Hey there! So here it is, chapter 8. It took a while... way longer than expected, but I just got so freaking much homework the past month. I mean, it was completely unexpected. I didn't get nearly as much last year, but oh well. I can't really do anything about that.

Anyways, here it is, and I'd say the wait was worth it. This thing's a beast! It's almost twice as long as chapter 12, being over 20000 words, and 62 pages long! So yeah, even though the wait was longer, you get like 6 chapters worth here!

Also, this chapter is broken into parts, being numbered in roman numerals. I did that, so it would be a bit easier to read. 62 pages is a bit much to take in one sitting, but now you can just read the parts, which go from I to XII, being twelve parts, plus a prologue.

Also, one more thing. I think RagNarok is a bit busy right now, since he's not coming online much, so he hasn't had the chance to edit this yet. I upload it now, since I don't want to make you guys wait any longer. So yeah, unedited for now, but I'll post the edit as soon as it is done.

Anyways, without further ado,

Chapter 8

Prologue

The festival had passed, and days had gone by. After the festival, we had held another urgent war meeting, as new variables had entered the hand of war. Originally, our side had been outnumbered, both in the numbers of common soldiers, as well as the elite masters.

But now, it was difference. While we still might be outnumbered in the number of commons disciples, a factor such as that, meant nothing in the face of overwhelming strength. Our side now possessed far more elite masters. In the recent skirmish, the Demon Sect side had lost more than half of their Mythical Saints. Perhaps, even less than a third remained. And that number would quickly diminish in the coming battles.

And to top it off, our side contained me, the sole able Legendary Saint, of the entire continent. But that is a factor, which is dependent on one single, unstable variable. The Demon Master. The state of the Demon Master was unknown to us. We did not know whether he was alive, wounded, healthy or sick.

He was but a single unstable factor, but he was a factor that could completely turn the tide of battle to the enemy’s side, and shatter all hope which we possessed. But for the side of the Demons, we also possessed such a factor. For they did not know the state of our Sect Master, Assiel the Master of the Sword.

They did not know whether he was recovering, or whether his life was slowly dwindling away, but a sliver of the thread of life, hanging from his soul, connecting to the Realms of Nether.

But at this very moment, the tides of battle swayed in our absolute favour. Therefore, there was but a single action, which we would take. Destroy the Demon Alliance. Advance our armies, destroy their Sects, kill their disciples, eliminate their Elders.

It had been decided. The all-out war would finally begin. All the disciples and Elders of all our Sects were assembled. Divisions and companies were made, Elders were given ranks of General, Captain, Lieutenant, and so on. Every single disciple and Elder were put into the army, no exception. The Supreme Elders, and the Sect Leaders, were all given the rank of Grand General, in charge of all the forces, of our Sword Alliance.

And thus, the war, which would be known by many names, throughout the continents, had begun. The Great War, the Crimson War, the Blood Wars, the Wars of Grim, the Demon Crusade, the Sin War. Known by many names, yet not a single one with good meaning. The war in which death was defined, the war, where mercy meant death, a war which coloured the continent in crimson red.

The war, which showed the mortality, of even the greatest of beings, even the most beloved.

The War of Sanguine.

I

The gates opened, and out marched the forces of the Sword Alliance. Division after division, company after company. In the head, were the commanders of the forces, riding on, headstrong, on the backs of their mighty Drake Steeds.

Their steeds were the mighty Drakes, descendants of Dragons, but they were not like the Drake which a great battle had been fought against, hundreds of years ago, by the forces of Coldblood.

These Drakes did not possess special bloodlines, and were of limited strength, but they were still mighty steeds, none the less.

The mighty armies of the Sword Alliance marched forth, with one purpose in mind. Take the first stronghold from the enemy, annihilate the first Sect, and proclaim war.

The numbers of disciples, numbered in the hundreds of thousands, the number of Saint and Mythical saint level Elders numbered in the thousands. The number of peak level Mythical Saints, numbered in the tens.

This was truly the mightiest force, which the continent had seen in millennia, and even further back through time, such an army was rarely seen. For this was not just an army of large numbers, but every single soldier present, could shatter mountains, annihilate entire cities.

This colossal force, which the world had never seen before, was for the purpose of sending a message. A bloody message.

The army marched forwards, the Five Supreme Elders in front. Normally, the Supreme Elders wouldn’t all participate in the battles, but this time, everyone was there. Many treasures had been taken out, both for the purpose of having even more power in the coming battle, as well as safe guarding them, while the sects were left close to unguarded. They were not completely unguarded though, but if the sects were raided now, they wouldn’t find many treasures.

Thus the army marched for many days and nights, before the horde of powerhouses arrived before their target. Of course, the army was huge, so there was no way that the enemy sect didn’t notice them.

Thus, the leader of the enemy, as well as a few cohorts, arrived in the sky.

“Why are you here?!” The old man shouted, demanding an answer, as to why such a huge army had arrived before his doorstep.

“Why are we here? You know very well that there can only be one answer, to that question. The conquest has begun, and wars shall rage. This is the end of you Demon worshippers! We shall kill all of you, and gift your souls to our Patron, the God of Death! And his very son, shall bear witness!” Garmond shouted, as he pointed towards me, with his open hand.

I had not intended to reveal my Identity, to the knowledge of common folk, but I guess it would be fine. After all, we didn’t intend to let even a single enemy live.

The leader of the enemy side looked at me, both in horror and shock. He was a big shot on the Demon side, so of course he knew of the plan to kill me, and he would definitely be able to recognise me.

“He’s alive. You’re alive! Tell me, what happened to the others! TELL ME!” He shouted furiously. Most likely, someone dear to him had been present there. A smirk appeared on my face.

“You ask what happened to those fools?” I asked back, when my body disappeared, in a flash. Less than an instant later, I reappeared before the sect leader, and his cohorts.

“I killed them, of course,” I said, with the same smirk present on my expression. The old man’s face paled, as his eyes widened. Even the cohorts were taken aback.

“But worry not, I brought something back with me. Garmond, the bag!” I shouted back to Garmond, as he threw me a big, heavy, leather bag, to me. I easily caught the bag.

“Here,” I said, as I threw the bag to the old sect leader. The man caught the bag, and slowly opened it, with foreboding sensation. As the bag was opened, and he looked into the leather bag, his face was devoid of blood, and it seemed as if a bit of his soul escaped.

“This, this,” he mumbled, “you, you, you, you killed all of them. Not a single survivor, NOT A SINGLE SURVIVOR, ALL DEAD!” He screamed, as he dropped the bag.

“Worry not, your head is about to join them,” I said, as I, in a flash, decapitated both the sect leader, as well as his cohorts, and blood sprayed everywhere, in the immediate surrounding. Barely a minute had passed, and four heads had already entered the bag.

“Now, COMMENCE THE SLAUGHTER!” I shouted, raising my hand high. Immediately, every single disciple and Elder, charged into the sect, and commenced the slaughter, on the ill prepared enemy, who had already lost their leader, as well as the strongest elites.

War cries, and shouts of battle commenced, as wave after wave, of brave fools charged into the sect, and slaughtered anyone in their way.  The poor fools in the enemy sect didn’t stand a chance. They were vastly outnumbered, and they were but a single sect.

Even if they were one of the larger sects, in the front of several tens of sects, hundreds of thousands of disciples, thousands of Elders, and several tens of Mythical Saints, they could do nothing, but die.

They fought valiantly, but one, after the other, they all fell victim, to the fate of death. Even the Supreme Elders joined in the fun. The battle only lasted for a few moments, before the grounds were bathed in blood. Dismembered and bloody bodies adorned the ground; corpses of both sides.

The few people who hadn’t been killed already, had surrendered, and been captured.

After the battle was over, all the captives were gathered. Garmond had come over to me,

“Well, that’s it. The battle is over. It was a complete massacre, thousands upon thousands dead. But for now, what should we do with the captives?” He asked me, seeking guidance. I was quiet for a while, before an idea struck my mind.

“We’ll kill them. But we’ll also use them to send a message,” I said, cryptically, making Garmond look at me curiously.

Without wasting a single moment, I started sending out orders. First, I had the disciples decapitate the heads of all the deceased enemy disciples. Then I had them build a huge gallows, out of the corpses of the fallen soldiers; big enough to hang every single surviving enemy.

A few hours later, and it was ready. The survivors, who numbered a few hundred, were gathered in a line, along the huge gallows, formed out of countless corpses. Each and every one of their faces were pale; even several of our own, had pale faces. But my eyes didn’t even as much as flinch at the sight. I had seen worse things. Like and entire village slaughtered by an uncontrollable beast, of infinite bloodlust, where not even children were spared.

In this cruel world, you had to get used to things such as those. Especially in times as these; ravaged by war. Garmond looked at me in new light; he had no idea I could be so cruel.

“Isaac, I must say, I never expected you to do something like this. Never in my life, have I seen such a cruel sight,” he said. I didn’t even look at him, as I replied,

“I am the son of Death. My very nature is revolved about death and killing. Doing something like this, is nothing, but my nature. And it’s not the worst thing I’ve done. They are soldiers, in times of war. More despicable have been done, in the name of war.

Hear me, Garmond. These coming years are going to be nothing like before. You have to be cruel, merciless and if necessary, evil. Things such as pacifism is not going to win this battle,” I said. Garmond nodded silently,

“I understand all this. I have lived a long time; something like this won’t face me,” he said.

As our little construction was finished, and the several hundred survivors were hanged, we went to last part of my little plan. Using all the severed heads we had collected form the fallen disciples and elders, we constructed a message.

“This shall be the fate of all, who league themselves with the Demon Sect. There shall be no mercy, there shall be no exceptions. All will die!”

Thus the message told, in large words, that used thousands upon thousands severed heads. And thus, as the first battle had finished, we returned home victorious.

II

A dark room; headquarters of the Demon Alliance.

A group of powerful men and women, were gathered around a table, in a dark room. Although the room was dark, it was brightly lit. The sense of darkness in the room, was not in the sense of light, but atmosphere. Everyone was in a very dark and tense mood, as they had received some very bad news.

“It’s been one month, yet we’ve already lost three whole sects, and three more peak Mythical Saints. What shall we do,” a beautiful woman said. There was more silence.

“We need to fight back. We still possess the numerical advantage, so we should be able to deal some damage. The only problem is that they vastly outnumber us in peak Mythical Saints. But there are only so many of them, and they can’t all be everywhere at the same time.

We’re a bit late on the uptake, but we need to start fighting back, now,” and old man said. Most of the people present nodded their heads, in agreement.

“You’re right. We definitely need to fight back, and destroy as many of their sects as possible. But as it is now, we don’t possess a single chance at winning this war. Our numbers, won’t be able to do anything against their peak Mythical Saint. And to top it all off, there is that man.

The man who sprang up out of nowhere, and made it to the Legendary Saint rank, in a measly ten or twenty years. He’s an absolute monster. We were no match for him even as a peak Mythical Saint, but now, he could probably kill all of us at the same time. After all, he already killed almost two thirds of us, at the same time,” another man said.

“What you say is true, but we cannot lose hope! We’re the ones that started this, so we have to deal with it. If we can only hold out for long enough… We must hold out until the Lord recovers!” A young woman said. Again, most of the people present nodded their heads.

“Hmm, yes, if the Lord recovers soon, we could definitely win. But what about that Assiel? We all know that he didn’t die from the poison. We don’t even know his true state right now. He could very well be recovering, and he might recover before the Lord. Assiel and the Lord’s strength are equal, so it’s truly too uncertain,” the same man said,

“Yes, there is the problem of Assiel, but what do you propose we do? There is no chance we can get to him, and finish the job. That Isaac is there. And… I have received some information about Isaac. Some terrible, terrible information,” the old man said. Everyone’s interest had been piqued, and they looked at him, with worried expressions.

“Isaac, is no mere mortal. He is a Demi-God, the son of a God. And not just any God, but the God of Death!” He said, an almost panicked expression on his face. Everyone was shocked, at the indeed very dire news.

“He’s a Demi-God?! Then we must hurry! All Demi-God’s, will naturally become Immortals, and many reach the power level of a Demi-God as well! If he reaches that level of power, then we are truly doomed!” Someone exclaimed.

“Indeed. So we must fight, and we must fight now! We cannot sit idly and let them destroy us, but we also cannot wait, until that Coldblood reaches an invincible power level! Yet there is only one thing we can do. Fight this war, and hope that the Lord recovers soon.

