Velvet found herself staring up at the bland, wooden ceiling of their home; her mind foggy and dazed. With a gasp of realisation, she attempted to sit up in her unusually comfortable bed. "How... How did I get home?"

"Velvet!" A familiar voice called from the side.

Laphicet came running in, his body free of any injuries and a relieved expression on his face. "Laphi! You're all right!" she exclaimed in glee, but in her attempt to fully sit up, an enormous pain flashed through her head. "Ow!" Velvet flinched, her brother coming close to keep her steady.

Looking down into his timid golden eyes, a shameful expression grew upon his face. "Sorry. It's all my fault." His gleaming locks fell over his face in hurt.

Pushing through the drilling pit of pain in her side, the woman attempted to console him as she laid her hands soothingly on his shoulders. "No! If you weren't there, there's no telling what mightve happened to me." Velvet stared at his solemn expression that ceased to change, even with the appreciative smile she gave. Eventually, he reached behind himself, and took out the gift he'd prepared before. The antique comb felt brittle and fragile in her hand, but as soon as the metallic feeling lay on her palm, her fingers hugged it gently with immense care.

"Your old one broke, right?" the boy asked in confirmation, "You've got beautiful hair. It would be a waste if you didn't take care of it," Laphi appraised. Soon after, Velvet was enveloped in a warm hug that seemed to melt away any embers of discomfort that came from her wounds. The smile he wore, was one she'd do anything to protect, and was one she'd cherish. "I'll make a new world. A world where my sister can be happy."

She awoke to that same ceiling again. The same room, the same decorations, the same window. But, when she looked to her right in search of the pleasant face of her brother, she saw nothing. Velvet let out another strained gasp as she shot up, finding no difficulty in it this time. The girl peered around in confusion, until she noticed the dreadful crimson hue that accented her room from the uncovered window. A single, blood red moon hung in the sky ominously. Its sheer presence radiated danger.

"The Scarlet Night!? What's going on?" she urgently exclaimed, a deep dread pooling in her chest as she looked around. "Was that... Was it all a dream?" Velvet wondered, before she felt a mild but noticeable weight in her left hand. The comb sat there, unchanged. Her eyes shot open in immediate shock and worry. "No! It wasn't!" Velvet immediately knew her goal as she leapt out of bed, and beelined straight for her front door, boots pounding the hard wood.

Upon reaching the darkened outside, the sight shook her to the core. Everything was dyed a sickly scarlet, and claw marks reigned the natural environment. It didn't take long for Velvet to notice the absence of an aching from where she was wounded. 'It must've been Arthur that helped us back there!'

Growl...

A sudden scratching of tiles and crashing of dirt alerted her to an entity behind her. Whipping around in severe alarm, a beast leapt down from its perch, and snarled grimly at the frightened woman before it. Its claws twitched and curled in anticipation, and its breath smelled of death. It was another werewolf, similar to the one before. Suddenly, a cacophony of frenzied growls started to grow from all around her; more daemons crawling out from the brush. Each one that began to appear adorned torn and ripped vestments eerily similar to that of people. "No... What's happening?" Velvet whimpered, as she slowly stepped back in fear.

Howl~

As the call echoed across the grimly lot skies, the woman took her chance, and sprinted off into the dead of night; barely escaping the clutches of a lunging monster.

"Laphi! Where are you!?" she cried into the wilderness, her feet quickly smashing into the ground as she attempted to escape her pursuers. Heart crashing against her ribcage, she ignored the hungered panting at her heels and rumbling of dirt. Upon reaching the pathway to the village, a dreadful roar came from the hilltops - as a larger werewolf bounded down the harrowed dirt after its prey. As its weight thundered into the poor ground, it stumbled into the horde already after her honeyed flesh, stopping them all in their tracks.

Velvet didn't dare pay attention to the inevitable conflict in the valley, instead focusing on the architecture growing in her vision. As the despairing vermillion beams grated between the autumn leaves, howls of alert thirst and distaste erupted from the environment. "What on earth is going on?!" the young huntress direly yelled out, with only the fearsome moon and its spawn hearing her call. Briskly rushing past ruined plants and destroyed buildings, she stopped for but a moment; the feral beasts once in chase having lost her. Velvet took in hefty gulps of heavy air - lungs on the verge of bursting - while she clung to a cracked outcrop in hiding.

