Zabaniyah slept soundly in his bed as Ixion occupied his desk, composed and dignified in his regal undergarments.
'Ah, what an eventful day it's been…'
A day so eventful he could mark two things off his No Regrets list. That being numbers 9 and 14.
Ixion unveiled the scroll, then put a little dash next to the ones he's completed, and added a mark by number 45.
'I was going to write more of my autobiography, but I've been gone quite a long time. I should probably pay darling Reina a visit! I wonder if she's worried about me?'
Ixion wound the scroll back up and then set it in a drawer.
Returning to the bed, Ixion lay down next to the assassin, trusting she'd wake up to even the slightest hostile disturbance.
He could have woken her up himself, but he decided against it.
'Even the strong need a break from this world sometimes.'
***
Ixion, in Vertias' body, stretched and cracked his joints.
He'd taken over the 'puppet' body a few minutes ago and had been working to get it up and running again.
There wasn't too much light left in the day, so he wouldn't be able to accomplish much, but he at least wanted to check up on that Artoris girl.
Having already found her in his soul form, all he needed to do was get there.
One minor issue, though.
'Why is she in the sewers?!'
Ixion knew why, but still!
Ixion sighed, and after a few more stretches, broke the wall he'd sealed himself behind and found his way through an abandoned storehouse as a few squatters screamed in fright.
After giving the onlookers a polite wave, Ixion kicked open the front door and stepped into the street. Within moments, several patrols rushed to the scene — only to find that the source of the disturbance was none other than the 'great' Veritas.
A not so eventful chase ensued, with the patrolmen doing their best to lose Veritas while pretending otherwise. Eventually, Ixion slipped away and made his way into the sewer system.
'Eh! This is fucking nasty.'
Dropping from a hatch, Ixion stood in the narrow corridor, with wastewater running just a half step below the platform, a good bit of 'matter' splashed on the smelly walkways.
Blocking the smell as best he could, Ixion traveled through the complex system. A system so impractical and unoptimized.
'Such is the fate of a city born from a village.'
Catatran saw very little planning in its initial staging long ago, which resulted in numerous blockades — blockades that later advancements in engineering could not easily resolve or workaround.
Traveling the poop maze to Reina took only a couple of minutes, but felt like hours.
'Was it here? Or here?'
Ixion closed his eyes and sensed the flow of Aether, then located the slight irregularity. By injecting his own Aether into that point, he would open a door leading to a hidden room.
Placing his hand against the wall, he began to feed it Aether. After a few seconds, a clink sounded, followed by scraping stone and the wall peeling away and flipping.
"How nifty!"
Ixion stepped past the breach and into the other side as the door sealed itself back up.
Immediately, Ixion found a spear at his throat.
"Reina, my dear. Can you tell your friend that I, the Great Veritas, am a friend? Also, why are you here? Do you like sewers? Kind of weird if you ask me. Oh, and—"
Nine people, Reina included, sat around a dimly lit candlelit table, pale faces turned toward Veritas and the man holding a spear.
Reina cut Ixion off.
"Stand down, Illium. He's an… ally."
Despite Reina's words, the long-haired man remained rigid for several moments before finally relaxing.
Reina sat up in her chair and slowly approached Ixion.
"How did you find this place, Veritas? And where have you been? I've been looking for you."
"Darling?! Did you not say to follow your orders? You told me to go back to the sewers, so I did. Anyway, I saw you nearby, so I thought I'd say hi! Hey, that rhymed!"
Reina rubbed her temples and sighed.
"No, it didn't."