Chapter 42: The Dawn (Extermination, Part 1)

5 HOURS AND 59 MINUTES UNTIL EXTERMINATION

Indigo wiped away the chalk drawing of the trapdoor. Apocatombs aside, she didn't want Alastor to think she was vandalizing.

Hopefully he'd be back… Indigo understood he broadcasted the Extermination. There wasn't a need for a radio in his domicile. They were already under the tower itself.

Indigo tiptoed her way towards the staircase. Her steps were the only thing echoing in the tower. A bit unnerving. She found the tower's studio empty, the OFF-AIR sign flickering.

"Alastor?" She asked out loud. Only silence responded back to her. "Oh God… Please change your mind…"

She checked the dashboard. The Apocatombs made her lose track of time. What could have been minutes with her and Anqa could have been hours upstairs. The machines were cold, so Alastor hadn't broadcasted in hours. The time on the grandfather clock showed that few hours remained before the purge.

Indigo inhaled. "OK… Don't panic… I didn't panic when Dad came back late… I'm not going to freak out because Alastor isn't here…"

It felt colder in the studio.

A hand touched her shoulder.

Indigo tensed, looking over.

"Oh!" She sighed in relief. "It's just you."

The sentient shadow of the Overlord frowned its neon blue eyes at Indigo. As if to wonder why she wasn't surprised.

"One month being dead, I've seen too much." Indigo shrugged. "Hey… Where's Alastor?"

The shadow began to frantically make hand gestures, as if to mime a story.

"Yeah…" Indigo hesitated. "I don't speak shadow. And I'm actually horrible at charades."

If it could roll its eyes, the shadow would. The best it could do was show its frustrated fists.

"You really must be Alastor's shadow. You don't smile a lot."

The silence was finally broken. The walls echoed Fat Nuggets' squeaking. And it was a rapid squeaking.

"Sounds like Fat Nuggets hasn't eaten." Indigo rushed downstairs, the shadow following her. By the time she got to the kitchen, the shadow floated before her. "What? Are you hungry too? I don't know what shadows eat…" She looked over the shadow. Something in the sink caught her eye.

A pet bowl soaking in water. The water was still hot when she dipped it.

"Angel Dust fed him already. Where's Fat Nuggets?"

The squealing came again. This time, with wood scratching and the shadow was the one floating ahead. Indigo followed it towards a blood red door. A mounted stag skull with gris-gris ornaments on its antlers greeted her.

"Wait!" Indigo stopped the shadow. "I've never been inside Alastor's room before… And Angel Dust never tells me what he's seen in there… And these guys switch nights on the couch!"

The shadow opened the door slowly.

A flash of pink ran out. The panicked Fat Nuggets jumped around, standing on his hind legs, and tapping his front ones against Indigo.

"Nugs? What's wrong?"

She noticed the sheet of paper in his mouth. Sitting down on the wooden floor, Indigo took the paper from the pig. The porcine saliva did leave a mark, but the writing was still readable.

Alastor,

I'm sorry I had to tell you like this. Val scheduled me with a client for the entire day. Knowing you, you'd have kept me from leaving, and getting Val too close to you or Indy. Besides, we could use the extra bills. I don't want you to pay for everything.

I already fed Fat Nuggets. Make sure to stay with Indigo for the whole day. Whatever cash I get from my pimp, I promise to use it for something the kid could use.

In case I'm alive, my client's address is 624 Matthews Boulevard in Fafnir City. If… If I'm not there, please tell Molly and Cherri I'm sorry. Thank Charlie for everything she did for me. Make sure Indigo can still live as a teen in this shithole.

I'm sorry I couldn't really tell you how much I loved you, Alastor.

Anthony Ruggiero

"Angel…" Her shaking fingers nearly crumbled the paper.

She watched Alastor's shadow contort. Static screeched. The shadow tilted its head and stood still, like a dangling marionette. When it's blue mouth opened, an old recording played out of it.

