It took them nearly all day to reach the mountains. Transportation apparently wasn't cheap.
The Altior Mountains were tall. Ant would've described them as heaven-piercing, but Evangeline, Leon, and Noelle would've simply called it tall, for nothing could surpass the height of Jikoku's throne. Because they knew, from where Jikoku watched, up there was truly Mox's firmament.
The mountains were arranged in a belt, and the tallest one out of these was called "The Maximum" and on its base, a village made with spruce stood. It was a village that accompanied Parers alike, humans, Drayls, and Sables.
"So, Mister Ant," Leon tried talking to Ant. "How's Earth?"
"Terrible," Ant said, looking away. He pointed to a large pair of doors in the distance. "Is that it?"
"Yeah," Noelle said. She glanced sideways at Ant, and she tried to read his face. She wanted to know more about Earth, and because Ant had just been asked about it, he may have remembered something important.
"Mister, can I see your powers?" Leon asked Ant.
"Uh–" he looked at Noelle for assistance, but she just laughed. "Yes, a preview."
"F-fine," Ant folded. He closed his eyes. In his mind, he focused. 50% of his fragment would be used.
A golden explosion fired from Ant's feet, but nobody was blown back. Noelle went pale. Leon's eyes widened. Evangeline screamed. Ant didn't know what he did. Someone screamed in the distance. A few birds fell out of the sky, and Ant caught them just before they hit the ground by floating them.
"Oh my god!" Evangeline cried. "What the hell was that?"
"I felt… really really scared for some reason," Noelle glanced from side to side warily.
"Me too, mister," Leon said. His face was in his hands.
Found you.
Ant spun around. Was that a voice? "Did any of you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Leon asked.
So it was just me, Ant thought
The shrine's doors were massive. Bigger than Ant thought they would be. They were dark wood, engraved with blue markings. Ant walked up to the door, where two metal rings were attached to the mouths of skulls. Ant lifted one of the door knockers, and pushed it into the gates. The blue engravings glowed from the direction of the door knocker, like it was sending waves of light throughout the door's front. After the light, the markings turned yellow, and then certain sections of the gate rippled, and another wave of light was sent.
"Do you think anybody lives there?" Ant turned around, asking the Beast Hunters.
"I don't think so," Evangeline shivered. The closer they had walked to the mountains, the colder the temperature dropped, as it normally would. However, everybody had forgotten to bring an article of clothing that would shield them from the freezing winds, and so they were all standing very close to each other, relying on the body warmth that was slowly fading.
Ant, however, had broken apart.
"It should be safe to enter," Ant said. 10% this time. He didn't want to damage the doors. He changed the density of his leg to the weight of an average human, and he kicked the door. Nothing happened. It out-massed him.
20% this time. Two humans worth.
That did the trick.
The door swung open, colliding with the entrance walls with a large crash, and a giant blast of glacial air swept past them. They yelled in unison, but Ant remained quiet. Damn, that was cold.
"Oh my god! Is it really that cold there?" Evamngeline whined.
"It's… It's not that cold!" Noelle gritted through her teeth. The wind was still flowing, and her ponytail was drifting in the wind. Leon remained silent.
Ant sighed. "Come on, guys. Just… follow me. Ignore the cold."
"Ignore the cold?" Evangeline exploded. "HOW?"
Ant narrowed his eyes. He pointed towards Evangeline. "Stop complaining."
"Make me!"
Suddenly, the end of her hair bun caught on fire. "Hot! Hot!" she yelled, and then she ran around in circles. She screamed "Holy shit!" and she dove head-first into a pile of snow to extinguish the fire. "Cold! Cold!"
Noelle struggled to keep back her laugh, but that protection only lasted two seconds, and then she burst out laughing. Leon was chuckling as well, but he was staring at Ant's fingertip.
"That's what I thought," Ant muttered, and then he spun around, his cape thingy flowing heroically in the wind.
