After that mentally scarring experience that was the Red Light district, Ryder and I headed off to the address that large woman gave us. Apparently it's an apartment building so we ask one of the janitorial staff which room belongs to this Giacomo guy.

“It's the fourth room on the right,” the janitor tells us.

We head over to the room, knock on the door, but there’s no response.

“Hold up, let me take care of this,” Ryder commands as he whips out his flintlock and slowly opens the door.

It is completely dark in here and it seems that the room is empty. However someone suddenly comes out from behind the door and points a revolver at Ryder. In response Ryder points his gun right at him and now the two are having a staring contest to see who will pull the trigger first.

“Who are you people? Did the boss send you here? Are you here to assassinate me like the others?” he probed.

“Are you Giacomo Tiazzono?” Ryder asks ready to fire at any moment.

Having had enough of this tense situation I grab both of their guns and toss them into my pocket dimension.

“Alright everybody calm down, let's just have a nice, civil discussion and then you can have your toys back,” I commanded.

I turn on the lights to the room and address the matter at hand. I see that this guy was the shady guy wearing the suit and a fedora I spotted when we first entered Yrden.

“We are adventurers from Dragon’s Descent. We are not here to assassinate you, we just want information on the magical relic that your group’s in possession of,” I announced.

“So, you’re not assassins, I thought the boss had caught on to my actions” he says in relief.

“What have you been doing that would cause your own organization to try and kill you?” I ask.

“I’ve been attempting to steal the relic from the boss and stop the impending gang war between the mafia and the government. Both sides will suffer major casualties if war breaks out and it will probably end in the destruction of the mafia. The boss has become way too power hungry as of late and won’t listen to anyone,” he answered.

I see, so the boss of the mafia is egotistical and arrogant. Sounds like the kind of guy we need to beat up.

“What did you mean when you said ‘like the others’?” I asked.

“Some of my accomplices have been caught attempting to steal the relic and have been assassinated by the boss. I think they’re starting to notice I've been involved. It's only a matter of time now,” Giacomo says nervously.

If this guy is wanted by his organization, then maybe he would be inclined to help us.

“Hey, if you're wanted by the organization then maybe it wouldn’t hurt if you were to help us. We plan on stealing the relic too, and it seems we’re going to have to defeat the boss of the mafia to do so. What do you say, will you help us?” I request.

He takes a moment to think and answers,

“If you can promise me safety from the government once this is all over, and if you can stop a war from breaking out, then I’d gladly help.”

“I promise, or at least I’ll do what I can.”

I’m not quite sure if my authority as the hero is as potent and prominent here than it is in Colonus, but it should work.

“Okay, then what do you want to know?” Giacomo asks.

With our newly forged alliance set in place Ryder begins to interrogate Giacomo.

“Tell us everything you know, about the relic, its appearance, the location, when it's being moved, how heavy the security is, etc.” Ryder commands.

“The relic is a spear, it's currently being held in a warehouse near the port, and it's being moved tomorrow afternoon by train. As for the security well, you’re not going to like this,” he states.

“What are we not going to like?” Ryder questions.

“Half of the entire mafia force is being mobilized to see the spear gets moved safely. About 250 people I believe. As well as three airships that can provide cover fire if anyone gets too close.”

Well that’s not good at all. Our little group of 6 vs 250 gangsters. There’s got to be a way to turn the tide.

“Do you know anything that could possibly help us? Particularly so we wouldn’t have to fight all 250 of those guys.” I ask.

“The only thing that comes to mind is the fact that the spear is usually held in the second train car from the front, so you could sneak aboard and make your way to the front. I’m sorry, but that’s pretty much all of the information I have at the moment.” Giacomo answers.

We need to steal it soon, but I still think we need just a bit more time.

“Okay one last thing, is it possible that you could stall the operation from happening, any amount of time is fine. I think it’d be easier to steal it during the nighttime,” I tell him.

“I’ll see what I can do, but at most I’ll be able to buy you guys about 2 hours. I’m going to see if I can mess with the engine, but it would eventually get fixed by the engineers,” he says.

After Ryder and I met up with Giacomo, we decided to head back to the hotel and share the information we just acquired with everyone else. When we got back we were greeted by Azura in her pajamas who looked somewhat irritated.

