(Fixed some mistakes, Re-Upload.)

It's rather short this chapter, but love the Nish/Dumas fluff here. X)

Enjoy and until next chapter!

19

Alice was starting to worry about Oyan's inactivity. He had reunited over three or five thousands of followers, all of them staying in their own homes until he needed them. But besides that, his soldiers weren't doing the usual patrolling outside the Guild or going into hunt. She couldn't decipher what was that huge and black barrier covering the training fields of the Guild and not even Nish could when he went late at night in his full form. He was trying to break the barrier but had to leave when a group of gunslingers spotted him flying in the sky. The Sunflower Girl had said that Oyan hadn't move in about a week and that was something that was worrying Ernest to no end. Even when Oyan hadn't move, he was training some of the people that wanted to help them in the fight. They would have some troubles but at last they weren't going to be unharmed against the enemy.

Sheridan was progressing with the armors. After fixing and leveling one of them, using his alchemy he copied the properties of it on the remaining and made new ones for everyone. He still needed to do around four hundred, but at the rate he was working, he would finish soon. Bea and her cousins were maintaining the hideout clean and with supplies for the humans helping them. Vampires rejected any help with the food, as most of them helped in getting rid of the rate plague that was in the hideout. Just two days in it, and the rats had almost disappeared from sight.

Aaron kept meeting up with Dyango, but it was harder than before. If it wasn't Lucian who watched over him, then it was either Dumas or Nish, but Nish knew the boy wasn't up to something bad so he let him go outside for a while and return minutes before his mate could show up. The young boy was learning how to summon and control the darkness he now had inside his body with Dyango's help. Nish was helping too, but in secret. The ice vampire laughed when Aaron told him what Dumas did. He just petted the boy's head and started to explain some basic things about it. That was almost a week ago. Now, Aaron could summon the dark energy and create small things like orbs, flames and thin but long needles that Dyango taught how to use them as weapons. Lucian started to suspect as he started to feel how the energy that he had transferred to his mate slowly grew, but Nish lied to him saying it was because he was fully recovered from the blood lose. The Dark Swordsman wasn't convinced, but let it go for the moment.

In that week, Dumas and Nish seemed to get closer and closer, even when the former Duke said they weren't. Besides training and helping the horned man in getting his Trance ability back, the ice vampire wanted to see if the Duke wanted to start a second formal relationship with someone different. Nish traced his plan since they returned from the massacre in the Hunting Mansion, seeing and talking with Lucian about where he could take Dumas for a walk and chat, or just be the two of them. Nish was used at being with people, but with the horned man was different. He had fallen in love several times before, but not so much like he was doing it with the former Duke.

"Why?", asked Dumas when Nish said he wanted to hang out with him, to rest a bit from Ernest's training.

"What? You don't want to spend time with me?", replied the ice vampire, annoyed. If there was something about Dumas that pissed him off was he couldn't understand simple suggestions or question like that, unless he was feeling uneasy about going with him that his brain needed to process the information. Nish laughed at the thought.

The horned man blushed lightly.

"...I do, but I don't think..."

"Yes?", said Nish, turning around to see the cute face Dumas was making at his own confusion.

"Well...", he was trying to come up with some excuse, but found no one. "Well... Alright!", exclaimed, standing up and going to the room that Sheridan had picked up for him and Nish to sleep in.

Nish smiled at him. He didn't know why, but he was glad that he had found him wandering around in the forest that night of full Moon.

Dumas quickly went upstairs but, instead of going to his room, he walked in Lucian's room without bothering knocking. The vampire, startled, hissed at the intrusion but faded into a groan upon seeing him. Aaron was about to ask what was happening when Dumas told him he needed him, urgently. He didn't give the boy any chance to question his actions as he dragged him out of the room, with Lucian shooting curses at the former Duke.

"What's up with you?", asked Aaron once he and Dumas reached their destiny. The boy had a light idea when he saw the blushing face of the horned vampire. "Nish?", the vampire nodded and Aaron giggled. "What happened?"

"…Wants to spend time with me…", whispered the man, leaning on the closed door.

"That's so cool!", yelled the boy walking to him. "So good! I bet you had said yes, right?", Dumas nodded. "Then why you dragged me out of the room?", the man blushed again. "Nervous?"

"Quiet a lot.", admitted. "I need… just need to calm down a bit, and perhaps talk… about anything."

Aaron smiled.

