Chapter 3: Sword

As we were travelling away from our home, we came upon a forest. This forest invoked age old memories in our minds, as it was the very forest we spent about two years in, just the two of us. Curious, we ventured into it, going through those obscure pathways that we had memorized. Eventually we came to a clearing, with a river running through it. Beside the river, there was a hut. Or at least it used to be a hut, but sadly, the passage of time had not been kind on it.

The hut was worn down, there were holes in the wall, and parts of it were collapsed. We walked through the door, which was still partly intact. Inside, we found an old trap door, which led down into the old cave we used for our cattle. It was nice to see that at least some of our hard work was still intact. Back up in the hut, we sat down on something that might have been a table once.

“This place brings back so many memories.” Amelia said, sad at the sight of the state our first home is in. “Back then, our lives were so simple, and we were so naïve. We just lived here, drinking the blood of our victims. We hadn’t even admitted our love, and slept in separate beds.” I said, looking in the eyes of my dear wife. If I had to admit it, Amelia was indeed my biggest true love. She had been with me since the day I was reborn.

“Yes, our lives were so simple, so peaceful. But then those Knights had to come and ruin everything.” Amelia said, looking slightly downcast. “Indeed. That day, was the first day I ever felt powerless. I feared that I might lose you, but luckily it was only an enchanted item. Even to this day, I still have that small piece of metal.” I said, as I took out a small metal piece and showed it Amelia. The little metal looked worn out, the magic long gone.

“You still have that? Anyways, maybe it wasn’t really that bad that those knights drove us away. After all, it was after that event that we confessed our love, and shared our first night together. I still remember that night. It’s rare that we get to do it alone, these days. Well, I guess that we will have lots of chances from now on, unless we get any annoying followers on our travels, or something.” Amelia said smilingly. I leaned in towards her, and kissed her lips lovingly.

“Yeah, those Knights were the spark that started our Clan. It was after the Knights that we met Serana and Bogat. Then we destroyed that small rivaling clan. It wasn’t long after that that we got married, was it?” I said, pulling Amelia into an embrace. Amelia leaned in, and rested her head on my chest.

“Yeah, you, me and Serana got married back then. That was the beginning of the new era in which vampires will rise once again, the rise of the Coldbloods. Before that day, I didn’t even have a last name, but now I’m treated as a holy symbol, above even the Emperor himself. A lot of things have happened in these past centuries, and sadly, most of them were without you.” Amelia said, as she sadly remembered all those years where they didn’t even know if I was alive. But it was after that event that I found that Amelia probably loved me even more than the others. After all, she was the only one that fell to her knees when she saw me.

“But now I will have you all to myself, for who knows how long.” She said, immediately happier. I kissed her once more. “Yes, but it kind of hurts to leave behind my children. I would have them earlier, but I wanted them to be with their mothers, when they need the most attentions, so that they don't have to think about me as much. Maybe this way, Sema, Kima and Vepas will forget me sooner as well.” I said. Now it was my turn to look downcast. Amelia hugged me, then kissed my cheek.

“Maybe, one of these years, when we are at a place where we can have some peace for a while, we could have our own child. Then it can be just you, me and the child.” Amelia said, trying to better my mood. “Perhaps. If we find a good place, we could settle down for a few dozen years, before continuing our journey.” I said.

We continued talking about the events of the past for a while, before continuing. Before we went out of the continent, we made another detour. First we travelled towards the forest where it all began, where I first met Gebados, my Dread Father. Outside of the forest, there was a village. The village where Amelia had lived, before I killed everyone in a frenzy, and turned her. After the soldiers had burned it down, it had been barren of life for many years, but eventually, people repopulated the place. Now there was a new village here.

We walked into the village, just looking around. There weren’t any signs that a slaughter had taken place here, as the villagers were all peaceful. Now was a time of peace after all, as soldiers returned home. In fact, there was one returning right now, and I recognised him. He had achieved very large military merit, as he had saved a village of important strategic value, with only his own team. They had been vastly outnumbered, but through his brilliant tactics, they had won the battle with few casualties. As he was an avid believer in the Sanguine Church, he had been allowed to receive my blessing, and was formally inducted into the order. Now he was probably visiting, to tell his family the news.

We hurriedly left the village, before he would see me. It would have been annoying if he had recognised me, which he most certainly would have, if he saw me. After our little visit to the village, we ventured towards the farm I was born in. When we arrived, there was indeed a farm there, but my old home was long gone. We walked into the farm, where we met a young man, who looked more than surprised to see us.