But at the very least, I can tell you that there should not be long left. We just have to hope that Assiel doesn’t recover first,” the old man, who seemed to be the leader, said. Everyone nodded, and they then began to make plans for war.

Sword Sect, Isaac’s residence.

Amelia and I were having our dinner, out of ornate, golden chalices. In the chalices, there was a delicious crimson liquid, with a taste so divine, yet most people would be disgusted by it.

“It’s been one month now. The Demon Alliance is sure to start retaliating soon,” Amelia said. Amelia was very familiar with the aspects of war, as she had experienced many in those five hundred years. More than even some of these old experts, as all-out war, was very rare, in such a stable land.

There were only small skirmishes, between the sects and organization, but very rarely and full blown wars, with eradication in mind.

“Yes, they should strike soon, but I expect they will be very cautious. It is likely that they have heard of my true identity, and they will likely want to wait for that Demon Master to recover. If he truly does recover, then it will be very bad. But we don’t intend to wait that long.

If we can find him while he is still recovering, we might be able to kill him. After all, he most likely has all his attention on recovering, so he wouldn’t even notice us there. But his hiding place will probably be very hard to find, so it’s a bit of a predicament.

But as long as Assiel wakes up first, then we should be set,” I said. Amelia nodded in agreement.

“Indeed. We have already destroyed three of their sects in one month, so we are going at a good pace, although that speed is bound to lower drastically now. After all, we can’t continue to send our entire army out, and leave everything unguarded,” Amelia spoke.

We continued to chat, about various things, like the war, and home, as we had our dinner. We knew that there was a fifty percent chance that we could lose this war, but we were calm, none the less. If it came to it, we could slip out of this place, and go to some other continent. I had a slight suspicion that the other Supreme Elders might even suggest it, since I was the Son of Death, as they had taken to call me.

The sects of the Sword Continent were very religious, and the Sword Sect worshipped the God of Death, and his sister, the God of Life, as well as various others.

Since I was the son of the God of Death, it was very important to then that I didn’t die, as I was an important religious figure.

As we had expected, the Demon Alliance started to fight back shortly after that. They had already attacked and destroyed one sect, after one month, albeit it was only a small sect.

And thus, the war truly started.

Three years passed. After the first few months, the pace of the war had slowed down significantly, and only a few sects would be destroyed per year. This was due to the Demon Alliance being very defensive, and it was hard to push through. And sending all the peak Mythical Saints wasn’t a good idea, as that would leave our side pretty much defenceless, and they could counter attack themselves.

We would only send a few peak Mythical Saints in at a time, but we would always have more of them, than the Demon Alliance. On the other hand, the Demon Alliance still possessed superior numbers in the common soldier, but that number was quickly shrinking. In just another year or two, they might have even fewer disciples, than our side.

But, I had a feeling that the war hadn’t even fully blown out yet. It was still pretty calm, as there were only a few major battles every year. And so far, not a single peak Mythical Saints had died, except than the first one. Even more, only a few Mythical Saints had died at all.

But then, it was as if the heavens had fallen down to earth, bringing calamity in it’s wake.

A youngling rushed into my residence, not caring a single bit for ritual or tradition, not even waiting for permission to enter.

“Second Supreme Elder, disaster had struck! The First Supreme Elder told me to get you in all due haste! You must hurry to the gathering of Elders!” The boy explained in a rush, seemingly very nervous and scared.

To see someone as mighty as the First Supreme Elder almost panic, meant that something big had happened.

“Relax boy. I’ll go immediately. Let’s go Amelia,” I said, as I immediately readied myself to go. Amelia nodded, and an instant later, we had arrived inside the Sword Hall.

“Garmond, what’s going on? Has something happened?” I asked. Garmond was silent, as the four other Supreme Elders, and all the other Elders looked at him.

“Calamity has struck. Four sects, four peak Mythical Saints; all destroyed. Just now, I received a report that a whole four sects have been destroyed, together with their four peak Mythical Saints! But that’s all of it.

The Demon Alliance, has allied itself with the Mages of Ember. The Mages have joined the battle,” he said, a very gloomy look on his expression. Everyone’s expressions tensed, as they heard his last words.

“The Mages have joined the battle.”

These words were indeed dire. The Sword continent, was largely dealt into two different groups. The Cultivating Warriors, and the Mages. These two sides were equally powerful, if not considering the Sword Master, and the Demon Master, however, their structure was vastly different.

The cultivating world, was composed of thousands of smaller sects, and hundreds of stronger sects, but the Mages world was different.

There were only three major powers in the Mages world. The Mages of Ember, the Order of Tarnish, and finally, the Kitserra. Among these groups, not much was known about Kitserra, except just its name. The Mages of Ember, and the Order of Tarnish were open schools of magic, and possessed numerous branch schools, and practically all the magic schools and academies of the continent belonged to them.

However, Kitserra was not to be reckoned with. Nothing was known about them; their locations, what schools they had, what magic they practised; nothing was known. Except for just one fact. Neither the Mages of Ember, nor the Order of Tarnish would dare cross them.

However, the Kitserra would never act, never interrupt in ongoing affairs, so the two groups didn’t concern them too much about the Kitserra. After all, the Kitserra only concerned itself about the affairs of magic, and reaching perfection. Nothing else was known.

However, much was known about the Mages of Ember, and Order of Tarnish. The Mages of Ember was a group of justice, and honour. They resent evil, and would go to great lengths to maintain the forces of good.

The Order of Tarnish, however, was an evil group, which revered in chaos and destruction. Their very presence was illegal in many counties and provinces, although that didn’t help much, as they still managed to find their way into every country.

Naturally, the two groups were very antagonistic. But they were also very powerful, and if the Mages of Ember had lent their help to the Demon Alliance, then things were bad. Very bad. All our current advantage might just have disappeared into thin air.

“What are we going to do?” Someone asked.

“I don’t know. The Order of Tarnish won’t help us, after all, they love nothing more than chaos, and our God is one of the personifications of order. They would never help someone who worships the Gods that keep the world in order,” Garmond said,

“Then there is only one option left. The Mages of Ember have joined the enemy side, the Order of Tarnish are likely to stay on their own, and cause as much chaos as possible. Then there are only the Kitserra left,” Garmond continued. Everyone looked at him, as if he was a madman.

“Just how do you propose we do that?” One of the Supreme Elders asked. As a response, Garmond looked at me.

“Isaac, I think it’s time we reveal your identity to the world. Make it official. This is the only thing I can think of, to make the Kitserra help us. In the very long time, I’ve been here, I’ve never heard of a Demi-God appearing. At the very least, it might spark the interest of the Kitserra,” Garmond said.

I stood silent, thinking. I had originally not wanted everyone to know, but by now, several people already knew. It was likely that even the enemy side knew.

“Fine. We’ll reveal it to the world. Hopefully, this will put the situation in our favour again. After all, time is running out,” I said.

“Good. Then, you will have to leave the Supreme Elders, and take on a new title. You are a Demi-God of Death, the son of the God of Death, Gebados. Therefore, from this day hence, you shall be known as the Apostle of Death! Let it be known, the Apostle of Death has appeared! Spread the word to anyone with ears!” Gebados yelled his orders out, and the Elders immediately went to order their disciples.

“Isaac, now that you’re not a Supreme Elder anymore, maybe it’s time I became one, in your stead?” Amelia said.

“Hmm, well, you are strong enough. It would be better for our forces too, so why not. Just don’t think you have to do something rash, just because of your new position. We still have a family back home, to think of,” I responded, although a bit unwilling, but I didn’t want to stop her. I couldn’t make stay useless. She was a strong woman after all.

“Garmond, I think we should induct Amelia as a Supreme Elder. After all, her true strength has already reached the middle stage of a Mythical Saint,” I told him. He was somewhat surprised, but he knew she was related to me, so it wasn’t weird for her to have strength beyond her rank.

“Of course, I should have known that she is stronger than she looks. If her strength is at the middle stage, then that would make her the new Third Supreme Elder, behind Supreme Elder Nana,” Garmond said. Then he turned to the Elders that were still present.

“Good! Then, let it be known that not only has the Apostle of Death appeared, but a new member has been inducted into the ranks of the Supreme Elders of the Sword Sect!” He roared, as if he was letting the entire heavens know.

All the Elders present roared back, in applause. Such events were just what they needed, after suffering such big casualties.

And thus, the news of the Apostle of the God of Death appearing in the Sword Sect, spread through the entire continent, and even further.

III

Far, far away, in a hidden place, shrouded in mists and mystery; in a valley, surrounded by trees and cliffs; there was a hidden civilization. The people of this secluded kingdom, were small in stature, and slender in form; possessing small wings on their backs; a peculiar glow, surrounding their body.

The grasses and leaves of the land, were shaded cobalt and lush, with green and fresh colours, woven into its fabrics.

The sky was like a sparkling lake, yet covered and undisclosed, hidden underground, yet still outside.

The entire existence of this place was peculiar and mystical.

But deep down, in the underground valley, there was a majestic palace, of such size that it seemed like a whole continent could fit in, yet when you got close, it seemed small and cozy. But then, inside, it yet again grew large, and august.

Deep inside this palace, in the throne room, there sat a king, an emperor, the leader of an ancient civilization.

The aura he permeated, was one of imminent death, and assured destruction, yet it emitted a feeling of utter peace, and tranquillity, like a spring in summer.

This figure was tall, and beautiful; a one of a kind, amongst these short, petite people, where they wouldn’t grow more than an arm’s length, at most. But he was still slender delicate.

On the majestic figures side, sat a beautiful woman, only a bit shorter than the king. Her aura was similar, almost identical, to the kind, yet dreadful king on her side.

They both sat in complete tranquillity, until the mouth on the male, raised up, into a smirk.

“It seems, ‘he’ has finally appeared,” his voice sounded, permeating a sense of complete stillness, complete tranquillity; complete solitude; into the hearts of anyone who might have heard.

IV

In a hidden place, on the Sword Continent, there was a large amount of buildings, forming what seemed to be a city. Amongst these buildings, there were a lot of churches and chapels. Amongst these churches and chapels, there was an especially large cathedral.

Inside said cathedral, there was an old man, wearing dark, black robes, kneeling in front of a statue. The statue was of a hooded, shrouded man, holding a cross in his hands.

A man, dressed in red robes, quickly walked up to the elder man, kneeling behind him, a nervous expression on his face.

“This Bishop pays his respect to the Pope,” the Bishop said quickly.

“Speak, Bishop,” the apparent Pope said.

“This Bishop bears important news for the Pope,” the Bishop said, in a calm voice, only betrayed by his expression.

“The Information Bureau has been informed that an Apostle of Death, has appeared in the Sword Sect. After gathering more information, it has been confirmed that it is very likely to be true. At the moment, since the Sword Master, and the Demon Master, are both disabled, this Isaac Coldblood possesses the greatest strength in the entire continent, despite only just having reached the Mythical Saint level. His current strength is at least at the early Legendary Saint level,” the Bishop reported calmly and to the point.

“Hmm,” the Pope pondered, “With that amount of power, at his stage, it is indeed very likely that he is Son of Death. Good. For now, observe him, and see how he will fare in this war, now that the Mages of Ember have joined the Demon Sect. Then, before too much damage is done, we will join the Sword Alliance. The Mages of Ember might be righteous, but we will always uphold order, and that cannot be gained through going against the Gods of Order,” the Pope Ordered,

“If the Apostle of Death dies, then order will be upheaved! Now go, deal with your orders, and make sure that Order remains,” the Pope continued, before giving his final orders.

“Yes, Most Holy Father,” the Bishop said, before turning around, to give out his own orders.

Then, another two years passed. The advantage we once possessed had become nothing, but a memory lost in time. We didn’t even have more Mythical Saints anymore, as over ten of them had died, and the Mages of Ember had brought quite a few peak level Mythical Saints with them.

We had lost many sects, and our numbers were dwindling. Things were looking bleak. Many of the battles we fought, were lost, but from time to time, I or Garmond, or the other peak level Mythical Saints would intervene. When that happened, we would often win, as no peak level Mythical Saint would go intervene on their own.

The peak level Mythical Saints that had died, had all been the ones belonging to the attacked sect. And naturally, when I fought a battle, all hope would be lost for the enemy, but it was rather rare for me to take effort, to go all the way to the attacked sect.

