Leonidas POV: As my army settled around the perimeter and waited for the vampires to show themselves from the cloud of smoke I backed up towards were the two surviving humans were nestled against a outcropping of rocks. Medics were already tending to them and I waved Elizabeth over so we could try and find out what exactly had attacked them and why they had been so stupid as to try and start a village in the middle of the MONSTER INFESTED FOREST. It didn’t even look like any of them had weapons to defend themselves with but maybe they had a mage and got cocky thinking they were invincible? Or they were a bandit group that was trying to attack our supply lines so they could hold our city hostage? Either way we needed to find out what kind of creature they pissed off and wether it is sentient enough to negotiate with us. I tried asking the one survivor what was awake but he was in complete shock. Seems like the adrenaline finally wore off and the shock caught up to him. No matter how much I slapped him to try and get some kind of response he wouldn’t. So I took a look at his memories and what I saw disgusted me.

“YOU DAMN GODS!” I roared at the sky

Those idiots were preparing to summon a hero but because they hadn’t done so in a long time they did a test summoning of sorts. Except they messed up and summoned a very large group of other worlders into the middle of nowhere. Now we couldn’t even teleport because any disturbances of the space time particles would cause the portal to open again and maybe suck us through to the other world. Although I know the gods are probably watching to see what happens and if any of those summoned show signs of any unusually strong powers so I can’t reveal any of my powers without them seeing me as a threat and ordering the church to kill me. But if I was “accidentally” sucked into to the other world with the vampires I could use all my powers without having to worry about them finding out. Now I just had to make sure I finished the undead bastards off before the portal closed again. I did not want to be trapped in a world where I would have to steal a space ship every time I wanted to replenish my mana. I also needed to unlock my ethereal arts as soon as possible and the quickest way would be through use a spaceship and meditate in the void. Of course that meant I needed to find a way to keep the portal semi open until either side managed to come up with something to stabilise it. Until then I could only make a device that would make it wide enough that communication would be possible through magic items or maybe whatever kind of electronic devices they used on the other side. I also planned to steal anything that looked like it could be technologically valuable, well not steal I like to think of it as taking it as payment for not allowing the vampires I would bring with me to run amok in whatever area the portal was situated in. I also needed a little bit of shock and awe so that future diplomacy with the other world would go better. It’s easier to negotiate with a country that knows your equal to them versus a country that thinks your weaker then them. Of course they might also demand their citizens who were summoned here back but if I tried to bring them through the portal their bodies would disintegrate. In order to come to our world their bodies were restructured and meridians otherwise known as mana veins were added to they’re bodies and since they hadn’t quite settled to their new bodies yet going back to their world would cause they’re meridians to go heywire and implode. So I’d say they’ve got another couple of years possibly decades before they can go back. Well that and a lot of them are dead or missing. I’ve seen tracks going everywhere so I have no idea how many escaped or how many my soldiers will be able rescue. It’s just far to dangerous in this monster infested forest so they’re only chance is if a airborne patrol spots them, they come across a road or they come back here to see what all the noise is. At that moment I sensed a presence rushing towards us they were exactly trying to hide it like normal vampires do. That meant it was either a trick or one of the idiots we were facing had decided to try fighting close up within swords reach. Which is a terrible idea vampires as a species are horrible at melee combat they normally either assassinate or shoot their enemies from afar with magic or arrows. Vampires have horrible strength values but they have very powerful regenerative abilities making them very difficult to kill plus as undead they don’t tire. The easiest way to kill them is to destroy their cores but those are difficult to find and even smaller then normal only bring about the size of a child’s pinkie. The last two choices were to either use holy and life magic to annihilate their vessels or burn them to a crisp. Having made my decision I watched as a figure ran out of the smoke, however the smoke didn’t move as if a being was actually there so it was just a blood clone. I activated presence sense and not finding anything I activated my mana vision. There I found the two vampires were hiding in the forest waiting for someone to let their guard down so they could escape