Huff! Huff!
Tap! Tap! Tap!
A man was running. His breath was ragged and his skin was sweaty. His hair thrown about on his head covered his eyelids that drooped low.
Tap! Tap!
His garments were torn and dirty; a long trenchcoat with a bloody, crimson drape. Mist blew from his open mouth, his chest heaving constantly.
His arms hung lifelessly as if they held no strength, dangling to and fro as the man's legs, working miraculously carried him off.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
The night sky was full with the air of melancholy. The clouds swaddled off lazily like a herd of sheep, roaming in the endless pasture of star lit night. And in the sky, a singular silver moon hung high.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Clang!
The buildings on both sides of the man were dark and Gothic in style. Large spires rose from the distance as if to touch the sky and an eerie red light shone in the street, cast by the metal encased lanterns hanging by the poles.
A large church rose in the distance, strikingly visible in the dim silvery light by virtue of it's minted glass windows that formed intricate patterns of a man holding out his arms.
Clang!
Shadows lengthened through the light of the moon and a distant bell was relentlessly tolling away.
Tap! Tap!
The man's eyes travelled to the nearest lamppost. There, a raven was perched. It's dead, pupilless eyes stared at him as if gnawing at his soul.
He stopped. His ragged breaths slowed down, coming to a standstill. Slowly, a singular teat fell from his eyes.
His mouth opened sucked in air and closed, several times over, desperately wishing to find something to speak.
"I.... please." He sobbed, tears beginning to roll across his cheeks. "I... I don't... I don't want to die!"
His eyes were riveted to the raven. He waited, looking for an answer.
Tap! Tap!
The tapping of feet began to ring in the air. Only this time, it was not the man who was running. The footsteps were slow, deliberate.
The man didn't turn. He stayed put. Yet, his tears never dried up – instead, they poured out uncontrollably.
His breath hitched.
From the distant fog that covered the street, a man slowly walked out. He was tall, standing at a height of 6 feet 2 inches.
He wore a dark trenchcoat and a hat on his head. In his right hand, he held a large blade. It seemed to be a strange mix between a sword and a cleaver– a weapon to rend flesh and nothing more.
And in his left was a revolver, it's brass sheen glinting in the dark.
The man's face wasn't clearly visible, hampered by a dark cloth he wore around his mouth.
Tap! Tap!
"Please..." the man's crying reached a pinnacle. His legs gave out and he slumped to the ground.
"Don't prattle." The new arrival spoke in a deep voice, yet his tone was clear and held a strange power. As his words landed, the surrounding environment seemed to shift.
The mist seemed as if it had come alive, twisting and turning in the air. The darkness seemed to have grown various tentacles and wished to escape from it's confines, growing into the light to devour everything.
The surroundings became silent. The distant bell toll stopped.
The raven flew off the pole and landed on the man's shoulder. Without any reaction, he walked closer to the kneeling figure.
As he reached striking distance, the man extended his right hand and poised the weapon by the other's neck.
"You knew of the consequences, Wilson." He said, his grip on his weapon tightening.
"You knew what it meant to betray the order. Your raven is dead. You struck down the 7th division. All for what? Here you lay, punishment at your doorstep. You have been corrupted by primordial blood."
"I'm... sorry..."
"Aren't you a penitent one?" The man huffed.
Wilson's breath hitched again, "Please... spare me. I didn't know..."
"You always knew, Wilson." The man said, interrupting his old friend. The raven at his shoulder croaked. "You knew. Your current state is a corollary of your blasphemy."
He pressed the blade closer to his neck. Wilson sobbed even more as he felt the cold edge on his flesh.
"I... I sacrificed my glory... I only wished to see her again...
"The miracle- it should have worked!"
The man shook his head, ignoring Wilson's ramblings.
"She's dead. Even if she had been brought back, would you bear the sight of her husk?" The man pulled back the blade, ready to finish Wilson off.
"May you find respite in the dawn. And may you bask in the glory of the afterlife." With that said, the man paused. "Praise the Miracle."
Slash!
A sweeping motion and a singular brilliant arc.
And the head went flying.
It landed on the ground, spraying blood all over the dark road.
The man pulled back his weapon and hoisted it at his back, keeping it squarely on a makeshift holder.
