Time: 03:10 – 03:45, Eighth Day of the Moon, Black Forest Calendar, Medieval European Era
Location: An abandoned wooden cabin in the Black Forest Valley → A secluded woodland deep in the Black Forest
Characters: Catherine, Irina, Hank, Ragnar (Captain of the Karlite Vampire Hunters), and ten Karlite hunters
"This was not the work of the Karlites."
Irina stepped into the cabin and knelt to examine the bodies. The moment her fingertip brushed the edge of a wound, it seared from the lingering power of silver, curling into thin white smoke. She rose with a frown, her green eyes cold and sharp.
"The kills are clean, precise. The Karlite hunters have always been brutal—they never strike with such discipline. Besides, these were Traditionalists. The Karlites had no reason to slaughter them inside their own weapon stockpile."
Catherine's knuckles whitened, her violet eyes blazing with rage and regret.
"Did the Traditionalists stage this? Killed their own to give us a false pledge of loyalty, to trick us into trusting them?"
"Worse."
Irina suddenly stilled, her ears twitching, her face paling.
"Footsteps outside. Many. Moving this way—fast. Too fast. They're vampire hunters."
Before the words had fully left her lips, the thud of heavy boots surrounded the cabin, accompanied by the snarls of Karlite hunters that shook the wooden beams.
"Come out and die, you abominations! By Lord Karl's order—capture Catherine and Irina alive, and you shall earn the Elixir of Eternal Life! Resist, and you will be put to the sword!"
Hank's face drained of color. He spun and bolted for the back door.
"Run! I'll hold them off!"
He never made it. A silver crossbow bolt tore through the air, piercing his back. Blue blood gushed forth, hissing as it splattered against the wooden door, corroding the surface. He crumpled to the ground, convulsed once, and lay still—eyes wide open, as if dead in unspoken fury.
"Feigned death." Irina saw through the ruse at once, a cruel glint flashing in her green eyes. "The bolt missed his heart, grazing only his shoulder blade. He used the wound to slip away. This entire thing was a trap. A Traditionalist spy leaked our meeting to Karl. He means to bleed us dry with their hands and claim the spoils for himself!"
Catherine ground her teeth, violet eyes burning with icy killing intent. Once again, she had walked into a scheme. Valerius and Karl—two sides of the same coin, both using her and Irina as pawns, hoping to watch them destroy one another.
CRASH!
The cabin's front door was kicked open. Ten Karlite hunters poured inside, led by a towering vampire with a scar slicing from his outer eye to his jaw, savage and menacing. In his grip glinted a silver longsword, its edge shimmering with a bone-chilling cold. This was Ragnar, captain of the Karlite hunters.
"Seize them!" Ragnar roared, slashing his sword at Catherine.
The silver blade cut through the air with a shrill whine. Even before it reached her, Catherine felt a searing burn, as if her skin were being roasted over fire.
She twisted aside. The sword grazed her shoulder, tearing away a strip of flesh. The instant silver touched her skin, it felt like fire searing into her body. She let out a muffled cry of agony, blue blood welling from the wound, dripping to the floor and hissing softly.
Irina moved to shield her at once, violet dim light coiling in her palm to form an illusory dagger. She lunged, meeting Ragnar's sword.
CLANG!
The silver longsword clashed against the illusory dagger, a high-pitched metallic shriek splitting the air. The power of silver unraveled most of the dagger's glow in an instant. Irina was thrown back three steps, her arm numb, blue blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.
Her illusion magic had not yet recovered from its backlash. She could not stand against Ragnar and his silver weapons, only fend him off with close-quarters combat. Soon she was driven back, her back pressed against the cold wooden wall—nowhere left to run.
"For the back door!" Catherine shouted.
She poured every ounce of strength into her palms and thrust forward a violet shockwave. The pale purple light exploded inside the cabin, sending two hunters crashing into the wall, where they slumped unconscious.
She grabbed Irina and sprinted for the back exit amid the chaos. Hank's "corpse" still lay there. As she passed, she drove her boot hard into his chest. A muffled groan escaped him, and his eyes flew open, wild with terror. Catherine sneered, a violet ray piercing his shoulder.
"Not so pleasant playing dead, is it?"
The two did not linger. They burst through the back door, hunters hot on their heels. Silver bolts whistled past their ears, slamming into the wooden door with a solid thud, the fletching quivering.
Beyond lay a thicket of tangled brambles, their thorns bared like a net. Catherine and Irina plunged in without hesitation. Thorns ripped through their clothes and skin, leaving thin, bleeding gashes. Blue blood clung to the branches, hissing as it corroded the wood. They paid the pain no mind, running blindly onward—the snarls and footsteps behind them drawing closer, like a death knell.
Ragnar and his hunters pressed forward without pause, silver weapons glinting in the mist like hungry eyes.
