April 10th 2016 Brightedge City, Shadowcrest, 6:00 PM EDT

I'd enjoyed my day off immensely, but eventually everything winded down and everyone was ready to head back. Once I dropped them off I made my way to Shadowcrest, but I stopped outside to make a call before going in. Despite the advanced nature of my phone though, my call didn't go through. Of course, I wasn't using my interdimensional image calling trick, since I was calling my dad and he didn't know about that, but still it was weird that he didn't answer.

Under normal circumstances him screening calls was par for the course, but given the situation with the vampires and Siegfried being in town to help it struck me as strange to be out of touch.

I clicked the phone off with an eye roll. If he wasn't answering he probably assumed I could handle or it or was just busy with his own stuff. I'd only been calling to give him an update anyway, and since I didn't actually work for him the attempt was more than enough lip service.

Deciding to be nice, I knocked on the door, which was quickly opened by a flustered looking Thorn. "Mammon!" She said, since I was wearing my mask as I had been when I first met both her and Jinx. "You're here. Come on in. Master is waiting for you in the library. She's been getting impatient." I raised an eyebrow at that and she blushed, averting her eyes. "Since I'm a formal apprentice Master is a valid form of address. Mistress would technically be more accurate, but that sounds kind of kinky."

I grinned at her. "Not a fan of kinky? I wouldn't have pegged you for the vanilla type, THORN." Her blush heated up even more as I winked at her.

Clearing her throat, she gestured at me to follow her. "Come on, I'll take you to the library." She turned and walked away, her quick pace doing pleasant things to her ass.

"You know." Said a familiar voice to one side. "You really don't have time for more of them. You already have too many." My reflection was watching me with a bored expression from the glass fronted casing of a grandfather clock. "Plus you have bigger things to be worried about."

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I'm aware. But there's no harm in adding to my collection. It's in my nature. I'm surprised you aren't more entertained by my hedonism, given how the fae usually work."

He shrugged. "Your exploits bore me. Pole in hole gets old after a while. Plus it's a reminder I'm not out there in my own body. You could be working on that as we speak, by the way. Two heads are better than one. If you get me a body I could really help out with your vampire problem."

I'd actually considered that at one point, but...something about the reflection was off. I was planning to get it a body, but only when I was definitively strong enough to handle whatever inevitable bullshit it tried to pull once I did. It was me after all, and I knew I'd probably betray me given an ounce of motivation. Still..."What happened to no rush? I thought as a fae fragment you were unbothered by the passage of time?"

"Well...mostly unbothered. The longer you wait the more bored I get. Speaking of boredom, I think your goth girl is waiting for you. Might want to get going. We DO have info waiting for us." He nodded to the side, where I could see see Thorn looking back at me curiously.

Winking at her, I reached up to adjust my collar. "Sorry. Just adjusting my tie." The conversation had been murmured too low for her to hear and my reflection and I could talk pretty fast. It had only been a half a minute at most since I stopped. As I caught up, I fumbled for something to distract her. "So how is learning magic from Zee? You taking to it?" I knew she hadn't awakened her abilities yet, since I'd checked when I saw her, but if she was anything like Zee she would gush about her magic practice and stop thinking about any weirdness about my little pause there.

Sure enough, her pretty face lit up with excitement. "I've been learning SO MUCH. I mean, nothing practical yet, Master says that theory is the bedrock of the arcane arts, and that I need to completely understand the basic elements of magic before I can cast. She says performing a spell without a comprehensive understanding of how to alter or correct it on the fly is reckless and dangerous, and preparation is the key to success. She's been making me memorize basic magic tomes." She froze for a second, realizing that might have come across as a complaint. "Not that I mind. They're all fascinating. I've learned so much already!"

I smirked at her. "Cool your jets. I'm not going to tell your magic mommy that you don't like your homework. But it sounds like she's setting you up for success there. Learning the basics is the most important part of developing any skill. Becoming good at anything takes hard work." As much as I disliked the fact, I was actually being sincere there. Gods knew my old man made me study enough random bullshit as a kid, but I appreciated it now. Not that I used as many of those skills now that I was a dragon. It was deceptively easy to punch all my problems in the face. I should probably watch that tendency.

She flushed again, but nodded. "I know. I'm so grateful really. For you bringing me here and for Master for taking me in. After Luna and Dusk bailed on me...well, I don't know. I kind of retreated into myself. I have a few friends I keep in touch with, but they travel a lot, so I don't talk to them much. Being here though...I feel like I have a place again. Like I have a purpose. I owe you so much Mammon."

Staring up at me adoringly, her face shone with gratitude and affection...I wondered if I could convince her to blow me right now? Probably best to wait, I had a meeting with Zee anyway. Instead I just smiled back at her, putting a hand lightly on her head. "Of course. We're friends Thorn. I'm happy to be able to be there for you." I winked at her. "And helping a pretty girl out of a tight spot isn't exactly a hardship even if we weren't."

Cheeks getting even darker, she turned and set off for the library again, almost skipping as she went. Gods it was easy to convince women you were invested in them. When we finally made it to the library, I stepped in, looking around for Zee and noticing a book just in time to catch it before it hit me in the face. Granted, I was a dragon, and Zee was a normal person physically, so even if I'd taken the binding to the eyeball it wouldn't have much mattered, but still, it seemed uncalled for.

I turned to cock my head at her, and she just glared back. "Eight hours?" You couldn't get here faster than EIGHT HOURS?" Her hair was a mess, and she had dark circles under her eyes. She apparently hadn't slept recently. Ah, that explained the temper. I walked over to where she sat and reached my hands up to place fingers on her temple, beginning to rub. "Don't think that will-" She paused mid sentence. "Oh wow that's nice. Get you out of the doghouse. You owe me bigtime...ooooh. Please keep going."

I'd begun to channel primal force through my fingers, just a little, but it seemed to be helping. "Good girl." I murmured. "Just relax. You've worked hard. Just recover a bit and you can tell me all about it. I'm sorry I put you off. Be a sweetie and focus on the research, I need to know what you know."

