"Breaking news!!! We come to you live at the scene of the latest murder. The Weeping Slasher has struck once again in his series of murders! Just how long does it take to capture this crying madman? Folks I cannot emphasize this enough. Lock your doors and windows, don't open the door for anyone, and be wary of any strangers..." Glen glanced over the low-resolution image of the killer, he looked young. The killer wore a forced smile and the areas around his eyes were red, likely from all the crying. Glen stopped paying attention when the news reporter started rambling about safety. It didn't matter. Whoever this Weeping Slasher is, he wouldn't survive a magazine's worth of bullets.
Glen looked towards the front desk of the hotel lobby. Glen and his crew were waiting to meet their employer or Julius as he was called. Glen didn't know how Julius got the CEO of the luxury hotel chain Sunset Resort on his side, but Glen looked forward to this meeting. Harvesting and killing supernatural creatures sounded like an amazing gig he didn't want to miss out on.
The front desk receptionist waved at Glen letting him know Julius was ready to meet. Glen and his crew entered the elevator and clicked the highest floor. The wait wasn't long, but his crew were stifled by the luxurious elevator. It was a theme Glen noticed, the Sunset Resort didn't spare out on planting many of the surfaces with gold or other shiny metals. Glen's shoes met the marble floor as he saw Julius and Dilan.
Julius didn't say a word and gestured for Glen to follow. His crew naturally tagged along. Glen followed Julius into a large room, mounted on the wall was a giant screen. Julius kept standing as he motioned for everyone to sit. Glen hesitated for a moment before sitting down, was this some sort of power play? Glen's crew on the other hand were as ignorant as can be and sat down without second thoughts.
"Activate the artifact- device..." Julius corrected himself as he ordered Dilan.
The screen suddenly changed and photos of youths appeared on the screen. There were nine of them, each was different but they all wore the same school uniform. Glen recognized them as high schoolers, not much older than his daughter. Everyone in the room was confused as to why Julius brought this up, only Dilan wasn't one of them. Julius scanned the room before speaking.
"These nine are your targets." Julius's sentence was like a thunderclap to everyone.
"We don't target children." Gonez grimly spoke up before Glen had the chance. Glen refused to work with Julius if they had to do anything unsavory to these kids. Even if it meant being in the dark about the supernatural, Glen was willing.
"Ha, and if they weren't children?" Julius let out a small chuckle before asking that unusual question.
The photos clearly showed they were high schoolers at most. Were these old photos? Had they grown older? Glen also noticed a few tags underneath each of the targets. They were a little unusual.
"They're already adults?" Glen asked curious about where this was going.
"In the physical sense? No. However, they are much older than they appear to be." Julius's words further confused Glen and his crew.
"What do you mean?" Glen couldn't follow what Julius meant.
"I'll give you an example, this one-" Julius pointed to one of the four male students in the line-up. "Alan Fredgard, physical age 17. Mental age on the other hand, possibly above 167 years old."
"Impossible," Gonez said with disbelief that Glen's crew and himself agreed with.
"I do not know of his exact age. Only cause I hadn't heard of his demise before my very own." Julius's voice grew in seriousness as an invisible weight blanketed the room before disappearing a moment later. Everyone silently quieted down.
"Each of the nine shown here were previously my classmates. A little more than 15 years ago, we had gotten into a vehicle accident. Surprisingly, we hadn't died that day, but a few of us wished that weren't the case." Julius's recount got interrupted by one of Glen's own.
"Y-you were part of the mysterious disappearance of Cloud Moon High School. No bodies were found that day other than the driver." The mercenary's quivered slightly.
Glen had a small recollection of what happened then. Ten of the top students in that high school had mysteriously vanished into thin air. They were on a field trip for them only as a reward for their achievements. After the crash though, authorities were unable to find a single one of their bodies. There was no trace of them other than what remained of their belongings.
"That day marked our journey to another world. A journey that lasted 150 years, at least for those that hadn't died. Those years held countless tribulations and challenges. In the end, after all that time, we were sent back. Along with us, a few monsters in human skin." Julius stopped to let everyone digest his tale. Dilan fared better of them all as he already heard much of it already.
"Prove it," Glen spoke after a minute of contemplation. He couldn't foolishly believe such an absurd tale without proof. If Julius had really lived that long in another world then he should be able to prove it. An example was speaking the native tongue of the other world. What he got though was much more concrete.
Julius mumbled under his breath a few words and furrowed his brows. Suddenly out from his open outstretched palm a ball of fire the size of a baseball materialized. It lasted only a dozen seconds before vanishing, but it was enough. Julius wasn't wearing long sleeves to hide some sort of machinery to do that magic. If it was faked, Glen had no clue how it was done. Julius's breathing was audibly more laborious. Whatever he did, it wasn't easy to perform.
"The amount of Mana in the atmosphere is too little to cast anything more than a basic fireball spell. Not that I could support anything more than a tier 1 spell at the moment." Julius took a few minutes to recover before continuing with his presentation. That display of magic was enough to keep everyone's skepticism at bay, for now.
"Now, the commision I have for you is simple. Find them, but do not engage. I have already marked the ones that are to be killed on sight for you." Glen didn't like that last part, and Julius had noticed that displeasure.
"Don't misunderstand. If you can escape, go for it. But the ones that are to be killed on sight won't hesitate to kill you if they figure out you're searching for them." That explained a bit, but Glen would determine for himself if it was necessary. Julius continued on.
"For some I want you to make contact. The details of what's to be said is written in the folder." Dilan went around and passed everyone a folder about their targets. Glen took a closer look and scanned through it. Thankfully, most of them were indeed only to find them. Some kill on sight, some require indirect contact, and even less direct face-to-face contact. A gasp from one of his mercenaries caught Glen's attention.
"Isn't this..." The mercenary stared at a single photo. Glen got up and took a closer look at the photo in question. It was a male student with brown hair. His name was Maverick. Besides his name was an extra moniker, it was strangely listed as unofficial. The unofficial moniker read, The Consumed Coward. Most of the targets had a moniker of their own, but they were all official unlike Maverick's own. Glen found it weird Julius would make a distinction between official and unofficial monikers.
Looking closer at Maverick's photo, Glen was surprised at how well it captured Maverick's beaming smile. It was a great photo, Glen had to commend the photographer for his skills. But the student's face looked very familiar for some reason. Had Glen passed him once in the past? No, he had seen Maverick's face rather recently, but where? Then Glen remembered. Glen overlayed the low resolution he had seen on the news with the current photo in his head. They were the exact same.
"The Weeping Slasher..." Glen whispered out of shock.