Before we could party, I still had to inform the families of the soldiers we lost in battle and the circle guards whom Cain killed, and provide them with appropriate compensation.

  It took me several days to get to all the families, and it took a decent chunk of my coffers, but it was not only worth it from an emotional standpoint, it was also the right thing to do.

  Jeremy's mother took it particularly hard. She cried into my shoulder for an hour. If anyone else had done that, I would assume some form of intimacy was going on, but not here. Not for her. She just really loved her son.

  And she didn't know if or when she would ever see him again. Death for demons wasn't a certainty, and therefore, they didn't always go to an afterlife in the Underworld. Some of them just lived forever. So it was entirely possible Jeremy's mother would never die and never be able to see her son again in the afterlife.

  It wasn't just Jeremy's mother, though. They all took it hard. Demons weren't supposed to die. Death was rare and when it did happen, it was tragic. It wasn't necessarily just a temporary separation like it was for humans. The separation might be permanent, and no one ever knew which it would be.

  Having finished making all the necessary calls and texts to set up the party, as well as letting Margaret know I was safe and when I'd be home, I tried to teleport to Heaven again, but yielded nothing. Still unable to reach or contact Heaven, I decided to visit Purgy to see if she'd have better luck and to grab her for the party.

  I teleported directly into her control room and no, that is not a euphemism. Purgy was typing furiously into her control panel and had a ton of different video feeds open. Her hands were a literal blur she was typing so fast.

  It looked like she was running multiple people through various Purgatory related things simultaneously. The video feeds changed rapidly, like blinking lights. The one thing she wasn't doing any of was talking. Seemed strange since she had talked to Judas and me so much during our time here.

  "Hey, Purgy!" I said louder than I should have when essentially sneaking up on someone.

  "Oh, God! Who—" she turned around, "Dave?" she put her hand against her chest. "You damn near gave me a heart attack! Not that I can get those."

  "My bad," I said. I walked closer to her and looked at the various video feeds. "So, what are you doing?"

  "I'm running Purgatory. What does it look like I'm doing?" she said.

  I looked at the video feeds closer. "Well, I'm not seeing any limbo setups. It mostly looks like moments of people's lives being played in front of them in three dimensions."

  "That's what I do in Purgatory, mostly. I run sinners who are destined for Heaven through moments in their life where they need to rethink their decisions and repent for the mistakes they made," she said.

  "Did you think the thing I did with you and Judas was how I ran Purgatory?"

  I looked away sheepishly. "I mean, kind of."

  "Oh. Yeah, that was just me messing with you two. Neither of you were sinners destined for Heaven, so I didn't do my usual thing. I just gave you impossible pun based tasks hoping that Keir would let me stop before you figured out I was screwing with you," she said, wincing.

  "Ah. I see. That makes a lot of sense. I would be a little disappointed in the Purgatory process if children's games were how you cleansed souls for Heaven," I said.

  "Yeah, no. I have several hundred thousand people running through past memories right now, about ten million people living their past interactions from others' perspectives, about a hundred million people struggling to accept responsibility for their actions, and three hundred million people repenting for those actions," she said.

  "I see. That sounds complicated and exhausting," I said.

  "Oh it is, but it's my job," she giggled.

  "You at least seem like you enjoy it," I said. "So, I guess that's good."

  "Oh, I do! I get to learn so much about people and their lives!" she said, smiling wide. She turned back to the keyboard and type a couple things into it. "That reminds me, Mrs. Robertson has to learn that her cats didn't love her as much as she loved them."

  I raised my eyebrow at her.

  "Without going into details, she wasn't exactly the nicest pet owner," she said, frowning slightly.

  "I see. Well, that sounds problematic, but let's not get into that right now," I said.

  "Oh, you have no idea! Basically, what I do all day is show people how problematic they were in life, get them to accept that fact, and repent or express sincere regret for their mistakes," she said.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "For someone who sees so much bad in people, you sure are cheerful," I said.

  "Well, I don't just see their mistakes. I see them feel bad about it. Some take longer than others to accept responsibility, but they all do in the end," she said, smiling.

  "Wait. Is Cain in here?" I asked.

  "Yes! That actually leads me to a problem I'm having," she said, furrowing her brow.

  "How so?" I asked.

  "Well, while Cain has much to repent for, he has fully accepted responsibility for his terrible actions, and has fully repented for everything that he did. I should be able to send him up to Heaven, but no dice," she said.

  "He did all that in a day? That seems kind of fast," I said.

  "The purification or cleansing process doesn't need to take long. It can be as quick as 24 hours, but most people take longer to accept responsibility. Not Cain, though. He's been an exception," she said.

  "Huh. He didn't seem to like killing. He just accepted it as a necessary evil to accomplish his goal of dying," I said. "What do you mean by 'no dice' though?"

  "I can't send anyone to Heaven. It's like the gates of Heaven are closed," she said, shrugging.

