I turn in for the night after a very good and filling meal from Sebastian, turns out that that guy can cook better than I’ve ever eaten. Likely stemming from the fact he's Beelzebub's son. It’s his cooking that teaches me that burgers aren't supposed to taste like the one I had on the first day in the Mortal Plane. No desperate water chugging and flushing of the toilet today, just a very good burger on a freshly baked bun. It seems that everyone else appreciated the meal as they looked at Sebastian in a new light.

As for my sleep, as I expected, there are nightmares, but not like my other nightmares. There is no attempt at threatening me, there is no attempt to convince me to return, instead, I’m granted a vision of a scene unfolding before me. Lucifer is kneeling at the foot of a throne, his knee hovering just over the long blue carpet that spans the length of the room. It’s as if he doesn’t want to kneel, but he accepts whoever he is looking at is better than him.

Of course, I know who he is kneeling to. I know the room, its tall bronze pillars, and red, stone walls. With the massive golden throne that would be behind where I’m standing, up immense black stone steps. “It seems three weeks has done more than enough to curb your dissent, boy,” A loud, low voice growls. There’s a loud groan, the sound of metal warping beneath a strong hand. My Father is sitting behind me in that chair. “I’ve grown impatient- and I- I am a very patient man.”

“Yes, Father,” Lucifer murmurs. His voice is quivering as if he’s afraid.

“With Elmira gone, I grow all the more weary and worried for the future. Something I shouldn’t have to worry about in the first place. I have no intent of letting Elmira undergo metamorphosis in the Mortal Plane, so you will be charged with retrieving her. Failure- Need I say what failure will be met with?”

“No, Father.”

“Then, as an additional punishment, it is not any of your brother’s children that will be assaulting the Mortal Plane, but your children. Send them there to cause a ruckus, and then find her and return her to me. Use those ten years you’ve been saving up so dearly to return that girl to me.”

“When, Father?”

“Now! Do it now!” Father’s voice roars. The entire building seems to shake and dust drops from the ceiling, falling upon my brother’s shoulder. He stands up, bowing his head before exiting the citadel in a swift fashion. There’s a loud banging as if he’s striking the arm of his throne. “I’ll find you,” he growls.

The loud banging continues and I struggle against my blanket, casting it off me. Residual pain from my back burns through my body and I cast it aside as if it’s become, by now, routine. The pain, at this point, is very familiar, and I find it a wonderful exchange from the pain I used to have to endure. I extricate myself from my bed, reaching behind me to wrap my hand around the length of my tail.

I’m unsurprised to find it’s grown, likely, along with my horns. I yawn as I approach the door and yank it open, rubbing my eyes. It’s still dark in the living room, with lights on. Gabbie is standing waiting, her eyes bloodshot and a rapier at her side. “What time is it?” I groan. “What’s going on?”

“Really early and I really, really don’t know. I just got a call from the front desk, there’s a building-wide response order. Everyone is being told to suit up and get ready for a big battle.”

My heart seems to stop and I feel a chill run down my spine. “What? A battle? Against whom? What?”

She shrugs. “There’s a lot of dangerous organizations. I’m guessing it’s just one which picked up a couple vigors or something and decided to make a problem while they perform heists. It’s relatively common practice and the building tends to send the less experienced teams and the Juniors to confront the riots. It’s not common, but it’s also not rare.”

I relax. “Yeah,” I sigh. “Let me get my stuff. Back in a second.” I retreat into my room, pulling open my wardrobe and grabbing a set of clothing, similar to the stuff I always wear. As usual, jeans and a few layers of shirts.

I pull on a jacket to help me with the cold weather and then pull on shoes. Before I leave, I duck beneath my bed, wrapping my hand around the weapon I hid there. I withdraw it and pull the silk away, exposing the metal. I push my hand inside where the metal shrinks around my grasp, locking itself into place. I feel my muscles grow as I walk out into the living room.

