10.2

“We are here.” Palter declared with a calm voice as he softly landed his feet on the top of the roof.

The sun had just start to set, soon the world would be enveloped in a darkness that allowed him and his two comrades to move freely without the harsh rays of the sun.

Parac Village was where the last Seed of Blood was located in, it was a secluded village that no one knew much of nor visited, aside from a few elderly citizens and small families, nothing noteworthy could be said for the village.

The last time Palter was here was to sow the magic that would eventually form the Seeds of Blood as his rite of initiation, not much about this village has changed since then. The quiet atmosphere, the old buildings that have been built generations and generations ago, this place was exactly the way he remembered when he last visited years ago.

Had Lord Termezt not bestow the honor for Palter to become a full-fledged vampire, he would have lived a tranquil life just like the inhabitants of this village, a life without bloodshed nor hardship.

Palter’s fist clenched, the veins to his forehead popped for entertaining that dull thought of his. His sharp fangs revealed themselves before he knew it.

No! I would die before I end up just like them… All of them…

If it was one thing he hate the most, is the idyllic life that people like the ones in this village lived. For once people gotten used to the peaceful atmosphere, they would do anything just to maintain their idyllic lifestyle.

Oh, how Palter remembered the faces of the people who lied to him… To this day, their features, their horrified expression, their blood, all of it, were all imprinted to his very mind.

Palter’s parents had once been rich when he was a child, they were very well respected for their duty as the head of the village they lived in.

Growing up, Palter was a content child, he never had to worry about being hated by the people around him, he was kind and open to others, and the people in his village treated him the same.

Though his parents were a little on the older side when they gave birth to an only child like him, he could not have asked for more than a family and community who accepted and treated him kindly. It was all he ever needed in his life.

One day it changed.

An extended family of his had came to his parents for help, of which this relative of theirs bore the same last name as Palter and his father did.

So, it was only natural that his father gave the help that the relative needed. Upon the relative’s request, his father had left for a journey together with the relative and left him and his mother behind, promising Palter that he would return to him as soon he was done.

Months passed, then a few more, soon it became a year, then another...

With his father’s absence in the village, an unspeakable gloom started to manifest around his picture perfect world.

The kids that used to play with him slowly drifted from him, becoming strangers as time passed, the adults that used to brought him gifts now looked at him with a gaze so cold that little Palter can’t help but to shrink from their scorn each time.

His mother, who used to be the modal woman that all the females in the village looked up to, had turned to alcohol to fill in the loneliness that his father’s absence had brought her.

Still, Palter remained strong in his will, his faith towards his father’s return was still concrete, everyday he would console his mother, he would do whatever he can in the place of his father, the head chief’s role in helping the villagers. He would often volunteer with village work that was suited to his teen self, though the villagers accepted his labor, but the geniality that they once had for him never returned.

Those were the first few signs for him that indicated the cracks on the wall were already far too damaged to be fixed. However, Palter’s young mind simply could not comprehend it then, he only continued on with his generosity and aided in the development of the village the best he could.

What wasted efforts those would prove to be…

Five years passed after his father’s departure, and finally, the same relative returned to his door step, bearing riches that were beyond what he a small village boy like Palter could imagine.

His father however, was nowhere to be seen.

When he asked the relative about his father, Palter was only met with an uncomfortable silence before the relative made himself scarce from Palter’s village.

Enraged by his relative’s silence on his father’s promised return, teenage Palter stomped into his mother’s room to report on he learned.

Oh, how Palter wished he had not done what he did on that fateful day. To this day, even after committing all those atrocities in his life, the horror never escaped his undead heart.

Before he could push through the door and speak to his mother, he heard moans and repeating grunts from voices he never recognized. Not wanting to so rudely to disturb, Palter peered through the slight slit of the door that was left ajar.

In the bed that his father and mother shared were two men, two other men that he had never seen before in his life.

Naked along with his whore of a mother.

The realization hit him all at once.

The reason his mother never talked about his father anymore, the reason the kids who he grew up kept their distance with him, the reason that the adults had only pity in their eyes when they looked at him, the reason a new ‘temporary’ village chief was elected five years ago in place of his father.

It all finally made sense.

His father had died during his journey to help their relative. His mother kept the news from him and committed the worse betrayal known to man behind his back.

