The Conquerors Path

"Sigh... let's just resume the journey again, I just want to be done with all this now," Austin spoke, his gaze leaving the two boys as if they were worth nothing as he stood up to sit on his horse, though as he did this, he managed to flash a sly smile towards the two that only they could see, their expressions turning for the worse being a good push as Austin sat upon the horse, his expression otherwise stone cold when he looked at the two.

And before any sort of movement could take place, Melvin shouted out.

"Don't you think you should apologize to us?"

As he said this, he pointed at the bump on the top of his head, one slowly ringing from the hit that Austin gave them, his question earning him a disdain-filled look from Nini, while Carmelia, still in control, looked at her best friends with even colder eyes, her feelings being complex as she walked towards the horse, left some words.

"Don't be so stupid, Melvin."

Sadly for her, as her back faced the two, she didn't stand to see the expression that came to the two, extreme anger and humiliation passing through their faces at the moment, anger bursting forth as they gazed powerfully at Carmelia, both of them being fully humiliated as they stood there, to which Austin spoke.

"We don't have all the time in the world."

These words, along with Carmelia's situation of not even paying any mind to them, broke their hearts more as they walked towards the horse, sitting on them as the journey continued forth, the two on the back, while Austin and Carmelia moved in sync with Nini at the front, though moments later, within the group, the cold expression on Carmelia's face melted as she started to talk to Austin.

The truth here is the fact that their personality had changed towards Carmel but sadly for the ones behind, the sight they thought they saw was something else, the situation of Carmel being so happy with Austin but cold at them once again playing in their mind, not to mention that some sort of awkwardness has now been created in the whole travel group.

Austin now doesn't place Nix and Melvin in his eyes, Carmel now has some small break between them, Nini from the beginning not placing them in the eyes, in the group for anyone to see it's normal to understand the fact that the two boys, Nix and Melvin, are the ones that are unwanted, they could see that everyone here wanted them gone.

Of course, Carmel doesn't have those thoughts yet, but it's what the two are seeing and feeling, the negative emotions slowly yet steadily growing bigger and bigger, along with hate and self-pity, the thought that Carmel is slowly slipping away from their hands slowly filling their hearts again and again, which wasn't also helping with the fact that their pride of getting trampled again and again, such emotions are slowly festering more and more, pushing both their hearts towards a dark path as they trudged behind the group.

A few hours passed since the group moved forth from the last scene, and since then, a few instances of issues had propped up during the move. Just as half an hour had passed since the last movement, a group of playful birds that lived in the forest made some moves, they coming forth to peck around, and Nini had explicitly told them just to go and be playful.

But once again, with those dark emotions, Melvin swatted one of them, while Nix hit the others, and this resulted in them being covered with bird shit. And of course, Nix and Melvin tried to fight against it, but it ended up with Nini taking action and ensuring they were unable to fight, and that resulted in them being covered with bird poop.

And the worst part was that the pecking was only being done to them, Austin seemed to have some nature of protection against those beasts that they were being playfully happy with Austin, and this resulted in Carmel sticking to them, and Austin in his 'cold' manner trying to keep her away, which ended up in him slowly making the birds closer to her.

The two horses sticking closer, with Austin and Carmel sticking closer, her bubbly persona on the loose as Austin guided the birds around her, the freedom and happiness of such adventure causing Carmel to smile and laugh like no other, she coming to like to stick around Austin, everything flowing smoothly.

And the two in the behind could only gaze at it all while being covered with bird shit, Carmel not even giving them the gaze of the day, the humiliation pushing them even more, especially when Nini blocked them from fighting back, but the powers she should make them understand that if they make any other move here, it would be they that would suffer.

Such small instances of problems still kept appearing to them as during the travel, a group of a certain herd of beautiful-looking peacock-like animals was met within the forest, these ones having red skins, shining purple and gold feathers, and move, overall they being a group of herbivores powerful animals that moved around in this forest.

And Carmel squealed at their beauty, the herd itself looking beautiful, to which once again Nini had spoken them off not to disturb them, but the ever-suppressed Nix and Melvin thought of a plan to get the bird or at least some feathers to make Carmel smile or appreciate them, hence they stopping tried towards the birds which turned for the worse.

The powerful beasts of Origin level 7 seemed to be pissed off as they started to attack them, not lethally, but their powerful legs easily breaking through their defense as they started to stomp upon those two while they did this, the beasts used their shining back flock of hair to create an illusion dance to which the two fell victim to.

And that resulted in them moving according to the beasts' will to perform unwanted dance moves in a very humiliating manner, steps that even prostitutes won't do bouncing from their bodies from the beasts' illusions and this ended up with Austin having to make a move, he placating the beasts and the scene that flashed through the eyes of Nix and Melvin being the romantic scenes of Austin somehow holding Carmel in his embrace from the back as she guided the hands of excited Carmel to the disgruntled beast giving off their feathers to touch just because Austin dealt so.

'Why?... Why?... Why?...'

These thoughts flashed through the minds of the freshly humiliated Nix and Melvin, these two trudged on the grid, covered in dirt, barely dressed with fresh marks of the birds' leg imprints on their faces lying on the ground, gazing at the scene of Austin helping Carmel to touch the birds, this scene being more romantic than anything, and at their heart, they already felt like Carmel has being switched out from their hands, she falling for the young man that doesn't at times seem fit to even care about her.

'Why are you looking at him when he doesn't even like you?'

These were the thoughts in their minds, they couldn't accept it, their hearts now turning dark couldn't accept the scene flashing before their eyes, lost to emotions that kept flooding their mind, and the last scene fell with Carmel soon standing over them as she asked in a disappointed tone.

"Why did you do this?"

Her question made the two bite their lips hard as Nix spoke.

"I just thought you would have looked beautiful with a feather of that beast on your hair."

"I thought that getting the beast for you to pet might make you happy."

Melvin concurred with his desires, those two coming together to make Carmel bite her lip hard, the wordings in them suddenly showing off their emotions but it disappointed her only more when her best friend did this on a trip to save her sister, wasn't they boasting before that they are coming along to save her little sister? Then why are they the ones causing the most problems and delaying the trip?

"You fools..."

Is all she could mutter as she shaking her head with disappointment walked away to Austin, her eyes slightly up at seeing him, while the two on the ground ground their teeth together, their thoughts being obscured, they being unable to see the error in their actions due to the darkness now floating in their hearts, all they could see if anger and jealousy now, feeling lost and helpless.

As such with their behavior and actions, the second crack has been formed.....