White Devil

3: Battles of the Dead

Battles of the Dead

Sometimes war is just inevitable. Peace can be maintained, but not all minds share the same ideal. Differences can take many scales. Most are not as urgent, and most declare a battle openly. And once the boundary has been pushed, another enforcer just has to push back.

The serpents are upset when their gates were broke when the rebellion that Lancel led. But honestly, they have been itching to get their hands on a chance like this so strike. Peace is just a syllable to them, and that is alright with me. Things are just about to get boring after all. A little bit of a fight will be in order. Attack is bound to come anyway, whatever the form and source is. This will just be another passing moment.

After the war has been declared, father called for a gathering, as requests from majority. The whole family comes, through not all will be involved in the saying as always.

“This is an outrageous! We have tolerated the serpents and any other species for existence, but they always come up with reasons to attack us. When will they be satisfied?” one of the elders, Vilvia el Britannia, rages. In her way, she still sits like a beautiful statue, but her tone reveals everything.

“But it has been almost three hundred years since they last attacked. Surely we can my pity for those scaled beings? After all, not even the wisest of their kind was even able to last an eternity,” her older brother, Wallow en Britannia, tries to add some excuse. He has always been the soft-hearted one, but that might probably be one of the things that he just might hope for us to believe. No one truly knows oneself than himself.

“The purebloods do not give second chances. We shall not start now,” Dablovo el Britannia supports his wife.

“I can understand that,” Altore nods with a thin smile, his tone as light as if this kind of conversation is as lovely as picking flowers or impressing females, as it is as easily as it always comes to him.

Like oil added to flame, it seems like everyone else takes that as a chance to start their pros and cons. This meeting ends up being the debate room for the purebloods who dares to speak, until the Emperor himself raises his hands on this at the head of the table. The angry voices died down whether anyone likes it or not, as if they will get chocked if they don’t stop right at this second.

“War does come in time, but this one does not need of your great concern.” This means that he does not think that this matter is something that he wants to take into his hands, as something this insignificant does not deserves the attention of someone with the throne. This means that this gathering is nothing but for the show of theirs. “Nor does it for my second-in-command.” Vallénce will not be taking care of this. “And I will leave it for the one responsible to demolish your concerns.” That leads to me, the third.

The voices start rising again. Some even voice their opinions on how young I am still and how I shall not bare such huge responsibilities. I am at the circle of my twenty nine and they still plan doubts on me, but I have stopped raising my eyebrows since my mind matured. When someone even brings up the fact that my lead will take sacrifices of our soldiers away, I know that it is the time I take my turn of speaking, and the voices quiets down.

“I am a general of my own army, but it doesn’t mean that bring them along is in order. In fact, I can guarantee you that I can solve this on my own.”

“How sure are you about going to the battlefield alone?” Vilvia asks me.

“Since the first time I joined this gathering circle.”

Even though all the purebloods are here, the children aren’t. In these, it is their time to play, not work their brains out. Not all are as free-spirited as most are, though. Some children are also forced to mature quicker in sometimes.

“And if you don’t succeed─”

“Then the lot of you can take my existence at risk,” I reply simply with a smile.

That shuts them all up, but my siblings look at me with disquiet faces. Vallénce doesn’t, through. He knows that it will never come to that point. He knows me too well to ever put doubts on me. And so does my father. The two brothers look calm; my fiancé with a confident smirk while the older one with an unreadable mask.

“There are no more questions, I see. Then I will be taking my leave.”

The war is brewing at the other side at this point.

As I waltz out of the room, my siblings follow my steps suit. They try to match my pace in urged manner, but wait until we arrive in my room.

“I am afraid for you, Big Sister. It is not that I believe that a serpent is able to bring you down, but we are talking about quantity here. There might be a chance that they will corner you up,” Altore mutters as his eyebrows cross while I open the double doors to my walk-in wardrobe.

“If you are going to be worrying, then I suggest that you place concern at the opposite side. I am not in the mood for mercy today, if you know what I mean,” I reply casually as I walk straight to the end of the alley, where the case of my battle suit is placed. I unlock the glass brief through handprint scan and take it out.

“So you are planning to lose yourself, then? Preparing for blood and gore?” That hard look on his face is gone once I catch Elric gleaming sinisterly.

“Not only that. You will also find a certain present on my way back later on,” I say as I begin to strip and get change. My suit is consisting on a shirt with long sleeve, blazer, jacket that completes with the attributes of my titles, long robe that brings out my royal semblances, and a tight pants that is connected to my high heels boots ─ all in white color. Once I finish, I turn around and tie my hair into a high pony tail, letting the edges flow down to the line below my waist. I still wear the same webly golden beads at the side of my right skill, as the sign that this will be like anything else. Just because there is a war, doesn’t mean that I have to do much for my appearance.

Charlotte stands at the gap of my wardrobe and hands her bear to me. “You still need at least a weapon,” she says, trusting the doll to my hands.

I shake my head and hands it back to her. “I will bring my own weapon,” and walk to the side of the wardrobe. I press a series of hidden buttons and a shelf full of them comes out from inside the wall. And I know just what to pick ─ a giant razor blade. I lift and stuff it on my back effortlessly and excuse myself before launching to the war of the day.

