Book Three – Interlude – Part Two – A Dreaded Lie & Hours Before Execution

When she woke up from her sleep powder-induced nap, the first thing Momo noticed was the change in her surroundings. Her hand expected to touch the firm sensation of concrete, but it lightly brushed against a patch of green grass, slightly dampened by the morning dew. Something moved to her left, and Momo lifted her tired head.

“A worm? Why is a worm crawling in the wall? What?” Her unsteady hand reached out to the squiggly creature. It crawled onto her delicate fingers, and that was when Momo noticed the three walls surrounding her were made from dirt. Her sensitive ears picked up an odd noise, then she stood up. In terms of size, her new accommodation was two to three times bigger than her first cell. A bucket-shaped object sat in the corner, but it wasn’t metallic like her previous one, and it was also about a fourth of the size. The only iron or metal objects to be found were the three thick bars keeping her from escaping. Unlike her former cell, this new one didn’t have a door. The silver bars stretched from floor to ceiling.

“It’s like the earth swallowed me…” she muttered. Her mind raced back in time as she tried to recount the events that led her to her current predicament. She remembered eating that awful food and drinking that surprisingly tasty water. Then she saw something when Sakdu came to get her. Her mind spent a second trying to reconstruct what foul object she saw, but then the concept of escaping monopolized her thought process.

She walked up to the nearest wall and placed her palm on it. After turning to see if it was dirty, her pale palm had muddy, brown speckles of dirt. Her cute nose twitched as she sniffed a little bit. Sure enough, it smelled like the dirt she played with during her childhood.

If it’s dirt, then it’s made from Earth Wall, right? Then can’t I dig through it?

Her thought process made sense, and she tried to scratch at it. That only served to stained her nails because the wall became firmer when she applied more force. Then she cupped both hands together and scrapped downwards like a dog would, but it felt like she wasn’t making any process. Dirt fell off. She confirmed that for a fact by looking at her dirtied nails.

She tried her luck with the other walls around her, but the result was the same. Whoever used Earth Wall must’ve leveled it up quite a bit. She frowned, turning away from the seemingly impenetrable wall and walked over to the iron bars. She gripped them and peeked out as far as she could.

In terms of structure, it was similar to a nesting doll. She was trapped inside a cell made from Earth Wall and Metal Wall, placed inside a second room created via Earth Wall.

“Wait, is this whole thing made out of Earth Wall? Hold on, is that…”

Nimea?!

Right across from her was a second cell, that as far as she knew, was an exact copy of the one she found herself in. But instead of a Singi, it housed an Earth Elf with snipped ears. A thin veil of white powder covered his mouth as he laid against the far wall. Seeing that reminded her of something. Momo touched a hand to her own mouth and wiped off a bit of drool. She went to wipe it on her clothes and realized they were clean. In fact, her whole body was clean. The sleeveless armor and clothes she wore were free of nearly any dirt. Her tail wagged on its own, and Momo grabbed it with a hand. It didn’t feel oily at all. In fact, it felt like it had just been washed with a series of soaps designed exclusively for Singi tails.

She internally screamed at realizing someone saw her naked while she was unconscious. Terror radiated through Momo's body at the thought of some unknown stranger conquering her, staining and corrupting her body without her even knowing. Screams and screeches erupted from her throat, yet even with how loud she was, Nimea never woke up.

After a few minutes of uncontrollable shaking, the Kobold behind the Mafia entered the holding area. A section of the outer wall descended into the ground, allowing him passage and raising back up once he was safely across the threshold. For the briefest moment, the sunlight illuminated her surroundings, showing that there were hundreds of tiny worms and insects crawling about her new home. Sakdu shouted, ordering Momo to calm down.

“NO!!!! NO!!!! I’VE BEEN RAPED!!!! GRAMPY!!!!!!!! HELP ME!!!!! GRRAAAMMMMPPYYYY!!!!!”

“QUIET, YOU FOOL!” Sakdu used his large muscles, covered by an impeccable set of mythril armor, to rip the three iron bars out of the ground and silenced the screaming Singi by placing his hand over her mouth. He leaned down low, whispering in her furry ears with his deep, imposing voice that could frighten lions.

