The desert, not nearly as full of scenic sand-dunes as one would have expected, extended in every direction around the heavy-set man perched on top of a hill. He raised his hand to block out the scorching rays of light from his eyes as he observed his surroundings for several seconds before letting out a weary sigh.

???????: "Sometimes I have to wonder why they always insist on building their secret hideouts at places like this…"

He stood out from his environment like a sore thumb; his imposing figure loomed over the weeds and shrubs of the arid plains like a giant bird of prey, slowly and deliberately scouting the horizon with a natural sense of superiority.

He was tall, his features angular and striking, and while from a distance one could have easily mistaken the dark spot on his face as nothing more than the shadow cast by the hood of his heavy grey desert clothes, a closer inspection would have quickly revealed a personalized black eye patch adorned with the brilliant crimson crest of the Order hiding his left eye. All things considered, his features seemed surprisingly young when compared to the deep, raspy baritone of his voice.

Suddenly there was movement beside the man, a flicker of shadows followed by a girlish voice.

???: "Soketsuuuuu…"

A tiny girl appeared from his long shadow, wrapped in the same type of desert gear as him, except hers was a lighter shade of grey and a tad less frayed at the edges. He turned towards her with a casual familiarity that was in stark contrast with his gruff exterior.

Soketsu: "Yes?"

???: "I want to take a break!"

The man slightly inclined his head to the left and slowly raised a single eyebrow.

Soketsu: "Again? But we just had one about three hours ago. At this rate we’ll never get there."

???: "But it’s so hot!" The girl complained, her puffed cheeks clearly visible under her hood.

Soketsu: "Yes, I noticed. We are at the border of a desert. That’s how they work."

???: "Uuu…"

The girl let out a pouty groan as the man put his hand upon her head and gently began pulling her along.

Soketsu: "Come on Kay, we have a job to do."

The girl called Kay dropped her shoulders in dejection and let out an exhausted sigh. She didn’t look more than twelve years old, her head barely reaching up to her one-eyed companion’s chest. She was all but clinging to him and somehow managed to always keep herself quite literally in the shelter of the large man’s shadow. However, just as he was about to pick up the pace she suddenly skipped ahead, twirled around and clasped her hands in front of her chest before setting her face in a look that normally only belonged to dejected cartoon puppies.

Kay: "Just a few minutes? Pretty pleeease…?"

Soketsu froze mid-step as the torrent of pure charm hit him in the chest. It didn’t show on his face, of course. He had spent more than enough time with her to learn how to hold back his reactions in favor of professional appearances, at least most of the time. In the end though, even though was a bit embarrassing to admit it, they both knew he was extremely weak against her pleading eyes…

For a few seconds they maintained a surprisingly tension-free eye contact, apparently both aware what Soketsu’s answer was going to be. Per se, the man let out a small sight and gave his partner a defeated frown.

Soketsu: "Fine. But only for half an hour and not a minute longer."

Kay: "Roger!”

His answer immediately put a smile onto the girl’s face and she ran over to the nearest of the scarcely scattered trees at once. Once she arrived she eagerly waved to her companion and sat down under the shade. After a few moments of hesitation he followed after her.

In the meantime Kay removed her hood, allowing her short, dark green hair to come to light. Under normal circumstances the man would have admonished her for revealing her nature so casually, but taken that they were in the middle of nowhere he decided not to bother.

In fact he soon decided to follow her example and he took a seat in the shadows as well. He had been a Rover for years, one of the Order’s solitary, wandering agents in the field, so he was used to the harsh environment of the great outdoors, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed unnecessarily standing in the scorching sunlight. For a few moments he peacefully watched over the girl as she began struggling with her old metal flask.

Soketsu: "Need any help?" He asked with the barest hints of a smile touching the corners of his lips.

Kay: "No… I almost— got it…!"

With a final push she managed to open the container and started gulping down its contents without a moment’s notice. In the meantime the small hints of a smirk turned into a genuinely amused smile on the man’s face. At last he leaned against the tree’s trunk and began absentmindedly rummaging with something under his long robes.

