Aluzar headed towards the small village, with every step he took the small boy could see distinct features of the village.
It had a 2 meter tall stonewall encircled around the wooden housings, the whole settlement was encompassed by fields growing the same plants.
Domesticated animals looking like a mixture of cow and sheep were problably used as cattle, they had the characteristics of the cow but also thick wool like hair enclosing their body. Such convient evolution the little youtht said to himself.
The Small black hooded figure almost reached the entrance, he focused his mana into the eyes to have, for a short period of time, the sight of a human at daylight and see ahead, although, evening already painted the village in red orange light and he could just wait until nightfall, but it would seemed suspicious for a little child arriving alone in the night without being accompanied by it´s parents or relatives.
He had to thought up an excuse on why he was alone, as he came up with an idea, the boy casually stepped towards the gate of the small village.
There were two guards on each side at the entrance, that could fit through a cart or carriage, and they were talking about an amusing issue for one of them, as he was coming closer he could overhear what they were conversing about.
The First guard had a middleaged looking face, with a square chin, thick eyebrows with no hair on his head, a flattened nose and a big mouth framed with fuzzy stubbles. His stature was sturdy having broad shoulders complimenting his muscular arms and fierce brown eyes, giving him a rough and brawny image.
He said to the other guard with a deep manly voice in a teasing manner,
“ Come on, you should share with a good friend, I heard you got that as a marriage gift from her father, why won´t you drink it with me, huh. ”
The Other guard had an annoyed and helpless expression, he was visibly younger and was of slender build but also had some muscles. The Slender guard was slightly smaller than the brawny guard, who was around 2 meters in height. He had average looks not handsome but also not ugly, with a sharp nose and round blue eyes, chest nut brown hair and thin lips without facial hair yet, that was curved to form a troubled smile and answered in a brittle voice,
“ Captain Pekaz p-please, that liquor was really expensive and rare you know and a-also it was a gift from father in law, p-please understand. H-how about t-this, I will treat you to a g-good meal if our s-shifts are over, okay?”
Upon replying, the brawny guard named Pekaz slapped on the back of the spineless average looking guard, what almost caused him to vomit, and lauged loudly,
“ Hahahahaha, it was just a joke Tobito. You have to man up a little otherwise you will definitely get whipped by your newlywed wife, you know. Just get some backbone, because this guard job is harder than it looks and just because you are now connected to the village chief, trough marrying his daughter, doesn´t mean you can slack off as you please, understood?! ”
Thereafter Tobito clumsily saluted and replied,
“ Y-yes s-sir, I will do my best protecting our village”
Aluzar began sprinting into the direction of the two guards, he purposely tripped himself in front of the gate. Pekaz and Tobito who were in an arkward conversation weren´t paying any attention to their surroundings until they saw a small black cloaked figure falling before them. They catiously approached the strange individual and found an exhausted beautiful child, not older than six years, on the verge of collapsing.
The Young juvenile looked up with his morphed icy blue eyes and choked ot fragments of words, “ H-help....p-please.......h-help.”
With those words the young child fainted, of course Aluzar was only acting but it seemed so real it deserved an oscar nomination and it surely would have gotten one. He had stored his newly made dagger away in advance and firmly jammed his signet ring in between his belt and hips to hide it as not to raise greed and envy.
The Two guards knelt down on one knee, Pekaz checked if the young child was still breathing and talked to Tobito in a serious expression,
“ Tobito, hurry up and go inform the village chief and elder. I will carry the child to old granny Jedwigas place !”
The panicking Tobito ran, almost tripping himself over his own leg, inside the village and Pekaz lifted the kid carrying, the unknown child over his broad shoulder, to a shabby wooden loghouse. The Loghouseroof was tiled with irregular small planks in rectangular shapes and the walls were logs, interlocked with notches to keep them together.
The sturdy Pekaz knocked on the wooden door, it was like a hammer trying to smash the door into smithereens, an old croaky female voice rang out behind the door,
“ Yeah, yeah, stop abusing my poor door damnit, it didn´t do anything to ya, didn´t it ?! ”
A short wrinkly old woman opened the door, she had a haughty nose, squinted eyes that looked as if she was always keeping her eyes closed. Her wrinkly lips opened to grumble at Pekaz, revealing black and brown teeth,
“ What is it, I hope ya have a good reason to come crashing at my place, if not ya can expect to be in a good thorough sermon from me. ”
By this statement the strong brawny looking guard couldn´t help but frown, as he knew that old granny Jedwiga was the only mage in this rural secluded backwater village. She was also an alchemist helping the villagers with her medicine she produces, thus the villagers held her in high esteem, if hadn´t had a reasonable argument, he would be sermoned by the whole village all day long what was like a punishment and really embarrassing.
