Ep 36. Do You Know My Name? (2)
Serenis arrived home as night settled in. The sun had completely set by the time she opened the front door, and she was expecting another series of scolding from Patrick who likely would’ve come home after work much earlier than her.
Parts of her suspicion were proven correct: Patrick had indeed arrived home a while earlier. But work was never truly over for him, which Serenis hadn’t known up until this point.
“Patrick. I’m ba-”
“Woah! Oh hey, welcome back. Uh, sorry, I gotta head out again, I’ll probably see you tomorrow.”
“This late? Where to?”
“Dunno, something about monsters appearing in the sewage system? The entire sector’s being called in, we’re regulating all the underground tunnels. I’ll be back!”
“Wait, I-“
Before Serenis could respond with anything meaningful, Patrick rushed past his sibling and slammed the door behind his exit, leaving the dragonlord awkwardly standing alone in the empty living space.
She stared at the door that had just closed, shoulders sagged in disappointment.
‘…I was hoping that you’d accompany me to those tunnels.’
✧ ✧ ✧
“Iris!”
“Oh, good. You’re here, Patrick.”
The blue-haired mage had arrived at one of the larger entrances to the city’s sewers beneath a stone bridge, now guarded by several of the sector’s agents. A gate of criss-crossed iron rods hung above his head, and no civilians occupied the nearby streets.
“I mean, I came as soon as I could. Looks like regulation’s already in place? What’s going on exactly?”
“…What I can tell you right now is that beasts are appearing from the sewers throughout the entire city. Their reported appearances are wildly varying, but they all seem to have white scales covering a major portion of their bodies, and all of them seem to have random animalistic features. Some have even been reported to wield an ability similar to light magic.”
“A monster breakout then? How’s the regulation status?”
“Somewhat. All reported beasts in the city have been eliminated, and the sector’s begun regulating every entrance leading into the sewers to guarantee civilian safety. The problem is, there’re way too many gates in the city, and we barely have personnel to spare for an investigation inside. It’ll just be you and me going in.”
“Nothing new. I’m used to having low headcount anyways.”
“Fair enough. Hey, you there!”
As Iris called out to one of the agents by the gate, he hurriedly made his way to the enforcer’s side.
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“Yes, ma’am!”
“Continue regulating the gates. If additional beast sightings are reported within the city, prioritize eliminating them first. Focus on civilian safety – we do not have to capture them. I’m heading into the tunnels with Patrick.”
“Yes ma’am!”
Iris briefly nodded towards the agent and looked to the blue-haired mage beside her. Her work expression was as stern as ever as she beckoned her coworker to follow.
“Let’s head in.”
“…Here we go again.”
The two enforcers dashed into the open iron gate. Patrick pulled out his wooden staff from his back, swinging it in a small circle around the air.
“Lumen.”
Following the short phrase, the tip of his staff began to emit a faint yellow light, illuminating the path ahead. Fortunately, the canals seemed empty as far as the eye could see.
“Huh. Looks pretty clean for a monster outbreak?”
“It’ll probably be different the deeper we go. Also…this isn’t a monster outbreak. These beasts aren’t monsters.”
“Wait, they aren’t? What are they then?”
“…Two. To your left.”
“Hmph.”
As his coworker threw out a seemingly unrelated reply, Patrick glanced towards the tunnel to the left. Two beasts were rabidly running towards them, the tunnels echoing in what sounded like rabid barks.
Patrick skidded to a halt, slamming his staff down onto the ground. The sewer’s floor lightly trembled, rumbling in sounds of crunching wood.
Just as the beasts lunged towards the mage, a pair of thick, spike-like tree roots shot out of the ground beneath, cleanly skewering the attacking creatures to hold them midair. The beasts rabidly struggled to break free, but after a few short whimpers, their bodies became limp as streaks of blood wet the wood piercing them.
Patrick winced at the sight of blood. He hadn’t actually expected this outcome.
“…Huh. They really aren’t monsters after all.
“Apparently not. I thought so as well at first, but they seem to be closer to artificial animals.”
The term ‘monster’ was commonly passed around as a general term to describe terrifying creatures of all sorts. However, its accurate, biological meaning was limited to a very specific subset of life.
Monsters, by definition, were a natural phenomenon where an environment’s mana would sometimes inexplicably clump together to form a lifelike entity; upon death, these entities were simply reduced back into the mana that formed them, only leaving behind occasional mana crystals. As such, monsters did not bleed, much less leave a corpse.
In other words, the limp, bleeding bodies signified that these creatures weren’t monsters created from thin air, but actual living entities.
Patrick grimaced at the sight of their unnatural figures once more. As his spell faded away, the two beasts fell powerlessly into the sewer’s stone floors, their blood spilling into the sewer’s stream.
“Artificial animals…? What kind of insane person would…”
“A few years ago, there was a scientist that went missing. Ulberk Eizenhoff. Do you remember him?”
“…Yeah, that was the runaway we never caught. But weren’t his experiments about inducing mana evolution to make artificial halves? He failed because of the compatibility issue.”
“Maybe he opted for a different route. If you think about it, a half…doesn’t necessarily have to mean half animal and half human.”
“…Are you saying these things are animal-animal halves? Isn’t that just a crossbreed?”
Iris didn’t reply to her friend’s question. She instead examined the beasts’ corpses closer, running her hand against their scaled bodies.
‘Judging by the sizes of their scales and other common features, the mix likely contains an alligator or a giant lizard. Or…’
A monstrous screech echoed throughout the canals as a creature resembling a flying lizard came into view. It resembled the other beasts, with the exception of its much more developed wings – scaled wings that were actually carrying it across the air. A fanged maw was readily open to chomp down on the enforcers’ heads as their distance closed.
Patrick wove his staff once more as a wall of giant bubbles took shape between them and the approaching beast. When one of the bubbles caught the creature within, the beast became trapped in the spell, unable to break free.
Iris summoned a translucent mana gun into her hand, shooting several times at the screeching creature. The magic bullets cleanly burst the bubble as well as the creature within, its body dropping dead onto the floor.
The two enforcers studied the newest body, specifically the wings that had allowed its flight. Its lack of feathers first reminded them of a bat, but the white scales covering the opposing side suggested otherwise.
Numerous fangs. A lengthy jaw. Hard scales. Claws. And scaled wings.
Iris turned away from the sight, noting the features it had carried. She couldn’t shake off the dreadful thought that was plaguing her mind – especially after hearing the reports of some of these creatures possessing magic-like abilities.
‘Alligator. Lizard. Or…a dragon.’