by Brandon Chen
***
An hour later, an emerald glow began to shine next to Yuri’s pants. In the snow was the tiny seed that Moriaki had given the boy back in Reidan, coruscating with natural magic.
The wind picked up, creating a whirling vortex around Yuri’s body. The seed germinated instantly, and a plant slowly rose from the snow. It grew exponentially over the course of several minutes, eventually becoming a towering tree, taller than any of the buildings in the vampire settlement, shining with an emerald light. Its branches reached towards Yuri, curling around the unconscious boy, dragging him towards the trunk.
The magical tree brought Yuri into a tight embrace, the branches constricting him. A transparent sap oozed from the bark around the werewolf, spilling over Yuri’s body until it had had covered him. It then solidified, trapping him within a translucent pod that softly glowed.
The sound of galloping fused with the howling wind as a horse, bearing two riders, cantered through the corpse-filled streets. The steed halted beside Malyssa’s body and Lena dismounted. She had never intended to leave Yuri to his fate, especially after he’d risked so much to save her and Terias. She’d gone to the armory and retrieved pistols for her and Terias so that they could provide support. But it seemed that the battle between the werewolf and vampire had already concluded. Malyssa had been vanquished, her severed head lying several feet from her hemorrhaging body.
But Yuri was trapped in an arcane substance that Lena had never seen before. The apprentice examined the pod that confined the werewolf, rapping it experimentally with her knuckles. It was solid, like layered ice, — tough but not impenetrable. This tree certainly had not been here before. How had it grown in such a short amount of time?
“His wounds,” Terias called weakly, still seated on the horse. “Look.”
The Ghost Wolf’s wounds were closing, the damaged skin kneading together as if an invisible entity were sewing his flesh. This was powerful healing magic.
Lena’s foot tapped a silver sword buried under a thin layer of snow. Yuri’s weapon. She reached down and picked up the sword, testing its balance in her hands. Gripping the hilt tightly, she swung hard, the blade biting deep into the pod’s transparent substance. The material cracked beneath her blow and Terias winced, half-expecting her slash to break through the pod and cut Yuri. “Careful,” he warned her.
The woman nodded, knowing that the blow had dealt enough initial damage to the pod. Turning the sword, she began to repeatedly slam its pommel into the cracked substance. Like clay, it shattered beneath her strikes, and the branches that held Yuri released him, allowing the unconscious boy to fall forward into Lena’s arms.
“Think this horse can carry three to Etaon?” Lena grunted as she started to drag Yuri’s limp body to Terias and the horse.
The knight shrugged. “What other option do we have? You’re the only one that’s in any condition to ride.” He smiled. “If the worst comes, you’ll just have to drag two injured men the rest of the way. No big deal.”
Lena groaned as she slumped Yuri’s body into Terias’s arms, raising an eyebrow at the knight. “You pick the worst times to make jokes.”
Second Chance
Archerus was not having the best morning, after spending several hours frantically looking for Yuri. The boy hadn’t been in his bed and there was no trace of him anywhere around Etaon. His scent was barely present, meaning that he must’ve left the gnomish stronghold. To his dismay, he found tracks that belonged to Yuri, leading northwest. He had no idea where his friend went. The boy hadn’t traveled in the direction of Malyssa’s encampment, and the location of the Phoenix Heart field was east. The only other place he could’ve gone was the Oblivion Portal.
Archerus scrunched up his nose. Did that idiot really go off on his own in the middle of the night?
“Hey, something’s approaching from the south!” Noah called, standing atop one of Etaon’s outer walls. He held out his palm, creating a telescope in his hand. Using it, he zoomed in on the incoming strangers. “It’s Violet! She’s mounted on a giant, flying … bird thing. They’re approaching fast!”
A massive bird with feathers the color of fire soared over the fortress walls, descending into the courtyard before Etaon’s citadel. Archerus, Lady Amara, and her assistant gathered to greet Horux’s princess as she dismounted from the gigantic creature. To Archerus’s surprise, the bird transformed, morphing into the renowned druid that he’d seen back in Reidan. Moriaki.
The elf cleared his throat, his nose twitching at the overpowering scent of blood that clung to the fortress grounds. The druid could tell that there had been a fierce battle here, but he said nothing.
