073 - Old Hatreds

[JasonPaul]

Anwyn was currently at the Ohio border, about thirty minutes from Cincinnati, where a cease-fire was just ordered on both sides, when he got another call from Silf. She had intended to research this cult of dark mages in the meantime. Perhaps she had some information.

"I don't know if what I've found is directly related to Tyne's attack," Silf began, "but I found something rather disturbing."

"Go on," Anwyn said.

"Well, you know that our people have lived underground for centuries, and have mostly remained hidden from mankind. Occasionally one of our people might have been found out, but we've never needed to worry about it, as such incidents would be dismissed as the ravings of a madman. A group of blue-blooded mages living underground and meddling in human affairs? No one would have believed that sort of thing, right?"

Anwyn knew where this was going. "And you're thinking that someone did believe it?"

"I looked up grimoires and did as much research as I could on them. Humans have always been fascinated by the occult and attempts at researching magick have been going on since the dawn of time, but in the 9th century someone claimed to have found the key to magick. He lived in the precursor of what would become the Holy Roman Empire. His name was Heinrich Wanz, and it is said that he created the first grimoire.

"Of course he was branded as a heretic by the Catholic Church and burned at the stake," Silf continued, "but it turned out that he was only one of many, practicing and researching their magick in secret since at least the Sumerian era. They had all kinds of different magicks learned: conjuration, abjuration, evocation, translocation, illusion. Their magicks were at least as extensive as our own, if not more. But unlike us, they kept their magicks to themselves, and shared it only with a select few who would keep the existence of the cult a secret.

"And then in 934 AD a group of our people who were on a reconnaissance mission were ambushed by humans. Their magic was rendered ineffective, and they never stood a chance against the human attackers. No one knows how, but the humans found us out. Our emperor at the time, Eitran Belexes, demanded an explanation, for which we had none. We didn't know how the humans knew about us, let alone how they were able to stop our magic so easily. We operated carefully, learning of the presence of this cult of mages. Who they were, where they operated, and everything. When we had everything in place, one of our people tipped the pope off to the presence of heretics in the Rheinland. The church raided the place and destroyed everything, but during the chaos we managed to recover a single grimoire and some documents. What we learned was quite disturbing.

"It turned out that Wanz learned of the existence of Mystics somehow. Even worse, he knew that we were a threat to humans, and began researching magick that could defeat us. The magick that we found in the grimoire was a tool to render Mystic magic ineffective, and even turn it against ourselves. He and his followers began preparing for a strike against us. He even arranged his own execution so that the Church would not continue to investigate his followers.

"Anwyn, from that moment on, the cult existed for a single reason."

Anwyn took all of this in, a look of worry on his face as he came up with the inevitable conclusion. "To destroy us..."

"Exactly," Silf said. "They knew of our prophecy to reclaim the surface world, and began plans of their own to strike back at us and to protect humanity. Their existence was lost in the fabric of time. We'd never heard of any such incidents since. We assumed they were all destroyed."

"And you think the cult of mages that Tyne is a part of and this cult of mages that fought us in the past are one and the same?" Anwyn asked.

"I can't rule out the possibility," Silf replied.

"But we're not trying to conquer humanity anymore," Anwyn said. "We're just living in our own corner of the world minding our own business now."

"I honestly don't know what they have in mind," Silf said, "but their magicks work on an entirely different level as ours. Typical counterspells and protective measures won't work on them. You saw it yourself when Tyne attacked. You said you were rendered helpless to do anything."

Anwyn shook his head. He didn't know how many of these mages there were, or where they were, or how much, if any, of a threat they posed to New Belexes right now, but he didn't want to wait to find out. "So, do we still have the grimoire?" Anwyn asked.

"It was destroyed," Silf replied in a low tone, "by Soljin."

"Damn it," Anwyn cursed. "The son of a bitch is dead and he still gives us no end of headaches."

"Don't worry too much about it right now," Silf said. "We have more pressing matters at the moment. I got off the phone with Reynolds not too long ago. He wants to know why the Mystics are siding with One Nation."

This news caught Anwyn completely by surprise, although, now that he thought about it, it really shouldn't have. "We were dealing with a mage who may or may not have been a Mystic!"

"I told him that," Silf said, "but he claims that our actions gave Croft the opportunity to invade Ohio. His representatives fear we're about to attack Ohio from the Eastern front before long."