It takes only twenty seconds to reach the predicted point from the deep castle by speed run. The Serpent King, Abohiss Tailshard, is already there with his army, ready to charge forward. They are all geared up, angry, and ready to kill, but one last attempt of confirmation will not hurt.

“Are you final with your words, Abohiss Tailshard, of all snakes?”

“Huh! You purebloods are all the same ─ so confident with yourself that you even dare to come alone,” he spits on the ground, forgetting all royal manners. When in battles, things do change. “Well, let that be the mistake you take that others fear. Front basis, charge!” he orders angrily.

The frontline, around a thousand of soul, sprints towards me. I make so initial to move, until they are just around my gasps. Once the front soldiers are in my reach and their weapons, poisoned fangs and deadly tails are pointed at my skin, I move.

In the fast of light, I tore their hearts out through their armors and scales. Not even the thickest material can save them from my nails and their hunger ─ and I have not even completely start yet. It also helps that they move in slower pace. When most of the front liners don’t even know what’s going on yet, I take the advantage of tear the hearts of the second coming. After the fifth, when my hands can not take it and drop their hearts to the ground, half of them are not safe anymore. I continue tearing their beating hearts out, watch as the light goes out from their eyes, and then coldly let their corpses drop on the floor. But they should be grateful. Most victims of war have to drop first before dead, but I give them the easy way out of torment. In half than a minute, a thousand corpses of snakes are already on the ground circling me.

“Last chance, Abohiss,” I taunt him with a smile that goes against forgiving.

He grits his fangs from afar but angrily shouts to the rest of his army. “All battalion, attack!”

There are around ten thousand nine hundred fifty eight hailing serpents at the moment, all wanting to kill me. I know that my tearing hearts method will not be as efficient this time, so I pull out my razor blade.

The size itself assures how much pain it will bring, but that does not cover the soldier of Tailshard. The first serpent approaches me and I swing my blade frontal like a feather. His head drops complete with his helmet and his eyes glare shock. The second and third to six come along, surrounding me in a circle. I swing the sword counter wise and into a horizontal circle, chopping their heads in one move. The seventh to twenty doesn’t hesitate ─ or much because they have no idea why the first to the sixth are all stopping, just standing there and bringing their heads bow. It is until they are too late to turn around and notice that the first soldier no longer have their heads that they start to panic and grows more cautious.

The third wave comes and my razor blade welcomes them. Once the eighth wave goes near they have seen and learn enough to know where my blade will be going to dodge my attack. A few get caught, but some has become smarter and stronger. One manages to drill a hole with his tail, slithering through his underground cave and resurface behind my back. At the same time, my blade is rather preoccupied with others head to behead at the opposing en and my other hand is busy dislocating other soldiers’ body parts. The one who dug a hole takes this moment to launch an attack on me from behind while I am busy killing his brothers.

In a greedy glory in his mind, he swings his spear back and about to drive it through my chest. What he doesn’t have in mind is when I unlock a hidden set of blade and folds it to his direction in a swift move. It cuts off the arm that he uses to hold the spear.

The first scream of pain echoes finally through the battlefield.

The serpent holds into what is left of his arm, rumpling on his knees, while the brothers are ready to take vengeance. I bring the extension towards them, but it only goes further enough to cause them to jump back. It will not be long before they charge again, but that is all that is takes for me to push one corpse on my other hand and leap.

My jump is forty two times higher than them, of course, reach up the sky but never close enough, before falling down back out of gravity. When my feet make contact with the earth, a loud booming sound is made. I do not do anything to slow my coming down and the dirty and sand all pushed up as if an earthquake just betides.

Some of them lose balance while others are prepared, but nothing can prepare themselves from the acuteness of my weapon of choice. Moving it rapidly from one direction to the opposite, the razor cut the air so keenly that it cuts their bodies through the medium of oxygen. A dozen more bodies fall into the ground once I am done.

Blood is the new color of soil this minute. But there is not enough red to cover this entire battleground. I wish more, and they answer with spirit.

Even after such brute, there is still more to go. They launch themselves at me, even when they know that most of them will not survive. The greed in their souls is too united that they can not even see between desire and reality. With a dance to the air, I keep my finger in the middle connecter between razors and rotate my weapon through it. The blade covers more space and directions that I can even reach those who approach from behind. Slowly, I cut heads one by one, not taking too much time, and take their lives as easy as I draw blood.

Death will be satisfied with how many body counts he gets today. So many lives are going to waste as well, but what is a true waste when they desire this death? An immortal being such as me has to right to keep them from meeting their ends as well.

As I spin my blades using both hands like it is a billet for show, I never miss seeing their lives fading away. So many deaths, yet so many advantages. Serpents like them, I can observe from the way they approach me, are in for the kill. If they had met another creature beside me today, I doubt that any of them will spare their enemies as I can not spare them. Evil is branded to their souls. And murders of criminals are no murders at all. In fact, I am stressing the world from receiving bitter ends from these soldiers.

