The smoke floated slowly through the room.

  The wispy grey trails rose into the ceiling, gradually spreading out and disappearing into the low light above. The office was otherwise perfectly still; the only noise was the faint ticking of a clock that was mounted on the opposite side of the office.

  Shuren leaned back slightly in her chair and the cigarette was between her fingers and its red-hot tip was glowing very faintly. She tapped the cigarette onto the ashtray and dislodged a fine strand of ash that fell silently in the glass ashtray.

  Her eyes were fixed upon Sévon as she scrutinized him as if she were a strategist scrutinising a battlefield map, all while looking for anything that he may have overlooked.

  Sévon sat with his customary calm demeanor; he maintained the same posture--hand in pocket, relaxed shoulders- as he always does, and seemed completely unconcerned about the tension that had enveloped their environment; as if they were talking about the mundane.

  Yet, the name he had mentioned is still hanging in the air.

  The Scarlet Wolverine Sect

  Shuren's eyes narrowed slightly as she exhaled a thin plume of smoke, watching it drift through the between two of them on its way to settling onto the table separating them.

  "This is.... a problem", she stated.

  Sévon continued to watch as the smoke drifted before speaking.

  While his expression remained unchanged, his eyes focused somewhat sharper than earlier while he pondered the name previously uttered.

  He offered a slight nod.

  "I agree."

  His voice was still calm or nearly casual; however, the weight of the words remained.

  Sèvon reclined back slightly in the chair with a loose grip on the armrest.

  "Because this female, Esyn, had some decent combat ability, even if most of it was dodging, it is very illuminating, isn't it?"

  Shuren's brow began to furrow.

  "How?"

  Sèvon tilted his head slightly as if the answer should be obvious.

  "Think: Blood manipulation," he said, and Shuren began to see the connection, for there was nothing that was normally capable of blood manipulation other than through education.

  "Normal humans cannot have that ability, even Sionels cannot perform such an ability, and blood manipulation has no relation to Qi." Sèvon added.

  Shuren narrowed her eyes.The thought process of Sèvon began to connect logically for her.

  Sèvon gave a small lean in.

  "It means that the use of blood manipulation comes external to any form of cultivation. It does not come from physical training either; therefore, the source is simple".

  Shuren had completed the thought process prior to Sèvon being able to voice his thoughts.

  "So, it must come from a bloodline."

  Sèvon's faint smile showed as he nodded.

  "Correct."

  They were both lost in thought as they sat, photos on the wall in front of them, the office was completely silent and the smoke from Shuren's cigarette billowed out in thin spirals to the ceiling as Sévon leaned back in his chair.

  Neither of them broke the silence for a long time while they were both looking at the ceiling with their own thoughts of how they could piece something together that just didn't seem to fit or connect together.

  The seconds passed before the two of them would look like they were just staring at the ceiling of the office with their eyes wide open waiting for something to fall out of the ceiling and give them an answer.

  Then suddenly Sévon's eyes focused very sharply.

  "....Wait."

  Shuren moved her eyes downward toward Sévon and he lifted himself up just slightly.

  "Isn't there another race existing in this world?"

  Shuren blinked and slowly nodded her head.

  "I have heard the stories of another race who existed alongside us," Shuren replied.

  Sévon put his hand to his chin while using his fingers to press against it as his mind worked the idea out in his head.

  "If there were someone who could naturally manipulate blood....that would be the domain of vampires and the invisible force she used to launch me…"he said under his breath.

  A quiet pause.

  "That is something more akin to the powers of a succubus."

  Shuren frowned.

  "That is not possible, both races have been extinct for five centuries." She quickly replied.

  The words hung in the air and silence returned. At the precise same instant, both of their expressions changed, as if a puzzle piece was placed with two others. They both widened their eyes slightly, and in unison stated the same thing.

  "Chi-Do-Hyeon."

  Shuren put her hand on her forehead and sighed dramatically in irritation.

  "Of course, the Heavenly Demon had to be involved... somehow."

  She looked up at the ceiling as if the answer would suddenly appear in the chipped paint above her. Sévon did not speak; his expression remained calm, but his mind was anything but calm.

  It is unthinkable that Chi-Do-Hyeon, who had been believed dead for over five hundred years, could be connected to this situation. Five hundred years ago, we all know what happened to the Heavenly Demon - he was defeated and destroyed in war. All historical records confirm that the Heavenly Demon fell, his body was destroyed and the remnants of his forces were scattered.

  Yet the pieces in front of us do not coincide with this conclusion.

  A girl connected to a questionable cult, and then there's the chance that the extinct races may be back. So, nothing about any of this makes sense. Sévon raised his hand to his temple slowly and began to rub the side of his head in thought.

