Once again, the world shimmered in misty white radiance, while the valley bathed in the golden veil. People beaming with excitement moved from one store to another.
The only exceptions were a silent hut with no light to brighten it and, a fetid alley filled with rotten corpses and a boy atop it.
The boy's pale body was strangely contrasted by the surroundings. His ebony eyes betrayed no emotion. holding a pulsing sack, he strode forward.
At the end of the alleyway lay a bustling tavern: the rotten heart of the lower layer.
Inside the tavern, the air was permeated with rotten flesh, mold, and drugs. At the center of it all stood a pyramid of chairs, and on top of it sat a one-armed man selling information.
"Anybody want to bet? join here!!
Ten Orbs in one, Ten Orbs in two, Ten Orbs in th.." before he could finish his sentence, a voice cut through the crowd.
"Hundred!!!" Nameless thundered. Then threw the sack in the middle.
The whole tavern fell silent as they stared at the sack full of orbs and the boy who had hurled it.
After a few minutes of back and forth, the one-armed man spoke with a wide grin:
"Oh! We can't take that MUCH, or i will feel bad," He replied while counting his fingers.
'LIARS!!!' he spat inwardly.
He could already see them, crawling closer and closer to the Orbs. Their eyes were mesmerized by the pulsating white light.
In the lower layers, having one of them will give you a week's worth of food; so anyone can imagine what having hundreds of them will do.
None of that concerned him, he just wanted information; But he knew better.
'humans' greed knows no bounds; the more you give them, the more they want.'
Among them, a muscular man sneered, Getting up from his seat: "Do you think we are a bunch of fools!"
'Apparently so!'
"What if you are from the 'upper', or what if you have some weapons on you?" His grin widened, "let me feel you up a little!!"
Everyone laughed except for him.
Nameless knew that even if he could take one, he couldn't take them all. If confrontation was inevitable, he would much rather...
The muscular man's hand moved from his back to his rear.
'...strick first!' with one swift motion of the obsidian knife, nameless slit his throat.
The muscular man staggered back. He fell on his knees. blood poured from his open wound like a raging tide. The man's eyes shone with disbelief, panic, then fear and then the last semblance of life left his eyes.
For a few seconds, nobody moved; everyone was too stunned by what had just happened
Mainly, nameless, because although he has some experience killing monsters with Mr. Helper, he had never killed a human before.
'i really did it! I just k..killed him!!' his chest tightened, his breathing became heavier, and his hand shock involuntarily.
"Well! There's always a first time for everything!" A melodious voice echoed throughout his ears.
Shaking his head, he saw his father's lifeless body sprawled on the ground and the reddish monster running away with its back turned.
Gripping his knife even tighter than before, cold resolve burning in his ebony eyes. He Whipped his head around.
Before anybody could react or draw their weapons, he moved swiftly, jumping over the crowd as he reached the pyramidal structure.
He delivered a devastating kick to the pyramid; the one armed man lost his balance and and fell down.
By then, all the other guests were lunging straight at him. He quickly placed his knife on ARM.
The one armed man or Arms voice thundered around the tavern: "Heyyyy! Hey, stop now-EVERYONE STOP."
Everyone halted in their tracks, cause nameless's knife wasn't on Arms throat but hovered right above Arms remaining hand.
'I know you better than you know yourself!!' Nameless spat inward.
To those who bought information from him, he was known as Arm. But to those who couldn't pay him, he would cut their arms off- hence the name 'Armed dealer'.
"Hey Now!! what info do you wanted boy?" He spoke with measured words.
'So i had to kill a person, then you start taking!!' gritting his teeth, he plunged the knife deep into his hand.
Grimacing in pain, he sneered: "Arghh! What the fu..."
But he didn't let him finish, "WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE TREASON IN THE UPPER LAYER?!" He hissed.
He stood still, not answering his question. Then he tried to get a better look at his abductor, but all he did was increase the pain in his shoulder even more. Seeing no way out of it, he surrendered
"All I know is three people were found guilty of being traitors; two of them were from the upper and..."
'Mother and Father!! Then what happened to the third one? I just need to find and kill that sickening monster' cold fury burned in his eyes.
"And the other one was a temple Guard..." he continued.
'WHAT?!' he gasped, struggling to breathe.
"He was killed upon revealing the truth," he groaned, trying his best to free himself.
Momentarily losing his grip, he staggered back. his ebony eyes sunk deep; every breath felt like a sharp knife piercing his throat.
He spat, his voice losing its weight behind it:
"Yo...you are lying! Yes! THAT'S RIGHT, YOU ARE LYING!!" Moving his knife even into his hand, he pressed it harder.
The man struggled endlessly under his crazed scrutiny.
"Then tell me, who killed them, the woman and the monster?!" his eyes shone in blazing fury.
Drowning in pain, Arm answered, "it.. its the queen who gave orders to kill both of them; its tr... true has anyone ever survived after disobeying her!!"
'No! they haven't, the queen ruled over the valley with an iron grip' his eyes widened.
'NO! THIS HAS TO BE A JOKE!! I learned how to kill; I learned how to move stealthily; I learned how to gather information-even the person that he just killed. but what was it for? Then all those sleepless nights, all those hungry days, all the pain-were they all for nothing?
I, a nameless boy, can't go against the Queen. That's like choosing suicide while being alive'
Right in that moment of weakness, Arm flung his head backward, hitting Nameless's nose squarely.
Staggering backward, he saw Arm pull something out of his pocket and press a button on it.
A creaking sound of a child's laughter send shivers running down everybody's spine.
Nameless, who was caught off guard, staggered back even more. He broke out in a cold sweat, but it was short-lived.
His sizzling fury quickly took over, and kicked the man squarely across his temple. Arm toppled to the ground and the chilling sound stopped.
But by then, it was already too late.
Everyone in the tavern ran in a frenzy. some jumped out of the window, some tore through the alleyway, and some even crawled out with their limping flash.
Except for two people, everyone fled.
One was blazing in anger, the other was writhing in pain on the ground.
He looked at Arm; his ebony eyes sank even deeper in despair. Then he leaned closer to him and said, "you really like runing your fingers everywhere right? Let's see how you do that after I'm done with you!"
A crooked smile illuminated his pale face. Then he plunged the knife even deeper into the wound and sliced it, severing his arm entirely.
Before the man could even scream, he clamped his hand over the man's head and bashed his head repeatedly Until he lost consciousness.
Then he fled through the window and ran towards the nearest ledge.
'It was a Guard siren-no doubt about it.' he had learned quite a few things in those months.
First, Guards never left the temple; they have sworn to protect their Queen and King.
Second, if a Guard does leave, it only brings back CARNAGE.
Third, if you see a Guard outside the temple, you are already dead.
Through the corner of his eyes, he saw a red shadow plummeting from above. Soon a thundering boom followed, and it shook the whole area beneath.
He staggered and fell on his ass. He quickly sprang back up and started running.
'If I get caught, I will die before I...' before he could finish his thoughts, three arrows darted towards him.
One arrow bit into his right arm, the other impaled his left leg.
The third one hovered above his head before falling right down into it.
_________________________