Following the destruction of its weapon and laboratory, Drasgaria had fallen in terms of power and influence. Many of the smaller settlements soon came to other cities, which had finally caught onto Drasgaria's idea. Without anything else to offer, it soon took a backseat in the alliance. Frequent attacks from Clasia's death camp further weakened Drasgaria and now the time was right for the bloodsuckers to launch a final attack to destroy the city once and for all.
Surprisingly the other big cities and civilisations of Tairos came to Drasgaria's aid. Not so much out of altruism, but more because they didn't want the vampires to gain access to the unique samples of the Hylexans magic under the city.
An army was soon assembled to face the vampires. It was made up of people and beasts and even demons who all saw the vampires as a mutual threat. Gina naturally was on the side of her captors, riding on the back of a Triceratops. She proved to be a formidable enemy for the alliance, but on the second day of the battle she was overwhelmed by a horde of soldiers from Drasgaria who were all desperate to make the traitor pay, even more than the vampires.
A pet Tyrannosaurus of the alliance (that had been provided by the city of Dynamos) took care of Gina's Triceratops, whilst several Drasgarian soldiers overpowered and captured her. They'd torture Gina for the next day back at their camp, whilst the battle raged on. That night however when more of the vampires were able to come out including Clasia herself. (Not all vampire breeds were vulnerable to the sun, but Clasia's was.) An attack from vampires allowed Gina to escape her torturers. The bloodsuckers had arrived there specifically to rescue her on Clasia's orders. It was the first time the vampires had ever been known to try and rescue a human. Clasia herself led the rescue attempt and even cut Gina down from where she had been chained. In the resulting fight Gina was shot with an arrow by one of her former torturers which caused her to fall off the edge of a cliff and into the river below. Clasia actually responded with grief and took Gina's torturer and apparent killer back to her camp to make his death last for as long as she possibly could.
In the river below meanwhile Gina wasn't dead, but she was swept away by the current to several miles away from her former home city. She did her best to try and fight against it, but the current and the wounds from both the arrow and the day of brutal torture overwhelmed Gina.
As she was carried further down the stream, she soon came into contact with a young woman named Shelly who was riding on the back of a Dinosaur. Shelly, much like Gina, was an outlaw, albeit for more noble reasons. Still she kept out of the battle up ahead, knowing that the humans would turn on her just as quickly as the vampires. Instead Shelly waited by the side of the battle in case there was anyone who needed help, either a soldier or a civilian if the vampires had triumphed. As soon as she heard Gina screaming she rushed to aid her, but unfortunately Shelly's attempts to pull Gina free with the help of her Dinosaur (that was still only a child) actually distracted Gina and caused her to hit her head on a rock, knocking her out.
Gina's unconscious body fell face down into the water, and in the time it took Shelly to find and pull her up, she drowned.
Shelly was only able to pull Gina out of the water thanks to tying a rope around her Dinosaur friend who then pulled both of them out. The Dinosaurs advanced speed also allowed it to just keep ahead of the rapids that were pulling Gina down. Shelly subsequently revived Gina with CPR, though Gina almost immediately fainted again after everything she had been through.
Shelly then took Gina to some woods nearby. It was too far and too dangerous for Shelly to try and make her way home, so she took refuge in a small patch of forest and dressed Gina's wounds, whilst the Dinosaur kept a watch out. The Dinosaur was a creature known as a Tyrannosaurus Al, a hybrid made from two species of theropod Dinosaur merged together with magic. A Tyrannosaurus Rex and an Allosaurus. These creatures had been created by a city known as Dynamos, one of the largest and strongest in Tairos. Dynamos specialised in the breeding and creation of Dinosaurs, which it sold to other cities for all kinds of reasons. Defense, food, pets etc. The city also made its Dinosaurs stronger with magic and in some cases even created new types of Dinosaur, with the Al being the strongest and most notable.
