She shook her head. “Okay. Alright. Fine. You want your Elf-Knight back so bad, go play peacekeeper, talk to the Matriarch - the normal one, be sure to say ‘please’ too while you’re at it. She put her in that state, she can get her out of it. Provided her crazy sister hasn’t ripped her to shreds yet, that is.”

“Okay, let’s go do that then.”

Again, another shake of the head. She does that enough times, she’s gonna sprain herself. 

‘Or…just here me out here, or - we get a very influential, very arousing individual. Have her somehow overrule the Matriarch's brainwashing and place the Elf under a magic coma thing, just temporarily, then we can figure out how to break her out of it after everything is done.” 

I stopped in place to consider the option briefly, very briefly… it was a whole lot safer than the former. And I’ll be dealing with people who aren’t looking to tear my throat out. There was just one problem though...

“Irene isn’t here,” I said, continuing on. “And considering the state of things, I’m not sure if she’ll even be arriving at all. Got no choice, we’re heading for Amelia.”

“And what?” She exclaimed, waving a hand into the air. “Do you seriously think the Matriarchs are just gonna come falling out of the sky?”

There was a crash, a slam, and the ceiling in front of us plummeted to the ground with a resounding thump. Two bright glowing slits emerged harbored beneath from the thick haze of dust that followed, trailing it was a beast-like growl. 

The smog dissipated. 

Adalia was on all fours, her hands, and feet contorted into claw-like appendages. Her fangs stretched past her lips, already coated with blood. Beneath her laid Amelia, barely clinging to life, lacerations and gashes lining every inch of her skin, blood flowing ceaselessly from two puncture holes at the side of her neck.

We stood frozen, rooted to the spot with shock.

Crawling past her sister’s body, Adalia slowly approached us, a gurgling noise crackling from the depths of her throat. Her glossy, bloodshot eyes met my own, and I saw there was no sense of recognition within them. She had completely lost it.

Frenzied.

“Well,” whispered Ria, nudging me by the shoulder. “Don’t think a little ‘please’ is gonna work here.”

Adalia was terrifying. 

Nothing came close. 

I thought I had witnessed the true extent of a Matriarch’s wrath. Felt it through my own experiences, what was to be expected. After Amelia… I thought nothing else could drive home the absolute terror that was a Matriarch’s ire. 

Yet not even she could compare… not to her sister.

Adalia was another monster entirely. 

Wordless, emotionless, it was a vastly different type of terror. Not a threat, not even a word left her lips. Solely by the way she crept towards us, shambling along, her every movement contorting her limbs in ways that shouldn’t be possible… how strands of her bloodied hair stuck to her pale white skin, that was all it took to send my heart slamming against my chest.

Worse was, just as Ash was, this was a threat that couldn’t be reasoned with. 

I backed up another step, Ria promptly following suit, none of us daring any sudden movement.

“Hey…” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “Can you…?”

“Fight?” Ria finished, a slight edge in her tone. “I’m dead before I even try.”

“Fly?”

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She narrowed her lips. 

“Remember what happened last time?”

Still fresh in my mind, that nauseating shriek of hers. I remembered. Didn't need another demonstration.

Adalia drawled out a meaningless ghoulish moan, her head swaying and bobbing to every movement yet her gaze never once broke away, a vacant pupilless stare that looked at no other besides me. 

I heard her moan again… but upon closer scrutiny, it turns out it was anything but meaningless.

“...res… tra.”

There was that feeling of dread again. 

“Fire…” I said, spouting the next thing that came to mind. “Just drive her off. Vampires hate the light, right?”

“Frenzied ones are a bit more resilient to that. It’s going to have to be a big one.”

“Then make it a big one. What’s the problem?”

Ria’s grim expression caught my eye. 

“I need all of my flames to do that,” she said. “The Elf’s going to have to come loose.”

From the way she conveyed it, it sounded almost like an ultimatum. Behind the words, all I heard screaming at me was ‘Decide’. Who would you rather take your chances against? Which, to you, is the lesser of two evils?

Time wasn’t a privilege I had even though I so desperately needed it.

Adalia was ready to pounce. 

“Do it.”

A flick of her wrist and instantly a huge wall of flame spewed forth from the ground, fissures forming against the concrete, sporadic cracks rippling from the blinding pillars of light. 

Squinting, I saw through narrow eyes that Adalia had immediately recoiled back, hissing in pain… that was all I could possibly see right up until the next second where she became barely a flicker whizzing in the air, lunging from wall to wall before vanishing, leaving only the crumbling imprints from where she had clung onto in her wake.

Gone deeper into the depths of the dark corridor in less than a second. 

“Yeah, you wanted to try outflying that?” said Ria, her expression as bewildered as my own. 

As the flames dwindled, and my vision gradually adjusted, I still could hardly believe what I had just witnessed. That wasn’t just fast… she was practically invisible to the naked eye. Now, I’m starting to understand how she was able to easily best her sister. Speaking of which…

Amelia was rousing. 

It was slight, but the feeble rise and fall of her chest were unmistakable. Breathing, at least, for the time being. I’d say I felt sorry for her but there was just nothing to feel sorry for. Not after everything. 

Ria limped me over to the Matriarch’s side where I could get a better view.

The fact that she was still alive despite her grievous injuries was nothing short of a miracle. There was not an inch of her that wasn’t covered with some sort of wound or bruise. 

From the purple swell of her eyelid, I saw her bat an eye my way. Someone’s conscious again.

“You…” Amelia’s voice sounded aloud. No longer in anger, no longer in threats. Just a fading whisper. “I hate you.”

Aside from that, nothing about how we interacted had changed in the slightest.

“The feeling’s mutual,” I said.

To the side, I heard Ria suppressing a cough, which closely sounded a bit like the words: “Ass her!” 

Wincing and with a bit of aid, I leaned myself closer to Amelia. “I want to talk to you about Ash, the Elf you took.”

“Leave me be,” She turned her gaze to the side. “Just let me die.”

Even closer now, on bent knees, I spoke to her again. “Cut the shit. You don’t mean that.”

A sharp intake of breath from right behind. Ria was frantically shaking her head. The alarming look in her eyes conveying more than words ever could.

Something familiar happened just then. Amelia started glaring at me again, her swollen lips shaping to what appeared to be a misshapen frown.

“And just what do you think you know about me, human?” 

I looked to Ria again, who merely shrugged her shoulders. Big help, she was.

“The victims, the ones you took for your sister,” I said, turning back to face her. “The barrier, the one you made for your sister. Those injuries you’ve sustained, the ones you got fighting your sister.” 

I could go on and on. A long list of details that I’ve noted throughout my entire captivity, but those three were all took for her to get the message.

“You’re not going to die. You won’t rest until you can guarantee your sister’s safety. That, if nothing else, is what I know about you.”

No attempt for denial, no effort to prove me wrong. Amelia maintained silence, her gaze continuing to fail to meet mine. 

“Think you might have botched that,” whispered Ria from right behind me.

I thought I might have as well, that was until I heard Amelia give another rousing breath. 

“What do you want?” She said begrudgingly through gritted teeth.

The magic words I wanted to hear. I found myself leaning in close once more.

“I’ve come to bargain.”