The second I could see my cabin, I was stumbling to my knees. I can’t even remember how many years I’d spent inside of it. All the work and effort I’d put into maintaining it was all gone now. Before I could really grieve, I heard Senna let out a roar and charge someone standing in front of it. They were too far away for me to tell who they were, but I could see some signs of heavy damage on them.

Once Senna took I swing, it became obvious the stranger was a vampire as well. I moved behind a tree and collapsed down on one knee. My body was stiff like a rock while I watched the flames churn.

I’ve got to head in there and save what I can! I thought to myself. Dammit, Senna and that vampire are fighting right in front of the doorway. Even if I got there in time, there’s no way I wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire. That’s not even mentioning the idea that Senna might try and throw me to safety and end up getting hit.

My eyes broke from the cabin and moved down to the fight. To my surprise, Senna didn’t look like she was even trying to hit him. All her moves were dodging, and she kept pausing to cough. I rose to my feet and slinked forward within the treeline to get a better look. Only a few steps later I got a better look at the Stranger’s face and remembered he was Edward Ainz. He had a dagger in his hand, but it was some kind of blackened metal.

“Stop dodging!” He shouted at Senna in anger.

“How about you explain why you’ve got even worse scars than me? Your father’s magic too much for your fragile body?”

Edward growled and let loose a flurry of slashes at her. While she dodged most of them, her arm was sliced open with the last one. Fresh blood poured onto the ground and Senna yelped in pain. Her hand covered the wound, but her scowl slowly turned to horror as she pulled her hand away. The wound was bubbling a sickly black color and wasn’t healing properly. Edward held the knife out towards her and laughed.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about how I wanted to make you suffer for what you did to me, then what you did to Anna. You know that phrase, an arm for a leg?”

“It’s an arm AND a leg.” Senna hissed at him.

“Well, if you insist...”

Edward lunged for her leg with his dagger, but Senna took advantage and grabbed some of the blood from her wound and threw it at his face. He dodged away in time to avoid getting hit. Senna tried to jump at him in a follow up, but one of the beams of the cabin collapsed down and sent a wave of flaming splinters between them. She glanced down at her arm as it started to slowly heal. I couldn’t see well from my position, but the wound was still black as it closed.

“What is this stuff?” She asked, wincing as the muscles in her forearm pulled the wound open again.

He rose to one knee from where he’d fallen, but hesitated in moving further. I took a few steps closer to him, and could just barely make out the sound of him heaving. All of a sudden, he began vomiting into the dirt with a pained groan. Even in the bright lighting of the cabin fire, the bile was the same pitch black color of the dagger. After two fits of heaving, he rubbed the blade of the dagger into the puddle and stood back up, the liquid quickly drying over the metal.

Senna’s face was contorted in disgust, which was probably close to how mine looked as well. Edward wiped his mouth with his blade arm and coughed before walking away from the burning cabin. I made a quiet and steady retreat from their path, Senna giving me a worried look with every step. She matched his walking and eventually the two of them were far enough away from the fire that they could speak at a normal volume. Edward removed his robe completely, revealing his uncovered torso.

Like Senna, he had a massive amount of scars all over his body. Where it differed was the fact that his scars looked like the right half of his entire body had been burned to a crisp, but also exuded a strange steam from some portions.

“You know... I came here because I was blinded with a thirst for vengeance. I crawled towards my father in order to get him to heal me, and went on to ask for some way to kill you as well. From what I can tell, you know some of the pain I felt, don’t you?” Edward asked, his breathing hoarse.

I expected Senna to lunge at him, but she only stood in place. While I first thought she was being hesitant to take fight him because he had a weapon, I quickly realized my mistake from the icy stare she had on him.

Why isn’t she going after him? Come to think of it, she should have struck him down when he started walking as well. There’s something wrong with her. Maybe she’s worried about getting cut with that dagger, but that wouldn’t explain why she was so hesitant before. It must be something to do with whatever is coming off of his body. I thought to myself. Edward probably doesn’t know it, but I don’t think any kind of magical help he’s got can stop her forever.

“I had to wait a good half an hour or so, staring into the flames before the two of you got back, you know. That was enough to give me a chance for self reflection, and I realized that I can’t even say that you killing Anna was unexpected.” He said with a laugh which led to a brief fit of coughing. “...lost your family, and anyone that knew about you. If it weren’t for your cattle clumsily trying to hide behind me, I’d say you actually were an animal. But you’re not, I think you’re just like... a worse version of myself.”

“Excuse me?!” Senna barked, fists clenched at her sides.

