Chapter 1: Valen, Pureblood

After the feast was over, there were many things I wanted to learn. After all, I had been gone for almost half a millennia. Many things were bound to have changed. For example, the Sorcerer Empire of Marestir. I had never made any plans for an empire, but apparently it happened anyway. The empire was formed a few years after what was referred to as the Great War, where many women lost their husband and sons. The total casualties had been enormous, beyond count. But in the end, the Alliance had won, against all odds. How they had made the Drake surrender was a mystery to many, but there were few people from then who were even still alive, so it would be forever a mystery. The name Marestir had been chosen by the Vampire Council, just before the founding, and it had been called the Sorcerer Empire, because of the magic which allowed the natural energy levels to rise. On the entire Peninsula, there was truly no other power which deserved to be called as such.

I also learned what happened to the Drake, whose name I never learned. Apparently after he recovered his Dragon Gem, he evolved and sprouted two wings from his back, evolving from a Land Drake to a Winged Drake. He also grew in power, to reach the middle stage. Luckily he kept his promise to me, and didn’t betray me. If I had to fight him as a middle stage S ranker, then I would lose. Whether or not I could win now is unknown though. If he had reached the SS rank, then it would at the very least be a close fight, but if he hadn’t reached that stage yet, then I would win easily.

If he was a normal Drake, then I doubt he could ever reach that level though, but I doubt that he’s normal, after all he evolved after getting his Dragon Gem. It is likely that he belongs to some Dragon Clan or something, and will eventually evolve into a Dragon. Dragons are very mysterious beings. Not much is known about them, so it is entirely possible that there exists some powerful Dragon Clans, which give birth to Drakes, which then have to evolve into a full fledged Dragon.

As for the Drake himself, I could sense him. Well, I couldn’t directly sense him, but his general direction. I felt that he was an extremely long distance away, so pinpointing his exact location was impossible.

But that didn’t matter. For now, I had something more important to do. I had to meet Valen, and finally turn him into a vampire. After I returned, he was immediately notified, and had returned from whatever country he was in. While I was gone, he had been in charge of all assassin operations, and would most likely continue to do so. It had been only one day since I returned, and he had already arrived, via the portals.

“Well, you took your sweet time.” Valen said with a slightly irritated smirk on his mouth. It took me a moment to recognise him. He had aged. Compared to the almost middle aged man from before, he now had slightly greyed hair, and a few new wrinkles. Well, it was to be expected, after all, he had lived for a few hundred years longer than his lifetime was supposed to allow. It seemed like vampire blood wouldn’t make you completely immortal, just slow your aging. Valen now looked like he was in his fifties, so he probably would be able to last another few hundred years, if I hadn’t returned.

“Sorry, I was stuck in a cocoon, becoming a monster.” I said with an awkward smile. He looked at me, and chuckled.

“No, no, no, you were already a monster before. Now you are something else, a new race altogether. Before you were just something more than human. But anyways, would you mind showing me that new form of yours.” Valen, said. I silently nodded to his request. Changing into my true form was a simple thing. It didn’t require anything, but a thought. My body started growing in size, until I was over two meters tall. My hair grew white, and two large wings grew from my back. My claws grew to the size, where they could easily tear a bear apart.

I stood before Valen, showing my true self. Valen looked at me with a smirk.

“Menacing.” He said. “If my theory is correct, then it won’t be long until you reach this form either. The same with Rommel and Erwin, and everyone who is about to reach rank S. When you evolve into this form, you shed your former body. It gets dissolved, and becomes the cocoon. The only thing left will be your soul, your mind. Then this new body gets shaped by your soul, and raw power. After I fought the Drake, it triggered my evolution. In that fight I used every ounce of my power, even going, as far as using a power which my body couldn’t handle. That power caused me to reach a power far beyond my body’s strength. Thus, using that power destroyed me from the inside, but it also triggered the evolution, which saved me. Well, I probably wouldn’t have died, but my hibernation would have been much longer, since the damage wasn’t just on my body, but soul as well.

Since you are at the peak of rank A, you are at the limit of your body. After you reach rank S, it won’t be long until you evolve.” I said with my growling voice.

