Kaito Nakamura walked through the alley as the rain poured and ran down his long black cloak. He had been to London before, but wasn’t a fan of the dreary weather that came with the location. Where he was from, Saitama, Japan, even the darkest, most dreary days didn’t compare to that of the streets of London. The back alleys where he walked, the current one where he traveled down. He could hear the rain collecting in gutters and smacking rhythmically into structures and environment nearby. It made him cautious and on edge. Kaito was a Harrier of the Miyamoto Family, a family that was dedicated to hunting and capturing rogue mages. He had been reaching the end of his hunt.

For three weeks, he had been tracking the movement of illegal magical substances moving through London. Various buyers and sellers had been pushing a sort of flower that could be found in the depths of the Evergarden. This flower, when crushed, let off a fragrance that provided a high twice as powerful as cocaine. It had made its way through various markets performing extremely well. Typically this sort of thing was handled by an Assaf, and although he worked with a team of them, it was his job to find the mage responsible and capture them. The mage being hunted was a Half-Orc named Theodore Castle, a resident of London and a long-time smuggler. He had been tracked by both the Society and the Department of Containment but had been allowed to move freely so long as he worked as an informant. He did so for a short period of time but had then started feeding both sides incorrect information leading to a stand-off between the two parties. Fooled but seeing the connection, it was an open hunt for Castle who had moved back to his home town of London, a place he knew best. Kaito was not chosen due to his skills, he had been selected to bring in Theodore Castle purely on his location at the time.

Kaito was not the best investigator of the family, his skills lay in the use of a sword. Where others practiced in magic and hiding in the shadows, he had always been fond of honing his abilities with a blade, one that he had just fused with Pearlstone after months of saving. The blade had been his life up until now and as much as he enjoyed keeping things peaceful, there was nothing like pulling a shining white blade from its sheath.
Secretly, he hoped Castle would fight so that both could witness that shine. Still, to get to Castle, he needed to find his hideout.

Harriers in the area had tracked Castle to a small shop in SOHO, one that had clearly been altered with liminal magic. Kaito approached the back of that shop and stood in front of the door, seeing its rusted metal handle and chipped paint. He looked back to see if he had been followed, looking both straight, then above, making sure nobody was watching him from the rooftops. Satisfied in his loneliness, Kaito placed his hand on the doorknob and recited a spell that melted the lock and allowed him to open the door freely. One final glance back confirmed his seclusion and he stepped inside, pulling the door closed behind him.
Inside, it was clear that magic had been used. Where a store would be located, one would have no more than 800 square feet give or take. Any more and the place would be spilling over into the sidewalk if not the road itself. What he was seeing was an entire apartment complex, easily over the 800 square feet that should have been occupying the space. It was unclear whether Castle had been casting the spell or not, but one thing was clear, whoever had was very good. The architecture inside looked as if it mimicked an old colonial building, but with deep dark woods and gold lining the trim of the structure. A long hallway stood in front of him with various different rooms on both sides. There was an absence of life in the hallway, but where silence should have been, he heard a soft murmur of a voice coming from the end of the hallway.
He pulled the hood from his head and shook the rain from his body that had been clinging to him still. It was best for him not to lead water through the halls in case someone were to follow his trail. Doing so was essentially as bad as leaving breadcrumbs. With a final jerk of his shoulders, the rain had been relatively removed from his body. He took in a breath, closed his eyes, then prepared to work.

His steps were quiet as he made his way through the hall. Following the sound of the murmur, he took each step carefully, knowing that with his luck, a single creak would lead to the silence that should have been. Paintings sat at head height on both sides of the hallway, and as he moved, he noticed that he recognized each one of the paintings. Each was biblical, some Roman, others Spanish, but one thing was certain, each had been a depiction of a scene from the Catholic Bible. What was tremendously strange about each one of these paintings is that certain characters had been replaced. Either by people made of gold, or a single porcelain figure with gold features.

Kaito felt his body shiver and crawl, knowing that he was dealing with a different type of threat altogether. For several years after the events of the S.S. Tartarus, there have been sightings of men made of gold, abducting people of faith and turning them into golden figures themselves. The Society titled these people, The Golden, and have been hunting the source of these manifestations. The primary actor that they suspect to be the leader, is a Divine figure known by the name David. Kaito wasn’t familiar with the exact details, but had encountered one of these figures in Tokyo that had manipulated an entire class of students in the twelfth grade to kill their teacher and follow the man into one of the abandoned cities in the rural areas of Japan. Miyamoto, along with Hill Harriers intercepted and killed the primary figure but were unable to return the students to their original selves. Each had attacked Harriers, and unfortunately, all had to be eliminated. Kaito was there that day, and since then, he has had a hatred for the cult.

