3 Years later – 6 Months before the Holy Grail War
Naples, Italy
I leaned against the wall and stared out the window. It was a perfect seaside view. The waters were calm. The boats and yachts lined up along the docks barely swayed. Lots of people were enjoying the nightlife of the city amid the street lights, browsing through shops, and eating at restaurants.
My gaze shifted to the harbor where lots of freighters, commerce, and cruise ships settled. My hands clenched.
Everything led to this moment. All the information and clues I accumulated over three long years culminated in this last mission.
My first idea was to find the Boss through his communication network, but that quickly turned out to be a bust. His orders were sent through multiple encrypted channels and routed through several networks. There was no one within the Syndicate he trusted enough to contact directly either.
The only other option was to find him through a special shipment he supposedly received every two months. It contained every crest or mystic code the Boss wanted to keep to himself instead of selling on the black market.
"You've been staring out the window for a solid hour now," Vincent said. "Is it really that interesting?"
I looked at him. He was laying down on a couch, flipping through a magazine. A part of me was glad I wasn't alone on this crusade.
"I'm just a little tense, I guess," I said. "One way or another, it'll all be over this time tomorrow."
Of course, we weren't the only ones to come up with the idea of tracking down a shipment to the Boss. However, anyone who attempted that was never seen again.
All of those shipments were sent either by plane or ship. However, the flight route or course was always different and the cargo was ejected halfway through. Stowing away would be difficult, but not impossible.
So, Vincent came up with a plan. It was... crazy, if not downright suicidal. But we needed a crazy plan at this point to succeed. And I betted on that chance.
"You worry too much, relax," he said. "It's not that much different from our other jobs."
Carefree as usual. I always wondered if he was this level headed or if he was just good at hiding his anxiety. At any rate, I trusted him enough to watch my back.
"Maybe," I said.
I walked to the table in the middle of the hotel room and took a seat. We had booked it to watch the harbor from up here.
"It's just..." I said. "If this works out, what am I going to do afterward?"
Vincent put away his magazine and sat upright on the couch. "Well, considering how big the payout on the bounty is, both of us would be set for two lifetimes over."
"This never was about the money for me and you know that," I said. "I just can't see myself settling down somewhere and wasting away the rest of my days. I have no place to call home."
"You want to travel the world instead?" he said. "All that finding yourself stuff you read in cheap motivational texts? Or you could just stay in this line of work."
I sighed. "I don't know."
The events of that rainy night near Mombasa still haunted me. A good man died on that day because of me. I wanted to atone for that somehow.
"Afraid of killing any more?" he asked.
"I'm not afraid of killing," I said. "I'm afraid of growing numb to it."
"Then how about we take over the Syndicate instead?" he said.
There was a moment of silence. I looked at him.
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Think about it," he said. "No one has ever seen the Boss alive and lived to tell the tale. If we manage to get into his base of operations and kill him, what's stopping us from assuming control of it? No one would ever know."
I thought he was just making yet another joke, but his expression was completely blank as he asked that question.
"Out of the question," I said. "I vowed to take the Syndicate down and that's exactly what I'm going to do. Once the head is cut off, the rest will fall like a house of cards."
"Yeah, I kind of can't see you as a supreme evil overlord anyway." He laughed.
For a moment, I thought he was seriously considering it. Good thing that wasn't the case.
"And what will you do after this is all over?" I said. "I mean, you're also in this for similar reasons as me."
"I don't plan that far ahead." He shrugged. "All I know is that I'm going to celebrate after this in London. You're coming too, of course. Drinks are on me."
I grinned. "Sounds like a plan."
"I've got a visual," I said. "I estimate about fifteen minutes, give or take."
I was lying down on top of a container stack, scoping out the container port of the harbor. A convoy of Syndicate vehicles had just pulled up and began unloading boxes and bags for shipping.
"Copy that," Vincent said. "I'm ready on my end. Moving to the next objective."
"I'll watch for a few more minutes before I move in case something changes," I said. "I'll let you know if anything happens."
I had a weird feeling in my stomach. Perhaps the pressure was getting to me, but I had to be confident. This was it. What I had been working toward for years. There was no room for mistakes now.
Five minutes had passed uneventfully.
I climbed down and made my way to the container they were loading up with their stolen goods. It was a little offside of the rest of the shipping containers. Their cars covered it from one side and a handful of guards stood around its perimeter.
I sneaked up as close as possible without being detected.
They were just around the corner.
I took a deep breath to calm myself. I only had one shot at this. Peering from behind my cover, I saw the open container. All I had to do was wait for the signal.
