The Unmaker

The earth was an endless wasteland. An irradiated landscape of ruin and desolation stretching out in all directions.

Dahlia stood in the middle of it all.

The sky above was a thick, impenetrable black but for the single red sun, as if the other stars were all drowning in darkness. There was no atmosphere. No air to breathe. She couldn't feel the weight of her body, but she knew she was standing, watching the horizon stretch out endlessly.

Where… am I?

The question echoed in her mind, but the silence around her swallowed it whole. Nothing responded.

Her feet moved on their own, drawing her attention to a shadow-shrouded figure in the distance. He sat on a broken chunk of stone, his back to her. His body was a patchwork of mismatched bug parts. There were sharp, spiky protrusions on his shoulders, armored plates covering one arm, and worm-like segments all over his body. She couldn't make sense of him, but… he was doing something where he sat.

He was stoking a small fire.

The flames flickered in the cold, empty air, sending strange shadows twisting around the land. She took a slow, hesitant step forward, drawn by the heat like a moth to a flame. She didn't understand it. She circled around the fire until she stood on the opposite side of him.

Her stomach twisted when she saw what he was eating.

A humanoid spider head. Its eight eyes were dark and lifeless, its face frozen in horror.

A… Apocia?

But the man continued chewing slowly, disinterested, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Then, without warning, he paused as if he finally noticed her.

His head lifted slowly, turning toward her. His face remained cloaked in shadow, but she could feel his eyes on her. All ten or twenty or a hundred of them. Something crawled down her spine—a cold sensation that jolted through her—as he raised the severed head in his hands and held it out to her..

His mouth moved, but no sound came. His lips parted again, and his words were lost to the air.

What is he saying?

A sick feeling bubbled in her chest, but she couldn't move. What is this? she thought, but the question slipped away like sand.

The figure's mouth moved again, and a sound, low and almost unintelligible, finally reached her.

"... Who are you?"

The world tilted. The dark sky above her twisted and spun like a maelstrom. The ground beneath her feet cracked open.

The void swallowed her whole.

Her eyes shot open, gasping for air. The fall through the void was jarring, like being dragged back into reality by the sheer force of her own lungs, but now that she snapped upright in her bed with her heart pounding in her chest, she realised it was nothing more than an old, distant dream.

It'd been a while since she had one that vivid.

The cool sheets clung to her skin, sticky with sweat. She blinked rapidly, her head spinning.

Where… am I now?

[Back in your room in Tavern Emperatoria,] Kari said briskly, making her jump and shiver from head to toe. [Welcome back, by the way.]

… Hi.

[Hi.]

The pain across her body was dull but prominent. She reached up, instinctively feeling her head, chest, and arms. Bandages all over. Her arms especially were covered in dozens of small stitches, and her waist was wrapped in gauze, causing every little bit of movement to send a shock of discomfort through her. Still, she remained upright, her hands trembling slightly as she gripped the side of the bed.

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She was in her room back in Tavern Emperatoria.

Outside, the sound of birds chirping reached her ears, the soft desert wind flowing through the open window. The bustle of the city was there—the noise of construction, the distant clang of hammer on metal, and the sound of foot traffic on Eighth Mantid Street was loud as ever—so as the warmth of the morning sun hit her face, she found the coldness of her dream quickly melting away.

She looked out the window, trying to steady herself.

I'm alive.

I'm here.

This is—

A rustle from the corner of the room snapped her back to the present. She whirled—wincing as she did—and there was Alice sitting in a chair by the cabinet, completely bandaged from neck to toe. Her leg was propped up on the cabinet, but even if she weren't wearing her moth-patterned crimson cloak over her shoulders, the easy grin plastered across her face would've given her away instantly.

As usual, the Arcana Hasharana looked like she didn't have a care in the world.

"Morning!"

Dahlia blinked. And then her stomach growled loudly, cutting through all the tension in the air. Her face flushed crimson. She could smell the rich, savoury scent of food drifting up from the tavern kitchen below, which made Alice laugh—a carefree, easy sound that made her feel that much more awkward and embarrassed.

