CHAPTER 59 - Ahead of schedule III - End of book I
Leyla was at a loss. She was first taken captive by the vampires when the monsters started pouring out of thin air to slaughter everyone. She thought she was done for, but ended up being sealed away form the dangers on the outside inside the ever risen castle that the vampires were trying to build.
She wasn’t the only one, all of the younger boys and girls that were with her at the time were taken prisoners too, forced to give their worth in blood just as everyone else in exchange for being kept alive.
She thought of every single way she could to escape, colluding with others in the same space as her, choosing the ones with still hope in their eyes.
The fortress she and the rest of the young children were kept in seemed impenetrable. Dozens of guards were on stand-by at all times, ready to quench any attempts of riots at the smallest of suspicious behaviors.
All the guards had amazing strength and speed, the likes of which she had never seen, reminding her that they were no normal humans under the vampires, but vampires themselves, with all the things that that implied.
She searched for weak spots for days and weeks, but the thick and high walls made it impossible for her to peer outside their section of the castle, and they weren’t granted any right to leave from it.
Everyday there were a few of them that were forced to “donate” their blood to one of the designated guards in an orderly manner.
For weeks they were treated like cattle, wanted merely by the vampire’s need for blood and nothing else, and for weeks her thirst to get back at the vampire grew, but no clear way of getting out that place was discovered by her or her small group of followers.
That was, until one day, the very place they all thought impenetrable was broken into by someone. By the amount of warnings being shouted in their weird language and the panic that ensued in the whole section they could guess that much.
For the first time in weeks, security was lacking. Most of the guards ran in one direction to help fend off whichever group of invaders had come. The guards that remain, were anxious, more distracted than ever, and more worried about the external threat that from an internal one arising.
Leyla saw this as her one and only chance to break out, and took the risk. With the help of her party of accomplices, they managed to avoid detection till they left their section, climbing out the rocky walls of the castle that had yet to be finished.
They made it far in the commotion, stealthy making their way out of the castle while avoiding being caught by any of the guards patrolling the outer section of the walls, but time was running out.
They wasted too much time when leaving their section due to how scared they were of getting caught, allowing things to settle down by the time they were just one wall away from freedom.
The guards on the outer wall were at least half the amount of the usual, but it was still too many for them. Still, they had no other choice but to make a run for it before the other guards came back. The commotion had stopped a while ago and her whole group of escapees was getting restless by the second.
Their indecisiveness, coupled with all their nerves of getting caught, fueled the breakdown of some of them. Some couldn’t take it anymore, being so close to leaving yet being forced to surrender was in no way something they were going to cope with.
Those with that mindset broke into a run, in a desperate attempt to flee from their jailers or die trying.
Once the first one of those started running for the gate, all the other ones gave up and chose to follow them, trying to use the time the guards would waste trying to stop the first ones to make an escape.
The guards were definitely not expecting them trying to break out, but the moment they started to open the gates from the inside they noticed and some of them went down to capture them again, giving them no time to accomplish their cherished goal of finally being freed.
Leyla, who had finally succumbed to their last ray of hope and tried to flee too was caught too, just as everyone else. She could already see their fates being sealed, killed after being sucked dry of blood.
However, such a thing never happened, they were sent back to where they have been living so far and there was no such punishment as she expected. In fact, they were progressively starting to be treated better, more human at least.
For her, it didn’t make sense. They tried to escape and instead of facing any repercussions, they were showered with mercy. There had to be a catch.
And a catch did come.
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Some time after the incident, she and the other youngsters who tried to escape with her that day were summoned by the leader of the place. They had yet to see him even once since they were captured, showing that something was off and that they would probably face the consequences of their actions now.
The time had come, and they could do nothing to resist it, not anymore.
They were brought to what could not be described as anything else than a throne room. There, on top of a throne at the end of the hallway there was a man seated on the throne.
He was talking with a lone hooded individual in front of him with a disgusted face. A long and heated discussion ensued in between them before the seated vampire signaled at the group of scared people, making all of them to fear the worst.
They were forced to follow after the one who had been talking with the king of the place. They didn’t know what they had talked about, but they could guess that they were either sold or sent somewhere else to be taken care of. None of those options sounded like a good one for them.
They were scared, but soon they found courage in numbers, seeing that the hooded figure was alone gave them hope, even knowing full well just how delusional their thoughts were.
Leyla chose to just follow the guy and forget about further resistance. Seeing the other ones from her group try and escape from the guy when he was fighting a beast we came across, she could only sigh.
