The healing process was slow, at least for Sakura. She watched as the bruises along Naem's face slowly began to fade away. Though she could use magic, her abilities were very limited and not particularly effective.

  Several years back, when she and the rest of her family arrived in Veltra, her parents took her, Sakiri, and Relker to one of the hunter's guilds to test and see what their ranks were.

  There were no accurate mana readers in the northern lands of Sayaka, so Relker's rank was always guessed before the reading. Both Sakura and Sakiri had just turned seven at that time, the age when an accurate reading of mana could be done. So, despite everything they had gone through shortly before, it was a big moment when they all decided to turn their attention elsewhere.

  Sakura still remembers how shocked everybody was to see that Relker and Sakiri were both the equivalent of B-rank Greater Beasts, whereas Sakura was a mere D-rank Greater Beast. Even so, most were still shocked that such a family from the north, who had fled as refugees, could have two children of B-rank in mana control.

  Especially given that their parents were both C-ranks.

  Sakura had learned from the books that, even though it's considered random how much mana a Greater Beast's offspring can control, it's generally believed that Greater Beasts with a higher level of control over mana produce offspring with higher amounts of mana control as well. Those with lower mana control typically produce offspring with lower mana control.

  Sakura was thought to be the norm as far as what should have been expected with her family, or rather, the expected outcome. But for her parents to produce two children with a mana rating higher than theirs was quite exceptional.

  While the amount of mana Sakura could control never really bothered her, the skills she ended up being born with were ones that she didn’t always favor. They were not “cool” skills, like the ability to manipulate water and ice like the rest of her family, as well as several of her Saiyakin friends, or the ability to control and bend the earth beneath her feet like most of her Trojan friends.

  However, she would be lying to herself if she said that hers were not useful at times like this. It’s just that sometimes she wished she could be more effective with her healing power and heal someone faster.

  “Umm…”

  Sakura's thoughts blurred as Naem bent down away from her and heaved his leg up onto the crate next to her.

  “I think my face is pretty good right now,” he said, looking back up at Sakura. “Do you mind taking care of this for me? It isn’t hurting too bad right now, but I still don’t want to run much on it.”

  Sakura smiled before shifting herself around to reach Naem’s leg more easily. “You can ask for help sometimes without needing to look tough, you know.”

  Naem sat back against the wall that the crate was set up against and crossed his arms. “If I had a power like yours, I would never need to ask for help.”

  “Not true,” Sakura said as she began to focus on his leg. The soft glow of green light slowly brightened in the small space between her socked palms and his leg. “Everybody needs help from time to time.”

  “With some things, but never for ones like this.” Naem contested, his voice low as if embarrassed to admit it. “If I had the healing skill like you, I could train all day and never feel tired or hurt for that matter. And if I had your great memory, I wouldn’t need to constantly study everything that I’m taught... I could train faster and harder than I am now and get further ahead.”

  “Having a skill that never lets you forget the past is something that I would not wish on anybody,” Sakura said mournfully, her eyes still not leaving his leg as she worked, fearing that if she looked away, she would lose her concentration. “But beyond that, is training all that you think about? We are both still young, you know. I know how it is with your situation, but why not focus on becoming stronger or better than you are once you get older? You'll be leaving soon to go to that school. Why not try and put in all of your effort then?”

  Sakura flattened her ears against the top of her head. “Why not enjoy yourself a little bit more right now while you still can?”

  Silence fell between the two of them for a moment. But for Sakura, it felt like minutes passed with every heartbeat. She wanted to break the silence but didn’t know what to say.

  Geez, I wish he'd just say something.

  After a few more heartbeats, Sakura sighed. “You always talk about your brother and sister and how much you want to catch up to them or be like them, but, Naem, they're too far out of your lead…”

  “I’m the same way,” she continued. “I can pray. I can practice as much as I want, and I might be able to use my skills easier with that practice, but I'll never be as good as Sakiri or Relker, and I’m fine with that.”

  “But I’m not,” Naem said, finally breaking his silence. “You have abilities that you can practice and get better at. I don’t, Sakura. So, I have to get better in the areas that I can control.”

