Smoldering Spire

Everyone's panicking!

But it looks like they haven't attacked the residential areas. Someone must be leading them!

Everyone's been on edge for far too long. That explosion was all they needed to snap—

Over here! We have to make sure the Rathaus is secure!

Look! There's a lot of them! Hurry!

Hah?!

Not bad for a man your age. Must be nice to live without the constant torment of Oripathy, huh?

Sure... If I gave up smoking in my younger days, you and your friends would be sharing a jail cell by now.

Get out of here. Out of respect for you as my fellow townsfolk, I won't—

Hah! Look at the mouth on this one! You think we don't know you're the last cop in Wolumonde?

You...

Severin! The jig is up. Let us into the Rathaus so we can run our town already.

What do you plan to do?

Hah?!

Settle down. Truce. I'm going to smoke a cigarette while you tell me what exactly you want from this town. Go ahead.

Maybe Wolumonde can consider your demands.

What are you trying to pull?

Look, I'm putting down my sword. I think we can come to terms here. No need to fight.

Hah. Now you decide to be reasonable?

Hand over the murderer. And abandon your prejudices.

...I want to go home. And I want my job back. Simple enough?

I just need you to fill out a report, and submit to regular physicals. Simple enough.

That's it?! You walled us in and left us to die!

All that's left of my block is a heap of earthquake rubble. It's all Originium clusters that could blow at any moment. You evacuated all the non-infected and we're running out of supplies. Is anyone coming to help us?

Oh right, I almost forgot. Because you suck at your job, Wolumonde is heading straight to hell, and we're just the first ones to be thrown under the bus.

You still think you're so bright, hiding the truth to 'maintain order?'

...*Sigh*.

Looks like my matches got wet. I guess I don't have a light. Let's get back to it.

Wha?! Hand-to-hand?

Sure. Just a quick whiff of tobacco is enough to pump me up.

But, I'm sorry to say, we may be about to have an 'accident' here.

Damn it, let go! Are... Are you trying to kill me? Gah—!

No, just a 'slip' of the hand—

Schultz!

Hm?

Um...

Finished. There were only a few of them, and the rest ran off, leaving this poor fella alone.

Did you kill him?

I don't think so.

......

It would be nice if the good doctors could wake him up.

He's breathing!

Let's make sure we're saving lives now.

I'll have words for you soon, 'Schultz.'

Sure. I'm all ears, Miss.

Sir...

I told you before, I'm not 'Sir.' I'm not your Schultz when we're alone. I'm Thor's father, and your uncle.

No, Sir, you just... you were going to kill that Infected man.

I won't deny it.

That's only going to make things worse! And you can't attack a member of the Wolumonde family so lightly!

Even if he told the militants that we're defenseless?

You know what this means, Tatjana.

You should have a heart, at least—

Can't always make the right choice, no matter how much you might want to. Not unless you're omniscient.

Objectively speaking, if a prophet or a banker baron told me just a few deaths would bring peace back to Wolumonde...

I'd do it. No matter who had to die.

...Even if...

No. Matter. Who.

...At least he managed to hold on to his life. That's good enough.

Let's get back to Rhodes Island. Did you tell them the truth? Did you already take them to the camp? That girl had a different look in her eye.

You already knew...?

I was pretty sure. For what it's worth, I never saw the point in hiding it from them. But keeping it under wraps myself calmed a lot of people down.

What's your read on them?

I think they'll help Wolumonde. They're the same kind of people as Dr. Atro.

*Cough* *cough*, *hack*. And you think they speak for all of Rhodes Island?

They're the ones they sent. So I guess they should be decently representative?

Truth be told, if every Rhodes Island operator we ran into turned out to be a good person, that would disturb me a lot more.

I'm thinking back... to a certain sniper. She was from Rhodes Island...

The one who came with Dr. Atro and left shortly thereafter?

I hope she didn't get swallowed up by the Catastrophe...

Wh-what? Another attack?

At this point, every bandit for miles must know we have no Gendarmerie here.

So what can we do? Get down on our knees and beg for mercy? Or fight to the bitter end?

No, those explosions are coming from... underground?!

Severin! They're over at the workshops! They came through a tunnel on the next street over!

They crippled the main power plant!

Look at it. A beautiful, empty town.

Wolumonde. Moon of the Winterwisp Mountains. Yes, truly worthy of its name.

A moon? Pfah!

Four of our people died in that fire.

And they have the gall to try to pin it on the Infected? What's next? Where do they go from here?

Do they just expect us to turn the other cheek?

You're quite worked up. Try to relax. You don't usually talk like that.

We should level this place! Damned Wolumonders! Damned immigrants!

No.

Mudrock! You and your Sarkaz could do it!

No.

You're right... Who knows the pain of losing one's home better than the Sarkaz?

Even in Leithanien, where the Infected are supposed to be able to do what they can with what they have, there is no place for the Sarkaz.

...But, the cupcakes that nice granny gave us were delicious. Just the right amount of sweet.

Huh?

So... We wait. The only thing we're here to destroy is the murderer. We can't lose control of our hate. Or else...

What separates us from what we were before?