“If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of artefact are you looking for here?” Machia asked Kalina.

  The two, alongside a group of other Hunters, had just finished their briefing on the dig-site and were already on the scene, though the two had split off from everyone else. The dig-site was an ancient Mobile City that had been engulfed in a giant landslide almost a thousand years ago.

  “This place was where Oh Soo Jae, the Scale Bearer, conducted hundreds of trials in the aftermath of the War of the Devils,” Kalina explained.

  Machia nodded along. “The schism between those with haloes and those with horns. Based on the beliefs of Pre-Emergence, those with haloes were holy and righteous while those with horns were impure and sinful. A lot of horned beastkin got caught up in it too because of that.”

  “That’s right. To compound on that, the saviour of the world was an angel, but there was no devil on the Lancets. This was before oni were discovered to be a subspecies of devil, so they didn’t realise that the Storm King was a devil all along.”

  “Hah. And now the whole world prefers to call them fiends so that they don’t have to talk of that war.”

  Machia and the Kalina had talked while they walked, and they were now nearing one of the entrances into the ancient city. A maintenance door with stairs leading down into darkness. At the time of the landslide, most of the inner workings of the City were closed, so the innards were somewhat traversable.

  This was primarily an excavation mission, meant to dig up pieces of the ancient City to utilise and repurpose whatever could be salvaged. Most Hunters, and corporations involved, were digging through the landslide from topside. Delving into the innards of the Mobile City was heavily ill-advised, as a collapse could occur at any moment due to the excavation. That was also not to mention that the city plates were misaligned by now, meaning that intended passageways were blocked off or destroyed. There was a very low chance you would find something, but Kalina insisted she had to go.

  “So, we must be looking for the Scale Bearer’s artefact,” Machia stated.

  “The Scale Bearer’s gavel. She had left it behind in the courthouse after the final trial with the hope that she would not have to use it ever again. Her desire came true, as she would pass away from old age a few months later. She was nearly 100 at the time, so it was only natural.”

  Kalina lit up a small light at the end of her crossbow. This was a simple spell everyone knew known as Spark of Light, belonging to the Light Aspect of course. Children often competed to make theirs as bright as they could.

  Machia, in turn, tied a string to the entranceway, ensuring they’d be able to find their way back. The string was attached to a reel that was part of a gauntlet he had taken out of storage.

  “What does it do?” He asked.

  “The Principle Gavel allows its user to judge targets en-masse without the need for a courtroom or anyone else. It will hand down an appropriate punishment based on the target’s crimes, but the nature of judgment is wholly dependent on the gavel itself.”

  “To use it would be to cast the Scale Bearer’s judgment upon the world again. It can be an effective tool to control and punish crime, but it doesn’t judge the user itself.”

  “Criminals could use it to judge other criminals and take out the competition. Looks like we’ll have to find it first then,” Machia noted.

  “I know the general location and some of the underground passageways, but we might get lost in there. Now, come on, let’s retrieve it before it gets dark.”

  Machia looked around the area briefly. He twirled his string around the doorway a few more times just to make sure it wouldn’t get untied. He took just one more survey of the environment before he headed in.

  Right after he descended the stairs, a figure clad in black approached the entrance. The garb they wore covered every single part of their body and was indistinct, shrouding their identity. This figure knelt down and touched the string Machia had left behind, making it tremble a little.

  “Ooh, what a convenient guide. Hope they don’t mind me intruding on their alone time~” the figure spoke in a distorted voice before they too descended.

  ———————————————————————

  “Toolbox? That’s your name? Really?” Machua questioned.

  “It’s a-a codename!” Toolbox stammered a bit. “I’m not giving my real name away to strangers.”

  “That’s a peculiar codename, considering you are a detective. Perhaps you enjoy tinkering?” Rasa asked.

  “No, it’s not! It’s a perfectly normal name. Anyway, we gotta roll before the Bureau catches up, I can’t get taken in today! Take me to the restaurant from yesterday!”

  ———————————————————————

  “Mmm, this bowl is so delicious I could die!” Toolbox exclaimed as she finished it.

  Machua and the squad, having picked up Carmine, were now sitting in Sterling Snowdrop with the self-proclaimed detective. Everyone was suspicious of her, but Plue especially was narrowing her eyes.

