Chapter 1: Prologue

“If a goddess is merciful, how can one mercilessly create sentient beings for the sake of dying? I believe that there is no true god or goddess in this world. What mother or father casts away their children?” — Om Stozitsk, a human philosopher (committed suicide in Year XX24).

 

Blood is washed through the greenery belting the enormous kingdom lurching at the summit of the largest hill in Aurihane—one of several islands founded as a safe haven for wandering vampires. The kingdom once held humans and vampires alike, presumably masking its purpose of protecting the hunted beasts of the world.

 

If only these presumptions held firm.

 

“Carry the children through the underside!” The hazy voice of a young man roars into the ambiance of chaos overtaking the large city. In this medieval age, there are not many ways of communicating in the midst of this disturbance other than making oneself louder than the disarray itself.

 

Mothers carry their children in hand, leaving dust behind their brisk movements. Glinted-tipped arrows crash into the ground around them during their desperate retreat, creating explosions akin to modern grenades. Even with children in their hands, the women could move around the shrapnel produced by these explosions as if they were taking a casual stroll. The true danger comes into play when they are hit by the material that the arrows are made of. Just one scratch is enough to paralyze one of these vampires.

 

They have little time to ruminate about the consequences of being hit, using the example of the many mothers lying on the ground as a warning. Their children have unnaturally melted, their flesh joining together to create a mixture of two people in one. Mothers have become one with their children even in death, but this is not as poetic and beautiful as an outsider would make it seem.

 

“Slaughter their children, do not grace them with the opportunity to grow! The creatures of the night continue to threaten our existence!” On the opposite side of the screaming, there are wicked cheers from the attackers. Men adorned in coruscating armor parade up the roads of the kingdom, using their bladed weaponry to cut through any person that crosses their path. Whether it be a human or a vampire, there was no care in their mind. 

 

“Mercy! Please, me— Argh!” Any cries for help were cut off by their ‘righteous’ blades that only ‘penetrated evil’. “We, the Knights of Empress Nollet, will purify your tainted souls! Brothers and sisters, kneel and await your execution!” Living with a vampire in this age is considered a sin, but to be a citizen of a kingdom ruled by one is unforgivable. To pay for a crime that they were clueless they were even committing, all of the humans living in the kingdom will face their demise. The vampires will be captured or killed, the latter happening to the majority.

 

In the castle that the soldiers march toward, there is a man sitting on the throne. Prince Arturo Sangria’s crimson red bangs are practically blocking his vision, with his hair flowing down all the way to his back. His eyes, matching the color of his hair, can gaze through all of the carnage happening on his island. Even outside of the borders of the kingdom, traveling merchants have been slain. The villages on the outskirts that their people can flee to have already been burned to ashes and the ships that they can use to escape have been blocked off and are being met with cannon fire.

 

“King Drach, how can your ideology keep you from erasing this scum? The creation of the goddess? We are no different!” Prince Arturo is alone in the castle. He has sent everyone else away, giving them the chance to retreat or fight. He is only speaking to himself, complaining about the foolish ideologies of their king. These ideologies of his are something that Arturo can no longer coincide with.

 

A blood-red sword stands firm in front of his throne, stabbed into the ground. There is no better sheath than the foundation of the castle which he created.

 

“To hell with peace.” Arturo firmly takes hold of his sword’s handle. Even with a lanceolate blade, he can use it to cleave through the army invading his land. “As the youngest member of my family, I may be clueless about the founding of his Drach’s peace, but I know now that peace is not what we need.” 

 

The sword is pulled from the ground with such ferocity that it left the entire castle trembling. “I will purge this land of its invaders.”

 

Following a sound that can easily be mistaken for an explosion, the doors of the castle are sent flying from their hinges. It flies through the air, down one of the downhill slopes of the kingdom. At the bottom of the slope, alarmed soldiers are fleeing to move out of the way of the massive doors, which are the size of a house. The invading soldiers did not have enough time to flee, clueless about the infuriated vampire riding the door down to the bottom of the hill.

