Without the Foreplay (Rayne’s POV)
How old was I when everything really went downhill? Depends on the measuring system. I would either be 7 years old or 7 months, one week old.
4’7”, only having grown one inch since my last measurement. I remember back then. When everything was still nice and shining. I hadn’t made any friends in class, I still haven’t, but I had Eve and my fox. She was always running and hiding from me. I never quite understood why until she came to me one day and changed her shape.
A humanoid shape, except for some minor details. Mainly the cat ears and tail, as well as the long fingernails that were more like claws. Hair the same color as her fur beforehand, ears and tail the same, a face that looked no worse than my sister’s, one of the most beautiful people in the world, and very well developed curves, most men would be drooling over her.
But I was focused on what she told me. Or, more accurately, the fact that she could tell me it. She told me her name, one that echoed throughout the room unnaturally.
“Vera. My name is Vera.”
“Vera it is, then. I’m not even going to ask how you managed to take human form.” Eve turned to me, looking at me, then Vera, then me again. I was focused on Vera’s face, trying to find whatever it was that kept bothering me about it.
“Rayne, do you seriously not have any comments about this?” Eve asked. I looked to her, confused. What did she want me to say?
She only shook her head and pointed at Vera. I followed her finger, before blushing and kicking away from the sight.
She didn’t have any clothes. I mean, it made sense, since she didn’t have any before, but still… My chair hit the ground with a large sound, alerting the last person in the room who wasn’t looking, Effret.
“Rayne! Who the hell is she?! Where are her clothes?!”
“Effret! Vera! She’s a fox! She doesn’t have clothes!” I answered back, in the exact same tone she used to ask me.
“Make her some right this instant!”
“Yes, Ma’am!” I felt an odd chill go down my back when she made that threat. Nonetheless, my hand reached out to Vera, mana pulsing and swirling around it in quite a mesmerizing pattern. Vera stared at it for a second, before leaning down and biting the tips of my fingers.
I was so shocked it took a second for the pain to register.
“Ow! Vera, what do you think you’re doing?” I asked, not exactly thinking about it.
“Thanks for the treat?” She said in a questioning tone.
I didn’t have a response to that, so I tried again. The scene repeated itself. But the third time I had learned.
“Don’t eat it this time, I need to make your clothes.”
“Who needs those? I’m a proud fox, I don’t need those hindering pieces of cloth!” She exclaimed, puffing her chest out proudly. Her breasts swayed from side to side hypnotically. I must say, it took some effort not to look down.
I sighed deeply, not sure how to convince her to put some on. I didn't have any with me, and I couldn't buy any. Just saying, I wasted a wish. Being King's Guests does nothing but a small discount on some services and a quicker guard. I don't even get any money from it. After a few seconds of thinking, ignoring everything around me, I came up with an idea.
“Alright, I’ll give you a present if you put on some clothes. You’ll like the present, I promise.” Vera perked up at this, as well as another part of her body. I once again held out my palm, summoning the required mana for it. It began to slowly twirl itself together, weaving like a miniature loom.
All was going well until I felt something press against my hand. Something very soft and perfectly fitting in it. Confused as to what it was, I looked up from my meditative state. Of course, it was indeed what you think it is.
“I read this in a book once… Lovers often do this, right? Why do you think they do it?” Vera asked, her face showing only curiosity.
My face, however, was a different story…
“Rayne, I don’t know what you are thinking of doing, but stop before you regret it,” Eve warned me from the sidelines. I couldn’t care less.
My hand began to move, the mana still being woven as I massaged it. Vera quickly came about to the truth of her question, her eyes widening. Then they went half lidded, her legs growing weak. The set of clothes finished, so I stopped.
“Fumah?” Quite a cute sound, but I just shoved the clothes towards her while manipulating the mana in them to wrap around her. A few seconds was all it took for it to completely engulf her, making an interesting piece of clothing that was silver, and yet it was flexible.