“I see,” Valen said, then I went back into my human form, and sat on a chair. Valen sat opposite me.

“You know Isaac, back when I met you, I offered you a position in my organization, as well as the leader position when you one day managed to surpass me. But honestly, I never thought you would get to that point in my lifetime, so I was basically just making you my heir. Never would I have suspected that you reached that point while I still had around two hundred years left to live. And then you offered me immortality, even though it took you over five hundred years to ever hold your word. Now Isaac, hurry and do it! I’ve grown tired of being stuck at the peak of A rank. I have lived for almost seven hundred years now, and for the last few hundred years, I haven’t had the spot of strongest anymore, because all your vampires have long surpassed me. A few hundred years ago, I could have killed every single one of your vampires if I wanted to, but now I can’t even fight one of them. So Isaac, please fulfil that centuries old promise of yours.” Valen said, impatiently. I stood up from my seat, and walked over to him. I leaned close to his head, then his neck.

“I’m sorry it took so long Valen. I can kind of understand how you’ve had it these last years. Although I haven’t felt weak or anything, but I was lonely. These five hundred years, I was stuck in a cocoon, still awake. There was no one there, but me. I was all alone.” I said, as I bit into his neck. I sucked his blood, savouring the taste, until the light in his eyes started to dim. Then I stopped, and gave him the venom. It took only a moment, then he fell unconscious. After the famous one hour, he woke up again. Being the cold blooded killer he was, he had no qualms about killing two random girls, and having had over five hundred years to get used to the idea didn’t hinder him either.

“What a weird feeling this is, killing someone by drinking their blood. In my lifetime I’ve killed more people than I can count, but this is a first. The taste surprises me though.” Valen said. I nodded.

“Indeed, the taste of blood can make one go crazy. When I first became what I am, I slaughtered a whole village in my craze, and when I came to, I felt nothing. It was like the humanity in me had completely disappeared. At the time, I only thought about my own survival. Perhaps the only humane part left in me, back then, was my family. Amelia was from that village too.” I said. Valen looked at me weirdly.

“You slaughtered her entire village, probably including her family, then turned her into a monster, and she was okay with it? And even married you?” Valen said, slightly unwilling to believe it.

“I wasn’t the only one to lose my humanity that night. Amelia also shed her human bonds then, and couldn’t care less about some humans. Maybe she was a bit angry about her family, who knows?” I said. Valen nodded in understanding.

“I understand that you intend to leave this continent in a hundred years, and you’re only taking Amelia with you. Why is that, and what do you intend to do?” Valen asked. “The Dread Father ordered me to go into the real world, and garner some real experience. After all, there isn’t really anyone that can match me here, but if I go out into the real world, then there’ll be countless people stronger than me, once more. And Gebados said that I can only bring one person with me, most likely so that I don’t have a plethora of S rankers under my command. What about you? Now that you’re a vampire, you can reach S rank as well, and considering you’ve been at the peak stage for over five hundred years, you could reach S rank as soon as tomorrow.” I said. Valen looked up for a while, thinking, then he lowered his head to meet my eyes.

“I think I might do the same as you. Go out and explore the world, see what it has to offer. After all, this world we live in is so huge that no one even knows how big it is. I’ll probably leave the control of the Shadowblades to Erik, and when you leave, I’ll go as well.” Valen said. I nodded in understanding.

“I see. Maybe we will meet in our travels, but just remember to come back here, and don’t die.” I said with a smirk. “Of course.” Valen replied. We kept talking for a while, and enjoyed a few glasses of Blood Wine. Blood Wine, was a special wine, developed by our mages. They used magic to preserve the blood, and used it together with various things, like grapes and other fruits, to make the Blood Wine. Only the best quality blood was used, and it went through various tests, to assure it was qualifying enough. Needlessly to say, it was extremely delicious, but rather hard to make, and had to go through a long aging process. It was also the only thing capable of giving us an alcoholic high. For the Purebloods, it was always easy to get, but for normal vampires, they could only get it for special occasions, since it was very expensive.