He smiled arkwardly and said with his deep rough voice,
“ Come on granny Jedwiga, don´t be like this if I hadn´t had a good reason, I wouldn´t have come you know. ”
He pointed with his large index finger at the little black cloaked figure on his shoulder. Granny Jedwiga could already guessed what should have happened, she stepped aside to let both of them inside her home. Aluzar who was pretending to be asleep could vaguely feel where they were going to, with his vampiric senses, he also informed Azariah telepathically about his rough plan and commanded her to sty in the near vicinity of the village.
Pekaz walked through the door and followed granny Jedwigas instructions,
“ Bring himto the bed over there and then sit yer ass thight on a chair. I don´t want any needles motions destroying my precious tools and researches.”
The bulky guard carefully maneuvered through a messy unorganized room, that was relative wide in space, it was a simple room with many bookshelfs, eventhough, there were only a few books in it and there were large tables where vessels, bottles, ingridients, mortars and pestles were disorderly placed.
In a corner was a bed under a stairway leading to the attic.The muscular Pekaz finally reached the bed with much difficulties, as he didn´t wanted to destroy anything on his way and layed the kid down on the bed.
Jedwiga took a closer look at the child and was suprised by the beauty, she checked the body temperature through feeling up his forehead and couldn´t find any signs of fever. Then the old wrinkly granny removed the mat black cloak and was amazed by the unknown rare material it was made of, only rich merchants or nobility could afford such exquisite clothing.
She released the clasp, crafted from bones with artistic carvings, holding the cloak fastened togeteher and to have a better look she opened up the front of the fur tunic jacket to examine the body of any visible injuries.
After Jedwiga finished the body check up, she said relieved,
“ There are no visible wounds or traces of blood, the boy is only exhausted and needs to rest for a while, after he has woken up I will personally inform the village chief and elder, so get out and tell that to them. ”
Pekaz raised an eyebrow,
“ What ?! That beautiful child is a boy, how is that possible? Granny I think you made a mistake, such beatiful face could never belong to a male. ”
The Grannys face twitched and she angrily scowled,
“ Ya little punk, if I say he is a boy then he is one, don´t ya see the little adams apple at his throat, ya dumb country bumbki. I don´t need to show ya his dick or do ya prefer to see them, ya disgusting muscle head. Now get yer ass out before I decide to kick it allover around the village. ”
Without a single word the muscular guard hurriedly left the house, informing the chief and the elder about what granny Jedwiga told him, fortunately he met them both on the way to her house.
Aluzar pretended to sleep for a few hours, since it was in the evening when he arrived and realized his ideas. The night had already engulfed the village in darkness. He could have brainwashed the two guards, but that wouldn´t be fun so he decided to infiltrate them and study a little bit of their culture, also brainwashing them right now would cost him too much strain and he was catious about their mental fortitude. You never know, maybe there are some people on Almastea that could resist his mental attacks.
He could only predict the thoughts of people, mind reading was impossible because the thoughts are always shifting to others and are part of the individuals soul and every soul is protected by an invisible power to guarantee their sovereignity.
But their are numerous loop holes allowing Aluzar to bombard the brain, the processor of the body, with information or fake memories until the targeted mind was fryed and collapsed from overloading. After that he could implant new memories and change personality, just like installing a new system software on a computer unit. It all depended on the mental strength of the individuals soul, the operater of the body, and how long the victim could endure such mental strains.
On Earth the humans were easy targets due to their low mental resistants, while they all were subconsciously controlled by mass medias telling them what was trendy, what to buy and what not.
It was as easy as snatching away a babys candy, but here on Almastea it was a different situation due to the existence of magic. That made the supreme pure blood vampire all the more happy, as he saw it as a challenge for him.
The Handsome boy slowly pretended to wake up from his sleep and tried to look suprised, what he magnificiently managed to do. Thanks to acting as starring roles in many famous movies, who won´t be mentioned since that would be a violation against the copy right owners.
He glanced around the messy room and the old granny noticed him waking up, she grabbed the candle holder who lightly iluminated the dark room, walking over from a chair she was sitting in to the corner where the bed was. Aluzar raised his upper body making him sit on the uncomfortable hard bed, that smelled like old dead human, with stretched out legs and spoke in a confused manner,
“ W-where am I, w-who are you ? ”
The Old granny smiled revealing her unhygienic mouth, what caused the boy to frown a little, but he kept his act together. She said in a croaky gentle voice,
“ It´s alright little child, ya are safe inside Desol village. I am Jedwiga Bernsal, could you tell me your name too. I guarantee you that nothing will harm you here. ”
He was reluctant in giving her his real name, but on the second thought it won´t harm him at the moment, thus he gave her a honest answer on this question,
“ My name is Aluzar Refizul Hochstern, n-nice to meet you. ”
He acted shyly on purpose as not to raise unwanted questions, Jedwiga still showing her ugly gentle smile,
“ Oh, Aluzar is it. What a beautiful name and such a unique second name. I never heard such names in my long life, is the Hochstern family maybe belonging to nobility? ”
The Young boy didn´t know how to answer such question. In his former world the supreme pure blood vampire clearly stood above the humans and he was called a noble when he lived alongside humanity but they never elevated themselves,
from one another in their own society.
