~The Sanguine Lord~

I opened my eyes at a dim sky. I groaned and sat up. We were no longer on the highway by the looks of things. I lowered my eyes in contemplation. So, it appears my previous selves were proper assholes. One, so obsessed with power he would burn the world as fuel for his dreams; the other, so bloodthirsty and evil that it twisted the mutable power Maxwell created into a horrifying monstrosity, the first vampire.

My movement alerted the others that I was awake. Asha got to me first, blurring with her speed. She hugged me tight and cried out, “Master! Are you okay? What happened?”

“It’s nothing, Asha. I’m fine.” I smiled and patted her head.

She shoved my hand off of her hair and asked, “I thought you were going to never wake up, what the hell happened to you? We had to cart you away before anyone investigated that light show you did.”

I frowned, the memories of what occurred while I was unconscious were already growing hazy, “I’m not entirely sure. You mentioning the phylactery triggered something. It appears that my previous selves are not as dead and gone as I had thought.

She looked confused and asked, “What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to remember, but I think I saw some memories of Vlad and Lucien. Then they tried to take over my body, have been trying to. That's why I was acting so weird. Thankfully, it was a three sided war and not a concerted effort. I managed to keep hold of myself. The details are fuzzy though. Enough ‘bout that. How are y’all? Nothing went wrong during my little nap?”

James said, “Oh hey, you’re talking with an accent again.”

I chuckled, “Yep! Nothing like the scrambled memories of multiple lives to cause existential confusion. I just hope their personalities don’t start to leak out again.”

James nodded, “Yeah, it gets a bit spooky when you actually act like a vampire lord.”

I grinned and asked, “So, how long was I out?”

Maya stood and stretched, “Several hours. We thought about carrying you but you would thrash like you were having a seizure every now and then. It was safer to just vacate the immediate area rather than cart you all the way to the mountain.”

Carl asked, “So what happened to you exactly? You said you have your memories back. Does that mean you’re evil or nuts now? Asha told us some crazy stories. If you used to be Vlad the Impaler, I don’t really wanna end up strung up with a pole up my ass.”

I laughed, “Hell no, I’m Victor, through and through, as I said. I don’t have all their memories or something like that. I just saw the creation of that phylactery Asha talked about along with Lucien’s death and the moment Vlad became a vampire.” I paused, “Actually, a few things did click into place.” I furrowed my brow in focus and weaved mana into a flame that hovered above my extended index finger. It shifted into an ethereal blue that emitted a powerful heat beyond what should be possible.

Asha clapped giddily, “You can free-cast!”

“A bit. Lucien cast some spells in his last moments, and I could feel how he did it.” I smirked, “Those two bastards also managed to light a fire under my ass. They wanted me to give up and let them take control. Thing is, they were right about the things they said. I just floated through life, playing cards as they were dealt to me. Well, fuck that. I’m taking charge now and flipping the damn table. Downside is that I'm no longer getting flashes of memories, I think. So, I'm flying blind without your help, Asha.

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“What, so your plans are different now?” asked Eliza.

“Yes and no. I’m going through with the plans we set up before, so nothing’s changed on that front, the only difference now is that I’m sticking with y’all. I’m committed to this little community we’re building and now I have the resolve to push on. Now y’all get some rest, come daylight, we’ll get a move on. Asha and I’ll keep watch.” I could see in their eyes they were stressed and exhausted from the long trek and my little episode didn’t help.

Maya nodded, “Yeah, we were too worried to really rest.” I pulled out sleeping bags for them from my DB and distributed them. I then hopped onto the burnt remains of a minivan for a vantage point. Being on a bridge I was able to get a better view of the surroundings.

I was shocked to see that where we were could hardly be called Nashville anymore. I could see some of downtown, but it was plain to see that it was missing well over half of the city. It wasn’t that the buildings were destroyed, but that buildings were literally missing as if they had never existed. I'd noticed it before, but with such a vantage point it really hit home. Patches of forest and grassland were scattered where city infrastructure once was. Even large chunks of the highway we were on was missing. It was a good thing we could not use vehicles because we would have to traverse on foot either way. We would not be able to navigate with traditional landmarks.

I hopped down from the minivan and sighed. Asha joined me and said, “I placed some simple wards on the other side of the road so we won’t have to worry about keeping an eye on that side.”

“Akra’s warding system, right?”

“Yep. Glad you've been paying attention in class.” She confirmed.

“That’s good. I want us to conserve mana. I need them to trust me and us feeding on any hungry critters that pop up will not help in that regard.” I crossed my arms.

“Master, I know what you said to the humans, but were you serious? What about your dream?” she asked.

I sighed, “Asha, I meant what I said. Lucien’s ego may be somewhere in here, but I ain’t the conniving master you knew all those centuries ago. I’m not playing any angle. I am Victor, in and out.”

“This is getting confusing,” Asha griped, “I’ve known you for multiple lives and even now I've see flashes of Lord Maxwell and Vlad in the way you act and think.” She paused and grinned, “I know! You said to think of you a descendant of your previous lives, but that’s difficult if I keep speaking to you like you’re Lucien. Victor isn’t a fan of being called Master, Lucien doesn’t care, and Vlad is imperious. Therefore, I think you should take up a new moniker, one unique that will separate you from the others. I’ll call you… the Sanguine Lord.”

I gave her mischievous grin a flat look before sighing with a tired smile, “I guess it is better than Master or Necros Tyrant. Right, Sanguine Lord it is.”

Her look settled into a more serious one, “If you’re going to build a kingdom, then you need a proper title. You will have to start insisting people call you that, in public at least.”

“I suppose. Though people from Earth, especially America, aren’t big on titles. Especially royal ones. It’s kind of the reason America was founded.”

“America doesn’t exist anymore.” She retorted.

“Sad as it is to say, you’re right. It’s rather perplexing though. I can see from here the dwarven city, just a bit.” I pointed to a slight walled structure at the base of the mountain. “It’s hard to see, but I’m pretty sure that Mithra’ Veen is whole, for the most part at least. Khora range and Godspear itself is whole too. Why is it that Nashville is butchered and scattered?”

“The gods most likely. I’ve been curious about that as well, and without an identity crisis like you to worry about, I’ve been able to ponder about it. My best guess is that the gods spent a lot of their influence to keep at least the critical populations of the Verum people whole at the sacrifice of Earth’s geography.”

“Makes about as much sense as any of this. I’m just glad this event didn’t spit us out next to the Celestial Elvara or in the bottom of that Abyss you told me about.”

“Honestly I’d rather deal with the crushing pressure and leviathans of the Abyss than deal with Elia’s ‘blessed race’.” She spat.

I laughed, “Whatever happened to that Inquisitor that killed Lucien, do you know?”

“That uppity bitch? Not really, it took me a while to get out of Hel without a contractor and I couldn’t get a new one with my binding intact. In fact, it was the only way I found you reincarnated on Earth, the binding led out of Veru’s reality. Once I made it out of Hel, I focused on getting to you.”

“Hmm, well if she did survive the collapse of his fortress and that explosion, then she is likely somewhere on Midgard. With luck, she is on the other side of the world. If we do run into her, I just hope she doesn’t recognize us.” We fell into a companionable silence as we awaited the sunrise.