  Sakura finally broke her stare and glanced over to see Naem looking down at her hands working on his leg. The yellow irises of his eyes dimly glowed in the darkness, powered by the mana coursing through his being. She always thought the gold of his eyes was something otherworldly, even if they didn’t shine as brightly as the few Vegan soldiers she had seen in her life.

  She returned her focus to her hands, the soft green glow of her magic nearly diminished. She forced her focus onto them again, and the soft green glow slowly started to burn back to life.

  “You have skills, Naem. Every Greater Beast does. The glowing of your eyes proves that. You just haven’t figured out what your abilities are yet,” she said softly, feeling a little embarrassed after saying it. “Seriously though, you always worry and act like you're ten years older than you actually are. Even when playing with the others, you should act a little bit more like your age.”

  Sakura’s ears perked up high on her head at the sound of snickering. She looked back at Naem to see him trying to hold back a laugh.

  “What? What’s so funny?”

  “You're one to talk, Sakura.” He laughed. “You act like everybody's mother whenever we play as well. Even now.”

  Sakura felt a burning in her cheeks, and she looked back down at his leg to try and hide herself.

  “I-I just don't like it when they play too rough because they get hurt, and then they all come crying to me...” She explained, but whenever she looked back down, she noticed that she had lost all focus and the healing mana she was emitting had completely diminished. “Oh, no...”

  Before she could close her eyes to try and wield her powers again, Naem drew his leg away and dangled it back off of the crate.

  “It’s fine. It feels much better now,” he said as he kicked it back and forth in the air a couple of times to test and see if there was any pain. He then jumped down to the ground and looked back up at Sakura with an outstretched hand. “Thank you.”

  Sakura's eyes widened, and the heat returned to her cheeks as she looked from Naem's face up to his hand. After a moment, she took it and let him help her off the crate. She refused to meet his eyes and instead turned her attention to flattening out the wrinkles in her clothes.

  “Alright, we better get back to the others or Relker is going to be very mad at me.” She started to walk down the street toward the river at its end but stopped after a couple of paces. Not hearing Naem follow behind her, she looked back to see him fiddling with his clothes before looking back up at her.

  “I forgot to change before coming over here,” he said, holding his arms slightly out to the side.

  Ah, she thought, as she looked him up and down. It's the same type of clothes that he wore whenever he first started playing with us. He probably doesn't want to get it too dirty or ripped.

  It was only then that Sakura noticed the dirty scuffs all over his uniform and the little tears here and there in its fabric.

  Nah, that can't be it. She narrowed her eyes as she looked over Naem again, almost as if she were trying to solve a puzzle.

  She ran a couple more possibilities through her head but lost interest fairly quickly. “What's wrong with it?”

  She watched Naem hold out his arms a little bit longer and raise an eyebrow, as if showing her that the answer was obvious, but he didn't give her much time to think about it.

  “This is what I used to wear whenever I first started coming. I thought it offended you all,” Naem explained.

  Sakura's bright blue eyes narrowed further in confusion as she turned further around to face Naem. “Offended us, how?”

  She visibly saw Naem swallow, as it looked like he was trying to figure out the best words to say.

  “Well, um, doesn't it make me look like those rich human snobs?” he asked.

  Sakura instantly thought back to the man who slapped her in the street, and all the expensive clothing and jewelry that he wore. However, in her opinion, the man dressed as if he were boasting about his wealth and hierarchy, whereas Naem wore clothes that honored his household.

  He looked nothing like a human to her.

  The clothes that he wore were no different from the ones that she wore—rough and stiff cloth stitched together to form a very bland outfit of light blue and white, along with the fur skins she wore as a shawl and that made her boots. The only piece of clothing that she wore that she thought felt expensive, at the very least, were the blue fingerless stockings that she and every Saiyakin native wore.

  Made from special materials that made them feel like they gripped her arms all the way up to the base of her shoulders like a second skin, but left her fingers bare so that she could use them freely. The arm stockings were as important to her as wearing undergarments, but it only felt that way to the Saiyakins.

  What difference were the clothes that Naem wore compared to hers? They were a part of his culture and family.

  Sakura looked up to the darkening sky as a couple of the brightest stars started to shine dimly, taking note of the time.

