11:35 pm 11/03

Crux held onto his staff tightly, his concentration went on the flow of his body. With a brisk step forward he spun the staff behind him, allowing it to gain a steady momentum. Once the staff reached his opposite hand he gripped the tip closest to him firmly and let the momentum of the staff guide his swing. His attack produced an intense gust causing the attendants to stumble back. He quickly slowed the staff's momentum and held it to his side.

Crux wiped his forehead.

"You might have woken me up mid-beauty sleep but I'll make sure to steal everyone's gaze."

The attendants lunged forward, their jaws unhinging to show their sharp fangs. Crux took a step back and swung his staff into the attendant's jaws, his staff twirling effortlessly across his hands.

Rina saw their fangs and hesitated to attack.

"Vurh...?"

Crux looked at Rina confused.

"What's up?"

Rina went out of her transformation.

"Neruhm..."

Crux had no idea what was making her so hesitant but before he could question her the conductor reached out from the shadows, his fangs bearing a terrifying glint in the moonlight. Crux wasted no time and pulled Rina back thrusting the tip of his staff into the conductor's jaws. With the staff in such a critical position, Crux rammed it into the back of his throat and flung the staff upward. The force of the attack ripped the conductor's head in half and his corpse collapsed in a fountain of blood.

Crux held onto Rina's arm hard.

"Damnit Rina! Be careful!"

Crux let her go and rushed back toward the approaching attendants. He slammed his staff onto the ground and used it as a pillar to swing around, using his legs he struck many of the attendants in the head knocking them down. Crux lifted his staff and slammed it down onto the attendant's heads, crushing a few of them before pulling away and resetting his stance.

"Most people question why I use a staff as a mechanic."

Crux veered his staff back and forth between the approach attendants.

"People underestimate how useful of a tool a staff can be."

He crushed head after head, blood splattering all over him.

"It helps with walking..."

With another strike, he split more heads open.

"It helps to keep my distance from danger..."

He leapt up and brought the staff crashing down, the impact shattering the concrete and rupturing the organs of a few attendants.

"But most of all... no one ever suspects that a stick could be so powerful."

Crux aims the end of his staff at one of the attendant's heads. With a simple click, the staff erupted with a spray of metal pellets. Each pellet tore through the flesh of the remaining attendants until nothing but smoke was leaking from the barrel of the staff.

Crux stood up relishing in his victory by staring up at the stars, hoping they were watching him.

Rina walked up to one of the corpses and looked at its teeth.

"Urhnm."

Crux walked over to see Rina with her mouth open, his eyes widened as the attendants had the same fangs as Rina.

"Wait... they're..."

Rina stood up her face unreadable as she stared at the corpses. Crux walked over.

"Rina I'm... I didn't know. They attacked so I just..."

Rina shook her head.

"Firhn. Murhntr."

Crux nodded.

"Are you sure it's okay? I know they attacked but still... those are your people..."

Rina spat on their corpses.

"Nur."

Meanwhile, Eliowen and the others had run down the street in a mad panic. They soon slowed once they thought they had gotten far enough. Eliowen dropped Petra and Rina's babies as he caught his breath, Rina's babies giving incomprehensible chirps.

Yuro looked petrified.

"Why here... of all places."

Petra rolled around on the ground until she faced the distressed Yuro.

"What's got you in a rile?"

Rina's babies all huddled together to keep warm. Eliowen sat beside them to catch his breath.

"Damnit... what was that!? That sounded like the conductor from the train."

Petra sighed.

"I tried to tell you all this earlier! On the train, I saw some weird things happen. I hitched a ride in Crux's crate but when I got out I saw the conductor and a bunch of... skinless people devour one of the attendants and then steal her identity!"

Eliowen puts a hand on his forehead.

"What...? What kind of service is that!?"

Yuro paces back and forth.

"We have to leave this place. Now. We can't afford to stay."

Eliowen stood back up.

"Definitely. We should wait for Crux and Rina though, we can't leave them."

Yuro ignored Eliowen and began to walk away.

"Trains should hopefully be operational soon."

Eliowen ran after Yuro.

"Where are you going? We have to wait for Crux and Rina!"

Yuro turned to Eliowen, his voice laced with pure anger.

"I don't care! We are leaving NOW."

Yuro walked off. Eliowen shook his head.

"I can't... I can't just run from my friends!"

Eliowen went back over to Petra and Rina's babies.

"C'mon, let's go see if Crux and Rina are okay."

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Eliowen and the others ran back toward Crux and Rina as Yuro wandered the quiet streets.

Yuro shivered, not from the cold but from fear. His vision is hazy as the distant street lamps fade into obscurity. His steps feel heavier as his breathing grows heavy. As he continues to walk the moon pulsates, its beating heart calling his name as his skin begins to burn. He falls to the ground, his baby hands now much larger. He had dirty black gloves on and a brown leather coat. When he stood to his feet once more he was much taller. His steps now loud thuds as his boots hammered on the floor. He had yellow-stained sunglasses that he tore off and cast to the street.

His golden hair got in the way of his eyes as he continued to walk forward. Each step hurt more and more.

"You... what the hell are you doing back here..."

Yuro called out, hauling himself down the endless street.

"How did you escape!? You should have been trapped... there was no way you could have escaped."

Yuro gazed at the moon.

"WHAT IS THERE LEFT OF YOU!?"

As he looked back to the street he saw a woman wrapped in bandages. No part of her was visible. She sat in a wheelchair as she didn't move. Pushing the wheelchair was a man with black hair that was tied back. He wore a vibrant yellow raincoat with a dress shirt and tie. He stood beside the wheelchair and looked down, his face hidden.

Yuro stumbled back.

"That's... all that remains...?"

