Chapter 1:
Fehrbio Alsus, Capital of Ruins
IT WAS A DAY like any other when peace was brought to an abrupt end for two sisters living in Fehrbio Alsus, the glorious capital of the Holy Hilk Kingdom.
The Hilk had ruled this holy city for many generations, a fact that was evident even in the architecture. Many of the most extravagant buildings bore the marks of the church.
Many believers from across the kingdoms were drawn to the ancient capital, and its streets were constantly filled with pilgrims.
On this particularly fateful day, the lively bustle of the crowds managed to penetrate the heavy walls of the sisters’ attic bedroom, located in a quaint suburb. The room was dusty and cramped, the ceiling sweeping down at a harsh angle, following the contours of the roof.
One of the sisters began to groan in her bed.
She was thin and of fair complexion, the rosy tinge to her cheeks hinting at a fever. Though she looked quite young, there was also something mature about her appearance. Her long, light-brown hair spread out across the bed around her. She seemed to be in some pain as she tossed and turned.
Her name was Atonei, and she lived in this small space with her younger sister.
Ever since the death of their parents several years ago, Atonei had worked herself to the bone waiting tables, trying to scrape together enough money to survive. But all that work had taken its toll on her and had left her ill in bed for the past few days.
“Are you okay, sis?”
The younger sister, no more than ten, looked over with great concern. She wore her own light-brown hair in a short ponytail that wagged back and forth behind her as she brought a damp towel to wipe her sister’s brow. The fear of losing her last remaining family member was clear on her face. It almost seemed a foregone conclusion that her sister would meet the same fate as their parents.
Looking down at her ill sister, she could swear that the god of death was staring back up at her.
Atonei smiled and reached up to touch her sister’s face, in an attempt to comfort her.
“Sorry for worrying you like this, Yahna. I’m going to be fine, really.”
Though young, Yahna was hardly naïve enough to take her sister’s words at face value. Her eyes were red and puffy from rubbing her fists against them in an attempt to stave off tears.
Atonei propped herself up and removed the damp towel before pressing her forehead against Yahna’s. “See? My fever’s finally broken, all thanks to your wonderful care.”
Yahna placed her small hands on Atonei’s cheeks, a look of relief spreading across her face. “You’re really all right?”
Atonei chuckled at her sister’s persistence. “I’m going to be fine, I promise. I’m just a little worn out.”
“Well, maybe you can at least leave your night job? I’d hate to see you get sick like this again.”
Atonei frowned slightly. Though she might be young, Yahna still understood, at least on some level, what kind of work Atonei was doing at night. However, there were few opportunities in the city for women to earn money. Trying to survive as a waitress alone was difficult. She had little confidence that they could continue without the additional income from selling her body at night—and even those earnings were paltry at best.
Prostitution was technically forbidden in the capital. It only existed in underground brothels. For a city dedicated to God, it wouldn’t do to have prostitutes openly propositioning people in the streets.
Alas, even the most ardent believers were willing to exchange money to have their desires fulfilled.
Though prostitutes were subjected to punishment if discovered, that didn’t stop the industry from thriving. There were many brothels throughout the capital, and the majority of them did an excellent job of keeping their women safe and getting them paid. In that regard, it was far better than Atonei’s job as a waitress.
Anyone attempting to prostitute themselves on their own without joining a brothel was liable to be found out, tracked down by guards, and thrown in jail.
From the stories Atonei had heard from her clients, the guards’ treatment of imprisoned women was nothing short of deplorable. Were she an only child, she would have simply chosen to follow in her parents’ footsteps and move on to the next world.
She no longer feared death.
In fact, she’d lived much of her life feeling this way. The only thing that kept her going was the younger girl worrying over her—the last family she had left. The thought of leaving her little sister all alone in this world terrified her more than anything. That was what got through such grueling work.
Quitting her job simply wasn’t an option available. Besides, once someone joined a brothel, it wasn’t exactly easy to walk away.
Of course, Atonei wasn’t about to share all of this with Yahna. Instead, she offered a smile and skirted around the issue. “Now that I’m feeling better, I’ll see what I can do about getting them to lighten my load.”
Yahna saw through her sister’s insincerity and bit down hard on her lower lip, frustrated at her own powerlessness. However, she did her best not to let her disappointment show.
The room fell silent, but only for a moment. A loud commotion erupted outside, growing more and more intense. The two sisters shared a curious look.
“What could that be?”
“Huh?”
At first, it seemed like some kind of celebration. It was hardly uncommon to hear people holler and hoot at all times of day and night—friends reuniting, merchants haggling, or even drunks rambling. But it soon became clear that this was something different. It almost sounded like a wave crashing over the city.
A few moments later, terrified screams filled the sisters’ room.
Atonei leaped from her bed, threw open the shutters, and leaned out.
“What’s going on?” Yahna pulled herself up to the windowsill, standing on the tips of her toes. “What is it? I can’t see!”
But Atonei found herself at a complete loss for words at the horror that lay before her.
A crowd of people were pushing and shoving as they desperately tried to escape through the alley running in front of the sisters’ home.
A bizarre shape, unlike anything Atonei had ever seen, erupted out of the ground in successive bursts, as if pursuing the group. This…thing was unlike any of the monsters that lurked beyond the walls of the city, or the undead that were sometimes spotted in the sewers. It looked like some kind of black gunk.
The gunk moved about as if it had a mind of its own, springing up from gutters—or anywhere near the fleeing crowd—and pulling people into its inky darkness.
Its victims struggled at first, though in short order, they stopped moving at all and simply became another part of the large, shapeless mass.
Judging from the fact that the screams seemed to be coming from every direction, it was clear that this was happening throughout the city.
The black sludge began to fill the alley, and a moment later, Atonei heard the shoddily constructed door downstairs shatter as the house filled with the ooze.
Atonei bounded away from the window and spun around. “Hurry up, Yahna! I need your help!”
“What is it?”
Though confused by her sister’s sudden change in behavior, Yahna followed Atonei toward the door. She was frantically trying to drag a large wardrobe in front of it. Yahna hurried over to her sister’s side.
Once the wardrobe was in place, Atonei moved to the bed. With Yahna’s help, she was able to move it into place behind the wardrobe.
At that moment, Yahna at last heard the screams from outside—and even downstairs—and realized what was going on. The relatively simple life she’d lived up until that morning was gone forever.
As the chaos continued beneath them, the two girls began to feel a sort of presence, creeping ever closer. Atonei pulled Yahna to her and dragged her into the corner, where they sat quietly, doing their best to suppress their breathing.
