The back alley ways scattered with beggars, peddlers and trashy neon signs where echoes of home, though this place was very different from home in other ways less subtle.

The aroma’s clouded the mans sense of smell with their bewildering complexity of scents familiar and alien alike.

Burnt barbecue and salt.

Bleach and copper.

Anise and something which made him slightly shudder at the stench.

Then there was the inhabitants and he thought the word inhabitants because to call them human wouldn’t be quite right.

Humanoid for sure but yet some had yellow piercing eyes which seemed to follow him but no matter how many times he casually looked back they only barely ever evaded detection.

He was sure they where their.

The man had an eye of his own though and had it not been for this extraordinary gift he was most definitely certain the creatures of this back alley market with its odd smells and demonic offerings would surely have swallowed him whole.

His new employer assured him to consider it a gift of good faith. That his talents would be needed in the coming of a new world.

He wasn’t so sure this new world was something he was prepared to go all in on if this gift was any indication of what was to come. He already hated the world the way it was, with its soft, needy people but at least it kept him working. He had amassed a small fortune with a patch knit group of mercenaries, armed to the teeth, ready and willing to do red work for green money. He might even fancy to call himself wealthy at this point. No target was taboo either.

Men, women and even children if the price was right but oh how he loved to make a woman scream before breaking a cold piece of steel against her helpless flesh.

This new world if it was anything like these alleys, well he would no longer be the most ruthless cold hearted bastard walking the earth and that scared him.

So it was with that thought he saw a shadow just a stone throw up ahead underneath the mystic glow of a sign in foreign letters.

Not a casted shadow but a three dimensional being in the shape of a two dimensional shadow.

If not for his new thermal eye piercing the veil of this otherworld the more Minuit details of the shadow would have been lost, yet through the lens of enhanced optromics the man could discern this being was clothed in a tight cropped hood with a mask pressed tight against a featureless face.

The shadow slowly faced the red eye of the man, beckoning his presence with an ethereal hand and with great reservation he followed behind.

The man reckoned three minutes had passed since reluctantly following the shadow down the filth ridden corridors of the alley and in that time he saw a being which had the body of a female human yet looked strangely insect like, a tall, lanky humanoid with with no nose and six eyes but the most bizarre part was not the sights before him but the feeling those yellow eyes where encroaching ever closer from

Every direction.

How many could there be? Ten, twenty?

At any moment he was anticipating an attack and just when the tension reached that sharp climax before violence brews the shadow vanished at the opening of a door way the man failed to detect despite his eye and he was swept into a corridor, the door suddenly vanishing behind.

The first detail he took notice of was the walls.

There were several sconces illuminating both sides with a strange green glow which emitted no heat but instead an unwelcoming cold draft.

Maps and tapestries decorated both walls though he could not recall the geographical features on any of them.

They where not of earth and of that he was certain. You didn’t travel the world eliminating targets without understanding just where in the hell you might end up.

A job could go sideways easy, which made riding those make believe borders all the more important when playing the part of refugee.

From beyond the dark cavern which sat at the end of the hallway void of all light a crow cackle of a voice called out.

“ I do hope you didn’t encounter any trouble during your travel. I know Z'Unkahrah can be overwhelming for someone unfamiliar with outworld. It’s like no city on earth, of that I can assure you.”

The man was strutting towards the darkness now, his finger pointing to the unseen face behind the voice.

“ Just what the fuck was that shadow thing anyway? Gave me the heeve Jeeves, fucking Christ!”

A face was now slowly emerging bathed in dirty green light. Etched with ancient lines across the forehead and a sickly smile reminiscent of a snake before lashing with a forked tongue.

Fuck, the man thought.

Ain’t no way that guys as old as he looks.

Maybe it was a trick of the light?

Yet as the figure continued to leave the shadows the mercanary was quickly realizing the man was indeed a relic.

While whisking away strands of dull white hair matted against his scalp the old creature laughed sick and sweetly.

“ funny that a man who kills would be so bothered by ghost. Don’t tell me you’ve never seen one mister Kano.”

“ Don’t believe in em. Killed my fair share since I was a wee thing ain’t never been haunted by it.”

The old man crept ever closer, though the mercenary Kano would have sworn the old thing was floating.

“ Now would be a good time to start. The things to come might even shake the sternest of minds.”

Kano spat.

“ Oh toss the fuck off with the camp fire tales.

Sure this place looks fucked up but I bet the whole bloody lot of ya bleed and bleed plenty!”

Now Kano smiled.

“ And besides if that wasn’t true why am I here?”

The old man held out the palm of his withering right hand, casting forth a green light from it.

“ Look into the flame mercenary.”

Kano hesitated but once he saw the cold paleness of the old man piercing through him he stepped closer, allowing the eerie green light to consume his vision.

A torrent of memories flooded him.

He saw himself standing over a still warm corpse of a man.

A soldier.

Then the shot came.

The same one which blew out his eye, chipping the back of his skull.

The bitch.

He could see her in the vision a half mile away crouching on the rocky terrain of a cave opening.

She damn near killed him and if a lesser man had been standing there in that same spot they would be down and dead but not the leader of the black dragon syndicate. He loathed every part of her, wishing to put both hands around that pretty little neck and keep squeezing until both her eyes went stupid and popped.

Then he would-

The vision suddenly jerked back to the reality before him.

the sorcerer smiled that sick smile again.

“ so there is something your heart desires.”

The mercenary shook his head with disbelief.

“ you can give me her?”

The sorcerer nodded.

“ there will be a grave price which you will pay in time but until that day arrives I can make you a lord of the earth .”

“ What price?”

The smile again.

“ Your soul.”

Kano’s lip perched upwards on one side exposing a gold tooth.

“ Lucky for me I ain’t got one.”

At that they both laughed.