Kay: "Ahhhh…" Kay exhaled with a wide smile and put down the flask. "I really needed that! I felt like I could melt away at any moment…"

Soketsu: "Why don’t you just transform?" Soketsu glanced back at her while still looking for something under his garments. "It would take care of your heat issues and you wouldn’t need to worry about sunstrokes either."

Kay: "I don’t know," The girl pursed her lips for a moment. "I’m not really worried about getting a sunstroke.”

Soketsu: "But I am."

Kay blinked at his partner and then sheepishly averted her eyes. It took all of Soketsu’s self-discipline to keep himself from giggling at her reaction. That just wouldn’t do at all. Grown men like him didn’t giggle, not even when no one could see them. After repeating that a few times in his head he finally got the urge under control. In the meantime Kay thoughtfully pursed her lips, non the wiser to the great battles the man was fighting against himself at her side.

Kay: "No. It wouldn’t really solve anything."

Soketsu: "Why?"

The girl rolled her eyes, a gesture that required Soketsu to repeat the mantra five more times.

Kay: "Because then you would have to carry me?"

Soketsu: "And…?"

She pursed her lips even tighter, and after a few seconds of forehead-wrinkling silence she sharply averted her eyes.

Kay: "It’s just… no."

For a moment or two Soketsu simply stared at the girl in silence, then it was his turn to roll his eyes… well, his visible eye at least.

Soketsu: "Oh, now I remember. Is it because I said you were heavy?"

The girl’s head immediately snapped back and simultaneously turned a shade of crimson, her eyes aflame with the kind of scowl that only pre-pubescent girls with wounded prides and maybe some especially scary legendary creatures of myth could muster.

Kay: "It has absolutely nothing to do with your incredibly inappropriate and hurtful comment about my weight at all!"

With that she turned around in place and set her shoulders with her back at her partner. Soketsu allowed himself a moment of amused silence before poking her again.

Soketsu: "… Is that a yes?"

The girl puffed up her cheeks and refused to turn around, which was just enough to make him roll his eye again.

Soketsu: "You know I didn’t mean it that way."

Kay: "It’s not an excuse! You should never talk about a lady’s weight, ever!"

Soketsu’s eye opened a bit wider at the word, but then it narrowed into a squint as he looked over his petite companion.

Soketsu: "Lady, huh?" He whispered just loud enough for her to hear and Kay’s head instantly snapped back.

Kay: "What did you say? I couldn’t hear you…"

Her glare was sharp enough to cut glass, but for some reason the man couldn’t help but find even that adorable. In the end Soketsu coughed to hide an escaped chuckle and casually waved his hand in front of his face like he was chasing a fly.

Soketsu: "It’s nothing, just mumbling to myself."

Kay: "Uuu… You don’t even have a shred of delicacy…" She grumbled as she turned away and set her shoulders again.

Soketsu: "How mortifying. I wonder how I can live with myself." Came the dry answer.

After a few seconds of silence Soketsu considered the topic finished and began rummaging in his robes again. At last he took out a small leather pouch and from that he retrieved a thin book. He took one last glance at his companion, then at the sun and finally at the book, and with a small sigh he hit it up on the first page.

For a minute or two silence reigned under the shade of the three, right until the girl carefully glanced over her shoulder. She kept studying her partner for a while.

Kay: "What are you going?" She finally asked.

Completely deadpan, Soketsu waved the booklet a little as he answered.

Soketsu: "I’m checking the mission intel one last time."

The girl cocked her head to the side as she turned around in place again to face the man, still cross-legged.

Kay: "Why? You have read it about, what, three times already? I don’t see the point."

Soketsu: "Just memorizing. We have to be prepared."

Kay: "But it’s so boring… I mean, even more than usual!"

Soketsu: "And that’s why I’m going to do your share of preparation as well," Soketsu answered sharply, eliciting a small twitch from the girl. "I want to get to the end of the report this time, so please try to be quiet."

Kay: "….Uh. Okay."

With that, Soketsu began flipping through the pages. Each one of them contained countless lines of haphazardly scrabbled letters coupled with maps, weirdly proportioned schematics, old satellite images and various other materials held in by glue and tape. In the meantime his partner quietly cleared her throat, for no apparent effect.

