Ysabella was training, trying to create a new magic to kill Malakar, crystallizing her blood in the air. A blade of a beautiful red color with red markings from one end to the other was formed.
"Scarlet Blood Magic: Throne—"
Her blade dissolved in the air, meaning it had failed in its creation. Sighing, she sat down, trying to think about what her mistake had been.
"You seem to have accumulated too much magic in a place that has no resistance."
Hearing Sylas' voice, she saw him approaching from behind with a cup of monster blood, which he handed to her before sitting down, while she pulled back, holding the cup.
"So I guess I need to put more magic into the resistance itself and not accumulate and then gather to shape the magic, right?"
"Exactly. The problem with this magic is that you divided it into two parts — resistance and power — instead of letting it form its own resistance."
"That's exactly what I want, to make it even better."
As he watched her drink from the cup, he noticed she wanted distance, like before. In that place, she seemed to want distance from everyone, and at most, she probably only allowed her father to get close. To make matters worse, he knew why.
"Do you want me to tell you some things about the owner of the blood you drank?"
"Yes."
She seemed excited to hear everything about him. The only problem was that she would surely find out his identity someday, maybe even soon, so to make his story match Enrico's, he would have to use that period of time when his parents abandoned him alone at home, particularly when he was much younger and they didn't even know how he lived.
'Thank you for being such terrible parents to Enrico, Mr. and Mrs. Solcren Ferreira.'
"Before that, you should tell me a little about yourself too, because I'm interested in why you hate vampires — of course, only if you want to."
"...my mother was human."
Twenty years ago, her mother had been one of the humans captured by the blood hunters of that time, kept imprisoned until the moment her blood would be taken. At that time, her father was a rather rebellious vampire who went against his own father's orders not to invade that place.
"So, to defy his father, he entered without permission."
"Yes."
She let out a nostalgic smile, remembering the stories her mother told about herself and her father. On the day he invaded, he met her and started talking with her. Even though she was imprisoned, her mother seemed calm while trying to persuade him to free her, but failed to convince Solin that day.
From then on, he became interested in her and returned every day in secret to talk to her more and more. He admired her calmness in that situation — it was also his first time truly seeing a human up close. Days went by, and he grew fonder of her, until one day, to her mother's surprise, he simply blew up the prison and took her away.
Her grandfather was furious, screaming endlessly at his audacity, while her father remained calm, saying everything was fine. He then let her go back to the human world and gave her a pendant that could bring her to his castle. From then on, it was her turn to go meet him every day, and this continued until they eventually got together.
And then her grandfather found out. Strangely, he was merely annoyed and hid the relationship from the council. It wasn't an exaggeration to say he agreed with the council, but there was something far too precious for him to sacrifice — his beloved son. He would never do anything that could hurt him deeply.
A year later, Ysabella was born, becoming the first hybrid in history to live for so long, since all the others had died young once discovered. She grew up happily for 14 years until the council found out. In order to help them escape, her grandfather stayed behind to fight Draven, who at the time was at the same level as him, since Draven was about to advance to circle nine in three months.
"On the day of my grandfather's death, we could only hide. My father was a circle eight while my mother was circle six, but as my grandfather said, who would protect me if both of them died with him?"
"...that must have been the right decision your grandfather thought of at the time."
"Yes, it was either him or all of us."
After that, to protect the two of them, her father trained like mad to reach circle nine. A year later, he succeeded, putting an end to the council's persecution of their family. With his increased level, he thought of fighting Draven to get revenge, but he thought of them instead and decided to simply walk away to live peacefully without following the council's orders.
When Ysabella turned 15, she began training non-stop like her father to become strong, reaching circle four a year later and increasing her percentage at a good pace. The three lived well until her father had to fight some invaders in his territory. While he was away, Draven himself appeared at the mansion, trying to capture the two of them. Her mother tried to fight him, even though she had only just reached circle seven, and ended up losing after a powerful spell struck her, leaving her in a deep coma.
"So your mother is somewhere in the castle unconscious, since I don't think she was captured, or else you'd be nervous now?"
