"Milan!" Malik screams out as he sprints towards Milan who lies on the ground in a catatonic state, his eyes wide open without a single blink, his body rigid like a rock.
Reaching into a pouch attached to the waist of his black cargo pants which are tucked into his boots, Malik grabs a smoke grenade out of it and throws it onto the ground.
Clink, Clank, Clink, Clank.
Within seconds, a bright red smoke begins to disperse out of it, creating a thick veil.
"Milan, wake up," Malik whispers frantically, as he tries to rip out the stuck arrow in the middle of Milan's chest. Every touch of the prestigious silver arrow sends a cold shock through Malik's fingerless gloves.
"Damn what the hell is this arrow made of?" Malik grunts to himself, every force in his body attempting to pry the arrow out.
Suddenly, a shape appears through the thick red smoke, "What the hell did they do to him?" Estrella asks while carrying an unconscious Esmeralda on her back. "We have to try to move him whilst your smoke is still up, now! Those guys on the skeletal horses could be lurking anywhere," Estrella says whilst putting the back of her hand on Milan's forehead. "That arrow and the black bony sword is laced with something, if we don't find somewhere safer, I can't use my Meraki," she says, with her gaze looking to Malik.
"Ge…t ou…t of he…re." A voice straining to get its words out says.
"Milan! Is that you?" Estrella urgently whispers. "Malik, grab him and let's go to the shed," she says. After saying this she bends down to Milan's ear, "That's my man, stay strong for me," she mutters into a frozen Milan's ear.
Malik begins to drag Milan on the floor.
"What are you doing! Can you not carry him?" Estrella asks.
Malik endeavors to carry Milan, "You try carrying this big hunk of a man," he groans out whilst carrying Milan; a man twice the size and height of him.
As they begin to slowly make their way through the smoke, there a tiny shed made of metal scrap lies on the left-hand side outside the camp's rubber tire and metal scrap fence barrier.
"We are almost there, go a little bit quicker Mali…"
WHOOSH!
A strong gust of wind slices past Estrella's luscious black hair, luckily missing over her and Esmeralda's heads. Or so they thought. As the gust of wind begins to settle, a gaping slice is left in the red smoke, and there Karagoz and the three other Obsidian Cavalry riders stand with their skeletal horses.
"I need to do better," Karagoz chillingly says whilst inspecting his bony black sword.
Slish!
In a mere delay of seconds, Esmeralda's back is thinly slashed and begins spraying droplets of blood, and the tail ends of Estrella's hair float in the air and down to the ground before she even notices it.
Halting in his sprint towards the shed, Malik turns back and drops Milan to find Estrella standing still and struck with insurmountable fear, her hands locked behind her back holding an unconscious Esmeralda in place as she carries her. Mightily looming over Estrella, stand the four Obsidian Cavalry riders.
"Run!" Malik screams out whilst reaching into his pouch.
Clink, Clank, Clink, Clank.
Before the shell of the smoke grenade begins to roll on the ground, a sudden jolt of panicking energy causes Estrella to run with all she's got towards Malik and the shed.
BANG!
As quickly as they open the shed door, Malik and Estrella drop Milan and Esmeralda onto the floor to slam the door shut. Immediately they frantically push heavy couches, bookshelves, and satellite dishes towards the door which begin to heavily screech.
Meumeu begins to morph out of Milan's vest. "Meu…" it says in a saddened tone whilst crawling towards Milan's face.
"Meumeu I was wondering where you were," Malik whispers. He begins to bend lower and starts petting Meumeu, "I need to ask you a favor, camouflage Milan for us. We don't have much time, they are going to bust in here anytime now," he says.
"Meu…" Meumeu responds whilst jumping on Milan's body.
"Huh? What do you want me to do?" Malik asks in a confused tone.
Estrella, still panting and sweating on one corner of the shed next to an unconscious Esmeralda begins to speak, "Meumeu is jumping because he wants you to connect Milan to whatever he will transform into," she says as she looks down at the ground with her expression still baffled.
"Right, I see, sometimes I wish you could speak Meumeu," Malik whispers.
"Meeuu…," Meumeu sneers as it elongates its tail and whips Malik's thigh.
"Aah, it was a joke," Malik says.
Immediately, Malik struggles to grab Milan's body and places him onto one of the granny chic sofas blocking the door.
Suddenly, as Meumeu begins to morph into the granny-chic sofa, strangely Milan's body begins to ripple, the floral patterns on the sofa begin to populate his skin and in a matter of seconds, Milan's enormous frame merges into the sofa and he becomes unidentifiable.
"This is the worst day of my life," Estrella grieves. "My sister, look what they did to my dear sister… how scary it must have been to be alone in that horrid place. They who wiped out our Alzarec clan, have no shame and turn you into this monster to work for them," she laments.
Malik begins to slowly inch closer to the corner Estrella sits at. "Estre…Estrella, I know this isn't ideal, but you need to patch Milan up now," he whispers whilst straining his voice.
"Give me a second, dammit!" Estrella breaks as she retracts her scream, her voice cracking in sheer pain whilst kissing Esmeralda's forehead. She gets on her feet and quickly walks to the granny-chic sofas. She begins to purse her lips and lets out a long, soothing breath which is followed by luminescent gold spores that float and sink into the fabric of the sofa to find Milan underneath.
"How do we know it's working?" Malik questions.
