We Are A Family

"...We Keepers don't have a name of our own."

"Oh? Then, can I give you one? How about Viktoria? It'll help a lot if we want to coordinate fighting the Draugr."

"...As I said, do as you wish."

The moment she said that, a wicked aura spurted out from the hole in the wall, and her inconspicuous fear quickly surfaced to contort her previously indifferent expression. She had expected her enemy to come at her with full force, but she didn't expect this sort of entrance from it.

Fear of the unknown was a universal fear every living creature felt at one point in their life.

A Keeper such as her could comprehend clearly the difference in her and opponent's strength. And no doubt, her opponent had gained more power than before, and this fact shackled her movement. At that moment, she felt that she was being restrained directly beneath an ominous guillotine.

The guillotine was the Draugr stepping out of the hole, holding a stake in one hand.

"...The human is here?��� was the first sentence that left the Draugr's mouth.

"Your presence is so insignificant that I didn't notice. Even now as I look at you, I can't help but be disappointed."

Klaus put up a bravado in front of the threat and focused his mind to think of a variety of objects. It was a simple method to access an arsenal of weapons he could conjure right then and there. An array of powerful instruments ready to cut the Draugr's ties with life and consign the creature to void.

"...I'd fought a few reincarnated people in the past, but none was any wiser," said the Draugr as it spun the stake in its hand with little to no difficulty. "They displayed the unus mundus of human's l.u.s.t and d.e.s.i.r.e. They plead for me to spare them. They kissed my greaves to attain any scant of pity they could from me."

"..." The Keeper looked the Draugr up and down, but she couldn't discern any weak spots nor opening in the creature's casual stance.

"Those humans I fought failed to serve as entertainment. The Keepers that assisted them were but mere steps for me to reap their strength away for myself. Foolish creatures, weren't they?"

The Draugr kept on preaching about how those it had fought didn't suffice. As she heard it spoke with a gallant tone, she realized one crucial thing. The Draugr had grown strong enough for it speak of others in such a condescending manner. This information struck her as unpleasant, since it proved that the Draugr had discarded the very concept of fear from its mind.

And then, a voice filled with apparent fear interrupted the Draugr's sermon.

"...I-I'm not like them, you know. You can see for yourself if I'm capable of entertaining you..."

Was Klaus's statement his way to provoke the Draugr? Or had he spoke those words to achieve a different result altogether? The Keeper couldn't understand why, her confusion further clouded her mind when she knew Klaus's fear was evident in his speech.

"...?" The Draugr shared the same sentiment. "Do you realize what you're saying?"

"See, if I can't defeat you, then I can't go back. Luck doesn't bless someone twice in a row, so by hook or by crook, I have to take you down here... and now."

The Keeper felt a jolt of foreign sensation spreading throughout her body. 'I see...' She understood now. Klaus had met the necessary requirements to wield such 'power'.

"Viktoria!"

Klaus shouted the name and rushed forward, towards his impending death.

"Stop!" cried the Keeper, utterly ignoring the name he called her.

"Humans are forever foolish." The Draugr stretched its palm open, and the stake fell vertical straight line. When its tip was about to touch the floor, the Draugr gripped the Oubliette and contracted its deltoid, pulling its right arm outward.

The Keeper, who Klaus called Viktoria for one reason or another, opened her mouth to warn him. "Klaus!"

The stake trembled from being pressurized by the Draugr's vice grip, and it flashed in scarlet before the human's eyes. An attack launched at such a close range would undoubtedly slice him in half, had he not expected it beforehand. Klaus was no fool.

He had suffered a traumatizing injury about twelve hours ago, and he knew how a minute mistake could cause him his life. However, that memory and feeling had etched itself into his very being, unshackling the barrier cradling his common sense.

Yes, to fight such a monster surpassed a human's common sense. One would run away at the sight, but Klaus couldn't do that unless he defeated it. And to achieve just that, he concentrated every fibre of his being to emerge victorious. He knew he'd never overcome the fear in his heart with a half-baked attempt at fighting.

"!" A titanium door of about five feet in height emerged from out nowhere, obstructing the Draugr's vision. With his sense of sight restrained for a crucial second, Klaus ducked and slid between the creature's legs, avoiding the swung stake. Even if he didn't take that extra step, the stake would've missed him nonetheless given that its wielder was caught off guard and ultimately startled.

After that moment, the titanium door was sliced clean into two halves with the stake. One wouldn't comprehend how a crude weapon such as a stake could cut an object, but the Draugr's immense strength allowed it to do the impossible.

Turning its head around, the Draugr tried to swing its Oubliette in an arc, but it was caught off guard again, but this time, by another object. A guillotine's blade descended towards it, and to counter, it twisted its body at an angle and brought its stake down. The sequence flowed in one swift motion, and thus, the guillotine was smashed into pieces—a feat nigh impossible had it not for the Draugr's ability.

"Futile attempt."

The Draugr turned its helmet in the direction of where it thought Klaus was supposed to be standing, but there was no sight of him. This discovery froze him for a few moments.

"..." It shook its helmet and not even a moment afterward, a burst of white hellfire came crashing down onto it, engulfing its entire body. The roar that could very well came down from the bowels of earth reverberated the library. The space graced by the hellfire was dyed a blackish quartz, causing the spot where the Draugr had been standing to erupt into flames.

It was quite known that sinners who'd felt the hellfire's touch of damnation immediately turned into ashes. Then, they would be revived, and the same hellfire would curse them until the end of time.

As if to endorse that fact, the Draugr let out its last roar filled with anguish before its body crumbled, incinerated into nothing but the finest ashes. The burnt stench filled the air in no time, but even that seemingly intangible aspect that assailed Klaus's nose vanished because of the hellfire. Anything related to the sinner was erased—including its wretched stench, Oubliette, and perhaps its soul as well.