Chapter 5

All nations must remain at peace and may not wage war with another for any reason. If any nation is to be intruded upon, all other nations must unite and eliminate the threat with merciless force. Any form of slavery also must not be tolerated. If any evidence of slavery becomes apparent each and every individual responsible will be tortured and executed.

-Excerpt from the Atomo Accords

After another night of pitiful sleep in the wilderness, Koden and Nivra resumed their trek. By this time the sun had risen a good distance above the horizon. As they strayed away from the center of the forest, the giant trees grew farther apart from each other. “You would think almost two weeks of traveling would get us farther than this,” Koden said.

“Well we should only have a few more days until we're out of this damned forest,” Nivra replied.

“Yeah that's if we don't run into another village that needs our help,” Koden said.

“Now, now, we made out like bandits. Those pelts are worth a fortune,” Nivra reminded.

“Yeah, they aren't cheap,” Koden agreeing said.

After a few hours of hiking, Nivra noticed that there were no more birds and that the forest became eerily quiet. Nivra held his hand out in front of Koden to stop him. “Did you notice it got way too quiet?”

“Yeah, something bad is around,” Koden responded.

They cautiously continued to move forward through the forest, scanning the area more thoroughly than usual. Moments later they began hearing a faint buzzing noise in the distance. Curiously they continued as the sound grew louder. They came closer, the sound became deeper and louder. They approached a forest clearing and saw in the distance a series of nests that appeared to belong to wasps, sprawled out over dozens of giant trees. Upon further analyzation, the brothers noticed insects that were entirely black with the exception of red striping that was wrapped around the bulb on their lower body. They could tell that the wasps were colossal, being much larger than the average human. “Those are Emperor Wasps aren't they?” Koden asked quietly.

“Yeah they are, we should move back and go around, so we don't piss them off,” Nivra suggested.

“Yeah, you're right,” Koden admitted as he started walking away from the nest carefully.

Although it took longer than anticipated because of the nest, hours later they reached the edge of Coldcrown Forest. The trees were noticeably smaller and more average. “By the looks of it, I'd say we only have about twenty more miles to go,” Nivra said.

“Well, in that case, we should be home tomorrow,” Koden replied.

They continued walking as the sun began falling into the western part of the sky. Koden and Nivra’s clothes were dusty and ragged. Their hair was unkempt and messy. After months of travel, stubble began growing on their face. Once their trial comes to an end, they will be allowed to continue growing their beards.

Suddenly the brothers heard what seemed to be an arrow being released from a bow. Following the sound came a light whistle but only for an imperceivable moment. The arrow violently struck Koden in the back, piercing the bag he was wearing, knocking him to the ground. Nivra instantly dove to the side narrowly avoiding an arrow. Following a roll he stood up and retrieved his bow from his back, quickly he nocked an arrow back and scanned the area. Using his soul tapping, Nivra sent out an invisible pulse of nimora energy searching for other souls nearby. He sensed a human soul up in a tree close by and quickly aimed for it. Without hesitation he released the arrow at his target, sending it flying through the air. The arrow hit dead on, followed by a man falling from the tree with a painful grunt.

By that time Koden had gotten up and returned fire with his bow at a human he sensed, killing them on impact, “Son of a bitch!”

The hidden assailants returned fire, only to miss the brothers. Through further examination, Nivra only saw two other people. One was taking cover behind a tree, and the other was hidden in the dense brush. Taking the path of least resistance, Nivra swiftly nocked another arrow back and aimed for the one in the bushes. Nivra released the arrow, quickly sending it through the man's skull. He let out a blood-curdling yelp that was cut short by his death.

The remaining assailant became panicked when he discovered that he was the only one left. He knew he couldn't take on the brothers by himself, so he quickly turned around to escape, his longer black hair whipped the direction he turned.. As he turned around his brown eyes widened and fear consumed his body as he saw Koden inches away from him. Before the man could act Koden roughly grabbed his right arm, he twisted it sending the man to the ground in crippling pain. “One wrong move and your arm is gone,” Koden snarled in fury.

Nivra approached with a grin “Unfortunately for you you're the unlucky one, it would have been a lot easier for you if you would've just died.”

