Although the combined forces of Hugh's faction and the hunters association had been killing all of Valentine's members on site, the Northern faction still had more forces because of the way their king ruled and how his clan did things. Certainly, the creation of new werewolves was much faster than the deaths of the old ones.
After the six month period of massacre, Valentine finally ordered his men to take over Bevelon, one of the larger cities of the kingdom. In addition to their feasting and creating more werewolves in that city, they also held human hostages.
This was a dire situation in terms of the escalation of violence and the ultimate peace between humans and werewolves as well as the new king's chance to be proven worthy, so the allied powers of werewolves, hunters, and knights had no choice but to walk into the trap that was Bevelon. As the main forces of the alliance, Hugh, his top men, Cecily, and some other noteworthy cannon fodder snuck into the large and overpopulated city whilst the bulk of their team served as a distraction at the main entrance and exit of the city in the dead of the night when the humans were sleeping.
Of course, with all of the blatant killings and slaughtering by the werewolves, even the humans finally became aware that something more was at hand so the curfew was set even earlier than usual in Bevelon. But the team of less than fifteen individuals still decided to head out a few hours after curfew to ensure that they wouldn't be running into any inconveniences during their operation.
Despite their caution, they still ran into northern werewolves when they got closer to Valentine's temporary mansion. He had killed the city lord when he first invaded Bevelon and swiped his mansion along the way. The security was top-notch; Valentine's best men had remained hidden throughout the entire war between the northern and southern factions of werewolves. Prior to this night he and his henchmen had only sent out their lowly grunts to create more forces as well as deal some small damage to the hunters and southern werewolves while the superior fighters were ordered to bide their time and conceal their strength. This was because Valentine was aware of the overall gap between the quality of their armies, so he could only keep as many cards up his sleeves as possible.
In contrast, the entire underworld knew of Hugh and his men's prowess. They went by the law, "true power dominates all."
The oversized mansion with tall towers and overhanging turrets and added spires was in sight when ten abnormally large shadows flashed down from above the walls bordering the property. One hunter and two knights' head were instantly ripped off of their bodies before the assailants had even touched the ground. Murderous snarls full of warning sounded as the motley party was surrounded in a tight circle. Those with faster instincts had instantly unsheathed their weapons and claws to guard and avoid the same fates as their dead comrades who were now lying still in their own pools of blood beside them.
The entire group came to a tacit agreement when each members' eyes met with their respective leaders; Hugh was one of the five individuals that the attackers had not even attempted to ambush while Cecily had unhesitatingly offed the the head of the werewolf who intended to tear her head clean off her neck with his dauntingly large and bloodied canines.
At that signal, Hugh swiftly hauled Cecily into his arms as both figures disappeared from their spots even faster than their assailants had descended from seemingly nowhere before, leaving their comrades to hold off the enemy while they went to kill Valentine.
Hugh sniffed his way to Valentine along with Cecily still in his hold. She allowed him this bit of tofu and even wrapped her lithe arms comfortably around his neck since she'd already gotten used to his constant molestation over the past six months due to their lack of "funner" activities.
Even though the mansion was practically a maze with the long corridors that led to nowhere and multiple rooms that sometimes opened up to be blocked off by walls and windows, the two eventually found their way to the room Valentine was casually waiting in.
The majestic figure of the silver-haired man sat with his legs crossed under the moonlight that seeped in through the opened window; the soft wind blowing the long strands of his hair to the side gently. His cold and unfeeling silver eyes stared piercingly into the intruders' as he donned a smile that oozed with cruelty before his figure flashed and appeared instantly behind Cecily and Hugh.
Gripping tighter on the woman in his arms, Hugh kicked backwards. He used the force when his foot came into contact with Valentine to jump away and further into the wide room. Before he could relax, there was the sound of the air being ripped apart near his ear and a loud clang! followed immediately after. Valentine had once again reappeared behind Hugh in an attempt to siege both of his enemies, but Cecily caught his claws with her sword before they met with Hugh's left shoulder. She then used the impact from the exchange to leap out of Hugh's grasp, at the same time dragging him along with her to avoid Valentine's descending claws.
Not given any time to talk or think, Cecily and Hugh were thrown into a barrage of attacks by Valentine who had yet to morph into his more powerful wolf form. If it were the Hugh of pre-witch hunt times, he wouldn't have even dared to fight Hugh's human self without transforming. However, Hugh was weakened after the hunt was over and it was noticeable even now during their fight as his speed was not as fast as before and his kick was also lacking in the strength he had when he was at his peak. Even if the core was different and better than the original, the body's limitation was there to restrict any enhancement that the stronger soul would have given it. He was still powerful, but not enough to solo Valentine's strength combined with his intelligence and guerrilla tactics.
To even out their strength with Valentines, Hugh switched to his wolf form to assist Cecily in their assault. Valentine eventually followed suit when he noticed that the combined forces of Cecily and the metamorphosed Hugh was more powerful than his current form.
Cecily and Hugh cooperated quite well with each other and both sides were perpetually equal; the damage done to both parties added up to be about the same, but Hugh and Cecily's individual wounds were much less in comparison to Valentines stockpile of injuries.
At some point, they had crashed through the large window that Valentine was sitting in front of when they had first arrived at the room and the group of three fell three floors down into the greenhouse directly below. Valentine was nearing his end, but Hugh sensed that something was off promptly warned Cecily to back away.
Valentine abruptly reverted back to his human form and fell to his knees.
Cecily threw her sword straight into Valentine's heart since he was busy preparing something; she was hoping he'd die before finishing his preparation. Due to this, she ended up too late to dodge his last offensive.
