Chapter 01- The Thief Of The Red Moon (Part 1)
That day, the weather was exceptionally cold for some reason, the season was summer so having a cold day at that time of the year was unheard of. The gushes of wind that danced silently carried around whatever was unfortunate enough to get caught in it. A storm was upcoming.
In a small boat moving across the sea in a fast manner, three people could be seen inside. The loud sound of the engine killed whatever calm atmosphere the sea had. However, the people that were riding the boat didn't care about that noise.
"Mink, are you sure what you said is right?" A woman could be seen sitting across a huge man with her legs crossed in front of her.
Anyone who took a glance could only gasp in admiration at the woman's breathtaking beauty and her cold expression that could freeze any person with one look. Her distinct white hair and her violet eyes made her very eye-catching.
The man on the other side was busy trying to light his cigarette because of the strong air that was slapping his face. His face had an angry frown and his feet were tapping impatiently on the ground.
Luckily, after much trial and failure, he was able to make it work and breathe in some smoke. After that, he looked at the woman and replied.
"If they are wrong, I will just cut their limbs off and feed them to my dogs. But, I don't think they are lying." His casual tone when mentioning such a gory description made it even more spine-chilling.
The woman scoffed and shifted her gaze to the vast sea around her.
"Who thought our clue could be in the hands of a fucking filthy prisoner from the notorious 'blue oblivion'?"
"From what I hear this bastard was a fucking one of a kind."
"One of a kind?"
The man named Mink took another blow from the cigarette before responding.
"A thief, thief. The fucker stole a shit ton of expensive artifacts and priceless pieces of art that are at least a couple of thousand years old from museums and international auction houses around the world. I heard the cumulative price of all of these things reach 900 billion dollars, Arielle."
He then pulled out a document filled with paper and opened it up.
"The bracelet of the fallen sovereign, 1450 years old, 450 million dollars. Philosopher king's tear, 2250 years old, 650 million dollars. The finger of Zeus, 3000 years old, 990 million dollars. The sword of Atlantis, 9000 years old, 2.3 billion fucking dollars. This motherfucker stole everything… The more amazing achievement was escaping each time unscathed."
Hearing that, the woman chuckled coldly as she changed her position.
"Why did I never hear of this person? Such feats are worthy of being historic."
"Fuck that. It was most likely because the governments didn't want to get mocked for losing these masterpieces. After catching him, they tried to erase his existence from the world. Hahahahah!! A bunch of stupid fuckers I tell you!!" Mink laughed loudly.
The woman then went silent and didn't say anything else as she had fallen into deep thought. The boat continued its journey and finally approached the destination.
The place they were going to was a small island in the middle of the sea, on top of this island was a huge fortress that could be seen from afar quite easily.
Its huge walls that basically rose from under the sea and the grey and depressing color of its exterior made it the least comfortable place to be at.
"Oi, geezer! Are we there yet?!" Mink spoke again as he threw the cigarette into the sea nonchalantly.
"Shut the fuck up and be quiet! Do you know how many people I had to call just for you two shitty bastards to get in there and meet him?" The old man driving the boat replied with an angry tone
"Come on, geezer. You got your fucking money so stop whining like a little bitch."
"Are you retarded?! This man you want to meet is one of the most dangerous people alive. You think it was easy to convince them to let him meet anyone? They don't even let him see the light of the day let alone talk to other humans."
A few moments later, the boat finally reached the island and stopped in front of the small dock at the northern shore of the island. It was the only 'legal' way to get inside this prison.
There, a group of heavily armed soldiers could be seen waiting for them to arrive. Each one of the soldiers was armored to the brim with high-tech and state-of-the-art military equipment that could blow a whole city into rubble if used correctly.
In front of this small army stood a man clad in a black suit with his hands behind his back as he gazed at them with his emotionless eyes.
Mink and Arielle left the boat and walked toward them. Their eyes assessed the group of armed forces secretly before looking at the man.
"Welcome to the blue oblivion maximum security prison. It's our honor to receive esteemed guests. My name is Damon, the supervisor here." His cold voice and emotionless tone made his respectful tone basically useless and devoid of any sincere feelings.
'So he's the one that runs this place.' Arielle and Mink thought secretly as they nodded their heads before answering.
"The name is Arielle. He is Mink."
"I heard of both of you and I must say that I'm a huge fan. Two treasure hunters of your caliber don't come here every day."
After that, he looked at his group of military forces and snapped his fingers. Instantly, Arielle and Mink were surrounded by the group and their weapons aimed at them. Having almost 30 men aim at you with heavy weapons was something that should make anyone cower from fear.
But, these two didn't even flinch at the sight and merely looked at Damon for an explanation.
"My deepest apologies, my men will have to inspect you for security measures. It won't take long."
Then, one of the men stepped up and pulled out a weird device that was shaped like a smartphone except bigger and bulkier. After that, he ran the device up and down in their direction.
"Good. You both are clean. Let's move now." Damon said.
After that, Damon led the group on the path toward the main part of the prison. On the way there, Arielle and Mink located at least 100 snipers, 40 tanks, and 500 guards that spread across the whole island on constant patrol 24/7. Not to mention the swarm of choppers roaming the skies on top of them.
'This place is not called the worst place in the whole world for no reason. It's as if there is some war going on.' Arielle thought to herself.
As for Mink, he had a grim look on his face. He disliked being surrounded by potential threats. It was his defensive mechanism.
After walking for a while, they reached the main gates. After passing another inspection from the guards, they are finally officially inside the prison.
"Keeping the most notorious criminals is really a tough mission so we must keep these strict rules to make it easier for us to deal with anything unwanted," Damon said.
