Chapter 12

Ashes

Death. Death is inevitable; it is the only result of life.

Yet, we fear it; it plagues our minds, as we look for all means to defer it.

We spend our entire lives; be it short or long; with the purpose of prolonging it.

Yet, as we reach the end, what do we achieve?

Will we only find ourselves to have wasted our life;

or will purpose have born out of the ashes of obstinance?

Perhaps, through the passage of time; through the trials of perseverance,

you will have found something.

Be it purpose, fault, or love.

But if that purpose gets taken away, from the clutches of your grasp?

What then?

X

A gray field, covered in corpses. There were corpses I’d never seen, and corpses of people I called comrades. I the distance, buried in a mound of death, I saw a face. It belonged to Ley. In a soundless scream, I tried to rush over to him, but I couldn’t move. My arms and legs were covered in black mass, holding me back. As I turned around, I met with a horrid sight.

Limbs were scattered around. Legs, arms, the torso… The head. These limbs, they all belonged to a single person. Amelia. I felt my heart shatter, as the invisible tears escaped my eyes. I tried to scream, yet not a sound escaped. In front of her, was a shadow. I tried to reach out, but that I saw, as my arms reached out, was black mass. My arms were black, as the void. As I looked at my body, I found that I was all black. Just like the shadow person.

Then I found myself standing above the pile, which once was Amelia. And I woke up.

As I found myself in bed, I was covered in cold sweat. This was the first time I went for a rest in months, but it was no good. Still surrounded by nightmares. As I rose up, a clutched at my head. It hurt. My heart hurt. I felt an anger welling up. Rage! A rage complete focused on that Immortal. I wanted to shout out, to let all my anger out, at my surroundings. But I still had to calm down. If I went mad in this city, it could only result in my death. There were countless people here, capable of killing me.

I could only settle down, and go wash myself. After all, I was covered in sweat, which wasn’t something you would often see, in a Legendary Saint. But this sweat didn’t come from physical exertion, but stress, anger, sadness, and despair. It only took a moment, until I was clean again.

With my mind settled, I left the room, and went to find Targhas. My goal was still to find that older brother of mine, but I was completely lost. All I knew was the name of this city, as well as the name of the country. The City of Xarxes; the Dominion of Valadriath. I knew that Valadriath was the ruler and founder of the state, and that Xarxes was the capital. Somewhere within this city, you would find Valadriath. What I knew about Valadriath himself, was not much. I knew he was old; older than anyone could remember, and that he was Immortal. However, I didn’t know what Immortal rank he held. However, he was no doubt, powerful.

To find my brother, I would need more information about this place, and for that, I needed Targhas. And I already considered him a friend. After all, he gave me a helping hand, when I was despaired. However, to be completely honest, my ‘eyes’ might have helped a bit. After all, from what I had learned about Targhas, he valued himself greatly. He was a merchant, and loved riches. He would never seek trouble, which he couldn’t handle. Like when I taunted that Afflicted Prince. However, when he learned of my true power and nature, he became even friendlier. He wouldn’t betray his friends, and even less so, a powerful friend.

He was a figure I could agree with. Merciless when provoked; merciful when appeased. He could be trusted, so I would make him my ally. The same with the Afflicted Prince, as long as he would prove trustworthy. From the short time I met him, I was left with a positive impression. He seemed proud, but calm. He made the decision to befriend me, after he saw my true power. As long as he didn’t turn out to be someone to betray my trust, it should turn out nicely.

It didn’t take me long to find Targhas. He was eating a meal. We were inside his residence, in Xerxes. He had a pretty big house, and would have cost a small fortune. Especially for a small figure like him, who didn’t have much talent in art of magic or cultivation. But he was still a brilliant trader. Through his centuries of life, he had made himself a small fortune, which allowed to have some form of luxury. But he still couldn’t be considered very rich. He was somewhere between upper middle class, and lower upper class.

He was eating a relatively lavish meal, in his dining room. The dining room was decorated with all sorts of trinkets and artefacts. He considered himself a bit of a collector. He had many interesting and old items.

“Ah, Isaac you’re up. Do you want some breakfast?” He asked. As a mortal A ranker, he still needed to take care of his bodily needs, like food and sleep, but I was different. I hadn’t needed to eat or sleep for about seven hundred years already. Naturally, as a vampire, I didn’t need to eat food, nor sleep, much less as a Mythical Saint, with the strength of a Legendary Saint. I could also go without blood for very long periods of time now.

“No need. I’m no mood for food,” I said, with a slightly annoyed look. However, Targhas took it the wrong way.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please don’t take hurt with my attitude,” he said with very apparent worry. I made a small smirk at his antics.