“Tie this cuck up before I make him scratch the back of his head,” Koden said to Nivra.

“Well go ahead, it'll give him something to do while I find the rope in my bag,” Nivra replied as began slowly looking through his bag.

Koden eagerly grinned as he torqued his arm upward, the man screamed in pain as tears ran down his face. “Oh don't cry now, you and your boys are the ones that got yourselves into this when one of you fuckers shot me. Was it you? Huh? Did you shoot me you little shit?” Koden said increasingly getting louder as he torqued further.

“No!” the man barely squeezed out through the pain.

“Alright give him here,” Nivra said holding some rope.

Koden violently lifted the man up and shoved him over to Nivra. Grabbing the man Nivra tied his hands together by the wrists. “Ah, the ropes too tight! It hurts!” he whimpered.

“Oh ok, well, we can just cut off your hands then,” Nivra calmly said.

“No! No, it’s fine,” the man frantically said.

“No. No. No. You’re right, the ropes are too tight. You wanted this,” Nivra said fetching a knife from his bag.

Nivra began walking back to the man ready to sever his hands. “No! Please don't!” the man said crying, he began shaking as urine started to trickle down his legs.

Koden broke out in laughter as he watched the man break down in fear. “Alright then shut your mouth and sit down,” Nivra said as he stabbed the knife into the man's right thigh.

The man fell to the ground with yet another scream. “I'm going to go steal from his dead friends,” Koden said walking away.

“Look at me,” Nivra sternly demanded.

The man pathetically looked up at Nivra. “What’s your name?” Nivra asked.

“Muta,” Muta replied.

Suddenly Nivra smacked Muta across the face immediately after he responded. “That was a trick question, I don't give a shit about your name. Now, what made you think that it was a good idea to attack us?” Nivra said.

“I was just following my orders,” Muta said.

“Really? You’re not the leader? I couldn’t tell with your narrow shoulders and your child-bearing hips, normally those are features for a great leader,” Nivra said in a condescending tone. “Tell me what your orders were.”

“Our orders were to rob any traveling merchants in the area,” Muta answered.

“Do we look like merchants to you?” Nivra asked raising an eyebrow.

“We thought you were fur traders when we saw the pelts you were carrying,” Muta said.

“Wow, you guys make really bad judgment calls,” Nivra remarked.

Muta looked down in shame as he knew it was a bad idea to attack Koden and Nivra. “Who gave you the orders?” Nivra inquired.

“I’m not sure,” Muta replied.

By the expression and demeanor, Muta was displaying as he answered the question Nivra became suspicious of him lying. He stepped towards Muta and aggressively grabbed the hair on the top of his head. Muta grunted in pain as Nivra pulled the hair tight. With Nivra’s other hand he grabbed the bridge of Muta’s nose and roughly jerked it to the side. His nose cracked loudly as blood started gushing from his nostrils. Muta let out a piercing squeal of pain followed by more tears. Still, with a handful of Muta’s hair, Nivra leaned down to get closer to him. “You think you can lie to me girly haired cuck?” Nivra said grinding his teeth.

“No! I’m so sorry!” Muta painfully said.

“What kind of man has hair like that? You look like a woman,” Nivra said with a tough jerk on Muta’s hair. “Now if you lie to me again, I’ll cut off your little friend, and then you’ll be a real woman, you understand me?”

“Yes, sir!” Muta screamed in fear.

“Now tell me, who gave you those orders?” Nivra repeated.

“It was the big boss, he told us to do this,” Muta said calming down.

“Big boss? Who’s that?” Nivra asked.

“We don’t know his name, but he’s the leader of our group,” Muta answered.

“Well do you know the name of your group? Or do you know it as “Big Group”?” Nivra questioned.

“We’re known as the Messengers of Death,” Muta said.

Nivra burst out in laughter as heard the ironic name. “More like Recipients of Death, where is this big boss at?”

Koden had returned from looting the bodies, he had several bags containing valuable items. He walked over to his respective bag that he laid next to a tree nearby and started sorting through the items. Upon rooting through his bag he pulled out the wooden Nabi statue that Rato had given him previously. Stabbed into the statue was the arrow that struck Koden earlier. “These bastards ruined my Nabi statue, I was going to sell it,” Koden complained.

