The red haired man grinned as he admired Mail’s appearance. He knew that with the look of determination in Mail’s eyes, he would not be able to retrieve the silver eyes and silver hair easily. The man didn’t care, though. He loved it when his prey struggled in vain.

“Come,” he beckoned Mail to attack. Mail readied his two daggers for a strike. Blood from his previous enemy stained his clothes and dripped from his arms. He yelled and charged towards the older man who was enjoying this situation too much.

Nire stood watching in horror as her home was engulfed in flames. The waiting bench where Mr. Kint had just been sitting a few hours ago was a charred pile of ashes. The cloth that Nire had folded and put away with all her heart was burnt to smithereens. The home that she had grown up in and lived her whole life in was burning to the ground, and Nire was powerless in doing anything about it. However, she chose to believe in hope. No matter how dire the situation was becoming, Nire believed they would find a way to overcome the flames of destruction.

“Mom!” Nire cried out as she dodged through the flames to make her way to her mother. “Mom,” Nire held her mother, weak from her injury, in her arms. “We need to get out of here,” Nire said.

“But what about Mail? We can’t leave Mail,” her mother replied.

“I know, we’re all going to make it out together. I promise. I’m just helping you out first.” Nire tried to sound calm and confident. She didn’t know how she was going to save Mail, but she was determined to not leave him behind. Nire helped her mother up and together, they slowly made their way to the back exit. As Nire walked by the counter, she went around and grabbed her training sword. It wasn’t very sharp due to it being for training purposes, but that didn’t matter, as Nire just had to protect her family. At that very moment, Mail and the red haired assailant were still battling.

“Boy,” he called out to Mail, “The smell of fear on you is delicious. Tell me, are you afraid of fire?” He cackled through the roaring flames and began shooting more fireballs surrounding Mail. Mail gulped. It wasn’t necessarily fire that he was afraid of, but his dream. Mail had often dreamt of this night. A group of men clad in black arriving as soon as the sun set, a raging sea of flames that swallowed the night whole. It was so terrifying that he would wake up drenched in sweat, or even wetting the bed sometimes. Nire would always tease him about it and he tried to play it off, but he knew that with a dream that terrifying, it had to be real. With such heavy feelings towards his visions, he couldn’t deny that he wasn’t expecting it to happen tonight. It was more like he was begging for it to not happen tonight. Not ever.

While Mail was distracted, the attacker seized this chance and fired a ball of flame towards Mail. With his instincts, Mail was able to evade it by a hair's width, but the fire had burned off the outermost layer of his skin on his arm. He clutched his raw arm in pain. The man slowly approached Mail speaking once more, “You can’t be finished yet.” He grinned, then changed his mind, “But I would understand if you’d like to simply give up. Give up and give me your eyes on your own!” His uproarious laughter rang louder than the flames, but Mail cut through it with his determination.

“Never!” Mail had screamed in anguish and began slashing at the man, but to no avail, as he was too quick, he was able to avoid all the oncoming slashes. “I’ll stop you here and now before you can go and harm any others!” Mail’s face was contorted with pain and fury as he screamed and slashed away at the space between him and the man.

Sadly, the man was too quick so he easily avoided all of Mail’s incoming attacks. He soon grew bored of dodging the boy’s attacks so he decided that it was time for his strike back. The man moved so quickly, it was as if he had teleported towards Mail. He lodged a punch right in Mail’s gut and whispered into his ear as Mail keeled over in pain. “I could easily kill you right now, but killing you slowly is more fun. How about we step up the pain and let me kill you like this?” He motioned towards Nire who was still struggling through the flames while carrying her mother. Mail coughed out blood and grabbed the man’s arms as if to stop him, but the man easily shook him off and dove right towards the two. A split second later, Mail could hear the sound of flesh being pierced. He immediately turned to look.

“N-- n---,” Mail stuttered to say anything for a moment. “Nire...” The sight that befell Mail’s eyes were that of his sister holding a sword that had pierced the man, and of his mother who had been pierced by the man. Struggling to stay standing, Mail buckled his knees and fell to the ground. Their mother slowly lifted her hand and stroked Nire’s hair one last time. “You did well, my daughter,” before she, too, fell to the ground, landing in a pool of both her own and the man’s blood.

Nire retracted the sword that had pierced the man’s body, tossed it aside, grabbed onto her mother and began to cry. “Mom! I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you. I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you.” She rocked back and forth cradling her mother’s lifeless body in her arms. Nire knew she was wrong to think this way, but she didn’t care about what happened next. Nire wanted to be swallowed in the flames with her mother. However, as soon as that thought had manifested in Nire’s mind, Mail had crawled over to Nire and began to hold and kiss his sister’s forehead. He tried not to cry. He wanted to appear strong so that his sister wouldn’t worry, but the tears had already begun spilling over his face. He apologized as well to his mother for his inability to save her.

