It was 2.03am at night and the moon was high in the sky above the town of Era. Era was known as the headquarters of the Rune Knights, the lapdogs of the Magic Council that many would be happy to see be destroyed. The moon was full and sat high in the sky, its rays were dim barely lighting up the darkened night. There was barely a cloud in the sky on this winter night. Being winter, there was a light chill in the air but not cold enough to be a bother to anyone who might be out and about this very night.
Amongst the night of Era was a figure who was seated on a stone bench in the town square, right leg crossed over their left knee. The figure was waiting patiently for time to pass before it was time to begin the operation. The figure was an attractive young girl of twelve thirteen years with crimson red eyes and smooth milky white skin. Her black hair which was usually flowing loose had been tied up in a double bun with a jade needle holding it in place. Atop her head instead of her usual black and red gothic headpiece, the girl was wearing a red beret; her hair tucked up inside keeping it out of the way. On her left wrist was a plain and simple watch keeping time.
The lolita who went by the name of Yumi was not even wearing her clothing of choice, a black gothic lolita dress with matching garter belt and stockings, plus high heel black boots. Instead, she was wearing a set of armour composed of shoulder and breast armour, with matches laced gloves and boots. On the skirt of her clothing, the right side was a zip pocket containing a pair of cute black sunglasses. Attached to her left hip, being right hand but capable of using both, was a one-meter long sword. Floating behind her was a two-foot tall creature, hovering a meter off the ground, a Duskull named Venom. Down resting at Yumi's feet was a cotton sack that was wriggling about with sounds coming from it.
Yumi's eyes twinkled with mirth; she had been given an objective on behalf of the guild, her guild being Grimoire Heart, to retrieve the Magister Index of the Magic Council. Just what was the Magister Index? To be precise, it was a collection of important information that held secrets regarding Council matters. They had a spy on the inside who had already alerted them to the wagon they needed to hit; supposedly it would be protected by four individuals. The wagon had also been disguised as a merchant caravan to help hide its identity until it arrived at its secret location in Era. The task would not be an easy one as after all the Rune Knights quarters was a well-built fortress, which made it almost impossible to sneak into. But nothing would impregnable, find the weak spot and one could easily find a way in.
The mission was to take place at 3 am as that was when the wagon was to leave. This gave Yumi just udner an hour to get her plan into action. The path to the rune knights headquarters was littered with detection lacrima for air assaults and even though it was night, the path would be well lit with light lacrima providing sources of light so the escort and wagon could see their way to the town. Being that it was night time would come as a disadvantage to be moving a wagon about, especially when most of the merchants wouldn't arrive until morning or had already arrived to avoid travel during the night, merchants did not like travelling at night as it increased the risk of ambush from bandits. No merchant wanted their goods stolen. Being so late at night the streets were free of almost any person, not a single being in sight for miles, besides Yumi, Venom and whatever was in that sack of hers.
Yumi had arrived yesterday not long after lunch and had begun planning her attack, having over twelve hours to plan and formulate her strategy. First, she had visited the town, walking around it memorising the layout. Being seventy-five years old this was not her first visit in Era, and much of the layout had changed since she was last here. Being so old she learnt a trick or two to memorise her way around certain areas. With the layout of Era fleshed out she had begun objective two. She had left Era to scout the mountain pretending to be a tourist. To make the act believable Yumi had dressed up in a long-sleeved black top with a pink love heart on the front, long black and white sock like pants with a black mini skirt over the top, wearing black shoes. Her hair had been tied in pigtails, and she had put on the cutesy act to get away with the information she needed. Thanks to this Yumi had memorised the layout and watched as Rune Knights walked up and down the mountain, calculating the time it took them to leave Headquarters and reach the bridge roughly twenty-five to thirty minutes each time.
