Xodale was a Kindom built on fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the powerful, fear of their own weakness. Founded by a lone traveller in search of a distant power Xodale grew into the hub of humanity, it grew and kept on growing... but the dream of the Traveller, the vision that he had of humanity overtaking the weak name that was given to them did not grow with it.
"Don't tell me my little brother is in the stocks again, I told him last was the final time I was going to waste rent money on him, he should have listened to-"
Instead, humanity covered itself in walls, surrounded itself with a shell of fear thinking that if they stayed inside the protective shell that they were in no monsters under the bed would be able to get them. And as time passed the vision of that lonely traveller was slowly forgotten, until not even a flame of the passion remained.
"He's going to die if you don't stop him!" As the man screamed this, the angry expression on the girls face changed into a fearful one "What... what do you mean?"
"There's no time to explain now but we stole something from this man, it was only supposed to prove that we weren't chickens but then he got caught by a masked man behind Gretta's Inn"
At this moment the disguised elf who was still struggling to get out of the women's arms snapped his sharp eye's towards the skinny boy and the next second, like a ghost he disappeared, leaving confused looking girls who were holing nothing but air in his wake.
—
You may think; looking at this Kingdom his vision was fulfilled, that humanity had overcome their fear and built their own place in the world but there has always been invisible darkness that covers this turtle shell of a kingdom, and that darkness has been growing and growing. The people that live in this shell may have chosen to be ignorant to the growing darkness but there are some, a very few selections of people that have noticed it
Gemini is one of those people. Although being the youngest in his family, this hot-headed boy has seen the darkness that was lurking in the hidden faces of the people who had sworn to protect them. He knew what their true faces were, both he and his sister had experienced the horror that humanity had become
But standing here, looking at this man in the mask felt nothing like the monsters he faced before, this felt completely different... more terrifying, like an elephant and an ant in battle. Gemini's whole body could not move, his heart skipped its usual rhythmic beat while his whole body shook from the inside
He wanted to run, he wanted to hide from the true monster in front of him but, he could not move! No matter how hard he tried
"Listen, kid, just give back what you stole and we'll leave you alone" the eyes of the surrounding crowd along with the shaking, wide frightened ones, of the child moved towards the skinny hooded figure that no one noticed until he stepped out from behind the large masked man
"That item you stole is very important you see and we went through a lot of trouble obtaining it young one. All you have to do is give t back and no one will get hurt ok?" This man's face could not be seen under the white hood he was under but if you were at the height of a childlike Gemini then you would be able to see his mouth, which even though his voice sounded friendly to the ears, his smile did not fit
It looked like the complete opposite expression was plaster on his face, his two canines were at a point revealing a mouth of white pearly teeth, but around his mouth vain's of all colours pulled upwards towards his face, his tongue dropped to the side of his mouth with saliva dripping down towards the ground
This is what the boy was seeing but if someone else peeked under the white hood they would see a monster completely different from this one.
Illusionist among the human race wasn't uncommon, it's an art; that even humans who don't have the necessary amount of soul power could master but this power was limited to petty parlour tricks and the half-assed monster under the bed illusions
But this man took this power to a whole other level where even a high tier expert wouldn't be able to tell the differences between real and tricks of the mind
"Gemini!" A sudden voice called out in the crowd. By this time the boy had already pissed on himself in fear so when he heard the voice of someone familiar he couldn't help but start bawling
In the crowd, a beautiful woman covered in sweat pushed her way through the people, trying to reach the crying child
And right behind her was a small hooded figure with a seductive grin on his face
"Found you"