Book Three – Chapter Twelve – Part Seven – The Fleeting Touch of a Friend

Servi and Momo entered Arcton from the same direction as they did a week prior, but the scenery awaiting them couldn’t have been more different. The buildings were once gross and decrepit, almost begging to be restored to their former glory. Now? The two pairs of eyes only saw destruction, rubble, and squashed corpses.

The 3,000 Fulgur Spikes sent shockwaves through the planet because Itarr couldn’t repair the walls fast enough, and what they saw was the result of the Goddess’s failure. Momo shook and nearly vomited after being reacquainted with the stench of death, but she held steady and slowly walked forward. Her eyes quivered, but tearing up wouldn’t do her any good.

“Do you know where the Warden office is?” Momo asked. Her voice cracked with every syllable.

Servi nodded, moving with the same determination that suggested she was back to her old self. Obviously, that couldn’t have been true, but maybe it was a last-ditch effort by the broken Human? She did swear to have Momo promoted, after all. She took the lead, becoming a leader rather than a follower, and led Momo through the rotting remains of Arcton.

She recognized houses and buildings that she once destroyed during her rampage. They weren’t anything special, but the history within their walls had stories to tell. People—life—once inhabited them, and now such adobes were met with a horrific fate of being lost to time. But not all of Arcton’s less-desirables wanted to escape from the failing cities. Nearly fifteen percent stayed behind, planning to adapt to whatever evolution their endeared city dared to take. Quite a few of them were hard at work removing debris and setting up faux camps. More than one cheered or hollered at Servi and Momo, making vague and sexual statements, but the two trekked on ahead. Fear gripped the Singi’s heart, and she was starting to have deep regrets about finding the resolve to come back.

No, Momo. You can’t have any more room in your heart for doubt. Didn't you promise Itarr you’d be there for Servy? Are you such a pathetic cat that you’ll break a promise only hours after it was made? That was her reasoning, and a cycle of thoughts swirled around her mind. It gave her strength, somehow, by reigniting the reassuring spirit within her soul. She took the horrible statements with something less than pride, but more than ignorance. But realistically, there was a part of her that feared Servi would break into a murderous rampage to defend Momo.

And to say the Servi that still remained wanted to do just that wouldn’t be a lie. However, instead of that urge becoming stronger or suddenly disappearing, it naturally faded away as they got closer to the Warden office. But to get there, they had to pass two of the spots where Servi had inflicted the most damage and killed the most people: the spots where she helped with the bank robbery and the location where she tested out Venti Aqua.

First came the wasteland that was the remains of two Fulgur Spikes going off. Momo yelped in surprise when her tired feet encounter soft, brown soil and not firm, destroyed concrete. Obviously, she should’ve seen the sudden difference ahead using her eyes, but her head was stuck looking behind her at the buildings. Some were destroyed, and very few were in decent shape. But in Arcton, that only meant the building still had some function as shelter. And judging by the weakened and cracked support joints, most of the buildings were only a stiff breeze away from joining the collective trash.

“Servy, is this…”

“Yes, it is. A bank robbery… I’m sure it was a decoy for something else, but the how, why, and truth isn’t important. The only thing that matters is I wiped out a brigade called Wind Zeppelin. They…all perished. And the people who used to live here all died… Even the blood I spilled vaporized away when I used Fulgur Spike… I think Itarr said we absorbed hundreds of souls in this one spot. Human, Demi-Human… Men, women and children… They're all resting in my ring. Their lives only fueled my power, giving me the strength to…commit more atrocities…”

Momo thought she smelled something strange and took a big whiff, but she didn’t pick up anything odd. No—the fact that she didn’t smell anything at all was the weirdest thing. Even in the leftover remains of a battlefield, there should’ve been something. If not the stench of rotting corpses, then perhaps the smell of nearby areas would flood in? But that didn’t happen. The Singi looked back to where the wasteland stopped, and the rest of the city began. Right at that dividing edge, scents and stenches ceased to exist.