“I kept my word,” he growled. “I had one of our female Koena bathe and change you because you kicked over your shit bucket  My words do not mean much to you, but no one defiled you. In fact, I had her keep your underwear on, so nothing of importance was even seen... I do not know why you seem to be worried about that when you should be more worried about your impending death. It is Tuesday morning, and it is about to be noon. Now, be quiet and do not make any more racket! Should you disobey me, I will have no qualms about moving your death to tomorrow.” Sakdu widened his eyes and stared into two trembling blue spheres. Water leaked out of those spheres, and Sakdu nodded in return. He stood up and made his way out of her cell. A quick chant later, he threw down a sword from his Dimensional Storage and created three more thick bars after a swift use of Metal Wall.

The stress of everything overpowered Momo’s brain, and she passed out.  When she finally woke up, she had a hard time trying to see her hand in front of her face. It was time for the moon to dance across the sky as the sun rested in preparation for a new day. Momo, however, didn’t see how she could ever rest again in the short time she had left. A simple sigh escaped her lips as she rolled over to her back. She heard squirming coming from Nimea’s cell, but she didn’t look. Instead, her eyes stayed glued to one of the tiny holes in the ceiling. The moon was lovely, she thought. And the stars twinkled like shiny diamonds.

The moon never has to worry about anything except dancing across the sky and sleeping through the day.  Oh, and being food for the Gods when they’re hungry.  When I die, I wanna be the moon. I’ll be the best moon ever. But I don’t wanna die. I...

As it did with nearly all living things, the call of nature soon arrived. The last thing Momo wanted to do was squat over that oddly bucket-shaped object. There was the option to go in the corner. Since her new ‘room’ had more space, she had a choice to relieve herself in a corner. That was something to consider if she could bury her waste, but Momo couldn't pierce the ground.

She eventually grunted, stood up, and slowly walked to the bucket. Squatting down, she relieved herself inside of it, and as she zipped her pants up, she realized something wasn’t right. The bucket she had before was metal.  When a liquid was poured into a metal bucket, it made a distinct sound that was not at all similar to what she just heard. Against her better judgment, she cautiously took a better look and realized it wasn’t a bucket at all.

It was the head of the girl who looked like Servi. Only the top quarter had been lopped off, which made it the perfect object, albeit small, to hold liquid in. Unfortunately, Momo had already used it to store the waste produced by her renal system.

In short, Momo short-circuited when she realized what had happened. Her mind stopped thinking, her body stopped moving, and every bit of strength left her. Momo fell backwards, inadvertently kicking it with a stray kick. It rolled over, and the yellow urine emptied out onto the grass. Her facial expression looked as if it was frozen in time, yet the vast number of tears streaming from her eyes could drown a fish.

In a way, her mind shut down, leaving her body all alone.

And it stayed that way for three days. However, while she didn’t have complete control over her body, it performed the motions it needed like a robot on autopilot. When her captors gave her food and water, her body ate it without a word of protest. When it came time to relieve herself, her body did it all on its own in the corner of the room so her consciousness wouldn’t have to actively think about it.

And that was how she spent her remaining days.

On Saturday morning at 6:30AM, Sakdu stood in front of Momo’s jail cell. Faint trickles of sweat flowed down his scaley body as he ran a rag over his hulking chest. A pair of thick undergarments covered his lower body from his waist to his knees. He had just completed a training session with his bodyguard as a way to get back into fighting shape. It would be their last time sparring together since the fated day was finally upon them.

“Momo, my men tell me you still refuse to speak to them? Why is that?” he asked.

“...”

“Are you hoping that your friend is somehow alive? I’m sorry, but as you saw for yourself, she is dead.” Sakdu raised a finger and pointed to the severed head in the corner. It had started decaying, yet Momo ignored the vomit-inducing stench it gave off.

“I will tell you how it will be from now on. In a few hours, I will kill you in front of my men. Then, I will set siege to Canary and set it ablaze with my flame of hatred. I will send my men out into the city, stabbing and skewering every Human they find. Should the Demi-Humans try to fight back, I will have no qualms about using my axe on them. Once I find Fisher Jin and his family, I will roast them alive like pigs and eat them in front of him. I will force him to watch. Let him feel the pain and sorrow I went through. I will start with the children. May his wife face punishment for marrying such a man as him. She will be the second to last. Perhaps I’ll start with her legs and work my way up? Yes, that sounds good. Then with Fisher last, I’ll skin him alive. Perhaps I’ll cut off chunks of meat and fry it?  Oh! I cannot wait for it!” Renewed with vigor, Sakdu walked to a missing section of the Earth Wall that made up the holding area.