My dear audience! On this fine day, the Sin of Greed himself has commissioned me to give a commemorative broadcast. Walking around Fafnir City, the ghost town of this glorious ring's Greed Sector! Alas, years ago, this city was shut down when its proprietor, Mammon's sibling, passed away. I give my condolences to Mammon and his nephew…

At the word 'nephew', Indigo ran out.

Realizing she was going for the front door, the shadow blocked her path.

"I have to go!" She reached out.

The shadow hissed, shaking its head.

"They're out there! And I'm here!" Indigo began to cry. "They both did so much for me! I won't forgive myself if they die because of me! And I'm pretty sure that Angel's walking into a trap because of me!" She pleadingly looked at the shadow.

The shadow hesitated but kept its glare.

"And it'll be my fault… if Alastor had to find out like this." Indigo showed the shadow the very last sentence Angel Dust had written.

It hissed in defeat. Its hand stretched out to Indigo, dropping a familiar set of car keys into her palm.

"Alastor's car! Of course!" Indigo snapped her fingers. "Look. I don't know what's happening to Alastor, but GET HIM to come back!"
It nodded and pointed at her.

"I'll bring Angel back. Trust me."

5 HOURS AND 6 MINUTES UNTIL EXTERMINATION

The moment she sat down on the driver seat of the 1936 Ford Brewster Town Car in the garage, Indigo remembered a crucial detail. She didn't know how to drive.

"Why couldn't I learn when I was alive?" She cried out loud, dumping her forehead against the steering wheel. Her eyes blinked.

Envy circulated in the engine's fuel and the vehicle's metal.

"Of course! Luxury items come from the Envy Ring…" Indigo tightened her grip on the steering wheel. "I made butterflies out of Vox's tech… And I REALLY want something fast enough to get to Angel…"

Purple sparks circulated over the red vehicle. Vibrations made Indigo curl on her seat. She covered her ears at the sounds of metal stretching. The engine rumbled. Indigo jumped out of the car before the butterflies exploded.

She coughed. The dust cleared.

Alastor's red 1936 Ford Brewster Town Car was replaced by a purple Peugeot Onyx.

"Woah…"

She checked the inside.

Silvery dashboard. Dark purple leather covering the floor and seats. A butterfly-shaped steering wheel. A fucking cappuccino machine where the glove compartment should be. The dashboard's monitor showed the auto-pilot function.

"Oh, Alastor's so gonna kill me for this!" Indigo squealed out some mangrove skippers. She jumped on the seat and buckled her seatbelt. "Alright, autopilot! Take me to 624 Matthews Boulevard in Fafnir City! Like, now!"

A map of the Pride Ring appeared on the screen. A green line towards the address showed up. The vehicle turned itself on and crashed through the garage door.

4 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES UNTIL EXTERMINATION

The Sacrificers were lining up. The silver gates that only opened once annually stood before the ranks.

The helmet displayed Martin's sorrowful expression.

Being a Legacy, he'd be among the front rows. The rows of Sacrificers too eager to get their hands soaked in blood. He had intended on being in the middle rows anyway, to stay close to Psyche for her first Extermination, but now the middle seemed like a good spot for him to hide his misery. The weapons were distributed. Those who worked for thousands of years and were part of no legacy got holy silver spears, but legacies and the newest generation had exceptions. Martin could only hope that Ines kept on her the holy golden sickle he had Psyche deliver.

Psyche herself had some trouble holding up her holy ball peen hammer. The weapon itself was half its height.

"Great!" She muttered. "I die by saving a bunch of people I don't know from a fire, and I have to spend one day every year killing demons with a hammer used for metalworking? How is this Heaven?"

"You think that's weird?" One of the newest Sacrificers whispered. "Yuri's got chainsticks!"

Martin just sighed.

Psyche tried holding the hammer correctly. "I'm sorry it didn't work… paperwork wise."

The old angel lowered his head.

"We'll just be very careful… And she should be safe where she is, right?"

