Bringing down Erick's arm with a second kick, Rosa used her other foot to land a strong blow to his nose, making it bleed dramatically.

Bry then pushed the girl away with a punch straight to her stomach, while she continued to laugh. She landed on her feet a few meters away from them, with her back to them.

Very worried about the blows to Erick's face, Bry began to get upset.

"You're bleeding!"

"Don't worry, Jake is good with wounds" he smiled at the girl trying to calm her down.

"No, no..." Bry looked really scared, her hands shaking, anxiously approaching him "you don't... you can't bleed, you must never get hurt, not my Erick, my-"

Erick pushed her by the face, away from him and making way for the mallet that passed between them. The black-haired boy struck the creature's back, driving the sharp spikes of his sphere into it.

The two turned to look at him in surprise, watching as his wounds healed on their own, his blood evaporating as his cuts closed.

As he pulled the chain with a big smile, sadistic in nature, a gigantic monster emerged from inside of their classmate, black as the darkness of space, with spikes protruding from its joints and collarbone.

Its face was similar to that of a bat, sharp fingers, fangs that followed the shape of its twisted mouth and something resembling a lion's mane, raised as if it had static, adorning its head that rose above the trees around it. A Diagvelian demon.

Rosa fell unconscious on the ground behind the beast. The entity and the black-haired boy exchanged glances, both smiling at each other as if greeting an old friend, or rather, an old enemy.

“What luck. Three soldiers in front of me” the Diagvelia’s voice echoed through the forest, giving the sensation of a muddy texture and a muffled echo behind it “but two are still asleep.”

“Wait… what? Those two are… WHAT?!”

«What will they think of me if they see me like this?” The little black-haired boy froze, opening his eyes in bewilderment. The mace sphere fell to the ground “Should I keep fighting?».

With a slap to his head his weapon disintegrated, leaving behind a fleeting burst of light «What do I do now?».

The little redhead caught up to them, dragging Linda by her feet, unconscious behind her.

“Vincent, what are you doing? If you don't devour that thing the girls won't wake up.”

“But, Hana~… I don't want to scare them.”

The little black-haired boy turned to look at the little redhead, with tears in his eyes and a pout on his mouth.

“If you don't do it” she pointed to where the other two children were “they're going to get killed.”

While Hana and Vincent were talking, the Diagvelia had hit Erick and Aubrey, sending them flying through the sky, now plummeting into the trees. Both were bleeding from the impact of its claws.

As he fell, Erick looked down looking for the best way to land, being interrupted by the hands of his newly arrived guardian.

Klaus caught him, using his crystals to create a platform that would rise above the forest. At the same time, with a small tornado he caught Bry, bringing her to them.

“You're lucky I made it.”

As if getting off a carriage, he offered his hand to Bry to descend from the air to the platform. She took it while still processing what was happening.

“I thought you were just looking for a kitten.”

Looking at him closely, Bry noticed his pointed ears, his eyes, his sharp nails and, when he spoke, his enormous fangs. Adding that to the elemental handling, she quickly discovered the man's identity. Shocked and dismayed.

“Is your tutor a vampire?” – upon hearing her, Klaus looked uncomfortably at Erick.

“Yes, he is. What about that?”

“We should be on the ground, if they see him floating during daytime they will arrest him.”

“Technically he is not floating” Erick spoke presumptuously.

“And it is almost night time so I will be fine, do not worry” Klaus interceded.

“Do you know what it's like on this island with the…” she thought for a second about her next words, glancing sideways at the man “…‘dark beings’?”

Aubrey wasn't used to dealing with beings not allowed in human settlements, although she didn't want to be rude to someone important to Erick, she also didn't want to interact with one of the creatures she had been compared to as a child as an insult. Klaus took the girl's attitude as an innocent mistake.

“Listen. I understand your concern, but we'll really be fine. I'm not committing any infraction and-”

“HEY! Don't forget about me”

Not giving much importance to the demon's interruption, Klaus attacked it with a burst of crystals, creating a barrier between the Diagvelia and the children. Starting a fight to keep them safe.

Hanna approached Vincent with some annoyance, it was rare for him to let an enemy go in such a careless way, even less so when there were other children's lives at risk.

“Vince, we have to help them.”

“But Fangs already saved them…”

“And the fragment for dad?! What about stopping the cult?!” The little girl waved her hands in the air in desperation, denoting her artificial rigidity even more. “Isn't that more important than what those teenagers think of you?”

“Well…”

Vincent looked up at where the vampire and the Diagvelia were fighting, behind him the two children whose identity he had just discovered, not knowing what to do. He turned back to see his sister.

“At any sign of trouble I will intervene, and of course I will make sure to take the fragment.”

With his jaw set, nervous and a little anxious thinking about the possibilities, he continued speaking.

“Even if I have to snatch it from them.”

For a moment memories of his terrible early childhood came to him, the mere mention of that group that had done him so much harm angered him beyond measure.

His jaw clenched even tighter, tensed by the emotions clashing in his young mind. He spoke through clenched teeth.

“You know that destroying those bastards is my priority.”

The confusion of the revelation took control of his thoughts again. His emotions, volatile, made him dizzy with their intensity. He looked at those children again with sad eyes.

“But… If they are who I think they are I don’t want them to fear me… " he lowered his gaze "I have dreamed so much of meeting them that… I…”

Seeing her little brother tremble from his fear of rejection, Hanna couldn't help but comfort him. She took little Vincent in her chapped arms and squeezed him tightly, rubbing her cheek on his little head lovingly.

“It's okay Vince" she let go and pinched his cheek "But if something happens I'll throw you in there myself, okay?”

“I got it, stop it…”

The little boy broke free from his sister's tugs and rubbed his cheek with his metal prosthesis, now calmer. Both continued to watch the fight.

The Vampire seemed to put no effort into dodging the demon's attacks, simply leaning his body from one side to the other, focused, reading the direction of the attacks while the Diagvelia grew angrier and angrier.

Watching him, Hanna remembered what she had heard earlier in her mother's offices.

“Do you think he's the one the hunters were talking about?”

Vincent tilted his head curiously, lowering one eyebrow and raising the other, looking at Klaus more closely, remembering how those strange people had described their target.

“The abda- ade-”

“Abdicant, yes, that one.”