In the pitch blackness of his abandoned cell, Jeremiah sensed movement from outside. Explorers perhaps? Plunderers? Spelunkers probably. No man would dare venture this far underground lest they loved to do so or they wanted something THAT badly. Using inhuman senses, he heard people speak in a foreign tongue from very far away. Had centuries passed by in his cell to the point that languages of old had been forgotten? He had a hard time telling any more. With no sunrise to fear, time becomes a foreign concept. Using his darkvision, Jeremiah saw a stalactite on the ceiling above him, big enough to be held like a dagger. In fact, his cell looked to be that of a cave. Many millennia had to have passed, as this room was once the finest prison a noble prince such as himself could be given, even so deep underground that the dwarves dared not venture.

Groaning, Jeremiah slowly rose to his feet. Each movement felt to him like he was cast into a statue and breaking out over and over. His body slowly came to life, the soreness of laying on stone for this long hitting him all at once, as if his body was catching up on lost time. He began to hack and cough before a spider's web and a dozen spiders sputtered out of his mouth in a frenzy, bile and dirt coming with it. After eventually spewing his mortal contents, he brushed the grime off his body, in the process disintegrating the last shreds of the noble clothes he wore before his slumber.

It took even longer to finally coerce his limbs into taking an extremely slow and stilted step forward, and then another soon after as his nervous system re-ignited after being essentially dead. After an agonizing amount of time, he made it to the pristine prison bars which were once his cell. Made of Dwarven Adamantium, they were perhaps the only thing here which withstood the test of time. Bars so unbelievably durable that it takes the great forges in the realms of fire to soften them enough to bend.

Jeremiah placed his hands on the bars, and pushed with an inhuman strength, causing the Adamantium rods to crumble the weak ruined frame in which they were contained, and fall to the cavern floor. The immortal man picked one up, a Dwarven Adamantium staff would make a fine enough weapon. Far away, a rhythmic rumble started up. Constant, but consistent, metal ground against rock. He was free now, so he tried to leave and investigate, only to be met with collapsed rock. He was properly entombed underground, and so he sat down on the most comfortable piece of rock he could find, and began to meditate.

Time was impossible to discern here, but that did not bother Jeremiah. All he knew was that the sound of metal grinding against stone slowly became louder as he waited. And wait he did, that was one thing Jeremiah was good at. He let the grinding of stone get closer and closer over what could be either minutes or years, with no way to tell. Until one day, or perhaps was it one minute, the grinding took on a completely different tone. Seconds later, narrowly missing his head, a rapidly spinning metal implement pierced through the wall behind him, spraying debris and water all over him, before quickly retreating. It happened so fast that Jeremiah had barely the time to process what was going on before a strange implement made of glass and metal filled the once pitch black room with a brilliant white light. On the end of the implement was a lens that vaguely resembled an eye. Through unknown means, the ‘eye’ moved itself around in place, presumably to look at all this room had to offer. He had no place to hide, so he continued to meditate as it settled its gaze upon him before sliding back through the hole it had made. A faint white glow shone through this hole, and while Jeremiah did not need to breathe, he could taste fresh air slowly filter in.

Soon, the grinding sound began again. This time much louder as it had a hole to travel through. But the waiting continued. The drilling and grinding slowly imprinted itself on his skull until his meditation became nothing but the thrumming and drilling. It would have been enough to drive a mortal man insane. Time went much more slowly now, as boring regular events began to occur more frequently. True boredom began to set in. More speech from people he could not recognize, variations in the noise, things which made meditation harder. It almost became agony for him, until another metal implement spun through below the first. Jeremiah stood up with his Adamantium Rod in both hands as men began talking on the other side, extremely close now. Within arms length. A new noise was heard, fast and pounding. Very loud. Digging at the rock between them. Over what he could discern was probably hours the men slowly carved a small tunnel to his chamber. What were their intentions? To slay him before he had a taste of freedom? To collect him like a prized treasure? Time ticked by slowly as fear began to set in. Inch by inch they got closer, until finally the rock was only a thin barrier between the two.

But Jeremiah did not let fate come to him, he took it himself. Using his inhuman strength, and what remaining essence was in him since before the Torpor, he used his long Dwarven Adamantium Rod to bash down the remaining inches of rock. And then all of the sudden, after thousands of years of isolation, there he was. Standing stark naked and emaciated in front of five men, four of which were in odd bright orange vests, and the fifth having resembled that of the clerics of many years ago. It was a relief, to see that some things didn’t change. The relief only lasted moments though, as in a panic the Cleric thumped his staff on the floor, sending a wave of burning holy energy through Jeremiah, causing his back to arch forward in agony.

But it was weak.

So, so weak.

Truly, was this the best humanity could now offer me?

