Dark Fate, Chapter 43 (Patreon)

So, the poll is in, and you guys overwhelmingly want a returnee with all their powers. I'll get to work on it.

In the meantime, Happy New Year! Hope 2021 treats you all better than 2020 did. Have a chapter in celebration!

Chapter 43 – On the Job

Detectives Austin and Clark were nothing if not efficient. The day after they came to meet me, they asked me and my girls to come down to the station to sign the legal paperwork that would allow them to tell me specifics of the case, and get to work as a ‘consultant’. Everyone in the precinct knew my team were basically hired guns, but no one cared so long as we were on their side. No one had time for false moralizing bullshit.

That was simply how things were. A month into the System Apocalypse, and society was fraying more and more at the edges each day. Reports came in of stronger monsters spawning in certain areas.

Travel by sea was becoming problematic. Oh, sure, as long as you were close to shore you were fine, but once you started getting out over the deep water? Well, the Kraken may have been a myth before, but it was all too real now. And that wasn’t even counting other threats, like flying sharks or merfolk. You needed to have classes that specialized in the sea in order to keep ships safe on oceanic voyages.

Air travel was only slightly easier. While planes flying at twenty thousand feet or above were free from all but the most powerful monster threats, they still had to come back down to land. And a 747 didn’t have any defense against a territorial roc when it was on final approach.

Actually, blimps, long out of favor due to not having the speed or range of jets, were quickly coming back into fashion for long-haul transports. It helped that people now had inventories, and bags which could be enchanted to be bigger on the inside, of course. And magic allowed them to get the same lift with smaller, tougher balloons, making them surprisingly hardy, while also easy to defend.

But, the flip side of that was that global commerce and travel had slowed to a halt. Before, you could fly from New York to Tokyo in fourteen hours. Not exactly a day trip, but nothing too unreasonable. Now, however? That trip would take the better part of a week.

Making things even worse, disasters had struck in several places. Florida, it seemed, had been hit particularly hard, as the Everglades were home to some powerful monsters that no one had seen and lived to tell the tale. At the same time, endless tides of skeletal undead flowed from the former Disney World park, and the goblin population had exploded in Boca Raton, effectively cutting Miami off from the rest of the world.

So, no, the people in charge of protecting their little slice of the world did not care that I was being brought in to, in essence, kill anything or anyone that got too big for them to handle. Sure, there may be some equivocating in the Mayor’s office, and the District Attorney was walking a tightrope on the legalities, but even they weren’t objecting too loudly. Even those who had moral objections were convinced to look the other way when the example of Miami was held up as Atlanta’s possible fate.

Of course, lawyers being lawyers, they didn’t let it go with just a wink and a nod. There was paperwork to sign, dense with legalese, that both empowered me to use ‘whatever means necessary’ while aiding the police, and distanced the city from legal responsibility for my actions when unaccompanied by police officers. In essence, as long as I had police officers with me, I could do whatever I needed to resolve the situation, but the city couldn’t be brought to court if I did something while they weren’t around.

Those legalities out of the way, my girls and I were brought in to meet the rest of the ad hoc task force dealing with ‘System-Related Threats’. In addition to Detectives Austin and Clark, there were three others on the task force, two beat cops and an undercover officer. It wasn’t much, but it was all that could be spared given the way the police department’s numbers had dwindled.

Alexis Costa

Human   Female

Level 5   Priestess / Guardian

Market   Value: $6,600

Officer Alexis Costa was one of the beat cops. A lovely Latina lady, she was young, as in probably just got out of the police academy young. I saw that she was gripping a rosary in one hand, no doubt a focus for her powers.

Devin Nixon

Human   Male

Level   5 Rogue / Infiltrator

Market   Value: $6,700

The undercover officer, Devin Nixon, was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, hair just slightly longer than ‘business normal’, but short enough that it could still be styled back if needed, and a calculated three-day stubble that looked rough, but could be cleaned up for court. Instead of going directly for a specific demographic, and coming off as a stereotype, it was the kind of look that, even if it wasn’t completely ‘on point’, it would at least not cause any waves, or make him stick out. Deliberately nondescript, you might call it.