When I had intervened, I had always happened to be close. In the past two years, I had spent quite a bit of time with Ley, from the Lin Sect. He was the one who was closest to me in strength, as he was the strongest Mythical Saint. He was also the first person I met after coming out of seclusion training, back then.

Thus, our friendship had grown quite deep, and we now considered each other good friends. He also didn’t treat so much like a holy symbol, but was more casual with me.

This was the reason I grew quite nervous, when the message boy rushed into my residence, bearing news of the Lin Sect being sieged.

It was no secret that Ley and I were good friends, so the message boy had spared no amount of time or effort, and rushed directly to my residence, not even awaiting permission.

“Holy Lord, the Lin Sect has been sieged. Currently, a great battle is being fought, against the forces of the Demon Sect, and the Mages of Ember. There are several peak level fighters there!” He said, with all due haste. When he finished, he started panting, as he had rushed a great distance, to make it here as quickly as possible.

“What?! This is bad. Boy, you’ve done a great service coming here. I’ll take off immediately, now go and report this the First Supreme Elder, and tell him that I took off!” I said.

“Yes, Your Holiness, I’ll take care of it immediately!” The messenger said, and took off. Immediately after, I sprouted my wings, and took off at full speed. Even though I could fly without my wings, they would give me a great speed boost.

Time was off the essence, since it was clear that the Lin Sect was greatly outnumbered. They Lin Sect, only possessed two peak level Mythical Saints, and it sounded like the Demon Sect and Mages of Ember had brought several peak fighters with them.

Ley could handle two peak Mythical Saints, and Walton could handle one, so they equalled three peak Mythical Saints, but I had no idea how many the enemy possessed.

Thus, my wings flapped, and created hurricanes in their wake. I flew as quickly as I could, and set my course for the Lin Sect grounds. It only took a few moments, before I managed to get there.

It was in times like these, that I hated the fact that there were no teleporters in the Sects. All sects were against using teleporters to get into the sect, as being able to get to the sect grounds was like a test of might.

As I saw the situation, my face paled. There were corpses everywhere, both disciples from the Lin Sect, as well as from the Demon Sect, and Mages of Ember.

I quickly scanned the area, and both to my luck, and dismay, I found Ley and Walton. Ley was fighting against three opponents, and Walton was fighting against two.

Walton had been injured, and was barely holding out, while Ley’s situation was better. I didn’t dally long, as I saw that another opponent was getting closer to Walton, seemingly to sneak up on him.

I quickly found out that there were six peak level Mythical Saints present. A great number, as each side only possessed a few ten, counting the Demon Alliance and Mages of Ember separately.

With a burst of power, I rushed up to Walton, interrupted the back stabber.

“Humph, quite courageous of you to sneak up on a wounded opponent like thus,” I said with a cold voice that sent shivers down the backs of the enemy, yet gave a warm sensation to Walton. A sensation known as hope.

“Isaac,” he spoke, his eyes widening, and mouth forming an open smile, as he saw me. The enemies however, paled, as they saw me.

“It’s the Apostle!” One of them screamed.

“You have finally grown brave enough to attack one of the main sects, huh? And you really though I would sit idly, as one our most important assets, was being attacked? Not to mention that Ley is my good friend. Truly foolish,” I said, as I flapped my wings, creating hurricanes of wind, blowing everyone away.

“However, I feel quite good today, as I was able to save my good friends brother, in the nick of time. Then, if all you peak Mythical Saints sever your own heads, I shall let one millionth of your forces live! Truly, truly, I won’t even hinder their departure, and let them do as they will. However, if you resist, I shall slaughter every single one you. The men will be burned and decapitated; drowned in the blood of their own brethren, and the women will be raped, and torn apart. Surely, there won’t even be a single survivor,” I said, with a frighteningly kind and calm voice.

The enemy commanders looked at me in horror, but their faces were still stern.

“Then, what will it be?” I asked, one final time.

“Go burn in hell, where you belong!” They responded.

“So be it.”

My body disappeared, only to reappear a distance behind two of the peak Mythical saints, holding two red lumps of meat in my hand, as they fell to the ground. I smashed the hearts in my grasp, and quickly spun my body, in the direction of the sole woman in the group.

I grabbed her neck, and started squeezing it, until it wasn’t connected to her body anymore.

The remaining three peak level Mythical Saints tried to run, but I gave them no mind, as I pursued the one, who went in the opposite direction of the other two. I quickly caught up, as my speed might be my greatest attribute, when I used my wings.

Using my colossal wings, that seemed to cover the heavens, I smashed them into the Mythical Saint, and smashed him into a pulp.

“Truly, the difference between a Legendary Saint, and a Mythical Saint is colossal,” I said, before I turned my attention to the other two.

Flying in a bow around them, I quickly made it in front of them, causing them to abruptly stop.

“Hum, I am truly in a good mood today, after getting such a relaxing stretch. Alright listen here. If you cut each other in half, vertically, I shall let one of you live,” I said.

Of the remaining two Mythical Saints, one of them belonged to the Demon Sect, while the other was a Mage of Ember. The Mage of Ember looked at me in disgust, but the eyes of the Demon Elder flashed, as he in a swift motion, cut his ally in two, from head to bottom.

He quickly looked at me, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. I slowly hovered over to him, then grabbed his neck, and then started to drain his life force, through my control over blood.

He looked at me in horror, as he felt all the blood in his body leave him.

“You said you would let me live if I killed him! You said you would let me live!” He shouted, as he realized he was going to die.

“Are you stupid?” I responded.

“I said I would let one of you live, if you cut each other in two. Only you cut him in two, he didn’t cut you in two. And when I said one of you, I mean one of your disciples down there, one of the soldiers belonging to your factions. But oh well, I feel merciful today, so I will let one of your men live,” I said, as I drained his body dry, until only a withered husk was left.

Ley and Walton quickly made their way up to me.

“Thank the Gods, you made it here when you did. Had you only been a second late, I would have died,” Walton said.

“Indeed, we truly owe you a debt now. Not once have you saved my brother from death, but twice! Now you’ve even saved me too. We can never fully pay you back, friend!” Ley said. I smiled to him, while all the minor soldiers on the ground were looking up.

The disciples of the Lin Sect finally saw hope, while the disciples of the Demon Sect, and the Mages of Ember, knew true despair.

In the past few years, when you heard the words, “The Apostle is here,” it could only mean one thing. Absolute destruction.

Not even once, when the Apostle of Death had come into the battlefield, had there been even as much as a single survivor. His arrival, had always left a wake of death and destruction.

I was the only reason, why our side could still remain somewhat fearless. As long as I was there, our main stronghold would never be attacked. And now that this event had happened, it was likely that the major powers in the Sword Alliance would remain somewhat safe.

“Ley, my friend, you need not worry about such trivialities. You are my closest friends here in the Sword Continent, and we are part of the same alliance. If I didn’t come save, I would be both heartless, as well as stupid. Not only are you my friend, you the second greatest asset we possess, as the strongest Mythical Saint. I simply cannot afford to let you die, neither do I want it. Now if you will excuse me, let me show everyone here a bit of my power,” I said, as I turned back to the forces below.

I slowly pointed my hand towards the frozen battle below, as I drew some blood from my veins, as well from the corpses of the surroundings. Then, in an instant, the blood gathered on the battlegrounds, and formed a colossal crimson dome.

Immediately, screams ensued, and the dome seemed like a still storm, as all sort of undisclosed horrors happened, in the boundary of the crimson dome.

A few moments later, the dome faded away, to reveal massive amounts of desecrated corpses, and rivers of blood. Only the disciples of the Ley Sect remained.

The Ley disciples had horrified looks on their faces, as they had seen the horrible monsters and illusion with ensued in the blood dome.

“Listen clearly! In the name of our God, the God of Death, Gebados, I the Apostle of Death, the Son of a God, order you! I order you to commence slaughter, and not let a single survivor remain!” I ordered.

Following my orders, everyone roared in a huge war cry, while the enemy paled, and some even started screaming in horror.

Then, a huge bloodbath occurred. The hordes of the Lin Sect, stormed unto the remains of the Demon Sect, and the Mages of Ember, who had now significantly lowered in number.

Under the panic, and despair, they quickly fell, one before the other, until there were almost no survivors left. Every single place the eye could gaze upon, was littered by dismembered and desecrated corpses, showing just how cruel war could be, especially in a world, where a single soldier could shatter walls with their bare fist.

Now, all that was left, was to execute the survivors, which the disciples went right to. But before they finished to kill everyone, I quickly grabbed a disciple of the Demon Sect.

He looked at me in horror, not even daring to think what fate was waiting for him.

“Don’t worry. I told that guy up there that I would spare one of his disciples, for doing as I told him. So you will be free to go. Before that though, let me get some weight of your shoulders,” I said, I chopped of his arms, in a swift motion.

The youngling screamed in pain, as he saw his arms fall to the ground.

“Well, maybe I should have said, take some weight off your body. Well, to correct my mistake, I shall now proceed to help you, by taking some weight off of your body,” I said, as I proceeded to sever off his legs.

Another scream of pain echoed, as his legs fell to the ground. All that was left now, was a torso, with only a head left. Then I continued to burn the places where his legs and arms had once been, to seal the wounds. Once more, he screamed in anguish, as a foul stench began emit from him.

“Now, be grateful, as you will be the only survivor from this skirmish,” I said. The young boy, seeming to be a teen, could do nothing but moan in response. He lost the ability to speak, from the severe pain he had suffered.

Then I yelled for one of the disciples to come over.

“Here, take this fellow. I made a promise to that guy I killed that I would let one of his disciple live. So take this fellow somewhere, where he can live in peace, like the dungeon or something,” I said, before throwing the lump to the disciple.

The disciple bowed, then rushed away.

Back up with Walton and Ley, we continued to oversee everything.

“Well, this was quite a lucky event. So far, we have barely managed to kill any peak level Mythical Saints, but now we got six in one go. Although, they have killed over ten of ours. We barely even reach half of what they killed, with this lucky victory,” Ley said.

“Indeed. Things are looking quite bleak. If something doesn’t change soon, our numbers will only continue to diminish. We can’t count on the Order, to get help, and we have no way of contacting the Kitserra. Right now, we at the very least won’t be completely eliminated, but of that Demon Master recovers, then not even I will be able to stop them. I’m afraid, this might be a losing battle, as of now,” I said. Walton and Ley were hesitant, but they nodded their heads in agreement.

“What you say is true, no matter how much we tell ourselves otherwise,” Ley said.

As we were talking, suddenly a large group of people appeared out of nowhere. There were at least several thousand people there, and they were all strong. The weakest was of the A rank, and the rest were Saints, and even a lot of Mythical Saints.

Immediately, I was alerted. I quickly found the strongest person there, who had a very confused expression for some reason. He raised his hand, for his people to wait. Then, he made his way over to us, with a few cohorts.

“I see that we were to slow,” the man said.

“Did you come as reinforcements for the Mages of Ember?” I asked him directly.

“Mages of Ember? No, no, we came to reinforce your Ley Sect,” the man responded, with a smile on his face.

“You came here to help us? Who are you,” Ley asked, still weary.

“Don’t be so guarded, we are on your side. As for who we are, you know us as the Kitserra. For the past two years, we have been watching over the war, seeing how well you would fare, against both the Demon Alliance, and the Mages of Ember. We decided that we would interfere when you were about to have a major loss, thus we came here. But I see that the Lord Apostle also decided to interfere in this battle, and thus our help was needless.

But then instead, let me make this announcement! Hereby, the Order of Kitserra, the Priests of Order, officially enter into the Sword Alliance! We will partake in the war, and take part in any battles needed, until this war has been won!” The man said, with a loud voice, thundering all over the heavens.

It was so loud and overbearing, that half of the people on the ground fainted. It thundered all over the continent, for millions upon millions of miles, not missing a single ear. At that moment, there was not a single person, who understood speech, that didn’t know of Kitserra joining the Sword Alliance.

Every single Sect Head, every single commoner. Perhaps, the only two people who didn’t know, were the unconscious Sword Master, and the recovering Demon Master.

“What? Why would you decide to join us? Aren’t the Kitserra supposed to not partake in the affairs of the world?” I asked, just as confused as Ley and Walton.

“It’s not that we aren’t supposed to, but we choose not to. Tell me, do you know of the Gods of Order?” The man asked me. I looked at him confused.