  “Everybody knows that you're rich, Naem. All vegans are rich. How else would they afford all of their armor?” she said before looking back down at Naem and then turning to walk down the street. “Come on. And if anybody says anything, I'll knock them in the head.”

  After a couple of steps, Sakura heard Naem start to run up behind her to catch up, and they walked in silence until the end of the street. It didn’t take them long to round the corner at the end of the street and come out onto the stone-covered riverbank, where the rest of the group played, a little bit further upstream.

  “Sakura!” Relker said frustratedly after looking up to see her and Naem walking down the riverbank. “What did mother and father tell you about running off like that?”

  “Sorry, brother,” Sakura apologized, stopping as Relker limped over to meet them halfway. She hung her head low with flattened ears, and Naem stopped a couple of paces behind her.

  “You could seriously get hurt. You’ve been told that.”

  “Yes, brother,” Sakura agreed, keeping her head hung low as she stared at Relker's boots. A moment passed before she heard her brother exhale a deep breath and then turn away from her, back toward the group.

  “Come on,” he said, looking back at her. “You all can play one more game, given Naem showed up, but then we need to start heading back.”

  Sakura's ears perked up before she raised her eyes, a smile beaming on her face.

  “Why did you run off?” Naem asked as he walked up beside her, though that question prompted Sakura to flatten her ears again in frustration.

  “They made me mad,” she said plainly before the two of them began to follow behind Relker.

  “Ah... I could see that being the case,” Naem agreed before they looked up to see several of their friends finally turn around and notice they were coming. Sakiri was the first one to run over.

  “Naem, you actually came?” she asked as she ran toward them, signaling to all the others of their presence.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Naem said as the rest of the group ran up to meet them. “I couldn’t leave any sooner.”

  Sakaya laughed as she drew closer. “Did Sakura go and drag you out by the wings, Naem?”

  “No!” Sakura snapped back, visibly frustrated.

  Naem just laughed awkwardly as he scratched the back of his ear. “No, no. She didn’t do that. I was able to finally get away myself, and she met up with me in the street.”

  “Whatever it was, it must have been important,” Dillion said as the Trojan boy stepped to the front of the group and looked Naem up and down. “I nearly forgot you had those clothes—”

  “You all have until the sun sets,” Relker called out before anybody else could say anything further, as he sat back down on his crate off to the side.

  Sakura watched as he leaned back against the wall. His piercing blue eyes vanished into the darkness as if he were trying to relax, but his ears, pointing in the direction of the group, told her that he was listening to everything, and that his interjection was deliberate. Aside from the times he would intentionally annoy her, she knew that her brother was always looking out for them all, and she appreciated that.

  “So,” Sakaya started, drawing everybody's attention back to her. “What should we play now?”

  “Well, given that Naem’s here, we could probably play Prophets,” Sakiri suggested.

  “We played Prophets yesterday,” Dillion added, his voice filled with dread. “I still want to play Demons and Warriors.”

  Several of the other Saiyakin and Trojan children nodded in agreement.

  “Yeah, we haven’t played that one in a while,” Sakaya added.

  “No,” Sakiri sighed. “Sakura doesn’t want to play that game. And Relker said we need to play something we all want to.”

  “I just don’t want to be the demon,” Sakura said.

  “If everybody wants to play Demons and Warriors, I can be the demon,” Naem said, raising his hand as if he knew the answer to a lecture question that Veyra was teaching him.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “You being the demon is a little bit of a cheat, though,” Seiker said, drawing everybody’s attention over to the Saiyakin boy. “The last time you were the demon, you flew a lot. We can’t catch you if you’re flying.”

  “It was out of habit,” Naem admitted. “I told you all that, and I said I was sorry... I’ll make sure to stay grounded this time.”

  “Well,” Sakaya started as she thought over the idea. “I guess that would work as long as you promise not to fly. You can only run.”

  “Fine by me,” Dillion agreed, as did Seiker.

  “All right, no problem,” Naem started before getting a sharp elbow in his side. He looked over at Sakura beside him; the look she was giving him said everything that needed to be said. “I’ll be fine.”

  Naem didn’t give Sakura much time to object before he bolted off down the riverbank, past the children.

