"Well, after what happened that day, we got into hunting the Volturi vamps," Billy said and sighed. "What we didn't account for was that they were just the lap dogs of something more scary, and they already had what is now called Italy, and the countries around, under full control."
"Woah, that's something coming from you guys," Leo said, faking a not-much-humored voice. "And what is that exactly?"
Looking at each other, the three council members said, "Nun."
Leo frowned, asking with silent eyes if they were serious.
"Yeah, that Nun," Alfred said. "We even fought him in World War II."
"A projection, to be precise," Billy added.
"Great. And how the F did he get out?" Leo froze for a second and sighed, massaging his eyebrow, sounding like he just heard the most absurd thing.
"So you know he exists," Khosye said, expecting this, but he didn't know how to break the next info, so he looked at Billy.
"Well, he technically didn't," Billy said and scratched her head. "Someone cracked the seal, letting him take over him, creating something like a conscious puppet."
Leo looked at them, not understanding how the hell the mind of this guy told him to try to unleash the worst kind of disasters ever known.
"Sorry to cut you, but is the Nun you talk about the same as the one I read of?" Loyed said, getting his attention.
"If you're talking about the tale of destruction," Leo asked. The story was something they retrieved in AF, and it was basically a book about how this entity called NUN, whose only existing reason is to spread corruption and drag the world into darkness.
In general, the entity had some similarity to the Egyptian myth, but far more absurd limits.
"Basically yes—the father of the concept of corruption, also known as the Beast of the End," Leo confirmed before looking at the trio. "And who's the gutsy guy?"
"Adolf?" they said in unison, and Loyed let out a small chuckle, not believing it. "As in Adolf Hitler? Get out of here!"
Seeing them not answering, his face changed. Even inside AF, they still had some historical books about this world—except so far only the normal part of it, apparently.
"Now that's just great," Leo murmured, lying back. "I need a drink, and a whole freaking summarizing."
Leo said, picking his phone and calling Kaile to tell him about his lateness, along with asking him to pick the twins in his stead.
"Who is that?" Billy couldn't help but ask, surprised that he could use a phone, let alone having someone's number. "Also, since when can you use phones? Last time I checked, you were sealed."
"Well, that's a long story. I'll tell you about it later," Leo said. "But you start first—what the hell happened after the ritual was invoked?"
---------
Back in time.
Years to what was called the Ice Night, and the sealing of the Great White Lion. Or that was what Arlong and his master at that time thought happened.
and specifically to a group of youngsters who chose to follow the man who break their curse.
Since a young age, they forced themselves into one of the greatest creatures to walk the land and, surprisingly, found themselves under his tutorial.
As the years passed, they cut their own way in the world.
Then,the turning point came. the Great Clash, here the greatest creatures of that time thought it was their right to exterminate all other races. A battle broke out, resulting in the sealing of the Winter Lion and the loss of almost all the Italian forces.
Deluded by his achievement, Arlong spread the word. And that was a really bad move on his side, not taking into consideration two things in his plan.
As the word spread, any aggressive or allied power to the Italian vampire camp, or any force that had a hand in the last battle, was stripped down slowly by unknown strong forces. The worst part—they weren't even one organization, but dozens of them, thought to be extinct.
Second, the aftereffect—the consequence of the ritual. By sending Leo to AF, they created a connection between the two dimensions. Despite being small, it allowed the pure energy of AF to seep into this world, resulting in the appearance of mutations in human beings and other races.
Some gained powerful abilities, some became the ancestors of new kinds of races, and so on. But the important part was the people closest to the storm eye—the people who followed Leo to the battle and the leftovers of the hostile army.
For the trio and the force they led were sent away at the last second by Leo, saving them, but they were close enough to get affected by the energy.
For the trio, they practically became superhumans with distinctive abilities, while the rest got some kind of psychic ability. What's more, they were literally unkillable. They dropped dead, sure—but seconds later, they started breathing again, fully healed. And surprisingly, it didn't interfere with their aging, except slowing it down.
After getting their shit together, they started the next plan.
One chose to follow his own justice and started a group to hunt any creature that stepped out of line, along with an end plan to take down the people responsible for the ritual.
The other chose to follow the wealth road and started to support his friend. The latter took it in hand to advance their arsenal, becoming one of the greatest smiths and metal handlers of all time.
And as a result, by the early years of the '30s, they had a fully functioning organization, working on the balance of the world.
And that was the most peaceful period of that time—or at least what they thought—until the Führer decided it was a great idea to gain power from the first cursed juice bag, and as a result got controlled, going into destruction mode.
Creating new types of cursed creatures and dark arts, he almost took over the world.
Thankfully, the personnel in the organization were working to take him and his newly created abominations down. Sadly, they hit an iron wall this time.
What looked like a chaotic plan to burn down the world was actually a cross-path to release Cain's main body.
"Hold on!!! You mean small mustache wasn't the real deal?" Leo cut the story and asked in a shocked voice. From what he had heard so far, that guy was piss or art, in an unkind dark way.
"Yup, the kicker," Alfred said. "Hitler was actually part of a clan of NUN worshipers."
Leo stopped completely, not knowing what to say, only able to think he had just opened Pandora's box.
"That's just great." Leo's brain started to tick overdrive, and came to a really bad idea. "So tell me—Arlong was Hitler's pet?"
"Nope, he was his grandpa's," Bella said. "More specifically, the fourth projection of NUN."
After long battles and many losses, they found a home—some kind of chamber—where they found part of the bitter truth.
Every dark accident the world had known since the oldest days was their fault. And we're talking calamity-level events that almost took the world. It became more noticeable between the '90s and 2000.
What's more, it all started with a lucky—or unlucky—discovery by the first Hitler.
"I got all that, but why didn't I hear about him being alive?" Leo said, taking a sip from his drink. "I don't mean to brag, but I've been in almost all the places this world could offer, and I only know about NUN from mouth stories of elders from various clans and tribes."
In auto-mode memory, he had a lot of traveling time, and most of his interactions were, for some reason, always about gaining knowledge. That's how he knew about him to begin with.
"He was actually tracking you and dodging you since you left the first village," Bella said, smirking and looking at Alfred.
"Thanks to the pile of books and historical records, we got some really interesting info," Alfred said, and a file appeared out of nowhere in his hand, showing a satellite picture of a lake in the middle of a frozen place.
A zoomed-in second picture showed the place looked like a frozen forest, as if a really low-level temperature breeze preserved everything in cold internal silence.
"Bring memory…" Leo murmured and looked deeply into the picture, recognizing it at first glance. His grown-up village—the first place his foot stood and the place where he awakened his power.
"I'm surprised you found it, and that it's still this preserved," Leo said, and Lloyd beside him let out a whistle. "Harsh place you lived at."
Leo snorted, about to correct him, but was surprised when Bella answered.