The catgirl thought about saying something, but the right words didn’t show themselves. Instead, Momo slowly moved her thumb against the back of Servi’s palm, and the Human responded by doing the same. Such little acts of affection only communicated the bare minimum, but that was more than enough.

It didn’t take long for them to cross the 200 or so meter wasteland. Once Momo’s feet touched hard concrete once again, a familiar rotten smell invaded her nose. A part of her wished then and there to run back to the ruined area only 15 meters behind them. A few minutes after that, Momo’s eyes picked up a startling amount of what seemed to be red paint. Only it didn’t smell like the paint her grandpa would use.

“Is that…blood? And it’s everywhere… It’s on the rubble, and it’s covering those bricks over there... And is that—”

“Momo, this is where I took out one of the guard towers two days before I came for you. I… I used this place to try out Venti Aqua…” Servi stopped and pointed to the red all around her. Though most of the evidence of her assault had been whisked away by the Venti Aqua’s final explosion, some of the heavier items remained. Like the guard towers. A few rugged bricks stood around and allowed the blood of Arcton's innocents to coat its once clean surface.

It only shared one thing with the wasteland of before, and that was the total, decrepit state of everything. The grass still somewhat remained, but it was turning an unsettling brown color. The soil was dying, but like all other things, it would soon heal. Blood had the ability to act as a fertilizer, but it would still be a few years before anything grew. As for whether or not whatever sprouted up would remain? That would be up to whoever grasped Arcton's reins during this period of uncertain power. A dictatorship or something just as vile was probably brewing in the background as Servi and Momo made their way to their destination.

“I remember watching it pick up little boys and girls, piercing their skin with raindrops sharp enough to cut through rock. The adults didn’t stand a chance, either, being snatched up and eviscerated by water… I… I stood by and watched because I wanted to punish the town… They didn’t fight back when the Mafia came, so I felt they didn’t deserve to live. Why should they? It’s because of them that the Mafia managed to infect this town like a contagious disease. Their grimy talons were in everything… When I discovered that church in New Arcton, I figured it had to be fake. It didn’t make sense for him to draw so much attention to the place with guards, ballistae, and that bodyguard. ‘It’s a decoy,’ I said.

“It wasn’t. It wasn’t a decoy at all. When I eventually raided it, I found the note Sakdu left me. I was so close. I WAS SO CLOSE!!!!!! I swore then and there to take revenge on this fucking town. That’s why I stopped worrying about so-called ‘innocents’ because I believed everyone was guilty. But they weren’t the guilty ones. I was. I was…”

“Servy… You’re crying…” Momo said. Her free hand reached into her bag and pulled out a little napkin. She dabbed Servi’s reddened eyes, wiping her tears with a gentle touch. “Didn’t I say it before? Half of the responsibility of what happened with Arcton lies with me. We don’t have any choice but to face the future head-on while enduring our sins. I guess we can only make repentance and work on doing right in the world… Okay? Servy?”

Once again, Servi broke down into a sniveling mess. Her anguished cries of sorrow escaped through her mouth in the form of wails for the deceased. Momo did what she could, embracing the tortured soul who had to come to terms with the soul-wrenching visible remains of her massacre. More than ever, she didn’t regard the people of Arcton as being guilty by association. She now realized it was futile for victims weakened by the poisonous Monotonia to fight back in a war designed for them to lose.

Servi was the weak one; she was the most pathetic of them all. Her ‘strength’ had only been there for show. The strongest one of all was the Singi, who endured a week of hell. It was the barely-held-together catgirl who pushed aside her own feelings to comfort the one who desperately needed a tender embrace.

“Come on, let’s go,” Momo whispered as she stored the used napkin in her bag. She walked ahead, gently pulling Servi and squeezing her hand. “We’re almost to the Warden office, aren’t we?”

“Yeah. It’s just up there…” Servi pointed, raising a trembling hand. Momo nodded, and the two continued their short journey.

