2 weeks ago…

Early in the morning, residents of the capital saw smoke coming from a place they never thought they would see. It was one of the towers of the Grand Maester's, the guardians of the kingdom.

Outside the tower, guardsmen and mages were patrolling the area looking for evidence of the perpetrators of the attack. One guard that was far away from the rest of the group looked at his surroundings, seeing no one watching, he acted like he was moving a rock, his hand going under his foot as he enclosed his hands against a small crushed beetle made of metal.

Just as he was about to hide it in a pocket, he stopped moving utterly, yet one could see the struggle he did to move and run for his life.

"What's that you got in your hands?" said a voice, coming directly above him. The guard moved his head with difficulty, his face getting pale by the second. He saw a floating middle-aged man, with gold hair, sharp looks, and a small goatee beard, dressed in gold and silver robes.

"Your!!... eminence!! I- I... I was... just looking.. for evidence!!" The guard struggled to breathe, only his head capable of moving.

"It seems you found it, why was it going in your pockets?" The man floated down, while the guards enclosed hand that held the crushed beetle was raised toward the floating man, opening on its own against the guardsman's will. The man picked up the metal beetle, giving it a long look.

"I see, how many more of you are here?" The man didn't wait for the guard to speak, tapping the pale and sweating guardsman's forehead.

"NO! PLEASE NO! I will talk!! I will tal- AHHHHH!!" the guard began to scream, his eyes dilating and getting bigger before they burst. His screams should have alerted everyone in the vicinity, but no one came. A few seconds later, the guardsman's brain began to leak out from his ears and eyes, his body falling limp, before the force acting on it ceased, falling to the ground.

"NOO!! I WILL TAL-AHHH-"

"PLEASE!! MERCY!! MERC-"

"NOO!! THEY FORCED MEE- AHHH"

The scene repeated itself over a dozen times, the man looking for the rats the perpetrators sent to erase their involvement. Once he was sure no rats were left among the group that still weren't aware of the gruesome deaths, he flew into the highest tower on the close group of towers located nearby, landing on a balcony. He hurriedly walked through halls and corridors, coming to a stop in front of a simple door.

"Come in." A gentle and wispy voice was heard behind the door before the man opened the door with a bowing head. He stood there for a couple of seconds not daring to speak or move.

"So, did you investigate apprentice?" the gentle voice asked.

"Yes master, I confirmed the perpetrators are the Masked Society, more specifically their Masked Hunters. I found traces of their Items, and the effects of their unique abilities, including the leader Bloodwolf, The Puppeteer, The Beast, And the destruction Flame caused to the entire tower before they escaped." The man stretched out his hands, bringing out the evidence he collected including the destroyed beetle, the ripped clothes of the beast, and the crystallized blood of Bloodwolf, making it float in his hands.

The items left his area, his head still bowed, he was unable to see where they went. 

"Some people just don't know what's good for them."

"Master?" The man was perplexed, not understanding what his master meant by that quote.

"Have you found his body?" Asked the voice, having a little tenseness to it.

"No, There was no trace of his body." The man replied curtly.

"I see…" The voice had a distant feel to it.

"Master... Is he still alive?" The man knew when his master had that distant feel to her voice meant, she already figured out everything.

"Perhaps,... for the next few weeks, there will be strange incidents happening, I want you to handle it." The voice said with a final tone.

"Yes Master, It shall be done." The man respectfully stepped back, closing the doors while still bowing.

He quickly left the tower, not wanting to inconvenience the Master's rest.

He made a beeline toward his tower, his subordinates welcoming him with bowed heads and a hand placed on their crest of a crown worn by a gold eagle. 

"Master wishes for us to handle the strange incidents that will be happening, deploy our men, and make sure no other party gets involved." The man didn't stop walking, giving more orders as his lieutenants walked with him, listening to his commands.