“The Gods of Order?” I asked him. He smiled, as he responded,

“It isn’t weird that you do not know, as it is not common knowledge. The Gods of Order, are the Gods that keep the Order of the Mortal World. Without them, chaos would ensue, and everything would be destroyed.

At the top of the Gods of Order, the Chief Gods of Order, are the brother and sister Gods of Life and Death.

The God of Death, Gebados, and his sister, the God of Life, Kiriel. Without these Gods, amongst others, existence would cease to be. Did you hear what I called our order before? The Order of Kitserra, the Priests of Order? Our real name is such, the Priests of Order, but our Order was created by Kitserra.

Kitserra, was the son of Gebados, in an age long forgotten. He created the Priests of Order, by conferring his knowledge and power unto eighteen disciples; eighteen apostles, before his death.

These eighteen disciples continued to teach the ways of Order, and made the Order into what it is today. You Isaac Coldblood, are the son of Gebados, the blood brother of Kitserra. The successor of Kitserra. The heir of Kitserra; the heir of the Priests of Order; the rightful ruler, of the Order of Kitserra,” the man said. When he was finished talking, he kneeled in front of me, followed by all of his followers.

All this information had completely overwhelmed me. I was shocked, to be blunt. I had not expected to find out that I had a long lost brother, and that he left a whole Order of Priests for me. It made me wonder.

Could he be the original vampire, the one who had been before me, but had ultimately fallen? But I knew it was most likely useless to ask, because if this was the case, it would have been millions, if not billions of years ago. And there wasn’t even a drop of vampire blood in any of the people here.

As I was the progenitor of vampires, I would definitely be able to sense it, no matter how miniscule of an amount it is.

And thus, the Order of Kitserra; the Priests of Order, had joined the Sword Alliance. A fact that put no small amount of unease into the Demon Alliance, especially the Mages of Ember, and the Order of Tarnish.

The heads of the Mages of Ember, and Order of Tarnish, had always known not to mess with the Kitserra, since times long forgotten, and now that they had directly joined their enemy, unending unease had been planted into their souls.

It wasn’t the kind of fear that comes with going against someone who you can’t win against, no matter you do. No, it was the kind if fear and unease that comes from the unknown, because they didn’t know a single thing about the Kitserra. Even their magic was a mystery.

The kind of magic that could let easily teleport thousands of people, anywhere they could want, this was a kind of magic never before seen. Teleporting, had always been one of the most complicated magics, as it required complicated and intricate magic circles, and great skills.

Constructing a teleportation array, was something that required a lot of time, so to be able to just appear out of nowhere, was a scary ability.

Thus, the Demon Alliance, once more went on the defensive.

V

In a faraway country, in the backwater continent, of the Marestir Peninsula, on the edge of the world, in an old castle, far older than any human alive.

In a small room, in said castle, there were three younglings, seemingly in their teens. The three younglings, two girls, one boy, were having a heated discussion. They were discussing a rather important topic, and the boy and girl, were apparently against whatever the other girl had proposed.

“Are you insane?! It’s been over twenty years, I would barely even remember his face, if it wasn’t for all those paintings! And this world is far bigger than any of us can imagine; finding him is absolutely impossible. We better just sit back and wait. He’ll be back one of these days,” the boy said. The girl next to him, who looked quite a bit similar to him, in appearance, nodded his head in agreeance.

“Come on, don’t be such bores. Just because it’s been twenty or so years, doesn’t mean we would forget him. I still remember his voice! Our kind doesn’t forget easily, you know. I still think we should go out, and find him. It can’t be that hard, after all, he’s an amazing man. He would be sure to get famous, wherever he goes. And aunty is breathtakingly beautiful, so it’s like looking for big bright light, in an immense darkness!” The girl, who also looked strikingly similar to the other two, said with a big, confident smile.

“Even if they are a big bright light, it’s useless, if the immense darkness is endless! If we can’t even get to where the light shines, we won’t ever see it! This immense light of yours, is like looking for a particularly bright needle, in an endless pile of hay. It’s hopeless,” the girl said.

“Well, Kima, Vepas, I don’t mind if you two prefer to stay here, but I still intend to go. Even if I can’t find father, I will at least get some fun out of it. I just ask you two, my dearest dear siblings, please don’t tell mom! At least not before I’m long gone!” The girl said, with a pleading expression.

The boy and girl sighed, but still gave in,

“Fine, if you really want to go, then go. Just, please be careful out there. We don’t know what kind of dangers await. But we really can’t go with you. If all three of us disappear, they’re certain to send someone after us. But we’ll try to cover for you, right Vepas?” The girl, Kima, said. Vepas sighed once more, then nodded his head,

“Alright, we’ll cover for you Sema. Just don’t stay away for too long,” he said. A big smile crept unto Sema’s face.

“Alright, thank you so much! I promise I’ll be careful, and if my endeavours stay fruitless for too long, I’ll come back, okay?” Sema said. The two siblings stared at their oldest sibling, with hopeless smiles.

“Alright then. Have a good journey, then,” the second oldest, Kima said. Sema nodded feverishly, then spun around, and jumped out the window, not even bothering to take any more than she was carrying, with her.

In the dark of the night, she swiftly made her way out of Sanguine Regis, and Bloodmoon City, making sure, not to be discovered by anyone. She had to be very careful, as the place was full of extremely powerful experts, and very skilled assassins and spies.

She was still very young, only about thirty years old, so she wasn’t very powerful yet, compared to many others. But after her father left, she spent most of her time training, so she was still very powerful for her age, having reached the A rank. Under the tutelage of the Crimson Knight’s leader, Erwin Barca, she had quickly rose in power.

But the number of A rankers in the Coldblood Clan, already numbered many, and there were even several S rankers, not to mention the all-powerful Sage. Kato Coldblood, the sword brother of her father. Sema had always respected him a great deal, but sometimes, he just freaked her out.

He seemed to be all knowing, and it was as if he could see into her very soul. Once, Sema had tried to sneak up on Kato. She had been very sneaky, making her utmost effort, not to be caught.

Kato had been caught up in reading a book, so she had thought that she could succeed, but then she felt something touch her should. Of course, she turned around, to see what it was, but then she had all of a sudden found herself in a dark cave, covered in spider web, and surrounding be thousands of snakes and spiders.

The experience had frightened the child her, so much that she couldn’t sleep well for weeks. Luckily for her, it had only been an illusion, made by Kato to frighten her.

Although, in the end, it came back to bite in the neck, as both Sema’s mother, Serana, and Kato’s wife, Lilia, gave him an earful. After that, he didn’t do any frightening illusions anymore.

After sneaking around for what seemed like an eternity, Sema had finally made her way out, into the forest, and was speeding through the woods. With her speed, it wouldn’t take too long, to get to the nearest teleporter, and directly teleport to the edge of the continent.

As Sema was running at full speed, she suddenly hit a wall. Of course, an A ranked vampire, wouldn’t easily run into a wall, but the problem with this wall, was, that it was invisible. She had run into an invisible wall, at full speed, and the impact, of course, knocked her off her feet.

“OUCH!! What the hell?!?!” She screamed, as she looked around in confusion. Then, her complexion paled, and her eyes widened in fright, as she saw the most abominable horror; the being from the deepest pits of her nightmares; the sole being she wished never to meet in such circumstance.

Kato, stood there, on a boulder, looking down on her.

“I noticed you went out for a bit, all sneaking around, so I decided to come and ask, where are you going?” Kato asked, in his calm voice.

“Eh, ehm, I, I was, um,” she mumbled, not able to make up an answer.

“I overheard your conversation, with your siblings. You want to go find your father, Isaac, but I’m afraid that’s easier said, than done. You truly do not know how vast this world is,” Kato said.

“Finding your father, it’s simply impossible. At least at the level which you currently are. It’s better if you just come back with me,” Kato continued. Suddenly tears started flowing, out of the eyes of Sema.

“I know that! But I can’t wait anymore! I miss him, I miss him so much! I want him back!” she cried. Kato frowned, at the outburst. He had always understood how much it pained her, when her father left.

Of the three siblings, she was the one closest to her father, and when he left, she had been left devastated.

“It’s been twenty five years since he left, I just can’t take it anymore! I’m going to find him, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!” She screamed. Kato sighed, then gave her a small smile.

“If only you were born a few centuries earlier. I have lived for over seven hundred years now, yet, for over half of those years, your father has either been gone, or presumed dead. Once he disappeared for about a dozen years, without a word. No one knew what had happened to him, but he eventually came back, revealing he had been trapped. Then, decades later, he gets wounded, and says he has to go somewhere, to recover.

But then, he didn’t come back. For the longest time, we thought he had lied to us, and instead had gone and died. Your mother and aunts were all devastated, and were depressed for hundreds of years.

But then, over four hundred years later, he once more, returned. Your aunt Amelia, started crying hysterically, the very moment she saw him. The only reason she’s still alive, is because we forced her to live, with the bleak hope that Isaac would return. And surely, he did.

What I mean to say with all this, is, that your father has left us several times, to disappear for a very long time, but each time, he still returned, and I believe he will definitely return once more.

But, if you truly want to go, I won’t stop you,” Kato said, one long breath. When she heard the last words, her eyes widened in surprise.

“You’ll really let me go?” She asked in a small voice.

“Yes, you convinced me. Now be off,” he said, before turning around, and disappearing into thin air. Sema looked at the spot, which Kato had stood on, for a while, but eventually cleared her head, and left.

VI

After the Kitserra joined our forces, the Order of Tarnish decided to join the Demon Alliance, in favour of causing as much chaos as possible. But luckily for us, the Kitserra possessed much more might, than anyone imagined.

They had at least as many Mythical Saints as the two other mage orders, combined. However, they possessed fewer minor forces, in contrast. With the three sides of the Demon Alliance, the Mages of Ember, and the Order of Tarnish, against our two sides, the Sword Alliance, and the Order of Kitserra, we were once more in a standstill.

However, this standstill was much more stable, as there were no more forces left out, on the entire continent. As it was now, there would be no more major changes in allegiance.

Thus, war raged on, for a whole twenty years. The battles fought, were bloody and chaotic, claiming not only the lives of mages and disciples, but killing farmers; laying waste to cities.

Under the destructive battles, a million lives would often be lost. It was not rare, for an entire city to be annihilated, just under the after effects of the battles. After twenty five years of constant battle, hundreds of billions of lives had been lost.

The Sword continent was a vast continent, having a population of around ten trillion, but as it was now, almost a tenth of the population had been lost.

Rivers had been painted red, almost permanently. New mountains had been formed, not from debris and destruction, but from bones and flesh. Massive piles of corpses were burned, forming charred hills and plateaus.

The war was truly bloody, engraving the seed of fear, not only into the hearts of any commoner, but every noble, every soldier, every disciple, every mage. Even the leaders were afraid.

Any day now, everything they knew and owned could be laid waste to. Sect Masters were afraid that their sect would be next one, to be attacked. All they could do, was to set their forces out, in hope of getting a victory instead.

After these twenty five years, almost half of the sects had been eliminated, albeit, they were smaller, minor sects. Most of the superpowers were still intact.

Of course, this world wide war, did not only bring death, in the form of destruction, and warfare. Under the many battles, a very large amount of farms would be laid to waste, and food was becoming scarce, and water supplies were becoming contaminated.

Each day, huge amounts of people would die from famish. Even the nobles had to be careful with their food supplies, as they never knew when their farms and fields would be rendered useless.

In the past twenty years, I had fought several times, even Amelia had fought several battles. We needed to do everything we could do, in order to win. Thankfully, the Kitserra had joined us, or we might have been driven into a corner already.

Speaking of the Kitserra, even though it had been twenty years, and I was supposed to be their founder’s successor, I hadn’t met their illustrious pope, even once. Although, this wasn’t because he wouldn’t meet me, but because never left their headquarters, and I simply had no time to visit.

I spent all my time, either planning, holding war meetings, or fighting. There was a lot to manage, so I couldn’t just dawdle. I spent a lot of time with Garmond, managing the forces, and planning attacks.

We had created a huge spy net, in order to get as much information from our enemy, as possible, so that we could sabotage their supply routes, and know when and where they were going to attack.

Of course, they most likely did the same to us, but at the very least, I was confident that there were no spies in our headquarters. They most likely wouldn’t dare to send any to where I was, as they did that once before.

The result, suffice to say, was not in their favour. I had managed to extract a lot of information out of that spy. For example, the identity of a few spies, who he happened to know of.

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After that, I had never discovered any spies in the Sword Sect, but were most likely spies in the other sects and strongholds.

