Kaen eyes opened wide at the sight in front of him, the man in the dark alleyway's face became visible under the moonlight, it was covered in barnacles and clams, water seeping out of their smashed skull where a hermit crab like creature peeked its beady black antlered eyes, the man's body was drenched in seawater and black blood, the skin turned greenish and puss was oozing out of all of their body orifices,
'What in Meridia's name is this'
Kaen lowered his center of gravity and reached to the back of his waist to un-hoist his weapons, he held two exquisitely carved hatchets the hatchet handle was ivory white with a snake swirling from the pommel towards the blade, the blade of the hatchet was metallic with a bluish sheen, there were even more carvings of snakes on the blade body, on the flat side of the hatchets was a blue sapphire like gems that faintly glowed,
The monstrosity before him unsteadily walked forward before it launched itself at him, Kaen's eyes sharpened and he sidestepped the assailant while slashing their torso, he felt his blades cut into the monster's body like butter as the upper body separated from the legs, just as the torso made contact with the ground, a small shadow escaped the body rushing towards Kaen's head, Kaen got alert as he felt something approaching his back, he swiveled his body and his blade met the flying shadow, smashing into the thick hide of the crustation his hatchet dug deep into the large hermit crab, the creature had a long naked end that was not covered in a crust like the rest of its body, out of the naked end was a long stinger dripping a green translucent fluid,
The creature stuck to Kaen's blade made a high pitched screech, the creature's black blood fell on the ground making a sizzling sound, black smoke was rising from its wound, as soon as Kaen took a whiff of the smoke he covered his face with his other hand, he tilted the blade with the creature stuck on it downwards and smacked it into the ground, the critter split in half, both halves curled and visibly melted into a bubbly mess,
'That was, Miasma! how ? this city should be surrounded with Morana stones, anything with Miasma should not have been able to get inside without causing a ruckus but if its from the sea .., Goodness, is this related to lord Atu's message'
Kaen unease grew at his own thoughts,
'I need to find Riea and the master of this city'
He started moving towards the Clifford estate in haste,
=====
The light of the candles casted the translucent shadows of the silk canopy into the walls of the room, the dancing light of the flame reflected off of Venessa's face bringing different variation of shadows, slight drops of sweat trailed off her temples as she whispered into Collective ears, her voice was soft like a mother coaxing her child, Venessa in fact had such fantasy,
After a while she stopped and looked at Riea with a frustrated look,
"The Kid is still not awake .. we have been trying for hours"
Riea could not wrap her head about it, as if something is shackling the child before her, before she could speak the door of the room swung open, Kaiser barged into the second floor guest room and was met with the scene of his daughter and some unknown woman tending for a seemingly sick child,
The colors drained out of Venessa's face as she saw her fuming father, she then saw the blond man behind him, she tightened her grip on the child hand as if she made up her resolve,
"Father .. This .."
Kaiser unsheathed his great sword before Venessa could speak and pointed it at Collective's throat, both Venessa and Riea where shocked, Venessa put herself between her father and Collective, her back to her father as she looked at him from behind her shoulder,
"Venessa, step away this instance, this thing is dangerous"
At Kaiser stern voice Venessa flinched, she never heard her father this angry before,
"Why father!? to your own grandson .."
Kaiser was stumped for words, after glancing back on Vincent he had an idea as to how Venessa had this assumption,
'It's all that rings fault..'
All the events that folded earlier clicked in Vincent's head as he herd her use the word grandson, He stepped forward attempting to explain the situation however Kaiser Raised his hand to stop Vincent,
'If Vincent does deny relation by blood here things could get messy for our plan later on, Its better if I can give him an identity now since there are a lot of witnesses'
"Venessa, The man here is not my son"
Venessa looked at her father with doubtful eyes, there is no chance in hell that some random man with those traits popped out of nowhere and visits the margrave in his office while there was no relation between the two what so ever,
"However that does not mean he is not related to Clifford by blood"
At her father's unexpected words Venessa was curious,
"Long ago when you were much younger, Your uncle Roland died, And this man here, Vincent is a child he had out of wedlock before his death"
'Forgive me brother, I tarnished your image however I will pay you for this once all of it is finished'
Both Vincent and Venessa were shocked however it only showed on the face of one of them, Venessa has vague memories of her uncle but she did remember him having sharper eyes than her father, so the blond man before her does resemble him more,
Riea stood there in the back contemplating, she could tell from her Deviant manifestation that Kaiser has lied however what shocked her more was the emotions of both of them, at the mention of the name Roland she could see the clouds of nostalgia from both of them however one of them had boundless affection ,melancholy, sadness and the other had a heart full of regret and self loathing,
'I should not prey any deeper into the affairs of this house all I need to do is deliver the message from my father and help this child before I head back to Fallhalen'
Venessa hesitantly asked her father and Vincent,
"Then you were not going to abandon your child?"
Vincent smiled at Venessa and said in a calm voice
"Never thought of that"
"Then why does Father say the child is dangerous ?"
Venessa adamantly refused to move an inch from where she was standing, she was afraid her father would do something to the sick one on the bed she also did not trust Vincent who did not show any kind of reaction to her father's outburst against the kid, coupled with what she heard about him from Riea, for some reason she could trust Riea on this more than her father and so called cousin,
Kaiser pulled back his sword and sighed,
"Venessa my child, the Kid over there is dangerous due to their nature, they can kill you mindlessly if you are not careful, thus they need to be contained while they are in this unreliable state"
Vincent nodded in confirmation towards Venessa,
After coaxing her for a while although untrusting of her father and the man she slowly removed her hand that was holding into Collective's
Riea half-opened eyes went wide with shock at what she could see with her golden gaze,