Not only did the Tyrannosaurus Al embody the speed, and agility of an Allosaurus, with the greater strength, durability, intelligence and biting power of a Tyrannosaurus, but the magics that had fused it together also allowed the beast to develop a number of other unique and powerful magical abilities too.
This Al had been stolen by bandits who had attempted to sell it to the witch king Tyresian. Shelly who had worked in Dynamos biggest Dinosaur breeding farm was kidnapped in trying to defend it and taken to the witch king's domain, the black woods. She managed to escape, but unfortunately during her time in the woods the Tyrannosaurus Al hatched. Al's would instantly imprint on the first life form they came across, believing them to be their mothers. The leaders of Dynamos always made sure to be the first to witness an Al hatching for this very reason. However when they were in the woods, it first saw Shelly and came to view her as its mother.
As a result when Shelly returned to Dynamos with the Al, it was viewed as defective by the city's leaders. An Al can not have loyalty to anyone but the leaders of the city under Dynamos law. Sadly there was no way to undo the Al's loyalty to its "mother" and so the leaders not only ordered it destroyed. They also had Shelly arrested for taking control of an Al, who were seen as the pride of Dynamos. Fortunately, as soon as the guards tried to take Shelly away, the Dinosaur intervened and attacked the guards, picked Shelly up and fled from the city. Tyrannosaurus Als were larger due to the magic that created them, and despite being an infant, the Al was already the size of a horse.
Shelly and the Al were forced to go on the run from their own city and make a new life out in the forest of Tairos. Despite her own people turning on her, Shelly never became bitter and hateful like Gina. Instead she came to view it as a gift, that she had been blessed by the loyalty of one of the most ferocious and powerful beasts of Tairos that she could use to offer help to the smaller settlements that were either left out on their own or had become dependent on the larger cities.
Sadly whilst Shelly's heart as always was in the right place, she wasn't the most effective fighter. She had by and large been a spoiled rich girl from one of the most prosperous cities in Tairos and whilst her experience in the black woods had helped bring her out of her comfort bubble to some extent. She was still hopelessly out of her depth when dealing with the vampires and other monsters of Tairos.
Her reputation, other than for stealing the Tyrannosaurus Al, was non-existent. Still she pressed on, trying to be a hero as she felt it was her destiny, but there were times where she wished she could just go home, where she'd be overwhelmed by the loneliness of it all and there were times she honestly felt like giving up.
Despite the beauty of its woods and oceans, Tairos had a bad habit of crushing the joy and optimism out of even the most pure souls.
When Gina came to the next morning, she initially thought she was being held prisoner again when she saw the Al sleeping by the camp. The traitor slowly prepared to get up, but was still weak and stumbled, waking the Al from its slumber. The Dinosaur however simply looked at Gina with curiosity more than anything else before Shelly came back.
"Oh good, glad you're awake. I was scared you weren't going to make it last night. What do you remember." Shelly asked, gently.
Gina felt it had to be a trick. The people from her home city must have captured her again and were trying to get her to betray the vampires.
"I don't care what you do to me." Gina snapped back at Shelly.
"I will not betray them. They showed me what this world really is. Vampires, vandals, demons, monsters, beasts, humans none of it matters. They're all the same. All want to be number 1. You just pick a side. I chose them because they were honest about what they were. They didn't pretend to be good and virtuous and then abandon me. Let your pet eat me," Gina spat back.
Shelly had absolutely no idea what Gina was talking about. She was never one to keep up with the news, even before she was forced to go on the run, and she actually had never even heard of Gina, despite her status as the most despised woman in Tairos.
"Please, I only want to help you. Don't you remember last night? You were being washed down the river and you hit your head? I pulled you out with the aid of my friend here." Shelly said as she patted the head of the Al.
Gradually it all started to come back to Gina, the arrow, the fall, the river and the girl shouting to her before she was knocked out. Still Gina had her suspicions, simply because... why on earth would anyone want to help her? It had to be a trick.
