Our story begins in an age of darkness.
Dinosaurs have come and gone, and man has learned to walk, create fire, clothing and tools- from this point, the first of our chapters are carved in stone.
These tales of old tell of a troublesome time, when the first warlords reigned and man was beginning to establish itself as the dominant force- soon they would discover how to use metals, but first they would face annihilation.
The skies were dark as the night, the rivers flowing red as blood and any who drank from them perished the next day, so vile was the water that ran through the land anywhere near the Great Chasm, as it had become known. A mighty abyss that led so deep, a man´s soul could get lost in its endless void.
The Great Chasm was where the first of them came from- bearing weapons not of this world, with eyes and mouths as hot as fire, their bodies clad in black scales. Then their animals came, beasts the size of mammoth and buffalo that drew carts that could spew fire- often the dark ones rode on their backs, chucking spears and slinging death at anyone down below. If anyone had ever asked what they wanted, they did not live long enough to tell... or perhaps, their demands were so extreme it simply didn't matter. The fact was that entire villages and clans had fallen to them, and they would soon spread past the ocean... had it not been for the druids, and the men from above.
Legends speak of creatures even more bizzare than the Dark Ones. Bearing wings, but unlike any bird. Wielding swords, but nothing like that exists on earth. They speak a language none could speak, but everyone could understand- the druids call it "tongues", and taught themselves to speak it like they do.
None of the clan leaders trusted the druids further than the doorstep to their house, but where the druids were, the Dark Ones couldn't go. The Winged Ones did something to them that made the Dark Ones afraid of them, and in the coming battles the druids would use what could only be described as magic to drive the armies back to the Great Hole, and those who resisted the druids perished like sand.
One last time, the Dark Ones chose to stand around the Great Chasm, and faced the druids with all their might. Many fell, as even the druids could not withstand the entire force on their own- but as the druids were about to lose control of the battle, the Winged Ones came from above once more, and with them, the stones.
Driving the Dark Ones back down into the Chasm, the Stones rained from the sky like lightning, landing upright and burying themselves partially into the ground to stay where they were- a ring of stones taller than three men each formed around the Great Chasm, then a second, and a third ring... lastly, stones landed sideways and formed arches on top of the pillars of rock.
Light shone through each ring and each arch, snaking back and forth and gathering in intensity as each of the Winged Ones gathered there might- the earth was upturned, and the Great Chasm sealed.
The Winged Ones left within the hour, leaving the druids behind... to make sure that the abyss would never open again.
The druids formed an oath, a pact each swore by his life that they would protect the earth, each and every tree, its animals both fish and fowl from what sought to destroy it- and each year, the druids gathered around the Great Chasm to celebrate, pray that the hole would remain sealed, and saw to the stones that sealed it, carving many great legends into them.
However, as time came and went, the number of druids grew smaller. The elders died, their offspring either choosing different lives or not fostering children at all- while they never truly died out, the message of their holy oath soon became twisted.
The young ones forgot to learn how to read the ancient runes of their forefathers, and nature washed them away bit by bit- entire stone arches collapsed as heavy storms tore them down, and knowing little of their purpose, they were carried away to build houses out of them, rather than to repair the damaged seal.
Eventually, the oral traditions died out almost entirely- and of the holy oath that was taken to protect earth from the Dark Ones... they only remembered the first half.
5th of June 2020
Stonehenge, Southern England
Two white robed figures walked up the hill to the old stone circle, undisturbed by the heavy rainfall.
Their sandals squished mud under their feet, a bearded face, and a smooth female one kissed by rain with each step.
"Are you sure about this, Leonard?" The woman asked, somewhat muffled as she cringed from the cold rain. "We should do what the others did, come here at a different day."
"I'm here because i have to, Angelica. The calendar doesn't lie, today´s the day." Leonard grumbled, pushing his staff into the dirt as he walked by her side. "We swore an oath, and if that oath means we'll have a flu for a day or two, then so be it. I take this very seriously, as you know."
"Yes, and i'm sure if you get hit by a flying rock during this storm your oath will protect you from it." Angelica replied sarcastically, rolling her green eyes. "What can we even do without the others? Just you as the elder and me?"
"We can still pray to Gaia and appease her- maybe the storm will get milder when we do." He replied with a huff. "And if not... well, we can at least ask her to grant you a child, like every year."