Yumi had then returned to Era to scout the city for a hostage, and she found one in the form of a little blonde girl no older than eight years old four feet in height weighing roughly fifty pounds, six hours ago at 8 pm. The little girl had been out with her parents to dinner and the three of them had been walking back home. They had decided to take a shortcut through a dark alley, that was when Yumi ambushed them, taking out the father with a single swing of her sword before knocking out the mother thanks to a punch. The demon had then hidden the bodies in a dumpster, she had then made sure there were no witnesses, there had not been a single soul in sight to witness the murder and kidnapping.
Yumi had then grabbed the girl, knocking her out with a chop to the back of the neck. The Lolita had then taken the girl back to the inn Yumi was staying at, an inn on the shadier side of town, so no one had asked questions. If they had Yumi's body count would have increased as without hesitation she was ready to slice someone's head off, but luckily no one had asked. Once she arrived back at the Inn Yumi had laid the little girl on the bed, making sure she was restrained with twisted bed sheets, before heading back into town. Yumi needed supplies for the task, supplies to make sure the little girl was restrained and to grab a pair of black sunglasses, they would be of use to Yumi later on.
Yumi had spent an hour walking around Era buying the goods she needed for her task, before returning back to the inn. When she arrived back in her room, the little blonde haired girl was still knocked out. Yumi was not surprised by this, as the blow would hopefully keep her dead to the world for three more hours. With the little girl out to it, Yumi proceeded to bind the girl's arms behind her back, before placing a collar tightly around her knee with a metal chain, these had come from a sex shop. For extra measures, Yumi had cuffed the little girl's feet with a set of ankle cuffs to stop her from running should the girl attempt it. Yumi then gagged her with tape to keep her mouth shut so she wouldn't scream before tossing her in a sack with a few air holes so the little girl could breathe. Of course, the Lolita had already warned the little girl when she awoke two hours ago not to make things difficult if she attempted to escape Yumi would kill her and all her friends. Yumi had lied saying she had been watching the girl and her family for weeks, that Yumi knew all the blonde's friends and would not hesitate to kill them. The little threat had frightened the child into cooperating, it helped when Yumi promised to let her go like that was going to happen.
Yumi was going to be facing a group of goody two shoe mages, and being so goody they surely wouldn't allow a little girl to be harmed in their mission, even one so important as this. So this is where Yumi was now up to, after buying herself her current armour, something called a Lancer set. She could have bought the lance to go with it but hadn't bothered as she would have had to sell her sword, and her religion was not one that threw a bright light onto spears, deeming only Axes and Swords were to be used, such was the Divine Word of her God Malum.
Yumi who went by the name of Carnage amongst her guildmates was a prolific worshipper of the Ancient God known as Malum, a Dark Chaos being who was called the Blood God and Harvester of Souls. Malum was a warrior who lived by a code. He craved the blood of powerful foes and their skulls to be added to his ever growing throne of skulls. She had worshipped the God for over sixty years, and her devotion had been rewarded only months ago.
Yumi began to stand up to her maximum height of four foot ten, her tiny frame only weighing one hundred pounds exactly. Yumi brushed her clothing off before reaching down with her left hand and grabbed the top of the sack. Yumi picked it up and threw the little girl over her left shoulder holding tight. The Demon began making her way through the dimly lit night towards the path leading to the mountain. Her companion Venom followed after, unlike her, the creature could see perfectly as he was a nocturnal being, hunting and surviving mainly at night.
Yumi was expecting to meet up with her comrade either in Era, at the bridge or just before the bridge. She wasn't sure who she was partnered with as to be safe they had sent coded messages to one another through representatives of their guild detailing out their plan of attack. Yumi and her partner or perhaps partners in crime had been very thorough in their plan fleshing out every detail amongst themselves; they did not want to leave any detail out. After all the task that had been passed onto them was important, with the Index who knows what they would be able to do. To take extra precautions they were using a code that required a key to decipher that was only known amongst members of Grimoire Heart, even if someone was to obtain the key they would be unable to use it. Due to this Yumi suspected her colleagues were from her own guild as they would never give it out to outsiders. Yumi suspected this even more as in the coded messages when they met they were to address each other by their guild codenames, which would be revealed when they gathered. One could say they were a paranoid guild, but it had allowed them to conduct their evil deeds unnoticed for many years.