Everyone is in varying states of disarray, Kai seems fine. He’s been better with staying up in the late hours of the night and early hours of the morning, while Walter looks like he’s about to drop to the ground at any moment. He keeps yawning, his eyes constantly drooping as if he’s about to fall asleep on his feet. Sebastian is the only one who doesn’t seem all too hurt by the lack of sleep, he’s leaning against a wall looking perhaps a little bored.

It’s deathly quiet, with not one word shared between us. There’s a hint of nervousness and the only sound I can hear is movement in the corridor as well someone talking outside, which echoes along the walls. Gabbie sighs loudly and she approaches the door and pulls it open. She returns to us. “We’re with Gates’ team again. This time, we’ll be working as riot control so we’ll probably be seeing at least some combat. This time, we’ll stick together. It won’t be like yesterday.”

Hercules steps in through the door, Gates is behind him, looking as angry as she usually looks. She looks at me, then at Sebastian and her brow grows heavier as if she’s going to scowl her entire face off. “Mm,” Hercules grumbles. His eyes are bloodshot, but he looks incredibly serious. “We’ll be heading out now. Are you all ready?”

There’s no response for a few moments. None of us have anything to say in response. “Uh, what’s going on? Has M- Janus said anything?” I ask. For a moment I almost say Mattie, but I switch quickly to correct my error.

Hercules shrugs and shakes his head. “He’s been trying to figure it out, but they’ve all been too confused. There’s no-one who has the real answer, so we’ll have to find out when we get out there.” I groan in response. “Yeah, I know. Anyway, you are ready to leave, are you not?” I hesitate, but inevitably I end up nodding.

I exchange glances with the others who switch their tired stances to start walking to Hercules. Hercules and Gates turn away and the five of us step out through the door. Of course, Kai’s robots trail after him as they usually do, passing by both Sebastian and me.

Sebastian is walking by my side. “I had a nightmare,” I murmur. “My Father convinced Lucifer to track me down. I think he was trying to attack the city.”

Sebastian seems a little surprised, but I see the corners of his mouth turn up as if amused at the idea of my brother betraying me. “Do you really think your brother would do as your Father asks?” I shake my head in response to his question. “Then you know the answer. Your brother wouldn’t default upon his words. Your Father was just trying to scare you, that’s all.”

I exhale. That’s what I thought, but the timing seems too convenient. We join the others in the elevator, which is a tight fit and start heading down to the garage. The elevator stops a few floors early and the door slides open to reveal an older man, dressed from head to toe in thick clothes. He stares into the elevator eyes wide. “I’ll- I’ll wait for the next one,” he grumbles.

The doors slide closed and I can hear Walter snort in amusement. I look back at him, where he’s standing and I can see, once again, Gabbie cowering, trying to avoid the robots. We don’t stop at another floor, instead finally making it down to the garage in the basement. All of us step out into the garage. Gates turns back to us, but instead of talking to the others, she talks directly to Sebastian. “You’re staying in the trailer. I don’t trust you-”

“And I think you would cause more issues than Elmira would- you’re more demonic than she is,” Hercules interjects.

“Only if Elmira is safe by herself. If she needs me to protect her, then I cannot follow those instructions,” Sebastian responds.

Hercules runs his fingertips across his scalp and he groans. “Yeah, whatever, we don’t have time to consider exactly what that entails.”

The garage is a buzz of activity, with large trucks flying past, all of them painted different colors with the emblem of the CPO painted on the doors. I try to peer into the windows to see who’s inside but find the windows have been darkened and I can’t even make out the figures of those who inhabit the vehicles. Sebastian lays a hand on my shoulder. I look up to see the others have left the two of us behind. I jog to catch up to them, with Sebastian directly behind me.

“Stick together,” Gates growls. “I won’t have you screwing up like yesterday. You’re using my name, so you need to make me look good.”

“That was the plan,” Gabbie mutters. We find the car, with the large trailer nearby. The trailer is wide open with Nav and Mattie inside, waiting. Mattie looks nervous, while Navigator looks just as catatonic as usual.

