[Skyfreix 17, 0100 A.R]
[Transcendent Dawn Camp]

Current in-game time 11:43 PM

An ear-piercing and almost ghastly howl filled the air, catching everyone's attention at a moment's notice. Fluel and her men stopped dead on their tracks along with Yuna and Muzui, their eyes glued at the huge figure circling above them.

The body of said figure was large, measuring to be about 30 meters long from head to tail. Two bat-like wings sprouted from its sides and extended wide as it cast a shadow over those below it. Yet before any of them could react, a bright blinding flash of light akin to lightning caught all of them off guard. And just like how lightning heralds thunder, an explosion followed, as the town's square transformed into a large gaping crater in an instance.

Those who were unlucky enough to get caught in the attack were instantly turned into a pile of smoldering ash as even the armor they wore melted like butter.

Disoriented, Tamaki stood up, the shockwave of the attack had propelled him into a cake store's window. Shaking his head, he was presented with a horrifying scene as just across the window he crashed into, a huge chunk of land had seemingly been erased.

"Where is...everyone?" He clutched his head as it ached with sharp pain. It was due to the back of his head hitting the wall, it was thanks to this that he felt dizzy and disoriented as he walked towards the door, "Yuna...*cough*Muzui-san..." The smoke from the blazing flames filled his nostrils.

Buildings collapsed into rubble as the once brightly lit streets now a scarred battlefield, bodies of many lay silently while withering to dust. Standing near the crater Tamaki could feel the heat kissing his skin through his clothes. To his left he saw only burning buildings, the same can be said for his right as the Dragon's Bowl building fell into a blazing ruin.

While Tamaki was wandering around in search of anyone, his vision blurred thanks to a dark red liquid dripping from his head. He wiped it off and examined the substance realizing it was his blood, the wound on his forehead sent a dull pain although it was a shallow wound. Tamaki took no chances and used a handkerchief given to him by Viola to wrap his injury.

Continuing his walk, Tamaki passed by a few burning buildings until he stopped to scan a certain pile of rubble. A hand was sticking out of the said heap, motionless as he curiously looked at it, however, while he was inspecting the rubble he noticed the same dark red substance seeping from beneath. His blood turned cold, Tamaki covered his mouth to stop himself from puking, "Grueghhhh..."

Recollecting himself, Tamaki went ahead and ignored the body although that wasn't the end of it, a dozen more corpses plagued the streets like some horrible Halloween decoration, some had their skin burned while others had been impaled through the head by sharp objects. He tried avoiding looking at the bodies but no matter where he looked more and more corpses popped up.

It all felt too real to the point that Tamaki had to remind himself this was all a video game. He might be new to VR and he might be taking everything too seriously but one thing is for sure, he wasn't enjoying it as he was used to.

His ears perked up to rustling, acting purely on instincts the lad hopped to his right before he heard a metallic clang originating from a hooded figure's blade. "Wait! I don't want to fight!" He pleaded for the man to stop. "Please! We don't have to fight!"

"Argghhh!" Letting out a frenzied roar the man charged at him then hacked his blade at Tamaki's neck. Taking a step back, Tamaki was able to narrowly evade the attack. The hooded-figure, however, was relentless as he proceeded to launch an all-out assault at the lad.

"Listen to me!" Tamaki hopped to his right to dodge an overhead slash, "We need to stop this and look for everyone! I'm sure you too have friends you care about!" Rolling to the side Tamaki was met with a kick to the gut sending him tumbling to the ground.

Wheezing as he laid down on the floor, Tamaki was given no time to even think as a second later he irked his head to the side. The man's blade embedded itself deep into the ground beside him, he saw his reflection at the blade's surface for a split second before a fist connected towards his face, "Eugh!" He let out as he received another one to the other side of his face.

Taking a handful of the boy's silver hair, the man pulled him up so that he could beat him with a whack to the gut. Tamaki felt all the air from his lungs leave his body as his breathing went ragged. The wound on his forehead opened once more as it let out more blood. He was kicked hard enough that he flew a few feet away like a ragdoll while he let go of his staff.