  "There’s only two possibilities if we assume that he is involved," Sévon stated softly.

  Shuren lowered her hand from her face and glanced at Sévon.

  "Oh?" she remarked back at him.

  Sévon squinted at her slightly.

  "Either the Heavenly Demon has never actually died or someone has gone out of their way to make it appear as though he did not," he finally said.

  Again, the silence in the room was deafening. Shuren stared at Sévon for a few moments prior to releasing another large, heavy, out-of-the-blue sigh as she reached for another one of her cigarettes.

  There was a period of silence between the two of them just after Shuren finished talking; much longer than Sévon would have anticipated. This quiet time left Sévon feeling a little unnerved and confused.

  At first, Sévon assumed that Shuren was just taking time to work through her ideas again, going over their discussion piece by piece. However, the longer it went without her saying anything, the more Sévon became convinced that something else was going on inside of her head.

  It could be that she thought of something, or she might just be attempting to recover an old thought or memory. Regardless, Sévon had learned never to interrupt Shuren when she's thinking.

  From his experience, when Shuren gets quiet, she is usually on the verge of discovering some significant insight. If he were to interrupt her thought process, it would only delay her discovery.

  So he just observed.

  Shuren reclined back in her chair, her body language looser than usual; however, there seemed to be this underlying tension in the room coming from her presence. The sunglasses obscured her eyes, and her expression was impassive. To an outsider, it would appear that she had left the conversation entirely.

  But Sévon knew differently; there was a continual movement going on inside of her head behind those glasses.

  Then Shuren lifted her head slightly.

  “Wait,”

  Sévon raising his eyebrow. As she turned towards him, lowering her hand from her face she said

  “Wasn't there another race that became extinct?”

  Swallowing a little as he thought, Sévon contemplated this statement briefly rubbing his chin before responding. Looking down at the floor, deep in thought and contemplation and depth.

  "You're referring to the Barbarians right?"

  Shuren glanced at him but kept silent for now.

  “I believe they went extinct too?” Said Sévon in a thoughtful tone, “From what I can remember (which isn't much) they fought in a war and were exterminated by another race.”

  The cigarette between her fingers glowed faintly as she took another slow turn to look at Sévon. There was something abhorrently odd to her about the situation. There were too many extinct races being mentioned all at once.

  This is not by chance.

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  History does not repeat itself without some logical explanation. She tapped the ash into the ashtray and remained in contemplation until Sévon spoke again.

  “Hold on…isn't there a race that just... manifested out of nowhere?

  Shuren's hand stopped at the ash tray. Her expression shifted slowly.

  “What do you mean?” she inquired.

  Sévon frowned slightly, searching for the memory.

  “I cannot recall the details but I happen to have heard something peculiar regarding them. History records do not indicate where they came from at any point in time. There was actually no real point of origin. One day in the course of time, they suddenly came into being without any precedent whatsoever,” he stated.

  Shuren's sunglasses slid down, pointing toward the ground as her chin lowered.

  “Go on,” she encouraged.

  Sévon remained quiet while resting his fingers against his chin contemplating the fragmented pieces of history that were alluding him but suddenly they began to mesh together to create a clearer picture in his mind and at last, he stated that there was something he believed.

  Shuren angled her head toward him while continuing the slow drag of her cigarette. Sévon turned his body slightly towards Shuren resting an elbow on the arm of the chair.

  “Wasn’t Chi-Do-Hyeon called by one of his other names before he was given the title of Heavenly Demon?”

  Shuren raised her eyebrow and gave him an inquisitive look with her sunglasses on. Sévon stated that the name Chi-Do-Hyeon was not the only one he was known by. The name he was referred to as was the visionary. After stating this for the first time in what felt like a long time the words seemed to float in between them in the silence of the office.

  Shuren took a few moments to think about the name and then smiled as she tapped out another piece of ash from her cigarette into the ashtray and admitted that it was true that Chi-Do-Hyeon had many names like the visionary, prior to the war developing.

  Sévon nodded his head slowly.

  “And if my memory serves me correctly the reason Chi-Do-Hyeon earned that title of visionary was due to having a very unusual ability.”

  Shuren became more attentive to what he was saying.

  “Oh?”

  Sévon looked thoughtful.

  "And so... he was always developing something. People used to call it imagination."

  The room was silent again. Shuren took her cigarette from her lips.

  "... Please continue."

  Sévon went on with his topic matter, leaning back in his seat.

  "So what if the entire civilization that has driven the barbarians to extinction..." he said, calm demeanour unchanged,

  Arms raised, she tilted her head to pour all her attention to him.

  "What do you mean?"

  Sévon shrugged.

  "What if that civilization was made by him?"

