Black Snow

Once Dark Everything turns to chaos right when Lazarus steps out from his supposed to be frozen chamber and into the surface in the castle walls. They scream nightmare, worst than when I am about to perform a m******e or when Charlotte creeps into their dreams. And that is all I need to break from my shock state, her name echoing in my mind. Charlotte….. Not just her, though, but Altore and Elric as well. I need to get them to safety. They can’t fight Lazarus. He’s too strong, too ancient for them to simply rival. Even years of training cannot save myself from him, let alone them. I have an eternity of knowledge within me, but I don’t think I even have enough to secure everyone from him. As for the others….. Vallénce and Father. Lazarus will want revenge on them─ My body moves on its own right when that thought snaps in my mind. The ground level is full of noises, with a lot of vampires, but just purebloods, showing signs of struggles. The vampires that are unfortunate enough to encounter my grandfather are now slumped to the floor, their necks exposing forced bites. I pull out a can of blood tablets and push some into their mouths quickly, before they suffer more lost of blood to worse. “Y-Your Majesty…. Emperor Lazarus─” One guard mutters sorely, blood leaking even more than it already is from his mouth, when I feed the body that lies next to him. “I know. Just rest. I’ll take over from here,” I say, shoving extra blood tablets to him for his severer injuries. He has not just been drained, but clawed in the guts─ No, not claw marks. There is not much aligned red lines crossing on him, but the gapping stain on his stomach is more like a punch ─ one that went through his body. It only takes a second to give them a first-hand aid, before I proceed to the center of disarray. The pillars circle is just outside the throne room, now alienating in stone-cold darkness. Bodies are piling up with blood drenching pool so much that the color turns red all over the place. Lazarus did not just feed from them, but he also wanted him to die a painful death. Now I curse myself for not being there when he has woken up, or else I would have been able to reverse him back to his sleeping place. I am not going to let him erase all of these officials, though, even when the Elders are among them. Snatching a gun from the nearest guard lying on my feet, I tend to fire it high up to the blood canal. “….No, Your Majesty. You mustn’t.” A hand grabs my ankle. I do not have to look down to know that it’s Xalien Qliss, one of the royal guards of this resident. “The late Emperor. He’ll recover as well.” But I ignore him and fire away. The canal pipe cracks and blood drops on us like a downpour. It seeps into everyone’s mouths almost right away, quicker than when the alarm is still active to feed them human blood through the canal system the first thing an amount of blood is spilled just a little too much. Someone must have managed to turn it off earlier to prevent my grandfather from recovering too quickly. Unlike them, though, I am not going to allow anyone vanish in my watch. Once one canal pipe is leak, the rest will automatically spray out as well. It is one of the backup systems that Aunt Meggietta and his husband though for when they built this device, when I still learning from them. Now, even more blood is drowning the floor, but at least the vampires are starting to regain their strength. “Get the others and get out of the castle once you can move. Don’t look back. Proceed to the emergency tunnel and lock yourselves in,” I command sternly even though they already know what to do, before I approach the doors to the throne room. “It’s not safe here anymore.” I step in and shut the doors, just in time when the emergency alarm goes off to warn the entire kingdom before I lock them behind me. Whoever just did it, I hope that he or she is still alive. Other than my family, my knights also know where and how to active the backup alarm when the castle is not ran by electricity. No glimpse of light is here to brighten the room, but that does not mean that I cannot see him, or my father or my fiancé. They are engaged in a tenacious battle here, thought is does not mean that my presence will add on to the equation. It took them years to put him to slumber, with deceits, acts, and the advantage of the element of surprise. And there were four of them. We won’t be that strong to win over him this time. This is bad. This is really, really bad. I blinked for a second out of Mauvet’s distractions, and now we are all about to extinct. Nobody dares to move in this intense moment of silence. They are caught in the glare of those red rubies of blood. His eyes are