Graauhnngghh!

A giant wolf roars pouncing Shiryu to the ground,

“agh” he yelps feeling it’s claws beginning to pierce his skin

“Shiryu!” Pinoki yells out on alarm instantly lashing out a shadow hand at the creature pulling it back

“Thanks,” gasps Shiryu scrambling away

“grrrrr” the beast breaks away from Pinoki’s magic running up on Shiryu again 

“Stay off!” hisses Shiryu the violet ‘tattoos’ on his body glowing now

*Slasshh!*

The wolf takes a swipe at him but this time his skin remains unscathed

…. 

“Grrr, I give up.” The beast abruptly stops much to the surprise of Shiryu and Pinoki who were right about preparing some powerful attacks 

The animal the size of a car, stands up on it’s hind legs shrinking it’s body–no transforming it into a hairy bipedal form, the body of a human but features of a wolf

“Freki?” Shiryu identifies the figure, calling it out in a respectful tone

“grrr, you are the same snake I spared isn’t it?”

“….."

Shiryu doesn’t reply

“You went from a weak underling to one of the new breed,

Or perhaps you always were?

I knew I kept you alive for a reason.”

“Why did you attack me?” Shiryu still keeps his distance unsure of the werewolf

“Just playing around.” Freki bares his teeth in a sadistic smile

“I told you they wouldn’t understand,” another beast leaps out of a nearby tree, 

Almost Identical to the first this second werewolf is Freki’s counterpart Geri

Her sharp eyes move swiftly from Pinoki to Shiryu

“You are the newest, new breed?”

“Where are we and what happened to the vampire Lamia?”

“Grrr, here is our own personal chamber, we are still inside the citadel, you can call this a hyperbolic reality chamber,

This forest and mountain are both fiction and reality,

We the werewolves live in the forest, the ogres on the mountain and vampires in the mountain.” 

“Which way do I have to go to find Dracula?”

“Any direction.” Geri and Freki suddenly leap back into trees

“I don’t know about this.” Whispers Pinoki

“But it makes me excited”

“…..”hhahaahh♪”

Shiryu exhales casting a glance at the surrounding area

The mountain range spreads endlessly as does the forest, a dim red light casts down off the non-existent roof blanketing the room

“All directions look exactly the same,” Pinoki points out cautiously stepping forward, 

Aside from the direction they entered, all sides of the room are warped so that any way you turn you’d always be facing the trees

“Well don’t just stand around there, Dracula is waiting.” A growling voice echoes out the trees

“….”

Shiryu and Pinoki give each other telling glances before moving in…

...

Crrnch♪

A fallen branch breaks under the weight of Shiryu’s foot, the sound reverberates throughout the deafeningly silent forest, 

The trees don’t sway, the wind a motionless vacuum, everything feels so lifeless…

Though they had a lot of comments and observations on the forest, strangely enough the  dead silence compelled the two to march on quietly

…

The sea of trees itself was not that long or large of an area it would not belong till the pair would find themselves on the opposite end of the warped woods.

Thud!

Budd!

THUDD!

BAMM!

Juxtaposed to the ear bleeding silence, a loud series of thumps break into audibility as the two come face to face with the base of the mountain

THUDD!

“I can’t wait to crush things again!” a gravely voice bellows down from above 

BAAMM!

“At least you got a chance to go and fight those humans!” a second voice booms

“That must be the ogre’s.” Shiryu says feeling strange speaking after what felt like an eternity of silence

“This place is incredibly strange,” Pinoki speaks under his breath cautious of being heard

“Yeah, and those wolves have not kept their eyes off us,

You can’t see them if you look but I can feel their gaze, 

I want to hurry and get out of here.”

“Well you are the one who brought us here in the first place,”

“It was a spur of the moment suggestion,”

(We could be anywhere else right now…)

…

“There is where the vampire is.” Pinoki points to a pitch black cavern in the side of the mountain,

“You wait out here Pinoki, I can see in the dark you can’t.”

“Don’t die or vanish on me.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Shiryu steps into the cave alone the darkness swallowing him at once

…

“You took your time I see,” Lamia’s voice whispers in his ear

“You?” Shiryu spins around to see the shadowy outline of Lamia hanging upside down from the cave’s ceiling

“Behind you.” She says making the young man spin back the other direction to the now appearing figure–Dracula 

“Here to see me?” Dracula creates a small flame in his palm creating a tiny bit of light in the dark cave

“There are a few things I need to know from you,”

“Like the dragon?” Dracula outs the flame then relights it playfully a sly grin across his face

“What did you mean when you said you were responsible, and….”

“That was just a little pet project of mind.”  Dracula doesn’t let Shiryu finish, flashing the flame on and off in the darkness he replies

“I knew the dragon requiem was in the human’s possession, I wanted to see what would happen if it had a chance to revive, Lamia tell him.” The light goes off again accompanied by the soft wrap of Lamia’s arms going around Shiryu’s neck from behind

“Heyy,” Shiryu tries resisting but instantly feels weaker

“It was me♪” the vampire whispers soothingly

“I can manipulate any human I think want you know, by any means,

That’s how I used that man Ginobelucci, he thought he found love,

He found me,”

“L, love?

You can make people feel love?”

“Do you want to feel it?”

…

…

“Nn.

No,” Shiryu manages to pull away

“That’s not what I’m here for,

You said it was you who influenced the man to get the dragon,

What are you after all this wasn’t for nothing.”

“Why do you care?” the fire comes on again to Dracula now hanging from the roof

“You aren’t on our side,

And you’re not with the humans,

You have your own agenda, love is it?”

“I hate not knowing things, love isn’t my only goal, I’m after it because I don’t understand it,

Just like this business about the dragon and you new breed, I don’t understand what you’re after, so I want to know

That’s all.” Shiryu replies sharply

“A primal urge to know everything,” Dracula floats down standing upright again the orange flame flickering violently in his palm

“That’s what makes you one of us, the new breed, we are complex organisms but our goals are simple and primal, 

You see the ogres just like to toss about and cause carnage wherever they go,

The werewolves love nothing more than a hunt, the dragon’s loved to consume,

And Lamia and I love nothing more than being in control of beasts or humans, doesn’t matter, I control through fear and her, desire.” 

“What does reviving a dragon have to do with you getting control of anything?”

“The blackmagic dealer told us that the dragons’ requiem needed to be activated in order for me to achieve a future where my kind would be preserved and my other half and I would keep our control forever.”

“You mean sir Savage?”

(I have so many unanswered questions from that man, what futures has he seen…)

“It’s pronounced Savić, that man had the power of the phantom flame,

If I’m not wrong you were the one who helped him get away from our protection, right?”

(Are all these things that took place secretly a part of that man’s plan?)

“It’s all according to his plan,” Dracula says affirming Shiryu’s thoughts

“The fact that you the sixth and final member of the new breed stands before me right now means whatever he saw is coming true.”

“Sixth member? 

There are other beast?” Shiryu questions half expecting a creature he’d never seen before to appear out of the darkness

“Sixth, the first new breed was the dragons, then the ogres, werewolves, and us vampires,

You are the last living new breed the dragons are of course extinct and the other was like you one of a kind.”

“What happened to it?”

“She went into the human world and got killed and made into a powerful requiem.”

(The second requiem?)

“That’s the next thing I want my hands on.” Dracula outs the fire leaping back up to the roof

“The requiem that can turn anything into a magic stone,

Medusa’s Requiem.”