“She's in here.”

“To think that I would've completely forgotten that you had brought her with you…”

“Well, I didn't mention it, so don't worry too much about it, Elara. She's not going to kick up a fuss about it. She's in a coma, after all.”

Noah opened the door as he spoke, revealing a girl with shoulder-length blonde hair on a bed, eyes closed.

“Maids clean her up everyday, and I have her fed with concentrated vampire blood. Don't worry, being blood related, she won't face any side-effects of it.”

Noah was accompanied by Evan and Elara on chairs around Emma's bed to say their goodbyes to her before setting off to the site of what would become a battlefield tomorrow. There was one other person who had said their goodbyes, but they had left early. Ariel stood in the doorway, unwilling to interrupt a tender moment. Noah was the first to break the silence in the room.

“Evan. You can still back out now. I'll be moving Emma and Cedric to a safety bunker for their safety in the event that we lose. You can stay there. I'm sure I can figure out something to mostly fill up the hole your absence will leave in the strategy for the invasion. Are you sure about doing this?”

Evan glanced at Noah, then turned to look at Elara, who looked back at him. Their eyes locked.

“No, I'm going.”

Evan then cast his gaze upon Noah, who spotted a firm resolve in Evan’s eyes. The resolve of a man who wanted to do right by the one who had stood by him.

“I'm going, Noah. Thanks for worrying.”

Noah knew better than to further belittle that resolve as he replied with a wry smile.

“...Gotcha.”

The three then looked back at Emma.

“If this works out, we'll be on the fast track to waking her. Honestly, we have no guarantee that we’ll be able to get an audience with the Spirit Queen. She's an enigmatic and mythical existence on par with the Dragon King in the heart of the Eira Kingdom, and only once in recorded history has someone been healed of dormant soul syndrome. Still…”

Noah gulped.

“...it's the best chance we have.”

His words filled the room, filling it with an indecipherable atmosphere. Elara spoke up to interrupt it.

“Some good words would have been more preferable to pessimism.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Well…it's the truth, Elara.”

A pregnant silence enveloped the room and Evan looked outside the window, where thunderclouds covered the twilight sky.

“It's not like you, Noah. Emma would have smacked you upside the head if she heard that.”

“I would be glad if she wakes up to do that right now. Better than a coma.”

Evan turned his head to look at Noah.

“Mm. I see.”

“What d-Oy! Fuck ‘dyou hit me for?”

“Pretend Emma did that. Call her a bitch like you always do or something. I don't know if the coma from dormant soul syndrome works the same way, but it's said that those in a coma can hear those outside. It gives me the creeps to see you of all people act that way. She might respond if you piss her off. So do that instead.”

“Makes sense. She's quite the bitch, after all. You too, didn't have to hit me for that. Matter of fact, Elara too. Not Ariel though, she's chill.”

“Why am I a bitch? I'm not even part of the conversation.”

Elara jumped to defend herself.

“Yeah why is she? You're a bitch.”

Evan did so as well, then threw Noah's words back at him.

“I’ve decided that you are. Actually, if we're doing this-”

Noah sneered, then equipped his siren throat and cooed, and a screen the size of a desktop monitor with an image showed up above his head.

“I have images of you in clown makeup. Real fancy talk coming from you. Why don't you go back to the circus. Bitch?”

“Right, Right. Mr. Two minutes. You know, your walls aren't as thick as you think. On nights that you get it on with Ariel, we can hear you. And we allll know about how you would last two minutes without mimicry.”

Ariel began to blush furiously, and Noah knew he had to clap back. Unfortunately, Elara delivered a finishing blow first.

“What was it, doping with vampire blood to keep up with her? Ouch, that suuuucks.”

“No, wait, she has a lord ranked body, so-”

“Yap, yap, yap is all I'm hearing.”

When Evan interrupted him, Noah’s face turned deadpan, and he placed an arm on Evan's shoulder and pulled him close and whispered.

“...In my defense. Ariel's a lot better than Elara could ever be so I have good reason to bust quick. You wouldn't know.”

“Okay, I see how it is.”

Noah crashed out of Elara's window, sent backwards by the force of Evan’s punch, laughing.

“Hahaha, I've wanted to see how much you've improved anyway, let's do this!”

Noah let the blood of eight vampires flow through him, and Evan wrapped his strings across his own body as if puppeting his own body while mana flowed through the strings, boosting power and control of his own body, and their fists collided mid-air as they fell from the second story.

Meanwhile, Ariel watched with bright eyes at the fight through the broken window like the battle-fanatic that she was, while Elara looked at all three with a very, very confused expression.

-

Thirty minutes later, below a stormy sky, in the center of a severely ruined football field-sized backyard, adorned with craters and streaks, lay Noah and Evan on the ground facing the sky, panting with their heads beside each other and their feet pointing away.

“Haha, damn, you've really gotten better, Evan.”

“I could say the same for you, but you're not going all out yet, right?

“Damn straight. Same for you, though.”

“If either of us did, there wouldn't even be a yard left. Just a big crater.”

“Yeah, hahaha!”

‘This dipshit definitely just wanted to take my mind off of Emma, but I'll pretend I didn't notice it. He’s way too obvious, though. He's not the kind to get physical when he gets mad, he's a gentle giant type.’

Noah laughed again as he thought to himself, prompting semi-delirious laughter from Evan as well.

They were still laughing, when a shadow loomed over them, and they abruptly stopped. Elara had arrived, with Ariel also following a short distance away.

“Once this invasion stuff is over. Cleanup duty for both of you. Surely you wouldn't leave this for the poor gardeners?”

““...Yes, Ma’am.””

One minute to sunset.