Mr. Morison nodded at Zay's request to take Naomi now. He moved swiftly to the cage, lifted his hand toward it, and muttered something under his breath. As the final word left his lips, the cage vanished. In its place, a leash appeared in his grasp, connected to a collar now fastened around the girl's neck.
The collar was small, looked to be tight around her neck, and delicate. A pure white color with a pink spinel gemstone set neatly at its center.
Mr. Morison approached Zay, Naomi trailing quietly behind him, and handed over the leash without a word.
No one spoke as Zay turned and exited the building, moving briskly through the district streets. A few eyes followed him, but they quickly averted their gazes. Minding your own business was often safer than curiosity.
Zay returned to the market's "lobby" and found the librarian who had first let him in. The man glanced at Zay, eyes unfocused, clearly drunk. A hiccup slipped from his lips as he slurred, "W-would you look at that… he's the mer…"
Zay hesitated for a moment, noting the man's drunken state, then let out a quiet sigh—more disappointment than surprise. "Can you open the door? I need to leave," he asked softly, leaning in close to the librarian's ear.
The librarian gave a sluggish nod, reached into his coat, and pulled out a key. With a twist through empty air, a wooden door shimmered into existence.
As the door shimmered into existence, Zay walked up to it, opened it using the handle, and stepped through, gripping the leash tightly and giving it the slightest pull. Naomi followed without any resistance. The two of them made their way back into the library, which had been closed to the public for the week due to the ongoing market.
As Naomi crossed the threshold and entered the library, the door closed behind her and dissolved into smoke. The lights on the tables were off, but it didn't matter to Zay due to his [Night Vision] passive allowed him to see perfectly in the dark.
Zay walked over to the girl, who was restrained by several incantations and physical restrictions, and looked down at her. He released a sigh and raised his right hand slightly in front of him.
His lips parted, and he whispered an incantation. "Release the bindings that are keeping this soul bound by laws and regulations, for I am now in control." As he spoke, his aura erupted around his hand and flowed toward the girl. The violet energy spread across the glowing symbols and incantation text etched around her body, unraveling each one slowly. Each faded with a faint violet flash, marking where the symbols had been only moments before.
'Incantations are annoying. You need to know the exact amount of aura to apply for each one, but most don't need to be spoken aloud to work. There are exceptions, though—higher-power ones are more like rituals than regular incantations, but whatever,' he thought, recalling several of the ones he had learned.
'There's the "Blood Strength" incantation, "Undo Bounds", "Sacred Pact", and a few others. Though, for all of them besides Undo Bounds, I need more aura than I currently have to activate them.' Zay dropped the leash onto the ground and slowly reached for the girl's blindfold, placing his hands gently on both sides of it.
"I'm going to remove this," he said simply, then pulled the blindfold away.
Her eyes opened slowly, revealing a deep shade of dark pink—an eye color unique to the Noctern species.
'Such a unique color,' Zay thought as he looked into her eyes for a moment before she blinked.
"Would you like some assistance with the rest of the binds?"
Naomi shook her head slightly, then broke the chains binding her arms. She reached up to the muzzle around her mouth, placing her hands on either side of it. A dark pink aura flared around her body as she gripped the muzzle and snapped it in two.
The metal split with a sharp crack, and the two broken halves slipped from her hands. They hit the library floor with a harsh, echoing clatter—one piece landing flat with a heavy smack, the other spinning briefly before toppling over and rattling to a stop.
"Food," Naomi said—her voice smooth and composed, carrying a subtle firmness that gave the single word unexpected weight.
'She's at least in her twenties by human standards, but Nocterns and Vampires are completely different... For her to look like this, I'd guess she's maybe in her early three hundreds?' Zay thought, releasing a quiet sigh before turning his gaze back to her.
"What kind... of food do you want?" he asked slowly, unease creeping in. He wasn't sure what a half-Vampire, half-Noctern would need to dull her hunger.
Silence lingered for several seconds. The faint ticking of a clock caught Naomi's attention—she blinked, and one of her ears twitched at the sound. Her gaze shifted toward a wall as aura began to flare around her index finger.
She raised her hand and pointed toward the clock. A concentrated pulse of dark pink aura shot from her fingertip, piercing straight through it.
The clock exploded into a scatter of bronze gears, tangled strings, and carved wooden letters. The fragments crashed onto the table below, clattering loudly as metal slammed into metal and wood splintered on impact.