A loud crash echoed across the area, followed by multiple more. It was like a metallic avalanche, but I already knew what it was. It was my signal.
Time Alter: Triple Accel!
I was clothed in black from head to toe and it was the middle of the night. All the people turned away to look at the stack of fallen containers nearby. I darted straight into the container they were loading and hid in the far back.
The goons outside were spooked now. I could barely hear their chatter. They sent two men to investigate the noise and the rest was on high alert. But it didn't matter anymore.
Ten minutes later, the container was closed shut with a loud bang.
After waiting a little longer, I switched on a small flashlight and moved to the body bags.
"You can come out now," I whispered.
One of the zippers slid open and Vincent emerged from the bag.
"So far so good," he whispered.
He handed me another body bag and a small vial with grey liquid.
We passed the next few hours with idle conversation. Then, our container started to get loaded into a ship. The waves lapped against the sides of the ship.
I rolled out the body bag like it was a sleeping bag and hopped inside. Next, I uncorked the vial and held it in front of me.
"See you on the other side," Vincent said, tapping his vial against mine as if we were toasting drinks.
My vision blurred the moment I gulped down the bitter liquid. I laid down and closed the zipper on my bag. The purpose of the concoction was to fool whatever system was in place to detect stowaways within the shipment. It caused a comatose state close to being dead. Since we were vulnerable during that time, we hid among the other bodies.
The one risk involved was that we were good as dead if we were found before we woke up.
My consciousness was slipping away. I closed my eyes as I wondered where I would wake up.
I opened my heavy eyelids only to be greeted by pitch-black darkness. For a second, I questioned who I am or where I was. Then it all came rushing back to me.
Within seconds, I was wide awake and took in the feedback from all my senses. I opened my body bag and sat upright.
"Ah, you're finally awake, eh?" Vincent said, fiddling with the lock of our container.
I quickly checked the gear on me and got up to stretch. The waves outside were gone, replaced by a low mechanical humming.
"Did we make it?" I whispered, approaching him.
"We'll find out in a second," he said.
A soft click.
Vincent slowly opened the container and we stepped out of the darkness.
The room was dimly lit, the ground, the walls, and the ceiling made of metal. Some pipes ran along the walls and there was only one door leading out of the room.
I spun around to look at the container again and noticed water around it.
"Let's go," Vincent said, drawing his throwing knife.
"Right behind you," I said, pulling out my revolver.
The door was unlocked. It led to a hallway that rounded a corner after twenty meters. There was one door on the right and one circular window on the left.
We made our way down the hallway with slow, methodic steps. I decided to peek out the window as I passed it.
Deep blue as far as the eye could see. Fish swam past the window. We were... underwater? I had my suspicions since shipments were just ejected mid-voyage, but this confirmed it. However, this also suggested that it wasn't a stationary base. It was a traveling, underwater fortress.
"Check this out," Vincent said.
He stood in the doorway of the only room in this hallway. I walked over and looked inside the room.
Dozens – no, hundreds of cylindrical glass cases with metal lids next to each other on lots of shelves. Each of them had a crest floating inside in a light green liquid.
"Jackpot." Vincent grinned.
"Now we just need to find the Boss and take him down once and for all," I said. "Let's move."
We left the room and continued onward. There was a staircase around the corner that led up and down.
"Let's check the top first," Vincent said.
I took point and climbed the stairs. I had never been so on edge before. My eyes darted all over the place, my ears listening for any noise that could pop up.
We reached the top floor. Another hallway in the same metallic silver stretched out before me. It was kept fairly clean. I wondered if familiars or the like were responsible for the upkeep. If there were, how come we didn't run into any?
Nevertheless, I kept going and rounded a corner. Three doors barred the way. I stopped for a moment to decide which to open. A wrong choice could ruin our moment of surprise.
"I think I heard something from the middle door," Vincent whispered.
I didn't hear anything, but I trusted his word.
I had become impatient.
I hurried over and put my hand on the door handle. The moment I worked towards for three years had finally come. What would the Syndicate's Boss look like?
Gun in hand, I opened the door. At that moment-
A sharp pain embedded itself into my back. My body couldn't move. The ground came closer.
And the world became black.
My eyes shot open only to be greeted by blinding light above me. It was the kind of bright and focused light you see sitting on a dentist's chair. My limbs twitched in shock, but I couldn't move my arms and legs. Tilting my head, I realized I was strapped to an operating table by my wrists and ankles.
The last thing I remembered was... opening a door in the Boss's hideout. Then something hit me in the back.
