The stench of the Gray Zone hit Damon, tar, acid, and monster desperation you could feel it from miles away.
"Yeah! This is so exciting," Aiwass said, treating the mission like a school trip.
"I don't want you lowering your guard," Iris snapped.
"Yes, Captain!" Leo barked, a redhead who wouldn't stop looking at Damon with almost religious devotion. "Fighting alongside Master Zero is a dream come true!"
Next to him was Sasha, a girl with glasses and a mana rifle.
And at the end of the line, Benji, a huge guy with a shield, had a green face and looked like he was about to throw up.
"I-I'll settle for not dying," the big guy babbled.
Damon gave them a quick look. He felt bad for them.
'Perfect,' he thought. 'A fanboy, a four-eyes who's shaking, and a guy who's gonna pass out. If this goes sideways, I'm gonna have to play babysitter, because if not, the Inquisitors will probably bill me for each one's damn coffin.'
Damon couldn't stop thinking how any minute his act could get exposed, even with EVE with him, he still couldn't spend his days of life that casually.
SHHH!
A crash against metal, mixed with the smell of acid and sewer.
Damon stopped dead, it was pitch black and he could feel the sticky air, loaded with stink.
His fist, clenched around the rusty revolver at his waist, was shaking.
He couldn't use EVE yet.
"Watch out!"
Benji stumbled. A black mass rose out of the sludge.
It was a tar spawn, big, viscous, with shadow fangs, and it lunged.
The rookies screamed.
Their light spells failed.
Their weapons shook.
Leo fired a mana bolt that bounced off the monster's back. USELESS!
Damon couldn't allow it.
Not here.
He activated the [Legislator's Eye].
GLITCH!
Reality split into neon-green lines of code.
The tar spawn, before just an amorphous blob, showed itself like a meat algorithm. Damon saw its weak point.
A blinking node right behind its shoulder, where the "tar" got thicker, darker. A core.
"Leo!" Damon roared. "Behind its left shoulder! Focused beam!"
The redhead flinched hearing his name from his idol's mouth.
The panic vanished from his eyes, replaced by fanatical determination.
"Yes, Master!"
Leo obeyed without thinking.
ZAP!
The blue beam punched through the core and the spawn dissolved into an inert puddle.
Leo stared at his own hands, shaking with hype.
"I did it!" he panted. "Zero gave me a direct order!"
'I almost had a heart attack,' Damon thought. 'Thank God he has good aim.'
Iris, from the gloom, nodded. "Well done, Zero. Strategic vision."
Damon breathed in and nodded back.
'Another one's coming,' Aiwass whispered. 'And it's bigger.'
RUUMBLE!
The ground shook.
A tar TITAN crawled toward them. Its red eyes, two coals in the dark, locked onto Damon.
The thing dripped darkness, the rotten smell got worse, choking.
'Damn it!' Damon squeezed the EVE revolver, the cold grip against his palm.
He knew what was coming.
With Aiwass, nothing was subtle.
"Back off, insects!"
Aiwass stepped forward. Her white hair lit up with a crimson glow, her eyes, golden flames, reflecting demonic fury.
"This is a sewer, Aiwass! Watch the fire!"
"Shut up, pet! A Queen doesn't take orders from a worm!"
A whirlwind of mana gathered in her hands, the air around her warping.
That was her essence. PURE DESTRUCTIVE MANA!
FLOOOSH!
A wave of fire burst out of Aiwass. It ate the air, the wet walls.
HISSS!
The tar monster turned to ash, its head blowing apart in a spray of black sparks.
But the fire didn't stop there.
CRACK!
The flames licked the arched ceiling.
Dry trash, exposed cables from some illegal connection, everything burned. One section of the sewer turned into a glowing tunnel.
Pipes groaned, metal twisted, dripping copper lava.
Thick smoke choked the already nasty air.
"Motherfucker..." Damon blinked, the heat singeing his lashes.
Fire alarm sirens went off in the distance, far, but getting closer.
'Aiwass, you went too far!' his mind screamed.
Iris, hand on her sword, looked at the destruction.
Her eyes, cold as ice, nailed Damon.
"Zero," her voice was barely audible over the crackle of fire. "Your… partner… just vaporized a whole sector."
The rookies coughed, their uniforms singed.
One passed out.
Aiwass, unfazed, brushed a speck of ash off her shoulder.
"A small mess, not my fault your building materials are so... flammable."
Aiwass crossed her arms, a satisfied smile stretching her lips.
The smoke wrapped around her like a cape, but she didn't even cough, she looked like she was made of titanium.
Damon swallowed. The Guild alarms sounded closer.
In seconds, a horde of Inquisitors would show up.
How did he explain this? That his "girlfriend" was an interdimensional pyromaniac?
"Zero..." Iris stepped forward, her hand tightening on her sword hilt.
The recruits gasped, some already slumped. The hot air stung their throats, thick, heavy, with a chemical smell that burned their noses.
"Look, Captain... this... is a purification method." Damon struggled, digging for a coherent excuse. "Tar... is really sticky. A... drastic solution."
His mind was running a thousand miles an hour.
How much would repairs cost? Would they take it out of his bonus?
Ophelia Valen would probably use this as an excuse to take him apart piece by piece!
The smoke wasn't just irritating now, dizziness slammed him all at once.
Aiwass looked at him with one eyebrow raised. "Already that weak? This air stinks like your trash. It's your fault for breathing it."
Damon coughed.
Damon's world flipped as the chemical stench was unbearable and his knees gave out.
"Shit... the fumes..."
Everything went black.