"Not exactly." N’varu finally spoke, and everyone wheeled to look at him. Even those of the shadow squad.

"What do you mean?" Yoka turned around swiftly.

"Have you seen this style of killing before?" Kiuga tilted his head too.

"If you step back, you can read the message. The bodies are not lying around carelessly or wherever the fight ended for them. The severed limbs are used to join a code. They are sending a message." N’varu said.

"Who is sending the message?" Yoka asked. Now that N’varu had said that, the pattern was beginning to get clear. It was now obvious that the bodies were laid in the clearing to make a certain shape. N’varu held his breath as everyone moved away from the clearing. It looked like he was reluctant to say what he wanted to, but had to. He kept looking at sagiri and looking away as if he expected sagiri to read whatever was drawn by the corpses.

"Who. Tell me who?" Yoka asked again.

"The deadliest assassin group of the south. The veil blades," Sagiri said, and everyone froze.

What on earth?

"The south?" Kiuga asked, looking at the bodies, but could not read the inscription. "So you are from the south, too?"

"I thought you were the smartest. These two are attached at the hip. Where else could he be from?" Kaka shook his head in disappointment.

"I had my speculations, but N’varu seems perfectly normal, and Sagiri well... he is the definition of weird." Kiuga defended.

"Just how many southerners are in the north?" Tavora seethed. To that, neither Sagiri nor N’varu answered.

"All I can say is you all need to go back to college, you go back to Tatani, and you need to go back to Alika. This no longer concerns you." N’varu said in the most grave voice sagiri had heard from him.

"Fifteen of my men have been killed. I fear this deeply concerns me, Southerner." Yoka almost snarled.

"Then you and all your men will surely die if you don’t move now." N’varu was not bulging. His eyes had not left the scene once, and with every second, he seemed to be more worried.

"Do you know what it is saying?" Sagiri asked, and N’varu turned to him.

"One word. Tiralka," N’varu said in southern dialect. Only Sagiri could understand that. Now that sagiri had understood the word, the archive could finally read the inscription on the ground.

"What does it mean? My men have just been killed to send a message to someone who can read the inscription. I assume that it’s the two of you." Captain Yoka said in an accusatory tone.

"It means death," Sagiri said. "The small blade at the end of the word means it’s a declaration of death."

"The veil blades of the south are assassins feared even by the south. No one knows who they are, but whenever they set out to kill someone, they for sure kill that person. If you insist on making this your business, you will surely die, Captain Yoka." N’varu insisted.

"My men are dead. You wish for me to turn a blind eye?" Yoka trembled with rage.

"Yes, that is the wisest thing to do if you wish to protect the rest," N’varu added flames to the fire.

"The veil blades? How come I have never heard of them?" Kiuga wondered.

"If you know their name, you die. So everyone here has to die." N’varu said, "It’s either them or you. If you insist on meddling." Nvaru warned again.

The message was sent to me, right?" Sagiri asked. "Then the south must know of my existence and does not want me there." Sagiri was a little saddened that the south could send assassins after him.

"Not true. The veil blades, though a huge shadow organization, do not speak for the south. They are barbaric and kill anyone they think will disturb the future peace of the South. They do not speak for the entire council of the south." N’varu said.

"How many do you think they are?" Kiuga asked.

"A veil blade squad of assassins consists of only six, but mostly they work in pairs or just alone," N’varu answered, and Kiuga’s jaw dropped dramatically.

"You mean to tell me only a handful of them did this?" Ulekai swallowed.

"Most likely. They train to kill since they step out of the womb. They only know how to kill and nothing more. Only I can stall them so you can take your men back to Alikia City, and you back to college. The mission Sagiri called you for is at its end." N’varu insisted.

"So you want us to run with our tails between our legs?" Kaka snapped. "We Asakana’s don’t run from strong opponents."

"Yes, at least you will then live to fight another day. It is not wise to fight when you know you have no chance of winning. You are not strong enough to fight the veil blades. " Maybe in three years or four, if you train very, very hard." Nvaru was dead serious, and his tone kept growing grave with every question. There was also urgency in it.

"Do you think you can beat them? Not to be a deal breaker, but they just wiped out fifteen shadows." Maita said. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"They fight the southern way. Even if all of you were to fight them, you won’t stand a chance," N’varu said.

"And you can fight this southern way?" Rana of the shadows asked.

"Yes. None of you has seen me fight the southern way. And for the veil blades assassins, I have to fight with the death style only taught to them. Perhaps with it, we can buy time," N’varu said.

"And where did you learn how to fight using the southern style?" Kiuga wondered again.

"I grew up in the south till I was twelve. I only came north to find Sagiri. To do that, I had to be the best of the best," N’varu said.

"Tinka, you take your fighters back. They must not know we are now in bed together. Send me a message if anything changes." Sagiri turned to Tinka. Tinka did not look like he wanted to get involved anyway, and he just bowed to sagiri before him, and the dozen fighters were pulling out. A moment of silence prevailed before sagiri spoke again.

"What do you want to do, Captain?" Sagiri asked. He could tell Captain Yoka was thinking hard about whatever N’varu was saying.

"I send my dead men to the shadow base in Ranga then I fight these assassins...."

Pop!

Pop!

Just as Yoka was speaking, suddenly there were popping sounds coming from the corpses. Everyone turned around immediately, just in time to see the bodies dissolve inward and just disappear.

it began as a faint distortion along the edges of the bodies, their outlines softening then, without sound, they started to come apart not collapsing, not decaying, but breaking into fine, weightless particles that lifted from their forms in slow, steady streams, hands losing shape first, then limbs, then the rest, every trace of flesh and bone dissolving the same way until even the skeleton failed to remain, rising into the air like dust pulled by an unseen force, thinning, scattering, and vanishing completely, leaving nothing behind but empty ground where they had once been. just their clothes.

Yoka stumbled before he fell on his knees, and a scream tore through his chest. It was truly a pained howl.

His men were gone now, and he did not even have bodies to bury.