Sasha sat propped up by one of the manor’s windows in a nightgown. Bewildered, she stared at seven scarlet moons and a reddened sky. Lightning struck and chained across it like veins, yet they never made any sounds. Eerie, palpable energy emanated from above. It put a slight tremble to the glass of the windows.

The hairs on her arms stood. Shaking, she asked, “I’m not… dreaming, right? What is going on?”

She picked up Major, showing the sight to the dagger. It replied, “Something horrible has happened or is going to happen. I don’t know where it is or when it will happen, but it will be horrible.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“This is World’s Shiver without a doubt. It is the first occurrence in two millennium.”

“World’s Shiver? I don’t like the sound of that.”

“I forget sometimes that you’re an uncultured orphan. You should grow closer to your land’s folklore.”

Sasha clicked her tongue, insulted. Major explained, “The human records on it are sparce, but I can give you an idea from my memories of old. There are countless worlds that divide existence. You know of them.”

“You’re talking about Yellen. There’s that and our world, right?”

“You’ve got an idea, but there is more. Yellen itself exists in layers that descend forever. The Shallow planes don’t look too different than this overworld. They are peaceful, and good souls rest there. The deeper you go, though, the more warped, forlorn, and hellish afterlife becomes. Then, eventually, you reach The Abyss; pure, cold nothingness reserved for the worst of the worst.”

“That’s… scary.”

“Almighty creatures of pure evil and depravity are sentenced down there. The pressure suppresses their power. I sent countless to The Deep with my own hands when I was a god.”

“But what does that have to do with this…, um, ‘World’s Shiver’?”

“World’s Shiver is an omen that appears alongside spiritual threats from Yellen. The Angels who dwell up in the cosmos, watching over us, deliver it to warn our world.”

“Angels?”

“Correct, and the worse the manifestation, the graver the future. I’ve never seen it so bright. The Angels are screaming at us. The Deep has breached, and the world itself fears invasion. Our goals in front of us pale in comparison.”

Sasha froze up, worried. “This is too much to take in. You’re freaking me out.”

“This is what I sense from their ki. Something has gone horribly wrong. Something has escaped. Something is coming. This reaction is no different than your body’s reaction to terminal sickness.”

“I’ve got to tell the others.”

With a blink, the World’s Shiver was gone. The night’s usual darkness, a singular milky moon above, returned. The whiplash of the change made her pale. “W-What? Will they believe me?”

“Sasha…, the entire world just witnessed it.”

She shook the stiffness from her body, mumbling, “Gods…”

When Sasha turned, unnerved, she met eyes with Isaac in the distance. He shared her disturbed look. He pointed at her, meekly asking, “Did you see it too?”

She nodded.

“Then I’m not crazy. Was that World’s Shiver? But what could cause such a thing?”

Sasha motioned to a vase that had toppled over earlier in the night. “Could it have related to those tremors we felt? Under our feet?”

“I’m unsure. This feeling in the air is strange though.” He flexed his fingers with a perplexed expression. “Is this ki? But from where?”

Major answered, “That’s right. From the cosmos.”

“Above?”

The dagger and Sasha’s silence affirmed him. He sighed, muttering, “Wow. This feels so much bigger than me.” Setting that aside, he asked her, “I know it sure won’t happen now, but get any shut eye earlier? You look exhausted.”

“Barely a wink. I tried. Every time I laid down, I got twitchy with fighting urges. You get me, right, teacher?”

“I do. Sometimes in bed, I get these random bursts of motivation and end up doing pushups at two in the morning. Elise says it’s a red flag. She hasn’t left me over it yet.”

“Yep. That’s one hundred percent it.”

Isaac put his hands up behind his head. “You don’t have to half-lie to me though. You’re worried about him more than anything else, aren’t you?”

She nodded. “I am. I want to protect those important to me, but it’s out of my hands when we’re separated like this. I don’t like that. It scares me.”

Elise called for them from the living room downstairs. “Isaac?! Sasha?! Get down here! He’s back!”

Isaac asked, “What?”

Sasha responded, “Simon? Already?”

They ran through halls and downstairs where Simon stood in front of the lit campfire, maskless. He looked overwhelmed by information and concern, and probably toiled over what to share first. Before he could even greet the others, Sasha tackled him over with a hug that surprised everyone.

