Prologue

The wind howled. Darkness and silence bounded the sky. Here laid a cottage surrounded by rolling hills and carpets upon carpets of green grass. There was nothing peculiar about the cottage. Not until a figure entered it. From within, a kerosene lamp was ignited and its light reached out into the darkness.

Hours passed and nobody came or went. Everything was silent apart from the constant mini explosion sounds that originated from the cottage. A female clad in a gown with a wide bottom appeared. The night was black and so was her gown. Over her gown she wore a suit-like cloak.

She walked silently down the hill with the moon illuminating her path from the back. A tinkling sound could be heard. Movements in the cottage halt immediately. The woman walked calmly down the hill with poise. She stopped in front of the cottage.

On cue, the figure that went into the cottage came out.

‘Foolish for you to come after me,’ the figure said. It was an inhumane like voice. It was a blend of roughness and malice. Not one any human could have.

‘Belazor, your days on earth are over.’

The demon gave a roar and charged at the woman. The demon aimed a punch at the woman’s head. The woman moved like water, smoothly and quickly. Using her fist she grabbed the demon’s hand and twisted it counterclockwise.

The demon yelped in pain and knocked the woman’s hand away.

A fair distance lay between them. The woman from her suit took out a relic. It bored the symbol of the Libra.

‘Venus, goddess of beauty and ruler of Libra, grant me your power.’ she chanted.

The simple metallic symbol vibrated and expanded. It wrapped itself around the woman and turned into a golden armor. A sword and a shield appeared on her both arms. Three of the weapons were emblazoned with the symbol of Libra.

With amazing speed, the woman flashed in front of the demon in the disguise of a human. Using her sword she slashed at his neck, beheading him in a matter of seconds before she stopped and allowed her strength to recuperate.

Chapter 1

Haley woke up in the morning with her whole body aching. Her nocturnal side had actually taken the initiative to go out hunting and ridding the city from demons. Her memory was fuzzy but she still remembered bits of it here and there, allocating them all together formed some piece of mosaic artwork that met some kind of mishap.

She rubbed her eyes and crawled out of bed. Another day had started which meant more work to be done. She groaned and threw herself into the shower, allowing her senses to be awakened completely.

Breakfast proved to be bland as usual. She got a cup of coffee with a not fattening creamer to kick start her day and a bowl of muesli cereals with fresh milk for her meal, perfect combination for her hectic lifestyle.

She slipped into her black high heel shoes and walked out from her apartment. Somewhere in the accumulated junk she collected, her boyfriend slept soundly dreaming of god-knows-what.

She took a cab downtown to her workplace. Avoiding the massive jam that clogged up Time Square, the cabbie took another route, maneuvering his way skillfully through the back alley of the Big Apple.

It was in a matter of minutes that Haley got off the cab and walked to her workplace, a lawyer firm. Decked out in a smart MNG suit and a knee length black skirt, top it off with those lipsticks that give your lips that extra pout Angelina Jolie has, she was a sight to behold.

She flipped her blonde hair back and walked confidently into the firm. She was no lawyer but normal secretary of the director of this firm. Her pay was great since this was one of the most prestigious lawyer firms in New York. She took the lift up to the 7th floor and got out.

It was still early and not much employees were here yet. Feeling the unsustainable urge for another cup of coffee, Haley dumped her stuff at her desk in front of the director’s grand office and went to make her cup of coffee.

‘So much to choose, the seducing-aroma coffee or the so-strong-that-it-kicks-your-bum-hard coffee?’ she asked herself.

She pondered on the questions a little further before settling down on the bum-kicking cup of coffee. She dumped two spoonfuls of the coffee powder and added hot water. Soon the black solution filled the cup to the brim. She stirred as she walked back to her desk.

Bending down, she switched on her desktop and sat in front of it, as it flickered to life. A pop up message announced that she had new mails and she clicked on the link that led her to her inbox.

She scroll down and deleting useless and unimportant chain mails that always say ‘If you do not send this in 5 minutes you will be plagued by bad luck.’ She viewed a few messages that she deemed important and sipped her coffee.

Employees started to flood into the office and the atmosphere of dead silence was lifted. Greg, her boss passed by her desk and winked at her. She stared at her monitor intently but smiled.

