Elendria and I didn’t have much to prepare, so we watched as the rest got ready. Bribis and Carrigan were going of course, as well as four guardsmen. They each had a tower shield, and opted for short swords. Smart, since the nest would be underground.

“Hey Carrigan, what magic schools do you have?” I asked as we got started, Bribis having given me the cold shoulder.

“Fire and air.” He replied.

“Excellent. The fire should work great against vampires if the lore from my world is the same as here, just be sure you don’t use up all the breathable air.”

“It’s not my first time hunting a nest underground Sean.” He said.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult. I just find it better if we plot out some of our strategy ahead of time. I’m going to prioritize using solar sphere.”

“That’s fine. You going to be using those solar blades as well?”

“I can try. If you can give me some tips on how to better use minor imbue element, I could try keeping everyone’s blades enchanted as well.”

“Don’t give him any hints.” Bribis ordered curtly.

“Enough!” I hissed, grabbing the shoulder of the gnome. “We’re about to go into battle, and there’s a good chance one of us will have the life of the other in their hands. Right now I don’t trust you, so tell me what’s the matter so we can get past this.”

“He’s right Bribis.” Carrigan said.

“You’re so casual with death.” He said after waiting for a minute. “You plotted out the most painful way to kill that thrall, and didn’t bat an eye. You even seemed gleeful! I can’t trust a psychopath like that! What happens if a nosferatu down there makes you an offer for our lives hmm? You gonna take them up on it?”

“Listen up and listen well.” I snarled, getting down into the gnome’s face. “You have no room to play the holier than thou card ya little shit. You sit back and watched while those guards did unspeakable things to their slaves, all because they paid you a little coin. Sitting idly by while that happened is bad enough, but you were worse. You sat in your own little campfire, quietly ignoring what you had to know was going on in the next campfire, didn’t you?”

“Piss off! Who do you think you are, lecturing us? Just some psychotic bastard that would leave his family to go on a killing spree in another world!”

I dug my fingernails into my hands so hard they bled. I don’t know what Bribis saw in my face, but he went pale and backed up a step. “Is that what you think? That I actually had a CHOICE?!” I kept my voice down, but it held all the venom I could muster. “Let me tell you about my last day at home. Listen well, and think long and hard about it before you even try and think you know what’s going on in my head. I had just put my little girl to bed, and was walking to check on my wife. I got a notification that I had been chosen to be a summoned hero. Before I could process this blue box that our world didn’t have, I was hovering over my own body as it was hijacked by a soul clone. A soul clone that had the fucking audacity to turn and wave goodbye to me as I was torn from my family! You think I left my family willingly just to go slaughter on your world? No. Your shitty world ripped me from my family and replaced me with a fake, and they couldn’t even do that right! I was thrown into a forest with only the clothes on my back. No way to speak the language, no weapon to defend myself, not even a way to know how to do anything! And what happens? The first people I run into punch me in the face and slap a slave collar on me when they realize I can’t speak the language. If you ask me, Ariana should have chosen someone else, because I will stop at nothing until I am back with my family. If I have to battle the gods of this world, so be it.”

“That can’t be right!” Bribis swore, shaking his head. “There’s no way the gods would do something like that!”

“Really? You sure about that? You got a direct line of communication to them?” He shook his head, and I stood back up. “So. Now that we have that out of the way, are you going to stop acting like a spoiled brat and work with me? Or do Elendria and I leave you five to go and take on this nest by yourselves?”

“Tell him.” Bribis grunted, turning and making a shooing motion to the guards in front.

“He’ll come around.” Carrigan said. “I’m sorry about your family.”

“Not your fault, and I don’t care if he comes around or not. I just want to make it through this without getting killed.”

“Right. Anyway, what did you try when you imbued the sword, shoving the mana right into the blade itself?” I nodded, and he continued. “That’s what everyone does at first. That would work fine for some of the higher metals, but steel just doesn’t hold mana that well. That’s why most swords have an inexpensive gem placed in the hilt. Gems hold the mana a lot longer, and the wielder can control its release a little better.”

“Here, try with my blade.” One of the lead guards said, handing me his sword hilt first. I grabbed the hilt, and placed a finger on the small stone that was just behind the crossguard. It was a lot easier to channel the mana into it, and it took on a pale yellow glow. I stopped at 20 mana, guessing that it wouldn’t hold a lot.

