They returned to the staircase, where the creature lay still, its head pressed against the ground. To Alex's surprise, it seemed to be sleeping.

  Samantha pulled a piece of chalk from her pocket and began drawing a circle across the stairs. It was smaller than the one they'd used for the initiation—maybe three feet across.

  "This is a basic binding circle," she said, sketching symbols around the perimeter. "We don't need to draw it, but you should start memorizing it. The symbols are Enochian. You should recognize them from your studies."

  "It looks familiar. I... saw it in one of my books. In fact... I can still see it now when I open the HUD."

  "Then," Samantha said, "I'm wasting my time. Anyway, let's do it."

  Alexander knelt beside the circle, examining the marks. He did recognize them: Gohia, Nazpsad, Graa. The basic command words that popped out often in Enochian books.

  "The circle is a cage," Samantha continued. "It is locked, but we want it to be locked to you. But the cage needs a lock. That's where your voice comes in. You speak the binding, and your will forces the entity to obey. Will it, pour enough mana, and it will be done."

  "Cool. I need, what, 40 points?"

  "For entities with this range of life force, yes." She finished the circle and stood. "The more, the higher the mana required. Which means you'd probably have to link. The first time around, it didn't work, you see, because you weren't fully initiated. Your will had to be even more concentrated. Now, the System will help, and there should be no issue whenever your mana is charged. Drawing helps if we charge and leave a bunch of spells active, like our wards."

  Sean called down from upstairs. "Marion! I have the report you requested. Come up, everybody. You need to hear this."

  They exchanged glances.

  Samantha rolled her eyes. "Anyway, come. We'll do the binding right after."

  They climbed back up. Sean had his laptop on the coffee table, screen facing out. A news feed played shaky footage from a helicopter: downtown Seattle, or what was left of it. Fires everywhere. Buildings collapsed. And hundreds of things moving through the streets.

  "The death toll is estimated at fifty thousand in Seattle alone," Sean said. "Nationwide, maybe a million. Worldwide... they've stopped counting. The country is a failed state by now. The President has disappeared, and so has half of Congress. The military is fully mobilized," Sean continued. "But they're not prepared for this. Bullets work on the smaller things, but anything bigger is hard to kill. Even artillery weapons are barely slowing them down."

  "Any news on other system users?" Marion asked.

  "Most are just scattered and confused. Of course, they don't know what they're doing yet. The few who've figured it out are trying to protect their immediate areas." Sean pulled up a Reddit thread with hundreds of comments, people describing the interface, comparing notes. "There's maybe ten thousand worldwide who've activated. Most are low level. I'm trying to contact and answer questions, but it's getting lost in the noise as of now. Your friends in Europe and Africa just set up a network. I'm sure they started to initiate people."

  "I see," Marion said slowly. "What about our plan? Has anyone contacted any high-level wonder with fresh access?"

  Sean narrowed his eyes. "Define high."

  "Level five or above."

  Sean thought for a second. "Maybe a hundred around the world. Most are from old magical families who were already trained. They just needed the System to formalize their power."

  "All I want to say," Alex added, "is that the cultists know what they are doing. They seem to have been planning this for quite a while while most of humanity was wasting time."

  Everyone in the room looked at him. "Indeed," Marion said.

  "So I ask the question. If you've been following this for so long, you should know who's behind it. I understand you would've stopped them if you could, but... it's already late. It seems to me like millions have died."

  "This has been building for years," Thomas said. He sat in Alexander's desk chair, hands folded. "Decades, maybe. We saw the increased occult activity, entities testing the barriers, old seals weakening. But we thought we had time."

  "Yeah, and I'm guessing if you talked about this in public they'd think you were a loonie. I can get that."

  Marion nodded slowly. "There's been a conspiracy. A cult, or maybe multiple cults, working toward this moment. We've been trying to identify them and stop them. But they were careful, and they've been hiding in plain sight. We'd find one cell, shut it down, and another would appear. And they're so loosely connected that not even they know who's behind it all."

  "Alright. But any idea of who's leading them? Even if we had caught that devil woman back there, would she have told us?"

