“So it’s been decided,” Kinryuu smiled, “I already took a sample of the cube’s magic. Zephyr would stay in Arad’s care until we find a way to free her,”

“I also took a sample, and I’ll be doing my research on my island,” Alice turned to leave. She would rather not be stared at by anyone if she can help it. Being a titan, and one with long blue hair on top of it made her stand out too much for her liking.

Kinryuu jumped into the sky, “Arad, I’ll call you if we find anything. Please be careful of other races approaching your land. Don’t hesitate to call for us to help, or even the chromatics. As much as I hate to say it, they’re the most reliable when you only need them to fight.”

“I know,” Arad replied, looking toward Alcott and Ginger, “We have enough power to defend ourselves, but I’ll call for help anyway just to be sure nothing will go wrong.” He turned toward Kinryuu, “Don’t blame me if you came and didn’t find anything to fight,”

“I didn’t blame you this time, did I? I only served to distract Vlad so he wouldn’t retract his expansion and prevent you from eating everything he had,” Kinryuu approached the flying fortress, and a massive steel gate opened that he flew through.

The massive fortress quickly disappeared as easily as it appeared, leaving no trace in the night sky. Arad looked down, turning his head toward the church’s closed door. Now that silence fell again, the cries of the injured inside grew louder in his ears.

“We’ll camp here until the people inside are able to move,” Arad said, shifting back into his humanoid form.

“What would they be able to do once they can move?” Alcott stared at him, “I’ve seen enough destroyed cities. They won’t survive the winter here with how the capital got destroyed.”

“I know,” Arad replied as he slowly pushed the church’s door open and walked inside, “We’re moving them to the nearest city that can accept refugees.”

“We’re in the midst of winter, I bet most of the cities in the area relied on the capital for a lot of their supplies. With the trade route eliminated, they’ll be in the red too, and we aren’t counting the fact they got attacked by their local vampires as well,” Alcott walked behind Arad as they reached Amaterasu’s statue, went behind it and started going down a secret path of stairs.

“Baltos should know,” Arad looked back at Alcott, “If he’s still alive,” They quickly reached a second door, and Arad pushed it open seeing several dozens of blood-drenched nuns running around like rats, scrambling to keep up with the countless injured.

“Heh!” A woman who was running between the nuns giving them rags saw Arad and she jumped in place, dropping what was in her hand. “Sir Arad?”

“One of Isdis’s assassins? So this was one of your layers?” He looked around, spotting a bunch of them everywhere.

“Y-yes…it’s…” She started looking everywhere in panic, “Suzan! The rags, hurry!”

“Sorry!” She cried, lifting what she dropped, gave Arad a quick bow, and bolted away to the nun that called.

“Eris?” Alcott looked at Arad.

“Used too much magic while fighting Vlad. I had her infuse my Ho-white Nova, and she then purified several souls that were trapped in Vlad’s blood. She needs time to recuperate her magic,” Arad replied, taking a step forward, ZON! He teleported directly past the nuns into the locked room in the back.

Arad looked at the bed, “How are you doing?” He asked, looking at Baltos who laid on the bed with his left leg wrapped in bandages from toes up to his hips.

“ARAD!” Charlie who sat beside his father gasped, “What happened? If you’re here…”

“Vlad is dead and the vampire attack stopped,” Arad replied and Charlie fell on the chair, a sight of relief escaped his throat.

“Those who were unlucky to be away from Kin and Gin died,” He mumbled. “A blood spear pierced Father from the sole of his foot up to his hips, he barely survived it and is hanging by a thread. Mother was at a noble’s meeting, and she died. Brother Thomas died as he shoved stepmom out of the way, and she’s injured in the next room.”

“How is she doing?”

“Better than father. Brother did a great job protecting her,” Charlie looked at his hands, tired, “She got stabbed in the guts, the nuns said the spear got her womb, killing my little brother she was carrying,”

Arad looked at the wall to the next room, ^She was pregnant?!^

“No one knew she was pregnant, not until the nuns said so today,” Charlie mumbled.

“Isn’t there any paladins left?” Arad looked around, “Mostly sensing clerics, there were about five or six paladins around, but that was a small number,”

“Dead, they took the frontlines. The blood spears targeted them first,” Charlie looked at Arad, “The first attack when the spears first struck, they took the paladins down. Vlad himself faced General Alfonce and killed him.”

