REVELATIONS II

"That was my first day inside the walls."

"Well, how did you get inside?" Alicia asked, attempting to comprehend her story.

"I lived in a village just miles outside the boundaries of the walls. I lived with my mother and my younger brother. A few years back, before I woke up inside these walls something frightful started. Some people just came into our village and ordered people to join them or die, those of us who trusted our guts agreed. Others like my father did not heed to them, and they paid for it with their lives.

Before their arrival word spread from our neighboring villages about them, how they show up out of nowhere and suddenly enslave villages and the people living in them. We had ground forces of gifted soldiers to offer us protection but they had power as we've never seen.

They were grouped into eight divisions and once in a while some weird people dressed in robes used to come to the village to check up on things, those colonials used to call themselves the 'heads'. The most frequent visitor who came to our village was the one named the 4th head, Dakario!"

Lora uttered that name, not ashamed to exhibit her fear.

"By the time we ran away with my mom they had already taken over more than half of the villages we knew.

And soon after people started disappearing. That's why we planned to run."

Lora paused for a moment to swallow the bitter taste tingling in her mouth. Her past brought back uncomfortable feelings. Alicia jumped in and broke the silence

"But if it's that bad how come the Independent states have never heard of them?"

"... That's the scary part. One of the heads has the power to control vurhans, I saw it myself, that's why people can never get out because he makes the vurhans surround the whole wall. They also have people inside the walls in the States to help them keep their existence a secret. Their influences run deep, They have footprints everywhere!"

"but I don't get it. The wall is like ten of thousands of feet tall, and like a mile wide. And it has no gate, not to mention the poisonous miasma surrounding the gate, the furthest you can get to it is a few kilometers away, any closer and the miasma will melt your insides, how did you and your mother manage to get in?"

"I don't even know how I got in, I just found myself here. At first, it wasn't only my mother and me. We were a big group. There was a smuggler who promised to get us into the walls but for a heavy price, but halfway through the whole thing we were drugged before we could get close to the gate.

When we woke up we realized it was just a trick and that the smuggler was working for the Vurhanil king. We were being sent off to free state to be used as food for the vurhans... by that time we had already crossed the wall, so we escaped, there were sixty of us who escaped from the rest of the group. We started running into the woods...at that point we didn't even know we were in free state inside the walls, and that we were running in Enkai forest. Along the way, the vurhans spotted us and started attacking and killing us off one by one. Most of the people died...in fact...all except me and my mother, we kept running but two more vurhans were after us, lucky for us it was dawn so in a few

moments the vurhans turned docile and we gained more ground.

We walked in until we were a few miles away from this village, then the two vurhans reappeared and we were ambushed. That night a stranger in a hood saved us from those vurhans. He was so strong, not like any gifted I've ever seen. His eyes and fists lit up and he could teleport. He killed the vurhans and disappeared just as he showed up. The villagers heard the commotion though and came out and found us. We told them we were travelers escaping the vurhans that attacked our village. They offered to help us, even gave us a home. But from that day I kept looking for the stranger and trying to find out more. But through my research, I was told only one person can fit the description I gave them..."

All of them turned to look at Daito, trying to avoid their glaring eyes.

"I mean it is obvious you know, your power is the only gift known to have a blue aura." Slejj commented.

So there is another world outside the walls. Alicia marveled at the thought of people living outside of the Independent States. What was outside there? Could there be new species of animals? She wanted to ask those questions right away but the circumstance was not favorable.

The villagers emerged from the forests, armed with axes and scythes, knives, machetes, basically anything that had a blade sticking out of a wooden handle. The grumpy village chief led the group.

Approaching Slejj and the others slowly, they muttered under their breaths. They seemed agitated. The chief then spoke up, "YOU! YOU DEVILS!! how dare you soil this land with your accursed presence!"

"What? What are you..."

"Be quiet! And you, my dear princess, how could you let a devil from North Angus walk into our village and into my home..." the chief said, disgusted with them. One of the villagers poked his head out from the dense crowd and tossed Alicia's robe in front of the chief. He disgracefully spat on it, proceeding to step on the North Angus insignia on the back.

Alicia shot up to her feet, fuming with rage, "How dare you! We are the ones who've protected you, is this your way of showing gratitude for saving your lives..."

"Shut up! I'd rather lose my life to a vurhan than have it be saved by you tykes." another villager passed on a bowl of oil to him. He tipped it over, allowing the liquid to soak the cloak. As it clung on to itself, wet with oil the chief tossed a flaming torch onto it. Within no time the robe burst into flames, saturating

the air with its thick black smoke and the whiff of burning fabric spread across the forest. The robe melted into the ground in a

sizzling sound, Alicia stared at it, anger boiling up inside her.

" I am ashamed of you my princess, you bring insolence like them into our land, witches! The vurhans only attacked our village because of those cursed gifted, and yet you bring one to us!!!" Lisa was pushed upfront from amongst the villagers. She tumbled and eventually sprawled to the ground. The tight rope binding her hands behind her back tightened on her fall, forming red spots on her wrists. Her brightly colored kimono was soiled with stinking mud and her hair ribbons were all messed up.

"This creature, it manipulated the air around us...tried to kill us!"

"That's, that's not true. I conjured the air barrier to keep you safe." Lisa faintly whispered, with a faded voice drained with a melancholic tune.

Daito slowly rose to his feet. His hair drooped down covering his eyes, but the bright surge of light emanating from them could still be seen, driving fear into the hearts of the villagers. Even with a broken wrist, he managed a tight fist with a crackling sound, as if the broken bones were scrapping at each others' rigid ends. He grated his

teeth together like a wild bull. His hair suddenly illuminated, blooming into a bright blue aura of strands that matched his eyes.

Next came his fists, and then his feet. A halo ring popped up above his head, spinning and spewing out blue fiery specks. It was similar to the one that hovered above the mysterious figure but he was bright blue, shooting out embers from every direction. He growled at the villagers who backed away in terror!

Daito was drifting into a state known to the god magicians as STATE KAIZU!