"It's all I can hope for…"

Somebody nudged Martin on the right shoulder. "Hey, what are you doing…" Martin quickly recognized the Sacrificer who had bumped him. An old acquaintance from the war. "Fabrice?"

"Martin, tu te souviens de la faveur que je te dois?" The angel whispered.

The favor he owed Martin? Oh, right!

Along with giving out some information to Fabrice, an old member of the French Resistance, Martin had taken a big risk by hiding Fabrice's lover in a monastery before she could be condemned to Dachau. She repaid his sacrifice with an invitation to her wedding with Fabrice and naming their firstborn son after him.

"Listen, I heard about what Adam did to your permit. I think I found a loophole. Wait until he's done with his speech and they all do that shit cheering they do. I'll tell you then."

Adam flew above the ranks, landing on a podium the height of a pillar. He folded his wings in. The ranks stood on guard.

"Purging. To some, it may seem like we're committing genocide. That's because they're hopeless. To all, what we do is retributive justice. For thousands of years, Hell has been suffocating from the blasphemy of human acts." Adam spoke with boldness. "Our Lord's community is still keeping up the battle on Earth, stirring as many humans as he can towards the path leading to our gates. Alas, humans still choose the wrong path. They choose to overfill the Pride Ring with fear, murder, violence, assault, fake ideologies, unnecessary gender studies, selling Kamala Harris T-shirts…"

Many of the soldiers yawned in the ranks.

"How is he the First Redeemed Sinner again?" Psyche whispered. Adam kept ranting about everything wrong in Hell. "He makes my parents sound pleasant! And they kicked me out when I came out!"

Fabrice snorted. "He's been a bitch since forever. And I've been doing this since the 80s…"

"… A second death is permanent at the touch of our weapons. Sinners refused to change in life, so they can't change in the afterlife. Any of them are punishable. Retributive justice is blind…" Adam snapped his fingers. The room darkened, leaving only halos as the sources of light, with Adam's the brightest.

"However! On this day, a dangerous cambion lurks the Pride Ring! Unaffiliated with either heritage as the protocols dictate! A creature of ambiguous chaos isn't permitted to exist! The first Sacrificer who runs into it and cannot kill it WILL FALL! And I mean THE FALL!"
The Sacrificers tensed.

The Fall.

The exact thing that happened to the first angel to rebel orders. The exact thing that recently happened to three cherubs who accidentally got a human killed.

"Well? Where's my cheer for such a fabulous pep rally?"

They gave him an internally bitter, but outwardly enthusiastic cheer. Fabrice took the chance and pulled Martin and Psyche closer to him. The loud cheers drowned out their scheming from the others.

"Alright, the loophole is tricky, but by a technicality, it works." Fabrice explained. "I apologize for saying this Martin, but this wouldn't work if your son, well, got violated by an average Hellborn."

Martin grimaced.

"I reread the protocols of the purge 60 times to make sure I read it correctly. By a technicality, because your granddaughter is Invidia Ithomia Von Ouroboros' daughter, that makes her Leviathan's granddaughter."

"I think we all knew that many chapters ago." Psyche commented.

Fabrice snapped his fingers, getting her attention. He looked at Martin. "Ines is still born into the Envy Ring's royalty. A cambion, yes, but she was born IN HELL to a DEADLY SIN. Protocols dictate that during the purges, all Hellborn royals are off-limits. ESPECIALLY the families of the Deadly Sins." He sneered at Adam's direction. "Adam's a bitch, but I get two things. One, he'll want to keep it hidden that an unaffiliated cambion was killed in Hell. He'll probably live with Lucifer's reaction, but it'll anger Leviathan. And two, Adam's still angry at Lilith, but he still grieves for Cain."

Martin's eyes widened. "What? Fabrice, what are you suggesting?"

"You two are stationed at Pentagram City. Adam and Lute will ensure you are nowhere close to Charlotte's hotel. He'll probably try to bait her into tossing Ines out. Our friends can take turns flying around the area. Ensure she stays there and Adam doesn't get near the princess to have her realize a cambion is in her domain." Fabrice pointed at himself. "I'm stationed at Envy-Carlo. Invidia's other offspring resides at the Ithomia Palace there. Cain was with him last year. With Ines in Hell, he'll definitely be there."

