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GORGIE AND I snuck up to the walls of Northolm two days after our talk with the city dwellers’ ambassador. To be honest, the look of the capital city didn’t impress me. The fortress walls of my hometown of Orchus, which was just a normal city, were more imposing.
No one had been able to tell me for sure how many people lived in the northern capital. They said the Prince could field around two thousand warriors in the best of times. In that case, by my world’s standards, a city like this should have had a population of around twelve thousand. I don’t think that estimate was far from the truth.
After examining the wall and defensive structures from afar, I came to the conclusion that Hedgehog could crack this nut easily. Especially given that it’s “shell,” to be frank was already splitting in a few places. Under the long rule of the vampires, figuring they would protect him as well, the Prince let his guard down. He stopped fearing his neighbors. The fortifications hadn’t been repaired or renovated in a long time.
From the tales of the northerners that joined us, we learned that government affairs were quite far from a big concern of the former now decapitated ruler of Northolm. He was more interested in feasts, hunting and his many lovers. Actual governance of the Principality was conducted by the otherworlders’ proxies. We also heard that, in recent times and especially in the last year, the Masters’ appetites had grown by an order of magnitude. And by all appearances, they were not planning on reigning them in or tempering them in any way. And that was what led to the uprising.
When it got dark out, under my canopy, I went over the wall and ran around the city streets. The envoys were not lying. There were no vampires in Northolm. Otherwise I’d have smelled them right away. However, I could smell the emanations of death everywhere. The ghastly combination of smells of blood, shit, rotting flesh and the smoke of funeral pyres seemed to stuff my nostrils shut. The stench made me lose my breath. Seemingly, there really was an uprising happening here. The city dwellers had spent the last few days reveling in cutting one another down. Now it was relatively quiet but from time to time I spotted groups of shadowy figures down alleyways, scurrying off with fat trunks on their backs.
Once out of the city and back in the forest, I filled my lungs with air. Yeesh! I’m sure that when Hedgehog sees that hellhole, his desire to call it home will be somewhat diminished. At the very least, I won’t be poking my nose in there again without a very good reason. By the way, I was right ― there were a lot of fighters on the walls. And none of them looked ready to open the gates for our army. But if Hedgehog did decide to do it in the end ― I at any rate saw several weak points in their defenses.
Once out of the darkness, Gorgie sniffed me curiously from head to toe, then snorted scornfully and said it was relatively quiet nearby.
Despite the fact the amulet was pointing me clearly toward the nearest Place of Power, I decided to travel along the river. Surely, the vampires wouldn’t just leave the river unattended. After a few hours running quickly, my hunch was proved right. We found the first watch post of retreating loyalists.
They were human. Five fighters. All altered. They must have been among those who had forever tarnished their names with service to the Masters. I could only imagine what they must have done if they weren’t welcome even in Northolm anymore. I considered who was the bigger monster ― the vampires, who killed people according to their nature, or the people who helped those vampires kill members of their own tribe? To me the answer was obvious. The vampires’ scouts died swiftly. As a matter of fact, they didn’t have time to utter a single sound. An easy death is a reward for a traitor. And at that, when I killed them, I didn’t feel even a slight twinge inside.
Over the next two hours, we discovered another two such hideouts. To neutralize the final post, we had to swim across the river.
Based on the number of arrows we found on the slain fighters, they were preparing a warm welcome for our ships. At first, I was surprised that I had yet to see a single vampire until I reached a turn in the river.
Right as the course started to gradually bend, I saw a tower that loomed large over the rocky shore. One look was enough to see ― this structure was from the same epoch as the City of Shadows.
Gorgie could smell the otherworlders long before my mouth filled with bitter saliva. Beyond that, he told me something strange. It just didn’t add up at all. There were five or six vampires in the tower. And the tracks and scents seemed to indicate the presence of at least another twenty altered people. But Gorgie insisted that all those people were already dead. And that they had died a day before we arrived.
When I got closer, I saw evidence of the Harn’s assertion. I discovered the first dead body on the edge of the forest. Trying to ignore the vile buzzing of flies and sweetish smell of decay, I looked over the dead body. There could be no doubt – this man had been murdered. There was a look of horror still stamped on his face. His ribcage had been pulped. It was as if a wild animal mauled him to death.
Once out of the glade, I saw that the whole riverbank was littered with corpses. Dismembered appendages, intestines spilled around on the sand, a few of the bodies were decapitated.
