Richter Lawrence Alcross | Trevor Grant | Cerberus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
keep_hope_alive) wrote2015-04-18 06:21 pm
keep_hope_alive) wrote2015-04-18 06:21 pm
Background
Richter is an only child born into a small and simple family. His parents are Marcus and Amelia Alcross, and he has an adoptive homunculi sister and brother, Alicia Masters, who works as a doctor, surgeon, magic researcher, alchemist, and scientist, and Gunner Helman, her assistant. The Alcross family lived in a small community on the outskirts of new city side towards the mountains, while his sister and brother lived a bit further into the mountains. Marcus worked as a consultant for a big business firm in the city that paid him a fortune for every consultation, whilst Amelia was a housewife. Richter was being sent to a well-known preschool in the area where he met his life time friends, Kevin Frank and Victoria Summers. The Alcross lived happily together spending every moment together day or night, they were a picture perfect family until Marcus had some trouble at work. Something had happened to cause him to quit his high paying job and work at the city bank, but even with his new job the family started to have financial troubles.
Amelia took a job as a school teacher at the local grade school, and Richter had to stop schooling at the age of 6. Though he stopped school, this doesn't mean he stopped his education. His sister, Alicia, tutored him while his parents were at work. This went on for about two years, his parents would go to work, his sister would tutor him, his parents would return and they would spend time with the family. Everything looked like it would work out in due time but sadly, it did not last. On March 23, the night of Richter's 8th birthday, police arrive at the door of his house saying that his parents were killed.
The young Richter did not take their passing well. Even though his sister and brother took him into their home that was at the base of one of the surrounding mountains, he did not make any effort to interact with them. He didn't eat, he didn't speak, and he didn't shed any emotion whatsoever, trapped in a pit of despair and sorrow. One day, he managed to gather the strength to walk and leave the house without Gunner and Alicia noticing wandering aimlessly and eventually becoming lost. Soon enough, Richter was found by pack of wolves who had chosen him to be their next meal. Death seemed inevitable until a man had shown up who dispatched the wolves with ease using a sword.
The man's name was Gerard, and Richter took an immediate fascination to him. Gerard took Richter back to his siblings with haste saying that "a brat has no place there" but regardless of the warning, Richter would escape his siblings watchful eye and head up the mountain to see Gerard and he would always be walked back down. This went on for a month but eventually, Gerard would let Richter stay and let him spend the day watching how to hunt down animals. The two shared an odd friendship, mainly because Richter wouldn't say a word but would start to pick on some of the various hunting skills Gerard was using. Finally, Gerard asked the young lad why he was so interested in learning how to hunt and he answered "I want to find who took my parents away from me."
After hearing Richter's story Gerard agreed to mentor the young child, teaching him how to use a blade, identify prints, how to survive in the wild, and how to hunt down man. Like any good guardian Alicia and Gunner were opposed to Richter learning such a dangerous thing, not to mention that he could die while training and so two talked to their younger sibling out of training but, their pleas fell on deaf ears. Their disappointment was apparent, and troubled by guilt Richter agreed to train for only four days a week and the remaining days will be spent however Alicia and Gunner see fit, which was mostly to educate Richter. He had learned much about science, math, language, literature, and music from the two. When he was old enough, Richter learned how drive alongside Kevin.
Years passed and Richter's training had turned him into a fine hunter and was ready to go out and find his parents killer. At the age of sixteen Richter dove straight into the underbelly of the city, hiding his face behind a steel mask to protect his family while he hunted down various criminals at night, gathering info and making a name for himself in the underworld. To cover his tracks and make a little money on the side, Richter joined the band of his friend Kevin as a guitarist and singer. The group mainly performed in night clubs in the new city and sometimes, at various charity events at the high school of Kevin. He also took side jobs during the day and sometimes during the night when not much is going on, so he build the image of a regular teen. Those side jobs proved to be helpful in the end since he had gotten multiple contacts and informants that had connections to the underworld, which he took advantage of.
Eventually, Richter had finally gotten a clue about the identity of his parents’ killer but sadly, the information came at a price. He learned that his father was part of an organization that distributed and produced illegal substances. He worked for a man called "Oz" and Marcus was one of Oz's favorite and closest subordinate, so close that Marcus knew personally. Marcus had gotten feed up with the underworld and wanted out, and Oz had let him thug he was saddened by this. Marcus thought he had gotten off free, but out of the blue, he was killed in cold blood by Oz. No one but Oz knows the reason why, maybe it's to keep his identity safe, or maybe they had a falling out, but it didn't matter to Richter. He found the one who ordered the hit, he knew who he had to kill.
