"Mono/Dialogue"

  'Inner thoughts'

  Narration

  [Message/communication apparatus]

  Date: February 1085

  Location: Siesta Northern Border

  POV: Narrator

  A group of sketchy individuals can be seen to be hiding amidst the vegetation. They are a bunch of bandits and outws that were hired to snatch away precious cargo that was yet to be delivered towards the Major of Siesta, courtesy of people who dislike the man's current stature and pnning.

  This group is an ad hoc one, they are made up of several small gangs and wastend looters that got some fancy bling on them. Raiding several caravans or convoys has been a routine on these parts of Terra. Of course, something shit went well, other times it all went to hell and this rag-tag bunch turned on one another.

  "You think the courier would walk right this way?" A Savran bandit said with apparent unease, this job sounds fishy and he doesn't like it.

  "No worries, the client had already promised us a fat stack of money. I mean, we got like 80 people here and another 72 on the other side, each with 20 grands on their cut. We can just retire away after this job is said and done." He got his reply from one of his fellow outws, this one is an Anaty woman.

  "She's right you know, we even got ourselves this bad boy." Another bandit, this one with obscured features, chimed in while leaning against a cannon. The cannon is a portable weapon, courtesy of Columbia straight and fresh out of the Sargonian Bck Market. One can only wonder how many weapons are being sold there...

  "Alright boys and gals, the pn is simple, we overpower the courier and however got dibs on them can do whatever. We are here for the package, something that must not make its way toward the Mayor, or else we'll get ourselves sent into those shitty pioneering vilges." A bulky Sarkaz said while ying down a map, there has been some highlight with how their current position is overlooking a valley.

  "So we just gotta jump 'em eh? Sounds easy enough. Say, wonder if the courier is a beautiful dy... god, I'm starting to feel excited just thinking how she would scream." Said one of the Perro bandits, her face has a rge scar running down diagonally across her face.

  "You and your envy... leave some for us won't cha?" Added another one with a ugh, the whole thing is going swimmingly. They might just go for a quick dip near Siesta too, after all is said and done of course.

  [Hey fuckers, just let cha know that Red-Tails got dibs on whatever else that courier brought with them. Touch the cargo, and you can kiss your sorry ass goodbye.]

  "Fuck off red fucks, dibs on who got it first. Also who the fuck would listen to a cocksucker like you? You must have been thinking that sucking on that noble cock made you feel special eh?"

  [You wanna go pipsqueak? Lemme tear that asshole of yours a new one.]

  "Go fucking luck on that, I'll collect that bounty on yer head."

  While they are insulting, discussing, and bantering regarding their pnned ambush and contingencies, a Liberi outw suddenly barges into their conversation.

  [Alright fuckers! The courier is here! The poor sod seems to be genuinely clueless.]

  The man said with clear excitement through the radio, their positioning is perfect and everyone is eager. Everyone then sprang to life and headed towards their expected position.

  8 Casters are hiding within the foliage, ready to unleash their long-range Arts and disable the courier transportation. 4 dozen close combatants are creeping up near the only road, they're armed with a multitude of melee weapons and some even bring with them an originium gun. On the left and right side of the valley, there are 15 and 17 ranger attackers armed with crossbows, bows, javelins, and even 2 originium rifles.

  The rest of these rabbles are just occupying any pce they can in a semi-circle formation. Some of them are also mounted on packbeast and fangbeast that have been tamed, in case the courier tries to escape.

  "Hey... is it just me or is the incoming courier convoy only made up of a single bike?" The Savra voiced out a jarring fact, his unnaturally sharp eyesight is focused on the dust-up ahead. His unease grew, but his reservation didn't extend to his colleagues.

  "Hah! You're right! Guess even CM can be stingy, or this particur courier just wanna dip it and zip it tight."

  "Man, I don't want to even know who that idiot is, must have been someone who knows jack shit about how the real world works."

  Laughter rang out all around them. The Savra's worries grew even more prevalent, the sheer optimism his fellow wbreakers show is just illogical. He then did what had always saved his skin.

