“Don’t engage,” Alyssa said as loudly as she dared. “Don’t attack. Don’t… You can see it, right?”

“What in Tenebrael’s name is that?” Trik whispered. It wasn’t a direct answer to Alyssa’s question, but it was answer enough.

“A Patience.” A member of the Astral Authority right in the middle of the city. It wasn’t doing anything obviously related to hunting Tenebrael, but maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise. Their original purpose was to hunt demons and fallen angels. They likely found humans-turned-demon offensive.

Well, that much was obvious. The thing pulled its spear from the demon’s chest, swung it around, and lopped the head of the demon clear off. According to Fela, that demon should have been a fairly dangerous one. But the Patience cut off its head with far less effort than Brakkt had done to the Taker.

It stood there, standing over the corpse with its spear held in both of its hands. Or… Its hands were ball-like without fingers or even a palm. On appearance alone, Alyssa would have said that it was magnetic. The spear just clung to the ball-like hands. But knowing better, it was probably magic of some sort.

“At least we don’t have to fight the demon,” one of the men said.

“Are you kidding? What if we have to fight that? At least we know what infected are capable of.”

“I don’t think it will hurt humans,” Alyssa said, biting her lip. Izsha, Fela, and—as much as she complained about people suspecting she wasn’t human—herself were another matter entirely. Izsha and Fela were monsters. Relics, Iosefael called them. And Iosefael didn’t particularly like their existence. Whether or not a fake-angel would care wasn’t a question that she had thought to ask Iosefael.

As for Alyssa, she had a connection to Tenebrael. The Astral Authority should be interested in that over just about anything else.

Perhaps sensing her apprehension, Izsha took a few steps backward.

“We should give it some space. Lots of space, preferably.”

It was still just standing there. Its porcelain mask was locked onto the corpse of the infected human. If it did so much as turn toward them, Alyssa had a Spectral Chains ready to fire. And her pistol. She wasn’t about to let her friends or Trik and his men come to harm. But Alyssa wanted to avoid a fight if possible. Tenebrael might be happy to blast these things out of the air, but Alyssa wasn’t half as confident in testing herself against an unknown foe. Especially not in the middle of a populated city.

Unfortunately, although Izsha was moving back, Trik remained where he was. And with him, his men. He was their leader, not Alyssa.

“We can’t let a monster roam the streets of the city unchecked.”

“This isn’t a normal monster. It’s…”

A flash of flames signaled the true demon’s arrival.

The Patience turned to the pentagram, readying its spear.

The demon appeared, already swinging her scythe. Raising its spear, the Patience stopped the curved blade just an inch from its crocheted neck.

A beat passed with no movement from either. The Patience’s porcelain mask showed no expression while the demon’s eye crinkled. Mirth? Worry? It was so hard to tell with only that small patch of her face visible. Flicking her gaze to Alyssa, the demon winked? Or maybe just blinked.

Whichever one it was, that was the signal for the fight to begin in earnest.

Alyssa had thought that the pentagram was some kind of container for the demon. Like a shackle to keep it in place. But the demon didn’t seem to care about her thoughts. The Patience swept its spear toward the demon, only for the demon to perform a handless cartwheel backwards out of the circle. The scythe in her hands spun twice as fast as the cartwheel, swinging upward to knock the spear away. A second swing would have taken the Patience’s arm off if not for a quick movement on its part.

“Trik, it’s fighting something none of you can see. If you must stay, get your men to block off the streets. Keep civilians from getting close.”

“I can see it.”

Alyssa blinked, taking her eyes off the fight for only an instant. “What?”

“I can see it,” Trik said again, staring intently. He wasn’t the only one. Every single one of the guards, and Fela, had their eyes locked onto the fight, following motions of a scythe and the acrobatics of a demon that they shouldn’t be able to perceive. “Every time their weapons connect, the other one appears for just a second.”

