of establishing a new empire there. Jackie established a drug cartel in Sierra Muñoz with a Darkness-based narcotic made from his own bodily fluids, built an impenetrable fortress, formed an army of improved darklings and a lover, not knowing Kirchner controls her. The residents of Sierra Muñoz resisted Jackie's takeover with the help of the U.S. Department of Defense, which wanted to capture Jackie for experimentation and to learn about his armor and weapons. He defeats them, but Kirchner and his pregnant lover turn against him, and she takes control of the Darkness, taking it from him. Left dying, Jackie regains the Darkness by pure willforce. Confronting Kirchner, he learns that the "Baby" is already born, and that it is the incarnation of the Darkness on the earthly plane that the Darkness sought for generations, without human "flaws" like conscience. It attacks him, but Jackie defeats it. Having almost lost the connection to the Darkness at the end of this fight, Jackie heads back to the United States, surviving an encounter with a dream-stealing witch in Mexico. He is captured by a devil named the Sovereign. He tells Jackie that following the battle with his Darkness offspring, he died, and his soul was cast into Hell, leaving his body on Earth, reconstructed by the feeble rest of Darkness power he maintained. Jackie made a deal with the Sovereign, who promises, in return for several assassinations, to reunite Jackie's body and soul. Jackie fulfills the Sovereign's demands, including killing a demonically possessed nun, an immortal drug dealer, and a 10-year-old African warlord. In between he finds time to visit New York, where he punishes some thugs of the Franchetti mob who caused the death of a 5-year-old girl, visits Sara and his daughter, where two more artifacts are introduced, the antagonists Glacier Stone and Ember Stone, our heroes learn that there is a total of 13 artifacts, Jackie kills the current bearer of the Angelus and has his first kiss with Sara. The new bearer of the Glacier Stone, and also another artifact, the Sword of Blood, is Michael Finnigan, a small time Irish mobster Jackie hired to watch over Sara and Hope; some months after this he saves Jackie, who was captured by a revenge driven Egyptian mob. Eventually, while performing an assassination for the Sovereign in Egypt, Jackie comes across a mysterious woman wearing a red ribbon who seems