Everyone who belonged to their race was an equal, if problems occured they quench it from the world with a duel. Of course there were rankings separating the elders from the youngsters, but bestowing someone with a title of nobility was pure absurdity in their eyes, because only humans would give themselves a title to feel superior to other humans and making them special.
The Supreme pure blood vampires are all born equal, just like humans are born equal but since the supreme vampires are more special than humans they obviously feel superior than them in many ways, giving them insights on philosophy.
By watching human struggles and their needless wars over self declared territories, they decided to never elevate themselves, only setting up a supreme pure blood vampire codex with seven rules:
Rule 1: Never forcibly put someone from our own race to his/her eternal sleep.
Rule 2: Always act in secretive ways to conceal our existents, leave no witnesses except your trustworthy servants.
Rule 3: All lives are precious, killing them won´t affect the balance, but never hunt down a race to their extinction.
Rule 4: Conflicts between supreme pure blood vampires are to be quenched with a duel, but direct mortal combat is prohibited.
Rule 5: The Loser of the duel shall admit his defeat and has to abide to the victors demands.
Rule 6: The Sovereignity of a fellow supreme pure blood vampire can´t be touched or changed through a duel.
Rule 7: All Supreme pure blood vampires are all equal and shall be equal through all eternity.
Supreme pure blood vampires are almost equally in physical strength, it was pointless fighting each other in mortal combat, thus they used human armys to wage war and played it as if it was a real time live action strategy game.
Only the wise, the cunning and the intellegent ones were victorious.
Aluzar remained silently reminiscing the past were he played against his comrades to relief their boredom, from medieval castle sieges and crusades to modern warfare with rifles and bombs, where once a lowly pure blood clan tried to subdue him and were totally annihilated by him. The old granny gently spoke,
“ Ya don´t need to answer, if ya don´t want to ya know, but could ya tell me what happened to ya. ”
He snapped out of his thoughts beginning to cry crocodile tears and spoke in a wobbly sad voice,
“ W-we were on o-our way t-to a t-town and... sniff...sniff...suddenly a d-dog b-beast w-with t-three heads a-appeared...wuaaaaahaahaaaaaa...sniff...sniff wuaaaahahaaaahaaa.. sniff...”
Aluzar applied everything he learned from his successful acting carrier and it was a heart wrenching scene. Granny Jedwiga truly felt pity for the small boy, who she believed lost his parents, and said in a comforting voice while hugging the small frail body,
“ It´s okay, everything is alright, yer safe here, it´s a miracle ya survived an attack from a hellhound, so ya have to live on for their sake, understood. We will help ya to find yer relatives and if ya don´t have one I gonna personally adopt ya. ”
The Boy was still in the hug of the granny and looked behind her back over the shoulder. His face grimaced to a disgusted expression, he already found the smell from the bed bad but being hugged by the source was really the worst expierence ever. He wanted to rip off his nose and puke allover the ugly granny, for stinking like the waste products of a fish gutting factory, but he had to endure this karma like punishment, to uphold his efforts in acting the freshly orphaned child.
Finally he was released from the clutches of the old stinky hag and immediately wiped his fake tears away. The Wrinkly hag told him to rest some more, while she would be going to the village chief and elder to inform them of what happened to him. It costed him ernormous willpower to voluntarily lay himself down on the bed, but overcame this hurdle by holding his breath and imagining the beautiful scents of the plains.
The Sun was rising above Desol village and the boy equipped his snake skin cloak and was led on by old granny Jedwiga Bernsal. The hooded boy surveyed the structures of Desol village, it was build around a big water well, the housings were all just like the old grannys home, only a little bigger to fit in a large family.
There were two unpaved roads centering in a crossroad at the waterwell and four entrances, with sturdy wooden gates, each one at the end of the roads. It was a stonewall encircled shaped village, similar to a compass with gates pointing to the four directions and the source of orientation was the waterwell.
He received curious glances while walking through the small village. The small child concealed his face with his deep hood preventing the sunlight to touch his skin, the black cloak seemed to suck in the light around him. He estimated the population of Desol village to be around 50-70 people, with the village being big as a football field excluding the the farming fields, by counting 14 housings and considering 4-5 family members for each household.
