Lumen stares down at Vestis.

"It would seem that you bit off more than you could chew Vestis." Lumen says it with a stoic face.

"Whatever, just help me!" He says

Lumen towards Vlad.

"I really had high hopes for you, Vlad. You were supposed to change things for the better. Now look at you."

Vlad squints his eyes.

"You know nothing, Lumen. I have changed things for the better. It looks like you're my enemy too."

Vlad swipes out at Lumen.

Lumen blocks the blood swipe.

"Your pitiful attacks will not work on me, Vlad. Your corrupted darkness cannot reach me."

Looking at everyone, Lumen raises his hands, and a white light envelopes them.

They feel the anxiety and exhaustion melt away.

Birds fly by, singing like nothing is wrong.

"Damn it, Lumen. Why couldn't you have stayed dead?"Vlad says he is sending another blood swipe towards Lumen.

But at the last second, the swipe moves away from him and aims towards the group.

Seeing this, Vestis jumps in front of the attack.

Blood spilled from his mouth as the attack pierced his black armor.

"Get out of here now!" Vestis says this to everyone before raising his hand and sending a ball of fire enveloped with dark energy towards Vlad.

Vlad easily parries the attack and notices that Vestis and Lumen are gone, leaving the group out in the open.

"Do you see the amount of respect they have for you? If you join me, you will gain everything." Vlad is holding his hand out.

Suddenly, the wind stops blowing, and Vlad looks up.

A ball of light and dark energy can be seen flowing together as one.

"We gave you a chance, Vlad; you have no one to blame but yourself." Vestis says before releasing the ball of energy down at Vlad.

"You will not kill me here today, you cursed monsters!" The irony was lost on Vlad as he enveloped himself in red energy.

The energy around Vlad forms into a red sword with eyes on the hilt of the guard.

He looks up at the ball of energy. "I will not fall today."

Vlad flies off of the ground towards the ball and swipes his sword out.

His sword and the ball collide, resulting in an explosion big enough to rock the ground and the village.

Various birds and beasts can be seen fleeing the area.

The birds sing a song of sadness along with the roars of the beasts.

Soon, the dust settles.

Vlad can no longer be seen as the last of his red energy sucks into itself and disappears.

"Damn it, that was way too hard." Vestis says as his black armor dissipates and is replaced with Kamen's body.

Falling to the ground, his body starts convulsing.

Jenny sprints to his side in a hurry like no other.

Coming to a halt, she falls to her knees in front of Kamen.

"Kamen! Wake up! Are you in there?"

Lumen slowly glides down by her side before putting a hand on her shoulder.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

She looks up at him, and he nods his head.

He leans down and places a hand on his chest.

Soon, his chest starts to rise and fall. Eyes wide open, he looks around.

"What happened? Did we win?" I ask.

Jenny has tears welling up in her eyes as she gives me a big hug.

Everyone runs to my side as I look up and see Lumen above me.

"Thank you, Lumen, for everything you've done for me."

Lumen nods his head and disappears back into my body.

I get up off the ground and look at the castle.

The once-beautiful castle is not destroyed, with nothing left but rubble.

Sigh.

Looking toward everyone, I smile.

"We need to get out of here." I say

Leading them through the property, we notice the butlers and maids are already at work putting the castle back together.

"I know he's still out there. But next time. I'll be ready."

We make it to town, and everyone can be seen cheering about Vlad's supposed defeat.

Walking through the crowd, we notice that not everyone is happy that Vlad is no longer in power.

Some of the crowd can be seen baring their teeth at our approach. "Ignore them," Alistair says.

We finally make it through the crowd and out the gate.

Deciding to keep on going, we continue down the path.

Lucifer can be seen sitting on his throne, claws clicking on the side arm of his throne.

"Hmmm, that boy sure is puzzling; how on earth did he defeat Vlad?" He wondered as the oracle entered the throne room.

"I have something to report, Luci."

Sigh.

"I told you to never call me that, but what do you have to report?"

The oracle clears her throat.

"It would seem that Vlad was not truly defeated. His soul still resides on NeverRest and is slowly regenerating."