  “Remember the rules!” Relker hollered out to the children, not bothering to open his eyes. “Don’t go past the buildings at the two ends. If you go in the water, that’s your own fault. And no more using your skills. It’s past curfew.”

  “Aww, come on!” Most everyone said in unison as they looked up to the sky, seeing that it was mostly black.

  “No Beast is permitted to use magic after dark,” Relker added, quoting a rule they had all heard many times before. “I don’t want to be grilled by any officers tonight. So, if any of you want to use magic, just go ahead and go home...”

  “We’re good!” all the children said in near unison again.

  Sakura and the rest of the children stood anxiously as Sakiri counted down from ten to give Naem the appropriate head start.

  “Three Trojans, two Trojans, one Trojan!” she yelled out before all the kids took off after Naem, already down towards the end of the boundary.

  “Kill the demon!” Seiker yelled out as he played his role as warrior.

  All the other kids roared out as they spread across the entire width of the riverbank, trying not to give Naem too many openings for escape.

  Sakura always hated it when they did this to her, though she couldn’t help but join in with all the others as well.

  “Don’t let him touch your head!” Sakaya called out to the group as they all got closer to Naem, who was already preparing for an escape.

  Sakura watched as Naem bounced his golden eyes rapidly between all the kids drawing closer to him, his cheeky grin growing bigger as they got closer and closer. She looked to her right to see Seiker, Dillion, and two other Trojan boys powering ahead of the group toward Naem. Those four were the ones that she saw Naem singling out.

  He's going to get past them, she thought as she slowed her pace and lingered towards the back of the group. Everybody's getting closer together. We aren't as spread out as we're supposed to be.

  “Gotcha!” Seiker called out right before Naem drew out his wings, lowered himself into a deep crouch, and then pushed with everything he had. He jumped up and spun through the air as Seiker and one of the other Trojan boys threw themselves where he had been standing.

  Naem reached out and tapped both of them on the top of their heads as he flipped over them, landing back in a crouched position on the other side. “Out!”

  Sakura watched as Naem gave another big thrust of his wings, sending him flying backward and out of reach from Dillion and the other boy, who had attempted to touch him after he landed.

  “He's getting away!” Dillion yelled after he and the other Trojan boy collided and fell to the ground, desperately trying to find their footing again.

  “Not if I can help it!” Sakiri called as she pounced toward Naem, who was flying back toward her. However, Naem saw it coming.

  He looked up at her and twisted his body through the air, maneuvering just out of reach of Sakiri’s grasp.

  “Ugh!” she complained after falling onto the stones of the riverbank. “I had him!”

  Sakura kept herself ready as the rear guard, waiting for Naem to run back toward her. She watched as Naem effortlessly danced around all the kids, who threw themselves at him one after another in an attempt to touch his head. His body moved in ways that almost seemed unnatural, and all the while, his laughter seemed to make the children even more determined to catch him.

  One by one, she watched as Naem tapped the backs of the children’s heads, until it was just down to her, Sakiri, Sakaya, Dillion, and three other Saiyakin kids. He had already eliminated half the group.

  “Come on...! I think it was easier to catch him when he flew!” Dillion complained between breaths as he stood off to the side, out of breath.

  “Suck it up, Dillion,” Sakaya snapped after another failed attempt to catch Naem. “There's no way you should be winded yet.”

  As if on cue, the remaining Warriors still standing spread out to keep away from Naem's reach, huffing poofs of steam from their mouths as they caught their breath. Meanwhile, Naem hopped from foot to foot to stay warm and loose inside the circle they created around him.

  “Come on, guys! You can do it!” Seiker called out from the sidelines. “You all better not let him get you too quickly. I don't want to go home just yet!”

  “What?” Dillion hollered. “You're one to talk!”

  “Yeah, Seiker! You were the first one out!” Sakaya added, prompting all the children to burst out laughing, except for Seiker, who scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

  “Well, perhaps,” he agreed. “I guess if Sakura continues to hide in the back, the game might last a little longer.”

  “I’m standing guard to make sure he doesn’t run back. If he gets out in the open, none of us will catch him,” Sakura explained, visibly readying herself further to anticipate Naem's next move.

  “All of you filthy warriors think you can stop me?” Naem said, stretching out his wings, trying to make his voice as deep and intimidating as possible to fit his character. “You’re no match for my strength and speed!”

