Three hours have passed since the Thirty Sanguine Blades had entered the city of Armatia.
One was spent roaming the city, another was spent inside the castle, getting used to the area, and the last was spent agonizing over lost comrades.
The warriors remaining from the troupe are as follows: Albus, Elysia, Kislev, Ophelia, Esk, Thern, Pam, and Yuon.
Albus, Ophelia, and Pam were all gravely injured, while Thern and Esk had minor injuries.
.....
Pacing back and forth, Elysia begins to panic, afraid of the fact they are deep in the heart of a city chalk full of warriors brimming with a desire to kill their kind..
Kislev, still getting out of his grievance, sits with his back against a wall and his left palm covering his face.
Thern and Yuon both tend to Pam, while Esk watches over Albus and Ophelia.
The group were in overwhelming distress as they had lost over half of the troupe in just one hour.
However, this never stopped Esk from thinking ahead.
Despite what he lacks in strength compared to the others, he makes up for it in his mental, which he has just begun proving.
.....
Standing up, Esk walks over to the conscious, away from Albus and Ophelia who're both resting from their injuries.
"We need a plan." He states, a stern look masking his eyes.
"What...?" Elysia responds, stopping in her tracks as she turns to glare at Esk.
"What exactly-" Before she could continue, Kislev chimes in.
"He's right... we're surrounded on all sides by our enemies..."
Turning to look at Kislev again, Elysia begins to break.
"What the hell are two talking about? How are we supposed to do anything in this state?" She starts, her voice quivering.
"Elysia." Esk continues.
"It's only a matter of time before soldiers from the outside swarm us... to be honest, we most likely are already."
Looking down in a grave sense of defeat, Esk begins to tap his foot for a couple of moments.
"Are you all ready to bare the weight of our failure?" Esk finishes, his voice solemn.
Kislev and Elysia both stare blankly at Esk.
The words are there, but their voices are empty.
They quickly know what Esk means.
Their mission was a failure.
They didn't find Cassiel, but instead, ended up causing a further rift between the western and eastern halves of Rampiel.
"We've dug this grave of ours, so we must fill it with as many bodies as we can, all to help our king."
"But why?" Thern steps in, the cold sound of his voice filling the room.
Esk turns to stare at Thern for a couple moments, before opening his mouth once more.
"Our job is to help our king, if we leave here to regroup, that'll take days, possibly weeks, our king could be dead by then because of that, because there were too many enemies for him to handle." Esk responds.
"You don't know that, Esk. We shouldn't lay our lives to waste for the sake of killing off mere soldiers, our job is to kill captains, generals, royals, anyone of importance." Thern bites back.
"Enough." Albus says, getting up from his rest.
Kislev gets up almost instantly to be by Albus' side, helping support him as he stands up.
"We needn't waste our lives here, but we can't regroup either." Albus continues.
"What?" Thern and Esk question collectively, causing Albus to sigh in response.
"We need to finish our mission, it's not over yet, we have not failed, now listen to me carefully."
.....
After half an hour passes, the group is prepared.
Their plan was simple, to start a revolution within the city using the lower class civilians.
They all witnessed it themselves, the poor quality of life that they had to face every waking day of their lives, how they were treated as bugs.
Although the plan was righteous, the idea was not, as this is all for their escape.
.....
Yuon and Esk were to look for an easy escape, carrying and protecting Ophelia along the way as she was still unconscious.
Elysia and Pam would both go by themselves to cause distractions within patrolling units.
Kislev and Thern would stick together to find and kill any remaining leaders within the ranks.
Albus would go by himself to lead the causing revolution that was soon to be orchestrated.
Their plan had many flaws, but it was what they had to make do with.
.....
As they prepared themselves, getting closer to the exit, they immediately noticed something off.
There was blood seeping through cracks under the door of the main entrance.
Albus would look back for a couple moments, doing a head count to make sure no one had went ahead, only to see everyone staring right back at him.
Looking towards the entrance again, Albus hesitates for a second, before continuing to walk forward, opening the doors to a city burning to ash, bodies sprawled out and mangled, and a man with white hair standing at the top of the steps, staring down amongst a bunch of the cities' civilians.
His arms were stretched out and facing up like a cross, looking down at the civilians and giving them a speech.
It was a speech of encouragement and righteousness, a speech for the morale and safety of the vampires, a speech for their bravery and confidence.
It was Cassiel Aeternus, uplifting the civilians that had joined his side after they had conquered and overthrown the corrupt officials of the city, Armatia.
Turning his head around to look back at his warriors, Cassiel grins heroically at Albus, before turning back around, throwing his hands in the air, and screaming out alongside his people for the glory of Rampiel.
.....
.....
After the speeches and cheering was left in the past, everyone was either sitting, resting, or talking on the stairs.
Albus was watching over Ophelia at the top as she was still unconscious.
Esk and Yuon were both talking to the civilian vampires, giving them instructions and so on as they were now refugees.
Kislev midway on the stairs, his head tucked into his knees as he covered his face, still grieving with what had happened.
Thern, Elysia, and Pam were all talking amongst each other at the top of the stairs, across from Albus and Ophelia to allow them their rest.
And finally, Cassiel, who was walking up the stairs, past Kislev, past Elysia, past everyone else, before stopping in front of Albus.
Staring at Albus as he crosses his arms while leaning on the wall with his head down, Cassiel waits for him to look up, before giving him a big smirk.
"Albus."
"My king." Albus responds, looking up at Cassiel and giving a faint smile back.
Cupping his hand, Cassiel raises his arm in the air as Albus does the same, before they bring them together, making a huge pop sound as their hands clap against each other, laughing as they're reunited again.
.....
After a long talk with the group, of what they had been doing, their training, The 30 Sanguine Blades, etcetera, Cassiel finally begins to explain what he had done, and what he had gone through.
.....
.....
Back when Cassiel first decided to leave, he never intended to go straight for the king in the east.
All he had wanted to do was rest.
He needed a moment of rest, his constant travels, bloodshed, and training had all been taking a toll on his body, a heavy toll that was even beginning to weigh on his mind.
It had only been around a month since he left the crypt.
When he was locked up, his body was unable to move, he had not a second to train, to refine his skills nor magic. He didn't have any blood to keep him nourished, and he had nothing for entertainment, not that he needed much anyways.
However, all of the above had been draining him, both his body and mind.
What he had intended to do when he left, was to head to an old spot on Rampiel, one that only he knew of, so he could have some peace and time for himself.
He spent most of his time meditating, refining his magic so he could get closer to his old power.
Although not much changed, his overall mana pool has increased twofold, giving him the chance to use magic more in his upcoming battles.
After finishing his rest, he decided to stop by Kotor for Daein, only to find him with a stunned expression on his face.
Once Daein had given Cassiel a run down of everything that had happened the last two weeks, Cassiel immediately darted out towards Armatia, since it was the closest of the Eastern cities, which is when he picked up the scent of Elysia, Albus, and Kislev.
Not detecting any other strong vampires, Cassiel quickly realized what had happened, so he decided to cause a distraction, leading the poorly treated civilians into an uprising.
What he hadn't expected, however, was for the civilians to win.
This is what would help remake the Sanguine blades, into something better, something stronger, under Cassiel's guide.