Chapter Two - Plague of Questions
Birds flew in the sky where once they had feared to go as below them a lone figure in a black trenchcoat picked a route through the ruins of the city that now rightfully belonged to him. He was the heir to the powers of the ancient tome that was known as Leá Monde... the ancient Kildean city that had been the home of the cultist Müllenkamp. An odd choice for the leader of a cult; Müllenkamp had been an exotic dancer by day and the High Priestess of what was once classed as the greatest risk to society.
But he didn't care about that, none of it mattered. He was now the bearer of the Blood Sin, the large tattoo that covered almost all of his back. Every now and then the cross and sword that made up the Blood Sin flared up, causing him some minor pain but it didn't worry him. Pain was what kept him from crossing over; pain was what kept him feeling that he was alive; pain was the saviour of not only him, but also everyone in the world, past, present or future. The worst thing about immortality is it just never ends. That was why Sydney Losstarot had chosen him to pass the power, or the curse as Ashley often thought about, on to, knowing that he would not use the power for evil on that fateful day in Leá Monde. Oh, how wrong Ashley had been in believing that Sydney had been the evil one, it was the other way round. Sydney opened his eyes to the truth and helped Riskbreaker Riot save the world from those who sought to take the powers for themselves.
But again, Ashley didn't care about that, it had happened and he was stuck with it. In time he would find someone else to pass it onto when he had enough, no, that was not his worry. His worry was far more personal. He wanted to know who he really was, whether he really had had a wife, whether he really had had a son, whether he had killed them both or had witnessed their death. He realised he didn't know who he really was anymore for he couldn't return to the VKP now, not with his new power. He didn't dare risk it upon the world, knowing the tremendous evil it would bring about.
But there was one possibility... Ashley considered it as he sat down on a fallen Cathedral spire. There was one way he could make sure the power was never unleashed on the innocent but it would come at a cost, a cost he wasn't sure he could bring himself to pay. The cost of a few innocents in return for the safety of millions...
Sighing to himself, the Riskbreaker resumed his search, looking for a certain object. He knew it had to be nearby, the last place he saw it was atop the Cathedral as Romeo Guildenstern, the now dead leader of the Crimson Blades, had used it against him, the blade of sin, the blood sword. Closing his eyes, he recalled the city as it had been before its destruction. Guildenstern's body had slid from the roof to the west side whilst the Cathedral had toppled to the north. He knew because he had been standing on it when it collapsed. Slowly he orientated the picture in his mind, opening his eyes and seeing the destruction unfurl before him. He watched Guildenstern fall from the roof, his body changing as it made its descent. He saw the blade fall from his hand, plunging down towards the street over... there. Closing his eyes, Ashley wished away the image and opened his eyes to reality once more.
Walking to the spot he had memorised, he started hefting pieces of rubble to the side as if they weighed nothing, plumes of dust rising from each chunk as they landed meters away from him. Finally he found it, the blade made from Damascus shimmering in the bright sunlight. Picking it up, Ashley held it close, inspecting it. Some of it had been chipped and some of the edges blunted by the combination of the fall and the rain of rubble upon it, but that was of no consequence. Ashley ran his hand over the ruined parts, energy flowing into it from his palm and fingers and as he removed it, the blade was now perfectly reformed. With a grim smile of contentment, he placed it in the special sheath he had constructed for it and slung it over his back. It was going to be a long walk back but he wanted to do it in style. Why waste immortality if you have it?
Making his way to the waters that surrounded Leá Monde, a river of sorts created after the great earthquake twenty-five years ago, Ashley merely walked in, the small waves washing over his head as he trod on the riverbed. Instead of thrashing about as he slowly drowned, Ashley Riot carried on walking, revelling in the eccentricity of what he was doing...
The loss of three lives to save countless millions... would it really be worth it? Could I kill in cold blood just so I can be relieved of a tiresome duty? Would I be any better than what I wish to stop? Ashley just shook his head as a fish swam by, its gills flapping as it took in oxygen from the water.
One was near death, one wanted death and one had stared death in the face and had escaped it on the back of one of the men who had kidnapped him... and then there was the matter of her. She had been affected by the wellspring that was Leá Monde as well... that would make her another candidate. But now the wellspring was gone, there were only two other people who could take the powers from him, the only other survivors: Callo Merlose and Joshua Bardorba... One was an innocent child whilst the other was like a lamb freshly put into a sheep pen full of hungry wolves, not knowing the danger she was truly in...
