Czarny Strumień was a normal, quiet smalltown in central Poland. It had no distinctive traits, other than not being affected by common damages so many cities faced as a result of World War II, which made it retain historic tenements, separated by narrow alleys, barely allowing a single car to pass.
Walking through one of such alleys was a middle-aged man, wearing a stylish suit, covered by a thick coat with a blood-red, cashmere lining, having a black fedora on his head, and carrying an expensive-looking umbrella with carved, wooden grip.
It was middle of fall season, so his clothing matched the aura of such a weather really well. Yet, the same could not been said about his folded umbrella - quite an unusual sight to see, given current heavy rain, making the man stand out among casual pedestrians.
On the other hand, it was a really small town, therefore he was not passing too many people on the way, though those he did, were looking at him with a slight, but visible surprise.
Still, despite that, the man seemed to not care, obstinately refusing to open the umbrella, and ultimately reached a building, to which he opened the door.
Before wiping his shoes and entering, he took a look at a little, yet traditionally made, wooden signboard with a theme showing a devil holding a pichfork, and inscription saying "When the going gets tough".
Soon after walking inside, a mix of various sounds reached the man's ears, including some small-talks, singing and sports commentary since the place he entered turned out to be a pub.
The gentleman looked around the interior visible from the spot where he was standing, put his coat on a sturdy-looking hanger located just next to the door, inserted the umbrella into a special basket, and walked towards a bar, taking a spot on one of the tall chairs, placing his elbows on the counter, and his thick beard on hands he just entwined.
There were only two other people seating by the bar, focused on a heated conversation to the point they were not seeing what is happening around there.
"I don't know what's going to happen with this world, man..."
"Fortunately, we still have peace here. For now, at least..."
The gentleman could not hear the further continuation of this peculiar, possibly interesting discussion, because this very moment barman appeared in front of him - a teenage adult with middle-length hair and delicate facial hair, smiling widely at the stranger.
"Greetings in this moderately charming day" he welcomed the middle-aged man with a specific, Welsh accent "It's always nice to see a new face here. This town is quite small, so it's usual regulars visiting."
The gentleman also smiled.
"I'm just passing by. A friend of mine recommended this place in case I was in the area, and here I am."
"I'm happy to hear that, though - I must admit - we only have two pubs here, so it's not that much of a choice. What drink would you like to have?"
"I'd go for something strong, to heat up. Just not vodka, because I had a heartburn last time I had it."
Barman's face showed a sign of surpirse, as if he just thought "You can have a heartburn because of vodka?"
"We have a really good whisky, Irish-made" he recommended "Personally, it's my favorite among the selection of alcohols we have here. It became quite popular recently."
"Pour me one, then" the middle-aged man nodded as he said that.
A moment later, the client was holding his drink served in beautifully decorated, thick glass.
While drinking, the gentleman focused his eyes on TV placed in the central section of the bar.
They were showing a football league match and the first half was ending now. Instead of standard studio, where specialists usually analyze the match, a female presenter, known from everyday news concerning events from the country and the world, appeared on air.
"I apologize for the sudden change in planned broadcast" she started talking "As per governmental order, we inform that, because of the recent increase in demons' activity, effective from today, curfew is being introduced between 11 PM and 6 AM. This will be in power until further notice. Now, we are going back to the half-time studio of the match at the top of our league."
"Thank you, Ania. It is definitely an unfortunate news, but there are things we cannot control. Tomek, your thoughts about the first half?"
Experts in the studio moved on to a standard analysis and expressing their opinions concerning the match, while the focus of talks inside the pub immediately shifted to a completely different topic.
Demons were real. Something that until recently existed only in folk tales, legends, superstitions or fantasy, turned out to be a harsh truth present in everyday lives of the whole humanity. Should someone said several years ago that this kind of situation would happen, they would surely be laughed at, maybe even detained in a madhouse - definitely, no one would have treated it seriously.
People might have belonged to different religions, they could have been atheists, yet not that many would have openly admit they believe in demons, even if these were mentioned in various religious texts. After all, it is much easier to believe only in what is considered good or convenient for us, and turning a blind eye on or simply not thinking about this darker side of things. This is how it was, until recently at least.
At first, news coming from Japan were only mentioning acts of terrorism. Accoding to official sources, several important facilities were supposedly attacked. Additionally, there were reports about a high death toll. Streets were overtaken by chaos and panic, though it was still something most people would usually see each day, as they seat on a couch in front of the TV, watching news, or just browsing news media on the internet. Stuff like that became a type of a norm, maybe even a trend in some cases - acts of terrorism were happening regularly across the world, so people got used to it.
However, the reception changed drastically, following the spread of footage in the internet, showing what is really happening on the streets. No one could notice terrorists, only unknown animals, or - rather than that - abominable monsters attacking humans. Governments of numerous countries aimed to keep the narration, where such recordings were named as manipulation, even an actual movie someone wants to promote using news as opportunity, but Japanese government did not want to participate in this campaign of lies, and openly confirmed the authenticity of the footage.
This official announcement sprouted widely spread discussion within media. Reporters started bringing up cases of people disappearing without a trace, where investigation would be closed after a longer while, pointing out these could have been proofs of demon activity, and governments covering this up.
