A powerful mage before, A ring now!?

Chapter 9: Terror

From afar, I could hear a scream coming from the mansion. It was pretty loud as I think they're all shouting for help. Liora was still unconscious and it seems there's no way she would wake any time now.

Somehow I feel glad that Liora was unconscious right now. Suppose she did manage to make it to the mansion and face of the vampires there. Liora wouldn't be able to survive as she would be dead in a matter of seconds.

I don't know what's gotten into me but it's almost like I don't care about everyone else in this world except Liora. Liora does look similar to her; her eyes and hair… all of it looks the same.

The more I look at Liora. There's a strange sensation that I felt in my heart right now. It's almost like I had felt this before. It was when I met the same girl as Liora in Aeqelar back.

What was this feeling? I found it weird and it had happened to me before. Still, I can describe what I was feeling. 

Was it guilt? Was it really guilt… I wonder if that was really what I feel right now.

It must be as there's a reason why Liora and I met, why she is the one that stupid enough to put me on her finger. I think the Gods had arranged it all and this was the way for me to redeem or do the thing that I couldn't do back then.

That was to protect the similar girl from death. Was this the reason why I met Liora and became a ring? To simply be by her side, which I failed to do back then. If this is all really about that, I will do that and keep Liora protected.

I look from afar at the mansion as it gradually tears itself apart. The screaming that I heard also had disappeared. That only means one thing as all of the people there probably had been slaughtered by the vampires.

A few minutes later, I noticed two people were coming in my direction. It certainly is not the villager as there's no way that the villager had this emit this amount of magical aura. It must be the two vampires.

What're they doing coming towards this direction? Did both of them notice the huge magical aura coming out from Liora before she collapsed? I began to have a terrible feeling about this and I hope that the vampires weren't here for Liora.

Just like I guess, it was really the vampires as both of them slowly came in our direction.

'Would Liora be killed?' Those thoughts have been in my mind all of this time.

"Damn! Will it happen again?… does that mean I would just see Liora be killed in front of me." I said as I feel so useless at the moment.

The two vampires finally near us as one of the vampires stops. He then said something to the other vampire, which was the duke son.

"Master? Isn't this the girl which Alaric helps… Why was this girl here?" The vampire said to the duke's son.

The duke's son looked at Liora carefully as he said, "Ahaha! Alaric couldn't hold it. He must have sucked her blood and killed her after they both were out of range from the seeing eyes."

"So that means Alaric must have been slaughtering the villager at the moment but why wasn't there isn't any scream at all?" The vampire said.

"Don't you know Alaric long enough? He was the type that prefers to kill in silence and didn't want to create a stir as you did Saxon." The duke's son says, "Let's go then Saxon and kill the remaining humans in this village."

After saying that, both of the vampires left the area without killing Liora at all. It seems that the vampires thought that his friend had already killed Liora. They didn't even notice it at all but I guess that was good for Liora.

She would not die and be able to survive this vampire attack.

Not soon after the vampire left Liora and headed to the village, I began to hear the scream as that meant they had started the killing.

There's nothing I could do to save them and all I could do was to hear all of the screams. It wasn't an enjoyable thing to hear but there's no way I could block my hearing.

At least there was one survivor from this village...

The entire village started to catch on fire as the scream began more clearly. There's no one to save them as the vampire slaughters them one by one. I could just listen to it all.

When the night ends and the dawn finally emerges. All of the screams have stopped and the fire on the villager cabin has ceased. The two vampires have already long gone from this village as I couldn't sense their magical aura anymore.

It's clear that they had long gone and successfully did the things they wanted to do in this village. I don't think that they simply attack this village for nothing. There must be a reason why the vampires do so.

Typically a vampire wasn't the type to cause a massive uproar like this. They prefer to kill in silence. A vampire was supposed to be a creature that doesn't like humans to know their existence at all. Even if they killed a person, they would make it look like a suicide or something like that.

I was about to self indulge in deep thought about this recent vampire attack but then I saw that Liora was finally opening her eyes.

As soon as she opens her eyes, Liora asks me a question. "What happens?" Liora says.

"You fainted and didn't wake for quite a long time…" The moment I said that Liora immediately stands as she quickly takes a look around.

Liora was standing there like a stone. Her face alone tells me that she couldn't believe that her village had been destroyed by the vampires when she was unconscious. It must be tough for her to witness all of this right now.

"Are you okay?"

Liora didn't reply as she simply walked towards the village. When she arrived, there's a lot of burned corpses around. It's hard for me to identify who was who anymore. Liora walked slowly as she seemed to be searching for something.

Liora went to another burned cabin as she kept doing that. I wonder if she was searching for someone at the moment.

"Liora? Are you searching for someone… If you are, there's no doubt that that person has been killed."

"No!" She said that loudly.

"Listen here, Liora. There's no way that person could survive… Just look at this mess the vampire had man, burned corpses everywhere." I said that.

"No! There must be at least a survivor… the vampire couldn't kill them all. There's a lot of people in this village," Liora said as she still believes that someone might make it through all of it. 

"I know there are quite many people who live in this village but know that the vampire had magic and with that, the villager can easily be killed in just a short time," I said to Liora as I tried to make her accept this sad reality.

She refused to hear what I had said. Liora was still searching for the survivor of this village but no matter how hard she looked. There's no survivors as we stumbled upon many burned corpses along with the search.

With every corpse we found, tears began to flow from Liora. It seems that she couldn't take it anymore. It must be devastating for her to see her fellow friends and someone close to her died this way.

After searching for quite some time, Liora finally stopped. Does she realize that there's no way someone could survive the previous night?

Liora then looked at me with cold eyes, "Why would you not try to wake me up? Are you planning to keep me safe back when I was trying to kill the vampire…"

"What?" It was quite surprising that Liora said that to me. I don't expect this. "How could I wake you up if you're unconscious? It is impossible for me to do that," I say that.

"Wait a minute, why did I faint back then?" Liora says as she begins to accuse me, "I think you put a spell on me and make me faint, to stop me from reaching the mansion."

"Really? Do you think I would put a spell on you… I know we just met but there's no way I would do that." I say that.

"Yes! I really do think so!" She says, "Back then, you really don't want me to go to the mansion and fight the vampires. I didn't listen to you as I insisted on going. You had no other but to put a spell on me… just to stop me!"

I think I know why Liora was saying all of this stuff towards me...