Prologue - Kristallnacht
November 10th, 1938 – Berlin, Germany
It was 1AM in the morning, chaos was everywhere. We didn't know how it happened. It all started at 11PM the day before.
I was lying on my bed, slowly descending into the sweet embrace of sleep when suddenly my father, Karl Schneider, burst into my room, wearing his robe and equipping his hidden blades. I could see my brother Walther running frantically towards the door, also wearing his robes and carrying a Luger pistol in his left hand.
"Adler, get ready now!" said my father.
"Are we training again, Papa?" I asked.
"No, Sohn," he said while running towards the door. "Come on!"
Then, I understood what was happening. I heard screams, the shattering of glass and I could see the bright fires. Something was happening, what I did not know. I quickly put on my robes and my hidden blades and followed my father outside.
It was total anarchy. People were running, screaming. There were other people carrying sledgehammers and axes, smashing stores and burning buildings. My father and brother were nowhere to be seen, I was panicking. I had no idea what to do.
I climbed to the roof of my house and I saw many pillars of smoke and fires blazing… Then I looked down. A young man had fallen and was being kicked about by Sturmabteilung. Nazis! Then one of them took out a Luger at aimed at the suffering young man. I had to act, and I had to act quickly.
I readied my hidden blades and leapt from the roof onto the aiming Sturmabteilung and the blades cut into his neck. After muffled sounds of agony, he died.
"Requiescat in pace."
But I had no time to crouch over his dead body, another man had already took out a Luger and aimed it at me. But I was far too quick for him and I immediately turned around and slashed his arms. He dropped the Luger and tried in vain to cover the wound. In a second, I already had my blade in his neck.
"Requiescat in pace."
I looked around and the other men had fled. I quickly helped the young man up and brought him into my house. My mother Elsa laid him gently on the couch and tended to his wounds.
"What's happening, Adler?" asked my mother.
"I don't know, Mama. It's chaos out there, I don't even know where Papa and Walther are!"
Then my father burst in through the door with my brother, their faces bruised. I could see my brother was limping. My mother ran to the aid of my brother immediately and laid him down on his bed.
"Adler, come quickly!" he said turning around towards the door.
"What is it, Papa?" I asked while running up to him.
"There's a group of people being beaten by the rioters, your brother and I tried to free them but there were too many Sturmabteilung carrying axes against us. Your brother had lost his blades and his leg had been brutally kicked by one of the soldiers. We need to strike from above, gehen wir!"
Then my father skillfully climbed the broken walls of a shattered house while I followed rather difficultly. We ran across roofs and I could saw the anarchy on the streets. Even many more were crying, screaming for help. Then my father stopped at the edge of a roof not too far from our house.
I peered down and saw a lot of men and women being beaten by rioters and Sturmabteilung. My father and I readied our hidden blades and prepared ourselves to leap from the roof.
"Eins, zwei, drei!"
We leapt from the roof and like a storm we fell upon the Sturmabteilung! My father had cut down two of them immediately and I took one down as I fell. Heavy fighting followed, we tried our best not to kill anyone. Only using our hidden blades when it was necessary to do so.
One of them approached me and swung his right hand clumsily hoping to hit my head, but I was quicker. I quickly ducked and gave him an uppercut and knocked him out. But I did not see another man coming upon me from behind and he successfully delivered a blow to the back of my head. I fell and turned over and saw the man about to kick me when my father grabbed the man's leg and punched him in the face.
"Are you alright, Sohn?"
"A bit pain in the back of the head, but I can still fight, Papa."
There was no time for conversation, as another man approached my father from behind and would have hit my father's head if he had not ducked. As my father ducked I grabbed his arm and delivered a blow of my own to his face, knocking him out.
A long fight followed, but none of the rioters nor the Sturmabteilung were a match for Assassins. Suddenly, the tide changed. Reinforcements arrived, the Schutzstaffel. As half a dozen men fell upon me, I was separated from my father.
They were attacking me from all sides, throwing punches and some successfully hit their targets. I was then hit in the stomach and I fell to my knees, the world around me spinning. I saw my father fighting a dozen men. Two of them attacked him from two sides and he skillfully deflected both and knocked them out.
Another three attempted an attack. One swung his fist towards his face, another towards his stomach, the third one to his back. But my father evaded them all and knocked out the one aiming at his stomach with a punch to his face and knocked the other two with his fist and his legs.
But then, I saw a Schutzstaffel pulling out his Luger and aimed it at my father. As I screamed "Papa!" I heard a loud, deafening sound and I saw my father slowly falling down on his knees in pain. Rage quickly overcame me… "Bastarde!"
I readied my blades and stabbed the first two men in front of me in the stomach and kicking the right one to his back in agony. I immediately turned around to see the others shocked and stabbed another two in their stomachs. The man who shot my father aimed at me and I used his friend's body as a shield and the man immediately fell dead.
Gathering all the rage in me, I ran towards the shooter. He tried in vain to shoot me, all his shots missed me. In a matter of seconds, my blades were in him. Justice had been done.
"Stirb, bastard!"
He cried out in agony before finally dying by my blades. A few minutes later, all the Schutzstaffeln were either dead or heavily wounded. I frantically ran to my dying father… Tears rolled down my eyes… I was only 16 years old. I held him in my hands. He held my shoulder in his left hand and said his final words,"Nichts ist wahr. Alles ist erlaubt. Remember that, Sohn."
Then he died in my arms, I felt like my world had fallen apart. I carried his body back to my house. The sun had risen by the time I reached my house. I went inside and into the living room. My mother stood silent for a few seconds, then started crying while frantically asking me," Is he dead?!" I nodded my head in silence and gently placed my father's body onto his bed. "Requiescat in pace, Papa."
The man who I saved had recovered enough to walk over to my father's body and kneeled while praying for my father's soul. I closed my father's eyes…
Nichts ist wahr. Alles ist erlaubt. Those were his last words. Nothing is true, everything is permitted. He died believing in the Creed. He died an Assassin. In honour of his legacy, I continue his work with my brother Walther.
I am Adler Schneider. And I am an Assassin.
