An Empire of Betrayal & Order 5

“YOU FILTHY SCUM! YOU MADE THIS HAPPEN…YOU…YOU WILL PAY FOR IT!”, the blue-haired man yelled at the top of his lungs while looking around like a furious uncaged animal.

Niye gulped down at the sight of the torn woman as his stomach nearly forced him to throw out. But, his instincts tingled rapidly as they sensed an immediate and extreme danger coming at him.

The blue-haired man had created a giant tornado of water around him that he unleashed at all sides, making all the near Dwellers disappear while pushing back and hurting Niye and Zeal in the meantime.

“Argh”, both shouted as they were slightly protected by the shields Niye created in an instant to guard him and Zeal, “Without them, we would have been blown away…”, Zeal declared in a voice filled with pain as he was covered with wounds in his arms and legs.

Niye had tried to lift his body but it seemed extremely hard since he was also covered in bruises all over his body.

“I won’t…”, the man started to speak while air gushed out from his nose like a boar, “I won’t let you lay a finger on her hair!”.

“Better think this through again.”, Wolf said in a cunning voice.

The man’s pupils contracted at the sight of Wolf’s knife being dangerously close to a little blue-haired girl’s throat.

“LET HER GO YOU VARMINT!”, the man again angrily roared.

“Brother…”, Niye said in a weak and slightly surprised voice after covering the woman’s body with dirt to hide the dismembered body.

“Let us go and she will see the light of day again.”, Wolf threatened the man in a vile tone.

“Papa…what is going on?”, the little girl spoke in a terrorized voice.

The man took a step in front and ripped the necklace holding the Aquamarine off his neck, “You…you have no decency in your heart as it seems…”, he said in a disappointed voice.

However, before the man let his necklace fall to the ground, a crushing soundwave was cast toward the Azualit man and Wolf.

That caused the azure-haired man to evade just in time and made Wolf let go of the little girl as he dodged sideways. A lingering Regretter was left half alive after the Azualit man’s attack.

“Shi — ”

Before Wolf could finish his sentence the man had conjured water arrows that were thrown toward his side. Again, with bare minimum strength left, Niye created a torpedo of sand that blocked the arrows’ path.

While doing that, Zeal had stood up with his legs shaking and unleashed a soundwave that blasted the Regretter to smithereens.

That was seen by Wolf as his only chance to win, since Niye guarded him the Azualit man was left wide open, and before he could get the chance to create a water barrier to withstand any attack, Wolf stormed with his two knives toward him and stabbed him in his chest.

“No…PAPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”, the little girl shouted in a terrorized voice.

The azure-haired man spat blood on Wolf’s back after he pulled his knives out. Both Zeal and Niye stood up with shaky legs and arms, closing their eyes as if praying for the seemingly dying man.

At that moment —

“C o mee YO uu”

“De a TH to yO Uu”

Numerous sickening voices could be heard reaching them from afar.

“There’s more of them? How many did we call here?”, Zeal said in despair.

“We need to go”, Wolf said in a rush, “Hurry!”

At his command, Niye tried to get inside the ground like a mole as he did before and Zeal run toward the woods nearby their position.

“I…won’t…let you…”, the Azualit man spoke out in a dying voice as he touched the ground, making it muddy.

That made Niye struggle to dig and got stuck as he watched the Dwellers approach him and Wolf.

“What is happening? Brother help!”

However, Wolf was wearing a shocked look on his face as he stared at two men that were approaching the Dwellers from behind.

“What in the…What are THEY doing here?”, he murmured.

Then, he turned to look toward his brother who was stuck in the mud, and noticed several water blades on top of him.

“I told you…You won’t get away with this…”, the Azualit spoke feebly as he dropped his hand to the ground. The arrows followed suit and struck Niye’s back.

“Arghh! My back, my back! It's painful!”, Niye screamed.

Yet, his brother, having seen Dastan and Arol from afar coming close, camouflaged himself and left without leaving a single word behind him.