She moaned in relaxed ecstasy for a minute, then exhaled deeply. "Right. Research. I'm ok now. You can let go, otherwise I won't be able to focus." I nodded with a smile, and she sighed happily as I withdrew my hands. "Ok. Right. The Order." She turned to Thorn. "Sally, darling, bring Master that book I threw. It has important information." Thorn scampered over and picked up the volume and passed it to her. Zee reached up and patted her face. "Such a sweet girl."

She thunked down the heavy book and flipped it open searching through pages before she found a specific entry and spinning the book to show it to me. "Took me a while, but the Order of St. Dumas WAS in here. My dad ran into them some thirty years ago. They got his interest enough that he did a deep dive into them, but the ones he drove off were the only ones he ever met, so the info just went to waste."

The entry was a record from about fifty years ago, about a priest at a Gotham church who was harassed by organized crime. He warned them away, telling them he was protected by the defenders of the faith, and they laughed him off. Three days later their headless bodies washed up on the shores of Gotham Harbor. When approached about it, the priest informed local authorities that Azrael had descended from heaven to seek judgement against those who had wronged the church.

There were a few other references to a similar figure in the nearby open volumes, Azrael, who was noted to be a powerful man in medieval armor whose face was obscured on every sighting. Oddly, the same armor seemed to be present in every recounting, with each person noting an otherworldly coldness just from glancing at the suit of mail.

Zee pointed at one of the references to the armor. "I was able to cobble together enough details from the various recountings to have a good idea of what the suit was. I think it was an enchanted suit of armor called the Suit of Sorrows. It was created by a radical splinter group of Templar knights called the Order of Purity. They made it by melting down the swords of a number of their members who were killed in a great battle...in the 14th century."

That was more than a bit confusing. "Ok. So the Order of St. Dumas, formerly the Order of Purity, were a splinter cult of the Templars who were mainly wiped out in battle with Lilith when she was originally killed, and they came to Gotham to kill off Liliths worshipers when they found out they were trying to bring her back? How did they even find out she was here?"

Her only response to that was a shrug. "No clue, but they've been taking potshots at the cultists for decades. They're still around, but they've been driven underground from what I can tell. Probably because the cultists have gathered an absurd amount of power-"

"As the Court of Owls. Yeah. That much I figured out." I sighed. "So we need to find out where the hell that cathedral ended up, and the only way to do that is to find a group of underground religious nutjobs who went into hiding decades ago to stop themselves from being hunted to extinction by the people we're currently working with the hunt the vampires trying to bring back the vampire queen that the zealots helped kill in the first place. My fucking head hurts."

The question here was who the hell was going to try to kill me here. If the Court were Lilith's worshipers then they were most likely my enemies, but Templar supremacists weren't likely to be excited to work with a dragon. With a sigh I just waved it off. "Alright." I said. "Pass me some of those books. Our next step is to dig up anything we can on Azreal. I refuse to believe a nutcase in a magic suit of armor has stayed underground all this time. Let's get to researching."

Things were lining up in extremely odd ways, but not all of them were bad. I had a feeling that suit of armor might be another way to take care of Lilith. If not I had the stake plan as backup, but hopefully I could not only save myself tons of points, but gain some more when I acquired it. I mean, sure I'd have to rob a bunch of priests, but that was their problem.

April 11th 2016 Brightedge City, South Side, 10:00 AM EDT

"So Nightwing is sure this is the right place?" Barbie asked me suspiciously. Barbie didn't have the best opinion of her former boyfriend, probably because of the time he got his knob slobbered by Zee. The hypocrisy of that bothering her when she'd literally PARTICIPATED in Zee sucking my dick wasn't lost on me, but I didn't much mind hypocrisy when I benefited from it so I didn't bother to defuse her grudge.

I could understand her hesitation though. This slum we were in didn't look like a place the superhuman descendant of the Templar order would live. It didn't look like somewhere ANYONE would live honestly. The place reminded me of footage of the aftermath of some particularly light carpet bombings.

Still, it was the lead we had. "No." I answered her succinctly. "He isn't. But we don't have any OTHER leads, so this is what we've got. Azrael might be a mysterious assassin, but he was in Gotham for a long time. Batman, and through him Nightwing, were vaguely aware of him, even if they never actually crossed paths. With the cities merging obviously tracking him down from hearsay is a crapshoot, but it's better than nothing."

It was also a potential goldmine of points rather than burning the damn things to make the stake. There was no guarantee the points I had could make a high enough level stake to take Lilith out, so I much preferred to get my hands on the Suit of Sorrows and see if that could do it. If not I could make the stake later, and with extra points to put into it, so this was a win for everybody.

Well...everybody who was me. It wasn't a win for Azrael, but I couldn't bring myself to give a fuck about the opinions of a rabid hyper religious assassin. Wait, could you call someone an assassin if they didn't get paid? Vigilante? Serial killer? It didn't really matter. I was going to peel that armor off the asshole, and if I had to peel off his fucking skin in the process I would do it. I didn't like feeling powerless, and with all the bullshit and plotting and the other system users starting to surface that was exactly how I was feeling.

"So, did he give you any actual clues aside from 'hey, why don't you check out that dumpster fire on the south side?' Because that is SO Nightwing, doing a passable amount of research and then pawning the legwork off on people more capable than him." The bitterness in her voice would have been telling, if I didn't already know how she felt. Barbie had quite a few issues about Batman's favoritism toward Nightwing when they were both sidekicks. Her daddy issues didn't ONLY come from Gordon being a workaholic.

For my part I didn't actually mind the half assed work ethic. If he'd dug too deep he might have noticed something off about this whole thing. Gods knew I was kicking over complicated schemes every five steps during this shit show. He hadn't left me completely in the dark though. "He gave me something. Azrael wears a mask obviously, and as such we aren't likely to find his home address, especially since he isn't active often. But the current iteration of what I assume is an inheritance line has frequent issues with a guy who lives around here."