“Get in. I’m going out front with Gates.” Gates walks out the front of the truck while Hercules stays to watch us enter. The group of us enter slowly and I look back at Hercules impatiently tapping his foot. “Come on,” he yells. “It’s an emergency so act like it! Remember, soon as all of you get out of that trailer you’ll likely be met by those who you need to fight off. So don’t be caught with your tail between your legs. Kick major ass or end up with a knife between your ribs.”

Walter swears under his breath and Sebastian rolls his eyes. It seems this is just as chaotic as expected. I can practically feel the pressure in the air. We climb into the trailer and I pull on the rope, causing the ramp to snap into place over the entrance. I drop into a seat next to Mattie and we all end up in the same spots we were when we were last in this trailer. The only difference is that Sebastian is here, and as usual, he stands nearby me with his arms crossed and a serious expression on his face.

“Mattie,” I whisper. “What’s going on?”

He shrugs and I feel the entire trailer shudder and then lurch forward. I get thrown against him. He straightens me carefully. “I honestly don’t know. I was woken up suddenly and I’ve been assaulted by so many chaotic thoughts. Thoughts that are repeated in this trailer, but you don’t need to be worried. It happens. We’ll deal with it and be home before lunch.”

“You’re sure?”

He snorts. “Hell no. I could just as much be wrong, but I’ll take my experience into account and believe that it will only be a riot. I’ll believe that there’s nothing more and that’s that. I doubt it’s anything more, so you don’t need to worry. At least, I’m not worried.” I place my hand over my chest, inhaling and exhaling for a few moments, just trying to steady my thoughts. “You’ll find that the ones with chaotic thoughts are those who are being exposed to something like this for the first time. Being woken at a strange time for the first time. You’ll get used to it.”

“I’m so tired,” Walter groans.

“That’s the spirit!” Mattie yells, laughing. “The most annoying part of doing this is dropping what you were doing. Nothing’s scary about doing the same old same old.”

“Hm-” Sebastian grumbles. It’s almost as if he’s agreeing, but I see him holding his ear against the outside of the container. “That’s… Odd. You said riot, right?”

“Yeah,” Mattie asks. “What’s up?”

“That doesn’t sound like a riot-” There’s a loud bang and the entire trailer jerks up as if its run over something. Walter flings his hand over Gabbie’s chest and wraps his hand beneath his seat. I fling my gauntlet into the outer wall where it sinks into the steel. Kai gets thrown out of his seat and I use my free hand to grab his shirt, pulling him toward me.

The vehicle has stopped and Nav is groaning on the ground while Mattie managed to right himself by grabbing a handle on the wall. “What the flying fuck?” Matie mutters. He slams his fist against the wall next to him. “What the hell did we hit?” He yells.

There’s another loud bang against the wall behind me and I jump out of my seat, pulling my gauntlet out and turning to face the wall. There’s a silence, the only sound is some clattering outside the trailer. Mattie stands up grumbling to himself. He grabs the gun off the wall and leans down to help Nav.

“What now?” Gabbie asks, her voice shaking.

“Well- guess we find out what’s out there. Take an earpiece, Nav is okay, just a little in pain right now.” Nav slips into his chair, gritting his teeth. He pulls open a drawer and starts throwing earpieces at everyone. We all take one, some of them hitting the ground where they have to be retrieved.

Sebastian takes one for himself, shoving it in his ear. Nav turns to one of his screens. “There’s six hostiles outside that door. A lot more along the other streets. I hope all of you are as good as Hercules and Gates,” he says.

“What about Hercules and Gates?” Mattie asks. He nods. “Okay, that’s good. Herc and Gates are moving down the street, we’ll have to go the other way.” He raises the gun toward the entrance and the five of us trail behind him.

Gabbie draws her sword, raising the rapier so it’s pointing toward the closed door. Kai drops down into his chair, clipping his notepad to the sockets and I raise my gauntlet, my claws exposed. Walter walks up to the door and his skin grows a darker color, seemingly sparkling in the light. “Now?” He asks. Mattie nods and he pulls on the rope.