"How did you get so much mastery over your powers, Mister Ant?" Leon asked Ant as they walked into the shrine.
"I had a training arc in my dreams," Ant replied.
"How does that work?"
Ant tilted his head to look at the young boy. "I'm not sure. I guess, Jikoku showed me what the sensation of using these powers is like."
"What's it like?"
Ant sighed. "It's like, your heart's going to explode. That happens whenever I use my powers."
Leon's eyebrows raised. "Really, mister?"
Ant nodded. "That just depends on how much power I put behind it."
He turned to Evangeline. "Why do we need to protect this shrine, again? What's in it?"
"Not sure," Evangeline said, shivering. "Legends say that… I forgot, actually."
"Yeah, yeah," Ant muttered.
The entrance to the shrine was an extremely long hallway, with every corner of the walls, floor, and ceiling covered in blue markings that reacted in glowing waves upon their party's steps. There were no decorations on the walls, and the ground seemed to ripple and pulsate every two seconds.
"This place is really weird," Noelle gasped.
"So it seems," Ant replied. "I feel like I've been here before."
"You have, mister?" Leon asked.
Ant nodded, and refused to elaborate. "I think this shrine is alive."
"HUH?" Evangeline burst. "How can you say that so casually?"
"I guess it does move in a heartbeat pattern…" Noelle said. "I guess Ant's theory does have some basis."
"This is so creepy, I want to leave! Let's leave!" Evangeline whined.
"Stop complaining!" Ant yelled. "What is your problem?"
"It's ok, Miss Evie. Mister Ant is here, he can protect us," Leon said.
"I'm thinking twice about that statement now," Ant said emotionlessly. "Who knows?"
"That's dark, mister," Leon replied.
The group then reached the end of the hallway, and a door revealed itself past shifting bricks of black and blue engraved lines. They walked into the revealed chamber, where a blue glowing crystal was shining, pulsating like a heart. And then Ant realised–it was a heart. This shrine was a living creature, just like what he had theorised earlier.
"We don't need to be here," Evangeline shivered. "The client only told us to protect the shrine, not to invade it."
"You all can handle that yourself. I will stay here. Just tell me to help you if things go south," Ant said, and then he shooed away Evangeline.
"Alright, sure," Noelle jumped in before Evangeline complained. "Leon, is it okay if you stay with Ant? The thing is, I don't want him wandering around the battlefield."
"That's understandable," Ant said. Leon's eyes filled with hope, to which Ant looked away shamefully.
"We can talk now, mister!" Leon said, as if Ant wasn't already tired of their conversation.
"Well, see you," Evangeline sighed. She spun her staff in a circular motion, and Noelle unsheathed her katana/nodachi. She nodded to nobody in particular, and then they left the shrine.
After 30 seconds of silence, it was broken by Leon.
"Do you think I can use those cool golden powers as well?" he asked.
"Well, to put it simply, no," Ant broke the news. "These powers were gifted to me by a god. They had to sacrifice–" he pondered for a moment– "0.001% of his energy. Along with two breaths of life."
Leon looked to the ground. "Awww…" he whined. And then he looked up again. "Do you think I can ever gain enough of your trust for you to give me a piece of your Godly Fragment?"
"Uhh, sure, buddy," Ant joked. He was sure Leon believed him, and then he felt bad. "Sorry, you should… ask another god. Before that. Because… well…"
"If I ever find a god, I'll ask them, mister!" Leon said.
Why is this kid so happy? Ant thought. And then he remembered that Leon was born in this generation, the one these people called "The Finale". He had never known of prosperity, because he was created in a time where poverty reigned. He was a child of The End. Ant pitied him, and he also admired him. Everyday things were joys to him. Maybe an actual dinner? A piece of bread someone offered to him?
"What do you think Jikoku meant by calling me Mox's savior?" Ant asked him. He really wanted to know–it was good to hear the opinions of another person, their views on the entire situation.