“Oh my, what brings two nobles such as you here?” He asked very politely. “Oh, we’re just sightseeing. “ I responded. The boy looked rather surprised, as he looked at me weirdly. “Why would you come to such remote place for sightseeing?” He asked, confused.

I looked at him smugly, and said, “Didn’t you know? This is the place where Son of the Dread Father, Isaac, was born almost seven hundred years ago.” I said. I was thoroughly enjoying the young man’s expression, as he looked at me in shock.

“What?! Really?! How’d you know that?” He asked, almost unwilling to believe me. “You don’t think I’d know where I was born?” I said, before leaving in an instant movement, disappearing from his eyes in a flash. The boy was left behind, not knowing if he had really seen that or not.

After this last visit of ours, we finally left to the nearest city, and quickly teleported to the border of the continent. Finally we arrived at the city closest to the border, now we would have to go the rest of the way on foot, since we didn’t have any teleportation arrays that went out of the continent. It was very rare for someone to leave a continent, not just because the distance needed to be traveled was very large, but because it was very difficult. The nations on the other side didn’t want people to immigrate into their lands, so there were powerful barriers, preventing people from going in. The only way to get through, was through the official checkpoint.

After leisurely wandering towards the official checkpoint, we eventually made it there after a few days. For a normal person, the journey would take months at the very least, but we could fly very quickly with our wings, so we made it there quickly. We did walk the last part though, since we didn’t want people to see our wings. It would be weird if people saw non-humans here, since there shouldn’t be any, except monsters. In other continents, it wouldn’t be too weird if people saw our wings, since many continents are of mixed races. They would just believe that we were some sort of avian race.

Eventually, we arrived at the checkpoint, where there were a lot of strong looking guards, but naturally, they wouldn’t stand a chance against me or Amelia. They seemed to be around the A rank in strength. We walked towards the building that was inside the barrier.

“Halt! State your business, or leave!” One of the guards shouted at me. I calmly walked towards him. “We want passage through the barrier.” I said nonchalantly. The guard looked at me funnily, apparently not able to see the mountain before him.

“Refused! No thrash from this backwater continent may be allowed through!” The guard said mockingly. He shouldn’t have said that. I released the full force of my aura, and walked towards the fool. Everyone in the vicinity suddenly froze, terrified, and looked towards me. The fool couldn’t do anything, as he shook in fear. I slowly placed a finger on his forehead. Before he could utter a sound, he disintegrated into dust. The fool had only been at the early A rank, so I could have killed him without even looking at him, but I wanted to send a message.

“Listen trash! Either you allow us through, or I kill all of you, and destroy this barrier!” I shouted at them. The captain of the outpost immediately rushed to me. He saw my strength before, so he didn’t dare dally, since he was only a peak A ranker.

“Please forgive us, my Lord! The fool didn’t know you were such a powerful figure, he didn’t know! Don’t worry, we’ll immediately let you and your wife through!” The guard captain said, as he rushed to the barrier entrance, and opened it.

“That’s more like it. And you shouldn’t call the Marestir Peninsula trash again, lest you bite your own tongue.” I said, before walking through the barrier, Amelia at my back. The guard captain looked at me, confused.

‘Marestir Peninsula? Did they name their continent? I’ve heard of the name Marestir before, it should be some power in that continent. Could it be that they overwhelmed all the others nations, and named the peninsula after them?’ The guard captain thought to himself.

When we got through the barrier, we were met with endless wilderness. This continent wasn’t our final destination, as it was most likely even weaker than the current Marestir Peninsula. This was the only continent we had some information on, as it was our neighbour, so we knew its approximate power. We wanted to go a bit farther in.

Thus, we continued our journey, to the other end of this new continent. After a while, we came upon the first city, which had been a drag to find, since we didn’t know any of the locations here. We probably passed several cities on our way there, but at least we made it to a city, where they had teleportation arrays. Only, there was a slight problem. In the Marestir Peninsula, we could use the arrays for free, since we owned them, but here we had to pay a toll. It wasn’t that we didn’t have any money, it’s just that we didn’t have a lot of money. We only took what we could carry, and it would be enough for a while, but sooner or later, it would run out. But for now, we would probably be able to get through a few continents.

Then three months passed by. Getting from continent to continent was easier here, since they weren’t as prejudiced against each other, but in these three months, we only made it through three continents. We had been shocked by the sheer size of these places. Just the first continent had been several times larger than our own Marestir Peninsula, and it took quite a while to get through it. Now we were in the fourth continent, which was somewhere deeper inside the world. This place was called the Sword Continent, and was one of the stronger ones, even though it was rather far away from the center. The reason was because it was a hotspot for natural energy, and I could feel just how much denser it was, compared to Marestir.

