The kids in the yard briefly heard someone scream inside the house. They snapped their heads toward the bay window.
"Huh? Someone screamed, right?" Itoî asked.
"I... think so," Uyan replied.
"Kaelle's probably freaking out," Vars retorted with a snicker.
"Why would she do that?" Uyan and Itoî asked, intrigued.
"I put mayo in her foundation."
"You did what?!" Uyan exclaimed.
"She's gonna kill you!" he added.
Vars kept laughing, and Itoî joined in.
"Nah, don't worry. I'll just say Itoî did it," Vars said, nudging Itoî to tease him.
"You bastard!" Itoî said, a bit annoyed.
The bay window flew open violently. The kids snapped around toward the noise.
"Guys, we need to get out of here!" Kaelle yelled to her brothers.
"What are you talking about?" Itoî asked, annoyed.
"I can't explain, but it's really, really bad!" she exclaimed, completely panicked.
"Where's Mom?" Uyan asked.
"She's coming. She's inside, in shock."
Vars thought about it:
Mom crying at home? According to my sister, that only happened once: when our big brother Sakron disappeared. Could it be... No. It's not possible.
Uyan ran to the bay window and went inside. He saw his mother crying her eyes out. She looked devastated. Her hair was down, and her red ribbon lay on the floor.
She was sitting on the floor, legs tucked under her. Her clenched hands gripped her dress. She looked both heartbroken and furious.
"Mom?" he asked in a small voice.
Noémie slowly turned her head toward the voice. It was Uyan. He looked crushed seeing his mother like this.
"Are you okay, Mom?" Uyan continued shyly.
"Y-Yes, I'm okay, my son."
Uyan smiled.
At that exact moment, a violent earthquake struck. The house began to collapse.
"Mom!" the kids in the yard screamed.
A silhouette quickly appeared heading for the yard. She was carrying Uyan in her arms.
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It was Noémie.
"Let's get out of here!" she shouted, leaping into the yard.
She agilely pulled herself from the debris and landed gracefully in front of her children. She set Uyan down. A voice then rang out:
"Oh no! Not happening!" a voice exclaimed.
"Sorry, ma'am, but that won't be possible," another continued.
"..."
The last one seemed quieter.
Three silhouettes appeared on the rubble of the house.
Among them, the one in the middle, who had stayed silent, was probably from the Red Desert. He had very dark skin, which made sense given the hot climate: people from that region generally had dark skin. He was also heavily muscled and stood nearly seven and a half feet tall. He wore a kind of brigandine made of bone fragments, blood oozing from his armor, along with khaki green pants.
To his right stood a cyborg boy. He looked quite young: fourteen? No, maybe sixteen. He had a blade for a leg, both sturdy and sharp. His hair was grey, and cables were visible beneath the skin of his face. His eyes were strange: sky blue, but entirely pupil-less, and his gaze seemed completely devoid of emotion. It wasn't that he was incapable of feeling, but the countless wars and crimes he had experienced had likely broken him. Like his colleague, he wore grey pants, torn at the right leg to reveal his blade prosthesis. He also wore a white tank top covered in dust, blood, and gasoline.
To the burly man's left stood a woman...
A woman? Really?
No. A strange aura emanated from this thing. She was clearly not human. Darkness radiated from her. She wore simple clothes: a purple top and filthy white sweatpants, covered in large bloodstains. She also held a body in each arm: one was a fair-skinned man, the other a dark-skinned man.
She was the one who spoke first:
"Um... I can't decide... Mister A or Mister B? Huh, Orazhe?" the woman asked, smiling at the cyborg boy.
"Mister A," he replied.
He seemed to be named Orazhe.
"We don't have time for this, Blak," the burly man retorted, sounding cold and impatient.
"Yes! Yes! I know! But I just wanted to do a little demo—"
"Who are you?! What do you want?!" Noémie screamed at the three figures.
"Are you responsible for the capital's destruction?!" she continued, furious.
The woman turned to face Noémie and her children.
"A little. It's mostly Orazhe and..."
The burly man glared at her.
"Uh... the gentleman with the bone armor," she said nervously.
"I maybe killed... five, six... okay, seventy..."
Orazhe shrugged, looking at the burly man.
"Alright, alright, I killed about nine hundred! That's it! The capital is big, from what we saw," she said casually.
Noémie rapidly traced runes in the air with her hands before screaming:
"Watch out," the boy said unpleasantly.
The man in bone armor got into position, ready to strike.
"Guys, no, it's nothing," Blak said. The young woman raised her arm, signaling the armored man to stop.
"The Eye!"
For a moment, a vision of the city flashed through Noémie's mind.
She saw the masked men. One wore a red mask adorned with blue markings in aggressive tribal patterns, with a smile full of iron teeth drawn on it. The other wore a blue mask marked with rounder, less crude red patterns, on which a neutral mouth was simply drawn.
They wore no clothes, except for a piece of fabric meant to hide their privates. Their skin was red, covered in wrinkles and dozens of scars, some large, some small. A few, however, looked more like scarifications.
"Stop, gentlemen! What could an old woman possibly do?!" a grandmother cried out in terror, holding a baby in her arms.
"Yvran?" the man with the blue markings said, looking at his partner.
"Yes, Xavan. Yes. The old woman is yours, the baby is mine. The god Palo Palo will be pleased! And so will we!" he said, snickering horribly.
Drool poured heavily from his mask.
"No, gentlemen, no! Help! Is anyone there?! Help!" the woman screamed.
Xavan violently tore the baby from the old woman's arms and threw him toward Yvran.
"Give Thomas back to me! I beg you, he's the only family I have left!" the old woman cried.
Xavan pinned the old woman against the wall, stripped her, and committed the unthinkable.
"Hey, Yvran, take care of your little toy too. I prefer the old ones, honestly," he said while continuing his disgusting act.
"Yes, yes. Come on, little one, your turn. And after, the sacrifice for our god!"
Yvran began removing the cloth covering the child.
"I beg you, no, no! Noooo!" the old woman screamed.
"Oh! Oooh... I'm done, Yvran!"
With a violent swipe of his claws, he decapitated the old woman.
Indeed, both men had black nails that they could use as weapons.
"Wait, I have to start too," Yvran replied.
The man in the blue mask removed the cloth he used as underwear.
"Alright. Here we go..."
Then he approached the baby.