Chapter Text
Prologue
Before Disaster Strikes
There was running, crying while horror filled the air and the voices of people who were trying by all means to escape a nightmare which had suddenly collapsed on their heads. They were unaware that it could be at the price of their lives—still, anything that could provide them a semblance of security would do.
Others were just standing there, watching from afar while it all unfolded. What could they have gained by trying to escape anyway? They knew all too well that one day, a calamity such as this one would befall them. So they simply decided to wait for their deaths to happen. They had seen, and feared, and prayed too much. What they needed to do was pray one more time and just wait for it to occur, for their lives to end.
Disaster was slowly poisoning the atmosphere and nothing could take it back. No matter how much everyone wished for a change, the engine had started and no one had enough skill to stop it before it was too late. In truth, all had begun months, even years prior to what they had to witness. Nobody had been able to notice anything—not before the professor was called for help.
And there he was. Standing in the middle of the city of Ashburg, wondering if, for the first time in his life, he was on the verge of failing. Could Hershel Layton truly be helpless before all the suffering people had asked him to get them rid of only five days earlier?
He was not alone. Surrounded by a young boy and a woman who shared the same thoughts as him, though they stood out—they didn’t look terrified. They wished they could find a way to prevent the massacre, the pain and then restore peace. It was orchestrated “in the name of peace”, or at least that’s what they had been told to believe. But at what cost would it finally be over? Can hope still stand when everything seems lost?
Hershel Layton had promised them, though. “I am going to save your city. Everything is going to be alright. I demand that you trust me—I know you all can,” was all he could manage when he had to put on a brave face in front of all to keep up appearances. But scared though he may have been, a promise was a promise, and a gentleman never betrays a trust.
Still, minutes later, everything seemed to be in vain. It was the last words he could pronounce before failing, and then falling to the ground, in spite of every attempt he’d made.
But for now, in that same city, located far from London, life was peaceful and quiet. No one could tell that just a few days from then, everything would fall apart and many lives would change.
In London, one man was waking up, and unbeknownst to him, he was about to receive a letter that would force him to plunge into the center of the danger. His life, too, would change. But would it be for better, or for worse?