Knights of the Grey City

Chapter 67 - FADE

Huang decided that it was a good idea to do a patrol. I didn't see much of a point, but I suppose it wasn't a bad thing to try and keep an eye on the districts we still controlled. Even if the Angel could show up and take another one whenever she felt like it.

Rayne, of course, stayed in the Sanctuary. We left her at her post on the healing platform, staring up at the golden sky.

As for Huang, Katie, and myself, we took to our other forms and travelled the main city until we found something to kill. A lonely snake sentry stood at the end of a nearby road, swiveling its neck methodically. Before it had a chance to see us and cry out, the Firedrake pounced onto it from above, crushing it into ink.

"I wish I could go to the sentry tower to track where she is," Huang commented.

"Will saying that make it happen?" I muttered.

The Firedrake took off into the sky as I ran past her. My footsteps sent the sentry's remains spinning into eddies.

"I guess not," Huang replied in a passive-aggressive, dismal tone. I ignored him.

"I mean," Katie interjected, "you say that, but haven't both you and Rayne changed the Grey City just by thinking about it, Camilo?"

"Under certain circumstances," I admitted. "I've only been able to do it when I'm actually at some kind of interface. The brain was an interface, and so are those swords that the Angel stabs into districts to claim them."

"But Rayne could do it with the district itself. Create new pathways," Katie pointed out. "Incoming to your right, Camilo."

I detected the demon with my sense—another snake sentry—and changed direction to take care of it. No wild instincts bubbled up; it was just me in that brain.

The snake gave a quarter-second long shriek before I slammed into it, closed my jaws around its neck, and tossed it overhead. Huang sliced through it at the apex of its arc. The demon's remains didn't even hit the ground, becoming a dark cloud trailing through the fog.

"Rayne is able to sense this place like we aren't," I said. "I wouldn't know how to begin."

"It's definitely worth thinking about, though," Huang pointed out. "What if we were able to make changes to this place, to create defenses or make it harder for the Angel to progress?"

"What the hell would even slow her down?" I asked.

"Well... I think she knows this place," Huang posited. "Every time she's retaken a district, she's gone straight to the exact place she needs to put the sword in. It usually seems to be a kind of center."

"I don't know if she needs to do that," I objected. "She could probably stab that sword anywhere and still take the district."

"I don't think that's true." Huang made a long loop overhead, leading us toward the Waterfront. "Otherwise, I'm sure she would have just shown up, stabbed any old place, and be done with it. She always moves to the center."

"Maybe," I said. "What's your point?"

"If we can learn to do what Rayne can do... we could move things to unexpected places. Make her have to look for the center. At the very least, it could buy us some time to find a better solution."

"It's an idea," I conceded. "I don't know if we have that much power to change things, though."

"Why not try?" he asked as we finally arrived at the Waterfront, facing the wide expanse of water.