“Where in the world did you two head off to last night?” she says, preparing to lecture us.

“We were out getting information on the mafia,” Ryder responds.

Ryder stares me in the eye and clearly he doesn’t want me to say anything about the strip club last night. I understand my man. This secret stays between us and no one else.

“What?! You know how dangerous this city can be at night time. If you two got into a fight with the mafia it could have turned out really bad!” she yells.

“H-hey at least we got information on the relic. We just need to come up with a plan to steal it,” Ryder states.

“Ugh, well at least you two are safe. That’s what matters,” she says as she hugs the both of us.

Azura is definitely giving off that pampering mom vibe right now. This feels nice.

We proceed to tell everyone else about the information that Giacomo gave to us.

“I see so it’s being moved tonight, this is our chance!” Remi exclaims.

“Indeed, but how are we supposed to steal it?” Lilith wonders.

Nazuko looks like she's deep in thought right now.

“Oi, Nazuko, Master-thief Nazuko, are you there?” I called out to her.

“Huh, Oh, sorry I was deep in thought. Alright guys I think I have a plan,” Nazuko claims.

“Oh boy, leave it to the master. Good Job!” I say as I start giving her headpats.

Nazuko starts to explain all the steps of her intricate plan to us over the next 30 minutes. She draws a diagram of the warehouse and the train station that’s right next to it. Everyone is told their role and starts chipping in as to how they’d best be used. The whole plan seems pretty simple and effective.

“Okay now that everyone knows the plan, I think we should have code names for this heist.” I say confidently.

“Firstly, Ryder, you’re Napoleon.”

“Got it!” he responds.

“Secondly, Azura, you’re Medea”

“Affirmative!” she states.

“Okay, Lilith, you’ll be Seibah.”

“Okay!” she says enthusiastically.

“Remi, you’ll go by Atalanta.”

“Roger that,” she salutes.

“Finally, Nazuko, you’re Jack the Ripper”

“Okay!”

Heist Theme: Life Will Change

Ryder and I take a few hours of rest to prepare for tonight’s heist. Then our entire party proceeds to head for that one warehouse in the Ash District that Giacomo told us about. Okay, everyone’s in position and we wait for sunset to approach. Once sunset hits, Lilith, Nazuko, and I sneak into the warehouse where we can see some gangsters begin to load big wooden crates onto the train. It seems all the gangsters are armed with various types of guns. Pistols, machine guns, one guy’s even carrying a minigun. I can’t see anything that looks like a spear yet so I figure it must already be aboard the train.

“Seibah, Jack, it's time to move,” I whisper as we start to move in the shadows.

When some of the gangsters aren’t looking we sneak into some of the big wooden crates replacing the previous cargo.

Alright, Phase 1 (Sneak aboard the train) of Nazuko’s plan went off without a hitch. Unfortunately I’m stuck in the same box as Nazuko.

“Hey get your own box, it's so stuffy in here with two people,” I commanded.

She’s literally lying right on top of me in order to fit into the box.

“Sorry, there was no time. They would have seen me if I took the time to get into another crate. At least we can have some quality time together, right?” she teases.

“...” I responded with a deadpan look on my face.

I’d rather be in this position with Lilith right now.

“Hey, did you hear something?” one thug asks.

I make a shushing noise to Nazuko signaling her to be quiet.

“Nah man, it must have been your imagination,” the other one answers.

A few moments later I can feel our box start to get lifted up and taken to the train. I take out my dagger and carve a small hole into the box so I can see out of it. It seems we’ve been taken to the cargo hold of the train which happens to be in the very back of the train. Okay now we wait for the signal. About 15 minutes later I can hear a huge explosion go off in the distance.

“What the heck was that,” says one goon.

“It’s an enemy attack, quickly tell the engineers to start the train. We have to go right now,” says the other goon.

They both proceed to leave the cargo hold of the train to face the so-called enemy attack. Little do they know that it’s their own airships attacking them.

“Alright, Jack, lets go,” I say as I give the signal to move out.

We try to lift up the cover on the box we are in, but apparently there’s another box on top of us.

“Ugh, let's just kick out the side. On three kick. One. Two. THREE!”

Nazuko and I kick as hard as we can and the crate opens up. As we crawl out of the box we can see Lilith get out her box without any trouble.