  "We don't know. But it must be someone with power. Not System power. Old power." Marion leaned into the window, careful not to touch the ward. "Whoever they are, they made pacts. With things from the deep places. The old things. They traded humanity's survival for... something. Power. Immortality. Knowledge. Who knows? Alright, you done, Sean? Alex, let's do it."

  Even then, Alex felt disappointed. The old adage from Sun Tzu echoed in his mind. Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated. For all the magical power Marion and Thomas had gathered, they didn't seem to know who was behind it.

  Well, they did know much about the forces of evil, hierarchies of demons, and the theoretical stuff.

  Alex and Samantha walked back to the staircase.

  The wolf-shaped demon lay inside the containment circle on the stair landing, pinned over the sigils. Its limbs twitched at irregular intervals, spasms from the pressure of the circle. There seemed to be no expression in its body, no overwhelming desire to break free. It seemed to have been sedated.

  Samantha stopped beside Alexander and pointed at the creature. "Alright, big guy," she said. "Time to shine."

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  Alex nodded and approached, going down on his haunches.

  The demon reacted to the movement.

  "You've seen Thomas call angels," Samantha said. "Binding demons is different. It uses command structure. Hierarchy. Dee walked both paths, and it nearly broke him. Solomon walked both, and it did break him. He thought imprisoning demons made him stronger. Then he started feeding them. Eventually, he fed them people. That's why we warn you. Black magic isn't evil, but it pulls. Hard."

  Alexander nodded. "Alright, that's... illustrative."

  "Good." She placed his hand near the edge of the circle.

  The creature snarled. Its claws scraped against the floor, but the lines kept it pinned.

  "Speak the chain phrase," she said.

  Alexander inhaled and repeated the words that flowed into his mind.

  [SKILL SELECTED:

  [ENTITY BINDING]

  The sigil he'd initially seen coalesced in front of him, written in neon green light.

  "You may read it," Samantha said.

  "Od allar gah. Nazpsad. Pidiai. Mad zilodarp."

  The circle tightened. Lines of force pressed the demon flat. His mana dipped to 0...

  "Good," Samantha said. "Now add the tether..."

  Alexander felt a literal pull. A clear sensation, like two points clicking into alignment.

  "Now say allan od coagula. Bind and join."

  He spoke the next phrase:

  The demon shuddered. Its limbs stopped fighting, no longer thrashing. The circle brightened around the sigils.

  "Now impose the rule," Samantha said quietly. "One sentence. Clear. Specific. Something a creature like this can follow."

  Alexander met the demon's eyes. "You obey me. You do not harm anyone inside this building. I bind you to me!"

  [BOUND: WOLF MORPH]

  [LEVEL 2]

  [HP: 82/82]

  [MP: 0/200]

  [EXP: 0/200]

  BINDING CAPACITY: 1/5 USED

  The creature's head dipped.

  Samantha narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms under her breast.

  Alex pushed himself to his feet.

  The woman cocked her head. "That was easy, wasn't it? Now it's yours. You'll control it."

  "Is there any way to lose him?"

  "That's the tricky part. It can get unstable if your mana hits rock bottom for too long. You'll need a minimum of 10 MP points per hour to keep a binding stable."

  She stepped back toward the stairs. "Now bring it with you. See if it listens."

  Alexander pointed at the landing. "Alright, good doggy, follow me."

  The wolf demon shifted its weight and rose, stiff but obedient. It was massive and still fearsome as hell. And despite the curved teeth popping out, the demonic eyes, the patched fur... there was a kind of beauty to it. A wild, feral beauty. It wasn't just a demon; it was a beast, a creation of God or of Nature, transformed and changed.

  He looked into Samantha's eyes and raised an eyebrow.

  "Did I hack into its will or something?"

  "In a way," Samantha said. "More like you scared him into submission. It's not exactly mind control, more like a mental leash. Yeah, not quite ethical, but that's black magic for you."

  Alexander stopped speaking. His legs wobbled. He grabbed a nearby squat rack for support.