The ruinous stone was freezing cold, pouring the shrill fear into her skin. Bloodied flesh sang with every uncomfortable breeze, and the sheer silence pulled at her frenzied mind. Suddenly, the pungent smell of iron stung her nostrils sharply, and her cold hands were becoming slick with a strange substance. Velvet's head steadily revolved in hesitation. When she inevitably settled her sight on the palm that rested on the rock, she stared.

Horror.

No... no... no, no, no. No, NO.

Weylan's sunken and soulless eyes stared back.

His lifeless body, gorged with exposed flesh and crimson smears, was discarded on top of the outcrop she had hidden behind. Fresh blood, already staining the stone, poured down in streams from his broken husk. Other hand swinging to shield her mouth from any potential noise, Velvet stumbled back in trauma, losing her footing on the suddenly frictionless floor and crashing down with a yelp. A similar feeling substance seized her lower body. She couldn't help but let out a shaky gasp at what had caused her fall.

Maria laid out across the pathway, having befallen a similar dreadful fate as her husband. Deep gouges lined her back, causing a pool of disgusting blood to almost coddle her form. The same awful puddle that Velvet had slipped into. It clung to her like paint, and ruined the comforting clothes she had always worn. Raising her hands before her, they trembled terribly; vision tunneling on the velvet liquid that dug deep into the crevices of her palms.

Her breath quickened: harsher, faster, rougher. The constant cycle of air paining her throat as the metallic smell marked her scent, and her mind.

"I'll make a new world..."

It was abrupt, but a memory was brought to the forefront of her mind.

"A world where my sister can be happy."

"Laphi!" Velvet immediately remembered. Her thoughts were crystal clear now, and the blood that covered her became an afterthought. "This is no time to be scared! I have to find Laphi!" she fiercely reminded herself. Willing her body to cease the disruptive trembling, she stood up with a minor shake - paying her condolences to the murdered family - and sprang off with an alert sense. Slipping slightly, Velvet rapidly built up speed as she raced around the demolished environment, head spinning left and right to search for her missing brother. No matter how she tried to fight her vision, bodies of what she knew as family lined the walkways she traversed. No one was spared from their devastation. Not even the children. "No... the village..." she quietly mourned, fists tightening in angered sorrow.

Growl!

A feasting daemon found its chance to strike, and barreled at the lone girl without warning. It snarled and gnashed its sharp and deadly canines before leaping into the air. However, it picked the wrong human to fight, as a boot smashed into its snout and rendered it roughly to the ground. "Damn you!" Velvet roared out as her eyes shrank in rage, shaking her leg slightly in discomfort. While a daemon would typically not be at all hurt by such an attack, its momentum was its brief downfall. The burning heat rushed down to her fingertips, the pulse coming in hot waves that threatened to boil her body to nothing. The booming was incessant and furious. It was her heart, which seemed to swell into a rugged mallet and swing against her ribcage, a drum of wrath that might blow at any moment. 'No... Find Laphi,' her mind quelled her emotion, and the drought of darkness wisped away. Seeing her chance, the ravenette broke into a sprint across the bloodied town square with only one place in mind: the Cape.

Heaving the substantial hand-crafted gates open that barred the way, she immediately crossed into the Tranquil Woods. Stepping over gradually reddening streams of water in a blind rush, even nature appeared to be dying in this hellish moonlight. 'Don't give up... Never give up!' she motivated herself in earnest, her breathing growing harsher with every step. The daemons she passed by were a blur, even as the slashing of air was dangerously close to her figure, she kept her eyes forward; never looking back.

Passing under the fallen tree that marked the entrance to the cape, Velvet looked up from the slope. The Scarlet Moon hovered above the remnants of the ruin, casting its horrendous gaze down on the suffering land. Warning her of the repercussions. Still, she continued on. She will find Laphicet, even if it kills her.

As she stormed up the slope, she immediately noticed two striking figures in the distance at the edge of the altar. "Laphi! Arthur!" she cried out thankfully, relief washing over her like an ocean. Creeping just behind them, the bleeding moon was unusually gargantuan in size as it hung over the trio; akin to a single audience member of a show. Upon the sound of her voice reaching their ears, Laphicet spun around in suprise, "Velvet!" he yelled in shock.

"You."

Arthur's voice was dreadfully cold. He looked at her with a strange distaste, a particular emotion shielded behind his steely blue eyes. She only had just noticed, Arthur's sword was drawn, and not a single drop of blood blemished its surface.

