DEUS INFERNA〔M〕〔IC〕「Hoef & ZiekwaltZier」

[Dire Hoef]

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To lessen in one's own path is to break persistence...

To fear one's own destiny results in damnation for all...

To know one's own limits reveals greater heights...

So move beyond, and achieve to your own delight!

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Early Morning - Oceanus: Merchant Borough - 15th Markus 446 AD

The gong of the morning bell came with resounding beauty. The sun had rose, and its rays awashed the city in azure. The buildings glimmered with an almost neon-glow as the sun casted its rays down upon the cascading waterfalls and serpentine rivers. It was serene as the seas from which its edge touches with a colossal port.

But it reverberated across the city skyline like waves washing ashore. It gave Revontheus Siromos a sense of calm, a peace among the coming hustle and bustle of city life. But before relishing in that peace, it was suddenly destroyed by the kick-in of his bedroom door. The hulking man shot up to meet the culprit of this destruction of his peace and sanctity, and found it to be a housemate of his.

This housemate was a woman of modest stature and physique, but appeared to have the strength of a gorilla. Her complexion was well attended to, and her long brown hair had not a stray hair among its locks. However, her expression read one of irritation and clearly something was amiss. "What the hell happened last night Rev!?"

Rev, as he was called, stared at the woman for moment. He blinked once, then twice, and a third time. He was processing the events slowly, but surely. He eventually the connected the dots and realized she was referring to last night's string of fights he got into. He felt his body, and realized the bruises he went to bed with were gone. "Huh.. Weird.."

She gave a confused reaction; clearly unable to follow. "Weird?"

"N-Nevermind," he swatted away the subject and came back to her greivances by saying, "Those fights were barely anything.. The last one wasn't even a real fight, the guy literally shat himself before I even had a chance to swing on him! You gotta trust me on this Caesia, I wasn't actively going out there looking for those fights! Those fights came to me!"

Caesia, as she was called, looked at him with a dangerous expression. However, she had let her anger simmer when she realized that he didn't have a scratch on him. "I guess since I don't have to tend to you, it's alright.. I thought I was going to have to waste my medical supplies on you."

"Shit Caesia, thanks for the support," he rolled his eyes and rolled the back of his neck releasing some built up tension in his neck.

"Welcome muscle-brain!" She slipped out at that realizing that the situation was resolved resolutely.

He sat there on his bed, in ample confusion; unsure as to what just happened. However, he couldn't exactly focus on that strange shit and decided to really dial in on his gig for tonight. He was going to work as a bouncer for a prestigious nightclub on the noble-side of town. This one was paying platinum for the job, so he couldn't refuse it. Thus, he wanted to be ready for anything.

He got up from his bed, and embarked for the bathroom where he proceeded to get himself ready for the long day ahead. He had errands to run, and those errands were things he wasn't exactly proud of doing. But, they needed to be done if he was going to stay here in this merchant woman's lavish house. "Ugh.. Why couldn't she do all this, instead of having me do it??"

[ZiekwaltZier]

It was early in the morning when Alois woke from his slumber. He had been working extra hard recently so he was still a bit tired and drained however it was all for the people. Alois was known for being a big figure among the people in the Order of the Cross, he had risen to the status of a Religious Leader in the order. Even so he still had to listen to those above him in status which meant he wasn't at the pinnacle of the Order but he was still rather influential. Waking up Alois yawned and stretched crawling out of the Queen sized bed after pushing the curtains for his canopy open to go and get in the shower to prepare of the day. Standing in his bathroom in his stark nakedness, Alois looked into the mirror and rubbed his chin noticing that he had a five o'clock shadow already growing back from the previous day's shaving. As such he pulled out his razor and cleaned up his face before hopping into the shower to clean himself and then got out to don his undergarments and his armor to head out.

Alois knew that today was going to be another busy day but he didn't know what exactly was in store for him since at times things could drastically change from being normal and peaceful to him having to go and put forces of another faction under the boot of the Cross. "I'll just get breakfast at the headquarters." Alois spoke to himself before getting into the hovercar to be taken away to the Order of the Cross by a driver who was always on standby in the morning to pick him up from his penthouse at the top of one of the buildings the Order of the Cross owned.

[Dire Hoef]

After engaging in his morning ritual of heavy calisthenics mixed with stretches, he departed Caesia's house for his first stop. He needed to run up town to the church borough to grab some holy water from the local holy man. The trek itself, which took around an hour, led him up various flights of stairs and down alleways and corridors. He eventually found himself standing before a heavy steel door with a viewport at the top.

Looking at the direction Caesia gave him, one of the instructions was not to antagonize anybody from the Order of the Cross. That was simple enough, they were kiss-asses anyway. They wore some of the fanciest armor he'd ever seen, but he wondered just how many of them actually see combat. Were they all bark and no bite? The lastest smackdowns via the Order of the Cross made it seem so, but he wanted to see it for himself. Although, he had better things to do than to fight priests.