“When I really came to terms with the fact Anna was dead, I was so angry I couldn’t even think straight. You, on the other hand? I mean, you lost your whole damn family lineage in one night, and you just keep soldiering forward. Sure you made some passes to try and join our family, but you had this unrelenting urge to survive!” Edward said before placing a hand on the scarred portion of his chest. “But I’m not one to cling onto a worthless existence. Whereas you were content to live in the wilderness and sink your fangs into diseased prey, I’ll get revenge no matter the cost! I’m well aware that I’m going to die, probably any second now... My insides are turning into a bloated mass, exuding this damn vapor out through my skin. I guess this is what Anna felt, huh?”

Neither of them spoke for a while, but I could tell Senna’s head was somewhere else entirely at this point. I sat down on the ground, not caring to stay quiet anymore, and placed one hand over my eye.

Vapor? That must be what’s keeping Senna away from him. Does she just have to keep dodging him until that stuff kills him? I’m honestly amazed he did something that insane. Even if we make it through this, I don’t have a home anymore. The father or his older brother might come for us after this as well. Does that mean we can’t hide in town, in case they decide to slaughter anyone staying wherever we sleep?

Before I could think on it much longer, I heard a large crash and looked to the cabin. The frame was completely destroyed by now, with the walls and ceiling falling on top of themselves. My fists clenched at my sides, but I didn’t have anything I could do. Dying or not, Edward was still a vampire, and could kill me with just one purposeful hit. I stood up and started walking back towards the cabin, but a blur moved by first.

One she was closer to the fire, I realized it was Senna, racing directly for the burning cabin. She shattered the cabin’s still-burning door with her shoulder, barreling inside of the wreckage.

“Senna!” I shouted.

I ran after her, but the walls started collapsing further, and the remains on the western wall collapsed completely. Edward moved closer to it, peering inside to try and find her. We both waited for her to reappear, and sweat was building on my forehead. I put one foot on the ground to start running in after her, when a flaming pan was chucked out from the inside.

Edward knocked it away with the dagger and stared down at the dull red cooking equipment. When we looked back to the cabin, Senna was silently charging out of it with a similarly heated sword in her hands. I could spot several burns all over her body, even on top of the scars she had as well in patches over the shirt she was wearing. As they smoked and regenerated, she slashed the sword at Edward’s head. He tried to block it with his blackened dagger, but it was only knocked out of the way by the force of her blow. The sword sank down into his shoulder and broke his collarbone before it stopped.

He let out a shout of pain and collapsed to the ground. Before he could fully recover, Senna plated a foot on his chest and yanked the blade out of his bone, quickly swinging it at his blade arm. With the muscles severed by the silver weapon, his arm was left limply hanging next to him. More of the vapor poured out of his wounds and Senna had to move back beside me. Even though he was a vampire, I was amazed to see him still breathing

“Dammit... you’re insane...” Edward said, collapsing forward onto his hands and vomiting more black bile.

“Just shut up and die already. You smell like a corpse, I just want to make sure you don’t get back up and chase us down.” Senna hissed at him, dropping her sword and clinging to my side.

“Like I’d give you that satisfaction... But I’ve already told you, didn’t I? I don’t care whether I live or die. It’s pathetic I couldn’t even kill you the way I was supposed to...” He muttered, trying to lift himself up. “But at least I got to take away your home. Maybe Anna can rest easy knowing I got that done at least, and if not...”

He raided back up from his posture, revealing he’d moved the dagger to his functioning arm. Senna started to get between us, but he drove the blade into his own stomach with a whimper of pain. After a few heavy breaths, he yanked it up towards his chest. Bile burst out of his mouth and the wounds, quickly bubbled over and grew unstable. The smell from the vapor got stronger and I realized that whatever it was that burned Senna’s arm was about to explode over us.

I jumped in front of her right as it happened. The explosion sounded like an old man screaming in pain and lasted for several seconds. All the while I felt an agonizing burning across my back. By the time it ended, there was splatters of the bile on the ground around us, and Senna was the only thing keeping me upright.

“L-Leo...?” Senna whispered into my ear. “I know you’re still alive from your heart b-but... are you okay?”

“Not quite sure...” I replied, pressing off her shoulder and stumbling onto one knee. “How does my back look?”

She moved behind me and let out a gasp before rushing back around and hugging me, taking care not to touch my back. I could tell she was thinking about giving me some of her blood to make me into a vampire. However burned I was, it couldn’t have been fatal. I struggled back to a standing position and leaned against Senna as we walked away from the smoldering ruins of my home.

“Thank you for protecting me, Senna. We’re going to rent a room at an inn in town, it’s a place I’ve had drinks at before. But in case I pass out by then, I need you to do me a favor...”

“Anything, please tell me what you need.” She answered as soon as I finished talking.

“Don’t kill anybody while we’re in town, and get us both some new clothes.”

My vision got blurry even before I was done talking. The rest of my body went numb and limp soon after, so I didn’t have time to hear her response before I collapsed.