Passing from building to building, they found nothing particularly useful, just a few bodies or wounded soldiers with no information. Reaching the last building, behind which lay the fierce battle.
The growling of wolves and soldiers echoed nonstop. The ground was trembling, and the building seemed like it could collapse at any moment. Searching through it, they found nothing but a few scares, fearing it might cave in.
Climbing up to the roof, from where they could see the full extent of the battle. For several kilometers around, there was nothing left—just ruins and piled-up bodies. At its center, an endless war.
The wolves were far more numerous, overwhelmingly so, but the seraphins were there as well. In the midst of the battle, it was impossible not to spot Alpha, towering over 7 meters tall. Facing what appeared to be two seraphins.
The war was not turning in their favor; the only thing keeping them going was the exceptional number of wolves. But without real striking power, they were going to lose.
The few giant wolves were in fact transformed humans, and they wouldn't last long either.
« In the end, Alpha was right », yumiel thought out loud.
Tāo rubs against yumiel, looking at her with doe-like eyes, then turns toward Jack: « 我们能帮帮他们吗?就这一次,拜托了. »
He expected Jack to translate, which he did.
« He's asking if we can go help them, it's the only favor he's asking. »
Yumiel wasn't crazy… Well, a little, but not enough to throw herself into a battle already lost. Now all she had left was to find the right words to tell him no.
« No. ! »
Tāo, disappointed, understood their refusal, hesitating to throw himself into the battle. Then he remembered Alpha's words, saying that his new pack was them, and there is a golden rule: never betray the pack.
Under the gaze of the nearly full moon, the battle continued. It was in this night lit only by the pale glow of the moon that Jack saw a light in the distance turning on and off repeatedly.
« Yumiel, is that normal? », he said, pointing at a house on the other side of the battlefield.
Watching the flash of light go out and come back on, she understood that someone was sending a light signal in their direction.
« It's a light signal. It could be Alan, or someone else. »
« The problem is how to cross that huge battlefield without getting caught in it by accident. »
« The moment you start thinking, tell me, have all the brains you swallowed finally kicked in? Anyway, I think I have an idea for that. »
She turns her gaze toward Tāo.
« Tao, transform. »
Tāo understood his name. Poorly pronounced, but still. He struggled to understand the rest, guessing it himself by recognizing a few syllables. Transforming, the pain was intense—so much so that a human with no particular resistance could lose consciousness.
Once transformed into a werewolf, Yumiel approaches and hands him her flask. Then she points in a direction.
« You see the light in that house? Go there and pour all the contents onto the ground. »
Jack translates what Yumiel just said. He looks at her, his eyes wavering between obedience and defiance. Yumiel could feel it—he didn't agree with following her, at least not right away.
« Come on, prove to me that you're part of our pack. »
He didn't understand everything, but the word pack, that he understood. Preparing to run through the battlefield, holding Yumiel's flask. He looks at the battle, mapping out a path for his run.
Suddenly, the entire building shakes, signaling that its collapse is imminent. Glancing below the building, it seems that something is striking it from underneath.
Throwing himself into the void, he lands gracefully on the ground without injury, then starts running, carving his path through the battlefield.
« Is that a cat or a werewolf? »
Tāo was like a missile on the battlefield, running at full speed and dodging any obstacle in his path. The building begins to shake more and more, making the two of them lose their balance.
Going down to the ground floor, they saw a fight between a seraphin and a giant wolf. Passing by without even looking, taking shelter farther away in another building.
Yumiel transforms two of her swords into blood and spreads it across the ground, stretching it as much as possible, but even then she had to add another sword and stretch it so that she and Jack could fit inside.
The two of them step inside the tight circle, waiting for Tāo to pour out his flask. An awkward silence settles between the two, standing in the puddle.
« So, how are you going to deal with your daggers? » Jack asks, looking at them floating above her.
« I'll just change their shape and take them with me, in my hands or whatever. And once on the other side, I'll turn them back into daggers. »
« Ah I see, yeah, not stupid. »
« make sens. »
The silence returns. Yumiel transforms her daggers into savanna animals, amusing herself by making them fight each other like a safari version of animals vs animals.
« What do you think of Tāo? »
« He seems reliable, but he's still a child in my eyes. »
« He's still impressive for a child between 11 and 15 years old. »
« I didn't say otherwise. »
Yumiel instantly felt the puddle on the other side, placing the small blood-crystal animals in her hands. She concentrates, locating the two puddles.
Strangely, by visualizing both, she could feel a sensation toward the west, and something easier and more distinct toward the south, guessing it was the puddle left in London, and the other in Harbin.
Connecting the two ends, she finds herself on the other side, where she could see Tāo and Alan. Alan had his hands raised, while Tāo was growling at him, approaching without trying to hurt him—just trying to intimidate him.
Alan suspected Yumiel would arrive when he saw the werewolf pour the flask filled with blood onto the ground.
« Hey, hi guys, need a hand? »