Dracula

Dark magic came from Concord's shield as soon as the bust broke on it. Concord quickly threw his shield to the side as it rolled on the ground oozing dark magic.

Luminous looked up at the top of the stone shelves where the statue was before. And saw a night blue flower.

"What was that?!" Yelled Vainglorious looking down at the group from the indoor balcony.

"Pied pipers shields just burst dark magic out of it!" Said the Dawn of Fate. "The kind of dark magic that corrupts people." And if a sword had eyes the Dawn of Fate would be glaring at Concord. "In fact why aren't you corrupted? That should have got you right in the arm."

"Concord are you alright?" Asked Luminous. Moving closer to Concord. "Take your glove off let me see your arm."

"No!" Yelled Concord pulling back from Luminous. "I mean, there is no need, I'm fine. Look, see, fine." He said wiggling his fingers inside his brown thick leather gloves.

"Okay..." Said Luminous. "But why is your shield full of corrupt darkness?"

"I don't know, it was fine before the corrupted raccoons..."

Everyone paused.

"That's it the corrupted raccoons took your shield!" Said Luminous.

"But that still doesn't make any sense. Corrupt don't usually have any intelligence beyond basic instinct." Said the Dawn of Fate. "But if you're right then that could also mean snobs' wand, pied pipers broken pipes, and your armor button is also corrupted."

"No, that can't be right. My armor button is fine." Said Luminous shrinking back until her back hit the bookshelf behind her. "It didn't do what Concords shield did."

"Well of course not, you didn't use the dang thing yet." Said the Dawn of Fate. "And be thankful we noticed before going into a battle with this stuff kid."

"Care to test your theory? I can detect magic." Said Vainglorious holding out his white-gloved hand to Luminous.

Luminous bit her lip. Her hand gripping the enchanted heart-shaped button on her shoulder.

"Dang nabbit short stuff this is serious! Stop fussbudget about and give him the dang button!" Yelled the Dawn of Fate.

Luminous unhooked her armor button from her pink button-up pajama shirt with the chicken pattern. Unwillingly handing it to Vainglorious.

"That also means I need to check you too." Vainglorious said to the Dawn of Fate.

"What?!" Asked the Dawn of Fate.

"You too, you got stolen by the corrupted raccoons and came back with the rest of our stuff."

"But that's preposterous. I'm immune to dark magic."

"Really?" Asked Luminous hopefully.

She really didn't want to be defenseless during a battle.

"How in folklore do you think I'm able to defeat the corrupt in the first place?"

"Well, then I guess you wouldn't mind me checking you for dark magic then." Said Vainglorious crossing his arms.

"Maybe, you don't need to." Said Luminous gripping the navy blue hilt of the Dawn of Fate that rested on her back. "I mean it makes sense. A sword that defeats darkness has to be immune right?"

Vainglorious raised an eyebrow at her, his mouth drawn into a line as he thought.

"Fine, whatever. If you turn corrupt I can just get the sword to tell me where its maker is."

Vainglorious stuck his pointed nose up. Turning from her, his navy blue trench coat sweeping the ebony ground. He examined the heart shape button, along with Concord's shield, broken pipes, and his own birch wand.

"Well, the bad news is that Concord's pipes only need to be repaired and he can play again." Said Vainglorious. "Worse news is that all our other stuff is corrupted by dark magic."

"But I can still use my armor right?" Asked Luminous.

"Are you crazy?!" Said the Dawn of Fate. "No you can't use an item merged with dark magic, you could become corrupted!"

"But what if I need it?" Luminous pouted.

"I know of a cleric, but she is all the way back in town." Said Concord.

"No we can't go back into town, we have to complete the sun ritual here!" Said Vainglorious.

Everyone turned to Vainglorious who was now fidgeting with the book in his hand.

"It's not a basic spell, it's a ritual. A witch ritual. And witches are..." Vainglorious' gray eyes shifted to the floor. "...all about nature..."

"Okay, you can do the witch sun ritual with Concord, and I'll go find my friends the red prince and Cham." Said Luminous, turning to the door of the library.

"Luminous, wait," Vainglorious said gently, pulling on the short sleeve of Luminous' shirt. She turned around to face the young wizard. He was looking at the floor biting his bottom lip. "There is a good chance that the vampire might be skulking around somewhere nearby. You're the only one with a working weapon. What I'm saying is that I...I need you. "

Luminous opened a white door into a huge dome garden. There were grass and trees, and a little farther down is a cascading waterfall flowing down into a stream. It was all covered under a wide fake sky with false stars lifting it up.

"Wow, it's beautiful in here." Said Luminous

She looked around for the blue flowers but didn't see them anywhere. Nor did she see the vampires, nor her friends.

"Okay, you guys are going to guard and make sure no one interrupts the ritual while I go into the spirit realm." Said Vainglorious shoving the book into Concords hands. "You guard this and it better still be in tack when I get back."

"Ya, sure." Said Concord fumbling the book into his grasp. "But if you don't need this then what do you plan to do?"