Upon learning about Oz, Richter started to fervently hunt down members of Oz's drug cartel, looking for whatever information he could get his hands on. He started to stay out for days, and when he came home he was usually injured in some manner. Sometimes a multiple gunshots, or stab wounds, or some kind of dislocated bone. His family and friends were worried, even his mentor thought he was pushing himself too hard and losing touch of things around him and in an attempt to try and remedy this, Kevin and Victoria took Richter out for a day in the city. Richter didn't enjoy this and thought of it as a hindrance but went along with them, thinking that it couldn't get any worse. He thought wrong. The two had also set him up to meet a young lady named Ciel Phantasia. Richter wanted to leave and be rid of all this girl but she was persistent and wanted to get closer to him.
Richter eventually just gave up at trying to ditch the girl and let her steal him away for a good day's rest. They talked about various things, the state of the city, how she knew Kevin and Victoria, different kinds of people, mundane things. The one thing they had argued about a lot was their view on the city since Richter hated it with a passion and believing the city is hopeless, while Ciel loved it dearly and believed that it can be saved. Ironically this is what made the two of them understand each other so well.
Ciel was one of the few people who could cast magic, making animal shaped lights and other things, and this fascinated Richter. She told him that he had a strong affinity for magic but since he didn't practice it, he was pretty poor at it. Ciel taught him the basics of creation but the only thing Richter could make easily was metal objects, mostly chains and continued practicing thinking that it would be useful to him. Eventually, the two had developed feeling for one another and they started to date, though Richter kept his night hunting escapades a secret from her. Their relationship went on for a year, the two spending almost every waking hour together until Richter decided to tell Ciel the truth about himself and his past. She listened intently and was shocked about what he went through and about his efforts to find his parents killers.
This was a turning point in their relationship as Ciel was also hiding something from Richter, her real identity as Ciel Leona, daughter of Oswald Leona the head of the Leona Company, the largest corporation in the city. She hid her name to protect her and her father's privacy but regardless, she had disclosed this to him. One day Ciel surprised Richter but giving him a sword that she had made. The sword was made using an enchanted metal to replicate orihalcum, a legendary indestructible metal. Richter was surprised but moved by the gift and when he asked why, she said that the sword would protect him in her place when she wasn't around. The sword has two edges, but one was dulled to help remind him that taking a life isn't always the answer. He named the sword Empty Sky because its beauty is like an empty blue sky.
Ciel hesitantly Richter’s actions, understanding that he had something he needed to do but asked him not to take lives unnecessarily. He agreed to it simply because Richter had never felt as good as he did at that time and he did not want to lose that feeling or Ciel, even though he felt like she was holding something back. Sadly, he was right. Richter had struck gold one night and managed to track down one of Oz's personal guards and find out the identity of Oz who was in truth Oswald Leona, Ciel's father. Possessed by rage, Richter immediately confronted Ciel about this asking her if she knew about her father, and about who he was. Ciel broke into tears and admitted she knew about his parents, the she knew her father and that the person Richter was seeking was him and that night, Richter left without saying a word and disappeared from the radar of everyone he knew. He spent the next few weeks preparing to break into Leona Tower and kill Oswald Leona.
About a week before he storms the tower, Richter went to his sister with a request to implant one of her alchemic experiments in him, specifically, a magic eye called "The Overseer". The Overseer has the power to see far beyond human sight, look through objects, and even look a few seconds into the future, but the eye was extremely powerful and using it could do more harm than good. Alicia was against operating saying that he can't handle it, but Richter was determined to have it and he didn't care if she's the one who does the surgery or not, he wanted that eye no matter what and threatened to steal it and have someone else operate. Knowing that his thereat was no bluff, Alicia hesitantly agreed and performed the surgery, replacing his right eye with the Overseer.
As soon as Richter recovered from the surgery, he started his attack on Leona Tower. Breaking in undetected was an easy enough task, but once he reached the upper private floors the security went up a great deal. The guards were armed to the teeth and there were cameras everywhere, watching every hallway, every elevator and stairwell, and he was armed only with a sword and magical chains, but that didn't stop him. He charged in and fought what seemed like an entire battalion of hired goons but eventually, after a fierce fight, he finally had Oswald cornered. Richter spoke to Oswald about his father and why he had him killed. Oswald explained how his father was his right hand man, how he trusted him deeply, but then when he said he wanted to leave the underworld and live on the straight and narrow, Oswald let him. Then he found out that Marcus was giving the police information about Oswald's drug labs in exchange that his family will be protected. Oswald had him killed for this reason, though he always wondered about why Marcus never gave out Oswald's identity.
Hearing enough of his talk, Richter raised his sword and aimed for Oswald's heart. The old man backed away trying to escape but Richter was faster and stronger and just as he was about to pierce Oswald’s heart and get his revenge, Ciel came out from nowhere and jumped between the two of them which led to her death at Richter's hands. The room grew quiet as Ciel fell to the floor, and Oswald enraged by what had happened, charged at the dazed Richter and trying to strangle him, but Richter at the last minute snapped out of his daze and gave Oswald a fatal slash across his body.