They arrived before the only two storied stone building in Desol village, the door was opened by a man in his mid thirties with shoulder length hair, slanted eyes and the same haughty nose as the old hag with a dense moustache above his lips curved into a smile. The man gestured with his hands to enter, while respectfully saying,
“ Welcome Grandmother, little Aluzar, please enter this humble home of mine. I am Larus Bernsal the chief of Desol village. ”
They both were led to a big table with chairs where an elderly man was waiting. He had long grey beard covering his mouth, his head was clean from any traces of hair and he had droopy eyes with thick grey eyebrows above them, that made him appear like he would fall asleep any moment entering his eternal slumber.
The elderly man, spoke in a calm rough voice,
“ Please take a seat, we have a lot to talk about, but I think you must be very hungry, so let´s have lunch while conversing.”
Old granny Jedwigas faced grimaced, upon seeing the elderly man,
“ Ya old bastard, didn´t ya learn some manners or are yer memories already dusted to the point that ya don´t need them anymore. ”
The elderly mans droopy eyes squinted to the level of the old hag and on the side of his forehead popped a vein,
“ Hahaha, how rude of me. I am Gregorio Bernsal, one of the two elders of Desol village, nice to meet you. For the other elder you are already acquainted with, I hope the stinky old hag didn´t harassed you too much. ”
The black cloaked child putted on a forced smile and sat himself on an empty chair and stayed silent, while the granny spoke in a scoldingly manner,
“ Ya old fart, don´t lump me in together with ya, eventhough yer are my little brother it doesn´t mean ya can casually insult the great me. ”
Jedwiga sat herself besides the little Aluzar, that made him frown innerly because of the ordour, everyone was emmiting a foul stench, he was pondering about if they ever took a bath in their life or if that was part of their culture. If then he would surely introduce soap and shampoo in this world and change that nasty culture.
As he thought about this issue, he drifted away in his mind and was brought back by Larus, the village chief,
“ Hahaha, don´t think about the two of them too much, they are always like this and please don´t worry about your safety, we will help you find your relatives. ”
He placed himself on the opposite seat and tried to peak under Aluzars deep hood, but could only see the skin colored lips. A pair of women accompanied by a teenage boy entered the room, they all carried wooden plates withcooked meat and sliced bread loafs to the table. The blonde woman, who looked like she was in her thirties, placed a plate on the table and her big breast wobbled while doing it and she said in a gentle voice,
“ Here is the food, please enjoy it. ”
Eventhough she was slightly chubby, her figure was well proportioned, her face was getting a little wrinkly but was still pleasing to the eye. The second woman also placed a plate of meat on the table and said in a high pitched voice,
“ Here, sorry because of me it took a little longer. ”
She curved up a forced superficial smile and tryed to make it seem natural, the younger woman had a monobrow that resmbled a famous fast food chain on earth and was fat, in combination with her haughty nose and the wart on it she was cancer to the eyes, although, she was ugly Aluzar didn´t had any prejudice against her yet.
Maybe she had a nice personality. As long as they don´t get in his way he won´t kill them but it all depended on what he wanted for the moment. The teenager boy placed a plate with sliced bread loafs on the table and glared daggers at the cloaked figure and said in a disdainful attitude,
“ Hey brat, didn´t your parents teached you any manners, take off your hood, your in the presence of ....”
Before he could finish his sentence Larus shouted,
“ Shut your trap before I smack it back to close it. You idiot, can´t you read the atmosphere, we are gathered to discuss some serious matter regarding Aluzar and you just shame me in front of everyone, prepare for a proper punishment after this is over. ”
He scolded the teenage boy and turned to Aluzar and said in an apologetic tone,
“ Please excuse my sfupid sons behavior, he is a little rough but actually really nice. I apologize for his rudeness, his name is Rafael and the women over there are my wife Lindi and my daughter Lara, now everyone come and let us begin our feast. ”
Rafael tried argueing back but was interrupted by granny Jedwiga,
“ Now Rafael, don´t ya argue back and stop making your father lose face in front of our small guest, he had it rough enough without yer yappin, so sit down and shut up. ”
The teenage boy silently sat down next to his father and the two women next to him. Rafael had the same characterstic lke his sister with a big belly and less uglier but stil displeasing to the eye, they both glared at him with hatred filled eyes. Whats withe the shared hatred all of a sudden, he thougth to himself. He marked them both as a rock on his road, just only as small pebbles, as long as they don´t become a hindrance to him he won´t kicked them into the drainage of oblivion.
The small boy putted back his deep hood and revealed his flawless face. Everyone, besides the granny, gasped in admiration of his beauty, even the hateful eyes of the siblings were filled with it.
