Gazing at the door being banged up by the lycans for a little bit, Silverus turned to the old man and Aleke. “We need to search for the spices and the light.”

“I'm looking for something to light up the room right now,” Aleke said while she continued searching for it.

“And I'll try to search for those spices,” the old man said when his eyes darted at Silverus.

“Okay, good. We need to hurry.” Silverus turned back to the door. “Those things could break in at any minute now.”

While Aleke and the old man searched for items, Silverus just stood there and turned to the survivors and the bending door back and forth for a little while. He hoped his allies would find the things they were looking for quick enough. He couldn't imagine being killed by those monsters once they'd successfully broken in.

They took a while to search for the items due to the minimum moonlight available in the room, struggling to find them so far. Yet the lycans were about to break at anytime, so Silverus began to wander his eyes around for anything to restun his enemies, anything to stop the lycans from getting into the building. But he hadn't found anything so far, no matter how desperate he was.

Dammit, dammit, dammit!!! There has to be something useful against those things somewhere. There has to be.

After a while of hopelessness, Aleke finally shouted, “Found it!”

“Already?!” Silverus twisted his body around for Aleke's attention and saw her bending forward towards the candle, searching for anything to light up the candle at the round table near a corner. “Well, about time!”

“Here, take this!” The old man shouted, spraying the spices at the hole on the door right before those monsters had a chance to break the door open.

Silverus turned back to the front and watched the scene while his nose sensed the smell of spices wafting in the air. His ears caught the lycans' screeches in agony and their footsteps backing away from the door.

He grinned at the old man in amazement with his widened eyes. “Hey there, that was amazing, um, uh…”

The old man turned around and said, “Call me Eugene.”

“Eugene…got it.”

As soon as Aleke lit up the room and the sound of her breath blowing out a match, she said, “Okay, let's hurry up and find a hiding place before those monsters come back in.”

Silverus turned around and watched Aleke place the match onto a candle holder. “Right!” He turned to Eugene and Aleke back and forth. “Let's go!”

After Eugene nodded, he, Silverus and Aleke began their search for a hideout. Eugene sprayed the spices in the rooms on the first and second floors to prevent the lycans from finding them even further as quickly as he could. Aleke found a secret door in the basement and she, Eugene and Silverus hid themselves from the lycans and Silverus created a potion for Eugene before they agreed on their search for the larger one, thinking it was Alpha the lycan king.

During their search in one of the alleyways of Pagis, Aleke turned to Silverus while carrying her crossbow. “So who will we hunt down next as soon as we defeat Alpha?”

“Ah, we would be hunting down the vampiress inside that castle over there,” Eugene said, also carrying his crossbow.

“‘A vampiress,’ huh?” Aleke repeated when she and Silverus turned to the castle standing in the distance.

“Yes, haven't you heard? That vampiress was Alpha's wife,” Eugene said.

“‘The Alpha's wife?!’” Silverus gave Eugene his confused look on his face. He turned to the castle and Eugene back and forth.

Eugene nodded, “Yes, you heard me right…” He told the tale of Pagis' curse.

“No way, we have to defeat the former monarchs’ daughters and that witch up there?!” Silverus questioned, appearing to be less confident in himself.

“Yes, that's right. That's not only what I heard, but also the only way out of this place.”

“I see…” Silverus swallowed his spit whenever he gazed at the castle.

“And how long have you been here, Eugene?” Aleke then asked when she turned to him.

“Oh, about a year,” Eugene answered while he scanned for Alpha without looking Aleke in the eye for a little while. Then he turned his head back to her and Silverus sideways. “What about you two?”

“About a month,” Aleke responded.

“Oh, me? Well, I would say a month and a half, I think,” Silverus replied while he looked up at the sky.

“Huh, you two have been here more than I am, huh?” Aleke said.

Silverus turned to Aleke. “Yeah, pretty much.”

When a man's scream echoed in front of Silverus, Aleke and Eugene, they all immediately turned around to see what was going on. Even though the fog blocked their view, they aimed their guns out forward and remained calm. They wanted to prevent the lycans from sending their fears and made them weaker.

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“Alright, gang. Looks like we got one,” Silverus said. “Let's get moving.”

“Right!” Aleke and the old man agreed as Silverus dashed his way forward in that voice's direction, hearing a couple of footsteps running in his direction. They followed his lead with their serious looks on their faces.

Silverus and his allies ran as fast as they could. Whenever they ran their hearts beated faster and harder on their chests and their sweats were forming all over their bodies.

By the time they encountered a man being tripped over by a rock, three regular lycans appeared in black silhouettes darting their glowing eyes at them. They stopped near the panting man and aimed their crossbows at their enemies. This time their crossbows were made out of silver, so they should be able to kill off those monsters, especially the larger one.