"Don't let them escape!" Ragnar snarled, slicing through brambles with his sword. "Lord Karl has spoken—if you cannot take them alive, bring back their corpses!" His eyes blazed red, fixed on Catherine's back, as if staring at the Elixir of Eternal Life itself.
The burn in Catherine's shoulder spread, the silver poison gnawing at her flesh. Her arm went numb, and the speed at which she could weave violet magic slowed. She glanced back at Irina and saw that a silver bolt had embedded itself in her right thigh, blue blood streaming down her leg, staining the rotting leaves with a trail of blue. Irina's face was as pale as paper, every step twisting her features in agony, her pace faltering badly.
"We won't outrun them like this," Irina panted, green eyes frantic. "I'll hold them off. You go—save Li Haoran! You carry the unborn child. You cannot fall."
"No!" Catherine snapped, gripping Irina's wrist tightly. "We escape together. I will not leave you. You are my friend—I will not repay kindness with betrayal."
She stopped short and turned to face the oncoming hunters, violet eyes hard with resolve. She shielded Irina behind her, weaving her hands into a seal, every last drop of power surging within her. Pale violet light coiled in her palms, growing brighter, illuminating her pale face.
"We fight our way out. Even if we die, we take as many of them with us as we can!"
Irina's eyes softened with emotion. She gritted her teeth, wiped the blue blood from her lips, and summoned illusion light to her palms once more. This time, she held nothing back—even if the backlash stripped her of magic entirely, she would protect Catherine.
"Very well. Together, we break through!"
Back to back, they formed a tight defensive circle.
Catherine's violet light flared, unleashing a massive wall of energy that blocked the hunters' charge. The pale purple barrier held them back, hissing and smoking where silver weapons struck it. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface, its glow fading fast.
Irina seized the moment, weaving her illusions. Violet light split into a dozen tiny blades, raining toward the hunters' eyes and throats—weak points, easy to strike. The blades carried the disorienting power of her magic; even a graze could send a hunter reeling in dizziness.
"Agh!" One hunter screamed, clutching his blinded eye, thrashing on the ground. Another took a blade to the throat, blue blood bursting forth. He fell, convulsed, and was still.
Ragnar howled in rage, his eyes redder than ever. His silver longsword ignited with a scarlet light—the dark power Karl had bestowed upon him. Two forces twisted as one, doubling the blade's fury.
"Break!"
He swung his sword into the barrier, the full weight of his strength crashing down.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion echoed through the valley. The barrier shattered in an instant, violet light scattering like dying stars, dissolving into the mist.
Catherine was thrown back, a coppery taste rising in her throat. She swallowed the blue blood rising in her mouth and summoned her magic again, launching two thick light blades straight for Ragnar's chest. He dodged sideways, the blades tearing through his clothes and flesh, blue blood dripping to the ground.
"You dare!" Ragnar snapped, his sword a blur of silver. A blinding web of steel closed in, forcing Catherine and Irina to retreat, fresh wounds opening across their bodies.
Pain flared in Irina's thigh, the silver poison eating away at her veins. Her vision blurred, her illusion magic nearly spent. Watching Catherine cornered and vulnerable, she made her choice. She shoved Catherine away.
"Run for the slope to the left! The brambles will cover you—they won't catch up! I'll hold them here!"
Before Catherine could protest, Irina poured her last shred of magic into an illusion. Violet light wrapped around her, shaping her into an exact copy of Catherine. She sprinted in the opposite direction, shouting at the top of her lungs:
"Karl's plot will never succeed!"
Ragnar took the bait at once, convinced the decoy was the real Catherine.
"After her! Don't let her get away!"
He led most of the hunters in pursuit, leaving only two to face the real Catherine.
Tears stung Catherine's eyes. She knew Irina had traded her life for hers. She did not dare hesitate. She sprinted for the left slope—steep, nearly seventy degrees, covered in low shrubs. She threw herself down, tucking her arms in, rolling and scraping against thorns and stone, agony lancing through her body.
At the bottom of the slope, in the shelter of the woodland, she finally stopped. She glanced up at the ridge. Irina's illusion light had faded, replaced by distant snarls. Clenching her jaw, she forced herself to turn and run toward Silvermoon Castle. Tears mixed with sweat and blood, streaming down her face.
Irina, you must survive.
Once I save Li Haoran, I will come back for you.
She wove through the secluded woods until she reached a dense stand of firs, then slid down the trunk of a thick tree, her strength finally giving out. Her shoulder still oozed blood, a dull ache throbbing in her abdomen—yet the unborn child within her suddenly went still, a warm, gentle current spreading from her womb, wrapping around her, easing her pain and exhaustion, if only a little.
She lifted a hand and pulled out a communication crystal ball, feeding it a wisp of her fading power. Soft white light bloomed within it, and Samantha's figure slowly took shape.
She needed the exact map of Silvermoon Castle's dungeons at once—to save Li Haoran, and to go back for Irina.
What she did not know was that another trap, quiet and deadly, had already been laid inside the dungeons of Silvermoon Castle.