A fire erupted from the nearby cathedral, spouting orange and red blazes to the sky. Townspeople stopped in their tracks and watched as the cathedral was completely engulfed in mere seconds. The fire turned to a darker color, and began to darken yet more until it had become an insanely unnatural black flame.

An insane, young cultist, Cooper Brenard, had brought forth an ancient book of evils beyond the dreams of darkness itself.

Once mastered the book's magic could bend time, shape, and release the most mightly of evils ever to come against man; the evils of mankind itself.

Since the dawn of time, evils and sins have been commited by men, until the evils of the world grew to an almightly high. Evil became an ultimate form known as fate, with the ability to actually shape and curve the destiny of man for better or worse.

It went unnoticed until the evils were released that night, using the book of the ancients.

The disembodied evil, now released, engulfed the mind, body and spirit of Cooper and diminished his soul to nothing, taking control of and shaping his young body to a new appearance. His hair blackened, his skin greyed and his eye's turned eternally bloodshot. The Taints of Ruination had been released into the world.

As for the book, it now lies hidden in the ruins of the cathedral, guarded by evil itself....

Taint sat now in the center of the cathedral, in front of the rotted altar, within the ruins of the city which he had destroyed long ago, before he had been sealed away once more, by the ranger Isaac Dominae.

Although he had narrowly escaped the confines of Isaac's soul, his power had been greatly diminished, and so the book must be found once more....

Where could that book have been hidden??

Master Ace was inspecting a different room of the Cathedral as the taints of Ruination entered the cathedral. He fingered a rusted candle holder on the wall. Behind him he heard the broken door creak. It was open and was hanging by it's one remaing hinge at the top. He guesed it was merely the wind. It had been creaking ever minute or so. Ace continued his inspection of the room, totally oblivous to the new arrival.

At the entrance of the Cathedral. Draco and Bruno watched a dark figure enter. Draco smiled darkly as he wondered what wandered through the mind of the wanderer. He decided to take a more direct approach. Draco would be reading the man's mind, but just for the sake of it Draco casted detect lies. Draco still in the form of a small black bat flew in front of the man and transfomed insantlly to his humaniod form. The child hovered sligtly above the dark-haired man. Bruno did likewise but came went behind the man. Draco swirled his blue-scaled tail behind him as he smiled, "Hello, stranger. What brings you to these strange parts?"

That is none of your buissiness, traveler." Taint replied coldly, looking around from the shadow beneath his hood for any signs of danger.

Still suspicious, but not frightened, Taint simply continued on past and ahead into another room.

The room, rustic and decaying, stood ahead of him. It's charred and rotting roof let small beams of sunlight through, periodicly interupted by a passing cloud. At the other end of the room was the remanants of a former stained glass window, scattered across the ground around the ancient stone altar, covered in ivy.

Taint stepped up the old, marble stairs and ran his hand over the top of the altar. No response. The book was no longer kept here as Taint had once left it. Cursing quietly under his breath, Taint stepped to the gap between walls behind the altar where the window once was and gazed out over the ruined city.

The cathedral, stationed on a hilltop in the center of town, was the ideal place to figure out where to look for the book next.

Where could it be?

Draco was highly angered to see himself disrespected in so foul a manner. Malevolent thoughts clouded his minds as he watched the spectral embodiement walk past and up the stairs. A smile quickly cleared Draco of his violent thoughts as he found what the being was looking for in the starngers's mind. Draco silently followed the man as he searched for his book. Bruno followed wordlessly. He was confused as to why the man had left without paying Draco or Bruno any mind, but the thought did not enraged him as it had with Draco. They hovered behind taint as he ascended the old marble stairs. Draco was pleased to hear Taint's curses and thoughts after the spectral embodiment looked to the altar. "Looking for something," Draco grined malevolently. "Ofcourse you are. It is such a shame the book is no longer here and what's more in hands so unlike your own."