§1 Loosing the Hunting Dogs into an Unknown World
Sydney Losstarot--- leader of the Müllenkamp Cult and manipulative terrorist acting under the supervision of political powerhouse Duke Bardorba. The moment Ashley received the order to capture that enigmatic man, a curious premonition began to form in his mind.
Ostensibly, Ashley was chosen for that mission because the Cult was recently discovered to be more than simply an extremist religious cult. Accused of being an anti-government organization that had gone as far as to attempt regicide, Müllenkamp was deemed dangerous enough to warrant a Riskbreaker. Or so the official story says. In reality, Ashley was deployed on the orders of a small group of politicians plotting to take advantage of the recently-snapped secret bond between Sydney and the Duke. Though officially long since retired from politics because of poor health, the Duke retained a firm hold on the hidden goings-on of Parliament as well as his power as a manipulator of the Dark. Ashley was chosen by those plotters to be certain of completely severing the squabbling Duke and cult leader from any power.
Ashley himself had no interest in passing judgement on the political maneuvering. He had long ago left all decisions on "right" and "just" in the hands of the VKP, not once thinking on the whys or wherefores of his orders. Once a mission begins, his soul is completely sealed off. His brain is used only to assimilate exterior information and transmit it to his body. A soulless doll acting purely in the best way to successfully complete the mission--- that's Ashley's "style".
Thus, his spirit is always wrapped in silent darkness. No matter the situation or circumstances, to Ashley it's as if he's watching a story that's unfolding page by page. His physical body stands on the stage, disconnected from his will, following the script of the story to its predetermined end. His soul sits, separate, in a quiet, dark spectator's booth, watching his body dance across the stage. Everything external is turned away. Nothing ever reaches as far as the soul within.
The darkness wraps thickly around his soul, coccooning it in a false sense of peace, armoring it from Reality. But on the night he broke into the occupied Bardorba Mansion, from the second he and Sydney met, that armor began to crack. No, perhaps it is better said that the framework of Reality itself began to crack, things dismissed as mere fantasy by common sense actually happening.
For example, Sydney is immortal.
Completely disregarding the demand for his surrender, the young prophet grabbed for his sword, forcing a reluctant Ashley to fire his crossbow. The arrow struck dead on with enough power to punch a hole in armor plate, let alone a bare, scrawny chest. It drove clear through Sydney, cleanly piercing his heart. At least, that's what Ashley thought.
Barely phased by the crossbow bolt sticking out of him, Sydney stood, and as an incredulous Ashley watched, pulled the bothersome thing out. He then proceded to call forth something even more difficult to swallow than an immortal, summoning a creature straight out of the world of myth and legend-- a wyvern. The grotesque beast dropped in from above on thick, leathery wings, it's long neck snaking this way and that. The sheer size of the creature more than dwarfed Ashley. However, fresh from feasting on the Crimson Blades outside, the red painting its teeth and the reek of blood on its breath wre anything but illusional.
The wyvern's flaming breath flickering about him, Ashley charged forward and rammed his sword into the beast's breast. The sturdy sword cleaved through scale and hard muscle, permanently halting the huge heart underneath. The strange feeling of cutting stronger-than-human flesh still echoing up his arm, Ashley had no time to feel fear before the wyvern died.
Unfortunately, that small gap was still enough for Sydney to get away. He gathered those of his followers still alive and made a clean escape from the chaotic wreck of the Manor.
Ashley then also withdrew. But having seen unkillable prophets and killable wyverns-- his machine-like coolness and soulless calm had been cracked to their very foundations.
The situation had obviously escalated beyond the scope of a single agent. The Riskbreaker part of Ashley wanted to return to VKP Headquarters immediately and report what little information had been gleaned, and then wait for further orders. The occupation of the Duke's Manor dealt with, the necessity of Sydney's capture became questionable. Besides, would conventional methods of search and capture even work on Sydney, with his strange powers?
But the rest of Ashley was ensnared by the reality-warping aura of magic that surrounds Sydney like a cloak. His decision to pursue the Müllenkamp Cult to Lea Monde was inevitable.
He went like a hound loosed on a fox. This scent he would follow with pit-bull tenacity, until his teeth sink into his prey's neck. And in this particular case, personal interest has sharpened his sense of smell to blood-hound keenness.
Yet, just who, or what, it was he chased, Ashley had no idea; a mystery that was pushing him, the VKP's greatest Riskbreaker, to bring out his best. The goal of this hunt, then, was not the capture or kill, but discovery. Ashley wanted to know the true face of the man who had cracked the armor around his soul, and even more disturbingly, actually touched it.
The hunting ground is Müllenkamp's base of operations, the ancient city where the legend of a priestess still lives-- Lea Monde.
Ashley sets out as the morning sun rises, cutting away the last shadows from the nightmare in the Duke's Manor. What he doesn't notice is the halo of darkness still lurking about him that those bright rays don't sweep away. That darkness is a "present" left behind by Sydney. What lies hidden in its depths, a simple hunting dog doesn't know. He simply presses on.
What will Ashley find in Lea Monde? Perhaps this "Dark" that's manipulated by immortals. Or perhaps he'll find a shadow of himself...
Exactly according to premonition, the Wheels of Fate have begun to turn.