March 30th

Year 2120

South of the City of Mithforden

Kingdom of Fergahn, Gartaena

Axerhos pulled his sword backwards, breaking the lock, and then slashed twice at the man. The man raised his greatsword, blocking both attacks, and then Axerhos feinted to the bottom right. His enemy took the bait, lowering his greatsword to parry the third attack, but Axerhos, instead of finishing the slash, abruptly hit his enemy with his shield in his left arm, the same way he had hit Merdilen. The big man stumbled backward, and Axerhos sprang at him, his longsword ready at his side.

“Ultimate Technique: Infernal Thrust!” he shouted, and boosting himself forward, thrust his longsword towards the man’s chest, fully extending his right arm. His enemy took a step to the side in an attempt to dodge the attack, but he wasn’t nearly fast enough. Axerhos’ longsword fully pierced through the man’s side, making him scream and fall backward. Axerhos then raised his sword over his head, ready to deal the final blow.

“Stop!” Merdilen exclaimed, rushing to him. “We don’t need to kill him. Breaking his sword so he can’t fight us anymore is enough. Remember, he’s human, same as us.”

“...Okay,” Axerhos finally said, giving an elaborate spin to his sword before sheathing it. “But only because you spared my life before.” Still, he did kick his fallen enemy in the head, making him lose consciousness, and Merdilen tossed him a roll of bandages for when he woke up.

“So, are you evil or not?” Axerhos suddenly asked him.

“...I’m not,” Merdilen replied, momentarily puzzled by the direct question. “I have done nothing wrong,” he added, finding unnecessary to mention his theft of the two valuable books from the House of Records.

“Hmmm…. So that man’s attack just now confirms my suspicions,” Axerhos said in a conspiratorial tone. “My evil enemies know you are powerful and that if we worked together we’d be too powerful to be stopped by them, so they turned us against each other in order to weaken us and then send someone to kill us.”

“I think he was just a common bounty hunter who followed you,” Merdilen commented.”

“I don’t think so. But anyway, you just had the honor of sparing the life of the great hero Axerhos. Congratulations.”

“...Sure. Coming to think about it, I don’t think I’ve properly introduced myself. My name is Merdilen. Merdilen… Arthenmon, and I’m the last Transmutator.”

“Merdilen Arthenmon, huh. My real name is Alvoren Vandmorn, but the world knows me as…” and with that, he crossed his arms in front of his face in an X gesture and took a step to the side, making his long cape billow, “the great hero Axerhos!”

“Oh, okay. May I call you Alvoren?” Merdilen asked. “It’s less awkward that way.”

“...It’s not ideal, but if you don’t want to use my epic hero codename, go ahead,” he said, sounding slightly disappointed. “But, back to the important things. So, are you going somewhere?”

“I’m searching for power to stop my enemies, survive, and hopefully fix this ugly world someday,” Merdilen answered, trying to give as little specific information as possible.

“Ah, a noble errand,” Alvoren agreed. “So, I’ve come to a conclusion. Considering both our objectives are to become heroes, that we have mutual enemies, and that you have proved your worth by sparing my life, I have decided I shall travel with you. You’ll have the honor of forming an alliance with the great hero Axerhos.”

“...Sure, you can come along if you want. But it won’t be easy,” Merdilen warned.

“The great hero Axerhos and his noble Transmutator partner will have no problem defeating whatever perils they may face!” Alvoren declared.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go. We’ve got a long road ahead of us.”

Kayline and the rest of the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team arrived finally at the city Mithforden, two days after leaving the city of Arthol. Kayline thought it took way too long considering there was a Transmutator in the run, but considering they traveled twice as fast as him, they should still be okay. She had been to Mithforden before, but it had been long ago, so it was nice to be there again. She just wished it was under different circumstances, though.

They arrived at a massive tower in the center of the city, a tower which rose so high over the rest of the city there was no place in Mithforden from which it couldn’t be seen. The House of Records. They left their horses on a small stable close to it, and the moment they dismounted, a guard came running to them. He looked panicked, and started to speak frantically.