The gothic lolita, who was a demon, made her way towards the stone bridge, sticking to the shadows, keeping her hidden so not to be spotted by anyone. She avoided the light of the lacrima and lamp posts in the streets so not to be seen by a witness. The last thing she wanted were witnesses; she had to make sure no one spotted her. With what was about to go down there would already be five witnesses no need for more. Especially for an operation such as this. Of course, Yumi was never planning to let the little girl live, not that the goodies would no it, after all, they would most likely think the blonde girl was there for leverage.
During her hiding and moving the little Lolita had spotted two individual taking the same route as her, two women. She did not know who they were nor recognise them; one wore a simple shirt and jeans, the other a blonde, both appeared to be unarmed. Yumi hung back so not to be noticed and watched them climb the mountain path turning quickly into specks in the black of night. Now and then she would see their shadows from the light reflected off the lacrima which lit up the jagged mountain path.
Yumi had waited to make sure the path was clear of anyone else, before continuing on her journey, by the time she arrived at the bridge she checked her watch to find it was 2.39am, they would soon be moving out. Yumi had to set up fast. On the bridge was a single Rune Knight waiting patiently for the wagon to begin its descent. The area was a checkpoint, how could Yumi see this at night? She could see due to light lacrima surrounded the checkpoint lighting the entire bridge up.
Yumi dropped the sack, twelve meters from the guard, who luckily for her had his back turned to watch the mountain path. Yumi bent down before launching herself forward to cross the distance in two seconds running six meters per second. She began drawing her blade, by the time he noticed and began turning but it was too late, she was upon him. In one swift motion, she drew the sword and drove the butt of her handle into the back of his neck with enough force to knock him down. Yumi grabbed the back of the body with her left hand threw him off the left side of the bridge. Yumi dropped down and moved the body under the bridge hiding it where it wouldn't be seen in the shadows. She then stabbed downwards a couple of times with her sword making sure the man was dead, the lolita wiped the blood off on the corpse and resheathed her blade after.
Yumi popped back up from under the bridge and retrieved the sack. Her familiar Venom floated over; he had taken cover in the darkness. The Lolita looked around; there was a few lacrima beside her lighting up the cobblestone road. Yumi approached one to her direct right. As Yumi approached she drew her sword with her right hand and struck down, a soft crack was heard as tiny web-like cracks formed at the top. The cracks spread out down the rest of the lacrima before a piece fell off and the lacrima died down, having been deactivated with force. The light dimmed from it allowing darkness to return on the right half of the bridge, but only in a two-meter radius around the lacrima. Yumi started going to work using her sword to smash twelve meters worth of lacrima that led from the bridge to Era creating a dark passage. With the night above it was complete darkness nothing could be seen. She had finished this by 2:53 am leaving not much time. The women she had seen earlier would most likely have arrived at the headquarters by now.
Yumi gave a silent command to her familiar, Venom, who then floated off into the darkness and taking up a position at one of the broken lacrima, three meters from the bridge on the left side of the road. It was to sit down leaving only its single red eye exposed that created barely any light. It would make him appear that he was a working lacrima, but faulty. Not only would he be keeping a watch on the road for her when the caravan started coming, but he could act as an early warning system. As for the other lacrima that were broken the surroundings were completely black, with just a little moonlight but it did nothing to light the area, they couldn't be seen so one could not discern what had happened to them, not unless they got close to them, standing at least 30cm from the broken lacrima. Hopefully, it would just make the escorts thing they weren't working and were just experiencing technical difficulties.
Yumi would then moving to take a position on the right side of the bridge, resheathing her icy sword. Yumi walked down the hill that led to the bottom of the bridge before moving into the shadows under the bridge to hide her form, the body of the little girl tucked in her sack. Yumi would position herself right under the end of the bridge ready to jump out. Yumi would then undo the sack and pulled the eight-year-old out holding tightly onto the chain which bound the kicks next with her left hand. The little girl's blonde hair was flat against her back, tears streaming down from her baby blue eyes, dressed in a pretty yellow and white winter dress, black socks and black buckle shoes.
