An Empire of Betrayal & Order 1

The dust settled in the arena the two warriors practiced with each other. After everything was said and done, the two figures could be seen still standing while panting heavily.

Both of them though made a move to lift their right hand in an effort to amass different kinds of powers to it but a loud voice interrupted that.

“That’s enough you two!”, Willhelm Wolf said fiercely, “One needs to become strong enough to vanquish the foes that will lurk on the battlefield, but it is also of great importance to know when to back out. Otherwise, there will be no other battlefield for them to face if they won’t.”

The two men quickly turned their attention to the man with the dark grey hair and the black coat that buttoned its way toward that man’s neck. At his command, both of them stopped their impending attack and fell to their knees due to their energy being completely depleted.

“You see? Even if you did launch your attack, you would be left with nothing to do afterward. So, in case you either missed or didn’t evaporate your enemy, you would be left without a guard and no stamina to back off.”, Wolf continued his speech like giving a lecture to them.

“And the Dwellers won’t pity or spare you for even a second.”

After these words, the two men felt furiously invigorated, like they felt ashamed for their wrongdoing. However, due to Wolf’s lecture, they felt more amped than ever, which led to them lifting their weary body from the ground.

“YES SIR!”, both of them shouted in an obedient tone.

“Good. You are excused for today. Contemplate today’s battle after you rest.”, Wolf answered them while they put their right hand to their face’s right side to form a salute sign before leaving.

*Clap, clap*

After the men left, a resounding clapping sound filled the empty battleground as if trying to occupy it with it.

“As always, you are as strict as it gets, Wolf. Though I can’t say that this doesn't pay out well…”, a baritone voice accompanied the claps that were directed at Wolf who was standing in the middle of the training ground.

“Walter…How come you came all this way down here?”

A man that seemed to be in his early 40s smiled at Wolf while his long gabardine waved back from the slight breeze and closed in his position with him.

“The work you put into the empire never ceases to amaze me, so from time to time I want to come here and watch you do your magic in person.”, Chalmer Walter answered in a semi-joking manner.

Wolf lifted his right eyebrow at Walter’s words, “I see. But I am pretty sure you didn’t come for this. At least this time.”, he responded curiously.

“Muahaha!”, Walter laughed thunderously loud, “You saw right through me. From what I’ve seen in my report, everything is in place. So, the mission will begin tomorrow at 21 sharp.”

“Alright, I’ll go make sure my brother is fully prepared as well since he is a focal point for this scheme. We won’t fail you, Walter.”, Wolf replied as he turned his back to Wolf and started marching toward the training ground’s exit.

“I am certain you won’t…”, Walter spoke in a low but deep voice as he watched Wolf’s back disappearing from his sight.

A gentle draft lightly touched the cheeks of the man standing across the river, staring at it with a rod in his right hand. His eyes were fixated on the water’s surface as if trying to catch even the tiny ripple that it could make.

Suddenly, he felt a small poke on his hand that shifted his attention to alert mode. He waited patiently as he noticed the fish trying to get another bite out of the bait on the stick.

“Steady…steady…”

When the fish finally gave in and put its mouth on the bait once more, the man lifted the fishing stick out at lightning-fast speed, making the fish follow the line’s trajectory out of the water and toward the empty bucket.

“Yes! First catch of the daaay! Something tells me that lunch will be magnificent today.”, the man spoke enthusiastically holding his fist tight fist in the air.

“Dastan, are you done? We have been here for at least an hour. Shouldn’t we head back to Dozil? We’ve accomplished our mission here in Phlox anyway.”, a heavy voice came from a man sitting atop a rock far behind Dastan Uren.

Then, Dastan turned to address the man’s words in a seemingly annoyed voice.”

“You know…Our bellies won’t get full by themselves Arol! Moreover, can’t you let a man appreciate some free time in peace? Find something to do to enjoy your leisure time.”

Arol Bagniu then lifted his body from the big rock and waved his hand back ‘n forth trying to get what was pestering him out of his face.

“Alright, alright! I will leave you to it.”, he said in a disturbed voice, “I’ll go some sightseeing nearby in the small forest to kill some time I guess.”

“That’s the spirit! And when you return, this bucket will be full of goodies we will enjoy together!”, Dastan answered him taking a proud stance as if trying to show off.

A little while later, Arol was stranded in the forest beside the river they were sitting together with Dastan before. Most of the time, he admired the wonders of nature, but his current situation, due to hunger, didn’t let him be his usual self.

“How long am I walking in again?”, he murmured to himself while dragging his body along, “I haven’t found something to ease my belly’s protests too. Ahhhhhhh, I can’t say I don’t understand where Dastan is coming from, but today was already a tiring day for me to wander in a random forest.”

Suddenly, he heard some rustling noises coming somewhere far from his position making him more alert to his surroundings.

“What’s that now? I hope it’s just some rabbit running away from me…Or is it some snake?”

In his last words, he became even more aware and terrified, so he proceeded with more careful and slow steps.

However —

“Y o uu W il l Pa a Yy”

“W h y DD ii d Th a t H aa Pp ee ne D To Me ee?”

Various sickening voices came from behind the bushes Arol was currently positioned behind. He was ready to uncover what was supposedly inside the scrubs when he heard those sounds and immediately froze himself entirely.

“Oi oi”, he whispered to himself, “I would have preferred the snake route…This doesn’t seem like something any less dangerous…”

After seeing in front of him a swarm of Regretters and Revengers standing there, he thought it would be best to return to Dastan to inform him about them.

Till he reached the space Dastan was lying in now, he pinpointed the exact location of the Dwellers by dropping some pebbles as he walked his way back.

After an hour had passed since Arol went for his little hike, Dastan had caught just one more fish. He had stopped pursuing it more and was now lying by the lake’s side.

He then heard a swishing noise coming from the place Arol was sitting before.

“You returned? That’s good, I think we can leave now. Before you lash out at me, I’ll have you know that I tried my best to serve us more fish, but…”

“I don’t care about your fishing career”, he interrupted Dastan’s sentence in a panting and despaired-filled voice, “You need to follow me now and see this.”

That horrid look on Arol’s face indicated Dastan at what was going on.

“Dwellers, I suppose? Didn’t we take care of them though?”

“As it seems…there were more of them.”, Arol answered while beginning to walk right back from the path he came, “But the problem is that, judging by their numbers, it’s not something Edelstein might be aware of.”

Dastan gave a surprised look on his face as he followed Arol.

“Is that likely? And despite that, we should take care of them now since they are quite close to the village.”, he hurriedly responded.

“No…We shouldn’t.”

Arol pointed with his finger in the direction of the Dwellers he saw before making Dastan instantly astonished in return.

“This…How is this possible…”, Dastan lamented as the despairing look on Arol’s face was now painted on his, “We need to inform Wolf immediately. He should be able to dispatch an Edelstein army right away to take care of this.”

Arol nodded heavily in response to Dastan’s words and they both quickly left that position to reach the capital of Heilig, Dozil, fast to report their findings.

“I hope we will get there in time.”, Dastan said as the view of the numerous Dwellers faded away from his sight.

This is a side story featuring characters Vierizen Kingdom from my work-in-progress novel, "In The Ashes of Forgiveness", originally published on Medium.

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