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"I'm going to remind you," Johnstone stated, "That this room is sealed. If you leave, I can promise you that, whether legal or no, someone will kill you. It would never be me. You aren't a criminal. But the point is, you're trapped with me. And if you're trapped, you should be productive. I like to live. I don't know about you." Johnstone smiled pleasantly.


I know how to handle him, old man. You've done good work on me.

"So how about you keep working on a way to kill it, and I'll keep working on a way to hold it still, and then we're done."

The ice shattered.

Jace threw a barrier around it, keeping the fragments from causing any injuries, and the Lucifex, which appeared to have shifted to a plasma as Rose had predicted, lunged at him. He threw a table into its path and it burned a hole through. Its smell was almost unbearable to Rose, and Victor was no longer able to see. Its mana was all over the room.

The bartender stood up - where had he been? - and frowned as he checked a pocket watch. "Enough of this. You've all passed your test and we've weeded out enough for the new recruits."

What-

He raised his hands. "Shall we, Malice?" He raised a handful of marbles and threw them to the ground. A dozen forms of energy rained upon the Lucifex, a thaumaturgic assault meant to wipe out dozens soldiers (or single Panzermagi). The Lucifex flared. "Aye, that seems a proper amount of time. You've five minutes to finish it off. It's highly weakened. You shouldn't have any problem of this."

Victor reeled back. He was blind again. This was bad bad badbadbadbadbadbadbadbad <********> not again the darkness ******** ******** ******** wasn't going to ******** give in now. Not now. There was a scout in the room - that had been a shock, though Victor had been kind of suspecting it - Victor would die if he started freaking out, and worst of all he would be damned if he was going to be weak in front of that Resurrected. Like he needed to give that b*****d another reason to be smug and superior.

"Someone tell me where it is!" he said, his voice much higher than he would have preferred. He swallowed and coughed. "I can't see," he said much calmer than before - much calmer than he felt. "I can't see, OK? Someone tell me where it is and I'll attack it with everything I've got. If that f - if the summoner is right, then my Shadow should disrupt it really bad and maybe kill it. Just...someone tell me where it is!"

As he spoke, his panic began to grow; it was impossible to stay calm the more he thought about the situation. And as his panic grew, his focus waned, and a Shadow spike burst out of the floor in the last place he remembered seeing the Lucifex, tearing through the floor and a table and piercing whatever was closest.

Victor was glad that Anolani had stopped her - once he lost his focus and his power got away from him, it was difficult to get it back under control without stopping it entirely. That was why he spent so much time and training on focusing his Shadow magic until it was intensely focalized.

She aimed him in the right direction. Victor was still full of nervous and skittish energy, so he simply pulled the leash of his power and felt a wave of tranquilizing satisfaction as waves of Shadow energy cascaded at the by-now-undoubtedly-turned-into-air-because-Johnstone-had-made-his-move-while-Anolani-and-Victor-spoke Lucifex.

The Lucifex struggled, but as it was divided by kinetics, wind, and its attempts to flee the waves of burning shadow magic, it seemed its strength faltered. It lost the resources it needed for powerful magic, until it simply... collapsed.

It was rather anticlimactic, really; parts of it burned out and dissipated until none were left.

"We're going to have to upgrade those," a voice commented from the door. "We can probably get some that have magic effects integrated." The shutters and other reinforcements had receded (save for one that was stuck in place because of a dent from a body hitting it).

"Meridias. And Captain Machillius. Thought so," Morgan commented, crossing his arms.

"This is Callyx Meridias, Demon-minor, head of security for the Dominator, for those who don't recognize him. I'm Captain Corbin Machillius, CO of the Dominator." There was a note of irony in the "bartender's" introduction.

A very large demon with purple-tinted chitin plates ducked into the room and greeted them. "Gentlemen. Ladies. Genderless. I assume you already have guessed what just happened?"

"The strong live. The weak die. You were strong. They were not." There was something chilling about how Callyx spoke. It was not just what he said, but also how he said it; this was someone who could not even conceive being part of "the weak." In the too-bright, oversaturated colors seen through the third eye, Meridias was veritably shining. "It's just how things work," he replied with a shrug. "How else were we to determine which of the candidates were fit for service on the Dominator and which of the crew was weak and had to be culled?

Victor froze in place, as did the others, he was sure. "Fit...for service? On...the Dominator?"

Now that was a big deal. That was something that Victor could work with. He settled back to listen to the offer.

Victor helped himself to a seat next to the Panzermagi. He was interested in learning the style, after what he had seen.

"Victor le Treu," he murmured, extending a hand. "I like what you did there. What's the trick, if I may?" He spoke quietly, listening to anything their new Captain might have to say.