  All the children readied themselves again.

  “No demon has power over us!” Dillion announced, playing along with Naem.

  And with that, all the remaining kids threw themselves at Naem for a second round. However, he was just as elusive as before, staying just outside of everyone’s reach—almost as if mocking them.

  Soon, one by one, they fell, eliminated from the game by Naem's touch.

  “Come on!” Sakaya yelled in frustration as Naem tagged her after she fell.

  “We're going to lose!” Dillion said as he quickly threw himself at Naem to grab his wing and pin him down. However, Naem swiftly pulled himself out of Dillion's grasp and tagged him on the back of the head as he hit the ground.

  “Dillion, you moron!” Sakiri growled, annoyed. Now, it was just her and Naem circling each other, with Sakura lurking in the background.

  Sakiri nervously circled Naem, trying to find any hint of weakness or hesitation in his steps, looking for something that would give her the upper hand.

  “Sakura! It would be helpful if you could come up here and—” Her words were cut short as Naem shot toward her with a powerful thrust of his white wings.

  “EEK!” Sakiri yelped as she threw herself to the ground to avoid Naem striking her out, then quickly got back on her feet and bolted in the opposite direction. She looked back to see Naem's golden eyes piercing the ever-growing darkness, his outstretched hand just behind her.

  Naem was now on the attack.

  Sakura watched as Sakiri gave it everything she had to avoid being tagged by Naem. Her movements fluctuated between deliberate and accidental stumbles of luck.

  If she can just try and tire him out a little bit more, I should be able to catch him, Sakura thought as the other children on the sidelines cried out in praise and encouragement, pushing Sakiri further forward.

  “Look out!”

  “You’ve got this, Sakiri!”

  “Get away from him!”

  “Build your distance! Build your distance!”

  However, the amount of praise and encouragement she received couldn’t do anything against the slippery stones, which caused her to lose her footing one last time.

  “Dang it!” she called out as Naem’s hand tapped the back of her head.

  “Out!” he announced.

  Now! Sakura thought, bolting forward toward Naem. She leaped and threw herself into the air, reaching out her socked hand as far as she could to try and touch the back of his head.

  As long as I can stay close to him, I should be fine, she thought as Naem threw himself just outside her grasp—something she had anticipated.

  All the others got tagged after he put some distance between them, staying just inside of arm's reach. I need to stay as close as possible to him she thought, fighting desperately to get behind Naem and keep from being touched—constantly bouncing in and out of arm's reach. And whenever they tried to get further away from him, he ended up catching them in their retreat. So, as long as I stay as close as possible to him and work my way around, I should be able to win.

  Sakura reacted quickly to each of Naem's movements, even if they weren’t as graceful as his. She made sure not to let him get behind her. Every offensive move she made on him had to be followed by a defensive one. She often stumbled to the ground because of the wet stones on the riverbank.

  Sakiri and the others watched as Sakura and Naem danced furiously on the riverbank, each one trying to gain the upper hand and tag the other.

  “She’s lasting longer than I thought she would,” Seiker said as all the children watched in anticipation.

  “Are you kidding? Sakura’s the best at this game,” Sakiri said as she brushed the snow off her knees. “That’s why we always make her the demon, you know.”

  “Yeah,” Dillion agreed, “She isn’t as hard to catch as Naem, but she’s a close second for sure.”

  “Who do you think will win?” Seiker asked the group.

  “Between the two of them, Naem is using his wings to keep himself from falling as much,” Sakaya noted, drawing all the kids' focus to Naem and how he would occasionally give himself a large thrust of his wings, keeping him upright as he slipped on the stones. “That keeps him off the ground where the rest of us fell... Sakura is no different.”

  “Yeah,” Sakiri added. “Though, Sis is a lot better at moving on the ground than the rest of us. That’s usually how she ends up tagging us out. She’s also quick to get back up onto her feet as well.”

  “Mm-hmm,” Dillion nodded his head inquisitively. “Yeah. If she can pin him to the ground, there’s no way Naem would be able to get back up. And if that happens, the game is ours.”

  Sakura gave it everything she had to try and pin Naem down to the ground, but though he might slip up, he would never fall.