"So long we can do it before i'll die of hypothermia." Angelia complained, nearly slipping on the wet grass. "Uah! Ugh... all this mud. With so many tourists, they could build a proper road leading up here, no?"
"It's a national treasure, Angelica. They can't, and they won't- there´s no money in it for them since nobody has to pay to enter the circle." The bearded man reached the top of the hill, frowning as lightning crackled through the sky. "Lets make this quick. Do our duties, and then head to shelter."
The two of them walked towards the center of the rings, Angelica soon opening up a small bag of herbs, flowers and ground wheat that was soaked through- it was spread around, as much as it could be with the storm trying to blow it away constantly, while Leonard drew a circle into the very center of the formation.
"Great Gaia, mother of everything! You who gave us life, lets us breathe, gives us food and quenches our thirst! Hear our voices and receive praise!" He began to chant, loudly, raising his staff. "You, who flows through all of us, guides all of us, and blesses all of us- receive our praise!"
Angelica joined his side soon, kneeling in front of the circle drawn in the mud.
"Great Gaia, mother of earth, of forest and ocean, we ask you to give us your harvest to eat and your tears to drink so that we may thrive and praise you for another year." She chanted, touching the circle with a finger and drawing after it. "Give us blessing, as we your children protect what you made and live to defend it. Give us warmth, shelter and light from your caring arms as you smile down on us from-"
"ARGGHHH!"
Thunder shot through the air, and hit the metal tip of Leonards staff. It shot through his body and dispersed like a spiders web across the ground, each stone briefly lighting up as it went- not that Angelica saw, as she rushed to his side instantly.
"LEONARD!" She cried out, the man twitching and shuddering as he fell to the floor, burns across all of his body. His staff was blown away by a sharp gust of wind- if she had not been so focused on him, she may have heard a creak.
"Leonard, talk to me!" She cried again, slapping his cheek, trying to get his attention, as the creaking, grinding sounds got louder, the wind unrelenting in its storm.
"God, oh god...We need to get you to a doctor, we need to-"
She gawked, only then seeing that one of the horizontal stones that formed an arch had come loose in the storm, crashing to the ground and... shattering. Like glass, the ground shattered underneath it, crumbling under what seemed to be the weight of the stone- but the ground reappeared the next second, as if it had merely swallowed the rock, rippling and flickering... the entire earth in the middle of the circle had become unstable, and Angelica soon felt the shaking, violently rocking ground try to swallow her too.
In a spark of self-preservation, she got up and started running, briefly looking back to Leonard, but just as she did, he too was swallowed up by the ground.
"God... Gaia...whoever, make this be a nightmare!" She panted, running through another archway to try and get away from this strange supernatural experience- another bolt of lightning struck the tip of a stone, lighting up each archway that remained intact, but there weren't many left.
A third lightning struck, and each time the ripples ceased- yet they started again soon after.
Angelica saw none of it beyond that, as she ran like the devil was after her down the hill and towards the nearest cellphone.
6th of June
Scotland, Aberdeen Airport
High heels clicked across the floor of the busy main terminal, followed by the rattle of two trolley wheels. Blue eyes that barely caught sleep the night before darted back and forth across the many signs and markers, trying to tell one gate from another to find the right one, suppressing a yawn every so often- it was early hours for Mato Kuroshira, after an assignment like the one yesterday she usually slept until six or seven in the evening... not so today. At five, she was brought up out of her bed with an order for emergency deployment, although the details were confusing and contradictory at first. Her companions were sent back to base to regroup, while she was ordered to the airport to board a plane...
"Ugh." She groaned, having missed her gate as the numbers kept going up, so she turned on her heel, walking back- and almost crashing into someone as a result. "Sorry, sorry."
The japanese-american took a gaze at her cellphone, checking the time before peeking up at the monitors hanging above the gates to see if she could make out something unusual, but it seemed like "Air Force H" was not on the list of scheduled flights. They'd probably take off whenever they liked, she figured and had to resist the temptation right there to take things slow and go buy another coffee- she still had a job to do.
"Okay... Gate 13...where is... where..." She mumbled, walking back the way she came, looking left and right- if anyone was looking for her, perhaps to guide her the way, it wouldn't be hard to spot her in the crowd. Mato´s idea of casual clothing was not blending in too well between the businessmen and tourists- along her high-heeled, knee-high boots and tight, but soft leather pants that were exposed on the sides, she wore a short white tank top that left the belly exposed and an even shorter black leather jacket- if one could even call it that, it was more a shrug than a jacket as the back was bare, but the arms were long. A fashion statement more than a means of staying warm.
