Ashley quickly helped Nacht up as he barely kept conscious, each step accompanied by grunts of pain as he struggled to stem the bleeding. They moved through the arena towards the gate, and once there, Nacht collapsed to his knees. Ashley knelt beside him, pressing her hands against his wound, trying to stop the blood flow.
Nacht's eyes were intense as he looked at her. "H-help me up. We…" he gasped, wincing in pain. "We have to get out of sight."
Ashley was puzzled. "No. I'm taking you to a healer," she insisted, attempting to lift him.
But Nacht resisted, falling back down. "No… I can't go to a healer. Just-just trust me. Take me back to the inn, now!" he demanded, his voice strained.
Ashley saw the desperation in his eyes. She sighed and nodded, helping him to his feet and throwing his arm over her shoulder. They maneuvered through the crowd, finally reaching the inn.
Ashley shoved the door open, startling the guests who gaped at Nacht's gruesome wound. "Get out of the way!" she shouted, rejecting their offers of help.
"He needs a healer!" the innkeeper exclaimed, assisting Ashley in carrying Nacht upstairs.
"He refuses," Ashley retorted, glancing at Nacht.
The innkeeper looked at Nacht with a mixture of concern and resignation. "I'll get you any bandages I can, but you need a healer," he said, hurrying downstairs for supplies.
Livia had been anxiously awaiting their return, sipping the medicinal tea Nacht had prepared and reading a book. The door burst open, and she saw Ashley's distressed face. She rushed over. "What is it, Ashley?"
"Where is Nacht?" she asked, then gasped as she saw him leaning against the wall, blood pouring from his chest.
Livia rushed to him, inspecting the wound. "What happened to you?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Nacht chuckled weakly. "No time… just help me inside."
He nearly collapsed, but Ashley and Livia caught him and guided him to a chair. Nacht pointed to a pouch on his belt. "There should be syringes in there. Take the ones with the purple liquid," he instructed, gasping for air.
Ashley rummaged through the pouch, finding syringes with green and purple liquids. She grabbed the purple one, removed the cover, and prepared to inject Nacht, but he grabbed her arm to stop her. He handed her a rope from his bag.
"Bind my hands with this and close the door behind me. Don't enter unless I tell you. Keep your sword close. If anything escapes that isn't me, ... run. Do you understand?" Nacht's voice was serious, despite his condition.
Ashley hesitated. "I can't leave you here! You'll die!"
Nacht shook his head. "I… I'm not what you think I am, Ashley. To keep your mother and the city safe, you must do as I say."
Livia nodded, supporting Nacht's decision. "We'll do as you say, Nacht. Ashley, we need to trust him."
Ashley sighed and nodded. She tied Nacht's hands and took a deep breath before injecting him.
Nacht screamed in agony as black veins spread across his face and neck, his eyes glowing purple, and his hair turning snow white. He gritted his teeth, staring at Ashley, who recoiled in fear. Livia was horrified by the transformation.
"Go now!" Nacht shouted, eyes wild.
Ashley hurriedly helped her mother up, and they left the room, the sound of Nacht's pained cries echoing behind them.
The chilling air seeped through the cracks, freezing the room in silence as Nacht's agonizing cries faded. Ashley, her heart pounding with dread, approached the door cautiously, her mother's reassuring grip on her arm the only comfort amidst the unsettling atmosphere. Placing her ear against the door, Ashley strained to discern any sounds from within, but all she heard was an eerie silence.
With trembling hands, Ashley reached for the door handle, her instinct urging her to investigate, but Livia's firm grip halted her movements. "Don't," she interjected, her voice tinged with apprehension. Ashley hesitated, torn between her desire to help Nacht and her mother's warning, before finally relenting and opening the door.
As they entered the room together, a scene of chaos greeted them. Furniture lay in disarray, shattered remnants strewn across the floor. Claw marks marred the walls, a testament to the violence that had unfolded within. Pools of inky black blood pooled on the ground, casting ominous shadows in the dim light.
"What in blazes is going on here?" demanded a voice from behind, startling Ashley and Livia. They turned to see the innkeeper, his expression a mixture of shock and anger as he surveyed the destruction. Before they could respond, a horrifying sight unfolded before them.
Without warning, a pale hand with razor-sharp claws burst forth from the innkeeper's abdomen, rending flesh and leaving a gaping wound in its wake. The innkeeper staggered, struggling to remain upright before collapsing to the ground, life draining from his eyes.
Standing over the fallen innkeeper was Nacht, with glowing purple eyes that bore into Ashley and Livia with an unsettling intensity. He licked the blood off his hands and smirked at the innkeeper's lifeless body.
Ashley and Livia, their expressions filled with terror, slowly backed away until they hit the wall behind them. The only escape route was through the door where Nacht stood, blocking their way.
Ashley gathered her courage, unsheathed her sword, and prepared herself.
"Am I going to die here, before rescuing Jack?" she thought, her hands trembling as she faced Nacht, who was calmly advancing towards them, effortlessly throwing aside anything in his path. With a deep breath, Ashley shouted a battle cry and charged at Nacht, leaving her mother behind, tearfully praying for her daughter's safety.
Ashley swung her sword at Nacht's arm, but it barely left a scratch before the wound closed up almost instantly. In retaliation, Nacht struck back with a powerful backhand, slamming Ashley against the wall and causing her to lose her grip on her sword. His glowing purple eyes bore into her as he turned his attention to Livia, who stood frozen in fear.
Moving swiftly, Nacht seized Livia by the throat, lifting her effortlessly against the wall.
