Guren stared in astonishment at the scene before his eyes. One thing he was quite certain of, that variable was not in the plan. At least not in his own.

"Yurika... then why?" Guren asked, externalizing a question that wasn't just about him.

The girl cast a brief glance at Ferid, perhaps looking for support. "Eh no, my dear. Do not look at me. As you have noticed they do not believe my words." "He did kidnap me after all, where did you think I was?" She asked, but her gaze remained on Ferid.

"Then why the fuck are you here?" "I had no choice." "You scumbag, did you brainwash her?" "He didn't do anything!" Yurika replied, raising her voice. "And those marks on your neck? What are they? Demonstrations of love?"

The girl shuddered. "To me they are..." Guren stood petrified as the puzzle took shape. He had succeeded, then. That vampire had managed to get his filthy hands on her. And she approved, she was willing.

"He's manipulating you." He growled. "He's only doing this to use you, he's a monster incapable of feeling."

Ferid felt those words resonate deep within him. How true could they ring to his being? Perhaps too much. He too believed that he had lost the ability to feel human feelings and had turned into a monster. And yet, a ray of hope seemed to have arrived for him too.

"You are wrong, Guren. You're wrong." The girl's reply warmed his heart, and for a second too long he became distracted, momentarily losing his grip on the situation. He noticed with a moment's delay that the man had risen to attack him.

But Mika stood between them. "Mika... have you decided to help me? What a darling you are." "I've grown tired of your little drama act. Go back with your lover in the back." "So mean." Whispered the vampire in reply, but he didn't like the choice of words Mikaela used. Lover. Which partly represented the reality of the facts between him and Yurika anyway, yet he felt like it exposed him too much in front of the others. He actually knew that bringing the girl with him would attract uncomfortable attention, but he also wanted to turn the situation in his favour.

"Yurika are you really going to leave us with these vampires? Would you let us die if you had no alternative?" Guren's voice rang out sharply. Ferid grew impatient. The situation was delicate enough as it was. There was no need for him to start putting words to everything.

The girl looked for a moment at those companions with whom she had teamed up on a few occasions. That the situation would escalate was what she had most feared, but in her heart she knew there was little she could do to change things. The inevitable could not be avoided. That's why she didn't flinch when her vampire pulled her away from the scene.

"I'm sorry." Ferid whispered. Yurika lifted her gaze to his. "Are there any alternatives?" The vampire smiled at her. "Perhaps there are surprises in store you know. I don't think your friend is so easy to eliminate..."

For he had already sensed the coming of Guren's experiment. It was time to pull out the stops. Sure, he was a sadistic vampire who loved to see people suffer, but he would never have brought Yurika onto the battlefield if it meant witnessing the death of people she was bonded to.

What happened next was perhaps too fast, certainly not for Ferid, but for the girl. At first she saw Guren succumb to Mika's sword, but she didn't have time to process it when she saw Yuuichiro, the young boy from Shinoa's team, appear to counter the attack of Krul's favourite. At that moment, everything changed.

That boy, showing more courage than Yurika had ever had, had mindlessly rushed onto the battlefield to save Guren as soon as Mika's sword met the man's body. There had been a moment of silence after that, interrupted by Guren urging the young man to take out the vampire, but his voice evidently echoed far away to Yuuichiro.

Yurika had also been shocked to see how the confrontation between the vampire and Guren had taken a drastic turn, she would have liked to intervene to help him, but she knew it wouldn't make any sense. She herself would probably be no match for the blond. More importantly, she knew Ferid would never let her. He would probably hold her back by force if necessary.

Through it all though, it seemed that by some strange dynamic Yuu and Mika were in some sort of trance. "They finally meet..." whispered the vampire, clearly intending to get the girl's attention. "... I'd say it gets better. See, nobody's died yet. Although it seems that Guren is not appreciating Yuuichiro's hesitation, but, you see, he and Mikaela are brothers... and they have finally found each other. How could Yuu have killed his dear and beloved Mika?"

"But he is now a vampire, the enemy. He must be eliminated. That's what Guren claims from his speeches. So... does that apply to me as well?" Yurika whispered. "You're not a vampire." Ferid pointed out. "Funny Ferid. Funny." "The attacks are resuming! And someone is coming towards us. At this point you can ask them directly if the same applies to you, my dear!" "You're so scary you don't seem to care." "I would have broken his neck already if I didn't. You know that." Yes, Yurika knew that. Nevertheless, she couldn't help but feel a cold shiver run through her.