"Fabrice, Cain's not a jerk like Adam, but he's still the First Murderer!" Martin shook his head. "You think you can just talk to him?"

"Martin, I saw even before we reunited and you told me! Cain was still present in Ines' life. She might be the result of his wife's treachery, but I saw that he treated her the way he treats his son! He'll intervene!"

"Cain will get wrathful quickly if he thinks you're tricking him," Martin warned.

"What other option do we have?" Psyche asked.

For that, Martin didn't have an answer.

3 HOURS AND 15 MINUTES UNTIL EXTERMINATION

Cain typed in the code on the computer. The security system officially put the Ithomia palace on lockdown. The cameras were all set in the control room; any time anyone stepped in, they would have eyes on the whole city.

He got up and stretched.

Thinking he wouldn't be able to do much while indoors for 24 hours, Cain chose to take the stairs to reach the penthouse. His steps echoed in the circular stairwell of amethyst steps. The crystal sculpture of a siren swimming upward shined in the dark.

Before he could fully open the door to the penthouse, he heard the youthful voices. Cain cautiously peaked from the door.

"Food stashes are good per usual." Trixie's tail wagged in her dolphin onesie pajama, causing the pajama dolphin tail to wag as well. "Seven locks on each door. The moats are emptied out, AND, the list of goals for NV is all set for this weekend!"

"I never get why you get so jumpy on Extermination Day." August shook his head.

"Eh! Another purge, another year with my boss slash best friend!" Trixie gave the thumbs up. "I got a fucking good gut feeling that this upcoming year will be your year!"

Cain tensed. Hopefully Trixie hadn't decided to babble the secret!

As the First Murderer spied, he noticed his son quickly crumbling a piece of paper and tossing it into the purple flamed fireplace.

"I guess…"

Trixie frowned. "You OK, Auggie?"

"Me? Always!" August scratched behind his hair. "Can't wait for the new year."

"Cool!" Trixie gave another thumbs up. "See you when we ain't dead, boss!"

"Yeah… Stay safe…"

Cain watched his son give a weak smile and wave at Trixie. Once the imp was out of the room, August dropped himself on the couch, grabbed the nearest pillow, and tried to smother his face in it.

Cain finally stepped in and took the pillow off him.

"Dad, what did we talk about you spying on my conversations?" August mumbled.

"That you'll do the same with mine, I know." Cain tossed the pillow onto the next armchair. "This was an accidental eavesdrop, I promise." He pointed at the direction Trixie took off. "What was that about?"

To avoid answering his father, August flipped himself. Stomach and face against the couch, inaudibly mumbling.

Cain sighed. As much of a good boy he was, August was still his mother's son.

His eyes then noticed that August poorly threw the crumbled paper. Rather than hitting the flames, it hit the floor. Curious, Cain got up and opened the crumbled paper.

My Resolutions

#4 Find Mother

#3 Make more friends

#2 Hang out more with Indigo

#1 Ask Trixie out

Cain gasped.

"Aw, Auggie! Childhood friend verging on crush?"

August catapulted himself up. Cain kept the paper away from his son. He pushed his hand against his son's face, just amused when the teenager tried to get his father to let go by spitting on his palm.

"Dad! Give that back!"

"You might want to wipe yourself." Cain shook his head. "Your face is literally wet from your own spit." Cain pulled his hand away. August made another shot at grabbing the paper, but Cain shoved the paper behind him and sat on it.

August pouted. "Seriously? You put it under your ass? I can't shove you off!"

"Calling me heavy?" Cain grabbed the tissue box lying down by the couch and used a tissue to wipe his own son's face.

"Calling myself weak." August mumbled through the tissue.

"We talked about this." Cain rubbed August's mouth dry. "Don't give a shit about what they say down there. You don't live down there anymore."