"What a pain," a voice said. "Guess the dose was too low. You could've just met your end in blissful sleep."
I recognized that voice. My blood ran cold. The light above that obscured my vision of the rest of the room was switched off.
Vincent stood there, arms crossed, leaning against a table at the wall. My mind nearly overheated from trying to process what any of it meant.
"What the hell, Vincent?" I said. "Get me out of this thing."
"I can't do that," he said.
I couldn't believe it and I didn't know how, but I was betrayed. Plain and simple.
"I don't understand," I said. "The Boss trusts no one."
"Yes, that's true," he said, spreading his arms. "So, what does the fact that I'm here mean?"
The Boss's true identity. If it was only a single person. Then...
"Don't tell me," I said. "You? You're the Boss? That doesn't make any sense! The Syndicate's been around for decades. How can you be the Boss?"
"It's simple," he said. "I killed the Boss a few years ago and took his place. It was some guy named Izemi. His body is in a freezer downstairs somewhere."
Maybe it was the lingering pain in the back from when I was knocked out, but this revelation invoked a mix of sadness and anger in me.
"That idea I came up with for us to enter this place?" he continued. "That was how I got in here the first time, minus the potion to knock us out. That was a security measure I added myself."
He laughed and grasped at his face with one hand. "Can you believe it? For all the Boss thought of to keep himself hidden, he made that one tiny oversight that resulted in his death!"
"Then what was all this for?" I said. "We spent years uncovering information to get here when it was you all along? We took down your hideout, disrupted your operations, and killed your henchmen. What was the point?"
"I suppose I can tell you," he said. "Consider it your reward for your hard work."
He grabbed a nearby chair, flipped it around to face me, and leaned his arms forward over its back.
"Everything was running smoothly after I took over the Syndicate," he said. "I had it all. Information, money, and power. Then, you had to come along and throw a wrench in it. You and the other freelancers you fed information had become a problem. Whispers of the Boss's inability to lead started going around within the organization. I couldn't just let that stand, could I?"
It was like I just found the last missing piece of a puzzle to see the bigger picture.
"Then all those missions we were on..." I said.
"Correct," he said. "It was all to wipe out those pesky traitors that started to have delusions of grandeur. It sent a clear message to the rest who even considered defying me."
He was the one who always had the intel on their locations and movements. Since I thought we were fighting for the same goal, I never really questioned it. At the time it made perfect sense. Why would he expose the organization he owned?
"I originally came to the Clock Tower back then to get rid of you once I lured you out," he said. "But then an idea struck me. I could manipulate you into helping me with the traitors. Two birds, one stone."
"So it was all a lie..." I said.
The anger boiled inside me. I was so blinded by getting my revenge that I couldn't notice the enemy right under my nose.
"The person you believed in was a version of me who only existed in your head. From the moment we met, I have used you," he said. "If it's any consolation, it wasn't easy to fool you. Sometimes you got a hold of information before I could tamper with it. Honestly, your persistence was infuriating. It was only a matter of time until you found this place, so I decided to put an end to it while I could."
Like hell was I going to take this lying down. I came too far to die like this.
I glanced down at the shackles on my wrists. They were made of solid iron. No signs of corrosion either. Brute force was out of the question. If I fed enough mana into it through my hands, it may overload and break.
However, Vincent was right next to me. He would notice and put an end to it. I had to do it slowly. Little by little. I needed to bide my time and keep him talking.
"Your history," I said. "I read that the Syndicate was responsible for the death of your parents and fallout within the mage world. Was that all made up, too?"
"No, that part was true," he said. "I had nothing to lose anymore and became desperate, but my gamble paid off big time!"
"And what if you died on one of our missions?" I said. "You could have just holed yourself up in here where it's safe."
"Where would be the fun in that?" he said. "Even the previous Boss wasn't here 24/7. Besides, I had... insurance to keep me alive, so to speak, thanks to all the goodies stored here."
He got up from his chair and walked over to a table to retrieve my revolver. That bastard had no right to so much as touch it.
"Watch," he said.
He took one bullet out of the barrel, spun the cylinder, and pressed it against his head. I held my breath in anticipation-
Click.
-and sighed. Part of me hoped that whatever trick he wanted to show me backfired.
"A little something called probability magic," he said. "It's all about stacking the odds in my favor. As if I would devote time to train in something like throwing knives, come on."
"Even something like that can't guarantee the outcome you want, jackass," I said.
"True, which is why I have something else to fall back on if all else fails," he said, reaching under his shirt and showing me a silver amulet.
"This was all some game to you to get your kick out of, is that it?" I said. "The Syndicate has ruined a lot of lives, MINE INCLUDED!"
