C93: Skull threat, Meet and Greet
Overall Word count = 2625 on 6/2/2024.
Axel tenses as he leans backwards to dodge out of the way of a pair of quick moving knives. Berserk armor covers his body before he is struck by a thick fist which belongs to a muscular but pitch black skinned individual. Even blocked and his armor absorbing a ton of the power, the strike still sends him sliding across the sand by roughly 10ft. Axel leans down to center his gravity and prepare for follow up strikes when the little girl leaps forward where a shadow is.
"No, please. He isn't a target. He is a passerby. He helped me" Axel blinks and he finds that a 'female' with long deep blue/purple hair with a pair of daggers in hand is being pulled by the little girl. Both this woman and the previous brute wear a pure white skull mask over their face that ends without a jaw, so there is only the top half of the teeth.
(2 pics here)
The duo look at the little girl who is a bit on the brink of tears when the woman kneels down to wipe the tears away. "Oh little one, you lost your mask again. Gozuru!!" She speaks to the girl, calming her before calling out to the brute who walks around a few boxes before punching one. This creates a hole in the box that he then wiggles his hand inside until he comes out with a little white skull mask. He hands it over and the woman returns the mask to the side of the girl's head.
(little girls pic here)
"I'm sorry" Little Hassan mumbles to Asako with her head down. The female assassin nods as she gets up again. This whole time she has not relinquished the hold on one of her daggers.
"Why are you here, Foreigner?"
Axel gives a bow to them as he takes out the mission scroll from the guild.
"Greetings lord Assassin. I am passing through the Kaios desert to reach the 'abandoned world' to the southeast of here. I am to investigate the source of the earthquake that rocked the lands a few days ago. The mage tower had been the one who provided this information and requested me to complete this task. The details are in this scroll" He holds it out and he soon tenses up again as another black skinned assassin with a white mask appears near his feet and takes the scroll from his hands before opening it and reading it himself, right in front of Axel. The assassin looks to Asako and the others and nods to confirm Axel's words. He hands the scroll back and Asako puts her knives away properly.
(this newest assassin is Zayd the Base. he is the uber-malnutritioned version of Gozuru)
"It is best if you follow us back to the palace. The king would prefer to be privy to this information to prevent any other trouble from befalling you. He also wishes to know the source of this catastrophe. " The nearby assassin (Zayd) walks back to the rest of the group while The blue haired assassin (Asako) gives their ultimatum. Axel is a bit annoyed as he technically helped them and they wish to escort him to their capital like a captured slave.
"Haaah, fine. Lead the way, ill keep pace."
"Gozuru, lead him. The little one needs extra lessons so as to not lose her mask." "Hnng" The woman says to the hulk of a man, he grunts in return and begins to walk a certain direction to the West. Axel sighs and follows him but not before waving at little Hassan who waved to him first before being brought away by the other Hassans.
Their pace starts off slow, via walking but then it gradually speeds up as Gozuru walks like an ape, using his sizable fists to help balance himself as he increases pace. Somehow using their hands to stabilize himself actually helps him speed up. Axel has to utilize his mantra to keep pace which seems to surprise Gozuru as halfway through their journey at Max speed. It turned to look for him, it's face seemingly scrunched up as if planning to mock Axel for his words of 'keeping pace' and he skipped a little when he saw Axel just behind him with a stoic expression.
The journey is fairly uneventful but they stop a small distance away from it. Gozuru shows how he enters the shadows to create a dark spot which Axel begins to follow into the city. He is stopped by guards a few times but Axel just keeps up the excuse of meeting the king on behalf of Orario and that lets him in. Which is lucky for the guards as otherwise the Hassan would have to show himself and Axel assumes that would not be good.
The Capital City of Shalzard, Sorshana, is a marvelous and very wondrous place. There is great fanfare on all streets as tons of merchants are selling products while people are either doing morning shopping or moving to work. The women are adorned in Hijabs, Abaya's, Burqa's or Niqabs'. While the men kept to thobes, dishdashas, or kandoras. Axel sees plenty of exotic fruits and other items native to the desert lands. Though of course he also saw many slaves being used as menial labor for many of the richer looking merchants and stores.