Now, we were at the edge of the continent, but we had no money, and had no idea where any cities were. The checkpoint had also been quite a lot stronger than at the first continent. There were several peak A rankers, but no S rankers. Even in such a place, an S ranker would be treated with respect. We were travelling through the wilderness for a while, feeding on animals, until we came upon an interesting place. It was a mountain range, but there were hundreds of buildings and palaces on the mountains, and it was walled off. It didn’t quite look like a city, since it would be too hard for mortals to traverse such mountains. On the peaks of the mountains there were big palaces as well, and in the air, there were small, floating islands. It was quite a marvellous sight. Curious, we walked over to the gate of the place.

“Halt! State your business, strangers!” A robed youngsters said, as we came to the entrance. “I’m just curious what this place is.” I stated. The youngster looked at me funnily.

“You came here without knowing about the place? Well, this is the Eternal Sword Sect, one of the top ten sects in our Sword Continent. Surely you know now, right?” The youngster said, proudly.

“Eternal Sword Sect, huh? I’m not actually from this continent, so I’ve never heard of it. We come from a far-away continent.” I said, slightly amazed at the place. “Would it be possible to meet the Sect Leader?” I asked. I wanted to check this place out, and perhaps I would find something good. Through my many years of life, I had never come upon a good physical technique, so maybe I could get something here.

“Very well, esteemed elder!” The youngster said. He didn’t let my young looks that equalled his own fool him, as he could sense that I was in fact very powerful. The youngster led me into the sect, and up the largest mountain, until he arrived at the entrance of the largest palace.

“Who is this man, junior?” one of the Palace Guards asked. The youngster bowed to the middle aged man. “These esteemed elders ask to meet with Sect Master!” The youngster announced. The Palace Guard looked at me, then nodded.

“Very well, follow me, elder.” The middle aged man said, then went into the palace. We followed him, until we arrived in a large throne room. The middle aged man motioned me to wait, then bowed before the man on the throne.

“Sect Master. These two elders behind me request to meet with Sect Master!” The man announced. The Sect Master looked at us, then smiled, before looking back to the Palace Guard. “It's fine, you can go now.” He said, then the Palace Guard left. Amelia and I walked forward to meet the Sect Master.

“So, what brings you two here?” The Sect Master asked. “Well, when I found out what this place is, I suddenly remembered something. You see, through my life, I have found a very powerful and rare magic technique, but I have never had a physical technique, or anything. So I was thinking, in exchange for your best techniques, I’ll join this sect for a while. What say you?” I said. The Sect Master smirked

“Maybe, but first I need to know more things about you two. Here hold this thing. It’s a lie detector, so if you lie I’ll know.” He said, as he threw me a small stone with some weird markings on it. “Alright, tell me your name, how powerful you are, and your age for now.” He said. I nodded.

“My name is Isaac Coldblood, and I have the strength of middle stage SS ranker, although I am only at the middle stage S rank. And I am 686 years old, and I reached S rank over a hundred years ago.” I said, then tossed the stone over to Amelia.

“SS ranker? That sure shows that you’re from far away. Around here we call it a Saint, Mythical Saint, and Legendary Saint, and a mage would be a Sage, Grand Sage, and Arch Sage. But to have the power of a Mythical Saint at your age without any training techniques, that’s marvellous. I’m at the Legendary Sage level, and I’ve lived for over fifty thousand years, and I was around three thousand years old when I reached the Mythical Saint level. I was nearing my end back then. Marvellous. You even transcend a whole level. I’ll gladly accept you into my sect! Now how about you girl?” The Sect Master said, and looked at Amelia.

“My name is Amelia Coldblood, and I’m Isaac’s wife. I’m at the early S rank, or early Saint, and I’m 685 years old. I have the strength of a peak S ranker though.” She said. The Sect Master nodded, satisfied.

“Good. Isaac, with your strength you are amongst the five strongest in the sect, excluding me, so you have the rank of Third Supreme Elder, right off the bat. But you won’t have the full authority of a Supreme Elder quite yet, since I can’t fully trust you. And you Amelia, you shall have the rank of a Martial Elder. Alright, I’ll now have someone take you to the Skill Pavilion, where you can choose a technique. Since you have managed to reach your level of strength without ever using any techniques, you should be able to master such a technique in ten or twenty years, so I shall give you twenty years to practise your chosen skills. But first, you need to take the oath. It ensures that you won’t betray us, but it won’t force you into obeying us. Shed your blood, and swear loyalty in the name of the True Gods. By doing this you will have completed the oath.” The Sect Master said. I pondered for a while, but then just went with it.

