Harus moved through the soot-stained ruins with the practiced ease of a man who had long ago traded his humanity for a place at a tyrant's table. He was brimming with a cold, jagged joy. The Bright Lord had finally loosened the leash.
The respect he felt for Gunlaug had only deepened over the past few months. Despite that wench Changing Star throwing her little tantrum and playing savior to the dregs of the Settlement, Gunlaug had displayed a god-like patience. If it had been up to Harus, he would have waded into the Outer Settlement on day one, culling her little play-act before the first lines were even spoken.
He chuckled darkly, the sound like dry leaves skittering over stone. He didn't particularly enjoy leaving the Castle—the sun was too bright, the air too open—but he would endure it to serve his Lord.
In the beginning, it hadn't been about loyalty. Harus remembered arriving at the Forgotten Shore two years after Gunlaug had claimed the throne. He had arrived broken, cursed with a twisting, agonizing Flaw that turned every breath into a reminder of his own deformity. Add to that the grim news of his new reality, he had been filled with a deep-seated resentment that threatened to hollow him out.
It became increadbly easy to deal with it... Harus still remembered the first worm he crushed.
A gaunt girl who had dared to recoil in horror at his sight. The way her neck had given way under his grip, the way her hollow eyes had filled with useless tears... it still sent a thrill down his crooked spine.
That's when he found himself presenting his services to Gunlaug. It began as a partnership; The Bright Lord needed an enforcer to create his powerful image, and Harus needed a reason to release his resentment on others. But as time passed and he continued to follow Gunlaug, he found himself following the Lord's orders out of respect rather than vain impulses.
And Harus understood at that moment that his partnership had transformed into something more—what it was today.
Loyalty.
It wasn't the blind devotion of a fanatic; it was the cold logic of a pragmatist. Gunlaug was strong. Gunlaug was wise. In a hell like this, who wouldn't follow the man who had turned a nightmare into a kingdom?
That was why his contempt for the worms of the Outer Settlement grew with every day they continued to breathe. They lived on the false hope provided by a girl who didn't understand the fundamental truth of the Shore: there was only one salvation here. Servitude.
Harus knew his Lord's mind. He knew Gunlaug wasn't showing mercy out of the goodness of a heart he no longer possessed. With the other two Lieutenants beginning to whisper in the corners, the presence of the Changing Star was a necessary distraction—a deterrent against their petty plots.
'Pathetic worms, they're beginning to forget their place...' Harus thought, his glassy eyes scanning the ground for the cohort's traces.
But the games ended today.
As if the city itself sensed his intent, a Blood Fiend lunged from a darkened alley, its fangs bared and its eyes wild with hunger. Harus didn't even break his stride. He raised a hand lazily, his fingers closing around the creature's head and crushing it like an overripe fruit.
[You have killed an Awakened monster, Blood Fiend.]
Harus stared at his bloodied palm, the sickly ichor dripping between his twisted fingers. He let the sound of it hitting the pavement guide his imagination.
How would the Changing Star's blood feel?
As Harus listened to the empty voice of the Spell he looked at his bloodied hand for a long second, his glassy eyes curving mirthfully. The sickly blood flowed between his twisted fingers, the dripping sound echoing deep within him, and he allowed the feeling to guide his thoughts.
How would Changing Star's blood feel in his hands?
He began imagining the scene: her cohort, so full of themselves would attempt to stand against him, only to become blind the next second. The shock on their faces at the realization of their situation slowly turning to dread as they hear the screams of their friends only to not hear them again. Changing Star trying to do something, only to be the only one left behind. Blind. Cold. Alone.
Finally the dread turning into despair.
It was a shame they couldn't see who was in charge of their demise, but alas, one couldn't have everything.
"I can't wait..." Harus muttered aloud, his voice failing to contain the glee he felt.
With a final, expectant sigh, Harus focused once again on the hunt. They were near. But just as he made a turn around a sharp, dark corner, what greeted him on the other side made him frown.
A Carapace Scavenger was scraping at a pile of rubble with its pincers a few meters ahead.
His mouth twisted into a crooked scowl. An Awakened Beast was no match for him—especially a Scavenger, which sat at the very bottom of the food chain in the Dark City. He could kill such monsters with his bare hands if necessary. But there was a problem: despite the Scavenger being of a lower class, its tough carapace made it burdensome to deal with swiftly.
'Not like they can escape, but I would rather finish this already so I can return to the Castle...' Harus thought tiredly, deciding to evade the creature.
