The blade I was expecting never arrived. "Now, now, that won't do at all." Though no blade met my neck, I felt as though my heart would stop anyway. I recognized that voice and fear chilled me worse than the blood loss ever could. I opened my eyes and looked up. Despite just barely being somewhere in the afternoon, the sky went dark. However, it wasn't nighttime. This was a pitch blackness with only the moons as a source of light. Oddly enough, there was the same amount of light as though it was still daytime. Appearing through a ragged tear in space was a horrifying being.

The largest moon seemed to announce her arrival as continent sized tendrils of black sinew twisted around and caressed the moon, some splaying out in a facsimile of her symbol. A feminine hand reached out of the tear that was soon joined by another, and another, and another. Soon there were six clawed and elegant hands that wrenched the tear open fully. Dozens of feet in the air was the being from my nightmares. This was the first time I truly saw her form and my sanity trembled at the image.

She was easily ten or twelve feet tall with a decidedly feminine form. It was almost grotesque how sultry her bare form was. Wide and curvy hips flowed smoothly down to shapely legs ending in feet that appeared to be clad in high heels at first glance. Closer inspection revealed the heels were sharp bone that protruded from her heels. Her hips seemed wider than they were due to the fact she was missing an abdomen. The area between her ribs and her waist was absent. Instead the upper and bottom halves of her body were connected by only a spine and webbed sinew.

Some of her ribs were exposed and emerged from her flesh as sharp spikes that curved inward. Two such bones supported her ample breasts. Despite having six arms, none were connected to her body. Her torso ended with her shoulders and head. Her arms floated next to her, three on each side. The lower two had long in human claws. He head was attached by a slender neck however she had no face. She had the subtle impression of a face similar to a mannequin but the only feature on her face were bright red bee-stung lips that were curved in a grin that was too predatory to be seductive. Instead of two normal eyes on her face, she instead had one giant eye right above her breasts along with several floating above her head. A pair of horns that matched the pale alabaster of her skin swept back on her hairless scalp.

image [https://i.imgur.com/qEttiji.jpeg]

I didn't need an introduction to know that this was Vacuolentia. All around us giant tentacles began to wrap around buildings, the very reality around us warping in her image. If the power radiating from Liara was sweltering, then the energy coming from the Void Goddess was suffocating. All the eyes were focused on me and I trembled at the weight of the attention.

"Allow me to help dear." She didn't move. She didn't twitch. Yet in an instant, quicker than a hummingbird's heartbeat, Nashville was destroyed. Where once was the remains of a city was a crater several miles in diameter with only a few of the taller building managing to avoid total collapse. Groans and cries of pain filled the air only me and the girl I cradled seemed to be spared. The crumpled form of Liara was several yards from me, unmoving. "Oops." Was all Vacuolentia said in response to the utter devastation she caused. Everything we worked on for a year, gone in the blink of an eye. Only their proximity to me spared the lives of most of our people.

"Well, at least we have an open venue for you to meet your siblings. Oh children! Come say hello to your new brother."

Several more tears in space appeared in response to her words. The first to emerge looked similar to a Catholic nun. The hood of her habit was as black as the void above us. It flowed down into a long cape that waved in the wind. The underside of the black cloak was that of dark flesh and eyes. Clawed hands were clasped delicately at her waist. It looked like she was staring straight ahead based on the angle of her hood, but I could feel her gaze on me. Curiosity was felt within that void.

image [https://i.imgur.com/4EI92xe.jpeg]

The next to emerge looked like an enormous octopus on first glance as it flopped out of the void gate before plummeting to the ground. It was a mass of tentacles similar to the ones covering the moon. Yet it had much, much more than an octopus. It just kept unfolding and expanding until a forest of tendrils hoisted a set of three humanoid torsos that sprouted from the top of the central hub of tentacles. They were emaciated and masculine with stained cloths covering their eyes. Black tears wept down their cheeks as the pressed their palms together, seeming to pray to Vacuolentia.

image [https://i.imgur.com/xcjUq1L.jpeg]