Gorgie gave a muted roar.
“I wasn’t even thinking of doubting your senses, bro,” I whispered reassuringly. “It’s just very strange. Those freaks must be in the tower. Even I can hear their voices. They’re talking. Laughing. And here the whole riverbank is littered with the bodies of their servants. Not a single enemy. Something isn’t coming together... It really looks like they’ve let their guard down, don’t you think?”
Gorgie just snorted in reply.
“Agreed,” I nodded. “It doesn’t make a difference. It actually makes things easier. Well, how about we try the old lure trick?”
The harn growled in agreement and slunk off into the nearest bushes while I tried to look as frightened as possible and slowly hobbled toward the beach. I had no doubt that they would notice me. Vampires can see in the dark. Night is no impediment to them. I should know.
The voices in the tower quickly grew livelier, so I was right. They did notice me. All my tricks, like the scared look, choppy breathing and sobbing proved unnecessary. It wasn’t too hard to lure the beasts out of their fortification.
All five of them just spilled out of the tower and came running my way, sputtering in delight. They looked to be racing one another. At first their behavior caught me off guard, but when I got a better look, everything fell into place. They were the same age as me. Four guys and one girl. As they ran, they were egging each other on and making bets about who would be first to catch their prey. In other words, me.
A guess flickered by in my head. I again took a closer look at the riverbank and it finally hit me. These people had not all died at the same time. The vampires released them one at a time and ordered them to run. Then they held races to catch their victims. That idea struck me so much that I just stood there and stared dumbfounded at the idiots running my way. Somehow, I couldn’t believe these imbeciles were the fearsome Masters. There must have been a smart one. Whoever was running this whole Principality all these years. Strange as it may have been, that thought brought me to my senses. People were constantly underestimating me too. As a matter of fact, that was actually why I was still alive.
I let the runners get a bit closer, then sent a ram at them. They were relatively low level from thirteen to sixteen, so the vampires stood no chance against my level six spell. After all, it had stopped much more considerable adversaries in its time.
Not a single mage, weak little defensive amulets ― strange otherworlders. Add to that their low levels and young age. Very strange...
So far, the oldest vampire I had seen in this world was that swordsman.
The strange stuff didn’t end there. The most valuable loot, other than what I got from the system, was the five small mana crystals I got from the mages. As for the two-handed sword and equipment the vampires were wearing ― their quality and levels didn’t impress me. They were normal items. Several of them meanwhile had even been crafted in this world.
I didn’t kill them right away. I decided to take a closer look at my adversaries. I had to activate lightning to prolong the stun effect. I was most of all interested in their eyes. Those looks... Almost identical. A mixture of ferocity, anger, madness, and passion. I came to the rational conclusion that it would not be possible to talk to them and gave the wave to Gorgie.
I spent a few minutes studying the scant loot and using the dropped tablets on the harn. I decided not to use any of the orbs yet. I’d leave that for later.
Searching the tower led nowhere. I found tangential evidence of my theory, though ― the retinue soldiers’ weaponry and armor was all piled up in a corner, and there was also a small room with no windows that stank unbearably of shit and piss. That must have been where the vampires kept their former servants.
I left that place feeling two ways. On the one hand, what I’d seen just didn’t fit in my head. Twenty people, even if they were not the best and probably deserved such a fate, had been wiped out just like that, for fun?
But on the other... I was now surer than ever that we needed to exterminate those beasts as quickly as possible. By their nature they were bloodthirsty maneaters. It was either us or them.
* * *
— YOU HAVE KILLED THE Twilight Vampire (17).
— Congratulations! You receive:
— Experience essence (3400).
— Silver tablet (5).
— Monster Hunter Token (40).
― Large Orb of Darkness (3).
“That should do it,” I muttered, hunching over the body of the slain vampire. “All we have left to do is check what you’ve got down there.”
I spotted the hill with the vampire castle towering at its foot a few minutes before sunup. There wasn’t a single guard post along the way. As it turned out, when I killed the vampires from the tower, I took out everyone who could have warned the defenders of the castle.
It felt like a big stretch to actually call it a castle, as well. To tell the truth, I wouldn’t have called it that myself. The ancient, half dilapidated structure resembled a giant barrel and had been chosen by the otherworlders only because, based on the amulet’s arrow, there was a Place of Power inside.
