Prologue

𝟎𝟖/𝟎𝟗/𝟓𝟓𝟖 𝐤𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫.

It was a dark night the only lighting was provided by the moon and stars, and in the darkness of the slums of Kraven, a man was running, he who looked like couldn't pass his thirties had white hair beneath his brown robe, like a shadow he moved between the small passages and alleys of the slum, running and escalating where he could as if he were being chased by someone.

And above him, there it was, seven men were in pursuit, three of them were flying, and the other four were jumping from roof to roof, until one of them went down, the leader, and all of them followed him. They found a small trail of blood going in the direction of an alley and soon vanishing,

They were all using black robes and black and white masks with patterns similar to Rorschach's,

"Ruslam!" said the leader and immediately one man in black came to the body. He took off his gloves and with his finger and picked up a bit of blood from a small pool of blood. then measured the viscosity of the blood before eating it.

"with a bleeding like that he couldn't go far away, the blood is still warm, and I can sense him nearby"

"How far do you sense him?" asked the leader

"close, not more than fifty ft, if he moves again I'm gonna have a better idea of position."

"How long until the effect passes off?"

"twenty minutes more or less"

"Look around!" - Ordered the leader, and all of them started to search that area of the slums, they inserted swords in piles of trash, and burned small two-wheeled carriages, but couldn't find anyone, or another track to follow

"Sir, could someone in the neighbourhood be helping him?" asked one of the masked men

"it's possible... you all have permission to search in the residences in the area, force allowed, question the locals, and no witnesses, You know the drill!"

"yes, Sir!"

Each man started to breach a respective door, one of them was even polite enough to knock on the door before crushing it, some have kicked the door, other used fire to incinerate the door itself, people started to scream inside the houses, screams of fear and cry, following by so under unds of punches, moanings, break of furniture and glass… After a while, some of them left the houses and entered others, but in the end, they couldn't find anyone related to that man, after all, he wasn't at anyone's house, he was hiding in the sewers, or actually just under the manhole that leads to the sewers, holding his position in the stair. after what he heard if he moved that man named Ruslam could track him, so he had no other option but to remain still beneath all of them, and any sound could reveal his position.

𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘯.

"Sir, I can't sense him anymore." said the man whose name was Ruslam

"tsk, burn this session of the slums! if he dies of the fire, or the bleeding we gonna get his blessing anyway."

"yes, sir!"

Two masked men started to cast fire from their hand in the vicinity while the other went to the roofs and soon enough the whole area was on fire.

Meanwhile, the pursued man with no other way made his resolve to go through the sewers, he was upon a time an Aristocrat, and never thought he would pass through this situation.

𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩. 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴. 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘸.

He walked through the sewers for a few hours until he found one exit at the river that crossed Kraven, he jumped in the water but he didn't have any strength left to swim, he could barely float in the strong flow of the river.

𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘥? 𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘮 𝘙𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳? 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮? 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘐 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶.

"Hey what is that?" someone shouted, "is that man in the water?"

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦!

"Hel-p mee" with his scarce energy, weak voice and almost swallowing water the man shouted the first thing that came to his mind

"Someone helps him!" said the same man but the sound was getting weaker as it was getting far away from the source " really... no one" and then came the sound of someone jumping in the water.

𝘏𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘳, 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘴𝘸𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨.

"h-el..." the aristocrat was trying to shout one last time until he was caught and taken to the shore of the river.

"shit, you are bleeding, we need a healer, we need to go to a church"

"No church!"

"you're gonna die without one."

"be it, just end my suffering, and inherit my will." the dying man said placing a dagger in his hands"

"what the fuck man?" The mysterious man tossed the dagger back and tried to raise the dying one, but he was too heavy for him to carry. " Help! Somebody Help, this man gonna die"

"Please, just kill me"

"I won't kill you!"

"Please, I beg you, please end this pain?

"... no I can't, I'm not a murderer"

The dying man put his dagger again in the hands of the other.

"you won't be a murderer, you will be just a man helping a friend" and he tossed his body against the dagger in the hands of the other.

"What?" he pushed the dying man and saw he stabbed his own heart, and now he could see better the wound in his torso, it was like his belly was ripped apart by a beast.

" I hope this blessing... be of more (cough) worth to you... then to me, ple-please inherit my (cough) will and avenge u…" and he died, his body felt on the ground in the edge of the river.

𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘺.

and the saviour passes out.