Corrupted Innocence - 1 The Cage of...

Roses are fascinating creations don’t you think? Their vibrant colours of red and green contrast as they sway in the wind under the caring sun always reminding those who cross them of love and partook in this fantasy upon their dreams of romance. For hundreds of years people have looked to the rose as if it were a gift from the Gods themselves, a divination of love for one to the other. However, there is always two sides to a coin and there is always a Jekyll for a Hyde; after all, roses have thorns upon their fragile stem that stab you when reach for it enchanted by the alluring painting of colour upon their petals. The idea of something never being as it seems has always been there or else the small lies one says to others do not exist as they are in themselves roses: a beautiful image but laced with sharp thorns. One could say the same about people too, for example a smart and charming young man may be the perpetrator of the most heinous crimes and actions.

Fortunately, many roses do not have the chance to show its sharp thorns as only the ones who pluck the insidious flower ever really do experience the surprise of the thorns and learn to move past them as if they were never there. Many again apply this to people as well as some form of anthropomorphic fantasy of accepting another’s thorns and moving around them if they were not there. This is however but complete irony at its finest, those who avoid the thorns refuse to accept what the rose truly is and accept it as part of the rose itself and remove the beautiful mirage of colours away from what defines a rose. After all, there are very few flowers except the rose that have such unique thorns and each and every thorn is different in length, sharpness or even the potency of the sting. One should never only see the vibrant colours of a rose after all “But he who dares not grasp the Thorns, should never crave the Rose”.

After all, the story begins with a rose, a nettle and a Violet…

The sun simmered through the shield of leaves unto the green pastures of the garden as it tolled dawn the shadows of those impeding its inescapable progress bended with the passage of time across the garden. A colony of rose sway back and forth in the garden painting a picture of nature with paints clean and breathtaking in colour as the roses and its fellow flowers sway together in a cacophony of colour as if a rainbow was shattered in that very flower garden.

Rays of light snuck their ways up the marble walls of the manor and stained the windows with light as it began pouring through in bucket loads of colours unto the interior. The halls a moment ago sullen and grey were relieved of their depressive wait as the sun revealed the carpets vibrant red colour; the metallic gold of the patterns along the wall and the flickering of small flames within the gas lamps began to die. The house was alive and soon its inhabitants as at first only those who served rose from their slumber as they hurriedly prepared their uniform and composure for when those whom are to awaken.

One of these such servants, a small girl with vibrant brown hair and a uniform dressed to perfection through consistent practice and dedication began to work with a sense of purpose as she gathered her thoughts and passed into the kitchen greeting the chefs of the manor as they were hard at work preparing todays kindling for the fires of their masters consisting of expensive ingredients and spice as they proudly worked their duty and handed the small girl six plates and the appropriate cutlery.

She made her way into a large room one lavishly decorated with paintings and furniture with a large dining table positioned in the centre with twenty chairs evenly placed around it. Quickly, she got to work as she began to lay down the preparations on the table for the breakfast to come with even and orderly arrangement of the plates, cutlery and other necessities. She fumbled around with the gas lamps in the rooms switching them of with a click upon turning the nob’s and carefully parted the curtains and placing them evenly apart flooding natural light into he room and giving it life much like all the others.

She briskly moved to two large doors upon the other end and opened them ready for entry as she continued to prepare the room for immediate arrival to the best standard she could achieve. Though it wasn’t long until she she was told to wait in the dining hall by an older and much higher authority servant whom swiftly went of to inform the one in charge of house keeping breakfast preparations were almost complete.

“Very good. Send some maids to wake up the masters and misses please.”

A man in his late 50s now alerted by his subordinates to the preparation of the days beginning began to give orders to maids as the house began to become more busy as the servants began cleaning and tending to the manor and the world began to click into place. The maids had woken up each of the family that live their delicately with professionalism remaining at an all time high when conducting their duties.

A soft knock echoed from the door of a little girls room as a maid began to say it was time fore breakfast and that the family was waiting. Upon hearing the family being mentioned the girl hurriedly tried to get out of bed only to fall over herself in the progress causing a sense of distress in the maids voice as she asked if she was ok and began to open the door and briskly go to the girl who was currently tangled in her covers upon her floor.

“Miss Violet! Are you ok?”

Violet was puzzled as to what was going on as her attempt at waking up ended in sudden failure and eventual entrapment in her covers. The maid looked at her in dismay as she untangled and removed the dover from over her figure. Violet was a small child at 4 feet in height at the age of 12 she wasn’t doing all that well for herself height wise; she had unblemished white skin and her hair was a golden blonde. Her eyes were ivy green and full of naivety and innocence as she looked up mischievously at the maid.

“Did you trap your wings again, miss?”

She indicated towards Violet’s feathered wings protruding from her back covered in vibrant cerulean blue feathers that looked as if the feathers were dyed by the sky itself. Violet looked back at the maid and immediately understood how the accident came to be, her wings became trapped in her duvet as she attempted to roll out of bed resulting in the tangling of her duvet around her leading to the accident that had occurred before.

The maid ushered Violet to her feet and immediately began to prepare Violet for the day by beginning with the careful running of Violet’s bath. Violet’s bath time was like a militarised operation due to the uniqueness of her situation being that of her breed of angel. Angels were servants of the God’s and the ultimate lifeforms only second to that of the ones they serve and even in rare cases can surpass them, angels have been in the world since before the dawn of time when their beautiful wings created peace and tranquility within the violent loneliness of the once empty void the universe once was. There were many different types of angels varying in power and use with the most common being holy angels which were often used for the armies of gods or their general servants, of course the more powerful the breed of angel the more privilege they held over others. For example, Violets parents are Angel Sentinels which tree incredibly rare angels highly adept in combat and valued greatly by the Gods and inhabitants of this world. As for Violet, she was far more unique as she was a Primordial Angel and they were often adept in everything and could even surpass Gods due to their role of suppressing and maintaining the Gods. As such Violet has baths that are infused with Violets own mana as to increase her capabilities and allow her to enhance her breed’s bloodline and grow stronger.