Yahna’s eyes darted nervously around the room as the sound of her sister’s pounding heart thundered in her ears.
THWUMP!
Something massive slammed into the door, shattering the makeshift barricade.
“Huh?!”
“Eep!”
Both girls temporarily lost their composure before Atonei slapped her hand over Yahna’s mouth, pulling the younger girl even closer to her body.
She could hear the creature on the other side of the door crawling around. Then the noises trailed off as it drew away, leaving only the sound of blood rushing through their ears.
Yahna was the first to speak, her voice little more than a whisper. “Is…is it gone?”
Atonei listened closely. Once she was absolutely sure that she could no longer hear the creature, she slowly stood up and moved toward the door.
After picking her way through the broken furniture, she discovered that the door had a massive crack in it. The wall next to it had also been crushed from the force of the blow.
“I don’t think this door’s going to open any time soon.”
Atonei sighed and made her way back to the window to try to get a better sense of what was going on. Careful to keep her body out of view, she peeked outside.
The black ooze was nowhere to be seen, and the screams had grown more distant. Perhaps the trouble had already blown over in their part of town?
The capital had grown eerily quiet. The streets were completely empty of people.
Atonei swallowed hard and looked over to see Yahna pulling herself up on the other side of the window to see for herself. Something caught her attention and she shouted up to Atonei.
“Hey, look!”
“Shhhh!!!” Atonei reflexively quieted her sister before turning her attention in the direction Yahna was pointing. Her eyes went wide.
Somewhere near the cathedral at the center of the capital, as best as Atonei could figure, was a massive lump of the black ooze, slowly taking the form of a towering, humanoid figure.
The cathedral was colossal in its own right and could be seen from even the farthest reaches of the city, but this new creature completely dwarfed it.
“Oh, God…”
This was the only word, a prayer in a sense, that came to Atonei’s mind in the face of such an impossible creature.
Just then, she noticed another black giant rising up farther off in the distance. That was when she understood that the world as she knew it had come to an end.
“Oaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuurrrr!!!”
The two creatures cried out in unison, making the building shake.
Their booming voices sounded like the cries of tens of thousands of souls wailing in fear. The girls clutched each other tightly and shuddered.
For the first time, Atonei feared death. It was nothing like the times she’d run into bandits in back alleys or stood up for herself against the owners of the brothels.
And yet, even faced with the sight of death incarnate, Atonei refused to surrender. She clenched her fist and commanded her trembling body to still itself. She needed to get Yahna to safety. Nothing else mattered.
Atonei tore her gaze away from the giants. There was nothing she could do about them anyway. She scanned the streets for a route that would take them out of the capital.
It was then that she noticed the rhythmic tramp of an army marching off in the distance. Hope welled within her as she searched for the source of the sound. She caught sight of armored soldiers marching down the narrow city streets and was just about to call out to them, when she froze.
These were the templar knights, dedicated to defending the capital, but behind them she noticed massive half-spider/half-human monsters that seemed to be following them.
Just what was going on here?
***
With no way to escape, the sisters stayed in their attic bedroom, hoping they might yet find a way out of the city. It felt like an eternity had passed since the black gunk had first appeared, though it had only been a day or so.
The knights and their monster escorts increased their patrols as the massive black giants continued to stand watch at the center of the capital, occasionally letting out another massive roar that made the whole city shake.
Staying in hiding was beginning to take its toll on the sisters. Even though Atonei was managing, she had serious doubts that Yahna would be able to stay strong much longer.
From time to time, other survivors tried to escape, though they were quickly caught by the knights or the spider creatures. Their pained screams filled the streets.
There was still a bit of food and water in the room, but it wouldn’t last forever. The question now was whether they’d die trying to flee the city or whether they’d starve to death.
Atonei decided it was time to leave their attic haven. “We can’t stay here forever. Let’s get out while we can.”
“Okay.” Yahna looked nervous, but she gave a firm nod. Even with all the danger outside their room, Yahna must have realized that they couldn’t stay.
But this decision may have come too late.
Shortly after they began making preparations, they heard a loud explosion in the distance. A moment later, the dilapidated structure beneath them began to tremble.
“What now?!” Atonei rushed to the window, fear gripping her heart.
She ventured a peek outside, where she witnessed two immense shadows streaking across the sky. In their wake, a powerful gust of wind ripped the shingles from the nearby roofs.
As far as Atonei could tell, the creatures flying over the capital were dragons. Though she’d never seen one with her own eyes, she knew all about them from the stories. She gazed up in wonder from her attic window.
They flew right over the city and immediately launched a strike against the giants. With a powerful roar, the giants began to spit black spheres back at the dragons, who deftly dodged before unleashing powerful attacks of their own.
The black spheres crashed down into the city below, destroying large swaths of it. If one of those attacks hit their building, it would be reduced to splinters.
“Oh, God, please spare Yahna.”
Yahna clamped her hands tightly over her ears. “I’m scared…”
Atonei pulled her sister close and huddled in a corner of the room. She began to pray more fervently. After all, there was little else she could do.
As the battle between the dragons and giants grew more intense, the old building began to creak and sway, kicking up large clouds of dust.
After all the trauma the two young women had endured, this served as the breaking point for them. They both fainted, then and there.
***
When Atonei awoke to the sudden clatter of falling timber, silence had largely returned to the city. It was so quiet, in fact, that she wondered for a moment if she’d imagined everything that had happened earlier.
Looking up, she was surprised to see white clouds where the roof should have been. Only half of it remained.
“I…I guess it wasn’t a dream then.”
It didn’t stop with the roof, either. Part of the wall had also caved in, granting easy access to a neighboring house.
Their home had always been something of a wreck, but it was no longer suitable for them to keep living in it.
After checking to make sure Yahna was still alive, Atonei made her way to the window. What she saw left her at a loss.
The dragons and giants were nowhere to be seen. In their place was rampant destruction throughout the city.
The majority of the knights and monsters that had been patrolling the streets were gone, though there were still a few moving about. The situation was far from safe, but at the very least, they were in a far better position to make an escape than when the sludge giants had been alive.
Atonei rushed back to where her sister was lying on the floor, still unconscious. “Yahna, wake up! We’ve gotta get out of here!”
“Huh? What is…? Whoa!” Yahna blinked her eyes several times, looking around at their home.
“We can’t stay here any longer. We need to leave town.”
The younger girl nodded and quickly went about gathering her things. The two shared a spartan existence and had little valuables to take with them, but they’d still need to grab whatever they could to help them survive.
