Rise of the Lunar Guardian

-Outside Silent Cemetery, midnight-

It had been about five days since Stiletto had successfully killed Jacob Beall and "Greg" on Snowfall Island. It had taken a lot of effort and quite a bit of smooth talking, but she had finally managed to get out of Iceberg and return to the mainland via Rose Garden Airport; upon arrival she immediately made a beeline for Hidden Blades headquarters. There she reported the success of the mission and collected her payment before turning around and looking for another job to take. One job in particular caught her eye.

It was a simple mission to thin out the undead population of the cemetery, which had increased in recent months for unknown reasons. Diana felt like taking a simple job after all the hoops she had to jump through to complete the complex hit on Jacob Beall and "Greg", so she took the job. Six hours later she was standing outside Silent Cemetery and preparing to go in the cemetery for what seemed like an easy job killing zombies.

Wearing a navy blue long-sleeved shirt and navy blue cargo pants with black boots, Diana stood outside the gate and was about to enter when she heard rapid footsteps coming from beside her. She spun to face the noise and heard the sound of weapons being readied by over two dozen men in black outfits with face-concealing gas masks. They were arranged in two ranks; the top rank remained standing while the bottom rank was kneeling on one knee. Diana had just enough time to bring out her Suppressed Handgun before the men opened fire on her with suppressed submachine guns.

Diana had been caught out in the open and had no time to seek cover. Her body was riddled with bullets and she jerked about in a macabre dance before dropping to the ground, the Suppressed Handgun falling from her right hand. She dispelled the Suppressed Handgun to keep it from being used against her and lay on the ground bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds to the abdomen, upper body, and left shoulder. Diana could not help but appreciate the propriety of suppressed weapons being used to take her down.

For years she had lived by them. Now she was going to die by them.

A four-man group approached the fallen huntress with their weapons ready, but the blonde mage was too weak to offer resistance of any kind. She could only watch as they approached with the intent to make sure that she was really dead. She helplessly watched them aim their weapons at her head and saw their gloved fingers hover over the trigger, but the approach of a fifth individual delayed Diana's execution.

"We don't need to waste any more ammunition on her. Take her inside the cemetery and let the zombies eat her. They'll dispose of the body for us." A man in all-black wearing a gas mask with red lenses ordered. The four immediately slung their weapons over their shoulders and picked the badly wounded Diana up by her arms and legs as two more masked men held the cemetery gates open. Diana weakly turned her head to the right and saw the rest of the men picking up their shell casings to cover their tracks.

Diana was carried inside the cemetery and thrown onto the path just five meters from the gates. The four men left and closed the gates behind them, leaving the nearly dead huntress trapped in the cemetery with the walking dead. The zombies in the immediate area were quick to notice the meal that had been delivered to them and began shambling towards Diana.

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-Inside Silent Cemetery-

Diana lay on her back unable to do anything but watch and listen as around twenty rotting corpses approached her position to partake of the feast that had just been left to them by the men in gas masks. She wondered how they were able to find her and thought back to the job notice that she had read back at Hidden Blades headquarters. Then it hit her as suddenly as the bullets had.

The job was a setup to lure her out!

That little revelation did not exactly take a great detective to figure out. Something that would take a great detective to figure out was who the "client" for the job was since this job was posted by an anonymous client. When she got back to headquarters Diana would have to use what little pull a rank-and-file agent had to ask Bastet or another Director to find out who had posted the job to Silent Cemetery... assuming she survived tonight!

Diana had a feeling that either the Shadow Collective was responsible for the hit on her since they were the only ones who knew her real identity thanks to her reappearance in Bellum several months ago. She would have to begin an investigation to confirm or disprove that hypothesis later. Right now she really needed to find a way to pick herself up off the ground and either fight back or get to safety. Due to her numerous wounds that was not very likely to happen. The zombies were within 50 meters of her and closing in fast.

