A Slow Day
Kei was playing old footage captured seven years ago. She bought it yesterday and was watching it with Eta. It was raining, and the rain in Changye was not something you wanted to run around in.
"What's this?"
"Found footage."
"Actual found footage or just a made-up one?"
"Actual."
Eta rested lazily on the side. I pulled my office chair over and sat with my chin resting on the backrest.
Kei played the footage. The first fifty seconds showed the camera pointed at a wall. Then the cameraman tilted it to the left, and there was a skeleton in robes.
It was talking.
"Draugr?"
"Necromancer. Specifically, one that contracted with a devil."
I looked at them, then hurriedly stopped the tape.
"Hold up. Pause. Kei, do we know if it's haunted?"
Eta tossed me the casing. A talisman was pasted on the back. I palmed my face.
"You do know some of these tapes can induce a cognito mind break? Do you even trust low-quality talismans like these?"
Mind breaks could drive a person insane. The best way to describe it was the mind failing to process what it was seeing—too much information forced through at once, resulting in either temporary or immediate psychological collapse.
"It's fine."
She handed me a form stating the footage had already been watched.
"You do know they can fake that, right?"
"Stop being a baby and watch."
Kei snorted and blew smoke from her cigarette. I sighed, took out my smoking pipe, and lit it.
"Look at you."
I ignored Eta elbowing me and focused on the footage. The camera was now shaking violently as the cameraman ran through hallways. The structure looked familiar. I paused for a second, then let it play.
The cameraman raised the lens again.
The Necromancer was raising the dead.
Seconds passed. Rotten hands clawed their way out of the ground, accompanied by wet screeches.
The camera turned toward the distance. A man appeared—his head obscured by a black blur. He wore light clothing, and in his right hand was a saw-toothed sword with a flat edge.
"What's the title of this again?"
"Pale Magus."
I checked the tape casing and found the address of the shop that sold it. I made a mental note before setting it aside and leaning back.
"This is lame."
"It's pretty okay."
Eta commented while watching the footage. The man with the censored face moved through the undead with ease, cutting them down as they swarmed him.
The problem with the undead was simple. Unless you purified or burned the corpses, they would keep coming back.
The REDACTED swung the saw-edged blade with little effort. Realizing how much rotten flesh he was cutting through, he shifted his stance—and then appeared next to the Necromancer.
A shockwave rang out.
The ground exploded, followed by a sonic boom that made the cameraman collapse.
"My ears! My ears!"
The camera tilted wildly. Blood was pouring from his ears.
The REDACTED swung once.
The Necromancer turned into paste.
The cameraman, despite everything, kept the lens on him. That was a mistake.
Another sonic boom.
The cameraman was thrown back.
He groaned behind the camera, then slowly lifted it again.
The screen warped.
The man's head was not censored. It was distorted.
He wore a white collared shirt with a loosened tie, sleeves rolled up. On his left hand was something—fabric, maybe blood. A pistol strap rested across his torso.
Behind him, pale white smoke drifted upward.
The world around him bent into a gray void.
The REDACTED spoke, but the audio was reduced to censored beeps. Whatever he said couldn't be heard.
"This is a pretty bad tape."
Kei fast-forwarded.
"I didn't say it was good. This is part of the Pale Magus collection. Do you know who the Pale Magus is, A?"
"Don't know. I stopped watching found footage after I saw someone's head melt off. After that, I had enough of this kind of thing."
Kei played the next segment. It was a compilation—sightings of the Pale Magus across Eurasia. Some clips showed him simply standing still, holding his weapons, doing nothing.
"Wait. That distortion on his head—it's not a censor."
"Yup."
I scratched my head and took a long drag from my pipe.
"I still don't get what any of this means. I mean, sure, it's fine. But what about it? What makes this one special?"
"Special? I just wanted to watch it."
Kei exhaled smoke and glanced at me.
"I'm also realizing you don't know anything about the Pale Magus."
"I admit it. I have no idea."
Both of them looked at me more seriously.
"What about the Twelve Demis?"
"The Twelve what?"
"The Twelve Demis. And the Pale Magus. The Demis are Neo-Gods that appeared recently. Don't tell me you really don't know."
"I was under a rock called debt. I barely kept up with anything. I know about the Shanghai Risk, but this? No idea."
Kei nodded slowly.
"That explains it. The Pale Magus is… strange. We don't even know if the footage is real or edited. All we know is that he's supposedly the one who sealed the Twelve Demis."
That was new.
Eta continued for her.
"It's a popular legend. When the Twelve Demis threatened the world, the Pale Magus appeared out of nowhere and ended their reign."
A myth. One that, apparently, everyone knew except me.
