749. The Moon and the Wolf Rises At Dusk

749. The Moon and the Wolf Rises At Dusk

The further one went north, the bleaker it became. Not even a rainstorm for a month straight could revive the lands that bordered the Bellum Empire and the Diavola Kingdom. If someone from the south were to be blindfolded and sent to these lands, then they would believe they were in an entirely different Region.

Every so often across the arid expanse were withering shrubs. They laid on their sides as they waited for death to take them. The cracked earth served as drains and did not allow plants nor animals to access rainwater. It all drained into the Underflow, and the few animals that wandered these lands did so without purpose.

It was clear that they did not intend to be here. Half sat on their sides. They were carcasses, yet they breathed and exhaled a black mist from their snouts. Skeletal horses roamed these lands in herds, aimlessly wandering a deathless purgatory.

These lands belonged to the Memento Mori’s Heart of the City. A figure that zipped through the landscape like a bolt of lightning was certain of this, otherwise how else would these carcasses be alive?

A blue trail followed them. The figure’s movements caused the earth to split in their wake as tiny sparks cackled behind. It was Cer. She ran on all fours, shoving her fingers into the cracks for leverage as she threw herself forward.

“Raoul.”

She repeatedly muttered his name for hours now. Stars began to rise in the skies. Cer had not stopped running for hours now as she followed the faint trail of her brother’s scent.

“You can’t run away from me. Not from us. We have the same blood and initiated a spark… but you know that too, Raoul.”

Their Galvanic Blood carried a unique property that made it easy for the Triplets and Raoul to identify each other. However, this could only occur after they made physical contact. This explained why Cer hadn’t noticed Raoul until she bumped into him. It was part of their Charged Blood Tether Ability, though it worked much stronger between Cer and her sisters compared to Raoul.

“Faster… I need to go faster!” Cer put her all into chasing her brother down but could not even see him no matter how far she looked.

Despite this, she could still track his murky, rosy scent. Raoul must have known that Cer was right on his trail. He was an exalted Wolf; the pinnacle of their species as Demi-Humans. Raoul was a born hunter, but strangely, he did not cover his tracks.

“Are you telling me to follow you? Or this your way of telling me that it’s futile? Raoul… I have so much more to ask you. Tch.”

Cer dashed through a forest of boulders, reducing them to dust. Her mind was in disarray. It was difficult for her to cope with Raoul’s betrayal. His words rang in her mind underneath the rising stars. But even they could not illuminate this dark world.

“You had nothing to ask me except why I was there. Would you say the same thing to Ber and Res if you saw them? Is it just me?”

Her voice was drowned by the roaring winds, yet it felt quiet for her. She reached a moment of introspection as she searched the archives of her memories for something to hold onto. But it felt like her mental palace was expanding faster than she could run, and before long, she could only grasp at the air.

“… why is it always just me that’s left behind?” Cer whispered.

Her speed gradually fell as her eyes sank to her small body. The unchanging body irked her, and it was physical proof of her anguish. The small changes she recently underwent were overshadowed by her woes.

“Catching up is hard.” Cer admitted suddenly.

She was fully alone. Cer was used to the company of her family that she couldn’t help but to speak to herself out loud to ease her loneliness. It did not help that there was not even a single lick of life around her.

“I can still run… but at this rate, it’ll be too late. Raoul… you know that as well.”

Suddenly, she came to a complete stop. Her ears flapped as the dust settled behind her.

“You’re cruel. If you hated me that much… then why didn’t you just tell me from the start? I could’ve moved on. We wouldn’t have had to keep running around in circles. Tch. Idiot. But if you’re willing to stick by them, then you’re just as desperate as us.”

Then, a giant blue moon rose behind her shoulder. It illuminated the world like a second sun, and dominated the skies to the point where one could turn their heads to the right or left and still be able to see the moon.

Perigean Night would soon be upon them.

Once midnight struck the moon would be visible to everyone in Elysia. The light of the moon brought Cer comfort and despair; comfort because she had warm memories of this time of the year, and despair because of what Raoul planned to do with their mother’s remains.

She basked in the light and stared at it with earnest eyes. She was tired not because of her endless running, but because it was during these nights in the past that she could find comfort in her mother.

It was the only time where Cer was actually called by her name. By her own mother, no less.

“After all these years, I can’t believe it’s only now that I’m remembering you.” Cer wiped her nose with the back of her sleeve. She shook her head slowly, not wanting to slow herself down with these memories. “Tch…”

Still, the warmth of the azure light managed to calm Cer down. There were only 12 nights in Cer’s life where her mother had taken her hand. That same hand beat her like she was a stranger every other single day due to her illness.

Every single one those 12 nights began as this one.

Cer would always find herself in a bleak world where she felt like she could not move no matter how hard she tried. But her mother would take her hand, brush her hair, kiss her forehead…

“… Raoul. We all miss her… Maybe not Ber because of how mom treated her… but we both do.” Cer remembered when her mother would take her to the mountains to watch the Asteraceae bloom.

… And her mother would call out for her suddenly.

“Cer!”

Cer blinked. Her ears twitched again as she tried to look for the source of the voice. Her delirium after battling Raoul caused her to forget that she had a CognitO Receiver still hooked on her ear.

