Such a bother. he thought.Though Voyne had spared no expense in making his plane as comfortable as possible, the flight from Dryne to Osyna was a very long one and he was starting to get bored. Ordinarily, he would have taken the flight in smaller segments, stopping in different nations for tours or to visit his manic followers. But, he just could not delay the United Noble’s summons, not if he wanted everything to go according to plan.“How are we doing, Viven?” he asked while reclining on a chair, directing his question to a red cloaked figure with a seven pointed star on her chest. The eyes of the figure went unfocused, as if viewing another image. “We are right on schedule, sir.” She said after a minute. She fixed her gaze on him, worry clouding her face.“How are we going to convince them they are real? How do we prove that they are dangerous?” He smirked. Even though she had seen it before, it always chilled her. His smirk seemed like one of an all-knowing god looking down on

Luthen woke up confused. He looked round and could see nothing but fires, bodies and rubble. His clothes were dusty and he smelt of smoke.Strangely, there was no rubble of stone anywhere near him. He felt the pounding headache threatening to crush his skull.What happened here?He remembered something. It was a blur of sounds, smells, voice, feelings. Nothing clear. The limited edition card. The restaurant. The explosions. The girl. Maron. He did not remember the strange force that came out of him though. His eyes widened and he started to look amongst the rubble. All the while the headache did not let go. However, his focus was on finding his friend.He searched till he found a piece of Maron’s torn shirt held down by an enormous piece of rubble. His favourite shirt. He could not lift the stone but there was a pool of blood around.The slab wouldn’t budge, and dark blood had clotted beneath it. He strained against the block, helpless, as the dark red remained underneath.His hands w

Luthen woke up in a hospital. His headache had cleared and he remembered what happened.Maron.The tears came uncontrollably and lasted for minutes. They blocked his vision.He tried to sit up and found he could not. He tried again with same result realizing he had been strapped to the bed. He tried wriggling. That created some noise.A female nurse soon came in.There was a pause. Her eyes widened and she screamed and fell.Luthen was offended.Do I look that ugly?“The demon……” she said to the officials rushing in. They all stopped at the door for a moment, reluctant to come in. Then they finally did.The demon had awoken.One of them stepped forward towards Luthen.“Luthen Vasen?” the official asked rhetorically. Of course he knew who Luthen was.“I am Inspector Henri Pove from Rhyne City Guard. …Uhmm…. You are under arrest.”There was a slight pause where Luthen processed what was said. His blank expression changed to one of worry and fear. “I did not do anything wrong–” He started

Luthen went to see his family at the detention center while sticking to the shadows. He saw his wanted posters all over his home town. Dead or alive with a very attractive bounty. Sophia was not lying.He came to the location of his house and faced what used to be the door. All that remained of a fine estate was the charred remains of wood, mortar and metal left behind by those angry cultists or the mob they had stirred up. He said silent thanks to Sophia for protecting his family.This location too had not been spared the onslaught of his wanted posters, some of them defaced with the word “murderer” written in red. One could not turn without spotting them somewhere. On a street pole with his poster by his left side, were two drunken men talking. One with a bottle and the other, equally drunken but not holding his. He listened, hoping to get a piece of information or two.“Oi, what–hic–would you do if you catch–hic–guy?” he heard one say to the other“I’d–hic–collect my bounty and buy

Meanwhile, Kane took a walk. He had decided to gather information on his own since being alone in the safe house for too long was tiring on its own, even for the patience of a martial artist. They made a pretty good team, he thought; Sophia focused on the high-and-mighty, Luthen on the normal people and he on the underworld.The safe house was hidden in plain sight; in a residential area. So he took the common road and found himself at a commercial area after walking a bit. All the while, people would stop to observe the oddity he was; unusually tall – about six-and-a-half feet and loose Hrunnan swordsman clothes.He walked into an alley. This one was no different from the others. Damp and dirty with the smell of alcohol everywhere. Kane could not be more thankful for his hard sole shoes. The broken bottles around there did bite. He had to do this however, because the path to the criminal underworld always began with the right dark alley.The individuals in the alley watched him warily