_ "Damn, where am I?"

He kept repeating this question to himself as he continued to run the fastest to escape, looking around frantically as if he was being followed, which he was. The same landscape kept scrolling everywhere, like a reel of film repeating itself over and over again. This same sinister place with the allure of a gloomy temple, with perhaps Greek architecture, plunged into semi-darkness and lit by torches ... These stone pillars fashioned by hand and adorned with these faces of howling snakes, with red eyes and almost seemed to follow him with their eyes.

Finally, after a frantic race, he came to two large doors which he pushed open, only to find himself in front of an even more disturbing sight that left him speechless. An open and immense space, and in front of it, an entire city reduced to ruins and covered in ashes. In the sky having taken the color of blood, a large black sphere appeared, like a black hole and in which rose a thread of white energy, gradually swallowed by darkness.

But he had no more time to understand what was happening, than behind him, the presence that pursued him finally caught up with him at lightning speed. He barely had time to turn around, and the last thing he saw were these two female and reptilians eyes shining with a supernatural purple glow ...

Mathias gasped, kicked out of his restless sleep by the repeated little ringing of his alarm clock, which he quickly turned off and checked the time on his cell phone. Six am. He huffed heavily, his eyes still hungry for sleep, but there was no question of staying in bed. He had work today.

Mathias nevertheless took a few seconds to give his brain time to emerge, and also to think back a little of the curious nightmare he had just had, for the fifth time in five nights, which left him perplexed. But he tried to rationalize. After all, he had still playing Dark Souls 3 very late that night and had listened to The Great Old Ones, a metal band he is a huge fan of. By dint of being a fan of horror stuff, it's not so surprising to have dark dreams, he said to himself as he stood up.

He drew the curtain on his bedroom window, to see that the sun was just starting to rise, but the weather seemed rather overcast. No wonder it was fall and almost the start of winter. Having still time before going to work, Mathias decided to take a little shower.

Mathias Heisenberg. 26 years old. Long brown hair, green eyes, slim body, thin face, a small mustache and a goatee on his chin. An ordinary physique for an ordinary man who was looking for nothing else in life than to do what he wants to do. Since the death of his parents 10 years ago in a tragic train accident, Mathias had lived alone in this modest house which had belonged to his family for three generations when the Heisenberg family left Eastern Europe to come to France, and which he had now inherited.

The residential area in which the house was located was rather quiet, far from the city center of the city of Chartres, a city in central France with over 30,000 inhabitants. An ideal place to live, Mathias not imagining himself going to live in a huge city like Paris.

Mathias was a homebody, loving to stay at home to write, listen to music, watch movies, play video games, etc ... He had always been shy by nature and had never had many friends in the area. life, his schooling being a period he preferred not to talk about.

Mathias greatly appreciated the heat of the shower, then dressed as usual: black t-shirt, black jeans pants, black socks, black shoes. He ate breakfast, made sure his cat Cleo had something to eat, and left the house to get to his car. The morning chill bit his face, the sky announcing that rain would soon fall, but luckily his hooded black coat would protect him.

But as he was about to enter his car, a noise caught his attention. On the sidewalk, he noticed that a young girl seemed to have tripped to the ground, knocking down what she was wearing. Possessing a helpful side, Mathias came over to her and bent down to pick up the bag she had dropped.

_"Uh... Everything is fine?" he asked her, seeing that she was rubbing her slightly sore shoulder.

The girl appeared to be 12 years old, which seemed curious to Mathias to see her alone in the street at such a young age. She was dressed all in purple with winter clothes, a white scarf around her neck. Her skin was pale, her long hair was silver blonde, but the irises in her eyes were red as blood, which was rather rare.

She got up and seeing that Mathias was holding her bag in his hand, seemed worried and hastened to take it back, keeping it preciously against her.

_ "Be careful to that, it's ... it's very fragile." she said reproachfully.

_ "If you say so. But tell me, what are you doing all alone at this hour? Where are your parents?" Mathias asked as a responsible adult.

_ "That's none of your business ... But nevertheless, thank you for your help. My name is Illyasviel." she said bluntly, but was very polite, speaking almost like a girl from a noble family.

Illyasviel? An unfamiliar name, thought Mathias to himself, raising an eyebrow. But seeing her smiling and thanking her, he smiled back and wanted to be polite too.

_ "Well, nice to meet you Illyasviel. My name is Mathias."

When he said his name, he thought he detected a certain curiosity in the young girl's eye, as if she was perplexed about something looking at him. He would have liked to shake her hand, but saw that the young girl hurried back into the street, running almost playfully. Mathias would have liked to know where his parents were, but she had already disappeared from sight, leaving him confused. He looked around, but no, she had vanished.

The day was getting off to a rather odd start, he told himself as he got into his car, cranking the engine and starting to drive to work as a light rain began to fall over the city.

Mathias was currently working outside the city, as a carer for the elderly, in an establishment called the Gardens of Eden, located just outside the city. A modest but pleasant retreat establishment to allow old people to come and spend days in peace in the calm of the countryside and far from the noise of the city. Mathias had always gotten on well with the elderly and had always had a vocation to help people.