After another ten minutes of walking, they came across a startling sight. Of the six buildings they saw in front of them, only one stood. There was rubble and dust everywhere. The air was thick with it, becoming visible like a thin, cloudy film. “That’s the Warden office. It’s right over there… And that next to it is the remnants of Jade… It was one of the bases the Mafia had. I… I dropped pillars like they were large arrows, nearly flattening it whole. The people inside died without knowing what was happening. I squished them like pancakes…”

“Servy…” Momo did her best to avert her eyes. She wanted to pinch shut her nose, but breathing the awful stench through her mouth would be worse. The smell of death and rotten corpses would be on her tongue then, corrupting any food she’d eat.

But the Singi and Human weren’t alone. A small gang of excited scavengers hurriedly dug through debris, pulling out usable bits of metal. A large pile nearby on the west side of the base contained nearly 150 swords, spears, and axes. And since part of the base was underground, a few brave souls were ordered—forced—to squeeze down into the underbelly. They crawled under perilously placed dangerous metal beams only held in place by separate beams leveraged in just the right spot.

Even a skinny Koena would find it hard to maneuver because of their scales, so most of the debris divers were Singi. When Servi and Momo were about ten steps away from the Warden office, they saw a group return from the base’s remains. All bloody and worn out, bits of meat and bone were stuck to their gross hair and greasy tails. Their hands held prizes won from their deceased former owners. A hearty cackle and cheers went up in the air as the weapon pile became bigger. But just like that, they were gone again, searching for more treasures to bring back in the form of food or arms.

Momo looked and immediately turned away. Her eyes only stared at the wooden building she and Servi approached. Like the one in Canary, this Warden office was all wood. It was painstakingly created with beautiful mahogany lumber harvested from nearby. The stairs and handrails came from the same tree, allowing them to have matching inner markings with the same inner rings. It all combined together rather wonderfully, giving an aesthetically pleasing sense of repetition. The similarity should have knocked a few points off, but it only enhanced it.

Of course, the building was beautiful in its prime, and now it was none of that. Many years of neglect reduced the once-proud structure to something less than a former shade of its brilliant luster. The outer wooden panels hadn’t been scraped clean in six years. Filthy excrement littered the building in its entirety, and obscene words and graphics had been painted on the east and west outer walls.

But even though the turbulent times that rocked Arcton to its core, the Warden office still stood. Whatever leadership it had chose not to divulge the truth when an inspector came, but they still had the decency to keep it open. But was it decency? Or was Sakdu ordering the office to operate as if everything was normal? Were there bribes paid to the inspector to lie about the actual state of affairs?

"Servy, we go in, get promoted, and we leave. Okay? We’re out in just a few minutes, and we can finally go home,” the Singi said upon ascending the stairs with her friend in tow. Momo reached out, pulling back on the rotted handle covered in a sticky substance. She groaned but powered through her disgust as the door swung open.

It revealed a lobby full of pure chaos. Broken tables and chairs littered nearly half of the available space, providing obstacles that needed to be dodged. The stairs leading up to the second floor and beyond just didn’t exist past the fourth step. Of the eight glass windows separating Warden employees from adventurers, only three remained. The other five had thick, wooden boards acting as a makeshift barricade. The light illuminating the building came from thick candles and florescent lights, which sporadically flashed on and off. Such a thing meant it needed to be charged with Skill Energy, and judging from the state of the place, it had probably been a hot minute since someone topped it off.

To say that the office was underfunded wasn’t false, but it also wasn’t entirely true. As odd as it sounded, the office was once respectable and noteworthy. Unfortunately, it had been transformed into its pitiful state by reasons, which only came to pass when the Mafia rode into town.

The wall that should have held different requests taped to it was also gone. The lack of dust where the billboards were once placed meant it used to be there, but Momo didn’t know how long ago that was. Her blue eyes sharply turned to the three available windows. Of the three, only one had a line, and that only consisted of a single person.

The person behind the window was a Human girl of around 17 or 18. She wore a dirty long-sleeved shirt stained with dust with a pair of pants. A set of black gloves covered her slender fingers. Her brown hair was tied back in a ponytail.