The maid had this weight on her shoulders every time she ran the mana bath and also had the responsibility of keeping crimson safe and satisfied within all circumstances due to a pledge to the church and her parents.

Violet was beckoned over by the maid as she stopped the taps and began to prepare Violets clothes for the day and the products she will use within the bath. She started by carefully sorting through a nearby draw where she took out a towel and placed it along the side of the bath. Violets bathroom was very large with the bath consisting the size of a hot spring and the other areas very large due to storage and maintenance of Violet’s bath. It wasn’t long until more maids enter Violet’s bathroom and began to begin their work around the bathroom such has one was washing Violets night dress she had taken off and the others maintaining the flow of mana into the bath and keeping on standby for anything Violet needs.

Violet stepped into the bath and descended further down the behind the steam and sighed upon realising she was no longer under the watchful eyes of the maids within the bathroom. Sitting herself down Violet began to relax within the bath and wash herself as she slowly became accustomed to being awake. It wasn’t long until she drifted into though and began to imagine what was for breakfast that day however stopped upon realising her wings were now absorbing the mana from the bath due to the bright streams of rainbow coloured steam began to float towards her wings and be absorbed much to the delight of Violet due to the relaxing and calming feeling the absorption of mana that nestled itself gently upon her every time she did.

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Name: Violet Evergreen

Race: Angel

Breed: Primordial

Bloodline Purity: 100%

Stats:

Power: 15

Agility: 21

Intelligence: 18

Mana = 13+ (Absorption in Process)

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Violet didn’t mind the system she had due to the relaxing feeling of absorbing mana and the even better feeling when she spent 100 mana to upgrade one stat point and the enhancement to her body would feel like full body massage performed by the God of massages if they existed. After some time, Violet left the now mana drained bath to be dressed into Valkyrie armour which guarded everything but her head and wings due to the high durability of angels body parts such as the head and wings aren’t prioritised due to the rapid regeneration that occurs in the head and wings more so than other areas of angel’s bodies.

Violet however completely thought it stupid to leave the head unguarded much to the dissatisfaction of her mother upon saying this saying it was important to follow ancient traditions because they existed for a reason and that was to maximise the strength of angels and it is what kept them alive so long. Violet didn’t buy this excuse but didn’t speak about it again due to fear of her mother’s wrath.

After being dressed she was shown to the dining hall where she sat at the table admits the conversation her mother and father were having and began to play around with her fork by spinning it in circles off of the table and the tip of her index finger. Her father was a middle aged looking man with a strong and muscular physique, unlike Violet he had dark brown hair however he had ivy green eyes; and her mother looked very similar to Violet herself with the exception of more luck height wise, a brighter shade of blond hair and brown eyes.

Her two brothers and sister soon entered into the room, James the oldest at 18 years of age was 6 feet tall and towered over Violet and her siblings; he had brown hair like father and also brown eyes like her mother, he had quite slim physique with very slender limbs and a very handsome face, he was a sentinel breed like her mother and father. The second oldest, her sister Marianne was 5 feet and 10 inches at the age of 16 with brown hair and green eyes like her father, however had a much more feminine figure like her mother; her sister was an archangel who often were in charge of angel armies and were just below the pecking order to that of sentinels. The 3rd youngest was Samuel whom was blonde with green eyes like Violet however had a very toned physique like her father and was 5ft and 4 inches at 15 years old; he was a guardian angel whom are often the personal guards of important humans as they often acted as mercenaries and were a far bit below that of sentinel in the pecking order of angels.

It wasn’t long before Violet’s mother caught her in the act of playing around with her fork and was quick to scold her on her behaviour using Violet’s breed as an excuse to act with dignity even amongst family. Violet agreed and stopped playing with the fork however spent the majority of time before the arrival of breakfast pouting over the lost game of ‘spin-the-fork’.

Soon, the aroma of bacon and eggs wafted its way across the room quickly reverting Violet back to the energetic form she was in before at the excitement of breakfast.

“Sir a delivery has arrived from the holy institution of divination.”

Her father got up from the table and went with the maid out of the room leaving everyone equally puzzled as to what the delivery was and what he had acquired in his ventures that could warrant this gift or purchase and most of all, what could it be? Violet though it to be a new weapon due to his line of work and constant replacement of dull and broken blades after periods of work.

He returned to he room with a vial full of a thick red liquid and placed it upon the table before taking a seat and clearing his throat.

“Violet, this was sent by one of the God’s as a gift to improve your rate of progress due to services I have performed for them.”

‘Rather straight-forward?’

A maid was given the vial and it was taken over to her much to the delight of her parents that she didn’t reject it. She observed the liquid making sure that it wasn’t some form of enslavement or both contract so she isn’t bound to a God she was sure that it was safe and began to drink it. Violet’s body began to heat up and feel as if it was on fire and her body began to ache, her feathers began to fluctuate between their original colour and deep red as it felt as if something was clawing away at her insides then replacing it with something new. Violet couldn’t cry out in pain as it began to hurt to even ope her mouth as she collapsed unto the floor to the surprise of her father who rushed to her side to check if their had been a complication and she had indeed gotten hurt. Much to his relief, the colours of the feathers returned and she returned to normal however, her eye colour was now a mixture of every single colour fluctuating together in a beautiful cacophony of patterns and colours; the colour of mana itself.