With a panicked, sputtering voice, she asked, “Y-You okay?! Get hurt in there?!”

He’d bonked his head on the ground lightly. Blushing from embarrassment, he replied, “I was fine before, but I’m not so sure anymore.”

Simon sat up on his butt, rubbing his scalp. “I got out in one piece, but it was close.”

Sasha stayed on her knees. With a staggeringly brighter mood, she blurted, “Good! That’s a relief!” If she had a tail, it would’ve been wagging at that point.

Simon shook his head, uncertain. “Do you guys want to hear the bad, ugly, or horrible news first? I’ve got tons to tell you.”

Isaac squinted. “There’s no good news, is there? Like that king croaking?” Simon shook his head again, making him sigh and grumble, “I figured.”

They gathered around Simon in the living room. The fireplace’s low angle projected their shadows high across the walls. Outside, sudden rain beat across the windows. Downpour.

Simon started, “I located Lovecraft and The Apparatus. They were there as warned. That came with some revelations though. The most obvious was that a machina wielder and ki artist would be guarding the great machina. He’s lightning natured.”

Isaac scratched his chin, intrigued. “That’s a rare one.”

Simon looked to Sasha and said, “And then, as you feared, their experimentations have gone much further than I expected. There’s a chamber down there… filled with maddened monsters. I assume they were all once human. If they were to escape…” He shook his head.

Sasha leaned forward in her seat, elbows on knees. Her focus and tone sharpened. “Was that all?”

“No. Not even close.”

The room’s atmosphere was frigid. Between Simon’s speaking, it was so quiet that you could hear the party’s breathing and swallowing. Unnerved, Elise gazed off at a window with rain pitter-pattering against it. Isaac locked in on the debriefing with a resting glare. He was amped up.

Simon continued. “This entire time, I’ve assumed that The Apparatus was a machine, but that was no machine. It was of flesh. It breathed.”

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Someone cleared their throat from a distance. Heads turned to see Abdul. He’d finally come from his room. Rattled, he asked, “It’s alive? What in Yellen do you mean by that?”

“That jester the king has over the operation thinks he’s figured it all out. The Apparatus is a portal to somewhere down in Yellen, and something’s looking back at them from the other side. It’s probably that thing’s power or influence. They think it’s granting them the power of the homunculus.”

Major asked from Sasha’s sheath, “But in exchange for what? There are no favors in this world of contracts.”

Sasha further suggested, “An unwilling contract then?”

“Or one forged in ignorance.”

Simon remembered something. His eyes widened. “Black Sabbath. That was the being’s name.”

Everyone but Abdul and Isaac showed viscerally creeped out reactions to that cursed name. Perhaps it was a cultural thing.

Sasha got goosebumps. With a meek voice, she revealed, “When I was super little, Ley would tell me scary stories to make me behave and go to bed. Stuff like, ‘If you let your toes stick out from under the blanket, Black Sabbath will surely eat them!’ Then, the next night, he grabbed them. It scared me so badly that I still don’t let my feet stick out from the blanket.”

Simon gave her a deadpan expression. “Sounds traumatic.”

“It was.”

Major had been simmering on that name. It spoke up, “I know it too. Black Sabbath and I lived in power during the same time. That devil fell from grace, got executed, and sentenced to The Abyss. I didn’t take part in the ritual but witnessed the celebratory festivals afterward. They treated it like they’d wiped a cancer from our world.”

Major sighed, determining, “I now understand our genuine threat. Black Sabbath must have been using The Apparatus to build enough power to escape. Existence in The Abyss is the worst. A free life here in the overworld is like heaven in comparison. The reincarnation of Black Sabbath in this world is what the World’s Shiver warned us about. We cannot let that happen.”

Elise questioned, “But what about the great machina, Lovecraft? Aren’t we getting distracted?”

“Our goals aren’t changing one bit. We simply have one more objective after infiltrating Hemmer. Destroy The Apparatus. Sever the contract before it is too late.”

“What’s so bad about this devil anyway?”

“It would be the biggest cataclysm in spiritual history. Countless would die in the worst ways imaginable. Black Sabbath would rampage with the power of an unsealed, unsplit god, and there would be no equal to stop it. Would a machina, great or not, even compare to the original thing walking unshackled?”

Simon let out a prolonged exhale. He’d gotten pale and sweaty.

