Welcome back to Hello Charlotte everyone. I really hope that you enjoy this chapter. And please remember to VOTE and COMMENT it really means a lot to me plus I like chatting with you guys. Also please click the video it goes with the chapter. ~XOXO BUTTERBALL~

The song is Phoenix: by Fall Out Boy.

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-Kessel-

I took a deep breath as I opened my eyes. I glanced around my bathroom slowly as I lay in the bathtub my back reclining against the cold marble. The previously hot water had turned murky and cold as it wrinkled my skin.

I looked down at my hands as I flexed them carefully studying the all too familiar tiny scars that marked them and my wrists.

As though my body was taunting me a sharp yet familiar pain sliced through my lower back.

I carefully exited the tub as I ran a hand through my hair. Hesitantly I touched the scar on my lower back.

He's getting closer. And he's coming quicker than I expected too.

I smiled slightly as I toweled my body off. "Well, no one can say that Ivo isn't efficient in what he does," I chuckled to myself.

When I stepped into my bedroom I found one of my disciple's waiting there. My disciple Seras was a human woman age twenty, a little on the timid side but aggressive when she needed to be. She had a strong conviction and her heart was usually in the right place.

At the moment she was fiddling with her dark red hair as she stood in the middle of the room. As I entered the room wearing nothing but a towel her light, forest green eyes looked around, shifting from one object to the other. She held a slip of pink paper that stood out starkly against the pale skin of her left hand.

Her female Aveon uniform was immaculate as always the blue, gold and white dress stopping at the top of her thighs, while her stockings covered her legs up from the usual prying eyes in our unit.

"Lord Kessel! Ah-sir, we have a mission from a nearby town. Some type of creature has been destroying buildings, crops, killing people and kidnapping them," she told me frantically.

Seras bowed as she held the paper out to me. I took it from her as I examined it carefully.

Fire, a small fast creature with strange scales? It can't be her...if it was I'd feel Ivo's energy.

I bit my lip as a strange feeling wormed its way into my head.

I let out a sigh. "Thank you Seras, will you go gather the others? If this is what I think it is we're going to need our whole team," I told her.

I'm praying that it's a baby dragon.

Seras eyes lit up as a large grin spread across her face. She giggled before nodding. "Yes sir, also Caius wants to speak to you," she informed me.

I winced at the mention of that name a slight grimace crossing my face as I began to frown.

"Well, tell him to come in," I ordered her.

She nodded before leaving the room, I heard Caius speaking in a muffled voice to Seras out in the hallway. I sat on the bed as I stared at the paper in my hand.

It's definitely not Charlotte. It...it just can't be.

I was brought out of my train of thought by Caius calling my name. "Um...Kessel," he said hesitantly a few pieces of paper in his hand.

When I looked at him a familiar anger rose in me but in truth that feeling was my fault. After all, I had created him in Ivo's likeness. Long black hair, jet black eyes, at moment the beautiful black scales I'd given him were covered up by the Aveon uniform. However, even though Caius looked like Ivo he lacked that rebellious nature that I'd seen in Ivo nearly every day when we were young. Caius was orderly and obedient, and truthfully I didn't know if I hated it or just missed Ivo's resistance.

Perhaps I made a mistake when I made him from a human. Perhaps it's because Ivo was already unique to begin with.

While I did make him into a contract beast, I couldn't make him into the one thing I needed without a doubt. A Therion.

I gritted my teeth as Caius watched me carefully. "What is it that you need Caius?" I asked a forced smile forming on my face.

"I came to...report to you, I completed the mission. There have been no sightings of any female dragon chimeras or any dragon chimeras in general roaming around. There also haven't been any sightings of a woman with the strange markings you described. While one prisoner in the prison Titania fit the description she's no longer there. Apparently, she and a strange creature caused a prison riot and escaped," he informed me.

I glanced at him. "How did they describe the strange creature?" I asked needing to confirm something.

Caius shuffled through the papers before speaking carefully. "The prisoners that were recaptured said that he looked like me but was transparent, like a specter or strong spirit. He also wore a black and red suit. Apparently him and the young woman he was with fused at the time, somehow separated in the hallway. Reports describe it as some type of possession familiar to your kind. Together the woman and the creature killed some of the guards and escaped," Caius explained.

I bit my lip as I crossed my legs and stared at the floor.

It's definitely Charlotte and Ivo. I thought he'd have more common sense than to just infuse someone like Charlotte with his power. And she-they've been like this for seven long years.

I stood up and walked over to my dresser, I spoke to Caius as I put on my Aveon uniform. "Caius, you won't be participating in today's mission. I'll be bringing Seras, Eizen, and Lorithia with me to deal with the request we received. I'd like you to head to the chimera village Hatneoni, there was a strange report when some of our members did a scheduled sweep. Even with the werecreatures," I ordered him.