It was at that point the pain had stopped and the dull ring of the system alert rung in her head like an unwanted siren as she began to recover from the ordeal she had been subject to, for all she knew this was poison however the system making an alert lead to speculation of perhaps she was fantasising and as such through the grogginess checked her status.

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Name: Violet Evergreen

Race: Angel

Breed: Primordial

Bloodline Purity: 100%

Stats:

Power: 45

Agility: 36

Intelligence: 60

Mana = 49 (+2 Passive Mana Consumption Every Day)

Effects:

‘Blood of a God’ = After drinking the blood of a God you receive a 50% increase in mana absorbed and increase of personal stats.

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Violet was surprised at the power levelling the blood of the God gave her and became very excited and jumped to her feet much to the surprise of her father who was beside her throughout the entire incident until this moment where she virtually became a spring chicken after the massive influx of power and thus energy. It was this burst of and release of energy that got Violet into trouble with her mother and was quick to seat herself back at the dining table after a fierce scolding. A maid then came over and took the empty vial and placed it into a small wooden box she had taken from the package the vial came in and then passed it to Violet’s father in which he then took out and put a key into the keyhole on the front section of the small box and locked it, a faint blue glow to emanate from the inside of the box before he unlocked and opened it again revealing it had been reduced to ash before placing the box to his side. Not long after this moment of wonder, breakfast was bought into the dining room and the breakfast of each respected person was laid in front of them and Violet and her family began to eat and bring an end to the start of the day.

After breakfast Violet began to prepare for training with her father and siblings, first by going and getting her short sword and long sword from the armoury where her siblings weapons were as well. The armoury was a like a giant shed full of racks of weapons, one of which had been especially allocated to the personal weapons of Violet, James, Marianne and Samuel. One by one they took their weapons from the armoury and gathered in the training ground which consisted of a large sand pit roughly thirty metres in diameter where they lined up next to echoer in the centre facing their father.

“Today you will duel echoer and learn from echoers and your own mistakes. As well as your own and the others successes.”

Violet’s father sat by and watched soon joined by Violet’s father as they began to enter conversation as the Violet and her siblings were putting together and two versus two duel. In the end Samuel and Violet went against James and Marianne. James weirded a war axe and Marianne a double edged spear; Samuel wielded a great sword and crimson duel welded a short sword and long sword. Both sides went to either end of the training area as they prepared to begin the duel and strategising immediately began with Samuel and Violet came with the strategy of an offensive assault and support if one was having more trouble than the other and was actively losing. James and Marianne went for splitting the two up and taking them on one on one in hopes of overpowering one and then going after the other.

The duel began with the clash of violets longsword against James War Awe when she parried him upon his sudden attack when she attempted to rush and hit him in a hit and run like fight, however now that had failed she stepped back and as James began to trip he readjusted and swung at Violet again in which violet ducked and attempt to swiper his feet much to his dismay as he had to retreat before she could get him off of his feet. Violet charged at James again this time parrying with the short sword above her head as James swung downwards upon her in retaliation then pulled his axe away barely blocking the thrust from Violet’s longsword to his side before continuing in constant back and forth parrying between him and Violet.

Meanwhile Marianne was winning due to the distance advantage with her spear, parrying most of his attacks and attempts to get bast her shield she would attempt to trip him resulting in his immediate retreat backwards only to attempt again. Finally Violet notice and launched her short sword at Marianne shortly before blocking another blow from James and continuing in the back and forth with him. The short sword disorientated Marianne for a second as she narrowly avoided it only to be stuck in close combat with Samuel resulting in a disadvantaged fight now on her side, Samuel then stomped Marianne’s spear onto the floor and swung his great sword at a 60 degree angle at her shoulder where her knocked her over pulling the weapon from her hand as he had his foot on it against the floor resulting in the loss of Marianne. He tossed Violet back her short sword in which she used to block the axe as eh sliced the axe blade from the handle with her long sword before kicking him in the cranium knocking him onto the floor.

“Ok kids are you ready for the second exercise!”

Violet and her siblings gathered together in a defensive stance as her father poured mana into the training area and it transformed into an urban area similar to that of 19th century London and their weapons were taken away by their father.

“In this exercise, you will work together to destroy a mafia in relatively large urban area and a such the training area will be held in a custom dimension 10km in size where your teamwork and other abilities will be tested. In this training area there will be one major city, 2 towns and 5 villages. There will also be hunters deployed in their that are much stronger than you and will attempt to track you all down and upon death there you will be back here completely fine. Once you are ready take a combat knife each and enter the training zone and you will be put in random areas of the training zone. Good luck and have fun.”

He passed each of them a combat knife and went and sat back down with Violet’s mother as they began talking and enjoying some wine and food admit their conversation.

The four of them headed towards the training zone and entered only to be teleported to their randomised starting points. Violet started in the docks of one of the towns and quickly hid behind crates of fish upon hearing the approach of people and waited until she heard the footsteps pass, she exited from behind the crates and headed towards the nearest boat where she climbed aboard and went for the captains cabin. When she attempted to open the door it was locked so she looked around the deck for an item she could use to unlock or pry the door open; to her luck she found a harpoon and lodged it into the side of the door and prayed it open and entered taking the harpoon with her.

The captains cabin was lit by a gas lamp and the dim light showed the mess of the room it was, however due to the maps of the town and rivers around the cabin she immediately began searching the cabin after taking the maps. She came across nothing important apart from a locked chest and a M1903 with 5 full magazines which was quite the lucky find to get a firearm. She inspected the chest and prayed it open with her knife to find nothing of importance except a singular document and a compass that she took with her. Upon exiting the cabin she noticed a man on the deck and threw the spear at the man impaling and killing him, she dragged the body and placed it into the cabin and left the harpoon behind. She holstered her gun and knife at her waste and made her way out of the docks towards the city where she decided to hide down a narrow alleyway when the sun began to rise upon fear of discovery by enemies due to high visibility during the day.

