PROLOGUE 1

An ordinary day in Midgard. Nothing is out of order. Carriages carrying their passengers, beggars lying about in the streets. Every person only concerned for themselves, not caring for any other. A middle-aged man, tall in stature, with ragged clothes, a scar on his closed left eye and an unkempt beard, walks through the streets. Nobody seems to pay him any notice, or rather, people seem to be avoiding him. "Another mercenary, probably." This was the thought going through most peoples' heads, and so none wished to come close to him.

We have to bear in mind that this town that this man was walking through was not the capital, nor any big city for that matter. This was but a small town in the whole vastness of Midgard, where the royal guards did not come that often, and which had it's own duke to answer to. Everybody wanted to avoid this person.

We see a group of bandits drinking in a bar, and they are pestering a child. Pestering is too light a word, they are tormenting the poor child. He is tied up, and the leader of the bandits, a Glacies, was making daggers of ice, and throwing it at him. "Ah, I fucking missed!" he exclaims when the ice dagger fails to hit the child. "Stop squirming around! How the fuck am I supposed to hit you?!" The other people in the bar, murmured among themselves how they felt sorry for the kid, but assured themselves that there was nothing they could do to stop them. After all, their Potentials weren't that strong to take on the bandits.

As all of this was going on, among the sneers and laughter of the bandits, we see the ragged man step in through the bar doors. He takes a glance at the leader of the bandits, then goes directly to the barkeeper. Giving him 2 gold coins, worth enough to buy a bar, he then says, "I'm gonna mess up your bar a bit." Shocked, but not ungrateful, the barkeeper accepts.

"Just let me out of these ropes, meathead! Then I'll show you how strong I truly am! I will make you fucking scream when I kill you!", the child screamed. "Oh, really? You talk too much for a dead fucking corpse!", the bandit leader shouted as he began to create another dagger. Just then, his head was sliced clean with a sickle. Blood splattered on the child's face. "Boss!", all the henchmen screamed. The ones closer to the mercenary had seen him. "Bastard! You're gonna fucking pa-". Before they could finish their sentences, their heads were cut clean by the mercenary and his twin sickles. One by one, he killed all of them. All except one. He sliced clean through every person, except for one. The youngest one of them all. He glared at him, then said, "You're employed by the Duke, aren't you?" "Y-Yes, sir!", the frightened man replied. "Go and deliver a message to him for me. Tell him the Orphaned Shadow has arrived...." There was a mysterious expression in the frightened bandit's eyes. Fear was certainly present there before, but what now dwelled in his eyes was pure hopelessness. Thankful for his life, he ran to the destination told by the Orphaned Shadow. The Shadow himself walked out of the bar, seeing as he had done his task.

The child who had been tied up had witnessed all of this, and having been untied by some of the people in the bar, went after the Shadow. "Hey, mister! I don't think you seemed to notice, but I was still tied, so you didn't technically save me." "Save you? I simply went and did what I had to do to get to my destination, you being untied in the commotion wasn't due to me.", replied the Shadow. "Yeah, yeah. I kind of get it, but I still owe you my life!", said the child. "By the way, I'm Finn, what about you?". Somewhat reluctantly, the man replied, "Jon Alley." "Oh, you're a bastard, like me.", Finn said. "I haven't gotten into any official business, so I don't have no last name like you though..., anyways, where we off to, Jon?" Surprised, and very irritated, Jon said, "We? There is no we. I just met you right now, and you expect me to now take care of you? Just because you are an orphan does not mean that I will have you along. What do you take me to be, some circus act?". Finn was still persistent on going along with him, and said, "I'm a Caelum, I can heal your wounds! Although not as well as some other Caelum might, but still, I'm pretty good for my age. And seeing you and the way you fight, I'm guessing you have some pretty nasty wounds. Although I didn't see you using your Potential, I'm pretty sure you're a strong man!" "I do not need healing. If I was in need, I would go to a healer, now stay away!", Jon shouted.

As though instinctively, Finn raised his hands and pointed them at Jon, as golden dust was engulfing Jon. Finn had used his Potential to heal Jon. "What did you do that for?", Jon said. "They're here, I thought I could help...", Finn said anxiously, his gaze locked far behind Jon.

Grabbing his sickles, Jon turned around to see a platoon of soldiers marching in his direction.