Isaac noticed and put him on the spot. “Any other surprises? That’s what your face is telling me right now.”

Simon realized that they could’ve been in deep water. “Jericho. Jericho was the surprise.”

A switch flipped in Abdul. He burst out, “Jericho? Seriously?!”

This caught Primus's attention. "Hm? Did we not flatten him like a pancake?"

Simon explained, “Jericho never died at the sanctum. He showed up at Hemmer and riled everything up. Their Champion defeated him, King Andre read him, and they learned about me through him. I was found out before I could get out with Lovecraft.”

Isaac did a double take. “Wait a moment. ‘Get out with Lovecraft’? You were there to scout. You could’ve ruined everything if you got caught!”

“I know. I got greedy. I regret that now though. Maybe it would’ve been better to have let Jericho steal it. I doubt we’ll ever get it from King Andre’s hands again as he is now…” Simon relented, avoiding eye contact with Sasha especially.

Isaac scoffed. With an arrogant air, he asked, “’As he is now’? That old vegetable? What’s stopping us from crushing the king? That lightning ki artist? The maid?”

Simon gravely responded, “Tonight, King Andre transformed into a homunculus. I’ve never seen a man that big. I’ve never felt energy that oppressive. There's something different about him. He stands out from even Jericho and Abdul."

Isaac’s mouth dropped agape. He had no words. Pure shock.

Abdul said, “We’ll see for ourselves soon. And Jericho? Do you think he is still alive?”

“I don’t know, but I believe it. He’s never been one to give up.”

Abdul clenched his fists, determined. “If he’s imprisoned, I’d like to find and free him. If our enemy is this difficult, we need all the help we can get.”

Isaac's hubris vanished. He thought back to the nightmare Silent Hill gave him about Andre the monster. In a way, it’d come true like a prophesy.

Sasha felt conflicted by Jericho. Back in Rath Ghul’s sanctum, she’d seen many sides of him. To her, he was more unpredictable than anything else. Facing Abdul, she questioned, “Are you confident we’d be able to trust Jericho? What is he to you?”

“We went through the original Apparatus together. Grew close in there. If he remembers, I could try to reach him.”

Simon shook his head. “I’ve known Jericho for a decade and his mind is still an enigma to me. I don’t care who you think you are to him. In the end, you’ll have to watch your back. He wants Lovecraft too. He’ll kill Sasha for it. If we end up in a truce to put Andre down, then so be it, but such a man will never be our ally.”

Abdul looked bitter. His hopes of reconnection were beaten down. “Seriously? He said that?”

This wasn’t what occupied Sasha’s mind though. Put on edge, she asked, “But if the king read Jericho, doesn’t he know about me now too?”

Elise looked around, paranoid. “You’re right. The longer we wait, the more he’ll learn too. I’m sure Jericho didn’t know everything, but the fact that we exist alone will put the king on our trail.”

Simon reluctantly raised his hand. Everyone stared at him. With a low voice, he revealed, “Um… they’ve got my satchel too.”

Everyone except for Isaac became pale and quiet. He burst into husky laughter, slapping his knee. “That’s a good one, Simon. You’ve got a sense of humor after all.”

“A joke? Yea. No way I would’ve did that.” He gave them a poker face.

Major spoke up, “That was a lie! Simon might as well be read too!”

Isaac blanked out. “Eh?”

Abdul threw his bag over his shoulder and headed out for the front door. “If we’re fucked, then we’re fucked. No use dancing like headless chickens.”

Elise found his relaxed demeanor unbelievable. “You sure are taking this well. Are you not stressed? Nervous?”

He shrugged. “Such is war. As long as there is something I want to do, I won’t let anything deter me. Besides, I’m sure the king’s supposed ‘omniscience’ isn’t perfect. Off the top of my head, it takes time to read.”

Sasha got up too. “That’s right. Let’s get moving before we’re ambushed. Let’s see if we can stay ahead of his knowledge of us.”

Isaac nodded. “I don’t object. We have no choice anyway.” He got up, offered Elise his hand, and fell in line with her.

The group left that manor geared up. As bad as the weather and darkness was outside, they didn’t worry too much about sneaking. At this point, speed was more valuable than anything else. Simon lagged behind the group a bit with a solemn look. Sasha looked back, noticed, and fell back to join his side.

“Feeling bad?” she asked.

