Chapter LIII (53)- The Vampire Lord's Attack

Basil began to swiftly make his way toward the exit on the other side of the room. He motioned for Kizu to do the same. But Kizu was still in shock, staring at Anata, who perched herself over the monster in the ice.

“My dear guest,” a voice rattled from all around them. “Leaving so soon?”

Ice coiled over Basil’s feet, freezing him in place. He struggled for a moment before looking sheepishly back at Kizu.

“Ah yes,” Basil muttered, his voice carrying across the frozen pond. “I, um, important business. Family matters. Very busy you know. Lots to do, places to be.”

“Family matters,” the monster repeated. Only its eyes physically moved, the noise of it appeared to be emanating from the ice itself. “That brings me to you,” it said, flicking its eyes towards Kizu. “Why do you attempt to steal my dear daughter? What do you hope to gain?”

“Where’s my sister?” Kizu asked instead. “What did you do to her?”

“Do to her?” There was a pause. “Ah, Kaga Anna’s brother. How ironic. She was the one looking for you last we spoke.”

“Where is she?” Kizu repeated. His hand clenched in a fist.

“Oh, not dead, if that's what you’re truly wondering. But you likely won’t find Kaga Anna amongst the living either. Did you know she designed that chain around your neck? Perhaps the greatest prodigy of your generation. Not even I can locate her. Not even Anata.”

In a blink of the eye, Kizu was no longer looking down at a humanoid figure frozen in the ice. It dissolved into black, corrupting the surrounding ice. In moments, they stood in a nightmarish cage of obsidian ice. Even the blue torches flickered into deeper shades.

Kizu turned around, looking for a way out. Both exits were now completely iced over. He slowly bent down and picked up Anata. The girl didn’t resist. She looked perplexed, as if trying to puzzle out where the person in the ice had disappeared to. However, she looked notably unperturbed about their current predicament.

“Is that why you attempt to steal my daughter?” The voice reverberated along the ice. “To find your sister?”

“She’s my niece,” Kizu answered lamely. The bodiless voice unnerved him. He needed to both keep the monster talking, but simultaneously not allow it to distract him while he searched for a way out. “How did you meet my sister?”

“As I said, she found me while looking for you. You could actually claim to be the catalyst of the end. A pebble that tumbled into an avalanche.”

“I’m not a catalyst of anything.”

“You’re not special. I agree. Completely average in comparison to your sister and my daughter. You’re a layman amongst nobility. But, if you shift a specific layman in the right direction, empires can crumble.”

“I don’t know any nobility,” Kizu said, only half listening to the monologue. He palmed four explosive potions. He tried to use the same illusionary trick to hide them that he had used back at combat test against Ulric.

“That’s not true,” Basil chimed in helpfully. “We actually know quite a few back at the academy. We could introduce you. Your type usually gets some sort of thrill out of kidnapping princesses, right?”

Somehow, the ice seemed to turn an even darker shade of black. “Better a layman,” the voice said, “Than a quippy jester.” The black ice cemented further up Basil’s leg, reaching his knee.

Kizu, hoping that the monster was distracted by Basil, threw the vials at the wall. He watched as if time itself had slowed down, as the vials tumbled through the air. Just as they were about to touch the ice that covered the exit, black plumes of smoke swirled upward.

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The smoke solidified, taking the image of a man as it plucked all four vials from the air with a single swipe of the hand. It looked down at them curiously. Its black cloak flapped as a breeze ripped through the room. Then it tossed one lazily back at Kizu.

Kizu ducked, dropping to the floor. He felt the heat from the explosion behind him the same time as he heard the eruption of flames.

“Curious.” The monster sounded almost pensive as it loomed over Kizu, it examined one of the other potions, holding it up to the fire’s light. “A hag’s brew.”

Anata ran over to the monster and hugged it around the waist.

“Oh, my dear daughter,” the monster’s voice softened slightly. It patted the girl’s head with one pale hand, the other still fingering Kizu’s vials. Standing side by side, Kizu could see the resemblance. Anata was a blend between this monster, with its handsome sharp features and milky white complexion, with Anna. “You know you’re not permitted outside of your room except for the monthly feeding. It will only be another year until you can come out for good. Well, for us anyway. Time is of the essence.”