While I was enjoying my own time, a servant boy entered the mansion, seeking audience with me. Of course, I had the guards let him in. When a servant boy sought audience, it was usually to report some news, or something similar.

The boy entered my study, followed by two Disciple Guards.

“Your Holiness, I bring news from the Supreme Elders. They ask that you meet with them, for a meeting. Apparently some important news have been brought into play,” the servant boy reported, while bowing on his knees.

“I see. I shall depart immediately,” I said, as I waved the boy away.

Only a few minutes later, and I had arrived with the others. Amelia was already there. This time it was only the Supreme Elders, and my, the Apostle. There were no ordinary Elders present, just the six of us.

“Why did you summon me?” I asked.

“Our spies have given us some bad news. Some extremely bad news,” Garmond said, a heavy look in his eyes.

“Word is spreading, that the Demon Master will awake soon. The spy told that he had heard from a discussion between two esteemed Elders, but he doesn’t know the exact time limit,” he explained.

My eyes widened, and my mouth gaped, as his words sank in, shocking me completely. I had not expected for him to heal yet; I had hoped for at least a hundred years. For it to be so sudden; it was truly too sudden.

“This is indeed very bad. We need to hasten our pace. All we can do now, is go all out!” I said.

“Yes, I don’t see many other possibilities,” Garmond agreed. Then Nana, the former sole female, shot in,

“How about Lord Assiel? Do you have any idea about his status? Might he wake up soon?” She asked.

“Hmm, Assiel… Well, we can at least go check up on him,” I said.

Thus we proceeded to go to his chambers, to see him sleeping soundly, in his bed, like he had been for a very long time already. I proceed to examine him, looking for any signs of recovery.

“Well, he is recovering, but I just can’t ascertain how much longer it will take. He might wake up tomorrow, or he might wake up in a thousand years. I truly have no idea,” I said.

Everyone looked disappointed, but they hadn’t expected much. They knew what the state of their leader was, but they just couldn’t let go of that one hope.

“Well then, all we can do is go all out. From here on out, it will be constant battle, without rest. Some of us may die, but all we can do is fight! We have no idea how long it will take, until the Demon Master wakes up. It might be a matter of a few days, or it might be ten years, but we still have to fight! We are the Sword Sect, the most prestigious Sect in the entire continent! We cannot lose like losers, we can only lose in a fierce battle, leaving floods of corpses!” Garmond yelled, and everyone gave a war cry in return.

And thus, the final stage of the Sanguine War, and the period of time, which gave it that name, began.

VII

Today, the armies of the Sword Alliance marched. There were many nervous faces around, for there had never been such a massive movement before. The entire landscape was dotted by the disciples, made soldiers. From far above, it seemed like a horde of ants.

All of the Mythical Saints, all of the Saints, and the one Legendary Saint, were all present. The Sects were left almost empty, as we couldn’t spare anyone. This was the last desperate attempt. We didn’t plan on giving the enemy even as much as a chance to invade.

We wanted to completely tie their hands, attacking from every corner, not leaving a single empty spot. It was a quest of complete annihilation! Nothing would be left in our wake, all lives would be forfeit! Any city under the control of the Demon Alliance, would be sacked. Any Sect of the Demon Alliance, would be destroyed. Any life, which pledged allegiance to the Demon Alliance, every life that settled on the territory of the Demon Alliance, was forfeit!

The judgement of the Apostle of Death, had been passed! Anyone who worshipped the Demon Gods, had lost their right to life! As the Apostle of Death, the son of Death, I possessed the innate right, to precede over death.

This was the judgement, which had been passed to every living soul. And no one dared question it. All they could do, was fight back.

As the armies marched on the half of the continent, belonging to the Demon Alliance, chaos and death, was delivered. Thousands of cities and villages were laid waste. Rivers were coloured crimson, oceans of blood were formed.

It was like a plague of death, poured over the continent, taking life after life, killing billions every day. Every day, battles were fought, lives were lost. All of the Mythical Saints engaged in battle, every single day, even the Supreme Elders. Not even I, got to rest.

Sect after Sect fell, but our numbers weren’t exempt either. We lost soldiers left and right, quickly dwindling our numbers quickly. We had already lost a fourth of our soldiers, after six months. But we had destroyed hundreds of sects, and with our number of Mythical Saints, we could keep as many as possible alive.

Six months had passed, and the continent of the Sword, had been changed, permanently. A vast number of people had been killed, nearing half of the entire population. In the eyes of the people of the Sword Alliance, the people of the Demon Alliance had lost their right to live.

Thus, all were slaughtered, without mercy. In total, for the entire duration of the war, about five trillion lives had been lost. It was an absolutely astonishing number, and wars as these were rarely seen, in the entire world.

But this war, had evolved. It was no longer a simple war of power, but a battle of extinction! The goal of both sides, was the complete extinction of the enemy. The enemy no longer appeared as human, in the ‘rightful’ eyes. They were simply mindless beasts, or so they thought.

But one things was absolutely true; it was a war of attrition! We slowly exterminated their forces; their population.

And, all this was because of me.

I had declared that they needed to die, and thus five trillion lives were lost. The entire half of the continent had been made unliveable. But I had deemed it necessary. And it made me cold. My eyes had lost their previous luster, had become even colder.

Garmond and the others even seemed intimidated by me. After all they knew. I was the commander here, and I had ordered all the massacres. If it was Garmond, he wouldn’t be able to do it.

But on this day, six months later, the army under my direct control, had arrived at one of the major sects. The sect was simply called, the Horn Sect. The reason was simple; they practised a technique, which made them grow horns from their heads, giving them a demonic look.

Because of this, they had taken to worship the Demon Gods. And thus, they had gained good standing in the Demon Sect.

This was the reason I had targeted them.

My armies stood outside their walls, silently waiting. Amelia stood beside me, holding my arm. She had never left my side, during this evil war. She knew that even I wouldn’t be able to stay calm and composed, after sacrificing so many innocent lives. She knew, that even I would be affected. So she stayed by my side, helping me stay sane.

But even with her present, I had still changed; I had become cold, and ruthless. I might have been cold and ruthless before, but it was entirely different now. I would do anything to gain victory, with the best results.

I knew that keeping our forces in high number was important, so I used several means to kill. Once, I had slaughtered a large number of villages, and sprayed their bodies into cities, in huge numbers.

This would cause the cities to be covered in a huge, incontrollable number of corpses. Naturally, a plague started, killing everyone. Using this means, I had destroyed an entire country, barely losing any men. However, I refrained from using such methods, since it took a long time. But it was good, to spread a plague in one country, while exterminating another by force.

As I stood in front of my armies, I raised my hand, signalling them to wait, while my pale face, faced the sect. On my own, I started walking towards the sect.

After slowly walking for a while, I stood a good two hundred meters from the wall. The disciples of the Horn Sect looked at me nervously. They didn’t dare do anything yet, since they didn’t know what I was planning, and acting foolishly would result in death.

Slowly, I raised my arm, and pointed towards the gate, with a single finger. A small, black orb formed, and started floating towards the gate. Everyone stared at the orb, nervously, but they still didn’t act. They didn’t think the orb would contain any considerable power, as it was barely a centimetre in diameter.

However, as the orb finally touched the gate, it was already too late, to express regret. The orb exploded, and annihilated everything around it. Everything around an entire kilometre in radius, was purged. Even I was covered in the colossal explosion. As the clouds and smoke faded, my still body appeared, floating in the air.

A huge number of people had been killed, but there were still a lot of people alive. While this explosion was huge, and could easily destroy the walls and grounds, the stronger disciples would be able to survive it.

After all, it was only a weak attack, belonging to the Abyss Sword. The Abyss Sword Technique, was capable of using several void attacks, and abyss attacks, and it didn’t even require a sword. Attacks like the one from before, were better used with a finger.

However, the more devastatingly powerful attacks, were better used with a sword, or even two. It also possessed techniques that could use several swords.

As the smoke clouds faded, everyone realized what had happened. Quickly, they collected themselves, and then, with a war cry, everyone charged towards me. They had maniacal expression, as the rushed at me, seemingly not caring about whether they live, or die.

All that was in their mind, was to get rid of the threat, so that the Horn Sect could live on.

However, deep in their minds, they knew that there was no hope. Of course, they knew who this man who appeared with his army was, and of course, they knew what happened to the ones he decided to invade.

Never had there been anyone that came even close to surviving a battle, in which he preceded. The Apostle of Death, was the personification of Death.

This was the reputation I had garnered, be it for good or for worse, everyone feared me.

As the hordes of disciple and elders charged at me, suddenly, black winds started spinning around me, going in quick circles. Whenever someone got close to me, they would find themselves torn to shreds, and his comrades would be covered in his blood.

Thus, with the Winds of the Abyss surrounding me, I started calmly walking towards them. Everyone that came within ten meters of me, became piles of bloodied body parts, and the ground became covered in death, and mutilation.

I turned my head, as I sensed a slightly strong presence, then calmly sung my sword in his general direction. A huge wave of blackness appeared from my sword tip, and destroyed everything in its path. On the ground, there appeared a narrow ravine, seemingly leading into the abyss, as deep as it was.

The lucky ones who survived, looked into the abyss, getting a cold sweat. Others fell down, never to be seen again. Everyone decided to stay clear of the ravine, from hence on.

Once more, I slashed my sword, this time horizontally, cleaving everyone on my path, in half. In a single instant, several thousands had died.

Then, I pointed my hand towards one of the stronger people present, and he suddenly found himself pulled towards me. There was nothing he could do to resist, as he rapidly flew towards my hand.

Only a few seconds later, he found that my hand had entered his chest. I let go of my grip on him, and pulled his heart out, causing him to fall lifelessly.

With the heart in hand, I crushed it, causing huge amounts of blood to spray out of it, surrounding everyone in a several kilometre radius, forming a blood dome.

The hurricanes and storms of blood surged, within the several kilometres. Within the field of blood, formed sharp blood winds and blades, tearing everything apart. To topple it all off, crimson beasts and horrors started appearing, burying tear claws into the hearts of the enemies.

One after the other, the disciples fell, whether it was to the wind, or to the horrors. After a few short moments, which had seemed like a never ending line of eternities, the blood dome began to fade away. But even if the blood dome disappeared, there was still an ocean of blood left, in its wake. The ground was littered with desecrated corpses, and mutilated body parts, limbs strewn across.

Only a few stragglers were left standing, but they all had faded eyes, full of apparent insanity. The horrors inside the field, and the sight of everyone around them, being torn apart, made them go insane.

I raised my hand to the skies, then let it fall down, signalling my forces to charge. All the soldiers under my command, stormed at the sect, killing any stragglers left outside, before finally clashing with the panicking forces, left inside.

Although, the vast majority of the enemy forces, had already been extinguished. I flew back up into the open skies, crossed my arms, and waited for the enemy commanders to appear. I waited a while, before I saw a few lines rushing away.

It seemed they would rather leave all their disciples to die, just so that they wouldn’t have to fight me, and die. I grumped, and started chasing them, relaxingly. I didn’t bother to go full speed, I only chased them at a slightly faster speed, than their top speed. While this was going down, I had an annoyed and bored expression on, causing those cowards to be quite scared. My arms didn’t leave their crossed state, as I gave chase.

After chasing for a whole hour, I finally lost my patience, and sped up to the top, catching up to them in an instant.

“Why do you always choose to run away? You used to be so rowdy and energetic,” I said, with the same empty expression. The three guys who had tried to make a run for it, all looked terrified and hopeless. They knew that no one had ever managed to escape me. All they could do now, was curse the heavens for sending me, and not someone else.

As long as it wasn’t me, they would still have hope, but as soon as you came up against me, you knew, all hope was lost. In the past months, tens of Mythical Saints had died by my hand. By now, there were only a few left, and the strongest ones, were all holed up in the Demon Sect.

Amongst these three men, only one of them was a peak Mythical Saint, and even that was rare. The only reason he was here, was because he refused to leave his sect. But now, he had directly abandoned his whole sect, with the hope that I wouldn’t chase. But alas, here I was.

“Please, Your Holiness, please let us live! If you let us live, we will serve you for all of eternity, so please, don’t kill us! Even if it’s only me, it’s still fine, please let me live!” The Horned Demon, the leader of the Horn Sect, begged. He was even willing to abandon his friends, just to live.

