I rolled over the body of the massive man so that I could see his face. The unprotected fall had broken his nose, making his already labored breathing even more difficult. He had not died instantly, but hearing his heartbeat and his breathing, I knew it wouldn’t be long. His eyes were still open, but they were glazed and unfocused, and it was obvious that he wasn’t actually looking at anything.
Seeing my foe in such a state, I was struck by how old he appeared. I was certain that it hadn’t been that way before; his hair was graying, yes, but he was still fitter than any human had a right to be, and his face, while weathered, was still firm and full of life. Now though, I counted many wrinkles that I hadn’t noticed before, and the man who had once looked younger than his fifty-something years suddenly looked much older.
I traced one of the wrinkles from his forehead down his temple to his cheek with my finger. He shuddered and twitched at the contact, but I could hear his overstrained muscles tearing even that slight motion and knew that he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Or at least, I thought I knew that. As I watched, however his eyes suddenly regained their focus, and his head snapped up, and before I could reached, his teeth closed around my finger.
“Fucking hell!” I shouted, snatching back my hand.
My index finger was now a stump, and while [Rapid Regeneration] had already stopped the bleeding, it still hurt like hell.
“Fucking bastard!” I said, grabbing his head with both hands and slamming it against the ground.
No longer protected by aura, his head was not as strong as it was before, and I heard a crack as the back of his skull fractured, and the light left his eyes. His heart was still beating, but what before was a gradual weakening had become precipitous. A few seconds later, I got the System notification.
You have slain [Fist God] Casimir! You have obtained a large amount of exp!
User Level 90 -> 93
Class Level 90 -> 93
Many skills have leveled up [View]
You have met the necessary conditions. New skill [Propagate] unlocked.
You have 1700 free stat points available
Propagate? I thought, summoning its description. Does that mean what I think it means?
Propagate lvl MAX
You’ve reached the pinnacle of the Vampire race, and have finally gained the ability to increase your numbers. If a target consumes your blood within one minute of dying, you may choose to revive them as a vampire.
I stared at the window for a few moments, then glanced down at Casimir, then back at the window. It was an enormous risk, but I couldn’t help but to feel tempted. A revived Casimir would be far more powerful than the original, but there were ways I could mitigate the danger. I could collect some of his blood to enthrall him in case he tried to attack, and I could physically cripple him before using it to give myself time to react before his new [Rapid Regeneration] skill healed him.
Deciding that the risk was worth it, I got to work quickly. I took my sword and cut off his limbs, cauterizing each to prevent him from losing all his blood, then stored the limbs in my inventory and activated [Propagate]. I did all this as quickly as I could, because I was certain that there was a time limit on my new skill, and that if I waited too long, it would no longer be available.
Fortunately, whatever the time limit was, I had not gone past it, and felt a strange tingling in my body as the skill activated. At first, there was no immediate effect on Casimir, and I was worried that the skill had failed, or that perhaps I had damaged his body too much and that he had simply died again right after being revived. My worries were alleviated though when I noticed his nose straightening back out, and the burnt flesh on the ends of his stumps began to clear up, revealing smooth, fresh skin.
A few minutes later, his eyes opened again, the exhaustion gone. He slowly sat up his stumps wiggling uselessly while he studied them. Rather than shock, or fear or pain, however, his expression was simply blank, like it had been when I first met him.
After examining his limbs, he started staring blankly in front of him-- reading his status, I assumed-- before finally turning to me.
“What did you do to me?”
.
.
.
As he lay dying on the ground in the cave, time seemed to slow, and Casimir’s mind returned to times past, and all the mistakes he had made.
The Lévesques were an ancient family with ties all the way back to the great Debussian empire that had, at one point, conquered the entire continent. They were the last descendants of the long-extinct giants, and had a long history of military accomplishment. However, after the Ravels came into power, the Lévesques had fallen on hard times, and until the Third Great Beast War, they were mere countryside barons, a few hundred gold away from bankruptcy.