“You drink her blood every month?” Kizu interrupted, horrified. He thought of all those scars on her arms.

“Every five or six months for her,” the monster said dismissively. “Plenty of time for her body to repair. We could do more frequent visits, but I decided to refrain. She’s uncannily good at fixing herself up, but no need to risk stunting any growth.” It turned and patted her head affectionately. “Now, Anata, say goodbye to your Uncle Kizu. You won’t be hearing from him again.”

“Wait!” Basil said, jerking frantically.

But the monster didn’t wait. It raised a finger. Kizu stared. He knew he should do something. His mind rattled through possibilities. But all his thoughts returned to think about how pale that finger was. The nails glistened a bone white in the lighting.

It all seemed useless. What could he do? Illusions, elemental, combat shields spells and a memory full of potion ingredients and star charts. None of that seemed useful. He couldn’t even figure out how to divine the correct person’s location. What else could he do? Jump and be dragged back by the beacon? All that would do was prolong his life a few more minutes.

And really, why should he continue on? His sister wasn’t here. She had obviously given up on him. What should he keep trying to find someone who obviously didn’t want to be found? And nobody else seemed that keen on his existence. Where would he go from here even if he did somehow escape? Dead end after dead end. Anna never wanted to be found. He doubted many would even notice him disappearing. And he was so tired. Black mist filled all the orifices on his face. He felt a spike of fear. Not from him, but from far off. He dimly recognized Mort’s awareness through his bond. He sent out a silent apology.

Anata stared at him. Her big, mismatching eyes widened. Then she collapsed to the ground. Kizu had barely processed her fall, when suddenly her body hurled itself towards him at an unfathomable speed. It careened right into him, throwing him to the side.

As he flew across the room, he smashed into something that gave way with a crack. The grunt of pain revealed it to be Basil. The impact of Kizu and Anata had broken him free of the ice. But, as Kizu looked up, while coughing up what felt like an entire lung’s worth of smoke, he realized Basil wasn’t quite one hundred percent ‘free.’ The shapeshifter’s legs were still frozen in place to the knee. But the rest of his body had snapped off and lay in a heap alongside himself and the girl.

“That’s fine,” Basil said, gritting his teeth. “F-fine. Nothing to it. Just got to grow a new pair. Would only take a minute or two. Except, well, it’s so damn cold.”

“Anata,” the monster said. It took a few steps toward them. “What have I told you about practicing divination spells? Precarious. Did this dangerous uncle of yours teach you that? It’s a parent’s duty to cull bad influences.”

Anata looked ashamed. And, worse than that, she looked conflicted. Kizu looked around frantically for an escape. His head still felt fogged though. He threw up an illusionary stone wall in hopes of buying himself a few precious seconds. Then he grabbed Anata and Basil’s arms and dragged them both across the room. Both were surprisingly light.

But his spell barely bought him a moment of relief. A wave of antimagic washed over him, almost physically knocking him off his feet as his illusion flickered out of existence. Even with death looming, Kizu couldn’t help but marvel. It wasn’t just a shield of antimagic that the monster had created, that had been an actual forcefield. And worse, it didn’t feel stretched thin in the slightest. It had been a thick barrier of antimagic. But his marveling didn’t last long. The monster stood before him again.

“That cost me,” the monster said. It reached down and grabbed Kizu’s mop of green hair. It pulled him close. Then it chomped down on his throat.

Kizu felt not only his blood swiftly drain from his body, but his very magic. The monster sapped away his power both physical and magical. Cold crept into his body, leaking into him from his open wound. It was the exact opposite of when Anata gave him blood. He felt the world dull and his magic slipping out of him.

But he focused on the physical pain. The feeling of teeth tearing at his jugular vein. His mind sharpened for a moment. Like a gust of wind through the haze of his mind, his brain clicked into function. He reached to his belt, where he kept Sojan tucked. And, finally, he listened to the dagger’s request.

Kizu stabbed.