For their first journey into the outside world, Xenos and Hail found a fast food restaurant at the end of the hill. The Warrior chuckled at his sister marveling at the neon light plastered widely over the entrance.
"You want something?" He asked.
Hail's eyes widened. "REALLY?" She turned back to her brother.
"Sure. Why not?" Xenos shrugged. "Considering we left without eating the food Dad was making," her brother muttered.
The siblings slid down the hill they stood atop. By the time their feet stopped before the restaurant's entrance, the luminous neon sign placed overhead dimmed. Hail covered her eyes with her arm.
"Bright..."
Xenos smiled. Paying no mind to what she uttered to herself, he stepped forward and extended his hand, pushing open the entrance to the restaurant. Besides the expected workers, the interior was vacant. Looking down, he pulled up his sleeve, revealing the watch bound around his wrist.
"An hour before closing time." He pushed up his glasses. "If it were 30 minutes, we'd leave. Follow me, okay?"
Hail nodded at him.
Xenos led his sister into a booth at the end of the row. He sat across from her on the left while she settled into the right. Smiling, the Warrior's fist sunk into his cheek, staring however briefly at her before turning to the window beside them.
"If I remember correctly, you like the sunset. Right?"
Busy reading the menu; Hail nodded. Xenos shook his head, smiling. After grabbing the cord next to the curtain, he tugged on it but once, using enough strength to discard the blinds and reveal the vast scenery of green outside. He smiled and lowered his hand, letting his head tilt so the Warrior's fiery-orange eyes could glisten at the identically-colored sky above them.
"Beautiful. Isn't it?"
"Yeah." She folded the menu after closing it and placed it on the table. "It is."
The expression spread across his dear sister's face was odd. They were finally in the outside world, where nothing but the limits of human malice could dare stop them. But, if that were true, why did she look so distraught?
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Averting her gaze, Hail's head shook. "Nothing," she said. "I just got the chills all of a sudden. Also, an odd feeling. Almost like... we're being watched."
The Warrior's head tilted. "'Watched?'"
Bullet fire destroyed the window beside the booth they were sitting in. Xenos instantly vanished before reappearing behind the perpetrator, simultaneously unsheathing his sword and cleaving the shooter in half upon appearing outdoors. Pushing the katana into the cover hung on his hip, the Warrior turned around, grimacing through emotionless eyes at the other armed thugs steadily approaching him.
"Seriously? Are we Zols that valuable to you freaks? How deplorable..."
The shadows from the sun peeled over the Warrior. Facing the shooters, his arms stretched, gripping the sheathed sword between his fingers.
'Predestined Power: Unwavering Malevolence.'
Yanking the blade out of its sheath, Xenos spun around, vanishing instantly after withdrawing the sword. The Warrior surpassed the shooters' naked vision; he ran past one after another, tightly holding his trusty golden blade. Then, he stopped. Amid the bodies. Xenos stood, hearing the blood leak from their corpses with the tiniest drip. He turned around with the sword sheathed.
"Hey!!" He yelled over at Hail. "You okay!"
She peeked out the destroyed window frame. "Who were those guys..?" asked the girl, jumping over the edge.
"Can't say. I shouldn't have been so rough handling them." He crouched, lifting a piece of one's skull and tilting it, examining the expression etched into the deceased's face. "They look like normal people." He looked down, examining the shooter's attire. "More accurately, normal assassins. Sent after us specifically, of course."
"But why?" She asked.
He sighed. "The Zol clan's a lineage of 'myths'. The world doesn't even believe we exist, so they try to come to the infamous woods we live in to kill us. A Zols' corpse could go from anything between five hundred thousand to a hundred million. Publically, only one's ever been found. By the infamous Progenitor: Atlas Amit."
"And?"
"The Zol Atlas Amit found was never seen again. Rumors have it that their corpse is the very thing empowering the Gate," he said.
Aura blazing around her, Hail stepped forward. "One of our brethren?" She clenched her teeth, glaring at her brother with merciless eyes reflecting infinite hatred. "This 'Atlas Amit'. Where is he?"