Before he crossed over the threshold, he turned back to the cell containing Nimea.

“Your time is at hand, Earth Elf. Like the Singi, you will die soon. Should you have any final prayers or last words, then speak them now. Momo, perhaps a part of me believed Servi would make it. Perhaps it wanted to be showed that Humans and Demi-Humans could forge an unbreakable bond.” He growled the words, which pricked at Nimea’s skin like pins in a cushion.

As he turned to leave for the second time, the young Singi with a bald tail ran in, panting and heaving for even the smallest breathe of air. He hastily gave his boss a letter and went to speak, but Sakdu held up a hand. “Go and get some rest,” The Singi wordlessly nodded and walked out of the holding area in search of a chair to collapse in.

He used his nail to break the seal and read it over. Growling, he wondered why Roger chose fit to alert him to certain atrocities happening within Arcton. He didn’t care if one of his members went out of control and used Venti Aqua to cause an untold amount of damage. Why would Sakdu care if a few of the bases were destroyed? He never cared about them. He never counted on their strength anyway. If anything, they were only bodies to be used as shields to guard his personal army from Canary’s initial onslaught of attacks. Such petty concerns would only serve to ruin his good mood, so he ripped the letter and tossed the scraps to the floor.

The ground lightly vibrated as the hulking Kobold exited the area. Then the missing section of the Earth Wall arose from the ground and closed back up, eliminating even the most petite seam. The amount of light illuminating the naturalistic prison died out, and only little rays shone down through the small holes in the roof above.

“Momo?” A quiet voice murmured a name for the first time in days. Nimea crawled on his hands and feet until he reached the thick iron bars. His slender hands only managed to wrap themselves halfway around it. It was cold and smooth, with no bumps or raised edges. The iron sword used in its creation was of high quality.

The pink Singi curled up into a tiny ball and closed her eyes. She didn’t make any sort of noise.

“That’s fine if you don’t want to talk. I don’t want to talk, but I don’t want to die alone without anyone knowing my story. I don’t care if you say anything. I don’t even care if you listen. I... I just want to speak. I just want to hear it spoken aloud.”

Nimea turned around and sat down. He leaned back until he found a comfortable position against the three bars and ran his dirt-colored hands against the ground. As an Earth Elf, he had been around soil all his life. He loved to dig and plant trees and flowers in the springtime, and he enjoyed watching them grow as the seasons changed to summer and fall. He even cried in the winter when the harsh snowstorms killed his plants, and he happily laughed when it came time to replant them.

Water droplets streamed from the corner of his eyes until they traveled down his dark cheeks. The Earth Elf known as Nimea had forgotten his roots. How funny, he thought, that only when his death was imminent did his life flash before his eyes.

“Momo, I’m going to start my story now. But before I do, I want to apologize for the way I acted when we first met. I had no right to insult Servi. I really desired the best for you, but I went about it in all the wrong ways when I heard she didn’t have a shield. Instead of trying to steal you away, I should’ve done the right thing and allowed her to borrow one of mine. I should’ve set an example by looking out for my junior members, but I didn’t.

“Perhaps it was the years of having everything given to me by my parents. Maybe it was the fact I’ve never suffered any consequences of my actions up until now? Mama, I’m sorry for being a terrible son. I wished I helped out more in the kitchen. Father, I know I’m not the man you wanted me to be. I’m not as strong as you. I’m not as capable. You’re everything I wanted to be. I know you hate me now. How could you not?

“I was the first-ever failure in my family to be demoted in Warden. That rarely ever happens in the first place, yet I somehow managed to accomplish the impossible. If my parents found out, I don’t even want to imagine the shame. You know, I tried to tiptoe around it by pretending it never happened. After being demoted, I found it hard to take on quests. My anger reached a boiling point, and I failed jobs that practically had a zero chance of defaulting because I kept arguing with the clients. Without completing them, I couldn’t make any money. My Dwarven friend, Quark, and sworn brother, Aemi, left me after we had a big fight concerning our future. They said I slowed them down. They said it was all my fault, and I told them off. I shouted I didn’t need them. They were the ones who needed my abilities.

