The Fallen Vampire

Chapter 125: A Smidge Too Far

'...And then, I married my fortieth when I returned from a great battle that was fought for two hundred days and nights. I decided that I had made her wait long enough and she was now ready to behold my-'

"No offense, but... you seem like kind of a manwhore, Mr. Voice."

'...What?'

Lucia sat up from her resting position on her flying sword and looked at the sun that was rising in the distance.

"I mean, think about it. Why do you need forty wives?"

'Because I can have them! I am a god!'

"Sure, sure, but if you just so casually marry anyone just because you can, doesn't the value of your love, as well as any meaning in your relationships, decrease with every new conquest?"

'...WHAT!?'

"I mean do you not care about their happiness at all? Surely you cannot efficiently make time for all of those women. Not in the way that a marriage demands."

'They understand my responsibilities and everything that comes with my position! Besides, just a few of them could never fully handle my needs!'

"...I guess." Lucia shrugged without elaborating further.

'What?'

"Nothing."

'Speak your mind, brat!'

"I don't know... I guess I just figured that understanding something doesn't mean that you don't wish it could be changed."

'W-Well what about your husband?! He has multiple wives, does that mean that he is uncaring of your feelings??'

"Five is a lot different from forty..."

'Just answer the question!'

Lucia rolled her eyes as she lay back on her blade.

Her hand naturally went to the fox marking on her body, where her initial was inscribed on one of the tails.

"I think because of this marking we all share, the happiness of my sisters is also tied to my own. When he cares for them, I feel warm inside too. When he makes them jittery, I also start to feel a bit nervous..."

'Sappy bastards..'

"ANYWAY!" Lucia said in irritation. "But even with all of that said, I think we would try to kill Taira if he ever became someone who so casually lusts after and flirts with other women. The respect he has for me and his other wives is why we all love him so-"

'SAPS!'

"You asked, you grumpy old bitch!"

'I had no idea you were going to bore the shit out of me!'

Lucia ground her teeth together as she thought of another unkind remark.

The comment had very nearly left her lips when suddenly the old man in her mind said the words that she had been waiting for.

'We're here. It's in a cavern below.'

Lucia stopped dead in the air and looked down at the mountain range she hovered over.

There was no path of any sort, but the map in her mind could help her to trace the route she was supposed to take.

Immediately she rolled over lazily and let her body fall out of the sky.

Her feet landed on the stone mountain with the utmost grace, and she casually held out her hand to catch her sword that was dropped out of the air behind her.

She started on the dusty, downtrodden path without complaining, and walked for what felt like miles.

Eventually, she reached a dead end that was littered with dusty, broken skeletons of animals, humans, and fallen alike.

'There. Smear your blood against the wall.'

Lucia did as she was asked without question and cut her palm before placing it on the stone surface.

Immediately, the entire wall started to heat up.

Within seconds, it was a flowing waterfall of molten rock.

'Walk through it.'

"I beg your fucking pardon?"

'If you believe that it can hurt you then it can, but if you believe that you are invulnerable then you are!'

"...Alright."

Lucia took a deep breath and tried to free her mind of all unnecessary thoughts as she walked through the burning lava with her eyes closed.

Once she realized that he had been walking for too long, she reopened her eyes and realized that she had passed through several steps ago.

'I would like you to know... I have been waiting for this moment for a long time.'

"...Sounds kind of sketchy when you say it like that."

'It is not sketchy!'

Lucia gave the voice in her mind a bit of a side eye before continuing on her walk.

She found herself inside of a dark cave with a number of glowing blue rocks protruding from the walls.

"What are these? They are quite beautiful, and the qi I feel inside of them is very pure.."

'Spirit stones. A practically unheard of resource within the lower realm. Naturally, you are free to take them for your family if you wish. Their purpose is to aid in cultivation and are even a form of commerce.'

"Ohhh! Thank you, old man!"

'...You could have just expressed your gratitude normally, but never mind.'

Lucia continued into the tunnel, noticing that every step she took seemed to be more and more difficult.

The air was becoming denser, and she could vaguely sense a largely malevolent presence awaiting her at a cavern below.

'We were a proud people once. Perhaps that was our downfall. Because our physical prowess was unmatched from birth, and our magical knowledge reachable by only a select few, we thought ourselves the pinnacle of all.

We thought that we could not be bested. We were wrong. As of now, we are shells of our former selves. Even in the upper realm, our numbers are only within a few hundred. We need new hope. New blood to make us stronger.'

Lucia continued listening as she walked, not understanding where this was going.

'Initially, I chose you because of your marriage to the tainted one. With a future as bright as his, you who are at his side will surely not fall far behind.

And with your union, a non aggression pact with the Divine No Mei clan will be established...