Velvet paid no attention to his abnormal act, her glee at seeing her loved ones safe warmed the pounding ice that almost split her apart. "Oh, thank goodness... You kept Laphi safe, didn't you, Arthur?"

The Exorcist raised his head to the sky disturbingly slow, his pupils' icy glow disappearing behind his eyelids. Snowy white hair fluttered back in the cold sea winds, contrasting the crimson orb that stared expectedly. "...One more sentiment to cast off."

Ba-dump

"Velvet! Run!

Ba-dump. Ba-dump

"Arthur?!"

Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump...

That same feeling returned. A harsh knocking at the locked cage that kept her heart in place. Seeing the fear explode over Laphi's face when he shouted those words, she wanted to run to him; hold him close, and keep him safe. But, a sudden unknown force buckled her legs, and wrestled her to the ground. And, as she tried to move...

Hiss...

Velvet would remember that feeling for a long time. The gradual sizzle she heard as a scorching hot sensation spontaneously erupted from her limbs. Somehow, a ring of smoldering fire trapped her joints, sending a searing burn up her system every time she struggled. It held the woman there like unbreakable chains, tightening painfully as she desperately commanded her body to move. Alas, Velvet was held there, crying and whimpering in distress as she could only watch the scene play like a movie before her eyes.

Arthur tore his sight away from the unfeeling torture he had caused, and enunciated his next words as if narrating history. "Here, once, was the seal to the underworld broken. And tonight, here shall be born the power to save the world," he announced to the scarlet night. As he stabbed his sword into the ground threateningly, he pulled it out steadily while finishing his reveal. "With Laphicet's life as a sacrifice."

Ignoring the pain as best she could, Velvet could not dare believe the words her brother-in-law had just stated. "What? What are you saying!?" she urgently shouted, dread filling her soul. He did not answer.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

Laphicet closed his eyes.

Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump

Arthur aimed his sword.

Ba-dump ba-dump ba-dump ba-dump ba-dump ba-dump ba-du--

"ARTHUR! NO!"

Stab.

Silence. Even the flames didn't hurt anymore, as the beating of her heart bashed against her eardrums. All she could focus on, was the unmoving body of her innocent little Laphicet, hanging off the end of her brother-in-law's sword. The slow, traumatic drip of his vermillion liquid that fell onto the unbothered ground. Her brother's blood staining his sword, what was meant to protect; had slain the one she cared for most. Her golden pupils shrank and trembled as they took in the sight before the scarlet moon, breath shallow and quick. Next to that gaping abyss that saw no end, the exorcist turned to present his sacrifice.

Velvet screamed. She roared, cried and shrieked relentlessly as she pushed and pulled against the burning arte that bound her. The pain was severe and ripped at her skin, but her vision scarred her into a feral frenzy. In only moments, she had twisted and tugged until her wrists were a charred black and burgundy. Her throat already ached with a soreness she'd feel for days, but it was nothing compared to what her brother just went through.

A blazing anger boiling in her veins as she wildly glared forward at the perpetrator, and soon enough, a cooling dark mist freed her from the agonising chains.

Even as Laphicet slipped from the sharpened metal and into the depths below, Velvet leapt after him without hesitation. Her tormented hand wrapped around his with the strongest force she could muster, and her left scraped the escaping edge for a hold. And, she found it. Now hanging over the yawning hole, she could see the wound Laphicet suffered pooling over his warm and comfy clothes; pale face already empty and unreactive.

"Let him go. This is an offering to the world." Arthur stood above them staring down - unflinching at his sister's mortified expression - his sword still readily drawn.

Velvet could not understand it. The man in front of her, was her brother, her family. "Why would you...?!" she struggled out with difficulty, her fingers screaming for her to let go. No, she wouldn't fail him.

Arthur's face did not change, still glaring down at her with unchanging disappointment. "Nothing can save him now," he coldly stated.

"No! No! Nooo!" Velvet desperately yelled out, completely unwilling on letting go of her brother, her Laphicet.

"...I see you will not change."

He raised his sword high into the air.

"Ever a slave to emotion."

Slash!

