"Who says you're doing this without me?"
Turning around at the sudden vocal intrusion, I saw the tall and tanned figure of Effie vaulting over a collapsed wall and landing in a low, powerful squat. She straightened up, dusting her hands off and giving me a cheery, feral grin. The grin faltered slightly as her eyes landed on Seishan and Gemma. The former offered a slight, approving nod. The latter seemed to grow even more tense, if that was even possible, his jaw tightening.
"You'd risk Gunlaug's wrath to help us?" Sasrir pointed out, the doubt clear in his tone as he materialized from the shadows. He was looking at Effie, his head tilted.
"That shiny bastard won't know a thing," Effie dismissed his worries with a flippant wave. "He never gets his golden arse up off that throne, and Seishan here controls his primary info-gathering source—the Handmaidens." She shot the grey-skinned woman a look of grudging respect. "By the time the sun rises, everybody will be none the wiser."
"As Lady Athena said," Seishan confirmed smoothly, "this operation will not reach the Bright Lord's ears—or not from my lips, at least." The qualifier was a masterstroke, a reminder that our success was the only real guarantee of her silence.
"Fine," Gemma bit out, clearly unhappy with the expanding conspiracy but committed now. "Let's get this over with. How do we kill it?"
"The Devil is fast and relies on its control over darkness," I began, my voice all business. "Its sword can tear apart Awakened like paper, and it can instantly appear anywhere shadows touch-though, it can't leave the cathedral. Physical attacks aren't very effective, and I presume the same applies to Mental."
"Effie and I will take the front," Gemma stated, his Hunter instincts taking over. "We're the most durable. We draw its attention, keep it focused on us. We can occupy him long enough for you to do your work."
"Sasrir and I will harass from the flanks," Seishan added. "If needed, I can swap in with one of you if you get injured or tired. His shadows can bind its movements, create openings." She glanced at the pool of darkness that was my companion. "The goal is to keep it off-balance and contained."
All eyes turned to me. "And you, preacher?" Gemma asked, his tone a mix of skepticism and curiosity.
"I'll be charging my... method," I said, my hand instinctively touching the Unshadowed Crucifix beneath my jacket. "It requires a moment to reach full potency. When I give the signal, you'll need to clear a line of sight. A single strike probably won't be enough to finish it, so it will likely aggro on me. I'll need protection for that." I didn't mention the cost, the blood tax that would leave me drained and vulnerable. Some secrets were best kept close.
Effie cracked her knuckles, a fierce light in her eyes. "So we pin it down, and you hit it with whatever you've been hiding up your sleeve. Sounds simple enough."
"In theory," Sasrir murmured from the darkness, his voice a low counterpoint to her enthusiasm. "The practice is always messier."
"Then let's go make a mess," Gemma said, turning to lead the way into the deeper darkness of the ruins. The unlikely alliance was forged, a pact of mutual interest and shared ambition.
The journey through the corpse of the city was tense and silent. Our strange coalition moved with a shared purpose, the usual animosities buried under the immediate goal. We finally reached our destination: a crumbling cathedral, its spires clawing at a starry sky that felt impossibly distant. The structure stood dark and eerie, a monument to a forgotten faith, now home to a very real devil.
"Here we are," Sasrir muttered, his voice low. "It nests in the centre. We go in hard and fast."
In unison, Seishan and Effie called upon their power. The air shimmered. In Seishan's hand, a war hammer materialized. It was a thing of brutal elegance, its haft smooth and dark, but one side of its head was forged into a long, narrow, and wickedly sharp beak. It was a tool for both crushing and piercing. Effie's call was simpler. A bronze spear, weathered and scarred but humming with latent power, appeared in her grip. It looked less like a Memory and more like a piece of a legend she had personally claimed.
All eyes then turned to me, expectant. They were waiting to see the weapon that could purify a Fallen Devil. I offered a small, placid smile and reached for a different power entirely.
A soft, silvery light enveloped my shoulders, coalescing into a cloak woven from what seemed to be captured starlight. The Starlight Cloak settled around me, its fabric shimmering with a gentle, cosmic radiance. It was a thing of pure defense and utility, not offense.
A beat of stunned silence passed. Gemma blinked, his brow furrowed in pure confusion. Effie outright stared, her head cocked like a puzzled hound. This was not the blazing holy symbol they had anticipated.
But it was Seishan's reaction that was most telling. Her cat-like eyes, fixed on the cloak, widened for a fraction of a second before a look of pure, unadulterated triumph flashed within them. She had recognised the Shard Memory for what it was, and it was the proof that indeed, I was worth backing. In her mind, this confirmed my value, my hidden depth.
Of course, she didn't know. She had no idea that the silent shadow standing beside me, the one who had summoned no weapon, held a shard of equal power within him. The Moonlight Shard was Sasrir's to command, our second hidden card. Seishan was playing a game of secrets, and she had just congratulated herself for seeing one of ours, completely unaware that another important one remained veiled in darkness.
Gemma looked between the spear in Effie's hand and the hammer in Seishan's and seemed to come to a realization. "A Lord Shard? Wait, you guys killed a Fallen?!"
Every Lord Monster was of the Fallen Rank, though their Tier varied. If we possessed a Lord Shard, it meant we had successfully slain one before.