"Well, I'm not even sure what Noelle and Miss Evie want," Leon replied. "Well, they were born before the end, after all."
He's really thinking hard about this.
"So, I… I think that, uh, if Mox was really better than this, it would be good for it to return to its… original state?" Leon pondered.
Before everything.
"I see," Ant replied, stroking his chin. I'm not sure either.
"Do you want to check on Noelle and Miss Evie?" Leon asked.
"Nah, it's fine," Ant said, he turned, staring at the pulsating blue crystal. A fragment. "Do you know what the purpose of this shrine is for, Leon?"
Leon perked up at his name being mentioned. Has Ant ever called him by his name? Until now? "I really don't know, mister. You should ask Miss Evie!"
"I might."
For the next ten minutes, all the things they talked about were of unimportance, nothing regarding the end of the world, nor the conditions of Ant's 'saviour-sm'. Ant kept watching the shrine's beating heart, too scared to touch it, too scared to only watch.
"They've been gone for a while, haven't they?" Leon asked Ant. He was crouched down near the floor, tracing the markings with his fingers. Each touch he made resonated with the shrine, and its creaking metal reverberated slightly.
"They have," Ant replied. "Stay here, I'm gonna go check on them."
Though Ant believed that ten minutes wasn't long enough to stop a group of thieves potentially holding weapons, he still wanted to see what progress the two had made. The shrine had folded a wall around its heart, but when it noticed Ant's presence, a doorway opened up, revealing the hallway that had separated the shrine from the outer world. He was thinking, why would a random shrine be held here? Why was it alive? Could it be that the entire mountain was alive? And this shrine was simply built to store its heart.
"Oh, hi, Ant," Noelle stuttered. She was sitting down on the unconscious body of a creature that looked to be made of stone. "We just finished."
More of the creatures were bundled up together, bound by rope. Evangeline was tying them together.
"What the hell are those?" Ant cried, pointing to the stone dwarfs.
"Oh, these are Drayls," Evangeline said. "Does Earth not have them?"
"A Drayl?" Ant's eyes narrowed. These creatures were breathing. "Are you gonna keep those things alive?"
"Yeah, duh. We don't kill things," Noelle said, shrugging.
"You say that while your literal job is killing things."
Noelle laughed. "Yeah, that's right. But we should draw the line at Parers. After all, they're as sentient as us."
"Parers..?" Ant stuttered.
"Oh, brother, how much did Jikoku attempt to teach you?" Evangeline sighed. "We'll tell you on the way to the nearest village, where we'll turn in these criminals."
"Okay, so, Jikoku first created us humans," Noelle explained. "And then he creates Sables, which are these black tall guys, and then Drayls, who're stone people, just like them," and then she gestured to the pile of Drayl that she was dragging through the snow. "How cold do you think they are?"
"Hypothermia," Ant replied, emotionlessly. He was producing a fire in the palm of his hands, and it was melting the snow around them and keeping the party warm.
"Ahh, that fire is so nice," Evangeline sighed. "This is much better than whatever shit we had to endure when we were walking to the shrine."
"Yeah," Leon said. "Does your heart still feel like bursting, mister?"
"No. This isn't much, anyway," Ant answered. "That stuff only happens near the 50% mark."
"Oh, I see," Leon replied, nodding.
"Tell me more about these 'Parers'," Ant said to Noelle.
"Okay. Ferunt, which is the town we reside in, has no Drayls or Sables, and it habituates humans. However, this village that we will enter is home to all of the three races, Drayls, Sables, and Humans. These races collectively form the term 'Parers'."
Ant nodded. "Do Drayls and Sables have… difference? Or are they just like humans?"
"Drayls can withstand extreme heat and extreme cold. Sables swim extremely fast," Evangeline cut in. "That's all, I think."
"So us humans are just… there?" Ant said. For some apparent reason, he was feeling offended.
"Well, yeah. Nobody needs us, I guess."
