City of Culture III

Kayin rushes with Narada to the center area of the city, and asks Oshé to search around as quickly as they possibly can.

“What’s wrong, my king?” Narada asks, as he starts to regain his senses, “You seem much more panicked than usual,”

“Why else do you think?! We’ve clearly found ourselves trapped in enemy territory!”

“Enemy territory?”

“If you weren’t such a drunkard…actually, never mind, I doubt you would ever come to this realization on your own,”

“My king!” Narada says with a saddened tone, “We’ve finally managed to get rid of that she-demon, and now you’re the one attacking me instead?!”

“Narada! Watch out!”

Kayin, sensing the incoming presence of his battle axe, throws himself onto Narada to help him escape from death, as Oshé returns to Kayin in its truest and most deadly form, striking the ground so hard that it causes a blast of air to emit from where it lands.

Flying directly above them, as the moonlight begins to signal the night, are the same murder of crows that Kayin and Narada had encountered earlier before. A figure begins to emerge from the crows, and as if there is a floor in the middle of the sky, the figure takes a seat and plants his right cheek onto his palm, while staring down towards Kayin and Narada.

Kayin appears alarmed, as he senses the dormant energy emitting from the battle axe.

Don’t tell me…

Oshé was defeated?!!...

And so quickly?!

“It seems you’re finally starting to get it now,”

Kayin follows the direction of the voice and faces upward.

“This isn’t a place you can simply escape from, young Kayin.”

I would love to counter, but I’m literally helpless right now.

Narada’s useless.

Kimiko’s nowhere to be found.

My helper is parked outside the city.

Or at the very least, it was…

Now, I don’t even know where we might be.

“You really do take after your grandmother, you know,”

Kayin becomes visibly irritated.

“Can you just cut to the chase?! Who are you? And how do you know so much about my family?!”

“What do you mean? We are family, are we not?”

“I’ve never heard of you, nor have I ever met you, in my entire life.”

“Well, I guess when I think of it, we aren’t really connected by blood. But I technically was a part of your family…until my wife was stolen from me by your grandfather.”

“What?”

“You heard me, boy.”

The figure suddenly appears directly in front of Kayin, and stretches out his neck to glare directly into Kayin’s face.

“Your grandfather had me killed…all so that he could take my wife away from me and marry her himself.”

Kayin begins to sweat. The aura emitting from the man in front of him was something he had never seen or felt before.

As if a god himself stood before him.

“So what do you think it is to me now?”

Kayin remains silent, unable to respond to the man’s quip. Instead, his mind thinks back to the earlier conversation he had with Kimiko and Narada.

“...remember the lore you mentioned before?” Kayin asks as he slowly glances back towards a confused and frightened Narada, “About a single man, from my bloodline, building cities in a day during the war times?”

Narada nods.

“It looks like they are correct, after all…”

“And somehow…that man is the one standing directly in front of us,”

Narada silently begins to freak out.

“Oho. I see that stories have been written about me, after all then. I was sure your grandfather would have done his best to rid me from our history.”

“Well you’ve gone out of your way to create another city, even in this current age. I’m sure such efforts would have been futile, regardless.”

“Hah. Perhaps you’re right.”

“Are you going to explain the deal with this place? All the ‘harmony’ preaching, and loving others crap. It doesn't make much sense coming from someone like you.”

“It doesn’t need to make much sense to someone like you. You’re tainted with your grandfather’s filthy war mongering blood, after all.”

“And you’re tainted with the blood of those that fell to your war tactics,”

“I beg to differ. At least I’m trying to make a change…”

“Far too late for that, old man,”

“The name’s Heitsi, boy. Don’t you dare refer to me as old man,”

“Old man,”

A large vein pops out in Heitsi’s temple,

“I don’t really understand what you’re playing at here, but I would really appreciate it if you could set me and my friends free…”

“You really don’t get it, do yo-”

“And while you’re at it, set the people in the city free as well. I’m sure you have them locked in here for something sinister.”

Heitsi flicks his wrist towards Kayin, and a powerful wind emits from the movement. As a result, a few of Kayin’s dreads to the left side are sliced cleanly off from his head, and a bit of his ear is also cut off in the process.

Kayin remains unperturbed.

“I hope you will agree to those demands, old man. It would certainly be in your best interest.”

Heitsi stares towards Kayin, now seemingly dumbfounded by Kayin’s arrogance.

Heitsi then begins to chuckle.

“You know what? I like you, boy! I was planning on making this lesson quick and painless, but now I think going slowly will make this much more fun!”

“You think this is a game, old man?” Kayin says with a forced smile.

This time, a powerful wind cuts through near the right side of Kayin’s head.

“Of course it is. Everything is a game to me…especially when faced with someone so weak, but strong minded.”

“Weak?”

“Well, your former avatar holder’s axe is sitting right there in front of you. Let’s find out just how weak you are together.”

Heitsi moves out of the way, clearing a direct path for Kayin to move towards Oshé.

“Go ahead…pick it up.”

Kayin becomes visibly anxious.

“Pick…it…up.”

Kayin carefully walks over towards Oshé, and holds the battle axe in place, ready to both strike and defend at the same time.

Narada glances towards Kayin, as if desperate to ask for a signal. But Kayin’s focus remains completely focused on the enemy before him.

Especially because, Narada keeps forgetting that Kayin cannot actually see him.

“Well. I picked it up. Now wh-!”

Kayin attempts to block an incoming strike of air from his blindspot, but is still cut down regardless. As Kayin screams out in pain, Narada begins to shake in anxiety.

“Don’t worry, boy. I won’t kill you.” Heitsi says as he flies closer to Kayin, “Well…not yet at least.”

Kayin holds his deep wound, as blood quickly escapes from his body. However, after having been dealt with the attack, he holds on tightly to his battle axe…

And snaps his finger to signal Narada.

Narada holds out his hand, and in an instant, immediately before Heitsi could land another blow, the two of them disappear.

Heitsi stares down to the spot where Kayin had been, and sees only a small layer of blood now staining the concrete floor.

“Ah. Such a miscalculation.”

Heitsi sighs.

“It seems I should have paid more attention to the companion. Of course he wouldn’t allow a normal man to stay by his side,”

Far off, in a dark alley to the other side of the city where they had just been, Narada and Kayin reappear on top of heaps of open garbage.

“My king! Are you alright?!”

“Do I look alright to you?”

“What can I do to help?! I can race over to my father’s kingdom and summon some of my younger brothers to help us in this-!”

“No! I’m sure we’ll be fine!”

I’d rather not have to deal with those 'things' again before I die, please and thank you.

Narada nods his head, and slams his fist into his palm.

“Wait, maybe we should recruit the she-demon’s help once again?!”

“She’s free to do whatever she wants. And it seems she’s made her decision. Let’s leave her alone.”

“But your wounds…”

“We can find someone else to help nurse them. Although, I’m not sure how many in this city are still left sane,”

“No problem, my king! I can try and find one using my abilities!”

“Absolutely not…”

“But why?

“You’re the only one I can rely on right now. Don’t leave my side.”

Narada blushes with a sense of pride.

“Besides…I can’t imagine that letting you interact with people in this city would do me any favors,”

Narada’s pride becomes crushed.

“Help me up. We have to find a way to escape from this city, before anything else,”

“Alright.”

Narada helps Kayin to his feet, and turns to search the area.

“I think the entrance was somewhere around he-!”

As Narada turns, he’s met face to face with the same white-necked crow that they had run into earlier.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

Kayin’s face becomes completely flushed.

Narada gulps loudly.

The bird seemingly smiles, as if it were playing the role of a human itself.

“...the night has only just begun.”=