Chapter 8 The new vampire crusade.

As dawn broke on first day of the new year everbody was still sleeping or completly wasted from the big party, yet work had to be done. The maids of Castle Dreadskull had to prepare a giant literal bloodbath as per tradition at Castle Dreadskull.

Behind the Castle itself the was the ritual stone pool, a gigantic pool completly off limits for everyone all year long except on the first night of the new year.

The maids took the whole day to clean it and just before dusk Anya gave the sign to open a big drain that came from the Castle.

As the drain opened the pool got filled with blood in a matter of minutes.

As the sun set the fox twins came to inspect the pool and give their blessing, once the pool had recieved the blessing from the fox twins everbody was welcome to enter the bloodbath and take it all in.

As this was a sacred ritual there was no one stupid enough to dive on in, to do so would mean being exiled and spent the rest of your life as an outcast.

This ritual was held as quiet as possible, everbody calmly and respectfully entered the pool.

Midnight came and by this time everbody was already floating in the bllodbath for hours, as the full moon started to shine at the bloodbath and the vampires in it.

As the ritual began the light of the moon empowered every vampire, sicknesses were cured, physical and magical attributes were enhanced. yet the vampires would stay in the pool floating untill dawn.

As dawn came I went home with my mom, took a nice shower and changed clothes.

Once done I went to my mom who started to ask what I had done with my hair, apparently my once black hair now had crimson red ends.

I had no idea I had not done anything and so my mother and I went to the shrine. As we arrived we saw Maelith and Aegrith at the entrance, after they greeted me they also started about my hair and so I explained what had happened.

They examined my hair and came to the conclusion that I was blessed. This blessing would ease the difficulty it took the control the output of my void element, yet little did I know that this blessing would eventually be a curse.

After the conversation about my hair had ended I asked them what they were planning on doing today, as they looked at me they told me that we were summoned to the castle for a meeting with Count Volgar. Anya had visited them personal to tell them this. Well I guess Anya will be at an empty house then right now I said smiling.

Yet hearing we were summoned I decided to accompany the to the castle as I said goodbye to my mother. At the main entrance we saw Anya, Jérome and Mikael waiting for us, who apparently also had to make comments about my hair, Mikael even went so far as to call me a copycat comparing his hair to mine.

Once I also explained them the situation the comments stopped and we made our way inside.

In the main hall Count Volgar welcomed all of us, wanting to get to buisness he did not waste any time and got straight to the point.

War was at our gates, multiple war parties were aware of our presence in the past few conflict that was certain.

Rebuilding the bases was on the agenda but would leave the people working on it vulnerable for massive attacks, also the intel that we had gotten about the revival of "The Dark Queen" was not to be taken lightly and so the old idea of the late Count Vaegir was blown new life yet now with less troops and no Count to lead this crusade, no me and Jérome were appointed as leaders of this crusade.

Mikael, Maelith, Aegrith, Anya and her sister would accompany us as well as threethousand elite soldiers.

After the count was finished explaining I asked about Anya's sister.

"but of course, someone has to treat wounds and with over threethousand fighters I can not do that alone" Anya said

"Katherina!!" She yelled.

from the main hall another maid came followed by three thousand soldiers, the maid was quite beautifull with nice long black hair, A bit Chubby yet voluptious but you could smell the crazy dripping off of the her.

She introduced herself while kneeling to us, yet I could not stop thinking about the craziness coming off of her.

after we introduced ourselfs to her the count started talking again while a maid came in with some books dating before the war.

"As previously mentioned you are going to be "The second vampire crusade" thereby falling in the footsteps of my grandfather Vaegir and his men, you objective is to make way to "The Kingdom of the Frozen Pegasus" if it still exists" Volgar explained as he gave us an old book with information about this kingdom.

"There you will find the only known portal to the second layer of Roquxestremia, on this second layer you will have to find "The Dark Queen" defeat her, kill her and bring me the body." he continued

"Now as for the rules you will follow on this crusade are as followed:

1, Kill all enemies.

2, Only non war parties may be recruited allong the way, we will NOT recruit defeated enemies.

3, Any weapon however may be picked up and used after an inspection by Maelith or Aegrith." Volgar explained

"Am I clear?" He asked afterwards.

"Yes sir" everbody said, in almost perfect unison.

