“What’s that expression on your face?” Said the High-Inquisitor.

“What?” I was still focused on a plan to remove that woman from the Titan’s mouth.

If only I had both my legs.

“What did you see, boy?”

But I didn’t answer, so he took me by the shoulder, turning me toward him.

“What did you see?”

Tsk. He was getting a little too familiar.

“A woman, one of the nomad’s leaders. She’s governing the Titan from some sort of pocket in its mouth. If only I hadn’t lost a leg, I would be able to get her out of there.”

He looked straight in my eyes, “You want a leg? Then get inside, say the High-Inquisitor sent you, and look for our Clock-engineer, his name is Will. But if you want it fast enough to count, then get ready for a world of pain,” he said with a grin.

“Pain is one of my closest friends.”

He held up his gaze to mine, “Guess there might be really something in you, even if you have no goal.”

I did not answer, but I held my gaze up.

He turned around, shouting to have the hatch open for me.

“Now go, boy. And make it fast.”

I could not believe what I had been offered.

But I grinned. Then conjured a dagger and threw it into the open hatch.

Chaotic was enough of a word to describe what was going on inside of the Sand-Crawler.

Tinkers shouted; people constantly moved from one place to another, and I could feel Shade entangling with Flow creating weird phenomena I knew nothing about.

I trudged on, helping myself by walking with a hand placed on the wall.

Somebody took me by the shoulders, a Sunguard.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” She said, slamming me to the wall.

She was a Flow-born, taller than me. “High-Inquisitor Terence sent me to find your Clock-engineer!”

Her clasp was actually hurting my right shoulder.

She took a long look at me, “Over there! Take the lift to the middle deck, move! Out of the way!”

I even gave her a confused thank you.

Of course, as I headed for the lift, it happened again; still, mentioning the High-Inquisitor’s name was enough to net me a pass.

The lift quickly took me to the second deck, where I was welcomed by even more chaos.

However, the place looked rather neat…

There were a lot of small facilities, most of them were separated by stands fixed on the ground more than proper metal walls, but some were indeed better hidden behind thick walls.

Yet, there was too much going on for me to take in all the details.

As I advanced, I couldn’t help but stare when I passed near their armory. I could see spare Sunguard’s armors worn on top of mannequins.

I had to Trace one of those.

Sunguard’s Full Plate Armor

Durability: 100%

Bonuses: Constitution + 285, Strength + 135, Focus + 35

Flow Capacity: 0%

Flow Density: 1000

Strengths: Flow Density, Metal Density

Weaknesses: None

This Sunguard’s Full Plate Armor was made by an Ultimate or Higher Armorer. It is made entirely in SolarTitanium and inscribed to retain the ability to absorb Flow exactly like a living person would and works as a Flow battery.

Its ability to retain Flow and the sheer density with which it can be accumulated make it a unique type of armor.

Starting with an empty Capacity, the armor can absorb even enemy Flow, nullifying any direct or indirect Flow attack or spell in the process. With Full Capacity, it utterly nullifies Flow-based spells or attacks of 100 or of lower density.

Capacity can be spent by the user using Skills or abilities.

Incredible. This was the first time I managed to Trace one of their armor. The only thing I managed to trace back when I battled the Sunguard had been the Khopesh.

Other similar Khopeshes lay near the mannequins, waiting only to be picked up.

“Who are you?” Somebody said.

She was a young female with thick glasses and a weird hairstyle—a regular.

“I was sent here by High-Inquisitor Terence to get myself a leg-” I hadn’t even finished saying so when everything shook, and we were pushed to the side.

The mannequins fell to the ground, scattering pieces of the full plate armors on the ground.

“-to get me a new leg… and fast, please. I’ve got to take down that Wyrm,” I said, getting up from the ground.

“You? You should be the one taking down the Wyrm? Aren’t we calling the heavyweights for that?”

“Are you going to help me find the Clock-engineer that has to attach the leg, or should I come back with Terence McLamar?”

She tsked. “Come, with me, fast.”

“Hussain!” She screamed as she led me by the hand.

“Moon tits… don’t push me, don’t you see I’ve only got one leg!?”

“Weren’t you on a time leash?”

“Yeah, but I would love not to break my nose to get myself a new leg!”

“So damn picky. Shade-blessed should behave better, or people will start calling you Shade-cursed again,” but as she said that, she gave me the tongue.

I snorted, “If that was supposed to be a joke, it fell quite flat.”

She tsked again. “A joke never lands with you Wastelands people.”

“You ain’t even a Flow-blessed, and you are that racist; I hope you know that does not add to your fashion.”

Yet she grinned.

But we reached what definitely looked like a clock-tech study before I could continue.

“Sit, move your ass,” she ordered, then she turned the other way to scream, “Hussain!”

What in the Abyss… did she own the place?

“What the hell are you screaming about!?” said a shade-cursed man in a white uniform; he had white gloves on.