  “Toolbox, can you tell us what you’ve investigated so far?” Plue asked.

  “You tell me first,” Toolbox responded.

  ‘She definitely doesn’t know anything. She’s just a hobo isn’t she?’ Machua thought.

  “Fine! Chimaera’s been smuggling monsters from the nearby monster den into the underground shopping centre. We heard the mantis when we were investigating it so we chased after it.”

  Machua murmured, “I’ll have to call the morgue’s manager later and explain it was an emergency. I wonder if that worker earlier got the memo.”

  “WAIT! You ran past a worker earlier!? Why didn’t you grab him!?” Toolbox screamed out.

  “Hmph! I already put a bug on him,” Plue said with a smug grin. “He was nearby the incident and had messy clothes. He’s a plain suspect. Anyone can see that.”

  “Ohhhh, good work! That guy’s Chimaera.”

  Stunned by the sudden revelation, Machua could only exclaim, “Huh!?”

  “Yeppers. He’s um… Snake Division. At least he should be.”

  “How would you even know that? Is there proof?” Plue asked aggressively.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Proof? Like what?” Toolbox tilted her head in genuine curiosity.

  “You know! Like photos, or video recordings or any witnesses?”

  “I’m a witness.”

  “No! That isn’t good enough. We need more detail if you want us to believe you.”

  Carmine held back a snort watching the two of them.

  “Just how much detail do you want birdie? Why don’t you just go along with what I say and then you can help me nab them?”

  “Because we can’t trust you! Why should we? You appear when we need help and then you say things like they’re already proven true. For all we know you’re a member of Chimaera!”

  Toolbox’s eyes opened as wide as they could be. Her entire body froze, and her ears and tail both stuck straight up. It was like she was suddenly sprayed with cold water.

  “I’m sorry I lied! I’m not a detective at all! I’m homeless and have no money!” Toolbox slammed her head onto the table and clasped her hands together for forgiveness.

  “See! She’s not a detective at all! Phony!” Plue stood up and pointed at her.

  “Calm down, Plu, calm down. Why don’t you tell us your story, Toolbox?” Machua gently pushed both Toolbox and Plue back into their proper positions.

  “I-I want another beef bowl first.”

  “Only if you talk,” Plue responded instead of Machu.

  “I will. Just please feed me more. I’m so hungry.”

  “You can get everything you want after this.” Carmine flashed Galas’ credit card. “So don’t stop talking or you’re not getting any.”

  At the sight of the shiny credit card, Toolbox straightened up. “Yes ma’am!”

  “It all began when they took me in…”

  ———————————————————————

  Kalina and Machia had been walking for quite a long time. There were many, many twists, and turns as they often found passageways blocked or collapsed. Some of them led to walls or had oddly tight gaps and others led to pits or had monsters in them. Machia did not find his Ephemerality useful, as he would not know where to phase back in and would quickly run out of mana. Even if he did manage to find the artefact, it was surely filled with mana so he would have no way to escape with it. All he had was that string reel.

  “Ah, we should be close,” Kalina said. “This is probably the prison that’s connected to the courthouse.”

  The two had found a set of stairs that led upwards and into another doorway. The two were in quite deep however, so it didn’t make sense for an aboveground prison to be here.

  “The prison? I don’t think we’re anywhere near the elevation from before though.”

  “The City Plate the prison and the courtroom were on must have slid off into a chasm and been buried in more dirt. We were lucky that the City Plates still aligned enough that we could reach here even though it was a tight squeeze at times,” Kalina guessed.

  ‘If that wasn’t the case, would the Kalina of the last timeline kept trying?’ Machia wondered. ‘She probably would have been told to leave it and come back when the excavation was done.’

  “I’ll enter first,” he stated as he walked up the stairs.

  Machia grasped the doorknob and pushed it. He found some resistance, but it wasn’t much. He merely shoved it a bit harder and broke through.

  The door creaked open, but it sounded as if it hit something too.

  ‘A barricade?’ Machia thought as he went to check. ‘Why would they barricade the…’

  A skeleton had fallen by the side of the door. It was still somewhat intact. A lot of the bones were broken or eroded but it was clear that the skeleton was human. A human of which race though, they couldn’t know.

