Blood gushed from his abdomen as the hand was pulled out, and Blackstone fell face-first to the ground, barely alive. As a ghoul stood over him ready to consume him.
Rose, his daughter grabbed a knife from a nearby crate and lunged toward the ghoul that impaled her father. She stabbed it in the neck and used fire arcana to ignite the knife burning the ghoul from the inside.
Causing it to scream in pain, alerting more nearby fallen as it threw Rose into a wall, knocking her into a bunch of nearby crates filled with cans of gasoline.
She wasn't going to be able to overpower this ghoul herself, but she had to figure something out before the other fallen arrived or her father completely bled out.
She grabbed a can of gasoline, throwing it at the ghoul, then ignited it with a small fire bolt.
Set the ghoul on fire making it roll around in agony.
Using the little time she bought herself, she grabbed a bunch of healing potions and a warp crystal from the other supplies stored in the cellar.
Rushed to her father, then activated the crystal, teleporting them to a building on the far side of town that luckily wasn't destroyed yet. Rose immediately used her flames to seal her father's wounds and then fed him 3 health potions, stabilizing him but leaving him unconscious from the blood loss.
Rose, barely able to hold her father, slowly dragged him into a hidden room closed off by a secret door disguised as an ordinary wall.
Upon entering the room, she sighed as she closed the room door, thinking to herself in panic, "What the hell is going on? How did these things get into the city, and why is all this happening?".
She began to vomit. The adrenaline in her system that kept her moving now faded, and her body went weak from all the stress and anger.
"Why is all of this happening to us? Why did Mom have to die?" she continued thinking to herself as tears fell down her face.
Back at the cellar, the ghoul continued to roll around, bumping into creates and setting the whole place on fire. The flame reached the gasoline, causing the cellar to explode, creating a giant ball of fire that blew away the other fallen coming to the ghoul's aid.
The explosion caught the attention of the werewolf imperial. It made its way to the site of the explosion, the area still engulfed in flames. Walking past the dead bodies of his fellow fallen. Absolutely disgusted by the carriage of his people.
He picked up the body of a werewolf that was caught in the explosion, cradling it in his arms as he whispered, "Who did to you, my child? Who took your life? I'm such a pivotal moment of your existence".
The imperial laid the body of the werewolf down, promising it a proper send-off after they finished taking the city.
The werewolf imperial used his abilities to scan the area, hoping to find out what killed his fellow fallen.
His eyes glowed red as his snake-like tail unwrapped around his neck, bare its fang, and sniffed around the area. As the snake continued inhaling the scene of the surrounding area the imperial could see the events unfolding. He saw images of Blackstone crying for his dead wife, going into the cellar and the ghouls following him.
The imperial walked through the flame entering the burning cellar where he watched the rest of the events unfold
" so that's what happened, and it looks like the human's responsibility for this got away how troublesome, " the imperial said as he walked out of the burning cellar.
The werewolf Imperial was unable to track them further. The scent was cut off when they used the warp crystal, so it decided to make its way to the castle where the vampire Imperial was.
Dashing from building top to building top until he reached the outside of the royal castle where vampire Imperial was getting ready to lay waste to the nobles hiding behind the castle walls.
The nobles were sending an army of soldiers 600,000 strong to try and defend the castle from fallen. The soldiers had their canons ready for an army of fallen to storm the castle, but all they saw was the vampire Imperial alone with the ghoul imperial egg in his hand, stroking it as a devilish smile formed on his face.
The vampire Imperial reached his hand upwards towards the sky as roots burst from the ground, forming into tresses shaped like giant rose buds that bloomed, releasing poison pollen that burned the guard's flesh like acid, leaving them in excruciating pain as their flesh melted off their bones.
The vampire Imperial took a deep breath admiring the scent of burning flesh as the werewolf imperial arrived telling him "You should have left the bodies intact so the others could feed"
The vampire Imperial turned to him slowly and motioned to the werewolf Imperial to come closer." Come now, there are plenty of bodies for the others to feed on, and besides, I'm merely testing my new abilities. You should join me, you know".
" some human managed to kill some of our brethren and escape them both smelled like hunters. We should send a few of our fellow fallen to find and kill them," the werewolf imperial suggested.
" come now, we don't need to waste time on a few measly hunters. They'll be killed before they get the chance to leave the city," the vampire Imperial explained as both he and the werewolf Imperial walked past the dead bodies of the guards into the castle's yard.
