With her hesitation to answer, Silver had time to think about it. Demons surely wouldn't be idle about monsters massacring them. He doubted this was the first case.

Steelar gulped. "I can do that." She knew one or two demons she could ask for help. They were highly regarded and strong, she was sure they could cooperate with her. All she needed was to ask them in an unsuspicious way.

Silver waved his hand, letting her go. "Fine, let's hope you know how to keep your word."

The demoness watched the psychic for a bit. She was sure this was the power Eclipse spoke of. It enveloped her with no means of escape if he would grab her tighter, he would surely snap her bones with ease.

"I'll gather anything you need, just let me continue with my hunting."

"Here we go again," Silver let his voice sound a bit funny as he rolled his eyes. "Back to assaulting citizens."

"She didn't hurt anybody," Amy noted. Why did he have to pick on others so much?

"First, we have just her word. Second, that can be easily fixed."

"Are we arresting people for maybe too?" Amy couldn't help to be sassy.

Silver growled. "Because most of our race don't behave like wild animals?" He wasn't letting her have it her way.

Amy's eyes were a bit ajar. She couldn't think of a counter.

The psychic sighed. "Do you want our trust?" he asked the demoness.

She nervously fidgeted. "Yeah."

"What for you need the negative energy?"

Steelar's left eye twitched. "You don't know?" She looked at Eclipse, hoping a bit to bounce the question on him.

The small demon scratched in his quills.

Amy answered instead of Eclipse, "I actually never asked. It kind of felt Eclipse may tell me only because of the collar." She hid her hands behind her back. "I didn't want to force him or feel forced."

"But I'm not asking him," Silver pressed forward. His cold amber eyes were piercing her.

The demoness fidgeted. She didn't want to answer.

"So much for trust," the psychic noted, and he would recapture Steelar if Eclipse didn't step in.

"We will die if we don't eat that energy!" he shouted, bringing the attention to himself.

"So it's food." It was like Silver suspected.

Eclipse shook his head. "Not only that, it means more for us."

Silver gestured him to continue, and the demon did so without hesitation.

"Our bodies are unstable! It will collapse if we don't consume negative energy. Human's bodies can regenerate it over the time, but not ours."

This was an interesting piece of information. Demons bled like any other creature, so he never thought their bodies could be different.

"Do you use it for anything else?" His eyes went to Steelar.

This time she answered, "We want to free our Creator."

"And spread the eternal chaos all over the world when you will be at it, right?" Silver sarcastically noted. "It figures."

Amy wasn't paying Silver much attention as her head got full of swirling thoughts about Eclipse's recent behavior. She came closer, gently cupping his hand.

"Is this the reason why you changed?" She looked into his eyes, pleading for an answer. "Why didn't you say so? We would find a solution together." She felt guilty for not figuring it out or not asking him more.

The psychic rolled his eyes. This started to look like a cheap soap opera.

Eclipse averted his eyes. "I just... thought I would disgust you. Feeding on your kind... on someone like you..." He balled his cupped hand to not scratch her. "That there is a monster next to you..." he silently mumbled, and it wasn't a lie.

That's how he felt. She gave him so many pleasant moments, he thought feeding on her kind would make her uneasy.

"Did you... try to fit in?" Amy put her hand on his cheek and moved his face in her direction.

"I suppose... something like that," he whispered with lowered eyes.

He felt ashamed he messed it up. He wasn't trying to mimic her kind just for his missions. The world where she lived captivated him, and he wished to share the same space with her. There were parts of her daily life he wasn't fond of, like clothes shopping, but most of the time it was full of colors.

It was a vastly different world from his home. Mortals were nice to each other even if the didn't know each other that well. Saying 'Good Day' to a stranger. He found it unusual. However, he realized those two words made his day brighter even if he was still timid with his answers.

"You little fool." She hugged him, petting his quills.

Eclipse returned the hug, feeling safe.

Silver tapped his feet in an impatient manner with his hands crossed. He still kept his eye on Steelar, but she was watching the duo too closely to have any ideas about escaping. The psychic snorted, clapping.

"That's all nice and good, but we still have an itsy-bitsy but absurdly important problem to solve." His voice was resonating with sarcasm, but it spoke the truth.

Amy let go of Eclipse, and with a bit forced smile she turned back, her hand holding her partner's one.

"Can you elaborate?" she questioned him.

"If we assume Steelar here..." he folded his hands behind his back and firmly pronounced her name.

The demoness twitched, visible lowering upon hearing her name. It was giving her shivers. Every time he called her she felt growing anxiety and danger of getting bound to him.

The psychic continued, ".. will keep her promise and gathers some information, how will she let us know?"

Amy's eyes widen. Why didn't she think about it? This was indeed a big problem and flaw in her suggestion. She felt Eclipse pressed her harder, and with one glance she noticed he started to bite his thumb. He was desperately trying to figure it out.

Silver barked, startling all of them, "Seriously!" He ran a hand through his quills. "I swear this is the stupidest thing I have ever done!"