Atonei grabbed a well-worn leather backpack and shoved a paring knife and pot into it. Anything metal would prove particularly valuable, especially if they needed to sell things.
Realizing that they’d already eaten most of their food, Atonei glanced over at Yahna to make sure she was all right before climbing through the large hole in the wall and into the neighboring townhouse.
After making sure the building was empty, she hurriedly grabbed all of the fresh and preserved food she could find and rushed back to their room, where Yahna sat holding an old book and a doll.
The book was from their father’s collection and contained an illustrated compendium of medicinal and poisonous herbs. The doll was something Atonei had made out of scrap cloth shortly after their parents had died.
Neither of those were necessary to their escape, but Atonei could see how important they were to her sister. She ran a hand affectionately through Yahna’s hair before sliding the book into her bag and tying the doll to Yahna’s back. Yahna beamed.
“All right,” Atonei said, “the door’s a lost cause, so we’ll need to leave through the house next door.”
She took Yahna’s hand, but before she could step through the hole again, a man covered in rotting, infected wounds came crawling out toward them.
“Nnngaaaaaaaaaooooooo…”
There was something about the way he groaned and the empty look in his eyes that suggested there was nothing human left in him.
Looking closer, Atonei could see that his body wasn’t actually rotting but rather was covered in that black gunk she’d seen earlier. It was eating away at him.
“Ack! Yahna, this way!”
Atonei tugged on her sister’s hand and pulled her back into their room just as a black tendril shot out from the man’s body, barely missing the young women.
With the door to their room still stuck fast, now their sole means of escape was blocked. However, Atonei was committed to protecting her sister at all costs. She picked up a fallen piece of timber and stepped toward the man, holding the wood at the ready in trembling hands.
Just then, Yahna called out. “Up! We can go up!”
She was pointing toward the large hole in the collapsed roof.
Under normal circumstances, it might have been quite a feat to climb up and out through the ceiling, but thanks to the location of their cramped attic room, they were relatively close to where the roof sloped down.
Atonei hefted Yahna up and pushed her through the hole. “Don’t fall!”
“Okay!”
Atonei grabbed the edge and pressed her feet against the wall for purchase as she pulled herself up after.
“Hurry up, Atonei!”
She felt something grab at her leg, but she gave it a swift kick and knocked whatever it was back before dragging herself onto the roof.
Before she could even catch her breath, a black tendril came shooting up out of the room and over the lip of the roof, causing her to lose her balance and tumble backward in surprise.
She quickly recovered, however, and grabbed Yahna’s hand. “We’ve gotta get out of here! Try to not lose your balance!”
“R-right!”
Fortunately for the two young women, the houses in this part of the city were all built close together, if not attached to each other, and they were able to run along the rooftops unimpeded, avoiding the streets below.
Atonei hazarded a look back and saw that the man had also made it up to the roof. He was crawling after them, far faster than should have been humanly possible. She pushed herself to run even faster.
But looking back while running along rooftops turned out to be a grave mistake.
“Hyaugh?!”
“Atonei!”
Her foot caught on a smashed shingle and she tripped, sliding down the steeply angled roof.
Yahna dropped to her knees to try to stop Atonei’s fall, but the weight of Atonei’s pack carried her down the slope.
Atonei waved her arms around frantically in a desperate bid to grab on to something. At the last second, she managed to grab the edge of the roof just as she tumbled over it, leaving her dangling helplessly two stories above the street.
“Atonei! Atooooneeeeei!”
Yahna’s face was a mask of panic as she started down the roof toward her sister. But Atonei merely shook her head.
“No, Yahna! Stay back! The roof might collapse! You need to get out of here, fast!”
“But…but…Atonei!”
Yahna hesitated, looking back in the direction they’d come. The gunk-covered man crawled ever closer, tendrils extending from his body.
“Yahna, please! You need to get out of here! I’ll be fine!”
Atonei pleaded with her sister to save herself, but the younger girl shook her head defiantly, tears welling her eyes. At this rate, they’d both be killed. She tried to yank herself up onto the roof, but her backpack was too heavy.
Atonei turned her gaze downward. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t die from a two-story fall, but she could easily break a bone or otherwise seriously injure herself. That would certainly hinder their escape.
It was clear that Yahna wouldn’t leave her so long as she hung on to the roof—a death sentence for them both once the crawling man caught up to them.
Just as Atonei made up her mind to let go, she noticed a group of armored skeletons gathering below her.
“Oh, come on!”
The skeletons were wearing the armor of the templars, which meant that all of the knights she’d seen patrolling the city the last few days were probably undead as well.
If she let go, even if she wasn’t seriously injured, the undead knights would likely kill her. But there was no other option. Not if she wanted to save Yahna.
Atonei let go.
“Atonei?!”
Time moved slowly. Atonei heard her sister’s pained cry echo over the edge of the roof.
Her arms felt heavy as she stretched them out toward the sky in surrender. The next thing she felt was a massive pressure against her back as all the air was knocked from her lungs.
FWOOMP!
“Ngyaah?!”
Atonei hacked and heaved, trying to take stock of her situation. She was still alive, at least.
In fact, she was lying atop one of the undead soldiers, its arms and legs clattering feebly in an attempt to grab her. Apparently, she’d gotten lucky and landed on one of the knights, which had broken her fall.
Unluckily, there were still several more undead knights now surrounding her.
Atonei forced herself to her feet, her face contorting from the pain shooting through her back.
Her sister called out from up above, her voice thick with worry. “Are you okay? Answer me, Atonei!”
Atonei looked up. The crawling figure was almost close enough to grab Yahna now. Atonei screamed as loud as she could to urge her sister on.
“Forget about me! I’m fine! Just get out of there, Yahna! Hurry!”
This seemed to rouse Yahna at last, and the girl took off running. However, between her short legs and the uneven terrain, she wasn’t able to move very quickly.
Atonei pushed her way through the undead soldiers and began running down the street in the same direction, but she quickly found her path blocked by an imposing figure—one of the spider monsters.
The top half of the creature consisted of a deformed humanoid torso with four arms, wielding a massive blade the size of a person, while the bottom half was a massive spider that blocked nearly the entire street. It was far larger and more terrifying than she’d realized from her window.
The freakish man-spider opened its mouth in an unsettling smile, exposing its fangs, as it raised its sword. The force of this motion kicked up a gust of wind, sending Atonei’s hair fluttering. In that moment, she felt as if this was the breath of death.
But something interrupted this final blow.
“Wyvern Slash!”
A man’s clear, booming voice called out, and she saw two of the man-spider’s arms fly off, sending the massive blade tumbling into the wall of a nearby house.
