When Gate to Hell was opened, Lewis immediately moved the still-unconscious Julian into the hidden panic room behind the High Priest's bedroom. An acolyte and two guards came in with them to guard and take care of Julian's condition.
Miraculously, Julian woke up soon after Lucius's transformation, and he woke up screaming.
"NO! LU!"
Julian went into a fit and struggled violently against any force that tried to calm him down so he wouldn't hurt himself, and the strength was unlike someone who had been in a coma for almost a month.
Eventually Lewis managed to grab his flailing arms and trapped him in his embrace.
"Shhh, shhh...it's ok. We are ok." Lewis cooed and soothed, and it soaked and dampened Julian's paroxysm. The High Priest grabbed Lewis's arm tightly and said, "Is it a nightmare? Is Lu ok?"
And Lewis couldn't answer him.
The acolyte administered a dose of tranquilizer to Julian's IV bag, and Julian went back to sleep. Lewis was slightly relieved that Julian had come out of coma, but he didn't know how to explain that reality was probably worse than his nightmare.
When Julian was taken away by the vampires, he was so scared and anxious that the Churches and Division Nine wouldn't even bother to rescue him that he was ready to agree to anything as long as he could get Julian out of the hands of his evil twin brother. So when Archpriest Benedict told him to smuggle in an anchor to facilitate a later assault on Aeros, and in return, their vampire ally from The Order would portal him and Julian out of Aeros before the attack, he didn't consider it too long before accepting the mission.
He didn't think they were planning to use the Nova bomb...He thought they would just send in some vampires from The Order to assassinate Lucius.
And now...now Lucius was alive and enraged, and his wrath was going to swallow the world, and Lewis knew the destruction of Tranta, the death, or a fate worse than the death, of countless citizens...they were his fault, even though he did it in the name of love.
Lewis left the panic room to scout around the Palace. The demons were everywhere in the Celestine Palace, and he was almost discovered multiple times. He quickly gathered some holy weapons from the trove, some medicines and provisions from the medical room and the kitchen and made his way back, and then they hid there for five days until the food was running out.
This time, when Lewis left the panic room, the palace was unrecognizable, and the situation had escalated drastically. The grand, heavenly architectures were now infested by unknown slim and some kind of organism in between plant and flesh, and the floor was covered by giant blood vessels that spewed acid from time to time.
He was soon spotted by a demon that could change its color and blend into the environment perfectly, and that thing's sharp shriek attracted more demons. Lewis's leg was severely wounded, but he made it back to the panic room alive. The problem was that his blood trail had led the demons to the hidden room, though they couldn't get in right away, as ancient magic runes protected the entrance. But they knew the door wouldn't hold for long, and they had to get out.
By then, Julian could stay awake most of the day and even walk a little, though he was still very frail. But they didn't have time to wait for him to recover further.
They waited until most of the demons outside fell asleep and sneaked out, trying to make their way to the sewer tunnel that Lucius used to rescue Dorian. Eventually, only Lewis and Julian made it, and the acolyte and the guard both perished on the way.
They hid in the storage room in a supermarket for two more days until they noticed that the iridescent shimmers had crept into the supermarket, and anything it attached itself to began to change and mutate into something unfathomable and gross. They couldn't risk being infected by those things and were forced to be on the move again.
All this time, Julian was eerily quiet, especially after Lewis told him what happened. He thought Julian was in shock at first, but then when he saw Lucius in Asmodian's cosmically horrific form, hovering above the Celestine Palace, releasing all the diabolic power into their world, tears trickled down his face, yet he was still exceptionally calm and quiet about it.
For the first time in a long time, Lewis couldn't read what Julian was thinking.
Presently, they were forced to leave the supermarket and find a way out of Tranta. They made several blocks but then were discovered by a group of demons feasting on some human corpse. They were chased into the square before the art museum.
Lewis wielded the Saint Cyrus Sabre and slaughtered the demons that rushed toward them like a putrid tide. But they just kept coming from all directions. His arms were sore from the constant slashing, and he panted heavily, barely maintaining his strength, but he kept Julian safe behind him.