Gregorio spoke in amazement,
“ Your truly beautiful, I have never seen such a handsome boy in my lifetime until now, the gods truly gifted you with a great present. Hahaha, you won´t have any problems finding a wife like this. ”
Almost everyone nodded in agreement, some did that unwillingly in their thought. Larus announced,
“ Now, let´s eat before the food gets cold. ”
Everyone began eating directly from the wooden plates, it tasted average just like beef without any spices or herbs but he still choked it down. Gregorio asked,
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
“ Aluzar, do you have relatives in the near regions, who we can contact, maybe someone in the town of Gringallos, that would be really good since it will only take two months with a carriage. ”
Aluzars rough plan was unfolding as he predicted, but something didn´t feel right though he knew that some of the family members weren´t well disposed towards him, they probably excpected a reward ,or assumed he was the child of a noble because of his clothes.
He clicked his tongue mentally, while shoving down the bland food, he regretted overdressing himself, well too late he thought. The handsome boy said,
“ No, I came from far away and I was told that if something happens, someone in Gringallos would help me. ”
Thereupon the elderly Gregorio replied happily with a relieved expression,
“ Good, how fortunate for ...you, we can prepare a carriage in about a week, we will travel in a caravan since we sell our harvest in Gringallos and it will be safer this way. ”
Gregorio smiled but only his thick beard motioned up, he thought of receiving a big reward for the beautiful child either way. Larus was also smiling but only granny Jedwiga remained indifferent. After they finished eating, Larus said,
“ Now, on the matter of hospatility, you can stay here with my family until we depart, alright ? ”
But granny Jedwiga protested,
“ No, Aluzar will be staying with me, right Aluzar ?!”
Gregorio and Larus slightly frowned and argued,
“ B-but Granny isn´t it up to little Aluzar to decide ? ”
Gregorio added,
“ Right, nobody wants to sleep in you stinking shack of a house.”
The little Aluzar was interested in the stinky old hags intention and answered,
“ It´s alright, I don´t want to trouble your family any longer. I will be staying at granny Jedwigas place. ”
The Old wrinkly hag showed a smug face what displeased the Larus and Gregorio, after this matter was closed, the granny and the boy were heading back to the shabby log house. He naturally putted the hood over his head, preventing sunrays touching his face, they entered the shabby housing after walking through a small crowd of starring villagers.
When the both of them were alone, Jedwiga bluntly said,
“ Oh little Aluzar, don´t trust those foolish idiots they all are blinded by the glittery gold. They will bring ya to Gringallos and expect a reward, or before that sell ya off to a slave trader. I should have educated them before they turned to such despicable greedy bastards. ”
He asked the old hag,
“ Why are you telling me these thing, aren´t they your family ?”
She sighed as if she was tired of life,
“ Aluzar, I told ya those things because they are my family and I want to protect them, eventhough, their actions seemed sometimes despicable and underhanded, they are still the only family I have and I want to protect them from harm, I also guaranteed yer safety, right ?! ”
The young juvenile was puzzled and confused, he asked her,
“ From what harm are you trying to protect them ? ”
She sighed again and her croaky voice seemed even more rough and old,
“ Listen Aluzar, I know your are not an ordinary child and there are also vicious beast on the way to Gringallos. When I was a young woman on my path of being an adventurer and mage. I met a monster that was terrifying and it´s power were brutal, it killed all the members of my party, we couldn´t even fift a finger, or even touch a strain of it´s hair it was a one sided slaughter in the middle of the night. ”
Aluzar narrowed his eyes and readied to instantly kill her but he wasn´t sure if she was powerful or not, he only knew now that she was a mage. The boy carefully asked her,
“ Granny how did you know I am not an ordinary boy and what beast killed your comrades ? ”
The Old hag smiled and laughed,
“ Hohoho, little boy I could tell from yer clothes that were either rich or belong to nobility and the fearsome monster that killed my comrades, was a ten meter tall black beast with two horns in the shape of blades on his forehead. It was called Dubukursi, I could only flee because my comrades were buying time for me. ”
She sat down on an empty chair, looking devasted from recalling those sad memories, but Aluzar felt as he was being messed with and she was dead serious about that story, thus he remained silent.
She added,
“ Those vicious beast are roaming on the way to Gringallos, although, it safe in a caravan but it still too dangerous around this time, the village usually travels when the weather gets colder because the Dubukursi will enter their hibernation period. I am afraid that ya and my family will never reach the town of Gringallos, thus I decided to go with ya alone on this journey and leave those fools behind, I am old and about to leave this world anyway. ”
The Supreme pure blood vampire admired her determination to sacrifice her live for her family and pitied her for being a human. He tought about it carefully, since he only wanted to know if there was a town in the near vicinity and he still needed to find out what he wanted to do from now on.
The Child prioritized reaching the town first, after that he could establish himself and having a stinky old hag ,or a greedy family who wanted to sell him off with him on his Journey to Gringallos was more than he could bear with, but what could he do to prevent this from happening, without killing the whole village.
