Maeve moved through the castle with the confidence of a true leader. Vampires, sensing her presence long before she reached them, stepped aside and even bowed in respect, especially those marked with brands on their necks. Some of Sol, Luna, and even Zus' followers gave her a courtesy nod, recognizing her authority.
Her destination was Luna's chambers, located downstairs in the dungeons. Luna found solace in the eerie stillness of this underground domain. Bones covered the cold, stone floor, broken bars had been removed from cells, and a perpetual dampness hung in the air from the glassless windows that faced the Infinite Ocean.
The dungeon itself was constructed from oddly sized stones held together by mortar, giving it a rough but somewhat sturdy appearance. A faint candle flickered on a table in the far corner, where guards had once sat and played cards. This was where Luna now sat, engrossed in her work, meticulously writing on a magic scroll.
Luna, though just as pale as Sol, possessed a more human-like appearance among the vampires. Her bright red lips contrasted her skin, and her eyes held a subtle, captivating blue glow. Long black hair rested beneath what appeared to be a regal crown, resembling more of a tall white hat. She wore a flowing, elegant white gown that draped gracefully over her figure, revealing only her thighs. A black accent adorned the belt area, cinching the gown in place. Her bare feet brushed the ground, and black fabric bound both ankles, trailing behind her. As Maeve approached, her attention was drawn to the golden pendant that hung around Luna's neck.
"Ah, Maeve, what brings you down to my little corner?" Luna inquired without looking up from her work.
"May I approach?" Maeve asked respectfully.
Luna nodded, gesturing with her left hand while her right continued to diligently inscribe the scroll. "Come, come. I am almost finished here. Speak to me, my child. What troubles you?"
Maeve sauntered over to Luna and glanced at the intricate scroll laid out before them. It depicted the castle in detail, even including the partially rebuilt tower in the back corner. What caught her attention, however, were the gears and levers overlaid on top of the castle. Luna had drawn them in such a way that they appeared to be a coating, interconnected and glowing with a mesmerizing blue light, slowly overtaking the black lines of the castle itself.
Maeve spoke softly, "Nothing troubles me and you have already answered my question. Sol was simply wondering how much longer on your preparations."
She began to turn away when Luna's grip on her wrist halted her. Maeve turned back to face the desk as Luna spoke again, this time with a subtle smile. "Why the rush?" Luna inquired. "Please, stay. There are some matters I would like to discuss with you."
As Luna released her wrist, Maeve positioned herself next to the desk, her gaze fixed on the scroll. "What is it, my Queen?" she asked.
Luna paused for a moment, her wand hovering over one of the gears. "How much of the real Maeve is still alive in there?"
"I'm sorry, I don't think I understand," Maeve replied, her brow furrowing in confusion.
Luna continued sketching her plans on the scroll, her pointed ear trained toward Maeve as she awaited a response. "I do despise having to repeat myself," Luna remarked, her tone dripping with irritation. "So, if you could be so gracious as to provide a straightforward answer to my question, I won't find it fucking necessary to repeat myself for a third fucking time. Now. Has your mother's excessively costly binding spell proven its worth?"
Maeve nodded resolutely. "If you’re wondering if I can do what has been asked of me, then yes, without hesitation."
A subtle smile played across Luna's face, confirming that Maeve's response had indeed satisfied her.
Luna turned her attention back to her. "Tell Sol that I am almost complete."
"May I have permission to leave the castle, then?" Maeve inquired.
Luna shook her head, her expression now a mix of annoyance and confusion. "Why do you need to leave? Where is Sol?" she demanded.
"She departed for Hier just after sending me inside," Maeve replied.
Luna dropped her wand, her irritation clearly overtaking her earlier confusion. "What?" she exclaimed. Her frustration was palpable as she continued, "She left? Then what's the bloody point of me preparing this spell?" Luna grabbed the scroll and raised it with her left hand, angrily pointing at it with her right. "I've spent thirteen bloody hours down here, setting everything up so we can teleport the whole BLOOOODY castle right in the middle of Hier, and you come down here to tell me she's just going to walk there herself?!" Luna slammed the scroll down and got in Maeve's face, her complexion darkening. "DOES SHE KNOW HOW FUCKING TIRED I AM?"