“I went to bed, and when I woke up, they had left town. Dejected, I went to the post office in Canary and wrote a letter to my family. I needed money, so I lied and said it was for equipment. Somehow, I survived by scrounging around in the slums until I received a letter back.

“They disowned me. My father actually disowned me. He said being broke was the direct result of my foolish actions because I never could grow up. He talked it over with Mama, and they both agreed that my name on the family register was an infected wound. The easiest way to remedy that was by cutting me off.”

Nimea wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. He had to force his throat to swallow because it felt as if his beating heart was about to jump out of his throat. “I had a growing fine at Warden because of those failed quests, so I took out a loan to cover it. I tried, and I tried, and I tried until the sun went down, but no one wanted to party up with me. Quark and Aemi had spread rumors about me to nearly everyone in town, and I was alone. Soon after, I fell to drinking. The bars in the slums at Canary were the perfect places for me to drown my sorrows away. When I ran up the tab at one, I scampered off and did the same at a different spot.

“You know, I saw you a few times. Running all over town like a little cat in search of adventure. Was it fun learning from someone worthy to be a teacher? I know you participated in the Warden Tournament, and I know you won it. If I had better choices when we met, I wonder if I would have been there? When Quark and Aemi left me, I had no friends. But you, on the other hand... You had all the friends. You had the Warden experience I wanted. You had mentors who loved and cared about you!”

Nimea smacked his palm against the back of his head as a way of punishing himself. Then he slapped his cheeks as a way of expressing his unfathomable sadness. In between thick sobs, he finished his story even as his words slurred more together. “I left Canary after that. I heard rumors about Arcton and what kind of place it was, so I sold what little I had left and stocked up on supplies. My plan was to go to a new city and start a new life in a place where no one knew who I was.

“At first, for the first few days at least, I regretted everything. Everything here was awful! You’ve seen the state of the city, so I know you know what I’m talking about. Then one day-- two days before I got captured, I found work as a busboy in a bar. The old woman who owned it must’ve taken pity on me, but she gave me a job cleaning tables. For the first time in a month, I was happy. I smiled. I even cried.

“Two days after that, when I was running errands for my boss, I saw Servi running away from a place called The Berrycanta Inn. I figured if she was here, then you had to be nearby.” Nimea words slowed to a crawl as he did his best to finish off his tale with what little pride he had left.

“I wanted to apologize to you,” he lied. Nimea didn’t have the heart to tell Momo what he really wanted to do. He figured it would only make the final moments that much more difficult to bear. “I walked in the Inn and asked the woman for your room. She told me, and I went up to apologize. That’s when everything went blank, and I woke up imprisoned. How funny, I wanted to tell a story of my life, but the words that spewed from my mouth were anything but.”

Nimea tried to speak tales of his childhood, yet the words refused to be pronounced. His mind believed if he uttered those words and achieved his original goal, then it would unequivocally mean the end of his life was close at hand.

“Maybe this is all punishment for the bad things I’ve done over the years. I was never punished as a child, so maybe this all overdue?” Nimea chuckled, then cried, then sobbed. His mind kept him busy with the sudden change in emotions as a way to cope with his impending death.

A portion of the Earth Wall disappeared, and Sakdu came walking in dressed entirely in mythril armor. A large silver axe, nearly as long as him, sat on his back as he ripped the two sets of iron bars out of the ground with his hulking strength.

“It is time for the both of you to die,” he growled.

Without being ordered, Momo stood up and quietly murmured. “Then this is my punishment for being a bad friend and granddaughter. I was the reason grampy got hurt. I was the reason my one and only best friend had to die.” She stumbled over to the decaying head in the corner and picked it up with trembling hands.

“I want to die with my best friend. Is that okay? When I get to the afterlife, I want to say I’m sorry.” Momo hugged the head to her chest, squishing it against her armor. Days of decay had made it soft and malleable, and the hundreds of larvae feeding on the inside didn’t help its structural integrity at all. The rotted insides squished out, covering her arms and chest in its fleshy remains. It was soft, and most of it just ran down to the ground. Momo didn’t try to pick it up, but she cradled her arms against her chest and held what she could.

