die, dear. Why are you okay with that?”

Madeline blinked. “Oh. Sorry. I’ll be angry with you next time, I guess.”

“You cannot see your own worth,” Marquitta said. “That is completely incomprehensible to you, is it not? What a poor creature you are…”

Madeline did not seem to be able to process Marquitta’s words. After staring at her blankly for a moment, she looked up at the azure sky, now saturated with dancing morning hues.

“The sky is so pretty,” she said, gushing with joy.

Marquitta averted her gaze. “Yes, it is.”