"Mama!"
"Mama! Seth! Where are you?"
The child, terrified and choking on smoke, took two steps back, just in time to avoid the burning piece of wood that fell right in front of him.
He stopped and screamed again.
"Mama! Can you hear me?!"
Nothing.
He lowered his head and pulled down the collar of his T-shirt, using it as a mask to reduce the risk of suffocation, coughing again as he did so.
"Seth!"
His weak voice struggled to come out of his mouth, and the crackling of the flames left little room for any more sound to spread.
Still no response. He tried to backtrack, and as he turned around, his right hand touched a piece of plywood that had caught fire.
"ARGH!"
The pain shot through his body, and his tears, already held back by a willpower extraordinary for a nine-year-old, began to flow freely. He fell to one knee and bit his lips with all his strength to keep from screaming in pain, so as not to waste even more of the air in his already depleted reserves.
He shook his hand vigorously, wrapped it in his T-shirt and pressed down with his able hand, which did nothing to relieve his pain, then continued his way.
He repeated his call.
This time, he heard voices, faint but audible, coming from a corner of the room.
"Yugo! Yugo! Are you there?!"
"Mama! Yes, I'm here!"
He tried to move forward, but the flames were already too high to give him any chance of taking another step.
To his great relief — if that was the right word to describe how he felt — someone answered from the other side of the flames.
"Yugo, don't come any closer and go get help!"
"But ma—"
"NO BUTS!"
Yugo froze.
Despite the urgency of the situation and the fear he felt, nothing could make him feel more terrified than his mother's anger-filled, almost savage scream at that moment.
"I'm your mother, so do as I say!"
The child took a step back, then another step forward.
"No! You and Seth have to come with me."
"I told you to get out of here quickly and go get help."
His mother's voice, firm at first, cracked.
"Seth and I are safe for now. But I don't know for how long, and we're stuck."
"No! No! I can't—"
"SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME, DAMN IT!"
A sob could be heard.
"I told you to listen to me!"
The female voice, now interspersed with sobs, tried harder than ever to regain some semblance of firmness.
At that moment, a piece of the ceiling, already badly damaged by the fire, broke off and fell into the flames, creating even more smoke that assaulted Yugo's nostrils.
His mother let out a small cry, driven by instinctive fear, but immediately pulled herself together as the younger brother started crying.
"Only you can get out of here. We're starting to suffocate, so you need to go and get help immediately. Everything will be fine here, but you have to do what I say, please!"
The little boy resigned himself, tears in his eyes, to doing what his mother told him.
"I'll be back," he said, trying to swallow the enormous lump of anxiety that was stuck in his throat.
He crossed the rooms of the house at whatever maximum speed he could, given the little respite and running space offered by the flames and smoke, which were struggling with all their non-existent strength to suffocate him.
Avoiding another crumbling piece, he opened the door to the backyard garden, stepping out into the darkness of the night.
The surrounding street was lit by lampposts, whose lights were dwarfed by the incandescent glow of the blaze.
Yugo rushed out of the garden and saw people massed nearby. They all seemed panicked, but how could they not be when such a conflagration suddenly broke out in the neighbourhood?
The kid saw one of their close neighbours and ran towards him to ask for help, but no sooner had he covered about ten metres than a deafening crash was heard behind him.
Paradoxally, as though the world had fallen silent, no more noise reached the young boy's ears as he turned around, hoping that what he thought was just that, a thought.
The shock froze him in place; his eyes went blank and tears streamed down his face. He opened his mouth, wanting to scream in madness.
Yet, despite all the cries he thought he was uttering, no sound came out.
An explosion erupted from the house and the shockwave threw the boy back, shattering what little consciousness he still had and sank into a state close to slumber.
Paralysed, his limbs refusing to obey him, he could only lie there.
He felt strong hands pulling him and another pair, gentler, caressing his face.
With his consciousness continuing to fade, impossible to maintain, he heard words echoing in the distance.