  She laughed as she clung to the back of his robes, trying to gather her feet under her and stay just outside of his reach to keep him from touching her head.

  “I guess I shouldn’t have done this good of a job healing you.”

  “Aw, come on, that’s no fair!” Naem laughed as well, trying to twist himself around and touch her head. However, she avoided his touch as she desperately craned her neck from side to side.

  I can't keep this up much longer... she thought before finally gathering her feet under herself. With one last attempt, she heaved herself up as strongly as she could, reaching out with one hand for the back of Naem’s head as she used her other hand and the rest of her body to hold him still as best she could.

  Got him! she thought, before grabbing the black tuft of hair he had drawn up into a top knot.

  “Out!” Naem and Sakura both called out as they each grabbed hold of the other’s hair. Their bodies twisted around each other like two snakes competing for dominance.

  All the children fell silent for a moment as they looked amongst themselves, questioning who had won the game. However, it was Naem and Sakura who broke out laughing as they let go of each other, both seeming to accept defeat.

  “Well...?” Dillion asked loudly, looking over at the two of them. “Who was out first?”

  Sakura honestly didn’t know herself. She hadn’t even realized she had been touched until both she and Naem called out. Whether it was her or Naem who eliminated the other first, it was too close for her to call.

  She looked over at Naem to see that his face was just as doubtful as hers.

  “What do you think?” she asked anyway, but Naem simply shrugged.

  “I think it was a tie,” he said, reaching up to fix the loose strands of hair that Sakura’s nails had pulled from his top knot.

  “We can’t have ties in this game,” Sakaya started.

  “Yeah, there’s always one person who walks away from a battle...” Sakiri added, before all the kids turned to Relker, as if he were the referee of the match.

  “Brother~, who won the match~?” Sakiri called out, her voice stretching the words as if she were pleading for an answer.

  “Whoever told you that there are always people who return from a battle?” Relker asked, not bothering to straighten his relaxed posture or open his eyes. “It’s never certain that somebody will walk away from a battle or a duel. It’s more common than you think for them both to kill each other.”

  “Since when!?” Sakiri complained.

  “I’ve never heard a story where everyone was killed in a battle,” Seiker said, which prompted Relker to open his eyes.

  “Do you think dead men tell stories...?” he asked. “There are plenty of instances, actually. But let me give you this example: If two great armies ended up killing each other down to the last man on each side, and both of those men fought until they physically could fight no more, then in a last attempt, they both give one final blow to the other. They leave themselves open to be cut, but they know their strike will land. Do you think both of those men would walk away from that?”

  Sakaya shrugged. “I don't know. Possibly.”

  “Even if both men brought their axes down through the tops of their opponents' heads?” Relker replied as he heaved himself off the crate and looked toward Naem and Sakura. “Because that looks very similar to what I’ve seen there.”

  “Even if one of them did touch the other first, the other was shortly behind him. That made it too close to call,” he continued, before looking back at the group of kids. “Even a falling axe from a dead man can kill his opponent.”

  All the kids looked at each other in confusion.

  “So, I guess we both won?” Sakiri asked the group, which prompted many shrugs.

  “I guess...” Dillion said, but Relker only sighed deeply off to the side.

  “Yeah, because dead men win battles...” he said, almost mocking the kids, as he turned away and started walking down the riverbank. “Anyway, the game's over. Let's start heading back.”

  “Aw, come on! So, we both lost?” Dillion complained.

  “Yup,” Naem replied as the group of kids began to come together and follow behind Relker.

  “Man, that would have been a good game if there was actually a winner,” Seiker added.

  “Oh well, we can continue tomorrow,” Sakaya said as she shoved her hands into the folds of her clothes. “It's getting too cold for me anyway.”

  “Is that your excuse for losing?” Sakiri laughed.

  “No, I blame the rocks for that!” Sakaya fired back affirmatively. Most of the other kids agreed with her, making the stones their excuse for losing.

  Sakura smiled as all her friends laughed amongst themselves. “It was good fun not beating the demon for once.”

  “I think it was just good fun altogether,” Naem added before starting to jog toward the front of the group. “Anyway, thanks, everybody. I need to get back before it gets too dark.”