radiant and dominating, with thousands of centuries of seer power. And when he looks up to fix his heavy gaze on me as well, all I want to do is drop on my knees and beg for mercy. That feeling is still alien to me, contradicting every single moral and aspects that I ever have up to this point. The strong build that I took centuries ─ if not years in mortal time ─ to form is now crushing down like a fragile glass all at once. Once again I find myself frozen in the spot, but this time for an entirely different reason, caused by only one pureblood. But I….. Can’t….. Lose….. Yet….. Not when my father’s existence is at stake, and not when he can harm Vallénce at any second. If I lose, he’ll get to my siblings, and I can’t let them go through whatever plan he has on them. Blood starts to drip from above my forehead, draining me even more than I already am. This blood is not similar to the human blood that is raining from the blood canal that hangs from the ceiling. This one is thick, with poison and elixir running together. It runs from the center and down to my nose, splitting in half in the midway and smearing the sides of my face. But only when on trail leads to my lips that I can taste my own blood in that tight second. “I’m impressed,” his voice is like icy piercing through me when he speaks, colder than any temperature any being can measure. “I believe that she is supposed to be the third in command, but it seems like she has more will than the two of you.” From one side, I can see Vallénce biting his lips, and I know that I am not the only one suffering the effect. But I can’t see Father’s expression at all, because he is facing Grandfather entirely…. My grandfather. Their father. And now, our iniquitous enemy. A few seconds pass and I begin to feel mortal pain spreading all over my body. I only feel his strength, and I have not even seen his full powers yet. To reach such a low point this quick….. Things are definitely not going so good. I can only do as much as reversing to the point before he lowered his eyes on me, feeling yet again his influence, before having to do it all over again finally begins to suspect. Here I am throwing my last thump card, one that I persistently hide to well until it becomes the last option that only a few knows it entity, to stretching enough time for the vampires outside this room to pick themselves up and flee. By now, most of the residences are no longer in this castle. Even the purebloods are taking their leave, not wanting to risk their existence. But it doesn’t matter how long I am holding up, because my siblings have yet to make their escape. What are they waiting for? They have to go before I begin losing it. Every seconds drops like a nuclear bomb when Lazarus comes at me heavier than the last. My ability comes with the bless of re-writing memory. But in this case, it will not take long for a pureblood as ancient as him to read the real situation. When a smirk spreads across his face, I know to take it as a sign. He knows. And it won’t be long before he─ Vallénce and Father take it as a cue to act when Lazarus takes a step closer, throwing themselves in the midair in front of him. The smirk on his face grows wider as he swifts and concentrates his eyes on them. Massive amount of pressure suddenly explodes right at them, earning strangled clamors from both. Hearing two of the strongest pureblood I ever know screaming like that makes Lazarus’ influence on me even heavier. It becomes harder to hold on, but also encouraged. For when push comes to shove, dead bodies will align. With a single determination in my mind, I use this chance to attack him. I know that I cannot rely much on surprise attack, much because he is older and more experienced, thus can read my movement as if reading a book. But I swing an arm at him netherless, aiming at his neck, only to me caught on the midway and splintered. And like disposing a piece of trash, he drops me down the floor. Pain comes and goes, but there is something about his aura and influence my body to keep the pain as an echoing reminder. There is no caressing in the way the side of my cheek met the back of this hand. No wonder Father and Vallénce are on the floor by the time I came in. If they had not tried to fight him off yet, then they probably had. Capturing that chance, Vallénce moves at him from above me. At this point, I still have another trump card I can use. The blood that is dripping from the canal system has now formed a pool. Even when there is no light in here, sunlight can still slip into the ventilation gaps of this room. Because Lazarus woke up on daylight, and I happen to still be able to reverse through reflection. So when I catch