“Perfect.” Carrigan said, and I got a notification that my minor elemental imbue had jumped up to 4 of 5.

“Where do they get those stones?” I asked.

“Practice for earth mages. They can conjure gemstones, though they are of a lesser quality than naturally formed gemstones. The system identify will also tell you the difference, so you don’t have to worry about getting swindled. How much mana did you put in?”

“Twenty.”

“That’s good for now. Most of them can hold 30 to 50, but until you get better at determining their limits you should undershoot rather than overshoot. Overcharge them, and they shatter.” By this time, I had enchanted the rest of the blades, and we were at the clearing with the cabin.

“What do you think we should do with the cabin?” Carrigan asked Bribis.

“Leave it for now. Anything we do to destroy it will tip off the nest, though I don’t like leaving enemies behind us.”

“Elendria, can you encase that entire building in ice from here?” I asked.

“Easily master. Is that what you wish?”

“Yes, start with the door so they can’t escape. Completely seal it up, maybe they’ll all suffocate by the time we get back.”

“As you wish.” We start to circle the building, but Bribis grabs my sleeve.

“You can’t just go and do what you please!” He hisses.

“You were going to leave them alone. This way they are at least sealed up, and they might die. Why are you slowing us down? Is it just because it’s the bloodthirsty otherwolder’s plan?”

“Nevermind. Just do it.” He grumped, heading off. Once we got to the other side of the clearing, Elendria went to work. Pointing a finger at the cabin, a stream of mana shot forward, leaving sparkles of ice in its wake. Where it struck, ice immediately started spreading over everything. She did it smart, first sealing the door. She then worked her way around the base of the windowless cabin, letting the ice grow thicker as it gained height. It took her only a few minutes to have everything sealed up, and we continued on in silence.

We took the third left, and followed the worn trail. It seems they weren’t that concerned about security this close to the nest, something that didn’t sit right with me. “Doesn’t this seem off with someone else?” I asked. “These trails are too easy to follow. Watch for traps and guards.”

The guards ahead of us grunted, and kept going, though they did slow down a bit. The gully was reached within a few minutes, and we walked down crudely cut stairs until our heads were about a foot below the ridge. The gully was only two people wide, but that suited our small group. We went with two guards in front, followed closely by Bribis. Elendria and Carrigan were next, followed by me and the final two guards brought up the rear. The farther we walked with no sign of traps, the more nervous I got.

After a serpentine walk through the gully that was entirely uneventful, I was getting more and more nervous. What kind of people are these? Staring at the opening, it really looked like it was just an underground cave. “Anyone else nervous that we haven’t hit a single trap or guard?”

“They’re probably out hunting. We’ll be fine.” Bribis said.

“Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure about that.” A voice came from above, and before we could move there was a wide variety of crossbows pointing at us. “Oh, do be dears and avoid going for a weapon.” The speaker reminded me of a butler, crisply pronouncing each word and wearing immaculate clothing. He stepped off the ledge and slowly glided down. “Roofus, do come and escort our guests.” He called out, and a massive thrall stepped out of the cave. He carried a massive double headed axe in one hand as if it were a toy, and immediately started eyeing Elendria as if she were his next meal.

“I’m sure you are all confused, so I’ll explain on the way.” The butler said, leading the way without a care in the world. Several of the crossbow wielders jumped down behind us, while Roofus made us slide by him. Adding to his creep factor, and ensuring that I would personally ensure his death, he leaned in and took a long sniff of Elendria’s hair. She cowered in abject terror at his chuckle, hyperventilating as she rocked back and forth. Not expecting this reaction, Roofus stood there looking like an idiot.

“Back off you moron!” I snarled, shoving him in the chest ineffectively. He seemed to get the hint, and took a step back. “Elendrai. Shhhh, it’s ok Elendria. He’s not going to touch you, you’re safe. Listen to my voice, you’re going to be fine.” All through my attempts to calm her, I was gently rubbing her back. It took a few minutes, but she eventually got enough control to turn her head.

“Sean?”

“I’m right here. Nothing to be afraid of.” I said with a smile, shifting so that I took up as much of her vision as possible. “Are you ok? We need to get moving.” I said with a sad smile, and she nodded.

“I. I think I’ll be ok.” She stood up, and immediately cringed when she saw Roofus again, darting past him as fast as she could. I followed, ignoring the hulk next to me.

