Five o'clock in the morning of the same day.

Thomas was sitting in a chair in his own office. There were many paintings of various styles on the walls. A lamp shone on the table with a dim yellow light. He touched his mask, took it off, wiped it with a damp cloth, and put it on again. There was a knock on the door.

"Come in already!" he shouted.

"Bad news."

"What is it?"

"Two of our inquisitors are missing."

"According to the rumors, they went looking for some metentises who burned three men alive."

“Where?”

“On one of the streets.”

“Which one?”

"I don't know yet. All I know is that it happened somewhere in the area from ten pm to midnight."

Thomas rose from his chair and looked in the Inquisitor's direction.

"So, you don’t know yet. Amazing. A metentis was burning people on the streets of our city, probably while there were a lot of witnesses, and not only we don’t know where exactly it happened, but we will probably spend a lot of time finding it out! What's the point of you standing here, huh? Do you want to dance for me or sing a ballad?"

"No, sir."

"Then go find out where the two members of the holy Inquisition have gone. They didn't fall into the sewers, did they?"

"I'll check all the sewers, sir."

"And check all the septic tanks with shit, and remember to look deeper, maybe the bodies drowned."

"Yes, sir. I'll send a recon team there."

"No, you check it out alone, and I'll take charge of the recon team."

"Yes, sir!"

The Inquisitor was about to turn and run to obey the order when Thomas called out to him:

"Close the door behind you!"

He turned around, closed the door, and now only the chaotic clatter of his boots on the wooden floor gradually fading was heard until it disappeared completely.

"And he's one of the fifty best metentises in the Inquisition. I'll have to rethink this list," Thomas swore.

***

He was standing in a small hall at six o'clock that morning, inspecting a scouting party made up of combat inquisitors.

"I found witnesses of this event; they gave me a description of the person to look for. He was stabbed in the eye this midnight. Is everything clear?"

"Yes, Sir Thomas."

"Go ahead."

***

6:20 of the same day.

"Thomas, you should come on summons. Looks like we know who it is. But you'd better talk to this woman by yourself."

"Woman?"

"Yeah."

"She saw our metentis?"

"Better."

"You intrigued me, take me to her."

6:56 of the same day.

"So, it's him?"

"Yes, spare me and my daughter. I really didn't know what kind of monster I was living with!"

"Of course."

Thomas came out of the small wooden house, brushing his hands. He smiled through his mask and said to Attila:

"Well, well, well. Who would have thought that he lost his mind completely?"

"He's as far away from you as our army from the capital of Porhol Land on foot." Attila replied in his deep, gruff voice.

"I'll inform Gennox, and leave it to them to decide what to do with him." Tomas paused for a bit and continued. "Will you catch him?"

"He'll be in your prison in an hour."

"I'll have some fun with one metentis first, and I'll leave our newcomer as the cherry on the cake."

"I love cakes."

"I didn't doubt it."

Attila lowered his head and said without a single movement: "Shadow theater, search. (rank 4)" and disappeared from sight.

Thomas looked at the other two battle inquisitors and said:

"Take all his family, too."

***

Eight o'clock in the morning of the same day.

About thirty armed soldiers stood and guarded the iron gate. The one standing on the observation tower saw the inquisitor wearing a strange smiling mask and red glowing eyes. He felt a chill all over his body, and then he waved his hand and shouted:

"Rank 5 access!"

The soldiers ran around everywhere. The iron gate creaked open. Thomas had already reached the entrance, and when he passed through the gate, all the soldiers were sitting along the brick road, knee and head down. He walked past them, ignoring them. A minute later, the iron gate creaked shut.

The territory of the place, where only the chosen could enter, was lifeless. No people, no local security guards, not even birds were passing through the vast square. The noise of people, heavy steel machines, and the sound of steam escaping from factory pipes, none of the painfully familiar sounds of the capital Agernox was heard, everything was left behind, like in a fog of dream. If by some miracle a lost soul was in these places and tried to hear something, even the slightest sound, he would rather get deaf than hear anything. The fading blackness of night still covered the western part of the city.

Thomas went there, into the fading shadow, reached the edge of the square and ran into the six-meter-high walls, stretched for several tens of kilometers, surrounding and protecting all the palaces. Each sector was separated not only by a wall, but also by a massive impenetrable gate, which Thomas opened with coded seals until he reached the palace number thirteen. It was neither smaller nor bigger than the others. There were countless dark openwork windows on the walls. The wooden cornice of the building was a unique apotheosis of wood carving. All this was hidden in the shadow of the sloping black-tiled roof. The whole architecture of these desolate, dead places had nothing to do with what you could see in the city, which made it seem as if this place was not created by people. It was different everywhere.

