“Unbelievable. Who do they think they are?”

A woman angrily strode down the city’s streets, occasionally slipping through into the alleyways, pausing occasionally to glance behind her. She blended in with the occasional group of people when she found them – the working members of the hunting organizations and the few locals that remained outside given the recent influx of less than agreeable tourists – but the white labcoat and the knapsack she wore on her back set her apart even before one got close enough to listen to her grouchy muttering. 

“Telling me to stay put while all of this is happening. ‘You must stay in the hotel until the labs are set up, ma’am. Wait with the rest of the science crews, ma’am. Don’t try to talk to the angels, ma’am.’ Treating me like I’m some kind of… [i]security risk[/i] after all this time.”

Some might say that she was skulking, sneaking where she might not be seen, but such observations would be wrong on all accounts. She strode – proudly at that – not skulked. Skulking was something those of sketchy morals and poor intentions did, and hers was a character as upstanding as any other.

“Doctor Kipper!”

A choking noise left the woman’s throat and she pressed herself against the alley wall. She blew at her black hair annoyedly as a stray lock fell over one of her eyes. 

From further ahead, the call repeated itself. “Doctor, we don’t have time for this!” The shout was followed by the telltale murmuring of conversation. Frustrated conversation at that. 

“Oh, are they annoyed at me? How rude of them.”

“Did you hear that?”

“Gah.”

The woman sucked a breath and began to retreat back into the alley. Of course, that was when another shout came from the alley mouth she had turned to. “Doctor Kipper! Where the hell did that woman get to this time?”

Cursing her luck, the good doctor glanced at her surroundings, searching for impromptu escape routes. Her eyes happened to alight on the wall she had been pressing herself against. The wall did not belong to a building proper, but rather separated the back-end of a large building from the rest of block, likely fencing off a garden or pool. It was just high enough that she thought she could scale it given the circumstances.
She pulled her knapsack off her back and swung it over the fence wall. The next moment she had jumped and grasped the top of the wall, pulling herself upwards with quickness that either revealed surprising strength or an alarmingly light body. Such was her hurry that she just about bowled over once she reached the top. 

The clumsy fall was thankfully cushioned by a soft bed of grass below. The doctor shuffled forward on all fours, grabbing onto her fallen bag before she paused to listen. With satisfaction, she noted the sounds of voices falling farther and farther out of her range of hearing.

Smiling brightly, she adjusted her spectacles, which now dangled loosely on the tip of her nose from the fall, and turned to look for the exit.

Of course, it was only when she turned to face the other way that she came face to face with the secluded garden’s other occupant. 

“Gah,” she choked out again at the sight of the hulking, black-scaled monster that stared back at her.

The creature shifted, turning its bulk to face her. The light played over the thick chains wrapped around its arms, jostling something deep in her memory, but her more immediate concerns lied on the canine grin the creature showed her.

She knew what it was, of course. The large, brutish arms capped with clawed hands, its lupine features, and the fur that covered its extremities, wisps of fire flitting over its surface made it plain as day. The skein of scars was typical as well, even if denser than she had seen before. It wasn’t the first time she laid eyes on a Hellhound – she had even spoken to some for crying out loud. 

[i]But since when do they grow that large!?[/i]

She jumped to her feet, holding her knapsack before her in a futile warding gesture. [i]Stay calm, stay calm. Oh, would those officers hear me if I scream bloody murder right now? Ah, but that might upset the friendly dog here. See, he hasn’t pounced yet. He’s just curious, curious is all. No need to panic.[/i]

The hound let out a low snarl, taking a step forward. She matched it with a nervous smile and a step backwards. 

“W-Why, uhm, greetings, friend!” she said, putting on her brightest smile while wide eyes scanned the surroundings for an escape. “I assure you it wasn’t my intention to disturb your sunbathing, o-or whatever you might have been doing out here.” There was the back door into the building itself, but that would require her to run past the hound. Beyond that, she could try scaling the wall again, but that choice was… 

Another growl-like grunt and another step closer interrupted her train of thought. “Please don’t eat me. That would be a problem,” she said lamely.

The hound ceased its approach. Its head rose, nose wrinkling as though something offensive reached its nose. She could not find it in herself to be offended by that. Then it spoke in a deep rumble, a sound like crumbling stone. 

“You would not make for a filling meal.”

“Ah,” she gasped, the relief almost making her drop her makeshift shield. She barely caught herself, hugging her bag tightly. “I am certainly glad I’m not up to your standards.” 