The frightened look in her brown eyes made it seem like she was working against her will, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. A sturdy spirit full of determination and perseverance laid beneath those eyes. She briefly looked up to lock eyes with Momo before turning her head back to her client.

Momo took that to mean they could get in line, so she and Servi tiptoed around the furniture-turned-obstacles. As soon as they reached the window, the employee finished assisting the man.

“I don’t know about y’all, but I’m leaving this dump. I’ve had enough death and crumbling buildings to last me a lifetime,” he said while tipping his cowboy hat. In terms of armor and equipment, he seemed to be Rank 8 or 9. The leather covering his shoulders and neck was of decent quality, but the iron protecting his vitals had more dents than someone should have been comfortable with.

“I understand, sir. Our manager left early this morning without leaving a note. Then the other employees left as well. There’s only me and my granny left working, and we were leaving in a few minutes after packing up anything essential. Please, be safe when you leave the city,” said the girl. Her tone was calm and professional for the situation she found herself in.

“You too.” The man tipped his hat one last time and went to leave. He nodded to Servi and Momo, but only the latter returned it. The pair stepped up, and Momo reached into her bag. Before she did, however, she read the employee’s name tag.

Angie… Servy said Old Man had a granddaughter… This girl couldn’t be her, could she? She said she works at Warden, and I mean, here we are…

“Ma’am, it’s a good thing you and friend showed up when you did,” said the girl. “I’m afraid you two will be the last people we help here.”

“I overheard you tell that man you and your grandma are leaving soon. Is that right?” Momo asked.

Angie nodded. “We are. This town didn’t use to be like this. Believe it or not, I used to have warm and pleasant memories, but those have been distorted…” Angie looked up and at an angle, like she was picturing something invisible. A sad scowl flashed across her face. A quick shake later, she removed whatever horrible thought from her mind. “Oh! I didn’t mean to make it even more depressing! What can I help you two with?”

“It’s fine. Servy and I are here to get promoted. We have a letter from the Warden office in Canary,” Momo responded with a gentle smile. She already had the quest item in her hand, so she laid it down on the table, sliding it through the rectangular hole.

Angie grabbed a nearby letter-opener and opened the envelope. Her gloved fingers plucked out a letter, and she ran her eyes over it. After reaching the end, she smiled and turned it around so Momo and Servi could examine its content.

It was a little note from their closest friend, who happened to work at Warden.

Congratulations! Servi, Momo, I’m so proud of you! I hope the trip wasn’t that bad. Did you have fun? I hope so! Being promoted is one of those memories that’ll remain with you for a long time. When you two come back, let’s go out and celebrate! I wanna hear all about it!

I’ll be waiting!

Your friend,

Claire.

P.S. Usually, these letters are supposed to be formal and stuffy, but my boss gave me permission to write a personal note after I begged him. Hehe, I hope it brought a smile to your faces!

After reading it out loud, Momo nearly teared up, but she had a smile across her face.

“I’m imagining this Claire works at the Canary Warden office?”

“Yep! She’s our friend! Servy and I signed up at the same time.”

Angie nodded. “It’s so wonderful seeing adventurers getting alone with Warden employees.” Then she sighed. “We don’t get any of that here. Our adventurers are always so rude and mean, and they’re constantly drunk. But like I said, it didn’t use to be like that. It used to be pretty around these parts. Ahh, I miss those old days…” Angie looked listlessly to the rotting ceiling above. “I hope the state of the town and what transpired the last few days didn’t hamper such a joyous occasion. Like the letter said, being promoted is supposed to be a wonderful time. I mean, there are only eleven ranks in Warden, 10-0, which means a person can only be promoted ten times. I’d be sad if it was tarnished—”

Angie couldn't have possibly known the effect her words would have on Servi. She broke into tears, using her unoccupied hand to wipe her eyes. Momo sprung into action, retrieving a napkin and wiping Servi’s eyes faster than Angie asked what was wrong.

“I’m sorry if I went too far. My granny keeps telling me I ramble on too much.”

