Chapter 1-22
Lost Shard’s Reappear
In a land of beautiful sunlight and glorious white tiles decorating the streets, buildings can be seen extending themselves to the skies, crossing the skies themselves and piercing the clouds far above, while in the streets, people can be seen walking and running, all of them with a wide smile across their face, in between the people, a girl with black beautiful hair can be seen walking down the road while an old man holding her hand while she holds a doll on the other hand.
After a few minutes of walking, they approach a food stand where Lucia picks the biggest, delicious looking apple from the bunch, and as if nature presented itself, Caney buys her the apple from the humble man, who thanks them eternally for the purchase, but as soon as she bites into the apple, she sees it turn into ash, and the bright sun starts turning into a dark shade of red and the skies themselves turn into the darkest black possible, absorbing any remnant of light from the city.
When she realizes what’s happening, she sees Caney walking away into a crowd of people, where all of them are impossible to distinguish, but one thing is for certain: They all have something on their face, something Lucia cant distinguish, although before joining the crowd, she hears one last word being spoken from Caney.
Caney: Do not fail where I did little Lucy, be better than whatever remained of the man known as your grandfather.
In that precise moment, she shots open her eyes as the vision in front of her starts to disappear, she finds herself sitting in the wardrobe she went before, although she does notices she’s now holding Mona, one look at the doll gives her a little bit of comfort before realizing that when she tried to open the door to the wardrobe, this one wouldn’t open, no matter how much she would push it.
Lucia started to bang against the wardrobe door.
Lucia: H-hello?! Anybody there?
She takes a look through a little peephole where she sees Caney sitting in the middle of the room, drinking tea, that is until she also notices the bright red shade the room took, and the intense scorching heat starting to emanate from the room; Something was wrong.
Lucia: Grandpa, I cant get out of here!
But even after screaming and still banging at the door, Caney did not turn around to her, he instead took another sip of his tea in silence.
It was difficult to see, but Lucia managed to see that the room was in shambles, the roof was open somewhat and the floor was breaking itself apart, that’s when she finally was able to see it; A big fire was surrounding the walls of the room, closing in on Caney.
Lucia again, banged the wardrobe door.
Lucia: Grandpa! W-What’s going on?!
(Can he not hear me?)
In that moment, amidst the fire and thunder outside, the window to Lucia’s room shattered into pieces, where in front of it now stood a figure, it was difficult to discern because of the distance and wardrobe, but when the figure spoke, she immediately knew it was a man who stood before Caney.
Man: There’s a million words running through my mind right now, but I don’t think that’s any surprise, right?
Caney continued to sip its tea while the man walk slowly towards him.
Man: So this was your hiding place for all these years?
Caney: It wasn’t: That would imply I was hiding at all in the first place, kid.
The man stopped himself in his tracks when he heard Caney speak, that’s where she finally got a better glimpse at the man, he was very tall, his hair was short and spiky with its color being a dark shade of green, his eyes were extremely dark, as if the abyss itself was being manifested in them, but the most remarking detail from the man was his smile; It was a near nightmarish grin from ear to ear, a distorted, sinister and manic smile that Lucia had never seen in her entire life, she was petrified and couldn’t move, the only thing she could do, was wished she had never seen his face in the first place.
Man: Prey will instinctively hide when their predator is near them.
Caney however, was not fazed by the words of the man, he instead took a sip of his tea before speaking once more.
Caney: So you are the one I heard so much about; The hunter of the Iron Legion; The biggest assassin known in the last 30 years…
And it turns to be another punk from the streets.
Man: And I thought that the leader of them wouldn’t choose some weak messengers.
As soon as he finishes saying that, a head come through the broken window and rolls at Caney’s feet, the gesture doesn’t make Caney flinch in the slightest, but even Lucia recognize the head of the person.
Lucia: (That’s mister Wilbur, he came yesterday to speak with Grandpa, but why is he here? And why is he missing his body?)
Man: Are you ready to speak?
Caney: You speak as if I had any choice.
Man: You do have one; Respond my questions or die in solitude.
Caney: That’s not a choice; That’s an ultimatum.
Caney feels a slight cut form in his cheek as something flies towards his direction and impacts on the bookshelf behind him, going through the wood of the bookshelf, making some of the wood from it fly in multiple directions, causing splinter to form around the weapon.
On the other side, Lucia can se how a part of the weapon is protruding on the right side of her, and had she been watching through there, she would’ve gotten hurt.
Man: No more bullshit; What did you do that day?
Caney: You ask a question which has many answers kid.
Man: Even now, while surrounded in flames, you continue to be the exact same bastard from that day: I’m talking about this.
From there, the man pulls out from their pocket: in his hand, there was a small piece of cloth holding a purple hue and light coming out of it, this one immediately filled out the room as the flames took a dark purple color while Caney continued to only stare at the man.
Caney: Interesting thing you got there kid…
Caney from there finally stands up and leaves their cup of tea sitting in the table, which broke as he immediately put it down.
Caney: Unfortunately, I still don’t know what you are talking about.
The man from there lost a bit of their manic smile, instead, their voice and face now reflected a shade of anger as now veins were starting to pulsate from their entire body.
Man: WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?!
Caney: Again, kid, I don’t know what you are talking about.
The man from there, put the strange glowing light back in his pockets, were finally, he pulled out a weapon; a small, but very shiny dagger, its metal was polished but the form of the dagger was unrefined, almost as if the piece of metal was stuck by brute force to the handle.
Man: So you wont speak about it.
That’s fine…
The Man from there returned to its manic state, while his pupils dilated, making it almost seems like his eyes were filled in eternal darkness.
Man: I have all the time in the world to torture you into talking.
The Man started to slowly walked to Caney, who only stood there, meanwhile Lucia could only look in shock at the man’s face, she was worried about her grandpa, but when she was about to shout, she was Caney turn his head towards her before started to whistle that familiar tune of before, the sound managed to drown out any other sound of the room, as Caney did this, Lucia felt more calm, understanding why he did that whistling, it was his way of saying the following to her:
Caney: Grandpa will be alright little Lucy, now close your eyes, and let me handle him.
At the same time, the man can be seen stopping in his tracks before his entire body started to slowly shake, from there, he held his head while listening to the whistle from Caney.
When the whistling stopped, he managed to force himself to look Caney directly eye to eye, and he now saw him wearing a weird contraction made of Iron on his face.
Caney: I don’t care what your motives are, or who you are even, for me you are just another piece of garbage I should’ve tossed long time ago, but its never too late to do justice.
The man immediately jumps to Caney, trying to stuck his dagger into his neck, but the dagger is stopped by a piece of wood intercepting it while Caney stood without any movement.
Lucia managed to see that alongside Caney there were these two other people, their clothing were tattered but she still recognized them, even if it was from the back side.
Lucia: Mother? Father?
The Man speaks from the bottom of their lungs at Caney.
Man: What you have done isn’t “Justice”…
Its “Murder”, and coming from me, that’s pretty rich.
The Man jumps back where they finally se Caney and two other individuals, a man and woman, wearing the exact same contraption on their face.
Man: ¡Now, this is where the fun finally begins!