 

Crunching bones and then silenced screams create an ambiance for the battlefield. Dozens of soldiers are flattened beneath the door, their armor providing no protection from the weight. Arturo’s red hair lifts with the wind created by the door’s collision with the soldiers and the ground. “My people!” Arturo rises to his feet, his voice becoming heard throughout the vast continent. With his voice alone, the air around them starts to shake. In their time of need, he speaks loud and proudly for his people, ensuring that they all hear his message.

 

“You may all return home! I will remove the invaders, now and in the future!” The vampires, who were peaceful creatures that didn’t dare to fight humans even when they were hunted, are now being told that their prince will fight. It is something that rarely happens. For a vampire to fight, despite the preaches of King Drach, would be a sign of rebellion. Prince Arturo is entirely conscious of this fact.

 

The soldiers raise their shields, rushing into a formation at the sight of one of the ‘noble’. “He’s here! It’s the vampire noble, Arturo!” They seem to know who they’re attacking, it only makes sense since they’re the ones attacking his kingdom.

 

Arturo holds no concern for who they are, though. As far as he is concerned, there is no human who is a threat to him.

 

“This weapon I hold,” he directs his eyes to the red sword, “it is called ‘Heartstriker’.” There is no need for introductions concerning Arturo. For centuries, humans have known about him, but they have never witnessed the weapon that he stole from one of their own. 

 

Saying nothing else, Arturo swings Heartstriker in the direction of the crowd of soldiers. They hold the heads and bodies of fallen citizens over their weapons. They carry them around like trophies and tokens, flaunting their slaughter. A red crescent is ejected from the weapon, moving through the crowd in a flash before disappearing.

 

The soldiers turn in the direction of the slash, confused about what happened. They’d all seen a red flash, but they were not sure what it was. “Phahaha!” One of the soldiers burst into a fit of laughter. “He believes that he can scare us with gimmicks! How pathetic!” Nervously, some of the other soldiers begin to laugh with him, finding this to be just as amusing.

 

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—!” Their laughter suddenly comes to an end.

 

There is an unusual silence across the kingdom. Not even one of the soldiers who shared the street with Arturo is speaking or laughing. Eventually, though, the sound of squelching innards is heard like applause from an audience. The gross sound is deafening, but the visualization of the scene is more disturbing than that.

 

Their bodies start to split apart, revealing their innards to the world like a cut can. Intestines and lungs collapse to the ground, leaving pools of blood to connect and become streams. These streams further grew into a red sea, perfectly covering the street in a new texture. “Now…” Arturo jumps down from on top of the door, his red eyes burning through the night sky. 

 

“Where are the rest of the invaders? I’ll kill all of them.” The total number of men that Arturo killed with one slash was 142. There are still many more attacking and hunting for his people. They will all be returning upon hearing his words. “I will make sure that my people can return home without fearing death ever again!”

 

…Less than 10 minutes went by before the final group of humans was found. They were camping on the outskirts of the kingdom, likely issuing orders to each group through magic. “Kukuku~! Prince Arturo, how nice of you to join us!” At the front of the remaining group, there is an old man with a wooden scepter in his hand. He wears a glamorous white robe with a hood over his head that did not help hide his long gray beard that went past his neck.

 

The man is obviously a mage, one who has prayed rigorously in the human chapels to receive a blessing from a god. 

 

There is a young gentleman who seems more dangerous behind the mage. He looks to be one of the knights, his armor and outerwear not showing any differentiations, but a vampire of Arturo’s caliber can detect the difference in their scent. Whereas all of the men present are creatures identified as humans, the man in armor behind the mage did not appear to be human at all to Arturo. Arturo only sees him as a monster in human flesh.

 

‘His scent is akin to the many beasts I slew in this land.’

 

Arturo tightens the grip around Heartstriker’s handle, his eyes scanning the group. There are 100 soldiers here, but only the two at the front are powerful. The rest are foot soldiers, probably sacrifices meant to disorient his senses with the overwhelming scent of blood. This kind of plan couldn’t work against Arturo, whose control over his senses is incomparable to his fellow vampires.

