PROLOGUE
Chapter One
ᴀʙ ᴀᴇᴛᴇʀɴᴏ ᴀᴅ ʟᴜᴄᴇᴍ
from eternity to the light
"¥ðµ †hïñk ¥ðµ lïkê whå† ¥ðµ §êê åñÐ ¥ê† ¥ðµ årê ßlïñÐ..."
1995
Out of the darkness, flames appeared that were slowly consuming the hut in the forest. The man had the assault rifle slung at his shoulder, he exhaled the smoke and threw the cigarette at the burning house, walking away. He was wearing an army uniform, the entire village behind him was slaughtered, walls stained with blood, corpses were dismantled, missing limbs, their faces were injured to the unrecognizable state.
And so, he walked on, two magazines attached to his vest. He almost felt as if somebody was watching him, possibly one of the survivors, he did not pay attention that much. His teammates or rather - leftovers, were already inside of the jeep. He climbed in the back and it drove away, he turned around to see the man in the black coat, he warned one of his teammates about the man, but once he turned, nobody was there. For a moment, he thought that it was a mirage, but it felt too real to be an illusion, a projection inside of his head. He was happy he had to live another day and that relief was greater when he was getting away from the place.
Tick-tock.
Something underneath the jeep exploded.
Chapter Two
ET ᒪᑌ᙭ Iᑎ TEᑎEᗷᖇIᔕ ᒪᑌᑕET
and light shines in the darkness
"𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙, 𝙗𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙬𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙘𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙣."
1995
The blood all around the grass, bodies ripped apart due to the explosion. The man had the blood coming out of his head, he was towered by the two corpses or rather what's left of them. He had an echo piercing his ears and his sight blurry and shaky. He grunted, using his wounded arm to lift up the corpses off himself, covered in the blood squirt. He didn't have enough strength to move on his feet, he tried to crawl away from the dead bodies. The man in the black cloak appeared from the tree, sending a strike towards his upper chest, making him painfully roll over at his back. The man groaned, being at his back now.
He'd lower down to him, the man had a mask on his face that resembles a tragedy mask. He'd grab onto the tags on his neck, ripping them off. He lifted him up by the collar, giving him a final look before throwing him against the tree.
He was already passing out, his back rested against the tree, he saw the man walking away deeper into the forest before completely disappearing, he made the final blink, exhaling the air.
Chapter Three
𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕥 𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕓𝕣𝕒𝕤 𝕤𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕠 𝕝𝕦𝕔𝕖𝕞
after darkness, I hope for light
"𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯, 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶."
1995
The man woke up in the garden of some sorts, he was feeling perfectly fine as if nothing happened. He didn't have any bloodstained clothes, nor the army uniform. He was wearing a white button up shirt and black trousers.
"Nathan..." He spoke with some weird accent in a deep voice.
He shot him a gaze of distrust, while tilting his head.
"How the hell do you know my name?" He answered, unamused by that.
He approached him closely.
"You did a lot of terrible things back there. You killed innocent men, women, children. Yet you still think that I am at fault here for causing you these problems. I could have just killed you back there with a flick of fingers. I am here to set you on the righteous path."
Nathan received the sudden flashbacks of all the bodies of his teammates, he didn't hold in his emotions, he kicked his feet into motion, dashing towards him, sending a strike against the side of his head with his fist. But something repelled his strike, it's as the gravity itself pushed the fist off the black-cloaked man, the man made a light hand gesture, making Nathan fly off a few meters back, he'd be quite shocked by the sight, raising himself up from the ground.
"What the hell are you?" He asked, now being cautious of him.
"I am the prime mover. I am the one who sets the sinners to their path of retribution. Believe it or not, you will eventually pay for all the innocent lives you have taken, but there might be a slight chance that you can change everything. Be a lawyer, for example? Completely re-write your past. Nathaniel Cross is in the past, he died during the war. That is a stain you cannot wash off, you will be given a new name, a new identity. Caedius - the murderer. You are a murderer, Nathan."
Nathan stared at him, remaining silent, gritting his teeth.
"You never give up, don't you? You will be named after Dante Alighieri, the Italian poet. Once, in the past, I set him on the same path and he became a great man. You must reach his level or become even greater."
Nathan raised up his chin.
"What makes you hold control over me? I bow to no man." Nathan spoke.
The man smirked under the hood.
"You have no choice." The cloaked man made a hand gesture down.
He returned to the normal word, as it seems he was in a comatose state, some kind of lethargic dream. He heard the medical apparatus and that life support gave up once he came back into the body.The sound of the life support dying out, out of sudden. He'd have no signs of life, the
long, lingering signal is heard. The doctor checked his watch."...04:03. Nathaniel Cross has died..."
End of Prologue
Phase One: Death?
