23rd of July, 2044 AD.

“There is two on the balcony? Should we wait?” The shorter of the two asked, his voice deep, rough and distorted by the synthetic metal mask hiding his visage. The blue visor glints under the moon light on this clear night. The two clings to the walls of the large Corvinus mansion overlooking the bay of Visegrad, seemingly as if their foots are glued to the ancient, renovated marble walls.

His partner remains silent, turning his head upwards toward the balcony. Then his body gradually turns transparent until it is completely unseen, even by the magitech visor of his capable of seeing through high level illusion spells. The taller man now completely invisible pours his mana into his legs, inscriptions forming in them before they propel him to the golden railing of the balcony where the nostril burning scent of their cigarettes enter through his mask.

He pushes himself over, his heavy muscled body with synthetic right arm adding its weight on top of his, landing completely silent. One of the guards notes a sudden arcane wind breezing her skin, while the other remains oblivious continuing taking in the view of the neon dressed sight of the city that now serves as the not yet official twenty seventh district of the capital, Budapest.

His neck snaps pretty loudly, never escaping the boundaries of the balcony though, while a hole appears in the middle of the other guards’ forehead, her sclera turning crimson as blood flows out like tears. “Clear.” The Tall Agent rugged, slightly softer voice ringed in the Shorter’s mind.

“Copy. Next time wait or inform me beforehand.” He adds as his body burst into shadows, appearing on the balcony approaching his partner with silent steps.

The darkness hardens under their feet, slowly rising from the ground. The solid blackness wraps around the two corpses, pushing them into the ground. Even the railings are engulfed, then in a blink of an eye it dissipates into nothingness, leaving no corpses, blood and brain matter behind.

“After you!” The Tall Agent lifts his synthetic arm fluidly towards the windowed entrance inside the large library of the western wing. “Seems like you still have manners after all these decades.” The Shorter Agent says in an amicable tone while his body walks through the glass without breaking it into a thousand pieces. The Tall Agent follows after him silently, inspecting the whole library with the open inner balcony serving as a makeshift second floor.

“Clear. What a carefree bunch.” The Shorter Agent says while inspecting the large skeletal remains of a werebear hunted by the family two centuries ago in Transylvania. The bones polished to the point that the slight ray of moon light makes it shimmer, illuminating the whole library in a cold silver.

“Second Floor Clear. Well, it is just a countryside mansion of the Corvinus Corporation. It’s probably riddled with traps and hidden tech. Maybe they are already aware of us.” The Tall Man puts back an old tome with hard leather cover written by an ancestor of Dórián Corvinus, current head of the Corvinus Corporation that dominates the Balkans and Central Eastern Europe.

“That is why we have a netrunner. She’ll give us time so do not be a worrywart.” The Shorter Agent says as the Taller Agent appears at the door in a burst before the Shorter Agent, stopping for a second as he feels the gaze of someone on the back of his head. A chill runs down his spine, the first time in the four hundred years since he came to see the light of this world.

**

5th of June, 2044 AD.

“Look at that choom!” A large black jeep slowly rolls up in front of the old house. The front yard filled with trash and dying grass exposing the tainted earth. From the side of the house a tall, petite intense red headed woman nicely dressed in a black suit highlighting her near perfect curves, a face with few minor implants including the eyes glowing with an intense blue colour reminding the two street kids of the azure waters their grandmas talked about. Her silken blouse collars hiding her tender neck buttoned down to her chest, pushed together by her arms and bra.

“Fuckin corpos! Let’s leave Carl!” As the much smaller man steps out from the vehicle, the two street kids checking the woman from top to bottom, they decide to ditch as the men with fiery red eyes stares at them coldly. “That wasn’t necessary!” The woman says as she sighs. “So now you enjoy the lewd gazes of street kids?” The man says while closing the door loudly. “Let’s hurry up before he notices our presence and bails.”

The wind chimes as a long line of bottles are placed over the porch, the sun’s light shining through them reflecting colours mixing together, changing as it slowly descends down the horizon. The walls battered, riddled with bullet holes with some still rolling back and forth on the wooden floor.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Mr.William, we’re here from the IMB. We would like to talk with you. It is urgent!” The woman knocks on the door. The Short Man waves his right arm in the air while softly whispering in an indescribable tongue, her firm voice never reaching beyond the porch.

The silence is palpable for several minutes. “Well, we tried your method.” The Short Man grumbles before starting to beat on the door. “Will, drag your ass to the door, and fuckin open it.” He screams inside while the door swallows the force of his hits, shaking the whole foundation of the house. “Nice. He will definitely let us in now.” The woman says as she reaches into her inner pocket and grabs a package of cigarettes.