"I must say this is impossible to penetrate or escape from," Mink said.
"Well, thank you for the compliment. We can't let them get out of here, can we?"
The group passed beside tens of cells on their way. The cells were made of thick metal doors with an only window that was also closed shut with fortified glass.
However, that didn't stop some curious inmates from peeking from their windows. Their faces were just pure horror, each one of them was nothing human at all.
Crazy, insane, inhuman… call it whatever you want but it was not normal at all. It was as if this prison turned them into mad beasts rather than humans.
"WOMAN!!!" One of them suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs as he started banging his head on the window with all of his power. The sheer force from each hit shook the whole place.
"COME CLOSER!! I WILL RIPP YOUR PUSSY OFF!!" He shouted with his bloodied face.
"Guards," Damon said calmly.
Then, a group of guards rushed to the cell and opened it up. What happened after that was just horrible to watch. They surrounded the man and started beating him up. It was by no means a humane punishment as they were using extremely heavy batons that are at least 200 pounds each.
The man's screams drowned the place and made it impossible to hear anything else.
"His type is very common here. Please, don't mind him."
"I don't care," Arielle replied coldly.
"He said he will rip your pussy off, Arielle. Hahahaha! So romantic! Why don't you giv-"
Before Mink could even finish his joke a punch was sent to his jaw that almost knocked him cold. The sheer power from the punch was more than enough to blow off someone's face but it was only enough for him to sway slightly.
"Say that again and I will pull your balls out of your mouth."
"So scary~~" Mink imitated a scared girl as he repositioned his jaw casually.
Finally, they left that area and were now going down the stairs toward a dark area of the prison.
"The prisoner you want to meet is kept at the lowest level of the prison. We can't let him get in contact with anything else or he will be able to escape easily. Even the most insignificant thing he could acquire would be more than enough to let him escape. That's why you will only have to talk with him for 3 minutes and then leave immediately."
As they reached the end of the stairs, there was a huge metal door similar to the one they saw before
On the two sides of the door were two guards that were standing stiffly like statues.
When they saw Damon, they bowed slightly before opening the door quickly. Behind that door was total darkness.
"You have 3 minutes inside and then I will come to fetch you out. Please, don't use any kind of flashlight or even think about using your abilities. I can't guarantee that we won't open fire immediately if you don't abide by these rules."
Arielle and Mink nodded their heads before walking inside. Behind them, the door closed immediately and they were left in total darkness.
"Fuck! This place is stupidly cold? Are we inside a cooler? It's freezing here." Mink shuddered.
"Shut up and let's go. His cell should be ahead."
The two then approached the cell where the man they wanted to meet was.
After reaching it, they looked at each other and nodded.
"Are you there? Axel Bancroft?" Arielle called for the person inside.
However, no one answered her call. The silence was absolute.
She approached the window and tried to look inside with her sharp vision. There, she could see a man sitting in the corner of the room. His legs were crossed and his head was lumped down as if he was dead.
"Oi! I'm talking to you!" She tapped the door a few times to wake him up.
As if her second call woke him up, the man flinched and looked up. The darkness made it hard for her to see his expression.
"So noisy. Who are you?" An annoyed voice responded from the other side.
Arielle expected to hear a deep and intimidating voice but instead what she heard was the voice of a young man. It was a beautiful voice that belonged to someone who was no older than 22 years of age or less.
"Have you ever heard of 'respecting people who are asleep'?"
"You are… Axel Bancroft?" She asked in disbelief.
"Hm… You came here from wherever, called me awake rudely just to ask me whether I'm Axel Bancroft or not? You guys are really something else."
"Huh? Is this some kind of sick joke? You are nothing but a fucking bean sprout!" Mink took a peek inside and shouted with a surprised look.
Arielle frowned even harder and could not comprehend what was going on.
"Didn't you search for him? How did you not know he was like this?"
"How should I find a pic of a person that was able to escape the pursuit of the greatest powers in the world for all this time?"
"You fucking useless piece of garbage!"
"Hahahahahhaha!!" Listening to their conversation, Axel started laughing loudly.
"It never gets old, trust me. Whenever they see me, they always have that same shocked face."
"Sigh, we don't have much time! Let's focus on our goal and then we will talk about other things later!" Arielle could only shake her head.
"We came here to ask you about Treasure Hunter's heaven, Midrora. You have one of the clues that lead to that place."
"Midrora? Hahahahahah!! You guys are searching for Midrora? I knew you were both a bunch of interesting fellows! Didn't you hear that it was nothing but a stupid myth?"
"Bullshit! Midrora exists and you know that very well! You think we wouldn't know that you've been searching for the clues for it in every nook and cranny of the world." Mink retorted.
Axel went silent for a few moments as if he was recalling something before he replied.
"Ah…Midrora, the wet dream of every treasure hunter in the world. A place filled with every possible desire and the paradise of thrill-seekers! Cool names, aren't they? But, why should I tell you about what I know?"
Arielle immediately rummaged through her pockets and pulled out something. It looked like a gold coin.
"This coin… It's rumored to be something that came from there. If you help us reach that place, we can make a deal."
"Can you get that coin closer?" Axel said.
After that, he stood up and approached the window, his face was still not visible enough for Arielle but she could tell that he was a very good-looking man from the shape of his face alone.
"Hmmm… That looks interesting. I can't tell whether it's authentic or not. I have to touch it myself." He muttered to himself.
"So, are you going to say anything or not? We only have 3 fucking minutes inside this shithole!" Mink asked impatiently.
"Ok…fine. I decided…"
Then, Axel grinned and continued.
"I will leave the prison now."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't forget to support the book :)