Berlin | Mage-Tower Library — Ground Level
The Berlin Mage-Tower Library rises ten stories high, an atrium of endless shelves and floating walkways.
On the first tier, a small alliance has gathered around a oak table:
Lucil — white shirt, black trousers and a crimson cardigan and matching shoes.
Silver — full silver suit, moon-pupiled eyes steady with white shoes.
Ronya — cobalt-hairs and eyes, knee long black dress.
Steiner — blond, an eyepatch over one eye and a lazily half-buttoned military jacket.
Seria Goldbloom — red-and-black gown, pinned golden hair.
The Twins — Lucia stands behind Silver, emerald-eyes in a bartender's vest; Rocco mirroring her behind Lucil, sandy blond in a matching suit.
Lucil scans the half-empty hall. "This many, huh?"
Seria waves a hand. "More will come. Patience."
Ronya leans forward. "Our primary target is Jake?"
"Exactly." Silver replies. "That maniac's kill count is past a million at this point."
"And his ideology is spreading." Lucil adds, voice flattened. "It's poison dressed as doctrine."
Ronya folds her arms. "So we crush him before the poison takes root."
Silver turns to Steiner. "You with us?"
The blond mage nods once. "Duty compels me. Lucia, Rocco?"
Lucia answers first: "We're in. Someone has to clean up this mess."
Rocco follows, in a calmer voice. "This isn't just another clan war. This is the future of humanity."
Ronya bumps a fist into her palm. "One radical faction is bad enough; two is intolerable."
A collective sigh echoes around the table.
Silver sighs. "And the Exorcists complicate everything even further."
Lucil shakes his head. "Hard to believe they're backing Jake."
Steiner frowns. "Easier to believe Jake is backing them— with arms, relics and catalysts."
Lucil strolls to a record player, drops the needle. Soft jazz drifts through the stacks.
"Guests will arrive soon." he says. "We need a united front before we attack Jake."
Around the table, faint smiles answer him.
Seria drifts to Ronya's side. "Curious how Jake beat Lucil, isn't it?"
At the word beat, silence falls. Lucil fishes a cigarette from his pocket and flicks the lighter.
"He looked ordinary." Lucil says, smoke curling around the words. "A standard German soldier—just… ruthlessly efficient."
"But how did he defeat you?" Seria presses.
Lucia tilts his head. "Few manage that."
Rocco chuckles without humor. "And usually only Silver pulls it off."
Lucil exhales, eyes fixed on the spiraling smoke.. "He carries a gun infused with mana, he never hesitates with it and to boot his shots are faster than lightning. That combination—"
"—makes him a walking apocalypse." Silver finishes.
Lucil exhales a weary breath. "I was overwhelmed. One shot from his gun— one building gone. He fuses modern weapons with magic."
Silver's brow furrows. "Enchanted firearms. Guns are overpowered already and now they mix with magic! That's a deadly surprise!"
Steiner shakes his head. "A pistol can't be that catastrophic."
Lucil lets out a humorless laugh. "Trust me— in all my many lives, I've never faced anything like him. With that power he could single handedly rewrite the world."
A massive double-door creaks open across the lobby.
A tall man strides in— forest-green officer's coat, matching cap, blond hair brushing his collar. His grinning through his teeth.
"Surprise, Lucil. Surprise, Silver. Breakers of the Rules."
Jake's cobalt-gripped pistol is in his hand before anyone can react.
The muzzle flashes— faster than light itself.
Lucia turns, trying to cast a spell but only able to mutter the first syllable. "Unfi—"
Her chest blossoms crimson. She falls wordless to the ground— Rocco follows her to his death.
Jake lowers the smoking barrel. "Blutlinien Vernichtung, erster Grad.—Oops, German habit."
The air detonates with counterspells.
Lucil: "Rose Stringendo — Final Acceleration!"
Silver: "FullMoon — Destiny'sChain!"
Ronya: "Bune!"
Seria: "GoldenBow!"
Steiner: "GebrocheneRuhe, SchreiderGejagten!"
Magic collides— roses, moonlight, golden arrows, blue flames.
A symphony of sound and a collage of colours and combat.
Their battle has begun.