His body folded into a fetal position as he felt his insides aching painfully. Cracking open a single eye, his blurry vision would only allow him to see a silhouette of the man pulling his sword from the ground before slowly making his way towards him, "P-please...don't...do t-thi...s," his feeble pleading could not reach the man's ear.

A single tear slipped down his cheek while he watched, seeing the man's face produce a sickening grin as he prepared to end him, "I...don't want...this..." There was no light in the man's eyes, only a cold unfeeling abyss. In the young boy's mind, he was yelling as loud as he can to the man, mumbling; Please stop.

Closing his eyes tight Tamaki curled up into a ball on the ground while covering his ears, afraid of hearing the sound of the blade making contact with his flesh. No matter how much tears he shed at that time it wasn't enough to stop the blade.

"I told you already, stop wasting time and do your mission."

When Tamaki came back to his senses, he saw the man's face once again but this time the man was staring back at him with a terrified expression. That was when he realized that he was clutching the man's neck with a tight grip, so much so that his fingers pierced the man's throat.

Tamaki jumped back in distress, looking at what he did. He couldn't believe it, he managed to kill another human being, he clutched his head as he felt a sharp pain momentarily washing over him, "Well done you, idiot, how's the feeling of killing another human being?"

"I didn't kill him!" Tamaki yelled at the empty space, if anyone was around to see him they would immediately assume that he was crazy for talking to himself. "Yeah yeah tell that to yourself, can you move on and stop wasting time and get out of here before more of these guys show up."

The young lad took his staff, figuring that arguing with the voice wouldn't do him any better. But deep inside his mind, he felt slightly guilty and regrets that he did that. Shaking his head off of these thoughts, Tamaki thought back to his current situation and what he was supposed to be doing, and that's finding Yuna and the others, "Yuna! Muzui-san! Anyone!" His voice cracked up thanks to his throat being sore and dry yet he persisted in shouting.

As he walked about, his voice attracted many unwanted guests, more of the hooded-men like the one earlier, appeared from every corner like cockroaches. They placed their sights at Tamaki who gripped his staff tightly if there was anything he learned earlier, it was that these guys won't talk no matter what.

He avoided two attacks and parried three using his staff, he ducked beneath a swing then slid besides a thrust as he continues to weave through their attacks. At a certain interval, he was able to disarm a grunt by simply hitting the back of their hands with his staff, at this brief moment the lad was tackled from behind and fell on the ground with one of the men grabbing him. Seeing that the others were getting too close for comfort, Tamaki poked the man's eyes forcing himself free of their grasp.

It wasn't over though as Tamaki raised his arms to block an attack and in the process, he was open from behind. Groaning in pain the lad pushed back the sword and kicked the man sending him crashing into a group of other men. Swiftly, Tamaki hit another person at the side of their face knocking them cold in the process as Tamaki placed a hand at his back only to see his hand covered in blood. At this rate, he was the first one to lose steam as there were more of his enemies even though they were weaker than himself, they still possessed some length of skills to their swordsmanship.

Tamaki could feel his reflexes slowly get sluggish the more he tries fending for himself, the proof of this was when he wasn't able to fully parry an attack directed towards his head and ended up getting his skin cut at a shallow angle. Also, his breathing began to get heavier as it felt like he was breathing in a dozen needles.

One of the men kicked him at the back of his left leg making him kneel on one knee, then in a coordinated fashion, all of the men went and charged at him with their blades up high simultaneously. His right eye had already been closed shut thanks to getting some of his blood into it, breathing in, Tamaki let out one last shout as he placed his staff above his head to block the attacks, "Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!" He screamed.

"Ok, that's enough all of you," Before the lad could even feel any blades land on him, he was shocked to learn out that the men stopped midway. He looked around curiously, seeing the grunts standing motionless as they looked at him with their blades at their side, "I'm quite surprised to see you being able to hold back this many men by your own, well that is to be expected of a Marked One."

