Snow's arm was locked in place, she twisted out of Rye’s hold, her armor magically appeared as her tattoo glowed as her helmet, claws, and tails appeared. The white glow of the usual armor was slightly dimmed down, and a hint of reddish glow appeared throughout the armor. It was as if it was a living, breathing armor that spat out a glow of hot steam.

Her right leg swept low. Rye jumped in midair but was smashed into the ground with a follow up of a roundhouse kick that perfectly landed onto his unsuspected side. His impact caused a cushion to blow up and feathers to spit out all around him.

Both vampires, Ego and Blue Vera, snapped into attention at the sudden rough force from Snow. In alarm at her behavior, they attacked simultaneously in the hopes to calm her down.

Bluevera jumped up with a sword in hand. He swung his sword downwards in a flurry, Snow claws met on impact, stopping his blade. Her tail swung underneath, taking out Rye’s leg support as she grabbed him by the ankles.

Ego came in like a bulldozer, his gauntlet alive and on fire, spitting out flames as it came straight to Snow’s head.

On instinct, Snow barely tilted her head, dodging his blow. But she felt the hot flames lick her skin, causing her armor to slightly heat up. Her hands grabbed hold of Ego’s arm, she followed the direction of his punch, and the shoulder threw him over.

With a startled yell, Bluevera fell splat on his back in shock.

“Saintess.” Rye was up, shaking off the feathers that stuck to him like glue. He spat out a few in his mouth. “Please calm down. You haven’t finished hearing my words.”

Snow snapped towards Rye’s direction, her claws outstretched with dangerous light energy forming around it. At first, when she met Rye, she didn’t have much of an opinion of him, but as he helped them out and saved their lives, her standing with him was much more in a good light.

But she was naive to think that the vampires were actually fighting for the cause of humanity, forgetting that they saw humans more as livestock and that seeing a few dying didn’t harm them as a whole. That thought infuriated her.

On instinct, Rye scurried backward. The dangerous power of the light magic was a weakness to his kind, and Snow had the upper hand as the magic of light was always abundant around her.

Everyone could feel the spike in energy, continually growing at a rapid pace. They knew that such dangerous energy could kill them if they didn’t watch out, and the rate that Snow’s light energy was growing was so dense that it was choking Blue Vera and Rye at the same time. Their breathing became heavy as they coughed. Only Ego was able to withstand a bit of the light magic that spewed out of her in anger.

“Miss Snow,” Ego shouted with a rough tone of voice. His eyes glowed red, he got up from the ground, annoyed that he ate a fist full of feathers. He blew some out of his mouth and wiped his lips. “Enough!”

Both Snow and Ego energy clashed in a wild bulk. The dark and light energy pushed against each other to the point where even Arachne was a bit unsettled. Arachne sharply gazed towards the two, clicking her teeth tensely, waiting for them to calm down.

Ego’s energy became stronger, matching Snow’s ferocity. Out of the three vampires, Ego was the strongest. At first, he didn’t think much of Snow and her power, thinking a saintess would be just a simple healer that could use their energy to heal wounds. He did not expect to be a class of pure force between the light elemental energy. Especially because the energy that she gave off had a pure power of light that was rare.

Snow glared, the red energy around her intensified, slightly dimming down the light energy. But even still, she held her ground against all three, especially Ego.

The two forces' energy eventually neutralized each other, causing both sides to stand amid a flurry of feathers. All of them stood a bit dumbfounded.

Ego coughed. “Miss Snow, I understand that you are mad, but please. Hear us out.” He talked with a much calmer tone than Rye.

“What. Do. You. Have. To. Say?” Snow hissed, scowling at them. She was ready to butt heads one more time to get a few more good hits in.

“Rye doesn’t speak for the whole of the vampire race. We are here to help you. I assure you of that.”

“Then why haven’t you saved the players?” She asked, crossing her arms. Her tail thumped the pillow agitated.