After the war, as a reward for the young lord Casimir’s heroics, the Lévesques were granted the title of Count, and received the land, wealth, and authority that came with it, and for a time, all was well. They had enough money for luxury, they were popular in high society, with Casimir so much so that he managed to marry the daughter of a marquess, and they were well-liked by those in their county.
Then, one spring day two years later, it all came crashing down. The Lévesque patriarch Pascal was forced to retire when his penchant for gambling was uncovered, and Casimir took over his father’s mantle, only to find that his father’s addiction had left them with nothing but debt. For the next two decades, the war hero tried desperately to recover his family’s finances, only to discover the reason that the Lévesques had fallen so far in the first place. Neither he, nor any others in his family had any talent for business, nor were they good at judging people.
After dozens of failed businesses and far too many scams, their debtors grew impatient and gave him an ultimatum: pay what was owed, or they would report his troubles to the crown, and he and his family would be forced into indentured servitude for life. Unable to bear the thought of his family lives as slaves, Casimir began to plot his escape. It hurt his pride to take the coward’s way out, but even as powerful as he was, he was not confident in his ability to keep his whole family safe in Ravel. Just as he was about to reach out to Johann to negotiate terms, though, an offer came in that seemed too good to be true.
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It came from the Lyon dukedom, the second most powerful family in the nation, and by far the wealthiest. They offered to pay off his family’s entire debt in exchange for just 10 years of employment as one of the Ravellian Lions. Casimir recalled the Lions being brought up as an option sometime long in the past, but at the time he had dismissed it without thought. He was a knight, not a mercenary; his loyalty could not be bought. He was still not enthused about the prospect, but given the situation he was in, he didn’t have much choice. It was better than defecting at least.
He put on his finest clothes and made the trip to the Lyon mansion to meet with the duke, and though his heart was heavy, his mind was set. Guaranteeing his family’s safety made sacrificing his dignity more than worth it. However, to his surprise, when he reached the mansion, the one who greeted him was not the duke, but his youngest daughter.
At the time, she was only sixteen, and had yet to make her debut in high society, but there was no lack of rumors about her. It was said that when she was just thirteen, she had already received over a dozen direct proposals from various nobles who had happened to see her while visiting the duke. At fifteen, there had nearly been a diplomatic incident when a visiting prince from Johann allegedly went half-mad with love after catching a glimpse of her while she was at the palace visiting princess Jocelyn.
Along with the tales of her beauty and charm also came less pleasant stories. Ones about her former childhood friends on whom tragedy had befallen after falling out of her favor. Ones of maids and butlers suddenly disappearing after displeasing her. And most often of all, ones about how she had intentionally seduced all those men for no other reason than that she could, only to throw them away when she grew bored.
All these thoughts and more went through Casimir’s head as the young girl greeted him at the front door, but they swiftly fled when she began speaking.
“Many blessings upon you, Lord Lévesque,” she said with a curtsey and a smile. “My father is unfortunately indisposed at the moment, so he has tasked me with handling the negotiation and contract. Do not worry though; while I may be young, I assure you that I am qualified. I have been assisting the duke with his businesses for two years already now.”
Her voice was sweet as honey and soft as silk, and when she smiled, Casimir couldn’t help but think that the nasty rumors he had heard were just that: rumors. There was no way that someone who could smile so sweetly could do the kinds of things she was accused of. He even had a thought that perhaps her beauty was a curse rather than a blessing, for such rumors would follow her around for all her days, even if she were a saint.
“It is no problem at all, my lady,” he said, folding his body nearly in half to kiss her outstretched hand. “I am certain that your skills are perfectly adequate, and your company will no doubt be pleasant.”
“Thank you,” she said with a light laugh. “If you’ll follow me, I’ve prepared a sitting room for us. It will be more comfortable than standing in the hall.”
“Of course,” said Casimir with a smile.
