The race was on! The still unnerved armies of King Rodriguez’ countrymen and the hired mercenaries spread out to try and cover as much ground as possible. They were, more often than not, too late to save the settlements they sought to protect. By the time they arrived at their destinations the only ‘survivors’ they ever managed to find were the scant few bug-people that stayed behind. City after city, town after town, all were either under attack or had been razed to the ground. Well, perhaps not all of them.

The villages and towns that were not attacked, while few and far between, were known to have harbored anti-church sympathies. They still had remnants of the pagans and infidels that had once infested the land that would become the Siempre Dorado Kingdom, even after more than a thousand years. This certainly raised some eyebrows, but not nearly enough to result in those particular places being razed. There were too few survivors as it was and destroying more things by their own hands would have only furthered the kingdom’s decline.

Thus, for better or worse, they were ignored.

The situation continued to deteriorate. Three and a half weeks into the Holy War and reports from their allies in the Luminas Confederacy indicated that either no gains had been made by any of the members and that they themselves had been hit with a counter-invasion. Only the Siempre Dorado Kingdom was not feeling the wrath of the Abominable King and his slaves. Under normal circumstances, this would have meant that the Siempre Dorado Kingdom would have both sent forces to their allies to aid in their defense and would have invaded over the mountains into the Gallows Woods. Unfortunately, with the bug-people and that mysterious vampiress running around there was no way that King Rodriguez could spare anything to aid the war effort.

King Rodriguez and his advisors wracked their brains trying to figure out how the bug-people were moving so quickly. They seemed to be teleporting from place to place, striking on one side of the kingdom before vanishing and reappearing on the other side. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to their method of choosing targets either. It appeared to be a random selection, and that only made things more difficult for the defenders.

As the king and his men tried to find a way to deal with the issue, there came a rapping on the window. It was the dead of night and the full moon hung low overhead and created the perfect mood for a sense of unease. The king and his men drew their weapons and a servant edged over to the window and unlatched it. The large window creaked open and the mysterious vampiress floated in, her body seemingly covered in a halo of moonlight.

“So very disappointing.” she said with a mocking tone. “I had expected you to fail miserably in your duties to your people, but you exceeded my expectations by leaps and bounds. You are disappointing, but that view comes from the fact that you could not notice the pattern. Truly a shame. A child could have figured it out, and yet you did not. Are you sure you are legend material?”

One of the king’s advisors charged the vampiress but froze in place as the parasite used its evil Blood Magic to lock his limbs.

“I just came here to chat. And, perhaps, to inform you that the ‘bug-people’ you are fighting are in fact the mindless servants of an ancient and powerful member of the Midnight Aristocracy. Yes, that is right, you are facing Darksol’s forces even now. The Holy War did not pass you by and has instead come to your homes before you could bring it to your enemies. I also wanted to tell you the order in which the next few places would be attacked. I figured you would want to know ahead of time so you could prepare a defense of the crown jewel of your nation.”

Those last words sent shivers down the spines of all mortal men in the room.

“Why do you seek to inform us, monster?” asked the Archbishop of the Siempre Dorado Kingdom branch of the Luminas Church. “Do you hate what you are and seek to redeem yourself in the eyes of the merciful Goddess?”

The vampiress flashed a momentary smile and shrugged.

“Believe what you will; It doesn’t stop what I say from being true.”

The vampiress then took a map from its purse and tossed it to the nearest mortal human.

“Listed in that map is the order in which the next six cities will be attacked and the dates upon which the attacks will start. Do with this information what you will. Believe it, discard it, ignore it, I don’t really care at this point. But, if you would do one simple thing for me, please fortify this city as much as humanly possible. This place will be attacked last, so if you want to keep your beloved capital from being overrun by the forces of ‘evil’ I highly recommend that you ignore the plight of the other cities and pull everything, and I do mean everything back here for a last desperate showdown between the ‘Crimson Empress’ and the ‘Forever Golden’ Kingdom.”

At the moniker of ‘Crimson Empress’ all within the room gasped. The devil that was the origin of all vampires was coming! They now had no choice but to prepare like their lives depended on it! Thankfully, the capital of the kingdom was on the coast. In the event that they could not hold the city they could evacuate to the other nations in the Luminas Confederacy by ship.

“Thank you for you assistance.” The Archbishop said to the vampiress. “Perhaps there is some way that you can be restored to humanity. I will pray for your soul regardless. The Goddess will reward you when you finally pass on for your service to the true faith. For you to turn your back on the very monster that holds you in bondage is something rarely seen. Truly, a saintly soul dwells within you and desperately tries to regain your lost mortality. If you can turn on the devil himself, then perhaps others can as well. We will never forget your gift and sacrifice.”

The vampiress did not acknowledge the Archbishop and merely stepped into the night.

“Please do work hard. It would be a shame for you to fade to black without a fight.”

As the mysterious traitor vampiress vanished into the moonlit night, the window was closed, and everyone silently and secretly pumped their fists and cheered in their heads. For a vampire to turn on the very monster that held its kind in chains was a victory against all evil. This meant only one thing; the Goddess had not abandoned them yet; the Holy War was destined to succeed!

…

Alexis watched the fools from the darkness. Simpletons the lot of them; they did not even try and question who she was or what her motives were. They automatically rationalized everything and left it at that. Still, it did seem like they took her advice. If they did pull everything away from everywhere else to defend this doomed place it would be far more enjoyable for her.

Five cities were to be destroyed first as a prelude to the final battle. Well, not the final battle. She still had yet to send her kin against the crusaders themselves and having the mutated bastard creations borne from her altered blood raze cities and slaughter entire population centers did not fulfil her desires as she had hoped. It was a pain to control these things, and even using the Swarm Queen as a proxy did not make things much better.

She was beginning to remember why she had never fielded these things in the first Great War, only keeping them around as a deterrent and as a bulwark against the invaders. Despite what one may think, it was far easier to direct beings with the ability to have truly rational thoughts and a true ego rather than beings with a fake intellect that had only the desire to feed. Real vampires, not the terrible mockeries of vampires that she had been using so far, could be used in so many more ways that simply pointing them at a target and setting them loose.

It almost made her wish she had taken a different path; one paved with far less mindless slaughter and ruined settlements covered in the broken and shredded bodies of their former inhabitants.

Almost, but not quite.