It was a bright and sunny day. Of course one could argue that when one was so close to the equator and so far from the oceans practically every day was guaranteed to be bright and sunny, but that’s beside the point.

For the town of Viginti it was most certainly a very nice day. The young settlement, the farthest town to the north of the core Order provincias and right on the border of the Black Desert was just in the middle of the annual celebrations of its founding. In fact Viginti might have been the only town on the entire continent with such a tradition and they were quite proud of it. Also very enthusiastic, as anyone could tell from the noises of the fair occupying the town square, its colored tents sharply contrasting the otherwise uniform blocky white buildings, all of them new constructions without any of the ruined buildings usually associated with the outskirts of an Order town.

The reason for that was quite straightforward: Unlike the other cities under the Order’s jurisdiction, Viginti was not built upon the ruins of a pre-Devastation era city. Well, at least technically.

If one were to ask some of the older inhabitants, the first settlers of this land, they would very well remember the ruins that once sprawled the hills of the area. That is until it was completely wiped off the map in the most literal sense possible around twelve years ago.

In its stead now stood a gigantic silver spire, its sharp tip reaching higher than any pre-Devastation skyscraper. Whatever created it also left a gigantic, several kilometers wide and perfectly circular crater in its wake centered on the massive structure in the middle.

The spire itself was colossal to the point of absurdity, as its base it would have covered several city blocks, and its surface was made of a smooth, other-worldly material that seemed to be permanently polished to the point where it was hard to look at it during daylight. Counter-intuitively it didn’t show any sight of internal or external structure and its elongated spiral appeared to be as if it was cast from one incredibly huge lump of silver. Very simple, very elegant and very, very big.

The spire, now called Nov’Elsfaan’s Tower, became a rallying point for the more devout subjects of the Order, and even though there was no actual coordinated effort to settle the land like in the case of other cities, the enthusiasm of the settlers still turned it into a sprawling town in only the span of a decade.

It also helped that the lands appeared to be completely devoid of the corruption, the dreaded last remnant of the Devastation that normally took years if not decades of hard work to eradicate before an area could be safely settled. The lack of it on the other hand meant that the establishment of the new settlement required only a fraction of the typical time span, resources and manpower of such an undertaking, so in the end the Order grudgingly accepted the unplanned settlement into its midst.

With that came the trademarks of the Order; the cathedral built at the base of the spire, the templars, its police force, patrolling the streets and finally, the railroads.

In the post-Devastation world, the Order’s railroad system was the fastest and safest way of long-distance personal travel and trade. The huge yet sleek workhorses of the new world, these steam engines were the heralds of progress. Being connected to the railroad system solidified the survival and growth of the otherwise outlying town, bringing goods and new settlers from all corners of the continent and beyond.

Thus, it was all the more surprising to see the good people of Viginti suspiciously eyeing the two newly arrived travelers at the train station. The pair was wearing pre-Devastation formal wear instead of the usual garbs associated with the hot climate. This alone would have been enough to raise a few eyebrows under normal circumstances, but there also seemed to be something else. It was hard to grasp why but there was something awfully off-putting about the very air around the pair.

Woman: "Look, look! There are decorations!"

The young woman excitedly pointed at the simple ornaments shaped like the spire scattered around the station, the skirt of her spotless white evening dress slightly flapping as she excitedly kept jumping up and down like a child. She was short, with delicate features that still retained a hint of childishness to them. Her long, straight black hair was kept in place by a few small ribbons, but beside those she didn’t seem to wear any makeup or jewelry.

Her partner, a man only slightly taller than her and clad in a fine black suit seemed to share her enthusiasm. He swept back his short black hair and slightly leaned forward so that they would be on the same eye-level before speaking up.

Man: "Do you know what this means?"

Woman: "We did it~!"

Man: "Yes! We ran fast enough and we arrived the day before the Anniversary!"

Woman: "Because of quantum!"

Man&Woman: "Yay~~!"

The two of them let out a strangely eerie laugh that seemed to be a little bit too synchronized, then stopped it at the exact same time and looked at each other.

Man: "Quick, we have to find the abbey or the head guy will be mad."

Woman: "Righto~!" The woman gave a fistpump, but then she suddenly fell silent as her smile turned into a frown. "But where is the abbey?"

Man: "Now that you mention it, I don’t know."

The two of them both folded their arms in unison and gloomily faced each other, apparently not even registering the mix of curious, cautious and often confused eyes locked on them.

Man: "What to do, what to do…?"

Woman: "Ah!" Suddenly the woman dropped her fist into her open palm. "I know! Let’s ask one of those knight guys! They should know!"

Man: "You are right! You are so clever!"

Woman: "Oh, you flatterer!" She giggled to herself and sent a charming glance at her companion. "So, where should we start looking?"

