Erika rode at the back of the Draem as the march approached the walled city, great blockades of vines growing in between massive trees to form a natural barrier. Bleak Moon Fort lying at the forefront of the city and like a beacon, it stared directly into the direction the enemy was coming from. A great fortification of both stone and bark, it rose twice the height of the very walls and trees, a watcher of the forest gazing down from above.

Erika took in a deep breath as the twin gates opened up for their passage ahead, this is where they left their resources and non-combatants behind, as beyond only battle awaited.

Walking through the battle-worn gates of thick wood and iron, Erika gazed about at the unkept buildings and streets. What should have been a bastion of hope and integrity was, in reality, at the brink.

Fixing up the massive weapon on her back, sheathed upside-down and poking several feet over her, it was belittling of the thing’s size to say that she stood out. The citizens of Bleak Moon turned their sullen gazes to her, an oddity amongst their reinforcements, aid which seemed to bring them no hope either.

Erika now understood why Zarkon allowed for a festivity halfway, there would be no warm welcome here on the front lines, not even for fresh fighters joining the ranks.

“Well, not what I…” Gray mused as he also took a long look around.

“Not what you expected?” Kei asked, “Well, you better lower those expectations from now on then. We’re at war, pup, get used to it.”

“I disagree.” Erika then said, “Everyone needs hope, this place…We might as well be doomed at this rate. These people will never be soldiers if they do not have hope, they are liabilities.”

“That’s a bit…harsh? Don’t you think?” Tejil added.

“No, the princess is correct in discerning so.” Then said a voice as the recruits glanced amongst them, finding much to their shock, Alpha Zarkon walking in their midst. “I had hoped myself that, upon seeing you all, their spark would reignite but…The news already spread.”

“Huh? News?” Dust mumbled out.

“The demons.” Erika replied, “A legion of them stands against us too.”

“Shit.” Dust simply added.

“Ah, there’s the man.” Zarkon then mused, turning off to a small group of soldiers at attention around an overly well-dressed man. Kei stopped as well, motioning them all to step aside for the rest of the march to come through, the recruits lines up to the side with Kei ahead of them all.

Erika watched as he chatted with the officer for a moment, then turned to gesture at them.

“Recruits, I’d like you all to meet commander Ver Rabye.” Zarkon introduced the adorned soldier, his arm around the man’s shoulder.

Pausing then, for effect, only Erika seemed confused as the rest’s eyes lay at their widest ever.

A sensation filled her, foreign in nature, it came from somewhere nearby and was distracting her.

Ver sighed, “That name still carries too much weight.”

“Haha! It sure does, and I will never tire of seeing these fresh reactions!” Zarkon exclaimed humorously, “And for you, miss Draconia. This man is the brother of a lycan so great my own name cannot begin to compare to what he accomplished for our people.”

“Now now Darkmane, you’ll bore the pups.” The older Lycan grumbled, before returning his gaze to Erika. “Then, you are the one our Alpha set off himself to investigate.”

“Investigate?” Erika mused, still trying to pinpoint the strange sensation that filled her, yet not wishing to be rude.

“Hahah…I believe I failed to mention that.” Zarkon grumbled back at Ver, “Indeed I have a…vested interest in what you and your people have to offer, princess, but I came home for many other reasons too. Although I do hope that, if we survive this day to come, that you might shine some light on how and if it is possible to say…come in contact with your people.”

Erika’s eyes narrowed at his words, “That would be my end goal, yes.”

“Wonderful, we can speak of such things later though, no point if we all die yes? Now, me and the old man have battle maps to glare upon, excuse us Sergeant Kei.” Zarkon added, turning off with Ver in toe.

Watching the two leave, Kei turned to them then, “Alright pups, time to make ourselves useful. The enemy could be upon us at any moment now. While yes, they are vast in number, they could still send forward a shock unit to surprise us. I want you all to spread out and help with any remaining preparations. So you looking for warehouses, smithies or head up to the walls themselves, our caravans will drop off on their own so no need to worry about that. Keepin up?” She asked and each of them nodded. “Good, off you go, dismissed.”

Kei stormed off after her speech, leaving them to figure themselves out.

“She doesn’t look happy about any of this.” Dust mused.

“Is she ever?” Drun grumbled, “Smithy it is then.” He mumbled, walking off with Dust and Tejil.

Gray moved to follow them but, seeing Erika gazing into the clouds, “You coming?” He asked, but she did not answer.

Approaching her, Gray about grabbed her shoulder to shake her.

“This place…I sense something off about it.” Erika then said, her eyes narrowing as she looked around.

“What do you mean?” Gray asked, confused.

“It feels just like…Just like back at the imp raid…that rune circle.” Erika mumbled out.

“Rune circle? Hey maybe you’re just tired from the march?” Gray offered.

