"This is unbelievable."

  Arada looked from the paper to the giant vilge ahead of them, then back again.

  Before them y Ebrotown. A massive colle of houses, towers, and buildings. A huge statue stood on the quay, its hands raised as if weling all visitors.

  Or maybe it's asking the Gods for help, Irgos thought.

  Below them flowed one of the branches of the Ebros River. Thanks to the massive bridge they were now walking on, the town was ected to the rest of the mainnd—or what was left of it, at least.

  "Hoeople must have lived here?" Arada wondered aloud.

  Irgos shrugged. "More than the rgest number I've ever ted. The Old World remains a strange pce." He touched the scar from the jelly monster on his upper lip. Speaki strangely different now.

  "And to think Aquinox is even bigger." She poio the left side of the paper.

  "Stop it. My head's already exploding just thinking about it."

  Arada gestured ahead of them, where the road narrowed signifitly at the far end of the bridge. "Once we're there, we'll o find a route headi. The paper says there's a bridge crossing the Ebros there. From then on, it's not much farther to Aquinox." She pointed westward, where the massive river could be seen in the distance.

  "We'd better find something to eat along the way. I don't know how much longer I keep going."

  Arada froze.

  "What? Did I say something wrong?" Irgos asked, fused.

  She pced a fio her lips. "Shh. I hear something."

  It sounded like a low rumbling—a lot of low rumbles. Only then did he feel the grouh his feet vibrating with the sound.

  "Hoofbeats!" they said at the same time.

  They both turned around, looking back down the road they'd just e from. In the distance, a group of riders was visible, heading toward Ebrotown. They couldn't immediately tell who was in the saddle. Arada looked through her super goggles, which were still hanging around her neck.

  "What do you see?", Irgos asked nervously.

  Her voice took on a frigid tone.

  "Bald heads. Eyes shut." She looked at him, her panic palpable. "It's them. Run. Now!"

  They sprio the end of the bridge aered Ebrotown. Only then did they see riders ahead of them on the road as well.

  They were like rats in a trap.

  "This way. Quick," Arada panted. She veered left down a narrow alley that led into a block of buildings.

  Or rather, blocks with few buildings intact. The alley sisted of a long row of yellowed buildings with many doors and broken windows. The street was made of gray square tiles that stuck up slightly here and there. Many were covered with moss and weeds, just like in Tusin.

  Fortunately, there were more narrow alleys threading through the buildings. They ducked into another one, no more than three meters wide, with eroded beige walls from the surrounding buildings oher side. The alley turned left, brang again into more hiding pces. They fled by instinct, moving as far as possible from the approag horses.

  After a while, they ended up in a dead-end street with only a huge, greeal box on wheels. They hid behind it.

  They waited until they could no longer hear the sound of hooves. Voices reached them from afar—dissatisfied voices. Irgos tried to make out what they were saying.

  "…escaped…"

  "He will…soon…many…"

  "…waiting…to…"

  Nothing made sense.

  Then, they heard the sound of another horse approag. This time, the sound was heading toward them.

  Irgos huddled even closer to his sister, hoping they weren't visible behind their greeer. Now, all they could do was wait.

  Gradually, the hoofbeats faded into the distance again. They stayed still, and after what felt like ay, Arada dared to peek uhe metal box.

  "Nothing in sight," she whispered. "I think they're gone. I haven't heard anything else."

  Irgos wiped the sweat from his forehead. "M-me her," he said, his voice trembling.

  They emerged from behind the box and headed back down the alley. Arada motioned with her hand in a zigzag through the block of buildings in front of them. "Fet food. We'll have to stay hidden and stick to the narrow streets in that dire." She nodded forward. "Eventually, we should reach the bridge."

  Irgos looked pensively ahead. "But what if they're on the bridge t—"

  "That's why we have to go now," Arada interrupted him. "The sooner we're there, the less likely they are to beat us to it." Without waiting for his response, she checked around the er of a street to their right to see if it was clear, then moved quickly but cautiously. Irgos followed her.

  This street was a bit wider. It sloped downward, and just like the first street, was lined with tightly packed buildings.

  "Wait," he called after her. "We 't just… we don't know if…" He searched for words, trying tanize his thoughts. "Did you see h-him too? Through the super goggles?"

  "Who?" Her pace slowed slightly.

  "The Master. Their leader. The one in bck."

  "No. They were all bald. Why?"

  Irgos went pale as his mind raced.

  Something's nht. They likely came from Overmore. Without their leader. And at the same time, they were also ing from Ebrotown. It was almost as if—

  Suddenly, he got it.

  "It's a trap!" he shouted.

