Ulrich began to skin the wolf, but only skinned enough to make a long cloak, with the wolf's head as the hood. He looked at Dianna's body as he put the freshly skinned fur of the animal on. The blood crawled down his face and stained his sleeveless gambeson, which is the only torso clothing he still had. His surcoat was torn to shreds and a lot of his armor was similarly broken. However, Ulrich felt only pain, hate, and heartache. His bloodline was beginning to take over, however, he felt the magic inside of him also having an effect on him. It was the first time he killed a person. Yet, he felt nothing, no, he felt relief at the thought of killing the people who had killed Dianna. His blood boiled and he felt no remorse, and he couldn't understand why.
His thoughts were jumbled, but the last thing he remembered was grabbing Dianna and saving her from Fenrir. However, anytime he tried to remember how he came to be fully restored, he felt a sharp pain enter his brain. All he knew was that the unseelied were the reason for Dianna's death. He walked over towards Dianna's body, before kneeling down and brushing her hair to the side. Perhaps because of his rage, or the fact that his senses were in a state of overdrive, but he couldn't tell that Dianna was still alive. His magical energy was so high that he was unable to sense hers. He looked up at the night sky, the moon was shining brightly. Before the night was over, he would spill so much blood that he turned even the moon red.
His magical aura was completely silver, along with his glowing silver eyes and wolf's head obscuring his face, he looked like a feral beast. He noticed that he could summon the bow whenever he felt like it, he also noticed that he could feel a different power inside of him. It didn't matter, he had a job to do. He picked up Dianna and leaned her against a tree, promising to come back for her when his job was done. It was then that he noticed the distinct smell of iron and blood began to overwhelm him. He noticed his bag close by with a cloth in it, he proceeded to cover her body with it, while also finding flowers to place beside her.
He quickly made his way into the forest, as the smell of blood began to make him feel more and more angry. He began to feel like a wild beast, like the need to hunt down the unseelied was something ingrained in his mind. He then noticed that he could see perfectly in the dark forest, his senses were all heightened, and he felt incredibly more powerful. He then began to hear what sounded like a small village. The sounds were far, however, he could tell that he was headed in the right direction. He was following the path the wolf took, so either the village had survivors, or they were unseelied. Unbeknownst to him, he had a twisted grin on his face, almost like an animal who was looking forward to hunting down prey.
In a destroyed village, a group of unseelied fairies, who were mainly distinguishable from seelied fairies because of their dark skin, were scanning the village for survivors. As soon as they saw any sign of survivors, they proceeded to kill them on the spot. Most bodies were nearly unrecognizable because of the wolf. Most of the survivors had taken refuge inside of cellars or in the ruins of buildings. One such survivor, was a young girl who was hiding inside of an attic. She looked down and saw the dark fairies rummaging through the town. She then heard what sounded like a howl in the forest. The unseelied fairies seemed unfazed by the sound.
Unknown to them, but known to the young girl, was that this was not Fenrir. The moon light then began to dim, as if something was blocking it. Suddenly, she saw a wolf walking on two legs seemingly teleport behind one of the unseelied fairies. He proceeded to then grab him by the back of his neck and then disappear, all within the span of a second or two. The young girl didn't know what she saw exactly. The other fairies turned and looked around, drawing their swords and bows. One of the fairies suddenly had a hole in the middle of his body. He looked down in shock at the wound, not realizing that an arrow was responsible. Two others that were standing by him, suddenly began to have a terrified look in their eyes.
The two readied themselves for combat, but the fairy who had disappeared, was tossed at both of them in two pieces, as if he was bisected. They fell to the ground in horror. Suddenly, the wolf she had seen take the fairy, appeared in front of the two. They stood and were visibly shaken. They nonetheless charged forward with their swords. One swung his sword downwards, but before he could manage to even begin his attack, the wolf, who the young girl could now tell was a man wearing a wolf's pelt over himself, had plunged his hand into the chest of the man and pulled out his heart.
