“I call myself Pitt now,” said Pitt. “Roland the Cutter is dead. In a couple of years, I will be calling myself something else, and Pitt will be dead too.”

“Why?,” said Montague. “You always enjoyed living the life before.”

“I've killed too many people and things since then, Montague,” said Pitt. “That's why I'm leaving this town as soon as possible.”

“Skaren is here, Roland,” said the ghost. “That's why I summoned you from your village.”

“I gave up looking for him a long time ago,” said Pitt. “I doubt he even knows I'm still alive.”

“He knows,” said Montague. “He keeps reaching into the layers to find your spirit.”

“He definitely knows I'm alive if he's doing that,” said Pitt. “How do you know he's doing that?”

“Because that's how I keep track of you myself,” said Montague. “Only I know what I am looking for, and I know approximately where to look. You haven't left the Aerish highlands in a long time.”

“I'll have to think about moving further afield then,” said Pitt.

“Don't be difficult,” said the ghost. “You accepted the responsibility. There's no point crying about it now.”

“I have gone a long time between killing people,” said Pitt. “I find that I have got better at living with the peace.”

“We both know that as long as Skaren is looking for you, people will be hurt,” said Montague. “You have to stop him again.”

“I'll have to walk into that maelstrom,” said Pitt. “I don't think that's a good idea.”

“Don't make me say the words, Roland,” said Montague. “You made a deal. You have done more than even I thought you would. Don't think you can walk away now because the road is a little rougher than it was when you started out.”

“That's a lot rougher than when I started out,” said Pitt. He checked the quiver. He had two arrows left after killing the three titans. That last one had blocked most of his killing blows with its arms.

“It's not the first demon surge you have stopped,” said Montague.

“I know,” said Pitt. “That was when you were killed.”

“Don't remind me,” said Montague.

Pitt grabbed one of the two arrows remaining and pulled it from the quiver. He took aim at the street. He didn't want to get involved, but he was stuck.

If Montague actually used the words, he would be forced to fight without reason. That could lead to a lot of innocents getting killed along with the enemy. It was better if he had his own mind and took care of things without being pushed.

He just didn't like it.

He had found some comfort in not having to kill people and things all the time. Now he was back to it without so much as a by your leave. He could do without all that.

He should have given the bargain he was making more consideration but he had been a more wrathful man back then.

And out of the thousand men taking the oath, he had never imagined he would be one of the few still standing.

He expected to go down in the initial battle in the war after they had been called to defend their homeland.

Instead he had been called on to fight in a thousand other wars across the world. People knew his reputation, but none expected him of being capable of some of the things he had to carry out to win whatever conflict he was in.

He notched one of the two arrows. He fired it at random into the street. The blue comet bounced in a spiral down the street, changing direction when it hit a building, or a demon. He watched as the missile eventually burned out after the repeated impacts.

He picked up the last arrow. He repeated the shot a few degrees to his right. The arrow burned out as he watched it cut a trail through the dark sky.

Pitt tucked the bow in the quiver and hung the used weapons from the door knob of the accessway leading down to the inside of the building. He supposed he could have used the bow as a bludgeon, but he would rather just grab something and hit his enemy in the head with it.

A well swung brick tended to fix differences in personal outlook in his opinion.

Pitt decided to use the roofs to get to the summoning point. Then he could try to break things up without dying.

“I'm going down there and look around for Skaren,” said Pitt. “That's the only thing I am going to promise. Anything that happens will happen because he won't come out in the open and talk to me.”

“He wants to kill you,” said Montague. “Why else do you think he went out of his way to create this battlefield? He knows that you will be summoned to deal with this. And he thinks he has the upper hand somehow.”

“He's probably got someone helping him out,” Pitt said. “He created a hole to the Underworld and unleashed three titans. He didn't do that out of his personal power unless he's stronger now than when we fought together. Either way, shutting the hole will fix part of this mess.”

“Loss of life will climb as the local authority tries to fix the rest,” said the ghost.

“That part isn't my problem,” said Pitt. “I'm only here because you couldn't leave things alone.”

“You know better than that, Roland,” said Montague. “There have been other situations that I thought could use your personal touch and let go until I couldn't any more. This situation is just worse from the start than any other fight I needed you to take on.”

“If it's not Skaren, you have someone just as crazy on your hands with all this,” said Pitt. “I'll see you around, Montague. Don't take any demon claws to the face.”

“Har,” said the ghost.

Pitt jumped across the alley to the next roof. He had to get to the summoning point and talk to the summoners about shutting things down. He wanted to avoid any demons he came across. Dealing with the main cause would cut the demons off from their support. The knights and clerics on the ground could deal with the demons running loose in town.

He wished he had some of his old comrades with him for this. Their extraordinary mastery of things would help him punch through to the source of the problem.

He could do it on his own, but it would be a tougher row to hoe. Too bad he didn't have a distraction to direct the demons away from him.

He thought about the four knights and cleric he had run into twice. He imagined they were trying to push the tide back. He wished them the best of luck with that.

Pitt crossed the roofs with sure steps. He used to do this all the time when he was fighting other demons that had decided to invade the world. When he reached the end of the row of buildings, he used a light pole as a stepping stone to the ground.

He came across a group of demons looking for victims. He paused to see what they would do. He hoped they would just move out of his way so he didn't have to do anything to them.

The demons decided he was the perfect example of the type of victim they wanted to prey on while they could. They charged at him with weapons upraised to deal death and maiming.

Pitt stepped in to the first one in his way. He punched the thing's armored carapace. It exploded away from the move. That caused the rest to pause, but it was too late. He had momentum and couldn't stop himself if he wanted.

He swung at each of the demons in the group with alternating fists. Wherever his punches landed, they cratered the unnatural substance of his enemy. Then their bodies exploded from the pressure.

Pitt shook his head. He could fight his way through the city and not get any closer to the summoning point. He needed a way to punch through faster than actually attacking every demon in his way.

He needed a distraction to cause the demons to attack some place in mass while he snuck around their lines and attacked from behind.

The only way he could do something like that was to go back to the knights from the Golden Circle and use them to draw the demons to murder them.

He didn't want to do that.

It would take too much time, and wasn't a guaranteed way to draw the demons off.

He moved down the street. The column around the summoning point cast a glare in the night sky. Things stood out against the light. None of them came down to the street to contest his passage.

It would have been a short contest in his opinion.

A whoosh of fire drew his attention. He rushed forward. He paused when he saw a knight defending a woman and her boy. The knight stuck at one of the demons, but another raked his armor along the ribs and put him on the ground.

Pitt shook his head as he advanced. At least he could help these people before he moved on despite being in a hurry.