The horns and beeps of cars filled the crisp morning air as people walked to and fro on the whitened cement of the sidewalks. A young man stepped out from his small apartment building, dressed in a sharp trench coat draped over a silvery three-piece suit. He took a deep lungful of the brisk air before making his way down the street, savouring the early morning ambience of his home city.
Soon, he arrived at the foot of a massive skyscraper, a building so tall it truly lived up to its illustrious description. The spire-like peak seemed to really be poking through the gray blanketed sky. The glass behemoth was the headquarters of the world-famous guild, Razacon. People streamed in and out of its revolving doors like ants, though even the weakest of them was strong enough to run a first-rate gang in any other city.
The young man walked through the door and into the spacious yet bustling lobby, where immediately a youthful woman in office clothing ran up to him.
“Sir, where have you been?" the woman asked immediately, exasperation flushing her face. "It’s been half an hour since you were supposed to be in a meeting with Guild Leader Von and his allies."
The man did not react at all to her hurried manner, his calm smile unfazed. “Hannah, how many times have I told you not to call me sir? It's so stiff.”
“Apologies, Guild Leader. I was in a rush and I forgot. But please, Guild Leader Von is going to blow a fuse if you make him wait any longer.”
The Guild Leader of Razacon, a young man who looked no older than twenty-five, chuckled at the response of his personal assistant. “Ok, now you’re just messing with me. Guild Leader is even worse. I told you, just because you work for me now doesn’t mean our friendship has disappeared. As for Von, I think he can handle waiting for another few minutes. Let’s get coffee first, shall we?” the young man said with a smile, starting to move without even waiting for a response.
The woman spluttered a little, but eventually shook her head and followed him, knowing the man well enough to know there was no point in trying to persuade him further. And she trusted that the man knew what he was doing; after all, he had proven himself time and time again.
And so the pair went, one begrudging and the other cheerful, to the small cafe across the street.
By the time they had finished and come back to the building, making their way halfway up the building - a total of fifty floors - and into the meeting room, it had been another fifteen minutes.
The men inside were furious, but none of them had the guts to show it. They might have been bigshots outside, but in this building, they didn’t dare make a fuss.
When the young man and woman entered, the men inside all respectfully stood up, like soldiers greeting a general. One man stepped forward, obviously the leader. With rich dark skin that denoted an African heritage, he was obviously not a man with roots in the city he was in currently: London, England.
And indeed, this man was Guild Leader Von, leader and founder of the famous guild ‘Saber’s Edge.’ As a guild that had unified a large portion of Africa under its banner, it had been ranked seventh on the IOR’s worldwide guild ranking. With the raw power that brimmed in the man’s body, there were not many in the public eye that were his match.
The young man stepped forward with his usual calm smile, unfazed by the thinly veiled annoyance on Von’s face. The two men shook hands, each with a grip that would crush the bones of a normal human.
Collected as ever, the young man gestured to the luxurious leather couches. “Please, sit down,” he said with a decorous smile, putting on the airs of a gracious host.
Ignoring the flash of indignation in Von’s eyes, the young man sat down on the couch opposite him.
“So, you’ve got my attention, Von. Razacon is listening. Do you really have something of enough importance that it warranted invoking your fifth and final favor?”
Von smiled mysteriously. “Oh, it’s important, alright. In fact, I would say its importance is beyond our treaty. It may even have global consequences.”
The young man raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Quite the dramatic statement, Von.”
“Dramatic?” Von laughed. “Not at all. I speak nothing but the truth.”
With a soft slap, Von dropped a thin file onto the glass table in between the two, sliding it over to the young man. Curious, the young man leaned forward and picked up the crisp, off-yellow file and flicked it open. Inside, he found only one single piece of paper, containing a photograph of a darkened, foreboding cave. It was cleanly cut into the pale yellow rock of a small mountain, obviously manmade.
“This little cave was found by one of my guild’s patrol squads. They radioed into the tower when they did, just to let them know that they were going to check the cave out since it did not appear on any record or map that we knew of. Neither they nor the tower staff thought much of the cave; it was nothing more than an exploration trip born of boredom. That was the last contact we had with them.” Von paused for a moment, his composure intact but shaken. “We lost six good men that day.”
The young man lowered his head for a second, a genuine respect coloring his face. “My condolences.”
“We followed up with an elite squadron, some of our top men, wanting to thoroughly squash what we had assumed was a rival organization's attempt at establishing a foothold in our territory.” Von continued, burying any sign of emotion that had risen in his face. “They found the patrol squad, laid out in single file on the ground. Each had a single, clean cut across their throat, and a hole in their chest where their Flux Cores used to be. There was no other wound on their body.”
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A somber silence settled over the room as Von paused again. Taking Flux Cores from a dead body was a big taboo in mage society. Not only that, but the fact that the squad was killed in such a clean fashion meant that next to no fight must’ve taken place. Meaning that their opponent had been that much stronger than them.
“The elite squad had body cameras on them that were streaming back to the tower, meant to be used as footage to warn off any other potential invaders. After finding the patrol squad, the men went in deeper. They walked in the darkness for a bit, until they came across a pair of glowing blue eyes floating in the dark. Mere seconds after its appearance, we lost all contact with the elite squad,” Von paused again, before emphasizing his point. “A single pair of eyes. Do you know what that means? A single person was able to deal with an elite squadron of my men. Now, my elites may not be at the level of Razacon’s, but they’re some of the best my continent has to offer. There are not many people on the planet capable of that kind of feat, and I’m sure you know just as well as I do that none of those people would be lurking in a cave somewhere in Africa.”
