Addressing the patiently waiting old man:

"Great Wise Wizard, I ask you to please help them."

After nodding his head, the old man with his hands folded behind his back descended walking in the direction of the little ones.

The vampire kept the following words to herself, as she recalled the past:

"This remorse I feel despite having lived so long...". Maryam felt guilty. "A bond is not the solution to escape from forbidden habits and temptations. A friendship would not correct the damaged bond. A relationship would not fix our friendship. One marriage was not going to repair our relationship and one child would not save our marriage, let alone three... I knew it! I always knew it and yet I did it because it was my chance!".

She also wept inside the giant as she remembered that other vampiress who had conquered Wulfgang's heart. "I hope, my child, that you can forgive me. That you can forgive this mother who kept for herself your most precious treasure." Slashing as many enemies as she could with her sword, she continued to talk to herself looking at her husband. "This marriage was the price of my freedom. Oh! Another compromising word, isn't it, Wulfgang? I who always longed to be free, am the biggest hypocrite in this story."

After smacking her cheeks with her open hands, she changed her gaze, wiped away her tears and puffed out her chest; she continued speaking as if reminding herself of something important: "Maryam! There is no value in emotions; love, trust, happiness and friendship are just useful tools to use and manipulate. I am not allowed to repent. They can't point out my mistakes either, not now that they are the kind of weapon needed to be able to survive in a world that would celebrate their deaths, a world where, if necessary, they will have to kill the people they love the most before they kill them. Now that they have known what it is to die, the alteration, the commotion, the restlessness, the exaltation, the uneasiness, the fear... now that they have gone through the initiation, let those who dare to stand in the way of my children be prepared. I hope that humans will choose a god they think is the most just if they want to wage war."

...

The three little ones stood up. Jhades and Dante, glad to have survived, ignored the fact that they had died for a few seconds. More than ignoring, they had learned that death was nothing special to them. To die was simply to rest in peace. In a life where pain translates into suffering, death had represented to them the absence of pain, so it also resulted in the absence of suffering. Rey, on the other hand, with bated breaths from crying, was hugging against his chest something somewhat fleshy, covered in soot and ashes, what he assumed to be a fur. That one who never had the chance to leave life, did not understand what his brothers. Perhaps for that very reason he felt so guilty about what was happening.

The more the white eyes saw, the more the mind ignored everything in the surroundings and plunged into an abyss of darkness. Inside Rey, a solitary mirror reflected the boy's mood, a neutral one; eyes open, observant of all that was happening. The falling of this delicate reflective object where there was no floor coined the permanence of the damage being caused. Another noisy sound of breaking glass ensued, another and another and another. One for each new feeling that could exist in the personality of someone emotionally unstable. Colorful negatives became the image that reflected the little one, images that no longer reflected the same face. Within each and every one of the hundreds of pieces, there was now a reflection of its own, independent of the others. As many pieces as expressions could make a face. Expressions manipulated by emotions that became chains that momentarily clamored as a prisoner to the body and will of Rey, who refused to let go.

One of the two floating balls appeared inside Rey; it also rang in the echo of so many crystals to ask:

"How to react?" 

It was Melody. She, in the young man's ear, whispered a whistle with the intention of calming while holding some pieces of broken mirrors.

"This is just the first experience of many more" said someone, male voice, as he turned and turned his back on the matter.

The other floating ball made to appear and also threw out a question:

"How to be able to show that you care?"

" It was Memory, who floated the memories of a past."

Returning to the reality of the outside due to the commotion of the fight between giants and giants, Rey could not control his hands from shaking. Still in a state of shock, his breathing accelerated as denial banished the disbelief that ended up strangled by the young man's teeth that gnashed under the pressure. Confusion left and in its wake literally greeted anger and indignation, being the ones that manifested on that little face. Rey, broken down in tears, said:

"Why? This was my fight, it was mine. I told you not to interfere... Why!?"

Dante, without the usual energy in his demeanor, his eyes flooded with tears, rested his hand on Rey's shoulder. The wolf acted as one who had let his mate go, for to let go of life was good in a sense. The wolf, repentant, admitted that he had been wrong, that it was no fun to gamble in situations that were under no one's control. He also apologized for leaving without looking back and added cynically that they should continue their escape. No matter how much he spoke and no matter how much he tried to be empathetic, Dante grew tired and said in a shout:

"Enough...!" At the same time he expelled all the remaining air in his lungs. "Father said it's not right to cry over something that served its purpose...it makes you look less invincible."

