The brothers were staring at the timer as the sand keeps flowing down.

"She's gone!" Lothaire spoke.

Suddenly, Xenon began laughing, his thunderous laughter vibrated around the room.

Maxwell looked at his brother in confusion, glaring at him. "What are you laughing at—?"

"You guys are fools! How can you get tricked by that old hag? What an old woman can do to our place? Does she even have the power to burn this whole place down?" Xenon asked, the amusement never leaving his face.

Maxwell shook his head, was thinking of those times when he can say for himself that Esmeralda has some hidden power beneath those frail expression of hers.

Through the years, Esmeralda never uses her true power.

They only knew... she holds the life of all inhabitants imprisoned in the castle on the hill and that is tremendous power already that she was holding in her hands. The creatures inside the castle hated Esmeralda because she was the descendant of the three wise Nephilim elders who created the invisible barrier sealing them inside the castle for centuries.

But with the hate comes also the fear that if they harm her then her heart will stop beating and they would perish along with her.

Sure... Esmeralda has some inborn power since she was an offspring of the royal family of the Nephilim kingdom and all royal bloodlines were endowed with powers.

A long time ago... when the castle was still on its prime, they were being regarded as the most powerful vampire clan in the entire land. They can roam freely outside. Their mother who is a human converted into a vampire was still alive but sickly during that period.

That was also the time when monsters and other creatures who love feasting on human flesh and attacking other inferior beings run rampant in the land, their cruel and merciless rampage striking fear and horror in the heart of the weakest ones.

Thinking that they are indestructible, they began attacking the Nephilim kingdom, the land of the winged creature.

One night, Maxwell saw his father in the garden, talking to a beautiful winged woman who looks like a goddess. Her beauty was blinding... it dazzled him.

A few months later, his sickly mother finally succumbs to death. Then the goddess frequently visited the castle talking to his father...then one night...he saw them kissing and hugging in the garden under the full moon and star-filled night.

From then on, he realized that his father had fallen in love with someone new.

He remembered that particular time when his father died, he was the only one who knows when is the exact time his father passed away.

He comes to his father's room one night and saw the beautiful goddess coming out of the door, followed by three old men sporting long white hair and they all wore white flowing clothing.

As soon as they disappeared from his sight...he rushed inside the room and his heart was filled with dread upon seeing his father's lifeless body sprawled on the bed...but he can't see any blood and injury on his body...just an expression of shock on his face.

"Father! Wake up! Please wake up!" he cried hysterically, trying to revive him.

His father's body was no longer moving, with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he finally accepted the painful truth that his father already passed away.

He tried so hard to resurrect him...but no matter how hard he tried...he can never bring him back to life.

He finds it hard to accept his father's death because he is the most powerful being in the entire land and other creatures trembled in fear with just the mention of his name.

That's when he realized that the goddess and the three old men have something to do with his father's death. Even though he didn't see with his own two eyes that they killed his father, but he was 100% sure that they have something to do with his death because they were the last persons that visited his father's room that night.

While he was busy trying to find ways to bring back his father to life...

Things began changing drastically outside the castle as droves of monsters creatures from all over the land were being sucked inside the castle by a light purple force spanning from all directions, those monsters were being uprooted from their places and being transported into the newly created dimension inside the castle...

Many creatures tried to flee from their mysterious confinement...but every time their skin touched the invisible barrier...they burned and turned into ashes. That's when everyone realizes that nobody can escape the castle unharmed as if there was a spell or cursed that would kill anyone who would try to escape the castle.

They began talking to each other.

"What is happening!?"

"Why we can't get out of this place!?"

"Why does there's an invisible barrier that burns our skin every time we tried to flee from this place!?"

"Who is doing this to us!?"

"Who put us in this dimension!?"

The air was filled with confusion, loathing, resentment, and fear, as they looked at each other, but answers can't be found.

Amidst the chaos...a mysterious floating land appeared out of nowhere and a wooden house suddenly erected on the surface...then a golden tree with yellow leaves was growing rapidly beside the house.

Inside the wooden house...the three elders of the Nephilim kingdom were sitting on the wooden floor...in the center was Princess Esmeralda...her eyes closed. The elders were holding each other hands tightly, they were chanting a spell...strengthening further the invisible barrier making it more indestructible and can not be destroyed by any force.

But in making the invisible barrier it also requires their life as the total sacrifice, but it's the only way to stop those evil creatures and monsters from slaughtering and harassing humans and other peace-loving creatures outside the castle.

For the peace of all living creatures on the land, somebody has to make the sacrifice.