~ 6th Subject of The Rosary, 28th Sacrifice, 1911 ~
The streets of Crimdol are busy as usual. The sound of people walking can be heard for miles as the vendors on the street try to grab the attention of the people.
The moon is bright as always, providing light for the people under it. Beneath the roofs of one of the buildings near the mall is a small alleyway that can fit a car.
Inside the car are two people. Durvin and Helmar. Both of them are going about their day, patrolling the streets, and the usual roll calls from their built-in radio.
This time, it's their break, and someone is on duty today. As Helmar comfortably slept in the car, Durvin, on the other hand, is reading an Anecdote about the victims of the 'Memoriam Gloria.'
'Memoriam Gloria' is one of the biggest ongoing retrievals of missing files, that are rumored to have the secrets of anomalies, otherworldly events, and how to deal with them.
70 years have passed by then, they only have recovered 64 out of [Undetermined Number] pages of the 'Memoriam Gloria' one which is owned by Durvin, the Rusted Revolver [22]
Durvin is one of the lead operatives in the missing files of the 'Memoriam Gloria'
Durvin is around his late 20s and is wearing a blue bonnet, hiding his curly black short hair. His body is in rough shape after a near-death encounter 3 years ago.
He's neither slim nor muscular, but he's tall. Protecting his body is a priest's robe that is modified to look like a police uniform.
On the other hand, Helmar is wearing a normal priest's robe, but filled with hand-drawn insignias using homemade chalk. He's using his long gray hair to cover his face while he sleeps. Compared to his looks, his face looks like your average teenager but his age is exponentially higher.
"Hey wake up, check this." Durvin shuffled Helmar back and forth until he woke up.
"What is it this time, I told you I will-?!" Helmar's gray eyes began to widen in fear at what he saw.
"Damn chill out man, it's just an image!" Durvin laughs as he shows a close-up picture of garlic.
"..." Helmar immediately slapped Durvin out of embarrassment.
"What was that for?!" Durvin completely covered his head due to Helmar constantly slapping him.
It took a few minutes for Helmar to stop slapping Durvin, by then Durvin's arms were starting to get sore.
"So, what is it that you woke me up?" Helmar looked at Durvin with a subtle chuckle.
"It's this." Durvin handed out a newspaper to Helmar while shielding his head.
-Tim Hostnir, one of the victims of the 'Memoriam Gloria' and also the previous owner of the Rusted Revolver, died in his own home. -
-The scene depicts Hostnir, sitting on the chair in the middle of the room lifeless with his Rusted Revolver in his right hand. -
-His face was maimed beyond recognition and his body was filled with scratches and dark-blue spots. -
-Based on the autopsy, his cause of death is asphyxiation. It was later revealed that it wasn't by asphyxiation but by suicide. -
-We investigated the house of Hostnir a day before the incident due to a noise complaint. Hostnir was in good health at that time. -
-He complied with our requests as we carefully searched his home. There are white dusts, presumably salt that were scattered through the floor. -
-The chair was neatly placed in front of the table with the Desk in the corner near the bed. As we rummaged through his desk, we found some strange vials that were arranged in a horizontal line, filled with black fluid and some solid objects inside. -
-We asked Hostnir if we could take some of the vials. He declined and he said, "It's for my research," he said. So naturally, we let it slide and thanked Hostnir for his cooperation. -
-During the investigation after the incident, the vials that were placed on his desk were suddenly gone. There were traces of scratch marks on his desk. -
-We soon identified that the scratch marks were from Fenrir, a great wolf in Norse mythology. End of Report.-
"Wait, that's it?" Helmar asked Durvin if there was more.
Durvin replied, "Yeah." in a monotonous voice.
"There were supposed to be more of the case of Tim Hostnir. But I guess I was just dreaming." Durvin said as he adjusted the seat to lie down.
As soon as he lay down, a blaring sound on the radio rang through their ears, triggering a familiar sensation that they had been used to for 10 years. Another leakage.
"More work again. Fuck you for scaring me." Helmar scolded Durvin as they drove off to the marked location.
[A 'leakage' has occurred. Please evacuate the surrounding citizens and remove the 'leakage' immediately]
[Class 5 'leakage' had been detected. Effective weapons against it are Array Cannon {18} and Toxic Analgesic {54}]
[Please do not use the following emotions and weapons: Anger and Claw Blade [11] as they have been proven to increase the intensity of the 'leakage']
"Oh wow, anger. Looks like you shouldn't come with me." Durvin jokingly laughed at Helmar.
"No one will save your ass if I didn't come," Helmar smirked as he covered his face with his hair.
Durvin sighed and squinted his eyes, "Let's get this over with."
Durvin and Helmar have arrived 20 meters from the scene. Durvin took out his Rusted Revolver [22] and Helmar wore his Velvet glove blade [???]
Upon arriving, they were greeted with a large gate that was filled with holes and cracks as if it was broken on purpose.
At the main gate, two people are wearing a gray suit and pants.
The main gate is sloppily plastered with caution tapes and warning signs. Before Durvin and Helmar could enter, another explosion occurred.
"That's a beautiful explosion. Must be the Array Cannon." Helmar whistled.
"Permission granted. May you be safe." one of the guards said before opening the gate, revealing a destroyed home.
The moment they stepped into the gate, its scenery immediately changed. The destroyed home that was once in their sight was completely turned into a foggy swamp.
"It's an illusion barrier..." Helmar grabbed one of the leaves and smelled it.
"From what I know, you couldn't hear any sounds inside the barrier. But, what was that explosion?" Helmar rubbed his chin as he walked through the swamp.