–
It was raining. A curtain of water was covering the Lower City despite the giant platform above us. Because of the platform constantly releasing water to lessen the weight. The downpour floods the lower city. It was common to the residents of the city to look at the streets and see water filling lanes. The huge flooding system below was supposed to drain that, but with flesh pits appearing, disrupting the service tunnels to a disastrous state. I know because I had the displeasure of working as the assistant of a foreman in charge of the sluice gates. I still recall making my way through the service tunnels with so much difficulty.
The foreman was equipped with an exoskeleton and had an easy time navigating the service tunnels. It was during our entry into the main chamber where the control panels were that the foreman had a headache.
Flesh Pits were a problem. But once you start getting Flesh Creatures walking in these pits was where the problem really starts. Soulless Creatures they are. They were without empathy and function by their need to devour. Flesh Pit Flesh had to be made from something. I thought hard about where the flesh was usually generated. The foreman took me to the womb of the flesh pit and there I saw that it does not discriminate. Yes, the flesh mutates into a different composition after it grows, but it still came from rats or a cadaver that floated down.
"Usually this veiny ball of meat attaches itself to the body. Most of them attach to the mice, the bodies of whatever floated down here. You know how a plant grows? It spreads itself. Like a plant, then self-devours it."
The foreman was describing it with a dull face. I can still recall the light on his hardhat flickering as he points out and explains it to me in his matter-of-fact voice.
"Then it grows. Into this rolling meat ball that keeps on devouring until it hatches from its egg-state into whatever shape it thinks is most suitable."
It eats and eats until one day it becomes strong enough to spread its shape. The foreman told me that the flesh pit creatures were similar to worker bees as well. They harvest flesh and bring it back to their flesh-hive until it spreads from tunnels to tunnels. Funny thing about these creatures? They have become so common after the Shanghai Risk that there are documents and how-to manuals on how to approach them.
I still remember memorizing that 50-page manual. How to operate the portable flamethrower and the amount of petroleum I was inhaling while working on that company.
Most of the service tunnels were being cleaned monthly. But various interests have probably prevented the cleanup. Why? I think the city being half-flooded is why I had come into this conclusion. No wonder Kei had me buy a stock of meat.
I turned my head back to reality.
Eta's cooking meat on the mini-stove. I was smoking outside. Kei comes out and lights another cigarette.
"Think you can go home?"
"Don't think so."
"We have sleeping bags so no worries. You two can crash on the couch until the flooding is over."
Not far from Asobe Street was one of the pillars holding Changye up. On the pillars I could see water running down on its surface.
"You think there are Anoms out there?"
"Who knows? Right now I don't want to think about those monsters. No way I'm going out there."
The heavy acid rain was a problem. I could probably make it if I use the tenements to cross until I get to the service train, but it was a hassle.
"By the way, Boss. How's the deal with Mr. Rivas."
"It's alright. He's an old man who thinks highly of himself, yes. But as expected he has a decent amount of people under him that will agree to our requests. Subsidy money's going to them."
She didn't sound annoyed.
"Thought you'd be more annoyed."
"Gotta spend money to earn money."
"Ain't that a sad truth?"
Kei puts on a melancholic face. She tapped her cigarette on the railing and looks at the sky blandly.
"Sometimes I think that I should stop and make my own restaurant. Small one that serves cheap draft beer and skewers and fries. The kind you can find on some wall."
"Ain't that hard?"
"Oh, it is. Shops and restaurants come and go all the time. And honestly, despite the gold mine that is the anomalies. It's too dangerous for the long term. Especially when we meet unreasonable anomalies that can semi-tamper reality. "
"Yeah, but it earns us good cash."
"Yup. Too good to pass up on. Really, that's why it's hard to have dreams in this city, my Assistant."
She was quite sad when she said that. Like she truly meant that sentiment.
"That's Changye for you. Boss, ever thought of finding a good place to live?"
"Like the Havens? Not my kind of place. Too… peaceful. And I'd rather not spend days in a safe place for years only for it to get broken and then go to the process of realizing I have to be strong and sturdy to survive again. I'll be rusty if I ever decide to enter that kind of place."
"Again huh... That so?"
"Yup. That so."
Havens were places where you can buy a place as long as you offer a particular skill set and the cash. It's where the rich mostly live and are protected from the outside world. Kinda like an underground cavern community that stays away from the affairs of the world.
I don't think I'll fit in that kind of place too.
"Yo, the meat's done."
Eta called out and clapped the stainless steel tongs twice. Kei throws her cigarette off the railing. The butt landed on top of a car submerged underwater. I tapped my smoking pipe as well and watched the ash fly for a second before it was assaulted by the relentless rain.
It looks like today was a slow day for our office.
But once the rain's done it's back to business.