“What? They’re declaring what?”
I almost tip over when one of Mayari’s team suddenly flashed down from the front carrying a sealed letter. And Pinansey-angan’s attack was stopped unanticipatedly.
“Ceasefire, General. They want to pause temporarily.”
My brows furrowed even more that I snatched the letter from her. But instead of a decent group of words, what’s written was a bunch of meaningless ones.
‘The Senate’s judgment.’
“Why should I care about the Senate’s judgment?” I muttered irately with my fist clenching the piece of paper. My eyes affixed at a direction, across the battlefield where a certain person was what I see standing.
That horrendous face of him. That atrocious blonde hair, a pair of auburn eyes that I sure am wouldn’t be able to resist but to scrape them out of him. He’s the person whom I truly resent… the man who killed my life at an unreasonable tale.
“General?”
“Stop the cannons,” I answered. “We weren’t called an honorable team if we do not receive their warm request. Who are we to decline?”
A lucid grin doodled on my face as my hand again raised, halting the intrusion from the flaming arrows to the thundering bombs. At this rate, the third night from the start of the war, I could judge from a bird’s perspective we had done enough blow to their camp.
But the damage we received was also unable to be concealed. Losing a quarter of the battalion is not a joke. And running out of this line’s bullets and balls was clearly not so fun anymore. Sooner or later, we’ll be out of ammunition and what we could do is to face them by strength.
“How many casualties do we have?” I asked the moment I stepped down from the quarter’s ramp.
“Three-hundred eighty-six, General.”
I nodded my head constantly as my hand reached out for the helmet on the table. Vampires do have the ability to heal themselves but it takes time, particularly based on how a wound is created.
“What are you going to do?” Mayari popped out grimly.
“Negotiate,” exits a meaningful word from my mouth. “We first came here, and then them. Pinansey-angan territory was days away, and I assume they also have issues with their supplies. You know what to do, Mayari.”
She seems to instantly understand what I want her to do, that she nodded in response before her body disappeared as pillars of fog surrounded the field.
“The rest of the army, stay still. No one shall do any move without my command,” I instructed before the helmet’s clutch clipped.
I began treading a step on the quiet ground. No bombs, no screams and cries, no exchange of explosions, all hushed like everything was all over. Yet, the aura of a chaotic clashing and bloodshed still remains.
The fog is now invading every inch of the land, leaving everything to appear grey. My steps accelerated, following the trails of blood and blasted arrows, I know I am heading for death. Walking alone at the center of the battlefield where I could be shot any moment if ever their General would command them to do so.
“Vallejo…”
My head raised attentively when his voice sounded. So clear and too audible, if I am not mistaken… He’s now in front of me.
“It’s been a couple of months after the last time.”
“It’s only a month, not a couple, Contejo.”

He shrugged and brushed his blonde hair backward, “Whatever. The time I’ve given you should be enough, don’t you think?”
“How many hours more can you give?” My hands remained tacked on my back, tightly clenching on the dagger resting inside its sheath.
“None,” Vander answered, lifting a corner of his lips. “The last portion of sand has already fallen a while ago.”
“Then, what do you propose?”
“I want you to go home.” His eyes pointing behind me, “And pack your army with you.”
I sneered and raised a brow on him, “Are you commanding me to retreat? Or…” With a gradual step I make closer to him, the greater my desire to slit his throat. “Are you surrendering?”
“I don’t think so. You see yourself so high this time, don’t you fear falling down?”
Between us lies only an inch, near at hand. My eyes filled with anger and hatred, like daggers gashing out that would definitely run through his flesh if it were to be true. The pain and grudges I’ve suffered from the past, the act of him who has stolen away the life I had.
Or maybe I should be thanking him, for killing that weak and cowardly past of myself. Because of him, I’ve been reborn this way. The ruthless and vicious general of Sinandaya.
“I am Adira Vallejo.” His stunned face is what retorts as the blade of my dagger slashes through his neck in a blink of an eye. “And falling down is not a difficult thing to do. Particularly if there’s a sharp sword by my hand, I don’t mind landing on you.”
“She is mine from the very beginning. But if I can’t have her back, so do you, Diego Alfarro.”
The look on his face, the way how astonished he is, somehow I see myself in him. That same reaction I once had felt, the same unexpected response seeing the most unexpected person slitting you to death.
“Freedom and my name you wanted to get is mine from the very beginning. But if the Senate still don’t want me to have it, so can’t you, Vander Contejo.”
My hand lifted the same dagger and initiated another strike at him. The blade dripping blood penetrated on his chest, going in deeper and deeper at every second with my stares not diverting away from his.
Out of a sudden, his shocked figure suddenly changed into a scornful manner. Blood started coming out of his mouth, so as the burning ashes on his chest from the poisoned dagger inserted in it.
“How was it?” he quibbled with a wide scornful grin. “You managed to remember the past.”
My eyes narrowed at him as I kept my hand on its handle. “News flies faster than the wind, I see. I wonder who could be the traitor you’ve placed in my camp?”
“Someone who has intelligence brighter than the sun.”
I grinned and pushed the blade furthermore that he screamed in pain. “Who?”
“It’s no other than your sister,” he plainly replied and pulled out something from behind him. That same poniard carved with the emblem of the sun. Proving he is the regent of the kingdom of Pinansey-angan.
“Stop involving Deianira,” I uttered seriously with the same dark aura on my face. But behind that was a victory smile. Seems like he still didn’t know she had left the battlefield on her own.
“I-I d-didn’t,” he hardly speak and raised both of his hands. “However, I guess it was you who paved your way back to the cycle.”
Even my reflexes hadn’t had enough time to respond when his hand holding the poniard, dashed against the wind and its keen quickly buried inside my chest the same as his. There sprouted an intolerable heat as flickers of burning ashes float in front of my eyes.
“You have known m-me fir-first. Y-You have l-loved me first, g-greater than h-him,” he spoke as blood spurted out of his mouth. His hand clenched the dagger on my chest, trembling and shaking. “I say t-this again, I-If I c-can’t h-have you… h-he also c-can’t!”
His voice tensed and yelled as he pulled the dagger off my chest, making me scream in pain and tumble down the ground. Everything was covered with thick fog and I couldn’t find a way to deliver a signal to Mayari.
“You have no control over my life, C-Contejo.”
With all might, I blocked his hand before the dagger could even touch my skin. But his strength seems to have not changed at all that the tip of the dagger still keeps on advancing closer and closer.
“So, killing you is the best option,” he retorted and again retracted the dagger to force it on my neck.
It’s over…
My eyes closed and waited for the piercing pain to reflect on my body, but a voice suddenly echoed inside my head.
“It is you who wanted to repeat the same kind of history.”
Before I could even mention his name… before I could move and open my eyes, the sound of fallen steel clanged on my ears.
“Gaia, we have to leave!”
“F-Felipe?” I uttered astonished the second I opened my eyes.
It wasn’t him…
Right, it may be a delusion. Why would he come here? Why would he again suffer this kind of periodical pain he wanted to escape and erase in his life? Why would he again involve himself in my situation?
I smiled bitterly and drooped my head as I held Felipe’s hand afore me.
He won’t come…
Before I could stand, everything surrounding me started to get so hazy… and eventually shut down.