“You’re the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team, right?!”

“Yes, we are,” Sir Grendar answered.

“Thank god you’ve arrived! The place is pure chaos now,” the guard told them between gasps. “As you know, the Transmutator attacked, four days ago. We don’t know what he stole yet, but we’re in the process of investigating. We have already registered everything up to the thirteenth floor, section ‘M.’ Please, follow me.”

So they followed the guard into the House of Records, and a fat and bald clerk greeted them at the entrance.

“So it is certain the Transmutator stole something from section ‘N’ upwards, right?” double-checked Kayline with the clerk.

“Indeed,” answered the fat clerk, nodding.

“From what floor did the Transmutator jump?” asked Jarleren.

“The twentieth floor,” he replied. “Section ‘T.’”

“Then we know for a fact the Transmutator stole something from section ‘T,’” Jarleren said.

“How do you know?” asked Salvatore, raising an eyebrow.

“Think about it,” Kayline explained, understanding Jarleren. “Once the Transmutator got what he needed, he’d of course want to leave the building immediately, and wouldn’t want to risk staying there any longer. So we can deduce the Transmutator stole something from section ‘T’ and left as soon as he could.”

“...Right.”

“I’ll send men to check it immediately,” said the clerk.

So, he sent several men to check the twentieth floor, who returned about ten minutes later.

“You were right,” one of the men declared towards the group in a solemn tone. “The Transmutator stole the books ‘Transmutation War: Cataclysm’ and ‘Transmutators: Masters of Matter.’”

“Why would he do all this just for history lessons?” asked Salvatore.

“There must be something there of practical use for him,” Sir Grendar said.

“Do those books teach about the Transmutation?” Kayline asked.

“Hey, Fred, come over here!” called the clerk. “He’s the expert on the subject.”

So, after repeating the question to him, the scholar called Fred answered, “No, the only place to find actual information concerning the Transmutation is thought to be the fortresses of the two Transmutators. There is none on those books… but the fortresses’ location can be found there.”

“That’s it,” Jarleren declared. “He’s searching for power.”

“Those fortresses must be swarming with knowledge,” Sir Grendar said. “We need to get there before him. If not, it’s game over for us. He’ll be too powerful for us to fight. Is there any other way to know those fortresses’ locations?”

“I’ll search related books for any hints,” said Fred.

“Do it.”

So he left, and after a while, returned with a map showing its location.

“How do we know which fortress he’s headed to?” Kayline asked.

“It’s simple,” Jarleren replied. “We know he arrived from the west, so we can deduce that he came from Arthenmon’s fortress. Therefore, it’s obvious he’s now headed to Farenthar’s fortress, as he’d have no need of returning to his home with a map.”

“Okay, so we should head south,” Salvatore said. “Let’s go.”

“There’s something I want to do first,” Jarleren said.

So they headed out and, after doing what Jarleren had headed off to do, arrived at the outer part of the city. It’d make no sense for Merdilen to need a map to get to his own ancestor’s fortress, as he probably came from there, so they could assume he was headed for the other fortress. The fortress of the Transmutator Morkilen Farenthar. They started riding south, all while looking for any traces of the Transmutator. Now, they knew where the Transmutator would go, and it was only a matter of time before they found him. Only a matter of time before they killed him.

Merdilen and Alvoren kept walking south for the next day with no problems, and Merdilen used the time to explain about the killers, the ancient Transmutators, and the fortress he was heading towards to Alvoren. It felt good talking to someone without the risk of being killed. Alvoren meanwhile spoke about his great battles and quests with great dramatism, from which Merdilen supposed half were either fake or exaggerated.

Although Alvoren was several years older than Merdilen, he was noticeably more immature, but Merdilen found talking with him fun. A nice breath of fresh air in all the chaos he was surrounded by these days. Alvoren had also asked Merdilen to make shoes with backward soles for them both, in order to throw off track any potential followers. Fortunately, Alvoren had a compass, so they made overall good progress.

“So, where do you come from?” Merdilen asked him.

