The mages who want to take the white crow are forced to retreat. Powerless, they can't fight back. You turn to activate another glyph. You'llcapture the white crow.

Just then a familiar, nauseating agony explodes in your chest. Your breath is almost cut off. You fall to your knees in the cold, damp mud, and the power of your glyph dissipates.

Your vision blurs. You can only see Sylus rushing through the mist. He catches you before your face lands on the ground. "Your body..."

Mage E: She can't move. Here's our chance.

The dozen or so mages surround you and raise their hands in unison. The ground erupts with blinding white light. Accompanied by a deafening roar, spiraling rings of light rise.

"I can't kill them all when the linkage is limiting me. They need to come closer." Sylus says. Five rings of light rotate in various positions and mesh together in a gear-like fashion as they close in.

Your energy and Sylus's are draining. Several impatient mages move, hoping to seize the opportunity to capture the white crow. "At last."

Within range, Sylus cuts through the group of mages. Akin to a blade, his staff repeatedly pierces their chests. "You want to drain my energy? Pay for it with your blood."

Noble E: A f-fiend... It's a fiend who drinks blood!

Nobles drawn in by the commotion hide. Keeping their distance, their faces turn ashen as they witness Sylus furiously drink the mages' blood.

The spiral glyph continues to move, and your energy is almost gone. The excruciating pain shatters your body into countless pieces. "Sy... lus..."

He returns to your side, his eyes flashing with a savage intensity. Yet they brim with a certain determination. He raises his wrist and pierces his skin with his fangs. Bright red blood winds down his arm.

"Drink." you feel a fear in the depths of your subconscious and use your last ounce of strength to shake your head. "You don't have a choice." He grabs your jaw and presses his wrist against your mouth.

When your tongue touches his skin, his blood reminds you of burning embers. It explodes inside you and churns in your veins. Your heartbeat is all you can hear as it's accompanied by a sharp, burning pain, yet it's quickly dispelling the weakness and oppressive sensation in your body.

The mist around you suddenly churns and swirls as if countless hidden eyes are opening within it. The gear-like glyph is silent, its light dissolving into the mist.

"Lean on me. We'll leave this place." Your figures vanish into the depths of the blood mist as Sylus holds you.

In your hazy consciousness, you can only feel a warm, thick, strange yet intoxicating liquid between your lips. Your throat tightens as you greedily drink it. You're savoring the sweetest poison drawn from darkness itself.

"A little more...Breathe... You're doing well..." you slowly open your eyes, and your vision is only filled with a dark crimson hue.

You realize your tongue is lapping Sylus's wrist, his blood slowly trickling down from the corner of your lips... You quickly move back and sit up...

Only to discover that you're lying in a stone coffin... It's adorned with intricate carvings. "Welcome home, Countess."

"Where am I? My home doesn't have anything like this." you look around. This place resembles an underground vault with walls made of dark stone. Candlelight casts shadows that stretch into monstrous shapes.

"Of course. This is my home. I could use another descriptor. Welcome to the Underworld, Miss Mage."

"The Underworld?! How could a human possibly enter this place..." you ask "They would have to drink my blood." he answers.