"Give him a few minutes, he will be back up," Estrella responds with zero expression showing on her face as she walks back towards Esmeralda.
Slowly, the hooves of the skeletal horses begin to sound outside the shed.
"Este, stand still!" Malik murmurs, his voice cracking under how fast he says it.
BANG…BANG…BANG!
Intense banging of the shed door reverberates, causing the barricade to inch backward and let in light from the outside with every buckle of the door.
Malik and Estrella gaze at each other, silent and with fright drawn on their faces.
All of a sudden, the banging of the door ceases.
Malik and Estrella's ears ring heavily as silence befalls the area; their own frantic heartbeat is the only sound they can hear.
Malik slowly moves the items one by one. He opens the door slightly and peeks left. He then steps back and sticks his hand into the pouch attached to his waist, pulling out 2 rugged-looking pistols.
"Stay in here until I tell you to come out," Malik whispers to Estrella.
Creak…
The door begins to slowly open as Malik steps out whilst pointing one pistol to the left and one to the right.
As he steps out, the sudden sting of the bright sun causes him to squeeze his eyes shut for a few seconds. Once he begins to open his eyes slowly, he finds the red smoke beginning to fade but still blocks the view ahead. He looks around but the skeletal horses and their riders are nowhere to be found.
-
"Why have you summoned us, Sven?" Karagoz asks.
"Don't question me, if you did your job, Milan should be in agonizing pain. Besides, he is not a threat I fear, that belongs to the one we have come to collect. He is heading my way now and I need you to get him," Sven says whilst looking straight ahead at the gaping hole left at the entrance of the Skulldem camp.
Slowly, Vince begins to step forward, his eyes still entirely black, his hair almost touching the red dirt.
"How could we lose you? How incompetent must we be?" Sven whispers.
Vince's hair quickly wriggles and shifts in the air and attempts to wrap Sven up.
But immediately, Sven maneuvers and evades the attack, causing it to create a little crack on the skeletal horse wearing the dark blue and gold masquerade. The horse begins to rear, letting out a hollow, bone-grinding squeal causing its rider with the whip to fall off onto his back.
"Mastigotis, get on your feet now! Your back should never touch the floor!" Karagoz screams out.
"Forgive me Karagoz, that has never happened to us before, the residue of that attack must be strong," Mastigotis replies whilst getting onto his feet.
"I see why the Mother needs you. Apart from knowing you are the incarnation of Khan's prophecy, your Meraki is leaking and without a leash, you could destroy nations, and we can't let another nation possess you, Germania and Rushia would use you to your full destructive potential," Sven mutters to himself.
Whilst Sven continues to mutter to himself, in the blink of an eye, Vince's elongated hair heavily impacts the right side of Sven's face, the shock of it revibrates through his face all the way through his tanned bald head.
Immediately after the impact, Vince's hair entangles Sven's body and wraps him up tightly.
Karagoz begins to strut his horse forward whilst tightening his grip on his black skeletal sword. "So, you are the one they've been talking about. You are the one I sent Machairas to capture; one of the strongest Obsidian cavalry riders, and he couldn't lay a finger on you. Let's see how much stronger you are! Toxotis, shoot your arrow. Kleptis, release your acid. Mastigotis, use your whip on that boy, we cannot allow the Sven to be disrespected like this!" he screams.
Mastigotis gets onto his horse, Toxotis and Kleptis begin to strut their own horses forward, taking aim with their weapons.
"Be still!" Vince says in an authoritative tone.
Instantly, all their horses freeze in place. Sven turns his head to find the riders stuck in place as if a strong force is holding them back.
As Sven turns his gaze back onto Vince, he yells out, "Shinra and Kira, do it now!"
From behind, quiet chilling hisses sound as two hands with long black claws; one belonging to Shinra and the other Kira, impales Vince, and as he drops Sven onto the ground, he looks down at his chest to find the two claws drenched and dripping with his blood.
He begins to slowly turn his body causing the claws to tear and struggle out his chest.
With the claws finally out, his hair begins to shorten back to its normal length, the black streaks begin to fade out, returning his hair to its royal purple color. His all-black eyes start to vanish, and luminescent embers begin to spark out of his hair, and as Shinra and Kira slither their tongue with a slight smirk, Vince begins to lose his sight and tumbles onto the ground.
Stillness engulfs the surrounding area. Karagoz, Mastigotis, Toxotis, and Kleptis of the Obsidian cavalry riders begin to move again, their skeletal horses let out squeals and rear heavily as the power that froze them in place could no longer be felt.
"MY BOYS, I AM PLEASED WITH YOU!" Sven shouts out as he gets off the ground onto his feet whilst gazing at Shinra and Kira.
"To squeeze you tightly is a disrespect to your existence father, we could not allow that," Shinra and Kira reply with their snake-like tongue slithering and a smile growing on their faces.
"Indeed, all that matters is that we can take him back to the Motherland now," Sven softly says whilst bending lower to stroke Vince's hair.
As Sven says this, a recognizable pattern of steps can be heard coming towards his way…
"Oh no, no, no. Don't speak and touch the kids' hair like he belongs to you. I also told you, I was born in pain, didn't I? Now you, your bald head and your band of criminals will experience my wrath," Milan says.
END OF CHAPTER
THEORIES MERAKI – MILAN IS BACK ONTO HIS FEET! WHAT WRATH WILL HE IMPOSE ON SVEN AND HIS CORE?
NEXT CHAPTER – TBD