Using his olfactory prowess, Lord Kieran managed to find where the scent of blood was coming from. There was something about a human's blood, regardless if they were magus or not, that enticed demons and apex predators toward it and repelled other prey within the vicinity.
He slowly made his way to the scene, wondering if the blood he sniffed came from the frail, odd woman who saved him the other day. Would he find her alive or already dead?
If she was dead, then there was no reason for him to feel indebted to her, but if she was in danger, Lord Kieran knew that he needed to give a fair compensation for what she had done for him the other day.
Not that he wanted to save her, but the thought that he was still indebted to her somehow bothered the great demon lord. Lord Kieran hated being indebted to anyone, what's more, to a mere human. His pride wouldn't allow him.
So, he decided to see what that human was up to and if she was involved with the poor human being hunted by the direwolves Yuri had just mentioned. Behind him, his three vassals followed him with questions, but no doubt could sense the direwolves as well as the scent of the human blood permeating through the woods.
"Oh, great. The direwolves are here. Just when I thought we could catch a break." Yuri muttered in irritation.
"You're one to talk, Yuri. It's me and Aiden who did most of the work against the vampires earlier." Callum placed a spectacle on his face, his eyes glowing red as he looked ahead of them.
"Three humans and a pack of gray direwolves. I guess they are too unlucky to be here just as the direwolves decided to come and settle their scores." He added, indirectly giving Lord Kieran the information he needed.
The demon lord marched toward the direction of the scent, his expression hard, making his companions wonder what had upset him this time.
Yuri and Callum gave Aiden a questioning look, but the man only furrowed his brows and glared at them.
"What? In case you forgot, I've been with you for the past two days. What do I know?" He said in defense.
Yuri shrugged and continued following their lord.
"Maybe it's because of Randal." He pointed out. "That bloodsucking insect sure knows how to annoy our liege."
"And you better not try to do the same, unless you want us to see your head roll off your shoulders." Callum commented, trying to keep up with their lord's pace, as Lord Kieran had suddenly sprinted toward the humans.
"They'll be dead soon." He said, which the demon lord didn't miss.
Lord Kieran couldn't understand the need to see that scrawny woman. He tried to convince himself that he was merely curious, but he couldn't stop himself from racing to where she was. Her scent led him in the right direction.
When he reached the place, he stood on a branch of the highest tree nearby to see what was happening. His three companions stopped a little distance from him and followed his lead.
Beneath them, a pack of gray direwolves were surrounding three humans. An unconscious young man was leaning against the trunk of a tree while his companions, who were both women, were trying to fend off the wolves. Four direwolves laid dead several meters from them, with arrows stuck where their eyeballs should be.
"Wow." Aiden chuckled. "For a human, it's surprising to see that they could hold up this long against the direwolves. Just look at those kills."
"Targeting their eyes. An easy pass to where the brain is. They must have known that it's pointless to attack their bodies and went to the direwolves' weak spot. Well, it's everyone's weak spot." Callum agreed with Aiden.
Meanwhile, Yuri remained silent. His eyes set on the brunette haired girl who was holding a sword in each of her hands. There was blood splattered on half of her face and her torso, but the young woman didn't seem to mind it. Her eyes too focused on the direwolves in front of them, trying to keep them away from their injured companion.
She slashed her swords as soon as one of the direwolves tried to pounce on her by catching her off guard. The direwolf howled in pain and the others bared their sharp fangs toward the young woman.
"My liege, do you know these humans?" Callum asked, noticing the odd interest that their lord had toward these mortals.
Instead of answering his question, Lord Kieran called Yuri's attention. He's been racking his brain, trying to figure out why the human wasn't affected by his shadows in both their previous encounters. Even if she was a magus, there was no way she could deflect the effects of his shadows.
"Yuri."
"Yes, milord?"
"You said that there's no exception to my curse." Lord Kieran said.
"Yes?" Yuri looked at his lord, bewildered.
Lord Kieran's curse was the consequence of him trying to break the law of magic and life when he tried to resurrect his dead mother. It was the price for him to pay, to watch people around him die, one after another, which only meant that it would drive him mad at some point in his never-ending life.
"I think there's an exception to the curse." Lord Kieran said, his gaze not leaving the pale blonde haired woman, who was trying to fight the direwolves. "Or am I not the only one in history that is recorded to have one?"
Yuri looked at Lord Kieran with astonishment. Why was his lord asking him this question when Lord Kieran already knew the answer? There were no accounts of the curse being placed on anyone other than this demon lord.