As Shelly went to try and help Gina up, the more experienced warrior tripped Shelly and got her in a neck lock, which caused the Al to roar in warning. Shelly however called on the beast to stop.
"Please believe me I am trying to help you." Shelly said in a more frustrated than scared voice.
"And I should believe you why?" Gina asked.
"My Dinosaur could have torn your guts out by now for one thing if I wanted it." Shelly responded.
Realising she wasn't getting anywhere, Gina let Shelly go.
"Trust me," Gina said.
"If you were stupid enough to actually rescue me, you better get going. There are a lot of people that want to kill me, and quite frankly you don't want to meet the people that want to help me either." Gina said as she struggled to lean against a tree.
"I know you were involved in the battle up there, but don't worry. My Al has taken down more than a few vampires in his time. If any of them come looking to finish what they started. I'll protect you." Shelly said only to be met with a cruel, mocking laughter from Gina.
"First of all, you don't look like you could defend yourself from a vampire bat, never mind my mother. Second of all, the vampires would be here to save me. They're my family."
Shelly was taken aback by this. In fact she thought she must have misheard it at first until Gina confirmed it. She had certainly heard stories about vampire wannabes and traitors, but to actually come across one was a different matter. She couldn't fathom why anyone would want to serve them. She started to walk away slowly from Gina, almost disgusted with herself that she had gone to such lengths to rescue Gina now. However as Shelly slowly made her get away, the trees close by collapsed.
A small pack of four centaurs, three males and one female soon emerged from the broken woods. These creatures were relatives of the cyclops family of beasts. Centaurs were just as the myths had depicted in some ways. Their upper half was humanoid, whilst below the torso resembled a horse. Their skin from the upper half however was purple and scaly, whilst their teeth were long and sharp and overlapped. The monsters also like most cyclop's had no speech and simply roared. Still much like the Turok Han, despite their savageness, the beasts were capable of at least some intelligence and all of them wielded crude weapons. Finally in spite of their somewhat reptillian nature, they did still have hair at the tops of their heads and horse-like lower bodies.
Shelly instantly jumped on the back of her Al, and despite her disgust at Gina, she offered to let her come as well. She had seen what the centaurs did to people and as far as she was concerned nobody deserved that. Not even a traitor.
Again Gina thought this must be a trick, but the approaching beasts soon convinced her to hop on the Dinosaurs back.
The centaurs chased the Al and the two humans riding on its back for miles deep into the forest and away from the battle. The centaurs had actually fought on the side of Drasgaria against the vampires, but ultimately the bloodsuckers had managed to overwhelm the alliance and finally claim what was left of this city for themselves.
The centaurs had actually been fleeing from the battle up ahead, but after spotting Gina, they were determined to make her pay. Ironically had Shelly and the Al not left with her, the beasts most likely would have happily let them escape. Shelly had guessed that they were most likely after Gina, but she still couldn't leave her alone. She also didn't want to risk a fight given how weak Gina was. Little did she know however Gina was already recovering thanks to Clasia's magic.
Eventually whilst fleeing from the centaurs, the Al ran head first into a pack of eleven vampires who were searching the woods for survivors.
"Gina? You're still alive." The leader said mockingly before turning its attention to the Al.
"It'll make a useful mount. The others apart from Gina? Kill them all, except for the girl" The vampire continued whilst looking at Shelly.
"She might be useful in other ways."
The vampires and the centaurs engaged in an absolutely brutal fight. The centaurs kicked the vampires in the face and chest with their hooves and trampled on several of them, whilst the vampires jumped onto the centaurs backs and started to bite into their throats from behind.
The centaurs put up a good fight and even managed to slay four of the vampires, but unfortunately they were outnumbered and in a few minutes the vampires managed to seemingly kill all of the horse like beasts.
