The Reborn Witch had a nice 'Tea Time' with the Dragon Queen today
Chapter 68: White Silk, Red Roses

Chapter 68: White Silk, Red Roses

The vampire’s claws met roots in a bout of clash for will, roots sprouting new possibilities, and claws desperately flung and froze them. Right swing, skin-shed, left swing, frostbite surged, another root swung for her waist. Dodge, a sharpened vine sprouted from beneath. Chin raised for a narrow dodge, a lone seed shot through the entangled root and hit her neck. Binds coiled her throat. Gasp, her left claw raised to cut off her head, weaves grostesquely stitiching the head a new body mid-air as she rolled aside, glared.

Hounds pooling again summoned, liquid bones cackled a new round as they rushed forward, the swinging roots met the hounds. Splash, the hounds splattered, tars molding and spreading the barks before Manasseh lunged, weaves thinning her body through the miniscule gaps before her claw reached for Adil’s unwavered eye, before a barrier halted the sharpness mid-air and another shaprened vine from beneath lodged into the vampire’s stomach.

Gasping, the vampire screamed as she tore off her waist, sharpened vines surging and following as the upper half rolled to reweave a new half, muds of lush soils marring her bloodlusted expression as her palm glided the soil mid-roll, silky frosts spread over and enveloped the pillars of shapened vines, before she climbed again and lunged for Adil.

A death man’s charge, Adil narrowed her eyes at the foolishness, as hounds summoned again for lunges. Roots swung, tars splattered, Manasseh coiled and neared Adil, her left palm engulfing a sinister black-blue shade, before slamming an ice blast into the barrier, the leaves in the barrier trembled as icy slik impaled them into each other, the Druid’s eye faltering as the vampire’s crazed right claw reached for her stitched stomach.

Yet the falter didn’t last as the Druid swung her staff, the vampire anticipating this retracted mid-swing for forward kick, Adil’s head tilt, the heel spawned icy sharpenels as it lunged down again, sinking into Adil’s shoulder.

Yet without a hint of pain, Adil’s hand swung to grab the leg, the greens sprouting over from the reddied blood as flowers and leaves marring the vampire’s leg. Gritting her teeth, the vampire cut it off again and rolled on the thud, yet a belated shock washed over her as a branch seeped into her bloodied leg from Adil’s shoulder, the root attached from the detached leg as if in a funny vengance against her own for abandonment.

Flowers and greens continued to sprout swiftly along the branch, as it reached the bloodied leg, so the vampire resorted to an old trick she clawed her head, the half-conscious palm grabbed and threw it across the field, vines chasing in shutter as if mirroring Adil’s shock. Head rolled, body reformed, as she rolled and slapped her palm for a landing. Gasping as she watched Adil shrugged the detached leg that betrayed her, the blue veins glowed malice and mockeries for the vampire’s struggle, the very hero’s will she exploited now taunted her of her failure. Sensing her burning lungs, she lunged her claw into her chest, pulling out as the lungs themselves reweave them anew with new oxygen as she lunged again.

A futile bout of struggle. The eerie pulse from the cocoon echoed the soil as Adil’s green fielded and spread over the dry wasteland, the greens chuckling to the elder of the children’s laughter and Selene’s smile, as they washed over Manasseh, flowered vines with lilies curling beneath her dashing steps as they embraced, the vampire coiling her body to silks again against it, yet the icy silks met the falling petals that tainted greyness among the pure ice like ashes she despised.

Silks reformed into the vampire’s body as she screamed, grey lilies sprouting from her soul, along her veins, to her pupils, bright blues flickering, pulsing, laughing, toiling. The half-vampire’s tears rolled down her cheeks, whimpers escaping from the flowery pain yet her will flamed as she glared, Adil’s steady gaze ever far out of reach for her claw to tear through.

"Why...why won’t you just DIE?!" A crack in her demenour, not of despair but of rage, as her pupil sprouted lily from within, every part of her body’s corruption now marred, remolded and coiled by the flowerly liles. The winds howled grief, the soils dusted solemness, the cocoon pulsed regrets. Adil’s calm eyes narrowed as she breathed in the freshness, the vampire’s malice tugging her sins for admonishment, yet the greens’ cradling wouldn’t allow her to sink.

For a moment, the pitiful scowls from Manasseh mirrored her younger self’s loneliness, ever to avenge and destroy, not create and let go. Adil closed her eyes, for more sight of this pitiful vampire would mar her resolve further. She would not save her, she would allow death to be her mercy.

