Fresta Kingdom
The blacksmith was still working in the hot forge. He was swinging his heavy hammer and his mind a complete blank like a machine who work continuously.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
The sound of the hammers was the only sound in the world for him now.
Then he heard something else.
It was a sharp BANG from outside. It sounded like a gunshot. That was not a new sound. They had heard many gunshots in the last seven days. It usually meant that someone had tried to fight back or they show weakness in their work and was now dead. The blacksmith did not even flinch. He just kept swinging his hammer.
But then there was another BANG. And another. And another.
Soon it was a storm of sounds. Shouts. The clang of swords hitting each other. The strange and quick thump sound of bodies falling to the ground. This was not just one person being punished.
This was a battle.
All the workers in the forge stopped. They looked at each other, their faces full of confusion and a new, flickering feeling they had almost forgotten: curiosity.
What was happening? Were the revolutionaries fighting each other?
Suddenly, the puppet soldier who had been watching them, the one with the cold eyes just froze. He stood perfectly still for a second and then he fell to the floor , his eyes still open but seeing nothing.
The workers gasped. A moment later, the big doors of the forge were kicked open. A man in a clean, white suit and a mask stood in the doorway. Behind him, the street was filled with the dead bodies of the revolutionary soldiers.
The blacksmith and the other workers stared. They were too scared to move. Was this a new kind of soldier? A new kind of monster?
The man in the white suit just looked at them and said, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
This words did not make sense. Help? What did that even mean anymore?
The blacksmith just held his hammer tightly waiting for the trick. He had learned the hard way that promises were just empty words that bad people used to hurt you.
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Balsamico kingdom
The old farmer Hopium was pulling weeds in a big field. He and the other farmers were being watched by dozens of revolutionary soldiers.
Suddenly a group of soldiers all looked up at the sky. Seeing this the farmers looked up too.
They saw people dressed all in white walking down from the sky as if they were on invisible stairs. These people are none other than the Cipher pol agents.
The farmers had never seen anything so strange. Seeing this people in white clothes the puppet soldiers started shooting their guns up at the sky.
But the people in white were too fast.
They landed in the field like graceful birds and started to fight. It was not a long fight.
The farmers watched from between the rows of vegetables as the people in white moved like a blur and cutting down the puppet soldiers with swords and powerful kicks. In less than a minute, all the soldiers were dead, and the people in white were standing among them. They are not even breathing hard.
Hopium peeked out from behind a big cabbage plant. His heart was beating very fast. He saw one of the people in white walk over to a dead soldier and kick him as if to make sure he was really dead.
'Who are they?' Hopium thought at this time his mind full of fear and confusion. 'They are enemies of the revolutionaries. But does that make them our friends?'
He did not know. He had been tricked once before. He wasn't going to make that mistake again. He just stayed hidden, watching and waiting what these people will do next.
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Sortis kingdom
The miner Mark was deep underground in a dark tunnel. He and his team were digging for ore with their pickaxes. The only light that came from is the few flickering lanterns.
Suddenly, the ground in the middle of the tunnel started to get soft and wavy like water.
A big rectangular door opened up right out of the solid rock. The miners all stopped working and stared their mouths open in shock what they have seen.
A group of men in white suits and masks stepped out of the door as if they were just walking out of a house. They looked around the dark tunnel. The revolutionary army soldiers in the tunnel did not even have time to react. The men in white attacked and the fight was over in few minutes.
Mark and the other miners pressed themselves against the rock wall and they trying to stay out of the way. For them this was like something crazy out of a dream. People were coming out of from the walls.
Mark did not know what to think. These new people were powerful and scary, but they did not hurt any of the miners. For the first time in a week he felt a tiny spark of something that wasn't fear.
It was a strange and confusing feeling.
These things was happening all across the four kingdoms. The common people watched and listened from their forced of work places. They saw their monster revolutionary soldiers who was like a devil to them being killed in front of their eyes.
They saw strange powerful people in white clothes fighting with incredible skill. They did not feel hope yet. It was too soon for that. They were too hurt and too scared.
But they all felt the same thing: a flicker of change.
They did not know if this was the beginning of a better dream or just the start of another new and even scarier nightmare for them.
All they could do was wait and watch and hold their breath.