7 in 3

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Jet

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We’ve been clearing out houses for a little over six hours now. Only caught six monsters so far, but the estimates from the eggheads say that there should be many, many more. Looking through the knights flitting around the streets I make sure to send any that are looking too weary back to rest. We have enough knights scouring the area, I won’t allow someone to get swallowed by one of these things because they nodded off standing up. 

I open the door of the next house, not bothering to knock. “By order of the Count of Wornsbirth we will be searching the premises for monster activity.” I feel my smile dampen a bit. This feels disgusting, barging into people’s houses in the dead of night with such sketchy reasons. I wait for protesting voices, but when none come I touch the grip of my spear.

I start moving through the house, keeping my eyes focused for movement. I clear the entire first floor and find nothing. Maybe they’re not here. As I start to walk up the stairs however I catch the coppery smell of blood. I reach past my spear handle and grab the hilt of my sword. A spear will do no good in this tight space. I brandish the short sword, walking slowly to the landing of the stairs. 

The hallway is empty, the darkness making it seem endless. I move to the first door on the floor and push it open while staying to one side. The stench of blood rolls out the door, assaulting my senses. Walking into the room, I see nothing out of the ordinary. The room is a typical office, with a rough wooden desk and leather armchair. I turn on the lights and bathe the room in bluish light. 

Nothing in the room should be making such a stench, but there still is one. Running out of ideas, I start to open the desk drawer. The drawer shoots out of the desk, slamming into my stomach and pushing me back. A dark shape leaps out of the small space, taking a swipe at my head. I reflexively block the attack with my sword. My blade clashes with something that lets out a deep thunk. I look at what the blade is biting into and see a human hand grabbing it. 

Deep throaty chuckling comes from inside the desk, making the arm grasping my weapon move. Soon a full human being crawls out from the empty space that held the drawer. The person had folded themself up like paper and stuffed themself inside. The person who should be dead many times over, starts to unfold, until they stand completely unharmed before me. They don’t let go of my sword at any point during their trick.

“Well, you just had to be that thorough, huh?” The unnaturally pale man glares at me with totally black eyes. His whiteless gaze drills into me. “If I fight you here, even if I win, I’ll be killed once people come to gawk at the show. Why don’t you just… let me go? I promise I’ll be a good boy.” The creature’s tone turns mocking towards the end. “I know I killed lots of people but you did kill a lot of monsters too, so let’s call it even, yeah?” His smile sends shivers down my spine.

“Like hell I’ll let a monster wander around my town and do as he pleases.” My anger makes my voice come out as a growl.

“Man, you’re still smiling. How unnerving.” The creature also doesn’t drop his smile. “What if you take me into custody, then? I’ve learned an awful lot from the heads of all the people I’ve… interacted with.” His smile drops for a moment, but quickly flickers back into place. “I just want to survive.” The glint in his eyes turns from mirth to desperation. 

This is an animal backed into a corner, I’ll be able to kill it without question. The actual question is how many buildings will be destroyed by the time I take it down. I notice the ever increasing tension in the monster’s body language. The situation needs to be diffused, quickly. 

“How ‘bout this, monster? You rat on all the other monsters you know about, and I’ll take you into custody like you want.” I swear a glint of hope twinkles into the void-like eyes of the beast. His smile becomes wicked.

“No problem.”

 

【〓〓〓〓】

 

With the traitor’s help, we manage to clean the area of all the hidden monsters in under an hour. Most of the things hadn’t eaten much, instead deciding to pretend to be objects to evade detection. Thanks to that they weren’t much of a fight compared to the ones from earlier. I look at the cuffed monster as I cut through the soulstone of one of his siblings. 

“Doesn’t this bother you?” I scan his face for any reaction. I get one, but it’s surprisingly only confusion.

“Does what bother me?” He gives me a blank stare, looking very much like a cadaver. I point to the rapidly evaporating soulstone. “Oh, no, not really.” He looks into the distance for a moment. “I don’t get why I would feel bad about some monsters dying.” 

I glare at him.“You’re also a monster, you know.” 

He looks annoyed at me. “Well, yes, but comparing me to that thing…” he points at the monster’s slowly disintegrating remains, “...that ate a teacup and hid for a day is honestly offensive.” He folds his arms in front of his chest. “I fought tooth and nail, unlike that, and that’s why I was smart enough to bargain.” 

Whatever, I don’t really care about this thing’s complexes. “How do you tell them apart from normal objects, anyways?” I smile at him, one eyebrow raised. 

He just rolls his eyes.“Isn’t it obvious, you just look for the thing pretending to be an object and ignore the real objects.” 

I stare at him. He seems to be serious. I suppose we’ll need his help for a while yet then. Just as I’m about to move to the next building I see two children run past. My blood quickly boils over.

“Ya godsdamn brats, get over here!” I bellow. The two figures skid to a halt before looking back at me. I rush over to them, dragging the monster with me. As I get closer I realize I recognize these kids, and the one’s uniform.

“Porter? Lady Pim?” I swallow, realizing how rude I just was to her. Luckily she seems to be more embarrassed at being caught than actually being upset at my insubordination. “What in the hell are you two doing out here? Didn’t I just send you and Lady Scarlet home, Porter?” Porter refuses to make eye contact with me. Suddenly the air in front of me is bright with light. Once my eyes adjust I see words floating in the air. 

“Who are you?” Oh, right, Lady Pim can’t speak. How in the hell is she writing in the air, though?

“I’m Captain Jet, my Lady. This brat,” I point at Porter, “was in my squad until recently.” 

She gives me a polite nod before writing some more. “Who is that behind you?” She points at the monster behind me. Shit.