"My father hid her in a safe place."
When Ysabella's mother became unconscious, her furious father returned at that moment. Draven then quickly took someone away — Ysabella, who didn't have the power to resist. Before her father's attack could land on Draven, he disappeared through a magic circle that appeared when he stepped through the door with her.
"And the rest you must have seen. I was taken to that prison and kept there for 17 days before you appeared. All those bloodsuckers only care about themselves. If you look, none of them showed up to stand by my father — at most, the rebellion, but they're doing it for other reasons."
"I understand."
That was the part of the story he didn't know, but he knew it wasn't the whole truth because he knew the other part. When she was taken, she was locked in a cell and handed over to Malakar to force her to reveal information. He was fully responsible for her torture in prison, with the guards doing the same every day. That was all described in the story, but he suspected there was more, because he had seen it in her eyes on the first day he met her. Ysabella looked aside, unwilling to say more, but that made her remember something.
"You must be hungry, aren't you? Take this."
A memory she held back surfaced in her mind — they had forced a flask of blood with some drug into her mouth. That day, when Malakar left the cell, Ysabella woke up crying nonstop, with only one thought in her mind.
'I'll kill all those bloodsuckers, especially you, Malakar.'
Her mother had explained to her the meaning of the word bloodsucker, and she would use those words with complete certainty if it was to wish evil upon them — all of them. She turned to Sylas, remembering those eyes he had shown her that day.
"Why did you have those eyes that day?"
Thinking about it, Sylas decided against telling that part of his own story, shifting it instead to Enrico. His plan had been to use the small gap of time when he wasn't watched for years, but now he decided to transfer that story to Sylas himself.
'At first, I was going to use Sylas' identity only as a loyal follower, but I can use this.'
"I'll be quick, because I prefer not to talk too much about my past, even though I've overcome it."
"That's fine by me."
Lying down, he looked at the sky, having visions of his past. Back then, he had been too small to understand what their true personalities were.
"Let's just say my parents would do anything for money. When I was younger, my father taught me how to steal, since he had been a thief his whole life. And since I was a child, the punishment from authorities if I got caught would be much lighter. As for my mother… let's just say she used to be a night worker before she had me, and a scammer after I was born, especially after she had an accident near a construction site."
"What a shitty family."
"I know."
At first, he only stole food from stalls, and then people's wallets. During that time, he had to learn to fight in the streets, since there were others like him. That part of the city was very poor, so that was how some kids his age lived.
"One of those days, I bumped into a man who became interested after seeing me defend myself from some kids my age, so he asked to speak to my parents."
That day, that man offered money in exchange for him doing some jobs. At first it was theft, and later, as he grew, other jobs, until the day came when he offered him the worst job yet. His parents didn't even think twice before agreeing.
"And that was it. He offered jobs and my parents agreed. I even fought in cage fights under the moonlight. Honestly, it's no exaggeration to say I was the best of my age."
"...your body endured all that? Didn't it get worse?"
"I don't know, and I don't care. At most, I care about letting it rest to make it even better."
"You should care more about your own body."
He looked at her with confused eyes — the same eyes he gave her in that cell. He looked at her without truly understanding the reason for her question, but remembered that each person deals with pain in their own way, so he answered indifferently.
"Why should I care if it's already dirty all over?"
She looked incredulous at his answer, but when she looked into his eyes, she saw nothing — as if he truly didn't care. It wasn't certain, because his eyes held no sign of pain.
"Don't look at me like that. Instead of caring about something about me that even I don't care about, you should focus on how to kill Malakar."
"...you're right… and about the owner of the blood? Did he go through something similar since you know him?"
"I've already told you about myself, so if you want to know about him, you'll have to wait… for now, just focus on your revenge."
When she closed her eyes and opened them again, she saw herself looking down at Malakar glaring at her. Letting out a dark smile, she set her thoughts aside. She would have other moments to ask about Sylas and the blood's owner.
'Yes, that's right. For now, I only need revenge.'