............................................ so good news bad news time..............

good news first: this came out longer than i thought it would...... which means more story for you guys! YAAAAYYY!!!!

bad news: i have a shit ton to do for school, theater service hours (a dumb thing to need to pass a course...), and projects in general. so there may not be a chapter next week, or if it is it will be s sub-chapter, like when Alt first read about the races of the world he's in, or some minor side characters perspectives i.e: servants, visiting nobility, people who dont normally matter but are a refreshing new perspective to see, or a Short Tessa POV cuz the loli Vampeerus needs some love too.... especially since she doesnt really have a role until ark 4 and later............

oh btw this chapter you learn a good bit of Lizote and to a lesser extent Natasha's past read between the lines and you can find a future antagonist of a future Ark...... though it is kinda obvious.......

caution, in this chapter we get pretty dark.... there will be:

child abuse (i glossed over it mostly)

torture (Isn't there always? c'mon)

psychological stuff (just a little bit i swear!!!)

implied attempted NTR (it didn't ACTUALLY happen so calm down, and it IS in the past, but it's there. just remember when i say DOLL i mean that in multiple ways..... you'll know the part...........)

Also here's a thoerist hint: Natasha misses parts of the past, Lizote DOESN'T MISS ANY OF IT!!!! after reading make your own opinions as to why that is.

so other than that stuff.............

ENJOY

Lizote Tepestia: Queen of the northern Vampeerus Houses, Direct descendant, “Mad Mind’s Puppeteer”, “Disgraceful Daughter”

As I walked among the carnage I had wrought I couldn’t help but mourn. All this death… all this destruction, it would do nothing to bring back what I had lost. Nothing ever could.

“Mistress we have found the king and Queen, they have barricaded themselves deep inside the west district. They are guarded by the remnants of the city guard, royal guard, and the militia. Shall I lead the assault?” (???)

I looked at the man in his bloodstained armor, he used to be the defender of the realm. He was the one to meet me as I tore the high castle down in the capital of this forsaken kingdom. He thought himself my equal, the one who could slay me like some sort of fairy-tale monster. He now serves as my temporary right hand in this army of mind-slaves I have gathered.

“Yes, I have no more desire to lead these battles. Continue as we have, kill everyone you find, then search for any you missed. I shall come when you have secured the royals.” (Lizote)

He bowed to me, then left with the rest of them. The ones that I made betray all they held dear, all they loved. My ever loyal and eager army of mind-slaves.

Things never change. There will always be fools that choice to oppose that which they could never hope to equal let alone defeat. Then there will always be consequences when they reach for too much, when then inevitably go too far.

I looked up at the sky. It was a beautiful day without so much as a hint of clouds, as if to further show that the world and the gods had no care for the atrocities that have taken place and are to come. Understandable really, after a time it becomes hard to care about anything really.

Things never change…………………….

As I stood amidst the burning, collapsed, and ruined buildings that just a day ago made up the east quarter of the proud Ordoseia capital of Y’neare, I thought back to how this came to pass.

I have lived for longer than I can keep track of.

Throughout that long life there was only ever one person I could count on. She was the first to ever show me compassion, something even my own family denied me for a century.

We should have been enemies. In fact I had tried to kill her many times, and her me. It became a game of sorts for us to play as children, which descendant would best the other. Which descendant would kill the other. Such a twisted, twisted game for children to play, but it did help us prepare for what would come later…..

As we had grown the girl, Natasha, and I had learned that for Ancestors, for monsters like my mother, EVERYTHING was just such a game: How long can my daughter survive if she were to be sealed in Vaznar acid? What would happen if I made her kill her little friends and pets? How much can she take before she breaks? Can I put her back together again? Oh, I can, then let’s do it all over again. What would happen if I exposed all that is in my daughter’s mind for my guests to see, then locked her in nightmares made from her worst fears? What if I left her there for years? What if I forced her to kill the first thing she has ever loved?......................

We learned very early in life that you could never lose a game, to lose would not be to die, it would mean a fate FAR worse than death…….

Natasha once showed me the place HER mother kept those that failed her. It was hell. A hell made of endless darkness, darkness that kept you alive and healed you as it tortured you in new and ever more horrible ways. It wouldn’t just harm you physically either, it would show illusions as well. Worse of all, it would always periodically mix in a few good things with all the suffering, just enough so that one could never become desensitized to all the horror.

Natasha was forced to spend 50 years in that place………

I can’t really remember when, but our little game of kill or be killed became the only thing either of us could look forward to, it became what we lived for.