They are all drenched in sin and blood. Having their bloods on me as I s***h them individual by individual is considered a blessing itself.

∞ ❈∯❈ ∞

By the time I make a step for this brutal dance, the last soldier head goes off flying to the dirt, rolling to the tail of the King of Serpents. Abohiss glares at me before charging with fury, swinging the edge of his tail with poison distilling at the tip. I jump just in time, causing the end of his tail to plant into the earth instead, me backing a few meters away. He unplugs his tail off easily, spraying dust all over the air, before swing it at the same full speed again at me. For once, instead of dodging, I stay.

When his tail almost hits me, I stop the impact by my right hand. The sound is so high that it is this close to deafening. It is a good thing that no humans are involved in this battle, or else they ear would have been bleeding to death sweeps them off.

Baring his long pair of fangs, the Serpent King gives more pressure to his tail. The more second it spends, the more threatening it becomes. Different from his soldiers, who has the size only slightly bigger than humans, Abohiss’ body consist of at least three times the size of an adult, with his tail about the size of one individual. Once those scales turn sharper by his will, my palm begins to bleed.

He sneers a murderous smirk when he sees this, thinking that he is winning. But the more drop of blood gather on the soil, the more this urge is harder to control. All I want is just to end this silly bickering faster.

So I do exactly that.

Starting to make a move, I push his tail slowly, yet certainly. That victory is gone from his face when he notices that none of this attempt to push back makes any difference. What happen instead is me impelling his tail to the other side of the angle.

Abohiss sizzes me to stop, but I give to chance. Before he can be prepared, a sound of bone cracking echoes clearly between us, and he wails in agony.

The signs of internal bleeding are already showing not so long after that. King Abohiss scrambles on the ground, trying so hard to handle the exertion. I step closer, feeling bored of this game. He is not making much challenge in this.

“Forgive me. It is you, but it is me as well,” I mutter in a see-through act, before swinging my razor blade for the s***h. He hisses at me, but that is all he does before I behead the last snake in the combat field.

Blood drenches from all over my body like sweat, dripping down to the trails of battlefield that I leave behind. I drag my blade against the ground, intentionally leaving more disturbing traces. I keep walking on a slow pace, avoiding the high activity around the city at the same time. By the time I arrive at the gate of the castle, my siblings speed run to welcome me.

They are quite used to the sight, but when Scarlet arrives, he grimaces.

“You’re covered entirely with blood. Are you.... alright?” he asks carefully, taking my free hand in his.

“I am.” He tangles his fingers with mine, leaving blood stains all over his palms. “Can’t say the same about the victims of the battle, though. The serpent continent is in for a grieving news.”

A soft meowing comes from around my legs. I look down to spot Alto in his cattish form, his fur this close to be contaminated by blood.

“Do prepare a bath and the other necessary utensils for me to get rid of these stains,” I order him. He nods and hops back into the castle right away. Then I turn to my family. “Is there any other things you would like to consult with me before I clean myself up? You know that it will take longer for me to remove the scent ─ and I don’t want to walk around smelling like dinner all around the castle.”

They shake their heads and I bid goodbye to head to my bedroom. I strip down from my now red uniform, disposing it before stepping into the milked bathtub. I drown myself into the liquid, inhaling mulct and rose. It takes a while later before I resurface, allowing the blood to blend with the cleaning. That is when I turn around and spot Scarlet sitting at the edge of the bathtub, his eyes savoring the golden ornaments by the Greek style double-door.

“What’s on your mind?” I ask.

He voice is low when he asks, “Do you recall the day when I discovered my power?”

Vampires can not forget, and such day as that is hardly near to be unrecalled. I was in the intuition of teaching Scarlet how to play the instruments that morning. He was only five when he first showed the interest in piano. I placed him on my lap and plays for him, before allowing him to experience by his own. It was just an innocent interaction. Who would have thought that it would turn into the horror of all mortals’ lives of the century when he started playing?

“The Melody of Death,” I taste the name again in my mouth. “The entire population of mortals in hearing radius died that day after you finished playing the song.”

“Is it a sin to not feel guilty at all, mother?”

“Oh, honey,” I turn from my sitting position to face him, grazing my wet ─ now milky pale ─ fingers on one side of his cheek, “it is never a sin to kill, especially when they deserves it.” The ones who died that day are the underground prisoners of my section. None of them survive. Only my knights that suffered minor injury, much because of the help of the drops of my blood that run through their veins ─ it was the only factor that kept them alive through the unrefusable invitation to welcome Death through Scarlet’s play.

He gazes into my eyes before closing them and momentarily just enjoying the touch. It is a while later before he walks out to wait for me finishing. Stepping out of the tub, I spin fast to get the water off. Then I wrap a towel around before entering my wardrobe. A baby blue gown looks suitable enough for this evening that I decide to choose it. A string of flowers are sewed to the ring shoulders, leaving my shoulders exposed. The gown blooms softly around me, making a drastic change from the battle uniform, which I still have the endless unstained supply of.

“Would you like to go midnight dinner tonight?” Scarlet asks once I walk out, finding him already standing in front of my bed, dressed formally in a dark red suit and white gloves. A pair of sickles can be seen around the back of his waist, thought I am positive that they are much more for decoration than anything else this evening.