‘There is no way to escape, if this guy really thought that we would be hard to deal with, he would at least chain us or something instead of just forcing us to chase after it, unchained and unhindered by anything.’ The thoughts that Leyla was thinking sadly came true after not only the beast, but all the other people trying to get away soon fell to the ground, binded by ethereal chains that appeared of thin air.
She was losing any will to fight seeing just how easy it was for their new enemy to stop them all in one move before they could do anything. It all became worse once a massive flying beast appeared out of nowhere and started following us too, clearly companions with the hooded figure.
She and the rest of the prisoners had lost any will to fight by the time they arrived at the place where their new “master” wanted to arrive. Fearful of whatever awaited them, but too scared from both of their enemies to even move out of line.
That’s why when the hooded individual ended up showing its true colors, revealing his human nature while performing some weird moves and drawings they could only look in disbelief at how easy it was for their human foe to betray his race.
Leyla stood there in shock, looking as the other prisoners were sucked dry of their life and dissipated into tiny motes of light later moved by the man and infused in some bigger scheme.
The whole ordeal was as unreal as it was maddening, of all the things that could have happened to her, she was going to die right here to a man who had betrayed his race instead of living her last days with her loving parents and his annoying brother.
As she was signaled to walk into the same place where the other prisoners were sacrificed, she was filled with rage. Hate filled her whole existence, hate for the vampires that had captured them, hate for the monsters who ended their peaceful lives and hate for the humans that just like this hooded one in front of her had chosen to sell their honor and decided to side with the enemy, betraying their own race.
That’s why when she looked down, walking toward her now incoming death, she couldn't believe her eyes as her annoying brother popped out of nowhere, falling from the sky like a meteor and snatching her in front of the eyes of her two executioners.
Everything that happened afterwards happened too fast, from her brother telling her to survive or finding someone, to her being soon after left alone again under the ruins of a bridge.
Everything seemed like a dream as she saw her brother leave the area with his flying pursuer in tow. Soon disappearing from her line of sight.
She found herself running after them, getting back to the ritual space. Arriving just in time to see a group of humans just as her enter the ruined square and approach the hooded man in the middle.
She was able to see how the female girl at the front of the group approached the dying man with caution, just for her to stab him with a knife in the back of his neck, finally ending his life.
She would soon know that that girl’s name was Sera and that she would be one of her best chances at seeing her brother again.
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Leo
I find myself entering the rift with the beast in tow as a huge wave of information hits me. Even with the qi barrier shielding me by the brunt of the shock, it nearly breaks my mind as I try to reinforce the barrier to fend it off.
The overwhelming amount of information that I don't understand at all bombard me as I get to the other side for mere seconds, yet they seem to be hours as I squirm in pain.
Soon, the pains and my mind starts to feel clear again.
Just in time to notice that we are in the sky and that the surrounding mana is weird. My qi barrier starts sizzling as it comes into contact with it. The mana seems to be tainted by something else as it tries to corrode the barrier protecting me.
I notice that I will take a while for the barrier to collapse, so I start thinking of a way to land safely.
I face upwards, just in time to see the silhouette of my pursuer come into view as it crosses the rift after me, the rift collapses the moment he crosses, taking with it a small portion of the tail of the beast and causing it to roar in pain.
Unfortunately for him, his arrival with a new wound just means my ticket to escape this corrupted place. I develop a new plan to get out of the area hoping that the corrupted mana only exists here in the surroundings of the portal.
Thankful that there is no big army surrounding this side of the portal, I create the equivalent of a harpoon with qi and launch it at the beast, stabbing it with it onto one of its hind legs.
Hanging on for dear life, I reinforce both constructs of qi as I hold tightly to the harpoon with both hands. The corrosive mana infests the beast bit by bit after entering from its missing tail, corrupting its whole body little by little.
It tries to fly out of the area as fast as possible, but even once we leave the area the mana that’s inside its body keeps spreading, feeding off his uncorrupted mana and multiplying like a virus.
Once we are out of the corrupted area I cleave half of one of its wings with a newly constructed blade of qi, now focusing on the offensive and letting my barrier dissipate.
The beast, too worried by the spreading enemy, fails to do anything at all and starts falling down once it loses the wing. Taking the chance, I create a rope out of qi now, using it as a leash around its neck to help me get on top of its back.
From that vantage point, I wait till we are closer to the ground, and only then do I finish off the beast and end its growing pain, slicing its neck with another blade made of qi.
Now with some reprieve, I look around, trying to look for anything that resembles Earth, but I don't need any landmarks to make sure, I already noticed a while ago.
I jump with only the strength of my body without any boosts and watch as I soar in the air, easily surpassing the 5 meter mark.
I can’t even start to grasp the gravity of the situation.