  "Oh, shit. I was afraid of something like this. I actually came here to ask you if you could contact Heaven for me, but if the gates are closed, I'm guessing you can't," I said.

  "Nope. With the gates closed, they are completed isolated from outside. No communication, nothing," she said.

  "I have a feeling Judas has something to do with this, but I have no way of helping until they reach out," I said.

  "Yeah, that has me worried," she said. She went back to typing on the keyboard for a little bit. "Henry, you can't blow kisses at people who don't consent to it. Especially not the elderly."

  "Wow, ok. Yikes," I said. "Now that the whole heaven situation is figured out, if not resolved, can you spare some time away? Can you turn this thing on auto-pilot?"

  "No, but I can give people breaks and shut it down temporarily. Why?" she said.

  "For one, you clearly need a break, but also, my 'save the world' party is about to start, and I did really want you to come and meet Nigel," I said.

  "Oh, right! I forgot about that. So you saved the world and everything is all good now?" she said, practically vibrating with eagerness.

  "Not, exactly. I defeated the big bad, but there are a lot of little bads left to deal with. That said, the hardest part is out of the way and a lot of my people in Hell have suffered tremendously because of his actions, so celebrating his death seems appropriate and necessary," I said.

  "Ah, I see. Well, count me in! When do I get to meet this hunk?" Purgy covered her lips. "Oops."

  "Oops, what?" I said.

  "Sorry, Sin is getting a little excited about meeting this Nigel fellow. I think the term is 'thirsty'," she said, still covering her lips.

  "Oh. Well, you just need to keep it under wraps for an hour at most. Let him get to know you, Purgy, first, before letting your freak flag fly, if you know what I mean," I said.

  She put her hand down and nodded measuredly. "I think I do. I'll do my best. So can we go now?"

  "Yes, we can go," I said, laughing.

  Purgy and I got there before anyone else arrived. I still had to make some preparations before anyone showed up. I decided not to teleport directly inside out of respect.

  There was something social and respectful about walking in through the front door of someone's place. Just like you didn't enter through the backdoor, even if it was open, you also didn't teleport inside unless you were close and there was a mutual understanding that was ok.

  Since Tony and I had more of a professional relationship, I figured this was one of those times to not bypass the front doors. We were still friends to an extent, but this was his place of business and I was engaging him in a business capacity, so professional conduct was most appropriate.

  I looked at the outside of the bar. Nothing much had changed in the last three years besides the sign. It still had large windows that allowed you to see the happy socializing patrons inside and the doors were a solid oak with square windows in the upper halves.

  The sign to the bar no longer read, "Tony's Super Cool Sports Bar," and now read, "Tony's Super Cool Totally Not a Supernatural Hangout Bar." It didn't roll off the tongue as well, and it was even more conspicuous, but it communicated to the right people that this was a safe place for them.

  Supernatural people, obviously. It was still a great place to eat and drink, even if you weren't supernatural, but the lower levels were reserved for the extraordinary among us.

  Not that humans aren't extraordinary in their own right. But they had literally every other bar they could go to besides this one. And they weren't excluded from this one. Just not allowed in the lower levels.

  You might remember the supernatural hangout called The Pit from my first journal. That wasn't around anymore. I actually had it shut down, because it wasn't just a supernatural hangout. It was a shady supernatural hangout where bad things went down and crimes were committed.

  Tony's place was a crime free zone. Other than the mob he ran on the side, of course. I let that aspect of his business slide. I audited it first before giving it the ok, but he never hurt anyone innocent, even if they jeopardized his business.

  He serviced the seedy underbelly of Reno, and the seedy underbelly only. Besides, he generally didn't need to silence anyone since he had a decent number of cops on his payroll.

  I opened one of the double doors and held it open for Purgy. Casually looking around, I noticed some people passing by on the sidewalk staring at her. I realized it might have been a better decision to teleport inside, given her peculiar appearance.

  She practically screamed "supernatural" or at the very least, someone going to a costume party. One half of her body, including her clothes and hair, was stark white, and the other half was jet black. I wasn't the most normal looking person either with my horns, wings, and tail.

  Upon entering, all the people in the bar, including Tony, turned their heads and stared at us. Not in a threatening way. More out of curiosity than anything. Once they all recognized me past the new body parts, they looked away out of respect. I carried a certain gravitas here.

  We walked up to the bar where Tony was patiently waiting. "Dave. I hardly recognized you at first. You look like a new man."

  "I feel like one," I said, straightening my jacket and tie.

  "Now who might this be?" he asked, looking at Purgy.

  "Purgy. She single-handedly runs Purgatory," I said.

  "It's a pleasure to meet you Purgy," Tony said, extending his hand.

  Purgy shook it and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you as well…"

  "Tony. My name is Tony," he said, catching himself.

  "Tony," she said.

  Tony turned to me and said, "So, shall we get started?"