Глава 13

What story?

A story of disaster.

Let's hope we don't run into the stuff of those stories.

Let's hope we still have some good luck left in the bank.

A merc who thinks he's lucky is a dead merc.

Which is why we need you to stay behind, W.

We're not here to fight. We need to figure out what we're facing.

If things go south and we need to pull out...

Don't worry, I won't leave the way open for you.

I'll set up the explosives and wait until you're almost at the exit, Vampires and Nachzehrer hot on your tail, maybe Theresis himself, and just as you're about to see the light...

Boom!

You'll become the tragic hero right out of your favorite stories, Hoederer!

You can't handle Theresa on your own, W.

Ines.

I'll actually bury you, you know.

Hmph. You do you.

She really will blow the hills apart though.

We both know she's crazy. No need to provoke her with Theresa's name.

It's just pathetic, the act the she's putting on. I'd rather she knew what she wanted.

You've been in the city for so long. If she wanted to know the truth, she could've just asked you.

Did she ever ask if that Theresa was real?

She never asked me, either. She's never grown up.

She could do one of two things: Grovel at that Theresa's feet and beg for forgiveness, or plan to kill her.

But what is this that she's doing? Trying to prove that she's all great and powerful?

Or is she trying to convince herself that nothing ever happened, that all she needs to do is kill people and plant mines like she always has, and it'll all pass?

It would've been fine if she could actually stop thinking about it. But right now, she's like a little girl standing on the ice.

She takes a few steps forward, then a few steps back, looking around the same place, sinking into pointless sentimentality.

I have no idea.

Give me a break. You just don't want the extra trouble.

I didn't know you cared so much about her.

I care about me. I don't want to die because of her.

In all seriousness, Ines, have you ever thought about going back to Kazdel?

What? Am I in the way of your great plan?

No, it's just occurred to me that W and I have a reason to stay in this war.

But what about you?

...I've got my reason too.

Here we are.

We're... inside the hill.

They hollowed out the whole thing?

Well, that's going to make things easier for W's demolition plan.

Look at the size of these tracks, and the loading mechanism.

That's a big guy.

Shh, get into the shadows.

When's the next shift?

Close.

It's always on time.

I should've made a report to the boss. I would rather be outside, killing Victorians.

You're not a warrior.

I don't need you to tell me! It's just that this place is so... oppressive.

I see those illusions every day, the things you don't know whether they're real or not.

It's like a maelstrom that keeps spitting out trash from another dimension.

Good thing Ulšulah is a decent woman who doesn't pick on us for no reason or abuse her authority.

Is she the youngest major ever, according to Military Commission ranks?

She's not a member of the Royal Court. She won't go far.

Lady Theresa and the Regent aren't blue-blood devils either.

Screw the Royal Court. Kazdel wasn't won by those old fossils huddling around in a circle.

But they're the strongest.

That's because...

It's almost time.

Go to the machine and prepare to load.

Did you hear the name they said?

Ulšulah.

Could it be...?

It's not necessarily the one we're thinking of. Sarkaz names are often codenames or taken from legends.

Ulšulah the Time-Stealer. Ulšulah of the Lock and Key. It's a Sarkaz legend about the Feranmut. Anyone could've drawn from it.

Wait... Ulšulah the Time-Stealer?

What's the origin of your name, 'Hoederer'?

Don't have one.

Hah.

Bells.

Wait, over there...

What's that?

What was that?

The hills are trembling...

No, space itself is trembling.

For an instant, I see visions beyond reckoning.

Bloated emperors crumbling in halls of gold, ancient bloodborn cutting open their wrists to feed the newborn.

Diαbolic flames burning amber. Demons with deer horns prowl beneath great bronze walls, offering battered willow wood.

The one knot falls from nothingness, splitting into countless threads; a red-skinned monster cuts off its own horn, impaling its own chest with it.

Broken shards become whole again. I see a far-away city.

Calm, peaceful, not yet wheeled, not yet drowned in hatred. Its beauty is absurd and out of place, even in a dream.

For no reason at all, I am convinced that it was Kazdel. A home that has long ceased to exist, from somewhere in history.

I want to go there, go into there. I want to see what kind of life we once led.

I lift my foot, but put it down in the same place again. I watch it quietly.

Until all is silent.

Until—

A pathetic creature that is naught but bleached bones moves slowly.

Nerve strands reach out and grab the massive containers.

It still roams this place. It is not dead yet.

This... this is the 'cargo ship'?

So big... how did Theresis...?

It... it's really...

Ulšulah the Time-Stealer...

What a coincidence, right?

The legend of Ulšulah tells of Kazdel being attacked by a Feranmut that could slow the time of all things and peer into the past through the fog.

Through so many pasts the hero Ulšulah journeyed, rescuing their kin lost in the mirage of time.

Who knew that I, who took the name by happenstance, would one day witness the legend with my own eyes?

You've really ground those horns into shape, Ines. You could almost pass for a true blue Sarkaz.

Ulšulah.

Are you really going to betray General Manfred, Hoederer?