Axel walks past most of them as they willingly give a wide berth to the tall black armored person walking amongst them uninterrupted, at least until he arrives near the Royal grounds and is brought to a side path where Gozuru comes out of the ground and leads the way forward. They soon encounter another of the assassin's group members. They are completely covered in black cloaks which only reveals a smidget of their white mask (top half of mask, anything above nose)
The cloaked figure looks at Gozuru who begins to sign to the other assassin. They sigh and say, "Follow me. I'll lead you to the king. Go rest Gozuru" the hulk nods and takes his leave while Axel feels a bit annoyed from being handed over from one assassin to another but they finally enter the main palace area. There are guards here who almost rush to stop Axel and the new assassin but one notices the white skull mask and drags his partner away who hasn't seen it yet. Such an instance happens two more times where one member of a pair of guards tries to stop them when their partner sees the Hassan mask and pulls their partner away from certain doom.
(Newest member is Makuru the Quick. Just heavy cloaks with the upper half of the already half mask being shown. So you can only really see the forehead part of the mask and just below the eyes)
"They're smart." Axel comments on the guards who keep protecting the guards.
"Enkidu has paired them well. He is very perceptive too." The hassan (Makuru) answers
(if it's not obvious yet. The assassins is the full collaboration of 'Hassan of the Hundred faces' from Fate/stay under Kirei Kotomine.)
"How do you tell each other apart?" Axel asks but receives a snort in reply.
"You have no need to know," Makuru responds before they arrive near a set of giant doors that holds the strongest pair of normal human guards that Axel has seen. They appear to be level 3 and they maintain a relatively stoic expression upon spotting the Hassan white mask.
"Audience with the king. Guest from Orario" The two guards push the door open which reveals an inner chamber before the actual throne room. The duo enter the inner chamber.
Within the inner chamber is a single seated person. With silky long green hair and childish features that make determining if the person is a male or female difficult. This person wears a loose white tunic which adds onto the already difficult task. They have a cube in hand that they are playing with when they notice the assassin and Axel walk in.
"Issue?" The lovely calming voice of the androgynous figure before the duo asks.
"Meeting with the king. Guest from afar." Makuru answers
"You can go ahead, he is probably bored by now." The person's words seem to unnerve the assassin as they grunt with irritation before walking over to the door and knocking 3 times.
"ENTER"
"Mind your manners when you enter, boy" Makuru warns Axel who rolls his eyes and responds.
"I wouldn't have to if you and your group didn't force me here. I could just be on my merry way to investigate the source of the earthquake" His words seem to make the green haired person chuckle at the situation before they set their cube down and push open the doors themselves before entering.
Opening the heavy set doors, Axel witnesses a long hall with stairs on both ends. One near the entrance and the other near the throne room where a short haired blonde man is sitting with one leg over the other in a relaxed manner. Their chin upon their fist, leaning against their chair. 4 pillars adorn the room with 2 heavy set but stylish carpets that have the design of some sort of golden ax being repeated while in the center is a stone pathway that gives the visual impression of wood. The walls are all stone but appear to be coated in gold which makes everything extremely bright to the mortal eye.
Makuru seems to let out a sigh of relief upon seeing the green haired person open the doors and create a path inside. Axel can almost see the assassin give a look of thanks behind its mask. But it's actually hard to tell with his body language and heavy set black robes.
The duo soon enter and the green haired person walks up the far stairs to sit beside the throne, watching the flowers that are set up into 3 sets: the lower floor, middle steps and top steps. As previously mentioned, upon the throne is a short but blonde haired man with red eyes that is wearing a simple white shirt under a half red and golden robe. Said figure is holding a glass cup of red wine and sipping from it from time to time.
Said person raises an eyebrow upon seeing Axel's armored state. Axel hasn't even taken off his helmet when standing before 'him'. Meanwhile, Makuru bows to the king.