  “Oh…” Kalina had come up and seen the skeleton too.

  Kalina shot the Spark of Light upwards and made it illuminate the entire area. They were in a prison block with many, many rows of cells. Strewn all across it were desiccated skeletons, many of them mixed together, making it impossible to tell one person apart. A few had even begun fossilisation.

  Machia tied the end of his string to the door they had just entered through and stored his string gauntlet. The courthouse was directly connected to the prison so there wasn’t a need to continue marking the place. After giving Kalina a nod, the two began exploring the prison.

  “So many dead…” Kalina muttered as they walked.

  The amount of bones that littered the floor were so numerous that it was impossible to walk on it without crunching someone’s remains.

  “Want me to carry you?” Machia asked her. He had been standing a few inches above the ground this entire time.

  Kalina looked up from his feet to his face then shook her head. “No, thank you. It’ll be uncomfortable for both you and me.”

  Machia shrugged his shoulders and continued walking. Kalina followed suit but after hearing a sickening crunch under her feet she had to stop.

  Within seconds, Kalina was being carried in Machia’s arms.

  “T-thank you for this. It’s actually rather comfortable,” Kalina turned away from his face as she said that.

  “Is it really?”

  “Don’t make me say it again, please…”

  The field of bones continued even further out of the prison block. The corridors, the warden’s office, the maintenance rooms, the security office, almost every single area had some bones scattered around them. The only area that wasn’t was the courtyard, which was inaccessible due to the landslide.

  “The stench of death is so heavy…” Machia muttered.

  Machia silently tracked which skeleton was of which race. He gave up after a few rooms. They were by and large indistinguishable from each other. Humans, elves, beastkin without horns, vampires and angels all had the same skeleton. Angel haloes disappear when an angel dies, and though most of the prisoners were angels, in the end, they had become just the same as everyone else.

  However, the skeletons that were supposed to have horns, or at least the skulls that were supposed to, were missing their horns. The horns were clearly broken, taken apart. Every single one. Not a single horn could be found.

  ‘Every single fiend and horned beastkin locked up in here had to have been targeted and had their horns broken…’

  “Machia, that room’s oddly boarded up. Let’s try heading in,” Kalina pointed out.

  Machia nodded and shifted Kalina’s position to over his shoulder. She let out a little yelp at the sudden movement. He ignored this and swiftly broke through the boarded door then went inside.

  The floor in this room was not littered with bones. Instead, there was only a single skeleton. The skeleton was oddly intact. So intact that it was the only skeleton that still had its horns. In fact, it didn’t just have its horns. It was sitting on a pile of horns.

  Kalina hopped off of Machia’s shoulder when she saw that. “Just how many horns are in that pile? How many people lost their horns here?”

  “Look, in the corners of the room.”

  Kalina turned to look and found that there were piles of food cans lying there. So many food cans, most of which had been opened.

  “The prisoners fought each other over food,” Kalina began. “Seeing as to how so many of them were angels, anti-devil sentiment must have been high, so when all hell broke loose, they broke the horns of everyone they could find. Whether they be devil or beastkin.”

  She turned to the lone skeleton with horns. “Yet you, somehow, managed to hide away and blockade yourself here with the last of the food supply.“

  “… Yes,” a dark and grungy voice came from the skeleton.

  “I knew it. With the vast emotions roiling in this place, a ghost was bound to form. There’s no hiding the stench of death. Are you the only one?” She asked.

  “I… ate them,” the ghost answered.

  The horned skeleton did not move, but it was clear the ghost resided in it.

  “The ghosts? Or the living people?”

  “…”

  The horned ghost did not answer. Perhaps it didn’t want to, or it thought that she was undeserving of the truth, or maybe it was too ashamed of what it had done and couldn’t admit it. Whichever the case was, Kalina loaded an arrow into her crossbow.

  “It must have been dreadful. Being buried under that landslide and trapped with those who hated you,” Kalina spoke. “The walls here dampen mana, so even the Earth Aspected couldn’t dig themselves out of the landslide. All you could do was wait for rescue.“

  “At least you could use mana to produce air. But to sustain that, you’d need food and rest. And there wasn’t enough for everyone. The choice for the majority was obvious. Kill the devils. Break their horns. Humiliate those who put them into this mess.”