Maeve raised an eyebrow, her head tilting back slightly, her expression incredulous. "I think she wanted to see the barrier for herself, maybe to assess the situation?"
Luna leaned back into her seat, her irritation dissipating as she refocused on her work. She unfurled the scroll across the desk and raised her wand, sketching more intricate gears over the castle's outline.
"What’s the point? We’re just gonna drop the entire castle in the center of their little sanctuary. If that ain’t where the barrier is being cast from, who cares? We’ll already be inside anyway, we won’t need to worry about it." Luna relaxed, her tone calmer now. "You know what? Nevermind. You should go get some rest and when you wake, we’ll be inside Hier and from there, I want you to bring me Queen Máire… Dead or alive."
As Zero neared the border of Amapá, his cunning scheme to outwit the region's supernatural defenders hit a snag. A plethora of Vampire patrols had inundated the vicinity, turning his original path into a perilous venture. His only viable recourse now was a bold, direct approach through the heart of the city if he hoped to maintain his quest for a peaceful resolution and dodge any unwanted confrontations.
He descended the hill and stepped onto the brick road, though much of it had been torn up, making the path less smooth than before. The fires had ravaged all the wooden structures in their wake: the church, the community center, nearly all the homes, and half of the school. Not a single wooden building with an intact roof remained. Even the stone buildings that had endured were mostly damaged, and the elements would soon claim them as well.
A storm was brewing overhead, threatening to make landfall in no less than an hour. It promised to be a tumultuous night outside—a Tempest Storm. These storms shrouded everything in darkness with their lightning, rendering even those with night vision helpless. The rain they brought poured relentlessly, inundating the city. The countless trenches the Vampires had dug to defend the castle would soon flood.
Zero stealthily entered the bakery near the north end of the plaza, searching for any signs of food or, if he were fortunate, something to drink. His throat was growing increasingly parched, and if it continued much longer, he wouldn't be able to use his Dragon Roar, nor any Fire Breathing Techniques, including Shifting Gears.
However, it didn't matter if he had an entire lake to drink; his mana was still low, and he hadn't slept in days. It had been a nonstop onslaught for nearly a week now. He could go another three weeks without food, as long as he kept enough mana poured into the enchantment, but again, even that was low. There were a lot of things he hated about being a Human, but the fact that they needed to sleep to fully recover their mana was the worst part. Dragons were thought to sleep so much to do just that, but a Dragon's mana is near infinite. However, the use of magic made them grow very tired, which was pretty much the same thing in Zero's opinion. It didn't matter to have infinite mana if using it made you sleep to recover regardless.
The bakery had been picked clean; any remnants of what used to transpire here could only be conceived by the numerous ovens. The tables had been destroyed, the glass all but completely gone, everything that hung on the walls had been torn down and destroyed. The Vampires weren't just purging the city when they retreated; they were making sure all memories were lost with the city.
Zero knelt down and leaned forward, trying to reach his hand back between what used to be a display case. He thought he saw a thing of plastic, hoping it was a wrapped piece of something, but as he swept his hand across it, he realized that it was nothing more than a torn-off piece of scroll.
As he leaned up, he let out an audible sigh and rubbed his stomach. "Sorry, buddy, we got nothing." He looked out the large opening at the front; the door had been completely unhinged, and the window pane that held the freshly baked goods of the day had been knocked out, leaving it completely open. He walked toward it and stuck his head out, peering out ever so slightly to see if the coast was clear. He moved outward and circled around the bakery, moving up toward the last part of the city, just at the base of where a brick road used to lead to the castle; it had been completely removed, replaced by a snake-like trench that ran all the way to the castle.
He gazed up the pathway, and his eyes locked on the castle. There was something peculiar about its aura; it was the fact that it had one at all. When they were on their way to it earlier, it didn't have one, not that it had one before the Vampires took over, but now it held a very hot and intense aura. Zero examined it a bit longer, trying to discern what was happening, and the longer he stared, the more intense the aura became; he could feel the heat of it pressing against his skin. He moved out of the way, putting a wall between him and the pressing aura.
