Chapter 5: Welcome To The City of Fools!

The sun peaked from the horizon and the local creatures of this mountain range awakened to start their daily routine. Find, hunt and kill their prey. Kai had awoken at first light; he had climbed up a nearby tree that was hanging off the edge of a cliff that overlooked the plains of the desert region that marked the end of the mountain region. He was in deep thought, reminiscing a past long gone now.

*Flashback*

"Hey Kai, Isn't this view great!" A woman stood on the highest branch of a massive tree with a smile that could capture the heart of many and eyes that could calm the most aggressive of beasts.

"Yeah....It's beautiful." Kai spoke, standing on a branch that was a bit lower. But he had a smile, a genuine smile and was looking at the girl the whole time as he spoke.

A gust of wind blew, and the woman's hair swayed to her face as she giggled with joy while Kai covered his eyes from the leaves breaking off before he opened his eyes again, but the woman disappeared.

*End of flashback*

Kai snaps back to reality as a similar gust of wind blows and he looks around with a faint spark of hope in his eyes before realizing where he was, losing all colour in his eyes once again.

"Back to reality, back to hell."

"....AI!" Kai hears a faint scream coming from back in the direction of the camp site.

"KAAAAIIII!" The screams get louder and louder.

He looks behind him to see Trixx emerge from some bushes looking annoyed.

"If I'm in hell then she must be the devil." He thinks before she notices him.

"Where the fuck have you been!? Do you have any idea how long I was searching for you!?" She begins throwing a tantrum.

"Judging from your eyes, you woke up an hour ago and probably waited 10 minutes before deciding to search for me which means you were searching for me for around 50 minutes give or take." Kai replied which Irritated Trixx even more.

"AN HOUR!" She starts throwing rocks at him which he dodges easily while leaping down to safety.

"The city of fools is in the far end of the horizon that way, we can make it by mid-day if we start now." Kai informed while point with his thumb behind him.

Trixx looks over his shoulder before looking back at him and huffs in frustration and stormed off back to camp. "Fine, let's go then! I am NOT going to spend another night in this cursed mountain!"

As Trixx stormed off Kai frowned slightly, something was bothering him, but he pushed it aside for the moment and proceeded to follow Trixx.

Back at camp, they were busy packing everything as quick as they could, but in the middle of all this, Kai was lost in thought.

"If I dislike her so much then why am I helping her? Why am I staying with her?...It's not hate....so then why?"

"Hey, I refilled the water jugs, let's get outta here." Trixx returns from a stream nearby with fresh water, interrupting Kai's deep thoughts.

They finished packing up everything and now made way to the city.

A few hours later.

The first step Kai and Trixx took was on sand and dried up lands. The land at sea level was different. The air was more polluted, the land now a dry and harsh desert plain. Our duo made their way towards the city that was no longer visible from this angle compared to the view they had from the top of the mountain. Out of all the other challenges they had faced, the final stretch would be the hardest of all since the environment was not as harsh up until now.

The winds blew a silent song as dead husks of plants and animals remained. A story can be told from the way they remain, the fauna seems to have been scorched and were all facing one direction seemingly trying to run away from it, while the animal remains all fragmented into bits and pieces, almost like they were amputated while they were still alive. A truly ominous place to be in, who knows what veiled stories can be told about the cause of such destruction.

Kai stopped and kneeled down to pick up a small branch before it crumbled into smaller pieces on his very hand. "This isn't normal."

Trixx turns around. "You mean the creepy charred remains? Well, this world did collapse from some cataclysmic event caused by the precursors of this world a long time ago Hoody."

"No, this wasn't the after effect of that cataclysm, this was something else....is it him?" He argued but whispered the last part to himself.

"Okaaaay, what else could have possibly done something as violent as this?" She asks.

"Something that didn't originate from this world. Let's go." Kai closed his hand and crushed the remaining pieces of the charred branch before getting up and moving in front of Trixx who didn't like the implication of what Kai meant and followed soon after.

"And stop calling me damn Hoody. It's a cloak for god sakes." He berates Trixx, who chose to ignore him and walk faster.

They cross through several abandoned towns, dried up rivers, more charred remains and even a few canyon drops. Making their way closer and closer to the city, it was eventually in their sights. A city that was once a beacon of innovation and progress, now a desolate and broken city after years of erosion as time flowed on. Eventually they wound up at a garbage dump, filled with mechanical parts which could be used to repair a source of transportation.

Trixx immediately started working on fixing it.

"How do you know how to fix this thing?" Kai asks in surprise as she began working on it with skill and precision.