Tamaki turned in the direction of the voice, he was greeted by none other than the very man he was avoiding, Arna. The Beastman who earlier was engaging in a duel with Muzui, stood in front of him as of now, "I never really got to know your name kid, mind telling me?" He casually stepped into the lad's face.

Keeping an even gave, Tamaki kept silent as he regarded the Beastman with a frown. Arna went ahead, unperturbed by the boy's expression as he looked down at Tamaki who was kneeling on his knees while bleeding from all sorts of places, "You Marked Ones are quite a piece of work aren't ya? Even the well-seasoned soldiers in my platoon might have a bit of trouble handling one of you guys, not that it matters."

If this man was able to survive that explosion, then doesn't that also meant that Yuna and Muzui managed to survive somehow. A glint of hope sparked within the boy's eyes and Arna saw it, "If you're getting the idea that those two managed to survive that explosion, keep dreaming. That was a Wyvern's breath capable of wiping an entire small village out of the map."

"You're wrong," the young lad said out of his impulses, surprising the Beastman by his stern reply.

The Beastman let out a hearty chuckle thanks to his reply, "Man I can't believe someone would be this stubborn. Let me tell you what, I might let you go if it weren't for the fact that I need your blood to activate the ritual."

Tamaki froze as he inspected what the man just said. My blood? Ritual? It confused him yet he was convinced that it is something bad, "Ritual? What do you mean?" Maybe if he plays his cards right, he can trick the Beastman into saying their plans so that he can try and stop them. Tamaki could hear Filicia's voice telling him 'Don't try to be a hero!' Annoyed as she screams at him.

"You got that right, all of this..." He turned to everything around them, referring to the camp itself, "We were merely planning on getting rid of all the Marked Ones and displacing this place since the other kingdoms were fearing the threat of you guys. They fear the power of Marked Ones and so they reached out to us."

"But we weren't doing anything!" Tamaki yelled at him, earning a knowing look.

"I knew you would say that. Think of it this way, right now you Marked Ones are like a dam quickly filling up with water as a flood of more Marked Ones come, what do you think happens if that dam suddenly cracks?"

"But we're not like that! We do a lot of good in this world too like killing monsters and helping out with tasks!" By that point, Tamaki had gotten a disappointed headshake from the Beastman as regarded him with a pitying look.

"Sigh, this is a waste of time, Fluel's gonna butcher me for taking too long," before Tamaki could even speak up, the sensation of getting his neck sliced sent a large amount of pain that he blacked out.

Current in-game time 11:54 PM

"Are you sure we can't just use normal blood for this? I kinda feel bad for the kid." Tamaki recognized the voice as Arna's, though it was garbled as he heard it.

"No. We need it to be Marked One blood specifically so that every Marked One in the radius would be forcefully erased." The other voice sounded feminine and almost refined, Tamaki assumed it was Fluel's as he was yet to open his eyes.

His mind wandered at the part where the woman said 'erased'. Does that mean they're planning on killing everybody? Tamaki thought as he listened closely to the conversation.

"Argh, enough dilly dally, it's almost midnight and I still need to prepare the blood."  Tamaki heard footsteps walking closer towards him.

"Alright alright, I'll leave to you then," Arna casually replied followed by footsteps walking away. It was then that Tamaki decided to open his eyes—well one of them as his right eye continued to be unresponsive. As he awoke, he saw his arms and legs bound by chains while he laid on something flat, a stone table maybe? Around him was the very view of the crater from the center as he recognized the burning buildings and the two moons above them.

"Oh good, I'm glad you're awake, this ritual will be pretty uncomfortable for you but not for me." It wasn't exactly what Tamaki was hoping to hear from Fluel as she procured a knife from her sleeve. "Now if you can just hold still it would be very much appreciated." She rapidly informed him.

"Wha..." As Tamaki was about to reply to her, he saw her make a swaying motion with her hand then raised her hand above her head. The knife glistening under the moonlight as Tamaki began struggling, "No! Wait! We can talk about this!"

"I'm sorry to inform you but I'm out of time," she swung down towards the lad, aiming for his heart as she tried to pierce him.

Schwiiiiinnngggggg!

