Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

How many months has it been? How many years?

Now it just felt as though it had all blurred together to the point where it could no longer seem any different. But there was one other thing.

A sickness claiming so many lives with much of humanity was now on the brink, many choosing to travel to some far-off place and never return in the hopes that they would be able to avoid the disaster that seemed to bring down the once countless cities all across the globe.

All the while, the remnants of humanity continued to grasp at what remained of this crumbling society. They clung to it like mud on a shoe.

Once, there had been talks of walled cities, trying to keep a specific disease contained within its high colossal walls before they crumbled like dust, much like those who perished from it. Or a place across the ocean shrouded in the consistent night where many believed paradise awaited.

It was something that had been talked about over and over again until it faded into obscurity. Where now, it seemed to be no longer relevant to the remaining people who merely wished to survive. Words of gossip and remnants of a now-dead history.

            The year was 2052, or was it more than that?

Everything felt the same to where she could no longer tell how many years it had been. Yet that didn’t deter the land with a thick coating of white as far as the eye could see.

This was not snow. No, sadly, it was salt.

Salt that once was many human beings, humans who became infected by a disease and were offered a choice once infected—a choice coming from unknown beings with no clear goal. The choice to become a part of something only known as Legion, to fight and kill any other humans regardless of who they were as a collected hive mind with no free will of their own or reject it and die turning into nothing more than pillars salt.

Stopping at the top of a salt-coated hill, the young woman named Reina knelt on the ground and, with her gloved hands, scooped up some of the salt and stared at it intently through her goggles. This salt was once a person, a person like that of her brother and parents, many families who died from the continuing disease known as White Chlorination Syndrome or WCS for short. To this day, a horrible illness still saw no cure and was slowly bringing the destruction of humanity down to the earth. It was somewhat poetic that this was the possibility for humanity's end, even though many saw hope for the future.

A hope that she could not understand no matter how hard she tried.

Reina merely went day by day as best she could. The salt slipped through her fingers like sand on a beach. She stood and wiped her gloved hands off of her pants before readjusting her mask. The winds howled lowly. Behind her were buildings of a city, one of many abandoned since the outbreak cut through like so many others before it, infecting thousands upon millions with WCS all those years ago.

            With many of the significant cities abandoned due to fear of infection, there was nothing to fear for her. She dealt with it once, and now it was nothing.

            Reina walked through the ruins of this city, a portion of it long abandoned, while in the distance, high in the sky, she could see the outline of a towering wall that had been erected in the hopes for people of this city to remain safe—cutting them off from the rest of the world.

Or so she could only assume. Reina had never seen what was beyond these towering walls, but for all she knew, it could have very well meant the eventual fate that fell to the rest of them or that it might have already happened only that no one knew. The sounds of her footsteps echo as she walked through the empty streets, the metal pipe she carries in her left hand as both a weapon and a walking stick. Bright blue eyes shifting from behind her goggles as she looks above and ahead as the salt drifts down. Wary of what might be lurking within the crumbling buildings of old.

            Over time she had seen people reform civilization outside the walls, creating towns and villages only for it to collapse at the hands of those who were a part of Legion. Those who had formed a pact with whatever brought the WCS into the world. Yet, what felt like not much time after began the appearance of black shadow creatures known as Shades to the average populous. She found herself somewhat confused by this; where had they come from? What were they exactly?

            However, these questions would go unanswered, for Reina would often avoid going to these still thriving towns and villages unless she could help it and would often take on odd jobs. Much like now.

            Though she found that some of these Shades seemed to be relatively harmless, at least the smaller ones, Reina would do her best to avoid those possessed by Legion when it came to people infected with the sickness. The red eyes being a strong indicator of this.

            That was something that caused her to be wary most, if not all the time. Though she was more than capable of handling herself when it came to deal with those who were infected, Reina instead preferred not running into them at all if possible.

            Thankfully as of now, there were none in the current area. It was something a villager told her from a not too distant small town that would pay her for collecting things that this person needed but was too scared to venture into the abandoned city themselves.

            Heading into one of the buildings and up several floors, Reina founded what she needed. It was several cans of food; there were many, more than enough for what that person needed. And even for herself.

            She paused when hearing something off in the distance. Lifting her goggles, she watched as something was shot up into the sky. A stream of smoke left a trail of what was heading up towards a faintly visible moon. Reina frowned, wondering what that could have been.  But those thoughts fell short when she heard something from below.

            Quickly she put her goggles back on, tightened her hood, and grabbed several more cans before heading down the decaying stairs.

            It was a familiar sound that she knew well be now. Grasping the pipe tightly in her hands, she kept her back to the wall, eyes surveying the room, keeping an eye out for those that would attack her.

            It was then that something began to move underneath the stairs. Underneath her. Quickly Reina jumped off and faced what broke through another floor. Reina braced herself with gritted teeth as the black creature, which had a weapon of its own, went to attack her.

            With her weapon in hand, she forced it back, hitting it repeatedly until it fell to the ground, now lifeless as a red ooze came from it, almost like blood. It was a strange sight indeed, no real idea as to why.

            What’s more, these creatures had not appeared until in the past few years. Around the same time as the appearance of peculiar copies of black books, this book had a face—something Reina quickly avoided.

            Something about the book made her feel almost uncomfortable. Added to the fact that when she first tried to touch a black book, something inside of her gave a violent reaction—making her feel sick, causing her to vomit. And with a red hazed vision, she realized that there was something within these peculiar books that could have an even worse effect on her if she dared to touch it.

            So, she burned the black book and the place that she stayed in for a short time. Feeling that was the only real way to be rid of it, and those who had so quickly found her in the first place practically undetected. Whoever had left the book wanted her to touch it, for something to happen, and if she had, they would probably be watching from a distance with great intensity.

            Reina readjusted her shoulder bag with a ragged breath before heading out of the decrepit building and walked back to where she had left her horse. Tightening her hood, she kept her ears and eyes open for more of those creatures or infected.

            Either way, she would have rather preferred not to run into anything else. Human beings, most of all…

            When Reina reached her horse, it greeted her with a rather pleasant snort. Something of which that took no time in gaining trust. Typically, animals were scared of her, not that she could blame any of them for it. But because of that, this stubborn horse seemed all the more compelled to want to be by her side.

Even others who tried to catch this tremendous black beauty couldn’t seem to keep a steady hand. Yet this creature seemed fine with Reina. As if it was seeing through her like a window to know what she was really. The horse trotted up to her in gallant strides before coming to a stop, waiting silently.

            At first, it shocked her. But as the beast continued to follow Reina around wherever she went, regardless of where. She felt that she had no choice but to take him with her since it seemed to have no intention of leaving.

            She named the beast Rostam, a rather fitting name considering it; rather, he was powerful and robust. He seemed to have no fear of anything and looked to be even greater than regular horses.

            Giving Rostam a comforting pat on his muscular neck before hoisting herself into the saddle and pulled the reins to direct him into the direction that they needed to return to.

            Rostam started in a faint jaunt, kicking up salt, leaving a trail behind them as Reina glanced back to the now growing distant decaying city. But it was only for a moment before looking straight ahead. For now, that’s all she could do.

*    *    *

            It was almost evening, yet the sun remained high in the sky as she continued to ride Rostam to the small town that had requested the specific items she had collected. The person in question was also at a local inn and stable for horses.

            When she entered the towns’ inn, she noted how there was barely anyone inside. She wasn’t sure if it was because it was so late at night or merely because few people were there. After all, many had died.

            It could have been either one.

            And at this point, all Reina wanted to do was survive. For as long as she was able.

            Upon placing the requested canned food atop the bar, the man seemed both surprised but exceptionally pleased. He was pleased that he now got what he had wanted for some time and surprised that she managed to do it without dying, something that had happened to many other scavengers before her.

            She was well aware of this.

            She saw the bodies, after all.

            When finished, the man offered Reina a free room and a hot meal for the night, saying that she had earned more than her keep for a place to sleep and a free meal with what she had brought.

            She declined the bed, stating that she would be sleeping in the stable with her horse in case something arises. But she would be grateful for some hot food, for it had been a long time since she had anything hot to eat considering how cold the weather had turned even though it was supposed to be summer.

            The man tried to coax her into staying in a room, saying it was no place for a young girl to be out at night and in the stables no less. She merely responded with a shake of her head.

            She had her reasons.

            So, with a defeated sigh, the man made her a meal, even handed her a large carrot, knowing that she came on horseback before she gave a faint word of thanks and headed to the stables. Rostam was clearly visible, for he was taller than any of the other horses corralled in the stable. His large head was poking out as if to keep an eye out for her or something else.

            The massive beast crouched down as she moved to join him, a routine they both were more than accustomed to by this point. Reina handed the carrot to the horse before starting on her meal and began counting inventory of what she had collected for herself in what she could sell for later.

            But it had long grown late, and with her stomach now satisfied with food, she pressed herself close to the horse as it let out deep breaths of sleep. And as she closed her eyes to bid the night goodbye, she clutched the staff close to her body.

            Something of which that she had always done until the coming dawn of that ever-lasting sun that never set.

Chapter Text

Images played along the back of her eyelids.

            Of screams and fires that raged on ceaselessly, consuming all those swept up in its path, they were fleeing from something, something in the distance, of people who had glowing red eyes. Reina jerked awake, heart hammering hard in her chest, breath coming in short gasps as a cold sweat began to form along her brow. Her light blue eyes instantly looked around for any sign of change.

            Something like before in the place she had hunkered down and once called home.

            But there was nothing. At least in the stable that Reina and Rostam occupied currently. She stayed perfectly still; metal pipe gripped tight in her left hand as she forced herself to steady her breathing. She needed to be calm, to hear the goings-on outside the stable beyond the current frantic rhythmic beating of her own heart.

            And as her heartbeat slowed, her eyes remained glued to the exit of the stable, wide and unblinking as her grip tightened when she started to hear voices outside, voices that were distinctly male. Yet when those voices faded away, Reina remained where she was for a solid five minutes before she finally relaxed. When she had, she let out a breath as her back pressed against the black pelted stomach of Rostam.

            Grasping the pipe in both hands, she tapped her forehead against the cold stained metal and slowly let out a breath before glancing back in the direction to the stables entrance, then slowly stood up. Rostam followed suit, letting out a snort in response to her placing the bridle and saddle back on.

            When she left the stables, she caught the eye of the village’s innkeeper, to which she gave a nod of thanks before lifting herself onto the horse’s back and rode off. Farther away, the better and on to the next town or village that would need aid. Be it fighting off monsters, collecting hides’ or meat of animals, scavenging for certain types of herbs or even items from the old world. It was something that she was well versed in and very accomplished if she were to think so. Something she would dare say took pride in even if it were considered a mundane or menial task.

            When many would feel warry about the job, she would take it with little to no questions. Even when told how dangerous it could be, she would still take it even if that were true.

            It was one way to live that, at least, gave her some form of freedom. When travelling on Rostam’s strong muscular back allowed her to feel a sense of peace, a rare sense of peace. It made her all the more grateful to have this beast with her. As she was sure, he, too, felt the same.

            Perhaps it made her a fool to think such things that an animal could truly understand what went through her mind as strong as he was. But in truth, she hoped that he couldn’t, for no animal or human should know of her thoughts. Thoughts that she wished to keep at bay for as long as possible.

            As they rode through the land covered in white, Rostam leaving a trail as he kicked up the salt-like sand on a beach that glittered in the bright sunlight. It would have made for a lovely picture had it not the grim reminder of what the salt truly was. Reina gripped the reigns tightly as she grits her teeth, pushing the thoughts back. Of the fire and burning corpses, she urged the beast onwards, to move faster than before as the sun ducked into a thick cover of clouds.

            To give her a small piece of mind.

            Only for those thoughts to stop dead when hearing cries for help.

            Reina’s head snapped in the direction of the scream, eyes going wide behind her goggles as she focused all of her attention on the sound, tuning her ears to the cries as her gaze searched for where it might be coming from. It had to be close, that much she was sure of it! Drawing up her mask to cover the rest of her face and tightened her hood, she turned Rostam in the direction of the screams; they were drawing closer now. She rose to squat on the saddle gripping the reins with her right hand as she grasped the metal pipe with her left. And as the two drew over a large hill, Reina saw it.

            A group of few travellers surrounded by Shades; however, unlike the ones she had a run-in with before on a previous excursion into the abandoned city, these Shades looked to be of varying sizes. And looked to also be possessing weapons, as though manifested from their beings of that same black shadowy mist, this was something new.

            But this line of thought was of little consequence, for the moment that they got close, Reina jumped from Rostam’s back and struck one of the Shades with her metal pipe as hard as she possibly could. Blood flowed from the creature as it violently swung back. But Reina was faster, able to avoid the attack and return one of her own.

            Rostam, too, did his share of the fight. Kicking a number of the smaller Shades away from the people as it rounded the caravan. He was making his way back to Reina, who jumped onto his back and continued to fight with the larger of the Shades that seemed to be the leader of them all.

            This one was harder to defeat, even with the aid of the few travellers who had weapons on hand. It took several attempts before the large Shade came crashing down; its body, though leaving a large stain of blood, soon faded away like dust in the wind—the sounds it made incoherent as if speaking another language.

            The slat-covered ground coated in the blood of Shades by the time it was over. A few of the smaller ones managed to escape, but it didn’t matter as of now. The travellers were safe, with little to no injuries.

            The caravan’s leader offered payment as thanks, then explained that while they were equipped to fight off a few Shades, they had not anticipated coming across so many at once. Shades tended to appear only when the sun had disappeared behind the clouds or remained in the dark.

            It was a common thing, the unprepared attacked by that of the infected or that of the Shades. At least these people had survived.

            After giving another form of thanks, the caravan then headed on its way as Reina headed off to the next town. The sun was now shining once more as Rostam let out a deep snort, as though he were proud to defeat those monsters that had attacked. But then he would have been like that regardless of whom they were fighting. Rostam was a fickle horse and somewhat protective of his master, be it against a Shade or human, he was a horse that would not hold back.

            Reina glanced back in the caravan’s direction, silently hoping that those traders would make it to their next destination as she made it to her own.

             When arriving at a small village, Reina found herself pausing as they reached the entrance. Something about this place didn’t feel right, not at all. It made her throat tight and her skull pound. Wincing from the sudden pain, she grasped the side of her head and looked again at the entrance. There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary that she could immediately see. Yet her unease did not dissipate.

            Could the town be abandoned?

            It would not be a surprise if that were true, yet her unease should not have been like this if that were the case. She had come across plenty of abandoned places before, not just the tall towers of old forgotten cities.

            Deciding to play it safe, she had Rostam move to go around the town, for this place had no walls to speak of. So she could easily see what was going on within without having to go into an unknown location. It was then that she came across the reason for her unease. For in the small town’s square were the bodies of people. Human beings of varying ages, all dead.

            Her eyes went wide as her breath grew short; in the back of her mind, she heard the faintest of songs play, almost echoing as images of the fire and red eyes flashed in her mind. The same red eyes that the dead had. Gasping for breath Reina violently shook her head, not wishing to recall such things before looking back to the square.

            This place fell to those infected with the Red Eye Disease that became a part of Legion. And in a panic, the remaining townsfolk must have put them all down in a violent, bloody mess, including the children. Even they were not spared from such brutality. Her stomach twisted in knots. It wasn’t something she liked to see, even though this was not the first.

            But she dared not to go close, not unless she wished to deal with such things like this before. Back in her village long ago. A village that now no longer stood, much like this village, that would soon fade away with the grains of salt. Closing her eyes, she offered a silent prayer for the dead and had Rostam move on.

            As good as it would be to lay the bodies to rest in a grave, it was not a risk she could bring herself to take. She needed to keep moving. To find some other place to sell what goods she had collected. She kept her eyes forwards, refusing to look at the blood on the cobblestoned ground. Blood that spelled out the one thing she hoped never to hear aloud.

            Speak not the Watchers…

            The rest, which would have been written in the blood of those who were not infected, was not complete, for the remaining villagers had probably acted quickly and mobbed the infected before abandoning this place.

            With a flick of the wrist, she urged Rostam onwards to go faster once again. To put this place behind them as quickly as possible, and as he began to pick up speed, she tilted her head back towards the sky and closed her eyes, allowing the motion of the best and the gallop of hooves along the salt-covered ground soothed her.

            As the faintest of songs from the back of her head faded away as if it never existed in the first place…

*    *    *

            In the end, another town could not be found.

            Reina felt a tad bit disappointed about it. She hoped to sell some of what she collected in the abandoned city for a good price, but it looked not to be in her favour this time. Perhaps it was karma for not accepting the owner of the inn’s offer for the room? Probably not. After all, it was her habit to remain with Rostam.

            Her one true and only companion in this dying world.

            So, with a sigh of defeat, Reina led the horse to a place that would be safe, a small cave nearby. If it rained, it would at least give them some form of cover. And hopefully, they wouldn’t come across any more Shades. At least for a time.

            There had been plenty of times where she would have no choice but to clear out an area filled with Shades. It wasn’t something she liked doing, even more so with the smaller ones, for they didn’t even seem to put up a fight. But this time, there were none. Perhaps it was for those who were infected by Legion or something else entirely. It wasn’t something she was about to question when it came to a place of good timing and sheer luck.

            Either way, she was grateful to be away from the abandoned town. The further, the better to put her mind at ease. But it did make her wonder if the caravan she had helped not even a few hours prior had come from that very town. And if so, why did they not speak of it or give any form of warning? Perhaps they were too shaken from the sudden attack of Shades? Or that they had left that town long before the sudden carnage took place. With how things were, it could be either.

            Thinking of it would do no good now, however.

            She looked to her bag and let out a breath; she did need to sell these things as soon as possible, other places would want what she collected at a reasonable price, and she knew the further the town from the abandoned cities, the higher the price. But she’d instead not carry such amounts for long periods. It’d become too heavy otherwise.

            Rostam nudged Reina with his muzzle, his way of telling her that he was hungry and wished to eat. Patting his neck without looking at him, she dug into her bag and fished out a radish. It was rather large, though it was the last one. She knew he didn’t like them but had no other vegetables to give him but this. He snorted almost offendedly at this but seemed to eat it with great reluctance. Even animals couldn’t be picky when it came to food. Realizing this, Reina shook her head; she should have at least checked out the market in the last town before leaving. But her nerves were too high even to attempt such a thing. She scolded herself for being so cowardly.

            Yet as she went through her bag, something changed. A sudden feeling of dread crept up her spine, causing her to go still. Even Rostam stilled, looking in the direction of where the village once was. Ears twitching as he let out a faint snort before getting up from where he lay.

            Reina did, too, as she slowly picked up her metal pipe. There were sounds now, sounds now coming towards them. Quickly she placed her bag over Rostam’s back then had him run out of the cave in the opposite direction from where they came. With what was coming, she could not allow him to stay. Not with this. Even if the horse seemed reluctant, she wasn’t about to let him stay with the sounds of so many approaching her. Grimore

At first, she couldn’t make out what she heard. But the closer these sounds came, the clearer it became. It was voices, mumbled and at first, not audible.

            But when she did hear what was spoken, everything within her slowly turned to ice.

            “…Speak not the Watchers, Draw not the Watchers, Write not the Watchers, Sculpt not the Watchers, Sing not the Watchers, Call not the Watchers' name.”

              Reina’s grip tightened on the metal pipe as she squeezed her eyes shut as a faint song began to play in the back of her head. One that she knew well enough but chose to ignore. Steeling herself, she turned and slowly walked out of the cave, where she met with a group of people. People whose eyes were now red and glowed brightly, she bit in the inside of her cheek upon realizing that these people were those from the village, a village she thought had been abandoned. A village devoid of people was not barren at all. They were hiding.

            The rest of them became infected in the end.

            Her stomach lurched with dread when spying that there were even more children, hands raised towards her, as their voices cried out. “Mother! Mother! Where are you, Mother?”

            Their voices began to merge as they slowly walked towards her, staggering, tripping over themselves and falling. They were now Legion, rather than simply calling them a group, for there had to be a leader.

            If she could dispatch the leader, then they would become disoriented, and she could make her escape. That is if she could handle such a thing in her current state of mind. Yet, they now stopped moving. They simply stayed where they stood, at least the adults, for the children of vastly different ages, still slowly made their way towards her.

            Her grip tightened further as she held up her pipe in warning; she would strike if they came closer, had no choice but to as she slowly moved her way back until the children stopped as well. That was all but one.

            A boy in his adolescents, somewhere between the ages of ten to twelve, walked towards her, not in the same lumbering fashion as the others had. But one that looked to walk with purpose, with apparent reason. He stopped merely three feet away from her, dressed in clothes sullen with blood like the rest as he looked up at her with a blank expression before an endearing smile stretched across his young face. Had he not the red eyes, it would have been a sweet innocent smile, but this was far from it. And as he smiled, he rose his hands, the boy spoke. The voices from the others quickly ceased.

            “Can you sing?” the boy asked with a smile. “I want to hear you sing!”

            Reina did not answer. She merely took a step back, still holding up her pipe in warning. Her heart was now beating wildly. The sound was so loud she could hear it in her ears. Her throat became tight once again as she bit the inside of her cheek, hard enough to bleed, and gave the boy a faint shake of her head in response.

            “But you can sing,” the boy said. “I know you can. So, sing! Let us hear you sing! Sing, Sing, Sing! Sing for us…!” the next word the boy intended to say did not come, for she struck him before he could finish. She gasped for breath and staggered back; she would not answer him, did not dare to.

            Blood followed down along the boy’s head where she struck him, but he got up all the same. As though her strike was nothing more than a slap across the face. His smile was now gone, his glowing red eyes filled with anger as he stared up at her.

            “Why won’t you sing?” he asked in a demanding voice as he looked up at her. “Why?”

            Reina shook her head once more. Remaining silent.

            The boy’s hands clawed at the earth before standing. “You think you can keep silent like this? How long do you expect to keep going?!”

            Suddenly, fire engulfed Legion drawing the attention of the boy and Reina. Those of Legion did not cry as they burned alive; they stood like barren trees before falling into the salt-covered ground. Reina couldn’t help but frown and question where the fire came from. Her attention soon locked on another figure, of a man brandishing a blade from the other side.

Chapter Text

The man stood on the opposite side of Legion that had been lit aflame. Many of them had fallen and were now nothing more than a heap of black decay. The charred smell of human flesh wafted in the air as Reina covered her nose with the back of her sleeve with a free hand.

            Where had the fire come from? She looked to the man who merely held up his left hand as though he had somehow shot out a blast of flame. Like magic.

            But such a thing should not have been possible, should it?

            As the remainder of Legion now turned to face this new foe, the boy who led them narrowed his eyes on the man.

            A frown formed on Reina’s face, readjusting her mask to keep her face hidden from this man. As for now, the boy seemed focused on this man. A man who had a rather enraged expression looked around her age, perhaps a bit older, with dark brown hair that reached his shoulders and dark blue eyes. Yet with his current expression, she could not be entirely sure. For he looked almost possessed with rage, the rage that was emitting from this man’s strong physical form.

            He opened his mouth as if to let out a scream, yet there was nothing. Not a single sound as this man took his massive blade and swung at the remainder of Legion; blood and fire filled Reina’s gaze, reminding her of what she wished to forget, causing her to look away.

            Her breath was coming in short bursts as she quickly covered her mouth, only to look at the boy when he spoke.

            “Him again…” the boy seethed in anger.

            Reina looked to the man, the man who seemed concentrated on killing those in Legion. The sheer anger in his expression made him look almost like he was possessed by his own demons rather than the Red-Eye Disease sufferers as he cut down his way through the infected. And in his rage, he looked to the boy before tossing a knife, but instead of hitting the adolescent, it moved past, almost grazing Reina’s cheek. Slicing through her hood, causing her mask and even her goggles to fall.

            Her dark red hair fell to the center of her pale neck. The man who threw the knife had done so to hit the adolescent boy, but with one of Legion grabbing at his arm, his aim faltered nearly struck her instead. Yet the mere moment the man looked to her, he seemed to freeze in place. Almost as though he were looking at a ghost. As though he saw someone else.

            “Kill him!” the boy shouted, causing Reina to snap back into reality. Taking this chance, Reina lifted her left hand and let out a shrilled whistle before then reaching into her pack, locking eyes with the other man, who still looked to be in shock before noticing what she drew out of her bag and threw it into the air towards Legion.

            The man darted back to avoid what was to come as Reina turned to run towards a fast-approaching Rostam. The boy caught on to this as he extended a hand to grab her, only for him to be kicked away by the powerful angry horse that quickly returned to her side.

            The blast came the moment it made an impact with that of Legion. A small handmade bomb filled with gunpowder and any sharp object she could find. Something Reina found to be immensely useful when dealing with Legion if she happened to have a run-in. The thing was, she would have used it had it not been for the boy and the song that could be heard with it.

            Yet the blast was more substantial than usual, almost as though something had been added to it before it blew up. But it was of little thought as Reina quickly mounted her steed and reared him to leave. She saw no sign of the man who came in before; perhaps he took the chance to flee when realizing that Legion was too much to handle for one person alone? Or maybe the blast had taken him as well?

            “No!” the boy cried out, seething with anger as rage filled his red eyes. “You will not leave us!” he rushed, trying to grab her once more, only to be denied again by the ever-powerful Rostam and his relenting kick, taking off and away from the fight without so much as a word or command from his master. Even he seemed to know that in some cases, it was best to flee rather than fight.

            Reina looked back to the boy, who seemed to now only stare after them, like a child not wanting a parent to leave them. Only for that to change when seeing the man from earlier, standing behind the boy like an imposing shadow.

            This man would kill the boy; that was clear. Reina forced herself to look forwards then back. What happened next was now none of her business. She was still alive and grateful for it. She placed her right hand along her temple as a faint pulse began to strike in the middle of her brain. A sudden shock before it dissipated.

            As Rostam continued onwards at his brisk pace, Reina wondered who that man possibly was and where the sudden amount of flames came from, but it was only for a moment.

            She honestly doubted that she would ever see him again.

*    *    *

            After travelling a long way, passing several towns and villages, Reina finally came to a stop. She didn’t even think about seeing if any scavenging would need for someone. Her mind was too scattered, thoughts too raw to even think about in regards to food. But she needed to sell what she had, if not for herself, but from Rostam to eat. The stubborn fellow had run so many miles without so much as even stopping. Knowing the danger and needing to get away as far as possible.

            Thankfully, the past few towns showed no signs of being infected; even the one she decided to rest at, though rather sketchy in appearances, seemed to hold none of the infection or Shades in the nearby vicinity.

            Even still, she couldn’t bring herself to relax.

            The anger in that man’s expression, his eyes. What would cause him to hate with every fibre of his being?

            She shook her head; why was she even thinking that? She would never see him again. For all she knew, he could have very well have died when she left.

            Like so many, she had known before in her village and others after that. Not something she was proud of, but it was a fact that she had to come to terms with rather quickly; if she intended to survive, she had to do so by abandoning others if the time came for it.

            Rostam reared his head and let out a snort to draw her attention; they had come to a stop in front of a merchant’s stall. Bringing her right back to the reality of things. And with it in mind, she quickly began going right back to what she had intended to do.

*    *    *

            It had been several days since the encounter of Legion. And since then, Reina had moved on to another town even further away to do some business.

Many of the people in this town spoke of it, wondering if anyone in the surrounding areas would become infected. Talks of searches to see if there were any signs of those who held the White Chlorination Syndrome or even hints of red eyes would lead to paranoia, which means that Reina would have to move on all though brief. Like many towns or villages, outsiders were rarely welcome. Even if she did have optimal goods to sell, the constant looks she was given besides the vendors were clear. She was not welcome. Not that it mattered, she’d be gone the following day after handing off these items not too far away from the local town’s inn.

            “What the hell is your problem, you bastard!? You have a problem with me, then damn well say it! Quit glaring at me!”

            Reina just stopped short of the inn’s entrance when hearing the slurred shout of a man coming from inside. Instinct took hold as she pressed her back along the wall and peered inside from the corner of her eye.

            Just as she thought, a drunken man was indeed shouting at another, a man whom Reina recognized instantly. It was the man who had taken on Legion, the man she left to die.

            Why was he here? Of all places this man could have gone, he ended up in the same place. Did he follow her? Or was it some type of random coincidence?

            Regardless of how he ended up here, Reina knew instantly that this man would end the drunkard with one strike. Yet the man continued to take the drunks berating silently.

            “Well?” the drunk continued. “Come on, say something! Or are you just scared of what I’ll do? Do you even know who I am?!” the drunk then chortled a laugh, smug and arrogant, when the man didn’t respond. “You must be scared. If you weren’t, you would have said something by now! You must be a pushover with just how…”

The drunk’s ramblings halted the moment the silent man grabbed the drunkard by the throat, lifted him into the air and tossed him across the room with little to no effort as the drunk crashed into a table sending it, and the contents it had about the bar.

             The others within the bar backed away when he glanced upon them before turning to the owner and dropping a bag on the tabletop.

            “Ah… y-yes, just… just one moment.” The bar owner ran off through another door to some hidden room. The tension now thick on everyone’s tongue, the drunk did not seem to be finished and suddenly rushed to the man with a broken bottle as a weapon.

            “You fucking bastard!” the drunk bellowed as he rushed to the silent man.

Only to come to a halt when a knife flew, lodging itself into the side of the drunk’s head before falling to the floor with a heavy thud. The whole room went still. The silent man turned towards the entrance of the bar to see no one there.

            Reina readjusted her bag as she moved past a small crowd of people talking about what happened in the bar. The drunk would have died anyhow. And besides, she didn’t wish to owe anyone anything, no matter how random it may have seemed. The silent man had subsequently helped her, meaning too or not. So, she repaid it in kind by returning the man’s knife that she had picked up while fleeing with Rostam.

            An undisclosed debt repaid. Reina was moving on without a word continuing much like before as nothing changed. Now she merely needed to get a new mask and goggles and some items to fix her coat; with the haul she had, she could get paid handsomely. 

She headed to the inn with that in mind, and once she received her money, she bought what she needed. Then quickly went over to the nearby river, took a drink, and scrubbed her hands in the icy cold waters. Then, resting her elbows on her knees, she looked around once more to see if anyone had decided to follow her before then headed over to Rostam, who seemed more eager to leave as she.