Ant frowned. He wanted to say something, but what? He wanted to retort. Weren't humans the best race, the best species?
But he could not utter a word.
"Where is this village?" He asked instead.
"Just follow the chimney smoke," Evangeline said, and she pointed to grey smoke in the distance. "About 30 minutes away."
"30 minutes!?" Ant cried. "This fire is taking up more and more of my fragment that won't come back until I expel the fire!"
"It works like that?" Leon asked.
"Whatever a God has created, they lose a piece of their power of that size until it is destroyed," Ant recited. "Though, I am not a god."
"You don't need to be modest," Evangeline said. "At this point, aren't you basically a god?"
"I'm far from one." Ant's tone was final.
29 minutes later, the group and their captured thieves found the village at The Maximum's base, but at that time, it had been well past 7 PM at night, the sun was setting and it was snowing. It was amazing. It was a giant stone wall, which Ant estimated it to be nearly 20 kilometres in width and 500 metres tall, and at the centre, and he presumed that the giant mountain in the centre was the fabled mountain, 'The Maximum'.
"This is a village? This is an entire city!" Ant exclaimed. Beyond the towering stone wall, he caught glimpses of multi-tiered structures—old cottages stacked like a medieval high-rise, nothing like the cities of Earth.
"Welcome to Chelsey. Airships settle here. There haven't been many goods to deliver, so it's rare nowadays to see one," Evangeline stated.
"AIRSHIPS?" Ant threw his arms over his head and yelled: "LIKE STEAMPUNK ONES?"
"What's steampunk, mister?" Leon laughed.
"So," Ant had calmed down. "Imagine a boat but instead of a sail it's a giant balloon."
Evangeline nodded. "Exactly like that. Supra is held up by the same things, balloons, fans, such and such."
"I think I saw something like that when I woke up here for the first time at that altar. Where Noelle was sleeping."
"Let's forget about that, alright?" Noelle blushed.
The entrance was a tall pair of wooden doors, not unlike the ones at The Altior Shrine, and it opened when they walked near it. Was it some sort of sensor?
The moment Ant's feet touched the ground, anybody that was walking past them, whether it be a human with flesh skin, a Drayl, with its short stone body, or a Sable, beaked black masses with shells, they all froze in his presence, and then they bowed. Their foreheads touched the pavement below. And then it was silent.
Ant decided to play into this. After all, he was a hero.
"It is I," he said.
Noelle's face was in her hands. Evangeline was struggling to not laugh, making a face similar to one after consuming a fresh jalapeno for the first time in their life. Leon was looking off into the distance, clearly getting lethal doses of second-hand embarrassment.
"The Savior!" An extremely short Sable said. Ant looked again; he wasn't short, he just had the worst hunchback he had ever seen. A conical hat rested on his face and stringy bits on the sides hung off of, covering his face. "We were told of you through our premonitions!"
Ant shot a glance at Evangeline, who was the closest, with a look that said 'What is he talking about?'.
"Come, come, let me bring you to the self-proclaimed finest hotel in all of Mox!"
Ant raised an eyebrow at the group, and then they all gave him confused looks back. "I mean, we should at least check it out," Noelle said. Ant nodded.
The old Sable looked at the convicts Noelle was carrying. "Leave them to me, I will take care of them," he said.
Wherever they went, all the civilians in the vicinity bowed upon Ant, and it began to get redundant.
"Please, get up. There is no need to bow," he would say.
"So modest, young savior!" someone would say.
They got to the hotel by night. After a 30 minute long drive through the state of Chelsey, they made it to a small building embedded in the side of The Maximum. Hundreds and thousands of windows were on the sides of the mountain."Here it is!" Said the old Sable. "Hotel Edgar!"
"Hello, mayor," a tall human in a black suit said to the old Sable.
He's the mayor?
"Makes sense, actually," Leon said. He gestured to the car. "That vehicle was very quiet and luxurious."