Man: "I have heard they are supposed to be stationed in abbeys! That should be a good place to start!"

Woman: "You are right! Now, where could we find an abbey…?"

Man: "I don’t know, we should ask someone."

It looked like they were just about to enter into a self-repeating cycle, something which seemed to be a surprisingly common achievement of non-thinking between the pair, when their self-imposed looping was interrupted by the sound of a heavy thud coming from a few paces behind them.

As they looked back in unison their eyes suddenly sparkled with revelation as they noticed the large black beast and its handler getting off the recently arrived cargo wagon. The man was wearing a sand brown uniform with a dark armored west over it, with laced ankle-boots and an equally dark cowl covering his head.

It was easy to tell from a single glance that the man was a Knight of the Order, as he wore their elaborate insignia on his vest but wasn’t wearing the shiny metallic armor associated with the Templars.

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If the Templars were the police force and peacekeepers of the land, then Knights were the frontline soldiers tasked with maintaining and expanding the borders of the Order. As such they had access to better equipment, better training and, most importantly, the means to deal with the Corruption they might encounter; such as the huge black beast lurking behind the man, dwarfing his otherwise impressive frame.

The Type-O lazily looked around the bustling station, drawing the eyes of the young running around. The elderly on the other hand had learned to completely disregard the creature— it was well known that they had inhibitors built into their bodies that wouldn’t let them attack anyone without the explicit order of their care-taker. Yet at the same time the mere presence of the monster was unsettling enough so that no one, not even the more curious youngsters wanted to get anywhere near it. Well, except for two…

Woman: "WOW! Look, Look! It’s one of those things!"

Man: "Yeah, those things were made from that thing!"

Woman: "Oh look, it’s looking at me with its little eyes! It’s so cute~!"

To the complete bafflement of the knight beside the monstrous Type-O, the odd couple began bustling around the beast without the slightest hint of concern or apprehension.

Woman: "Hihihi! It’s so funny looking! Why does it have such a small head?"

Man: "I guess so that they can put a normal hat on it when it’s raining. You know, so that they don’t have to make big ones just for them."

Woman: "Ah, you are right! I never thought of that! You are so clever!"

Man: "Aw, you flatterer!"

The two of them suddenly hugged each other and started giggling to themselves. At this point the knight was just about to get over his first shock and checked his surroundings for any signs of a practical joke, but the eyes of the people staring at them told him that he was not the victim of a prank. He let out a relieved sigh, though later he claimed that in retrospect he wished it was only a prank.

He quickly straightened himself and looked over the two strangers frolicking around the huge black creature.

Knight: "Excuse me, but what are you doing?"

The man’s voice was deep and rough like sandpaper and he spoke with as much authority as he could muster in face of the silly display in front of him.

Man: "Oh, right…" The man in the suit stopped poking the shoulder of the Type-O and turned to the knight with a wave. "Hello, my name is Adhi—"

Woman: "And I am Kiseki!" The woman cheerfully added while trying to climb onto the shoulders of the slightly confused beast. "Say, how do you pet these things?"

The knight looked at the two with a face solely reserved to impending natural catastrophes, the news that said catastrophe was an approaching army of flesh-eating bugs and the notion that said bugs would be wearing clown makeup. Paralyzed, horrified and incredulous. In that order.

Knight: "We… don’t pet them."

He finally squeezed the words out of his mouth, at which the woman’s lips suddenly curled downwards in a positively cartoonish display.

Adhi: "Awww… I guess that’s why he looks so sad."

The armed man once again checked the place for any suspiciously giggling pranksters hiding somewhere in the crowd. He couldn’t find any, and this time it made him feel less relieved. He didn’t know yet, but he would later recall this moment as the one when his future irrevocably derailed in a weird direction— but that is for a later.

Knight: "What exactly are you—?"

Kiseki: "Look, look! I finally did it~!"

The knight’s question was interrupted by the woman, sitting on top of the shoulders of the black beast and raising her hands in triumph.

Adhi: "Yay! I always believed you can do it!"

The well-dressed man answered his partner’s enthusiasm in kind, flailing his hands and chuckling like his life depended on it.

Knight: "M-Madam…?" The knight’s voice slowly trailed off as she stared at the spectacle of the small woman on top of the giant monster. "Please don't… pet the Type-O..."

Kiseki: "Aww, but look at him! He has such cute yellow glowy eyes!" She answered while pouting and pinched the cheeks of the creature while grinning like a child. The beast didn’t seem to mind the attention; in fact it barely registered the woman flailing on his shoulders. "Who's the most adorable soulless abomination? You are! Yes, you!"

Knight: "Madam, please..."