  Arada stopped iracks. "What?"

  "We're doily what he—"

  But it was too te. He cut himself off as four bald figures burst from a nearby building and threw themselves upon them. Irgos felt his arms pio the ground. He saw Arada beside him, struggling in their grasp.

  "Let me go, you—"

  One of them pced a hand over her mouth. "Don't waste your energy on words. You'll ter," said the bald man with a grin.

  An inaudible murmur escaped her. Irgos decided to take the man's advice.

  He watched helplessly as his sister was also pio the ground. They removed her super goggles hanging from her neck, and her wrists were bound behind her back. The same happeo him. Then, they were forced to stand aaken along. Irgos felt two of the bald figures grab his arms, dragging him forward, while two others followed behind with Arada. They were led through a few unfamiliar streets, eventually arriving at the long road where they had first fled when they entered Ebrotown.

  At the end of this street was a rge square. The buildings here were more orhahers. Uusin, there wasn't a single four-wheeled vehicle on the square. At the edge stood a t structure with a sharp-pointed roof. High up oower hung a round disk with two stripes on it. Many of the surrounding buildings looked destroyed. Broken windows and walls, covered in weeds. Just like everywhere else.

  In the square, a group of people stood in a half-circle. They were dressed in tattered clothes, all bald, with their eyes closed. Irghe burly man and slim woman who were with the Master when he killed Cura. Also the stout woman who'd destroyed Arada's stood amongst them.

  The group surrouwo figures in the ter of the square. One of them sat bound and crouched on the cobblestones, shouting in a hoarse voice.

  "I'll ell you where he is. NEVER!" It sounded like a young woman. She had long, brown hair that glinted in the sun, her face turned away from Arada and Irgos.

  Beside the woman stood a tall, slender man with a disturbingly familiar vampire-like face. Irgnised him immediately.

  The Master.

  A few meters before the ter of the square, their captors halted. "Master, we caught them," said the man at Irgos's left side.

  The Master and the bound woman turned in their dire. The woman looked stunned when she saw them.

  "Wele, wele, if it isn't our two fugitives," his voice echoed over the square. "How vehat I've hidden my men everywhere. It makes capturing you so much easier."

  Irgos swallowed. So the horse trick really was a trap.

  The Master o one of his followers in the circle. This person took a rge hammer from his bad began striking the street. The noise was deafening.

  Slowly, bald figures from all dires began shuffling toward the square. The group expanded until Arada and Irgos were enclosed by a line of old buildings behind them and a semi-circle of bald heads around them. Escape was no longer an option.

  The Master made a sweepiure. "The signal for our weling ittee," he ughed cheerfully. "I'm not taking any ces after the st time you escaped. I'll make sure roceed here undisturbed." His words dripped with malice.

  "Don't listen to him," shouted the bound woman beside him. "He's maniputing you. Run, while you still ."

  Irgos felt the grip of his bald captors tighten at her words.

  I would if you knew how, he thought, direg it at the woman.

  Beside him, he heard Arada bite down on the hand still c her mouth. Her captor pulled back, groaning in disfort.

  "Scumbag," she yelled at the Master while struggling in vain against her captors. "How did you get here so quickly?"

  The Master turo her. "Some animals make for very effit transport." He gestured to a few of his men standing with horses. "At 40 miles per hour, we were here in no time. We traveled straight through the night after Overmore's destru." He licked his lips. "That way, we could surprise you nicely here iown."

  Arada, seething, ignored him. "Why did you destroy our home?"

  The Master squinted. "Me? Without the help of my friends here, I never could have do." He gestured to the bald followers around him. "I'm truly sorry, my dear." He traced a tear down his cheek with his finger. "Overmore was simply a matter I o settle. Just like the rest of this nd, and all those damned remaining..." He searched for the right word. "...heretics. It's my duty to up the st remnants."

  He o the captive beside him. "One moment," he said to Arada. "Then we catch up nicely." He snickered inwardly, croug beside the woman on the ground.

  "For the st time: where is your friend hiding?" he pressed.

  "I won't tell you," she said harshly.

  "If you cooperate, his end will be less painful."

  The woma him angrily.

  "You've got fire," he whispered in her ear. "How about joining us?"

  A moment of silence passed. Then she spat in his face.

  She's got guts, Irgos thought, still uo move a muscle.

  "I'm afraid you have no choice," said the Master as he wiped the spit from his face with his sleeve. He took out a long, familiar knife from his pocket.

  No. Not again. Irgos felt like throwing up.

  But instead of strikihe Master ran the bde over the tip of his middle finger, drawing a thin line of blood. Then he pressed his fio the bound woman's forehead, hard enough that Irgos's stomach turned as he saw the entire finger push through her skull.

