Paimon kept her face still, but Nick could see that she was suppressing a reaction. After a brief moment, she spoke, “I see, and this Dante, what did he have to say?”

“Well, he asked me what I was doing. I told him that I wasn’t happy with my situation and was looking for a change,” Nick said casually, still trying to play it up like he was trying to remember the conversation he’d never actually had.

“How did he reply to that?” Paimon asked, with caution in her voice that Nick hadn’t heard so far.

Nick realised that the relationship between Paimon and Dante might be more imbalanced than he thought. Caution meant worry, why would Paimon be worried about Dante being involved? So worried that mentioning that he might have met with him was enough to make her cautious? Nick realised he needed to take advantage of this as best as he could.

“He told me to just follow my instinct, to go where I felt the winds were telling me to go. That everything would work out how it was meant to in the end, or something like that,” Nick replied. He kept it as vague as he possibly could, trying to tie into the more mystical idea he had around whatever the vision this Dante guy would have seen.

Paimon just sat there in silence for a moment and didn’t reply. Nick walked around the room and looked at the various treasures she had decorating her office. He was curious, but he mainly didn’t want to just stand in front of Paimon and potentially give away his act. He was already struggling to keep a straight face, so he’d give the woman as much time as she wanted to think things through. Nick walked over to one of her bookshelves and was inspecting a small case filled with small circular black stones that he had an intrinsic feeling were some of the most valuable items in the room when Paimon finally spoke up.

“What is it you want to do?” She asked.

“I want to find my brother and get stronger. Simple as,” Nick replied instantly. He didn’t need to think about this answer.

“We’re doing what we can to locate your brother Nick, I assure you that we have some of the most capable hands in the entire Complex working to secure your brother,” Paimon said with a smile. A smile that threatened to collapse Nick’s resolve.

“I’m sure you are and thank you for your efforts, but I feel like this is something I have to do myself. I’m going to be the one to rescue my brother,” Nick turned and looked Paimon dead in the eye and for the first time yet, he managed to hold it steady. He had his resolve, he had his purpose, he wouldn’t be swayed.

Nick was then overtaken by an urge, a compulsion even. He turned on his heel and walked. He walked past the three underlings and made it right to the door. He pushed against it, struggling to move its unreasonable weight. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Paine start to walk towards him. He turned and saw the two female underlings moving towards him from the other side. Nick continued to push against the door and struggled to open it. As the underlings closed in on him he finally opened it enough to pass through.

“Nick, stop,” Paimon called out softly, “there is more for us to talk about.”

Nick shook off the voice as it flowed into his eyes and stepped through the doorway. He then started walking towards the staircase.

“Nick, listen to me. Come back here, I can help you,” Paimon raised her voice.

Nick kept walking, battling to keep the voice out of his head, just as he was about to step down the staircase he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder.

“You don’t walk away from the Mistress until she lets you leave,” Paine growled.

Nick pulled his shoulder free from the man’s grasp and began to descend the stairs.

“STOP!” Paimon yelled, and Nick bolted.

He felt the words rip through his brain and lock his muscles up. Whatever resistance his skill was putting up was torn through like paper. Nick had already started moving though, and for the third time, he was sent tumbling down the hard stone staircase. The first heavy collision with one of the steps snapped him out of Paimon’s grasp and he scrambled to stabilise himself. He managed to land on his feet, albeit shakily and took off running. He looked back and saw that Paige, Paiton, and Paine were all frozen in place. Nick didn’t want to lose the opportunity that he’d been granted, he activated Hasten and darted through the dark hallways and made it towards the entrance of the cathedral.

“Bring him back to me!” He heard an inhuman voice hiss, it felt like it came from all around him. Like every wall and surface was hissing at him.

Nick didn’t stop to try and work out what the hell was going on, he didn’t have that luxury. Nick made it outside and bumped into a gathered crowd. Nick panicked for a moment, thinking he was already done for. Then he realised that the crowd was laughing and smiling and that he recognised many of the faces that streamed past him and into the cathedral. Jackie punched him in the shoulder with a laugh as she passed him.

“Issa a good day ta get everyone together ta refurbish mah office ain’t it?” Kim said with a laugh before pushing him away from the building.

“Thanks,” Nick called out as he started running again.

“Fuark off!” the man yelled back.

Nick then heard the sounds of more yelling and didn’t look to find out what was happening, he could only keep running. He bolted for the treeline and made it to the new road being built leading from the small city. There were teams of people working on the new road, making it look like a far more laborious task than Nick would have expected. Nick ran alongside the road and it took a lot to suppress his urge to stop and ask them what they were doing. The process looked far more complex than simply laying down new pavers. Nick fought the urge down and kept running, activating his speedy skill whenever he could. He crossed the Parklands in record time and made it to the Garden, not pausing he started cutting across it diagonally. He was amazed by how pristine it was again, so far removed from how he’d last seen it. Gone were the fighting groups, the bodies, the destroyed plant life and turf. The peaceful and beautiful Garden had returned.

