Imperial Knight Morpheus had other problems.
He made a full recovery from his injuries, but what he was about to experience would make him tear his eyes and eardrums out with a rusted knife.
A while back, he had relocated Marco Bennett back to her hometown for allegorical reasons. Much blatant favoritism had come back to haunt him, literally.
His team, which was led by his daughter, had failed in their mission to discover multiple disappearances of their kind. Primarily, which led to the Crux uncovering a huge network of sex trafficking and political bribery that spanned over a dozen countries and counting.
That could have been their positive moment, but Susanoo sandbagged the investigation. To make matters worse, she and her team murdered Father Brutus in broad daylight with witnesses and without proper clearance.
Morpheus' regime as the Imperial Knight has been under high scrutiny ever since the Third Revelation started doing terrorist attacks last year. Most roundtables were dead set against idly standing by doing nothing or denying protection for the Order of the Black Wing.
It made him look like a hypocrite since Morpheus, too, belongs to the Order of the Black Wing as a Daemon Archduke. It was a political play on his part to lead both the Stygian Society and the Order of the Black Wing while making him the de facto Daemon Emperor.
His plan failed.
Now, he is in a far worse position than before; he is being quietly ex-communicated by the majority of both factions.
He thought he was going to be under review, but he would wish he was…
His former subordinate, Marco Bennett, was summoned to make a statement about what happened to her back home.
He wasn’t alone…
In that same room, he was flanked by a female Dragon Kemonomimi named Noah Owens. She was about the same height as Marco, with very long golden blonde hair and big golden eyes. She looked like she was in her 20s, but she carried herself with maturity as she was a lot older. As a Dragon Kemonomimi, she had blue horns, a pair of blue Dragon wings, and a scaly blue tail.
She sat beside a Japanese man named Hiroyuki Sakai, a Daemon Samurai who works in a special division of the Stygian Society. He had short black hair and had brown eyes. He looked like he was and is in his mid-30s with a 5 o'clock shadow. Both were dressed in their uniforms as two other leaders sat next to him.
One was Hikari Stryker, a tall, busty woman with long honey-brown hair and green eyes. She was also wearing a blue kimono with white floral patterns. Even though he is not active in the field anymore, she works as an administrative director in her roundtable.
She was with her husband and the leader of their roundtable, Leon Stryker.
Even at his age, he is still active and doing combat missions with his roundtable while his wife is working on the administrative side of things.
Still in good shape with charcoal grey hair and dark eyes, Leon had a medium build to him, being six and a half feet tall, jokingly the same height as his son. Despite his being a ruthless Daemon Knight, he portrays a jovial side to him that is infectious and welcoming, unlike her cynical but loveable wife.
Canny, the four have one thing in common, they all hate Marcus and everything about him.
Marco was even invited back to the Stygian Society Headquarters in London. Not by him but by Hikari, which made it even more disrespectful. Even now, she didn't acknowledge him as the Imperial Knight, but one of her young boys would make her a sandwich.
The five in attendance knew Marco for her frigid nature, and they were taken aback by her flirty and over-confident nature. Along with her state of dress—A grey and black gothic lace off-shoulder ball gown dress with women's velvet steampunk renaissance short sleeves with matching stockings.
The five of them listened to Marco's statement about what happened months ago as she spoke, "So after the Imperial Knight Morpheus sent me away to Lancashire on a ‘special assignment’ my best friend was gunned down right in front of me when I was visiting her three days after I arrived at my new post. I was apprehended and taken to the nearest demon meat market, where I saw the Four Horsemen of the Third Revelation.”
But Noah wasn’t deterred by this, “What were they talking about?” she asked.
"They were deciding what they wanted to do with me. Lord Caliber wanted me to be a part of his demon meat market as a sex slave. Lord Raphael wanted to play games with me. The Holy Mother Maria Boutonnière chose Lord Raphael's plan instead. I was taken to a nearby abandoned farm and left there to starve to death,” she explained.
“But you managed to get out of there alive…” Hiroyuki said.