  "What?" he uttered softly.

  For a few seds, she vulsed non-stop. Her eyes rolled back, then her eyelids closed. Her long hair fell out, strand by strand, until her head was as smooth as a billiard ball. Then she went still on the ground.

  "That went rather smoothly," said the Master with satisfa as he withdrew his finger from her head. "How about joining us now?"

  The woman stood up with her eyes still closed. "I'd like nothing more, Master." Her voice sounded much lower—stoic, hypnotized, and devoid of will.

  The Master smirked. "Why don't you free yourself from those ropes?" he enced her.

  With a single movement, she raised her arms with such force that the ropes around her waist snapped. Irgos's mouth dropped.

  Impossible.

  He go his side. Arada was alsling to prehend what she had just seen.

  The Master now strode toward Arada and Irgos, like a grinning spider approag his prey caught in the web. Meanwhile the woman walked away from the ter ao stand beside her new bald friends in the semi-circle.

  Half a meter away, he stopped before them. Irgos could smell him from there—a st that was strange and horrifying.

  "Sorry to keep you waiting," he said, baring his pearly white teeth in a grin. "Let's get to know each other a little better, shall we? May I ask for your names?"

  "None of your business!" Arada shouted.

  "o meet you, None Of Your Business." He chuckled and turos. "And you are?"

  Irgos couldn't find words in the wake of the se on the square.

  "Oh dear," mocked the Master, softly ruffling Irgos's scruffy brown hair. "The boy 't speak. Shall we teach him some manners?" he asked the hen holding Irgos.

  Arada exploded. "Keep your filthy hands off him, bastard!"

  The Master ignored her, holding his face close tos. His eyes pierced straight through his skull, and his breath reeked of rot.

  "Give me the elixir, Irgos." His tone was forceful and direct.

  Irgos froze.

  What? How does he know—

  Irgos opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out.

  "I-I," he stammered. "hat—"

  "We don't have any elixir," Arada interrupted. "Never heard of it."

  Elixir? Does he mean... the vial Cura gave us?

  The man turo his sister. "I'm not stupid, Arada. I know how Cura was. He would never let his daughter go without the remedy he guarded for so long. Give it up." He held out a hand, waiting for her response.

  A chill ran down Irgos's spine as he felt himself grow cold inside. Remedy? Daughter? How does he know so much about us?

  "Like I said, we don't have anything," Arada firmed.

  The Master snorted. "Lies," he spat, and turned his head to some of his followers. "Search them."

  Immediately, two people approached them—one of whom was the woman who'd been bound on the ground just minutes earlier. She stood in front os, feeling along his clothes, while the other searched Arada. When they found nothing, they took Arada's backpack.

  We're done for, Irgos thought. All our things for nothing.

  The person turhe backpaside out. All their belongings spilled onto the street—the paper that'd led them to Ebrotown, their water bottle, the transparent bag, the little box with wooden sticks, the bck disk with the red arrow, and Cura's half-amulet.

  But no sign of the vial.

  Huh?

  Sweat broke out on his forehead. Did we lose it? That's impossible. It's been ihe whole time.

  "No elixir," reported the underling. "They were telling the truth, Master."

  "I don't buy it," the man said, pting. "Fine, if you won't speak the truth, we'll do this another way." He reached into his pocket, pulled out his knife, and pressed the tip into his middle finger, making a drop of blood appear.

  Despair washed os. No, not someone else. Not sis.

  "Any st words?" the Master asked, a cruel smile spreading across his face. He stepped in front of her, ready to strike. "Something personal for your so-called little brother, perhaps?" He burst out ughing.

  So-called?

  "DIE!" she screamed in his face.

  The Master smiled. "So be it, Arada." He pressed a fio her forehead, and Arada immediately lifted her head and bit down hard on his finger. Her mouth ched so tightly that Irgos heard bones crack as she twisted her head to the side.

  The Master yanked his finger from her teeth. He looked stoically at the crooked stump dangling from his left hand, blood p from the teeth marks. He seemed unfazed by her sudden act of defiance. Where a normal person would have screamed, he remained calm and posed. Then he saw her fused look at his rea, and that sinister smile returned.

  "Pain is nothing more than an experience of the human mind," he began. "It loses meaning once you know pain is merely nerve signals. Uand this, and you'll be free." He waved his hand up and down, the stump moving at unnatural angles.

  Arada's face turned ashen. Her rage vanished instantly, and Irgos felt his fear intensify as he watched what this man was capable of.

  What kind of monster is this? Either he's pretending, or he's actually immuo pain.