Kaito turned around, knowing that he was far too outnumbered and too outmatched to handle an entire cult gathering. He reached for the doorknob and noticed that it had disappeared and part of the room had since shifted. He cursed, turning to listen to the murmur that was still proceeding. That meant they had not detected him, but he had to leave immediately. Eliminating the Divine was not his specialty and with them being in London, that meant the Hill weren’t far away anywhere you went.
Kaito proceeded down the hall, doing so carefully but with haste. He didn’t want to spend a second longer in the building without the assistance of the Hill. The staircase to his right was identical to those down the hall making choosing one a matter purely of chance. He took the one immediately beside him and made his way up. As he did, he reached the top of that staircase and to the second floor. There had been no windows, nor any doors, but a single hallway that led to the end of the room. He shook his head and turned, only to find that the stairs he had just climbed had disappeared. Kaito cursed once more and removed his cloak, then pulled his sword from his sheath, knowing he’d certainly need its assistance. He sprinted down the hall and bolted through the door at the end, finding that he emerged from where he first came. When turning back, the door had disappeared. Now, as he faced the hallway that was identical to the last, he noticed he was no longer alone, and different figures stood in front of him.
He said nothing and raised his sword at those that stared at him, each with their hands reaching forward and out to him.

“What a special occasion. Look at what opportunity has arrived at our doorstep.” A soft voice said through the walls on each side.
Kaito kept his head straight but turned his eyes to scan the area, not being able to detect a primary location where the sound had been coming from.

“What is your name stranger?” The voice asked.
Kaito remained silent, and instead entered a stance, one used for aggressive slashes and quick thrusts of his sword. A narrow passage was always difficult to fight through, a sword could not properly bear its full swing in such restricted spaces. Quick slashes and an emphasis on stabs were his only path to success he thought.
“You don’t speak?” the voice asked.

“I have nothing to say to you.” Kaito replied, maintaining his ground.

“Of course you do. Let’s start with your name stranger, it would be impolite for us to have you as our guest without knowing your name.”

“I am no guest of yours.” Kaito snapped, growing angry.

“Well. If you are no guest, then you must be a threat. My beloved, capture this threat and bring him to me please. If you would be so kind.”

Where Kaito expected only the five in front of him to respond, he instead heard what sounded like hundreds in the building, all replying the same, Yes Father. The five approached and Kaito charged. The closest sprinted, looking to tackle Kaito in a charge. Kaito stopped on a dime and spun with a pirouette, ending his turn with a slice to the back of the golden man. The slash landed cleanly, cleaving flesh from the man’s back and causing thick golden blood to splurt and spray onto the nearby area, and onto Kaito. As the golden man fell, Kaito felt a piece of his soul jerk as if a wave of dread slammed into him. The feeling impacted his reaction time and in a flash two of the golden broke the distance, one punching him in the jaw, the other slamming itself into Kaito and pushing him back. Both he and the golden fell over the first dead man. Kaito rose to his feet first, stabbing down at the man who had just tackled him, then thrusting his sword into the one that had punched him. Each kill pushed and pulled at his soul, making his movements sluggish and inaccurate. In the time that his body jerked, the final two dashed and exchanged blows with Kaito. As the Harrier swung his sword, he felt the blade smash into the gold limbs of the men in front of him. Each was not completely made of gold, but some part of their body was completely formed of it. For one it was the right forearm, for the other, it was both legs. Kaito slipped past some of the attacks, but was caught by a kick that smashed into his shoulder as he attempted to block. He heard a pop in his shoulder and shouted in pain, growing more upset and more ferocious. A flurry of attacks flew at him, the Harrier who took a step back then pushed mana to his forward limbs, allowing him to move far faster than any Devilkin should. In a flash, the two fell, both cut by a single, unseen strike.

Kaito approached one of the walls and charged it with his shoulder, feeling the joint pop back into the socket. He smashed his hand into the wall and shouted, then walked forward and through the door at the end of the hall.
An empty room, this one with several doors on each side.

“You’re quite impressive with that sword you know. I could use someone with your talents in my congregation.” the voice returned, coming from all sides.

“Enough! If you wish to admire my talents then show yourself so that I may show you exactly how talented I am!” the Miyamoto shouted, holding his sword high.

“How about I take you and your talents, all without ever placing a finger on you. What good are my devotees if they cannot make more.”

“You are David are you not? The one we have been hunting. I heard you are an expert fighter, I am surprised you require devotees at all.”

“Oh please. I can see a challenge and I can see what you want. You think I cannot defeat you myself? I merely see no point in providing you an audience.”

“Fear will do that.”

