I am no demon.

I felt a drain on my body. I guessed this was the cost of activating the new {Fates} I had. My soul count dropped by 300. So, the cost of the four new ones was exactly 300 souls. 

It was a novel feeling, like feeling different temperatures in your body all at once. Somehow, I knew which {Fates} belonged to Bella, and which were from Josephine and Jasmine. 

Aside from {Rewind}, I knew I had three more sets of {Fates} active. Isabella granted me {Code} and {Connect}. The former digitized some things I saw. The latter was unusable because we were in Hellsgate. 

Josephine's blood granted me {Listen} and {Interpret}. From the downloads, {Listen} let me focus my hearing, like a directional mic. The second seemed to… 

"Bella, talk to me in Brazilian." 

Her angry reply came less than a second later. "Fuck you, you racist bastard! I told you I speak Portuguese!" 

But it seemed different. Her "fuck you" wasn't in English, but I understood it as if it were. 

I turned to Josephine and made the same request. "Josephine, speak in Europe." 

"Speak Europe? I am from Sicily; there is no speaking Europe. I can speak in Italian if you want. Ehem… Hello, I am now speaking in Italian; do you understand me? What is your favorite food?" 

"I can, and it's fried chicken," I replied. 

At that point, Bella grabbed me by my shoulder and eagerly pulled me toward her. 

"Wait! You can understand her? You can understand Italian?" 

Her curiosity and surprise were obvious. But even Josephine, the skill owner, was wide-eyed. Why? Didn't she tell us about her skills? Before I could reply, Jasmine was the one who explained the matter to me. 

"We only taught you {Listen}. If we didn't teach you {Interpret}, it should not have activated. You are breaking the common sense of how {Fates} are loaned. The only way to learn everything about a {Fate} is to use saliva or sexual fluids." 

"Oh." Unsure if this was a big deal, I checked with Bella. She nodded her head like a headbanger at a rock concert. When I saw her expression, I wanted to tease her more. I stepped away and took a pebble from the ground. I threw it in the air like a baseball. 

With my gun trained on the small object, I focused my eyesight on the stone. Like I was using a pair of binoculars, I could now "zoom" my vision to the target. This was the effect of {Perceive}, a passive ability that granted superhuman eyesight. 

As the pebble flew in the air, in my eyesight, a white crosshair followed it. The crosshair was from {Perceive's} 2nd ability, {Aim}. I centered the pebble in the crosshairs and squeezed the trigger of my pistol. 

The bullet fired and followed the trajectory of the crosshair. It then blasted the stone into smithereens. It did so without my accounting for its rate of fall and all that shit. Satisfied, I looked back at Bella only to see her flabbergasted. 

I expected her reaction. I didn't understand why even Josephine was covering her mouth. Even the stoic Jasmine looked beside herself. Wasn't this ability from them? 

"What? Why are even the two of you surprised?" I asked in annoyance. 

Bella quickly grabbed both of my shoulders roughly. With me being taller than her, it looked weird, but her eyes were lit with a feeling I didn't expect. Fear. 

"Honey. I am now speaking in Portuguese. Can you still understand me?" 

I nodded without making a sound. 

Isabella was not easily frightened. This short woman could fight toe to toe with even Bigfoots with nothing but a knife and her body. For such an exaggerated reaction, I knew something was up. 

I heard someone unsheathing blades and drawing a bowstring without warning. Josephine pointed her weapons at me as she shielded her sister. Jasmine had a fully drawn arrow aimed at Isabella. The situation escalated at an alarming rate. What was going on? 

Josephine had a troubled expression while Jasmine's eyes looked sharp as a hawk. Bella pulled her knife and stood in front of me. Jasmine's stoic words brought the tense atmosphere to eleven. 

"John. No matter how good Isabella is, at this distance, I can send an arrow through her heart. {Aim} allows for such as it predicts the target's movements to a degree; you understand, right? If you value your lover's life, answer me. Tell me why a demon like you would save us?!" 

'Demon? What the fuck was this bitch going on about?' 

Before I could understand, my partner shielded me with her body. 