The third arrival looked like an armless monk with his robe tied around his waist to expose his muscular torso. His eyes and mouth were sewn shut and his ears were cut off. Instead of arms, two long tentacles protruded from his back. They were attached to each other by a fleshy flap of skin. On the tip of the tendrils were bony spikes. He wore a necklace of Buddhist prayer beads that looked like they were made of some type of bone.

image [https://i.imgur.com/yovKwbs.jpeg]

Gesturing to the monsters Vacuolentia's grin widened, "Say hello to your fellow Apostles. This is your sister Diedre. She is most excited for your arrival. She doesn't get along with her brothers you see. This strapping warrior is Dahak. He doesn't speak much, I'm afraid. And there on the ground is the eldest, who goes by Aamon now. He changed his name upon reading the religions of Earth, how adorable. Despite his looks, he only goes by one name. Now, it is your turn to introduce yourself."

I glared up, unable to speak as I grew weaker with each pulse of blood. I covered the eyes of the terrified child in my arms. "Oh, how silly of me." She waved her hand and enormous amounts of Void energy filled my core and faster than I could process I was in peak condition. I blinked in shock and felt at where the wound had been. However, I remained silent.

A sweet voice came from the hood of Diedre, "He appears to be shy, Mother."

"So it would seem, dear. I can't blame the poor thing, he certainly didn't expect to see us today," the monstrous Goddess giggled.

A synced trio of tortured voices called out, "He is weak, Holiest Mother. Is he truly worthy of joining our ranks? He cannot even handle a whelp who built her first Wing." Aamon whipped a tendril dismissively.

"True, but if not for him, we would still be in that dark place and you wouldn't have two new siblings. You are pleased with the work your brother and sister has done yes?"

Reluctantly Aamon nodded, "Indeed Mother. If you say he is worthy, then even reality will bend to your will and make it so."

"Such a sweet boy, Aamon. I must say, I like this new name of yours. It rolls off the tongue much better than Karkusellumono."

The three torsos shrugged in unison, "It was the best name that fit my role as your loyal servant, Mother."

Vacuolentia smiled, "Well since his tongue is frozen, I shall introduce him. This is Victor Gale, Shepard of the Void, the Sanguine Lord and the newest Apostle."

Finally finding my courage I stood, ignoring the shaking of my knees and shouted, "I'll be damned if I'm going to join your cult. You think I'll just buddy up with you, especially after this shit? You better kill me now, because I'm coming for you. I'll rip the creepy ass eye out of your chest so you can watch as I tear you to shreds."

Amusement could be felt from the Goddess and the nun while the monk stood as indifferent as a statue. Aamon however, slammed an enormous tendril in anger, "Such insolence! I shall teach you to respect the Goddess!"

His tirade was cut short as Vacuolentia raised one of her hands, "Now, now Aamon. I did break his home. He has a right to be upset." She then clapped her hands and grinned widely. Like a bad edit, she went from being in the sky to looming over me, "Ooh, here's an idea! Aamon, sweetie, you fear that he is undeserving of being an Apostle? I have seen his strength of will. How many can you recall that can fight off my influence, especially when touched by the Void? How about this? You thirst for vengeance? You seethe with hatred, I can feel it," she purred. I stood frozen as she caressed my cheek, "Fight my Apostles. Defeat them, use them to climb to me and then you will see the power I offer and the lust you feel will outweigh your hatred for me." Another flicker and she was once again in the sky, halfway through a portal. "For now, rebuild, grow stronger. I'll not save you again, if you perish then it is your fate. Should my children perish, then they will joyfully give you their power so to better serve me. Farewell, sweet Lord."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

With that, the Goddess and her Apostles departed and reality returned to normal as if they had never been there. Unfortunately, the death and devastation around me told the truth of their visit. Fury and impotence raged in my chest. Only a pained, "Mommy!" brought me back. Ashley fled from my arms to the prone form of her mother. April was barely conscious, a bad split in her forehead was weeping with blood and a shard of metal a foot long was piercing her stomach.

I rushed to her side, "Shit, shit, shit, April!" She was too far gone for my healing spell to work, not for a human.

She touched Ashley's bawling face but her eyes were on me. A barely lit ember of life regarded me as she begged, "Protect her... Please." No, no, no, no, no. This can't be happening. I looked around for Asha or Eli but I couldn't see them.