Not only was I surprised by his presence, but I couldn’t help but ask myself, what was a “hell”?

As Aisha said, I was refraining from Tracing people; it was a bad form and could lead to real trouble.

As it seemed, there were even some devices that specialized in intercepting Tracing. They were widespread in Sundoor’s population.

“Stabilize this boy; I need to give him an implant.”

What? Would she be the one doing it?

“What? Will, we can’t do this now! We need to put him asleep!”

She was Will?

“Terence’s orders, dumb-ass!”

“Oh,” he said, growing quiet, “Are you sure you’re up for this, boy?”

“Go ahead; it would not be the first time. Besides-”

“Shit…” the girl interrupted me. “We’ve finished regular implants… I guess you are lucky, dude. You are going to get yourself a SolarTitanium implant and a leg to top it off.”

I chuckled, “No LunarTungsten?”

“Very funny, very funny… Hussain!” she screamed again.

“Stop shouting!” His answer was at roughly the same level.

“Bind him, come on!”

The two looked crazed; couldn’t they bear a little pressure from a little Titan Sand-Wyrm?

“Put this in your mouth, boy, and bite it hard,” if he was a Doctor or a Healer, I hoped he knew what he was doing.

Still, I would comply; a thick piece of cloth to bite would be ideal.

They bound me to the stretcher soon after.

Arms, head, thighs, pelvis, and chest... thick, inscribed belts held me firm to the stretcher.

“I’ll start by removing the bone connections then-” said Will, which had suddenly turned meek as she operated.

“I know the damn procedure; just make it fast; this poor boy has likely been through hell and back.”

“All right, all right, jeez…”

Their alchemy had inverted. It was likely these two had been working together for a long time.

Yet, as I felt the first jolt of pain going through my whole leg, or what was left of it, thoughts about the two weird individuals left my mind with haste.

I bit down on the cloth, and if it wasn’t enough, another quake almost threw the two people operating on me to the side. Luckily she interrupted whatever she had been doing, so I didn’t suffer any backlash.

“That was damn close…” she took her seat back on the chair by my legs.

The removal went on; she was fast, she started detaching nerves right away. The Doctor had moved from behind me and joined the woman; his hands started emitting Flow as he placed them on my thigh.

“We need to remove this part,” said the woman, passing her finger on what was left of the back of my knee.

Fuck.

The man nodded, “I’ll do it in one swift motion,” then he raised his head at me.

“What’s your name, boy?”

I spat my cloth away. “Loke… my name is Loke, Hussain. It’s a pleasure meeting you. Go ahead, to what you have to do. I can’t but trust a man like you.”

Hearing that, he smiled, “Will, give him the cloth.”

The girls placed the cloth back between my teeth.

Then it was instantaneous. I saw the man’s hands produce a bright slim blade of light; then the pain hit me.

A splurt of blood covered his white apron, but it soon receded as the man healed that part of my leg.

I felt I was about to faint. There had been not enough adrenaline in my system to face that immediate shock, but there sure was now.

I grunted and roared to contain the pain. I could feel all of it, even when the pain started to become relief, then itching as the wound healed; I went through it all in just a few seconds.

“Waf mafelosh eaing…” What marvelous healing, my mouth was still chewing on the cloth.

“Thank you, but this was the easiest part. Keep biting that cloth,” the man was cleaning the stretcher and my leg, and the girl started working on it.

She started placing the implant the moment she took over.

It was made in SolarTitanium, and like many other implants, it was nothing else but a wide ring. It would be placed between the meat and the clock-tech parts; then the rest would be attached to it. It functioned as a communication device from the body to the tech-part.

The Flow inside of it would act as the baseline for communication with the rest of the clock-tech. Although with a piece that big, most of the work was done by the Crystal that would have to be housed inside of the leg.

“This is going to grow with you, the leg too,” she was, trying to make me think about something else.

What she was doing, though, was torture.

The Doctor held my hand at some point, the non-clock-arm one, or I would have crashed his.

At some point amid those dark moments, I saw them switch places.

The Doctor stabilized the leg where the implant had been placed while I found the girl by my side.

She was adding two SolarTitanium fingers to my right hand.

“Let’s not talk about these ones, okay? I see you’ve already got a SolarTitanium implant on your hand. Nobody will notice.” She winked at me as she put them on.

Mounting pieces on already placed implants did not hurt; it was the implant, the real son of a Moon walker…

“Fenk u…”

“You must have a capable clock-engineer working on you, I can see they are still a little bit rough around the edges, but they are getting there.”

I spat the cloth away.

“She’s still a clock-technician…” I said meekly.

Synaesthesia had been playing tricks on me. A vision of blood and metal washed over me.

“Oh, she must be really talented then. Is it possible that I know her?”

“Logan… Logan Raive, of the Hillhouse… it’s his daughter.”

The girl was surprised.

