EXECUTION

The next instance, the dark cellar exploded into an eruption of bloodlust and movement. The second hidden male figure with a guttural growl leaned forward, his cloak billowing as if coming alive. Clanging links of chains unraveld down from his hands, dangling with cold clangours each connected by the end to dual scimitars that appeared in his grasps. Their curved blades threatening to hiss straight through the air.

"Brat!"

"Wait! Be careful of her Lineage Aspect...!"

The second male Executioner was already dashed forward with his scimitars, shades of murder flashing in his eyes under the hood, before he could bother to listen to his female companion. Her words lingered in the air emptily, her effort dashed and wasted — the next moment, the cloaked figure of the second male Executioner... simply vanished.

The male Executioner's figure disappeared all of a sudden and out of nowhere. Where he once stood now was nothing more than a stifling silence and empty space.

It was like a lag in the flow of the world, as if the flow of reality surrounding the second male Executioner was wiped clean off a white board by a duster, leaving behind an empty, blank canvas. Without a sound or feasible explanation, the Executioner had simply disappeared, his existence seemingly having been erased off the surface of the earth like a fine slate.

A tear of blood flowed out of Raven's eyes, drawing a single, thick stream of beading crimson down her pale left cheek. The crimson blood glow in her eyes still beaming fiercely like penetrating beacons, a deep halo of violet flashed from within its depths as she stared at the empty space where the lunging Executioner had been less than a proper second ago. Her gaze steely and emotionless.

Val's jaw clenched, his head pulsing from strain as his mind struggled to comprehend. Instantly, the whole atmosphere of the dark cellar shifted drastically once more. What was once seething with a rising tension and bloodlust exploded into a full tide of clashing animosity and apprehension.

The air surrounding the remaining Executioners twisted and shifted on high alert, precision and wariness making its way to even their stance. The relaxed and casual demeanor of the man at the center was swept away, all previous sense of leisure in hus bearing crumbled like dust.

The weight of the atmosphere seemingly causing the wooden floorboards to creak under strain.

"Girl...!"

Five pairs of dagger like gazes converged at a single point towards Raven's small figure, a towering sinister scythe rising far above her height in her hand. Crimson streams of blood flowed down her face.

Raven's pressure billowed forward, a maelstrom of intent clashing in the dark cellar as it blew up with renewed animation immediately. An explosion of movements and form occured instantly without a single breath drawn the next moment, shattering the brief stalemate.

The wooden floor board under the male Executioner's feet at the center shattered and exploded into a groove of cracks and splinters, his cloaked figure billowed and rumbled in the air from his sudden lunge.

Unlike his other companion, he moved at three times the speed more faster, his figure streaking almost like a blur before Raven could properly react. Her aching eyes sharpened, widening with heightened focus as she moved the large scythe forward just barely in time to send a kick backwards at Val against the floor right behind her.

"Run!" She said, sending Val tumbling backwards through the air with a powerful kick.

Val's world flipped, the shocking power behind Raven's kick smashing against his chest and sent him straight through the door. The breath forcefully knocked out of his lungs with a sound from his lips.

The shock of impact rocked through Val's whole body causing some of his bones to shift in place, filling him with pain and a tight suffocation especially around his chest. His mind blanked, his thoughts scattering almost as easily as he was sent flying backwards.

The next thing Val realised, he was sprawled against the uneven surface of the staircase leading to and from the dark cellar to the floors above, broken pieces of the wooden door scattered underneath him and piercing his back. Val shifted, groaning and holding his hurting chest, his mind still blurry. A powerful sound of impact resounding from the cellar less than a proper moment later shook him out of his reverie.

The stairway passage shook with a tremor, the rest of the building seemed to vibrate with it from a formidable clash. Pieces of dust and small debris fell against his head and body from above and the dark night seemed to flicker.

"R...Raven!"

Val's first instincts despite his condition and circumstances was to quickly dash back into the cellar for Raven. The mysterious girl he had only just met, who also turned out to not be human, had persistently remained by his side to help and protect him. Even if she had been the one to send him away like that, there was absolutely no way Val thought he could just leave her behind that way.

It was his life that was in danger, and as a result, so was her's. In addition to that, of something happened to Raven, his seemingly only companion and 'friend' in this situation, what were the odds he would make it through the night alive without her?

Besides all that, Val couldn't just bring himself to leave Raven behind for some other inexplicable reason. But alas, reason, a touch of cowardice, and survival instincts won over his impulses. It was for a very brief moment, but Val's mind raced almost computably even with his thoughts still disoriented.

Among the both of them, Raven had the most highest chance of survival in the end. Val still couldn't understand, but he had seen what happened with the otherale Executioner from before.

Raven didn't want him dead, or at the very least, her real intentions hadn't been made clear to him. But for what is worth, and seemed like, she still needed Val to remain alive. Rushing back in to only get himself killed would render all of Raven's sacrifice and efforts up until this moment useless.

Val gritted his teeth through the pain of his body and discomfort of his mind, forcing himself to rise as quickly as he could. His instincts already began to warn him, if he remained still any longer then he would be caught easily.

Val rose to his feet with a struggle, clenching his jaw tight and quickly ascended up the stairs as fast as he could. Leaving the entrance to the dark cellar behind.

'I...I have to do something!'

At the same time, a fierce confrontation unraveld inside the basement cellar with a pressure that could force knees to buckle and creak.

The instant Raven ruthlessly kicked Val out of the cellar and out of sight, the snath of her magnificent scythe clashed with the force of the male Executioner with a powerful impact.