Mikaela Rose

Elf   Female

Level   5 Water Sorceress / Dancer

Market   Value: $8,000

And the final one was an elf, who looked slightly Asian in her features, but probably at least a couple generations back. She was the second beat cop, and it was pretty strange seeing a sorceress and dancer dressed in an officer’s uniform. Though she did fill it out nicely.

As I greeted them, I noticed that the ratio of men to women was… quite out of whack. After all, the last numbers I heard said that the department was about 4:1 male to female. Having a task force, even a task force of cast-offs, that was three-fifths female was unusual, given those numbers.

Detective Austin grunted when I mentioned it. “Unfortunately, most of our casualties on Apocalypse Day were males. Especially trying to contain the business at the mall, and with the escaped prisoners. Lost a fifth of our total force. Four hundred and thirty-two dead in the first week. Any veterans are either holding the line out in the field, while younger officers are getting moved into all sorts of new situations.”

Nixon nodded. “Friend at the Academy says that there’s a strong crop of new blood in the most recent applicant pool, but training takes time, and they’re still learning as they go.” He paused for a beat, and then said, “Speaking of learning, mind if you tell us how you and your team have redacted parts of your status?”

I chuckled, and said, “Figures that the undercover cop would be the one to sneakily check my status. Not that I can blame you, since I already checked yours. As for the how, well, there are several ways to do it. First, classes like Rogues and professions like Infiltrators will get skills like that, according to the system. Second, there are apparently some advanced magics that allow you to do the same thing, for yourself and others. Third, there are magic items, like this one.” As I said that, I pulled out the medallion I was wearing around my neck.

Medallion   of Censored Identity

Type

Neck

Rank

Uncommon

This onyx   medallion is imbued with simple magic to conceal portions of the wearer’s status   or details from spells or skills designed to glean such information. The   information is not changed or altered in any way, merely redacted so that it   cannot be read.

Nixon whistled as he looked at the item, proving to me that he had picked up both [Analyze] and [Identify], or some equivalent. Probably a good choice for a rogue who was doing undercover work. “Where did you get those?”

“System Shop. Anyone who wants to can buy one, but you’ll need to have enough coin for it. These cost three thousand gold for each.”

Officer Rose frowned. “That is a rather sizeable investment, Mr. Greene. Almost sounds as though you have something to hide.”

I chuckled. “Of course. Everyone has something to hide. Even those that don’t still like their privacy. More importantly, being able to control information can keep any enemies you gain from preparing to strike at your weaknesses.”

Detective Clark coughed. “All right. We already knew that we were calling in ‘nonstandard’ help. So, lets stop talking about the nonstandard bits, and work on stopping this killer.”

Austin nodded, and handed me a case file. “Right. All right, I know we’ve spoken in theoreticals, but now it is time to talk about specifics. Costa, if you will?”

“Right, boss.” The priestess hit a button and a projector put up a view of the Avondale area. Pins were in the map, marking them as different crime scenes. “So, the first victims disappeared on System Day. Kyle Renner and his roommate Lacey Jones. Last seen heading home after class, just before the System came online.

“We initially thought it was another monster spawn that got them, but two days later, the second victim, Max Reynolds, disappeared, and the numbers went up from there. Fifteen victims in thirty-two days. If it weren’t for the System distracting everyone, the city would be going crazy over this.”

Reading over the case file, I frowned. “It says here that there are five missing females, including Ms. Jones, and ten males, but only nine heads have been recovered, the missing one being Kyle Renner’s. Are you thinking he is responsible?”

Austin shook his head. “At the moment, we don’t know. He’s definitely a ‘person of interest’, and a possible suspect, but this System stuff is throwing off all our normal metrics for serial killers. Especially since, by all accounts, Kyle was known for his pacifist views.”

“Says here that his boyfriend is the one that reported him missing?”

“Yes, Gibson Bowman, victim number four. Reported the missing person case before he disappeared, day after Mr. Reynolds. Apparently, he went to Renner’s apartment, and found signs of a struggle, so he called the police.”

“I see.” Flipping through the case file, I went to the report of the scrying that one of the priests had attempted. They’d used the basic, low-level scrying, though it was probably the most powerful one they had access to at that level. The result was… interesting. The women were definitely alive, but hidden. And the priest reported smelling…

“Brimstone.”