  "Fuck this, I'm out." He just left his position and ran away. His fellow bandits all jeered at his cowardice, but hey? More pay cut on them eh? Fortune favors the bold, and this scaly coward is actually a chicken.

  "What a spineless coward... Say, shouldn't we eliminate him?"

  "Who cares, we can do it ter. Now be quiet..."

  They are waiting... and waiting... and waiting... before someone screams with complete arm into their unified radio. The voice is a mix of shock and fright; fear and abject misery.

  [Holy fucking shit! Red Tails Bail! BAIL! BAIL!]

  Suddenly the Red-Tails are all running away, that's a good 30-ish people deserting while some can be seen to be crying and screaming incoherently. Naturally, the rest of the bandits are all confused and fearful, but it is immediately answered when they can finally see clearly through the damnable dust cloud...

  Her attire is that of a Grey and bck military uniform. A giant bow was strapped on her back, while one of her hands was clutching on her originium carbine tightly. Her bike is also strapped with all sorts of weaponry, and most importantly... An ashen-haired Pythian can be seen grinning madly, her eyes show nothing but a promise to deliver the maximum level of pain and suffering.

  They felt chill down their very spine, this was one of Terra's underworld's most wanted mercenaries. Her bounty was that of 120 Million LMD, the st time they checked was 4 months ago, yet no one was insane enough to try and nab her. This wanted woman is none other than Nyx, the Grey Serpent herself in the flesh. Her exploits and utter cruelty is just not worth it and even the cockiest sack of shits knows that to challenge her is like fighting a catastrophe, if said catastrophe has a penchant for self-righteous justice and sadistic revelry.

  The first ones to wake themselves up from their stupor, only to confront nightmares screaming at the top of their lungs. Their voice is ced with blood at how shrill and pitched their voice were, clearly terrified out of their mind.

  "THAT'S THE GREY SEPRENT!" An ensuing, all-encompassing, chaos spread amongst them like wildfire. Aggression? Abysmal. Bravado? Better run instead. Confidence? Clocked out. Defiance? Demoralized. Easy pay? Easily untrue. Fear? For-fucking-sure.

  [I AIN'T DYIN ERE FOR SOME FUCKIN' PIECE OF WORTHLESS PAPERS!]

  [Ha ha... I'm so fucking dead... If I live through it, I'll open up an ice cream store and just live a decent life... God, please help me... Eh... who am I kidding? *Bang*]

  [FUCK THAT PIECE OF SHIT NOBLE! HE DIDN'T TELL US THAT SHE IS THE COURIER!]

  "Shit fucking shit, fucking fuck! You guys can have that 20 grands, imma just volunteer as a pioneer in Columbia!"

  Everything just turned into a chaotic situation that put the fear of god on mortals. The bandits are all just running away, to the very limit of their bodies and even to the point of discarding their equipment altogether just for that extra centimeter of being farther away from the camitous maiden of death. The one manning the cannon just left it there and jumped down from their vantage point, broken bones are an incredibly generous trade-off by a rge margin.

  The bandits by the road are trampling one another and just running like being chased by the devil himself. The casters who aren't exactly known for their physical finesse suddenly received a burst of energy from god knows where. They're all a comrade of misery and upcoming wanton savagery, yet none of them has any qualm to stab anyone just ever so slightly weaker to distract the beast barreling down on their position.

  Bandits who are already mounted on beasts and vehicles just ran away, leaving their comrades to fend for themselves. It was a complete anarchy and those who aren't fast enough start to py dead or just commit suicide since death is a welcome consotion when compared with getting skinned alive and feeling every bit of pain being forced upon them. It's well-known, famous even, that the Grey Serpent is a sadistic bitch who got off from cutting her foe to pieces... on a good day.

  Thus, do start praying if she isn't having a good mood...

  POV: Nyx

  "..." Man... I'm not even halfway there yet and at least dozens of them already committed protocol to unalive themselves. The pce is inundated with a clear and thick aura of fear, my heightened empathetic synapse, as I called it, made it abundantly obvious that my reputation precedes me.

  'Why are all of them so afraid of me? Shouldn't it be the point where there should be some brave and brazen souls among them? How come they're all sensible? Did I just exterminate those with common sense deficiency?'