“What happened to you two?” she asks as she notices that we’re both drenched in each other’s sweat.

“Don’t worry about it. I just got sexually harassed by Jack,” I groan.

“It’s not harassment if you enjoyed it,” Nazuko says smugly.

I tell Lilith to ignore Nazuko’s perverted comments and we head up to the top of the moving train through the windows. As we get up we see one airship attacking the other two. It seems phase two, cut off enemy reinforcements, is going well. Azura must be flying the airship since I can see Ryder and Remi using the on board guns to take down the other two airships.

“Alright, it seems as if team Napoleon was successful. Let's head for the spear,” I commanded.

The three of us start running atop the train cars while the gangsters are busy shooting out the windows at some of the city guards airships. Phase 2 of Nazuko’s plan involved taking down the enemy airships so that the forces from the city guard could come in and help us as well as serving as a distraction so they wouldn’t notice us running atop the train. At this point we are almost to the second train car when a bunch of mafia goons climb aboard the top of the train. They pretty much have us surrounded at this point and they all have their guns pointed in our direction.

“Heh, you didn’t think we wouldn’t notice a few rats coming to steal the spear did you,” says one of the goons.

Drat, I was hoping we could of at least made it to the second train car without having been detected. We don’t have time to be dealing with fodder right now. We need to beat these guys quickly and head for the front. I could really use some reinforcements at the moment. As luck would have it, I see Azura fly their airship near us and I see both Remi and Ryder prepare to start unloading on the train.

“Everyone get down!” I command as we all hit the deck to avoid being sprayed down by the incoming bullets.

All of the mafia goons atop the train proceed to get blown off the top of the moving train. Some of them get knocked into the water near the port and some others are barely hanging on to the sides of the train.

“Nice! Thanks Napoleon, and you too, Atalante!” I say as I call out to them.

“We got your backs, just go for the spear!” Remi tells us.

“Oh yeah! Come at me you suckers,” Ryder yells as he starts shooting at more of the gangsters.

It feels good not to be on the receiving end of Ryder’s attacks for once. Taking advantage of the cover fire by Ryder and Remi we manage to make it to the second train car. Some of the goons are still chasing us despite all the bullets flying in the air. Just as we prepare to head inside Nazuko jumps down to unlatch the part connecting the two train cars.

“Bye-bye,” Nazuko taunts as some of the guys chasing us try to jump for the second train car, but miss and end up falling onto the tracks only to get run over by the train.

Oof, that’s a gruesome scene, but at least it prevents any enemy reinforcements coming from the rest of the train. Alright it’s just us and the mafia boss now.

Time for Phase 3, steal the spear and beat the boss. We enter the train car to find a large buff man in a suit and fedora holding the spear in one hand and a tommy gun in the other hand.

“So you guys are the pests that have been causing all this commotion,” he says.

“We’ll give you one chance to surrender and hand over the spear,” I tell him.

“Never! You guys aren’t getting this spear over my dead body,” he responds.

Welp, I gave him a chance. Time to kick his *ss.

He starts the fight by spraying a bunch of bullets out of his tommy gun.

“Seibah, protect us!” I called out.

“Got it” Lilith replies as she emits a barrier that extends from her shield guarding us from all the bullets.

“Jack, get outside and prepare to steal the spear. I’ll create an opening, somehow!” I informed her.

Nazuko exits through the back of the train car and I can see her through a window positioned barely outside of the boss’s view.

“Lilith, hold on until he reloads his gun, once he does I’ll take him down,” I say assuredly.

After about 15 seconds of spraying he’s forced to reload his gun and Lilith puts down the barrier. I quickly close the distance and as he’s about to start spraying again I unleash my fastest attack to take him down in one blow.

 

Strike of Non-Thought:

Your mind and body should be one with striking when you and your adversary are about to launch an attack. If this method is followed, your hand will attain movement through emptiness, with speed and power, without taking note of any point in which movement had begun.

 

In the split second before his gun fires I make one swift motion that cuts through his gun and slices through his abdomen. However, it didn’t cause any fatal damage since it seems his aura protected him, making the cut shallow. He stumbles back from the pain and drops the spear that was in his right hand. In the next second I see Nazuko jump through the window, grab the spear, and jump through the window on the other side of the train car only to land on Azura’s airship. Quite the flawless execution if I must say so myself.