“I come from the village of Verline, a village of great kings and heroes,” Alvoren replied proudly.

“I was there. It didn’t look that great to me,” Merdilen said before he could stop himself.

“Then you stayed for too little.”

“...Yeah, that might be it,” agreed Merdilen unconvincingly.

“And why did you leave?” then asked Merdilen.

“I left in order to shine in this world, to find honor and glory like I was always meant to!”

Being an adventurer was an overall freelance job, so if Alvoren didn’t have any pending jobs, he was free to do whatever he wanted to. Merdilen supposed Alvoren was following him mainly for the lure of adventure, although he didn’t know if there was any deeper meaning behind it. Still, Alvoren didn’t add anything else, so Merdilen reasoned that if he didn’t volunteer to say it he probably didn’t feel comfortable talking about it, and he let the subject go.

They kept walking south for several hours, then stopped at the feet of a giant rock boulder to have dinner, as it was already getting late. They made some improvised dinner with some Transmutated food along with a part of Alvoren’s rations, and ate in relative silence. They had been making good time and had met no more bandits, bounty hunters, or killers since the fight in which they had met.

Alvoren suddenly looked to the side, towards behind the boulder, and started walking towards it half-crouched, as a hunter would stalk its prey. Merdilen looked at him puzzled and raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Merdilen then heard sudden movement behind the boulder, and Alvoren broke into a run towards it. Merdilen also headed there to find out what was happening, and saw two teenagers running away from Alvoren.

“What’s going on?!” Merdilen asked, but before anyone answered, Alvoren tackled one of the boys, throwing him to the ground. They were dressed for traveling, but didn’t seem to be carrying any weapons nor anything dangerous.

“You are spies, aren’t you?” he exclaimed. “Aren’t you?!”

“W-we’re not, sir!” the teen exclaimed. “We were just playing here!”

“No, you weren’t! We aren’t even near any settlements, there’s no way you just stumbled onto us!” What Alvoren had said was true. They were at least an hour away from the nearest city.

“H-hey, stop!” Merdilen called out to Alvoren, confused. “They’re just boys!”

“Well, then why are they carrying—,” Alvoren said, reaching into the fallen boy’s pocket and pulling out a long steel dagger, “—these!”

With that, the two teens paled in unison, and the other one muttered, “H-how did you—?”

“I saw the momentaneous shine of the sunlight reflecting on the blade!” Alvoren declared. “Now speak. What are your intentions?! You’re too young to be bounty hunters or bandits, so what are you?! Are you crafty allies of our evil enemies, ready to give our location away to your bosses?! Well, we won’t let you get away this easily!”

“W-we’re just plain robbers, sir!” the standing boy said, trembling. “We didn’t know you were so powerful!”

“You seem to be honest, I’ll give you that,” Merdilen said. “Alvoren, give me their weapons.”

“Right away, Merdilen!” Alvoren replied, quickly grabbing the other boy and tossing both daggers towards Merdilen. He caught them in midair and, without as much as a thought, turned them both to sand. The boys lost all remaining color and tumbled backward, looking as if they were about to faint.

“You aren’t spies, are you? Don’t you dare lie to me,” Merdilen said, trying to look as menacing as possible. And he succeeded.

“O-of course not, sir!” both boys said in unison.

“...Okay. Leave before I regret my decision.”

“W-what?!” Alvoren exclaimed. “Even if they were someone’s spies, they wouldn’t just tell us! We should tie them up to a tree and leave them here, just in case.”

Even though the killers might have perfectly resorted to new tactics now, he just didn’t feel it would be right. He had already realized Alvoren was extremely paranoic and an absolute chunibyo, and he didn’t want to risk two innocent kids just because they might be evil. That would go against his whole reasoning he had used against the killers, and he wanted to be no hypocrite. He was seriously tempted about doing what Alvoren had suggested, as it might pay off in the future, but he stopped himself. Sometimes it was easier to just act tough, but he was trying to be a hero, after all.

“...We’re letting them go,” Merdilen declared. “They look innocent enough. Now leave before I regret my decision.”