Marco nodded, “Yes, barely… When I managed to stumble across a camp just 200 kilometers away from the plantation, there was nobody around.”
“A military camp that size was abandoned with fresh food, running clean water, and electricity with no rhyme or reason? Where was everybody?" Marcus demanded.
Marco shrugged her shoulders, "beats me. I was too busy trying to get water. It was a godsend that I found a radio and called for help…"
"But you didn't call the Stygian Society at all for backup…?" Marcus asked with a stoic look.
Marco glared back at him, “Why would I?”
Knowing the brief history between her and Marcus’ family, Marco didn't have to explain everything. She lost faith in trust in the same people she worked with for many years.
Hopefully, Leon would rectify that as well, “still, Marco, you should have notified headquarters. We have come and helped you regardless… Your problem was with Morpheus and his overachieving daughter Arcana, no one else. You didn't have to shut yourself out or resign. Even with your latent abilities at that time, you were still an amazing scout. That is why I bring to a vote to nominate Marco Bennett to the rank of First Knight. Effective immediately." He presented. "All in favor, raise your hand."
All five did, ‘Morpheus’ being the first one to raise his.
Marco scoffed at the idea, "Now, I am accepted… I guess this is the part where, I don't know, you call me on my bullshit?”
Hiroyuki tried to tread softly with his personal question, "In your previous photo, you had black hair and green eyes. But now I can see you have icy-white hair and icy-white eyes. I can tell both are natural. Is it because of the Daemonia Shift?"
“Yes,” Marco answered with a smile.
"And I see you have changed your style. Not because of your experiences, I hope," being a psychiatrist, Hiroyuki followed up.
He was nervous asking the question, knowing he was the lead investigator of Lord Raphael's disappearance, apart from the two dozen male soldiers murdered at the abandoned camp.
Unbeknownst to everyone, Lord Raphael came from a long line of the wiccan who were well-versed in holy magic and Aethereal abilities. One reason Holy Mother Maria Boutonnière wanted the young man to be a part of her little faction was short-lived because of his disappearance.
With a conquering smile, Marco answered truthfully, “I am just happy, now knowing I don’t have to be ashamed of myself anymore. I’ll accept the position at my hometown and promotion, but it’s going to be part-time now. Ran into an old friend of mine and I bagged him. So now I don’t have to work as hard. You can tell your daughter that boy is all hers now, Marky!” She heckled. “Now, if you excuse me, my man waiting for me back home... in Lancashire.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Marco gets up from her chair as she walks while swaying her hip
Hiroyuki immediately whispered to Noah, "You can't believe in this."
"I don't. That is why I wanted to hear it from her first…" Noah confirmed. “Okay, anything else?”
Morpheus wasted no time speaking about the interview as he addressed the room, “My team indeed did a full investigation of the disappearance of Father Raphael. Even though all four of them are still at large, he just seemed to disappear without a trace. We found his home outside of the Essex countryside. It was abandoned and set on fire. They rallied up most of the workers there who were nephalems. They kept their code of silence, even though it was us."
“Such loyalty among the broken…” Noah said while taking off her jacket and putting it on her chair.
“And let’s not forget the only two dead bodies that were in that entire mansion looked like bodyguards…” Hiroyuki informs.
“They were bodyguards…” Noah confirmed while sitting down in her chair.
Morpheus sat across from her as he continued, "We even did mitochondrial DNA analysis in every room. Spotless except for the bedroom. There was a dislodged finger that looked like it belonged to a young male underneath the table, a nephalem with a heritage of a Stoicheiódis Foínix, an endangered species of fire elementals. We even checked the bedspreads for fluids and found a match. The seminal fluids that we found on the bedspreads matched the blood and tissue samples of the dislodged finger."
Noah was contemplating the information as she was rocking back in her chair.
"We even found vaginal fluid on the sheets. We swabbed every mouth of every female who was in that mansion, and there was no match." Marcus concluded while presenting them with a huge stack of evidence.