Richter had gotten his revenge but it cost him Ciel's life. Richter stayed with Ciel until her last breath and in that moment she asks him if his soul had finally been released from his hate but he couldn't answer her, instead he cried until she died in his arms leaving the words, "It's okay…as long as you're free now…". Richter fled into the darkness, his hands still soaked in Ciel's blood and returned home to his siblings who tended to his wounds, physically, mentally, and emotionally. The damage has been done but it didn't stop there, following the death of Oswald Leona and the Leona Corp started to degrade because of an in-depth investigation into Oswald Leona and a search for the masked man responsible for the attack. Oswald's dirty little secret started to come into light, the dealings with the mob, drug trafficking, and other felonies. The various investors of the Leona Corp started to pull out the moment the news about Oswald's dealings was released and the fund of the corporation started to diminish.
The Leona Company perished, and hundreds of people lost their jobs making people desperate which lead to the crime rate increasing. To add this chaos, since Oz had passed, various mafioso's and gangs had emerged trying to take his place leading to turf wars and more drug dealings than ever before. The city entered its own great depression, and the one who caused it was Richter.
The young man hid himself in the darkness, away from the city he set on a path to ruin, and away from the guilt of killing Ciel. He was set to destroy himself along with the city, but his friends and family wouldn't let him and tried their best to bring hope back to Richter's life and it was his brother Gunner who gave Richter an ultimatum. Either to live life as Ciel would have wanted him to, or to die and end his own guilt and sorrow. The choice was obvious, so he took the sword that killed Ciel and held it up to his heart but before he could drive it in, he remembered that night she died. He remembers how she said he was free, free of anger, free of the chains of hatred that tied him down.
In the end, Richter could not take his own life but he also could not see a reason to keep living. He was stuck in limbo pondering the idea of how can he say 'I'm sorry' to a person who is no longer there. He remembered all the time they spent together, he remembered how she loved Rise City, how she wishes and believed that it could be better. It was then that he found his reason for living, and his path to redemption.
He set out to correct what he had done, donning his steel mask and wielding the sword that carries his sin. He worked all throughout the night, stopping robberies, catching thieves, preventing murders, and exposing drug deals. Eventually, rumors started to spread like wildfire among the people, rumors of the same masked man wanted for the murder of Oswald and Ciel Leona now saving lives and perhaps, a small portion of his spirit. He had become an icon in this time, a vigilante that captured everyone's attention. The police wanted to arrest, the mob wanted him dead, and the civilians don't know if he's a hero or another criminal. They called him a monster, a creature from hell, a man that fights with the ferocity of a hellhound, a black guardian. And so it went, at the age of eighteen Richter was given the title "Rise City Cerberus", a three headed devil dog that guards the gates to hell and prevents its opening. A title he wore with pride as he sought redemption for his sin.
Four years later, terrible terrorist attacks by a group called "The Returners" plagued the city in an attempt to throw it into chaos. There were car bombs, public shootings, bodies left on the street with cryptic messages addressed to the city officials, and other heinous acts. When the city police chief was having a press conference to address these attacks, a man with a bomb strapped to his waist attempted to kill the official but their plan was thwarted by Richter's intervention. The chief was safe and Richter had earned himself some points with him, but Richter had been caught in the blast and suffered major injuries.
He was unable to go out as Cerberus due to those injuries and was advised bed rest, to which he reluctantly agreed. While recuperating, he spent his time trying to find out more about the Returners but his attempts were futile. Neither he nor the police had any solid information about the group, and with his frustration and anxiety building up, any chances were slowly slipping away. It was then he decided to seek the council of his master Gerard, but he had learned that his mentor had gone away somewhere south. Since he could not fight or could he do anything else at this point, Richter packed his bags, his uniform, sword, and headed out in search of Gerard.
After weeks of searching, he managed to track down Gerard who was staying in an isolated part of New York and though he was excited to see his mentor again, the latter was not as pleased. The two had a harsh exchange of words and after a short exchange of blows, Gerard agreed to listen to Richter’s story after discovering his injuries. Richter didn’t have much to explain, the news of Returners was spreading like wildfire and Gerard was not so out of the loop that he didn’t know what was going on and he actually knew more than what the media showed.
Gerard told Richter a story of his encounter with the Returners and how he shut them down. He revealed that he used to work for the government as a special agent and that bringing down the Returners was his last mission before he went into retirement. He said explained that the Returners were composed of rogue mages that were hell bent of returning magic to its former glory by destroying technology. Their targets were mostly factories and laboratories, any facility that was developing amazing technology or making breakthroughs in science, this made the current Returners a group of fakers. He further explained that the reason he went to New York was to make sure that the group was a fake by seeking out his old contact, at the same time, he expressed disappointment in Richter’s performance stating that he trained him to be better than that.
