The fog hung heavy between the towering copper pipes of the steam city. Silarias and Aurelius walked a bit ahead, their steps echoing on the metal grates. They kept a close eye on their surroundings, focused on the vibrations that were supposed to lead them to Nicola.
A few meters behind them walked Nyx and Jane. The atmosphere between the two girls was a bit quiet and hesitant. Both were looking for a way to break the ice and forget the tension of the grim city for a moment.
At the exact same moment, they turned toward each other. The words popped out at the same time.
“So,” Jane blurted out with a curious look. “You and Sil or what?”
“So,” Nyx said at the exact same moment. “You and Aureel or what?”
The two girls froze mid step. They stared at each other for a long second with wide eyes, after which the realization kicked in that they had asked literally the exact same question at the same moment. The next moment, they both burst out laughing. The tension of the past hours melted away in an instant. It was a pure, cute moment between girls.
Silarias and Aurelius looked back laughing at the two girls who were walking behind them doubled over with laughter.
“Well,” Silarias laughed while looking at Aurelius. “You know how it can go with those two.”
Aurelius grinned broadly and nodded. “No escaping it.”
Everyone burst out laughing again. The atmosphere was perfect and carefree for a brief moment.
But that warm feeling was shattered to pieces within a fraction of a second.
“Look at them laughing,” a heavy, aggressive voice suddenly sneered through the steam. “How cute. Are the little babies having a good time in our neighborhood?”
The laughter died out instantly. Four pairs of eyes shot forward.
There they stood. The nineteen year old problems of the neighborhood.
Leading the way was Vulkan. The guy radiated pure aggression and his whole body seemed to shake from stored energy. Golden yellow veins of raw kinetic energy began to flare up beneath his skin, pulsing rhythmically down his arms. He looked at the group with an incredibly arrogant face and immediately started shouting put downs to show his dominance.
Directly behind him stood Snicky. He was a year older, dead silent, and looked at the group with a cold, calculated stare. His hand was already resting on the hilt of his antique kris. As he gripped it, the air temperature dropped, and a faint, ethereal frost crept across the iron grates beneath his boots.
“Do you guys even know who you are acting so stupidly laughing at here?” Vulkan shouted, as he walked threateningly toward Silarias and Aurelius. “This is my territory. You guys are absolutely nothing here!”
Silarias and Aurelius were absolutely not intimidated by that shouting. They stepped forward at the same time and blocked the way for the girls. The atmosphere flipped in one single blow from cheerful to life threatening.
“Big mouth for a guy we do not even know,” Silarias said with an ice cold, calm voice.
Vulkan began to laugh loudly, but it was a laugh full of nerves and aggression. “Not know me? You are going to get to know me very quickly, loser!”
Without wasting another word on talking, Vulkan struck hard. His fist was filled with stored kinetic energy, glowing with a blinding, crackling yellow light that warped the surrounding air. Silarias reacted instinctively and caught the blow with his own fist.
The impact was massive. A brutal shockwave of pure power exploded between the two boys, causing the steam around them to be violently blown away in a massive ring of pressure. Silarias was not blown back a single millimeter, but he felt immediately that Vulkan was a beast.
On the other side, Snicky drew his kris with a smooth movement. The cold presence of wandering spirits immediately filled the space, manifesting as swirling, ghostly vapors that slowed down the very physics of the alley. Aurelius drew his sword, its steel ringing loudly as the two threw themselves at each other in a deadly dance of steel and spiritual power.
The battle for power in the steam streets had officially begun.
Vulkan was still laughing like a madman while the golden yellow shockwave thundered through the alley, cracking the brickwork on either side. He thought he had settled things definitively. But from the middle of the thick cloud of steam, a heavy, booming metal sound suddenly rang out.
The thick white mist was smashed apart with brute force in one blow.
Silarias had not been blown away at all. He had lowered himself at the very last moment into a deep crouch and hammered his left arm straight through the metal grate of the floor to anchor himself rock solid. The steel bars bent like straw under his fingers. He held his right fist pulled back tightly on his hip.
The destructive shockwave slammed full force into Silarias, but his stance did not break. Instead of taking the hit, he sucked the kinetic forward force of Vulkan own attack into his own body. The muscles in his legs tensed so hard that the metal floor plates under his feet began to twist and tear. Silarias stacked Vulkan kinetic energy on top of his own brutal muscle power. His skin began to radiate a bright, deep red glow from the massive built up heat, his veins burning like internal embers.
