Hi! I am back with another chapter. Please keep in mind that there will be violence and gore in this chapter. This is your trigger warning so please read with caution. With that said, we are picking up right where we left off. I hope that you enjoy!

Seungcheol groans as he slowly comes to. His chest aches and his body feels heavy. He blinks a couple of times trying his best to clear the black spots appearing in his vision. The sound of screaming sends a chill down his spine and provides him with the adrenaline to bring his body from the floor. He looks around and his chest seizes at what he sees. A cloud of smoke is coming from down the hallway, along with screams of pain. He can hear guns going off and the sounds of swords clashing. Seungcheol grits his teeth and pushes himself to his feet. He takes a deep breath and staggers forward, keeping close to the wall. As he walks, he sees dead vampires on the floor of all ages. He sees mother's holding their children. Guards looking as if they had fought until their final breath. And, of course, vampires that don't belong. The very ones who have invaded the palace and deserve to be swimming in a pool of their blood. Seungcheol hands tighten into fists, the faction is attacking them. They are slaughtering them. Seungcheol eyes flit back and forth as he searches for a weapon. He darts over to a fallen guard, who is gripping a gun in his hand. Seungcheol takes the weapon from him and slowly gets to his feet. He grimaces and charges forward. He shoots at the faction's vampires, who are garbed in a weird face mask. None seem to recognize him as the crown prince so he is able to take them out fairly quickly. As he does so, he helps move the innocents towards the secret exits of the palace. "Help!!!!" A voice screams. Seungcheol turns around to see a child backed into a corner by one of the faction. The girl's parents are limp on the floor beside her, their skin sizzling from what looks like liquid silver. Seungcheol scowls, how could the faction use silver in such a cruel way. They are affected by it, yet they use it as a weapon without any remorse. Seungcheol looks to his side and sees one of the faction vamp's silver daggers. He takes it from its limp hand and charges forward. He shoves the weapon into the vamps neck before kicking him into the side wall. The girl sobs and curls in on herself. Seungcheol sighs and slips the knife into his pocket. He bends down in front of the child and flashes her a small smile, "Hey, hey, it's okay."

The girl whimpers and looks up at Seungcheol with teary eyes, "Y-you're the p-prince..."

"That's right," Seungcheol murmurs, "Are you hurt?" The girl shakes her head and Seungcheol lets out a breath of relief. "What's your name?" Seungcheol asks.

"Areum," The girl whispers.

"It's nice to meet you, Areum," Seungcheol says.

"Nice to meet you too," Areum murmurs.

"How about we get you out of here, okay?" Seungcheol says.

"W-what about eomma and a-appa?" Areum questions, looking at her parents' limp bodies.

"I'll protect them," Seungcheol says, "I promise you as the prince to watch out for them, but first we need to get you somewhere safe. Your parents would want their beautiful girl to stay safe, now wouldn't they?" The girl slowly nods and sniffles a bit. Seungcheol holds his hand out to the girl, who slowly takes his. He helps her get to his feet and looks down at her, "Stick by me, okay?" Areum nods her head as Seungcheol begins to lead her towards the attendees bunker area which were installed for situations just like these. He knocks on the door in a way that signals who he is. The door slowly creeps open and the kitchen noona peeks out with wide eyes. "Your highness!" She exclaims.

Seungcheol puts a finger to his mouth and gestures to Areum, "Please take care of her, noona." The lady nods and takes the girl into her arms. She stokes at her messy hair and brings her deeper inside the bunker. "Seungcheol...you should come inside," The kitchen noona whispers.

Seungcheol shakes his head, "I need to protect the people."

"Seungcheol," The kitchen noona says with a distressed expression.

"Don't worry, I'll be okay," Seungcheol says, "Keep the door locked. This'll be over soon." The woman nods her head before shutting the door and locking it. Seungcheol sighs and grips onto the gun that is still in his hand. The area he is in currently is pretty clear, meaning that the faction has focused their efforts on another part of the palace. The crown prince bends down to take another gun from one of the fallen guards before running off.

