The Unmaker

Come the night of the day Madamaron burned in hellfire, the Sharaji Oasis Town was swept up by a mood of festivities like never before.

The dinner feast stretched around the banks of the giant oasis, and dozens of low tables were laden with platters of spiced meat, dates, and honey-soaked pastries. Firefly lanterns, fashioned from metal and coloured glass, were strung between palm trees to cast a flickering orange glow over the town. The warmth of the fireflies and the heated spices combined were almost as thick as the townsfolk’s chatter—women in bright, flowing layers danced in circles, hands tracing graceful patterns in the air. Groups of men sat on cushions and carpets, passing hookahs between each other as they recounted the death of the desert god. There were musicians somewhere between all of them, too, plucking the strings of ouds… though Dahlia couldn’t quite pick out where they were.

There were a lot of people. All one thousand or so Sharaji townsfolk were out in the open tonight. Even if the children weren’t playing Rish ball and darting between the adults, their shrieks of joy ringing out everywhere, anyone would be hard-pressed to find any specific person with all the servers spinning and serving more and more food along the tables. Dahlia felt she’d picked a relatively good seat—on top of a roof near the eastern bank of the oasis, overlooking the rest of the feast from above—but even then she couldn’t see where Alice was.

The Arcana Hasharana was the first to be kidnapped by the townsfolk the moment they returned from the undertown ruin, and since then, Dahlia hadn’t even caught a glimpse of her around the town. Most likely, she was being paraded around the feast and hailed as the desert’s saviour—and, most assuredly, she did deserve the praise and the attention.

All things considered, Alice had killed Madamaron solo. Dahlia had been there mostly just as bait.

… ‘God-slayers’, huh? she thought, swirling the cup of raisin juice in her hands as she smiled softly; the sight of the Sharaji chief’s daughter playing Risha ball with other kids by the northern bank warmed her heart. And you said all Hasharana are capable of killing at least one Mutant by themselves?

[Correct,] Eria answered curtly. [Of course, there are different grades of Mutants that determine how difficult they are to kill, but all Hasharana with properly registered Altered Swarmsteel Systems have killed at least one Mutant before. It is a mandatory component of the Hasharana Entrance Exam.]

How tough was that Mutant antlion nymph Alice killed, then?

[Hm. There are seven ranks of Mutants, Lesser Great Mutants, and Great Mutants, with F-rank being the weakest and S-rank being the strongest,] Eria said. [If I must rank that antlion nymph, I would put it at D-rank. Very middle of the road. In comparison, the firefly back in Alshifa would be around E-rank, maybe even low D-rank… but please note that we, the Archives of the Altered Swarmsteel System, are not usually the ones who assign these rankings. There is an Arcana Hasharana who personally assigns every known Mutant and Lesser Great Mutant their rank.]

Dahlia couldn’t help but frown a little. The antlion nymph was certainly strong—and massive to boot—but was it really stronger than the firefly who could shoot lightning and bring down an entire undertown by itself?

[The ranks are not always determined by sheer destructive power alone. In terms of offence, the firefly may be on par or even above the antlion nymph, but it is hardly as elusive. I need not remind you that Madamaron had been preying on this town for a decade without anyone being able to figure out what it was. Sometimes, the strongest bugs are not the ones who show up once and die in battle—all Lesser Great Mutants are smart enough to know when some battles cannot be won, and will run away to continue being a thorn in humanity’s side for the next few decades.]

… Like a roach.

Eria nodded firmly. [Like a roach. In any case, that antlion nymph is finally taken care of, which means that Hasharana should soon be–]

“Recalled and sent on another mission, yep,” Alice finished, popping up behind Dahlia without so much as a warning from her dagger antennae; Dahlia let out a not-so-dignified yelp as she nearly jolted out of her seat. Alice laughed and sat down on the opposite end of the table, and a moment later, the shadow of an old man swung by to serve them a plate of braised meat—Dahlia only knew it was Safi because of how fast he arrived and left, gone like the wind itself.

The braised meat was also probably insect flesh, or whatever was left inside his kitchen after using most of his stock as bait for Madamaron.

“... I’ve already received my next mission from Hierophant,” Alice said in between feral, messy bites of her meat, holding it with her bare hands. “The next Hasharana Entrance Exam’s in a month and two weeks, but there’s been reports of three of the Seven Spider Brood hanging around the exam venue. I’m to meet up with the Sun and the Fool to take care of them since there’s no other Arcana Hasharana around this part of the continent right now… so yeah. That’s that.”

Dahlia gulped, eyeing the slab of meat in front of her nervously. “And… you’re leaving when?”

Alice shrugged nonchalantly. “Eh. After this meal, I guess?” she said, thumbing behind her as she did. “Uncle’s already getting his tavern ready, so it’s only appropriate that we leave the same way we arrived—in the dead of night while the town is asleep, only for everyone to wake up the next morning realising someone’s here-slash-missing. Hah. You should’ve seen the looks on everyone’s faces when we first showed up with uncle’s tavern already established under a dune. They were like ‘whoa, how’d they build an entire tavern in a single night–’”

“Are you sure you can afford to leave?”

Alice’s eyes darkened with an odd mix of amusement and suspicion, and it was strange looking at the Hasharana as ever—to this day, Dahlia had yet to see Alice’s real face, so it really was quite unsettling to see a perfect mirror of her own face smirking back at her.