"You are not sure if you want to be with him after all.", it wasn't a question and Dumas noticed it.

"No, not at all.", the man looked at the floor, sighing. "Like I told you, it's hard for me to open up my heart…", Dumas lifted his gaze and found Aaron's one. "I want to give it a chance but…"

"After all you have been through, I think you deserve someone proper to love you.", said Aaron. "Why don't you change clothes and reunite with Nish? I bet he is tired of waiting."

Dumas smiled. He let the boy exit the room and he proceed to change his clothes and put on some new ones before walking down the stairs and meet the albino vampire, whom was also changed, and was waiting for him near the frontal doors. Both of them left the mansion and walked in the forest until they came across with Acuna. They didn't talk too much. Actually, Dumas didn't want to talk about anything with Nish right now. He was busy thinking about the intentions of said vampire, and his own feelings and decisions. The former Duke wasn't ready for a new relationship, or so he thought, and was trying to find excuses to reject Nish if he ever comes with a formal declaration or something similar.

His thoughts were interrupted when the other's hand tangled with his own. Dumas peeped, with his face blushing deeply, and saw that Nish was also blushing but lightly, not really wanting to see him right now, just having his hand into his own. He wanted to say something, but he feared that the words that would leave his mouth would die in his throat or wouldn't reach Dumas hears, or would be plain boring. It was harder for Nish to start a conversation with the former Duke if they were alone. He didn't know anything from the vampire at all, and didn't want to say something that will make him angry or sad.

"You always lived here?", Nish surprised himself when he heard Dumas' question. He could feel he was nervous as he was.

"Not really.", answered after coming out from his surprise. "I have always been a nomad, and been in almost every city, town and lands from this planet."

"But you must have stayed in a place for quiet some time."

"I did.", said the albino, sighing. "But I left afterwards. I left a year before Ratatosk attacked my home town and destroyed it."

Dumas opened his mouth but closed it, when the words didn't come out from it. He lowered his head and stared at the ground. That's why he didn't want to ask about Nish's life. Half of it was his own fault when he was working under Ratatosk's orders, going from here to there, killing and destroying towns, letting his minions take every human to the castle, jail them, torture them… He had been the cause of so much suffering in the past that couldn't understand how Nish still looked at him and said he liked him. How could you like the person responsible of creating so much chaos in your life? Or maybe that was the reason why Nish liked him… What was he thinking? There must be another reason why the albino sticks up with him.

"But I wasn't angry at the Lord at all.", continued Nish. Dumas returned to reality, pushing away his thoughts to focus on him. "I had a… not so nice childhood after all, and I think I was kinda happy to see that everyone was receiving their punishment from the things they did to me when I was a child.", he smiled sadly. "I was still a kid back then, and I learned how to survive on my own with other kids that managed to escape from Ratatosk's massacre.", they came across a huge lake and they started walking on its edge. "We lived together for about… twenty years, and I got closer to one of them. We ended up being a couple, but not so long after formalizing our relationship, the gunslingers found us and killed her and pretty much everyone in the pack. Only three, including me, could escape."

"You stayed with them after that?", Nish nodded.

"It was the only real family I had.", he smiled, looking at Dumas, who blushed softly. "We moved then to other cities but had to constantly trip since with Trinity, the gunslingers were everywhere and we couldn't do much about it. In those trips, I meet other vampires that ended up being or my friend's couple or mines, but always ended up killed.", he laughed. "It's a karma and I couldn't help it!", Dumas knew he was trying to ease the pain he had deep in his heart by doing those jokes, but he understood him. After all, most of his friends were killed by gunslingers or by Ratatosk himself. "When the real war broke out, I was left alone, again. My group decided to abandon me and join the Lord while I decided to hide or run away from the war until everything cooled down, you know…"

Acuna was left behind quickly. The dense forest that was in the frontier with the coast lands was near, but it was calm. Normally, the people of the coast are always patrolling it since they didn't want any vampire or undead creature in their lands. It wasn't because they hated them, but they didn't have the weapons they needed to fight against them. Only exiled gunslingers or smiths had those weapons but no the materials needed to reproduce them. So instead of whining about that, they offered their services to the coast lands to patrol the frontline from any undead creature that wanted to go to the other side. Several of these creatures ended up killed in the last war when they run desperately to a safer place, but found death at the hands of these gunslingers.

