--Shylock City, The Empire of Yodan--

.

~Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap~

In a very dark, dimly lit and creepy hallway, a young man drenched in blood from head to toe hastily plunged across the hall fearfully.

His blood-coated hair stuck to his face, and his clothes were also dyed red too.

No! He didn't want to get caught again.

He couldn't take it anymore.

He just couldn't take it anymore again!

The young man ran barefooted, leaving trails of blood behind with his every footstep.

And as he advanced, he continuously slipped and slid many times while looking back from time to time.

Plop

He fell to the ground and quickly rose to his feet before running frantically once more.

His hands constantly left bloody paw-prints on the already creepy-looking walls.

At this monomer, his chest started hurting badly, as he felt a suffocating pain swallow him whole.

He gritted his teeth and panting heavily while advancing as fast as he could.

He turned his head back again as if looking for his pursuers.

But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see anyone.

Nonetheless, he could hear the sounds of sharp, heavy footsteps slowly knocking on the floor.

And even though the sounds of these footsteps grew louder and louder, he knew that the people after him were probably taking their time strolling behind him in the shadows.

Dammit!

If not for his injury, he would be able to get out of here fast.

Too bad he didn't even have the energy to keep his heavy eyelids open for long.

Was this the end?

What should he do now?

.

The young man ran frantically across the hallway before branching off towards the right while looking back.

Bam.

He seemed to have bumped something, or rather, someone, who made him stumble to the ground in agony.

Plugh

The fall seemed to have aggravated his injuries even more, as he felt a wave of blood forcefully trying to gush its way out of his mouth.

Who?

The young man looked up, only to see a tall giant staring at him from above.

Mommy...

The moment he saw the figure, he subconsciously shrunk his head backwards like a turtle and used his hands and less to slide back on his butt in fear.

"Y-y-y-you... You bloody bastards!

If you have the guts, then mill me and be done with it.

Kill me! Kill me! Kill me!

Anything is better than that!"

...

Looking at the badly injured man sliding away on the floor, The tall figure smiled coldly before calmly advancing like a snake watching its prey.

And soon, several other men, all dressed in a similar manner to the tall figure, slowly revealed themselves from all ends of the hallways.

Just like that, the young, bloodied man found himself surrounded by these brutes.

"Kill me if you have the guts!

Take my life!

Kill me now!

Kill me! Kill me! Kill me!"

The young man had no clear idea why he was going through all this. But deep down, he had a hunch.

The lead tall figure ignored his screams of anxiety from the young man and calmly stooped down before squeezing the young man's jaw fiercely.

"Isomi Fernard, a spy for the Pirate association, born xxxxx..."

What?

Isomi looked at the tall figure in disbelief.

His eyes opened wide in shock and alarm.

So all this time, they had known of his true identity?

F***!

Isomi didn't even have time to think things over before getting dragged away by his legs like a piece of meat dangling in a butcher's shop.

Bam Bam Bam.

His body smacked the sides of the walls and floor harshly as these bastards dragged him without a care in the world.

Would it kill them to move carefully?

He felt like a chicken waiting for slaughter.

And soon, he found himself in a very spacious room filled with 80 people who all wore masks.

.

The moment the tall, burly man came close enough to the masked leader in the group, he calmly dropped the bloodied man before dropping to the floor on one-bended knee.

Plop.

"Your excellency, I have brought the traitor back."

"Hmmm." The masked leader stared at the bloodied man coldly.

What he hated the most were backstabbers.

Additionally, he also hated the pirate organization more than anything else.

So how could he not be pissed?

Master K almost had a heart attack when he remembered the sudden changes over the last few months.

Within Yodan, his main base, which was his headquarters, was utterly destroyed by those damn lawless pirates!

He didn't know about other bases within Yodan and Deiferus.

Over the last few months, things were really hard for him.

Firstly, someone was killing the temple survivors or those that weren't their respective bases during the attack.

He highly suspected that it was the pirates.

Another thing that bothered him was the reports he got.

The first thing he did was head towards the temple's 2nd most popular base, somewhere in the woods around Shylock City.

But what he saw gave him goosebumps.

The place was also destroyed as well.

Seeing this similar pattern of destruction, his heart skipped a bit as fear quickly made a home in his heart.

Could it be that all his bases were destroyed?

No! That's impossible!

Thinking like that, he quickly sent some of his men to head towards the other bases in Yodan.

By now, some of them should've already arrived at their targeted destinations.

And in a few more months, he should receive letters from them about the matter.

He didn't believe that all his bases could get destroyed all at once.

.

Master K passed his hands through his fingers, deep in thought, as he thought about the matter once more.

Everything about the pirate organization annoyed him silly.

And now, seeing a spy amongst his men made him even more pissed off than before.

He looked at the bloodied man as if looking at a corpse.