And So It Begins

-----Kaede's POV

Masked Captain: "Let's go."

In a hushed voice, the masked captain along with the masked soldiers leave Maemont and head straight to the capital. Neri of course stayed behind with me to act as my support and also to relay any messages given by her captain. I would've thought it'd be smart to wait until nightfall to do this, but it seems like we're doing this during the day. I guess everyone's keen to just get this done quickly and stop wasting time, but I do wonder if this'll make their stealth mission harder. Or maybe not. I'm familiar with some monsters being able to see in the dark, the same as me.

Neri: "Nervous?"

Kaede: "A little."

Neri: "We've got this. Once you engage with the demon king, I'll do my best to infiltrate the castle and find Fabian, just like we planned."

Mai: "I believe he's held at the eastern side of the castle, a fair ways up."

Neri: "Thank you."

With Mai giving a bit more information on Fabian's whereabouts, I'd like to believe our chances of winning has improved at least a bit.

With the downtime we have right now, I walk over to the wyvern, placing my hand on it's nose.

Kaede: "It's time. When we charge out, I want you to kill anything that isn't human. Got it?"

I was a bit skeptical if the wyvern understood what I was saying, but it gently nodded with it's nose. Thankfully the wyvern seems to understand, although I have no idea how to interpret the noises it makes.

.....

...

Neri: "They've successfully made it inside and have found some human prisoners."

After some time, Neri suddenly speaks, giving us an update on things.

Leris Commander: "So we go now?"

Neri: "Negative."

I can sense the bloodlust coming from the commander and all his soldiers, as if all their hatred for me is washed away with all their focus now on the monsters behind the city walls.

...

Neri: "They've secured the humans. They're now waiting on us."

Kaede: "Wait. They're not going to bring them out right now?"

Neri: "There's too many monsters, it's too risky. So we'll move into phase two and give them an opening."

Oh god. Wait so this is happening now?

Leris Commander: "Alright! Everyone!"

Not a moment after Neri moves into phase two, the Leris soldiers all pump themselves up, and at their commanders roar, they all charge forth along with the Yarene soldiers. The wyvern having noticed everyone charging also takes to the skies once more, heading straight towards the capital.

Neri: "Kaede. We need to move fast."

Kaede: "Y-yes, got it."

Casting away my nerves for a moment, Neri and I move to the south walls of the capital instead of the west walls like everyone else. It was Neri's idea, saying that with the amount of commotion at the west side, the monsters would flock over there, giving up room to move in the south. It's a simple plan, but we still need to move fast. And speaking of fast, I can't believe Neri is managing to keep up with me. I'm not going full speed, but I highly doubt any human can run this fast.

And soon enough, we make it to the walls. Neri splits off from me, entering into the shadows and slipping past the walls like a ninja. I take a moment to fly up above the walls while surveying the area for any sign of the demon king, stretching out my mana as far as I can. It was then that I spotted two powerful auras moving towards the west wall where our army was headed. I would like to go and quickly deal with them myself, but I have to stick to the plan.

Suddenly, in that same area, just as my wyvern has entered the capital above the wall, a massive dragon suddenly appears, flying up from the west side of the city, quickly closing the distance between it and the wyvern. It happened in but an instant, but I watch as the dragon takes the wyvern's neck in it's mouth, biting off it's head in a single motion as it's talons catch the wyvern's now limp body as it's head plummets to the ground. I remain frozen by what I just witnessed as I just stare at the dragon now flying above the city.

Kaede: "...N-no."

My chest starts to tighten up at what I had just done. I just took that wyvern away, thinking that it'd be useful to us, yet it just gets killed like that in but an instant? Mai told me that there'd be some servants of this demon king that'd prove to be a nuisance, but I never expected for a full grown dragon to be one of them. Guilt takes over my body as I continue to stare at that dragon.

Kaede: "...I'm sorry."

?: "Well? Aren't you going to join in?"

Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice echoes in my head as I quickly feel an absurd amount of mana coming from above me. Wait... Above?! I quickly erect a barrier above me before a surge of black flames collides with it. I feel my forearms begin to scream from the amount of pressure, but what was alarming was that- my barrier is actually cracking?!