"I can't remember much from my childhood.", said Dumas. "As far as I know, I was turned into a vampire for who knows, and was serving under Ratatosk the next few days.", he sighed. "I think he was the one that transformed me into what I am now…"

"Possibly.", answered Nish. Both of them still had their hands firmly gripped into each other, not wanting to let go. "He gathered humans to use as pawns and experiments inside the castle."

"Oh, yes he did.", Dumas smiled at the memories. "I might have suffered under his hands, but I enjoyed those experiments.", perhaps unburying those painful memories wasn't that bad, after all. "Froggy was in charge of most of them, since Ratatosk trusted his intelligence."

"What kind of experiments run in there?"

"Ratatosk wanted to see how Dark Matter affected the human body if this was shot instead of a vampire biting the human.", answered Dumas. He had spotted a gunslinger near the frontier that has been following them for a while. He wasn't harmful, but had his gun prepared if the vampires wanted to trespass the frontier. "He had a boy jailed up down in the dungeons that used as example for the next experiments since, apparently, was a successfully experiment from an Immortal that lived long ago and was defeated by the last Solar Child."

"So Ratatosk wanted to copy it?", Dumas nodded. "Who was the boy?"

"I don't know. Froggy used to call him Saturday because it was what his name meant, but never could figure it out.", answered the man. "I only saw him once, and in that time he was pretty beaten up and was really thin. I asked Ratatosk why he didn't feed him at last once a day and he told me it wasn't necessary being him an 'immortal'. Honestly, I didn't know to what he was referring until Froggy explained me it was the older brother of the Solar Child, a Moon Child, and Ratatosk needed him to revive the Beast of Destruction."

"Ah, right. Moon Childs are naturally immortal, that's why Ratatosk didn't feed him.", said Nish. "They can survive years without food."

"But not without water.", pointed Dumas out. "Everyday Froggy would bring him a glass of water or any other liquid to let him live long enough until they managed to wake up the beast."

"Well, he could, at last.", joked the albino.

"Indeed he could, and that was the second time I could see the boy.", after walking for a while, they chose to sit on the ground, facing the huge lake. The gunslinger walked closer to them but remained at a safe distance. He had also sat on the ground, with his sniper on his hands. The vampires ignored him. "He was being controlled by the Beast and his hair was longer than Ratatosk's, not being cut in decades. Then, Ratatosk impaling his Puppet Needles in the body of the boy, even when he already have quiet a few of them in him by now, and then into Vanargandr. With it, he could control both of them and do the things he did before Trinity came."

"Oh, boy, that man surely kicked his ass.", said the albino, admiring the starry sky above him. "Even when it was you who killed him."

"I wouldn't stand a chance if Trinity and Lucian hadn't fought with him before."

Nish looked at him, a mischief smile appearing on his face. Dumas didn't like that smile.

"Are you saying that you were weaker than him? Ratatosk's right hand?", the albino started to laugh. "I can't believe it!"

"So what?!", exclaimed Dumas. "At last I was stronger that all his men together."

"You are so amusing.", Nish cuddle up with him and kissed his forehead.

The man purred as he lay upon Dumas, making him fall on the ground. The horned one blushed deeply when Nish started to nibble on his neck, tracing lazy circles with the tip of his hot and wet tongue. The muscle traveled up to his lips, licking them and asking for entrance. Dumas circled Nish's neck with his arms as he opened his mouth to let the tongue slip in, attacking it with his own. But they had to stop suddenly when a massive explosion was heard over the coast lands. Nish stood up and helped Dumas to his feet, watching the gunslinger run back to his home. A mechanical screech was heard in the silence followed by another explosion. Not really caring about the danger that he could face by going to the other side, Nish started to run, following the gunslinger. The former Duke went behind him, not really knowing why he would risk his life by going but then he thought if this… invasion wasn't Oyan's move. He had been quiet for about a week and now suddenly shows up. Could it be he was building some sort of weapon to use against them?

As the run closer, they could see some of the houses burning and the shadow of a giant creature slipping into the sea near the coast. Nish transformed into his full form and Dumas stopped, gasping at the sight. He had four, icy wings that were flexible like bird's ones. Horns grew from his head, six in total, as a helmet covered the surface of his head. The clothes he wore mutated into a thin but tight single piece suit and his shoes disappeared, to be replaced with claws like an eagle; long, sharp and deadly. He wore little armor but that seemed to be enough to protect him and a long, spiked tail grew from his lower back, as well as some spikes on his column, giving him a more fearsome look that was completed by his long hand claws.