the encirclement. Unfortunately for them they didn’t camouflage their mana signatures so it was fairly easy to find them. Now I just had to find a way to teleport them next to the portals rupture zone and throw them in. After that I fight them in front of the other worlds inhabitants leave a messaging device and get back through the portal before it closes. Sounds easy saying that all in my head but actually pulling it off will be difficult. If I don’t tire my movements correctly I might miss one of both of the vampires and get myself trapped in a world were it would be incredibly difficult to replenish my mana, or if I showed to much power and forced the portal open the gods might catch on that I’m not exactly who I claim to be. Of course the last one is just a what if because I have no way of knowing if the gods are actually watching. I just assumed they would because of the summoning but it is possible they messed the coordinates up and don’t know where the other worlders are. I called Elizebeth and the dwarven king over to tell them the plan but they rolled they’re eyes at me. It seems I’m becoming a little predictable with my actions. Turning back to them after making sure the vampires hadn’t moved I sighed and said, “since you already seem to know what I want to do who want to come with me and who wants to stay to make sure no other vampires try to attack our troops.” Elizabeth immediately volunteered to come with me and the dwarven king basically told me I could go jump off a cliff while laughing. He says he’s not an idiot who goes to another world for no reason when we can deal with them just fine in this one. I highly doubt that I once threw a old outdated pistol into a scrap melter and he jumped right after it. i swear If he wasn’t a champion like me he would have died a long time ago. At that moment I sensed a mana disturbance right in front of me. The vampires had flanked the portal area and after getting clear they had immediately teleported to attack our little group huddle. Elizabeth probably shouldn’t have been wearing her fancy party dress to a battlefield because we stood out a little to much. Even the stupidest of assassins would have targeted us right away. As soon as they appeared I teleported above the female and making extra sure I didn’t use any other space magic in the area that would cause the portal to open before we were ready. “Beautiful morning isn’t it?” I asked them as I brought my hand down and chopped the female in the back of her head. She shot to the ground like a bullet and her impact against the ground caused a large plume of dust to spring into the air. The male vampire tries to turn around but I don’t think they believed we were any threat to them and they left themselves wide open in their carelessness. Elizabeth had already grabbed the female vampire and threw her towards the portal area. Meanwhile me and the other vampire were playing a very dangerous game of tag. We both had immense regenerative abilities so it was very difficult for either of us to deal any kind of lasting damage. He threw a punch with his right hand but he misjudged the distance between us and overextended his arm. Seeing an opportunity I ducked under his fist grabbed his sleeve with my right arm the collar of his shirt with my left kicked his left leg with mine and threw him as hard as I could into the ground. Once he was down I spun around grabbed his arm and swung into an arm bar. When he tried to pull his arm out I allowed myself to be thrown and I flew 20 feet right into the portal zone where Elizabeth was fighting the other vampire. As I hit the ground and bounced up I formed a bow and arrow out of the earth pushed off the ground while I was still moving with my right hand and as I twisted my body around a thunderous “boom!” Shook the forest as the arrow sped towards the vampire I was engaged with. Hitting him in his shoulder he spun around to try and dissipate some of the force but it was to late. The arrow was imbedded into his should and using the string of mana if attached to the earthen arrow I yanked him towards me. As soon as I was close I grabbed his arm twisted it behind his back and as I activated a teleportation spell I threw him. As soon as the spatial mana in the area started converging the air in front of me seemed to shatter and we were pulled in. It was not just us however two tanks, Alpha, three other protectors and three squads of guardsman were pulled in as well. Me and Elizabeth both blushed in embarrassment as we saw the dwarven king laughing at our soldiers stupidity in not backing farther up when they were ordered to. I suppose I should be happy the pilots listened so I wouldn’t need to replace an entire damn Osprey. The feeling of travelling to another world was a familiar one to me and Elizabeth but for the other soldiers it was probably a very painful experience. A portal between worlds is more then capable of driving a mortal mad and if I hadn’t required my soldiers to train their souls as well as their bodies and minds they would most likely either gone insane or died as soon as they entered. Me and Elizabeth on the other hand were able to revert to our soul forms while in this tunnel so