 

Before Arturo can begin any action, the mage starts to brag about something nonsensical. “You’ve stepped into your own grave, Sangria! I’d known that you vampires were arrogant, especially the kind such as yourself who branched away from King Drach’s watchful eye!” The mage sneers, swaying his scepter in a circle. Arturo can see the outlines of an arcane insignia, forged with the mage’s mana. 

 

“I knew that the blood of your people would draw you out! The only reason I let your kingdom remain for so long is that I wished for your population to build up! Now, our ritual is almost complete!” The word ‘ritual’ set off a number of alarms in Arturo’s heart. 

 

Contrary to popular opinion, vampires have hearts that still beat. In comparison to humans, their heartbeat is either too slow or fast, letting them be discovered quickly in human society. But, it is a common troupe among older vampires to have such great control over their anatomy that their hearts can beat at a normal rate. 

 

For a split second, Arturo’s heartbeat became faster than normal. “A ritual?! Have you lost your mind?! Your gods bless you based upon your prayers, and you’d do something like this, declared as taboo?!” In a world where your wishes can be granted just by praying and showing faith in one of the many gods above, the art of rituals is practically unknown. What is taught to humans at a young age, however, is that rituals are an act of desperation that defy the will of the gods.

 

“Our gods are merciful to us, they would not care for our misdoings so long as we pray and give them our offerings!” Arturo could not doubt the words of this mage. 

 

Arturo was not born yet when rituals were used in the past, in the earliest days; when humans searched for new ways to increase their powers without the direct intervention of their gracious gods. What he learned from one of the vampires who were present at that time is that when completing a ritual, ungodly gifts fell from the sky.

 

Arturo did not fully understand the meaning behind the words that the elder gave him, but now he does. After only mentioning a ritual, a pressure that he hasn’t experienced in many years has fallen upon him. The fear of the unknown; he cannot fully gauge the extent of how impactful a successful ritual can become.

 

Before Arturo can properly swing his sword, the blade of the ominous knight who was once behind the mage has clashed with Heartstriker, a feat that should be impossible for a normal human. There is a dark aura around the weapon of the knight, matching the red aura that engulfed Heartstriker. 

 

The two break off as the mage’s scepter taps the ground, resulting in green symbols spreading around them. From where the mage stood all the way up to the castles, these emblems stretched far and wide until they eventually stopped. The blood that has been spilled is absorbed into the symbols that look more like cracks in the ground. Arturo’s eyes grow wide as he observes the phenomenon, left speechless as something that should’ve been impossible was turned into reality. 

 

All of the blood that was flooding the island was now being drained into the body of the knight.

 

Rivers of blood wash between the crevices of his armor, into the body beneath. Only then did Arturo understand what he was watching; something beyond the realm of human capability. Arturo was under the impression that the mage was going to perform a ritual on himself, but he instead performed the ritual on that thing in front of him.

 

“Equill, show me your power! Kill Arturo Sangria!” The mage points his scepter forward, ordering the knight to charge Arturo. Without hesitation, it complies and dashes back in to cut through Arturo’s body. 

 

Their blades clash for a second time, but this time there is enough power behind their attacks to unleash a shockwave through the trees around them, knocking them into the air. “This was your plan…?” There is a pause on Arturo’s face as he is thrown back, appearing to lose the clash between the two. 

 

Crashing into a nearby boulder, Arturo lifts his weapon up to block the impending barrage of strikes thrown by the knight. Each attack is greater than any of the vampires in the kingdom—any attack that Arturo has felt through magic. “You slaughtered my people, and even their children…” 

 

Arturo’s blood flies into the air as the knight finally succeeds in landing the first hit between the two. His weapon slashes up Arturo’s chest, creating a deep gash that began pouring out more blood than it should’ve. His blood too was absorbed into the knight’s body. The green markings on the ground have yet to disappear, continuing the ritual. The mage is relentless, Arturo figures that he’ll need to kill that man first when he gets the chance, but the opportunity won’t reveal itself easily. 