He shrugged. "Nobody knows. Some think he lives in the Gate's City, but ever since the terrorist attack that occurred there a few months ago, I doubt it. There's no way the legendary Progenitor would sit out in the open, waiting for the enemy to--"
The millions upon billions of pure human beings birthed into the world every passing second were irrelevant. Around them surrounded nothing but nature's innate greenery, and above them--the sunset's signature orange glow. With the addition of those extra birds flying into the sky as they squawked from their beaks, everything made for a perfect setting.
That perfection was utterly destroyed. Above and around them; no longer was the sun gradually sinking into the horizon, nor was their environment as green as before. The siblings could only despair at the pressure. Sapping color and life from everything and anything was the source of hatred. Their eyes shrunk at the sight of him.
Atop the hill they arrived from was none other than a Displacement. Apollo Moloch. The emerald blaze resembling his Fate erratically swayed around the Displacement's soul. After blindly scanning the restaurant's general area, he looked down, surprised to see a blonde-haired Zol man beside what looked to be his sister. Shivering, Hail stepped back, attempting to speak after parting her lips. Unfortunately, she couldn't.
Apollo pointed at them. "You two down there," he said. "What are you doing out of the forest? You both are Zols, aren't you?"
Xenos set aside the fear and drew his sword, aiming it at Apollo perched atop the cliff.
"We don't have to answer that!"
Apollo's head tilted. "No? Well, then..." The Displacement took one step forward. "You'll just have to die."
Hail gasped.
The Warrior and Displacement vanished.
The Warrior was the first to advance, holding the sword behind him while rocketing through the air. But by the time Xenos finished his initial charge, he felt a warmth entrap his face. A warmth he wouldn't even register until another half-second later. And once that happened, his back was slammed into the ground.
'Shit!'
Xenos bounced from the concrete and slid onto his feet. Fate ablaze around his sword, he sighed, glaring over the steel as the Displacement approached.
"You're strong…"
Apollo smirked. "No shit," he said. "Apollo Moloch. I already know you're a Zol, but what's your name? Your given name."
"Xenos. Xenos Zolstein."
"And what of this girl?"
The Warrior's widened eyes indicated the enemy's abrupt disappearance. Spinning around, his eyes reflected Moloch—the Displacement's extremities sunk into Hail's neck. The sensation of his fingertips invading her skin dissipated only after he instantly vanished from standing behind her.
As Xenos stroked his sword, the tip nicked off Hail's hair, causing Apollo to jump and kick the Warrior across the face. The following impact slammed into his cheek and resonated like a shockwave.
'A mere kick… has this much power?'
Moloch's fist punctured the ground below him as Xenos quickly fell. Rolling back to his feet, the Warrior slashed at Apollo, noticing the Displacement duck under and then, punching him in the gut. He jumped as Xenos flew into the air, grabbing the Warrior by his leg and throwing him into the clouds.
Just before he could continue the endless barrage of merciless attacks, Xenos spontaneously vanished from mid-air. Puzzled, Moloch looked around—finally locking onto Hail below him holding her brother in her arms, crouched into the concrete.
He sneered. "I see. So you did that."
When Hail dyed her hair in the Stein Forest, she received untold amounts of criticism, both from her family and the local townsfolk. There was only one person who stuck up for her. Her big brother.
Even now, amid her turbulent aura—the girl blinded by rage remembered the past. And so, however subconsciously, her Power was suppressed the moment she invoked it after the Displacement's emergence.
A bestial snarl enveloped the area. Apollo's eyes grew veins from the ends that pointed inward at the iris. Turning his head, Moloch smirked, spotting his bloody arm fall from the torso. Carefully landing, the Displacement held his wound and retreated, scanning the area with his bright green Fate.
'That was instantaneous! Is this that girl's technique?' His pupils kept darting around the environment. 'Where is she?'
Hail emerged from the shadows behind Apollo. Glancing over his shoulder, Moloch watched the foe's fist pierce the air. By quickly altering his stance on the ground, he managed to divert her attack; guiding her knuckles to stab his throat.
'My chance!' he thought.
With one fist in his throat, she intended to use the other. Apollo anticipated this. Throwing back his head and unhinging the jaw--three Fate beams sparkled down his throat. The ground behind Hail spontaneously imploded as she snickered after rolling out of the way. Resuming her advance toward the Displacement, Zol's arms dragged behind her, leaving Apollo impressed and dumbfounded.