“Where’s everyone?” Violet asked, meeting Archerus’s distraught gaze.
“They’re gone,” Archerus murmured. “The vampires got here before we did and killed them all. We buried them yesterday.”
Violet put her hand to her mouth, exhaling shakily. She closed her eyes, fighting back tears. The princess swallowed her pain, knowing that Senna was amongst the brave warriors that had fallen to the vampires. “What about Yuri? I don’t see him here, but he came with you, didn’t he?” she let out.
“He’s gone missing,” Lady Amara said.
“What? How?”
“We don’t know,” Archerus said, running his hand through his stringy hair. “I believe that he left Etaon in the middle of the night to travel to the Oblivion Portal. Because the gnomish engineers were killed by Malyssa’s assault, we planned to fetch the rest of our troops at Lady Amara’s fortress and return to Reidan, where we would discuss a new plan to deal with Faelen’s werewolves. Perhaps Yuri thought that he needed to complete his accord with Malyios prior to us leaving Lichholme. Though that wouldn’t explain why he hasn’t returned yet.”
“We cannot just wait here for Yuri to return, it’s too dangerous,” Moriaki said. “I suggest that we follow Archerus’s original plan and travel back to Reidan.”
Violet was about to protest when Noah suddenly let out a cry. “We have a horse incoming! It’s carrying three people. It’s a woman and Terias, and — I think that’s Yuri!” he exclaimed, looking down at his surprised friends. “He looks different, though.”
Archerus tried not to ask what had changed; he wanted to see for himself. The boy had ended up going to Malyssa’s encampment after all. But how had he managed to save Terias and this woman alone? Stealth was not an option, especially with vampire sentries surrounding the area. It was impossible to infiltrate Malyssa’s settlement without encountering at least a hundred opponents. Archerus would’ve been surprised if Yuri handled ten on his own. The vampires were extremely apt in battle.
When the horse finally trotted through Etaon’s gates, Terias and Yuri practically fell off the exhausted steed, rolling to the ground. Lady Amara and her Frozarian companion quickly rushed to the knight’s aid, carrying him to the stronghold to be treated.
Everyone else stared at Yuri, surprised at the sudden change in his hair color. Archerus watched as Violet moved to the werewolf’s side, cradling the boy’s limp head in her arms. He turned to Moriaki. “Can you do anything to heal him?”
Moriaki shook his head, his arms folded over his chest. “Prior to your departure from Reidan, I gifted him with a Seed of Life. The seed grows into a tree when its holder nears death, and proceeds to heal all of their wounds. However, it does come with a cost. The healed individual falls into a deep slumber of unpredictable length. He may never wake up at all,” he said, his expression stern. “He must’ve sustained an enormous number of wounds for the seed to be activated. But I can sense the seed’s magic surrounding him, mending his body even now.”
“He’s in a coma?” Noah said, jogging into the area after leaving his post at the fortress’s outer wall.
“Essentially,” the elf replied.
“Take Yuri inside,” Archerus commanded and Noah quickly helped Violet carry the unconscious boy towards the fortress. The leader then turned to the stranger, who stiff
ened. “And who are you?”
“M-My name is Lena! I was an apprentice engineer at Etaon underneath Lord Twinklehart!” the woman exclaimed, her posture straight.
Twinklehart? Archerus smiled slightly. A practitioner of gnomish engineering had survived after all. If she could invent a device that would provide an easy way to deliver the Phoenix Heart antidote into the werewolves, perhaps they hadn’t wasted their time and resources in Lichholme after all. “Explain to me what happened from the moment Malyssa’s forces infiltrated Etaon until now.”
Lena proceeded to tell her tale, explaining in detail what had happened during the incursion of Etaon. Archerus’s facial features twitched as the poor woman spoke of her atrocious experience as a blood-bag in Malyssa’s encampment. But what she and the other prisoners endured seemed little in comparison to the suffering Terias went through. No wonder he looked so frail.
Then came the description of Yuri, as the Ghost Wolf. Yuri had worn a pair of gloves that had made him lose control, turning him cruel and bloodthirsty. Archerus could hardly believe Lena when she said that he massacred thousands of vampires in only hours and decapitated Malyssa on his own. There was only one place that Yuri could’ve acquired such a rare item — Oblivion.
