Finding You, Again
Again 16 - Lost and Grieve

"Sorrel!!"

For a lifetime, Lui never felt this happy, welcoming anyone.

Lui could also hear how Alva breathed a sigh of relief looking at her.

With eyes of disbelief, they stared at Sorrel stepping out of the blue circle on the ground, with a wide smile.

The first time that appeared following Sorrel was Dihyan, then a very beautiful Elf with rabbit-like ears but dangling down.

This was the first time Lui had seen a female Elf. And Faust is right, her beauty is inhuman.

Then as commanded by the swing of Dihyan's white wand, dozens of blue magic circles, formed in empty space, among the scattered rocks.

One by one bring up creatures that are all beautiful. But Lui could see that they were imperfect, even though they were very beautiful but normal ears like humans.

"Dihyan!!" Sorrel pointed to the crowd of corpses that attacked Duke and Aygul. And Dihyan reacted immediately.

With a signal of his head, dozens of imperfects that appeared, following him dashed at high speed over the corpses.

Dihyan with a smooth swing, turned his staff into a white-colored sword and slashed at the approaching enemy cunningly.

The Imperfects who followed him also began to take out weapons.

Unlike the Hunters who were mostly armed with pistols and swords, they held a wide variety of weapons that Lui had never seen before.

Spear flicks, crossbows, iron claws, even deadly cathars, alternately flashed in the battle.

The Alliance troops who seemed to have received a fresh injection of blood, howled excitedly back forward against the enemy.

But as before, many bodies were reawakened even with bodies that had been torn apart. A very unpleasant sight.

"Crazy witch!" said Sorrel, but with a light tone like he was reprimanding a kitten that bit his leg.

The female elf who was standing next to Sorrel, started to open the fire magic circle under his feet, and not for how long, blazing blue-colored flames in his hands.

He easily threw the fireball at the corpses that had risen again after being torn apart by the imperfects.

Seeing that, Alva and his coven were overjoyed, while standing beside him, they also started burning the corpses with their red-colored flames.

The flames were powerful enough to burn him, although before they were reduced to ashes, Lui had to see how the corpse, which had sunk into the flames, still tried to attack blindly.

Sorrel is too soft, crazy is a very subtle word to describe the deeds of witches who do it. Resurrection magic was disgusting and extremely cruel magic. Lui would never want to come into contact with him.

"Lui, I'm going to find that witch. Pyre won't be able to last long" Sorrel suddenly turned to Lui while pointing at the rabbit-eared woman.

"Eh..." Lui was slightly aghast at hearing that, then she glanced at the woman who kept throwing the fireball.

Lui understood what Sorrel meant, beads of sweat began to flood Pyre's face.

He had already burned dozens of corpses, but the number of corpses there were more than hundreds. The state of Alva and the other witches was even worse, their faces were already very pale, and the flames they produced were no longer as bright as before.

As Alva said, they could only be stopped by destroying the source of the magic.

"Get yourself all right, okay? I hope you're always happy with Duke. And forgive all your brother's lies. He loves you too much"

Lui could only open her mouth in surprise, hearing Sorrel's words. Because that sentence was completely irrelevant to the present situation, it was more like a will. And what do you mean by lies?

But Lui did not have time to ask, Sorrel had already opened the magic circle under his feet and disappeared. Lui could only suspect Sorrel had disappeared towards the sea, as Alva had guessed.

"Mom!!"

The Duke's panicked cry again rippled in Lui's mind.

And from the Duke's eyes, Lui saw Myra fighting desperately with Egon, but clearly she was on the losing side. Its white fur was polluted by the dark red color of blood.

The Duke is furious that he is still struggling with the opponent who surrounded him, now he is fighting a dozen evil Hunters, and also two Serbian Stray. Not to mention, Crispin also managed to corner Rex.

"Roan, we're going!!" Lui exclaimed, and was immediately responded to without hesitation by Roan.

He darted towards Myra.

Lui could hear the Duke's exclamation preventing her. But she couldn't just stand by to see Myra get hurt. While calling out a deep apology, Lui lowered her body so that Roan could run faster.