“No, there’s…something I haven’t told anyone yet.” Grabbing hold of Gray’s arm, she led him off into the streets and then into a sideroad. “When I found my voice…The same language Lano likes to speak in. I didn’t do that alone, someone…a Fox, helped me.” She began to explain, following the sensation of familiarity, Erika moved seamlessly through the walled town’s streets.

“I-I don’t think I follow.” Gray added.

“The voice, Gray, the words I speak in. They’re Draconic, which means Lano is also speaking in Draconic. Being half dragon, I can understand it, and now can also speak it.” Erika quickly reiterated. “Under the rainwater and mud, there were I willed the Draem to help me, is a runic circle which activated a sort of a dream state for me. In that dream world, I met a fox and…I don’t know why, but I have a feeling it is the same exact fox my Father used to muse over. I think…I think the fox, is a Deity from or related to my world.” Erika explained as finally they came to a stop, standing before another gate taking to outside the town.

“I can feel Gray, the answers. The answer to many things I’ve been looking for…It’s beyond this gate.” Erika claimed with conviction.

Gray glanced between her and the gates, “Err, princess, the enemy is beyond this gate.” Breathing out a long sigh, “But I guess that you already knew that, which is why you pulled me along and not the others…” Clearing out his ear with his left pinky, Gray groaned as he met her eyes full of confidence.

“Ah, screw it. I’ve followed you this far, fine princess, lead the way to your answers.” He said, walked onward towards the gate guards before them. “Ah, we require passage through friends.” Gray said to them, Erika following closely behind him.

One of the two guards glanced down at them, “What for? We’ve seen no ghoul or demon nearby but, I wouldn’t dare say there aren’t any.”

“Recon, we’re recruits from the reinforcements unit. Our Sargent told us to help out, we’re on duty to scout out the outskirts.” Gray said, a mixture of truth and lies.

The guard huffed, “Fine, not on my neck if they get you.” He grumbled, gesturing for the guards above, the gates slowly began to creak open.

With barely enough space for them to pass through, the gates stopped, and they both pushed through, Gray having to help Erika get her weapon out.

Watching the gate immediately close up behind them, Gray turned to her, “Where to, princess?”

Erika was already scanning the forest around them, “This way.” She said, her voice monotone, as if in some trance she walked ahead.

Her steps turning into a jog, before entering a full run, Gray struggled to keep up with her as she dashed through the bushes.

“A-Are we sure this fox is trust-worthy?” Gray managed to ask.

“Yes.” Was the only answer he received, Erika too focused on the sensation which lured her.

“Pr-Erika, we’ve gone too deep!” Gray warned, “The stench…Ghouls have been through here princess! We need to head back…” He urged.

“It’s just ahead.” Erika added, pausing in her tracks, “I just…Where?” Glancing around frantically, something inside her was building up agitation in her mind. A gut feeling that something was horribly wrong, but she had to push on and find out.

Similar to the rage she had felt at the pool, it did not directly come from her, but infused itself into her from an outside source.

A source she was looking for.

And as she came closer, the sensation grew stronger.

It was sickening, a feeling so raw and real yet she knew it came from elsewhere, she could now barely hold the tears back.

As finally, Erika came to a full stop, Gray bumping into her back as she did.

“Wha-Oh.” He mumbled out, following her gaze to the edge of the forest before them, where the mountain’s foot began with a cliff.

Vines fell from the clifftop, hiding most of it, but a cave behind was just barely visible as a low glow came from inside.

“This one…it’s different. It’s already been activated.” Erika mused, beginning to approach the vines.

Gray kept his eyes elsewhere, scanning their surroundings, he did not like this one bit.

Arriving at the cave’s entrance, Erika ran her hand across the overgrown vines, feeling the same energy radiating out of them.

“A barrier, this place is hidden but…I found it?” Erika mused.

“That’s insane, it’s like it was made for just you to find?” Gray grumbled, “We should leave, this is too fishy.”

“We’ve come all this way, I’m not going back till I know what…What brought this feeling into me.” Erika said, on the verge of sobbing as tears now trickling down her face.

Gray just now noticing her pained expression. “Princess?”

“The fox…I think it has the power over emotion, or something like that. It showed me rage before but now…I feel pain Gray. I need to know, why? What is going to happen that fills me with pain?” Erika whispered, her gaze then rising to the glow within.

Steeling herself, Erika pushed the vines aside.

Barely a few feet deep, the cave was more so a crater, where at the center lay a runic circle that…Was vastly different than the last, albeit having the exact same style of runes…

The runes themselves were not a circle, instead, they formed a word.

“A name?” Gray mused, peeking inside.

“No…Impossible, how?” Erika shook her head, “He can’t be…” Carefully she approached the runes, and without a second thought, Erika pressed her hand to the name. “Kailu.”