He stared at the door for a moment before the viewport opened up, "Password?" An old voice croaked.

"'May the Pantheon guide the way.'" He plainly said this, clearly reading off the phrase that was crudely written onto his arm.

The viewport closed, and there was downtime before the bolts and locks on the door came loose. The door opened and revealed an elderly priest who seemed rather nervous about this. "You're Caesia's errand boy right?"

Rev nodded, simply looking over the interior of this basement floor.

"We'll have to be quick as high-status members of the clergy are convening to discuss big plans at this very building, and I don't want some outsider inside while they're here." The old man gestured for Rev to come through.

"Uhh, thanks I guess..?" He stepped through and followed the old man to a backroom where they stored the water. He's been rather confused this entire early morning so far, and he wondered if this day was going to get any weirder.

[ZiekwaltZier]

Alois getting to the Order of the Cross went to a meeting with the higher-ups. He wasn't sure what they had to talk about but he would soon find out. Getting to the Order of the Cross he had no idea that there was an outsider in the building having come to pick up something. Sitting in the meeting room among the other high ranking priests he arrived a bit after the meeting started so when he walked in some of them were already arguing about taxation on their members saying they needed to charge members a higher fee for managing costs of the organization in order to raise their military power as the Order of the Cross. "I understand that we need to raise funds for expansion but we should not be charging members of our own organization. If we are to raise funds it should be through more conventional means such as fundraisers that will benefit the public, either by making products to sell to the public like baked goods or some other service. Perhaps providing counselling or selling some holy water, maybe even some anointed oil? Or we could simply ask for donations from the community for attending services in the church." Alois stated as he looked at the members of the Order of the Cross. He trying to make suggestions looked at the other leaders of the Order trying to mediate the argument so they could continue the meeting and discuss other important matters.

Taking some time eventually the meeting was coming to an end before Alois walked out to head to his personal office and asked for a painkiller to counter the headache he received having to deal with the other religious leaders of the Order of the Cross. "They always cause me to receive such a headache." Alois stated as he sat down in his desk not knowing someone from the outside would be trying to meet him about what was going on behind the scenes among the Order of the Cross. At the same time he didn't know that they were going to tell him what the money they had been saving up was being used for which half of it had been getting embezzled. Among the many situations going on in the Order, once he informed the higher ups of the embezzlement then they would take care of the one taking all the money.

[Dire Hoef]

It was exactly easy to hid a hulking man like Rev, but this old crone was able to pull it off. Timing passes right, he was able to sneak past several Cross guards. And when they got to the store room, the old man told Rev to wait as he stepped into the room. This lasted several minutes longer than what he was used to; causing him to look around frantically. He spotted someone mysterious moving around in the shadows in the basement. This caused Rev to stray from where he was to follow the shadowy individual; his curiosity getting the better of him.

He followed the individual to an area of the basement where there were barely anyone around. This person appeared to set something rather large into the corner. There was a blue translucent light as magic rings appeared around the object. That light became red, and a ticking sound could be heard.

Rev crinkled his face in confusion as there wasn't supposed to be anyone else aside from him and the Cross cronies. He watched as the shadowy person disappeared in a puff a smoke, leaving what looked liked a magical time bomb. Although Rev didn't know what the hell it was, and proceeded to run back to where he last saw the old man.

When Rev saw the old man, the man was furious with Rev. "Don't you stray off again! What if someone found you down here??"

"That wouldn't be the least of my troubles.. Apparently there's something down here that's really bad..! I dunnow what it is, but some shadow fucker dropped it off in the corner back there." Rev gestured back to where he came from.

"Preposterous! There shouldn't be anyone else down here." The religious man seemed to not care for what Rev was saying to which Rev could only sigh. He wasn't getting it, and the big man wasn't sure if he was going to get it.

So he raised his hands and shrugged, "Alright, alright.. Give me the holy water, and I'll be outta your hair."

The old man forced the holy water in Rev's hand and began to shoo him out the door.

✧ ✧ ✧

A knock came at Alois' door, and from the otherside came a detective dressed in black. He appeared to have a Cross pin on the collar of his Imperial coat, and was dressed head to toe in an Imperial clothing. This, clearly, was an outsider but the information he had to share was invaluable.

The detective gave a modest bow to Alois before taking his seat, "I thank you for meeting with me today, the information I have to share will put your Order on notice. That is, of course, if what I'm about share becomes public knowledge..."

[ZiekwaltZier]

Hearing a knock on his door, Alois lifted his head from looking at papers on his desk which he had to read over and either sign or deny being papers for plans which the order would proceed with. Along with needing his signature it also had the signature of other religious leaders and depending on who agreed and who denied if there was a majority vote to do something or to deny it then whichever vote got the most would be what happened. For this paper it was to vote on raising the taxes of members in the order to raise funds, which was one of the topics discussed at the meeting just a bit ago. Luckily for him it seemed his reasoning was winning out over the other religious leaders who wished to do so as he signed to decline making such an option come to fruition and among the other religious leaders the majority was in favor of the same opinion as him. However when he heard the knock at the door he straightened the papers up and filed them away. "The door is open come on in." Alois said straightening in his seat before watching the nicely dressed detective walk in. "What exactly is this information you have for me? It must be rather important for you to come all the way to my office to see me." Alois said wondering what it was the detective had to say to him.

