The sun was almost set when the group was searching around in an old and abandoned shrine. An antique structure that Rena said to have been built by the elves. What it must have been a majestic temple in honor of the water El was now a pile of old and cracked marble covered in thick vines. It was hard to imagine the layout of the temple, where the elves would say their prayers or how would they carry out their spiritual duties now. For someone as used to see marvelous temples dedicated to the water as Chung, this was really disappointing.

But not as disappointing as the fact that they couldn't find what they came for. There wasn't any magical stone laying around. Not in the shrine, not under it, not around it… it was nowhere to be found. Even Aisha couldn't sense it's magic anywhere. Considering how old the ruins where, it is not crazy to imagine that it may have been looted before by explorers or bandits. However, there was something else in this situation that was sending a bad bibe down their spines. Not only they didn't find the stone, but also they had in mind the unusually uneventful walk they had from the village to here. Ever since they arrived to the village they had to endure night after night of continuous attacks by creatures coming from this same forest, however, in their way here; they couldn't even see a single wolf. Now all they could do was look at the orange sky through the forest and regret the long walk.

"Isn't it too soon to light up the fires?," Raven said, watching several pillars of black smoke rise over the trees.

The party moved closer, looking in the same direction as the mercenary. You could see tall black columns of smoke rise over the threes in the distance. At first they thought they started lighting the fires for the night, but the way it looked and the offsetting situation made them think the worse.

"Something must've happened!"

The group didn't need any other excuse to leave the place, running as fast as they could. It was almost night, it was extrange for the creatures to attack during the day, yet something was going on in the village. The long and useless walk they had felt even heavier on their backs now.

"Let's hope that girl was able to keep them safe," Aisha said, running next to Chung.

Chung was deep in his own thoughts however. Ann said there was a magical stone in that shrine to help her sister. She mentioned that she felt its magic. But Aisha said she couldn't feel anything in the ruins. Maybe Ann was mistaken? It would be terrible to discover that their plan was flawed from the start. Anyway, there was no point thinking about that now. At least he knew she was strong enough to manage a pack of wolfs.

As they got closer to the village, they picked up a strong smell in the air. Something so horribly disgusting that they even had trouble breathing. The dense black smoke filtered through the trees, creating a dark mist that blinded them. Until they finally reached the wheat farms it was like walking on the darkest night. From there they could see it more clearly: many fires spreading from different points of the village. Red and orange danced in the streets as the faint screams of the citizens could be heard. They rushed the last few steps, ready to fight any enemy. However, even when they heard everyone crying for help, they only discovered empty streets. The only sign of fighting they had was the large pools of blood on the ground forming everywhere.

"What's going on?" Aisha asked, nervously clinging to her staff.

They ran through the village, looking for either the enemy or the villagers, but nobody seemed to be there. There was blood everywhere and yet they didn't find a single corpse. The screams they heard also felt distant, as if they were on another place, or from someone who disappeared long ago.

They saw Ann in the center of the plaza. A bloody sword on her hand, and a pile of dead villagers around her. She was covered in their blood. The El Search Party stood frozen in front of the horrifying scene. Ann finally noticed them. She slowly walked towards them, dragging the sword along. They all got ready to fight. However, Chung raised a hand to ask them to take a step back.

"Ann!" He shouted. The vampire stopped in her tracks and stared at the young boy. It was hard to see her face with her dirty hair "What's going on? Why did you attack the villagers?"

In his head, Chung found it hard to believe that all of this was a misunderstanding. However, he really wanted to hear that it actually was. Ann was standing on top of a pile of corpses, armed and covered in blood. Partly because he didn't want to admit he was fooled and partly because he couldn't believe that she destroyed the whole village.

"Oh, gathering some blood. After all, we're going to need it for… her," She said. Ann raised her sword, holding it in both her hands in a defiant pose. The party got ready to attack her.

In that moment, they felt a sudden disturbance. The sound of screams and the smell of burned flesh disappeared. Even the village seemed to become blur as they suddenly entered a blackish space where they could only see what was in front of them. The black shadow of a person with two glowing scarlet eyes, standing tall in front of them; was all they could see. The shadow moved the sword as it approached them, and while everyone tried to react to it, they found that their bodies weren't moving. An unknown force was keeping them still, defenseless against the imminent attack from the shadow.