With that, he put his hand to his chest as his deep dark eyes gazed at the carcass.
Without warning, a brilliant light shone from the man's hand, illuminating the street and falling upon the carcass!
It felt as if time had stopped.
And then, decay.
The body began to turn into dust, decaying at a rapid pace. The power of twilight burst out from the man's hand, purifying all blasphemy and destroying the man's remains.
In just a few short seconds, the carcass turned to ash.
The raven at his shoulder croaked again as it turned it's head to look deeply at the fog.
The man turned his head.
There, another person slowly walked ahead. He also wore similar attire, only his collar was a deep crimson in colour.
The man smiled at him.
"I see you've already done your job, Hedin."
Hedin nodded solemnly.
Then, he sighed.
"He had been corrupted. It was only right to do so."
The man walked forward and put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. He briefly patted his coat, "You should have dispatched of him sooner. There was no need to offer words of peace for the sinners."
"All beings deserve glory." Hedin proclaimed instantly.
"Glory is not for the blasphemous." The man replied on cue. He walked past him, hands resting in his pockets.
"Wilson killed his own raven and murdered his kin. Kin that didn't deserve death. The miracle punished him for it in the form of execution." He paused. "May his soul burn forever in twilight." His words seemed to have a strange effect on reality. The moonlight shimmered, as if responding to his words and the darkness trembled in it's wake.
The air instantly chilled and strange whispers began to ring in the air.
Hedin turned around, his mouth opening to protest.
Only there was no one to be seen. He sighed, and with the rhythmic sound of his feet, he carried himself away.
...
The morning came with the light of dawn. A large glow came from the horizon, illuminating the streets of the Gothic city.
Hedin walked the sparsely populated streets.
News boys ran through the streets, delivering papers to each household and street hawkers had already began to emerge; carefully vying for the early buyers.
None of them paid any more attention to him than they had to. The moment their eyes landed on his coat and the weapons he carried, they pulled back their hopeful gazes in fear as if afraid the man would strike them down merely for looking at them funny.
Such was the fate of a Hunter.
They protect the city from the great ones' blasphemous creations, yet they breed fear all the same. Miracle may support them, being the force of nature that it is, but it holds dangers for the frail of heart. The attention of the Great Ones usually falls on the promising hunters, dooming them from glory.
Hedin looked at the rapidly yellowing sky, and the moon that stood alone therein.
As he walked ahead, he heard a soft sound of a cat.
He looked up at a tree. A baby kitten was perched upon one of the branches, trembling and pitiful.
Hedin smiled softly and with a small leap, he grabbed the small kitten and landed on the ground.
He stoked it's soft fur. The cat curled into a ball, as if afraid Hedin would rip it apart any moment, but relaxed when it realized he meant no harm. Gently, he set it upon the ground.
The cat instantly ran away, disappearing into the rapidly dispersing fog.
It passed by a woman who was walking towards him. She adorned the same attire as him. Only she wasn't wearing a hat, leaving her dark locks cascading over her shoulders.
As their eyes met, she smiled softly.
"Gentle as ever, Hedin."
"Melissa." Hedin nodded in acknowledgement. At that moment, the distant bell tolls sounded in their ears.
Once. Twice. Soon, it had rang for a total of 6 instances, signifying the time.
Melissa walked up to him and smiled.
"I heard Wilson defected."
"The Great Ones' blasphemy took yet another one of us." Hedin shook his head and clicked his tongue.
"Care to pray?" Melissa raised an eyebrow.
"Care to train."
"Maybe the first hunter can show you the way." Melissa puffed her cheeks and turned her head away. The first hunter. That was the name of the title of their 'God'. The first man to bear the glory of the Miracle and take arms against the great ones.
Hedin stopped for a moment, as if to contemplate his words. He turned to the street, where people were arising from their homes.
"God is the property of the poor." He began. His words caused a notable change in the air. The light of the sun, the beams of illumination fell on their figures, even if it was logically impossible for it to be so. It was as if the light of dawn was purposefully seeking them out.
"That is the hope of those living a hopeless life. And that will continue to be the case- they will keep living in hopelessness until they get rid of it."
Melissa's words caught in her throat. She stared at Hedin for a moment before shaking her head.
