It is under freezing rain that the return by car was made for Mathias when night had fallen at a very high speed. Damn, the weather decidedly decided to be shitty until the end, thought the young man while driving, seeing in front of him the drops which like water arrows passed at full speed in the light of the headlights. He had finished walking through the industrial area of ​​the city to finally begin to see the first houses of his residential area, much quieter and deserted at this hour. So much the better, at least he wouldn't hear the insufferable neighborhood kids playing soccer and screaming like possessed savages. And afterwards, some were still surprised that Mathias did not want children later.

But all the way back, Mathias had never ceased to be intrigued by the antique mirror offered by his grandfather, which was now placed on the passenger seat, well wrapped in its fabric. The attitude of the grandfather regarding the name of the young girl with the silver hair also left Mathias a little perplexed. He knew his grandfather liked to do puzzles for fun, but this was serious. He knew her, he was sure, but how? He could have insisted, but with his grandfather's very fragile health at the moment, he did not want to tire him and rush him. Well, I'll ask him another time, he told himself.

After having parked his car in front of his house, the hood over his head, the mirror under his arm, Mathias hurried home, his coat dripping with drops and breathed in relief at the warmth of his house as he closed the door. At last at home, he said to himself. His cat Cleo came to see him, purring and rubbing against his legs and Mathias gave him a little pat on the head.

Completely washed up by this day's work, Mathias was too lazy to cook this evening, and then he hadn't had time to do the shopping. Oh well, a good pizza to order and it will be perfect. He put the mirror on the dining room table, and noticed his cat come to observe and sniff the curious object.

_ "Ah, sorry, it's not for eating." Mathias told him jokingly.

The cat had a strange reflex after feeling the object, having a brief recoil, as if surprised, and immediately walked away, but Mathias ignored it and once rid of his coat and shoes, sat a moment on the couch and picked up the phone to order his pizza while turning on the television and watching the news.

The old news channel jingle rang, then the presenter appeared, dressed in his suit, his files in his hands and sitting behind a desk, with the huge channel logo behind him.

_ "Good evening to all, ladies and gentlemen. We begin this news with a rather worrying event which has occurred today in the city center of Chartres. Indeed, around 2 pm this afternoon, the residents of an entire building were found unconscious in their apartments. All showed signs of very severe debilitation and were barely breathing, as if they had been drained of their energy. All are currently in the hospital in serious condition, but we will keep you posted on developments ..."

The inhabitants of an entire building? All fallen into unconsciousness? This raised an eyebrow at Mathias. Indeed, such a thing was to happen almost never. And that had happened today, early in the afternoon?

Pfff, obviously bad news, to believe that the news channels were the competition of the most depressing news in the world. Mathias decided to cut that and instead watch a good movie while enjoying his hot and appetizing pizza which had just been delivered.

While waiting for his pizza to heat up a bit in the microwave, Mathias wanted to take another look and admire this antique mirror. Really, this object was very beautiful and very well preserved. But Mathias then noticed something else that was hidden in the fabric, under the mirror. A kind of folded and yellowed paper. Puzzled, he opened it and discovered strange writings, like instructions inside, as well as a symbol, like a kind of pentagram. Mathias read the text which was written next to it, and which was his grandfather's handwriting.

_"Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Ivar. The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate. Your self is under me, my fate is in your sword. In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer. Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead. You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance: Rider..."

Mathias finished reading which to him made no sense, making him wonder why his grandfather wrote such a thing and draw such a symbol next to it? Mathias reread the text several times, trying to find some hidden meaning, but nothing, it was just mystical gibberish to him. Mathias put the paper flat on the table next to the mirror and began to wonder if his grandfather was drunk or drugged the day he wrote this.

_ "I can't wait to go to bed, I can't take any more of this day." he breathed, passing his hand over his face.

But as he was about to take a plate from his cupboard to eat his pizza, Mathias was struck by a very strong and sudden sensation, as if a very intense electric current had passed through him. The cat seemed to feel it too, and hissed in anger, before going into hiding. The shiver which had run through Mathias was so strong that he had let go of the plate which broke on the ground.

Mathias felt ... oppressed, oddly enough, as if he lacked air, as if he had been locked in an invisible bell ...

And suddenly it was his right hand that was seized with a very intense burning sensation, making him wince and cry out in pain. Mathias opened wide eyes and was speechless as he literally saw a red symbol, in the shape of three snake heads in a circle, magically engrave on the back of his hand. Mathias had to lean against the wall so as not to fall backwards, contemplating this symbol which had appeared on his hand without explanation.

_ "W ... What the ...?" he stammered in shock.

He rubbed on it to try to remove it, ran water over it, but nothing to do, it didn't come off and it didn't even hurt now, like a simple tattoo.

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

Mathias jumped in surprise when this cry came, coming from outside and very close. What the fuck is that, he thought as he ran to the front door to see what was going on on that really weird day.

Mathias froze in fear when he was on the threshold of his house and looking outside. Right outside the gate of his house, in the simple light of a lamppost that lit up the night, the pizza delivery boy was there, motionless and stretched out on the ground, his face frozen in an expression of great terror as his throat came through being lacerated to the bone and spilling a stream of blood on the sidewalk.

