Nero and Adonis walked through the dark streets of Atlaan, illuminated by only Nero’s flame-powered sword.

  They were in the Kiruna district, hoping to find Amos. They stopped in front of the rubble of Triangle Corp’s building, and Adonis sighed. It was all starting to feel useless.

  “The stupid fish-man stole me, and what wasn’t good enough. So, he took my son,” Nero reasoned.

  “That makes perfect sense, but there’s nothing left of their building. Where else could they keep him,” Adonis asked.

  “He’s here. He has got to be here,” Nero insisted. “’Cause I don’t know where else to go.”

  His voice cracked, eyes watered, and he was trying his hardest to hold it together. Their searching throughout all of Atlaan was turning up no leads. Two people out in the open, during an invasion, was dangerous enough, but with no leads they could be wandering around town for weeks.

  “Hey hey man, it’s gonna be cool, we’re gonna find him,” Adonis said. “Let’s look for people. We can ask if they’ve seen him.”

  They trudged on in the dark, westward, sticking to alleys to avoid the drones in the sky and the boots on the ground. The usual smells of the city were replaced with the fetid odor of corpses mixed with trash. The sidewalk was covered with blood and the waterwalk was turning a pale red.

  When they squeezed through an alleyway between a supermarket and a buffet, on the other side of the street was the first person they had found that was alive and not trying to kill them. A woman in a red bikini, blood on her feet up to her ankles, splotches of it on her legs, and the rest covering up to her elbows was running in their direction.

  “Hey can you help us find a-“

  Nero waved at her to stop but she kept running, not even realizing he was there, not looking back.

  Nero and Adonis exchanged glances.

  “Let’s go check out what she’s running from,” Nero said.

  “Or we could leave with her. Lady seemed to have the right idea,” Adonis cautioned.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Psh, nah.”

  Nero waved his hand flippantly and Adonis sighed, following him from behind.

  A few more people ran past them, some of them covered in blue blood instead of red. The further they went in the opposite direction, the weirder the scenery became. Chunks of various buildings scattered across the street covered in blue blood. Techno music could be faintly heard in the distance, and it became louder the more westward they traveled.

  Soon the scenery returned to the piles of bodies covered in cement dust, but the bodies were piled neatly to the side instead of haphazardly scattered everywhere. The biggest piles were in front of a warehouse where the music blasted from. The warehouse was covered in all kinds of decorative graffiti, and had giant flyers plastered all over near the entrance.

  NIGHT OF SIN RAVE, $5 ENTRY FEE, LADIES GET IN FREE.

  “What the fuck happened here,” Nero whispered.

  “Nothing good. Let’s go,” Adonis whispered back.

  Nero scanned the faces in the closest heap of corpses next to him, wondering if he knew anyone. Flashbacks to the night his home was attacked as a child filled his mind, seeing the corpses of the servants in his home slaughtered for simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

  “I can’t do this again,” he said. “I won’t.”

  The loud music coming from the warehouse suddenly stopped. Loud footsteps echoed inside, and a murky figure appeared from the dark recesses of the warehouse.

  “Oh. It’s a native and a child,” the man said.

  Nero was shocked to hear someone speak Ionadian. He only heard it in his dreams or memories. He was shocked by the familiar face as well. The Ionadian man was dressed in modern tactical armor. He had the signature Ionadian look: long green hair, pointy ears, pale skin, and bright eyes.

  “Oh. Oh look at you. You’re magnificent,” the man said. “You look like the previous mother.”

  Nero took two steps back but the man took two steps forward.

  “What is this guy saying,” Adonis said. “He talks like you.”

  “He thinks he knows me. He does. I never forget a face,” Nero replied. “This guy…might be my cousin.”

  Adonis couldn’t deny the resemblance and looked away in disgust.

  “Are you lost,” the man asked.

  Nero shook his head no.

  “What is your station,” Nero asked. “What are you doing here!?”

  The man let out a loud laugh, his eyes curved into half moons, and it was clear from the blood all over his body, but the lack of wounds on him, that he was the culprit.

  “I am Ray des Regalis, Grand Duke of the Holy Regalian Empire and Her Protectorates.”

  “Liar,” Nero rasped. “Liar! You LIE! That is MY title. You can’t be the Grand Duke. I AM!”

  “The last one was just a boy. Killed by Methusallah spies. I just happened to be next in line. You remind me of him. He was so…tiny….last time I saw him. But your face…”

  Ray cocked his head to the side.

  “Oh dear, it doesn’t matter now does it? We all bleed the same in the end.”

  He closed his eyes, smiled, and when he opened them again, they were jet black.

  “If you aren’t that poor boy I can kill you for treason. And if you are, well, I need the job security,” Ray said.