Berated by his master, Richter decided to stay a few days with him while he recovers, revisiting his training at the same time. Once his body was strong enough and his wounds healed to a degree, Gerard sent Richter back to Rise City with order to seek out a person named Olivia Salem if he wants to stop the Returners. He set out immediately once he returned but finding this person was easier said than done. Richter used all his available connections, even going as far as sneaking into the police station and city hall to use their records, and he could not find anyone by that name. Just as he was about give up, believing he was sent on wild goose chase, he received a letter from Olivia Salem to meet her at the entrance of the Mages Academy. The letter was addressed to him as personally, something that made things slightly complicated for him as only a few know him by his real name.
Come nightfall, Richter made his way to the Academy as the Cerberus not knowing what to expect since each encounter he’s had with the area violently repelled him or whoever was not a student from entering. Even with his knowledge of the city and its secrets, the Mages Academy is the one place he knew nothing about so when he arrived at its gates to find he was welcomed in only filled him with dread. He found the campus eerily quiet, even after hours, there were no signs of guards or staff around at all until he found a path way that was dimly lit which led him to one of the schools towers where he finally met Olivia Salem, a professor in the Academy.
She welcomed him into her study and wasted no time in explaining the situation to the confused vigilante. Olivia said she was asked by Gerard to watch over Richter in secret while he was away, which is why she knows of his identity and about his fight against the Returners which is why she summoned him. She said the Returners were originally students of the Academy before they went rogue. She was a student at the time and a member of the group but, she did not like their methods and came into contact with Gerard. She fed him info about the group, and the two planned to bring the group down and acted on it. The mages were caught, tried, and imprisoned in the Academy’s dungeon.
The new information did not shed any light on the situation but, she said that the Returners who used technology was still connected to the Academy and that she knew who were involved, but because of an enchantment that is placed on all professors, Olivia is unable to lay a hand on them since the culprits were students. Given no other choice, he agreed and went to confront the culprits who were more than surprised to see him there given he was not a student.
Though he had the element of surprise, the battle was not easy for Richter at the start. Though he had dealt with rogue mages before, he’s never faced dozens of them at the same time and armed with nothing but his sword and his mediocre magic, he thought he was doomed to fail until Olivia came and backed him up. The enchantment prevented her from harming the students but it did not stop her from assisting Richter. And so it went, with the aid of an all-powerful mage, Richter suppressed the rogue mages and uncovered their plan. They created a fake group under the old name and had them cause chaos, and once the fighting had escalated to a suitable extent, the rouge mages would swoop in under the guise of another name called “Defenders” and stop the terrorists, winning the people’s favor. After, it would be only a matter of time before they gain more influence and power, then they would bring magic back to its “rightful place”, standing above humanity.
The two had found enough evidence to send the mages to the dungeon until they could be properly tried as adults, and they also found the list of contacts to the group that’s posing as the Returners, a task Richter dealt with quiet easily later on. Once the dust had settled and the news of the Returners end was made public, Richter was once again summoned by Olivia to discuss the matters that were not mentioned. Specifically how the Academy was related to the terrorists and his condition after the events, which was in a very transitional phase.
The events had made Richter question if what he was doing was really making a difference. He realized that his actions were just like that of a rebellious teen, pure emotion. There was no thought, no planning, just the desire to act and fix the mess he made. He knew his feelings were important but he began to see that just stopping criminals is not enough and that his enemy is something that goes beyond man and machine. His enemy was despair, the grim force that dragged people to darkness, an enemy he had no idea how to fight in a city where it clung to every nook and cranny. It was then that Olivia approached Richter with two things, different but important.
The first was about his sword, the Empty Sky. She said that he was not using it to its fullest, quickly taking the sword from him then applying a bit of mana to activate a hidden enchantment which changed the shape of the sword from a longsword to a katana. Richter was surprised but it gave him the answer he was looking for just when he needed it. If despair could not be removed why not change it into something else, just as the sword did. He was elated to find an answer but his question was how to do it, which tied up nicely with Olivia’s second item.
She would take Richter as an apprentice, teach him the ways of a mage and simultaneously, turn his Cerberus into an icon of change. A hero. A hero who could fight despair and keep hope alive.
Richter was hesitant about it, not comfortable with the idea of a criminal like him being turned into something so lofty but, the chance to learn and improve his magic was too good to pass up. He agreed to the plan but under the condition he kept the connection between the Returners and the Academy a secret for the time being. She explained to him that part of her plan was so that by the time if or when someone discovers the link between the two, Richter would have enough influence with the masses to sway them away from attacking the Academy and maintain peace. A condition, he felt, he had no choice but to accept.
So it went, Richter became an unofficial student of the Mages Academy and the apprentice of Olivia Salem. She tutored him privately when he would have been idle, she supported him when he went out as the Cerberus, and whenever he needed rest, he would sleep in the loft of her Atelier.