Clutching Roan's fur, along the way towards Myra, Lui used the opportunity to randomly throw ice at the enemy they passed by.

With the rest of the manpower present, Lui could no longer summon a large amount of fog, but she could still freeze in small groups. Lui brandished a staff to every enemy that entered within her visibility.

But like Alva, Lui could feel his power quickly drained.

"Aghh---!!"

Lui almost dropped her wand, as a werewolf corpse with its head almost severed, jumped at her and managed to slash its claws on Lui's shoulder.

But from the very beginning Lui grasped the stick very tightly, she managed to keep it.

Roan mercilessly pounced on the wolf and threw it at the nearest blue mound of fire.

Roan looked back and Lui nodded. He can still hold on, his sore shoulder is nothing compared to the other victims, they have to keep going.

"Come!!!" Lui exclaimed, and Roan came back running and within a few seconds came to Myra's place.

Duke was right, Myra's state was terrible. Egon was actually also already injured, but he was still able to unleash a vicious attack towards Myra. Roan, along with Lui, lunges at Egon and pushes her away from Myra.

When Egon got up and was about to strike Roan back, Lui slid down from his back, so that Roan could fight more freely.

And it didn't take long, Egon and Roan pounced on each other and fought fiercely.

And on purpose, Roan dragged Egon away from Myra. Seeing that, Lui immediately ran to check on Myra's state.

He was still standing, but with his body starting to drip, droplets of blood came out of his body and neck. Myra's eyes were still unbroken looking at Egon.

Lui of course could still feel Myra's anger. Being this close to Myra, made it difficult for Lui to hold back tears. Myra's pain felt so real.

"Myra, you're hurt bad! I beg you to calm down" Lui whispered, stroking Myra's neck.

Her hand was now also drenched in Myra's blood, but Lui did not care, she continued to stroke Myra's neck.

"He betrayed Owen, but he trusted him very much. It wasn't his strength that got Owen killed, but his stifling sense of betrayal"

Myra's growl made Lui unable to hold back the tears, as Myra supplemented the sentence with memories of how Father Duke fought with great anxiety and confusion. The betrayal of a close friend, took him by storm.

"Bee, give me a way" cried the Duke, finally unable to bear the sight of Myra's memories. He was looking for the easiest way to reach where Lui and Myra were.

The duke was about five hundred meters away from where they were, his path was covered by over twenty mixed corpses of werewolves and vampires.

Lui straightened herself up, and concentrated on summoning more mist.

Lui's breathing panted as she used up all the rest of her energy. But he was satisfied, seeing Duke lunging at the now petrified crowd.

No matter what else, the Duke ran over to Lui and Myra.

This is the first time Lui has seen Duke up close tonight. And it is far from good.

His body was probably black, and there was still Lui fog surrounding him. But it is clear that many parts of the fur are messy and sticky, the place where the wound is.

If not remembering they were on the battlefield, Lui was eager to hug the body.

"Don't be like that Bee, I'll be healed" the Duke gave a thin rub of Lui's cheek with his muzzle, before then walking over to Myra.

"Mom, relax. I will fight him" said the Duke, stroking Myra's head with his forehead.

The arrival of the Duke seemed to release the burden from Myra's shoulder. His body slowly descended and slumped on the ground. He was actually no longer able to fight.

Relieved to see his mother had calmed down, Duke turned his attention to Roan.

"Rohan!! Move over!!"

And as soon as Roan distanced himself from Egon while cursing, the Duke directly pounced on Egon's old gray body.

But Roan need not be disappointed, the dozens of enemies that followed Duke instantly became his next target. He had to prevent them from approaching Duke, so that he could fight Egon calmly.

Duke himself, after successfully throwing Egon a little far away, began to shut his mindlink completely. He needs concentration to fight it. He doesn't want any distractions from anywhere.

He could still see the greatness of Roan and El's memories, also seeing himself from Lui's thoughts, but it wouldn't be too distracting.