myself on the damp, Lazarus picks that time to swat Vallénce off ─ much like how he did to me. I choose that time to activate my ability and reverse Vallénce’s location. I can see Lazarus widening his eyes in surprise from the corner of my eyes, even when it is just for a split second. To him, this is a split second before he throws Vallénce away. But to the rest of us, this is present. The next few seconds turn fast. Vallénce grabs Lazarus by the arms and pushes him back. Father lunges forward and secures Lazarus’ legs. Lazarus regains fast, already starting to throw them off him even before his back touch the pool of blood below him. The two of them are thrown to the opposite sides right before he lands on the ground, spins quickly in the air and manages to salto backwards and compose his footing. By this point, blood colors the sides of Vallénce and Father, but they still proceed. I reverse again, this time only focusing on Lazarus. I angle myself so that I can still see him through the red reflection, and he can still see me through the reflection from the very corner of his eyes. Sideways, but not too out of reach. I flash him forward to the point when he is still in the mid air, about to land on the floor. That’s when they attack again. Then all of a sudden, my blood runs hot and cold at the same time. The drastic changes of temperature wash over me like waves, before repeating itself again and again in the speed of light. All of a sudden I have this desperate urge to scratch myself, crawl on myself. Anything, to get blood out of my system so that the pain can stop. But I do not manage to do any of those things. Instead I find myself lying on the floor, screaming in a high pitch tone that splits even my own eardrums. All I can see is red, but I cannot control anything else. In disorientation, I can see that both my father and my fiancé are also on the floor. It does not take long before their screams join mine. When I fall, my head is angled to face the ground, and I am glad because of that. From the glimpse of reflection of Lazarus’ eyes, I can tell that he has them covered in red. That means that he just used his ability on the three of us. It is also a sign that what he was doing was just child’s play, and the drastic temperature is just something a little bit higher than before. He is not going to be less merciless than he already did, and what is worse is that he is not one to show even the tiniest bit of redemption. What we were doing was just to piss him off even further than he already was. We have made things amiss for us. “Vallénce, my son,” there is not love in his tone, yet somehow I can still sense a certain form of it from the way Lazarus speaks, while at the same time mocking him as he steps on one side of Vallénce’s face, “how foolish of you to think that you can win from me.” ∞ ❈∯❈ ∞ Run! Sounds of shoes tapping against the floor from the outside of the throne room echoes in, giving off signs of residences who are still within the range of danger. No! An explosion comes unexpectedly, failing the doors behind me to stand still. They lose their balance in seconds, and come down with a loud ‘boom’ out of tons of metal weight. It does not take much to know who are standing by the spot there. Don’t come any closer! The time Altore decides to step inside, I push myself off the ground and throw myself at Lazarus. I know that it’s a lost cause. Even moving is like pulling myself of nets of spears. The force I put is not little as well, but his body does not even more for an inch. From behind me, I can see the doors they have knocked down before moving in the speed of bullet, coming at us. I drop on my feet, both to dodge getting hit and by the pain that is still influencing my body, while the metal doors circling around me and trap Lazarus, each by one side. However, he does not even try to move away, only raising his heads to his sides, welcoming the attack, and stop both of the heavy pieces from crushing him. Altore tries to push the doors, but nothing happens. Instead his inside rages out as his concentration is breaking, while Lazarus seems to be moving the direction of the doors little by little, a smug expression on display. Then, as easy as inhaling air, he throws the doors at my siblings, breaking all unnatural things all the while. The three of them jump away from the upcoming weight just in time. Charlotte tries to make eye contact with Lazarus in the mid air, but I quickly stand up to block her. “Don’t look into his eyes!” is all I can manage before my knees start to shake uncontrollably. His eyes are like nails, pinning me to stay in contact. The pain keeps coming like the ocean, with unending waves of