'Impressive. The girl's Predestined Power is different from that of her brat brother. Compared to him, her aura is erratic like that of a psychotic. She shouldn't be able to manipulate her Fate's properties that masterfully, yet she is. The innate technique's conditions embedded into the soul activate subconsciously whenever the 'target' is injured. A mix of offense and defense--an unrivaled ability.' Apollo smirked. 'But it doesn't matter what an ability can do as long as you have the strength to beat it. I'll kill you before your unconscious self can master that technique... Zol scum!'
Once Hail reached her target, the girl's fist cocked back and brightened; Apollo's eyes widened. Her knuckles split apart the ground, leveling the concrete to temporarily infect the air with smoke. Moloch covered his face, cautiously scanning the mist's interior. Then, it happened.
The moment Hail's face burst from beyond the perimeter and into the smokescreen, their fists collided. Thrown from the blow, Apollo reeled back. He could only watch her sprint at him with wholly-black eyes and a colorful aura ablaze around her. The instant she came close and punched his face, he stepped to the side, watching her turn around with a sideways follow-up kick.
Leaning back, Apollo grunted, feeling the pressure of a secondary fist crash into his arms--etching the Displacement in the ground below. He flipped back and into her other fist; barely managing to duck under it and raise, slamming his palm into her bust.
Skidding back on her soles following the blow, she squinted, noting Moloch's abrupt disappearance. Eyes widening, she twirled around and kicked at her rear, making Apollo duck under her thigh.
With a smile on his lips, he lifted her by the leg and stood, increasing the output around his knuckles for it to implode against Hail's gut after he finished punching her. The result was her body soaring away from him while leaking blood from her lips, inevitably tumbling to a halt as she collapsed on the ground.
Wind flowing through his hair, Apollo stood tall, looking down at the unconscious girl while her aura gradually faded.
He put a phone to his ear. "Hey. Can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear. Speak," spoke Atlas on the other end.
"Got two more Zols over here. Looks like they tried leaving the forest to venture into the rest of the world. One was a Fated Warrior with a subpar technique and the other was an amateur with an excellent technique. They didn't make me use my Power, but they were certainly a handful," he said.
The inner Stein Forest crackled with the flames igniting the charred leaves. Wavering with the wind, Atlas looked down, staring at the corpse his sword was impaling.
An old man with blonde hair gasped weakly as the sword was ripped from his flesh and the Progenitor stepped back. His disturbingly wide sinister grin sent transmissions of malice through the speaker in the phone.
"Leave them alive after plucking one limb each from their bodies. Return after the deed's done," Atlas said.
Amit turned away from the corpse he stood over, examining the rest of the ongoing massacre. He strolled through the village with doe eyes and smiled, hearing the citizens' relentless wails as they begged for death. Eventually, Atlas stepped back, watching a couple burst out their front door after being lit ablaze.
After the Progenitor walked over their burnt corpses, he reached his comrades, holding three uninjured men and two uninjured women. He smiled at their blindfolded faces. Muhammad and Luna glanced at each other.
The expression across their faces read, 'Should we be doing this?'
Regardless, they were in far too deep to abandon the Progenitor's schemes, so the siblings kept their doubts to themselves. Even if it meant making themselves murderers.
"Where's Monstrum?" He asked.
Muhammad shrugged.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he killed all the kids on his own," Luna said.
"I heard my name," said Malum.
Lifting a little boy by the back of his shirt, he threw the child to Amit's feet. More followed as the Disastrous extended his arms. Below the Progenitor's unsightly gaze laid a total of six children—nothing more than necessary sacrifices.
Atlas sighed and looked up, marveling at the wonders produced by the sky. "Wait until Apollo arrives, then kill the kids in front of their parents. Torture them if they try to run."
The Progenitor walked away from his subordinates after issuing them that last order. After he reached the halfway point, Apollo emerged from the trees; the master and pupil walked past one another without so much as exchanging a single word.
The Zol parents wept for their children's safety as the kids were mercilessly slaughtered before them. Apollo's hand lowered and his aura dissipated. He sighed into the air.
'Fuck. What's wrong with me?' Moloch's eyes closed. 'Why do I feel… for those scum?'