Nick saw figures hunched over the flower beds, tending to them. He didn’t stop to observe them at all, he felt the same strange effect he had when he’d first seen the Cleaners. They looked so normal at a glance but the longer your gaze lingered the more irregularities you would begin to pick up. Nick didn’t let his gaze linger and decided he could stop and think about what had taken place in the last half an hour when he was safely hidden away somewhere. Nick crossed the Garden and made it to the bridges, flying across them he realised he wasn’t sure where he was going to hide. He wanted to stay on the 70th floor but he knew that’s the first place Paimon would send people to look for him. He also wouldn’t get too much from staying on the 70th floor, it only dropped level three gems at best.

Not thinking too hard about it, Nick ran to the ramps and started his descent. He knew he wasn’t strong enough to feasibly survive the lower floors, but the lower he went the less likely Paimon would assume that’s where he went. Nick chose the 67th floor and made his way out into the car park, only remembering that the Hogs had given him a light crystal and never asked for it back. He pulled it out and activated it with his aura and was shocked as it practically lit up as far as he could see. When he’d used it on the 50th floor it had barely lit up a few metres around him, now it was at least a couple hundred metres in each direction. Nick watched as some far off monsters were suddenly exposed by the light and began to flee back towards the shadows.

At first, he thought that this was awesome, he’d never have to be stressed about traversing the sinister darkness of the car park again. Then he realised how important the item he was holding was. He wasn’t the Hogs, he didn’t have an entire organisation of far too powerful goofballs backing him up, and he certainly didn’t have much personal strength to fall back on. He had an awesome light crystal that people surely also wanted, what was going to happen if they saw him walking around alone with one of these? Nick had literally been attacked for less, twice. Nick was stuck, he could use this crystal to safely make it through some of the lower floors, but if anyone saw him he’d likely get mugged. Nick took a short moment to mentally hash out his options.

Nick realised that he didn’t want to go back to the 65th floor, there was a chance that people would recognise him. The groups that had taken part in the event hadn’t been too happy with him beating them and it was only the Hogs that had prevented him from being jumped on the spot. That meant that the next event room that was available was the 60th floor, which he had no idea about. He didn’t want to risk heading down that deep right now either, so Nick decided to head back to the ramps and went down to the 64th floor. It was a risky move on a number of levels. Firstly, this was the floor that Benny had initially been taken to, so it was likely Paimon would send someone down here to look for him. Secondly, this floor needed a team of level 5s-6s to safely clear it apparently. Both of these factors made it a very unappealing floor to attempt to make it to the hotel.

Of course, that’s why Nick decided to try. It was the lowest floor he was willing to risk making it through solo, he didn’t think he’d get anything too good from clearing the higher floors and he needed to at least get past the 65th. He wasn’t sure how the class gems were distributed by the hotel, but if he needed a level four gem, he doubted he’d get it from the floors before the event room that dropped it. While this was a floor that Paimon would likely look for him, he couldn’t give up on the chance to find out some information about Benny for himself. It was a risky move, but Nick needed to find something, a clue, a direction, anything at this point. Even if it was true that Benny had been moved from this floor, someone must have seen them at least.

Nick sat down on the ramp and prepped himself. He was going to use the light crystal, which would give him a serious advantage, but any monsters he did encounter were going to be far stronger than him. He also would stop using the crystal as soon as he got close to the hotel, to minimise the risk that someone would see him using it. It wasn’t the best of plans but he wasn’t sure what else he could do. Nick looked out across the car park and began to hype himself up.

This is what he wanted, this was what he had chosen to do. No more waiting for people to solve his problems for him. No more just being another cog in some asshole's plans. Nick was going to get powerful, he was going to be the asshole making other people cogs in his plans. He was going to kick Tony’s ass, he was going to beat the hell out of Jacob. He was going to rescue Benny and set his family up to be untouchable. Nick grinned, he knew that he was definitely going to balls up every step of this plan of his. He grinned anyway, they were his own plans and even if he messed them up, they were still his.

Nick took out his wraps and began to carefully bandage up his hands, feeling the pink material solidify around his knuckles and wrists. He then checked over his armour and slid it all back on, something he definitely should have done earlier in his escape, he hadn’t been thinking too clearly though. His mostly leather gear was rather trashed at this point, his numerous fights having taken their toll. In fact, the only piece of gear that didn’t have some form of a hole or tear in them was his pink wraps. Every piece of armour he currently had was barely holding together. Even his best piece, the vest that he could fit under a chest piece had a giant hole through the front and back, thanks to Kim and his deadly arrow.

Nick was under-geared, under-levelled, and certainly under-experienced. Nothing that new for him then, he thought with a smile. He was going to change all of that, hopefully without getting his ass kicked too much along the way. This was the first step, charging out into a ridiculously dangerous environment with a barebones plan, just how he liked it.