Thomas walked over to the tall red doors, slammed them weakly with the back of his fist. The impact echoed through the many corridors inside, slowly dimming, like the last fire giving hope to the dying. Then there was a silence, it lasted at least a minute. Thomas waited, didn't move. He heard laughter, and then saw the doors open. He went inside, into the heart of the darkness, into the endless abyss, the void. He walked along the corridor, but he could see nothing, only feel the presence of statues and strange objects that always gave him an inexplicable fear.

"Why aren't you smiling, Thomas?"

A strange voice, low and high at the same time, was scattered through the corridors, and there was a strange accent that was not like any of the locals. Thomas came to an open hall, which was reached by a long staircase of a hundred steps. There was no light, no sound of people anywhere, only dull breathing and the stale air.

"High Lord," he said.

A few meters away from Thomas, someone was sitting, his body, his eyes all hidden in the gloom, as if a relentless glaucoma struck everyone who entered the realm of murk. He could hear and feel as if he were surrounded by a hundred creatures. Then a deep voice appeared right behind Thomas, but he didn't even move in fright.

"What brings you to us, our faithful rider?"

“Metyr.”

With the chaotic cries of the martyrs languishing in the bowels of the underworld, strange voices rang out here and there, echoing in every secret room of the palace. Someone clapped its hands, and silence once again prevailed in the dark world of primordial blackness.

"Go on."

"He betrayed us. Killed two inquisitors."

"We'll break the contract with him."

"Yes! Break the contract!" Several more strange, inhuman voices shouted. "The traitor must be destroyed!"

"Thomas," the low and high voice came again, "where is he?"

"Attila was supposed to catch him and take him to prison."

"Kill him in front of everyone."

"Why? What for?" voices shouted. "He betrayed Erving, he betrayed us, we need to break the contract!"

"Metyr was once a traitor like Alba. If Alba is a traitor too, he will go to protect his old friend. Make sure Metyr is dead. And watch out for Alba."

"Alba is at the battlefront. And even if they are in league with him, he is not stupid enough to betray himself, knowing that his life can end at any moment."

"Go ahead."

"Go ahead! Go ahead! Do what you're told, follow the call of the contract!"

Thomas nodded, turned, and walked toward the exit, constantly aware of the breath of someone invisible near his neck, then at his back.

***

Midnight.

"Is there anyone else in your house besides you?"

"Yes, Your Holiness, my husband Metyr, and my daughter Enkelin."

"Metyr… All right, call your husband here. Someone in this district used metovis, we need to interview everyone who lives here."

"Yes, Your Holiness. I'll call him right away."

Esme went into the back room to join her husband, and the inquisitors went inside and began quietly discussing what a beautiful lady they had met. Metyr came out to them without wasting a second. The Inquisitors saw him and smiled.

"No one allowed you to enter my house."

"We don't need your permission."

Metyr approached the inquisitor and looked at him with his one eye full of hatred and malice.

"You need to. Have you forgotten who you went to? Go away!"

The Inquisitors looked at him and laughed.

"You have a beautiful wife, Metyr, what's her name?"

Esme was standing by the door, eavesdropping on the conversation. She went noiselessly into Enkelin's room and sat down on a small chair near the baby's crib. She knew her daughter was awake, but she pretended not to notice.

"Do you want to respond to Alba later?" Metyr continued.

"Metyr, you are no longer an inquisitor, you have no rights in this country."

They pushed him aside and went into the back room, then came back and went into the nursery.

"There you are, honey!" one of them said.

They turned on the lights in the room with a single wave of their hand. Enkelin opened her eyes.

"What a lovely daughter you have, Metyr."

He walked over to the inquisitors and pushed one of them away.

"Get out of my house!"

They turned around and said:

"Do you have any idea why we didn't leave your house right away? I'll tell you if you want."

"I don't care."

"But I do care. We on our own initiative found the guy, who in turn told us that his friends were burned to the ground by the cruel metentis, but before they died, they cut his eye. And the wound in your eye, Metyr, is fresh. Now you and your family will come with us."

"Metyr, what does this mean?" Esme shouted.

"Dad! Dad!" Enkelin screamed and began to cry.

"My comrade will pick you up, while I take care of your family."

Metyr swung to strike the inquisitor, but the inquisitor used the metovis and deflected it with a wave of fire. Metyr's clothes caught fire and he quickly threw them off. The inquisitor attacked to immobilize him, grabbed his hands, and put his elbow on his throat. The second one tried to take Esme and Enkelin.

"Boiling blood. (rank 4)" Said Metyr and his hands caught fire.

"What the..."

Metyr released his hands and touched the inquisitor's face with his palms, his head began to smoke and he fell. Then he automatically stood up, not caring about the consequences, and attacked the second one, touched his head, and he also fell. His wife screamed in horror, and Enkelin began to cry even harder.

"Save me, Patron Saint Gennox!" Esme's voice was choked. "Metyr, you are a metentis! They were right."

"Esme," he said softly, "I'm just trying to protect you. I don't hurt people."

"Stay back! Oh, holy Alba, save and preserve me. Stay away from our daughter, killer!"