They managed to rescue the man and kill off their enemies, they not only struggled to fight off incoming enemies but also encountered Alpha who was the strongest fighter of them all. The injured Eugene told them to run for their lives as he figured out how to fight off the monsters and lead himself to safety. Silverus and Aleke were separated from Eugene and never heard anything from him again.

“And that's the story pretty much,” Silverus said.

“Ah, I see,” I asked, “And do you know where Alpha is now?”

“I have no idea. When Aleke and I returned to the same location where we were separated from Eugene, we found out that Alpha wasn't there at all.” Silverus stood up from the floor, leaning his back against the wall. He appeared to be fighting against the pain.

“Hey, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I'm fine.”

I looked up and down at him. “Are you sure? You look like you need a few more minutes of healing.”

“Of course, I am. I should be fine now at least.”

“Um, okay…”

“Anyway, that lycan…he has to be here somewhere. He has to be. One of our tickets for getting out of this place.”

“Uh-huh, right...”

Aleke returned to the secret room and presented a pair of shoes to me. “Here.” She looked down at my bare feet. “I noticed that you're not wearing any shoes at all.”

I smiled when I gaze at the shoes. “Thank you so much!”

“You're welcome,” Aleke said.

I touched Aleke's shoulder the moment before she walked her way towards the table. “Wait!”

Aleke turned to my attention. “Yes? What is it, miss?”

I leaned towards her ear and whispered, “Um, do you have a new dress and a bra? I can't stand this outfit that I'm wearing right now.”

When Aleke took a step back, she examined me and frowned with a nod, telling me, “No, I'm sorry,” without sounding it out of her voice.

“Oh, I see,” I said also without sounding out my voice as well.

Aleke grinned at me with still a frown, and watched me cross my arms. She returned her attention to Silverus. “Are you ready to finish up that potion?”

Silverus watched Aleke point her head at the other table, then back at her. “Oh, yes. Of course, of course. Let's get it finished then, shall we?”

So Silverus and Aleke walked towards the other table to finish up the potion for Eugene. Although Silverus was limping a bit, he still fought through the pain and continued on finishing up the potion.

I looked down at my feet and put on my shoes. As I was happy I got to try them on, it was unfortunate for me that there was no bra nor new dress for me to wear so far. That meant more searching, I guess.

Anyway, I turned around to the wall and stared at it, hoping that the old man remained alive. My worry for him increased through the roof and wondered if he was alright back there, how long had I been here. It had been a while longer than it had been.

“Alright, it's done!” Silverus' voice announced.

Crossing my arms, I returned to Silverus and Aleke, seeing Silverus examining a sky blue colored potion while he was holding it up in the air. Finally about damn time. Now we could leave.

After that, Silverus put the potion in his pocket and packed up the rest of the potions in his bag. Aleke assisted him in his clean up and I watched them clean up since they were quick enough to get it done so far.

Once that's done, they both turned around and headed for the exit. “Right this way, ma'am,” Silverus said while he and Aleke walked forward.

“Got it,” I said with a nod, following them wherever they went.

During our walk, Silverus turned his head to me and asked, “So since you know Eugene, you have no problem leading us there, right?”

I nodded, “Nuh-uh. I know exactly where I left off.”

“Good, after we leave this place, we'll have you take the lead then.”

“Got it,” I said.

Once all of us exited the building, I led them the way to Eugene's location. I uncrossed my arms and walked forward, being on the lookout for any lycan for cover. I was lucky there weren't any of them around so far and hoped there weren't any around as of right now.

I also hoped the old man remained alive and got him healed soon. I couldn't imagine him dead once his allies and I returned to that place too late. Yet I wouldn't allow that thinking to distract me from leading Eugene's allies to him. Not ever. Not on my watch.

By the time we arrived halfway there, a woman's scream, a lycan’s roar and a slicing sound echoed right in front of us. We all stopped in our tracks and saw nothing in sight, all thanks to the fog blocking our view. I widened my eyes and shivered, wondering what was going on out there.

With the dragging sound and the other lycans’ roars now added in the mix, Silverus looked down at me and the sound's direction back and forth. “Get behind us, ma'am. We'll deal with those fiends.”

I looked back at Aleke and Silverus back and forth. “Okay.” I ran behind them both and followed their lead throughout our direction, as they walked slowly, ignoring my jiggling breasts.

I swallowed my spit and hoped that no one was there. I could feel sweat forming on my forehead and sliding down all over my face, inside my heart began to beat hard and fast on my chest. I hoped these two would be able to fight off these creatures together and not die. I really didn't want to imagine their deaths in this eerie kingdom.

And when we arrived there, I gasped with my hand covering my mouth and my eyes broadened. I saw Alpha standing in between the two lycans who just arrived at the scene, gazing at us the moment we stepped out of the fog. The pool of blood was forming around a female corpse and those lycans growled at us with their drools coming out of their mouths. Aleke and Silverus aimed their crossbows at their enemies right after Alpha roared at us.