This is the road to victory.
The blind sniper fought the girl Marked by Heaven.
The girl who had the spirit of a vicious cat and the hunter going to Heaven to take her life.
This is the story of a sadistic world that rewards the sinful actions of each individual.
And how it bargains and bribes itself into agony.
How it shatters hope into oblivion and rebuilds itself through trauma.
A world where trauma is the fuel and humans are the containers.
Only those called out by Efalis will make it.
For it is an unfair world stained by the harsh intents of the many black angels that fill Paradise and corrupt it.
For it is the story of how a man lost his wife, his friends, his will to live to abandon himself to slavocracy once and for all, rejecting his own humanity for the sake of victory.
For victory means glory, and glory is the goal.
Ismael went on his way to Kenza and cut down his hair a little, accepted to be reshaped into something different, worked out more and got a little bit taller. Few differences here and there. He had a tight suit fitting him nicely and his red angel eyes piercing the veil of darkness.
Geulsang Zhao accepted to be an official informant for Kenza on the side, delivering intel whenever he could.
A large tattoo on Ismael's back read "Slave of Kenza". He had completely bypassed all of the stages of grief and forgot even his name.
He went by Nero and denied his past life to accept his new one.
He had black gloves and a classy black sleeveless shirt and a discreet tie.
In this warm night, Nero is in a different part of the world. Kenza works in different fctions, the external and internal agents. Nero is an external one, investigating on any hints at the Thorned Circle group.
This old town has a bright white moon and houses that ressemble those of the seventeenth to eigteenth century of our world architechture-wise.
He's infiltrated in this old three-stories tall house which signature seems to be the creeky steps of the stairway. But silently he climbs and walks upstairs.
He aligns with the door at the end of the hallway and focuses his angel eyes on it. He sees the man inside running for the window to escape and predicts the movements.
Taking a few steps back, he sprints and breaks the door as the man emulates his vision. Nero pulls the trigger of a silenced gun and shoots his legs and closes the window.
"You...you...you are with them aren't you?"
"Professor Cameleste. You have a link with the Thorned Circle. You could be of help to determine the accurate location of the Honored Library."
"You cannot envision the evil we're facing, young man. The reality is, we found a way to leave this world instead of accepting its' demented rules."
"Why would I leave this world? I love it here. Cowards give up, legends rise, professor."
"Why? You started your life with guns, young man, but you'll finish it facing creatures that should not exist."
"We experimented too, in Kenza. We've found interesting things. Efalis made it possible to extract the layers of identity of one person. Everytime he interacts with the Earth and its' inhabitants, he leaves a trail of harmless gaz or smoke, invisible deposit to the human eye, and those who interact with it, whether they are Marked by Heaven or not, witness changes on their body. But furthermore, the expression of phenotypes that follows seems to result in a transfiguration of nature that is permanent. In other words, we cling on to those changes regardless of our own will. And some killers and traffickers use those pheromones of some sort to change their gender entirely, sometimes to look like a victim in order to escape the law enforcement officers."
"Such an absurdity cannot be the fruit of God."
"I think you will find that the Promise of Lazarus is not to be trusted, and God as we know it is not of this cosmos. We are on our own, sold to a maniac who has control over this planet. You have to help us now if you want a part in this."
"The Academy of Silvargo has a main hall of study where you will find books that mention the Thorned Circle but also something much, much darker."
"What do these books have that is so special, professor?"
"They show few pictures of an older time where people of a sect would join and perform rituals of many kind. The Thorned Circle is merely one of them, but it was said that..."
"Speak!" Nero ordered, losing patience.
"That this world is a playground for experiments no less. That free will is only here to shut down our good conscious. There are some creatures that want us to be evil for their entertainment."
"What kind of creatures?"
"Gods, one would argue, young man."
"This is confusing. Your leg should be fine. Leave this place forevermore. If another agent finds you, I won't be able to protect you."
"What is your goal, young man?"
"To find the truth, sir. Nothing but the truth."
"Then look for the Honored Library in the old museum, it is part of it. The one on the outside is a fake to lure the unknowing. The Academy is in the same area."
"Thank you professor."
Nero left without a trace, like a shadow in a temple. "Honored Library and Academy of Silvargo beneath the museum. Smart move by the architects and whoever was trying to protect the writings."
On the outside, Nero was being a furtive agent, fast but as silent as a dead person. Not a single move wasted, no words spoken, trained to perfection. Always analyzing the environnement, his black gloves on the walls, seeing a dark alley where he could relish in pure shadows. Took a moment then proceeded to enter the museum by the broken windows on the forest side. His squeaky footsteps on the clean floor echoing as he was looking for the most isolated doors to kick to find what he was looking for.
A dark figure on the far horizon of the museum at night was lurking, staring in his direction.
"I can tell this is not human. I can evidently see that this is a different type of being. Cameleste was right, a bunch of creatures inhabit this earth. The matter at hand is not so much to see what it is but to know the correct way to engage an interaction."
The figure began moving slowly and ran towards him with impressive speed, the thing blocked by Nero used his momentum to turn it around, kick his legs and smack its face flat down on the ground.
"Why are you here, of all things? You, a capra."
"They know you're here, Ismael. They have your name written in their books."
"You don't say", he replied, shooting its' head.
"I'll find my way with my angel eyes. Regardless of the time it takes. I will find Efalis and take him out of existence."