Their plan to make him a heroic icon was off to a slow start but they kept at it, and after three years, it was starting to bear fruit. The public’s opinion of the Cerberus grew more positive and a level of trust was placed on him, even the government and police began to work alongside him, and Richter himself was starting to come to terms with idea of becoming a hero. He became more powerful the more he acted and learned from Olivia, his magic becoming more refined and well optimized.
He learned various spells and incantations, regained the use of his right eye after Olivia had placed gates and seals on the Overseer, which made his life so much easier. Three years down the road and he felt so much was already happening, but what he felt was the most important thing was that he was finally doing what he set out to do, cleaning his slate and restoring his city, becoming a hero that kept hope alive.
Amelia took a job as a school teacher at the local grade school, and Richter had to stop schooling at the age of 6. Though he stopped school, this doesn't mean he stopped his education. His sister, Alicia, tutored him while his parents were at work. This went on for about two years, his parents would go to work, his sister would tutor him, his parents would return and they would spend time with the family. Everything looked like it would work out in due time but sadly, it did not last. On March 23, the night of Richter's 8th birthday, police arrive at the door of his house saying that his parents were killed.
The young Richter did not take their passing well. Even though his sister and brother took him into their home that was at the base of one of the surrounding mountains, he did not make any effort to interact with them. He didn't eat, he didn't speak, and he didn't shed any emotion whatsoever, trapped in a pit of despair and sorrow. One day, he managed to gather the strength to walk and leave the house without Gunner and Alicia noticing wandering aimlessly and eventually becoming lost. Soon enough, Richter was found by pack of wolves who had chosen him to be their next meal. Death seemed inevitable until a man had shown up who dispatched the wolves with ease using a sword.
The man's name was Gerard, and Richter took an immediate fascination to him. Gerard took Richter back to his siblings with haste saying that "a brat has no place there" but regardless of the warning, Richter would escape his siblings watchful eye and head up the mountain to see Gerard and he would always be walked back down. This went on for a month but eventually, Gerard would let Richter stay and let him spend the day watching how to hunt down animals. The two shared an odd friendship, mainly because Richter wouldn't say a word but would start to pick on some of the various hunting skills Gerard was using. Finally, Gerard asked the young lad why he was so interested in learning how to hunt and he answered "I want to find who took my parents away from me."
After hearing Richter's story Gerard agreed to mentor the young child, teaching him how to use a blade, identify prints, how to survive in the wild, and how to hunt down man. Like any good guardian Alicia and Gunner were opposed to Richter learning such a dangerous thing, not to mention that he could die while training and so two talked to their younger sibling out of training but, their pleas fell on deaf ears. Their disappointment was apparent, and troubled by guilt Richter agreed to train for only four days a week and the remaining days will be spent however Alicia and Gunner see fit, which was mostly to educate Richter. He had learned much about science, math, language, literature, and music from the two. When he was old enough, Richter learned how drive alongside Kevin.
Years passed and Richter's training had turned him into a fine hunter and was ready to go out and find his parents killer. At the age of sixteen Richter dove straight into the underbelly of the city, hiding his face behind a steel mask to protect his family while he hunted down various criminals at night, gathering info and making a name for himself in the underworld. To cover his tracks and make a little money on the side, Richter joined the band of his friend Kevin as a guitarist and singer. The group mainly performed in night clubs in the new city and sometimes, at various charity events at the high school of Kevin. He also took side jobs during the day and sometimes during the night when not much is going on, so he build the image of a regular teen. Those side jobs proved to be helpful in the end since he had gotten multiple contacts and informants that had connections to the underworld, which he took advantage of.
Eventually, Richter had finally gotten a clue about the identity of his parents’ killer but sadly, the information came at a price. He learned that his father was part of an organization that distributed and produced illegal substances. He worked for a man called "Oz" and Marcus was one of Oz's favorite and closest subordinate, so close that Marcus knew personally. Marcus had gotten feed up with the underworld and wanted out, and Oz had let him thug he was saddened by this. Marcus thought he had gotten off free, but out of the blue, he was killed in cold blood by Oz. No one but Oz knows the reason why, maybe it's to keep his identity safe, or maybe they had a falling out, but it didn't matter to Richter. He found the one who ordered the hit, he knew who he had to kill.
Upon learning about Oz, Richter started to fervently hunt down members of Oz's drug cartel, looking for whatever information he could get his hands on. He started to stay out for days, and when he came home he was usually injured in some manner. Sometimes a multiple gunshots, or stab wounds, or some kind of dislocated bone. His family and friends were worried, even his mentor thought he was pushing himself too hard and losing touch of things around him and in an attempt to try and remedy this, Kevin and Victoria took Richter out for a day in the city. Richter didn't enjoy this and thought of it as a hindrance but went along with them, thinking that it couldn't get any worse. He thought wrong. The two had also set him up to meet a young lady named Ciel Phantasia. Richter wanted to leave and be rid of all this girl but she was persistent and wanted to get closer to him.
