Gusion stood and stared, and Karina's eyes suddenly found him, and she drew a long, ragged breath.

"She's alive!" Gusion shouted, relieved, as Selena shot past him, looking at her sister who frantically breathed, blood flowing from the slits on her shoulder and the cut on her neck.

Selena moved into the bedroom. "I'll get the first-aid kit!" she yelled.

Gusion ripped off his purple scarf and pressed it around Karina's neck, and her breathing rate increased.

She gripped his hand. "Do-don-"

"It can wait," he said brusquely, applying pressure on the wound.

Karina shook her head and pointed behind Gusion and he turned and Selena stood there smiling, and then she hit him with a savage right cross.

Gusion staggered back and made an abortive lunge for his dagger but Selena cut him off with a well-placed kick to the ribs, before crunching her elbow into his throat.

Selena moved in again with a punch, and Gusion stepped in, grabbed her fist with one hand and her forearm with the other, and wrenched it back.

Selena howled and Gusion moved in close, catching her right where her diaphragm was and jamming his hip into her, twisting and throwing her to the ground.

Selena stared at her limp hand, hanging from her wrist. "So you like up and close, huh?" she drawled. "Very well."

And then the weirdest thing happened. Her skin took on a darker purple hue and her pupils disappeared, leaving a pitch-black darkness in them. Her hair shone into a brighter pink and she smiled, revealing a set of razor-sharp teeth.

She lunged and Gusion barely dodged the claws which whistled through the air and on their second strike, they cut through the flesh on his left forearm.

Gusion yelped in pain and Selena grinned wider.

Then a high-pitched roar came from the doorway, and Gusion turned as shadows burst in all directions from Helcurt's body and he saw it teleport onto Selena, raking its claws against her entire arm and Selena roared as pink blood tinged with black.

Gusion scurried over, hooking his arms under Karina's, and dragged her out before getting her into a fireman's lift as he moved into the elevator, jabbing the button closed just as Selena's demonic face came into view, pressed up against the doors and Helcurt peeled her off, and the elevator moved down as Gusion saw Helcurt charge Selena into a wall.

The elevator finally reached the ground floor and Gusion sprinted out, dumping the now-unconscious Karina in the back seat of the car.

Gusion sat in the driver's seat and pushed the gear shift forward, and the yellow car heaved.

There was suddenly a high-pitched sound, and then Selena and Helcurt hit the windshield of the car, cracking it.

Gusion pulled out the keys and went for his dagger before he realised that he had left it at the house, when Selena had knocked him so hard he'd dropped the dagger.

Helcurt pinned Selena up against the windshield and shot all five stingers forward, which went through Selena's chest and fully broke the windshield.

Selena roared and her knee came up, catching Helcurt perfectly in the chest and sending him flying off.

She turned, a twisted grin on her face as she faced Gusion, and the ghosts' voices were practically thundering through his head.

She lunged, and Gusion headbutted her in the nose, grabbing her by the shoulders and bodily throwing her through the front of the car.

Helcurt came back, snarling, and his tail flicked up and the pointed end went through Selena's wrist, and then she slashed at him and Helcurt parried with his foreclaws and cut back.

"Helcurt, back!" Gusion roared, and Helcurt disappeared.

Selena looked at him, and Gusion drove the car right at her, and she went flying onto the road.

Gusion continued driving, and the squelching sound from under the vehicle was oddly satisfying.


Gusion felt bad for burdening Rafaela in the dead of the night with a near-dead moon elf, but such was war.

The healer was bustling around the ward, bandaging Karina and slathering her with healing medicines.

The moon elf still looked seconds away from death, and Gusion wondered if he had looked like that.

"She'll be fine," Rafaela said, and looked at Gusion closely. "Are you sure you're fine?"

"I am," he insisted.

"Then you can leave," Rafaela said, and Gusion left for home.

Helcurt was waiting for him.

"Dropped the elf off?" it asked, and Gusion nodded wordlessly.

"I can't believe Selena betrayed her own sister," he spoke.

"Selena-she isn't very different from Dyrroth, actually," Helcurt said. "Selena was sacrificed to the Abyssal Devil, and then the Devil fed on Selena's essence. But she was a Moon Elf-the power of the Moon Goddess clashed with the Abyssal Devil and they reached a stalemate. Selena, though, faced immense hell-she couldn't go back. Every day, the Abyssal Demons would try experiments on her. Alice-Alice 'freed her', and she earned the undying loyalty of Selena. Dyrroth's creation was inspired by Selena, actually."

"She never had any loyalty to Karina, then?"

"Not even an ounce."

"Is she dead?"

Helcurt snorted. "You driving a car over her damn nearly did the trick. I just cracked her skull open and ended it."


Gusion was awoken by the constant sounds of the ringing doorbell and he rolled over and growled.

His late night rescue had kept him up half the night, and then the ghosts whispering in his head had prevented him from catching a few winks.

Helcurt was prowling around the door, and pointed silently at it when he saw Gusion. Gusion tiredly nodded, and Helcurt disappeared into the shadows.

Gusion pulled the door open, and Lesley, Lancelot, Tigreal, and Rafaela were standing there.

"We need to ask a few questions," Lesley said, her voice flat.

"Could you not?" Gusion asked, flinching from the sunlight, but Lancelot and Lesley had already pushed past him.

Tigreal thanked Rafaela and walked into Gusion's home.

Rafaela turned around and Gusion closed the door.

"Now that you've barged into my house, do you perhaps mind telling me what this is about?" Gusion snapped, patience thinned from lack of sleep.

"It's about why Karina is in the hospital, and you were the one to put her there, in the dead of the night," Tigreal said, his tone even.

"What are you suggesting?" Gusion asked.

"We aren't suggesting-" Lancelot began, but Lesley cut him off. "We're here to ask whether you did attempt to kill her, and if not, who did." She sent an ugly glance at Tigreal. "If you're going to be interrogating him, finish it quickly. I told you he's the last person that would be on Alice's side."

Gusion felt gratitude swell up in his chest. "No, I didn't attack Karina. I admitted her in the hospital, why would I murder her?"

Tigreal nodded. "Yes, then who did?"

"Selena."

"Selena is dead, run over by a car."

"Of course she is. I ran her over."

Lesley's eyebrows arched upwards, and Lancelot stared at him strangely. "You're going to have to explain that."

Gusion tried to focus his thoughts. And then he told them.

"So, basically, ever since Vexana attacked you, you can hear ghosts?"

"Yep."

"And when they got excited, you worked out that Karina was in danger, and went there to save her?"

"Yep."

"And Selena transformed into some demonic beast, and attacked you?"

"Yep."

"And you ran her over with your car."

"Full marks."

Lesley looked shocked at the story she'd been told, and Lancelot was blinking rapidly, with an increasingly sceptical expression in his eye. Tigreal, however, nodded.

"I thought as much," the knight said.

Lesley nearly fell over herself in shock. "You knew?"

"Selena's tale of her escape did sound fishy, and we never dug into her past. I asked Karina to watch out, but evidently, she refused to listen."

Lesley scowled at him, and Gusion was aware of her jaw tightly clenching. "You could have saved her."

"I only suspected," Tigreal defended. "I couldn't do more than that without Selena catching on."

"Just like how you suspected Gusion of attempting to murder Karina?"

"It's no big deal," Gusion started, but Tigreal stopped him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "It is my fault."

Lesley relaxed.

Then the world exploded.