“What’s the occasion? Can’t just be for a little victory, can it?” I ask, approaching my mirror to arrange my hair. A comb is not that necessary, through a few flowery hairpins to go with my gown is nice. I stare at him through the mirror and we make eye contact.

“Not really. I am just in the mood for it. Do you?” he asks, a boyish smile forming on his lips.

“Alright,” I answer, turning around. He offers me his hand and I accept, walking out with arms entwined together. We arrive at the royal ballroom a little bit later after it has started. Almost the whole family is in here. They turn around all at once to greet me with congratulations, a polite smile and a smile chit chat, before turning their attention back to their previous conversations before we interrupt them. Well, at least most of them.

Blood is serves throughout the party, both fresh and bottled. There are a number of willing humans courting the purebloods, while some are provided through the castle’s welfare. Then there are also tables reserved for packed products, with bottles and tablets lying around as far as the tables can allow.

“May I have this dance?” Scarlet asks out of nowhere, a tiny hint of mischief in his eyes sparkling.

He pulls me to the dance floor and the orchestra starts to play a pretty energetic song. He places one hand on my waist while the other entwined with my fingers, then spins me around with a quickstep, combined with some ballet moves. A few purebloods watch us when Scarlet pulls some daring moves, unique joined of both quicksteps and ballet that are enough to gain their interest. When he makes a finishing move, just as the song is about to end, everyone plauds.

“Enthralling performance, Scarlet,” Altore praises as he approach us, “though it lacks of something.” Then he pulls me into him instead and waltz me around the dance floor, just as the next song starts. He leads me to bend back low, and just when my hair is about to touch the ground, he pulls me back and spins me around. I must admit, Altore’s move is much smoother and experienced than Scarlet’s. After all, waltz is one of the moves he uses to impress the female population, even when he doesn’t have to do much in the first place. Attracting the opposite s*x always come in natural for him.

The sounds of applauds is not even lacking once we end the dance. Altore turns to Scarlet, who watches us the whole time.

“Something new is good, but the classics are there for a reason,” he smirks at him, pointing that fact out as he glance at my son, before turning back this attention fully to me. “Would you like to have a few more spins with me, dear Big Sister?”

“I don’t think so,” I shake my head, “I just got in and have two strolls. And you know just how much I love to hate the overall attention,” I press a smile wider by the mention of my last words.

“Fine. If you say so,” he smiles back, though with a little disappointment written on his face, and walks by. I am about to take my turn to crunch some blood tables when a small hand stops me.

I turn around to meet Vallénce, staring up at me with such an innocent expression. He knows how much it will tempt me, let alone turns something on. Without even protesting, I accept his invitation and let him pulls me into an embrace. A slow song then begins to echoes, and all I can see is him and him only. I close my eyes to let the moment possess us.

It almost feels too short when the melody ends. Vallénce steps back a few paces, letting go of my hands. Then, his mirror image ripples to a much taller version. Instead of staring down at a ten-year-old appearance, I find myself looking up to his adult semblance.

With a gesture, he asks me once again silently, through formally this time. I accept and sink myself into his chest, inhaling his scent. I wrap my arms around his neck while him around my waist. And the spinning continues. Slow and simple.

“I’m hungry,” Vallénce mutters out loud when we are on our way to my chamber, this time away from praying eyes. Still, the corridors do not provide the privacy that we need.

“We are almost there,” I reply, but he pulls me down to his height, already turning back to his usual form once we left the ballroom.

“I want you now,” he whispers, and we both know right now that I am unable to resist. I kneel on the carpet and he pulls down the top of my gown, just enough to bite into my left breast. I let out an audible outhale when his teeth sink to my flesh. Those tiny razors are tingling.

I crawl my way to bedroom and find myself impatient once we reach the bed. Vallénce positions himself on top of me, and when a drop of blood slips from his lips, it leaves trail down to my stomach. He looks at me with a purposeful glint masked in his guiltless eyes. Effortlessly he pulls down my zipper and gown lower, before trailing his tongue to where the blood leaves. He stops at the top of my belly button, where the trace ends, before licking back to the top of my right breast. He bites down just as hard, but sucks slower.... more intimate.

When he begins trailing kisses all over my cleavage, I know that he has finished drinking. Yet he even spares some sharpless bites on my breasts, making them jiggle. After a while, I demand my turn. He lies down and I roll on top, my gown spreading all over the bed on him. His fingers bolt to unbutton his blazer and shirt, but I stop him.

“No!” I purposely say out loud this time, knowing that no one will hear except us. He gives me a questioning look, before I point my finger below. I lift his shirt, just enough to show his stomach and the lines that connect lower, before planting kisses all over his exposed skin. Vallénce moans unholdly when I use my teeth, sinking so deep that the pain pleasures him. My mouth never leaves his skin, at where just before his pants, and stay until I am content. Once I do finish and look up at him, it is not just a panting Vallénce that I find as a gift.

The vent on his face is a mixture of a tearless cry child and a lustful male all at once.

