Lupa catches me before I hit the ground. I look up at her as her hair slowly starts to get dark red and her eyes dark purple. “Finally my old vessel.” I look at her shocked as she drops me.

“Lupa?” She glares at me for a second.

“How did a pathetic human become one of my...” I frown looking completely confused. “You aren’t a vessel at all.” The door gets kicked in with Zona running inside. She looks pissed as Lupa, or Sister turns to her.

“No. Give me Lupa back you bitch.” Sister glares at her and snarls.

“I can’t. I have more pressing matters to deal with.” I frown looking completely lost. James appears behind Zona. I see blood dripping from his arm.

“What are you talking about Sister?” She frowns sitting down in the chair.

“My Brothers want to come to this world and finish what you stopped last year.” She frowns gripping her shirt. “One year of torture. Trying to find a way to get here. They believe she can do it.” Zona frowns looking angry.

“How?” Sister glares at Zona exploding.

“I don’t know!” James makes his way to me looking concerned. Sister glares at him as he helps me up. “She can access things no one else can. I won’t be able to know until later. All I know is that I must protect her now.” Thunder shakes the room as both Zona and the Sister look outside. “They are coming.” Zona glares at the Sister for a moment.

“We aren’t finished here yet.” The Sister sprints outside with Zona in tow. James rushes over to me looking at my head.

“How the hell did you get that?” I frown feeling a goose egg form on my forehead. I get the smell of blood coming off of James. I slowly stand up trying to balance myself out.

“What did you do?” A moment passes as lightning cuts through the house dividing it in half. James moves me out of the way luckily in the knick of time. I look outside seeing the men from my dreams and the one from the school standing a few feet of the Sister and Zona. One of the men walks forward lightning forming in his hand.

“Zona. The Great Savior our sister has told us so much about.” Flames erupt from Zona trying to cover the four. One waves his hand containing the flames. Two of the others rush the Sister as they begin to brawl.The Sisters animalistic fighting style seems to give her an edge as she buries one into the ground and throwing the other into the nearby forest. With all the action going on, the final one sends another bolt of lightning told the house. We dive out of the house as I feel a slight burn formed from the intense amount of heat coming from the electricity. The final man walks over to us as James stands up ready to fight him.

“Ashley Price. Thank you for bringing us here. I wou-” With incredible speed James rushes up punching the man in the face. A small shockwave rings out from the punch causing the man to skid back a few feet. A look of concern forms on the man's face as James gets in a fighting stance. He looks like a total badass. James focuses on the man as he talks to me.

“Ash I need you to get out of here. I can hold off this pathetic excuse of a ma-” The man appears in front of James back handing him into the ground. The man looking annoyed turns his sights on me.

“Now where were we?” He takes a step forward as James jumps onto his back. James grits his teeth disappearing with the man. In the distance, I can see both James and the man falling into the lake. I take my chance to run toward the forest. James must have prepare himself just incase something were to happen. Idiot. Brave, stupid idiot.

I make my way to the forest forgetting about the one thrown into it. He walks out of the forest channeling a large amount of lightning sending it flying toward me. The Sister lands in front of me absorbing the full attack. She leaps landing on the man smashing him into the dirt. The man throws the Sister off him as lightning strikes him. He has disappeared along with the other one that was attacking the Sister. The Sister turns around looking at the other two men. I look with her seeing one trapped in a fire vortex. He tries to battle his way out of it but Zona increases the temperature causing another lightning strike. Zona relaxes letting the flames die out. We run over to Zona trying to find James. James gets tossed from the woods landing on his feet after a few rolls. The man walks out the woods with an angry expression about him. The Sister steps in front of me with Zona and James on either side. The man stops slowly frowning. “This wasn’t supposed to go this way sister. He will deal with you now.” Lightning falls from the sky hitting the man causing him to retract. James smiles wiping some blood from the corner of his mouth.

“That was easy enough. We can tak-” James stops talking as I notice the Sister start shaking. The sky itself slowly goes glare as color around us slowly fades. I look over to see the old man from my dreams walking from the lake. Zona looks at the Sister frowning angrily. She turns her sights on the man as he makes his way toward us.

“So you must be Father.” She ignites flames in her hands sending them at him. The flames sputter out even before getting halfway to him. Zona grows angrier sending a few bolts at him. He motions them away sending them into the dirt. I look at the Sister as she continues to shake.

“Sister. You need to do something. He’s coming.” Zona’s scream brings my attention back to her as a large wave of fire gets pushed toward Father. The flames with Zona disappear as Father continues his walk toward us.

“We don’t need her throwing a little tantrum.” With Zona disappearing, the Sister slowly loses her red hair color turning to white. A soft growl can be heard from her as she charges Father.