"Good then go out the and make me proud" Volgar said.

Everbody saluted as Jérome and I took the lead marching towards the city gates with everybody following us.

From the gates we made our way to the plateau and at the plateau I called for Maelith and Aegrith.

As they came to the front, me and Jérome picked them up and carried them as we took flight heading south with our fellow vampires behind us.

All day long there was no sign of life anywhere, only destroyed cities some of which were still burning. Night came as we reached a beautifull sight. it was here were a big field met the sea, multiple rivers also connected to the sea.here we set up camp for the night, once camp was set up every adult man took interest in Katherina, as I was more interested in why I could smell the crazy dripping off of her I decided to look for Anya.

I eventually found her in a quiet part of the camp, Mikael was resting on her lap. " Hey Anya can I ask you about your sister?" I asked. "Sure what do you want to know?" she asked.

"Why can I smell crazy dripping off of her?" I asked.

"Yeah some women can when just looking at her, it is her true nature yet none of the guys will see that she too beautifull for them too notice. Yet none of them will please her, she has "other interests" as you will see eventually" She explained

After that I thanked her and made my way to the most nothern part of the camp to stand guard for the night.

At dawn I spotted an army of goblins, hobgoblins and Ogres armed to the teeth with thick armor and with weapons the looked like they were made yesterday, atleast ten thousand strong.

I woke everyone and put them in formation.

fifteenhundred behind me and fifteenhundred behind Jérome. as greatly armored they were they were still goblins and ogres and so we killed them with ease. Slashing off heads, cutting off legs and eventually whole corpses flew threw the sky. as blood flew through the battlefield everyone enjoyed it drinking splashes of the enemies blood while killing the rest. Katherina took a real liking in the killing apparently hoping for one to break through our defence so she could kill it herself. Yet no such thing happened these enemies were to weak for that to happen.

At the end a few hobgoblins fled saying they would return woth back-up. I rallied a thousand of my men as Jérome collected the corpses to make breakfast.

we tailed the fleeing goblins to some mountains to the east just to see them enter a lit cave. I gave my men the order to stand ground as I entered alone.

The cave went in one direction and had some weak and obvious traps, without activating any of them I eventually came out at a big open room with all kinds of artificial man made creatures in cages.

Some of the were small some normal and one was gigantic. The goblins were also there begging some kind of scientist to help them destroy our camp, explaining in the process what we were, with how much we were and what kind of weapons and armor we were equipped with.

"Awwww now I can't let you do that, I can't even let you live." I said as I made my way to them.

"Who are you?" The scientist asked

"My name is Kyuro and who are you?" I asked

"My name is not important to a dead corpse" he answered as he flipped a switch and the gigantic cage opened. A dragon appeared out of the cage, as rare as they are this one was obviously modified, having an exoskeleton that mostly covered his skull but did go over its entire body. "Kill her" The scientist said.

The dragon screamed and afterwards obeyed going after me with its claws. I dodged them and eventually used my void element to go up through the mountain as I reached the top I started to circle above the mountain commanding my troops to get back up while I stayed, waiting for his next move.

It did not take long as a short laser shot through the mountain making it look like a volcano yet all the stone was evaporated, the laser had missed me but now they saw me again. The dragon came up and now it had become an aerial battle, giving me enough space to easily dodge, it had given him the space to keep firing his lasers. The aerial fight started with the dragon firing its laser while closing in on me. I easily dodging the lasers but had no quick answer to his suprisingly high speed he tried to slap me into the ground with his left claw, I used my void element to go through his claw but for some reason could not go through the exoskeleton thus now being inside of his paw. I made my way to his wrist while drinking his blood in the meantime, once there I went forward through his arm biting every muscle I could fine to shreds. The dragon felt me everytime I bit him and start bashing the unprotected part of his arm into the mountain hurting us both yet me more then him, meanwhile Jérome had arrived with everybody following him. He looked at the weird dragon bashing the mountain.

He commanded the troops to surround the mountain While he charged in with Mikael and the twins. Meanwhile back inside the dragon I was getting concussed by every hit, so I bashed my way through to the elbow. here the effects of the bashing were already less so I took a while to restore my senses stil sometimes drinking blood in the meantime.

After not feeling anything in his arm anymore he focused his attention on the charging party.

