"Outwardly, a golden lion,

  Inwardly, a black tiger."

  —Karantos Adalstein, "Introduction on the Wickedness of Corvo"

  ?Morstratos 39 of Tempestas, Cycle 146 of the Herokanian Calendar – Tyranos Ocean, 5 blinks until the southeastern port of The Division?

  The ship swayed violently from side to side as the storm conjured mountains of waves beyond the horizon. No less could be expected from the Tyranos Ocean—tempests here drove even the cruelest and most fearsome sea monsters into hiding. Not even the dreaded Quadriquerón dared raise its black heads above the waves.

  Thanks to the captain’s experience—he had faced nature’s wrath four times before—the situation was not impossible to manage. And with the skill of his crew, the ship emerged unscathed. Soon, calm followed the storm, though the rain lingered. Neither the lights of the sky nor the mountains could be seen.

  —"Finally! I thought Morstratos wanted us for company!" exclaimed Isabella, releasing the tension in her limbs. "Well, I hope the sailors have the food ready—I haven’t tasted a crumb of bread since the fall of the Theocracy."

  —"Heh, and I haven’t since the War of the Heroes… Come on, I’ll join you in the dining room. You coming, Ludwig?" Tetsu gave his friend a light kick to wake him.

  —"Go ahead. I need to discuss something with the captain," Ludwig replied, eyes still closed.

  Tetsu and Isabella left the hold—a space the ship’s captain had lent them for the journey. At first, Isabella had been displeased; she considered it unbecoming of their status, especially since the ship, a refined carrack named Olivia, had been commissioned to deliver supplies to the Exterminators from Cycle 102 of the Herokanian Calendar until the end of the War of Races. In her eyes, the captain and his crew should have shown far greater respect to her and her companions.

  Ludwig stood, brushing off his finely tailored navy-blue coat—the uniform of an Exterminator Chief of the Order of Eradication. He then sheathed his twin Justices and, with meticulous care, secured the Eradicator in the scabbard strapped to the small of his back. The positioning was strategic—a single motion could draw the blade for an instant strike.

  Once prepared, Ludwig stepped out onto the deck. Neither the rain nor the ship’s rocking made him flinch. His expression remained stern as he walked to the captain’s quarters. Pausing at the door, he heard sounds from within—the captain was enjoying himself with a companion.

  Without hesitation, Ludwig pushed the door open.

  Inside, the captain lay tangled with a beautiful green-haired woman.

  —"Oh! Forgive me, Lord Ludwig, I was just—" The captain scrambled to his feet, hastily dressing while his companion remained sprawled on the bed. "Everín, please leave. Later, I’ll—"

  —"It matters not, Captain," Ludwig interrupted. "Let her stay. My business concerns her as well."

  The captain froze, bewildered. ??Does he want her for himself? But she’s…?? His gaze flicked to Everín—her lips curled into a smirk. ??No… He knows. This will end badly.??

  —"If you don’t mind, Aaron," Everín purred, slinking toward Ludwig with hypnotic grace, her peculiar hair swaying like living tendrils. "I’d like some time with the young man. After all, I’ve never been with a Fleuret before. I wonder if anything divine still lingers within him… So, if you’d kindly leave us?" Her slender fingers traced Ludwig’s chest, stopping at a striking pendant—the size of a pocket watch, wrought in silver and gold. At its center was a sword encased in a circle, its tip piercing through the lower rim as if fragmented. An inscription in Afhtario adorned the edges:

  "From always, and for always."

  The captain gathered his things, but Ludwig’s voice halted him.

  —"Stay, Captain. I want you to witness this."

  With unsettling gentleness, Ludwig brushed Everín’s hair aside, revealing her pointed ears.

  —"Do you know what an Exterminator is?" he asked, his silver eyes—cold as the metal itself—slicing through her soul, the elkr* soul. Her playful expression twisted into terror.

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  Everín stood frozen. She had realized her mistake too late. Why would a Fleuret travel with a nobody like Aaron? Why did this silver-haired phenomenon wear such an immaculate uniform if he were just another crewman? If he were a slave, why was he armed? If a deserter, why did he carry himself with such regal poise, unlike the broken Exterminators she’d met before?

  Then it struck her.

  He was no ordinary Exterminator.

  She had lain with a few in The Twisted Siren on Morugaros Island, but never one adorned with so many medals—never one bearing that pendant. She recalled whispers from deserters cycles ago—tales of a handful of men and women, more monstrous than the monsters they slaughtered.

  And now she stood before one.

  An Eradicator.

  The elite of the Exterminators.

  Heralds of extinction.