"This "Thing" is called a Desert Surfer, and these have been used by the surface dwellers for the past 100 years." Trixx pauses and looks up to Kai.

"And?" He urges her to go on.

"And it was a form of transportation. You would stand on the surfboard like surface and use the sail attached to the end of it. The sail is intact which is good and no, this ain't no ordinary sail. It's special because it's made from a local desert creatures body part that uses its scales to deflect wind currents that would slam against its otherwise fragile body. Thus, the surface dwellers would hunt them and use its scales to make these sails which would allow to travel through the desert in a way no other wind powered machine could, it would capture and redirect the wind it absorbs and use it as thrusters to blast us into any direction we want! Cool right!" She looks back at him giving him a thumbs up.

"What happened to your language proficiency? You just spoke like a normal being just now." Kai was slightly surprised at Trixx's sudden change in character. A side which he had never seen up until now.

"Huh? What are you talking about? I've always spoken like this." Trixx tilts her head as she replied half lost at what Kai meant.

"Strange...she doesn't actually notice? Hmmm, SOUL SEER." Kai uses his unique ability on Trixx and notices something abnormal. Something was clouding part of her mind.

"What are you doing? What's with the eyes?" Trixx asks feeling a chill down her spine as she rubs it off.

Kai stops using his skill and his eyes return to their normal green colour, still concerned with what he saw.

"Nothing, are you sure you can make it work?" He asks trying to change the subject.

"Oh please, what good did 12 years of my life do building machines and weapons if I can't even fix something like this? She replied.

Kai leaves her be and goes to inspect other strange machines that were thrown away. From more decommissioned Desert surfers, to broken mechs and weapons. All broken beyond repair with little to no parts to salvage, but in some cases, you may be lucky enough to find something of value, and Kai did. He noticed something under a giant mech shinning in the sun light. He grabbed a metal pipe and pivoted the mech off the shinning piece of metal just enough to pull it away. After some struggle, he managed to pry the piece off before the mechs weight snapped the metal pipe in half. He moves away from the dust that got kicked up from the mech collapsing before he wipes the dust of the piece of scrap he had found. The glove was being worn by a limb that appeared to have been ripped from a bigger body.

He removes the glove and puts it on, a light of blue courses through the lines and symbols ingrained on the glove as it powers up, Kai observes closely before opens and closes his hands. The glove glows brighter when he closes his hand but dims when he opens them.

"Interesting, some sort of built in mechanism involving the power input and output. I need the second glove." He thinks before he makes his way to the mech again.

He uses Soul Seer and sees a faint energy trail similar to the glove he was wearing, leading away from the mech and into a pile of heavily damaged mechs. He pries them off one by one until he finds a body. It was a female body, charred like the fauna and animal bodies they had found earlier. She had a missing right arm but, on her left, was the second glove.

He kneels down to pick it up but suddenly, when his hand touches hers, he briefly sees a vision. A dark twisted storm was covering the sky, and in this very place, the woman was fighting viciously against something, before she was knocked back hard, hitting a pole which knocked a disabled mech unstable and it collapsed to the ground, crushing her right arm. She screams in pain. The next moment she was leaning on a wall with her right arm missing, before her aggressors surrounded her as she closed her eyes and took one deep breath.

Kai recoils back in shock, holding the second glove in hand while his other hand on his head from a headache he got from the vision. He backs away slowly, looking at the body again, he realizes what he saw. He closes his free hand into a fist in anger before they loosened.

30 minutes later.

Kai was now standing over a grave he had just made. He kneels down and slowly whispers. "I'm sorry for the pain you had to go through before your final breath. But rest assured, you can sleep in peace now." He pauses for a moment and takes a deep breath before he continued. "May the stars guide you to the realm beyond gods and mortals, where you shall be free from all pain and suffering if you choose to go to the world beyond. If not, then may you be reborn in this universe once more but have the life you deserve. [ Viramera De Ra Vimera ]." After saying the last verse, he gets back up and makes his way to the gloves he had set down before burying the corpse.

As he puts them on, he had observed that he could activate and deactivate them by just thought alone. However, before he could do anymore tests Trixx called him.

"Hey hoody! I got the Desert Surfer to work, let's go!"

"One moment Trixx." Kai opens and closes his hands a few more times to see if something happens before he deactivates them and makes his way to Trixx.

He gets on the Desert Surfer and crouches down in front of Trixx who was in the back piloting the craft. There were two separate handles an equal distance from one another. The first handle was near the back a foot away from where the pilot would operate the sail of the craft. The second handle was two feet away from the first handle, around the middle section of the craft. Kai held down of the first handle and braced for the rapid propulsion from the crafts sails.