Richter eventually just gave up at trying to ditch the girl and let her steal him away for a good day's rest. They talked about various things, the state of the city, how she knew Kevin and Victoria, different kinds of people, mundane things. The one thing they had argued about a lot was their view on the city since Richter hated it with a passion and believing the city is hopeless, while Ciel loved it dearly and believed that it can be saved. Ironically this is what made the two of them understand each other so well.
Ciel was one of the few people who could cast magic, making animal shaped lights and other things, and this fascinated Richter. She told him that he had a strong affinity for magic but since he didn't practice it, he was pretty poor at it. Ciel taught him the basics of creation but the only thing Richter could make easily was metal objects, mostly chains and continued practicing thinking that it would be useful to him. Eventually, the two had developed feeling for one another and they started to date, though Richter kept his night hunting escapades a secret from her. Their relationship went on for a year, the two spending almost every waking hour together until Richter decided to tell Ciel the truth about himself and his past. She listened intently and was shocked about what he went through and about his efforts to find his parents killers.
This was a turning point in their relationship as Ciel was also hiding something from Richter, her real identity as Ciel Leona, daughter of Oswald Leona the head of the Leona Company, the largest corporation in the city. She hid her name to protect her and her father's privacy but regardless, she had disclosed this to him. One day Ciel surprised Richter but giving him a sword that she had made. The sword was made using an enchanted metal to replicate orihalcum, a legendary indestructible metal. Richter was surprised but moved by the gift and when he asked why, she said that the sword would protect him in her place when she wasn't around. The sword has two edges, but one was dulled to help remind him that taking a life isn't always the answer. He named the sword Empty Sky because its beauty is like an empty blue sky.
Ciel hesitantly Richter’s actions, understanding that he had something he needed to do but asked him not to take lives unnecessarily. He agreed to it simply because Richter had never felt as good as he did at that time and he did not want to lose that feeling or Ciel, even though he felt like she was holding something back. Sadly, he was right. Richter had struck gold one night and managed to track down one of Oz's personal guards and find out the identity of Oz who was in truth Oswald Leona, Ciel's father. Possessed by rage, Richter immediately confronted Ciel about this asking her if she knew about her father, and about who he was. Ciel broke into tears and admitted she knew about his parents, the she knew her father and that the person Richter was seeking was him and that night, Richter left without saying a word and disappeared from the radar of everyone he knew. He spent the next few weeks preparing to break into Leona Tower and kill Oswald Leona.
About a week before he storms the tower, Richter went to his sister with a request to implant one of her alchemic experiments in him, specifically, a magic eye called "The Overseer". The Overseer has the power to see far beyond human sight, look through objects, and even look a few seconds into the future, but the eye was extremely powerful and using it could do more harm than good. Alicia was against operating saying that he can't handle it, but Richter was determined to have it and he didn't care if she's the one who does the surgery or not, he wanted that eye no matter what and threatened to steal it and have someone else operate. Knowing that his thereat was no bluff, Alicia hesitantly agreed and performed the surgery, replacing his right eye with the Overseer.
As soon as Richter recovered from the surgery, he started his attack on Leona Tower. Breaking in undetected was an easy enough task, but once he reached the upper private floors the security went up a great deal. The guards were armed to the teeth and there were cameras everywhere, watching every hallway, every elevator and stairwell, and he was armed only with a sword and magical chains, but that didn't stop him. He charged in and fought what seemed like an entire battalion of hired goons but eventually, after a fierce fight, he finally had Oswald cornered. Richter spoke to Oswald about his father and why he had him killed. Oswald explained how his father was his right hand man, how he trusted him deeply, but then when he said he wanted to leave the underworld and live on the straight and narrow, Oswald let him. Then he found out that Marcus was giving the police information about Oswald's drug labs in exchange that his family will be protected. Oswald had him killed for this reason, though he always wondered about why Marcus never gave out Oswald's identity.
Hearing enough of his talk, Richter raised his sword and aimed for Oswald's heart. The old man backed away trying to escape but Richter was faster and stronger and just as he was about to pierce Oswald’s heart and get his revenge, Ciel came out from nowhere and jumped between the two of them which led to her death at Richter's hands. The room grew quiet as Ciel fell to the floor, and Oswald enraged by what had happened, charged at the dazed Richter and trying to strangle him, but Richter at the last minute snapped out of his daze and gave Oswald a fatal slash across his body.
Richter had gotten his revenge but it cost him Ciel's life. Richter stayed with Ciel until her last breath and in that moment she asks him if his soul had finally been released from his hate but he couldn't answer her, instead he cried until she died in his arms leaving the words, "It's okay…as long as you're free now…". Richter fled into the darkness, his hands still soaked in Ciel's blood and returned home to his siblings who tended to his wounds, physically, mentally, and emotionally. The damage has been done but it didn't stop there, following the death of Oswald Leona and the Leona Corp started to degrade because of an in-depth investigation into Oswald Leona and a search for the masked man responsible for the attack. Oswald's dirty little secret started to come into light, the dealings with the mob, drug trafficking, and other felonies. The various investors of the Leona Corp started to pull out the moment the news about Oswald's dealings was released and the fund of the corporation started to diminish.