“I will allow it,” Sakdu said. “I know not why you want to spend your final moments with a traitor. Now, remove the Earth Walls!” he barked an order, and the walls Momo and Nimea were snared in disappeared. The sudden blast of sunlight shined down Momo, filling her eyes, which had grown moderately accustomed to the darkness. Even though the ceiling had tiny crevices, they weren’t large enough to let in an amount of light that would turn night into day.

She was in the middle of a remarkably open camp that had to be a few kilometers in size. Voluminous waves of thick forests with dense leaves trapped them from all sides. It made one wonder what kind of force Sakdu used to deforest the area they stood on. Thousands of warriors stood in attendance, yet not a single one batted an eye at the pitiful Singi or her sudden appearance. Their gear wasn’t uniform. The majority didn’t have an entire set of armor, yet most had a weapon ranging from a stick to a sword to a baton. Scattered in between the ragtag mercenaries sat about 200 people of all races and genders wearing clothes of a solid color. Suits, they were called. Each base from the 5th down had personalized soldiers like that of the boss’s own guard.

About half of them wore magenta jumpsuits, and the rest wore black. The color signified which base they belonged to.

However, the Suits and other warriors all had the same dead look in their eyes. It only meant that their souls were willingly sold to the devil known as Monotonia. Such a pill had the power to turn friend into foe and spouse into rapist. Its seductive lure was more than enough to force those under its captivating gaze to sleep on the hard ground. That explained the severe lack of tents or other sleeping accommodations.

Everyone there, sans Sakdu, Roger, their prisoners, the forthcoming survivors of Servi’s Mafia-focused genocide, and a few other key members were in the final stages of Monotonia Dependency.

Ten large cauldrons,  each capable of holding nearly 250 gallons of bloody stew, were placed without care for the arrangement. A sane person wouldn’t have been able to stomach the rotting stench of fleshy innards coming from it, but those under the Monotonia’s curse didn’t offer a word of protest. They were ordered to carry a corpse with them to toss into the pots. Their blood and meat would be the fuel to power their bodies for the remainder of Sakdu’s war against the unknowing Fisher Jin. On the off chance it wasn’t enough to feed their energy needs, the base responsible for making the food for the Suits was ordered to bring along more corpses.

Momo and Nimea were surrounded by an oppressive force over 15,000 strong, but not a single one compared to him.

Clasped from head to toe in the most unyielding substance available to the known world, the four-meter-tall Kobold walked over to Sakdu, his boss. When it came to strength, no one compared to him. Ruthlessness? He slaughtered fathers in front of daughters, mothers in front of sons, and husbands in front of wives. The two parallel streaks running down each individual part of his armor pulsed in sync as three quadrupled-headed axes flew above him in a circular formation. Unquestionably, strength wasn’t the only category he excelled in.

He spoke not with his mouth, but with a series of hand signals. Sakdu laughed and conversed with him. “We are waiting on my men from Arcton to arrive. After that, we will leave soon.” The Mafia’s boss tried to entice his powerful mercenary with a few pills, but he signed that he didn’t want any.

When it came to skills, how could he cast them if he refused to speak? The Goddess who blessed him had a passive ability that granted strength and power in exchange for his voice with the side effect of using his hands to use skills. Being the Kobold that he was, he gladly traded away the ability to speak for that unique advantage. Evidently, it was the right choice because even amongst other Kobolds, the bodyguard was undefeated in combat. Even more than that, he didn’t consider words to be something important. If he needed to communicate, he could use his hands. If he chose not to, he only needed a pen and paper to scribble whatever he needed to say.

“Momo, Nimea, follow me. Your deaths await you. Should you try to run, he will hunt you down and give you a death most painful.” Sakdu took his axe off his back and hefted it over his shoulders. He turned to walk away. Momo followed him like a lost lamb. The remains of what she believed to be Servi’s head remained tightly held against her chest.

With every step Momo took, the innocent grass under her feet crumbled. At the same time, the fortress that was her mind was nearly broken down. Every step towards her death meant another block was chipped away. Eventually, it shattered. It rumbled, destroying what little consciousness Momo. With every passing second, her life came closer to ending.

That was when it happened. The girl inside Momo’s consciousness took control and violently forced Momo’s mind to go to the one place it had left. The girl on the outside continued to walk and follow whatever orders she was given, but the essence known as Momo wasn't there anymore.