"Don't let yourself... Nightmare... Wake..."
[Wake up!]
The voice of his co-officer echoed through the earpiece attached to his left ear, pulling Yugo out of his slumber.
The young man — now 18 years old — lying on the semi-circular engraved floor of one of the levels of the floating gardens of the Stravagon ruins, opened his eyes with a grunt, expressing boredom and unwanted disappointment.
He raised his right arm and opened his hand as if to catch the sun, which was shining proudly in the azure sky, where cottony clouds floated by on the breeze that occasionally brushed Yugo's face.
He stared for a moment at the burn scar near his thumb and sighed.
'Tch. That dream again.'
The earpiece emitted a slight beeping sound, followed by a voice, that of his co-officer speaking to him again.
[We have new intel on this operation. A meeting is scheduled with the mayor of Stravagon. Over to you.]
"Got it! Thanks, Lucile."
[You're welcome. You can always contact me if necessary. Check your external switch, the mission objective has been updated.]
"Okay! End of communication!"
He pressed the button of his earpiece and the communication was interrupted.
"Right! Let's see what we've got here!" he said with a sigh.
He tapped twice with his fingertip on the star cross medallion adorned with a scythe that hung from his shirt, on the right side of his chest.
At that moment, a holographic window appeared in front of him, and its blue glow displayed the various pieces of information he needed for his current mission.
(Quest: Purify the Negacion sighted around Stravagon City, Merina County, Region of the Seven Peaks, Karvit Union.)
(Immediate objective: Meet with the mayor)
(Secondary objective: Evacuate civilians and minimise collateral damage).
Yugo stretched out to his full length, raising both arms, then crossed them and yawned a little.
His scarlet hair swayed in the light breeze.
He raised his head to the sky and closed his eyes, reflecting on the nature of his mission, as well as the reason he was doing it, and letting himself get lost in thoughts.
******
The Negaciones, these creatures first appeared about seven centuries ago, wreaking chaos, desolation and death wherever they passed. With them came the Kilith, a new source of energy that spread across the planet, changing the ecosystem, fauna and flora on a global scale to the point where even humans were influenced after a while.
Of course, some nations downplayed the danger at first, preferring to focus on the Kilith, and above all, they saw in a positive light the fact of seeing a rival fall without even having to lift a finger. Then, all they had to do was reach out to gain new lands and resources, without too much effort and without sending an army to do the dirty work.
In short, it was a godsend both for rulers eager for new riches and for soldiers who would be spared the trouble of waging gruelling and costly campaigns, and above all, being slaughtered on a battlefield that was not worth it to them. And that's not to mention the thieves and looters who took advantage of the 'incursions' to grab a bit of loot and exercise their unsavoury skills in the towns and villages that had suffered the wrath of these creatures.
However, this deliberate negligence — for politico-military and, above all, economic purposes — ended up affecting the whole world. The threat had grown so dire that humans had no choice but to stop fighting useless wars and ally themselves among survivors to counterattack, though of course, it wasn't all smooth sailing. But after two centuries of struggle, humanity more or less managed to understand the danger and contain it.
This was, in fact, the very reason for the existence of the organisation to which Yugo belonged.
******
Yugo opened his eyes again, fixing his scarlet eyes on a bird hovering in the sky, and exhaled deeply.
'Well, it's time to get back on the road.'
******
About an hour and a half later, he arrived in the city and marvelled at the landscape before his eyes, even letting out a small cry of disbelief.
The city, or at least the portion that stretched out before him, was marked by architecture whose strong points was similar to that of the old castles and great cities mentioned in the eastern legends. There were arches and columns everywhere in the streets, and domes were numerous.
Of all of them, however, there was one that was larger, more majestic and, above all, more... white.
The building, which towered in the distance, was striking for its almost immaculate whiteness. The many floors that made up the building were visible from the railway station where Yugo was standing, and the enormous star-shaped cross that stood proudly on top of it was a wonderful feature.
