Screams echoed outside the tent a small girl with red cat ears cowered in. Shadows flashed by from the small open slit at the entrance as those outside frantically ran for their lives. She caught glimpses of sharp pointed blades slicing down, followed by harrowing cries that faded into silent whispers.
“Help!”
“Run, don’t let them get you!”
Her hands trembled at her mouth, sinking further into the shadows of the tent, when suddenly, a hand reached in, causing he eyes to widen with fear.
Flipping the entry flaps aside, a young Nefarian male with horns that curled inward like a rams entered.
“Chik’ Weeda…”
“Quick, they’ve come!” he said, reaching his furry hand out. The girl, stricken with fear, lightly shook her head no. “Stella! We must go, now!” Grabbing her tiny hand, he yanked softly.
“Weeda no!” Leaning back she tried to resist, but he was too strong.
Abruptly grabbing her by the sides of her arms, he gazed into her beady red eyes, “Little flower, riders are here. If we don’t leave now—gah!” a sword cut across his back, causing him to fall down.
“Weeda!” Stella said, dropping by his side.
“What do we have here,” a human wearing golden armor said; a symbol of a flower was engraved on the chest armor. His mustache was thick, blending with the hairs sticking from his nose. “Ugh, Kalumi… Wish it were Solomon, but I’ll say, your type are much cuter.”
He took a step forward and the girl took a step back when Chik’ Weeda swiftly flipped over, plunging a blade into his side, twisting it after, causing the man to scream.
“You…” the man fell, dropping his blade.
Standing, Chik’ Weeda spat on the soldier, “Dog.”
Grimacing the soldier managed a weak, pained response. “You’ll… never escape…”
Chik’ Weeda placed his knee over his back, and the soldier let out a low painful grunt. “Os’tharin vesh’koth.”
“Hell you say—ah?!” The knee pressed into him while his hair was yanked upward.
Whispering in the man’s ear, “Mother awaits,” swiftly tugging the blade he slit the man’s throat. As the soldier chocked to death, Chik’ Weeda said, “Though you’d likely rot the soil at Her feet.” Seeing the frightened child, he said, “Hurry now,” and they left the tent.
Torches hovered by the side of tents from soldiers outside, forcing Nefarian families to run out where they were pinned by long negative flux rods with an opening like a horseshoe that was layered with sharped spikes. Should they fight back, it would stab into them, killing some at times if it were on the neck.
“Mom!” a little Nefarian called who was hoisted on the back of a hammerhead raptor.
“Tulipa!” her mom shouted ash she was dragged away by two men.
Slamming an axe into a soldier, blood splurged out before the Nefarian with goat-like ears shouted, “Hurry, get the women and children out of here!” Turning, a large paw covered in armor smacked him through the air smashing into a box by Stella before rolling many feet away until he stopped; his head was twisted around towards his back.
“Make sure to gather ever last one! The empire won’t tolerate any slipping away!” the man shouted atop the large armored Mantical.
Crouching, Chik’ Weeda gripped Stella’s hand and they hastily moved behind the cover of a long line of supplies they kept in the village.
On the other end of the supplies, many hammerhead raptors thumped heavily against the ground as the riders raced forward, swinging their blades at Nefarian resisting.
While they moved forward, Stella tripped, but her Chik’ Weeda lifted her up, “Come come,” his said with an urgent look as they continued their hastened hidden march through the soft mud. As they passed a long wooden table which had storages of food under it, a Nefarian came crashing onto the wooden table, however Stella was urged onward.
As the Nefarian tried to lift himself a hammer head raptor sped over.
“No, please!”
The raptor smashed its head over the stomach of the Nefarian causing him to scream, then it crushed into him again, cracking the table inward before swiftly feasting on his stomach.
The guard on the raptor noticed the two, but a spear drove through him from far away, and his body slipped off while the raptor continued to eat.
They continued their straight stealthy approach, now passing by fish nets and a racks of fishing rods. Flaming tents with people running on the other side of the line of supplies were a constant presence.
Three Nefarian charged forward with axes, but another armored Mantical jumped forward crushing one into the floor as it landed, swiping another into a burning home and then biting down on the last, crushing his bones and swishing him left and right before tossing him into the fish rack, snapping the upper half in which they were crouched under, but they pressed on.
The Mantical rushed forward with armed soldiers following closely behind, though they were all unbeknownst of the two.
Nefarian’s ran for the woods, but they were quickly hunted down by hammerhead raptors. When close enough the riders tossed weighted negative flux nets over the Nefarian.
“Please, we only want to live in peace!” they shouted.