It was not very likely that someone was going to come to her rescue any time soon. Hidden Blades agents tended to work alone and Stiletto was renowned for the amount of missions that she had taken by herself. She had left Ami back at guild headquarters, so Ami was not going to swoop in and save her mistress. Diana's only hope lay in the off chance that a brave freelance adventurer would enter Silent Cemetery and dispatch the zombies, then get her to a medical facility before she bled out from the numerous bullet wounds she had suffered.

The zombies had now closed to 25 meters.

At this pace it was looking like her chances of survival were rather slim. She had been shot up badly and had barely enough strength to left her head up to watch the zombies approach. She stood to die either from being eaten by zombies or from bleeding out; it was looking like she was going to join the ranks of the undead. Diana looked towards the sky and saw the full moon overhead. The huntress noticed something unusual about it.

It was glowing very brightly like it was signaling that help was on the way. Maybe help was on the way or maybe it was wishful thinking from a mind weakened by blood loss. Diana looked down and saw that the zombies were within ten meters of her. The moaning was getting louder and she could see their milky white eyes locked in thousand-yard stares and could see their arms raised towards her. Soon those rotting hands would be clamping down on her flesh and their rotting teeth biting into her.

The moonlight began to focus into a bright circle on the path about a meter away from her. Was Diana seeing things? She was not sure what she was seeing and her uncertainty only increased when she saw a white-haired woman in a beautiful white dress materialize within the circle. The woman raised her hands towards the approaching undead and began to glow silver as she channeled magic into her hands.

"You have no place in this world!" She declared firmly. A wide silver beam emanated from her hands and hit the zombies, engulfing them in silver light. When the light faded the zombies were no more. Diana was now safe from the undead, but was she safe from the female stranger with a magic signature that was as strong as her own?

The stranger turned to the huntress and spoke.

"I am Selene, a goddess of the moon. I have been watching you for quite some time." The woman said to Diana.

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Diana was grateful to have been rescued from being eaten alive and joining the ranks of the undead, but now she had a new problem. Selene looked at her with a stern facial expression with a lot of displeasure. Selene might have rescued Diana from the zombies only to get the chance to pass judgment on the blonde mage herself.

Diana took a look at her benefactor and saw that the woman was in all-white clothing. She had a white dress with a gold crescent moon pin on her dress. Silver earrings were dangling from her ears and her eye color was a mix of white and pale blue.

"I have seen what you do in the dark and I am not pleased. I see that you kill for money. You have claimed many lives in pursuit of money." Selene said in a displeased tone of voice. The woman in white then raised a hand towards Diana and channeled magic into it. Diana was pretty sure that her judgment was at hand. A silver ring formed around Diana and its boundaries began to glow bright silver.

"While I see all of your ill deeds, I also see all of your good deeds. I know that you are not beyond redemption. I see that you hunt the darkness and destroy those who prey on the weak." Selene continued, her tone softening somewhat. Diana was not sure that she was out of the woods yet, but if the goddess said there was still good in her, maybe there was hope after all. The glowing boundaries then formed a shimmering silver wall around her and the ground beneath Diana began to glow. Diana was lifted up into the air and her pain began to fade away.

"Therefore I grant you another chance at life as a Lunar Guardian." Selene passed judgment on the blonde mage. Diana looked down and saw that the bullets that had entered her body were pushing themselves out of her and clattering to the ground. Her wounds were also beginning to close up and she was starting to feel strong enough to move on her own again. Diana did not fight it... she floated in place and let the process happen. Once it was over Diana was gently lifted upright and lowered to the ground.

Her feet touched the ground and she felt whole again.

"Thank you." Diana said simply after being rescued from near-certain death. She owed Selene a lot more than she owed other people in her life. The only people she owed more to than Selene were Siren, Bastet, and perhaps The Chairman.

Another silver circle formed at Diana's feet and it began to glow in exactly the same fashion as the last circle. Diana was lifted into the air and her body began to glow silver. She felt empowered like she was being given another gift by the moon goddess standing in front of her. The process took only a minute, but when her feet touched the ground she felt a lot stronger than she had only a minute before.

