#tenlayer

Clear away the underbrush in front of it, and you may find a stairway leading down into the dark. Some visitors have reported a strange song echoing out of these haunted halls, a soft and mournful tune. Don't be fooled. This is no music, but the despair of the soul who watches over this abandoned compound. Requiem, they call her.

She was once human, an employee of the now dead company. Aloof and distrustful, there were only two she ever truly cared for. One, a close friend and colleague. A cyborg who helped meld her magics with technology. The other...A mysterious, powerful woman with eyes as dark as the Void itself. The head of this AJCO. Requiem respected, feared, and loved this woman above all else.

But the friend betrayed her. Betrayed them both, and join forces with one of the company's enemies, a young, red-haired girl. The two of them hassled AJCO to no end. It started out as innocent pranks, but as the dark-eyed woman's anger towards them grew, especially towards her former employee, so did the hostility of their assaults. The rivalry between them was fierce, and dangerous. Some believe the number of lives lost for the sake of their personal conflict is said to be in the hundreds. 

And then, when the opportunity presented itself, the cyborg struck. Right at the heart of AJCO. Right into the heart of its CEO. It all happened in the blink of an eye, too fast for Requiem to prevent. The perpetrator was gone in a puff of smoke before she could even react. There was nothing she could do but cradle the lifeless body of the most important person in her life until the sun rose.

She took control of the company and used it to advance her desire for revenge. One by one, employees disappeared. No trace of them was ever left behind. And yet, as the number of employees dwindled, those of the facility's golem workers steadily grew. The aura around the facility grew unstable, tainted by flux, and strange dark spots now marred Requiem's skin.

It's said that, by the time she had finally achieved the means to exact her revenge, there was little left of the woman she once was. She was nothing more than an entity of pure magic, dark and corrupted by her rage and sorrow. And when Requiem had the traitor within her grasp, she made certain the one she had once trusted so much suffered as she had.

She made the cyborg watch as she ran a blade through the red-haired girl's throat. As the girl choked out her last breath, Requiem drove her hand into her former colleague's chest and ripped the metallic heart from her body. She watched blue blood mingle with red on the floor beneath her, revenge finally had, and realized how completely alone she was.

The story varies here, depending on the teller. Some will tell you that, in the last moment of her once-friend's life, Requiem was suddenly overcome by immense guilt and quickly used her magic to trap both their souls within her golems, trying desperately to save the last remnants of the people she used to know. Others say she did this so that they would suffer for an eternity, forced to guard the facility they once tried to destroy. 

And now, she wanders the halls alone. Nothing but dusty corridors and stone soldiers to remind her of what once was. If you listen close enough, you might be able to hear the whirring of machines uselessly churning away in the belly of the compound. Running without a purpose, other than to give the lonesome resident an illusion of company. 

If you dare to venture into the depths of the compound, do not do so without first pinning a flower to your shirt. Those who neglect to are rarely seen whole again. Should you find the courage to seek the deepest chamber of AJCO you may come across a strange laboratory, full of unusual devices and pipes still carrying a thick, black substance. And most importantly, a glass case containing the body of a young blonde woman. And standing beside it, blazing white eyes still full of an impossible hope, the dark figure known as Requiem.