Thunder clapped heavily across the sky, but it wasn't the storm. Zero's focus narrowed on the castle as sparks began to appear all around it. His attention moved to the sky, confirming that what he heard truly wasn't the storm. Again, thunder clapped, resonating from the castle. The sparks grew in repetition until they covered the castle in what looked like a net made of lightning.
It started flashing, disappearing and reappearing. But each time it disappeared, enormous gears and levers made of a faint blue light appeared in its place. The web of lightning and the gears and levers continued to alternate between one and the other, the speed at which they did increasing exponentially to the point that they looked to be active at the same time. Then, the gears began to turn. They moved in unison, turning one another, causing the levers to lift, triggering more of the gears to turn. The light that radiated from it was blinding, the flashing looking like a storm of heat lightning. The sounds of thunder that clapped around the area would have shattered every window in the city if there had been any left.
Zero turned around to see the Tempest Storm coming ever closer, the flashes of darkness soon accompanying it, rendering his travels even slower. He pulled his attention back to the castle; the gears were in full rotation, and the flashing was happening so fast that it no longer looked like flashing; it was just radiating the blinding blue light. The aura heated even more, then suddenly evaporated, disappearing completely before sending out a bone-chilling replacement, so cold that the little grass that was left began to frost. There was another clap of thunder, one so fierce that it shook Zero's chest, and a few of the buildings around him collapsed. A loud hum filled the air for a moment before a flash of blue light enveloped the entire area, followed by the sound of a snap, and the castle vanished with another earth-shattering thundering.
The shockwave that exploded from the castle could be seen billowing down the hillside, racing its way toward the desolate city and Zero. He went to teleport away but stopped; wherever he landed, he would land there unconscious. Instead, he steadied his legs and bent at the knees, bracing himself to jump at the last possible second. The shockwave rippled toward him, Zero jumped, but his timing was off. The shockwave clipped his feet, sending him with so much force that when his head hit the ground, he was knocked unconscious for the briefest of moments.
When he pulled himself awake, so much dust filled the air that he immediately began to cough. He knelt down, trying to get below the rising dust, looking around and taking notice of how much damage had been done. Almost the entire city had been reduced to rubble; the shockwave seemed to stretch through the entire city, save for a few districts on the very outside of the area, but even those took some sort of hit. More of their stone had been removed and misplaced, but it was still nothing compared to the brunt of where the shockwave hit.
From where the castle once stood all the way to the start of the city, the grass had been uprooted and eviscerated from existence, leaving nothing but bare brown dirt. The stones of the buildings had been pushed into an enormous wall against the few buildings that stood at the perimeter, creating a long blockade of stone behind Zero.
His gaze shifted once more to the North where the castle had vanished from, fixated on the crater it had left. He ventured up the hillside. The crater was warm to be around, but it was icy cold to the touch, an extraordinary feeling. Zero moved around the circumference, looking to see if he could find even the faintest trace of what kind of magic had been used. His eyes weren't as sharp at detecting mana residue as they were at seeing the future movements of his opponents, and that was probably the only reason he was able to side-step the Vampire that lunged at him from behind.
He moved out of the way, allowing it to pass over him, expecting it to lunge at him again, but it didn't. This was the first time Zero had gotten a good look at them. He had spent so much time killing them and trying not to be killed by them that he hadn't truly taken a long, hard look at them. But they were as he expected—pale skin, lengthy arms, and black clothes that resembled suits. They went barefoot, giving them a rabidly human appearance. Blood-red eyes, sharp fangs, and pointed ears completed their eerie countenance. Give them a little more melanin, and you could call them Elves.
The Vampire stood there for a moment longer before it lunged again, its movements incredibly slowed, much too slow compared to what they had been fighting against before. Zero sidestepped a few more times until the Vampire finally stumbled and collapsed onto the ground, too weak to stand.
"You must be starving," Zero observed. He stopped advancing, an idea forming in his head. "Say, what did you all do with the food from the town? I know you didn't get rid of it all." The Vampire didn't respond; it was still struggling to pull itself to its feet. "I can get you blood if you can get me food."