“...Sure, whatever you say. Just don’t come running to me when they ambush us with an army of enemies,” said Alvoren as a kid would speak to his mother who had just refused to buy him candy.

And with that, the kids ran away, leaving Merdilen and Alvoren alone but unsettled.

He seems like a good guy, Alvoren thought, walking next to Merdilen. Alvoren had lost on purpose, he tried to convince himself, all to find out the Transmutator’s intentions. And he seemed to be a good person, after all. Since they had met, Merdilen had spared the lives of four people—a bounty hunter, the two boys, and Alvoren himself. That was quite a lot. He truly seemed like the hero he was trying to be. And he was certainly a better person than most ‘heroes’ he had previously met.

Maybe, just maybe, Alvoren thought, he himself would be able to become a hero if he went with Merdilen. Maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to fulfill his dream.

Alvoren had made his decision. He would travel with Merdilen, the last Transmutator, and become a hero, or die trying.

Kayline and the rest of the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team had been riding for about half a day when they saw something strange on the road. It was a man with a greatsword hanging from his side, dragging his feet and clutching his side. From afar, he seemed to be drunk because of how he walked, but they soon realized he was instead severely hurt. He had a deep hole-like wound in his side, seemingly caused by a sword, and was bleeding badly.

“Come here, my good man!” Sir Grendar exclaimed worriedly, rushing to him.

“Th-thank you for finding me…” the man muttered while Sir Grendar laid him down. “I’ve been stumbling hurt through the forest for two days already. I thought I’d never been found.”

“Don’t worry. You’re okay now. But, what happened to you?”

“Please, you have to give this information to someone, anyone, immediately,” he said. “I’m a bounty hunter. I headed out to search for the Transmutator, as I had heard they were paying big money for his head, and I-I actually found him. I thought I’d be able to kill him for sure, as another bounty hunter, one who fought with a sword and shield, was already weakening him, but the most unexpected happened. That bounty hunter actually betrayed all of mankind, and… allied with the Transmutator! I tried to fight them both, but they were too much for me, so I was left like this. It’s a miracle I managed to escape alive. That was two days ago.”

“Oh, no…” Kayline muttered.

“Thank you for telling us,” Sir Grendar said. “We’re the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team, the official team designated to end the Transmutator’s menace. We’ll take care of this.”

“As if we didn’t have our hands full already,” Salvatore scoffed. “That’ll deserve extra payment.”

“Stop worrying so much about the money!” Kayline snapped.

Salvatore looked at her with an irritated look, and Sir Grendar asked the bounty hunter, “Did you see where the Transmutator and his new partner headed off to?”

“They knocked me unconscious before leaving, so I don’t really know, but the Transmutator was heading south when I first found him,” the bounty hunter answered. “Remember it was two days ago, though, so they may have perfectly changed course by now.”

“Your report matches what we already suspected. Okay, thank you very much for your help. Mankind will be eternally grateful.”

“Cut the bureaucracy and let’s get going,” said Jarleren coldly.

“Right.”

So, now they pretty much knew for a fact the Transmutator was headed towards one of the Transmutators’ fortresses. So, after indicating a nearby farm where he might receive medical help to the bounty hunter, they hopped on their horses once more and kept riding.

Soon after leaving the bounty hunter behind, Salvatore, who had turned out to be an excellent tracker, had found what they thought to be the Transmutator’s footprints, as they followed the path the bounty hunter had mentioned, so they had been following them since then. As the footprints were a few days old, they were fuzzy and difficult to see in some places, but Salvatore always found them sooner or later. A day after starting to follow them, they had seen the place in which the Transmutator, his partner, and the bounty hunter had seemingly fought, and so were now following two sets of footprints.

“...This is strange,” Salvatore said shortly after while examining the terrain once more on the lookout for footprints. “The footprints seem to be going backward here. But… they won’t fool me!”

Kayline crouched to look at them, and she effectively saw two sets of footprints suddenly going backward and heading somewhere else. She followed the new set of footprints with her eyes, confused.