Yugo gaped in amazement.
"So, this is St. Meroa Cathedral!" he finally blurted out after a long minute.
Anyway, he had better things to do than be an awestruck tourist.
He immediately set off in search of the town hall.
According to his mission objectives, and based on what Lucile had told him, the mayor and his staff had information that could help him — whether greatly or not remained to be seen — in his mission.
And who knows, maybe with a little luck he would come across his personal prey, the scourge of his existence, the target of all his inner hatred.
At the town hall, he asked a receptionist if he could speak to the mayor in private, who, as politely as possible given his dark attire, directed him to a private residence, more of an outbuilding, located a short distance behind the main town hall buildings. According to her, it was the mayor's official residence.
So, Yugo went there.
He stopped not far from the two enormous doors — more than three metres high, at a glance — of the house.
Two guards stood in front of the doors, and one of them approached when he saw Yugo, his service weapon tucked into its holster.
The man, visibly in his forties at first glance, had a brown beard whose hairs, although neatly trimmed, swayed defiantly with each step he took. His hair, also brown, was cut short, just enough to be swept to the side with a simple flick of the wrist. The pommel and guard of the weapon hanging from his waist — apparently a rapier — swung up and down in time with the movements of the man's hips and thighs. He took on a cold and serious air, probably to show the importance of his work.
When he was approximately eight metres away from Yugo, he raised his hand, but upon seeing the uniform with a straight collar and silver embroidered sleeves, as well as the star cross medallion hanging from the young boy's shirt, he immediately lowered it and stood at attention.
"Honourable Reaper, welcome!" exclaimed the guard, standing straight as a pole.
At these words, his colleague, who had remained in front of the gates, also assumed the same pose.
"Sire, we are delighted to see you, however, we need your affiliation oath so that we can be sure of your legitimacy." he continued.
'Oh yes, I have to recite that damn oath every time because of the imitators.'
Yugo sighed, clearly annoyed by this procedure, which would take him a valuable minute.
For Yugo, there were many things that could be avoided or even completely abolished in the order of the reapers, and this damn affiliation oath was at the very top of the list of things he would eliminate if he ever became the head of the organisation.
Of course, for that to happen, he would first have to aspire to become a dignitary or administrative official of the organisation. And if there was one thing he absolutely couldn't stand, it was being locked in a room behind a desk all day dealing with paperwork and putting on fake smiles or uttering honeyed words full of false hope to the new agents who were going to sacrifice themselves in the field. Or, in the worst-case scenario, which unfortunately was not so unusual, whispering empty words of consolation to the families of the fallen 'victims' who lost their lives on missions.
In short, he hated this affiliation oath, and in this particular case even more so because while he spent long seconds reciting it, unable to move, the creature he was looking for could strike and delay his response; but above all because reciting an oath was more like the kind of thing you find in a cult or a religious order. Not among fighters.
He groaned loudly to make his displeasure clear and let his lips move mechanically.
"As above and so below, guided by light in peace, what is left will never cease.
As within and so without, when the seasons bring relief, let us live and die in peace.
When the hearts do not skip a beat, we are hidden, deeply asleep.
Our time will end where the oceans meet, finally complete.
And at the edge, we will see the sun above, lit up a starless void.
Here is a promise that we cannot escape, as these lives are worth dying for.
We are the voices in the shadows, fading under the weight.
Thus, no despair will remain.
We are the light that guides from afar, dragging everything in the wake of our passage.
We are the scythe that reaps, bringing sunlight to the leaf.
We are the walkers, rumbling above the imminence.
We are the rose, sparkling around the thorns.
We are the dawn, setting aside what is torn.
Our universe will survive us on give and take, as death is an open door.
And the currents will flow past us, as decay is our only way."
After uttering these last words, Yugo fell silent and left the soldier to judge for himself.
The latter, for his part, wore an expression of sheer terror on his already frightened face at the implications of this creed.
