Chapter 9: Rampaging Blizzard. (Part 1)

During the blizzard, Julius's body was collapsed on the snow, his breaths coming out faintly as snow piled on top of him. 

Across the snowy forest fields, a beautiful black-haired girl approached.

"Finally, do you know how hard it was to find you?" She asked after spotting him. 

Making her way towards him, she walked past the corpses of monsters. 

"Looks like you really managed to kill them all." She whispered silently as she picked him up.

-

-

-

*crack!* *crackle!*

A crackling sound echoed within the hollow caves as the campfire burnt strongly. 

Its dark flames dimly lit the surroundings, revealing a pair of crimson eyes watching over the unconscious trio.

While holding onto a lush bottle, the red eyes narrowed. 

"I've used up a lot of the elixir today… it won't last much longer at this rate…" Ruby muttered as she yawned. "Oh well, it was bound to run out sooner or later." 

Her gaze flicked over to Julius, whom she had recently fed another elixir drop to.

His condition was much better than it was when she had found him, had she arrived any later, such a thing would've been impossible.

"..."

Although his injuries had healed, his expression remained pained and tense. Occasionally, he would groan and flail around in his sleep. It had been like that ever since she had found him.

"Nightmares, huh…" She muttered.

-Memory 

Having followed Julius into the settlement, Ruby had unintentionally overheard Julius talking to himself while she was outside his house.

"This shitty ability… even though it's been tormenting me with nightmares every night for the last ten years since the apocalypse, it has the audacity to be locked."

-Memory End.

"So this is what he meant…" She muttered whilst gazing at him. 

She stared at his face for a few seconds before focusing on his hand which was in front of her. 

"..."

Slowly, without saying any words she extended her hand out and held it.

"I heard holding someone's hand while they're in a Nightmare can help." She said as she averted her eyes. 

His hand was surprisingly warm. It looked like the Campfire was working as intended. 

She looked back over at him to check if it was true but didn't see much of a difference in his expression. 

"Maybe it takes some time…" She muttered as she continued to hold his hand. "That being said, I wonder what sort of Nightmare he's having right now…" 

-

-

-

'Where… am I…?' Julius questioned as he slowly opened his eyes. 'Am I… dead…?'

It was pitch black, he couldn't see anything. His body felt light, as if it were levitating. When he tried to catch his breath, his eyes grew wide.

*Glob!* *Blub!* *Bluuu!*

An intense burning sensation filled his lungs as water forcefully entered it. 

Only after a few seconds of flailing around did he realise what was happening- he was drowning. 

The panic set in, he desperately began to swim upwards… But something was dragging him down, pulling him deeper into the depths.

It was terrifying, the lack of oxygen made it so that he couldn't think clearly. Was it a nightmare or reality? Was he really dying? How did he even end up in that situation in the first place?

'Nightmare Domain!' He yelled inwardly, his heart pounding. 'System!?' 

But there was no response, instead he continued to get dragged further into the abyss. 

He wanted to scream but not even his voice could escape as he extended his arm out into the distance.

'Gaaaah!!' He yelled out inwardly.

-

-

-

"Doesn't seem like the blizzard is ever going to calm down… It's probably a part of this labyrinth, meaning we'll have to travel through it once everyone's awake." Said Ruby as she stared out of the cave.

Her gaze returned to Julius whose hand she held, and she let out a bored sigh.

"...Hurry up and wake up." She muttered.

Whilst watching him sleep, she suddenly found her gaze being drawn to his neck. 

Seeing this, she rummaged her free hand through her pouch in her outfit before pulling out a transparent blood bag.

"I haven't had any blood in a good while, better drink some now just in case."

After saying such, she removed the lid and began to drink from it. 

*Slurp!* *Gulp!* *Gulp!* *Gulp!* 

Her cheeks flushed red after a few gulps before she let out a satisfied sigh.

"Ah~ that was good. Nothing beats artificial blood."

She finished the rest of the blood in the blood bag and cast it aside. 

Having suppressed her urges, Ruby went back to waiting for them to wake up when suddenly-

"Where… am I..? And who.. are you?" A rusty feminine voice asked.

Ruby turned to the source only to find the silver haired beauty wide awake staring at the cave's ceiling.

"I'm Ruby, A Vampire Princess from Ingram. We're in a cave deep inside of the Labyrinth, Julius made be bring you here so you could heal up." Ruby replied as sat by her side.

Lyra then slowly turned towards Ruby and found Julius lying on the ground ahead of her.

"Is he…?"

"He's fine, just asleep." 

Lyra let out a sigh of relief as a smile slowly grew on her face.

"Thank god…"

Her relief quickly faded however as she recalled her original objective.

"Wait, what about Ava..?"

Ruby pointed to the figure on the opposite end of the campfire.

Lyra turned slowly, her eyes widening as she looked in the direction Ruby pointed.

"Ava…!?" 

Her nose reddened and tears streamed down her face as she struggled to believe her eyes. Reaching out to her, her body ached.

It was like muscle fatigue, the kind you'd get from working out after a long break. But that didn't stop her. 

 "Julius was able to save her in the end." Said Ruby.

Hearing those words, Lyra could feel a massive weight being lifted off her chest.

"Thank you… Julius… Ruby…" She cried.

It seemed like a dream to her at first, Julius and Ava were both safe and sound. 

No one had died, and they would finally be able to return home. However, after Ruby explained the situation, she realised that it still wasn't over.

- 

"So we're basically stuck here for now then, waiting for the others to wake up…" Lyra muttered as she caressed Ava's midnight blue hair while watching Julius sleep. 

Her body ached in pain but her injuries were gone, it felt more like muscle fatigue you'd get from working out. 

"Yeah, try not to move too much. The elixir heals you and replenishes your energy but forcing your body to heal like that can cause some body pain for a while…" Ruby explained. 

"I can handle it… It's quickly getting better." Lyra responded as she glanced up at Ruby. "All thanks to my two saviours."

"Two?" Ruby cocked her head to the side. "You must've misunderstood something. I didn't do much."

Lyra shook her head. 

"The elixir that healed us was yours, you also carried Julius back here and took care of him… where we're from, no one would've gone as far as you did for a stranger.". Lyra nervously averted her eyes. "so… what I'm trying to say is… thank you." 

Ruby was surprised at first, but slowly her lips curled up into a faint smile.

"Again, you misunderstood. I wasn't particularly trying to help you guys, it just happened to end up that way… If you still wish to thank me after that… then you're welcome." 

Hearing her words, Lyra returned a smile back.

Ruby couldn't understand, even though she had told her that she was a Vampire Princess she didn't seem to be judging her. The same thing happened with Julius.

She was sure that there was a stigma against Vampires, so how could they see her in such a positive light?

The more she thought about it, the less sense it made.

"...I've been meaning to ask. You said that no one would've gone as far as I did for a stranger but didn't you two go even further for Julius who was a stranger? Even though you were all around the same age, you still took care of him."

Hearing the question, the smile on Lyra's face disappeared as she lowered her gaze.

"No,that's not true at all. Rather than saying we took care of him… It's more accurate to say that he took care of us…"