“What makes you say that?” Alice asked, a playful lilt to her voice.

“Didn’t you think that antlion nymph was too easy for you?” Dahlia replied without missing a beat, staring hard into Alice’s eyes. “Sure, it was big and strong and it had a lot of dangerous attacks, but… lacking. Underwhelming. For a Mutant that’d been terrorising this town for a decade, even if it only killed three or four people a year and mostly kept to a diet of other bugs–”

“You think the ‘real’ Madamaron is still somewhere out there.”

Dahlia nodded slowly, uncertainly. “I’m… I’m not a hundred percent sure about it, but it’s just… my gut instinct?” She fidgeted with her fingers beneath the table, gulping again. “The Mutant firefly was… it felt a lot tougher. Like it’d really, really given its all to fight back when we pushed it against the wall. Compared to that, it felt like the Mutant antlion nymph just gave up towards the end.”

“Well, isn’t that just because I hit it so hard it couldn’t even think straight?” Alice shot her a grin, flicking her on the forehead. “I’m an Arcana Hasharana. I’ve slaughtered dozens of Mutants with hundreds of different weapons. I dare say I could even take on a low-rank Lesser Great Mutant by myself, so I’m sure Madamaron just felt the difference in power and didn’t put in as much effort as it could’ve.”

“But you… didn’t you think it was suspicious, too?” Dahlia said, tilting her head in befuddlement. “You, too, when we were watching that antlion nymph burn… you weren’t smiling as usual. You always smile when you’re looking at dead bugs. You don’t actually believe Madamaron’s dead, right–”

Alice flicked a wad of silk at her lips, sealing her voice, and while she scowled and tried to pry the sticky silk off—the Arcana Hasharana finished her plate of insect flesh as well, ripping through the entire slab of meat in well under ten seconds.

Dahlia stared at Alice pointedly, and Alice wiped her lips with a smug, satisfied grin.

“... There’s a Lesser Great Mutant close by, and the Worm God has requested my attendance,” she said wryly, matching Dahlia’s head tilt. “Madamaron is dead. The Sharaji Oasis Town’s wicked desert god has been slain. My job here as a Hasharana is over, but there is one last thing I have to deal with before I go.”

Then, Alice extended a hand and opened her palm, as though expecting something from Dahlia.

“I did say you can keep your Altered Swarmsteel System until either Madamaron is killed or I’ve learned everything I want to know about you,” she said plainly. “Now, one of those two things have come true, and I really, really have to leave this town soon—the Fool’s gonna yell at me if I’m late to a meeting between Arcana Hasharana again. May I have the worm back, please?”

In response, Dahlia narrowed her eyes and sharpened her claws beneath the table.

She’d made up her mind a while ago, though she couldn’t pinpoint the exact time and date; she didn’t want to let go of Eria.

“And if I say… no?”

Alice looked at her for a long time, eyes dark red and grim.

“... Then nothing,” the Hashara replied, her smile not carrying the meaning behind it as she shrugged. “As I said, I don’t really care about ‘unregistered systems’ or whatever the Worm God’s so worried about. You’re the only one in danger by possessing an unregistered Altered Swarmsteel System, not me, so here’s my advice since you’ve been so useful to me the past month: don’t ever leave this town.”

Dahlia blinked. “Why not?”

“Because this town is in the middle of nowhere, and here, you’re about as far away as you can get from any other Hasharana,” Alice said, raising a finger. “As long as you aren’t near another Hasharana, they won’t get a message telling them to investigate a nearby unregistered system. Thus, if the Hasharana never find you, you can live out the rest of your life in peace; just remember to have someone bury the worm in some pit when you die. You don’t want a random person to inherit your system and be hunted down by the Hasharana, right?”

“R-right. But I thought you’d say something like… like maybe I should leave this town with you and help you out… or something–”

Alice waved a dismissive hand as she stood up, stretching her back with a heavy groan. “Nah. You’ve got real talent as a Swarmsteel Maker, I’ll give you that, and I am still interested in your insect class, but you don’t have what it takes to follow me. You’ll die if you fight the Mutants I fight, you know?”

“...”

“Help the people here. Use your expertise to bolster the defences of the Sharaji Oasis Town. Not every talent needs to go out into the world and join the war against the Swarm—didn’t all of you undertowners fight your way up to the surface in search of a new, peaceful home?

“In Sharaji Tongue, isn’t this town the ‘Kari’ you’ve been looking for?”

“...”

And then Alice winked, dashing back with a puff of sand, a swirl of wind—the Arcana Hasharana disappeared in the blink of an eye, never to be seen again.

There wasn’t a farewell.

Dahlia was sure, even if she dropped everything and sprinted as fast as she could to the eastern edge of the town, that Safi’s tavern wouldn’t be there. It would appear as though that cosy, breathing tavern built under a dune had never been there in the first place, and… she was quite sure, if she didn’t still have Eria with her, that she’d eventually question whether she even met any ‘Hasharana’ at all.

But to think, from the very beginning to the very end, Dahlia still knew nothing about the girl who’d come and gone like the wind…

…

… She bit her tongue and looked down at the empty table in front of her, not feeling even a single ounce of satisfaction at how it’d all ended.

She couldn’t get rid of that writhing, churning sensation of danger in her stomach, and watching the townsfolk celebrate beneath her was like waiting for the dangling dagger to drop.