She led him down a nearby hallway and into a small room with a large window through which the sun shone onto a coffee table flanked by two luxurious couches. There was a tray of assorted pastries laid out on the table with a steaming teapot and two teacups next to it. Ophelia entered first, sitting down on one of the couches that had some paper that Casimir assumed to be the contract on it, and he followed behind and sat opposite her. When she saw him duck under the doorframe and the way he sat down gingerly, so as not to break the couch, she giggled.
“Forgive me if this is impolite, but seeing you now, I am curious,” she said. “Is everyone in your family as large as you?”
“Oh it’s not impolite at all,” he said with a chuckle. “I am aware of my appearance and the questions it draws. To answer yours, yes, we Lévesques are all very tall. We are the last descendents of the giants, after all. Though, I am a bit taller than the average. Actually, my eldest son, who is around your age, is looking like he might get as big as me, or maybe even bigger.”
“Wow, really?” she said. “I’d love to meet him. I can’t imagine anyone being bigger than you. Until I met you I couldn’t imagine someone even your size. Is it hard to get around, needing to duck to get through doorways and things like that?”
“Sometimes,” replied Casimir. “Though at our manor, we have had all the halls and doorways raised so that it’s not much of a problem anymore.”
He winced internally.
“Really? That must have been expensive,” she said, seemingly reading his thoughts. “I’d love to see it sometime. It would be like living in a fairytale giant’s house.”
“Oh yes, that’s what my wife said the first time she saw it. Even after almost twenty years she still says she’s not used to it yet.”
The conversation continued like that for a quarter of an hour before finally meandering its way to the main topic of the contract. Casimir was in a very good mood by then, his head filled with thoughts of what a marriage between Ophelia and his son would be like, so when it came time to read through the contract, he did it much more quickly and less thoroughly than he should have. Not wanting to leave a bad impression on what could be his future daughter-in-law, he skimmed through each section, reading only the main points and skipping the fine print, and signed without hesitation or second thought.
When they parted ways Ophelia once again wore a smile, though a much different one than she had in the beginning.
“I look forward to working with you,” she said, shaking his hand.
“Likewise,” he replied.
After the meeting, Casimir went back to his family with a spring in his step, his knightly pride forgotten, elated to tell his family about how he had finally solved their financial troubles. It was not until a month later when Ophelia gave him his first non-Lion task that he realized his mistake, and by then, it was far, far too late.
Casimir cursed his younger self for his foolishness. If he had just read the contract through once this all could have been prevented. If he had noticed what she was doing when she tossed out such obvious bait and used the hook to lead him by the nose. Of course she already knew his family history. She already knew they were the descendents of the giants. She was trying to employ him, so there was no way she hadn’t done her research. But he had let himself get distracted, and the thought of a match between her and his son took the place of any doubts he might have had.
He watched in melancholy silence as the rest of his life flashed before his eyes, unable to look away from all the things he had been forced to do for her. The blood on his hands was enough to paint a castle, but if he had rejected any of her requests, his family would have been at risk, and he simply couldn’t bring himself to sacrifice them, no matter how great the atrocities committed by his employer were.
As the visions neared the end of his life, and caught up to the present, he saw the vampire who had killed him, and his heart was filled with gratitude. He didn’t want to die, but at least this way, he was free, and so was his family. The Demon King of Greed was not a vengeful person; he had died without breaking his contract, so there was no reason for her to go after them anymore. The debt hadn’t been fully paid back, but he had alleviated a large portion of it, and there was hope that his children, who were smarter than he, could finish paying it off and live happily without him.
His memories caught up to the present, and as he watched himself close his eyes for the last time, everything went dark, until a System dialogue box appeared.
You have died
Casimir sighed, or at least, he thought he did, though without a body, he couldn’t be sure. Then, a new window appeared, and he gasped.
Status changed to [Undead]
Race changed to [Vampire]
You have learned the skill [Vampiric Superiority]
You have learned the skill [Vampiric Weakness]
You have learned the skill [Hemokinesis]
You have learned the skill [Darkvision]
You have learned the skill [Enhanced Senses]
You have learned the skill [Rapid Regeneration]
You have learned the skill [Create Thrall]