“Ngaaaaaaaaaauuugh!!!”
The man-spider let out an enraged howl, lurching about as it searched for the person responsible, its gaze soon fixing on a point in the distance. Atonei looked in the same direction.
She caught sight of a knight decked out in gleaming silver armor, wielding a sword nearly as long as she was tall, which gave off a faint azure glow. He stood atop a building at the end of the street.
The silver knight swung his blade once more. “Wyvern Slash!”
His sword sliced through the air again, and several of the man-spider’s powerful legs were torn to shreds. The beast crashed to the ground with an infuriated scream.
The knight, his armor etched with intricate azure-and-white inscriptions, hopped down from the roof, the ground cratering beneath him from the force of his landing. He walked casually toward Atonei.
His rippling cloak was so dark that Atonei almost felt as if she were looking into the night sky. The way he carried himself made her think of a legendary hero.
The only thing that disrupted this image was the green, furry creature clinging to his helmet. Its eyes darted around, and it wagged its tail excitedly.
“Looks like I got here just in time. Hey, Chiyome!”
A small shadow appeared on a nearby rooftop, then bounded off toward Yahna.
“Wha?!”
Yahna stumbled, but the short, dark figure caught her before she fell.
The figure was a young girl with azure eyes dressed entirely in black—and not just any girl, but one of the beast people from the stories. Cat ears poked out of her sleek, black hair and a long, black tail extended from her lower back.
She wore a black mask over her face, gauntlets on her arms, and guards on her shins. Taken together with the dagger worn at her waist, the outfit made it clear that this tiny girl had been raised as a warrior.
She stepped between Yahna and the rapidly approaching infected man, then performed a series of movements with her hands.
“Body to water, aqua shuriken!”
Atonei couldn’t get a clear look at what the girl had conjured, but whatever it was, it found its mark, blowing away a large chunk of the man’s body.
That would almost certainly have killed him, had he been a normal man. But even with only half his body remaining, he continued to crawl toward his prey.
“I summon flaming stones to bore through my enemies!”
A woman’s calm and confident voice pierced the air moments before a flaming stone came shooting up from the street, scoring a direct hit on the man atop the roof.
The power of the blow knocked the man off his feet, even as he was engulfed in flames. His body thudded to the ground as a charred husk. It wasn’t long before the wind carried his ashes away.
Atonei had never seen magic in person before, but she knew enough to understand that that was what she’d just witnessed. She caught sight of the figure who’d shot the fireball walking down the cobblestone street, her heels clicking with each step.
She wore her snow-white hair tied back in a tight ponytail and was dressed in a robe covered in strange symbols. Atonei was surprised to note that the woman had golden eyes, amethyst skin, and long, pointed ears, as well as an incredibly attractive, well-toned figure.
The woman was clearly an elf, or “fallen one,” as the church referred to them. However, Atonei saw none of the ugliness that the church so often preached about.
The elf extended a delicate finger and summoned a ball of fire in her hand. She shot it like a comet just above Atonei’s head, where it found its mark square in the chest of an undead knight creeping up behind her. Flames engulfed the creature, reducing it to charred bones.
“I’ll leave that one to you, Arc,” she said, indicating a man-spider that had appeared above the party.
“I’m on it, Ariane,” the silver knight said.
“Kyii!” The green creature atop his helmet let out a cheerful mew.
The sun reflected brilliantly off the knight’s blade as he swung it down with a loud whoosh, cleaving the man-spider in two with a single slash. Its body crumpled to the ground, where it dissolved into black sludge. It didn’t even have time to scream.
The hulking knight turned back to look at Atonei. “My name is Arc. Are you okay, miss?”
She looked up at him and blinked several times, her brain still rushing to comprehend everything happening around her. The one thing she did understand was that she was now out of danger. She began scanning the rooftops for her sister.
“Yahna! Yahna! Are you okay?”
She saw the young beast girl—Chiyome—bound off the wall with Yahna in her arms, landing effortlessly on the street.
“Yahna!”
“Atonei!”
The sisters pulled each other into a tight embrace.
“Are you all right? Were you hurt?”
Yahna nodded and shook her head in response to her sister’s interrogation.
Atonei slumped to the ground, utterly exhausted. Now that the specter of death no longer hung over them, the pain in her back from her fall came flooding in.
She grimaced and let out a low groan. “Hnnngh…”
Yahna hurried to her side. “Atonei?”
“Did you hurt yourself while trying to escape?” The silver knight, Arc, knelt beside Atonei and put his hand over her. “Heal.”
A warm light formed in the palm of his hand, enveloping Atonei’s body before slowly dissipating.
The two sisters looked up at Arc in surprise. They’d seen such rituals performed by priests in the past and had been led to believe it was the power of God behind healing people’s injuries and ills. But they’d never experienced something like this.
“How is it?” the knight asked. He leaned down closer to look Atonei in the face, the green creature still perched atop his head.
Atonei bowed, frantically searching for the right words, so as not to offend him. “Th-thank you so much, Sir Knight. I’m afraid I don’t have much to offer you for the miracle you’ve bestowed upon me. If there’s anything I can do, please tell me.”
Arc tilted his head to the side in confusion at her sudden seriousness. Yahna swallowed hard.
Chiyome approached. “Usually you’re expected to donate a great deal of money when a Hilk priest heals you. They have no money to pay, so they’re offering to try to work off their debt.”
Arc laughed and waved his hand casually. “I’m not a member of the church. No need to donate anything. More importantly, is the pain gone?”
“Y-yes, it’s like it was never there.” Atonei could hear the surprise in her voice as she replied.
Arc nodded, satisfied, looking back and forth between the girls. “Glad to hear it. Have you seen any other survivors out here?”
Atonei and Yahna exchanged a glance before shaking their heads.
“No, but we were being chased by that creature when we left our house, so we didn’t really think to see if there was anyone else still alive. I’m sorry.” Atonei felt awful about this failure.
Arc shook his head. “No need to be glum. We just need to clean up the rest of the undead.”
He turned his attention to the green animal perched atop his head. “Any more bad guys in the area, Ponta?”
The creature perked up and began sniffing the air as it turned in a slow circle, its tail wagging all the while.
“Kyii!”
“According to Ponta, we’ve taken out all the undead in this part of town. Now that it’s safe, any survivors should be able to get out on their own.”
Arc stood up and glanced around before sliding his sword back into its sheath.
Ariane brushed her beautiful white hair back, tying it in a ponytail. “It looks like this area is clear, but we can’t exactly bring these girls around with us. Why don’t we take them to the camp outside the city and then come back?”
