Chapter 896: Winner or loser?

The area around the castle was filled with the sound of swords clashing, explosions going off as abilities were used, as well as cries of pain and anger from those who had mustered the strength to fight with their lives on the lines… until all of it stopped rather undramatically.

The tenth army had been outnumbered, to carry on pushing forward they had to go beyond what they had in their tank and pushing their bodies beyond. Yet eventually, with the appearance of their first Vampire knight, the fight was over.

Jill had already retreated with the rest of her family members, leaving the tenth family's army standing still. Some of them were wondering if it really was the end or some sort of plan. They could imagine that this might only be the beginning.

That was until Paul spread the news that he had received a message from a man he had been trying to get through to for the longest time.

"Paul, it looks like you did well in my absence. I'm sorry I couldn't return sooner. The other gates are fine, only the one I'm currently at got attacked by the second family, but Erin seems to have done a good job in fending them off."

"I know you are worried that they might return, but trust me. The other families won't be. At least for a while anyway. We have to take this time to rest and do what we can." Leo reported.

There were a lot of things Paul wanted to ask Leo, most of all where the hell he had been all this time? And, what did he mean they wouldn't return?

The order to get the Blood fairy came from the newly crowned King himself, and Paul couldn't imagine that unless they achieved their goal or got rid of the tenth family that Bruce had any reason to call them off.

But if there was one thing, Paul trusted Leo greatly. He was a man who had achieved a lot and might have been in a higher position than himself in the army if he had accepted it. Looking around at his men, there was a lot of work to be done.

'Let's get to it.'

What was concerning for him, was that in the middle of the fight he had felt something. Not just him, but everyone who had been turned by Quinn had felt it.

The loss of one of their own. One that had a blood connection. He was wondering if it had come from one of his army or possibly someone else.

Unlike with the attack from the Bloodsucker, the damage done to the inner tenth area was actually kept to a small area. The area directly in front of the castle.

The two newly erected towers had protected them well in the fight and were still left standing. As for the gargoyles, only the one who had defended the castle walls had remained standing, the other had been destroyed in battle.

The most impressive thing about them was their regentive ability, but at the same time, if the core was destroyed, they would no longer be active. It was a weak spot they had.

Those from the Cursed family had known about it, so they had done their best to protect the core for as long as possible, but eventually they got overwhelmed. Those that were injured were taken into the castle for treatment and healing, thanks to them doing that in the middle of the battle there weren't a lot of casualties lost on their side.

There were many gravely injured that could no longer battle, but out of the two hundred, they had only lost fifty or so. Which was far fewer than than the other side.

"Sir," Ashley reported. He had been called from the other gate, which was the only one that hadn't been attacked. Him and his group of ten had been lucky enough to survive completely intact, by following their orders to not move from their post. "What would you like us to do with those from the eighth family that are still alive?"

In front of the castle, a large green tent had been put up. For the time being they had dragged all those not belonging to the tenth family there. The ones that were still alive.

From this fight Paul had learnt one thing, it wasn't easy to kill a vampire.

Many of them had lost one or more limbs and couldn't move, but as long as their hearts continued beating and their heads remained on their shoulders they wouldn't die that easily, although it was easy enough to give them that finishing blow in their current condition.

"Don't treat them just yet. We don't want them to leave the area to start another attack any time soon. There's a dungeon underneath the castle. Place them in there, and then give them a minimum supply of blood. We don't want them dying. I'm sure we can still use them as some type of bargaining tool down the line."

"And what of the crystals sir?"

"Crystals," Paul replied, wondering what the man was talking about.

Out from his hand, Ashley revalied the bright red crystals that looked similar to that of the beast crystals. It looked and felt like there was a strange power within them.

"Gather them up for now, maybe there will be a use for them as well."

Finally, Paul could see Leo walking over with the others. He was thankful that most of them looked fine without any severe injuries, but there was one being carried in Leo's arms, and the look on Erin's face, behind him, didn't seem fine at all.

'So it was her in the end that had died. I wonder how this will affect the girls, and the others. I wonder how it will affect Quinn.' Paul thought. Although he was sad for Cia's death, there were many others from the army that he was much closer to that had died today.

Paul's mind was focused, and he was more thinking about how the group could grow from this. Death was a truth of this world. In all honesty, they were lucky that no one close to them had died until this point.

"You have made some good calls." Leo praised him. "A lot has happened on our end, and it looks like a lot was happening on your end as well. I'm glad we came back with what we could. When everything is sorted, we should try to figure out just what is going on here."

When the outside team had finally finished bringing everyone in, Leo and Paul had returned inside, and started to head up to the throne room. When Paul reached the floor underneath the top one, he noticed that the whole stairway was blocked in.

Trying to go down the hallway, there was rubble everywhere as the whole floor had collapsed.

"No! No!" Paul shouted, as he frantically started to run around the floor, and then he finally was in the room directly underneath where the throne room would have been. A large bedroom that Quinn would usually reside in.

Inside, there were Sil and Logan, who looked to be frantically typing away, at a holographic screen. Ever since Alex had been taken away, he was doing everything he could to try and reach him.

Alex had the shadow ability, and wasn't wearing his mask, which meant there was a chance that he could get in contact with him, but so far no messages appeared to have gone through.

"What happened here?!" Paul demanded to know.

"Paul, why haven't you been answering your mask. I tried to inform you constantly of what was going on!" Logan criticised the latter.

Looking at his mask he had taken off after the fight was over, he could see it blinking away, but the vibration function on it had broken so he was unaware that Logan had attempted to call him multiple times.

With the look on Logan's face, and Sil tending to a weakened Borden, Paul noticed that he couldn't see one vital person.

"They... got him? … All of this and they still got Alex..."

"Yes." Logan confirmed it. "The other side has won this battle."

At that moment, the sense of victory they had felt, the lives they had sacrificed and the struggle they had endured, all of it felt… useless.

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