He tossed the tissue into the fireplace. Unlike August, he made a perfect shot. August crossed his arms.

"Do I HAVE to tell you?"

"Not if it makes you uncomfortable." Cain reassured him. Then he pulled a big, engaging smile. "Doesn't change that I'm so psyched! My boy's got a crush, and she ain't a psychopath!" He paused. "Well, OK, maybe a bit addicted to amphetamines, but I've seen worse relationships since, well, ever!" Cain put his hand on his son's shoulder. "Trixie's been with you since you were kids… OK, along with the drugs, I'd also be worried about the age difference, but if you guys talk about it, I just want you to know I'm very supportive of any decision you make. The others can go fuck themselves."

"Thanks Dad…" August hugged himself tighter. "It's not being friend-zoned that freaks me out. I… was going to ask her, but then we were going over the lists of to-dos, stats, tabloids…"

"Tabloids?"

August bent down. Using one arm, he felt underneath the couch until he could pull out three different tabloids. Cain didn't bother reading the titles. The cover images were revealing enough.

Stolas Goetia's scandals.

The open secret of Asmodeus' feelings towards a certain cyborg imp jester.

The picture taken of Octavia Goetia with Ines at the Seventeenth Brunch. Cain had to remind himself to turn Paimon into pâté.

"Ugh! You believe what tabloids say?" Cain stacked the tabloids onto a coffee table. "August, tabloids are just cheap stories demons print out to feel better about themselves by ruining others' personal lives. A few years ago, there was that WHOLE shit about a tabloid posting a picture of Charlotte with her girlfriend Vagatha. People disrespected Charlie more. Aristocrats got ticked that the Devil's daughter chose someone of lesser rank. People were ranting on the Internet that Lucifer bred a weakling. All because they chose to believe a fucking tabloid that got printed two hours after the paparazzi snatched pictures… rather than remembering it was Lucifer's daughter they were harassing."

"I thought Lucifer was fine with Vaggie… I don't blame Charlie for liking her… And at least that's one demon who can deal with… whatever's going on in Charlie's head."

Cain shrugged. "Yeah, you're not wrong there. But you believe based on what you see, not because the press says it, right?"

"It's not the press that worries me!" August got up and grabbed the tabloid about the Seventeenth Brunch. "It's the pressure."

"Pressure?"

"Dad, you've seen it. Unless they're crazy confident like Gustav, it's probably pressure for the sinners and Hellborns! Not just the whole dating a sin or a Goetia! Just… the idea that nobody would believe the relationship could be…" August inhaled. He properly tossed all the tabloids into the fire. "I don't want Trixie to go through that… Being my friend is one thing. Being accused of getting better because she's dating…"

"August Abel Cainson Von Ouroboros!" Cain squished August's cheeks. "You think too much! At the very least, you got more morale than 100 demons combined! At the very least, you're not as insensitive as your mother!"

1 HOUR UNTIL EXTERMINATION, BITCHES!

The vehicle ran out of gas fast.

Indigo growled. Red admirals flew out of the car and she stormed out.

"PUTAIN! Alastor uses Greed-based fuel!" Indigo slammed the door. The wind blew off her butterflies.

From the hill she stood on, Pentagram City looked like a miserable dot in the red horizon. The green clouds of the Greed Sector had vanished, leaving the sky perfectly red. No stars. No clouds. Just the moon and the glowing orb of Heaven.

The car had stopped on the middle of the lane-less road. A miserable, rotting boardwalk sat over the large, dried up lake. Solid grey rocks with darker gray cracks between them.

Indigo stiffened. She looked at the final destination five minutes away from her. From a distance, it almost reminded her of pictures of His Majesty's Theatre in Australia.

"OK…" Indigo inhaled and walked forward.

The landscape was dreadful. Gray earth everywhere. Despite the wind, the leafless trees were stiffer than fossilized plants. The road approached the remains of a gate. Rusted, torn apart, and abandoned.

Indigo held herself.

What once was a pathway shrouded by a canopy of money trees was an ominous passage through dead braided trees. The road was now as cracked as the dried lake.

