Reyes walked casually through the now crowded streets of Los diablos.
The ghost town vibe from earlier was completely gone now with the desert heat being replaced by cool, night air.
It blew on across his face as he pushed his way through the crowded streets, sword slung across his back.
Waltzing into the town's square, a low whistling sound from above greeted him.
Boom!
Leezy landed hard just a few feet in front of Reyes, leaving a small crater in his wake.
Crouching down on one knee, he looked up and scanned the area. A sly grin slid across his face underneath his helmet once he noticed Reyes.
"It's about damn time."
"Says the one who literally took a whole damn day to get here." Reyes replied, grinning as punched Leezy's armored shoulder.
"Well, I had to dispose of some trash while making my way here. Did you get to make an example out of anyone brother?"
A humorous look spread across Leezy's face as he asked.
Reyes held his hand up in front of his Leezy, which was caked with dried blood.
"Nothing that I couldn't handle big dog. I got the tip off on some old ruins from this bartender chick named Rachel. Apparently some treasure is there that i'd like to retrieve. You're more than welcome to join in you'd like."
Flicking his wrist, he flung the dried blood off his hand and started heading east.
Following along, Leezy threw his Greatsword over his shoulder.
"Eh…why not? Let's go check it out."
The walk through the town felt like forever. The mass crowds of people in a rush to buy supplies slowed the brothers down.
Frustrated, Leezy began shouting.
"IF YOU ALL DON'T GET OUT OF OUR DAMN WAY, I SWEAR ON MY LIFE I WILL FOLD YOU LIKE A LAWN CHAIR!"
Bursting with laughter, Reyes watched as entire groups of people immediately split apart to clear a path for them to pass through un-impeded.
"You definitely will get us blacklisted from this place."
"And? Who gives a fuck? Definitely not I! This place doesn't even recognize a OG in their midst. You ever hear the phrase real recognizes real? Well let me tell ya, this whole town looks real unfamiliar right now to me my boy."
Tears rolled down Reyes's face after hearing his brother's comments. Nearby residents who heard his comment just murmured amongst themselves.
"What is this real that strange man speaks of?"
"I think it's some sort of spice…"
"Recognize? What I do recognize is that thick armor is being worn in the desert!"
"I bet he smells like straight booty under all that armor."
Noticing his sharp glare peering at them, one of the murmuring groups almost urinated themselves before quickly turning a corner.
"Nah, whats the rush!? Don't run now! Come say that shit to my face!!"
…
Together, it didn't take them long to reach the ruins.
Much to Leezy's disappointment, Reyes suggested they scope it out before going in headfirst…
The ruins appeared to be the remnants of an old castle complete with five towers. Four of them were assigned their own individual corner with all of them being connected to a wall, forming an outer ring of protection.
The walls themselves had huge chunks missing and most of the towers were also broken in half or heavily damaged.
The least touched structure was the last tower which rose from the center of the castle with light shining from its window, making it look like a beacon in the night sky.
Standing guard at the entrance of the castle were a small group of men that were each carrying short swords.
"How about we get closer for a better look, eh?"
Nodding in reply, Reyes began working his way down to the gate with his brother in tow.
The guards who saw them approaching drew their swords but before they could even utter a word, blood splattered the ground. All of them were cleaved in half from shoulder to waist by Reyes.
He quickly snatched up the Grey Soul Shards left behind on their remains and absorbed them.
Inside the castle, there were shattered armor sets and broken weapons littering the ground. Aside from that though, there was nothing else worth noting.
Looking around, Reyes frowned.
"Aww, and here I was hoping for a better welcoming committee than those to bozos guarding the gate."
"Amen to that, Reyes. I was hoping for some fun too. For a castle, the defense here is absolutely pathetic. They've got walls falling apart, trash guards and shit…Damn!"
From behind some barrels, a handful of men stepped out into the open, weapons drawn.
They tried to rush the two, but ultimately failed. All of them either got torn in half by Leezy's hands or carved into pieces by Reyes's sword.
They both wiped off the blood that covered them after absorbing the multitude of grey Soul Shards they retrieved and went deeper into the castle, arriving at the central tower they had seen outside.
It grew eerily silent while they made their way in. Once inside, they could tell that the tower was much bigger than it had appeared.
A long spiral staircase trailed downward from the middle of the room. The ceiling above housed a bright orange flame.
Even though the flame was lighting the inside of the tower, it couldn't pierce down into the depths of the staircase for some odd reason.
Not wanting to waste anymore time, instead of walking down the stairs, both Reyes and Leezy decided to jump down into the dark abyss of the stairwell.
While they were falling to the bottom, a shadow quickly darted between them.
A thin cut appeared on Reyes's cheek as sparks flew off Leezy's armor, which had absorbed the strike made in the darkness.
Turning around in mid air, Reyes manipulated his aura and generated a stepping pad under his feet. As he did so, a dagger appeared out of the darkness a few inches from his neck.
Before it struck him, he angled his sword and deflected the blow. As quickly as the assailant struck, they vanished from sight with the same speed, nowhere to be found among the darkness.
Unable to manipulate his aura the same way Reyes had, Leezy continued falling until he landed with a loud thud at the very bottom of the spiral staircase…