Tobey lost his consciousness for a second or two. However, the constant shouts of Mask in his mind made him wake up and get to his wits as fast as possible. He knew that he couldn't stay in idleness for much more, or else his enemies would be able to catch him.
'I barely entered in this war but there are entire troops of Paladins going after me. What's wrong with my luck, seriously?' that was the first thing that Tobey thought as he got up, seeing that the Paladin wasn't moving. He fell below Tobey, after all; his head must have struck the ground several times as they rolled and kicked down the big staircase.
[It's not about luck, only, you idiot. We are talking here about a situation where we don't know who is who. Demons hide among the crowd just as Paladins do as well. Now that they identified who you are, they will do anything within their reach to catch you. That's just how they act, and the Demons do the same when they discover the true identity of Paladins.]
'What a difficult war, huh? Two hidden enemies trying to strike each other, in a battle where they don't know who are the victims and the actual enemies, just the allies...'
[In your case, you don't even know who your allies are. You are definitely screwed.] Mask smartly pointed out, though Tobey had thought about that matter as well and got to the same conclusion.
'I am screwed... as if I don't hear it frequently enough...'
Tobey struggled to get on his feet, and so he kept walking on the corridors with vague and somewhat gingerly steps.
[Well, you aren't totally unlucky. After all, look out of the window. The sun rose sufficiently in the sky. People are already leaving their rooms to go to work or do whatever they want to do. It was smart of you to think about such a thing while in that difficult situation back in your room.]
'Well, the Paladins were being cautious and quite discreet when dealing with me. I knew that they could just blow up the room by using their powers, but they didn't do so. Despite that, they hadn't even changed to their strongest form. They were clearly trying to maintain people down here unaware of what was happening.'
[Yeah, their positioning was strange as well. One part of the troop to each floor would be a more reasonable distribution.]
Tobey nodded his head. He felt a little bit strange by gesturing while talking with... with himself. However, he would need to get used to that since he and Mask might talk often from then on.
'Anyway, since I could notice all these points, I was able to grasp that entering into the crowd was the only way to prevent them from attacking me and stop their relentless chasing.'
As Tobey discussed that matter with Mask, people really began to leave their rooms, walking across the square-shaped corridor and going to the staircases.
While walking on the corridors, always making sure to be next to groups of people to feel safer, Tobey questioned some things to Mask.
'Why can they call their special weapons even when in human form, but I cannot do it too?' he thought as if wondering it to himself. However, he knew that Mask's pride was too big for him to stay quiet and not talk about it.
[They are far more advanced than you are. As I said, they are trained soldiers who developed their abilities to kill your kind. Some battles happen in daylight as well, though they try to be quite discreet by acting out of their Paladin form. Also, I have a feeling that there is something they can do to avoid affecting the human world... I just can't grasp within your memories what kind of ability is this...]
"Don't worry, you helped me a lot. You will remember, eventually. Since the problem about the Soul Mirror relies only on my experience, I will just focus on it. It's good to know about the fact that they also hunt in daylight, too. I will be more cautious."
When they finished talking, Tobey got to the last step of the final staircase of the hotel, which lead to the lobby.
The lobby of that hotel was quite busy that morning, which was something quite pleasant for Tobey, who at that moment wanted to be among as many people as he could. Seeing so many faces in front of him soothed his heart, even though he felt some gazes directed to him that made him feel quite uncomfortable.
Some of those gazes were due to awkwardness. After all, it was not every day when someone so bad-looking appeared into the lobby dripping blood from different parts of his body, with an apparently broken wrist and limping from one leg.
'People began to wake up earlier due to the frequent kidnaps that are happening recently. Some homicides are happening in different parts of the city as well. This way, the traffic of people and vehicles at this hour makes it comfortable and safe for me to walk around. The only problem lay in my looks and physical condition; it clearly shows that I just got out from a battle or tried to kill someone, which is quite bad due to the circumstances this city is in.'
Tobey moved quickly towards the exit of the lobby. He didn't even bother to do his check-out. He wasn't in the mood nor in the right situation to waste his time with formalities. Even if it was going to give him trouble later, he wanted to leave that place as fast as possible. After all, that hotel was filled with Paladins.
'I noted mentally the faces of some of them and I am sure that they are following me right now from a certain distance... However, there is little I can do about them instead of misleading these guys.'
[Difficult to do so when you are limping. Of course, you know a lot about this city, but they aren't unaware of its geography as well. You are in serious trouble if you think you can mislead them so easily. You will need a better plan, you incompetent.]
'You know, you like to talk a lot, but you do little! Just shut up and let me do things on my own. I will ask you when I want your help, damn demon!'
[Good luck, then.] He could imagine Mask shrugging while saying so and turning his head carefreely to look another way.
Tobey was going to snap with him but he felt something strange in his body as he walked on the streets from between the crowd of people. It was like an electric current reached his mind, making all his body gets tense suddenly.
[Tobey, don't stop walking but don't look around either.] Mask suddenly said.
Until now, Tobey never heard Mask talking like that. He always had him joking around and saying just how unfortunate and idiot Tobey was, but never once he was serious enough to tell Tobey to do something so assertively as if his life depended on it.
'W-What did just happen? Was I struck by something?'
[No. This feeling wasn't something directly physical at all. It's more like a bad omen, an instinct.]
'B-But... why did this feeling appear right now?'
[The Paladins that had been following you until now weren't the real deal, Tobey. The only true one you ever fought against was that person you address as your grandma. Those others were just some fanatic followers of the Church, disciples of Paladins who didn't reach their true potential. Nonetheless, the person following you from behind right now is completely different! His power, his presence, this imposing aura... It makes our soul shake from its very foundation. It isn't someone we can fight against even if we use our demon form paired with our Soul Mirror.]
As Tobey heard that, he felt what was true fear. He thought that he felt something similar when he was facing an entire troop of Paladins following him under the rain, maybe when he was walking on the streets without knowing who was enemy and who was citizen, or even when he was pretending to be strong enough to maintain that Paladin from earlier as a hostage.
However, Tobey hadn't experienced true fear in any of these cases. In truth, he was feeling it just now, before the presence of that man. Tobey Foster had his heart freezing with horror for the very first time in years. He just froze like that when he killed someone for the first time.
[Tobey!] Mask called him out, but any external or internal sound was sounding strange to Tobey as if he was under the water.
[Tobey, I said to you to not stop moving!]
'I can feel him. He is ten steps away from us... Eight... Six...'
[You freaking bastard! Walk!! I am ordering you to walk!]
'Five steps... Just five...', Tobey's breathing was getting shallow. He could sense the shadow of that man projecting over his body.
[TOBEY!]
'Two steps... He is right behind me.'