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Seungcheol grits his teeth as a faction vamp grabs him from around the neck. Another comes at him with silver knuckles aimed directly at his chest. His empty guns are lying on the floor and his silver dagger is stabbed into the shoulder of a fallen vamp a couple of feet away. He was helping an injured guard get to someplace safe when he got jumped on from behind. He struggles against the vamp, trying to yank his arms from around his neck. He groans as the other vamp makes contact with his body, the silver doing a lot of damage to him. "Hey!" A voice shouts before the sound of a gun going off echoes. A bullet hits the vamp with the silver knuckles right between the eyebrows. The vamp gripping onto Seungcheol releases him as well as something hard hits his back making a loud thwack sound. Seungcheol breathes heavily and quickly looks to his savours. Minghao and Jeonghan smile at the crown prince, each sporting nunchucks and a gun respectively. "Thanks," Seungcheol says. He bends down to take the gun from the vamp that grabbed him and checks to make sure it's loaded before pocketing it. "No problem," Minghao says, "You okay?"

Seungcheol nods his head, "I'm fine. Do you know where the others are?"

"We got separated pretty fast," Jeonghan says, "We ran into Hansol a second ago trying to bring his sister to a bunker and we spotted Soonyoung and Seokmin patching some people up, but I have no idea where the others are." Seungcheol curses under his breath and shakes his head, wondering where Jihoon is and if he's alright. "I'm sure he's okay," Minghao says, knowing who his hyung is worrying about without a second thought.

"Yeah, I hope so," Seungcheol murmurs.

"What are we going to do?" Jeonghan questions, "These guys just keep coming."

"They're here for a reason," Seungcheol says, "They'll leave after achieving it. It's not just to kill every vamp in the society. I've seen these guys leave behind survivors, albeit with extensive injuries. But, they're not here to slaughter us."

"Then, why are they here?" Jeonghan asks, shooting at a vamp that comes at them with bared teeth. Seungcheol eyes the dead vamp and sighs. He bends down and picks up extra ammo from him. "I don't know," Seungcheol mutters.

"This is just great," Minghao huffs, "I don't know how much longer we can all keep fighting."

"Just help as many people as you can and then get yourselves someplace safe," Seungcheol says, "I don't want to lose anyone I care about today."

"I could say the same thing to you," Jeonghan says.

Seungcheol chuckles, "You know I'm not going anywhere until I know Jihoon is okay."

"Yeah, I do," Jeonghan sighs, "Don't get yourself killed."

"I won't," Seungcheol states.

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Seungcheol rushes into the main corridor of the palace and gapes at the absolute destruction. The chandelier lays broken on the floor, glass everywhere, crushing a good twenty vampires underneath it. The same device that came through the window in the noble's area is here as well but it is coated with blood that drips at a steady pace towards the floor. The windows are cracked and the columns chipped. There are huge dents in the floor and a part of the staircase banister is completely missing. There are bodies all over the place, from the floor to hanging limp on the staircase. Some with broken bones and horrific gashes. Others with decapitated heads lying a couple feet away from their respective bodies. A complete bloodbath. Seungcheol shakes his head, feeling completely sick. How could the faction do this? What are they trying to achieve? When will this end? "Damnit!" Seungcheol shouts, punching the side wall.

