Chapter 7 - Eventful return

Darkness had descended upon the affluent neighbourhood of Hampstead in London. 

Its once elegant mansions and manicured gardens had now fallen into disrepair and were covered in an otherworldly black mist.

The source of this darkness was a single figure clad in a shadowy veil, their features hidden while standing on the porch of a large estate that had fallen into disrepair. 

The mansion walls and windows were dirty and cracked, as if they had already seen many fights and had not been properly tended to for a long time.

The porch was originally made of pearly white marble but now looked no better than the rest of the mansion, littered with cracks, dirt, and blood.

The once well-maintained greenery had overgrown much of the structure, actually somewhat making up for the dirt and cracks.

Several creatures, ranging from humans to vampires to various shapeshifters, were gathered before the figure.

These creatures stared with somewhat glassy eyes towards a long, downward-sloping driveway leading to the entrance gate.

The gate had been broken open, and a similar gathering was taking place there, except they had no shadowy figure among them, and their gazes were clear.

These groups seemed to oppose each other as the humans in this group appeared to be releasing their own aura, slightly pushing back the darkness.

One of these humans, a man with black hair and brown eyes, stepped forward and addressed the shadowy figure in a loud voice laced with righteous fury as if having practised it in front of a mirror, 

"Emily Ashcroft! The council can no longer turn a blind eye to your atrocities! Release these poor people of their bonds and surrender!"

The figure responded with a surprisingly young female voice and a slightly crazed tone of voice, "I won't give up my home! It's mine! Mine! That damn council of yours can go to hell!

All its members are hypocrites anyway! A year ago, they were all still fighting, raping and looting with the best of them! And now that they've banded together, they intend to swing their various dicks and tits around by trying to force their rules on me?!

Forget it! The only way I will leave this place is if I'm dragged by my cold, dead feet!"

The man sighed, seemingly saddened by her refusal, but there was a peculiar glint in his eye, "Please, Emily. This isn't you. Let's forget what happened in the past! I still remember when you were a cute little girl running around these gardens. Please give yourself up, and I promise to take care of Emma!"

His voice seemed to contain a carefully hidden emotion that only Emily could pick up on, causing his words to spur her on even more.

She started cackling madly, "You?! Protect Emma?! Did you forget what you tried to do to me when my parents died?! I certainly doubt you forgot what I did to you that day!"

At the mention of this encounter, the man himself seemed to seethe with anger as his left hand drifted towards his crotch unconsciously.

Emily pointed at the man accusingly, "I would sooner kill her than leave her with you!

I can only trust myself! Only I can protect my house! Protect Emma! And if you stand in my way, you will die!"

Her voice seemed to get more irrational and crazed as she went on. Meanwhile, the people behind the man directed strange gazes towards him.

However, the last seven years had been chaotic, and each of the people here had done things they weren't proud of. They may not have had much say in the council's formation, but now that it was here and enforcing its rules, they all had to abide by them.

Or at least pretend to.

They were all given a grace period during which they could put an end to all their newly illegal activities, and afterwards, the council wouldn't pursue them for crimes committed in the past.

But Emily refused to stop creating more slaves, as protecting her home and Emma seemed to be the only thing she cared about, which was why they were gathered here now.

Regardless, the man speaking was their boss, so they averted their eyes and refocused on Emily.

The black-haired, pasty-looking man barely managed to bring his anger under control and make one last attempt to have her surrender. 

He might not be able to get his hands on Emily anymore, but he still had a shot at Emma! That said, he would prefer not to risk his life for it.

He took an outwardly reasonable tone, "Be reasonable, Emily! Even with these poor enslaved souls, we still outnumber you! Neither you nor your sister will be harmed. The council wants to bring back the humane treatment of criminals!"

Seeing that these men and women intended to keep hounding her, she ordered her slaves to attack, "Enough! If you refuse to leave, then I'll make you!"

At those words, the glassy eyes of the various creatures in front of her started glowing a malevolent purple as their lips curled up into cruel smiles.

Immediately, shapeshifters on both sides changed forms and various runic symbols appeared on their fur. Vampires drew weapons while gaining similar runic symbols on their pale skin, and various magic circles appeared in front of human hands.

Then, they all charged.

The clash began with a chaotic display of magic, claws and fangs. 

Various human-predator hybrids moved with savage ferocity; vampires danced with vicious grace, and humans tossed around numerous kinds of magic as the two groups clashed in a frontal battle.

While the attacking forces first attempted to simply knock the enslaved creatures unconscious, this eventually proved too difficult, as the woman named Emily had also started attacking, flinging around bolts of darkness, quickly eroding any defences they came in contact with.

The sounds of explosions and the tearing of flesh echoed across this once-prestigious neighbourhood.

Once the first casualties started falling on both sides, the battle soon started turning in favour of the forces opposing Emily, as their numbers were simply greater.

Emily seemed to be losing more and more of her reason as she screeched at the invading forces and gathered more and more darkness around her, seemingly preparing for something.

However, no one noticed that a bright light had started appearing right in the middle of the battlefield. 

The light began pulsing faster and faster and reached a boiling point at the same time as Emily's efforts. A familiar scene then played out as time slowed down.

No one understood what was happening when they suddenly started watching everything move in slow motion.

Tendrils of darkness had gathered around Emily, which seemed to be moving towards the people opposing her, but they went at a snail's pace, just like everything else.

Then, time moved again, and a massive concussive force was released as everyone flew back from the light.

Emily was no exception to this. However, her tendrils moved forward, apparently unaffected by the blast, as they homed in on the now airborne attackers. In their current situation, they could not defend themselves and got skewered.

Less than half of them died this way, but those remaining quickly retreated and regrouped. Hesitant to attack again and concerned about what had just happened.

The number of defenders versus attackers seemed to have evened out as both sides stared at each other, wondering what to do next.

The black-haired man from earlier seemed to have survived. He was unwilling to retreat now as he tried to convince his men to attack again, but they seemed unconvinced.

One of them grabbed the man's shoulder, "Listen, Liam, we don't know what that power was just now. She seemed to have been affected, too, but we just don't know enough. We can't attack like this. Let's just wait for the council's warden to arrive."

In the end, caution won out as the attackers retreated for now, perhaps to gather new allies in order to outnumber the defenders and compensate for Emily's high level of power.

However, Liam refused to leave without getting the last word, as he yelled across the lawn, "We'll be back, Emily! Don't think you've won today!"

Meanwhile, at the location of the explosion, no oval of light remained this time, but an armoured Erik was lying unconscious in the middle of the battlefield, his hands empty.

The gate and estate entrance were at a lower altitude than the house entrances, so the attacking group hadn't seen the body that had appeared there.

It appeared that this teleportation had been even more violent than the previous one, as he was not even conscious now despite his increase in strength since the last time.

With the attackers having left, for now, the only person remaining to approach Erik was a wounded Emily. Her veil of darkness had left her as a young but pale-looking woman appeared.

She approached the unconscious Erik warily, clutching her side as if wounded, but when noticing he was completely out, her lips curled up in an evil grin, 

"I don't know who you are, little bug, or what you did, but it seems you helped me out today. I wonder what I should give you as a reward!"

She seemed to think mockingly for a moment while tapping her chin as if not really considering it and then seemed to come to a conclusion, "Ah! I'll turn you into my newest slave! You should feel honoured!"