“Bro…ther…Wh…y…”, Niye’s dying voice came out as the Revengers got closer to him and smashed his head and body parts to a pulp.

Dastan and Arol both run as fast as a wind’s gust toward the distasteful voice of a little girl. As they tried to point out the exact location they heard it from, they struggled with many Revengers and Regretters along the way.

Somewhere along their path, they figured out the exact position as they saw several Dwellers grouping near a house that was yet to be destroyed completely. They thought that this might be the chance to save at least a single soul from this despicable disaster that laid upon Elys.

So, they fought with everything they had to reach that place that was beginning to get covered with many Dwellers. Dastan was equipped with two rocky gauntlets created from scratch and Arol was hovering to speed himself up.

Suddenly, Dastan, seeing the Dwellers getting close to that place, noticed something that differentiated from the numerous figures in front of him.

“Isn’t that…AROL! An Azualit little girl is right there! And she doesn’t seem dead as well. Quick, we have to take out the Dwellers closing the distance to her.”, he shouted with a hint of enthusiasm in his voice.

“Right!”, Arol accompanied Dastan’s manner.

As they continued marching toward them, they threw rock bullets and air daggers that landed on some of the Dwellers’ bodies, making them vanish in return.

“I…Help…Someone…Papa!”, the terrifyingly screamed as she stood next to her father’s immovable body.

Some Dwellers were already near the little girl, standing at the top of a body that was so disfigured it was unrecognizable. When Dastan realized that, he smashed the ground and several rock pillars formed in from of them and struck some unlucky ones.

“Not on my watch! Arol, NOW!”

Arol, after concentrating his powers for a brief moment, fired an air blast that slammed the Dwellers into the rocky pillars with such force that demolished them along with them.

Then, as a leftover Revenger got closer to the little girl, Dastan jumped with incredible power with the help of his rocky feet, reaching that Revenger and smashing his body to the ground.

“Are you alright?”, Dastan said in a worried voice, after the sound of the collapsing ground and pillars went away.

The little girl nodded in silence while her father’s body beside her started to tremble as if trying to amass the last ounce of strength it had.

“Please…I know that…Cough, cough”, blood spilled out of the Azualit body as he spoke, “I know…that I ask much of you…But please…take care of…her…”, he continued as he left out his dying wish.

“I will…You have my eternal word…”, Dastan said with teary eyes as he closed the man’s now pale eyes.

“There’s no other Dweller around. Is she alright?”, Arol spoke out worryingly.

“She is still frozen from the terror she witnessed. But she will be…I’ll make sure she will be…”, Dastan told Arol as he stood up and then extended both of his hands to carry the little girl in his arms, “Come on…Let’s get out of here.”

“B…But…”, the little girl voiced out as she was carried away from the scene by Dastan, “If I go, how will I get to play with Papa again? Papa, please stand up, we promised we would swim in the river tomorrow…PAPAAAAAA!”

The little girl screamed with tears gushing out of her eyes as she extended her hand in an effort to reach her dad’s body. Dastan’s hands started to shake from the immense anger he withheld inside him.

After a while, the little girl slept in Dastan’s arms from all the exhaustion she was put into. She touched her head on Dastan’s shoulders as Arol and he walked toward the place they came from Elys village.

“Will you take her in?”, Arol questioned with a trembling voice as he held back his tense emotions as well.

“Yes…and this will also be the last day she gets to feel this terrified and sorrowful…I’ll make that happen no matter the cost…”, Dastan answered assuredly.

As they reached Phlox’s train station the little girl was beginning to wake up as she stared at Dastan with half-closed eyes.

“Where…do we go?”

“We will cover everything along the way, my dear girl. But for starters, why don’t we share our names? What do you say? I am Dastan Uren!”, Dastan said while trying with all his might to sound a little more enthusiastic to not remind her what she went through.

Then, the little girl nodded and replied to him in a feeble voice.

“M-my name…is Sherice…”

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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