“What did you do to Zona?!” Father flicks his fingers sending Lupa across the sky into the house.

“Retreating home, I see? I will deal with you soon daughter.” I look at James still standing almost frozen in time. I look back to Father who stands before me. He looks down at me realizing something. His golden eyes are struck with a small mix of terror and familiarity.

“This can’t be possible.” He grabs me by the shoulder. Something insider breaks, shatters, whatever it is causes me to overwhelm with pain. I start shaking violently again. “How can you be alive?” Flashes in my vision spring forward seeing things. Strange words. Strange images. Indescribable. He lets go of me looking down at his hand as he looks back at me angry. “It appears that I am too late.” The sky slowly turns from the gray to a bright red. Father looks up with a look of defeat upon his face. The pain slowly leaves my body replacing it with dread. He looks down at me with his body slowly smoking. “All the pain and suffering that you will cause…” He closes his eyes fading within the smoke. I look up to see the sky slowly turning back to normal. The red hue of the sky slowly fades away as color is restored back. James blinks looking at me.

“-ke whatever is coming…” He looks around confused. “Where is everyone?” I go to answer but strange visions fill my head again causing me to grab it. He comes to me confused. “Ash. What’s wrong?” As soon as the visions come, they go. I am unable to describe them or what they mean. What the hell is going on? By the time I collect myself, Zona reappears looking angry.

“That bastard.” She looks at us slowly calming down. “Where’s the Sister?” James shrugs as I point to the house. Zona takes off in a full sprint toward the house as we full suit. Zona helps up Lupa who looks confused in some rumble. “Where’s the Sister?” Lupa rubs her head confused looking at the destruction of their house.

“I don’t know. The last thing I remember is her saying that she found a place to hide for now. She will talk to us as soon as she is able too.” Zona mumbles a few things underneath her breath shooting some flames into the half-destroyed fireplace. She looks at both of us.

“Make yourselves at home or at least what’s left of it.” James slowly stumbles leaning against me. He feels cold. I catch him before he fully passes out. Lupa comes over picking him up. He attempts to hold my hand, but his hand goes limp.

“I’m... alright...” I look at him worried as Lupa brings him to another room. Zona walks over to the mostly destroyed kitchen making tea.

“He won’t die yet. So, there is no reason to worry about him yet.” I feel a little out of place, so I walk over to the table. I find a chair sitting down on it. She brings over a tea kettle with tea cups. She places a tea cup down filling it with tea. “I am guessing you have a lot of question. Don’t you?” I slowly nod eyeing James’s door. “Well ask.” I blow on the tea sipping on it. It tastes a lot like green tea. It smooths whatever is still going on inside of me.

“Well... Everything really.” She sits down across from me pouring herself a cup. She heats the tea until it’s boiling drinking it.

“Hmm… where to start?” She thinks for a moment sitting the tea cup down. “About a year ago, I was chosen to save the world. With the help and cost of a few good people, we were able to do it. From what I can understand, the bitch…” She stops for a moment seeing confusion fill my face. “.. The Sister. Lupa is the only person left who’s called a herald. The Sister can take over her body from time to time.” I slowly nod slightly understanding. “Anyway. The Sister was the only person who wanted to save it. Now the rest of her family is trying to undo what she stopped. How? No idea.” I take in all the details thinking of questions.

“Do they think I can do that?” She slowly smirks playing with the tea cup.

“Probably not. They probably thought you were going to come to us. My best guess is that they wanted revenge. Now, I have a question for you.” I sit up a little straighter not realizing that she would ask me a question. “What happened to Alistar?” My frown explains everything Zona needed to know. She brings her hands up to her face looking sad. “Did you see him die?” She looks at me as I shake my head no.

“We think he is still alive. We just don’t know where.” Zona makes a face standing up.

“I will go look for him.” I go to ask her a question but, Lupa comes from James’s room. I look at her as Lupa has a handful of bloodied rags in her hand. A slow panic sits in as Zona looks at Lupa.

“I am going to go look for Alistar. I should be back in the morning.” Lupa throws the rags in the fire looking back at her.

“Alright. I will watch over these two.” Zona heads outside as I go to Lupa.

“How is James?” Lupa looks at me slowly eyeing the tea.

“Um… he’s… fine.” I look at the tea before she quickly picks up the tea kettle drinking quickly. I stare at her slightly freaked out. She smiles relaxed wiping her mouth. “That’s better. He lost a lot of blood. He just needs to rest for the most part. The weird thing is that the only wounds I found on him were on his arms.” I sigh feeling like a burden not being able to do anything.

“He uses his blood to do magic.” Lupa places the tea kettle down looking different. Like that isn’t something I should have told her. She looks back at me.

“I will let Zona know about that once she gets back.” She goes to add more wood to the fire pausing looking outside. “Do you see that?” I look outside with her.

