"Thank you Nkechi. We appreciate everything you have done for us."

"No, thank you Haneef, for letting me stay here and eat all of your wonderful food."

Haneef chuckled heartily and smacked Nkechi on the back. Nkechi winced and looked to Haneef's wife Amala, who mouthed an apology.

Nkechi had stumbled upon Amala and Haneef's community a few days after she had left her home and the couple had welcomed her into their home and community with open arms. Nkechi had been surprisingly shocked when no one had recognised who and what she was. Nkechi had become so accustomed to the hushed whispers and wide eyes that she often received, that she had forgotten what it felt like to be normal.

It had been a much pleasant surprise to realise that not only had this community not known what Nkechi was but that they did not require anything in exchange for her stay. The loving couple were more than happy to accept her into their home as their daughter had left the community for marriage a short while before. Nkechi had filled the void of their absent daughter in return, Nkechi had a few days rest from her travels.

"Do you have any idea where you are heading Nkechi?" Questioned Amala.

"Yes, no? I think I'll head North, my feet may take me Eastwards," Nkechi shrugged.

"And your heart may take you South," chuckled Haneef nudging Nkechi's shoulder roughly.

Nkechi grimaced again and then laughed with him. She would miss the light-heartedness of this small civilisation. Their mortal minds had never glimpsed the world that Nkechi knew. They lived in their bubble of bliss whilst Nkechi's existence was a statement within itself. Her existence was a sign of some higher power and she had to live with that reality for her whole life. It was nice that she could forget for a short while, but reality was calling her.

"I'll miss you both! Be safe and remember you can send for me if you ever need me. I may not get there straight away, but my final destination is the Der Surjaz land. My friend is the leader of the tribe and she will take any message you send."

Amala smiled softly and kissed Nkechi's cheek. "Thank you, my warrior, but I doubt we will need any help. Our home has been peaceful for some centuries now."

Nkechi nodded her head in acquiescence but she hoped that the married couple would remember her words. Giving them both a final squeeze and waving goodbye to the few members of the community, Nkechi made her way through the jungle.

Her feet carried her Northbound until nightfall came. She swung her body up onto a tree and then secured herself inside the branches, so she did not fall. As soon as she became comfortable sleep beckoned her forward. Soft green eyes calling her forward.

Her peaceful sleep was disturbed by the clanging of bells and loud shouting.

Rubbing her eyes in disorientation, Nkechi looked to the sky in puzzlement. The skyline was cast in a deep orange glow that flickered with hues of red. Her confusion quickly transferred into worry when she noted the thick grey plumes of smoke that seemed to be intertwined.

There was a fire. Dread rattled in her chest because she knew in her gut where the fire had come from. She quickly grabbed her few belongings and jumped from the tree.

Her feet thudded to the floor as a piercing scream rattled through the air.

"Shit," Nkechi cursed.

She dusted the dirt off her body and ran blindly to where the noise was coming from. She knew no matter what the situation was, the outcome would not be good for her. She had slept her first completely dreamless night which meant The Goddess was actively hiding something from Nkechi.

The closer she got to the fire, the quieter her footfalls became until she was moving so stealthily that even the animals could not hear her approach.

The utter carnage she stepped into had Nkechi completely confused and discombobulated.

Plumes of smoke clouded her watering eyes, as the community she had left the night prior had been singed to ashes. There was no sign of life. The once vibrant and joyous village was completely ravaged.

Moving slowly through the village it became apparent that the attack of the village had been recent. She bent down to look at the muddy footprints that appeared to belong to a particularly large person. She stayed low to the ground as she followed the footprints throughout the village. She climbed over logs and dismantled homes until the footprints gathered in the centre of the village where a pool of blood flowed endlessly. The scent was still fresh, and the blood was still wet, confirming what Nkechi already knew. Whoever had attacked the village had left shortly before Nkechi heard the first scream. The pool of blood was not large enough to suggest this person had been killed but it was large enough to suggest they had been given a grievous wound.

Nkechi continued her surveillance of the village until something abnormal caught her attention. One of the many trees lining the village was completely charred and blackened but not in the way that would appear as if it had been burnt. The tree looked as if the life of it had been sucked from the roots until it had withered away.

"Fucking Svolik," she groused under her breath.

Frustration and anger mounted in her soul. The Svolik had become a bigger problem than any tribe amongst the three Nations anticipated. Many refused to believe in the reality that they had all once coexisted and refused to make amends to reunite. As a result of the constant bitterness between the nations, the Svolik were being allowed to run rampant.