"What do you call those things, anyway?" Ant asked. He wanted to see if the people here still called these things 'cars', just like on Earth.
"Cars," Leon replied.
"Yes, cars," Evangeline cut in. "We got inspired after Jikoku told us a story of those on Earth. So us Moxians got creative and made our own."
That's kind of cool.
The man wearing black, which Ant presumed to be a bodyguard of some kind, looked at the guests Chelsey's mayor had brought, and when he noticed Ant, his posture perked up, and then he bowed.
"Who are these guests, Mayor?" he asked curiously.
"The savior and his friends!"
"The savior?" The bodyguard stood up. He spoke into his wrist, and then he talked to Ant once more: "We at Hotel Edgar wish to invite you to our establishment. Your friends can come along too, of course."
Noelle and Leon's eyes widened, and then they looked at Ant with pleading faces. "Please please please!" Leon cried. "Come on!" Noelle said. Evangeline was looking at the ground.
"I will accept your offer," Ant said, and then Noelle and Leon jumped. They bowed to Ant, who told them to get up. "Can we check out our room now?" Noelle asked the bodyguard.
"Of course," he replied.
Noelle and Leon started laughing, and then they ran inside the building. Ant watched them go, it appeared that the actual hotel was inside the mountain. Did they hollow it out themselves?
"Hey, Evangeline," Ant asked her. "Are you gonna come in?"
Evangeline shook her head. "I'm gonna go back to Ferunt."
"Wow, really?" Ant chuckled. "Come on, this is a reward for you, too."
She shook her head again. "I didn't say goodbye to Noelle, but it's okay. She can greet me anytime."
"Why're you talking like that?" Ant was beginning to get worried. "What do you mean?"
"So, well, then," Evangeline's cheeks were becoming red. Ant thought he noticed tears. "I guess this is goodbye."
"Goodbye?" Ant grabbed her shoulders. "Come on, Evangeline! We're gonna go back to Ferunt, anyway!"
"You won't," Evangeline took his hands off. "Noelle and Leon will follow you around for the rest of your journey. While I have a business to run."
The way she said it.
Ant sighed. "If you really want to leave–"
A sharp blast of wind and snow blasted his face, and the next time Ant looked at where Evangeline stood, she was not there.
Oh well, Ant thought. I'll just meet up with Leon and Noelle and tell them that Evangeline ditched us. It'll be easy, he said to himself. Though that was because he had never truly known Evangeline.
He turned to the entrance of Hotel Edgar, and the immediate warmth that followed cast away all thoughts. Here, it was hot. There was a heater. Ant didn't need to use his powers, it was already thought of for him. That made him happier. Somewhat.
The bodyguard showed him to the receptionist, whom she gave him his card for the room, and to which he went to the top floor, where the mayor had booked him the penthouse.
The higher he went up the mountain, the less rooms there were. The lift eventually stopped at the highest floor, where there was only one room. Room 99.
Even the door was grand, and the roof seemed higher than usual. And then he opened the door.
What greeted him was the most beautiful view of anything he had ever seen, then he knew: he was at the top of the mountain.
Probably not the peak, but very near it. The clouds looked reachable from this panoramic window, and when he looked down, he could see the lit-up portrait of Chelsey, orange windows galore, and if he looked near the corner, he noticed a giant airship with connected to multiple smaller ones, which he presumed was what Evangeline told him was Supra, the floating city.
It was so warm here.
"Oh my god!" he heard from the room in the hallway connecting the kitchen and the bedrooms. "I haven't had a shower in 4 years!" followed by a loud cackling noise.
Leon was sitting on a stool next to the door. "When is it my turn, sis?" he asked. He noticed Ant, and then he waved.
Ant waved back.
He didn't know why, but he felt something. He couldn't exactly pinpoint it. What was this feeling?
He remembered then.
Ant decided to wait until all of them had finished bathing to break the news to them.
