ANTIHEROES: Kingdom In The Depths

About five months earlier Murmansk Oblast, Russia Outside Teriberka village Now we are back to where we started. Before the fall... back into the darkness before himself Draped in full dark robe, the man stood tall and gazed before the crowd, keeping the thoughts and secrets all to himself. The pale, shimmering shore of Barents Sea gradually darkened as his audiences in similar apparel came to view, in lightest steps and without a sound. He counted with his eyes. The casters, the rule breakers, the soldiers, the hunters, the shape shifters, the wanderers...  All but the cavalrymen... He waited a little more, he needed all seven. Now their shadows growled out of impatience and excitement. Anger, pride, and desire. Soon as the awaited party arrived, he looked over the crowd and began his prepared speech. His voice was inhumanly loud that trumped the sound of the Arctic's gales. "Welcome, brothers and sisters, ones of my own blood. We gather here tonight, as one entity, one body of one long history, and one future." He paused. "Soon, the prophesied Dark Moon will prevail, and once again the path to eternal glory will fall within our reach." He lifted his index finger, pointed straight upwards to the moon that collided with the Water Bearer's lair. He proceeded, "now our eternal king, our Great Overlord is sleeping an endless night, waiting for daylight. Then once more, we will see him lead us into our true destiny... As your Commander, I call every one of you to find the map... at all cost. Until we retrieve, we will not cease." The dark crowd and their shadows chanted solemnly together, "Inlo!" "May the darkness illuminate what's hidden beneath the light!" "Gigas!" the chant continued as darkness spread out, crawling into the air. At the end of the crowd, a daughter and a father crossed their fingers, for they have taken a promise to not take the promise. * * * Hong Kong, People's Republic of China Downtown Kowloon "Stolen? Mr. Gill, what the hell happened?!" a fine, young man shouted furiously. He felt his cheeks burned with the rushing blood to the head. As the wind went through his brown hair, he almost lost grip of his handheld. "There are just two people!" The old man over the line answered in a trembling voice. "They're professional. After a couple of shots they still could get their hands on the paper and escaped. Kian is going after them and hasn't got back." "Find them, I don't care how! I'm gonna kill Kian!" the young man shouted as his fist pounded against the rough brick wall. * * * Manila, Philippines FD, Inc. Southeast Asia Headquarter The tall, slender woman in her mid-forty stood alone in the refrigerated room, located deep in the lowest basement of the headquarters' building. Despite only wearing a thin layer of clothes under the white robe, she was not bothered by the cold. Her eyes glared at the two dead bodies in front of her. She snatched the phone from her pocket, quickly dialed the number she called just before she arrived at work. "Damn, receptions here are the worst." She roughly shook the phone up in the air, redialing. Soon as she got connected, she began shouting, "I'm not dealing with more bloody pirates! I got robbed and two of my top agents are dead, again!" "Calm down, I can't hear you. What happened?" the man spoke with a light sigh on the other line of the phone. "The pirates didn't complete the transaction, they shot my agents and I spent hours locating them just to discover their dead bodies washed up by the shore." "I will pay it back, I give you my word. Just give me a little more time... we have no time for a spat, okay?" The woman carefully examined her agents' dead bodies, her eyes locked on a glass tube the length of a wine bottle, stashed inside the coat's pocket. As she could not be more curious, she ignored the man on the phone and picked up the tube. As she opened the lid, an unpleasant smell rushed into her nose. What stinks like this? She thought. Nothing looked rotten inside the tube, just what seemed to be an acid-free rolled hard paper. "You're gonna have to sort this mess, Liam," the woman continued, extending two fingers to pull out another paper from the inside of the rolled hard paper, strange writings were shown on the paper. "I will," replied the man. "Talk to you later." She put the hard paper back into the tube, saving up so many questions for herself. At the moment she had not realized what she had loosely in the grip, would impact beyond imagination * * * Île-de-France, France Coulommiers He remembered the garage on the far end of their backyard very well, what was built as a makeshift storage for random equipment had turned into a place where he kept some of his biggest childhood secrets and fantasies, ones he thought would change the world. It was raining heavily just like the last time he was there. The garage stood still, unsuspected little room nobody cared about. I wonder if it's still here, he thought. He walked in to find everything was just like when he left it off. That i***t will be surprised. He will try to kill me with it but still... He smiled. Memories just flooded him. A subtle vibration from his pocket brought him back from the flashback. "Kazu, where the hell are you?" asked a girl's voice impatiently. "I'm in the suburb, in my grandparents' house." "What the hell are you doing there? I've been waiting for like an hour! Get your ass here right now, this case doesn't solve itself and we're running out of time." "I'll be there in a few minutes, dragon, I'm just looking for a long, lost weapon." * * *