  Honestly, this much fear is just stupidly exaggerated... It is now just ridiculous that they are so afraid of a single girl. If anything, my beauty would make them think with their lower brain and entertain the idea of the cliché scenario of selling me into svery or some shit.

  Well, I think I know why they didn't want to...

  'I mean yeah... I did skin a bandit alive, feeding them with their own waste and body parts, and even boiling some of them in acid... but come on~ I'm still a flesh and blood human and now I'm part of Catastrophe Messenger. They won't like it when my habit of torturing people is known, so yeah... be a tad braver would ya? No? Meh, I'll just finish this delivery and talk with Mwi.'

  "Welp, time to loot whatever they left, and did I see a Columbian cannon there? That should fetch a pretty penny in the Sargonian Bck Market. Kinda nice that the Sargonian Bck Market merchants just don't care about who I am as long as I brought them profit."

  Heh, I got an unexpected bonus today. Life is good...

  Date: 1085

  Location: Terra

  Catastrophe Messenger is a Terra-spanning non-governmental organization. They acted as the primary organization in the matter for disaster mitigation and management, and being an NGO made them a really popur choice for nd surveys, originium-reted spreads and catastrophes, and other hazard data gatherers.

  Catastrophe Messenger dabbled in all sorts of catastrophe-reted matters, but they still need to gain enough financial support. Thus the creation of several sections within them, of which Research, Search and Rescue, Messenger, Security, Contingency, Transportation, and Mediation are the most sought-after sections within the organization.

  The research section, officially named Catastrophe Messenger – Catastrophe Exploration and Research Division, is a dedicated section within the organization that has the highest funding share. This section is usually made up of academicians, schors, and researchers to best formute theory and application to combat catastrophe. The sections themselves are probably the most sedentary of all since most of the time spent was within a specific zone known for its catastrophe to gather data much more efficiently.

  Search and Rescue section, officially named Catastrophe Messenger – Disaster Management and Humanitarian Aid Division, is the bulk of their organization. This section is responsible for containing and periodically rehabilitating devastated nd after a disaster. The members of the SAR section are all trained in medical, social, and even cultural knowledge necessary to support their duty. The employees themselves belong to their respective section’ expertise, yes, but they are all Search and Rescue by the end of the day.

  The messenger section, officially named Catastrophe Messenger – Information Verification and Communication Regution Division acted to regute their employees and volunteers as messengers. They are responsible for ensuring that no assets are being neglected and preserving the flow of information to work normally regardless of what happened. CM messengers are usually treated better compared to other NGOs or self-employed ones. Naturally, it comes down to their influence as an organization that is at the forefront of saving human lives.

  The security section, officially named as Catastrophe Messenger – Auxiliary and Support Regution Division, reguted their contracted PMC, mercenaries, and even their more martially capable employee. The security section's primary task is to ensure that, barring extreme circumstances or local ws, no field employees shall be left unattended and unprotected. Curiously, the Security section is not allowed to initiate conflict and can only act in self-defense, since to do otherwise will go against their creed. Still… interpretation of self-defense varies among Security Employees.

  The contingency section, officially named Catastrophe Messenger – Contingency Contracts and Strategic Pnning Division, is regarded as an organization within an organization. CC section regutes how several interested parties shall participate in tackling a risky simution that doesn’t explicitly limit itself only to catastrophe. In yman's terms, a Contingency Contract itself is an organization, or more aptly put as a ptform, that offers chances to facilitate cooperation between interested parties in a win-win scenario. One side can receive funding while the other receives the much-needed tactical expertise, thus creating this mutually profitable retionship.

  The transportation section, officially named Catastrophe Messenger – Transportation and Logistical Regution Division, primary function to deliver objects or supplies, usually in rge quantities or bulk to ease possible strain and promote adequate usage of manpower. Transportation section’ employees are often dubbed as couriers, they seldom deliver military equipment for obvious reasons, however.

