Episode 7

The Sozim clan leader looked exhausted, but I could sense more power inside him. Maybe I was able to sense that kind of thing because I became as powerful a vampire as him.

"What are you..." He said, his voice trembling.

I dashed at him at a blistering speed, almost comparable to Barakia's with my spear in hand before he could react. I swung down vertically but the slimy fucker managed to dodge it at the last second.

When my spear touched the ground, an ocean of lavender-colored blood erupted from it and decimated the ground in front of it for at least a couple dozen meters. What was left were the indents my blood left as it traveled. It looked almost corrosive.

I felt like I could instantly follow up that action with another and swung to the left, where he dodged, and even though I didn't cut him down, I cut his face pretty well. The cut spanned across the extremities of his cheeks to the bridge of his nose.

Then I followed that action up, instinctually, with a sweep of the leg from which blood erupted again, this time actively chasing the man, like a heat-guided rocket. His movements, to me, seemed excruciatingly slow but he was able to run away from the blood within an inch of his life.

"I can't believe this. Is this what Barakia died to?" I said angrily, balling my fists in an attempt to hold back.

He looked panicked. He was running around, trying to avoid my blood as it crawled on the ground and eroded it, leaving indents in its path.

"What a pathetic bastard." I added in a very hard tone.

The fight became a joke so my attention drifted to the conversation the three had.

"Are you okay Kari?" The platinum blonde woman inquired, the look on her face being quite concerned.

They looked like great friends.

Karia on the other hand, looked horrible. Her tears destroyed her makeup, leaving dark streaks on her cheeks. She looked like she was trying her hardest to come to terms with what had just happened.

"We'll ask that guy what just happened after he kills that piece of trash." The blue-haired man said with a pure smile on his face.

Karia wiped her tears away and seemed to have calmed down a bit as she followed our joke of a fight with her eyes. Additionally, how the hell should I know what just happen--

Then, as if it appeared from nowhere, the answer to that question popped into my head.

It was necessary for the guardian of the ring to die for the Last Emperor to become his full self and acquire his full power. In all likelihood, Barakia could have dodged those tendrils if he wanted to. Once he saw that I was on the cusp of completing my transformation.

I know what Barakia would have said if he was still alive. 'I'm sorry to make you feel so guilty about this.' with that same aggravating sad smile. I already felt much too guilty... If only... If only I didn't exist.

I slapped my face as hard as I could, leaving an indent and knocking some teeth off for a few seconds before they healed.

I can't think thoughts like that. I must now live this life. It's all I could do to honor his wish to at least help his daughter...

The Sozim's leader's breaths became more and more shallow as I could notice that all of his strength was now gone from his body and was running on nothing more than his self-preservation instinct.

I willed the blood chasing him to consume him whole. A few seconds later, it caught up to him and enveloped him completely for a couple of seconds before his body was destroyed inside. I felt all the blood that he had under command join mine, but his reserves were low indeed after his fight with Barakia.

"It's over." I said, calmly and gently as I approached the three.

My gaze shifted to Barakia's lifeless body. He had died with that smirk on his face... you poor bastard.

I looked up at Karia. Her eyes were swollen from all the crying, but she seemed to have regained her composure. Her body language was now shy and insecure, compared to how beautifully and confidently she moved across the battlefield just a few minutes ago.

"Would you like to carry him?"

Her lip began to tremble again, but she held it in. She only gave me a nod before kneeling and picking his body up.

That was when the awareness of a certain place entered my mind. "Let's go inside my pocket space for now."

Lavender-colored mist surrounded me in much greater density than Barakia. That mist then aggregated in front of me and turned into a door made out of the mist. I stepped inside without hesitation and I could hear the three following closely.

Pocket spaces take their appearance from the holder's subconscious. Mine was a cozy, relaxing-looking cafe at the border of a town.

I could hear the sound of the cars moving down the street from far away and faint traces of countless voices. I shut those out.

When I turned to look at the three behind me, Karia's friends were looking all around, amazed.

