As Mercury bent down to retrieve his lantern and cloak, Quincy's voice rang out from afar. "I've been meaning to ask you, but what's the deal with that lantern you carry? Does it have something to do with your forte?"
Mercury shrugged, smirking. "Who's to say?"
Quincy let out an audible 'tsk'. "Right. You wouldn't be able to say. Well, I'll find out soon enough. Combat is how most of us come to know of each other's abilities, even if we can't say it outright." She winked teasingly.
"Yours was quite extraordinary. I was taken aback." Mercury replied sincerely.
"Thank you. It's the main reason I can be a successful Saviour as part of Looking Glass's Reaper team." Quincy smile became warm, having been complimented.
"A Saviour? What is that?"
"It's one of the roles a member of a Reaper team will play. Of course, this was a term invented by Looking Glass. As a Saviour, I'm a supportive attacking force, the one who supports the Duelist, the prime engager in a battle."
"Is a 'Duelist' another one of these roles?"
Quincy nodded, looking from side to side as she spoke. "The Meister is the leader of a Reaper team, one who plans and coordinates the battles. Looking Glass fulfills the role of the 'Meister' and the 'Duelist', the first to engage in combat."
"A busy man, he seems."
"He says he doesn't find it so bad. This is because of my brother, the 'Fisher' of our team. His role is to focus on distracting the monster or Demon we're fighting so that Looking Glass is able to take it down easily. Of course, my brother's forte isn't suited towards this role, so he is indirectly supported by the 'Trickster' of our team, who is responsible for setting up a plot that will steer the monster or Demon towards failure. It's only when we all work together that we can accomplish great things. That is why Looking Glass is dead-set on retrieving my brother and the other prisoners of the quarry without anyone dying." As Quincy spoke, she suddenly seemed uneasy. She didn't put her knife away, holding it tightly in her palm as she glanced around. She hadn't forgotten the condition that the small Dweller Demon was in.
Mercury looked side to side with her. Was it that she was expecting something else to happen?
"Are we currently in danger?" Mercury asked of her.
"Not currently, but we should move soon."
"How much time do I have?"
"Five minutes is a safe window. Why? Do you want to eat the Demon and assimilate with it? Baby demons won't increase the counter in your information window. They don't really count as kills, so says the Grand Beast who watches over us. I don't think a Dweller like that will have any useful parts to collect. Bastille, our weapon-smith back at the camp won't find much use out of a baby Demon's body parts."
'Assimilation? Fang An spoke of that before, like a counter towards the kills a Reaper has earned. Besides that, she said that monster parts can make weapons? That seems like a goal I should have, but that's not my intention currently.'
Mercury stepped towards the corpse of the baby Dweller Demon, grinning. "No, it's neither of those."
'A Dweller Demon, by Ms. Quincy's words, is a monster without too much rationale or self-awareness. Its animal instinct might not drive it to protect its own body. Then again, it's not like Fang An's intelligence led his Shade to protect his body either…'
He knelt next to the corpse, placing his hand against the mist, which shivered against his touch.
"Let's play this game once more." He spoke under his breath.
'Now… now is a good time to test if the perception of others affects the summoning of the Shade.' A plotting grin curled up his lips. As he expected, just like the abilities he gained from using the Shades in the ornate lantern, the black mist that conjured them had a similar reaction, despite the observation of Quincy. His Distortion Law truly had no effect on anything related to the Shades. 'I wonder, what will Ms. Quincy think when she sees this?'
As Quincy watched Mercury bend down in front of the corpse, despite her ramping anxiousness about staying in the same spot, she felt her heart pulsate rapidly. As she watched a thin, pitch-black mist coalesce beside the baby Dweller Demon's corpse, she felt an insatiable fear spread throughout her body. It wasn't logical that it did so, more like it was some deep hidden instinct inside her that made her want to run in the opposite direction.
Yet, at the same time, it was intensely alluring. She watched as the form of the baby Dweller Demon took shape again, this time its body incorporeal and dark as night, with two gleaming red eyes that stared directly past her at the forest that lay behind.
'What the f-ck is this? It revived itself? No… it's not the same… was I wrong about Mr. Mercury's forte? Or is it that the lantern and those strangely painful tendrils are only a part of it? Just who is this man…?'
