The sun hangs high in the sky, granting it's delicate warm touch to all that would stand in path of it's rays; a young raven for instance. No older than middle age the bird stretched out its’ 8 inch wing span and flapped lightly, gliding effortlessly atop the winds. From its flight pattern it seemed evident that it made it's way into the very center of a massive kingdom, the kingdom of Tigonna; the only piece of land on this tiny planet. It flew, more specifically, to a pile of rubbish which sat just beyond the market; this pile was often left here for weeks on end to allow for the kingdoms less fortunate citizens to dig through rotting meat and produce to find their entrée for the day.  It's talons made brief little scratches as it's wings lowered it softly onto the cobblestones below, before the raven began to pick away at the veritable buffet before it. 

The raven had been pecking at the rotted remains of a small feline when it was suddenly distracted by a series of noises which seemed to be getting closer. Curious the little bird cocked it's head and began to hop it's way towards a door until it stood in front of it and simply stared at it's wooden surface; head cocking to and fro when all of the sudden it was thrown open with incredible force. By the time the raven realized what exactly was happening its frail body had already been crushed between the door and a wall; destroying the larger of it's bones in an instant and leaving it to fall in a heap in agony while flapping it's one good wing now in a failed attempt to escape. As it lay there, more twitching now than anything, it saw the last image it would ever see; a man dressed in black robes pulled partially over his face. What was visible of the man’s face as he tore passed curious onlookers was visibly contorted into a look of terror; one eye open as wide as physically possible and almost entirely overtaken by his iris and a strange frown/cowl painted across half his mouth. He only used one of his arms to pump himself forward as he dashed passed the crowd; the other was clutched close to his chest, balled into as tight as fist as he could muster and had tufts of vanilla colored paper sticking out both ends.

After putting a good twenty feet between himself and the doorway, the man could be seen throwing a quick glance over his shoulder without slowing his pace; a horrified shriek passing his lips that caused a wave of panic to spread through the crowd as he turned and doubled his efforts of escape. Many turned to look at what had elicited such a fearful scream; seeing only a strange red mist billowing amongst the ankles of the citizens and coming from the doorway the man had used. A wave of worried whispers whisked through the onlookers as hundreds of feet began to shuffle backwards in cautious bewilderment; the strange substance lurching and rolling over itself as it began picking up speed.

The man’s head snapped round again and caused the hood to fling itself backwards; exposing an obviously fresh and large burn like wound over his right eye and cheek that went so far as to expose the bones underneath. 

“Leave me be!” the man hollered over his shoulder at the mist; oblivious to the fact that he was no longer running in as straight a line as he planned. 

As he turned his head back around he was greet with the sight of a quickly approaching stone wall; against which he smashed his face and body before bouncing off of it and getting throwing to his ass. Coughing and gasping now, the man could only right himself enough so that he was kneeling on the ground, when he saw that the mist was so close that it was pointless to run anymore. Throwing his hands together, the man interlocked his fingers and rose his arms into the air in a pleading motion; blood dripping off of the man’s chin from both his broken nose and a gash on his forehead.

 

“No!” the man screamed, his entire body visibly shaking “No! please no; I-I’m sorry!” the man was spitting, spraying and drooling as he babbled towards the mist.

“He’s mad!” a mans deep voice boomed over the crowd.

“Someone do something!” a woman’s gentle voice called out. “There are children here!”

“Guards!” a number of voices called out from the crowd as parents began herding their children away from the scene.

The terror did not waver from the man’s face and he was now shuffling backwards on his knees as he mumbled incoherently through his sobs. The man released the grip his hands had on one another which caused a crumpled up, but still sealed, envelope to tumble across the ground. The vanilla tinted paper was embossed with two bold letters in a glistening, almost living, crimson ink; XB. Stolen from a tomb of red stone that had been discovered a few miles out of town.

“HAVE MERC-eck!” the man had begun to yell like only a dying man can; when his own right hand suddenly darted through the air and latched onto his throat; stopping his words in an instant as the veins of his neck began to bulge.