Valentine smiled eerily, a manic smile filled with desperation and determination as he laughed, "I can't lose. For her, I will win."
Hugh's heart dropped at the sight of that smile as well as the bad premonition that floated into his mind at the very next second.
Ignoring the fact that this world was a world with humans and werewolves and no other supernatural element that should be existing, Valentine's long hair lifted up as if there was an invisible psychic force elevating it as it divided into multiple sections with its edges spiraled to form razored and pointed drills; their edges were sharper than any blade as they dove themselves swiftly and straight into Cecily's abdomen repeatedly. He also aimed for Hugh, but the black wolf was agile and evaded every hit as he tried his best to get to Cecily. The pristine white hair was now dyed red in Cecily's blood.
The sight of her being impaled by the hair made it hard for him to breathe and he was seeing red as he roared desperately. He ignored the pain of the hair whipping past his fur and into his skin as he ran to who he realized was the most important person in his 1000 years of life, "Cici!"
He also immediately turned back into his human form as he rushed Cecily's side.
Right as he arrived at the fallen body of his fiancee, Valentine's hair dropped to the floor as his outburst ended; the sword had pierced his heart minutes ago and he was only still alive due to pure willpower and the cheat of...well a host, of course. He kept mumbling "I will win...I must win..." until his silver eyes dulled and his head drooped down as silence followed. His figure was on his knees, his arms languidly hanging down at his sides making it a depressing sight to behold.
When Hugh reached Cecily's side, what he saw was the enormous hole in her stomach, the blood flowing like a broken dam and whatever was left of her minced innards. His hands trembled as he sat on his knees and brought her into his arms as carefully as he could, gently caressing her head and whispering to her that everything was going to be okay even though he knew that there was nothing that could be done to save her. The cheapest pill and medication in the system store was over 50,000 points. He even had the skill to save her, but the materials were also too much. Hugh was immensely filled with regret that he didn't purchase any of those items before his trillions of points from his first competition were reset when this competition began. He never had the need nor want to in order to up the difficulty in hopes of making the "game" more entertaining.
He also never thought a day would come where he would feel so much pain witnessing someone he apparently felt more than just interest in dying in his embrace. He was panicking for the first time ever, and felt as if his whole world and heart was being shattered into a million pieces. It was at that moment when Cecily had first been pierced that he realized that he didn't want to lose her--even if he knew it was only one of the many worlds they would go through together. He realized that the girl in his arms somehow entrapped him and wormed her way into the very depths of his heart, mind, and soul. He just didn't know how it felt to love someone and although it was definitely the case at first, he confused it with the usual interest he held for anything new and different in the past.
When did it all begin? He laughed mockingly at himself. Maybe it was the first time she smiled at him. It was the most beautiful sight he had seen in his many years of life even though she was old and wrinkly at that time; the light in her eyes was still as vibrant as it was when he first saw her at the gathering for wealthy kids who he normally wouldn't even slide his gaze over.
What he was really afraid of was that she would lose too many points and her soul would be obliterated. If that happened, he would be never to see her, never to touch her, hear her laughter, or smell her sweet scent ever again. In his case, forever was longer than simply one lifetime--forever was 1000 void years of countless lifetimes that varied in length.
Cecily lightly shifted her head to confirm Valentine's death before turning to Hugh. His sorry figure and trembling hands didn't escape her notice.
"I screwed up ah. Haha, if I didn't know any better I'd say you look genuinely worried," she joked in his arms, her lavender eyes dazzling even as she was slowly losing her breath and the beating of heart was weakening.
Hugh's concerned eyes focused on her beautiful face as he caressed her cold and pale cheek with his large rugged hand; silently confirming her jest, to Cecily's slight surprise.
"What? Fallen for me already?" She weakly chuckled holding onto the gaping hole in her stomach with one hand as her other lifted up to cover his hand over her cheek. She could hear his heart beating frantically in anxiety as she laid her head against his broad and warm chest.
Hugh's face was serious and his voice shook, "En."
Cecily fell silent for a short moment, "Then let me kill you."
She wasn't expecting him to comply.
He wordlessly took one of her silver daggers from her thigh holster and gently held it in her hand, bringing it up to his heart. His unwavering golden eyes never strayed from hers.
Cecily was surprised at first, but weakly and slowly drove it into his heart. She didn't want it to be painfully slow, but she couldn't help the fact that her blood and strength was pouring out of her body at an unprecedented pace. Thankfully, Hugh didn't seem to feel anything at all as his golden eyes stayed fixated on hers with not even a twitch of a brow.
Vision blacking out, she smiled sweetly in gratitude as she closed her eyes and lethargically lifted her head to his, bringing their lips together. Hugh tightened his hold and reciprocated her kiss before his eyes closed and his hands dropped to the floor.
After finishing up their end, the elite group of Hugh's top men, the hunters, and knights rushed into the greenhouse to celebrate the loss of the northern faction. However, looking around, they saw the still figures of Hugh and Cecily embracing each other not far from Valentine's corpse.
They fell to their knees and grieved for the loss of their respectable leaders--Urian and Matthias could never get over the death of their only surviving family member and later retired from the association--and the werewolves highly respected Hugh's decision to follow after his fiancee to the afterlife as werewolves were highly loyal lovers once they fell in love.
King Russel had unexpectedly randomly named one of his officials as the next king before disappearing not long after, leaving the citizens to speculate on his relationship with the werewolves' King of the South. There were rumors that he had a one-sided love for the man who only had eyes for the peerless Lavandula, and upon hearing of the death of his love he followed him to death as Hugh did with Cecily.