The reason for their continued wealth, despite his mother’s frivolous spending and doing nothing but laying at home while he gave his all to help the village that he so loved, came from that relative as a token of apology for his father’s death.

There was no other explanation.

That was the reality Palter lived in.

That damned relative of his, it took that man five years to even show his face to Palter. Let alone apologizing for his fathers death, that scum remained silent while he stood before Palter who would never see his father again.

It was then, did Palter’s human mind snapped. Gone was the child who had everything, the truth came to him, all of it, like a ton of bricks crushing innocent Palter and killed all of his youthful vigor.

Until then, Palter had been living in nothing but a world full of lies. Lies from that his mother fed him, lies that the villagers said to appease him, lies from his religion that told him kindness would be repaid in kind. All of it, was nothing but smoke and mirrors to keep him non the wiser.

Palter did the only thing he knew for having discovered such a horrible world that he was living in.

He denounced them. All of it, each and every single person that he ever knew from his life.

He no longer wanted to be apart of this accursed fate of his.

Palter, who was still yet to be discovered by the whore who gave birth to him, moved to the living room and retrieved the heirloom that his father had on the walls, a cutlass that was forged from the finest orichalcum. He unsheathed it, and returned the room where his mother and the two men were in.

Unlike his previous innocent self, Palter kicked down the door brazenly, surprising the three who were drowned in sinful pleasure.

With the cutlass in his hand, he calmly approached each of them. Palter brought the weapon to the two men’s throats and executed them mercilessly before they could realize what transpired, leaving his whore mother all alone in the blood soaked sheets as he confronted her about the situation at hand, about why she had hidden his fathers death from him, about why she had committed adultery.

Palter’s mother tried to explain that it was a mistake, that he had it all wrong, that she was trying her best for him. That everything was his father’s fault for not returning to her, that how she was lonely despite Palter’s constant efforts to make her happy.

Each empty word that came from her mouth enraged Palter further, but it was not enough for him to bring the blade to her throat.

She was after all, his birth mother, for all her flaws, she was still the person who birthed him in this accursed world. Despite Palter’s determination to denounce his life, his humanity kept him from executing her on the spot.

Just when he was to tell her to remove herself from his life forever, his mother said something that truly drove Palter to insanity. Something that even Palter, who had denounced his everything in his life, could never fathom.

In her nude defiled body, she tried to seduce him to make him stay with her. She took on a falsified sweet voice in attempts to quench the flames ablaze in Palter’s heart, coercing her very son to lay with her so that they could ‘make things right’ and ‘heal’ their relationship.

Whatever hope Palter had for his mother, was all reduced to nothing.

Being alive is nothing but a curse.

With the strength that was left in him, he grabbed her hair and slammed her head to the floor, all the while using the heirloom that his father had left for him to sever each and every single part of her body. With his ruthless act of cutting up his very mother, Palter made sure to rip apart her internal organs before forcing said organs down her very throat.

It was the befitting way to punish someone who betrayed his father and him. It was the only way he knew to release this sadness of his for the family that he thought he had. Palter felt no pain, no pleasure, no anger while he watched his mother gagged and struggled for her life before him.

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There was only release.

When his mother had succumbed to her death, Palter went on a crusade against each and every single person in his village.

Trespassing each and every single property of the villagers, he took his revenge on them for not telling him what happened to his family, slaughtering all forty-six of the villagers without a single tear shed. For their crimes of withholding his fathers death from him, Palter granted them early deaths.

It was his final act of kindness to them. And with their inescapable deaths, gone was Palter’s humanity.

For what they did to him, exploiting his kindness for free labor, used him for his wealth, manipulated him for freebies, a quick painless death was more than they deserved. Had they been kind to him prior to his discovery of his father’s death, perhaps, just perhaps, Palter might still be his old self.

Unfortunately, that was a reality that will never come to be.

When he was done, Palter left his village and walked on the path as an assassin for hire, all the while searching for the relative who was responsible his father’s death. He thought that by honing and selling his proficiency with the blade, that he would gather the relevant intel to exact his revenge on that damned relative of his.

Soon, decades passed, yet Palter had not heard a word about people who bore the same last name as his. After all, his family name was an obscure one used by those whose lineage are to the farm.