Before the inevitable happens, I use the borrowed time I had gained to quickly move away from whatever this magic is, and in the next moment, the barrier breaks, causing a large explosion to blast me back through the skies. After quickly stabilizing myself in the air, I look up to see where those flames were coming from, and my eyes quickly fixate on a single being. It's hair was pure white with but a single portion of her hair being pitch black. The aura surrounding this being was nothing like the dragon or that other being at the west, which leads me to believe-

White: "I'm impressed. You managed to get away from that."

I waste no time to engage in what I believe to be the demon king that Mai talked about. Or should I say queen? I'm not sure. But very quickly, I manage to close the distance, as I quickly draw out my blood from my palms, creating a large scythe before cutting through her body. I expected my first attack to fail, but surprisingly, it made contact with her body, however something definitely didn't feel right. There's no blood and her body looks as though it's fading away? I quickly try and turn around, sensing that it's some kind of trap, but before I could do so, I felt a sharp pain coming from my side before I find myself crashing down into the city, destroying some of the nearby buildings as I feel countless debris crash around my body. I still have no idea what just happened, but I take a moment to check the right side of my body.

Sure enough, several gaping holes spread through my side as blood quickly gushes out. And as if the pain is finally catching up at the sight, I end up covering my wound with my hand to try and stop the bleeding. But right as I was about to heal it with light magic, I notice that the holes were beginning to close on their own, something that has never happened before... Wait, am I... healing? Without magic?

White: "Wow. You're already healing? I figured you weren't a normal vampire, but to think you have blood pumping through you."

I stand up from the ground as I face the approaching demon. I'm not sure why they're wanting to talk as if it were me, I'd spare no time to cut off her head. So I'm thankful for her buying me some time. But I still wonder what caused this change to my body? All my life I would need to use light magic in order to heal my wounds, but now my bodies doing it by itself? I'm not complaining, but it does raise a lot of questions. But right now, I need to focus on what's in front of me. And so, I stand up from the rubble. She might've took me by surprise just now, but I won't let that trick fool me again.

-----Yui's POV

I'm at Kaede's place once more with Luna as I feel like with the battle now finally starting, I should probably stick with everyone else that's close with Kaede. But...

Faye: "W-what is this?!"

Fleur: "Hnnn."

Mell: "!"

All three of them just suddenly collapsed on the ground as Sicily, Lillian, Luna and I rush on over to check on them. Mell instantly gripped onto my arm before squeezing it with so much force that makes me grit my teeth.

Luna: "What's wrong?!"

Faye: "I-it hurts!"

It was then that I noticed all three of them were contorting in the same way, clenching onto the right side of their body. Sicily and Lillian having noticed it as well, ends up pulling up Fleur and Faye's shirts to check on their body while I did the same for Mell. But what we all end up seeing is just normal skin, with no sign of any wound, but even so, Mell's grip on my arm doesn't stop, if anything it's only getting more and more painful. At this point, I'm scared she's going to break it.

Yui: "I-I'll try and heal them!"

I've gotten more efficient with my limited mana, and I quickly manage to conjure up small balls of water before directing them to all three of their bodies. I spread it around the right side of their bodies, accidentally wetting parts of their clothes in the process, but at least I managed to get the water in place. Luna watches in suspense as I put all my focus in my magic, trying my best to heal the three of them.

Luna: "I-I'll help too!"

Luan ends up adding more water to my water as I instinctively take control of her magic. Thankfully we know this works since I did the same when I used Alice's water magic, so this should still heal them.

Time slowly goes by as I continue to try and pour my mana into the their bodies using the water magic. And soon, after what felt like hours, Mell, Faye and Fleur's faces all relax in sync with one another. Giving Sicily, Lillian, Luna and I a chance to breathe.

Sicily: "What the hell was that? They all shared the same pain?"

Lillian: "Mm. It's strange. I couldn't sense any magic having taken place, yet there was no wound either."

Mell: "-om."

I divert my attention back to Mell who gripped my arm once again.

Yui: "Mell?"

Mell: "...It's mom."

Yui: "Kaede?"

Fleur: "Yes... I felt it."

Faye: "T-talk about a surprise though..."

Wait, I'm so confused what's happening. The rest of us were clueless, yet the three of them all seem to understand what's happening?