Altar was just finished drawing a circle with strange symbols in and around it on the ceiling of the cave. It was the second one that he drew, the first being on the floor beneath it.
"And that's all you know?" he asked making finishing touches.
"Yes, I'm not educated on anything outside of the information I've given you" Grey replied.
'To think children don't get education just for the fact they are born commoners' Altar shook his head.
Other then the shocking revelation of the living conditions of common born citizens of this world, he learned decently important information. He learned of not only of the Borthon empire, but its neighbours within the supposed central continent, the Agalaid empire the smallest of the three south of Borthon and Newmox the second in terms of size to it's east. The Borthon empire sat comfortably at its west. The central continent was considered the human continent, though other races existed and lived on it. Other then that, the central continent was large to the point that while the empires held vast expanses of land there was still vast forests that stay unclaimed on either side because of the great dangers that live within those forests that would be best left alone. The North side of the central continent had many colonies sent by each empire as the north housed a dock that was built in joint effort by each continent and guarded by forces they all sent, that sent and brought it trade with other continents, and using these colonies each empire can slowly strengthen their hold on the north. Grey wasn't sure if the rumors of a dock like that existing was out of his scope of knowledge and who they could possibly be trading with across the ocean, the boy had never left his home town before, he had no reason to even dream of seeing an ocean.
That brought Altars thoughts to the reason why Grey and the other soldiers were in this random no name village so far west.
"How long has this war been going on for?" Altar asked.
"Two years" he replied.
"And it's between the nobles of the opposing sides rather then between the empires themselves?" Altar picked up the body of the panther that was still alive.
"Yes, rumor has it there was an altercation between the young heirs of two noble houses, one originating from Borthon and the other from Newmox and it ended in one death and the other being crippled, both houses asked for an apology and compensation for their losses" grey answered.
"And since their from opposing countries other nobles joined in a made it what it is?" Altar sighed. "Your all deserters that ran from the war, you should be ashamed of yourselves" he shook his head.
"We have our own reasons" Grey said through gritted teeth.
Altar remembered his days when he served the Imperium, deserters were seen as less then slaves and treated as such, they were used for experiments that brought great pain but never death, given tasks that even the strongest of magi or warrior would shiver to even think about and were fed nothing but their own flesh all while being kept alive through magic, death being a more preferable end.
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"What ever your reason, means nothing to me" Altar raised his hands, aura and black energy came out of his hands and went into the circles. They both glowed an ominous dark red.
The panther tried to move once again but to no avail. Red tendrils came out from both circles and entered the panthers body, they wiggled before pulling a glowing white orb from it's body.
"Magic?" grey was stunned at the current development.
"No" Altar held the soul in his hand and chucked it into his body. 'When my body gets to rank one I won't need to do this extra stuff' he swallowed the soul and it went straight into the orb in his chest. His body spasmed slightly and a white glow appeared on his chest. he held it for a moment as his body started to crack, but before the cracks could expand the aura in his body contained the soul energy that was trying to exit his body, and the orb in his chest consumed it ravenously.
"What was that?" Grey asked.
"Its soul" Altar replied. He needed to gather souls to strengthen his body and to get to rank 1.
'Did he use aura for magic? I know he said it wasn't magic, but one can't just do stuff like that with aura alone!' Greg stayed silent in shock.
Altar bit into the panther and drained its blood discrarding it's empty carcass afterwards. He walked up to Grey and stood over him.
"What are you doing?" grey asked.
"Thanking you for your information" Altar stabbed his hand into greys stomach and ripped out his aura core. he threw him onto the circle and grey couldn't help to scream from the pain but black energy covered his mouth once more,
"Don't worry, it'ss be over before you know it" he said.
The last thing grey saw in his few seconds of conciousness were the red tendrils and the two glowing ered eyes of his killer.
The next morning at the village Arrik, George and a woman wearing robes were sitting at a table.
"So there could possiibly be a vampire anomaly out there, preparing to attack us?" Olivia questioned.
"Presicely" Goarge replied.
"This is bad?" olivia shooked her head.
"Why?" Arrik asked.
"Vampires always travel in groups, so I could only imagine the amount of them. And with that ability you said he has, they could be surrounding us right now and we'd never know" she said.
"The sun is up, we have ample time to prepare for an assualt" Goerge said looking out the window at the morning sun.
"Our manpower and supplies say otherwise, we won't last long in a drawn out battle with a group of individuals of his strength" Arrik said.
"The fact they can use our fallen for sustenance is a problem too, they could attack everynight and pick us off until theirs none of us are left" George said.
"Will our friend help us?" Olivia asked.
George stayed silent for a moment.
"I'm not sure, he has disobeyed me and anyone from entering his lab" George said.
"Fuck! That piece of shit is the reason we're in this mess and now he wants to hide away!" Arrik hit the table.
"Come down Arrik,there's nothing we can do but wait and see" George said. "Tell the men that half of the guards on duty should rest and bolster those that will be on night watch, all walking the perimeter will walk in groups of six, they must all have a horn to signal us incase they see anything, all captains must be on standby" he ordered.
Arrik nodded his head and went to convey the messege.
Olivia looked at George.
"Should we not send a scout unit to find any portals nearby? It would help for us to know where exactly they are coming from" she said.
"No, they could be hiding within the forest waiting to ambush our men" he replied.
"i see" she got up and left.
George took a sip of his tea and sighed.
'I should've made better choices' he thought.
A few days passed and the sun was setting slowly in the horizon. In a cave in a mountain Altar was surrounded by the corpses of different magic beasts, from big to small. He ate another soul and his entire body began to vibrate.
'Finally' he thought.
His body began to shift, his bones popping and cracking, his muscles tearing and stretching, organs turned to mush and veins expanding. After his body stopped, he clenched his fists and smiled. he walked out of the cave and looked at the direction of the village with his glowing crimson eyes.
To be continued...