They were coming for me.

The sound of angry villagers and their bright shinning torches promised nothing but death. But I had to keep running, unless I wanted to meet a painful demise from the torture devices.

This was the life for any Witch nowadays.

The Clan Wars had long since concluded. Though the war had ended in the Umbra Witches favor, and the Lumen Sages were eradicated from the Earth, the humans feared are dark abilities. And human's began to condemn the remaining Umbra.

Rounding us up with little resistance, as most of us were still recovering from the War, we were executed without mercy and with extreme prejudice. I don't know how many Witches are still left in the world, because we're hunted down like dogs. Because of these Witch Hunts I had to depart from the Holy City, hopefully any remaining Umbran sisters have escaped.

But even then, I mustn't give up hope.

With the moon hung high in the air I muttered a small prayer to Luna, the first Umbra Witch who made a pact with the Demon Queen Sheba, who ruled over the denizens of Inferno.

Somehow I had gotten discovered in this small town located in southern England. Once word of my presence spread the townsfolk were quick to kick down my door. I barely escaped from the ambush they launched but with a lot of bullets, bloodshed, and demon summoning the small brigade they had sent after me had perished, allowing me a small window of time to make my escape.

Traveling as swift as the wind and as silent as the shadows I made my way across the village in hopes of making it to the forest the separated the town from the beach. There I could loose the town's folk and fly off...somewhere. Anywhere other than here.

As the shouting of the townsfolk continued to get louder I knew they were closing in on me. Doing the only thing I could I remembered one of the many spells I had learned during my many years of training as a Witch.

The Beast Within.

Leaping high into the air I let my magic expand and coat my body as I felt my physical form shift into a form more accommodating to suit my needs. My body shrunk and I had gained obsidian dark feathers, the jewels of my Umbran Witch Watch had made a small crown atop my head. I had transformed into my Raven Within form.

Now perched on one of the houses I did well to blend in and hide the jewels of my Witch Watch so that all the mortals could see was a large carnivorous bird that prayed on the corpses of the dead.

As the humans came into view the searched high and low, waving around their torches to find their Witch.

To make my act authentic I cawed, which had startled some of the townsfolk.

"Bah, it's just a bloody crow. No doubt it's waiting to eat the charred flesh of a newly dead witch. Find her, we cannot allow her heresy to continue to spread any longer!"

The townsfolk roared in agreement as they continued their little witch hunt.

The fools. Don't they know that all crows and ravens are messengers of the Underworld and lifelong companions of witches?

Lead arrogant and idiotic mortals to not know the full scope of their enemies and attack blindly.

Leaping from the top of the building I had returned to my normal human state. With them going in the wrong direction that would buy me more than enough time to make my escape.

But just as I was about to take off running, my instincts kicked in and I dodged an incoming fireball that was only a hair's breath from burning my body to a crisp.

The force of the explosion knocked me sideways, but I managed to gain control of my body and land gracefully a few feet away from where a large crater now stood.

"My my, your much stronger than other witches I've taken out. Most would have perished or would've been too weak to continue the fight."

Sensing another presence entering my field of vision I tried not to look shocked as a person actually emerged from the flames.

He had short golden blonde hair, his emerald green eyes long since jaded and lost all compassion, replacing only a cold and calculating aura. The man wore a simple light beige shirt, trousers, and a dark brown trench coat with two tails split at the bottom.

And in his hand was a small crimson fireball, floating just above his flesh.

He wasn't a Sage that's for sure as all of them had been wiped out during the War, and plus I didn't feel any contract with Paradiso on him. Meaning he could only be one thing.

"Witch hunter", I muttered under my breath, shivering inwardly at merely speaking it.

He smiled at this as if finding it amusing.

"It seems you now understand the predicament before you. Now why don't you do humanity a favor and burn in hell with the rest of your sister witches."

I merely scoffed at the witch hunter's words as I summoned two small portals in from of me from which I drew my guns, the Umbran Sisters. The magical pistols handed to us witches at the start of our training and until we graduated into the coven.

"I've survived this long, as if I had lived through all of the horrors of the War just to die now."

The witch hunter now had a wicked grin stretched across his face. The grin of a bloodthirsty killer.

"Good. It wouldn't be fun otherwise if my prey was so weak willed. In that case show me what you got!"

The witch hunter hurled the fireball in my direction to which I threw up a protection rune, the Umbra Witch sigil bearing the Eyes of the World flares to life as the fireball dissipated harmlessly on the sigil's surface.

With the protection rune gone I charged forward and fired a flurry of bullets. The man leaped to the side avoiding the bullets before firing another volley of fireballs.

Standing in place I dodged the fireballs at the last possible second, instantly activating Witch Time.

The world was then bathed in it's familiar violet Haze and the sound of a ticking clock could be heard. With the witch hunter's movements slowed down within the Time Field I was able to fire a flurry of bullets and positioned them to be aimed at his stomach.

I still needed answers on how in the world he was able to find me after I hid myself so perfectly and coated my existence in a protection spell that would make me seem human and not be detected by most witch-revealing charms.

Once Witch Time had ended the bullets slammed into the witch hunter's stomach with full force, knocking him up against the walls of an house.

Deep velvet began to seep from his wounds as he struggled to rise from his feet.

Just as he was about to return to his full height I pressed the barrel of my gun to his forehead, the action alone was enough to stop him dead in his tracks and force him to look at me.

"For one who boasts about slaughtering so many witches you sure were easy to defeat. It's downright insulting to a powerful witch of my stature."

The man laughed hoarsely. I could already tell he's struggling to remain awake from all the lead embedded within his stomach. If I didn't kill him now he'd slowly bleed out and die anyway.

"Well then witch, are you going to kill me? Although I hardly think that killing one witch hunter is going to change anything. There are more witch hunters out there just waiting to get a fresh taste of filthy witch blood like yours."

Hearing those words angered me to no end, prompting me to shove the barrel harder into his skull to remind him who was the one holding the gun.

Once, in a now what seemed distant time, the Umbra were both well feared and well respected. The Witches and the Sage's were equal partners attempting to preserve the balance and guard the Eyes of the World. But that was a long time ago.

Before the balance fell to ruin.

"Any last words, witch hunter?" I growled in a low tone that was close to being considered guttural. "Just one" he said with that same bloodthirsty smile.

"Somnum Mortis."

Before I could decipher what were the words he said he suddenly grabbed my wrist with newfound strange and knocked the gun out of my hand.

Before I could summon any magic to my free hand he lunged for my forehead and instantly burning pain stemmed from where he touched my skull.

From my now blurred vision I managed to see swirling runes and light as I screamed in pain. Memories flashed before my eyes as well as strange symbols that seemed so familiar and yet so distant at the same time.

And before I knew it, I had stopped screaming.

And then I blacked out.