In the following ten minutes she tried counting the clouds, which failed courtesy of the fact that there were none present. Then she tried to stare a hole into the man’s forehead in order to provoke a response, but that particular venture only managed to make her feel left out and a little lonely. Finally, she decided to try a little mischief and grab the book, but this particular effort only led to her falling over when Soketsu pulled it away in the last second, which in turn led to her being covered in sand.

Finally getting fed up with her antics, the man let out a tired breath and closed the book while keeping a thumb at the relevant page. He turned to the girl and gave her a particularly thorny look as he reached out and picked her up from the ground with one hand, then slightly shook her to get off the sand.

Kay: "Ow-ow-ow! Hey, stop that!”

Soketsu: "That’s what I would like to say." He told her wryly as he set her back down onto the ground. "You are the one who wanted to have a break, now sit still."

Kay: "But I am bored!"

Soketsu: "Read something."

Kay: "I can’t!" The girl complained loudly. "You made me leave my books at the town because you said they were heavy! I already told you twice!"

Soketsu only gave her a knowing look in response.

Kay: "Do you feel guilty already?"

Soketsu: "No, not particularly."

Kay: "Ugh… You are the worst."

The green-haired girl slumped back beside the man with a peevish expression. For a moment Soketsu’s eyes seemed to be trapped by the profile of her face.

He knew her partner very well. In fact, they have never been separated for more than a few days during the three years they have been together. Spending so much time with someone had its problems, but it also built bonds of familiarity as strong as family. And with such bonds came the understanding that made such relationships special. Or at least so Soketsu hoped.

As he looked at her he suddenly noticed that she had been nervously glancing at his direction from time to time, seemingly getting redder by the minute. He let out a quiet breath between his teeth and finally smiled.

The girl’s face suddenly flashed crimson. Soketsu never really understood how blushing like that actually worked, but that was unimportant at the moment.

He quietly raised his hand and reached out towards the girl’s tiny head. Actually, Kay’s head was no smaller than what one would expect from a child of her apparent age, it was only Soketsu’s large hand that made her look positively petite in comparison.

Kay: "W-what…?"

The girl nervously glanced up at him as his hand finally reached her skin… and then he promptly began scraping off the sand from around her lips. For a few seconds she silently let him rid her face from the dirt, then his hand moved up to the top of her head and began gently shaking the sand out of her hair. Her haircut was just long enough that it wasn’t really boyish and felt surprisingly silky to the touch.

While he was doing this Soketsu also closely observed the girl’s face and finally spoke up in a gentle voice, a far cry from his serious demeanor from before.

Soketsu: "You are nervous, aren’t you?"

The girl’s eyes opened a bit wider and then she cast her eyes down.

Kay: "Is it… that obvious?"

Soketsu: "Of course it is obvious. You are always fidgety before missions, but this time it’s even worse than usual…." Kay cast her eyes downwards in response, soliciting yet another smile from her partner. "Are you sure you don’t want to review the reports after all? Knowing your enemy helps with the nerves."

Once he finished with dusting her head Soketsu sat back and offered a beckoning gesture to the girl. Kay appeared to be momentarily torn, an expression she couldn’t have hidden even if she tried, but in the end she slowly nodded and shuffled closer with an obviously fake pout.

Kay: "Okay, I get it. I will be serious now, so… can you give me a refreshing course please?"

Soketsu: "Of course."

The Rover tapped the ground beside himself and Kay moved even closer, though by the end she was practically sitting on the man’s lap while intently waiting for him to begin. He looked her in the eye one last time, flashing a tiny smile, then steeled his expression and returned to the booklet.

Soketsu: "So, just to recap, our target is this man." He pointed at the picture of a young bespectacled man on the second page. It was actually hard to tell if the picture was a really good drawing of him or a really, really low quality photograph. "He is known as ‘Pabloc’. His surname is unknown, and we are not even sure if it’s his real name or just an alias. He was the head of an Order research facility until six years ago, when one day he erased all his records and vanished with some extremely valuable research data."

Kay: "He doesn’t seem that scary…" The girl mused and Soketsu shook his head in response.