He sighed and leaned back a little. "You better not start to lecture me about morals or justice now. How many people out there actually think about what's right or wrong? Come on, life is meant to be enjoyed to the fullest. What do I care about people I never knew or met?"
If it wasn't for the fact that I was restrained, I would have jumped him and punched his face in right then and there. For the moment, all I could do was glare at him.
"Don't look at me like that now," he said. "I'm disappointed too, you know. You're a valuable asset. I thought I could convince you to work together with me on this, but you are just too stubborn. Why do you want to ruin all of this so badly? Is it because of some innate sense of justice?"
I was ready to wipe that smug look off his face, but I needed to lure him closer.
"It's because I made a promise," I whispered.
"What was that? You have to speak up little," he said, leaning closer with his chair.
I poured the last bit of mana needed to overload the restraints. They burst in a flash of light. I threw my fist in his face before he could react.
"Son of a-" he said, reeling from the hit.
I used the moment to undo the bindings on my ankles and rolled off the table. Vincent got off the ground at the same time and we had ourselves a staredown.
The distance between us was about four meters. My revolver was lying on the ground about halfway there.
"I can't figure you out," he said. "You look like living is too painful for you, yet you struggle so badly to stay alive."
"I'm fine with dying," I said. "As long as I take you down with me."
The mild burns on my wrists left from the overload healed up as I said that.
"If that's how it's going to be, fine. I'll kill you and take that crest of yours," he said. "I look forward to making that time manipulation of yours mine."
He carefully takes out his amulet again, but this time with a creepy grin on his face.
Without taking his eyes off of me, he said, "You know what this does? It lets me see into the future. Whatever it shows is destined to happen."
My eyes fell to my revolver, then back to him.
"And I saw you," he said. "Falling to the ground with a hole in your chest."
I charged as he drew his throwing knife. Dodging was out of the question. He was going to hit no matter what. I shielded my neck and head with my arms. He loved to aim at those spots.
Two knives embedded themselves into my arms as I drove him into a cabinet. I held him by the collar and threw my right fist into his face. The impact cracked the glass behind him.
My abdomen exploded in pain.
I glanced down between my punches to see him ramming his knife into me.
I could heal that. No problem. I repeated my time-alter to reverse my wounds in my head with each new stab wound. It was a battle of endurance he was going to lose.
My next attack was on its way. He flicked his head to the side and I punched right into the glass of the cabinet. I clenched my teeth from the pain.
His knee came up to my loin. An initial shock, followed by an ache spreading in that region. The pain was excruciating.
I lost my grip on him as I almost doubled over. My view flipped upside down after he jumped on me. That bastard sat on top of me and went on the offensive.
One, two, three hits landed in my face and my head rocked with each impact. Blood entered my mouth, probably from a cut lip. I raised my arms in front of my face as an impromptu defense as he kept pounding away.
Time Alter: Double Accel!
With more time to act, I delivered an uppercut between his assaults that sent him to the side.
I rolled around to get up and caught a glimpse of my revolver. Just a few steps away. I rose to take a step forward. A hand grasped my right leg and pulled me back down.
I tried to reach for the gun. Just barely out of reach.
Vincent dashed toward it.
Just as he was about to pass me, I elbowed him in the gut and reclaimed my weapon.
Before I could turn around, he jumped on my back, wrapping his arms around my neck.
I pointed my gun behind me, hoping to shoot him in the head.
Click. Click.
Two duds in a row. Just fucking great.
His grip around my neck tightened. It was getting hard to breathe. I hit him again with my elbow and swung my body left and right to shake him off.
No good.
I ran backward and drove him into the wall and flicked my head backward. Something soft, yet somewhat pointy was crushed behind my head.
I got his nose, but he still wouldn't let up. Things were going black. I was on the verge of passing out.
Think. If I couldn't shake him off or shoot him directly, then...
I pressed the muzzle of my revolver against my own heart.
"Time Alter-" I said.
Bang.
I coughed up blood. "R-Reverse Flow!"
The pain of a bullet tearing through my heart.
The pain of that wound closing itself again.
I writhed on the ground for almost a minute.
At the corner of my eye, Vincent pawed at the hole in his chest. Blood gushed and stained his clothes crimson. He staggered a few steps until he collapsed face-up on the ground.
"Haha, what are the odds? S-Same spot I shot Izemi in," he said with ragged breath. "Karma's a bitch, huh?"
After getting my bearings, I walked over to him, loading the next bullet.
