"GASP!"

Chifuyu wakes up with an immense cold sweat. Even asleep, the encounter from earlier had his very soul quaking in fear.

"Where am I? Ah-!"

Tied around a pillar next to an unconscious Iris, they appear to be in some abandoned parking lot.

"Crap, were we captured? Shoyo knew this could happen, and now I've gotten someone else involved. Damm it!"

Chifuyu tries to force his way out of the ropes, but it proves futile. They're tightly bound around his waist and wrists, he can only sit there on his ass and wait for what's to come.

"It's only been a month and this is already happening, huh? I can't believe they were able to slip by Shoyo."

'Calm down, Chifuyu.'

'Ariel!'

'I've been up for a while now, waiting for you to wake up. I don't know who we were captured by, but there's no need to worry. You have me after all.'

Chifuyu takes a deep breath in and out.

'Yeah, you're right. I'm training not just to become a Hunter, but so I'll also always be able to protect myself when situations like this come up. So until I get stronger, I can rely on you, right partner?'

'Heh. You'll always be able to rely on me, even if you become the strongest there is.'

'Hmph.'

Chifuyu realizes his sudden panic was for nothing.

'I've been awake for at least 2 hours. I wasn't out long, so it must be early in the morning of the best day.'

'So it's somewhere between 1 a.m and 4 a.m rn.'

'I'm sure the vampires know my existence is being kept a secret right now, so that means they also know a large amount of Hunters won't come to our rescue.'

'Yeah. If more Hunters other than Shoyo are searching for us right now, then it's probably just the ones who were present at the trial.'

'Surely our captors don't think they have all the time in the world either, they should show themselves before too long.'

"Hm..."

'Oh, looks like the girl's woken up.'

"Wh-wha.. Where are we?!"

"Iris, calm down. Listen, everything's going to be fine."

"What could possibly be fine about this, we're gonna die!!"

"Ariel's going to protect us, none of these vampires have squat on her!"

"Ho. So our commander really has betrayed us."

"Seems like it."

"How hilarious!"

Vampires emerge from both the lower and upper levels of the parking lot, numbering exactly 50.

Ariel emerges out of Chifuyu's shadow.

"There she is, the woman of the hour!"

"I'm surprised the lot of you were able to gather here without catching the attention of any Hunters. So, how many of you were my subordinates?"

"We all were!"

"I see."

Most Vampire Lords usually never get to know their subordinates. Each Lord has at least 100,000 vampires under them. The only ones they gave some attention to were their generals who are the ones that mainly manage and order the vampires under each Lord. Ariel was no exception. She played the part of a great leader but still never cared for those under her. This was the result of her immense hatred for humans. She only had 2 generals which ended being the only vampires she called her friends. Her subordinates wanted to save Ariel as the great Vampire Lord they thought she was and who they served under for so long. Now that she's defected to the side of the humans, they have no qualms about killing her.

"How're Nino and Reoa doing?"

"Hm, it's been about 30 years since I've been to our world. I think Nino's alive but I heard Reoa bit the dust a long time ago."

"Is that so."

"Anything else you wanna know?"

"No, thank you for telling me."

"I don't know if she got the news yet, but I'm sure your sister will be devasted once she hears of your betrayal."

"..."

"Sister?" Chifuyu whispers to himself.

"Have you not been thinking about her at all? We all know how dearly she loved you!"

"That's enough."

"I can only imagine how distraught and heartbroken Ayu will be when-"

In an instant, Ariel dashes at the provoking vampire with the intent to kill.

"Hold your tongue, you fool."

Following those words, Ariel rips out that vampire's tongue. Blood gushes out his mouth. The other vampires just watch without making a move.

The tongue grows back after a few seconds.

"You sure are rough aren't you."

"..."

"Hmph. Is that your human master over there? How pathetic. Ariel, after we kill that boy, you're coming with us back to our world. Your punishment will certainly be execution."

"Ha, and how exactly are you going to do that?"

"C'mon commander, it's been 200 years. Do you really think we haven't found ways to deal with insubordinate vampires?"

A cube is tossed to the ground in front of Ariel, chains immediately erupt out of all 6 sides and wrap all around her.

"Ariel!"

"DAMN IT! What the hell is this?"

"A binding artifact that not even a Vampire Lord can break through. Gotta hand it to those witches for making such useful contraptions."

"AAHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Use as much brute force as you can muster, it's useless. Coincidentally, we have a sound artifact surrounding this building. So no matter how loud you yell, nobody will hear it."

'Crap, this isn't looking good. Not even Ariel thought they had a means to capture her. Is this really it?'

"No... I don't wanna die.."

Iris who was silently watching while quivering the whole time lets out a cry.

"Iris.. I'm sorry, it's my fault that you got involved in this."

Actually, it's Shoyo's for bringing the two together.

"Hey! You can take me back, just don't kill Chifuyu! Please!"

"Please? Hey guys, did you hear that?"

"Sure did!"

"An almighty Lord begging us to spare a human?!"

"Oh man, comedy doesn't get better than this."

"Pfft."

"Haha."

"Hahaha."

"Hahahahahahahahahaha."

A hopeless situation. Ariel is forced to listen to the laughs of those mocking her without being able to do anything.

"Hey guys, I know how to make this even more amusing!"

"Ho, what is it?"

"Let's have this girl kill the boy instead!"

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Girl, if you do this, then we'll let you leave here alive."

One of the vampires with a blade walks up and slashes the ropes. Kicking Chifuyu away, he drops the sword in front of Iris and walks back to the crowd.

A few seconds of silence pass before Iris picks up the blade.

"I'm sorry..."

"Iris...?"

"I don't wanna die, Chifuyu."

Tears flow down her face of genuine sadness. She hasn't known Chifuyu for long, most people would do the same.

When being forced to choose one's own life or another, even if you've known them your whole life, humans will ultimately save themselves.

"DAMN YOOOUU!"

Ariel lashes out at the vampires, she can only watch from the ground.

"Gah!"

The vampire instigating all this kicks Ariel across the parking lot, even further from the two she was supposed to protect.

"Now kill him!"

"AAAHHHH!"

Iris is the most frightened she's been her whole life and feels like she has no choice right now. The vampire yells viciously to kill Chifuyu which leads to Iris screaming as she runs at him.

Chifuyu has no choice but to defend himself.

Shoyo had already told Chifuyu Iris is strong enough to become a Hunter, but that doesn't even begin to describe how strong she is.

Even when bawling her eyes out, her blade doesn't waver. The first slash misses Chifuyu's neck by a hair's breadth, even he knew if that blade made contact his throat would've been slit.

'Crap, she's serious here!'

"Please die for me, Chifuyu!"