"It would seem that the progenitor of the vampire race has some tricks up his sleeves." Lucifer looks down at the oracle, bored.

"Where is the boy going now?"

"The current path he is walking will lead him to the kingdom of the dwarfs."

Lucifer looks surprised.

"I wonder how that will go. I'd like to have a one-on-one chat with this man. But for now, get stronger, young one." Lucifer says as he slowly juggles fire with one hand.

Walking down the path, I notice a few things.

The trees are looking healthy. I can see the bark on one of the trees is covered in sap and has luscious green leaves that are full of life.

They sway with each blow of the wind. The birds can be seen flying away, singing a joyful tune, as they fly down to the ground to catch worms.

"I can't believe that, besides the Forbidden Forest, another one like it would be here. Why on earth would they hide something like this?" I think out loud.

"It's because vampires are beings of chaos, born to cause havoc and ruin." Alice speaks up.

Elizabeth squints at her before smacking the back of her head.

Alice glares at Elizabeth.

Everyone stops as we see a fork in the road with a sign in the middle with two arrows.

The arrow pointing left leads into a town called 'Dekinslier'.

The arrow pointing right leads to another town called 'Glachinshier'.

I read the names of the towns.

"How the hell would you pronounce that?" I think out loud.

"I would suggest going to Dekinslier; Glachinshier leads to the village of fairies. They can be a little testy around vampires." Elizabeth says as sweat slowly rolls down her neck into her cleavage.

Looking away, I blush and decide to take the path leading to the left.

We slowly make our way to Dekinslier. We come upon a gate.

On top of the gate, two dwarven men can be seen looking down at us.

The men have long black hair down to their backs with big bushy red beards, a long bow, and a double-headed axe.

"What do you want with the town of Dekinslier?" One of the dwarven men asks

"We are but simple travelers that wish to find an inn to rest and eat." Elizabeth says, winking at me.

The men look at us for a few seconds before turning their backs and walking away.

Everyone looks at each other before the gates open.

Standing behind the gate is a lone dwarven man in combat armor. His shoulder guards glisten in the sun's light, and his brown eyes can barely be seen through his helmet.

"It's clear they take good care of their equipment," Alistair says.

We slowly approach the dwarven man; he looks like he is on guard for an attack.

"I promise we are not here to cause trouble, sir." I say this before stopping in front of him.

Our height difference is like night and day. I am at least two feet taller than the man.

The dwarven man grunts before turning around and walking back through the gate.

We walk in, looking at the buildings.

They're made of steel and concrete, similar to earth's buildings, but at the same time, they seem sturdier.

I notice the dwarvish people walking back and forth from store to store, carrying various things.

"I think some of these people are farmers." Alice whispers.

"You would be correct, even though we are great inventors and blacksmiths. Without stable crops and water, we wouldn't be as innovative as everyone would assume." The dwarven man says this before stopping in front of a building.

He looks up at me.

"If you truly mean no harm and wish to stay, you will need to report to our chieftain. Through him, you can be permitted to stay here. Until then, stay away from the stores or other builds."

The dwarven man walks away.

Suddenly, the doors opened, revealing a man sitting in a chair made of stone and ivory.

"So, you are the ones that want to stay in our village. Tell me what else you are here for; tell me your true intentions." The man says it in a deep, grizzly voice.

"The reason we are here... I'm not sure besides wanting to eat and rest." I say this as I think about why we're here.

Elizabeth speaks up.

"Chieftain, we are here to get away from Vlad's venomous reign. We merely wish to stay here a few days before departing." She bows, talking to the chieftain.

The chieftain thinks for a second.

"It would seem that you are not lying; I will permit you to stay for as long as you need. But I will warn you. If you cause any trouble, you will be dealt with as a vampire."

With that said, we depart the building.

Walking out and looking up at the building, it's clearly the biggest building here. The top of the building has a red flag with a dwarf embroidered on it.

"It would seem that the dwarves are noble men. If what he says is true, then we need to eat, rest, and stock up on whatever equipment we need." I say this as I walk into the heart of the village.