“Shut it, you filthy animals,” a man said. “Until all the tokens are found, there will be no peace.”
“Tsk… Kalumi. They’re hardly as productive as Solomon. Their kind don’t even have powers,” another soldier said, kicking one lying within the net.
Stella happened to be peaking behind a wooden box when her arm was yanked away, “Do not stop,” Chik’ Weeda said.
From behind the long stretch of supplies they were hastily making their pursuit down undiscovered, suddenly, a low growl resonated. “Look what we have here.”
They both turned slightly, staring directly at a hammerhead raptor wrapping the corner with a rider.
“Go!” Chik’ Weeda said, snatching the girl who froze and running through the burning tents on his left.
“Where do you think you’re going!” the soldier said, and the raptor took off with a harrowing screech, its feet slapping heavily into the mud as it chased after them.
Behind them the raptor turned the corner, almost slipping on the moist mud, before gathering itself and darting forward. It smacked a Nefarian in the way as it quickly closed the distance between them.
Turning a corner sharply the jaws of the Raptor clamped down, miss him, but Chik’ Weeda slipped.
“It’s coming!” Stella shouted, gazing over his shoulder in his arms.
Quickly rising and rushing into a tent, he slit flat backside with his blade, hastily jumping out with Stella in one arm, and just as the Raptor lunged its head out, missing with a loud snap.
Screeching the Raptor forced itself through the narrow slit and rushed after them.
“We have to get to the forest—” Chik’ Weeda was sent sprawling forward as the raptor caught up, using its hammer shaped head to launch him away.
Stella flew out of his hands, splattering against the mud and rolling through before coming to a halt.
“You know we’re supposed to round you lot up, but you really made my pal hear work up quite the appetite.” The raptor snapped at the air, creeping closely to the girl. “I suppose a snack won’t hurt.”
Stella, face covered in mud, was paralyzed with fear.
The raptor slowly opened its mouth about a foot away from her, a foul stench from its other meals leaking from its mouth; teeth bloody and yellow.
“No!” The raptor turned its head, but at that time Chik’ Weeda rammed into him, its horns toppling the raptor to the floor. With a mighty scream he held his blade up, which had a twisted root pattern as a hilt, plunging it into the raptor and twisting it. It squealed in pain, legs flinging mud as it flailed about on the floor until coming to a halt, dead.
“You!” a blade from the soldier shot forward, stabbing into the side of Chik’ Weeda’s stomach.
“Weeda!” Stella shouted, but he remained standing fiercely.
Blood seeping from his mouth, Chik’ Weeda gripped the soldier, yanking him towards his head where his horns collided heavily with the man, crushing his helmet and his skull. Limping over, picked her up, saying, “To the forest, hurry…”
The rushed into the forest with the other Nefarian who managed to escape.
Seeing this, one of the soldiers on the back of an armored mantical gave a nod to someone standing beside him.
That man held his hand up and a bunch of soldiers with bows lined up beside him, slinging arrows back from the quivers strapped on their back. “Fire!”
The sky rained with arrows, almost blocking the full moon in the starlit sky.
A Nefarian with a fish fin across their head ran beside them, looking over at the scared girl, he said with a smile, “As long as we get deep enough, we’ll be alrigh—” an arrow tore through his head and he fell dead.
Breathing heavily, Chik’ Weeda ran behind a thick tree, pausing for a moment as many Nefarian crippled to the floor from arrows smacking into them. After a moment, he took off.
“Fire at will!” the soldier shouted, and the arrow men hosted their bows higher, aiming further so the other forces could snatch those taking cover behind tree’s nearby.
The arrows rained over them, slamming into logs and tree’s beside Stella, but at last, they made it out of their range.
Further into the forest, beside a flowing creek, only a handful of Nefarian escaped.
Chik’ Weeda, kneeling down, placed Stella on the floor, where she proceeded to turn and look up at him.
“Damn them!” Thistle, a Nefarian with porcupine quills for hair shouted. Tears welled in his eyes as he fell to his knee’s crushing his fists into the earthy floor. “Why won’t they leave us alone!”
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Another Nefarian said, “They need us to mine the luminites and fight their wars, and all for some stupid jade tokens… No, they’ll never stop hunting us, not until were all in chains or dead.”
“Screw the Jade Wars! There all just a bunch of greedy humans honoring a pact made between dead men!” a Nefarian with the horn of a rhino said.
“Stella,” Chik’ Weeda said. “North of here, there’s a village known as Kalumi. Our Mother will guide you there safely.”
“Kalumi?” Stella said.