  The mediation section, officially named Catastrophe Messenger – Diplomatic Solution Division, is a section that regutes and facilitates the need for an arbitrator that has been agreed upon by both sides and is legally binding due to the aforementioned agreement. Unsurprisingly, however, they’re rarely being requested by Nations to help with mediation between them. This section is on a mild crisis since their expertise has been called into question and it did wedged themselves into politics nowadays.

  Of course, these sections have their chain of command and respective protocols. Each can even form an ad hoc command structure when an emergency occurs, thus allowing them to save time used for reorganization that would be better off used to save lives.

  This impressive resume and influence of theirs will surely attract people from all walks of life. Their motives can vary and even be encouraged as long as they’re willing to adhere to the organization's primary creed, to save as many lives as humanly possible. Rotten apples exist yes, but CM remained one of the NGOs with the lowest corruption rate, both financially and manpower.

  Then this organization had once again managed to snag for themselves an excellent human resource, a capable ex-mercenary that has been sought after like a hot commodity. Said mercenary is none other than the Grey Serpent, Nyx. The Grey Serpent's sudden retirement from mercenary-reted matters had been quite a sensation back in Kawalerielki, her fans had been feverish in both dismay and euphoria.

  Even more surprising when a photo of her with the Catastrophe Messengers armband was spread in the local cyber network. After some confirmations (Read: Paparazzi’ pestering with nigh-insolent perseverance) her employment was revealed to be that of Contingency Contract’ liaison and being general messenger or courier.

  Such revetion brought both astonishment and mockery, the former of how jarring it is while being accompanied by a funny imagination. The tter is how her employment was seen as a joke, not to mention that her rabid and ruthless habit made them dismissive of her job as a messenger, to the point of calling her a ticking time bomb.

  You might be wondering what the person in question thinks about it, well her answer was the usual bored stare. Others' opinions had started to become a commodity that has less and less use in her eyes, and also because no one would be foolish enough to test her directly. Going after the Nearls or Wdirosan would give them another set of problems that would nd them in hot water.

  Skepticism still abounds of course, her tenure as the Grey Serpent had been a harrowing one, to put it nicely, or inhumane, to put it badly, where mercenaries gossiped that if you see her with weapons being held tight and looking your way, start praying. This skepticism will soon be turned into real shock but in a positive way.

  Nyx’s demeanor as a courier was truly unlike her mercenary’ persona. If she was cold and sadistic about how to achieve her goals before, she is now much more expressive and doing her best to not rip criminals a new hole or tear them to pieces, a massive improvement from mangled limbs to broken ribs. Her countenance was still intimidating, but at least she tried to smile (Read: predatory grin) a bit more than usual, as naturally as possible of course.

  Her position as courier has been rated the highest of them all. One obvious reason is how her package always reached its destination without fail, her tenure as a mercenary had left a real mark on would-be robbers and criminals to just not even entertain the idea. There was once a time when a group of outws, the most brazen of them all at that time, had an idea to colpse a whole cliffside on her.

  They were hired to at least destroy the package Nyx was carrying, since the package she is delivering is truly of utmost importance from one noble to another. Thus they concocted the pn to just bring down the whole cliff and dot the exit with mines. Long story short, the ex-mercenary shows just how juvenile the attempt was.

  Nyx, with apparent ease, just went straight without stopping and dodged the falling debris. Her ride was unstoppable and there was this mirthful excitement while delivering her package. When she reached the exit, she just revved her bike even faster and jumped over the minefield, needless to say, her would-be robbers just gave up since fighting the Grey Serpent is way out of their league.

  There are a lot of anecdotes regarding her exploitation and how she is capable of restraint. Those who hate her pointed out this fact, saying that she always views life to be less than dirt and how flippant she is to be cruel just for the sake of it. The person in question cared little about what they said and kept on doing her job.

  Date: September 1085

  Location: Kawalerielki, Kazimierz.

  POV: Nyx

  I’m starting to like this job, just sending in packages and maybe cracking some skulls now and then but that’s all really. Currently, I’m staying in one of the personnel R&R rooms, the people here have finally gotten used to my presence. CM employs pretty much everyone, even the infected but they are kept out of sight because of the stupid regutions in pce in this mobile city.