"I should have just taken the Apocatombs…"

Fafnir City was a ghost town. Where once stood businesses and homes were crumbled ruins. Gray. Colorless. Void of sin.

Absolutely nothing in the local environment and this ghost town glowed in sins. Even for something located in the Greed Sector, nothing shined in greedy green.

Something moved.

She could have sworn she saw something move under a crawlspace.

Indigo slowly bent down, hoping to get her hands on the rock…

The creature crawled out suspiciously. Indigo frowned at the sight before her.

"A gray kinkajou…" She groaned. "Fuck… I already didn't like that one movie about the singing kinkajou… Soundtrack was awesome, but singing monkeys are too cliched…"

The creature stood on its hind legs, lifting its head up at the demoness towering it.

"Like, I've heard of teenage stupidity, but you, bitch, are like an F minus dunce."

Indigo's eye twitched. She bent down.

Her sight wasn't deceiving her. The Hellish kinkajou was actually talking.

"Like, I'm closer to a possum than a monkey. Pretty stupid, I can't even find good trash." The critter pulled on Indigo's coat and searched through her pockets.

"Hey!" Indigo slapped the kinkajou's paws off her. "You might be a talking animal, which is a first for me, but you can't just look through my stuff!"

"You're really stupid!" The kinkajou pulled out the sole contents of Indigo's pockets: a few soul bills, the car keys, and a chunk of baguette wrapped in plastic. "This junk won't help you! You think you're gonna survive the Extermination with this? And here?"

"Yeah, I'm not arguing with a trash-eater AND a talking kinkajou." Indigo snatched her stuff back. Alarms were starting to ring in the horizon.

Alastor did say that they started ringing the emergency alarms when it was the hour before the purge.

This time, she ran as fast as she could to the ghost town's biggest building. What was perhaps a beautiful palace back then was now a ruin of rusted metal. Oddly enough, the rust was gray. What once was a spiderweb-shaped hedge maze was now a forest of lifeless stumps. The moat surrounding the palace was dried out, leaving the bottom spikes exposed. Far behind the palace, the red sky was insanely dark.

To Indigo's surprise and annoyance, the kinkajou jumped on the staircase leading to the patio.

"What are you doing?" Indigo hissed.

"Like, you picked the worst spot to go into hiding."

"I'm not hiding! I'm here to get a friend!" Indigo walked past it. To her luck, the doors were slightly open. They managed to get inside.

Emptiness.

No furniture. No chandeliers. No cloths to protect it from dust. Nothing. Just… rusted walls, cracked tiled floors creating spiderweb patterns, and greyscale everywhere. Indigo shuddered again from this environment.

"What's wrong with this place?"

"Everything." The kinkajou trotted on the floor. "It's what happens when a Sin dies… Well, like, if somebody a Sin actually cared about died. And, like, Mammon really loves his greed, but he actually was a softie for his sibling and his nephew. Some freak accident killed the sibling and their mate. And, like, Mammon didn't want Fafnir City anymore. So he drained all the Greed out of it."

"But… isn't this the Pride Ring's Greed Sector?" Indigo waved around.

The kinkajou snorted. "Like, are you dumb, kid? If you had a table, and you pulled out the one leg that was green, you wouldn't expect the whole table to crumble?" It jumped on the staircase's harpoon-shaped banister. "Taking ONLY the Greed out of this place could create, like, a mega destruction! Imagine, like, the Wrath Ring looking up and seeing a big hole in their sky that showed the Pride Ring. Then it goes down to Gluttony… THEN down to Greed… And when too much goes through the holes, it goes down to the last ring! So yeah! The capital-S Sins, like, must even out the environment's sins…"

"So… there's absolutely no sin here…" Indigo shuddered. "It's so… lifeless."

"And why you're, like, dumb as shit to come here!"

"Look, I'll judge myself later! Right now, I got to find my friend! Then hide!" Indigo ran up the stairs, the kinkajou following her. "Why are you still following me?"