"Hey!" Mingyu calls out to him, "Stop punching the walls and punch the people who actually deserve it!" Seungcheol looks up and his eyes widen when he sees who stands at the top of the staircase. Mingyu and Jihoon are fighting a flood of faction vamps side by side. Mingyu's teeth are gritted as he slams a huge metal mallet into the head of one of the vamps. He slams the body at a group of three guys charging at him. Jihoon has something around his waist as well as across his chest which holds silver weapons that glint in the sun. He yanks out a set of throwing daggers and holds them between his hands. He smirks as he glances at the group of faction vamps coming for him. He tosses the daggers which slam right into each of their chests. Jihoon acts quickly while the vamps are still stunned. He kicks at one, shoving the weapon deeper into his chest and making him scream in pain. The takes out the other with a sweeping leg kick and a quick stomp to the head. "Wow," Seungcheol murmurs, his breath being taken away by Jihoon. His boyfriend wasn't kidding when he said he knew how to fight. The crown prince quickly shakes his head, snapping himself out of it. Now isn't the time to fantasize about how absolutely amazing and drop-dead gorgeous Jihoon looks when he's throwing silver knives into evil vampires. Seungcheol rushes towards the stairs to help out, but as he does he gets shoved by this huge dude wearing this metal claw contraption over his hands. Seungcheol staggers back, but thankfully doesn't fall to the ground. He looks up the stairs and his eyes widen as he sees the massive vamp leaping up the steps. "Watch out!" Seungcheol exclaims. Jihoon turns at the sound of his voice and he stiffens for a second when he sees the giant vampire making his way here. He reaches into his pocket and yanks out a gun. He fires it and a vial of liquid silver shoots from it. It's a stupid attempt, the vial bounces off of the vamp like it's a feather. Jihoon takes a step back and reaches towards his chest where he pulls out a metal chain with silver spikes all over it. He grits his teeth before charging at the beast of a vampire. Jihoon waits until he's closer before jumping up and landing right onto his back. He wraps the chain around its neck and yanks back with all his might. The big vamp grabs as his neck as the spikes dig into his flesh making his skin burn. He reaches up with his claws and grasp at Jihoon, who hisses in pain as he scratches at his legs leaving behind massive gouges. "Jihoon!" Seungcheol shouts, reaching for his gun and pointing it at the vampire. Even with the injuries, Jihoon continues to yank at the chain much to the chagrin of the vamp. Before he can try to scratch Jihoon again. Seungcheol fires at the vampire's arms lining them with holes that release smoke. "Come on! Come on you big oaf!" Jihoon shouts as he does one final tug and the chain makes its way through the huge vampire's neck. The head comes sliding to the ground and the body drops with a thud. Before he can get crushed, Jihoon flips off his back and lands back on his feet. He winces at the pain shooting through his legs, but tries to brush it off as another group of vamps come at him. Seungcheol rushes to go help him but before he can get there another vamp comes into the corridor and bellows, "It's been done. Let's go!!!" With that said, the vampires stop attacking and quickly make a retreat towards the nearest exit. Mingyu growls and grips onto his mallet. He starts to chase after the vamps, but Jihoon puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him. Mingyu flashes Jihoon a confused look, wondering why he did that, "We can't just let them leave."

Jihoon sighs, "We have to. There's more important things to deal with than them."

"Jihoon is right," Seungcheol says, joining the two at the top of the stairs, "We need to count out our losses and find out exactly what the faction vampires were trying to achieve while here."

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"How's your legs?" Seungcheol asks, eyeing Jihoon's tattered pants and sliced up skin with worry.

"Hurts, but I can deal until later," Jihoon says. The two have been making their rounds around the palace, helping move the dead and telling the hiding vamps that it's safe to come out. The palace is a mess. Literally and figuratively. There's blood and glass all over on the floor. The paintings on the walls and the pottery are broken and ripped. The floor is cracked and large chunks of the columns missing. The people are shaken. Tears streaming down their faces and sobs coming from them after finding lost loved ones. Confusion over what has happened and the need for guidance. They keep turning to Seungcheol in hopes of him explaining what's happening, but the crown prince doesn't know what to say to them. He's still trying to make sense of it all, but he does his best to offer words of comfort and tell them that they will overcome this. He still has no idea what the faction vampires wanted. There's no way their goal was to just terrorize the people, but if that's true, what were they trying to achieve. "You should get patched up," Seungcheol says, "It was silver that cut you."

Jihoon shakes his head, "There are other vamps that need more medical attention than I do..."

"Still," Seungcheol states.

"I'm fine," Jihoon says, "Don't worry." Seungcheol bites his lower lip, but slowly nods his head, knowing that his boyfriend won't budge. "Your highness! Your highness!" A guard exclaims, jogging over to Seungcheol and Jihoon.

The crown prince turns to look at the vamp, "What's wrong?"

"The King and Queen...," The guard says in a serious tone, "They've been killed." Seungcheol stiffens and glances at Jihoon, who has a grave expression on his face. That's what the faction vampires were here for. The assasination of the King and Queen of the vampire society. And it seems they have definitely succeeded.

The attack is over but at the price of the vampire society leaders. What's going to happen next? I guess you'll just have to wait and see. I really enjoyed getting to explore the vamp's powers and how they fight. Hopefully, we will see some more of it later. Until then, please vote, comment, add this story to your library and check out my BTS AU Night of Sin, it has some SVT cameos! Bye~