Yuro then looked at the main raincoat.

"I'm... sorry."

The man in the raincoat walked forward and gave Yuro a revolver.

"If you're sorry... you'll die right here right now."

Yuro closed his eyes and put the gun to his chin.

"I'm... so sorry."

11:46 pm 11/03

When Eliowen reached Crux and Rina he found them inspecting the corpses.

Crux looked up and smiled to see Eliowen.

"Glad to see you're okay."

Eliowen nodded.

"All of us are fine but... Yuro was being strange. He ran off after I told him we needed to come back."

Crux put his hand to his chin.

"Weird. Yuro seemed like a pretty stoic baby, wouldn't have thought this would spook him that much."

Petra squinted her eyes.

"Hm. I'm not too sure about that. He's been pretty spooked since we got to Mildry and he keeps blabbering on about real cryptic shit. You know anything, Rina?"

Rina shook her head.

Crux turned back to the corpses.

"Well, we have made a discovery. A pretty strange one at that."

Crux crouches down and lifts one of the attendant's jaws.

"These things are Vampires, just like Rina."

Eliowen and Petra looked dumbfounded as they both expressed their shock in unison.

"HUH!?"

Crux stands back up.

"My reaction too. Vampires are a pretty rare sight nowadays, let alone this many."

Rina looks down with a saddened expression.

Eliowen recovers from the initial shock.

"I do remember reading a book about Vampires a couple of weeks ago to understand Rina more. It's stated that Vampires came to be during the Occult Era right?"

Crux stabs his staff into the concrete and leans on it.

"Rightly so. Rina told us a little about Vampire history when she was a part of Lockdown."

Crux turns to Rina waiting for her approval to speak on the subject. Rina smiles and nods.

"The Occult Era was very long ago, during a time before the whole world was discovered, people elected a team to go out and explore and map the entire world. Those people formed, what is now, the Initiates. See initially the Initiates started as an exploration team that mapped out the whole world. During their travels, they discovered Vampires living underground in the northern part of the Central Continent. Vampires saw humans for the first time and attacked them for food. This led to years of conflict between humans and Vampires with the Vampires being considerably stronger. Humanity was on the verge of extinction but then the turn of an Era came to be."

Crux looks down at the corpses.

"It seemed like one of the rules of the Occult Era was that Vampires could only be born during that Era so when that Era ended the Vampire population slowly died out because they could not reproduce. Vampires then decided to hide back in their underground cities but humanity had followed them and slaughtered them while they were weak. Almost all Vampires were killed with the only survivors fleeing to other continents to form their own tribes."

Crux then looks to Rina.

"Good ol' Rina here is the child of one of the survivors. She emerged from her den 90 years ago. She doesn't know how old she is since it's hard to tell time underground so her birth is when she emerged."

Eliowen raised an eyebrow.

"Wait so... if Vampires can't produce offspring then how was Rina born?"

Crux chuckled.

"Well, I kinda lied when I said they can't reproduce. They can but... to have a child they must sacrifice a part of themself. Take Rina's babies for example, if you haven't caught on they are all letters of the alphabet. We have Aina, Bina, Cina, Dina and so on. Rina sacrificed her speech to birth to her children, it's also why she can't speak and just mumbles all the time."

Crux looks at Rina and giggles.

Rina rolls her eyes.

Eliowen nods thoughtfully.

"That certainly is interesting. I'm sorry for what happened to your people though Rina."

Rina smiles and puts a hand on Eliowen's shoulder.

Petra coughs to get everyone's attention.

"Now that we have some more knowledge on what we are dealing with we should probably find that idiot Yuro. For all we know more Vampires could be lurking around."

Everyone nods.

"QUITE TRUE!"

A mysterious voice calls out from the roof of the motel, his face obscured by the moonlight.

"There could be danger around any corner..."

Suddenly a pair of devilish wings sprout from the figure's back.

"You see... us Vampires originally only had Yuro as our target but smelling that Haab' you posses... Oh does it get my body tingling~"

The figure gives a hearty chuckle.

"We'll be killing Yuro and taking that Haab' so that Vampires can thrive once again."

Another figure soon stands on the roof.

"Mommy has big plans for this new Era. An Era where Vampires can rule the surface! Take a good look at the sun while ya' can! Soon the moon will be our watchful god!"

Everyone prepared themselves as the two figures set their sights on them. Both figures leapt down and landed before the group, their forms now revealed. The winged vampire wore elegant clothing bathed in pure black ink. The other vampire wore attire similar to a poor Victorian boy.

The winged vampire bowed.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Inrei Klevintrout, hailing from the Draken Tribe of Ophliuant."

The smaller vampire snarled and then spat on the floor.

"Name's Charmy, comin' from the Kious Tribe of Narawaradan."

Crux held his staff firm as Rina's claws began to grow sharper. Eliowen held onto Petra tightly.

Crux sharpened his sight as he got serious.

"Name's Crux. You better not lay a finger on this boy. He's with us."

Rina snarled as her fangs and wings began to sprout.

Inrei laughed.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. Mommy has very specific plans for this world."

Inrei looks to Rina.

"Another Vampire... you really go against your own kind? We are the same... Rina."

Rina looked shocked that Inrei knew her name.

"You act surprised. We are merely using the abilities given to us. I know all of your names, your pasts, your thoughts and emotions. The way of a Vampire is trickery. We hide in shadows and attack when right."

Crux gripped his staff higher.

"Enough of this small talk. You wanna try and take Eliowen away then you'll have to go through us!"

Charmy licked his lips.

"Is that so? Those chumps you beat earlier were just a taster... time to show ya' what a true Vampire can do!

Crux and Rina rushed forward with Charmy and Inrei following suit, a battle was about to begin!