After we were finished talking, I went to find Little Isaac. I wanted to meet the parents of his wife. It only took me a while, then we went to their residence together. They didn’t live in the castle, but outside in the city. They said they didn’t want to live in a castle, it was too different from what they were used to. In the past, all vampires used to live in the castle, but nowadays, it wasn’t so. Many vampires lived in the city, and even more lived in the various other cities around the Empire. They had even spread outside, into the other kingdoms and empires on the peninsula. There wasn’t a single kingdom or empire, where the Coldblood Clan didn’t have some presence now. During the past centuries, our wealth had also grown to an astronomical extent. If we wanted to, we could probably buy a whole kingdom. The Coldbloods were now truly a household name. Even though it wasn’t officially announced or anything, it was basically fact that we were in control of the entire Empire. This wasn’t just because we were very rich and powerful, but because the Novo Corps and Crimson order wasn’t a secret anymore, and it was publicly known that they belonged to the Coldbloods.

The Novo Corps was known to be the strongest magic organization to ever exist on the continent, and the Crimson Order was the strongest fighters to ever exist on the continent. Through the rigorous training the Order went through, they even had several hundred Knights at the Peak A level, and they could even rival S rankers somehow. They were known to be even stronger than the Knights of other counties, but no one knew how it was possible. After all, just transcending one rank required rigorous training, but the Crimson Knights could even transcend two ranks.

The reason that this was known, was because of a war that was going on with another alliance. The war wasn’t a big one, and there weren’t many large fights yet. But the enemy alliance had sent a group numbering one hundred Peak A rankers, which was most of the Peak A rankers the alliance even had. The reason they had sent them, was because the two sides had scheduled a fight, and the winning side would get five border cities from the loser. The rule was that they had to send their hundred strongest fighters. The enemy side gladly accepted, because they thought that the only advantage the other side had was size. The enemy alliance was quite a bit smaller the Marestir, but they were sure that their fighters would be slightly stronger individually, since they were probably more experienced. But when the fight started, they learned otherwise. The fight only lasted a few minutes, and the Alliance side was completely annihilated, while there wasn’t even a single loss on Marestir’s side.

It was after that event that the true power of Marestir was revealed. The true fighting power of Marestir was far above what any of the other kingdoms possessed. Even though, one of the kingdoms had sent a force against Marestir a few years prior and had been utterly defeated. They thought that it was most likely that that force wasn’t even from Marestir, but probably someone from another continent that was sightseeing or something. The reason was because they had been creatures that shouldn’t exist on the Peninsula. But after they saw the power of the Crimson Knights, they were willing to believe that the Marestir Empire even possessed Demons and Valkyries. Those Knights clearly had the power of a middle stage S ranker, so magical beings wouldn’t be too weird, especially after the natural energy levels rose in the empire.

After walking for a while, we arrived in a not so modest house, in the city. So much for living a simple life. Little Isaac led Katy and me to the door, and walked in. The guards didn’t stop us, and just saluted. They were all human, so they didn’t recognise me, but they knew who Isaac was. Moments later, we met with two elders. The man looked very old, maybe around eighty, while the woman looked to be sixty or so. In reality, they were both century old immortals though.

“What brings you here, Isaac?” The old man asked his child looking elder. Little Isaac stepped forwards to introduce me. “My Uncle returned. I’ve come to introduce you to him.” He said with his childlike voice, next to his slightly older looking wife. The old man looked shocked as he stared at me.

“The Lord has returned?” He said with a hoarse voice. “My name is Isaac Coldblood, and I’m the uncle of Little Isaac, as well as the Master of the Coldblood Clan. I’m sure you’ve heard of me, while I was gone, but let’s get to know each other either way.” I said, introducing myself. The old couple was clearly shocked. The saw a young looking guy that couldn’t be older than twenty, but they knew that he was even older than they themselves.

“Lord Isaac, my humble name is Coyle Dunler, and my wife here is Lucy Dunler. It is an honour to be the parents in laws of your nephew.” The old man Coyle said. He was a very humble man, showing a lot of respect, but that was only natural, as I was an existence above all others when it came to vampires. I nodded to him, then we sat down. We talked for a good hour or two, and enjoyed another bottle of Blood Wine. Coyle managed to get a bit intoxicated, but I didn’t feel very much. The effect of the alcohol wasn’t as strong in Purebloods, as it was in normal vampires.