The hound grunted. “Yet you would not flee.”

“Would you have let me?”

The beast rolled its shoulders in a ponderous shrug. “It is bad form to take another’s quarry.”

She frowned. “A-another? But…” She wondered where that statement had come from. [i]Ah, though I suppose I am being ‘pursued’. Is that how it sounded to him?[/i] That would mean the answer was a simple no. 

He could have just said that.

In the moment it took her to make the connection, the hound had already stepped away, returning to where it had been lounging. She was more than glad to have some distance between her and the beast’s looming presence. Even when lying down, the hound’s head could meet her at eye-level. “Take your flight somewhere else, then,” it said.

Well that was that then. How fortunate was it that the one towering monster she had disturbed wanted nothing to do with her? On hindsight, perhaps she had taken too many liberties in her latest foray away from her working quarters. It would certainly be in her best interests to return before anything else happened.

This had been a good reality check, in a way.

Yet… now that her heartrate had slowed, she found curiosity overwhelming her concern. [i]This is a very rare opportunity, after all.[/i] 

“If I may ask… what clan did you come from?”

The hound’s gaze immediately focused on her, slitted eyes holding hers with a coldness that made her limbs shiver. Its gaze bore down on her with nary a sound, yet this kind of attention scared her, yet the gesture scared her more than the previous, snarling approach. She was all too aware of the reason. A beast’s growls and barks were warning signs, a message to trespassers and threats to leave or heel. It was a form of communication. 

[i]Yet there is no need to communicate with prey. A lone predator will stalk and kill in utter silence.[/i]

She found her lips curling into a disarming smile. “Ah, apologies,” she said past a parched throat. “I let my curiosity get the better of me. It’s simply that ever since Belial of the Fire Hell was dispatched you barely see any other Hellhounds. I imagine you came with Gomory?”

The hound continued to stare at her searchingly for a few more moments before the edge began to bleed from his eyes – and, she noted, the tension from his body. Finally, he grunted. “Hell’s recruiter and I have not had the misfortune of crossing paths.”

“No?” She hugged her bag tighter, thinking. “It would be amazing if you came with the Angels, but that’s more than unlikely, and I would have heard if there was a Hellhound working with Gilgamesh or the Demon Hunters. Which leaves—”

“—the Charred Council,” he finished for her. The dog scowled, as if displeased. “Accurate enough.”

Once again, she found herself mildly puzzled over his wording. [i]Accurate enough, but not entirely?[/i] “What does that mean?”

“Enough.” He grunted wearily. “What do you seek from me, cadger? You may know of my kind, but I have no interest in discussing how I came to be here.”

“Cadger? I’m not a beggar.”

“You have yet to prove otherwise.”

[i]He’s not wrong there, is he?[/i] “Right, where are my manners. I’m Samantha. Doctor Samantha Kipper, a researcher with Gilgamesh.”

“Humans take in your ilk?” The hound asked slowly. 

[i]Good nose.[/i] Her smile wavered before it reaffirmed itself over her features. The dog was poking at her. “Apparently!” she said happily, before she added. “Knowledge can open doors wherever you go. Now, you see, my work is one thing, but I have also taken to recording the events since the destruction of the first seal. Considering how this may well lead to the end of this realm, it felt important to have an account of what led to it.”

The hound let out a slow breath. “Why do you think this worthwhile?”

Samantha was thrilled to hear him ask. The hound may have been affecting disinterest, but the fact that he had not shooed her away spoke volumes.

“It’s an amazing chance to learn of, course! Already we have data on a mystery Demon with powers we don’t comprehend, and new Nephilim have been appearing left and right! They were supposed to be extinct! Well, expect for [i]you know who…[/i]” she coughed lightly against her knapsack, recomposing herself. “There is also the historical value of such an account. Perhaps it will prevent certain world-ending mistakes if someone reads them later on.”

“You must know, cadger. Those who should read such accounts, never do.”

Samantha frowned. There had been a surprising bitterness to that remark. [i]Also, that nickname is not going away, is it.[/i] “Perhaps. Still, there is value in history. In a world’s memory.”

The hound’s reply was silence. Not the kind of murderous quiet he had exhibited earlier, but rather the kind that made her feel the hound had held back another comment. It unsettled her. This was not the behavior she had come to expect from this one’s brutish ilk.

“In any case,” she said. “Even though I’ve been trying to record what is happening, my responsibilities tend to keep me away so I only learn what happened after the fact. Even today I had to stay behind at the lab while the meeting was conducted. Even though I helped make those graphs,” she added with some annoyance. “So a lot of what I write down is things I have been told by others.”