“Ha! You are certainly a confident one. Let’s see how far that gets you.”

The Harrier heard the sound of crunching before he even had time to react. Arms had broken through the floor and pulled him through to the other side. His sense of direction had flipped as he had been pulled and now thrown to what appeared to be the ceiling of another room. In that very room, at least fifteen golden stood, men, women, different species, different sizes. The largest being a Half-Orc whose entire top half had been made of gold. Kaito rolled his shoulders, then began.

Different golden charged at him, forcing an agile response. He turned, and spun, lowered his body and slid on the ground all in a single swift dodge. He expended mana once again, using it to propel his body in ways much faster than any in the room could see. Where once he sprinted at them, approaching from the front, now he stood to their left and started to swing. Three slashes from his sword cut through different opponents in front of him, each pulling at his soul as they were cut down. He ignored the feeling as best as he could, but could not help but flinch each time he laid one of them to rest. A flurry of slashes was stopped short as he felt his stomach turn and a fist collided with him, flinging him across the room and into the next. When he landed, he was not standing on the right side orientation of a new room, and looking straight ahead to see those golden in the previous room had needed to leap to get into his.

The change in space had been disorienting for him and made his actions sluggish. When a single golden, this one a fellow Devilkin with an entire gold right arm swung at him, he had not been fast enough to dodge nor block. The attack put him on the ground and opened up a cut along his forehead. Blood started to trickle out, the only color he could see other than browns and golds. He shook his head and thrust his blade forward, cutting at the legs of the golden in front of him, then following with a decapitating slash.
More flooded in and in return, more mana spent. His body pushed to the limits, mana reserves reaching a low before his final opponent stepped through, the large Half-Orc.
The Harrier swung, finding purchase on the Half-Orc’s arm. Typically the slash cut through the arm cleanly, but against the golden skin, the blade bounced off allowing a brief window to counter. The Half-Orc swung a fierce hook, one that would have taken Kaito’s head clean off if it had connected. Kaito rolled, then dodged another fierce swing. One single hit from this golden titan would leave him dead, he understood the circumstance well.

He walked back, taking each step carefully with each dodged swing, forcing his opponent to approach. As his foot hit the back wall, he made a final duck, avoiding a heavy left hook. The golden’s hand collided with the wall behind Kaito, smashing through but getting caught in the structure. Kaito pushed his body to its limit, using the remainder of his mana for a single quick strike, one aimed at the legs of the titan. In a single motion, the titan toppled, its legs cut from underneath him.
Kaito heard a wave of thunderous applause all around him as he heard the voice of David once more.

“Well done my friend. Well done. However, I see that you’ve sustained injuries, are you certain you can keep this up?” David asked, his voice everywhere and a flood of laughter after his sentence.

“Enough games! Reveal yourself to me!” Kaito yelled, pointing at the ceiling with his blade.

“Very well,” David said, emerging from the floor and grabbing Kaito by the throat.

“What, can’t speak?” David said, throwing Kaito into the air and launching a thunderous kick that sent Kaito through the back wall of the room. He fell several feet through the floor of a new space, landing on his side where he had been punched just a minute ago.

Air escaped his lungs and in his mouth Kaito tasted blood. His eye had been blinded in red and blood poured down his forehead and into his right eye. Through his left, he could see his blade, the white shimmer of Pearlstone. Along the blade, red dots, each indicating an enemy, ran along and to the tip of the blade where no more dots could show. He was surrounded, he knew that.
David emerged and grabbed the sword, watching its magnificent pearl shine change to a porcelain white, and where multiple dots once ran along the blade, only a single one now sat. David knelt beside the Harrier who struggled just to breathe and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Come child, we don’t need to be enemies. There is always room in the domain of the lord. All I require is your faith, and your name. And in those I will grant you power like you’ve never experienced. Salvation. A place of belonging under the watchful eyes of your savior. Please, let me help you.” David said, his hand soothing, and healing the wounds covering the Harrier.

“And who is the lord? Who is your savior?” Kaito asked, coughing blood.

“My savior? You silly warrior. There is no other in the sky but me.” David smiled, placing his thumb on Kaito’s forehead.

“What is your name child?”

Kaito’s eyes began to salt. “My name is Kaito.”

“What a pretty name. I am David, the one and only mercy to this world.” David said, placing the sword back into the hands of the Harrier. Kaito’s horns cracked as gold took the place of bone, and his fingers shined as they touched the sword, no longer of Pearlstone, but divine porcelain. Kaito turned, seeing the faces of his new brothers and sisters, seeing Castle, the man he hunted, now turned friend.

“Let us recreate this world, my child. Let us show all the power of divinity.”