But just as he turned to his right in search of a side street, he saw something that made him pause in sheer strangeness. To his right was a broken tower, half of its structure long sunken into the ground. A former window now acted as a door to the interior. But what made Harus question his own eyes was a mismatching piece of wood covering the entrance, with words written in a language he could understand without the aid of the Spell.
It read "Free candy!" in an excited calligraphy that clearly didn't belong in a place like the Dark City.
"...What?" Harus managed to mutter.
The sight was so bizarre that any thought related to Changing Star momentarily escaped his mind. He immediately tried to gloss over it—he had a job to do—but just as he took a step toward an alleyway, a voice drifted from behind him.
"Be honest, man. Such a sign wouldn't actually work, right?"
Harus spun toward the voice. Thirty meters away, stepping out of a ruined building as if taking a casual afternoon stroll, was a figure draped in a dark blue, martial mantle. Harus didn't waste a heartbeat; he immediately activated his Aspect, reaching out to steal the stranger's sight.
It didn't work. Harus clicked his tongue in realization.
His Aspect Ability allowed him to steal the eyesight of anyone around him, but it had a rigid limitation: a radius. Even with his Core fully saturated, that radius was exactly twenty-five meters.
Harus creased his eyebrow in deep thought. He kept his eyes on the stranger, refusing to turn his back. The Scavenger was still busy with the rubble, oblivious to the two predators.
'I don't know what he's doing here, but I'll finish this quickly and then go for the girl... I can't make the Lord wait any longer,' Harus thought, taking a confident, menacing step toward the stranger.
But as if unaware of the monster standing in front of him, the figure simply leaned casually against a blackened wall and continued to talk without a care in the world.
"In all honesty, I knew it wouldn't work. Like, come on, man. 'Free candy' in the Dream Realm? Who would actually believe it? Ain't that right, Harus?"
Those words made him stop in his tracks. A sudden, cold wariness took over as he registered the stranger's words.
'He knows my name...'
But that wasn't all. 'He knew I was going to pass through here... He came to this part of the ruins knowing full well who I am...'
A crooked smile appeared on Harus's twisted face, his yellow teeth bared in a mix of mockery and dawning understanding. He spoke, his voice a raspy grating of stone. "Poor worm... So that bitch ditched you so she could escape? That is what happens when you follow false leaders like her..."
"Hey, language," the stranger reprimanded, not shifting his relaxed posture. "And actually, I offered myself up."
The sheer ease the stranger displayed—even after his motives were revealed—made Harus arch an eyebrow. Ignoring the boy's chatter, he glanced toward the distant street beyond the Scavenger. While he was losing time with this fool, Changing Star was putting distance between them. Harus was confident she couldn't escape in the end, but he preferred to end this now rather than allow for any chances.
"But yes, I'm here to buy some time," the stranger continued, seemingly oblivious to Harus's internal calculations. "So could you play along, Harus? I promise you won't be bored. We can play rock-paper-scissors; I have some trivia games, too. Just give me ten minutes of your time. I don't want to look bad to them..."
The stranger continued to ramble about "contracts," "inner policies," and the "obligations of a contractee doing a freelance job for a black company." Harus made a strange face as he listened to the nonsense. His glassy eyes regained a flicker of clarity as he focused on the stranger's antics.
He could finish this swiftly, but this was the first time something like this had happened to him. The easy smile on the stranger's scarred face didn't fit the Dark City, or the person he was talking to. No one had talked to him this long except for his Lord. Everyone in the Castle feared him. Harus was used to it—he enjoyed it—seeing every member of the Host, even the Lieutenants, cowering in his presence filled him with glee.
His appearance was a twisted nightmare; he would rather be looked at with fear than disgust. But now...
Suddenly, a name surfaced in his mind—one he had heard in passing during a Lieutenant meeting he'd been forced to attend. It was the meeting where Kido explained how she had obtained her Aspect Legacy as a Sleeper, a feat that had filled the others with jealousy... and the name of the man who had helped her achieve it.
"You... You're Zachary, aren't you?" Harus interrupted the rambling, his voice sharp with recognition.
Zachary stopped his nonsense, opening his eye wide as an honest smile found his lips again. "You know me? My, I'm flattered."
"Yes, I know you, worm..." Harus said, a twisted grin marring his features like a scar. "Your existence has been a nuisance to the Host... and therefore to the Lord."
"Oh, really?" Zachary said with an awkward cough, sounding more like a man accused of a minor social faux pas than a death sentence.
Baring his teeth, Harus continued. "Those fools... Gemma and Tessai... they think themselves above their role, conspiring against each other and bothering the Bright Lord while another eyesore lingers outside the gates. How nice of you to appear before me."