“You wish to ask me about what happened today?” The hound scoffed. “Find another. I am not needed for such a thing.”

“Oh, no need to worry about that. I got the details about what happened from my co-workers.” She gave him a conspirational smile. “That said, you are with the Council, aren’t you? You could have insights I couldn’t get from anywhere else. I want to ask about your take on this alliance um…” she trailed off. “What should I call you?”

The hound scowled. He lifted an arm from the ground, looking down at his clawed hand as though searching for something. “Fenn.”

[i]What, did he write it on his paw or something?[/i] Still, there it was again, that niggling sense of recognition at the back of her mind. Where had she heard that name before? “Fenn,” she repeated. “Your collaboration would be invaluable. If you speak with me, I’ll be sure to make it up to you somehow.”

“You are vague,” the hound rumbled. “Yet fortunate. Aye. If you truly wish to preserve this moment, I would speak.”

“Perfect!” she exclaimed, elated. Trying to keep calm so she would not startle the beast, she reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook and a pen. “I assume you don’t mind if I take notes?”

“So be it.”

“Good,” she said as she lowered her bag to the ground to free her hands. “We have an interview going, then. Let’s start from the top. What are your thoughts on this alliance?”

“Alliance,” the hound spat with displeasure, “is too generous a word for this convergence. Expedience governs the joining of forces. By that same token, expedience will govern their parting. It shall be… violent.”

“It is true that Heaven and Hell have been at odds for eons, with this realm caught in the middle. Still, the forces here have expressed a desire to protect the seals.”

“Truly? That begs the question, then. Why have they not cooperated from the beginning?”

Samantha blinked at the odd question. “Why, it would be an issue of trust, would it not?”

“Yet such issues were put aside when unexpected forces joined the conflict. The snake and”—the hound’s eyes narrowed imperceptibly—“the False Riders. It occurs to me, that this is not a matter of protecting the seals, but rather controlling them. A war waged with these places as the key territories. However, the designs of this new enemy run counter to that.”

“You think trust was never the issue, but rather that they have been waging their own war since the beginning?” Even as she said that, Samantha felt that she had said something idiotic. She was speaking of Heaven and Hell. Of course they were warring between each other.

Fenn, however, did not call her out on it. Rather, he frowned, as though the words were in fact worth contemplating. “Would it not be convenient,” he said slowly, “to keep this realm in this state? Such that it may be interfered with directly?”

Her hand paused from its dance over the paper. It was a concerning thought. Concerning in its deviousness, which could be easily attributed to Mundus and the like. Would the commander of the heavenly host also think in such terms, however? She had not been expecting conspiracy theories when she had asked to speak with this Hellhound. 

“I see,” she said. “Let’s be more specific now. What are your thoughts on the parties involved in this agreement? Let’s start with Gomory.”

“I have only seen Hell’s Recruiter from afar, cadger. It is difficult to say.” Fenn huffed. “She appears loyal to the Prince of the Underworld, however. It may be safe to assume her intentions are [i]his[/i] intentions.” He narrowed his eyes. “However, intentions change.”

“What do you mean?”

“Bringing about the End War had never been the demon prince’s intention, preoccupied as he was the domination of the realm of man over its destruction. I am inclined to agree, given what I have seen and heard thus far. However, whatever initial plans he had in store were likely scattered by the destruction of the first two seals. 

“Though the most well-known to this realm, he is not the only power within Hell. The ancient call of a burgeoning apocalypse has brought forth many of the Underworld’s inhabitants, ones he does not truly hold authority over. With the forces of Heaven responding to these incursions, it is not an option for him to abstain from this conflict.”

Samantha nodded. “You feel he has been dragged into this unwillingly.”

“Does the Prince seek to salvage the situation by preventing the destruction of the last seals? If more seals are lost, will he choose to destroy the last barriers between this world and calamity, to eke out Hell’s ultimate victory over Heaven? Does the Prince hold secret designs to bring about his desired end, or has he fallen to reactionary tactics, struggling merely to wrap his mind around the new players that have entered the battlefield?

“This sham of a truce makes me lean towards the latter.” A grunt. “I feel… ambivalence. We shall see if the Prince’s Hand is to be trusted.”

“What about the Angels that joined us? What about Kushiel?”