Durvin covered his mouth, trying to hold in the laughter as Helmar continued to walk in front of him.
"Hey, what are you laughing about?" Helmar instantly turned around and Durvin was gone.
"What the... Where did he go?" Helmar quietly said to himself as he tried to look around to search for Durvin.
~*~
"Where the fuck did that damn old man go?!" Durvin reloaded his Rusted Revolver and began shooting at the approaching trees.
As soon as the bullet hit the tree, it turned into a large metal cross and began to slowly melt.
"Helmar!" Durvin called out to Helmar, but only his voice was returned to him.
The swamp water started to form a vortex and began to manifest an orb inside it. Durvin immediately shot the vortex, but his bullets did nothing.
"That is an interesting toy... What is it?" the vortex talked back at Durvin, who was steadily aiming his revolver with one hand.
Durvin immediately distanced himself from the vortex. "Who are you?!"
"The audacity to raise your voice when I'm asking a question. When you're in someone's domain... Be polite!" the vortex commenced a series of water pillars around him and attacked Durvin.
"Tsk." Durvin reached out to his pockets and then grabbed a few pieces of lead. He threw it at the incoming water pillar and shot it, disrupting the attack and immediately countered by firing.
The vortex manifested into a human
silhouette and raised its hand, forming multiple water spirals nearby that shot out a high-velocity water stream at the incoming bullet, completely shattering it.
"Let's play for a bit, human." The vortex raised its hand and manifested a water spear and rushed at Durvin.
Durvin hastily reloaded his weapon, he looked up and saw that the tip of the water spear was at arm's length from his eye.
Out of reflex, he blocked the spear using his hand and was instantly pierced.
As a desperate measure, Durvin fired all of the bullets in the cylinder at once on The vortex, causing a large silver cross to appear.
"Krgh..." Durvin tore a part of his robe to bandage the wound and tried to reload again.
"Kekeke... It's not enough~" The vortex immediately lunged toward Durvin, hitting him in the abdomen and propelling him a few meters.
Durvin was unfazed by this and kept reloading as he was coughing up blood. The vortex slowly started to approach him, gathering water with each step as it slowly conjured a large sword.
"I commend you for damaging my core. However, this is where you meet your end." The vortex grabbed the large sword and hovered it behind Durvin's neck.
The vortex chuckled, "What are your last words?"Â
"Do you really think that I'm an easy prey?"
"Wow, an excessive dialogue for someone who is about to die." The vortex prepared his large water sword and was about to slice Durvin's neck.
Before going any further, The Vortex felt a shudder, as if a premonition was about to happen at any moment.
It immediately morphed the large water sword into a sphere that engulfed Durvin. For safety, The Vortex added water needles orbiting the sphere, ready to pierce his vital points.
~*~
"Durvin!" Helmar instinctively raised his Velvet Glove Blade.
"Oh, there you are." Numerous water spheres emerged and targeted Helmar.
Helmar sliced all of the water spheres, turning them into tiny pieces of slag, and various metals coating his Velvet Glove Blade.
-*-
Velvet Glove Blade [??] Is Helmar's heirloom that was passed down to his grandmother many centuries ago. The origin and it's materials are unknown, but it is capable of extracting metal or mineral from an object or human being.
A demonstration was issued to learn more about it. First attempt was an apple, after slicing through it, the shape was turned into a orange-like mess. Upon cleaning, there were microscopical bits of lead, copper, and other minerals scattered around.
Second attempt was on a convicted murderer. After killing, his body was turned into dark red-like liquid. Upon cleaning and filtering, calcium, iron, magnesium, sodium, iron and other minerals were found crystallized and bonded all together. Report concluded.
-*-
Helmar shook off his Velvet Glove Blade and pointed at where he heard the voice. Soon after, a Vortex emerged behind him.
He preemptively cleaved The Vortex, missing it's core by a few inches and stepped back to create distance.
"Are you kidd-" The Vortex immediately conjured hands that binded Helmar's feet then struck Helmar's chest, causing a shockwave and damaging his organs.
The sheer amount of force made Helmar cough up blood and curled inward, trying to pressurize as well as numb the pain.
The Vortex grabbed Helmar's hair and repeatedly punched his face before kicking him in the abdomen.
Helmar immediately tried to slice The Vortex again, only for him to miss it the second time.
A water sphere emerged on his chest and exploded near point-black range at insanely high sounds, causing Helmar's eardrums to explode and propelled him quite far.
Although it may seem that both Helmar and Durvin are feeble and weak, but in actuality, they aren't.
If you noticed earlier, Durvin and Helmar had a brief quarrel. Which caused resentment, and eventually anger.
What if Durvin never pranked Helmar, and continued to do his own things? What if Helmar never unleashed his fists against Durvin?
Was it Durvin's fault? Or was it Helmar's? Blaming one another wouldn't be ideal, but right now, Helmar is in disarray. His thoughts are conflicted and his feelings at murk.
"Well, I guess that's all you can handle." The Vortex preemptively trapped Helmar in a large water sphere.
"This wouldn't have all happened, because of one thing. But too bad, you're now a cog in the wheel." The Vortex left, and ??? Reverted everything back to normal, except Durvin and Helmar when missing. -*-
Fin..???
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5 years later, in the district on an unknown city, a man sat by one of the windows in a restaurant, dazing into the clear sky, pondering. The features of this man... Aren't human.
His body is riddled with dark-blue spots and several scratch marks that had healed a long time ago. However, his face is maimed beyond repair, but he is still alive and well.
"You've done well, Helmar." Tim Hostnir said in a raspy tone.