Suddenly, several blue lights flashed, and six more cloaked figures emerged from the air. They wielded some silver-like weapons and quickly vanquished the demon horde.
However, it was just another trap.
A vampire that looked somewhat resembling King Dorian stepped forward, the long silver sword pointed at Lewis, "Hand over the priest, and you can live."
"Who the fuck are you!"Lewis kept his stance, extending his arms to shield Julian from those predatory gazes.
"We are The Order, and we need the priest to save the world." The vampire, Silvan, said in a feigned frivolous voice with a menacing undertone, "Be a good boy and come with us without a fuss, Julian. You want to make this right, don't you?"
Julian stared at the man with wide eyes. He had never met Dorian's brother in person, but the similarity didn't escape him, "what do you want from me?"
"We want you to do what you have been doing all your life: let your God work through you and destroy that thing." Silvan pointed at the figure above Celestine Palace, "We have some magic that can fortify your connection to your God so he can possess you like he did last time in Starfall."
Vampires were looking for help from the Luminion God. It showed how desperate they were...Something would only happen at the end of the world.
"It almost killed him the last time, and he hasn't even recovered from it!" Lewis held his sword tighter as despair slowly crept up on him.
How could he fight six apostle vampires when he was already wounded and exhausted? But if he couldn't withstand their attack, who could protect Julian?
"Isn't to die for your believers and your God the highest honor and sacrifice?" Silvan smirked unsympathetically, "Now is your chance to be a true saint and martyr."
"Over my dead body!" Lewis snarled like a trapped beast.
Silvan chuckled derisively and remarked, "with pleasure," as he lunged at Lewis with unstoppable force.
However, just as his sword was about to clash with Lewis's sabre, a golden light flashed, and an unexpected rebound force hit Silvan harshly and pushed him a hundred feet back. He managed to land on his feet and dug his sword into the ground to stop backward inertia pulling him further.
A realm enveloped Julian and Lewis, and two agile figures landed before them. Dorian and Anton glowered at Silvan, their rage colder than the arctic front.
A golden glow emitted from Dorian's skin like the flame of wrath, and he marched toward his brother with deliberate strides as his elegant features grew sharper and darker, his form taller and more prominent. He hadn't taken his vampire beast form for a long time since he didn't need to with Azreal's power coursing through his veins.
"It was my biggest mistake to have let you live," Dorian growled, his long, sharp fangs flashing a bloodlust glint. His murderous fury was palpable, and his voice grew husky and deeper, "I will crush your pathetic skull and gut you like a pig for what you did to Lu!!!"
Silvan had never seen such dark rage from his brother, and he knew Dorian would not hesitate to take his life this time. Whatever little bit of affection left between them sprung from their shared childhood had gone with the explosion in Aeros.
A dull ache rang in Silvan's chest, but it transmuted into a mocking smirk, "The Great King of Eternia and the High King of Sanguine Coalition abandoned his country and his duties for his devilish consort once again. If you don't want the throne, perhaps you should have left it to me."
Dorian didn't waste another breath with him. He moved with such speed that eyes couldn't catch his form but a gush of blurry black color. Silvan raised his sword and readied himself, heightened all his senses so Dorian wouldn't find a chance to ensnare him with a deadly realm or invade his mind to fry his brain.
Dorian's hands turned into deadly claws with long, razor-like nails, and they clashed with the silver sword a hundred times in less than a minute, spraying ember sparks with every collision.
Meanwhile, Anton transformed into wolf form and took on the rest of the five vampires. The werewolf was never so deadly. The loss of Florian and the fact that they never reconciled had been gnawing at him, tormenting him, accumulating hatred in his once cloudless heart, and now he wanted these vampires who took his lover from him to suffer the most painful death. He disregarded the wound those vampires inflicted on him and fought as if mad, and he tore those apostles limb by limb with his bare hands, sunk his knife-sharp teeth into their throats and crushed their brains. Ere long, the rest of the apostles didn't dare to approach him anymore, deterred by his ferocity.