And that look causes more than just a ripple within me.

I attack him in the mouth even without being able to control my urges anymore. We spend the rest of the night without rest and sleep. Our bloods are too driven by craving to calm down. It is by morning, when the first sunlight from the dawn breaks, sweeping on the surface of our skin. Distinct hints of glow appear for a moment, before we are adjusted to the effect again. I rest my head on his chest and my hand on top, allowing me look at our engagement ring.

Vallénce gave it to me the night that I was born. It was a necklace at first before I grew to fit into it. The circle was made of titanium, crafted by him with bare hands. He didn’t spend that much time in the design of it, but he did go overboard with the stone. It was an amethyst, just like my name, arranged in such a way that forms a floret. Another layer of titanium covers the outer side of the stone, wider, making it overall into a very sightfull ring.

He catches my ring hand and sweeps the fingers smoothly when he notices what I am staring at, a smile on his face.

“I think it is time for me to recruit more new students for my military school,” I mutter.

“Will you be travelling with Elric, then?”

“With Charlotte and Altore as well, I think,” I say, then add, “Will you be dropping by?”

“If you need help, but I do not see anything that shall stop me,” he grins wider, getting up into a sitting position, pulling me along. He leans in for another kiss on the lips, before we start our routine.

Today, I choose a classic white gown before meeting my siblings at the practice watchroom. Charlotte twirls his fingers with one of the bear’s ears by the sofa, Elric changes the pages of a history book, while Altore whips his sword with a small fabric in his other hand once I get in at one side of the room.

“Do you have any of where we should go this time? Past? Future? I need details,” Elric says, never lifting his eyes from the musty book.

“Boring. How about another alternate dimension? I always love the randomized. We never really knew what kind of a world we landed on until we got used to the environment,” Charlotte suggests.

“A little bit of danger might be fine as well,” Altore adds, polishing the sword until he can see his own reflection on it.

“Alright, random it is,” I clap my hands together, “Shall we?”

Elric rises from the sofa he is sitting on, closing the book and placing it on the table in the middle, before stepping towards the full window glass in front. Instead of look down through, he forces his eyes on one point in the middle. A spiral of red whirlpool takes its time to grow in the mid of air and it widens to the size fit for all of us. Altore then puts away his sword and walks towards the portal, follow by Charlotte and I. Altore and Charlotte goes first, before I and Elric jumps in.

The portal closes behind us, and a new set of world is waiting for us at the other side.

∞ ❈∯❈ ∞

When I open my eyes again, green leafs and chirping birds welcome me.

The portal has been dark and unmerciful as always, throwing me out as if my presence has upset its stomach.

At least, when I made my landing, instead of getting pierce through sharp objects, I end up at a flower field, in the middle of a forest. Stretching one of my arms, I bring it up to my forehead. However, it does it seem like that motion scares the butterfly enough to fly off from my lips.

The butterfly has a reddest shade of all ─ bright enough to stand out from most, dark enough to be the color of blood. I sit up, allowing a few cottons to fall from my hair. Then I hold my hand out near my lips, gesturing it to hop on my finger instead. I see the beautiful patterns that it has on its wings from this angle. I admire it for a moment, before raising my hand and allowing it to float away.

The sunlight is specifically bright at this region. My skin glows slightly, out of the intensity of the effect’s pull. I walk around into the forest, my hearing searching for my siblings and civilization. There is town not far from here, and I can hear from the sound of their steps that my siblings have the same intention as well. Following them, I traipse into the territory.

It seems like supernatural attracts supernatural, because just one inhale away and I can detect how many creatures are lurking in the dark of this town’s corners. Elric’s randomnition seems to have landed us perfectly at a place where various kinds of beings live in one place. Now we just have to choose our candidates and eliminate them one by one. But of course, a little research around the world’s facts will not hurt as well.

My first stop is the town’s library. Not many people are passing by, and picking the back route also cost me from attracting too much attention. Making sure that I am wearing my laser glass is one of the things that I must do before entering public places. The librarian looks at me oddly when I check in, but at least the old woman is not screaming. My clothes seem to be a bit alien to her, it seems.

The humans at here are not different from the humans in our world, but then again, all humans are the same. It is the creatures that variant the most.

After my little research in the library, I gather back with my siblings, who already bought a house at the top of a hill. It locates a little bit further from the society, giving us quite enough privacy.

“So, who are your candidates? Let’s state first before anyone crosses over,” Altore asks.

“Before we begin, I think I need to redecorate this place before my sight is too bothered by the uncaring atmosphere,” I say.

“Well, I can agree to that. But why bother? It’s not like we are planning to stay for long,” Elric asks.

“I did my research a little bit before, and it turns out that humans do not know about the existence of any supernatural beings. They thought we are just tales here. It does not help as well that most of the town’s resident is occupied by human population.”

“We are going to do a little secret, then? Takes up the challenge slightly, doesn’t it?” Altore winks.

“How much do you pay for this house, anyway? I am quite content with the size, but I am not sure about the quality at all,” I ask.

