... with just a few more questions.

"What am I paid in?"

Lily let the question hang in the air until she cocked her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

John sat upright on the bed as he spoke. "Well, I've seen a few more of those Hate contracts, with offerings of land, soul gems and other things... what about the regular contracts?"

Wait, he was able to...? Lily put aside the question; if anything, it just showed how remarkable her potential new Master was. "Why, more soul gems, of course! That's how I was able to estimate your bounty's rating," she explained with renewed confidence. He's considering it... that's a good sign, right? Right?

"What can I do with soul gems?"

... eh? "Uh... um, well, you can... buy things?" John scratched his chin, unimpressed. "I-I mean, we're told humans crave paper reflections of what their governments claim to be the wealth of nations, and even accept them in the form of yet another third-party representative, either as plastic or in electronic digital values, and all until said government lowers or wipes the value at a whim... s-so soul gems are at least worth more than all that, right?"

"That's..." John paused, narrowing his eyes as he looked off to an unseen horizon. "... oddly true, when you put it that way... but I can't buy a soda with a soul gem, now can I?"

"Soda? I'm not sure, Master, but I'm sure you can find whatever you need in one Kingdom or another."

<John Newman,> Alysa whispered in his mind, <on this point alone, I can concur with the demon. Soul gems are a precious commodity, universally recognized, traded... and sought, often to the detriment of their possessors. The Houses of my people would be naught but empty halls without the flow of souls.>

Interesting. I already used a few to help make my equipment, but if they have other uses as well... "But how do I get to a Kingdom," John continued, waving his hand to the distorted room, "when all I can do is make barriers like this one?"

Lily's frown was almost pitying. "Um... but we're in a barrier; you're already in a Kingdom!"

"The Kingdom of my mom's bedroom?"

"Well, no... I-I'm not really trained in identifying Kingdoms, Master, but barriers are..." She rubbed her head as she muttered. "Oh... how do I explain this with boats...?"

"Just tell me literally, and I'll let you know if I get lost."

"Well, a barrier is... just that. It's a barrier between your world and ours... except it is also of your world and ours. You come in from one side of the barrier," she slowly explained, "but you could always go out the other way instead of returning to your world... if that makes sense?"

John rubbed his chin in contemplation. "So barriers are kind of a checkpoint between the human world and everyone else..."

"I don't know what that means, but barriers are also how people travel between Kingdoms, not just the human world."

John rubbed his head. "So they're... portals, just with a certain amount of stuff inside-"

"Oh no, Master, portals are bound to the dimensions of their creating Kingdom or universe-"

"Right, that's... enough for me to comprehend, for now." Lily quieted down. Of course, parse the false reality doesn't actually tell me how to go out the other way... "Then what's the catch?"

"Huh?"

"What's the price I pay for all this? Do you expect me to get branded to join, or wear something that keeps track of me?"

"Oh no, Master! We'd never do anything like that!" He remained unconvinced. "Please understand: we expect the rewards to be enough, generous as they are. The Extinction Kings only want the powerful and ambitious, in any case: they're normally very rigorous in their qualifications testing, since we give our hunters access to our resources- b-but Master already proved himself by fulfilling a Hate contract, of course, so you don't need to worry about the tests!"

"... What kind of resources will the Kings give me?"

"Um... me, Master," she whispered.

"Oh..." Lily's face dipped a bit more. "I mean, that's great and all! I just thought it might be something to help me hunt."

"It wo- I would! I'd be your secretary, Master: if you're licensed, I'll be given full access to our bounty database, and tell you all you need to know that we can provide to help fulfill contracts!"

John still had so many questions, most of which he suspected were beyond this secretary's pay grade... presuming she was paid. "Wait, are you being paid for this?"

Lily blinked at John for a moment, and then grinned with her pearly whites.

"That's... not an answer..."

Blushing, she simmered down to a nervous smile. "I-I... just want... umm..."

John had already peered into her mind enough to know what she couldn't say. She wanted him to want her; she probably considered that her payment. A more pitiful state John struggled to imagine, but the last thing he'd do is risk taking away what apparently made her happy. "Well, I want you," he finally declared, "so if there's really no other expectation..." Lily's eyes glimmered as she looked up to her salvation, her new Master, the ticket to an eventual return in glory and additional DR (Demonic Resources) benefits. "... I accept."

"Yes-!"

The Bell exploded in a brilliant nova of dazzling prisms of light, each refracting and twinkling in the air as if frozen mid-flight from the starlight of the bell's earlier point of existence. John had recoiled, covering his eyes on instinct until he realized the shards of metal had ceased to exist. He caught sight of one of the larger pieces of floating, spiraling glass.

Magical item: network prism (grade B). A shard hewn from a massive crystal information network. Can be inserted into appropriate mediums to create an effective access terminal.

"What the Hell?!"