"You've been in a coma for four months," Alice said casually, "and, while you were sleeping, we've all been pitching in to help rebuild the City of Feasts."

Dahlia blinked again, still struggling to piece things together. Four months? She hadn't realised how much time had passed. The claim felt distant, but Alice didn't sound like she was lying.

"See?" Alice grinned, her thumb pointing out across the city. "Most of the city's already been rebuilt. Funny thing about this place—it's always been designed to be easily reconstructed. Bug-slayers have been using it as a trap for powerful bugs for ages, so it's made to bounce back after an attack. Efficient, right? And since we knew the Spider Sisters were gonna attack, we pre-emptively evacuated everyone from the city the night before the final fight!"

Sure enough, the streets were bustling and full of people working in coordinated movements. Half-constructed buildings rose like skeletal frameworks into the bright sky, and even this early in the morning, the air was already thick with the sounds of hammers and saws. The work may be far from finished, but the city was undeniably alive.

"Pre-emptively evacuated?" Dahlia asked, trying to catch up.

"Yep!" Alice chirped. "While we were still in the underground tunnels, the surface Hasharana on stand-by received the evacuation order from our Archives, so people were already running away before the Spider Sisters ever breached the surface. Wanna guess how many people died during that entire battle?"

Dahlia still felt like her mind was foggy. People dying seemed like such a distant thought, but…

"None?" she replied cautiously.

Alice grinned and flashed her fingers, making a zero. "None! Zero deaths! The battle was fierce as hell, but not a single human died! It's the first-ever god-slaying operation with zero casualties during the fight!"

Dahlia's attention drifted, her eyes landing on the massive spider legs still curling up into the sky around the edges of the city.

"But… what happened to the Fool?" she asked. "Didn't he stay underground to stop the giant spider from blowing up? What happened to him?"

Alice waved the question away with a flick of her hand. "Oh, he's fine," she said nonchalantly. "He ate the explosion."

"... He ate the—"

"And everyone's fine as well!" Alice continued, smiling wildly. "They've all woken up before you even though they took some major hits! One-eyed Otto's helping out the Swarmsteel Makers at the bazaar, scar-faced Wisnu's out helping the Hasharana slay bugs by the northern edge of the city, Muyang's helping out with construction in the eastern quarter, and Emilia is playing bard in some random plaza right now. The Plagueplain Doctor, though… I've got no clue where she's at right now, but she was the first to wake up, and my moths tell me she's still hanging around, so no worries about her!"

Dahlia let out a breath, a sense of relief settling over her. Everyone's alive. The knowledge made her feel a lot lighter, and she glanced over at Alice, who was still grinning as casually as ever.

But a small thought still lingered at the edge of her mind.

"What about the Sun?" Dahlia asked softly, her voice catching just a little. "Is she…"

"She's fine as well," Alice replied immediately. "She's also bandaged from head to toe just like me, but she'll live. Don't worry about her. You should be worrying about yourself, actually—there's still the third stage of the Hasharana Entrance Exam in another week's time, you know!"

The mention of the third stage immediately made something in Dahlia's stomach twist.

"Oh," she muttered, the words feeling heavier than they should. "There's… still one more stage?"

Alice's grin widened at the visible change in Dahlia's expression, a gleam of mischief sparking in her eyes. "The toughest one yet!"

She slumped slightly, feeling her energy wane again. She'd just barely survived the battle against the Spider Gods, and still there was another test? Another stage? How was she supposed to face that?

"It'll be fun!" Alice said, waving it off. "Originally, I was supposed to proctor the first stage while the Sun did the second and the Fool handled the third, but since… you know, I was late and all, they didn't have anyone to proctor the third stage, so we had to schedule someone else to come in." She paused for effect, enjoying the suspense. "But now that he's coming here, we'll just leave it to him!"

The fog in her brain thickened as she tried to piece the words together. "Who's… proctoring the third stage?"