Soketsu: "As I said, he is a scientist. It’s not him we should worry about but whoever he is working with. According to these he was a sought-after researcher and engineer studying pre-Devastation physics and bioengineering. "

Kay: "Physics and bioengineering?" The girl interrupted, her expression difficult to read. "Those two don’t really seem compatible… Or that scary, if we are at that."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Soketsu: "Don’t ask me. I hit things until they break for a living, remember?" The man let out a faint laugh over his self-deprecation, but when his audience didn’t seem to share his amusement he swiftly picked up the explanation where he left off. "What I know is that there aren’t many organizations that could employ and hide someone like that for so long, so he either has powerful friends or he has gone rogue and built up his stronghold alone. Both options are troubling. Oh, and if you want scary, I should point out that the intel says he might be in possession of some advanced pre-Devastation era weaponry, so it’s expected that his base of operations is heavily fortified."

Kay: "Such as?"

Soketsu: "No further details, I’m afraid."

Kay: "Wow. The intel guys took it pretty easy this time, didn’t they?"

The man glanced over at the girl and his eyes slowly narrowed into a suspicious squint.

Soketsu: "I wouldn’t know, but why are you acting like this is the first time you’ve heard this?"

Kay: "Umm… Just continue."

The one-eyed man sent a sharp glance at the girl, but in the end he returned to his book without further ado.

Soketsu: "So, the intelligence division at the Cathedral found his lair only a few weeks ago. It’s an underground complex, possibly a pre-Devastation bunker or tunnel network no longer on the maps. The reports are a little sketchy on the details, but he is apparently experimenting with trans-dimensional rift technology…"

Kay: "Transdimwhat?"

Soketsu: "Portals."

Kay: "Ah. Why didn’t you say that on the first place?" The girl paused for a moment and added, "And that’s bad?"

Soketsu: "Beyond punching holes into the fabric of reality, you mean? Actually, I have no idea, but if they say we need to shut him down then we do that." He paused for a moment while he turned a few pages. "It says here that he is trying to open a portal to a place filled with su’blolis."

Kay: "Question! What is a su’bloli?"

Hearing the question immediately made the man furrow his eyebrows.

Soketsu: "Kay, were you even listening during the briefing before we came here?"

Kay: "Ummm… I got a little bit distracted halfway through…" Seeing her partner’s disapproving glare, the girl gave him an embarrassed smile followed by a stuck out tongue, "It’s not like I really have to know these kinds of things anyway. My job is to let you hit things with me until they break, right?"

Soketsu let out a disappointed groan as he turned back to the book and continued his explanation.

Soketsu: "Really now, I can’t believe I have to explain this. I thought you would have certainly read about them already."

Kay: "Well, I didn’t."

Soketsu: "So then… Su’blolis are…" He paused, visibly straining to find the right words. "Well, they are said to be hellish, shapeless creatures with terrifying power. We have no records on what they are, but I think it’s safe to say it’s most likely anything but pleasant. Why that scientist would want to open a doorway for them is beyond me... As far as we know even The Devourer could have been one of them."

Kay: "And that’s why we have to stop him?"

Soketsu: "Indeed."

For a few moments the girl fell silent and then slowly shook her head.

Kay: "Say, how are we supposed to fight against these ‘su’bloli’ things if all we know is that they are dangerous?"

Feeling his partner nervously fidgeting on his knees, the man couldn’t help but loosen his face as he placed his hand upon her head and slowly began stroking her hair. Normally he would have been more concerned about why she was getting fidgety about this particular issue only at this point, but he was willing to let it slide for the moment.

Soketsu: "Hopefully we won’t have to. We should shut this guy’s operations down before things get out of hand."

Kay: "Are you sure we don’t have any more info on them?"

Soketsu: "No, we don’t. If you are so awfully interested in these creatures you should just ask the scholars once we are back at the Cathedral."

Kay: "Ummm… I don’t want to. Those guys are creepy, and they always want to poke me at weird places…"

Soketsu: "Poke you?" The girl meekly nodded and the Rover’s visible eye narrowed with a scary glimmer as his voice dropped at least an octave. "I guess I’ll have to have a little ‘talk’ with those guys once we are done here."