Really? Alyssa didn’t notice. Or couldn’t. She saw them both one hundred percent of the time. “It’s a true demon,” she said. This wasn’t really the time to explain, but… “It isn’t a creature that you or your men can fight. I doubt the Pharaoh could handle it. Please, just get your men to safety. Get them to keep the people of the city away.”

The spear carved through a wall of a house, gouging it to the point where the entire wall shuddered. It missed the demon though. She just slipped underneath.

“Right.” He shook his head. “Right. Ack,” he started barking off names and orders.

As the guards split off to either side to try to block as many paths to this street as possible, Alyssa slid off Izsha’s back. The draken was fast, but she doubted it would be fast enough to outrun either of those things if they suddenly changed targets. More importantly, she felt she could aim far better on the ground. If she could hold one in place with Spectral Chains, a pistol shot should take care of it.

Though, she was a little uncertain about which to aim at.

The demon was a bitch corrupting humans to the point where they killed indiscriminately and had to be killed in turn. But… was she actually more than just a soul collector? The plague infected people who lost faith in Tenebrael. As far as Alyssa knew, the true demon only appeared at the end of the process.

Although, she had dropped off that ember for Alyssa. And had almost certainly dropped off the one earlier this evening. What had that been about? Were the demons aware of the Astral Authority’s presence? Had it been a way to call this Patience here to fight? Or maybe the demons were trying to bolster their numbers in preparation for a battle against the Authority.

Iosefael might know.

On the other hand, the Astral Authority, including this Patience, were enemies of Tenebrael. And, as enemies of Tenebrael, they were very likely enemies of everyone on this whole world. Even if they never raised a weapon against humans or monsters, if they succeeded in killing Tenebrael, this world would be doomed. Adrael would be free to start up her crusade against anyone who believed in Tenebrael in some attempt to ‘fix’ the place. Infected demons would overrun the world. Magic would fail to work across the board, removing even the ability for people to create fire let alone deal with those other problems.

Alyssa took aim at the Patience.

And she waited.

The infected demon in Teneville had managed to dodge her Spectral Chains by slipping a bed in between them the moment she had cast. A bullet moved faster than the chains, but, even if her aim was perfect, she doubted that it would work. The Patience was too fast, moving too acrobatically. At times, its silver filigree form was just a blur. It would be able to dodge both the chains and a bullet. Or, if not dodge, then block with something.

She needed it still. She needed an opportunity. Every angel that she had captured had been standing still, if only for a moment. They could move quickly. She had seen that in the fight between Tenebrael and Iosefael. But they always stopped to chat and gave her an opportunity.

For some reason, she doubted that the Patience was interested in conversation. It was too inhuman. It was a weapon built for the express purpose of hunting dissidents to the Throne. If it could speak at all, it would only do so as a way to further that goal.

Of that, Alyssa had no doubt.

Which meant that it was up to the demon. Alyssa sure as hell wasn’t going to wade into a battle between two super-mortal monsters, both of whom likely didn’t care if she survived and might even try attacking her simply because she was associated with Tenebrael. No. The demon would have to provide the opportunity.

And if the Patience killed the demon? If Alyssa was lucky, it would stand still for a moment. Just a single moment was all she needed.

Alyssa watched and waited, glad that neither creature was fighting their way toward her. A blade slashed. A spear swiped. Fela was growling. She had been since the fight started. Just a low, guttural growl at a constant rate. Magical sparks flew as the scythe ground against the haft of the spear. Izsha had backed up another two steps. In the distance, Alyssa could hear Trik’s men shouting, warning passers about the danger.

The scythe hooked around the Patience. A single tug would split it in two.

The Patience slipped its spear between the blade and its body. The tug just pulled it right up against the demon’s body.

And she kept pulling. Sparks rained from the point where metal touched metal.

The demon’s burning red eye flicked away from the Patience just long enough to look at Alyssa.

She winked.

“In Tenebrael’s name, I bring down the hammer of her wrath on all who would raise a hand against her. Let the miracle manifest and obliterate her foes.”

