The Skies of Heaven (2)
The midday Heavens was submerged in an artificial twilight. Artificial snow, sprayed thoughtlessly because someone found summer unpleasant, melted before it could even touch the ground and tangled with the smog. Beyond the haze—whether pollution or snow-mist—crushed red and blue neon lights blurred together. A dizzying landscape, as if dawn itself had been ground up and stirred. Empato of the Celestial Guard found that view strangely comforting.
In the residential districts around the harbor, the rich and the destitute were strictly divided. The criterion was height. Everything good stayed in the upper levels, while six meters below on the cement floor lay everything else. Like sweeping unwanted clutter off a child’s desk, the discarded things were shoved down to the bottom. The city’s sewer. Abandoned corpses. Even ba-eleim who hid rubber pouches of contraband in their esophagi. A tiny hell inside an eternal paradise.
So when the rolling fog gently blurred those outlines, it felt as if the boundary between life and death itself had grown hazy, bringing Empato a peculiar satisfaction. Standing on this arched bridge where the tragedies of the lowest depths were laid bare, that impression only deepened…
“Did I ask you a single thing about what you just spouted?”
And Nathan Maia didn’t give a rat’s ass about such gloomy sentiments.
The knight let out a sigh. Escape was starting to feel increasingly impossible.
“What the hell are those guys doing now?”
It had been fine while he was buried in the crowd. The jeering, provocative elf mob had panicked and scattered the moment they got close to him, babbling naive nonsense about how he wasn’t even on a leash. The chaos of the crowd, the smell of sweat, the thick fog. Even the sharp-nosed people of House Peres would probably have given up the chase. He thought he could slip away anywhere from there.
But the ones who seemed to be this land’s patrol officers kept sticking to him. It was almost as if they were waiting for him wherever he appeared. Elves wearing ridiculous long coats as uniforms, moving in pairs. At first Nathan thought they were charging at him with batons. Compared to the plate-armored guards of the arena, they didn’t seem scary at all. When they raised them like fencers, he even laughed at their sloppy stance.
But when ice spikes, fireballs, swarms of living wasps, and even tear-gas pepper powder shot out from the tips of those batons, Nathan realized they weren’t here for a sword fight.
And beyond the bridge—the only path through this alley—stood something that finally came into focus. Nathan dragged a hand down his face.
“Oh, mother of god.”
There was something that looked like the big daddy of all the batons he had barely avoided so far. An elf with a long staff slung over his shoulder muttered around a cigarette with arrogant confidence. His voice, amplified by a device on his sleeve, boomed out.
The voice, swollen by the megaphone, rang with triumph. Nathan glanced behind him. Of the streetlights lining the path, some were on and some were off. Only now did he understand. Every single path he had chosen so far had been lit.
I’ve been led like a moth to a torch. No matter how out of it I was, falling for such a simple trap…
He had no choice. Nathan ultimately decided to charge straight through.
When the creature that had escaped the arena strode forward with grim resolve, the officer finally braced his staff firmly against his shoulder and fired. With a recoil, a sphere hurtled straight toward the center of the human’s torso. With his limping leg, neither charging nor dodging was feasible.
Nathan didn’t stop moving. He ripped a signboard off a nearby building. The tin exterior tore away with a screech. Holding the long panel like a shield, he endured the violent recoil with raw grip strength.
Damn it. The output’s different from the others.
What the officer had fired was electricity. A tingling current ran along the crumpled tin. As his prosthetic hand began to heat up, Nathan quickly dropped the metal sheet.
“You people are really something. Seriously. I’m done.”
“Hey. I surrender.”
“I said I surrender.”
Nathan slowly raised both arms and approached until they could clearly see each other. The metal grip, overloaded from repeated shocks, was twitching like it was having a seizure.
“Stop poking at me. I’m tired.”
“I’ll behave and wear the cuffs, so just one bite. I really haven’t eaten anything in almost ten days.”
The guy begged, cracked jokes, and then pitifully waved his worn-out prosthetic. Until Empato’s soft-hearted subordinate finally fed him a bite.