rebellion. My own blood is turning against me, its temperature raising and dropping like crazy. They take notes immediately and keep their guard up right away. Not looking into his eyes, Altore shifts his concentration at Lazarus’ body instead and locks him in place. Elric has the time in his advantage and he moves at several different spaces in the air in split second, a titanium sword unsheathing from his waist. Charlotte does not try to influence Lazarus with her ability anymore, but she keeps a safe distance, in case anything happens. The sword in Elric’s hand is much meters away from Lazarus now. But before it can touch his neck, he suddenly moves. Even though this should be expected, surprise still creeps into everyone’s eyes. Lazarus grabs the sword with his bare hand, before throwing Elric back with full force. My brother’s back hits the wall next to the exit, halfway across the room. The surface crumbles down as his body falls, and from the conflicting look in his eyes, suffers internal bleeding. Altore tightens the force he has on Lazarus, so much that I can smell the blood that is about to bleed from his forehead, like I did. Charlotte moves as well, ready to fight if he were to attack. Father tries to move, knowing that my siblings will not be safe if they were to stay in this place a second longer. That motion does not slip pass Lazarus, and he concentrates his eyes on my father. Another series of screams echo through the room, longer than it was before. Now’s the chance. “Get out, get out, get out!” I order urgently. They do not need more order and on to their feet. Charlotte, who stands the closest to me, grabs me by the arm and drags me along with her. My fear turns to anger for her to even bother with me rather than securing her safetiness first. But thankfully Lazarus does not bother with me as Altore grabs my other arm and drag me out from the throne room. Elric walks closely by our side as I watch Lazarus, still with his influence on, stepping towards the throne chair and placing himself on it. He is now back to where he was once belonged. I do not feel the waves lifting off from me until my siblings have drag me to somewhere far away. I do not see anyone else that is still in the castle range, except for the four of us. The others must have fled to secure compound by now. At this point, I can ask them. Demand why they even bothered coming back, why they did not get themselves to safety after all the pain I put up with, just to buy extra time for the others to get as far away as possible. But what good will it do? I already know the answer, anyway. So instead I speak. “We need a plan.” They wait for me to elaborate, their eyes train on me solely. “It will be useless to try to fight him off one by one. We have to give everything we have in order to succeed. Strike him repeatedly. Leave no room for movements. And the four of us have to be secure as well for this to work. If even one of us is taken down, the chance of us being able to defeat is will drop drastically. So no helping each other. Keep your guard up for a thousand percent. This is an all-out attack.” “When are we going to do this?” Elric asks from my right. I want to say until I recover, because the influence is still lingering on me somehow. I can still feel the drastic change. Hot and cold washing over me. But that will be selfish. I want to say until I feed, but what is left here is human blood. I won’t get much from it, but better it than nothing. I can’t drink from my siblings because they will need their energy. Containing blood with both hands, I bring them to meet my lips. It takes three more hand-full before I am contained and ready for another match. The four of us stand under the evening sky. Time seems to have moved without me while I was in the throne room. Pink and orange paint the soaring clouds above our heads, beautiful and mesmerizing in its most natural modus. We waltz through the open corridors in silent footsteps, the air grows more intense the more we step closer. This fight will be like no other. I have tried to keep them from this, but they turned back in instead. If this is how they choose to go, then I will have to respect that. The problem is that I am not ready to lose them yet, even when we may not succeed. The fate of the kingdom ─ and as well as all realms ─ is now depends on us. Lazarus has moved to a new location, which turns out to be Mother’s pavilion. We have no idea that he knows of the place, since it is never recorded in Mother’s memory of him with this place. I pause for a split second, not even daring to turn and look at my siblings’ faces. I just need that short moment to allow myself a chance, feel the emotions that