She made a face, her mouth curling into a sneer. "I wonder why. I assume anyone who would live in conditions like this must be a rational and completely sane human being."

I snickered at that. "Aren't you heroic types supposed to be all sympathetic to the downtrodden. That was a surprisingly bitchy thing to hear coming from Batgirl. Better be careful or they might take away your saint badge." I'd been rubbing off on Barbie in more than just the literal sense.

Clearly realizing that, she grimaced in self recrimination. "That's...fair. It's wrong to judge people for their circumstances. Whoever it is might be suffering a lot." I rolled my eyes internally. It was no fun when she just rolled over like that. I made a note to avoid picking at her morality, I was just undoing my own work.

Feeling like I needed to get her focused again, I 'sympathetically' put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't be such an emo. The guy we're looking for is a satanic rock star and a cult leader. Not any of the cults we're currently dealing with...probably. But still, not a very nice person by any standards. You weren't insulting some poor homeless guy. This Scratch guy deserves anything that's coming to him."

Plus his name was Nick, which annoyed me. There was only room for one charming sociopathic Nick in this town. I would make sure to impress upon Scratch that it might be in his best interest to change his first name if I decided to let him live. Petty maybe, but I'd never claimed I was magnanimous, and if I had it was probably a lie anyway.

We finally arrived at our destination, the headquarters for Scratch and his little collective. An old run down hotel he'd had retrofitted. It had survived the merge pretty easily, since the inside was much higher ranked than anything else nearby and had escaped being combined with the much lower level building in its place in Metropolis. Scratch had more sense than most people I'd met, having gone out of his way to keep a facade over his hideout.

I could see small signs of the underlying luxury here and there as we approached. Some security fittings like plated reinforcements under the walls, a few reinforced doors that were purposefully made up to look rusted. Of course, my appraisal was the most obvious tip off that we were in the right place.

Strolling up to the largest security door, I tapped it a few times, not putting much into it, but not holding back either. My light knocking left fist sized dents in the thick metal, which I was fine with. They would be less likely to dick us around outside if they knew I could tear this fucking door off the hinges and beat them all to death with it. While we waited for a response I checked my phone. Nothing. I still hadn't heard from dad, and I was getting annoyed. Inconsiderate old bastard never gave a fuck about other people's time.

Finally, after about three minutes, there was a series of clicks and scrapes as someone unlocked a ludicrous and somewhat excessive number of dead bolts and chains before the dented door slowly creaked open. Despite all the unlocks, I could see a few chains still attached, holding the door shut. "Who is it?" Said the girl on the other side.

I almost rolled my eyes at her appearance. Goth slut cultist chic. Scratch wasn't exactly subtle, fat tits packed into a corset, too much makeup, girl next door pretty trying to be supermodel beautiful. A quick appraisal confirmed my assumption. Molly had been a nearly invisible girl in high school, and when Scratch had taken notice of her she'd been flattered. She let him do whatever he wanted to her since he made her feel special, which was mostly either fucking her or passing her around to his lieutenants as a reward for service. Classy.

Granted, I didn't fault him getting his dick wet, but giving away your stuff to underlings was just undignified. If you wanted sluts for your minions get them their own. "I'm Mammon." I growled at the mousy and very twitchy cult slut. "I'm here to speak to Scratch."

To avoid the whole "he's not here" or "what do you want?" nonsense, I filled my eyes with Primal lightning, making them glow menacingly. Molly squeaked and slammed the door shut. I head scampering as she ran off. "What are the odds Scratch tries to sneak out the back?" Barbie asked in amusement.

"Not bad." I said casually. "But that doesn't much matter. I have Amy covering the back exit. Assuming he even has time to escape since I sent Sindy and Cherry in there to round up his people and send him out to meet us. Between the demiliches and Cherry's ghostly bullshit I doubt they'll put up much of a fight."

Sure enough, within about ten minutes the door opened again and a disheveled overly made up man with thick black hair and a goatee was tossed unceremoniously through the frame to land in a heap in front of me. I appraised him casually. Nick Scratch, G-rank. Some fat nerdy loser who got magic sexy rockstar powers from...I resisted the urge to facepalm. Looking through a telescope. That was a new level of fucking stupid.

"Scratch." I rumbled. Imbuing my speech with a draconic growl. "Looks like you weren't planning to come greet us. That isn't very nice. Didn't your parents ever teach you any manners?" They hadn't, mostly because they died in a car crash when he was four, and the brief flash of helpless rage at the comment amused me for second before he got it under control.

"I...don't believe I've had the pleasure of an introduction. Meeting strangers can be so risky nowadays. If I'd known I was having such distinguished guests I'd have let you in straight away." I smirked at the smooth talking. Scratch was endowed with superhuman charisma, which made him extra weasely about talking his way out of trouble. It had zero effect on me, since I didn't really feel the kind of camaraderie or awe he inspired, and my girls were protected by the effects of my mental protections. Sexually transmitted mind defenses had been one of my more inspired early ideas and it continued to pay dividends.

"How kind." I said dryly. "But we wouldn't want to impose. We were just here for a little information. Once we get the knowledge we're after we'll take a rain check on the invite." I saw Amy circle around behind him, having received my call through the mark, but kept my focus on Scratch. I wasn't worried he could hurt me or escape or anything, but Maxwell Lord's rules of questioning hostages were very clear that you needed to keep an eye on them until they coughed up the info. Snitches were about ninety percent more likely than your average schmuck to get capped mid questioning to keep them from talking.

In fact, part of the reason we'd been so fucking obvious about coming here and talking loudly about Azrael was on the off chance he had some method of keeping an eye on scratch. If I was him, even if I wasn't able to spend much time in costume, I'd have wired up nearby buildings to keep an eye on my nemesis in case an opening arose. I gave it even odds Azrael tried to snipe the bastard before he talked, and I'd made arrangements for it if he did.