"JOHN NEWMAN. THE ASPIRING HUNTER. THE PARAGON. THE GAMER." At that, John finally risked staring into the light... and there he saw it, a glint of blue-hued metal, a dome, and below it the two glowing points of blue fire. Horns sprouted from the sides of the skull of supernatural metal, and it was the skull's voice that spoke. The voice crawled inside John's ear, squirmed inside his head with the writhings of worms, and he felt like he could **** from the swelling in his cranium. John would remember that voice and visage for the rest of his life. "WE ARE THE EXTINCTION KING. WE ACCEPT YOU INTO OUR RANKS. WE EXPECT MUCH OF YOU. YOU WILL NOT FAIL US."

John's voice was caught in his throat. There was an intangible pressure on his neck, as if some **** were wrapping around it, constricting and **** him. By the time he managed to croak out something like a protest, the shards were no longer idly floating in the air; instead, they all turned their pointed edges... to face Lily. John reached his hand out, summoned a tunnel in front of her to shield her from the attack-

Tunnel spell countered.

What-?!

Lily's eyes were wide and confused. "Masters? I don't under-" The first and largest of the shards shot forward.

A wet noise, and a crack. Her glasses, broken in two, fell to the ground, followed by a spew of black blood and brain matter onto the carpet.

Horrified, John fired a heal monster without thinking, to try and save the twitching body of-

Heal monster countered.

No... why... John screamed, leapt up to his feet to attack the image of the skull, to hope that he could reach through, and began to cast ruin as he neared. The green energy flickered on his fingertips as they drew close to the azure steel of his enemy's eye sockets, empowered with the supreme nature of a paragon spell... until his fingers began to shred at the tips.

Ruin reflected! Ruin deals 1,810 unaspected damage to you!

The undoing of his flesh crawled up his arm as a darkness swept up behind it, consuming him to the bone, shooting agony up his body as it threatened to overcome him. He was going to die; the messages at the corner of his eye confirmed it, and the entire interface began to flicker as his future vanished-

"EXTINCT." It was a spell. It was a command. It was a truism.

His will was done.

John had seen and heard... all of it. He knew he witnessed it, and his throat ached with the memory of screams, and his arm felt oddly heavy, now that it existed once again. His fingers, restored, twitched with life. The flurry of damage and **** pop-ups still hovered there, though now each read that same, never-before-seen message:

Error. Unknown cause. You may close this window to continue.

He stared blankly at Lily, who fell to her knees... and groped the floor for her glasses, which were quickly found. They were undamaged. Lily put them on her unmarred face. There was no blood, no brain matter, anywhere. She slowly stood and peered about, obviously confused... and then smiled as she bowed to the Extinction King.

She didn't remember anything. John stared, horrified. What... happened?

"THIS IS OUR POWER, GAMER." John didn't dare turn towards the voice. "THIS IS THE POWER OF EXTINCTION. THIS IS WHY WE ARE INDOMITABLE. THIS IS WHY WE ARE IN CONTROL. YOU ARE A PARAGON; YOU ARE BEYOND ILLUSIONS. THIS IS GOOD; THIS MEANS THAT YOU WILL NOT FORGET OUR POWER. LET IT BE A REMINDER: TO SERVE US IS TO BE REMEMBERED. TO TURN AWAY FROM US IS TO BE FORGOTTEN. TO BETRAY US IS TO NEVER HAVE BEEN AT ALL."

The image faded, and the bell was once again sitting on the nightstand, projecting Lily's PowerPoint on the wall.

Lily rubbed her temples and winced. "Huh... I... I think... yes!" She leapt in excitement. "I have a direct connection to the Extinction Kings bounty network, Master! I'm not sure how though..." She continued to smile as she rubbed the front of her head... where, only a moment ago, a massive shard of glass had blasted through.

John slowly realized the creature's meaning... and an idea of what his power could be. If I'm right... then this guy is... way beyond me. Beyond Brighton... maybe even beyond Wentworth.

"Welcome to the Extinction Kings, Master!" Lily happily cheered. John eyed the bell for a moment before scooping it back into his inventory. His grim expression brought Lily's spirits back down to earth, and she trailed behind him as he walked towards the exit for the parsed world. "I-Is everything alright, Master? Would you like a list of bounties for tonight?"

"Maybe later, Lily," he muttered. "I... need a bit of time back on Earth, for now."

She nodded with a determined smile. "Take all the time you need, Master; I'll be here for you the moment you need me-"

"You can't stay in this barrier," he interrupted. He looked her over, and eyed the school logo of the shirt she was wearing. "There's no way I can take you anywhere near the Academy, either... or anywhere in this town, if the frequency of magical weirdos is any indication. You should stay in my house until we can figure something out."

"Eh?" Lily started to sweat. Brenda Newman's hungry smile came to mind, and the succubus began to fidget nervously...

"You're..." John lifted her bangs up, and confirmed that not so much as a scar remained of the earlier attack. "... feeling OK, right?"

"O-Of course... it's just..." She shivered under his analysis, and it wasn't until he got another message regarding her essence that he withdrew his hand.

Christ, I can't even touch her safely! "What's wrong? I don't think they'd attack me at my house... not with my mom there, anyways."

"... Y-Your mom lives there? Then, every moment I'm there would be..."

John smirked, and patted her lightly on her head.