A sudden crack followed by a explosion took them out of the trance. The sound, the smell and the village appeared again before them, as well as they saw Raven. He tried to attack Ann with his Nasod arm, but missed and created a small crater in her previous position.

"Nice trick you got there, unfortunately for you it takes more than that to scare me," Raven said, rising his arm against the vampire. Ann had jumped out of the way, leaving a trail of the blood covering her behind, the hair has moved from her face, and they could now clearly see her: smiling. She had a long smile in her face, exaggerated by the wide open eyes that stared down at them.

"They're illusions!" Chung said, finally snapping out of it "She can use them really well so be careful,"

The party readied once more. The whole team against a single enemy, they should have an easy victory, and somehow, the confident stance and the creepy smile Ann had was telling them that she was real trouble. Raven was the first one to direct the charge. Without any need for words, Elsword moved right behind him and followed the mercenary. The rest of the team stuck to their roles as Aisha immediately prepared her spells and Rena moved to an advantageous position on the ceilings. Chung, as well prepared to fight.

He was feeling so stupid right now. He had to do his best not to look around. This was mostly his fault. Even if he was about to battle this vampire, it weren't her illusions what sounded in his head. It was the last thing Eve said to him.

He put those thoughts on stand by for a moment to prepare a shot at the enemy. Raven and Elsword already reached Ann. The mercenary launched a flurry of attacks, his speed turned his sword into a blurred silver shadow. However, Ann did not backed away from it. Moved in a similar speed, she was able to block all of his attacks. Elsword moved around Raven, he swung his longsword in low arcs, aiming for her feet. While she was able to easily dodge them, the combined pressure from both swordsmen was forcing her to take a step back every time she had to get out of the way of Elsword's sword.

She seemed to be in enough trouble without adding the attacks from Rena. Shooting arrows at your enemy while your friends are fighting close seems like a bad idea, but not for Rena. As her magic arrows seemed to curve and move around just enough to miss her friends and strike the enemy. Under all this pressure, Ann decided to leap back. Covering a huge distance in one jump, she prepared her sword for another round. Before Raven and Elsword could catch up with her again, she darted from her position.

Ann moved faster than anyone could see, in the blink of an eye she reached Rena, who was far away and on top of a building. The elf was able to dodge the sword that was about to cut her throat. She slid on her knees and jump of the house, just to find Ann already down. Unable to change her path, Rena blocked her attack with the bow. It was able to hold in one piece after the strike, but she was launched against a wall. As Ann was about to corner her again, Raven finally arrived. He lunged aiming at her gut and for a moment saw his sword piercing the skin of his enemy, only to feel a sharp pain on his side. He looked behind and saw her delivering a strong kick on his back. Elsword, who was right next to him; was too surprised to react in time. As Raven was left on the ground, clutching at his aching back, Ann spinned around with her sword. The redhead was able to block it and counterattack with a thrust. He saw his sword go through her, however the skin and clothes didn't get cut. The entire figured swayed around the sword as if it were mist, and before he knew, Ann was already behind him, she didn't attacked Elsword though, as she ran off towards Chung.

He has been this whole time waiting for a chance to attack. Now that she was running in a straight line towards him, he decided to pull the trigger. Small rockets flew out of his cannon, they moved in an erratic line and landed at her feet. A explosion of blue smoke covered her surroundings. Chung had anticipated what her next move would be, he turned around and saw her magic at work. Blink and you would miss it, a small cloud of mist, suddenly condensing and forming a human shape until she suddenly materializes. Faster than even Aisha could do it, she appeared behind him ready to strike. Ann didn't seemed surprised about Chung anticipating her move, she lunged her sword at him.

Chung fired his cannon and used the recoil to clash with the sword, sending it off course. He backpedaled and reached for his pockets, throwing away a bunch of grenades that fell around her. The moment they exploded, Chung was expecting her to teleport again, however this time the attack came from between the blue smoke. Unfaced by the explosion, Ann thrusted her sword at him, too late to dodge, Chung placed his hope on his armor. He heard the sound of metal breaking: a horrible screeching and shattering combination. He looked down and was devastated to see that the clash had not only broken her sword. Pieces of his own armor had been shattered as well.