“I guess we can forget about the coffee cup that Marco drank out of…” Noah agreed.
“So, I suggest we commence and ascertain the fate of Father Raphael!" Marcus proudly announced with a smirk.
Marcus was indeed the Imperial Knight, and this was under his jurisdiction, so he can decide to distribute any information to any law enforcement agency she sees fit. But Hikari has a better idea, “do you have your files?”
“Yes,” Morpheus got up from his seat and went inside his book bag to pull out three different redweld folders.
“Are these the only originals?” Hikari asked as the slightly confused Marcus handed them to her.
“Didn’t have the time to make copies,” He answered truthfully.
Hikari nodded as she rose from her chair and walked towards the nearest fireplace. She opened one red wild to separate the papers into separate wads and threw them all into the fire.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM?!” Marcus rushed to her, but Leon cut him off.
“Watch yourself, Morpheus!” Leon warned.
Hiroyuki wasn't surprised by Hikari's insubordination, but he would’ve wanted an explanation, “was it that obvious, Hiraki-Sensei?”
"I guess you can say I am the lesser of the two evils. Marky Mark and his funky bunch would have used this against her. He had already sent that poor girl away to Lancashire as an act of exile because the baby girl felt threatened.” Hikari explained. “Meanwhile, he had a dormant Malefica Obscura for him to cultivate and mold into a weapon but decided to have daddy’s little girl instead.” Hikari throws more papers into the fire. "I never understood that about you, Marcus. Always being a politician before a soldier. I guess in your mind, this works for you.”
"Like you are any better than me?! If that was the case, you would be the Imperial Knight and not me," Marcus yelled.
“The title ‘The Stygian Society’ is based on what we can do for our communities, not what we can do for ourselves. That logic makes us fearful, incompetent, and weak. None of this should've happened in the first place, but at the same time, it worked out for the best for Marco since she had finally found what was holding her back; her fear."
Hiroyuki nodded in agreement as he saw the paperwork turned into kindling.
“It makes no sense, Marcus. We should be better than this. Yet, on our darkest day, we sat on our hands and did nothing while we watched the world burn and tear itself apart through ignorance and greed. Father Raphael was just a boy in his early twenties with immense powers beyond his comprehension, and he was held back by those who wanted to mold him into their perverse image. Only to be cut down for the same reasons we see every day in public or our own homes. We turn on the television,” Hikari lectured as she pulled another reweld and started doing the same thing.
"But I do believe that Marcus Halberstam is an evil genius. He chose to stoop to the same levels as Holy Mother Maria Boutonnière, Daemon Archduke Endspiel, Daemon Princess Saboten, and Daemon Prince Maven to defeat greater evils. It made no sense; I can't say it enough. He sent Marco Bennett to Lancashire on purpose because he deemed her as a fake. Even though I signed off on her bloodwork saying she was a dormant Malefica Obscura--”
“I AM STANDING HERE, WOMAN! MIGHT AS WELL GET ON FOUR LEGS AND TAKE A SHIT ON ME!” Marcus yelled.
Hiroyuki shook his head in disgust, "So you knew, made her records public without exposing her. Just like you were banking on The Third Revelation to storm her home village.”
"You would think Marcus would find someone who can help her awaken her true powers in a proper and safe environment. But no, and that is what separates the old guard and the new blood. He wanted to traumatize Marco beyond the point where he needed her to be what he felt a wiccan should be," Hikari still prospecting. "The murderess of two dozen men, a violator of another. All because of one simple thing; Marco Bennett wanted to save the woman who took her place in the line of fire that night. And that is something that she will have to live with for the rest of her life… In the end, that is Marco's reason why she will always do what is necessary to keep those who can't fight for themselves. Following the true code of a Daemon Knight."
It took everyone a while to process that. He felt that Marcus did Marco in his favor by putting her through such a terrible experience. But at the same time, it was for her to be prepared for what was coming up on the horizon. Hiroyuki was never really a huge fan of Marcus in general, but he respected some of his decisions even though they were extreme.