“Excuse me?”

I looked up to Acosta, and smiled at the Priestess. “Brimstone. The priest doing the augury mentioned that he smelled brimstone. If he was coming up against a warding, when trying to use divinations to find the girls, then smelling brimstone would suggest demonic power behind the barrier.”

The priestess frowned. “Are you sure? I tried an augury as well, with one of the other women, and didn’t ‘smell’ that. I did see what looked like green flames through a mist, but other than that, nothing.”

“Magic is tricky like that. Everyone experiences it differently, even if they have the same class and mostly the same beliefs. That is because magic is fueled by mana but shaped with intent. Because of this, things that should not, as a rule, happen can be made to happen, like Hellfire and Holy power combining to make Holy Hellfire.”

“So, divinations can’t be trusted?”

“Not necessarily. The low-level ones, like you used to try and find the girls, would probably never stand up in court even to get a warrant unless you had two individuals who produced similar results, but it can tell you where to look, or what to look at more closely. Some higher-level spells, on the other hand, can provide an image that multiple people can witness at the same time, making it less open to interpretation.”

Officer Rose took a breath. “All right. So, do you have any insight on what kind of demon this might be? And how we might bring it down?”

I paused, considering the information, trying to figure out how to say what I knew without tipping my hand to previous-life experience. “Honestly, there is part of this that is confusing. The missing women, combined with demonic power being used, suggests an incubus or similar, possibly with a magic class or some kind of defensive profession. However, incubi almost never target males.”

Nixon snorted. “What there’s no such thing as a gay incubus? The female fanfic writers will be crushed.”

I shrugged. “An incubus feeds off the pleasure and essence of women, and, because of that, they have a sex drive that can only be quantified as legendary, to the point where they almost always will have a harem of beautiful ladies who keep them sated. Feeding on men would be like milk spoiled to the point where it is chunky. They’d be lucky if all it did was make them violently ill.”

Winking at Nixon, I continued. “The legions of the internet will just have to make do with straight incubi and succubi. Or with any number of other demons that don’t feed off sex and can be more open to alternate forms of enjoyment. Unfortunately, according to the lore, those types of demons are also less interested in sex, except as a means of torture, and are more focused on sadism and violence.”

Detective Austin frowned. “Like chopping off heads and leaving them where they can be found?”

“Exactly. This is part of what is confusing to me. It is almost like there are two demons at work. One is an incubus, gathering women to turn into his harem, and the other… I’m not sure. It doesn’t fit. Especially with the incubus involved.”

Rose frowned. “If there’s a demon, or demons, how did they get here? I haven’t heard of anything more than imps spawning in some dungeons.”

I shrugged. “Warlocks can summon demons, if they’re cocky enough, or stupid enough, to try. Though that takes a certain degree of resources to pull off successfully, at least without doing blood sacrifices that would instantly alert any mage or priest in the area that something bad was happening. So it is more likely that they transformed.”

“Transformed? You mean like how I got turned into an elf?”

“Exactly.”

“Is that possible? Turning into a demon, I mean?”

I smiled at her. “Of course, it is. After all, that is what happened to me.”

The stunned looks on their faces were simply priceless! Finally, Nixon managed to pick his jaw up off the floor, and ask me a question. “Wait, you’re a demon? Holy hell! I thought you’d have horns and a tail, at least. Why tell us this, anyways?”

Laughing, I simply shrugged. “I do, in my true form. But as for why I’m sharing this, you and the department signed contracts keeping my personal information private, as part of my employment contract. And you would figure it out soon enough if I needed to transform and fight. Better to get it out of the way early on, instead of making it look like I was trying to hide it from you.”

Officer Costa frowned. “So, the System could have turned someone into an incubus. A male demon with an absurd sex drive focused on females, who gets physically ill if they try to have sex with males. What would happen if a gay man was turned into an incubus?”

That thought brought me up short. “That would be such a niche case that I doubt there’s any documentation in the System about it. Changing race gives you new instincts and drives, depending on the race. If those instincts and drives ran counter to the ones in your head, or heart…” I shook my head. “I’m no psychologist, but that sounds like a serial killer backstory to me.”

Austin grunted. “With that in mind, I think Renner just moved to being a primary suspect.”