Zeke, Aida, and Akachi followed the linear path of the sewer tunnel they were stuck in.

The party of three remained silent, with only the sounds of thick wastewater sloshing away in the distance, making Zeke grateful they were in an area pleasantly dry with a bearable stink.

He thought about how Ugo, if he were here, would comment on the adventure reaching its sewer level, which was commonplace in many video games. Usually, those areas would be where the developers would hide their most heinous creations to jumpscare the player’s soul right out of their body, but Zeke needn’t be wary because he had already seen the monster in this level, and it wore a beautiful face.

He snuck a glance at Aida; although the tears had dried, her expression was distant—her eyes blank and lips narrow. It was far different from the bubbly expression that seemed cemented on her face when he first met her, requesting to have an invasive look at Naomi’s privates.

That was merely two days ago, and yet the memory felt like it came from another lifetime.

It was Akachi to the rescue as he cut the silence by saying to Zeke, “Did you know Aida acted as a superhero for some time?”

“Huh?” Zeke looked back, confused.

Aida gave Akachi a look. “Aka…”

He ignored her and continued as he put his arm over Zeke. “Check this out, Shortstack. With her sword and mask on, Aida would go out into the night in hybrid form and protect endangered beasts from hunters. During Halloween when magical beasts would wander into the Human Realm. You may have heard reports of a fox woman with an oni mask slashing people on Halloween night, mostly in Japan.” He paused to smile at Aida. “That was our girl right here.”

“You were a vigilante?” Zeke said with excitement in his voice; he soon regretted it. He couldn’t help it. Any mention of superheroes would get him excited.

“It wasn’t the smart way to go about it,” Aida said, still distant. “Honestly, it was all done out of spite, and I often overdid it. Instilling fear into people is arguably effective but not the right way to do it.”

“Then what would be?” Zeke asked.

“The odd behavior humans have towards magical creatures stems from the lack of contact with them for hundreds of years. Most of the time, a human would try to kill a magical creature because they were scared of it, even though it was harmless. I wanted to increase the contact between them and humans. So, I was hoping to form a deal with the angels to do it subtly and tell them that the universe would actually benefit if magical creatures and humans were together again. And so…” she shuddered. “Painful incidents wouldn’t happen again. And then the Seals were broken and with that the angels’ animosity towards the Tainted only grew; no negotiations of any kind could be made possible. To make things even worse, Violet decides to go on an angel-killing spree.”

~At this point, it would be pure stupidity to ignore any more of the signs the universe was giving him. Still, he found a part of him fighting against the incoming wave of sullied thoughts about Violet.

“I need to achieve my goals through a different means now,” Aida said, “but it is getting a little bit overwhelming trying to do it all myself.”

Zeke looked at Akachi and then back at Aida. “Why not team up with Akachi and Wade? Aren’t you three the ‘Tres Amigos’?”

Aida flashed a sad smile. “Akachi is too focused on partying with his washed-up god friends to help me with something like this long-term.”

“Why are you saying it like I don’t spend time with you?” Akachi said.

“Because you don’t. We barely hang out with each other.” She looked over at Zeke. “And Wade, well, he can’t focus on something long-term either.”

Zek crossed his arms. “I dunno. It seems to me he can rise to the occasion when needed.”

“He is still inconsistent.”

“Well, it would be cool to have somebody like you in Providence Infirmary. We never treated magical beasts, and you could be like our vet,” Zeke said and chuckled, not thinking much of it. “Much needed strength too.”

“Okay,” Aida replied nonchalantly.

Zeke stopped, and subsequently, the other two did as well. “What?” he said.

“I’d be honored to join your Infirmary.”

Zeke studied her expression, trying to find an inkling of a humorous smirk, but her face only told him she was dead serious. He started stammering.

"Unless you were just joking. Which is fine—"

"No! It's just that, um…." Zeke scratched the back of his head and looked away. "I guess I would have to ask for the others' opinions."

