10 years ago.....
The sound of footsteps rang across the dark hallway .
that sound made the children who are being held captive in an underground jail scared..
Kid 1 : HELP! PLEASE! HELP ME PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO BE IN HERE I WANT TO GO HOME!
Jail guard : Shut up! This is your home. your parents sold you to Sir. Mourdoq!
Kid 1 : They did not! you guys killed my parents!
Jail guard : well it's the same they did not even put up a fight for you! HAHAHAHAHA
the kids face turned pale and started crying.
kid 1 : You are lying!!!!! HUHUHUHU
Sounds of other kids crying resonated the whole underground room
Jail guard : SHUT UP ALL OF YOU! I WONT GIVE YOU FOOD IF YOU DON'T STOP!
Ghost : Oy new kid stop crying, i won't be able to eat because of you!
Smoke turned around and saw a kid maybe around 11 or 15 just like her.
Smoke : why? do you not want to get out of here? im scared here!
Ghost : well for one crying won't help us get out of here. and im not scared here my parents sold me off as a lowly demon.
Smoke : wait your a demon? O.o
Ghost : uhh. yeah, it's just that im not as powerful as my other brothers so my parents sold me off.
Smoke : wowwww. i've never seen or talk to a demon before.
Ghost : well you talked and saw one now.
Smoke : i heard that demons are one of the most powerful races. why don't you get out of here?
Ghost : like i told you im not strong like my brothers.
Jail guard : you two! stop talking and go to sleep you wont be getting any food today so just sleep!
Ghost : *tsk*
Smoke : im sorry,
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after a week.
Jail Guard : you lot get up its time for the selection!
Smoke : huh? what is selection?
Smoke faced ghost who have a serious face now
Ghost : the royal who took us selects 20 kids every month. none of the past selected kids came back after being taken
smoke got startled on what ghost said.
Smoke : where do they take the selected kids?
Ghost : that i don't know. some said that they where released back to their families that's why some kids here are eager to get picked. but not me. i can't see why would the royal buy or take from our family and then suddenly give us back to them. other said that the royal sold kids off to some other royals and make them their slave or even worse their toy.
smoke got scared on the thought that she might be picked as well.
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the selection finished and luckily both smoke and ghost did not get picked..
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after the selection process the kids where moved to a big white room where they are forced to do labor and others are forced to train fighting. they have been doing this for over a week now. they train but they don't even know what they are training for.
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"let go of me! i told you that im coming you don't need to drag me"
Smoke saw ghost being dragged away by 4 guards.
Smoke : GHOST! WHERE ARE THEY TAKING YOU!?
Smoke shouted that took ghost's and the guards attention
Ghost : BAKA! stop shouting they are just putting me else where
Ghost eyed smoke telling her to keep quiet and that he will be okay.
Smoke got what ghost said but she won't believe that ghost will be okay. she noticed that when ever ghost leaves the white room with the guards. he would come back to their cell with alot of bruises and severe injuries. but when he asks ghost what happened to him ghost would only smile and say that since he's a demon it would heal quickly. but later that night he would feel ghost rolling and silently crying in pain.
nekoma and nekudo approached smoke who was left staring at where ghost was last standing.
Nekoma : Ghost. lets go the guards might punish you for not doing the chores.
nekudo : lets go ghost.
Ghost, smoke, nekoma and nekudo would always go meet each other when the kids are brought to the white room. ghost would always approach the two since she find them interesting since they are a anthropomorphic race.
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the day of selection came again.
this time ghost and smoke was picked and so is nekoma and nekudo.
they are transferred into a carriage that holds up all the 20 kids.
when everyone was seated the jail guards left them and closed the door and they felt their ride moving.
Nekudo : so we are being transferred.
nekoma : are we going back to our homeland?
Ghost : i was surprised that sir. Mourdoq picked me. i guess they found me useless already.
Smoke : huh? are you saying something ghost?
Ghost : ahh. nothing. just wondering where we are going.
Smoke : im really scared right now.
"oyy could you guys stop talking?"
suddenly an anthropomorphic weasel talked causing smoke and the others to look at him.
Nekoma : Oy rafael, would you mind your own business!
Smoke : it's okay neko, im sorry for being too noisy.
the next 3 hours of travel was silent. when they felt that the carriage stopped moving. and suddenly the door opened for them.
Jail Guard : We are here. take this number. this is for the group. when the number is called we enter the arena.
everyone was shocked and confused.
A gobling kid talked
Monterio : sir what are we going to do in the arena?
Jail guard : shut up! what else are you going to do at a arena? have a cup of tea? of course you will be fighting.
another kid talked..
Namio : are we gonna fight each other?
ghost and smoke looked at each other. smokes face turned pale to the thought of fighting the other kids and his friends.
Jail guard : no. you will fight as a group. now go to the corner there, sir. Mourdoq will be talking to all of you before the fight.
another hour passed and cheers from a fair amount of crowds never stopped. some are shouting in fun. but the shout that they heard that scared the kids was "KILL KILL KILL KILL" the never ending shout for kill and followed by the huge cheer of the crowd.