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“Did you get anything good?” Nivra asked his brother.

“Eh, it’s alright. Nothing too crazy these guys are pretty broke,” Koden remarked.

“Big boss takes all of our valuables,” Muta added.

Koden looked passed Nivra and glared at Muta with a disgusted look. “Nivra, did you tell him to talk?” Koden asked.

“No, I didn’t,” Nivra answered.

Koden walked towards Muta aggressively. “You would think my brother breaking your nose would teach you better!” Koden yelled as he grabbed Muta’s crooked nose and twisted it the other way. “You don’t talk unless told to you subhuman piece of garbage.”

Muta screamed in agony, more blood spilled out of his nose as the twisting continued. Eventually, Koden released his grip and stepped back to Nivra, “What kind of stupid name is big boss?”

“You think that’s stupid, they named their group the “Messengers of Death,” Nivra remarked.

Koden chuckled as he bowed his head, “This is unbelievable.”

“Back to my question, where is your big boss?” Nivra asked.

“Right now they’re stationed in an abandoned temple to the south,” Muta explained.

“Alright, let’s go check it out,” Koden said grabbing Muta by the arm.

“Wait, you’re not letting me go?” Muta questioned.

“What do I look like an idiot? I’ve been lied to before,” Koden said.

“We’ll set you free as soon as we find the place,” Nivra reassured Muta.

The brothers gathered their belongings and placed them into their bags. They began walking south while escorting Muta. “So, how far south are we walking?” Nivra asked.

“It’s about an hour out,” Muta answered.

“Perfect, it’ll be nightfall by then,” Koden said.

They carried on in silence for the remainder of their journey until they arrived at their destination. Off in the distance stood a decrepit Solonox temple draped in vines. The building consisted of large gray bricks that were slowly crumbling away. Two men guarded the temple wearing brown leather armor. They were equipped with sabers and bows that were of much higher quality than your average bandit. “This was probably from when Solonox tried to convert the people of the Atomo Clan,” Nivra said.

“Yeah, must be,” Koden replied.

“Where are you guys getting this kind of equipment from?” Nivra said lurking behind a bush.

“I’m not sure, Big Boss gets it all for us,” Muta said.

“Well aren't you just useless,” Nivra responded.

“So you think these are the right guys?” Koden said to his brother.

“Yeah, their equipment matches,” Nivra said.

“Well cuck, it was fun while it lasted,” Koden said to Muta.

A wave of relief flooded through Muta as he was desperate to be released. A smile involuntarily formed on his beaten face. Koden reached over to Muta, he thought he was mere seconds away from being a free man. Muta grew concerned as Koden’s hand moved towards his face, and not towards his restraints. Koden then started forming a Shredder-star that was mere inches away from Muta’s head. Muta then understood that Koden was just going to kill him. “Wait I thought you were going to release me?” Muta asked with wide eyes.

“I am, from your mortal coil,” Koden said.

Muta knew he was going to die, but before he did he wanted to alert his comrades that there were intruders. Muta took a deep breath in hopes of screaming, blowing Koden and Nivra’s cover. Koden saw Muta inhale, knowing what he was about to do he punched his Shredder-star through Muta’s head. The layers of gravity exploded outward, shredding his head and upper torso into a bloody mist. The lower part of Muta’s body became limp and fell to the ground as the remaining organs spilled out along with a copious amount of blood.

___________

Inside the temple, a burly man sat at a table. His black beard covered his scar-covered face. More scars crossed his arms showing his many past battles. Standing before him were three of his subordinates waiting for what he has to say. “Where are the four that we sent out?” he asked his men.

“We aren’t sure about their current location, but their last known position was about an hour north,” the man in the middle said.

“We have a lot riding on this, there’s no room for error,” the man said as he looked out the window. “We can make a fortune off of this deal, we all would be set for life.”

The men remained silent, waiting for his next order. The man got up from his desk and proceeded to walk around it. His chainmail sleeves shimmered from the light streaming through the window. “If they mess this up they’re dead,” he said.

“I’m sure they will do you well Big Boss,” the left man reassured.

