The office. A three-man team now—me, Vess, and Kei.
Kei's been here a long... long time. Vess only joined about a week ago.
The kid's strong. I'll give him that. Most rookies would've bailed after their first encounter with a distortion—those things warp your mind. But Vess stayed.
That surprised me.
You'd think he was a coward for groveling on the floor, but it's actually the opposite. That distortion—just being near it can fry your brain. Most people end up twitching, mumbling one word over and over until they die. Brain-dead puppets.
But he didn't. He endured it.
…
I walked past the main room. Kei was there, as always. Half-slouched over the desk, pen in hand, eyes barely open.
Piles of paperwork surrounded him like barricades. He glanced up, gave me a lazy blink, then went right back to whatever contract he was processing.
A groan escaped him as he read one out loud.
"Please fix my washing machine. It broke. Reward… none. You will have my thanks…"
He scoffed. "Great. Just what do these people think Neutralizers do...?"
I chuckled. Same old Kei. Sleepy, snarky, but always grinding.
He's one of the only friends I have left.
"What's with him? Why's he so gloomy all the time?" Vess remarked as he stood next to me.
"...Believe it or not." I say, continuing on with:
"Kei used to smile alot more. Back when... there were more than the three of us."
"Oh." Vess said, a look of realization dawning on his face as he stared at Kei and back at me.
It seems there was a mutual understanding between us... for now.
…
"This city isn't as bad as it seems."
"The hell is this about now? Where did this come from, old man?" Vess asked as he looked at me with a side eye.
"Just.. trying to make small talk."
"Whatever. Go ahead."
"You know, people die here every day. My friends are practically gone. And I've got an incurable, unnamed disease rotting away at my eye… that'll eventually take the rest of my body too."
"But all of this? It doesn't compare to how bad things were, 200 years ago."
"Huh?" Vess asked, confused by the sudden statement.
"200 years ago? That's practically ancient."
"I've only heard stories. But they don't feel like stories—they feel like warnings. Messages from a generation that barely survived."
"Back then, you'd be lucky to survive your own birth. Distortions ran rampant. Beasts roamed freely."
"Monsters like vampires, gargoyles, wyverns, even dragons—they existed. Until humans wiped them out."
"But the thing is, those weren't even the real threat."
"They were symptoms. Byproducts of distortions."
"A vampire? Probably just someone born twisted by a distortion, passing on their mutated traits like a curse through bloodlines. Same with the rest of them."
"Distortions are what stayed. Nightmarish, incomprehensible things that don't follow any rule of logic. They persisted. They adapted. They hid in plain sight."
"Back then, humans were starving. Civilized too, supposedly. But despite that, all they cared about was conquest. Power. War."
"Even as their population dwindled, they tore each other apart."
"That's history for you."
"I didn't know that." Vess confessed, suddenly a glint of interest sparking in his bored eyes.
"Now, the continent of Elyndor is unified. Separated into 128 Districts, yes—but ruled by a single body."
"Not kings. Not emperors."
"But one government."
"As you know, we call it the NAPDI."
"They are the eyes, the head, the limbs, and the soul of Elyndor."
"NAPDI is made up of five main associations"
"N Association — The face of the system. They let civilians like me become Neutralizers and run local offices. We're kinda like mercenaries, we receive contracts from civilians or from the N Association."
"Right, that's the one we're in. Since we run a three man office in the middle of nowhere." Vess replied to my lecture.
"A Association — Manages the continent's assets and economy. Not much to note here."
"P Association — Professors who tend to experiment alot. Their labs and facilities are everywhere. No one touches them because the D Association has their back."
"Creepy ass fuckers. They're always lurking everywhere." Vess remarks with disdain as his face contorts with disgust, remembering the incident a week ago.
"D Association — Defense. Destruction. Death. The D Association is the military arm of NAPDI, but calling them a "military" doesn't even begin to describe what they are. They just... make threats disappear. Their soldiers, called Delvers, are terrifying monsters in human form."
"Nobody's sure if they're even fully human. Maybe once. But the things they can do... Instantaneous movement, invisibility, and abilities that leave no trace, even the ability to suppress distortions just by existing nearby."
"They'll just appear one day, suddenly. And whatever they came for, is now gone. Distortions. Rogue agents. Criminals—
Hell, whole districts, if needed. If you ever see a Delver—if you even notice one—then congratulations.
You are royally fucked."
"Because you're not supposed to see them. And if you do... it means they want you to.
In other words, Delvers are the weapons. They don't use weapons. They ARE weapons."
"I Association — Now this one? The real puppeteers. No one knows who's in the I Association. No offices, no logos, no faces. Just whispers.
But they're everywhere. Every camera. Every broadcast. Every erased document or vanishing person—probably them.
They don't exactly directly intervene. But I get the feeling they control everything. Every order.
That is my theory. They run everything. NAPDI, the Associations, what people know. What they are ALLOWED to know.
They're the black box of Elyndor. The last thing you should ever go looking into."