"Esme…"

She took her daughter and led her outside.

"Esme! Where are you going? Wait a minute!"

"Away from you and your stolen VV crystals, which you've been hiding since you came here," she said and left.

Metyr looked at the two inquisitors lying on the floor. One of them began to whine and twitch slightly. Metyr went into the kitchen, took a pike hidden behind the stove, came back and finished off the dying man. Then he put the two bodies together and said:

"Cremation of bodies. (rank 3)"

The bodies of the inquisitors were burned and scattered in the ashes. Metyr went into the kitchen, sat down on a chair, and held his head, thinking until the early hours of the morning. When his nerves calmed down, he went outside, closed the door, and walked in the direction of Esme's mom's house.

***

Metyr was walking down the street, covered in blood, with one eye, and a dirty gray cloak. Suddenly, the inquisitors began to appear around the corners of the buildings and walk around him from all sides. The road was covered with thick fog after the rain. People have also disappeared somewhere. They tried to grab him, but Metyr was able to break free. He ran, no longer knowing where, and no longer knowing what to do, he relaxed his concentration and did not notice how his hands and feet were shackled by shadows from under the ground. He fell, unable to move any further. Attila rose above his body, standing in the rays of the rising sun.

"You've lost, Metyr. You won't escape," he said, and picked up the limp body of the criminal and walked a few meters to the corner of the next street. Opposite the first house was a closed black stagecoach with the sign of the Inquisition. Atilla opened the door with one hand, and with the other he tossed Metyr onto the seat. He sat in the front seat and told the driver to move. He pulled the lever and the fire crystal began to vaporize the water in the boiler room.

***

Metyr lost consciousness, and when he woke up, he saw stone walls all around him. He tried to move, but the chains held him down. He could hear someone shouting through the endless corridor.

"Dark flame! (rank 2)"

Nothing happened.

"Am I out of vitavis?" he thought. Then he looked at the chains and finally understood. "Damn it."

He could hear the ticking of a clock, but he couldn't tell what time it was in the lifeless darkness, nor could he tell what day it was, or how long he'd been unconscious. The terrible screams stopped. He heard the footsteps coming down the hall. Someone stopped in front of the door and turned the key. The door opened and the orange light of the torches, like an uninvited guest, appeared in the prison cell lighting it up. Metyr looked at the time – half past eight in the morning. Then his gaze shifted to the man standing in the aisle.

"Thomas," he said. "You still wear your mask so that you don't show your true self to the world, right?"

"Metyr, I'm glad I was given the opportunity to kill you personally."

"They decided not to break the contract?"

"No."

Metyr said nothing. Thomas stood and stared at his prisoner. The right side of the body was dimly illuminated by the torchlight, the left side was hidden in the blackness.

"You look like hell. All right, hey!" shouted Thomas. “Take this traitor and drag him to the torture chamber.”

Two inquisitors entered the cell, took Metyr by the arms, and dragged him across the floor. The narrow corridor, covered with cold gray stone, enveloped everyone in its deep silence. Metyr didn't resist, he could feel the skin from his knees being rubbed off and left on the floor, along with the blood, and an endless ringing in his ears. On the right side of the corridor, iron doors appeared every ten meters, behind which nothing could be seen or heard.

When Metyr was thrown into the torture chamber on the cold stone floor, covered with dried blood, he could not stand it and asked:

"Who told you about me?"

Thomas sat down in the chair next to him and answered:

"Your wife, Esme. She believes in our righteous cause, and she took the initiative. By the way, we also took her. I think you understand that."

Metyr looked into his red eyes, but said nothing.

"I was told to kill you, my friend. But I was just thinking while I was playing around with a certain metentis. Your house was searched, you understand, and there my boys found VV crystals. So, I think you're up to something. Why did you keep four VV crystals?"

"Thomas, do you know why you'll always be number two after Alba? Because you are a mad dog who has never seen anything beyond the bone thrown to it. You can dig your teeth into that bone, run after it until your strength fails, but this is your ceiling."

"I'm glad you said that, Metyr. So, you and I are going to play my favorite game, the one that made me the "number two" as you just said. Bring him in!"

"Yes, sir," said the two Inquisitors, and departed.

"Who are you bringing in?" he asked, startled.

"Don't worry, you'll see soon enough." Thomas paused, and then said, "We could have fun sparring, Metyr, just like the old days. But here you are, betrayed by your wife, trying to seem smarter than me."

"You want to torture my family in front of me?"

"Oh, no. That's what a stupid dog trying to look smart would do."

Thomas took Metyr behind a chair and stood beside him. They sat in silence in utter quiet. Five minutes later, Metyr heard the echoes of chains beating in time with slow footsteps on the floor.

"Who's that?" he asked, and felt Thomas smile.

The door to the torture chamber opened and Metyr saw the prisoner. His eyes widened, and his heart beat three times faster than usual.

"Damn you, you psychopath," he shouted.