Author's Preface
Sparks of ember wisps flew up in a dark alleyway. The dust in the air igniting into glowing ash as a eel-like creatures slithered around Cairo, burning and withering away into powder.
Cairo unsheathed his broken katana, slicing the next two eels that flew at him like high-powered missiles.
They were really started to get annoying.
As they withered away into mist by his side he lunged forward. The blade aimed right at the hooded figure in front of him.
The man sidestepped, immediately launching into the air as hords of eels began piling under him taking a yelping Vera with him, the black feathers of his cloak shedding off in the process.
Without hesitation, Cairo immediately changed his attention to the hulking figure to his left. His body barely squished in the narrow corrider, the cloak around him ripped and sewn back together.
Pivoting over his left foot Cairo threw an elbow as he threw his katana to his left arm, lunging up at the brooding man's chin with the broken blade.
However, as his elbow made contact it slipped right through the cloak. And right through the body as a whole sending Cairo staggering down the alley.
'Couple'a annoyin fables'
Cairo flipped back as cinders flew through the air. Evading the barreling fists of the brooding man as missiles of eels continued firing at him.
"What's wrong honey? You were more pip just a minute ago."
The feathered man stood overhead, standing atop a pillar of eels packed together, stacking over one another until they reached over the rooftops.
His hands held onto Vera, as she looked down in horror, eyes shut and trembling.
"C-Cairo...be cautious sir."
An ember crescent flew through the air, flowing right through a hulking body as hordes of eels slammed into the cluttered corrider, blowing up dust and other debris.
"Shut yer trap!"
Cairo ignited the debris all at once, a sudden combustion of smoke and sparks consuming the brooding man, slightly burning his exposed hands and cloak.
In the next second, the smoke subsided, Cairo barreling straight up from the backlash of the explosion, grabbing right onto the feathered man's foot. He increased the body temperature of both hands, using one to burn the man's leg and the other to melt away his pillar of eels.
"Come down 'ere dickhead."
"How dare you!"
The three fell through the air, Cairo grabbing the flailing Vera in one hand while in his other, his blade danced in streaks through the air, blocked by a materialized eel at every attempt to sever the neck hiding under all those feathers.
Grappling through a terraced building, Cairo pulled himslelf and Vera over a patio. A group of masked children standing there in shock as a ball rolled to Cairo's feet.
He clicked his tongue waving them off.
"Get goin!"
Instead, the smallest one slowly began lurking up to Cairo, shivering in fear.
As he was, Vera kicked the ball back to him, opening her mouth to say something. But before she could Cairo cut her off.
"You bounce too, shorty!"
Vera held onto her shirt, gripping it tight.
'I shouldn't bother him...'
Her eyes suddenly widened, a scream escaping her mouth.
"Watch ou—!"
Two hulking hands interlocking to create the pressure of a freight train dug itself onto Cairo's head.
FWOOSH.
The one-eyed man went crashing through the floor of the rooftop, slamming through several brittle floors before coming to a stop at the bottom.
Vera watched in horror, taking a step back as eels slithered by her feet.
The brooding man grabbed a hold of Vera, the void in his hood reflecting nothing as her eyes trembled suppressing tears. For a second her eyes went to the hole Cairo went through then back at the hood.
Through trembling conviction, Vera bit her lips, winding up her other hand. She was going to punch this man right in the liver. Even she knew a liver shot would hurt. He'd have no choice but to become intangible like he was before.
Vera would use that as her chance.
"Unhand me you brute!"
CLACK.
Her punch connected. Right on target. Right where the man's liver should've been.
But he didn't flinch. He didn't become intangible either. He just stared at her through that empty hood.
In the next second, the man hit the back of Vera's head, as she coughed up blood. Her conscousness weaning until there was only black.
"Theron...What did I tell you about hurting Vera?"
The brooding man looked down the corrider. His voice faltering in the prescence of his partner.
"Dian. She hit m—"
"The next time you dare hurt our precious Vera...I'll kill you."
Dian stared up at Theron. Despite the emptiness in his hood. Theron could feel the bloodlust through his words alone, sending a slight shiver through his body.
"And honey..."
Dian turned to the building Cairo had fallen into as he spoke. His voice playful and accentric:
"...You're alive aren't you, you cute little stain."
————————————
Naren sat, tied up in a pale white plaza. A crowd of onlookers in woodlen animal masks conversing in some foreign tongue as he was just given the news of his untimely death.
His tired golden eyes blinked as he couldn't help but let out a yawn.
Slowly, the weight of the princess' words played into Naren's ears, one side of his face lifting to expose his gums, a slight scowl scrunched on.
"Huh?!"
Die? He was going to die?!
He closed his mouth that was hanging open before opening again trying to find the words. He was so taken aback that he couldn't quite figure out what exactly to say.
Not until the corner of his eyes caught the shadow of the statue looming over him.
That's right.
Hail Atlas.
Maybe if his death was an offering to the statue, then it wouldn't be so bad.
"Not the statue."
Naren turned to look back at the princess as she continued:
"Instead you'll probably have a more painful death. Good for them."
She motioned towards the crowd of onlookers slowly dissappearing, claps and whistles along with cheery chatters still lingering.
Naren asked her, his voice a tad irritated that he couldn't give his life for Atlas:
"Yeah? And how? Who's gonna kill me"
The princess shrugged.
"I don't know, I've never met them...Oh, what an honor you have. Catching a glimpse of something I've never seen."
While the princess was speaking, Naren was completely enthralled by the statue once more. That middle left eye continued to capture his gaze. Holding it hostage.
Until a white pebble knocked off his shoulder, sending him into a surge of sudden pain. It seemed that his treatment of it was still incomplete.
"Ah! The hell's you're problem you creep. Hiding yourself in that hood, we have to jail freaks like you."
"It's rude ignoring someone who's talking to you...But I can let it go this once. I can fix that shoulder of yours, two."
Naren was suddenly enticed. Raising his eyebrows, he tried edging closer in his bundled state.
"You should told me that sooner. I'll get out of this, so just fix my shoulder...Wait where's my scarf."
Naren whipped his eyes around trying to find his missing scarf. Until a warm piece of cloth covered his eyes as the princess tied the dull crimson scarf around Naren's head.
She grabbed Naren's shoulder with one hand, placing her other on his back. In one swift motion and a click, a rush of pain flowed into Naren's shoulder pushing him to the floor as he grit his teeth.
However, soon that flood dissipated, leaving a relieved shoulder in it's place.
The princess propped Naren up, her hands on his cheeks as his eyes glowed behind the wrapped scarf around his head.
She spoke to Naren in a soft whisper.
The next thing Naren knew, he was getting picked up dragged away. His mind stuck on what he had just heard. Did he just hear that right?
While in a trance a grating voice boomed through the great city, reaching every corner of the convulated maze that was Lastlight.
"Here are seven sinners that might perish..."
The princess shifted clicking her tongue as the voice spoke:
"...Wearing a stranger's skin..."
Naren's ears shifted, his eyes widening under the scarf with the voice continuing:
"...Burying the kind's existence..."
In the narrow twisting corriders at the far end of Lastlight, Cairo shifted atop a mountain of debris. Sparks of dust igniting in the air as his smile weaned on insanity.
The booming grating voice reaching even here:
"...Killing one's own mother..."