It was a deafening silence of a frightening somber night. The moon is sure to be in full bloom, giving all its light to people, but there is this feeling of unease in their minds crawling on their bodies, an icy current running down their spine. Everyone feared it—not the way that darkness surrounds it, but the thought that the existence of the full moon would be the end of their lives—and not because the moon could harm the people, but because it makes the weak and even powerful verendus awaken to start another chaos and calamity that will be the end of the human race.
Sure, the moon is harmless, but it was too kind to give its light to the wicked and for them to shed another blood and flesh of humankind.
The cool breath of the air passed by, along with the silver-ish, ash-long hair of a little kid that swayed in the air as it glimmered in the dark like a star standing still on the Caelum night. With his blinding appearance, Khalid caught the attention of the man in front of him, kneeling on the ground, as he watched him transform into a hideous-looking monster.
"N-NO!... don't come any closer!!!"
He shouted, covering his face as if he were petrified and ashamed to face Khalid, who was standing in front of him with a dauntless expression.
'Come on, Dal, give up and give your body to me.'
He swiftly covers his ears as he hears the vicious voice of the demon ringing inside his head.
'Just look at their expression; their eyes were cold towards you.'
The demon continues to whisper while black smoke starts to come out of his body.
"N-no! Stop it, stop! I don't want to hear anything anymore!"
Dal furiously affirmed while kneeling on the floor, pulling his hair like a madman while his eyeballs trembled, looking at the moon that made the demon inside of him manipulate his mind.
'I promise to give you the strength you wanted.'
His temptation goes on and on as Dal tightens the grip on his hair.
"I don't need it!"
"Yes, you are."
The demon added.
"If you give me your body, I will end your misery. You will be strong, powerful, and free.'
The devil stated that left Dal with a soulless expression in his aquatic eyes.
When...
*Drip*
*Drip*
A copper-like smell of red liquid drips on the marble floor when he bites his lips, making his surreal appearance turn into a great mess.
'Come here, Dal...
He froze when he heard the soothing voice of a man, leaving him dumbfounded that it was just a mimic of the devil bewitching him with the appearance of a tall man with long blond hair that was the same as Dal, standing in front of him, holding his chin, and wearing a captivating smile on his rosy lip. The three were left with a question mark on their faces as they couldn't see what made Dal calm, staring and mumbling at the wind.
"Take me with you."
He mumbled as he closed his eyes, letting water slip onto his cheek as it glistened in the dark.
'That's right, take a rest and leave everything to me.'
He stated it in the playful tone of his demonic voice.
*Sizzle*
The smoke that comes out of his body becomes a thick fog of the air that covers the room, causing the powerful dark-ish aura to break the window glasses in pieces.
"DAL, GET A GRIP OF YOURSELF!"
Reinhardt had shouted, but it was already too late to stop the devil from devouring him whole.
One by one, the window glasses shatter, forming loud cracking noises, leaving all the broken pieces of glass on the floor. As they watched, the beautiful and carefree-looking Dal turned into a hideous-looking beast with a long, spiky tail with his back bent, covering his spine with a bestick of thorns.
His aquatic eyes even turned into tainted, scarlet-like blood, while his face became unrecognizable monstrous.
The curse had successfully tricked Dal and used his memory to eat his soul.
Once again, another verendus had awakened, and it was ready to open the gate of hell.
"GROWLL!!!!"
The verendus Dal had screamed with his deep, monstrous voice like a demon that was just freed of the chain that made them cover their ears, preventing it from bleeding with his deafening snarl.
While others were having a hard time taking cover, Khalid just stood right there, calmly holding a bayonet in his hands, as he watched Dal in silence, wiping the side of his face as the red fluid streamed down his ears.
He sighed before he gripped the bayonet in his hand, looking at the monstrous Dal with a soulless expression in his eyes.
"The two of you. Back off."
He declared that the two were left in shock.
Just then, the monstrous Dal looked in their direction with a frightening look in his eyes that made Erwin flinch as if Khalid's voice had caught his attention, which made him begin to swing his spiky tail at them that they had quickly avoided.
"MILORD!"
The two had shouted as they saw Khalid quickly jump on the balustrade of the balcony, sitting like a frog, holding a bayonet in his hand and hiding it behind his back.
The marbled floor where Dal landed an attack had left a big hole in the ground that could have possibly broken their bones if they hadn't avoided it rather quickly.
"Let me take responsibility for this situation."
Khalid calmly stated as he jumped off the balcony, leaving the two inside the room, while the monstrous Dal followed him as they landed in the palace garden.
Khalid hid behind the mimosa trees while Dal sniffed around, finding him like a crazy wolf on a hunt, making his saliva sizzle on the grass every time it streamed down from his mouth.
"GROWL!"
Khalid's eyes widened when Dal snarled with his deafening voice, cutting off the trees where he was hiding.
As he swiftly runs on it, he jumps around on the branches, then charges an attack towards him.
He was so sure that he stabbed the knife on the back of his skin, but it left him in shock as he watched it crumble on his hand, making Khalid oblivious about the situation, not knowing that Dal was about to attack as he swung his tail in his direction. That makes Khalid sent flying through the air, and the cracking of his bones can be heard every time he hits the trees.
"Ha-ha~ that was a deadly counterattack,"
Khalid had chuckled.
He stood up, wiping the red liquid flowing out of his head, as he could hear his bone crackling when he stretched out his arms, noticing that the eyepatch he was wearing had been thrown out of nowhere and that the curse on his right eye was beaming under the moonlight.
"GROWL!"
The monstrous Dal had let out another deafening snarl as he ran towards Khalid, who was just standing still without moving an inch.
He looked at Dal and formed a smirk on his lips.
