END: A Home to Come Back To

It was a calm, deep night. Anna's body and mind eventually gave in to the extreme fatigue of the last week, and she fell asleep for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, without dreams.

But when she was sleeping deeply, she saw a vision.

It was not like her memory.

It was a feeling, so cold and sharp. She saw a big hourglass, its sand the color of dried blood, nearly empty.

“Tillya!!!”

Then came the sound, a desperate, echoing cry that was both familiar and foreign, “No! Sister! Don’t leave!!”

She had left her body behind. She was seeing through the eyes of another person, someone scared.

Under a bruised, purple sky, she saw a metropolis of graceful, white spires blazing.

Noston…?

A great war was happening. She saw her friend from her old life, Haruna, fall, a knight’s sword piercing her chest. She saw Ramu and her other friends, their faces streaked with grime and tears, struggling to hold a collapsing barricade against a tide of shadowy, indistinct monsters.

They we’re all dead.

Her own hands were in front of her and covered in blood.

But they were not her hands. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in a shattered pane of glass.

It was not her face. It was an elf girl, with silver hair and eyes wide with a terror that was not her own. Now the big monster is coming her way… She has to run…

“Anna…”

The dream was so powerful, so visceral, that its echoes bled through her psychic connection to her weapons.

High on a rooftop, Ars Terran, who never slept, stirred, a feeling of profound unease washing over her.

She's burning away, her very essence ached as the vision’s coldness touched her soul.

And in the tent, Maren, in her human form, began to whimper in her sleep, her small body trembling, but also burned away…

She has no one… Everyone is dead now…

“Anna… wake up… Mnnaaa… bad dream…”

The sword’s distress was a small, insistent pull that finally dragged Anna from the horrifying vision.

She shot upright, gasping for air, “W-Where am I?” Anna asked.

Maren and Terran who overlooked her sleep looked concerned. Terran checks her temperature, “Just making sure, I still don’t know if vampire can get sick or not… But no… You’re still cold.”

But Anna was still unresponsive, the images of a burning Noston and her dying friends seared into her mind.

“Anna?” Terran asked again.

“Ah yes…” She finally snapped back to reality, “It’s night already? Then… Can you gather everyone?”

Now. She stood at the head of a large table, her new team and her key allies arrayed around a massive globe.

She placed a finger on Frola, then dragged it slowly, arduously, across the vast parchment to the distant kingdom of Noston. The biggest kingdom in this world.

“This is our destination,” she said, her voice quiet but absolute. “Twenty-two thousand kilometers. I need to get there… As soon as possible! No postponing it.”

She looked up, her orange eyes meeting the confused faces of her team.

“And how do we get there, master? Teleport?” Flavie asked, she’s now quieter.

“No. We cannot teleport there. The distance is too great, the magical interference between continents is unknown. Ura,” she glanced at the witch, “even your methods are too risky for a group this size. A portal failure could scatter us across the globe or drop us into the middle of the Immortal Sea.”

She took a deep breath, accepting the brutal, logistical reality of their situation. “We will travel by land. And by sea. It will be slow. It will be dangerous but I don’t want to go there alone… I need my whole team…”

“But Anna-chan is a vampire, nyaa!” Serenya piped up.

“The sun!”

“Precisely,” Anna said. She turned to Zebril. “Captain. I require a vehicle. Some kind of merchant’s wagon. Large, sturdy, and unassuming. And I need it modified to my specifications.”

Zebril, ever the master of logistics, didn’t even blink. “A light-proof, reinforced compartment in the back?” she asked, already picturing the design. “Lead-lined, perhaps, with a separate ventilation system. Secure locks. It can be done in 2 weeks.”

“Good,” Anna nodded.

“Gaspard, you will be our driver and guard. Nathan, you will be our scout, moving ahead of the caravan. Nima and Ura will be our primary magical defense. Flavie… you will be our chaos agent, for when subtlety fails.”

“And what about me, nyaa?!” Serenya asked, pouting.

“You,” Anna said, turning to the Saint, “of course you will stay here with Bella and the Queen, make sure this new kingdom doesn't fall apart before I get back.”

“Okay nya!!”

Pietta looks sad, “So Lady Anna is really leaving?”

Anna gave a sad smile, “I’m really sorry but… I’ll be back ok?” Patting the girl’s head.

Pietta nodded slowly, “Ok…”

The night of her departure was cool and clear. A month of relentless work had transformed Frola. The main gate now stood tall and proud. It was here, at the threshold between her past and her future, that Anna’s entire world had gathered to say goodbye.