Arc agreed and beckoned the sisters over. “I’m going to teleport you outside the city. Get in close to me, okay?”
Atonei wasn’t sure what he meant by “teleport,” but she took Yahna’s hand and stepped over to his side. She looked around intently as she tried to figure out what he planned to do. Ariane and Chiyome joined them.
Arc tilted his helmeted head, seemingly bemused, as he conjured his magic. “Transport Gate!”
A rune of light appeared beneath them, and then the world went black.
The darkness only lasted for a moment, however. When the girls could see again, they found themselves in an unfamiliar place.
“Huh?”
“Wha?”
They stared, wide-eyed, at their new surroundings and the large group of people moving busily about. Others, evidently exhausted, sat beneath the many large, spacious tents propped up in the clearing. Even without being told, the two girls knew that these people were the lucky individuals who’d managed to escape the holy city with their lives.
Though hardly a city’s worth of people, there were still quite a few survivors.
In addition to all the exhausted evacuees, there were also a great number of human soldiers bustling about. However, the girls quickly realized that none of them were wearing the uniforms of the templars or soldiers of the Holy Hilk Kingdom.
In fact, the flag flying high over the tents wasn’t that of the Hilk, either. Since they’d never been outside of Fehrbio Alsus, much less the Holy Hilk Kingdom, the sisters didn’t recognize its colors.
They did notice, however, many elves, like Ariane, intermingled with the human soldiers…and even a few beast people, like Chiyome.
It was truly an unbelievable sight to those who’d lived under the church’s teachings.
Humans and other species coming together to rescue the citizens of the holy city was completely incompatible with what the Hilk had taught them about non-humans.
Between the tragedy that had befallen the capital and all the things they were seeing beyond its protective walls, these two sisters’ world had been both literally and figuratively ripped out from under them.
Atonei looked up at Arc, her voice unsteady as she spoke. “Umm, Sir Knight…wh-what happened to the city? We lived on the outskirts and heard a lot of commotion, but all I really know is that something bad happened.”
Arc tilted his head from one side to the other. She didn’t get the impression that he was about to lie to her, but rather that he didn’t know how best to explain it. At least, this was the impression she got based on her many years of waiting on customers.
“Well, I guess when you get right down to it, the pontiff attacked several kingdoms and lost. He summoned some monsters here, which took the lives of many of the city’s residents, to make his last stand and, well, that’s what did the city in.”
Arc turned looked off into the distance as he spoke. Following his gaze, Atonei saw that he was staring at the wall surrounding Fehrbio Alsus in the distance.
Everything the sisters had ever known was behind them. They’d lost their home. Atonei had lost her jobs. The odds that they’d ever return to the city seemed slim.
“Wh-what’s going to become of us?” Atonei finally gave voice to her fears. Though their lives had been saved, their future was unclear.
However, with her younger sister’s warm hand tightly clasped in her own, Atonei reminded herself that she couldn’t just sit here and feel sorry. She had to find a way to carry Yahna forward with her.
Arc crossed his arms and lowered his head in thought. “Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer for you. For now, I’ve been told to clear the undead out of the capital and rescue any survivors we can find. What becomes of those survivors shall be decided by people much more powerful than I am.”
Ariane nodded. “That’s right. It’ll take us some time to make the city livable again. We can’t just leave people out here waiting for that to happen. Most likely, the survivors will be split up and taken in by the different human kingdoms.”
Atonei let out a sigh of relief.
Assuming what they’d said was true, it meant that the holy kingdom had started and lost a war, all without them knowing a thing. The treatment of a rival’s citizenry varied a great deal depending on the victor—some even resorted to imprisonment or slavery—but that fortunately didn’t seem to be the case here.
“Moving the exhausted survivors will be a major logistical challenge, though. I’m betting Dillan’s going to ask for your help with that, Arc.”
Chiyome looked out across the survivors, most huddled up or otherwise resting.
Arc shrugged. “More than happy to use my teleportation magic. I’m just happy to have survived the battle, really.” After a short silence, he turned his attention back to the sisters. “Things are going to be tough for a while. Just hang in there, okay? I’ll come and check on you, but right now we need to get back to work. Till we meet again.”
Arc turned on his heel and marched away from the encampment with Ariane and Chiyome.
Atonei bowed her head toward their backs. Yahna jerkily followed suit in an adorable imitation of her sister’s formality.
“Thank you, Sir Knight!”
“Thanks!”
Arc casually waved a hand over his shoulder and stepped out into an empty space among the tents, where he once again summoned up a rune of light. The three of them disappeared from sight.
The sisters watched in silent astonishment, holding hands. After several moments, Atonei looked down at Yahna. “Well, why don’t we go ask one of those soldiers if they have something to eat, huh?”
Yahna smiled and nodded eagerly.
***
The half-man/half-spider abomination let out a shrill howl as it swung its massive blade toward me.
I used Dimensional Step to teleport a short distance away and out of sight before swinging my own sword at the place where the human and spider parts met, cleaving the creature in two.
“Graaaaaaaaaaawwwwrrrr!”
The man-spider let loose a bloodcurdling scream and stumbled about for a few moments before tumbling weakly to the ground and dissolving into black sludge.
As silence enveloped us once again, I looked around to see if there were any other enemies left.
Ariane was chopping through one undead soldier after another with her fiery sword. The moment the blade touched her enemies, they immediately burst into flames. Watching her work was nothing short of impressive, especially when compared to the way I recklessly waved my sword around.
“Looks like you’ve got your area taken care of!”
With that, Ariane chopped down the final undead soldier, shook the flame off her blade, and slid it into its sheath with a satisfying clink.
“Nicely done.”
I offered congratulatory applause for Ariane’s work, though she seemed less than impressed. Judging by the subtle twitch of her ears, she wasn’t happy with her performance.
She quickly changed the subject. “I wonder how things are going with Chiyome.”
Right at that moment, I heard the sound of a second-story window shattering and watched as an undead soldier came crashing down onto the stone pavement below, the jaws of a transparent wolf clenched tightly around its throat.
This was one of the water wolves created with Chiyome’s ninjutsu abilities.
Chiyome wasn’t far behind. She dove out of the same window, landing deftly on the street. “That’s the last of the undead lurking in the surrounding houses.”
The wolf wrenched the undead soldier’s neck back and forth until it finally broke, and the creature stopped moving entirely.
Chiyome was one of the six great warriors of the Jinshin clan, among the mountain people—a species the humans called beast people. These soldiers were no match for the likes of her.