The situation inflicted a deep fear into humanity, causing many people to openly panic, be afraid of leaving their houses and going to work. Demons were using the chaos to appear in various parts of the world, wreaking havoc.
Due to amount of incidents, governments had hard time dealing with the state of affairs. Until this moment, cases of demons were handlet by secret brotherhoods of hunters, yet it was speculated that one of these was a target of the widely discussed attack in Japan. This huge hit was delivered at the very moment humanity needed hunters the most.
Since the crisis was spreading, governments across the world had to take immediate actions. Knowing about secret brotherhoods and individual hunters being overwhelmed by the sheer size of the invasion, an agreement was signed for the creation of international organization named Perseus, gathering the best soldiers and fighters from around the world.
Unfortunately, even an elite group required several months to only partially stabilize the situation, and complete resolution of the problem on their own was - at least for now - unachievable.
Being aware that the threat is real, and Perseus has limited capacity, governments started mass-granting permits for extermination activities, which resulted in a growing number of people calling themselves as "hunters". Most of those people - much to their own misery - had completely no experience and, quite often, their beginning in the "business" was also the end.
Nevertheless, there were also those who knew their craft. The real hunters were both admired and terrifying - on one hand, they were defending others, but on the other, skills and abilities gained in combat, also these acquired by observing demons, caused many people to see similarity with demons. Sometimes, the thoughts of those bystanders were spot-on as there were indeed demons among the experienced hunters.
Ultimately, based on the knowledge becoming more common among humans with each day of awareness about demons' presence, everyone should remember that these creatures called demons actually came from the another world, named Gharth in their own language, thus they personally called themselves as Gharthians.
Same as in case of humans, also among the demons there were those with different beliefs and not all of them wanted to fight for taking over the human world - some of them wanted to coexist, have a peaceful relation, and that is why they were defending humanity. Still, despite having good intentions, they were not always treated with respect - after all, there were cases of people showing an open antipathy, or even aggressively attacking Gharthians who came in peace. In the end, not everything was black or white in these times - there was a huge amount of different shades of gray in-between.
Despite all of the hardships it brought, people had to continue on living and functioning in this new reality. However, fear was remaining in the humanity's consciousness, clearly reflected in the actions taken by politicians and how the society was reacting.
"We have Perseus in our region, and here our government still has to come up with a curfew" the gentleman made a snarky remark, then put an emptied glass on the counter and spoke to barman "How does it look like around here? Don't you have trouble with demons?"
Barman measured the man with his eyes - while the man was clearly around fifty years old, he could not miss a towering height and a bulky build, as well as three deep scars on his face.
"If you are looking for a job, it's not the perfect place" he told the man with an honest tone "We have our own, local specialists."
Bulky man moved slightly in his seat and leaned more towards the bar, lowering his voice, obviously not wanting for anyone to eavesdrop.
"Honestly speaking, I heard about a specific person living somewhere in the neighborhood" he started explaining "Supposedly, this guy has a clean reputation and never fails at job. People I spoke with told me about this place. Who I should talk with to arrange a meeting?"
Barman picked a fresh piece of cloth, and moved closer to the client, while wiping recently washed glasses.
"Depends on what this is about. We have dangerous times, so even the best ones are extremely careful nowadays."
"Does it mean I got the right place, boy?"
Facial features of the client looked sharper now, and the tone of his voice changed noticeably - there was no aggression or cold in it, but for some reason it made the barman feel chills coming down his spine. It was hard to tell what was this sensation, yet it made barman even more careful than he was before.
His boss and mentor - though this second term was not something the man would have accepted and did not allow barman to use it - used to spread the similar atmosphere around, and it was whenever he wanted to bend someone to his will. Remembering explanation the boss made about this particular ability, barman put away a glass with a wide move and flicked the cloth - according to his boss, loosening the focus of both sides on the current topic was taking away the advantage of the ability user.
"Everyone has their own rules" barman told the guest "Anyone who wants to meet K, must obey his rules."
Surprisingly, a wide smile appeared on the stranger's face - for seemingly no reason, he seemed happy with whatever happened just now. A thick atmosphere loosened, and the man was now surrounded with unusually warm aura.
"Apologies for that small test just now" the gentleman extended his hand to barman "My name's Derrik."
Bartender looked at the man's hand with an uncertainty showing in the eyes - he noticed this way before, but this Derrik guy was a real giant with a palm of hand huge enough to crush a skull of any human. Still, despite his towering figure, there was nothing alarming in his demeanor now.
"I'm Gareth" the barman introduced himself, while having a handshake.
The client, whose name he just learned, requested another glass of whisky before deciding to continue the conversation.
"Gareth is an interesting name, though definitely not from these parts" he pointed out.
"Same as Derrik."
On the scarred face there was first a slight smile, which - in a matter of moment - was replaced by a loud laughter, making several people turn their heads towards the bar - Derrik immediately noticed that and waved, which most likely made them embarassed, because they quickly returned to their own chitchats.
"Can't deny, I'm also not from this country, but I have a reason to come here, so it's about time I stopped making digressions. Tell me, Gareth, what do I need to do to arrange a meeting with that guy you called K?"