She was doing some puppy eyes at me, but I had much too high of a resistance towards cute things like that. It was quite embarrassing, so I don't think it worked out as the punishment I meant for it to be.
I’ve continued it for a bit too long… Back to the main points, about 6 months had passed. Obviously, many of our stats had grown exponentially. My stats did not level nearly as much as I would have liked, as I was also trying to level some skills. Specifically, [Time and Space Control]. Just as a representation of the difficulty, it leveled a total of 3 times in 6 months.
But anyway, I’ll give you the changes first, then the status for me. Then Eve’s.
Passing Stat Gains (Rayne)
STR +1463
END +1894
LCK +1
PER +1023
DEX +1809
AGL +947
INT +673
WIS +528
LDS +90
VIT +93
FTH -276
WPR +14
Name: Rayne
Level: 40
Experience: 0/995,703 (0%)
HP [13,160/13,160]
MP [3,884/3,883] (.01)
SP [4,341/4,341]
Race: Vampire
HP [723.6/sec]
MP [1.726/sec]
SP [22.2/sec]
Blood: [54%]
Strength
2,435
Endurance
2,794
Luck
20
Perception
1,572
Dexterity
2,866
Agility
1,996
Intelligence
1,200
Wisdom
1046
Leadership
136
Vitality
188
Faith
-418
Willpower
100
Skills:
Blood Drain (Max)
Gain stats based off of amount and quality of blood drained.
Persuasion (9/10)
40% chance to persuade people to your side. Lessens if they know about the situation.
Mana Sense (35/100)
Sense mana. Max range: 25 miles. Blood range: 250 miles.
Advanced Meditation (60/100)
Recover mana 1800% quicker, regain stamina 14,400% quicker. Regen health 400% quicker.
Enticing Gaze (3/10)
Stare into people’s eyes and activate their libido and filling them with strength. Every Vampire needs a harem.
Mana Eye (25/50)
Sense anything within your mana as it spreads outwards.
Goes through walls. Large chance to inspect through hiding.
Mana Condensation (4/5)
Condense mana from the air. Maximum density: 2.5x
Mana Construction (217/~)
Shape your mana into anything.
This skill can evolve.
Time and Space Control (4/40)
Control Time and Space. Very unreliable.
Effects:
Sunlight Weakness
5% less Strength in sunlight.
Disease Immunity
Immunity to any disease debuffs.
Blood Drinker
Grants Max level skill [Blood Drain]
Mana Body
All Spells deal 20% more damage.
Vampiric Body
Sets Hp/sec to 1, if over 1, 120% increase.
Overcharge (Max)
1 max:100 extra.
Current: 2802
Divine Betrayal
Spells will not work.
Chronus
Time is easier to control.
Repaired Body
Multiply Hp based on number of times you have fully broken your body and healed. Also increases regen speed.
Current:7x
Current:108x
Eve
Party effect, receive half the experience she gets and vice versa.
Devilish Teacher
50% easier to control people through fear or torture. All effects gained from these are tripled.
Titles
Wanderer
Chronus★
Erotica Defined
Demonic Lover
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Passing Stat Gains (Eve)
STR +698
END +834
LCK +8
PER +2923
DEX +2367
AGL +856
INT +1769
WIS +2198
LDS +9
VIT +104
FTH +624
WPR +73
Name: Eve
Level: 32
Experience: 0/464,503 (0%)
HP [1970/1970]
MP [2456/2456]
SP [3578/3578]
Race: Human
HP [7.67/sec]
MP [1.092/sec]
SP [18.81/sec]
Satiety: 92%
Strength
1434
Endurance
1534
Luck
35
Perception
3487
Dexterity
3290
Agility
1693
Intelligence
2221
Wisdom
2690
Leadership
56
Vitality
197
Faith
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
1002
Willpower
151
Skills:
Mana Transfer (25/50)
Transfer mana between any two compatible storages.