"Anything you need." He said with a smarmy grin. "I'm always happy to be of service to the powerful members of our local community."

I felt a twinge through one of the brands, specifically one I hadn't interacted with in a while, and I grinned. "No need actually. Seems like the problem solved itself. Better luck in your next go around though." I probably could have saved him, but I didn't care enough to bother.

His confused expression was still on his face when the bullet punched through his forehead. Of course, the shooter was too distracted to notice the counter sniper I'd set up, and there was a crack as the bullet Roy spit at Azrael split the air. I turned to take in the sight of the stunned killer stumbling off a building, his body being surrounded by demiliches and contained as he fell, though they prevented him from splattering on the ground.

Dealing with competent enemies was sometimes even easier than pathetic ones. I was celebrating internally for a minute, but that was apparently premature. As I watched, a wave of vibrant blue energy exploded from the armored figure, dispersing the demiliches and coalescing into a pair of brilliant wings that arrested his fall completely, allowing him to touch down without much trouble. Damn, guess we were doing this the hard way.

April 11th 2016 Brightedge City, South Side, 11:00 AM EDT

I glared at the glowing form of Azreal. "Damn it." I was annoyed. Having Roy and Sindy in place to pick him up should have worked. The fact that the Suit let him break free of the demiliches meant only one thing. That fucking armor was almost definitely C rank. Which, on the one hand...yay, because that was ten million fucking points, but on the other hand it was going to make taking it much tougher. I appraised both the suit and wearer.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Jean-Paul Valley- G rank religious zealot. The descendant of a long line of religious enforcers belonging to the Order of St. Dumas, Jean-Paul was altered after conception by the geneticists of the Order, infused with animal DNA to boost his physical capabilities, and subjected to rigorous conditioning and training in his youth, though he remained unaware of this fact as the memories were suppressed until his father passed the mantle to him as he lay bleeding out.]

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Suit of Sorrows- C ranked magic armor. A suit of magic armor forged by the Order of St. Dumas as a final answer to their greatest enemy. Constructed from the melted blades of the hundreds of knights slain by Lilith in their final battle, the Suit represents the will of the Order members to carry out their holy mission of cleansing the world of darkness, a mission so ingrained in their members they abandoned their Templar brothers soon after as the Knights began to adapt to more peaceful times. The souls of the holy cry out for retribution.]

Huh. That was...expansive. Most high ranked items only had vague cliff notes. Did me knowing the history first shed more light on things somehow? That implied research could improve the effects of appraisal on more powerful artifacts. I'd have to look into that later. Barbie stepped up beside me, putting a hand on my arm. "What is it? Is he too strong for us to handle?"

Sighing, I nodded. "Yeah, this one will just be Amethyst and I." He wasn't actually C ranked, so the two of us should be able to handle it, especially since the armor was a defensive artifact, but I was betting it augmented his strength a fair bit too, and that would be too much for my E and F ranked girls. Amy I would handle him like we had Mary, though hopefully with less trouble.

My wife stepped up next to me, face serious. "The magic in that armor is...dense. He might not be up to this fight, but the Suit will make up for that." Using the Brands I forced my girls back, making them remove themselves from danger as I let my hybrid form roll across me. I flexed claws and extended my wings as I prepared to attack. Amy's hands started to spark with magic as the two us walked toward the crazy psycho.

"Don't attack yet." I murmured to her. "We need information on the Cathedral, and I think he might give it to us if we tell him the reason." Of course, we WOULD attack after. I was going to take that armor. I wanted the points and leaving a rabid supernatural hating psycho running around with a set of nuclear grade magic monster hunting gear would be indescribably stupid, but if he was as zealous as he seemed he might be the type that might be willing to spill before the fight in case he died.

"So." I said as I approached. "You must be Azrael. I have to admit. I thought you would be taller. Not saner. But taller. Like...at least an inch." The eyes glaring out from behind the mask and hood fixed unblinkingly on me and I sighed. "No sense of humor. Noted."

The voice that echoed out from under the hood was unnaturally deep and resonant. Also not french, which I would have expected from a guy named Jean-Paul. "Who are you demon? Why do you seek to ensnare me. Your actions led to the demise of the heretic, but do not think that will save you. I am an instrument of God's wrath, and I will cleanse the filth from this world."

"Cool story bro." I said dismissively. "But we can talk about your car washing business later. I'm here about a mutual problem. Specifically an ancient ass vampiress some idiots are trying to wake up under the city named Lilith. I need to know where the Cathedral she's buried in is located, and last I heard your little sunday school club were the last ones who had any idea." I looked around in annoyance, sighing as I admitted. "Though I realize that an exact address might be tough given the circumstances, an approximate location would help."

Azrael, rather than sneer or argue, froze in place. The energy around him flickered and danced wildly as the pupils in his eyes expanded and he swayed on his feet. I was pretty sure the souls of the dead Order members in his armor were REALLY unhappy when I mentioned their vampire murderer. Which was good, because it meant he might actually tell us.

Sadly, he wasn't TOTALLY nuts. "Why should I reveal my secrets to you creature? You could be planning to aid her rise. I shall simply have to end your pathetic existence and locate the monster myself." He reached behind him and drew a pair of wicked looking short swords.

I sighed, holding up a hand. "Whoa there Reverend Stabbington. Hold the single horse worth of power running that feeble brain of yours. Are you really willing to doom the whole city and possibly the world on the chance that you can beat me? Like...confidence is good, but that's gotta be hubris right? Don't you guys not do that? Because gambling the lives of millions of innocents on my own combat prowess seems more like a me kind of move."

The psychotic bible thumper froze. I had to stifle a grin at his obvious crisis of conscience. People with strong moral codes were so fucking easy to deal with. Sure, they were inconveniently stubborn, but all you had to do was apply leverage in the right spot and they would do whatever the fuck you wanted. I was so glad I wasn't like that.

