The Hunters Volume One: The Beginning

Night fall meant a lot of things to a lot of people, each differing in their own understanding. For the working class, it meant hours of rest and reprieve after slaving the entire day away behind a desk or workbench. The lowlifes saw it differently. For them, it was the time to be alive and indulge themselves in the numerous bars and night clubs spread out all over Starlight Bay.

The night had other duties too. It provided a suitable ambiance for nocturnal creatures to go about their businesses unhindered. But most importantly, it concealed the existence of another world from the unsuspecting eyes of the people. An entirely different system that went beyond the borders of the natural and defied all logic by its very existence. The importance of the secrecy of this world was so high that it was agreed upon by every faction that constituted it, despite the fact that most of them did not quite get along.

For one member of this world, tonight was rather special. He had been chosen by the leader of his association to retrieve a fitting sacrifice for the night's event. New members were to be admitted tonight and that required them to take a blood oath. Naturally this would require blood, hence why he was carrying a large body bag over his shoulder as he trudged down a nearly empty street. When he had received the command to obtain a person whose blood was to be used for the ritual, he had jumped into it with gusto. This was not his first time of pulling a stunt like this over the years. But he had never been caught before, reason being his rather meticulous method of picking out his prey.

Starlight Bay was a bit populated due to its proximity to the nearby sea and the presence of beaches and resorts never failed to pull in people constantly. This reflected in the economy of the city, resulting in portions of the city being quite developed while leaving some areas little better than slums. It was from here that he normally picked his prey, where no one would bother about the sudden disappearance of an individual.

The body on his shoulder shuddered lightly in the bag as he went down a dark alley. She was still alive but he had made sure she wouldn't wake up any time soon with the amount of tranquilizers he had pumped into her bloodstream. This one had been a pretty easy catch, he had found her the next day after he had been given his mission. After a few days of following her around, he had discovered she had no family or at least none that lived nearby. That meant no one would look into her disappearance. So he had cornered her earlier and neutralized her easily before bagging her. He was quite thankful she had not put up much of a struggle thus he had not been forced to get violent. The ritual required the sacrifice to be alive after all. It was a shame that it also required her to be undefiled. She was quite the looker and he would have loved to have his way with her a few times before delivering her to her death.

Unfortunately, duty came first.

The thought of the promotion he would receive after tonight's ceremony brought a smile on his face and made him hurry his steps until he got to the brick wall that marked the end of the alley. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a flat stone that had something, a rune inscribed onto it. He placed it on the wall and watched the magic in the stone resonate with the magic in the wall, fascination evident in his eyes. He would never get over the awe that came with witnessing actual magic happen. The surface of the wall glowed a dim blue before rippling like disturbed water, allowing him to sink through it. Once he was in, it quickly regained its solidity.

There had been nothing behind the wall but he had appeared in a large hall designed like something straight out of a horror movie. This was Reality Displacement magic, an extremely rare kind of magic which was highly sought after in their world. It allowed the caster to overlap the reality of a mass or space with their own reality. One of their members had this ability and because of it, he had risen quickly through the ranks despite being relatively new.

Inside the hall, no less than three dozen people stood in rows in front of an altar raised high on a platform. Atop the altar, there were several black candles lit at the corners with a silver bowl in the middle and an ornate silver knife beside it.

A silver haired man stood before the altar, dressed in black robes just like every one else but his was far more exotic, making it quite obvious that he was the leader of the association. A little ways to the side of the altar, a young man stood erect in robes which while not as tasteful as the leader's, was enough to distinguish his higher standing above others. He was the one who had cast the Reality Displacement magic and when he felt two presences enter his domain with a 'key', he made a signal to his leader.

The latter turned around and his eyes brightened when he saw his most loyal follower bring in the sacrifice.

"You have done well, Gerald. Your devotedness will be rewarded in full tonight. But first let us welcome our new brothers into our fold."

Gerald bowed lowly at the waist and handed over the body bag to another member before moving to one corner of the hall. There, two other members removed his jacket and clothed him with a black robe similar to the one with by the Reality Displacement magic user. Then the three of them proceeded to join the others with Gerald moving to stand on the other side of the altar. The member who had taken the body bag had removed the covering and carried the girl to the foot of the altar. Bending a knee in subservience, he offered her up to his leader who then placed her on the altar.

Turning back to face his followers, the cult leader proclaimed in a high voice, "Brothers and sisters of the Dark Fellowship! We are gathered here to witness the indoctrination of or new members! They have agreed to follow our laws and perform all tasks given to them, to live their lives in servitude to our unholy master! And now it is time to seal their oath with blood and empower them with the life force of an innocent!"