"Ready!?" Trixx yelled as she grabbed onto the levers that would activate the sails as the craft began to hover off the ground, the bottom of the craft had holes in which the sail would redirect the air it captures down into these holes which would lift the whole machine off the ground.

"Ready." Kai grips the handle with one hand tightly while he kept his other hand resting on his knee.

Without further delay, Trixx pulled the levers and the craft rapidly propelled forward in a high rate of speed. The more air the sails captured, the faster it went should the pilot allow it, which is why there is another lever used as a steam valve of sorts to release unwanted air pressure through the side holes on the craft. As they were speeding across the desert, small creatures of all sorts went into hiding from the loud noise caused by the Desert Surfer. They were making incredible time; the city was now in sight and there were no more obstacles on their path.

Trixx had a massive smile on her face with her eyes wide from the adrenaline of piloting a contraption as powerful and amazing as this. Kai was merely enjoying the moment in silence as he closely watched everything that was happening with the machine he was on. He looked to the side to see the horizon and in that moment, he had recalled another memory.

*Flashback*

Two silhouettes were at a beach, the ocean waves crashed against the sand. Birds flew high above the sky and the night sky was slowly revealing itself.

"Hey Kai?" The strange woman appeared again.

"Yeah?" Kai glances over to the woman.

"What do you think is at the end of that horizon?" She points towards the sunset.

"Another continent." He answered, earning a deadpanned look from the woman.

"No. I see, a new story. Waiting to be unfolded, filled with adventure, danger and maybe...romance." She answered, glancing back at that last remark to see Kai give a light smile.

"I'd rather avoid danger if you ask me." He chuckled.

"That's the thing kai. Every horizon has a story to unfold, whether it's a good one or bad one doesn't matter. Because most of the time, it's already written for us. So why not enjoy it to the fullest that we can? well...at least the good parts that is." She turns back to him and gives a smile of a thousand suns.

*End of Flashback*

Kai comes back to reality with a smile on his face before he looks behind him and looks up at Trixx

"We're here." Trixx uses all the force she could muster to slow the craft down till they reached the gates of the city.

"Stop right there you two! What purpose do you have to visit this city!" A guard of the gate points his spear at the two.

Before Trixx could speak, Kai gets off the craft and stops right at the tip of the spear.

"We're here to participate at event happening at The Dragonsblade Arena. If I were you, I would lower that spear, guard." Kai spoke with an authoritative tone as he let loose his power slightly which sent shivers down everyone's spines, including Trixx's.

The guard immediately widened his eyes in fear of his actions and dropped to the floor and begged for forgiveness. "My apologies sir! Most warriors carried heavy weaponry and had a strong aura around them, I didn't sense any from you with my skill, so I assumed you were a normal biped species! I humbly apologize!"

Kai didn't say a word while Trixx walked up to him after parking the Desert Surfer nearby. They both walked through the city gates while the other guards went to console their comrade who was paralyzed with fear.

"Um, Hoody? What just happened?" Trixx asked, still confused by the whole quarrel.

"Those who participate for any event at The Dragonsblade Arena are to be treated with utmost respect, because they are deemed to be highly powerful in terms of skill and power. I have a skill I call "Soul Seer" which allows me to see a person's soul for what they truly are. Whether they've killed, raped or hurt a person intentionally or not. I can tell a person's motive while they're speaking as well as the skills they are using at the moment. There are a few...limits to my skill however, but that's all I shall tell you. Now in a similar manner, the guards placed at the gates and at the Colosseum, have a similar but a far more inferior and limited skill compared to mine. They name their own skills so don't ask what it's called. Their skill lets them see a person's true strength. That can also vary, one person could only see the type of powers they have, while another only see's the strength they possess. If you want to know how then you can go and ask them yourself. Satisfied?" He answered.

"So, the shiver we all felt was you unleashing your aura? So, you've been keeping it concealed this whole time then. Why?" Trixx asks, waiting for an answer. The more she learned about him, the more questions she had to ask.

"I'd rather avoid the attention brought from it; it would be like walking around a city nude with no concern for public decency whatsoever. The aftermath for both scenarios, is unfavorable." He replied.

"BWAHAHAHA! NAKED IN A CITY! AHAHAHA! I CAN'T!" Trixx kept on laughing, holding her stomach while she cried her eyes out while others around them glanced at them and walked away.

Kai was on the verge of knocking her out, but he held himself back.

He sighed. "Welcome to the City of Fools."

"NAKED!!!" Trixx yelled one more time in the middle of her hysterical laughter.