"Is there a problem?" I said to them.

"N-No... It's just that we've never been inside a pocket space." The blue-haired man said. The two looked like babies exploring the world around them. It was adorable in a way.

Regardless, I continued to explore the place and found a few things. For one, there was a door that led into a pretty big house. It was like a wooden cabin and had 4 rooms on the floor above alone. The second was that there was a door that led outside.

I returned to the three.

"So. What do you want to do now, Karia Rodnes?" I asked her.

She looked lost and confused for a second.

"You mean about Father?" She said, her gaze glued to his lifeless body.

I nodded.

She took a while to come up with something, but she still came up empty.

"In that case, how about we bury him here? It's pretty safe and you could come to visit his grave at any time."

She looked almost offended by that for a moment but she quickly regained her composure and replied. "That would be for the best..." She said somewhat hesitatingly.

We carried his body outside the cafe, at the back, and the four of us dug a hole for him. We covered it up as soon as his body was inside and when it came to creating a tombstone, I decided to add my own touch, creating one myself out of the blood.

"Is there anything you want to be inscribed on the tombstone?" I asked the four.

"A great father." Karia said.

"A great warrior." The blonde woman said.

"A great uncle." The blue-haired man said.

Then my turn came up. I came up with something fitting pretty easily.

"A great friend." I said, relieving the memories of us drinking tea and chatting away into the morning.

A single tear flowed down my cheek and directly onto the ground we had used to seal his grave.

I could feel the mist appear around me. I willed it to gather in the open palm of my hand then project it over his grave as a tombstone.

I looked over to Karia to see how she was doing. She looked like she was trying her hardest to suppress the tears. Her friends also noticed and had affectionate smiles on their faces.

"You know, it's ok--" Suddenly, a powerful presence appeared outside the pocket dimension.

The three seemed to have noticed as well.

"Stay here." I said, with a reassurring nod.

I quickly made my way outside.

I didn't realize it before, but the castle was completely gone. It had become a ruin. It didn't look fixable in any capacity. I turned my head to the right to look at the presence I had detected. As my head moved, strands of my hair came into my view. They had turned into a white color combined with very small traces of lavender color.

What greeted me was a woman that looked just a little bit older than me. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in all my 20 years of life. She looked to be as tall as me. Her eyes were a fiery orange. Her hair looked to be a black color. That's when I realized that the sun hadn't risen up. Not even 6 hours passed since this entire thing happened, contrary to my perception.

She was wearing a green olive suit with a red necktie. The look on her face was quite distraught.

"Are you the new leader of the Rodnes clan?" She said in between bated breaths. It looked like she rushed to come over.

"I am." The pocket space was proof enough. Barakia had given it to me before I died.

"Are you the only one left?" The look in her eyes was hopeful.

"No. There are 3 more that are still alive."

"Is Karia Rodnes still alive?" She didn't seem to care about anyone else.

"And what would you need from her?" I gave to her in a harsh tone.

She stepped back a little.

"You could say she is my little sister, even though we aren't related by blood. She had been talking about the state of affairs within the Rodnes clan with me for some time. When she did not pick up her phone, I got worried so I rushed over here."

Her concern for Barakia's daughter put a smile on my face.

"She is alive."

She sighed deeply in relief.

"What about Idris and Keiran?" Those names did not ring a bell to me.

"Are you talking about a platinum-blonde woman with wild eyes and a calm-looking blue-haired man?"

She nodded aggressively.

"They're fine as well."

Then a relieved, happy smile formed on her face.

She put her hand on her chest as she sighed in relief again.

When she opened her eyes, they were glued to mine.

"Were you the one who saved them?"

"You could say that."

She deeply bowed and thanked me again.

"I'll head back to my clan then. Tell her to contact me whenever she can."

Even to my newly acquired senses, the speed of her movement was beyond rapid. Without using any power, I could barely trace her movements.

I headed back into the pocket space, my mind preoccupied with what we must do as we move forward.