The Leona Company perished, and hundreds of people lost their jobs making people desperate which lead to the crime rate increasing. To add this chaos, since Oz had passed, various mafioso's and gangs had emerged trying to take his place leading to turf wars and more drug dealings than ever before. The city entered its own great depression, and the one who caused it was Richter.
The young man hid himself in the darkness, away from the city he set on a path to ruin, and away from the guilt of killing Ciel. He was set to destroy himself along with the city, but his friends and family wouldn't let him and tried their best to bring hope back to Richter's life and it was his brother Gunner who gave Richter an ultimatum. Either to live life as Ciel would have wanted him to, or to die and end his own guilt and sorrow. The choice was obvious, so he took the sword that killed Ciel and held it up to his heart but before he could drive it in, he remembered that night she died. He remembers how she said he was free, free of anger, free of the chains of hatred that tied him down.
In the end, Richter could not take his own life but he also could not see a reason to keep living. He was stuck in limbo pondering the idea of how can he say 'I'm sorry' to a person who is no longer there. He remembered all the time they spent together, he remembered how she loved Rise City, how she wishes and believed that it could be better. It was then that he found his reason for living, and his path to redemption.
He set out to correct what he had done, donning his steel mask and wielding the sword that carries his sin. He worked all throughout the night, stopping robberies, catching thieves, preventing murders, and exposing drug deals. Eventually, rumors started to spread like wildfire among the people, rumors of the same masked man wanted for the murder of Oswald and Ciel Leona now saving lives and perhaps, a small portion of his spirit. He had become an icon in this time, a vigilante that captured everyone's attention. The police wanted to arrest, the mob wanted him dead, and the civilians don't know if he's a hero or another criminal. They called him a monster, a creature from hell, a man that fights with the ferocity of a hellhound, a black guardian. And so it went, at the age of eighteen Richter was given the title "Rise City Cerberus", a three headed devil dog that guards the gates to hell and prevents its opening. A title he wore with pride as he sought redemption for his sin.
Four years later, terrible terrorist attacks by a group called "The Returners" plagued the city in an attempt to throw it into chaos. There were car bombs, public shootings, bodies left on the street with cryptic messages addressed to the city officials, and other heinous acts. When the city police chief was having a press conference to address these attacks, a man with a bomb strapped to his waist attempted to kill the official but their plan was thwarted by Richter's intervention. The chief was safe and Richter had earned himself some points with him, but Richter had been caught in the blast and suffered major injuries.
He was unable to go out as Cerberus due to those injuries and was advised bed rest, to which he reluctantly agreed. While recuperating, he spent his time trying to find out more about the Returners but his attempts were futile. Neither he nor the police had any solid information about the group, and with his frustration and anxiety building up, any chances were slowly slipping away. It was then he decided to seek the council of his master Gerard, but he had learned that his mentor had gone away somewhere south. Since he could not fight or could he do anything else at this point, Richter packed his bags, his uniform, sword, and headed out in search of Gerard.
After weeks of searching, he managed to track down Gerard who was staying in an isolated part of New York and though he was excited to see his mentor again, the latter was not as pleased. The two had a harsh exchange of words and after a short exchange of blows, Gerard agreed to listen to Richter’s story after discovering his injuries. Richter didn’t have much to explain, the news of Returners was spreading like wildfire and Gerard was not so out of the loop that he didn’t know what was going on and he actually knew more than what the media showed.
Gerard told Richter a story of his encounter with the Returners and how he shut them down. He revealed that he used to work for the government as a special agent and that bringing down the Returners was his last mission before he went into retirement. He said explained that the Returners were composed of rogue mages that were hell bent of returning magic to its former glory by destroying technology. Their targets were mostly factories and laboratories, any facility that was developing amazing technology or making breakthroughs in science, this made the current Returners a group of fakers. He further explained that the reason he went to New York was to make sure that the group was a fake by seeking out his old contact, at the same time, he expressed disappointment in Richter’s performance stating that he trained him to be better than that.
Berated by his master, Richter decided to stay a few days with him while he recovers, revisiting his training at the same time. Once his body was strong enough and his wounds healed to a degree, Gerard sent Richter back to Rise City with order to seek out a person named Olivia Salem if he wants to stop the Returners. He set out immediately once he returned but finding this person was easier said than done. Richter used all his available connections, even going as far as sneaking into the police station and city hall to use their records, and he could not find anyone by that name. Just as he was about give up, believing he was sent on wild goose chase, he received a letter from Olivia Salem to meet her at the entrance of the Mages Academy. The letter was addressed to him as personally, something that made things slightly complicated for him as only a few know him by his real name.