I wonder where the portal is. The entire journey, I didn’t sense it even once. Does it not open as often as the one I had seen earlier? In any case, I was hoping I would soon have answers to all my questions.
They were not expecting us. And essentially, that advantage increased our chances of winning by many times from the very outset. And after I killed the first one I saw in a surprise attack ― the strongest vampire of them all as I later realized ― taking down the last few was easy as pie.
We swept into their lair like a merciless hurricane, wiping away everything in our path. But we were also highly coordinated and cold-blooded. Not even half an hour later, it was all over. Well, almost. One of the last defenders was quite quick and managed to run away. Gorgie scampered off after him, while I decided to go down to the very lowest floor of the “barrel,” which turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.
There were no humans defending the lair. Only vampires. I counted up twenty-six in total, mostly young. There were just four adults. And they were level twenty at most. Only the head honcho was a mage, the others were just normal warriors.
My victory came too quickly and too easily. And that put me on guard.
As I came down the spiral steel stairway, I could sense more and more new emanations of darkness. By that point, Gorgie had taken care of the runaway and was hurrying back to me.
On the last level, I found myself in a fairly wide corridor lit by a strange kind of light. Some of the lamps burned dimly, others flickered rapidly, and the third kind gave off an odd crackling sound.
The gray walls, lined with some kind of porous ideally smooth stone, were adorned with faded writing in an unfamiliar language. The Great System haughtily ignored them, letting me know that the scribbling was not relevant.
Despite the fact that I was under my canopy, I was walking down the corridor slowly, carefully choosing where to place every footstep. Scolopendra’s Sixth Sense was constantly probing everything around for magic traps.
Finally, the corridor led me into a wide round hall filled with strange boxes and bins. A few of them had different colored little lights blinking and glowing on their walls. When I showed up, the little lights started going crazy.
The bitter flavor in my mouth became unbearable. I turned my head and finally saw her. The beast was standing among those strange boxes and smiling scornfully, revealing her small but sharp fangs. Somehow, she was able to sense me.
Continuing to smile acridly, she touched her right pointer finger to one of the little lights on one of the boxes. The little light immediately changed color to red and I suddenly found myself inside a flickering three-dimensional blue sphere.
The system immediately informed me that my mana supply was quickly emptying. My invisibility blew away like a strong breeze. I cursed out in anger and activated a ram. When nothing happened, I cast an ice arrow, then a lightning after that... I slammed at the wall with a firepaw... I basically tried everything. But nothing was helping. The only thing I could tell was that, while right next to the walls of the sphere, mana was leaving my supply three times faster. Walking a complete circle around the sphere, I stopped in the middle. Here my Wisdom was able to maintain balance. The mana outflow stopped. My supply started filling up again.
“You’re a funny one,” the vampire girl said with a smile.
All that time, she was standing one step away from the sphere and staring transfixed at my struggles. I could read intrigue and delight in her eyes. But it was more the look of a natural scientist who had just found an amusing specimen.
“I am Atori,” she announced herself unexpectedly. “And who are you?”
I frowned and kept silent.
“Fie!” she screwed up her face amusingly. “How rude!”
Strange lady. And her quirks made me shiver. She was noticeably different from all her kin. She was clothed like a human in a blue dress embroidered with ornate decoration. The hood of her cape was covering her bald skull and pointy ears. If not for her deathlike pallor and fangs I might have thought a local girl was trying to make my acquaintance. Just level thirteen.
“Remarkable, isn’t it?” the vampire nodded at the sphere and started dumping information on me: “It completely blocks the mana supplied by the Place of Power. Beyond that, it sucks all the mana out of you, then your energy, and finally your life supply. Trust me, that’s exactly how it works. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. When we came down here the first time, my cousin got caught in the trap. It sucked her dry in just a minute. I am clever. I was able to fix her. But look at how strong you are! You’re still going! By the way, about my brethren... Given you’re down here, are they all dead?”
I still said nothing. But the look on my face was more eloquent than any words. A fact which the talkative vampire girl immediately commented on:
“So they’re all dead? Great! It’s actually for the best!”
I’m not gonna lie, her outburst caught me by surprise.
“If only you knew, oh man of few words, just how much they were driving me crazy! My brother! His lackeys! All these throngs of cousins!”