“Perhaps.”

“Why?”

He didn’t answer.

“Come on. Talk to me. Like usual.”

“I did what I did to go beyond my expectations. To impress you all. Instead, I made everything worse. I want to be useful. I don’t want to be a joke.”

“You are here. In one piece too. That’s all I care about right now. You did fine, Simon.”

“You have low standards. Replace me with a pet rodent and it would accomplish more. If this were the guild, they would’ve shoved me in a solitary cell for two days as punishment.”

“What? Do you want to be punished?”

Simon sighed. “Of course not.”

“I’ll think of something then.”

Something to cheer you up.

“I said that I didn’t want to be-,” Sasha shooshed Simon, leaving him pouting.

“Oh, I know.” Her hand wandered to his, grasping, but his fist was balled up. She asked, “H-Ho-Hold?” her words sputtered out. She cringed at herself.

Awkward! Why am I so shit at this? Get the hint and hold my hand, bastard!

Simon flutter-blinked, confused. “Hold what? Your bag? No problem."

“Um, thank you.”

Defeated, she handed it to him. How did she feel less anxious in life or death battles than when talking to Simon?

Major’s pained voice echoed through her head. Gods, Sasha… You need to work on this.

I know!

***

King Andre laid prone in his bed, wearing a robe, fluffy hat, and bunny slippers. He read Soothsayer, giggling like an absolute buffoon. Whatever he read, it was engaging enough to make him kick his feet.

Ashley eyed him from afar, weirded out, and asked, “What is funny, Your Highness?”

“I like this group. I almost want to route for them. They’re interesting and, as far as I can tell, good of heart. They harbor immense hatred for me due to the whole ‘mass human suffering’ thing, but we could work around that.”

“You want to work with them?!” Ashley was usually stoic. Her king’s behavior now dumbstruck her. Was this a joke?

“Why not? They want three things. To get Lovecraft, destroy The Apparatus, and kill me. The third won’t happen, a shame, but I have no use for the others. They can do what they please with them.”

Ashley gawked at him. “Please repeat that again. I believe I misheard you.”

Andre ignored her bewilderment. He got nervous. “And I’m afraid of Black Sabbath too. Such a thing can’t get loose from The Abyss. It would destroy everything we’ve built. I want out of this supposed contract that clown has been talking about.”

“I guess you do have a point.” Ashley hesitantly bowed. “Although I personally think this is insane, I will support whatever your ruling is, My Lord.”

“As I expected. You’re a good woman, Ashley. If I haven’t convinced you enough, believe the cosmos. You can’t ignore World’s Shiver.”

She lightly blushed, bowing again. “Thank you, My Lord.”

Andre closed his book, satisfied for the night. “My reasons may be a little selfish, but I would like to start doing the right thing too. I owe Prince Isaac an apology for his nation’s death. He’s alive, and so close too. Can you believe that?”

“Barely, Your Highness.”

“Next morning, would you arrange what is left of my counsel to discuss investing in the restoration of The Westwinds? Let’s give the remnants of the tribes a place to go home to.”

“Of course, Your Highness.”

Andre couldn’t go to bed after all. He got up and went to his desk, pen in hand, and rambled to himself. “But unless I emancipated those who are enslaved, that’d be half-assing it. Disingenuous. The Nobels would push back, but so be it. Hang a few and they’ll obey. They rebel? Sick The Wyrm on them.”

Perfection. Perfection. Perfection.

No matter the cost.

Ashley loosened up from her usual military attention pose when he wasn’t looking. What a stranger he’d become to her. She found a certain distant beauty in him though.

He had one more request for her. With an enthusiastic grin, he asked, "Oh, and leave our outer doors unlocked. We're expecting guests, after all. I'll order the Royal Guard to ignore them too."

Ashley was done. "Yes..., Your Highness, though I don't know if calling your enemies guests is appropriate."

"Why not?"

"They're out for your life."

"Who isn't? Everyone in this empire has good reason. I no longer need to read someone to know that."

The gall on him.

Andre had a smugness to him. "Are you worried about my safety? I'm not."

"It is my humble counsel that you should be."

He looked at her warmly. "I have complete faith in the abilities of my subjects. You especially. I will not fail."

This flustered Ashley. She showed him a face he'd never seen. "I'm honored to hear that, My Lord."