Abruptly another one of their men burst through the door, “Something has happened to the guards!”

“What did they get attacked?” Big Boss said walking towards the door followed by his subordinates.

“Sir I don’t think you understand,” the man said with a gulp. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

The men walked out the front of the temple and froze in horror, their face grew pale. “By the laws!” one of Big Bosses subordinates said before bending over to the side and vomiting on the ground because of what he saw.

Before them laid a severely mangled corpse, its arms and legs were bent in many wrong directions with practically every bone in his body being broken. Oddly enough there was no blood or lacerations except for his eye sockets, which had no eyes. They were just gaping holes that were pouring out blood. His face was twisted and had an expression of great agony indicating that his death wasn’t quick and was painful

Next to the mangled corpse is what seemed to be the other guard frozen in ice. He had a very fearful expression as if he watched the other guard get mangled before he got frozen. Big Boss took a step towards the frozen guard to analyze further. The second he got close to the man the frozen guard jolted out of the ice towards him, grabbing Big Boss by his collar. “Help me! Please help me! Get me away from them! I'm dying!” the once frozen man said.

Big Boss in shock took a step back to get distance from the hysterical man. As he moved back the hands of the man that was holding on to his collar broke off. The guard screamed in pain causing his jaw to begin crumbling. The man began panicking more as chunks of flesh fell from his body. “Run! They’re here! They’re watching you!” the man screamed as the rest of his body crumbled to pieces.

Big Boss and his men watched in horror, one of the bandits raised their head and looked ahead. Dropping his jaw further he tapped Big Boss on the shoulder and pointed towards what he saw. Big Boss looked over to the site to see the lower half of a body nailed to a tree. One of the men recognized the corpse by the belt buckle that was around its waist. “Is that Muta?”

Above the corpse was a symbol that made everyone quiver in fear. It was a vertical line with two smaller curved lines arcing to the right, and two smaller curved lines arcing to the left at the bottom of the vertical line all drawn in blood. “The Atomo,” Big Boss whispered.

Big Boss quickly turned to his men, “We have to leave now.”

“What about the loot?” a man asked.

“You can’t use loot if you're dead,” Big Boss said.

“Should we take the carriage?” another man asked looking over at the artifact carriage next to the temple.

“No, it only makes us a bigger target. Let’s go,” Big Boss said walking towards the woods.

His men looked at each other before following suite. “He said that they were watching us, so we all have to be aware of our surroundings,” Big Boss said to his men.

All five men began to cautiously walk through the woods at a steady pace. They were all deeply concerned about their well being, they were even further concerned about how Big Boss was reacting to it. Normally he is unshakably brave and is known to hold his ground even in the most hectic situations. Big Boss was obviously in a great amount of fear, causing his subordinates to sink even deeper into panic. “Big Boss, why are you acting so worried?” one of Big Bosse’s four men asked.

“Don’t you guys understand how terrifying the Atomo Clan is?” Big Boss snarled.

“Don't they just talk big?” another one of his men said.

“Do you really think the stories and sayings you hear are just legends? No, they say the stories because it actually happened,” Big Boss replied followed by a brief moment of silence. “If I knew the group I sent to the North would have pissed off some Atomos I would have killed them myself.”

After a few minutes of walking a thin mist started to form around the men's ankles. At first, they didn't find it alarming until it got denser. The mist rapidly turned into a thick layer of fog, making it extremely difficult to see. The group stopped, the fog was so intense that they couldn’t see their comrades standing mere feet away from them. Big Boss was aware of how dangerous their situation was, and he knew they only had seconds to get out of the fog before whatever was watching them attacks. “Get out of the fog now!” Big Boss yelled.

Immediately after Big Boss finished his sentence one of his men let out a blood-curdling scream. Adrenaline surged through their bodies as they all darted forward to free themselves from the fog. They cleared the storm of mist and turned around only to see a perfectly clear forest. There was absolutely no trace of the fog that plagued them as if it had never even existed in the first place.

“Where did all that fog go?” one of the men asked.

Before anyone could answer another one of the men interjected “Oh my,” he said pointing to a tree.