Jeremiah quickly found out, as in retaliation he caved in the cleric's skull and stuffed the holy man’s jaw into his stomach with his new rod weapon, all in one elegant motion of his stiff arms. The other four tried to flee, but Jeremiah needed to feed. With the stiffness of his Torpor beginning to dissipate, he stabbed the dull end of his Adamantium Rod through one of the men to his right, before flicking his wrist and caving in the spine and ribcage of the adjacent man. Jeremiah then withdrew the rod from the man with a bloody SCHLEAM before throwing it straight through the third man’s skull like a Javelin, sending the man flying far down the tunnel. The final one had gained some distance, so Jeremiah went on all fours and sprinted after him like a beast. In one leap, he was atop the final man, pinning him with his face in the rock. Bending his torso backwards to such an angle that it broke his back, Jeremiah bit his neck and began to feed. And indeed hungry he was, for after draining this man to a husk dry as a bone he was nowhere near satiated. So of the men who did not instantly die, he went back and ate their remaining essence as they bled out on the floor. The last one murmured a word which was foreign to him, but his tone let Jeremiah know exactly what he was saying. It was, in fact, the first word he learned in their language.

“V-vampire…”

Jeremiah liked the name.

The Vampire, going back and grabbing a second Adamantium Rod and dual wielding the two, slowly began to walk down the huge dark tunnel that these men had seemingly spent so long carving out. He let his two rods drag against the floor, the low scraping noise they made filling the tunnel with a Cacophony where there had once been silence besides the grinding of metal on stone.

For a time he could hardly track, Jeremiah walked down the tunnel, not knowing where it went but greatly appreciated having a goal to work towards now. The recent feeding should last him quite a while, if he tempers his movement. What he did not know however was how long this tunnel would go on for. Only dwarves were known to dig tunnels this long and wide, and they most certainly did not make them circular like the one he was traversing. More importantly, the people he fed on were not dwarves, but humans. Jeremiah found this strange. But even stranger were the things he encountered while traversing this tunnel. After a long trek, there was a large square room with big supports made of painted steel, and off to the side was a strange contraption with a large drill at the end of it, which The Vampire found arcane and odd. He saw a sack of sorts in the sort of the drill contraption, so he ripped it open and looted its contents. Among the items was a strange pair of clothes, not like the orange neon vests worn by the mortals he fed on, but instead made of finely sewn wool. First was a shirt rather large for his size, with the insignia of a skull and crossbones on it. Jeremiah liked this shirt, he put it on. Next was a pair of even looser gray pants, not like commoners where it's held up by rope, but with the rope sewn into the fitting. While The Vampire found this odd, he welcomed not being nude and put it on.

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Off to another side was a series of large lock boxes stacked vertically, twenty in total. While Jeremiah had no key, he found that ripping open the doors with his bare hands worked just fine. Inside, The Vampire Found:

More clothes, none he liked besides what he already had on.

Many strange thin tablets, likened to those of runes but made of glass and a foreign material.

Mortal foods, wrapped in strange materials.

More vests, which he did not put on.

A steel knife sheathed in a strange material with the ability to fold itself. Jeremiah pocketed this ‘folding knife’ as he called it.

A strange contraption made of metal and glass, when he bashed it in a certain manner the contraption emits a white light. He had no need of this, so he left the contraption on and set it back down.

Satisfied with his search, he began to trek to the opposite side of the room where he entered from, which was a similar circular hallway.

There was a rope made of a soft material going from the drill contraption into the depths of the tunnel. Jeremiah assumed that this would lead him out, so he began to follow the strange rope.

For what felt like hours, but probably only minutes, he walked down the tunnel in silence. Once more letting his Dwarven Adamantium Rods scraping against the floor. He found all of these contraptions very strange. Had people changed this much since he was last awake? But what bothered him more was the Cleric. He was so impossibly weak, his call to the gods was barely answered. It was a given that the cleric was quite likely inexperienced, but in that moment The Vampire was at his weakest. If humanity had wanted to defeat Jeremiah The Terrible, that was their best shot at ever doing so. And the cleric simply failed. Which ultimately was good for Jeremiah in the end.

If humanity has grown soft in my absence, I shall remind them what true fear is.

Eventually, Jeremiah approached a similar square room, this one with numerous branching tunnels going out from it. The rope converged with other ropes from other tunnels into a bundle of sorts, snaking down a smaller passage to the right. The Vampire took this path, following the bundle for a short distance until approaching an odd metal cage below a long vertical shaft, assumedly to the surface. An air bellows of sorts? The bundle of ropes snaked up the shaft, so he assumed so. This would be his way out. After being trapped below for so long, the prophecy shall soon be fulfilled.

