The ride home was a slow-leaking fever dream.

  The G-force crushed my insides, my face, my pride, and the seat I sat on. Humans were not supposed to move at this speed.

  Takezo didn’t look much better. He was fine for about twenty minutes, and then his shields popped, the G-force smashed him into me, and crushed him with me.

  When the plane slowed down, Takezo simply fell off me into the leg space. The plane finally stopped. From the corner of my eye, I could see the meadow on which Isabella landed last time.

  Back to Philadelphia. Yay.

  The plane landed, and the cockpit opened.

  Isabella carried herself out of her seat using her hair, looking fresh and unbothered, as if she had taken a pleasant nap. “Move it, boys, we don’t have the whole day.”

  Takezo clawed his way up to his feet, made a step, and fell out of the cockpit.

  I unlocked my seat belts. A van and a Ferrari already awaited us near the meadow, Simon and Marge waiting nearby. They wore there usual suits, arranged as if for a day in the office.

  They drove us in the van to Isabella’s midrise. I phased out during the trip. The garage let them in. Isabella’s Ferrari was already parked in there, straight in front of the elevator, half-blocking the access to it.

  In a way, I had to appreciate her thoroughness. She never parked there. But she realized that Simon and Marge were going to be carrying her luggage to the elevator, so today, she parked her Ferrari so that it made their life just a little bit more miserable.

  Simon parked like any sane human would, in an outlined parking spot. “We will handle the unpacking.”

  I motioned for Takezo to follow me and entered the elevator. He stared at the labels on the floor buttons. “Torture chambers?” he asked.

  “Yeah, and they are actually there.”

  “Pool on the seventh floor?”

  “Don’t ask.” I pressed the eighth floor. That was where she was going to be.

  “I thought she lived in New York.”

  “She does.”

  “Then why does she have an entire midrise like a hundred miles away from her home?”

  “Ask her.”

  He opened his mouth, but then just closed it. He knew what would happen if he tried that. The elevator took us up to the eighth floor, the living quarters.

  The door opened, and Isabella already awaited us. She sat on a stool across the lobby. Two maid outfits lay nearly arranged on the floor in front of her, one clearly the Japanese maid outfit, the other the typical Western one. She gracefully motioned at them. “Dress up, boys.”

  I exchanged a glance with Takezo. “No,” he said.

  A smirk moved Isabella’s lips. “Come on, now, you would look great in it.”

  “Anyways,” I said. “What’s the plan for today? Hate to say it, but I’m dead tired.”

  “You should have slept during the trip. But you’re in luck, because I’ve got stuff to handle, and it’s been a long day. So, after you change and clean the dust all over the eighth floor, you are free to go to sleep. Takezo’s room is across the hallway from yours, and dinner will be served in about an hour.”

  The standard time of a delivery. I pressed the button for the training floor. “See you then.”

  “Oh, no, you did not—”

  The door closing cut off Isabella.

  Takezo looked at me, eyes wide in disbelief. “Is she always like this?”

  “Yeah. Hell hath no fury like Isabella on any given Tuesday.”

  He laughed, genuinely. “You’re actually right. Hell is quite calm and peaceful. Unless you’re one of the tortured souls succubi toy with, then you’re in for a really bad time.”

  Right, a demon born in Hell. He wasn’t guessing or imagining things. He lived there.

  The elevator took us to the training floor. Equipment lay scattered all over it, just like always.

  “I figured we could train for a bit,” I said as if it wasn’t obvious. “Yes, I told her I needed to go to sleep, and I wasn’t lying, but the beds were on that floor, way too close to her and the maid outfits.”

  Takezo nodded. He walked to the nearest set of dumbbells and kicked one up to catch it mid-air. “I need to pick a build though. Do you know anyone who has a general knowledge of magic? Perhaps someone knows what type of magic does the most damage to demons. Aside from the holy one, obviously, since I can’t exactly get that.”

  Oh yeah, I knew. I drew my phone and dialled Isabella.

  She picked up in an instant while I put it on speaker. “Got lost?”

  “Mistress,” I said playfully. “Takezo needs to pick a type of magic to focus on. He needs something that would be good at hurting Kallisto.”

  “He should be asking me that himself, on his knees, wearing the maid outfit.”

  “And if he did, what would you recommend to him?”

  “Lightning magic, black current focus. It sacrifices speed, control, and practicality to disintegrate whatever it hits. Perfect for spanking a bad demon princess. It also hurts the wielder, but he’s a filthy demon, so he’ll regenerate out of it.”

  I smiled. “Thanks. I hung up.” I turned to Takezo. “There, you’ve got your answer.”