Come nightfall, Richter made his way to the Academy as the Cerberus not knowing what to expect since each encounter he’s had with the area violently repelled him or whoever was not a student from entering. Even with his knowledge of the city and its secrets, the Mages Academy is the one place he knew nothing about so when he arrived at its gates to find he was welcomed in only filled him with dread. He found the campus eerily quiet, even after hours, there were no signs of guards or staff around at all until he found a path way that was dimly lit which led him to one of the schools towers where he finally met Olivia Salem, a professor in the Academy.
She welcomed him into her study and wasted no time in explaining the situation to the confused vigilante. Olivia said she was asked by Gerard to watch over Richter in secret while he was away, which is why she knows of his identity and about his fight against the Returners which is why she summoned him. She said the Returners were originally students of the Academy before they went rogue. She was a student at the time and a member of the group but, she did not like their methods and came into contact with Gerard. She fed him info about the group, and the two planned to bring the group down and acted on it. The mages were caught, tried, and imprisoned in the Academy’s dungeon.
The new information did not shed any light on the situation but, she said that the Returners who used technology was still connected to the Academy and that she knew who were involved, but because of an enchantment that is placed on all professors, Olivia is unable to lay a hand on them since the culprits were students. Given no other choice, he agreed and went to confront the culprits who were more than surprised to see him there given he was not a student.
Though he had the element of surprise, the battle was not easy for Richter at the start. Though he had dealt with rogue mages before, he’s never faced dozens of them at the same time and armed with nothing but his sword and his mediocre magic, he thought he was doomed to fail until Olivia came and backed him up. The enchantment prevented her from harming the students but it did not stop her from assisting Richter. And so it went, with the aid of an all-powerful mage, Richter suppressed the rogue mages and uncovered their plan. They created a fake group under the old name and had them cause chaos, and once the fighting had escalated to a suitable extent, the rouge mages would swoop in under the guise of another name called “Defenders” and stop the terrorists, winning the people’s favor. After, it would be only a matter of time before they gain more influence and power, then they would bring magic back to its “rightful place”, standing above humanity.
The two had found enough evidence to send the mages to the dungeon until they could be properly tried as adults, and they also found the list of contacts to the group that’s posing as the Returners, a task Richter dealt with quiet easily later on. Once the dust had settled and the news of the Returners end was made public, Richter was once again summoned by Olivia to discuss the matters that were not mentioned. Specifically how the Academy was related to the terrorists and his condition after the events, which was in a very transitional phase.
The events had made Richter question if what he was doing was really making a difference. He realized that his actions were just like that of a rebellious teen, pure emotion. There was no thought, no planning, just the desire to act and fix the mess he made. He knew his feelings were important but he began to see that just stopping criminals is not enough and that his enemy is something that goes beyond man and machine. His enemy was despair, the grim force that dragged people to darkness, an enemy he had no idea how to fight in a city where it clung to every nook and cranny. It was then that Olivia approached Richter with two things, different but important.
The first was about his sword, the Empty Sky. She said that he was not using it to its fullest, quickly taking the sword from him then applying a bit of mana to activate a hidden enchantment which changed the shape of the sword from a longsword to a katana. Richter was surprised but it gave him the answer he was looking for just when he needed it. If despair could not be removed why not change it into something else, just as the sword did. He was elated to find an answer but his question was how to do it, which tied up nicely with Olivia’s second item.
She would take Richter as an apprentice, teach him the ways of a mage and simultaneously, turn his Cerberus into an icon of change. A hero. A hero who could fight despair and keep hope alive.
Richter was hesitant about it, not comfortable with the idea of a criminal like him being turned into something so lofty but, the chance to learn and improve his magic was too good to pass up. He agreed to the plan but under the condition he kept the connection between the Returners and the Academy a secret for the time being. She explained to him that part of her plan was so that by the time if or when someone discovers the link between the two, Richter would have enough influence with the masses to sway them away from attacking the Academy and maintain peace. A condition, he felt, he had no choice but to accept.
So it went, Richter became an unofficial student of the Mages Academy and the apprentice of Olivia Salem. She tutored him privately when he would have been idle, she supported him when he went out as the Cerberus, and whenever he needed rest, he would sleep in the loft of her Atelier.
Their plan to make him a heroic icon was off to a slow start but they kept at it, and after three years, it was starting to bear fruit. The public’s opinion of the Cerberus grew more positive and a level of trust was placed on him, even the government and police began to work alongside him, and Richter himself was starting to come to terms with idea of becoming a hero. He became more powerful the more he acted and learned from Olivia, his magic becoming more refined and well optimized.
He learned various spells and incantations, regained the use of his right eye after Olivia had placed gates and seals on the Overseer, which made his life so much easier. Three years down the road and he felt so much was already happening, but what he felt was the most important thing was that he was finally doing what he set out to do, cleaning his slate and restoring his city, becoming a hero that kept hope alive.