Clairvoyance (23/100)
Chance to predict the future correctly.
Spellbook (Max)
Permanently memorize any spell that your body uses.
Transmute (94/~)
Use mana to change one thing about something.
Imperceivable (4/35)
Increase INT and PER by a multiple for up to five minutes.
Current:8x
Effects:
Bookworm
Memory is photographic, reading is 18x faster. 20% boost to meditation while reading.
Mana Body
All Spells deal 20% more damage.
Otherworldly Vision
Immune to ‘Blinded’. Reading is 6x as fast. Semi photographic memory to sights.
Rayne
Party effect, receive half the experience he gets and vice versa.
Storyteller
Easier to think up fictional stories.
Advice from a Hero
50% less susceptible to mind altering effects.
Devilish Student
10% chance to resist all fear inducing effects. Training is 3x as potent.
Titles
Deserter of Humanity
Fulfilled
Bookworm★
Well, it’s as you can see here. Something interesting that I learned over this half year is that you can only hold up to 9 skills inside your mind. There are other ways to increase that, but the easiest way is to just get an artifact and enchant the skill onto it. That is something I don’t want to risk, as I’m very good at losing things.
Another short summary, an actual one this time, of what Eve and I did:
Eve read every book in the city. There are exactly 84 libraries, each with a few thousand books in them. But Eve went to every single one of them and read everything. That being said, her perception and dexterity raised incrementally. She’s also learned a few spells from some of the books she got a chance to read. I’m not entirely sure that those were spellbooks, or if it just described it, but Eve managed one way or another.
I should probably also describe the party system. It seems that it had worked before I learned the tier 13 spell, Time and Space control because Eve got 411,666 experience from it. {The math was a pain, don’t even try to argue.} That’s why she was screaming that ‘I did it’ in the queen’s room.
I, myself, had to deal with the princess of the country. 4 friends in 20 days. To be completely honest, I had to take all 20 days to get her to bond with 2 other people. Eve and I counted as two friends after a bit, but the other two were difficult. She ended up friends with the foxnapper, whose name was Clair, by the way, and the man next to her. He was a skinny kid, arms like twigs, who practically, the heaviest thing he had to lift was a page in a book.
We all got along very well, our differences considered.
{You didn’t describe the princess.}
Oh, I didn’t.
Well, the princess, obviously, was a very shy girl. She had blond hair that she kept down, straight and lots of volume. When she’s embarrassed, she tries to hide under her hair. She has a pair of very beautiful hazel eyes, in my own personal opinion. A few inches shorter than me, making it very fun to tease her just by resting my arm on her shoulder. Honestly, she has perfect manners. Too perfect manners. If I didn’t know better, I’d assume that she was a japanese that spoke english. I only ever saw her in the school uniform, so I don’t really need to describe that, do I?
{I’d say no.}
Shut it, author. It was a rhetorical question.
So, it ended up that even after those 20 days were over, the princess requested to stay in school. Although, I’m not sure I mentioned it, but our class only has 10 seats. Which means that the princess didn’t have a seat. Eve decided to give hers up, preferring to sit on my lap. I didn’t really have any qualms with it, as she was a very addicting hug pillow.
{What a dick thing to say about your sister.}
SHUT IT, AUTHOR!
Ahem… Anyway, I had to be a bodyguard of sorts for the princess, as she would hide behind me whenever something startled her. Honestly, she acts like a frightened animal when her shyness gets to her. I learned a few things after that.
* The princess’s hair is very soft
* Petting people is quite an enjoyable experience
* Eve easily gets jealous.
* Eve’s hair is very smooth.
* My fox is curious.
* I only have two hands to please three women.
And with that, petting became a reward for when any of the three did something well. Like, say, the princess got a new friend. Or when Eve helped me out with something. Or when the fox learned how to speak proper sentences. Or when it learned to be a little bit less curious about anything erotic.
