Around 3000 B.C.
Egypt

"Bring the sacrifice!"
A male voice bellowed in a room that was dimly lit by some oil lamps, ritually placed around an offering altar.
Two men in ritual clothing's pulled a youngling toward it.
He had dark hair, held back by a cord and wore just a white cloth covering his intimate regions.

"Lay him down."
The voice ordered again.
The cold stone of the altar stung on the young mans naked skin and he struggled in fear.
The two who brought him held him down on his arms and legs and the third, who had given the orders now forced him to drink some bitter fluid.
Soon his body became lax and deprived of his control, while his mind clouded a bit and all thoughts of escape were forgotten.
The third man, a priest, produced a dagger used for rituals like these and chanted some incantations.
"May the gods look at this sacrifice with pleasure and grant our king the youth and vitality of this young body."
After those words the dagger was rammed into the young ones torso, pulled out again and the blood flowing from the wound was caught in a golden cup.
The sacrificial lamb felt no pain and eventually fell unconscious.

Some minutes later the priest barked at his servants.
"Throw that carcass out. Shall the jackals and hyenas feast on it."
They did as they were told and soon the young man lay forgotten in the cold desert.
He wasn't dead yet, but very close, his soul bound to his body by a silken thread.
As he drifted in and out of consciousness some times, he saw something.

It wasn't a person or any living creature for that matter.
It had no form or color and he didn't see it with his eyes but somehow else.
Simply said it was...nothing.

"You shall take back what's been taken from you. I grant you what, they asked for by taking your life."

He fell unconscious again and the next time he woke up and found his injuries healed.
The young man orientated himself and searched his way back to the palace where he had been held captive for two days.
There everyone who tried to stop him, dropped dead when he got close to them.
He reached the throne room and together with his family, the pharaoh's life came to an end just like so many of his servants'.

"Another's youth and life shall become yours."

The voice spoke to him a last time.

…

Present time

On the dark street of Karakura a S.I.N. held in the grasp of a man took it's last breather.
The dead body was dropped onto the ground and the person left.
He walked by the V.A.S.T. tower as Shiro and Ichigo came stormed out of it.

"Do you sense anything?"
Shiro asked his mate, who declined.
The two ran in the opposite direction of the man and not long after discovered the corpse.
"Shit!"
Ichigo yelled.
That made another one on their list, the culprit had to be close.
Ichigo looked around, then remembered seeing only one person on the street.
His head snapped toward the direction he went to, but he was out of sight and didn't leave any trail behind.

The man stood around a corner and observed the two, so he also noticed as Ichigo searched around for him.
A grin appeared on his lips and he mumbled as he took of.
"We'll meet soon."

Chapter 20
End