"Make sure no other party is acting for or against this incident, we don't more shit on the shit that was forced down our throats last night." The lieutenants nodded their heads, their eyes filled with shame and rage. The fact that one of their own was attacked in their tower, while they the guardians and protectors of the Mage organization, its members, and its interest, were unable to let alone stop the attack but not even know they were being attacked right in their headquarters was a massive shit being put down their throat.

Somehow, their watchers were all unconscious, therefore no alarms were raised when the tower of the Grand Maester was broken into by the use of a partial key, a key that they should have known the location of at all times. The key is a major security risk that should have not been allowed to leave their sight.

Now, their rivals and enemies will hear of this failure, which will weaken their position and political power to a massive degree, possibly being unable to recover to the level they had before this attack.  

"Most of you probably guessed the perpetrators, they are the only ones daring and capable enough to do this, I expect you don't make us more idiots and incompetent people by acting prematurely or causing trouble where you shouldn't be, is that understood?" The man entered his grand office, sitting on his chair as he looked with sharp eyes at his lieutenants.

"As you command Lord Protector!!" All the lieutenants shouted, instinctively performing their greeting before they left one after the other.

Once he was alone, the Lord Protector sighed, feeling his title stained with heavy shit. His career might never recover from this massive setback.

"Why won't the Master allow us to get rid of the pest that is The Masked Society?" That was a question he had been asking himself for the past couple of years, whenever the Masked society antagonized them or taunted them with attacks on their supply warehouses and caravans. Now they were even attacking their headquarters directly, something that hasn't happened for 800 years of the kingdom's existence.

--- --- ( this sign indicates a scene change.)

In the forest outside the city, a beast of metal was fighting a beast of flesh, both looked similar, taking the form of a large wolf. They clawed and dodged the other's claw attacks, constantly moving at high speeds, the beast of flesh quicker to dodge the beast of metal's sharp claws.

"AHHH!! WHY WON'T YOU DIE??" The beast of metal shouted, unable to land an attack that would deal good damage to the beast of flesh. They have been fighting for 3 hours now, destroying trees in a large area surrounding the place they fought. Just as the beast of metal wasn't able to land a good hit, The beast of flesh was unable to do enough damage to the metal body, aside from just big scratches.

--- --- --- 

'Fucker won't leave me alone even if I tried to disengage from the fight, yet I can't kill him as well!' I was frustrated beyond belief, I was just running through the forest, looking for the Einhart Academy, but I was unable to find it even after searching for hours. Then this bastard of a wolf spotted me, chasing after me for minutes, as I thought it would go back to its territory after a while.

But no, the bastard didn't stop chasing me for hours until I got tired of it, engaging it in combat. It was a big mistake, I should have just kept running. Now even if I didn't feel tired physically, I was exhausted mentally from this high-speed battle, trying to dodge the unnaturally clever attacks of the wolf that was targeting the weak areas in my metal body, those that got damaged in the fight against that beast man.

'No, something isn't right here, no matter how magical, a wolf shouldn't be able to chase me around for hours without getting exhausted, and then fighting me for three hours straight as well, there must be something going on here.' It didn't even look like a magic wolf, just a big-sized wolf that coincidentally was the same size as my body.

Suddenly I felt a feeling of deja vu like I have experienced something similar not long ago. Ever since this fight began, I had to rely on my crystal eyes that allowed me to see the world better and at great distances, unlike my normal 360 crystalline vision that got blurry the more movement I made, movements like the battle I was fighting now.

I switched instantly to my normal 360 vision, cursing in my mind as I saw the real world.

'It's a fucking illusion spell again!!' The wolf that was attacking me was composed of dense energy, one that caused damage to my metal body, but I watched as the energy dispersed before it did serious damage to my body. To test something, I stopped moving completely, watching the wolf stop as well, doing circles around me. He took a swipe at me, making scratches that would cause a creature made of flesh to bleed a lot, but not one that would do any severe damage.

'Is this an illusion formation meant to scare away unwanted people from the forest? ..that could only mean the Einahrt Academy is close by.'