Please help yourself," said Oran as he placed a teacup before his guest Raivy.

"Thank you," Raivy responded. "Oran, how are you now?"

"I am well, please don’t worry about me," replied Oran.

Oran's condition had become more stable after Itara had passed away. This had led to talks among villagers that Oran had disliked his wife, that he had wanted her to die, and some had concluded that he had killed her.

"I don’t want to trouble you for long," said Raivy. "I am sure you have other arrangements to take care of after your wife's passing. I am just curious about what caused her death."

"Yes, and that is why I brought you here. Raivy... You are the prime reason for her death."

"Huh?"

"Why should I hide it from you?” It is too late to hide anything. I heard your talk with her, Raivy. I dug a small tunnel in Itara's room to make sure that no visitor harmed her. I wouldn't let her remain alone with any guest, more so in her disturbed state. I heard everything—from you bringing this creature named Vira, to forcing her to talk about all she knew about your mother's death. I am sure you want to extract everything I know out of me like you did to her, don't you?"

"That makes it easier for me. Tell me, how did she die? And, depending on your answer, I might let you live."

"Let me live? Don't make me laugh, you little brat. You think after killing hundreds of Metzerians over the past dozen of years I would be afraid of the likes of you and your friend? Think again. But I have promised to tell you how she died, and you probably won't like it because I was the one who killed her. Since she knew what happened to Arbara, and about Javen and my past, I could not let her live. She had been troublesome throughout last year, so it was a good opportunity to get rid of her."

Raivy was about to reply, but Erya did it before him.

"Father, what did you just say?" said Erya, who had come down from the upper floor and was standing on the stairs with disbelieving eyes. "You can’t be the one who killed her. Please tell me this is not true."

"Erya," said Oran, "I thought you were sleeping. Go back, you don’t need to be here."

"I cannot—" she said.

But her father interrupted her. "ERYA... GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM AT ONCE. What is going to happen here is something you should neither see nor hear. Do you want to meet the same fate as your mother?"

Erya's body shivered. The last time he had shouted at her that way was seven years ago—she had camped in the forest with her friends for five days without telling her parents.

"Erya," said Raivy calmly. "I agree with your father that you should not stay here. Please go back to your room."

"F… fine," Erya responded with a stutter. "But, Raivy, if you harm my father in any way, you will regret it your whole life. And, Father… Let us talk after you are done."

"Fine," said Oran indifferently.

With that, Erya walked upstairs to her room. The duo resumed their talk only after Erya had closed the door of her room.

"Now that she is gone," said Raivy, "please continue."

"Well, not much is left to say... I simply choked her to death. She resisted, which surprised me, as she had often tried to commit suicide over last year. She had certainly changed after you came and met her. Keeping that in mind, the reason I brought you here was not to tell you a story about her..."

Oran held the corner of the table between them, lowered his back so that his face was almost touching Raivy's, then said in a whisper, "I brought you here because I need to take the Amulet you used on her... Magdamilia, was it? And, since you now know what happened to your mother I also can't let you live."

Oran stood straight and walked toward the living room wall behind him. An old, dusty greatsword adorned the wall as decoration. Raivy remembered it from the time he had been a child. As soon as Oran touched the hilt, the greatsword let out an orange glow.

So, he also has a magical weapon, Raivy thought.

"Don’t tell your father Javen that I have used Revarma," said Oran. "He forbade it long ago."

Oran was about to pull the greatsword from its sheath, but suddenly he heard strange, heavy footsteps coming from his right. Oran also turned his head to the footsteps. What is going on? Raivy wondered.

A person with a strong body stood there, fully covered in black clothing, with a black hood covering his face. The front part of the hood had a red symbol depicting three winged, serpent-like beings. Raivy had no clue what that meant.

"What are—" said the startled Oran. But the unknown man, now beside Oran, interrupted him by sliding his right hand across Oran's neck, without actually touching it. In an instant, Oran's head was severed from his body. Both the head and the rest of Oran's body fell on the floor, and blood pooled beneath his corpse.

Raivy stood up—the sofas were blocking his view. But as soon as he did the unknown guest looked at Raivy and said, "Don't be startled. He would have killed you had I not intervened."

After saying that, the unknown guest walked toward the greatsword, ignoring the red, warm pool beneath him. He picked up the greatsword, then he disappeared into thin air.

Just what is going on with my life? Is this what Jigan warned me about? Raivy thought.

He first looked around the living room in case anything else might be lurking around. He found nothing suspicious, so he returned his attention to Oran.

"Vira, come," said Raivy.

He appeared at once, and Raivy told him what had happened.

"So, despite hiding it as much as I could, the Dragans knew about the prophecy," said Vira. "Raivy, the person you saw was a servant of the Dragans—a Dervant. The symbol of the three winged serpents you saw proves it. I never thought they could even reach Earth. But why did the Dervant help you? Raivy, there is a lot going on under the ground than even I am unaware of. It is dangerous to stay on Earth for too long. The safest place would be the horsenake capital. But even there, the Dragans are beyond the powers of all hybrids combined..."

"Now, before you go too far, we have to do something about Oran," said Raivy.