Anyway, I then spent most of my time researching and experimenting with [Time and Space control]. The skill itself says that it is very unreliable, so I was mainly just doing the same thing over and over in an attempt to have that 0.0000001% chance of it working.
With that small of a chance, it didn’t work almost every time. The skill allowed me to see 'time', in my own way. I saw threads. I had a suspicion that other people would see something different. But from my perspective, all I have to do is put mana into the threads of time and pull back. This slows time, at least.
Sounds easy, right? Not really. Putting the mana into the threads is the easy part, and that takes me a few hours. Pulling back? You have to control your strength with each and every thread, as they are all going different speeds, to lower the speed by the same amount. But just finding the direction of each one is nigh impossible. They twirl, spinning and twisting, knotting, tangling together, untying eachother, etc.
Space control has eluded me. I don’t even know the theory behind it, so I can’t do much in terms of leveling it that way.
So, that’s why my stats didn’t level all that much. Eve is actually higher than me in some places, even though she’s a few levels under me.
{Hurry and get to the present. You’ve already spent ⅓ of the chapter on a summary.}
I’m tired of your orders. But I’ll comply this time.
“Alright, test… some large number.” I muttered sarcastically, reaching my hand in front of me.
Mana flowed through me like a raging river, 3884 points making an entrance. It was incomparable to what I had before this time skip.
Concentrating it into my fingers, I tried to grab at the space between them.
Alas, another failure.
The air slips through my fingers, giving birth to a sigh of disappointment. Eve looked at the scene, probably confused as to what I was doing.
“Rayne, have you ever thought of trying another method? You’ve been trying to grab space, but what would you do with it after you grabbed it?”
Did I mention how much I hate it when people make sense?
“But what should I try? To make a portal, you need to twist space in such a way that it creates a hole… Or maybe you don’t. How does space work? It isn’t a molecule, I’ve tried that. It isn’t an atom… Which only leaves it as a force.” I’ve been down this thought road before. It always ends with the same question.
“But how do I control a force?”
Eve has been watching with her mana-augmented eyes, trying to ‘see’ any sort of ripples in space. I’m not even sure if she can see it.
I twirled some mana over my hand, just playing with it as I thought. Liquid silver…
“How do you create a ripple? You apply a force to a form of matter. So how would space ripple, if it is a force? I’m missing something…”
Well, as much as I love scientific talk, let’s skip forward an hour.
“Nyaa… That feels good…” The princess spoke, reaching up to capture the hand that was rubbing her head. Her expression was one of bliss, a goofy grin lazily spreading across her face.
I was petting her, for certain reasons. Mostly because I was angry with my failures, and needed something to calm me. Seeing this face and hearing this voice always seems to do that. Her hair was also very soft and fluffy, tickling me as I ran it through my fingers. It took only a minute for my scowl to turn into a small smile.
Eve was next, just to be fair. Then Vera. Vera, today, decided to be in her human form, kneeling on the ground with her hair pointed towards me. Just for the effect, I crossed my legs and puffed out my chest, taking the pose of a king on his throne, before reaching out a hand to pet her.
I did them all for the same amount of time, give or take a minute. I can’t help that I like the princess’s hair the best.
An explosion rocked the building. It was so out of the ordinary and in the middle of nowhere most of the children fell out of their seats. Vera reverted to fox-form out of shock, the princess ducked, sqeaking while covering her head with her hands. Eve and I were calm, assessing the situation. Effret was actually out today, so she didn’t help anything along.
I didn’t have any information except for the noise and the shaking. So I began to prepare for the worst, circulating my mana through my body so I could use it easier. A scowl adorned my face again. They had interrupted my petting session, so I was, quite understandably, furious.
I opened the door to the 400th floor, my classroom, and saw the sky. The tower was falling. I began to shout orders, grabbing Eve with my right hand and the princess with my left. Vera was already on my shoulder. If everything else failed, I would protect them. They were the main people I had, besides my family back at home.