  I had once compined about it to Ioleta and she only sighed wearily from it. She is the Grandmaster of Adeptus, but by the end of the day her power is still limited and she needs to tread lightly with this matter. Back to talking about my colleagues…

  They were skittish at first, looking at me like some kind of mythical monster straight out of a fairy tale, quite funny really. A couple of talks here, a couple of colborative works there, and I managed to at least lower the tension to not be an apparent one. Their wariness remained yes, but at least some of them had finally worked up the courage to invite to some small gathering here and there.

  Landing a job with CM was probably one of the best choices I ever made. The amount of people attaching spies on me, because I let them see something that I allowed them to, had been on a steady decrease. My affiliation had also made nobles, merchants, and their ilk less wary of me, a big win in my book, and the fact that they can’t exactly go straight to me for another employment offer.

  Needless to say, CM gained a lot of influence and their stocks are rising because of how they had miraculously leashed me. Pretty hirious, but I’ll them dream their dreams. I also got a fixed sary of 20.000 LMD, 5 times the usual amount of other employees, a month. This is a decrease in my usual income, but money is no problem for me since I also started investing in some of Kawalerielki’s local companies.

  There was also that deal with one of the local automotive companies. It was in the red at first but has been steadily on the rise, and whatnot. As long as it brought me some passive income, I’m happy. There is something that bugged me, however… the talk with Dad regarding my Arts.

  Fshback

  “I was mistaken?” Sitting on one of the chairs while overlooking the orphaned children, I converse with him regarding my Arts and its unnecessarily complicated and costly usage. He said that he found a lead for it, and the source was that drunken poet acquaintance of his. He words everything like a specution, which would require testing…

  On an unreted note, now that I looked at him closely, if we disregard his messy beard, he still looks retively young. Like somewhere in his 40s but I don’t believe it, especially after reading notes concerning how Arts can affect someone’s lifespan.

  Now back to his finding…

  “Not mistaken, it is just that your mind is in a state of confusion and chaos beneath notice, according to what she said to me anyway.”

  “… I’m starting to be afraid now.” I can’t help but immediately frown on the implication.

  “Naturally, but you have no cause to worry since she never takes promises lightly.” He sighed before moving on, his expression was that of nostalgia and weariness.

  “That woman was never ckadaisical and enervated while going on her pace, not to mention when in regards with meaning she was never wrong.”

  “So what is it then?”

  “It’s an abstraction.”

  “Abstraction?”

  ‘Uh… this is… um… what people called linguistics stuff right? The one with pragmatics and… uh… fuck.’

  “Yes, you had already nailed down the fact that word has meanings because of us giving it one. Yet in regards to your Arts, there appear to be some rules to ought to be followed. One such rule, which I theorized, is the fact that the mind must be synchronized both ways, whether it has to be conscious effort or otherwise is unknown however.”

  “Let us take normal conversation as an example. The first foundation is naturally that of interaction, you can converse with yourself, but we both know that it will cause extreme mental burden if we compare it with what information we have. Case in point, your song in 1072 and your botched arts training in Victoria.” I listened intently while sipping on an apple juice.

  “The second is that of a topic, what needs to be discussed about. Words can be twisted and used without adhering to any sort of order, as long as the meaning and context can work together to create meaning. Third is natural feedback from your listener, there is a catch, however… can you guess it now?”

  “Yeah… predictability for constructing feedback on what sort of meaning did I try to convey… but won’t that be extremely disadvantageous for me?”

  “Indeed, but Arts are never equal, and its pros or cons even more so. I had a friend whose Arts can only be used to melt mold and moss off from metal… but was that all? Sadly he passed away due to Arts overuse, where his mind was pretty much welded into his skull…”

  “…” That’s harsh as fuck, what the actual hell? Then again my Arts melted my skin, made me bleed, and all that stuff… then where did this abnormal regeneration come from?

  ‘Can’t I get something simple!? Like calling a meteor, winds manipution, or hell… even a simple heat vision would be great! But noooo… I got this incomprehensible and niche Arts that seems to exist only to fuck with me… ugh, it did save my life… Whatever… Hah… I don’t have much in regards to formal education in the old worlds... would have been great if more of my old life's education were beyond high-school level or something like that… wait… I can do calcution and ballistics just fine… are these leftover from my homunculus and or synthetic lifeforms? So many questions, so few answers… If that’s the case then, where the hell is my sorcerous knowledge at!?’