"Do something? He is dead."

"Even a kid knows that, idiot. We have to hide his body, at least."

Raivy also had another issue of explaining the situation to Erya.

"Vira, take Oran's body somewhere in the forest; make sure no one finds out. In the meantime I will clean the blood and head upstairs to talk to Erya. I will tell her that her father was so excited to see my hut in the forest that he left the house without telling her. Besides, She just talked to her father so she would not imagine him dead."

"Sounds good. In any case, don't worry about Erya. By the time we go to Metzra, you will forget everything about Earth."

Vira grabbed Oran's body like a small toy and headed outside the house into the forest.

Raivy cleaned the blood within an hour—the luxurious wooden floor and furniture didn’t absorb it enough to create serious stains. Then, he walked upstairs to Erya's room. He did not know which room was hers, so he kept knocking on all five of them until Erya responded.

"Raivy... do you need something?" asked Erya after she opened the door.

"I have to go with your father quickly. He went off before me to look at my hut. I knew you would be worried, so I thought I should tell you before I leave."

It feels like a lie. It sounds like a lie... Raivy thought.

"I see. Dad always comes and bothers me about the tiniest of things, especially after Mother's condition worsened. Maybe her passing made him forget and talk about such thoughts and anger... Anyway, it will be a change of pace for him away from the gloom. Please take care of my father, Raivy. You are Arbara's son after all."

The son of a human eater, sure... Raivy thought.

"Great. Take care, then."

With that, Raivy left the house. His entire body was perspiring so profusely that she might have smelled the leftover stench downstairs.

How come a murdered Oran did not terrify me as much as her? Raivy wondered.

✽✽✽

The two hadn’t decided on a meeting point. So, Raivy headed for the hut to see whether he could find Vira there. He found Vira but Oran's body was nowhere to be seen.

"What happened to Oran's body?" asked Raivy.

"I already buried it, along with the head."

"I did not tell you to do so."

"You would first have doubts about where to put the body, or how to hide it. But, you would end up burying him anyway, so I saved you all the hassle. But I am glad. I thought the death of Itara, Javen, and then of Oran would tear your heart to pieces. But I sense no sadness in you."

"That's because of what Mother and Father hid from me. Why should I feel sadness for such people?"

"I see. While I disagree with your logic, this characteristic will aid you well in Metzra, so don't change it."

"So, when are we leaving for Metzra? I think I should be able to live in it without the blue mist's limitation, as I no longer feel any attachment to Earth."

"It's up to you, but the earlier, the better. I assume the mist will show up the same way as it did the last time… when the moon disappeared, was it?"

"Possible. a month has passed since you came to Earth. So, the moon should be absent tomorrow or the day after; let’s aim for that."

The duo waited for the next day until the sun disappeared and luckily, the moon did not show up. Hence, they did exactly what Jigan had told Raivy to do—left the hut and kept walking wherever they wanted until the blue mist appeared. But this time, Raivy went to where the blue mist had first appeared. He dreaded repeating that helpless walk he had to endure a month ago for the blue mist.

"It showed up here last month," said Raivy. "Let us wait for a while, it might appear."

"Sure," replied Vira.

An hour passed, but the mist did not appear, so they decided to search around the hut.

"I remember that it showed when I grew utterly desperate. Once I gave up and headed for the hut, it appeared in front of me."

"You mean we have to search until we become desperate?"

"Could be. The only person who can answer this question is Jigan, but we cannot afford to go to him as the sun would rise before we reach his cave. And in that case, we will have to wait an entire month for another blue mist to reappear."

The two resigned themselves to wandering around the forest. They walked and walked until three hours had passed. Raivy was growing weary, and the sun was not far from rising.

"We should stop and head to Jigan," said Vira.

"Seems so," said Raivy. "Let us rest before we go to him. Perhaps he can help us enter Metzra without waiting for another month."

Raivy led the walk toward the hut, as he was more informed about the area. He grabbed hold of his hut's door handle, opened it, and there it was—the blue mist had been inside the hut all along.

"Again… Whoever places the blue mist deserves endless stabbing," said Raivy.

"Well, setting our emotions aside," said Vira. "The being who places these mists can predict the future, for it knew precisely where we will become desperate... But note that the mist is faint—it won’t last as the sun is about to rise. Let's hurry."

"I know,” replied Raivy, who was running toward it with Vira. "I am excited, for some reason. Is Volca still alive?"

"Unfortunately, he is," said Vira. "But keep holding on to this excitement, if you can."

"Oh wait... I forgot to read my mother's blue letter. Give me a second."

Raivy opened the blue letter, and this is what it said:

"Dearest Ray, how was your journey with your uncle Vira? You can trust him fully, for he can never harm his nephew. Also, you will find that there is a red letter inside this blue one. It is not for you, but to Lord Velyas in Metzra. Make sure that you give it to him.

“Since you are about to enter Metzra, I will have to unlock your horsenake side. So from now on, you will no longer be a human, not even a horsenake, instead, you will be a Tribred—made of three beings. May the gods of Metzra protect you, my king.”

As soon as Raivy finished reading the letter he started to feel a green change in his body, and a painful one.