Ashley, regaining her senses, scanned the room for a weapon. Spotting Nacht's sword on the floor nearby, she struggled to her feet, wincing from the pain in her face. She grabbed the sword and unsheathed it, then charged at Nacht with renewed determination. With a swift thrust, she stabbed him in the back, the blade penetrating deeply. Burn marks scorched around the wound, and Nacht screamed in agony, dropping Livia as he fell to his knees.
As Ashley withdrew the sword, she helped her mother to her feet, and together they retreated from Nacht, who clutched his wound. Ashley examined the sword in her hands, noticing the black metal and the strange glowing inscription in a language she didn't recognize. It seemed to pulse with a purple light, absorbing the blood from the wound.
Refocusing on Nacht, Ashley watched in disbelief as he slowly rose to his feet, the wound closing at an agonizingly slow pace.
In a wraith-like voice, Nacht spoke, his words dripping with malice. "You cannot defeat me. You are too weak. Kneel down and beg for your little worthless lives," he taunted, inching closer to them with an eerie calmness. Suddenly, his demeanor shifted, and he began to twitch uncontrollably, dropping to one knee in apparent agony. The pulsing veins on his face retracted momentarily as he grimaced in pain.
"The green syringes," he grunted, his voice strained. His gaze darted towards a pouch lying in the corner of the room before the veins returned, and he rose to his feet once more. Ashley, seizing the opportunity, charged towards Nacht while instructing her mother to retrieve the pouch.
With determination fueling her every move, Ashley swung her sword at Nacht, who deflected the blow with his claws before launching a counterattack. Swiftly evading his strike, Ashley remained focused on her objective. Livia, following Ashley's instructions, retrieved the pouch and tossed it to her daughter.
As Ashley caught one of the syringes, she wasted no time in closing the distance between her and Nacht. With sword in one hand and syringe in the other, she launched another assault. This time, as Nacht blocked her sword strike with both hands, Ashley seized the opportunity to plunge the syringe into his side.
Nacht cried out in agony, collapsing to the ground and clutching his head as if tormented by unseen forces. The room fell silent, save for the sound of his anguished moans echoing off the walls. Suddenly he stopped screaming and lay motionless on the cold floor while his features reverted to their previous look.
The room felt oppressively silent, a suffocating shroud enveloping Ashley as she and Livia checked Nacht's breath and pulse. Feeling no sign of life, Ashley clasped her hands together and began administering CPR. Her hands shook with a mixture of fear and determination as she continued her desperate attempts to revive him. With each compression of his chest, she felt the weight of her own helplessness pressing down on her, a crushing burden that threatened to engulf her entirely.
Her breath came in ragged gasps, her movements fueled by sheer adrenaline and the relentless beat of her heart, pounding in her ears like a drum. She refused to surrender to the silence, to the suffocating stillness that threatened to consume her. Instead, she poured every ounce of her being into the task at hand, channeling her grief into action, clinging to the hope that somehow, someway, she could bring Nacht back to life.
Livia watched on, her heart aching with a sorrow too profound for words. She could see the desperation etched into every line of her daughter's face, the raw anguish that tore at her soul with each failed attempt to resuscitate Nacht. Yet even as tears blurred her vision and threatened to overwhelm her, she remained steadfast, a silent witness to her daughter's grief.
Ashley's breath hitched as she leaned down, pressing her lips to Nacht's in a desperate attempt to breathe life back into his still form. She poured her love, her anguish, her very essence into that single act, willing him to respond, to awaken from the darkness that threatened to consume him.
But as the seconds stretched into eternity, and Nacht remained motionless beneath her touch, Ashley's resolve began to waver. The weight of her grief bore down on her like a leaden weight, dragging her further into the depths of despair. Yet still, she refused to give up, to surrender to the silence that threatened to swallow them whole.
With trembling hands, she continued her efforts, each compression of his chest a silent plea for his return. But as the reality of his passing began to sink in, she felt her strength ebb away, leaving behind only a hollow ache that echoed in the depths of her soul.
And as the tears fell freely, washing away the pain even as it lingered, Ashley's voice rang out, a solitary cry in the darkness.
In the dimly lit room, the cold, unforgiving atmosphere seemed to press in on Ashley and Livia as they gazed upon Nacht's lifeless form, lying peacefully as if in eternal slumber. Ashley's tear-filled eyes met Nacht's face, her trembling hand reaching out to gently caress his cheek. With each passing minute, the warmth in her heart dwindled, leaving only a hollow ache of loss and sorrow. In that somber moment, amidst her overwhelming grief, she realized that Nacht held a place in her heart unlike any other.
Livia placed a comforting hand on her daughter's shoulder, offering silent support as they mourned together. Her gaze lingered on Nacht, the one who had rescued her and cared for her, despite facing his own problems. He had given Ashley a new lease on life, making her stronger in the process. Tears welled up in Livia's eyes, but she remained composed, a pillar of strength for her daughter in their time of need.
With a heavy heart, Ashley closed her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath before releasing Nacht's face and intertwining her fingers with his cold, lifeless hand. "I'm sorry," she whispered softly, her voice barely audible above the silence of the room.
"It's my fault," she continued, her words hanging heavy in the air, a painful admission of guilt that threatened to suffocate her. "If I hadn't intervened, if I hadn't told him not to kill her, she wouldn't have stabbed him, and he wouldn't have become that... that monster."
With aching desperation, Ashley pulled Nacht's lifeless body into a tight embrace, her tears mingling with the darkness that surrounded them. Outside, the wind howled mournfully, the rain tapping against the window in a melancholic rhythm, while flashes of lightning illuminated the room, punctuating their grief with bursts of stark illumination.