“Interesting.” The butler commented, before turning and leading us deeper into the cave. With a wave of his hand, light scones in the wall activated. The back of the cave was natural for about ten feet, before it was lined with masonry.

“Just how long have they been here, to upgrade the cave this much?” Bribis asked in horror.

“Oh, nearly a decade now.” The butler replied. “The Shadow Lord’s guide us, and their advice has never led us astray. With their help, we have overcome our urges, taking only a few caravans in the early and late runs. Those that are most likely to be attributed to bandits. They are cultivated all year, ensuring the survival of the nest. Eventually we will reach the point where the nest’s food supply will be entirely contained within our walls, and we can simply focus on growing our strength.”

I shuddered at the implications, seeing that Bribis and Carrigan did as well. Good. They realized exactly what the butler was saying. They were capturing caravans and keeping them alive down here, draining them on occasion. Those poor bastards.

“So why did you attack us?” Carrigan asked.

“The Shadow Lords were very interested in your caravan for some reason. Lord Xavier will answer more questions if he deigns you worthy of the information.” He led us deeper into the complex, keeping to the main corridor. While it sloped downward and to the left, there were occasional branches that shot out to the right. The inner wall of the corridor was unchanged, though at some point it gained decorations. Odd reliefs, that looked normal from one direction, but something was just off about it. Something disturbing. Hard to put my finger on it, but it gradually got more obvious with the larger figures. The figures themselves seemed rather, normal. It was their shadows that were grotesque. Extra limbs. Eyes in odd places. Serrated teeth of predators.

We continued on, until the statues were nearly the size of a normal human. Even then, we could see the shadows slightly changing the faces. Bumps of bones where the shadows had horns. Elongated teeth. Fingernails that came closer to being claws. Then we were in a massive audience chamber. There were six tiers of seats, all filled with vampires. They were less refined than the queen that had attacked us. Sitting on a throne of white bone was a nosferatu. Next to him was a smaller, empty throne of black stone.

“Aaah, yes. These are the ones we need. I smell the stench of that bitch Ariana from here.” The one on the throne said. “Hmmm. Not only Ariana though. It seems Shaldora and Bruin have finally decided to act. Pity it will be too little, and far too late.” I had no idea who Shaldora and Bruin were, but it was easy enough to realize we were fucked. He stood and slowly sauntered down the steps, looking over our group.

“Interesting. An enslaved frost elf, four human guards, two human wizards, and a gnome. What could possibly bring together such a wide group of people? And more importantly, which of you are the one my masters seek?” He stopped ten feet away from us, as if he were playing a game. He started prattling on, wondering who it was, while I had much more difficult things to do.

Namely, fixing my spell. The current solar sphere wouldn’t do squat to this group, as it was far too weak. While the orb was large, it gave off a mostly reddish light. At a cost of 50 mana, that was too much for too little return. Besides, if the movie trilogy with Wesley Snipes was to be believed, ultraviolet light was the best way to fry vampires. Red light was far too weak, which was probably why they were only slowed a bit. So. How do you increase the energy of light? Decrease wavelength was the obvious answer, but how?

Maybe I was going about this all wrong. The sphere was large and reddish. Could it be that the spell defaulted to mimicking a red giant star? But if I simply condensed it down, it wouldn’t jump up to where I wanted it. I would probably end up with a yellow star. That would improve it, but not what we needed to escape alive. During my musings, the bastard started circling us like we were pieces of meat.

“Hmmm, it can’t be this one.” He said, stopping in front of me. “No, he looks far too angry. What’s wrong little human? Mad at your supposed friends for getting you into such hot water? HAHAHAHA!” More disturbing than the nosferatu was how every soldier around us started laughing just a split second after he did.

Wait, what did he say? Hot water! HEAT! That’s what my sun was missing! That’s what can kickstart my red sun into a blue giant! What is heat but molecular motion? Not fire, I wasn’t looking to create an actual sun, so no actual fusion. That could rapidly go out of control and go boom. My mind immediately filled with all the molecular motions that I had shoved into the dark corner of my brain that was the repository of physical chemistry. Symmetric and asymmetric bond stretches, scissoring, twisting, and overall molecular vibrations. It all got fed into the information system of my spell, and I felt a grin creeping on my face.

“Oh? What is so funny about your predicament?”

“I was just wondering, were you the one married to that little creature I killed?”

“You killed my consort? Impossible.”