Snarling menacingly, Duke walked over slowly judging from where Egon had launched the attack. And a moment later, they wrestled, as they floated claws and deadly bites.

Egon turns out not to be an easy opponent for Duke, even though he has got Alpha strength and also additional strength from Elves.

Myra was already extremely outstanding to be able to defend against Egon from just now.

Seeing Egon's movements that were much lighter than the ones in his memory, the Duke estimated that not only Crispin had gained an advantage as they attacked the Sanctum of the Black Forest. Egon must have also gotten something from the Elves who were there. Otherwise, it was impossible for him to keep up with it.

But it did not last long, after successfully dodging the Duke's attack several times, it began to show if Egon was pressed.

The duke often managed to land his claws on Egon's body by a landslide. Egon's movements looked progressively slower, while Duke's speed remained steady.

Sensing that, without the slightest hesitation, the Duke began to launch an attack with maximum strength, he did not want to give Egon time to recuperate.

Egon tried to dodge by jumping, but Duke managed to grab the back. Mercilessly again, the Duke tore his flesh.

A shrill pain came out from Egon's mouth. A gaping wound on Egon's back, no less big than the result of his shot first. His fresh blood dripped down the white snow on the ground.

Seeing how Egon was getting weaker, Duke tried to open up the mindlink as Alpha to Egon. He had to know what caused Egon to commit that treason.

But Duke like he hit a thick wall, he couldn't hear or see anything.

His act of killing Alpha made his relationship with the Blackmoon pack become no longer left.

And that meant that there was nothing else left for the Duke to do, he just had to kill Egon, according to the plan.

The duke gave Egon a warning with a short salute, a gesture that any wolf should understand. The signal that the next attack will be deadly.

Egon only growled while dragging his heavily injured body.

Duke tucked in a little appreciation for her.

Egon's eyes still flared up revealing a fighting spirit, even though he was in a desperate state. Unlike Amon, or the cowardly werewolf who begged him while Brawl.

Before all that treachery, Egon was a very reliable werewolf. He used to admire her figure who could look very relaxed but firm in times of need. Offset his father who sometimes stiff in attitude.

The memories cast little doubt on Duke, but looking at his mother's memories earlier, Duke knew this had to be done.

Gritting his teeth, the Duke lunged at Egon, who miraculously, jumped dodging. Exerting his final strength, he could still jump.

"They're dead!!!"

"They are dead!!"

Suddenly a joyous cry was earthy from around the Duke and no more fighting was going on around him.

The Duke turned his head and saw the corpses that had been fighting Roan, collapsing motionless, as they should.

The red magic circle that terrorized them from earlier had also been extinguished.

The remaining enemies stood, only those who were still alive. And all of them looked disappointed, because their strongest ally, was wiped out.

"What's going on?" 

Duke is not not not not happy, but they can't just fall.

"Sorrel" Lui replied, revealing the memory of Sorrel saying goodbye.

"La!!!" 

Myra panicked, broke their conversation, and gave Duke a nightmare.

With his eyes, he saw Egon jump while revealing fangs ready to pounce. He used a slight pause of the Duke's inattention that was paying attention to the surroundings.

But the attack didn't target Duke

Egon knew, he would not be able to defeat Duke, therefore he returned to wearing dirty ways by attacking Lui. But before his muzzle managed to reach Lui, something grabbed him.

Myra pounced on Egon and kept him away from Lui.

But with that, Myra used the last remaining amount of her power. His body was helpless before Egon.

Then, heartlessly, Egon buried her fangs in Myra's neck.

"MOM------- NOOO..!!"  

The Duke's call unwittingly blared at every citizen's head pack. A desperate and guilty cry.

The Duke knew he was too late to save Myra. With a single leap he pounced on Egon, and this time without the slightest hesitation, the Duke aimed for his neck.

After he heard the crackling of the broken collarbone, Duke threw the body carelessly.

With chest tightness, she approached Myra, who had now been hugged by Lui with tears.

"Mom?"  call slowly.

"Duke?"  Myra shrieked inside the Duke's head.

Lui who had not expected Myra could still answer, raised her face which was now also covered in Myra blood.