Kiseki: "Oh, look, look! He likes it when I scratch it behind the ears! Can I keep it!? Pleeeease?"

Adhi: "I don't know... Isn't he Order property? What do you think?"

Kiseki: "I'm going to call him Mister Scruffles~!"

Finally reaching the end of his wits, the man screamed out in frustration.

Knight: "JUST WHAT THE HELL DO YOU PEOPLE WANT!?"

For a moment the two looked at the man, then glanced at each other in mild confusion.

Adhi: "Yes, right…!" The man suddenly hit his forehead in revelation and gave the knight a grin so wide he could see even his molars. It seemed anatomically impossible, but then again, the two were weird enough already that it barely registered with him. "We actually need directions."

Knight: "Oh, really?"

The biting tone of the reply went completely unnoticed as the man in the suit procured a piece of wrinkled paper from his inner pocket.

Adhi: "Well, you see, we are not from around here."

Knight: "You don’t say…"

Kiseki: "But we do." The woman smiled at the knight while still petting the head of the confused Type-O. "We are from the east, you know."

Adhi: "Isn’t it more like north from here?"

Kiseki: "Now that you mention it…"

Before the two could get into another spiel the knight decided it was in his best interest to interject and, if he was at that, find out just who the hell these two were.

Knight: "Wait, you mean you are from the Union?"

The knights eyes narrowed in understandable worry. The Eastern Union was practically the only other government retaining any sort of resemblance to an actual country in the post-Devastation era and they weren’t exactly on friendly terms with the Order. Having visitors from them was unusual at best and highly suspicious under any other circumstances.

Adhi: "Yup!" The man nodded with a broad smile. "To be precise, we are from a little town called—"

Knight: "What are you doing here?"

For a moment it seemed like the man’s scowl fazed the two, but then…

Kiseki: "Hey! Cutting off people like that is rude!"

Adhi: "Yes, very rude."

Kiseki: "No wonder Mister Scruffles is so timid!" The woman began forcefully petting the beast. It looked a little more befuddled in response, though none of the people around it noticed. "The bad man must have neglected him!"

Adhi: "How nasty!"

Knight: "…"

The soldier’s gaze jumped back and forth between the two a few times. It was hard to tell just what thoughts were swirling behind his exhausted eyes, but in the end he raised his hands in resignation.

Knight: "Fine, whatever! Just tell me where you want to go and be on your way!"

Adhi: "Yes, we are supposed to go to…" He turned the page upside down, then back again, and then finally showed it to the woman on top of the Type-O. "How do you spell this?"

Kiseki: "Oh, silly!" She giggled with an absentminded mirth and leaned forwards to snatch the paper. "It’s an abbey called Sextant Aquaduct. We were supposed to meet the abbot there, I think."

For a moment the knight arched his brows in confusion and softly said.

Knight: "You mean Sextus Aquilonis?"

Adhi: "Yes, that!"

The man once again looked at the two with a mixture of emotions.

Knight: "Are you sure?"

The two nodded and the knight suddenly dropped his shoulders in despair.

Knight: "That abbey is on the other side of the continent!"

Kiseki: "It is?" The woman in the white dress raised her hands to her cheeks. "What should we do?"

Adhi: "Don’t worry darling, we just take a train there…" After a moment of hesitation Adhi turned back to the knight at his side. "To where, exactly?"

Knight: "To Duodecim."

Adhi: "Righto! The next train is going there…" He quickly ran over to the column in the middle of the pier and checked the timetable on it, then ran back. "Right now!"

Knight: "What?" The man looked over to the track, and surely there was a train that was just in the middle of firing up its engines.

Kiseki: "Aw, what a pity…" Kiseki looked sad for a moment, but a second later she already bounced back into a juvenile smile. "Oh, but look at the bright side! Now we can play with Mister Scruffles until the next train comes!"

The armed man suddenly went pale. He looked at the man in the suit, absent-mindedly grinning at his partner while praising her attitude, then the woman who was giggling to herself in face of the praises showered on her, then finally at the monster underneath her, and he felt like he was looking at a puppy that was besieged by two rambunctious kids. This took about two seconds.

Then he glanced behind himself to see that the wheels of the train slowly started moving with a loud screeching noise. This took one more second.

Finally, he looked back at the pair one more time and contemplated his choices. It took about one millionth of a second and then he spun around and bellowed from the top of his lungs.

Knight: "STOP THAT TRAIN! IN THE NAME OF THE ORDER AND NOV’ELSFAAN, STOP THAT BLOODY TRAIN!!!"

And with that he took off chasing after the slowly accelerating vehicle like as if an entire army of flesh eating clown bugs were at his heel. The odd couple watched him go, and then the woman giggled to herself with a low voice.

Kiseki: "Such a nice, helpful man, isn’t he?"