"You are now a Lunar Guardian, one of my agents who is tasked with hunting the darkness. I have granted you the power to cast down abominations and the wicked no matter what form they take. Now go and fear no evil." Selene said to her with a smile. Diana faced the goddess and saw her smile before fading away completely. The column of moonlight she had come down to earth on disappeared and now it was Diana standing alone in the cemetery.

She suspected that the men who had nearly killed her might still be in the area, so she armed herself with Silent Hunter before turning towards the cemetery gate. She had a score to settle. if she hurried she might get a chance at a little revenge, but she was not going to throw her life away after it had just been returned to her. Killing one or two of the would-be assassins would be revenge enough.

Selene:

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-Outside Silent Cemetery's Gates-

Diana exited the cemetery and paused in place to get a look at her surroundings. She saw that little had changed between her being shot and her returning from near-death except that all the brass shell casings had been picked up and that her blood was no longer staining the ground. It had been covered up by the abundant dirt in the area... not that it really mattered. The newly minted Lunar Guardian would make them pay for what they had nearly done to her.

Diana looked at the ground and noticed that a thin silver trail led away from the gates and towards a path leading to some woods. It was the same path that she had taken to get here. Was it the same path that the masked men had taken to return to their base?

She was about to find out.

Diana began to carefully follow the trail that had been laid out and followed it deep into the woods.

-In the woods leading away from Silent Cemetery-

Diana had walked into the woods while remaining watchful for any of the men who had been left to guard the rear or were straggling behind the rest of the hit squad. She had been walking for about forty minutes when her patience was rewarded by spotting a man in black with a suppressed submachine gun walking forty-five meters away with his back to her. Diana took a closer look at him and noticed that his outline was blood red. She had never seen the thin silver trail nor the outlines before... these abilities must have been features of the new power gifted to her by Selene.

Diana crouched on one knee and took careful aim at the back of the man's head and steadied her hands. She took a slow breath and gently squeezed the trigger. The man dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Diana stayed where she was and watched for any more masked men who had seen their teammate fall and were coming to investigate. After four minutes had passed she concluded that no one had seen her take the masked man down and she stood up.

Diana approached the body to see if she could loot it for any information on his employers and heard a voice speaking through the earpiece in the dead man's right ear. It was asking if he was OK.

"Hello? Raven One-Three-Seven, are you there?" A voice asked the dead man. Diana walked over to the man and removed the earpiece while remaining completely silent. She held it up and listened to the voice on the other end ask for a response.

"Raven One-Three-Seven, respond!" The voice commanded. Diana silently scoffed. "Raven One-Three-Seven" was in no condition to respond to the speaker.

Diana had had enough of the one-sided conversation and set the earpiece onto the ground, then walked away from it. While the speaker pleaded for a response she began to search the body for any information on his employers. After spending three minutes searching the corpse she had found nothing but the usual tools that mercenaries carried like magazines of spare ammunition for the main weapon, a pistol, and a knife, but she did hear something new from the man on the other end of the earpiece.

"Raven One-Three-Seven, backup is on the way, ETA five minutes!" The speaker reported. Diana knew that this was her cue to get out of here. She had gotten a small measure of revenge on the shadowy hit squad and now she was going to make good her escape. Leaving the earpiece on the ground, Diana dispelled Silent Hunter, turned around and made for another way out of Silent Cemetery. It was the long way out of the region, but taking it would ensure that Diana avoided contact with the rest of the squad and got home safely.

Diana had left no evidence like fingerprints or footprints to trace her, so the hit squad would be left in the dark about the identity of Raven One-Three-Seven's killer. If they bothered to check the cemetery they would find out exactly who had done it, but by then it would be far too late to shoot Diana a second time. They should have finished the job while she was at their mercy. Now they would pay for that mistake with their lives.

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[Total Word Count: 2,724/2,000]