He stood there, staring, until he shoulders slumped in defeat. "Fine. Should I fall here...the Cathedral was entrusted to our Order by our predecessors. We have kept watch over it without fail, and I do indeed know its location. It's beneath what is now the Leblanc Funeral Home." His head was lowered in contrition. "I can only mourn the fact that...you won't have a chance to find it!"

The wings behind him flared as he blurred forward, short swords swinging like a pair of preying mantis scythes as he swung them at my neck at top speed. Or rather, where my neck HAD been, until I moved, because...duh? "Oh no." I drawled caustically. "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal." Even as the twin blades cleaved the space where my head had been earlier, a wave of purple stone split the ground beneath his feet.

His wings spread again, trying to escape, but Amy knew we couldn't afford that. Rather than the magical stone stabbing into him like a weapon, the rock formed a massive fanged maw, surrounding us in a stone cage that restrained the bastard before he could fly off. I grinned, flexing my own wings, and blurred up towards him, wrapping my forearm around his neck as I came up behind him and falling backwards.

I shoved Primal Force into the downward pull of my body going limp, rocketing the two of us toward the ground. Grab her waist, pull her close, lift her up, primary lotus. I smashed the winged bastard into the ground at top speed like a damn shotput, letting my wings catch the air and drag me up as I let go. Azrael smashed into the street, punching a several feet deep hole in the road. I touched down, walking over to the hole to peer down into it. "See." I said matter of factly."This is why I didn't vote for Hamilton Hill. Someone needs to do something about these potholes."

Looking closely, I saw the shift of Azrael getting up, but rather than let him I inhaled and then vomited a massive wave of dragon breath into the hole. There was an earsplitting scream as the road melted, coating the man in the armor. While the Suit almost definitely protected him from the flames, it was a chainmail hauberk. It was NOT air tight, and the melted fucking tar coating the assassin wasn't doing him any favors.

"Ouch." I said. "That looks super painful. Maybe you should take the armor off. Bet that would help." Azrael clawed at the melting street, trying to drag himself out of the hole. His cloak had covered some of his body, and he tried to rely on that to move, but it was quickly becoming coated in tar. I was bored listening to him scream, but I could see Barbie in the distance and she looked distinctly disquieted watching him drown in molten rock.

I rolled my eyes, honestly. Reaching down, I grabbed him by a flailing arm and yanked him up out of the much. I was a dragon, so, you know, not affected. He tried to squirm away, but he was too busy being in agony to try to actually kill me. I reached down and unbuckled the mail coat, stripping it off him efficiently. Once it was off, I put a hand on him and channeled some of my draconic power, specifically the vital aspect of it.

He burned flesh started to heal. Not to the point where he would be fine anytime soon, but a bit. I dropped him on the ground. I considered killing him, but honestly, he was fucking G RANK. Plus I got the weird impression that he might actually be useful later. If I didn't kill him I really believed he would go after Lilith. He seemed like that kind of crazy. Barbie smiled at me in relief and I rolled my eyes, turning to Amy.

"Let's get out of here. Even in a place like this, the screams of someone covered in melted tar will draw attention." We knew where the Cathedral was, but I wasn't stupid enough to rush down there. We needed backup, a plan, gear. I wasn't going to get screwed over by impatience again. I'd made countermeasures to the trap at Mary's and been fine for it, but this time I didn't just want to survive. I wanted to win, which meant even more preparation.

I grinned down at my spoils of war. Fifteen million GP with this thing in hand. That was enough to rank myself up again, and I would be capable of holding my own even if they had more nasty surprises. I stored it in my pouch and turned to round up the others. They all looked like they wanted to get the fuck out of here as much as I did. No one was mourning Scratch, but this had still been a dramatic little interlude.

As we headed back for the car, I considered options for allies in this next fight. The Order were nuts and weak, the Court couldn't be trusted, with the sole exception of Silver, which left only one choice. I would call Nightwing after we got home and arrange for a League team to help us out with this. No way they would ignore the end of the world anyway, and they would be too busy dealing with that to fuck with me too much as long as I didn't start murdering the shit out of everyone. If we even needed backup. I'd have to wait and see. But first we had to plan out when we would strike.

April 11th 2016 Brightedge City, Hall of Nevers, 6:00 PM EDT

"Ouch!" I yelped, yanking my hand back as a flash of blue energy exploded out from the Suit of Sorrows. I glared at the fucking potmetal raincoat. It refused to work with me, and while I could theoretically merge it with something weaker to bring its rank down (since my points were deducted based on the final rank of an item and not its components) I'd be giving up a ton of power even if I only brought it down one rank, which I fucking REFUSED to do.

Barbie, who was sitting to one side looking amused, watched me try again with a giggle. "You know, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity."

I sneered at her. "It's also the definition of PRACTICE. I'll get it under control soon enough. I just have to convince these ornery religious fucks that they need me to kill Lilith, which THEY DO!" I said loudly at the Suit. Then I shrugged. "Or just let Amy use it if I can't come to an agreement with them." I looked up to where Sindy was floating cross legged in the air on a spectral cloud. "Speaking of which, how is that communion going?"

She grimaced. "They...aren't very nice master. They've spent the last hour or so calling me names, of which 'Corpse Whore' is probably the tamest. I don't know what kind of religious order teaches its adherents to talk like this, but I'm glad I never ran across these "knights templar" or their ilk back in Gemworld. They are thoroughly unpleasant." She flinched. "I'm almost positive that's against the tennents of every major religion. Some of these men are just disgusting."

I shrugged. "Religious fanatics aren't exactly known for avoiding hypocrisy. If it helps, you're the hottest corpse I've ever fucked." I winked at her and she giggled as Barbie rolled her eyes. "That aside, do any of them seem willing to talk to us? Maybe make a deal of some kind? Seriously, Lilith murdered all of them, how are they not more fucking worried about this?"