Mercury stood up, facing the baby Dweller Demon's Shade and taking a couple steps back.
There were two reasons he wanted Quincy to see his ability pertaining to the Shades. The first was that Quincy had already revealed her ability to him indirectly. Even if it was only for a time, he wanted to form a temporary relationship of trust between them. This wasn't because he wanted to get close with her, but rather that distrust would cause hesitation, and he didn't want his life to be in danger because the person he fought alongside didn't follow his stride.
The second reason was that he wished to keep his identity as Mercury completely separate from the one he would have to form as a woman. In the future, he would have to keep his Shade abilities a secret, and only use his Edicts and Requiems when possible. As long as he could keep two distinct identities, there was definitely no chance anyone would recognise him. It was all to avoid triggering his Distortion Law in future scenarios.
As he prepared to lunge towards the baby Dweller Demon's corpse and deliver a final killing blow, the Shade suddenly took a tangible form, reminiscent of its former self, but larger. It jumped out at Mercury, having regrown its leg and arm, swinging its shadowy talons towards his head.
He deflected the blow with his forearm, brushing the strike to the side and punched the Shade in the stomach, sending a cloud of thin black mist flying.
'I have no fighting experience. Not that I can remember. But isn't such a thing adapted to muscle memory? Why does it feel so natural to beat the sh-t out of it?' Mercury grinned wildly as he swung with his other fist, forcing the Shade to the ground with sheer force, a burst of black mist erupting as it collided with the grassy forest floor.
Quincy had a mind to rush forward and assist him with the sudden appearance of the strange creature, but after seeing how he immediately acted upon it as if it were a common occurrence. So, she just stood and watched, both in fear and in awe.
The Reapers had dealt with monsters. All sorts of creatures. It had been a year since their first arrival in Limbo. They had seen flying monsters, big-toothed monsters. They had seen monsters that jumped high into the sky, and monsters that wielded swords, spears, and shields.
They had seen Demons, too. Of all shapes and sizes. Dwellers and Lowers, all of which had taken teams and teams of Reapers to kill, some at the cost of several lives.
But never had a Reaper encountered a monster like she was seeing now.
Mercury looked back at Quincy for only a second, but that was all that the baby Dweller Demon's Shade needed in order to pounce at him once more. The black mist mimicking its lipless mouth of a thousand needle-like teeth opened up wide, threatening to bite down on his throat.
Quincy immediately entered an ethereal, incorporeal state as she lurched forward, brandishing the silver knife and stabbing towards the Shade. She pierced through its body, failing to hit it. However, this was enough of a distraction for Mercury to duck underneath the Shade, lurching for its corpse.
He recoiled his fist, bashing it into the already beaten-in face of the baby Dweller Demon's corpse. Instantly, the Shade froze.
Gradually, before Quincy's eyes, it began to dissipate.
Quincy stood in silence, stunned. 'Really, what was that creature!? Cicero, Looking Glass, they won't believe this… a creature revived, but not like its original self… that black mist, it was so terrifying. Just looking at it, I could feel my very bones recoil…'
Instead of questioning Mercury or contemplating further, she remembered her prime worry.
"Now that you're done with… whatever that was, we should leave. That Dweller Demon we killed was basically a newborn. It doesn't take much effort to kill a baby, but that's not the pressing matter. Dweller Demons are like dogs, pets, creatures without too much self-awareness or sentience. Like animals, they're very protective of each other, especially their young."
"So? Why tell me this?"
"You might not have noticed it because it was the heat of the moment, and you were tunnel-visioned due to the nature of our bloodlust towards Demons, but that baby Dweller was missing an arm and a leg. Probably torn from its body by something bigger, stronger."
Mercury's eyes widened. "And for something to be strong enough to bypass the adult Dweller, a Demon capable of holding their own against an entire Reaper team, means that there's currently extreme danger lurking nearby."
Quincy nodded her head, her usual genial expression giving way to one far more grim. "So let's get out of here, quickly. It will take more time to get to the quarry, but it's safer for us to exit the Titanic forest now and completely cut around it. The exterior portion of the plains is accessible, and the open space is far easier to spot danger in, compared to this forest of a million hiding spots."
Mercury nodded his head.
'Weren't we running short on time? She doesn't want her brother to 'go crazy' but does she not too worry about the fact that he may be killed?'
'What a strange woman.'