"You're... welcome?"
A flash of recognition illuminated Harus's cloudy eyes as another piece of information resurfaced from the fog of Castle politics.
"You being here..." Harus trailed off, trying to piece together the vague details of the rumors. "Does that mean you and that wench are back together?"
"Language," Zachary reminded him again, sighing tiredly. "And no... it's merely professional. I'm getting paid to help her. You know what they say, 'money talks.' So, perhaps, if you're interested..."
He left the words hanging, the implication of a bribe dangling in the air like bait. But Harus only scoffed at the nonsense.
"As if you're worthy of selling your services to the Lord. No... I have a better idea," he said, his voice beginning to drip with venom. "I'll take you to the Lord. That way, he can solve the dispute between those fools easily. They both want you? Then they can have you."
Harus smiled at the cleverness of the thought. "He shall cut you in half. That way, they both get a piece. It will be a clear warning to them—a reminder not to dare covet more than they're allowed."
As if not registering the gruesome warning, Zachary just scoffed. "Who does Gunlaug think he is, Solomon?"
"He is just as wise," Harus replied immediately, a deep, fanatical respect bleeding into his raspy voice.
He stared at Zachary, daring him to argue against the divinity of the Bright Lord. But the scarred man just yawned lazily and said, "He's not gonna let you hit, brother."
Harus blinked his glassy eyes twice. He didn't know what Zachary meant by "hit," but the mocking tone translated perfectly across the cultural divide. The realization hit him like a physical blow, and with it came an unbearable rage that made him grit his teeth so hard they groaned under the strain.
"How dare you mock my loyalty to the Bright Lord, worm?!" Harus hissed through clenched teeth.
He had heard enough. He had entertained the worm's antics out of mere curiosity, but the boy had exhausted his generosity. Harus began to straighten his body. His crooked spine twisted and popped, moving painfully against its flawed direction, but he didn't care for the agony. The worm in front of him had mocked his Lord. He would pay before Changing Star followed him into the dark.
Finally standing a full head taller than Zachary, Harus bared his teeth. "The Lord will—"
"Yes, yes. Your Lord, your Lord..." Zachary interrupted, pushing off from the wall.
Finally facing him fully, Harus saw the longsword in Zachary's right hand. It was pulsing with a poorly contained, angry light. Harus immediately became wary of the weapon; despite his confidence that a mere Sleeper's blade wouldn't leave a scratch on his pale skin, the radiating heat was intense enough to sear the air between them.
But just as Harus was about to summon his own Memory to end the farce, Zachary spoke one last time.
"...Just zip it up after you finish, man."
That was it. The final straw. At that moment, Harus knew he was going to break this boy to the very edge of death. He was going to make him regret every breath wasted on such indignity.
But just as a dark chain finally materialized around his arm, Harus felt a shift in the air behind him. The Scavenger!
'Has it finally noticed us?' Harus thought, his instincts forcing him to pivot so he wouldn't leave his back exposed to either threat.
But the attack was perfectly synchronized. As Harus turned, Zachary moved with outstanding speed, a dark blur against the blackened ruins. The Carapace Scavenger arrived first, its pincers snapping with bone-crushing force. Harus met the strike with a heavy, chain-wrapped fist, the impact ringing out like a hammer on an anvil. He didn't intend to kill the beast—he used the momentum to create distance, launching himself toward Zachary. Dealing with this daring pest was his only priority.
He locked his gaze onto the scarred man, and finally, he crossed the threshold. Twenty-five meters.
'Let me see you despair in the dark...' Harus thought darkly as he triggered his Aspect.
But in that exact microsecond, Zachary did something so simple, so utterly baffling, that Harus's mind momentarily stalled.
He closed his eye.
Under the weight of that inexplicable movement, Harus's thoughts accelerated, trying to find the logic. 'Does he know my Ability? Impossible. No one alive knows the secret... and even if he did, what good would closing an eye do against a stolen sense?'
He got his answer a heartbeat later.
As Zachary dashed forward, he brandished his pulsing longsword. He was still too far to land a physical strike, but he didn't need the steel to reach. Just as the tip of the blade leveled with Harus's face, a sudden, blinding white flash erupted from the sword.
Harus slammed his eyes shut, but it was far too late. The solar burst was so intense he could swear he heard his retinas sizzle.
"Aghhh!"
Harus groaned, the burning agony in his eyes making his vision swim in a sea of white fire. But he didn't lose his focus. He wasn't some pathetic weakling who would collapse under a sting; he was a professional hunter. A natural-born killer... The Hidden Blade of the Bright Lord.
