Year 454

Adam left the manager’s office and headed for the chip counter, with the letter from Manager Smith.

‘I seen, learned and meet more people and things here today than I have in an entire year in the village Adam thought back to everything that has happened in the short day he’s been here. ‘So, this place is a casino. There are so many people. Is this what the coachman meant by being wealthy? Compared to this, life in the village is quite dull. I can’t wait for Ellen to see all this.’

On his way he observed the various games and events that were held in the casino. He even saw women in provocative cloths dancing around, with many men surrounding them, throwing bronze and even silver notes at them. Even though Adam tried to deny his interest, he was a hot-blooded man in the end and couldn’t help but stare.

‘No Adam, you mustn’t look. Your heart belongs to Ellen. She’s the only woman you are allowed to see naked. No one else.’ Adam snapped out his daze and steeled his resolve. ‘I must not get tempted by these city girls.’

Thinking of Ellen, he couldn’t help but touch his lips where she kissed. A faint red blush appeared on his cheeks and let out a small but gentle smile.

‘Ahh, I have to go the chip counter.’ Adam decided to stop wasting time and headed straight for the chip counter.

Reaching the chip counter, which was a wooden booth, with a layer of thick glass separating those outside and those inside the booth. There was a young man with bright red hair, in a white shirt and a black vest talking to the customers queued up outside the booth.

He would take their bronze, silver or sometimes even gold notes and give them round coins of different colors in return. ‘Are those the chips that Mr. Aaron mentioned?’

He quickly reached the booth and spoke up. “Uhm, I was wondering if I could meet Mr. Oliver.”

The red-haired youth at the counter quickly replied. “Yes, I’m Oliver.” He lazily spoke.

‘Red hair……. that’s new.’ Adam thought to himself. “Mr. Smith sent me here. He asked that I deliver this to you.” Adam spoke as he handed the red-haired youth the letter.

The red-haired youth tore open the letter and quickly glanced over the content. “Hmmm, so you are the new recruit.” He took a glance at Adam, sizing him up.

“Well, I’ll show you to the workers quarters, but you’ll need to wait until my shift is over. Also, feel free to explore the casino while you’re at it. Here use this.” The red-haired youth handed a neatly arranged stack of coins called chips to Adam.

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“Are you sure? Although I don’t know how much this is worth, it must cost a lot. I don’t have any money on me.” Adam, quickly spoke up. He heard from the coachman that this was a common trick used in casinos to trap their customers in debt and charge high interest rates.

“Yeah yeah, don’t worry about. It’s on the house.” Laughed the red-haired youth, Oliver, almost as if he could read the thoughts going through Adam’s head. “Go have some fun. I’ll take around another hour or two.”

“Alright then. Thanks.” Adam quickly received the stack of chips and headed off to the games.

‘He’s no different the masses. A boring fellow, with nothing special about.’ The red-haired youth, Oliver, thought as he stared at the departing Adam’s back. ‘He doesn’t have the qualities to be special……...he doesn’t have the qualities to be an Astral.’

While the two youths remained unaware of what the future held, this meeting here would be marked down forever in the history of the world.

………………………………………………………

Year 456

A red-haired youth adorned in a black suit with a black top hat was walking through a dark alley in the eastern district of Westport.

The red-haired youth stopped in front of a rusted metal door. The darkness of the alley and the black color of the metal door against the backdrop of the dark brown building made it nearly impossible to see.

‘Adam…... I really hope you are here.’ The red-haired youth thought, as he removed his dark grey revolver from his holster. The grey revolvers were very different from a standard kingdom issued revolver, which meant it was custom made. Along the barrel of the revolver were inscriptions that seemed to glow in the darkness of the alley.

The red-haired youth kicked open the door, with ease. The metal door although rusted, was still extremely strong and embedded into the walls nearby. No normal human could kick open the door with one swift motion.

All that greeted the red-haired youth even with the door kicked down was darkness. But all of a sudden, the red-haired youth’s expression turned sour, as he quickly pulled out a pristine white handkerchief from his pocket and covered his nose and mouth.

‘Poison…. no. It’s not poison. Could it be…….’ The red-haired youth raised finger and spoke. “Embers.”

A small, lighter-sized, flame flickered around the youth’s index finger, and quickly floated up and turned into an orb of light. The small ember defied common logic and quickly shed light on the entire room. Some of the light even seeped out into the dark alley light it as well.

‘As I thought. This smell isn’t poison. It’s rotting human flesh.’ A disgusted expression quickly spread throughout the red-haired youth’s face. He tried to look away to try and hold back his urge to vomit.

All around the room, was dismembered human body parts. The room wasn’t large. More like the size of a medium storage unit. At the top right corner of the room was a staircase that led downstairs, where the smell of rotting flesh got stronger.

The red-haired was about to descend to the basement using the staircase, when a blood red tentacle shot out from the other side of the staircase.

The red-haired youth although surprised, was not caught off guard. He nimbly maneuvered around the blood red tentacle and dodged to the right.

*Boom *

*Boom *

The red-haired youth immediately assumed a battle pose while pointing the revolver towards the staircase and shot twice.

The blood red tentacle once again emerged from the basement. The blood red tentacle was as thick as a normal human torso and kept pulsing like a living heart. There were oddly shaped eyes and mouths around the body of the tentacle.

‘Damn, it’s a ‘Malformed’. This is not going to be easy…...’ The red-haired youth sighed, as he prepared to use his Astral abilities. Although a ‘Malformed’ was going to be difficult due to his regenerative and physical powers, the red-haired youth was not afraid of a head on battle.

“Oliver, stop.” A cold voice emerged from the basement, as thing human silhouette was barely visibly at the end of the staircase.

The thin silhouette continued walking towards the top, when he heard the red-haired youth speak. “…...Adam…...is that you?”

By now the thin silhouette had left the darkness of the basement and was visibly under the orb of light created by the red-haired youth, Oliver.

The thin silhouette belonged to a youth. The youth was bared chested, wearing only a pair of dirty torn trousers that reached his ankles. The youth’s white hair was completely disheveled. The originally handsome face was now sunken, his cold blue eyes however remained unchanged.