"Eat me if you want to. If that's what you're going to do, then *sighed*. Get it over with."
He spoke hopelessly.
"Ha, that's what I'm here for anyway, so it doesn't matter."
He added as he watched Dal jump in his direction, showing his long, monstrous tongue, while Khalid quickly ran towards the bushes to pick up a piece of broken glass on the ground before he swiftly grabbed it with his bare hands.
"Even if I said that many times, I won't die anyway, so... I'll end this madness."
He lifts his hand in the air to pierce his skin, which is thick as a brick, but as soon as he can come forward towards him, Dal quietly and swiftly cuts off his arm with his extremely sharp, long claws.
"Tssk-"
He didn't groan as he swallowed Khalid's arm whole, leaving the two knights in such shock that they even felt their stomachs turn upside down in disgust.
"Milord! Y-your… hand-
*Blargh!*
Erwin vomited, which caught Dal's attention.
It made Khalid freeze on his feet as he watched Dal slowly turn his head in their direction and was about to jump on them, leaving Erwin to swallow his saliva and prepare himself to attack when Khalid suddenly clung behind him as soon as he noticed the glowing mark on his nape.
'Found it…'
Khalid had thought, and Dal's oblivion action gave him an opportunity for Khalid to land a perfect blow, but instead of using the piece of glass he had picked on the ground, he threw it and pointed his cut arm at Dal's nape, immediately pointing his grown bare hand while letting out a chant on his mouth.
"Oh, I called forth the dead mummie to devour those souls who had sin...
UNLEASHED! Ack-"
He cast with his hands stabbed on Dal's bestick nape while a reddish liquid continued to roll down from his hand.
Khalid immediately ate the black smoke that came out of Dal's body without knowing the consequences of his reckless action.
"No! I'm not going to die here! Not here!"
The verendus screamed.
The whole place was covered in blinding light from his body as he went out like a light, but before he could hit the ground, Khalid immediately caught Dal with his arms.
Just then, the fierce battle between them had ended with the warmth of the morning sun that greatly shone in the sky.
"Reinhardt, I leave Dal to you."
He demanded as they left the palace garden, which looked like it had been hit by a storm.
"M-milord your eyes."
Garion, who was standing next to the carriage, was left in surprise, looking at him while carrying a child in his arms.
"AH~"
Khalid tilts his head as he covers his right eye.
"I might have lost my eyepatch in the fight."
He wonders as he looks at Garion, who cuts off his words.
"I apologize, Milord; I spoke nonsense in the verendus without knowing that you were one of them!"
He apologetically affirmed himself as he bowed his head.
"Ah~ It was nothing."
Khalid stated as he got in the carriage.
"It's time to go."
He added, that made Garion face in distress.
"But Dal was completely injured. It's okay. We can just depart for a week or a coming week."
He tried to fake his laugh, but Khalid could feel the sorrow behind it.
"No, we will depart right here, right now."
He affirmed as he crossed his legs, resting his chin on his palm.
"If we waited for more days, then no one could have possibly known if your wife is still breathing."
He calmly stated that it made Garion's face gloomy.
They continue to embark on their journey, looking like commoners with their clothes looking like rags after a fierce fight, leaving Dal unconscious on Khalid's shoulder, which was covered in bruises, wounds, and scars.
Now that the full moon had ended in just a night where it gave a cumbersome situation to the Clovisto kingdom, what could have happened in the neighboring land of Lusdouv, where the verendus had preyed?
No one could know. No…. No one could have known if it were not for a boy who was hiding behind the trees, covering his mouth, not letting even a single sound come out as he quivered in fear, watching the verendus feast on people's corpses with their heads no longer attached to them, bathing in their blood.
"Garion, you keep talking about your wife, but we didn't know a single thing about her."
Reinhardt spoke inside the carriage with Erwin beside him, facing Garion, who was quietly sitting in front of them.
"AH~, what does your wife look like?"
Erwin added as they waited for him to respond with a smile.
"My wife is the most beautiful lady in our town. She had this pink silky hair that was sleek like fabric and a pair of pink mesmerizing eyes that were like azalea."
"She is the most caring and kind woman I have ever met."
He responded without knowing that he was already carving her image in his mind.
"Many people would probably escort her; she must be a nice person."
Reinhardt teases as the conversation continues with only the topic of his wife.
"EH~ Liena, are you not done yet?"
A girl asked as she kicked the man's head towards the tree where the little boy was hiding.
He immediately sweated like a melting candle in front of Furnace.
*Gasp!*
'Huh?.....F-fa...F-father'
He was petrified, as if his soul had left his body, to see his own father's head no longer attached to him, staring at him with a pair of terrifyingly widened eyeballs.
"Ha, is there a little rat hiding?"
The girl smirked and was about to walk in the little boy's direction when a lady with pink-colored hair that was styled in a curled plait swayed in the air as she strutted towards them with such elegance, wearing an icy expression on her face.
"We're done here."
She spoke in a blunt tone as she gave a grave look at the others.
They shudder as they look into her eyes before they quietly leave the scene.
The boy was so cautious that he held his breath, leaving his snot streaming down from his nose and pinching his legs to move as soon as he heard their footsteps walking far from his direction.
When he accumulated a lot of courage, he swiftly ran and ran without looking back at the scene, still holding his breath as a transparent liquid like water flew from his eyes.
"Eh? No one is here."
The girl's neck stretched as she glanced behind the tree.
"It's time to go; we don't have enough time to waste here."
Liena frowned, looking at her with a scowl in her eyes, where she felt a heavy pressure pinning down her body.
"M-my apologies~"
The girl replied with a cheerful yet cautious smile as she left a smirk on her face and squinted back at the tree with a petrifying frisky look in her eyes, giggling like a child as if she had figured something out.