“What is your name?” asked Lucianna. They were making their way through the tunnel from the Sanctuary that would lead them outside. It wasn’t a long journey but it wasn’t a short one either. It would take them tens of minutes. It would be less than that if they ran but Lucianna was only human and she needed to conserve her strength for ter. The real trial had yet to reveal itself.

  “Hmm?” the vampire hummed in response without gncing back. “Is that important?”

  “It’s basic courtesy and a simple sign of trust.”

  “I am Aqui.”

  Lucianna furrowed her brows. “...Is that your real name?” she asked. Such a name was not something she expected of a person with a very Western face.

  “It is not the name my parents gave me but I consider it my real name and the only one you will get from me.”

  “Fine,” Lucianna relented. It would do her no good to keep pursuing such small matters. She decided to pursue another path, one that might reveal more about her apparent saviour. “Do we need to walk the entire distance?”

  “Unless you can teleport, then yes, we do need to walk.”

  “I saw how you appeared before me.”

  “I can warp myself from one pce to another in the blink of an eye, yes, but that’s my ability, not yours. And I can’t take passengers. So, we are walking the whole distance.”

  “I don’t even know where I’m going.”

  “Were you not taught as to where this tunnel leads?”

  “I know that much but what about after? You are leading the way. Surely our destination isn’t just the end of this tunnel.”

  “There is a teleportation array nearby, around one and a half days’ walk.”

  “And where will that array take us?”

  “To Verugo.”

  Lucianna widened her eyes. She knew that name. “The hidden city of darkness? Isn’t that just a story?”

  Aqui tittered. “It has been a reality since… months ago. The Mistress, Her Majesty, made it happen. No, she willed it into existence.”

  “...Who’s this Mistress of yours?”

  Aqui gnced behind her with a smirk. “Vishara, that’s Her Majesty’s name, and you will address her as Her Majesty from here on.”

  “...” Lucianna wanted to retort but she had no grounds to stand on. As far as she was aware, her kingdom was no more. She wasn’t even sure if she could still consider herself a princess.

  The rest of the walk was in silence. Lucianna had dozens of things she wanted to say and ask but it would be foolish to bare all of her desires and desperation to Aqui who was essentially a stranger, even though she saved her life. She wasn’t so naive to believe the vampire saved her out of the kindness of her heart or Her Majesty’s, for that matter.

  “I know you have a lot of questions, Your Highness,” Aqui said. “You will get the answers in time. That, I can assure you.”

  “...I’m no princess. My subjects are all dead.”

  “Perhaps, but a royalty doesn’t cease to be one just because of the absence of its subjects. It’s like saying a fighter is no longer a fighter just because he no longer fights. It’s a folly thought. A fighter doesn’t lose their ability to fight just because they no longer fight, won’t you agree?”

  “If you put it that way, I have no arguments.”

  “Well, I do hope you have strength, enough to run.”

  A confusing response. Lucianna raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

  “We have guests ahead.”

  Lucianna looked ahead. She saw the tunnel’s exit. She couldn’t see anyone but there was no reason to doubt Aqui’s words. There were people waiting for them at the exit and for some reason, she knew those people wouldn’t be friendly. The secrets of the royals had truly been compromised. She braced herself for the imminent confrontation. She had been looking forward to seeing the light and the sky again but now, she was more concerned about the enemies ahead.

  “Hello, cousin,” a dy greeted Lucianna upon exiting the tunnel. Behind the Lady was around a dozen Syers, all tangled in darkness. The dy was dressed in a simir fashion as Lucianna was. Clearly, the dy was a member of royalty.

  “...Ellie?” Lucianna gasped.

  “I have been looking forward to this day for so long.”

  “You… you’re the reason that—”

  “I am, but not the only one.”

  “N-not the only one? What are you—”

  “Enough,” Ellie sighed. “The master’s waiting. Once I bring you to him, I will have plenty of time to hear you speak… and scream.”

  “The master? What are you talking about? Ellie, what happened to you?”

  Ellie gred hard. “It’s too te for that question.” She gave the command with a flick of her hand.

  The Syers began to advance. If these were normal soldiers, they would have been marching, but as, these were Syers. They lunged instead of marching.

  “Get behind me,” Aqui said and moved in front of Lucianna.

  She didn’t know when but the vampire had a red sword in her hand. She didn’t see Aqui carrying one around as they were walking through the tunnel.

  With a swing of her red sword, Aqui sliced three Syers in half. She then pierced another two with red stingers that protruded from her shoulders.

  The Syers moved into a formation before continuing their assault. They had deemed Aqui to be an adversary they should not take lightly. However, all that was for nought. They were not her opponent to begin with. They were too slow to even follow her movements with their sights, let alone follow her with their movements. In just a few seconds, all the Syers were cut down.

  “I-Impossible!” The dy named Ellie shouted. “Who are you!? No, what are you!?”

  “Oh, dear. You came attacking us without even knowing that much?” Aqui grinned, showing her fangs.

  “A vampire… Why is a vampire here?”

  “To watch over you stupid humans, that’s why.”