“I’ll go hunt us some food,” Arad turned, “Eris will be here once she regenerates her stamina and mana,” ZON! Arad teleported back to the surface.

“Nina,” He approached her, “I’m going to the forest to hunt some monsters and gather anything edible by humans. I doubt I’ll find much in the winter, but I’ll try,” He turned toward the sea, “If not, I’ll pull something out of the sea. Go with Ginger and find anyone that doesn’t have anything to do and get them ready to prepare and cook,”

“Got,” Ginger said with a smile, approaching Nina, “Don’t worry, we’ll get it done,”

Arad looked at Eris sitting on a stone in the corner, it’s midnight and her holy magic wasn’t regenerating as well as it would do in daylight. He could sense Alcott helping the injured in the church’s basement as well, the only missing one was Meryem.

It only took Arad a few seconds to locate her. She deep underground digging, ^What is she doing?^ ZON! Arad teleported to her underground and landed on a stone, seeing a vast pool of acid ahead of him. .

“Meryem, what is this?”

“Arad?” She looked at him in her ant form, poking her head out of the wall, “This is my acid, I used it when I found Vlad and pulled him out of hiding. It’s too close to natural springs and some channels that can lead to the sea, I’m trying to diverge it away to a safe place. We’ll need drinking water from the city’s wells if we’re staying here for a few days,”

“Meet me up when you finish,”

“Got it,”

ZON! Arad teleported back to the surface and landed right at the capital’s crumbled gate. He stood and looked at it, seeing the dead guards spread everywhere. He could remember some of them greeting him and the girls as they brought Isdis here in the past, as they left, and as he went in and out on their stay.

Arad turned toward the forest and lunged forward, running between the trees at an unhuman speed, his eyes and nose peeled for any sign of edible monsters or animals.

^As expected, not much in the cold snow,^ As he ran across the forest, he sensed a faint magic twirling between the trees, calling him in. 𝘪𝑎.𝘤𝑜𝑚

SWOSH! Arad stood in place, looking at the trees surrounding him, the snow piled on the ground, and the snowflakes falling. “You’ve gone to the trouble of showing yourself. Get out,” Arad said, his eyes glowing purple, “I’m not in the mood for games,”

“How scary, how scary,” A man walked from behind a tree, lifting his hands up, “To think you spot me from such feint leak of magic. I wasn’t trying to get detected, you know?” The man stood almost as tall as Arad while being just as muscular, having silver hair, a pair of glowing white eyes, and a thin beard.

“You don’t look like a wizard,” Arad stared at the man’s structure, “How could you do that?”

“Look at my arms, brother,” The man’s arms got covered in silver scales, “I’m a dragon like you, a silver wyrm to be clear,”

“The metallic dragons left,” Arad glared at him.

“I was left behind to monitor the place, and make sure no secondary attack happens,” He smiled, waving his hands, “I’m sorry if my presence has bothered you,”

“The metallic dragons left someone behind to guard while I am here? While Alcott is here?” Arad lifted his hand, extending it toward the man, “Stop lying, tell the truth. My guts are telling me you’re one bad liar!”

The man laughed, “It’s guts alone shouldn’t be enough to tell if someone is lying. You need a mind that recognizes patterns subconsciously and analyzes them to make predictions. That, or one good animal instinct,” He smiled, “Like that man Alcott, he’s a human but was born with an instinct like that of a wild animal.”

The man lifted his hand and stared at Arad from a finger hole, “I see, you got that dog in you, the lycanthropic blood,”

Time Slow Arad instantly slowed time to 99%, rushing forward with a fist at the silver dragon. His body got ready to transform into his draconic form the moment the punch made an opening.

“OH! Time, STOP!” The silver dragon shouted, lifting his arms and casting Time Stop, freezing the world in place right before Arad’s fist could reach him.

The man walked around Arad, looking at him, “This is your true body, Gemini isn’t active. I managed to catch you off guard,” He clenched a fist, crackling Arad’s skull open, and with a swift barrage, he smashed his spine.

“You being Alive is bad for my plans,” He smiled, “Die here before you become a real threat. This is the end of your life.”

“Time, begin to move again,” The silver dragon let time flow again, watching Arad’s corpse fall to the ground.

The dragon’s eyes opened wide, dilating as he gasped, “WHAT!” As he saw what was in Arad’s head.

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