"Peeing on your slain enemy feels so nice. Doesn't it, Bulwark?" a boy in a neon jacket asked.
Raising the cleanly severed head of a girl, he mimicked, "Yes, yes. It's wonderful, Naph."
He held the head by her neck, while he finished his business on a butchered body lying in front of him.
He moved her lips a bit. "But Naph, what now? Will you just keep peeing on me!" Naph's broken sense of humour, with his bloodied hands, kicked in.
The view around him was pure devastation. It had taken him days of planning to even come up with a plan that could have taken Bulwark down.
He looked down at a mangled corpse of a 12 year old girl. His business to hunt her, and his intrusive urge to mock her, washed away. His sense of humour really worked wonders whenever his volatile heart wanted to cross boundaries he felt like.
Tossing Bulwark's severed head from one bloodied hand to another, contemplating on his next course of action took place.
"Should I mess around this devastated patch? Or go and collect the bounty of 10 million Tarna? Hmm, what's your wisdom 'oh, great Bulwark of the head'?"
Grabbing the severed head by both hands he mimicked Bulwark's voice, "maybe, maybe, maybe. That's all I hear! Buwahahaha!"
Naph exhaled. Shaking his ashen hair, "She literally went off with those words. How rude! Couldn't even think that the world may have someone who can kill her."
He tossed her head once again between both of his hands, as he walked toward a case he had prepared earlier to keep her head in.
Mimicking her one last time as he shut her head inside the soft padded inside of the metallic cubic case, he screamed in a whispering voice, "No! No, no, no. I am just a child! I want to live!"
"Who cares?" he shut the case close. He was disgusted of the carnage. A vile reaction his heart had, yet he had enjoyed the same carnage as he had unleashed it on Bulwark.
Carrying the metal case, a 17 year old boy in a neon jacket left a devastated ground out of reach of the closest city's outskirts.
He turned a left after a recognized boulder he had marked earlier. This was where his first escape plan was hidden, or to be exact had an indication of where his escape ride was.
Naph pushed himself against the boulder, trying to move it away. It didn't budge even a little.
"Huh! Huh! Man, is this one busted? Did it rain yesterday here?" He screamed out to the skies. Hoping it would listen.
Not a twinkle of light or clouds shifted to his shouts.
Shaking his head, he slammed the metallic case into the boulder. "Either the boulder moves, or I lose my 10 million. Come on now, show me who's a bulwark, Bulwark!"
The boulder lost to his repeated assailing blows. The metallic case proved its strength.
"Good job, Bulwark! Now you are of help!"
The boulder's movement revealed a small opening, a pit in the ground. Rather than dropping in, Naph laid down next to the pit extending his hands into it.
He grabbed something inside. After a few tugs, he pulled out a sophisticated mechanical vehicle.
It had four wheels, a steering, two different sets of pedals, and a pair of seats. One in the front, the other in the back.
"Now, Bulwark. This is how you ride. Do you want to ride 'oh, great capital buster'?"
Naph shook the metallic case up and down. Not an iota of noise escaped out of the metallic case.
"I guess you are well asleep. So sad, I would have given you a piggy back ride too." He tossed the metallic case into the back seat. "Off with your head."
Climbing into the front seat, Naph adjusted his seat, the belts to position himself and the steering. "Time to ride to a new death!" But before he began, his right hand went into his neon jacket's inner pocket.
It found the intended object it was searching for, a cylindrical object. Many may say it is not one, let alone Naph. Yet, as his hand grabbed on it, in a whisper to himself he said, "One more step done." He breathed in, "I'll be back for you sis." And he began.
He pedaled and his ride rigorously picked up speed. One pedal at a time. Then it smoothed itself into a constant maximum speed. The speed belied the mass the ride carried, faster than a horse driven carriage or those old age steam powered vehicles.
"Ee, haw!" Naph screamed aloud.
A city's outskirts were coming into his view as he turned right, then a bit left. He kept correcting the ride's path to avoid obstacles. The head was still priceless as claimed.
The bounty paper was attached into the front of ride. Wind smashed into it trying to rip it away.
"Nah, windy. Not today! You should have visited me last year on the beach. The damn beach was too watery for me." Naph laughed at the wind's attempts.
He was well aware how terrifying the wind could be. A few memories did flash by. One of a rain over a river, the other of the desert storms Naph had faced.
The city's skyline was approaching fast. It was too traditional. More casual than the ruins he had seen. Massive skycrawling ruins.
This city at its best height was just a seven storey high.
The city's name fit that height, Sevenren.
"Oye, Bulwark! Look, look. It's Sevenren! Your buddy!" Hysterical at his own joke Naph laughed into the wind.
Sevenren's outskirts had people glancing him, but none were quick enough to snatch the metallic case. He thought to himself, 'who even could? There's nothing magical about our world, just plain old dead and death. That's what is magical.' Quite the contrary given what he had witnessed over his life till now.
He passed under an old dilapidated board, and it read what Naph had known for the years he had been in Sevenren. "Welcome to Sevenren. The capital of the Territory of Sevenren, Confederation of Tarna."
Closing away his thoughts he stepped out of his ride at the inner gate to the city. The guards were dubious of Naph's ride. Naph just showed the metallic case's inside, and said, "Bulwark."
The guards, with their spears, trembled where they stood. The eldest one suddenly said, "just go in, fast before someone tries to steal it away. And boy stay out of sight. Trust me."
The guards had mere idea of the powder keg the city of Sevenren was sitting on. One being kept under control by one child. Bulwark.
And unbeknownst to them, the powder keg was lit way before Naph and Bulwark fought today to kill.
Naph nodded to the eldest guard. Yet he rose his shoulders for a split second, shrugging the advice off. What could even happen to him the worst? Someone steal his ride and the case. Beat him up?
He is after all just a bounty collector.
A bounty collector who unknowingly accelerated a brewing war.