In addition to my two highly skilled companions, I had one more person—or should I say animal?—available to assist in our hunt for the undead hiding in the capital.
In fact, it was already putting its skills to good use from its perch atop my head.
“Ponta’s a natural undead sensor.”
“Kyii! Kyii!” The cottontail fox mewed proudly at this praise.
Chiyome looked up at our furry companion. “You know, I always prided myself as having a more refined sense of smell than other mountain people, but it’s tough even for me to pick out where the undead are, what with the stench of death hanging over the city.”
Ponta wagged its tail even harder at this additional ego boost.
From what I’d been told, undead were generally created when powerful, evil magic came into contact with corpses. The mountain people were able to pick them out by the unique stench of death that emanated from their bodies, though that was proving challenging in the capital, since the entire city had become a battleground with a massive undead beast. Sniffing out the smaller, individual soldiers was difficult.
Elves, on the other hand, were able to identify the undead through the so-called “contamination of death,” which clung to them like a shadow. However, this meant that the undead had to be within one’s line of sight, making the skill unsuitable for tracking.
Ponta, on the other hand, was a spirit creature, which meant it could sense when other spirits were present.
I reached up and scratched Ponta’s chin in appreciation. “I know Dillan sent us back here to rescue the remaining survivors, but it’s starting to seem a lot more practical to just clear out the undead instead.”
Ponta rubbed affectionately against my hand as I glanced around at the ghost town.
My slaying of the pontiff had marked the end of the battle between the Holy Hilk Kingdom and the Nohzan Kingdom. We’d been able to slay the pontiff’s two undead giants with the help of the Dragon Lords, before they’d gone off to take care of the undead legions lurking outside the capital. With most of the enemies now cleared out, the holy city resembled a long-forgotten ruin.
Right as we’d been wrapping things up, refugees had begun to pour out of the capital in droves.
We’d thought that all of the capital’s residents had been tragically killed at the hands of the giants, so we were pleased to see that many had actually survived. We quickly assembled a camp to house and protect them.
Dillan—Ariane’s father, and the man in charge of leading the combined forces in the war effort—formed rescue parties from the elves from the Great Canada Forest and the Jinshin clan of the mountain people and sent them into the capital to search for survivors.
Each of these groups was a respectable fighting force in its own right and was able to pull double duty, by both wiping out the undead lurking within the city and also providing a positive example to the people who’d lived for so many years under the Hilk’s teachings that humans were superior to all other species. This might not change their worldview overnight, but at least it was a starting point.
In fact, the two human girls we’d saved didn’t seem to harbor any sort of negative feelings toward Ariane and Chiyome.
It had also been decided that the human kingdoms of Nohzan and Rhoden would take charge of protecting the refugees and running the camps. Not only did they have inferior fighting ability compared to the elves and mountain people; they also had far more soldiers available to take on such a massive endeavor.
“Even considering all the progress we’ve made, the capital’s so massive that it’s still going to take a long time to finish clearing up the undead.” I mumbled to myself, staring at the ruins of the central cathedral off in the distance. “I’m worried the refugee camps might not be sustainable if they get much bigger.”
Ariane followed my gaze and sighed. “You’re probably right. Not that we’ll be around to help. We’re likely to be summoned as representatives of the Jinshin clan and the Great Canada Forest once we begin the talks about executing a treaty between our nations.”
My shoulders slumped. “I really have no interest in such things.”
Ariane looked up at me. “You’ll be a great representative for Canada. Besides, everyone here knows just how powerful you are now. It would make the humans even more worried if they thought someone who can stand toe to toe with a Dragon Lord and come out the other side was running wild.”
This caught me off guard. “Well, I guess there’s some merit to me being there, then. You clearly got your impressive political acumen from your father.”
Ariane averted her gaze and began tracing her finger in a large circle in the air.
“I, uh…” I stammered. “I mean…your grandfather said… He said something like that. I don’t really know for sure, you know? I mean, you see…”
She continued to trace an invisible circle while keeping me in her peripheral vision.
I chuckled. “I mean, I really like how direct you are.”
“Kyii! Kyii!” Ponta gave its tail a powerful wag in agreement.
Ariane turned and started to walk away. “We don’t have all day to gossip. Let’s get going!”
“Sure thing.”
“Kyii! Kyii!”
I took off after her.
“I’ll find the next one,” Chiyome said as she fell in line with Ariane. She seemed intent on beating Ponta to the punch this time. I found her competitive streak endearing, though it was also undoubtedly part of what made her such a formidable foe.
“Why don’t we stick to the plan and head toward the central cathedral?”
Chiyome nodded.
In addition to rescuing any survivors remaining in the capital, we’d also been assigned another task, something that only we were to look for.
Pontiff Thanatos, the de facto ruler of the Holy Hilk Kingdom, was responsible for the war that had brought us here. Under him were seven cardinals, each of whom he’d created by his own hand as a powerful undead creature with their own unique abilities. Thus far, we’d confronted and killed five of his cardinals, but that still left two unaccounted for.
Assuming those two undead giants were the remaining cardinals, it would mean that the upper echelons of the Holy Hilk Kingdom had been completely wiped out. Personally, though, I had my doubts. I had no evidence, but the giants just didn’t feel like any of the other cardinals we’d faced.
Dillan had tasked us with finding the remaining cardinals. After all, just because the pontiff was gone, it didn’t mean that the cardinals would also vanish. The fact that the undead he’d created were still roaming the streets was proof enough of that.
Undead that were able to think for themselves would likely choose either to hide or flee, in order to avoid meeting the same fate as the pontiff.
We’d searched churches and cathedrals throughout the holy city in hopes of finding a clue as to the whereabouts of the remaining cardinals.
Complicating matters was the fact that the cardinals were indistinguishable from other humans—except by the mountain people, who could smell their stench, and the elves, who could see their contamination.
Unfortunately, my battle with the pontiff in the cathedral had caused a great deal of destruction, so there was no guarantee that any information about the cardinals remained. But we couldn’t simply let them go free.
“This is like beating the end boss and then having the story continue without an ending.”
“Kyii?” Ponta’s cotton-like tail brushed against my back quizzically.
We continued toward the central cathedral, killing any undead that popped up along the way.
Several of the cathedral’s spires had been reduced to rubble during my battle with the pontiff, and the roof sported a massive hole, but other than that, the building seemed relatively stable.
“This place is huge,” I said. “It’s going to take forever to find information about the cardinals, assuming there’s even anything here.”