Luckily Marianne and Samuel encountered each over in a farm in the country when they had both individually exited different villages eventually bumping into echoer at the farm where they devised that they could use the farm as a kind of home base whilst they search for the others and complete the training exercise. The two came to the agreement to kill the owners and seize the property as a HQ going forward, they snuck up to the house and quietly pried open the already slightly loose back door and crept inside. Samuel killed a man in the living room with his knife when he snuck up from behind and stabbed him in the side of the head before dragging his body out of the back door. Marianne snuck upstairs and found a lady asleep in bed in which she decided to smother with a nearby pillow than use the knife and as well promptly removed the body out of the back door. They buried the bodies in the fields and began to explore the house where they discovered en Enfield with 35 bullets and a Revolver with 60, they soon cleaned the blood from the house and closed all the blinds and made the doors more sturdy and harder to break. They found £350 in the house and also maps and other information useful to the overall mission and began to prepare for sleep as day was dawning as the sun started to mark a sense of danger for them as well.

James started in the main city and decided to leave at any means necessary as it was far too dangerous to combat the most occupied area due to the high risk of the hunters being here and the high presence of the mafia they are to deal with. He began moving towards a bar where he entered and discover there were people playing card games and betting money in the back. He decided to join them and won £45 before leaving and headed towards a nearby rental office where here rented and apartment for £25 and proceeded to rob the other rooms gaining £1450 before heading back to his own room and winding down and enjoying the first class quality of the room. It was then he came up with the idea to build a sort of network within the city ready for when the others arrive, however he had to avoid the hunters the best he could and not cause too much a presence as to allow them tot rack him down. So he decided he would rest until morning and look for ways to make connections and more money the next day.

When the sun rose over the horizon James left to a nearby clothing store where he spent £170 on clothes in order to give a rich impression to those he met resulting in a better pay off he believed it would be more effective considering the time period it seemed to be around the industrial revolution meaning wealth was highly important and if he looked the part he certainly would be taken seriously and trusted very easily by others when negotiating with them. He started his network with the cities bums by promising the removal of the mafia and proved his strength scaring and also attracting them to his cause resulting in the foundations for his network within the city. Then he went to local bars and managed to get them to agree through fear also and had them pay him £20 each daily so he could have a daily income, it was soon after he began to get connections to more businesses until he had successfully built a network within the city. It was fragile at the moment however he would strengthen it over time until it came of even more good use and it wasn’t so fragile in the face of possible discovery.

Upon the rising of the sun the hunters were let into the training grounds and were immediately started on a ferry headed to the area as their arrival scenario. Gathering on the deck they began to introduce themselves to each over and begin a head count, they counted 20 hunters in total and they began to discuss the selection process for those within these kind of exercises. One boy told of how he was chosen due to his ability in battle when he won the tournament in the eastern farm lands, he expressed pride at his efforts being paid off and had gone into great details at his effectiveness with a blade in battle. Soon after the others came out with their stories and explained their backgrounds and races to echoer to establish whom was more powerful and suited to being in the chain of command in the group. It was decided that an angel of common breed would be in charge as all the others were races inferior to his with those second in command being 3 high elves consisting of 2 males and a female, they were interrupted when another person approached them stood amongst the group much to the surprise of the group he was an angel also.

“You’re late.”

The newcomer looked up at the elected leader and began to question as to why such an inferior breed was bossing him around like he was a big shot.

“What is your breed?”

The leader looked at the newcomer with shock; did he perhaps have a higher breed than he did and was challenging his position for the top? He stood tall and looked the newcomer in the eyes before proudly declaring his breed was that of sergeant only to be retorted by the newcomer as he stated his rank as sentinel shocking the leader and soon the leader was quickly rerolled to the newcomer and the sergeant lowered to second in command.

“Ok, so we are hunting a sentinel, archangel, guardian and another angel in which their breed is undisclosed. Now what worries me is the archangel due to the fact their power is much higher than that of sentinels and will require a large portion of our team just to handle them alone. Second on the worry list is the sentinel due to of course their roles as generals on the front lines and often boasting great power this will mean that we will have to focus on these two and hope to take them down as to weaken their side dramatically. Next on the worry list is the guardian due to their defensive abilities they can be a formidable fore if dealt lightly and although can be very sloppy at times are still highly dangerous but with all the high elves and a few humans they are very easily manageable. Now finally the last one who is undisclosed we can presume she will act as a secret weapon of sorts or a magnet for our attention so that the others can complete the objectives admit their distraction, however first we must track down the angels who we know the breeds of to be sure starting with the guardian or sentinel as to weaken the defence and support towards the archangel.”

The hunters all nodded in agreement as he began to lay the foundations for a plan as the ferry drifted ever closer to the play area and the budding excitement of the event to come transmitting through the hunters as they heard the brilliant plans of their new leader.

Violet awoke in the alleyway upon the arrival of the dark coveting hands of night over the sky shrouding everything below in darkness. She left the alleyway into the street and headed toward a sign pole standing tall upon the brick pavement in the intersection and inspected the signs upon it and discovered her way out of the town: a train station. She headed down the darkened street it pointed down as she ebbed to the shadows dodging the spotlights of gaslights lining the streets as she followed the road to a large building labeled and looking the part for a train station. It was tall and blackened by the light as sections were lit by the saving graces of the lanterns lit upon the walls and the reflection of gas light through gas doorway and windows across the train station. Promptly, she headed to the door of the station and entered before moving over to a ticket booth where a middle aged man waited in stained navy blue uniform clearly geared down by time.

“Hello miss.”

“Hello can I get a ticket to the big city please?”

“New Brandenburg? Why of course miss, that will be £5.40.”