"Okay," she said and resumed walking.

Would a new member be that bad? In the swirl of conflicting thoughts, some voices were on board with the idea, while others worried if she would fit in with the others. Maybe he was just bummed out by how anticlimactic the invite and acceptance were.

It was way different from what happened in anime when a new crew member was invited to hop aboard for the adventure. Zeke resumed walking while wrestling with his thoughts.

The world flashed white.

And Zeke was now in an absurdly spacious area of the sewer. Large enough to serve as an underground lair. There was dim lighting and surprisingly breathable air despite it being the literal bowels of whatever city he was under.

Zeke felt a hand stroking the back of his hair. He wheeled back and saw Violet.

Pulling himself back, he touched the curls hanging from the back of his head. He thought of how Isaac was able to summon Ugo, AJ, and Naomi back to him with his severed finger. Violet must've used a similar spell that required her to have a piece of his hair—she had plenty of opportunities to get herself a sample.

Her nose had grown back, and Zeke could sense the hefty amount of Mana emanating from her soul. They were standing on a platform split in four directions like a crossroads. Portable barrier fences stood on the edges of the walkway.

The jar of cramped fairies was grasped firmly in Violet's hand. “Rulitos, listen, about the fairies,” Violet started softly. "They are working with Irin—"

“I don't want to hear it, Vee.” He looked down at the fairies in the jar. They were barely moving. "Let them go."

“Listen to me, Ezequias! They need to be taught a lesson. We can use this as leverage—”

“Where does it stop? First, you say you're killing the angels because they deserve it, and now you're going to do the same to fairies just because they are allied with them? Where do you draw the line?”

She held the jar next to her hip and walked to Zeke to caress his cheek. “Rulitos…” she said sweetly. “Help me.” Her next tactic was stroking the bottom of his chin before rendering him motionless with a tender kiss. “We can finish where we left off last night, and this time, we'll both be fully lucid… and in control.” Violet put the jar down on the platform, grabbed Zeke's hands, placed them on her hips, and then wrapped her arms around his neck as she gazed at him with her purple eyes. “Help me punish the fairies, Rulitos….”

But the powerful spell of her enticing eyes wasn't as effective. Not this time. All the disillusioned Zeke could see while staring back into her eyes was that of a malicious she-devil who mercilessly manipulated, injured, and killed anyone and anything she saw fit.

Violet neared to grant him another kiss and he did the unthinkable.

He pulled back, mentally apologizing to his past, naive self. Zeke studied Violet as she stared back, confused, ignoring her questioning.

The longer he stared at that incredibly beautiful, sun-kissed face the more of a sobering effect it had on his mind. He thought back to all the moments they'd shared since the winter vacation from hell started and viewed them with a new pair of sobered lenses. The truth was so cruel, and it was time he stopped denying it.

“I get it now, so that’s what you were doing.” Zeke arduously removed his hands away from her hips. “You were seducing me.” He grabbed her wrists, pulled them down, and increased his distance from her. “Last time, you told me you wanted me to hate you. I guess you changed tactics, huh?”

“Rulitos, I—”

“You kept your distance initially, setting the trap, and then ensnared me. I bet you were never drunk in the first place. It was all an act. That card you left was just to get me to desire you more. Everything was just to butter me up to get me over to your side. Kissing me, holding my hand—“

“Yes, I did all those things to help incentivize you, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.”

“It was all a lie.”

“No, it wasn’t!” She took a step forward, and he stepped back. Violet stopped with a quivering lip and removed her messenger bag. “I’ve already made it clear how I feel about you. I’ve thought about you every day since I left Winterberry, Ezequias”

“Violet, enough with the mind games.”

“I’m serious!” She averted her gaze and slowly wrapped her arms around herself. “When you asked me to be your girlfriend. I didn’t accept immediately because I knew I was leaving for Catholic school. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want you to think I was rejecting you. I know not giving you a clear answer and just leaving wasn’t smart, but I was confused and flustered.” She settled her hands over her chest and directed her sad eyes at him. Her usually fierce purple eyes were now glistening sadly. “The truth is… Ezequias… I love you.”