“They’re trying to throw us off track, and they would have tricked any normal tracker, but they won’t trick me!” declared Salvatore. “You see, these are clearly just shoes with backward soles! Here’s my evidence. First of all, there’s no reason for them to suddenly turn around. Second, they are different from the earlier footprints, so they must be different, modified soles. These don’t have the characteristic marks of any normal shoe or boot, they’re just flat. Only rain boots have flat soles, as they’re usually plastic, but no one would no use rain boots on early autumn. So they’re clearly fake. Let’s get going,” he finally said, leaving Kayline examining the footprints, puzzled, but without finding any difference from the earlier ones.

Salvatore was really a good tracker. Well, he had been chosen for this job for a reason, Kayline thought, riding after him.

They kept riding for another day, following the Transmutator and his partner’s footprints, but even though traveling on horse was way faster than traveling on foot, they hadn’t caught up to him yet, as Salvatore had actually been traveling on foot to follow the footsteps accurately. Therefore, the rest of them were obviously riding at Salvatore’s pace too. Still, they were getting ever closer to their prey, as the tracks they were following were getting fresher and fresher. Salvatore estimated they would catch up to him in about two days tops.

“We’ll have to stop on a settlement soon. We’re running out of provisions,” mentioned Sir Grendar while they rode.

It was true. They had left the city of Arthol five days ago already, and as they were in a hurry, they hadn’t stopped to buy provisions in the city of Mithforden. They still had a few days of rations left in their backpacks, but it was better for them to stock up whenever they could. Besides, they needed to carry rations for both them and their horses, so if they wanted to travel with haste they weren’t able to take as many days of rations as they would have liked to.

“The city of Rarbeng is nearby,” Kayline suggested. “It’d just be a detour of about half an hour. Besides, as we know where the tracks were, Salvatore will be able to keep following them when we get back.”

“Of course I can,” Salvatore answered. “Okay, let’s go.”

So, they headed towards the city of Rarbeng, and arrived about half an hour later. The city of Rarbeng was an extremely poor city surrounded by walls, a city in which no one who had any other option would live. Everything was extremely cramped inside the wall, and trying to find someone who wasn’t poor there would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

The main problem with the city of Rarbeng was, in fact, its wall. Although Kayline suspected it had been made to prevent raids from robbers or bandits, surrounding the whole city by a wall seemed a bit excessive. Besides, making a wall that surrounded the whole city wasn’t cheap. All the money that had been spent in making that wall was one of the main reasons for the city’s poverty. And that caused an extremely low quality of life, as the city population was in constant growth, but as moving the wall would be way too expensive, they weren’t able to expand the city as they should, and a massive percentage of the population was forced to live on the streets.

That also lead to an immensely high criminality rate, as most people didn’t have the security measures needed to remain safe from inside robbers and thieves. No one who had any other option would live in the city of Rarbeng. She didn’t even fully understand the purpose behind its wall, but they should have a very good reason to ruin themselves like that.

After entering the city, they headed towards a relatively empty general goods store in a side street, and while Sir Grendar bought provisions for everyone, Kayline, Jarleren, and Salvatore waited outside. Jarleren had been extremely quiet since they had arrived at Rarbeng, even quieter than he usually was.

“Leave,” he suddenly said in a loud voice.

“What?” Kayline asked, confused.

Jarleren didn’t answer, but she soon heard several sets of footsteps slowly approaching them from all directions.

“You got some nerve coming back here, Occisor,” a man said, seemingly addressing Jarleren. He, like the rest of the men now surrounding them, was dressed in black and wielding a thick dagger in his right hand. He had a long scar running from his right eyebrow to his jaw and looked several years older than Jarleren. He grinned menacingly. “Especially after dramatically running away as you did. I still got that scar, y’know. Never thought you’d come back here. Especially to this specific spot. Finally came to refund the surgery, huh?”

Jarleren didn’t answer anything, and Kayline slowly brought her hands to her longswords, but made no move.