Violet fumbled around the bag she took from the ship and took out £5.40 and paid the fee to the man before receiving a golden brown ticket and was told to wait for the arrival of the train at 11.30pm and so she began to explore the open shops nearby where she discovered a clothing shop. Upon seeing this violet became very excited at the though of a refresh in what she was wearing and start to blend into the world a bit more. She bought a trench coat her size and a small but simple black dress with the rest of her clothing black with tights and gloves to cover her skin and make her less noticeable during the night hours, she also decided to buy a top hat and face mask as to make it harder to identify her when she is wearing the face mask and she just though the top hat would look cool and decided to buy it as well as a complimentary black cane which she planned to modify into an effective weapon.

She returned to the station and took a seat at one of the benches and took a book from a stand beside based on train routes and nearby travel services owned by the same parent company, she began her work on her cane shortly afterwards. It took a lot of tinkering with it however she was able to make a blade exit from the bottom of the cane like a spear and made the hands more durable and the curve much sharper to make it more efficient for bludgeoning an opponent. Soon the echoes of steam streamlined from further down the train track and as such checked her pocket watch to find it was in fact 11.28pm and rose to her feet, put her pocket watch back into her coats pocket and took her cane into her hands and waking with it using her handle. She thought that she could make herself seem vulnerable from injury and as such she is more likely to be underestimated until she kills them with cane that though they brought such weakness which she found amusing and pragmatic at the same time.

The black coloured steam train came to a stop releasing a final torrent of steam as it came to a stop at the platform covering the surrounding in dense atmosphere mostly caused by the soot from the smokestack. Violet put down up her face mask as to block any toxic fumes from being easily breathed in especially the soot due to its weight and consistency often that leading to problems upon inhaling. She walked up to the first carriage of the train where she was greeted by the train operator in which he asked for Violets ticket before immediately acting polite upon seeing git and showed her to one of the carriages at the back where she thanked him upon showing her to a compartment and entered pulling down her mask and began to inspect the gun she had taken from the docks and discovered it functioned very similarly to traditional sidearms however due to her lack of ammo she had to use it less frequently than she would have wanted and put it back into her bag and watched the countryside pass by through the window as the dim light of gas fire lit up the compartment she was within which seemed to be of high quality as well suggesting the ticket she bought was most likely high class which gave her some resolve to relax due to the low chance of being attacked whilst she was in the compartment. She pule the travel ledger out she had taken from the station and began to examine it using it as a way to determine where she will be and where she will have to go next once she arrives at New BrandenBurg.

Marianne and Samuel continued preparing the farm security wise with simple but effective traps such a snares and can rip line alarms, they worked on a plane to liberate the nearby village as to further the objective while they gradually improve their home base so that they can feel secure and safe as they complete the objective. As such they decided that Samuel would take a hatchet from the farms toolshed as a weapon whilst Marianne made a makeshift spear with her knife and a pole from the toolshed and used screws to attach the knife to the pole by screwing the handle into the end of the pole. Now prepared Marianne took the revolver just in case as the two headed towards the nearby village hidden in the shroud of night.

A small village in the countryside laid restless in the darkness as the tiny influences of the targeted mafia pulled there strings within continuing to corrupt it to its core. Their operations however too ended with silence as Marianne and Samuel swept through the village and mercilessly slaughter all of the mafia lackeys within and leaving a trail of iron, blood and anguish in their wake. Soon the two decided to put the entire village out of commission so they continued to hunt everyone in the village using tools and items they find as their weapons break or shatter after the constant use in the massacre of the village. By the time the last house was set ablaze from the spreading flames and the stench of iron filled the village as the blood of the many that lived there is spread across the village in a cacophony of death.

Violet had been sat reading and analysing the ledger for about thirty minutes whilst in the train and had at this point completely memorised everything within it and quickly resorted to other means of passing the time, in the end she decided that the train ride will most likely end soon and the most she can do to entertain herself is watch the passing world outside the window or continue to read the ledger. She went with watching the window and placed the ledger into her bag before leaning against the window and watching the world hidden by darkness pass by like a beautiful yet terrifying feeling of uneasiness.

It was at that moment she saw the lights of New BrandenBurg through the window and looked as if they were millions of giant unmoving fireflies hovering in the distance. She was correct she was almost there and as so began to prepare to leave, upon being ready to leave the train had come to a halt at the cities train station and the train’s operator arrived at her compartment to show her out the train, she followed him out and went on her way trying to find a book store or small game to entertain herself in her spare time while she was there.

After a few minutes of traversing the maze like streets of New BrandenBurg she came across a book store and found many exciting novels and board games inside, it reminded her of a charity store but instead it was for self profit and not a selfless cause but this didn’t concern her as she picked a few books and bought a bag like that of a suitcase however more similar to a handbag in a way as it wasn’t hard and compact but made of leather and acted like a normal bag though sturdy. After leaving she place her items from her old bag into her new and discarded the old bag, she picked up the back with two hands with the cane being held through the handles of the bag and she continued on her way with an object of finding refuge, one of her siblings or a way to increase her own resources unbeknownst to her that her brother had already done so within New BrandenBurg.

She started by exploring abandoned factories resulting in the clearing of many mafia dens, businesses and the likes, which was surprisingly effortless considering the amount of effort her father put into the difficulty of these training missions it seems the difficulty will be in the second objective after they destroy the Mafia which is to defeat the hunters at all costs. However, the problem with the the mafia it seemed is their numbers and expansive network which will take time to unravel and destroy. They were like a ball of yarn that was easily untangled but took time because of the sheer amount of yarn used to make the ball and how annoyingly intricate the tangling of the ball is.