The tower was nearing the ground. The students had mostly found a way to calm themselves, coming towards me. I had used mana to stick my shoes to the ground, picking up all of the students and carrying them towards the door.
I sat down, preparing my brain for the large amount of influx I would get.
“Alright, nobody die.” Were my last full words.
Then I grabbed the tower. Metaphorically. Over the 6 months I’ve been here, I put a few hundred points of mana into the tower a day. Over 2 million mana resided inside this tower, and I took control of all of it at once. Think of it like playing 83 games of chess at the same time, every second you thought about your move you got tasered.
Needless to say, it hurt like hell. I screamed out in pain, feeling the presence of 3 people rushing towards me. I grit my teeth together as I began to pull. The pain was enormous. I had lived nearly 18 years in the slums, so I had quite the pain tolerance. But this pain was unlike anything I had ever felt before.
I mean, think about it. I was lifting an entire building, with my brain. The physics behind it? None. But it felt like I was literally lifting it, with my entire body.
The tower slowed, its fall losing momentum. My entire body felt like it was tearing apart. It hit the ground with a crash, making me wonder if somebody got hurt. I felt Eve hold me up, making sure I wouldn’t fall off the building. I had a feeling that if she let go, I wouldn’t be able to move.
I was slowly and carefully brought to the ground, none of the people I saw injured. I smiled at the sight. But then I went deep into thought, wondering exactly what caused the school to fall. I recovered enough to stand, but I didn’t just yet.
“This is the last floor. Where are they?!” A voice yelled, snaking around me like a vice.
“Golden eyes… There are two of them!” A different voice, much deeper, announced.
“They are both vampires, then. Kill them, starting with the girl. Female vampires are much more difficult to kill.” The first voice.
The blood drained from my face as I realized what was about to happen. They were going to kill Eve and me, except they brought down the entire building to do so.
They were going to kill Eve.
Eve.
She was going to die again.
I couldn’t protect her, again.
Then what did I become a vampire for? What did I train for? Where did I get this power from?
Why… What is holding me back from protecting her this time?
My body began to rise from the ground, my eyes shadowed over by my hair. Eve looked to me, temporarily distracted from trying to survive. She barely managed to dodge the next blast of magic, the attack tearing a crater into the ground.
Is it my hesitation to kill these people?
An arrow, made of pure mana, flashed by my cheek, leaving a small cut. It healed in less than a second, but the pain lingered for much longer.
“Rayne? Rayne! Rayne, please help us!” The princess yelled, her words falling on deaf ears.
Then I will toss that aside. My humanity? I’ll leave that behind.
These people are stronger than me. I know that for a fact. I am weak. But I can gain strength.
“Princess. I’m sorry. You’ve been a good friend these 6 months.” I muttered, the last vestiges of humanity leaving me as I fully brought my vampiric state to the surface.
Vampiric Blood courses through your veins, giving you power.
I screamed out, my mind going blank as my vision tunneled on my two targets. Black robes fluttered about them, red runes painted on with blood. I could feel their enormous mana stores begging to be released. I could feel it running through their veins.
My scream died down, the world around me freezing as if I had stopped time. The robes flapping in the wind was the only sound.
“You wanted a vampire? You wanted to kill a vampire?” My words were deeper than the voice I remember.
“Let me entertain you, then.” With those words, the mana I had been keeping in check until now burst out from me.
Silvery mana rose around me in large streams, bathing me in a glowing light. It rose into the far reaches of the sky, growing darker.
My red eyes saw through it as if it wasn’t there. I gave my full focus to the two men floating in the air. With a roar, I leaped forward.
Death. (Princess Thea’s POV) {Some Intense Violence}
I could only crouch down and hope nothing would happen as Rayne pulled the school from its momentum, screaming the entire time. I could hear the pain in voice as if his body was slowly being stripped of its skin.
When the two men in black robes began flying towards us, I saw them first. I could have warned somebody, but my voice wouldn’t work.