'You're blind too!' Harus thought with a surge of vindictive glee.
Zachary would be just as sightless, caught in the aftermath of his own light, only to be received by his blinding Aspect. Harus knew exactly where the boy had been standing. He had the momentum. He had the initiative.
'Die!'
Harus swung his chained fist with all his inhuman strength, aiming for the space where Zachary's head had been, ready to pop it like an overripe fruit. But his fist met only empty air.
Before he could pull back, a sharp, surgical coldness sliced through his extended arm just above the elbow. He didn't need sight to understand the weight of what had happened.
His arm was gone.
A scream threatened to erupt from his twisted mouth, but he swallowed it, pivoting on a dime. He knew where the enemy was now. He lashed out with the side of his remaining arm, and for the first time, he felt he grazed something solid. A dark, jagged smile appeared on his face as he stepped into a follow-up strike.
But then, Zachary's strained voice echoed from the side. "Now!"
'Wha—'
The thought was cut short as a massive, heavy pincer slammed into his ribs. The force was astronomical, sending Harus flying backward into the sunken tower, smashing right through the "Free Candy!" sign.
'The Scavenger! An Echo!'
The realization arrived too late. Harus crashed into the inner wall of the tower, bouncing off the masonry and plunging into the pitch-black darkness of the lower levels. Despite the height of the fall, his body was a temple of hardened muscle; he twisted in mid-air, trusting his sense of balance to land on his feet.
He didn't waste time. He pried his teary, burning eyes open. The darkness of the pit was a soothing balm to his scorched eyelids. With a hiss of pain, he reached for his wounded arm, feeling the empty vacancy with a cold, hollow emotion.
With surgical efficiency, he ripped a strip from his dirty cloak and tied it tightly around the stump. He refused to scream for a wound achieved through such cheap, dishonorable means. Instead, he looked upward toward the jagged circle of light far above.
There, silhouetted against the sky, was a relaxed figure looking down on him. Zachary.
Harus immediately tried to lash out with his Aspect, hoping to blind and drag the man down into the pit with him, but the tower was too deep. Zachary was safely outside his radius.
A searing, deep-gutted rage took hold of his soul. He no longer cared about Changing Star. The only thing that mattered was the myriad of ways he would dismantle the man who had dared to draw blood. 'Once I climb out of here, you'll—'
"Hey, Harus," Zachary called out, leaning over the edge of the hole. "I know your... lack of traditional beauty has made it hard to meet girls. Luckily for you, I've got just the eau de toilette to fix that."
The silhouette flicked his hand, and a second later, Harus felt several droplets splash onto his face. He wiped them away with the back of his hand, but the liquid only smeared further. He recognized the smell instantly...
Blood.
"I've heard it has a very... magnetic attraction," Zachary's silhouette straightened, waving a cheerful goodbye. "Au revoir, Harus! Hope we see each other again."
"You think I'll let you escape!?" Harus roared, bracing his legs to leap toward the wall and begin his ascent.
Then he heard it.
A growl. A deep, rumbling vibration that was followed by another, and then another.
He wasn't alone in the dark.
Deep in the bowels of the sunken tower, a dozen Nightmare Creatures—starved and feral—had suddenly become aware of their uninvited guest... and the scent of the blasphemous blood coating him.
The realization hit him like a physical weight. As a sickle appeared in his remaining hand amidst a shower of white sparks, Harus gritted his teeth. His eyes were no longer glassy; they burned with a cold, murderous resolve aimed squarely at the man who was currently walking away.
***
Zachary stood at the edge of the sunken tower for a long moment, listening to the profane cacophony of screams and guttural growls rising from the dark. He stepped back with a shudder, but a sudden pang of sharp pain erupted from his side, forcing a hiss through his teeth.
"Fuck... he actually managed to graze me," Zachary muttered, gingerly touching his ribs.
Thankfully, nothing felt broken. Harus really packed a punch; considering his Aspect, the man likely possessed an Attribute that pushed his physical strength into the realm of the monstrous.
"Either way, I should hurry," he said with a shake of his head. He turned to look at Pepe Silvia, who was scuttling toward him through the rubble. In his pincer, the intern carefully held the severed, blood-slicked arm of the Butcher.
Nodding his approval, Zachary took a thick piece of cloth from his pouch, enveloped the grizzly trophy, and tied it securely to his waist. Then, he looked at the Scavenger. "Are you hurt?"
The Echo didn't respond, but Zachary knew it hadn't received any damage. He had strictly ordered the Echo to avoid a direct clash with the hunchback; there was another role for the Scavenger to play later.
