Chapter 204 - Truth Laced With Lies
As the fight of light and darkness came to an end with the help of the newly empowered Sofia another war sparked on the very same land, this time inside the settlement of humanity
"Awoooo"
"Gnaw them!"
"Kill every human alive"
Panic had spread among the residents at the sudden emergence of werewolves in their homes, screams and calls for help resounded along the sound of flesh being ripped apart and bones smashed to paste
Not everyone was running blindly for their lives however, in fact the majority of people fought back with everything they had since the remaining numbers making up humanity were the strongest who manged to survive the onslaught of invasion, not once but twice
"All able combatants povide assistance and keep these beasts at bay until reinforcements arrive!"
"Create a circle to safe guard the none combatants "
A few who we quick on their feet took command over the chaotic situation and put together a doable counter measure to hold off the attack as much as possible
"Guh!"
"Ahh!"
Even so bodies kept piling up ever so quickly, while they may not be helpless the werewolves who were already inherently stronger outleveled them to a point that the eventual victor was clear
"Quee!"
"KIEEE!"
"Those darned vampires are here!"
"Werewolves were already enough, now vampires too?!"
Seeing the scores of thralls pouring in strapped them of any hope of survival
"Grrrraa!! What are you doing you filthy blood sucker"
"Off me you vermin"
Before humanity plunged into despair they witnessed the vampires, their supposed enemies, pounce at the werewolves with every intent of killing they could muster, the shock did not stop there for these very crazed vampires encircled them protectively with backs turned, as if not at all concerned with humans stabbing them from behind
"Awoooo~"
With the situation taking an unexpected turn those hidden leaders of the furry race announced their arrival, trotting out the shadows with enraged eyes
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING?"
"Loud as ever I see"
Meeting the roaring werebeast Nee also came out of hiding
"You!! I thought we had a-" "Shut it doggy, I am tired of having to listen to your mad words, today I shall rip that darned maw of yours"
Before anything could be revealed Nee used her skills to work up the anger welling inside the opposition to a boiling point, further inciting the short fused enemy into attacking
"Maul them!!"
Sure enough, fighting broke out moments later as reasoning became obeselet, with the werewolves more than happy to rip these mad thralls apart
"Weak! Your all so weak!"
"More! Feed me more power!!"
With every thrall slain they felt stronger, faster and filled with energy
"Is this all you've got wench!"
"For fools like yourselves it is more than enough"
"Grrrr"
The more Nee spoke the further they plunged into their madness, seemingly unaware of wounds slowly dotting their bodies
'Everything is going according to plan, now I just need the real leader to show up so we can bring him down and put an end to this mess'
Thinking ot was about time they wrapped things up Nee taunted the other party once more while manipulating his emotions into exploding
"Grrrraaaaaaa!"
And explode he did, in a speed unbecoming of his fellow werewolves as he raced toward the still Nee
"Heh, fool"
She mocked, watching the silly dog of a person run toward her madly at one moment, and skidding down headless the next
""....""
Silence overtook everyone, human or werewolf, grazing in shock at the white haired woman holding a head with rage still etched on it, apparently unaware that it even died in its last moments
"Good work Zero, my apology for having to drag you out of hiding for this"
Zero threw the head aside and shrugged, unbothered by the dirty work
Still shocked senseless the remaining werewolves were slow to respond to the thrall's follow up attack, sustaining large casualties in a matter of seconds
'It's time that guy showed himself'
Looking among enemy ranks Nee tried to spot the true leader, alas none looked fitting for the role, everyone present seemed more of a minion
'Is he not willing to step out?'
That didn't make sense, she had been targeting all the werewolves as a whole in her skill so the real leader should have been enraged enough to expose himself by now
"Gaa!"
"Kuh"
One by one the enemy fell under the overwhelming number of thralls and their broken moral, and up until the moment the last werewolf fell with a gasp none stepped forth to take the helm
'So he ran...'
That put a damp over her victory, of no one strong enough to be of a threat to Zero showed up then her subsequent act would sound very unconvincing
"Reinforcements are here!"
"Break the formation, lead everyone out of their encirclement"
On time the human elites, led by Faris, slew open a way out for their fellow comrades to escape from the vile creatures' grasp, or so they thought
"Hold up guys they aren't the enemy!"
"Yah, they helped us!"