Chapter One
𝔥𝔬𝔡𝔦𝔢 𝔪𝔦𝔥𝔦, 𝔠𝔯𝔞𝔰 𝔱𝔦𝔟𝔦
today it's me, tomorrow it will be you
"𝓟𝓮𝓻 𝓪𝓼𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓪, 𝓪𝓭 𝓲𝓷𝓯𝓮𝓻𝓲."
The next day.
He opened his eyes, he heard the cold breeze and the sun blinding his eyes. He got up from the ground, he had multiple wounds and scars all over his body, his clothes were teared up. He remembered he died in the hospital, unaware of where was he and how did he even get here. He noticed that he was standing on the highway without any shoes, he stepped aside at the sand.
At this point, he didn't have any friends or people he could ask for help, nor any sorts of communications. Hours of walking in the desert across the highway made him reach the town, it was already dark, so the only place that was open was the bar. He entered the bar with his teared up clothes and without any shoes. A lot of people looked at him for a moment, before disregarding him. He sat down at the chair and started giving insane questions to the receptionist.
"What is this place? Where am I? What year is it?"
The receptionist raised a brow.
"The tavern, California, 1995? Mate, all good with you? Rough night?"
The man nodded, he'd request a bottle of water.
"It's with lemon, can you handle that?" The receptionist handed him a bottle of water, he took out some bills from his pocket, placing it on the counter.
The group of men approached the counter.
"Is this a charity for hobos? Get him out of here." One of them said, chuckling to himself.
As he was about to leave, he touched the door's handle, the glass was thrown at his back, it's shards lightly piercing his back, he lost his temper, grabbing onto the door's handle, receiving hallucinations in his head, his sight turned into bloody red, he saw four letters on each of them that said KILL.
He ripped the door handle out of the door, fixating it on his knuckles, he grabbed onto the chair near the door, hurling it at the man. Though man easily took it, slightly deflecting it to the ground, he rushed in at him with a strike towards his jaw with his fist. The strength of the impact was unrealistically powerful, which sent him over the counter. The other men grappled him, holding him in place, yet he managed to trip them along with himself, he grabbed the door handle he had in his hand, as if it was a knife, he climbed over the man, striking him in the head with the door handle, smashing the nose into his skull with the several powerful strikes, the other man tackled him to the ground. He got punched in the face, yet he managed to put a foot at his chest and pull him off himself and swinging the leg across his legs, sweeping him down to the ground. He took the chains from the man he just killed, wrapping them around the knocked down man, strangling him. Knocked down man tried to resist with all his best, punching and kicking him to let him go, yet he didn't really feel pain, he smashed his head to the ground with the chains on his neck.
All of the men were pretty much eliminated, the receptionist took out a shotgun, firing upon the direction of the killer. The killer flipped the table over, calming himself down to rationalize his thinking. Another shot hit the wooden table, ripping it off by the half, he threw the door handle at the receptionist, sliding over to another corner. He shot the window instead, nearly hitting him. He took the glass shard, picking up the chair and hurling it at his direction, not aimed to hit him, but to distract him. The shooter shot the incoming chair, which was a very foolish action. He used this time to rush at the receptionist, almost reaching his eyes with the glass shard. The shotgun's barrel was aimed against his chest.
"This is all over, water man!" He put his finger on the trigger, clicking it.
Yet.
The shotgun had only four shells.
He smiled, slamming the glass shard into his eyes, as deeply as he could, piercing his eyeballs completely, causing the blood to spray down his face. He'd then pull the bloody glass shard out, his front is covered in the blood as well, he kept slamming him with the glass shard mercilessly. He threw the shard away, realizing what he has done. He took some biker clothes with himself and ran off to the trailer park nearby. He used the water for it's purpose, cleaning himself off the blood, he put on new clothes, leaving the old teared ones under the trailer. He managed to get away from the scene.
The several cruisers rushed to the bar, two of the officers approached him and asked him about what he's doing here.
"I came to my friend who lives in that trailer, I came out to see what's the noise."
They believed that blatant lie, though they asked him to state his name.
"It's Dante, Dante Caedius."
Chapter Two
ᴀᴅ ᴍᴇʟɪᴏʀᴀ?
toward better things?
1996
He pretty much got along with the pace of life, receiving a good job as a lawyer and trying to keep himself from spilling the blood of innocents. The past was clinging up to him, holding on his present. I am not a killer - he repeated to himself, trying to make it into his will, but was he really just an ordinary lawyer? He had to defend the clients, having a widened area of responsibilities, which is odd, what lawyer would defend their client not in the court of law, but in the streets?
The wheels came into motion, around 9 PM.