“Medea, get the spear out of here we can handle this from here!” I yelled to her.

“Roger that,” Azura responds as she begins to fly the airship away from the train.

Alright, objective one has been completed, now to take down the boss.

“I won’t let you guys get away with this,” the boss says as he starts dual wielding two tommy guns that he picked up from underneath a few seats in the train car.

Uh oh. I jump through one of the windows with haste in order to avoid being sprayed down and Lilith puts up her barrier again. I barely managed to avoid that, however, I started to see bullets coming out from inside the train as the boss started to shoot upwards through the roof of the train car. He’s shooting both of us at the same time so neither of us can get close. One bullet manages to hit me in the shoulder, but luckily it bounces off my armor. Thank you, Vulcan. I can still feel the blunt force though as it feels like someone just punched me in the shoulder. If getting close isn’t an option then we need to take him down from a distance. I start to fire wind bullets at the boss from various windows whenever he’s not looking. I retreat and head to another window when he starts shooting at the old one. It’s like we’re playing a very lethal game of whack a mole right now, but if anything I’m winning. Lilith follows my lead and lowers her barrier to occasionally shoot fireballs when the boss has to reload one of his guns. We are slowly pelting him with magical attacks and continue to whittle away at this guy’s health. Man this guy is tanky, I guess he’s the boss for a reason.

“Arghh, Enough of this bullshit! I’m taking you all down with me,” he says as he reveals what looks to be a detonator.

That’s not good, I don’t think I can escape in time if he decides to blow up the train.

Suddenly someone shoots the boss in the hand making him drop the detonator on the floor. I see that the person who shot the boss was Giacomo as he comes through the front of the train car. He must have snuck onto the train at the same time we did.

“Ahhh, Giacomo, you traitor! We were so close to taking this city, why can’t you see that?” he says while clutching his shot hand.

“Sorry, boss, but that would have only ended in our destruction. You’ve been lusting for more and more power as of late--and it's time to stop,” Giacomo responds.

“I wasn’t wrong, I can still take this city. I’ll kill everyone who gets in my way and I’ll start with you three,” the boss says as he continues to reach for the detonator.

Right before the boss hits the detonator Giacomo shoots him in the head finally ending this once and for all.

“Goodbye, boss. This is for all the people you’ve killed and my allies as well,” he says overlooking the now dead mafia boss.

“Thanks, you saved us,” I tell him in relief.

“Don’t thank me yet. I still have bad news. Due to all the explosions and gunfire outside, the tracks up ahead have gotten a bit messed up. This train is going to derail and crash in about 30 seconds,” he blurts out.

Of course things always have to go wrong. I have no time to think so I open a portal and tell everyone to escape.

“Guys, through the portal now!” I commanded.

As expected we are now falling from about a mile in the sky. I have no idea how we are going to land, but suddenly an airship flies underneath us and breaks our fall. Lilith and I slip off the top, and just as we are about to fall to the ground I see Remi’s wolf come up and snag my hand before we fall. Ouch, it's kind of biting down a little bit hard, but at least I’m not going to be a pancake on the floor now. I grab Lilith’s hand to save her from falling and I can see that Ryder just saved Giacomo in the nick of time. We enter inside and I have Azura heal my wounds. I only have a few bruises here and there since my armor protected me from all the gunfire. From the airship I can see the train derail and crash right into a building which then explodes due to the bombs that the boss tried to set off. It also seems that the city guard have arrested the rest of the mafia goons that had been cut off from the train when Nazuko unhooked the train cars.

“Alright, now that was a successful heist. I haven’t felt that good since I stole the emperor’s scepter,” Nazuko cheers while twirling the spear in celebration.

“Did you see me out there? I must have taken down at least a hundred of those guys,” Ryder boasts.

“If I’m to be honest, that was the most fun thing I’ve done in a long time,” Azura states.

“See Will? I told you we could handle difficult quests like these. No one even got seriously hurt this time,” Remi acknowledges.

“Hey I got shot a few times, but never mind that. We are not done with this quest yet, we still have that dungeon to take care of,” I remind her.

“He’s right, let's get some rest and prepare to take down those demons,” Lilith suggests.

So far this quest is going well, we took down half of the mafia and now all that’s left is the dungeon. It’s time to become a demon slayer.