Back then, Palter who was nearing his forties overheard that a particular merchant had a vast network of informants. It was said that this particular merchant was able to reunite the long-lost child of the Immortal Emperor despite having been kidnapped and brought over to the Eastern Continent, presumed to never be seen again.

No longer wanting to wait yet another decade to achieve his goal, Palter, in his own arrogance upon hearing the news, headed straight to the infamous merchant and intended to extort the merchant for information regarding his relative’s whereabouts.

As he stepped foot on the grounds of the inn where the merchant stayed at, a man had appeared behind him and plunged an arm deep into Palter’s back with sheer strength, clenching and ripping all his intestines before Palter could understand what happened.

How? His strength…

Palter’s guts were spilled before his collapsed unmoving body, his warm blood covered his cheeks as he watched the unknown man walked with a regal stride, one that was befitting of an absolute ruler.

“Y-you! Don’t you dare…ack…leave.”

The man wearing a white suit underneath the raven cloak stopped in his tracks with a distinct clack from his shoes.

He turned his body and stared down at Palter with a pair of crimson eyes, eyes so red that they reminded Palter of the various lives he had taken. He knew that his profession as a mercenary would end up with him dying by the hands of another, Palter had prepared for such an end for him, but he certainly did not expect his life to be ended by a mere merchant.

“Now….”

The merchant placed a hand underneath his chin in an attempt to think. But when his shoes made another clack, the next moment, the merchant appeared behind Palter and spoke with a horrible voice. “Why would I do that?”

“I need…”

“Ah pardon my rudeness,” the merchant’s voice returned to one that one would expect from a rich noble, as though ending a life of another was a daily occurrence in his life. “I really should not be doing this do that to a dying man. Especially the to the famous assassin known as Umbral Bloodshed.” The man in the white suit stood up and adjusted his suit. “Well… Former assassin at this rate.”

“…information.”

“Information was it? Ahhh, you should have said so, you fool. You see, like any good man, I am well versed in deals, should you have used that brain of yours and offered me gold, I might have given you what you need if you have chosen to enter via the front door instead of the back.” The man in the white suit shrugged, “I suppose whatever information you need isn’t important to the point you can’t use your head.”

“I’ll…give…everything. Please—”

Before Palter could have his words out, the man placed a finger on his lips. “Ah-ah-ah. Do not beg, if you wish to have a deal with me, simply state what you need. Your life would end in approximately five minutes, so I urge you to not waste your breath.”

The man removed his finger from Palter’s lips, then walked on Palter’s pool of blood and sat on thin air as though there was an invisible chair that no one could see.

“Speak,” the man commanded. “The head of the Termezt family commands you to do so.”

Palter gulped on the blood that overflowed in his throat, “I-information… On someone who…ack…has the same last name as me.”

“And your last name is?”

“H-Harvest! My name is Palter Harvest, s-son of Eli—”

The merchant raised a hand and stopped Palter before the dying man waste anymore of his short life.

“And what do you have to offer to me young Harvest? If its riches, I have plenty of. If it’s your life, I have already taken. Your assassin skills are not worth praising at the slightest, as far as I know, you are an idiot who is on death’s doors trying his best to cling on to any hopes of living.”

“I...” Palter tried to respond but he coughed out blood. His body was getting colder by the second, he could feel his strength draining from his body the longer he and the merchant spoke.

“I do not wish to be bothered by a peasant’s simple wish to be reunited with their family, there are far more important matters at hand than your meaningless squabble.”

Bored with what Palter was telling him, the man got to his feet and dusted himself in preparation to leave the dying Palter alone.

But Palter did not give up, he used his remaining strength, and crawled towards the man, grabbed his white pants with his blood smeared palm. “Unhand me, you insolent child."

“N-no! I…I want…revenge. P-please…I’ll do anything. I don’t care what happens to me or who does it, I…I just want them to pay…f-for what they did to m-my…f-father…”

It was at that exact moment the merchant’s eyes lit up in interest. “Tell me, what did this person…who bears the same family name as yours, did to you father?” intrigued by Palter’s unusual sense of motivation, the merchant paused in his tracks.

