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Chapter 5: When Murder enters a heart.

Salem was rather pissed. An endeavor that she was lead to belief to have FINALLY gotten something that would tip the current stalemate in her favor ended up being a complete failure, and one of her most valuable assets was now on the hit list of the most dangerous being currently on remnant because said being woke up on the ass crack of dawn that day just in time to witness what was supposed to be a simple mission to assassinate her adoptive mother and put the blame on the world when the "little sapling" was supposed to be awake. Salem sighed at her desk with her head in her hand.

"Maybe it would work better if I had some of the next summoners do their thing in my territory, having them kill any who were weaker and be friendly with those that could be of use in dealing with Maple. Yes… That could work." Salem mused to herself before starting work. The other thing that had her on edge was a certain golden mirror that sat on her desk, the very thing that lead her to start investing her time into the summoning project. When she first acquired the relic, which was referred to as "The Mirror of Futures" by the follower who offered it to her, the mirror showed her a future where her armies of Grimm where decimated by a mysterious force, the same force that would be her end. With the summoning of Maple that future hadn't changed in the slightest.

"Did this blasted thing only predict the worst possible futures?" It wouldn't be the first time Salem had this thought

A month later beneath an abandoned town.

"Alright everyone, open the portal! And be careful this time, as you all know the last time someone got hasty and the poor bastard we brought to our side ended up as a pile of flesh and suffering, so be sure to get it right! I don't care if you have to be slow, if we manage to get another powerful one like Maple I want them alive, got it?" Ordered a screechy-voiced man who wore a black cloak and a black bird mask which bore Salem's Eye on the forehead. The order of Nevermore was never really a group that followed Salem's orders to the letter, while this has yielded them results that got them some fame within the other orders and praise from Salem herself, they were lucky that they were considered a valuable asset, though at the same time they were also known for being among the craziest orders that worshiped Salem. As for why they were operating from beneath a town rather than back at the Grimm wastes, apparently the concentration of magic here was suitable enough for them, it also helped that an elder nevermore made this place its nest, which in their book was as good as Salem ordering them to be there. Besides, even if someone were to go after them they were able to set up an alert system for when she was in the area, along with some fire gates. Though considering that they were pretty good at keeping themselves a secret it was rather unlikely, so High Priest Smoreck Wasn't too worried.

The place they had chosen as their current base of operations was an old, multi-level evacuation bunker. It never gotten any use though until the Order of Nevermore came into town. They had made some alterations to the old design, turning the bland walls, halls and rooms into something that looked like it used to be a forge factory, with their own personal twist added to it. Each level had been retrofitted to house cauldrons of molten rock ready to be tipped whenever they where needed, firetraps ready to spring out of the wall as their intended target walks by, firewalls, and Nevermore Iconography painted on every wall that they could. And Smoreck and a group of his underlings were at the bottom level, which had been carved into a shape that better suited their needs, and Smoreck himself stood, one gloved hand on the railing of a catwalk as he observed from above, and the other holding a strange device.

Soon Smoreck's underlings had the portal open to see a young man in steel armor with red hair sitting on a rock drinking tea by a lake. The man was Humming to himself and was surrounded by a variety of sleeping monsters.

"This man must have some sort of hypnotic music power if he's able to make the monsters of their world sleep, and he must be powerful if he can afford to drink tea while sitting in the middle of them, that may just make him a good counter for Maple" Thought the insane priest. "Bring him in!" Squacked Smoreck, and so two chains shot from a machine, grabbing the man and reeled him to the other side, portal closing behind him. The man look awestruck, looking at each of the bird masked individuals, and the art of the nevermore, however Smoreck frowned in disappointment behind his mask. The aura reeding on his boxy device read "50", though he knew for a fact that Maple's own auralevel was multiple times higher than that, the closest Remnant had outside the Orders of Salem that Smoreck knew of had an auralevel of "550" and that was still a far cry from Maple's auralevel, and that's not even considering the maidens!

"Kill him, he's too weak for us to use against Maple, she'd ." Smoreck ordered, and his underlings started cackling madly, aiming an assortment of revolver type weapons at the man they had just summoned, ready to fire. Just then an explosion was heard from above and the ground shook for a brief moment.
"Warning! An intruder has begun attacking the Facility! Repeat! An intruder has begun attacking the Facility!" A robotic voice alerted over the intercom

"Damn it! Kill him quickly, we'll deal with them afterwards!" Smoreck screeched, stomping his foot on the catwalk.

Meanwhile, on the surface a white flame burned around Maple's right eye. She had just blocked a school bus sized feather launched at her by a skyscraper sized nevermore, boney plates covering it's face and back. The impact of the feather had made a crater beneath her. The giant bird soared above, launching feathers with each fly by. Maple pulled out her sword and pointed it towards the bird.