is consuming ─ and about to consume me deadly ─ before launching into battlefield. But the heavenly sanctuary has turned dark and glooming the second we step inside. The once calm pool is now tiding and receding in angry waves. Thunder storm climates the lovely scenery that we used to treasure, and this time, I can’t even enjoy that thrill of successive lightning. The air is heavy and suffocating enough to make it unpleasant for us even for a sip of inhalation. He has turned this place into one of his own simply with his caliginous aura. We stroll determinedly towards the waiting figure at the center of it all. His back is turned on us, but we all know that each of us can sense where one is standing at. I don’t see Vallénce or Father, but I don’t think that he have erased them yet. No. Someone like him will want revenge. An immortal will desire a more everlasting torture of his enemies. He is the same as me in that way, though we never have any contact at all in our previous existence, except for this moment. Finally, when we are about ten meters away, we start taking our pace. That’s when he turns around, an arrogant smirk playing on his lips. In that devilry smile, my mental snaps. For a moment I want to yield to my desperation of finding Vallénce and Father, but my thought remains focus. I need everything I have in myself if I want to win this. As usual, Altore takes the first strike. He aims simply for the pale concrete pillars around us, a few dozen break free from their construction in a snap of a finger. The pillars launch vertically fast towards Lazarus, obvious intending to crush him with the speed of wind. Lazarus himself simply moves a little bit, dodging them just at the right timings, so quick that it almost as if he were not moving at all in the first place. Altore swings his arms back in, maneuvering the pillars that has pass through Lazarus’ course back to the target once more. The water moves wrathfully below the flying pillars as they dives horizontally this time, heading towards Lazarus like giant bullets. While Altore takes his time manipulating the pillars, Elric marks a few places on Lazarus body from a safe distance, before making small dot of portals appear in thin air. It seems like a short range attack will hardly work on him, so he is trying a different approach this time. I can see the amused look on Lazarus face when he discovers that part of his flesh have gone missing, swallowed by the small portals as they suck in whatever’s near them and just shut tight at the next second. This is the first step Elric has to go through when he first developed his ability. It was not really that easy to use in the beginning, and not to mention rather dangerous. When an object does not pass through the portal completely, then the object itself will get cut, just like how Lazarus is now. The range limits Elric’s control, though, so he can only create those black-holing portals a few times per minute. Netherless, we are still in a good pace. When Lazarus tries to move away from his current position to avoid the upcoming pillars, Charlotte utilizes that chance to active my metal bear doll in her arms. Two strings of pure titanium chain fly themselves towards him, circling and tying him in place. But when the entire pillars clash around him and the dust created from the effect reduces, his figure is no longer when it is supposed to be. Instead, we all find him hovering just above the ceiling of the pavilion. This is when I fit in. Using my reversal, I catch a glimpse of his eyes through the reflection from the water. The waves are rather quick and difficult to capture, but I manage to get the right perspective. So I turn the timeline to where he was once before he manages to slip by. Once he is back in the spot under the pavilion, however, it seems like he is already expecting it. Taking us by surprise, he runs toward us so fast that we do not see it coming, until he is able to get to one that is standing most close to him ─ Charlotte. The second that realization snaps into our minds, we act fast. Each of us direct attack in random order, never repeating any predictable pattern. We move so quick that we feel almost this close to being drained, until we cannot registering anything else but the sole thought to attack ─ and hopefully ─ eliminate him in the process. But I know for sure that it will not be this easy to defeat him….. ∞ ❈∯❈ ∞ Out of a sudden, it is hard to identify the situation anymore. One second, we are aggressing Lazarus in random. But at the next second, I open my eyelids just to see defeat. We are all under Mother’s pavilion, but the place is now different. The farthest edge has crumbled down, with my