The collision caused a roar of wind in rge underground cellar, and a rampage of pressure that blew back the hood of the Executioner, revealing the perfect features of the male's identify.

A handsome middle aged man, seemingly not a year older than the age of thirty, with slick golden blonde hair and blood red eyes was hidden underneath the hood now cast aside. His skin almost as pale as drifting moonlight in the night sky, his features carved and cut with a chiseled jaw that could seemingly cut even gold.

His long golden hair, as if weaved by sun threads, was slicked back into slender rat tail dancing down the length of his tall, broad back, adding to him a stunning dash of elegance in his whole visage.

The Executioner's blood red gaze was devoid of emotions or traces of warmth, pressing down wholly on the petite Raven with an overwhelming pressure and savagery. What resembled a butter knife with a weeping ghostly blood red aura was in his gloved hand, the thinly coated blade pressed unyieldingly against the tall snath if Raven's scythe like it didn't lose in any way or form to the imposing and large weapon.

It was just as terrifying, perhaps even more so. Raven actually fekt herself getting overwhelmed and pushed back from the weigh if the small knife. The wooden floor shattering inti cracks and grooves underneath her feet frlm the weight and pressure bearing on her.

"You seem so very proud of those eyes of yours, girl. Perhaps I'll start with one of them."

The blonde Executioner slid the blade of his butter knife across the snath of Raven's scythe slightly, twisted suddenly — skillfully — and thrust it forward for Raven's left eyes in a single moment. His movements were as swift as a lunging viper, carrying the insidious grace and subtlety of the deadly serpent. Each action was as sudden, precise, and skillful even from such a close proximity, it was hard to believe, understand, or fully see.

A small spark ignited as the butter knife, coated in a ghostly red aura, slid partially across the steel like surface of the scythe.

Raven barely relied on purely instincts to jerk her head backwards at the final breath away from the blade that appeared almost invisible to her. Alas, the dashing Executioner was simply to fast and skilled, the butter knife still succeeding to leave a bloody gash directly underneath her eye before she could fully evade.

Raven's expression twisted and contorted, her eyes flashing with pain as a trail of blood drew a morbid pattern in the air. Her neck snapping backwards and she retreated away from the range of the man with a single powerful backward lunge.

Clearly, close range combat against the Executioner wouldn't at all be in her best interest. He was fast, cunning and incomparably a skilled melee fighter — or at least with that buttet knife still in his hands. He had already nearly taken one of her eyes at thay exact moment.

The deep gash left behind directly under her eyes bled profusely that it almost seemed like it would never stop. Raven's scythe provided her a better advantage in mid-ranged combat, provided she kept her opponent just within the range and reach of her weapon which was relatively large and long.

But even despite already putting some distance between her and the blonde Executioner, Raven still barely felt no confidence when she recalled how fast the male Vampire simply was. If he decided to simply close the distance again like he did, what could she do about it?

She couldn't 'erase' him like the other male Executioner from just earlier, at the very least she needed to follow the target with her eyes to do so. But of the Executioner was just going to move as fast as ge already did, or even faster, Raven held no hopes of succeeding in doing what she did with the other one.

Even then, she doubted she still could. Despite not letting it show for obvious reasons, Raven was already on her last leg, she no longer had any energy left to recreate such a phenomenon without failing while dying. Even if she could, she had no Idea how. She was only lucky the first time after all, her feelings and emotions for Val reacted so strongly that she didn't even realise what she had done until it was over.

Oblivious to Raven's plights, the blond Executioner leaned backwards and straightened, blood dripping off his butter knife as he coldly gazed at the silver hakred girl without an expression.

"After him."

The male Executioner simply said, and the others immediately moved to quickly rush after Val who Raven had managed to make escape earlier. Their clocked forms moving like spectres in the darkness of the cellar.

'No...!'

Raven shot her bleeding left eye, intercepting the path between the door which was the only entrance and exit leading after Val before they could reach it.

The blonde Executioner coldly watched without an expression as Raven brandished her long scythe as the three other Executioners all charged towards her without hesitation. Wether they were no longer wary or cautious about her strange ability was uncertain. Or perhaps they knew she could no longer do the same thing twice, that was also unknown.

Regardless of whatever it was, they moved forward with chilling precision and grace, Raven valiantly standing in their way, barring their path.

She brandished her scythe forward, lowering the long curve silver blade in the air slightly. Her bleeding, pale face became solemn and empty, her one open red eyes reflecting all four figures of the Executioners, including the blond one.

"Flare."

Raven stood her ground defiantly, her quiet words not failing to reach the ears of each of the Executioners.

Before they could fulky register, the long, curved silver blade of Raven's scythe that was lowered slightly above in the air erupted into a blinding flash of light that burst through the cellar, illuminating the darkness that nestled at the four corners of the basement all at once.

It was like some kind of sun grenade had gone off, blinding anything and everything unlucky enough to have their eyes opened at that moment. A golden halo bright enough to stun even Vampires erupted in a dazzling flash of explosive light.

Cries of pain and hisses erupted from all over the cellar at once, the Executioners closest to Raven at that point suffering most of the brunt of the unexpected attack that lasted for a long couple of seconds.

And by the time it was finally over, Raven was nowhere to be found. She had seized the moment to disappear and flee. In the end, contrary to what most of the Executioners had initially thought, it seemed it wasn't at all ij Raven's intentions to fight all of them head on at once after all.

She just needed to slow them down while Val escaped.

But for how long?

Where? How far could Val Valentine run?

The middle aged vampire with long blond hair stood in his spot, his face twisting viciously in rage as he stared at the entrance where Raven had just been less than thirty seconds ago.

"Begin the execution."