“Delusional. You have prayed to the Demon Gods, so how can you be allowed to live? Don’t you know that everyone that prays to the Demon Gods, is destined to die?” I asked him. His face paled, as he realized he definitely wouldn’t live.

“But,” he tried to say, but before he could speak, I had severed his head from his body. My sword flashed once more, and then two more heads joined him.

Having finally killed the three heretics, I turned around, and went back to the Horn Sect. On my own, it only took a few minutes to get back.

They had already finished killing everyone. Not even the prisoners were alive. They knew that everyone was to be killed, so didn’t even wait for my orders, on how to handle the prisoners.

The sight of the once prosperous, Horn Sect, was a sore one. It had been laid to waste; buildings destroyed, and the grounds burned.

“Good job,” Amelia said, and grabbed my arm. I nodded my head, and headed to the resting grounds, which had been constructed for me. Inside, I sat down, on a chair, and rested my head on my hand.

“Why do you work so hard? You don’t owe anything to these people, you don’t need to this. It’s killing you on the inside; I can feel it,” Amelia said, worry apparent in her eyes. I sighed. I was no longer in a position where I could just leave. My pride wouldn’t allow it.

“You don’t understand, Amelia. I can’t just leave, not anymore. I’m a Demi God, and these people all worship my Father. They all worship me. I’m a sign of hope, for them. If I leave, they will all die, and they will all feel betrayed. They worship the God of Death, and they worship me. And I’ve already come this far. I can’t stop now, even if I can easily escape. I just can’t abandon them now.” I explained. Amelia sighed back at me.

“I understand that. I just don’t wish to see this happen to you. You like to act hard and tough, but I now that it’s getting to you. No one can remain calm after killing so many people; not even immortals. I’ve been watching you rapidly change, these last six months, I’ve witnessed you order the deaths of trillions. You managed to keep a calm and collected expression through it all, but even that small glint in your eyes won’t escape mine. I just wish you would stop! Seeing you hurting like this, hurts me too,” she said, before turning around, and leaving.

“Sigh. I now Amelia, I know. Just keep bearing with it, for a bit longer. It’s almost over now, only a bit more,” I said, even though she already left. I picked up a glass, of crimson wine, and started sipping on it, waiting for time to pass, until we moved on to the next location.

VIII

At the headquarters of the Demon Alliance, the last remnants of the peak Mythical Saints, had gathered. They all looked weary and tired, and several were battle wounded, but there was still a small glimpse hope left in their eyes.

The past year, had been extremely chaotic. There had been constant, nonstop wars and battles. The Sword Alliance, had set out with all their troops, and battled like a huge wave, sweeping over the entire half-continent, belonging to the Demon Alliance.

Currently, only a few, hidden sects, which had not been located yet, were left. Even the outer Demon Sect had been laid waste to. Luckily, the Demon Sect possessed two domains. The Outer Sect, and the Inner Sect. The Outer Sect was only a font, while the Inner Sect was the real deal.

The location of the Inner Sect was kept extremely hidden, and it had payed them well. Since they didn’t know the location of the Inner Sect, they naturally couldn’t invade it.

As for the half of the continent that belonged to the Demon Alliance, it had become desolated. Deserts that hadn’t existed before, were now there. Mountains which reached the skies, were no longer there. Cities with populations of millions, were laid to waste, villages with a few dozen villagers, were extinguished.

There was no longer a single city or village in the entire half-continent. They had all been killed, and executed. This was the degree, which befell those that questioned, the sword in my hand.

With the sword in my hand, I conquered the land. I decimated, and decapitated those who questioned the sword in my hand. I held the truth to all of eternity; it happened to include my own superiority. Mischief of their past had to come to seal their destiny. Whether you knelt before me now, or bore a sword of your own, I would have your head for your head for your own fallacy!

This is how I stood; this was the veracity I had professed!

IX

It had been two years, since we set out with our armies. The first year, we had rushed like thunderous waves, sweeping the entire land, cleaning it of any life. But after the first year, things had slowed tremendously. There were still a few sects left, but we didn’t rush to destroy them. This was because, after destroying the Demon Sect, we found the Demon Master wasn’t there. Even more, there were several strong figures missing.

This led us to believe that it wasn’t their actual headquarters, but only a façade. So we halted our efforts to kill everyone, with the hope that they would lead us to the Demon Sect, but no luck. We still hadn’t found any signs of them. They were just too deeply hidden. These five sects, which were left, were also the strongest of them all.

But we had found that the Sect Masters of these sects, weren’t even present there. Of course, we had expected this, as it had been like that in many of the sects, during the last days.

But if we couldn’t get our hands on the Sect Masters, we would possess little chance of getting our hands on the Demon Master, and his sect. But there wasn’t much we could do, except scouring the lands, hoping to stumble on their sect.

However, no matter how much we searched, we never even found a single clue, of their location. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, except the needle was but a speck, and the haystack, was a vast ocean.

The Sword Continent was extremely huge, several thousand times bigger than the Marestir Peninsula. No matter how many people we used, no matter where we looked, we never found them.

Like that we had spent a whole year, slowly getting more and more anxious. After we came upon the first Demon Sect, we had all been extremely happy, and relieved, but when we found out that it was a fake, everyone got extremely anxious and mad.

The after result, was that the entire area around the place, had been turned to dust. Where the outer Demon Sect once lay, was now a huge crater.

“Lord Apostle,” Garmond said, as he walked into my current residence.

“Hm?” I responded. Garmond walked towards me, and took a seat next to me.

“I bring some hopefully good news. A group has been spotted, walking the area, a few thousand miles away from here. We already sent out a few squads to surround them, and bring them in. There have been no reports of anyone leaving the five sects, so they might be from the Demon Sect,” Garmond reported with an excited look.

“What, really? Great! Finally! Finally. If they are really from the Demon Sect, then this will finally end. Let’s set out and meet them,” I said, with the most excited expression I ever had, in years.

Immediately, we set out, to meet the squads that had been tasked, with retrieving the enemy group. It only took a short while, to travel those few thousand miles, before we found our groups battling.

There were several corpses from our side, and none from theirs. This was natural of course, as they had been told to retrieve them, at all costs. Subduing, was a lot harder than killing, so a few deaths were unavoidable. But we were willing to sacrifice a few lives, for the greater good.

The battle lasted a short while, but our guys severely outnumbered their small group, so they never stood a chance.

A few days later, they had finally gotten back to base. For us, it only took a short while to travel a few thousand meters, but for the common soldiers, to travel such a distance while transporting prisoners, took a lot longer. Especially since all the teleportation arrays had been destroyed.

I entered the dungeon where the prisoners were at.

“Lord Apostle!” The guards reported.

“Hmm, so you are the new prisoners. Tell me, are you from the Demon Sect?” I asked them, with an almighty pressure, causing sweat to pearl from their heads.

“Hmph, and so what if we are? We won’t tell you anything!” One of them shouted in my face.

“Oh, you will. Prepare to torture them, until they reveal the location of the Demon Sect. Meanwhile, also prepare the armies to set for the final five sects. The final showdown is about to arrive,” I ordered the guards and Elders.

Thus, seven days of extreme torture passed, until the prisoners finally revealed the location. It had taken a lot, they truly were sturdy, but after seven days of constant torture, one of them finally cracked.

Meanwhile, the armies had been fielded, and were prepared to set out. Thus, we finally set out, to destroy the final five sects, excluding the Demon Sect. We wanted to destroy all the other sects first, so that they couldn’t come and flank us. Even though they probably wouldn’t play a big role in the final battle, it would still cause large casualties. If possible, I would like to keep our casualties at a minimum.

However, just before we were about to set out, some amazing news came into camp. A disciple from the Sect, had arrived with a special teleportation array, from the main sect.

“He’s awoke! The Sword Master woke up!” He came screaming through the portal. His words caused great upheaval, and all the Supreme Elders, and normal Elders that heard, rushed to the Array.

“What did you say?! He’s recovered?!” Garmond almost shouted at him, his face red.

“Yes, yes! He woke up, he finally woke up! But he’s still weak, he’s still recovering,” the disciple said, still in a shock from the revelation.

“What do mean?” I asked him.

“The Sword Master woke up, but he’s still in a weak state. He says he will need a few days to completely recover,” the disciple reported.

“I see. That’s great, he finally recovered. Well then, go tell him about everything that’s happened in the last twenty years. Also tell him that we are about to attack the last five final sects, then in a few days, we set towards the Demon Sect. If he’s recovered, I hope that he will come join us! Now go, quickly!” I said. My face seemed to have gained some colour, which had been missing for two years now.

With this, things were finally going in our favour! Even if the Demon Master recovered, now we would at least possess a chance.

With that out of the way, we finally set out. My army marched for a few days, then we finally arrived at the sect I was in charge of. These battles shouldn’t be too hard, since all the strongest experts were located at the Demon Sect.

Therefore, the real battle would be at the Demon Sect. We might even lose several Mythical Saints, since I couldn’t be everywhere at the same time. If their Mythical Saints were to scatter in all directions to fight, I would only be able to hold down a few, at most.

But in the end, we still possessed the biggest advantage, since I was there.

As we finally arrived, my armies spread out, into their positions. This sect, possessed really big walls, going several hundred meters into the sky. It really seemed to possess a great defence, and they were made out of a really sturdy material.

But, there was no such thing, as an invincible defence. I simply raised my sword, and let the abyss energy gather around the blade. In a flowing motion, I let it fall down, causing a thundering wave, to flux towards the walls.

The wave hit, and caused a thundering earthquake, which made the walls crumble to dust. Immediately, I heard a loud horn blow, and shouts.

“Attack!”

“The enemy is attacking!”

They shouted, as if the very heavens had to hear; with utmost urgency. They immediately took battle positions.

“Kill, and leave no survivors!” I shouted. The infantry charged towards the crumbled walls, while the mages stood in the back, and started casting large war scale spells, causing devastation to fall upon the enemy.

I, too, charged into the enemy lines, to relieve a bit of stress. I let my sword flow in a mad frenzy, killing hundreds, if not thousands, with every blow, causing surging morale on my side, and terrifying the enemy.

The battle was a short lived one, as we possessed the superior strength, both in infantry, as well as powerful experts. The year of constant battle, had caused many of the soldiers to find sudden insight and revelation, in the eye of death, causing them to power up. The constant battles also made the hardened and fearless soldiers. Many experts had been born from this war, but even more had died, however.

After only about two weeks, all of the five sects, had fallen. The Demon Alliance, had now almost fallen extinct.

And thus, the final battle neared.

X

It had been two years, since Sema left her home. She had managed to get out of the Marestir Peninsula, with relative ease, and had now made it several continents away. However, as she had come out into the world, she found she no longer possessed the power, which came with her name.

She had no money, and no longer possessed absolute strength, being into A ranks, in a continent with several S ranks, and even a handful of SS ranks. She had used all the gold, which she had taken with her, and no longer could afford the teleportation fee, nor the information broker’s fee.

Frankly, she was not sure what she should do. After all, she had lived like a princess, and had never worked a day in her life. But to her luck, A rankers were still a powerful existence, even if there were hundreds of S ranks, and a handful of SS ranks.

Thus, she had managed to gain favour with a local mercenary company, called the Silver Daggers. They were a relatively powerful bunch, having five A rankers, and a hundred fifty mercenaries, under their band.

A young, handsome fellow, walked into a tavern, and proceeded to walk towards a table with four people. Three men, and single female.

“Oi, guys, I finally found us a job! We gotta escort some guys to some city, somewhere. A caravan, I think. They said it was too large for the teleportation arrays, which doesn’t take much, anyway. They’re paying us pretty well, too,” the handsome young man, said, with a charismatic smile on his face.

“How much we talkin’ about, Capn´?” A burly man asked, a curios expression on his face.

“Ten thousand gold coins!” The captain said, chin high, and a proud an aloof expression on his face.

“Ten thousand?! That’s a fortune!” The burly man exclaimed. The other three were also surprised, including Sema.

“Yup! With this, we’ll be set for a while! Naturally, we’ll share it like normal, one tenth for each of us, and the rest for troop wages, and maintenance! Haha, with this, we can take the next month off! How about it, Sema? With this, we could probably get a nice house, and settle down for a bit.” The charismatic captain said. Sema chuckled at him.

“Oh, Harcey, you know I can’t settle down,” Sema replied.