" I don't doubt the strength of our brethren, but these hunters need to pay before they take the lives of more fallen," the werewolf imperial replied.
The vampire Imperial was annoyed by the worrying tone of the werewolf imperial. He assured him that he was overthinking things" This is the reality of us fallen. We are locked in an endless war between us and our prey. In a war, there will be casualties. That is just how it is; leave the hunter to the others. They'll handle them. In the meantime, why don't you test your abilities? I heard the nobles have hunters of their own. Just remember not to destroy the castle; I want to claim it as my own".
The werewolf imperial didn't argue further. He realized there was some truth to what was being said. Instead, he decided to join in killing the rest of the nobles and their bodyguards.
A barrage of giant fireballs rains down at the imperial, all of them exploding on contact, leaving a giant flaming crater. The imperial walked out of the flames, not a scratch on their bodies, looking upward at the top of the castle where 3 hunters stood ready to send another barrage of attacks.
The vampire Imperial was amused at their pitiful attempts at attacking them "How cute they think they can harm us with their adorable little abilities"
"May I end them?" asked the werewolf imperial
" give them one more shot, then you can slaughter them," the vampire Imperial replied while smiling creepily. His deformed grin reached behind his ears, showing razor-sharp teeth resembling daggers.
The three hunters combined air, thunder, and fire arcana to create a giant flaming tornado stretching from the sky to the ground, radiating lightning striking everything that came close to it.
The vampire Imperial began clapping and laughing "Haha well done well done this display of power was must amusing.... now kill them "
The werewolf imperial's snake tail was unwrapped from his neck and opened its jaws wide as it shoved its arm down its throat, pulling out a black and red crystal-like great sword with an eye in the center of its cross guard.
Using the sword, the werewolf imperial destroyed the flaming tornado. With one swing, a large burst of black and red flames passed through the flaming vortex, hitting the hunters atop the castle and reducing them to nothing but bones.
The two imperials continued clearing the castle of all its nobility guards and workers until there was no one left, killing its king to take his and the queen's throne as their own.
Back with Rose, Blackstone finally woke up after 3 hours of rest. He looked around, spotting his daughter crying in the corner of the room. He attempted to get up, but his injuries prevented him from sitting upright. He grunted as he felt a stinging pain in his abdomen.
" you shouldn't be moving around," Rose said as she rushed to his side, wiping her tears to try to hide the fact that she was crying.
Blackstone laid back down, holding his cauterized abdomen." Rose, what happened?. "
"You were stabbed by a ghoul; I used fire arcana to cauterize your wounds," Rose replied as she grabbed some healing potion, handing one to her father.
Blackstone asked, "How did you get away?" before drinking the potions, causing his wounds to finally start healing.
Rose was relieved to see his wounds start to heal. It took three whole potions after all. She explained to her father how she got them away from the ghoul and that she knew what happened to her mother, holding back tears as she explained how she could hear the house crumble on top of her from the basement after she told her to hide there.
Blackstone placed his hand on Rose's head and told her, "It's OK, kid, just cry. There's no need to act tough in front of your old man." Rose hugged her father and began to weep, letting out all the tears she was holding back.
Blackstone finally healed enough to move freely sat up and hugged him as she cried. " there just let it out, kid"
A few minutes passed Rose began drying her tears "You good now kiddo" Blackstone asked
Rose nodded her head and said "Yes"
"Alright, now let's get out of here," Blackstone said as he looked around the room for any supplies, but the only thing useful he could find was a knife and some bombs.
"Well I guess this will have to do, Rose to follow me keep your head and voice low were gonna have to sneak our way out of the city "
Rose nodded her head. "Yes," then followed her father as they made their way out of the building, keeping hidden by moving through the alleyways. Once they were at the gate, they saw that there were three fallen gathered there guarding the gate.
" This keeps getting worse and worse. Why are these fallen so much smarter than the ones I fought before? It just doesn't make sense," Blackstone thought to himself.
Blackstone used air arcana to create large repeating gusts of winds, making a large dust storm obstructing their View and other senses.
Rose and Blackstone used this opportunity to run past the guard, leaving two lit booms in the dust storm exploding when the dou was a safe distance.
Finally clear of the city, Blackstone and Rose made their way to their neighboring City of Helios. They would have to go back through the deadwood forest to get to their destination, which would usually be overflowing with fallen if it wasn't for the current Invasion.
This made their Journey far more easier. Reaching the city of Helios would only take 2 days.