Manhunter Revelations

by H. F. Daniels

  "You are trying to tell me that you and your Ladies are descended from a race of furry elves”

  "For want of a better term, yes. Yet our race wasn't the only other species to exist at that time. There was another island nation, much more technologically advanced then ours whom we met about eleven hundred years before our mutual destruction. They were called Atlantu, and their island was called Atlantus” At this point she stopped talking, mostly to gauge my reaction.

  "Let me guess, they looked liked scaly goblins”

  "Not quite. They were huge compared to my people, and they too looked somewhat human, averaging around seven feet tall, muscular, with rough textured grayish pigmentation to their skin. They also had two eyes, ears, arms and legs, and hair. Genetically though, they too were not human”

  "Okay assuming what you just told me is true, what happened to your people and the Atlantu?"

  "When our people first met it was due to an exploration party from Atlantus which had traveled to our island which was located in what is now the Pacific Ocean. Atlantus was located in what is now the Atlantic Ocean. The discovery of our races was an amazement to both of our peoples. We wanted to learn as much as we could about each other. Where did we all came from, our cultures, our sciences, art and music. We also found out from the Atlantu that there was a race of people on the mainland that was also different from both of us. This was news to us for at that time my people were, not from choice but mostly due to certain circumstances, primarily isolationists. As you can probably figure the people on the mainland were the early members of the human race. The Atlantu did not allowed their people any contact with them due to their primitive nature. As we all found out later, the most basic difference between the Atlantu and our race was the fact that my people, the Muraii were people of the earth. We believed in the power of the earth and it's life force to provide balance and harmony in life. The Atlantu was a society based on technology and science. They believed our way of life was a mystical one that would not yield any great advances. My people on the other hand could not understand this concept of science and technology. Due to such many years was devoted by both cultures studying the other. Trade, commerce and the study of our different arts was also conducted. For over six hundred and fifty years our races lived well with each other. No contact was made with the early humans by mutual agreement of both races. Then one of their most prominent scientists made a major astounding breakthrough in the field of genetics. The Atlantu was a race of people whose most important belief in life was the pursuit of improving themselves. This breakthrough in genetics was their holy grail to do so. My people by this time had also made vast inroads in our belief and study in the power of the earth. Most of my people had some type of abilities, which allowed them to draw on the life force within the earth to accomplish wonderfully amazing things. Today you would call those abilities magical. Events was going well for both cultures, and then things started to change. Slowly at first. It was many years before my people started to notice the difference in the Atlantu. There was genetic miscarriages during birth. The appearance of most of the Atlantu started to change. When the ruling elders of my people questioned them on this, they were told the Atlantu was on the verge of a major evolutionary improvements in its people. The Atlantu were experimenting on themselves genetically. Our ruling elders expressed concern on these genetic changes, but those concerns were dismissed by the Atlantu. Over the next century the Atlantu changed so much physically, there were serious doubt if they could all be from the same race. After witnessing some disturbing events with the Atlantu, the Elders of my people decided to break off all contact with the Atlantu. When the Atlantu was informed of the elder's decision, their reaction was as if we had told them nothing of any importance. So contact with the Atlantu ceased. Over the next four hundred years or so both of our races had no contact with each other. During this time my people had made fantastic strides in the use of the earth's life force. We could control and shape the growth of the plant life and certain small animals around us. Then the Elders decided it was time for us to venture out and study the other race of people who lived on the mainland. We could not however make contact with them or interfere with their development in any way. Our goal was strict and simple. We were to study them without their knowledge and without revealing ourselves, to see how they were advancing. The humans then were primitive, violent, but very interesting. During our studies we started getting information on rumors being passed among the humans of monsters, which was destroying entire villages. These were unusual events and as such were passed off by my people as fanciful rumors and superstitions among the humans. That is until my people found the remains of a village that looked as if it had been ravaged by a lot of wild animals of unknown origins. There were just parts of bodies evident around the village. There were no survivors and no whole bodies found. It was evident the bodies had been torn apart and partially eaten. My people looked for these creatures, but we could never find them, but evidence of their destruction continued to be found. Then slowly my people starting finding evidence that whatever was doing this damage had unnatural origins to it's nature. It was the Elders who finally figured out that these were unnatural creatures of science that was doing the killing and destructions. A full council meeting was called and the decision was made to renew contacts with the Alantu as they were the only race of beings we knew who had this level of scientific knowledge. We needed to find out if they were the originators of these destructive creatures since the humans had no science or technology to speak of, especially at the level needed to make creatures like these. When my people got to Atlantus, what they found shocked them almost to death. Atlantus, which had once been a city of astounding technological beauty, was now a land of horror. The city looked as if insane madmen had redesigned it. What was once a bright glowing city was now a city of dark shocking grimness. The meeting with the Atlantus council was the most shocking. The Atlantu no longer looked to be of the same race. There were creatures of assorted and different species roaming through the city. The council itself, which now called itself The Xantu, looked to be composed of creatures from different nightmares. The Atlantu showed surprise at our appearance for they had somehow lost all knowledge of our existence. When questioned on the destruction of human villages on the mainland, the Atlantu reaction was one our emissaries did not suspect. They wholeheartedly acknowledged they were responsible but more shocking was their belief that they felt they had a divine right to use the humans in any way they felt in the further development of their genetic enhancements. They had created horrifying creatures from their experiments to test their genetic manipulations. Our emissaries also found out that some of the creatures doing the destruction were actual citizens of Atlantu who had mutated their appearance in their attempt to better themselves. The madness of the Atlantu could not be believed by the emissaries. When the emissaries tried to convince the Atlantu that what they were doing to both themselves and to the humans was an abomination against nature, the Atlantu rejected their claims and re-asserted their claim to divine right. Then one of The Xantu council suggested that the emissaries and the whole population of Muraii would make very good genetic subjects for study. The emissaries were appalled at the suggestion. It became rapidly apparent to the emissaries that if they were to continue to live, they had to leave Atlantus right away. As they were trying to do so the Atlantu tried to capture them. What the Atlantu didn't know was that my people had made great advances in the use of the earth's life force. Out of the dozen emissaries to visit the Atlantu, eight of them were Mages of the Muraii. Mages are individuals who had mastered the use of the earth's life force. The battle that ensued as the emissaries fought to leave the island was tremendous. There was a great deal of destruction caused to the port of Atlantus as they left. Five of the emissaries was severely injured, and two were killed, although their bodies was recovered during the fight to leave the island. Leaving the dead behind was not a thought as the Atlantu would have probably
experimented on them. The Atlantu furious that someone who they believed were inferior to them had managed to not only fight their way off their island but had done a considerable amount of damage in the process, was totally unbearable to them. Also the power used by the emissaries fully arouse their scientific curiosity and they now more than ever wanted them for genetic experimentation to see if their abilities could be breed or genetically induced into their own. Consequently war between the Atlantu and the Muraii broke out. The Atlantu in their quest to destroy Muraii, took their destruction to the mainland and the humans. It became very clear to The Elders that the only way to stop the Atlantu was to completely destroy them, which was strictly against their beliefs in life. Yet they knew they had no choice. Over nine hundred Mages of the Muraii gathered and commenced the greatest use of the earth's life force ever and directed it against Atlantus. The use of so much of the earth's life force caused a tectonic instability beneath Atlantus, which resulted in an earthquake of incredible force and destruction. This caused the whole island of Atlantus to tear itself apart and their city was totally destroyed. The explosions was of such force that they completely blew apart all traces of their technological city, corrupt as it had become.. Thousands upon thousands of the Atlantu died that day and the destruction of life on the island was almost complete. Almost. The Xantu Council, which consisted of numerous members and most of its top scientists escaped. The leader of The Xantu, Dorekus vowed that we had destroyed a culture that had been slated to rule the world, and that he and the rest of The Xantu would do all that they could to regain their divine right, and they would do so as they destroyed the Muraii and subjugated the rest of the world. All of this happened roughly around twenty six thousand years ago. Unfortunately over the millennia, the Xantu have strived to keep their word and destroy the world”

