I really did not understand the need for marching, seriously? Mars had every vampire dark elf and their uncles and aunts in formation and marching in pursuit of the invading Nagas. Of course it made for an intimidating sight, but it was…..slow.

Of course it was not that stupid, even though he wanted to present a unified and organized image to our enemies, he already had almost three dozen fleet footed vampires and dark elves ahead of the bigger army tracking and chasing after the invaders.

I would have much rather preferred to be with them rather than walking along with the biggest marching band in history. I couldn’t seem to get it, not one bit. In all of the limited time Mars had to train these soldiers, when did he ever have the time to teach them how to march, and how did he do it so silently. Because honestly if I already knew he taught them how to march in formation, I would have been better prepared to escape from this torture.

But all in all I was in a better position than others, Xaseah was an elder vampire, quite a ways up on the vampires evolutionary ladder. Which meant she had better senses and more natural abilities than me. The marching was an annoyance to me, but to Xaseah it was most definitely torture.

It was wrong but I drew an intense satisfaction from seeing someone else be in a more miserable state than me, the fact that the person suffering was Xaseah was just bonus.

We made our way past the ravine and unto an already prepared path that was not obscured by the fog that concealed my pit of traps. Of course going through the oath was better than aimlessly wandering in the fog, but due to the fact that the path was o my wide enough to have six people walking shoulder to shoulder pass through, we had to take even longer to get through.

Xaseah let out a groan of frustration from beside me.

“This is completely useless and not needed.”

“Mars wants to give each vampire and dark elf a sense of unity….that he did not want any body to be occupied with a sense of loss due to the sheer amount of people we lost. A show of strength is required, and it would most definitely make our enemies nervous.”

Xaseah turned to look at him with a aided eyebrow and a look that seemed to say ‘I can’t believe you just said that'.

“Even I know you are not that gullible even though I want it to be so. Apart from the fact that until more than half a year ago we were slaves and have gone through countless torture and pain. Even though some of us lived in rather comfortable places like the red and white districts, it did not change the fact that we all lived and died at whims of our jailers.

Each and every one of us had lost someone or something important, we have seen death in the thousands for the amount of years we have been alive. And even though we have quite a large population, quite a few children are born every year and most of them don’t survive past their sixth year. We all were forced to slowly watch out race die out and not have the power to do anything about it.

I don’t know who you or Mars think you’re dealing with, but this people here were forged in a maelstrom of fire, pain and heartache. Seeing a few dead comrades would not shake them, it would only make them stronger. What Mars is really doing is subduing their bloodlust so that they don’t completely loose control when they see their enemies.

Mars wants prisoners, and while I feel that is a step in the right direction, I would very much prefer if we kill all of them and leave nothing standing.”

Her bloodlust was thick, As a vampire I was rather perceptive to things that were rather supernatural. Xaseah had killed before, and not just a few dozen people, I felt like she had killed hundreds and each of that person she killed had left a brand on her that she could never get rid off. This brand made her stronger, but it left her negative emotions more powerful. I could not help but shudder a bit, there was much I didn’t know about this woman. Xaseah was not as simple as she seems. The marching went in for about another hour just before.

“BOOM!!!”

“WHAT THE HELL!!?”

In the confusion of another sudden explosion, not to mention it seemed to have triggered an earthquake of sorts causing massive chunks of rocks to fall from the roof of the cavern that was kilometers away.

There was a clamor and a moment of disarray as every body started talking. The whole formation that Mars had meticulously put together fell apart and I didn’t know whether to be thankful for such a development or pity Mars for the unfortunately incident.

But I had no time to worry about it as I already made a beeline for the cliff completely disregarding the fact that I had an army behind me, or that I could be running straight for my death.

But at that moment I did not really care, a host of thoughts went through my head and chief among them was Adein. The very idea of him escaping or dying before I can get my hands on him left a stone at the bottom of my gut.

It was safe to say that at that moment I was blinded by rage and an intense hunger for revenge. I wanted to make that human pay for everything he had done to me, so I would very much like if he would stay put like and wait for his death like a good little human.

I went straight for the cliff with such speed everything was a blur around me. My every step left cracks on the ground as I pushed every ounce of my superior strength and speed Into bear. But even with that there were still people who were faster than me.

But that was not mainly my fault. The vampire population was divided into five different evolutionary ranks, with the lowest being the revenants, and the highest being the origin vampires.

Each rank after the other was stronger, faster and had access to more abilities than the rank below it. Once upon a time this segregation of ranks determined your social ranking among the vampires. It decided the pecking order and unlike thousands of years ago, revenants could never have been anything but canon fodder.