Closing her eyes, she murmured to herself a bit longer, and as she did I reached out to touch the armor again, yelping as it fucking burned my fingers AGAIN. "I will wipe my ass with you!" I roared at the chainmail hauberk. The blue glow winked out, and Sindy snickered at something she heard from the spirits.

Then she perked up. "Wait, I got one. Says his name is Asher Valley. Apparently he's the great great...you get the idea, the guy we took the armor from was a descendant. He says since you spared his offspring he's willing to at least hear you out about Lilith."

I grinned. Huh, who knew giving Barbie what she wanted would pay off. "Alright, well has he heard any of what I've been saying so far?"

I'd pled my case to the damn armor for a half hour before trying to have Sindy connect with the spirits. She just shook her head and I rolled my eyes before starting over, telling the ghosts everything I thought would sway them about the situation and leaving out everything else. As I talked, I took my phone out to check my texts, because I doubted franch paladin ghosts would be too upset about me texting and talking.

Nothing. I'd texted my dad a while ago, and nothing yet. Ignoring calls was one thing, but ignoring texts wasn't a matter of being busy or lazy. It meant he was for some reason completely out of touch, and that wasn't like him. Especially not with important things going on. I slipped it back into my pocket as I finished explaining.

Sindy was nodding thoughtfully. "He says this is indeed a danger to the world, but that he refuses to let an abomination take up the weapons of his brethren." I gritted my teeth, my hands sparking up Primal Force as I prepared to claw some of the fucking links out of this thing to make these ghosts reconsider. Sindara's eyes widened and she held up her hands.

"Wait!" I stopped, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. "He says you aren't worthy, but he knows what must be done. He offers a compromise. He says he'll let the...no." She paused. "No I'm not repeating that. What does that even mean? Then why not just SAY red haired woman?" She rolled her eyes. "He says Barbara would be permitted to wield the Suit."

I blinked at that. That was...actually not a terrible compromise. Barbie was mine, heart, soul, and pussy. She would protect me with her life, and would be especially motivated to kill Lilith. She was also an E ranker at this point, which meant she should be able to handle the suit, while not quite as well as me, reasonably well, not to mention her extreme martial prowess.

Narrowing my eyes, I made a contemplative sound. "Why her?" I asked calmly. I had a few guesses, but I wanted to see if the spirits would be honest about it. Since she was immune to mind control via Eros and Psyche, I wasn't worried about her being possessed, and as stated I could render the armor much weaker if not scrap within a second if I wanted to, though it would cost me a pretty penny in points even just to scrap it, because the quality of that thing was high enough that even merging it was random trash wouldn't bring it down below D rank most likely.

Still, I didn't want my batslut putting on an evil chainmail suit if it wanted to kill her off. I'd invested plenty of points in that bitch, and she was pretty fun in bed. Sindy closed her eyes, murmuring for a bit before opening them. "He says he knows she was the reason you spared his descendant. Says her heart is pure and she cares for the people of this city." She paused. "He also says he thinks making you give up power to your woman would be funny and annoy you, and he thinks you're an abomination."

He clearly didn't know me too well, but that was to be expected and I didn't really care. There was no real difference between Barbie having that Suit and me having it. I put on an annoyed face, since there was a chance the shitbag ghost would go back on his offer if I didn't pretend to give a shit about his petty nonsense, and turned to Barbie. "Strip and put on the suit."

She gaped at me. "Wait...what? I don't want to wear that thing bare assed. Chainmail tugs on pubic hair so badl-" She froze, realizing that she'd admitted to more than she'd been planning to say and cleared her throat. "I mean, it'll be super uncomfortable and that thing is old as fuck."

I snickered at her slip up. "You don't have to strip completely. I just figured your panties and undershirt would be less hot and restrictive when you were getting used to it. Just so you know, I'm going to make you wear that for a while to get used to it and probably spar in it to test your abilities. I'm pretty sure that's going to get fucking sweltering after about five minutes. The links on that are pretty small, I somehow doubt it breathes very well."

That made her stop and think for a second and she nodded. She stripped off her pants and top, leaving herself in a thong and sports bra. I didn't stop her as she left, coming back with a pair of spandex booty shorts on. I didn't begrudge her a little comfort, I just didn't feel like letting her change later.

She slipped the hauberk on, eyes flashing that same eerie blue as the wings unfolded behind her, illuminating her red hair like the last rays of sunset. I was impressed. I wondered if I could fuck her in that. I bet flying sex would be pretty great. I shook that thought off, not the time. "Ames!" I bellowed to my wife. "Barbie's been acknowledged by the coat. Get your cute little ass in here so we can field test it."

As a C rank artifact I wanted to see what it could do for her, and I knew Amy and I could at least keep up with a C ranker when we worked together. If we could simulate a fight at that level we could at least estimate how she would do against someone like Mary. As for Lilith...I wasn't sure how strong she would be. Hopefully we could prevent her resurrection entirely and I wouldn't need to find out.

Amy came breezing into the room, smiling widely at Barbie. "Oh Barbara!" She said happily. "You look so lovely!" She gave my redhead a once over. "Well, give us a spin." She said slyly, spinning a finger. Barbie rolled her eyes, but smiled a bit as she twirled around to show off her outfit. "Doesn't she look lovely Nicky?"

I smirked at the darkening blush on Barbie's face. "Yes dear." I drawled. "Now lets beat her ass." Barbie snorted at that and gave me the finger, which I returned with a wink. Before I could get ready for the fight though, I got a text. I slipped my phone out, holding up a finger to tell them to wait, and checked it in case it was my dad. It wasn't but apparently it WAS urgent.

"It's Strega. She say's its urgent." I frowned at the phone. Honestly my resident blood mage wasn't one of my favorite girls. She was mine, so I threw her a bone sometimes, but mostly I just left her to do her own thing. It was out of character for her to summon me like this. "Give me a minute, you two can warm up, maybe have the others help for now, I'll be back in a minute."

