Chapter 10: Betrayal

Opening his eyes, the rays of the sun penetrated them without holding back. Christopher found himself on the ground in a place that looked like a village square.

He scanned his vicinity just to be welcomed by the contemptuous looks of some men armed with strange weapons that didn't look man-made, they were armed with beast souls.

Christopher noticed he wasn't just the only one in this sudden predicament, as Sarah, Valerie, and the others also had different weapons pointed at them.

They were ensnared.

"Who are you and what are your ambitions for invading Zulu village." A man wearing superficial clothing that looked odd amongst the people had his lower part covered with bamboo straps.

He was a dark-skinned man with an average build but a fierce look. He had white paints slashed across his face that reminded them of the African culture.

The group of them cleared a path like they were welcoming a king as he stole the limelight.

"Ambition? Invading? No no, don't get it twisted we don't have any ambition here, we were just brought here by some sort of portal." Khan; one of the survivors said with a shaky voice.

It was then that something seemed to dawn on Christopher as he thought "Why does this place seem to be unaffected by the apocalypse, but they have beast souls, are we still on earth?"

Christopher hoped he was just overthinking things as he wanted to get to his mother sooner rather than later.

"Portal?"

"Just because you see me dressed like this, do you think I am a fool?" The voice of their leader resounded as the ground reverberated causing the survivors except for Chris, Sarah, and Valerie to shiver in fear.

"You are one of the spies sent here to plunder the rare gems of our Zulu mine."

"Chiffu, you and the others should wrap them up and throw them into the Zulu prison." The Chief ordered as Christopher and the others were tied with surprisingly strong ropes that seemed flexible but stronger than metal.

The man called Chiffu led the way as they walked towards the forest where their prison was situated. The strength of this man was something that they couldn't gauge, it was far above their current level, so they could do nothing but dance to his tune.

As they went deeper into the forest they saw many terrifying creatures which were easily slain by the guards. Chris estimated that the least of these creatures should be level 10.

What made him scared was the fact of how easily these creatures were slain. He couldn't wrap his head around how this Chiffu would be powerful and talk less of their overall leader.

This caused his hair to stand as he felt he could only escape their clutches through a heavenly miracle. He didn't even feel that gush of power that exploded in him against his fight with that berserk zombie could even be strong enough to overcome this foe.

Sarah looked into Christopher's eyes as she had also figured out the kind of situation they had found themselves in as the hope she had was that Christopher had his means of escaping this place with them.

Although she doubted he had, in a situation like this, she didn't dare think of the slightest opportunity to escape.

Her heart melted when Christopher gave her a helpless look.

Swoosh!!

Suddenly Chiffu turned around unsheathed his sword and stabbed the guard nearest to him in his chest.

The rest of the guards were shocked as they didn't know what was happening until when he killed the second and the third guards that realization dawned on them as they drew their weapons because they perceived betrayal.

"Leader Chiffu, what offense have our brothers committed that you slay them without remorse." One of the guards asked.

"Hahaha, offense?"

"Their offense was to follow me deep into this forest as it marked their graves, the rest of you should just form a queue so I won't have to bother walking about just to get my hands soiled with your wretched blood," Chiffu said as he grinned from ear to ear, feeling satisfied with how the guards were caught off guard by his scheme.

"Attack!" The rest of the guards barked in uniform as they launched their attack in an organized manner.

As organized and tight-packed as their attack seemed, Chiffu took it like it was a walk in the park as he kept evading attacks with exactly the required movement to dodge, nothing less nothing more.

It had control and the situation of the battlefield rested on his palm. He kept a simple pattern; evade then strike, and it kept going on, each strike led to the death of a comrade.

Just when he was about to kill the last guard, he hit him with the hilt of his sword causing him to fall on his back, as he planted his foot on his chest.

"After all that the clan chief had done for you, you still ended up betraying him, how heartless could you be." The guard spat as he said irritatedly by what Chiffu had done.

Christopher and the rest watched this event unfold from the sidelines as most of them were shivering in fright and some even pissed on their pants.

Watching this scene, Christopher, Sarah, Valerie, and surprisingly Evangeline weren't panicked. Chris, Sarah, and Valerie saw a glimmer of hope as they felt that Chiffu might not kill them directly, but this was just a baseless hope as they didn't know of his motives, they couldn't even gamble with their lives as it was not in their power to do so.

They could only wait helplessly like fishes on a chopping board waiting to be slaughtered.

"Actually..." Chiffu said as he stroked the edges of his sword.

"The Clan chief has indeed favored me, but the treasures of Zulu village are far greater than the favor he has showered me."

"Thinking of it, is it bad for me to pick a higher pay over some worthless camaraderie?" Chiffu replied shamefully as he plunged the sword into the heart of the indignant guard as he ended his life.

He shifted his attention towards Christopher and the others.

"You guys came right in time, I was thinking of how to move the treasures just for you guys to land directly in our village square."

"The gods must be smiling at me to send people who can help cover my track and make things a lot easier." Chiffu laughed to his heart's content.

"Please don't kill us, we are still young." Victony pleaded with tears in his eyes as his face seemed to be mashed up with tears and catarrh.

"Don't worry I'm not a bad person, I would not bother fighting with people that don't stand a chance before me," Chiffu said shamelessly.

"But I can kill them outrightly, hahaha" he added as he laughed eerily causing the spines of most of them to shiver.

"We would cooperate seamlessly with you as long as you let us live," Christopher said.

"You don't seem to know the situation you guys are in right now."

"Your lives are in my palms and I'm the one to call the shots here, you aren't in the position to dictate your fate," Chiffu said in a chilly voice.

He brought out a strange rope from his bag and used it to bind Christopher and the rest.

This rope bound them individually but they were linked together and the other end was in his palm. It has terrifyingly strong strength and durability, this rope was a weird treasure.

"With this rope, your schemes would be opened up to me, so don't test the waters with your lives at stake, I won't hesitate to kill you all and capture another group of weaklings to help with the dirty work," Chiffu said threateningly.

Just to prove that it wasn't just false qualms, he said what Scott was thinking out loud causing Scott to shiver as what he said was true.

He brought them forward and they started walking in a different direction than they were previously walking, as they headed towards the treasure storehouse of the Zulu village.

Along the way, they encountered fiercer creatures, but they were still slain effortlessly by Chiffu. It could be seen that the treasure storehouse was situated there purposely to avoid smooth movement towards the storehouse.

Chiffu was also walking with a pattern as they felt there were some bobby traps laid about which he knew how to circumvent his was around.

After waking nonstop for over an hour, they were met with a giant gate. Beyond this gate was the treasure storehouse.

There were two strong guards positioned outside the gate. They seemed to be as strong as Chiffu himself.

A strong fight was inevitable in this place.