Ryn and Teiryn accompanied the two guards as they left the royal family's palace. One of the guards was a young man, around nineteen years old, named Kailou. Kailou was dark-skinned, with an average athletic build. He had a rough, mid-sized afro that was black and a single obsidian stud earring in his left ear. In Ryn's eyes, he was the most experienced and professional of the two.
As the group approached the main doors of the palace, Kailou, who was leading the group, turned back and spoke to the guard at the end. "Come on, Sil, this is it. Help me with the doors".
The guard at the end of the group quickly moved around Ryn, as she held Teiryn asleep in her arms. Sil was a tan-skinned boy with short, curly brown hair. He was short, being only a few inches taller than Ryn, but had a muscular frame, similar to an athlete. Sil was younger than Kailou, being only seventeen years old, and had an overly flirtatious personality. This had caused Sil to come off as childish, in Ryn's opinion.
Both men stood side-by-side in front of the doors as the group heard loud shouts and screaming coming from the other side. This was a clear sign to the group that some conflict was taking place outside. Kailou and Sil turned to look at each other, panic written on their faces as both men hesitated to reach out towards the doors.
"Might as well get on with it." Ryn stated as she brushed past both of the men and forced the doors open.
As the doors flung open, the group's vision was instantly crowded with the sight of fire and smoke. Yells and screams filled the air as the group observed civilians running up and down the stone-brick roads. This was because several masked men, who were presumed to be the invaders, were quickly making their way around the settlement, burning down homes and attacking anyone they might come across.
Loud horns sounded from all over the settlement, as the Zibiru guards scrambled to act. Some of these guards moved quickly to gather civilians and evacuate the burning homes, while the others worked to fend off the masked men. The outbreak of several conflicts had thrown the entire Zibiru settlement into a state of complete chaos, leaving Ryn and her group stuck directly in the center of it.
Ryn and the rest of the group rushed out from the palace and into the middle of the street. Three men in guard uniforms similar to the ones that Kailou and Sil wore were finishing up a fight with two enemies as they made eye contact with the group. The Zibiru 'guards' uniform consisted of an all-black battle suit with silver, crystal-like armor over the chest plate, shoulder, elbow, knee, and shin areas. They also wore a violet military coat that was adorned with title cards and emblems to display their rank and tribe, as well as a pair of black combat boots.
"Isn't there supposed to be three of them?" one of the guards yelled, as he pulled the head of his spear from one of the enemy's bodies, cleaning it with a flourish.
Ryn and Sil came to a slow halt, leaving Kailou to be the only one still walking toward the guards. The three guards were a good twenty to thirty feet away from Kailou, allowing the guard with the spear not to be heard as he whispered something to the other two guards. Kailou stared at the guard with the spear as he walked past him, stopping and kneeling in front of the body.
"The other heir is with Lord Tayaire and the patrol squad, scouting the border." Kailou said as he observed the body on the ground.
The masked man's body was riddled with cuts and slashes, causing the stones beneath him to be drenched in blood. Though these wounds could have been fatal, Kailou knew that it would have taken some time for the man to bleed out, meaning that the masked man was probably already subdued before somebody even took the final strike. Kailou noted this in his head as a bit suspicious, and continued to scavenge through the man's pockets, eventually flipping him over to check his back pockets.
"Hopefully you were able to get some information out of them before you finished them off." Kailou stated as he rolled the man back onto his back, looking him over one last time.
For some reason that he couldn't explain, Kailou's eyes had locked onto the masked man's face, and he couldn't turn away. While the bottom half of the man's face was covered with a mask of a high-tech design, Kailou found his features somewhat familiar. The longer he stared at the man's face, the more his impulses screamed at him to take off the mask. Kailou slowly reached his hand out towards the man's mask, prepared to either confirm or debunk his suspicions.
Kailou's fingertips rested on the man's mask, just as another masked man jumped down from a tree beside him. Kailou stood up and turned around as the man quickly charged at him with a large black great sword. Kailou's eyes glowed with a hue of purple as he dodged three of the masked man's attacks. As the man prepared to deliver his fourth strike, Kailou grabbed the dagger at his side and sent a quick slash to the man's stomach, causing it to be cut open and making the man collapse instantly.