Some stood up for the yhralls seeing them mercilessly getting slaughtered without even trying to fight back after just saving them, even the few doubtful ones joined the supporting voices ailing for cease fire under Nee's manipulation of their sympathy
Though confused Faris was won over by all the poeple trying to stop him, giving the order to disengage from the battle
"What is going on"
Grabbing the nearest person present during the attack he got them to brwif him on everything that went down
"Werewolves? There were werewolves in the settlement that attacked you? And the vampires were the ones that saved you??"
The story was so far fetched that he had to ask another person thinking that the first must have hit his head, since when were there werewolves in this land, much less friendly vampires
Still after asking countless poeple the answer he received was the same, unbelievable as it may sound
"....Are you the Lord of these vampires"
Finally addressing the enemy, or frenemy, after understanding the situation Faris trained his eyes on the white haired woman who supposedly killed the leader with one swipe of her hand
In response however Zero shook her head, turning her gaze to the side which he followed to look upon the charming figure of Nee
"You?"
"Yes, any problem?"
"....Tell me why you saved our people"
"I would like to hear your reasoning as well"
At this time the Waxy guild leader, along with several other leaders whose skills were not suited to fight wraiths, came to the battle venue
"I am sure you do, but before that"
Standing straight Nee faced them with a somber look about her, taking a deep breath and....bowing to them
"For killing so many of your kin and recruiting others in the shadows leaving theor family in tears, I apologize on behalf of all the vampires"
Raising her head Nee looked upon their faces, finding more confusion than anything else
"I am sure you all think of us as enemies but be sure that we did what we saw necessary for both our races"
"Mind clearing your words?"
She nodded and proceeded to enlighten them on the truth, well, the partial truth
"Vampires, as well as werewolves have both been once humans, using a forbidden skill we changed our race into the respective two factions that you now see"
That seemed believable enough since many of the present thralls were actually recognized by some of their family members, not that they dared apraoching the red eyed monsters they became
"Our factions were solitary at the begining, we were once human so a war with our origin race dosnt make sense, that remained the status quo until.."
"The mist came to be"
Nee nodded at Faris's deduction
"With the mist threatening both factions we were forced to strengthen our numbers by inviting those who were willing to join our ranks at the cost of their sanity, since humans were too weak to protect us at the time, the werewolves sought the same methods at first, the further the mist spread however the more threatened they became, slowly but surely skweing their thoughts until the only viable option seemed to sacrifice humanity to boost their strength and march out of the mist with force"
"That's beside the point, what we want to know is why you attacked us, not the dead race's reasoning"
Impatient the Waxy guild leader interjected
"I'm getting to that, and the werewolves main force is not dead, if this is all they had then we wouldn't have been forced to lay low all this time"
The bad news of the enemy's true power still laying about brought them to silence
"First, addressing the attack we made on your defense during the first wave, it actually saved us all"
"?"
"Yes, unbelievable as it may be we actually won the war because we lost the first battle, you see someone tipped us off that showing our true might from the get go would earn us nothing more than a stale war where the wraiths tore our numbers down wave by wave instead of fully attacking at once, the only way for us to accomplish that is by giving them a show of in fighting"
"Tippped of by someone? Who could...."
A certain masked man came to mind at the thought of someone infiltrating the mist
"We have not initiated any other attack on humans other than that, Faris there can testify for us, the plague is also the werewolves transformation, not ours"
Faris frowned but couldn't deny that they were spared by them, not harmed in any serious way....or was that true
"Mind telling me where my two scouts went of you are telling the truth?"
'I hoped he wouldn't bring that up'
Once more Nee's mistake stirred up trouble, of she couldn't explain this then everything she said would sound skeptical
"...They were killed"
"!!! You!"
"Don't jump to conclusions, I already told you that our members lose their sanity when they become thralls, the faster they let the blood corrode their mind the more they lose controle over their own actions, I am sure you know what I am talking about"
"You mean those monsters under you that look less human and more beast?"
"Yes, and the killer of your friends is among the ones you personally fought"
It took Faris many deep breaghs to calm his tumultuous emotions, while he wanted nothing more than to avenge his comrades he knew that revenge was never the right path, if the vampire race was truly trying to help humanity then he had no right to lay waste to these helpers and sacrifice many lives of his own people just for two innocent souls
"I understand that many of you doubt our intentions, and your doubts are justified, but I beseech you to reconsider our future relationship, for we need you as much as you need us"
Giving one last bow Nee finished her story and turned to leave with Zero and the thralls following behind