The Vale King could not keep his smile off his face watching Ashara run a spear through the man's bottom-up through his body till it exited out his mouth outside the manor gates. The winds carried the scent of blood across Vastaroph as the man—the Spy— gargled on the iron spear. He would not die soon. Maybe in a week, possibly two, if no one aided him. There would be so, of course, Forsaken whose single job for the next month it was to keep this man alive.
The man had been a spy sent by Silos, the foolish king, who did not seem to know his place. A warning had already been sent, yet the fool thought it wise to send soone to spy on him. He had two options. Ignore the offense or react, taking away sothing Silos loved. A wife, a child, a brother, a sister—the possibilities were limitless.
Shadows moving in the moonlight spoke to him. n, savages, watching him from a distance before lting away into night. Without thinking, the Vale King bolted past Ashara, enjoying her work, and glided several hundreds of ters in the air as if he were wind—weightless and free.
The n, if they could be called n, were hidden from even the moonlight, scarlet eyes so red they seed to swallow the whites of their eyes. They were leaping from rooftop to rooftop on all fours like a pack of hounds. Foamish biles poured from their lips as ghoulish moans humd across their throat.
'Had they sensed sothing? Was that why they ran?' The Vale King threw away the idea. Neither he nor Ashara had any killing intent. It must have been sothing else.
"What do you think?" He asked, knowing she would be beside him.
"Vampire Spawns," Ashara said cooly. "Recently turned by the look of it. The blood must have attracted their attention."
There was a hint of amusent in her tone that made him chuckle. "What aren't you telling ?"
"They are running. Running away from food. You and I are masked from third circles like them. They are probably running on instinct. Think about it. They must have sensed, not us but the manor or your Forsaken. Still, they could work out for us when animals are frightened. They usually tend to return to where they felt safe."
"I thought that was only humans. Animals I assud were always too stupid."
"Vampire Spawns are all born with the innate attachnt towards their Master. They'll run towards him. Though I find it odd, he allowed such newborns to run wild."
They followed through the skies, a vague awareness of the formation that covered the city trying to push them under. It was a cri to fly if one was not royalty in Vastroph. Formations were there to keep even noblen in check. The Vale King could ignore it because he was wind-personified. As for how Asharawas doing it, he did not care as long as she was.
Slowly, five Spawns beca ten, ten beca twenty, and twenty beca thirty, then forty, fifty, sixty, then finally eighty as they ran towards the southern edge of Vastroph well into the slums. They ca from the east, west, and north all the way towards the south.
"Ever seen a Vampire Lord?" The Vale King asked.
Ashara had a silly grin on her face. " The first Vampire was a Devil blessed by the Ars Goetia. I have indeed seen one," she said, as her skin cells beca like finely pointed needles, altering themselves before his very eyes. Her skin surged like a wave, gaining an ageless appearance similar to that of a human while losing her elven ears and the graceful bone structure that complinted those tree worshipers. In a matter of seconds, she was a Vampire Lord, or at least sothing akin to the origin of all Vampires.
Whatever the case, she was even more devilishly beautiful than she was before, possessing traits that made her seem all the more an appetizing treat that seed like a sin not to eat. If not for Altair's voice thundering the back of his mind to stay focused, the Vale King might have taken her then and there.
He tsked, forcing his feverish gaze away towards the Sea of Spawns below. None of these lesser creatures were strong. Simply based on their movent, they were as fast as a normal Fifth Circle. Nothing he couldn't exterminate with a single swing of his sword.
The Spawns had all gathered around a single building far more luxurious than the other broken-down rooftops and half-toppled buildings unable to withstand the elents. Why the noblen allowed such a thing to exist in their capital city was beyond him. It was best these filthy holess animals be snuffed out if they had no actual use. If killing was not an option, then simply pushing them to the rural outskirts of Vastroph was best. Such wasted infrastructure.
"Shall we?" Ashara asked, invoking an invisibility spell that slightly distorted light particles so that they appeared invisible to the naked eye.
Despite not wanting to sll the rabble below, he rolled his eyes, floating down without a sound onto what appeared like a governnt building terrace. He confird it with a jolt of omniscience before walking through the window and solidifying his body back into flesh and bone.
Recalling how Valemorph used to take so much Mana, and now it wasn't even a smidgen, his mood slightly improved. He was getting stronger and at a frightening rate. It won't be long before he would be able to keep his body permanently intangible.
"How are your ridians, Your Grace?" Ashara asked as he followed after through the halls without a sound, every so often hiding behind a beam, as they began to make their way down a flight of stairs below ground level.
"Sore," was all he said, sensing a slight baleful aura pressuring the air. "Vampire Lords, how strong are they?"
"It really depends your grace. Vampires are broken up into two fractions: Myriad and Infernal. One is the origin; the other is the weakened version we allow to wander to sow chaos. It's a simple thing for us to breed lesser creatures that aren't necessarily a part of the hells, but in a way, once that lineage is activated, they'll grow to insane levels of power."
"Do you have Authority over it as a royal?" Experience more content on empire
Ashara shook her head. "I would not. Vampires are fully owned by the Eighth King of Hell, who dethrone the Master of the Mystic Tree, Bael. I have no authority to command any of her kind, although that doesn't an I can't tamorph into one of them."
"That ability seems kind of broken."
"Said the man who can turn himself intangible or can move at the speed of light, no matter how refined the world is," she fired back, earning a pop to her ass. Her face went beet red as she kept her mouth shut.
Spotting a few Spawns that were able to walk on their two feet and not like a dog, his brow shrunk. It did not appear that Ashara was right about the spawns fleeing. It seed like soone had summoned all of them.
Down the serpentine stairs spiraling down into the unknown, they stopped after about ten minutes, ignoring the frothing Spawns on fours frozen in place by the baleful aura. Those old enough to keep so level of grace did not seem obscured by the aura, walking into an underground clearing with a do-like ceiling. At the center of the clearing, a stone dais stood erect with a blackened throne standing tall.
'Master, there are seven vampires,' Ashara transmitted in a Soul Whisper. 'Each a half step into Transcendent.'
Aware she was not even speaking of the 'Lord,' he gave a slight nod, spotting the seven she gestured to scattered throughout the gathering throng, each hooded to mask their identity, though with the rising number of Spawns, there was no need—there were hundreds of them by now.
'I know you can't control the Lord; what about average vampires or their spawns?' He asked, formulating a plan.
"Easy," Ashara replied.
The Vale King smiled; if it was as Ashara had said, then his plan of taking control of the Vampire Army was within arms' reach.
'And if you command them to kill themselves?' He quickly asked, not forgetting to use a Soul Whisper. He couldn't afford a slip like that.
'They'd die, though, if there is soone of my rank beside , in this case, a Vampire Lord, then or orders will cancel the other out.'
That had been rather useful information. It was the sa for Devils, or so his omniscient told him.
Sowhat intrigued by the idea, the Vale King simply began to wait. Wait and—
A whirlwind of black smoke appeared above the dais, gathering all the air in the room before a man appeared, carrying that ageless appearance. He was young, despite how ancient his eyes appeared. Transcendent with the bearing of a noble. Not one that was recently created but one born to the life.
A true noble through and through.
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