(Pic of green hair and king)
"Do you not bow your head, peasant?"
"I have no need to as you are not my king. I am not of this land and thus should not show my respect to a ruler I not nothing more than the bare minimum about" Makuru immediately trembles, the green haired person giggles while the king himself frowns at the disrespect but makes no move…yet"
"State your name outsider. Why have you come to offend me?" The golden king demands an answer. His red eyes shift into a draconic style pupil as he gazes upon Axel. This is Sha Naqba Imuru. The eyes that have witnessed the world. A form of semi-limited clairvoyance that provides him with the ability to see the true nature of what lies before him. Yet when he peers into Axel, his gaze is blocked by a black cloud that obscures his figure.
"I am Axel Gram, I am from Orario and seek passage through your lands to reach the potential source of the recent earthquake" Axel says and dispels his helmet at least.His words give a thorough introduction but to the king and his clairvoyance, a new golden gateway is opened around his body. The king can still not allow himself to be immersed in the story that lies before him but he does witness 3 scenes.
The first shows a young blue haired boy leaning back in a chair. Chains wrap around him but he shows no care for it as he is cared for by plenty of beautiful women. The second scene showcases a white haired war god slaying gigantic monsters and bedding women. A few chains wrap around this figure as well but not as many as before.. The third shows a 10 foot tall aberrant shadow creature with draconic horns. The figure stands upon a single battlefield with tons of bodies, both aged and new. Shadows of people onlooking at the primary shadow figure can be seen but amongst those shadow, figures of gold make their way forward to stand beside the giant draconic aberration.. The figure is wounded but retains its power as it suddenly reaches out and grabs the chains that wrap the first and second figures, the chains snap and all 3 scenes merge into one.
This leaves behind the image of the blue haired boy wielding a white haired battle god shade and the boy's own shadow is 10ft tall. The boy begins to walk away as golden figures walk beside the boy before they seemingly disappear in an instant. The boy turns around to wave at the onlooking king with a smile on his face before closing the doors that showed these scenes.
The king frowns as he rubs his eyes due to the minor backlash of his skill being canceled involuntarily. The sudden action attracts the green haired person's attention as if seeing something new.
Axel alone remains confused over the silent treatment given to him. Even Makuru possesses some elementary knowledge about the king's abilities.
The king continues to rub his eyes with an annoyed look on his face, the green haired person moves to stand beside the throne as he asks, "If you required uninterrupted passage, then why not pass through our kind neighbors land?"
"With my luck, it would not be uninterrupted and I would be forced to show the world how a new Abandoned World is formed" Axel responds without a doubt. The green haired person, Enkidu, chuckles at his words.
The king, Gilgamesh finally lowers his hand, still with an annoyed expression as he proclaims. "Very well. I shall allow you passage through my realm but my people require entertainment. Face 3 challenges in a location of our choosing and you may continue unbothered"
"Only if your three trials can be completed in a matter of hours or a single day. I won't accept anything else and will just leave. I doubt you will dare show yourself before that person" Axel lists his condition as he dispells his armor and his casual clothing makes its appearance. Along with the chain seals along his forearms and neck.
"Enkidu, how can a bound man pass our challenges?" Gilgamesh asks his best friend and advisor.
"From my sight, I had witnessed that he had clearly been fast enough to block the assassination attempt of the deluded ones' manifestations. That is worthy enough to give a show to the common folk. Take their minds off the tragedy and refill the kingly coffers from your 'generosity' " Enkidu provides a reason while adding on the extra benefits that the overall event would provide.
"Humph. Dismissed.
"Shadow, stay," Enkidu adds. Thus Axel begins to leave the throne room by himself. Upon exiting the throne room and entering the inner sector. He spots a lovely but veiled nubian servant who leads him to a room that shall be his for the duration of his stay.
Axel enters by himself as the servant bows and takes her leave. Axel sits upon the bed while thinking to himself, 'How am I going to explain this to Raikou and the others? Haah'