            With a smile on her face, she climbed onto Rostam’s back and headed off, not before catching a quick glimpse of the man, standing atop one of the buildings, with a knife in hand, watching her grow smaller as he did to her. Then, pulling her mask up over had mouth and nose, she urged the beast onwards, separating the two into an even greater rift.

            For they would not meet again.

Chapter Text

Leaving the village, Reina continued fighting off the Shades that she came across. Killing them one by one with the metal pipe in her hands as Rostam kicked several of the Shades away, they bled out quick and then soon died.

            There seemed more of them now. Reina looked to the fading crumpled bodies as the blood remained, the salt absorbing it like a sponge. With a shake of her head, she urged Rostam forwards as they road in silence together.

            By the time Reina reached a new town, it had grown late, yet still, the sun never disappeared unless by a thick cloud cover. There had been times where she would wonder what nighttime looked like. Reina had heard stories of how long ago the sun would fall but that it one day stopped. The reason for it was unclear. She had seen the moon before, at least a few times. It made her wonder if this once a thing called “the night” would be interesting to see.

            Upon entering, Reina surveyed the town from horseback before buying a local area map, for this place was much larger than the small-time villages she had previously passed through as the room was not well known to her.

The town itself had at least three separate inns that held a verity of stables—giving her a vast array of options to sleep for the night. Stifling a yawn with the back of her hand, Reina made her way to the center of the town’s inn. Out of the others, it gave her the most options in making a quick exit if she needed to.

With how large the town was, the likelihood was a small one. Being cautious was key to survival, especially in these current chaotic times.

The inn in question even gave her a discount when they realized that she intended to stay with the horse instead of booking herself a room. They even went so far as to provide her with some food for the horse for free.

By the time she and Rostam settled, it had grown incredibly late. Sleep was now slowly getting the best of her. Since the encounter with the group of Legion, her usual sleep patterns had not been the best. Her nightmares were more consistent.

But perhaps now, maybe, she could get a decent rest here. At least with Rostam here, her back pressed up against his belly, she had nothing to fear.

            However, her sleep did not last long. During that time, with what little sleep she gained, she had the horrible dream of everything consumed in the fire, shadows of people behind the flames as they all looked at her with glowing red eyes. Red eyes that said it all.

            We are waiting… we are waiting… come join us… we are waiting… we are waiting… waiting for you… come join… come join… we are waiting for you.

            Rostam nudged her, causing her to wake; something was profoundly bothering the horse as he now snorted and nudged her repeatedly with his nose. When she looked across the stable, she quickly understood why. It was not her dreams that caused the horse’s distress.

            Sitting across from her in the stable was the silent man from before. Instinct took hold as she grasped her weapon and held it up towards him. Silently warning him that she would strike if he tried anything. Yet, he did nothing.

            The man looked to be asleep, at least from what Reina could tell from the distance she was at and how he hung his head low. How long had this man been here? Why was he here, and what in the world did he want?

            It couldn’t have been a coincidence. Running into each other once by chance, yes, twice no. He had followed her but for what reason did he do that?

            Eyeing him carefully, she took her metal pipe and nudged his foot with it, then moved back to the safety of the horse’s side and looked back to the man’s face. Noting that now, he was looking at her with dark blue eyes. Those same eyes filled with untold rage and anger now looked at her squarely in the face.

            The silence between them grew and grew as they continued to keep eye contact with each other. As though they both silently measured themselves in the likelihood of what could happen if one were to attack the other.

            The man merely looked at her with a blank expression, yet his deep blue eyes kept staring directly at her face. As though he saw something about her that she couldn’t.

            Reina kept holding the metal pipe in warning as the silence proceeded, her lips pressed in a thin line. Unable to take it anymore, she quickly reacted, thrusting the pipe forwards to strike the man, only he moved with an incredible amount of agility. As he now was crouching at the entrance of the stable.

            Reina moved to stand, keeping the metal pipe that she had in front of him in a warning. She did not wish to fight, but her nerves were too high as her body pumped with adrenalin, as her heart thundering in her ears, making her unable to think clearly.

            Rostam quickly rose when he saw her come over. And soon moved in between them before the horse lifted his hooves to stamp down on the man; the man moved back as Reina took the chance to climb on Rostam’s back and galloped out of the stable and further into town. She looked back only to see the man chase after her.

            Why?

            And the further they had left the town, Reina could still see him. The man was still following, deliberately. Just how long did he plan to follow her?

            She had Rostam slow slightly as she now kept her eyes locked on the man, who now seemed to be merely walking behind. Taking the reins, she had Rostam speed up and head off towards a nearby chasm. A rocky range where she could potentially lose the man, but if she couldn’t shake him, she knew the only outcome left.

            The ride itself was at a fair distance, but she could no longer see the man following her with how far she currently was. But she intended to keep going. Heading into the chasm, she gripped the reins urging Rostam further into the narrow pathway.

            Looking back to see any signs of the man. There were none.

            Slowing Rostam down, she looked back, light blue eyes scanning the chasm entrance seeing nothing. Letting out a slow breath, she continued onwards. But it did not ease her tension just yet, even as she continued to another town and gained more work and fed her horse. One was to fight off the Shades in the surrounding area, another to collect a rare material left within the ruins of a nearby abandoned city, which many Shades were known to hide.

            But even still, she couldn’t find herself to relax, not after seeing that man again. Something about him bothered her but one that she could not place. Could it have been the look on his face when he saw her at the bar? Or that he was so bloodthirsty, besides the actual smell of blood that came off him like a wave.

            There had been many people that she encountered before that gave off the smell of blood. Even she had for a time. But that was long ago, before, when the nightmares became consistent with her whenever she dreamed.

             Yet, it was the look in his eyes that bothered her the most. The anger, the rage. It made her skin crawl and her blood turn cold.

            There had been many like that, yet his seemed to expound on that in greater length. Reina could only surmise that he had gone through something genuinely horrifying. Whatever that was.

            After a moment of respite, Reina headed towards the abandoned city. Only to leave Rostam outside of the city zone, not wishing him to be trapped in a place he could not get out of when she could. However, he seemed rather keen on going in with her this time, trotting behind her and letting out a snort. She raised her hand to him and shook her head. As much as she would have loved to have him with her to ease the remaining anxiety deep within her heart, it was too dangerous. The abandoned city, or the City of the Forgotten, as many called it, and gave similar titles to other abandoned cities, was not fully charted on any maps. And even if some cities were, it would not be safe with many buildings crumbling and falling to ruin, to become nothing more than rust and dust underneath one’s foot.

            The horse let out a cry in protest when she began to walk away, drawing her back to give him a solid pat on his neck and handing him a carrot to ease him slightly. He never acted like this; there must have been something about this city compared to others that caused him to have such unease about her going in alone.

            She pulled out a pocket watch, one of the many things she recovered and decided to keep for herself, and tapped along the top of the glass, and pointed to the hands of the clock, then to the time in which she intended to be back: an hour, two hours at best.

            Rostam seemed to understand and calm slightly, allowing her to head off into the city.

            She went at a brisk pace; she would not go far, just in a few abandoned shops and up a few floors in some buildings to find what she needed. And a little extra if she got lucky.

            The wind began to blow as if pushing her to go in as she made her way. She paused to look up at the many tall and dilapidated buildings of old.

            Wandering within the abandoned city, she noted how there were several bodies, but these bodies of the dead were now merely shells of what they once were. As though the person who became this only had gone to sleep. At least for some of the remaining bodies, others looked as though they had fallen and couldn’t get up.

            She stopped short when she noticed something, one of the shells of the former people held a note to its chest. Carefully, Reina removed it without destroying what remained and looked at it, for it was rare to find anything written these days.

            I leave this hoping that someone may find it helpful within these horrible times even now as my body crumbles to salt. All I can think of what I had discovered and the fact that it will now go to waste, for I can no longer wield it. But perhaps you, who is currently reading this, may find a use for it against Legion and the Shades.

            The world is crumbling, much like my body. But if you can use it to survive, then I am content with that. I found this in the abandoned ruins of a strange building, a weapon used in killing a former prince, or so I have heard. If you wish to survive, then take it. If you wish only for power, then your fate will be the same as my own. For in my travels, I heard that there was such a strong weapon.

            My arrogance and greed led me here to my inevitable death, for my legs, cracked and broken, are slowly falling to salt. I can no longer move. And I hope for your sake stranger; it does not lead to yours…

            The rest of the note became illegible after that.

            Looking back to the shell, then to the note once more, turning it over to see a key stuck to the paper. Walking past the fallen crumpled empty shell of human forms, she came to a rather reinforced door. It was heavy, and though it looked as though someone tried to open it, it refused to move without its key.

            A key that fits perfectly when Reina unlocked the door. As she pulled it open, the door let out a heavy metal screech that clawed at the inside of her skull.

            The door was heavy, making the muscles in her arms stretch from the strain, but it was nothing she wasn’t used to by now. It took a few good solid pulls to get it open all the way, taking a few pauses to stop and listen to her surroundings, in the case of Shades or others.

            When the door was finally open, Reina took a few breaths before heading inside. It was a small room, with metal lockers all scattered about. There was practically nothing of note except for one thing.

            The weapon in question–which had been left against the back wall–propped up and waiting for the owner that would never come to collect it. Grasping the firm metalwork of it and held it to its full height.

            The weapon was taller than she, a spear with a long-pointed blade but light and easy to handle in one or both hands. Of course, the movement she made with it was vastly different than that of the pipe. But she knew if need be, she could always handle both.

            Her eyes then caught what looked to be another note where she had taken the spear, which read “Spear of the Usurper”, but that was all.

            Heading out of the room, she stopped when hearing something crumble. Looking back, she saw that the remains of who held the note had now become nothing more than salt. Reina offered a silent bow of thanks to this nameless person. This spear would now help her in more ways than one. She hoped that whoever this person was, that they would find peace.

            And now, with her new weapon grasped in her left hand, Reina headed deeper into the ruins of this forgotten city.

Chapter Text

Reina jumped down through an old doorway into a room with a collapsed ceiling, which gave way to more places to scavenge, much of it left untouched. Unfortunately, that also came with having to deal with more of the Shades.

In which she had done so. Fighting countless swarms of them, like bees in a beehive as she made her way through the long hallway and into several rooms before finding that she had no choice but to jump out of a window and into another. Rolling into the wall, she quickly got up and surveyed the area she was now inside.

This building had collapsed against another. The hallway was barren, with several cracks showing signs of its decrepit age before entering a much larger spacious room where salt fell from the sky like falling snow. Even the sound of walking across the salt-laden ground reminded her of snow from a bygone era. It made Reina wonder if there would even be times like that again or if she would even live to see it.

Shaking such thoughts out of her head, Reina tightened up her mask and readjusted her goggles before going any further, only to stop dead in her tracks to look up at the sudden noise. In the metal framing of the rafters, she saw something.

It was that man again.

He was still following her.                  

Reina grit her teeth from behind the mask as the man disappeared into some other place. The area she was in would have been too much of a drop for him to land without breaking any bones or rupture internal organs.

Great… just great.

Now he was someone she might have no choice but to deal with. That man’s tenacity was a bother that much she was sure of. But now, if she ran into him here, within the densities of the ruined city, she may have no choice but to fight him.

Even though that was the last thing she wanted, gripping her newly found weapon tightly in her hands, she came under the resolve. That if they were to fight, then she would do so with all she had. For Reina did not wish to die, she wanted to live for as long as possible…

*    *    *

The surrounding areas consisted of Shades. Some would run away, while others would run at her to strike. As her instincts took hold, Reina took the opportunity to practice with her new weapon. She even found that in some instances, she could even use the pipe, duel-wielding both at once, though it was rather tricky to do so, it wasn’t often that she would use both. As of now, she mainly stuck to her newest weapon, getting a handle on it as best as possible.

Coming across pieces of paper, ones about “viruses” and “infections” and of “people turning into salt”. Reina frowned at this; it was about the White Chlorination Syndrome. From the dates that she had seen (and what was visible even to read), it looked to have been from a long time ago.

Yet, somehow, to Reina, that felt wrong. It felt wrong in the sense of just how long this disease had been around. She thought that this building was in connection to places where those who were sick would go. But even that felt wrong; it looked different from what she had seen of the medical buildings of old in her travels.

            As if this place was more for experimentation than anything else. But would they, whoever they were, would go so far as to experiment on people? People who didn’t ask for this, people who didn’t want this, people who probably hoped to have their pain alleviated in some shape or form so that they could cope. She paused in her steps when seeing one of the many ruined and falling part beds and a teddy bear—coated in salt.

            A child died here. Many children died here.

            She stared at it for how long she wasn’t sure before finally tearing her eyes away from it and pressed on. She was used to seeing it, almost numb, yet it still left her with such feelings of regret. Those feelings would be pushed aside, like every other time before.

            Even still, she found herself sighing at this. Even with all this death, she still found that it would still affect her like now. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

            Reina walked through this room, continually glancing at the many beds with several completely coated salt and those saturated in a dark black substance, a substance that used to be a dark crimson red.

            Reaching the end of the room, she opened the door to a relatively wide and open area devoid of anything. Her footsteps echoed around her in this rather large circular room with many tall rectangular windows. 

            And it was a room that was of very little importance that she could find, nothing of use. As she made her way over to the other end of the large room, the sun's bright light slowly began to vanish behind a mass of clouds. When it had, she knew well enough what it meant. Reina took out her spear without a sound and spun around to see a sudden vast number of small Shades.

            A number of them lunged at her, shouting at her, speaking in garbled speak that she could not understand. All the while, as she swung her spear against them. And yet they began to become more prominent in size the more the clouds darkened the skies.

            Realizing that this would be a fruitless fight, she needed to avoid the Shades as much as possible. So, she ran from the horde, heading towards the exit. There was a hole above the door; she didn’t have time to check to see if the door was locked or not, so she ran as fast as she could before vaulting the door with the help of her spear. It wasn’t the first time she had done something similar to avoid mass amounts of conflict that were too much to handle.

            Well, she could, but she’d rather not risk it. Especially if she strained herself too much, that would be bad and just cause even greater problems.

            As the clouds continued to darken, with the rumble of thunder in the distance signifying rain would soon start, more Shades began to crawl out of the literal woodwork of the building.

            Reina made a sound of annoyance but was also super grateful that Rostam was not here to deal with this. Reaching a nearby room, Reina quickly shut the large door behind her. The room in question had no signs of Shade activity, and she quickly discovered why.

            In the far corner of the room was a group that had become petrified, all huddled together, possibly choosing to die together than apart. It almost looked like a statue with how they were; several children clung close to a woman as if she was their last salvation.

            She stared at it, seeing the delicate features in the children and the woman. The children looked confused, sad, and worried, while one was held in the woman’s lap looked as though the child had fallen asleep.

            While the woman looked almost content, a faint smile resting on her petrified lips with long hair falling over her shoulder.

            Scraps of clothing with the colours of white, navy blue and gold held something in the shape of a golden cross. A long-dead religion since the world fell to ruin. People once looked for god, believing this to be some form of judgment, but prayers would do nothing to bring salvation. Reina knew that first hand.

            Some still held fast to this religion, believing that a god even existed. When she saw the colour of the scarps of clothes, Reina recognized it. Women who called themselves Nuns of the Sisterhood of God wore them. Though they were few and far between, they believed that this disease should not be something to fight against. That it would run its course, and humanity could still win against it.

            Reina wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or just willful ignorance. She’d like to have hope that the world would come back, but it probably wouldn’t happen within her lifetime. But then, even that, she wasn’t sure. It made her faintly recall the times in her home village when such hopes were given before it fell to ashes.

            A sudden pain erupted from her skull, causing her to hiss as she grasped the side of her head and quickly covered her mouth.

            When it subsided and her vision cleared, Reina could hear something close by. It wasn’t the Shades but someone singing, a woman.

            The confusion was the first thing that came to Reina’s mind as she stood; there were Shades here. Why would someone sing in a place like this?

            Slowly Reina stood and followed the signing into another hallway and adjourning room to where she saw another woman. Her clothes were the same as the other with the many other children who had been long petrified, but she could hear a song.

            Singing in an old language, Reina understood with lyrics of the song going on about being hand in hand with a child before falling into a blaze of hell and stars in the sky.

            Her back was facing Reina as she sat in the middle of the floor of the decaying room, rocking back and forth. Her short blonde hair was bobbed and holding streaks of blood, as did her clothes. She and the others must have come here in the hopes of shelter from something. Possibly those possessed by Legion, but when she came around to face the woman, Reina halted. There were two notable things. One was that the child the woman was signing to was dead, not from the turning into salt, but from a horrible wound to the boy’s chest. His heart had been ripped out. And the second was that the woman who was signing had red glowing eyes.

            The woman looked to be around Reina’s age as she looked up at Reina and smiled sweetly, giving a slight bow of the head before going back to signing to the dead boy. As though she was completely unaware of the blood that was on her face, hands and clothes.

            The boy’s skin was deathly pale from blood loss, stiff and unmoving. He had died not that long ago, perhaps a week or less then.

            “He’s in a better place,” the woman said suddenly, now no longer singing, her red eyes looking to Reina. “We all are. You should know.” She smiled sweetly, yet it didn't look calming. “You can’t go on forever, fighting over and over. Constantly on repeat. Pushing back will only make it push back even harder. This boy knew, and still, he tried. Brave little soul. But foolish.” She looked back at Reina. “Like you.”

            However, Reina merely took a single step back, hand resting on the hilt of her weapon, ready to fight her if she were to attack. But the woman only continues to smile as if she already knew what the outcome would be—and quietly held up her arms—extending them outwards from herself as her smile remained sweet towards Reina.

            “Go ahead. Death comes for us all, no matter how hard, or long we fight.” She locked eyes with her. “No matter how long, we may try to prolong it.”

            Reina’s hand remained where it was, only to fall limply to her side.

            The woman’s smile faltered slightly. “Oh? Are you not going to do it? That’s a shame…” she looked down at the boy brushing his brittle brown hair away from his face. He looked no older than ten. “Tell me, did you do the same thing? Back in your village? The place you called home before it was lit aflame?”

            Reina’s head began to throb, making her wince as she grasped both sides of her head, her nails biting into her scalp, her teeth grinding as her lips part as if to scream. But she refused to let out a single sound.

            Memories from before enveloped her mind, of her family, her brother and friends now long dead. Of a time when things were better, when she was more open to others, when she was more accepting when she wasn’t jaded… or broken.

            Images and voices collided, making it intangible to understand any of what assaulted her, even though she knew what it was from and where, but chose to bury them deep within her subconscious.

            “There it is,” Reina’s eyes snapped open, the woman with red eyes had moved, the dead boy now laying on the ground, as the woman was merely inches away from Reina’s face, her blood-stained hands caressing against both sides of Reina’s face. “That’s the look, the expression. Of someone who’s more than aware. How wonderful! How interesting! You are so interesting. I wonder, what else there is to it…”

            Reina pushed the woman away, causing the woman to fall, landing on her back sprawled against the rubble remains of the room and the boy, as her red gaze looked up at the cracked and broken ceiling to whatever sunlight could come through.

            “So that’s your answer…” she spoke softly as Reina moved to leave, to get further away from this woman. “But that’s fine. I can wait. We can wait. For as long as we need to.” Reina stopped to look back at the woman, who was now standing once more with the boy in her arms, cradling him close as if he were asleep. “Just like we’ve always had…” she then offered Reina a deep bow, as if wishing her well on her journey.

            Reina said nothing to her and merely left the room. She jumped down to another floor from a nearby hole. Her head still throbbed from earlier; from the looks of things, it might just persist. As much as a part of her wanted to continue exploring this place, it was best to head out. Sunlight was returning, and she wasn’t about to push herself. If that woman was here, then more of Legion could also be here, which wouldn’t end well if that were the case.

            Letting out a tired breath, Reina pushed forwards in the hopes of getting out of here and back to Rostam, back into a place where she wouldn’t have to look over her shoulder constantly. At least for a little while.

            Making it to another large circular room, she looked around for a possible exit, only to hear the disjointed garbled speak of Shades coming from above her.

            No, it was a giant Shade.

            She tilted her head back and saw the colossal Shade atop the ceiling. It was huge, larger than the ones she had encountered previously. A total mass of darkness, multiple eyes, and a long lanky body coiled like a snake with several arms and a massive tail shaped like a hand.

            She leapt back out of the way when it fell, causing a shockwave; the ground shook from it, but Reina remained steady, with her legs and right arm stretched out on the floor to keep her from falling. Her left hand clutching tightly to her weapon as her eyes darted from the Shade to a possible exit. But, unfortunately, the way she came in was currently being blocked by the giant thing.

            The moment she tried to run from it, it swiped its tail at her, causing her to move back even further. It wouldn’t let her.

            Shit.

            There was no choice; she had to fight.

            Biting the inside of her cheek, she rushed it, darting around to avoid whatever attacks the Shade would let loose, be it its own body or dark orbs that it let out from its mouth too. It wasn’t the first time Reina had encountered such things when fighting with Shades. In past experiences, she found that she could destroy the lighter ones and block or move out of the way of the even darker coloured orbs. With her weapon, she would use it to vault over them, or the Shade’s other attacks or simply cartwheel out of the way and lead into a flurry of attacks, easier than merely rolling out of the way.

            And with her weapon, she could fight while remaining at a further range, giving her more flexibility and movement than she would have with a sword.

            However, it seemed little good against an enemy of this size. But she had to use whatever she could. Throwing small bombs helped in stunning the creature giving her ample time to strike with her spear.

            However, amid the fight, Reina came to the quick realization that this Shade was not alone as the smaller ones from before began to join in the fight. Coming through cracks and crevasses in the walls. Damn it; this was the kind of shit she wanted to avoid!

            Doing what she could, Reina avoided the attacks from the giant Shade while beating back the smaller ones while continually trying to find another way out or a chance to go the way she came. But before that could even happen, the large Shade used its tail and struck the ground hard. It did this in several places, making the already unstable environment even worse. The cracks growing larger, creeping up along the walls before it, and the floor they were standing on broke away beneath them.

            Reina sucked in a breath as she fell; thankfully, out of pure luck, the fall was not significant. Landing on the next floor as the large Shade seemed to have a rougher time and landed on jagged metal and glass.

            It was pinned.

            That didn’t stop the smaller Shades from attacking; however, the larger one seemingly barking out orders to the little ones to attack her as it tried to break itself free.

            Reina continued to fight off the smaller Shades, moving around the rubble, using it to her advantage vaulting over the large debris with her spear and coming down on many.

            All the while trying to find another exit.

            Out of the corner of her eye, she found one. A large fisher in the wall, the light of the sun breaking through, and she could glimpse the clear blue sky. As the faint signs of salt that fell like snow wafted in from it.

            When she finished off the rest of the smaller Shades, Reina took the chance to run towards what she hoped was an exit. To possible freedom. But the giant Shade had managed to free itself and rush her. Before Reina could manage to reach the exit, it grasped her with its tail like a hand.

            The Shade flung Reina across the room, causing her body to strike the concrete wall so hard it left a visible dent and large cracks like gnarled tree roots. Reina’s mouth opened wide as pain wracked through her whole body, her ears ringing as she fell towards the ground. But not before clamping her mouth shut with one hand and used her weapon to lessen the fall.

            Reina managed to land on her feet only to stagger and fall to her knees. Breathing heavily through her nose as her vision clouded. One hand still firmly pressed to her mouth as the left remained firmly grasping the spear. The ringing continued. On top of it, she could hear something like singing once more. Was it that woman’s song? Reina shook her head violently, now wasn’t the time for this!

            The large Shade peered at her for a moment as if waiting to see what she would do before charging head-on with a roar. The moment it got close, however, Reina stabbed it right in the face. Blood flew, splattering the ground on her, making her see nothing but a red haze. As it writhed in pain, Reina regained her footing, leapt into the air and, with all her strength, plunged her spear right into the Shade’s brain. The sound of aggression coming from her as she pressed down the spear. She pulled it out with a faint grunt and went to strike again, only to freeze when something came to her ears.

            The ringing was long gone, no singing either. It was a voice this time. A familiar deep voice from long ago. Speaking words that were never said to her.

“We are waiting… come join us… aren’t you tired of all this? Join, join and become one. Why continue fighting? All of us are waiting… waiting for you. Come, come, come with us.”

            She could see hands, white hands like the slat on the ground, rise from the Shade and grasp at her body, slithering up like snakes and clings to parts of her. She was seeing things, but it all felt real. Familiar. Unwanted.

            She ground her teeth, biting hard in the inside of her cheek as blood spilled out in a faint trail from her parted lips.

            “Come with us. Come with me.”

            “NO!” Reina screamed, her voice sounding hoarse to her ears before plunging the blade into the Shade once more. Blood erupted from it again as it let out another cry of pain. She jumped off it and staggered backwards, her breath coming out in short bursts as blood coated her body. Vaguely, she became aware of another, the man that had followed her. He was here now.

            She inched further away, closer towards her only exit. Then she lifted her hand to her lips and let out a shrill whistle. A calling for Rostam. Something that she hoped he could hear.

            The Shade let out another roar, clearly not done with their fight even after all that she had done to it. It still wasn’t enough.

            But she was the way things were, she couldn’t carry on like this—needed to get away. She looked at the man, opened her mouth to speak but stopped. He wouldn’t forgive her for this, and neither would she if the roles were reversed.

            The Shade rushed for her while Reina jumped out through the hole as it collided with the wall. Reina forced herself to stand up, the muscles in her legs screaming as her breathing became more exasperated. She needed rest.

            Anywhere would do at this point as long as she was alone.

            Then salvation, Rostam let out a cry as the sound of his heavy hooves echoed against that of the walls of the fallen city. Running with clear drive and purpose, not even slowing down as Reina merely extended her arm as Rostam ran past, she grasped the reigns and lifted herself onto the saddle as the horse pressed on. He wanted to leave as much as she did.

            At this point, she was too tired even to think as her body slumped against Rostam’s powerful form, everything in her vision getting dim and dark. But before the shroud of unconsciousness embraced her, she thought of the man she left to fend for himself against the enormous Shade.

            “Sorry…” before that vague awareness of her falling of Rostam’s back and onto the salt-coated ground as it began to fall from the sky like snow.

            Briefly, she wondered as the darkness began to take her mind and body to a deep sleep if she would ever get a chance to see real snow for herself someday. She smiled faintly; she truly hoped that she could.

Chapter Text

            There was smoke.

            Choking and thick, the blackness making it look as though it was night with how it covered the sky with such bleak darkness. With only the glow of the fire from burning buildings that brought any forms of light. There were people.

            Swathes of people running, going in all directions, scattering like ants as those of Legion were chasing them. People being killed ripped apart like dolls by those with red eyes.

            The sounds of people’s screams filled the air like black smoke. However, she could hear something even else above the screaming.

            It was a song.

            Sung by a lone woman. It was so loud. So, so, so loud. To the point where not even the screams of people could be heard overtop it.

            It wouldn’t stop; it was endless.

            Head pounding, mouth dry as eyes were stinging with tears from the thick smoke. It was hard even to breathe—lungs stinging from it. When a strong breeze came through, the smoke cleared, allowing the sun to go through in a vain attempt. With some of it gone, all that could be seen were corpses.

            The dead strewn across the ground. Men, women, children. All of varying ages, young and old. Blood dying the ground a crimson shade. Red upon red, dyed torn flesh and a slew of entrails.

            Hands were covered in the same blood from the ground, but one could not think. It was too loud. The song that was being sung was far too loud. Too loud. Too loud. Too loud.

            Why was it so loud?

            Raising her head, surrounded by flames, blood and death. The sound of the song was still all too loud to her ears. She turned her head in the direction she thought it was coming from.

             She then saw her reflection in that of a broken window, the cracks in it like a spider’s web making her face look distorted, inhuman. Yet, in her broken mirror, there was something different. Something wrong.

            Her eyes.

            Her eyes were glowing red…

            The song that she had been hearing came to a sudden and abrupt halt.

*    *    *

            Reina jerked awake. Her whole body quickly sitting upright as a cold sweat ran down her body, her breathing heavy as her heartbeat wildly in her chest like a bird in a cage.

            Her gloved fingers clawing at the ground as she swallowed, but the parched dryness of her throat did little to ease the feeling she had. Shaking her head, it felt like such a long time since she had that nightmare. However, the nightmare and what actually happened were utterly different. It always made her feel sick whenever she awoke from it.

            She tilted her head back to the brightly lit sky; the sun was shining as she closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh of relief. As she lowered her head down, she opened her eyes to find that she wasn’t alone.

            The man from before was there, sitting across from her once again. The man she left to die. The feeling of what little relief she had quickly crumbled away like the salt-covered ground. Her light blue eyes grew wide as everything inside of her grew cold.

            Why was he here?

Quickly her eyes moved about, realizing that they were somewhere else. Further away from the fallen city filled with Shades and those with the red eyes. Much, much further away, in fact. Did he move her when she had collapsed off of Rostam’s back?

            She couldn’t understand why, why would he do that? Why would he help her?

            In her shaken state, she vaguely noticed that her spear was next to her. Slowly she gripped it tightly in her shaken left hand. Her heart now hammered even harder than before, fear and worry overlapping each other as her mind began to spiral.

            She tried to force herself to calm down, but her adrenaline shooting through her body made her unable to think clearly about all that had happened. With clenched teeth, Reina stood. Her whole body shook as she kept her gaze locked on the man, refusing to look anywhere else as she inched her way to the side, to distance herself further from him.

            Stay away… Stay away… Stay away…!

            Reina’s thoughts shouted, nearly in time with the loud beating of her heart.

            Stay away!

            The man eyed her in his silence, looking at her thoroughly. Then took a step forward, which caused her to react. In fear and anger, she lunged at the man. Launching herself at him, not allowing herself to cry out in rage, which would have masked her fear, before toppling him to the ground. A faint cloud of salt surrounded them before it settled back to the ground as she kept her weapon right at the man’s throat, as her gaze locked on to the man. Expecting to see rage and anger, only to see that his expression was blank. Nothing could be gleaned from the man’s face.

            The man merely looked at her. Those dark blue eyes that held so much anger and rage before now had something else. Something she couldn’t place within her panicked thoughts. The man then closed his eyes and remained still on the ground; the tip of her blade posed to pierce the soft flesh of the man’s throat.

            As if he had given up the right to live in that instance.