One day I stopped trying, I let Natasha win. She held me in a giant hand made of shadows and crushed me until I thought I would finally die, that is until she released me.

She asked why I let her win, I told Natasha that I wanted HER to be the one to kill me not anyone else. She didn’t. That was when our game ended, and we made our first promise. our first oath

We promised that we wouldn’t fight each other anymore, that we would fight THEM instead……

Natasha became even stronger, she became an unstoppable force that even the Ancestors, even her MOTHER, began to fear.

I took a different route, I was never the strong one. I was known as the weakest descendant of an Ancestor to ever be born. The failure that was afraid of her power, and what it would share with her mind when she used it. I practiced every field of study I could. Magic, alchemy, politics, craftsmanship, acting, everything that I could find. I never truly gained mastery in anything other than alchemy and acting, but I became at least adapt in everything else. I had even began to make a name for myself, one that was positive for once.

Then our parents decided that we were mature enough to leave their “protection”. Natasha was sent away first, I would have left with her if mother had not thought that she had to once more restructure my mind from its deepest unknown thought fragments, to my very personality. If I had not learned to always leave a backup of my mind hidden from everything and everyone, even mother, when I was within my first few centuries……………

Natasha struggled, but ultimately survived on her own for a two and a half centuries, she had even managed to kill an Ancestor who wished to make her some sort of personal doll. It was during this time she earned her legendary title “Black Death’s Smile” and proved to the world that she could be just as dangerous as her mother.

When Mother finally released me and I rejoined Natasha, we began what we had promised each other as children. We made the Ancestors play OUR game for a change……. Together we killed 36 of the 100 Ancestors, we also learned that with each’s death another from their house would be promoted to replace them. It was an endless cycle, one that we could never end.

Of course we eventually confronted our mothers, we did so together……….

We almost died, but we were able to at least secure an oath of noninterference out of both. It only cost us the entirety of our new comrades, our assets, and our pride…….

Natasha and I had been holding feelings for each other for so long, I could never guess when we both feel for each other. I might have when I first met her, but I could never know when she first developed her feelings. I didn’t need to, I was just glad to know that she shared my love.

We grew closer over the loss of all we knew. We found comfort in each other, physically and emotionally. We made more oaths on our names and souls than could ever be called sensible. We became each other’s soul-bound. We promised to have children together and unite us in the only meaningful way left, marriage didn’t matter, it was only a tool for politicians and romantic fools after all……..

Along with my best friend and lover, I have seen the passing of countless kingdoms. The fall of endless regimes. The birth and death of more races than I could ever name.

I gave birth to my first daughter, one I swore to protect and love unlike how my own mother treated me.

I was happy, we all were happy. It was the best time of my life.

And now I have witnessed the first death of one of my children.

When Natasha collapsed in the middle of our meal, I knew that something had gone horribly wrong.

How I managed to remain calm I probably owe to the countless life or death situations we both had to face in the past, but in this new era where very little could threaten us I had become lax. I had let myself believe that there was nothing left that could pose a threat to us, that we were not already aware of. I had made a mistake, and now like always SHE had to suffer for it…..

I checked Natasha for signs of life first, then took her to the medical wing of her palace. Her healers and servants would have to insure that she was safe and her vitals remained stable for the time being. I needed to cure her of the poison that had spread throughout her body. I was a fool to not recognize the signs, I pushed off her dizzy spells as just an effect of her late stage of pregnancy. Such a fool…

Luckily I had everything I needed to concoct the remedy for her in my quarters. I can’t completely recall the time I spent creating the cure. I know I spent it going back and forth between the medical wing, Natasha, and my quarters to check on the curative. I gave Natasha every single remedy and cure I could think of that might help her, but also not affect her or our children for the worse. I also sent servants for Altorus, to inform him of what had happened, and Tessa, to guard her and bring her to my safe house in this kingdom.

I thought that maybe doing all that would buy me the time I needed….. That the curative would somehow save my unborn daughters and help Natasha through the pain she was in. I was a fool, worse than that, I was an idiot.

I saved Natasha, but I was too late to save my children, one had died while I was away brewing a cure that couldn’t even save her sister. I had failed my children, my lover, and myself. Lizote had once more proven herself to be the disgraceful failure that she was told she always was in the past.

When I thought I was at my lowest, THAT was when I felt it. Something in the fortress that was my mind was released, no was ALLOWED to be revealed to me. It caused the fortress to collapse in on itself, as it had so many times before.

Mother always was fond of sealing away pieces of my mind until just after they would have been useful…… only AFTER I had suffered would she give me back the memory or personality fragment or thought. I had thought I had unsealed all of them years ago, but……….