They began to talk to eachother, obviously not worried about somebody attacking them. When they started talking about vampires and golden eyes, I immediately looked to Rayne.
Something was wrong with Rayne. He had a completely expressionless face. Never before had I seen him so scary. Bloodlust rolled off him in waves, nearly visible. I fell to my knees, unable to keep standing.
I realized that Eve was being shot at by the mages, but they were just toying with her before killing her. I screamed out to Rayne, asking him to help us. Everything around us was paralyzed, meaning that no help would be coming. But I had hope that Rayne, the strongest person I knew, could help us.
But he just stood there, his eyes covered by his hair as he looked downwards. His mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear the words.
Then, against all my expectations, he screamed. His bloodlust multiplied, making me unable to speak as sweat ran down my back and neck. I was terrified. We all were. Even the two men stopped mid-attack, staring at him, confused.
His scream died down, but the bloodlust was still there, getting stronger by the second. I saw Eve drop to a sitting position, looking at Rayne. She mouthed ‘Stop’, reaching out her hand as if to touch him. But she could not move.
“You wanted a vampire? You wanted to kill a vampire?” His voice was deeper than it ever was, choked down with rage and hatred.
“Let me entertain you, then.” Nothing could be heard after that, as a huge wave of mana, almost the size of the two men’s, washed outwards with a roar. Up to 5 feet away from him, Mana seemed to seep out of the ground and rise around him, bathing him in silvery flames. They towered over the walls that were on the ground beside us, reaching up to scorch the heavens.
His mana began to change color, becoming darker until it was jet-black. His eyes, blood red, shone through the smog. With an animalistic roar, he leaped forward.
The men were still paralyzed, not able to block his attack in time. Rayne held them to the ground by their necks, his fingers digging deep into the skin.
“Who sent you? What do you have against vampires? I haven’t done anything wrong, see?” His voice was crazed, asking questions that made no sense. He laughed in their faces, making them scowl through their suffocation.
“Well, you’re going to die here anyway, one way or another. After all, you were trying to hurt my Eve…” His voice was filled with mana, making the vibrations deadly as they pierced through skin and ruptured internal organs.
Unable to cough up the blood filling their lungs, the black mages began to drown, red bubbles frothing out of their mouths.
“Oh, no… You aren’t supposed to die that quickly! You were toying around with Eve, so I hope you don’t mind me toying around with you.” His laugh was on the cusp of insanity. It terrified me, but I knew I had to stop him before he actually did torture them to death. I couldn’t stand seeing him like this. I had to make sure he never did this again. But most of all, I had to stop him now, before he comes to his senses covered in blood.
Rayne picked them up by their necks, the blood in them coming out in violent bursts. Seeing as they were mixed with black mana, I assume Rayne must have forcibly extracted it. Seeing it and imagining it, I just barely held myself back from throwing up everywhere. The entire scene was sickening.
A loud cracking sound was heard as Rayne slammed them into the School’s wall, cracking the magically reinforced stone.
“Do you like that? I just broke 4 of your ribs. But it’s fine, after all, you were attempting to kill Eve, weren’t you? I do wonder what possessed you to get on my bad side…”
I was barely able to move now. With each attack, his bloodlust goes down. But I have to be the one to drain him of it completely, or else he’ll become a monster.
“You… klugh… You demon…” Rayne stopped for a second, his grip loosening and his bloodlust going down to 0. The mage didn’t lose the chance to try to shoot a bolt of mana at Eve, who was rushing towards Rayne to stop him.
The mana dissolved. The bloodlust came back threefold. Another cracking sound was heard as Rayne shattered the mages’ arms.
“You know, I have a nickname in my household. Demon child, they call me. I originally thought it was an insult. But the nickname has grown on me.” Rayne tilted his head to the side, the glow from his red eyes intensifying. “I’ll gladly become a demon if it means I can stop her from dying again.”