Sir. Mourdoq : is this the kids we selected this month?
jail guard : Yes sir. mourdoq!
Sir. Mourdoq : ohh how good it is to see a familiar face.
Ghost clinched his teeth and fist in anger.
Sir. Mourdoq : i expect this group of kids to win today. specially that we are bringing in with them the demon child. hahaha
Jail Guard : Yes sir mourdoq. the blessing of the gambling saint is upon you!
Sir. Mourdoq : yes yes! hahaha Ghost i expect you to give me the winnings i deserve, not like those other kids the we brought earlier. hahahaha
Ghost stayed silent but his fist are clinched wanting to hit the royals face hard.
the jail guard saw it and whipped ghost for not responding to the royal.
Ghost : *Ahhhh* "ghost shouted in pain"
Sir. mourdoq : Hey stop injuring them right before the fight.
jail guard : im sorry sir. Mourdoq.
Sir. Mourdoq : it's okay. ill be going up to my seat now. win me lots of money kids HAHAHAHA
Smoke : are you alright ghost?
ghost did not respond to smoke as he stared at the royal who is now walking away while laughing.
"GROUP 359 PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE ARENA"
Jail Guard : go and arm your selves.
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the group is now in front of the arena. armed with weapons that they could get. and waiting for the big door to open.
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when the huge door opened smell of metal and blood came with the air.
Nekoma : ahhh. it stinks. my nose hurts!
Nekudo : no shit. what the fuck is this place!
"GROUP 359 MOVE TOWARDS THE CENTER OF THE ARENA"
As the group entered the arena a deafening cheer from the crowd was heard but the cheer became louder when other group of people came out from the other side of the arena
"ARMAGEDDON!"
"ARMAGEDDON!"
"ARMAGEDDON!"
"ARMAGEDDON!"
"ARMAGEDDON!"
"ARMAGEDDON!"
"ARMAGEDDON!"
"ARMAGEDDON!"
The other group consisted of only 10 people but beside them are 10 bloodthirsty magic beasts
Ghost : this is bad.
the kids stood frozen on their places from the sight of the magic beasts.
arnel : we are all dying.
smoke looked at one of the kids in their group who just talked. he looks like the youngest in there.
Rafael : oy what do they think we are? a fucking army? i noticed the writings on the walls we are in Hanaduka Dukedom. my village is not far from here. this kingdom has fallen from the hands of the arch angels. why are people still here?
Ghost : this people might all be royals from different kingdoms. using this place as their gambling hideout since no body lives here anymore. so gambling might not be considered illegal here.
Kuv : this rotten royals.
Eiko : we cant fight them with this old and rusty weapons
Ghost : hell if we cant fight them even with a new weapon.
*fuck this is bad, i can fight one atleast but that is if im alone, but with smoke and the others it might get them in danger if i go on an attack.*
Smoke : ghost, what should we do?
Ghost : Run! Everybody run!
sound of the huge bell rang through the stadium, as the crowd went wild the game has also started.
not even a minute after running the magic beasts are now behind the kids who are hopelessly running in every direction.
while the magic beasts ran after ghost's group the 10 people standing in the same position they are in. started casting fire spell that bombarded the running kids.
One spell hit the ground where ghost and smoke are running which caused them to fly in different directions.
Ghost stood up as fast as he could to look for smoke
Ghost : SMOKE! calling out.
ghost could not see anything because of the dirt flying in the air.
Ghost : SMOKE!
ghost kept on calling but nobody responded.
but a body caught his attention. there she is. smoke laying down and knocked out cold.
Ghost carried smoke's body to the side of the arena where the spells can't reach them. but he forgot about the magic beasts who are rampaging.
He laid smoke down and looked at her. when he suddenly felt footsteps heading towards them.
Ghost turned around and saw a magical Beast running straight their direction. Ghost stood up and dashed towards the beast directly preventing the beast to come near smoke who is knocked out.
Ghost : GAHHHHH!
Ghost shouted as he kicked the magic beast in the head.
the Bull staggered back when it was hit by ghost's kick.
Ghost : HA! GAH! die you stupid bull!
With all his demonic strength Ghost slammed the magic beast down to the ground but upon standing up a fireball hit his back causing him to bend on one knee.
as ghost felt his consciousness might slip away from him. he stood up again and gathered his strength biting his hand to wake his self up.
Ghost : *don't you dare give up! smoke depends on you wake up!* he told that to his self fighting with only his will.
ghost suddenly felt an immense murderous aura gather up inside the stadium. he thought it was coming from the enemies. but when he turned around it was smoke getting engulfed by the dark smoke circling her.
Ghost : SMOKE!!!! what are you doing!?
Smoke : I can't let this thing continue! i will no longer tolerate the harm that is being brought unto my friends!
Dark smoke filled the stadium and the shouting cry of a pained girl was heard.