The Vampire ceased its struggling, rolling over with a desperate gaze in its eyes. Zero approached, his movements deliberate, and he crouched down, positioning his back towards the Vampire.
"Hop on, I'll carry you," Zero offered. The Vampire looked at him, puzzled at first, before slowly crawling onto Zero's back. "Gosh, you're a lot heavier than I thought. Why are you so heavy if you don't have any blood weight?" Zero quipped as he hoisted them both up and began to move. He stopped after a moment, turning his head slightly. "Oh, wait," he continued, "Where are we going for the food?"
The Vampire, still sluggish, pointed to the northeast, indicating the forest that enveloped the castle, now reduced to trunks and splintered trees. "The Guild Hubs?" Zero questioned. The Vampire nodded in confirmation.
"Okay, hang on tight. I'm gonna—" Zero started to kneel down to sprint, but the Vampire suddenly tried to bite his neck. However, the scales that lined his collarbone and lower neck thwarted their attempt to get a good grasp. By the time they adjusted their bite, Zero had noticed and flung them over his body, slamming them down onto the ground.
Summoning a dagger, Zero began to lower it towards the Vampire's head, but it cried out in desperation. "PLEASE!"
Zero halted the golden blade just before the Vampire's forehead, the tip pressing gently into their flesh. "You can talk?" he inquired.
The Vampire nodded vigorously.
"Were you faking being starving?" Zero questioned further.
The Vampire shook their head, and Zero pushed the dagger down again, causing them to nod vigorously once more. Rolling his eyes, Zero allowed the dagger to disappear from his grasp. He pulled his hand back and stood up. "That was clever," he remarked. The Vampire lay frozen in fear, their eyes locked onto him.
"Are you alone?" Zero asked.
"Yes," came the response.
"Is there actually food at the Guild Hubs?" Zero inquired.
"Yes, for both of us," the Vampire replied.
Zero snapped his attention to the Vampire. "Show me."
Maeve moved through the castle with the confidence of a true leader. Vampires, sensing her presence long before she reached them, stepped aside and even bowed in respect, especially those marked with brands on their necks. Some of Sol, Luna, and even Zus' followers gave her a courtesy nod, recognizing her authority.
Her destination was Luna's chambers, located downstairs in the dungeons. Luna found solace in the eerie stillness of this underground domain. Bones covered the cold, stone floor, broken bars had been removed from cells, and a perpetual dampness hung in the air from the glassless windows that faced the Infinite Ocean.
The dungeon itself was constructed from oddly sized stones held together by mortar, giving it a rough but somewhat sturdy appearance. A faint candle flickered on a table in the far corner, where guards had once sat and played cards. This was where Luna now sat, engrossed in her work, meticulously writing on a magic scroll.
Luna, though just as pale as Sol, possessed a more human-like appearance among the vampires. Her bright red lips contrasted her skin, and her eyes held a subtle, captivating blue glow. Long black hair rested beneath what appeared to be a regal crown, resembling more of a tall white hat. She wore a flowing, elegant white gown that draped gracefully over her figure, revealing only her thighs. A black accent adorned the belt area, cinching the gown in place. Her bare feet brushed the ground, and black fabric bound both ankles, trailing behind her. As Maeve approached, her attention was drawn to the golden pendant that hung around Luna's neck.
"Ah, Maeve, what brings you down to my little corner?" Luna inquired without looking up from her work.
"May I approach?" Maeve asked respectfully.
Luna nodded, gesturing with her left hand while her right continued to diligently inscribe the scroll. "Come, come. I am almost finished here. Speak to me, my child. What troubles you?"
Maeve sauntered over to Luna and glanced at the intricate scroll laid out before them. It depicted the castle in detail, even including the partially rebuilt tower in the back corner. What caught her attention, however, were the gears and levers overlaid on top of the castle. Luna had drawn them in such a way that they appeared to be a coating, interconnected and glowing with a mesmerizing blue light, slowly overtaking the black lines of the castle itself.