“We sold ten gold bars, but it turns out that this house took less than a half. I am sure that with your style and technique, you will want to spend the rest with more design that what this poor building can provide by the end of the night. So I bought some extra material as well. I paid enough to make sure that the shop sends us the material before noon,” Charlotte explains.

“Now that everything is settled, why don’t we go back to the main course?” Elric suggests. “I spotted a triplet warlock on my way around the forest before. Didn’t see anyone else that interests me, though, so I just have to point put the three.”

“Aw, and I thought I already set my eyes on them first,” Charlotte sounds rather disappointed. “That’s fine, though. I still have a four-gene hybrid and a sea monster.”

“My choice is rather the typical ones. There is surprisingly a high population of witches in this town. I am not sure who to pick specifically yet, but I guess I just have to do a little test for a candidate. How about you, Big Sis?”

I blink at him. “What part of doing a research that you do not understand?” They all look at me this time.

“Oh, come on, Big Sister. I know that you must have your eye on one, at least. Being busy does not mean that all of your senses are suddenly dead than ever,” Charlotte teases, squeezing her doll in her arms.

Unable to resist not smiling, I eventually reply, “Well, I did find one on my way through the forest. It has wings, tail and everything. A little bit too big I size for a normal bird this world has. Pretty wicked creature, I must say. But I didn’t press much. I suppose you will find me inside the woods through the rest of our stay, if I do not find any other creature as interesting later on.”

“If that is pretty wrapped up, then let me enroll the two of you along the way. I am heading to the high school,” Altore says as he points at Charlotte and Elric, rising from the chough he is sitting on and heads out.

“Use the last name Proteria,” I tell him before he waves and closes the door behind him.

“And don’t try to change my name into funky ones through the registration,” Charlotte mutters not so loudly, knowing that he will still her just find as he pulls out from the garage with a red car.

After he left, the three of us look at each other.

“Do you need help with the rebuilding?” Elric offers.

“No need. You two proceed to your schedule. I don’t mind being held up. The winged creature will not be far, I am sure. Besides, I always enjoy a time alone with my art.”

They take their leave and I am left alone in the house to read the books that I have borrowed from the library, though I mostly just skim through the pages over and over again once I am done with them. The delivery arrives one hour later. I open the door and reveal a young boy with rather pale complexion at the other side. His hat covers half of his face, making it hard to look at his face clearly. He seems to be wearing baggy clothes, the style that teenage humans prefer here.

I am about to close the door after signing the form when some sort of a pine scent enthralled me. Could this be....?

“Can you help me move the materials inside?” I ask the boy. He simply gives me a nod, not even making eye contact, keep it really hard to not raising his head. I wonder why....

“Thank you. What’s your name, if I may know?” I ask him once he is finish, taking an entirely fifteen minutes. Instead of answering, however, he chooses to ignore me. Perhaps I am coming up to strong, not to mention after being left with no choice but to only watch him move slowly for the past quarter hour. So I try a different approach.

“Here’s your tip, by the way.” I deliberately hold the money at the line of my shoulder, so that he is forced to look up at me. There is something different about how those golden orbs move when I look at him. He steps closer to take the money and I hand it to him. After closing the door with a satisfied smile on my face, I begin to work.

By the time that my younger siblings are back, the house that they get back to is no longer the same house. Now, it has taste, richness, and comfort ─ the kind that even purebloods will gawk at.

“I know that you will make this place better, but I have no idea that you are planning to build a castle!” Charlotte exclaims with happiness, dancing around the living room.

“This place looks a crystal kingdom,” Altore comments.

“Wait until you see your bedrooms, then,” I smile at them. Charlotte speeds run through the stairs, and we are soon welcomed by her high-pitch squeal, times nine and a half.

“Whatever she orders before, I am pretty sure that Charlotte didn’t ask that much of crystal,” Elric says when Altore decides to explore the underground.

“You will never guess how many kinds of new texture you can find through mixing materials,” is simply my answer. “Though the foundation of this house is already good for rebuilding, especially when it is manageable enough to plant soundproof systems at each room.”

“If I had known better, I am saying that you are in an excellently good mood today.”

“That’s because I am.” He looks at me, waiting for me to elaborate curiously. “My candidate came two hours ago.”

“Really? The bird creatures? By itself?”

“He is the delivery boy, and he is a harpy.”

“A rare being.”

“They are hard to approach, but I will manage.”

“Last time I check, you have no harpy student yet. The species is almost this close to extinct, and most are way too old for a school, moreover one as tough as your military academy.”

“I must say that he is not really in that good of a condition, though. Then again, most of his kind is really easy to catch sickness. Netherless, as long as I am determinate and patient enough, I am sure that one of my tricks will work. The problem now is that he is a very unapproachable character.”

“Lose the glasses and he will be your most loyal subject,” Elric adds with a wicked smirk.

I title my head to one side. “Will that be considered cheating?”

“I have no idea what we are playing bet now,” Altore mutters, climb back up the stairs with a dagger by his hand. It is the weapon that I managed to craft using silver.

“Officially, no. But I am just thinking that it will be much more interesting,” I answer.

