It was then that Francis paused the video.
Raven... so it really was her again. But why did she try to assassinate a judge? Francis wondered, intrigued.
Raven is the name given to a mysterious vigilante and avenger who has been operating in the Kingdom of Eadengard for the past two years, becoming popular and talked about in the media and on the internet for effectively eliminating the criminals she targets.
Her true identity is unknown, and it is unclear whether she acts alone or works with even more mysterious allies, but what is known—whether from photos and videos of the vigilante that have been released over time or from witnesses who have had the opportunity to see her with their own eyes in rare situations—is that she is a female figure with almost pale white skin and striking blue eyes, who wears a black tactical suit that covers her entire body, a hood that hides her face, and a mask that hides her eyes. — is that she is a female figure with almost pale white skin and striking blue eyes, who wears a black tactical suit that covers her entire body, a hood — which hides her hair — and a mask, which hides most of her face.
The vigilante, despite being popularly known as Raven, has never publicly introduced herself using this nickname. However, it seems that the choice of this nickname was intentional on the part of the vigilante, since in all the crime scenes attributed to Raven, on all the bodies of criminals she left behind, the same pattern was repeated: the presence of a small wooden statue of a blue-eyed raven, as if the vigilante herself were saying, "I was here."
Serial killers, drug dealers, sexual predators, and even corrupt police officers. People who are too intelligent and too dangerous, who know how to hide their crimes well and remain hidden from the authorities, but at the same time, can no longer go unpunished. Not surprisingly, at her crime scenes, in addition to the small wooden raven, the vigilante always seems to leave a flash drive containing a document detailing the atrocities committed by the now lifeless criminal.
As far as the authorities and internet users have been able to observe, the vigilante does not use firearms in her approaches and murders. Instead, she seems to prefer to rely on her own fists and blades, with the apparent intention of causing the criminal in question a great deal of pain. Even so, it does not appear that Raven intends to act brutally, torturing her targets with exquisite cruelty, but rather to act logically and efficiently, causing only the necessary and deserved suffering to the criminal before eliminating them for good.
This indicates two things;
The first is that she wants to send a message, showing criminals who hide in the shadows the painful and fatal fate that awaits them if they continue down this path. The second thing is that, at the very least, the vigilante seems to have principles, acting rationally in her approaches, but working with her own philosophies and ideals about fighting crime and how justice should be done.
Not surprisingly, many internet users, familiar with superhero clichés, have come to consider her an anti-hero, someone who writes justice with crooked lines, fighting crime in a cold and ruthless manner.
Relentless is an excellent way to describe her, after all, all the evidence shows that Raven is, at the very least, very skilled in combat, whether in hand-to-hand combat, in the use of blades, or in stealth. In addition, there is the fact that, in all cases, the vigilante demonstrates great intelligence, and this is mainly corroborated by two reasons.
The first is that—as demonstrated by the flash drive that the vigilante usually leaves at her crime scenes—she conducts a thorough investigation of each of her targets, documenting their atrocities and feeding reasons to eliminate that individual. The second is that Raven always leaves little or no clues at her crime scenes, nothing conclusive enough to lead the authorities to find her in any way, which demonstrates meticulous planning in each of her approaches.
Since her identity is still a mystery, over time, many theories have been put forward to try to explain the vigilante's origin. Some more realistic theories say that, in the past, the vigilante could have been a military agent who underwent intense training for combat and risky situations. Others, such as conspiracy theorists, say that Raven's abilities are too high, at a superhuman level, and that, therefore, she could be a government experiment that managed to escape from her creators. There are also more religious and superstitious people who claim that Raven is a vengeful spirit sent from heaven to punish the sins of criminals, as a sign of the fulfillment of a prophecy.
But despite the violence clearly demonstrated by the vigilante in her approaches, public opinion could not be more in her favor. Most people agree that there are people in this world who are irredeemable, and therefore believe that Raven is doing a great job ridding Eadengard of these criminals. However, there are also those with strong opinions who defend the idea that, regardless of her noble motivation, what she does is still murder and she should be held criminally responsible for it. but even so, they agree that the vigilante is indeed very skilled and that she should use those skills to help the police capture these criminals by following the protocols of the law.
But in that case, those same protocols of the law would end up limiting her abilities. Of course, I don't know how skilled she really is, but it's a fact that she only does what she does because she acts outside the law. There is no guarantee that Raven would perform at the same level if she worked formally with the police. Furthermore, even though it certainly does not represent the majority, there is still corruption in the police force, which could also be an obstacle for her. And that leads me to a question. Regardless of how skilled Raven really is, when it comes to fighting crime, how many truly competent and courageous people are limited by the law? He reflected.
Of course, the law exists for a reason, and without it, everything would certainly become a big mess, but Francis couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if certain individuals had complete freedom to fight crime, and if perhaps the world would be safer that way.
Well, I have no way of knowing, after all, I'm not a cop, and I know there are competent people in any case. But anyway, I should keep watching the video. He concluded.
In fact, he should, because something about this story of Raven attacking a judge was making him quite uncomfortable, but at the same time, quite curious.
The video then continued, describing Judge Jonathan Kolm's testimony from the moment the vigilante, now with the gun in her hands, had distanced herself from the judge in the second-floor hallway.
At that moment, Jonathan said he was quite surprised by the appearance of his attacker, because although he had heard of the vigilante Raven before, he had never given much thought to the matter, much less imagined that he would ever meet such a figure in person.
In addition, he also describes his feelings of hopelessness when he realized that his gun was now in the security guard's hands, because if she decided to eliminate him with a single shot, she could easily do so, since the hallway was not spacious enough for him to avoid it.
But to his surprise, instead of shooting him in the head or any other sensitive part of his body, she aimed specifically at his feet before attempting a shot, which actually missed.
Interesting. So when she managed to get her hands on the gun, she didn't want to kill him that way and preferred to shoot him in the feet. If I had to say based on this testimony, I would say that she was doing this to cause him pain and incapacitate him, as this would make things easier for when she decided to beat or stab him, and this would fit Raven's profile... but wait a minute, did the gun misfire?
This was an important observation, because what was really bothering Francis in this situation was the possibility that this intruder was not the real vigilante, but an impostor posing as her, and the fact that she chose not to use the gun to kill him corroborates that she is the real Raven, but there were still other points to consider. In addition, the weapon did indeed malfunction in the vigilante's hands, and Jonathan himself concluded in his testimony that the weapon must have been damaged when it hit the wall a few moments earlier, causing the malfunction and giving him a chance to get out of this situation alive.
In addition, Jonathan also noticed, near his feet, that the same black object that had fallen from the trapdoor, and which had initially distracted him—allowing the intruder to immobilize him—was a small sculpture of a blue-eyed raven.
Raven then realized that the weapon in her hands was now useless, and decided to unload the ammunition compartment, then threw the weapon aside.
With nothing left to stop her, the vigilante reached into one of her holsters and drew a black tactical combat blade, which, disturbingly, matched the outfit she was wearing.
According to the judge himself, it was at that exact moment that he realized the real fight was about to begin.