Empato stared at the sapiens who casually accepted and ate the donut from the female officer’s hand with an expression of utter disbelief. This wasn’t right. The same bastard who had radiated deadly resolve moments ago was now acting like a docile puppy.
“Sapiens, I understand you’re confused after falling into unfamiliar territory. But we don’t want to get hurt. We don’t want to hurt you either. We’re simply doing our job to maintain order in the city.”
“Is that what you say because you’re scared I might suddenly jump you?”
Empato widened his eyes and raised his staff. But his subordinate shot the officer a reproachful look.
“You don’t disturb a dog while it’s eating, sir.”
“…He looks too harmless, so you’ve lost your edge.”
We’ll talk when we get back.
When his superior growled, the subordinate flinched and dropped the donut, realizing the trouble ahead. Nathan snatched the falling bread with his mouth like a raptor, then forced it down his throat without water. The sapiens paused, apparently struggling, then gave a faint smile.
“May I say one thing?”
Breadcrumbs splattered across Empato’s face. The officer squeezed his eyes shut and gave a tiny nod.
“What is it.”
“If it’s not too much trouble, could I have a cup of water too?”
He wanted to lower the staff and smack him with the butt. If he didn’t have the strange conviction that he would lose if they fought without magic, he would have done it. The officer shook his head. The sapiens began staring beyond the fog with the most miserable expression in the world, tapping the railing with the only finger on his broken hands that still worked.
Tap. Tap.
“Officer. Didn’t you say earlier that if I go down there I’d reach the slums?”
“Flattering me with honorifics won’t work, sapiens. You said only one thing.”
“Aw, come on.”
A pale face grinning stupidly. But Officer Empato didn’t trust the sapiens. How many surface-dwellers had he seen pretending to be pitiful and weak? Some were grateful just to be freed from the wars on the ground, while others screamed about freedom and attacked officers. Of course, all those bastards had become kindling before his staff.
If you try anything funny, you’ll end up the same way.
The officer slowly began loading a spell.
“Don’t even think about anything crazy. You can’t see well because of the fog, but under this bridge isn’t water—it’s a road. Even if you only break your legs and survive, the result will be the same. It’s not a place where the injured can survive. It’s just a den of cannibals where the poor devour each other.”
“Crazy? Do I look like I have the brains to come up with crazy ideas?”
“What I mean is, don’t even think about jumping—”
“Good sense of timing.”
Tap. The finger stopped. Nathan suddenly shoved the subordinate with his shoulder. The subordinate, caught off guard by the unexpected strength, collided with his superior and they both tumbled. By the time they barely got up, all they saw were Nathan’s feet disappearing over the railing.
“God damn it—!”
The two startled officers leaned over the railing. Nathan’s body spun like a log in midair. Flesh and blood falling from six meters up. The officer grimaced, expecting a horrible impact.
Thud.
It was a fall, but the texture of the sound was strangely off. As the officer peered carefully into the fog, he nearly fell over the railing himself the next moment.
“What the—!”
From between nets and plastic sheets, Nathan lifted his head. He hadn’t landed on the paved road but on a massive garbage truck loaded with soft materials. Only then did they realize. The sapiens had been tapping the railing to time his jump.
The officer, whose performance record had just flown away before his eyes, jumped up and down in rage and roared. Nathan, whose ears couldn’t quite catch the distant voice, responded by raising his middle finger.
“Thanks for the meal.”
The garbage cart sped away without a word and stopped in front of a crumbling tavern. A fat, greasy-looking man climbed down from the driver’s seat. While the coachman—presumably—cracked his spine with a phlegmy grunt, Nathan decided to turn his free ride into a perfect crime.
He crawled out from the netting, jumped down, and quickly ran into an unlit alley. The thin handcuff chain the security forces had put on him had been broken long ago.
I’ve gotten past the crisis.
Nathan let out a sigh. Then he suddenly realized it was hard to draw the next breath.
Why am I so dizzy?
Usually in times like this—yeah. One mountain after another. Nathan felt around his stomach. A hook. Probably something used to haul fishing nets. It must have stabbed him when he landed on the waste. Right in the same spot where the orc’s curved sword had pierced him.
“So when you’re exhausted, you might not even notice something like this.”