brothers each hovering near it, their bodies this close to falling down to the pool that now has transformed into a tsunamic ocean. Then, at the center, lies Charlotte. Her body bleeds so heavily that blood puddles under her body, soaking her clothes and our sight in red. I try to move forward, to reach for them, but even my body feels heavy. All I can see are my arms, stretching forward weakly while covered in blood themselves. I cough, and blood pours out from the gap of my lips as well. Looking down at myself, I finally registering what is going on. My chest has been pierced by a set of claws. Each long nail is harmful and paining to the core. Then I can see it. Blood is slowly rushing out from our bodies, heading behind us. Behind me. I have never been forcedly drained before, but it takes everything I have. I can’t move. I can’t concentrate. I can’t even think straight. Everywhere hurts and empty at the same time. These signs feel like the early stage of erasal. I, too, would have fallen on the floor, along with the rest of my siblings, if it had not been for Lazarus, who is holding my body still as he plays his claws right through my chest. It does not seem like he is retrieving anytime soon, and now I cannot erase one single emotion from my mind. I feel stupid. Really, really stupid throughout my entire existence, for ever letting this goes on up to this point. I should have taken my siblings away while we had the chance. But now, I have doomed us all. One arm tightens around my abdomen while the other still clenching to my chest. Blood colors my body, staining part of his as well. Slowly, he leans in closer, causing the remaining out of flesh to clash together against each other. But even without using brute force, there is nothing pleasant or loving about his gestures. “Look around you. There is nothing else you can do, παιδί,” he whispers icily to me, his lips touching my earlobe as his razory teeth are a few hairs away from biting me off. Child. “So what? Will I be my mother’s replacement? Or will it be grandmother’s? You don’t seem to mind at all long ago.” I figure since we have shown all of our cards, might as well turn up the few remaining ones in my sleeves. I know for a fact that after his wife’s erasal, he had sought for a peace in mind through Mother’s presence. She, after all, did inherit the look. And so does I. We all look the same, the three of us. So why not pretend that we are all the same? It’s not like there is a lack of knowledge at all. “To even mention such subject…..” his lips curves into a devious smirk, “One would think that you’re suicidal.” “Anything for you to let them off,” I finally say. And all I can do is watch as hope is being carried away, and redness of Lazarus’ eyes engulfing me wholly as he bends down closer. ∞ ❈∯❈ ∞ The window breaks into shattering looses as my body is thrown into a room. I recognize the design as my parents’ room, which now belongs to Father after Mother’s erasal. But before them, this used to be his room. Lazarus steps inside in a rather graceful manner, swaying his legs beyond the door and circling around the carpet that I landed on after the impact. I follow the movement of his eyes as each gaze either shows approval or deprecation. Then out of nowhere, he starts speaking in Greek. “Όταν κάθε δευτερόλεπτο είναι ένα ανοικτό ευκαιρία. Όταν ο κόσμος σταματήσει να περιστρέφονται. Το μόνο που χρειάζεται είναι ένα μόνο άκρη του μυαλού.” When every second is an open chance. When the world stops gravitating. All it takes is just a single tip of a mind. “Αθανασία, αγαπητέ μου, είναι ένα δώρο και μια κατάρα.” Immortality, my dear, is a gift and a curse. “Τώρα, από αυτό το σημείο, θα καταλάβετε σίγουρα ο σκοπός μου, έτσι δεν είναι;” Now, by this point, you surely understand my purpose, don’t you? How does he expect me to get why he did what he did? “όχι,” I say, but my voice comes out as chocked of blood instead. No. “Τι ήταν αυτό;” What was that? “Είπα όχι,” I repeat, clearer this time. I said no. “Δεν καταλαβαίνω το σκοπό σας σε όλα, επειδή δεν υπάρχει κανένα σκοπό σε σας. Τι απομένει μετά από αυτά τα χιλιάδες αιώνες είναι απλά τρέλα. Δεν είναι τίποτα, αλλά ένα σπασμένο κούκλα τώρα. Μια κούκλα που είναι πολύ ισχυρό από ό, τι τα υπόλοιπα. Και θα πρέπει να τεθεί σε μια στάση, πριν από αυτή την αποζημίωση εξουσία περισσότερο από ό, τι ήδη.” I don’t understand your purpose at all, because there is no purpose in you. What is left after those thousands of centuries is just insanity. You are nothing but a broken doll now. A doll that is much powerful than the rest. And you need to be put to a stop, before that power damages more than it already did. Then he switches back to English. “I’d