Tears rolling down the vampire’s cheek as a silent scream tore her throat, lilies sprouting another pupil like flowery eyes. To speak is to rebut, to rebut is to retaliate, and to retaliate is to sacrifice. Therefore, Manasseh bloodhound shall not scream, for she has long lost the right to do so. Her unique magic <Silence> embedding a new pulse as she silences her cry before she rips her heart out and throws it towards Adil.

The vampire’s body slumped up, dead, yet just as the cocoon wept tears from the gap, the heart still pulsed a sickening human warmth, as silks weaved, rerouted and coiled muscles, bones, and limbs before reforming. Manasseh’s body slumped with her silent gasp, marred by torn muscle tissues and frostbites, her cloak that shaded only one arm now a forlorn shroud for a walking desperation.

She...will not last long. 10 seconds. 10 seconds...she didn’t think more as her legs buckled, any and every mana from Alice, any and every silks from her sacrifices of her own kins, coiled and enveloped her hooded left arm, neon blues tracing the gust as silks leaked from her body for the last charge, the last duty to fulfill.

Silken steps toiled, split, then stitched again like desperate needles as she dashed for finality. Adil’s eyes trembled, a slight hesitation before she raised her staff, leaves fluttering at the tip, spinning and swirling into a vortex of grief and sorrows, as she launched it against the vampire’s desperation.

Frosted claw met vortex greens. Resolve to die a last death met resolve to live for the next life. Silent roars met silent sorrow. Raging frostbites met grieving greens. Silken claws were chipped by sharpened leaves, clusters of leaves crawled before slumped by frosts. Veined blues darting, piercing and molding, the vampire’s legs stumbling, her rage wavering. Pains, tears, regrets, griefs...hopes for what-ifs surged in the vampire’s cornered mind as her claw pushed forward, the glare never leaving Adil’s downward gaze as she dashed forward with her right claw, one that was not marred by the whispers of her bretherns, or the hero’s mana who slaughtered her families.

Yet the claw stopped short, a sliver of silk too short as the sharpness peeled away into the air. Manasseh widened her eyes, shock, disbelief, struggles, and incomprehension all flashed as each thread from her arm fluttered into the sky. Adil’s steady gaze never left her shaken blues, the silvery glitters mirroring her icy threads, as the veined blues narrowed her eyes.

...calmness washed over the last vampire noble. This is the end. Her wraith and hatred amounted to nothing as hazy eyes overtook her, slight hints of red returning as Alice’s corruption left her body. She allowed herself to rest and lie in front of her enemy, the despair....the futility...it all seems so close yet so far.

The vague blues in the sky was as if mocking her for her abandonment, the only solace being the slight crack in the air, as if the sky would cry blood the next second, the cocoon pulsing to reassure her death would not be wasted. Unbeknownst to her but only to Adil, the silvery gaze widened as redness chippsed, tapped, and chiseled away the blues in Manasseh’s eyes, as the pupil once again returned to redness the Druid once despised.

The vampire’s thoughts swirled just as her legs, waist, chest, and cheeks flew into threads along with the wind, flowing away from the chains of hatred and vengance. Tears flew into the veined blues who chipped away, the reddened eyes fluttering not bloodlust but only rosery sorrows.

Right, Mother’s scarf...it also drifted away as I sacrificed my first brethren for the experiment, didn’t it?

Ah...mother...mother...I’m so sorry...

I’m so sorry I lost the scarf that is meant for you.

I’m so sorry I sacrificed my kin for an experiment that yielded only failures.

I’m so sorry I toyed away my own body you have granted unto me.

I’m so sorry I sullied your pride, your last words to me.

I’m so sorry I cannot....cannot be the noble, the daughter you wish me to be...

Adil’s watched as the tears fell away from the vampire’s cheeks; her grip tightened on the staff, trembling, as the staff slammed onto the ground. Roses without thorns sprouted, surrounding the lone, last vampire, a reddened coffin for the avenger who struggled for her kin until the last moment.

The vampire’s hazy eyes saw...only redness, as she stretched out her left arm. Her leaked white, icy silk touched upon the red roses, as it dressed whiteness among the red petals, before a smile crept up at the lingering nostalgia.

As she thought, whites paired well with reds.

Her last thoughts crumbled as the last of her drifted away, along with the tranquil peace in her final moments. Adil’s lips opened then closed, as if to spout last words the fellow avenger could no longer hear. ’Rest well’. She nodded her head, before raising it.

There, the sky finally cracked and leaked blood, the moon dangled with shaded red as the World screamed and roared for the avenging noble, as the cocoon’s gap splurted. A single bloody tear dripped, hissing where it landed.