A cold night it was, but it did not feel like any other cold night Zen was used to. As the chilly wind flowed about his large frame, he approached the lone hill south of the village. A torch in hand to light the way, Zen didn't fully know why he lied.

After all, why would a child be ashamed of visiting his granfather's grave?

As he came to a stop before the old mossy temple, a small graveyard laying beside it riddled with markers.

Zen walked past all, all but three which he kneeled before, offering a basket full of fresh fruits to them.

Carved out very expertly into each stone marker, were three distinctly Eel-like figures.

"I couldn't even do what I set out to do, gran." Zen whispered, as he raised his left knee up and rested his arms atop it, raising his head to gaze at the starry night sky above. "It hurt, gran, but I couldn't feel it. The iron, the poison, I just felt numb thinking over what...what I set myself out to do. Am I...Am I just not built that way?"

Zen sighed, then sinkin his chin atop his arms, "Why couldn't I put an end to them? Why was I not strong enough?"

Clenching his fists then, a brief burning fury rushed through him, but quickly subsided as he sighed once more.

"Funny questions to ask, when you lobbed some of those pirates so hard they died mid-air." A voice then spoke from behind him, and immediately annoyance filled Zen's expression as he turned to meet Erika's cold gaze.

"Hey...maybe we should..." Gray tried to stop Erika, seeing the grave markers and the offerings.

"Who killed them?" Erika blatantly asked, Gray unable to stop her...

Followed by a long quiet moment, as cold wind whistled past them, Gray expected the worst.

"The Concord," Zen said, breaking the tension as he lay his left hand upon one gravestone. "The Pirates...Hunger...Sickness...It's all my people, my family, has ever known. And I damn myself every day for this body I've been gifted. I ask myself every day...Why me? Why not them?"

"You don't get to choose what you're born, who you're born as. You only get to do what you can with what you're given." Erika replied, then sighed, "I know the meaning of being born privileged very well."

Zen glances back at her disheveled appearance, "You?"

Gray chuckled awkwardly, "She may not look it right now, but in a different world, our blood thirsty gal here is a blue blooded lady." He announces, before Erika's palm pushes his mouth closed.

"Point is, I understand your feelings of self resent. I understand, the pressure of others expecting more." Erika approached the Merman then, "Zen, is it? Look around you, tell me, what do you see in this world you live in?"

Zen huffed in amusement, "What do I see? Unfairness at every corner."

"There is no such thing." Erika mused, "As fair, or unfair. Simply what action, cause and effect, create. You tell me you feel a heavy weight on your shoulders, pressured by the power you were born to. Then use it."

Zen clenched his hands once more, forming fists the goliath rose to his full height. "Have I...not been using it!?" He bellowed, turning to glare down at her.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Uhh, perhaps we shou-" Gray tried to be diplomatic.

"Are you? All I see is a sorry giant sobbing over the dead and fallen, held back by self-pitty." Erika chose a different path, as such, Gray took a couple of steps back.

Zen loomed over her, as water rushed across his body, forming a viscous armor. "You...better watch...what you say next-"

"Join me." Erika then said.

"What?" Zen asked in annoyed surprise.

"If you do not know how to make use of your own power, I will. If you cannot become a warrior to rise to your own expectations, then become a blade I will wield to its full potential." Erika claimed, her eyes burning ferociously as she met his gaze.

Zen chuckled, "And what would you do with such a blade?" He asked, amused.

"Cut the head of the snake right off. The Tyrants of this world, I will bring them to their knees, with you by my side." Erika offered.

"You expect too much of me." Zen scoffed, "The Blood Lords? Impossible."

"You say impossible, yet I witnessed several of them die." Erika mused.

"Wha-what? No, we would have..." Zen stumbled in his words.

"Heard of it? No you wouldn't have. Even if enough time had passed for the news to reach you, I very much doubt it would have. Wouldn't it?" Erika said, her gaze focusing upon him.

Zen sighed, "You're right, why would it reach us? No...they'd cut it off before it ever did...Chaos would ensue if...if what you say is true...The Underlord will be..." His eyes then fully widened, as he glanced inbetween Erika and Gray. "After...the killers..."

"You're...more than just wanted!" Zen exclaimed, "The Underlord...he'll...he'll!" Panic filled his thoughts as he processed what he was just told. "Lord Eris...No...No he'll have all our heads!" Taking several steps back, Zen could do nothing but stare in disbelief at Erika as her composure remained iron-cold.

"Eris?" Coldly, Erika chuckled. "Eris is dead."

Zen then fell back onto his behind, "He...what?"

"The Lord of these lands, Blood Lord Eris, was killed by my...friend, a fight that took both of their...lives." Erika said, her chuckle falling short as piercing pain filled her expression at that reminder.

"Do not dare say, that you cannot believe it." She then snapped at him, "Someone very powerful...someone very dear to me, gave their life for this opportunity we both now have." As she spoke, it all dawned on Zen, as he clenched his head hard with both hands. "With the great Lord dead, what will occur, to these lands you think?"

"Chaos." Zen said, breathing heavily. "Nothing...No law, no rules, will matter anymore. Kill or be killed, will be the sole reality. The Concord...nothing will keep the ghouls in check anymore! They'll...They'll..."

"Ransack every village and town, and stock up for the storm to come." Erika finished his train of thought, as his gaze rose to meet her's. "Am I wrong?"

And as their eyes locked, a moment of understanding flowed inbetween them. A long quiet moment, as Zen's panic deformed into amusement. "You're all insane. Eris was...Eris was the one thing keeping these lands together...without an Underlord of our own...The others...they'll tear this country to pieces like vultures to an old carcass..."

Erika simply nodded.

As Zen passed his palm over his face, calming himself, he took a deep long breath.

Standing back up to his feet, Zen sighed, "Then, we don't have much time. The village...We have no choice, we must leave or...die."

Then the realization hit him, "Hah...you knew, you knew this would be the path we'd take."

"No, It was one of the many paths you might've taken. I simply rolled the dice and took the chance." Erika replied.

"I must...I must warn everyone...The Conord they! They come in three days!" Zen steeled himself, quickly turning away from the graveyard he began rushing back towards the village.

"Aw come on, do we have to run?" Gray grumbled, turning to follow the Merman, when he noticed Erika not moving.

Erika's gaze, having moved to stare at the temple's door, where she saw a blue sheen that caught her attention.

Where she saw, two furred tails flow through the doorway and inside.

"You coming?" Gray asked as he jogged on the spot.

"Go ahead...there's, one last thing I want to...check." Erika replied, seemingly mesmerized by the temple, yet her eyes only knew fury.

"Uh, alright." Gray shrugged, rushing after Zen who was ways ahead by now.

Erika carefully approached the temple, anger in her eyes yet she still did not know what to expect.

As she came to the large stone doorway, before her lay a strange small room with a collection of scrolls and a stone altar at the center.

One scroll, lay fallen out of its case and rolled open on the floor, as out of it flowed a light blue light. Seemingly physical and flexible, the light flowed across the floor and up to the altar.

"I've been expecting you."

Where a man with fox-like features lay sitting with his legs crossed.

"You." Erika grumbled.

"Me!" Kyllix mused with open arms and a shit-eating grin.