Leaving one of the Adamantium Rods behind, Jeremiah grabbed the strange rope with his free hand, beginning to slowly climb upwards. He still conserved his strength, for he did not know how long until his next feeding. The Vampire heard a series of small but loud explosions from above, and hot bits of metal suddenly hit The Vampire on the forehead, the surprise nearly caused him to lose balance and fall but he catches himself at the last second. More bits of metal hit Jeremiah’s body, many more flew by. They hit hard, but no mortal means could have slain a great vampire such as him, so they merely bounced off. After a brief pause, the vampire had begun to climb more, ignoring the odd slag being directly launched at him. At least, until there was a loud SNAP, and the rope bundle he was climbing broke. Jeremiah started to fall back down into the depths; In one swift movement he pushed himself off the falling rope and onto the wall of the shaft, using his inhuman ability to latch onto them like that of a spider. This was met with more bits of metal being launched at him from a different angle.

Jeremiah was starting to get annoyed.

Using some of his essence, the powerful Vampire moved up the shaft like a wolf bounding after its prey. Jeremiah begun to hear people talking from above, the air started tasting fresher. He was so close to freedom now, all it took was one final bound and-

CLONK

Jeremiah had hit something hard and metal.

Where once there was light filtering in, a metal cap covered the exit. Jeremiah tapped it with his fingers. Mere steel, and a lot of it. From above, Jeremiah heard shouting and footsteps quickly moving away from him. Although they may be weak, The Vampire had to admit that they knew when to retreat. For just one moment before, Jeremiah had seen the moon, and it was glorious. But once more he was stuck underground. Surrounded by rock and a metal slab. Jeremiah could normally lift an object such as this, but not when climbing. That wouldn’t stop him however. Accepting the fact that he had to expend more essence to leave, he raised his fist and sent it crashing down into the rock side, creating a decent indent that allowed him to hold onto the rock with his hands. Jeremiah began to dig, clawing at stone and throwing it down the shaft below. His nails were like steel, able to pierce the hard stone and pry it open with his fingers. Even with his immense strength, though, this took time for him to do. Hours passed by, silence from above. Just digging. But Jeremiah was so close, he could taste it. The Vampire yearned deeply for moonlight on his pale skin once more.

Finally, he made a small cubby in the wall big enough for him to crouch down in. This will do. Jeremiah built up energy in his legs and put his arms up towards the ceiling, like a crouching frog ready to jump. Essence flowed from Jeremiah’s dead core, slowly concentrating, moving down to his legs, before all at once being released. And released it most certainly did, pushing off the rock ledge with so much force that the entire side of the shaft he was on collapsed. Reactively, his body punched into the steel slab, for a micro moment making a dent, before pushing the entire thing off its hinges as Jeremiah, along with the massive slab of steel, careened high into the night sky. Down below, there was a resounding BOOM as a trap the men trying to kill him had set up exploded, creating a raging inferno. But this did not concern The Vampire. He was free! Riding the massive steel slab like a surfing board, Jeremiah saw the tree line after so long in isolation. The creature of evil rarely admitted this, but he liked the natural beauty of it all to some measure. Up in the sky, amethyst dragons flew by over an expansive forest. Where once this land had been owned by the Reclainians, no doubt they have been replaced by someone else. In the distance, Jeremiah saw the mountains, where surely the dwarves still resided. And beyond that would be the swamps and enchanted forests the elves claimed as home. Everything will now be different in this new world, but like the cleric he met before, some things did not change. Like the moon, it was indeed still there. And…

A very strange black dragon flew in the distance. Flying at impossible speeds across the horizon, billowing out smoke as it went. Jeremiah looked closer with his Vampiric senses. It was metal. Another contraption? The Vampire wished to ponder, until he realized that he was falling. Too weak now to transform into a bat, he gripped the huge metal slab he was falling with and pointed the broad side downward, this slowed his descent somewhat. The Vampire ended up landing on top of an oak tree, crushing it with the steel slab which cushioned his fall to a degree, making a resounding CRRRANCH which cushioned his fall to a degree. Ultimately, he was relatively unharmed, although that whole ordeal has left his new clothes in tatters. He made a note to get some reinforced apparel if Jeremiah plans to go on more odd adventures such as this.

But that was neither here nor there. I am free! Truly free. The Vampire took a moment to sit down and soak in his surroundings. Fresh air. Flowers resting under the moonlight. Mushrooms on a fallen log. Nature.

How revolting.

Jeremiah hated this, he desired ash, the bones of the dead, dark mist to blot out the sun. Skeletons roaming. Cursed earth. Fear. Monsters must roam. The weak must hide under his protection. This? It was too good. Too pure. Not an enchanted forest, but it is still unsettling for Jeremiah. But a more pressing matter suddenly presented itself to The Vampire. The dark night slowly began to grow brighter. Sunrise was coming. They will be looking for him under the protection of daylight no doubt. He must hide.