 

Every time the knight swings his weapon, there is a powerful boom. Each swing was faster than sound, quickly becoming a blur to any onlookers. After each swing, more of Arturo’s blood is drawn as he is pinned to the irregularly strong boulder. Even if the knight struck Arturo with his full force, the boulder didn’t move an inch. 

 

“Hundreds of my people were killed because of my inaction, for the sake of your worthless experiment?” Right when the knight is about to send a blow at Arturo’s neck, a hand reaches out and catches him by the head. 

 

The red eyes that once melted through the darkness of the knight could now even pierce through light, shimmering with wrath.

 

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“I-Impossible!” The mage shudders when he sees the condition of Arturo’s body. With the exception of the first slash which has now become a scar, there is no clear sign of any damage being done to his body. “There is no vampire who can survive that much damage done by a cursed weapon! It just is not possible!”

 

The knight is doing everything in his power to break free from Arturo’s grip. He swings his weapon at him, attempting to use his unfathomable power to cut his arm off, but the weapon barely manages to cut his skin. “It’s unfortunate for you, old man.” Arturo drives the knight into the ground, ramming his head into the dirt. His helmet caves in some, drawing blood from beneath it as his own defenses have ruptured through the skin they were forged to protect.

 

“I am not like most other vampires. As you know, we are creatures who rapidly evolve in many different ways…” 

 

Arturo lifts the knight from the ground, watching as the knight swings his sword at him again. Even after such a brutal slam, it’s proving to have incredible endurance. Even Arturo could admit it—not that he will.

 

To the dismay of the knight and mage, the sword never manages to get close to its target. With a flick of his wrist, Arturo removes the knight’s arm from his body. His blood spills down, returning to his own body thanks to the ritual. It seems that this monster won’t die from blood loss. This will not be in his favor for much longer, however. 

 

“My evolutionary rate works at triple the speed of the average vampire’s. I grow stronger with every passing year, and I grow stronger even with lesser quantities of blood. I am the worst person you could’ve put yourself against.” 

 

One might say that Arturo’s words are fueled by arrogance, but anyone who says this is wrong.

 

Even the mage can detect the change in his power. Arturo purposely let himself get hit by the cursed weapon the first time. The reason that he has a scar on his body is not that he didn’t want to heal it—Arturo could not regenerate the first time. In order to evolve to counter the curse, he must first experience and survive it. If his evolution rate weren’t so fast, he’d have been left with a permanent injury, unable to heal it. In a worst-case scenario, he’d have died from one swing.

 

The rate of his evolution that he gave is an understatement. The reason he ascended to the rank he did at such a young age is that his evolutionary rate was so high that it was comparable to rapid adaptation. Only from being hit once, his body evolved and adapted to the attack to let himself regenerate from the wounds that’d usually leave a permanent injury. Such a thing could cause a person to bleed to death over time, with an injury that cannot be healed through any means. 

 

He adapted and overcame this curse so that he could regenerate against all of the impossible odds.

 

Arturo lifts his weapon over his head, holding it with a blinding rage. Without any hesitation, the weapon is swung down and a blinding light overtakes the area, an explosion following soon after.

 

While it is unclear what happened to Arturo and the knight, the mage and the hundreds of soldiers who accompanied him were all burnt apart by the light. There was nothing left but ashes where they once stood.

 

. . . (This event would become recorded in human and vampire history alike. It was the turning point of the world which brought forth unspeakable consequences for vampires around the world.)

 

- Though, this would not be until thousands of years have already passed.

 

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“Do you believe that Prince Arturo’s cruel acts against peaceful diplomats are venial?!” The keen voice of a professor bellows through the room filled with young college students. They are all sitting around, some secretly scrolling through their phones and devices while pretending to be ‘researching’ the topic at hand.

 

“Arturo Sangria was the only vampire who attempted to live in unity with mankind, and when human ambassadors came to share hands, he cruelly drained the blood from them and his own citizens! Furthermore, he used their corpses to perform a ritual, resulting in the disappearance of Aurihane!” The tale should very well be an exaggeration, but in the eyes of many human students, it is not.