A few days later, we held a council meeting, where I truly learned of everything that happened in the past. I was informed of the small, standstill war between our Empire and the Alliance. So far, they didn’t bother to expand the Empire, since they wanted me to return first. Erwin was standing up from his seat, about to inform me about the situation.

“The war between the Sorcerer Empire of Marestir, and the Alliance of the Four Kingdoms began a few decades after our Empire’s founding. Not many battles were fought, but there were a few, the largest of which was the battle between two hundred peak A rankers. As you know, we won that battle. There have been a few small bouts here and there, but nothing major. The Alliance has tried to make a peace treaty between us, but we always refused.” Erwin reported. I sat still, thinking, for a while.

“The Alliance of Four Kingdoms shall be conquered in ten years. We’ll ready our armies, and march past the wilderness and take them by force. We’ll take them one by one, until none are left. But this Alliance dared to wage war upon us, so we’ll set an example. Do not kill the Royal Families, instead take them prisoner. Then, when we’ve conquered the four kingdoms of the Alliance, we execute all the men publicly, and make the beautiful women into slaves.” I said. After we conquered those four kingdoms, we would officially have stepped beyond the wilderness, into the rest of the continent. Moving the troops wasn’t a big problem, since Kato had developed a mass teleportation array, which could teleport an army without problem. Such a huge teleportation array wouldn’t have been possible on the first stage of Energy Manipulation Magic, but Kato had managed to get to the next stage in my absence, making him the first Sage of our peninsula.

There was a lot of mystery behind the later magic ranks in our continent, but Kato had done some research, and found that they were commonly referred to as Sage, Grand Sage and Arch Sage. They corresponded to the S rank, SS rank and SSS rank. What came after that, he didn’t know yet.

The next ten years I spent mostly in solitude, training my magic. I only spent a little bit of time with the others. Since Kato had already made it to the second stage, I felt I needed to get there as quickly as possible. While I was trapped in the cocoon, I used what consciousness I had to practise, but I didn’t get very far, since I was in a slightly dazed state. All in all, I still hadn’t made it there yet after ten years, out of the basic stage, to the novice stage. In the past ten years, we had waged war against the Alliance of Four Kingdoms. The advantage had been vastly in our favour, and we had swiftly won every battle. There had only been a few rogue battles that we lost, but they were few and far in-between. Except when we lost a battle, we never once lost more than half our forces, and it was very rare for us to lose that much. The last battle had just finished, and I was on my way to the Royal Capital of the Festiz Kingdom, to meet the Royal Families. Through teleportation, it didn’t take very long to get there.

Eventually, we arrived at the plaza of the capital. In the middle of the plaza, there were a few hundred people on a stage. They were the previous royal families. Around them, there was an uncountable amount of people, waiting to see what would happen. I walked up to the platform and faced the people.

“People of the previous Kingdom of Festiz, I would like to welcome you as citizens of the Sorcerer Empire of Marestir. My name is Isaac Coldblood, the head of the Coldblood Clan, one of the founders of the Marestir Empire. You may recognise my name as the first head of the Coldbloods, who brought our family to glory, the one whom no one saw after the Great War, for almost five hundred years. You may have thought him dead, but that is not so, for I stand before you here!” I said, my voice thundering for miles on end.

“For the past five hundred years, I have been training quietly, and a good while ago, I reached the SS rank. Now that I have reached the SS rank, I am an absolutely unparalleled existence on our peninsula! Therefore, I hereby name this continent the Marestir Peninsula, and vow that it shall be conquered completely by my Empire in the next few hundred years!” I said, my voice thundering even farther, for thousands of miles. Several people even fell to their knees, as they couldn’t take it. A few others fainted, while some of the weakest and sickest people died. After my speech was over, I turned around to face the previous Royal Family.