A laser was shot towards where they were going, sensing it they all halted. now seeing a small crater of evaporated rock in front of them, they dismounted sending the horses back to Anya. they all charge at the left arm of the dragon but just like me they also had no immediate answer to the dragon suprisingly high speed. The dragon bashed them all with his right fists and send them into the ground.

at that moment I started chopping the bones of his underarm as he screamed it out in pain.

After a few chops the bones were broken and his arm was now useless. so I made my way out with my void power, yet again I could not go out through the exoskeleton so I had to go out through the other side of the arm.

once out the dragon was awaiting me and headbutted me into the mountain. completly angered he focused at squashing me between his head and the mountain, as I screamed it out used my void power to dissapear into the mountain only to have a barrage of lasers follow me into the mountain barely missing the lab.

Having survived the barrage I made my way through the mountain to the lab. In the meantime Mikael and Jérome had stood up again waiting for the right moment to strike. seeing a me getting squashed they waited and as I dissapeared Mikael started his barrage of grey lightning this dissolved the exoskeleton and gave Jérome the opportunity to strike, the moment Mikael's barrage was over Jérome stood ready with his morningstar, striking the dragon's right arm.

getting a few bashes in the dragon's scales dit not break resulting in the dragon trying to hit Jérome.

Meanwhile in the lab I confronted the scientist once again.

"I'm still alive but now I do not care for your name, stop the dragon before I kill you" I said, Threatening the scientist. The scientist laughed, "why should I? Back up is already underway" At that moment Lucian and Nerom appeared.

Lucian immediately charged with a cheap shot he punched my stomach and the impact send me flying to the wall.

Nerom however just picked up the scientist and dissapeared again.

"Now with him out of reach you can not stop the dragon anymore" Lucian said while smiling.

"He controls this magnificent creature from his own mind now matter the distance, and now with my help you and your friends will die." he said with a demonic smile.

he then used his nature element to grow one big tree that lifts him towards the dragon.

I regained my posture just to see him mount the dragons head. followed by a flash of grey lightning that burned the tree down.

"What a bad aim" Lucian said to Mikael as the dragon fired a barrage of lasers at Mikael.

a wall off earth appeared as well as Jérome's cat like griffin just to be erradicated, with Mikael and Jérome being badly hurt

Now out of the lab flying at the foot of the mountain I saw Lucian and the dragon destroying the defensive wall of Aegrith and Jérome. I succumbed to my anger as the red ends of my hair got bigger. not caring for the consequences I charged at the dragon.

Lucian sensed me coming turn his attention to me and shot his poison goo towards me, as I just used my void power to go through it. "Get new tricks" I screamed as I aimed my fist at his face, just to see him change in poison gas. I quickly reacted by using my void power to enter the dragons skull. Seeing a chip on his brain I ripped it off, hurting the dragon badly and confusing him in the process he flew up so fast that Lucian's poison gas form did not stay mounted on the dragon.

at the bottom layer of Roquxestremia's atmosphere he stopped while his speed had sent me to the back of his skull.

I took a moment to catch my breath finding out that was already hard to do I screamed, "I have nothing against you but just know this if I ever have to face you again just know, I can get in here with ease and I can do much more damage here then you ever want." ending that sentence with a sadistic laugh I teleported back to camp.

Still full of rage I flew towards the mountain just to see Nero facing off Maelith, Aegrith and for some reason Katherina while Anya was treating Mikael and Jérome's wounds.

This time I could get a cheap shot in.

I kicked his jaw and sent him flying up, followed him I grabbed his throat as Maelith sent a giant downpour on us unabling him to transform, suddenly an extreem heat evaporated the downpour, Nerom had arrived to pick up Lucian.

Seeing how I held a now unconscious Lucian at his throat he aimed his finger at Anya, Mikael and Jérome. "His life for theirs" he said as an immense heat started to come off his finger. I clenched my teeth staring at Nerom with hate. "So what it going to be?" he asked

Katherina who saw what was going on aimed at Nerom but Nerom noticed as a bolt of Black fire came out his fingertip sending Katherina flying towards the ground, the black flames burned her clothes as Maelith and Aegrith tried to extinguish the flames.

now looking back at me he repeated his question with a demonic smile yet raising his voice "What is it going to be!!!"