[[Hydra Evolved!]]

Nine purple hydra heads shot forth from Maple's dagger and rushed full speed at the enormous Nevermore, wrapping and biting every part of the bird they could, and started dragging it towards the earth, causing the creature to cry out in panic. As it neared the earth the hydra heads that had wrapped themselves around the birds neck started spewing a toxic purple cloud, causing the panicked suackes to turn into panicked screeches as it thrashed to be free. The nevermore died before it was gently set onto the ground, the hydra heads retreating back into her dagger. Black smoke seeped from the nevermore's corpse, and as soon as the maw of Maple's shield opened, the smoke was sucked inside, causing even more smoke to come from the nevermore until there was nothing left but its bones. Maple got a notification that she leveled up, and immediately put the points into her defense.

Maple smiled as she walked away from the corpse of the nevermore, with it's death people would be able to settle in this town again, as there were no other threats in the area, other than the one she was about to deal with. Speaking of which, the evacuation bunker with a bunch of nevermore Graffiti covering it looked like it would be just the place. Maple approached the door and tried to open it, only to find it was locked. No matter. Maple stood back, with her shield in front of her, the mouth of the shield opened up and a sphere of black and red energy formed at the mouth, before being launched at the door, ripping it from it's hinges and causing part of the floor to collapse. Maple walked up to the hole and looked down and saw a catwalk. Below it and a bit off to the side was a man, surrounded by masked individuals who had their guns trained on him. Maple Jumped down into the hole, only for the sounds of her feet meeting the catwalk to be accompanied by the sound of gunfire. Maple turned to look at the man which she was about to try and save, to see him looking back at her. The last words on his breath as his body disintegrated into magenta cubes was: "Is that… Maple?"

Tears started to run down Maple's cheeks as the fire surrounding her eye went out.

"That man was a New World Online player…" Maple thought mournfully. Maple gripped her weapons hard as rage started to boil within her.
"Just like ME!" Maple mentally yelled to herself and turned to a cackling Smoreck.

"Ahahaha! What's the matter, Sapling? Too late to be a hero? AHAHAHAHA!" The insane priest cackled, not realizing the danger he was in. The silver flame around Maple's right eye reignited. The furthest end of it reaching past the hole maple created and fell through to get down here, and peeking within that silver flame was a smaller, black flame. Maple put away her shield and dagger, noticing something behind the shorter man on the far side of the catwalk. She started to walk to the bird-themed priest at a slow but deliberate pace, her boots clanking against the mettle of the catwalk.

"You know, I was going to just take you all into custody and try to get you all to re-think your lives. But I'm currently feeling less merciful after seeing what you've just done." Maple said threateningly creeping closer to the eccentric cultist.

"Oh? Did little old Smoreck hurt the little Sapling's feelings by killing that pathetic widdle weakling?" Smoreck taunted, holding his face in his hands in mock woe.

"That man was just trying to have fun in a game, and you took everything he had and killed him!" Maple yelled in outrage, grabbing Smoreck by the neck, lifted him into the air, and continuing to walk down the catwalk, towards a source of orange light, a thin veil of fog starting to form around her with each step forward, the ice dust runes on her armor glowing brighter and brighter. Smoreck struggled in maple's grasp, feeling for the first time in a while an emotion he thought his madness removed. Fear.

"AAGH! W-wait! Stop!" The priest begged, squirming in Maple's grasp, terrified at the look of rage that filled the eyes of his captor. And then, he felt a warmth at his back, and soon it was below his feet as well. Looking down Smoreck saw a cauldron of lava, causing him to panic even more.

"Wait! N-no! Please spare me, I'll change my ways, I'll be good!" Smoreck screeched his plea.

"Why should I spare you when you refuse to spare others? When you tore people from their home, leaving them with nothing but their emotions and life? When you mercilessly ended their lives taking thrill from their fear and misery? No, I will not spare you, but I will spare this world, and the worlds you and your pals tore me from, from having to deal with a filthy pest like you!" Maple growled, looking into his eyes and letting go, dropping the man screaming into the cauldron. The liquid metal sloshed around as Smoreck struggled, a burned hand even exited it for a moment, before going still and sinking back in. Maple then turned to the underlings, all of whom were frozen in shock and horror at the fate of their leader. The air started to cool, the contents of the lava cauldrons starting to solidify. Maple pulled out her sword and pointed it at the crowd of cultists.

[[HYDRA]]

From the end of Maple's blade, 9 hydra heads emerged, their eyes glowing with violent violet light as they sprayed their toxic fog through the building.

An: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, along with have a fantastic day!