High concentrations of alcohol and adrenaline running through his veins, Frei looked around as soon as he entered the streets of Lartherion. He had expected the elves to push back the invading aberrations to a large extent, but that was not the case. He could see elf warriors fighting them with their slender blades and quick, precise movements, a spell hitting some unlucky invaders from time to time, but elves appeared to be retreating.

"What are they doing? They seem to be strong enough to push them back." He could not understand the situation, but he had not enough brain capacity to be concerned with what the elves were doing, when he had to make his own escape, especially in his current disoriented state.

"The streets are full of blood, I will run along the roofs." Frei decided, remembering his Shadowstep that would be a great help while moving from roof to roof, enabling him to jump further than an ordinary elf. He used Shroud and walked closer to a wall. After activating Shadowstep , he jumped up quickly and caught the ledge with his fingers.

"Damned stone!" Having no experience with climbing, he fell back to the ground and ended up sprawled on the cobblestones.

"Expertly done Frei." A voice praised him, full of irony.

"Shut up, bottle. What do you know about climbing?!" Frei snapped and quickly jumped back onto his feet. "The street it is."

He moved in the direction out of the city while trying to avoid any fights, using elf warriors as shields whenever he could.

"I am not a bottle!" Meantime his talking weapon kept nagging him, its pride hurt.

"Sorry sword, but do not distract me now." Frei whispered while trying to go around the exact same type of creature he had encountered in the cellar.

"I am not a sword." The sword stated, his words attracting the attention of the aberration Frei was trying to go around undetected.

"Just great!" Frei performed a quick lunge and slashed with the talking sword, but he knew that he had miscalculated, moving his weapon too soon due to his impatience. The weapon in his hand was obviously not long enough and the aberration did not even need to dodge for his attack to miss it, Frei had a feeling its one eye was ridiculing him at the moment his blade was moving past it without having any chance of doing the slightest damage.

"Leave it to me!" His weapon exclaimed and elongated in a blink, turning into a slender, three meter long sword, its tip penetrating deep into the eye of the surprised monstrosity. For a second, Frei stared at the sword with his mouth agape before he pulled it out and continued with his escape.

This weapon was not half bad!

"Shorter, make yourself shorter sword! Do I look like a Sephiroth?" Frei complained, the overly long blade not making his run easier.

"What? Just do your job and use me properly, you are too clumsy!" The sword said, but obediently shortened its blade to its original length.

"What have you been doing in that cellar? Are you some kind of a hidden, legendary weapon?" Frei asked, he would have looked, but it no longer seemed to be an option after the last anomalous explosion.

"I do not know, but I have a feeling that I used to be a person. I do not remember much. At the beginning there was some sort of an error, something about starting before the system was ready." The sword grumbled.

"Before it was ready?" Frei's eyes widened. Him and Nitarja were the first souls to enter this universe right? No one could have entered before them. No, there was one possibility.

"Crow?! Are you Crow?" He asked.

"Who is that? I have just told you that I do not remember much, everything began when I have become that bottle, because the system was not ready or something." It responded with unease, clearly having no memory prior to that event.

"Fine, that might be for the best, no strings attached. How many weapons can you transform into?"

"No idea,, I have seen this sword in the cellar before, it is a copy. I have been too confused by the wine back then, so I have not tried anything." It said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Confused by wine? That is one lame excuse." Frei laughed loudly, but calmed down promptly as he did not want to attract attention.

"Hey! You do not know how it feels with so much wine inside you that your surface is stretched thin, your insides pressured and bloated, ready to burst." The sword vibrated more than before, rising its voice.

"Eh, it does not sound entirely unfamiliar." He mused, the wine causing his brain to arrive at various strange conclusions which he rather kept for himself.

"Poor, poor swordie, Its insides too stretched by the wine!" Frei began gently stroking its blade by his left hand.

"Do not touch me like that! It is gross!" The sword bent to dodge his left hand, transforming into a sabre.

"You are a sword, I have to hold you." Frei acted innocent, shrugging his shoulders.

"Then hold me manly! Not like that!"

"Alright, holding manly now, no womanly touches." Frei held in another burst of laughter and gripped the sword tightly with only his right hand.

"Y-Yes!" The sword had no way to retort and agreed. "And pay attention to the aberrations drunkard! Go, reach the forest quickly, you are too easygoing given the situation!"

Frei wanted to opposed the sword and argue some more, but knew that it was talking the truth and stopped focusing on teasing his new companion. They ran through the wide, sunny streets of the elven city and the more they neared its edge, the less numerous were the aberrations, but at some point, they stopped encountering elf warriors and had to sneak around every aberration they met, or make a detour around it. Even though Frei was confident to defeat the large aberrations, he did not want to expose himself to needless risks.

After they had passed the gate leading into the city, they no longer met any aberrations and Frei breathed out with relief.