“Stay strong… little flower,” and Chik’ Weeda fell forward, revealing multiple arrows in his back.
“Weeda…” Placing her hands on his bloodied back, “Daddy!” she cried.
***
“Where’d she go?!” vanguard shouted, looking to their left and right.
“I never left morons,” Sheena stated, standing in between them all.
Suddenly, all their throats split open, splattering blood in all directions, except on her.
Two vanguard were watching from far away.
“No way I’m fighting the Scarlet Flicker, let’s go another way,” one said and the other nodded.
“You should have never come in the fist place,” Sheena said behind them before blinking away as their necks split open. She continued to blink furiously throughout the entirety of the kingdom. Many of the vanguard had no idea what was happening as their allies randomly fell to the ground with split necks and worms burst into tiny pieces.
Elsewhere, Lady Yui, Hanabi’s grandmother appeared down the streets wearing a purple kimono decorated with flowers designs. As she strolled peacefully down the street many vanguard surrounded her, snickering as they lifted their weapons to their side.
“Sorry lady, but today’s not your lucky day,” a vanguard spoke.
“Haven’t I seen her somewhere before?” another said, but then the ground started to shake and a worm broke through the concrete, swallowing a home entirely before landing heavily and crushing many vanguard in the distance.
It slowly turned its gaze toward the them before quickly barreling their way!
“R-RUN!” the vanguard shouted.
“Dodo, Auk,” Lady Yui said, gracing her chest with the tips of her polished fingernails. Her core began to glow, and soon the ground ripped in a front line before her, directly at the worm.
Bursting from the ground, two purple birds. They twisted around one another before speedily zipping at an angle of the large worm, and in the blink of an eye they swiveled many times over as they passed the bug.
The worm kept tunneling until all of sudden, its body split into multiple chunks right before Lady Yui.
“Come Dodo, Auk,” she said as the birds landed gently on each of her shoulders. “We’ve got work to do.”
As the door to the room where the med-pods were located, a soldier emerged, though he faced towards the door stuttering backwards; there was a long-rounded needle, like the quill of a porcupine stabbed through his armor. Crippling to the floor, Thistle appeared. Behind him soldiers were struggling to fight off a wave of vanguard, but they were being slowly overwhelmed. Calmly walking down one of many aisles, the door slid shut behind him.
“Please don’t hurt them!” a nurse in a long white coat shouted, but Thistle removed one of the quills from his head, tossing it and piercing through her heart, and she fell dead.
There were countless humans within the pods, all in a deep slumber.
He snickered, placing his elbow on one of the pods that an elderly woman was in. “You know, I quite like this little pandemic; it’s all the better that it only affects humans.” He ripped another of the quills out. As he moved forward the quill carved into the glass of the elderly woman’s pod until flicking off the edge. “I don’t understand why Fury developed these contraptions to help you lot. If anyone has a reason to hate humans, it’s him.” Stopping by another pod, he casually lifted the long-pointed hair, easing it through the oval glass barrier. “Better hurry, you’re running out of time,” he said as the needle neared their chest. “Oh oh,” the needle slowly began to pierce into their heart and the heart monitor started to pick up, beeping more frantically as the needle dug deeper into the person within it until a single unbroken tone echoed throughout the facility. “Tsk tsk, too bad.” He looked around with a mischievous grin and began to recite, “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” tossing a quill from the distance which stabbed into and killed another person. Continuing his stroll through the facility, “Catch a human by the toe. If they holler, let them go.” He stopped, looking down at a pod with a young girl in it; Takara… Snapping another quill out of his head, he lifted his arm over her pod, inching down with each word. “Eeny, meeny, miny,” it hovered over her chest. “Moe!” a slab of honey smacked quill where it was sliding through, hardening and preventing him from forcing it down any further. “What?!” Gazing to his left, Chloe was standing in the distance, hand outstretched with honey secreting from her palms.
“Leave her alone!” she shouted.
“Hm, what have we here? An apprentice…” Thistle said, stepping back from the pod and snapping another quill from his head.
She glanced around, “I’ve sealed all the doors to the med-pods… this should be the last one.” Noticing the woman on the floor, and the two dead in the pods, she muttered, “I couldn’t make it in time…”
“I’m glad you came, I could really use a promotion!” he said, tossing the quill at her.
Swinging her in hand in front of her, honey hardened as the quill smashed into the thin barrier, shattering it. Quickly ducking, she crept around the facility.
“What’s wrong apprentice, I thought you were training to be an elite. Why’re you running?”