"T-The Stellar Rose!" said the guard, now shaking in fright.
He fidgeted and, in a gesture mixing panic and haste, like a recruit who has misbehave in front of a high-ranking officer, he addressed his colleague.
"Go tell the mayor that we have an emissary of the shadows! Immediately!"
The second guard rushed over and, quickly pressing a few buttons on a kind of intercom, stepped back to let the two enormous doors open, rushing through as soon as there was enough space for him to enter.
"P-Please follow me!" stammered the first guard, pointing inside the building, and they immediately headed into a small lounge whose floor was covered with polished wood so shiny that Yugo could almost see his reflection in it.
The room itself was decorated with flowers in vases placed here and there, and the matte beige paint that covered the walls, gave the room a soothing feel. The armchairs were also made of beige leather, but the shade seemed to lean more towards khaki.
Yugo took a seat in one of the armchairs and relaxed greatly, even sighing with ease.
"Please wait here, the mayor will be here soon." said the guard, whose nerves had relaxed a little when he saw how calm Yugo was.
He pointed to the corridor leading to the apparently still open doors and asked permission to return to his post, which was granted with a slight nod from the young boy.
A few minutes later, the second guard returned, accompanied by a mature man, maybe in his late forties, dressed in a dark grey jacket and trousers. His jet-black hair was slicked back with an outrageous amount of gel, making it shine almost as much as the reflective parquet floor. A pair of square glasses sat on a slightly hooked nose, and small eyes, with blackish pupils, darted around in all directions, clearly trying to avoid Yugo's gaze.
On the left side of the man's chest, one end of a red handkerchief hung down.
"Here he is, Sire... the mayor." said the guard, pointing to the nervous adult standing in front of Yugo.
"Good afternoon to you, Mr. mayor. I'm Yugo Linchester." said Yugo, bowing slightly.
He did not do this so much out of instilled politeness. — Quite the contrary, he believed that only merit and actions were the real value indexes of the respect one should be given, and age was in no way a viable criterion. Yugo was careful not to say any of this openly, of course. — No, in fact, if he sketched this rather theatrical gesture, it was to perpetuate the collaborative relationship that the agency had with the various administrative bodies of the areas where it operated.
He raised his head and looked his interlocutor straight in the eyes, waiting for a return of courtesy.
The director smiled awkwardly and bowed his head too.
"Good afternoon and welcome, young master. I'm Karlen, the mayor of this city. But let's ignore all the formalities, and get to the point."
"Good! I am here following your request of a purification for the Negacion that was recently sighted." replied Yugo, the moment the mayor had finished speaking his sentence.
"I see. I had received confirmation from the organization that a unit of agents would come here, but I did not expect a single emissary of the shadows, let alone one so young." he replied, staring at Yugo's black uniform.
Yugo frowned.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but in our line of work, age is not really a very reliable indicator of someone's operational abilities..."
He changed his mind, realising that he was about to give the mayor an unwelcomed lecture.
"…. Besides, we have units with agents whose age gap is quite large. But I see what you mean, let's just say that I'm part of a special case."
"A-Ah, okay. Please sit down so that we can give you more details."
Yugo did as suggested and sat down, followed by the mayor who gestured with his index finger to the second guard, still stationed there, who bowed his head.
The mayor pulled himself up a little and whispered something in his ear.
Immediately, the guard got up and exclaimed aloud.
"Understood!"
He then left to where he had gone to pick up the mayor earlier.
"I asked him to go and inform my wife, and also tell her to bring some documents that might be of interest to you."
"Thanks." Yugo simply replied.
"While waiting for them to return, let me tell you what I already know".
The mayor looked more serious after these words.
"Um, about three weeks ago, tourists who were visiting the ruins of the floating gardens said they saw a pretty huge silhouette rising in the distance, towards the plains of Elradine. Fortunately, one of these tourists had a snapper, which he used to capture the image of the silhouette. After that, we sent trackers there, but they didn't find anything. Well, they did find the charred carcasses of what seem to be two twin-headed falcons."