And there it was. The three words directed at him that only existed in his fantasies. Those words he imagined coming out of Violet’s mouth for years, subsequently, in the fantasy, leaving him with a smile that would never go away and running for miles screaming at strangers in joy.

It was supposed to be a celebratory occasion that left him with a euphoric warmth. But in reality, hearing those three words together coming from the girl of his dreams only left him cold. A biting iciness spread in his bones, and his heart beat silently.

“No, you don’t,” Zeke said. “The truth is… I care more about you than you do about me.”

Violet’s face twisted somberly. “Is that what you think?”

Zeke made a fist and forced himself to continue. “It’s what I know, and now I am starting to believe what Aida said about you.”

“And that is…?”

“You’re a piece of shit.”

As silence filled the air, it seemed to have sucked away all the oxygen within it. Zeke struggled to breathe, and he started panting.

“I was just trying to….” Violet started and then stopped. “I just wanted us to work together, and I… I… I… wanted us to do it together….”

Then, Zeke saw something he had never seen before in his life.

Violet began to sob.

She attempted to speak as she sobbed, but Zeke couldn’t understand any of it. He could’ve even tell if she was blubbering in Spanish or English.

“Palerma…” Violet said articulately enough and then started shaking her head as she went on. “Palerma, palerma, palerma, palerma, palerma, palerma, palerma!” She grabbed the jar of fairies and opened it. “Well, if that’s how you feel… you can take your stupid fairies back, cabeza de pija!” She turned the jar over and none of the fairies fell out. Her wicked smile curved on her soaked face. “Oh, look at that. They need help getting out.”

Zeke ran towards Violet. “Violet, no!”

She kicked him away and pulled out all the fairies by hand. Violet threw them onto the ground, and as they tried to grow back to normal size, she squashed them under her boot.

Zeke stared in horror as Violet flattened the fairies, with their screams shrinking and the sounds of bones cracking and meat squelching growing.

She began grinding the tip of her boot against the dead fairies and then cleaned the bloody mush and crushed wings on the sole of the boot against the platform. “Whoops. That was clumsy of me.”

At that moment, Zeke could no longer see a person he felt intense affection for, not even as a long-time friend. The person standing in front of him, smiling wickedly and playfully stomping on what was left of the fairies who had their own dreams, lives, and families, was his enemy.

The cold feeling inside Zeke continued to spread. His vision began to darken as the coldness made him numb, freezing all his senses: anxiety, pain, and touch were all erased. Leaving him weightless and devoid of sensation, he was enveloped in the soothing black embrace of death.

Nothing.

Without needing to say anything aloud, his Healer’s Garb appeared on him and black energy was bursting out as he extended a darkened blue vein out of his right sleeve. He whipped it across Violet’s face, making her stop playing with the fairies’ unfortunate grave.

Violet turned her head back with a black-bloody whip mark across her cheek. She waited, but it didn’t heal.

She touched the wound and her eyes widened as she looked back at Zeke.

Black liquid leaked from his lips and the inner corner of his eye.

“Wait, Ezequias, you need to—”

Zeke swung the vein again to her side, and she caught it. “Neurpatia,” she called as he released a darkened red vein from his left sleeve, and it latched onto the top of a steel barrier to his left side. Quickly, another vein shot out of the same sleeve and latched onto a steel barrier on the other side of the room.

With his arms crossed, Zeke pulled them in different directions yanking the steel barriers with the veins and sending them flying at Violet. It was a brutal double hit as one barrier bashed into the right side of Violet’s skull, and the other rammed into her ribs from the left.

Violet spun vertically in the air like propellers as Zeke dashed towards her, preparing his giant veiny arm to attack. The merciless fist (bigger than her entire body) shot Violet back into the wall. Seconds after recovering, Zeke was already on his way to give her another oversized knuckle sandwich. He didn’t know how he was using magic despite having no Mana in his system, but he didn’t care and only focused on the cold darkness spreading within him. It felt empowering and intoxicating.