The pain and sadness which the runes imbued her with were suddenly rushed aside as a primal rage poured out of Erika, her mana ravaging and raging into the wall, the blood-red and gold runes were quickly overtaken by a bright fierce blue.

“Show yourself…” Erika said, “Show yourself fox.” Erika demanded.

The light within the runes then brightened and formed into one, before surging out and pushing her back.

Taking shape right before her, a solid sphere of blue, which then faded and returned to a dark crimson mixed with trails of gold.

Moments after, the sphere unfolded into twelve tails, and within stood a figure.

The fox, but different from the last time, younger even, he stood grinning before her.

Unfazed, “What will you show me now, fox?” Erika asked.

“Vision through my deceit, what I have been hiding from you all this time.” The fox said.

Erika’s eyes narrowed, “What…What have you been hiding from me?”

The fox’s gaze fell, his grin wavering into a melancholic smile. “The reason, you will abhor me till the end of time.”

Those words only fuelled Erika’s anger, “Enough games. Show me.” She demanded, reaching for her sword, but only to find that it was no longer there.

“Very well, I will show not tell. Through his memories.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv3UfIZsS6A

Erika’s vision went dark then, reopening to light somewhere else entirely.

Finding herself, in someone else’s body.

Watching through, someone else’s eyes.

She saw the tendrils and blades of shadow unfurling around her, shadows she recognized.

Watching through Kailu’s eyes, she could not move or speak, only see, and feel.

Erika felt the surprise as the beautiful young woman with all too pale skin, long trailing blonde hair and pale blue eyes, appeared at the top of the stairs. Feeling enraptured by her sight, the words simply escaped out.

“You’re…You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

And as her cheeks flushed red in embarrassment, the feeling only grew stronger.

The memory then spanned forward, minutes later.

The woman now crouched down before him, as Kailu lay embedded deep into the walls of the hall, raw destruction all around them. Utterly defeated, yet Kailu could not help but gaze into those angelic eyes.

As she pouted and gazed back into his. “You enjoy staring, don’t you? I hate it, unforgivable. You’re unforgivable.”

Kailu chuckled, “I’d never ask for forgiveness, I know, it bothers me as well. But, I cannot help it. I will stare, because in this moment, I only wish to stare.”

Pouting further, the woman stood back up and turned away, “I can’t…” She sighed, “I cannot kill you, it would not satisfy me. No.” Glancing back at him, “For a hungry beast like you, death is too kind. Instead…”

The memory spanned forward once again…This time, vastly further than mere moments.

Weeks, months flowed past, until Kailu found himself gazing onto a town as dark-armored soldiers sieged its walls.

Bat-like creatures filled the sky, all the while monstrosities of canine form ravaged the walls.

He approached the walls himself, wearing the same armor with the same insignia, gilded and riddled with honors unlike the rest. Commanding this vast armada, Kailu stepped through the shattered gate, summoning forth his shadows to finish what remained.

He watched the humans run and hide, a people he always abhorred, a race he hated from the very deepest part of himself.

Yet, even he could not sate it like so.

As the sensation pushed him and pushed him, fangs baring out of his own mouth and urging him to take a bite, a sip.

He could not.

He would not.

The memory once more rushed ahead, as he now kneeled before that woman as she sat before a table, sipping at something all too thick to be wine yet was just as red.

“Still? You must feed at one point, you know? You’ll only grow weaker if you do it. Or perhaps, do you not like my gift?” She asked.

“Your gift is a curse, but it is a curse I embrace.” Kailu responded, feeling the vampiric power surging through his veins. “But I will not feast, I will not drink the blood of those that cannot fight back. I may be a beast, but I am one with honour. I will only accept blood from those I respect.”

“Then,” The woman lowered her glass, and then lowered her arm down to before him. “Eat.”

Kailu froze, entranced by her pale skin, her pulsating veins visible immediately through it. The softness of it, his fangs would barely need to touch it to enter and reach in.

“No.” He said, not looking away, but not doing as told either. “I do not respect you, Calipso.”

The sound of glass shattering filled the room, and all attendants froze in their feet, gazing at Calipso as her other arm lay drenched in the blood she had been sipping. “Why? I let you live. I let you survive. I let you lead and thrive.”

“You let me indulge.” Kailu added, “I am a killer, not an animal. You let the monster inside me indulge, and for that I do not respect you. My master, never let me indulge. My master controlled me, leashed me and trained me right. But above all, like you he wages war. But unlike you, he does not rule over the strong against the weak. He rules over a balance, a balance he’s shed blood and tears for.” Kailu’s gaze rose to meet her narrowed eyes full of fury.

“Have you ever shed them? Blood, and tears.” He asked.

To his words, her fury subsided, as she clenched the tapestry which lay over her table, “No…You are right. I give you no reason to respect me.”