Screeching to the creature, Nish flew over the sea, trying to spot it, but the only thing he could see was a pair of light bubbles that looked at him as if he was some sort of animal to be exanimate. The ice vampire dodged a missile that was shot directly to him and then hit the second one with his tail. To his luck, it hit one of the light bubbles. The creature screeched again, possible in pain as Nish thought. Then, they disappeared under the calm sea and Nish couldn't see it anymore, even with his sharp eyes of vampire. Just to be sure, he had stayed over it for at last fifteen minutes until he knew it wasn't coming back.

The ice vampire landed on the soft sands, helping the habitants of the coastlands in freezing down the fire while others used the water from the sea to light it off. Dumas was near him, helping some others in rescuing the ones that were still inside the houses. No one had noticed, or had but didn't say anything under the tight situation, that they were vampires. Once everything calmed down and everyone was reunited again, an old but healthy gunslinger came to them, gun in hand. Behind him, there were three more like him, also ready to fight if they needed to.

"What are your business over here?", asked in a hoarse voice. Dumas could tell he was ill, possibly with Tuberculosis. Since they were so far from the main cities and any other medical attention and since it was too dangerous and expensive bringing the medicines there, it wouldn't surprise him if half of the people had the same disease.

"Help.", answered the former Duke. He hoped that no one could recognize him. "We were walking near the frontier until we heard the explosions."

The old gunslinger grumped.

"What probes you have you aren't that guy's companion? That you aren't sending us a trap?", said, firmly grasping the gun. Dumas could see, also, it was an old model of the solar guns and didn't work anymore on his Casket Armor. He didn't have the plates and all, but the sole thin, black vest was enough to protect him from the solar bullets.

Nish and Dumas looked at each other, not really knowing what to answer.

"I was…", came a voice from the multitude. The gunslinger that was watching over them came out from it. He was covered in ashes and had some minor cuts on his face, arms and legs. Parts of his clothes were burnt. "I was watching over them in the frontier…"

"So? It doesn't mean they are worthy to be trusted!", shouted the old man.

"I'm…!", shouted the man back. "I have seen them going with the gunslingers from our lands… They work with them against Oyan's men."

"What?", said the old man, not believing it. The crowd behind started to murmur under their breaths. "What none senses are you babbling about?! The gunslingers from the Guild still have Trinity---!"

"Trinity's dead.", cut out Dumas, glaring at the old man who shot a dead glare to him. "I—I mean the Duke killed him… eleven years ago."

"You liar!", shouted the man and shooting against Dumas, who didn't move an inch. The bulled bounced on the vest and lost the energy, disappearing in the air. "But you aren't wearing a Casket Armor!!"

"This vest is enough to protect me from the obsolete guns you are holding.", answered the man. "What do you need as proof to believe us? Isn't the word of one of your men enough?"

The old gunslinger looked back at the others. Seemed that everyone was agreeing with what the young man said about them working with the local Guild against Oyan. The man grumped again, putting away his gun.

"I'm Gaspar. I'm the one in charge of this little town.", he gave out his hand and Dumas took it, shaking it softly. "Pleased to meet you."

Both Nish and Dumas bowed at him.

"It's a pleasure for us, too.", said Nish, returning to his normal appearance. "If you have time now, we would ask about what just happened here."

Gaspar nodded and, after whispering some orders to the other men, he showed the two vampires a place near the sea where they could sit and talk quietly as the others started to heal how they could the injured people after the attack.

The sea was unusually calm at that night hours. The waters should be more agitated since that night the Moon's phase was changing and since the waters changed with the Moon, to him and the others it was something to worry about. He and one of the experts in astrology started to investigate when they had heard a loud screech come from the sea. Thinking it could be the spirit of the now deceased Great Earth Serpent, they didn't bother with it. Similar sounds could be heard from the caves near the town. When they heard the same screech again, this time closer and louder, they had stepped back and alerted everyone to stay away and hide somewhere away from the town, but they weren't fast enough. A serpent creature rose from the water and started sending all kind of missiles and bombs that destroyed the houses that touched. The immense light bubbles shot a weird and electrifying power that light in fire other buildings, before slipping into the water, as he sensed the presence of the vampires coming to the coast.

"Do you remember anything else from the creature besides those light bubbles?", asked Dumas, fearing the worst as he started to remember an odd but powerful machine that Froggy used to have back when he was still alive.