 

This is the tale of what happened that day—falsified to the greatest degree.

 

In the back of the room, one young woman with long pink hair doesn’t appear to take the lesson seriously at all. Her head is planted right onto her desk, spreading her hair around messily. It even reaches the papers of some of the students sitting beside her!

 

Quiet laughs chime around the class before one of the girls in the class taps her on the shoulder. “Psst, Ina, you should get up…” The girl beside the sleeping student whispers into her ear, shaking her shoulder to get her up. 

 

The professor hasn’t noticed that she’s sleeping yet, or it could be more likely that he doesn’t care enough to say anything about it. 

 

The pink-haired girl, Ina, lifts her head to reveal a string of drool linking her to her desk. The student who woke her, a young brunette beauty, giggles at her friend’s condition. “Once this lesson is over, you should get yourself fixed up in the bathroom.” Ina can barely keep her eyes open but musters up the strength to sit straight up, only to stretch her back and yawn.

 

Half-asleep, Ina turns to the side to look at her classmate. “Good morning, Tei… How’d you get into my house?” Ina stares at the girl beside her with a shocked look. “You’re not at home!” Tei barely keeps herself together, quickly covering her mouth when she realizes that she’s drawn the attention of the surrounding students. “We’re learning about the tyrant, Arturo Sangria. You should pay attention since they’ll quiz us on this later. I’m not doing any of your work for you again.”

 

Ina’s purple eyes sparkle when she hears Tei’s words. “Arturo Sangria?! The one who’d dreamed of marrying 100 women?!” Though it was only loud enough for Tei to hear, Ina showed a great interest in the topic, but… “Eh? I don’t think we learned about any of that, Ina. You’re always making up really weird stories.” Tei is Ina’s closest friend, and probably her only real one. When Tei found out that Ina’s hair was dyed, she didn’t particularly care, unlike others who look at her oddly.

 

In this age, it is not unnatural for people to have unnatural hair colors and styles, but to dye your hair such a unique color is truly vexing in the eyes of this generation’s youth. Tei did not find Ina’s appearance to be strange at all. She was an oddly supportive person who has been by Ina’s side since she enrolled.

 

Ina chuckles, “Sorry, Tei. I can’t help you wash your car today, I’ve got business to attend to at home.” A vein pops out of Tei’s head. She’s careful not to shout out this time, but Ina is always like this whenever she wakes up from her naps. Tei smacks Ina on the back of her head to wake her up fully.

 

Considering how she finally wipes the drool from her mouth, Ina is fully awake now. “Phew, that was a good nap.” Stretching a second time, Ina takes a look at the front of the class where the professor is continuing to give his lesson. She has long since stopped caring for what he has to say—humans have no right to teach the history of vampires.

 

“I don’t get how you can be so carefree, Ina. You know there’s been a lot of vampire activity in the Orion District? That’s near where you live! You shouldn’t go home by yourself like you usually do!” Ina turns her head away from Tei, hiding her nervous smile. Ina didn’t like talking about the things she did outside of school since it was hard for her to make up excuses. She usually just says that she has family issues, which Tei stopped believing a few weeks ago.

 

Tei frowns, already familiar with this routine. “I know you don’t want me to get involved with your life outside of school too much, but I’m worried about you, Ina.” 

 

Ina slaps Tei on the back, giving her a toothful smile that she’s become familiar with after some time. “Lighten up, Tei. There are a lot of enforcers around my place, you’ve got to worry about work, don’t you?” In a magnificent stroke of luck, the teacher’s lecture comes to an end right after Ina’s words. Tei’s concerned face turns into an annoyed one when she sees the cheeky smile on Ina’s face. This isn’t the first time she’s done this, perfectly guessing the time that the lesson will end. Although she sleeps through most of their lectures, Ina’s sense of time is faultless.

 

Rising to her feet, Ina pulls Tei up right along with her. “Come on, let’s get a snack from the vending machine before I head home. I don’t want you to feel bad.” It isn’t Tei’s fault that Ina has to keep running off after her lessons. Ina is just a peculiar woman with unfortunate circumstances.