Kay: "Uuuu… I-I think they were just joking!" The girl spluttered while vigorously waving her hands. "Please don’t hurt them or they won’t let me borrow books anymore…"

The man took a few deep breaths and gave a small, somewhat ambiguous nod.

Soketsu: "We’ll see about that. But now, back to the…"

As Soketsu turned over to the next page, his eye suddenly widened, and after a brief moment of silence he turned to his partner with a scary tone in his voice.

Soketsu: "Kaaaaaaay…?"

Kay: "W-What?"

Soketsu: "Care to explain what a caricature featuring me and the arch-bishop is doing on the back cover of the mission manual…?"

Kay: "Oh, that…? It’s… Ummm…" If she was fidgeting before, the girl was positively squirming at this point. "Do you… remember when I said I was distracted during briefing and everything…? It’s… you know…"

Soketsu: "No sweets,” Soketsu declared dryly.

Kay: "But…!"

Soketsu: "For two weeks."

Kay: "B-B-But…"

Soketsu: "And you have to do the laundry in those two weeks as well."

Kay: "Uuu… You are so unfair!"

Soketsu shot an annoyed glare at his partner while snapping his book shut and curtly added:

Soketsu: "The next time you find yourself bored; find a more constructive way to waste time."

Kay: "You are mean!"

Soketsu: "Yes, I am, and it’s also time to move on."

Soketsu stood up and dusted the back of his robes while shaking his head. Kay, though protesting, jumped into his shadow like it was the most obvious thing to do.

Kay: "Hey! Wait up! It hasn’t even been thirty minutes yet!"

Soketsu: "Yes, but you seem rested enough. Let’s move on, or we’ll never get there."

Kay: "Ummm… Fine."

She reluctantly put her hood back on and they started walking through the scorching waves of heat once again. However, Kay’s attention was soon drawn to the man’s difficult expression under his hood.

Kay: "… Is there a problem?"

Soketsu only turned his head towards the girl but didn’t stop walking for even a moment.

Soketsu: "You mean beside your appalling lack of attention?" He asked with a smile that didn’t touch his eyes.

Kay: "I’m serious."

The Rover’s expression became sullen as he raised his eyes towards the horizon.

Soketsu: "I just… I have a bad feeling about this. Something is amiss."

While taking care to stay in his shadow as much as possible, the girl carefully grabbed Soketsu’s hand while pondering.

Kay: "Now that you mention it, the intel feels weird. I mean, usually it’s either pretty sharp or completely vague all around, not mixed like this." She paused for a moment and her grip tightened on Soketsu’s hand. "Like, how do we even know what he is working on if his lair was just discovered? Wouldn’t that mean someone had to get inside? But then if someone made it in, how come we don’t know anything about who he is working for? It just doesn’t add up."

Soketsu: "Exactly. This whole mission smells fishy somehow."

For a moment, both of them fell silent, until the girl lightly pulled on the man’s arm.

Kay: "So, what are we going to do…?"

Seeing the uneasiness in her eyes made Soketsu regret the moment he spoke his mind. Kay had a bad habit of worrying over things anyway and he just threw oil onto the fire.

After a brief moment of deliberation he slowly pulled his arm out of the girl’s grasp, but only so that he could raise his hand and lightly pat her on the head.

Kay: "Umm…?"

Seeing her confused reaction made the Rover smirk in delight and he slowly started ruffling her hair through her cowl.

Soketsu: "Don’t worry. Even if there is something weird about this mission, we can deal with it."

After a second of hesitation the girl nodded with the man’s hand still on her head and a small smile appeared on her face.

Kay: "You are right. We can deal with anything!"

Soketsu: "Right?"

Kay: "Right!"