I stood over who I thought was my friend, gun pointed at his head. My finger was hesitant to pull the trigger. He was going to bleed to death regardless of whether I shot him or not.
"Any last words?" I said.
Perhaps part of me wanted him to say something that justified his actions in his dying moments. Something remotely redeemable. Or perhaps I simply wanted him to apologize.
He closed his eyes with a look of satisfaction on his face. "None. Just shoot already."
The shot echoed throughout the room. It was done. The Boss was dead.
I took the amulet around his neck out of curiosity. What he said he saw did actually occur. There was a latch on the side, so I decided to look inside. The moment light flooded its insides, I winced. A human eyeball stared back at me. This had to be a mystic eye that was able to view the immediate future. I decided to pocket it for the moment and move on to examining the rest of this place.
The room I was brought to was where all the dead mages ended up to have their crests extracted. Various tools, most of which were completely foreign to me, were strewn around some tables.
I left that room behind me and landed back in the hallway with the three doors. The operating room was on the left. The chamber on the right was the personal quarters of the Boss.
The middle door led to the command room, just as Vincent said. There was a single seat in front of a wall of monitors. Each of them displayed different information.
One showed the current location of the base, the Mediterranean Sea, and its current destination, the Atlantic Ocean. Another showed a world map with all major bases and hideouts marked on it. The next one showed a list of operatives awaiting orders.
I didn't like it, but I understood the appeal. No one knew anything about the Boss. I could simply sit down on that chair and take everything over, but I had other plans.
Instead of searching this place manually, I simply opened up all the information about it in its database. This underwater base was fully automated, a fusion of magecraft and technology. There was a reactor on the first level that supplied the power. Storage was in the second level.
There was also a control panel to call a familiar bound to this place which rested in sleep mode somewhere. According to the information there, it was responsible for maintenance and extracting the crests off of dead bodies.
I found a list of what was being kept here. The list was long. It would take hours to sift through all the information on what crests, mystic codes, and other gizmos were there.
With this many tools at his disposal, couldn't Vincent have killed me easily back there? Or perhaps he didn't use them because it would be too easy otherwise and he wanted to get the thrill of it.
I changed the course of the base toward the UK. As my eyes wandered across the monitors, I noticed a folder that contained a long list of people.
Since I had nothing but time to kill, I decided to take a look.
The list was full of mages and people in possession of valuable mystic items. Each contained a profile about them and their family. Every file was marked with "Target Acquired", "In Progress", or "On Hold."
There was one file about me in there, too. I reread the name to make sure I wasn't seeing things.
A knot formed in my stomach. Could there be something about where I came from?
I opened my profile and... There was nothing that I didn't already know. The starting point of my chronological history was the date where Ryoken adopted me.
I leaned back in the armchair and stared at the screen for a long time. The fact that the Syndicate's information network couldn't find out anything about my origins was worrying. Or was the information simply not relevant? Then again, heritage was very important for mages, or anyone possessing a crest for that matter.
I could hear it in the command room. The massive hideout emerged to the surface of the ocean. I had contacted the Mage's Association on the way and coordinated a meeting location.
The sensors showed multiple boats around me. This complex was too massive to get close to shore, to begin with, and it was less conspicuous that way.
I flipped the switch to unlock all external doors and hatches. Not even a minute later, I could already hear dozens of footsteps in the hallway.
The door sprung open. Six mages in black and white suits poured into the room while I slowly spun around on the armchair to face them. Part of the force sent to secure and examine every nook and cranny of this place no doubt.
The next person that came in was a brunette. She wore a white long-coat with a big, red bow tie and brown boots.
Quite frankly, I was frozen for a moment. I didn't expect someone like her to show up in person.
I stood up from my seat. "Ma'am."
The head of the Department of Policies, and more importantly, Vice Headmaster of the Clock Tower, Lorelei Barthomeloi. This was someone I had to be careful around. I didn't want to get on her bad side.
"I will admit that I had not expected such a result from one as young as you," she said. "Nevertheless, you have done well. Once we have cataloged everything, expect to be royally rewarded."
"My work here is done then," I said. "If you'll excuse me."
The rest of the base was swarming with more of these mages in suits. With all the info in the command room, they could weed out the remnants of the Syndicate on their own. As far as I was concerned, I was done.
Though it was a total victory, I felt hollow inside. In the end, I was alone again.
I climbed out of a hatch and hopped on one of the boats from the Association, casting one final gaze at the former hideout of the Syndicate's Boss.
"Take me back to shore," I said.
The ship started moving a little later.
"I did it, Ryoken," I whispered, looking skyward. "I finished the job... But what do I do now?"
