“The state will save us! The Five Seats are eternal!" A retired man stroked his grey beard atop a large rock structure. He was in the middle of Durand’s commercial strip. Durand was a city near Torque.

“Someone shut him up!” “Him again?” There were only a few citizens around the main road.

In the Fourth Layer, most stood by the rebellion. Through Gabriella Rivampe’s propaganda, they learned to hate the Seats.

He squinted his eyes at the two civilians and looked at the small crowd beneath him. “Do not let the rebels and bloodsuckers brainwash you! Join our cause! Did you even see the news? Gabriella is a devil!” Some of the people nodded, convinced that following Gabriella was worse.

The aged man patted his hat, "Stay with me! We shall free ourselves from the heretical rebels, we shall bring back order!”

An elegant guy walked past him quickly, his long black hair swinging, a tight grip on his small yet heavy leather bag.

“A lot changed while I was gone.” He was the one who had saved Isaac by sniping one of the masked vampires in Vamp City. The vampire had just come back from the South Continent.

He entered a bar. Apart from a few customers buried in their drinks, it was completely barren. He sat at the marble counter and rested his bag.

“Hi, welcome to Martin’s cave,” the bald bartender spotted him, “What do you want? Everything’s on the house today.”

“Free? What’s the occasion?”

He crossed his arms. “Don’t you know? Everyone's leaving Dorand, me included. This place is about to be turned into a hellhole.”

“Oh?”

“What? Did you just come out of your coffin?!”

“You could say that,” The vampire showed him his sharp fangs.

Martin widened his eyes, scanned the room, and chewed on his teeth, realizing he really was talking to a vampire.

‘What am I worrying about? All the noble vampires have already left: he’s a low rank.’

He opened his mouth and let out a quiet scream. “The seats are coming for us!”

“I see. This is why Durand felt empty.”

“I’ll give you a tip. Right now, the whole city’s leaving by the gates. Traffic is so long it’ll take days to leave this way.”

Martin leaned closer. “I plan to sneak out with a small crew above the guild’s roof. Tonight.”

He regained his composure. “Now, whaddya want to drink?”

The vampire gently knocked on the marble counter. “Do you have anything on the ‘special’ menu?”

“No, just your regular red blood glass. I’m all out of special drinks. Traffic, remember?”

“Fine, I will-”

An ugly, heart-pumping, hair-raising, high-pitched noise echoed throughout the city. It was the emergency alarm.

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“THE NORTH GATE’S OPENED!” The retired man shouted, his voice cracking amidst the clamour outside the bar. Ants were running everywhere.

“Lock the door!” Martin shouted to one of the customers near it. They stood up, a bottle of bourbon in one hand, turned the switch with his other hand, and fainted. His bottle crashed against the fizzling floor.

“OUR SAVIOURS HAVE COME! GATHER AROUND AND BOW DOWN TO THE SEATS!”

The vampire took a peek outside. Sure enough, he saw Zephyr Dragos’ army farther down the strip. It was Durand’s turn to fall.

“Come with me to the back!” Martin hurried the drunken men and women into the bar’s kitchen.

“Wait here, I’ll call the others!” The sweaty man rushed up a wooden staircase.

‘Is this where he sleeps?’ The vampire chose to go with the group.

Something touched his shoulder, a giant hand. It squeezed on him. He turned and saw an overweighed man with short brown hair and a bloodshot face.

“Heyyy! Whatcha doing here… vamp?!…vampire! Go fight theeem! Those lizaaaards…”

He ignored him.

“Tch! Stuuupid vaaaampire!” The man spat at his feet. “Guyss! Loook at this vampire! He’s a coward! Haha!”

-Bang!

He rammed the tipsy man with his heavy bag and threw him at his feet. He gave him a threatening look. “Don’t call me vampire. I have a name. It’s Orin.”

The drunken man sobered up and walked to the other side of the kitchen. He grabbed something to eat.

Twenty people had gone down the stairs with Martin. There were mothers, fathers, children, elders, and a few young adults. Martin’s family was there too. He had a daughter and two sons.

They passed through the patio, arriving in a courtyard. The bombardments, gunfires, cries, and death screams accentuated. Martin led them to his neighbour’s back door. It was a roofscraper with a path above the roof.

‘We’re in a hotel.’ Orin realized as they walked past the employees’ quarters and arrived in the lobby. They couldn’t fit all in the elevator. Martin let the seniors and kids go in. The rest took the interminable stairs.

When they finally arrived, even Orin had sweat on his back.

“It’s locked! The gate’s locked!” A grandfather who was already there alerted them.

The staircase leading above the concrete roof was inside a metal cage.

“Allow me.” Orin stepped forward and swung his claws at the lock, forcefully breaking it.

They swarmed up. They could see the light. They arrived. Everyone was blinded by the dazzling sun except for Orin. He had been outside not long ago.

There were explosions there too. “What do you see? What’s happening?!” Martin was stressed.

“It seems you weren’t the only ones who thought of leaving by the roof,” he sighed while activating his vampiric form.

Martin squinted his eyes. He spotted a gigantic aircraft dropping bombs from the sky. It had made a big hole inside the ceiling. Smaller aircraft were firing missiles at other humans that had climbed above the roof like them.

The vampire flew away. “Hey! Where are you going?!”

“I have somewhere to be in the inner layer!” Orin gave him a sorry smile.

Soon after he left, a plane launched a missile towards Martin’s group. They ran for five seconds before it crashed, bursting on everyone.

…

-Clank

Ejiro and Aaron were blinded as the room’s lights suddenly turned on.

“Hey?” Ejiro noticed it wasn’t the fake Gabriella. Someone else had entered

the confined room.

“Shh!” She put her index in front of her lips. There were two people, the wind mages from Ejiro’s team.

The woman removed their bonds while her twin brother gave Ejiro an earphone. “Ejiro? Can you hear me?” Bryan was on the other end.

He cleared his throat. “Yeah.”

Ejiro and Aaron were hurt and couldn’t walk properly- especially Aaron since he wasn’t a vampire. The twins supported them out of the cell, into the light, into the corridor.

There was something at the other end. The twins froze. Aaron raised his head: it was Gabriella’s figure; the reptoid, Stana, was waiting for them.

“Hey there. Were you expecting me?”