  With that Serona stopped and looked at me intensely. I could tell she was about to reveal something to me of upmost importance. As a manhunter one of our most valuable tools is information. The more you know about your target, the better your chances of apprehending them. So listening to Serona as she related this story was information gathering. Still what she had told me so far although fantastic was stretching my realm of believability. Yet I felt there was something to what she was telling me so I continued to listen.

  "So how do all of what you have just told me tie in with me and your attack on me?"

  "Mr. Hutchins, do you believe in the supernatural?"

  "What? You mean like ghosts and boogeymen?. No. No I don't”

  "How about other supernatural creatures like vampires, werewolves and the such?"

  This was from the unknown old woman next to Serona. Okay right about now I was starting to believe Serona was yanking my chain. My disbelief must have been showing on my face because again the older woman spoke.

  "For centuries mankind has had myths about monstrous creatures which has plagued mankind throughout its history. Some of the myths come from many different parts of the world, yet they are strangely somewhat the same. So much so that hasn't it ever occurred to you that there may be some truth to those myths”

  "If my knowledge of these myths are correct, no proof has ever been found to prove the existence of such creatures. Are you now trying to tell me they do exist?”

  Serona said, "Yes Mr. Hutchins we are telling you just that. The monsters of human myths are real”

  "Wait. First please stop calling me Mr. Hutchins. Just call me Conrad okay. Secondly it seems to me that you all are still skirting the reason for your attack on me. Although I am not injured, I take the client-manhunter contract seriously. Your attack has violated that contract. However I do want to know why and I want to know now”

  "Believe me I am getting to that point. Yet you have to let me fully explain, otherwise

  none of this will make sense. So let's accept for now that monsters are real. The most obvious question is, where did they come from, where did they go and where are they Now?