"Hey, if you're going to, like, die from stupidity, I have first dibs on your shit! Maybe I can use the mullah if I pretend I'm a rodent-like imp! Or maybe I can eat your leftovers…"

"Try to even nibble on me, and I can introduce you to a butcher in the Cannibal Colony!" Indigo warned the critter when they reached the first floor. She looked up. Only three more floors awaited above her. "OK. Let me think about this… Addison is the fucking rich client. Angel is the call guy of the night. I know absolutely nothing about prostitution, but usually when the client invites you over, it's usually on their bed, right? And if this is a trap, Addison would probably want me to find him in THE most obvious spot here."

Indigo paused. She inhaled, closed her eyes, and reopened them. They turned purple.

The kinkajou hadn't joked. Without the presence of sins in the environment, her vision had basically darkened.

Then the lustful blue and prideful red glowed brightly on the fourth floor. Followed by a glowing, rainbow circle. Indigo switched her vision and ran up.

Please be OK. Please be OK. Please be OK.

All the fourth floor had at the top of the stairs was a doorway. The doorway led to an empty chamber. Just as vacant as the rest of the palace, until the red sky in the open window showed the body.

"ANGEL!" Indigo dropped on her knees and held onto Angel. The spider demon didn't respond. Indigo pressed her ear against his chest. "He's still alive! Angel!" She shook him. "Angel! Wake up!"

She used her vision again.

Something pink was coating his nostrils. Whatever the blood was soaking his jacket, it wasn't his but a wrathful one. His purse exposed its greedy gun. Broken, gluttonous glass shards from a bottle were everywhere.

"Angel!" Indigo used her regular vision.

The kinkajou, as annoying as ever, sniffed around the scene. "Judging by the trash, he came in and got ambushed. Two ambushers. One tries to physically beat him up, that's when he pulls out the gun and bottle out of his purse and weaponizes himself. He doesn't get the chance to fight back, because the other guy snuck behind him and shoved some drugs on his nose."

"But Angel Dust hasn't done drugs… Since I met him… Oh my God, he hasn't had drugs in a month, so they really knocked him out!"

"And the shark blood on him is just sprinkles on the cake!" The kinkajou scurried to the window. In the distance, the alarms blared the remaining five minutes. "Great sky view from here. Just like when they chained Andromeda back in the day!"

Indigo stiffened.

Twelve-year-old Ines was petrified by her classmates presentation of the myth.

The collage of Cetus giving her nightmares…

"Shit! It really is my fault!" Indigo gripped her hair in guilt. "They really wanted me dead because I didn't know my place! Trapped here, we're basically churros for the Exterminators!"

She tried to wake Angel up again by shaking.

"Girl, like, he's going to be unconscious for 24 hours!"

The alarms got louder in the distance. Indigo ran out to the balcony. Heaven seemed brighter in the horizon.

"You probably have, like, 6 to 13 hours before they realize they have a snack waiting for them here. They usually target the bigger populations."

Indigo wanted to shriek. Out on the balcony, she looked at the grayscale environment. Any moment, they'd come…

She saw what stood behind the palace.

Pitch black darkness under the red sky. Probably the end of the Pride Ring. However, just before the greyscale environment faded into the abyss, a forest made itself noticeable. A familiar gothic castle stood out.

Indigo knew Octavia's warning.

But at the same time, Point #9 was in the forest. Option A, she could reach the bunker and hide until the drugs started to lose their effect and she could take Angel Dust back to the tower. Option B, she could get off at Point #10 and beg Rosie to let them in… unless the Overlord was in her Emporium.

In all options, it was the last resort. And she didn't exactly think she was going to meet the Goetia.

Struggling a bit, she picked up Angel Dust. He wasn't heavy, but his height made it difficult.

"Hey, where are you going?" The kinkajou asked.

"To Bael's forest! I know a way out!"

The critter rolled its eyes. "Like, is it a thing for you to be suicidal?" It snatched the purse and ran after the demons. "Hey! Wait for me!"