Darker Than Black

Chapter Eight • Survivor

Vann Vernard IV

He ran in circles and still hadn't found his enemy. He just kept running.
Eventually he left the building entirely. Outside was scarce as the soldiers were killed upon entering the slave building.

However, a few of the slaves who hadn't escaped were running around in panic. The place was chaos. Some of the slaves had not heeded his advice and started a fire in retaliation as they were free. Said fire began burning down several buildings. Vann almost sighed depressingly as his work got even more dangerous. The flame roared as Vann continued to walk to the one building he hadn't check. He continued to walk until he was facing the building.

"Skill Activation: Leap Boost!" he chanted. Crouching low as mana swirled around his feet. He launched forward crashing into the building a few floors below the top.

"Skill Activation: Swiftness Burst!" he chanted again. Mana swirled around his entire body as he ran faster than anyone up the stairs and to the top floor. He ran until he found a teleporter that had become active. Someone was obviously coming through.

"What's happening here? I leave for once and all the people I was to sacrifice disappears!" the man roared.

The voice was eerily familiar. It instilled fear in Vann. A fear that no one else could instill. Someone else came through the teleporter. A girl. With bright silver hair. Her eyes were red and puffy but the red hue that her irises carried was enough for Vann to conclude that there was in fact another survivor of the Vernard family. This was probably the most shocking moment Vann had ever had. He choked on his own saliva as an imaginary lump formed in his throat. This isn't happening. Another survivor? No maybe it's a transformation?

But her look was too real to be a mere image created by mana. Maybe it's a trick of the light. Maybe her eyes are violet. Yeah she could be from that family that branches off from my own. Whats it called? The Demora family? No, her eyes are red. Those are totally red!!!

Thinking that you and your brother were the only survivors left in your entire family and then seeing another one out of the blue, his mind was screaming at him to do something but he was paralysed.

The black hair of his foe was blowing around. But something else was flooding Vann. He remembered a time. A time 8 years ago when he still had his entire family. When he had friends.

~Flashback~
It was another normal day as the large family, a Great Family, lounged around in their own compound. Vann was being ignored by his older brother, the usual, and was with another man with silver hair and red eyes. Hao Vernard. His mentor. Thumbing the platinum ring on his finger, he nervously looked around. He never spoke with all these people. Some of which were his cousins. Vann thought it weird for everyone surrounding you to have silver hair, though of varying lengths, heights and shades, and perilous red eyes, also of different shades. Some were as bright as rubies, some as dark as crimson.