# Chapter 6: Darkness Before Dawn
Time: The eighth day of the Black Forest Month, Medieval European Calendar. One hour after midnight, the night following the full moon.
Location: Grey Raven Camp, on the edge of the Black Forest — a half-moon hollow beneath wind-carved cliffs, facing a desolate swamp. The air hangs heavy with night mist, rot, and the resin of ancient firs.
Characters: Li Haoran, Catherine, Irina, Eldred (in shadow), Karl, a team of vampire hunters, the remains of an ogre, startled owls and swarms of bats.
## 00:15 Song of the Shattered Moon
Night hung like animal skin torn open by a dull blade, moonlight the silver blood that seeped from its wounds.
At precisely midnight, the campfire at Grey Raven died with a soft pop. The embers still glowed, yet were snuffed out by an abrupt, damp fog — as if an unseen hand had clamped down over the flame. Li Haoran jolted upright on his blanket, the rune in his palm burning as though a heated silver coin had been pressed into his flesh, then twisted. The pain coiled through his veins toward his heart, each beat a low drum inside his chest.
He raised his hand. The blue light was dimmed to a faint glow, but it still stirred beneath his skin like a young beast with no way out.
"Can you hear it?" Irina's voice emerged from the mist, raw with dampness.
She crouched at the edge of the tent, her short hair matted by night fog, strands clinging to her pale neck like black vines around a fading lily.
"A song… from the southeast." Catherine knelt beside him, her violet eyes holding shards of the moon.
She reached to wipe the sweat from his brow. Her fingertips barely brushed the blue light in his palm before she flinched back with a sharp breath. The edge of her silver glove blackened at once, like paper kissed by flame.
The fog thickened. Dead fir branches jutted through the mist like skeletal hands, clawing at the sky.
Deep in the swamp, frogs fell silent. Owls took flight in a sudden rustle, their wings tearing the air like ripped cloth.
Then the song rose clearly from the stillness.
*Sanguis meus, anima tua…*
*Tenebrae surgunt, et lux cadet…*
The Latin was drawn out by an unknown voice, its echo curling through the fog like a ribbon rusted and hooked, catching at the ears of all who heard it, dragging them slowly into darkness.
## 00:22 Vision — Eldred
Li Haoran stumbled to his feet. His boot crushed rotting leaves with a wet, squelching sound, as if stepping into the belly of some great beast.
Catherine seized his wrist. Silver needles glinted between her shaking fingers, only to glow red-hot against his blue light.
"Eldred," she whispered, her voice nearly breaking. "The warden of the blood pact."
The song drifted near and far, every echo thick with moisture. Li Haoran saw a dark shape take form in the mist.
His black robes were tattered. Burned into his collarbone was the same star-shaped rune as the one in Li Haoran's palm, though it was gnawed by time, its edges festering, crusted with dark, dried blood.
He lifted a hand. A drop of thick, black blood fell from his fingertip. It struck the ground and became a fluttering bat, its wings etched with tiny runes. The bat beat its wings with a sound like rusted hinges, tearing open a black rift in the fog.
"Source of the sacred blood," Eldred's voice grated like wet stone against stone. "You think it a gift? It is nothing but a prisoner's key."
Li Haoran's pupils constricted. The blue runic light flared violently, forming a half-circular barrier in an instant.
Along the barrier's edge, the air cracked with heat, fine lines spreading like a spiderweb across clear glass. Eldred chuckled. With the wingtip of his black-blood bat, he drew an inverted pentagram upon the shield.
The cracks spread with sharp cracks. The blue light tainted to a sickly green, like emerald soaked in venom.
Catherine moved.
Her silver needles shot forth like cold lightning, aimed straight for Eldred's forehead.
They froze an inch from their target. The tips melted. Silver dripped, forming tiny butterflies mid-air, only to burn away into pale ash.
She staggered back, a scorched red line seared across her palm, as if lashed by an invisible whip.
"Silver… has no effect on him," she gritted out. "The blood pact itself shields him."
Irina's illusions unfurled once more, but this time they lunged toward Catherine.
A dozen copies of Irina raised their daggers to the younger girl's stomach.
A flash of struggle crossed her green eyes, then was swallowed by a deeper scarlet.
"Leave her alone!" Li Haoran roared.
The blue barrier exploded outward, shattering every illusion.