I had known the art medicine, perhaps I was not a grand-master of the field, but I had known enough to save them, ALL of them, if I had but known it was there. My children and Natasha…… I could have diagnosed them before it came to this, the signs were all so clear in my memory now. It was an enhanced form of Revenant venom poisoning.

I don’t remember much after that, once again mother had found a way to hurt me. To BREAK me. She didn’t even have to know what it was she caused, her ties to my mind would let her know that I had retreated back to the deepest parts of my mind. The places I always went after she broke me. The places I always went to, to put the person who is Lizote Tepestia back to together again.

When I was able to perceive the outside world again I saw Altorus standing before Natasha. He radiated rage.

I was never able to shut out Altorus’ mind completely, but as I was now I couldn’t do anything to resist his mind's pull. For a time I WAS Altorus Phantus, it was so much easier than being poor broken Lizote Tepestia.

It also gave me the time I needed to finish reconstructing my mind completely. I was able to do that very quickly now. I had a lot of practice………

When I had recovered, I also remembered what it was that brought me to that point. I cried, I didn’t have the self-control or emotional control not to, at that point. Those things would take at least a month, if not more, to gain back to the level I had before.

I was able to answer Altorus, to tell him what the healer couldn’t. That I had failed, and that my children were already lost.

He couldn’t accept it, I could feel what he did. I still shared his thoughts, taking them as a crutch for my own. He wanted to go to the divines for help. To his Sally goddess. He didn’t know what I did, that the divines were cruel. They were uncaring beings that only cared about their selves, and in some rare cases their divine family. Divines valued lower beings only as much as they could prove to be an amusement. They would never grant something as precious as a miracle to unborn beings, especially not to a race that does not worship them. They are all selfish, even those that were once mortal themselves, it is in their nature.

Altorus knelled, and I lost contact with his mind. It scared me, he was my support currently, if I didn’t have something familiar to hold onto, I might lose myself again. I can’t let that happen, if it did there would be no one able to avenge my children or protect Natasha, Tessa, and Altorus. I had to stay sane and solid, if nowhere else than my own mind.

As I was reinforcing my mental fortress to keep it from falling again, I saw Altorus rise.

He was different, I couldn’t feel his mind and he seemed more powerful somehow. He was always a stronger than average child, I’d say he had the strength of an average Vampeerus, and at his age that was impressive. Not anything that was outstanding, but impressive nonetheless. Now though, he felt like he had the power of an ancient.

He ripped the healer’s heart from her chest and sliced her throat before the woman was even able to blink let alone scream. He did so with his bare hands, a feat that usually only highly trained or elder Vampeerus would be capable of, even against human opponents.

He turned to look at her as the life faded from her eyes and spoke.

“Your sin was Sloth. This is your penance.” (Alt)

He dropped her heart, which was now a fine bloody paste after being in his grip, onto her body, and turned to the hallway.

“The many sins of Pride, Avarice, Lust, and Wrath that have crossed me, yet remain unpunished….. I must correct that. They shall pay the penance for what they have done” (Alt)

He began to run through the hall, he didn’t turn at the end of the hall either, just ran through it.

He was headed north-west, the direction of Ordoseia and the Arcanes that came to the inter-kingdom conference two days ago. He must have decided that they were responsible and craves vengeance, but Altorus isn’t powerful enough to face a nation. Even as he is now, he would only be a nuisance to them. He may slay a few hundred Arcanes, but with the strength of only one Ancient he would be quickly overpowered or overwhelmed on this path.

I had to do something. I couldn’t let another loved one die on this horrible night.

I got up, laid a mental barrier around the room that held my Love, and followed after the boy.

He left a clear path. The mutilated and crushed corpses of servants and slaves, and the destruction of walls, furniture, and decorations marked the way he passed. It was a straight line. It was clear that his goal was singular.

I looked at the body of a servant whose body was contorted in a way that had her upper half facing backwards. Another body was just a simple decapitation, yet another had a hole where her heart used to reside.

Altorus had taken on Natasha’s tendency to play with victims, he would only kill people as quickly and relatively painlessly as this if he only thought they were a mere nuisance. Not something he even viewed as worth the time needed to enjoy them……

I followed his path as it lead to one of the palace’s gardens. There I found Altorus with his hand inside some unfortunate gardener’s brain.

I moved in front of him and blocked his path, it was simple for me to move faster than him with his mere ancient level speed, though that speed alone has allowed him to destroy his way through a sizable portion of this wing of the palace in an insignificant amount of time….