it was no issue for us. As soon as I saw light on the other side of the tunnel I smacked alpha in the back of his head to make sure I had his attention and got him to help me reorient the tanks so we didn’t get crushed by them when we came out and so they wouldn’t be flipped over. Since this portal had the same properties as space there was no gravity and it was fairly easy to reposition them. Then we were through. Immediately everyone either drew melee weapons or swung guns in every direction looking for any threats. I’d already locked onto the vampires mana signatures and as per my expectations we were spread around an area the looked like a some kind of educational facility. I knew that since we’d been pulled into the portal rather then opening it normally we would be spread out I just didn’t know by how much, luckily my allies were rather close, unfortunately the vampires were on the other side of this building. I and appeared in some kind of gathering hall and since I was able to replenish the little bit of magic I’d used in the fight earlier I assumed this was were the portal had originally formed. I sent a message to everyone who wasn’t already in the room with me to gather so we could plan what to do. The vampires would probably do the same and even if the local inhabitants came I don’t think they’d try to suck their blood even with how weak the natives are due to the fact they know I can find them and vampires are very vulnerable when they feed. Although if the mortals of this world come across them and the vampires do manage to drain and convert them it’ll become far more annoying. I can’t let any escape into this world because the natives would have no way to defend against them. Even without mana and ki vampires can recover from wounds that would normally kill a mortal just by drinking blood. Unenchanted bullets also stand little chance at doing any actual harm so unless this civilisation is more advanced then I believe they would be completely helpless. As I waited for everyone other than the tanks who had portaled in with me to arrive I pondered on the state of this world. As far as I could tell the world core was almost dead and the gods or god were either dead or in a state of such deep sleep they might as well be. I could sense a barrier in the upper atmosphere but it’s only function was to hide the world from anyone trying to invade it. That was the reason why our foolish gods were able to summon a whole education facilities population, because once you managed to find the world the core didn’t have enough mana to even try and stop you from taking its people. Of course if our planet tried to invade the core would most likely drop the camouflage barrier and focus its very life force on shutting down any portals we tried to come through. Wether it could succeed in repelling us or not I don’t know but for now I contacted it, using a tiny sliver of mana that wormed its way to the planets core I started feeding it 40 points every second. Since the core was barely even functional and mostly dormant to preserve mana it would be impossible to talk to it without giving it some of mine and since I was only giving it as much mana as I could regenerate I wasn’t sure how long it would take for it to awaken enough to hold a conversation. If it awoke in the next 30 seconds before everyone was here that would be great and if not I’d have to hope I’d have time after killing the vampires. In order to keep the portal at least semi open so we would have a chance to try to find a way to open it permanently I needed to cores permission if I didn’t get that the portal would close on its own in 20 minutes or less. Nothing I could do in my current body could stop or even slow down that. Coming back from my pondering I continued to send mana into the core. After 20 more seconds of boredom and the soldiers who had already arrived were starting to get restless waiting for the rest I felt a vast consciousness brush against my own. To show that I wanted to talk I lowered the barriers that kept the consciousness of my soul ties to my body. Normally this would be a horrible idea but even though I had reincarnated my soul was still that of a primordial. No puny world core would be able to harm it, hell my current body could barely contain it it was the reason I couldn’t use many of my powers. Even my mana arts, the lowest rank of magic in all the dimensions discovered by my people so far were limited to the 3rd or 4th tier if you didn’t count my titles as apostles of a couple of gods. With titles I could theoretically use the magic of the god I was an apostle to up to the 10th tier but even with the title of Apostle it only somewhat lessened the burden on my body. Instead of killing me outright and damaging my soul it just caused a backlash into my mana or ki pool spending on what kind of mana arts I was using. And from personal experience that backlash seriously hurts and can leave me unable to cast magic for hours if not days. After reminding myself I was about to come face to face with a world core and that I needed its help just as much as it needed mine I allowed my consciousness to drift away and be pulled into the center of the planet.