The walk down from the headquarters to the bridge would take them a good 25 or 30 minutes arrival time 3:25am or 3:30am, enough time for Yumi's accomplice or accomplices to arrive. However, they were escorting a wagon on foot so it could either take them longer or they would reach the bridge sooner. In any scenario, she was calculating 15 to 20 minutes for earlier meaning they would arrive 3:15 or 3:20am, for late 35 to 45 minutes 3:35am or 3:45am. It all depended on if they left earlier, on time or were held up, whatever the circumstance Yumi would be ready and waiting. But by her calculations, they would not arrive until well after 3 am. If they left early, the spy would sneak out of the Headquarters to alert Yumi and her partner or partners. The spy knew a fast way down the mountain side to beat the wagon, though it only worked one way, down. Though it appeared they would not be leaving till 3 am as due to the current time 2:55 am on her watch there had been no action at the top of the hill.
For now, Yumi waited patiently listening out for the wagon disguised as a caravan. While Magic caravans were convenient, they had heard the word from the spy in the Rune Knight Headquarters the one they were going to be used was a horse drawn caravan. This meant Yumi just had to keep an ear out for the sound of the horses coming down the stone path, their feet clopping against the pavement, the wheels turning and the sound of the horses breathing. In her waiting, Yumi had drawn her Icy Sword with her right hand and pressed the edge of the sword to the neck of the little blonde girl. The girl had stiffened as she made muffled cries, tears flowing down her cheeks. Yumi made sure to hold the chain tightly with her left hand if the girl tried to run Yumi just had to tug on the chain and it would tighten the collar to choke the life from the tiny child.
Yumi cared not for the child's life and would gladly sacrifice her if it meant she could complete the mission. After all, Yumi was a member of Grimoire Heart a dark guild and was willing to do anything not only for her guild but to survive so she could continue to worship her God. As she remained there in the shadows, Yumi would mutter soft mumbles under her breath, low whispers that could not be heard. The whispers were chants, scriptures from her worship of Malum. She was praying to the Chaos God, asking him to grant her strength in this upcoming battle, to allow his divine essence to flow through her. Yumi knew well enough her God existed as it was because of him she had been reborn as a demon.
- Important Stuff:
WC: 3374
Items On Hand: Icy Sword, Lancer Helment, Lancer Armour
Carrying: A pair of sunglassas - right pocket
Have a hostage: 8 yr old blonde hair blue eye girl, 4 foot, 50 pounds.
Base Strength: 33 + 17 = 50 Name: Icy Sword Slot: Weapon Type: Straight Sword Class: Uncommon Element: Frost Damage: Base Strength + 17 Durability: 1x B Details:
- Length: 1 Meter
- Handling: 1 Hand
- Description: A sword with a handle as opposed to a hilt, and a curved, thin blade. Parts of the handle are covered gold, with grips on parts where it is not.
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Name: Lancer Hat Slot: Head Type: Hat Class: Common Set: Lancer Durability: 1x B Details:
- Description: A headpiece worn by lancers. Extremely common equipment.
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Name: Lancer Gear Slot: Body Type: Clothing Class: Common Set: Lancer Durability: 1x B Details:
- Description: A simple lancer gear, it is composed shoulder and upper breast armor. The gloves and boots have laces to provide extra grip when using the lance in the arms and legs.
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Name: Venom Race: Duskull Gender: Male Type: Darkness Health: 1 x S-rank Mana: 200 Height: 2'07" | 0.8 m Weight: 33.1 lbs. | 15.0 kg Physiology: Duskull's body is a black robe with two bones on its back. It has a mask that resembles a skull and has single eye that floats between the eye sockets. Duskull is primarily a nocturnal creature and has been shown to live in thick forests. It is said that this creature will spirit away disobedient children, and it has been described to enjoy the crying of children. Once Duskull chooses a target, it will doggedly pursue the intended victim until the break of dawn.
Statistics:
- Strength: 1
- Endurance: 6
- Speed: 6
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