            Reina began to breathe hard again; she kept waiting to see if the man would do anything. Her mind racing. Heart pounding, Reina raised the spear. Her gaze remained locked on his face that showed no signs of changing. Blood fell from parted lips as she brought it down, striking heavily into the ground near the man’s head.

            Her teeth clenched as her hands shook. She should have killed him, impaled his throat with her weapon. But she hadn’t.

            For he had helped her. Whatever his intentions were, he had helped her when he could have very well left her to die as she had to him with the giant Shade.

            Once…

            Just this once, she would do the same.

Reina only hoped that this would not come back to bite her. She moved away from him slowly, taking a few steps back before moving away from him entirely.

            She looked around, the area familiar to her, but that wasn’t on her mind at the moment. Her eyes were darting around before she let out a whistle as she looked around, exhaustion still heavily apparent to her body. Even though Reina had slept, it wasn’t enough. She tried again but nothing. Panic began to cloud her mind. Where was he? Rostam always came when called.

            With a few deep breaths and a bite of her lips, she called out. “Rostam!” her voice alien to her ears. It had been so long since she spoke aloud. She coughed and cleared her throat when she realized it was also the strain on her vocal cords. Being out of use for however long made her voice strained. “Rostam!”

            Then a familiar sound, one that brought her immense relief. The sound of hooves striking hard against the ground as the dark horse moved quickly towards her before skidding to a stop as if unsure that he was seeing Reina. A rope tied around his neck before it slid off and hit the ground with a dull thud. That man had tied up her horse. Rostam, however, didn’t seem to care right then. With a snort, he moved closer to her before letting out a cry and began to trot around her in several circles with what she could only see as joy from the horse’s movements.

            With a smile of relief, she wrapped her arms around his thick muscular neck and hugged him tightly when he came to a stop. She had become so accustomed to having him around. It became harder and harder to see a life without him.

            After that moment, she took her spear and pointed it behind her. Pointing towards the man who had now moved and was closer towards them, her eyes looking at him in warning. If he decided to move towards her even more, she would not give him a second chance. He should have just left after what she had done but had stayed for some unknown reason. The man had taken a few more steps forward, slow with some type of purpose to get closer to her. And when he moved to reach for something, she rushed him, fearing in her heightened state of panic that it might have been a weapon.

            Thrusting her spear towards him, causing the man to move back, leaping into the air and skidding to a stop, clawing at the ground to stop, looking at her with narrowed eyes.

            She lunged at him again, choosing to be on the attack rather than the defence. And through gritted teeth, she bit out. “Leave. Me. Alone.” She punctuated each word with a movement of her spear. She wanted him gone. She wanted to be alone, not after what happened. The man blocked her attacks with his own sword but seemed not interested in attacking. What was his deal?

            “What…” she hissed out through still clenched teeth when they clashed as she tried to push him back but with him being taller and physically stronger than her, making it all the more frustrating when he barely moved. “What do you… want from me?!”

            The man said nothing as he pushed her back with ease, shoving her away with such force like she was nothing more than paper. Causing her to roll backwards when on the ground, down a small hill that they were near, of a lake that had dried up long ago. She used her spear to stop her momentum as the man followed after her, sliding down the ledge with ease as Rostom moved back and forth with warry caution, making sounds of worry and stamped his feet.

            She was breathing hard now as she looked at him in anger; why wouldn’t he say anything? Biting her bottom lip, she snapped out. “If… if you won’t tell me what it is you want, then just leave me alone already!” her throat hurt, sore from talking, it was so little, but it felt like hours. And the more she spoke, the more she felt unsettled by it. By the sound of her voice.

            The sky above them began to darken, turning the overtly bright sky into an almost dreary grey, for it would rain soon. But with this amount of cloud cover also meant another thing, one that was worse than the rain.

            At the moment, it mattered little to her; she just wanted this man gone. To go away.

            “Say something already!” she demanded as she rushed at him, making her spear fan out, causing the man to duck from it, only to be caught off guard when she hand taken out the metal pipe thrusting it forwards, hitting him square in the chest and on to the salt-covered ground. He didn’t even groan when it had made contact.

            She stood before him, spear in one hand, pipe in the other. “Go… away…” she spoke with such firmness as she slightly bit the inside of her cheek before continuing. “Just… leave me alone already! For… for your own good… Leave me… be…”

            She didn’t want to fight him, not really. She was scared, fear driving her actions when faced with something like this, making her recall things she’d rather forget. This man could have very well just wanted to help; Reina couldn’t bring herself to be near others, not for long.

            The clouded sky above broke, allowing a heavy rainfall to coat them, drenching them both as they merely stared at one another as the rain pelted the ground with unrelenting remorse, causing any other sound to be drowned out.

             So, when the man broke eye contact first, to look past her with those same rage-filled eyes that she had seen when they first encountered one another, she turned back and saw what it was that the man was glaring to.

            The Giant Shade was still alive.

            And not alone.

            Shit! She thought with a curse, the ground would be far too slippery to try and climb out with this heavy rain, and the Shade in question, still bleeding profusely, glowing yellow eyes burning with rage, rage directed solely at Reina. Let out a piercing cry as the smaller Shades began to flood the dry lakebed like a waterfall. “Rostam, go!” she told her horse, who now seemed even more panicked than before. “Get out of here! Go someplace safe, higher ground!” but the beast refused to move, stubborn thing. It let out a cry when she had foolishly turned her back, for a smaller Shade wielding a blade jumped to strike her, only it never reached its intended target.

            The man, whom she had on the ground previously, had moved, sword in hand. He pulled her out of the way and slashed through the Shade. Blood spilling on the ground before being quickly washed away from the still heavy rain.

            And then, when he had let go of her, with his now free hand, his fingers curled as though he intended to turn his hand into a fist. Only for fire to suddenly form in the palm of his hand. Extending his hand sent that fire outwards, a blast towards the oncoming mass of Shades. Leaving Reina all the more stunned and confused.

            “You…” she managed to say as he glanced at her. “You have magic?” it was the only explanation that she could come up with, for the fire should have vanished in this heavy rain, yet it persisted and began to grow and fan out, expanding as it engulfed more of the smaller Shades.

            The man did not answer as he looked back to the now lesser amount of Shades that still came at them. Brandishing his blade, he took his hand and ran over it, and what came from it was his blade now being engulfed in that very same fire that he had used.

            It made Reina recall what had happened when encountering both him and Legion not long before; that was where the fire had come from. From him.

            Reina kept both weapons out; there was no option to run, not this time. She had no choice but to fight alongside the man she had just fought against. The irony was not lost on her.

            The flames that the man had used still speared its unrelenting assault on the smaller Shades, making things somewhat easier to deal with, if only mildly. With the Shades trying to avoid the flames, the Giant Shade, which watched from a distance, probably to see how things played out, and lie in wait, shouted something in its garbled language to the smaller ones. They seemed to listen and began to surround Reina and the man, leaving no openings for any forms of escape.

            Reina bit hard along the inside of her cheek as the voice from before echoed in her mind.

            “You cannot win…”

            “Shut up…” she murmured to herself.

            “You will die…”

            She shook her head, trying in vain to stop the voice that felt as though it came from everywhere and nowhere.

            “You will die… just like those from before… scorched in fire… and ripped to pieces…”

            “Enough…”

            “Like your family…”

            “Stop…”

            “Like… your brother… you remember… don’t you?”

            Unable to take it anymore, her teeth grinding down as blood flowed from her mouth, she let out a scream, one that was short as she clamped her mouth shut just as soon as she started before lunging at the Shades, giving no chances for them to attack. The silent man, who was fighting alone at that moment, paused ever so briefly to look back at her with a faint look of surprise; he probably hadn’t expected her to scream. Something that would have cost him had Reina not thrown her spear at the oncoming Shade, nearly missing the man in the process; he glanced back to see the fading Shade, as his dark blue eyes remained glued to the spear that could have skewered him as well. Reina rushed forward and grabbed hold of her weapon, using its current position to swing herself and kick away several more of the Shades before skidding on the ground and doing the same thing with her spear. Her pipe was now put away, for she felt more in control with one weapon at a time.

            Against her personal feelings, she pressed her back against his, keeping him faced in the now opposite direction of where he used his flames. “If we…” she paused, taking a breath. “If we get out of this, you’re telling me what I want to know. Understood?”

            The man merely looked at her before nodding, keeping his attention on the Shades with his flaming sword. Something that did not last throughout the whole battle, the flames smouldering out before long, but it seemed to matter little to him.

            The fight against the smaller Shades did not last as long as Reina thought it would. With them working together, followed by the man’s constant use of fire magic, it did quick work on the small creatures, turning them into ash and black smoke before the fire vanished altogether.

            However, the fight itself would not be over, not until the Giant Shade was dead, complete and utterly dead.

            The creature let out a hiss as it crawled down into the lakebed; the sheer weight from its massive body caused the now muddy ground to give way, leaving massive imprints of its feet on the ground.

            The Giant Shade spoke more in its incoherent language, its eyes now directed at Reina before turning to the man and letting out a roar to attack. Slashing at the ground and whipping its tail about, trying to strike Reina while also trying to attack the man.

            Reina ducked the tail as she ran towards the beast, using its tail to climb up the Giant Shade’s back before repeatedly stabbing it with her spear. It let out another cry before rolling to try and knock her off, only she had expected it to do such a thing and jump out of the way, landing on the ground near the silent man.

            A silent agreement between the two to work together against this monster, the Shade opened its mouth and spewed orbs of two different colours; Reina had seen larger Shades do this as a form of long-ranged attacks; it was nothing new. Weaving from the spheres, she and the man reached closer to the beast, striking it when they were close enough.  

            The two hit the Shade in different places, the man backing off when the tail went to hit him, his feet skidding along the wet ground to stop him from going too far, as Reina continued to hit the Shade in the face. In the ensuing attack, she had managed to pierce its wounded eye as the Shade thrashed about, shaking its head back, revealing another injury that was once hidden along its neck before it sent Reina flying into the air.

            She noticed that the man had an idea, as he had braced his legs in the mud and lifted his broad sword, baring the flat side of the blade to her, she realized what it was that he had planned. She twisted her body around in the air, and when she had herself facing back towards the Shade, she had landed on the man’s sword, and in an instant, launched her back with much greater force than Reina could ever muster on her own.

            Striking deeper than before into the wound she had made the first time in the abandoned building. Seizing his chance, the man slashed the Shade’s throat when it rose its head crying in pain, cutting open an old injury hidden from sight, slicing deeper—blood sprayed into the sky, mixing with the rain and salt.

            The Giant Shade fell to the waterlogged ground with a weighted thud, no longer moving as Reina stared at it, waiting to see if it would move again or if it was dead for good as blood began to blanket the ground.

            The Shade had tried to reach for her, but its claw merely grazed her cheek before falling listlessly; it spoke something incoherent again before she turned and walked away, making her way back towards the slope. It would be dead for good this time. There was no need to stay.

            Rostam still stood where she had left him, only to see that the horse had, in his own way, helped by lowering the reigns to help her climb out. It was probably why he had remained.

            You didn’t have to do that. Reina thought as she patted the horse’s neck in thanks, only to be drawn back to look towards the Giant Shade as its body now began to disappear. The man who had remained had slashed at it again, piercing its heart.

            Why?

            There was no reason to do that. It was already dead. Did he just want to be sure?

            The man made his way back over to the slope, and to her surprise, he had merely jumped back up as though it was nothing and headed over to the makeshift campsite where he had his supplies covered over a ledge of rock. Since in this area, away from the fallen cities, a number of places could be used to protect themselves from the rain.

            As her horse shook off whatever water remained, Reina waited to hear an explanation from the man as he dug through his meagre belongings. Only to frown when he tossed a worn book at her feet. The cover was slightly torn, but the title was still clear to be seen.

            How to learn Sign Language.

            She looked back at him and the book several times before landing and staying on the man. The man couldn’t speak. Slowly, hesitantly, she moved to pick up the book, keeping her eyes on him the entire time. If he were to move at all, she, or even Rostam, would react if this man were to do anything nefarious.

            Clearing her own throat and with a quick bite inside her cheek as asked. “Y-you can’t speak… at all?” Reina cringed inwardly. She was really out of practice when it came to talking with another. When even was the last time she spoke to someone? Held a conversation? She couldn’t even recall.

            The man shook his head.

            “Were you… born with this or… did you lose it?”

            He held up two fingers; he had lost his voice.

            “How?”

            The man scowled before shrugging his shoulders. Either he couldn’t recall or didn’t want to explain. Not that it mattered.

            Reina turned her attention to the book before biting her lip and asking him. “What’s… your name?”

           The man merely crouched down towards the salt-covered ground. And with his hand wrote out his name, he paused before doing some in several languages, probably unsure of what language she could read in. All read the same to her.

           Caim.

           She looked at the name, then glanced at him, then went to get on her horse. She was too exhausted for this. She was about to thank him only for him to step in the way; he wasn’t about to let her leave.

          She pressed her lips into a thin line. She did not have time for this. She just wanted to get away from this guy, regardless of his reasons. That one moment where they fought together was just that—a moment.

          A moment where she felt that there was no choice but to fight alongside him in an alliance of mutual convenience.

         Her vision began to blur, shit. She hadn’t fully recovered from the last time. With gritted teeth, Reina snapped out. “Would you just leave me… alone…” the world around her began to spin as the edges of her vision began to darken. Bad, this was bad. “Just… go… away…” her grip on the saddle loosened as her body slumped forward before falling off the horse. She could hear Rostam’s panicked cries as she hit the ground.

         Vaguely, she could see Caim make his way over to her, in which she pointed at him and snapped with what little strength she had left. “Stay… stay the fuck away from me… already!” she tried to get herself to stand but was unable to move. Her hand slipped along the ground as she fully collapsed, unable to move with everything around her, fading. As though many hands were pulling Reina into the deepest part of her subconscious, the same voice from before whispering in her ear.

        “Yes… come back. It is where you belong…”

Chapter Text

            Reina’s whole body felt as though it was made of lead. As if she was sinking, deeper and deeper into darkness. When she finally opened her eyes, she found herself surrounded in some white room. Her brows creased into a frown, none of this looked familiar, yet at the same time, it did. It was hard to describe.

            The room looked as though it was made out of stone with its endless sea of white, but it didn’t feel like stone and was rather large in a circular shape that extended upwards, going so high she couldn’t see the end.

            Am I trapped? She thought, making her way around the room, feeling the walls, trying to see if there was any structural weakness. But found none.

            Even testing the floors by stomping her feet, every other step showed no change.  Especially in the center with her spear, which only left the smallest of dents on the floor. Great.

            Stumped at what to do, Raina racked her brain in the hopes of coming up with an idea. She could climb up. The walls looked like it was possible to do so, but then if she did, just how far would she have to go up before reaching the top? Was there even a top?

              This all just felt so frustrating.

              If she didn’t climb, she’d be stuck. If she did, she could just keep going, fall, break a bone or die. She’d probably die if she remained here too. Either option wasn’t looking too great right now.

              Though her thoughts came to a halt when she heard something, something from the other side, moving closer to the wall in question to where she could hear distinctive tapping, tapping that spelled letters in Mors Code:

              L.E.T.U.S.I.N

              She staggered back as it repeated again and again. The same tapping, nonstop without respite. A familiar feeling of fear gripped her as she instinctively gripped her weapon from behind her back.

              Then it hit her, this place… she knew where she was.

              Her body instantly reacted when some other sound came from behind; she saw a white pile of goo in the room’s center. It looked as though it was trying to form something, but those thoughts came to a halt when she saw several red eyes appear in it before it tried to launch itself at her.

             Reina twisted away, keeping her spear at the ready. She’d have to fight her past this thing and find a way out later.

             The thing remained in the center and seemed to only launch parts of itself towards her that Reina could strike back; this seemed to go on as it became smaller and smaller as those same red eyes appeared again to look at her. Reina took the chance to rush the strange creature and stab it in one of its many eyes as it had become much smaller. It didn’t like that as it let out a screeching howl that made her ears ring. A weak point, good.

             This way of combat continued for at least five more hits in its weak point before it let out another piercing cry, which sounded more like a child crying for its mother.

             The moment it had the from directly behind the creature, the walls began to crack; something was striking it from the other side.

              Was it something that would lead to her escape? Or was it something to aid this strange creature that kept trying to get a hold of her? The possibility of it being either or was one of an endless loop.

              She knew that a chance had to be made.

              Reina made a choice.

              Taking her spear, she launched it towards the crack breaking it open, leading to a dark space, regardless of where it went it at least, only for this formless being to grab her when she had. Wrapping what could only be described as limbs that had no bones—pulling at her body, drawing her into it, as if it planned to eat her whole.

               Amid her struggle, she noticed how those intangible limbs began to shift, becoming more human, gripping her in places she did not wish to be touched as it pulled her deeper and deeper still until all she could see were those same red eyes.

              “NOOO!” she screamed before she saw the light again. This time, she wasn’t in some strange room of white blocks but a building. When she sat up, she saw another bed, empty, just a few feet away from her. She felt something damp hit her hand that was clenching the bedsheets. It took her a moment to realize the fact that she was crying.

               That nightmare caused her to cry, a rare thing indeed, for that too was something she hadn’t done in so long. It was because of that nightmare. It all felt alien, yet familiar. As though she had been there before. She just couldn’t recall.

               Story of her life.

               With the back of her hands, she wiped her eyes and let out a shaky breath before collecting herself to look around the room. It was relatively sparse of anything. The only saving grace was a window, a quick escape, which was always good to see.

              She paused when noticing a familiar bag that had been dropped haphazardly on the floor. It belonged to the man who couldn’t speak, Caim. So then, how did he get her here if he couldn’t talk to the innkeeper?

               Though what did it matter when she just planned on leaving anyway.

               Reina went over to the door, only to find that it was unable to open, it wasn’t locked, but something was blocking the door from opening on the other side. “What… the hell…” she muttered while lightly biting the inside of her cheek. Window it is. She thought as she picked up her things, grateful that it was all there, including her weapons, and climbed out the window to stand along the edge and creep her way to stand on a roof. It was giving her a much better vantage point of wherever she was.

               It looked to be that of another nameless town, though much more extensive than others. Reina could see what looked to be a tall fence and armed guards that lined the place in the distance. Not many towns, small towns, in particular, had this amount of defence against both those of Shades and those infected with Red-Eye, making her all the more warry and wishing to leave this place even faster.

               In the distance, she could see the abandoned city's tall towers looming over like a dark shadow. These imposing long-dead giants of a forgotten bygone era remained no matter how much it crumbled. As if it were taunting all of those who looked upon it saying:

               You will end up like us one day, a forgotten empty shell.

               It could always be seen no matter where a person went, for there were other remnants of cities wherever a person travelled.

              City of the Forgotten.

              City of Ash.

              Crater City.

              City of Mist.

              These were just to name a few, their original names lost to time, eroded away from the salt-covered ground like a rock repeatedly struck by the salty waves of the sea.

              The city in the distance had fog surrounding it, meaning that she must be close to the City of Mist. One of the more dangerous places that people often dared not to trespass. For that place was always covered in Shades, even when the sun shined its brightest, it did little to pierce through the mist that surrounded the area.

              The reason it was called the City of Mist was for the sole fact that the salt caused a chemical reaction in the ground, making it rise in a permanent fog that never dissipated.

             Making it one of the most dangerous places to be in. If a person were not careful, they would turn into salt statues from breathing in the mist. Turning into these statues was often a slow, painful process, the looks on the victim’s faces clear as if they were merely frozen in place.

             She had only been in the City of Mist once, long before meeting Rostam, and once was more than enough with the extremely powerful Shades that roamed the empty baren streets.

             There had been rumours of powerful weapons in its depths, but as of now, the risks outweighed the reward, and only the most foolish dared to attempt it as she had long ago.

             Once was enough.

             Going there could mean certain death.

             And that was something that Reina wished to avoid for as long as possible.

             Climbing down the building, Reina quickly spotted the stables where a grumpy black horse was trying to get free. He stopped when seeing his master, who promptly helped the massive beast free him with her spear. The moment she had, however, she felt as though she was being watched. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Whirling around with her spear showed that she was indeed correct. Caim was there, arms crossed as he looked at her, blocking her way of exit. Shit.

             Gritting her teeth, Reina let out a biting, “Piss off.” Before getting on her horse.

             However, the man did not as he stepped forward and took out a piece of paper and held it up for her to see it.

             It was a request for aid within the City of Mist.

            She looked at the man, aghast. Was he crazy?

           “Are… are you insane?”

           The man continued to point at the dubious piece of demandable paper.

           Reina weighed her options, where only two came to mind.

           (A): Have Rostam kick the man in the face and run.

           (B): Just do what the man wants and get it over with. You OWE him one!!

            Reina remained silent. As tempting as option A was, she highly doubted it would do much given his skill when dealing with both the Red-Eye and those of the Shades.

            Shit… she thought to herself as she bit her bottom lip. “You’re… not going to give up until I do this… are you?” she sighed when Caim shook his head in response. “You’re… a real bastard… you know that?”

            Caim shrugged, clearly not caring about being called such a thing. He wasn’t going to budge on it, and if she did manage to get away, that somehow there was the possibility of him following after bothered her.

            Why wouldn’t he just leave her alone?

            With a click of her tongue. “Fine.” She bit out. “But once this is done… you leave me alone. Got that?”

            He gave no response, merely turned on his heel and left the stables while Reina let out so many expletives in her head that she wished she could scream out but feared what would happen if she did. She muttered something else under her breath instead of screaming.

            “This is gonna suck…” her horse snorted in response as she ran her fingers through his pitch-black mane. Rostam let out a contented snort before she got off the horse’s back and hitched him in a stall. She didn’t want to go back there.

            But if it meant getting this asshat off her back once and for all, then she’d bear with it, and if he kept pulling this kind of crap, then she’d let her gallant companion trample the bastard to death. Though she doubted, it would do much to him.

            Reina left the stables with a few solid pats to the horse’s neck, taking her weapon and empty bag and left the stables to see the man was waiting for her outside with his sword.

            He wasn’t wasting any time to do this.

            Lightly biting her tongue, Reina asked. “So? What exactly is this thing you want to do at the City of Mist?”

            He handed her the same piece of paper he had showed her before.

            Request for locating a family heirloom. It belonged to my mother. She went into the City of Mist and never returned. Please find it and return it to me; it's extremely important. If you do, there is a considerable reward in it for you. I’m a server at a local tavern; if you wish for more information, go there if you want to take the job.

            Reina arched a brow at this but then saw the amount; she glanced to Caim. He must have needed someone to talk to this person to get additional information; otherwise, he would have probably already done it.

            “So…” she said after biting lightly inside her cheek. “You want me to get this information? And… that’s it?”

            “You’ll receive half.” He wrote in the dirt. “Only if you help me.”

            She arched a brow at his response. He was purposely vague about her assistance, something she didn’t like. With a click of her tongue, she growled. “Help you with what? Getting that information or fighting off the Shades?”

            His response didn’t surprise her. “Both.”

            This was really going to suck.

            She let out a tired breath; as much as she didn’t want to, realistically, she could use the money. “Fine, lead the way already.”

            Caim did so with a nod, leading her to a tavern in the heart of this town. It was a large tavern and seemed to be in its busiest hour with people crowding tables. It made her uncomfortable as she took a step back. Why did there have to be so many? A woman with tanned skin and dark blonde hair held two large serving plates, one with cups of alcohol and the other with several smaller plates of food.

            “Hello, if you’re looking for a seat, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a bit.”

            “No,” Reina said after biting lightly inside her cheek. “We aren’t here for that... You posted a request about getting something back from your mother… in the City of Mist.”

            The woman stopped in her tracks. “Give me one moment,” turned and called out one of the other servers. “Hey, I need someone to take over for me for at least ten minutes.”

            “Okay!” another woman called. “But be quick.”

            “This way, we can talk in the alley.”

            The two followed the woman out of the tavern and to the somewhat narrow back alley.

            “I wasn’t expecting anyone to take my request.” She says after a moment. “I was surprised, given how dangerous the City of Mist is.”

            Reina bit her lip before continuing. “You didn’t mention what the item was that you wished to be found.”

            “That’s on purpose. With the amount of money I’m offering, I didn’t want people to try and fake the item in question to steal from me. It’s vital to get it back. Even if it seems impossible.”

            “What is it?”

            “It’s a locket,” the woman said. “A white-gold locket in the shape of a heart, it’s been in my family for years. And I need to get it back.”

            Reina was silent. She wasn’t about to ask why go through all of that. She bit the corner of her lip then asked. “Do you know where your mother went?” the City was massive, so any idea of where this woman would have gone would help locate this item.

            “I remember hearing that there’s an old church in the City of Mist right in the heart of it. It’s pretty noticeable when you see it since there’s only one church. Hell, it’s even older than the City. She probably went there.”

            “Why?”

            The woman’s expression was sad, yet she smiled. “To die,” she said as she wrapped her arms around herself. “Look, knowing all that isn’t important for now, just… just please… get my mother’s locket. And when you do, and you bring it back to me, I’ll pay you upfront, I promise.”

            “We’ll do what we can.”

            The woman nodded. “I need to get back to work, thank you and… be safe.”

            When the woman was gone, Reina let out another breath. Well… I guess that’s it then. She turned to Caim. “I need to grab something first. I’ll see you at the front gate, oh and just so you know, we’ll be on foot. I’m not subjecting my horse to that hell.”

            Without checking for confirmation from the man, she then turned and left him in that alley to get what she needed.

            With the sole purpose of wanting to get this done and over with, and when it was, if they survived, they would not see each other afterwards. She’d make sure of that this time, one way or another.

Chapter Text

            Reina suppressed the urge to claw out her own eyes. Even now, after an hour of gathering supplies that she needed, she still couldn’t believe that she even agreed when she had her horse. Yet she kept picturing him coming after her if she ditched him.

            And here I thought I couldn’t give a damn about others. She thought, but then Reina did understand the woman who just wanted a necklace that belonged to her mother. The need to have something to remind them of better times was reasonable.

            It was selfish but reasonable.

            With another breath, she looked to the City of Mist that was just ahead, how she wished it was another city. To add dread to this situation, the City of Mist would have salt always fall from the sky like snow. Many knew that people would go into the City to end their lives for some reason or another. They did not know was that some still lived in remnants of society, eking out an existence of what was left. For it was all they knew. However, many would not live long, not because of the Red-Eye but coming down of another strange illness that was less understood than what had overcome them now.

            It was strange. Reina knew nothing of this other disease. It didn’t matter to her. It may even disappear before long. But she could be wrong.

            Her gaze fell to her newly bought mask.

            Regardless of what was there, she wanted to be prepared for it: Worst-case and all.

            Reina headed towards the town's front entrance with a reluctant sigh, where Caim was waiting for her. Her brow furrowed when she noticed that he had nothing new. Did he not prepare for this? She tossed him her spare mask and goggles.

            “You’re going to need it,” she says while passing him. “Unless you want to die.”

            Caim silently watched her, not bothering to use either that she had given him. Well, if he didn’t care and ended up dead, then it was his choice. She could just get it back from his corpse. That is, of course, if they managed to even get into the City of Mist.

            As they made their way closer to the city, Reina noticed that he had put the goggles on, resting around his neck along with the mask that looked more like a scarf.

            Guess he decided to listen after all.

            When they neared the city, Reina stopped dead in her tracks. For the briefest of moments, she thought to have heard something—a voice.

            But there was no one around.

            She looked up at the wall and city with a frown. It sounded like a song, at least for a brief moment, that sent Reina on edge.

            Biting the inside of her cheek, she spoke. “Hey,” looking to Caim, she asked. “Do you even know what’s in there?” she had only gone that one time, but given how long ago that was, things might have changed for the worse.

            He just scowled at her, his mouth twitching as if wishing to speak if he could. He walked past while pulling up the mask and goggles and continued. He didn’t seem to care one way or another of what might be inside.

            If he ends up dead, it’s his fault. Reina thought as she put on her goggles and mask, entering the city’s mist. They were still a ways away from the city itself since this mist was at least fifteen feet out from the city walls.

            As they walked through the mist, staying a foot apart, every fibre in Reina’s body remained sense, expecting something to come. As if her body was about to shatter like fine glassware.

            This place was full of Shades, along with several of those of the Red-Eye, but what she hoped not to deal with was people. Regular people who were desperate.

            Those kinds of people were always unpredictable, some may only want help, but others would only pretend to help and try to gain something from the one who may have been foolish enough to do so.

            Reina had seen it happen or found remnants of it many times in her travels. Had what happened to her never transpired, she could have been one of those poor people that had been taken advantage of. Though she would not comment on her experiences, she knew how easily another could betray trust.

            She pushed those thoughts away. Now was not the time to be thinking about such things from a past she’d rather forget.

            Her ears straining as they walked, there was no sound besides their footsteps and the creak and groaning of old buildings.

There weren’t even any Shades or people. Strange…

With narrowed eyes, she motioned Caim to follow as she headed to check one of the buildings. It had little inside. Many of them would be like that until they were further into the City. But if they could at least find a map, it would give them a better idea of what the City’s layout was like. After all, others were more daring or foolish and would write down all that they’d found. Either way, it would help.

            They continued to do this the further they came to the heart of the City. They had run into a few Shades but nothing else.

            This wasn’t right. Where was everyone?

            The only time Reina was here, there were so many, Shades, people and a few of the Red-Eye. But now? It was like they all vanished, minus the few straggler Shades that she and Caim came across and defeated with relative ease.

            As they made their way through several buildings, savaging for things as they kept to the streets as a guide, they made little progress in getting further into the City with the amount of fallen debris from the towering buildings.

            Great… she thought when they came across their fourth blockage. This will take forever doing it this way… out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Caim doing something.

            Heading into another building, one that was like all the rest.

            With gritted teeth, she clanged her staff on the ground to get the man’s attention when he looked to her with a scowl, where she moved her arms in a questioning motion of what he was doing. He merely pointed to the entrance of the building that he was going inside then entered said building.

            After explicitly telling him not to go too far from her because of the fog, falling salt and enemies, he completely ignored it.

            Her arms fell limply to her sides as she watched the silent man disappeared. She looked back to the blocked path and sighed.

            Screw it. Reina thought, following after him, it was better to check it out if he had seen another way, even though going into such buildings brought about its hazards. If a person wasn’t careful, a building, room, or ceiling could collapse, killing them instantly or very slowly.