The two of them looked each other in the eye and then they both let out a small, relieved chuckle, instantly evaporating the built-up tension in the air like it was never there to begin with. After this there was no point in talking, so they simply faced forward with renewed vigor. After all, this was the only thing that neither of them would ever question; as long as they were together, there was nothing in this world that could make them falter…

~~~

The small cottage on the side of the hill didn’t seem anything special for the untrained eye, but if one looked closely enough the clues were unmistakably there. Soketsu put away his worn-out military binoculars and turned to his partner.

Soketsu: "This is the place, there’s no mistake."

Kay: "Are you sure? It doesn’t look like an evil lair at all."

Soketsu: "Evil lair?" Soketsu raised a brow, once again knocked out of his professional mannerism by a well-placed non-sequitur.

Kay: "You know? Like a big medieval castle with bats and lightning in the background!" Kay gestured with her hands.

He more or less expected something like that, but the girl’s words still made him shake his head.

Soketsu: "… I think you’ve watched too many old horror movies in the archives lately..."

Kay: "But seriously, I don’t think that building is suspicious."

Soketsu: "Indeed. And that’s why it’s even more suspicious."

Eyebrow raised, Kay looked at Soketsu with an almost pitiful expression.

Kay: "… You make no sense."

Soketsu: "You will understand once we get there."

The girl exhaled a heavy breath and gave an impatient look to his partner.

Kay: "Okay. So…? How are we going to infiltrate the place?"

Soketsu: "We won’t. We can’t tell what kind of traps there might be, so we are going to bust in through the main entrance."

Kay crossed her arms in front of her chest and bobbed her head to the side with a small frown.

Kay: "I don’t know… If you expect traps, isn’t that the worst possible thing to do?"

The man shook his head while he began digging a hole into the sandy soil.

Soketsu: "No. They expect that we expect traps, so they expect that we try to find another way in, but we expect them to put even more traps there, so we go against their expectations and will do the unexpected thing by doing what they expected on the first place."

The girl’s previously pitiful expression rapidly turned into one of confusion.

Kay: "Ummm… My head hurts."

Soketsu: "Just trust me. This is basic stuff. Like Evil Lair Extermination 101 basic." The Rover declared with about as much confidence as he could muster under the circumstances.

Kay: "Fine, fine, I leave this to you then."

Soketsu: "Okay, then please transform."

Suddenly the girl’s eyes popped wide open like her partner just asked her to eat her own legs with chopsticks.

Kay: "Wait! You mean… here…?"

Soketsu: "Yes, where else?"

Kay: "But… but…"

Soketsu let out a barely audible groan and raised his hand to his face, his lips curled into a tired frown.

Soketsu: "We’ve been through this already. I’m not going to peep."

Kay: "But what if someone else does?"

Soketsu: "In the middle of the desert?"

Kay: "… Those spy satellites have insane resolutions, you know…"

Soketsu: "You mean the spy satellites that have been out of order for more than three hundred years?"

Kay: "Ummm…"

Soketsu shook his head and raised his hands.

Soketsu: "Fine, then how about this: You transform in your clothes, and I will pick them up afterwards."

Kay: "Ummmmmmm…"

Soketsu: "Kay…" For the first time the man’s eyes turned severe. "We don’t have all day…"

Kay: "Uhh… Fine, fine, I’ll do it! Turn around!"

The hooded man faced away as the girl grumpily closed her eyes and completely stopped breathing. After only a moment of concentration, her hair became a brighter shade of green, and in just a few seconds it actually started shining. In conjunction with that her entire body became more and more luminescent, until suddenly her whole figure turned into millions upon millions of tiny, blindingly bright spheres of green light with a barely audible popping sound. The mass of swirling light slowly slipped out of the clothes around it and rose above the ground, changing its shape in the process.

As the light subsided Soketsu finally turned around. Over the scattered clothes on the ground was a finely ornamented halberd floating in the air like a giant feather in the wind. Its simple metal shaft, shorter than what one would traditionally associate with a polearm, was in sharp contrast with its blade. The head of the weapon bore an elongated curved edge, ending in a fine point in parallel with the spearhead at the top. Both the axe-blade and the spearhead appeared to be white silver with a series of delicate leaf-motif engravings on their flat, which was sparkling with a green light under the sun’s rays. At first glance it looked more like a work of fine art than a weapon, but Soketsu knew that she was, in fact, both. And so much more.

