"We have a camp, but we can't go back there, otherwise Looking Glass will discover my plans... maybe we should just go straight for the quarry..." Quincy murmured. Mercury caught onto this, but he said nothing.
As they walked together through the Titanic forest, Quincy and Mercury began to converse.
"Why are you moving forward, Mr. Mercury? What is your motivation?" Quincy asked, curiousity lurking in her gaze.
"Because being a Reaper is my job. Shouldn't a good worker do his job properly?" He spoke as if it was a matter of fact.
She looked at him with confusion, quite intrigued. "You still hang on to the notion of a 'job', even when we've left society behind?"
"Who has left society behind?" Mercury shrugged. "The way you speak, it seems you've formed cooperative teams in order to achieve goals. You've established a camp in order to trade and share information, as well as seek some semblance of normalcy in such a terrifying place. Everyone is clinging to society in some way, so how am I strange at all?" A lot of this was speculation on his part, but as she had spoken under her breath, there were only so many reasons a camp of Reapers would be established.
"Ah, perhaps..."
'Of course, it is the case that my drive is really to figure out who I am, hoping that some mystical means in this place will help me recover my memories. But in the meanwhile, it's not a bad thing to fill my time with work!'
Mercury smirked.
'Thank you for employing me, Beast. I feel… graced. What could be a better job for a monster, than one that is solely to kill?'
"I feel as if I know what to do at all times. Have I gained intelligence as a Reaper, or is this base instinct?" He began to question her more. After all, she was a trove of information on Hell and its related denizens.
Quincy nodded. "You will have noticed this. An intense instinct to naturally do what seems correct. That is the will of the Beast. It tells you unconsciously what you need to know, and so you will naturally know all that you need to.
'If that's the case, why didn't I naturally know what my Edicts and Requiems could accomplish? Did they come from elsewhere? But if they didn't come from the Beast, then who gave these powers to me? There are too many strange things surrounding my existence… I should try to find a way to restore my memories. If I ascend in this place that seems so naturally familiar, will I find my past? Maybe there will be someone with a 'forte' that allows them to restore a person's lost memories…'
His hand grazed his pocket, where the leather-bound booklet remained.
'The book spoke of an 'inheritance' earlier... but now it mentions nothing of it. Was I imagining things? I might have had some remnant deliriousness after death...'
'Still, if it's the truth, what can it mean? An inheritance points to my past... but I can't remember anything. Is it the case that I left something for myself, or that someone left something for me? But who could I know that was related to the system? And an inheritance, it speaks to having to fulfill certain requirements before accessing it, so is it a matter of time, or will I have to do something out of the way?' Mercury let out a heavy sigh.
"Really, why is gaining power more difficult than living weakly?"
Quincy glanced over towards Mercury. "What do you mean?"
"A weak man may curse his own inadequacies and relax. But it is a strong man that must accept them and find a way to conquer the path ahead regardless. The most important things require the most tedious work, and sometimes I feel it may be easier to give up, but I think I would like to know what lies ahead."
'Rather, I'll have to go through tribulation in order to achieve what I want. But once I restore my memories, what will I do then? Will I realise I was always a weak man, or will I be stronger than I thought, and feel inadequate in the way I was acting before I regained my memories? Well, whatever the outcome of this path is, there's only one way to find out what lies at the end, and that is to continue onwards.'
"You noticed that Earth was strange too, right?" Mercury asked in passing.
"Ah… yes. It was around the time Reapers first started appearing.. Perhaps a year ago now. The world started seeming… absurd."
"Even when you faced your own execution, did you fear death?"
Quincy shook her head. "No, it was oddly peaceful. It almost seemed funny to me. Me and my brother were killed at the same time, but oddly, I did not fear his death as I would now. It's like the entirety of Earth was cloaked in a veil of strange peculiarities."
'I thought I was acting strangely, as if I were inhibited by some otherworldly force. I don't know exactly how I came to realise it, but it was certain. The 'me' on Earth wasn't really me. It felt like something was gnawing at my brain, trying to turn 'me' into something absurd. Now that I'm free of that body, I feel like I'm acting normally, but I just can't seem to forget that feeling…'
"Earlier, when we first met, you said that the only accessible location beside the quarry was the City Sewers. Is this to say that you can't gain access to the city, and by extension that marble palace without going through the sewers?"
Quincy nodded, confirming his suspicion.
"Limbo is a strange place. Those plains that surround the city and the marble palace, they're infinite. No matter how much you walk towards the palace, it will stay the same distance away. It's only the pathway that leads to the city sewers that allows us to approach. However, the sewer entrance is guarded by a Higher Demon. This is our biggest roadblock currently. If it weren't for the peculiarities of the plains, we could find some way to scale the city walls. But the sewers remain the only way. That is why I have to save my brother and free up Looking Glass's attention from this matter."
"Is he really a necessary figure?"
"Absolutely. Even in this plan we're about to enact, we'll need him. His failure to move forward is his careful, meticulous planning. But he doesn't need to plan, not for this. He's too slow, when he can definitely kill that Demon with brute strength. I want to force Looking Glass to action by doing this myself. If he catches wind of my plans, he will move quickly to make sure I don't kill myself in this endeavour." Quincy spoke out.
"How strong could these Demons… higher and lower… how strong could they be in order to require the man that stands above all the rest?"
Quincy's eyes widened as she grabbed onto Mercury's sleeve and pulled him along with her. They ducked behind the trunk of a Titan tree, obscured by its shade and towering form. Alarmed, Mercury looked towards Quincy.
