"So what are your names?" Daichi asked the guards escorting him to the Royal castle.
"It is none of your business Norn." Shyam said coldly.
"Yeah, I know, still it's a long way to the castle, isn't it?" The three of them (Daichi, Kai, Lui) were staying at a small cottage deep inside the forest, so the way was indeed long.
"Shut your trap!" yelled one of the soldiers, he probably tried to follow Shyam's attitude to impress his superior.
"Fine, fine no need for hostility." Daichi said with a hesitantly.
"Instead, how about you answer some of our questions?" suddenly Shyam spoke out of nowhere.
"Questions? You have questions for me?" Daichi asked sarcastically.
"Yes, who better to ask than someone who can literally look into the future? Now, the first question, weren't all the members of the 'clan of Norns' killed? How exactly did you survive that big of a massacre?" Shyam's continuous questions which seemed quite normal to the other soldiers, were nothing but attempts to find out this Norn's origin.
"Well, you ask a loooot of questions. But if I had to answer those, respectfully piss off."
Daichi's blatant reply rapidly increased Shyam's suspicion, "Stop the carriage!" He exclaimed. The carriage stopped Shyam stood up, pulled out his dagger and asked Daichi another question,
"Norn, if you want to stay alive, you will answer me thoroughly. Look into the future and tell me, what am I gonna do with this knife?" Shyam said as he held the dagger closer and closer to Daichi's face.
Daichi talked without breaking eye contact, "I don't even need to look into the future for that. You didn't stop the carriage for no reason; you're gonna stab me with that knife."
Shyam's expression stiffened, he seemed concerned, "Wrong." He said as he stabbed his knife into the soldier's throat, it was the same soldier that had yelled at Daichi earlier.
"What?" Daichi was confused, his eyes were fixated on the soldier writhing in pain, slowly bleeding out.
Shyam signed the others to get out of the carriage.
"Why didn't you look into the future? I specifically told you to!" Shyam pulled the dagger out from the soldier's throat and once again pointed it at Daichi, "Now, you will listen to me! I take it that you have already realized that you are going to die. So if you don't want to spend your last moments in horrendous pain, then you will do exactly as I tell you to. Got it?"
Daichi was still looking at the soldier, he had finally stopped moving, "Why would you kill one of your own?" Daichi asked.
"He was just a nobody, and we need a reason to execute here, right?"
"You killed him, for what? Aren't you a part of the Brethren of SALVATION?! Is this what you call salvation?! You killed an innocent only because you needed an excuse to execute me?"
"Why the hell are you this angry for a stranger? I believe you have something more important to be worried about, your own goddamn life. Now, for the final time, listen to me! You will look into the future, you hear me?"
"Why?" Daichi asked blatantly.
"I need you to tell me, about my future. More specifically, my death. I need to know how this all ends for me." Shyam spoke but he seemed too restless.
"And why would I do that? You'll kill me anyway, its not like there's anything worse."
"Oh trust me! I can do so much worse. And its not a choice; you will tell me! If you do, I promise I'll give you a painless death. Otherwise, you will find out just how worse I can do."
Daichi knew these threats were not bluffs, he would surely die if he isn't careful. Suddenly an idea sparked in his mind, "Fine! But to see your future, I will need physical contact."
"I've never heard of such a requirement for a telling." Shaym was skeptical.
"Well, to see an individual's specific future physical contact is of utmost importance."
"Alright then." Shyam knelt down and offered his left hand to Daichi, "And don't even dare to play any trick."
Daichi nodded and held Shyam's left hand with both his hands which were cuffed. He closed his eyes and started focusing. Daichi moved his head gently, as if he was indeed looking into the future. In reality, he was only trying to emulate how he saw Lui acting while using his ability.
"I see you." Daichi finally spoke, "Laying in darkness, alone."
"What else do you see? How do I die?" Shyam asked restlessly.
"You die the death…. Of a .... Worthless piece of shit that you are."
"What?!" Shyam was infuriated but before he could do anything, Daichi pulled him by his hand and headbutted him with sheer force.
Shyam fell from the sudden unexpected headbutt. Daichi stood up, transformed the earthen bracelet into a hook-like structure, trapped the hook into his handcuffs and broke free.
The soldiers from outside heard the loud noise, one of them entered the carriage and tried to shoot his rifle at Daichi after seeing the situation. But Daichi quickly deconstructed the hook-like structure, sent it flying towards the gun, entrapped it and diverted the shot to the soldier's foot.
"AHH!" the soldier screamed.
"I'm sorry!" Daichi shouted, as he quickly brought the gun upwards and hit the soldier in the face with it. Then he jumped out of the carriage.
"The Norn is trying to escape!" one of the soldiers outside yelled, and at his shout the others aimed their rifles at him, and *BANG*.
"Whoa!" Daichi immediately put his palm to the ground and a wall made of rock emerged from earth. The soldiers emptied all their bullets onto the wall, and the wall protected Daichi.
And then suddenly all of the gunshots stopped; Daichi realized that they had ran out of bullets. He once again pressed the ground, but this time it seemed like the earth emerged hold his hand. He twisted his hand a bit, and suddenly claws came out of the ground and trapped the soldiers in their positions. The soldiers were surprised, and when they were busy trying to get free, Daichi stepped out of the cover, with earthen gauntlets on his hands.
