Aether : Calraem

Chapter 40: Twilight

Whilst her brother spoke to her, Elaine watched as everything above his neck disappeared. Not in the same way as turning invisible. Not in the same way as seeing dust disperse in the wind.

It burst.

Flesh, bone, hair, blood-

Sprayed everywhere.

All because a figure had materialised.

A man who appeared human, but had skin so pale like its entire constitution was ash. Clad in black, he slowly stood and brushed back his bangs, revealing crimson eyes. His expression exuded emptiness, letting the canvas of his face only paint sharp fangs.

One word seeped into everyone's mind:

Vampire.

"Ahh" he sighed, albeit without...warmth, like he was half asleep. "His senses are sharp. That should've obliterated him."

Obliterated- Hearing this set everyone on edge.

He yawned, then rubbed the back of his neck, massaging it. In the process, a tattoo of a large red rose was visible from his neck up to his jaw.

Everyone watched, slowly drawing their weapons as the tension became palpable. Someone shifted their weight, getting into a fighting stance. Another chanted, preparing for a high level spell to be cast.

All of them had their sights on this foreign existence.

Noticing this, he looked around, disinterest in the small fry around him was made clear.

"Listen up, all of you-" he coughed, setting everyone on edge, hesitant to approach him.

"Well, that's embarrassing..." He muttered, then cleared his throat and started over.

"Listen up, all of you. I can sense your eagerness but face facts. All of you here are small fry. As you can see, I'm pretty tired and, like, really tired and...err... What was I saying?-Oh yeah." He pointed towards the corpse, revealing the hand he killed Gemini with. "This is a taste of the havoc that I was ordered to wreak. It's a hassle to constantly cut down so many numbers so I'll make you all a deal. I'll count to ten with my eyes closed-yes, I won't cheat. Whoever I find after the time's up will die. I'll start counting..."

And-as promised, he closed his eyes and had begun counting, yawning every now and again.

Elaine, frozen on the ground, recognised his face.

He was Damon "Blood" Roses, a member of Blackbeard's crew.

Her hands visibly shook as she stood up, and her heartbeat was all that she could hear. Her vision blurred as she succumbed herself to her inner turmoil-

"Aargh!"

- and charged forward, bloodlust emitting from every pore of her body, directed at Damon.

"Elaine!"

But, before she reached him, a blow connected to the back of her neck and fell, unconscious. Her vision had become so tunnel that she was blind to everything else.

Hikari raised Elaine over his shoulder, looked at Gemini's corpse, grimaced, then turned ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction of the cold-blooded vampire.

"I'm sorry," he said, clenching his teeth in frustration. "I'm so sorry!"

The light of the sun vanished and darkness started to encapsulate the city in every sense of the word. The oceanic breeze that had the effect of filling the hearts on twilight now carried an eeriness like sleeping at a graveyard.

No matter how much they all wanted to deny it-something was up, and they could sense it.

Alavara braced herself as she slowly descended the ground, flapping her wings quietly. She was well aware of the fact that even though she was surrounded by veteran pirates, they had no experience with dealing with something of this calibre.