Once I opened my eyes I was in a Greyish space that stretched as far as they eye could see and surrounded me on all sides. Sensing something behind me I saw a table and chairs as well as a bed. On the bed a old man was propped up on top of several pillow like accessories, while his eyes were shut tight I knew he was able to see me. Perhaps it was because he had not been able to use his eyes for so long or maybe he was just as old as he looked and had more experienced to fall back on but me noticed that I wasn’t as human as I looked. Now that I was in a soul realm I could manipulate my souls avatar to the fullest extent possible and I was hiding my true identity in a avatar that looked like my 16 year old human form from my time as a primordial. Considering I entered the world as a seven year old child I knew he would notice something was off but I didn’t expect him to be able to get this close to the truth. Nodding at me he spoke in a deep voice, “Welcome godling from another world, I do hope there was a reason you woke me. I don’t have much mana left and despite our best intentions the mortal children of this world were not able to grow up fast enough to bring us to the void. If it is your intent to conquer this world I will resist but my children, the gods of this world are asleep and will put up no fight. I have already told them to obey any would be conquerers and they have no mana spare them and I will not hinder any portals you make to invade.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

He was so close to the truth and yet so far. His analytical skills were exceptional but his mentality was off. Never before had I seen a world core care enough about the gods they created that they would refer to them as their children. Normally the gods and the world core fight over everything from the distribution of mana from believers to how many grains of sand a world should have at any given time. Even worlds were the gods and the world had mutually beneficial relationships they were just that, a business relationship and nothing more or less. As I was pondering I realised the core was waiting for my response. Breathing out I released the false avatar and slowly my body started expanding, wings came from my back, a tail formed that was connected to the base of my spine, my jaw elongated until it became more square like and protruded from my face more then lastly patches of black scales appeared on my body especially in small patches under my eyes. This was a war form I used quite often in fights. My original species in my time as a primordial was special in that we absorbed the souls of those we killed and took their power, that power was then accessible by anyone in our species, then we were also able to modify our physical bodies with the characteristics and bodily functions of those we killed. This form was the form of a God beast I’d killed when I was 5 it wasn’t the most practical so I mostly only used it to intimidate opposing armies. Now I used it to show the core that he was nothing this form stood over 700 feet tall and even in the soul realm it was massive. Releasing the transformation and returning to my previous body I finally spoke to him,

“I have no designs on your world at the moment I’m only here to escape the sight of the gods of my world. I am a champion of my world but not like the others I truly serve the world and the world alone. It is my duty to kill the false gods who threaten the balance of our world in their pathetic pursuit of power and a society of perfection. I am the true demon lord of my world! Despite my little show of power I am young in body and I need access to the technology your world has to strengthen my soldiers in preparation for the times to come. If you allow us to keep the portal to this world semi open until either of our sides can stabilise it and help us move it to another spot on our world it would be very beneficial for both of us of course I don’t expect you to do this for free in return I will supply you with mana while I am here and leave a device near the portal that will send mana to you once I’m gone. What do you say?”

Despite me phrasing it as an offer we both knew it was a demand. I disliked having to start out with this kind of gunship diplomacy on a world that could potentially become my ally but for now it was necessary, hopefully I could mend any hurt feelings later once I was able to come back. Until then I would make sure to send him as much mana as possible. I sat down at the table and took a piece of paper out, it was a soul contract with the terms of our deal on it. Once it was signed not even I could break it. As soon as we both signed it and stamped it with our blood I left the soul realm and returned to my physical body. Time flows differently in soul realms so only a couple of seconds had passed in the real world. Everyone was gathered and after a quick 30 second lecture from me on their stupidity and how I was gonna court martial their asses for disobeying orders when we got back I divided them into platoons and sent them in all different directions to prepare for the fight. The two tanks and the soldiers in them would stay here to guard the portal and set up a small communication device so we would be able to talk and possibly, if either side had some kind of photo receptors, see each other.