No, it’s not your fault. Servy is…she’s really emotional right now. Because it’s just a sad time right now, she’s just trying to express herself. Crying is the only way she can because her heart’s trying to imagine what it feels like…” Momo spoke faster than usual, hiding the truth behind a flurry of somewhat factual statements.

As it seemed to be a running theme, Angie had a few tears of her own flowing down her face. “I understand it completely. I’ve woken up crying the past few days myself. My granny says I have an empathetic heart. Or did she say sympathetic?” Angie placed a covered finger to her pretty chin. “I can’t remember what she called it, but she said it’s a good thing. If we can feel the sadness someone else is feeling, we have a good heart because we want nothing more than to share the burden. That’s what she told me, and I like to think it’s true. I certainly don’t want people to be sad, mad, or in pain. If I can take some of that for myself to lessen a stranger’s suffering, then I’d do it without question.”

“It’s funny,” Momo said. “My grandpa used to tell me something similar when I was a little girl.” Then the Singi whispered. “He taught me a lot of things, and I ignore the most important ones…”

“I’m sorry?” Angie said, tilting her head. Momo slightly panicked and shook her head.

“It’s nothing! Umm, do you need our IDs?”

“That I do. I also need your dog tags,” Angie replied. She turned around for a brief second to retrieve a few items from the filing cabinet behind her. Scratched and torn, it looked like it had been ravaged by a beast with sharp claws and pointy fangs.

“Itarr, Servy needs her ID,” Momo whispered as she summoned her stone tablet. When the familiar red object gently landed down on the table, the Singi placed her pink ID down right beside it. Her free hand then went to her neck, grasping the dog tags and the necklace they clung to. It shook with pure anxiety like the girl couldn’t believe she was finally being promoted.

But that wasn’t it. That wasn’t it at all.

She should’ve been happy, but the joy she thought she would feel was being tainted by the lives of thousands of people.

Does someone like me really deserve to wear this around my neck? It’s silver and smooth, but it’s covered in the blood of so many…

Momo found the strength she needed in the trembling hand she held. The Singi looked up, meeting Servi’s red eyes as she placed her set of dog tags on her red ID. Momo softly smiled, doing the same but with her ID.

No matter what actions the Singi took, the horrible events that made up the week of hell would forever be engraved in her memories, let alone a pair of simple dog tags. But with that in mind, it still would be nothing but a constant reminder. Did Momo have the willpower to bear those sins?

She didn’t know, but maybe that was fine? She wasn’t alone anymore. There was a girl, though far more broken than Momo, standing right beside her.

There was no rule written in the world’s law that required people to face their sins and burdens alone. Momo could rely on Servi and her strength to bear the heavy weight of being the cause of such destruction, and Servi could rely on Momo to be her emotional crutch.

We can bear the pain together. Momo thought as Angie turned around. She held a small metal device that looked like an abstract microscope. It had a little tray that was just big enough for two dog tags. She placed it down and laid two pieces of paper on the table.

“Okay. It’ll be only a second. This little machine will scrape off your previous Rank and etch in your new one. As for your IDs, could I get you two to sign these contracts? It’s like the one you received when you signed up, but it says you’re Rank 9.”

Momo nodded and grabbed a small pen from her bag. After giving her signature, she handed it to Servi. She also wrote her name at the bottom. While they did that, Angie used the odd device to alter their dog tags. She slid the changed items through the window while retrieving two IDs and a pair of signed contracts.

With far more determination than she had a few moments ago, Momo wrangled the proof of Warden around her neck after staring at its smooth surface.

“It really does say ‘Momo – Rank 9 – Canary Branch, Lando… And yours says the same thing, Servy. Err, it has 'Servi' instead of 'Momo.' ” Momo looked up, smiling when she realized she wasn’t the only one reading it.

“It does… Momo, we finally did it…” Servi spoke with an odd tone like she had to fight for the ability to speak. Momo also picked up on it, but she did her best to stay positive because it wouldn't do any good to break down.

That can come later. I have to be strong.