As his lifeless body fell, the man then grabbed his sword and then appeared behind the other fairy who was about to attack. The fairy suddenly dropped his arms and fell to his knees, as his head slowly fell from his body. The man dropped the sword and the heart. He let out a loud yell, that once again sounded like a wolf's howl. The other fairies began to converge on his location. She then saw the silver aura of the man, the wolf cloak began to flow, as if it was blowed by the wind, revealing a man wearing broken pieces of armor and clothes that were stained red. The young girl could hardly see because of the darkness, however, she could clearly see the silver aura and his glowing silver eyes underneath the wolf's head.
He held out his hand, prompting a hunting spear to appear. There were fifteen unseelied fairies who had surrounded him. They began to launch an attack, but not before the man quickly ran one of them through with his spear. He then pulled the spear out and proceeded to quickly evade the attacks from the other fairies, with an ease that seemed unnatural. After evading, he quickly began to thrust his spear into three more of the fairies and hit their lifeless bodies away with the handle of the spear with such force, that their bodies flew into the walls of the village and even into the forest. He spun the spear around his body, blocking and parrying two attacks that were aimed towards him. He then jumped back and into the air, before throwing his spear into one of the attackers, blowing away his torso in the process. When he landed, he lifted his hand once again, this time conjuring a golden bow.
The moonlight returned, but was only shining down on this warrior. He pulled the string back, the moonlight seemingly transforming into an arrow, before shooting it. The arrow split up into five different arrows in mid-flight and struck five more attackers, however, it seemed as if nothing happened. They looked at their bodies and noticed they were still alive. They seemed to have a look of relief, before quickly beginning to cough up blood and fall to the ground in terrible agony. The young girl heard the man speak, "Your insides were all crushed, except your hearts." The other five looked at the ones on the ground and were all terrified at the power of this individual. "They'll die soon, but they'll be in agony until then. Be thankful that I'm merciful. I'll be giving you five a quick death."
The last five fairies tried to run from the man, dropping their weapons in the process, but he quickly ran and grabbed his spear with one hand, while conjuring another in his other. He impaled two of the runners straight through their hearts, letting go as soon as they pierced their flesh. He then grabbed two others by their throats. They struggled and tried to make him let go, but it seemed as if he was unfazed. The young girl was now poking her head out to see what was happening. She saw what looked like a red light begin to emanate from his two hands, the two he held up began to spontaneously combust as he let them go. The last fairy was seemingly gone. The man then began to walk into the forest.
It wasn't long before the young girl saw the fairy being thrown into the middle of the village. He was still alive, but was badly beaten and his limbs seemed to be broken. The man once again, seemingly teleported near the man's body. He grabbed the fairies unbroken armor and began to replace his with the fairy's. He even donned the fairy's helmet, placing it underneath the wolf's head, however, the young girl was able to see his hair. It was black, but it seemed like his hair was beginning to turn into a fairy's silver hair. Though it was only a glimpse, she knew that he had to be a fairy of some sort. Though, his howls and feral fighting style made her believe that he had to have been sent from the heavens in human form. From the young girl's view, he was wolf dressed as a knight, even though she knew he was only a man.
The fairy was so badly injured, that he could only look at the wolf knight with abject terror. He wasn't human, he was like a real life monster in the flesh. Only a monster would be capable of easily dispatching fifteen unseelied warriors in a matter of seconds. This power belonged to the gods. "I can sense some people who still live in this town. I'll leave you here and let them decide what to do with you." Before he left, he looked down and quickly reached down. "I'll be taking this, I'm sure you don't mind." The wolf knight had grabbed the fairy's sword. It didn't look particularly special, so the young girl figured that he must not be used to using spears all that much.
Ulrich was well trained in all areas of combat. Whether he used a sword or spear made no difference to him. However, that didn't mean he didn't have preferences. The sword he took was slightly curved, as all fairy weapons are, so Ulrich figured that he would use it until he found a more suitable one to use. His senses were beginning to overload his brain, his head was aching with incredible pain. He felt like his magic was trying to rip him apart and that he could barely control himself. He felt overwhelmed with the urge to continue killing and killing. He knew that if he stayed in the village any longer, he would end up killing the survivors. He felt someone looking at him, he quickly looked up and saw a young girl looking down at him.