Maeve spoke softly, "Nothing troubles me and you have already answered my question. Sol was simply wondering how much longer on your preparations."
She began to turn away when Luna's grip on her wrist halted her. Maeve turned back to face the desk as Luna spoke again, this time with a subtle smile. "Why the rush?" Luna inquired. "Please, stay. There are some matters I would like to discuss with you."
As Luna released her wrist, Maeve positioned herself next to the desk, her gaze fixed on the scroll. "What is it, my Queen?" she asked.
Luna paused for a moment, her wand hovering over one of the gears. "How much of the real Maeve is still alive in there?"
"I'm sorry, I don't think I understand," Maeve replied, her brow furrowing in confusion.
Luna continued sketching her plans on the scroll, her pointed ear trained toward Maeve as she awaited a response. "I do despise having to repeat myself," Luna remarked, her tone dripping with irritation. "So, if you could be so gracious as to provide a straightforward answer to my question, I won't find it fucking necessary to repeat myself for a third fucking time. Now. Has your mother's excessively costly binding spell proven its worth?"
Maeve nodded resolutely. "If you’re wondering if I can do what has been asked of me, then yes, without hesitation."
A subtle smile played across Luna's face, confirming that Maeve's response had indeed satisfied her.
Luna turned her attention back to her. "Tell Sol that I am almost complete."
"May I have permission to leave the castle, then?" Maeve inquired.
Luna shook her head, her expression now a mix of annoyance and confusion. "Why do you need to leave? Where is Sol?" she demanded.
"She departed for Hier just after sending me inside," Maeve replied.
Luna dropped her wand, her irritation clearly overtaking her earlier confusion. "What?" she exclaimed. Her frustration was palpable as she continued, "She left? Then what's the bloody point of me preparing this spell?" Luna grabbed the scroll and raised it with her left hand, angrily pointing at it with her right. "I've spent thirteen bloody hours down here, setting everything up so we can teleport the whole BLOOOODY castle right in the middle of Hier, and you come down here to tell me she's just going to walk there herself?!" Luna slammed the scroll down and got in Maeve's face, her complexion darkening. "DOES SHE KNOW HOW FUCKING TIRED I AM?"
Maeve raised an eyebrow, her head tilting back slightly, her expression incredulous. "I think she wanted to see the barrier for herself, maybe to assess the situation?"
Luna leaned back into her seat, her irritation dissipating as she refocused on her work. She unfurled the scroll across the desk and raised her wand, sketching more intricate gears over the castle's outline.
"What’s the point? We’re just gonna drop the entire castle in the center of their little sanctuary. If that ain’t where the barrier is being cast from, who cares? We’ll already be inside anyway, we won’t need to worry about it." Luna relaxed, her tone calmer now. "You know what? Nevermind. You should go get some rest and when you wake, we’ll be inside Hier and from there, I want you to bring me Queen Máire… Dead or alive."
As Zero neared the border of Amapá, his cunning scheme to outwit the region's supernatural defenders hit a snag. A plethora of Vampire patrols had inundated the vicinity, turning his original path into a perilous venture. His only viable recourse now was a bold, direct approach through the heart of the city if he hoped to maintain his quest for a peaceful resolution and dodge any unwanted confrontations.
He descended the hill and stepped onto the brick road, though much of it had been torn up, making the path less smooth than before. The fires had ravaged all the wooden structures in their wake: the church, the community center, nearly all the homes, and half of the school. Not a single wooden building with an intact roof remained. Even the stone buildings that had endured were mostly damaged, and the elements would soon claim them as well.
A storm was brewing overhead, threatening to make landfall in no less than an hour. It promised to be a tumultuous night outside—a Tempest Storm. These storms shrouded everything in darkness with their lightning, rendering even those with night vision helpless. The rain they brought poured relentlessly, inundating the city. The countless trenches the Vampires had dug to defend the castle would soon flood.
Zero stealthily entered the bakery near the north end of the plaza, searching for any signs of food or, if he were fortunate, something to drink. His throat was growing increasingly parched, and if it continued much longer, he wouldn't be able to use his Dragon Roar, nor any Fire Breathing Techniques, including Shifting Gears.
