2.3 : DISCARD.

"I don't understand what you're saying, besides why is it that we must do this right now?"

"Because the more you prolong to make the decision, the more the time you're giving for our foes to take action upon us."

"Still, that doesn't mean that we just have to act first and worry about the consequences later on. You of all people should know that. If you're the candidate who's going to ascend the throne someday, then you'd also have to be a good tactician. I doubt you would want to rely on someone as expendable as me for that."

"Why would you label yourself as an expendable object?" She seemed conflicted with the notion of what I had just said. I understand where she's coming from since she's the type of person who values the individual's better half. She always sees the best in others, apart from herself, and sometimes, that's quite troublesome.

"Look, logically speaking, I'm a human. So there's only so much I can do when push comes to shove. And I doubt I'd be useful in combat which uses mana to discharge magic spells. Apart from that, even if I did overcome the odds and prove to be a key asset, at the end of the day, I'm still a human. Meaning that I would perish faster than you all would since that is how I'm built."

Vampires, as far as I've heard, and seen with my own eyes, can live around 500-1000 years or more, depending on how powerful they are, and how they feed on their prey. Considering that the human population hasn't dwindled around by a huge margin, it's safe to assume that they don't need to consistently feed on human souls to solidify their own existence.

"But..."

"And just so you know, if given the choice, I'm not entirely sure whether I'd even consider the prospect of giving up my humanity to lead a long life of nothingness."

"Long life of nothingness? What is it that you're implying?"

"One of your race's most exquisite qualities is the idea of immortality. As long as you control yourself, and feed on the necessary prey, in the desperate scenario, you guys can live on forever. But I don't think we can rile out the idea of cannibalism. So, in the end, it's just that you shall live forever. Well, that's not entirely bad. But then, one has to question that ideology. What is it that you do, with that immortality?"

"What you mean to say is...we're just alive but we don't have any purpose for why we're alive?"

"That's also one thing. If you see the food chain, plants feed on the nutrients in the ground, insects feed on plants, and then some animals feed on these incests, and these animals are fed to other animals, and so on, till humans, who are at the top of the food chain feed on them, only for them to perish, and become one with the earth, and decompose back to nutrients. A never-ending cycle. But if you notice closely, there's not a slight mention of you people. Not just your race, but the entire mystic creatures in general."

"So, you're saying we're not needed?"

"You're missing the point. What I mean to say is, even if you disrupt the cycle of life and the food chain, you barely make your presence felt. So, at the end of the day, even if you resort to taking every single life on this planet and feeding yourself, what happens then? What is it that you're supposed to do then?"

"You're just looping back to the entire philosophy of what is our purpose of living."

"Maybe when you get a grasp of the entire situation at hand, then I'll have this conversation again. Until then, I'm just going to pretend that we've never spoken about this."

I got up and offered my hand to her. Normally, I would have expected her to push it away but because things had changed now, she reluctantly took up on my offer. I gently pulled her up, and slowly left her hand.

"Anyhow, since you're the boss now, I'll just adhere to what you say. So, where's exactly this ritual camp?"

"Right here, but not exactly here."

"Huh? Oi, could you not mess up my already messed up head."

"Take my hand. Both of them!"

She raised both her hands and pushed them towards me, implying to hold onto them. I gently caressed, mindful of not exerting too much pressure on them but enough to keep minimal contact. She closed her eyes and started to chant something. I could sense the spiritual pressure around me starting to fluctuate. I just tightened my grip a little, but it didn't seem to affect her.

Slowly, every tangible object around me started to disintegrate. The room that we both stood in disappeared in an instant, so did everything else. The place we stood now, was a world of nothingness, pitch black. I couldn't see anything, apart from the light we both generated.

She slowly opened her eyes, and suddenly let go of me.

Huh? Before I could understand what had just happened, I was in a state of free fall, at a velocity where no human body could remain without disintegrating itself. I couldn't control anything. My brain couldn't comprehend anything, and before I knew it, I was drowning underwater in a sea of blood. That's right, blood!

The deeper I drifted, the darker the color drifted. Soon enough, I was back in a similar place, but this time, I could feel that viscous liquid engulfing me, not letting me go.

"You must discard your humanity!"

A voice resonated within that space.

"Please! I request you! Make the pact and discard your humanity! The fate of the universe lies in you. Please, before it's..."

"Axel!"

"Emily?"

We were back at the place we first approached.

"What happened?"

She seemed to notice the panic in my voice. I had to reassure that there was nothing out of the ordinary here.

"Nah, I'm good."

"Alright then, let's go."