"It's a witch ritual. Witch magic draws from nature more than any other magic. Meaning with such a big ritual like oh I don't know bringing back the sun. It's best to do so with nature, like trees and streams, and without anything manufactured like gloves or jewelry... " His gray eyes flicked to the ground. "...or clothes..."

"O-oh!" Concord's eyes widened with realization.

"Oh, snobs is going to go skyclad." Laughed the Dawn of Fate.

"Shut up!" Blushed Vainglorious.

"What's skyclad?" Asked Luminous, looking between Concord and Vainglorious' blushing faces.

"We're going to watch the door now just in case the vampire or anything comes for us." Squeaked Concord wrapping his lanky arm around Luminous shoulder, turning her away from Vainglorious. "Come on Luminous, you said you wanted to find the prince as soon as you could right?"

"Yes, I have to find the red prince and Chasm." Luminous began. But the more incessant Concord was about not answering her question. The curiouser and curiouser she got. "But what is skyclad? Why is it such a big deal?" Luminous turned around to ask Vainglorious.

Vainglorious froze, his short white hair dusting the nap of his bare neck. His white button-up shirt halfway down his fair-skinned back. That's when Luminous noticed it for the first time, a tattoo of a black snake with its fangs hooked on Vainglorious' collar bone that was usually covered by his white button shirt, and popped trench coat collar.

"For folklore sakes Luminous what's your problem!?" Vainglorious spun on her, planting his hand on her face. "You're lucky I didn't take my pants off yet! Skyclad is ritual nudity, mostly referring to witchcraft. Read the room retard!"

"What's that snake on your neck?" Luminous peeked through his hand, pointing to the tattoo.

"This?" Vainglorious rubbed the spot on his collarbone where the snake tattoo was. He then smirked manically. "This is a seal that restricts my magical powers. It activates every time I overuse, or do a magical spell that's super powerful. In fact, I might not be able to do the sun ritual successfully and it's all thanks to your friend Master Mouse."

"But Master Mouse must have had a good reason to-"

"I was not much older than three! What reason could Master Mouse and his magic counsel cronies have to do that to a baby! My mom tried to get me to do something other than magic, something to get me into the family company, but I-" Vainglorious cut himself off shaking his head. "But I will find a way to be the strongest mage and get this thing off of me. And then they will be sorry! I'll not only overthrow the magic council but all the six kingdoms, only the strongest will survive like how it's supposed to be."

"Vainglorious, that doesn't sound like something Master Mouse would do. There has to be a misunderstanding..."

"That's enough!" Yelled Vainglorious. "Do you want me to complete the sun ritual so you can save your friends or not?"

Luminous bit her lip looking at him. She wanted more answers, he had to be wrong about Master Mouse. She's known him for years, and sure he was old and curmudgeonly. But he would never hurt her or anyone just for fun.

"Why are you still looking at me intensely!" Yelled Vainglorious picking up one of his black ankle boots off the ground and throwing it at Luminous. "Turn around already!"

The boot hit Luminous square in the face.

"Oww." Luminous rubbed her nose with a bandage already across it. "Okay, okay I'm turning around gee."

Once Luminous and Concord turned around he continued to strip down. Getting into the stream behind the waterfall. He lay down relaxing in the cool water, feeling the stream run through his short hair. He began the chant.

"No earthly possessions to drag me down, no greed or vanity to render me bound." Said Vainglorious the water pouring over his white wavy locks to his snow-white skin. "No, long lost feeling of past position, earthly bounds that lead to obsession. Ashes to ashes dust to dust, past is past no luxury to lust."

After he was done with the verse Vainglorious' irusus rolled to the back of his head until there was nothing but the whites of his eyes as he laid in the water still.

Luminous squatted down drawing an O in the dirt with the Dawn of Fate, right in the center of the Hash symbol on the ground. Concord drew an X in the bottom left box of the hash with his broken pipes.

"Tic tac toe three in a row." Said Concord drawing a line down the left side of the grid where all three X's were lined up.

"Oh," Sighed Luminous. "What's taking Vainglorious so long?"

"It's only been five minutes. Grow some patience why don't you." Said the Dawn of Fate. "Besides this is the third game you've lost within five minutes, wow you suck at this game."

"It's not my fault, I only had one turn to block him and he had already put X's here and here." Said Luminous pointing at the two X's that sat on both sides of her O in the middle.

"I wouldn't be hurt about it." Said Concord tucking his tall legs underneath himself in a crouch. "You played good, I just have eleven older brothers who used to play this game with me all the time."

"Well shove me down your throat and call me a jabberwocky, there are twelve of you dunderheads running around in the world? Your parents certainly kept busy." Laughed the Dawn of Fate.

"Ya, funny thing there are so many of us that we all started businesses selling various goods and wares across all six kingdoms."

"Wow, you must be doing well for yourself than Concord." Said Luminous.

"I wish that were the case. The Tavern Den is not doing as well as it used to. It'll take forever to get enough money to just replace these." Concord sighed holding his broken pipes in his hand. "Not to mention the damages I need to fix now." Luminous nervously scratches the back of her neck feeling guilty. "I just wish I could attract customers like we used to. I don't know what I'm going to do if I go under. I could work for my eldest brother Discord the Hatter, but then I would never hear the end of it."