It took Noelle one hour to finish her shower when Ant arrived, and then it took Leon 30 minutes, and eventually, it was Ant's turn. Apparently the hotel supplied its guests with free robes, and there was also a washing machine in the bathroom, which Ant thought was weird placement, but Leon and Noelle had put their stained clothes in it. They had come out wearing nothing but the complimentary bathrobes, and Noelle had fallen asleep on one of the beds. Ant could hear her snoring through the bathroom wall.
He decided to not clean his clothes for whatever reason, as he was made uncomfortable by the fact that he had to be completely naked except for a white robe.
"You're still wearing those, mister?" said Leon, who shared a room with Noelle, as he jumped up and down on his bed.
"Don't do that," Ant said. "You'll hurt yourself."
Leon ceased his bed-jumps. "Why don't you clean your clothes, mister?"
"I don't feel the need to," Ant shrugged. He looked over to Noelle, who was sleeping in a fetus position, and Ant thought that her snoring shook the entire mountain. "Can you wake your sister up?"
Leon nodded, and he leapt from his bed into his sister's, narrowly missing her face, and then he jumped up, sending a shockwave throughout the sheets, to which she replied by sitting straight, it was almost as if she teleported into an upright position.
"What the hell?" Noelle rebuked, and she pushed Leon into the carpet. Ant sat down next to her.
"Where's Evangeline?" she groaned, rubbing her eyes awake, and then her vision unblurred.
"I was going to get to that," Ant said, and he sighed loudly, gathering the attention of Leon, who was rolling around on the floor. "But I've never felt carpet before or an actual bed, mister!" Leon complained.
"So, about Evangeline…" Noelle whispered.
"She ditched us. She said something about us not returning to Ferunt," Ant said to them, and then he shook his head. "We are going back, right?"
"I mean, I hope so," Noelle's face was in her eyes. "So she really did leave."
Ant nodded, but then he halted it; what did Noelle mean by that? "What do you mean?" he asked her. "Did you know she was going to leave?"
"I've had this suspicion for a while. I think that she thinks me and Leon will lose interest with her and The Beast Hunters after finding out who you are, and that we'll go on an adventure and she'll be forever in poverty."
Ant had to admit that she was sharp.
"Can't she just come with us?" Leon whimpered.
"She thinks that…" Ant swallowed. "Nevermind. It's okay."
Noelle pulled her face from her hands, then she fell back on the bed with her arms spread like a T. "I think I'm gonna go to bed."
"You do that," Ant said, and he stood up and made his way to his room, where another panoramic window with the craziest view imaginable awaited him, along with a queen bed. A button next to the light switch activated a mini-rail system, which drove an object around the window to bring curtains. In the end, no light was left through.
Ant found a closet in his room. There were clothes hangers. Now, instead of leaving his school uniform on the ground, he could hang them up, and he didn't need to be worried about finding a clean spot on the polished wooden floorboards. He left his shirt on.
The last time he slept on an actual bed, not a pile of blankets, not a thin bed sheet in his father's house, was so far back he could not remember it–but he greeted the penthouse's bed with a hug.
And then he felt grateful—and then a little guilty. Like he had stepped into someone else's dream and shut the door behind him
When Ant had fallen asleep, he would remember no dreams, and then when he woke up in the middle of the night, he could hear something coming from the other room. He thought it might've been crying. Or maybe it was the sound of the mountain sighing in its sleep. After all, it was alive, wasn't it? Either way, he didn't get up.
Before long he had fallen asleep again.
Huh. It was already noon.
"Yeah, it is! Sleepyhead," Noelle said. She was sitting on Ant's bed, staring out of his window. Sunlight filtered through the window and onto his face—no wonder he woke up.
"You can't be talking, sis!" Leon said. He was in the bathroom. "You woke up three minutes ago!"