“CER!”

The voice periodically yelled out her name. At first Cer thought that her mother had somehow managed to communicate with her from the grave. She wouldn’t put it past the abilities of the Memento Mori.

But she soon realized that this voice came from her other pseudo-mother.

What the hell… At this point I’m really going to start believing in fate if you keep this up.

She kept this to herself.

“Cer! Are you out here!”

This voice belonged to Frost. She was at least a kilometer away from her. She quickly spoke into the CognitO Transmitter.

“Frost!” She yelled with sudden glee. “I’m –”

There were no landmarks for Cer to make her position obvious. So, she gnawed at the air and sent a giant [Electric Fang] into the air.

“– RIGHT HERE!”

A moment later, a powerful gale blew past her. Standing before her was Snap. Atop its back sat Frost and the Hired Arm. A look of relief overcame Frost the moment she saw that Cer was ok.

“Heh. Right on time –!”

But before Cer could speak, Frost leaned over Snap’s back to embrace her.

“Thank goodness you’re alright!”

She pulled Cer deeply into her chest. Her grip was tighter than usual, and the number of black particles that lifted of Cer’s body due to [Healing] magic conveyed how glad Frost was to see her again.

“You’re walking on Memento Mori territory, you know that! This is a Heart of the City! It’s dead now, but you… shouldn’t have been running here!”

Normally, Cer would reply with something snarky or sarcastic. She didn’t even have a drive to do this. Not here. Not now. Cer was elated beyond words that Frost managed to find her.

It was just as her mother would on this night.

“I had to get to Raoul as fast as possible.” Cer argued with a small growl. “I wasn’t going to let this slow me down.”

She fully expected Frost to reprimand her.

Cer understood the risks of moving through Impuritas territory, but she wanted nothing more than to chase Raoul. However, and to her surprise, Frost dragged her up onto Snap’s back.

“Then hold on tight!” Frost said as the Hired Arm wrapped her arms around Cer’s waist.

“Huh?”

“She was talking to me.” The Hired Arm said.

“HUH!? You can speak! Wait – what’s going on!?”

“We’re heading to the north. What else? This was all part of the plan, remember? We were supposed to catch up and bring you along.” Frost said.

“But I didn’t know you’d be here this

quickly!”

“Bzzzt~!” Snap took that as a compliment.

“Seriously… how fast did you get everything done? It hasn’t even been half a day since I faced off with Raoul.”

Cer was bothered by this. She had only been running for the last few hours. In that same amount of time, Frost had saved hundreds of slaves, infiltrated the Capital, presumably taken down the Red Baron, and had now destroyed three out of four Hearts of the City.

She didn’t make it obvious. But Frost knew Cer enough where she aware that she was bothered by it. After all, Cer had recently been mentioning how she didn’t want to be left behind, and how speed was what she wanted the most.

Suddenly, Frost turned around and brushed her hair…

… like her own mother would.

“I’m not that fast myself, but we had methods to make up for it. We have the Isolation Spheres and Snap to ferry us. Trust me, it would’ve taken days to reach this place on my own. I… don’t know how you’re feeling right now, but I’m here for you. I won’t leave you behind or hurt you.”

“I thought the same thing for Raoul.” Cer muttered. “Telling me this and doing that doesn’t change things. Finding me is more than enough for me to know that you’re the real deal. Don’t waste your time trying to convince me that you won’t betray me. This is between Raoul and me. Besides, you’re the one who saved my sisters. Who the hell am I to even try to put you on the same level as Raoul!?”

“Thank you.” Frost softly hummed.

“… You’re nothing like Raoul. Tch. Raoul… I lost sight of him again.”

“Do you know where Raoul went?”

“I can point you in his direction. But it’s the same way you were going anyway. He went to the north.”

“So he’s probably with Iscario.”

“He was with a giant bug called Beethoven. They took Ara, but I don’t know where.” Cer added. “Iscario is also there? That… but Raoul said that he wasn’t with Iscario. He just wants to do his own thing with mom… Are you… tch, no you wouldn’t lie to me. So Iscario really is there.”

“Everything is pointing to that. The Red Baron seems to believe it as well.” Frost tapped a red idol on her hip.

The fact that Cer could not read its stats or appraise it meant that it was a Corrupted.

“You’re looking at what’s left of the Red Baron. Right next to him is the head of an Ankou.” The Hired Arm explained before suddenly taking in Cer’s scent.

“Hey, what’s up with you? I’m not Anna for you to ogle over!”

“You lack your distinctive wet-dog scent. A shame.”

“Tch. What the hell are you talking about–!?”

“BZZZT~!” Snap purred with the same pitch as a whistle before suddenly jolting forward.

The group of four traversed the decaying lands of the northern Bellum Empire. The speed was far faster than Cer could have imagined. Her ears could not even fight against the howling wings. Even her tail was left to its whims.

She was awed by how wonderful it was to move this quickly.

Because with speed like this, she would never have to be left behind again. The purgatory between each distance would shorten. She’d be able to stand with everyone no matter what.

She kept this belief tucked in her heart as she steeled herself.

“Raoul. I’m coming for you.”