Inside the main hall of Dracula's castle, the members of the war council together with a few remaining soldiers are waiting to make their stance against the attacking forces.
Issac, a tall and lean man with tattooed lines and dots across his dark skin, is carefully listening to the sounds beyond the large gate.
He might not be a vampire with improved hearing, but the heavy treading of iron clad boots and rolling wheels were more than loud enough to be picked up by even his human ears.
'They are preparing to breach the gate. They probably have prepared some siege equipment in advance before destroying the bridge.' Cursing the machinations of Carmilla in his mind, who he suspected to be the mastermind behind this ambush, the human Forgemaster quietly pulls out his focus tool.
The oddly shaped knife now firmly held in his hand is his personal conduit required to channel the required magic to create the monsters known as night-creatures.
His friend, or past friend, and fellow Forgemaster, Hector, also possessed such a tool but in the shape of a hammer.
Shaking his head to get rid of the thoughts related to the grey-haired man with his naïve way of thinking and strange way of treating everyone not close to him as if they were animals and pets, Isaac gets ready to defend the home of his master and friend from the enemy.
It's then that the screaming began.
Terrified and pain filled cries ring out beyond the door accompanied by the sound of panicked movement and desperate scrambling.
Then a series of slamming sounds start coming from all across the castle as the shutters of the windows close automatically.
"The shutters are closing?" One of the council members mutters uncertain because that usually only happened because of a single reason.
Confused at what happened beyond the gate and the castle's strange reaction, the Forgemaster exchanges a few glances with the vampires around him.
"They are screaming something about the sun suddenly appearing in the sky." One of the soldier's relays after listening to the screams outside.
"The sun appeared?" Issac questioned with a raised eyebrow before turning his gaze to the gate and narrows his eyes when he noticed the thin line of light shining through the crack between the double doors.
'How could the sun be out already? It is the middle of the night. Is that why the shutters closed?' Feeling uncertainty gnaw at the back of his mind, the Forgemaster turns to the other council members.
"There is something strange going on outside and I'm not sure we will be able to deal with this on our own, so I'll go inform Dracula about the situation." Receiving approving nods, the human rushes up the stairs next to the throne and down the hall behind to go find Dracula and tell him about the recent happenings.
Meanwhile, outside of the castle.
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Flying illuminated by the rays of the sun in the midst of the night, casting an inhuman shadow onto the ground in front of the large gate belonging to the eerie castle, is Juniper in all her demonic glory.
[Soul prison Tome] resting in her palm and busily capturing all the souls of the dead or dying vampires turning to ash under the brilliant light of the [Sun's Tear], the moth stares at the system's creation menu.
'I'm going to use all my current skills in this fight. But they won't be enough to guarantee my win.' Letting her mind drift to the menacing presence she's feeling from inside of the castle, she ponders.
'So… I need a few fail saves. Of course, with my current resources it would be easy to just make a skill or item to counter Dracula, but… he is a threat to the current me. I want to keep it as such to push me further. Playing on easy mode with no challenge will ruin the game. All I need to do, is to make sure that all scenarios ARE games, with fun as the priority and not survival.' Reaching into the [Soul prison Tome], she puts away all the freshly gathered souls that add another nice chunk to her growing reserves before calling upon her status.
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Name: Juniper Actias
Race: Demon
Bloodline: At least four different kinds
Demon Name: Beherit Dagea Fenzri … Kalim Sedit
Form: Adult
Hierarchy: Top of the low rank
Attribute: Dark
Strength: 75
Speed: 40
Magic Power: 300
Vitality: 80
Loaded Materials: Mantis Blades, Subdermal Armor, Wings [True Flight], T-Virus, Haki Awakening Pill.
Skills: Psychokinesis (Strengthened by Virus), Draining Touch, Focus, Haki, Crown of Thorns, Elemental Magic (Fire, Wind, Ice).
Talent's: Soul Peer, Demon Blood, Soul Devouring Addiction.
Items: Corpses (Human, Demon, Night-Creatures), Spear, All good Shaker, Camo Tarp, Lantern of Craving, Horadric Cube, Juniper's Haki Training Manual, Repulsion Capsule, Infected blood (Soul Stealing T-Virus), Transmission Mirror 2x, Translating Glasses, Morningstar whip, Enchanted Sword, Miniscule, Furniture…
Equipped: Shifting Robe, Soul prison Tome, Sun's Tear
Number of Souls in Possession: 7'221 low-grade, 6,5 high-grade (9.5 with Tome)
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'Oh?' Looking at her stats displayed by the system, she gets a bit surprised as they have increased by a small amount, rounding things up a bit from their previous count of 71 strength, 37 speed and 78 vitality.
'Must be the adaptation and growth traits of the T-Virus doing its magic, letting me reach the full potential of my current body.' Pleased by this small but pleasant revelation, the moth gets back on track.
'Hm, lets peak my magic stat. It will level the playing field a bit but not skewer it. Then I need to get a secret weapon to fall back on when my spear and the Morningstar turn out to not be enough, also a power upgrade in case his second phase proves to be too much. Heh, could also just recall [Sun's Tear] and let that old bat see the sun again. Not sure how affected Dracula would be by that, but it will do probably something.' Inputting her plans in the creation menu, Juniper spends 400 souls on a magic power growth potion that she promptly jugs down.
Throwing the empty vial aside, she closes her eyes as she feels the rush of power entering her heart.
As the amount of power contained in the organ increases, she begins to feel bloated.
"Ugh, this feels really uncomfortable." Muttering this, she glances at her magic power stat that jumped up to 400, reaching her maximum for now and increasing her rank to peak low rank.
The amount of magic a demon can hold before having to rank up is somewhat related to the purity of their bloodline.
A low rank demon with pure bloodline can increase his magic power a lot further before ranking up.
That is something Juniper intends to work on at a later point.
Finished with the first step of her preparations, she moves onto the next one, sinking a total of 1.9k into the design of her secret weapon and power upgrade.
After that she prepares some support items.
'I need an alternative healing option to [Draining Touch]. Potions are a no go with the speed at which this fight will progress, same for magic power. Hm, how about this?' Inputting the design, she tilts her head left and right before nodding.
'That should do.' Making 3 of both varieties, each piece costing her a good 250 souls, she stores them in her inventory after forfeiting 1'500 souls.
[Health Crystal: A very fragile crystal filled with regenerative energy. Upon shattering, the energy within will be released and quickly fly towards Beherit Dagea Fenzri … Kalim Sedit to completely restore any damage sustained.]
[Mana Crystal: A very fragile crystal filled with magic power. Upon shattering, the magic power within will be released and quickly fly towards Beherit Dagea Fenzri … Kalim Sedit to completely recover her magical reserves.]
'With these I pretty much have 3 lives and full MP bars, allowing me to remain in combat without having to worry about taking a sip in the midst of the fight. I can just break them in my hands or even throw them at Dracula. As long as they break, I will receive their effect.' Done with everything and her low-grade souls drained considerably, the moth takes out her spear and Morningstar whip.
'I still have a grand total of 9.5 high-grade souls. 3 of which are those of the trio and in the tome. I want to keep them for now. That still leaves 6.5, gonna hold onto them for now and cash them in when need be.' Descending in front of the large gate surrounded by ash filled suits of armour and abandoned siege equipment, she focuses on her observation haki to take note of everyone's positions.
'Seems like Isaac went to grab the old bat. Good~. My entrance wouldn't work if the main target isn't present after all.' Feeling how an excited grin begins to stretch across her face, Juniper awaits Dracula's arrival to kick off this show.