"Well… You can see it's pretty dark here.", said Gaspar. "I can only say it was a strange serpent with light bubbles. I haven't seen anything like that before, it was like some sort of machine, or something.", he shrugged. "I think it was green, but I might be wrong."

"Heavens…", whispered the former Duke, standing up, walking to the seas.

"What's up, kid?", asked Gaspar.

"It's the Machine King.", said the man, turning around to face them. "It was Froggy's most powerful invention; he used it against the Solar Child and beat him with it.", Nish sighed heavily as Gaspar grumped again.

"We are fucked up! Completely!"

"Not really… The machine can only travel inside the water, unless Oyan had made it amphibian.", when Gaspar looked at him not understanding, Dumas added. "Meaning it can go over water and ground."

"Oh!", exclaimed the gunslinger. "I imagine there is a way to stop that huge machine, right?"

"It will be… very hard.", admitted Dumas. "That thing can create missiles, bombs and other type of explosives with the Dark Matter storied in the primary system inside it. In other words, if we don't blow up that part of the Machine King, then there is no way we can beat it up."

"We must tell Ernest and Lucian about this, urgently.", said Nish, thinking that the machine could attack other place of the East lands. "And we will need to tell Sheridan to hurry up with those damn armors."

Gaspar looked at them, nervous. Then, he stood up, looking at Dumas.

"We have been so… closed up from the main cities and then so forgotten that we haven't get news from what was happening.", he sighed. "I really had thought the war was still going even after eleven years.", he looked back at the now ruined town. "I don't know if my men…. I don't know if I have enough men to send to the capital and help Ernest with this problem."

Nish smiled.

"It's alright.", said the man, rising to his feet. "We will tell him to send some healers so your people can recuperate after the attack."

"I'm serious, I---We want to help. We had been exiled by the Lord and couldn't step outside this territory because he had the monsters looking up on us.", pleaded Gaspar. "I'm begging you. The last thing old men like us deserves is to free our lands for once from any type of tyranny. We couldn't do it with the Lord, neither with the Duke.", Dumas swallowed hard. It was his fault, once more. "Give us a last chance."

Nish looked at the man, amazed by his strength and courage.

"We will talk with Ernest about it."

"Can we go with you, instead?", suggested the old gunslinger. "It will be faster and easier for both of you."

"I… don't know.", mumbled Dumas, looking at Nish. "I mean… You can but I can't risk having the hideout being discovered."

"I understand.", said Gaspar, even if he already knew the location of it. "Tell him that First in Command Gaspar Fradech wants to talk with him at the edge of the Imperious Lake.", he was about to leave when he remembered something. "For being soldiers for the Guild, you are quiet disrespectful.", the vampires didn't understand. "You haven't introduced yourselves!"

"Oh!", both of them exclaimed at the same time.

"I'm Nish, sorry for not saying it before, it's an old habit."

Gaspar laughed.

"They said habits die hard, eh.", he turned to Dumas and smiled to him. "You don't need to introduce yourself, Duke.", the horned vampire managed to pale at last a bit more than he already was. He instinctually stepped back, going closer to Nish, who was also eyeing the man, giving silent warnings. "I have recognized you by your horns; you are the only one who has them in the East Lands."

"…Why did you trust me after all I have done before and after Ratatosk? Didn't you say you wanted a chance to bring down the tyranny?", said the man.

"Yes, and I still want to.", he turned to the town and, for the first time, both Nish and Dumas could appreciate that the town had not only humans, but also vampires. "I never said I wanted to destroy vampires."

"But, you guys didn't let anyone enter this lands, not even in war, nor human or vampire!", shouted Dumas.

"It was our only protection against the enemy, be it a vampire or a human.", answered Gaspar. "And looking at you now, Duke, I can see you have changed from the man you used to be under Ratatosk's orders. You wouldn't ally with the Guild unless you had asked for something big in return."

Unable to resist, he grinned at the man, showing his white fangs. After saying they were going to bring Ernest to the coast, the vampires slowly returned to the dense forest, leaving behind the burnt town. Gaspar reunited with his comrades and started evaluating the damages made in the houses.

"It was the Duke, wasn't it?", asked the one on his right. Gaspar nodded. "He had changed a lot."

"Indeed he did, Frizt.", replied Gaspar. "I can foresee the peace era that Trinity and the ones before him wanted to bring.", he sighed. "Maybe, if we don't end up dead, we will be able to return home."

And with those hopeful thoughts, the coast people started to rebuild their town.