"His representatives are paranoid!" Anwyn exclaimed. "And what do we have to gain by siding with One Nation? Hell, our people think they're going to invade us after they get done with Ohio."

"And there's the rub," Silf replied. "The reasoning is that they're agreeing to leave us alone in exchange for our help in dealing with Ohio."

So much for being a neutral party. "All right," Anwyn said with a heavy sigh. "I'll discuss it with Reynolds."

***

Meanwhile, not too far from where Anwyn was, Blue had her hands full. She deflected Rahu and Ketu as best she could with her twin butterfly knives, but her opponent attacked from angles that Blue didn't even know existed, and she was kept on the run.

Of course, it didn't help that Blue was not expecting her opponent to be none other than Miwan Kusanagi, the reigning God of Fight champion, and the mightiest Kendou alive. Even worse, she got the feeling that Miwan was just toying with her.

"Come on!" Miwan shouted as she backed Blue up into a wall. "You're a Kendou, aren't you? You can fight better than that!"

Blue rolled away from an overhead slash, then leapt onto one of the tables, as far away from Miwan as she could. She looked over to her sister, who was just staring at Miwan dumbfounded, not unlike someone who was meeting God himself for the first time. "Open fire!" Blue screamed at her sister.

Red took a second to snap out of her trance before quickly grabbing both of her Uzis and unloading their contents. The bullets never even reached Miwan before slamming against a white seal that protected Miwan from Red's attack. It was Mystic magic, and Red wondered where it came from before remembering the Mesian priestess, and although she was a felinefolk and not a Mystic, it was not uncommon for felinefolk priestesses to know white magic. Come to think of it, where was the priestess, Red thought to herself, before she felt the blow of a large mace hit her on the back of the head, putting her to the ground.

Miwan smiled at her companion, who quickly nodded and ran out of the restaurant, before turning her attention back to Blue, who was completely unprepared for Miwan's next attack and nearly had her feet cut out from underneath her before jumping over Miwan and landing behind her, aiming for a backstab. No good, as Miwan was just too fast, and her weapons had such a reach advantage over Blue's that she couldn't get close enough to her. It wasn't as though Blue hadn't fought people with longswords before. Against common thugs, they were barely an annoyance. Against trained professionals, they were difficult to work around, but Blue would always find a way to win. Against Miwan, however, they were a severe hindrance.

Blue, however, wasn't thinking about such things at the moment. At the moment her mind was on Miwan herself. She had turned up missing ever since her husband had, so what was she doing in Ohio now? Who was the priestess that was with her? And, most importantly, if Miwan was here, could her husband, the God of Destruction himself, Akira Kusanagi, be far behind? Blue hoped not. She knew enough about Akira to know that she would get no mercy from him.

Suddenly, Blue saw an opening. She sidestepped a lunging thrust from Ketu and quickly kicking at Miwan's hand, sending the sword flying into the air. Miwan quickly brought Rahu up to block an incoming strike, but Blue had anticipated this and struck at Rahu with her left knife, throwing it up into the air with Ketu. Miwan was disarmed and at Blue's mercy.

Or so she thought. She was unprepared from Miwan's next move, a kick to the stomach that threw Blue back into the wall. Miwan then caught both Rahu and Ketu in her hands and, before Blue could recovery, she thrusted them into the wall, crossing them over each side of Blue's neck. Blue's eyes widened as she was effectively pinned to the wall by both swords, and could feel the blades brushing against her skin. Miwan only grinned at Blue.

"Now, let's have a little talk," Miwan said. Her smile quickly faded, however, as she heard the clicking of a gun. Specifically, a .50 Beowulf pressed against the back of her neck.

"Wrong move, supergirl," Red said with a smile as she rubbed the back of her head. But like Miwan, she wasn't smiling for long, as she suddenly found herself flying upwards, to the ceiling. She winced in pain as she struck the hard wood, dropping her Beowulf to the ground upon impact. It fortunately landed without discharging. Miwan quickly kicked the gun out of the way as Red fell back to the floor and into unconsciousness.

Miwan turned to her priestess companion and a new person, a purple haired woman dressed as a witch. Her pale skin and red eyes marked her as a Mystic. "Where the hell have you been, Khali?" she asked.

"Sorry," the Mystic said in a cold tone. "I didn't think you'd run into any alleycats."

Miwan turned back to Blue and smiled. "Now, about that little talk..."