  “Stupid humans… You dare insult me? The kingdom may be no more but I am still a princess! Die, you arrogant bitch!” Darkness spilt out from her thrust-out palm like a tide.

  “Truly foolish,” Aqui said and disappeared from Lucianna’s view— only to reappear behind Ellie.

  Before the cousin of the true princess could even respond, her head went flying off her neck. That would have been the end of Duchess Elizabeth, the cousin of the princess, but that was only true if she was still human. The headless stump of her neck immediately sprouted tendrils of darkness. The tendrils rushed towards Aqui.

  The vampire clicked her tongue and brandished two more red stingers from her back, slicing up all the dark tendrils darting towards her.

  “You’ll pay for that!” Ellia snarled. She had regrown her head but the new head was wrought with wrinkles, scars, and many manners of imperfections and blemishes. She lunged at the vampire with arms bared, who had now transformed into rge talons.

  “Ugly,” Aqui scoffed at the unsightly transformation of the duchess.

  “Silence, you damn blood-sucking demon!”

  Aqui smirked and lunged right into Ellie’s reach. Before the tter could shred the vampire into pieces, Aqui shredded Ellie into pieces first with her cws and stingers. Being cut into these many chunks would spell certain death for a great many monsters but not this one, and Aqui knew this.

  The many pieces of Ellie immediately tched onto one another, pulling themselves together into one, before morphing back into its humanoid form. “You cannot kill me! I have been bestowed immortality by the master. This is the first step towards divine ascension!”

  “That honour and privilege belong to Her Majesty, no one else. Certainly not you or your so-called master.”

  “Enough out of you!” Ellie shed out with her words and also her talons, which were now the tips of her tendril-arms. With each instance that she survived a fatality, she came back stronger yet stranger.

  “Fuck!” Aqui cursed as the talons smmed into her. She tried to cut them down but they moved faster than she anticipated. She realised she shouldn’t have underestimated this accursed abomination that was once a human. The sm sent her bouncing and sprawling across the ground.

  With the vampire out of the way, Ellie turned her attention back to Lucianna. “Do you see me now? Do you see what I’m capable of now?”

  “...What happened to you, Ellie?” Lucianna asked as she took small steps backwards. “Why are you doing this? How could you forsake your humanity for some dastardly outworld power?”

  “Dastardly? Only a fool would see this as dastardly. This is evolution. This is me, rising higher than you can ever rise.”

  “Rising higher than me? Please don’t tell me that’s the reason that you would surrender your soul to the darkness.”

  “As if you would know what I have gone through! You don’t have the slightest idea of my suffering!”

  “You’re right. I don’t. Because you have never told me, despite my frequent inquiries about your health and well-being. How could I have known about your suffering when you never divulged any of your affairs and conditions to me?”

  “Making excuses will not save you now, cousin.”

  “I made no excuses. I stated facts. I have never cimed to be all-seeing or all-knowing. I have never once neglected to inquire about your health and well-being. Yet, not once have you ever revealed to me any of your grievances.”

  “Silence!”

  “But I will admit that it is my mistake. I took your silence as diffidence, meekness. I believed you to be a gentle and humble soul who cked the courage to express herself. Now, it’s clear that I have severely misunderstood you. All those times… you harboured only malice towards me, not because I have wronged you, but because you couldn’t bear to be second in every pcement.”

  “I said silence!” Ellie was about to lunge at Lucianna but in her fit of rage, she had forgotten about the other person. As a result, she had nearly every part of her body impaled before being tossed aside like a broken doll.

  “Your courage is impressive, Your Highness,” Aqui said. “I can now see why Her Majesty would grant you a private audience with her.”

  “Damn you all!!” Ellie exploded with rage as she recovered from the sneak attack. She healed her wounds but she became more hideous than ever. “You can’t kill me! I am immortal!”

  “Aqui, can you kill her?” Lucianna asked with a straight face, devoid of any mercy or hesitation.

  “I’m ashamed to say that I do not possess the means to eliminate such a twisted creature. Combat is not my speciality. I’m only here to gather intelligence and to escort you to Her Majesty.”

  “Then how do we deal with her?”

  “We don’t. We run.”

  “Both of you are not going anywhere!” Ellie howled, growing an extra pair of elongated arms from her back.

  “Run,” Aqui said.

  “What?”

  “Run. I will keep her distracted as long as I need to.”

  “...You will die.”

  “We both will if you don’t run now.”

  “I said, you two are not going anywhere,” Ellie hissed and pounced at them. However, before she came even remotely close to the two, she was engulfed by a vortex of fmes that seemingly descended from the sky above. She howled and screeched in agony as the fmes rapidly reduced her into nothing but ashes.

  The fmes subsided as soon as the intended victims were completely burned away. Immediately after, a rge shadow nded right in front of the two from the sky. The rge shadow was none other than a dragon and there was only one living dragon in the world.

  “Lord Henry,” Aqui greeted with a slight bow.

  “Lord Henry…” Lucianna gasped. “You came…”

  Henry did not assume his human form. He stayed in his true form as Yu and Ani disembarked from him. “A vampire… trying to sneak the princess away. What’s the meaning of this?” Henry asked without any hint of amusement in his tone.