Violet summoned two Netherworld pistols and fired multiple rounds of hellfire bullets at the boy she confessed to not too long ago. The bullets were blocked by the veiny arm, and Zeke swung another fist, splashing black liquid everywhere.

This time he only punched the wall as Violet spun out of the way to fire more bullets. They were dodged, and Zeke was already executing a new tactic. He conjured multiple clots on his veiny arm as Violet exchanged her pistol for a massive, mystical blunderbuss. The supernatural firearm made a demonic screaming noise as she pulled the trigger—monstrous spirits lined with jagged mouths came flying out.

Zeke leaped off the platform, evading the monster bullets, and on his way down, he stretched his normal arm hand upwards, and a darkened blue vein shot out to hook onto the edge of the platform. He pulled and launched himself into the air right before touching the water waste below.

Mid-air, he flipped and had his feet meet with the ceiling. His giant arm, now dotted with large swollen balls filled with black blood, he lunged down at Violet and had the arm detach like a missile.

The thrombus arm burst and a big, black, bloody explosion covered the area and the combatants in red. Unclear if it was a direct hit, Zeke didn’t care and continued attacking Violet as she was wobbling on his feet. He took a flip kick to the face when he got close, serving as a reminder that she still was a skilled martial artist and guns weren’t her only play.

Zeke shot darkened, wet veins out of each of his sleeves, squirting more black liquid everywhere, and had them wrap around Violet’s wrists. Two more jetted out of his pant legs and wrapped around Violet’s ankles. He pulled her close, and she had no choice but to follow. With their movements limited and linked to each other, Violet still retaliated and tried to attack.

They moved around the room throughout the struggle, and the spectacle began to look less like a fight and more like a synchronized couple’s dance routine. Where his foot moved, hers followed; where her hand moved, his hand followed. When they neared Violet’s messenger bag on the walkway floor, she clasped his hand in hers and led him to it in classic tango fashion. She dug out a Mana bottle from the bag, and Zeke knocked it away with his knee. The bottle shattered on the floor.

At one moment, he made her spin and then wrapped his arms around her from behind. She broke free from the hold by giving him a back head headbutt to the mouth and then unleashed an insane flurry of punches.

It was like a superhuman drum solo with how quickly she moved her fists and punched in harmonic rhythm. The onslaught climaxed with a Mana-charged uppercut and the veins released Violet.

Zeke vomited some black chunks and struggled to get a hold of himself. While he was disoriented, Violet dragged her messenger bag back to her with her foot and took out another Mana bottle from it. She took a swig and then embraced Zeke.

As Violet pushed her lips onto his, the Mana was forced down Zeke’s throat. After gulping it all down, Zeke kicked Violet away with a Mana-charged kick and then shot out a darkened vein to pull her back. The vein was wrapped tightly around her waist, and Zeke pushed her back with a heavy punch and then pulled her back again with the vein. He repeated getting more aggressive with his attacks every time he pulled her back to him.

The final attack was with his veiny fist enlarged to a size he had never reached before. Violet took the devastating hit triple the size of her entire body and was blasted back into a steel barrier. Her Healer’s Garb vanished as she slid down onto her side and didn’t get up.

Zeke’s veiny arm dissipated along with his Healer’s Garb, looking at her horribly bruised all over without any concern about her getting up again. If she decided to go another round, he was more than ready.

He coughed out some more black liquid and approached Violet, his steps still feeling floaty, and then halted to glare down at her. “Violet. I don’t care about what you do anymore.” He said and cleaned off the black liquid leaking from his nostrils and eyes with his sleeve. “Just remember this, if you come to my Infirmary to stir up trouble or if you put my friends in danger in any way. Expect a fight coming your way. Goodbye.”

Zeke walked away.