He decided to make a gamble and change his act, Aluzar took out his signet ring and wore it on his right ring finger, it was a perfect fit because it changed it´s size based on the owners finger. Jedwiga seeing the golden patterns on the signet, her jaws dropped and made a turn in her attitude saying in a humble manner, while bowing,
“ Oh my lord, only nobles or royals have a family emblem, so must be one of them. Young lord please spare my family for being so shallow towards you. I will bear the punishment, so please. ”
Aluzar felt a little troubled he didn´t expected such much of a turn in her attitude, but he had anticipated this change to have his way. He inquired her about the beast,
“ Jedwiga tell me, are those Dubukursi beasts really so scary as you told me ,or were you and your adventurer comrades just weak ?”
She didn´t show any displeasing signs of being offended and answered,
“ Yes, we may were weak at that time, since we were only E rank adventurers and I was only a 5th rank mage back then, but im confident because I achieved the 8th rank by now. I will definitely bring back to yer clan, young lord. ”
He replied with an indifferent look,
“ No need, I will go on my own, you are going to prepare a cart with water and food in three days. ”
The Old granny slightly raised her voice and protested,
“ But young lord, there are bandits and beasts on the way. I don´t believe anyone could arrive in Gringallos unharmed, please reconsider your decision. ”
She was worried about the punishment her family would get, if the young noble child were to be injured, thus she needed to accompany him at all cost. From the look of his marvelous signet ring, it definitely must belong to a royal family or a clan serving them, because only those are the only ones that are permitted to have a crown in their family crest, those were the thoughts of the old granny, even she had a bit of knowledge regarding nobles.
She thought about killing the young child to protect her family. The young youth being underistimated, he waved his hands and a large skull of the horned black bear beast appeared before her and he asked,
“ Is that the Dubukursi you are talking about, this poor creature was slain by me and if you don´t believe me, we can proof this through a test but the cost will be your life. Don´t ask how, what or who I am. You should be grateful because I already gave you my true name and I let you know I am more powerful than you even if I am child. ”
It was only a bluff, he couldn´t measure his strength and compare them to other individuals right now, but it seemed to work because granny was awestrucked and stunned silent and didn´t dared to object his demands. He talked with her about this world, in a manner a child would ask it´s parents about how the world worked, without disclosing that he was from another universe or a supreme pure blood vampire.
He learned that this continent was named Vetra´Zulo and that there were several kingdoms on this continent, she didn´t know about any other continents because she never left this one.
There were also a ranking system for physical strength and magic power, it goes from rank 1 to rank 9, the ranks are all included with a title, the inhabitants of this world cultivate their mana either strengthening their body, or their mana pool.
Upon reaching the ninth rank they all aspire to reach the ranks beyond the ninth ranks and become an Archmage or Warrior Lord. There were ranks beyond them, but they were only told in legends and myths, that was what granny Jedwiga told him and she couldn´t tell the boy anymore about it. She also advised him to not tell anyone about his interspatial ring, because they were rare and kingdoms waged war over a single ring, especially for such a piece of artwork on his finger.
Three days have passed and Alluzar never left the shabby housing of the old hag even once, the reason was that he got hooked up on alchemy. After reading some books about magic and elemental essences, he was intrigued because it seemed everyone could see those elemental particles when they concentrate their senses except him.
He channeled mana into his eyes numerous times but couldn´t see anything, maybe it was his incomplete assimilation and he would see them when he completed, was what he deduced, because elemental essences were needed to strentgthen ones affinities he was a little worried.
He experimented with the herbs and powders the old granny had and she teached him the fundamentals of magic alchemy and different magic circles in those three days. He was eager to learn, eventhough, he wanted to discover it all by himself but admitted that, without a fundamental base of knowledge on magic he couldn´t progrees further, so he let it passed just this one time and immersed himself in the fun of mixing, brewing and creating suspicious potions and pills from his herbs and powder, bones grinded to dust, the boy collected through out his journey up until now.
He only needed som test subjects now. He also received recipes for mana potions and healing potions from the granny, what he reluctantly accepted after being constantly begged to take it. Aluzar didn´t really needed those recipes but it won´t hurt, he thought.
Darkness swallowed the day and the starry night blew a cold wind through the lands, what let him sew white tiger pelt on the inside of his hooded snake skin cloak, making him more overdressed but he couldn´t care less. He decided to play the role of the last child from a fallen noble household, hoping to rebuild it´s former glory.
He sneaked out of Desol village where granny Jedwiga was waiting for him with a simple roofles cart filled with food and water in small chests and barrels, consisting of dryed beef and bread loafs, it was drawn by a single horse. He looked at the animal that will be pulling the carriage cart and suprisingly it resembled the horses on earth in every detail. He thought if horses were the perfect animals in both worlds, because they evolved in the same path as the ones on his former planet.