Kailou had put his dagger back in its sheath and began to walk back towards the previous masked man's body, planning to continue his investigation. While walking, Kailou made eye contact with the guard who held the spear, as the latter hurled the item in his direction. Kailou's eyes began to glow with a purple hue, as he again activated his [Clairvoyance] ability. Keeping a close eye on the spear, Kailou was somewhat surprised to watch it fly directly past him, striking the man that he just fought, square in the chest.
"When the hell did he get back up?" Kailou thought as he turned to look back at the masked man with the spear in his chest.
The Zibiru guard had walked to retrieve his spear from the masked man's body, cleaning it off as he turned to look at Kailou. Kailou walked up to the guard with the spear, reaching his hand out for a handshake. He wanted to show his thanks and also introduce himself to the man who, possibly, saved his life.
"Thanks for the assist." Kailou said while he waited for the guard with the spear to accept his hand.
This had caught the guard with the spear a bit off guard, causing him to hesitate. The guard had expected Kailou to say something or at least make a gesture towards him, but he didn't expect something this formal. The guard shook his head, snapping him out of the sudden trance, then accepted Kailou's hand.
"Anytime, but next time." The guard said as the two shook hands, avoiding eye contact with Kailou and quickly releasing his hand afterward. "It doesn't seem to be many of them, but I doubt that this is their full force. We should get moving towards the castle before things around here begin to get worse."
Kailou nodded his head in agreement as he and the other guards turned and walked towards Ryn, Teiryn, and Sil.
"I'm Kailou Zibiru, of the second division guards, Squad A, by the way." Kailou stated to the guard with the spear, forgetting about his previous intentions. "And you are?"
The guard paused for a moment, looking as if he was in a sort of daze, then turned his head towards Kailou to answer.
"I'm Raiden E'poh. We are from the sixth division guards, Squad C, and were sent here by Lord Noir, with orders to assist with the escort of the royal family to the main castle." The guard with the spear answered in an uninterested tone, going back into a daze soon after.
Raiden seemed to be daydreaming as he walked, and from the facial expression he was making, Kailou assumed it was an unpleasant one. The E'poh tribe is the same tribe that Lucus is from, meaning that the two share the same 'God Trait' to feel the future. With this being common knowledge of the E'poh tribe, Kailou just assumed that this was the issue.
Raiden remained silent as he and the rest of the group approached Ryn and Sil, allowing Kailou to introduce everyone, while also filling the group in on everything. He would eventually snap out of his daze, answering questions here and there, but right after he would drift back off.
"Is this how he normally acts?" Kailou thought as he observed Raiden, thinking his actions were a bit odd. "How does he even focus during a fight?"
He looked Raiden up and down, basically sizing him up. Raiden was an average-sized man, around twenty-three years old, with a dark skin tone. What stood out in his appearance was that he had dark bags under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in days, and that his hair was in a severely unkempt, small afro. Being from the sixth division of the Zibiru settlement meant that he, along with the other guards in his squad, were all from the slums, and in other words, poor.
Kailou had made a mental note to himself to discuss Raiden and the other guards with Noir. After being saved by Raiden, Kailou had felt somewhat indebted to the young man and wanted to see him and his squad, greatly rewarded for their deeds. He sat for a moment to think over a formation, then began to speak.
"Sil, I want you and these two to cover the rear, while Raiden and I focus on leading the group from the front!" Kailou said, while drawing a diagram of the formation in the sand on the side of the stone-brick road. "The great wife and young heir will be placed in the center of this formation, while we act as their shields, providing protection for them from all sides, until we reach the main castle."
"And the civilians?" Sil asked, while observing their surroundings. "If we leave things like this, then our losses will be???—"
Kailou cut Sil off in a stern tone. "This mission is our main priority. Don't forget your duties as a guard of the second division's Squad A! Once we safely lead the royal family to the main castle, then we will proceed with reconnaissance and damage control, but until then, we'll have to leave it to the other guards!"
The switch in Kailou's tone had caught Sil by surprise, causing his only response to be a silent nod. The silence hung in the air amongst everyone, but only for just a second. The group assumed the planned formation and began to move out but paused as Raiden began to speak.
"Oh, I almost forgot. About your previous question, we didn't get much information out of those guys in masks, but one thing they did say is that they're from a group called 'The Holy Body'." He said in a cold, ominous tone.