Like a trapped animal the man began to attack his own arm as viciously as he was able; punching, slapping, yanking and even tearing chunks of flesh free with his nails in a futile effort to free himself. With his face now coated in the spray of his own blood and his arm dripping a steady stream; the man’s face began to turn red as his lower limbs started to thrash about frantically. Try as he might, the man was unable to move his left hand a single inch; the red tone quickly shifting to a purple one as blood began to fill the whites of his eyes.

“By Quil; he’s killing himself! Someone stop him!” an older woman’s voice broke through his gurgles.

“Aside!” a very deep and manly voice commanded as the sound of clinking metal filled the area. “Aside I say! Make room for the Kings Guard you unruly peasants!” before long, 4 burly men dawned in shiny metallic armor were able to shove their way to the front of the pack and surround the man on four equal sides.

“You there” the same commanding voice boomed “Stop this nonsense at once!” 

Blood filled eyes flickered towards the guard who bellowed at him, but he had not the strength to even quiver his lip and could only stare at the darkening image before him. 

“I said stop!” the Captain yelled; moving forward while reaching out so as to grab onto the man’s right hand.

Just as the Captain was able to make contact with the arm, the man’s entire body was suddenly wrenched from the ground and lifted almost 9 feet into the air; lifting the Captain up and off his feet as well before he lost grip and subsequently fell to his back in the dirt. Meanwhile, some unknown and unseen force held the choking man in the air while he held his own hand tightly over his throat.

“By Quil…” the guardsmen spoke softly as they all took a few hesitant steps backwards. The Captain could not even bring himself to stand and could only shuffle backwards on his hands, butt and feet.

The man kicked his legs and flailed his free arm for only a second before his body finally started to go limp; the unconsciousness of being oxygen deprived finally setting in place. It was in that moment that it seemed he would die that the man was finally able to take in a deep, gasping breath as he spit and choked on his own blood. The crimson mist that had gathered before him began to rise into the air now; creating a roughly human like structure that appeared to have a hold of the man’s body with only one 'appendage' on his hand and throat.

The wind itself seemed to whisper to the man as hundreds of different voices whispered incoherently from all around the crowd. To them, it sounded like nothing more than noise; however it seemed to be eliciting a response from the floating man.

“I…” he began in a raspy voice “I was only trying to make some coin… everyone thought you were gone.. I didn’t know!”

The cloud seemed to lift the man an extra foot into the air before suddenly thrusting him against the ground with an incredible amount of force. The subtle squish of torn flesh and the plethora of snaps and cracks from broken bones filled the airways as the man’s body broken in one mighty swing; leaving behind a puddle of blood and guts on the ground as he was lifted up and slammed into the ground once again. This impact acted like a horrid Gallagher Gag and sprayed the Faces and bodies of many bystanders in the crowd; whose faces were already locked with looks of utter disgust and disbelief as their minds attempted to process what had just happened.

The arm of the crimson figure now receded back within the larger cloud just as two red orbs the size of cheeries suddenly popped into being near the top of the cloud; two red eyes that seemed to be staring straight into the soul of the Captain as he lay on the ground, to afraid to move an inch. The figures position shifted slowly and subtly, allowing it to regrow it’s appendage and grab hold of the crinkled letter on the ground; the paper beginning to dissolve almost instantly as it was touched and drawn into the thicker portions of the figures body.

It moved now towards the Captain, who responded in kind by shuffling backwards as fast as he could; before an appendage lurched from within the cloud and grabbed hold of his leg.

“Ahh!” the man shrieked like a woman; thrashing his leg about in a violent manner so as to try and shake it free. As he did this though, another appendage fired from within the cloud; this one covered in an ashy grey flesh that felt like cardboard as it grabbed hold of the Captains jaw.

“[color=ed1c24][i]Your. King.[/i][/color]” A thousand voices boomed from everywhere and nowhere at the same time; causing the entire crowd to cover their ears in pain as their noses began to bleed. “[color=ed1c24][i]Has. Damned. You[/i].[/color]”


The last thing the guard would see, was the expansion of the two glowing orbs in the figures head; becoming two flickering pockets of red flames in the process. This began an impossible reaction with the crimson fog the beings body was comprised off as all but one of the microscopic particles erupted into crimson flames that spread throughout a massive area in the blink of an eye. Any person that stood outside in the Kingdom of Tigonna was vaporized in an instant; their ashes burned away as thousands of dying screams echoed through the air. Buildings were set ablaze and anyone left, would have to deal with the possibility that the entire town was about to burn to the ground.