Velvet no longer felt the aching pain in her fingers that held on so desperately. She didn't feel anything anymore. All she saw, was the disappearing face of the one she'd trusted; and her seperated arm leave her to drop into the depths. The darkness enveloped her as she fell, the maroon sky fading as the rushing air flailed her hair. Her soul didn't speak to her, nor her heart. No words of meaning, or betrayal, or failure. Nothing. She had lost her light. And, as she turned slightly in her despairing freefall, Laphicet looked back; dead. His lifeless body dropping deeper into the underworld itself.

Growl...

Something was down here. Suddenly, an ominous magenta rune materialised in the darkness, and with it came a coiling visage of gleaming yellow light. Twisting and spiralling like an animal, another soon appeared from the strange hellish arte.

Snarl!

It was apparent, these beings were what hungered for them. Serpent-like features took shape upon their heads, slithering tongues accompanied by daggered teeth. The dragons, upon sensing their offerings, shot towards them like corporeal bullets.

"LAPHICET!!!" Velvet let out one last cry of helplessness and distress, reaching out hopelessly to hold her brother before her final moment. The beast did not hesitate, and bit down on the unfortunate boy with a sickening crunch. Laphicet - her only brother - was gone. The brilliant light flared around her in a grand explosion as the second head approached with hungered intent. It didn't matter. Velvet could feel this, this loss.

Ba-dump.

So, another feeling bubbled and boiled deep within her very being. She could feel it rushing through every vein, every orphice, bringing a blazing warmth to build up and blow. Her heart started again, crashing savagely against its bone chamber, pumping more and more of this heat throughout her body. "How could..." The man who had done this flashed through her head, like a reel. Every kindness, every lesson, every word, burned away in the flame she fanned with her emotion. All of it replaced by her rage.

"HOW COULD YOOOOOOU!?!?"

Two pillars of immense burning light burst out the deep pit, scales lining their backs as they shot high into the blackened sky; animalistic snarls resounding through the night. However, a particular sight caused Arthur to grip his weapon tightly, as a body fell from the beast - hued by the the crimson moon. Sparks of gold arced around the area, as it revealed the body of whom was affected.

Velvet laid face down on the ground, dirtied and bruised as a strange feeling blossomed in her chest. She could feel her arm again. But, as the man approached her fallen figure, she arose with grim distaste, feeling stronger than ever. Her left arm felt heavier, larger, but she didn't care. As she swung it around, raising it to the sky, the man saw it.

A pulsating, devilishly vermillion claw.

It riled and shook in anticipation, dark mist emanating from its sheer presence. Velvet did not look, instead, she poised it at her side, dreadful serrated fangs lining its talons, and glared at the murderer before her. Her lungs heaved as she panted for breath, thoughts hazy while an unusual emotion reigned over her actions. Arthur stared in mild annoyance. It didn't take long for the scene to garner attention, as werewolves of various sizes and strength prowled along the outskirts of this standoff. One couldn't bare to wait any longer, and pounced.

Velvet didn't think, and her instincts took over. In an instant, the daemonic claw lashed out behind her, siezing the monster in its grip, and thrusting it forcefully straight into the dirt at her feet. The woman could feel her brain work differently, because as soon as she held the beast down on the ground while it writhed around, powerless; her mind said one thing. Devour. The abnormal appendage locked its grip, and a relaxing feeling overcame her as that dark violet energy was drained into its vestiges. It made her thirst for more, and the claw responded. Immediately, the trembling daemon was crushed in her grip, blood splattering onto her clothing and wrathful face. Any discomfort on her body disappeared instantaneously.

It wanted more, and she let that instinctual hunger control her.

Lost in her maddening fury, she lunged and tore into any daemon that waited nearby, even disemboweling them with ease. "A daemon that feeds on daemons..." Arthur absentmindedly thought as he watched the massacre, his hand clenching his blade. "...A therion."

"Arthur...!" 'Velvet' mindlessly sounded out, body overtaken by bloodlust and vengeance. She could no longer feel the pleasant emotion that came when she thought of Laphicet, or her family. All she wanted was Arthur's lifeless corpse in her monstrous hand. Reinvigorated by the scarlet fluid she'd ripped out of the daemons, her claw tensed, dark mist dissipating off of its fangs. "ARTHUR!" she bellowed, charging blindly at her brother-in-law. Suddenly, she was blocked by another pair of feral werewolves that growled in bloodthirsty desire.