“And I have no issue with that, I vowed to follow, and follow I will.” Kailu said, and the memory again faded ahead, each moment gone through at the speed of light.

Kailu still kneeled, but his body ravaged and broken, as a domineering figure stood before him smiling.

“Your pet remains tainted, Calipso.” The man said, as behind him Calipso was held back by two others of the same vampiric complexity as her and the man.

“Eris, not another…Do not dare lay another…” Calipso hissed.

“Or what, little sister? What will you do if I-” He said, then suddenly his body flashed with speed, kicking Kailu’s entire body aside and sending it flying into the wall.

Blood, Kailu coughed up puddles of it as he fell out of the crater his body made.

Calipso screamed, her entire form engulfing in greenish shadow as it morphed, a majestic beauty suddenly changing into a grueling monstrous sight with long saber-like fangs, great bat’s wings along her front elongated arms and a hairless black tail.

Sending her other two siblings soaring aside, Calipso flew forth in a fury.

And with a simple flick of his palm, Eris sent her soaring back.

“Standing against me? Sister sister…Maybe a few hundred years in the darkness, unfed and untouched, will teach you who is this family’s master.” Eris said with a chuckle, as Calipso simply lay collapsed in the wall, alive, awake, but without the will to fight.

Eris then sensed danger overflowing from his right, turning to see a mass of shadow growing where Kailu had been.

“Hmph, and you, must I put down the unresponsive pet? Like a beast who refuses to be trained.” Eris said with a chuckle, turning towards Kailu.

Until Kailu rose to his feet, his silver eyes shuddering as they slowly began to glow…turning gold.

Glancing to Calipso and her state, Kailu’s eyes fully settled on Eris with raw rage.

Noticing this, Eris could not stop himself from laughing, hysterically he laughed.

“I understand now! He is no simple pet you made us believe him to be…is he sister?” Eris mused wickedly.

“No…Brother please…” Calipso begged, her gaze now rising to face him.

“Ah, young love, what a delicious torment I have prepared for you both!” Eris exclaimed, the other two vampires laughing wickedly too now. “I know, I’ll make you my ghoul, and then make you, sister, watch as I destroy any sense of sentience that lingers within him-”

Eris took a step forward, but was stopped as Calipso rushed to stand in his way, wings wide open as she hissed and bared her fangs.

Eris’s gaze changed then, from amused to an expression that can only be explained with a single word.

Terrifying.

“Do not make me kill you, sister.” Eris warned with a hissing voice that oozed fear into all that heard it, even their other two siblings stepped back, shuddering at the sound.

“Run…” Calipso whispered, glancing back at Kailu. “For your master, to find his daughter, is that not why you’re here!?” She exclaimed. “Run Kai, please.”

“Never.” Kailu said, willing his shadows to form around his body.

Calipso’s form then changed back, returning to the beautiful visage that enraptured Kailu’s mind every time he faced it. “Then, I will kill you myself.” She said, now turning to him. “You won’t listen. You never listened. Eris is right, I can never train you…I can never have you, can I?”

She held it back, in her tone and movement of her body. But her eyes could not lie, not the eyes Kailu had gazed into hundreds of times.

An agonizing pain filled Calipso, but she hid it, as she faced him she held the tears back as the words she spoke did not match how she felt. “My dear brother is right, I wasted my time with you. I even…I even almost wasted my precious blood. No, no more of this. I will kill you, I will end this myself.”

“Cali, you d-” Kailu tried to say, but Calipso’s form rushed forward, claws of blood forming at her fingertips as a greenish shadow grew out of her back, forming smoky wings.

Kailu barely evaded as the claws slashed through his chest, cleaving right through his shadows and into his skin.

Calipso was not holding back, not one bit.

And Eris simply watched, enjoying every moment.

As Kailu struggled to evade, trying to speak but never given the time to, not until she kicked him right through the wall and out into the daylight.

Seeing the light, Eris immediately stepped away and into the remaining shadows of the room, hissing in annoyance. “Finish him.” He demanded as Calipso stood in the light surrounded by the shattered wall.

Gazing down at Kailu as he stood up, standing over the broken roof of the nearby building. He reached out to her, “Come with me.” He said.

Calipso froze.

“Don’t you dare.” Eris hissed.

And Calipso took a step back, “Brother, I don’t think I’ve drank enough blood to give him chase this early.”

Eris grinned widely, “Celis, Vern.” He hissed at the other two, who bowed quickly and politely, before rushing past Calipso as two shadows.

Calipso turned away, her gaze held down, she dared not watch.

The memory, for the last time, spanned ahead once more.

A whole decade rushed past Erika, forest and wilderness filling her eyes, it surged past her.

Until she found herself staring into Kailu, not in her own body yet but, the Fox’s now.

“Play it.” The fox told him. “Play his melody of death.”