“It’s about Giada. We know where she may have disappeared.” As her name reaches through the door, William opens up the door revealing a shrivelled man towering over the man in front of him. His once handsome face now hidden behind a thick jungle of a beard reaching towards all corners of the world.

“Nice to see you Will.” The man greets him with an affable smile under his neatly trimmed beard on his face making him appear in his late to mid-forties. “You too Edward. Even if you look shit in those clothes.” He says while his deep voice is muffled by the thick bush in front of it. “Come inside.”

“You look like hammered shit” Edward follows quickly after him while racking his brain to compliment his old friend. “The years haven’t been kind to me as they say.” He turns around, his weak smile barely visible while his saddened golden eyes lost their glow, much closer to piss yellow in Edwards’ mind.

“Adaline! It’s a pleasure to meet you!” The woman introduces herself, William’s eyes fixate on her, gleaming with desolation as the redhead reminds him of his losses. “So, the IMB still doing those experiments.” William says while turning back. “With losing you… and them… well you know how the Bureau works.” Edward starts speaking but his voice breaks twice as he notices the wall in the living room littered with paintings, photographs both coloured and monochrome depicting William in his prime, a handsome man with sharp features, golden eyes and dark hair. The two ladies, Giada and her mother with their intense red hair, shimmering like the scales of a red dragon and golden eyes.

“As you already know, she booked six different flights just in Europe. But according to what we found out with a bit of our mind tricks, there were also a train ticket hidden from us bought by a magicless friend of hers.” The stacks of papers on the dusty couch fly up in the air, landing behind it after carefully manoeuvring. At the snap of her fingers, documents materialize out of thin air on the small table William quickly cleared off. Opening them his eyes fixate on the train after flapping through the pages detailing the plane tickets, he himself used to follow her trail to east Germany. “So, she had a friend in Poland?” He asks while keeping his attention on the documents.

“Yes, they met during one of her missions in eastern Europe.” Edward flips the page for him picking out a few details that he thought may interest William. “Was he under her spell?” He asks with a confused look. “I thought that too, but no. Seems like they got close together, plus he researches folklore and such. He was pretty well informed, but I cut those out.”

“What was she doing in Visegrad?” He asks while furrowing his brows, laying back in his sofa. “On paper she was investigating the disappearance of former necromancers.” Adelina speaks up next, her eyes now golden like Giada’s, beaming with the same enthusiasm. “But in reality, she was investigating about this mark. From her friend’s interview we learnt that she thought the Corvinus family was somehow connected to it.” Adeline continues as she conjures up another file, this time open showing the high-resolution photograph of a dark tree with its roots spreading in all direction, making small movements as if wiggling like a snake.

“That idiot.” William mumbles with a broken voice. “Do you know anything about it?” Adeline asks sounding a bit meeker compared to her previous firm tone. “Could you wait for us outside Adeline?” Edward turns to her with solemn look. After a while Adeline nods and leaves the two.

“Are you sure the Corvinus family is tied to the cult?” William asks after mustering his strength by gulping down a quarter full bottle of whiskey.

“We’ve been sure of that since the early 2000s. Around the time Matthias disappeared, our dear old Dórián visited him after he too got entangled with that cursed symbol.” Edward says as he lays back in the sofa, shaking the packet of cigarette. “After he disappeared, he even adopted that kid.” He continues as an arcane rune form in front of his eyes after swiftly murmuring a chant.

“Adopted him?” William asks confused as he recalls the boy not showing an inch of arcane prowess as he recalls the last time, he saw him. “Yes, weirdly enough, the boy disappeared at the same time as the shelter where he lived burned down. Pretty much ceased to exist.”

“Also, according to some of our spies, no one has seen his actual son since the spring of 91.” Edward adds as he the arcane rune in front of his eyes explodes silently. “Seems he went away to study in some third world country, for the past fifty years or so.”

William takes on out lighting it with his right synthetic metal arm. “Making a move against them now could result in chaos in the Balkans.” William puffs out a cloud, swiftly turning into a large dragon that flies toward the window where it explodes to its cloud form once more.

“That is true. But this is the best chance to take them out, and have your revenge.” Edward says after lighting his cigarette with the small spark he created above his index finger. “So then why am I needed?” William glares at his old friend.

“Isn’t it obvious? While you may appear jaded, ye’re still our best asset if ye seize this chance to have yer revenge.” Edward speaks with a colder tone, one that befits a corporate agent more than an old friend in William’s eyes.

William turns towards the oil painting, staring into the eyes of his wife gleaming with warmness. “I’ll do it, but on the condition that I’ll deliver the killing blow to Dórián Corvinus”