Chiyome tilted her head back to take in the whole cathedral. “The building’s big, sure, but there aren’t all that many places to check.” With that, the young ninja stepped through the front entrance.
“Kyii! Kyii!”
I hurried after her with a little prodding from Ponta.
Brilliant rays of light cascaded through the damaged roof, illuminating the cathedral’s ornate decorations. The whole building was utterly silent. The fact that this beautiful, sacred space had served as the center of a religion that had so callously sacrificed its believers wasn’t lost on me.
The great sanctuary took up much of the cathedral’s interior. Just as Chiyome had said, it seemed unlikely that any secret information about the church would be hidden in a place where people came and went frequently. We’d best be served exploring the offices or libraries for information on the cardinals.
“Let’s check out the back.”
“Right.”
At the rear of the sanctuary were two doors, one on either side, and beyond each a third, which led into two long, narrow hallways. We took the left one.
The passage we found ourselves in was rather unimpressive compared to the cathedral we’d just left, and only faintly lit, despite there still being plenty of daylight outside.
We continued until we reached a point where the two hallways came together and the passage expanded slightly.
This part of the cathedral was decorated with various holy accoutrements, memorabilia, and religious artwork, though none of them gave any hint as to where the cardinals might have gone. Even a portrait of one of them would have been a step in the right direction, but alas, there was nothing of the sort.
I didn’t even know where to start our search. After all, it was hardly uncommon in this world for commoners not to know what their local lord or religious leader even looked like.
In an age without photographs or the internet, portraits and oral descriptions were the only way to know what someone you hadn’t met looked like. Even then, portraits often bore little resemblance to the people depicted. Oral descriptions were even worse, as they tended to turn into a game of Telephone and could represent practically anyone.
Our best bet would be to talk with a high-ranking official within the church who personally knew the cardinals. But there didn’t seem to be anyone left in the cathedral, nor had we found any such person during our cursory inspection of the refugee camp.
The only explanations I could think of were that either they’d all died in fighting or they’d escaped the capital. Perhaps they were also undead, like the cardinals.
I glanced into several rooms, but nothing stood out. In one of them, I flipped through a few books on one of the many shelves lining the wall, but they contained little of interest.
The final room we searched was all the way in the back of the building on the fourth floor. It was clear from its size and furnishings that this was someone’s personal study. Perhaps it had belonged to the pontiff, or possibly it had been a cardinal.
The bookshelves were overflowing, and a large desk in the center of the room nearly buckled under stacks of maps and even more books. Unlike the other rooms, there were also magical items strewn about.
Ariane took a few books from the shelves and paged through before returning them. “The books aren’t much different from the others we’ve seen.”
“Kyii, kyiii!” Ponta shoved its head into a pile of parchment on the desk and began sniffing about wildly, as if on the hunt.
I picked up a magical item and turned it over in my hand, trying to figure out what it was used for.
Chiyome stalked the perimeter of the room in a half-crouch. I had no idea what she was looking for.
A few moments later, I heard a loud click and turned to find Chiyome standing with her hand buried in an old shelf.
“Found it.”
Chiyome pulled her hand out and then pushed on the neighboring bookshelf, which slid to the side, revealing a metal box embedded in the wall.
“Whoa, a hidden safe?”
Its presence felt a bit trope-y, but I was impressed all the same. There was something about a hidden safe in a far-flung room that I found incredibly exciting.
“Good job, Chiyome! The key’s gotta be around here somewhere.”
Ariane set her book down, eyeing Chiyome’s find with great interest.
The safe was quite large, about as tall as Chiyome, and had a single keyhole right in the front. It didn’t look like there was any way to bypass the lock, though, to be fair, an easily opened safe would be pretty pointless.
I clasped my hands and cracked my knuckles. “I could always break the door open.”
I could either tear my way through with my bare hands or stab my Holy Thunder Sword of Caladbolg into the gap between the safe and the door and try to wrench it open that way. As long as the safe wasn’t made of mythical-class materials, we’d be fine.
Chiyome immediately shot that plan down. “That won’t be necessary, Arc. A lock like this shouldn’t present much of a challenge.”
She pulled two narrow pins from her pocket, slid them into the lock, and began to rattle them around. After only a few moments, I heard a loud clack, and the massive door creaked open.
Ariane and I couldn’t help but clap.
“Impressive! Like a master thief!”
“Good job, Chiyome! I was just going to try to melt the thing with fire.”
Chiyome’s cat ears twitched atop her head, and her tail wagged excitedly. “It’s nothing, really. Pretty much all of the Jinshin clan members can do it. Anyway, let’s take a look inside.” She didn’t usually show her emotions, but she was clearly embarrassed.
Only then did I realize what Ariane had said. If she’d used fire to melt a hole in the safe, it likely would have incinerated everything inside as well. She could be quick to charge ahead without thinking things through. Not that I was one to talk.
I reached out to give Chiyome a hand with the hefty door.
“Whoa…”
The safe was filled with countless gold coins, cloth bags filled with even more gold, and various other valuable treasures. There was a huge fortune amassed right here in the central cathedral.
Judging by the sheer scale of the holy capital and the church itself, though, this couldn’t be more than a drop in the bucket. Was this just one person’s wealth?
“Well, none of this looks like it’ll be of any use in tracking down the cardinals.” Ariane’s shoulders slumped, dejected.
While she was right that this wasn’t what we were looking for, it could still be of great use to us.
“We might as well bring it all back with us.”
Ariane’s eyes went wide. “Huh? But you already have more money in the village than you’ll ever be able to spend. What would you even do with this?”
I shook my head. “No, not for me. I was thinking we could give this to Dillan to distribute to the refugees. This will at least help them get back on their feet, whether it’s rebuilding the capital or buying whatever they need to settle elsewhere.”
I piked up a coin, watching the sunlight reflect off of it. It was nowhere near the quality of the gold minted by the elves, but the markings on it were crisp and clear.
Besides, it wasn’t only the refugees who’d need money. If we could distribute this gold to the human soldiers who’d joined our forces, that would also help reduce each country’s burden. The Nohzan and Salma kingdoms in particular had been hard hit by the Holy Hilk Kingdom and would have to deal with strife and discord along their borders.
It would still be some time before everything was back to normal. Any amount of money to aid in restoration would be a great help.
“You’ve got a point. If the respective kingdoms don’t have enough money to rebuild, then the church could easily start amassing power again. Is that what you’re getting at?” Ariane looked at me intently.
I felt like I’d heard this story somewhere before. “Exactly!” I figured I might as well agree with her, so I nodded my head enthusiastically.
“Hmm… Is there anything else in here that might tell us where the cardinals went?”
