After days of searching I finally stumbled upon a book, It was titled

“The Allegory of Dracula Volume 2” It read:

The beast contract with the demon that I had made five centuries ago has finally taken its toll. I had wiped out my enemies and those who betrayed me and I have become wealthy, all I had ever wanted.

But, the loneliness, the solitude, the thirst, bearing it all alone had driven me insane. Watching my wives die of old age over and over again. watching my children all die in infancy and seeing the look of horror on the faces of those who had found out what I really was had driven me mad.

Now I understood why the demon had given me this power without a cost, he wanted to watch me suffer and be tormented by my own mind, plagued by the crying of my dead children, tormented by the smiles of wives I thought I could love like no other, and tormented by friends who I trusted but were mortified of my true self, watching as those around me turned to dust.

But I had not gotten this far by giving up. I was determined to have my own family, and not even the gods themselves could stop me. I pledged that I would break every natural law and force my will upon this god forsaken earth.

The book explained how Dracula had spent the next century hunting down the parts of magical beasts.

The first part he hunted was the fang of a vetala; its fangs were known to release a highly contagious poison that caused delayed death, then turned its victims into walking corpses who would go on to make more walking corpses. He used this as the transmitterable agent in the ritual.

Next he stole the seed of the world tree. According to his research he needed a binding agent. A living creature that could never die of old age to ensure the binding was permanent.

The final ingredient he needed was the blood of a similar or a more powerful creature as his contract to help cohorse his contract into evolving.

What Dracula found was the blood of a dragon. Dracula only got one drop and this was only after witnessing two dragons fighting did he steal the blood. He used this as the base substance for the spell.

After gathering all the ingredients he asked the help of a legendary ranked magician to create a magic formation that could conduct the ritual.

Even though the magic formation was drawn in the book, Alric was disheartened because all the creatures listed in the book were at least ascended ranked beasts, not to mention the divine ranked dragons.

Alric had to study other books regarding magic formations and ritual magic to get a deeper understanding.

Alric after another sleepless night in the library finally concluded that Dracula, while hunting did not have any specific recipe he only understood the fondation that was needed for ritual magic. Therefore if he could obtain similar ingredients that served the same function he could get the same results.

On the final day he obtained a list of suitable substitute ingredients, since his contract was from a far weaker beast than Dracula’s he had a wider range of organisms to choose from.

XXXXXXX

Alric watched as the adjutant looked as though he had shed his pale skin and started recovering instantly. Alric turned his back to Han and spoke as he straightened his mask.

“The contract of an emperor ranked kludde, which means your senses should be overloading right now, and your muscles expanding.”

Freya chuckled and her men chuckled as they watched Han sway to the side as he attempted to wake, seemingly to be in a drunken daize.

[Can you hear me Han?]

With that question Han’s eyes opened wide, he looked at Alric whose back was turned, he heard the question again but not with his ears, but his mind.

[yes, boss] Han confusedly replied in his mind, and then a grin appeared on Alric’s face.

“Good. Everything seems to be working fine then. Merrik, let the men make a camp, to rest, we are leaving in the morning.”

[Merrik’s POV]

The boss finished making his tent early during the evening. The darkness had barely started to thicken but the moment he crawled into his tent the boy started to hear snoring.

Around Alric’s tent the four pups all laid down casually curled into balls, each sleeping at a different point of his tent.

“Hey, how do you feel?” I was the first of the men around the campfire to speak to Han,

“I feel… I feel great, better than great actually Merrik.

It's like I just started tapping into the full potential of my body.”

Han said as he clenched his fist and released it, looking at his now pulsing veins, he continued.

“I can hear the men over there, every word they are saying. I can even smell the sweat dripping off them,”

I was in disbelief, I had to look over at the men that were at the other side of the campfire whispering under their breaths as they looked at Han and even I myself could hardly make out what was being said.

I was filled with questions, but with no one to answer I sighed heavily and looked up to the night sky and admired the stars that dazzled it.

I was filled with wonder at Alric, only a few months ago I was a prisoner, more like a skeleton rotting away at the bottom of the city.

I had long since given up on escape and only stayed alive so that the guards would not get the pleasure of knowing they had finally beaten every ounce of fighting spirit from me.

I took in a deep breath, enjoying the feeling of the open air and looked across at Alric’s tent.

Though we never saw his real face I was still captivated by him from the moment I met him. His body is barely of an adolescence, his height nowhere near as tall as my own, but yet, I happily called him my new leader.

He was not the strongest, and to tell the truth I felt like if we fought seriously he would not stand a chance against me, but every time I see him do the impossible I am in awe and realize this is only the tip of the iceberg for him.

He is young but his potential is limitless and he knows it. That is what contributes to his sureness in all his actions,

“Commander Merrik, come look here.”

I was pulled from my reverie as one of Freya’s undermen called to me to watch the gathering as cheers rang out.

I looked at the center of the gathering, it was adjutant Han again.

Han was wrestling with another underman. It had to be noted that Han was always known for being more of a bookworm rather than a fighter, but now to see him go toe to toe against German, the largest underman under Freya’s command left me baffled once again.

Just when I thought I saw it all, the boss shows me it's only the tip of the tip of the iceberg.