While I run into the ground, I am surrounded by a thick wall of people who push and stop me from moving between them. Some of their bodies are slimy, others are sharp, and some are just giant walls that can't be moved no matter what I do.
So activating my legacy, I move to one of the buildings on the side, then reduce the gravity allowing me to float, then with a powerful kick, I send myself at a 45-degree angle over the crowd and finally get a look in front of me.
Far above the crowd, I can't hear any of their cries and mumblings, but in exchange for that, I can hear two powerful laughs that reach me despite my distance away.
In front of me, Gurmand is sitting on the ground with Orb sitting on his shoulder, and together they both laugh while eating food. In Orb's hands is a carp, and in Gurmand's hands is a cabbage.
"Huh!!!!?" I shout, staring at them.
Slicing a little wound in my palm, I allowed blood to flow out, and then using my curse, I created a little platform of blood which I kicked off of sending me towards Orb, and Gurmand.
"What are you doing?"
"Oh, we're just having a friendly conversation here."
"Is this little one your friend Snow Wolf?"
"He was in the bar with us earlier, Dark Wolf."
"Wolf? What are you two dumb dogs doing? I thought you were both fighting, and that Orb had died."
Using his snow, he creates a giant hand that grabs me out of the air and pulls me towards him. Giving me a hug against my will, Orb says, "Awww, you really missed me, that's so cute!"
"Let go, you freak! Also, why are you eating fish? Didn't you say all seafood is trash!"
Gurmand, turning his head to his shoulder, says, "We both managed to reach a mutual understanding."
"The respect he has for seafood isn't something I can look down on, so I need to at least try and taste it."
"Same goes for me with fruits and vegetables."
They both then let out hefty laughs, and I sigh, saying, "Whatever."
Turning his face to Orb, Gurmand says, "As far as I am concerned from today onwards me and you are friends, so if you ever need help, you can call on the Lotus Sângeriu gang any day."
Giving Orb a little Lotus hairpin, he places it in his head, and then he freezes solid as his eyes start opening wide.
Staring at him, I say, "Orb, are you ok?"
Snapping out of it, Orb holds his head and says, "A memory?"
"From Setanta? Didn't Setanta block out all of his memories from falling into your mind?"
"After I use Advent's ability to block his memories from falling into my head disappears for a bit due to how much we synchronise. So in general, I can still see some, but was that a crocodile, no, I think it was an alligator beastkin?"
"What?"
Orb opens his mouth to speak, but then he grabs me and shouts, "GURMAND MOVE!"
He instantly lunges off of Gurmand, and Gurmand tries to move as well, but from the ground giant large sharp bones appear, and pierce Gurmand's body all over.
The moment we land, the bones continue to appear from the ground, and Orb dodges each one of them while carrying me in his arms as we move back.
Soon they come to an end, and in front of us, like a man hanging on a cross, he is held by the many bones piercing his body in the air, and as his blood trickles down, Orb lunges forward with his legacy activated, ready to freeze and shatter all of the ice.
But then Gurmand shouts, "STOP!"
Orb continues to charge forward with his arm out, but mid-run, his arm is grabbed and held into the air by a man who appears from out of our sight. Orb instantly move to counterattack and smash him in the face, but then his hair turns silver and he stops in his tracks.
Φ The man in front of me is around the height of Cyrus with a more muscular build than Cyrus.
He has a mixture of white and pink hair, that sits like a giant mass behind him, but from that mass three sections come out that hang over the right side of his body, each section looks like a bear claw, and is a deep red in colour different than the rest of his hair, and on the other side of his hair is a hanging twisted braid that maintain the same colour as the rest of his hair.
Throughout his hair is a grey bone that moves almost like a rib cage around his beastly hair, that moves irrespective of the actual movement of his hair at any one time. His eyes are yellow and looks like two giant slits similar to how cat beastkins eyes look.
He wears a white shirt, and a navy waistcoat(With crimson buttons and golden buttons) as well as navy pants with black shoes. Over all of this, he wears a regal crimson coat that is a shade darker than his hair.
But all of that is moot, everything about him is moot except that when I stare at him, when I look into the face of the man holding my hand, my brain can only think of one thing.
Φ In front of me, Orb's hair turns purple, and he says, "Capti?"
The man smiles, and then flings him towards me, where I catch him and then looking at Orb, he seems completely frozen in shock, and I say, "Orb, you know that isn't Captivant, right?"
"I know, but he, but he looks exactly like him. I don't know, I just couldn't strike him when I saw him."
The man claps his fingers, and then in front of him, a group of nightmares with a banner similar to the Cursed sky army Zenitas, but in black and purple cloaks with the picture of a throne on them, descend and, with no wasted movements, surround and restrain us.
Turning to face Gurmand, he says, "I understand your heart, Gurmand, yet I didn't think you would allow your hatred of me to make you rampage throughout the city during Radonitsa."
"OH, FUCK OFF PRIME MINISTER! Do you really think I would just start this battle for the sake of annoying you, Dragoste Nightfall?"