  All the kids said their goodbyes to Naem as he spread his wings and sent himself straight up into the air with one powerful thrust. However, everybody stopped dead in their tracks and fell silent as the sound of horns blew in the distance behind them—ringing out across the kingdom.

  Sakura, Sakiri, Relker, and all the other kids looked to the east, towards the sound of horns, which were soon followed by the sound of bells.

  “Are we being attacked?” Sakiri asked, all the kids looking back to Relker as if he knew all the answers. Though Sakura could see past his calm demeanor and notice that her brother was nervous.

  “Those horns are coming from the outer wall,” he explained. “Worst case, there might have been a couple of demons that got through the gate or something. They won't get through the middle wall. This is probably just a warning for all the middle gates to be shut.”

  Relker turned and looked up into the sky behind him at Naem, who hovered in one spot, looking westward towards the sounds of the horns, like the rest of them.

  “Either way, Naem, I doubt you'll be able to get through the middle gate now,” he hollered up. “It'd be best if you stayed here with us.”

  “There was a breach!?”

  “Demons got into the walls!?” Several of the kids began to murmur amongst themselves. Their whispers slowly began to be drowned out by Sakura's heartbeat pounding in her ears.

  They can't get here. They can't get in the middle ring. The Vegans won't let them get here... she thought in a panic to herself as she began to recall the events in Sayaka that led her family to take refuge here in Veltra several years ago. It would only have been a couple that got past... The walls are thick. They couldn't have broken through them. The demons are not that strong...

  Right then, the alarming horns began to spread, growing louder and louder. Now, it was not only coming from the direction of the east gate, but also from the north and south gates. The bells also grew louder, as well as the chaos that started to erupt in the heart of the city.

  All of the kids began to panic amongst themselves in fear, and that only furthered Sakura's anxiety. Her body grew cold and numb as her heart began to race, and her mind started to lose focus on what she should do. “Relker...” She pleaded, though her voice was only heard by herself. “This can't be happening. The demons can't be coming...!”

  Sakiri threw her arms around Sakura, her hands trembling as well, but the touch of her sister helped calm Sakura's anxiety a little.

  “We gotta get to our homes now,” Relker said before he limped over, taking both Sakura and Sakiri's hands and beginning to drag them behind him. “Everybody, stay close behind me!”

  He looked back up into the sky toward Naem. “Naem, get down here!”

  “I’m going to fly up a little higher and see if I can see anything.”

  “There’s no point! You’ll have to look over the rest of the middle ring and inner ring before you can see anything toward the east gate!” Relker called back, but Naem did not heed his words and took off higher into the sky.

  “Damn it...!” Relker cursed to himself.

  Naem thrust his wings behind him repeatedly, squinting his eyes against the cold as he flew much higher than the middle wall, rising above the city. He came to a point that he thought was high enough and looked out across the rest of the eastern district of the middle ring and across the top of the towering houses of Veltra's nobility, who resided throughout the center ring. However, the ever-growing darkness of night kept him from seeing much further.

  Signal fires, lit by the Vegan soldiers in intervals along the top of the outer and middle rings, could be seen against the night. The only other thing that seemed to give life to the darkness was the largest moon, Koshua, hanging low against the horizon in the east.

  “I don't see how any demons could be here,” he muttered to himself before looking around at the signal fires being lit along all the walls to the east.

  “Varin is over the outer walls near the east gate. Natalik has the north and west gates. And Mabel has the south,” Naem said to himself, noting the three areas on the outer wall his oldest brothers were in charge of. “What happened with Varn's men?”

  Naem forced his eyes to try and see further into the darkness, but it was pointless. It was too dark.

  He let out a sigh. But just before he was about to turn back and join Relker and the others, the sight of the moon slowly being consumed by the darkness caught his attention. The darkness was too thick to have been a cloud, but just as Naem was about to try and look closer, all the signal fires that lined the westward walls shot up into the air in unison. They arced toward the darkness that was consuming the moon.

  “Catapults!?” Naem said to himself in surprise, but what he’d seen sent a chill through him.

  All the fireballs flew through a horde of winged beasts that were far closer than the darkness they created led him to believe. Numbers at an unimaginable scale began to engulf the entire western night sky. And then...

  The screams came.