Incursion

“GONE? WHAT DO YOU MEAN, GONE?” asked Xax.

“…I DON’T KNOW… IT’S NOT THERE ANYMORE…” I answered.

My head was spinning… or was it the cave?

I stumbled over my own feet and fell on the ground.

I was overdoing it with rex…

“Zenzo. Hey… are you ok?” asked Braun worriedly.

“He’s been diving too deep too many times,” said Xax calmly. “REFRAIN FROM USING REX FOR TODAY, ZENZO.”

“…YES...”

“BUT ARE YOU SURE HE IS GONE?” asked Xax, “IF THIS PERSON WAS HERE, THEY MUST’VE PASSED THROUGH US IN ORDER TO GET OUT OF HERE…” he added.

“…YES…” I said.

I was starting to feel extremely lightheaded.

Voices around me kept getting jumbled together.

“ZENZO, AND YOU ARE CERTAIN THERE WAS AN INTRUDER…?” asked Braun.

“…YES… THERE WAas…" I passed out.

My body and mental capacity have reached their limit.

“Hey! Ze—”

“Don’t worry, he is just sleeping,” said Xax. “Let’s let him rest. He needs his peace of mind back.”

“What about the entity?”

“We need to remain on guard, even if it’s already gone, have people investigate the cave from this point upwards all over again. Once that is done, lift the state of emergency. I will take over tomorrow… or this morning rather… and introduce our next steps,” said Xax.

“Alright, brother,” muttered Braun.

“Thank you, Braun,” Xax said wearily. “I will return him to his room and try to get some sleep myself, too.”

…

The next day, I had a terrible headache.

I learned that there was a search conducted by the others to make sure that the intruder didn’t relocate to some other part of the cave.

And that it ended in us coming up empty.

They kept thoroughly exploring but couldn’t find any trace of someone ever being in here.

In the morning, Xax promptly assembled every single person living in Aireven to let them know of our current situation and what our next steps were going to be.

That’s when it started.

The ones who have been hostile to me since my first day, got their chance to speak up.

“How do we know he is not lying! It was his word that there was an intruder here in the first place!” said one of the residents.

“Yeah! This kid was here the shortest out of all of us! How do you know he is not a traitor!”

“Yeah… we don’t even know where he is from!”

“YEAH… WHAT’S UP WITH THAT BOUNTY TOO, HOW IS HE STILL BREATHING?!”

“GET HIM OUT…!”

“YEAH~!”

“Silence!” shouted Xax, effortlessly shutting down every single outburst.

“Even though he has been here the shortest, I trust him just as much as I trust Braun. If some of you are not convinced, yesterday, I felt I was being watched by some wicked being. I left my room to search for the source, just like he did,” he said.

That’s why he wasn’t resting and randomly stumbled upon me?

“Furthermore, he has risked his life and sustained injuries for our sake. If you think that that is still not enough, then you are always welcome to remember that he is only 12 years old.”

Embarrassed and flattered at the same time, it made me happy that Xax was going to such an extent to defend my name.

It was reassuring that there was someone out there who would be willing to do something like that for me…

“Now, for the more pressing matter, currently on our hands… As you are all well aware, and hopefully completely believe now, our city was breached by some unknown entity. It found its way inside, and we don’t know how,” he said seriously.

“What does that mean for our plans going forward… we aren’t aware of the entity’s affiliations, so we must assume worst-case scenario… in the situation that the entity is fully conscious of our organization’s nature, it has now confirmed our location… therefore, starting today, to deal with possible threats, I am assigning a schedule for patrolling and keeping watch over the cave…”

“It will work as follows…”

He began explaining who was chosen for which role and the people that would take over the positions in the coming days.

It was clear that he spent a lot of time thinking about it.

“Thank you for your time, you are free to go… but do remain vigilant…”

With that, he concluded his assembly.

I felt a multitude of disgusted stares pile up on me as people were scattering, but I ignored all of them.

Xax wanted to see Braun and myself to discuss our plans even further. And it quickly made sense why he didn’t address these plans in front of the others.

“In worst-case scenario, we must be prepared to leave Aireven…” said Xax gravely.

Braun was well aware of this, and of course, so was I.

It was a depressing thought, but there was no sugarcoating our way around it.

Through sweat and blood, they spent so much time working on the cave to make it into a suitable place to live for those ostracized by society on the surface. And now, they might have to abandon it and look for a new home.

A lot of people will be at a loss for what to possibly do next.

They might have hoped to stay here their entire lives and raise their family here.

But now, that ideal was under threat.

“Have you thought about where, brother?” asked Braun.

“Yes. We will have to find some other place inside Acolatum, so we can continue searching for Gyorn… we can’t give up on him just because things aren’t going as planned.”

…

The next day, the patrollers and watchers were in full effect.

I continued exercising my body and practicing rex.

There was still no word from the people sent out to search for Gyorn.

I was getting impatient.

“Xax, can I look for him already… the others aren’t coming back anyway…” I said.

And most reassuring, I wasn’t alone.

“Brother, allow me to do the same. We can’t continue waiting…” requested Braun.

Braun has made a nearly full recovery. He would probably still struggle with running, but he could walk as much as he wanted to, now.