Even though he looked slightly disappointed he nodded.

I met Seras, Eizen, and Lorithia in the middle of the capital's plaza. Eizen like usual had once again refused to wear his uniform. But then again he was a shapeshifter so the massive amounts of magic that had been infused into our uniforms might have messed with his shifting.

His hair was medium length and slicked back once again, his small horns poking out from underneath dark brown, chocolate colored hair. His bright silver eyes glanced at me once before he returned to agonizing Seras with his horrible questions and bullying behavior. Seras glared at him gripping her spear tightly in her hand.

Lorithia ignored her fraternal twin, Eizen and instead chose to bury her face in one of her many books. Her light silver hair had been pulled into a braid, a small light pink bow was tied at the base of her purple fur covered tail. Her dark golden eyes glanced up at me briefly, then she glanced over at her brother and gave him a look of disgust before she adjusted the hem of her uniform.

From what she had told me multiple times she was only half bakeneko and half shapeshifter. And while I found it a bit odd, I'd seen odder combinations.

One thing we all had in common and probably why we were grouped together in this unit, was because we all had gone to the same academy together around the time back when I had only been focused on rising through the ranks.

Everyone fell silent as I spoke, "Are we ready to go everyone?"

Eizen smirked. "I can't wait honestly, it's been too long since I killed something that actually fought back properly."

Lorithia rolled her eyes. "I don't know why the gods wasted effort on you. When clearly the words patience and intelligence are lost on you," she grumbled at Eizen.

Seras smiled at me. "Yes, Kessel," she said cheerfully despite Eizen's behavior. And she was the only one that responded to my question with the wanted answer.

As we walked, we talked to each other especially when we exited the capital and its prying eyes.

"I'm surprised you didn't let Caius come," Lorithia said.

I shrugged as I rested my hand on the hilt of my sword. "I have him on another mission," I informed her.

Eizen chuckled. "Are you sure that you just didn't want your boyfriend getting hurt? It's understandable," he said grinning.

I looked back at him. "While he may be my boyfriend, Caius can handle himself which you fully know Eizen." I said as I moved a branch out of the way. Almost instantly I regretted the answer.

Eizen smirked. "Ah, are you worried that it's your freak of a best friend showing up?" He teased.

There Eizen goes, the usual harassment started later than usual. But the more I think about it I did love Ivo but I highly doubt that he loved me when we were younger. And I know without a doubt he hates me now.

Seras looked at me and I saw pity in her eyes. "Kessel, I know for a fact that Caius loves you with everything he has, if you talk to him about about what's bothering you. I'm sure he'll understand," she said trying to reassure me.

I frowned as I focused on navigating through the forest. "I know that especially considering how long we've been together. It's just a sick form of longing and nostalgia," I sighed

Eizen smirked. "Ha, I knew I was right! What did you even see in your freak of an old friend to base Caius's appearance on him? You have strange taste in friends and boyfriends."

I grimaced. "I'll be the first to admit that I made a mistake. I used a human as a base because I was trying to create something that I needed. Something important and rare. I tried many times before however if I'm honest Caius is the closest I've gotten to creating what I truly want. But the fact that he looks like my old friend is a freak accident of sorts," I admitted. Then I smiled at him. "I know I have strange taste in friends I mean just look at you." I told Eizen cheerfully.

Eizen narrowed his eyes before he glanced back at Lorithia as though she had the answers. Then he spoke, "So if you're interested in your weirdo friend then why are you trying to find this strange chimera girl. I'm mean this guy is a Therion of all things and one belonging to the royal family at that. So then you don't need that chimera girl so we could just ki-" Before he could finish I had him in the air by his throat in mere seconds.

"Listen to me Eizen and listen well. I tolerate your nonsense because you are a great soldier and a good friend. However, if I hear you saying anything I don't like about Charlotte. I may just have to make you into a bird feeder," I threatened.

I felt Eizen gulp beneath my hand as he bit his lip. "Y-yes lord Kessel," he wheezed out. However, he didn't sound shocked because I'd done this before on different occasions and about different issues. If there was thing I knew about Eizen is that he didn't learn to respect boundaries until you gave him a bit of pain.

Somewhere though in the back of my head I could hear Ivo's voice egging me on.

"If you kill him you can always replace him. After all, you replaced me didn't you?"

I released Eizen and gritted my teeth turning my attention to my hands, as my vision distorted and pulsed, it flashed white and when my hands came back into focus they were covered in the red contract marking instead of the usual scars. Blood smeared my hands the smell of it invading my nose along with the smell of a fire burning wood, dying flowers. It made me feel slightly sick to my stomach and I couldn't tell if it was from the sudden intense migraine or if it was my body trying its best to process what I've done.