He climbed up the coachmens seat, looked at the old hag and tossed her the dozen magic cores from the rabbits he slaughtered, medically treated,
“ This is a reward for treating me well and for keeping your mouth shut, never speak about me if I hear some rumors about me, I know where it came from, be warned. ”
The old granny was awed pressed out some words,
“ Young Lord, yer are too genorous, one magic core of this size is 2 gold coins alone, but to give me so many it is really too kind of yer, with this we will prosper without worry, thank ya young lord. ”
She bowed deeply and he took the reins in his small hands whipping it, signaling the horse to move, he looked straight ahead to the northwest from the village. The small youh telepathically informed Azariah to come flying to him as he left Desol vilagges farming fields. She came flapping her wings landing besides him and snucked under his cloak, like always enwrapping herself around him.
Azariah was hunting animals and monsters in those days, while Aluzar was in Desol village, and learned the practics from the theories, alltough she didn´t grew any longer or larger in the five monthe after she was born, her grip felt stronger than before, how strange Aluzar thought. They embarked to the town of Gringallos and he rejoiced in the thoughts of finding test subjects for his potions and pills.
One Month passed as they crossed through the lands on the unpaved earth road, the tree leaves began changing from green to various pallets of colors, red, yellow, orange, brown, blue, pink, violet, they all were slowly falling from the sparse woods on the side of the primitive road, yet he discovered another mystery of Almastea.
He encountered dozen of Dubukursi beasts and they wer all slaugthered, medically treated. He didn´t comprehend how this monster, that isn´t even a magic beast, is considered dangerous and strong, the only noteworthy feature is that it was big and nothing more.
He almost completely soaked his body with liquid mana, but he was somehow worried if it would truly help him in preventing his body from deteriorating. He sighed as six human figures jumped from the thick bushes, on the side of the road, one man shouted,
“ Halt !!! Get off that cart and give us your valuables, we might consider leaving you alive and sell you off as a slave. ”
Under his cloak he had a delighted smile as he remembered that he needed some test subjects. The 121cm tall cloaked figure jumped off the coachmens seat and mustered the humans, they were all six men about 1.80 meter big and had rough unkempt hair, all of them were wearing light leather armor and were armed with swords whose blades were chipped.
Without giving a reply, he sprinted with incredible speed striking a low kick against the one who previously spoke the laughable thread, his leg gave of a crunching “ knack”sound, like a twig breaking and he started, rolling over the dirty ground while holding his leg, screaming,
“ Aaaaaaah, aaargh kill that l-little b-bastard, aaarh my leeeg, aaahaaaarg!!”
He won´t ever walk normally again with that leg, the bone was showing itself from the side of his calf and his screams resounded in the ear of his comrades, they all snapped out of their shocked state and approached the cloaked figure, encircled him and trying swing in some slashes, one of them said,
“ You midget bastard, how dare you hurt one of our friends, we will fucking kill you and you will die a miserabely death.”
Aluzar could only chuckle, it was like playing with a child, he drew his 30cm long black blone dagger leaping in front of one of the uninjured bandits and cutted right through his thighs, this showed how sharp his dagger was, severing the leg fom
it´s owner. The Bandit spurted blood like a hydrant from his thighs,
“ Aaaaaaaaah NO, aaaaaaaaaaah, MY LEG, MY LEG, MY LEG, aaaaaaaarhg”
Only four waylayers remained and they couldn´t understand what was happening. They thought this shabby cart would be easy prey for them. Without letting them time to think further the small black cloaked figure blurred and reappeared before the group of remaining bandits and slashed off, with fast movements, one leg from each one of them, they cried out in a choir of screams and whining.
Aluzar enjoyed the screams and crys and waved his dagger as if it was a conductors baton directing an orchestra and the instruments were the screaming bandits. He hummed some melodies while burning the bleeding leg stumps, preventing them from dying from blood loss, what made them scream even more. One of them said,
“ Aaaaaaaaah arg aaaaaaah, just kill us already you fucking bastard are you enjoying this sick fucker ,or why are you doing this, arrgh.”
He said in commanding tone with a preteen voice,
“ Drink these potions and maybe you might feel better or even regenerate your lost limbs. ”
The Small youth made six potion bottles appear from behind his cloak and layed them before the six waylayers.
The Group of men looked perplexed at each other and one spoke up,
“ If we drink those potions, you won´t kill us okay, if you guarantee us that we will drink them, if not we will spill them on the ground.”
The cloaked figure smiled underneath his hood and agreed,
“ Good I agree, I won´t harm you as long as you drink the potions, but everyone has to drink it at the same time and if one of you spills the potion on purpose, all of your heads will be send flying.”
The Six men crawled over to where the potions were placed and each one of them grabbed a bottle. The bottle were almost identical, only numbers told the differences, they simultaneously gulped down the mysterious liquids.