            Walking inside, Reina found that whatever this place once was had been rather lavish in its heyday. Some words in big brass letters were caked in rust, but she was still able to make out the words:

            ROYAL HOTEL

           The floor and pillars were cut from black marble and what carpet remained had a tint of red and gold. Though it looked as though everything was picked over. There could be some valuable things here, at least on the surface, but that would have to wait.

           Where did he go? She thought, not seeing him anywhere nearby. He must have gone further in. She then glanced around. Welp might as well grab stuff while I’m looking. She wasn’t about to let this opportunity go to waste while being careful, of course.

            While looking for Caim and keeping an eye out for any foes, Reina was able to scavenge some valuable materials that Reina could use to increase the strength of her weapon. She was even able to find an old map of the City.

            What interested her the most from this map was that some details were added and marked in red. Places that couldn’t be accessed (at least by normal means), areas completely blocked off, roads destroyed, and several areas where things were hidden away.

            Immediately, this piqued Reina’s interest.

             One that she had to stamp out just as quickly. Now was not the time to hunt for treasure!

             Although, if she could find Caim and get him to agree to it, they could split the profits, a fifty-fifty split. But there was no guarantee that he would be interested. However, given that he did ask for her assistance in this job of retrieving a woman’s necklace, surely, he’d be interested in finding what was hidden away in the City of Mist, wouldn’t he?

            He did drag me into this, she thought. The least he could do is consider it.

            She looked over the map again. Given how big the City was, if they were to tread with caution but hit all the markers of where something was hidden before going to the church, it could very well take three days at most or even one, depending on how fast they moved.

            And there was no time limit on finding the necklace. That should be plenty of time. Well, hopefully.

            She continued wandering through the building’s ground floor, keeping her eyes peeled for any signs of the silent man. Amid her search, she came across several articles about the fall of a giant wall and those of the Red-Eye and people going missing. Now that she thought about it, she did see several walls plastered with images of people who had gone missing. That wasn’t uncommon in any of those Cities. Faces of a forgotten time faded away, with barely even their names remaining.

            She passed one wall plastered with these names and faces as she looked for Caim, coming to a stop when reaching some double doors that were open to what must have been a large gathering spot. There were chairs and tables, all set up with what Reina imagined was beautiful decorations for a wedding.

            A wedding that probably never came into being.

            Reina looked over to Caim, standing in the middle of what might have been a place for dancing. Reina had come across similar setups when exploring other Cities in the past. But what was Caim doing standing in the middle of the room like that?

            From the looks of it, he hadn’t even heard her.

            After some silent deliberation, she bit her lip lightly. “Caim?” he turned to look at her. His expression was unreadable. But his eyes looked sad. “What… are you doing?”

            Silently, he looked back to the place he had been watching so intently, shook his head and walked past her, leaving Reina in the remains of what was once a grandiose party. Reina looked to the spot that Caim had been staring at so intently. Nothing was there.

            Quickly, Reina followed after Caim. “Wait,” he stopped in his tracks as she held out the map to him. Taking it from her, he scanned what was written on it. “I… I know we need to go to the church. But… before we do… I was wondering if… if you’d be okay… in taking a detour before that?” she cleared her throat. Reina really wasn’t used to talking, making her voice sound scratchy at times.

            She saw that his expression had slightly changed, looking at those marked places with a slight interest in his dark blue eyes before handing the map back to her. Then he went to lean on a wall near a door that looked to be an exit.

            Guess he’s okay with it. Reina thought as she put her goggles back on and readjusted her mask. She had explored the whole ground floor while looking for Caim, or at least places that she could access, and besides finding things she could use, with that she went through the door and into a hallway that opened up to a broken wall that led to several other paths to different parts of the City of Mist.

            Looking at the map, Reina headed off to one of the closest spots marked on the map as Caim followed, as they both came across some Shades in the midst of exploring the City of Mist.

            The places that were marked the two quickly found some hidden areas, though one merely looked like a hideout with some money, which wasn’t bad, the others held things like useful materials. And to Reina’s relief, it didn’t take them all that long to get to all of the spots marked on the map. They even found some other hidden places, one of which had two weapons, a spear, and a two-handed sword, along with another note.

            To those who’ve come seeking gold or the finest treasure, you will not seize that here. For me, that was never what mattered, even as this world crumbles around us with the visages of humanity clinging feverishly to what remains like frightened children. I, however, have nothing that matters besides my work.

            Such things were only seen as decretive pieces are now being used to defend and kill one another. As such, my business grew, but as I come to the end of my life, I never could find anyone suitable for my finest of works. But, perhaps, those who deserve these two will come and find them waiting.

            Yes, that is what I believe.

            The spear was called Retribution, while the two-handed sword was named Retaliation, both having incredible craftsmanship. The person who made these had a love for the craft, something that Reina was sure the blacksmith she often sold scrap to would die to see.

            Reina placed the sword near Caim, who looked at it then her with a questioning frown.

            “I… I’m better off with something like this.” She says after lightly biting the inside of her cheek. “Spears, lances, staffs or even long axes… I’d… much prefer that than getting too close…” when she glanced at him, she could see his scowl deepen but took the sword with little to no complaint. Not that he could complain, at least verbally anyway.

             This was one of the last places. Now all they needed to do was get to the church. Reina dreaded having to go the long way around, but Caim spotted another path when some debris fell. From the looks of it, it was a shortcut through a large derange pipe. The smell was revolting, but it could have been worse. From the looks of where they were headed, they’d be in the heart of the City in no time.

            Caim, however, suddenly came to a halt. Causing Reina to walk right into his back, she looked up at him, given that the man was nearly six feet in height and she was much shorter than him, literally almost a foot in difference, only he didn’t seem to notice. His dark blue gaze transfixed looking through a tear in the metal that allowed someone to peer outside to another part of the City. She managed to squeeze past him to look also and immediately understood his shocked expression.

            Someone was fighting a mass of Shades. This must have been where they all went. They were fighting someone, a man or a boy. It was hard to tell from this distance, but what had them both looking on in surprise was that this person was using a type of red-black magic that looked like a vast assortment of things. Spears, lances, firing off projectiles, making whoever was fighting move more quickly and large hands to strike.

            Reina had never really seen magic firsthand besides what Caim was capable of. She heard something in her travels, whispers of people who held such power. They were revered as well as ostracized and feared.

            But Caim, in particular, seemed utterly frozen, as though it looked familiar.

            She wondered about it if he knew who that was but then noticed his gaze narrowed on the distant scene and merely walked past and headed to the pipe’s exit. Reina cast one more look at the ensuing fight before silently following after Caim.

            The church was close, soon this would be over, and they would go their separate ways.

Chapter Text

            Upon exiting the large pipe, Reina could see in the distance where they needed to go. The tavern woman was right about the church in question, right smack in the heart of the City itself.

            And it was old.

            Very old.

            It didn’t look like it belonged to what was built around it. It seemed to tower over the smaller buildings. Though the church itself was different, it looked to have been made of white stone.

            The same white stone, just like the kind from her nightmare, seeing that, she bit her lip, this time out of frustration than to speak. For in the corner of her mind kept prodding, telling Reina not to get close and run far away. A feeling she tampered down, they were so close to finishing this job, she could handle it. Her gaze shot to Caim, who stood in abject silence, eyes narrowed. He must have been thinking the same thing she was.

            This Church looked more like a Cathedral, and it was massive to boot, and they still had a way to go before even getting remotely close to it.

            Looking for this locket might not be easy after all.

            The wind picked up, sending the salt to move like snow in a blizzard as the sky began to get dark with black clouds overhead. This was bad.

            Without a word, Reina went first, jumping down the short ledge through a path that would eventually lead them to the front of the church itself. And with the amount of cover they had, there was nothing to worry about with the oncoming storm. But the slow influx of fog started to form once more, which set Reina on edge. The weather was going to become worse and worse before they even got close.

            Reina could only hope it would pass when they reached the church as the pathway became wider. And with it came the Shades.

            Both acted quickly, fighting them as they made their way while also pushing through the ensuing storm that seemed to grow stronger the closer they came to the church.

            Shit! This is getting bad! Reina thought as the wind picked up, causing the salt to make it difficult to see even with the goggles. In the fight, she couldn’t fight and look for a way for them to try to get away from the onslaught of Shades and this horrible storm. To make matters worse, both of their masks had ripped, and goggles became damaged or stolen by the Shades, making them useless to use now, the last thing Reina wanted to deal with. Things couldn’t get any worse. She was about to shout, to tell Caim that they should just forget the necklace and leave, that it was becoming far too dangerous for them without the proper protection.

Only to then feel something tugging on her hood before Reina went flying in the air. At first, she dreaded the worst, that a Shade had taken advantage of her blind spot, only to realize then that it was Caim who tossed her in the air.

            Instantly her mind filled with curses that she wished to expel, but that line of thought ended before it began when she went crashing through the second-floor window and crash-landed into strange box-like structures that had chairs, tables and small black thin screens.

            Initially, she thought that Caim could have told her, but that would have been impossible since the man couldn’t talk. With a groan, Reina sat up, remaining sitting on the floor cross-legged as she shook out her hood for any remaining glass and salt.

            Then, when the man of the hour managed to jump up to the second floor like it was nothing. She responded to Caim with a bland arched stare and flipped him off in her head. She wasn’t about to disrespect his help, regardless of how he went about it.

            After pressing her lips together for a moment, she spoke softly. “Thanks…” when she glanced at Caim, he had already moved on, probably didn’t hear her. Oh well.

            Reina went and stood up, making her way to the now broken window that Caim had so effortlessly thrown her through, the winds were picking up, and from where she was, Reina could get a better look at the Church then she frowned at what she saw.

            It was odd.

            Reina could see that the storm wasn’t even near the church. She could see rays of sunlight resting over top of the Church’s tower. It was as if the storm was protecting the building in some way to keep intruders out.

            But if that were the case, then how did that woman’s mother get to the church? Was it possible that she died along the way? Or was there some other way to get there without running into any Shades?

             There were the sewers, but that seemed like a bad idea within itself, for it would have been crawling with Shades, a place that held no sunlight. Yet, what if they weren’t down there? Or less of them because of the high concentration of cloud cover made over the City. Maybe that’s why they ran into so many as the storm became harder to get through. She came to that conclusion for how many they fought during that storm and what they saw when going through one of the sewer pipes.

            She ran her hands through her hair in frustration. This kind of thing bugged her the most. Going on theories would do no good in the long run, but she wasn’t about to risk heading out in that hell-storm to try and reach the church.

            Her attention drifted when hearing a knocking. Caim was using the knuckles of the back of his right hand to get her attention. Before tilting his head, motioning her to follow him. She frowned faintly. Had he found a way? No, that couldn’t have been it. Not that much time had gone by. She would have heard him descend if that were the case.

            Silently, Reina walked after, following Caim while keeping her distance.

            Down they went, deeper and deeper into the building where Caim pushed a false wall when they were in the basement, revealing a way back into the sewers—while also finding things they could barter, sell, or use along the way. They still came across Shades, at a much lesser degree than before when they were in the storm.

            This surprised Reina when Caim showed her the false wall, revealing where to go. How did he know it was even there? Could it have something to do with his magic?

            Reina’s brow furrowed. That didn’t make much sense.

            Then Reina came to a stop, her heart now beating faster than before, a familiar force covering her like a suffocating blanket. She looked ahead, past Caim. There was something ahead, something horrid. She had to pierce the ground with her spear to keep herself standing, as her breathing came out in short ragged breathes.

            It took a moment, but she regained her composure. This wasn’t good. Her gaze went from Caim to off to the side, where there was another direction. “I need air…” she told him after gritting her teeth when finally catching her breath, which he merely followed, glancing down the pipe that seemed to never end before following her.

            It might have been due to her lack of face protection, but in truth, she felt nothing wrong, at least from the salt. It was just this nagging feeling that was down there felt too familiar, one she desperately wanted to avoid, sending tremors of fear that reverberated through every cell in her body as it felt so suffocating to the point of being unable to breathe.

            Then they soon came across a ladder, with how far they walked, they had to have been near the church, or at least, out of the storm.

             To Reina’s relief, that was indeed the case, for they were greeted with an alley, wedged between two buildings that towered above them, and not far off was the church itself. And not a single Shade in sight.

            But what stood out to Reina the most was just how silent everything seemed. Even with how close they were now, they should still have heard the wind howling outside, yet there was nothing but dead silence.

            Reina stopped when they came into the main street, looking in every direction before turning her eyes to the church towered ahead. Now that they were closer, it looked odd to her, unnatural even. But she couldn’t understand why right then.

            With how silent everything was and the fact that there were no Shades, as far as Reina could see, she couldn’t help but feel unease as they came closer to this massive building. She noted the stained-glass windows were of images she hadn’t seen before, of angels in the form of women that looked to be singing, along with dragons, doves and a type of flower she had never seen before.

            That was honestly a strange motif, but whatever kept people interested in going to church, she then looked away, keeping her gaze forward as she and Caim walked to the front, for there didn’t seem to be any side entrances. Besides this church looking out of place, there didn’t seem to be an issue with it, that was until she saw the front of it.

            Atop the large double doors that would lead inside was a symbol that looked like a person, maybe two fused together with three eyes. Looking at it further, it seemed to be as though this person, or people, were twins. That part alone made Reina concerned. This whole thing would have been creepy enough if not for what else was there to accompany it.

Underneath the strange symbol were the words Church of Angels written in peculiar writing.

            Thinking on it, she might find out what this type of writing was if she went back to the town, though the likelihood of that town having an archive was slim. Still, Reina felt like she had seen it before. But could not remember for the life of her as to where that might have been. And what made this even stranger was that she could read it as though it had been taught to her years ago. But it wasn’t. She never learned how to read such writing. The infused twins' image with three eyes and the strangely written words made Reina think of only one thing.

            Sounds like a cult. Reina thought flatly while making a note of the symbols that she could read. The image of the twins, on the other hand, made Reina feel disturbed right down to her core. She did not want to go inside. Against her better judgment, Reina was about to tell Caim this until seeing where the silent man stood looking at the symbol. The air around him had changed drastically.

            Caim was shaking.

            His whole body shook, quivering from head to toe. An average person might have seen it as fear, afraid to go forward. But Reina knew better. In a short amount of time, she knew this man wasn’t scared. No, it was something else entirely.

            It was rage. Caim’s whole body seethed in that rage as his dark blue eyes filled with cruel intent. His teeth bared like fangs of a beast about to lunge out at anyone or anything.

            Instinctively, Reina stepped away, not wanting to get near and eyed him in silence until his gaze finally went to her. It took everything she had not to point her spear at him on reflex.

            It was upon here that he quickly looked away, blue eyes averting away from her, tongue clicking in his mouth as if to give sound to his annoyance. Had he seen this image before?

            Before she had the chance to ask him, the man stomped forwards, kicking the door open and went inside. Reina cringed at his actions; she had hoped to do this stealthily.

            So much for that.

            With her spear at the ready, Reina headed in after Caim.

            The entrance of the church was rather extravagant the walls were smooth as there were dark wood furnishings with expensive vases filled with red roses that looked like they were made of crystallized glass, for when Reina touched it, one rose broke, the head falling, which she quickly caught in her hands. Releasing a sigh of relief, she looked at the rose’s head. It did look like it was made of glass that was the colour of blood.

            It was beautiful, yet at the same time, hauntingly disturbing.

            She placed it in her pocket, then followed after Caim, where he tried the main door, but it seemed locked. He was even kicking the door as hard as possible showed no signs of giving way. To add to this, when Caim tried using magic to burn the door, a barrier formed around the door, which meant they’d have to find a key to get inside.

            Somehow, that wasn’t surprising to her, given how the Church was protected from the outside elements. She did think about trying the door herself, but given how Caim’s magic did nothing, what would she have been able to accomplish when magic did nothing?

            Caim looked frustrated by this as he gave the door one more kick while Reina went to look in the adjoining rooms for a key to open the door.

            She rummaged around a few of the rooms. Some were offices, while others looked to be places to sleep. She came across a few piles of salt, and human remains, which reaffirmed that people had indeed come to die here, finding a few keys in the process as well as some old documents that had stories about five goddesses that had come down to save the world from destruction.

            Along with many others, or at least she thought they were stories, but she couldn’t read those, for they were in another language that she didn’t know.

            It was too bad that they didn’t have something like that now with the White Chlorination Syndrome and Red-Eye running rampant worldwide.

            Taking the few keys that she found, Reina made her way back to the front door, where Caim seemed to have struck out in finding any keys. He looked a little too pissed about it. Maybe he saw something he just didn’t like?

            But asking that wasn’t her place to ask, nor did he seem willing to share if she had.

            Or that was just how he always acted when not finding what he wanted. It was something Reina could relate to.

            Reina then tried the first key but felt a sudden shock before turning it, like static electricity. It coursed up her arm through her nerve endings to her skull. She hissed out a breath through her teeth to stop herself from making a sound as she pulled back, her left hand pressed to her left eye.

            Ow… the hell was that? Reina thought that wasn’t normal static, but damn did it feel weird, especially her eyes. She blinked a few times before shaking her head. The effects of it wore off quickly. She tested her hand, moving her fingers, and all seemed normal.

            Was that a deterrent to stop thieves? If so, it would have done the trick, but she wasn’t a thief, nor was she about to let this stop her. Even though she still felt uneased by it all, they had come so far and were so close now.

            She tried the key, but nothing happened, it didn’t open the door as that same sensation went through her arm, but it was not as horrible as the first time.

            She tried the next, and the next, and the next. Nothing happened, the door remained locked, and that strange barrier was still there.

            Last one. Reina glanced to Caim, who looked just as perplexed, mixed with annoyance. If this didn’t work, they’d have to find some other way inside or be screwed. Please let this work. Placing the key and turned the barrier on, the door shattered, falling like shards of glass as if vanished entirely as the door opened. Reina smiled with relief. The fact that it worked lifted some of the unease off her shoulders.

            Inside looked like any other place to pray, with pews lining either side and almost to the very end.

Scattered in the pews were about twenty-six people, twenty-six people who had long since turned into salt, their bodies now petrified like statues of their final moments, yet none of them looked to have been in pain. They looked almost frozen in time.

But it was at the end of this room of worship that held Reina’s attention the most as she walked past the pews to stand before a statue.

            The statue was an angel with two sets of wings that looked to be of a whiter stone of its body, as its face was covered in a blood-red veil, as was its garb. The gender was almost impossible to tell. Was it male, female, both? It was an impressive statue, with its left hand extended to the sky as its right pointed to the ground. She could only imagine how long it took to carve this. This was not what Reina was expecting, given the symbol that graced the Church’s front, given it was called The Church of Angels. Then maybe it did make sense.

            As she looked up at the statue, a strange feeling rested on her, one of familiarity. But she had never been in a place like this before. Hell, the few Cities she had gone into in the past didn’t have a church like this, at least, that she was aware of.

            If she ever went into another City, she’d have to keep her eyes out of a church like this one, though in actuality, she didn’t want to be here. This place made her feel strange.

            Reina then tore her gaze away from the statue. This wasn’t what they were here for. They needed to find the necklace for that woman.

            Caim already started on one side of the church, leaving her on the remaining side. She took a step only to halt.

            She heard it again, the sound of someone singing, but like before, just as quickly as she heard it, the sound went away. Reina whirled around to face the statue, her body tense. But it didn’t seem to be coming from the statue.

            Shaking her head Reina went to the other side, looking over the people who turned into salt. There used to be more from the signs of things but had broken down and were now just piles of salt with only their clothes remaining where a person once sat, just like the beds in the other rooms of this place.

            Then while looking at what bodies remained, she found the remains of a woman dressed in black. Reina knelt to have a better look. The woman’s eyes were closed as her hands remained clasped in her lap as though she had dozed off to sleep and around her neck was a white-gold locket in the shape of a heart. She turned and whistled for Caim’s attention; his head snapped to her as she silently pointed to the body she was standing next to before going to remove the locket from the woman’s neck.

            Only for red eyes to peer back to her bright blue.

            The woman wasn’t dead.

            Reina didn’t budge nor break eye contact as Caim slowly made his way over in the next pew behind the woman in question, sword silently raised to, what Reina assumed, remove the woman’s head from her body since Reina didn’t dare to do anything. Any sudden movement on her end could ultimately lead to her end.

            But the woman did nothing, only stare at Reina with such dead intensity.

            Then in the next moment, the woman’s head was gone, sliced off with ease as it rolled out of the pews, the black vale fluttering to land atop the woman’s clasped hands.

            Quickly, Reina snatched the necklace and went to make a break for it as Caim now focused on the other bodies that were making their way towards them, for they too were only pretending to be dead, just to be jerked to a stop when something grabbed hold of her wrist.

            The woman’s body was still moving. How was that possible?

           “How long…?” a voice came from behind her, turning back in the direction she planned to flee was the woman’s head, staring wide-eyed like before. “How long do you plan to run…?”

            Reina’s body began to shake as she began to hyperventilate.

            “How long?” the woman asked again.

            Her breath hitched in her throat as she swallowed her fear briefly to grab the woman’s wrist and toss the headless body to its decapitated head. “For as long as I need to!”

            The body then went to stand, placing the head back on, but backwards, then when she realized this error, turned it to face Reina before pointing to her. “Then you will fail…”

            Like hell, it will! She thought as she used her spear to strike, piercing the woman through the heart, yet it didn’t phase her in the slightest. Her red eyes merely looked to the spear before looking back at Reina, and with a faint tilt of her head, she said.

            “Is that all?”

            This wasn’t right. Usually, those who were a part of Legion still had standard human bodies, one that would have died from this instantly. Yet this woman, whose body was made entirely of salt, didn’t so much as disintegrate. What the hell was she?

            Was she even human anymore?

            Reina rushed the woman in aggravation, slashing at the few that seemed to try to get in her way. Those who were still flesh and blood fell and died quickly, and though those who were more like salt, their bodies merely seemed to fall apart. But what was troubling was the sudden number that began to increase when the woman placed her head back on, the majority of which seemed to be preoccupied with Caim, as though they wanted to keep the two separated from each other’s proximity.

            The floor groaned as Reina moved to strike this woman, who so effortlessly dodged Reina’s blows, moving further and further back before standing right before the angel statue.

            No matter how many times Reina hit the woman, nothing seemed to work as her body broke apart. Her left arm fell off and shattered like glass. Looking at it with disinterest before turning back to Reina, her expression was unreadable as her red eyes remained locked on her.

           “Wouldn’t it be better if you just gave in…? Like the rest of us.” Her expression changed to one of a smile. “Let us… take you to where you belong!”

            Everything within Reina went to stone. That look in the woman’s eyes, she had seen it before, one that would bring about something horrendous.

            Acting quickly, Reina stabbed the woman in the throat before she had the chance to open her mouth. The woman looked shocked, only for a moment, as her smile returned as she gripped the spear with her right arm and shifted her footing where she stepped on a type of mechanism as the wooden floor gave way. The woman led her into a trap. Dragging both Reina and the other woman down into the darkness, leaving nothing but a hole where they had been.

            As she fell, Reina caught a glimpse of Caim, rushing to her, hand extended to grasp her hand as the swarm of Legion seized his body, slowing his movements. He was too late. She had already begun to fall into the depths of the church. The last thing she saw before the darkness of the underground swallowed her, and the woman up was of scorching fire by that man’s hand as those others with the Red Eyes succumbed to it with ease.

             Such overwhelming magic, he had been holding back this entire time.

            He never needed her for this, not at all…

            Reina chided herself before turning her attention back to the woman, thrusting her spear further down as they descended deeper into this seemingly never-ending fall.

            In her anger, Reina kicked the woman off her spear and soon landed on the ground. The landing reverberated through her whole body, causing her to kneel, using the spear to keep herself from falling as she took in her new surroundings.

            This place, this underground, was expansive. It looked to have gone for yards on end, possibly even further than what the church was above ground.

            It looked even more impressive, with stain-glass windows lining both sides and back walls, while multiple doors seemed to lead to other places.

            Her gaze then went to the woman, who staggered to stand. Her body looked as though it was beginning to crumble. There were things Reina wanted to ask but was afraid of the risk it would bring.

            “Now then,” the woman said before producing a sword that looked to have been a bone from her very hand, but Reina couldn’t be sure given the long sleeve of the woman’s black dress. “Why not stop holding back?”

            Reina grit her teeth, remaining silent, choosing not to say another word and only attack. There was nothing she could say that would stop this woman from whatever she intended. Which was the question, what was it that she wanted?

            And as if hearing Reina’s thoughts, the woman spoke. “You’ve heard it too, didn’t you? A song coming from this place? You must have, and yet, you still stand. It’s… a curious thing. It’s a wonder as to how you’ve lasted so long.”

            Reina didn’t respond. She just kept attacking the woman as she fought, showing that she too had a form of magic through red and white projectiles that she launched using her sword that looked to have been made of bone.

            “But what bothers me most is your potential…you have such harmony, such beauty, yet you stifle it. You kill it, again and again. Never allowing it to come forth and blossom into its own. You say we are monsters, but look at what you’ve done. Look at whom you’ve killed. How are you any better? Especially after what happened all those years ago…”

            Reina ground her teeth as she lashed at the woman. “What do you know?” she demanded, unable to take her constant prodding of questions, talking as though she knew her. “What do you know about me?!”

            “More than yourself,” the woman tells. “Possibly, even more than he does.”

            “What?”

            But the woman ignored her question. “Which is why I find it strange, you kill, over and over again, but don’t you get tried—tried of the monotony of it all? Over and over, constantly on a loop without stopping. It’s… rather sad that this is what you’ve amounted to when you could be so much more...” the woman then stumbled, her left leg seemingly giving out, breaking from the sheer force of her movements and Reina’s continuous assault.

            Reina took that chance to land a killing blow, piercing the woman through the chest and pinning her to the ground, her body cracking, all remaining limbs breaking off at once but not disappearing as Reina kept one foot on the woman to keep her in place if she were to try something. Seeing what this woman looked like bothered Reina. It was almost as if her body had evolved somehow, changed, mutated from the original disease.

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Reina said after gritting her teeth.

            “Yes, you do.” The woman said simply, even though she was impaled through the heart. Nothing seemed to phase her. “You know exactly what I mean. You just don’t want to admit it. I suppose we can’t blame you, but do you think you can escape from it, from us?”

            Reina’s gaze averted away from the red-eyed woman, silently contemplating something before looking back at her. “Then what about you?” she asked after biting her lip. “You talk about how long I intend to run; wouldn’t you be the same? You don’t seem to be like them. You’re different from the others. You’ve held on to your sanity even though that should be impossible. Unless you aren’t who I think you are…”

            The woman said nothing, leading Reina to believe what she surmised.

            Reina lightly bit the inside of her mouth. “Just… who are you? What are you?”

            A smile crept on the woman’s face as the cracks began to grow along her body, moving swiftly like a snake. “Who knows…?” before her body finally crumbled into nothing more than a pile of salt and shreds of black cloth.

            Reina looked at the remains with a shroud of anger mixed with what she could only describe as disappointment. What was the point of all of this?

            Why was she even here?

            She heard something land behind her. She didn’t have to guess as to who it was as she turned around and punched Caim in the face as hard as she could before slamming him up against a nearby stone pillar.

            He glared, but his couldn’t outmatch the rage in her light blue eye.

            “…you used me…” she snarled. “This whole time…! All this time, you had that power, and yet you held back! And for what?” Reina searched for an answer in his face, his eyes, but found nothing. “You never needed me. You didn’t even need me to ask that woman. You could have just written out what you wanted from the very start…!” she clamped her jaw shut as she tried to force her anger down, but it felt impossible. She decided to trust someone, and this was what she got from it.

            Caim merely watched her, his glare vanishing to one of stoic expression.

            “What was the point, Caim?” she continued after harshly biting her cheek and nearly bleed from it. But she didn’t care. “What was the point of all of this? Huh? Because it was sure as hell wasn’t needing my help!”

            He merely looked at her as her bright blue eyes glaring into his dark blue. Then he wrote in the fallen salt on the stone ground with his now nearly broken sword. Something that must have happened above ground, for it looked ready to snap in two. “What are you afraid of?”

            She glared at the words.

            He noticed this and added. “It’s not the monsters you seem to fear.”

            She tore her gaze away when he wrote what he thought not. “Enough!” she snapped after biting the inside of her cheek so hard it bled as she moved away from him. “Don’t you dare change the subject! Why. The. Hell. Am. I. Here?” she punctuated every word. “What was the point of this!?”

            Her throat hurt. She could feel it burning. The urge to just clamp her mouth shut strung along her nerves, but she needed an answer. As much as she wanted to stop talking, she needed to know why she risked her life over this.

            Caim went to write, only to pause and look at her, no not at her. He was looking somewhere else, past her. But besides the ruins of this underground, there was no one else, no one living at least. Then he looked back to the ground and wrote.

            “You remind me of someone,”

            “Who?” she demanded through gritted teeth. “Just who the hell do I remind you so much that you’d want to work with someone like me!?”

            Then, what he wrote next brought Reina to stop.

            “You remind me of my sister.”

Chapter Text

            Reina stared at the words over and over again, but they remained the same. The hell? His sister? Was he serious?

            A feeling began to rest in the pit of her stomach, one that she didn’t like, one that made her want to vomit. “What did you say? That I look like her twin or something?”

            “No, your resemblance is only briefly passing when we first met. You and she have nothing in common, nor do you look like her.”

            “So that’s it?” she asked. “That’s your reason?”

            He nodded.

            The feeling in her grew, along with the urge to punch something or someone. What she felt, the resentment and anger she kept locked away for so long, began to come forth as she ran a hand over her face then began to laugh.

            The irony, this man had a sister, much like how Reina had a brother. Yes… a brother, dead and gone. Something she never wanted to recall, yet it hit her like that massive Shade.

            She laughed, a short, bitter laugh before her hand fell to her side like dead weight as she gave Caim a cold, deadly glare. “Fuck off.” She snarled before snatching her bag and tossing the locket his way as he caught it with no effort. Reina then turned on her heel and walked quickly away in fast, angry strides. “Keep the reward!” she snapped. “I don’t need it…” Just as long as I can… remain… alive.

            Then took off running further into the Church’s underground to get further away from him. That’s what feeling persisted, one that finally came forth with a name.

            It was fear.