“What is the prize, then?” Charlotte sticks her head out from the second-floor stairs through halfway down, already changing to a new set of clothes that she just bought when outing. She looks adorable with a sequence top and polkadot pencil skirt.

“The winner shall have the authority to manipulate others’ candidates?” Elric offers.

“Boring. How about winner kills the entire town?” Altore suggests as he plays with the dagger with his sharpened nails.

“Too obvious. We need something less apparent, like getting to handpick one individual as our blood bank as long as we are here,” Charlotte adds up as she climbs down. “Though that will be too late to receive the prize after winning.”

“How about if the winner is able to allow the candidates for a battle to death? We can create a playground for them, they will never even know. That way, we can really serve the purpose of getting a perfect recruitment,” I advice.

“We will have to train them, then.”

“Unconsciously, yes. We can’t let them know what we are doing to them.”

“This sounds more appealing.”

“Should we draw a deadline?”

“A month?” Altore adds in.

“Too long,” Charlotte comments.

“Two weeks,” Elric implies.

“Like you will not build an army at all.”

“One week, then,” I decide. “Mortal’s brain can not process things less than that amount time, if you want your candidates to learn anything at all.”

“Fine enough. I should get going then. There is a high school party that I have been invited to,” Charlotte announces her plan before going out.

“I will be tagging along after a quick change,” Elric mutters.

“A have a much more mature adult-only dinner with the teachers,” Altore says.

Arching an eyebrow, I ask him, “Aren’t your candidates teen witches?”

“Yes. And the teachers are apparently the parents of witch sisters,” he winks at me.

I shall start my attempt as well right now. Changing into a less conspicuous clothes, I prepare myself for an adventure in the small town called Togeria Falls.

*

Catching that faint scent again, I follow the trail back into the deep forest and meet the path of where I first arrived. Instead of going back to that meadow I landed on, the scent gives my nostrils off a hint for an opposite direction. Furthering apart from civilization, I come close enough to a grey rocky cliff at the edge of horizon. The sky is still dark, but I do not detect any sense of movement or awareness. Seems like he is planning to sleep here for a while. Netherless, I wait until the sun comes up. And this time, I dismiss the effect that is begging to tingle my skin.

The light travels faster than leaking water, turning him to his wake through the tent. His shadow moves inside, climbing out and slowly heading straight to a nearby tree. I stay on my spot, twenty meters away behind a tall branch on the top of a pine tree, hidden away by the thick leaves. I stay still like a statue, watching as he begins to lower his hood and remove his hat.

He has no hair, but when he turns to climb the tree, I can see that he has a high cheekbone structure and light skin complexion. There is a hard expression on his face, and his golden eyes are squirming at the brightening sky. He strips off the oversized jacket, leaving him only with his trousers. The temperature is not that cold yet. In fact, it is rather warm. But I have a strong instinct that it is not the reason why he removes his clothe.

Spreading his arms widely sideways, some things begin to crawl under his skin. They expand until they are out of proportion just beneath his arms, parts of skin that is not suppose to be there for a human. It is because he is not in the first place, but only pretending to be one.

Wings of skin and a different element formed from his annexes. All the while, a strand of tail with the same tone slithers out from the back ring around his waist, matching with the level of his ells.

The young harpy takes a few steps back, counting to three, before running towards the tree. Inches before he crashes against the trunk, he starts moving his arms, motioning a pushing gesture. In a matter of seconds, he finds himself flying through the tree, higher up until he meets the sky.

The moment he reaches freedom from the praying eyes of humans, he flies so naturally, he starts to look just like any other birds that circle the forest. He will be just fine, as long as he stays clear from hunting season.

Turning my back to him, I am about to prepare for landing down, before I can feel the air pressure behind me gets stronger. By the time I turn around, he is already behind me, trying to slow down but fail. I know that if I move away, he will end up crashing the other tree behind, so I allow him to hit me instead.

He already loses the control of his wings by the journey to the ground. An audible crypatanalyze echoes once I have my back on the earth, with his falling just above me. He groans out of the impact and rubs his bold scalp as he bends up. It is a few seconds later that he realizes that I am beneath him, deceasing the collision.

“I’m so sorry!” he exclaims, getting off quickly. He searches the ground for his jacket, but he supposes to know that his clothe is nowhere near hear. So he runs behind a tree to hide himself. “Forgot what you see! Don’t come any closer!” he grunts uneasily.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to hide from me. I am not like them, too,” I say after standing on my feet again.

“You don’t know what you are talking about. I don’t believe you,” he says jitterily.

“If you don’t believe in words, then perhaps you will believe through your eyes,” I suggest. “Come out and see for yourself.”

I raise my hand up high, where the sunlight can reach through the thick tree. Letting go of that layer, I let the light tickles my skin, making it glow. When I turn my head back to the young harpy, I already find him peaking from behind the tree. His eyes show amazement, but there is still awareness holding on to his primary instinct.

I can not blame him for this, through, because after all, I am still too deadly to be trusts that easily.

“H-how do you do that?” he asks timorously, keeps his hands at the scape.

I stare back at my arm, “It is not what I do, but what I am,” before turning back to him.

“What are you, then?”