But what was even more terrifying for Mathias was the figure standing next to the dead pizza delivery boy, and holding the bloody knife that had been used to kill him. The stranger stood there, quite tall, but his attire was terrifying. A long black hooded coat in tattered fabric, completely hiding body and head. He was barefoot, and his legs and hands had black skin that looked almost rotten. A morbid, skull-shaped mask completely hid his face.

Mathias couldn't move anymore, his gaze fixed on this masked and really creepy person, who had just killed someone right in front of him and remained there, silent, looking towards him.

_ "Well, well ..." the assassin commented in a gruesome, dark voice, almost inhuman, as he tilted his head slightly to one side, letting the crackle of his neck be heard. "Here's the first one. His mana is disgustingly weak, but orders are orders. It will be done quickly."

Mana? Orders? What was he talking about? Mathias swallowed, shaking with fear. Now that he had witnessed a murder, he knew that this masked madman would not let him live.

And his intuition didn't fool him. The assassin leaped towards him, with speed and force normally impossible, knocking two more daggers out of his sleeves. Mathias jumped up and rolled to the side in the grass, just in time before the dagger came and nailed his head to the door.

_ "Hmmm, not bad, for a weak human ..." the assassin commented, turning to him.

_ "HELP! POLICE! SOMEONE HELP ME!" Mathias then yelled to hope to see the whole neighborhood come to see what is happening and call the police, he who had stupidly left his cell phone in the living room.

_ "No need to yell, no one will come." said the assassin grimly, coming towards him. "My master has summoned a sphere of isolation all around the house. You are all alone."

His master? A sphere of isolation?

_ "What the fuck are you talking about, you freak?!" Mathias huffed back, fear in his guts.

But the masked psychopath did not respond and returned to the attack again with his black bladed daggers. Mathias tried to dodge the new blow by leaping back, but winced in pain as the tip of the blade slashed his left shoulder. The assassin took advantage of this momentum to deliver a very violent kick in the stomach to Mathias, who gasped and was thrown back several meters against the garden gate. Suffering from the blow received, Mathias could no longer move at all, and could no longer say a sound from his mouth.

The assassin, under the rain, walked slowly and confidently towards him, to come and finish him off. Mathias was in pain, but was also terrified, his heart pounding. I'm going to die, he thought, and no one can come and save me now.

But what the young man was unaware of, is that in his dining room now, the pentagram on the paper began to glow with an increasingly intense red light, as an invisible but powerful energy gradually invaded the room, like if the wind had picked up. For his part, Mathias again felt the symbol on his hand burn it, but also saw that it was glowing a brilliant red. The assassin seemed to react to that too, stopping in his walk and suddenly appearing less sure of himself.

Mathias and the assassin both reacted and looked in the same direction when suddenly a very powerful flash of light exploded from inside the house, followed by a shock wave that rattled the entire garden. Mathias could not say anything, completely stunned by this phenomenon, while the assassin lost his calm.

_ "No, not now!" he growled under his mask.

Following the inexplicable explosion of light that had just occurred in the house, a dark, humanoid and extremely fast form, shattered the living room window, and came to deliver a brutal punch directly in the belly of the assassin who did not have time to react, and in turn, gasped in pain and was violently pushed back several meters.

Mathias managed to sit up a bit, holding his stomach still in pain, and remaining stunned as he gazed at the person who had magically emerged from inside his house and saved his life. Despite the rain and the night, he managed to see her, in particular thanks to the lighting of the lampposts in front of the house.

It was a woman. A young woman, of great beauty, with fair skin, and with a very slender and magnificent body and a strange tattoo on her forehead. She had a very long and splendid hair, almost as tall as her, a light magenta color. She wore a purple blindfold that hid her eyes. She was wearing a short black strapless dress, with a purple fastening at the top. She had a dark purple collar around her neck, almost like a dog collar, as well as long black elbow mittens, adorned with purple bracelets above the elbows and at the wrists. And to finish, she wore black thigh high boots also adorned with purple bracelets and purple kinds of armor extending at the ankles.

Mathias was speechless in front of this young woman, whose great beauty and her rather rock and metal look he must have recognized, but did not forget that she had just appeared from her house and had moved at high speed. abnormal.

The woman turned to Mathias, who recoiled in suspicion, but she did nothing, remaining completely stoic.

_ "I heard your call ..." she said in a neutral voice. "So, so you are my Master."

Master? But what could she do? And why did she say she heard his call? For several minutes, Mathias had been completely lost, frightened and wondering if it was fatigue that was causing him to hallucinate.

But no time to ask all these questions. The skull-masked assassin had just stood up from the blow, emitting growls of frustration, and rose to his feet in the middle of the dark, deserted street, letting more daggers out of his sleeves to continue the confrontation.

The mysterious woman then took up position in front of Mathias, as if to protect him and standing against this enemy without showing any fear. As if by magic, and under Mathias's hallucinatory gaze, she made two long steel daggers appear in her hands, similar to stakes, and both connected to very long steel chains, which she seemed to wield with a formidable dexterity and cracked like whips.

They ... They were really going to fight here in front of his house? Mathias stepped back a little ... But what the hell was going on here?!