Before the young girl had any chance to properly react, Ulrich had already left the village. He felt like he would only frighten the girl with his bloody appearance. He decided to continue through the forest, following the scent of the wolf. Each place he went to, he would find destroyed villages, dead bodies, and unseelied fairies. Eventually, Ulrich had killed every unseelied fairy in the seelied fairy kingdom. He was now beyond the border, drenched in so much blood that he could smell the iron in it. It wasn't a smell that he was comfortable with. He still couldn't feel anything, no remorse or sadness about killing them. He looked on and began to walk forward, towards a small village.
Artemis awoke not long after Ulrich had set out. Like Ulrich, her senses were all muddled and she couldn't properly move. She felt like all of the blood had been drained from her body. As she straightened her herself out, she noticed the blood on her clothes, the cloth that was on her body, and the flowers placed beside her. Ulrich was nowhere to be found. As she began to recover her hearing, she swore she could hear the sounds of a battle taking place far away. She then realized that many of her abilities still remained, despite the deal she had offered.
She noticed that she was weakened, but she didn't know to what capacity. She felt the same, but could tell something was missing. As she began to make her way towards the sounds, she noticed that she was beginning to feel a sense of fatigue that was previously unknown to her. The longer she took, the more she began to think about what had happened to Ulrich. Everything the All-Father had said, made her think about how Ulrich would respond to having divine power. Gods, by their nature, are cruel and apathetic to most life in the realms below them. They feel an indifference to life and can be frightening existences.
She thought about the way gods blessed their children. They would only offer a portion of their divinity to their apostles. Yet, she offered up her complete divinity to Ulrich. She could feel that she was still a deity, however, it felt like a great amount of her power was gone. It was possible that Ulrich possessed the power that was missing, since that was her wish, but she began to worry that it would change Ulrich. It caused her to feel an uncomfortable tightness in her chest. She continued forwards, deciding to stop him from becoming like the deities she had left in the heavens.
It took her a considerable amount of time to get to where the sounds came from, however, by this time, Ulrich had already moved on. She saw the remains of the fairies that he had killed in the village, at least, what was left of them. She then noticed that there were some survivors in the village. They remained hidden, however, a young girl emerged from her hiding place. Artemis quickly ran to her, hoping she would have an answer to what had happened there.
"Hey, little girl, do you know anything about what happened here?" As soon as she finished speaking, the little girl reacted quickly to Artemis's question.
"Yes, I saw everything that happened. To be specific, I saw everything that was able to be seen." The young girl seemed a bit startled at Artemis's sudden questioning, however, Artemis was more startled at the young girl's answer. What did she mean by "Everything that was able to be seen"? She once again looked at the bodies and could tell that they were easily overwhelmed, but Ulrich's body shouldn't be able to handle the stress of using his divinity to such an extent.
"Listen little one, my name is Dianna, I am one of the princesses of the Fairy Forest. It is very important that you tell me what you were able to see." As soon as she mentioned she was a princess, the little girl seemed to relax a bit more, though Dianna could see a look of resentment on the little girl's face.
"Well, we were all about to be killed by the dark fairies..." the little girl looked around at the town, noticing a few other surviving villagers coming from different hiding places. "but before they could find the few of us that were still alive, something grabbed one of them and disappeared as quickly as he appeared." She then relayed all the events that she was able to witness with an excited voice and a sparkle in her eye. That's when she told Dianna of the thing that all of the survivors, from each village that had been tore apart by Fenrir, all bore witness to. "The strange wolf knight appeared to be bathed in the light of the moon goddess. I just know that he was sent by the goddess to protect us, because the capital obviously wasn't planning on saving us."
Dianna then realized that the ones he saved, would now idolize him. He was not only saving them, but he was exacting revenge on the ones who killed their loved ones. Little did she know, the whole forest would come to idolize him for many reasons, however, Artemis knew that if she couldn't reach him in time, he would also be remembered as a man who committed genocide against the unseelied. She couldn't allow that to happen, Ulrich may never recover from such an act. She asked where he went, but the young girl could only provide her with a guess. "I heard screams coming from the nearest village."
