Inside the Command Center, numerous people sat typing furiously over keyboards, their bodies tense and a sheen of sweat marring their faces.
Numerous screens were lit up in front of them, showing various images like mapped-out regions and real-time data currently happening around the regions surrounding the Borderlands.
But their focus this time was on one city.
The city of Verion.
A man in a military uniform with numerous adornments and medallions was quaking with anger as he looked at the image of a butler that was currently enlarged on one of the numerous screens.
"Tell your Master that this isn't something to tarry on. A second wasted is more than enough for hundreds to die—"
The butler interrupted, his voice apathetic.
"As I said before, my apologies Colonel. I have already informed him, but he refuses to leave the jacuzzi until he achieves… in his words—Nirvana."
The Colonel's eyebrow twitched, and he shut down the screen before he lost his mind.
"Damn son of a bitch, that's what the so-called Whispering Blade is. 98th-ranked Hero, my ass!"
Then he turned to his Commanders, who stood with tense expressions, giving out orders.
"Assemble your Captains to lay siege from the south, Malrick!"
"Lysandra, you will take the front, and the rest of you will fan out and contain the city from both sides. No matter what, nobody leaves that city until this monster is purged!"
"Yes, Colonel!" they replied immediately, saluting and already moving while speaking into their communication devices and conveying numerous messages.
The Colonel turned to one of the screens currently showing the image of a boy stabbing a grown woman with a knife as they sat in the front lawn right outside their house.
The woman was smiling the whole time her son was killing her, even patting him fondly on the head.
This was but one of the many atrocities currently going on within the city, with many more even far more gruesome and disturbing.
The Colonel rubbed his throbbing forehead.
"I am getting too old for this shit."
***
Allie sat on one of the swings at the park, listening to music in her headphones while doing her homework.
She wasn't supposed to be outside so late, but it wasn't like her parents were home anyway, so nobody had to find out.
"Screw curfew."
Home was so boring, and watching passing cars while listening to music was a gentle sort of therapy.
She was just about to pack up and go home when a woman walked up from behind her.
The woman looked strange. Her hair was messy and her eyes looked a little weird—almost inhuman.
Just when Allie was about to leave immediately, the woman turned to look at her, asking in a strangely excited voice.
"Do you want to hear a song?"
Every one of Allie's senses told her to leave immediately, but the woman looked so pitiful and probably just wanted to talk to someone.
And who knows, she might have a pretty voice too.
Allie nodded, wrapping her headphones around her neck.
"I guess."
The woman smiled, giggling in excitement.
"Mary had a little lamb—"
Allie's eyes widened in fascination.
The woman had such a beautiful voice.
Moments later, the woman walked out of the park, clutching headphones dripping with blood as she walked through the grass, her shoes leaving trails of crimson.
She was still singing.
***
In a massive opera house, more than a thousand people sat as they waited for the last performance of the night.
Henry looked at all of this, feeling a faint hint of nostalgia.
It almost felt like a dream when he remembered how he had begun by entertaining only a group of less than a hundred people.
Now his business had bloomed so massively that it was now famous even among the bigwigs of the City of Verion.
And it was all because of Venissa—his star performer.
He walked to the stage, letting out a bow as he called her on stage.
"Now for the last performance, the one you have all been waiting for—Venissa Lionheart!"
The audience began to clap, the stage lighting up as the center lights focused on a girl who had appeared from behind the curtains, clutching a violin to her shoulder.
To their clapping, she took a step towards the microphone and asked, her voice excited.
"Do you want to hear a song?"
The audience began to whisper in confusion.
Henry furrowed his eyebrows right as shouts of affirmation erupted from the crowd.
"Yes!"
"Play us a song, Lady Venissa!"
"Woohoo!"
Henry joined in too.
"Go girl! Show them what it means to be a genius."
She smiled, almost as if waiting for the noise to settle.
Then she lifted the violin and began to play.
The noise settled into the quiet of the night like a drifting lullaby, making Henry smile as he felt like he was floating in the clouds.
He felt tears dripping down his face, and he raised his hands to wipe them, looking at the crimson that stained his hands, the smile on his face widening further.
Ahh… the nostalgia.
He couldn't resist the tears even now.
Henry could see most of the people in the crowd crying, each of their faces holding smiles just like his.
They must be enjoying her music too!
He turned, hearing screams of terror as a small part of the audience began to storm toward the door, rushing in a stampede.
He ignored them, continuing to let himself drift along with the song.
He didn't notice when he stopped seeing clearly—or maybe he did and ignored it.
All that was on his mind was the song, that sweet, sweet song.
Before the song ended, his corpse was already lying on the ground, his eye sockets empty with his eyeballs lying a few feet away.
He died smiling.
***
"City Lord!"
A guard rushed into the study, his knees hitting the floor and a trail of sweat falling down his face.
"We have received news from Head Command. The soldiers are on their way here and will be arriving in the next seven minutes. Whispering Blade is on his way too. The situation might not escalate any further."
The City Lord turned away from the window where he had been observing the crescent moon, the sound of thunder striking somewhere in the distance.
His face was aged and weathered, and his hair had begun to show a hint of grey.
But his eyes held startling intelligence, with ripples emanating from him in violent, horrendous waves.
The City Lord scoffed.
"How insulting."
He stepped forward, looking at the trembling guard with disgust.
"You dare step into my mansion, you dare walk into my study, and you even dare stand in front of me. You have some balls… Agrod."
The trembling guard suddenly stopped shaking, then slowly raised his face to look at the City Lord, a wide grin stretching across his lips so unnaturally it looked abnormal.
Then, like a hundred voices folded into one, the guard spoke.
"Do you want to hear a song?"
The City Lord didn't reply.
He grabbed the guard by the neck and raised him to eye level, his gaze filled with intense hate.
"Your petty tricks won't work on me, Agrod. Now listen and get this into your vile mind. This city will stand, just like it has done in the past. Monsters far more cruel and insidious than you have tried, yet they all met their end at my hand."
He snarled.
"You are just a cockroach—a very stubborn one at that. But that only means I will enjoy stomping your face over and over again."
He began to twist the guard's neck, the grin on the guard's face widening.
"Horrendous wretch!"
With a pop, the guard's head came off, a rain of crimson spurting from his neck before the corpse fell limply to the ground.
The City Lord turned back to the window, his eyes watching the outline of a man shooting through the sky at a far-off distance.
The man was dressed lazily in casual clothes, his face a perfect mask of annoyance.
The City Lord sighed, his voice filled with relief.
"Finally here… Whispering Blade."