Violet decided upon a hotel that seemed to be of high class for residency which seemed to also be on the expensive side garnering suspicion on the presence of one of her siblings within this hotel, however first she needed to establish her own safe zone before she had to deal with endless torment of homelessness and constantly being in the open resulting in eventual failure and many other reasons including she did not enjoy living homeless very much and found it a very unpleasant experience to say the least. She proceeded into the building where she was greeted by a large victorian sequel hotel lobby targeted towards the upper classes and greeted by a nearby member of staff upon noticing her.

“Hello miss, how may I help you?”

“I would like to rent a room.”

The girl rushed over to the reception desk and opened a book and placed it upon the desk and began to sort through a list of rooms before pointing out there were three rooms free, one of which was a suite which Violet bought much to the delight of the girl behind the desk whom handed her the room key and lead her up the stairs a few floors until she reached a floor dedicated to her suite. The girl showed her to the door and told her this was her room and explained the features and other need-to-knows about the suite before heading back down the stairs.

Violet sighed and unlocked the door and entered the suite, she was greeted with a living room representing that of lavishness often used for the aristocracy and she dropped her bag by an arm chair facing a gas fire and headed to the bathroom where she had a mana bath. It seems that her father had made all the baths she entered mana baths as part of his ritualistic goal to increase Violet’s strength. After the bath she had changed into a nightgown and began to unwind as she sat on the armchair in front of the fireplace and began to read one of the novels she had purchased from the bookstore as the night slowly crept upon her and she fell into a blissful sleep book in hand, in front of the fire place.

The kiss of the sun embraced the sky as it rose in the horizon and an orange haze covered the land chasing away the shadows and dangers of night. Rays of light peered through the window of the window onto Violet waking her from her sleep as she slowly opened her eyes and moaned at the realisation of it being morning before climbing to her feet and trotting into the kitchen. Then she discovered there wasn’t a kitchen however upon referring to her memories the lady said that breakfast can be ordered from a café downstairs and as such crimson got dressed into her outfit she had put together the other day, picked up her bag and put her cane between the handles again before leaving out of the door and down the hall.

She arrived back in the lobby and began to search for the café and upon giving up due to the hassle of searching for a café in an essentially a maze whilst she was half asleep even if she din’t look it. Leaving the hotel, she headed to a café across the road and then came to the though that perhaps the café was this the entire time though she can’t be sure and will get breakfast here anyway. She entered the café with a ring of the entrance bell as she made her way to a table by the window and placed her bag onto the floor and began to wait for service from the staff and read the novel she had begun to read the night before.

After waiting a little while she was noticed by one of the workers and they rushed over and began to apologise for the wait before Violet ordered a black coffee and english breakfast before returning to her books she waited for her breakfast to arrive. Soon her breakfast arrived and she paid once finished and left, she felt surprised at the seemingly low presence of mafia in New Brandenburg, due to the size of the city and it being the only one in the training exercise she expected a much higher presence and threat. It was the epicentre of economy and trade and if the mafia have not monopolised it, it seems it will be easier to complete the first objective than she thought.

Well not that she should get ahead of herself or she will trip up in her hurry. She decided to explore the city more and decide if the presence was really as negligible as it seemed and after some careful searching there really was not a singular spot of mafia influence throughout New BrandenBurg. Then she received a notification that dumbfounded and disappointed her at the same time:

-24 Hours Passed since death of Mafia Leaders at dock, Mafia objective clear and second objective active!-

“Are you serious!”

Violet managed to complete the first objective within the first day without even realising it and she is currently in the process of self gloating and pride to levels of biblical proportions. After a few minutes (or hours) of running around and celebrating her victory she remembered she still hasn’t found the other 3 so they can work together on defeating the hunters and though it sounds easy so far she has proven to herself that it is indeed not easy. Though all you need to do to find James is find some form of spy network because he’s completely obsessed with spies and so she asked around local businesses and did indeed confirm he had set up a network, a very unreliable one at that as well.

Violet traced the trail back to her hotel where she asked to see the list of other guests which she saw as plain as day was James was living in the same building! Violet immediately followed the stairs up to the appropriate floor and arrived outside of his door and knocked on the door.

“Yeah coming.”

Violet slammed the door and then heard multiple crashes and other such noises from inside the room before her brother opened the door with a face of annoyance to that of shock, relief and finally happiness. Shortly after he pulled this face of adoration resulting in a knee to the stomach landing him into the furniture down the hallway of his apartment.

“Do you have any idea how rubbish your network is?”

“That’s the first thing you say and do? My ador-”

Violet launched him across the apartment once again before they finally exchanged information in a non-destructive way. They soon both prepared to leave with the agreed plan that they will take the train to a small farming village down south that has gone dark in the hopes of finding the other two due to the clear signs of full ‘deep cleaning’ of the population there.

“Well shall we go?”

Violet looked at him dismayed at the fact he asked that when the door was open and she was already in the hall. The only thought was how on earth he managed to build a network and not get completely defeated by the Mafia admit his stupidity. They left for the train station once they returned their room keys and upon noticing the two the ticket man smiled at Violet and told James.

“Your daughter’s a cutie.”

James looked smugly at Violet shortly followed by receiving death threats in morse code she tapped against her cane and he began to muster his endurance as they climbed upon the train and entered the compartment. To his surprise she just sat and read a book… and ignored him.

“Violet, how was the past 2 days?”

She continued reading.

“Violet?”

She continued reading.

“VIOLET!”

The rest of the train ride was filled with the begging of her brother as she ignored him and enjoyed her book until the train came to a stop at the sight of a caved in train station. Swiftly, the two made their way off the train careful to avoid the notice of fellow passengers and staff on the train and crept their way into the nearby wood and watched the train operator climb back into the train shortly before it began moving again in the opposite direction from the track seemingly to report the damage most likely. Violet straightened herself up and pulled up her mask before continuing forward to the train station and James went towards pillars of smoke in the distance to check what was in that direction and if it were the other two that had perhaps made camp.