"Raaaaaargh!" Velvet roared out, reeling her appendage back and sending it crashing deep into the hide of the first beast, carving a harsh laceration into its chest as it flew roughly into the earth. More howls erupted from the area, and more unfeeling blood red eyes appeared in the darkness. Visions of her dead brother hovered in her mind, fueling her rage as she mercilessly tore apart any oncoming daemons. "Why did you kill him!?" she shrieked at Arthur, as a beast pounced in her direction. Feeling an unimaginable strength well up from deep within, she didn't hesitate in arcing her leg upwards into its jaw, sending the monster high into the air. Unwilling to stop, she followed what her body told her and seized its leg, before reeling it back into the rocky floor with a crash!

"His blood... on your hands...!" she fiercely cried out, as a werewolf managed to crunch down on her human arm. Unreactive, she snatched the nuisance with her grotesque claw, and pinned it to the ground. Raising her trained right leg in a devastating axe kick, she let it plunge right onto the poor daemon; shaking the earth as dust exploded everywhere. Feeling her foot soak in an uncomfortable liquid, she ignored the crushed abdomen of the wolf and peered up at the unmoving figure in the distance. "Answer me!" she shouted, ripping her boot from its crumbled innards, she stomped once in frustration - a spiderweb crack spanning a small crater. "ANSWER ME! WHY?!"

Velvet continued her destruction, sending spiralling limbs and howling bloodied beasts back into pools of deathly ominous fog. "He was my brother! My Laphi!" she shouted out with a disheartening sob. "What did he ever do!?" As more and more bodies stacked in the surroundings, and her form became slick with daemonic blood, a larger and more ferocious werewolf leapt straight onto her claw with a great roar. It was the same one from before. Gritting her teeth so hard they could break, she set into it with a killing glare. Kicking off another minor daemon, she raised the ghastly red limb into the sky, until she suddenly smashed it down deep into the rock she stood upon; a pillar of dust flaring above. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" the beastly woman bellowed out, tearing the monster from its crater and setting it above her head.

Crunch!

With a sickening noise that silenced the freezing air, the greater werewolf was cracked in two by the horrid daemonic claw. Dropping it onto the ruined floor, Velvet did not care for the destroyed area. Green grass that once stood tall torn and bathed in a disgusting red, and beds of white petaled lilies having been crushed beyond recognition. Her old life was gone now. And, as she stood there - almost completely overcome with exhaustion - as her claw desperately sucked in the darkness the daemons emitted, Arthur said one sentence that set it all in stone. "Take a look around."

Like a dagger in her chest, what she saw only drove it deeper into her heart. Her golden pupils sank in complete and utter despair.

Everywhere, where once daemons lay dead and forgotten, were people. Outfitted in those same clothes she recognised, the same faces; the people of Aball had all been killed by her. Velvet's whole body trembled and shook as she took in what was presented before her. Even a particular resident that adorned lime green and sweet orange led there, lifeless and hollow. That twin-braided chocolate brown hair, stained in her own blood. Velvet was frozen, choking on her own breath. Even the fiery, passionate rage she bore couldn't warm her. Aball, Niko, Laphi... were gone.

"Daemonblight has spread through the village," Arthur coldly stated, his sword immediately thrusting behind him and stabbing a prowling werewolf. "But do not fear. With my power as an exorcist..." Velvet writhed in fury, as a painful explosion of dark energy ensued over her form, before bolting towards him. "I, Artorias Collbrande, will end your pain."

The daemon woman was interrupted, as a powerful blast of fire blew her far back into the dirt with a cry of pain. Laphicet's comb fell away from her form, and landed on the ground. At Arthur's side, appeared a woman adorning a noble white dress, and a head of vermillion long hair in a dual ponytail. A black and yellow mask shielded her eyes, and her expression was unidentifiable.

"Seres...?" Velvet questioned in a daze from the damaged floor. At her words, a mass of individual glistening lights flashed surrounded her, more figures emerging from the shines.

'Seres' bent down to pick up the fallen treasure, inspecting the comb delicately, as Arthur walked past towards the daemon woman. "'Why is it that birds fly?'. Behold my answer, Velvet." The man raised his sword again, as Seres looked away from the scene.

"Ar... thur..." Velvet whimpered, her face sinking with heart-broken sorrow and betrayal.

"I ask no forgiveness. The sin is mine to bear." The blade raised higher.

"...ARTORIAS!"

Thus, the sword came down.