Or his body was in such bad shape that he couldn’t notice it.
Once he realized, the pain finally hit. The flesh that had barely healed thanks to drugs now burned again. Nathan slowly slid down to sit against the alley wall. Because of the hook that was hard to pull out, he couldn’t even stretch his body properly.
“…My guts aren’t going to make it.”
To stop the bleeding, Nathan clutched the wound and began taking deep breaths.
His breathing fell apart in just a few seconds. Nathan frowned at the ringing in his ears. The broadcast was twice as loud as the one he had heard in the arena. Even though the tone was gentle, it was more unpleasant and noisy than an orc’s roar.
“Are they trying to rip my eardrums out now?”
It was too much effort to lift his arm and cover his ears. Nathan simply let the roar hammer his ears. Whether the temperature had dropped enough or not, the world slowly began turning white. Just a few days ago the summer sun had been scorching, yet now he had fallen into a bizarre world where snow sat on his head.
The alley he had thought was dark now had red lanterns lit. Brilliant neon signs brightly illuminated Nathan, who wanted nothing more than to hide his body. He let out a hollow laugh.
Not a single thing was going his way. And to top it off, he suddenly felt so embarrassed he wanted to die. What? Half of his heart or whatever? Nathan giggled and hurled mockery at his past self. The world’s most pathetic confession and the world’s most disgusting rejection. Maybe it had all been a dream. To have wasted the moment of confession he had drawn and erased over and over again in such a grotesque way.
“What are you laughing at, you bastard who looks like he’d make good eating?”
The bad breath was far too close for it to be a hallucination. It wasn’t an illusion. Just as he had never imagined vicious elves who preyed on people, he had never pictured a vagrant with such an impressive appearance either. A scrawny man with a rotting, exposed nose and cross-eyed glare was looking down at him. In his hand was a body bag.
“If I weighed you, you’d come out to at least one and a half people.”
Nathan muttered with a freezing tongue.
“Sure. Go ahead. Even if all my limbs are tied and I can only move my tongue, I can still beat one of you to death.”
The scrawny man let out a gloomy cackle. Even the demons and ghouls of the surface didn’t have such venomous hostility.
“Who’s going to come near a big guy like you? I’ll just wait until you freeze to death in the snow.”
“Then it’ll be mine.”
A much clearer voice made the shabby man flinch. The meat thief ground his teeth and turned around.
“I saw him first. In Graveyard Valley, the first one to find him owns him. You know that.”
“I saw him first. Wanna bet?”
When a fork-like spear blade slid out from the darkness, the meat thief swallowed hard and backed away.
“The Holy Mother has arrived! As if I’d ever set foot in your den!”
“You’d better hope you never have a reason to visit our den. But if it ever happens, I’ll forget today’s business and treat you well. If you’re in a hurry, don’t hesitate to come.”
The worm spat loudly and ran off toward the entrance of the alley. The victor walked out from the darkness with crisp footsteps. Nathan secretly wondered what kind of monster would appear next. Would it be a twin-like freak from the arena? Or perhaps an elf with spider legs and an alligator chimera body, or one with trident-like mechanical arms on all four limbs…
Fortunately, the impression was far better than that. The female elf wearing a thick coat had folded her spear into a rod and stuffed it into her pocket. Her pink-dyed hair was striking. No matter how you looked at her, she didn’t seem to belong in this iron-scented alley.
The elf who met Nathan’s eyes tilted her head. In the neon light, the color of her hair shifted depending on the angle.
“Why are you here?”
“Who are you to act like you know me?”
If an elf recognized him, she was probably one of three types: someone connected to the arena, someone connected to the woman, or a spectator who had bet everything on the fight. Nathan tried to clench his fist but remembered his grip was broken. The pink-haired woman immediately sat down in front of him and pried open the hand clutching his stomach. Blood was still seeping from the hook hidden under his palm. When the elf blocked the neon light, the strain on his eyes lessened considerably. Nathan felt his eyelids slowly closing.
“…If your side’s been pierced, you should say so. Covering it up like you’re playing peekaboo. Are you planning to take that tough spirit all the way to the afterlife?”