The door drops open and I raise my left hand to obstruct my eyes. It’s incredibly bright outside, but the sun still isn’t up. Instead, we’re met with our enemy and the confirmation of my fears. Waiting outside are six of Lucifer’s demons, their wings open wide and their mouths split in menacing looks. There’s a lot of glass scattered across the ground and they turn to face us immediately.

“Oh, shit,” Mattie grunts. He pulls the trigger and the trailer echoes with loud explosions from the gun. The demons charge at us and two of them drop out of the air, blood pumping from their chest.

“You took the words right out of my mouth, mortal!” Sebastian growls. A shadow, cast by the light of the six demons yields large spikes which tears the wings off a demon, which then gets hit by an image of a sword, leaving a massive hole in its stomach. “Good job,” he commends Gabbie.

“Brother, incinerate them,” I mutter. There’s a strong smell of sulfur and then the ground splits and flames burst from the ground in a massive plume. A single demon flies into the flames, while the remaining two are agile enough to dodge the flames. The come within striking range of the five of us.

The first strikes at Mattie while he’s trying to do something to his gun. I wrap my hand around the demon’s head, the large claws enter its head as if it’s made of butter and I fling it to the side of the street with great force. Walter steps forward to meet the second one. He punches at the demon, which happily meets his strike. The Demon shrieks as its fist disintegrates as it meets Walter’s and then Walter shoots forward, smashing his palm into the face of the Demon. Its entire head explodes like oil thrown into a hot pan.

“I’m starting to think you weren’t wrong,” Sebastian mutters as he steps past me. He stops over the bodies of the demons, prodding them with his boot. He stops by the demons that Mattie shot then he raises a foot.

“Whoa, what are you doing?” Gabbie shrieks. Sebastian stops, turning to her. “They’ve already been dealt with.”

“Miss, if you don’t want them to call for reinforcements, you kill them. They’d do the same to you anyway.”

“But- we’re better than that,” Walter grumbles.

“And you’ll find being-” suddenly the demon jumps up to his feet, still bleeding profusely, he breaks into a run. “Wha-” Sebastian gasps. He breaks into a run, his form shimmering in with light, but he’s too late. The demon burst through a portal and it shuts behind him. “Damn it. See!” Sebastian yells. “Now he’ll just go and tell them where we are.”

“But- he was hurt,” Gabbie whispers. She’s pale and I step forward, stepping between Gabbie and Sebastian.

“No use crying over spilled milk, Sebastian. You’re right, but being right doesn’t make everything better. If you paid better attention, you could have used your magic to stop him.” I could have too, but there was a high chance of me hitting Sebastian instead, which would have been terrible. I look around, stepping out of the trailer. It’s too late, they know where I am, so there’s no point hiding.

For the first time, I don’t feel like hiding, for the first time I’m not scared of them tracking down, just that I know that I’ll have to fight, that I know what I’m going to do. This time, it’s not only me involved but the people who have always treated me well, that gave me a place to stay, some food and a roof over my head. My friends, and I won’t let them die.

I clear my throat. “Alright. So it looks like it’s only Lucifer’s demons. They might be strong, but they're not as strong as the other demons. They're actually the youngest, fewest and the weakest. The best method to deal with them is to force them to come in close, which they will. Normal demons are limited to close range magic and a lot of them like the feeling of soaking their claws in blood.”

“You’re sure of this?” Gabbie mutters.

“Of course, I come from the Demon Plane.”

“Alright then,” Gabbie groans. “I guess we’ll do it like this. Me, Sebastian and Walter will stand in a circle around Elmira. We can use the fact they want her to easily dispatch them. Uh- Janus can you-”

“Yeah. Not much of a use here, so I’ll keep a gun and make sure Nav and Kai are safe.” Janus seems to grin as if approving of Gabbie’s thinking.

“And Kai-”

“Mm?”

“How are you with those exploding robots?”

“A few dozen.”