“Logan Raive? That Logan? And his daughter is the one that treats you? Damn, you’ve got some connection, kid.”

I grinned.

The pain was receding, and I was slowly regaining my abilities.

“She’s my beloved, and Logan has been… has been like a father for me. Especially as of lately. But how do you know them?”

“Who doesn’t know about Logan Raive?”

“The boy has his connection, I see,” the Doctor added. “I’ve met him before, you know? Logan. My father healed him once. I saw the man leave our clinic looking like a mummy. But he smiled, or more like, he grinned.”

“However, that’s the wrong horse to bet on if you want to buy yourself a pass into the City. That’s the worst horse among them all.” The girl shook her head, chuckling.

“I have to concur on that,” added the Doctor with a sigh. “His stunts have not really bolstered our position… we all loved him back then in the slums, but damn he fucked us up more than once.”

“He’s… told me,” I nodded, “I’m sorry.”

“Come on, stop recounting, free us of this Wyrm before the heavy weapons get here and, who knows, maybe you’ll get yourself a pass. Get up now, see if the leg works.”

I hadn’t even noticed they had finished mounting it.

Yet as I got up, the worst shake among the ones we had felt until then hit the Sand-Crawler.

We were all thrown backward, and the squeaking of metal being torn open resounded in the deck.

“It has broken through!” Someone shouted.

Indeed, smoke started filling the deck.

“Come on! Get out of here!” The Doctor started shouting.

“How’s… how’s the leg?” Asked Will.

“It’s perfect… Thank you, really.”

I did not expect them to go to those lengths to help me. She had even stolen SolarTitanium fingers to attach to my hand.

“Well, make that leg work, and try to please the High-Inquisitor, because that crus alone is worth seventy-five thousand crowns.”

Shit.

SolarTitanium Clock-tech Crus

Durability: 100%

Bonuses: Agility + 25, Constitution + 65, Strength + 50

Flow Capacity: 3%

Strengths: Great attack power, Enormous defense, Brilliant Agility bonus

Weaknesses: None

This Clock-crus has been produced by an Ultimate Tinker Class. Its attack power is directly tied to the maximum Strength which it can produce before starting to receive internal damage.

It does simulate every possible ankle and foot movement to the utmost.

It augments the wearer Speed, but the boost is not noticeable if not worn in a pair.

What an exquisite piece of machinery.

Its frame shone the same golden color of which the Sunguards’ armors did. I couldn’t believe I had been allowed to wear something like this in public and by a member of the Inquisition.

However, it was much heavier than my leg; I would have to adjust my movement and stability to this new addendum to my body.

Still, when I got up, I felt a little dizzy, courtesy of the healing and the amount of pain I had to go through in those few minutes. But they had done something incredible.

There was one last thing that I needed to ask.

“Doctor…”

“Still here? What are you waiting for?”

“I need to know something, please. Is there a way to heal blindness in Sundoor? Can you do it?”

“Yeah, there is. It costs a lot, though. It’s not accessible to all. Now go!”

No matter the cost, I would heal Nova’s eye.

“Thank you, both,” I whispered as I ran away.

I got out from a fissure I had seen in the walls of the Sand-Crawler by transferring through a knife throw as soon as I saw it.

The very moment I appeared on the outside, I felt the chaos of warning signals my Sixth Sense was sending me. I nocked another Shadow arrow to move away as fast as I could.

A vast amount of sand, spat so fast to lacerate anyone’s flesh, invested the region of the sky on which I had just transferred out from.

I nocked another arrow and freed myself higher, and higher, and higher.

I got so high in the air that I could take in the fighting in its entirety.

I focused back on the Titan; it was swimming around the back of the Sand-Crawler, intent on changing his approach.

I did not know why the girl, Kaleeki, wasn’t guiding it to attack the rocks acting as a barrier; it would be the end of the Sand-Crawler if she got free of those two massive shields.

Maybe she did not want to damage the Undead Wyrm’s body, which could not recover like a normal body would, or perhaps did not want to expose it to the Inquisition’s magic, but she was wasting time.

I had no idea what the heavy weapons were, but whatever was about to arrive would clearly have a better approach at fighting the monster.

I turned toward the City.

There was nothing coming toward us. We would have to stall the fight a little bit more. Or simply I would have to get the woman out from the Titan’s mouth; it would be our win.

However, It was a question of timing, and it would be damn dangerous.

Still, it was a step forward toward gaining mine and Nova’s access to the City. I would have to place my life on the line once more. But this time, I was more than willing.

As I fell from the sky, I shot a regular arrow at the rocks, making sure it would take its time by arching in the sky.

Then I let myself fall in the direction of the Titan and conjured a Shadow Crystal Blow arrow, my tempest of hits started then, and the only way for it to protect against me was using its acid.

I would not get close enough to give it an easy time to spit acid at me, but it was an eventuality I had to take into consideration.

It would be a risky fight. And it was only at the beginning.