Shelly meanwhile tried to get the Al to safety during the middle of the fight, but a few of the vampires followed her. The Al did its best to swipe them away with its tail, but the vamps were too crafty and one of them knocked Shelly off of the Dinosaurs back by scaling a nearby tree and then jumping on her from behind, whilst the Dinosaur was distracted. When the Al ran to try and save her, the seven remaining vampires swarmed the Dinosaur causing Gina to fall off it.
The leader of the vampires meanwhile started to toy with Shelly who screamed to Gina for help.
"Please I saved you! Twice! You can't just leave me." Shelly screamed.
Sadly that is just exactly what Gina was planning on doing, but as the vampire started to "play" with Shelly, it became too much, even for the caricature of a person Gina had become.
For the first time since before she had stabbed what could have been her only true friend to death. Gina fought back. She pulled the vampire off Shelly and punched him several times in the stomach and then in the face. She expected to be overwhelmed with pain. The magical device implanted into her by Clasia would normally torture her for hours if she even attempted to defend herself from a vampire. Now for the first time in a decade it wasn't working. The reason for that as Gina would later discover was because for just a few seconds she was technically dead when she drowned before Shelly revived her. The magic was only designed to work on the living and once her body stopped functioning, its power permanently vanished. Gina was finally free, and a decades worth of repressed rage was soon unleashed on the undead in that moment. Though the vampire leader had only been overpowered at first because it was caught unawares. Gina's subsequent attacks were so relentless and brutal, she managed to beat the vampire to a bloody heap on the floor, with the bloodsucker even pathetically curling itself up into a tiny ball to avoid further blows.
The other vampires soon turned their attention towards Gina, who fought back viciously, even scratching one of the vampire's eyes. Thanks to their superior strength the vampires soon overpowered her. Still her distraction gave the Al enough time to swat six of the vampires with its tail. It then jumped on top of one and completely mauled him with the claws on its feet. As another vampire tried to intervene, the Al caught it in its tail and then proceeded to smash the vampire through a nearby thin tree with it, after which it then impaled the vampire on the broken half of the tree, straight through its heart. The Al then used its tail to wrap it around another vampire's throat and squeezed it hard enough to sever the vampire's head from its shoulders. It dealt with its final vampire meanwhile by pinning it to the ground with one foot and then wrapped the other around the vamp's head, which it squeezed until the vampire's head was crushed to pieces. Whilst the Als jaws were its greatest strength, it did not like eating vampires due to their toxic nature. Instinctively Als would always prefer to use other weapons against them.
Gina meanwhile grabbed one of the fallen centaurs clubs and attacked the three remaining vampires. Despite the centaurs superior strength, Gina was more deadly to the vamps as she knew their tricks and skills. She beat all three of them and used the wooden club to stake two of them, before finally finishing off the vampire she had initially attacked, who had pathetically tried to crawl away from the fight.
With all the bloodsuckers dead, Gina checked on Shelly who was in shock at what this supposed traitor had done.
"Are you some kind of double agent or something?" Shelly asked enthusiastically only for Gina to burst out laughing.
"No, I really am as bad as I said. Worse in fact, but you saved me and I just found out that, well it's complicated. Come on, let's get out of here before any more of them come looking."
Suddenly Gina was interrupted by the sound of one of the centaurs groaning. The beast had a massive cut in its torso, but other than that it was okay. When it tried to stand up however it collapsed again and couldn't even muster the strength to lift one of its clubs.
Whilst Gina was all too ready to abandon it, Shelly actually approached the centaur.
"You have got to be kidding me?" Gina asked.
"I helped you, didn't I? If what you said is true, I'd wager he has a lot less blood on his hands." Shelly responded as she tried to help the animal up.
Shelly wasn't helping the centaur for entirely altruistic reasons it must be said. According to lore, centaurs despite their utterly savage nature, still had a certain nobility, and would always return favors to those who helped them. Considering how badly Shelly had handled her previous attempts to be a hero, having another supernatural beast in her corner couldn't help.
Sadly she didn't quite have the strength to help the brute up and so Gina intervened.