Seeing my unease, they both nodded, the playful mood of the room evaporating nearly instantly. I headed out into the castle up to where Strega's lab was. I'd given her one of the empty rooms to work in to keep her out of trouble, since there were hundreds of the damn things anyway. She must not have known I was home, which made sense since I hadn't seen her, and she didn't have access to the remote viewing capabilities of the hall.

When I reached the door to her lab I knocked, and she threw the door open nearly instantly, looking worried and out of breath. "Nicky!" She yelped. "Thank the gods you're here. I've been poring over the blood sacrifice notes you gave me. I wanted to see if I could work out some details like the timing or methodology to help us narrow things down. I stumbled on that prophecy and I was using it as a reference. We have a problem!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Calm down Strega, just say what you need to say, it's fine. Even if there's an issue we can handle it, we're equipped to deal with anything at the moment. Plus we have time I'm sure." We weren't, not exactly, the Fear Host was out there still, and I suspected he had a good source for fear. However, based on the bullshit he'd pulled at the meeting, I didn't think he would show up at the Lilith summoning. He was a coward and liked to skulk around in the background. He would wait and see if I got hurt badly enough and try to jump me.

Strega shook her head, eyes widening in wild alarm. "No! We don't! Nicky that prophecy is technically accurate, but according to the spell structures I found it's not as direct as it sounds." She turned and bolted to the table, bringing back the book and flipping it open to shove it at me. "Here. Where it says the blood of the beast will awaken her. Blood in this context doesn't mean blood the substance, it means blood the concept. It isn't talking about your blood specifically, but blood of your blood. Which means-"

"A relative." I said in slowly mounting horror. Suddenly my dad not getting in touch went from harmless and annoying to VERY worrying. "Lilith could be waking up AS WE SPEAK." Of course, I doubted that. I suspected Mary would want to use my blood because the draconic life properties would help Lilith recover to her peak strength faster, but if she couldn't get that...I looked at Strega sharply. "Get your things together. I'll call the others. No time for training, we need to get our asses down to that fucking cathedral." I just hoped we weren't already too late. It was the strangest thing though, as I considered how best to save my dad, my head started to ache a bit. I shook it off. Time for that later. I had a raid to plan.

April 11th 2016 Brightedge City, Old Wayne Mining Headquarters, 6:00 PM EDT

I was...a bit out of sorts. I was agitated, my head was throbbing, and I KNEW I was walking into a trap, but I wasn't sure what the hell to do about it. Sentiment aside, if she sacrificed my dad (which I didn't want, I could admit to myself) Lilith would wake up, probably earlier than expected, and she would probably recover more than was healthy for me by the time that happened.

Granted, she might have already done it, but I somehow doubted I'd have failed to notice Lilith's resurrection, since Strega assured me the vortex of magical energy needed to recreate her body would be visible from space.

So despite the fact that rushing down there to prevent the sacrifice was probably a stupid idea, NOT doing it would be even worse, but I had this nagging feeling I should do something else despite having no idea what that was. "Alright." I said turning to the others. "You all ready?" Since I'd made the call I was pretty committed now. I wasn't going to spend time I could be using stopping the ritual waffling.

Amy stepped up next to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "We're here with you. Don't worry." Waylon, Sally, Zee, Barbie, Sindara, and Cherry had been brought along.

Barbie, currently wearing the Suit of Sorrows over her Batsuit (heat during training was one thing, but if she was going into actual combat it made sense to be as protected as possible) nodded, but she looked...uncertain. At my cocked eyebrow she frowned. "I'm with you, of course. But...I can't shake the feeling we're missing something. This whole thing doesn't make sense. Mary announcing her intentions and then escaping, the notebooks being left behind, them waiting for us instead of doing the sacrifice immediately. Like I get your blood would work better but everything that's happened seems...wrong. Like there's a piece of all this we aren't seeing."

I wasn't stupid enough to ignore the master detective who was hopelessly devoted to me, especially when I'd been feeling the same damn thing. "What do you think is going on?" I asked. I'd had a terrible feeling since we set out, but hearing it put into words just made it worse. I was hoping maybe Barbie had some idea I hadn't thought of.

She just shrugged. "Who knows? Supervillains are always trying to think in complicated master plans that perfectly doom all their enemies. In reality that works like one out of five times tops. Mostly something goes wrong, but all the best ones can adapt on the fly. All we can really do is keep our eyes peeled."

She was right, even my dad tended to think himself in circles sometimes, though he did it less than most. In their defense I think it was reactionary. When you were up against people like Superman simple plans were pretty much doomed. Complicated stuff might not always work, but it had a better shot at least. Plus it was just fun. Coming up with complex schemes that worked like a rube goldberg machine pretty much never got old.

Still, I did my best to avoid falling into that trap. As entertaining as it was, I preferred efficiency. Winning was its own kind of fun. That didn't make me immune to getting caught up in the whirlpool of stupid that plans like that could become, and I knew especially old things were more likely to make convoluted plans like that because of their relationship with time. When it seemed like no time was really passing it was easier to consider long term plans almost immediate.

She was right about keeping an eye out, so I stopped my ruminating and nodded, gesturing everyone forward. Between the Suit of Sorrows, the Soul Shredder and Amy and I, we had some serious power at our disposal, and even if the Fear Host was here (which I suspected he wasn't since boxing himself in seemed to not be his style) we should be able to handle ourselves.

Zee had checked the map once we identified where the cathedral was, and we'd been able to confirm that there was an access door to the cavern it had ended up in at the bottom of the oldest mine shaft here. I wasn't sure if this place had even been effected by the merge, or if there had simply been no counterpart and it had been transferred over in its entirety. We all loaded into the metal freight elevator and hit the button to descend, with Cherry using her ghost powers to muffle the sounds we made as we progressed.