"Good job out there. I'll call you back in a bit. Rest for now."
With the Echo dismissed to his Soul Sea, Zachary took one last look at the sunken tower before sprinting toward the broken lighthouse. 'I really hope you survive, Harus. You can't die... Not yet at least.'
As he retraced the cohort's path, he reviewed the logic of his gamble. He hadn't been looking to kill Harus. In the original timeline, Harus's story only ended after Gunlaug's fall. Zachary wasn't willing to risk the "unknowns" that might follow if the Bright Lord's most trusted lieutenant perished prematurely at the hands of Nephis's party.
Instead, he needed the spotlight. His plan required the upper echelons of the Host to fixate on him. At the end of the day it didn't came down to how would Harus die, but when.
'Now for the backlash... that'll be for Harper to deal with,' Zachary thought with a scoff as he reached the collapsed lighthouse. 'He should be fine... I hope.' He let out an awkward cough. He had only attracted a few dozen Beasts and Monsters to the tower; surely even a one-armed Harus could handle that.
Reaching the crevice that led to the Catacombs, Zachary took a deep breath. 'They must be inside. Honestly, with Harus indisposed, we could have escaped through the surface, but there's something down there we really need down there...'
The Blood Arrow.
His luck with Memories remained abysmal, with the sole exception of those tied to the novel's original plot. Securing an Ascended Memory like the Arrow was the only logical move, especially given how many times it had saved the cohort in the original timeline.
'What I'm willing to do for you, Kai...' he thought with a flicker of mock-resentment that quickly dissolved into a grin. 'There's also the key... but I'm not pressed for that just yet.'
"Fuck it. I can't believe I'm willingly walking into the den of a Fallen Tyrant." With those words, Zachary plunged into the darkness.
Despite the height he landed in the catacombs without a sound, but his sudden arrival didn't go unnoticed. In a blur of motion, he found the deadly edges of steel blades and the heavy rim of a bronze shield stopping just a hair's breadth from his throat. Only one weapon failed to stop.
Trusting the sudden, electric jolt of Danger Sense, Zachary snapped his hand up, catching the needle-thin blade of a flying rapier just before it pierced his neck.
"Oh my. What a welcoming committee."
At the sound of his laughter, the cohort's eyes went wide. They lowered their weapons, relieved smiles breaking through their tension. It seemed he had arrived just as they were debating whether to wait or move on.
Before he could drop a smart joke, he felt a gentle touch on his shoulder. He turned to find Cassie, her head bowed and a deep flush of shame coloring her face.
"I'm so sorry, Zach..." she said softly, pointing to the rapier in his hand. "Quiet Dancer... she's an Echo. She's quite shy around strangers, but she's never done anything like that before! Please forgive her."
Zachary looked at the blind girl for a second before releasing the rapier with a scoff. The blade hummed as it floated back to Cassie's side. "As unruly as its owner, it seems."
Cassie immediately pouted, looking ready to argue, but Nephis stepped forward, cutting through the banter.
"Harus?" she asked. Her voice was flat, but her eyes were searching, heavy with the weight of what his answer might imply.
"I lost him in a trap I had in the ruins," Zachary said vaguely, catching the stunned looks on Caster's and Kai's faces. "But I don't think it was enough to kill him."
He sighed and turned to Effie. The huntress looked uncharacteristically solemn; the usual predatory confidence was missing from her grin. "Have you briefed them on the situation?"
Effie gave a grave nod. "I have. But Blabbermouth... how do you even know about this place?"
"Well, I came here once, of course," Zachary said simply, summoning Ender's Solace amidst a flurry of black sparks.
"Why?" Effie's voice went an octave higher. She knew what lurked in these depths; she couldn't fathom anyone entering this place willingly without knowing the danger—and even less so if they did know. Everything down here smelled of ancient wrongness.
"I was curious," Zachary answered, his tone entirely too casual.
Effie stared at him as if he had grown a second head. "Curious? Curious! You—"
"And? What do you think?" Nephis interrupted, looking Zachary straight in the eye. She had heard Effie's warnings, but she wanted his assessment.
Zachary closed his eye. The dull ache in his side pulled his mind back to the night he had first come here—the night he had tested his Attribute against the echoes of the past inhabitants of this cursed place. As the distant, rhythmic clacking of bone on stone drifted through the stagnant air, only one description felt right.
He opened his eye and looked at the cohort. Everyone was leaning in, waiting for him to speak. As a familiar, gravelly guitar riff echoed in the back of his mind, Zachary finally spoke.
"It was bad to the bone."