Before the soldiers could even react, they were quickly knocked out by Daichi. But because of the entrapments of the ground they were still standing even after fainting. Daichi smirked and snapped his fingers, and at the snap the entrapments went back into the ground and all the soldiers fell.
"Phew, finally." Daichi let out a sigh of relief, now that he thought the threat gone. But contrary to his hopes, the threat was very much still there; rather it was right behind him.
*Boom*
It was the carriage that somehow exploded to bits, and from inside came out Shyam, hands blazing with fire; it was clear that he was the source of that explosion.
"You! You are no Norn!" Shyam seemed rather furious at Daichi, "I will melt your face off, you scammer!!" suddenly the fire surrounding him increased rapidly and he, he started levitating.
"Oh shit." Daichi was profoundly surprised by this sudden threat, but he knew that Shyam had become too strong for him to defeat.
Shyam was about to burn Daichi alive by spewing fire at him; but he was interrupted, "Oi! You knock-off lamp light!" Shyam quickly turned towards the voice but was greeted with a baton to the face.
It was Kai, he had somehow escaped the dungeon and arrived just in time. But the baton didn't do much damage to the fired-up Shyam, it only pissed him off even farther.
"I will burn both of you!!" He shouted and charged at Kai with fire in his hands. But instead of blocking the attack or running away, Kai just stood there. And only when Shyam was a few inches away from punching him, he caught the punch, with only his left hand; while Shyam was still suspended in the air.
The sudden halt to an attack of such velocity should've easily sent someone flying; but Kai, he didn't even flinch, he stopped the punch like nothing.
"Eh?" Surprised Shyam had never expected this, but Kai's next move was quite easily predictable.
"You call that a punch?" Kai asked, mocking Shyam's strength, "This is a punch."
And without wasting a moment Kai punched him right in the ribs, and most possibly broke a few of them. Shyam lost consciousness and fell onto the ground.
"Daichi! You okay?" He rushed to Daichi to check on him, and after making sure that he was alright, he asked, "Is Lui still in the hideout?"
"Yes. But what the hell is going on?" Asked Daichi.
"I'll tell you everything, but not now. First, we need to move. Our hideout has been compromised."
"Oh really? I didn't even realize that, even after being abducted and nearly killed, I had no idea we were compromised!" Daichi lashed out.
"Really? You didn't?" Kai asked cluelessly.
"Of course I did!! What do you think I am? A freaking moron?"
"No, no, no! But we do need to go. Now!"
____________________________________________________
Meanwhile, Khandavan waters, in between Republic of the Light And Khandava:
"Adil! Lower the net again, we're still 6 Kilograms short on pilchards and sardines." Kadar Jahan, a fisherman from a small village on the North Khandava coast, instructed his son.
The boat they were on, was old and rusty; as the son lowered the net using the pulley, it creaked as if it could break at any moment.
"This is the last catch for today, right? Its really eerie out here, even more so after that attack from Agnisthal last week." Said Adil, the son; to which the father replied, "Don't get restless, boy. We will return home once we catch enough fish, not before that. Now focus on the work at hand"
"Yeah, yeah abba." Then he mumbled to himself, "~focus on the work at hand~"
"Adil!" father's sudden shout startled Adil, but contrary to that it was just a suggestion, "Pull the net up already. We don't need any more than a dozen fish."
"Yeah!" Adil listened to his abba, and without wasting any words pulled up the net. But the net turned out to be heavier than expected. "Abba! Come over here, I need help pulling it up. I think we got a huge ~fish~."
The both of them pulled the net up together; but what they caught was not a huge fish, it was, a corpse. One that was wearing lavish clothes, a corpse that had hair red as the hottest of fires. The corpse had weird arrows impaled in its hands and legs.
"Must be one of the soldiers from the destroyed ship." Said Adil.
"Such a young boy. Lost his life for nothing but useless vengeance." Abba Kadar seemed a bit upset talking about this young lad's unfortunate end, "Throw that corpse back into the ocean."
"What? Throw him back? Can't we at least give him a proper burial?" even though it was evident that this boy was one of their enemies, but still Adil felt he deserved a proper send off.
"No" said Kadar sternly, "it is not worth the time, nor the risk. He is, was someone who would've killed us mercilessly. We do not require to help him reach heaven or hell. Now throw that back into the ocean."
Adil knew it was useless arguing with his father. Thus, he agreed and prepared to throw the corpse. Seeing his son obey his order, Kadar turned around.
"AAHHH!"
a scream, Adil's scream. Kadar turned around quickly, and found his son sitting on his arse, near the corpse, with his mouth opened wide in surprise.
"What happened, Adil?"
"Th-The corpse." He stammered.
"What about it?"
"Its alive!"
"What?! Its been 8 days since the incident. It is impossible for someone to survive underwater for that lo..." Even before Kadar could finish his sentence, he was dumbfounded by what his eyes just saw.
He saw, for just a moment, a finger of that corpse moving very scarcely.
"Move." He mumbled.
"What?"
"Move!" Kadar shouted and shoved Adil out of the way and rushed to the corpse. He put his ear to its chest and tried listening closely.
*Thump* *Thump*
The soft sound of faint heart beats. Adil was indeed correct, this boy was still alive.
"Adil! Turn the boat around! We have a critical patient!!"