For the next few hours the foursome marched through the woods. The Al carrying Shelly on its back as always, whilst Gina helped the centaur limp its way through the forest.
Along the way they encountered another pack of vampires, but Gina dealt with them all herself. Getting the others to hide, she lured the vampires away with some calls and then dusted all four of them with her club. She wanted to make sure that no vampire who saw she was still alive and not under their control could return to tell her "mother". Finally after almost a day of walking, the unlikely companions made their way to Shelly's home. A small cottage, shielded by magic.
It had been given to her by a witch girl that she, or rather the Al had rescued from a pack of vandals.
Said witch had come from a long and powerful line of wiccas and warlocks who had operated independently from the big cities. They hoped to provide everyone with knowledge and power to repel the vampire horde. Tragically they were later wiped out by the bloodsuckers (though many suspected that it was actually an unholy alliance of the vampires and some of the leaders of the big cities, who didn't want the witches and warlocks magics to break the small communities dependence on them.)
Either way their last survivor had been targeted by the vandals, but thanks to Shelly's actions she had escaped with her life and this house was the witch's way of paying Shelly back. The witch was confident that it would keep Shelly hidden from most of the horrors of Tairos, but still warned Shelly to always be on her guard. After all, her coven also thought they were safe.
Gina, Shelly, and the centaur recovered at the cottage for the next few weeks. The two women hardly spoke to one another. Gina wasn't used to being in debt to anyone, whilst Shelly didn't really want to know the full details of Gina's life. She still kept hoping that Gina was a double agent of some kind.
Gina spent most of her time training with the centaur. Ironically the beast developed quite a bit of affection for Gina. It even let her ride on its back a few times.
Shelly meanwhile would go out with the Al on a few rescue missions, mostly to help survivors from the war and nearby villages which were being raided by the victorious vampires. As the weeks rolled on Gina slowly began to rediscover aspects of her personality that she had even forgotten about thanks to Clasia. Even just small pleasures like her love of reading which she rediscovered through Shelly's own extensive collection, as well as aspects that she thought or rather hoped were gone for good, such as shame and guilt.
The people of Tairos communicated with each other across vast distances through a special kind of magic that could conjure up a large virtual image, similar to a television or the internet. The image was conjured up in a small pot which if the right enchantments were said, could allow anyone access to the magical hub. However the pot had to be made of the correct substance and you had to have the correct form of enchantment and ingredients to access each city's hub, with many of the smaller villages cut off.
Fortunately Shelly did have access to all the right ingredients and so Gina was able to keep in contact with the outside world to some extent whilst hiding away in Shelly's cottage. She ironically watched the pot as it was known, far more than Shelly ever did.
What Gina saw would have the greatest effect on her. First she saw the reports of her death. Her former torturer who had shot her over the edge of a cliff was hailed as a hero by the media. Reports came in from some small villages of people dancing in the streets and even parties celebrating her death. Gina had never seen such glee over someone's death, even from the vampires. Naturally at first she was furious and was even tempted to go back to her "mother" to show her enemies that she was still alive. However as time went on and the numerous reports covering her death began to focus on the atrocities she helped carry out. It all finally began to sink in.
She saw the relatives of those who had perished in the numerous raids and battles she had aided the vampires in talking about their pain and loss. She saw the images of the people of her home city that she had killed when she set off her fathers weapon, on the news for the first time. She learned their names when she searched through the pot. She knew she shouldn't for her own sake, but soon she couldn't help herself. Among the most affecting was an interview she found with Mastia describing how Gina was a greater evil than even the vampires for turning on her own father. She also finally heard from Mastia, how much her father missed her every day, how he tried to find her and finally how if he could see what she had become it would devastate him more than even his wife's death.
Gina did her best to try and put it out of her mind like she had done so many times before, but now being faced with the reality of her crimes, it began to reach the human side of Gina that the vampires had done their best to destroy. Hatred soon began to burn inside of her for her vile "mother" who had lied to her about her father. The fact that Gina hadn't instantly gone back to her mother alone was telling, but she kept telling herself it was because she didn't want to disappoint Clasia at first, but thankfully that poor excuse didn't last.
