1 Truth (Prologue)

In a warehouse on the outskirts of Gotham City, a dark room was suddenly illuminated by the pale red-orange glow of a summoning circle. Ten cloaked figures stand before the spell, moaning and chanting out to the abyss. They were reaching out to the other side because they needed to know a secret. If they could find what they sought after then all of their hopes and dreams would come true.

These figures could feel the warmth leave their bodies as the glow from the spell intensified. The room lit up as if in the middle of the day, but the figures could not see the light. The metal beams which held up the warehouse started to glow, radiating heat but the figures could no longer feel anything around them. Their focus was on the creature they had summoned into this world.

She was ethereal. The creature they summoned body was composed of pure mana. She steadily phased in and out of this world, creating a rhythmic dance that enchanted them. She spoke out to them, drawing them in, on every one of her words.

"I am a legend breaker, a truth teller, what truths would you have?"

In a blatant attempt to mask his voice, one of the cloaked individuals stepped forward with a book in hand and stated to this so-called truth teller, "Tell me the truth about Anthony Aims! What is his origin?"

A burst of light and mana was released from her body as her arms flailed around leaving afterimages with every movement. Her eyes glowed with an eerie light as she looked at the humans before her as if she were looking into their souls.

"Anthony Aims, born in tragedy, or born in celebration, or born with unremarkable circumstances?"

Another one of the cloaked figures stepped forward and yelled, "She's contradicting herself."

Another one confirms, "Yes, this must be a protection spell, place down by Cantrip himself." Without any other options, they decided to let her continue.

"Was Aims born into tragedy with his mother dying at birth? Or, was he born into celebration with a proud, loving mother and father doting on him? Or, did his birth not matter and he was just born the youngest to an elder sister? He was either a destructive and cruel boy, a strange boy compelled by a force unnamed, or just an ordinary boy, innocent. All of these led down to one path; Aims met a demon. This demon was either lost and was looking for a way to move on, wanted to help Aim find his way, or convinced him to learn the dark arts. Either way, the demon was there, and he had Aim burn the orphanage, his parents, or his sister to ash."

The cloaked figures stopped her there.

"He burned his own family," asked a cloaked woman, "IS THAT TRUE?"

"Yes," said the legend breaker, "the first of many prices paid for power."

The cloaked figures stood there dumbfoundedly.

"From there," she continued, " Aims used his new powers for trickery, or ignored it and made a vow never to use magic, or maybe he became a student and learned all he could to prevent this type of thing from happening ever again. All of these paths led to Aims meeting a young girl in trouble. You see the girl was tormented by a demon and by using his knowledge gained from his youth Anthony tried to save her, however, he failed. He failed because the girl was doomed anyway. The result was either Aims fleeing the scene, Aims being caught and prosecuted for the crimes committed on that night, or he escaped and was never found, but collapsed into madness from finally touching hells flames'. Or, maybe, he defeated the demon and claimed his rightful place in a world filled with magic."

The legend breaker, truth teller, began to spin around creating dancing wisps. All of the light and heat are sucked back into her as the dancing lights pulse in and out of step with her mana.

"Thus Cantrip was made," she yelled.

The figures in cloaks begin to fall ill as blood starts to leak from every pore on their body. Their eyes begin to bulge as they start to drop to the floor one by one. They could feel it now. The floor is as icy as the rumored Mr. Freeze. The demon is beginning to kill the figures.

"You would summon that which you do not understand, and you can not bind what you do not."

From the darkness, a man emerges with a deck of playing cards in hand. As he walks towards the demon, his hand begins to glow as he shuffles through the deck of cards. The man walks through the summoning circle and stands before the creature. The beast floats away as she could see who this man was from the glow of the ring tethering her there. This man was six two, light skinned with dark curly hair. His eyebrows had a scar, and his eyes were dark silver. He was a very fit man, lean, a body suitable for swift movements, but underneath there was a great power. He wore a white dress shirt with a red bow tie. His shirt was tucked into fitted cargo pants tucked into a pair of dark high laced boots. Over his shirt, he wore a black zip-up hoodie and over his hoodie he had on a tan trench coat.

The man began to laugh. "A legend breaker, I didn't think there were any of you left. Man you shits are annoying. Well, you can't have these souls so off with you."

The creature yells, "No I claimed these mystics, they are mine. These mystics failed to contain me."

"I bet you would, did you tell them what you are? I mean you told them truth-teller, and that's the only thing they heard."

The cloaks begin to fall off the figures.

"Look they are nothing but children, nothing but kids. Its either they found the book by accident, or you led it to them. Or maybe they thought this would be funny or maybe you broke the rules, and you put it in their hands," Anthony exclaimed, pointing at her.

"They sought your hidden secrets."

"Ya, good for them," said Aims as he stopped shuffling cards and made all but one disappear and threw it at the demon, "now get out of here."

There was no explosion, no burst of energy but just the disappearance of the creature.

The kids looked around to see it was daytime.

"Thanks, Anthony."

"Thanks, Aims."

Thank you so much Cantrip," the teens exclaimed. "We won't talk about your past."

"Oh, really which past is that," Aims asked, "What if none of what you saw was my origin?"

Aims turned around and walked away as owls flew from his body causing him to vanish leaving the teens staring wide-eyed.