Meanwhile he was unaware of the shadowy figure which had planted a bomb in the building in the basement floor. If it went of the explosion would weaken the foundation and cause both chaos and mayhem. Alois would have to look after anyone in the building and the entire building would need to be evacuated for safety reasons until it was cleared and made sure that whatever damage was done was repaired and the situation investigated to make sure there were no other bombs. At the same time they would need to make sure everyone in the building was safe.

[Dire Hoef]

The detective slid papers across Alois' desk before having said, "Those papers were dug up from the Church's financial records. Your Order's highest members were doing everything in their power to ensure those documents never the see the light of day. The money isn't going towards charities or fundraisers, they're funding terrorists.. Specifically, the Saints of Apollyon. Their name doesn't show up in the documents, but with the sudden rise in terror attacks I think the two are linked. They've targeted the other Orders but haven't attacked yours, why? Because someone from your Order is paying them not to." The detective leaned back, and released tension with a sigh.

"That's what my investigation has led me to.. Everything points to your Order.."

✧ ✧ ✧

Rev backed off and was promptly shut out from the building. He stood there with his head up against the steel door. He couldn't get the magical seal out of his head.

However he didn't have to wonder very long...

Everything slowed, his body had only moments to react. In those scant few moments, he had instinctively balled up to withstand the coming concussive force produced by the oncoming explosion. He was sent flying up a flight of steps onto the street, crashing into a parked automobile and smashing the side of it.

The entire foundation of the building was blown, its support beams folded like omletes. This sent the building into a freefall, with many people who were in and around the building losing their very lives in that instant.

✧ ✧ ✧

When the explosion inevitably came, the detective was thrown from his seat. His body ragdolled into some chairs, and then rolled into some other furniture as the building began to suffer the effects of a weakened foundation. The detective attempted to hold onto something, but the crumbling building swallowed his body whole.

Half of Alois' office was torn asunder. This left his half to tumble a separate direction where safety was possible.

[ZiekwaltZier]

Alois sitting in his office sighed as he looked over the paper when the detective told him what the truth was behind the scenes. He had been trying to get dirt on the higher-ups not knowing just how deep things went and he finally had it thanks to the work of the detective he secretly hired to investigate all the terrorist attacks and why none of them were being directed at the Order of the Cross. Now he knew it was because the Order of the Cross were the instigators of all the violence, when the building began to shake he was tossed around in his desk trying to hold onto his desk as he felt himself freefalling which sent a pit into his stomach which swelled up to his throat before his office was ripped in hall. When this occurred he had only moments to maneuver himself during the fall of the half he was left in to land in a safe location.

When everything was said and done he tried looking for any survivors and for anyone who was injured and in need of help so he could try to help them get first aid as soon as possible. At the same time in the commotion he had grabbed the slip of paper and stashed it in his pocket so that it would not be let out to the day of light for the higher ups to find. Alois didn't know who exactly among the higher ups staged all the terrorist attacks but he needed to get them taken care of to stop all the senseless bloodshed and the embezzlement of funds.

[Dire Hoef]

Alois did not need to look for very long before he came across hapless victims caught in the wreck. But this was also the same time Rev came charging onto the scene. His voice boomed like a clap of thunder, "HEY! IRON CHIN!!! PICK UP THE PIECE OF DEBRIS AND GET THOSE PEOPLE OUTTA HERE!!" It was apparent to anyone looking at the hulking man, he was beat up to say the very least. Although, like miracles, he was operating at tip-top shape. He was slugging debris like they were sheep, and stomping into concrete as they were sticks in a forest.

He heaved a larger piece of stone from a hole that had formed thanks to the placement of furniture. There was a group of monks caught here, and Rev lifted them out with one hand with very little trouble. He pointed for those monks to run in the direction of the hospital, and when they did he turned right back helping more people. But when he spotted Alois again he shouted, "HEY AGAIN IRON CHIN!! HOW MANY DID YOU SAVE?? IS THERE ANYONE LEFT OVER THERE!?"

[ZiekwaltZier]

Alois was soon moving debris helping many a victim and directed them to the hospital, he would have liked to administer first aid himself but he needed to find as many people as possible to save as many lives as possible since such situations gave little time to save those who were severely injured. He knew all to well on this fact. "I've already cleared out this area and have sent about fifteen people to the hospital but why are you calling me Iron Chin? Do I know you from somewhere, normally no one gives me such nicknames. Or is it an insult you're slinging at me? Who exactly are you and why are you here?" Alois asked as he continued to help with the rescue operation despite not knowing Rev or his motivations, all the same if he was there to help people who got caught up in the attack he wasn't going to chase him off. He could always learn more about the man later and whom he was affiliated with.