“Do you have the gloves with you?” Moriaki asked.
Lena reached into her pockets and pulled out the Oblivion Claws, which hung limply in her hands. Moriaki marveled at the fine cloth, gaping in awe. He could see lines of unholy power surging through every seam of these gloves. The strength to topple empires and quake continents to their very foundations lay within this extraordinary item. “A Sacred Treasure,” the druid whispered, taking the gloves from the engineer. “This was taken from the depths of Oblivion. Corrupting magic twists through it. A person who wields this will lose their mind. How did Yuri manage to take these off?”
“He seemed to return to his senses when he saw Terias and me being held hostage,” Lena replied.
The elf smiled slightly. The power of this Sacred Treasure should’ve been enough to completely eradicate Yuri’s old self. The druid was surprised that Yuri had managed to retake control of his body at all. “I will hold onto these for now,” he said, tucking the gloves into a pocket inside his robes.
“Lena, we’ve come a long way, seeking the help of a gnomish engineer,” Archerus said, gaining the apprentice’s attention. “Since you’re the last one in Escalon, I was wondering if you could hear us out and help us, if it is within your power.”
Lena smiled. “I am forever indebted to Yuri. Any cause that he fights for, I will stand behind him.”
Archerus nodded and explained why they had come to Lichholme, telling her every detail of Horux’s invasion and the current situation of Escalon.
It didn’t take long for Lena to understand the dangerous state of the continent. She tapped her finger to her chin. “Master Twinklehart actually completed the prototype for a device that could combat vampires and, technically, could also kill werewolves as well. It is a pistol that can shoot capsules of melted silver, injecting the metal into the target’s bloodstream. It was meant to sear vampires from the inside.”
“We aren’t looking to kill the werewolves. Our mission is to cure them,” Archerus said.
“Yes, yes. It’s just that … I could make some modifications to the prototype so that, instead of the capsules of silver, it could fire the Phoenix Heart antidote. Theoretically, if I extract the liquid from the Phoenix Hearts and put it into the capsules, I could adjust the gun so that instead of firing melted silver at vampires —”
“We could be firing the antidote straight into the bloodstream of the werewolves,” Archerus finished, elation sweeping over him. He slapped his forehead, grinning like a child on its birthday. “By the gods, that would work! But we would need to mass produce the weapons.”
“Etaon has the resources to make thousands of them,” Lena said, pointing at the fortress. “But it would take a lot of time to bring enough Phoenix Hearts back from the fields. It would be even harder to drag the guns back to mainland Escalon.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Noah said, snapping his fingers, summoning his magical sack. “This bag has magical properties. It is practically bottomless and weighs as little as a feather, no matter what I put into it. I can carry the Phoenix Hearts and the guns without a problem.”
Moriaki whistled, rubbing the back of his neck. Only moments ago, this quest had seemed doomed. “It would seem that we have a lot of work to do.”
Archerus was already dashing into the fortress to get supplies for their journey to the field of Phoenix Hearts. “Then let’s get started!”
The Beginning of the End
Long weeks dragged into months, and Archerus grew worried of about the fate of Escalon. Moriaki had assured him that Escalon was safe, because Faelen’s accord with Zylon kept him behind the magical wall that Zylon had created. However, Archerus did not like betting the fate of the millions of inhabitants of Escalon purely on Faelen’s honor.
Archerus went with Noah and Moriaki to the Phoenix Heart fields to harvest thousands of the plants. The field was located in a lush valley, in the center of a ring of towering mountains. It didn’t take long for Archerus’s party to find a path to the valley, but they spent a lot of time collecting the Phoenix Hearts.
The valley itself was gorgeous, filled with hundreds of thousands of flowers that blazed like a sea of tiny candles. Even at night, they illuminated the darkness with their natural glow, a sight that Archerus would miss seeing.
The party of three worked hard for weeks, doing their best to collect as many Phoenix Hearts as they possibly could, shoveling piles of the plant into Noah’s magical bag. When they were finished, the valley had been nearly cleared of Phoenix Hearts. There were only a few dozen left.