He slowly reached out for it and softly wrapped his fingers around the shaft. The familiar feeling of viridia coursing through his hand hit his nerves without a moment’s notice, forcing him to exhale sharply in response. Viridia was many things. Some called it the source of magic, others referred to it as life force. For Soketsu it was like a fresh breath of air in a closed room or, ironically enough considering the location, a mouthful of water in the desert. It entered into him and filled him up with a profound sense of completeness. More importantly, he could also feel the consciousness within the weapon flowing into him and sighing in relief.

[Soketsu]: "Is everything in order?"

[Kay]: "I’m fine. No side effects this time."

The voice of the weapon sounded like it came from a great distance and it softly echoed in his mind. It couldn’t be heard by anyone else but him, nor could his inner voice be heard by anyone else but her. Their thoughts were connected in the most primal level, like they were sharing a single mind. The peculiar sensation of such an unusual connection never disappeared entirely, but their three years’ worth of expertise has long since transformed these mind-crossing experiences into something reassuring and warm. A link of trust, unwavering and unbreakable.

[Soketsu]: "Glad to hear that. How are your reserves?"

[Kay]: "I’m not in my best shape, but I’ll manage."

[Soketsu]: "Do you want me to go a little easy?"

She hesitated for a moment.

[Kay]: "Just a little, if you can. This desert got me a little drained."

[Soketsu]: "Okay. Now, I just pack your clothes and we are ready to go."

[Kay]: "Don’t look at my panties."

The deadpan order stopped Soketsu right on his tracks as he was about to reach for the discarded garments on the ground.

[Soketsu]: "Why? It’s not like I haven’t seen them before."

[Kay]: "H-huh? When?!" The girl spluttered and even without actually seeing her human form Soketsu could picture the exact shade of red she was turning into.

[Soketsu]: "What do you mean ‘when’?"

[Kay]: "When did you look at my panties?! You weren’t… or were you…?"

Soketsu’s face went through half a dozen different expressions, but neither of them could properly express his emotions, so in the end he just buried his face into his free hand.

[Soketsu]: "You do remember that I was the one who bought them for you, right? I bought all your clothes." The girl suddenly fell suspiciously silent. "You forgot, didn’t you…?"

Her silence was answer enough, prompting Soketsu to lightly shake his head in disapproval as he temporarily laid his weapon onto the ground close enough that it didn’t break their bond.

[Soketsu]: "Really, sometimes you are just hopeless."

[Kay]: "H-Hey! That was totally uncalled for!"

The one-eyed man nonchalantly folded up the clothing lying on the ground, paying little to no heed to the girl’s disembodied voice fuming in his head, and packed them away into his backpack while looking as composed as ever. After hiding said backpack inside the hole he prepared he also shed his heavy desert robes, revealing a completely different getup underneath.

Said outfit could be best described as a midnight-blue scapula strewn over a worn black combat uniform based on pre-Devastation riot police gear, its belt packed with small pouches and bags. With the baggy desert gear gone, it also became apparent just how well-built he really was for the first time. His body didn’t have an ounce of unnecessary fat or muscle. His was the toned body of a predator; lean muscles stretched under tanned skin, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. Finally he retrieved a pair of firm armored gloves from his belt and donned them with practiced motions before he covered the rest of their belongings in the hole he dug and buried it all under a layer of soil.

Once the ground was sufficiently evened out he rose to his feet while recovering his weapon and softly whispered to himself:

Soketsu: "Nov’Elsfaan, guide my hand."

It was only a short prayer, one that was customary amongst the Rovers going into battle. It was a good-luck charm and also served as a reminder that they had the divine on their side. Soketsu himself would have admitted that he wasn’t exactly the paragon of piety one would have expected from his position, but these words somehow still filled him with a quiet resolve that he found reassuring in these situations. At last he raised his head and looked straight at the small cottage with renewed vigor in his eyes.

[Soketsu]: "Let’s go!"

[Kay]: "Aye!"

If one were to look hard enough they could have seen a tiny spark of bright green light run through the man’s veins, shining bright enough that it was visible even though the uniform. It came from the arm clutching the halberd, ran up to the center of his chest and then washed over his entire body in the blink of an eye. Albeit, to be frank, no one actually could see it since, by the time their mind would have finally processed the sight, Soketsu simply wasn’t there anymore.