By now, the young man’s face had become suitably grave, no longer containing the mischievous smugness that it had in the beginning. “The appearance of an entity at that level of strength is certainly a concerning thing, but I don’t think that it should have global consequences. An unknown mage stepping into that level is unheard of, but it isn’t impossible. And I don’t see evidence that this mage, whoever they are, necessarily harbors ill intent. At that level, he could’ve wreaked havoc on the continent if he wanted to,” the young man said.
Von shook his head. “We thought so, too, but we did a little more digging before coming here. I’m sure with your information network, you’ve heard of the recent incidents in North America?”
The young man nodded. “You mean the disappearances of mages throughout Canada and the U.S.? What about it?”
“The mages who have been disappearing have all been leaving behind powerful organizations. You would think that infighting and invasions would have started all-out wars, or at least bloody conflicts. However, there has been no indication of any fighting at all. According to the information gathered by my men, it would seem that each of those organizations has been brought under the leadership of a single entity. And the ability to bring down such powerful empires so cleanly is perfectly in line with the strength that this cave-dwelling mage must possess.”
“So your deduction is that this mage has been secretly amassing multiple guilds in North America? For what, world domination?”
Von laughed. “Coming to a conclusion with the information is not my job. My job is to bring you the concerning news. Without a powerhouse at that level in my guild, this matter is now out of my hands. Your guild is now responsible for the response of all in our alliance.”
“Indeed. But that can’t be all. You are oathbound to bring me this information by the terms of our treaty. So why would you invoke your last favor?” the young man asked.
Suddenly, the shadow of rage cast itself over Von’s face, a seething hatred boiling in his eyes. “What I ask of you is simple. When you find the waraabe who is this blue-eyed mage…kill him for me.”
-
Fifteen minutes later, the young man stood at the foot of a floor-to-ceiling window, looking down a dizzying height of at least fifty floors. As he solemnly gazed at the bustling city under his feet, he spoke to the young woman who stood at his side. “Do you know why Von felt so strongly about that blue-eyed mage?” he asked.
The young woman nodded. “From what I heard, Von’s son was among the elites who went in. Von wasn’t going to allow him to go, but his son was friends with all the mages who were going in, and he was quite strong in his own right. Eventually, I assume he managed to convince Von to let him go.” The young woman sighed. “I really do feel so bad for him. Are you going to fulfill his wish?”
“Who do you take me for, Hannah? Not only am I duty bound to complete his wish, but I would never turn away a man asking for revenge for his son without good reason,” the young man paused for a moment, thinking. “Although, whether or not I have the capability to fulfill his request is another story entirely.”
Hannah nodded. “True. From what it sounded like, the only way to deal with this mage would be to ask your father to come out personally.”
The young man smiled. “Exactly. And now that he has no responsibilities tying him down, who knows if we can even contact him, or if he would be willing to make a move for Von’s sake.”
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door of the room, interrupting the conversation.
“You may enter,” the young man called out over his shoulder, not bothering to glance back.
With a soft swish, the gray steel door swung out to reveal two men, each dressed in formal, white military clothing. Draped over their shoulders were inky black capes, and pinned to their chests was a small, silvery white sword.
Immediately, the young man whirled around and dipped his upper body into a shallow bow, a gesture of respect not many were worthy of, coming from the Guild Leader of Razacon himself. But these men undoubtedly were. The young man had recognized them without even needing to see them, merely from the sense of danger that he had felt from behind him.
Of course, his mind knew he was safe from these men, but all his instincts knew was that the men he faced were absolute monsters, demons he wouldn’t even be able to run from.
“General Lee, General Yang, to what do I owe the pleasure?” the young man asked respectfully, clearly happy to see the two middle-aged-looking men.
The two men mirrored the young man’s happiness. “Look at you!” Lee exclaimed in mock anger. “Only five months away and he’s already treating us like strangers, huh?” he said to the other.
“Whatever happened to ‘Uncle Yang’?” Yang said, agreeing with his comrade. “Feels like just yesterday we were teaching a little baby how to say those words, and now he’s too embarrassed to say them!”
The young man smiled sheepishly, flushing a little. “Very well, Uncle Lee and Uncle Yang, I’m sure you have a reason for stopping by so suddenly?” The young man was undoubtedly glad to see these non blood related uncles of his, but he could vaguely sense that there was an urgency in the air.
The two men were silent for a moment, their faces warping into a solemn mask tinged with darkness. “His Honor is expecting you in the grand hall,” Lee finally said.
Surprise colored the young man’s face. Although, in name, the two men in front of him were the personal guard of his father, a man like his father did not need protection in the slightest. Not to mention, any entity that truly posed a threat to his father would be able to squish the two generals like ants. Instead, the two men were more like weapons of his father: employed to move in his name when his power wasn’t personally required – and his father’s strength was hardly ever required.
Thus, even though they had shown up, the young man had not expected his father to have personally shown up as well.
The young man nodded as the ominous feeling in his chest tightened. He was right. Whatever was going on was certainly something very important.