            Fear of what would happen if she stayed any longer, fear of what she thought the worst of deep in her mind. One she never wanted to relive.

            She kept running and running, not stopping even as the muscles in her legs screamed as her lungs burned from the air she breathed before finally coming to a stop. Hands braced on the stone white walls as she emptied the contents of her stomach.

            Her light blue eyes stared blankly at the bile she expelled, then moved several steps away and slumped on a nearby wall, away from her mess, as her legs finally gave out as she slid to sit on the floor.

            Head titled back, eyes looking up blankly at the expertly carved ceiling, or what she perceived as the ceiling of this place, as the edges of her lips turned upwards, laughing softly inward to herself.

            What a coward she was.

            Reina continued to laugh at her fears before anger took hold as she slammed the spear into the wall at her side, white stone cracking on impact. Out of everything, that one small comment from Caim brought something back.

            Just the fact that they had something like that in common made her mind go to a place she kept locked away, where a single thought broke through. If they both had siblings, what else did they share?

            It was ridiculous, but that thought brought through all the fear she had from what happened right to the front of her mind. For starters, they were nothing alike. But she couldn’t be sure of what that man was truly like, didn’t dare in wanting to know more. Curiosity could bring someone to death’s door, regardless if it were exploring a new place or asking one small tiny question about someone, and finding that it was nothing more than a lie, a façade, fake, could be the end of a person’s life.

            Just like her brother. Reina thought she knew him, which turned out to be a lie. The man she grew up with was nothing more than a fake—a pretender.

            Now he was gone…

            Yet, the fear of what happened persisted. It might even remain forever.

            Reina let out a breath before her stomach growled in protest.

            She just threw up, and her stomach demanded to be filled, not that she could blame it. Digging through her bag to pull out some rations, Reina paused when she realized she had pulled out the book on sign language.

            Caim wasn’t her brother. He helped her and, hell, let her hold up her spear to his throat without so much as flinching and accepted it. He allowed her to do it and even brought her to an inn while unconscious where he could have taken advantage of her, but he didn’t.

            She couldn’t understand. Maybe it was because this faint or vague resemblance to his dead sister was the reason for his actions? If so, then it was kind of fucked up that he’d let her stab him in the throat.

            Now that she thought about it, he wasn’t looking at her then, not really. Like before, he was looking past her. He had for a moment before his gaze shifted ever so slightly.

            And what he gave off then was exhaustion, she didn’t think of it at the time because of her panic, but he seemed tired. As if he had decided then and there to let someone end him.

            She couldn’t understand.

            As she looked at the torn cover of the book, what went through his head?

            Perhaps… perhaps he was lonely? As ridiculous as some would think, even her, it was something she could understand. Reina thought she didn’t need anyone for the longest time, then Rostam came into her life, and now she couldn’t picture a day without that horse.

            She gave a half-smile. Reina could only imagine the hell Caim had to go through to get Rostam to listen to him. With how stubborn Rostam was, it wouldn’t have been easy to move a large stubborn horse and an unconscious woman at the same time.

            Just then, the feeling she had on Caim began to dissipate, the tension in her shoulders eased at that tiny realization of how Caim must have dealt with Rostam hit her as guilt for her outburst struck her in the chest.

            Her gaze went back to the book. After a moment, Reina opened the book and began to scroll through its index, the sound of turning pages in this vast number of tunnels echoing in the deep darkness.

            She wasn’t sure how long she had sat there for, going through page after page, doing her best to memorize when she saw, before finally shutting the book and heading through this maze of tunnels, Reina thought briefly of going back, but if she had she wouldn’t know what to say to him, to Caim. It scared her, and rightfully so.

            Well, it’s not like she had much of a reason to go back, maybe to return the book but nothing else. It’d be a feeble excuse anyhow, given that Caim was probably long gone with the necklace and headed back to town

            “What am I doing…?” she asked herself, for the first time not bothering to bite herself to do so, which startled her, but she eased shortly after. This whole mess was screwing with her head. With a breath, she continued walking, only to stop again, but this time for a different reason, it was singing. Ever so softly, almost miscible. Singing that she recognized when she and Caim first came to the City of Mist. It wasn’t filled with malice or anger but one of love and devotion. And before Reina realized it, she came face to face with a door.

            A rather impressive one at that.

            Tall and imposing, carved dark wood and accented with brass, but the moment she got close, something else appeared in the center of the double doors. Another barrier with the same strange letters encircled an emblem of some type. To Reina, it kind of looked like a yin and yang symbol with a spear crossed in between. What did it even mean?

This whole place made no sense.

            This door didn’t have a lock, or even a handle, meaning no key. How was she even to open this door? What’s more, whatever called her here had compelled her to come to this specific place as if something deep inside her wanted to get inside—no, needed to. But why would that be?

            She reached for the door only to be greeted with a shock, as though a sudden zap of static struck her hand. Reina pulled back, yet her hand wasn’t damaged. She only felt a tingling sensation that reverberated through the flesh of her hand. Just like with the first door, with a faint scowl, Reina tried the door again. The shock was minor this time, almost unnoticeable, as she felt a slight twinge of pain from her eyes. To her surprise, the double door then opened with ease as Reina nearly stumbled inside, the strange symbol vanishing altogether. And what she saw was a glorious sight.

            The room was covered in tapestries, images of birds, animals and plants; the floor was covered in a deep blue carpet as the ceiling sparkled with hanging ornate blue stones that looked almost like stars. It was odd. This room looked more like a child’s bedroom than one for prayer. Perhaps this was where that woman’s mother wished to reach but could not make it in time.

            At the far back of this room was a statue of a woman carved in that same white rock as the church with long flowing hair surrounded with flowers as the light came through what looked to be a luminescent rock in the ceiling. Her hands clasped together as though she were in prayer, yet her mouth was open as though she were singing.

            And by its kneeling stance, there was an altar made of black marble.

            Atop it lay a weapon, a sword.

            One that was of medium length, Reina intended to leave it be, only to see it change into a spear. Yeah… that was not normal.

            After a moment of hesitation, she picked it up to find that it was not only elegantly designed, but it also had a number etched into it. The Roman numeral for two. II

            What were the significants of that? Were there other weapons like this? It had a number, so maybe it did? Either way, the fact that it became what she used as weaponry made her curious and very confused.

            She looked up to the praying statue and lightly bit her bottom lip. “Do… do you want me to… take it?” it was a ridiculous thing to ask, but what else could she do? Take it, sure, but she wasn’t the biggest fan of stealing. Especially from a place that may or may not be some holy ground or something like it. Though she did initially think this building sounded an awful lot like a cult, so…

            I guess it’s… mine… then? “Uh, thanks? I think…”

            The statue didn’t respond, of course. This just made her feel even more stupid.

            Taking the strange new weapon, Reina moved to leave, only to take a few steps and come to a dead halt. The sensation she had previously, while in the sewers with Caim, came back full force, slowly her head turned to look back but saw nothing. Reina looked to the floor, still nothing. She looked up.

            Something was there, something massive within the luminescent rock that cast an enormous shadow.

            Not taking any chances, Reina ran for the door, only for the rock above to shatter as whatever was in the stone fell, blocking the door and Reina’s only exit.

            Shit! She thought as she moved away, jumping back to avoid the falling debris as large luminescent rocks hit the ground but continued to glow, giving the room a much more haunting look as it cast shadows from the hanging crystals.

            As the dust cleared, Reina saw what had created that mass shadow. Reina thought it was a Shade. It wasn’t. It was something far worse.

It was a large white mass, crawling on all fours with a low sagging head with no face.

            What was that thing?

            Her stomach churned as she had to force herself not to vomit like before.  It looked almost like the thing from her nightmare.

            Why? Why did it resemble the thing from her nightmare, just in a more concrete form?

            Just what the hell was going on?!

            No… was the first thing her brain thought as her eyes laid upon this creature. No, no, no, no, no, no! with gritted teeth, Reina glared at the thing. I won’t let you get me again!

            Reina attacked the creature that lumbered about with her newly found weapon, seeing that it would go invisible as if to hide but would leave ghostly footprints of where it ran as it lashed out with its strangely shaped tail.

            The tail landed, pushing Reina back and sending her flying into a wall across the room. The pain she had was minimal, her anger taking hold. What was this thing? Why did she see something like it in her nightmare? Why was it here?

            But then, why should it matter when she was about to kill it and be rid of this horrid thing for good.

            Reina rushed for it once more with this thought in mind, spear in hand, to strike it down when it did something to cause her to stop dead in her tracks when she about to hit it.

This massive creature spoke.

            “Ma…Ma… Ma…Ma…”

            Children, it was the voices of children. This monster, this thing, were once children.

            Countless voices in a white mass, crying out, screaming for their mother, a mother who must have died a long time ago.

            Though it was more than one mother, it had to have been.

            But to have this happen, where they turned into this because of the disease? Or was it something else entirely? Reina couldn’t be sure. It felt like it was from White Chlorination Syndrome, but a faint part in the back of her mind believed that it wasn’t, that this thing was of supernatural in origin. But how could that be? Why was one part of herself so sure?

            Then, those cries changed.

            From crying out for a mother to demanding something else.

            “Sing a song! Sing a song! Sing a song! Sing! Sing! Sing! Sing!”

            Pain erupted from Reina’s skull. It became so intense it brought her to her knees as she grasped the side of her head as images flashed through her eyes. Of fire, of death, bodies scattered across the ground coating it in blood and entrails as people fleeing in terror from those of the red eyes led by someone covered in blood…

            Those images came to a sudden abrupt halt when the creature struck with its tail—piercing her side, causing her to bleed and fall to the ground.

            Who was that?

            What was all of that?

            She couldn’t recall. No, she just didn’t want to remember. A short laugh erupted from her as she lay prone on the floor like a long-dead corpse as the pain in her skull began to subside. What did all of that matter?

            It was a constant sight of those fearing the infected, those with red eyes and those who wanted to live. She was the same. Yet, at the same time, she couldn’t care less.  Torn between a crossroads of wanting to live and not caring what happened to herself. But really, what was the point when everything Reina loved had been ripped away from her at the hands of someone she knew? It all felt so meaningless, and yet, everything inside of her screamed to live. To go further, past the next day and the next, to go on for as long as possible. To keep fighting no matter what.

            That was her wish, her desire. Not that anyone cared or that anyone would know.

            The massive creature continued with its demands as its tail flicked about like it was trying to swat a bug, of wanting to hear a song as she made her way back to her feet, ignoring the blood that had left her body as a slight stinging pain began to come from the nerves of her eyes. Yet, it didn’t bother her, not like with the pain from her head before.

            “SING!” it bellowed. “SING! SING! SING!” as it thrashed its arms around, swatting its tail as its faceless head swaying side to side as it stomped its feet like a child’s temper tantrum.

            Even though she felt tired, she saw the attack coming as though time had slowed and merely stepped aside, avoiding it entirely, which only made the creature madder and kept trying to strike but just met with air.

            She avoided its attacks. Her body felt hot, lighter than before, as though time were slowing down.

            It continued to thrash as she began to return its blows in kind with her own as she used the spear from the alter. Neither side would relent.

            “SING!” It continued as its one word devolved into a mass of jumbled sounds that no longer sounded human to her.

            “I’m sorry…” she said, slashing at the beast, blood flying like petals of a flower. “I can’t sing for you. Because…” she smiled as she felt her eyes burning once again as she looked at the beast. “I don’t know the words.”

            A surge of power running through her, as though a dam had broken, halting the limiters of her brain as she fought this poor creature giving it no chance to fight back a second time. Even her attacks seemed stronger than before, creating shockwaves as she struck.

            In a matter of moments, it was over. Reina staggered; the faint pain she felt in her eyes had stopped, whatever it was helped in some regard to the fight.

            The creature lay huddled on the ground, covered in blood as it softly sobbed. She felt guilty. The children it once was didn’t deserve this pain. Slowly, Reina knelt by it, removed her glove from her left hand and gently touched the white surface. It felt like flesh, pulsing and alive. This wasn’t the monster in her nightmare, merely a pitiful child wishing for its mother.

            “I can only imagine the pain you went through…” she said after a moment. “But maybe your mother is already waiting for you, on the other side. You, all of you, can go looking for her together. I’m sure she’d be so happy… to see you all.”

            The sobbing had ceased as it formed a small hand, a child’s hand and extended to reach her face, touching her cheek as she closed her eyes. It wouldn’t fight anymore.

            “Sorry…” it said as its body began to crack and shatter in places. “So sorry…”

            “As am I…”

            Soon, it disintegrated, and in its place was a large red stone in the shape of a flower, one she had never seen before. It looked beautiful nonetheless. She then looked to her injured side, the blood was gone, and there wasn’t a wound. Perhaps it was the creature’s blood, amid her pain from her head, she thought it had struck her, for, besides a slight tare in her clothes, there was no sign of blood or injury.

Brushing that aside, Reina gently picked it up, carried it over to the altar, and placed it there. It might not have been much, but maybe whatever that was could find some peace. At least, she hoped they would. Yet her introspective came to an end the moment she knew that she wasn’t alone.

            “You know…” she said after a moment. “I’m not even surprised that’d you be here… given how much you’ve followed after me up to this point.” She turned to look at Caim, who seemed to be more preoccupied with the statue than with her, not that she minded. “Listen,” she said, after another bout of silence. “About before. I… the things I said was out of line… but I still ended up dragging you through some pretty needless bullshit. So, with that in mind…” she turned to face him and signed, “I’m sorry.” Noting that Caim’s eyes widened a bit before looking to her face seeing that she meant it. And she had. “I’m… not the greatest person to travel with…” she continued. “I’m not a fan of certain kinds of people… I… don’t talk much, and my signing sucks, so… yeah…” Caim, on the other hand, handed Reina the small pouch that had the mother’s necklace inside, dropping it in her hands. “What? Why?”

            He gave no form of response as he headed towards the room’s exit.

            Reina looked to the pouch then to Caim’s back, noting that the sword he had been using when they first met had broken, practically snapped right in half. I don’t understand him. Looking back at the pouch in question, she pulled out the necklace, and upon opening it, Reina saw a photo of the woman who requested the task, albeit much younger, with the woman who was her mother and looked to have been pregnant.

            Closing the locket, she placed it back into the pouch before looking down where the creature had died—no wonder the woman was drawn to this place.

            Caim whistled to get her attention. She waved dismissively; she was coming. As she walked past the silent man, she noticed that he was looking at the statue. Briefly, she thought that he was looking at it almost wistfully before turning and joining her side, unnoticed to them as they made their way out the doors then closed as a new symbol appeared, one that looked to a flower in bloom made of wings appeared in the old symbol’s place.

*    *    *

            Once they topside after exiting the church, both found that the storm was now gone completely. And with it, the Shades as the sun directly shined down on them, giving them a clear path to the exit where the two left the City of Mist behind and returned to town.

            They made no detour in returning the object in question to the woman at the tavern. When she saw them, she looked as though she would have cried with joy.

            “Your mother’s necklace as promised,” Reina said after the woman led them back to the ally like when they started and handed over the pouch.

            The woman smiled, but it was one of faint sadness. “I can only imagine what it took for you both to find this and bring it back to me.”

            “There’s… something I wanted to ask…” Reina said. “It’s about your mother.”

            The woman didn’t respond, only waited for the question to be asked.

            “Your mother… she chose to die because she lost a child… didn’t she?”

            The woman closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. “Yes,” she said. “My mother was pregnant with my little brother when my father became infected and turned into salt. When my brother was born, he didn’t even last a month before sharing our father’s fate… Years later, she chose to die. She left me a letter telling me where she went and asked for forgiveness for leaving me behind in such a way.”

            “Do you hate her?” Reina asked.

            Slowly, the woman shook her head. “No,” she then placed her hands resting along her abdomen. “With a loss like that, it can take its toll, even on the strongest of souls. The fact that she left me that letter, rather than saying it to my face, makes me feel that if she had seen me, she might not have done it. Then she would have to tell me the truth rather than writing it.”

            Caim frowned as the woman continued.

           “She was infected with White Chlorination Syndrome. It was slow, slower than how it normally goes, but she told me in the letter that it began only a few days ago, and she wanted to spare me the horror of what she had to go through with my brother and father.” Her voice began to waver as the tears fell. “Thing is, I would have been okay with it, just so long as I could be with her for just a bit longer. But I guess she just wanted to be sure I wouldn’t become infected since…” she stopped and wiped her eyes before laughing sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be telling you this stuff. I have the necklace now, and that’s all that matters.” She then handed Reina and Caim each a bag. “Here, it’s a little bit extra. Thank you so much for doing this.” She then left, leaving Reina to walk back to the stables where Rostam was waiting.

          Only for Reina to stop before she even got close to the stables and looked back to Caim. And after lightly biting the inside of her mouth, she said. “I know a blacksmith… someone… who is very capable in making or fixing weapons… She can fix your sword if you want.”

         He frowned slightly, probably asking why.

        “You helped me more than once… So, I’m paying you back… as an apology.” Reina was about to turn and continue walking when she saw his hands move.

        To her surprise, he signed.

         “Thank you,”

        “Yeah… well. Save it for when your weapon’s fixed.” She kept going, this time a bit faster than before. As she did so, she began to wonder, if after this, if they’d go their separate ways or not. And that was something that genuinely scared her.

Chapter Text

The place that Reina intended to take Caim wasn’t that far. But before she set out, Reina went to the large town hall, hoping to find a book on the strange letters she came across, but came up empty-handed. She wasn’t surprised in the slightest yet felt a little disappointed.

Caim, on the other hand, didn’t seem the least bit interested, given how he scowled at the books in question. Not sure why given much of what was about what happened when the cities were still thriving.

They left the town shortly after that, Reina was about to tell Caim to get a horse, but he didn’t seem to want to waste money on getting one for himself and would instead just run on his own two feet.

Not that she would fight him on it. If he just wanted to try and outrun a powerhouse like Rostam, then so be it. Besides, she would never let anyone ride Rostam while she was on the horse’s back, neither would the stubborn horse. He only allowed Reina for reasons she never fully understood but was grateful to have him by her side.

As they continued on past small towns and villages, fighting off Shades as they did so, Reina kept an open ear out for any rumour of a roaming blacksmith. Since the person they were looking for never seemed to stay in one place for long, though always seemed to be where Reina needed an upgrade or materials.

She also wondered if the blacksmith they were about to see might have come across something or heard something about this type of writing. It wouldn’t have been too far of a stretch to guess that since that person might have seen more than Reina or Caim, as well as looking into the effects of being in the City of Mist since neither Reina nor Caim had issues like so many others who’ve gone into the Cities previously.

Which was odd; usually, a person would have become increasingly ill or die a slow, painful death if that person didn’t have any protective gear. But they were fine, no signs of sickness or the like. Reina ultimately decided to just keep it to herself since the last thing she wanted was someone thinking that she was infected.

And since Caim also showed no signs, she could only calk it up to either sheer dumb luck or something that couldn’t be outright explained, which at this point, after getting a weapon that changed shape, Reina wasn’t about to question any further and just rolled with it.

When they reached the next large town, they ran across some people speaking about someone taking up residence in an old mining cave abandoned several years ago.

Found you. Reina thought before turning Rostam in the direction of the cave in question, with Caim not too far behind.

The area looked to have been for mining at one time before it became a heap of scrap and junk littering the grounds. Leaving Rostam outside near a small pond and some food, Reina went into the first cave she came across, where she could hear the sounds of banging and shuffling.

There were piles of unfinished weapons mixed with scrap and other things as a sign hung above a makeshift counter.

Hephaistos Forge.

Seeing that Reina knew she was in the right place. Her bright blue looking about the countertop before spying a familiar buzzer, and upon hitting it, a tune began to play, one that sounded as though it was from a music box followed a voice.

“Just a second!!” a woman called out from the back. Then moments later, a tall, muscular woman with dark skin and copper hair pulled back into a messy ponytail came out with a wheelbarrow. “Sorry about that. I needed to take stock of inventory.” She said as she looked up, her eyes like that of a cat, holding gold, yellows and orange. The moment she caught sight of Reina, a smile broke out in glee.

“You’re still alive!” the woman proclaimed with a big grin, hoping the counter to get a better look at the redhead. Revealing the robotic left leg that she had peeked out from underneath her overalls as she moved to stand in front of Reina to show that she was taller than the redhead and was as tall as Caim, if not a touch taller by an inch or two. “Holy shit, look at you. You haven’t changed a bit.”

“It… hasn’t been that long…” Reina said.

The woman gave a half-smile. “And still not much of a talker either. You do sound better than last time, though.”

Reina didn’t respond to that comment.

The woman then looked to Caim, who eyed her with suspicion. “And brought a friend with you too.” She extended her hand to him. “I’m Artemisia, but you can just call me Artie if that’s too much hassle.”

“He… he can’t talk,” Reina told her.

“Oh,” she said as Caim took a step back, not taking her hand. She ran the offered hand through her hair. “Well, you can think it then, regardless if you can speak or not. I know my name isn’t… normal, so to speak.”

“You mean it’s not like a flower?”

“Exactly,” Artemisia responded by snapping her fingers and pointing both hands at Reina with finger guns. “But enough about that, what can I do for you folks?”

Reina turned to Caim and lightly bit the inside of her mouth before speaking. “Could you fix his sword? I… told him I’d get it fixed, for helping me…”

“Let me see it,” Caim handed it to her, and Artemisia whistled. “Well damn, what’d you do to it to make it break in half like this?”

Both women looked to Caim, who just stood there.

“Ah, right, sorry. Well, this looks like it’s seen better days anyhow. You must have been fighting a long time for it to get this bad.” Caim folded his arms across his chest and looked away with annoyance as he clicked his tongue. Artemisia looked to Reina. “You know what, since you’re here, I could use your help with something. If you could collect something for me, then I can fix this in the meantime, and any other weapon you might want upgrading.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I know you’ve always preferred that anyhow. You just like to get things done then being stuck idling about. Though after this, it’ll be back to paying me for my services. I still have to eat like everyone else.”

That seemed fair enough to Reina. “Sure, okay.”

Artemisia took Caim’s old broken sword and placed it on the counter. “So, what do you want me to upgrade for you?”

Reina held out the spear that she had been using recently. “What about this?”

Artemisia took and held it in her hands. “Hmm, I’ve never seen a weapon like this, or at least not crafted like this before. Where’d you find it?”

“The…” Reina stopped, her tongue suddenly felt heavy, and a dull pain rested along with the temples near her eyes as she recalled how she came across this peculiar weapon. “The church… in the City of Mist.”

“Huh,” then the realization came into her golden eyes. “Wait, what?” she shouted as her head snapped in Reina’s direction. “You got in? Inside one of those places?!”

“Uh… yeah?” Reina said, suddenly feeling a bit hesitant to explain. “It was for a job.”

“Did you find anything else? Any materials that could be used?”

Reina dug into her bag and pulled out the red glass rose. To her surprise, it hadn’t shattered during her fight with that massive white creature. When Reina held it out to Artemisia, she looked at it in awe.

“Incredible,” then placed her right hand underneath her chin as her left hand held her right elbow. “Hmmm, this could work. If I up the temperature of the forge right, I should be able to melt it so I can use it to upgrade your weapon. It looks super delicate; you must have had trouble getting it here without it shattering.” When Reina shook her head, that made Artemisia’s eyes turn wide. “What? Really? Something that looks this delicate didn’t shatter? What in the world…” she began mulling it over in her head before answering. “Tell you what, I’ll give it a shot, and if you ever find yourself in another one of those Churches, take whatever it is you can find, and I mean everything. I’ll upgrade this weapon for you with it. Or whatever other weapons you might come across. I mean, who knows, you might find more weapons in those places.”

I don’t know if I even want to go back inside another place like that. Reina thought before biting her lip and asking. “…what do you need from us?”

“Right, that.” She vaulted herself back behind the counter effortlessly. “This works with something I’ve wanted to get for a while. It’s why I came here in the first place.”

“That being…?”

“I need you to get something for me in Crater City. It’s not far from here, but it’s a two-person job, and I don’t have the means to go myself, sadly.”

“You can fight, can’t you?” Reina asked. In all the years she knew Artemisia, the topic of one’s capability to fight in battle never came up before.

“I can, but I’m only good for long-range type of attacks. And this will be close-quarters and underground where there’s a ceiling that could collapse and kill us all if I went. So, I’m pretty much the north-side of useless.”

Reina was silent for a moment. “One problem though… how do we get down there?”

Crater City was like any other city, except that it had fallen into a massive sinkhole, unlike the others. The whole area fell within less than ten minutes before the ground was covered, leaving nothing but a gigantic crater where it once was, hence the name.

Whoever came up with that somewhat misleading name for the City was an idiot.

“Oh, that? I made a way to get there.” Artemisia said rather casually, in which Caim gave the muscular woman a questioning stare where she continued. “I was testing out some experimental weaponry, but it kind of got out of hand, and it exploded… everywhere. It was a mess. It took me nearly a week to clean up. But because of that, one of those pieces launched itself into this wall that turned out to be hollow. I made my way through, and there was a ladder that leads down to Crater City.”

“So… someone made that a way to the City before?”

“From the looks of it, yeah. Oh, and don’t worry about the ladder. I reinforced it so that it won’t break no matter what.”

Reina went silent, light blue eyes shifting deep in thought. How old was that ladder? Was it like how they went underground in the City of Mist?  

“What is it that you need in Crater City?” Reina asked.

“It’s several things, actually.” Artemisa picked up one of her worn tools. “It’s his tools. You see, years ago, before I was ever with the old man, he had his forge. It belonged to his family where they worked from inside the city before it sunk into the ground.” She smiled as she ran her fingers over the old mental lovingly. “He’d tell me things of how these tools would never break or rust. Something hard to come across in this day and age. But he could never find the City to try and reclaim what was lost, mainly because he wasn’t strong enough and… there’s Legion. So he had to make a choice, though he always said that if he were able, he’d want to go back to get them so he could give them to me.”

She then placed the tool back down on the countertop. “It’s one of the last things he had and truly cherished. I’d like to get them back and to put them to good use. I know it’s a selfish request, but this is important to me. Please, Reina. Get my father’s tools for me.”

“Do you have a list of what they are?”

Artemisa produced a worn piece of paper, yellowed with age to the point that it looked brown. “He wrote down everything in case I ever tried to get it myself.”

The list had a total number of ten items, with drawn images beside what they were called so it would be easier to find.

After looking it over, Reina put it away. “It… will take some time. Did… he say where the tools are?”

“They should be in the forge itself. The building itself is pretty big. Oh!” Artemisia ducked down under the counter and dug around before pulling out a map and handed it to Reina. “He also gave me this. It’s a map of the City. Though I’m sure there are some areas you might not be able to get to, but he marked where the forge is, you can keep it.”

Reina, however, looked at the map with hesitancy before asking. “Are you sure?”

Artemisa nodded, but there was a sadness in her golden eyes as well as her voice when she said. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

Reina took it and put it away and lightly bit the inside of her cheek before responding. “…I’ll do what I can.”

“That’s all I’d ask. In the meantime,” she picked up Caim’s broken sword and grinned. “I’ll work on this and your spear.”

With a nod, Reina left the place with Caim not too far behind. Once outside, Reina let out a breath. Caim looked at her with a frown. So as they headed towards the place where the City would be, she elaborated. “Her father’s always been a bit of a… sore subject.” Reina began after lightly biting her tongue. “I met Artemisia long after he passed. From what I could understand in the brief moment when she’d talk about it, they’re not blood-related. He took her in and raised her as his own and taught her what he did for a living making weapons and tools. Always told her to embrace what she wanted to be and to be herself no matter what others thought. But as she’d tell me, she could never fully measure up to him in his craftsmanship. Still, the amount of respect she had for him was immense, and she always vowed to make something so grand that she’d even impress him in the afterlife. If you believe in that kind of thing…”

Caim made a cutting gesture across his neck with his right hand before pointing his thumb in the direction they came.

“How’d… he die?” when Caim nodded, she shook her head. “I don’t know. I asked once. And… the look she gave… it was… dark. She told me that what killed him was something she’d vowed to get back at. But I don’t think it was Legion or those other creatures that the people call Shades that did it. You’re more than welcome to ask her if you want to know… but I won’t unless she brings it up herself.”

He then made a motion, tapping an invisible watch on his wrist before pointing to her then again from the place they came.

 “How… long have we known each other?” Reina said, and again, Caim nodded. Reina merely shrugged. “A while, I guess? Why? What does it matter how long I’ve known someone?”

Caim didn’t make any motions with his hands as his dark blue eyes shifted away before looking back to her with a questioning stare.

In which Reina frowned at him, in turn, bit the inside of her cheek before talking. “What? You got a problem with whom I’m with? I don’t really have anyone you could consider a friend besides Rostam. I don’t like to get close to people. Artemisia’s an exception. Even if we don’t talk much about it, we both can understand that there are things we’d not bring up about ourselves or other things like it. Look, I’m not nosey, okay? I’ve got my own issues to sort out before I start digging into anyone else’s.”

Caim just gave her a dull stare.

Reina gave an exasperated sigh. “Just… shut up.”

Chapter Text

Reina remained silent the rest of the way to the place that Artemisia marked on the map. And much like before, they ran into a mix of Legion and those the Shades along the way.

But Reina had a distinct feeling that this would be a place that Shades ruled overall, given that it was deep underground where no sunlight dwelled.

As they ran, Reina briefly stopped in her tracks when she heard something. It was singing, again. That was the second time. Could that have something to do with the Church like in the last City? It didn’t happen when she was in other Cities before, the Forgotten City especially, but she’d have to investigate that when she was able. Maybe after this, she would.

She turned to see Caim looking at her. She wondered why this man was willing to stick with her, similarity to his sister be damned.

Well, not like I can do much to change this now. Reina thought. What would come after this, she wasn’t sure. She’d like just to go their separate ways, but would he? As they kept going until they hit came across another set of walls, ones that looked to have crumbled into heaps, forming what many would have thought to be as merely rock formations rather than what it was. The only reason Reina knew what it was, was because of the other Cities she had been into before. She could spot the difference between a broken wall and merely rocks covered in salt.

Once past the fallen walls, the sun began to shine brightly down on them, removing whatever Shades had remained, and all that was left were a few of the Legion. When they were dead, and whatever they had dropped as useful that the two picked up, the two began to look around for the entrance that Artemisia marked on the map. It turns out it wasn’t too hard to find.

