---Sigma---

The heavy silver sword aimed for the shoulder.

„Urgh!" she laboriously blocked and deflected it with her glaive.

Despite doing her best in the deflection, she was thrown back by the impact. She could feel her power waning and the aura on her spear weakened.

When had her brother become so strong? She felt so exhausted, they had been fighting for so long and he was still going strong. He should have come back to help them after gaining such strength,

Anger once again welled up in her chest. He didn't just run away and left them behind. Vlad had abandoned them, abandoned her. He left them behind in that hell and lived a happy life founding a family.

She couldn't help the hot tears that started streaming down her face. Even after gaining such strength, he had not spared a thought of helping them! He was having a wholesome life, while they had to suffer in the Beyond. The sorrow fueled her wrath.

The same thoughts kept going round and round in her head, ever since she found out that her brother was still alive and had fled to another world. Why should he be allowed to be happy, after kicking them away?

He had led them, he had promised... He had abandoned his duty and his family just like that.

The red aura flared up again as she once again clashed with her brother. Deflection his sword with a powerful flick, she stabbed for his throat but missed. Yeah, even better than his power was his ability to run. Vlad had nimbly ducked away, evading the deadly blade.

Even though they both were vampires, their weapons were specifically enchanted to be able to kill even their immortal race.

The fight went on and Vlad slowly gained the upper hand again. Her emotion-fueled rush was powerful but short-lived. Soon she was kneeling in exhaustion. When he had the chance to strike her down, he stopped.

"Genny-" he started.

"Don't call me like that!" she barked. He had long lost the right to call her affectionately.

"Gen-Genevieve, you have to stop this madness. I do not wish to kill you," he said helplessly.

"What's with the sudden sympathy, Vlad?" she spat out her brother's name as if it was the vilest discharge.

She could see the pain in his face when she said his name like that. It might have been just a bit of petty little vengeance, but it made her feel a little better. On the flip side, it also deepened her sorrow. There was a time when she called his name with glee.

"You abandoned me. You abandoned us," she blamed him, more to remind herself, than him.

That was right. That time was no more. He had thrown it away. They would have fought at his side until the end, but he decided to run away.

"Genevieve, I left to protect you all!"

"Save your excuses. Strike me down while you can, because I will not give up until I dragged you down to the same place we had to suffer these past decades," she told him and readied herself.

When Vlad really lifted his sword, she used her chance. She had used his little sobby moment to recover enough to move again. With a swipe of her glaive, she rolled to the side and cleaved into Vlad's calve. The vampire let a pain-filled roar.

But he was still standing, she had not managed to cut through. As his sword came down for her again, she had to leave the glaive to evade the strike. Things seemed hopeless, now that her brother was enraged.

Genevieve barely managed to evade several strikes. She realized that she would be unable to finish this battle today but she was not ready to die yet. With a quick roll, she grabbed her glaive from the ground, jumped to her feet, and ran.

The horde of monsters she had brought as a distraction for Vlad's allies was not enough to slow her brother. Even if he still wouldn't kill her, after almost hacking off his foot, she probably wouldn't be lucky enough to keep all her appendages if he caught her.

She did a few bite-bys, where she sucked the blood of the abominations she had brought to regain her stamina. Nimbly, she started climbing and jumping up the high buildings of this place. She was afraid of losing her way in these labyrinthine streets.

Instead, she tried to use the building themselves to lose him. Jumping from a roof and crashing through the glass facade of the next building to make him lose sight of her. Inside she used some doors, ignored some walls(crashing right through them), and went straight out of the building on the other side.

The vampiress did this a few times, either leaving the building to another side or changing floors before exiting. She finally managed to gain some distance from her brother who also got slower. She fathomed that he started to worry about his beloved home.

They had already gotten quite far from the barrier. Vlad probably started doubting whether she was really running or just luring him away. Visible, but blocked by the dark fog of the beyond, the sun had already risen in the distance.

Genevieve felt pathetic. After all her training and zeal, she had fought with him the whole night, only to run away in the end. Had it all been for naught? She tried hard to become strong, for her revenge and her family, but in the end, she couldn't catch up to her brother who chose to abandon them and lead a calm life...

She shook her head to chase away these thoughts. She just had to train harder for the next time. Facing what lay before her again, she suddenly saw a massive creature in the sky.

Giant in size with a head shaped like a scarab, two pairs of scythe-like appendages, and the giant body of a centipede fit the aesthetic standards of the beyond. But the golden head and the porcelain, pure white chitin armor with golden ornaments definitely didn't. What was this? Was that a man sitting on its back?

She didn't have the time to mess with this, she turned around and wanted to run, but suddenly a condensed ray of light cut off her escape path, by literally severing the corner of the building in front of her. She could feel the terrifying heat even from afar.

"From this distance?!" she thought terrified.

The corners of the cut-off section were still glowing red hot. If this had hit her, she would have disintegrated in a puff of smoke and dust. This was an unmistakable sign for her not to run. It didn't take long for the centipede to close in.

The figure seated atop the beats was waving at her. She could see he was wearing a wide cloak, atop a golden robe and it seemed like he also wore armor below the robe.

"No need to run. I mean you no harm. I just have some questions." she heard the voice of the young man from above.

He jumped off his mount and slowly floated to the roof in front of her. She readied her glaive and watched him warily. How unlucky. Not only did her duel with her brother fail but she had to run away. The moment she managed to gain some distance she ran into a weird fellow.

"I'm looking for a few people who have a hard time following instructions. They are traveling in a flying armored school bus. Did you see it?"

What was this guy talking about? What was a skuhl bass? Although she didn't understand all of his words, she understand enough to associate it with the armored thing that had entered the barrier during the night.

"There is a barrier at the center of this place. I saw it enter there. Can I leave now?" she spoke quickly.

Prompted by her words the man suddenly looked off in the distance. Then he put the hood of his cloak over his head for a moment.

"Ah, it's that glowing ball, right? Thanks," he said after a moment.

With the three pairs of bright blue eyes fixed on Genevieve, the giant centipede lowered enough for the man to get on his back. She didn't dare to move before these two were away.

" Genevieve!" her brother exclaimed as he pulled himself up on the rooftop behind her.

She regretted this indecisiveness as soon as she heard him. The stranger had taken too much of her time.

"Hmm, you also seem to be in need of a little help?" she heard the stranger say from behind.