"Myra?"

"Don't cry, Lui. You know crying will make you sick!"  

That sentence even made Lui's cry even louder. How could he still worry about it under these circumstances?

"Duke, I don't want you to be sad too much! It's an order" he told the Duke, in a firm voice.

"How can you?" The Duke protested, Myra told him to do something impossible.

"Of course you can. Because after this I'll meet Owen. I was looking forward to it" Myra's voice sounded happy.

"And leave me alone?" 

The duke couldn't believe Myra sounded so excited to welcome her death.

"What do you mean alone? There's Lui with you. Roan and El"  

And that was the end, Myra coughed violently while spewing blood. And then silence.

"Mom?" The Duke approached, but there was only silence. Duke placed his head on Myra's body. And found the taste that gave him deja vu.

It felt empty like when he touched his father's body first.

Silent and cold.

"No!!!" exclaiming Lui, he hit Myra's body and cried as if.

"My fault!! I should have avoided". 

Lui's mouth could only howl a cry, but her head was filled with guilt.

"No Bee, you heard that.  Mom accepted her fate happily" Duke stroked Lui's head which was still attached to Myra's body.

Sadness crushes Duke's heart, but he won't let Lui drown in guilt. Myra's actions were indeed done to save Lui, but she made that choice consciously like Juno.

Myra and Lui did not need to feel guilty.

"Duke, you open the mindlink to the entire pack!" roan's voice which was also laden with tears warned him.

"Kh..." The duke clicked in annoyance, having not noticed it at all. Closing his eyes, he decided on his mindlink.

"Did the fox woman die? Good job!"

A heavy voice, echoing from the darkness under the tree. Lui shifted her body away from the source of the voice.

With a slow move the Duke approached. There lay Egon in his human form, with a body drenched in blood, and a half-broken neck. It's a miracle he can still speak.

With a deep breath, Duke took off his transformation and stood right next to Egon.

As soon as she saw the form of the Duke who had returned to being human, Lui instantly removed the magic circle that was under her feet, and stretched out a robe from inside the bag.

"Why are you doing all these things? What's that goddamn vampire offering you until you exchange it for your loyalty to the pack?" the Duke asked, while receiving a cloak from Lui, who was trying not to look at Egon.

Lui then stood behind the Duke. He also wanted to hear what caused all these tragedies.

Egon coughed violently before finally being able to reply, his voice already so heavy and disjointed.

"Ju---no, he's ji-ji resurrecting Juno!"

An answer that the Duke had not expected at all.

"You exchanged my life to raise my mother like them?!!!" The Duke shouted furiously while pointing at the charred corpse lying not far away from them.

The corpse moved, but it could not be called alive. Only a soulless body in the power of a witch without a heart.

"Yes!! And I'll trade it over and over again if I have to. Your father preferred the fox woman and broke her heart. Leaving him alone. I hate him, I hate Owen for it. He threw away the most precious woman in my life" he continued, this time in a clearer voice.

Anger gave him strength out of nowhere.

"You love my mother? You love Zhena Juno?"

But Egon could no longer answer him. That long sentence became the final marker of his life. His eyes were open, showing no sign of life anymore.

"By the claws and all the blood spilled!! What kind of fate did they actually experience?" The Duke shouted in despair.

The duke fell to the ground and looked up at the star-studded clear night sky.

The Duke would not blindly say his father was innocent, because it was true he preferred Myra over Juno. And it would hurt him.

Although until the end of Juno's life, they finally stay together, but it is no secret that her father loves Myra very much.

The Duke could imagine how Juno felt having to live such a life, with no way out, as he was unlikely to go against the will of the Elders.

And now all that pain and betrayal has turned to blood.

The duke slightly flinched, as Lui's cold hands clasped his neck and hugged his head from behind while kneeling.

"Whatever it is, it's over now. Whatever choice they make, you won't be able to fix it again. You don't have to feel guilty, or angry. Keep loving anyone who loves you, and don't hate too deeply. We'll never know how deep they're going to hurt"

The duke could feel Lui's tears wetting his face as he said that. And as usual, at a time of slump like this, Lui revealed a hidden truth.

