#earthlyspirxts

I have this dude named Vulcan, who’s part of the Black Mantle, a military organization which is also the title of the work he’d feature in. They’re called that because their apparel is all-black military uniforms, boots, caps, and longcoats, and their job is to protect the state of Nuveau and fight demons. Vulcan is a code name; his real name is AdriánoDuarte-Torres. He was given his codename because of his extreme abilities in crafting and using weapons.

You see, the Black Mantle use something called molding matter to create their weapons on the fly and morph them mid-battle. But in order to create a functional firearm, for example, you have to actually know what the inside of one looks like and how it works. You need working knowledge of any weapon you create to make one work. Being even half as proficient in this practice as Vulcan is, is an extreme rarity because not only is Nuveau a state that suffered a large scale war that resulted in the near-decimation of the population, but after surviving it, all (limited) remaining knowledge of weaponcraft was hidden and closely guarded. They even run mental checks and tests on every applying member of the Black Mantle to make sure that they won’t risk a rogue agent.

And the reason Adriáno is so proficient with weaponcraft is because not only were his father and brother Black Mantle also, but his father taught him via an illegal storage of pre-war era weaponry that would’ve gotten him immediately executed if it had gotten out. As it is, said father–Lorenzo Duarte, codename Jupiter–is scheduled for immediate execution anyway because yes, he went rogue, along with Adriáno’s brother Aarón, codename Mars. Adriánowas tasked, of course, with their retrieval.

In the world of Black Mantle, there are two types of magic. Rune magic involves taking a brand in the shape of several characters from a magic language, infusing it with molding matter, and branding the individual with it, allowing them to generate spells based on the word now burned into their skin. A Hex is magic unique to the individual, which cannot be replicated by any means, and which only some fighters are blessed with. Adriánohas no Hex, but his father does. The usage of his Hex  resulted in Adriáno nearly dying and suffering a huge hit to his combat ability when they fought, because Lorenzo bisected him at the waist.