"You'll get the chance to find out now." Quincy whispered towards him, a finger pressed to her lips to signal silence. He was prompted to peek out from behind the Titan tree, seeing the gnarled form of what seemed like a bipedal rat. It had two horns sticking out of its head, and amidst its fur, tiny glistening scales could be seen underneath the gleaming sun. It had two dotted red eyes, and its lipless mouth revealed rows of needle like teeth, numbering in the thousands. It had an elongated nose, almost like a trunk, and it stood up on two legs, with large hands sporting large razor-sharp talons.
It was certainly a Demon.
'Danger Sense didn't go off because I swapped Fang An out with the Gloam Sprite's shade! I anticipated that he would alarm Quincy as to my intentions, but I failed to realise that it would leave me open to danger. I should have been more aware of my surroundings, but being around this woman led me into a sense of security… being around people really is a danger…'
"It's just a Dweller Demon, the weakest of them all." Quincy whispered once more, peeking from behind the other side of the tree. "Still, it usually takes a full Reaper team in order to kill just one Dweller. That's five Reapers who have meticulously trained to work in sync with one another."
"So, you're saying we should run?" Every muscle in Mercury's body began to twitch, instinctively wanting to run towards the danger. His eyes widened maddeningly.
"No. I'm not particularly worried, given our circumstances. There's one thing you'll come to know about yourself, and of Reapers as a whole. It's baked into our very core, along with the other mutations we've suffered on our way towards Hell." Looking at her expression, it had turned similarly inhuman. Her pupil's had grown enlarged, shaking with anticipation, and she had reached into an interior pocket of her blue coat, retrieving a thin silver dagger.
"And what is that?"
"The sheer bloodlust we feel towards Demons."
Before Mercury could reply, Quincy had become incorporeal, her skin translucent, her expression like a painted mask of starlight on her face. She fell backwards through the tree trunk, hurtling towards the Dweller Demon at breakneck speeds. Brandishing the knife still, somehow, she threw it towards the Demon, carrying its momentum along with her, sinking straight past its scales into its flesh.
It reached out one of its hands, a fiery-red boil growing on its palm, bursting hot acid-like liquid outwards.
Her eyes widened as she stared at the creature, the liquid passing through her incorporeal form. It was missing a leg and an arm, torn away from its body, leaving thick stains of blood on the ground below. 'Did something get to it before us…? It should be easy to kill, but the worrying part is what was able to injure a Demon, even a low-ranking one like this...'
Mercury didn't hesitate either, wrapping around the tree as he sprinted towards the Dweller Demon. He hadn't yet obtained any sort of weapon, and he definitely had no idea where Quincy had found such an ornate dagger in such a place. Still, he thought it prudent to support her, despite his hesitation to act alongside another person. He couldn't use any of his abilities, but he could still punch.
'Actually, if I can use Fang An's danger sense when perceived in this way, shouldn't I be able to use whatever ability the Gloam Sprite offers as well? But what could it possibly be?'
Unlike his base abilities as a songstress, it seemed natural for Mercury to use his Shade's abilities. As soon as he began to think about it, the motions naturally popped into his head as if the information had been there the whole time. Why there was a distinction between his Edicts and Requiems vs. his Shade abilities, he had no idea of why it might be the case.
Still, that wasn't the issue at hand.
When he reached the Dweller Demon's point, he noticed that Quincy had completed disappeared.
'Is vanishing part of her forte?'
As he reached out his hand, dozens of pitch-black tendrils raced up his arm, coalescing in his palm. The ground underneath him turned the same pitch-black colour, and tendrils raced up the body of the Demon. These were the tendrils that the Gloam Sprite had attacked him with.
He had used them instinctively, but their effects remained a surprise to him. It seemed that while the Dweller Demon's vitality was slowly drained, it returned right back to him. The weariness from his day gradually dissipated, and colour returned to his expression.
"Ah, what the f-ck is that pain!?" The Demon cried out. "It's so unusual! Mild, but it stings in so many places! F-ck!"
Mercury recoiled, his eyes widening in horror. The tendrils dissipated instantly, and he stepped backwards, creating a large distance between them.
"You can speak!?"
"It's me, Mr. Mercury!" The Demon spoke once more. "You have three seconds! Hit me again!"
'What the f-ck?'
Not hesitating to listen to the Demon, Mercury dashed forward again, laying his fist into the misshapen face of the creature. He knocked it to the ground, hitting it again. And then again. And again. He hit it so many times in three seconds that his fist went numb and crimson was all he could see through his narrow gaze.
Then, he felt warmth on his shoulder. It was a hand, the touch of a woman. Mercury glanced to the side to see that Quincy had reappeared, becoming corporeal once more.
"Did that Demon- did that Demon talk!?" Mercury had suddenly become flustered, uncharacteristic of him. He had not expect such a thing. Growls, perhaps. Roars, most definitely. But a Demon to him was a monster, and he did not think monsters that were not like him could speak.
Quincy shook her head. "Nope, that was me. Thanks for punching it hard. It really hurt."
Mercury's eyes widened. "That was you!? So, your forte… not only can you go through objects, but is it the case that you can take over bodies as well? But the way you spoke, is there a time limit? That's why you wanted me to finish the job in three seconds…"
"It really hurts." Quincy winked in response.
"Ah, sorry. Is that the Distortion Law you experience? How cruel…" Mercury spoke sheepishly, feeling like a fool. "It trivialises a fight, perhaps, but only as long as you can bear it. For stronger enemies, who require stronger attacks, that definitely hurts more…'
In response, Quincy just smiled warmly.
'Why am I apologising? That's not what a monster should do… moreover, there's still pressing matters, even if this Demon is dead.'
He looked over towards the corpse of the Dweller Demon, which had begun to emanate a thin black mist.