Looking at one of the corpses, I noticed the merchant from earlier. Horror and anger finally came to me.

"Razul Menderes... I will avenge these people and my homeland!" I shouted into the crowd, snubbed and full of hate.

The people then stared at me in confusion and saw the Merthyl crystal hanging from my chest. Immediately, the crowd realized that it was me who was wanted.

"You're a complete idiot!" retorted Onaki mockingly, grabbing my hand to flee. We ran down the narrow path of the side alley from earlier and hid in one of the dumpsters. '"Look for him, we have to hand him over to Mr. Menderes. Otherwise this madness will never stop!" people shouted with fear and desperation in their voices.

Full of shame, I covered my face. I should have known that they would be looking for someone like me. No wonder they would hunt us. "Listen, we need to hide our two crystals. Please give me your necklace. I'll stow it in my bag along with my ring," Onaki replied with a sigh, alerting me that I also had to cover my face from now on. That made perfect sense. After all, if the crowds saw me, they would only recognize me.

The shouting suddenly stopped. Everyone looking for me gathered at a stage not far from Onaki and me. The location was quite large and had a curtain that covered something. I saw a strange figure on the stage. "Hello ladies and gentlemen, I am the deputy of the high council. There is a little thing I would like to share with you!" he called out to the crowd in an extremely sinister voice. Shortly after, he had the curtain opened for all of us, and a huge monitor could be seen, which the deputy turned on seconds later.

"This is not going to happen...", I whispered, already suspecting what was about to happen. A transmission, they were going to announce an execution. And when I took a closer look, my saliva got stuck in my mouth. Onaki immediately recognized that something was wrong with me. There were ten people on the monitor, including my brother Kishimoto Kakumo.

The fear that he was trapped and still alive was confirmed to me. In front of him was someone who was probably also from the high council. But it was not Razul who stood before him. This being turned to us, in the direction of the camera, and grinned demonically.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Aramoto Kakumo... your brother and these nine other humans will die an agonizing death if you do not appear in the land of demons within ten days. Every day that passes will cost you a human life!" he shouted, laughing, and stood in front of my brother, who was attached to a pole and slit one of his eyes with his witch nails.

Full of pain, my brother screamed, "Don't come!-" Before he could finish his sentence, the transmission cut off. I could not put my anger into words and hit the ground hard. They had angered me. "They know about me, and they know how to make me angry, I'm going-" , I countered Onaki and was interrupted with a slap in the middle of my sentence.

"You know very well that this won't do any good now. You'll only plunge to your death if you go there!" she said sympathetically and left the dumpster. She was probably right, I thought to myself.

What was the name of that place? Inazuma Forest? This place was in the south, as Onaki told me just before the incident with the two dismembered people. However, I still couldn't get one thing out of my mind. How were they able to know about the bond between my brother and me? "We have to go now Aramoto, every minute counts," she replied to me with a solemn tone, realizing that I was just lost in thought again.

She was right. These vile creatures would already kill the next person in a few hours. However, the fact that it could be my brother did not worry me too much. After all, he was leverage to lure me here. I also left the dumpster, and together we left the side alley. We hid our faces from the crowd gathered around this monitor and the deputy. I heard everyone just talking about me and how cowardly I could be to not show my face.

"My father is trapped there! Show yourself Aramoto Kakumo!" a girl cried crying and mourning. I could see the deputy of the high council staring in our direction. However, he probably couldn't make out who we were, so his gaze turned away from us again.

"Please don't be provoked, I understand you very well Aromoto. That's precisely why we need to move on now and get to Inazuma Forest," she replied before I could get impulsive and dragged me out of town, back into the desert. Leaving Altravessa, I couldn't stop thinking about the two victims Razul murdered with cruelty.

I also felt sorry for the people whose family was now being abused as hostages. However, I knew that they would not kill my brother so quickly because he had information about me, and I was sure that he would keep silent.