“Because we were trapped ourselves,” Ego said with seriousness, which completely confused Snow. “It wasn’t until a few days ago that we were able to break free.”

“What do you mean?” This was the first time she didn’t understand how this was possible. They were strong, getting captured was rare, making her wonder what was strong enough to contain three noble vampires.

Ego was satisfied that Snow was finally willing to listen. “We don’t know why, but we were able to escape our prison. We arrived here yesterday.”

Snow turned towards Arachne, who was watching everything with interest. “Is this true?” Waiting for her answer.

“Yes,” Arachne said with assurance to her question. “They came here last night.”

Snow thought over what they said. The energy that was welling up around her washed away as quickly as it came. She slumped on the ground, realizing that her hot-headedness could have caused something she would regret.

The others shook off the feathers, they came over towards her and stopped. They stared for a moment, making sure she was going to blow up again. When they saw her temper and energy dissipate, they came over to take a seat.

“So, you won’t blow up again?” Bluvera said with a grunt. He placed his sword down. He could see an ugly welt on his face that Snow had given.

“No, it depends all on your answers.” Snow replied back. The claws, tail, and helmet disappeared, showing off a serious expression.

“Good,” Rye grunted. His lips were broken with blood dripping down his side.

A heavy pregnant silence echoed throughout the group. Nobody started to say anything, unable to voice their opinion as the tension in the air was awkward.

Arachne was the first to break the silence as one of her legs tagged and ripped open a cushion. The sound caught everyone’s attention, which made Arachne cough. She spoke, “It seems that everything is settled. I need assistance.”

Snow wondered what she was asking for. “What assistance do you need?”

With a glimmer of her eyes, she leaned forward. Crossing her legs in front of her, Arachne flopped down a bit closer to Snow. “I want to get out of here.”

Snow didn’t understand why, but she pushed forward to ask. She picked her fingers unconsciously. “Why now?” There was no way that there wasn’t more to this. She wanted to know what.

Arachne chuckled. “Because of you.”

Pointing to herself, she asked, “Me?”

“Yes,” Arachne said with a hint of humor. “When you broke the barrier around this castle, you have started off something that has been sleeping here for ages.”

“What would that be?”

“The sleeping guardian that keeps me here. The king who kept me here as a pet,” Arachne said with a trembling voice. “I was a fool to believe that man, who said he would help free me of my curse in exchange for helping him. I should have killed him then, but instead, I stayed assisting him in conquering nations. Becoming bigger and bigger, taking over a third of the continent as he asked for.”

“I was a fool.” Arachne clucked her teeth. She spat on the ground, shaking her head of her own stupidity. “Instead, he went back on his words, trapping me here in his castle so he could still take over his reign.”

Snow didn’t expect such a story from Arachne. She felt an inkling of compassion towards the spider that was fuming.

“So, now my offer stands to you. Help me break free from this castle, and I shall reward you.” Her hands outstretched for Snow to take.

The thought was tempting, a way to break out of this castle could be with the help of the spider. She didn’t know, but Arachne wasn’t the monster that guarded the dungeon crystal.

“Would you swear under the God of Light and Darkness?” Snow stood up, challenging Arachne. She wasn’t just going to shake on it. There was a high possibility that Arachne would turn on her at the last minute.

“What?”

“I would like you to swear under my God for proof of your words.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“I believe you, but I am not a fool. You said you need me. If I die, you won’t ever escape.”

A wave of bubbling anger sizzled around Arachne, but she didn’t refute.

“I want your word that you will not harm my guild members at the Golden Phoenix when we break out of here. In return, I’ll help you kill the king. Is that not what you want?” Snow asked, cocking her hips. She stared at Arachne with a fierce determination of what she wanted.

Arachne said slowly, “Yes.”

“Then swear on it.”

With a displeasure grunt, Arachne swore. “I swear in front of the God of Light and Darkness that I, Arachne, will spare all of the Gold Phoenix members and reward Snow if she breaks me out of this prison.”