Their attention was brought back to the two young women who were facing the direwolves. A howl pierced through the woods as another direwolf was struck by Iris's arrow. The direwolf collapsed on the ground and made a whining sound as blood seeped from its injured eye.
Iris hoped that it would be dead soon, but she was now out of arrows and the only thing she had to protect herself was the sole dagger she usually kept in the hidden right leg pocket of her pants.
She felt the tightness in her chest as she heaved a deep breath, aware that she was almost at her limit now.
They had been trying to fend off the direwolves as soon as the pack pounced on Luca. Amelia was able to chase away the wolf that had bitten his leg, but she couldn't stop another direwolf from slashing Luca on his back with its sharp claws.
While Iris was able to stop his bleeding, Luca had fallen unconscious due to shock. Amelia had brought her enough time to heal Luca's wounds and clean the blood off of him by ripping the edges of his clothes that were stained by his blood.
Iris didn't waste time to clean him and discarded the scent of fresh blood from her friend. Anytime now, it could lure other predators once they caught the scent.
At the same time, Amelia was doing a good job in keeping the other direwolves away from Luca, who sustained the injury earlier. She wasn't doing any better than Iris and was starting to lose her strength to keep fending off the direwolves. If they had known that there were darklings waiting for them in the woods, none of them would have come out today to hunt.
Iris pulled out her hidden dagger and dragged her right foot backwards and bent her knees, putting herself in a defensive stance.
'What do we do?' She wondered, knowing that neither she nor Amelia could take on all the direwolves in their current state. It was only a matter of time before both of them would be defenseless against the remaining direwolves.
They came here to hunt for food, but they suddenly found themselves being hunted by the direwolves instead. Would this be the end for them?
Iris refused to accept that she would die here along with Amelia and Luca. It wouldn't have bothered her if she was the only one, but Luca had yet to start a new life with her younger sister, while Amelia still wanted to pursue her dreams of restoring the honor of the Buchanan family by becoming a knight. It would really be a real pity if these two died with her today.
The remaining direwolves drew closer, encircling around them, making sure none of them would be able to escape. Iris was starting to struggle to keep herself straight, but her eyes never left the direwolves in front of her. They were growling at them, baring their sharp fangs that undoubtedly could easily tear their human flesh.
They were not too far from Calaren Town, but even so, Iris didn't think that the direwolves would let them off easily. Calaren town was a small territory of Dravial. Iron fences were placed around its borders in an attempt to keep the darklings away. Most people knew that they could rely on the treaty they made with the Court of Shadow to keep them safe.
However, now that more darklings' appearances were recorded near Calaren Town, some were starting to wonder if the Court of Shadows had slowly lost its control in Asnar. A millennium was a long time after all and many things could happen and change.
One second passed. Another one followed and no one made a move, until one of the direwolves moved and jumped towards Amelia.
"Amelia!"
Iris was immediately distracted by it and lost her focus on the direwolves waiting for the chance to pounce on her. She suddenly found herself pushed onto the snow covered ground, with her dagger barely keeping the sharp teeth of the direwolf from biting her throat. Its whole body was hovering on its own and then she felt another set of fangs piercing her left leg, making her scream in pain.
'No! No! No!' Iris refused to perish like this.
Suddenly the world went white, and her scream resounded within the woods. Iris felt dizzy and breathless as energy sizzled and cracked across her body. An inexplicable amount of mana rushed through her and burst around her, creating a force that threw off the direwolves from herself and Amelia, who had just fallen on one knee, holding onto her sword for support.
The four demons were quick to back away to avoid the great flash of magical force that emitted from her body, their eyes widened in surprise witnessing the scene in front of them. The ground shook, the wind howled and from a distance, the icy lake started to crack. The gray clouds above them slowly dissipated along with the bright light from Iris's body.
Once the bright light vanished, everyone was left astonished by what they'd seen. The once snow covered ground was now a lush carpet of moss and grass. The trees regained their vitality as their leaves grew in the blink of an eye. The moon shone brightly above the sky for the first time in ages.
Yuri Alistair then turned to look at his lord in disbelief, seeing that his shadows were still thick and lingering on his body, yet it had no effect on the tree he was perched on.
What kind of anomaly was this? He wondered as his eyes returned to the human who just let out a magic that dispelled the effects of Randal's weather spell along the border of Asnar and Dravial.
Her magic was unstable, threatening to burst once again, but Lord Kieran lifted his hand and cast a spell on her.