“Oh, this is just a prisoner we happened to catch while looking for monsters.” Not technically a lie, but it’ll still put me in the fire if caught. Thankfully she just nods at my response. “Now where do you two think you’re going?” Again the two avoid eye contact.

“Well, we were going to go get Zenith back.” She scribbles.

I almost blow a valve. “Alone?” My tone is dangerously insubordinate, but this kid is asking for it. She shakes her head and then points at Porter. I let out a huge sigh. “If I go to get the Count’s permission, you’re going to just leave, right?” The girl nods slowly. “Fine, I’m coming with you.” I yank the monster by the wrist. “You’re coming too, I’m not letting you out of my sight.” 

The monster looks dismayed. “I thought I’d finally get to rest…” I swear the thing is pouting. I shrug at him. Looking back at the noble girl, I notice she’s inched away from me a bit. 

“Fine, let's go.”

 

】〓〓〓〓【

Pim

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Now that an annoying older knight has joined our group, we’ve headed out. We quickly make our way out of the town using back alleyways that I never notice before they’re pointed out to me. Using these suspicious shortcuts, the four of us rapidly reach the outer edge of the barrier.

Walking through the invisible division in the air is a particularly unpleasant sensation. Not pain, but more like everything is suddenly becoming slightly harder to accomplish. I notice the older knight shaking his head a bit as he leads us through the farmlands. I gave him the map back in the town, he insisted on leading the pack. I sigh, being treated like glass is getting quite old.

Once we leave the outer edge of the fields, there's nothing but knee-high grass within my line of sight. Well, almost nothing. I point out the large pine tree standing in the middle of the grassy sea.

The older knight nods. “Yeah, that’s a bit odd, alright.” I follow after him and the other two men, having to jog to keep up with their long legs. The three of them make it to the tree first and begin to inspect it. They haven’t found anything by the time I catch up. When I get closer to look at the tree I feel a swell of energy, like I just drank a bunch of coffee. 

The large pine tree flickers out of existence a few times before vanishing. In its place is a large metal hatch in the ground. The three of them look at me questioningly.

“What did you do?” It’s the little knight asking. I shrug, I didn’t do anything as far as I know. I ride the buzz from the sudden energy surge as the older knight pulls the hatch open. 

“A ladder, looks long too.” He eyes me warily. “Alright, prisoner goes first, then me, then the Lady, then Porter.” Everyone but the sickly-looking man nods. The pale man just looks depressed as he starts down the ladder.

 

【〓〓〓〓】

 

The bottom of the ladder lets out into a somewhat spacious cave, which extends onward into a tunnel on the far side. The space is pitch black, so I take it on myself to light things up. I scribble out a small image of a sun, and it flashes gold. The drawing vanishes, leaving a small ball of fire in its place. The older knight nods in thanks before taking the orb from me and leading the way forward. 

We make our way down the tunnel, stopping every time something makes a sound. The paranoid knight duo is on edge, even though we can see far ahead and behind us because of the tunnel’s lack of curves. 

After walking for what feels like an hour, I start to see a dim light at the far end of the path. Once we get close enough, we all crouch and move forward slowly. We don’t even make it to the tunnel exit before my legs start screaming in agony. I should work out more.

We take up spots on either side of the tunnel to peek into the room ahead. Looking into the room, I immediately notice the height of it. The space is easily four times as high as the tunnel we’re currently in, and at least ten times as wide. The massive space is lit by large floodlamps, which I recognize from the knight’s equipment storage back home. How are they powering it outside of the barrier?

The strangest thing about the room, however, is the massive metal dias in the center. Thick cables run out from its base and trail off into dark, adjacent tunnels. There’s at least twenty people milling around, moving boxes or working on equipment. Standing on the imposing dias is a woman in a black cloak. She’s holding a tablet in her hand and is tapping it furiously.

“That’s what was wrong? That’s it!? Goddamnit, if I had realized that I could’ve been out of here months ago.” The woman’s voice sounds like she’s being strangled. Her agitated tone fills the room. “You! Turn that component off!” She points off to the far side of the room, and one of the other people quickly does as she says. She lets out a huge sigh, clearly furious. “Someone go get the foci? Now!” she snaps at someone I can’t see until they run out from behind the dias. The underling runs down a connecting tunnel and disappears into the dark. 

The knights use the sound of the lackey running to move forward into the large room. They crouch down behind some large metal cabinets that connect to the dias by more cables. I quickly follow them, not wanting to get separated. Just as the four of us are grouped up together again, the woman that ran off drags something back into the room. 

The object is a large sack, clearly holding a person. There’s no movement from inside the cloth, so the person is either unconscious or dead. 

“About time!” the cloaked woman snaps at her subordinate. She snatches the sack from the other woman before roughly dragging it into the center of the dias. She carefully opens the bag and extracts the contents. Standing up, she taps something on her tablet. Whatever she did causes two metal arches to spring out of the large platform. The tall, smooth metal rods eventually stop growing and create a half circle in the air, with the dias as the base.

Chains shoot out of each arch before snapping into place on the out-of-sight person. The metal links chatter as the chains retract. The person is slowly raised into the air, allowing me to finally see them.

I jump up from behind the box. Zenith! Hanging mid air, suspended by the wrists, is Zenith’s other self. I want to scream, what’s being done to him?! I wish I could scream for them to stop, but I can only wail internally. 

The familiar warping of space appears around me, centered on my head. The distortion is much more severe this time, causing everything to look like it’s beneath furious waves. After accumulating a worrying amount of distortion, the warped air shoots out in every direction. The ground and walls of the cave shiver as the wave passes through them. Small rocks are tossed into the air and some tools fall off of the many pieces of equipment around the cave. Eventually everything calms.

Every pair of eyes in the cavern snaps in my direction.