Fate/Grief   von Korison
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                      Kapitel 1: Chapter 1: The Executor
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Heat. Everywhere around him. Flames that seemed to devour the Walls. But the
sweat didn't come from the fire around. It was excitement. Excitement to
encounter the man he should meet here. Excitement to fulfill the wish of god.
He took the gun, he had hidden in his pocket. Felt his finger touching the
trigger. Ready for everything. He knew he had to be prepared. The man he needed
to kill was a Magus after all. A traitor to the rules of this world.
He sighed. That man couldn't possibly be dead already. Could he? Just a single
fire never had been able to finish the job by itself. “Hey”, he shouted.
“You still alive?”
He didn't expect to get a response. Just wanted to let his enemy know that he
was here. The Magus couldn't flee anyway. The burning apartment was surrounded
by a barrier. Not letting the Magus pass. There was no way out, but killing the
executor that had set up the barrier, or forcing him to cancel it. The latter
was impossible with this man currently walking through the apartments rooms.
Jörg Christensen.
The executor could've just waited for the Magus to get impatient and attack him.
Far too boring in his opinion. He liked the “Hide and Seek”, before the
fight. Yes indeed. He felt joy in killing his enemies. Joy while punishing them.
Jörg didn't know if that was normal. He didn't even want to know.
He looked around. Still searching for the Magus. He knew the man should be
showing the creatures he toyed with soon. Should be trying to kill him. For the
sake of his own survival. Magi were egoistic creatures. The things of their
desire, never were anything that could've helped humanity itself. Humans never
had mattered to them. Only the Magi's wishes were important. Nothing else. Cut
from the people they called “ordinary”, they researched and researched and
never stopped researching, until the day of their death.
That was the picture Jörg had of Magi.
And some of these egoistic wishes even were criminal! Some researches were
illegal. Those were the type of people the Executors had to kill.
Still no sign of illegal activities in the apartment Jörg had already looked
into every room he could find. Nothing too suspicious. Only a few runic papers
about Alchemy. No more. Had the Magus known he would come? Did he evacuate? Or
was he just hiding? The executor sighed again. He had hoped not to need to do it
this time. He activated the power he hated. It wasn't forbidden for him. However
it was painful, to let himself down to the level of his enemies, using their
simple tricks. He closed his eyes. Scanning the area around him. Searching for
traces of Prana. For the footsteps of the Magi. That was the power he had
trained. This and the barrier were the only magic he used. The only magic he
accepted. He didn't really see it before his eyes. It was more like a feeling he
had, where the Prana, the Magus had used for his magic was. The Cellar! It
dawned him. He didn't even know this apartment had one.
The flames started to annoy him. He liked to make the scenery a bit more
dramatic than it needed to be. The fire wasn't really necessary to kill the man.
But it was easier to burn the whole building than finding every single bit of
forbidden magic and burn it alone.
Jörg himself didn't really feel the heat. The use of Thermo-Regulators in his
body changed the heat into a kind warmness. It was a piece only bought for him
as an executor. While most Magi and Executors never liked to use technology,
Jörg used it more than magic. It was more familiar to him. He definitely liked
it more.
Technical innovations had been rare recently though and it became hard to think
of something, that actually might be useful to humanity.
Searching for the stairs to reach the Cellar, the Executor shouted again.
„Hey! Show yourself already!“
No answer. As expected. The Magus would be dumb if he would just invite him to
kill him.
Jörg was still one of the younger Executors. But he had passion, that others
never showed. His count of Magus kills exceeded 30 already, even though he only
joined 2 years ago.
He slowly moved on. Looking for the stairs to get downstairs.
Jörg scanned again. This time focusing on the buildings structure. He couldn't
find any stairs. The executor sighed. Grabbed his bag and rifled through it.
Took a little red needle out of it and grinned. He missed using this one more
often. Nowadays Magi didn't end up hiding in chambers anymore, but often enough
tried to fight the executors.
One more scan and Jörg knew the weak point of the building. He quickly went
there. Searching for a place to stick the needle into. He found one and did it.
It didn't need much force and as soon it almost couldn't be seen anymore, a red
light started blinking. The executor analyzed it and pressed a little button.
Immediately the color changed into a clear green. Jörg backed quickly.
A sudden eruption shook the ground around the needle. A sound. Almost noiseless
for the ears of the Executor.
Then the ground broke in. Leaving a giant hole. Jörg who had been standing out
of range now came closer again. He looked down. Seeing nothing but darkness.
The Executor jumped. Knowing that the ground wasn't too deep.
He landed. Stabilized. Took a lighter out of his pocket. One of the old
fashioned ones, that people had in the early 21st century. Most people had none
of these nowadays. Everything could be done with a single Smart phone now.
Unfortunately Jörg couldn't expect to get those from the church.	
The room the executor landed in was rather small. Only big enough for some
tables and a shelf standing around. Books could be found everywhere. And a man
standing between the tables.
„Found ya!“, Jörg smiled.
Not even turning around his enemy sighed.
„I knew they'd send you!“
The smile vanished from Jörg's face. This voice...he knew it.
Fearing to see what he didn't want to see, the executor came closer. Until he
could distinguish the back of his opponent. He wore a long dark coat. The same
one Jörg wore. The traditional coat of an executor. Long dark hair.
„Say! Have you ever lost anything?“, the voice asked gently. No sign of the
hatred, others Magi had towards executors.
Jörg didn't answer. Just waited for this awful moment to end. It didn't.
„I knew it. You never experienced how much pain it causes, did you?“
Jörg's mouth stood open. He didn't know what to say. What to think. How to
handle this accusation. His former sarcastic self was gone. Ran away. Only left
the empty hull, that once was it's body. No more excitement. No more fear. He
just stared at the man standing in front of him.
„I guess you'll find out now.“
It sounded satisfied. As if his goal would be reached tonight. It sounded sad.
Because he knew he couldn't run. He knew he couldn't hide. He knew he couldn't
fight. He knew he could only die. Die by the hands of the executor. Die by the
hands of a friend.
„Do it!“, he whispered.
Jörg slowly shook his head. Still confused. Still shocked.
„It's your job, right?“
Right.
The job...
Three Blades appeared in the Magus' right hand. Not really long. But sharp.
Jörg knew them. Had learned to fight with them. Black Keys. The traditional
weapon of every executor.
The Magus turned around. Tried to hit with the Blades.
Jörg instinctively raised his left arm. Blocking them with his bare hand.
At this point he normally smiled. Looking into the expression of an enemy when
he realizes, that he already lost, was a pleasure for the executor. He felt the
Prana his opponent had used to summon the Blades getting sucked into his
fingers. No. Not the fingers. The rings he wore. Jörg didn't have any Magic
Circuits, that supplied him with Prana himself. The little bit of Prana he used,
was the Prana he had saved in his two rings.
That was it what made Jörg a killing machine. He eliminated Magi with ease.
Never thought about killing them. But here...right now...he hesitated. Looked in
the eyes of his opponent. No, the eyes of an old friend. He slowly raised a gun.
Felt the trigger comfort his finger. Felt how he slowly pulled.
It cracked.
He had fulfilled it. The wish his friend had.
„Do it!“, he had said. „It's your job.“
What was it that made him like this? What was it that drove him into despair?
Those were the first questions, that Jörg had ever asked about an enemy.
It was the first time he asked about his Job.
And it was the first time, he felt what a loss really meant.