The Svolik were once people who belonged to the Der Surjaz tribe but centuries ago, Yidashay, who was the brother of the Der Surjaz leader Narisa, believed that he was the rightful leader and took it upon himself to overthrow his sister. He and his followers terrorised the Der Surjaz people, butchering all who followed her. Forcing his sister and her remaining followers into exile, where Narisa became the leader of the Der Khatil.

The Der Surjaz became a corrupted tribe who bent the laws of nature and consorted with dark matter that had been forbidden to them. Years of this abuse had left the Der Surjaz weakened and corrupted but Sajah, a wandering descendent of the Der Khatil tribe had brought with her the favour of The Goddess and restored their land to its rightful power. Yidashay and his followers were forced into exile. Their powers and the holy Daharrasol stripped from them but their resolve had not been weakened.

Years later the Svolik tried to summon Najrati, The Goddess Savuriya's antithesis, to this world. All of the Nations including the Daharen created an allyship to defeat the power. The battle had gone down in the ancient scribes. The stories had regaled the heroism of the first Khamar warriors of the new nation the Yari Soleen who had defeated the Svolik. Centuries of warring and bitterness had dulled the tales of this feat and had turned them into nothing but hearsay and superstition. The erasure of this important part of their history created the separation of each Nations Ishanu, allowing the darkness of the Svolik to grow in the void.

The attack on this tribe showed the Svolik's blatant disregard to the three Nations. The Svolik had begun to not only wipe out the smaller tribes but they had begun their attacks on the Aleem, disbelievers. There were many villages across the land that did not believe in The Goddess and had not been given the gift of light from Savuriya. These people had their own beliefs and for centuries they had remained none the wiser until now.

The situation was progressing so much faster than Nkechi had ever imagined. There was no more time for procrastination and doubt, she had to meet with Maliha and implore the Der Surjaz to act swiftly but not before she made a small detour.

Nkechi gathered what few belongings she could scrimmage from the village and began her journey. She followed the tracks through the forest. Her footsteps quiet as she pieced together each part of their journey. When the sky began darkening Nkechi welcomed her Dahara and scoured the land until she came across their encampment.

Her mouth grew dry at how many of them there seemed to be. Haneef's small village had stood no chance against the thirty or so Svolik men and women. Even though there were less Svolik then the villagers, the Svolik could channel dark energies that would enable them to wipe out Haneef's whole village without trying.

Nkechi prowled around the perimeter of their encampment. Watching their every move and observing their routines. Once she had absorbed all the information she could, she retreated up a tree and slept for a few hours.

She continued this pattern, following them through their journey as they headed southwards. She barely had any rest as she made sure to observe every piece of their routine.

This Svolik group seemed to be divided into groups of five. Each group had a commander, but they all reported to another man. One that Nkechi had overlooked in her initial count. There were now thirty-one Svolik and only one of her. Even with her Dahara, she knew she would struggle to take them all on at once which is why she needed to infiltrate them.

She kept her eyes open for the perfect moment and a few nights after the initial attack happened, the opportunity presented itself. Nkechi had to stop herself from reacting rashly when one of the Svolik men began forcibly removing a crying baby from his distraught mother.

"Shut this baby up before I throw him in the fire," he slithered.

His black hooded cape fell from his face as he jerked the baby over the fire. The mother screamed louder and just when Nkechi thought he would throw the baby into the fire; he pulled the dangling child away from the flames and threw the toddler to his mother. Nkechi used this moment to move from her hidden place by the trees and sit beside a member of the village at the very outskirts of the encampment. Her back was placed along a tree as she analysed the situation. Everyone was so focused on the scene before them that no one noticed that she had entered their camp.

As the mother soothed her wailing baby and the Svolik laughed at everyone's distress, Nkechi kept her head bowed even though her hands shook in anger. She sucked in a calming breath of air and reminded herself of the bigger plan. Once the mother and her child had settled, the Svolik began their nightly routine. Each night the Svolik would converge in the corner of their new daily encampment and have their meeting. They often left a group to man the already scared and shaken village.

This was something Nkechi had noticed they did almost every night and realised that this was the perfect opportunity for her to take down their numbers without bringing too much attention.