When we reached the bottom I didn't even bother looking around, I just tossed a darbreak grenade out into the mine tunnel and closed my eyes. I heard screams from the corridor, some cut off by what I assumed was death, and some continuing as eyes were seared past the point of usefulness as the mine shaft went from pitch black to the literal brightness of the sun.

I stepped out and easily tore out the throats of two nearby werewolves with my claws as Cherry decapitated one with Soul Shredder. I'd have expected more than three guards, but from the burned on shadows on the walls there had been about five times that many vampires who were now dust in the wind.

Making sure we were prepared for anything, I slowly started forward again, following the path Zee laid out on her map. As we passed a puddle of water, I saw my reflection looking...troubled. "This isn't a good idea." Said the other me. "You need to leave. We can deal with Lilith later. She might not even come for you. You shouldn't be here." My head was still pounding, and I couldn't help but notice that the reflection looked almost afraid.

I wasn't planning to die, and I was sure I could escape if things got bad. The reflection was being an annoying little bitch, which didn't really seem in character but hey, if I died he died, so it was reasonable to be a little worried, but I ignored it anyway. We used another five Daybreak Grenades as we made our way down the tunnel, until we finally came to a crack in the wall and exited out into a larger underground cavern.

Unlike the spot the castle had been at, this place was all dirt and barely enough to fit the Cathedral as a whole. I saw about a dozen vampires and werewolves, but they didn't come after us this time, just watched. I realized none of the 'guards' had attacked us, we'd attacked first and killed them all, which made this whole thing seem like even more of a fucking trap.

As we approached the door I started going over this whole mess from every angle. Knowing I wouldn't find any sense in things as I had been looking at them, I tried it from another direction. I'd come to the conclusion early on that this was a big concerted conspiracy, and that seemed right, but I might have been premature in including the Fear Host. If he was a rogue agent or someone hired for this, or had just taken an opportunity that narrowed this from a big ludicrous web of nonsense to a big possible web of nonsense plus some asshole I still needed to kill.

The Fear Host had been the one thing that didn't fit with all the cults and bullshit, but without him I was missing something vital. Motive. I didn't know WHY. Was it just the prophecy? That felt wrong, but it was the only thing I could think of. Sadly I ran out of time as we reached the entrance to the cathedral and I flung both doors open violently, the wood smashing into the walls with a bang as the room inside was revealed.

The room was, frankly, a little creepy. The pews were all rotted and decaying and an eerie green light bubbled up from the freaky little pool where the altar was supposed to be, the dancing shadows showing fleeting images of darting vampires and werewolves.

Mary was waiting, and sure enough, she had my dad tied up with a knife to his throat in a big dramatic pose like she was about to sacrifice him. Except she had to have been holding him like that for a while, waiting for me to get here, which was yet another bullshit piece in this bullshit puzzle. My dad was gagged, but looked much calmer than most, his eyes icy and locked on me, curious to see what I would do, but not panicked. I ignored him for now and focused on Mary. "Hello again!" Said the redhead bombshell with a seductive smile. "Good to see you. Bet you didn't expect we'd be in this position after our last meeting."

I raised an eyebrow. "No. But you did. You obviously wanted me here. You put on this big production to make sure I ended up in this exact spot. So I assume you have some grand reveal planned, some kind of monologue for me or demand to make." If she did she was shit out of luck. I liked my dad a lot, probably more than anyone else in the world, except of course, ME. Since I was me, I was disinclined to trade me for another person even him. If she was expecting me to play the dutiful son and throw myself on her sword (so to speak, it was actually more of a dagger) she was delusional.

Surprisingly, she just smiled and shook her head. "No, no offers, no trades, no demands. I think I'll let you plead your case. I think I have an idea which tactic you'll use, but I'm always willing to be surprised."

I shrugged, more in my element. The throbbing in my head had receded a bit. Still didn't know what that was, but being in control of the situation seemed to help. I knew negotiations, and I was good at them. I started with the stick, of course. "Well, first up I should let you know that I could absolutely level this whole cavern. Like you want Lilith back, and while I'm not sure exactly why you need my blood, or his I guess-" The only thing I could think of was something related to the Greed System maybe, but that didn't matter right now. "But you could try that down the line, you're vampires. You have the time, unless you die or this place gets completely buried here."

She nodded. "Alright, appeal to logic mixed with some threats. I can respect it. Keep it going for me. You have me teed up, now bring it home." She sounded amused, which I did NOT like. Why the fuck was she acting this way? What did they want from me? This wasn't a good faith negotiation, it was a game, and I didn't know the rules.

Still, I pushed on. I could get through this. I had other cards. "I could help you get Lilith back. I'm not willing to open a vein for her, but if you can wait for a few years I have ways of making sure she comes back at full power." Conveniently I'd also but much stronger than I was now, and could deal with her myself if need be.

She hummed contemplatively. "Ok, offering to work together to achieve my goals. I could see that one. Not bad, but still nothing groundbreaking." She shrugged. "Oh well. I gave you a shot, but I think I'm done listening. Say buh-bye now." Then she jerked her hand to the side and ripped my fathers throat wide open, blood spurting everywhere as she kicked his dying body into the pool in front of them.

As the green bubbling liquid began to glow red, I stood there. Staring. The pain in my head was increasing, my skull was pounding, everything was spinning. What the fuck had just happened? What had she done? WHY had she done that? What was going on? The pain got worse and worse for a second until suddenly everything, the light, the sound, everything just...stopped.

Off to one side, a familiar face appeared standing in front of me. Specifically the one I saw in the mirror every day. My reflection had somehow stopped time? Or maybe just sped up my perception of it, I had no clue. Whatever the case it looked frazzled. "Nick!" It barked. "You need to calm down. You don't know what you're doing." It was right, I didn't. But based on the spiderweb of cracks across the surface of the other me, I could make a guess about part of it. Too bad I didn't give a shit.

Big shift in the story coming up. I don't think anyone will be predicting what happens next, but the breadcrumbs are there. Hope everyone enjoys and as usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site/malcolmtent.