The wall that had supported the clock cracked slightly around the hole her aura had left behind. Zay turned his gaze to it, noting the precise, needle-sized puncture that he could barely see. If it hadn't been for the lingering aura, he wouldn't have noticed the puncture at all.
'The control she has over her aura...' he thought, before shifting his eyes back to her.
"Was that..." she began, pausing as though searching for the right words. "something important?" she asked, finally continuing and turning her dark pink eyes to meet his.
"It wasn't important to either of us, so don't worry," he replied simply.
She nodded, and a low grumble sounded a moment later. Zay glanced over at her and realized it was her stomach. 'Right, the food,' he thought, surprised he'd forgotten about it.
"What exactly do you want to eat, anyway?" Zay asked, watching as she closed her eyes, seemingly lost in thought.
A few seconds of silence passed between them—silence that filled the entire room, broken only by the steady rain falling outside the library. Her eyes slowly opened, and her lips parted.
"Blood. That's what I want," she said, looking directly at him. "But… anything is fine with me..." she added softly, just as thunder rumbled above them.
A few more seconds passed in silence as Zay thought it over. Outside, more deep rumbles of thunder rolled through the sky, growing louder by the second until it crashed overhead like a warning. A jagged flash of lightning tore across the clouds, briefly flooding the library in pale white light, casting their shadows long and sharp against the stone walls.
Zay let out a soft sigh. "Fine," he said at last, his voice nearly drowned out by another rumble that shook the windows.
Naomi walked toward him as he slowly tugged the left side of his collar aside. She stopped just in front of him, her eyes drifting to the side of his neck. For a moment, another bolt of lightning illuminated her face—her expression unreadable, solemn. Then she looked up at him, silently asking for permission again.
"Just get it over with already," Zay said, looking down at the girl who was maybe a few inches shorter than he was.
She gave a slow nod, her lips parting as she leaned down toward his neck. As her mouth opened, two fangs slid forward. They extended from behind her upper canines, emerging smoothly like hidden blades, each one positioned at opposite ends of her smile. With her mouth fully open, the fangs remained perfectly aligned within her bite range.
The warmth of his pulse called to her, steady and unguarded beneath the surface. She hesitated for a brief heartbeat, her fangs glinting in the occasional flashes of lightning, then slowly lowered her head the final inch. Without wasting any more time, she closed her mouth gently and bit down. Her fangs pierced effortlessly, sliding between muscle and vein with unnatural ease. A flicker of satisfaction passed through her as the taste of fresh human blood hit her tongue, vivid and electric.
After months of surviving on stale sources, the flavor felt divine. She swallowed the blood that pooled on her tongue from the small punctures in his skin, then used her aura to accelerate the flow, drawing more with each heartbeat.
Zay felt the blood draining from his body as she continued to feed slowly. Despite that, his thoughts were far from what was happening in the moment.
'A task... to increase one's core rank... I need to at least read what it is before accepting it,' he thought, just as the Resonance Lens appeared before him without him saying the phrase to open it.
[Core Rank Increase Task: Complete Sequence Four.]
'Well, that's straightforward enough. I'll take it,' he decided as the message faded and his eyes flicked down to Naomi, still drinking his blood.
After a few seconds, her fangs lifted from his skin. She stepped back, closed her mouth, and licked the remaining blood from her lips before swallowing. Zay brought his right hand to his neck and felt the bite marks but noticed no blood leaking from the punctures.
Before he could ask about it, an abyssal black aura flared from the wounds as [Unholy Regeneration] activated on its own, instantly healing the two small puncture holes.
'What the hell was that?' Zay wondered, rubbing his index finger over his neck for several more seconds. His eyes widened as he made his way back to the room with the mirror. He had never felt this sensation before. It was as if something was watching him.
He crossed the library until he reached the room where he changed clothes. Looking at his neck, he saw no lingering aura, no openings, nothing at all to indicate he had been bit by a vampire.
"How... the hell?" he muttered, staring down at his perfectly still hands. He then lifted his gaze to the mirror and glanced at his neck again, making sure he wasn't imagining things.
It was the first time Unholy Regeneration had activated without Ashgrave controlling his body. Even when Ashgrave was in control, Zay had no memory of the passive ability ever being triggered.
Confused, he continued to study his neck until footsteps approached the room. Adjusting his black trench coat, he turned just as Naomi entered. Her dark pink eyes glowed, and her figure was illuminated by white light as lightning struck outside.