The first assault came from the mages of Darksol and Neo Albion. Magical projectiles flew through the air and smashed into the stone and mortar that made up the citadel, sending shards of rock from the walls and glass from the windows flying. The last bastion of the Teutonian Knightly Junta was less a sensible defensive position and more a decorative work of art, its surface covered in now damaged white marble and its windows being made of now shattered expensive stained glass. Crypt Guard Riflemen proceeded to unload on the openings that had been made, focusing their fire on the broken windows, shattered doors and various holes punched into the edifice of the building.

After the sustained barrage from both Magi and Marksmen alike slowed down, a strike force made up of several different individuals entered the structure. The mostly human group was further reinforced by a small number of Crypt Guard Warriors and Halberdiers that were summoned separately from the normal full formation. They were accompanied by Erwin Krueger, who had insisted on being there to witness the fall of and capture of the Leader of the Knightly Junta, Dietrich Edelweiss.

Still annoyed by the fact that mortals were beating them to the punch, a small group of vampires was sent through another opening to cause havoc within the enemy’s ranks. A betting pool was soon established and the mortals and undead alike gambled on which strike force would make it to the fallen Leader first. The numbers of the vampire strike force were fewer, but they were superior in power and agility; the force led by Erwin Krueger was larger but was slower and was less powerful individually.

The rough odds were (according to the betting pool) 8/2 in the favor of the vampires, with most of the mortals having thrown their lot in with the undead. Only Krueger’s men had taken his side. Well, there were four others who had done so, but they could not be seen gambling in such a way. Alexis, Kain, Alistaira and Piotr had all secretly bet on Krueger emerging with the win. They had their reasons for betting against the vampires, almost all of them different, but one thing they all shared as a reason was simple.

They wanted the stuck-up brats that were the vampires that participated in the war to be brought down a peg.

Even Alexis was getting tired of having to discipline her kin and keep them from flaunting their power and authority. She was wagering heavily that Krueger would snatch the victory from her own kind and instill some humility in them. She also believed wholly that if her kin won, they would screw up and would end up accidentally turning Dietrich into a vampire, and that was something she would not tolerate.

Alistaira had also been on the receiving end of vampiric arrogance on more than one occasion. She had been made the Court Mage instead of a member of the undead like Alec Nefarius. While Alec had understood that this was done in order to prevent corruption and to avoid showing favoritism that did not stop other members of his House from accosting her and demanding she step down.

She had cast several spells to buff up Erwin Krueger’s strike team, all without them knowing it. Only a seasoned master of magic would have been able to tell there was even a spell or two applied to them at all, and the vampires around were too young to even notice the traces of magic. It only drove home how suited she was for her position that the 200+ year old ‘Masters of Magic’ from House Nefarius were unable to detect her tampering.

Piotr had only the desire to see people who actually cared about the innocent secure victory, and while Erwin Krueger was not exactly what he desired, he was certainly the lesser of two evils. He would, unlike the vampire brats, spare those that sought mercy and would often deprive himself of luxuries for the benefit of those who he tried to support. In a contest of likability between Krueger and the vampire brats, there was no contest. Krueger was fighting for Darksol; not for glory and fame, but for the people and to better his nation, and as such Piotr had bet heavily on him.

Kain had a mix of all three reasons to support Krueger, although unlike Alistaira he did so in a more personal way. He was controlling the Crypt Guard personally and had managed to stow away two revolvers on each of the four Warriors and four Halberdiers. With his level of control, he was more than able to make these elite skeletons curb stomp almost any foe they came across in a one-on-one engagement, not that they would be in such a situation inside the building.

Despite being the creator of all undead and the husband to their Empress, the younger vamps still tended to talk about him in unflattering ways behind his back and would ‘accidentally’ forget to follow his laws. He was sick and tired of their shit, and while he wanted to just exterminate the lot of them, he could not risk alienating the rest of the midnight aristocracy in the process.

This ‘competition’ was the chance to hopefully shatter the air of self-righteous superiority and hubris that had consumed much of the younger generation of vampires. They could not allow them to get more powerful without having their arrogance shattered and a lesson in humility drilled into them. The four power-players watched with anticipation as both groups pushed into the building, each receiving very different welcoming committees.

The vampires had not done themselves any favors when they had gathered for the attack. The ten of them that had come together had bickered amongst each other for quite a while before even attempting to enter the citadel, which gave the defenders time to prepare. The choice the Knights had was simple; do they focus the attention of their elites on the larger, ‘less elite’ force led by the traitor, do they focus their own elites on the elite vampires or do they try to split their number and hold off both? They chose option number two and had gathered everyone who knew even a smidgen of Light Magic and all of their best fighters to hold off and possibly even destroy the vampires while the rest were sent to deal with Krueger.

Given the fact that it took an hour for the vampires to even decided which order they were going to enter in, Krueger and his force had quite the head start. Everyone knew their place in his team, with only the Crypt Guard being the odd ones out. The undead preformed wonderfully as extra hands that could be ordered to hold back flanking attacks, and by the time the vampires had entered the building, Krueger and his strike team had already cleared a good chunk of the first floor.

The two groups were separated by a barricade that divided the structure in half, but both halves connected on the fourth, second and basement floors. Krueger already knew where the ‘safe-room’ that his former Leader would be hiding in was, and had his forces make a tactical sweep through the rest of their half of the first floor and descended into the basement.

Meanwhile, the vampire brats had been facing difficulties in dealing with the Knights and their stubborn resistance. The Knights were different from the rabble that they were used to facing, which was enough to put the vampires on the back foot. Combining this factor with the usage of small amounts of Light Magic and blessed weapons and armor and the vampires now had to work together to win, something they were wholly uninclined to do. Each pair of vamps fought on their own, and while they managed to kill a number of the Knights, they were repeatedly pushed back out of the building by the superior numbers and discipline of the Knights.

By their fifth attempt to gain ground they began to work together, but by then it was far too late for them to win the competition. Krueger had already cleared the basement and was preparing to open the safe-room. The game was practically over by now, and only the vampire brats and the gamblers (aside from the big four) were unaware of the impending result. Erwin Krueger placed his hand on a statue of a golden eagle which asked a riddle for him to answer.

“What is the duty of your racial purity?”

Having learned what the riddle’s answer meant to the founder of Teutonia from Kain, Erwin Krueger sighed and realized that his nation had been built on the foundations of a great evil. He would tear down this wickedness and erect a monument to true purity in its place. Teutonia would no longer be about the purity of blood and genes to being about the purity of will and personal drive. Race was a construct, a way to divide the world and a reason for hateful rhetoric to exist. His purity would be different, better, superior!

“Mein Kampf.”

The golden eagle’s eyes flashed red and the wall in front of him slid into the ground, exposing the opulence that was the safe-room. A pair of a man and a woman rose to their feet within the room and Erwin Krueger flashed a shit-eating grin at the man.

“Dietrich Edelweiss, I presume? Please, if you would come with me. Your prison cell and torturer await you, most pure and supreme of those whose veins hold the noble blood of the ‘Master Race’.”