Alyssa pulled the trigger.

A blinding beam of black light fired from the muzzle. The Patience couldn’t do anything, trapped by the demon’s scythe. The beam struck the false angel in the mask. It cracked, split in two with a quarter-sized hole between the eyes. Both pieces fell to the ground along with the body of the Patience.

Despite having been directly behind the Patience, the demon came away unscathed.

Alyssa clicked her tongue in annoyance. She had specifically worded the request such that it would hit the demon as well. Apparently, the demon was not considered a foe or someone who would raise a hand against Tenebrael. Irritating, but not wholly unexpected. After all, Tenebrael had been the one to admit that she struck a bargain with the devil to modify how her world worked.

The demon wasted no time in running up to the pentagram. Only when it disappeared did Alyssa realize that, somehow, despite fighting for its life, it had managed to carry out its duty and scythe the infected corpse to send the soul through a smaller pentagram. Had it just been playing the whole time?

“You killed it?”

“It wasn’t our ally,” Alyssa said, lowering her pistol. Scowling, she reached up and pulled off her sunglasses. There were two holes in the glass right where her eyes would have been. Dribbles of red-hot melted glass clung to the bottom of the frames. “The demon is gone as well,” she added, slipping the ruined glasses into her satchel. They might still be possible to repair later. At least so long as she worded a request properly.

Looking to her side, she found Trik just staring at the corpse of the Patience. Fela stood beside him, but she wasn’t staring at the destruction. Her tail whipped back and forth as she looked up to Alyssa. Feeling a bit uncomfortable with something in Fela’s gaze, Alyssa turned to the Patience. Like the Kindness, it didn’t disappear. The aureole lost its shimmer and luminescence. That was it. No angel or demon came to harvest its soul. Closing her eyes and concentrating, she found nothing.

Trik finally broke his gaze with the Patience, turning to look to Alyssa. Although the start of a word had been on its way out of his mouth, it cut off as he flinched. “Tenebrael’s will, huh?”

“Seems that way.”

“You don’t know for sure?”

“It’s not like she comes down and talks to me.” Not anymore. Bitch. Maybe with two of the Astral Authority dead, Tenebrael could slip away from her hiding spot for a few moments. Alyssa doubted she would even if she could. For some reason, she pictured Tenebrael hiding out in some basement home theater, watching events with an oversized bowl of popcorn in her hands.

Based on everything that had happened so far, it struck Alyssa as odd that Tenebrael would hide herself to such an extent. Both members of the Astral Authority were dead. Neither with any particular trouble or hassle. One at Tenebrael’s hands through her statue and one at Alyssa’s hands using Tenebrael’s power. It seemed like, even if there were a hundred of them, Tenebrael should be able to wave her hands and delete them all with laser beams.

There had to be something she was missing.

That something was probably related to the other members of the Astral Authority. Chastity, Equanimity, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, Humility. There were five members that Alyssa had yet to see. Not to mention the higher ranked Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. According to the other angels, the Seraphim themselves weren’t going to act. But she supposed that might be a concern as well.

Still, would it kill her to send a text message?

With that reminding her to pull out her phone, Alyssa did so. “Just killed a demon and a Patience,” she said. Stifling the inevitable question, she added, “A Patience is a monster on par with a high level demon. It was hostile to the demon, but not friendly toward me.”

Trik glanced at Alyssa, shook his head, and started toward the battle site. The two other guards who had stayed nearby, including one of the ones with a tattooed sword, followed him. They all walked with a wariness, like the Patience would spring up and attack them at any moment. And Alyssa could honestly not fault them for their caution. After all, she was only mostly sure that it was dead. It sure wasn’t a smoking husk like the Kindness had been after Tenebrael’s statue fired that laser.

He would probably mention that she had fired without provocation later.

Ah well.

“You’ve discovered another new monster type? Is this one invisible as well?” Oxart had apparently returned. Sounded like she brought an attitude with her as well.