Upon approaching the destroyed train station Violet noticed several things such as the few fragments of clocks surrounding the station suggesting improvised bombs, she was certain it could have been Marianne and Samuel but there is the chance that it is a trap and it was made to seem as if they were here in the first place. Though the silence and clear destruction in this area tells her that there has been a recent battle hence the absence of wildlife and the clear bullet holes in certain areas. Though what was concerning was the lack of corpses suggesting that nobody actually died here unless they were in the station or someone had removed the corpses as can be seen with the dried blood dotted all over the roads and destroyed housing nearby.

She walked into an opening where she finally found the bodies of 250 different people of which most were rotting and releasing a very potent stench due to the amass of bodies piled in the middle of what seemed to be a village square. She continued on discovering more bodies that were left in nearby battlefields however it seems the further she goes out the more absence of bodies but clear blood splatter suggesting the outside has been cleared of bodies to ward suspicion but not to an impressive degree due to the clear presence of blood and the sheer destruction of the village and clear signs of battles such as guns without owners rusted slightly by rain and the odd crater suggesting an explosion.

Burn marks are also visible on most of the collapsed buildings suggesting fires or even arson caused by the battle or a storm that occurred at the time but the fire was unable to be put out due to the battle at hand. She discovered a combat knife exactly the same as the ones father had given to her and her siblings before they entered the training field lodged up to the hilt in a blood stained wall suggesting clear evidence that Samuel and Marianne were or are here or if only one of them were. The destruction of some of the houses however are consistent with the powers of Marianne whom’s power is mostly focused on the destruction of areas to kill her enemies usually due to its potency but it is how she uses it. The evidence of Samuel is the mother used to kill a lot of the villagers that are very consistent with his style displayed in earlier exercises to finish opponents in which was the slashing of tendons in combat or the imputation of their cranium obvious due to head trauma and the gashing wound in the sides of their heads.

Violet continued further into the village until she noticed wagon marks on the road leading out of the village suggesting that the two had left the village via carriage and this is the root they had taken.

“James! I found where they went!”

With no answer she called again only to receive no response. She decided to wait five more minutes in which he did finally show himself, after a lengthy berating from Violet she explained what she had found and the track they could follow to their location. She suggested they rub out the marks behind them to hide the carts tracks as to hide the location that they are hidden as someone could follow them as well leading to the discovery of all four of them.

“In laments terms… a bad idea.”

“Laments terms?”

“‘Cause you’re an idiot.”

They both followed the tracks down the dirt road and Violet forced James to destroy the tracks behind them eventually leading to Violet walking slower until she said he could stop once they had reached around a mile away from the village. They continued to follow the wheel tracks until they came across a farm clearly covered in simpleton detection traps, most likely not set up by Samuel but Marianne due to her lack of creativity in this field. She stepped over the many can detection alarms and headed to the front door where she knocked on the door sparking noise from the inside and obvious movement of the curtains on the second floor shortly followed by rapid footsteps and crashing similar to when she found James followed by the unlocking of various different kinds of locks before the door was opened.

“”Oh my God James and Violet!”” The two sung in unison upon seeing the two waiting at the door, one an exhausted and wearing a suit and tie covered in dirt from the long travel; and the other in smart wear consisting of a dress, trench coat and top hat with a suitcase like bag in her hand with a cane woven in-between the handles.

“Oh I can tell what happened.”

“So can I.”

Violet stepped into the house and frowned at the state of it: there was blood all over the kitchen and one of the bedrooms the house generally looked like the battle of the village had occurred in there rather than in the actual village.

“I think you two don’t know that hygiene and evidence exists…”

Soon after the four began to clean the house and put it back to how it looked before they arrived and also didn’t look like a massacre occurred in the kitchen and there was an apocalypse due to the removal of planks from windows and the house was for the first time since the two ‘prepped’ place, normal. They all then gathered in the dining room where they alls sat around the table:

James perched his feet atop the table and exclaimed “You would never believe what our darling little sister did to me when we first met!”

Violet hit him in the nose with her cane knocking him backwards and ending with him lying on his bak against his chair. She then placed the travel ledger and a map of the island on the table before the others shortly followed with the intel and weapons they had gathered. Then table now had a travel ledger; two maps; a revolver with 35 bullets; a .380 calibre hunting rifle with 12 bullets; a map of James’ connections he made; £45,000; and a detailed location map of New BrandenBurg.

Violet looked at the rifle and asked “Can I have that rifle?”

They all looked up in unison “””Sure.”””

They continued to distribute the weapons and in the end Violet got the revolver, hunting rifle and her cane; James got the pistol Violet found at the docks as well as her knife and his; Marianne got her make shift spear and a combat knife; Samuel got an axe and several knives. After agreeing their equipment distribution the money was then stored in Violet’s bag. They then began discussions of the strategy to kill the hunters and came to the conclusion that they will lure them to the city and fight them there. So they decided what better than to send a message than to write it out using the corpses of the villages in which was mostly used as shock factor or some form of physiological warfare or the fact it was them laughing at their own dark joke as they set up 30 bodies to say city and also write it in blood on walls and everything in case it wasn’t clear and then left for New BrandenBurg using the horse and carriage from the farm.

On the way the decided to stop in a nearby town and take the train to New BrandenBurg where Violet ignored James again, Marianne also began to read and Samuel tinkered with some clocks to make makeshift bombs for the upcoming battle. When they arrived they all booked a suite and inside they began to plot their strategy which was to use Violet as a wild card however until she was needed she would act as a sniper with the hunting rifle. Samuel would protect the discovery of Violets position until she joins in and will actively lead them away also he would plant bombs around the city in gas pipes and other areas. James will use his connections to build a mini army to slow down the hunters but was deterred from this upon the suggestion of mind control by Violet and said she would use it on the entire city and direct the armies whilst sniping. Marianne and James would act as frontline fighters and attempt to kill as many of the enemy as possible at key points and retreat if they are to lose, their goal is hit and run or all out offence.