While Ariane and I talked things over, Chiyome continued to dig through the contents of the safe, disinterestedly dumping out bags of gold as she went.
Her people had been driven out and persecuted by most other nations, so they had little use for money, since they didn’t engage in any form of trade beyond their own borders. Gold coins were probably little more than shiny metal as far as she was concerned.
Chiyome paused for a moment to peer into a leather bag, which she swiftly handed to Ariane. “Do you know what this is?”
Ariane pulled out its contents—a crystal the size of a baby’s fist.
But this wasn’t any normal crystal. It gave off a faint glow and had several runes etched inside it.
Ariane squinted at it. “It’s imbued with magic. I know that much. But I have no idea what it would be used for.” She shrugged and slid it back into the bag. “Well, we should at least bring it back with us to show it to someone who knows more about magical items.”
I took the leather bag from Ariane and tossed it into one of the sacks filled with gold.
While I was preparing to bring all these items back with us using teleportation, I heard Ponta cry out excitedly from elsewhere in the room.
“Kyii! Kyii!”
I glanced behind me to find the fox with its jaws locked around the handle of a drawer, slowly dragging it open to reveal a cloth bag. I strode over, reached down, and opened the bag—only to be greeted by a sweet scent. It was filled with dried fruit.
“I should’ve seen that coming. There’s no one better than you when it comes to sniffing out food.”
“Kyii!”
Ponta puffed up at this and swung its tail back and forth with pride.
I pulled a piece of fruit out of the bag and held it out. The cottontailed fox leaped up and snagged it from my hand, munching hungrily on the morsel and vigorously wagging its tail.
It seemed to have taken a liking to whatever this was. I’d never seen fruit like this back in the markets in Rhoden. Perhaps it was unique to this region?
Ariane jealously watched my interaction with Ponta, but I decided to ignore her for the moment. I cinched the bag shut and tied it to the fox’s neck.
“Here you go, Ponta. The spoils of war. You’ve earned it.”
“Kyiiiiiii, kyiii, kyiiiiiiii!”
I left Ponta hopping around excitedly and returned to the safe.
Try as we might, however, we didn’t uncover anything that would aid in our mission.
“I don’t think we’re going to find anything else of note here.”
I sat down on one of the gold-filled bags, but much to my regret, it felt nothing like the beanbag chair I’d been half-expecting. Probably because it was full of hard metal.
“The sun’s going to set soon. Why don’t we drop this stuff off?”
Ariane stretched luxuriously and let out a yawn. She tossed a few books onto the pile we were taking with us. I couldn’t say what we stood to gain by learning about the church’s teachings, but I figured Dillan might have asked her to grab them.
Chiyome performed one last sweep of the room to make sure we weren’t missing anything before returning to our assembled bags. Both women signaled that they were ready.
“Well, then, let’s get going.”
I stood up from my uncomfortable makeshift sofa and summoned Transport Gate.
Once we were back at the refugee camp, Chiyome immediately headed off in search of Goemon, her comrade in arms.
I hefted our bags and accompanied Ariane to the large tent at the center of the camp. This was where all the people in charge could be found.
Once inside, we set the bags down in front of Dillan.
“Oh, welcome back. It’s been a long day, huh?”
Not only was Dillan the elder of the elven village of Lalatoya, but he was also Ariane’s father. Dillan had green-tinged blond hair and long, pointed ears, though most notable was the fact that, unlike his dark elf daughter, he had a markedly pale complexion. He wore priestly robes inscribed with mystical symbols, eschewing the martial tradition that Glenys, his wife and Ariane’s mother, followed.
He glanced over the items we’d brought back. “To help the humans rebuild? Well, that’s quite a good idea, I’d say. It doesn’t require much work on our end, and the money will prove immensely useful to the survivors. I’ll talk it over with the officials from the Rhoden Kingdom and let you know our final decision.”
After pausing for a moment, he reached out and opened the smaller leather bag. “This is certainly some kind of magical implement, but I’m afraid I can’t tell anything beyond that. If it was in a hidden safe like you say, then it must be quite important. I’ll give this to the high elders and have one of our experts in Maple analyze it. Anyway, the humans have agreed to conduct a search for the cardinals in their own domains, so all hope isn’t lost.”
To be honest, I was a little disappointed that we wouldn’t know what this magical implement was for a while.
Dillan slid it back into the bag and turned his attention to where I was standing, off to the side, out of the way of our haul.
“It will still be some time until we’re able to rescue all the survivors remaining within the city, but I was hoping that you could escort me back to Saureah. Representatives from the human kingdoms, the mountain people, and the elves will be gathering to ratify the treaty. We would like you to be there.”
I recalled the conversation I’d had with Ariane back in the city. “I’m not really excited about it, but I see no problem with making an appearance.”
Dillan offered me a broad smile. “Thank you, Arc.”
He’d done so much for me that I could hardly refuse. Besides, this was the first time in history that people of so many different species were coming together in peace, so it probably wouldn’t hurt to be there…if for no other reason than to provide extra protection in case anyone was planning something untoward.
I was just happy that it didn’t sound like I’d need to make a speech or anything.
Once we were finished with our report, Ariane and I left the tent. She let out a loud, exaggerated yawn. The night was pitch-black, interrupted only by the fires that continued to rage in the city off in the distance. The silhouettes of the empty, decrepit city looked like a series of towering headstones lined up in a row.
The refugee camp, on the other hand, boasted even more people than when we’d been here earlier that afternoon. It was starting to get pretty cramped.
Obviously, I was happy to see all the survivors gathered together, but when I remembered that this was a mere tenth…no, hundredth of the city’s original population, I was struck by the sheer weight of the pontiff’s actions. I felt a slight pang at the realization that, had no one survived, I might never have even considered the gravity of what had occurred.
“We really need to decide what to do with these people,” I said.
“It’s not our concern,” Ariane replied. “The elders will take care of that. For now, I just want to find Chiyome, head back to the village, and get something to eat. I’m starved.”
“Kyii! Kyii!” Ponta mewed in agreement with Ariane and batted its paws against the top of my helmet for added emphasis.
While I was grappling with the reality of the devastation we’d witnessed—and also wrought—Ariane and Ponta seemed to be their normal selves.
Maybe they were right. It was better to focus on the task at hand than wallow in the unfairness of the world. We’d get something to eat, take a bath, and then think about next steps.
It seemed like we’d be busy for some time yet. And that suited me just fine.
I turned my attention away from the capital and followed Ariane off to the mountain people section of the camp to search for Chiyome.
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