Vulkan saw it too late. His arrogant laugh died directly on his lips when he saw Silarias shoot forward like a released steel spring.
“What the—” Vulkan choked out.
Silarias crossed the distance between them in a fraction of a second. His fist moved so fast that the human eye could not even register it.
The fist of Silarias bored with the power of a sledgehammer precisely into the middle of Vulkan chest. It was not just a punch. It was an explosive discharge of Vulkan own recycled energy, combined with the pure rage of Silarias. The golden yellow veins on Vulkan body shattered like glass, releasing a miniature shockwave that blew the remaining mist completely out of the alleyway. All the air was knocked out of the gang leader lungs in one blow and his eyes rolled back in his head.
Vulkan folded over and was launched as if shot out of a cannon. He flew meters backward, crashed straight through two heavy iron barrels, spraying rusted water everywhere, and slammed with a dull thud against the brick wall at the end of the alley. He slid down unconscious, while the glowing veins on his body slowly faded into darkness.
Ten meters away, Aurelius saw his chance.
The cold, calculated Snicky was flabbergasted for the very first time. His cold gaze shot sideways for a brief second to his defeated leader. That single millisecond of distraction was all Aurelius needed.
“Focus on me!” Aurelius roared.
Aurelius immediately stopped making the fast, predictable sword slashes that Snicky anticipated every time. He changed his rhythm completely. He did not lift his heavy sword to strike, but held the hilt with both hands in front of his chest and launched himself in a brutal, unpredictable shoulder barge.
Snicky spatial delay tried to slow down the movement, the ghostly spirits forming a dense, icy barrier, but the pure mass and speed of Aurelius broke straight through the icy obstacle with a loud sound of shattering glass.
Aurelius slammed with his full weight and armored shoulder against the chest of the cold tacticus. Snicky lost his balance immediately and the kris slipped from his fingers, clattering loudly against the iron floor. The massive Oversoul of the old general dissolved into nothingness with a loud, deflating hissing sound. Before Snicky got the chance to pick up his dagger again, Aurelius was already standing over him with the shining tip of his heavy sword pressed tightly against Snicky throat.
It had become quiet in the smoking alley in a matter of seconds.
The brutal silence after the counters was suddenly rudely disturbed by a terrifying, scraping sound between the stacked wooden crates and scattering steel barrels.
Vulkan was still leaning heavily, puffing against the bloody brick wall at the end of the alley. He wiped a thick stream of blood away from the corner of his mouth and suddenly began to laugh hysterically and psychopathically. “Hahaha! Pak ze boys!” he shouted with a raw, cracking voice while pointing madly to the right. “Destroy those guys completely! Show them who is boss here!”
But the relieved, crazed grin on Vulkan face froze immediately. Something happened that he had not seen coming in his wildest nightmares.
Nyco, Zax, and De Bonk slowly stepped out of the deep shadows into the dim light of the alley. But instead of drawing their weapons or attacking Silarias and his group, something happened that turned the whole dynamic of the street upside down. Nyco and Zax slowly and calmly lowered themselves onto their knees on the cold, wet grate of the floor. De Bonk remained standing a bit lost behind them, scratching his neck with a giant hand and looking around sheepishly.
“What on earth possesses you guys?” Vulkan yelled out. The panic and pure despair were now loudly taking over his voice. “Stand up! Stand up and fight for your life! What are you doing?”
Nyco and Zax ignored the hysterical screaming of their own leader completely. Their eyes were fixed tightly and full of remorse on Silarias and Nyx. The two brothers bowed their heads slightly forward.
“Our deepest and most sincere excuses for what happened to that dog back then,” Nyco and Zax said at the exact same moment. Their voices sounded heavy with a suffocating shame that they had already carried with them for many years.
Nyco took a deep, shaking breath. He held his shaking hands outside the familiar pockets of his big hoodie for the very first time. He began to explain in painful, raw detail what had happened in the past.
“We never wanted to do it,” Nyco confessed, his voice cracking with emotion. “Our older cousin—De Bonk’s older brother—he controlled everything. He manipulated us, fed us lies, and incited us when we didn't know any better.”
“He forced those weapons into our hands,” Zax added, his head lowering even closer to the grate. “We were just kids. Twelve and fourteen. He made us hunt down Toji. He ordered us to abuse him, to beat him until he bled. If we hesitated for even a single second, he turned that same violence on us. We were forced back then. We were terrified. We were way too young to go against that terror.”