I returned my gaze to the dying woman, there was barely any life force remaining. Wait, life force? I took a deep breath, pushing the ramifications of what I was about to do towards the back of my mind. I locked my eyes to April's and asked, "Do you want to live?" Barely, she nodded. I continued, "What are you willing to do, to give up in order to stay by Ashley's side?"

Despite her failing organs, a hard glare met mine, she whispered, "Anything." I solemnly nodded and she gasped as I bent down to bite into her neck. I didn't drink as she barely had enough to stay awake, but I introduced her body to whatever affliction that would allow a Vampiric transformation. I removed my mouth from her now bleeding neck and tore open my wrist and brought it over her mouth.

Instinct took over, "Accept me as your Sire, your Lord, your Master. Drink willingly of my blood and accept the Gift and the Covenant I bestow unto you." I didn't know where the words came from, but I knew them as I knew my mother's name. I offered a path, not to life, but to survival. She accepted.

Where life once held dominion, death filled. Power rushed through April as she drank from my blood. Her eyes went wide with energy and pain as her body changed. Her once blue irises were violently torn apart until only a black pupil remained. The tiny blood vessels in her eyes burst and pooled around the pupil forming into a blood-red iris that shone with power. I could feel two sharp pricks as newly formed fangs gained a better purchase on my wrist. Seeing color return to her face, I took the chance to pull out the large shrapnel in her gut. The two major wounds rapidly healed as I cast Blood Cure. It had two drawbacks. First, it was not as good at normal healing as it was at curing the blood of poisons. Secondly, it affected non-Vampires much less. Now that she was a Noble Vampire, I could help her regeneration along. Fatigue from the transformation took over and she fell unconscious, slumbering peacefully.

I patted Ashley on the back as she began to panic at her mother's closed eyes. "It's okay Ash, she's sleeping. She'll going to be fine."

She sniffled, "R-really?" I smiled gently and nodded.

"Okay, you keep your mother safe, like you did me." She wiped her nose and furrowed her brow, nodding fiercely. I patted her head and stood to find my friends. I froze when I heard the barest whisper of an unfamiliar feminine voice. It was that of a girl barely older than Ashley. She pleaded, "Save her, too." I was confused, not knowing where the voice came from but I felt my attention pull towards the still form of Liara.

I instantly knew who spoke. It was whatever Goddess Liara worshipped. I spoke to the air, confusing Ashley, "I can't. Assuming she's still alive, our healers aren't strong enough to heal her. That's assuming I wanted to. That crazy Elf tried to kill me. It's her fault all this happened!" Anger filled me at the audacity of this Goddess.

Again, little more that the whisper of a slight breeze, "Do unto her as thy did with thy friend."

"Turn her? Shit, lady. Again, even if I wanted to, I can only turn people who are willing to. A paladin like her would rather die than turn into something like me." No response this time and I began to turn away before snarling, "Damn it all." I stomped over to her and wasn't surprised to see her breathing, after all, I doubt a Goddess would expect me to heal a corpse. What was shocking was that despite her broken body and crumpled armor, she was awake. I mean, she was missing an eye from where a shard of her helmet was embedded, but she was definitely glaring at me.

She couldn't speak so I spoke for her, "Your Goddess wants me to save you. My guess is because our only hope is for us to work together. You saw the threat we face. Unfortunately for you, the only way you live to see another hour is if you let me turn you into a Vampire like me." Disgust and alarm filled her eye. I raised a palm, "You can only be turned if you accept. If I give you the gift and you reject it, then the rejection will tear you apart in an extremely painful manner, or so I'm told. You won't be undead, but you won't be a living creature either. You will have to live off of blood and I am unsure how your holy powers will hold up, you saw my weakness towards it firsthand. You will become a Noble Vampire and will be compelled to serve me and will be unable to harm me in any way. I see you can't speak, so nod yes if you accept or shake your head if you don't. If you can't manage that, then blink once for yes, twice for no." I crossed my arms and waited.