The second part was quieter, just barely audible from my distance.
Again? Eve died before?
I didn’t have any time to think, as I had to stop Rayne.
“Rayne! Stop!” I screamed.
“Princess…?” His voice was lighter, halfway back to normal. It was confused like somebody just waking up.
“Oh… Yeah…” He seemed to remember something. I almost sighed in relief, but then he was pierced through the chest with a mana spear.
I screamed out, more in worry than fear. But they were both very strongly in that scream. Eve, who was nearing him, fell once again. But this time, tears were in her eyes. She called for him, her voice cracking.
But Rayne did not answer. I felt liquid running down my cheeks.
“Ugh… At least we managed to kill one of them… Now, onto the next one.” The first mage spoke.
“Hey, isn’t that the princess?” The second one spoke.
Neither of them showed any signs of injury as they looked my way. I shied back as much as possible, trying to hide from them in plain sight. But I was unable to stop their laughter.
“It is! How nice. Two vampires and a princess. This country might as well be ours! We can say that the vampires were trying to kill her when we bring her back to the king! We’ll be heros!”
Sickening. Those ‘Vampires’ that you speak of were my first friends. They brought me to school. They were so nice to me, and now you say that they were trying to kill me?
Disgusting, vile creatures. They don’t deserve life.
My own form of rage rose up from the pits of my stomach, devouring my reason. I forgot that they just walked away perfectly fine from ruptured internal organs, broken ribs, and broken arms.
“I mean, the king wanted us to kill the vampires, so do you think he knows that his daughter is here with them?”
My rage vanished without a trace, replaced by confusion. My father had hired black mages to kill my friends? The same ones that he made into king’s Guests? The same ones who he laughed and joked with as he gave them access to the library?
Despair crept up on me like a shadow. It covered me like a blanket as I realized that my father was trying to kill my friends. No, not my father. The king was trying to kill my friends. If he’s doing that, he doesn’t deserve me as a daughter.
“Oh well, let’s just kill the girl first. We can remove her memories later before we hand her in.”
Dread, despair, disgust, rage, betrayal, so many more feelings welled up inside me.
“Talkative bastards, aren’t you?” A voice I had grown to love sounded from near the school.
“What? We killed you! How are you still alive?” The mages were quite confused.
“Oh come on, a single spear to the heart and you think you’ve killed me?” A laugh sounded out, pain hidden behind it. “You’re fighting a vampire. Think again. Although I can’t turn back for a while now, since you killed me… I guess I’ll just have to kill you this way…”
The intentions behind the words frightened me, but just hearing his voice made me feel hope. Rayne placed his hand on the building behind him, before taking a large breath. The school began to shine a silver light, before the mana inside the bricks came swarming out, being absorbed into Rayne’s skin. Once all the mana had disappeared, an explosion shook the earth.
“Rayne! It’s fine! Please, don’t do this!” Eve yelled to him, a look of worry in her eyes.
Rayne showed no response, instead, he was looking around at all the students lying on the ground, most unconscious from his bloodlust earlier. His gaze lingered on 5 people and a fox. Lily, a girl with silvery hair that I had become friends with last week, Eve, the two mages, me, and Vera.
He smiled at each of us, in turn. The mages were shocked stiff, not sure what he was doing. They began preparing spells, but Rayne either didn’t care or didn’t notice.
“Sorry, Lilia, for taking away your job. Sorry, Eve, for giving you doubts about me saving you. Sorry, Princess, for treating you like a nuisance. Sorry, Vera, for not petting you as much as I could have.” He took a deep breath like he was trying to hold back tears. He stared into the sky. “Sorry, Avalina, for leaving you without a son. Sorry, Elliot, for being such an ass about your requests. Sorry, Freil, for leaving you without a daughter. Sorry, Rose, for killing you.”
The mages had finished preparing their spells, both holding large orbs of mana. It seemed they were going to obliterate him completely with that.