He stomped towards Steelar that backed up, falling on her bottom. She crossed her arms in front of her, expecting pain.

"Get up, I'm not getting backache because of you!" Silver ordered her, his patient was running short.

The demoness quickly spurted on her feet, but she kept her posture lowered. Amy and Eclipse were looking at them worried. Neither of them had any idea what could Silver have on his mind.

"This should better pay off," he grumbled, reaching inside of his uniform. "Take these!"

He offered her about five small papers. She quickly and nervously accepted them. Their surface was a bit rough, but they still looked like any other paper she saw before. She looked at him puzzled.

"I have no illusions about your writing skills," he was brutally blunt. "And those aren't normal papers."

Amy and her demon came a bit closer, still holding their hands. No matter how they looked at it, these papers seemed to be ordinary.

"Pour inside of them your inner energy," he simply instructed.

Steelar better listened to him. She slightly inserted her inner energy, watching what it would do. To everybody's surprise, the paper started to glow.

"Perfect, I guess you will be able to use them."

"I never saw such paper," commented the spectacle Amy. "What it is used for?"

The psychic smirked a bit. "You couldn't have seen it. These papers are distributed only to S-Class agents, you are still just a trainee." He added a smirk at the end. "Their manufacturing is a very complicated process, so don't you dare to mess up your reports."

The demoness hissed and jerked. She already hated this guy. 'Can't he stop being a jerk for a second?'

His eyes darted down, and a big smug appeared on his face. "I'm glad you figured out the function."

All eyes looked at him before they moved their attention to that glowing paper. There were words on it.

"What?" Steelar shrieked, dropped the papers and jumped back. Her very thought was recorded on it.

"How's that possible?" gasped Eclipse and Amy at once.

Silver silently giggled, amused by their reaction. "Amazed? You should be." He picked the papers with his power. "This is the result of long years of the research." He bared his teeth, strengthening his grin.

"Pour your energy inside, and your next thoughts will be recorded. Watch for space, it's limited." He sent her the papers back, and she unwillingly accepted them. "Then end the message by thinking 'Roger', and the message will be immediately sent to the headquarters."

"It sounds so amazing." Amy was honestly impressed.

Master Tikal told her about many different weapons or tools The Order was using. There were items like weapons capable of channeling the inner energy, clothes providing a defense against ordinary weapons or bad weather, or cloaks capable of masking their bearer.

She also showed Amy healing charms in the action when they visited a village that was just recently hit by a flood. The lass spent many nights studying how to make them. The most common type was for defense from demons, and she already memorized about ten inscriptions. However, writing them in the time of need was another task she still had to master. So far she only succeeded trice in completing the circle under two minutes limit without a mistake.

"Yes, it is," Silver was again delighted she was enthusiastic about his small lesson. "And so," his voice turned darker, "don't you dare to mess up. Or I'm going to hunt you down, and no hole will be too deep for me."

"Silver," Amy rebuked him since Steelar once more pressed herself against the roof. "Stop terrifying her. I understand those pape-"

"That's not it!" he barked back.

She jerked, silenced.

"Each paper can be tracked to the owner, namely me. Now imagine if somebody, anybody sees a demon using some glowing paper. What do you think they will think?"

"I..." She had no idea what to answer.

"One way or another it will be investigated, and soon they will find out those were my papers." He silently sighed. "They are meant for an emergency. Giving them away is a serious problem. Now the new holder is a demon, what conclusion it can have?"

Amy felt small under his sight. "That could label you a traitor," she silently mumbled.

"Exactly." He crossed his hands. "That's why you can't mess up." He once more looked into Steelar's eyes. "If anybody will see you, every agent will be ordered to hunt you down, it won't be just me."

The demoness pressed the papers against her chest. "I understand," she answered, her voice unwavering.

Silver shrugged his shoulders and let them hang down. "This is definitely the worst decision I have ever made."

"I won't fail," Steelar said without being asked, "helping you will speed up my revenge. We both can prosper from this." She stood up.

"Alright. Except for us, there will be a few others who we will inform about you, including the head of The Order."

The demoness body shivered, and a cold sweat covered her. She heard many scary stories about the people at the top. They were the strongest, capable of killing hundreds of demons in a few seconds. While she knew this claim was exaggerated, their strength wasn't to be underestimated.

"I understand, can I go hunt now?" she carefully asked.

"Hunt?"

"Yes," she quickly added, "we always gathered the negative energy from mortals." A pang appeared in her heart. "This place is bursting with it, so we never had a problem to meet the monthly quota."

Amy quickly questioned her, "Are those hourglasses you mentioned connected to it."

Steelar nodded. "That's right. We fill it and bring back to Hell before the collection day."

"When is the next one?"

"Tomorrow's night."

Amy looked at Silver, and he immediately knew he didn't want to hear her.

"Will you help us to gather the negative energy?"

He just knew she would ask this. He bared his teeth.