The Dread Father was one of the True Gods, and his group was one with the most power in the Divine Plane, or so the writings went. Apparently he was married to the Goddess of Nature, and the Goddess of Life was his sister. The three of them, especially Life and Death were very powerful, so if need be, he might be able to destroy this oath. So both Amelia and I cut our hands, and shed our blood.

“I swear loyalty to the Sword Sect, in the name of the True Gods.” We both said. Doing such an oath was very normal in big organizations and schools, but for vampires it was unnecessary, since we had the Blood Bond. The Sect Master nodded in satisfaction.

“Alright, you can go with Guardian Peng now.” Sect Master said, then we followed this Guardian Peng. Peng had an elderly appearance, and was at the peak S rank, so he was as strong as Amelia.

“I must say, this is most surprising. For two such experts like you to come here suddenly. You never belonged to any sect before? Well probably not, if you never trained any physical techniques.” The elderly man said.

“No, we were never part of a sect, although we do come from a pretty large clan, from a certain continent far away from here. Our clan is pretty special, and we have several special abilities that you won’t see in any humans.” I said, telling a bit about our abilities, but not revealing our true identities. “We can also live for a very long time, and we all are very talented. For example, even those of the weakest blood can transcend a stage in strength, and I can transcend an entire rank.” I explained.

Peng looked very surprised from our power. “Is there anyone who can transcend even more than you?” He asked. I shook my head. “No, I’m the most powerful in our clan, and I’m also the leader, but, well I guess there is no use in hiding it. Our Patron is one of the True Gods, and since I’m his son, he sent me on a journey.” I said. Now Peng was even more surprised, although he had already figured I had some unimaginable background. He looked at me with wide eyes.

“You’re a Demi-God?!” he practically shouted at me. I nodded. “I guess so, but I’m not the kind that was directly born from his seed. I was born as a normal mortal, but the True God remade my body entirely, and announced me as his son. I was nineteen years old when it happened.” I said. Peng kept looking at me in amazement. He had never seen a true Demi-God before. In all the stages of strength, there was one called ‘Demi-God’ but it wasn’t a true Demi-God, not one born from a God. That was just the stage right before you could transcend into Godhood, and there were a few in the world. But only a few, you might be able to count them on one hand, so rare they were. Most of these Demi-Gods were born from Gods as well, but there was a tale about the ‘Human Demi-God’. Whether it was true or not, was unknown.

“Which God is your father then?” He asked. I shook my head again. “For now it’s better if I don’t say. If I see fit, I’ll tell you another day.” I said. Peng didn’t dare ask further and said, “Yes, Supreme Elder.” Peng had been in the Sect for a very long time, and had earned the rank of Guardian, but it was just that. A Guardian couldn’t stand up to a Supreme Elder at all, since they were all SS rankers, and I was the third strongest of them. He might even be able to beat the second strongest too, depending on how strong he was. If he was at the late stage, it was possible, after all he beat the Land Drake, who was one stage above him. If I used my recovery abilities, and used the ‘Ruler of the Night’ ability, then I could win against someone one stage above me. Using that ability now, wouldn’t give as big of a backlash anymore either, although it was still dangerous.

After a bit of a walk, we arrived at another tall palace. Inside the palace, there were hundreds of bookshelves.

“This is the Skill Pavilion, although we’re only on the first floor. You are going to the top floor, where not even I’m allowed, and Elder Amelia is going three floors below that, where I’ll give her my guidance.” Guardian Peng said. I nodded.

“Good, neither Amelia, nor I have ever seen any of these techniques, so I’m sure she could use the help. Our continent was actually a very weak one, before our clan came into existence. We managed to raise the natural energy levels to where they were bigger than the continent on front of us, using an ancient magic I found in an ancient tomb, but there weren’t any real techniques there.” I said, making Peng amazed once again. He knew there were magics capable of raising the natural energy levels in places, but these places were usually very small. Isaac had just casually mention drastically raising the natural energy level on an entire continent. Not even the Sect Master could do this, but to be fair, there had been thousands upon thousands of mages involved in it, and Isaac wasn’t even there, although he had instigated the thing.