Violet began to cast the spell using the gas lines to spread the spell easier she had gain control of the entire island and began to mobilise them in different ways and located the landing point of the hunters. She then set up a trap with the people of the town to slow them down and then gathered the rest of the populace in the capital after demolishing the towns and settlements excepting the two they hunters arrive at and New Brandenburg and prepared a large defence within the city. She identified multiple ways to hide herself to snipe and throw them off of her scent until all the mind controlled were dead and there wasn’t drastic effects if discovered and was incapacitated or killed stopping the spell. Samuel with the help of the controlled set up bombs like a mine field throughout the perimeter of the city as well as the inside for the final stages of the plan. Violet would stay at the cathedral with the detonator for the city destruction bombs and Samuel joined the frontlines and helped to prepare the defences by building traps. They were ready for the hunters to arrive and the hunters had no idea as what was to come.

The hunters arrived at the shore and was shown by the locals with great respect to the town square where the leader became instantly suspicious.

“What’s the matter Mark?”

“It’s a tra-”

A fight broke out as the town people all pounced on the hunters resulting in a lengthy battle resulting in the partial destruction of the town and luckily there was no casualties on the hunters side and the townspeople were wiped out. After the shock of sudden battle they all agreed to head to the city due to suspicions towards the sudden attack with theories being paranoia due to almost complete destruction of the populace to achieve the first objective. Their theories was answered when they witnessed the war zone like state of the island on the way to the capital with bodies strewn all over the fields and craters littered the county side and distant towns dead in silence as they lay in ruin. To them it lay a picture of unrelenting carnage and soon they arrived at the city where like the town it was relatively unharmed like the town the had arrived in.

Soon the explosions began as the ground exploded around them killing 5 of the group of 100 hunters and causing some panic amongst the ranks before settling down upon realisation once he smoke cleared they had very few casualties. Then the gun shots and attacks began from massive groups of people from the capital as they fearlessly charge at the hunters in a suicide charge uncaring if they die and only focus don the death on the hunters ahead of them. They fought their way into the city and were now fighting and dodging elaborate traps as they progressed further, they had lost 15 after entering the city and the situation wasn’t improving due to the lack of decrease in the enemies numbers. Soon the onslaught ended and there were only 30 remaining standing in a city full of the stench of thousands of bodies. Then they were confronted by 3 of the 4 of their targets.

Mark smiled “So you finally come out.”

Samuel laughed “Well it’s working isn’t it?”

The three siblings began to engage the hunters and tore through the front ranks however slowed upon reaching the higher level humans and elves. Soon however Violet began to shoot the hunters from the cathedral much to the surprise of the hunters until only 12 remained and they began to retreat out of the line of fire only to flanked by more swarms of controlled townspeople in which they desperately tore their way through to try and get away.

Violet smiled and held up the detonator “This is about to get fucking lit!”

She activated the detonator and the explosions began blowing the hunters into buildings and also into pieces until only 6 remained and all that remained was the city that looked as if heavy bombardment took place. The remaining hunters headed towards the cathedral after the James, Marianne and Samuel had retreated in order to help in the convincing of the confused hunters that they were dead and the last of them was Violet in the cathedral.

“I bet they think they are in luck.”

“Yep, they’re sooooo done.”

Mark pushed open the doors of the cathedral only to be met with a small girl wearing a trench coat and a top hat with a cane in hand and a rifle leaned against a pue behind her. Mark signalled the four others to ready for combat and Violet began to speak:

“So you’re the hunters I take it?”

Mark looked at the girl “Yes and I suppose you’re the last one.”

Violet smiled and tossed her top hat to the side and looked at the hunters left to right “Ok lets not make this boring then.”

An elf from the side charged at crimson with his sword and swung at her shortly but wasn’t met with success as she launched a kick into his stomach before her could and activated the blade on her cane and hit him in the head with it tearing of his left portion of his face killing him. The remaining two elves charged at her where one met her can to his leg tripping him up and causing him to crash into his ally behind her as she steeped out of the way to allow him room to bump into his friend. She then slammed her foot down onto the back of his head caving him and his friend’s head in before facing Mark and the other angel.

“Can I ask for your names?”

Marks smiled and pointed to himself and his partner in order before unsheathing his sword “I’m Mark and this is Zach. I’m a Sentinel and he is a sergeant”

Crimson pointed her cane at him as if pointing a sword and retracted her cane blade before performing a curtsey bow “Ok Mark and Zach I’m Violet Evergreen nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.”

Both sides charger forward and Violet blocked a thrust from Zach before kicking Mark in the chest knocking him backwards before drawing her revolver and emptying the barrel into Zach then pushed him off her can into the pues and began to bleed out from the wounds unable to move. She turned her attention on mark and threw the gun to the side before colliding her can against his sword once more as they began to attack and counter each over at increasing speeds until crimson kicked him in the face and then laughed her foot into his side launching him through the nearby wall and down the nearby street spraying debris across the street and collapsing the cathedral inwards from the shockwaves from the impact killing Zach under the rubble as his body was crushed and pummelled by the collapsing cathedral.

Violet exited the rubble and approached Mark with a revolver in hand as he attempted to climb to his feet only to lose his strength and fall back onto his knees.

Mark began to chuckle “Tough luck that you were the subjects of the annual hunt.”

Violet smiled and aimed the gun at his head “You know what’s even worse? This is our training.”

*Bang*