The rest of the group looked at what he was pointing to and saw the missing man impaled to a tree using a glistening ice spike through his chest. His limbless body twitched profusely as the nerves slowly died. A profuse amount of blood was soaking into the tree and the victim's clothes. All of the men looked in fear as they saw the gruesome sight. One of the men began violently shaking due to overwhelming fear. “I got to get out of here, I didn’t sign up for this!” the man snapped.

He turned around and began frantically running away from his people. He ran passed a tall dense collection of brush. As soon as he arrived at the shrubbery, Layna abruptly pounced at the fleeing man and easily pinned him to the ground. Layna quickly sunk her teeth into his back and began violently whipping him back and forth, causing loud cracking noises due to virtually all of the bones in his body breaking. He let out a very brief scream before he died from extreme trauma. Layna dropped the corpse and powerfully flew into the air, quickly becoming out of sight. “By the laws!” one of the men exclaimed in horror.

Big Boss knew at this time that the remaining two men were going to be no help in getting out of this. They weren’t worth his effort to protect them, and without them, he could get away quicker because of him being a far more capable tapper than his subordinates. Without warning, Big Boss darted away from the men. “Where are you going?” one of the men yelled trying to follow him.

“He’s abandoning us!” the other man said.

Big Boss got quite a distance away from the area he once was at. He grew exhausted, his Nimora depleted. He started moving at a walking pace and looked around to find he was alone. In the short distance, he heard the roar from Layna followed by another terrified scream. Uncomfortably close to him he heard a hissing noise, he quickly looked to the area it was coming from but could see any creatures that were making the noise. His breathing grew heavier, and his heart beat increased, he knew he was clear of the danger. “Come out and fight me like a man!” Big Boss yelled with a cracking voice.

Another painful echoed throughout the forest in the distance. He knew that he was the only one left. The hissing got louder, but again he couldn't indicate where or what it was coming from. Using his fear of dying he mustered up enough energy to start running farther away. Before Big Boss could get any farther Sura lunged out of a tree and wrapped around his lower half, making him fall to the ground. Layna dived down from the sky and latched onto Big Boss’s upper half. The two familiars began playfully tugging onto his body until he ripped in two. Upon his death, they dropped him to the ground and looked down at him. Walking out behind trees nearby Nivra and Koden approached their familiars. “Great job guys,” Nivra said.

“That was perfect,” Koden said.

“Yeah, it has been awhile since our last bandit hunt,” Nivra said.

Their familiars faded away as their job was complete. “Well, let's go check our spoils,” Koden said grabbing the head of Big Boss by his hair.

Koden unsheathed his sword, and with a great downward swing, he severed the head from the torso. Nivra watched as he held a bag full of all of the other bandit's heads. Nivra held the bloody bag open as Koden tossed Big Bosses head in. The brothers walked back to the temple and began searching the building, taking anything that they might find valuable. They took their newly found loot at loaded it onto the artifact carriage that was parked beside the temple. Koden emptied the bag of heads onto the ground and began stranding them together with a thick rope that they found inside the temple. After minutes of weaving the heads together into a bundle, Koden held it out in front of him to see how it looks. “This should make a statement once we get back to the city,” Koden said swinging the bundle back and forth.

“Yeah, you should hang it on the back of the carriage,” Nivra suggested.

Koden smiled as he walked over to the carriage and tied the bundle to the top of the cabin to the rear of the machine. Nivra picked the bag that was used to hold the heads and used the blood soaked into the fabric to smear the Atomo symbol onto the left side of the carriage. After loading the rest of the loot into the cart Koden and Nivra got into the cabin and sat down on the front bench where the controls were. Nivra grabbed onto a short lever below the front windows and pulled it down. The clicked down and actuated the nimora generator on the underside of the carriage. The generator began lightly humming as it pulled nimora from the air to be used for the next command. “Take us to the Atomo Clan capital,” Nivra ordered.

Seconds later a green light appeared next to the lever Nivra pulled indicating that the location was valid. Upon seeing the light, Nivra grabbed onto a second lever and pushed it upward, accelerating the cart forward. The farther up Nivra pushed the lever, the faster the carriage went. The carriage maneuvered its way through the forest until it found a path and began its trek to the Atomo Clan. “Let’s get home,” Koden said.