A cloud of dust and sand blew into the wind as the he kicked off the ground under his feet and dashed over the distance like a stone skipping on the surface of a calm lake, gaining more momentum with each step. The g-forces alone would have been enough to render a normal person unconscious, if not dead. For him it was a small nuisance at best in his current state.

He rushed forward in a straight line, his weapon raised and ready for anything and everything the defenses might throw at him. Even though he started from over a mile away from the lone building, he closed the distance so fast the dust of his first step didn’t even have the time to settle yet by the time he got halfway there. Keeping up such a pace was taxing even for him, but he was confident he could manage it as long as it was only for short bursts.

As the cottage grew bigger and bigger, so did the nagging feeling at the back of his mind. It’s strange, he thought. There were no traps at all. Not a single landmine or tripwire, not even a hapless sentry to be seen. Normally he would have considered that reassuring, a clear indication of the incompetence of his target, but for some reason it only made him more anxious this time.

After one last leap he finally landed in front of the entrance of the building, kicking up another plume of sand and dust. It was a lonely, worn-down hut of a house, its white walls stained and its wooden door slightly ajar. Soketsu’s eyes darted over his surroundings looking for any signs of movement, then he swung his weapon without a moment of hesitation.

The door in front of him exploded into several pieces like it was blown away by a shaped charge. The remains flew into the interior and scattered with residual sparkles of lively green viridia dancing between the fragments. The only recognizable pieces of the door were the simple metal lock and the handful of splinters limply hanging onto the hinges.

After split-second of pause, which was spent with a quick survey of the immediate area, Soketsu stepped over the threshold of the building and found himself face to face with— absolutely nothing.

[Kay]: "Huh. Do you see what I’m seeing?"

[Soketsu]: "Since you are looking through my eyes… Yes."

[Kay]: "… This is weird."

The only sounds in the room were the high-pitched whining of the rusted hinges still flapping from the momentum of his entry and the barely audible popping of the dissipating sparkles. On the visual front the place had even less to offer, as there was nothing in the building aside of bare walls and a freshly littered concrete floor.

For a moment Soketsu almost entertained the thought that he might have had the wrong cottage, but he quickly shook the idea out of his head. It was the desert, for Nov’Elsfaan’s sake! It was hard enough to find one standing building in the middle of nowhere, so managing to find the wrong one would have been downright embarrassing. He cautiously took a step further inside the anteroom. Or rather, the single room filling the entire building.

On closer inspection he had to realize the walls and floor were both uniform, spotless white. In fact, Soketsu could immediately recognize the smell of fresh plaster. Maybe it was a new construction? Not only that, he could also feel a faint tinge of chemicals masked by the smell of wildflowers.

[Soketsu]: "I think I can smell some kind of detergent. Did someone clean the room recently?"

[Kay]: "Maybe they were expecting guests?"

[Soketsu]: "Yeah. Let’s hope they weren’t expecting us."

After taking another curious yet cautious step inside, a sudden quake almost knocked him off-balance. He quickly planted his weapon to regain his footing and a split-second later he was already raising it back up towards the source of the trembling.

On his left, just under the wall, the floor slowly split apart with a loud mechanical noise and a long staircase leading underground came into view. With cautious eyes he examined the new path that opened before him. Just what kind of mechanism was moving the floor? He had heard of pre-Devastation technology that could do things like this, and more, but hidden doors like this were well outside of his expertise. Could it have been moved by electricity? That would have been dangerous.

Speaking of dangers, he was expecting a lot of things but this was certainly not on the list. He was more or less invited to enter the lair of his target.

Soketsu: "… I see." He murmured under his breath as he carefully circled around the new venue.

[Kay]: "So they were expecting us after all. That’s bad, isn’t it?"

[Soketsu]: "It’s hard to say."

That’s what he told his partner, but even Soketsu couldn’t deny the chills the situation was sending down his spine. He looked down the stairs and clicked his tongue in frustration.

The decision of whether he should follow this invitation or not was arguably something he should have mulled over for at least a few minutes, but ultimately he simply didn’t. He had been prepared to go head on against anything his foe might have thrown at him from the beginning, and that determination didn’t change the slightest. He carefully put his foot onto the first step and, after he made sure it was stable he began his descent into the darkness of the underground corridor.