II.

March, two years later

'The prophecy' was something which had been getting built up for a while. It wasn't directly mentioned often, only when there was something new to be relayed, but it was a central part of the mythology nonetheless, and weighed heavily on our minds. It was a sprawling, complex web of sequences of events which even Alzeki struggled to keep up with at times. Supposedly, it was compiled from each of his meetings with Almendra in the alley behind the church. A calamity would occur to kick things off, a clash of two holy figures, and two years later, another dramatic event would occur to begin things in earnest, a visitor from another world arriving at the beach at the edge of town to give the church its ultimate holy mission at last. If his predictions were correct, today would be the day this second event occurred, and some or all of us would be about to go on a sacred journey. A long one. I didn't put too much stock into it, at least until the first step had come to pass. Some of it was definitely bullshit, but it was worth being prepared for the broad strokes, at least.

I'd fit everything I owned either into a backpack or onto my person. One or two sets of clothes, supplies, an important book, not too much in the way of personal items. Of course, I also had a couple knives tucked away under my belt. I could defend myself pretty well with my bare teeth and claws, but they're not exactly lethal, unless you were willing to bet on the target getting infected and finally passing away several weeks later. My friends owned more things to collect and pick out, so after a quick check to make sure everything was still there I went out from my alley to meet them at the center of town. Sefgh and Matt were there waiting for me. M-Bot was there too, an intelligent robot Sef had constructed from scraps a couple years ago, named for a symbol on its right shoulder. Sefgh was pretty good at that stuff.

"Hey Maine, there y'are!" Matt waved at me.

"Yeah. Hope I haven't kept you guys waiting too long, sorry."

"Oh, it's fine, we just got here," Sefgh said. "Well. Matt did at least."

"Hey, ain't my fault you're way neater than I am! Finding everything at my place was hard! I mean, stuff in drawers, in closets, there're a couple things I wanna bring I couldn't even find!" Matt looked at me with an expression of deep faux-seriousness. "Maine, if y'ever get an apartment, don't be like me, a'ight?"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. So, what're we doing again? Shopping for a couple last things?" I asked.

"Basically," Sefgh replied, "and there's this abandoned building Matt thinks we'll find something in too for some reason, so we're going there too."

"This one's gonna be great, I swear! I've got a good feelin' 'bout it!"

I glanced over at M-Bot, who was being typically quiet. "Is it coming too? I don't know if one of your destroyed buildings is gonna be the safest place for it. Most of those things are still electrified, unless this is something totally different."

"It's fine. I'll wait for you all at the beach. Don't be late. We don't want to miss the big event." M-Bot had a strikingly robotic voice that always caught you just a tiny bit off guard whenever it spoke. Its consciousness was essentially alive, but its body was clearly artificial. It was put together out of uneven scraps, with a boxy body and limbs, rounded head, and faded purple paint, the original dark gray and bronze metals shining through at points.

"We'll be there." Sefgh smiled and put a hand on M-Bot's shoulder. "Try not to get too lonely waiting for us, OK? Promise. We're a team."

The three of us had gone over to a decently large zone of town destroyed two years ago in the clash and never rebuilt. Matt and I often explored around here to see if we could find anything worthwhile in the debris, and Sef occasionally came along too (though not as often, since the area was still a bit dangerous and they weren't as ballsy). It was dusty, mildly electrified (enough to potentially fry any electronics), and a little creepy; quiet and empty, even at midday. Lots of people reported seeing things in the shadows, the place got way too hot during the day, and you definitely weren't supposed to walk around here at night, though we sometimes did anyways. Usually we found jack, but Matt was especially confident this time around. He came up to an opening in the wall of a collapsed building, a narrow crevice, and stopped.

"Wait here, I'm gonna 'splore in this!" He said. We were happy to let him go into the unpleasant opening himself.

"So what the hell do you think is actually gonna happen today? Like, do you have any theories on what that mission's supposed to be like?" I asked Sefgh.

"Hm, I don't know. I'd like it to be something like... spreading the gospel, maybe?" They responded.

"Do you think that'd be able to set it all off? It's supposed to be this real complicated thing and all, right? Like, this big long chain of events that somehow leads to the end."

"Her manifestation, yes. Well, couldn't that happen if we just got enough people to believe? It could be pretty complicated to make that happen!"

"Yeah, maybe." I scratched at my nose as the conversation paused.

"Well..." Sefgh started again, "Maybe not, I don't know. I'd like it to be something like that. Healing, right? But maybe that's not being honest with ourselves," They looked down at their feet. "I mean, you've heard what the Relayer says."

"He can be a little 'fire and brimstone' sometimes, yeah."

"It's just, I worry that if it comes down to violence, I wouldn't be able to do it. You know? I've never had to do that kind of thing!"

"Well Almendra herself is pretty violent according to some of the mythos, right? So you're worried about not being a good enough vessel, you might say?"

"She doesn't have to be! She's, all of this stuff, is just about, y'know, setting the world right and stuff, righting wrongs-"

"So like revenge?" I interrupted, smirking a bit.

"No, no, not like revenge! Healing! It can be healing, not revenge!" Sefgh responded, flustered. "Dangit, I just want the world to be fixed, I want us to be happy!"

"Sorry. I just worry you're too optimistic sometimes. It could be healing, but it could be revenge too, and if we're gonna go off everything the Relayer says, it could really go either way."

"Yeah, I know. I don't really know what to expect from this. I just hope it helps us all," Sefgh sighed.

From the corner of my vision, I saw a pair of eyes staring at me from around the corner. Black and white, and glowing. They were gone the next second.

"Heyyy!" Matt was back. "Didn't find anythin'. This place sucks, man. Think we're gonna get outta here today?"

Sef and I glanced at each other.

The beach was crowded. Nearly everyone wanted to be there for the big event, and those who couldn't make it still hovered around the area. Homes were empty, and the town held its collective breath. This was it, and we were right at the center - me, Sefgh, Matt, and M-Bot all in a group not but a few feet from the Gret Relayer Alzeki himself. The atmosphere was tense; people spoke only in hushed whispers, if at all. The sky was cloudy and fog shrouded the horizon.

It happened at noon, exactly. We saw a figure emerge from the clouds, slowly approaching. There was complete silence. No wind, no animals, no waves. Still. He hovered mere inches above the water, seeming to walk on top of it. He was dressed in a bulky mechanical suit covered in worn military garb, colored in deep dark purple, a cape of torn camo fabric trailing behind him and gracefully floating along the water. Most striking of all was his mask, a hundred sharp pitch-black spikes protruding from his face, no human element to speak of. In fact, not a single shred of his skin was exposed. He was toweringly tall, and intimidatingly broad under his clothing. He spoke in a low, booming voice, looking to the sky in proclamation.

Four have been chosen.

His voice seemed to enter directly into our minds. He turned his head to us, to me and my group, and pointed, his hand covered by a steel gauntlet, spikes on its knuckles.

Bring them up front.

The crowd in front of us, and the Relayer, stood aside as others behind us pushed us forwards. We were too awed to speak - the world was silent outside of his voice. He brought his other hand forward to reveal a book, handing it to Sefgh, who took it with the slowness of someone who thought they were dreaming.

Open it.

The book was rather small, only a few pages, each made of thick glass. Inside was a list of names corresponding to numbers-

-all of which seemed to update continuously. Names and locations.

A man named Cardo attempts to summon the God of Death and bring an end to all things. These are his associates. This is your mission.

Without another word, he turned and left, receding back into the fog.