And with that, Hiroyuki helped Hikari burn the last bit of evidence of the “disappearance” of Father Raphael.
Noah approached the livid Imperial Knight, "We are not done with our interviews, sir. We need to speak to your First Knight, Arcana.” She informed.
“Be back in 1400 hours.” Marcus recessed.
Meanwhile, Marco would leave HQ feeling somewhat vindicated. She was indeed fibbing to Marcus, just to piss him off even more.
As she was about to walk down the sidewalk, A black Tesla pulled up beside her. To Marco’s surprise, it was Dante, Jervis, Beta Crucis, and Leiko to get out of the car. They ran to her, and they embraced to see her alive and saved. It was a happy reunion.
They would have a chance to catch up while taking refuge at a nearby café.
Marco was more candid about her experiences as she drank her iced coffee with their friends and colleagues.
“The night they shot up my friend’s place, I thought she was dead, but she survived. After they almost burned my hometown to the ground, they took me to their damn brothel. I have to say, it was like walking through hell. Then, I saw them. Charles Foster Drake, Ralphonse Garrison, Lorelei Kelly, and Kenneth Lee Boutonnière. Those boys were ready to fight over me. Luckily for me, Maria handed me to Garrison."
“Shit…” Dante uttered.
“Then, what happened?” Jervis asked.
“My lovable idiot took me to an aethereal hotspot in the middle nowhere in Suffolk.” She informed.
Leiko threw her hands up, “he might as well shoot himself in the head. Or have you done it for him? What the hell was he thinking?”
Marco giggled, “He was curious. B-T-Dubs, he is a wiccan himself.”
“Because of course, he was!” Leiko surrendered, shaking her head.
“How did you manage to escape? With Bain and his elite watching over you?” Jervis wondered.
“Because Bain is more of a poser than Ralphie.” Marco gloated. “My coven destroyed the ops while having some fun along the way.”
Jervis and Leiko laughed as they understood. But Dante, still innocent enough, blushed like a raspberry.
“The word is out that Father Raphel is missing, and Maria put a six-figure reward. She claims he is a prisoner of the dark coven.” Leiko informed. “But…”
“If they want to make sexual pets out of us, then expect a return seven times stronger.” Marco quasi-admitted.
Jervis scoffed, “And then there were three. Yet Drake looks like he might heel over any day now and Kenny is Swiss cheese.”
For Dante, this was kind of an eye-opening moment for him. Marco turned a 180 when came to… everything about her. Maybe it was the trauma that she had to endure or was it her Daemonia Shift? It is common for those to have it at an older age to have immediate personality changes.
He had read the reports of an abandoned military camp with all of the personnel vanished without a trace next to an abandoned plantation outside of Suffolk a couple of days ago. Not even a single drop of blood was found.
But things would become livelier with Beta Crucis came back to the table with a dozen steaming hot apple fritters that her shaped like apples.
Jervis was amazed by the craftsmanship, “good heavens! It looks like a Michelin star dessert.” He praised.
“That’s because it is!” Beta Crucis happily said as she began to viciously scarf down the large apple-shaped pastries one by one with a glass of perfectly chilled milk.
Jervis was a bit shocked and amazed watching the enthused Tanuki girl speed eating her snack. He looked at smug Leiko as if she was proud of herself.
“Leiko... you need to tell her to slow down...” Jervis warned.
Leiko shrugged, “Don’t worry, man. This is a celebration. Everything is on me. Besides, I own the place.”
“No, those things weigh almost a kilo!” Dante warned.
The three witnessed Beta Crucis eating her current and fifth apple fritter. Noticeably, she was struggling to chew now as she was going through a sweet brain fog.
“As long she doesn’t bite off her tongue, she is fine.” Leiko blew off as she took a sip of her coffee.
The mortified Jervis grimaced, “God help us all…” He finished his coffee.
And it was a little celebration to have. They were not far from done, but just getting this far was a blessing. Unfortunately, and rightfully so, not everyone reaped such rewards.