“I can’t let you go… with things the way they are right now, we need everyone we can get in here, especially you two… if we end up being under attack and both of you are missing, we might as well not even resist,” he explained. “I am worried about him just as much as you two… but please understand.”

It was hard to argue against that reasoning.

With this decision, another week passed.

Things were quiet and everyone was busy dealing with their own tasks.

But when night came, it began.

A full-scale incursion on the hideout.

And their target was none other than me.

“Where is he?! THE BOY,” one of the assailants asked a random resident.

“Please, don’t hurt me! He is over on that side of the corridor, turn left, then right, straight ahead, 4th room is his!”

Of course, we weren’t exactly best friends, so the person instantly gave my whereabouts away.

If it wasn’t for their life being endangered, you might have even been under the impression that they were happy to reveal my location.

Since I was tired from practicing the entire week, I was obediently sleeping as per the Aireven schedule.

Naturally, I had no idea this was even happening.

I would have been killed in my sleep if it wasn’t for Xax alerting everyone with his emergency horn.

When I stood up from my bed in a scramble, I could already hear the approaching screams and struggling footsteps of the ambushers.

I climbed out of my room window and started sprinting down a different tunnel.

As I ran through the darkness, I was greeted by another group, also out to get me.

Alarmed at this persistence, I had to act quickly.

I used my wind element to forcefully form a pathway, but this was, obviously, only a temporary solution.

The deeper I ran, the more people were chasing me and the less options I had remaining.

I was cornering myself, running to inevitable death.

If this continued, I would be massacred by a crowd of bloodthirsty animals.

No…

I don’t want to die…

Who are you people?

But they wouldn’t answer me anyway.

In the time I would be asking the question, one of them would be ending my life, while another helps him.

I was sprinting with all I had.

As I predicted, I eventually arrived at a dead end.

It was a spacious part of the cave, but it only had one exit.

The one currently being blocked by these orange-eyed maggots.

Panic overriding any other emotion and cognitive process, I started defending myself.

“Aaarrgggghhhhhhhhhhhh” screamed one of them as I wounded him with my wind magic.

“Aaah aaghhhh… NOOOOOO” screamed another, a part of him aflame.

The others started having doubts and began retreating, but I wasn’t going to let them.

I ran out giving chase.

As I was about to take a sharp turn, I felt a painful, stinging sensation in my stomach.

My clothes were being dyed in a dark red color – my own blood, and there was now a spear impaling me.

I was losing consciousness. A feeling I am all too familiar with, except that this time I realized that there was a chance I would not wake up.

My eyes shot open and I cut off the handle of the weapon, turning around to face the attacker.

I quickly got rid of him, paying him back threefold with the help of my earth element.

As if under a trance, I proceeded to brutally exterminate every single pest.

Despite my condition, I wasn’t in a rush.

“M-MONSTER…”

“SOMEONE, KILL HIM ALREADY!”

“NO… NO… NOOOO!”

I was slowly moving towards the exit to the cave.

The number of screams were decreasing every minute.

I noticed my hand was trembling.

My body was reacting to the magic…

I have used too much already…

It got silent for a while.

While I was making my way for the gate to the drain system, I stopped hearing the Zepsis members.

Was that all of them?

Are they all…?

…

Dead.

That was the word I was looking for.

The word that took me out of my hypnotic state and made me realize what I just did…

Was it all self-defense…?

Was it justified…?

Or have I disappointed you…

…grandpa?

Are you repulsed by me?

Please forgive me.

I didn’t have a choice.

I didn’t want to die…

So I became a murderer instead…

Please…

“AFGHAT SERTTHH!”

Someone hit me on the back of the head with a blunt object…

A rock.

I was down on the ground.

Head ringing and my skull compressing into nothingness, my vision got blurry.

There was one more, after all.

Tediously, I rose up to my knees.

Furious and enraged, I turned my head around and coated the walls with the assailant’s blood.

I could barely stand upright anymore.

My body was swinging side to side as I walked.

Reaching the exit, I saw that everyone was outside, evacuated from the cave.

I was the last one…

Gasps were emerging from the sides.

Murmur was filling the crowds.

My eyes met with Braun.

“ZENZO!”

With a heavy thud, eyes gathered on the helpless, bloodstained boy.

Heavy bleeding was spreading across the ground.

It was an ocean of red.

Anna, Braun, and Xax hurried over to the rapidly-cooling body.

“…zenzo… no… no-no-no…” Anna said helplessly.

“Stay with me, Zenzo…” said Xax.

“…his head… father… his head!” Anna cried lifting up her stained hands, now covered in my blood. “What… what is this?!”

“…don’t touch it for now… be gentle…”

However, the attention the boy got from the rest of the people weren’t expressions of worry or concern. His unconscious, ragged state was met with revolt, and contempt.

They ruthlessly glared at his motionless body, whispering amongst themselves.

“…finally…” one of them muttered.

Anna winced, reaching her limit.

“WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?” yelled Anna.

“YOU CALL YOURSELF HUMAN?” she bellowed.

“Enough, Anna,” said Xax. “All of you… go wherever you want... I don’t care what happens to you anymore… those still loyal to me, please check the cave and eliminate any enemies.”

“Lobaum, can you help us?” asked Xax urgently. “You are the only one who can do anything…”

“Lord Xax…

“he is already dead…”