In those heavy winter atmospheres, where the fog was crawling like thick smoke choking the dim lights of the headquarters, the Director of the Infimus Organization, Raizen, and Kain stood. There was no soundtrack, only a silence as heavy as stone.
Kain was wearing his usual black clothes, as if part of the shadow, but his tension was clear in his slightly relaxed fist.
The Director looked at him, his cold eyes piercing through the obscurity.
"You may retreat as well, Kain. There is always an alternative for our clients who do not want to stain their hands with blood… And I wish you to call me Raizen from now on."
Kain tightened his fist completely this time, his knuckles turning white.
"Tell me about the mission you will send me on. And explain how your hesitation suddenly turned into an open offer for resignation."
Raizen smiled calmly, a smile that did not reach his eyes. He moved very slowly. He reached behind Kain and extended his arms theatrically wide, as if embracing the whole place.
"We want our clients to feel freedom, Kain. Freedom of choice, freedom of action. You are valuable; we do not want to lose you. But the place will not collapse if you do not join — we had been operating long before your arrival."
Raizen pulled from the inner pocket of his jacket a dark waxed cloth that looked old and opened it carefully on the cold concrete floor. It was not a sheet of paper, but a small map drawn with extreme precision on leather. Kain had never seen anything like it in any Infimus files.
Raizen lifted a fine-tipped red pen and began tracing winding, broken lines, interweaving with continuous lines indicating strange terrains. The map resembled ancient runes.
Kain knelt without being told, pulling the map toward him until he could almost smell the old leather and ink. He followed the red lines, then lifted his eyes to Raizen with narrowed eyes.
"This… is not a navigation map. What am I supposed to see here?" Kain muttered irritably.
Raizen let out a short, faint laugh.
"Seems complicated, doesn't it? You will need this."
He pushed another sheet of paper toward the map. It was completely blank except for a thick black stripe running horizontally across the center.
"What am I supposed to do with a map I do not understand and a blank sheet without information?" Kain asked sharply.
Raizen stepped back, letting the light fall on his face, highlighting a sharp edge of his jaw.
"That does not matter now, Kain. That map is not for you to understand. It is only to ensure you are in the right place at the right moment… when the destruction begins."
Raizen's voice suddenly changed to a low, steady tone, breaking the silence.
"Your new mission is to erase an ancient archaeological site from existence. I want it wiped from the records of history. No dust should remain, no stones that are thousands of years old. I want you to erase it as if it never existed."
Feral features appeared on Kain's face — not a smile, but a dark, calm readiness for action. This was the kind of mission that required no map or planning, only absolute will.
"Absolute destruction."
"My favorite type of mission," Kain whispered, his eyes still fixed on the mysterious lines drawn on the leather, as if he could already see the fire that would make them meaningless.
He boarded the organization's transport vehicle and began the path to execute the mission. At that critical moment between arriving at the target, he thought to himself:
"Did he send me to test my strength or to get rid of me? After all, I am hunted by everyone."
Kain exhaled deeply and leaned back in his seat.
"That does not matter now. All I need to think about is destroying that place."
In the middle of the headquarters, Raizen looked at his clients with slyness.
"Oh, I forgot to tell him… well, that does not matter now, right?"
The vehicle stopped. Kain stepped out to find himself before the site. The façade was not the old stone ruins but an arcade. He rushed inside, wandering for a few minutes until he found a passage so dark it was terrifying.
He crossed the passage with rapid steps, until he found himself in the area of the ancient stone ruins.
Directly in front of him, on an old stone pillar, sat a swordsman leaning on his sword, wearing a grotesque golden insect mask.
Kain did not care about him at all. He moved calmly until a large stone blocked his path — so he crushed it.
Blood exploded from his neck. The swordsman had struck, leaving a deep wound before Kain could process it.
Kain quickly retreated, the swordsman stiffening like a stone statue, while veins burst in Kain's eyes, and rage devoured all his thought.
"What is wrong with this strange swordsman attacking me like this? And what is with that ugly mask on his face?"
He drew his dagger and pistol, shouting:
"You insect-faced swordsman — how dare you wound me like this!"
He struck like lightning, giving no time for a response.
The dagger collided with the sword, producing a harsh screech. Kain fired a bullet at the swordsman's face, but it ricocheted off the mask.
The swordsman struck him with the hilt, knocking him off balance, then pinned him by driving his blade through his boot into the ground.
Kain looked at the masked swordsman mockingly.
"You are truly skilled, you damn insect… but have you ever wondered who is stronger, the swordsman or the assassin?"
Though pinned by the sword, Kain did not remain still.
He lifted his leg quickly past the grip, the sound of flesh tearing, blood gushing heavily, and then vaulted through the air in a full arc.
The swordsman trembled at the wildness of Kain's move, and in that moment Kain sent a punch into the swordsman's mask, smashing through huge stone pillars.
The swordsman rose, shoulders gradually lifting, legs struggling to stabilize, blood spilling from the mask.
Kain flew through the air above his enemy and landed a kick that made the air whistle around them. The swordsman blocked it with his sheath.
Kain stepped back, putting a large distance between him and his opponent.
"He's not that exceptional. I do not have to kill him now. I can finish my mission and then deal with him."
He opened his jacket wide. Inside were several explosive charges — more than twenty.
He picked two to throw into the air, but Kain's hand flew upward before he even understood — the swordsman had cut through it along with the explosives.
Kain froze, staring at the hand that had been.
He tore off his jacket and threw it into the air, intending to destroy the place entirely — including himself.
But the swordsman sliced through the jacket, severing the explosives as if they never existed.
Kain did not stop. He fired three bullets at once — the swordsman blocked them with the flat of his blade — then Kain charged again with his dagger.
Blade and dagger collided repeatedly, the sword dominating, until Kain drove the dagger into the swordsman's abdomen and followed with a forceful kick that sent him sliding across the ruins.
Both men stood barely upright, exhausted, yet unyielding.
Their stares did not last long.
Loud, disturbing alarm sounds erupted near the site.
Kain swallowed.
"They followed me… all the way here, by the Creator of Hell."
He leapt high, seeing the city from above, clinging to the nearest wall, and retreated as the sirens grew louder.
The swordsman remained, staring at the destruction, ignoring the dagger still lodged in his abdomen.