"We have finally escaped." He said and looked back when they reached a small hill directly before a forest leading into human lands. He was able to overlook the whole city, a chill ran along his spine when he saw a small floating purple island that had just arrived above the center of Lartherion. However, Frei knew that it looked small only compared to the elven city, its whole surface littered with tunnel entrances and ledges, the aberrations clearly living not only on its surface.

"Disgusting, it looks like a hive, we should get going." Frei turned quickly and the duo of adventurers let themselves be enveloped by the forest that concealed their presence with its rich leaves and vegetation.

"Why have you been drinking in such a situation anyway? Wasn't that stupid?" The sword asked after a while, when he had already commented on the angle of every second branch and blade of grass they had seen in the forest. It was everything fresh and new to the sword, as it had spent its short existence in the cellar, knowing about the outside world just from the rants of the drunken customers.

"To forget." The weapon waited for Frei's next words, but he did not spoke further.

"To forget what?" It asked after a time.

"Your stupid questions, better tell me what kind of weapons can you form." Frei asked and watched as his new companion demonstrated and transformed into every weapon it named.

"The ones I have seen in the cellar. Long sword, short sword, sabre, axe, spear, shield, whip, knife, tankard, bow, but without arrows, I cannot shoot myself away you know?" The sword let out a giggling sound like he had just made a great joke.

"Tankard is not a weapon, but it can be handy." Frei said and stopped suddenly, stupefied.

"Impossible, they used it on multiple occasions!" The sword exclaimed, surprised.

"Fuck!" Frei still stood there like a stump

"What is it? Something serious?" The sword transformed into a tankard in Frei's hand and began producing obscene noises, probably as well learned in the wine cellar.

"We forgot Evelin." Frei stated matter of factly.

"That is normal, no? People in the cellar kept forgetting someone there all the time." It transformed into a sword back again.

"Not exactly, but too much time have passed anyway, we can only wish her luck." Frei said, not listening to the silly chatter of his companion anymore.

Guilt washed over him. He knew that Evelin's chances to survive on her own were not high given that she did not possess his immunity to sun and silver. His moment of weakness had caused him to make a rushed decision that he now could only regret.

"I have to get grip on myself, first turning a random girl into a vampire and then the drinking. This cannot continue." He frowned and started walking again in silence, buried in his thoughts while ignoring the sword's chatter.

While following the forest path silently, they caught up to a line of people that was clearly fleeing from Lartherion. Most of them were humans and their speed was limited by the countless elderly and children that were among them. They just caught up to the last people in the line and followed the refugees, not causing any surprise as everyone could guess that they shared their fate based on Frei's pointy ears.

"Do not talk in front of others, it will cause endless trouble for us." Frei whispered near his right hand and the sword vibrated lightly in response.

"Hi, could you lend us a hand in defending the rear against wolves? We will share our food with you." One of the humans had deliberately slowed his pace and asked him when they were next to each other.

"Sure, I will help." Frei answered with a smile, being sincere. He really needed to improve his karma a bit or his conscience would not make it unscathed.

"Great, I am glad there are still good elves around, not just those cowards that pull back to their World Tree when their people are dying." The man said with a nod.

"Could you please elaborate?" Frei asked, he was very much interested in the topic.

* * * *

Victor closed the door behind him, leaving Nitarja inside alone. He moved though the corridors of the Waldorf Castle with silent steps until he reached another wing of his personal chambers. He entered and saw that one of his lesser vampires was inside, he knelt on one knee the moment he saw him enter.

"My Lord." He bowed his head, but Victor did not answer, gesturing him to move with him to another room and closed a heavy door behind them when they entered.

"You have failed to intercept the letter, I am very disappointed in you." Victor's red eyes stared directly at the kneeling servant. He would most likely have received some of the gifted vampires already if not for Frei turning coat. He could have had a squad of vampires for quick use for free until their relationship lasted, but now he had nothing.

"The lead of the messenger was too great, I am sorry My Lord." His minion answered, his voice steady despite the situation.

"Go to our branch in Lartherion, the target may still be in its vicinity. " Victor did not pursue the matter and instead, he changed the topic instantly.

"Any specific orders My Lord?" The lesser vampire veiled in black lifted his head and asked, staring into Victor's red eyes.

"Capture or kill, but be smart about it. I do not need every bird to sing about it after the deed is done. Especially here in Waldorf and adjacent lands." Victor ordered, Frei was a liability to him if he could no longer control him.

"Of course My Lord, no one will ever know." His servant bowed his head again.

"Perfect, do not fail me again. Now go." He unlocked the heavy door and the lesser vampire left the room silently.

He was uneasy about Frei's uncertain identity and the fact that he would certainly hold a grudge against him should be solved in time while he was still young and weak.

"Why was he able to resist the conversion? Is he a mixed blood? An elf and a dragon? A Demon, aberration, angel?" Victor was irritated, he hated anything he could not figure out.