After I told my soldiers to keep a low profile so no one outside could see them I took Elizabeth, Alpha, one protector and the last squad of guardsmen who had some heavy weapons. We were setting up an ambush for the vampires so I’d told the squads to stay away from the side they were on. And focus on finding out what the situation outside was. If we were lucky the natives would be to scared to see what had happened but I knew with my luck that the worst case scenario would happen. And sure enough not a minute later I saw vehicles with red and blue light come flying down the roadway before swerving and coming to a stop in front of the buildings we were in. We had already placed many traps throughout the building and were in the middle of setting up heavy weapons such as heavy bolters and scorpion crossbows with enchanted holy arrows. Now we had to reset the heavy weapons to face out of the buildings and prepare to engage the vampires outside. This of course practically threw a dragon at my plans. I figured the natives would have some kind of video or audio recording system to monitor a place were children learned so I planned on fighting the vampires in the right hallways were they would have to Wade through mass amounts of traps and bullets before they’d be able to reach us. Then with them tired out we’d be able to beat them without much effort in close range combat. Then we would return to our world and leave the natives to watch the recordings and try to contact us. Now I had to scrap that and fight the damn vamps in front of the natives and hope they don’t decide we’re all threats and shoot us. As I watched from a shuttered window in a classroom we’d turned into a machine gun nest more and more of those flashing lights appeared and a crowd of non combatants had started forming behind physical barriers. My arm or had a built in translation function so after deploying a small swarm of nanobots to get closer we were able to hear what they were saying. From a little girl in the crowd I could hear, “Where’s my sister!”

From two men I heard and saw them begging a person who I’m guessing is probably a law enforcer to find their children. Up and down the barricade the human officials had set up it was much of the same as parents, friends and news officials bombarded the newly arrived officials about what happened at the school. I was very curious to see what the upper levels of this worlds government thought had happened but all I heard was the law officers saying there was a bright light and multiple people called in reports of missing family members. They seemed to be waiting for something but unfortunately I couldn’t give the much more time. Even with the world core allowing the portal to stay on this planet we only had another 40 minutes or so before it shrank to the point that no one could enter it. I would give them 10 minutes at most. If the vampires started moving I would have no choice but to do the same. Another 5 minutes past and I could tell the vampires were getting nervous they were passing up and down whatever area they had landed in. Then more light started heading towards us and trucks bigger then the little cars from before started arriving. Once they stopped men with guns came out from the back and started forming up in front of the school gates. They had an odd design on their vests that looked like, “FBI” I didn’t know if it was some kind of coat of arms or a saying in this world but the vampires sensed them to and started heading towards the front doors were we both assumed they would enter. I stepped back from the window and as I prepared to give the rider to move out I accidentally stepped on some kind of black stick. Behind us some kind of arcane display screen powered on. On it I saw unfamiliar characters and a lady talking while gesturing at a large three story building behind her. I noticed it had the same cars and the same soldiers people in front of it so I knew it had to be the building we were in. Channeling translation magic to my eyes I was able to read the caption underneath the women but all it said was breaking news. I went back to listening as my armor translated for me. They were only talking about the mysterious disappearance of a schools worth of students and their parents. Apparently this was a school for the children of rich families and some that got in on something called a scholarship. The screen then transitioned to what must be body cam footage from one of the soldiers. After seeing that they were about to breach the front doors I nodded to Alpha and Elizabeth as we left fake mana signatures to make the vampires think we weren’t moving. Alpha was to command our soldiers in the fight while me and Elizabeth went hand to hand with those undead freaks. At the top of the stairs leading to the second floor was a platoon of guardsmen led by two protectors. They were hidden behind the walls on either side of the stairs. Alpha went to lead them while Me and Elizabeth went into the classrooms on either side of the stairs. After drawing the blinds shut we waited by the windows. I’d changed my armor to “blend in” when we make first contact. In other words my armor was showing a live image of me so that it would look like I was a regular civilian with nothing unusual on me despite the fact I had a pistol holstered at my right hip and a sword on my left. Elizabeth was still in her dress and didn’t have any clothes that looked like they were for combat with her when this whole incident happened. Luckily I’d designed her dress to function as armor of the need arose and it was meant to be easy to move in as well as very useful in concealing many weapons. Of course she still hates it. I’d hacked into a live feed from one of the media outlets and I was watching as the soldiers cleared the first floor and started heading towards where we were to check the second. I also knew the vampires were heading to meet them. There were two stair cases and we were on the right while the vampires were on the left. As soon as the soldiers reached us they split into two groups and stacked up on each staircase. It was at that moment the female vampire reached the stairwell. I already knew they would try something devious but I hadn’t expected them to know the language enough or at all really and especially not to the point to communicate with the natives. Judging by her actions she didn’t know we were here thinking very quickly I activated the HUD feature on my armor and enabling the internal audio blocked I talked with Elizabeth and Alpha after only a couple seconds we had a plan. Editing the physical features my armor was showing I made the clothes look torn up, my skin dirty and I made lots of dried blood appear. Once I was satisfied with my appearance I backed up to the hallway we had come through and with a somewhat limping run I started breathing hard, making it start softer then slowly get louder as if I was someone coming from farther down. As soon as I rounded the corner leading to the stairs I pretended to stumble and made a noise loud enough that I knew I would be heard. Instantly all of the soldiers swung their weapons towards me. Pretending to be a helpless child was embarrassing and I knew alpha and Elizabeth were probably laughing their heads off at me. Using my armor I had made myself look older probably around 10-12. After falling I was about half way down the stairs, As soon as they saw I was a child one of them who had a red badge on his chest strapped his weapon to his back and hurriedly made his way towards me. As soon as he got close I scrambled backwards on all fours as I screamed, “Stop! Stay away!” Pretending to look around desperately I grabbed a knife I’d dropped earlier for this exact purpose and brought it up to my neck.

