The twins, Juno, and Kana moved in a tight, uneasy formation. They descended into the clearing where the road met the settlement. As they stepped into the center of the open space, the group came to an abrupt, collective halt. A heavy, suffocating silence gripped the area.
Near the entrance, a man was slumped against a stack of shattered crates. His body was twisted at an unnatural angle. Kana knelt beside him. Her eyes scanned the ragged clothing for any sign of blood or the mark of a blade
."Where is his injuries?" Kana whispered. Her voice trembled as she looked at the raider's face. "What is wrong with him?"
There were no cuts. No signs of a traditional struggle.
The man was alive but unconscious. His breathing was shallow and rattling. Juno reached out and pulled back the tattered remains of the raider's leather tunic. In the center of his chest was a single, perfectly circular indentation. The ribs had collapsed inward.
"He was not hit with a fist," Juno said. Her voice was flat. "The pressure alone shattered his internal structure without even breaking the skin. I have never seen anything like this."
A few yards away, the rest of the aftermath lay bare. At the top of a tangled heap of bodies, the two raiders who had wielded the spear and the meat cleaver were slumped against each other. They were still breathing. Their chests moved in shallow, desperate hitches.
The man who had held the cleaver was in a state of absolute shock. His arm was basically shattered. The bone had been reduced to splinters beneath the skin from the sheer force of the encounter but it was the sight of the leader that made even Lokee catch her breath.
The big man with the chain was a broken heap several yards away. His weapon was twisted into a useless coil. It was as if the air around him had imploded. The Yen shockwave had been so intense that it had left severe burns across his chest and arms. Deep, seared burns covered his face. The skin was blackened and peeling.
His heavy iron weapon had been crushed into a mangled knot of metal. It looked as if a giant hand had squeezed it into a ball. The pressure had concentrated on him so intensely that the stone pillar behind him had spiderwebbed with deep, jagged cracks.
"The others are alive but he look like he was nearly turned to ash," Kana said. She stood up slowly. Her eyes lingered on the charred remains.
Juno looked up at Lokee. Her eyes were sharp with a new, piercing intensity.
"I need to know something. Kova never told me what we were really after. I have been stuck in his void realm for years so I do not really know much about this thing we are after. He kept me in the dark about the family secrets."
Lokee did not look away from the mangled leader. Her eyes reflected the pale light of the silvered ground.
"Juno do you remember the day our family invited uncle Jaeren and all his children to the estate for training and a boy ended up getting hurt?"
Juno growled at the mention of the name. "He is not your uncle. But yes I remember. What does that have to do with this?"
Lokee slowly stood. Her eyes were fixed on the silvered path leading away from the carnage.
"That boy is why we are here. We are after him."
Juno felt a cold chill. "That is impossible. I was told that boy was dead. My own father told me."
Lokee began to walk away from the dead body. Her footsteps were light on the dry earth.
"He kinda is dead Juno. We are chasing a ghost. He has the Yen sickness and if he did this to these people we might be heading towards our own deaths."
Kana stood silent. She watched them walk toward the trail. Her hands were balled into fists.
Kota, what are you doing? The words screamed in the silence of her own mind. Why can't you just die and let everything be how it is? Stop fighting. If you would just give up we could all go back to the way things were supposed to be.
"He is not going to stop," Juno muttered as she caught up to Lokee. Her voice was low. "If he can do this to a man that size just by being near him then we are not walking into a capture mission. We are walking into a slaughterhouse."
Hykee let out a low, discordant chuckle. He walked to the center of the square and looked at the shivering raiders with pure disgust.
"I told you. He is finally interesting. He is not just eating the sickness anymore, it is becoming him. Look at the precision. No wasted energy on the small fry but the big one? The big one got the full weight of the silence."
He looked at the others. His bandaged face was twisted into a manic grin.
"Why are you all standing around looking shocked? This is what we came for. This is the real hunt."
Lokee ignored him. Her gaze was fixed on the far end of the village where the silver trail continued south. She could feel the vibration of Kota's power lingering in the air like the hum of a distant machine.
"He's not even stopping to rest," Juno said. Her eyes darted from side to side. "He is moving south with a singular purpose. Is he looking for someone?"
"The doctor," Lokee replied. She turned her head slightly, glancing at Kana with cold curiosity. "Kova really just sent you out here with no information? Kana why didn't you tell her something?"
Kana flinched. She looked at the ground. She did not answer.
"He is moving faster than he should be with that sickness," Lokee continued, turning back to the road. "But the trail is fresh. We are gaining on them."
Hykee was far ahead now. His dark shape flickered in and out of the fog. He was humming again. That low, grating sound that seemed to vibrate through the ground. They were no longer just tracking a boy. They were hunting a predator that was hollowing out the world around him.
As they rounded the final bend, the open road south stretched out before them. The silver trail was a jagged line in the dirt leading toward the distant horizon. They passed the remains of the settlement where the original inhabitants lay scattered among the ruins. There was no one left alive.
It was a graveyard of broken homes and ash.
"He is out there," Lokee said. She slowed her pace. "Be ready. The air is going to get worse the closer we get to him."