Looking at him up close like this I noticed that his eyes had a strong glow to them, and seemed to leave a trail of ghostly grey light whenever he moved. The effect was more than a little impressive, and I’m sure it would be intimidating on lesser people, but it was wasted on me.

“You are Blessed by the Ascendant Angel, by me, why do you block my way?” (Alt)

“Alt, you have to stop. Let’s go back, Natasha needs us right now.” (Lizote)

He just walked forward.

“I must give those that dare to sin against me the suitable penance for such sins. Nothing will impede that, not even a Blessed such as you Lizote Tepestia.” (Alt)

I felt more than saw as his fist hit my gut. He seemed to be aiming for a crippling blow, but with only this level of strength it felt like only a light tap after bracing myself. Truly he only has the strength of an Ancient, a young one at that.

Altorus tilted his head in a manner that indicated curiosity.

“I have attacked you, yet you make no move to fight back. Why is this Blessed one?” (Alt)

“Have you forgotten our oaths already young Alt? I will never cause you harm in any way, I swore it.” (Lizote)

Altorus simply nodded his head, his fist still pressed into my stomach.

“Yes I remember your three oaths Blessed one. They shall make it easier to remove your…….. impediment………. to………………………………………….” (Alt)

Altorus collapsed into me, I caught him before he could fall. The glow was leaving his eyes and I was beginning to feel his mind’s presence again, though it was sleeping. Lifting him up I carried him to his room to tuck the child into bed.

That night I went back in forth between Altorus’ and Natasha’s sides. I had Natasha moved from the damaged wing of the palace back to her own room, after my own examination of her to confirm her condition. I had found that while Natasha herself was recovering, our remaining child’s condition continued to slowly deteriorate. Though this deterioration was slower than it should be, it was still present. Our poor child would not last through the week…………

I resolved myself to mourn later, I had to ensure that what remained of my family was safe first. The next day I gave orders that My Tessa was to return to my kingdom guarded by all the royal guards stationed at my safe house, with those escorts she would be safe from almost anything. Almost as much as if I was the one escorting her.

I also began my investigation into Natasha’s poisoning. By searching the minds of every living person in the palace, I found one of Natasha’s personal servants to be infected by a lower class Phantus’ Blood, not even a noble’s, but enough that the woman was totally enthralled. After extracting all the information she had, I trapped her in an endless night-terror, she would die by the end of the day from a mental breakdown, even if I had to be the one to cause it instead of the night-terror. The traitor deserved worse, but she wasn’t truly at fault.

Altorus woke on the next day. With him awake, I could finally entrust Natasha and her kingdom to someone I could trust. He wanted vengeance just as I did, but he wasn’t ready to enter battle of the level I would wage, he wouldn’t be for at least a century. Besides that, he had a duty to this kingdom and Natasha, I told him that I would seek vengeance for the both of us. I felt that he understood, even if he didn’t like it.

After that I left the kingdom. I moved as fast as I was able to Ordoseia and I began to kill.

The first village I killed with my bare hands, no powers and no techniques, just raw animal fury and hatred.

The first town I haunted with terrors that only the oldest, or the most twisted could ever imagine. Most committed suicide to escape the visions, others went mad and killed any and all they came across indiscriminately.

The first city I converted into my loyal mind-slaves, I had them fight against those they once called countrymen. I had them torture, violate, rape, and destroy. They became the instruments of my wrath and my grief.

When I made it to the immense capital city of Y’neare, I was already tired of vengeance. I never had Natasha’s ability to hold onto my fury, to enjoy the pain I wrought onto others.

Even the Arcanes of Ordoseia were mostly innocents. Over this campaign of vengeance I had learned that only officers in high command even knew of this poisoning plot. There was never any plan to invade, they only wished for a way to secure their south-eastern border as they waged war against an aggressive Sectia Hive that was invading their land from a wild nexus arch. They did so in the wrong way, but the motives behind the act were self-preservation.

And thus is the greatest weakness of the Tepestia house, and myself. The ability to know the mind of someone breeds the strongest form of empathy, knowing their reasoning and background it becomes harder to find fault with what they are doing. One begins to see things from their perspective and relate to them. Of course mother found this weakness appalling and breed it out of our line forcefully, all but me, and now my Tessa were “cured” of this weakness…. And after what mother did to train me, it becomes difficult for me to empathize with anything without actively trying to. Mother made me into a monster just like her, and even I forget to try to empathize sometimes, like with this campaign. I tried to only after I had caused the slaughter of over three fourths of the kingdom.