"Jasmine, calm down. I know what it looks like, but I can tell you that he is no demon. Honey bleeds blood just like the rest of us. He is a Wraith!" 

Josephine then shrieked at us. Her voice was no longer cheerful. 

"Then explain how he is able to use more than one {Fate} aside from his own! Reapers are only allowed one {Kindred}! This is why soulgears were created. A Reaper…even a Revenant can only have two {Fates} in their body! You betrayed us!" 

Ho? So, {Kindred} were the ones that reapers usually got their loaned {Fates} from. And normal reapers were only allowed one at a time. If my being a demon was the only reasonable explanation in their eyes, then I agreed with her assumption. 

"He learned {Fates} we didn't teach! I can understand if that is a fluke. But he used {Perceive} and {Listen}; if he has your {Code} and his own {Auto}, this man has four {Fate} families active right now! If he is not a demon, then what is he?!" Jasmine demanded. 

So, they believed my {Fate} was {Auto} with {Save} being an evolution. I could see what Bella withholding information looked like as well. With the information gap, the odds of their side winning against Bella and me were low. But how should I go about this? 

It seemed that being able to ingest multiple {Fates} broke the norms of the reapers. Josephine said she was from the EU battlefront. Isabella was from the South American one. So, my skills were not normal on either continent. 

I never considered them actual allies in the beginning, so I was not saddened by the distrust. I understood their reasons. But I did not appreciate someone threatening me. 

'Do not place your limits on me. If we cannot come to an agreement, then I will kill you right here,' I thought. 

My heart warmed at Bella standing up for me. But I could never become the top Reaper if I hid behind her for every little thing. With that in mind, I stepped forward. 

"You bitches got two things wrong. One, I am no demon. I died and came back like any reaper. My goal is to become the strongest Revenant and close Hellsgate." 

Right, if I already came from hell, there would be no need for me to die. I didn't plan to tell them about Roland, but I was sure I was not a demon. 

"Two, betrayal only works if both parties trust each other from the beginning. As a thank you for granting me your {Fates}, if you wish to leave, I will not stop you. But if you decide to fight, know that I will show you no mercy," I warned. 

I felt like this was becoming a bad habit. Well, what would happen if I became a worse asshole? I was already in hell, right? 

At that, Jasmine laughed uncontrollably. She lowered her bow, then asked her sister to stand down. Surprised, I couldn't help but wonder if I had said anything funny. 

Both women laughed at my serious goal. While it did defuse the situation, I couldn't help but get irritated. Unable to stop myself, I asked what they found so funny. 

"What? You guys think I'm making a joke?" 

Jasmine then stopped laughing as her eyes became sharp once more. Complex emotions clearly shifted in her mind, judging by the uncertainty in her gaze. 

"I do. You are either making a joke or are foolish to the point of insanity. Jo and I are 10th-generation Descendants. We have witnessed the Virtuous, His Majesty Clive, in combat. Even with such a powerful force of nature and the best European Reapers, our battlefront is stuck on the 39th floor." 

The black beauty from Italy then scoffed as she made a face, warped with anger. 

"You are too arrogant, you imbecile! A few tricks could help you. But claiming to close Hellsgate as a Formless is a delusion! The Formless are trash! And you wish to close Hellsgate? With what? Bullets? No true demon would be this stupid. Josephine, come, we're leaving!" 

Jasmine tried to leave, but her sister didn't follow. 

"Josephine? What are you doing?! We will die if we stay with them! Let's go!" 

"Jas, enough. Please stop," Josephine begged. 

"What? What are you saying?" Jasmine then grabbed her sister's forearm and tried to drag her away. 

Josephine began to shout in a frantic manner. 

"JASMINE DENEL! Wake up! We were born and trained to be Reapers for as long as I can remember. You and I tried our best. We did everything possible as humans. Yet when everyone found out we were Formless, we got disowned! Our own parents threw us into the streets!" 

Women were emotional creatures. The experience of dying likely left them all in a state of emotional instability. It seemed the stress became too much for her, and she couldn't take it anymore. 

'Right, now what?'