“I’m not running! I’m repositioning,” she shouted as she stood up and ran towards the door Thistle entered. Multiple quills stabbed into the wall behind her, meanwhile she held her hand on the wall and honey smeared across it the entire length she ran. Jumping forward, she rolled across the floor while layering a line of honey in front of the door that opened from her appearing in front of it. With all the soldiers dead, the vanguard raced toward the door with looks of wicked pleasure on their faces. “Sweet Barrier!” The line of honey in front of the door, thickened and expanded upward, creating a very thick wall, blocking the vanguard from being able to enter.
“Hey, what gives?!” one said, swinging his curved blade at the sticky hardened wall, but it barely even chipped.
The vanguard complained, slamming away at the door to no avail.
As Chloe swiftly turned a quill punctured straight through her shoulder, causing her intense pain.
“Nice little trick you got there, but the fights right here!” Thistle said, swinging his quill like a blade, but Chloe stepped back; however, in doing so he cut through the glass casing of another pod, but it didn’t harm the person in it.
She avoided each swing while also trying to position herself so none of the med pods were sliced up. “I’ve got to get somewhere safe, somewhere he won’t hurt these people,” she said, quickly making a streak of honey with the swing of her arm which Thistle’s quill crushed. He continued to crush the small barriers she was able to throw up. Flinging honey form her hand, it slapped onto the eyes of Thistle.
“Dammit!” he shouted, scratching away at the honey which had hardened over his eyes.
She ran past Thistle, ducking under his blind-sided swing, hoping once he freed himself, he would follow her down the hallway, away from everyone.
Sniffing the air, Thistle smiled, and one legacy appeared on his back. “Got ya!” from his hair, all the spiked grew slightly longer and thicker, bursting out of his head in a direct line towards Chloe.
Sensing the building flux Chloe turned around, swiftly swiping through the air above her head, as a honey wall shot toward the floor, quickly thickening. The thorn’s crushed into the wall of honey and eventually broke through, smashing heavily into the wall behind. When the honey wall crumbled, Chloe was bleeding, and her clothing had multiple tears in it. “It wasn’t thick enough.” Luckily, she had been standing directly down an aisle, so no one got hit.
“You forgot, we Nefarian don’t need our eyes to located you filthy humans,” Thistle said as quills regrew on top of his head.
From behind, where the vanguard struggled to chip away at the honey wall, a large muscular Nefarian with a rhino’s horn approached. Behind him was a large hammer he dragged until stopping at the wall. “Let me,” he said, and the vanguard nodded, taking a step back. With a heavy swing of the hammer, the honey wall cracked severely.
Chloe’s eyes opened, “No.”
“Hm, seems like they’ll be joining the party soon enough. But I’m not one for sharing, so I think I’ll take the lot of you while I have the chance!” A second legacy glowed on Thistle’s back and his body slowly became blanketed in quills along his head.
Chloe furrowed her brows… “What’s he planning?”
Before his face was fully covered, he said, ‘I’m going to tear through every last one of you, just like you humans tore apart my village!” His body fully enveloped, he started to expand like a ballon ready to burst.
Fearing the worst, Chloe jumped behind a pod, slapping her hands on the ground just as he exploded.
As he deflated and his hair returned to normal, Thistle noticed everything was covered in hardened honey.
Standing, Chloe wiped the honey dripping from her forehead, “My honey root is a defensive root... If I touch it, I can create honey around it or expand it. Including the palm of my hands,” she said. “During your attempts to hit me, I made sure to touch every pod here.”
“You were leading me where you wanted me the entire time,” he said.
“Like a shepherd to sheep,” she said, sticking her tongue out.
“Hm, I think you forgot. I’ve still got plenty of quills,” and he reached for his hair, but when grabbing them, they wouldn’t yank out like usual. “What gives?!” he said, trying his hardest to yank them out, when a drop of honey from above slapped his head. Looking up he noticed the ceiling dripping with honey.
“Back when I swiped the walls, I made sure to expand that honey to the top. There’s no way you’re pulling it out any time soon,” Chloe said.
“I don’t need them to kill you!” he said rushing at her.
“Honey Prison!” she said, and the honey up top gathered into one spot before drooping down as a giant glob that slapped over Thistle, encasing his entire body and hardening around him. “
“Sweet dreams porky,” he said, licking the honey off her finger. They honey behind her erupted outward, scattering into tiny bits along the floor. “Not good,” she said, but to her surprise, every vanguard was on the floor.
Standing at the entrance was Rai.
“Chloe?” he said.
“Rai!” she said with a sigh of relief.
