AKARI

It's about two in the morning whenever I wake up with a sense of dread filling my body and the hairs on my arms standing on edge. I frown and glance around the room to see Isabella sleeping in the bed across from me, one of her arms draped over the side of the bed as she snores softly into her pillow, her brown locks splayed everywhere.

"Isabella," I whisper across the room.

I frown whenever she doesn't wake up after I call her name a few more times and I end up climbing out of bed to shake her lightly.

"Huh?" She mumbles in her sleep and eventually opens her eyes to furrow her eyebrows at me. "What's going on? What time is it?"

"It's two in the morning, Isabella, and something isn't right. Come on," I say before I rush around the room to grab my coat and Isabella slides out of bed to do the same while I grab my scythe.

Once we're out in the hallway, I'm surprised to see Sora exit his room at the same time as the two of us do. However, he seems a bit more confused than us.

"Sora?" Isabella frowns.

"Have either of you seen Shae?" Sora frowns. "I woke up with chills and an eerie feeling and he wasn't in our room. The place feels like it's twenty degrees inside."

"No," I shake my head. "The two of us just got up. I had a bad feeling too and I woke Isabella."

"Come on, motherf—"

The three of us look at each other with wide eyes upon hearing Gambit's shouting and sounds of gunfire coming from outside.

"Come on, let's go!" I shout and race towards the entrance of the inn with Isabella and Sora.

Once we're in the doorway to the inn, we find that the door is already wide open and Gambit is outside fighting Nightwalkers in her pajamas, her gauntlets rapidly firing off purple bullets as she kicks, twirls, and punches. As soon as I'm about to exit the doorway to help, Sora throws an arm in front of me and I collide with his body, but Isabella's already summoned her spell book and has ran outside to help.

"Sora, what—"

I trail off whenever I notice a faint aura of white and green energy radiating around the two of us and Sora's necklace is glowing bright green, its magic at work.

"Your necklace...it's keeping us from being affected," I breathe out and watch as Isabella struggles to stay on her feet and Gambit's movements gradually become slower and slower.

"Come on, and don't let go of my hand," Sora says as he grabs my wrist and takes off in a run with me.

I switch my weapon into its gun mode so that it's easier for the two of us to stay together and I begin firing bullets into the crowd of maybe fifty Nightwalkers, which is unusually high, especially for one place. Although, they do like to stay in herds.

"Shae and Clea are out back! I need you to cover so that I can bring them back in to safety!" Gambit shouts.

"Got it!" I shout in return and switch out my bullets for explosive ones.

"Go!" Isabella shouts as she casts a spell, a red rune appearing in the air above her spell book as a red rune circle spins beneath her feet on the ground and a red aura shield appears around Gambit to increase her attack power and to shield her.

Gambit slams down three more Nightwalkers before she takes off in a run and shoots them down as she runs by to the back of the inn to get Shae and Clea.

"Why were they drawn here?!" Isabella shouts over the fighting as she works on casting another spell.

"I don't know!" I shout back as I shoot down five more before I have to reload, "But we've gotta keep going! We can't let them get into the inn!"

A few minutes later, Gambit runs around hauling Shae, who was one of the first ones outside and was ambushed and sprained his ankle in the process of fending off Nightwalkers and fighting them. Gambit runs inside the inn to drop him off before she heads back for Clea, who fell victim to their emotional drainage.

"Isabella, if you can guard the inn and the others, Akari and I can finish them off!" Sora shouts.

"Understood!" Isabella nods firmly and begins casting a blue spell as Gambit runs back around with Clea.

Gambit drops Clea off inside the inn lobby where Shae is while Isabella runs to them and casts her spell right as she runs through the door, creating a dome of blue energy around the inn that blocks out all of the creatures. Isabella then begins casting another spell to tend to Shae and Clea while Gambit shoots down more Nightwalkers from inside the doorway of the inn.

"There's about ten more and they're retreating into the woods!" I shout and watch as they begin to fly off.

"I've got it!" Sora shouts. "Stay here, alright?"

"What?!" I shout and my eyes widen. "Hey, Sora!"

I shout and call after him and I watch as he takes off down the street and turns right into where the small woodland area around the village before the waterfall is. While this is happening, I notice that Clea is now awake and she's watching wide-eyed from the doorway.

"Wait up!" Clea shouts and runs out of the inn to chase after Sora, her daggers in hand.

"Hey!" Isabella shouts worriedly and reaches out an arm as if it would magically pull Clea back.

"I've got it. Just guard the area!" I shout before I sigh and take off after Sora and Clea.

Once I'm within several feet of the woods and they come closer into view, my feet crunching in the snow as I run, my eyes widen whenever I see a column of bright green flames shoot up from the ground and into the sky and my heart nearly stops in my chest. I race even faster to the woods to see that Sora's somehow summoned his true longsword and has slashed through all ten Nightwalkers at once, flames burning on his blade and around his body as he stands somewhat bent over from slashing through them all in a straight line. Off to my right, my eyes flicker over to see Clea standing there open-mouthed, her eyes wide and her daggers barely still hanging in her hands as she watches the scene before her.

"Shit," I breathe out as I stand there still next to Clea and Sora glances back over his shoulder, his eyes widening upon noticing Clea.

Sora sheathes his sword and his flames disperse before he turns to fully face us and he swallows thickly, his eyes flickering between the two of us.

"You're..." Clea breathes out, her eyes still wide. "You're..."

This...is so not good.

"I— uh..." Sora stumbles over his words.

"You're...that's so cool!" Clea shouts excitedly, her eyes sparkling.

"What?" Sora and I say simultaneously, our mouths both dropping.

"Sorry," Clea blushes slightly and rubs the back of her neck. "I just— I always— I heard stories from my mom and I..."

"Stories?" I frown. "What stories?"

"You mean you don't know?" Clea frowns in return, her eyes flickering between the two of us. "Wrath used to be one of the bravest and kindest warriors in Aria. Everyone always focuses on where he went wrong that the good parts get so shadowed out."

"Yeah..." Sora breathes out, most likely thinking about the good times he had with his father, which makes my heart clench.

"I know, but you made it seem as if you knew something specific, something secret," I say, my eyes scanning Clea's expression.

"Well...my mom was entrusted with all the records of the sins and virtues. She used to read me stories from the records. Once she passed from illness, I inherited the records. I promised her that I'd take over as Oracle and my father let me do it because he respected my decision and how important it is. Mom always told me about Wrath's kinder moments from whenever she studied under her mother at Aria whenever she was a teenager," Clea explains. "So, I've always wanted to meet Wrath's son because I thought that maybe...maybe he'd be just as kind as his father once was. If what I've seen so far is any indication of that, I'd say he is. I've also always wanted to meet my cousin, so I'm really glad to be working alongside you both!"

"Clea, could you show us some of the records back at the inn?" I ask, my expression hardening as a thought comes to my mind.

"Well, I'm technically not supposed to but as long as I grant..." Clea starts, only to trail off whenever heavy snow begins to fall around us.

"Come on," I frown. "Let's head back for now. The others are probably waiting for us, and I don't like waiting out here. There could be more creatures around. We can talk about this in my room. I'll distract Isabella somehow."

Sora and Clea both exchange nods with me before the three of us head back to the inn, ready to face whatever may be ahead of us. I just hope that nobody else saw Sora's flames.