  “I cannot choose my life’s path like this.”

  Okay. Shadow?

  Time froze, and Shadow appeared. He looked his usual, perfect self and evaluated me with a quick glance. “You look like shit,” he said.

  “I need a build,” I said. “For a friend, the dumbass that’s standing next to me. He wants maximum power output, so he could hurt a demon princess.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  He cocked his head, a smirk forming. “Which demon princess?”

  “Kallisto… how does it matter?”

  “Demon princesses each use their divinity differently. There are four of them: Selise, Dark Alexandra, Light Alexandra, and Kallisto. No magic works on Dark Alexandra, so she doesn’t matter, but you want fire against Selise, steel against Light Alexandra, and lightning against Kallisto. The black current variation, to be precise.”

  I frowned. That was an awful lot of details, very much unlike Shadow’s usual answers. He also had the matter-of-fact tone, the this is obvious one, so he wasn’t guessing or making stuff up. He knew. “How does one fight a demon princess that’s immune to magic?”

  “She’s not immune to it, just too good at it to be meaningfully contested. The easiest way is to cut the bitch in two with a greatsword. But she’s not the one you are having problems with right now, anyway.”

  “Great, thanks. If I materialize you via the system skill, can you tell this to Takezo?”

  “Nope. Can’t talk when summoned.”

  Figured. “Unfreeze time please.”

  “Please? Really?” He rolled his eyes, and time unfroze. “Pathetic.” The last word hung in the air as he vanished.

  There was no winning with these people. I smiled at Takezo. “I talked to my System agent, and he also told me the black current variation of lightning magic is the correct thing to get against Kallisto, specifically.”

  “Specifically?” He narrowed his eyes. “How did that conversation go, precisely?”

  I shrugged. “He told me about the four demon princesses, and what type of magic to use against each.”

  “Do you have the skill to materialize him?”

  I focused on using the agent materialization skill. Shadow appeared, the world darkening around us as he did, as if all the world’s light dimmed in his presence. “There,” I motioned at him. “I don’t know if you can see him.”

  “I can,” Takezo said, theatrically shaking his head. “This explains a lot. But anyways…” He drew his katana. Black lightning sparked around his blade, turning the entire sword midnight black. “He will make for a great sparring partner. Once your agent runs out of summoned time, we can use mine. He will also work. Our goal is to forcibly move him.”

  Shadow said nothing, just snorted, as if saying, Good luck with that.

  Well, we were going to try. I stretched, fished the steel gloves from my pockets, and put them on. We circled around Shadow.

  The spar went exactly as all my previous spars with Shadow, except now it wasn’t just me that got pummeled. Takezo shared it with me, completely unable to get past Shadow’s jab.

  We fought him both at the same time, because it didn’t make a difference. It made for excellent practice though, because Shadow hit us just light enough to not cause any damage, and moved in a way we could imagine Kallisto would.

  He had the speed, the strength, the agility, but most of all, he had skill. He could counter every move we tried and simply jabbed at us in combination with withdrawn strikes. On the plus side, he did somehow mirror Kallisto’s stance and general style, because I very much doubted Shadow ever threw a roundhouse kick. She loved using those though.

  We lasted for a couple of hours before we pretty much collapsed to the floor with exhaustion.

  Shadow vanished, visibly amused.

  “Fuck,” Takezo squeezed out of himself. “Your agent is an asshole.”

  “Yeah.” I got up and helped him to his feet. We stumbled into the elevator. It took us up.

  Once again, Isabella awaited us in the lobby. This time, she had a table there. She sat on it, legs crossed, phone in her hands. On the floor underneath her lay two dog bowls, one with my name, the other with Takezo’s.

  Each bowl held multiple packed meals, clearly delivered from a nearby restaurant.

  Takezo glanced at me with the typical, she cannot be serious look.

  Oh, yeah, she was. I just walked to the table and picked up the packed food from the bowl.

  Isabella graced me with a smirk. “You could eat it as prepared.”

  “Or not.” I put the boxes on the table next to her and opened them up.

  Her hair shot out and lashed me over the back like a whip. I grunted a bit upon impact, but I was too beaten up already to care.

  Takezo copied my move, suspiciously examining the steak and the burger that hid in the boxes.

  “So, how was training?” Isabella asked pointedly. “Ready for a long, intense night?”

  I snorted, biting into a steak like a savage, ignoring the plastic silverware packed in the box. “Totally. Ready to run a marathon.”

  She lashed me across the back again, weaker this time. I still grunted. “You two are completely unsatisfying.”

  “It’ll be better tomorrow,” Takezo said, munching on the burger. “Just need a bit of rest.”

