“Two Seperate Souls”

The cinder-filled air burnt Nico's lunges as he snuck across the the roof of the kingdom's border, The Leader leading the way, a knife in his hand.

Nico couldn't help but peak over into the kingdom, looking down to the townsfolk. Some carried beastly appearances, others merely being undistinguishable from humans, though carrying a unique red hair, like Nico.

"The hell are we doing here?"

Nico glared at The Leader, who entirely ignored him, Nico frowning in annoyance from such. The two made it to a guard's tower at the corner of the kingdom's walls, a marksman of sorts stood within.

The marksman carried a proper modern sniper, as it seems despite the medieval appearance, the world still consisted of today's advancement. The Leader snuck up on the marksman, plunging his knife into their neck, delivering a quick and silent kill.

"Was that necessary!? You could've just knocked them out.."

Nico proclaimed, The Leader looking back at him as he shook his head.

"If they were to wake up, they'd alarm others, and the entire kingdom would be searching for us. A survivor must know when to kill."

Nico's expression went blank as he looked down. The Leader was right, and Nico knew that inside, as he followed into the tower.

"Where are we supposed to go, anyways..?"

The Leader opened the trap door leading to the bottom of the tower, then looking around the room before glancing to Nico, specifically his red hair.

"Put this on."

Nico was suddenly met with a cloth to the face, The Leader having taken the clothes of the killed marksman, Nico holding the clothes out to see as he sighed, in doubt of such a disguise working.

Nico put the outfit on, as The Leader merely kept looking out the window into the kingdom. Nico picked up the marksman's sniper, examining it with interest.

"Ready?"

The Leader suddenly spoke, Nico caught off guard as he was pushed down the trap door, falling to the bottom of the tower, before rolling through the door, entering the kingdom.

"The fuck..!"

He looked up to the top of the tower as he stood back up, brushing himself off before looking forth, the townsfolk looking at him.

"Ah- Are you okay..?"

A young woman approached him, a slight giggle in her voice to his foolish enterance, her straight red hair flowing through the gentle breeze as she placed her hand on his arm.

"That was quite a fall..! You're not injured are you..?"

Nico was almost persuaded by the woman's beauty, and kindness, though he quickly snapped out of it, regaining a stoic expression as he slightly nodded.

"I'm fine. I need to get to whoever the Ruler is, asap."

The woman raised an eyebrow, Nico's speech, and request all rather strange as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Why do you want to see the ruler? Heck, you don't even seem to know who they are.."

She leaned closer to Nico, in close inspection of him as he began getting nervous, looking around frantically before taking a step back.

"I'm uhh… A foreigner, yeah.. A messenger, actually. The post office doesn't really tell any details."

The woman still didn't seem to be buy it, but she let it go and shrugged, grasping his hand as she began leading him through town.

"Well then.. I can show you where to go, but.. I wouldn't dare trying to speak to the lord… He can be very.. violent."

Nico hained a smug expression on his face as he atood tall, shaling his head to her statement.

"Violence doesn't mean anything if you don't have the strength to back it up. I'm sure I'll be fine..!"

The woman looked up at him as if he were stupid, brushing her thumb against his cold hand as she flinched in sudden realization.

"Why do you carry prosthetics..? And that eyepatch..! What possible things could've caused this.."

Nico looked down into the palm of his free hand, frowning as he turned it to the other side, clenching each finger one by one.

"I have a, uh.. very corrupt goverment. They tricked me and a bunch of others, threw us all on an island with weapons, and made us kill eachother to survive. I won in the end, but uh, not every part of me survived."

The woman looked in intrugie, running her fingers gently across the metal, sliding them through it's crevices, Nico feeling a bit uncomfortable as he watched her do so, though suddenly a pebble hit him in the head from afar, shot by the still roaming Leader to knock some sense into him.

"What a tragedy.. ah, what's this..?"

The woman flipped a switch within one of the crevices, Nico's arm opening up, as the canister that contained what generated his explosions was shot out into the air.

Nico drastically attempted to catch it, knocking it back into the air a few times before finally catching it, quickly inputting it back into his arm. The woman quickly bowed, her hands clased together.

"Ah, I'm sorry..! I didn't mean for that to happen..!"

Nico sighed in relief, looking down to the woman as he shook his head, pulling her back up straight, then resting his palm on her clasped hands.

"Don't sweat it.. Now, where do we need to go..?"

The woman looked around, having forgotten where they remained, before pointing to the nearby staircase, then up to the castle seen above.

"Just up there and through the garden.. good luck..~"

She ran off, waving back to him as she did with a smile, as Nico looked to the stairs, and then back to her, waving his hand in the air as he shouted.

"Wait..! What's your name..!?"

The woman stopped, facing to him as she held her hands to her mouth, shouting back to him.

"Rowlocus..!"

She smiled brightly before returning to running off, Nico slightly smiling before walking up the staird. The garden at the top was quite the view, full of beautiful flowers, trimmed hedges and a large fountain in the middle of it all, the red color scheme giving a uniqueness to it.

Nico walked through the garden, the sounds of birds chirping and the fountain's water streaming being all that's heard, it was quiet up here, peaceful.

Nico made his way to the castle, looking up at the large gate as he took a deep breath, his hand approaching the handle, before the sound of sliding metal could be heard.

Two lizard-like guards appeared out of nowhere, both wielding halberds in hand, crossing them together in the way of Nico's path.

"State your reason for being here, newbie..!"

Nico looked back and forth to the two of them, both looking quite whimisical, as he grabbed their halberds, pushing it back as it bonked them both in the noses, knocking them out.

"Weird ass place…"

Nico muttered, slowly pushing open the castle gate, a red carpet seen spread forth, as at the end sat a throne, a large man of red sat, his arms behind his head as his empty eyes glared towards Nico.

"What do you want?"