Aftermath
The library is an inferno: shelves toppled, grimoires aflame, stained glass shattered. Knowledge of eons burned to ash.
Lucil lies amid splintered oak, his wounds glowing crimson. Silver sprawls a meter away, bones cracked, breathing ragged.
Seria kneels— half of her body gone— slowly regenerating. Ronya staggers upright, the last one that's barely standing, dress torn to shreds, aura flickering. Nearby, Steiner lays himself against a wall, right eye lost, left arm vanished.
Lucil turns his head toward Silver. "Sil…ver—"
Silver answers through blood-streaked lips. "Lu…cil—"
Together, voices raw and resolute: "We'll kill him. He won't escape."
Flames climb the Library and tear it apart.
Berlin | Cinema Braun – Late Night
Cinema Braun, once a famous movie theater, is now a makeshift command post. Rows of red seats are packed with uniformed soldiers. At the rooftop of the darkened screen, Jake looks down at the stage beneath him. He removes his contact lenses— his eyes are pitch black. No pupil is visible, just pure darkness.
A shadow-shrouded figure stands at his side, voice a hellish rasp. "You murdered two of their allies."
"Lucia and Rocco?" Jake shrugs. "They insulted my vision. Only one truth exists, and everything outside it is ready to be erased."
The shadow's tone tightens. "Then why spare Lucil and Silver?"
Jake chuckles, low and easy. "Because they aren't fools. Killing a vampire is pointless, and shooting a fellow German arch-mage isn't my style. And that Ronya girl— Ars Goetia sorcery makes her too expensive to waste. I won't demolish the old world outright; I'll reshape it. If I break them, they'll serve me— cleansing any who reject the only truth."
The shadow hesitates. "And what is that only truth?"
Jake's smile thins. "Ready to listen? If you disagree—"
"We'll s—"
The sentence never finishes as Jake's pistol flashes once. The shadow crumples into itself; a faceless human falls to the side.
"You questioned me." Jake says, sliding the pistol smoothly back into its holster. "That was reason enough. Weak spirits have more value as fertilizer."
He inhales, satisfaction flickering across sharp features. Then his expression hardens.
"Only one truth. One reality. One unity. My kingdom— my colors— my ideals. When two powers clash, only one may stand. And it will be mine, even if I must kill every last soul. I will end all wars!"
Jake adjusts his cap. "Berlin is merely the beginning. I'll break this world— and forge it new."
His boasts echo across the stage as the projector flickers to life behind him, casting his imposing silhouette across a blank white screen— dark, triumphant and utterly resolute.
Present Day | Edinburgh Castle
A lone figure stands on the weather-beaten ramparts: broad-shouldered, long white hair rippling in the mist, beard braided to one side. He wears an immaculate white suit and a black tie, though one sleeve a rune-etched prosthetic arm can be seen, humming faintly with magic. A cigar burns between his fingers, trailing smoke into the gray sky.
Behind him waits a tall woman. Midnight hair cascades over a fitted black suit, red tie knotted tight. Ruby earrings catch what little light filters through the clouds, and crimson lacquer decorates each fingertip.
"Steiner." she says while folding her arms "you keep telling me that story about Jake— again and again and again."
Steiner exhales a plume of smoke. "Clarabelle, pay attention: the heroes of the past shaped this world. Someone like Jake mustn't be allowed to reshape it. It's our destiny to break his ideal."
Clarabelle inclines her head. "Understood. When do your guests arrive?"
A grim smile tugs at Steiner's mouth. "Next week."
"The legendary Moon Mage and the Rose Mage." she muses. "Meeting them will be… interesting."
"Indeed. I only hope they aren't stirring up trouble in Japan."
She laughs softly. "From your stories, they sounded almost normal."
Steiner chuckles, tapping ash from his cigar. "Normal? Maybe. Yet whenever those two are involved, catastrophe seems to follow. Danger has a way of finding their 'fat fingers,' as you'd say."
Clarabelle's smile widens. "Then we'd better be ready. If trouble comes to the UK, we'll have to make a welcoming party."
The wind whips across the battlements, carrying distant echoes of war as the two mages stare east— toward a fate that refuses to stay quiet.