  "Alright, now I'm feeling the drain."

  The creature stood, waiting. Its eyes tracked him but without aggression, like a friendly but hideous pit dog.

  "It's not angry at me," he said. "I would be."

  "Now that I cannot explain," Samantha said, arms crossed.

  "Down," Alexander said.

  The creature stopped growling, then pressed its body against the staircase.

  Samantha raised an eyebrow. "Well, look at you. Already giving commands."

  "It's listening."

  "Of course it's listening. You bound it. It has no choice." She approached the creature carefully. "What are you going to do with it?"

  Alexander looked at the creature. It was the size of a large dog, muscular, furry, and with brutally long fangs. Built for killing. Fast, strong, probably smart enough to hunt in packs.

  He set his jaw. How deep did his control go? Was it somehow connected to his mind? He could somehow feel that was the case.

  He furrowed his brow and willed the creature to move. It stood, stretched, and shook itself. Then it sat, eyes fixed on Alexander.

  "Come," he finally said, all in plain old English, and it was nothing but instinct.

  Alex reached out and touched its head. The fur was warm, almost hot. The creature leaned forward, pushing into his hand, like a puppy yearning to be caressed. Alex didn't know if it was because he had visualized that or if it was the creature's own will. It was hard to tell.

  "You should name it," Samantha said from behind him, arms crossed.

  "Name it?" Alex turned toward her, raising an eyebrow. "Are you being sarcastic right now?"

  "Not at all! Unnamed things are harder to control. Names have power. You know that; it's all over your grimoires."

  Alexander looked back at the creature and nodded.

  What name could he give to a wolf? He definitely wouldn't call him Bella.

  And as if in response, Alex could see one of the creature's fangs pop, and a vibration come from its mouth.

  No, he didn't like the name. At the very least, Alex had to respect the creature.

  And then, a name came to his mind. One derived from Norse mythology: Fenrir the wolf, the creature at the end of time who would eat and devour the world, and even the king of the gods.

  He felt something stir—another type of vibration in the belly of the beast. The creature did not mind the name.

  "Fenrir," he said. "Your name is Fenrir."

  The creature's eyes brightened. It purred. Alex had never imagined this thing would purr.

  "Not a bad name," Samantha said.

  "Not bad?" Alex turned back. "Admit it, it's badass."

  "The closest thing, perhaps," she said, and finally, Alex saw a hint of a smile on her lips.

  Marion leaned in from behind the door, a look of approval on her face.

  "Well done. You're already commanding it."

  "He did well. And on his first try," Samantha said. "And he's already named it."

  "Of course he did." Marion descended, crossing her arms and watching the creature up close. Fenrir's red eyes, fixed on her, were definitely attentive, but the creature did not even move a muscle.

  Dawn light was starting to filter through the broken windows. The night was ending.

  "More will come today," Marion said. "The first entities to break through are lower beasts. The cavalry will be here soon. Real demons. Some are smarter than people."

  Alexander sighed. "I guess I need more practice."

  She shook her head. "You need rest. You've burned through most of your mana twice tonight. If you push too hard, you'll burn out your channels and damage your ability to use magic permanently." Marion looked at Thomas, who had come down behind her. "Thomas, you and I will take first watch. Samantha, Sean, second watch. Alexander, get some sleep. We have an important day tomorrow."

  Alexander wanted to argue, but she was right. He was so exhausted that his legs nearly gave out.

  "Take the creature with you," Marion added. "Keep it close. It'll defend you while you sleep, and maintaining the bond while unconscious will strengthen it."

  He hesitated but nodded. Fenrir followed him up the stairs, into his apartment. Chris was still passed out on the couch. Sean had moved to the floor, laptop balanced on his knees, still pulling data.

  Alexander collapsed on his bed. Fenrir curled up beside it, head on its paws, eyes half-open and watchful.

  The last thing Alexander saw before sleep took him was the mana counter in his vision, slowly ticking upward.

  MANA: 23/200

  And the first entry in what he realized was going to be a much longer list:

  BOUND ENTITIES: 1

  He closed his eyes.