This first ranks of vampires was the revenant, they are bottoms feeders with no control over their bloodlust and cravings for blood. Their mind is mostly driven by their need for food, except for a select few who are incredibly disciplined and can keep total control of their faculties. Example of such a revenant is yours truly.

Revenants are nothing more than the lowest of the low in vampire society due to one particular reason only. They are made and not born. Created vampires are always weaker than vampires that are born, not to mention advancement in different areas of magic or martial skills is incredible slow for them. Of course with sufficient talent they can rival a born vampire.

The bloodline of a revenant is not pure, and it would take them thousands of hears to refine and perfect that bloodline before they can truly draw the potential within it. A revenant has a chance to whole to a higher rank of the vampire evolutionary ladder, but that it completely up to luck and how much talent they have.

The next up the ranks are known as shades. Vampires of this rank had the distinct ability to create shadows, they can travel through it, manipulate it and use it in battles. They could be considered the ordinary citizens of the vampire population. The shades are also the only rank of vampires most susceptible and weak against sunlight. All vampires hate the sun and would most definitely burn to a crisp beneath its scorching rays. But for shades their reactions are infinitely worse, of course they also burn. But theirs is so bad that even their souls are burnt in the process, completely eliminating Any option of an afterlife. And after their souls are completely burn their bodies loose a physical form and they become wraiths. Fearsome shadow killers that would not give a damn about who they kill or attack. Everything is food to them.

Vampires of a higher rank than the shades after evolution, or if they were just born to higher ranked parents do not loose the ability to manipulate shadows, instead it manifest in unique ways varying from one individual vampire to the next. They could control shadows to give a physical shape, others could travel through it and some can use it for some really bizarre stuff like possession or taking control over souls.

The next rank of vampire was the striders. At this point in their evolution they gain the ability to shape shift and infuse their souls into animals making them into familiars. Striders are considered quite normal, but they have a tendency to be control freaks.

The next are the elder vampires, distinctly known for their ability to fly and to use the allure. An ability that helps them control the mind of any living creature completely. They are stronger and faster, and they have access to every ability from every vampire evolution there is. When low level vampires evolve, they become unable to use previous abilities from their devolved form, but as an elder, you have access to all those abilities due to the intense purity the bloodline of all elders contain.

There are not many elder left as they have been victims of the captors attention and wiped out one after the other. Elders stood almost at the pinnacle of the vampire social order, which makes them the most worthy candidates to lead and rule their people.

Such a scenario was not something their jailors would have loved to see, so they controlled their population, managed them like they were some sort of pest. It was heart breaking, but in the end they had no choice and were left with nothing but hope, even as days got darker.

And finally last on vampire evolutionary ladder is the now extinct Vampire kings or queens. Vampires at this level were masters of the rare art of blood magic, each had the unique ability to control the aura of life and death making them natural necromancers. The vampire kings and queens of old had brought such monstrosities to life such that, thousands of years after people still tremble in fear and awe of their ability. They were akin to Gods and were unmatched in strength, agility and charisma. The last of them died in the war that left every single person here a prisoner. If any of them were alive, it was quite obvious we would not be were they were now today.

I wiped my hand over my face as I took huge strides to keep up with the others. The fact that I was a revenant had never been a point of debate for me, but seeing them move past me and with such speed left me feeling somewhat inadequate, especially since I was their leader.

I got to the tunnel that led to the hub and in front of me was a perfectly cleared hole, the only thing rather strange was the thick cloud of dust spewing out from it. The faster vampires, a group which included Xaseah was standing right in front of the tunnel entrance a bit hesitant to go in.

“Should we wait for the soldiers sent to tail the Nagas?” Xaseah asked with a huff

I shook my head in reply.

“We can’t wait for them. Right now it is unknown what just happened, and we can’t be exactly sure they aren’t in danger within the tunnel.”

“Then what do you suggest we should do lord Kael?”

This time the person who asked me a question was actually one pair of the twins who helped Mars organize our military. Her name somewhat eluded me at the moment, but she was important enough to warrant an answer from me.

“I think we have to take a leap of faith. There might be traps and a possibility of certain death waiting for us in there, but our comrades could equally also be in trouble. We can’t just seat here and hope for the best.”

She looked at me intensely for almost thirty seconds before she turned around and gave out orders with more ease than I have ever seen from anyone, not even Mars could compare. It was obvious to me that she was in her element.

“Everyone get in formation. Get into files of three and lines of six. I need a three meter gap between each set of soldiers, now move it people we have no time to waste.”

Her way of giving orders was quite efficient and in no time at all the vampires and dark elves were arranged in neat rows and lines. And then they all marched forward, but their pace was faster as they moved by jogging letting the sound of their footfalls resound through the interior of the entire tunnel.