At first nothing happened for a few moments, but suddenly one of them began trembling and bloddy tears dripped from his eyes and small bubbles formed under his skin and instantly bursted and streams of blood came out of them, till he was only flesh and muscles, though he screamed for quite a while and rolled around, his movement stopped after his head exploded into pieces.
Another one of them was convulsing and his body twitched while his mouth foamed. He couldn´t control himself so he urinated in his pants unwillingly and puked allover the place, after some time he suffocated on his own vomit.
The Third subject was ripping out his own flesh with his long dirty fingernails, while laughing insanely. He gouged out his own eyes and screamed,
“ It feeels soo goood, sooo soooo goood, hahahahaha...hahaha...hahahaha..”
He spouted this nonsense until he ripped off his own tongue and teeth, after that he just bled to death.
The Fourth subject was strangely excited, he had a bright smile plastered on his face and his eyes were open but the eyeballs were twisted backwards, he trembled and even got an erection that was constantly ejaculating, it seemed he was having the time of his life.
The Fith one wasn´t so lucky as the fourth, he began to slowly shrivel from his fingertips and crumbled to dust, leaving only his gear, clothes and a pile of sand.
The Last test subject began to let of steam from his body and he slowly became a muddy puddle of blood, bones and flesh. Aluzar watched everything and conversed with himself,
“ Interesting, hehehehe, I think the first one separates the oxygen in the body. The Second over stimulates the muscles and the subject loses control of it´s body. The Third hmmm.., needs further in depth research. The Fourth is a non lethal....No, a lethal aphrodisiac, since his genitals just exploded now, too bad for him. The Fith accelerates the aging progress, I guess. The Sixth let´s the body heat go rampant until melting. Good, the third and fifth one needs more researches. Experiment closed, the results are good. ”
The Small youth collected the leather armor and chipped swords, after cleaning them with a high pressure waterjet created with his magic. Azariah hissed under his cloak,
“ Can we-eat thosse-humansss masssster ?”
He replied with a wry smile,
“ Sorry Azariah, I know you want to taste human meat, but I don´t want you to get a stomach ache, since I treated them with those potions they may still contain the same effect. ”
The eight headed serpent wasn´ t disappointed, because her master cared for her well being, thus she listened to him. Aluzar was cold to anyone he wasn´ t fond of or considered an enemy, although, he kept a facade before them and acted the way he thinks was the best option. He cared for his family and since Azariah was a servant, she was part of his household, and every member automatically stands above any other being besides him and should someone harm them, they become his enemies and will be killed, until their families of every generation are extinguished.
After storing the loot away, he jumped up the coachmens seat and travelled till nightfall.
Under the light of the camp fire he thought about what to do in this new world called Almastea and he recalled for what the creator of creators sended him here and pondered over this thought, his mind wandered to the potions he gave to the bandits and an idea flashed.
He came up with creating an oganization controlling and producing drugs and also training assassins to deal with obstacles, while he would explore the world and build up an public image as a good noble. He could rule legitimately in public and pull the strings from the shadows. He would also slowly destroy the religions and kingdoms on his way and replaced it with puppets kings, like a disease eating them up without even knowing they were sick.
Having a new goal, he fed Azariah magical beast meat and ate some of it himself, after eating he rolled out his clean sleeping mat and began going into a trance condensing his mana. He did that until morning and his entire body was now soaked and in an impulse his whole bode convulsed and his muscle fibers, bones, ligaments, inner organs, eyes, teeth, genitals, veins, blood, arteries, skin and brain began burning with endless pain.
He rolled around for hours on his sleeping mat. Aluzar felt as if small ants were nibbling on his whole body, he reverted back to his true appearance platin silver head and ruby red eyes, long ago. Under such pain it was impossible to keep up the transformation.
The Pain subsided after evening came, from morning until the sun began to go down he endured the mind breaking pain. He stood up and the worried serpent instantly enwrapped herself tightly around him, as if she never wanted to let go off him ever again, his pale shimmering skin gave off a blue aura and he could see with his eyes like a normal human, eventhough, the sun was still up and his skin was just lightly burned from the sun, although, he was under the sun allday instead of being horribly burned, he also felt a bit stronger than before.
The Boy focused his senses and found himself in a wide space in his mind and he could still see his current surroundings, it was filled with sparkling particles of black, red, transparent blue, brown, transparent green, and shiny white, he guessed that those things were the elemental essences and a giant load of wories transformed into joy and happiness.
He was right and his gamble on this theory paid off, now he was a part of Almastea and he already set up a rough plan for the future, but those plans can wait for the moment until he finished savouring this moment of happiness.
Prologue End
Authors note: Sorry for the little delay some problems came up, here i hope you enjoyed it.
Edit note: Proof read it myself, hope there are less errors.