Smoke : you already killed four of us! and that is enough. now i will bring death upon each and everyone of you!!!
The entirety of the stadium was filled with dark smoke the smoke turned into piercing blades that pierced anyone that it reaches.
after a few minutes the black smoke cleared up and only a few people from the crowd survived. every single magic beasts and those wizards that are bombarding them earlier has fallen. a hole was seen on every body that have fallen within the smoke.
ghost saw smoke falling down yet again.
he rushed towards smoke's body.
when he flipped her body over to see her face. ghost was left in shock.
he saw the beautiful face of smoke half erased and changed into a black fog that is constantly filling half of smokes face.
after several minutes of shock the crowd that was cheering happily earlier was now screaming in fear and like ants scrambled as they ran and exited the arena in fear that the black smoke would once again come out and kill them.
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Takeo opened his eyes his eyes met smoke's as she is crying after letting takeo see what happened to her and the midnight snakes 10 years ago.
they are currently inside a room where takeo laid down and smoke went inside his consciousness.
Smoke : that incident was known to be the Hanaduka massacre. which resulted in the closure of that fallen dukedom. it has been declared as a danger zone by the country/
Takeo : what happened to you guys after the incident?
Smoke : Only sixteen of us survived that day. we buried four of our friends outside Hanaduka. we went on hiding there was no news about it since the royals never really wanted it to go public, only the countries executives and the surviving royals know it to this day. we also did not know that sir. Mourdoq survived until last year. we surviving kids became a group, that as you know midnight snakes. we are a gathering data group. we get hired by kingdoms who wants to gather data on their enemies. but last year a governor of krushna village hired us to investigate a royal who was said to have hired a bunch of bandits to ransack their village since he wanted to take their land as his own. we ended up finding sir. mourdoq still as crooked as he can be. i kept telling the others to stop this mission and not come here anymore. but Ghost... Ghost, is filled with hatred and anger towards sir. Mourdoq and kept on pushing through this mission. he stood as the leader of our group so the other members can't really say no to him. but i know ghost is a good man, he does not want to harm innocent lives.
Takeo : but what about the adventurers who was killed for investigating you?
Smoke : we never killed any of those adventurers we let them go after taking information from them. one of our member Akako managed to infiltrate sir. mourdoq's personal army. she saw all of the adventurers that we released went back to sir mourdoq to either tell him they failed or surrendered in taking the quest. but all them was executed by the army.
Takeo : but what about the adventurer earlier? your men killed him.
smoke looked at him with a confuse look.
Smoke : We never killed an adventurer. We sent Ostiv to guide that adventurer back to their building for their security. he said that the adventurer jumped awkwardly inside the building. when the adventurer was inside Ostiv came back immediately to prepare for our raid.
Takeo : but Ghost admitted that innocent lives where lost....
Smoke : i don't know what he is thinking, he is blinded by rage he is not thinking straight. but i can assure you we never took innocent lives while doing this mission. we might have caused harm and injuries but we never took lives.
Takeo : ....................
Smoke : i know that we still need to pay for the trouble we did to the guild.
Takeo : okay i get it---------------------------------------------
*BOOM* BOOM* *BOOOGSH*
Smoke : what is that?
Takeo : Akemi What happened!?
Akemi : Master! it's ayome the adventurer who died at the building earlier!
Takeo : What!?
Smoke looked at takeo and takeo nodded at her.
Takeo : i believe you. let's go!
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As soon as the takeo and smoke arrived at the top chambers they saw Ghost who just got his came back from being knocked out and Ayome infront of sir. Mourdoq who is now hiding behind him.
Takeo : Akemi, Jack, Bami! what is happening?
Jack : i don't know tak. but that motherf*cker who jut died earlier is now in front of us. and that same motherf*cker bombarded us with explosion magic.
Bami : Tak, could you give me permission to annihilate this suppose to be dead person in front of me?
Takeo : i would but im afraid this is not our fight. this guys are not a bad group.
Jack : yeah, we know. we've also been talking to these guys while we are faking our fight, we also know what happened to them and why they are targeting this fat guy.
Ena : Oyy jack, bring me out on a date after this *winks*
Jack : i told you im not into that kind of relationship!
Bami : HAHAHAHAHA
Takeo : oy is bami alright? i've never seen him laugh that much in ages.
Akemi : apparently master, sir Ena likes Jack and bami keeps on teasing jack.
Takeo : ah i see. HAHAHA
Ayome : SO THIS GUYS REALLY FELL FROM MY TRAP HUH? FAKE DEATH? HAHAHAH WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT THIS GUYS WILL BELIEVE THAT THE MIDNIGHT SNAKES KILL THEIR PRAY AND LEAVE A FUCKING SNAKE BITE HAHAHAH
Ghost : -_- Oy you guys believed that?
Takeo : i did not even see his injury.
Ayome : OYY STOP PRETENDING!
Takeo : Shut up. oy smoke, are you not gonna kill them?
Smoke : killing them would make it easy for them.
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