Fenn bared his teeth in something halfway between a smile and a snarl. “That one I have crossed path with twice. Twice we have tried to kill each other, though I believe he only recalls the latter. The little prince knows the face of his true enemy, cadger, and it is not the one we came to defeat. He has already sought to kill Council agents to claim a seal for his lord. The blame for the previous seal’s destruction lays at his feet.”

Fenn was supposedly working with the Council, so perhaps it should have been expected that he had a firsthand account of what had happened at the site of the last seal to be destroyed, but she still found herself surprised by the news. Surely there was more to be said about the bold claim the hound had given her, but she did not want the discussion to go on a tangent. 

“He did say he would continue his task on this realm once this partnership was finished,” she pointed out.

“Task.” The hound let out a slow, venomous laugh. “I fear that in his zeal, that one may attempt to do as his lord wills before the task is given. With the assumption, of course, that the will of his lord and the will he [i]expects[/i] from his lord are one and the same. Which begs the question, would he assume correctly?”

“You hope he betrays Him on accident.”

“No. I wish to see the choice of the soldiers who follow him, should such a thing happen. Would they awaken to the distinction in the end? Follow blindly, or turn against him? I wish to see the answer they present.”

“But why?”

The hound shook his head. “One should not justify desires, Cadger. You only draw eyes to the reasons’ obvious absence.”

Which she supposed was a convoluted way of saying he had no real reason to wish misfortune upon them, he simply did.

She hummed in quiet acceptance, deciding to move on. “How about the human organizations gathered here? Any thoughts regarding them?”

“None. You shall find it a common stance. Those they have agreed to work with care nothing for humanity’s fate.” He sniffed. “Ah, but I will amend myself. If they do, they care not for its freedom. If you wish to ask me of the groups in this island, I suspect you would know more. All I have seen of them have been the weaklings sent after me in the city of the second seal.”

Samantha made a note of that. Demon Hunters after demons in Barlour City. She would have to corroborate that piece of information with their liaison.

“What do you know about the demon, Vega? He is the one destroying the seals, so he must be the main focus of the Council.”

The hound shrugged. “It is as you say. It is all there [i]is[/i] to say. The snake’s ultimate goal is irrelevant to all gathered here, but his methods have marked him as the enemy.” He scowled. “I shall face him yet.”

“The false Riders must have also triggered alarm bells for the Council? Do you have any ideas what they seek?”

“No.”

“None at all?”

Fenn’s brows furrowed. “Twice have they been sighted. Twice was I among the party that met them.” 

The sound of scribbling intensified. It struck her again how fortunate she had been to find this resource. 

“It is… unclear, whether they act with a single purpose, or if separate factions exist among them. The first allowed the seal to be taken. The second enabled its destruction” He gave her a sidelong glance. “I failed to take the second’s life. I shall not fail again.”

[i]He went as far as to battle one of them?[/i] “What makes you so sure you’ll succeed the next time?” she asked.

“I was at death’s door when the battle started, cadger.”

“Ah.” She replied simply, her eyes flitting to the numerous scars covering his body. “You look all better now.”

He grunted.

“There is only one group left to discuss, then. What can you tell me about the Council’s involvement?” she finally asked, holding her pen expectantly.

Fenn, however, merely stared at her. Where before he had eagerly gone into a tirade for each question, now he simply eyed her silently.

“Um, can you tel—”

“The Council presents its own conundrum.” The hound interrupted, an oddly neutral cast to his tone. “Do you know when the Council gained the agents you see gathered here?”

“What?” she said, taken aback by the initiative being wrested from her so suddenly. “No! Shouldn’t I be asking that to y—”

“Do you know how many Seals of the Apocalypse they have come across? Where they have found them? Who sent for their recovery?”

“N-no, but—”

“Do you know where the true Riders of the Apocalypse are? Why it is us here, and not them?”

Mutely, she shook her head.

“Then you must bring these questions to others. Those who bear the mark of the Council.” The hound’s head drooped, resting it over his arms. “Begone now,” he rumbled.

Dimly, Samantha realized she had been dismissed. She opened her mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again, hummed, and bent to pick up her bag. Silently, she stuffed her writing material inside and brought it over her shoulder.

A hop and a wiggle over the wall later and she was back on the streets. One of the Gilgamesh employees noticed her then, and she looked on as the man rushed towards her. 

Her mind was still going over the last few moments she had spent with Fenn. [i]He gave me homework. Homework![/i] Below that thought was another, more unsettling one. The hound could have given an answer to those questions, yet he insisted the questions be brought to others. 

Had she been tasked with delivering a message? This she wondered as the security staff led her back to her quarters.