“Consort? Oh, I get it. You were just gonna hit it and quit it. Well, you’re welcome.” I said with a taunting smile.

“I don’t recall thanking you for anything, food.” He snarled, starting to lose his composure.

“Oh, you will. See, you were inadvertently breaking rule number one bro. Never stick your dick in crazy. And trust me, that bitch was crazy. Trying to ride me while choking me. I’m sure it can give you that little extra ‘umph’ your sex life probably needs, but come on. You’re already pushing the envelope by doing someone that looks like a child, do you really need to add in choke play?” With a roar, he started charging towards me. Just like I hoped. Between us, I created my improved solar sphere, and it was glorious. A bright bluish white, instead of a gentle smoking it elicited howls of agony from all the creatures around us. I sent it above our heads, revealing the charred ruin that was the nosferatu’s face.

“For the light!” Bribis cried, and everyone drew their swords, letting the light blaze forth. Carrigan sent gouts of flame forth into the crowd, the blue flames hot enough to make the flesh seem to melt. While I had never put to the test that scorched human flesh smelled like pork, I can definitively say that scorched vampire flesh smells like burning garbage. Elendria on the other side was sending shards of razor sharp ice through the crowds, flaying them. Pieces that didn’t have enough energy to escape what they hit instead started freezing the surroundings. The guards were simply keeping the hordes at bay as best as they could, using the light of their swords without actually cutting to try and save mana.

We just weren’t whittling them down fast enough. So, I created three more solar spheres around us, dropping down the original to create a square of blue orbs just above our heads. Spinning them around us, I lowered them and let the suns blaze through the crowds of soldiers. It was gloriously disturbing. Agonized wails accompanied severed limbs, though thankfully the heat of the orbs prevented any blood from flowing. When in battle, finding a way to cauterize the wound as you inflict it was going to be a priority for me. Less blood to slip on, though the enemy won’t bleed out. I was willing to make that trade.

What seemed like a half hour, ended up being less than five minutes before the vampires were slain. “That didn’t look like your first sphere.” A panting Carrigan said, slapping me on the back.

“I might have had an epiphany while talking with that bastard.” I chuckled. “Before we get too distracted, shall we make sure everyone here gets the coup de grace?”

“What is coo de gra?” Bribis struggled with the French phrase, and I cursed the fact that idioms don’t translate well.

“A saying from my world. Usually a flourishing attack to kill a defeated opponent and wow the crowds back in the days when we had gladiators.” I explained. “Just walk around and stab everything in the head. Make sure it’s dead.”

“Then just say we need to make sure everything is dead.” Bribis said, stepping up and stabbing down into the nearest body. The rest of the guards followed suit, while Elendria helped prop me up.

“You overdid it again, didn’t you?” She accused.

“Nope. Still got enough I could probably cast another sphere if we need it. That’d be pushing too close to overdoing it.” I coughed a bit at the smell, and started searching the body of the main guy. “Hey Carrigan, do you want to search that butler fellow? I think either he or this guy would have something important on them.”

“Good idea.” He agreed, heading back to search the body. We were all studiously ignoring the retching sounds of the guards, as they had the worst task of all. Not that searching the body of the newest attempt at a realistic Darkman cosplay was fun. Unfortunately, he didn’t have anything. No notes, no jewelry, no weapons, nothing. “Why can’t the bad guys have a note explaining everything godddamnit.” I grumbled, getting a chuckle from Elendria.

“I refuse to search these bodies for anything.” Bribis said twenty minutes later.

“I wouldn’t ask that of you.” I said, nodding to the gnome. “We’ll have to search the entire compound, but I wonder if they have any sleeping chambers? They might have some information in there.”

“Nosferatu don’t sleep.” Carrigan said. “They get lethargic during the day, and their reactions slow to just slightly faster than a human’s, but that’s it. If they had anything important, its either here or in their thrones.”

“I’ll be searchin’ the thrones.” Bribis immediately said, staring at me. “I’ve got a few trap detection skills, as well as a better appraisal. Even if I can’t identify something, I can tell whether or not its important.”

“You’ll get no argument from me.” I said, sitting down and relaxing in one of the upper levels that had escaped the slaughter. “I’ll just be recharging some of my mana.” Elendria slid behind me, and started massaging my temples and shoulders. For once I did the smart thing and just surrendered to her touch, as it felt absolutely amazing. Battle notifications could wait until after Bribis finished his search.