With pain in her eyes, she defiantly shook her head once and spat at me. I simply willed the bloody loogie to fly off to the side and sighed. Before I offered to put her out of her misery the Goddess's voice spoke again, much fainter and more tired sounding than before, "Accept, my Chosen. I shall not abandon you." Conflict filled her eyes before they hardened to the same resolve I saw earlier and she nodded at me. She had more life force in her than April had, so I had to drain her. I removed her helmet as gently as I could and bared her neck. She didn't so much as flinch as I bit down and began to drink. It was delicious, but I managed to stop myself from draining her dry and I put my wrist to her mouth after exposing my blood.

Once again I repeated the familiar and unfamiliar ritualistic words, "Accept me as your Sire, your Lord, your Master. Drink willingly of my blood and accept the Gift and the Covenant I bestow unto you." More reluctantly than April, she too accepted. Once the transformation was complete and she was unconscious, I picked up her mostly healed form and lay her down next to April. I pointed to her and said, "Watch over her to, she's more of a prisoner though." I left the child with my blood clone to keep her safe and looked for my friends.

I could sense Asha was fine through the soul link, and I tracked her down. She wasn't awake, but was mostly unharmed. Eli and Fionna were watching over her. Seeing me, Eli rushed over and hugged me. I returned the hug and comforted her, "How are you?" I asked.

"How am I? What about you? They didn't even look in our direction and I nearly broke under their power."

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Listen, I can sense that Asha is okay, so I need you two to help the wounded alongside rescue efforts. Several people were inside buildings. Gratefully, our core group alongside the Rock Drakes were outside, but we still need to work fast." She nodded after giving me one final once over and waved over to Fionna. I picked up Asha and sent a stream of Blood Cure to help her out. I won't be much help in healing the others, but my blood control can assist in keeping them from bleeding out.

It took several hours but with a sigh of relief, Frank, Luanne, Rue, Maya, Elizabeth, and James were all fine if in various states of injury. The worst two were Luanne and Rue. Luanne had a broken hip and a head injury while Rue was missing a leg. We were never able to find her leg. Once she awoke briefly, she shrugged and didn't seem to care too much, causing Maya to giggle in relief. She claimed, "My hands and my brain are the important bits. I can always cook up a badass prosthetic." It appears she's enjoying learning about Earth curse words.

Unfortunately, not all survived. A few minutes into the search, I found a crying Rico over the body of his dead wife. He spotted me and hope filled his eyes. I saw what you did to April and that Elf chick. You can save her too!" I shook my head sadly.

"I'm sorry Rico, I really am. But she's already gone. The baby too, I'm so sorry, but there isn't any life there."

He stood angrily, "No! No, goddamn it! You save her now! You swore you would protect us, protect her! You... You evil bastard, you're still holding a fucking grudge! You hate me and now you're taking it out on her again."

I sighed, "Rico, listen to me. If I could save her I would, even if you murdered my firstborn child personally, I would still save her. But I can't. The only way I saved them were by turning them into Vampires, and I can only do that to a willing and living person. Even then, who knows what that would do to the child. There's nothing I can, SHIT!" In anger, Rico fired a spell that missed me. I wish dearly that it hadn't. If it hit me, I could have brushed it off and accepted his anger. I would have restrained him until he cooled down and let him grieve. Instead, due to a broken ankle, his shot went passed me and hit the person who had walked up behind me. The dagger shaped spell that was fired in anger had pierced deep in the eye of the sweetest old lady in the settlement and the wife of Frank who had come to help settle the tense situation. Luanne who had hobbled on some makeshift crutches despite the pain her hips were giving her crumpled to the ground, dead instantly.

I barely heard Franks cries of dismay as I turned my furious glowing eyes on Rico who had gone pale, regret pushing away his anger. He barely managed to utter, "I didn't mean to—", before his torso fell to the ground next to his dead wife, separated from the bottom half of his body. His mouth worked soundlessly for a second longer as his mind realized he died. With a numb heart, I found a tarp and laid it over Luanne's lifeless form and I hugged Frank who didn't appear to realize I was there. I stood and got back to work. There were more lives to salvage and more bodies to collect. The only thing keeping me from falling into grief like Frank from all that we lost today was a raging inferno of vengeance against the Dawn of the Empty Sun and their fucking Goddess.