Having ended his introduction, he picked up the silver knife and brought up the girl's wrist. Laying it above the bowl, he cut deeply to ensure the blood flowed rapidly. Once it was full, he motioned for one of his subordinates to remove her from the altar. Then he raised his hand above the bowl, muttering arcane incantations until the red liquid turned black with thin wisps of smoke drifting off its surface.

With a come hither gesture, he motioned the new initiates forward and passed the bowl to them. One by one, they drank until there was nothing left. The bowl was returned to the leader, who watched with barely concealed glee at the finalization of the ritual. He had done this multiple times thorough out the years, each completion of the process granting him increased vitality and power based on the innocence of the sacrifice. Soon it would all be worth it. Eventually he would gain enough power to summon his master into this realm and be rewarded for his tireless efforts.

Returning to the altar, he continued his speech. "Now brethren, let us-"

The sound of a body hitting the ground cut him off and all eyes turned to the source of the distraction. One of the new initiates had collapsed to the floor, convulsing violently with his eyes rolled up in his head and bloody foam gushing out of his mouth. The sight was so shocking that it froze everyone in place. It was when the second and third initiates began exhibiting the same symptoms that everyone became alarmed.

The cult leader immediately recognized that something had gone wrong, not only by the sight before him but by the fact that he was not feeling an increase in power. Rather he felt an icky discomfort rising in his chest. Soon it became too much and he spat out a glob of blackened blood. His shock was evident on his face as he realized what had happened.

"Gerald you fool! How dare you bring such an unclean individual here?" He bellowed in anger at the visibly distressed man.

Gerald fumbled with his words in an effort to explain. "M-master Byron...I-I had no idea-"

"Hey! I take offense at that! I may not be an innocent little lamb but I still have standards!"

Every pair of eyes turned to the foreign voice that had interrupted the stuttering man. It had come from the sacrificed girl, who was currently standing while lifting one of their members in the air with one hand. The other hand was buried in the poor man's chest and his silent pleas for mercy slowly became garbled sounds. With a vicious smile on her pretty face, she tore out his heart and flung his body away with such force that it created spiderweb cracks in the wall. Then she savagely squished the organ in her hand and licked the blood running down her hand, grinning wickedly at the cult leader while doing so.

"Mmmm, that was nice. What do you feed these guys down here?"

Her voice brought Byron out of his stupor and his face contorted in a fit of rage.

"Who are you? How did you get here?" he roared.

The girl just cocked her head at him like he had just asked her something stupid.

"Umm, you guys brought me here? The whole sacrifice thing? You didn't forget, did you?" she asked and shrugged. "Meh, it must be the years finally catching up to you. Not like I'm one to talk anyway.

"Although I must thank you for doing so," she continued and raised her clean hand behind her, palm facing outwards. "We've been looking for your hideout forever now. So yeah, thanks for bringing us here."

Throughout her speech, the cult leader picked up on one word in her last sentence.

"Us?"

Her grin turned absolutely feral as tangible purplish black shadows bloomed into existence behind her. Out of the shadows, four figures stepped into the hall to stand beside her.

"Us."

Among the people who came out of the portal, the only female among the four was about five and a half feet tall, a similar height with the other girl. But while the other had straight black hair, she had light brown hair that lay in tame waves down to the middle of her back. Unlike her counterpart who was still smiling viciously at the cultists, she had a gentle yet sad look on her face, as if pitying the people in front of her.

The young man beside her didn't have such a look on his face. In fact he didn't have any look on his face at all. His disposition was one of total indifference and his eyes which were as black as his hair, stared at the cult members with such coldness that it sent shivers down their spine.

On the other side of the first girl, stood a young man with distinctive Asian features. He had dark eyes and white hair which looked a bit messy, as if he had just got out of bed but still gave off a nice touch to his already handsome face. Out of the rest of them, he was the only one who had a look similar to the first girl on his face. His lips were curled in a cocky grin and his eyes twinkled with excitement, not unlike an addict who had found his fix.

But out of them all, the most intimidating gaze came from the man at the far left. He looked quite young, they all did in fact. None of them could have been up to twenty five years but there was a certain feel to his brown eyes that gave them a strange sensation. One that made them feel like they were being watched by a predator far older and wiser than they could ever how to be. It felt like they were being appraised by him, as if to know whether they were worth his attention or not.

It was not a pleasant feeling.