“H-he…” Palter became short on breath, the blood that his heart was pumping no longer reached his brain, any minute now, he would die from blood loss, but even so, he was not going to rest until his vengeance has been exacted. “…My father died… I-it was because of him that… I became this way… T-that…” Palter wanted to speak, but his lungs wheezed as the world before him dimmed.

The merchant nodded understandingly. “I see. Now young Palter, you have two options, so decide quickly. If possible, do you wish to carry out this vengeance of yours against that man personally?”

Palter, out of breath and out of blood, nodded with all his strength.

The merchant had a vehement expression when Palter answered his question and followed up with another, “Even if it means becoming a monster?”

“I-I have nothing…to loose…”

“Very well. Bare with me as I ascertain the sincerity to your words.”

The merchant became silent. He placed his hands onto Palter’s head made some inaudible chants in a soft breath, the merchant’s sleek decolored white hair floated in the air as the man continued to maintain such a his chant in the silent night as the cold air sapped away Palter’s body heat.

M-magic?

After a dying man’s eternity, the man released his hand on Palter’s head, a smile crawled on his face. “In sight of your honest words, I have decided that for both our sakes, I shall break some rules, young Palter.”

What…do you mean…? Palter who could no longer speak thought.

In response to his thoughts, the man lifted Palter’s broken body from the ground, and stared at Palter with his glowing crimson eyes. His smile was sinister, the confident smile that the merchant had earlier was now replaced with one that belonged to a sadistic monster.

A pair of fangs appeared from the merchant’s upper teeth, flashing into view before the man brought Palter’s neck and buried the fangs deep into him.

All the leftover blood that was still in Palter’s body was instantly drained, reducing him to nothing but a dry corpse.

Or so Palter thought.

Not a moment sooner, the blood that was extracted by the man was injected into his body, returned to Palter three times the amounts that was extracted.

Finally, the man retracted his fangs from Palter and dropped Palter on to the ground. Palter squeezed his eyes as he expected his body to fall to the ground after the merchant had released him, but strangely, the strength to his two legs returned to just in time for him to stand on his own.

Palter moved his hands to the hole in his abdomen that the merchant and created earlier, only to discover that it was fully recovered, the only evidence that was left was his torn clothing and the remains of his organs sitting in a pool of blood before him.

“M-my body… I-it’s recovered!” he declared. As he twisted his body to assess what just happened to him, when he brought his hands before him, a gasp escaped him. “My wrinkles, they are gone…”

After Palter had calmed down from the miracle that he just experienced, the man spoke.

“Do you know why I wear this suit of mine?”

Palter shook his head.

“The answer is simple, as a vampire, whenever I get to consume any blood, I would have refrain myself from preventing any red stains from smearing onto me. Such is the way of self-control and discipline, it serves as a reminder for me to not be consumed by my desires.”

The man took a deep breath before he continued, “And as for you young Palter, you might have been a human in the past, but your comprehension of the world far miniscules from mine… However! That is not to say you are a lost cause. I have peered into your mind of the day that you rejected your humanity, the day your rejected your whore of a mother and I could only find myself admiring how intact your sense of self still is. How your convictions still stand to this day despite what has transpired in your human days. Simply remarkable.”

Palter did not make a sound as the vampire praised him. To Palter, his personality was just the product of his accursed fate. All Palter wished for, throughout his life Palter only wished for...

“Your wish for purpose, your wish for a community, your wish to pledge your loyalty, I see it all very clearly. They have yet wavered since the day you were born. How very interesting… As your master, you have my word that all of it shall be granted to you in this new life of yours.”

“…”

“From this day onwards, you are no longer the human Palter Harvest, you are hereby, Palter Termezt, the vampire son of Ex’car Termezt! Rejoice, for you are the first outsider in a century to be turned into a vampire!”

Palter’s fangs revealed themselves as he recalled fondly on how proud Lord Termzet had been with him ever since back then, his master had not once mistreated him in his vampiric life, sure, Lord Termezt’s training was strict, but outside of his acolyte training, Lord Termezt had been an honorable vampire whose boundless kindness extended to anyone who pledge their loyalty to him.

Without his master’s incredible guidance, Palter’s human life would have been nothing, only now that he was under Lord Termezt did Palter’s eyes became open to the vast possibilities that his life had to offer, only now he understood that there was a greater purpose beyond his long yearned vengence.