“Alright. You wanted a chance to test them out, here’s your chance.” She exhales, almost as if feeling incredibly stressed. “Any problems?” She’s met with silence. She immediately wraps her hand around Walter’s upper arm. She points. “We’re moving a bit further down the street. Just so we have a lot of free space.”

The four of us start walking. I’m nervous, but confident and I look behind me to see the robots leave the open door of the trailer before the trailer slams shut. The robots then congregate around us in the air and Gabbie stops.

“Alright. Here.” I look around us. We’re in the middle of the street. There’s a small bench with some cover over it. The other side has a few cars, parked with their windows shattered and some steel warped by attacks. Walter steps in front of me, he looks at Sebastian which takes a position next to him.

Sebastian flexes. “We’ll probably find a Master or another Arcanist during this fight. We’ll have to be careful should we find them. The Master shouldn’t be too difficult to deal with, only a little harder than a normal demon, but an Arcanist will be very difficult.”

“Then we’ll do something about that when it happens. Just because their demons doesn’t mean I can’t turn them into dust,” Walter growls.

“Or I can’t pierce them with my rapier,” Gabbie continues.

“Or I can’t pierce them with shadows or blast them apart with light,” Sebastian snorts, carrying on the chant.

“Or I can’t blow them up with robots,” Kai whispers through our earpieces.

Gabbie and Walter turn to me, almost expectantly waiting for me to say something. I shrug. “I guess, I’ll just destroy them with magic.”

“You have much to learn,” Gabbie exhales. “And I’m starting to think your fear was unfounded, Sebastian. Couldn’t we have just run by now?”

“Impossible. Lucifer’s demons have incredible eyesight unless we went underground, then they’d inevitably be able to track us down and then they’d have the advantage. Better to meet them like this.”

“More like improbable,” Nav interjects in the earpiece. “Anyway. It doesn’t matter. There have been a few demons converging upon your position. About three have been keeping an eye on you just waiting for the numbers.”

“Why didn’t you point them out to us?” Gabbie hisses.

“Because had I done that, you would have attempted to kill them and then you would have been beset on by those other demons and torn to pieces. For now, you will need to hold firm while we wait for reinforcements.”

There are a few loud explosions, the sound of demons tearing open their portals around us. Gabbie hefts her sword, Sebastian steps forward and Walter flexes his fingers causing them to pop a few times. The three of them have their backs turned to me and I let a small white orb grow in my left hand.

The demons shriek, flying towards us at extreme speeds. They flash with light and as they're about to meet us, I throw the orb into the air where it explodes in a bright flash. The Demons crash into each other while some are blinded, allowing us with the initiative. Gabbie strikes out with her sword and two Demons drop out of the air, while Walter steps forward, crashing his knee into a blinded Demon. It grows stiff and he wraps his hand around the Demons leg, flinging it into the flying Demons where it crashes into them.

Sebastian raises his hands and a few shadows bubble before erupting in spires of darkness. Demons are struck, almost looking like ornaments for some sick looking tree. The Demons seem to be coming from everywhere now. “Brother, slow their advance,” I murmur. There’s a loud wind, and I feel my hair get picked up, whipping it around the side of my neck. Gabbie raises her free hand and Walter takes a step back as a tornado forms around us, similar to the one that Gates used in the mall.

“I can work with this,” Gabbie murmurs. She strikes at a Demon who struggles its way through the tornado and it tumbles before being whipped up to the tornado and out into the air where it collides with a second Demon. “Yeah. This’ll work pretty, damn well.”

“There might be some that come from above,” I mutter. “I’ll take them. You guys deal with the ones that come through the tornado.” I watch Walter grab a second Demon which freezes, being petrified by his touch. He flings the thing across where it flies through the tornado and I hear a loud shriek of a Demon being hit.

“Yeah,” he gasps. “Hey- Nav.”

“Hm?”

“We’ll probably need that backup soon- cause I doubt we can hold out for long.”

“You only just started!” Comes his response. The outside of the tornado gets painted orange and I watch the entire tornado get dyed with orange fire. I stare at the flames in surprise and I can hear a low laughing coming from the earpiece.

