The University of Mythological and Occult Studies stood tucked behind the Ringstrasse in Vienna — a sleek, neo-gothic campus with biometric security, surveillance drones, and a state-of-the-art occult research lab buried four floors underground.
To outsiders, it was just another elite academic institution. But students in the Advanced Occult Studies track knew better.
Especially the ones in Room B-12 — where the Society of Eos met every Thursday.
They had uncovered too much.
Selene, fifteen, leaned over her tablet, black nail polish chipped from overuse of spell gestures. Her hoodie sleeves were pushed back as she skimmed decrypted fragments from a scanned Vatican manuscript.
"'Ash Walker'... 'Memory of Flame'... Equal of Heaven," she murmured. She was getting closer...
The others leaned in. The room reeked of energy drinks and old parchment.
Theo, the senior member, scoffed. "You really believe this crap leads to Ramiel?"
Selene didn't even look up. "I think he's already awake."
A cold chill swept the room. The lights flickered.
And then... the alarm blared.
Code Nine. Intrusion. Real-world threat.
"EVERYONE OUT!" A university marshal in combat armor burst into the hallway. "Now! This is not a drill!"
Outside, black SUVs had pulled up to the iron gates. The guards at the front were already down — torn open like paper. Surveillance feeds began to flicker and go dark one by one.
And then the real threat emerged.
Demons and species someone could have likened to Lycans with eyes like camera lenses, and fluid movement like they were used to human environments. Some carried blades fused to their arms while others especially the ones that looked like Lycans summoned unbelievably sharp.
They moved fast and coordinated, severing limbs here and there. What further complicated the nature of their purpose was that some were burning buildngs.
University Tactical Division agents responded — pistols, stun-rods, sigil grenades — but they were outmatched.
A blast took out the eastern glass corridor. Students screamed as a demon stepped over their broken devices and books, stabbing two marshals in perfect silence.
Inside Room B-12, panic.
"They're coming for us, they noticed" Selene muttered, already grabbing her bag. "They scrub the trail. That's how these attacks work."
"They won't kill students, It's demons after all. They'd face heaven's backlash" said Theo weakly.
Selene stared at him. "They don't see us as students. We've uncovered what the supernatural world preferred buried. Heaven or Hell"
She ran down concrete stairwells, past crying freshmen and panicked guards. She bypassed security, cut through the maintenance tunnel, climbed the west wall using the broken drainpipe.
One of the demons spotted her.
She didn't look back. She ran until her lungs burned.
Ten hours later, Selene sat in an abandoned McDonald's in suburban Vienna, using a stolen phone. Her hands shook as she placed a wrapped silver coin on the table — a summoning marker, illegal and faint, but it might work.
A message encoded in sigil light pulsed once before fading.
To the Ash Walker. The memory survives. I know you exist. Find me... before they do.