She was draining her cup of coffee fast. She had to type in loads of her boss’s appointments and call up some of his business partners. Lunch break was what Haley craved for. The clock was ticking and lunch seemed so close yet so far away.

She laid back onto her chair and shut her eyes. She allowed herself to regain mental equilibrium to prevent stress and unwanted wrinkles. Amazing how a few seconds of shut eye can do to your body. Haley could feel her muscles aching but it was regenerating as usual.

Deep in side she prayed that there would be no more demons prowling the street of New York or anywhere else near it. She could not bear the backbreaking task of killing demons. Yesterday she just killed one and the legendary Librarian Bounty Hunter, killed Belazor and demon that escaped from the sixth gate and all Haley did was rid the streets from a walking zombie and a weak necromancer.

There was a monotonous beep and Haley’s eyes flung right open. She clicked on the pop up link and it led her to her mail box. The message was peculiar. It was sent by someone anonymous, there was no email address. She opened it nonetheless.

Whoever sent this mail forwarded this to another eleven people. She scroll downed and what she saw struck her with fear. Scrawled on her screen was:

I know who you guys are. I know where to find you, bounty hunters

No more shall you kill my brothers and sisters, I’m coming after you one by one.

Chapter 2

Calming herself down, she told herself that it was all a prank. She had kept her identity well. One thing she is good at is covering her tracks when she finished off her kill. She deleted the mail and tried to check the IP address. It was futile. There was no IP address. It is like it popped up from nowhere and appeared in her mailbox. It was freaky.

She looked at the clock. Lunch time. She closed her computer and walked out of her workplace and down to a simple steakhouse.

Among the midst of a sea of people, she knew someone was following her.

She entered the steakhouse acting like she need not care about anything in the world. She took a seat near the window. Normally she would prefer a place at the middle of the crowd where the air conditioning is the best but today was exceptional. She gaze darted back and forth from the people entering the door and the people passing the window, making mental notes of suspicious characters. She was scared to her bones.

Could she be the first one?

Chapter 3

It was an agonizing task to track down Belazor but killing it was far too easy. Everything went too smoothly. It was a rare sight to see a demon so rashly and impudently charging at a Bounty Hunter head on. In other words, it was plain stupidity. And stupidity is not one of the traits demons who escaped from the Sixth Gate have.

Her name or preferably her incognito was Alison. Her real name was never revealed to anyone. No one knows except her mother and father who are all killed by a Greater Demon which she successfully killed by the age of seven. A remarkable feat and now at the age of twenty seven, her power grew steadily and never once did a demon laid more than five bruises on her before she killed it.

Her records were remarkable and unbeatable. No one has ever seen such a skilled Bounty Hunter even the oldest and most experienced wavered at her presence. To them she was more powerful than them. She could have achieve their standards by the time she was 35 years old any older than that, they did not know how powerful she can get. Nonetheless they were happy to know that Alison was on their side, the good side and was never budged or tainted by evil.

She opened her mailbox and she saw the message. She merely asked herself, a demon killing thousands of Bounty Hunters in the world? Its chance of success would be lower than one percent. She deleted the mail and glanced at the clock. It was time to heed Libra’s call and fulfilled her duties after all she was the youngest member of the Bounty Hunter’s Council. She was also the youngest Bounty Hunter in history to acquire the assistant and powers of the horoscopes, only a few have done so but only when they were seventy or eighty.

The Council feared her power but they did not dare provoke or enraged her, she was too powerful a member to be kicked off the Council. Adding to the fact that they would not want her to join the demons like many other Bounty Hunters did killing their brethrens for a taste of power the demons could give them.

She put on her leather suit. It did not restrain any of her swift movements. She touched the tattoo of the Libra emblazoned on the back of both of her hand. She took her black jacket from her clothe stand and stuffed the Librarian relic into the breast pocket. With that she ran out from her apartment into the balcony and jumped off. Falling down gracefully, she flipped in midair and allowed the air to sustain her weight by using the jacket as a parachute and landed down smoothly. She sprinted forward and ran off into the night with the silvery light from the moon cast down on her slim but athletic figure.

She was a sight to behold.