Only one single particle had been spared from the violent ignition process; utilizing the violent explosions to propel itself off the face of this puny planet and into the cosmos.

[hr]




The single speck of energy would inevitably find it's floating through the hall of the Lobby, winding and weaving through the airwaves in an almost random fashion; sometimes gliding along the top of, or very near to, some of the electronics on the wall, causing their lights to dim and flicker whilst any computer screens were filled momentarily with a strange red static. The electrical disturbances halted as the particle exited the hallway of the entrance and floated towards the receptionist; coming to a stop just a few feet away from her while floating about 6 feet off of the ground. As the speck came to a stop, a high pitched ringing suddenly filled the lobby as it vibrated at an incredibly high frequency. This first vibration signaled an established connection to some unseen force elsewhere in the cosmos; causing an incredible spike in the surrounding energy levels as the speck began to rapidly multiply at an exponential rate. It would have looked as though someone was pouring red sand onto the floor and some unnatural force was preventing it from spreading outwards; creating a roiling crimson cloud with a roughly cylindrical shape and comprised of millions and millions of energy particles. 

The vibrations of the particles ebbed away as the energy levels within the Lobby would have finally began to stabilize; the rotations of the particles inside slowing to a crawl as it began to release snaps, cracks and pops from within. The vast majority of the particles were currently undergoing a change of state for Energy to Physical as they took on the form of a crimson metal; evidenced by the glimmering that could be seen within the cloud as droplets of liquid metal began to patterns against the floor. Anyone with a keen enough eye would be able to see the rapid construction of a massive and metallic skeletal structure inside; eventually stretching out beyond the top of the cloud a good 3 inches to expose a metallic forehead and empty eye sockets. When that was complete, microscopic threads of metal began to manifest themselves and starting at the feet they began wrapping tightly to the once bare frame; adding several inches worth of red metallic muscles and tendons as they wove in and out of the structure and ended once again on the exposed portions of the face.  Slowly now the cloud of particles began to lose it’s density, while the image of the bare muscles started to fade away; the cloud of energy particulate combining to create a fleshy layer over the entire body.

While the grizzly nature of the face, the chiseled abdomen and stacked pectoral muscles, covered in a mix of scars, would be the first hint at the beings intended sex; there were no genitals to be found upon the pubic mound of this being. Nor would he be dawning a pair of trousers to hide this fact. Now, the eyelids which had been built over the once empty eye sockets would suddenly spring open; revealing them to be deep, rolling pools of a dark crimson light. Meanwhile; shoulder length Onyx black hair was forced through the skin of his scalp and the brows of his eyes.

Most would know not the identity of the strange, naked man who now stood almost directly to the slack jawed receptionist; there is, after all, little to no mention in any records of a man known as Xavier Bloodbayne as most who cross his path never speak again.

“N-name and invitation?” the female spoke timidly towards him; almost unsure if she should speak at all.

Those red eyes shifted to the right in a single twitch of motion; staring straight into and through the eyes of the frail woman. Not once would his lips move even a micron, and yet the woman would be suddenly aware of hundreds of voices within her mind that all spoke in different octaves.

[color=ed1c24][i]Bloodbayne [/I][/color] the voices boomed in her mind as her vision went hazy. As she heard his words echoed in her head, Xavier held his hand out and summoned a burst of crimson particles from the palm of his hand; reconstructing the embossed envelope that he had only recently retrieved. The woman could be seen visibly shuddering as a thin droplet of blood ran from her nostril to her chin.

With a shaky hand the woman scribbled a wavy line on her tablet device before motioning to the rather empty room behind her; indicating that he should go there. She dared not speak to him again.

Without acknowledging the woman again, Xavier walked forward and further into the Lobby. A few people had arrived ahead of him and the urge to start attacking was a hard one to stifle, but stifled it was. The chance to fight the toughest of these people would soon be upon him.