While she spoke, out of the corner of my eye I saw some movement to the left. Gorgie. Ready to pounce. I stopped him before it was too late. Now we had the talkative lady in a pincer.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
Atori shuddered in surprise, then smiled, demonstrating her sharp fangs:
“You finally said something! Let’s just get one thing straight ― don’t ask me to let you go. I will never let you go no matter what. It’s a done deal. Alright?”
After asking the question, she smiled sweetly and looked me pleadingly in the eyes.
I nodded:
“Agreed. So then, why are you so happy your brethren are all dead?”
Atori snorted.
“Did you see them? They were starting to turn into animals. Beyond that, my brother got addicted to an intoxicating potion. He loved being the center of power! Imbecile... I told him we needed to grow stronger before subjugating the local tribes. At first that was what we were doing, but then... Well, what’s to tell?”
“What about the portal?”
“What portal?” she asked.
“To your world. After all, you needed the sacrifices so all your brethren could acquire bodies after crossing over, right?”
“There isn’t a portal here,” Atori shook her head. “The portal to our world is on a different continent. Off to the south. Across the White Sea. In an anomaly. The sacrifices... That was all my cousin Tir’s idea.”
“So they were just food?”
“Exactly,” she confirmed. “Idiots, right? They thought they could play god. I can’t argue with the concept. It could have been good, but it wasn’t time yet!”
“Are you saying most of you were born here?” I decided to change the topic, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to hold back.
“No,” she shook her head. “We all came from another world. But we were children back when the patriarchs of our clan found a way here. If not for the anomaly, which killed all our strongest warriors and mages, you would have had a harder time. The patriarchs died, but they managed to save a few dozen of the clan leaders’ children. And their servants. As well as a few cocoons. The future of the clan!”
Atori breathed a heavy sigh.
“We spent a long time wandering the southern continent, which is packed full of all kinds of anomalies. Until one day we reached a human port city. Then we got on a boat and came here. Finding a Place of Power was a great stroke of luck! We took it as a sign!”
“You’ve been through all those tribulations together, but still you’re happy they died?” I decided to egg her on.
“Of course!” she answered eagerly. “They changed. They used to be protectors, but they had become a threat. But it still isn’t the end of our bloodline!”
She stepped aside and nodded toward a set of doors in the far wall.
“There is our future! And no one can stop me now! I will raise them how I see fit! And you will partially help me with that.”
“Again?” I chuckled. “Haven’t I done enough?”
“Not yet,” she answered with a smile. “You’ll probably drop a lot of artifacts after you die. Isn’t that right? I can tell by the look on your face. I’m also trying to restore this machinery the departed left behind.”
Her face literally lit up. For a brief instant, even her animalistic grin was gone.
“During our wandering, I heard many stories and legends about those who ruled this world before. They were great mechanics! They created a machine that awakened the Great System in this world! Can you believe that? And many of the mechanics accepted its power.”
“And what became of them?” I was sincerely interested.
“It launched a terrible war, a war with no victors. I have seen the aftermath of that war. I never would have thought that pitiful humans would be able to command such power! But it’s no big deal. I’ll try to figure it out. And now there’s no one to stop me!”
Atori was jubilant.
“Listen,” she suddenly shuddered. “So, why are you able to hold out so long? In theory, you should be writhing in pain by now. It’s time for you to die!”
Finally, her true ugly face slipped through her sweet little human mask. An animalistic grin. Elongated fangs. Eyes black as night.
I chuckled and took a Heart of the Forest seed from my backpack.
“You’re very clever, but you tend to overlook things. And in this instance ― just two.”
“What are you talking about?!” the vampire girl’s mouth gaped.
“First of all,” I continued, giving the little seed a little shake in my hand. “I don’t give a crap about your Place of Power. I have my own. As a matter of fact ― I have a whole three.”
Atori twitched in puzzlement and took a step back.
“And second,” the predatory grin on my face made her take another step back. “I didn’t come alone!”
The vampire girl greeted those words with a furious hiss. But that was all she was able to do before Gorgie’s clawed paw split her skull in two.
“Hrn!” he complained.
“Hey, I’m sorry,” I shrugged my shoulders. “I wanted to hear what she had to say. And now do what you just did with your paw, but to that box. It’s time to get out of here.”
As I watched Gorgie smashing the ancient machinery to bits, I remembered my conversation with Hedgehog. It was like he could see the future. Now, Bream really was the only one in our ranks to get wounded in this war.