“Yes, yes, I know, I know. Couldn’t hurt to ask though. But seriously, didn’t he leave you when you were just a kid? I know you’re a bit older than you look, so you basically haven’t seen him in ages. Is it really so important for you to find him?” Harcey asked, a slightly sad and unwilling.

“Of course I have to find him!” Sema said with a stubborn look.

“Alright then. Well, I’ve got some good news for you. While I was out, I heard about some guy who’s been to a lot of continents, and knows a lot. He might know something, but it won’t be cheap. I’ll take you to him after this mission, how’s that?” Harcey said with a small smile. Sema’s eyes widened, a big smile leapt unto her face.

“What, really? That’s great, Harcey! Hopefully he will know something useful,” Sema exclaimed. She hoped he would know something of use, but she severely doubted he would know something ground breaking. The best she could hope for, was some rumours or something like that.

“Well then, tell the guys to get ready, we depart tomorrow. Now, I’m gonna get some shuteye,” Harcey said, before going to his room.

Sema looked at his back, with a smile, as he walked away. It had been a bit over a year, since she joined their ranks, and she had grown quite close with their leader, Captain Harcey. The reason she had stayed so long was partly because she hadn’t heard anything about her father yet, and partly because of Harcey.

Their relationship was a bit finicky. They had never gotten into a real relationship, but everyone knew their feelings for each other, and just wanted them to get together, but they wouldn’t say that, of course.

Harcey, was also the only one who knew her reason for leaving home, so whenever they talked about it in front of the others, they would always stare in confusion. However, they had eventually pieced it together, bit by bit, so now they knew the general idea.

The next day, they were all gathered outside the city walls, together with their one hundred fifty comrades. They were waiting for the caravan to arrive.

A few minutes later, a bunch of wagons, as well both armed, and unarmed men arrived.

“Ah, Captain Harcey, you’re already here,” a fat man, wearing expensive clothing, and a small goatee, said. Behind him, were two armed guards. They seemed to be A rank.

“Sir Motley, you’ve arrived. These are my lieutenants, and those are all my soldiers, as you can see,” Harcey, said in a professional voice.

“Yes, I can see that. Quite the bunch you have here, they all seem very capable. That’s good, very good. Well, you can tell them that we leave in thirty minutes. I have to deal with some papers first,” The fat Motley, said, before leaving to deal with his paperwork.

Harcey proceeded to tell his men to prepare themselves, and half an hour later, they all departed.

The four A rankers, all rode their horses, as well as some of the higher ranked mercenaries.

Sema rode up to Harcey, to ask him a few questions.

“So Harcey, tell me a bit about this information broker?” She asked, wearing an expectant grin.

“Sigh, you’re really excited, huh?” He replied.

“Of course I am! He’s my father, you know?” Sema shot back.

“Yeah, I know, I know. Well, this information broker, is actually an SS ranker, so he’s really knowledgeable. Super old, as well. That’s the reason why it will cost so much, as well. Your pay from this mission might not even be enough. But if that’s the case, I don’t mind lending you a bit,” Harcey said, looking at her compassionately.

“Oh, get a room, you two!” The burly, Tommy, said.

“Shut it, Tommy!” Harcey spat back. Tommy just laughed, rode a bit forwards.

“Harcey, I can’t have you giving me you money!” Sema replied.

“No, I’m serious, Semmy. Listen, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and when you leave this continent, I’ll come with you! The Silver Daggers will! Of course, many of the men won’t want to leave, but the ones who are willing, will follow you!” Harcey said, with a stubborn confidence.

Sema stared at him, eyes wide, mouth gaping. She couldn’t believe his words.

“Harcey, you shouldn’t joke about that kind of thing,” Sema said, looking a bit hurt.

“I’m not joking!” Harcey yelled, getting the attention of his men.

“Listen, Sema, I’m serious, but let’s talk about this later, when there aren’t so many eyes,” Harcey said, getting a nod from Sema in return.

And thus, Night arrived. Harcey was talking with Motley, and the mercenaries were sitting around the bonfires. A while late, Harcey walked over to the bonfire, where Sema was sitting. The other A rankers were there, including the guards of Motley. One of those guards was a female, and she was having a chat with Sema.

“Hey, Semmy, will you come to tent for a bit? We need to have a talk,” Harcey said. Sema nodded her head, and walked away with him, garnering the looks of the others.

They were pretty sure what this was about, remembering the previous scene. Well they didn’t know what that had been about, though. Inside the tent, Harcey took two glasses, and a bottle of wine, then sat on a chair. Sema sat opposite him. Harcey proceeded to fill the glasses, and gave one to Sema.

“I was serious about what I said, you know. Even of none of the men want to come with me, I’ll give leadership to Tommy, and leave with you,” Harcey said, completely serious. Sema looked at him, when a single tear left her eye.

“Why do you want to come with me? You think you might understand the situation, but there so, so many things you don’t know. This isn’t as simple as you think, I don’t just come from a normal noble family or something like that. It goes far, far beyond that,” Sema said. Harcey was a bit surprised, but he still didn’t waver.

“So I don’t understand? What, are you a princess or something? Listen, no matter what it is, I won’t care! All I care about, is you!” He shouted, getting slightly agitated.

“So you won’t care!? Even if I’m not a human!?” Sema screamed back at him, before holding her mouth, realizing what she said.

“What do you mean you’re not human?” Harcey asked. He could clearly tell that she didn’t possess the features of any elves, and he never heard of any races that looked exactly like human, but weren’t actually humans.

“Ah, I didn’t mean to say that,” Sema sighed.

“But, well, if it’s you, I can tell you. Just promise that you won’t tell anyone about it, okay?” Sema asked. Harcey gulped, and nodded his head. He had finally noticed something was off.

“Well, as I said, I’m not human. No one from my family is, and our family is the only one of our kind. Well, it’s a very big family though, possessing thousands of different lines and branches, but I’m, Pure, from the main branch. My father, he’s the patriarch of our clan, as well as the progenitor. He was the very first of our kind,” Sema explained. Harcey remained silent, for a bit, taking in what he heard.

“Then, what are you?” He asked, almost nervous of the answer.

“Well, I guess, Immortals,” Sema said, with a very small voice. Harcey couldn’t get a word out, he just stared at her.

“What?” He finally asked.

“Well, we never age, except in our childhood, and that’s only of your born into our race, like I was. My father, for example, and all my seniors, they weren’t born like this. My father made all of them into this. And we also don’t like the sun very much, but that’s mostly for the non-pure ones. You’re only Pureblooded if my father turns you, or if you’re born from two pure ones, like I was. Well, if father was to, ehm, do it, with a non-pure one, I think it would result in a Pureblood. Oh, I’m rambling now.

Well, the Purebloods don’t really mind the sun, as you can probably guess after all this time. Oh, and one last thing, one thing I’ve been working very hard to keep secret; that I never wanted you are anyone else to know… We drink blood,” Sema explained, her expression becoming very serious, at her last words.

Harcey stared at her, silently, letting the words sing in. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally spoke up,

“Are you a vampire?” He asked, weirdly calm and composed, as if he had realized something; something profound.

“What, you guessed it? Then why are you so calm!? Why aren’t you running away, or trying to kill me?!” Sema screamed, finding it seemingly impossible to believe. She had always though that any mortal, would find vampires evil, and demonic. Of course, she herself didn’t believe that, after all, it was completely natural to her. She was born as a vampire, she knew nothing else.

Being a human, however would be weird to her.

“Why? Because I love you,” Harcey answered, still calm and composed, from the revelation he had previously realized. Sema was caught completely off guard. She stared at with wide eyes. Then, she started crying. Tears were flowing like a river.

“So? Will you return my feelings, and let me follow you to your father?” Harcey asked. Sema looked up to him, with a smile, then nodded her head.

“Great! This way, I will be able to seek you father’s permission!” Harcey said proudly.

“Permission?” Sema asked, confused.

“To marry you, of course!” Harcey, confidently stated.

XI

Our entire armies had finally gathered outside the Demon Sect. Even though our numbers had significantly diminished over the constant flow of battles, it was still a considerable force, and we still outnumbered the nearly extinct Demon Alliance.

After the Kitserra joined us, we had gained a lot of men, as well. Rows upon rows of mages and warriors lined outside the sect walls, seemingly going as far back as the eye could see.

Inside the walls, the nerves of the common soldiers were weakening, under the sight of huge force. We outnumbered them quite significantly, as more than ninety nine percent of their forces had been extinguished already, but they still didn’t waver. They knew they had to stand headstrong, or they would surely die.

They held unto all the small slivers of hope they could find, with all their strength. But all those soldiers knew that this might be the last sundown they ever see, as they watched the sun fall below the mountains.

Even though there were more people than you could count, there was an unnerving silence, as the two forces stared each other down. The strongest mages, had gathered on the walls, raising their strongest barriers, with the hope that the walls wouldn’t fall.

The soldiers were in their battle positions; archers stood on the battlements, bows ready, warriors, stood behind the gate, ready to meet the enemy. Healers were spread around, ready to heal any comrades in need. The commanders, safe in the palace, or together with their warriors, ready to fight for their lives.

The commanders of the huge army, of the Sword Alliance, finally raised their war horns, and blew, causing a loud, reverberating bellowing, to thunder.

The warriors all screamed their war cries, and stormed towards the walls, and the warriors of the Demon Sect, stormed out the gates, to meet them. I however, didn’t move. Instead, I raised my sword that claimed more lives, than many countries possessed.

The black rays of the abyss, gathered around the blade, and consumed the light in the surrounding. In a moment, a huge pillar of darkness, raised into the sky, darkening the surroundings. All the warriors stopped in their tracks. The Sword Alliance soldiers all marvelled at the sight, while the nerves of the Demon Sect were shattered.

In a thunderous, apocalyptic movement, the pillar shattered, and fell to the walls and battlements, completely shattering them, killing all the mages, and archers, and eliminating half of the warriors, which stood outside.

The apocalyptic even that just happened, was followed by a deep silence, as everyone processed what just happened. However, before everyone could fathom what happened, a deep loud laughter bellowed through the heavens.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!” It thundered out. Everyone looked around in confusion, including me. It was not I, who had laughed, but someone else. Someone powerful.

“The Abyss Sword Technique! Truly marvellous! No one on this world, knows this style as deeply as me, yet you have already mastered it such an extent. And if that wasn’t enough, you, the Son of Gebados, practise the Way of the Chaos God! Truly ironic, truly ironic!” A voice seeping with madness and insanity said.

Suddenly in the sky, a man wearing peculiar clothing, and shoulder length, white hair, appeared.

“Hahaha, truly amazing! If you hadn’t done all which you had done, I wouldn’t even kill you! I might even take you as an apprentice or ally! How FUN!” The insane man said.

“However, you are the Son of Gebados, and you have almost destroyed my entire sect. You can never be my ally, and must die,” he suddenly said, in a calm and composed manner.

“Ah, silly me! I haven’t even introduced Myself!” He said, again with an apparent madness.

“I am, Allpos Skyseeker. You may also know me by the title of, Demon Master,” he announced. As soon as he introduced his title, a wave of despair showered upon every single warrior and mage, of the Sword Alliance.

He had appeared! He was already healed, and came out at the very beginning!

“I see my plan worked pretty well, in my favour. Sending out that patrol, so that you could catch them, and torture our location out of them. Sure, it would result in the destruction of all the five remaining sects, but now I have all of you gathered together! Much easier! I’m sure they didn’t mind. Now, how do you say it? Let’s, commence… The slaughter!” He yelled out loud.

In a swift motion, he waved his hand, causing huge waves of blackness to roll upon our forces, immediately killing a ridiculously huge number of people. But that wasn’t what shocked me. It was the method! There was no doubt about it. That was the Abyss Sword Style, without a doubt!

He actually possessed the same method as I did. And to be completely honest, I was scared. I possessed the strength of an early Legendary Saint, but he was at the peak! He was only a single step from becoming an immortal. He was far, far stronger than me!

I looked behind me, with the hope of somehow seeing Assiel rushing in our direction, but alas, there was no Sword Master. Immediately, I rushed to the nearest Mythical Saint I could find.

“Quickly, rush back to the teleporter, and get Assiel here! Waste no time, I will use everything in my power to stall him, but even if I use all my power, I can only hold out so long! HURRY!” I screamed at him, almost in a desperate panic. The Mythical Saint quickly nodded his head, and immediately rushed away.

As he made his escape, I looked up to the sky. It was quickly darkening, as the sun set, but it was still not dark enough. I couldn’t use my Ruler of the Night ability. However, I could transform, which would make close to as strong as a middle stage Legendary Saint.