  “Oh, it definitely will be better. I’ll make sure of that.”

  We finished the meal, which, in spite of being cold, was actually pretty good, definitely from one of the better steakhouses nearby.

  Afterwards, I retreated to my room while Takezo vanished in the guest room.

  I finally peeled off my jacket and collapsed face-first onto the bed.

  I slept so deeply I missed my own nightmares.

  Morning arrived like a horse kick to the head.

  I woke up in darkness, my jaw fused to the pillow with a resin of dried sweat and drool. There was an extra weight around my neck. I sat up, head spinning from lack of blood, fingers finding cold steel links and a black polymer buckle that bit the skin at my Adam’s apple.

  Shock collar. Again?

  I staggered to the mirror, crazily lightheaded, and studied myself: bleary eyes, stubble on its last legs, and a lump just under the earlobe where the collar’s prongs pressed in. Different model than last time, though not by much.

  I also looked different. Had a different haircut, and I didn’t remember shaving. No sign of my beard remained though.

  So, not only did she drain my blood the entire night, but she also got a new shock collar for me, cut my hair, and shaved me. I didn’t know if I should be pissed or impressed. I dressed up in a T-shirt and shorts.

  When I walked out of the room, I saw Takezo already waiting for me.

  He stood in the hallway, dressed in running shorts and a compression tee. His collar looked extremely familiar. My old collar.

  That brought a wicked smile to my face.

  Takezo frowned at me. “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  The elevator opened, and Isabella walked out. “Have a nice run, boys. Peter knows the track, so just add the train station to it. I’ll make sure you keep up the pace.”

  With a grunt, I entered the elevator. Takezo looked like he had a whole lot to say, but instead, he simply followed me inside.

  The elevator took us down, and we ran. That brought a melancholic smile to my face. So much better to just run around with a shock collar than to be tied up in a Japanese prison cell.

  Takezo didn’t seem to be having fun though. He glowered for the first half an hour, and then he started dropping pace.

  The collar instantly shocked him, forcing him to speed up.

  Right… he might have a demonic nature, which did make him tougher, but not all that much. As far as I knew, he didn’t put any points into endurance, and willpower was great and all, but it didn’t help one run with a shock collar.

  Of course, Isabella knew all that, so I suppose she offered him a chance to impress her.

  After making it about two-thirds of the way, the collar shocked Takezo unconscious. I lifted him up over my shoulder and ran while carrying him. I even managed to maintain a sufficient pace to not get shocked.

  I returned to the mid-rise covered in pleasant sweat. My lungs burned a bit, but all the tiredness had waned from my mind. Takezo hung over me, completely out.

  I took the elevator to the pool floor, but immediately behind the door, Isabella awaited. She wore her usual outfit, just with a designer belt instead of the chain. She measured us with a satisfied smile. “Well, I am not impressed. Go change into a suit. I’ll accommodate Takezo on the fourth floor.” Her hair shot out, grabbed him, and raised him up as if he weighed nothing.

  We entered the elevator. First, we went up, and I went to change.

  I wondered what Isabella was going to do to him. Probably something that looked scary, but was completely harmless. Or she would stuff him into an iron maiden for failing her.

  That wasn’t my problem though. I needed a bath, but I was clearly not going to be given time for that.

  So, I changed into the new suit prepared for me. It looked exactly like the old one, a black suit with no branding. I got matching shoes, a white shirt, and a black tie. The materials felt decently comfortable, and I started wondering if she didn’t simply order fifty sets of these outfits when she took me in.

  She totally did. And when I needed an anti-radiation suit, she ordered twenty of those. The only unique pieces of my equipment were my gauntlets and helmet. Those kept repeating. I left them both home though.

  Arranged, I took the elevator to the fourth floor.

  Isabella was just returning to the elevator herself.

  In the distance, I saw Takezo hanging unconscious, held in chains, straight above an open iron maiden, which looked ready to spring close if he only dropped a few inches lower to get into it.

  I rolled my eyes. Of course, she had an iron maiden.

  “Impressed by my creativity?” she asked cheerfully as she joined me in the elevator.

  “Knowing you, that’s like a six out of ten.”

  She drew a sharp breath.

  “But the shock collar run was a solid nine. You knew he couldn’t make that run.”

  That made her smirk.

  Good. When she smirked, things were going well.

  We reached the garages, where Isabella led the way to her Ferrari. Not the car choice I had expected, but certainly one I didn’t mind.

  She got behind the wheel, and I slipped into the passenger seat.

  Now, this was a real car. Comfortable but sharp seats at the same time, and the board looked more like a plane’s cockpit.