Chapter 2.5 - InSight

"Where are those imbeciles?" A man shouted angrily in his chair.

The room was dimly lit, with only a few candles burning on the long table that stood before the man. There was a distinct smell of charcoal as the fireplace flickered and burned. The man sat at the top of the farthest part of the table.

There were four timed knocks on the door, and two guards stepped out of the shadow to open the door, both with a loaded pistol. The doors to the room swung open slowly and two men entered, accompanied by armoured guards holding tactical assault rifles.

"It seems your squad has failed their task, and you know what the price of failure is here." The man said coldly.

"No please, sir! Anything but that!" The first man said, scared out of his wits.

"I beg for mercy, sir!" The second man continued.

"You know, I'd heard many good things from your squad throughout the organisation, but it seems they weren't as accurate as I had hoped,"

"But sir..." But the sentence was cut short

"First, I choose you for a mission that would be life or death, where you willingly gave up two of your comrades, yet still failing. Second, you lost the World Gauntlet as well as the Key Stones that inhabited it. Lastly, you allowed the Demon King to be captured by the White Robes, AND YOU BEG FOR MERCY!" The man yelled angrily.

The man calmed himself and said to the men "Articulo Mortis." After the man uttered those words, they were chilled to the bone. 'Articulo Mortis' (The Moment of Death) was infamous in the organisation for being some of the last words people heard.

At that moment, almost in slow motion, the man took out a cigar, lighting it with the closest candle. The man snapped his fingers and the two guards brought out their guns from their holsters, pointing them at the two men's head.

"Tell me what you see." The two men sobbed as they drew their last breath.

BANG! BANG!

"Get rid of them!" The two guards dragged the two corpses out of the room, leaving a trail of blood as they did. The doors closed behind them.

"It seems I'll have to get the 'Clean Up Crew' to cleanse the floor of this later."

The man snapped his fingers again and this time his secretary, a woman of average stature, stepped out of the shadows. She handed him a file. He opened it, swiftly reading the file.

He threw it across the table.

A picture slipped out of the file.

It showed the face of a young boy crossing the street. He was wearing tattered jeans, wearing a back and light blue t-shirt that had such a distinct design it couldn't be replicated. The boy was around 5'7'' in height, with wavy, dark brown hair as well as dark brown eyes.

As the candles flickered, the file's name could be read.

"The Last World Guardian".