Chapter 0 - A Gift.
15 years after the assassination of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin…
A man is seen on a bed, at the edge of his life. With shot wounds, stab wounds, why wouldn't he be? A woman, in her 20s, comes into the room, sitting alongside the man. She brought him flowers. The man giggles.
"Hello, Empress Emily. How are you?" said the man, smiling. Trying to hide his pain.
"I'm fine, Corvo." replied the Empress.
Their conversation started to turn silent. The room is quiet. Nothing to be heard, or said. Suddenly, the Empress bursts into tears, letting all her sadness out.
"Corvo… I don't want to lose you… Please Corvo, don't leave me!" says the Empress. She grasps Corvo's hand, trying not to let him leave.
"Don't cry, my Empress. Everything is going to be fine." says Corvo, smiling, trying to calm the Empress down.
"I'm old now Corvo. I know what's going to happen, don't lie to me!" says the Empress, still crying.
Corvo broke into silence. He just held the Empress' hands, wiped the Empress' tears off her face and said "If you know what's going to happen, then don't cry. I might not be here, but I'll always be by your side.". His grip to the Empress' hands started to loosen and with his last breath, he said "Be strong, my Empress... Be strong...". Corvo looks at the Empress one last time, and closes his eyes to his eternal sleep.
"Corvo...! Corvo! CORVO!" The Empress realized what had happened and bursts into tears.
She kneels down, crying, screaming. The guards came rushing inside, dragging the Empress out of the room.
"No! Don't take me away from him!" shouted the Empress, with tears flooding.
A few days later, at the Kaldwin Manshion...
Empress Emily and her daughter, Amy is in the master bedroom, ready to go to Corvo's funeral.
"Let's go sweetie." said the Empress to her daughter. A tear fell on Amy's cheek.
The Empress gasps and memories of her moments with Corvo flashed through her eyes. She looks at her door and saw Corvo himself, reaching to the Empress.
"Corvo... I miss you badly... But, I know that's not you" whispered the Empress to herself.
"Mom... Are you okay?" asked Amy, to her mother.
Empress Emily snapped out from her hallucination by her daughter's voice.
"I-I'm okay Amy. Now, let's go." said the Empress, smiling, to her daughter.
Amy knows her mother is sad because of Corvo's death. She replied her mother with a smile, and said "Alright, mom."
They made their way to the Dunwall Royalty Cemetry. When they arrived, only a few were there. Samuel, Piero, Corvo's servants, and some of his underlings. It was a dark, sad day for all of them. Samuel and Piero approaches the Empress and her daughter.
"I'm sorry for your loss, my Empress. Corvo wanted you to have this." said Samuel. Piero took out a purple, decorated box.
"What is this, Samuel, Piero?" asked the Empress. The two shook their heads.
The Empress opened the box and a tear dropped into the box. "Thank you, Corvo..." said the Empress, smiling.
As Corvo were to be buried, the Empress only smiled and said, "Rest in peace, Corvo.". After the burial, the Empress took her daughter's hand, said thank you to the people who came, and left without saying another word.
Corvo wakes up in a dark, mysterious world. He looks at his hand, trying not to believe that he is still alive. "Where am I?" whispered Corvo.
"My dear Corvo. What a gruesome death you had." said the Outsider, suddenly appearing in front of Corvo.
"What is this, Outsider? I thought my life had ended." replied Corvo.
"I am here to give you another… Gift." said the Outsider.
"What gift?" said Corvo.
"You have embarked with my mark, and accomplished more than I expected. I am giving you another gift, for your accomplishments. I will give you the authority to embark my mark to someone that you think is worthy to use these powers to protect your precious Empress Emily. That person shall be your successor." said the Outsider, smiling.
"I see. What's the catch?" said Corvo, curious.
"Do not worry, Corvo. There is no catch. This is simply a gift. You shall live once more, and choose your successor. Train that person to use those powers. After
you succeed, you shall return back to me and back to your grave." Said the Outsider.
"Your gear, will be at Daud. He made some, improvements, to it. He will also train you, giving you new powers.", the Outsider continued.
"My gear? New powers? What for? I thought this was just to search for a person." Asked Corvo, curious.
"You will see, Corvo." Said the Outsider while disappearing.
Corvo, once again opened his eyes.
"*breathes heavily* I'm… I'm alive...!"
He looks at his hands, he feels cold. He feels like he is a living corpse, with no soul but with only a body. He realizes that he was in a coffin, underground but not suffocating. He asked himself "Why am I still breathing normally even in this condition?". He stayed focused, figuring out how to escape from this dark, death hole.