That is, if he is able to impress that old warmonger enough to become an accepted descendent of the clan, which I suspect he will be.'

"So you're using us then? Wonderful." Lucia said as she rolled her eyes.

'I am. I will never apologize for doing what needs to be done in order to ensure my own clan's prosperity. But since that now includes you as well, it means that you have nothing you need to fear from me, and I will never betray you.'

Finally, Lucia found a bright light at the end of the tunnel where the pressure was the densest.

Stepping into the cavern, her eyes went wide as her heart felt like it was caught in her throat.

'You have been remarkably patient with me, and have not asked more than you should have. I thank you for that, but now is time for the truths to be laid bare...'

Sitting in an ocean of spirit stones of different sizes and colors was the overwhelmingly pristine skeleton of a large creature.

It was almost like a snake, but a few of the smaller bones looked like they used to be legs and arms.

It had an enormous muzzled face with teeth larger than the stalagmites on the ceiling, and two horns that protruded from the top of it's head.

'My name is one you may not be old enough to recall. I am Gintanai, Patriarch to the Heavenly Dragon Clan. And you, Lucia Amarok, are the one I have chosen to succeed me.'

Suddenly, the bones that had been lying here still for eons lurched uncontrollably as if they were being manipulated by an outside force.

A dense, cloud-like smoke started to billow off of it's ancient bones and entrapped Lucia in a swirling vortex.

She breathed in the smoke, and her entire body started to break own into a mass of particles and light.

It wasn't until an hour later that she was reformed.

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Taira would say that she was more beautiful than ever, with softer looking skin and more delicate yet fierce features.

The tattoos on her leg spread across her body and adorned her figure in their meaningful art.

Her hair had been dyed a dark and inhuman green color, and thick, bone-like horns now protruded from her head.

When she opened her eyes, her glowing red irises were revealed for only a few seconds before they rolled back into her head.

Briefly, she began to see images of people just like her who were living their own lives with no knowledge they were being watched.

Her lips parted and she spoke in a language she didn't remember learning at any point in her life. "What is this..?"

'These are the minds of your predecessors from the upper and lower realm. Their techniques, arts, talents, we share them all with each other. This is so that each generation will be stronger than the next.'

Lucia fell to her knees as the wave of memories just kept coming and coming.

There was so much to learn, so much to adapt to.

However, she lost the ability to focus on those things when her mind started to go farther back than it should have.

It was as if she were traveling through space at light speed, unable to fully catch the details of what she was seeing.

Eventually, she ended up floating in an endless black world, experiencing nothing and seeing nothing.

Until she did.

Out of nowhere, an enormous dragon appeared in front of her.

However, it felt more like a monster.

The very sight of it made her fall to her knees and cry uncontrollably in utter horror.

Such was the ferocity of this creature.

Such was the majesty.

Though she was terrified of it, she would have done absolutely anything it asked without understanding why.

"What is this..?"

Once she heard the monstrous voice that belonged to the creature, her crying became noticeably worse.

Snot bubbles, rivers of tears, unintelligible whimpering, the whole nine yards.

"Stop crying."

Lucia couldn't help but notice the voice sounded different this time around.

And even though she thought it impossible, she did stop crying on a dime.

"Look up."

Lucia slowly lifted up her chin with a soul filled with dread.

She did not want to look at that horrible creature again for even a second longer, and would rather die instead.

But much to her surprise, there was no more horrible creature.

Standing only a few feet in front of her was the only man she had ever seen who was as attractive as her husband.

In fact, he was quite a bit above.

Standing at a height of around 6'7, he had a powerful body filled with well crafted muscles that were more staunch than any metal, mythical or otherwise.

From the throat down, his soft chocolate skin was covered in moving dark tattoos that made her feel slightly dizzy and sleepy the longer she looked at them.

He wore a simple sleeveless black dougi with a red belt and a symbol of a monster or demon inscribed on the back.

Nine golden rings adorned his clawed fingers; each one of them more valuable than anything Lucia had ever seen in her entire life.

Two red ruby earrings hung from his pointed earlobes, both of which also made Lucia feel like she had no concept of wealth all over again.

His hair was so long that it came all the way down to his ankles, and it had an inviting fragrance that nearly made her overlook it's unsettling blood red color.

Two dark obsidian horns curled out of his head like a crown on that of a king.

She was only barely able to notice that his unholy reptilian eyes change from red, to purple, to gold before she could no longer bear the weight of his gaze and kept her eyes on his chin.

This was easily the most afraid of someone he had ever felt in her entire life.

"I'm quite sensitive to attempts to invade my mind, you see? Fortunately you do not seem hostile... If you were I would have had no choice but to kill you and everyone you love on the spot."