They regrouped at dusk, near a half-closed bakery at the edge of the slums.
Sylen, her face still hidden under a draped hood, stood quietly in line before returning with a small bag of baked goods. Kess, crouched on the ground with arms wrapped around his knees, looked up at her with a grin.
"Think Rav caused trouble?" he asked.
"Think?" Sylen scoffed, handing him a piece of bread. "I'm sure he did. I really wanna see Tin Can's reaction."
They both chuckled, chewing in silence as the sun dipped further behind Crater's jagged skyline. It wasn't long before Kaiden and Rav appeared in the distance—Kaiden's face pure frustration, Rav's clothes stained with fresh blood.
Sylen snorted. "Oh yeah. That's the look."
Kaiden didn't say anything until they reached them. Then, as if the words had been boiling for miles, he snapped.
"Rav, I swear—I'll break your jaw, turn it into a mechanical hinge like mine, and use it as a wrench if you don't shut up."
For the first time, Kaiden truly understood what his old AI assistant must've felt dealing with his rambling.
"I can see you two have bonded beautifully," Sylen said, smirking.
Kaiden glared but moved on, explaining what they found.
"The gang has a hideout not far. About twenty men, maybe more. Armed but sloppy. We can hit it now."
He turned to Kess. "What about your end?"
"It's a rundown shop. We can loot it clean and no one'll care. Only one old man inside. I'd feel bad for him, but…" Kess took a bite of bread. "He's human. Probably wants to skin me alive."
Kaiden nodded. "Then let's do the hard part first. Me, Kess, and Rav hit the hideout. Sylen—you go for the diffuser. Grab anything else that looks useful, but don't push it. We want zero attention from the guards. We move in ten."
The Raid
The gang hideout was alive with noise—laughter, cards, and cheap liquor. Half-drunk guards lounged around outside, bored and careless.
Then came a child. Small, ragged, panting as he ran up.
"Guards! Guards are coming! Hide, quick!"
It was Kess, cloaked in illusion, his small frame selling the part perfectly. The gang cursed and stumbled, some running off to warn others, most rushing inside.
Knock knock.
An old man cracked open the door. "Who is it?"
"Amazon delivery," Kaiden deadpanned.
Kess lobbed a smoke bomb through the opening.
The room filled with thick smoke and cursing. Before they could react, Rav barreled in like a living siege weapon, body-slamming four men at once. Screams and panic followed.
Kess slipped through shadows, nicking knives off distracted gangsters and hurling them with lethal precision at anyone moving behind Kaiden.
Kaiden, with his mechanical arm surging, smashed through skulls and ribs like a battering ram—until he ran into something different.
A hooded man who hadn't moved. Not a single twitch.
Kaiden placed a hand on the guy's shoulder. "Don't worry. This'll be—"
The man grabbed his arm.
Mana surged—familiar, but wrong. Like demon mana, but smoother. More elegant. Controlled.
Kaiden's arm went limp.
"What the hell—" he began, before a punch cracked his nose.
Then another, to the chin.
"Death to the false king and his hunting dog," the hooded man snarled, leaping onto Kaiden and pounding his face.
"SAME SIDE! SAME SIDE!" Kaiden yelled, struggling. Blood ran down his jaw. The demon's face came into view—gray skin, sharp teeth, those unmistakable eyes. Definitely a demon. But... different.
"I saw you kill the injured ones," the demon hissed. "You're not our side."
Rebel, Kaiden realized.
He raised an arm to block the blows—just as claws raked across his chest, hitting something critical.
His core.
"That'll kill us both, you idiot!" Kaiden growled, panic setting in as his mana flared wildly.
"THEN DIE ALONE, SCUMBAG!" the rebel shouted.
Kaiden's only thought was survive. His right arm—limp, but not useless.
He overclocked it, dumped all remaining energy into a surge. As he grabbed the rebel's face, his mechanical arm exploded with a violent blast.
Both were thrown back. Kaiden hit the wall, gasping. His arm—gone. Sparks and smoke poured from where it once was.
Rav's voice rang out over the chaos, laughing. "Big boom from big man! Explosions are fun, right boss?"
Blood splattered across the room. Bones cracked. The remaining gang members—terrified—backed off. Only four left standing.
Kaiden stumbled toward the demon, steam rising off his shattered side. He grabbed the hooded rebel by the collar.
"Jackass. I almost died a second time because of you. And what is it with you demons and your martyr complex?"
He slammed the demon's head into the ground. Once. Twice. Until there was no more fight left in him.
"Clean it up!" he barked.
Kess and Rav finished the rest. One gang member managed to land a knife across Kess's ribs—but it wasn't deep. Still, it would scar.
Aftermath
By the time Sylen returned, the smoke had thinned and the blood had dried.
She stepped over a shattered doorframe, past broken bottles and bodies, into a half-collapsed den where the rest of the squad sat. Kess was bandaging his side. Rav sipped straight from a cheap bottle, cheeks red and grinning. Kaiden, now missing an entire arm, leaned against a wall with a bloodied cloth pressed to his face.
Sylen blinked.
"…What the hell happened here?" she asked, flatly.
Rav raised the bottle like a toast. "Family bonding!"
Kaiden didn't even look at her. "Rebel demon. Tried to kill me. I blew off my arm. Kess got stabbed. Rav's an idiot."
Kess added, "But we won."
Sylen looked around at the bodies, the broken floorboards, the embedded knives and bloodied furniture.
"I was gone for twenty minutes."
Kaiden tossed a rag onto the floor and sighed. "Welcome back."
Sylen plucked the bottle out of Rav's hand, sniffed it, made a face, and drank anyway.
"Y'all are lucky I came back after this circus."