The day, although having started a little oddly, passed without problem. Mathias did the tasks assigned to him just like his colleagues. Towards the end of the day, as twilight began to paint the sky, Mathias decided, despite the fatigue, to visit someone special who lived in the establishment, but who did not live in the building in which Mathias was usually assigned.

Even though the Covid pandemic had almost disappeared, Mathias had made all the arrangements and finally entered the room where someone, bedridden, was waiting for him.

Sitting in the single bed lit by the setting sun, an old man with a nearly bald head, dressed in his nightgown, smiled at him, and Mathias did the same and came and hugged him softly.

_ "Hi grandpa ... How are you feeling today?" Mathias asked in the embrace, and then went to take a chair to sit by the bed.

_ "Oh, a little tired, like every day ..." replied the grandfather calmly "... But it's not surprising at my age."

Grandfather Alexandre Heisenberg. Mathias knew him very well since it was he who had taken care of him after the death of his parents. Alexandre was a loving grandfather, who had suffered the death of his wife a year earlier, which had greatly weakened him physically and morally, forcing Mathias to have him placed in this establishment. In his life, Alexandre was a man with a passion for history, and had even been a brilliant archaeologist having traveled all over the world, notably in Greece, Egypt and South America. When he was a child, Mathias loved listening to his grandfather's tales of his travels and the treasures he discovered in ancient places.

In his eyes, his grandfather was such a hero as Indiana Jones.

But for a few weeks now, Alexandre's health had deteriorated. He was getting more and more tired and eating less than before, which worried Mathias, but who in a sense knew that his grandfather was almost 90 years old now, and that he had to prepare one day to say goodbye to him. It was life, and that, he could'nt do anything about it.

_ "So what about you, Mathias? This day?" asked the curious grandfather.

_ "Oh, well, a rather classic day, with its usual ups and downs ... Although ... This morning I had a rather singular meeting I must admit." Mathias confessed, thinking back to the silvery-haired girl from that morning.

_ "Really? Tell me." asked Alexandre.

_ "Well ... This morning in front of my house, as I was going to take my car, I met this young girl, very well dressed and well educated, with silver blonde hair and red eyes. She had dropped something on the ground and I helped her pick it up. But what struck me as strange was that she was all alone in the street very early and at such a young age. I asked her where was her parents, but she wouldn't tell me. She said her name was ... uh ... I think ... yes ... Illyasviel, that's it."

The grandfather listened to Mathias' little story with a certain detachment, but when the first name of the girl was mentioned, his attitude suddenly changed, becoming more pensive and less smiling. Mathias noticed it.

_ "Uh, grandpa? Something wrong? Are you feeling well? Do you want me to call the nurse?" Mathias asked concerned.

_ "Hmmm? Oh no, no need, thank you. I'm just tired, that's all." replied the grandfather, feigning a smile.

Mathias was a little puzzled by this sudden change of attitude on the part of his grandfather, but chose not to insist and decided to let him rest and that he would come back to see him tomorrow. But as Mathias was saying goodbye and was about to leave the room, Alexandre's voice stopped him.

_ "Oh, I was going to forget, Mathias. I wanted to give you this."

He indicated to the young man something that was in the chest of drawers, which Mathias went to open to discover an object wrapped in precious fabric. He discovered it, to see that it was a small old mirror, with gilded contours and whose patterns resembled snakes. Mathias admired the beauty of the object he carefully held in his hands, although for a brief moment the snakes on the outlines curiously reminded him of those he had seen in his nightmare.

_ "T ... Thank you grandfather. It's beautiful. But what is it?" Mathias asked, turning to him.

_ "One of the most important and precious treasures I have discovered. This is an antique mirror that I found, when I was your age, while participating in an excavation in a very old temple , on an isolated island off the coast of Greece. This treasure has been in our family for so long, and I believe it is high time today that you inherit it. Take great care of it, Mathias, for you will see, this mirror could change your life forever, just like it did for me."

Mathias was a little puzzled at his grandmother's explanations, how could a simple mirror change his life? But despite that, he accepted the beautiful gift and promised to keep it and pay attention to it. Putting the mirror back in the fabric and taking it with him, Mathias once again said goodbye to his grandfather and left the room.

Once alone in his modest room, Alexandre turned his old and tired gaze to the setting sun, which was disappearing behind the forest, the sky having colored red. The old man gave a small smile and huffed softly.

_ "So it's going to start all over again, but this time I won't be able to take part in it ..." he sighed thoughtfully, as if reliving an event from his past life. "... If you can hear me, please, my dear friend, don't forget the promise you made me. Help my grandson, as you helped me once. I would be eternally grateful to you."

This thought and this prayer brought him far back in his memories. Him, younger, standing in the middle of ruins like after a fierce and violent battle, and facing a female figure hidden in the shadows, who came gently to put her hands on Alexander's cheeks, and put her forehead against his.

_ "I promise you ... Master ..." said the distant and feminine voice, while the memory of Alexander faded in his mind.