  The room was still as Shuren stared at Sévon over two long minutes as smoke from her cigarette curled slowly around the two of them.

  "...How would he have created them?"

  Sévon blinked before once again shrugging his shoulders.

  "No idea."

  Shuren stared at him for another minute before releasing smoke from her lungs in frustration.

  "...You're really into putting forth these outlandish concepts as if they were normal!"

  Sévon seemed perfectly comfortable.

  "I prefer to think of it as seeing different angles of an idea."

  Again Shuren shook her head in disbelief.

  "It can't be done to develop a whole new race; this is all fiction."

  Sévon made no effort to dispute the accusation, he instead fixed his attention toward the neighboring window.

  "...and perhaps."

  A long silence ensued. All thoughts of objection left Sévon’s mind as he probed once again through his mind this time for every detail of the previous fight with Esyn and how she had fought, how she moved and all the additional capabilities she demonstrated without effort.

  Next Sévon observed Esyn's combat instincts and evasive capabilities but most importantly…his conclusions about those capabilities. All indicators that most of Esyn’s capabilities pointed to completely opposite directions.

  Two opposing forces of blood manipulation (one) and the unseen power that combined to send him the other way.

  Additionally, there were several things that indicated in Sévon’s eyes that Esyn was capable of developing two unique types of powers that he had never witnessed before (one) was a vampire, and (two) was a succubus, but both of which have existed long before they were both erased from memory; therefore were an equally incompatible existence.

  Therefore, as such, it is only logical to conclude that there can be one trail of thought as to clearly explain both vampires and succubus combined would produce41what would be a creation of an entirely new race; yet for the life of him Sévon could not develop an answer or acceptable explanation as to the conclusion. He let out a passive sigh and Shuren immediately caught sight.

  She glanced at him as he attempted to finish what he had started, but she did not say anything else. Leaning back and allowing him to continue to think on his own would not only prevent her from interrupting the flow of how he was thinking, but also give him time to come up with his own conclusion.

  A vampire/succubus combination…could this be real and something that Sévon had not considered before? He continued to ponder about it when he put one hand into his coat pocket inconspicuously.

  His fingers brushed up against something small and fragile.

  He stopped.

  He stood there for a few moments, without moving but feeling the object before removing it slowly from his coat pocket. In his hand was the Velora Flower, the same flower that was located at the nape of Masao’s neck after he discovered it earlier.

  He looked at the flower and for just a few moments his expression didn’t change. All of a sudden he opened his eyes, somewhat wider than they were just a few moments ago. The mental pieces to the puzzle in his mind began moving into place.

  The connection was completed.

  As he stared at the flower in his palm, Sévon began to see that he had been blind to what was right before him. He jumped on the table and grabbed the stem of the flower tightly.

  “No…fucking…way!” He said in disbelief.

  Shuren saw a change in his expression and sat up straighter.

  “Why? What gives?” she asked, trying to remain calm.

  After taking a deep, frustrated breath, Sévon palmed his face.

  “What we did was very foolish...,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

  Shuren just sat there and watched him as she took another slow, long drag on her cigarette. The smoke from her cigarette billowed slowly upward as Sévon leaned over to set the flower on the desk separating them. Shuren looked down at the flower. She carefully inspected the individual petals of the flower and observed their shape and color. After several long seconds, she looked back to Sévon.

  “...And?” she said.

  Sévon reclined slightly in his chair.

  “The very race that we've been questioning is the Velimora.” He stated softly as he tapped the flower with one finger.

  Shuren's eyebrow raised a little.

  “Plus, I think it will be a hybrid.”

  "Is that a hybrid?" she asked.

  Sévon nodded.

  "A vampire and a succubus."

  There was the slightest indication of surprise on Shuren's part for the first time since this conversation started; her eyebrows, above the frame of her glasses, arched slightly upwards at the word 'no'.

  "...What do you mean?"

  Sévon shrugged.

  "Yeah."

  Taking a deep breath and leaning back in her chair, Shuren took some time to think about this.

  "So, you're saying our Heavenly Demon fused two different species into one person."

  After a brief pause, Sévon added rather crudely,

  "Or he had sex with both of them."

  Shuren looked at him wide-eyed.

  "...Are you saying that Chi-Do-Hyeon created a hybrid species by having sex with two extinct species?"

  Sévon cocked his head to one side.

  "...Or the reverse."

  Once again, silence fell in the room as Shuren slowly pulled the cigarette from between her lips and inhaled deeply.

  "...I have to tell you," said Shuren relatively emotionless,

  "That would be probably your craziest theory of the day."

  Sévon simply looked back down at the flower on the desk covered with Velora blossoms.

  "...Maybe." Sévon said in a low voice.

  "But it certainly explains everything."