Even without her sword, there was no stopping her, she was ready to strike again. She prepared her hand in a spear shape, Chung saw her nails grow on her hand into a dangerous claw. And right before she was able to strike, he heard the sky crackling. Knowing what was about to come, he jumped back, just in time for a small burning meteor to hit the ground. Aisha has decided to release her spell just to get Chung out of there. Although he wasn't sure what of the two things that could have hit him would've been worse. Ann got out of the way as well, except this time she was much further away. Her smile was gone and she looked at them with uncertainty before finally speaking.

"Enough playing, go away and never come back or it'll cost you your lives…" She said, an immediately disappeared.

Her figure dissolved into a black mist that suddenly turned into a pack of bats. They flew over the mountain until they were out of sight.

"Vampires. You just said vampires, right?"

Raven was walking in circles around Chung, who was resting over his cannon. He already revealed all the information he ignored the first time they met. Meanwhile, Rena was tending to his injuries. Although the armor stopped Ann's sword, the blow was strong enough to make his bones hurt all around the body. The village was a mess right now. There were only a small group survivors, all of them old men and women that couldn't do anything for the ones that died. Aisha was currently helping them gather their belongings. With everyone else dead, they convinced the few survivors to move out of the village. Needless to say that their mental health wasn't doing good right now.

And it wasn't only the survivors. Chung as well was in the middle of a whirlpool of guilt and frustration. Not only has his ingenuity caused the village to be wiped out, now Eve was also in danger. To be more precise, both of them have been in danger from the start.

And the more he thought about it, the less it made sense. Chung couldn't recall when he started trusting in that vampire. Waking up in a cell after being attacked by their pet. After being separated from Eve who took some grave injuries. And being judged and put under the effect of many illusions. All of these are things that would make him hate these people, and yet he allowed himself to trust in them. To make things worse, he disregarded Eve's advice, which turned out to be right. She clearly wasn't under the influence of the vampire's, now it was obvious, and yet it was too late to realize it.

However, blaming all that happened onto the illusions and deceiving of the vampires would be too easy. It was something Chung wasn't willing to indulge himself in. He would make things up for this. First, he would resque Eve from the castle, and then; he would deal with the monsters.

Aisha finally came back. You could see a single carriage abandoning the village in the distance. With the last villagers gone, this place was now quieter than a ghost city. She checked the situation out before sitting for a moment in front of the team.

"So, we have a problem with vampires…" She started to say "I've heard about them before, they're a forgotten legend. I can't really recall all the details but… what I can remember is that they have some powerful mental abilities."

She looked at Chung that seemed to be in some kind of internal war. Aisha sighed and put her hand on his shoulder "They most likely used some kind of spell to force you to help them. Don't blame yourself about this, Chung."

As nice as they may be, Aisha's words won't help him right now.

"Alright, we'll leave that for later. We have to get going. I decided to change our mission." Elsword said "First, we take Eve back with us. Secondly, we destroy the vampires. Get ready, we're going in an hour."

Eve wandered her room in the castle. Elisa moved her from the guest room to one of the main suites. It much bigger and was properly furnished to match the rest of the castle's opulence. The glass windows and the fireplace kept the sound and chill of the blizzard away as she stared through the snow, lost in her thoughts. Moby and Remy were orbiting her head, worried about the current situation they were in.

"If you wish, I can let you go," She said, looking up to her loyal companions. Both of them negated in their binary language "I'm sorry to put you in this position, but I think it's the best we can do right now. I don't know when we'll have another chance like this one,"

The door opened, and the already familiar figure of a Vampire entered the room. It wasn't Elisa thought. Ann entered the room, still covered in the blood of her victims.

"You're here. The preparations are complete. Get changed and join Elisa in the main chamber…" she said and turned around, however she stopped to add something more "It was fun collecting all that blood, although it's a bit of a disappointment that you rejected the boy in the end…"