say that I’d erase myself to rejoin the love of my existence. But then again, there is no afterlife for the purebloods ─ those who were born dead and never been blessed with souls in the first place. And you blame insanity for this?” I stay in silence, so he continues. “Love never dies….. but it can surely kill. And dying without death is so much worse. That’s when immortality started to become a curse.” “Is this your revenge, then? You’re going to erase me to get back at Vallénce? At my father?” Those lips curves into a cruel smirk, creating an expression on his facial features. The look doesn’t match him. “That will be too easy, won’t it?” Too easy. Isn’t that something that I usually think? I hate the fact that we have more in common that I would like to admit. In a flash, he stands before me and grabs me by the neck. His grip is so strong that I can feel my skin cracking. Is it beheading? His other hand circles around my waist, sensing the movement of my lower body. Now trapped against his firm hold, my arms squeezed between muscles, I find myself unable to move. With a strength such as his, it will not be difficult to crush me with his mere body. I will recover, of course, but not without the consequences of experiencing pain beyond relief and losing a large amount of energy. Is it mutilation? The hand on my neck disappears, and before I have time to try to release myself, he pulls to two fingers and sharpens his nail. He aims at my eyes, and I scream in pain. Blinded. Only temporary, but still blind at the moment. I can feel the movement of his fingers, going around my eye sockets, as if he had lost something in there. Once he gets a good grip of my eyeballs, he pulls, and more blood comes pouring out. I try to use the control that I have upon my body parts, but for some reasons unable to feel the connection anymore. This must be part of his powers. Mutilation it is. I hear the sound of some things fall, and I know that those are my eyeballs. At this point, I have doubt if I can ever recover. Unless we eliminate him for sure…. No, we can’t. No matter what, he is still the father of my parents and ─ “Now you are starting to look like someone I know.” I close my eyelids and more blood drips down. I cannot feel that part of me as well. I’m closing control…. As if they are my tears, Lazarus wipes the blood away from my face. I hear a sucking sound, so my guess is that he is tasting his new dinner now. Once no longer satisfied with just a small taste, I feel hair brushing the side of my face. I can feel him leaning in closer and something cold and textured sliming through my cheek up to my right eyelid ─ his tongue! He licks me clean before moving on to the other side, doing the same movement with his tongue. It is in moments like this that my thinking becomes critical. What should I do? Confront him to get it over with on killing me already? He might just do it. But can I really protect my family by getting myself erased from existence? No, I have to think of something else. Lazarus does not give me time as he turns my head to one side and inhale my neck from the other side. His lips make contact with my skin, almost like a caring manner, before he pulls back and shows his teeth. The bite is tearing and vicious. There is no holding back in this. My blood is losing fast. In a few seconds, I know that my time will not last very long. This is really goodbye. Without the blood to sustain my body, even I cannot escape from the unavoidable fate such as this. I use my remaining energy not to break free ─ because I know that it will be futile ─ but to seek Vallénce. He, as well as my father, is still in the throne room. Unmoving and in pain. They are still under Lazarus’ influence. How can I create a chance for them to escape? I must save them. If this continues…. I will have no other choice but to let myself lose and tap into Clarisse’s memories. Die and reborn. I die to let go of my present and reborn into the new me. With that, so does the new power that is immensely coursing through my body. Suddenly, I am in control again. The connection that has lose becomes reconnected. I can feel where my eyeballs has rolled to, and feel them pulsating in life again. But for this to work, I will need to dismantle them into dust, before slowing restoring back to where they should be. I open my eyes, now cured and newly evolved. Lazarus notices it and gasps, letting go of my neck and taking a step back. “Δεν μπορεί να είναι .... Clarrise; Αλλά πώς, αγάπη μου. Έψαξα αιώνια χιλιετίες πριν το θάνατό σας. Δεν μπορεί να είναι.” It can’t be…. Clarisse? But how, my love. I sought your eternal death millenniums ago. You can’t be. He takes a good look