  Out of he man thrust the ko Arada's abdomen, pulling it out immediately.

  "AAAAAAAHHH!"

  Irgos had never heard Arada scream so loud. He was sure it would echo all the way to Overmore.

  "But most people fear pain," the Master tinued between her cries. "They run from it, deny it, refuse it. They are er thas, scrambling for fort." He sneered, ughing as Arada's blood soaked her clothes. "It's a DISEASE." He spat the word. "At the first sting of hardship, they crumble. They think that tight feeling should vanish instantly. People are so attached to our world. They 't habacks. They 't sit still and realize that pain is an illusion."

  Arada kept screaming. If she hadn't been injured, she would have truly attacked him by now.

  He stroked her red hair—which appeared even fierier from her inner rage—and whispered in her ear, "Don't worry, Arada. I'll free you from this hell." He raised a finger again, bringing it toward her head.

  Just before he struck, they heard a dull thud beside them. There was coughing and choking.

  Irgos turned his head. The woman who had searched him—the Master's st victim—dropped to her knees. An arrow was lodged in her chest, and blood dripped from her mouth. Moments ter, she colpsed to the ground, dead on the spot.

  "What the—" the Master began.

  Before he could finish, chaos erupted. Irgos heard something ctter to the ground, and suddenly, steam and smoke spread rapidly in all dires, making it impossible to see. A sed ter, a loud thud sounded beside him. He felt the grip on his left arm disappear, followed by his right captor colpsing and his ties loosening by some sharp object cutting through them.

  I'm... free?

  He then heard two more thuds, followed by heavy impacts. He could just make out Arada's shape through the mist. Her two attackers y motionless beside her, and her hands were also freed from the ropes. He ran to her, notig someoanding behind her in the smoke, but he couldn't see who it was.

  "You two, follow me," a rough, unnatural voianded. Irgos saw the figure motion for them. "NOW!"

  The mysterious figure disappeared into the mist. Irgos and the injured Arada ran after them.

  "THAT'S HIM!" he heard the Master shout through the smoke. "Everyone, after them!"

  They reached the front of a building with an open door and cracked windows. Here, the smoke was less dense. Inside, visibility was just good enough to catch a glimpse of their face—or whatever could be called a face.

  Their eyes seemed to be opaque gss, and they had no nose or mouth, only a rge bout with a strange rouip. It looked a bit like a mask.

  "Follow me," they said again, their voice muffled through the mask.

  They ran through the building. There were wooden tables of various shapes everywhere, with mismatched chairs, many broken or tossed aside. But there was no time to take in their surroundings. Arada and Irgos followed them to the back of the building, where a closed door waited in the wall.

  Behind them, footsteps pouhrough the building. "Faster. FASTER!" The Master and his gang were right behind them.

  The masked person opehe door. "Close it," they said once everyone was through. Arada obeyed.

  Irgos then watched as the masked figure effortlessly slid a rge et against the door. A sed ter, they heard pounding from the other side.

  Just in time.

  "It's not safe yet," the masked figure said. "They have tremendous ford destroy the door any moment."

  Arada and Irgos followed them to a series of stairs located oher side of the door. Arada struggled to keep up, holding both hands against her abdomen to stem the bleeding.

  By the sixth staircase, she grew nervous. "How much farther?"

  She received an immediate answer. When they reached the top, there was no more staircase, only another door hanging off its hinges.

  Moments ter, they were on the building's rooftop. The scorg sun was directly overhead, and a hot wind blew around them. The masked person turo them.

  "We'll keep going across the rooftops," came their muffled voice. "It's the only way to escape."

  "W-what—" stammered Arada.

  "Questions ter, okay?"

  She nodded obediently.

  They followed Mask over the interected rooftops.

  Good thing these buildings are lined up like this, Irgos thought.

  As if the devil had heard him, their path e a rooftop edge. Teers below was a narrow alley. The buildings tinued oher side, but the gap was over two meters wide, though the roofs oher side were lower.

  "Jump," said Mask. "We make it."

  Irgos wao protest, but Mask had already made the leap and nded gracefully oher side. Arada did the same, keeping her hands on her wound. Despite her wound, her legs still worked—miraculously enough.

  "We h-have n-no choice, I-Irgos," she enced him, stuttering when she saw his worried, height-fearing look. "We have to trust them."

  Irgos took a few steps bad then took a running start. With adrenaline pumping, he jumped across the gap, and Mask caught him oher side.

  They ran further across a new series of rooftops, occasionally needing to jump or take another route if the gap was too wide.

  Mask stopped at a metal dder on the edge of a building. "We've gone far enough," came the voice from behind their mask. "We go down here."