Dorian's attack grew faster and more and more powerful, and just like Anton, his rage-fueled adrenaline prevented him from feeling any pain even when the sword left several deep lacerations on him while he was still not fully recovered from Overdrawn.
In the meantime, Silvan felt his arms begin to shake, and his counterattack grew weaker and strained. He was no match for his brother even before Dorian got Azreal's feather, so he had avoided fighting him upfront until now.
A miscalculated move and an excruciating pain surged through Silvan's body. Dorian grabbed his word-swinging arm and tore his entire front arm off. The sword and the arm fell to the ground with blood gushing like spring. Silvan screamed and tried to get away from Dorian, but the vampire King was relentless. He continued to jam his fist into Silvan's face, over and over, until the prince's pretty face was bruised and bloodied so badly that it was almost unrecognizable.
When Silvan had lost all ability to fight back, Dorian grabbed his throat and pulled him before him, bore into his fearful eyes and dived into his brother's mind relentlessly.
Silvan felt like Dorian was drilling a hot red screw into his skull, digging into his brain, and all his thoughts, memories, secrets, and unconscious traumas were all exhumed and blended by a force as brutal and bloody as a meat grinder. It felt like his brain was being peeled open, layer by layer, like an onion.
It was the torture at the deepest level a being could have experienced. The dismembering of one's soul.
Silvan cursed and screamed and then begged Dorian to just kill him, but his brother refused to give him a quick, clean death.
Eventually, Silvan burst into a frenzied, hysterical laughter that sounded more akin to a screech. And then suddenly, all the noise ceased.
Silvan dropped to the ground. His body convulsed violently for a while and then went still. His two eyes stared blankly into the smoke-covered sky, not a trace of intelligence left.
His brain was completely fried, and the only difference between him and a vegetable was that he still breathed.
Dorian gradually reverted to his usual look as he slowly came down from his rage. He picked up the silver sword from Silvan's torn-off hand and stood above his half-brother, staring down at the blank face without any emotion. He raised the relic sword forged with Morrigan's blood and pierced Silvan's heart with one push.
The vampire prince's body soon combusted into flame and was quickly reduced to ash.
Dorian then focused his deadly gaze upon the other three still-standing vampires. He raised the sword and pointed at them, "Go tell your Master, I'm coming for him."
The three vampires scurried into a portal and disappeared, leaving only Dorian, Anton, and the two humans in the protective realm. The Vampire King turned to Lewis, and the cold wrath in his eyes hadn't dosed one bit.
"You let them in." Dorian bared his fangs as he approached slowly, "I saw it all in my brother's memory. Lu allowed you to stay in Aeros to be with your lover, but you smuggled in an anchor to repay his kindness. YOU destroyed Aeros, massacred our people, and almost killed my children."
Lewis flinched. The vampire's accusing words were uttered in a stoic, non-emotional way, yet he had never felt so threatened.
Anton also let out a furious growling.
Florian was dead because of this despicable human!
The werewolf lunged at Lewis in stormy fury and forgot there was a realm still protecting them. He was repelled by the counterforce radiated from the intangible golden globe and knocked to the ground. But he quickly jumped back on his feet.
"LET ME KILL HIM! HE IS MINE!"The werewolf roared.
Julian was frightened by Anton's rage. His wizened countenance was paler than paper. He tried to de-escalate the situation by muttering futilely, "He didn't know they were going to use Nova..."
He couldn't finish his sentence as warm blood suddenly splashed all over his face.
A portal suddenly opened inside Dorian's realm, and a hand punched through Lewis's chest.
The anchor under the bodyguard's rib cage was never removed, and it ironically became his downfall.
Lewis gasped, and he didn't even have a chance to say a word before his life was yanked out of him when the murderous hand withdrew abruptly, pulling out the still-beating heart.
Julian let out a horrifying, soul-crushing wail.