A throbbing pain shook the young man up from his slumber, waving his head so that his brown hair departed from covering his eyes. As he sat up and reached in to soothe his aching head, the cool metal cuffs restraining his wrists felt a sharp pull of resistance as he was swiftly reminded of his current predicament. The man was left to sleep his failures away in a lonely cell, and a quick gnce of this damp and neglected room told him that he was in the familiar confines of a dungeon. It wouldn't be the first time he slept behind bars, or the first time he slept with cuffs bound to his arms. He wiggled and slid his legs around the hard floor, at least his ankles were left unbound.

  It was both astonishing and appalling that in comparison to how he was raised as a sve belonging to a Vampiress, this wasn't so bad. His back throbbed when he recalled the numerous shings and cwing his master would scar into his flesh for personal entertainment. The dented wounds on his neck also served as a permanent reminder of her nickname for him, her favorite little chew toy.

  And yet, he felt ten times worse today because unlike then, he had someone to fight for. Someone he feared to lose.

  Felix leaned back against the brick wall, gazing into the ceiling and counting the number of brick tiles up there. He scooted away from a rge cobweb near the corner, watching a bck spider wrap its webbing around its next meal. The fly frantically buzzed and struggled to break free, but its fate was sealed as soon as its leg struck the web. Perhaps it could save itself if it sacrificed its leg and flew away to enjoy its freedom. But it chose to struggle and pull, entangled further into the web before the spider pounced down and got to work. It would wrap its sticky webbing around leaving its food completely immobile, and then it would sink its fangs down, piercing its body and injecting its venom. Then it would stand by and watch its toxin get to work, liquifying the fly's innards until it became a juicy beverage for the spider to tch on and suckle to its satisfaction.

  He turned toward the cell bars catching onto the sound of a wooden door squeaking open. A quick sniff allowed him to catch a familiar smell, his stomach turning upon recognition. It was a distinct faint of a flower scent, a perfume of sorts that belonged to the man who put him there. He kept quiet, there were voices discussing something at the door.

  "-enough time. The sooner we catch the siblings, the sooner we may depart and begin this cleansing."

  "I'm sorry Father, I entrusted Yohan and his men believing they would succeed-"

  "I do not care for the likes of that lecherous man or his dogs. Yohan was a sinner who reveled in the muck, a wolf in sheep clothing. His absence is but a blessing in his name, he won't hinder us nay longer."

  Perdilius was discussing something, Felix held his breathe to listen closely.

  "Father I must protest, this pn of yours runs a great risk not just to our people but to those of this city. Let me pursue them for you, I can assemble a group of followers and we will retrieve the rest-"

  "Aaaah, the way thou retrieved them st time when we had secured the bottom floor of that tavern? Thou didn't think to overlook the building for any windows, which they slipped through under thy nose. Cats, these beastkin are but meager folly in comparison to the other beasts and yet they make a fool out of you. I shouldn't be surprised, nay matter what task thou always fall short. Thou defend thyself by remaining silent, child. Go, go to thy room and pray. Have faith in my pn, I have not failed thee nor will I ever."

  The other man hesitated, Felix could detect his stress by the way he smacked his lips in frustration. The man was pacing, uncertain and uncomfortable with whatever they were pnning.

  "Raz, you worry too much. In time thou shall see clearly like I. Go now. The road ahead is long and dark but I see the light that guides our way."

  "As you say." Raz replied, and soon the sound of his feet walking away was drowned out by the squeaking of the loud door closing shut.

  Felix sighed, his shoulders sinking as a pair of feet began to descend down the roundabout stairway toward him. First the sound of his boots echoed through the dungeon, and then the faintest warm glow of light began to grow from around the corner just out of view, until at st Perdilius appeared from around the wall with a candle in one hand and a heavy book in the other. The wrinkles under his eyes grouped closer as he squinted to focus his vision, raising the candlelight ahead until he gasped at the sight. Unbeknownst to Felix, the dungeon was devoid of all light and so he was navigating in a room engulfed in complete darkness with hardly enough light from his candle to walk but three feet ahead of him.

  There was a wooden chair just beyond reach of the cell bars. Perdilius sat down, pcing the candle in the pce of a torch hung against the wall. His stubby fingers tapped along the hard cover, sliding around the surface before prying it open as his eyes scrolled along the ancient text. With a lick to his thumb, he flipped from page to page whispering verses to himself before settling on what he was looking for.

  "And so I y my eyes on thee, a friendly face, a grin from ear to ear. The man reached out and shook my hand as our bond was close and dear. But I stood back aghast, my heart asunder, for his sin was very clear. For in his eyes, the demons eyes, which left me filled with fear."

  He sat upright and turned his head, looking down at Felix. "Do you know that as I stood in the dark, your presence became clear to me? Thou has the most peculiar eyes, they pierce through the night like a predator that stalks its victims in the bck of the night."

  Felix said nothing back, hanging his head and squeezing his eyes shut.

  Perdilius breathed in. "My child, thyne body has been tainted and corrupted by the very demon you chose to protect. I know I ask the impossible but you must realize that she has enchanted you for your servitude and gained your protection through her lustful ways. Temptation, that is how all Monster Girls snag their victims. They prance around mimicking the bodies of a woman and y in wait until a helpless sod's wandering eye spots them, and those poor men know not that by sight alone they have befallen under their spell."