When Archerus and his companions returned to Etaon, they were met with encouraging news. Lena had adjusted Twinklehart’s invention so that it would now fire capsules of the liquid antidote present in Phoenix Hearts’ stems. She called this ruby substance Reberna.
Etaon had now been occupied by several hundred Frozarians, called upon by Lady Amara. The Frost Mistress, like Lena, felt indebted to Yuri because of his victory over Malyssa and her vampires. In all of their centuries of war, the Frozarians had never been able to eliminate Malyssa’s settlement. Feeling that she owed Yuri a favor, Lady Amara had her Frozarian warriors defending Etaon from any outside threats, such as undead, trolls, and other foul creatures. In addition, many of her subordinates helped Lena in the mass production of her guns. She named the invention the Phoenix Cannon.
Over the past few weeks, Violet had cared for both Terias and Yuri. Terias had recovered within two weeks. As soon as he was back on his feet, the knight alternated between assisting Violet with monitoring Yuri and helping with Lena’s production of Phoenix Cannons.
Two months later, a thousand Phoenix Cannons had been produced, along with a hundred thousand capsules of Reberna. That would be more than enough to retake Horux, assuming that they weren’t terrible marksmen and didn’t waste ammunition.
Archerus stood at the edge of Yuri’s bed, watching the boy as he slept. For two months, Yuri hadn’t opened his eyes. Yet, he was alive, and Violet worked to preserve his health. The boy had gotten skinny and frail, but that was to be expected from months of being in a coma.
Archerus turned to Violet, who sat in a chair at Yuri’s side. He smiled. There was still hope and love glinting in the princess’s eyes as she watched the slumbering werewolf. “Moriaki will fly you and Yuri back to Reidan tonight. He then will proceed to southern Escalon to arm Zylon’s forces with the Phoenix Cannons. Horux will soon be ours again, Your Highness.”
Violet nodded, smiling. “Thank you, Archerus. For everything.”
Archerus bowed his head in reverence to his princess. “Things will get better. You’ll see.”
“I can only hope so,” Violet replied.
Archerus watched the young woman for a moment long
er before departing Yuri’s room, leaving the two alone. His boots echoed through the silent hallways of Etaon. For the first time in a while, the fortress was not ringing with the sounds of clanging metal or shouting Frozarians. After months of vigorous work, Lena had halted production to give everyone a rest.
The silence was not like the disconcerting quiet of Horux’s forests. It was tranquil and serene, like the time he and Yuri had tested their new werewolf skills, trying to catch fish in one of Escalon’s rivers.
Archerus’s lips curled into a smile. Perhaps this was a sign that peace was finally approaching.
***
For three months, Faelen waited behind Zylon’s magical wall, patiently brooding in his confinement. He was calm, confident in Tanya’s ability to accomplish the task that he’d given her. He spent every day calming the werewolves, preventing them from trying to tear down Zylon’s wall. Faelen wanted to uphold his end of the accord, but with every passing day, he grew more skeptical about Tanya’s progress.
Lichholme was certainly a dangerous land, but Faelen was aware Tanya’s strengths. He believed her capable of handling the forsaken territory’s monstrosities. What was taking her so long?
Perhaps she’d betrayed him. Perhaps Junko appeared and gave her new instructions to dominate Escalon. Perhaps Faelen, if he didn’t do anything, would be doomed to eternal incarceration on this accursed peninsula. Just like his imprisonment in Horux’s catacombs.
The blood in his veins boiled with ire, his claws shaking at his side. He tried to calm himself, but the more he thought about being trapped behind a wall, the more enraged he became. The werewolves around him sensed his anger and began to howl in response, waiting for his orders. They were nearly sure that he would command them to attack Zylon’s wall, but he didn’t.
Instead, Faelen closed his eyes and sat on the ground, in the shadow of Zylon’s fabricated barrier. Exhaling through his nose, the werewolf looked up, and saw a mystical mist of darkness swirling in a black vortex before him. His fellow werewolves growled at the mysterious entity, sensing a malicious aura radiating from the fog. Faelen recognized the faint magical presence. He squinted his eyes and scoffed. “You’ve grown weak, Malyios.”