Every now and then her mind and body reminded her that Ferid was not a rational choice and that being in a relationship with him was not part of nature's preordained patterns. Following this line of reasoning she could understand why Guren and the others reacted as they did. Among other things, she realised that she and Ferid were more isolated from the bulk of the fighting, yet the vampire was impassive. She waited. The girl knew that the clash between the two was destined to continue and she would play the role of a mere spectator.

"Yurika you must reason!" And the swords of the two began to clash with each other. "I don't need to reason, I know what I want."

"Did you see, our seraphim have moved away?" Ferid's unexpected question surprised Guren who stopped the attack. "Are you insane?" He asked. The vampire smiled. "She already knows we cooperate anyway, in fact. You know she asked me if she was sold to the enemy on purpose, curious. Don't you think?"

A shiver ran through the man, but not only him. "Did you really think of that?" Guren addressed the question directly to the girl, who remained silent. "You should know that it is not such an unlikely option..." She whispered after a while. "And why would I do such a thing? You... do you really think I would be able to do that?" Yurika felt tears welling up. "I know that in order to achieve their goals, the Hiiragi look at nothing and no one." "But to go so far as to sell you to a monster?" "Stop calling him that!" "Have you brainwashed her by any chance?" Guren turned back to Ferid, but he remained impassive. He was purposely trying to leave a space for the two to confront each other. He didn't know why he was doing it either.

"Will you stop blaming him?" "What did he do to you? What, did he touch you?" The girl looked at him confused, then understood. A slight blush coloured her cheeks. "It's not what you think. He... he doesn't make me do... "The girl noticed that the vampire had shifted his attention to the battlefield. "Why did he make you come here then? You want me to believe you wanted to come?" "We had a problem." "A problem?" "Well..."

She was following Ferid, who seemed intent on fighting Yuu, out of the corner of her eye when she saw Mika step in in a rage and cut off the other vampire's arm. The girl's eyes widened. "Ferid!" And she run in that direction, but Guren caught up with her, stopping her. "Get off me!" And, driven by instinct, she finally drew her sword as well. Right at Guren.

Time seemed to stop for a moment for both of them. The man realised the implications of the gesture, this vampire had obviously sunk his fangs too deep into Yurika's soul to do this. He remembered what he himself had gone to great lengths to prevent the deaths of those he loved, remembered the paralysing fear when you fear for the lives of your loved ones. If Yurika had come to wield a sword against him, she who had never liked to fight, it could only mean one thing. The girl had feelings for this vampire, something very strong.

Even the young girl herself had been shaken by her action. She had feared so much that such a scenario might materialise and in the end it was she herself who had made it true. Did that mean being prepared to do anything for love? She shuddered as she felt cold arms wrapping around her. The vampire caressed her arms, slipping his fingers up to clasp her hands so she could lower her weapon. "You don't need to do this." He whispered softly to her, as Guren watched mesmerized and horrified as Yurika's body reacted to the vampire's close proximity, another clear sign of how much there was between the two. "I hope you understand, though, that I can't just stand here and make small talk, I need to give some dramatic sense to the scene."

After that he turned away from the girl, ready to stage his confrontation with Guren. "So, Guren. Are you still angry with me?" In response, the man attacked the vampire. Yurika took a few steps away, perhaps comforted by the certainty that Ferid would not kill him. She glanced in the direction of the battlefield, noting that the demonic Moon Company was not shining, quite the opposite. The humans seemed close to succumbing under the vampires' jaws. He saw Shinoa's very young companions on the ground. And he also saw Shinoa being held down by the same vampire who had helped capture her. She remembered her visits to Ferid's house. Perhaps if she had asked, he would have been more merciful to her? She couldn't leave her like that. But at that moment something incredible happened.

The sky seemed to darken and an incredible source of energy was released not far away, right where Yuichiro was standing. Something black was projected into the air around him. Suddenly, the pieces of the puzzle fit perfectly in her mind. How many times had she heard the word seraphim? First from Guren, then from Ferid. And what was a seraph? An angel. And that black thing that seemed to come straight out of the boy's body was a wing, black as pitch, but still a wing.

He turned slowly to Guren and Ferid, who were also standing there watching the scene. With horror and disappointment she noticed that the two did not seem too surprised, quite the contrary. "What are you doing?" 

11/09/2021

Dio you like what's happening on the battlefield?