  "Hold on. All of you believe that the creature attacking your village here is one of the monsters out of those legends?"

  "We do not know. That is one of the questions we hope to answer once we have killed it and can examine it to find out. What we do know however is how the monsters of humanity's legends came about. Let's take one of humanity's most infamous and feared monsters, Vampires. They were all reportedly created from one Master Vampire. Yet our question is this, who made him?

  Right about now all of my gears was in full rotation, and the obvious link to this discussion fell in place.

  "Are you saying that the first vampire, or master vampire is a result of the Atlantu genetic experiments"

  "Good guess, but not quite accurate. You see the Master Vampire was the first made vampire by a member of The Xantu called Vaclru. Vaclru genetic mutation turned him into the ultimate vampiric creature. All the legends of the Master Vampire's power and his creations are nothing compared to those of his creator, Vaclru.

  "You said your people fought The Xantu over twenty six thousand years ago. The vampire legends has only been around for a few hundred years. Are you saying someone of The Xantu has survived all of those years"

  "Not just someone. All of the original senior members and some of their most powerful minions has survived”

  "Survived how? Are they immortal, and how many of them are there?"

  "We do not have an exact number, but based on what the emissaries found out while on Atlantus there were around a hundred members of The Xantu. We believe about half or more of them survived the destruction of their island. The monsters of humanity's legends were all created by members of The Xantu. We know this to be true for our people have been hunting down their creations and killing them over these past millennia. And to answer your next question, no. None of us here or any of my people are that old. Although our lifespan is a lot longer than humanity's, it is nowhere even close to that. Even The Xantu do not live for that long. They have survived throughout time by placing themselves in a state of suspended animation and sleeping for centuries”

  "Hunting them?"

  "Yes. You see after my people destroyed Atlantus and it's people, they punished themselves, not for what we had done, but for what we had not done. Over the years prior to the war, my people had developed vast powers. Powers, which you would call magical, but these powers allowed my people to have a lot of control over the living forces of nature, earth's life force. They were responsible for caring over all living things. When they turned their backs on the Atlantu they allowed the horror that developed there to grow and fester to the point where their destruction was the only answer. My people had failed in their most sacred duty, even though such duties had not been laid out to them. The development of their powers should have given them that insight. My people were so mentally and emotional destroyed by what they had to do to stop the Atlantu, that most of them stopped utilizing their powers, believing it will cause them to use their power to destroy again. In a few hundred years my people fell from the graceful beings they were to a society that was one step from becoming extinct. By this time there were only a few dozen babies being born yearly to a population of 69,000 Muraiins. Their population prior to the war was roughly 90,000. We would have died out in another few centuries at the rate things were going. Then something changed. A group of ships was discovered in the ocean off the coast of our island. It was apparent they had been drifting for some time and there was at least a couple of hundred humans on board them, most dead from starvation and no water. What was more disturbing though was the wounds a lot the bodies had on them. The fact that the human ships was able to get that close to our island was a shock. It was also a sign of how far our people had fallen. Previously our mages had kept our island hidden from the humans who roved the oceans. Any ship that came close was diverted away in a manner the human would not recognize as being unnatural. Our veil had fallen and we weren't even cognizant of that fact. Realizing how far we had fallen, our Elders ordered a small group
to see what could be done to help the surviving humans on the ships. As it was forbidden to bring humans to Muraii, the few survivors were discreetly healed of their wounds and were taken back to the mainland and left in an area where there were peaceful villages of humans who would take care of them. They were found and nursed back to health by other tribes of humans. Upon being nursed them back to health, they told stories of how their villages and those of their neighbors were attacked by vicious monsters of different types. These attacks were so vicious they were forced to leave their home by ships with very few provisions, hence the condition we found them. These tales were so familiar to my people as they sounded like the tales of horrors that lead to the Atlantu war hundred of years before. This fear galvanized my people and a consensus was reached to investigate these horror stories. A large party of Muraiins was sent to where Atlantus had existed to see if somehow The Xantu has resurrected their destroyed island, but that was found to not be the case. It was then suspected The Xantu has set up a base of some type on one of the mainlands. Over the next few months the stories of the monster attacks were found to be true as well as new attacks occurring. One such attack killed a party of Muraiins who were hunting for the monsters. Yet their worse fears were confirmed, The escaped Xantu were back and back with a vengeance. A major council meeting was convened and a consensus was reached that we Muraiins had failed in our duty with the Atlantu hundreds of years before. We would not do so with the humans. The decision was made that my people would be tasked with tracking down and fully destroying The Xantu and it's created minions and to protect the humans at all costs, although this had to be done secretly as we were sure our appearance would also upset the humans. So over the millennia we have been doing just that. To date after all these millennia we have only been able to kill a few of The Xantu and a few hundred of their minions and creations”