Noticing the quill in Takara’s pod he rushed over. Glancing in with a look of fear, he noticed the quill hadn’t pierced her. Gripping the quill, as Chloe undid the hardening effects, he slipped it out, tossing it aside. “Taka… I’m so glad you’re okay. Gazing around at all the pods protected by a hardened honey which many quills were stabbed into, he said, “Was this your doing?”
“That’s right,” she said, slapping her hand on the cocoon of honey Thistle was stuck in.
“Thank you, Chloe,” Rai said, but then the building shook.
“What was that?” Chloe said.
After taking one last look at Takara, he rushed over to Chloe, “Will you stay here and make sure no one gets into the facility?”
“Of course,” Chloe said with a smile.
“Thanks,” Rai said, and he darted for the exit. “I owe you big time!” Turning his gaze with a snickering smile, he said, “I’ll make sure to tell Tanabe about this!”
“T-Tanabe,” Chloe said, immediately blushing.
Outside, Rai many soldiers stood together, all gazing down a main street that led to a very expansive park within the kingdom.
There was a someone sitting on a stone bench next to a pond feeding bread to the fishes within it.
“What’s wrong?” Rai asked.
“That’s Weevil…” one soldier responded. “She’s been traversing through her rooms, making it hard to pinpoint her location till now.”
“Weevil?!” The one responsible for all these crazy worms everywhere…
She wore a thin yellow jacket, a loose white shirt and red book reading glasses. She was slightly hunched over and had very short hair, dressing somewhat more like a man than a female.
Rai rushed to where she was.
“Where you going?!” a soldier said.
“She’s of the first battalion, shouldn’t you wait for the elites?” another shouted.
“Forget the elites, Weevil’s right there! Keep the soldiers in line and make sure no one gets through,” Rai said, clenching his fists with anger flashing in his eyes. “Time to wrap up this worm fiesta and send Weevil packing.”
Meanwhile, in the southern district of the empire, Han was standing in an open grassland outside of the inner gates. There was countless vanguard pinned to the floor using the effects of his gravity root.
“I-I can’t move…” they said.
“Shut it,” Han said, and they were pushed into the earth further. However, Han’s gaze wasn’t on them, rather on a man standing before him.
“Boss…” a Nefarian muttered.
“What business does the Reaper have in the Illuminous Empire?”
“Han, ranked sixth of the Illuminous Elite. It’s an honor, he said with a slight bow.”
“What would you know of honor. Your forces have slaughtered countless of innocent civilians.”
“If it’s revenge you want, then take it,” the Reapers said, holding his arm out, gesturing to the large number of soldiers pinned by Han’s gravity.
“Wha—?! But… boss…” one soldier muttered.
Han didn’t say a word.
“If you won’t, then let me,” he said, and the bodies ripped and erupted in splatters of blood all at the same time. The man known as the Reaper hadn’t even lifted a finger. “There, have I satisfied your anger?”
“Hardly,” Han said, and rocks started to rise around the elite, and cracks of purple started to form on the ground. The ground started to shake and a giant worm, much bigger than even the home consuming ones, burst through the ground encircling the two. “This bug won’t be able to stop me,” Han said, but then suddenly it too split open without notice. As it did, thousands of citizens from within the empire appeared out of the belly of the creature.
“What will you do now? Engage me and put the very people you aim to protect at risk, or let me, the empires most wanted criminal, go?”
Gritting his teeth, “You planned this all along…” He gazed around at the many frightened people.
“It’s a funny thing, choosing between morals,” the Reaper said. “Killing me now might save countless lives compared to those who would perish if you chose to stop me, and yet you won’t. How does one measure one life against another? Who has the right to do so?” he said, turning around. “Is it those with power, or perhaps those who don a crown atop their heads?”
“The emperor’s decisions are the most absolute, that is the law,” Han said.
“And that is why one day, I will bring it all crashing down,” the Reaper said as another worm burst through the ground, snatching him in its mouth as it took him away from Han, deep beneath the earth.
Back in the Kingdom of Aurahelm, within the expansive park…
“Hey four eyes!” Rai shouted, standing before Weevil.
Turning, “Who might you be?” Weevil said.
“My names Rai, the future number one Illuminous elite.”
“Rai? Ah, yes. You’re the young boy from the finals of the placement exam,” Weevil said yawning, placing her hand to her mouth. Turning aside, she tossed more bread at the fish who scurried over, gulping it in. “I don’t really feel like playing with children today, run along.” Using the outward of her hand, she brushed him away.
“I don’t think you heard me the first time,” Rai said, his arms outstretched with fingers intertwined. “So let me make it crystal clear. I’m here to kick your ass.”