The fragments dissolved into black mist. A muffled cry came from within. Irina collapsed, thin blue blood seeping from her eyes, nose and mouth, torn apart by her own magic.
Eldred clapped his hands. The black-blood bats fell to the ground, melting into writhing shadows.
"See? The blood pact chooses its true vessel. And you…" His gaze flicked to Catherine's stomach, his voice gentle enough to curdle blood. "are nothing but a breeding bed."
## 00:30
Bubbles rose from the swamp's surface. As they popped, tiny green will-o'-the-wisps floated out, like countless pale eyes in the dark.
Catherine grabbed his arm, her nails digging into his skin.
"Run," she breathed, barely audible. "Something in the fog is breathing."
Before the words were gone, the swamp erupted.
The ogre's corpse was thrust upward by black water, its neck twisted at an unnatural angle. Yet its eyes still blazed red.
A broken silver spear jutted from its chest. No blood flowed from the wound — only black mud, oozing thickly.
The corpse turned its head with a sickening crack. It stared straight at Li Haoran, its mouth splitting ear to ear in a rictus grin.
"Blood… blood…"
Eldred stepped back. The hem of his black robe fluttered, revealing pale ankles.
"A gift from Karl," he murmured. "Sadly, it only hungers for the scent of the Sacred Blood Source."
The ogre's corpse lunged. The broken spear cut through the air with a dark glint.
Li Haoran dodged, his blue barrier taking the blow with a sound like tearing metal.
Rotten flesh and mud splattered across his face, scalding and foul, like a ladle of decayed broth.
Catherine hauled him back in the same moment, her shoes carving deep furrows in the mire.
Her breath came fast, fog curling from her lips only to be torn away by the night wind.
"We can't retreat into the swamp," she whispered. "That way is death."
### Karl Descends
Black water seeped from the ground, like spilled ink.
It swarmed into bats, then collapsed into a single figure — Karl.
He wore a black formal coat, a blood-red gem pinned at his collar, as if a tiny storm raged within it.
"Found you, Source of the Sacred Blood."
He raised his dagger, its crystal glowing with a blood-red edge beneath the moon.
Li Haoran's barrier met the blade.
Blue and red clashed with a high, piercing shriek, like iron scraping glass.
Cracks raced along the shield, as when a great axe splits a frozen lake.
Catherine stepped in front of Li Haoran. Her silver needles broken, she reached for the dagger with her bare hands.
Her fingertips touched the blood-crystal. Skin sizzled, smoke rising. No blood spilled — it was drained instantly, leaving only withered knuckles.
Karl chuckled low.
"The blood of the half-blood mother. Cloyingly sweet, as expected."
He twisted his wrist. Catherine was sent flying, slamming against the rock wall.
Rains of stone dust fell. A sharp pain shot through her stomach, as if an ice pick was stabbing from the inside out.
Li Haoran's vision turned red. The blue barrier exploded in a storm of shattered light, illuminating Karl's cruel, smiling lips.
Irina struggled to her feet. Her illusions formed one final chain of purple light, coiling around Karl's ankle.
The chain shattered on contact. She coughed up blue blood, each drop crystallizing into tiny purple shards upon hitting the ground.
Li Haoran's rune blazed to its brightest — then died, like a candle snuffed out.
Darkness swallowed his sight. Only his heartbeat hammered in his ears.
Karl's cold fingers wrapped around Li Haoran's wrist, nails piercing skin. Blood dripped.
"The ritual comes at dawn," he breathed into Li Haoran's ear. "And dawn never belongs to the living."
Eldred's shadow faded into the mist, leaving only a mocking whisper:
"Give my regards to the unborn child."
## 00:49 Epilogue — The Silent Cage
Vampire hunters stepped from the dark. Twelve silver-chain heavy crossbows aimed at Catherine and Irina.
Silver glinted like liquid moonlight, twelve venomous snakes coiled to strike.
Li Haoran was dragged deeper into the fog. Ash fell from the rune in his palm.
In his last glimpse, Catherine knelt clutching her stomach, her violet eyes reflecting the broken moon — two dried-up wells.
Irina lay in a pool of purple-crystallized blood, her green eyes still fixed on Karl's retreating back, as if carving the shadow into her soul.
The fog closed in. The hymn rose again, only one line lingering:
*…et lux cadet.*