  “Nyx?” Ah crap, I had gone quiet for too long.

  “U-uh yeah, dad?”

  “… Hah…” He looked disappointed but didn’t push for it.

  ‘He knows that something is amiss… God, hopefully, he doesn’t know that I’m practically an alien…and… How should I word it nicely that I had fought an Emperor’s Bde and almost died if not worse?’ You know what? Screw it. Change of topic always works to divert the problem for ter.

  “Umm… something like this had a price tag added to it… What did you pay for this information with?”

  “… Surprisingly not a costly one, courtesy of the-you-know-how art of dealing and negotiation, but she did withhold the complete answer.”

  “… Hahhh… I know where this is going, until when is her invitation valid?”

  “She perceives time differently, yet she says that there is no cause to worry and can you recall what I had said back then?”

  “Anyone you considered family is always welcome… that’s what you said, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes. She has yet to stake her price, but knowing her… you might want to bring along an alcoholic drink.”

  “Where is this person at then?”

  “Hmm… it is a bit hard since she spoke in riddles and even then she would just vanish as she likes to travel around, but for a general direction? Yan.”

  “… Fucking great…”

  “Language, young dy.”

  “Sorry.” Guess I need to work for some time first and accumute paid vacation…

  ‘Wait… does a Catastrophe Messenger even have one?’ I need to look over the fine print once more…

  End of fshback

  “Nyx, hey, Nyx?” A logistical operator suddenly called out to me, waking me away from my stupor. He is a young Caprinae and his name was Karel or something, can’t really remember. I just turned my face towards him and answered.

  “Yeah, what is it?”

  “The Grandmaster said that she needs your service as fast as possible.”

  “… I already had a feeling this will be annoying as fuck. When?”

  “2 Days max, she also said that you best be prepared for potential setbacks.”

  “Express, usual, or…?”

  “Private commission.”

  “Well fuck me then. Alright tell her I’ll be there in an hour, still need to finish up on some files.” I hid my mental recollection with a half-lie. Another thing of note is about Mwi who is acting weirdly as of te, to the point that Tond asked me that he looks to be down and unwilling to ask for help.

  Remembering that the young Caprinae is waiting for my response. I gestured towards a stack of paper that was all addressed to me, all courtesy of this region director. Asking me several stuffs like how was the situation in Sargon when I delivered that batch of gold along with a pink bicycle for some reason. Then there was that time I… uh… persuaded opposing tribes to not resort to violence.

  By promising them even more pain- I mean, by telling them that it would be against their best interest. Naturally, I got a mixed reception from higher-ups, but they decided to let me off the hook since I averted potential conflict and saved human lives.

  Safe to say they’re quite happy that I haven’t tortured anyone there too… Kinda regretful that my pettiness had been limited even more than ever, but hey? I’m content with my current situation.

  An hour ter

  I parked my bike in the designated spot. It was funny that they reserved one of their employee’ parking spots for me. Ioleta had been running me ragged, so I guess not needing to think about where to park is more efficient.

  Stepping off my ride, I promptly go inside the building. The Ministry of Defense building is really austere with its vibes, nothing ostentatious and useless, just simplicity and functionality that some might find distasteful. The people inside the building never looked my way and went about their own business. I head towards the receptionist, her eyes have been locked on me from the moment I arrived.

  “Welcome Lady Baroness, Grandmaster is waiting for you in her office.”

  “Thanks.” That’s it, nothing long-winded and bothersome. I walked towards the elevator and pressed the topmost floor's button.

  “Let’s see what you have for me…”

  [END OF CHAPTER]

  Author’s Note:

  Sup, this is me, myself, and I, the author who suddenly have an influx of free time.

  What do you guys think about side stories? Would you want me to try making one, or just focus on getting Nyx sooner to the canon timeline?

  Update as usual, see ya again ter

  Ciao