“Actually no. It seems like all of the plague containment team were able to see it. I’m sure they’ll write up a proper report later,” Alyssa said with a bright smile. She wasn’t a member of the city guard. They couldn’t force her to write a report. And since other people could see it, she didn’t even need to describe it much. “I will offer one word of advice, if you see any more, or any monsters with porcelain masks, don’t antagonize them. I don’t think they’ll care about most mortals, but they might if you try attacking. And this one was matched in combat with a true demon, so good luck to anyone who ignores my advice.”

“I’ll pass the word along. Which would be easier if…” Her voice got quieter for a moment as if she were leaning away from the phone. “Tenno! Are Messages working yet?” Alyssa couldn’t hear a response, but the resulting swear was not a positive one.

“Any word from Irulon yet?”

“She is still asleep after having cast that spell,” Lisa said. “Her servant isn’t letting anyone near.”

How long had it taken her in the desert? Alyssa tried to remember, but was drawing up a blank. She had been a bit distracted at the time, worried that a billion ants had been about to attack them. It might have been five minutes, it might have even been a half hour.

“Ah. Wait. I think she’s stirring.”

“Good,” Alyssa said. “Let me know what she says.”

When Irulon had woken up in the desert after Retrograde Cognition, she had been quite groggy and a bit irritated. That would probably hold true now. Alyssa wasn’t sure if that was a side effect of the spell or Irulon’s sleeping habits as a result of her merger with the dragon. Either way, it would probably be a minute or two before she heard anything useful.

So Alyssa spent her time keeping an eye on things around her, both making sure she wasn’t being ambushed and watching the actions of the plague containment team. Trik had sent one of the two guards off to inform the others that the situation was resolved. Meanwhile, he and the guard with the glowing sword started destroying the pentagrams. Fela sniffed around, poking and prodding the body of both the infected and the Patience. Alyssa admitted being a little nervous watching her do so, but it seemed well and truly dead.

“You alright, Izsha?” Alyssa asked, noticing that the draken was still several steps behind her, almost like it was trying to put her between it and the battle site. Seeing Izsha display any sign of fear was a bit strange, but maybe not unwarranted. Especially not after watching Musca and Irulon get skewered by a relatively similar being.

The draken did not answer. Because of course it couldn’t. Alyssa still wanted to figure out a way to talk to them, but in lieu of that, she patted her hand on its neck in what was hopefully a comforting motion. Izsha seemed to appreciate it.

“Alyssa?” Lisa said over the headphones.

“I’m here.”

“Handing the phone to Irulon.”

“Thanks.”

She waited just a moment, gently rubbing her hand down the smooth scales on Izsha’s neck while Irulon got on the line.

“Alyssa. Your deduction of a shadow assassin being present was correct. I was not able to confirm the presence of a fairy, but it seems likely. There were horses and a covered cart. Things you’ve already heard from your mother. However, I was able to discover at least some of their cargo.

“There were three bodies. Human bodies. Or humanoid, I suppose. They were wrapped up to the point where I couldn’t see secondary characteristics.”

“Are mummies living monsters in the world? Or undead monsters, I guess.”

“What?”

“Mummies. Like zombies?”

“Zombies, I understand. I’m not sure what you’re talking about though.”

“Never mind. I guess not.” Given that the ruler of Lyria was a pharaoh, she would have suspected that mummies at least would exist, even if they didn’t walk around and create giant sand walls of doom, but the confusion in Irulon’s voice said otherwise.

“Anyway… There were several crates and barrels as well. I was unable to see inside them, but two of the barrels had a distinct shape of a pentagram on the front.”

“Demons?” Alyssa said, glancing to where Fela had jumped onto a roof to sniff around some more. “They’re using demons?”

“Circumstantial evidence points to that conclusion.”

“Great.”

“I think I shall meet up with you.”

“Sounds fine. I’m going to get Fela. We’re going to sniff around that crossroads I was at earlier. See if we can’t find these idiots before they do something foolish.”