Peng was speechless, as they walked up to the top of the tower. Eventually, I made it to the top of the tower, while Amelia and Peng were on the floors below. On this floor, there was a drastically smaller amount of books and manuals. I grabbed one, named ‘Path to Eternal Light’, but I put it away from now, and looked through the other manuals. There were a few techniques, like, ‘Dragon Slayer Technique’, ‘Titan Wave Sword’, ‘Way of the Shao’ and ‘Two Way Sword Spirit’, but none of those interested me. Instead there was one manual that caught my eye. Its name was, ‘Way of the Chaos God’. It was a physical technique in the truest way, as it would give colossal strength, but it was extremely hard to master. Almost everyone who tried it, would end up killing themselves, as it required you to train your body in such a way that would destroy it, therefore, the starting requirements were already so high that almost no one could train it. But I could. After all, my body was already quite strong, and I had my regenerative abilities, so I was sure I could do it. So with my mind set in stone, I exited the room with the manual.

Back down, Amelia had already chosen her technique, ‘Heavenly Blossom’. It was a good technique, and would make you very quick, but it had nothing against the few techniques that were one floor above.

“What did you choose?” Peng asked. “I choose the ‘Way of the Chaos God’ technique.” I answered. Peng nodded. “Sounds powerful indeed, but I only know of one or two techniques up there, so I haven’t heard of it before.” Peng said. After we were finished here, we exited the Skill Pavilion, and went back to meet the Sect Master.

“So, tell me, what did you choose?” he asked. “I decided on the ‘Heavenly Blossom’ technique.” Amelia said. “I chose the ‘Way of the Chaos God’.” I continued. Sect Master looked at me with wide eyes. “You chose the ‘Way of the Chaos God’ Technique? Are you insane, you’ll kill yourself!” He shouted at me. I only laughed at him.

“Don’t worry, I know full well of the dangers of this skill, after all, it is well documented in the manual. But worry not, the people of my clan are gifted with superhuman regenerative abilities. Even if you cut off my head, I won’t die.” I said with a smirk. It was honestly quite fun to brag about my powers. Even an SSS ranker wouldn’t have this good regenerative abilities. If the Sect Master lost an arm, then it would be gone for good, except if a healer was nearby to heal it quickly. Only immortals could regenerate limbs.

“That’s quite amazing. Just what clan are you from?” Sect Master asked. “The Coldblood Clan, but our powers only came from when I joined the clan. You can ask Guardian Peng to explain it to you, since we talked about it before.” I said. The Sect Master nodded.

“Very well, I’ll talk with him later. I’m looking forward to see the results of your training, since I’ve never seen someone that could train it successfully. They all died. You can go now, I’ll have someone show you to your home. Since Isaac is a Supreme Elder, he gets to live on one of the floating islands, and naturally, Amelia can stay with you there, since she’s your wife. These floating islands are quite amazing, and were gifted to us by an Immortal, because I helped him a long time ago. There is a teleportation array on all of the islands, so you can get up and down.” Sect master said.

“Oh, by the way, my name is Assiel. Now, go.” Assiel said. Obediently, we left the palace. We were immediately led by some youngster, to our new home. We went down the mountain, then close to center of the sect, into a building with various teleportation arrays. The youngster led us unto one of the arrays, then we arrived on one of the floating islands. On the floating island, there were various buildings. In the center of the island, there was a large palace, and the other smaller buildings were homes to the servants, who would serve us. The youngster led us to the front door of the palace.

“This is your new home, Supreme Elder. If you need anything, you can ask the servants.” The youngster said, while bowing. Then he left the way he came. After he was gone, we went and explored our new home. It was very big, and had a lot of rooms. There were various training rooms, which all had various training tools, and there were a few kitchens, a few bathrooms, a few living rooms, a dining room, and a lot of bedrooms. After we had our fun, we both started reading the manuals, and began our new training.

End of Chapter 3.

Here's chapter 3, which starts a whole new chapter in my story. Isaac has now joined the Sword Sect, as the third Supreme Elder. What new adventures will he face? What kind of dangers will he face in his room for the next ten years, while he trains? To find out, tune in next time!

Also, this chapter was a bit late, since I had go run after sheep on some steep as hell mountains. I was planning to finish the chapter after I got home from that, but then my sister forced me to go to a music festival with her. Without going home and showering, so yeah, I went to music festival, smelling like sheep, and having sheep poo on my pants. But at least it's apparently normal to wear wool sweaters and dirty clothes on music festivals in my country... So yeah...

Anyways, thanks for reading, and please rate and review, it makes me happy.