Ivo's blood, and the Queen's.

I squeezed my eyes shut as their horrified faces flashed behind my eyelids when I opened them though the others were staring at me. While Seras had slight awe on her face, Eizen looked bored and Lorithia looked concerned.

Lorithia stepped forward and gently placed a hand on my shoulder. "Lord Kessel...did you have another vision?" she asked sounding slightly excited.

I let out a small shuddering sigh, "Yes, I did, let's keeping walking, however, I don't really want to think about it," I told them.

Almost instantly I once again heard Ivo's voice in my head.

"Lying again, although you never could be honest with yourself about anything."

I bit my lip as we continued to walk to the village the whole time my hand rested on the hilt of my sword. A strange fear had surfaced inside me the closer we got to the village in question.

Seras let out a gasp at the sight of the village. "It-it's burned, destroyed," she whispered.

I looked down at the village from where I stood on the hill next to the others. The smell of thick smoke, burning wood, and burnt meat entered my nose.

"We're too late. Eizen, you're with me, we'll look for what caused this. Lorithia and Seras go look for survivors," I ordered.

Immediately we split off into two groups. Eizen was quiet for once as he followed me with his revolver in hand. I had drawn my sword and it glowed slightly with a gentle blue light as I channeled my demonic energy into it.

Everything was extremely quiet as we walked down the charred road, we passed multiple corpses all covered with horrific burns or hardly recognizable. It was either that or they were gutted like fish their innards covering the ground in glistening red piles, while their blood pooled up in puddles as though it had just rained.

"Eizen, did I ever tell the story about the Chimera village called Meludias?" I asked as I kept my ears sharp.

"Meludias? You mean that village that was slaughtered by do it yourself demon hunters?" He asked smiling slightly. "I didn't know that you were into ghost stories."

I shook my head. "It's not a ghost story it's a cover up story that one of my superiors came up with. I know because I used to be stationed there after we graduated," I told him. "I'll tell you what really happened. I returned back to the village after reporting to my superiors in the capital and the previous Aveon prophet. The moment I came through the village gate though I saw nothing but red and death. Everyone including my unit who had stayed in the village had been massacred with their bodies on display for everyone. However, I knew what had happened. A young Chimera girl who had experienced something worse than hell in that village had summoned a contract demon. The therion who was once my friend and together they killed everyone. In fact, the only reason I escaped death was because I wasn't there at the time," I explained.

Eizen frowned at me. "So that's who this mysterious Charlotte is," he said.

"It wasn't Charlotte's fault she was a sweet girl placed into horrific circumstances. I still remember when I took her under my wing for awhile she was so eager to learn, she would often fall asleep in my library and so I would carry her to bed on my back," I told him a hint of happiness in my tone as a familiar nostalgia washed over me.

Eizen winced as he let out a sigh. "I'm sorry I bad mouthed her Kessel. You don't really talk about her so I didn't know she meant that much to you," he apologized sheepishly.

"You didn't help her one bit. But I did, I helped her and now she's mine forever."

Ivo hissed in my thoughts. I massaged my temples but I stopped when I heard soft crying coming from the bushes. I glanced at Eizen and he nodded we walked toward the bushes our weapons ready.

However, when I moved the bushes I found a young girl who looked no more than ten years old. She was curled into a ball and smeared with a lot of blood but the thing that caught my attention was her physical appearance. She had black and green eyes, her green hair was matted with blood and curling around her long slim goat like horns. Her hands were small but this black and dark brown demonic energy covered them both changing them into a pair of hands with large claws. Her hair ended in this odd closed knot that resembled a closed tulip.

Eizen pointed his gun at the child the moment she looked at us which caused the girl to scream "Sister!" I frowned before speaking to Eizen.

"Eizen go find Lorithia and Seras they should be dealing with this girl's sibling," I ordered him.

"Got it!" He said quickly before he ran off.

Once he was gone I turned my attention back to the girl. I reached out to her and began to speak in the same tone I used to use on Charlotte. "Come here sweetie, I'm here to help you and take you to a safe place," I said softly.

The girl rushed into my arms still crying and I held her close so she wouldn't see my smirk.

"Don't worry sweetie, you'll be okay. I'll keep you safe," I reassured her.

I can't believe I found a Therion. Now I just need two more one for each god. Then my work will be complete.

A sharp pain suddenly sliced through my head causing me to squeeze my eyes shut and grit my teeth.

Speak of the devil. It looks like Ivo found the barrier I've made for Charlotte.

I began chuckling which quickly turned into full-blown laughter.

Looks like it'll be a race against time old friend. I hope that you're prepared for it.