Nyco looked up slightly, tears cutting clean lines through the soot on his cheeks. “But that is no excuse for the mistakes we made that day. Such disgusting mistakes should never have happened. We are truly, deeply sorry.”
They bowed their heads even deeper to the metal ground and offered their sincere apologies once again for the pain they had caused.
Aurelius watched the scene with wide eyes. He stepped back very slowly and pulled the sharp, shining tip of his heavy sword away from Snicky throat.
Silarias and Nyx looked deep into each other eyes for a long moment. In that one meaningful glance, they both simultaneously got a hard, emotional flashback of Toji. They saw the images sharp before them again: how they had dragged away and saved that heavily injured, bloody and broken boy back then from these same guys. The puzzle pieces now really fell into place with a massive blow. These were the children who were under that bad influence back then.
Vulkan meanwhile started screaming and ranting against the wall again. He slammed his bleeding fist against the bricks. “How can this be! You pathetic, weak losers! What are you doing to me? You are supposed to watch my back and stand by me!”
“Just shut your mouth very quickly now, Vulkan,” Nyco interrupted him ice coldly while standing back up with a straight back. He looked at his former leader with a cold, deadly look. “Those two over there are the absolute new and upcoming landlords of this entire neighborhood. Just get used to it quickly, because your time is over.”
Vulkan went quiet immediately. The hysterical screaming stopped as if someone turned the volume knob. He stared with an open mouth full of disbelief at his own crew and then at the imposing figure of Silarias, whose skin was still faintly radiating the remnant heat of the clash. The realization finally hit him to the bone that he had lost his power and his respect completely. Without daring to say a single word, Vulkan painfully scrambled up. He turned around and walked away with hanging shoulders and bowed head, until he disappeared somewhere far away in the dense, misty steam streets of the neighborhood.
The rest of the group remained behind in the alley. Snicky silently picked up his kris from the ground, looked at Aurelius one more time with a look of pure respect, and began to walk quietly after Vulkan together with Nyco and Zax.
Only De Bonk remained standing awkwardly for a brief moment. That giant monster looked at Silarias, Nyx and the rest very blankly, but with a sincere and golden honest smile. “Sorry.. haha,” he blurted out clumsily with his heavy, friendly voice.
Immediately after that, however, he was pulled along again by the arms of Nyco and Zax. While they dragged the giant into the mist, you could hear the two brothers in the background talking to the giant softly and calmly.
“You’re okay, big guy,” Nyco’s voice drifted back through the fog. “You don't have to say sorry. You did nothing wrong back then. You were too young to even understand what they were making us do.”
Within a few seconds, the entire gang was gone and peace returned to the street.
Silarias, Aurelius, Nyx and Jane were left alone between the smoking pipes. Without wasting any more time talking, they walked quickly with high speed further through the narrow, left behind alley. With every step they took over the rattling metal grates, they came closer and closer to their real goal.
And then they arrived at the end of the alley and they finally saw him sitting there.
There sat Nicola. He sat heavily chained with massive metal cuffs to the cold wall, the pipes behind him hissing violently with pressurized steam. In the middle of his bare chest, his Anting Anting sat directly implanted and embedded in his flesh. It was a heavy, round medal of solid, dark burned iron, about the size of the palm of a large man hand. The brute surface was absolutely not smooth, but full of deep, sharp notches that looked exactly like the teeth of a giant mechanical gear that was set straight into his bones. The flesh around the iron medal pulsed with a faint, rhythmic orange light, mimicking the rotation of a real machine.
This gruesome gear was the absolute source of his victory, but now also his curse.
There he sat, chained tightly against that ice cold wall, while the hot steam blew past his face. But as soon as he heard the footsteps approaching over the rattling grates, Nicola slowly raised his head. A casual, almost arrogant grin played on his lips. Despite the massive chains and the medal cast into his chest, that guy radiated a lot of pure awe and aura. He looked at the group with half squinted eyes.
“Hehe,” he brought out with a hoarse, deep laugh. “Visitors again! What a treat.”
He rattled the heavy chains around his wrists demonstratively for a brief moment, making the metal echo loudly through the narrow alley.
“As you can see, I am in a bit of a tricky situation,” Nicola continued with a wink, as if he were talking about the weather instead of a brutal imprisonment. “Help me out of these cuffs, and you have my eternal respect. Whoever you may be.”