  "To fornicate with these beasts means not only to y in bed with them, but to allow them to corrupt your body with this sinful presence of theirs, this dark magic." He snorted in a look of disgust, noticing Felix lift his head with intrigue as Perdilius continued. "Oh yes, thou dost not knowest of their lecherous ways. They enchant you with temptation, seduce you into submission, corrupt your body with a piece of themselves until it takes hold. It changes you, you know this as well as I do. You are no fool, how long until your eyes began to change?"

  As he asked, Felix began to wonder about his cims. Some of it fell in line with what he learned from Janette and her research, was he speaking the truth then?

  Perdilius bent down to adjust the bottom of his robe, turning his head as he spotted Felix's questioning look. "Ah, thou doth knowest indeed. Yet still thou hath chosen to y with this creature of dark magic. I must ask thee, why? Why follow the demon and tread across the bckened path to damnation?"

  Felix tilted his head, his yellow eyes glowing lightly against the shadowy dungeon as he looked up to Perdilius. "You call them monsters as if they all behave this way. She's not like that, none of her family are."

  He raised his rge palm to stop him halfway. "Thou seeks to change thy perspective because of this dispy of restraint? They chose not to attack you, seduce you, or control you?"

  Felix held still, thinking over his words before he felt ready to react. "N-No."

  "How convincing." The priest smacked his lips, tapping his fingernails against the hard cover of the book on his p.

  Felix leaned in close, pressing the side of his face against the cell bar to gre at him. "You don't know them and you don't know KuliKuli."

  "This KuliKuli thou speak of, is this an alias for Nityri?" He sneered. "I recognize those eyes, child. For I have looked down on them long enough to be familiar with that gnce."

  "What the hells did you do to her?" He growled, gripping the bar.

  Perdilius leaned back with a sigh. "I thought it best to seek an alternative solution such as what thou proposes. Like you, I chose to listen to naivety and humor the possibility of these monsters being properly educated into our humble society. Perhaps one day they may walk alongside us, Kobolds have done it before and they were previously thought to be impossible to distinct between animal or not. The girl proved to be... resilient to our experiments, but in time we found the best means for her to listen was by force. Not by the whip but by a more mystical means you see."

  He stood up from his chair, patting his robe down just out of reach from the cell. "You amuse me, lost one. Thou seems deeply mistaken, blinded and misguided as to see me as thyne enemy. I am here to help you Felix, to free you from this path you have succumbed to. It is not to te to clean yourself of this nonsensical quest to hide your demons from the public eye. Be free, walk with me and step into the light."

  Felix pulled away, turning his back on him. "Leave me be. I know those words, I know your ways. You people see fit to reach out and present yourself as someone justified for their actions, but you are no better. I might have fallen for your pretty speech had you found me months before, but she has changed me for the better. I am free, because of her I am alive again. I know little about faith and religion and I have no ill words to say about what I do not know, but I do know your kind."

  He turned his head to the side, peaking at him through his fallen brown hair. "Leave us alone. They haven't harmed anyone, they did nothing wrong."

  "You say that with such confidence." Perdilius retaliated as he rubbed his bald head. "You know but a speck of what's to come. In my sixty years, I have witnessed many atrocities cast down by these monsters. Houses of straw and wood that lit the night sky with a trail of fire, children pleading their mothers for comfort and safety, scores of women screaming for their lives as they watch their husbands crushed under the foot and cw. In recent times they have grown clever! A woman dismantled a royal family through seduction and deceit, marrying the King. They had three daughters before she was discovered to be a succubus, and by then the King had fallen ill and the royal family left with no prince to take the throne. The Lyatt Kingdom underwent a changing of seats through an ill-fated decade of poor leadership, uprisings, and treachery. And what of the Dragon Girl who cimed the Syllouta Mines? The golden rush never came to be, and the dwarves were forced to leave their homes due to poverty, and the nd remains desote to this day."

  "The Nekomata aren't responsible for any of that!" Felix argued back.

  "No, but they are responsible for granting aid to undo it from ever occurring again." He replied coldly, tucking his book under his arm. "Perhaps some time alone with your thoughts may help bring reason to your thick skull, Felix. Your cooperation isn't necessary child, maybe your friend could prove to be more useful to me."

  "You leave her out of this, damn it! Perdilius!" Felix shouted as he watched the priest calmly walk up the stairs, accompanied by the sound to the door closing shut. Frustrated, he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to remember Reta's breathing exercises. He pleaded to himself to rex, to control his emotions and focus his Genki into his palms life before. Opening his eyes offered a glimmer of hope as he detected a faint golden mist sweep like dust around his fingers. But it evaporated as soon as it came to view, and he shook his arms up and down yanking at the chain in anger.

  "Control, control..." He gritted his teeth, repeating those words again and again as his new attempts were met with failure. He hung onto the bars, his forehead pressing against the metal as he panted loudly. He could only wait and try again in hopes that he would regain control, praying that KuliKuli and the others stay safe.