It snugly fit the athletic girl, the leather hugging her shapely butt while the tank top gave everyone a mild view of her E-cup cleavage- her belly was toned and firm, though a thin layer of fat hid any abs that might show through. If she were to take her boots off though, it would be easy to see why she wore heels, as she stood at a mere 5 foot 11inch- hardly an imposing sight around chiseled warriors the likes of Hellsing.
"There it is! Fucking hell... could that sign be any smaller.?" It didn't occur to her that the sign may be small on purpose so that it wasn't immediately spotted- yet still, Mato exhaled a sigh of relief and went past the gate... to her surprise, the metal detector remained silent, apparently turned off.
"Good evening, Miss Kuroshira. Go right through." An airport officer of the taxation and immigration control kind gave her a brief salute and a smile, which she returned with a lazy, two fingered salute back, marching through to the gangway leading up to the plane.
At this point, she realized that her hair might still be a mess from bed, but a quick look in the mirror told her otherwise- maybe she did comb herself on sleep drunken automation, but her short, waist length black twin tails were just fine. A light smirk was given to the mirror and a wink, before she snapped it shut and tucked it back into her pant pocket as the entry door of the plane was right ahead.
Air Force H was a small private plane, a Learjet- favorite among high rollers, politicians and rich folk, it provided comfort and luxury combined with speed and understatement, allowing them to travel from place to place quickly and without too much attention... For Hellsing, though, it was used only when time was of the essence and the leader had to travel at short notice.
Which probably meant that Mato should´ve hurried up a bit more, but if she'd known that, she may have gone slowly on purpose.
As soon as she stepped into the plane, closing the door behind her, Mato did feel a certain warmth and comfort about the place... Dark wood furniture, black leather seats, a polished black table that almost resembled obsidian, a minibar and a sleeping lounge further back. A home away from home, comfort... something that was shaken significantly as it began taxing down the runway towards its takeoff position. "Woah!"
"I'm glad to see you could finally make it, Corporal Kuroshira."
At the back of the passenger cabin, sitting in a seat was Integra Fairbrook Wingates van Hellsing, the current leader of the Hellsing organization- a tanned beauty in her early 30s, titanium blonde hair flowing down her shoulders and an expensive green suit covered up what would be an exciting, flawless female body- were it not for the eye patch she wore underneath her glasses, covering up a scar of war. "Have a seat. We'll take off immediately."
"Yeah, so i noticed." Mato replied with a grumble, leaving the trolley where it was and sitting down lest she would be thrown across the cabin by the takeoff- by the time she approached, she noticed another woman sitting nearby, someone who brought a smile to her face. "Hey Seras."
The smile was returned only mildly by the blonde, pure blood British vampire who´s casual attire left much less to the imagination than Integras suit did, being form fitting and snug with a short skirt, the sort she usually had to wear as a uniform anyway. Seras was a dream of any man, or woman worth their stripes- sleek and athletic in the right spots, with curves where it counted and a chest to die for. Her hair was kept relatively short as always, a wild ponytail merely reaching the shoulders while the front bangs covered one of her crimson red eyes, currently colored blue due to contact lenses. Her arms were covered as well, thanks to a long sleeved, form fitting sweater and gloves that would hide her inhuman arm replacement to the unwitting masses... Dracula´s daughter seemed troubled, though, and that wasn't good news generally.
"I won't ask what kept you so long, and thank you for your attendance in any case." Integra remarked, taking a sip from a coffee cup- she too seemed to be lacking sleep. "We're in dire straits, so to speak."
"Yeah, and i regret taking that promotion now if i'm gonna be involved in high level shit." Mato remarked, leaning back in her seat and crossing her legs over. "...wait, why AM i involved? I'm only a Corporal, aren't i? Seras outranks me and... hell, there´s at least four other Captains."
"Rank has nothing to do with it. You're here because in times like this, i'd rather be surrounded by people i know i can trust." Lady Hellsing replied, exhaling a sigh. "Now, where do i begin... Hellsings mission, to let impure souls of the living dead be banished into eternal damnation, has always been our upmost credo. Alongside the unread, though, we´ve been hunting werewolves, artificially created monstrosities and even "Monsters of God". But the reason for our existence is much simpler- to protect mankind from higher predators, keep it from harm as much as we can. For over a century, that description only fit the vampires and their ghouls, but now..."