“Nire,” Mail whimpered, “We have to go.” He regrettably separated his crying sister from their mother and began trying to comfort her. “Let’s go find--” Before Mail could finish his sentence, he turned at the sound of bones cracking, and an all too familiar sing-song voice began to sigh.

“Ahhh. That was a close one, little girl.” The man was supposed to be dead, but aside from the fact that he was now soaked in blood, he looked very alive and very well. “Are you perhaps wondering how I’m still alive after that?” The man’s neck cracked. “I thought maybe I was a goner, but my little deal worked out for me.”

“Deal?” Mail asked, afraid of what the man would say next.

“Yes, my deal with a follower of the dark,” the man replied, waltzing towards the dead body lying on the ground as his body cracked and shifted with every movement. He stood above the corpse and groaned, “Oh, how sad. Poor mother, dear, wanted to save the children. How upset do you think she’d be if she were to find out you’re all going to die here tonight?” He kicked over the body and knelt down, forcing the eyelids to open with his bloodied fingers. He spoke again, “All’s well that ends well, I guess. The fact that she’s already dead will make harvesting a lot easier.” Just then, the man’s face twisted into a sickening look of lust. “Though I would have loved to hear her screams. Now, which one of you is next?”

By now, Mail had had enough of the crazy man’s antics and was ready to fight his way through to ensure his sister’s survival. Even though Mail knew that if the man was serious about his deal with “a follower of the dark”, his dream would become true, and no one would survive. “You’re next,” Mail replied to the man.

“Ahh, I love a tough little act before watching people like you break down and beg for your worthless lives.” Again, the man seemed to be enjoying himself too much. Nire grabbed onto Mail’s shirt and looked him in the eyes, begging him to run away with her. Mail understood the look of concern in Nire’s eyes, but only smiled and shook his head. “I’m going to be the next Father of the Sword. Put a little more faith in me,” Mail tried to reassure his sister. He then whispered his last message to her and pushed her out of the flames that were growing stronger by the moment. Nire reached out her hand to take her brother with her, but she couldn’t reach him. The way in which she came out from was overtaken by the flames. Nire screamed her brother’s name agony, but knew what she must do. Gathering up her courage and desire to not let her loved ones’ sacrifices go in vain, she put all her hope into finding her father.

As Nire ran around the destroyed village, screaming into the night, looking for her father, Mail’s final words ran through her mind as well. “Nire, it’s my job to protect the family. I-- I failed mom. But I won’t fail dad, and especially not you. You may be annoying at times, but that doesn’t change the fact that I love you. And I always will. No matter what happens next. So please, run. Save yourself. Find father.”

Nire had stopped running when she reached the edge of the village. Her blood turned cold and she froze in her tracks. Her father had been killed. Her father is now dead as well. Standing there, a person clad in black with a piece of black cloth covering their face as well, suspended Nire’s father in mid air, holding him up by the impalement in his chest by what looked to be their arm, but stretched to three times an arm’s usual length. The person in black took notice of Nire's appearance, retracted their arm and let the body fall to the ground.

“I knew I’d find you here,” they began speaking, “I had a good feeling that if I brought those hunters here, I’d meet you again. And here we are. Isn’t life good?”

“What do you mean?” Nire was hysterical. She could not believe all that had happened in one night. “Who are you? What have you done to my home? My family? My people?” Nire yelled at the person demanding answers.

“Your people?” The person asked back. “Why, these aren’t your people. Need I remind you that you’re not really one of them? Or,” the person paused for a second before continuing, “have you forgotten during your time away?” The person slowly approached Nire, but she could only back away in fear.

“I’m asking the questions here! Now stop spouting nonsense and answer me!”

“As you wish, master.”

At that, the mysterious person unleashed a beast dwelling from within their palm. It distorted at first from a hand, to a blob of nothingness, then it materialized into a wolf with flaming blue eyes. It headed right towards Nire and pierced right through her chest as well. She threw up blood and fell the the ground after the impact.

“Mail,” Nire cried out her brother’s name, but her voice couldn’t sound any louder than a hoarse whisper. “Mail,” she cried again. She knew she was dying. The pain was too great.

“There, there, hush now,” the mysterious person knelt down next to her and began stroking her cheek with immense care. “Relax, just close your eyes. The fun has only just begun.” The wind blew past the two, lifting the face covering of the person for a mere moment. Nire looked at her murderer’s face, unsettling glowing red eyes and sinister smile.

“You,” she sputtered. “I’ll kill you,” she choked on her own blood. “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you.” Those three words were her last as she lay there hacking out and laying on her own blood. Her body grew colder and weaker each second. The pain seared through her entire body along with a violent ringing noise through her ears. All this kept growing and growing, and then it stopped. Nire had died.

“See you soon,” the person leaned over and kissed Nire on the forehead.