The Duke could no longer fix whatever had happened to his father, Myra or Egon.

But he could still love them wholeheartedly, because that was what his father and mother - both Myra and Juno - had been doing all along. They raised her full of warmth and love.

He just needs to remember that.

"Duke!----"

Roan called out with a trembling voice restraining emotions.He was leaning on one of the large stones while holding his right shoulder. Most likely the shoulder was broken.

Lui hurriedly approached Roan, and wrapped his body in a robe identical to what the Duke was wearing now.

"I think father died, he didn't answer my call after fighting Crispin" Roan said with tears flooding his pale face.

"Oh... Roan" Lui who was tying the robe rope around Roan's waist, switched to hugging the trembling body that was far above his head.

Roan's cry was split in a sob and he hugged Lui very tightly, spilling his sadness.

The duke got up and fixed the position of his robe to perfectly seal his entire body.

The look in her eyes fell on Myra's body that was covered with blood that was beginning to dry up.

He had no time to grieve at this moment, there were still many things he had to take care of.

"El!!" call loud.

He wanted a report on everything that happened. After he disconnected the mindlinks with the warriors, he no longer knew the progress of the fight until he could reach this stage.

What he could definitely see at this moment, all the enemy troops had fled. Including Crispin!

"He didn't answer my mindlink call either" Roan said.

Duke closed his eyes, ignoring the crushing blow to his heart from the news.

Duke took a deep breath, trying to cast out the worst possible shadow of why El couldn't answer his call. The last time he saw El against Linus, he should have been able to defeat him easily.

Maybe El has turned back into a human, so as not to answer Roan's mindlink call.

"Dey!! "

And similarly, his call back got no answer.

Unable to bear the silence that gave him such a bad thought, Duke decided to look for the answer himself.

"Bee, can you walk? We have to go" Duke saw a wide wound on Lui's shoulder.

The duke must immediately seek treatment for Lui's injuries. And again, the scratches and bites that filled his body also began to feel pain. He must also immediately treat it, so that the existing poison can be lost faster.

He could have raised Lui's body, but both hands were covered in vampire black blood. As much as possible the Duke did not want to touch Lui with that stain.

Lui nodded, "I am still strong walking" while holding Roan who was still crying.

The three of them walked towards the designated gathering point.

That is a valley not far from the city that became their headquarters yesterday.

The scenery that was seen throughout the journey, almost eroded their spirit to keep going.

Although Duke and Roan were used to living in violent inhumane environments, no one prepared themselves to see so many corpses lying in such a dire state.

Some of the bodies were charred to the point of being unrecognizable. Others lie with incomplete limbs.

Lui tried hard to look straight ahead so there was no need to see all that.

But the blood rancor and the smell of burnt flesh made him know how bad things were all around.

Lui's steps came to a halt as the luminescence of the blue-colored magic circle appeared in front of her.

"What's wrong?" The duke looked back and immediately understood when he saw the circle.

"Sorrel?" call Lui impatiently. There were a lot of things he wanted to ask Sorrel.

But what appeared from within that circle was Dihyan. He stood straight facing the Duke.

"Sorrel died. He was on the beach" Dihyan bit his lower lip, to withstand the flow of emotions while saying that.

The Duke had hoped, there would be no more bad news after all that. But he was wrong as usual.

"Where are the rest of the army?" ask him to Dihyan. Trying to sound ordinary.

Dihyan pointed to the valley of their destination which was not far away, "I will take you there"

Dihyan swung his hand and three magic circles appeared at once. He volunteered to move them directly there.

The Duke will already refuse, as he wants to see how things are going around and hopes to find survivors among the pile of bodies. But Roan's call nullified his intention.

"Lui!!"

Lui's body slumped to the ground.

Duke forgot, there are still parts of Lui's body that are very human. Of course all that sad news will bring him down.

Raising Lui's body, Duke stepped into the center of Dihyan's magic circle, and closed his eyes.