'Answering your question, all I am doing right now has a reason. I am not dumb, as you could already notice. I just made such bold movements to be the most straightforward when taking these guys temporarily off the game, and also to be visible enough for that demon to find me again. I am not in the right conditions to risk myself on the streets to find him in this huge downtown, but I get the feeling that he has better means to find me,' Tobey said.
[Well, I cannot deny that a trained demon would find you way quicker than you could. But you still don't know his intentions, remember?]
'To be honest with you, Mask, I prefer to see it with my own eyes instead of trusting you.'
Mask shrugged, sighing lightly and stopping to talk about that matter. Tobey didn't care and left him aside. Mask was not a useful tool.
All Tobey needed at that moment was to keep quiet and concentrate. He could not falter on what he was about to do. If he didn't armor his heart and conditioned his mind into getting as cold as possible, he wouldn't be able to pull through.
[Our heart is beating too fast. Are you okay? I mean, I know that you are going to face Lancelot Yoder right now, which is probably that paladin who fought against the demon you are searching for. You know, that guy who seemed a clap of thunder while running.]
'What? Could you see who he was?'
[More or less. It was not clear, you know? Until a while ago, I wasn't sure whether he was among the people you caught or not. Just when they revealed their names did I realize who it was. Also, his power is above theirs in all aspects, so I needed to discard each person we arrested.]
'Yeah, I get what you say. In any case, no I am not afraid of his power at all. I am just worried about my reaction, even though I am working hard not to overreact and mess with everything.
'Also, one more thing, Mask: can demons identify the Divine Energy that these paladins exude just like you do?'
[Are you kidding, man? Of course they can. The same goes for the Dark Energy we exude, they can identify it as well, or else I wouldn't be able to tell that that demon was coming to save us back when we were fighting against Gabriel. I thought you had figured it out as well...]
'Yeah, I figured it out, but I was confirming it because it will be a very important thing for my next move.'
[Really? Damn it... If I knew it was so important to you, I would have omitted it. Tell me beforehand when you ask this kind of thing...] He nearly could see his demonic self pouting inside his mind. That vision gave him chills.
[Hmmm, hey... Why the gun?] Mask asked as Tobey took a pistol from the glove compartment and put on his waist.
'Just in case.'
While still talking with Mask from time to time not to feel so anxious, Tobey drove towards the very center of the downtown again.
****
Tobey walked the stairs towards the terrace of MDCI. Once he opened the metallic door at the end of the staircase, the wind of that cloudy afternoon hit his face with all its intensity and coldness. It looked like it would rain soon but, like in the previous days, the rain would last to arrive. Probably, until then, Tobey would have done everything he needed, or so he hoped.
The wind made Tobey's eyes instinctively squint for a moment, but once the drift dissipated he could open them properly and look around. His eyes locked on the back of a certain man who was standing there, looking at the horizon unpretentiously as if just to kill the time.
However, Tobey knew very well that his objective while being there wasn't to kill time at all.
"I have been wondering why did you choose MDCI to settle down," Tobey said as he walked forward with firm, yet careful steps. "First of all, I thought that it was just so you would be able to watch me closely, but it was an unreasonable conclusion."
"Yes. I entered in MDCI way before you did, after all. I couldn't predict that you would follow the same steps as me," the man concluded, taking a cereal bar from his pocket and opening it slowly.
"Exactly. On the other hand, you could be here because of the information MDCI has access to, but why would a paladin care for the crimes committed against humans, when most of these crimes are just demon and paladin conflicts disguised?"
"Yeah. Not the best of conclusions either," the man took a bite of his cereal bar that ended with half of it in one go.
"You could be manipulating the information, so nobody would ever notice the existence of the war as well..." Tobey continued.
"But, you also concluded that it was wrong since the police already do that perfectly by overlooking some specific cases."
Tobey stopped walking when he was just some meters away from his partner. He had a somewhat bitter look on his face.
"In the end, the only thing I concluded was that..."
"All this time, everything was just a coincidence. I decided to play the investigator so I could maintain my façade as a human. Since my strength is far superior to others, you concluded that I am more a military tool than a supporting character like the other important paladins. This coincidence made me get near to you... and actually like you as a friend, in a way I never felt for any other human," at the end of the phrase, he took the last bite of his cereal bar.
"All this while, you were trying to keep me from discovering about this world of paladins and demons. Inside MDCI, I was the only one capable of doing so. I was near to unraveling the truth about case-37, and it would blow off the covers. If it happened, you would need to kill me, especially if I was to transform into a demon in front of you."
Roger nodded his head, sighing, then turning to Tobey.
"Yes. I wanted to protect you from involving yourself in this war, Tobey. But, in the end, I failed to do so."
"When you threatened me in front of the hotel, you were only trying to end this as fast as possible, maybe even save me in the process. You just wanted to stop me before something happened to me. When you were talking about giving up, it was not advice or an order, it was a pleading.
"When you tried to stop that demon from talking to me by assaulting him with all your strength, you were trying to keep me far away from other demons so I wouldn't be convinced to team up with them, which would decrease my survival rate by a notch since the paladins would kill me for sure because of that.
"On top of it, when you slammed your friend on the ground, the chief of the downtown police station, you not only left a crack on the ground showing just how much strength you had, but also how tense you were about him trying to hurt me. The list goes on, but I think it is enough for you."
Roger nodded his head slowly, his expression was darkened and his hands were closed in tight fists.
"Yes. You got all of it. Not only did you unravel who were the strongest paladins of the downtown, but you also discovered all my intentions towards you. Indeed, after all this time we spent together as humans, I created empathy for you equal to what I had for my paladin friends. You gave me the feeling of being friends with someone that no other human was capable of giving before. They were all artificial friends, nothing more. And that's what got me the more flabbergasted: even among humans, you seemed to be the most human of them all."
Roger's voice was filled with frustration and somewhat regret as if he was remorseful about something.
Both remained silent, absorbing everything that was said. They felt like they were breaking something that would not ever be fixed again. It was sad, but they needed to face the truth. Now, they weren't in their world of criminal cases, ordinary human affairs, cereal bars, and random talks inside a stuffy old car. Instead, they were facing a situation that could change the course of an entire war.
"It seems that our clash was fated, right? We couldn't avoid destiny, nor prevent it to come. We were caught by our roles in this story and now must play them correctly," Roger commented, turning completely to Tobey and finally looking directly at his eyes.
Tobey nodded his head.
"A battle between two opposite sides, but that are connected somehow."
"Yes. A battle that will decide which side of this intersection this war will take."
After that, they went silent again. There was no need for words anymore. Both knew what needed to be done.