The two girls stare back at him as if he was an idiot, but when they locked eyes their wills were crushed. Their eyes lost focus and they lost control of their bladders due to whatever they saw. They stopped reacting to Neo’s gestures and just sat there staring into space, horrified. Within ten minutes they both started crying. Their eyes snapped back to Neo with a mixture of fear, awe, and with tears flooding down their faces. They then placed their heads on the ground, bowing. "Please, let us help you, we will do anything you say, just please don't do that again."

Neo was shocked at the sudden change in attitude and whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "Death, what did you do?"

"I did nothing, but it seems like you broke them. They are yours to do with as you will, just be careful, they have their needs and they could be good servants. Maybe you could ask them to serve you?"

Neo turned around, "What!? I can't do that. Their part of the group that attacked the school,poisoning people and causing chaos. I can't take them in, I'll be an accomplice. And how can I trust them not to stab me while I sleep?"

Neo was sure he heard the smile in Death’s voice. "Why don't you ask them that, pretty sure they have an answer. If you're willing to pay the price for two very strong beings that, with your help, can become masters of the shadows and blood."

Neo stared at the two of them, thinking. Did he want to go forward with this? There was a cost, what it could be and how would everyone else think, was he willing to have shadows… "Pray tell, you two, how can I trust your word?"

The two of them looked worriedly at each other, but Neo’s stare disturbed them. Having changed their thoughts, they both again stared at each other, having a conversation without words. But even Neo understood the basics of the conversation. The younger one was the one who disagreed, while the slightly older one wanted to live and not go through hell again.

"No, we can't, we don't have a choice. Do you want to go through that again?”

“No, but… but!"

The young one started crying, obviously terrified. Neo was still wary, he wasn't going to be sympathetic since they could just be just tricking him, but he felt a little bad. The younger one eventually nodded her confirmation and the older one stared at Neo's feet and spoke. "We're vampires. There is a common practice that has us bind and make beings our eternal slaves, allowing us to feed off them without worry of retribution or backstabbing, and they also can't lie since they are made loyal. Especially if they're willing partners. This practice can be turned on us and used to bind us. To other vampires it's considered a defilement, and they'll hunt us down until they manage to wipe their families disgrace off themselves, making the house pure again."

Neo listened, wondering again if he should do this, since it sounded like it'd cause trouble. "Tell me, was I one of your targets?"

A simple "Yes" answered him, but then she followed up with, "And they won't stop until they have your head for their stupid embarrassment in the council!"

'So, they're already after me, so what does it matter if I get help from those who come after me' Neo thought, but had a question. "How do I know that you're telling the truth?"

The girl replied, "Roll up my sleeve, you'll see a mark that's attached to my own slave, with each newly marked slave you get a new marking added."

"So, how would I go about this ritual then?"

After a short conversation Neo asked Death whether it was right or not. Neo got get a mere yeah in return which annoyed Neo. But even to Neo it sounded correct-ish. So, after a little bit of dithering he decided to go ahead with it.

Neo pierced his finger, causing it to bleed and started to draw on the chests and foreheads of the two young looking vampires. They'd told him to make a symbol that would mean something to him, so he drew a flute with a skull playing it and with souls and more skulls flying around it. The symbol, to him, was his future and past, his joy and his fear. He had to prick himself multiple times to finish it.

Once that was done, he slashed above the image on their chests and foreheads and then did the same to his two fingers and placed them into their mouths. The two them gently drank his blood. It was a bit unnerving when two large fangs popped out, but he still had to place his fingers into their mouths. He had been warned, but damn if it didn’t half creep him out. Meanwhile the blood running down their chests started covering his symbol. As soon as it was covered the blood started withdrawing into the wound and closed up, with his blood disappearing along with it.

Soon, his mind ached as his surrounding changed to one of whiteness and cleanliness, before he was jerked back into the ash covered fields with the two women convulsing on the ground. Neo watched as a tattoo of a musical note appeared on their foreheads and chests before it branched out with skulls and souls, changing colours while following the body's curves until he couldn't see any naked skin.

Neo’s left arm started burning. Checking it, he let out a hiss as two symbols appeared, one of a castle of roses, the other a blade and poison before they faded out until his arm was clear.

After a while the two vampires stopped convulsing and weakly sat up. They started crying as they examined their tattoos but Neo had wasted a lot of time and couldn't console them. When he spoke aloud they both sat up and listened, he had their full attention and it seemed to freak them both out. But he felt refreshed and alive, so he drew them back with conversation, ready to get on with the day. "What were your plans here?"