“Don’t worry, it’s not you. It’s just,” I said, pausing a bit, as my smirk vanished, “Bad dreams.”

Targhas took notice at my drop in mood, but he didn’t ask further. I walked over to a window, overlooking the busy streets. We were on the eighth floor, so it was a bit high. Because of both size, and populations, moth buildings reached high into the sky, and acted as apartment complexes. Targhas’ house, was at the top floor, in the eight floor building. It wasn’t the largest, but it was pretty exquisite.

“Do you remember what I told you, back then?” I asked him. Targhas adorned a serious look, as he turned his head towards me.

“You mean about you being a vampire?” He asked back. I nodded my head, confirming it. I looked at the people down below. They looked quite small from here. They were all going about their lives, either trying to live to their fullest, before they die, or trying to prevent their death. However, everyone dies. Even those powerful Immortals, would one day die. You could prolong your life, to the point of eternal life, but sooner or later, as the sands of time flowed, they would somehow die. This was an unshakable fact.

“Do you want immortality? The chance to live forever; the ability to increase your strength indefinitely?” I asked him, as I still stared at the city dwellers. There was a pause, as Targhas searched for words. Eventually, though, he answered with a simple word,

“Yes,” he said. I turned around, and faced him. My long hair fluttered, and there was a certain darkness in my eyes.

“Then you seek the unattainable. But I can still give you the means, so that you can seek your own power. With my gift, you will never age, never grow old. You will find your bottleneck to disappear, and your limits lifted. Then you can live, for as long as you can. But death still finds everyone,” I said, as I walked towards Targhas. Targhas neither moved, nor spoke. He couldn’t. He was sturdily locked in place, not able to move a single muscle. I moved close to him, until I stood only a breath away.

I moved my face close, until it was only a breath under his ear.

“Today, you will die, and live again,” I said, as I bit into his neck. The seconds passed, as I drained him dry, until there was barely a drop left. Then, that black venom flowed into the wound, going into his veins, spreading all over his body; in every single vein, every single artery, until it finally found his heart. And he collapsed.

As if he was dead, he lied on the floor, not breathing, without a heartbeat. In a swift motion, I disappeared from the room, out into the city. Faster than anyone could see, I sped towards the poorer parts of the city, until I arrived at the slums.

There were many ruined and aged buildings around here. There were several beggars on the streets, and everyone was dressed poorly. The only thing that didn’t look poor, was the city walls. The would be maintained at peak condition, at every single corner of this country sized city.

I quickly looked around for the prettiest girls around. There were several pretty girls, even here in the slums. Many of them worked in nightly activities, like prostitution, so naturally they lived in the slums. However, amongst all of them, there was one that interested me. It was a breathtakingly beautiful girl, but she wasn’t quite normal. She had two horns going out of her forehead, and had very sharp and pointy ears. I stood on a clear rooftop, and observed the several girls, yet no one noticed me.

In the end, I decided against taking the horned girl, and instead noted where her residence was. Then, I grabbed three pretty girls, and before they even knew what had happened, they appeared inside the home of Targhas. They were quite shocked at the sudden development, as well as the seemingly dead Targhas. Naturally, they screamed.

“Quiet,” I said, and suddenly stopped. They didn’t even open their mouths. They didn’t dare to. This was because I was showering them with tiny miniscule amount of my aura, which naturally made the weak girls quiver in fear. I pointed towards two of the girls, and said,

“You two, sit down, and enjoy your last moments,” with a calm voice. As for the other one, I walked towards her, and quickly stripped her naked. Then I proceeded to violently fuck her, while drinking her blood, while the other two girls stared in horror. They were afraid that they would suffer the same fate soon, but they still didn’t dare to make a sound. They knew that they had encountered someone far above them.

After a few moments, the girl started to enjoy the mix of pain and pleasure. This was of course of the aphrodisiac effect of the vampire’s bite. However, it didn’t take long, before she died from a mix of severe injuries, and blood loss. As I was having my way with her, several of her bones broke, including her neck and spine, as well as her limbs. But she still died with an erotic smile on her face.

The other two girls quivered in fear, as I looked towards them. They were horrified beyond their wits. They truly didn’t want to end up like the other girl.

“Don’t worry, you two are for him,” I said, as I pointed towards Targhas. “He should wake up soon enough,” I said. However, as I looked at Targhas, I suddenly had an idea. Targhas didn’t have any servants; after all they were pretty expensive around here, and he wasn’t even around most of the time. So why not just use these girls. The ritual of killing your first victims as a vampire wasn’t really that important for people like Targhas anyway. He had already killed several people. No A ranker hadn’t. In such a big city, murder was extremely common, and many quarrels were solved with it. Most people with some power, had killed someone. The government didn’t really care too much, as it helped keep population down. Overpopulation could become a trouble in such a place.