 Since there was a massive dark spot along some of where the wall had been, mixed with the actual rock covered in black ash and soot from an explosion gone awry.

“…She really did mean everywhere…”

Caim merely seemed to be admiring what had been done, running his hand along the blackened rock, looking almost… nostalgic. Okay, weird. Perhaps it had something to do with the magic he used since he could use fire?

She found herself almost smiling and then frowned, quickly berating herself.

This had been going on for far too long—longer than she would have liked.

And if it continued…

Reina winced internally. No, she didn’t want to think about it. This needed to end. Now.

With a deep breath and lightly biting her lip, she turned to Caim. “Alright, look. When this is done, we’re done. We go our separate ways.” When he frowned at her in response, she said. “I told you, I’m not used to people, and… as grateful as I am that you helped me when you didn’t need to… I just… I can’t. It’s not easy for me to constantly be around others. It… it makes me…” Scared. But she couldn’t bring herself to say it aloud.

He folded his arms across his chest and just stared at her.

“Sorry,” was all she could say, and then headed off ahead of him to the large rock at had a hole blasted in it where the ladder waited. Artemisia had told them that she reinforced the ladder, and from just testing how sturdy it was, she could tell that it wasn’t about to snap under her weight. She climbed down a bit and stopped, telling him that she would go first and whistle so that he could come down after. It was awkward but needed to be said. She still felt a bit bad for telling him right before they were about to enter the underground. Yet Reina had a nagging feeling that if she hadn’t, he would have just continued to tag along unnecessarily.

Besides, he must have had his own things to do after this, friends or family even. What would he get out of being with her? Besides aggravation and snarky remarks to things?

It wasn’t much of a friendship if it could even be called one.

Agh! Stop feeling bad already! Her thoughts chastised herself as she slid down the ladder rather than climbing down, but stopped every so often to see how far she had to go and to not go too fast to where she could have hurt herself when hitting bottom.

Like that one time, she miscalculated the ground and caused the bones in her legs to rattle and her nerves to scream in pain. It wouldn’t have hurt had she braced for it like normal.

When she reached the long-awaited bottom, she grasped the bars and stamped her feet, her guilt of telling him was hitting her for far too long. It was probably because she felt terrible for Artemisia. She really did want to come and find her father’s things herself.

Plus, he was pretty good in a fight when dealing with a hoard of enemies.

Wait what?

“Stop it, stop it.” She told herself through gritted teeth. “Agh! Stop it brain… heart… whatever the fuck is making me feel this. It sucks… stop it.”

With a breath, she lightly smacked her cheeks with both hands to push all of her guilt aside and whistled for Caim to come down as she stepped away for him to come down.

Seconds later, he was down. The madman decided to jump down then use the ladder. The insanity of this man. She could only look at him with shocked bewilderment. What did he think he was made of? Yet he stood up like it was nothing.

Christ on a stick… was all she could say in response as her gaze moved all over across his body. “You didn’t break anything, did you?”

His expression said it all. Do I look like I broke anything to you?

Why are you such an ass? She thought in response before shaking her head and turning to head further down the dark tunnel only to stop.

The singing again.

She took a few steps back, bumping into Caim, startling her as she sidestepped. “Sorry,” she said before looking warily down the pitch-black tunnel. She should have asked if Artemisia had put any lights in it. Suddenly, her legs felt cramped, unable to move.

If the singing was here, that meant that there was probably another church. The last thing she wanted to deal with was another church filled with…

“You’ve heard it too, didn’t you?” Reina recalled the woman’s words. “A song, coming from this place? You must have, and yet, you still stand. It’s… a curious thing. It’s a wonder as to how you’ve lasted so long.”

Her left hand grasped her right fist. It was just to the forge and back. That’s all they needed to do. Get to the place marked on the map, and leave.

That’s it.

Caim, on the other hand, walked ahead of Reina, and with his right hand produced fire, and shot it down the tunnel, where it broke off into smaller flames lighting the way. He then looked to Reina. A faint look of what she could only describe as sympathy was in his dark blue eyes before he reached out to grasp her wrist, possibly to pull her forwards, which she quickly avoided his hand.

“Don’t,” she said, keeping her space between him and her as wide as possible. “Don’t touch me, please.” She walked past him and picked up some speed to keep the distance as she made her way down the tunnel, where she couldn’t see anything at the far end. Just dark outlines, her eyes were still getting used to the darkness.

Caim again moves past her, standing on the ledge outside the tunnel just a few feet away. She could hear him inhale deeply as she could make out him putting his hands together. And when they separated, there was a warm orange glow.

Then he extended his arms as the fire he created left his hand and shot up into the underground center, creating something akin to a miniature second sun that hovered in the middle of the vast city, which only grew as Caim added three more shorts of fire. It illuminated a good portion of the city, but not all of it.

If anything, having a sudden light brought about an eerie look to that of the whole city. Making it look black, haunted with ghosts from the past, of shadows waiting to suck a person into its depths and not let go. The only thing that seemed to be any other shade other than black or grey was the stark white of the church that was smack dab in the middle of the City.

Just like in the City of Mist.

Ignore it. Reina told herself when she could hear the singing again. Only for it to fade as quickly as she had heard it. It was like it was calling to her, more so than the last. Would this happen in every City she came across now? Or just ones with Churches? Just how many were there in the abandoned cities?

She hated this.

The anxiety, the unease.

All of it exasperated her other emotions, making her on edge, more so than usual.

It made her feel nauseous.

Inhaling a breath through her nose Reina quickly made her way down to the City’s ground and headed soon to where the old forge was located on the map with Caim not too far behind. Of course, there were Shades. Scores of them, their bodies disappeared back into the darkness did not change the amount of blood that soaked the ground and walls around them through their carnage as they reached closer to their goal—being mindful of areas of the environment that looked unstable to walk across. There were several areas like that in this City.

Reina wondered if it was because this City already had something underneath before it sank all those years ago.

None of it seemed to bother Caim. He enjoyed it.

The killing, the slaughter. The way he smiled when he cut down his foes, regardless of how big or small. That sent an unsettling chill down her spine. Roused a few thoughts that Reina would instead remain buried, deep into her mind, where they should stay.

Yet it clawed to the surface, making her remember what she longed to forget.

Reina had to stop.

They were almost there, but she had to.

The orange-red glow of the sun that hovered above as he would make smaller ones to light up the other areas that hung above the light could not reach.

It, with the blood and darkness, made Reina feel ill.

But she would push on, just like with any other job. Yet… this wasn’t like any other job. She knew that.

Reina leaned against a wall as she closed her eyes, trying to calm herself, yet she could still hear it faintly if she focused. The signing.

She hissed out a breath through clenched teeth, trudging past Caim and around the corner to where the forge was located. There were no Shades, no signs of Legion. Things looked to be in the clear. A partial sign read Forge, but the rest was unreadable due to rust and decay, much like the rest of the City and all other cities before it.

Carefully, Reina entered the building. As Caim used his fire magic to light the place up, the tiny flames went to where light would have originally come from, through the means of old technology that had long been forgotten.

Reina searched the place, looking all over the shop before going back to check when she found nothing. No, that couldn’t have been right. She kept looking and looking but found nothing.

Caim gave a shrill whistle to draw Reina’s attention. He was holding up a note, old and discoloured, before pointing to a box that had been opened by the lock being burned off.

She snatched it out of Caim’s hand, and what was written gave Reina pause for dread.

My tools were stolen.

It happened during the quack when our whole city was swallowed whole by the earth. There’s no means of escape. All of us are trapped. We will die here, killed due to the lack of air or when we run out of food or killed by those vying to live for another day.

The idiots who stole from me don’t have a damn clue how to use them. I’ve marked at least five that can be found. I have yet to find where the other four. They’re locked in these makeshift hideouts. But I don’t have the strength to go on.

It’s getting harder to breathe, and I’ve been hearing the sound of thumping outside with a thick smell of blood and decay. It’s obvious what’s happening out there.

But I won’t take my own life. I will remain here in my shop and die with dignity and grace. I’m a blacksmith by trade. I regret nothing in my life.

If you are reading this and know how to use these tools or know someone who can, there is a hidden room. You will find the tool I managed to keep, along with a map of where I marked the missing five. As for the last four, I’m sad to say that will be up to you.

I wish you all the best in your endeavours.

Reina grounded her teeth, forced herself to look for this hidden room, which Caim found with a surprising amount of ease. He seemed to have a knack for that.

This false wall led to a sturdy set of stairs, enforced with iron and rock, which led to the hidden room. There was a workbench, rusted, worn-away tools and a bed where mummified remains of a man lay.

Even though he was dried out like meat, his expression looked to be one of peace and content. The tool in question was lying next to him.

Reina hesitated in taking it, remembering the woman and her necklace. But this was different. He didn’t die from White Chlorination Syndrom. This man merely died as he was.

Taking the tool, she thought about returning with just this one, but when recalling Artemisia’s expression, she took a breath and spoke. “I’m going to return this to your family. I promise you that.”

When she turned to leave, she noticed Caim looking at something. Two weapons seemed to stand out to him amongst the neatly stacked pile and hung on the walls.

Caim picked up what looked to be a sword, which looked to be a long sword. It looked more like a slab of iron then just a sword. It was thick and seemed impossibly heavy, yet he had no trouble lifting it with both hands. Along the guard was the inscription Dragon Slayer. The blade was even taller than Caim, at least by nine inches, and given that Caim looked to be five foot nine to six feet in height, it certainly said something about the sheer size of the sword.

But that was almost nothing in comparison to what caught Reina’s eye.

Next to the massive sword was a glaive, or maybe it was a naginata? It was hard to tell, given the interesting shape of the blade. Yet the pole was about seven feet in height, while the edge added an extra foot and a few inches. She expected it to be heavy when she picked it up only to find it incredibly light for its size. It, too, had a name inscribed along the hilt for the blade called Sylph Sword. It didn’t look anything like a sword. The blade itself almost looked like a massive feather, but upon a closer inspection, it was of a curved serrated edge that would shred through an enemy.

Caim took the sword and paused at the workbench where an old map was tacked on the wall. He then took the map Reina had without so much as a warning and marked where to find at least the five tools before she snatched it back and glared at him, which he glared back in turn.

They probably would have continued to glare at one another until someone gave up, but this stand-off came to an abrupt end when the ground beneath their feet rumbled, causing Reina to use the newfound weapon to keep herself upright.

What was that?

They quickly ran up the stairs and out of the building, but the rumbling had subsided. Was it just a tremor?

Caim’s brows furrowed as his dark blue eyes scanned the area as Caim fired another burst of flames as he headed to another building, possibly to investigate, while Reina remained where she was, looking at the places on the map that were marked with large X’s. The problem, though, was where the other four would be.

There was one close by, thankfully. The rest, however, made Reina feel a bit of unease, knowing that they would also have to look all over for the last four tools.

She took a breath, trying to ease her anxiety.

She thought to have heard a voice during this moment, that same familiar one from before back when she fought that giant Shade, but it was too distant to hear.

It wasn’t singing, but it still left Reina on edge.

It must have been because of this place. She never reacted like this in the other Cities, at least from what Reina could recall.

If she could get through this place, she wouldn’t have much to worry about, hopefully.

With that in mind, Reina headed to the closest one on the map as Caim followed after keeping her distance. She didn’t wonder why, if anything, she was grateful for it.

With this horrible feeling she had, she became afraid, so terrified of the inklings of suppressed memories she longed to keep at bay. To keep those thoughts, the guilt, chained and locked away.

But for now, she just wanted to get this over and done with. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long…

Sadly, that was furthest from the truth…

Since the sudden rumbling caused many Shades to crawl out whatever hole they were hiding in and go on the attack as whatever they perceived as a threat.

Caim slaughtered more and more Shades before coming across the first of the five that had been marked. The place in question looked to be a makeshift hideout from fallen debris where a massive Shade lay in waiting.

Just perfect. Reina thought. Why do I get the feeling something similar will happen in the other three places we search?

Little did she realize that it was what she thought would come to fruition, and with each new encounter of a mass of Shades, Reina’s frustration grew as her anxiety did the same when they came across the heaping remains of those who remained hidden in these makeshift hideouts. All skeletal with only darkened black stains where blood had once been and rotted away, but the smell was still potent. It made Reina gag each time they came across such heaps when they had died.

Yet, there was also another issue. Whenever the two came out of one of these makeshift hideouts, there would be faint signs of rumbling. The Shades would come out. The last of which was a large enough tremor that caused Reina to use her weapon to keep herself from falling. Her light blue eyes were frantically trying to spot where this was coming from, but just as quickly as it started, it ended.

Reina lowered her head as she closed her eyes while she kept her hands tightly gripped on her weapon while she controlled her breathing to keep it slow and even as she could hear her heart beating loudly in her ears.

When she heard a constant snapping, it made her realized that Caim was snapping his fingers to get her attention. When he made a gesture of what was going on with her, she merely relaxed and said. “It’s nothing,” she said, quickly changing the topic. “What do you even think that was? It doesn’t seem like an earthquake.”

Caim shrugged. He had no idea either.

Reina then looked around as they made their way closer to the Church, they had six now but were still missing the other four, and they had no idea where even to start looking. And before Reina could voice any possibilities her mind suddenly burst into pain as she dropped her weapon to clasp both sides of her head. Her legs gave out as she fell to her knees. Her mouth open but not a single sound emerged. The pain was intense greater than last time as her eyes burned. It was like when they had entered the Church in the City of Mist. Only far more intense, it was like the back of her eyes were burning.

She squeezed her eyes shut when she felt Caim approach. A loud ringing was emerging from inside of her skull. Or perhaps it was coming from somewhere else, for when she opened her eyes, she saw Caim looking towards the Church’s direction. Were bells ringing?

But what concerned her most was what accompanied those obnoxiously loud bells.

The singing had returned. Mostly drowned out by the bells, but it was still ever-present.

And in her pain-filled haze, she had vaguely noticed that Caim had moved her inside a nearby building.

How he got her there, she didn’t much care for asking at the moment. She just wanted the pain to stop.

“Make it… stop…” she managed to find her voice. “Please…!” she was now huddled on the ground into a small as she could get as tears formed in her eyes blurring her vison.

And as she lay prone on the grimy earth of dust, dirt, blood and death. Her mind went back to the nightmare she had, of fire, red eyes, and Legion running through her village and people crying for help while many were slaughtered.

Reina shook her head, wanting to send those thoughts away into the black of her mind. She’d much rather focus on the pain than recall that again.

“Caim… hurry…”

“Why would anyone help you? Just like before, you’re alone, but… you have us. We will always be there for you no matter what…”

She felt those same hands moving to grasp the side of her body, trying to turn her over onto her back, an all too familiar feeling—an unwanted one.

On instinct, Reina’s eyes snapped open as she forced herself upright. Only to find that she was now alone and the bells had stopped. Along with the singing. All that was left was a deafening silence.

 Slowly, Reina stood, using her weapon as extra support. Her mind still felt groggy, exhausted from whatever it was that had struck her—making her way out of the building where she saw Caim coming for the direction of the Church.

He must have stopped the bells and almost seemed surprised that she was up and moving already to where he picked up speed only to stop dead in his tracks when the ground began to shift once more.

This was far greater than any other time as they tried to maintain their footing, the ground itself forming deep cracks and gave way to the empty void of darkness below, where the arms of something other then Shades emerged from that darkness dragging Caim down into those depths. The look on his face was one of anger as he held his sword up in both hands to swing at the things that took hold of him as he was dragged down.

When tremors ended, Reina made her way over to the now vast chasm of darkness that was before her. It had taken a whole chunk of the ground as if it were swallowed whole.

Part of her knew that she should jump after him. But she didn’t know how far this went. She wasn’t as reckless as Caim, she wasn’t willing to risk broken shins among every other bone in her body to jump down into such pitch-black darkness. Nor did she have fire magic.

She thought about throwing a bomb down to see what might be below, but what if she hit Caim in the process?

“Goddamnit…” she hissed through her teeth as she clawed at the asphalt in frustration. “Why can’t I do this? This should be nothing new to me… so… why… WHY?”

“You’ve grown soft…” that same voice returned. “That’s why you can’t do it. He’s helped you several times now, and because of those small acts of what you think is kindness, you feel like you owe him. It’s why you’re here, after all. How ironic would it be if you tried to do the same, only for it to backfire and kill him? But would that be better? Don’t you want that? That this would make such a great opportunity to be finally rid of him for good.”

She ground her teeth and shouted at herself for what she truly wanted. “WHY CAN’T I BE LEFT ALONE IN PEACE?!”

“You think it’s possible?” the voice hissed in her ear. “After all that you’ve done?”

A cold chill ran down her spine as she felt something, someone, rest their hands along her shoulders, their body pressed along her back as she felt warm breath along her cheek as those words whispered into her ear.

“Think about it.” The voice continued. “Why else would this place remind you of such misery? The blood… the dead… and all that came with it in that blaze of destruction in that hot red insanity… why should you ever receive a happy ending?”

As that voice spoke those words, Reina could feel more hands coming from the darkness behind her, reaching for her to take her body whole.

Reina ground her teeth, and as her body shook in self-loathing, she picked up her spear and whirled to face this foe while still kneeling on the ground. But what she saw instead was not the owner of the voice, but someone completely different.

Someone entirely new.

A man dressed in all black.

Chapter Text

This new person, this man, was tall, well over six feet, with fair skin and dark reddish hair streaked with black that was pushed back from his face and a tattoo of a single black tear on his left cheek while dressed in a black outfit. One that was form-fitted to his body, giving anyone ample view of his physique. This man was leaner than Caim, almost like herself but still clearly masculine as he also had gloves that looked to have been altered for attachments, claws perhaps? But the most peculiar thing about this man’s attire was that he had high heels on, which added to his already tall height and were relatively narrow and possibly sharp.

Reina guessed that this man was the close-quarters type of combatant, one of the worst types she’d rather not have to fight against.

“Who… are you?” she demanded after biting the inside of her cheek.

The man cocked his head, the single earing of a red-flowered crystal swayed on a silver chain in his left ear as he gave a rye smile that reached his red-amber eyes. “No one in particular. At least not to you. I came here looking for something, but that particular something does not wish to be found.”

Reina just looked at him, saying nothing.

“Say, how did you find yourself down here?”

She kept her weapon pointed at him, but he didn’t seem the least bit bothered. If anything, he looked amused by it. “There’s a tunnel that leads to a ladder if you go all the way south. It’s not too hard to spot. How’d you get here?”

The man spun his right wrist a few times before pointing up. “Truly unfortunate, but not the worst circumstance I’ve been in by far. It’s a rather unlucky event, but it does allow me the freedom to look around. I’ve heard some fascinating things about this place, and it did not disappoint.” His red-amber eyes went to her as he continued to smile. “Though I doubt it’s the same for you as it is for me. Not that it’s of any of my business.”

Taking that as having no interest in fighting her, Reina walked past, wanting to find the rest of what Artemisia needed and then…

Caim.

Shit...

“Are you looking for something?” the strange man asked.

She looked back at him as the man held up his hands gingerly as if playing in the form of surrender.

“I mean nothing nefarious. You simply look as though you came to find something.”

She bit the inside of her cheek before speaking. “I am,” she said. “I was asked to look for some tools. I’ve already found six. I just need to find four more.” When the man moved to get closer, Reina reacted and quickly drew her spear, pointing at his throat once again. “If you’re playing me, I’ll stab you.”

The man smiled as though he was offered a mountain of gold.

What was with this guy?

“Nothing of the sort. I merely wish to offer aid to someone gracious enough to tell me of another way in or out.” He then held out his gloved hand, noting that he had the gloved stylized to have nails, or maybe claws, at the tips. “Please.”

She looked at his hand, noting the claws attached to his hands, then back to his face before looking back at his hand once more. And with a sigh of reluctance, handed the strange man the map.

“Hmmm…” was his only response as he brushed some of his hair behind his ear. “What was it that you were looking for again? What kind of tools?”

“High-quality tools that a blacksmith would use.”

“Tools for a blacksmith in Crater City. And how many was it again?”

She frowned. “Four,” something about how this guy was acting was a bit odd to her. What’s more, the way he spoke was somewhat effeminate than the men she was used to seeing. But then again, this man was anything but some regular guy regardless of how he talked and dressed.

“Ah,” he said after a moment. “Yes, that makes sense.” His eyes then went to her as he then pulled out a red pen. “I believe I know where you can find these last four tools you are looking for. Thank you.” Then handed the map back to her.

Why was he thanking her? But she had a bigger question on her mind.

“Why even help me?”

“Because you helped me, simple, isn’t it?”

A little too simple for her liking.

Airing on the side of caution, Reina glanced to the map, seeing the locations; when she and Caim ran around, she recalled some of the areas would be hard to get to. However, given how the ground had quakes, that could have very well changed since then, especially after that last one. Reina glanced back to the chasm promising to herself that when she found those four tools, she would come back to help Caim, regardless of her personal feelings.

With that in mind, Reina turned to start her search, only to stop when many Shades came crawling out of the hole.

Reina sighed in aggravation as she took out her weapon. The whole world just seemed so against her today.

“Hey!” She barked out when she saw the strange man move out of the way, jumping to stand precariously on some thin, tall post. “You’re not going to fight?”

“As much as I’d love to, I can’t. I’ve been given strict orders not to engage.”

“Then what was all that earlier?”

“Helping you was a return for helping me, had you no way of knowing another way of getting out of here, I would have left you where you were. Besides, I don’t have my weapons on me. I’m currently just observing, as I was told to do. “Just observe. Don’t fight or get involved.” That kind of thing. Though with this, it should impress the higherups.”

“…What are you talking about?”

“Oh, did I say that last bit out loud? Whoops, please pay no mind to that.” The way he spoke made Reina believe he was talking with a tremendous amount of sarcasm. Like he didn’t care if someone, in particular, heard him or not.

“Right,” was all she said back before focusing on the fight at hand. And when it was done, she began heading in the direction of the hidden tools. Only to find that the strange man was still hanging around watching her from a distance.

“How long do you plan to stick with me?” she asked warily, not okay with another stranger just popping in and hanging around her.

“Just until you find one of the tools I marked on the map. I want to be sure it’s correct. Then I’m off on my merry way.”

Reina merely looked at the man but gathered that he wasn’t lying since what he said earlier sounded truthful before he changed his tune and spoke sarcastically about his job.

Whatever that job entailed didn’t matter to Reina. Just so long as she could find the remaining four tools, track down Caim and chuck his sorry ass out of a potential pit of death and despair, hand off what was promised to Artemisia and then hop on Rostam’s back and be on her merry solitude way.

She hoped.

Really, really hoped.

Shortly after, Reina came across a hidden area where one of the tools was hidden inside a locked box that was easy enough to break open thanks to the amount of rust and her spear.

“Is that what you were after?”

“Yes,” Reina said as she added it with the rest in her bag.

“Good, then with that, I’m gone. Good luck with the rest of your endeavours. Reina.”

Reina immediately turned around to the man but found that he was gone. How in the world did he know her name when she never told him?

He did say that he was observing, so had he been watching her and Caim the moment they came here? Just how long had he been down here?

Forget it. It shouldn’t matter, he’s gone now, and I know where to go for the rest. “Let’s just get this over with.” She said to herself after sighing, then began her next search for the remaining three. And besides coming across a few more Shades, much less than before, she was able to get a hold of the last three with relative ease. Squirrelled away in some forgotten, hidden corner of the city that was once blocked off but became accessible thanks to the several quakes that took place.

Once finding all of them, Reina made her way back to the chasm. It had been a while now, so maybe she could toss down a bomb to see how far it would go. On second thought, that was a bad idea. Given how unstable many areas of this place was, it could cause another quake and possibly make it impossible for her to get down there.

As she remained sitting in a squat, looking down into the deep darkness that awaited until she recalled the small “sun” that Caim had created that still hovered above her. Smaller versions of that which floated around the City for them to see where they were going, perhaps if she could light some dried branches, she would be able to create some makeshift torches and toss them down the chasm to see how far it went.

She turned to track down something wooden to test it out, but the moment she had, Reina began to hear the sound of singing once again in the distance and realized to her shocked horror that she now stood in front of the Church’s doors.

What?! Was her immediate thought. When did I…? How did I even get here? She thought with deep foreboding. She couldn’t remember. No matter how much she tried, she just couldn’t recall.

It made no sense, given that while they were first searching for the tools, they had tried to reach the Church, mainly because Caim thought one of the unknown tools could have been hidden inside, which did make sense, but no matter what the two tried they couldn’t find a way past all the debris. Hell, even when they had, it seemed to be blocked by some invisible force that shocked Caim. Which made the man want to attack this invisible force but pulled back from doing so by Reina telling him they didn’t have the time for it, which he did with a tremendous amount of reluctance.

Yet now, she was standing right at the entrance, the doors wide open, waiting for her to enter. From where she stood, it looked just like the previous Church: same entrance, layout, everything. Of course, that said nothing of what could have been inside. Like with the first one they entered and how people had gone to that place to die.

Would the same be for here?

Did the people of this City enter this Church as they held hope for salvation? Or did they wish for their death?

Or would it be something else entirely?

But if she went through here, there could be underground tunnels, and if there were, then perhaps, she would meet up with Caim again.

Reina looked back the way she came. It would make more sense than just blindly jumping down a hole. But then again, she had no clue what would be waiting for her if she went into the Church and the last thing Reina wanted was to deal with what she had before when first going inside one.

Ultimately though, before she could decide, there was another more significant tremor where she found herself leaning against part of the Church as a tall building came crashing down, blocking the way to get back.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” she muttered in annoyance. She sighed again with narrowed eyes towards the Church’s interest.  Maybe this is my karmic punishment for not jumping down the hole…

Reina turned and entered the Church with a breath of defeat. And like before, the door to the main hall was locked, sealed off with some kind of magic with those strange letters. Were all of these Churches like this? Or was her luck just that bad?

 Reina began her way through the different side rooms to locate the key, collecting what she found along the way, including those strange glass-like roses. She found that only five could be taken in total from each vase. The rest just seemed to be permanently a part of the interior. Not even her spear could make any fall lose. Given how this placed seemed to work, it didn’t surprise her. She saw no clothes or signs of human remains, making her wonder if this place was somehow different from the last one, until finding the key, this time being on the other side that she hadn’t looked at before.

Reina went to open the door with key in hand like before, and just like before, when she inserted it into the lock, she felt a shock going right to her brain and behind her eyes. Just like last time. What did that mean?

Shaking it off, she kicked open the door with her weapon in hand, thinking that she might come across what she had before but found nothing but empty pews as candlelight burned setting a warm orange glow around her. It felt inviting, but she wouldn’t relax. Keeping her guard up, Reina made her way to the statue, where this statue of an angel had five sets of wings instead of two. What was the significance between each church and the statues that resided within them?

Did this mean that there were five in total? Or were there more?

As much as she wanted to mull this over, she needed to find a way down into the underground and search for Caim.

Thinking about her last encounter with the woman when in this Church while in the City of Mist. Reina scanned for a type of switch that would open a way down. Thankfully she didn’t have to look far.

All of the Churches must have had the same layout since the hidden door opened in the same place as the last one.

The underground, however, was something else enterally. She had no clue what would be waiting for her down there, and she couldn’t remember the path she took when down in the underground the last time.

So with one final deep breath, Reina jumped down the trapdoor to whatever would be awaiting her down below in these unknown catacombs…

Chapter Text

Reina braced herself for the fall, for it wasn’t like with last time, being taken on by surprise with no way of knowing what would greet her at the bottom.

Only the orange glow of the candles that lit the interior of the Church left a shaft of light above her making her blood-red hair even more vibrant as her light blue eyes seemed to glow from it.

What surprised her though was that lit torches were lining the white bricked walls. But something was off.

She expected Shades right off, but there were none. Absolutely none.

This was wrong, something about all of this was completely and utterly wrong.

With her growing sense of unease, Reina began heading further down into the tunnels, noticing that the layout was slightly different from the last, but that was also due to barely recalling what she did come across the first time. Given that she had run blindly before, only now she ran with purpose.

She entered one of the rooms hoping to come across some clues, only to find what looked like a charred blackened corpse in some type of armour. Kneeling to take a better look, she found that this body had parts that were still glowing like an ember as if it had just been lite ablaze, yet the armour itself held no scorch marks.

And upon looking at the scorched man she saw that same strange writing along with the chest plate of the armour.

Galgaliel Soldier.

Reina frowned; she couldn’t recall seeing something like people dressed in armour. At all, in fact. There were no soldiers, no one dressing in armour, some might have found it to be practical but if the body wasn’t used to the weight, it would only be a hindrance when trying to escape Legion. The only time Reina had ever come across armour was when she had explored some of the forgotten abandoned cities where there were places those buildings housed pieces of art or artifacts from times that had long since passed and were lost for a time before being rediscovered.

It was almost funny. She rather enjoyed looking at the anecdotes of info for a certain artifact on display, if it was still there, that is. Since so many of those places had been pilfered or destroyed long before she came to such a place.

She understood the need for money, she was no fool, but the want and distraction of something that was hundreds if not thousands of years old didn’t sit well with her.

But there was nothing that she could do about it.

There had been a time, long before all of this, Reina would have been happy to just live in a place secluded from the world with the things she’d collect over time. Books, maps, odds and ends, regardless of its use. But that was just a dream that had long since died. Because now, she had no place to which she could truly call home. No place where she would feel safe.

Always on the run.

Reina stood, intending to leave, but stopped when she heard something. A strange scraping of metal across the stone, coming from behind her. When she looked back, to her shock the charred man was now standing, his body swaying as if to try and stay upright, his whole body vibrating, making a strange faint humming sound from the armour as a result of it. The corpse’s eyes glowed a strange amber colour, as though he were burning from the inside.

What? Was all that Reina could think before the body lunged at her with a sword raised above its head as it staggered towards her, in which she quickly dispatched it with her spear. She was sure that it was dead. But then to her horror, it got up again.

What in the world was going on?

She killed it again. And again, and again. But it wouldn’t stay down.

What was this?

Seeing that there was nothing that she could do, Reina quickly left the small room and kept going forwards, only to her horror she came across even more of these undead monstrosities.