“As if I know who you are to explain everything. If you’re not going to pull it out, stop blocking the light and get out of the way.”
But when the pink-haired woman actually reached for the wound, Nathan reacted violently. He swung his powerless arm as if to strike her. The elf quickly stepped back.
“There’s no sunlight here. Standing under neon signs doesn’t make you warm either. Shade isn’t all that different. So, aren’t you cold?”
Her tone suggested she wasn’t offended and was inviting him to follow her somewhere safe. It felt unnatural. He wouldn’t fall for it. He had already suffered too much from the scrawny men. Nathan’s breathing grew ragged as he glared with a bloodless face, as if ready to bite at the slightest opening. But the pink-haired woman didn’t look away. In the end, it was Nathan who tired first. Thin clothes, deep wounds. He tried to gather his mind, but the unfamiliar noises kept breaking his concentration.
It was so cold, yet cold sweat was pouring out. Nathan moved his dry lips.
“I don’t… want to hear anything.”
“Then don’t listen.”
With his eyes half-closed, Nathan felt something wrap around his head and cover his ears. Wool, and the warmth of a hand. And now he couldn’t hear any sound at all. In the middle of the falling snow and rain, that silence and warmth brought a strange sense of relief. His consciousness cut off and Nathan’s head drooped. The clump of snow that had piled on his head fell with a thud. The pink-haired elf caught the earmuffs that were about to slip from the knight’s head and gently pushed them back into place.
The elf took a sack out of the backpack behind her. It wasn’t much different from the body bag the worm who had just run away had been carrying. She pulled the sack over Nathan’s head first, then casually lifted the man who was two heads taller than her and slung him over her shoulder. Soon the alley was empty again.
----------
At the unfamiliar presence, Nathan cracked his eyes open.
“He’s breathing vigorously! He might wake up soon—ack!”
And he immediately punched. Nathan felt a sense of tragedy. After being beaten by violence to the point of exhaustion, the first thing he did upon standing was throw a punch. But there was no helping his panic. The first thing he saw upon waking was the skull of an undead.
The skull that flew out slammed hard into the wall, spun, and returned to the bony hand. The undead screamed and ran away.
“The patient is attacking the nurse—!”
Nurse? Enduring a headache that felt like his skull would split, Nathan got up and looked around. It was a warehouse-like room. White beds and partitions were scattered everywhere. The place he had been lying on until just now… was a slightly dirty sheet on a bed. It wasn’t some back alley that smelled of corpse water. Nathan frowned.
“You’re awake.”
Nathan, who had been rubbing his temples with his eyes tightly shut, lifted his head again.
It’s a chimera.
An alligator’s face was looking down at him. It looked horribly similar to the chimera he had crushed not long ago. Nathan jumped off the bed in a panic and ran. Desperately scanning his surroundings, his eyes landed on a pipe embedded in the wall. Maybe he could pull it out and swing it. Nathan gave it a test tug.
“Oh, hey! No—! Don’t touch that—”
The moment he felt something flowing inside the thin column, Nathan realized something had gone wrong. But it was too late. Dust pouring from the cracked gap covered his head.
“Cough.”
The dust nearly went down his windpipe. After the brief tightness in his chest, Nathan tried to fix the exhaust that was making a gurgling sound. But dust kept pouring from the once-crumpled column. While uncomfortable gazes poured in from every bed, the alligator-headed lizardman quietly whispered.
“Calmed down a bit?”
On the chest of the person he had mistaken for a monster was a name tag that read ‘Chief Physician.’ The flustered Nathan finally swept the dust-covered hair out of his face and asked.
“…What is this place?”
From somewhere far away came the clear voice of the pink-haired woman.
“Welcome to Graveyard House in Graveyard Valley. This is a place that does all kinds of things necessary for an eleim-like life for the poor who can’t afford the ridiculously expensive services up there. It’s a clinic, a dental office, a general store, a workshop, and an identity laundering service. And because of that last function, it’s also the place temporarily looking after the children you saved.”
Seeming to feel something was missing, the pink-haired woman poked her head out from beyond the wall and added one more line.
“And fix that pipe yourself. Before I stick the hook I pulled out back into you. I’m feeling sensitive today.”