Ant shuffled from his bed into a sitting position. From the window, there was an airship, like what Evangeline described. It really was like a floating boat tied to a giant balloon. In fact, there were multiple. It reminded Ant of a flock of birds, except the feathers were sails and the wings were ballooned canopies.
"It really is beautiful, eh?" Noelle asked, knowing exactly what Ant had been thinking.
"Yeah," he replied. His eyes followed the window frame down, to the walled city of Chelsey, and he noted the hundreds of sloped roofs, and then he looked up to the city of Supra. It was much more than the silhouette he had seen last night, and he noticed that Supra was made out of multiple giant rocks hung in the sky with balloons.
It was at times like these that Ant asked himself: was Mox really dying?
He then realised that he was still half-naked and his clothes were hanging in his closet. "Hey, Noelle, can you leave the room for a bit? I have to get changed."
"Oh, right. Me too," Noelle blushed and she rose up from Ant's bed and then left.
Ant shuffled to his cabinet and took out his school uniform, brown and decrepit, and he put it on. He found out that his jacket had fallen apart when he was asleep, so it had just become a blazer, a tie, and pants. He was going to find something to buy today to replace it. Maybe a scarf? A cool cape?
He walked out of his room and called to Leon and Noelle: "Let's go downstairs."
One elevator trip later, all of them had been fully dressed, Leon and Noelle with clean clothes, and Ant with his unkempt school attire from two weeks ago.
The moment they left Hotel Edgar, everyone in their surroundings bowed, and they remained kneeling until Ant told them to stand up. When they did rise, someone threw 20 dollars at him.
"Thank you," he said in the general direction, and everyone cheered.
"Where do you want to go?" Noelle asked Ant. She seems to be in a good mood, he thought. After all, it was expected; this was their first time not living in poverty. Leon was hopping up and down.
Had Ant made someone truly happy?
After three hours of loitering, Ant found a grey oversized scarf that made him look like an edgy anime deuteragonist, but he liked the look. It normally cost 200 dollars, but Ant got a 99% discount because he was 'the savior'. He couldn't help but feel like he was robbing the shopkeepers.
Before he knew it, the sun was setting, and Noelle was beginning to get hungry. Unlike on Earth, not many restaurants were open past 5 o'clock in Chelsey, since dinner didn't really exist here. The only places open were bars.
"Hey, mister Ant, do you know where we are?" Leon asked.
Ant then they realised that they had walked around for far too long, from far too far away, and their chances of making it back to Hotel Edgar without a guide of some sort were so far-fetched.
"Oh, shit."
"We'll ask someone!" Noelle had gone pale. "Come on, let's find someone who can tell us."
Ant thought hard for a second–couldn't they just find the silhouette of The Maximum, where The Hotel Edgar inhabited, but the snowfall was so thick and the sky was so dark that nothing could be made out.
"I'm gonna go into that bar–" Ant pointed to a doorway filled with orange light with a few empty bottles on the doorstep– "and ask someone."
"Wha–" Leon started.
"Are there any other alternatives?" Ant shrugged. "It'll be fine! I'm hard to hurt!"
"I'll just… stand outside with Leon."
Ant entered the bar. A sign claimed the bar's name to be "The Leaky Leaking Leaks and wine".
It was warm and oddly calm, or maybe that was because Ant's presence shut up every one of the bar's patrons. Nobody bowed to Ant, and nobody threw money.
"Ho ho, it's the savior!" said a skinny man with a grey beard. He began to laugh, and then he guffawed, and everyone in the bar followed.
"Savior, my ass!" A drayl with two cigarettes in his mouth said. "He's just another moron who thinks he can change the fucking world!"
And then they all laughed.
"Why don't we kill him?" said a Sable with rosy cheeks, holding a bottle of beer. "We'll be the ones cleaning up the world, hehe!"
There was someone in the corner wearing a dark green cloak. He rose up from the seat, and then everyone in the bar bowed, and Ant felt the sudden urge to run.