Shit, there’s more of these things!? Reina thought as she fought them off, keeping them at bay with her weapon, knocking them down before pricing them in the head, the most effective way to make sure that they wouldn’t get up again, but it proved to be of little use to these creatures and since she didn’t know what would work, she had no choice but to keep moving. Really, the best she could do was to either avoid them, dodging or even vaulting over them with her weapon, or knocking them back as she kept running. Thankfully, they were slow, the problem with that if there were a bunch clustered together, then they could pile on top of her if she wasn’t careful.

 The further Reina headed into the tunnels the more she came across these undead soldiers. And since she currently only had her bombs while also in a place that could easily collapse if she even used one of them, she had only her spear, and weapons like it to keep them at bay. I need to ask Artemisia to forge me some throwing knives, should have done that before coming here. Live and learn, I guess. If I get out of here with my hide intact, I’ll be sure to bring it up.

For a while, she was content with just making small bombs, but in situations like this throwing knives would have made a better alternative when throwing to keep those even further in a distance.  The reason she never had knives was because of how hard it was to come across a decent knife, but also needing to recollect it after it was thrown.

It was tedious, and a bother to do so, hence the small bombs. But now that line of thought hampered her ability to fight.

Her frustration mounted with the sizable onslaught of foes. Yet the moment she reached a chamber, she saw that some were only partly animated. Bodies missing limbs, or crawling on the ground, or wandering with their legs because the top half of them were missing. She wondered why that these undead soldiers were only partly coming back, or not at all until she saw the extent of the damage in the room. The scorch marks were left from fire.

Caim had been here.

Emphasis on had.

But this gave her a trail to follow rather than wandering around aimlessly like a chicken with its head cut off.

Following the path of destruction, charred remains of the undead soldiers, Reina felt like she was getting close to… something. It wasn’t nessicarily Caim, simply because it was something she had felt in the previous Church.

Whatever it was made her heart pound. But that wasn’t the only thing. She felt something pulling at her mind, tugging her to go further, deeper down until the ground beneath her feet began to shift, the whole of the tunnels trembled and then broke, causing her to fall into another hallway. Thankfully with no enemies in sight. This slight change didn’t stop her from moving.

She must have been close.

And the closer she got, the more frequent the tremors became. Whatever was the cause of it, was right ahead.

Reina skidded to a stop when reaching a set of familiar-looking doors. Only this time there was a different image than before. This time the symbol looked almost like that of a bull’s horns/head encircled with stars. Her hands clenched and unclenched, the last time she touched a door like this her head felt like she had been pierced in the eyes with a blade. She didn’t want to feel that again, but if Caim was on the other side of this door, fighting whatever awaited beyond it, she needed to head through.

Extending her left hand, she felt a familiar shock of electricity and pain behind her eyes before the symbol faded and the doors opened wide. When the pain had subsided Reina rushed into the large room, but to her surprise, nothing was there.

Was she mistaken?

The room was just like the previous one, yet instead of blue, it was of yellow, with what looked to be ships carved into the white stone walls as if depicting a great naval battle against some kind of sea monster. While the statue at the far back was just the same as the first, a woman with long hair surrounded with flowers, kneeling with hands clasped together while the mouth was open as if it were singing before an alter.

There were no signs that anyone had come here. Shoot, the floor that she had fallen through must have been the right way to go. She turned to leave and had made three steps only to stop dead in her tracks when she felt something pull at her followed by the faint sounds of a song, broken and disjointed but a song nonetheless. It felt like she was being pulled by invisible strings as she slowly looked back towards the alter. Her feet were unable to move forward. Whatever it was that called her wouldn’t let her leave. With a wary frown, Reina moved closer to the altar where a weapon lay in wait. It looked to be a spear in the shape of a giant cross, that was made of white and yellow gold. And much like the first one, she had seen; this weapon had inscribed into it at the hilt the Roman numeral number for Five. V.

She merely looked at the weapon from where it lay before glancing at the statue. Did it want her to take this to? To test it, she tried to move back but found after one step she couldn’t move. With a tried breath she picked it up, slightly annoyed that it was lighter than it looked. “Fine, I’ll take the damn thing…” she muttered to the statue with annoyance. She had just found another weapon, but this, much like the other from the previous Church, seemed different, but she couldn’t figure as to why.

Before she could speculate the reason, however, the ground began to shake once more, and the ceiling broke open. Where a large creature and a familiar face came crashing to the floor.

Caim! Reina thought as she rushed over to him, as the man staggered to his feet. And though he was scowling, he looked almost relieved to see her. She was just amazed that he wasn’t dead. But it was a moment short-lived as he turned his attention back to what had fallen alongside him.

“Is that a… giant crab with a ship for a hat?” Reina found herself saying that Caim merely lit the sword he had with fire and made a sign for food. Was he thinking of eating it?

Could you even eat it?

Or maybe he was trying to make a joke, given how she had been in this City. If so, it was terrible. But it did make her scoff as a faint grin came upon her face. “Well, if you can do so I say go for it.”

He seemed to laugh silently way before launching in to attack. While Reina stayed back and watched to try and get a better idea of what this monster was about. It was vastly different than the last. The first had lumbered about, as if moving almost aimless, but this one seemed to hold a set pattern of only moving from side to side. What’s more that ship atop its head, made Reina wonder something.

Deciding to test this unspoken theory, Reina took one of her ready-made bombs and tossed it at the ship’s hull. Where, when it exploded, cracking the wood and causing the mast and sail to be lit ablaze. Causing the giant crab to scurry and panic, running into walls, bringing more damage to itself as it caused the walls of the room to shake and debris to fall. Both Reina and Caim moved to avoid it, though, amid the falling stones from the broken ceiling, one seemed to hit in a spot of the giant crab’s forehead, right between its eyes. Where it then collapsed to the floor where it became dazed.

Reina took the open opportunity, avoiding the falling stone as she made her way to the crab. Leaping into the air when she got close and pierced it with her newly acquired weapon. Where the giant crab shrieked upon its weak point being hit. Its giant claws flailing about, striking Reina, throwing her back. Yet during her fall, Reina felt a familiar burning behind her eyes once more, where much of her surroundings became slower. Where she could see where the debris that threatened it hit her, and avoided them with ease before it went back to normal. What it was, she wasn’t sure, but much like before decided now would be best not to question something that gave her aid.

Caim in the meantime was focused on burning the ship, becoming a distraction for the creature to remain focused on him, while slashing at its legs mercilessly and even going to slash the underside of its belly to do some damage, doing what he could to avoid being hit, while doing as much as he could to keep the crab’s attention on him. He seemed to take great joy in seeing the monstrous crab panic, while it tried to swat Caim as if he were an annoying fly or more like a mosquito or wasp with how he kept charging at it. Perhaps their fight from earlier before crashing through the ceiling had something to do with it why he took such pleasure in giving the beast such torment. Either way, it would cause the crab to panic, sending it scurrying about and hitting nearby walls, causing more stones to fall hitting the weak point atop its head, making it collapse, so Reina would again take the initiative to strike it once more. And this time Reina would avoid being struck by the giant claw. She felt that if she had the misfortune of being caught rather than swatted away it would either crush her to or snap her in half. It would be death regardless of which.

But maybe, she could somehow get this to work in her favour. The moment she thought that the burning sensation returned, her surroundings began to slow once more, she took as many bombs she could hold in one hand, that being three, lighting them and tossing them to the boat. Causing the whole thing to explode and fall off the crab. Revealing a grave injury that this makeshift hat was covering. One that looked to have been a heavy burn.

When she landed on the ground, the moment time went back to the way it was originally, she concluded that she might have acted a bit too rashly, given that the giant crab now stomped and shrieked in outrage and protest over the loss of its boat-hat. And went for Reina as vengeance, she intended to try and use that strange ability only for immense pain to explode inside her skull. Whatever this ability was extended and constant use on repeat had negative side effects. The crab, on the other hand, took this opportunity to lunge at her, intending to crush her with its massive claws. Reina braced herself for the oncoming hit, dreading the impending impact, only it never came.

And as the pain in her skull vanished, she saw that it was Caim, who somehow managed to stop the crab’s charge. Using the flat side of his blade to brace for it, the ground cracked beneath his feet to remain in place as he gritting his teeth to keep the massive creature from moving any further forwards.

He glanced at her over his shoulder as if to check that she was alright, and once he confirmed it, he motioned for her to finish this. To strike in that one newly revealed spot. The monster was on its last legs now, and only needed one final heavy hit for it to go down for good.

Reina looked to the place in question, leaping into the air, and tossing the spear as hard as she could, the moment she had she could feel that same slow down for a split second as she put all of her strength into her left arm just before tossing at the crab. Then when it pierced its shell, she landed atop her weapon, using all of her weight to push down on it with her foot. The moment she had the crab screamed in pain; blood sprayed out like a fountain as it writhed trying to shake her off. Caim took the chance to pierce it through the mouth, hitting as deep as he could go before it slumped to the ground.

Moments later, the colour drained and became like the same white marble walls then it crumbled into a pile of salt. Reina didn’t react to the monster’s death as she looked down at her hands, her mind flooded with confusion as to the reality of what she managed to take home to roost. What in the world happened? Why did time suddenly slow down? Why did it make her eyes hurt? It was a bit different than what had transpired with the lumbering white creature that cried for its mother. What’s more, with her added speed and mobility, she found to have become stronger when time slowed as well. None of it made any sense to her.

Then out of the corner of her eye, Reina’s attention shifted from herself, to what lay on the floor in the pile of salt. A large red crystal, just like the first. She merely looked at it, shifted her stance, the moment she had moved away from it, the same feeling from before caused her whole body to remain still, unable to move until she did whatever this thing wanted her to do.

Sonofabitch… I hate you whatever you are. Reina thought with an intense self-loathing as she picked up the crystal and placed it on the altar.

Not a minute after everything shook, then halted just as quickly as it started.

Caim, in response, gave Reina a scrunched-up scowl, clearly signing to her in what she did. She responded with an equally confused stare, holding up her hands and shrugged. How the hell was she supposed to know something would happen when placing what was the equivalent of a blood-red diamond on the alter would cause a reaction? It didn’t happen before.

Then, the tremors happened again. More violent this time. This place, the City, was sinking even further!

Biting her lip hard, she bit out. “We gotta go!” then ran for the door, skidding to a stop to make sure Caim was following, when he left the room, the doors closed as they ran to leave the underground, not noticing that the door had closed behind them and the emblem had changed to that of a flower made of angel wings. They went up the hole Reina fell through then following the way she had when looking for Caim. Only to see the undead soldiers impeding their escape.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!! Reina cursed as Caim used his magic to burn through the enemies. Only for the ground to rumble and a large chunk of the ceiling landed on the soldiers just a few feet away from where Reina and Caim were, turning them into paste. Fucking shit! She cursed again. Now they were trapped.

They were going to die in this place. There was no way out now. They were screwed.

“That’s right…” the voice returned. “You’ll die, but… if you don’t wish for that to happen then you know what you must do…”

Her teeth clenched in response, hands gripping the sides of her skull, nails digging deep into her scalp, threatening to tare out her red hair as she squeezed her eyes shut.

“Come now… you don’t wish to die, do you?”

“Shut up…” she muttered. “Just… shut up…”

“You know what will happen if you don’t…”

“No…”

Her heart rate began to rise, her breath shortened, as her gaze fell to the red ooze of what was the undead men that had once blocked their path as images from her nightmare flashed in her mind. Of the dead and dying, of voices from Legion, of the dark clouds from the smoke and burning flames from homes. Of the person leading those with red eyes, she couldn’t see the person’s face, shrouded with white hair that was streaked with blood, as red eyes bore into with a knowing stare.

Only for a stinging pain to erupt from her left cheek. The voices gone, only silence remained as her surroundings returned to her. She looked at Caim, as her left hand went to her now red cheek. He slapped her. And before Reina could get a word in edgewise, Caim pointed to an open door close to them. A door that showed a shaft of light, freedom. Without a word to Caim, she ran for it, wanting to get out of this godforsaken hellhole. The ground above them had fallen, the remains of a street lay slanted, giving the two an easy way to leave the underground and reach the top side of the City, well, so to speak. They were still stuck underground, and from the looks of it, the tremors were less frequent and the Shades that had come out once more seemed more preoccupied in staying in darkness then brothering with them. However, a new problem arose.

With all the fallen debris, getting back the way they came, was near to impossible. Even Caim wasn’t sure of where they could go to get out.

“Hey!” someone called out. “If you’re trying to get out, come this way! A path has opened up to the surface!”

The duo had nothing to argue against listening. Following the voice that called out to them, guiding them to this new exit. “Hurry! This way!”

A tall building had fallen, slanted on its side, its top had seemingly broken through to the surface. The building, however, wasn’t particularly sturdy itself, they needed to be quick.

I’m not going to die here! she thought as she pushed herself as hard as she could go. Ignoring the pain from the muscles in her legs before breaking through to the top. And the moment she saw the bright blue sky, and even brighter sun, did she then fall to her hands and knees to catch her breath. Her lungs felt like they were about to burst.

When Reina finally caught her breath, she looked up to the one who helped them as they approached with almost silent footsteps, and was shocked to find that this person who helped them escape the falling City, was practically a child.

Chapter Text

Okay, perhaps calling this person a child was a bit skewed. They looked to be around early to mid-teens, with rather short stature of five foot three and a thin build.

They were dressed in some type of bodysuit, that stopped at mid-thigh and above the elbow, matching white boots and gloves that looked to have been accented with gold trim. They had rather androgynous features, black eyes and matching black hair that had been styled into a bobbed haircut with a braid resting in the middle on either side of their face, held with a long ornate gold bead.

Reina wasn’t sure how to respond to their young saviour. Though they also seemed to be sizing her up too.

“I’m surprised,” the youth responded after a moment, arms folded across their chest. “I didn’t think there was anyone alive in this region anymore.”

Reina cleared her throat. “You… you mean the City?”

“No,” was this person’s response with a shake of their head. “There aren’t any towns past the old mining areas that people live in, at least not anymore. Not since the earthquakes and sinkholes that form the area. It’s become far too dangerous to even try to make a living here.”

Reina felt dizzy, her mind felt fuzzy as her legs gave out making her sit on the salt-covered ground.

The youth looked concerned. “Hey! Are you okay?”

“Yeah… no,” Reina admitted as she closed her eyes. “My eyes hurt, give me a minute…” her eyes were trying to get used to being in the brightness of the sun after being underground for however long they were down there for. But it was the events with the crab and when they were escaping that kept pulling at her thoughts. What was that? Who was that? It felt familiar somehow, but she couldn’t even recall what it was from regardless of what she thought it reminded her of.

With a breath, she opened her eyes to look at the youth with a questioning stare. Biting the inside of her mouth lightly she asked. “Then what about you?”

“Huh?”
            “You said it yourself that no one comes out here, if that’s true then why were you out here?”

The child narrowed their eyes on her. “You know I helped you, right?”

“Yeah, but I was out here on a job, a request to retrieve something from inside the City.” She bit out before standing up with the assistance of her weapon. “So I’ll ask again, what about you? Why are you here?”

“Recognisance, I was ordered to gather data and information with my partner in this region, but he ditched me.”

Reina thought about the strange man wearing black clothes and heels, given he fell into the City, perhaps this person wasn’t aware of that. “…I don’t think so. I ran into someone when this guy,” she indicated to Caim who looked to be silently glaring with discomfort at this new person. “and I became separated, I think the person you believe that ditched you might have had the bad luck of falling through one of those sinkholes and ended up in the City.”

Without missing a beat, the youth asked. “Was he wearing all black, tall, reddish hair, with heels? Had an… odd way of speaking?” when Reina nodded the youth sighed. “Yeah, that’s him. Where’d he go?”

Reina merely shrugged, she had no clue and it wasn’t like the man was going to tell her.

“Great… just great. The Commander isn’t going to like this…”

Commander? Reina thought with a confused frown, she knew times were hard but were this kid in some kind of militia group? Reina could recall stories that when the world fell to ruin, factions of the military broke apart and formed their own groups when they didn’t see eye to eye on something, be it big or small. There were often a lot of riots and death around such groups, but she wasn’t aware that such groups were around this area, they usually avoided going anywhere near the City’s from the old world, unless major tech could be used, which now was becoming less and less common. Though some still held strong in some places though she avoided those places as much as possible.

“Well… thank you for helping,” Reina said, changing the topic. “I hope you find him.”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t just him. There’s another reason I’m here besides that. Still, though, it’s rare to see humans going into the Cities, given how dangerous they are now.”

Reina didn’t respond, which the youth then asked another question.

“I know you said you had a job, but, you… almost sounded like you’ve done this before.”

“I have,” Reina said. “I’ve gone to several Cities, though, after this I plan to head back to one I’ve been to before. There’s something I’ve been meaning to look into. And if this City hadn’t begun to have another quake, I would have tried to find answers. Though I doubt it’d be much, given what’s there.”

The youth gave her a questioning stare. “And that is?”

Reina didn’t want to bring her fears to light, but fuck it, if they thought she was crazy maybe they’d leave her alone if she told them the truth and bit her lip before speaking. “I’ve noticed recently in the last two cities I’ve gone into I’ve heard something… ah… not sure if you know but there are churches in some cities, and that I’m able to go inside them. And… I don’t know why.” She glanced to Caim. “He… he’s seen it.”

Caim merely nodded to confirm her statement.

“No one that I’m aware of has ever been able to get inside. And you say there are several of these churches?” Reina shrugged, she didn’t know if there were more, after all, she had only seen the two as the youth rested their hands resting on their hips deep in thought. Dark brown eyes in contemplation before looking to Reina and asking. “Would you mind if I accompanied you both?”

Well, the truth backfired spectacularly. Great. “Uh… why?”

The youth folded their arms across their chest. “I said before that recognizance was my job, but that’s not the only job I have. I’ve been tasked to investigate those Churches, the one in the Underground was the first I’ve been able to get into. But I didn’t find much since I wasn’t able to gather much because of the quakes.”

Agitation rested along her shoulders, she wanted to tell the kid to buzz off, to say no and leave it at that. But if this person had a reason, then maybe she might find out why she kept hearing singing every time she got close to one of these places.

“Sure,” Reina said with a sigh of defeat and aggravation. “I’ve already had one unwanted companion, might as well come with.” Especially since I doubt he’d leave me alone even if we did part ways.

Caim arched a brow at her sarcasm. He even smirked. Smartass jerk.

“Anyhow, before that, I need to head back and hand off what was promised, it’s a bit of a jaunt, so try to keep up. I don’t intend to stop unless coming across enemies.”

“I think I can manage.” The youth said.

Reina merely looked at this kid before heading off, ignoring whatever else that this youth might want to say as they made their way back to the place where Artemisia was waiting where a thought occurred to her when they reached their destination.

Reina looked at this new unwanted companion. “I should have asked this before; you have a name to go by?”

“Innes,” the youth said. “That’s… my name.”

Reina and Caim glanced at each other before look at the one called Innes. “…you don’t sound certain about it.”

“I’m… not used to it,” Innes said. “I’ve never had a name before.”

Again, Reina said nothing while Caim simply scowled as he cocked his head. Trying to figure out what this person meant by that.

“Well, at least it’s not a flower,” Reina said, trying to make a joke and failing horribly since Caim just gave her an arched stare as she stood up and readjusted her bag. “I’m… Reina, and…this is Caim. He doesn’t talk. But knows Sign Language that I’m still trying to learn. I’m not much of a talker myself.”

“I know Sign Language,” Innes responded.

“Great, that means you both can have a conversation while I get my horse and give the blacksmith what she needed. Be right back.” She didn’t intend to sound as agitated as she had, but just knowing that another person wanted to tag along was aggravating enough for her. She just wanted to be alone. By herself, with her horse. Was that too much to ask?

“Hey!” Artemisa said the moment Reina entered the shop, smiling with relief and anticipation as Reina made her way up to the counter. “Welcome back,” then nervously asked. “So? How’d it go?”

Reina pulled out every single tool that was on the list and laid them out on the counter. “Pretty well,”

Artemisia’s mouth opened, only to close it before coming around to the front and hugging Reina tightly. So tightly it almost made Reina’s bones bend from the sheer strength. “Thank you,” her voice shaking as much as her body did. “Thank you so much, Reina.”

Reina hesitated. Unsure, before returning the hug, the overwhelming number of emotions was something Reina could understand. Then, she closed her eyes and rested her hands lightly on Artemisia’s back, offering solidarity between them.

They remained like that for a short while. Artemisia then stepped away, clearing her throat. “Sorry about that. I just… I’m just really happy. I never thought I’d see these. I was preparing myself for you to tell me you couldn’t find them or that they were broken. But this… I can’t describe it. This feeling I have. I guess you’d call it ‘Joy’?”

“Maybe,” Reina said. “It might be a mix of emotions too…”

Artemisia gave a slight laugh. “Yeah, I bet you’re right.” She then looked back to the tools. “I never thought I’d see these. But now… maybe with these, I can finally keep my promise after all this time.”

Reina looked to Artemisia with slight confusion, something which the tall, muscular woman realized.

“Ah-ha-ha… sorry, didn’t mean to get off track.” She laughed with nervousness. “Anyway, enough about that. Here’s your weapon like I promised!” Artemisia pulled out the newly modified spear, and to Reina’s surprise, it had lost the dark blue hue of the blade and had turned a dark crimson red. Mixed with the white ivory that remained, it looked almost like a bloody bone carved by a master craftsman.

Reina just looked at it and made her wonder if the same thing would happen with the other weapon she had found in the Church. But before she could get a word in edgewise Artemisia pulled out another weapon, Caim’s broken sword.

Fixed, and looking as if it had been newly forged. “And this too, not sure what kind of materials were used to originally make it, but I did the best I could. I did notice, however, something interesting.”

“In what regard?”

“Well, it absorbed the flames from the forge. I’ve never seen a sword do that before. I figure that this is something rare. I think, over time I could upgrade it to where it could permanently be on fire. Well, maybe, I’m not fully sure how it’d go unless I talked to him.”

“Hmmm,” Reina then placed the two new weapons she had found. “Do you think you could do something with these? Caim has one as well, I think it could use an upgrade too.”

Artemisia looked at the two new weapons, both seemed to hold and an equal amount of interest until a puzzled expression formed her brow. “Huh,”

Reina looked just as puzzled as Artemisia, who then noticed and elaborated.

“The spear, the one that looks like a cross, I think it’s the same as the other spear you found inside that Church in the City of Mist.”

After biting the inside of her cheek, Reina asked. “How can you tell?”

“They have the same feel, a craftsman can notice these things, but… it’s odd. Now that I look at them, it makes me have this… strange feeling. I’m not sure what you’d call it, but I had something like it when dealing with Caim’s weapon.” Her orange golden eyes resting upon the sword in question. “It’s not from here. And I’m not sure what that means...”

Reina didn’t respond, she had no answer for this, after all. Wouldn’t even know where to even ask Caim, let alone if he’d even tell her.

“Regardless,” Artemisia continued smiling at Reina. “They’re fine weapons, I know if my old man was still alive, he’d be as interested as I am. I’ll be sure to get to work on them right away. And with my new tools, I’m sure I’ll get done even faster.”

  Reina took the finished weapon, and after a moment she responded. “I’ll send him your way, thank you… Artemisia.”

She smiled at Reina. “No problem, let the moody guy know about his sword. Let me know if you have anything else you need looked at.”

With a nod, Reina left the place, where when she came out she could practically taste the tension in the air between the two people who wouldn’t leave her alone.

The hell happened? She thought. You know what? Screw it, I don’t care. I’m too tired for this anyway… “Hey!” she barked out to get their attention, so that, at least, they’d stop glaring at each other for five minutes. “I’m done, if you’ve got something to do, go in and take care of it. I going to sleep. Oh, and if you want a bed, ask the blacksmith. Night.”

“You’re not going to sleep in a bed?” Innes asked.

“I stay with my horse.” She said as she walked past them both, handing Caim his fixed sword. “Artemisia did a bit of modification to it,” Reina told him. “Said she could even get the blade to have it permanently on fire when you use it, but you’d have to see what she meant by that.” Then continued to where she left Rostam. “I’m going to sleep.”

She then dumped her stuff next to her horse who nuzzled his snout against her face, letting out grunts and hot breaths as his tail hit the ground. He was happy to see her.

Reina smiled and wrapped her arms around his strong neck. “I… missed you too… sorry I took so long Rostam…” she then took out a carrot to eat from the satchel, which he did with vigorous glee. Even licked her fingers before nuzzling her face, he rarely did this, only when she felt overwhelmed. Something that she was grateful for. Laying back on Rostam’s side, she closed her eyes as exhaustion took her into a deep sleep.

Chapter Text

When Reina opened her eyes, she found herself back in this strange circular white room, first, she was confused as every nerve in her body became heightened as she held, the weapon she had found in the Church from the City of Mist. But whatever weapon she had at the moment mattered little, since she was far more concerned about that white mass that she had the misfortune of dealing with last time.

But what bothered her most was that the thing from last time wasn’t here, and the only way out was through that hole she made. And that was a place she knew nothing about.

There were no sounds besides that of her echoing footsteps, and no signs of that strange creature from before that, she had thought, absorbed her. Reina looked at her hands as a frown rested along with her features, what did any of this mean?

And why did it all feel so familiar to her?

With no other option, Reina walked to the dark abyss that was the hole she created, and though she feared what was on the other side, doing something was better than nothing. When she jumped, however, she made the mistake of looking back where she saw someone standing in the middle of the room, a very familiar face.

It was too brief, but she was sure of it, it had to have been him!

But such thoughts of worry and fears would have to come later, for when she landed, she found herself in a new place entirely.  It looked as though it were carved out of the same white stone as before, with stairs leading in all different directions, some up, some down, even a few that were upside down. What was this?

There were no signs of enemies or anyone else for that matter. It was as if she was the only soul in this strange place. And with no discernible place to start, Reina figured to head up the set of stairs then head down. After all, she wanted to get the lay of the land before delving even deeper down, however deep it would go, that is.

She still had lingering thoughts of just how high this place would go, given where she had awoken from, but now she wondered how deep it would go. Her greatest fear was it would never stop, that it would just keep going.

Be careful and try not to fall. She thought as she began to head up the stairs to the next level, the strange sound that would emanate from the steps as she climbed brought her pause, the room she was in didn’t have much in the way of sound. If anything, her steps were muffled. But here, it was like someone turned up the volume of every step she made. Which set her on edge. If there were enemies around, it would alert them of her position.

Yet, there was no one, besides herself, here. There was that person, that she saw when she made a leap of faith, but she couldn’t have been certain, besides, he was dead.

He had to be.

She closed her eyes and let out a breath, now was not the time to be overtaken by anger from something that happened a long time ago. She needed to find out where she was, and how to get out. Heading up the stairs to the first landing, she found that it was a narrow hall with no walls, and only what looked to be another long drop to however far a person would fall. And what waited for her at the end of this long hallway was a single door.

The moment she stepped forward; Reina stopped. A chill ran down her spine as her eyes went wide. She heard a voice, though the words were inaudible, it was too faint and echoed all around her until it became clear.

“T..ai…or…Traitor…”

Reina looked back down to the bottom of the stairs and saw that it was no longer white, but red, as if it had become a pool of blood. From that pool, crawled out a person, their skin bleached white and hair streaked red with blood, she couldn’t see the face but the eyes that peered through bloody strands looked at her with unyielding rage.

“Traitor!”

Reina gritted her teeth as she remained where she stood looking down at the person the voice was disembodied, the hair obscured the body so identifying gender, and was difficult to determine through the voice.

“You… traitor… you… who is different… you who defied… why… are you like this...?”

Reina pressed her lips into a thin line as she eyed this being who remained partly in a bloody pool.

“You… think you can escape… after all you’ve done… you think you have freedom… what a farce… you know… deep down… that it’s a lie… and one day… you’ll have nowhere to go… and accept your fate…”

The gaze that Reina gave this being answered. No, and I never will.

Those red eyes bore into her as the red liquid around this person began to bubble as an amalgamation of bodies emerged, with all genders intertwined making it difficult to ascertain what this thing was, but then she recalled the white mass from the last time she was in this strange place, the blood drained from her face as an amalgamation of voices called out at their hands reached for her.

Immediately, Reina swatted the hands away with her spear before, striking at them to keep them at bay, that was until several managed to grasp her arm and leg. Gritting her teeth, she twisted her body, and with a force of motion managed to break free of their grasp while slashing at the hands with her weapon. Blood fell like flower petals as she continued to slash at them before leaping back by several feet to keep her distance, and when she looked up, she saw that the person who seemed to be in control of this strange amalgamation was now standing at the top of the stairs. Long strands of hair covered the face and body making it hard to tell what it was exactly.

And without a word, this being lifted their arm and extended their hand and the amalgamation of people and limbs let out a cry before arms shot out to her all at once as if a tightly wound spring snapped to life. Hands extended trying to reach Reina, but she continued to slash with her weapon   

Yet, she found that more hands with immerging from the severed arm. It was as if she were fighting some mythical monster. One that she couldn’t win against. There was only one thing she could do, one thing she had done many times before.

Jumping further back, Reina then turned on her heel and sprinted towards the door to escape this undefeatable foe. All the while slashing at the hands they continued to reach and peruse her, attempting to grab her only to catch air as she maneuvered and leapt into the air to avoid their grasp on her.

Please don’t be locked! Was all that she thought when she was about to reach the door’s handle and found that it turned with ease, allowing her entry. The moment she had, she then slammed the door shut, pressing her back against the door as those same hands banged against the wood. While keeping her back pressed against the door, and feet dug into the ground to remain firmly in place, she managed to press the lock for the door with her right hand.

Then all had gone quiet. The banging had ceased.

Reina didn’t move, didn’t dare to budge.

She waited ten seconds, thirty seconds, fifty seconds…

One minute…

Two…

Three…

Four…

Five…

Ten minutes had gone by and nothing changed. She turned facing the door, pressing her ear to the cold wood, but heard nothing. Was it really gone?

“What was that?” she asked her thoughts aloud but wasn’t able to come up with an answer as to what it could be. The words that were being spoken, struck Reina with a feeling of fear and responsibility, but why was that the case? Why did it call her a traitor? All Reina wanted was to live for as long as she could the best she knew how. Yet, a part of her did feel why that might have been, but as of now, it didn’t matter much to her.

For now, she just needed to find a way out.

Turning away from the door, Reina went to take in her new surroundings only to find herself frozen in place at what she saw.