Neo was running after his platoon, not noticing that the abilities of death had faded away. The sister vampires had told him a lot, mainly their three objectives. First was to protect and collect Conway. Second was to collect and protect Jane. And finally, their third goal was tofind and kill him, for causing the embarrassment of the Undead Clans.

Neo had asked why they wanted to collect Jane and was horrified to find that Jane had communicated with the undead clans through Conway with the proposition of having an effective weapon to use against humanoid beings that wouldn't naturally affect the majority of their people.

It seemed that both Conway and Jane were in it together, they also told him that there was an arch lich who was resting inside the tower in order to see the objective through.

This made Neo panic. He quickly told the two vampires to disappeared before they were caught. He'd tell everyone that they just retreated after he devastated their warriors and that he couldn't chase after them. With that said he reached the tower and burst through the doors.

And right into a room full of gagged and chained students, teachers, and some of the guardsmen. It seemed that the team didn't have any problems here, hopefully the upstairs were just as clean. There was only one problem, Neo didn't know where the stairs were. After running around the room, avoiding the maddened ones, he managed to find it tucked in the back out of view. He stepped carefully up them, as there could be anything just around the bend. The tower shook violently, things calmed quickly but it had rattled the maddened below.

His slow crawl up the stairs came to an end when he saw the floor that he'd travelled to once before. He entered into the elevator room, skirting around the hole in the ground, to push against the door to Jane's room. Peeking through the small gap that he made into the room, he saw that it was considerably brighter and redder than the last time he was inside, but what had him worried was the fact that he only saw three people standing in the middle of the room.

A pair of black eyes made him jump back as the door was crashed through, the splinters hitting Neo. Behind the wrecked door was a floating man with black eyes and who had his whole body covered in chains, from head to toe. The only part that wasn't covered were his eyes. They were void of anything, only blackness. Neo thought he saw a dim star moving around there.

A voice echoed out of the floating man, "How did you defeat my team?"

Neo spoke out confidently, "They have a little weakness that I exploited, and I'm handy in a fight!"

The lich, as Neo had guessed that it was, laughed. All his chains shook and it echoed out of his entire body. "Haha… So, who's helping you?"

Neo gave it away with a laugh, as he thought, 'Well, he hit the nail dead on, it doesn't matter.'

But the lich continued his questioning. "So, who is your supporter human?"

Neo smiled, as he walked forward confidently, "I guess, you could say that Death is my master. How about yourself do you have anyone to cover your back?"

Neo still had his grin on his face as he uncovered his gold threaded flute, the lich was crapping himself as he realised what had happened to his team, and what was about to happen to him.

The lich waved his hand wildly and chains sprouted out of his back and into the room. From behind the lich Neo could hear the creaking and crashing of movement as the lich retreated back into the room to hide behind a small horde of hollowed eyes. Neo’s comrades, that had travelled with him, had parts of their bodies that were missing. Neo pushed down his stomach, he also had to tighten his mind as he worried about Bethany and Gie, keeping an eye out for them within the throng of bodies.

Neo walked forward, keeping the grin on his face as he swiped his flute through the throng. They fell like crops at a harvest, as soon as he touched his dead comrades his flute would glow, giving off a little mist. With that their bodies would collapse and Neo stepped past and continued through the throng, getting angry as he had to put down good people again.

Once he'd cleared his way through with ease, he got to the door. Stepping through, pissed, he saw the lich busying away in the corner, getting shouted at by Jane who had a grimace on her face mixed with a bit of worry as he looked over at her. She looked at Neo with confusion, then looked back at the panicking lich. Conway had been a white sheet as he stared at the door, expecting some sort of demon to walk through, but when Neo walked through the door his face changed to one he'd never seen before, disgust. With his face twisted he spoke, "What, you're scared of Neo? The human/dragon hybrid white mana user?"

Death laughed into Neo ears, "Haha, look at how they run, trying to live a little longer. Always scared to look behind them as they only see me, ever-creeping towards them. Haha, I love that feeling… sigh."

The lich gave a frightened look at Neo, who just gave him a dirty look. The lich jittered before going back to messing with whatever he was doing. Neo was enjoying that look of fright, but under that joy was anger, as he imagined what he'd done to the people around him.

It was then that Neo got surprised, as the world literally turned white before being pulled back and along with it the bodies that were behind him. Flying past into the room, they started squashing together around a white light. The bloody body mass suddenly formed up around it, forming a gate with the sound of breaking bones. The white light spread to occupy the space that the bloody bony mash made and Neo realised that his prey was going to get away, so he charged ahead.