"Savior!" he yelled, and it was like the entire room shook in fear. "I have been waiting for you."
"Who do you think you are?" Ant said, and his angst suddenly drained completely. He could vision it–this man was a self-proclaimed 'bounty hunter' and a bounty had been placed on Ant's head. What a pushover.
The man in the green cloak charged, holding a giant sword, and it stabbed Ant's chest, missing all of his vital organs.
"So, are you gonna take back this sword, or can I keep it?" Ant joked, and then he pulled the sword out of his upper torso. His wound healed immediately, and in his mind he chanted: 20%. 20%.
He swung the sword in the direction of the green-cloaked man, and then it exploded into metal shavings and everyone had been knocked out. Ant sighed. If everyone was going to act like this, the best bet was to wander until they found The Maximum. But knowing how big Chelsey was, it would take them at least seven hours.
"You really are–"
Ant turned around. It was the green-cloaked man. "You haven't been knocked out yet?" and he raised his hand to his forehead.
"You might be the one they're talking about. The–"
"The what?" Ant asked.
"The–" and then he froze, his eyes widened, and then he looked at his wrist.
And then he exploded. A wave of flesh hit him, and then two seconds after he saw the man perish, his mind was wiped, and he never knew about the green-cloaked man in the first place.
"Any luck?" Noelle asked him when he emerged from the Leaky Leaking Leaks and Wine.
"Not at all," Ant shook his head. "Some guys tried to pick a fight with me."
Noelle nodded.
It took them seven hours to find Hotel Edgar, and by the time that they reached The Maximum, the sun had risen.
"Well, wasn't that the biggest waste of time in the world?" Noelle whined. The bodyguard with a black suit noticed them at the entrance and approached them. "Sir Infele," he said, and he handed him an envelope. "There has been a request for a formal meeting."
"From?" Ant said groggily, and he wiped his eyes awake.
"He never gave his name and we did not see him in person."
Ant opened the envelope where an off-white piece of A4 paper lay, folded into thirds. He began to read the words at the top, written with such corporate handwriting, which called Ant by the words 'saviour'.
To Saviour
It has come to my attention that Zo wants to speak to you.
So thus we have chosen a meeting place for your arrival. Please come to the Locust Mash anytime today within Mox's current Lunar Cycle. He does not need a meeting time, when you arrive, he will arrive. Please come alone.
And that was the entire message. The rest of the piece of paper was filled with nothing but empty space, and the bodyguard pledged Ant to not go to this 'Locust Mash' alone.
"But what's a Locust Mash?"
"Gosh, you don't know?" Noelle sighed. She shook her head as if she had told Ant everything that Mox had to offer. "The Locust Mash is a really really sketchy street near the south end of Chelsey. It's like an hour walk away."
"Yes, and that is why I am worried about Sir Infele attending such an event," The bodyguard bowed. "Please let us organise someone to protect you."
"I appreciate the offer," Ant mumbled. "But I'm pretty sure I can protect myself."
The guard looked disappointed, but he still nodded. "I understand."
Ant, Noelle and Leon went to their penthouse room, and they all flopped onto a bed.
"Man, am I tired!" Noelle sighed. "I might just go to sleep."
"Before that…" Ant shook Noelle awake, possibly only for a few seconds. "What's a Lunar Cycle?"
"It's fancy talk for 'month'," she mumbled. "Look. I don't know if you would mind, but I really want to sleep!"
"Hey. Hey!" Ant called, but Noelle had begun to snore. So had Leon. Ah, shit. Ant still didn't know what month it was, when it ended, the months, what year it was, what day it was, and if weeks existed in Mox. Were there 24 hours in a day?
In his mind he wrestled with the two paths: to not attend the Locust Mash meeting, or to attend and probably get murdered. Maybe it was a peaceful meeting, and Zo, whoever that was, simply just wanted to talk, nothing less, nothing more.
"I'll go," Ant said to nobody in particular. He would just sleep for a bit–