at me and all too soon realize that I cannot be real. A disappointed look crosses his eyes, all the while assessing me. “Ναι, δεν μπορεί να είναι αληθινό. Αυτό είναι απλά τα ίχνη σας, έτσι ονομάζεται η κληρονομιά σας. Αυτός είναι ο λόγος που με άφησε για. Αλλά είστε τόσο κοντά τώρα. Δεν μπορώ να βοηθήσει, αλλά─ Yes, you can’t be real. This is just your traces, your so called legacy. This is why you left me for. But you are so close now. I can’t help but─ I grab a titanium dagger from one of the wall’s decoration and aim, landing it on his chest. The effect should not be too much for someone like him, but he drops to his knees anyway. His empowering influence is dropping, and I take that time to drag him back into the underground maze. Father and Vallénce should be able to move freely by now. My siblings should be recovering any moment. They are ought to figure out where I will be heading next: the Blood Prison. The catacomb maze has its own trick. Infused with magic that is likely to confuse those with the intention to get closer to the Blood Prison, it should be complicated enough to get back in. The trick is just to keep the mind from thinking about my true goal, and think of the opposite way. That is how I am able to get to my intended place five minutes later, with the Savage Emperor clinging on to me. “Clarisse,” Lazarus begins to recover his senses again when I reach the ice cold chamber. Only a few more steps, I tell myself. All of a suddenly, Lazarus chokes the back of my throat and push me towards him. His jaw pulls back, and I can see his venom dripping from his monstrously sharp teeth. “Amethyst!” I hear Vallénce calling from the mouth of the chamber. Just a little bit more. I struggle to remain my stance, through gradually cornered against the edge of the coffin. I see my father moving from the corner of my eyes, trying to push Lazarus off of me, but he swats him off like a bug. That does not stop Father from giving it another try, or a dozen, even for the same result. Vallénce, on the other hand, moves quietly behind Lazarus. I see him raising his hand, a titanium spear in hand. Yes, that is it. Do it. Do it now! He does not miss the determination in my eyes. We all know what comes of it, but we have no choice. We have to strike Lazarus while he is still tame. He pulls back, and the spear speeds forward. Lazarus freezes half a second before I feel the enormous pain in my stomach. Finally, he stops and the hand around my neck loosen. For a split second, his features soften before he falls into a slumber. Still in tremendous pain, I force myself to gather the blood inside my body. I make sure that all the important information is included, before I crystallized the remaining of my blood and present it in my hand. Soon, my siblings arrive in the chamber. I hold out my hand, for a second wanting to gesture for Vallénce, but know that I will not have much time to spare. So I point at my youngest brother. “Elric,” my voice rasps. I feel the wind when he speeds up to me and holds my hand in his. “Travel back in time before all of this starts, and please make sure to deliver this to my past self,” I hand him over my crystallized blood. The last thing I feel is my skin slowly cracking up all over — the only sound made in this room. First my legs and arms, then my body, before the cracks spread towards my head. I did good in this existence. None of my family are dead. I am so glad. With that thought in mind, I allow myself to be turned to dust. ∞ ❈∯❈ ∞ I gasp loudly like I need air. The memory was no close to my last drop of existence that it almost shock me to the core. Too bad, thought, because I just build up my tolerance. There is something else that even my future self did not notice, and that is the fact that when the spear pierced me and Lazarus, his blood flew down to my wound and got mixed with my own blood. Flashes of his memories soaked into me as thick as my previous ancestresses, giving me double the history. In times like this, I wonder how much older I can feel. “Thank you, Elric. I think you should get back now.” From a sleeping position, I glance at my brother, who is still wearing his messed up battle suit. “That’s it? Not even a goodbye kiss, my sweet sister?” he asks playfully, for the first time smiling after that horrible fight. “My sweetness comes with a few other things. I don’t think you will be able to handle that. Now is the time for us to part.” “Until then,” he nods and departs. Future Elric is gone. My mission is not done, though. I still have one Mauvet li Britannia to stop and one post-apocalyptic situation to prevent. “The world might be a dangerous place, but it sure is a lot safer with us in it.”