Chapter 57 - Level 27 [p11]. Mask of Terror (1/2)
The biggest city of Greece, Athens, as well as the heart for all wizards living in Greece. And there are two reasons for this.
The first is simple, the magical government resides in this city. However, the second reason is a bit complicated. Greece has always been a very mysterious place with ancient history, and it happens to be the birthplace to some of the most dangerous creatures, including manticores, basilisks, chimaeras, three-headed dogs, hydras, cyclops, ċȯċkatrices, and many others. Thanks to that, Greece became of the most popular hunting grounds of magical creatures in the world and gave birth to an organization that specializes in hunting of especially dangerous creatures.
This organization existed since ancient times and was successful in completely wiping out some of these extremely dangerous creatures. Its name was ”Κυνηγοί για τέρατα” or ”Monster Hunters”. Throughout the centuries this group changed its name multiple times, but its goal remained the same. Extermination of monsters.
Although, such an institute wasn't unique to Greece, ”Κυνηγοί για τέρατα” remains to be the most renown one in the world. That's why despite the small number of wizards in Greece, most of them are extremely powerful, all with their own inheritances.
And that's exactly the second reason. The headquarters of this organization is located in Athens, which makes it a center of trade in all sorts of ingredients gathered from the most dangerous of magical creatures and the best place to visit if you are looking for a specific creature.
With these 2 organizations in town, its defense was nothing to scoff at and no one in the right mind would think about attacking this city.
However, today is different. Today, the magical community of Athens will know the definition of terror.
***
One of the destination points of the portkey-system in Greece was set to be inside the Hunters HQ. Its underground floor to be precise. Of course, the whole room was enchanted to check if a person ”porting” belonged to the organization. However, for the first time in the last few centuries, somebody unauthorized tried to breach into the building and surprisingly these enhancements were not enough to stop the intruder.
A couple of senior wizards entered the room and took our wands waiting for an unknown ȧssailant to breach the enchantments. The youngest of them suddenly asked in Greek:
”Shouldn't we stop him or something?”
But two other elder wizards harshly rebuked him:
”And how would you do that? These are working enchantments! Even Merlin wouldn't be audacious enough to mess with enchantments while they are working.”
”Of course, you can try pouring your magic into enchantments. That is if you think you have more magic power than this whole building's enchantments gathered in the last few decades.”
The young wizard embarrassed after the rebuke quickly quietened down and stop asking questions.
”Plus these enchantments are symbolic. They are there to tell whoever 'ports' here without proper rights, that this place belongs to us, hunters and they better scram fast. But even if ”porting” enchantments are symbolic, he should know that there will be other defensive enchantments as well as hunter wizards.”
”So, who do you think is dumb enough to barge into our HQ?”
”No idea, but whoever he is, he is persistent.”
Soon somebody appeared and wizards got panicked a little at first, thinking ȧssailant was a magical creature.
'He had no face!'
This was the first thought appearing in these wizards' minds, but soon they recollected themselves and pointed their wands at the stranger. Speaking of the stranger. It was a male based on his build. On his face was a mask that covered his whole head, including the neck. It was so nicely crafted that its surface looked exactly like pale skin. But compared to a real face it lacked all features other than holes for eyes.
But even his eyes looked somewhat intimidating. With how the mask was crafted, the whites of his eyes were faded in the background and only black irises were visible.
He wore a dark cloak on top of him, with a dark leather vest underneath it and similar leather pants, boots and gloves. Dark clothes and white mask created a very unnatural vibe around the stranger. He didn't feel human.