Like clockwork, the group of five that were left to oversee the captives began their nightly rounds. They kept their eye on their captives but as Nkechi noted, the night-time toilet break commenced. The same recurring group of people requested to use the bathroom. They were a mixture of elderly people accompanied by a few younger people for support. The few villagers were escorted by four of the Svolik leaving only one to oversee the rest of the group. It was a stupid decision on their behalf but with the villagers being tormented and weakened by lack of food and the rest of the Svolik still being in sight, they felt no one would start an uprise. What had worked for them every night seemed to be the perfect chink in their routine for Nkechi. The remaining Svolik member moved so she was standing at the edge of the encampment. This way she could keep an eye on both the nightly meeting and the rest of the tribe. What she hadn't anticipated was that she would happen to be standing right beside Nkechi.

Moving quickly, Nkechi used the tip of her blade to poke the woman's leg.

"What the hell?" the woman groused as she bent down to swat hat what she thought was a pestering insect.

Nkechi used the opportunity to stab the woman in her head, she then wrapped her hand around the woman's mouth to muffle any noise and then slit her throat. Once Nkechi was sure she was dead, she retreated into the trees. Carefully dragging the woman's dead body with her. She hid the body in the trees and then headed further into the foliage, listening for the taunting voices of the Svolik guards. Every night she watched them as they taunted the village members. Groping the women and then threatening to turn the men into eunuchs.

It was easy for Nkechi to kill them when she found them. She picked them off one by one until her arms were dripping in their blood and the villagers were left cowering for their life.

"I'm a friend. I stayed with Amal and Haneef not too long. You may not recognise me, but I am here to help. I need you to stay here and no matter what you hear, do not come to the encampment."

"Thank you," an elderly woman sobbed.

Nkechi bowed her head in acquiescence before heading back to the camp. This would be the hard bit. Her odds were now twenty-six to one and though she believed in herself, she doubted she could take on that many people at one time.

She tiptoed into the encampment and then sat with her head bowed until the meeting was adjourned.

"Where did Kyko go?" Growled one of the Svolik members now that their meeting was over.

"I told you not to leave his group in charge. They never follow orders," snapped another woman. Her face was covered by the notorious Svolik hood.

"Shh. Can you not smell that stench?"

Nkechi's heart rattled in her chest as the leader of the group began sniffing around the camp.

"It smells like blood," he growled. The black veins on his face pulsed as the flames flickered.

The atmosphere trembled with his anger. The hairs on Nkechi's arms stood to attention the closer he moved to her. Her breath halted as she watched him stop in front of her. His nose wiggling as he sucked in a lungful world air.

"You," he sneered.

Nkechi's head rose as she had her first close encounter with a Svolik. His face looked haggard. His cheekbones sharp and gaunt, his skin had a sickly pallor and dark black veins threaded through his face but what shocked Nkechi the most were his eyes. His were like looking into a depthless pit. They were hollow and imposingly obsidian, there was no demarcation between his irises and his socket.

A sharp breath left Nkechi's mouth as one of his black-tipped nails poked at her skin.

"You reek of blood" he slithered.

Nkechi licked her dry lips before responding. "I don't reek enough," she retorted tartly.

His eyes widened in shock that quickly morphed into pain as she brought her knife forwards and slashed at his pointing finger. Blood gushed from the severed finger and splattered across Nkechi's chest.

She used his shock to topple him to the floor, her Knife slashed at his skin until she was roughly dragged from his body by the remaining warriors. Their arms wrapped around her in a tight restraint so she could barely move.

Silence overcame the camp as the Svolik leader climbed to his feet, snatching at a cloth handed to him by one of the other Svolik members.

"You," he snarled, "you will suffer. I will rip you apart, limb from limb. Burn your insides with a poker until you feel the fire in the depths of your soul. Then we will take turns with your body, repeatedly raping you until you beg and even th- what is so funny?" He bellowed.

Nkechi's maniacal laughter interrupted his speech. The glee in her eyes had everyone confused. She tried to stop herself from laughing but this man with nine fingers and a body littered with stab wounds really thought he could scare her. Her laughter was abruptly stopped when his fist met the softness of her cheek. Nkechi's face whipped to the right as blood spurted from her lip.

Nkechi slowly turned her face back to face him. She licked her bloody lip before greeting him with a taunting smile.

"You won't live through any of that because I am not alone."

As if on cue a guttural scream filled the air as an arrow flew out of the forest and embedded itself into the shoulder of a remaining Svolik.