“Two million, one hundred and sixty-three thousand, nine hundred and sixty-seven mana. How much distance do you think I can tear open with that amount?” Rayne asked, pointing his hand towards the two mages. They visibly paled. Their mana, even combined, would be dwarfed by that amount.
In Rayne’s outstretched hand, dark gray mana began to form, shaping every second into something different. The mages patiently waited, adding more mana to their spells to make sure they would be able to pierce through however much mana he was putting into that block.
It truly was just a block of mana. I couldn’t see anything special about it except for the large amounts of mana inside of it. It wasn’t quite jet black, so it wasn’t as bad as it was before, but it was pretty close. Rayne sat down, cross legged, and began meditating.
The mages would wait no longer. They were beginning to show the strain from holding all that mana in one place for so long. The silver balls had turned a few shades darker, meaning that there was an excessive amount of mana in them.
A whistling sound echoed off the ground as the mana orbs flew at astonishing speeds. Rayne’s eye could just barely be seen opening before the balls converged on his position, tearing up the ground and wall behind, spreading large amounts of dust and dirt into the air. Eve and I held our breath as we waited for it to clear.
“Do you want to run away with me?” I heard a whisper in my ear, from behind. Whirling around, I saw Rayne staring down at me with a compassion in his eyes I hadn’t seen for a while now. I registered his question, thought about it for less than 5 seconds, before reaching my hand to him, a smile on my face.
“Please take me with you!” I beamed.
“Eve?”
“Do you need to ask?
“Vera?”
“Yip!”
“Well then, shall we go?”
We all came to him, before the dust cleared, and saw the flash of a dark object. So dark, it seemed to absorb the light instead of reflecting it or producing it.
Space warped around us all, and we were sent in an unknown direction, 2,163,967 mana worth away.
I can only pray that we arrive in friendly lands.
{New Arc} {Author’s POV}
Well hello there, my dear reader. I have neither time nor much to explain, so I’ll do what I have quickly.
Just a little bit of a third perspective, a look at the King’s thoughts.
He had been having nightmares for 2 weeks now. It was always the same one. Rayne, the kid who managed to pass not one, but two of his tests and gave his daughter courage, killing that very daughter.
He couldn’t trust him anymore, thinking that the nightmares were a vision of the future granted by his chosen goddess. He was worried, to say the least. He hired two dark mages, thinking only monsters can go against a monster. He thought of it as overkill by sending two of them, but his goddess had sent him a vision of them prevailing against him.
A wicked grin was on his face today, knowing the demon would be killed. When he gave his orders, he had forgotten Rayne’s name, so he simply said ‘golden eyes’, but that only means one more casualty. Nobody would miss those two demons anyway, is what he managed to convince himself.
Alas, he would be sorely disappointed to hear that the entire school was knocked over, killing nearly half of the students, the demon being the only thing that saved the other half. Even worse, the demon managed to take not only his life and his sister’s, but he even stole away his precious daughter of her own free will!
He must have brainwashed her…
{The only thing going through the King’s mind was that Rayne was a demon, who nobody could possibly miss, and yet managed to take away his daughter. The prevailing reasoning in his mind ended up being a form of brainwashing or changing her opinions through mind control magic. Neither of these are actually able to be used unless somebody worshiped Gharn, the God of the Mind, but the king wasn’t thinking straight.}
{He ended up killing his wife, the queen and committing suicide before he ever got to see his daughter again. It was quite disappointing that, until the Dark One corrupted him, he was actually a good king. Shortly after his death, the Dark One corrupted the next ruler, causing him to go mad and fully ruin the entire country. Such was the effect of Rayne seeing the king.}
{Now, how do you think Rayne would take this if he knew? Let’s just find out, shall we?}
(The author walks away with a mischievous smirk on his face, leaving the room. Shortly after, faint sounds of cursing and guns shooting can be heard. It seems he’s found himself an interesting shooter game.)