Undead city-Altraud
Outer City, Arthur's grave
Arthur could feel the tension rising in his room and sighed. He directed the vampire girl to sit on a stone chair inside the grave, attempting to placate the situation.
"Alright, let me introduce you to each other. Kyouka, this tiny innocent girl is Arya; she is a Vampire princess. And Arya, this scary and brutish undead is Kyouka; she is a death knight."
A tick mark appeared on Kyouka's head as she heard that introduction. "Can't you just introduce me a bit more normally!?" she huffed and turned towards Arya.
"Hi there, brat, as he just introduced, I am Kyouka, a death knight—an evolved form of undead," she informed and extended her arm.
Arya shook it while observing her, noting that Kyouka appeared to be around 168 cm tall and was covered from head to toe in blue metallic armour, with only a small horizontal slit-like opening in her helmet through which her ghostly eyes stared at Arya as if examining her worth.
“I will be honest, I don't want you to stay in this city,” Arya's body tensed at that statement. She opened her mouth to argue back, but Kyouka was faster.
“I heard you already cleared the minor dungeon in the city; there is no need for you to stay here anymore. So here's the deal: I will allow you to enter the minor dungeon of my city, the undead city called Deimos, but in exchange, you need to leave Altraud, permanently. That's the best option I can give you. I will stay in the city for a few more days; let me know what you decide,” she offered and walked away, leaving only Arthur and Arya in the room.
"Am I causing harm to the city by living here?" Arya asked while remembering the recent incident inside the dungeon but Arthur just shook his head in denial.
"Not really. If anything, I am the one causing harm to this city. Four years ago, I allowed humans to enter the city, and ever since then, this city has been constantly facing the threat of an attack from them."
"Why did you allow them?" she asked, expecting it to be something similar to how he allowed her inside the city, but she was dead wrong.
"I asked the humans to form a diplomatic meeting. You see, my city—this city—is not a home for the undead; it's a prison. A neat, cosy prison, but a prison nonetheless. No undead are allowed to go outside the city because if they do, they will be killed. Undead are not seen as naturally born creatures; we are seen as abominations of nature, creatures that were never meant to be born and are treated as a disease to nature. I wanted to change that, to show the world that we are also creatures with emotions and that we are not a threat to nature, but it backfired, and now it's only a matter of time before they attack us again.”
Arthur took a pause and then stared at her. "Now tell me, am I causing harm to the city by living here?" he asked, and Arya didn't know what to say. He had caused harm to the city, but he was also trying to help his species. Did he do the right thing or the wrong thing? She didn't know, so she just blankly stared back at him.
Arthur sighed and continued, "What I did was a mistake. I shouldn't have allowed them inside, but it's done. I've already done it, and now my job is to rectify my mistake and protect my citizens. You are the same. If you make a mistake, don't run away from it," he advised her, then asked her to sit on the ground.
She did as told and waited. A few seconds later, Arthur placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't resist, and sense the energy flow," he instructed, injecting his green hue into her body. Arya flinched initially but later allowed the energy to flow. She sensed the energy move towards her heart and return towards Arthur's hand. By the time the procedure was done, she could sense her hue much better than before.
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“You just underwent a mutation of the brain, so your sensitivity and control over hue should improve with practice. Try to circulate your hue from the heart to other organs and then back to the heart.”
Arya nodded at his instructions and circulated the hue. She was able to move the hue away from the heart easily but couldn't bring it back, no matter how much she tried. Disappointed, she turned towards Arthur for help.
“Don't worry, it takes time to complete the circulation. Keep practising, and you will be able to do it in a few weeks,” he said, and then continued, “Once you are done with that, you need to sense your special affinity hue inside your body. Then, try to circulate just that. Only then will you be able to create a special affinity skill. It is a long and time-consuming process. Here, this book details all the procedures involved in creating a special skill, please just don't throw it away once you are done reading”
Arya nodded and took the book, it was a diary of some sort detailing the entire procedure involved in the creation of skills.
Arya thanked Arthur for the book and left the grave. Outside she found a piece of skinned raw meat along with a letter, the letter read
Some distance away from the grave, Maya and Ervin sneakily watched her eat the meat.
“You can just go and talk to her you know” Ervin suggested teasingly causing her to huff in annoyance, “I am still mad at her” she argued back while discreetly hiding a feather dripping with ink. As he saw that, Ervin grinned and teased her more while walking away from the grave.
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Human camp
A black imperial bat dangled from a tree branch and scanned the deserted camp with its red eyes. Finding no human inside the camp, it spread its wings and flew towards the imperial city of vampires.
Unbeknown to the tiny bat, mist began to surround it as a human, who was watching it from inside a bush, pointed a 28 cm wand towards it.
“Is that the last of the bats?” the blond human behind the bushes asked, he was Hendry Manmon, the third son of the Mammom city's chief and one of the main leaders of the upcoming war. Selena who was also hiding near him, heard his question and nodded at him.
“I must say that was pretty impressive for a kid” she complimented the blond boy but he just scoffed. “I don't need your compliments, I don't know why you are working with us humans but know that I don't trust you” he informed her and walked away.
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Undead city-Altraud
Outer city wall
Ever since the human attack four years ago, Arthur patrolled the city borders every day. It had become routine for him, but today was different because today Kyouka was also with him. They both sat on the city wall and gazed at the distant forest. After a while, Kyouka couldn't bear the silence and asked the question on her mind.
"Does she have to be in this city? I know you want to repay Veld for allowing us to enter his dungeon, but it doesn't mean she has to be in this city. She could be in my city. Daimos is built on a huge ghost ship, surrounded by the ocean. Even if humans try to attack us, it would be very difficult to locate my city," she suggested, trying to convince him. But Arthur just shook his head.
"You know there's a reason why all the newborn kids stay inside Altraud, right? Your city is far too dangerous for kids to live in. Just one mistake and they will drown to death, not to mention the constant storms in the ocean. I won't allow her to follow you until she is strong enough to protect herself," Arthur declared, causing Kyouka to sigh. "Why are you so fixated on her?" she asked, punching him in irritation.
"Hey, that hurts. You are made of metal, damn it. You can't just punch me every two seconds," Arthur protested, rubbing his shoulder bone. He continued, "That girl reminds me of you. She rarely uses her brain and has a habit of rushing into danger as long as it helps her achieve her aim. She has little regard for her life, and most importantly, she is scared of loneliness. It all reminds me of you, and that's why I want to train her and see her achieve her dream," he explained, again receiving a punch to his shoulder.
"What did I do now?"
"You indirectly said that I rarely use my brain," she huffed and punched him again.
"Sorry, my bad. You never use your brain," he corrected, narrowly avoiding a punch to his skull. They both quarreled for a bit longer, unaware of the imminent battle approaching the city.