If it had been anyone else saying such things, they would have no doubt been the target of great scrutiny and perhaps even violence. But Hunters were different. They were the same beings as the first one, as were referred to as 'God Kin.' Of course, worshipping the first one was still mainstream among the hunters, but no one among them was forced to do so.
"Whatever you say, I suppose..." Melissa shook her head and quieter down.
Just then, Hedin spoke.
"The Master of Arms was disappointed wasn't he?" He asked.
Melissa's eyes turned a bit weary.
"He was. Wilson was, after all, one of the most promising hunters of the new Era. He went from being a nobody to a Light Bearer in 6 years. Lord Malison personally trained him for it."
Hedin nodded absently.
Light Bearer. That was one of the official positions a hunter could have.
It went from Trainee, Disciple, Templar, Light Bearer, Division Commanders, and the named Generals. Above them all, were the three corner stones of the Order of the Hunt - The Master of Arms, The Third Hunter and the First Sorceress.
Such an arrangement was roughly based on strength but there were always exceptions. Most of the time, basing a hunter's strength based on their rank was a fool's errand.
Hedin himself was also a Light Bearer.
Melissa lingered for a few more moments, making some small talk before she bid her goodbye and began to walk away.
Hedin was left alone, standing by the side of the street.
His eyes narrowed and he sighed.
If only... if only the world was rid of the great ones... if only there was a world where such blasphemous beings existed not...
Amid his thoughts, he could not help but think of the first one.
The one being that eliminated the oldest of the great ones.
...I can only wish. He closed his eyes, shaking his head as he did so.
Just then, a faint whisper sounded in his ears.
Instantly, his nerves stretched and his muscles tensed. His eyes opened, the pupils within narrowing in alarm as he looked around himself.
The streets were the same. The low hanging yellow fog, the hawkers going about their way and the sparse amount of people getting out of their houses. Yet, amid all that, there was something deeply disturbing.
What is...
His vision blurred for a moment. Instantly, his hand reached for his weapons, grabbing the hilt of his blade at his back and the revolver at his hip.
The whispers intensified, throwing off his concentration. They were cryptic, unstable, and above all, corrupting.
Blasphemy?! He screamed in his mind, afraid that he too would defect under the influence. Truth be told, he had never heard of such things. If the proper precautions were taken and one did not garner attention beyond their capacities, the risk of succumbing to a great one was as good as zero. He had not done any dark rituals, neither did he partake in any ceremonies pertaining to a great one.
So why?
His raven flew over to his shoulder, croaking as it did so. It pecked at his head, trying to make him regain clarity through pain.
And then, his vision cleared up.
Huuuuuuu!
He inhaled sharply. His dark red eyes took in the visions around him.
All around him was a brightly lit street. The Sun shone overhead, casting light over the city. He stood at the base of a large fountain, and around him, various people, some human and others... sub-human went about their ways. Carriages cavorted the streets, pulled by strange reptilian creatures and humanoids with animalistic features went around, talking with the normal ones.
Hedin stood still. The raven at his shoulder was also caught in a moment of shock.
Slowly, he removed his hand from his weapons. He didn't dare to make any immediate movements, for he noticed how he was already receiving some stares from the others.
Perhaps it was his attire that interested them. Which, in itself, was an anomaly. It meant they did not know of his identity as a hunter, for if they did, they would have refused to have their gazes linger as long as they did.
"An illusion?" He muttered, softly. The raven at his shoulder curled up a bit, looking around cautiously.
"Could this be some sort of another dimension? Cast by a great one?" His deep red eyes anxiously looked around, yet his face was as calm as a lake. His body language showed no signs of anxiety or nervousness.
The greater the threat, the calmer you become. That was one of the first things taught to a hunter. One does not simply rush into danger without accessing the situation.
...
...
A/N: Hello! This is my take on a Re Zero fanfic. This has been in development for a little more than 2 months by now. I figured that a single fanfic will only burn me out so I decided to release this.
Along with that, I would also like to say that I'm officially releasing my Patreon. You can read up to 10 advanced chapters on there.
Link: patreon .c o m/Yesnth Just remove the spaces in between.
And yeah, let us see how long this can last.
Cheers~