Without wasting time, I transformer, into my true form, garnering the attention of Allpos, the Demon Master. He looked at me with curious eyes.

“Well, isn’t this peculiar. I guess you really are a Demi God!” He said, as he walked the invisible steps in the sky, slowly getting closer to me. The fighting on the ground had completely stopped, as Allpos had already killed most of our forces. Only the strongest were still alive, and that was only because he hadn’t come that far yet.

He was seemingly taking it quite easy. That was the only advantage I possessed! The hope that he wouldn’t kill us all right away, and that the sun could set. After the sun would set, I would be able to enter an ethereal form, and then I could keep him at bay for a bit longer.

As he walked towards me, suddenly, I felt a huge pressure, like a thousand mountains pressing on my shoulders, weighing me down. I couldn’t help, but to fall down a bit.

“Hah, what are you so surprised by? Well, I guess you wouldn’t know about this, as you haven’t truly reached the Legendary Saint stage quite yet. This is the Domain. When you reach the Legendary Saint stage, you will get a Domain, although it’s still very weak at the early stage. Also, it isn’t a true Domain, you don’t get that until reaching the Immortal Stage. Oh, but why am I telling this to you, who is about to die?” He said, as he casually waved his hand, causing me to fly back, like a meteor.

Such power! I didn’t stand a chance, I could only let myself become a punching bag. But he seemed to be quite angry, as his eyes were constantly flinching, and it seemed like he was fighting himself, to keep calm. He was truly mad by everything I had done to his Sect. He didn’t want to end this in an instant. He wanted to torture me, and that fact, was my only hope.

He proceeded to punch me around, throwing me all around the battlefield. Everyone below, looked on in fright, and shock. This almighty being, they had followed for so long, was being beaten to a pulp. He didn’t stand a chance. It shocked them, but there was nothing they could do. They could only hope that I could last long enough for Assiel to arrive.

After he had enough, of throwing me around, he grabbed me by the throat, and started pommelling me, over and over again. I could only gasp in pain, and accept it. There was truly nothing I could do. However, as I opened my eyes, I was met with darkness. The sun had set, and the moon was rising. A relieved smile, crept unto my face.

“Huh? What are you smiling at? You want more?” He asked.

“Why don’t you see for yourself?” I asked back, as his hand slipped through my body, and my body became opaque.

“Huh?” he said, as I quickly rushed a bit back.

“You can become ethereal? Damn it, you really are a Demi God. All these abilities, it isn’t fair! We normal people actually have to make an effort to reach this kind of strength!” He said, as he charged at me, and launched a punch at my face, but his fist only slipped through.

“Hmph, troublesome! But I still have my ways,” he said, as he covered his fist in a black veil. Once more, he launched his fist at me, and this time it connected, sending me flying, however, it was weaker than before.

Going ethereal like this, made it so that physical attacks had no effect, and magical attacks only had half effect. However, in contrast, I couldn’t attack myself, without switching through corporeal and ethereal forms.

“Hah, this I can handle,” I said, as I spit out some see through blood. But I didn’t waste time, and started flying around at full speed, with the hope of keeping him at bay. My ethereal form also increased my speed by a bit, so I was quite fast. However, it was only foolish hope, as he was still far faster than me. It only took a moment for him to catch up to me, and grab me again, using that black veil around his body. Then, he threw me to the ground, creating a large crater around me.

“Ah, well I guess this is enough. Time to die,” he said, however, before he could go down to me,

“STOOPP!” A loud shout bellowed. In the distance, Assiel was flying towards us at full speed. That Mythical Saint had succeeded at leading Assiel here! Finally, hope was on our side!

“Hah, you’ve finally arrived! Finally! I’ve waited so, so long for this moment, so long! Finally, finally! FINALLY! I can finally have my revenge,” Allpos said, with a creepy voice at the end. I looked up to him in confusion, not understanding what he meant by revenge.

“How many thousands of years has it been? Hah, I’ve waited so long, and finally, I can kill you for what you did to us!” Allpos shouted, as his body suddenly disappeared, and in only an instant later, he stood before Assiel, who looked shocked, and afraid.

“This, this! This is impossible! How can this be! HOW! You can’t have, you CAN’T! It’s not possible!” Assiel shouted and screamed, not wanting to believe what he had seen. Allpos grabbed Assiel by the throat and lifted him up. Assiel was seemingly unable to resist.

“Oh, but my dear brother, it is as you see. I, have reached the level of an Immortal!” he loudly announced, so that everyone could hear. I looked at him in shock. He was an Immortal! He was an Immortal the entire time! No wonder he was so strong.

“Oh dear Lord, help us,” I said, as I realized what was going on. Assiel tried to open his mouth to speak, but before he could speak a word, black flames surrounded his body, and burned him to nothingness. Slowly, I stood back up from my crater, and flew up from the ground.

“So, Demi God, I forgot to ask, but what was your name?” He asked me. I stood silent for a while, but still decided to answer.

“My name is Isaac Coldblood,” I told him. Allpos nodded his head in approval.

“I see. That’s a good name. You haven’t offended me as much as Assiel did, so I will leave your body intact. Count it as me paying respect to your lineage,” he said.

Amelia, and the other Supreme Elders, weren’t very far away from me, and quickly rushed over to me.

“No, you guys need to escape! Get as far away from this God forsaken continent as you can! I will hold him for as long as I can,” I said.

“No, I won’t leave you!” Amelia said.

“I will also stay by your side,” Ley said.

“Me as well,” Garmond spoke.

“No you don’t understand. It makes no difference, he far too powerful! He’s an Immortal! At least some of us should survive this day!” I shouted at them, frantically.

“Hah, it’s you who don’t understand, Isaac. We’ve been with our sects for thousands upon thousands of years. We can’t watch them fall, without doing anything at all. If we were to fall in the process, then so be it,” Garmond said. Ley nodded in approval, as did the other Supreme Elders and Sect Masters.

“Hah, then so be it. We will fight together,” I said.

“You don’t talking yet?” Allpos said, as he was looking at his nails. Then, without a word, everyone attacked. I stood behind for just a moment, to speak with Amelia.

“Amelia, leave! Go back home, to the others! You don’t have to die!” I said. Amelia shook her head feverishly.

“I won’t! I can’t live without you!” She screamed. I only sighed at her answer.

“Amelia, I love you. So I wish you will forgive me for this,” I said. She looked at me in confusion, not knowing what I meant.

“Amelia, go home,” I said again, however this time, there was a strange light in my eyes. Amelia opened her mouth in surprise, as she finally realized.

“No, no, Isaac, please don’t!” She said, as she suddenly started leaving unwillingly.

“Amelia, I love you, and I love all the others as well! So please, Amelia, go home, and live!” I ordered her in a loud thunderous shout, using the power of my blood, to order her to go home and live! As long as I used the power of our Blood Bond, she could never refuse me. This way, I could be assured that she would go home, and that she would live.

Thus, I finally turned around, to face Allpos Skyseeker.

XII

The various Mythical Saints of the Sects and Kitserra all surrounded Allpos. There were several tens of us, and in the lead stood I. Amelia was rushing away, with tears in her eyes.

“You managed to convince her to leave?” Ley asked with a relieved smile. He also wished for someone to survive this endeavour, and Amelia had become like sister to him, as Isaac had become his brother.

“I used a cruel way to make her leave, against her will, but I will do anything for her to live, even if I have to die,” I said. Ley closed his eyes, and nodded in approval.

“Alright ladies, let’s do this!” I shouted, as I charged at Allpos, closely followed by everyone else. For the first five minutes, no one, died, as he was only fighting half assed. But then, he started getting bored. In a swift motion, he waved his arm like a sword, and six people were severed, and died on the spot.

Then I noticed him swinging again, but this time towards Ley. Luckily for me, he wasn’t using a lot of power, so I managed to quickly jump in the way, and push Ley away. However, it I lost my entire arm, from the shoulder. Ley looked at me with worry, but as he saw my arm quickly regenerate, his worry faded.

Allpos also looked at me, with high curiosity.

“Ah, so this is how you managed to reach such a high level in the Way of the Chaos God. You truly have too many abilities! You can regenerate an entire arm in seconds! Not fair!” He shouted, as he charged at me, and cut both my arms of, and kicked me away.

However, he marvelled, as my arms quickly grew out again.

“Truly amazing!” He said, as he grabbed the arm of a person, who happened to be nearby, then spun around, to throw him at someone else. However, as he spun around, he noticed something in the distance. He saw Amelia rushing away, already a large distance away.

The reason he didn’t notice her before, is because he was too busy marvelling at his nails.

“Oho, what’s this?” He said, as he looked into the distance, and started charging towards Amelia. I immediately noticed.

“NOOO! Let her go!” I screamed as I immediately took chase. I was going as fast as I could, using my wings combined with normal flying, as well as the added speed from the ethereal form. But it was still far too slow. He made it to her, in an instant, and as I arrived, chased by the others, he already had her by the throat.

“LET HER GO!!” I screamed at him. A small smile crept on his face, as Amelia looked at me, with tears in her eyes, not able to speak.

“Aha, might this be your wife?” He said in a mischievous voice. I couldn’t hold myself back, and immediately charged at him, however, I suddenly found my self frozen in place, a hundred meters away from him.

“This is the True Domain of an Immortal. Much stronger than the one I used before, isn’t it?” He said.

“Let’ her go!” I answered, however his smile only grew wider, and then time seemed to slow down, as his hand moved up, and went towards her chest. Time slowed, almost to a halt, as I could see his hand penetrate her chest, slowly, getting closer and closer to her heart.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! STOP!!!” I screamed my lungs out, but to no avail.

“ARGH!” Amelia screamed, as she vomited blood, before the light left her eyes, and her heart had been shattered. Her body fell lifeless to the ground, as I felt the weights leave my body.

In a thunderous movement, I charged to her, breaking my own leg from the impact. I grabbed her on the shoulders and started shaking her, but no response. There was no life in her; her heart had been completely destroyed. She had been killed.

“AAAAAAAAAARGHHHH!!!” I screamed, letting all my sorrow and rage seep into the word. Suddenly I felt a familiar presence near me, a powerful presence, and void darkness started surrounding me, a darkness seeping with death. It slowly surrounded me, causing everyone to look at us in shock.

I moved my bloodshot eyes, to look at Allpos. He even flinched, at he saw the rage in my eyes.

“Allpos! I swear to the Heavens and the Deepest Pits of Hell, to the Gods and Demons, to everything Holy and Unholy, I WILL KILL YOU!! I’LL SHATTER YOUR SOUL, AND TURN YOUR BODY TO NOTHINGNESS!!! I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS, I WON’T REST, I WON’T STOP, I WON’T STOP UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD!!!!!!!” I roared from the top of my lungs, letting every ounce of my rage seep into his bones, as the darkness surrounded me, and took us away from here, to an unknown place, in an unknown realm.

End of chapter 8.

And that's that. A bit of a cliffhanger for ya, cause I'm evil like that. And you have no idea how long this took to space. Every time I upload, I have to manually add the spacing between the paragraphs, so it takes ages.

Anyways, look forward to the next chapter, and please follow and favorite, and rate, if you haven't already. I really appreciate it.

Also, a few side notes. If I keep getting this much homework, which I never expected, I will have to put HotN on hold, however it will only be temporary. I was thinking I could finish book 2 of RotV, then finish book 1 of HotN. That way, I also get a bit of time to plan book 3 of RotV.

Please tell me what you think.

Also, I'm progressing with the rewrite, and when I'm finished I'm going to publish it as a book. And before I said that I would post the rewrite on here, but I have decided on something else instead. I think I might upload it as new "story", which will still be called Rise of the Vampires, but maybe an added rewrite add the end.

The reason for this is, because I have quite a few bad reviews on here, but I don't feel like those will be valid for the rewrite. I'm fleshing the characters out more, and there are also new story points, and changes in plot, so yeah. Btw, some changes have already been incorporated in the last few chapters, since I don't want to rewrite book 2 as well :P Like, Isaac is the actual real son of Gebados, God of Death, and his wife. This will be explained in the first chapter, so don't worry.

Also, I might make a list of changes, so that you won't have to reread if you don't want to.

Now, one last thing.

On monday, I'll be going to Scotland, and I won't be back until Friday, so I won't be writing next week. Sorry about that.

Now, bye!