  Kalina pointed the crossbow at the horned skeleton. “Nine o’Clock.”

  Kalina’s crossbow glowed with Life mana. Machia watched this familiar scene play out before him again. He had watched her do this dozens of times, and each time he would remain mesmerised.

  “I’m thankful that the enchantments on these walls have faded by now. And I’m sorry I took so long.“

  Machia watched as she stared into the horned skeleton’s empty eye sockets. Her gaze was unwavering and filled with purpose. She knew what she had to do beyond all doubts.

  “YOU CAN’T GO YET!!!” The horned skeleton suddenly screeched with a different voice and tone as before.

  The horned skeleton began writhing and reached its hand out towards Kalina. It tried to move its feet, stand up and walk, but it was unable to. The legs, as if possessing a different mind, resisted the command. Kalina remained unfazed.

  “NOOOO! SUFFER WITH US DEVIL! YOU NEED TO PAY!”

  The horned skeleton’s movements had become so erratic pieces of its own bones began to break off. However, it still could not stand.

  “Please…” that old grungy voice emanated from the skeleton.

  “Rest in peace. You and everyone here.”

  Kalina pulled the trigger on her crossbow and an arrow shot out. The arrow flew true and pierced the horned skeleton in the skull. For a moment, it went limp.

  “WE WON’T LET-“

  Suddenly, two hands grasped its horns. A foot stomped onto its ribcage as well.

  “Sorry. I can’t send you off myself. But I can make it faster.”

  “Machia, no!” Kalina shouted. But he didn’t stop.

  Machia pumped his hands full of his mana. And with one motion, he broke the horns off of the skeleton. The sickening crunch echoed around the room. Machia threw the horns onto the ground and gripped the skeleton’s skull.

  “Life and death changes in an instant. For you, who had the longest change, your life has been anything but ephemeral. I’ll correct that mistake.”

  Machia pumped mana into the skull directly. The mana was Ephemerality, the Aspect of transience. The mana infused into the skeleton and with its help, the Life arrow could do its job. The skeleton’s erratic movements stopped just as quickly as it had begun, preventing it from wreaking havoc and injuring Kalina.

  Machia stepped off of the skeleton and turned to Kalina.

  “I… didn’t know Ephemerality could be used in that way,” Kalina admitted.

  “Ephemerality is the Aspect of change, of transience. Think of it as the thing that bridges the gap between ice and water. When ice melts into water or when water freezes into ice. That’s when Ephemerality is in play,” Machia explained.

  “It must be closely related with Death and Life.”

  “More than I like it to.”

  “Um, I’m thankful you’re okay,” Machia awkwardly said, upon realising the mood shift.

  “No, no, I’m thankful you helped me,” Kalina responded with much the same energy. “I’m grateful. Thank you for helping me lay those souls to rest.”

  Machia couldn’t manage much of a response and simply nodded. He walked to a door past the horn pile and broke it open. On the ground were once again, a field of bones.

  “I think you’ll have to take me into your arms again,” Kalina giggled a bit as she said.

  Machia nodded, but just as he went to pick her up, he felt a shudder.

  He looked to Kalina to see that she was feeling that same shudder. Her eyes were wide open, as if she recognised what was happening.

  The two felt as if there was someone gazing upon them. Not in the same way as a human gaze, only able to see what was on the surface. No, this was a gaze that penetrated all. It saw past their physical appearances and into their very souls. It scrutinised each and every bit of them, stripping all their pretences away. What was left before this gaze was their naked selves.

  The sound of a gavel slamming onto its block hit their ears, no, their soul.

  The two were forced to the ground by an invisible force. The two struggled to get up and turned their heads to where the sound came from.

  In the centre of their vision, dressed in all-black attire, where none of their skin could be shown, was a person holding a gavel. The gavel was not ornate, it looked like any ordinary gavel, but it exuded power. And anyone would tell what Aspect was emanating from it. Judgment.

  “…Phantom!”

  “Sorry~ I just had to try it out~”