“What is it Lupa?” Lupa frown looking away. She adds more fuel to the fire.

“Everything is just… darker now.” I gulp hearing something coming from James’s room. I look at Lupa hoping that she says yes.

“.. Could I go see James?” She looks back at me nodding.

“Of course. I will clean up as match as I can.” I quickly head to the guest bedroom. I slowly open the door slipping into the room. Luckily, this room wasn’t touched when the god family or whatever they are attacked. I look over to see James with both arms wrapped in bandages. I sit next to him on the bed. He looks dead to the world. I place my head on his chest trying to feel a heartbeat.

“You enjoying yourself?” I look up at him with a rush of emotions running over me. Tears fill my face as I grab a pillow. I hit him over and over with a pillow. He weakly blocks my attacks.

“Okay! Okay! I get it.” He says as I stop. I glare at him feeling the tears fall from my face.

“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH I HATE YOU RIGHT NOW?!? You could have died James. I mean, how could you be so reckless? I have no idea what I would do if you got seriously hurt. You are my…” I stop as he hugs me. It feels nice. I slowly give in to the hug as I hug him back. “Don’t do that again.”

“I just wanted to help protect you.” I relax for a second in his arms before pulling away from him. A part of me is happy that he did that for me. Another part of me hates the idea that he could kill himself if he over does it. I look him in the eyes making sure how serious he knows I am.

“I don’t want you using your magic again. Until you learn how to pace yourself.” For a brief second, he goes to argue with me. However, he stops agreeing with me.

“Okay... I won’t.” I stand up wiping my tears away from me.

“Good. Now get some rest.” He lays down as I leave the room. I walk over to Lupa sitting at the table. For the brief time I spent in that room, Lupa did an amazing job at cleaning. If it weren’t for the two large holes going throughout the house, it would look almost spotless. “Hey Lupa.” She looks over at me. “Is there anything I can read? I won’t be able to sleep for a while.” Lupa gets up heading to another part of the house. She enters the last remaining room coming back with a stack of books. I stop slightly shocked at them.

“These are a few books we recovered from Crag’s Keep.” I look at the books very interested. They look old and wonderful. I’ve always had a great interest in books. When I was a little kid, I would always hoard books. James would always ruin them, and the other children would destroy them. I grab one of the books looking at it. Strange symbols are on the cover etched in gold. I hold the book up to Lupa.

“What’s this one?” She looks over frowning

“Oh… I must have grabbed from the wrong stack. A few books we have can’t be read. Our friend had a large collection from many different worlds.” I pause at the comment deciding to look through it anyway. I turn the book back over as the strange etched cover turns into words. A Tale of Love. I make a face looking over to Lupa for a second. I look back to the book flipping through a few pages. The symbols and letters within the book are utter nonsense for a moment before slowly transforming into words. The story is a basic love story between a girl and a demon. The girl tries to make the demon good again. I don’t finish the book when it becomes apparent, they get a happy ending. I start to power read through the rest of the books that Lupa brought me. I only find a few other books similar to the first book I found. I yawn slowly standing up. I stretch my back out looking over at Lupa. I stop realizing that I spent the rest of the night reading.

“How did I do that…” Zona walks through the hole looking defeated. She sees Lupa fast asleep on the floor and me standing at the kitchen table. She looks at the number of books on the table frowning.

“What are you doing with those?” I gulp realizing that I have the entire table covered in books.

“I… asked Lupa for something to read. I just got caught up in the stories.” She walks over looking at a few of the books. She picks up a few of the books I had trouble reading in the beginning.

“You can read this?” I nod slowly.

“Yea but it takes me a second to understand it.” She looks over the pile of books giving me a weird look.

“Follow me.” She leads me to the bedroom Lupa went in and out all night of it. It looks to be Lupa and Zona’s bedroom. A large king-sized bed takes up most of the room. She leads me to a closest having stacks upon stacks of books within it. “A lot of these books come from someone who knew a lot about the world. See if you can find anything about what’s going on.” I get this sense of pride flowing through me. I am useful after all.

“Is there anything I should be looking for any keywords?” Zona nods looking through one of the stacks.

“Look for anything about red sky, dark, weird, or evil.” We start to look through the stacks of books. I yawn realizing how exhausted I feel. I move a book away causing a small stack to fall. I grumble stacking the books back up. I grab one book causing something to resonate within me. A depiction of a snake is on the cover of it. The title of the book is called The End Times. I slowly flip through the book seeing awful images. I feel something in my mind causing it to become fuzzy. I drop the book holding my head. The book falls open to a name etched in red pin. Siver. I look over to Zona feeling the fuzziness leave me.

“Does Siver mean anything to you?” She drops the books in her hand getting a vengeful look in her eye.