However, it didn't matter if he had an entire lake to drink; his mana was still low, and he hadn't slept in days. It had been a nonstop onslaught for nearly a week now. He could go another three weeks without food, as long as he kept enough mana poured into the enchantment, but again, even that was low. There were a lot of things he hated about being a Human, but the fact that they needed to sleep to fully recover their mana was the worst part. Dragons were thought to sleep so much to do just that, but a Dragon's mana is near infinite. However, the use of magic made them grow very tired, which was pretty much the same thing in Zero's opinion. It didn't matter to have infinite mana if using it made you sleep to recover regardless.
The bakery had been picked clean; any remnants of what used to transpire here could only be conceived by the numerous ovens. The tables had been destroyed, the glass all but completely gone, everything that hung on the walls had been torn down and destroyed. The Vampires weren't just purging the city when they retreated; they were making sure all memories were lost with the city.
Zero knelt down and leaned forward, trying to reach his hand back between what used to be a display case. He thought he saw a thing of plastic, hoping it was a wrapped piece of something, but as he swept his hand across it, he realized that it was nothing more than a torn-off piece of scroll.
As he leaned up, he let out an audible sigh and rubbed his stomach. "Sorry, buddy, we got nothing." He looked out the large opening at the front; the door had been completely unhinged, and the window pane that held the freshly baked goods of the day had been knocked out, leaving it completely open. He walked toward it and stuck his head out, peering out ever so slightly to see if the coast was clear. He moved outward and circled around the bakery, moving up toward the last part of the city, just at the base of where a brick road used to lead to the castle; it had been completely removed, replaced by a snake-like trench that ran all the way to the castle.
He gazed up the pathway, and his eyes locked on the castle. There was something peculiar about its aura; it was the fact that it had one at all. When they were on their way to it earlier, it didn't have one, not that it had one before the Vampires took over, but now it held a very hot and intense aura. Zero examined it a bit longer, trying to discern what was happening, and the longer he stared, the more intense the aura became; he could feel the heat of it pressing against his skin. He moved out of the way, putting a wall between him and the pressing aura.
Thunder clapped heavily across the sky, but it wasn't the storm. Zero's focus narrowed on the castle as sparks began to appear all around it. His attention moved to the sky, confirming that what he heard truly wasn't the storm. Again, thunder clapped, resonating from the castle. The sparks grew in repetition until they covered the castle in what looked like a net made of lightning.
It started flashing, disappearing and reappearing. But each time it disappeared, enormous gears and levers made of a faint blue light appeared in its place. The web of lightning and the gears and levers continued to alternate between one and the other, the speed at which they did increasing exponentially to the point that they looked to be active at the same time. Then, the gears began to turn. They moved in unison, turning one another, causing the levers to lift, triggering more of the gears to turn. The light that radiated from it was blinding, the flashing looking like a storm of heat lightning. The sounds of thunder that clapped around the area would have shattered every window in the city if there had been any left.
Zero turned around to see the Tempest Storm coming ever closer, the flashes of darkness soon accompanying it, rendering his travels even slower. He pulled his attention back to the castle; the gears were in full rotation, and the flashing was happening so fast that it no longer looked like flashing; it was just radiating the blinding blue light. The aura heated even more, then suddenly evaporated, disappearing completely before sending out a bone-chilling replacement, so cold that the little grass that was left began to frost. There was another clap of thunder, one so fierce that it shook Zero's chest, and a few of the buildings around him collapsed. A loud hum filled the air for a moment before a flash of blue light enveloped the entire area, followed by the sound of a snap, and the castle vanished with another earth-shattering thundering.
The shockwave that exploded from the castle could be seen billowing down the hillside, racing its way toward the desolate city and Zero. He went to teleport away but stopped; wherever he landed, he would land there unconscious. Instead, he steadied his legs and bent at the knees, bracing himself to jump at the last possible second. The shockwave rippled toward him, Zero jumped, but his timing was off. The shockwave clipped his feet, sending him with so much force that when his head hit the ground, he was knocked unconscious for the briefest of moments.