This door had led her to a forest, with trees as tall and thick as the buildings she explored, with branches stretching high up in the sky as a gentle breeze making the leaves rustle. The smell of rain clung in the air mixed with dampened earth.

She knew this place.

It was a place where she always felt calm, one that brought her peace, but as she walked, a thought kept creeping up in the back of her mind. Why was she here? What happened to that room surrounded by white? It made no sense as to why she would be here, after all, long ago, this was where she called home before she and her brother fled…

“Reina,” a familiar voice called, drawing Reina’s attention. And who she saw was someone she least expected.

“…Dad…?”

Reina’s father, Ulric, a man almost seven feet in height, and a muscular build where many thin or jagged scars remain on visible flesh, with hair so dark it reminded her of ink that fell past his shoulders but was currently tied back into a loose braid. As cool blue eyes watched her with a loving gaze. “What are you doing spacing out Reina? Don’t you remember why we came all the way here?”

Reina looked down at herself, and saw smaller hands, right, she was twelve, her father wanted to teach her some techniques with the spear for hunting and self-defence. Why did she think otherwise?

“You were going to teach me that move!” she proclaimed quickly, and her father let out a booming laugh. “Exactly, now come on. We still have a way to go before we reach the sparing grounds.”

Reina paused when following her father. “But, what about *****? Isn’t he coming too?”

Her father stopped in his tracks; he was oddly quiet.

“Dad?”

“Your brother will have his type of sparing. You both have your strengths and weaknesses, and as such, you should be taught differently. You may have been born at the same time, but you are your own person. That’s why he’s not here.”

“Oh, okay.” Still, something about that didn’t sit right with her, she and her brother were always taught something new at the same time. After all, her father was raising them all on his own, since what happened to their mother, Kurei, when Reina was only three years old. It wasn’t something her father liked to bring up, even though it had been six years now.

Reina’s thoughts came to a halt when she felt her father’s hand running along the top of her head, stroking her hair as his smile became sad.

“The more I see you grow, the more I see her in you, in both of you.” He then knelt to be more at her level. “Kurie would be so proud to see how you’ve grown.”

“Are you proud Dad?”

“Of course, any good father would be. Now, you know what we’ll need to do, climb on up.” Reina climbed up onto her father’s back, where he then added cloth to keep her secured to his back. “Ready?”

Reina clutched his broad shoulders with all her might. “Yeah!”

Her father then crouched to run, then after inhaling deeply through his nose he dashed off with a burst of speed, able to run faster than a normal human and able to leap into the air to the high branches of the tall trees and run along the branches that were strong enough to hold his and his daughter’s weight.

Her father was considered to be one of if not the strongest in their whole village. A village that built their way of life from the shambles of an old castle and its town overtaken by forest. Living in harmony with nature that somehow hadn’t been destroyed by the overwhelming amount of salt. A paradise to many.

But with such praise came those who wish to take what remained by force, causing countless attacks on the people who were forced to train early at a young age to learn how to fight. Her father was one of those who was feared by those who dared to even try anything.

Given his stature, many would assume that he was slow in movement but that couldn’t have been anything further from the truth.

He was strong enough to take down a giant bear that roamed these parts, or more than willing to tame a large wolf. Wrestle a moose or push a boar back with ease.

Many wondered if he was human.

Her father then came to a stop, jumping down from the tall height as though it were as tall as the old buildings that humanity abandoned long ago but unlike regular people who would have hurt themselves from it, Ulric appeared to be completely fine.

Reina climbed off her father’s back before standing to his full height. Then holding out his rough calloused hand, hands of a fighter, a warrior, yet he held her small tiny hand with such softness and gentleness in care. Which Reina took as they began to walk. Where Reina had to almost jump every so often to keep up.

With the ever-present sun peeking through the leaves in the giant trees as they made their way, she glanced up to her father, his expression impassive, calm but showed nothing, until you looked at his eyes. Eyes so blue and clear like the sky, her own eyes. Eyes that were focused on all that was around them, yet when he looks at her, he smiled.

Warm, loving, soft.

Something that so many couldn’t even imagine from a man like Ulric. Though the people in their village revered him for his strength, many others feared what he would be like if it wasn’t for Kurie, with how Ulric could easily tear those of the Red-Eye in half.

Calling him a Wolf among men, oddly enough his name harbouring something similar, but it could also mean protector.

When her father stopped again, he silently knelt and pointed, it was a deer. A giant stage with large imposing antlers, its fur white as snow as the antlers reminded Reina of the white from bones that were picked clean.

“Do you see him? Your mother would call him the guardian of this forest. And the final resting place for your mother.”

Reina merely looked at this imposing creature, bigger than any deer she had ever seen before. Bigger than a moose. “Why is he white? Is it like those monsters with the red eyes?”

“No, this was how he was born, those of the Red-Eye more or less turned into those monsters.”

“What if they come here?”

“They won’t, not if I have anything to say about it.” His expression changed, from calm and composed to fierce as his blue eyes narrowed before turning to a group of approaching people, men of varying heights and builds, all looking to do something. On instinct Reina pressed herself into her father’s side, gripping his clothes as he kept a hand along the top of her head, she felt his thumb stroke her hair in an attempt to ease her frightened mind. “Which is why you should leave, none of you are welcome here,” he says as he grips the blade along his back in warning, the tone in his voice changing. “Leave.”

One man, possibly the leader of this group of bandits, scoffed. “Oh yeah? And what are you going to do if we don’t? Rumour has it that tomb has a shit tone of gold and jewels, we’d make a killing from what’s inside.”

Ulric said nothing.

The man’s attention then went to Reina, his smirk grew. “Is that your kid? Never seen hair like her’s before…” he snapped his fingers. “You know what? After we kill you, we’ll take the kid and the gold. Bet she’d make more than some jewelry from the dead.”

Ulric removed his hand from Reina. “Reina, go to the large tree near the tomb and hide.”

Reina nodded running to the tree as she ran, she could hear their argument.

“You think you can take us all? do you know even who we are?!”

“No, do you know who I am?”
            he laughed. “Why the hell would we care about some old man?”

Ulric smiled, a type of smile that held glee at this man’s words. “Good,”

When she reached the tree she couldn’t hear their conversation, the leader of the group was jeering on, and then, he was on the ground. His head several feet away.

Ulric had cut the man’s head off without a moment’s hesitation when his daughter was far enough away. The others began to panic, shouts as several rushed at the nearly seven-foot-tall man with their weapons, but Ulric was faster, even with his large blade he moved it with such ease, he didn’t even need both hands to slice at the intruders as if they were made of paper.

It wasn’t the first time Reina had seen her father kill someone, given it was his job, yet the anger in his eyes made Reina think that this was personal.

Reina felt something nudge her back, causing the young girl to gasp and turn around to see the giant white stag was now by her side. It pressed its head against her forehead its hot breath coming slow. The way its red eyes bore into her blue, all other sounds faded away as she continued to look into those red eyes before it lifted its head, moving away from the small child and disappearing into the deep lush of the forest.

“Reina,” she turned to see her father, covered in blood, she turned her head to look at what became of those men, but he stopped her from doing so by gently resting his hand along her face as he went on his knees to be eye to eye with her. “Are you alright?”

“I’m… I’m okay, what about you Dad?”

His face was impassive, as he pulled her into a hug. “I’m alright.” Then silence for a moment. “Reina,”

“Yes?”

“No matter what happens, I’ll do everything I can to protect you. I promise, even if I become a monster. I swear to keep you safe.”

His voice sounded strange, almost echoey, she pulled away to look at his face, but became confused at what she saw. He looked the same as always, besides the blood, but his eyes…

They weren’t blue.

They were gold.

Chapter Text

Reina opened her eyes to the clear blue skies above her. She sat up and looked at her hands, what a weird dream. No, it wasn’t a dream, at least, not completely.

A dream mixed with a memory, one that she hadn’t thought of for a very long time.

She unzipped her jacket and pulled out a necklace, one that had a stone, small but pointed and sharp like a knife, wrapped in a gold wire attached to a gold chain. It belonged to her mother, something that was said to have been from the hide of a dragon. A red dragon.

But that had to have been a lie, dragons didn’t exist. Not in this world.

Yet it seemed to have stuck and the lie grew to the point where her mother’s family claimed to be decedents who drank the blood of a dragon when the world first fell to ruins, it was why those in her mother’s family all had dark red hair.

The colour of blood.

And for that, the family was looked on and treated like royalty or revered as gods.

What a farce.

Even her father thought it was ridiculous.

If the timing of that was right, Reina should have been more or less the third generation of those who came from a person who drank “dragon’s blood” but then, time always seemed to elude her, like it was going by faster than it should. It didn’t happen often, but when it had it always caught her off guard. Like thinking it was Tuesday, only to find that it was Monday, and a week later.

It was weird.

But the world was ending and people believed in such nonsense of dragons, even as they all died off, one by one, by the White Chlorination Syndrome. Becoming pillars of salt. Or killed by those with the Red-Eye.

Either that or were killed by bandits, Shades, or those insane enough to think that those in her family were immortal and wished to devour their flesh and blood thinking that it could cure them or make them live forever.

After all, it was the reason why her mother was taken, and why Reina and her brother were almost kidnapped as well. If that hadn’t happened, would things had been different? Or… would they ultimately stay the same…?

With a breath, Reina placed the necklace back underneath her shirt and zipped up her jacket before standing up, recalling what she needed to do next, with the unwanted company.

Times two.

Let’s just get this over with. She thought as she headed back over to Artemisia’s shop, whereupon entering, saw Caim, and the new addition currently being swung around in circles by the tall muscular woman. She opened her mouth to say it, only to close it. Nope, nope, doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t care.

Caim merely looked at her with an arched brow.

Reina ignored him, lightly bit her cheek and spoke. “Artemisia, the weapons?”

She put Innes down immediately. “Right!” then jumped behind the counter and place the two weapons in question, the one from the forger from Crater City, and the spear that looked like a giant cross. It was originally white gold and yellow gold, but now it was blood-red with white gold.

Interesting, it looked like every weapon from a Cathedral would change when upgraded with those strange glass red roses. She couldn’t help but wonder why that was the case.

“I think this is my best work yet!” Artemisia exclaimed with glee. Practically bouncing from foot to foot and a large smile on her face. Happy with what she had done with her work.

Reina then promptly paid her. “Thank you, Artemisia.”

“No problem,” she says with a smile. “Oh, and Innes told me that you’re heading back towards the Forgotten City. I might be in the area, if you hear about me feel free to come and have whatever weapons you need upgrading. With a price, of course.”

Reina was silent for a moment. “Of course…” she said with a sigh. “I’ll be sure to do that Artemisia.” Then, with her newly acquired weapons, Reina went to go and saddle Rostam and head off, but only got as far as her horse when she heard Innes call out.

“Hey! What’s going on with you? Why were you so cold with Artemisia?”

She pressed her lips into a thin line, not wanting to shout as much as she felt the desire to do so, but doing so could lead to problems. So, she turned and glared at the youth, a look that told them to leave her alone. “I’m not exactly thrilled to be a part of this group.” She seethed before going back to putting the saddle on her horse. “Nothing good comes from me being in a group of people or staying in one place for long periods.”

“Why?”

Reina gripped the side of the saddle tightly as she bit her lip. “Because I’m cursed…”

“Wha—”

“No, you know what? It doesn’t matter.” She cut Innes off. “None of it does, you wouldn’t believe me anyhow. So, let’s just get this over with.” Before the youth could utter another word in response, Reina got on to her horse and spoke in a cold tone. “I’ll be waiting on the outskirts of the town near The Forgotten City. Find your own way there. Rostam only lets me ride him, if you were to try, he’d just kick you to death.” Rostam snorted in response to her words. Then road off without so much as a goodbye.

Leave the unwanted two travelers in the staled encrusted dust.

Part of Reina felt bad for how she acted with Artemisia, even more so with how she had agreed to work with these two to investigate this other City. She didn’t think it had a Church, at least, not when she was there that she saw one.

Her head slumped as she let out another sigh. Her dream from last night made her feel all weird. Made Reina recall things she had long since buried in her mind. Of times before it, all came crashing down the first time.

But then that’s always how things felt to Reina, the good and the bad coming in waves.

Yet this anger and aggravation kept gnawing at her. That was when the sky became dark with cloud cover and Shades began to manifest. Perfect. She’d take her anger out on these blasted things passing several towns, both thriving and abandoned before reaching the one that was closest to the City of the Forgotten.

Along the outskirts of the town, Reina set up camp while waiting for the others to catch up to her and Rostam. Afterward, she found herself looking towards the Forgotten City, trying to see if she could see any signs of there being a Church.

Though with the high walls, trying to see it would have been impossible anyhow.

With the amount of time Reina had been there, she should have seen it, so where did it come from? The sky? This seemed a bit of a stretch.

“Hey!” she heard Innes’s voice before turning to see them both running over to her, that was surprisingly quick. She was sure it would have taken them at least a day and a half.

Then again, Caim was quick all on his own, so this new interloper was probably just as fast, if not more so. Innes looked at Reina before asking. “Is something wrong?”

Reina looked away as she bit the inside of her cheek. “No, it’s nothing.”

Innes seemed rather concerned, but then says something she didn’t expect.

“Before we head into the City, I’m going into town to see if I can pick up anything that could be of use, rumors and the like. If this Church is, in fact, there, then someone has to have talked about it by now.” Then set down what they had so that they could move more quickly. “I’ll be right back,” Innes said before heading off into the town as Reina let out a tired breath as Caim watched her sit down on the salt-covered ground.

He then knelt before sitting cross-legged in front of her and then began to sign slowly. “You don’t want me here.”

She responded by giving him a pointed stare that said it all. No shit.

He arched a brow in return before continuing. “What are you so afraid of?”

She scowled and shifted where she sat before shaking her head. She wasn’t about to say, nor did she want to say it aloud or even sign it to him. But then, he continued, and what he signed next brought her pause.

“We are similar in some regard. I want to fight until the voices stop.” Caim signed. “I want to fight until I remember nothing.”

Reina looked at him, confused. Where was he going with this?

“It’s why I fight. I have no other reason but to fight. It’s now my only reason for being. To live. However, you are not like that. And yet, you too wish to keep going until you remember nothing as well.”

Reina averted her gaze only for Caim to do something rather unexpected.

He extended his hand and gently, surprisingly so, had her look back at him. He hadn’t touched her, merely guided her gaze back to him as he continued to sign.

“Face it.” He signed. “Face it, and fight it head-on. It’s all you can do to quell what you fear most.”

He made it sound so easy.

“You’re wrong,” she told him. Her throat felt tight. “There is one other thing I can do.” Then, when Caim frowned faintly, waiting for her answer, she said. “I can run.”

His frown deepened.

“I bet you find it cowardly. But for me, that’s all I can do. I just want it to leave… to leave me alone. You say I can face it, but… there is no chance that I could. When… what I would have to face… is dead.” Her hands clawed at the salt-covered ground. This was the only thing she’d be willing to admit. “So I run… I run and run and run and run… and run some more. It’s all you can do when you have nothing to face.”

Caim looked to her, dark blue eyes holding no rage but understanding.

He merely sat across her, waiting in abject silence.

The wind picked up, sending the salt to flutter about like fallen snow around them as the sun continued to shine brightly down on them.

“Run until the monsters get you… or die. I just don’t know which will be first.” She closed her eyes and gave a short laugh, one of bitterness and self-loathing. “I told you, I’m not the best companion to be around. Especially if I just run like a coward.”

Caim shook his head slowly, not breaking eye contact with her. “You’re no coward.” He responded. “The way you’ve fought showed that to me. You’re a warrior through and through. When you run, it’s merely a tactical retreat.”

“…A ‘tactical retreat’ huh?” Reina scoffed as she bit her tongue slightly. “That’s not something I’d expect from you…” she leaned back, putting weight on her hands as she looked at him, looking at his body, his face, his weapon. Then, sitting properly, she decided to get some practice in and signed to him instead of asking outright.

“Who… are… you…?”

There was a faint twitch in his lips, almost what could have been seen as a smile. Caim’s gaze fell to his hands before looking at her’s and signed. “You suck at this.”

Reina responded by smacking the ground before pointing at him. The light humour he had washed away in an instant. His expression was unreadable, but his dark blue eyes looked as though he was in a far-off land away from here.

He went to sign but stopped when Innes returned, calling out to them.

“Hey!”

Caim immediately got up from where he was sitting as Innes closed the long distance quickly.

“You were right!” Innes said the moment they came to halt. “There’s a Church in the City of the Forgotten now.”

What? Reina thought with a frown. How was that possible? After lightly biting the inside of her cheek, she asked. “Where? Where is it located?”

“Like all the others, in the heart of the city.”

Her frown deepened. That made no sense, it shouldn’t have been there. She had been to the Forgotten City many times and not once did she see one of those Churches. Was it hiding with the aid of magic?

It would make sense since in the City of Mist it too was covered by some kind of barrier thanks to a never-ending storm.

So what made this Church hide from sight?

Reina shook her head, just trying to figure that out was making her head hurt a bit too much, and with her dream, it made her all the more warry.

But she needed to find out why something like this was happening, what these Churches meant, why she kept feeling strange when getting near, but most of all, why she kept hearing someone singing when they were close.

For now, though, she needed to make sure Rostam would be okay on his own, and much like before, she showed the horse her pocket watch, motioning the time and how long they would possibly be. He had enough food to last a while and was near a lake to drink if he became thirsty.

Yet the moment after she did this, Caim came over and held out a bag. With a slight look of confusion, Reina took it from him as he then went to gather his things. Opening the bag, she saw it was a leather holder with several small sharp knives. She looked at Caim’s back with even more confusion, then she saw a note that had been left tucked away in the leather folds.

The Grumpy Man wrote that you needed knives. So, I made these free of charge. Look at it as thanks for what you did for me. I know things are hard, but try to feel better, okay?

I’ll see you around.

~A

Reina grasped the note tightly in her hand as she felt her eyes burn with unshed tears as she squatted down with her face buried in her lap.

I’m such a jerk.

She then raised her head and let out a slow breath. Not wanting to feel sorry for herself, instead, she’d make up for her jerkish behaviour by finding a new weapon, taking it, and what else she came across in this place, bring it back to Artemisia and pay for an upgrade. While also sneaking in a tip. The woman never liked being tipped, but with the craftsmanship of the newest weapons in Reina’s arsenal, there was no way in hell Reina was going to let that slide.

Lightly slapping her face with both hands Reina took her weapon and headed into town, while what Innes said was something she could believe, she wasn’t about to let up an opportunity of finding clients who wanted something from the City.

After all, she needed to pay Artemisia for the daggers, and that money had to come from somewhere.

Chapter Text

After taking about an hour in the town to find odd jobs that were requested by those who wished to find something within the Cities’ walls, the three set out to the Forgotten City fighting Shades along the way. While coming across random travellers that were being attacked, offering gratitude by offering what they had.

Reina always checking if they were sure, since being out here, anything from food to freshwater could mean life or death. Through their journey, Reina noticed how Caim continued to watch her. Did he want to talk-err… sign more about this supposed shared experience?

That didn’t make much sense.

Though there was that weird bit where he wrote about how she looked like his dead sister. In what way did Reina look like her? What did it even matter?

She sent a glare his way, silently telling him to stop, in which Caim glared back at her in turn, as if he was taking it up as some kind of challenge.

“Would you stop staring at me.” she signed.

 He scowled. “I am not.”

“I have eyes Caim, I know you are. It’s getting annoying.”

“No, I’m not.”

Bullshit! Reina thought and was about to flip him off as Innes came to try and mediate, but the youth’s words became muted to Reina’s ears, for the faint sound of singing came to her.

Reina froze, her eyes grew wide as she looked away from the two as they conversed through sign language as her gaze rested upon the towering walls that once blocked off the city.

Again…

She could hear it again.

Why?

Reina had been here, so many times, and not once. Not. Once. Had she heard someone singing when she was here all those other times.

So why now?

What did this all mean?

The song sounded familiar, yet she had never…

Then a flash, the image of a woman with red eyes, the Nun, she was singing that song. Perhaps it was her? But the only way for her to know was to find her again if she was still alive. Given how many people perished in this place, the chances of that were slim.

But if she was, then maybe, just maybe, Reina could get some answers.

Without a word to the other two, Reina made her way into the City, ignoring Innes’s voice for her to wait.

She wouldn’t, couldn’t. The sooner she found that nun, the better.

“Where are you going?” Innes demanded as the two caught up with her.

Reina bit the inside of her mouth before answering. “I heard it again, signing.” But this time, it sounded familiar. “The last time I was here, I ran into someone, this person was singing this song. They had red eyes.”

“And you want to find this person?” Innes questioned, “You do realize how bad of an idea that is?”

“I do, but…”

“Tell me, did you do the same thing? Back in your village? The place you called home before it was lit aflame?”

“She knew me,” Reina said as she came to a stop. “Yet I’ve never seen her before. She’s… not someone I remember.”

“Are you sure?” Innes asked. “It could be that you’ve just never interacted with her.”

“No, that wouldn’t happen.” Reina cut Innes off. Then continued forwards before Innes could ask how she was so sure. After all, no one was left alive…

*    *    *

It took a while to get to the same room where Reina had come across the place where she first found the woman.

The strange facility that was used in old times, of the long-dead children who became statues of salt, as if frozen in time. Along with another nun who accepted her fate with those ill-gotten children. So as to not be alone in death.

When they finally came across the place in question, it hadn’t changed much since the last time she was here. Same beds, same scattered objects, same bodies…

“This is… this is awful…” Innes spoke softly as Reina walked past the bodies of children. “What happened here?”

After pressing her lips Reina spoke. “You see this a lot in other cities Ones without names, cities where people choose to try and eke out an existence. Thinking its better than leaving to be in small towns or villages, where there are those who wish nothing but harm.”

“But they’d have to know that it just makes them at a greater risk of becoming infected, the White Chlorination Syndrome is…”

“It doesn’t matter to them,” Reina cut Innes off. “To them, living here is far more preferable.” She thought back to the other church, the one in the City of Mist. “You can’t blame those who wish to cling to the old ways or those who think that having your children die alongside you is better than trying to live for as long as possible. No matter how selfish it is.”

Caim merely looked at the woman surrounded by frightened children, as he narrowed his eyes on her clothing. Reina thought that he might have known her, but the look of confused anger made her rethink that.

“She should be nearby,” Reina said after lightly biting the inside of her mouth. At least she hoped this woman was still there.

Yet the moment they came across the place where she first saw the woman everything went completely still within Reina.

It felt like her heart had stopped when her eyes laid upon the woman.

The woman, the nun, was dead.

Cut down mercilessly.

The smell of rot came from the dried blood that stained her white, black and red robes.

Reina’s heart hammered wildly, her breathing coming in short bursts as her eyes went wide, her shoulders shaking as her mouth quivered, the words unable to come out, as she felt the urge to scream. Only to quickly cover her mouth with her left hand and stumbled over to a nearby wall, her right hand braced against the cracked concrete.

“Reina?” Inness spoke, voice filled with concern. Reina did not answer.

She clenched her teeth as she kept her hand over her mouth, eyes shut tightly as it felt like the back of her eyes burned before slamming the side of her left first into the wall.

Then again, and again, she struck the wall, even going so far as bite the inside of her mouth so hard it caused her to bleed before stopping, her legs gave out as her arms fell to her side as she kept her eyes closed.

What exactly was she expecting?

Why was this at all a surprise?

Those who had Red Eyes were always, always killed on sight. The fact that Reina didn’t would have been seen as an anomaly, hell, she might even be seen as a Red Eye Sympathiser. As grotesque as that thought was.

Sympathizers believed that the person who had red eyes was still in their bodies, locked away by this unknown entity that controlled them to do things they normally never would. And those who were seen as such we thought to have gone mad. In fact, there was even a designated cult of those who desperately believed this notion, even though it had been proven false time and time again with such ruthless slaughter.

But the interaction with the woman was strange, abnormal even. None of the Red Eye, except for that boy who led a small faction of Legion, seemed to act in such a way that caused concern for Reina.

This wasn’t normal. None of this was.

“Um, Reina? Are you… okay?” Innes asked, followed by the sound of an object hitting something. “Ow. What, it was a legitimate question?”

Caim must have smacked Innes for asking that, but she ignored it for now.

Reina inhaled through her nose, and out the same way before opening her eyes and looking at the two who stick with her for unknown reasons before wiping the blood from her mouth. “No,” she said as she got up off the floor. “But I have no real choice but to be fine.”

Without another word, Reina left where the woman’s corpse lay, as her body would rot away and disappear like the salt that blanketed the earth.

Innes looked at the woman’s remains as Caim merely followed after, leaving the youth alone with the dead before they too followed after Reina.

“Where do we need to go?” Innes asked once they were outside again.

Reina was silent.

“Reina?”

“Let’s just get these side jobs done first.” She said after biting her lip before heading off to look for the items in question. “We can search for the Church after we finish everything else.”

The three worked together in finding the requested items, not saying anything about finding the dead woman if Reina, Innes or Caim commented on anything, then it was on the items in question that they were collecting.

Once it was done, they headed to find the Church, but couldn’t seem to find it, at all.

The hell, Reina thought after looking for more than three hours as the sky grew dark with cloud cover. Where the hell is it? Innes said it would be here, so why can’t we find it?

“Reina!” Innes called drawing Reina from her thoughts. “Look, I see it! The Church is right over there!”

Reina looked in the direction Innes pointed and saw the Church peaking out from the tall dilapidated buildings, it was all the way in an area that she had been to before long before she had unwanted company. But the last time she was here on her own, she explored that whole section and not once had she that building there before.

“Um,” Reina began. “That… wasn’t there before.”

Innes looked at her. “You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Reina looked at the church in the distance with narrowed eyes.

“Maybe it wasn’t important enough for you to see it then?” Innes offered.

Reina didn’t say anything. Perhaps it was hidden behind some magic at some point in time, like the one in the City of Mist. But if that were true, why was it visible now?

Still, from where they stood, the Church looked almost bigger than the others. Was it possible that they could be different in size? The past two Churches were all the same in shape and size, somehow that didn’t feel right to her. It felt wrong like it should have been the same as the others, why she thought that Reina had no clue.

But then this whole situation left her baffled beyond recognition.

Still, for it to be as high as it is, surely, they would have noticed something, even if they didn’t see the Church itself, they would have noticed a towering mountain of earth that rivalled even that of the old buildings here. if need be, they could climb their way up, Reina had done it before in order to get things for jobs, or just to scavenge in general, as with harder to reach places, meant higher the price and more of what was needed in the long run.

Yet when they got closer to it, however, Reina couldn’t help but let her mouth drop open at what she saw. The church wasn’t at the top of a tall pillar of rock.

The church was flying.

FLYING!

How the fuck was it flying in midair like that?

Or was it floating?

Flying, floating, whatever, it didn’t matter, it was weird!

The problem was, how the hell were they going to get inside?

Caim just stared at it with a tilt of his head, annoyed but also seemed to find it amusing that this wasn’t going to be easy. Like he expected this to happen.

From the looks of it, the earth that still clung to its base looked as if it had been ripped right out of the ground. The amount of force to do so alone would have been immense.

What made it even remain in the sky? Something from the old world? Or some kind of magic? It could be either, it could be both.

Though the more she looked at the towering church that was far out of reach, the more she felt the need to get there. Something pulling her to reach it no matter the cost.

Even when she began to hear the faint sound of singing coming from the church itself. Was it always coming from that place this whole time?

Absentmindedly she extended her left arm, her hand extended to try and grasp the church.

If only she had the ability to take hold of the thing and control it to make it move closer to a place where she and the others could easily reach. After all, it’s not like any of them could fly, or have the means to grow wings and read it that way.

A shame they didn’t have the means.

“Reina?” Innes’s voice drew her back to reality, as she lowered her arm and looked at them. “What do you expect to find, if we get inside?”

Reina was silent, looking to her left hand before she answered. “I don’t know. But every time I’ve been close to something like it. I’ve felt the need to go inside.”

“Why?”

Reina simply shook her head. She had no answer. None that would make any sense, to Innes or Caim. It was just a need. One so deeply rooted within her mind she couldn’t fight it.

There were the weapons, but that seemed almost arbitrary in comparison to the need to get inside. Was it the monsters that were almost always there when they reached the underground chambers? Was it the red crystals in the shape of roses? Could it even be the weapons themselves? Calling out with a need, a desire for a new owner that would meet their needs?

That one made little to no sense. Swords couldn’t talk, what was next, a talking book?

“Perhaps,” Innes continued. “We could find some clues inside? You’ve been inside before, what did you come across?”

“It depends on the church in question,” Reina said. “Though I know we’ll be in for a fight, every church I’ve been in had some kind of enemy. It’ll be the same with this one.”

Innes was silent for a moment, thinking it over. “Could it be some kind of challenge?” they spoke aloud.

Reina and Caim glanced at each other before looking back at the youth with questioning stares in their eyes.

“Oh,” Innes said as if realizing they had said it aloud. “Someone I know spoke about how there are places designed as challenges for others, a person, regardless of whom can attempt it. But, with what you said about the signing, I haven’t heard anything like it. Still, perhaps it’s connected?”

Reina thought about it as Caim seemed distracted by something. “That doesn’t make sense though, if that were the case you’d have heard about it, right?”

“Well,” Innes began. “Some of these places are less than… reputable. And not easily accessible either.”

Ah… Reina thought, understanding what Innes meant. Illegal fighting, a type of place where a person could make money from fighting. Reina had done it before, a few times even, it was a quick way to get some cash. Though she wasn’t the kind who wanted a reputation, the less she could be known the better. But that didn’t seem like an illegal fight ring, this just seemed like it was there for the sake of being there. Without any rhyme or reason.

“Caim?” Innes scowled. “What are you looking at?”

Caim merely pointed in the sky. Where the two followed his gaze to see that the church, for whatever reason, had moved. It had lowered and was now near a tall building that had partly slanted due to age and deterioration. It looked as though two smaller tall buildings were holding it up. It was like the church moved low enough just to give a way to reach it.

“Looks like we have a way up now,” Reina said, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth. And headed off before the other two had a chance to comment on anything. She hoped, that this time, she would gain some answers to these never-ending questions that plagued her mind constantly.

Though there was a part of her that believed that would be further from the truth.