"Just charred carcasses?! No signs of clashes? no distinctive marks or even a crystal shard remains?"
"None of that. Just the two smoking corpses."
"Strange. And did you measure the level of Kilith energy emanating from there? There must have been a disruption in the natural flow, if a Negacion sprouted there."
"I don't really have an answer for that. However, four days ago, the same figure was spotted in the early evening. But and this is the most troubling part, it was near the ruins, not far from the floating gardens."
"The floating gardens, you say?! I was there just this morning. Very strange that I didn't notice anything from there."
"Um."
The mayor took out his reddish handkerchief and wiped his forehead, which was beginning to drip with a mixture of sweat and gel.
At that moment, the second guard reappeared.
At his side stood a woman - apparently in her early thirties, perhaps younger - with a pale complexion, wearing a long green dress, which brought out slightly pronounced curves. She had a chestnut-coloured hair that cascaded down to her shoulders. A long strand crossed her right eyebrow, and ended tucked behind her ear.
She stared at Yugo with her hazel-coloured eyes, dotted with specks of green, and raised one of her long, but strangely thin, fingers, which she placed just below her chin. With this gesture, the small pile of documents she was clutching to her chest pressed together, making her breasts rise a little.
She bowed slightly.
"Good morning, young master."
Yugo, grimaced and returned the greeting, without getting up.
'Another pompous, gold-digging, crowd-pleasing fan of a lady, huh?'
He shook his head.
Despite her exaggerated and rather theatrical attempt to make a strong impression, she remained the mayor's wife. it was therefore inappropriate to think badly of her and thus disrespect her husband.
'Why am I even thinking about this?' he wondered.
The mayor rose and came to stand besides her.
"This is Aleone, my wife. She is also my personal assistant and takes care of matters that I don't necessarily have time to deal with myself, given my schedule."
"I see. Pleased to meet you, milady."
"All the pleasure is mine."
She turned to her husband.
"Darling, I've brought the documents you requested."
Aleone placed them on the coffee table that served as a border between Yugo's armchair and the mayor's.
"Thank you! We were just talking about you-know-what, actually. Please sit, so we can continue!"
They both sat down.
"Well, as I was saying earlier, following the dispatch of the trackers, and after retrieving the image of the silhouette with the tourist who took it, we deduced that such a thing was most likely one of the cases that your agency manages."
As the mayor said this, he took out the images of the silhouette in the distance and the carcasses, as well as a small stack of others.
Yugo carefully observed the images laid out on the coffee tables and began studying one of them in particular.
It was a bird's-eye view of the Elradine plains where the charred carcasses had been found. Nothing unusual seemed to stand out. There was only a patch of land visible, some grass, the two corpses and the shadow of what appeared to be a tree, or a column.
After staring at it for a long time, he put the image down and continued his investigation.
The mayor, who had been following in silence until then, spoke again.
"As a precautionary measure, we have limited the entrances and exits in the city but are already working on a barrier, as well as shelters. Of course, Stravagon being a place of mainly tourist character, it is impossible for us to completely close the city. you understand, this would be bad for the local economy." He ended, with an awkward laugh.
"Um. You did the right thing." Yugo replied.
"Moreover, such a move would cause panic among the population, which could complicate things even further. You made the right decision," He added, continuing to examine and read the numerous files before him.
"See? I told you that closing the city gates would be a bad idea!" exclaimed Mrs. Aleone.
"Y-Yes. You were right, my dear." Said the mayor, wiping his forehead again.
Yugo took a sheet from the table and after a little while of reading frowned.
"Can you give me more information about this?" he said, pointing to the sheet full of writings and statistical diagrams.
"Ah that! Well, it's-"
"It's the result of a small study conducted by one of our teams of researchers." Aleone interrupted.
"Hmm. And what was the purpose of it?"