“Holy shit, Kai,” Gabbie gasps. “That was awesome. Was that one of the explodey robots?”

“Mhm,” comes his response. “Got some overhead, I can deal with them if you want.”

“Nah. I got them.” Guess this is it. I invoke my Septagram and once again my wings grow out, causing the back of my shirt to rip. My tail lengthens until it’s just past the crook of my leg. Two, sharp prongs, starting from midway, making it seem like there are actually two tails. I open my wings, flexing my legs and then jumping upward. My wings beat once, causing me to suddenly burst into the air.

Walter looks up at me and his eyes widen. “Elmi-”

“It’s me,” I quickly gasp. “I got this, keep focused on what you’re doing.” I keep flying upward, my wings beating as I ascend. As I near the top of the tornado, I meet a Demon trying to take advantage of the opening, using my gauntlet to tear off its wing. He seems completely surprised by my sudden attack, almost as if I gave him a fright, but he starts tumbling toward the ground, where he gets caught up in the tornado and flung back out into the sky.

There’s a second Demon that comes up from the right side and I raise my hand to shoot a burst of light at it, but instead a crystallized Demon smashes it in the side of the head and the entire body goes slack, falling from the sky, unconscious. The tornado, once again is painted bright red and I can hear a few explosions around the outside of the tornado.

I fly above the tornado just in time to see about one hundred Demons get caught up in a mass of explosions. They're number drop, leaving perhaps half the Demons. “Uh- was that you Kai?”

“Thought you could deal with the lower numbers.”

“Yeah, we really needed that. Thanks,” Gabbie responds. “Just imagine if we did this when we fought Expedition.”

I can’t help but laugh. “Then they would all be dead, kinda not the point of the exercise.”

“Damn right,” Walter pants. “Another statue on its way up!” I fly back just as a crystallized Demon is launched into the sky. “You know, I would never be able to crystalize Humans. It doesn’t kill them- but- well it’s not exactly looked kindly upon.”

“You’re in a fight,” Nav interjects. “Stop talking and start concentrating. It’s like talking while you’re running. Stop wasting energy.” The small group of Demons below seems to bristle with impatience and they push their way toward the tornado. I grind my teeth “Actually. Spread out your robots, Kai.”

There’s a long pause as the Demons start all converging once again on the tornado. Some approach me and I’m forced to blast a hole in one of them with light, which seems to just make it angrier. “What’s going on?” I ask. “It looks very problematic.”

“Use a massive amount of electrical magic, now!” Nav yells. “Just a thunderstorm, I don’t care, do it now!”

“Brother, bring me a storm,” I whisper. “Bring me a massive storm.” I shut my wings. Letting myself tumble from the sky, before I get caught by any lightning because of how high I am. I drop like a rock, toward the guys below and all of a sudden I hear a crack of lightning and the entire area turns into a net of white, forked lighting.

The street lights go off, cars start ringing, windows shatter and Demons drop like flies, causing the ground to be littered with bodies. I feel something catch me and I struggle for a moment, trying fight back. “It’s me,” Sebastian says in my ears. “Good job. Though I fear it’s not over yet. That will just cause them to stop sending normal Demons after us, next up will be-”

There are three large bangs and three portals open. Three demons step out, and unlike the other demons, these ones are immaculately dressed in black suits, with regal looks. They have larger wings, smoother complexions, silky golden hair and large horns growing from their heads. The tornado finally fades, leaving us open to fight the new arrivals.

“The Masters have arrived.”

Author's Notes

Okay. This is the second last chapter of the arc. Kinda dropped it suddenly because I don't want you guys expecting anything. It's also, the last chapter I could write fast enough to give it to you guys in time. So I might give you chapter 12 tomorrow, but there's absolutely no garuntee. It's currently on ~2.5k which means it needs at least another 1.5k to complete which isn't too hard. But hopefully if I don't release it tomorrow, you guys can just wait that extra day.