 

Tei doesn’t let Ina pull her off just yet. “Nuh-uh, we’ve got to clean your face off.” The spit on Ina’s face was beginning to dry. Tei couldn’t bear to be seen in public with her friend in this state.

 

. . . Once they were done in the bathroom, Ina and Tei went to a nearby vending machine to grab chips to eat while they walked around campus.

 

“I heard that two enforcers were turned into vampires, I feel like it’s getting a lot more dangerous here in Alemery. Just the other day one of our classmates went missing!” Vampires were rare to find, proving to be the worst enemies of mankind. For many centuries, vampires were not actively aggressive against mankind. After the tale of Arturo Sangria was spread, some vampires were given the encouragement to defy the will of Vampire King Drach. 

 

- There aren’t many, you could probably count these vampires on one hand. 

 

The most terrifying fact is that the vampires who have become hostile toward humanity are particularly powerful. Throughout the years, humans have been given many gifts from the gods that help them dispose of the average vampire with ease. Even a low-rank enforcer should be enough to single-handedly slay the common stray vampire.

 

Many of the vampires who have been active in the city are troublesome. They’re either too strong or they’ve turned so many people into vampires that enforcers cannot properly sever the source. 

 

Only those who are born vampires can turn somebody else into a vampire, and much to the dismay of humans, one cannot be reverted back to their human self after becoming a vampire. It’s basically a death sentence since most people would prefer not to be captured by enforcers.

 

“Among those groups of troublesome vampires, there’s got to be a real strong one. I don’t think it’s something the enforcers can’t handle though. We’ll definitely be safe.” The two of them have already reached the nearby bus stop. Ina was only walking Tei so that she wouldn’t be lonely or feel unsafe. In a world where humans are connected with gods, it’s ridiculous for an innocent girl like Tei to be afraid of one of the monsters that humanity drove into hiding.

 

Karma comes in many different shapes and sizes, but Ina didn’t care much for karma and consequences. “Call me if you need anything, okay?” Tei is currently getting onto the bus, turning to gain reassurance for Ina’s safety. Ina gives Tei her usual heartwarming smile, “You already know you’re the one person I’ll call! I don’t have too many friends after all!”

 

Ina sees the bus off, staring at one of the passengers through the window. A figure with a blood hood on, sitting in the back corner. Ina rubs the back of her neck nervously, feeling like she’d forgotten something important. ‘Whatever.’

 

While there was no one observing, Ina disappeared from where she stood, leaving dust and an empty chip bag swirling in the air. 

 

Ina lands on a rooftop nearby, trying her best to hold her laughter in. Her eyes are trained on the bus that she’d seen Tei off in. Her appearance starts to change. Her hair lost its color, becoming snowy white, her eyes brightening and eventually becoming a raging red, hypnotic to those who stare for too long. Sharp canines are let out in the open from her exhilarated smile. 

 

A person’s footsteps appear behind Ina, but she is not alarmed. A woman with azure hair stands behind her, rubbing her arm nervously. “Miss Ina, is there a reason why you’ve revealed yourself today?” To the average person, Ina had not done anything too impressive. She’d changed her appearance—more accurately, she removed her disguise.

 

“I found someone that I can have fun with on that bus, I need you to take care of the clean-up.” This isn’t Ina’s first rodeo! Among the vampires who have gotten the attention of the enforcers, who work to suppress vampire activities, Ina is one of the few who they’ve gotten the least information on!

 

“Miss Ina, I don’t believe that this is a good idea. There may be casualties if you act too recklessly.” The woman does not appear to be a vampire, though nowadays it is hard to identify one. “If you wait just a little bit, I’m sure you— Wait!” The woman’s sentence is cut off by Ina leaping down from the rooftop, succumbing to her unbearable urge to meet the person on the bus.

 

It may not be for the sake of fighting, it also may not be for any righteous reason. Ina is a vampire, one who seeks the thrill of each era!

 

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