I swore that I would be the conscience and morale compass for both myself AND Natasha, that i would keep us from following the path our mothers chose for us, but I can’t even do that right…… a good moral compass doesn’t thoughtlessly kill and torture and…. do other things to people who are no more than innocent civilians. She also wouldn’t continue after realizing this…..

All I wanted was my dreams and family returned to me safe and sound……

Then again I never would have that would I?

So I did the only thing that took my mind off the pain and loss, I carried out my family’s vengeance.

For Altorus who wasn’t powerful enough to achieve his own.

For Natasha who was unable to.

For Tessa, who would never know her sisters.

For my poor lost daughters, whose only crime was the identity of their mothers.

And for myself, for more reasons than I even know.

I carried on, and would do so until there were none left. After all that was a promise too….

So many oaths now….

I thought back to my oaths to Altorus, before this new nightmare of mine began....

“I swear to tell you only truths.” (Lizote)

I felt this new oath weigh down on my soul.

“I swear to do you no harm of any kind, nor harm those you love.” (Lizote)

Another weight to my soul.

“I swear that your enemies shall be my enemies and I shall aid you against them whenever you so wish it. These things I swear to you young Altorus, will you honor your oaths?” (Lizote)

And once again a weight on my soul, I doubt it could take another oath without at least a few years to recover, but it was all worth it.

Altorus looked up at me and smiled. Truly he was a cute child, even knowing all I did about him, it was hard to resist my urge to spoil and dote on him because of this cuteness. Very hard.

“Yes I will. I swear to hold you as my own family in my heart and soul as you do with me. I swear to also aid you in times that you truly need me in any way I am able. There, I think we are both happy now right? We can trust each other now, because………………..” (Alt)

“If either of us should break these oaths may the void take our vary souls.” (Alt & Lizote)

The sound of a pained voice broke me out of my memories again.

“You are a monster. I just want you to know that before I die.” (King of Ordoseia)

I looked down at the man who had lost everything. He was still holding the warm corpse of his wife, the knife she embedded into her throat was still there. It must have been hard for him to watch as I showed his wife everything that her mind hid from her, all those hidden thoughts and secrets someone forgets because they must just to live with themselves or perhaps it was the ones that are so bad we people aren’t even aware they are there due to the mind’s self-protection.

All this while the man he once called friend and brother, who once helped him protect his realm, held him down in chains like a common criminal.

I know that I’m a monster. I’ve known that for so long now…… only monsters could ever come out of the madness of the Ancestors’ games alive let alone in any form of sane. Though my children, THEY were innocent. And you are the one who allowed them to die for the fear of a mere possibility of attack.

“I want you to know that I don’t regret this, I may have changed the totality of your kingdoms destruction if I were to do all this again, but then again I might not.” (Lizote)

“H-how could you do this? H-how can you live with this?” (King of Ordoseia)

“It’s simple. We monsters, we tend to have something we all protect. Something we would do anything for. Mine is family, and those few that I have allowed myself to love. And you, you directly allowed the death of two unborn daughters of mine, and the pain and undoubtable grief of the woman I love more than life itself. You, as a monster yourself, should know how I can do this and so much more.” (Lizote)

“I’M NOTHING LIKE YOU!!!!!” (King of Ordoseia)

“Oh, but you are. I know your mind, better than even you yourself know it even, here let me show you. All your fears, all the things you regret, all those things your mind hides from you to let you go on living. Let me show you EVERYTHING……………………………………” (Lizote)

so there you go.............

who saw THAT coming..... the past, not the rampage or vengeance crusade, THOSE were fairly obvious.....

also i'll say this, those of you fans thinking the Sectia hive is important in some way..... you get cookies..... but it wont be important for a while, and only then for the character who comes out of it..... in the school arc...... so there is a bit of a lengthy wait... BTW humor comes back when Natasha has her child. till then characters and Alt are understandably not in the mood to crack jokes... even in there minds......

also a new bonus chapter with Carmen's backstory and POV will be coming out soon, there will be a teaser on RR, but for the whole thing is only for my patrons..... i know, i know i'm evil....... but hey it's only a dollar, and more bonuses will follow in the future, so..............................

anyway i gotsta sleepy do now. and then........... school work....... FML................

Comment, like, share, theorise, and thank...... oh and i'll probably do a new special for having 999 follower's, because you know.....there are three 9's in 999..... and i like the number 3....... and 9......... favorite #'s: 13, 9, and 3..... in that order.... i have a problem......

BUT HEY YOU GET A SPECIAL CHAPTER/SIDE CHAPTER JOINT RELEASE OUT OF IT SO WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING!?!?!?!?!

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Author out............