POV Main

Before Dee got to third level lot of things happened. Lynx, Anna and even Mike got to second level. There were two people from different groups that were looking to join our group. Anna, who was calling herself Huntress since, talked with or was contacted by Lily. Mike was contacted by someone from Vivaldi’s group originally. That way I heard some gossips. Vivaldi’s group was non existent. Girl who lost her stone had severe neurological problems. We all agreed on meeting for our group and aspiring people on weekend.

There was also Matthew, guy who was drove away by Diana, who contacted me. He asked, if he could earn some money from me. I made plan to invite him to meeting, but it was in the making, as I didn’t know what kind of person he was.

I thought a lot, how could I counter Diana’s organization. In my eyes, she was creating cult, Ahriman’s Order. Dee said, that she shouldn’t know significantly more about stones origin than we. Yet, she already went for bloody, religious way. I knew, that with time, ruthless way would lead to destruction. So there should be point in future, when some of cultists would try to leave cult. If I tried to create radical, anticult organization, then they would be scared by us and would stay by Diana’s group to the bitter end. But if I created something pseudo religious, with lighter massage and better style of doing things, they would have place to run from Diana.

I spent some time looking through pseudo religious options. Then choose to go with deva gambit. For needs of my alliance I would proclaim, that stones were devas, supernatural beings superior to humans, close to demigods. We, hosts, could by being close become devaputra, something higher than humans. I wanted to mix Hindu and Buddhistic believes. I didn’t care about inconsistency. I didn’t believe it either, this deva theory of mine. In my mind it was political move, to show that runners from Ahriman’s Order have place to go.

Dee said that Diana’s path seemed closer to reality, as stones were bloodthirsty creatures. I countered that humans have ability to lie to themselves, to see reality as less brutal and cranky than it was. Dee asked, if it was our weakness as species. Certainly, it helped humans to stay passive as atrocities were made near them. On the other hand, it helped develop humanity, because humans were trying to change world for a better place, as it should be from beginning according to their lies. So sometimes it was strength.

POV Paladin

I was cursed. Entity in stone was my curse origin from which I couldn’t run. But my heart was good and just. It wouldn’t be tainted by curse. I wanted to get power from that entity without tainting my heart.

We had that meeting on Mokotov field and I could see, that others became tainted. Some even acted demon-like under influence of their entity. I was one of the first, that came to pub. There was Diana and few others present. I wanted to tell them, that curse must be fought. I started even. Diana called me for private talk. Then she showed me her demonic side. She towered over me in physical ability and witchcraft. She didn’t kill me, as there were some ancient rules. She made me swore, that I would be behaving myself. My heart wasn’t tainted even after my loss. In return, I asked if I can supervise, if there would be no slavery by violence, as I felt that ancient rules were in accordance to this. And she did accept.

I saw that people involved with Diana were becoming more and more tainted. I cried in my heart, but couldn’t do anything against it.

When I was back home, I asked my heart, what should I do. One could get power from stone, but not without price. I couldn’t acknowledge price that tainted my heart. But how to deceive devil?

By killing sinners that already were in his possessions. My cursed entity told me, that it was against ancient rules to do that, and there would be heavy repercussions against me. But what about murderers, rapists other heavy criminals? My cursed entity said, that it was of no meaning to ancient rules, as long as no direct servants of entities were involved.

I would destroy evil that walked on this world, got paid by demonic entity enchanted in stone for my good deeds, and when I would become strong enough, I would even destroy entities. That was my plan.

POV Tom, Tony’s father, pharmacy

I got another batch from Nameless. After two last sales for richest people in War-Saw, there was buzz in the rich people society. And it was only War-Saw rich people society that knew. They cared to not inform competition, before they get the goods.

My laboratories were working hard to understand, how medicine was working so efficiently. They couldn’t get it. There was too many active biocomponents, that influenced themselves and body. That was not all. After consumption body produced massive amount of hormones and less known active bio-vectors. Scientists said, that they never saw anything similar. Worst of all, if we wanted to copy mixture we should create each of thousands on it chemical ingredients separately, as they were influencing each other otherwise. Two parts of mixture before mix were sustaining shaky balance of enduring each other ingredient influences. But even parts have limited shelf life of two weeks.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Good thing, Nameless assured, that there should be multiplication of production. He couldn’t tell more than that. Bad thing, my private investigator was checking his history, but couldn’t find any links to medicine. I thought, that I should hire few private detectives, but was afraid, that the moment he sees, that he is followed, he would stop providing mixture. I appointed some consultation on this matter.