Answers, Jörg had realized, never had been the thing he lacked. Asking him
about anything he should've learned somehow, he could answer it. But the
questions never had come to his mind. Not a single „Why“. Not a single
„How“. Only „Yes“!
And now, he asked the questions and had no idea about the answers. Why did the
Magus research? Why did they chose illegal topics? Why did they need to be
killed? Those were the questions that came him to mind. Those were questions he
didn't know the answer to.
He hadn't been in service since then. Had been ignored by the church, when he
had asked for something to do. But now that he thought about it, it might be
better for him to not have a job for a few days. Thinking about how to find
answers. He had found a way.

Jörg opened the door. The church had done quite a good job in tiding the mess
Jörg had caused. It looked like a normal fire.
A Short-Circuit. That was the official explanation.
No victims.
That's what they said.
Reality was different. One victim. A Magus. An executor. And a friend. Killed by
a bullet. A bullet Jörg knew well. He had held it in his hands. Fired it.
Killed with it.
Jörg looked around. Finally realizing how ugly the apartment was. The light
that came from the neon-lamps was cold. Didn't make it a lot brighter than it
was earlier. But Jörg didn't come here for the building. The walls that once
had been green had turned black because of the fire. It still smelled burnt.
The executor walked around on the first floor. Starting to search for some
material of the Magus, the church had left behind.
The result wasn't really satisfying. A few notes, coded in a way Jörg didn't
know. He still took them. Maybe he could find out something anyway. Maybe he
could find a way to decode them.

When he came back home, a man already waited for him. He wore a long black coat.
Just as Jörg usually did. It was easy to determine he was someone the church
had send. That either meant the church tried to kill him or they needed him to
kill someone. As the executor came closer, he realized the face of the man. It
was the messenger the church had sent to him for over a year now. Over the
course of time the two had become something like friends. Not the definition
that others had of friends. That wasn't possible for an executor. But a executor
that had someone that was he talked to outside of the church was rare.
„Mister Christensen?“, he still called him by his last name.
Jörg grinned. „Come in!“, he said. „I've been waiting for you to come
over. I really need something to do, you know?“
the messenger didn't answer. Just sat down on the couch.
„Have you heard of your target already?“
„Of course not! The church doesn't send anyone but you to me.“
As if he didn't hear the last comment the man just went on.
„Her name is Alisa Severin. She is from a family that has brought 7
generations of Magi to this world. They're specialty is resurrection, but they
are strong in fighting. They're Prana is massive. We'll counter it with your
rings. There still aren't many that know about them. You should be a little more
careful though this time. It'll be hard to conceal everything in the center of
Stockholm.“
Jörg nodded.
„Understood.“
He quickly thought about it.
„You know the apartment?“
„Not yet.“, the messenger answered. „And I doubt she'll let us get
information easily.“
A short break.
„Are you sure you can still take it?“
What was that suddenly?
„What do you mean?“, Jörg asked.
„You hesitated!“
„Isn't that only natural?“	
„Not for you.“
„You know who I killed. You know what our relationship was don't you?“
The messenger nodded.
With that the talk was over. Direct as always. The executor was relieved when
the messenger had left. He liked him, but what he was about to do, was nothing
anyone from the church should see.
Jörg took his bag and started the trial of decoding.

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