Conway came forward, but Neo didn't care. He carelessly grabbed bottles and glasses and telekinetically threw them at Jane and Conway. They were both sluggish and inaccurate as the two of them didn't manage to form any kind of proper shielding. The glass shattered, sending shards everywhere with some of it making its way through the gaps in their shields, causing them to shy away. Within those moments, Neo had shot past them, aiming for the lich as he walked through the portal. As the last of the folds of its chains disappeared. Neo stuck his arm into the white pool to see if he could grab his enemy and his world flashed in pain, the world changing around him. The portal was there in a reception area with seats, chairs, and plants. It was silent with nobody moving about within it.

Neo pulled out his arm out of the portal, a painful experience. It felt like his body was going to be pulled apart. Screaming, he managed to withdraw his arm, the feeling stayed for a while and he gasped. Gritting his teeth, he controlled his breath and focused on something else, unfortunately for Conway and Jane they were his focus. Not that either of them noticed, as Conway was screaming his face off as it was melting, while Jane was flailing around.

Neo walked up to Jane, angry, he grasped her by her hair and pulled her head back, "Tell me, traitor, where are Bethany and Gie, they were both with you but I didn't see them in the bodies that was used for that."

He finished, pointing at the still activate portal. Jane surprised Neo and spoke through her tearless cries with rapid breaths. "It wasn't supposed to go that way. They said they'd restrain them and we’d leave with all my research, but…but…" She cried, "As soon as we entered it was an instant slaughter, they couldn't do anything. Gie managed to grab Bethany and safely made a hole through the wall, escaping."

Neo looked around the room finding the hole pretty easily as it was the source of the red light that brightened the room. It was definitely a Gie sized hole.

He then looked back at the portal, thinking about what he could do about it. He didn't want to leave it as something could always come back through that he couldn't deal with. Walking up to it, he formed a bubble around it. He started twisting the pearls and started putting pressure on it, after a while the world inside his space cracked as the white portal shattered, along with the arch of bones and flesh.

He tied up the blinded Jane and was about the slap the screaming Conway, who's face had been eaten away. Neo reconsidered slapping Conway, as he didn’t want to get any acid on his hands. So, he just tied him up, without any sympathy. With that, he couldn’t do anything else as he couldn't leave them just in case they escaped. It wasn't a great option, but honestly, he thought that the commander would have dealt with the rest of the maddened students, and Gie was probably out of harm's way.

Neo waited a long while, listening to Conway make low gurgling, pain filled cries. Neo was wondering whether he should be feeling something, but there was just nothing. Well, he was concerned now, at least, as he thought through it logically. He didn't really know Conway very well, but at least he was a living, sapient being. He should feel some pity as his face has been destroyed, on the other hand, idea that Conway had infected him, or perhaps Jane did, crushed any pity he felt. Either way they hurt him personally. Then there was the chaos, destruction, and poisoning of everyone. After considering everything Neo didn't really feel as bad about not feeling bad. But his thoughts lead him on to a different question, thankfully Conway had settled as the acid had stopped eating away at his face.

Coolly, Neo asked,"Conway, why?"

Creepily Conway started making gurgled laughter. After coughing on his own blood, he spit out words. "It wasn't 'cough' supposed to happen like this 'cough'." Conway's voice rose as he continued to speak,"I planned it out the last time we travelled out to the Atlantean Bubble. After years and years of perfecting away to get my vengeance on that stinking city and its supposed freedom loving and security bullshit!"

Conway coughed spat up some blood before continuing."When we called, they wouldn't help. Now they'll see how it feels to burn! So, I decided to do it from within, poison them with their greed, then I'll release their doom onto them, haha…” splutter, cough… “It's about time for my final plan to come together, for this straw will break backs… Hahahahahaha."

Neo felt something happen to his body as suddenly his weight increased. Neo only knew one person who had that ability. Heading to the hole in the wall, he leaned out slightly to get a view of thearena, just in time to catch an explosion that rocked the ground. Pulling himself in, just in case he fell, only to poke his head out and see a large figure roaring and moving about within the arena.

Looking inward, he found that Conway a had a grin on his face that looked like he was having fun, even considering how much pain he must be in it ran a shiver down his back. Another explosion racked the ground, and Neo poked his head out of the hole to see the arena’s walls had been blasted out, with the debris spreading over a mile. The commander wasn't doing very well, as they were still engaged with the thousand or so students.

Neo knew he had to do something, but the crazed laugher coming from Conway was really annoying, so after knocking to two of them out Neo felt safer leaving them there.

He headed for the door but his Instinct shouted at him to take the quicker way.