I looked towards the two girls with a smile this time.

“Actually, I just had an idea. Usually when I create my kind, I have them kill their first victims, as a ritual, but I think I can make an exception. You see I don’t have any servants or maids here, so if two of you agree in your own will to serve me, then I will let you live. What do you say?” I asked them.

The two girls widened their eyes in shock, and stared at me for a while, trying to process what I just said. However, they were quick to agree.

“Yes, yes! Definitely Yes! We’ll do anything Master asks of us, no matter what it is!” The two girls said.

“Good. But you will have to drink some of my blood, to bind you to my will. This way you will never be able to betray me. And as long as you continue to drink it from time to time, it will even extend your lifetime, as well as make you a bit stronger.”

The girls were a bit hesitant to drink my blood, but they still did it quickly. They would do anything to live, and this had even turned into a good situation. They knew that serving this Master, also meant living with him. They would finally be out of poverty.

As they drank my blood, I noticed that a crimson tattoo appeared on their wrists. This was new. It kinda looked like a slave tattoo, but had a much more beautiful design. The girls looked at their new tattoos with awe, and quite liked it, so I didn’t question it for now. The girls also felt even stronger than before.

“Well then, what are your names?” I asked the two girls. These girls, by the way, also weren’t human. They were elves! This was actually the main reason I had taken them as maids. I had never even seen a full elf before, so I had decided to take them in.

“My name is Phyrra, and her name is Aila,” the slightly taller elf said. The smaller one had red cheeks, and was looked at my shyly, while lightly holding her friend’s arm.

“Alright, Aila and Phyrra, from today onwards you are my maids, and will take care of all my needs. And I mean all of them. If you do well, then perhaps I will reward you in the future. However, Targhas here will still need to drink your blood, and he’ll need most of it. But I’ll stop him before he kills you, so don’t worry. However, you will be very weak for a few weeks. Also, since you can’t betray me anymore, I’ll take the time until Targhas wakes up, to explain what I am, what he’s about to become,” I said.

Then I spent nearly an hour, explaining my true nature to the girls. It would be inconvenient if they didn’t even know, and they were already bound by the Blood Bond, so they couldn’t possibly betray me. And they didn’t feel any hatred from the death of the third girl, or for me kidnapping them. If anything, they only felt thankful. After all, they had lived in poverty before, but now they knew a life of riches was waiting, even though they would have to serve me. They also knew that the chance of immortality lay before them, and they wouldn’t even mind serving me for eternity they said.

As for the third girl, she wasn’t actually their friend. In fact, they had quite bad relations, as she had been a rival of theirs. By the way, all three of the girls had been prostitutes, and the two girls, Aila and Phyrra were partners. This meant that they would often do threesomes together. They had even lived together, in a small place.

So, as for watching the third girl die, while they were horrified, they still didn’t care too much. She had caused them too many troubles throughout the years.

Aila was a very cute girl, and didn’t look like a former prostitute at all. She looked very innocent, while still having a good body. Her breasts were a good size, and she had nice curves.

As for Phyrra, she was more confident, and also didn’t look much like a former prostitute. Her breasts were a bit bigger than Aila’s and she was curvier overall. To sum it up, I quite liked them. I felt like they would make for a good distraction. I also knew none of my wives would mind, after all, I had several concubines, and four wives.

Finally, after about an hour had passed Targhas woke up. As Targhas rose back up, he looked groggily around him, and noticed the two new girls, as well as the deformed corpse.

“What happened here?” He asked, clearly confused.

“These two girls are my new maids, as well as your lunch. As for the dead naked girl, I had my way with her. You don’t need to worry, just drink,” I said. Targhas hesitantly nodded his head, and walked towards the two girls, who willingly showed their necks. They weren’t too afraid anymore, since they knew their lives weren’t in danger.

Targhas was a bit hesitant, but he was an experienced man. He quickly gave in to the hunger, and since he had asked for this himself, he had already prepared himself. He quickly drained the girls, and just before they were about to die, I pulled him away. After it was all finished up, I gave the two girls a bit of my blood, to help them recover. They were very pale, but they looked a bit more energized. Since they couldn’t actually walk, I carried them up to the bed, which I had woken up in prior. They quickly fell asleep, and I had Targhas go hire a doctor, since I couldn’t be bothered to constantly look after them. We used the excuse of severe anaemia, which the doctor took with a grain of salt, but still accepted, since he got paid.

End of chapter 12.