When he pulled himself awake, so much dust filled the air that he immediately began to cough. He knelt down, trying to get below the rising dust, looking around and taking notice of how much damage had been done. Almost the entire city had been reduced to rubble; the shockwave seemed to stretch through the entire city, save for a few districts on the very outside of the area, but even those took some sort of hit. More of their stone had been removed and misplaced, but it was still nothing compared to the brunt of where the shockwave hit.
From where the castle once stood all the way to the start of the city, the grass had been uprooted and eviscerated from existence, leaving nothing but bare brown dirt. The stones of the buildings had been pushed into an enormous wall against the few buildings that stood at the perimeter, creating a long blockade of stone behind Zero.
His gaze shifted once more to the North where the castle had vanished from, fixated on the crater it had left. He ventured up the hillside. The crater was warm to be around, but it was icy cold to the touch, an extraordinary feeling. Zero moved around the circumference, looking to see if he could find even the faintest trace of what kind of magic had been used. His eyes weren't as sharp at detecting mana residue as they were at seeing the future movements of his opponents, and that was probably the only reason he was able to side-step the Vampire that lunged at him from behind.
He moved out of the way, allowing it to pass over him, expecting it to lunge at him again, but it didn't. This was the first time Zero had gotten a good look at them. He had spent so much time killing them and trying not to be killed by them that he hadn't truly taken a long, hard look at them. But they were as he expected—pale skin, lengthy arms, and black clothes that resembled suits. They went barefoot, giving them a rabidly human appearance. Blood-red eyes, sharp fangs, and pointed ears completed their eerie countenance. Give them a little more melanin, and you could call them Elves.
The Vampire stood there for a moment longer before it lunged again, its movements incredibly slowed, much too slow compared to what they had been fighting against before. Zero sidestepped a few more times until the Vampire finally stumbled and collapsed onto the ground, too weak to stand.
"You must be starving," Zero observed. He stopped advancing, an idea forming in his head. "Say, what did you all do with the food from the town? I know you didn't get rid of it all." The Vampire didn't respond; it was still struggling to pull itself to its feet. "I can get you blood if you can get me food."
The Vampire ceased its struggling, rolling over with a desperate gaze in its eyes. Zero approached, his movements deliberate, and he crouched down, positioning his back towards the Vampire.
"Hop on, I'll carry you," Zero offered. The Vampire looked at him, puzzled at first, before slowly crawling onto Zero's back. "Gosh, you're a lot heavier than I thought. Why are you so heavy if you don't have any blood weight?" Zero quipped as he hoisted them both up and began to move. He stopped after a moment, turning his head slightly. "Oh, wait," he continued, "Where are we going for the food?"
The Vampire, still sluggish, pointed to the northeast, indicating the forest that enveloped the castle, now reduced to trunks and splintered trees. "The Guild Hubs?" Zero questioned. The Vampire nodded in confirmation.
"Okay, hang on tight. I'm gonna—" Zero started to kneel down to sprint, but the Vampire suddenly tried to bite his neck. However, the scales that lined his collarbone and lower neck thwarted their attempt to get a good grasp. By the time they adjusted their bite, Zero had noticed and flung them over his body, slamming them down onto the ground.
Summoning a dagger, Zero began to lower it towards the Vampire's head, but it cried out in desperation. "PLEASE!"
Zero halted the golden blade just before the Vampire's forehead, the tip pressing gently into their flesh. "You can talk?" he inquired.
The Vampire nodded vigorously.
"Were you faking being starving?" Zero questioned further.
The Vampire shook their head, and Zero pushed the dagger down again, causing them to nod vigorously once more. Rolling his eyes, Zero allowed the dagger to disappear from his grasp. He pulled his hand back and stood up. "That was clever," he remarked. The Vampire lay frozen in fear, their eyes locked onto him.
"Are you alone?" Zero asked.
"Yes," came the response.
"Is there actually food at the Guild Hubs?" Zero inquired.
"Yes, for both of us," the Vampire replied.
Zero snapped his attention to the Vampire. "Show me."