Fluel directed her eyes at the knife at her hand, seeing that the blade had been completely sliced, it was a very clean cut too. The gothic woman quickly hopped out of the way as the ground beneath her erupted as Yuna leaped out from the hole.

"Arna don't let them interfere!" Swiftly, Fluel commanded the Beastman as she assessed the situation with an irritated tone. She was inches away from finishing their plans until they were interrupted.

"Yuna!" Tamaki was happy to see his friend. Yuna did not speak as she blocked an attack from Arna's blade causing sparks to fly, they traded blows before Yuna forced him to back off. The female Aquilan let a grin form as she had Arna where she wanted, as soon as Arna's feet touched the ground, a pair of arms grabbed him from beneath before the soil he was standing on collapsed to reveal Muzui.

"You!" A fierce flare swelled within Arna's eyes as he regarded the samurai who merely gave him a dull stare.

"Me!" Muzui yelled back at him.

"Don't make fun of me!" Angered by Muzui's taunts, Arna aimed a slice at Muzui's hand but it was quickly denied by Yuna who caught his blade and deflected it with the flat of her sword. Losing his footing, Muzui made use of Arna's opening and hoisted his body then threw it back at his men who were charging at them.

After that distraction, Yuna looked back at the boy lying on the stone table, she saw the injuries on the lad's face which caused her to frown. They cut the boy's restraints setting Tamaki free although feeling wobbly as he tried standing up, "I'm glad to see you two," he beamed, he never once doubted them.

"Haha, I'm happy to see you too," the Aquilan patted Tamaki's head and ruffled his hair, though Tamaki winced as she touched his wounds causing her to recoil, "Sorry. Does it hurt?"

"Not that much," he said, shaking his head. "So what's the plan? Where's Sylvia and the others?"

Yuna and Muzui turned to one another, looking confused then shrugged before turning to the lad, "Don't have any, just fight until the last one drops?" Yuna looked unsure about what she said making Tamaki sweatdrop.

"Heads up!" Interrupting their little reunion, Muzui threw a stone at one of the grunts who managed to sneak up behind Yuna.

"At your six!" Yuna managed to land a kick at a grunt's face while Muzui placed a fist towards another grunt who tried to attack Yuna as she defended him. Tamaki smiled at how in sync the two of them were, they were able to disable half of the remaining forces of the Shepherds which at this point were still quite a number, fifty-seven at most, and thirty of them were already down on the floor.

Yuna shoulder tossed one of the men towards the Samurai which was part of their combo as in a fluid motion, Muzui redirected the man's momentum towards a group. They both gave each other a fist bump after that, Tamaki sat down next to the stone table, feeling tired as he watched them.

"Muzui!" They all turned towards a raging Beastman, Yuna, however, denied Arna of landing a single blow at her partner as she once again deflected his blow as their blades went up from the collision. In this time frame, Muzui had his fist already in a collision with Arna's face as he forced his head crashing down into the dirt causing a dust cloud to erupt.

"What a weird guy, don't get me wrong I like the challenge but I don't like it when he shouts my name like that," Muzui shuddered to prove his point.

"I know, these guys just keep coming at us," Yuna added before turning towards the only person that they consider a threat. She turned towards Fluel who was holding her parasol, "Your men are down, I believe it's our win." She told her.

However, it wasn't that simple as Fluel giggled, "Oh is it now? May I ask you, what time is it?" Confused by her words, Yuna and Muzui realized too late as they turned behind them. Tamaki's blood activated the mandala situated around the stone table as he leaned on the cold stone, blacked out from the blood loss.

"My my, would you look at that, I believe we are not needed here anymore," In a taunting manner, Fluel regarded Yuna and Muzui with a triumphant grin as a dark miasma started surrounding her and engulfing her body before completely dissipating into thin air.

The same thing happened with her men as Arna's body along with every single grunt and their corpses were eaten away by the miasma. The taunting words of hers still rung out even when she was not there, "Let this be a warning to you and your kind. Whoever possesses the mark of the demon shall be the enemy of the Shepherds, let this day be the day when the mark falls!"

[To be continued]