Karito desperately runs through the forest, using the trees to increase the distance between him and the pursuers that were hot on his trail. The pursuers are relentless but it would take more than a couple of horses to catch him. Distracted by the thought of escape, he fails to notice the arrow until it's too late to dodge. The arrow lodges itself in his right shoulder, eliciting a grunt of pain from him, pain which he welcomes and uses to remind himself to focus on escape. He cannot afford to be captured again; he knows that this pain is nothing compared to the horrors he faced in Bismarck's dungeon.

He hears the neighing of horses behind him and immediately grabs a low hanging branch and pulls himself up into the tree. He climbs higher and occasionally taking furtive glances to ensure that he wasn't being watched before he hears the sound of hooves and the shouts of his pursuers below him. He holds his breath and waits for what feels like hours until the sounds move past his hiding spot and fade into the distance, he keeps still for a while and when he's sure that his pursuers have moved on, he relaxes and begins to tend to his wounds; he pulls the arrow out of his shoulder -thankful that it wasn't poisoned or barbed- and tears off a piece of his shirt to act as a makeshift bandage, he reaches into a small pouch on his hip and pulls out a handful of leaves and chews on them while ignoring the bitter taste before applying the chewed up paste to the bleeding stump of his left horn. As he treats his wounds, he fails to notice the cloaked figure several trees away from him which is watching hm with a predatory gaze, the figure keeps watch until it finds an opening and then it strikes; there is a blur as its hands flick out from its cloak and release several knives which pierce Karito in the chest.

Karito stares at the knives in his chest in shock before coughing up blood before falling off the branch he was resting on. As he falls, he manages to pull out enough magic from his near empty reserves and stretches his hand towards the forest floor, a greenish swirl appears on the floor he falls into it before it closes behind him. The figure that threw the knives leaps to the branch Karito was on and after searching, it jumps down to the floor and begins to search for Karito's body but fails to find it, "Master won't be happy" it thinks before vanishes into the darkness.

On the outskirts of Hermes;

A portal opens and dumps Karito's body in the river that runs past the town. He struggles for a bit, but after realizing that he's too injured to succeed, he places his hand on his chest and activates a rune; "Hagalaz". The rune flares to life before changing his appearance to that of a random human and having exhausted all his mana and physical strength, he falls unconscious and is carried away by the river.

The river sweeps his unconscious body downstream until it gets caught by several rocks. A man pushing a cart of dead bodies spots his body and after searching him for valuables, throws him on the cart and heads off to the cemetery. Once the man gets to the cemetery, he heads towards the mass grave and dumps the bodies and Karito into the pit of bodies. As soon as the man leaves, a small figure makes its way into the pit and begins to go through the bodies seemingly looking for something or someone. Karito lets out a soft moan which attracts the figures attention. It moves cautiously towards him and after verifying that he is indeed unconscious, it waves its hand in a "come on" motion, soon after more figures appear and pick up Karito and carry him away.

Several days later

Karito wakes up sore, hungry and confused in a cave, he takes in his surroundings before talking; "Ugg, my head, my body. Everything hurts. Where am I? All I remember is escaping from Bismarck and the forest." He struggles and manages to get into a sit up position before continuing; "I thought I lost them, then those knives…. Knives!!!!!"

He moves suddenly into an upright sitting position and bolts of pain are sent through his body. This proves too much for his body and he coughs up blood before laying back down.

"Well at least I know I'm alive" he mutters to himself and tilts his head to look around "Where am I?"

He looks around and all he can see is darkness but his eyes soon adjust and he begins to make out the shape of people in the dark. He considers his options and deems them friendly for now and opens his mouth to talk but is beaten to it by a scared voice. "Y, y y y y your awake?"

"Yes, I am."

"W, w w w w who are you? Why were you in the dead pile?" the voice grows a bit louder and nearer but he can't quite make out the owner of the voice.

"I'm just a man that got lost" he answers while keeping silent about how he got lost. He wasn't yet sure if the person is to be trusted.

"Lost?" the voice asks with less fear and more curiosity

"Yep. I got lost"

"Ok."

Karito hears a clapping sound and hears footstep as the owner of the voice moves around, he tries to follow the sound with his ears but fails. He hears the sound of flint on steel and sees sparks before the area gets lit by a candle followed by more candles lighting up, soon the entire cave was lit. He looks around and sees more figures around and immediately puts up his guard; they were corpses, living corpses. He looked around and all he saw where living corpses, each one in various stages of decomposing and yet moving around performing mundane everyday tasks like cleaning, washing and some were watering some plants that miraculously managed to grow in the cave.

As he looked around, he heard the voice speak up again this time a lot closer, but he still couldn't move due to his injuries. He hears footsteps before feeling a weight on his chest as someone sat on it, he tenses up waiting and suddenly he sees a face over his own. The first thing that gets his attention is her yellow eyes that shimmer with childlike glee, he moves from her eyes and takes note of her black hair and finally, his eyes rest on her elongated ears.

