The group was inside the ruins of a small house in a small village, which was one of the towns created after the apocalypse. This extremely small house was barely a room and didn't have a roof, still, it was the only one intact. Since the group arrived in this small village, Catripple had remained with her eyes wide in surprise.
"So, is every city like this in the world?" asked Catripple, glancing around, clearly expecting more.
The others looked at her with confused eyes. "Obviously no… but have you really never been outside?" asked Liro. Catripple, next to him, shook her head.
"I've told you, no one could come out of Ardoris. In fact, I got extremely lucky that I was able to escape… others haven't been this lucky." As she spoke, her tone suddenly turned sad and she started to look down. The others, not wanting her to break down in tears or collapse, fell silent again.
Catripple, feeling the silence in the group, spoke in a reassuring tone, her voice no longer sad. "Don't worry, guys. I can't hide these facts," said Catripple. "You're still about to arrive in Ardoris, so if you've got other questions, you can ask them without any problem." Reassured by her calm tone and not wanting to lose the chance, Darian and Liro started to ask more questions.
"You said that others weren't as lucky as you… did someone help you escape?" Darian asked, as he clearly wanted to know more about this.
Catripple nodded her head before answering him. "Exactly… I wasn't alone that day…" With that, Catripple began recalling the day she was finally able to escape.
"Catripple… with your wings, you might be able to run away." Catripple and another man were inside a small, dark room. This man had short green hair and was very tall.
"The others agreed, if there is someone who can escape from this place, it is you, Catripple," said the man while looking Catripple directly in her eyes.
"I know, Eilwarin…" said Catripple as she looked down, clearly not agreeing with the idea, knowing how dangerous it was.
"Hey, don't worry," said Eilwarin as he positioned his hand over Catripple's shoulder. "With the others, we've decided that with my power, I'll come with you." Eilwarin was able to use wind magic, and he would be able to create strong winds for Catripple to ride so that she would be able to escape very fast, so fast that Ashikunz wouldn't be able to catch her with his spear.
"Still…" she said as she slammed her hands on her legs. Then she looked up and met Eilwarin's gaze. "You will not remain on the ground, right? Ashikunz will find you without any problem and kill you immediately," she said with a worried tone.
"We thought about this too. In fact, we need to know… you can bring someone while flying, right?" asked Eilwarin while smirking. Suddenly, a big smile appeared on Catripple's face. She nodded her head multiple times before answering, "I can easily bring you with me."
Eilwarin, hearing that, took a reassured, deep breath. "Good…" he said while positioning a hand over his chest. "I thought that I would have to actually remain on the ground, honestly, creating a strong wind for you from there might have been definitely harder."
"By the way… are the others coming here too? Are we leaving them here?" asked Catripple, worried for the end her group might face.
"Don't worry, they will distract the guards… especially Corvinus," said Eilwarin. Hearing this name, Catripple's body shook in fear. "He will definitely be a problem… and what about him?" asked Catripple. Even though she didn't specify the name, Eilwarin immediately understood who she was talking about.
"About him… Orechin will try to lure him to a different part of the town… but don't worry, we've prepare—" Eilwarin couldn't even finish speaking before Catripple interrupted him immediately.
"What? Is he crazy? How does he even think of stopping him?" shouted Catripple, mad.
"His goal isn't to stop him… we've already prepared the right route for him to escape without any problem. As long as everything goes according to our plan, we won't have any problem," said Eilwarin as he grabbed a map of the town and opened it in front of them.
"We will escape from this part of the town," said he, pointing with his finger to the easternmost part of the circular town. "There is a tall building that will cover us from Ashikunz's vision." As Eilwarin was speaking, Catripple seemed a bit unconfident about this plan. Seeing this, Eilwarin positioned his hand over her shoulder again and looked at her with a reassuring face.
"Hey, don't worry… we've got the perfect plan, we won't have any problem." Hearing this, Catripple moved her eyes, which met Eilwarin's once again. "Alright…" she said. Then Eilwarin got up from the bed. "You should rest, tomorrow we will execute this plan." Catripple lay down on the bed and started to look at the ceiling above her. "I trust you, Eilwarin," she said, smiling. The man answered with a warm smile, too.
The following day finally arrived. A part of Catripple's group was already creating a huge mess in the town. Corvinus was the only one in front of them, wearing a beautiful metallic crow's mask and with six metallic blades floating around him, shouting as loud as he could.
"EVERYONE WHO GOES AGAINST THE EMPEROR… DESERVES TO BE PUNISHED!" shouted Corvinus in front of the small group.
"C'mon… Orechin is already in position!" shouted Eilwarin as the small red crystal in his hand pulsed. Catripple, next to him, nodded her head and started to run behind him.
'Please be alright, Orechin…' Catripple knew that her friend, with his magic, would be able to give Ashikunz a hard time, but she wasn't sure how much he could actually last against that monster.
Catripple and Eilwarin had finally reached the wall. "C'mon, we just need to surpass this and we're done!" shouted Eilwarin. Catripple nodded her head and started to float with her beautiful wings. With her hands, she grabbed Eilwarin by the shoulders and slowly lifted herself up.
"Let me help you," whispered Eilwarin as he created a small wind under them with his magic. "We're close…" said Catripple with a big smile on her face. Soon they would finally see outside the big walls for the first time.
It had never happened that someone still alive had seen outside the huge wall. The moment they went right on top of the wall and were about to escape, Catripple, without hesitation, screamed as loud as she could, sure that the plan was completely done.