The mayor nervously wiped his forehead and stammered a little, then finally replied.
"The... the advantages of Negaciones."
Yugo stood up, overcome by uncontrollable rage.
"The advantages? You've got to be kidding me."
Aleone attempted to reason with him.
"Please, sit down! It's not what you think."
"And what do you want me to think?"
"Sit down, young master. We can explain."
He grunted, then sighed and sat back down.
"Go ahead. Speak!"
"Well, about 35 years ago, one of the neighbouring towns under our jurisdiction was attacked by a "Lucidos" type Negacion, and after it passed, the local ecosystem changed. Palatinite mines emerged all over the area and the fauna became more abundant. As if that wasn't enough, its attack left traces of Kilith so dense that the soil, which was originally quite dry and not very fertile, became a real goldmine for farmers."
Yugo sighed again.
"Of course, none of this erases the atrocities that took place there and the loss of human life, as well as the material damage."
The mayor stopped for a brief moment after saying this.
"However, we must admit that this area, which was dependent on us, has become, in the span of three decades, the locality that provides us with most of the resources we lack."
Yugo grumbled. He was clearly not satisfied with this answer, but he had to make do with it.
"So? What do you intend to do with this research? And how does it relate to our current case?"
Aleone intervened promptly.
"Well, we had hoped that after you purified the Negacion, you would give us its crystal core so that we could conduct more research on how this energy source could help our city. Few people know this, but tourism has become a bit outdated here, and the funds generated by visits and other such events are not enough to fill the municipal coffers. Without the help of the town we mentioned, we would be in serious trouble. Especially since the cathedral closed its doors to the public."
"The church?"
"Yeah! They've been saying, all of sudden, that this city has been corrupted by evil. And since, they've closed their doors to the public. But whatever..."
She paused and spoke a little more slowly, so as to emphasise her words.
"Regarding our matter, we will notify the organisation so that you will not be blamed in any way if there is an issue."
Yugo thought hard.
He played with his long reddish hair for a moment and, with a sigh, resigned himself.
"I can't promise anything, but I'll talk to HQ myself."
He closed his eyes.
He definitely didn't like the sound of this. But anyway...
He shook his head, ignoring his personal feelings.
"As long as the civilians are safe and there are no major concerns, I think they will be favourable to your request."
He stood up.
"All right! I must leave you for today, I have other things to do."
The mayor and his wife also stood up.
They accompanied him to the two large doors and returned inside.
******
In the plains of Elradine, Yugo was carefully examining the area he had spotted in the photo, even taking samples of grass and soil.
But something was wrong.
He tapped his external switch and brought up the photo.
'I thought so.'
Although everything in the image in front of him was the same as where he was standing, there was a gap in the list.
No trees or columns.
'Where did that shadow come from? A shapeshifter? I don't think so, otherwise we'd be dealing with a Lucido, but from what has been recorded, the silhouette was visible from the ruins.'
A grumble was heard.
He stopped his mental monologue, his stomach growling too loudly to let him continue.
"Well, I'll find out sooner or later!"
He pressed the button of his earpiece.
"Lucile, I need you to check something for me. Yeah... I'll send you the files."
After doing so, he stretched and resumed his walk towards the city.
******
In the inn where he had taken up residence, Yugo was sitting at a table in his room.
His plate was filled with a dish composed of beans, a piece of still-smoking glider deer thigh, a few vegetables, and all of it covered with a light sauce accompanied by a few slices of bread.
He salivated over his plate and raised his fork.
With a quick movement, he speared a piece of meat, some vegetables and a portion of beans and brought them to his mouth.
The fork lodged on his tongue and Yugo was almost moved with joy at this taste of heaven. He took a second bite and brought it to his mouth again.
As soon as the fork reached his lips, there was an explosion.
He turned his head in panic in the direction of the blast.
He stood up and, staring at his plate, growled.
'You're kidding me? Now? For real ?!'