That scared them, immediately they all lowered their weapons and the medic who’d been coming to try and help me held his hands out to show he had no weapons, “wow calm down kid your safe now we’ve got you just put the knife down and we can get you to a hospital. All we need to do is ask you and the girl over there what happened here.”

Again he started walking forward but again I yelled at him to stop while I was backing up. I was laughing in my armor and I actually had to tell my armor to maintain the expression I’d had before. I could also see the news feed in the corner of my HUD md the media was just as confused by my act as anyone else. When he asked me what he needed to do to get me to put the knife down I actually felt bad for him he seemed like a good guy but unfortunately I needed to use his kindness to kill the vampire in front of me before I go to find the other one. After I was done contemplating I realised he was still waiting for my answer, “Tttt tell me something only a human from this world would know! All of you! I won’t be tricked like that again!”

That got the soldiers and the media going the vampire just looked nervous. She must have thought I was a survivor who had managed to make it back to this world before she or the other one killed them. One by one they all said things that I had no idea if they were true until finally it was just the vampire. She was hesitating and I pretended to have just noticed it. Taking the knife away from my throat I inched behind the medic and pointed my knife at the girl. For added affect I grabbed his vest with my freehand. Alpha was dying from laughing and I was about ready to die from embarrassment. Suddenly the girl spoke, “they’ve already used any I can think of I’m not very knowledgeable on world politics so I know only a couple world leaders.”

I cursed her in my head it was a very good way to get by without arousing suspicion. She was getting closer to me and the medic while she talked. I only needed her to take one more step and she was in range of my sword. As she took a step forward she then said to me, “I think I know why your asking this so I’ll ask the same to you. I’m not trying to be rude after what you’ve been through but I want to be sure your one of us as well.”

Pretending to calm down I thought about it and as her foot hit the ground I said, “Sorry I’m not from this world so I can’t say I know much.” Then I disappeared from their field of view. I didn’t teleport I just used lightning magic to blitz at her.Her eyes went wide as I stepped on a foothold I made mid air, with my right leg in front and my left behind me my right hand rested on my sword and my left held the sheath. With a brilliant burst of blue my sword arched towards her exposed neck. My voice thundered through the room as I yelled, “Subject 12764 your are charged with 123 counts of aggravated assault, 250 charges of second degree murder and 350 counts of 1st degree murder. In my name as Leonidas Arbor and As the son of Duke Rio Arbor and mayor of Eden city you are sentenced to death. May you die a thousand time over!” After I said my piece my sword bit into her flesh as lighting arched throughout her body. Her screams echoed throughout the school halls. Now I needed to kill her and absorb her core before the other comes. With a battle cry I kicked her body into the wall grabbed her head by the hair and threw it in the opposite direction. Grinning to myself I though, “let the fun begin”