  Terrible as an Exta.

  Vile as Iskarhiote.

  Cataclysmic as The World Conqueror.

  Had one of the Seven Primordials chosen them as champions in the wars to come, it would have been the calamitous Okuehdis*.

  —"I… I have to go. I just remembered—" Her trembling words died as Ludwig seized her wrist. His grip was gentlemanly, soft as the fabric of his glove—yet it ignited a primal terror in her, screaming at her to run.

  —"Precept One of the Law of Silver," the Eradicator intoned. "‘Every thinking being not born of two humans shall be exterminated on sight. No order, no power, may spare them from the Justices.’ Consider yourself fortunate, filth. I shall use the Eradicator."

  A movement—swifter than wind—and the blade opened Everín’s throat. The wound was thin as a paper cut, yet deep as a viper’s bite.

  She thrashed, clutching her neck. Ludwig turned his gaze to the captain, but the man only stared at his dying lover.

  —"Look at me, Captain," Ludwig said calmly. "Stop staring. There’s nothing you can do."

  The captain didn’t listen. Everín had sailed with him for twelve voyages. He thought this time would be no different. He’d taken her from Morugaros two years ago. He’d loved her. Even when she’d shared beds with his crew, he’d tolerated it. He knew what she was when he gave her his heart.

  He thought she’d leave him one day—disappear into The Division or return to The Twisted Siren out of boredom.

  He never imagined her end would come here—on the filthy floor of his cabin, drowning in her own blood.

  His thoughts shattered when her insides joined the mess.

  A single slash from Ludwig’s Annalise—one of the peerless Justices—split her from flank to flank, spilling her entrails across the wood.

  —"Disgusting. Unjust," the Eradicator mused, stepping toward the bed. "That the Law of the Universe made their innards resemble ours… At least it didn’t err with the other insects. Well, save for the dwarves and the varm." He wiped Annalise clean on the sheets, never breaking eye contact with the captain. "What say you, Captain?"

  The captain didn’t answer. His stomach heaved, and he vomited.

  —"Come now, Captain. Is this the first time you’ve seen a worm chopped in half?"

  Ludwig’s patience frayed. It wasn’t the captain’s weakness or shock that irked him—it was his attachment to the creature. To Ludwig, killing an elkr was no different from crushing a louse. Slaying a dwarf? Exterminating termites. A varm*? Swatting a mosquito.

  Pests.

  Nothing more.

  And as an Exterminator, it was his sworn duty—his conviction—to erase them from existence.

  —"I… need a moment alone," the captain rasped, voice teetering between surrender and defiance.

  —"Request denied," Ludwig said instantly, as if he’d anticipated the answer. "That’s an order, Captain."

  —"Go to the Void, you and your damned Order! There was no need to kill her! None!"

  Ludwig seized the captain by his nightshirt and hurled him onto the table, sending him crashing to the floor. As Aaron struggled to rise, Ludwig planted a boot on his chest—like an explorer claiming uncharted land—and pressed Annalise between the captain’s teeth, parting his two front incisors.

  A task that would strain a steel blade—requiring brute force—was effortless for a sword of Afhtario, its edge unyielding as the laws it enforced.

  —"Mind your tongue, Captain!" Ludwig’s voice was sharp, yet controlled. "I suppose time at sea makes men bold—not just in facing death, but in biting the hand that feeds them."

  The blade dug deeper, splitting the captain’s teeth until it rested on his tongue.

  —"Hear me well, Aaron. ‘We are the torch and the silver blade of the children of Worldgard, sole and rightful lords of Cartáfilos. Neither the blood of heroes, nor smiths, nor dragons has escaped our silver’s cut or our fire’s purge.’"

  Ludwig’s voice was ice.

  —"So I ask you now: Which shall it be?

  The silver that severs?

  The torch that illuminates?

  Or the fire that erases?"

  The captain fell silent.

  He knew what the question meant.

  He was already dead.

  —"Fire and silver it shall be."

  *elkr ----> Nowadays there is a record of different names that the race of heroes received. In the Chronicles of Khaarthazhilos these received the name of elkr and it is possibly the source used by the author of the work to mention these beings. However, nowadays and in the translations of some texts, we prefer to call this race as elves.

  *Okuehdis ----> “Extinction” in Primordial

  *varm ----> “vermin” in Heroic. Several sources indicate that the name, derogatory in nature, was given by the Empress Aurozar, on the same Infamous Night. It is unknown to whom she first said it, but in The Chronicles of Khaarthazhilos by Master Adalstein Aurozar's words were addressed to General Dantalion, and not to General Alastor, as popularly thought.