Artemis ran through the forest, slowly regaining her strength, though it was weaker than before. Every village all had the same story, however, the corpses left behind were all in various conditions. Every village was worse than the last. The last village in the seelied kingdom, had no bodies inside the village. They were all impaled by spears and placed on the outside of the village. Judging by the looks on their faces, or what was left of them, they all suffered greatly before dying. The smell of death was then overpowered by the smell of smoke. She looked up to the sky and saw smoke stacks rising into the air, almost blacking out the moonlight like clouds. They were coming from the unseelied kingdom.
Ulrich had now made it far into the unseelied kingdom. He had wounds on his body from various demigod warriors. The pain, however, didn't register in Ulrich's mind. The only thing that Ulrich had on his mind was a single word, kill. Whatever village he passed through, he destroyed with various spells, before lighting them aflame with his fire magic. Screams and pleas all fell on deaf ears. After witnessing what Fenrir had done, he decided to repay tenfold. Whoever survived, was told that whoever unleashed Fenrir was to blame for the suffering they were enduring.
He was now leaving behind a trail of blood. His wounds weren't fatal, but losing blood was proving detrimental to his abilities. He had managed to make it to the capital gates, where the gates were all closed and the walls were lined with archers. In front of the gate was a large force of soldiers, all waiting for Ulrich. He let out a twisted laugh, before reaching behind his cloak and throwing something far enough for the entire force to see. What laid before them was something that made all of the soldiers begin to waver. It was the head of a fairy demigod, known to be the strongest fairy in the unseelied court.
"I expected more of a challenge from someone who managed to tame Fenrir!" Ulrich's voice boomed throughout the forest and into the capital. "Now, unless all of you wish to die, bring me Oberon! Bring his head to me, in exchange, I will leave this place!" There was no sound, no reply, how could they give into his demands? They couldn't sacrifice their king to this monster. "Justice must be served! You all made the mistake of harming the princess Dianna!" Oberon could hear the loud voice from inside his fortress. He was puzzled by the man's statement. He expected retaliation for attacking the seelied kingdom, but this man only cared about the life of one princess, an adopted princess.
Ulrich stood there, noticing that no one was moving, nor talking. His blood began to boil, much like it did when he saw Dianna. All he saw was Dianna's body on the ground. Flashes of their time spent together flashed through his mind until he remembered the night that she grabbed ahold of his hand. He looked down at his hand as he fell to his knees. His hand was trembling and was caked with blood. Tears began to stream from his face. The archers and warriors saw that his back was covered with multiple arrows and noticed his armor was broken and that blood was coming from the cracks and holes. The fear they once held was now gone. They saw he was weak. The moon was still in the sky, however, the sun would soon rise.
Ulrich could feel his strength begin to wane, while also noticing his senses and healing was beginning to dull. He could feel the pain from his wounds. He could feel his humanity begin to recover, his senses began to return. He then began to hope that Dianna was still alive, despite what he saw. He had come far, but he began to remember Dianna and thought about what she would think. As he began to think about her more, he could hear the snaps of bow strings and the whistling of arrows. He turned his back towards the arrows and they all fell down onto him, littering the area he was in with arrows. One arrow landed in front of his line of sight, an arrow that he saw under Dianna. He heard cheers and laughs.
A loud howl was then heard throughout the forest, reverberating far and wide, even reaching Dianna, who was still a decent distance away. The sound sent a chill down her spine. Ulrich stood up, removing his cloak and revealing that the arrows didn't pierce the hide of the wolf pelt. He grabbed his sword and sliced the arrows that were lodged in it. He then put the cloak back on, but not before the soldiers saw a massive aura of silver emerge from the monster, however, what frightened them was not the aura, it was his hair turning pure silver and his pure silver eyes that seemed to pierce through the dark night. He pulled the head of the wolf over his head before conjuring a golden bow in his hand.
Dianna felt a heavy pressure coming from the direction of where she heard the howl. She knew it had to be Ulrich. Soon, she began to hear the sounds of screams and yelling, followed by loud booms. She felt something strange in her heart. She looked up into the sky and saw something that she would never forget for the rest of her life. A sight that was so uncommon that she could count the number of times she invoked such a thing on one hand. The white light of the moon was now gone, instead, the light that was coming down was a red hue. The moon was no longer shining bright white. What she saw, was a full moon that seemed to be stained in blood. It was known as the Red Moon of Death.