Integra bit her lip, and picked up what appeared to be a candy cigarette to chew on, before reaching for a remote. A TV screen opened up from one of the dark wood panels, and turned on to show surveillance footage from what seemed to be a high altitude drone.
"This is Stonehenge in Scotland- I'm sure the both of you have seen these strange weather reports by now. For almost two days now there has been a nonstop lightning storm above the country... or so the media claims, because the storm is centered right there."
"Above Stonehenge?" Seras gawked, folding her hands on the table just to try and keep them from fidgeting as the plane was taking off, slightly pressing her into the seat... whilst Mato was sliding off of her own seat and went further back through the inertia, almost nudging Integral by the end.
"Yes." She remarked, ignoring the Japanese girl violating her personal space. "That already is too much of a coincidence to ignore... but there´s more. Angelica Donnelly, 23 year old local and self-proclaimed... druid, had alerted the police yesterday morning as the storm was picking up."
The slide on the TV changed, going over to a mugshot and police file of Angelica. "The case was forwarded to us rather quickly, because according to her testimony 'the ground itself had swallowed her mentor', a man named Leonard Hartigan. He was the leader of the druid circle she belongs to- and insisted on heading to Stonehenge for a ritual despite the storm."
"So... they summoned something awful, and we have to kill it?" Mato concluded quickly, but received a one eyed glance.
"If only it was that simple. No, the ritual was nothing of the sort, the usual praying for good harvest nonsense apparently... He was thrusting a staff into the air and was struck by lightning as a result, as one may expect, but according to Miss Donnelly, the storm had knocked over one of the stone arches with strong winds and the ground had swallowed up the stone as soon as it hit soil."
"The ground...?" Seras gave off, disbelieving- until the next slide was shown, camera footage of Stonehenge from ground level, where the ripples and waves across the soil could be seen- just before another lightning bolt struck the arches.
"Yes, the ground... her testimony doesn't include more information, but we've sent a team ahead to investigate, and they returned this footage." Integra pointed over, gazing at the monitor with a deep frown. "Notice how this effect stops as soon as the thunder strikes... reportedly, three strikes in a row hit the rocks of Stonehenge, and ONLY them, each time stopping this... whatever it is, and forcing it to start over. The team said that the lightning almost hit them too as it shot from archway to archway, stopping only on the last one..." She took a deep sigh, and stopped the footage, looking at the two of them. "In our line of work, a gut feeling is often a good choice, as you know full well. Stonehenge is a circle of concentric rings. We've never been able to figure out its exact purpose, given that it was rebuilt or refurbished several times throughout its history, with stones being stolen or replaced, but it seems someone was very interested in keeping it at least somewhat intact until more recent times... clearly, it was an important place to the druids that went there. Now, you should be familiar with this symbol."
The next slide appeared, and Mato had to chuckle, while Seras cringed slightly. It depicted a pentagram with three rings and a line going down, magic spells written across the rings and runes at the tips of the star- it was well-known to them, as the vampire Alucard used to wear one on each of his gloves.
"That...what Master used to have. That what kept his powers in check." Seras brought out, against a lump in her throat.
"Yes, precisely. It's a binding spell to deny devilish powers." Integra nodded, folding her hands as she herself was starting to fidget. "Note the three concentric rings, and an exit at the bottom. The star in the middle is irrelevant- it's merely a depiction of the five magi that were necessary to bind and control Alucard´s immense powers, a depiction of their connection through magic. You could have a six or seven tipped star just as well and it would be equally effective. ...We've seen the lightning go from arch to arch at Stonehenge, like magic power going from one mage to the other."
"... I get it." Mato frowned. "You think Stonehenge is a giant magic seal that keeps something in check, yeah?"
"Yes. And the more it falls apart, the weaker the spell gets... that arch that collapsed may have weakened it enough that whatever it's keeping locked up tries to break the seal now." Integra concluded.
"And that lightning... is someone trying to prevent that.?" Seras gulped. "F-from above..."
"Something from far above tries to prevent something from far below reaching human soil." Lady Hellsing sighed, looking at her two friends. "Now you know why we're on an express flight to the South of England... and all available forces are heading the same way as we speak."
End of Prolog