Jack took the sheets carefully, examining them briefly before folding them and storing them inside his armor.

{WE WALKED ALL THE WAY OUT HERE FOR PAPER?! PAPER?! JUST... PARCHMENT?!}

"That's all you need?" S asked, his expression unreadable.

"For now."

{I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS! DO YOU KNOW HOW HYPED I WAS?! I thought we were retrieving something IMPORTANT! Something MEANINGFUL! And it's just a REGULAR PIECE OF PAPER!}

Kyren glanced at the spear Jack carried, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Master has new weapon?"

"From Kaedor's vault. Cursed spear that drains demon life force."

"And you can hold it because...?" S asked.

"Because I'm not a demon."

{OBVIOUSLY! Which is why this makes sense for you but is COMPLETELY INSANE from any demon's perspective! Not that they're listening to me complain about PARCHMENT!}

Kyren nodded slowly, accepting the explanation without further question.

S remained silent, watching the exchange with that same unreadable expression he always wore.

Jack studied them both for a moment, then asked, "Any updates?"

"The generals are fighting over you like children arguing over a new toy," S added with obvious amusement. "Loryn thinks you're his perfect student, Kaedor thinks he bought you with a cursed weapon, and Rynath is probably planning how to use you for her intelligence network."

{They're not COMPLETELY wrong. You did take the cursed weapon and you're definitely gathering intelligence. You're just planning to kill them all afterward. Minor detail.}

"Good," Jack said simply.

{Seriously though, PARCHMENT? What are you going to do with it? Write them a strongly worded letter? "Dear Demon Lords, please die. Sincerely, Jack"? I'm dying here, well, more dead than usual, from curiosity!}

Jack's attention turned inward for a moment, focusing on the weapon in his hand.

'Oscar.'

{YES? Are you finally going to explain the parchment situation?}

'How did you end up in the spear? In this tower?'

The question seemed to catch Oscar off-guard, his mental voice pausing for the first time since they'd met.

{That's... a complicated question.}

'Were you a demon? A human?'

{I don't know.}

The admission came quieter than Oscar's usual commentary, lacking his typical sarcastic edge.

{I don't remember. Before I was Oscar the spear... there's just nothing. Like trying to remember a dream that faded the moment you woke up. I know I existed before this, I can feel it, but the actual memories? They're all gone.}

Jack said nothing, letting Oscar continue his thoughts.

{Sometimes I get fragments. Impressions of things that might be memories or might just be imagination filling in gaps. But nothing concrete. Nothing that tells me who I was or how I ended up as a cursed demon-killing weapon.}

There was a vulnerability in Oscar's voice now, the humor stripped away to reveal something more genuine underneath.

{I wish I knew. I wish I could remember if I was human like you, if I was a demon who got cursed, if I was something else entirely. But whoever I was before? They're gone. There's just Oscar now. The annoying spear who makes inappropriate jokes and won't shut up about your love life.}

'I'm sorry.'

{Don't be. At least I exist, right? Could be worse. Could be dead rather than a weapon. And hey, now I get to help you kill demon lords, which is probably more exciting than whatever I was doing before. Assuming I wasn't already killing demon lords. Maybe that's why I ended up like this. Karma for excessive demon-lord-slaying.}

The humor was creeping back, Oscar's defense mechanism reasserting itself.

{Though seriously, if we survive this and you figure out how to restore weapon-bound souls to their original forms, I'd appreciate the effort. Being self-aware metal is better than nothing, but I wouldn't mind having hands again. Or a body. Or the ability to eat. I really miss eating. Do you know how frustrating it is watching you consume food and not being able to taste anything?}

'I'll keep that in mind for later.'

{You better. This is a long-term partnership, human. You're stuck with me until one of us gets destroyed, so we might as well make it tolerable for both of us.}

Jack turned his attention back to S and Kyren, who'd remained silent during his internal conversation with Oscar.

They couldn't hear the weapon, couldn't perceive the exchange happening entirely in Jack's mind, but they'd clearly noticed his distraction.

"The timeline is moving forward," Jack said, with no explanation offered for his pause.

S nodded once. "Good luck Jack, I can't wait to see how it turns out."

"The experiment?" Kyren asked.

"Contained for now. Loryn's still working on the control mechanisms. Whether I release it or leave it trapped depends on how things develop."

{Wait, there's an EXPERIMENT? Why didn't you mention an experiment? What kind of experiment? Is it the fun kind or the terrifying kind? Please say it's both!}

Jack ignored Oscar's renewed excitement, focusing on the two demons in front of him.

"I'll signal when it's time," he said simply.

S and Kyren exchanged glances, some unspoken communication passing between them, then S nodded. "Don't get killed before then. It would be inconvenient."

"I'll try my best."

{Such emotional goodbyes! Truly moving! I'm not crying, you're crying! Except I can't cry because I'm a spear and have no eyes to produce tears!}

Jack turned to leave, the parchment secured inside his armor, Oscar's commentary providing an ongoing soundtrack to his thoughts.

He paused at the chamber's exit, glancing back at the three figures who represented his only allies on this floor.

"Stay hidden. If Pho discovers you before I'm ready, it'll complicate thingls."

"We're not amateurs," S replied dryly. "We know how to hide."

Jack nodded once more, then disappeared into the passage, leaving them behind in their hidden sanctuary.

{So we got parchment. PARCHMENT. I'm still not over this. Do you understand how anticlimactic that was? The mysterious journey, the secret cave, the hidden allies, and the payoff is PAPER!}

'The parchment is important.'

{Everything is important if you want it to be! That doesn't make it INTERESTING! Where's the drama? The tension? The ancient artifacts of power?}

'You're the ancient artifact of power.'

{Oh. Good point. I am pretty powerful. And ancient, presumably. And definitely artifacty. Okay, I feel better now.}

Jack emerged from the cave into the crimson twilight of Floor 24, Oscar still rambling in his mind about the philosophical implications of being an artifact.

The fortress stood in the distance, its black ice walls barely visible against the frozen landscape.

{You know what we should do tomorrow? After killing someone, I mean. We should find you a nice demon lady. Someone who appreciates a man who collects cursed weapons and kills demon lords. That's definitely a selling point in any relationship…}

'Oscar.'

{Yes?}

'Be quiet for a moment.'

{Why? What's wrong? Are we being followed? Is there danger? Do you need me to start planning stabbing strategies?}

Jack had stopped walking, his body going still. His red eyes scanned the area around the cave entrance, searching for whatever had triggered his instincts.

And then he saw her.

Rynath stood perhaps twenty feet away, her serpentine form perfectly still against the frozen landscape. She hadn't moved, hadn't called out, hadn't done anything to announce her presence.

She was just... there.

Waiting.

{Oh. That's not good. That's the opposite of good. That's bad. Very bad. The snake general who's supposed to be good at intelligence gathering just happened to be exactly where we are after leaving your secret base. That's VERY VERY BAD.}

Jack's mind raced through possibilities. How long had she been there? Had she seen him enter the cave? Had she followed him from the fortress? How much did she know?

But his body language betrayed none of his internal thoughts. He stood perfectly still, Oscar held loosely in his grip, his red eyes visible through his visor meeting Rynath's serpentine gaze.

She stared back, her expression unreadable, her scaled face showing nothing that might indicate her intentions.

She was just watching.

{Say something! Do something! This silence is killing me! Well, more killing me. I'm already dead. You know what I mean!}

But Jack said nothing. And Rynath said nothing.

They simply stood there in the crimson twilight, predator and predator, each one assessing the other, neither one willing to make the first move.

And still, they stared at each other deeply.

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