Still in spite of this Gina never left the cottage for the entire three weeks. At first it was out of fear, but it soon became more out of shame.
All of that changed however, when Shelly brought home a young man named Aleskia who was bloodied and cut. She and the Al had stumbled upon him being viciously tortured by two vampires. The Al killed both of the bloodsuckers, but once the man came too he soon revealed that he and his family, made up of his wife and two children had been fleeing the city, before they were cornered by a pack of vampires. He had bravely tried to fight the demons, and had managed to stab the leader of their platoon in the eye before he was overpowered. The leader decided to torture him personally, whilst his family were carted off to Clasia's vampire camp. Shelly took Aleskia back to her cottage simply to help treat his wounds and give him a place to recover, but sadly there was nothing she could do to help his family. Even she wasn't fool hardy enough to try and break into a vampire camp. No one had ever managed to escape them barring Gina's father, but most people would rather forget about him at this stage. Aleskia, not surprisingly wouldn't accept it and begged Shelly to let him use her Al to break into the camps.
Eventually Gina had to intervene, much to Shelly's shock and horror. Shelly had told Gina to stay out of sight whenever she brought someone back for obvious reasons. Still this time Gina felt compelled to say something. Maybe it was out of genuine remorse for what she had done? Maybe it was out of anger towards the vampires for turning her into this monster, or maybe it was her own ego, not wanting to be seen as the traitor she had become? Or perhaps it was a combination of all those reasons? Whatever the case Gina decided that she would help free this man's family and all of the other prisoners from the camp that had created her.
Aleskia wasn't happy. In fact he thought it was a trick and tried to attack Gina who easily disarmed him. Gina tried to convince him that she was a victim of the vampires as much, and explained the way they had tortured her into murdering her friend. For the first time in over ten years she actually admitted to Clareska's murder. Incredibly enough that wasn't even close to being the worst atrocity she had carried out, but it was in her mind the point of no return. Aleskia didn't care. His sister had been among those slaughtered when Gina had destroyed her fathers castle and released the Hylexans magic.
There was nothing Gina could say to defend herself to this man. She simply promised that she would free his family and do all she could to help destroy the evil that she had helped to grow stronger over the past ten years.
Shelly meanwhile in contrast to Aleskia did actually feel some sympathy for Gina. Hearing about how she had been dragged from her people and broken by the vampires. Whilst she was still disgusted by Gina's actions. Unlike almost everyone else in Tairos, she did not hate her and genuinely believed that Gina wanted to change.
Sadly Shelly also didn't want to take part in Gina's crusade. Whilst she wasn't a coward, the vampire camps genuinely terrified her, not just for her sake, but the Al. It was all she had left and she couldn't bear the thought of it being hurt. A couple of vampires or beasts of vandals were nothing to the Al, but the camp?
Gina however assured Shelly that this wouldn't be any old attack. She knew the vampires, had access to their magics, knew how they worked, how they functioned. Never had there ever been a traitor in the vampire's ranks before. The vampires couldn't betray each other thanks to the Emperor's will and their other human servants were never taken in as deep as Gina had been, thanks to her special relationship with Clasia.
The secrets she could let loose could help set the vampire horde back by centuries. However no city in Tairos would trust her, but by freeing the people of the camp she could perhaps convince them that she was genuine.
For the first time Shelly was forced to face the reality of what her life was, and it was almost too much for her. Aleskia's grief nevertheless finally convinced Shelly to be a part of the battle, even if ironically Aleskia himself didn't trust Gina.
Aleskia was prevented from going on the mission meanwhile by Gina, as he would just end up getting in the way due to his lack of training. He didn't want to be left out of course, but he soon realized that it would be better for his loved ones if he were.
Gina's long quest for redemption was finally about to begin.