Deep underground, in the caverns of Darkfrost Grotto…

The place was like a slaughterhouse, a possibly apt comparison if those things run above ground by the mortal farmers of Arcadia were ever in the business of harvesting their fellow men and elves. Just like slaughtered pigs, the caverns were stocked with the dried out husks of men and elves hoisted up from the rocky ceiling by hooks rusted with blood. And some of them, it seemed, were not even afforded that luxury, drained and left lying upon the ground like unwanted toys.

For the elven Lich, Elena de L’Enfer, this job had begun with the usual things all too familiar for a Vizier of the Eye. Missing people, a village within southern part of the Ecclesiarch’s dominion in need of a killer’s hand, and vampires. A lot of vampires, actually.

Or not. By now, with her hooded red longcoat stained with splatters of vampiric blood, and the acrid stench of burning undeath all around her from the dead vampires lying upon the floor in pools of their own foul blood beneath even their own consumption, she liked to think that it was no longer the case. At least, within this place, starting from the very moment she had entered with her crimson sigils glowing upon her hands and tears of dust trickling down her eyes. Tracking them back here, was admittedly the hardest part.

With a smile, with her sigils still glowing strong upon her gloved hands, Elena licked the coldness of her lips as she continued onward, the soles of her brown boots damp with vampiric blood. The vampire coven’s leader, a Master Vampire, was still here in these caverns. Their presence, like a bad omen growing stronger with every step forward, a dark aura she could sense stemming from what appeared ahead of her in the distance like a narrow tunnel little different from a hallway.

And so, with her held up high and that same smile upon her lips, she strode briskly through the darkness with her magics at the ready. The scent of blood in the air, undeniable and sickening.

One minute later, in the Master Vampire’s lair…

It was very much a mockery of a proper lady’s parlour, a very large space both luxurious and lavish when compared to the caverns outside inhabited by the lesser vampires. Alongside piles of mortal bones licked clean of flesh and blood, the lion’s share of any and all spoils waylaid from above ground by the lesser vampires had found their way here, amidst the shadows cloaking the place in a deathly pall.

In the distance, right smack in the middle of the room where the overpowering stench of rotting meat and dried blood was at its strongest, Elena could see the Master Vampire, a human woman with short white hair and black robes stained with splatters of red like a butcher’s apron. Hanging upside down from the ceiling like a slumbering bat engorged with blood, her eyes opened up to reveal an amber glow that glimmered with malice.

“Hey, ain’t it bad for ya, hanging upside down like that?” Elena asked. “Doesn’t it mess with your mind and digestion, blood flow and all?”

“Useless, worthless vermin,” the Master Vampire hissed with a voice cold like ice, ignoring the question as she eyed the golden gleam of Elena’s earrings. “To think I shared so much of what was mine with them… they cannot even deal with this dog of Elicia…”

“If it’s any comfort, you’re just as much of a sad sack like the rest of ‘em that I left outside.”

“You jest so fearlessly before me, Lich…”

Elena nodded.

“It’s what I do.”

The Master Vampire bared her fangs and hissed wordlessly at Elena, who simply smiled in turn as her thoughts wandered briefly to Claire, who she knew was waiting for her in a room booked at the village inn a few days ago when they had come here. Of what awaited her in there, when this mess was finally settled.

“Traitor… betrayer…”

Elena frowned slightly.

“That’s not very nice of you, bloodsucker. Not very creative final words, too.”

“You are a child of Amon, like me. Blessed by the Dark Goddess. We should work together, you and I…”

“You have nothing to offer me.”

“Do I not? We can claim this world for ourselves, as per the Dark Goddess’s will before she left us…”

“Hey now, you’re not talking yourself outta of this one,” Elena chided, the tears of dust trickling down her crimson eyes searing off her cheeks as the air around her ignited into a blazing pitch from the sorcerous fire manifesting upon her sigils, the tail of her longcoat and the tresses of her yellow hair billowing with the heat. “You’re not even a Vampire Lord, and I’ve got something pretty important to attend to, so let’s…”

Before Elena could finish her sentence, she brandished her palm forward and unleashed a massive inferno that incinerated the treasures and furniture in its path, destroying the Master Vampire in the ensuing blaze. Or at least, the puppet of blood magic placed there that exploded into blood and smoke, while the real Master Vampire emerged unscathed from the shadows, eviscerating the side of Elena’s waist with her claws when she dashed past her to conceal herself once more within the shadows of the other side of the room untouched by the flames.

“I will send you screaming into the abyss of your phylactery, Lich,” the Master Vampire hissed from the darkness. “Back to your Archon master, forever when I…”

Elena turned on her heel and smiled as she stared straight into the darkness ahead of her, a pair of conjured swords burning in both her hands as she returned the Master Vampire’s gaze with the intensity of her own. The bloodsucker’s shrieks of pain, made in burning agony when she felt the fiery hole stabbed right through her chest while her right arm fell upon the floor in a mess of bloodied flesh and severed bone, were like music to her ears. Music of rather poor quality, admittedly, because she was quite certain that the vinyl records she collected back at home were far better.

“That’s for scratching me, and for damaging my coat,” Elena remarked sternly, dispelling one of her burning blades so as to gently place a hand upon the dust trickling down her hip. “You sure do talk big for a lesser bloodsucker, no?”

“You…” the Master Vampire rasped, falling upon a knee as she clutched at the bleeding stump that was once her right arm, her left elbow barely covering the bloody wound that had been seared through her chest. “How dare you…”

“Hey, I’ve seen that little trick before. I knew, that you knew that I knew to strike first while we were all so busy grandstanding… and so I took precautions. You’d understand where I’m coming from, right?”

“I’ll… kill you… knife-eared bitch…!”

“Yeah, sure thing,” Elena blustered with a wicked grin as she eyed the Master Vampire’s crippled state, tears of dust trickling down her eyes as flames danced once more upon her palm. “You can’t even conceive of the power that I wield…”