Looking at Orb, who is still frozen, I say, "Isn't Captivant's wife named Draga Nightfall?"
Orb is still in a state of shock, so he doesn't answer, but Dragoste says, "Then why did you destroy the property of the people?"
"BECAUSE OF A BATTLE BETWEEN LOVE AND LEGACY!"
Dragoste rubs his chin and looks around for a few moments, then says, "Let me guess, he insulted your food, and you insulted his food. You both fought, and then made up in the end right?"
"HOW!" I shout uncontrollably, amazed at how he could figure out what has transpired.
Gurmand snickering says, "It seems being able to understand your people when you want is the only commendable thing about you."
With a bright smile, he says, "Thank you."
From the ground, the bones pop out at an even more intense rate, and as they pierce and skewer Gurmand's body, he screams and says, "IS THAT ALL YOU GOT!"
"Your criminal activities are already enough for me to throw you into jail, but combined with your recent terrorist attack on Căderea-dracului, I think you might be in line for an execution?"
"As if you spineless pacifists have the balls to execute criminals, let alone your own people."
"Quite true. But I happen to be excellent at nightmare autonomy, you won't die from this."
The bones dive deeper into Gurmand's body, and as he screams, Orb pushes all of the guards off of him.
Many of them quickly move to attack Orb, but he quickly sends a wave of ice from his body that pushes them back, and then, using Red branch battle arts, he dashes forwards and freezes the bones, shattering them, and allowing Gurmand to fall.
Φ Creating a giant pile of snow to soften Gurmand's fall, says, "Watch out."
And as Gurmand falls down onto it, he says, "Thanks, Snow wolf."
Orb smiles, but then his face is grabbed and spun around by Dragoste, who says, "You are not from here?"
Orb, with his ears and tails out, says, "What do you mean I am a nightmare?"
"No nightmare has autonomy like that. All nightmares which have animalistic traits gain them from their human traits, so the positioning of your ears doesn't make sense. They wouldn't be at the top of your head if you were a nightmare, but at the side where normal human ears are. You're no nightmare."
Orb freezes as Dragoste holds him, and he says, "Captivant."
"My father's name? If you're here to claim that you're one of his fictional love children, just know we have nightmares who can test that."
"No, I wish I were his child, but that's off topic! Captivant is my friend, we spent years together."
"My dad has been gone for over 10 years now. What are you, 15, 16? Unless you're saying my dad was secretly raising a child while he was living with me in his old age, I would have to guess you're lying."
"I-I am no-ot."
Orb hair shifts rapidly from black, to yellow, to white, to green, in a never-ending pattern, then Dragoste says, "I have had enough of this nonsense. Human coming into Căderea-dracului and wreaking havoc during Radonista is a grave crime."
Bone starts to come out of Dragoste's body, and he says, "And the consequences can't go unpunished."
Orb's body shakes as he calms up, unable to speak, and Iancu, seeing this, activates his legacy, but the guards instantly restrain his movements, as one of the nightmares turns its arm into a series of blades and stabs into Iancu's body many times.
"ORB MOVE!" Iancu shouts at the body, unable to do anything.
But as the bone from Dragoste moves close to Orb, he simply stands there and doesn't move an inch. The moment they try to pierce him, Orb is grabbed by a series of tails and is moved backwards.
Then, appearing between him and Dragoste Suzuka appears with pain, plastered on her face, and she shouts, "STOP BEING A IDIOT!" to Dragoste.
Dragoste says, "Another one? I don't even know how two humans made their way into the city. If you've come because you're a fan of my father, I believe I made it known at Cordum a decade ago that I didn't want any would-be fans visiting."
"Orb isn't a fan. To him, Captivant is family," Suzuka says while stretching out his body.
Annoyed, Dragoste says, "Again with this nonsense? You all know nothing about him, you're strangers."
"SHUT UP YOU DUMB SKELETON REJECT!" Suzuka shouts.
Some of the guards behind him giggle, and Dragoste turns and smiles at them, bringing them to silence. Right before Suzuka says, "How dare you talk about Orb feelings as if you know anything? Do you even understand how often Orb's thoughts about him run through his mind?"
A surge of pain flows into Suzuka head, and but she fights through it and says, "Orb is a freak who loves playing pranks, messing with bodies, reading smutty books, getting hurt, flirting with everyone around him, and fantasizing about a make belief life where a woman he never met birthed him."
"Wait, how do you know about that last one?"
"But he is also a kind-hearted boy who is always thinking and acting on what's best for everyone, never letting anyone eat alone, never letting anyone worry by themselves, never letting anyone think awful things about themselves, being a friend to everyone he meets. And the person who allowed Orb to be like that is Captivant. He tries his hardest to make people feel like how Captivant made him feel, and yet you say all of that is a lie! SHUT THE HELL UP. The feeling one has about people they love who are passed should never be mocked, and if you think that is ok, I will shatter every bone in your STUPID BODY!"
Suzuka's words and emotions echo throughout the bodies of all those around her, but more than that, they put the lone vampire on the ground into a state of shock, as his eyes can't do anything but focus on Suzuka right in front of him.