“Royal Families of the Alliance of Four Kingdoms, you have committed treason against the Empire, and dared to wage war against us. For such daring acts, there are only two possible results. The most beautiful of the females shall be taken and sold as slaves!” I said, loud enough so that anyone could hear. Immediately, the soldiers came and grabbed the women who had been selected, and dragged them away under their cries.

“And for the rest, it’s death.” I said, as I stared at the remaining people. There were still quite a few women tied together with the men, not deemed pretty enough to live. I stepped off the stage, together with all the guards and anyone else who was standing there, except the perpetrators. As soon as everyone had stepped off the platform, the prisoners blew up, and splattered blood all over the stage, but luckily we made a barrier to keep it from going off the stage. The spectators were flabbergasted at the sight, and a few women even screamed. People had seen me flick my hand, and suddenly everyone exploded. This was the power of an SS ranker! He could just wave his hand and instantly kill several hundreds of people, whom most of the males were A rankers, and even some of the women.

The very same evening, the females were sold off to whoever wanted them. We bought a few ourselves, but most of them went to other people, mostly people who had some quarrel with the previous Royal Families. People had come from all over to watch them get executed, and to buy the females. There weren’t only people from the Festiz Kingdom, but from all the other countries of the Alliance and even more. After the news of my return spread, several peak experts around the continent rushed over here to check it out, unwilling to believe it.

At this moment, a group of thirty different peak A rankers stood before me. “You say that you are Lord Isaac, and even an SS ranker, right? If that’s the case, then defeating us should be easy enough, right?” A big looking man said. I smirked at him.

“Indeed, I could kill all of you quite easily.” I said. The big man was a little bit taken aback. He had expected me to be a bit nervous. “Well then, if that’s the case, then how about you spar against all us for a bit? We’ll allow anything, except killing. Although, you should know that we have all practised the special methods of the elements, so are as strong as an early S ranker. How about, just how strong are you exactly?” The big man asked.

“Well, there’s no hurt in telling you. I’m at the verge of getting to the middle stage of the SS rank.” I said. I didn’t tell them that I was in fact only at the verge of reaching the middle stage of the S rank, but my personal power was at the SS rank, so it didn’t matter.

“Almost at the middle stage? Alright, just remember, it’s only a spar, we won’t try to kill you, so I hope you treat us the same.” The big guy said. “Of course.” I smirked at him.

We went out and found a large courtyard. A lot of people that heard our conversation followed us, to observe. If I could defeat these thirty S rivalling experts, who had gathered from all around the continent in due haste, then I truly would be an unrivalled expert.

The fight started, and the big guy was the first to charge. I easily avoided his attack, before I got attacked by another three. Of course, I also avoided them. A few seconds in, all of them were attacking me at the same time, while I was still effortlessly avoiding their attacks. Then some of them started throwing knifes at me, but I caught them in mid-air, and threw them back, hitting their hands. After a while of jumping around, and redirecting knifes, I suddenly stopped, alarming my ‘opponents’.

“This should be enough, right?” I said, made a surge of mana, blowing the thirty peak rankers away, effortlessly. They all landed about a dozen meters away from me, and stared at me, flabbergasted.

“Was that enough?” I asked. The big man stared at me in shock. Until now I had been dodging them completely, but hadn’t attacked a single time. This didn’t quite require an SS ranker, if you were skilled enough, then you could do that at the middle or late stage of rank S. But to casually blow thirty S rankers away, without effort, was something that required immense strength. You had to be far, far stronger than the opponent. Not even a peak S ranker might be able to do that, but for an SS ranker it was simple.

“I believe you, Lord Isaac.” The big man said. I smiled at him. “Good. You show promise so you should join me. I could give all of you a good position in the Crimson Order, and give you a method to reach the S rank, so if you’re interested, go to the Imperial Capital before ninety years. Someone there will lead you to our headquarters.” I said, before I left them behind. After the celebration was over, we once again left for home, where I would resume my training.

End of chapter 1.

Well, there we go. Chapter 1 is finally out. I'm sorry it took so long, but I ahd a visit from family, and my cousing stayed in my room, so I couldn't write very well. I tried to use every opportunity I got to write, but it took kinda long. Hopefully it won't take as long next time...

And thanks for reading, and please rate/review :)

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