“A contract’s a contract,” the man with the scar continued menacingly. “And the Ruby doesn’t like people who break them.”

Ruby. Abbreviation for Crimson Ruby, Kayline recalled. The biggest thieves’ guild in the world of Gartaena, said to manipulate every criminal activity from the underworld. It was infamous for its ‘contracts,’ lifelong deals which gave criminals continuous income in exchange for lifelong loyalty to the Crimson Ruby. She recalled its members were called ‘Rubies’ and, although she wasn’t an expert on the subject, it seemed the city of Rarbeng was one of its main centers of operation. She hadn’t thought they would have any problems for just passing by, though.

“Leave this to me,” Jarleren whispered towards Kayline and Salvatore. “I’m giving you one chance to leave,” he then growled towards the Rubies in a menacing tone. “Three…”

“...He’s counting?” one of the men mockingly asked.

“...Two…”

“There’s five of us and only three of you, Occisor,” the man with the scar said. “If you want to dance, let’s dance.”

But, if they were that good, Kayline reasoned, then why hadn’t they killed Jarleren yet?

“...One,” Jarleren finally muttered, and sprang backward towards the bunch of criminals.

They all stabbed towards him, but he then boosted himself on a wall, dodging the blows, and jumped towards one of them. He flew through the group like a tornado, too fast for them to react properly. The one he jumped towards slashed with his dagger towards Jarleren, but Jarleren lifted his own dagger precisely, completely blocking the attack. He then gave a sharp flick of his wrist, slashing part of the man’s hand and making him drop the dagger in pain. He then sprang towards the man with the scar, who hid behind another two of his men.

Both of them also prepared their daggers to attack Jarleren, but he ran low, throwing one off balance by kicking his leg and dodging the other’s dagger. He then finally got to the man with the scar and jumped onto him, throwing him to the ground and pressing his dagger on the place where the man already had the scar, but without actually cutting. The remaining men froze, not wanting to do anything that would get their boss killed. Jarleren didn’t need to defeat all of them—he just had to defeat their boss.

“Do you want another scar?” Jarleren growled menacingly. “We’re just passing by. I’m not looking for trouble, and neither should you. So leave us alone like a good dog and I will spare that ugly face of yours another reminder of who I am.”

All the other Rubies looked at Jarleren scared, but the man with the scar scoffed, more irritated than anything. His grin faded completely.

“...Damn you,” he finally said. “You never change, Occissor, you damn brat. Leave now before we come back with even more men.” And so, he gestured to the other men, and they gruntingly left the group alone.

“You come from here?” Salvatore asked, not trying to hide his disgust, once they made sure they were alone.

“I grew up here,” Jarleren nodded. “I remember that alley over there was a perfect place to steal passersby. And there,” he then pointed to an ugly and partially-collapsed rooftop, “is where I vowed to never go hungry or cold again. That’s what prompted me to accept this Transmutator job.”

“...Wow,” was all Kayline was able to say. She had never known anything about Jarleren’s background. In fact, she then guiltily realized she had never even thought about it. That sudden revelation came as something of a surprise to her. Even though she hadn’t had a perfect childhood herself, she had always had a family who cared for her and a home to live in. Even though he never spoke about it, Jarleren had clearly gone through much, much more.

“...Oof,” Salvatore grunted. “You knew that guy right now?”

“He was a rival of mine during my time in the Crimson Ruby. Not that I wanted to join that guild, mind you. I had to survive, and they were the only ones who took me in,” he replied. “I was a bucket man—an assassin. The best in the guild. That’s what earned me my nickname—’Occisor,’ meaning Killer, and that’s why the government reached out to me for this job. He was jealous of my abilities, and so was always trying to find some defect in me. It was a really low life, so I left by force. He was sent to fight me in order for me not to survive rebelling against them, but I absolutely destroyed him, leaving him with the scar you saw right now.”

“...I got the rations,” Sir Grendar said. Kayline hadn’t heard him arrive, but she supposed he had recognized this was a serious moment and had decided not to interrupt. “Now let’s go before we get into any more trouble.”