"NOW!!" yelled she, waiting for Eilwarin to create a wind current for her to ride. "I'll do it… fly!!" shouted Eilwarin. But the moment he was creating the magic with his hands, they heard a voice from below, one of the robotic voices of the guards.
"Intruders!" shouted the metallic creature under the wall. "They were outside too?!" shouted both of them together. From the metallic creature, a small tick-tock was coming, and after two seconds, it exploded.
Ashikunz, from the other part of the town, heard the explosion. "It's the signal…" said he while looking in a threatening way toward Orechin, who was breathing heavily, his whole body already bleeding because of the excessive use of magic.
"I'll kill you another time… you damn bait." Ashikunz, without any small problem, was able to smash the blue and green crystals next to him without hesitation and jumped onto the roof of the house next to him with the bare minimum strength. Orechin fell on his knees. "Damn… I couldn't do anything to him," he could only whisper as he watched the Krukin jumping away between the roofs of the houses like it was nothing.
"We need to be fast!" said Eilwarin as he looked down, surprised, clearly not expecting the sudden explosion. Under them, a strong black cloud was at the same place as the metallic creature, which after the explosion completely broke down.
"Intruders… shoot them!" shouted all the metallic creatures, who were robots, with guns in their hands. Bullets were shot at extreme speed. Some hits struck Catripple on her wings and some of them hit Eilwarin on his legs.
"Damn… you will not stop us!!" shouting this, after Eilwarin created the perfect path for Catripple to follow, he created a small wind near them. The bullets shot toward them, caught in this whirlwind, couldn't do anything and got stuck.
Catripple didn't lose any time; with her maximum speed, she started to rush away. 'I will not let you two go away…' thought Ashikunz. He was exactly in the middle of the city, around 3,200 feet between them, but for Ashikunz, it wasn't a problem.
With not even all the strength in his body, he threw the spear at extreme speed toward the two humans, who didn't even see it arrive. "We're doing i—" Eilwarin couldn't even finish his sentence before Ashikunz's spear stabbed him from behind, stopping right in his stomach after it had completely opened.
Blood started to fall down his body; his stomach had been completely destroyed by the spear. Catripple, scared, shouted, "AHHHHH!" Under her, Eilwarin coughed up some blood before falling toward the ground.
Ashikunz, running on the roofs, rushed toward the enemies. While Eilwarin's body smashed on the ground, Catripple tried to reach him to grab her friend again, but multiple bullets flew toward her, creating more holes in her wings.
'I guess I'll be a bit faster now…' thought Ashikunz as he put the slightest strength in his legs to cover the remaining distance with just a jump.
"He's here…" whispered Eilwarin as he noticed Ashikunz, who had just landed from the huge walls. "Go away!" shouted he to Catripple, who could still move, her eyes in tears as she tried to reach him.
Ashikunz grabbed the spear and was about to throw it toward Catripple. "Not on my watch, you damn Krukin!" With his last remaining strength, Eilwarin created a very strong wind that made Catripple fly away. "Go and live…" said he while smiling. Catripple shouted as multiple tears flowed down her cheeks.
"Noooo!" shouted she one last time. Ashikunz, not expecting that, missed the hit with his spear as the woman had already flown away and couldn't be caught anymore. "You stupid… with this spear, I've never missed once," whispered Ashikunz, mad, as he grabbed the spear from the ground and looked at the dying man.
Eilwarin had already died, in fact, he was looking at the sky, smiling. "Well… at least I'm sure she will bring more humans," said Ashikunz, slamming the spear as hard as he could into Eilwarin's face, completely destroying it.
"And… you already know how I met Bianca." Hearing this, Liro and Lily couldn't hold their tears any longer and broke down crying. Darian and Vane couldn't believe their ears.
"Ar-Are you serious? He really threw a spear at that distance?" shouted Vane, feeling his whole body in excitement.
"This isn't the main problem, Vane… did you really say guns? And metallic creatures? Were they robots?!" Darian, more than the others, couldn't believe his ears, as this didn't really make any sense.
"Yeah? You had one too in your base, so isn't it normal?" asked Catripple, as she was sure she had seen Rusty, another robot, inside Darian's base.
"But I created him over 500 years ago… it shouldn't be possible that this Ashikunz has this many robots… and especially some guns, too," whispered Darian, confused.
"Wait… are the guns the things that shoot the bullets? The same ones that shot at the old king?" asked Liro as he was able to wipe the tears from his face. Darian nodded his head.
"It's too strange… they shouldn't exist after 500 years…" Darian's mind was full of questions, and he couldn't find the slightest answer.
"Still, you said something about a group, right?" asked Lily. "Yeah, I wondered that too… are these the Altered group of the city?" asked Liro.
"We're called the Rebellers, and yeah, we are all Altereds… except for Eilwarin, who could use wind magic," answered Catripple. Hearing this, the others felt a bit more reassured.
"So we actually have some allies in the town," said Darian happily. "There are four of us counting me… but trust me, each of us, with our power, will be really helpful," said Catripple as she yawned.
"I guess we should sleep… I feel like we will arrive in the town soon," proposed Darian. The others next to him nodded their heads, and then everyone fell asleep.
Darian, with Snowy on his chest, was stuck in his thoughts. 'Guns? Are we for real? But the thing that scares me the most… robots with guns who can explode?' thought Darian.
'I would accept the robots, maybe they found an abandoned building with these robots… the guns, too, might make some sense…' But the last object was stuck in his mind, as it didn't make any sense.
'A freaking bomb? It shouldn't be possible. It doesn't make any sense, the gunpowder couldn't resist this much time… they shouldn't even have the knowledge to make it…' Darian, stuck with these thoughts, couldn't help but fall asleep.