He used Dark Vision to see if someone is nearby. He saw an old worn out gravedigger, looking at Corvo's grave, and decided to wait for him to look away. Corvo looks at the gravedigger's eyes and the gravedigger was looking back at Corvo. Does he know Corvo's alive? But, Corvo stayed focused. After a moment, the gravedigger looks away. Corvo uses Bend Time and escapes quickly. He is still in the state of stopping time, and he was behind the gravedigger.
"I knew you were alive."
Corvo stopped walking, and looks at the gravedigger. "How did you...?" asked Corvo, surprised.
"*laughs* Let's just say, I'm an old "friend" of the Outsider. My name, is Serio." Said the mysterious gravedigger, Serio.
Serio snapped his fingers and the state they were in turned back to normal.
"Now, you are in search of a "successor", right? You better do it fast. I can sense that the Empress is in danger." Said Serio, starting to disappear.
"Wait, what do you mean by the Empress is in danger!?" asked Corvo, trying to stop Serio from disappearing.
Serio laughs and said "Better hurry Corvo!" then, Serio disappeared into the wind, still laughing.
"Shit! I need to hurry!" said Corvo.
He was about to take his leave from the cemetery. He paused and whispered to himself, looking at late Empress Jessamine's grave, "Don't worry, Jessamine. I'll protect Emily.". He Blink-ed his way out the cemetery.
Corvo arrived at the Flooded District, where Daud's base is. It was quiet, too quiet. Suddenly, 3 dark figures comes out from the water, the walls from a building, and from the shadows, everything suddenly turned dark. Corvo didn't see anything on the figures. He only saw their glowing eyes and their dark human-like figure.
"Wh-What is this!?" shouted Corvo, panicking.
"Corvo… We come for you…" said the three figures, at once. Corvo tried using Wind Blast on them, but the Wind Blast avoided them, like they were in a shell.
"You think… That those powers… Can hurt us..!? How dare you… Insult us and… Lord Raul...!?" said the three figures.
The figures comes closer, and closer towards Corvo. Corvo only ran back, as far as he could, but finally, he was cornered. He's life was about to end again. He blinked his eyes then suddenly, the next thing he knew, the three figures were in front of him, staring at him. They raised their hands then suddenly, a voice came out from the roofs.
"Corvo! GET AWAY!".
Corvo, not knowing anything, Blink-ed himself away from the area. Spears, with weird markings on it, came down from the rooftops, managed to kill one of the three dark figures. A person, wearing a gas mask, Blink-ing from roof to roof, balcony to balcony, came down on one of the dark figures, stabbing it with another weird-marked spear. The stabbed figure disappears, leaving only one.
"Daud! Is that you!?" shouted Corvo.
"Yes, it's me! Stay away, Corvo! It's dangerous!" shouted Daud, back to Corvo.
Daud wasn't concentrating. The last figure pulled up a dark blade, and lunges it towards Daud. Daud barely dodged it, he's shoulder was hit.
"AAAAAGH! Corvo! Take this!" shouted Daud, in pain.
He threw a familiar-looking sword towards Corvo.
"My sword! What are these markings on it, Daud!?" said Corvo, surprised to see his sword again.
"Hurry Corvo! AAAGH! KILL THIS DEMON!" shouted Daud towards Corvo.
Corvo dashes towards the last figure trying to slash it, but the figure reacted quicker. The figure pulled the blade from Daud's shoulder, and lunges it towards Corvo. Corvo managed to dodge the attack, but the force from the lunge blew him away. Corvo stood back up and tried again, dashing towards the last figure. The figure did the same thing, lunging it's dark blade towards Corvo. Corvo smiled and Blink-ed above the figure.
"Goodbye.". Corvo splits the figure into half with his new blade. He saw something happening to the blade when he was killing the figure, it's not the his sword doing it, but the air around it did. Wind came out of the sword, covering it with the air. As the figure disappears, it said, "I'm sorry... Lord Raul...!". Everything turned back to normal.
Corvo himself did not believe what had happened.
"Wha- What happened? I used Wind Blast on them, nothing happened! But the wind around this sword killed it!? And what are those!? Who is Lord Raul!?" shouted the confused Corvo towards Daud.
Daud stood back up, breathing heavily, and said, "Calm down… Corvo… First, let us… Go back to the base…".
Corvo and Daud, after finishing off the mysterious figures, made their way to Daud's base.