  "Wait," Irgos said. "She's injured."

  Mask thought for a moment. "Let me ha," they said, gesturing for Arada to stand by the dder.

  "Do you trust me?" they asked her. The strange voice behind the mask gave the question an eerie effect.

  Arada hey grabbed hold of her with their left hand and desded the dder with their other hand, allowio press her hands against her wound. Rung by rung, they desded together, Arada moaning every other sed.

  Irgos followed after them. "Still no sign of them up there," he said after o look over the rooftops.

  Mask grunted nervously. "Don't jinx it."

  Once all three were on the ground, they let go of Arada and looked around as if orienting themselves.

  "We're almost there," they panted from behind their mask. They followed Mask through a few narrow streets until they stopped at a rge brown street tile. They pulled a small metal object from their pocket and crouched down. One by ohey unscrewed three of the four small pins from the ers, then rotated the tile aside. In the grouh it was another dder. They motioned fos to climb down first.

  As he desded, his nose seemed to explode from the sten the narrow tunnel. Irgos had never smelled anything like it. Once he was a few steps lower, Mask positiohemselves above him, gesturing for Arada to desd in the same position as before. Both of them were just slim enough to fit dowuogether. Finally, Mask looked around and shifted the tile bato pce. Suddenly, it itch dark.

  Irgos heard a click, and a bright white light appeared above him.

  "All the way to the bottom," Mask said, while holding Arada one-handed. "I'll follow after."

  They illumihe shaft belos, giving him enough visibility to desd.

  Once again, he lost all sense of time. After about five minutes, he reached the bottom, though it could just as easily have been five years.

  He heard Mask and the injured Arada desding with much groaning. A momehey stood beside him. Irgos now saw that there was a small mp on Mask's mask, right above their eyes. But it wasn't a dle or oil mp like in Overmore. It seemed to need no fuel at all. Thanks to the light, Irgos could take in their surroundings.

  They stood on a tiled ledge o what seemed like an underground river of sorts. Filthy, sihe water was muddy brown. The river was about teers wide, and the ceiling arched in a dome shape. But the stench was even worse than iry tunnel. Irgos tried to pare the smell to something. As if a mixture of a thousand rotten eggs, sulfur, sheep dung, jellyfish slime, and multiply that by a hundred. And then you're still not close.

  A real Old World tunnel, he thought.

  "We're safe now," came Mask's rasping voice. "My hideout is nearby." They saw Arada wrinkle her nose in disgust. "I know, the stench is unbearable, but hang on." They led them along the edge of the river.

  "W-what kind of pce is th-this?" Arada asked after a while, still pressing against her wound with all strength she had left.

  "This was once a sewer," Mask said. "Now I only use the tuo escape unnoticed."

  "Sewer?"

  Mask looked bad realized they didn't know Old World terms. "It was the drainage system for all the wastewater from the houses above," they expined. "Underground, there's a work of these pipes, all ected. They led to a distant point. There, the water was once purified and could be reused."

  Arada eechless—partly from the pain and partly from the vast underground structure.

  "I 't go any further," Arada panted after a while, clearly at the end of her strength as she tried to cover her wound manually.

  "Don't give up. We're here," came the voice from behind their mask. To their left, they stopped at a slightly curved door aered. Arada and Irgos followed them inside.

  Mask pressed something on the wall, and that same strange white light filled the room. They stood in a rge gray chamber. Thick pilrs in the middle supported the ceiling. At the back y a wide mattress on the floor. To the right, there were various items: Old World maes that Irgos didn't reize, along with tables, ets, and other familiar household items.

  Mask closed the door and secured it with a heavy bar. For a moment, the room was pletely silent. Irgos finally had time to take a closer look at the mysterious figure.

  Mask was dressed in an unusual outfit: patches of brown in the shape of leaves. The mask gave them an even eerier effect—almost like an alien being. It covered only their forehead, while the rest of their head was a tangled mess of brown curly hair. They also wore a backpa the same color as their suit. A long stick was strapped diagonally across it, along with an unfamiliar wooden traption and a quiver of slender rods.

  Arada colpsed against the wall onto the floor like a rag doll. "I d-don't know... what just... happened... or who you are... or why yht us... here," she mao say. "But I don't know... how we ... thank you for sav—"

  "You there," Mask interrupted, nodding toward Irgos. With lightning speed, they pulled the wooden device from their backpad took out a rod from the quiver. Only now did Irgos see what it was: the same kind of arrow that had killed the woman in the square.

  They id the arrow on their devid poi at Irgos. "Back against the wall with your hands behind you," they anded. "One move, and you're done."