POV Andy, Ahriman’s Order

We all saw what Diana could do. We all believed, that Ahriman’s Order could rise up. We were chosen ones. We despised them, who decided not to join us, but ancient rules stopped us from forcing them.

Diana said, that we needed headquarters for Ahriman’s Order. Also we needed sacrifices for ours stone altars. We could kill people, but it was a lot harder to get their main belongings. First few hunting by Order showed some results. We got some wild or ownerless animals and few homeless people. It also showed, that doing things in secrecy was hard. Then one of us, who had contacts among leftist, provided us with info, that some LGBT+ little subgroup was arranging near War-Saw some wrecked, left buildings to the level of squat. We spied on them.

POV narrating manhunt from no-ones perspective

There were about ten of them working on renovation. They were living there and working. There was no neighbor buildings, only forest for half a kilometer. They had some help from officials, because they had water from taps and electricity.

Building, they were working at, was wide, had four levels with mostly broken windows and looked as last level burned itself at some point. There were also garages nearby with destroyed gates. All area was in past fenced, but then fence was knocked down. Area was devastated by time and flora.

From info we were provided, there were heavy divides between leftist societies in War-Saw. It began after Russia resumed war against Ukraine in 2022. It was open secret, that Russia was financing much of leftist society. But even average leftist in Poland were condemning Russian authority system, which let Russian’s attack and murder people from another country. Still, leftists involved with socialism were suspected to be followers of tyranny, since they took tyranny’s money earlier. On the other hand leftists involved with global corporations, that is LGBT+ communities, were hating to be put into the same category as Russian socks. Where Russian sock is idiom in language for idiots that are treated as socks by Russians, but act as it was greatest pleasure. Stinky business.

This leftist societies were imposing itself, penetrating each other and it led to conflicts. Because of one conflict some people lost their places in squat in War-Saw by wolf street. They decided to create one for themselves. They were unlucky in this, that Ahriman’s Order got to know about their circumstances. And that was, that squatters in Poland usually were people nobody caried of. They were disposable pawns even for their own societies.

That way they became first victims of official manhunt of Ahriman’s Order. Almost all cultist congregated in village near War-Saw. Some of them had their own vehicles. They all waited till nightfall. Somehow, one of them provided them with the same capes and armbands. On Diana’s order they attacked.

We are strong, thought Andy. I am strong, he thought. He felt high. They were in group and doors were opened. They attacked first people they saw with stone provided poison. It was deadly, but animals killed by it were more beneficial during ritual than other deceased bodies. And human is biologically just kind of animal.

-= What do you want from us? – Someone was screaming.

-= Behold coming of Ahriman’s Order. – Answered cheers from cultists.

Defenders didn’t have any chances for win. They were trying to reason, negotiate with attackers, when they had good defensive position. They should counter attack instead, maybe run after that. But they weren’t prepared for fight for life and death. So they were dying or were taken prisoners. They didn’t know that surrender wasn’t improving their fate, only worsening.

After half an hour, when last defender was pulled out from some hole, he was hiding, building was conquered. Then came Diana to thank warriors. There were six bodies and five prisoners. One prisoner, most important one as he called himself, was taken for interrogation. He survived, because he betrayed his companions and was needed by Ahriman’s Order to control squat official matters. He knew someone who knew someone who was close to Trzaskowski, former mayor of War-Saw. It was connection to political mafia which allowed some squats to exist.

Four bounded prisoners was watching preparations for rituals. They demanded food and water and other things, but were ignored. When cultist hung up bodies and started to drain them for their blood to buckets, prisoners understood, that they wouldn’t take part into academical dispute. Smell of urine couldn’t win against faith. They wasn’t even gaged, just promised, that if they start to scream, they would hung in the minute.

Someone from cult bought candles. You could see, that they didn’t have much money as a cult. Things they had, knives, axes, candles, blankets, some utensils, were cheap, but aura was real and unique, almost expensive. Blood was real.

Cultists were so out of their mind, that let prisoners see ritual. Stones were put into circle. Circle was fenced from outside and inside, with fence height of twenty centimeters. Lights was off, only candles was set on fire. Someone started to play guitar. There were six cultists not counting Diana. Someone of them started to sing for the glory of Ahriman. They poured their stones in blood with smiles. After that they started carving meat with knives and cutting limbs with axes, all pieces putting into the circle. Guitarist was too busy to play. Diana came and took two prisoners to other room. Two last alive prisoners could hear their screams then. They didn’t know, that they were just reserve in eyes of cultists and that their turn would come.