Zebril, now in the polished, authoritative armor of the Head of the Royal Knights, stepped forward first.

She didn’t offer a formal salute.

Instead, she pulled Anna into a firm, motherly hug. “You be safe out there, you hear me?” she said, “And if that Noston kingdom gives you any trouble, you send word. I’ll bring the entire knight corps myself.”

Anna chuckles, “I’ll be safe, mom…” She said, not even ashamed.

Jarce was next, his usual cheerful smile now bittersweet. “You’ll be back, right, Anna?” he asked, his voice full of a hopeful sadness.

“Yes… I’ll be back,” she promised, “Make sure you already find a wife or something after I came back so you don’t ended up falling for me again.”

This makes Jarce blushes, “Huh?! What do you mean?!”

Seware, a living memory of the conflict, was even present, leaning on a walking cane. A expression of real, reluctant reverence took the place of the smug grin.

“Try not to start any more apocalyptic wars while you’re gone, vampire,” he said, but there was no venom in it. It was his version of ‘be careful.’

Bella and Serenya approached together. Bella, ever the pragmatist, handed Anna a small, heavy pouch.

“Gold. Don’t spend it all in one place.” Serenya just hugged Anna tightly. “Don’t be gone too long, nyaa! Who will I tell my made-up stories to?”

Pietta shyly offered a small, clumsily wrapped package. “It’s honey cakes,” she whispered. “For the road. Mom said you like this…”

The Queen, who had been watching from a distance, stepped forward.

“Based on Ars Maren... We have a prize for you...” she said.

"Prize...?"

The Queen then held out a formal decree, its seal bearing a new crest: a black halo around an obsidian star.

“The council has ratified the formation of your new guild, the Obsidian Halo, just as you like. And by the unanimous vote of the crown and the leaders of the First Kin, you have been granted the highest rank this kingdom can bestow. The rank you have earned.”

Anna looked at the scroll. It was her real first name, Suzuha, followed by the title: Obsidian Rank. 

“How did you?!” She was shocked at first but beside her, Maren we’re grinning, 

“I know all of your memory… Suzuha...” She smiled warmly.

She looked up, a real, watery, and utterly genuine smile finally breaking through. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“From this day forth, you are a knight of Minilon,” the Queen declared softly. “This Kingdom is your home. If you ever grow weary, if your battles end… we will always welcome you back.”

Anna’s gaze swept across them—this strange, fragile, stubborn gathering of souls who had become her world. They looked at her with eyes that said they would miss her, that they would wait. No one had ever waited for her before.

Something cracked inside her. Her ribs felt like they may break from the sudden discomfort of the warmth in her chest. A single tear escaped, scorching her face. She made no attempt to hide it.

Her lips quivered, as though she wanted to say more, but they died in her throat. She just stared at them, soaking them up with a frantic affection, as if she were terrified that if she blinked, the sight would go.

And then she finally smiled.

She would never let go of this home.

Maren clung to her arm, her own eyes shining with tears.

Terran stood beside the gate in silence.

Anna inhaled deeply, relishing the experience and committing it to memory. 

"Thank you yet again... I'll make sure to come back..."

She was just about to leave but,

“Anna!! W-wait!!”

Startled, Anna turned. With both arms encircling a clumsy stack of carefully wrapped Grandium cow blood bags, Apu rushed down the path, almost tripping over his own feet.

A few feet short of her, he stopped, his face flaming red as he hunched over and gasped for air.

“I… I thought… maybe… you’d need these,” he stammered, holding the bundle out, “So you… you won’t go hungry… out there.”

Anna grinned gently after blinking.

As she reached for the packs, being cautious not to touch his fingers more than necessary, his hands shook.

“You… take care, okay?” Apu said quickly. 

His ears were bright red now, and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, eyes fixed firmly on the ground.

Anna’s chest ached at the sight. She tucked the gift safely under her arm. “I will,” she said softly.

He was still standing there when she looked back, as if he wanted to say a thousand things but was afraid to say them.

She then walked away from the people she had grown to love and the city she had rescued. On the road in front of her, her crew was waiting for her, Ura, Nathan, Nima, Gaspard, and the recently hired Flavie.

She walked towards them, towards the long, dark path that led to Noston, towards the next war, the next impossible challenge. But for the first time in her two lives, she wasn’t walking alone.

“Vampire, saint, monster, survivor, call me what you want."

She smiled, going in the carriage.

"But at the end, I'm still just Suzuha... a girl who survived a goddess’s mistake by being a vampire."

—End—