"You could try hiring wenches." Said the Dawn of Fate. "I know I would come by more often if you did that."

"Wa what?" Gasped Concord. "It...It's not that kind of establishment."

"Oh, I can help!" Luminous raised her hand in the air. "Vainglorious is always calling me a wench."

"No Luminous, you're not a wench!"Concord grimaced."You shouldn't take what Vainglorious says about you to heart. You're different from him, you care about people. You care about Barrett and are worried about him not being able to take care of his grandma, you came all the way here to a vampire lair just to save your friends."

Concord continued his speech passionately when Luminous caught something glittering out of the corner of her eye.

"You're a good person Luminous! That's why I really like..."

"It's the flower!"

"The flower?" Asked Concord.

"I know that wasn't there before! It's been following me around!" Yelled Luminous.

"You know, I think I read something about these flowers before. In a book, I just found in the library." Said Concord.

"Watch out!" Shouted the Dawn of Fate.

Swish! Suddenly an arrow flew out of the air straight towards Luminous. Concord jumped in front of her holding out his arm.

"Concord!" Luminous screeched, her eyes widening.

The arrow piercing him straight through the arm. Sparks jutting out from it. Luminous could do nothing but stare. She noticed in the tear of his baggy green sleeve there was yellow metal where his arm should be.

"It's okay, I'm fine, I can't feel anything in this arm anyway." Concord smiled at Luminous' worried expression sheepishly. "It's kind of...cyborg..."

"Wait, that's the same arm you blocked the dark magic outburst from your shield with." Said the Dawn of Fate. "Ah, that makes sense, you can't corrupt machinery like you can with beings."

"Humans are a weak species, needing robotic enhancements to better themselves!" Yelled the unfamiliar male voice. "It's disgusting!"

Luminous looked up and saw a bat flying down towards her with its fangs bared.

"Block!" Yelled the Dawn of Fate.

Luminous lifted the sword up. The bat turned into a man with a purple fade and naked sickly pale skin. His hand planted on her face, but all he could do was scrap her with his deathly black nails. Luminous held her sword just underneath his armpit.

"Like you should talk Nightdread. You're the weakest of your clan. Only a measly sub vampire, you were turned not born." Said the Dawn of Fate.

Nightdread scrunched his nose glaring at the sword in the young girl's hand.

"Shut up!" Nightdread yelled, jumping back from them. He was so fast he looked like a blur to Luminous. "Are you really so desperate that you're using a little girl as a welder?"

He moved too quickly for Luminous to see him once again.

"Who's the weak one now!?" He continued.

When he became in focus again he had backed up from her blade and was putting on a black vest over his pale bare chest. He also had black pants on now too, but she didn't see when he had grabbed them or where from.

"What, you're getting dressed already? Is the fun over?" Mocked the Dawn of Fate.

"Why Dawn of Fate are you suggesting I stay naked in front of a young lady? What kind of gentleman would I be?" " Nightdread smirked, popping his collar to match the point of his ears. "Besides, something tells me I'm not going to need to transform into anything for this fight anyways."

"Oh suck the sharp tip of my blade!"

"There was a third person with you." Said Nightdread ignoring the sword. "Where is the young boy?"

Luminous glanced over at the waterfall. Nightdread followed her gaze.

"Attempting the sun ritual by himself huh? Cocky." He smirked.

He zipped towards the waterfall with unnatural speed.

"No! Vainglorious!" Screamed Luminous swinging the Dawn of Fate.

Nightdread dogged out of the way just in time. Concord jumped to tackle him. But he grabbed the lanky teen by the collar of his shirt throwing him into the lake full force.

He landed in the lake with a splash and began sinking immediately.

"Concord no!" Screamed Luminous reaching out to him.

"Leave him, he'll be fine! We have to guard our wizard!" Yelled the Dawn of Fate.

Nightdread then pulled a pipe out of his vest putting it to his lips. The pipe played Its eerie notes that hunger for all ears to hear.

"Eat myself, my fill. I stay still until I fade away. It's like I've lived for nothing else, but why no matter how much I eat, I still get this feeling of emptiness inside."

Drool started to drip out of Luminous' mouth as it pooled below her. Now that she was thinking about it when was the last time she ate? She was hungry. So incredibly hungry!

"Snap out of it short stuff! Don't listen to it! You're not actually hungry! It's the pipes of gluttony!" Yelled the Dawn of Fate.

Luminous shook her head snapping out of the abrupt trance. Nightdread glowered.

This time he played the pipes harder with a twang to them. A bunch of corrupt began crawling out of the woodwork. Their bulbous round body diving into the lake where they dragged Concord down father with them.

"No!" Yelled Luminous running after the fat corrupt.

"Shortstuff don't! It's just a distraction! He's going after our wizard!" Yelled the Dawn of Fate.

Luminous turned to the smug purple-haired vampire. He began walking towards the waterfall where Vainglorious was.

Luminous bit her lip looking between the drowning Concord and the tranced Vainglorious. What was she to do now? She could only save one.