Rey, filled with rage, regardless of what his brother might think of him, removed his hand from his shoulder and barely stood up with aggressive intentions, spoke as one trying to remain calm:

"Anything? Invincible? Do you even have any idea what you're talking about?!"

With a clenched fist, Rey punched his brother in the face, to continue:

"Think before you speak I told you already Dante, so that your good intentions don't end up causing greater evils. If you see me crying it's because I lost someone of value, not "something".

Rey was right. Deep in his heart, Dante understood that going against his brother would be worthless, and if he was crying, why should he hold back. With that, tears of pain left the red eyes that had stopped caring about maintaining any semblance of appearance. Looking to the side, was the dead body of his companion, that little furry kitten who was always happy to see him and accompanied him everywhere trying to be as strong as he was, naive and innocent who, despite all his faults, admired him. The face shattered by crying was reflecting before the bearer of the white eyes the way the little wolf was manifesting what he was feeling inside.

Conversely, indicators of the sadness he was suffering, the series of expressive mechanisms within the vampire let out an off-key ironic laugh. For someone of a selfish nature, it was normal for him to suffer with the welfare of others, more so if this welfare was death itself. The offensive noise from the vampire made the two brothers turn their faces away. Jhades was no different, between his hands he tightly embraced the remaining part of the body of his companion, who was also dead, crushed between two stones.

…

Melody in Rey's ear, whispered the following words:

"Crying and laughing... expressive behaviors working as catharsis. Everyone is in the same situation, they don't know how to act, how to make the world understand that the situation really matters to them and that they don't want to accept the death of a loved one. To free yourself in tears if necessary to get rid of that which weighs so much inside you, which alters your mental equilibrium."

Another voice, totally different, added:

"Be very careful with what you feel inside. It is what makes you imperfect and, in many cases, what will lead you to make wrong decisions."

...

Dante, surrendering to stand up, said:

"If we are not going to escape, what are we going to do?"

Suddenly, at the wolf cub's question, someone else began to burst out laughing. Not quite at ease, the three little ones paid a little more attention to their surroundings until they managed to identify where it was coming from. Yacer was still alive. Lying in the middle of the crater, without skin, flesh or bones, alone, there remained a metallic skull of a mechanical eye.

The little vampire changed his ways as he realized that one of the causes of the pain, he was feeling was still alive. For the first time for Jhades, the existence of a person was itself provoking the rejection that was created within him. The negative feeling not only plagued the vampire's insides, but also contaminated like a swarm the little wolf and the unwanted child. Antipathy, dislike, resentment, loathing, contempt, rage were all that the hatred was making those young men feel for the life of the one who at the moment was laughing. Jhades assumed the appearance of the beast that slept inside him and launched himself mercilessly in Yacer's direction, as soon as he was right in front of him, he pointed the pistol at his head and said:

"Damn you, you don't know how much I'm going to enjoy this....".

One after another were the bullets that came out of the mouth of the smoking gun. One after another, the shots that, no matter where in that skull they hit, did not extinguish the irritating laughter. Yacer, with no facial expressions to make, said:

"Blessed am I? Yes, blessed to die I am. Damn you, doomed to live and feel the most powerful poison of mankind... my voice is still being made, without giving in or dying" he said even after the skull was partially destroyed.

What was speaking was a kind of square horn, which is why the voice sounded so distorted. Jhades ran out of bullets, but he continued to see how the strange creepy eye moved and focused on him with its small lens. The vampire wanted to stomp the piece of bone to dust with his heel, but before he continued, something stopped him.

Within the sky that still looked black, but behaved as if the invasion was coming to an end, the words spoken by the Great Wise Wizard echoed through the place:

"Missionary of a thousand souls."

The old man who walked through the air without a care in the world, with his clamor made the black sapphire stone throne appear. Upon the throne sat the figure of a rotting corpse, one that one could well see had been a beautiful, graceful and elegant woman. Of burnt garments and flesh, cold and lifeless, the creature seemed to take a deep breath to rise. Spreading shadows wherever it walked, the terrifying presence tugged at the chain around its waist, a chain that held a numberless number of beings without solid colors, nor essence of life or hints of matter.

Ching, ching, shuiiiing, shuiiiing, trink, trink! The chains moved.

"Aaaah!, get to work..." said the creature between ruddy-eyed whispers. "Aaaah!" snatching relief and bringing pain."

The creature's neck turned one hundred and eighty degrees, the sound of dismantling bones took place, and finally... the indecipherable gaze of that pain-provoking being focused on the three little ones.