The Great Arkos War finally ended between the Arkos—the highest level of government power—and those who rebelled against its oppressive ways, the Rebel Army. Although the Rebel Army were victorious, the region once known as Magnala collapsed and became known as "No Man's Land," a territory with no rules, no laws and no government. The Rebel Army's power continued to diminish due to conflicting opinions of political leadership. As a result, without authoritative guidance, crime rates increased tenfold and bandits, thugs, and organized crime syndicates have gone wild in a couple of weeks. Stealing money, raiding homes, killing one another—the region has become a violent shell of malice and animosity. The civilians who were privileged enough fled to other safer locations, but those who stayed behind were either poor or sickly. Despite the Rebel Army’s attempt to resolve the problem and bring back justice, chaos in the land continues.

"But that's not my problem," a shadow spoke to themselves as they finished their internal monologue.

Waiting on the roof of a house in the small desert village of Zraks, one could see a suspicious olive drab truck drive recklessly into the central plaza. As if the villagers collectively sensed danger, they immediately started running into their simple brick homes. Curious children were led in by their worried mothers, and men ran amuck while warning the rest of the villagers. Bandits had come to raid the area—whether in search for valuables or just for the thrill of killing, only the bandits would know. Savage men of various sizes flowed out from the vehicle holding standard, cheap assault rifles. Only one large burly man carried a different type of rifle: a hefty and much more powerful battle rifle manufactured from the North. Most likely it was stolen off a soldier or shipping container from the Rebel Army.

"Let 'er rip," the big man ordered in a deep, booming voice.

And thus, the screaming began. The bandits dispersed and wildly shot at anything that moved. There were no negotiations; in this land, it was kill or be killed. For the bandits, money and destruction were their only desires. Laws and treaties were simply just words on paper and no longer had any effect on society. Only the powerful could triumph, and the Rebel Army was simply not enough anymore.

As the gunfire rang through the plaza, the bandits destroyed the wooden doors and windows of houses, barging in and mercilessly killing those inside. Bullets burst through flesh and knives tore off skin as blood seeped into the dirt roads. Cackling loudly, the men pillaged all the food and valuables they could find, placing them in bags and leaving them in the truck.

"Hahaha! There's nothing better than this!" A bandit laughed as many more joined in.

***

Nearby the centre plaza, a young girl was about to wash her lunch plate in the kitchen sink before becoming alarmed by distant gunshots. Immediately after, distressed stomping was fast approaching.

"Kizu! Hurry, we must hide!"

The girl named Kizu turned to face the kitchen doorway to see a short, thin woman with long black hair wearing a ghastly expression on her face.

"Mom-!" yelped the girl.

The mother rushed towards her daughter, taking her by the hand, and led her upstairs. The two entered a storage room at the back of the house and made a feeble attempt to block the door with large miscellaneous items they had lying around. Afterwards, they hid in the corner behind the door adjacent to a single window.

Almost as soon as they crouched down, the front door below was kicked violently opened followed by a shower of gunfire. Frozen in fear, the red-haired girl sat clutching her mother and attempting to control her own breathing.

"Damn this is going better than I thought! Feels good to be out in the sun, doing what bandits do best! Stealin' and killin'!," sniggered a bandit before blowing off the smoke of his gun.

Entering the main corridor of the home, another bandit replied, "Yeah, with the war over, we can totally rest easy. Gotta get me some booze later."

"IT'S OUR TIME TO SHINE, BABY!" another loudly proclaimed.

All of a sudden, gunfire rattled the house as the boss of the bandits in front of the other three fired into the ceiling.

"HEY, IDIOTS! Shut ‘yer yap and finish the damn job! There could still be villagers hangin' around."

Instantaneously, the large man swiveled back to face the narrow entranceway, pointing his gun forward and immediately firing a stream of bullets a few feet away from one of the bandits' face. A cry was heard behind them as the three men looked outside to see a villager collapse dead on the road.

"...Like that," the boss concluded.

"Y-yes, sir," responded the three terrified bandits as they scurried off to search the rooms.

Shortly after, one of the bandits discovered a room they couldn't open.

"Hey, Boss! I think this room is locked. It doesn’t even budge."

As the others gathered in front of the storage room door, the boss readied his gun.

"Then let's shoot it down."

Squeezing the trigger and using the rest of the magazine, the wooden door and its barricade immediately deteriorated in front of them. Kizu and her mother flinched when the bullets flew straight across the room, penetrating the walls on the other side. As the boss of the bandits casually stepped over the debris and into the room, he came face to face with the two small women cowering in fear. The other bandits followed suit.

"Well now look what we have here. If you give us your valuables, maybe I'll let you live," taunted the muscular man, smiling menacingly down on them.

That was a lie that everyone in the room knew. The man was just mocking their pitiful attempt at survival like a predator playing with its prey before finishing them off.

Ambitiously, the little girl spreaded her arms out to protect her mother and yelled haughtily, "We don’t have anything here! Can’t you see we can barely keep ourselves alive!?"

The overbearing man paused before taking an equally large silver semi-automatic pistol with a black grip. He pointed the firearm at Kizu's forehead and cocked the gun. The young girl trembled on the other end, but kept her ground; her emerald eyes stared with confidence at their perpetrator.

"Then why don’t I help relieve you of your suffering?" he offered, inching the trigger back.

As the man looked down on his next victim, he quickly noticed a black dot in his peripheral vision getting larger and larger. The boss of the bandits shifted his gaze slightly towards the window next to him before suddenly a large black object crashed through the window and the man was met with a black boot to the face. In a matter of seconds, glass shards burst into the room, shots were fired and screams were heard from both men and women. The boss of the bandits fell backwards, firing a shot which only grazed the mysterious individual, before suddenly he was looking at his own body but upside down. Like a rollercoaster entering a vertical loop, the man’s head spun in the air as it had been cleanly detached from its body, so swiftly his brain could not even register his own death. For a moment, the unknown individual appeared to be wielding a black blade which emitted a flame darker than the night, until it vanished again.

As the bandits screamed and fired blindly, unable to track the enemy’s swift movements, the blade sliced through the guns and the arms that held them. Soon after, the intruder made easy work of the other three men as blood splattered on to the ceiling and human entrails flowed to the ground. With a final thud on the wooden floor, the leader’s head rolled into the dismembered bodies of his comrades.

“Finally found y--” the individual began.

“MOM!!”

Startled, the intruder looked back, although their face was covered with a mask. In the corner, the young girl sobbed as she held her mother who was bleeding from her gut and unable to wake up. At the moment the intruder had appeared, the mother had reached over to protect her daughter as the stray bullet from the pistol pierced her flesh.

“No…no no. Why? Mom… Please don’t leave me. Not you too…” Kizu muttered softly.