Xaseah and I followed behind them and I was thankful for their pace because honestly it would have been rather embarrassing if I could not keep up with my soldiers. We moved on for about twenty minutes before they all came to abrupt halt.

For a moment my heart almost jumped into my mouth in frenzied excitement or fear, I couldn’t really tell. But I wondered if they fighting ahead of me. But fortunately there was no sign or any sound of combat, not to mention visibility was not that good with the amount of dust clouds that still lingered in the tunnel.

It took a few moments for me to make my way to front of the line, but that was mainly because Xaseah was staring at me with a strange look that left me really creeper out. It was as if she could see underneath my clothes. When I got to the front my heart almost stopped.

The scenes of mangled and crushed bodies, exposed organs and bones, was what greeted me. Most of them were actually still alive and I could hear their moaning from within the cracks in the rocks and I could see the painful movement of those of them who were partially caught by the cascading rocks.

The Nagas collapsed the tunnel once again. And this time, they made sure it all fell on the group of soldiers we asked to tail and monitor them. I sent all this poor souls to their deaths, and to make matters worse I could not see any bodies of Nagas, werewolves or humans. Of course I did not hold at any hope that if we moved the rocks aside I would be treated to the sight of Adein’s mangled face staring at me as he painfully gasped for his last breath.

I was not the only one caught up in the shock of the scene. Everybody who could see it were paralyzed by the sight. It was more gory than expected, and both vampires and dark elves were extremely resilient. It was hard for normal means to cause damage to them and they could heal fast and die a lot slower should they take a fatal hit which does not kill them immediately.

This sight reminded me of the first time I had first came to the pit. The scene of multiple vampires and dark elves impaled from earthen spikes and hung on the wall of a tower like they were clothes under the sun shared immense similarity with this situation.

I felt for sure that the Nagas were taunting me, because I knew there was no way they could not have know that our soldiers were chasing behind. Of course I did not expect them to show mercy, that would be hypocritical. But I doubted I would have left my enemies in such a state. This was torture, I hated torture.

At first it was faint, a wheezing gasp or was it a painful drawl. I did not care what tone it carried but I could hear it as it snapped me out of my daze.

“Help.”

I was drawn back to reality, and without giving any orders or waiting for somebody else to move I dove into the rubble, frenziedly moving rocks to big and smashing the small ones to pieces so that I could vet those soldiers out from underneath this rubble of death. I heard Xaseah’s voice behind me.

“Well what are you waiting for, help him! Move it.”

We worked for hours within the confines of that cave to get those soldiers out. At some point I had started crying without any regard for my image or reputation. I felt like I had a long way before I could truly cultivate the mindset of a leader, but all this stimulation was way to much for me.

At that moment I was living with a feeling of intense guilt, which stemmed all the way from the moment I chose to kill that guard to save Cassie. Looking back at that moment now made me realize how very unlike me that was.

I was really careful and would have preferred to keep a low profile, but saving that baby had drove me insane. It reminded me of the first time I had human blood, it reminded of the addiction that flowed through my veins. The nothingness it provided and how in that moment when it went down my throat and the hour after that I completely forgot my problems.

I could feel my fangs ache as a craving built within my gut. But I was determined to ignore it and focus instead on my soldiers. People died, that was a fact that I totally understood. And the vampires and dark elves were completely used to death amongst themselves and have learnt to deal with it as nothing major over the years.

But this was a while lot different when these people died by your own commands. They called dying under the line of duty, but I called it dying under the whims of twenty year old boy playing king of the castle.

I felt Soren’s presence in my mind as he let out what ever wave of comfort he could muster. My so called brother had disappeared after the battle and had no participated in the chase. I had nothing to say to him at this moment and would very much have loved if my thoughts were left to me and there was no one else sharing the confines of my mind. But Soren was in the mood to talk so I couldn’t do anything about it.

“You should stop beating yourself up Kael, this was not your fault.”

“You don’t know that Soren, you don’t know anything. I gave the order, maybe if we had retreated instead and took a defensive stance, or maybe if I had…..”

“KAEL!! Enough.”

Soren’s screaming of my name within the confines of my mind shook me a little. The people around me probably thought I was shivering due to grief as we moved the rocks but whatever, they could think whatever they wanted. Soren spoke to me one last time, saying words to me that shocked me even more than the gory scene before me.

“This is the price for war and power, it’s a steep price and it is a also a curse. This is a burden and a sin you have to bear for the rest of your life, and it most definitely won’t be the last time you ask people to die for you. You can never get used to it, there’s no living with the killing, especially when it’s done by your hands or on your orders. You just have to keep on moving forward and make sure those that die for you and by your hands, did not die for nothing. Killing is not a good thing, but if you have to, make sure it counts for something.”