“A vampire.”

With that, he starts scrambling back from the tree, expending his wings, and about to take off again.

“Oh, you don’t have to be afraid of me. I am not going to suck you blood or anything. Besides, I prefer my donors to be willing. Or have their blood bottled.”

He takes off and lands on one of the tree’s branches. “What makes you think that I am going to trust you?” he asks, ready to fly away.

I smile kindly, allowing my nails to grow and raising it to my chest. “My words,” I run my nails across my skin, and then another from the opposite direction, making an X, “that I will not cause you any form of harm to you.”

Blood leaks out from the injury that I cause to myself. It heal when he blinks again, the blood rushing back in, not leaving any trail of signature, except for the mark that I left behind for the oath that I just made.

“There. You have nothing to be afraid of me any longer,” I beam reassuringly at him.

He arches his eyebrows. “Just like that?” He does not sound too abiding.

“It’s a promise of a Goddess.”

I have not pull down my sunglasses yet, but even through still not believing completely, he skirrs down and lands perfectly on his bare feet this time.

“Is that it? Are you a God? Like from the Greek mythology?”

“Well,” I title my head to the side, “not exactly. But I do possess the power of what it is required for a God to have. I can not say that I am related to the Greek Gods that humans believe in.”

He steps closer. “Do the Gods exist, then?”

“Yes, but not the kind that you have in mind. The other Gods are more like,” I purposely trail off, “me.”

For a while he just stares at me, trying to find any reason to alarm him. To him, I look nothing than just a girl that might be a little bit older than him ─ with long white hair, extraordinarily pale skin for mortal standard, and a glowing effect to the sun.

“I guess the old myth about vampires is wrong as well,” he comments. “You don’t burn under the sun.”

“Not true. The myth is right. It is just that the same principle does not apply to me. I am a little bit different from the others, you see.”

“Why is that?”

“Because of my heritage. I was born as a pureblood.”

“Pureblood?”

“The oldest and the beginning of all vampires. My family was the foundation, and the vampire kind is the result.” I clap my lips into a thin line. “That’s strange. There are more vampires before I came here. How come you don’t know about that? Don’t tell you that you never met one.”

“I did meet some, but they are just not as....” he trails off to find the right word, “....civil, as you are.”

“That I get a lot.”

“How come you are not all that fangs and bloodthirsty, then? The vampires I have met would have been baring their fangs and ready to rip my head off,” he asks, more of curious than skeptical.

“That’s because I was properly trained and basically just have a bigger control over my hunger. For example, not all humans are hungry all the time, but there are also some humans who just like to eat everywhere they go. I am an existing example of the first one.”

“I see.” Silent. “My name is Albertone, anyway.”

“Amethyst Proteria,” I hold out my hand. He jumps back, still rather out of habit. Slowly, though, he creeps forward, fear running through his hand when he reaches out. I clap my hand in his and he winches.

“You’re cold.”

“Not for long. Wait for another hour and I will be as hot as boiling water. I am more like a conductor than a corpse, you see.”

“How can you not be like a corpse?”

“Because I am not, as simple as that.”

“You’re very strange, Amethyst,” he comments, taste my name in his lips.

“I get that a lot as well sometimes.”

That one makes him laugh, lifting a little bit of the tension left between us.

Albertone then leads me to a small river not far from where he met. He takes a sit near the edge and I do the same thing, folding my legs to the side against the gravels. The young harpy takes a handful of small stones in his hands and plays with them.

“So, what’s a harpy like you doing alone in here?” I start to ask.

“Harpy?” he asks.

The tone he is using causes me to look at him really hard.

“Don’t you know what you are?”

“Honestly, know. All I know for sure is that I am not a human. What kind of a human has wings like mine?” He extends the extra skin under his arms.

“That explains a lot, of why you act like a human.”

“I do?”

“You must have been living around humans for quite some time. Where are your parents? Why are you not spending the night with them?”

His expression tenses by the mention of his parents. This is a sensitive subject for him, I can see.

“They called me a monster, just like the others. I thought they are different from the rest, but they are the worst among them.”

Them? “They are humans, then, the ones who raised you.” It is rather more of a statement that a question.

He nods faintly.

“So I take it you don’t know who or where your parents are.”

“Never even heard of them. My adoptive parents found me in the forest when I was still a baby.”

“Would you like to meet them, then?”

“Who?”

“Your real parents, of course.”

“Do you know them?” Light is sparkling inside his eyes, boiling with hope.

“No, but I know how to find them.”

“How?” he asks, full of curiosity.

“Hold out your hand.” He does as he is told. I take his hand and remove my glasses, making sure to only look into his palm only.

Activating my third ability, the Red Tread appears like a movie slide, visible for the eyes when I want it to join reality. I can see several strings heading to the town, to where his acquaintances are. They are a most obvious and the easiest ones to spot, because his relationships with them are strong. There are also some red strings that are not as palpable as the others, though. Those treads lead to the opposite directions. Some are lenient, some are even less clear that the others. Two particular strings, those which are even much vaguer, I believe belong to some ones that owe Albertone some explanations.

“Fly west,” I instruct him.