It took a bit of rough handling for Dietrich Edelweiss, the Leader of the Teutonian Knightly Junta, and his cousin-wife to be ‘convinced’ to leave the now not so safe confines of the opened safe-room. The basement had been secured, but there were still Knights on floors two through four, and some of them had begun to move down to the first floor and reoccupy the half that had been swept by Erwin Krueger’s strike team. It came as no surprise to Erwin that when he and his group tried to climb the stairs back to the first floor there were Knights ready to meet them.

The former Leader and his bride had been bound and gagged but were still thrashing about as they were lugged to the surface. One of the Crypt Guard Halberdiers had been forced to drop its shield and weapon and now held both of the captives like a sack of meaty potatoes, one over each shoulder. This did not sit well with either the Leader, the Knights or his bride, and they had all tried in their own ways to end this humiliation.

Still, the strike team was able to make it out of the building with barely a scratch, all while the vampire strike team was still stuck trying to take the second floor.

…

Krueger and his team rushed out of the front door with the former Leader of the Knightly Junta and his significant other in tow. A single Knight was all that was left of the first-floor garrison and he tried to charge after them.

“Damnable traitors and foul Untermensch! I, Franz Joseph Mackeson, the second greatest Ubermensch to ever live, will not let you steal away with the Leader! I will crush you all myself, for my superior race and blood make the act of killing me beyond your pitiful abilities! I shall-!”

At that moment, a single Crypt Guard Rifleman attempted to silence the Knight, but the shot fell low and instead of dealing a headshot it merely tore through his stomach and intestines. The Knight seemingly was unfazed by the damage until it suddenly dawned on him that the wound he had received was beyond his ability to endure. The Knight collapsed onto his back and tried to deny that the bullet wound he had received was fatal, and even if it wasn’t, he would never walk again due to the damage to his spine.

“Nein! I cannot die here! I am the true heir of the Founder of the Knightly Junta! I am immortal-!”

Another shot from the same Crypt Guard Rifleman silenced the idiot. Kain grinned as he released his control of the undead marksman.

“Ubermensch or Untermensch, everyone dies the same. In life and in death, all are equal. There is no superior version of humanity, and there is no inferior version either. Everyone lives, everyone dies, everyone decays, and everyone gives life anew to the world.”

…

The vampire brats had no idea that they had lost the contest, and still worked their way through the second floor, eventually splitting into two groups to try and secure the two halves of floor number three. Several hours later, they managed to complete their sweep of the building and had completely wiped out all remaining resistance. They still had yet to find the Leader of the Teutonian Knightly Junta but given that only the basement was left untaken they knew where they had to search.

Imagine their surprise when they saw that the basement had not only been cleared ahead of them, but also that there was a safe-room that had been emptied of its occupants.

The ‘young’ vampires quickly tried to rush to intercept the other team, but Krueger’s team had long since made it back to the impromptu headquarters that had been established in the middle of the former merchant quarter of Berlin. As they rushed out of the building, they tried to brainstorm ways to claim as much credit as they could, but they would be sorely mistaken if they assumed that would be possible.

The entire assault had been watched by those outside through a magical long-range video feed. The entire event had been timed and people had watched the effort made by both teams, so there was no way that the vampires would be able to spin the results of the contest in their favor. By the time the ‘young’ vampires arrived at the headquarters, the winners of the bet had already collected their winnings and had used some of their gains to throw a party for the victors.

The ‘younger’ vampires from the strike team tried to voice their objections, but the party was already in full swing. They, along with the rest of the vampires in Alexis’ armies ended up being pulled aside by the Crimson Empress to receive a lecture about how they needed to be humbler and act more like the mature, responsible and noble beings that they were. As the ‘Big Five’ (Kain, Alexis, Alistaira, Piotr and Erwin) had anticipated, the blow to their collective egos made them far more receptive to the lecture and Alexis could tell it had the desired impact, or at least a small amount of it.

…

Dietrich Edelweiss sat in his cell, wondering when his nation had gotten so weak. Somewhere along the line, his nation must have tainted its superior gene stock with that of the inferior races that had surrounded them. It was not his fault that they had fallen, no, it was the fault of others! The inferior beings that had refused to follow his orders to the letter, the populace that had betrayed the Founder’s ideal, the other members of the Confederacy and the Church that were too weak to do anything and wracked with indecision.

He was the only pure and competent person in the universe, and everyone and everything else had conspired against him and his vision. Worse still, the damnable Untermensch laughed at his fall from grace. They acted like he was the one responsible for all of this, which could not be farther from the truth.

He had been betrayed by everyone and everything; stabbed in the back by those who he had tasked with enforcing his vision. He would refuse to plead guilty to his interrogators and would never let them learn anything from him.

Little did he know that his ranting and raving while being interrogated effectively proved his guilt. He had unintentionally answered every question that was asked of him and had unintentionally revealed his involvement in numerous human rights violations and actions that were incredibly detrimental to his own nation. Every word that came from his mad ramblings and train-of-thought rants had been recorded and his sentences, while sometimes unintelligible or downright filled idiocy, let those who grilled him learn more about his mental state and the dark side of the Knightly junta that what was normally possible.

With his numerous unintentional confessions having been recorded, the stage was set for a show trial tailor made to help cement the legitimacy and morality of the new nation that would take its place. This would be very different from a similar trial that took place on Earth. There was no ‘only following orders’ excuse that could be used, and the verdict was going to be ‘guilty’ regardless of whether the defendant was guilty or not. Erwin Krueger had to prove that his new nation was better in as many ways as possible and that it was the only moral choice.

In the ruins of Berlin, a show that would be televised around the empire was about to start.