Dante was ordered to defend his client - Zhang Wen. After the successful defense in the court against the criminal organization, he was told to bring him home safely. Later at night, Dante drove the car not so far away from San Fierro. Out of sudden, Rancher rammed into their sedan's back, he was now in pursuit. Several jeeps were pursuing Dante and Zhang. He pits one of the cars, causing them to hit the tree, he switched places with Zhang, letting him drive the car after shots were fired. He rolled down the window quarter and began to shoot down the incoming vehicles. The bullet hit the tire, causing the car to steer left, flipping over. As one of the jeeps collapsed, another came. They finally came into the city. The jeep came out of the side, ramming Dante's sedan into the alleyway. It was the moment, where he used his predator instincts, which he tried to keep in himself, no longer caring about his client he was supposed to defend. One of the armed thugs approached the car. Dante, furiously, kicked the door out, knocking out the thug who approached it. Three thugs didn't have the time to react to this, since they presumed both of them were dead after that crash. He held out his heavy pistol. He aimed at the first one, discharging the bullet into his chest. Another thug shot Nathaniel in his side, it made Nathaniel miss his shot, he leaped at the backseats. Two thugs started approaching the car, aiming at wounded Zhang. Caedius grabbed onto the wrist of the thug who aimed at Zhang, slamming him in the face with a heavy pistol, using him as a shield, he'd hold him and dash over to the third thug, ramming him out of the way. Both of the thugs were laying down on the ground, that's when he used the opportunity, discharging the bullets into them. He knew that his law career is over, because of that, so he hid the details of how he saved Zhang's life. He took one of the jeeps of the organization, taking him home. The man was incredibly grateful for saving his life.
He dumped the car somewhere far away from the shootout and from his house, thinking that there are trackers all around the jeep. He went home by bus, staring at himself in the mirror, peering at his own reflection. Then he watched his reflection change and morph into someone else, that was still him, but he was.. younger? He had an army uniform, stained with blood. He shot a gaze at Nathaniel to the other side of the mirror.
"You are me." he spoke quietly to himself.
"You can't run away from what you truly are, Nathan." The man in the reflection changed his posture as if it wasn't a reflection, but a window.
"I am not Nathan anymore... Nathan died." Dante spoke, staring at Nathan.
"Did he?" the man in the reflection smiled, his cheek was pierced and part of his face was completely in blood, so the smile looked a little unpleasant.
Dante, enraged, slammed the mirror with his fist, it shattered, its shards falling down at the ground, his knuckles were bleeding from the glass getting into it. He patched it up, wrapping the bandages around his palm.
He sat on the bed, knowing that he's deeply fucked in the head if he's seeing those things. Who is he really? The cold-blooded killer or the man striving for justice and peace in this world? The answer was unclear, the situation where he lost his cool made him doubt even more about the second option.
Chapter Three
𝕚𝕟 𝕒𝕓𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕒 𝕝𝕦𝕔𝕚𝕤, 𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕓𝕣𝕒𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕦𝕟𝕥
in the absence of light, darkness prevails
1996
Receiving the payment for the job which was a nice amount of money, he came home. He entered the bedroom, lightly shutting the door behind himself. He sat down on his knee, rolling the part of the carpet and pushing it over aside, he lifted up the wooden plank and put the money there. There was a solid amount of the money. He put the plank over, covering it with the carpet.
In the next hour, he drove the car to the agency building, he tried to pull the door handle, but seemingly the place was shut down or something. He made a call to the director, he was told that the business is shut down, almost immediately he hung up.
He drove home, thinking of the new job. Though, he got a call from the director.
"One last job for you.. You have to deliver the package of hunting knives to Jeremiah Crawford. He wears gray clothes, average height, has a scar on his neck, which is covered by a tattoo. He's in Downtown at the underground parking."
After that, he equipped himself with the set of knives and a single firearm strapped to his leg, he drove the car to the place. He parked the car at the pavement, deciding not to use it to get inside of the underground parking. He got in through the gate, spotting the man near the car. Though, he saw the lights of another car coming into the parking and parking up near Jeremiah. Dante decided to keep a low profile on that, setting himself behind the car.
"Leech. What is it that you need from us?"
"I'm here to make an alliance."
"A fuckin' alliance? You are in no position to make any alliance."
The man took out a knife, brandishing it to them.
"If I wanted to, I'd kill all of you, I heard - the silver is deadly."
The speaker in front of Jeremiah paused for a moment.
"What is it that you need?"
"Daily supply of your blood."
"We'd rather get killed than give you it."
"Very poor choice of words." With that being said, he rolled the knife around in his hand and struck it into the man's stomach, instantly putting him down.
So the combat begins, though Jeremiah has put all of the four men down with a few movements, counter throwing one of them over at the bonnet of the nearby car and stabbing the other three.
He held one of them by the collar and then he bit the man's neck, feeding on his blood. The shout was heard, as the bite was really painful, he ripped the chunk of his neck, stabbing the knife into his eye.