"A dark elf" he muses as continues to sit on his chest. He is brought out from his musing by her voice;

"What do you think of Serana's family? Do you like them? Do you want to stay for dinner? Do you want to play?" she asks as she nearly bounces in happiness. He grunts in pain and she quickly gets off him.

He looks in her direction and sees small girl, no older than 9. He takes a good look at her; she has dark skin, pointed ears, yellow eyes and is dressed in rags, on her back is a bow

He strains himself and points to one of the zombies' "What are those?"

"They are my family" she responds happily, "All the outside people have a family and Serana didn't, so Serana made her own." She responds like it's the most natural thing. He puts aside this information and decides not to say anything not wanting to offend his savior.

"You're a Dark elf, aren't you?" he half asks half states. Dark elves have always been on good terms with demons so he was sure he was in safe hands

"What's a Dark elf? Is that what Serana is?" she responds with a curious and confused tone.

"Yes." Karito answers back with a puzzled expression, "How don't you know this?"

"Serana grew up here" she states then she hangs her head in sadness "The people outside don't like Serana so Serana stays here. What about you?"

Karito stays silent and softly calls out "Thurisaz", the rune glows on his chest and a soft glow envelopes his body and begins to close his wounds. The wounds soon close up but he notices that his body is still sore and not all the wounds are fully closed "Oh well. As long as I manage not to do anything too taxing, they'll heal fine" he thinks before getting up slowly and prepares to leave. His motions attracted the attention of his host.

"Are you leaving?" she asks with sadness creeping up her face and tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"Yes" was the response she got as the first person she has met in nine years got ready to walk out.

"Will you come and see Serana again?" she asked with hope in her voice. Maybe he would, she'd take regular visits over none at this point.

"I don't think so" he replied as he performed a few light stretches while being careful not to reopen his injuries. Seeing that his body was in moving shape, he began walking towards the exit "Thank you for helping me. Goodbye", he waves and continues leaving.

Serana breaks down into tears while Karito heads for the exit of the cave. As soon as he reaches the mouth of the cave, he senses killer intent coming from behind him and quickly dives left as a blur passes him and a cloud dust occupies his former location. As he looks up from the floor, he sees one of Serana's zombies where he once was with the floor cracked under its feet and its muscles tense, he looks back into the cave and sees a small horde of zombies marching towards him each one radiating pure bloodlust, he looks further back and sees Serana sitting on the shoulder of a beastman zombie with tears in her eyes and a look of rage on her face.

"Serana what's the meaning of this?" he demands as he scrambles to his feet, "Why are you attacking me?"

Serana looks at him with hot tears flowing from her eyes, "Your leaving!!!" she yells at him "Serana looked after you and helped you and your leaving!!" horde moves closer and a few lunge at him which he avoids and starts running to the exit "You're like everyone else. Serana won't be left alone again, you'll become part of Serana's family and stay with Serana forever!!!!!!"

As soon as she finished talking, the zombie that tried to kill Karito rushes from its position and attempts a flying tackle on him, Karito manages to react on time and dropping on his knees slides under it.

"Shit. I'm not fully healed. I need to end this fast or escape" he thinks to himself as some of his wounds begin to open up again. He quickly gets up and continues towards the exit with a horde of zombies right behind him, while Serana sat on the shoulder of the zombie beastman and guided the motion of the horde and watched in anticipation as Karito would soon be captured by her "family" and he would never, ever leave.

Karito was almost at the cave exit when all of a sudden, Serana lifted her hand and shot a bolt of white energy at the floor in front of Karito creating a small crater which causes him to stop in his tracks and turn around. Seeing the horde of zombies coming towards him, Karito realized that he was going to have to fight. Facing the horde, he stood his ground and lifted his hands, faced his palms towards them and gathered magic, Serana sensed the buildup of magic and commanded several bulky zombies to stay back in order to form a flesh wall in case she needed it, while ordering the remaining zombies to rush towards Karito.

Karito channeled as much magic as his body could manage and was rewarded when two small portals appeared in the flesh of his palm. Knowing what the portals where connected to, he waited until the horde came within range and then he took aim. As soon as the horde got closer the portals released two large, pressurized waves of oil which drenched the entire horde and sliced through those that were too close while pushing the others back. Karito kept it up for a while and as the zombies struggled to come closer, he spoke "Kuanaz"; a small flame appeared in each hand and ignited the oil wave. The flames burnt the entire horde turning some to ash instantly.

At the back of the horde, Serana watched as her "family" were swallowed by a wave of fire which was rapidly coming towards her, the beefy zombies quickly formed a flesh wall to shield her from the flames. From behind the wall, Serana heard the screams of the zombies and several grey orbs appeared entered her, but she didn't notice as she was too focused on the sight of the flames burning through the flesh wall and she knew she had nowhere to hide. Tears slid down her cheeks as she knew her death was imminent.

Serana broke down into tears and kept muttering over and over; "It's not fair. It's not fair" she screams as the wall is slowly getting burnt through, "All Serana wanted was a family, Serana was a good girl, so why can't I have one? Why, why, whyyyyy!!!!!!"

The flesh wall collapses under the flames and the last thing she sees is the beastman zombie putting her down and shielding her with its body in a final hug and then everything goes black.