As he lived and abided Lord Termezt’s each and every command, Palter felt that his life had never been more fulfilling. Each passing day of this new life of his, Palter was thankful to Lord Termezt for ever bestowing such kindness to him.

And now… Palter’s long awaited moment to exact his vengeance has come, and it was all thanks to Lord Termezt who so kindly arranged it for him.

A stream of saliva came dripping down his fangs.

Palter could no longer contain his excitement. For today was the destined day for his revenge, to unleash his lifelong vengeance that he harbored against the damned relative of his.

Though that very man who caused his father’s death was no more, his descendants were still alive—namely, the relative’s only son and grandchildren—Lord Termezt had informed him of such.

Initially, when the news first got to Palter, he wanted no more than to rush to their whereabouts and to torture them to his heart’s content, leaving them to their deaths once he was satisfied, however, his master forbade him before he could even explain his intentions to him.

“But why, Lord Termezt?”

“You see young Palter, if you give in to your desires now, what happens to you after you’ve killed the child of the man who doomed your father? Once you’ve carried your rightful execution of your relatives, what will be left of you, Palter Termezt, my vampiric son? Did you not promise your eternal servitude to me?”

“…”

“Patience is a virtue, my child. Compared to them, you and I are immortal, a few years is but a blink of an eye. Until you have found your true purpose as my rightful aide, I would permit you to do what you please with them.”

The conversation that Lord Termezt and him shared came to his mind, Palter nodded as he repeated his master’s words in his mind, reminding himself to not lose sight of himself, to not be drowned in his emotions.

Palter respected his master for teaching him as such. Which was why he patiently followed his masters instructions and got to know them in an intimate way, planted the Seeds of Blood into one of them many years ago.

He was certain that he would not be consumed by his own emotions when the day finally came.

But somewhere inside of him, a bottle of pressure that he thought was long suppressed from his past human life finally released itself.

…

“Ah… Ah-hahahahaha!” Palter’s face twisted into a horrible expression, one that even would unnerve the dark beasts of Reperane Woods. His mouth foamed as arched his back backwards while his laughter become maniacal. “Mirosssss Harvesstttttttt!!! I am cominggg for all of youuuu!!!”

Sozak and Kelgrim only stared at their friend in the distance, their gazes shaky as they watched Palter lose his calm and reveled in insanity. They had known that collecting the last Seeds of Blood was an important task for Palter. But they had not known that it was to this extent.

To them, Palter was their commander, their leader, their ace, their brother from a different lineage. Just like Lord Termezt, Palter himself had often protected them and lent them his strength on countless occasions without fail. Each of them cannot express the gratitude towards Palter for having stayed by their sides in the harshest of times.

And now seeing Palter in such a state, had made them realized that how little did they understood him.

“Palter…” Sozak tried to call out to his friend but Palter stopped the moment his voice reached him.

Palter’s straightened his posture, his face that was bent into a steep angle was now his usual calm expression, he adjusted his clothes as though that nothing happened earlier.

“Forgive me, my friends. It was just something I had to do. After so many years… I finally can return the same favor that wicked man did to my family.”

“I-if that’s what you say. I kind of wished you told us what happened.”

Palter’s face curled upwards, “Now, now, after we are done retrieving the last Seed of Blood, I shall tell you the tale of Palter Harvest, of the husk of a man who I once was. For now, let’s focus on retrieving Lord Termezt’s treasure. We musn’t lose ourselves.”

“Your orders, Palter.” Kelgrim stepped forth and looked down to the village before them.

“Our target, Itzella Harvest, the wife of Miros Harvest. You two will subdue Miros as he watches me painfully extract whatever life essence is left in his wife, making sure that the man and his family will have no means to escape.”

“Understood,” Sozak answered. “And of the children?”

“Go after them if they attempt to escape. Feast on their blood however you wish, I have no interest in them but their inevitable deaths. My main goal is to see Miros and Itzella Harvest’s last struggle.”

Palter looked to the dimming sky, just a few more minutes the world would be enveloped in darkness and he would finally exact the revenge that he sought out for.

“Here in Parac Village, is where the Harvest bloodline comes to a permanent end.”