he moon shines in the dark sky over a forest. A beautiful sight to behold, but the scene in the forest is anything but. A girl is seen running through the forest. Covered in a ragged cloak, she stumbles along and pants heavily. A voice calls out from nearby,” She’s over here! That cattle won’t escape from us!” This just encourages the girl to run faster. She trips on a branch, which causes her hood to fall, reveling her pink hair that is beyond messy. Along with her scarred face and blue eyes, she appears to be a young teenager; very young. The sounds of boots approach, causing the girl to hastily get up and run off further into the woods. Soon, a group of people came running into the area. All of them wear various clothing and armor, but one thing they all have in common is their pale skin, beautiful looks, and sharp canines. “Damn it,” shouts one of them. “Where did she go?”
Another man starts to sniff the air before pointing in the direction the girl ran off to. “Over there, I can smell her blood.”
“That bitch, running away like that. She would have been fortunate to just be fed on. Now all that awaits her is to become a ghoul.” The people ran after the girl.
We see the girl stop, she puts her hand on her knees and starts to pant. When she looks up, she opens her mouth in awe as in front of her is a massive mausoleum like tomb. Despite its age, it remains in remarkable shape. Carved all over are various depictions of the undead. Hordes of zombies charging towards some unseen enemy, skeletons with various weapons joining behind, and ghosts of varying design flying above. At the door behind these stone carvings of the undead horde is a mage of some kind, but the carving is covered in old, long dead vines, obscuring much of its figure. The girl's amazement is short lived however, as the sound of boots approaches. Seeing nowhere else to go, the girl quickly opens the door to the tomb and runs inside. It isn’t long until the pale people arrive. The one person from before sniffed the air before pointing to the tomb. They quickly run inside and slam the stone door behind them. However, this slam causes the vines to come loose, revealing the figure of the made. Its head is a skull, and energy seems to flow around it as it holds a large black staff adorned with a carving of a large jewel of some kind.
The girl runs through the darkness of the cave. In her hand she is holding out is a bright glowing orb. She just continues to run through the twists and turns of the cave, passing by various desiccated corpses holding weapons of all kinds. As she turns into a hallway, a corpse that has strangely still retains some flesh starts to stir a bit. Around another corner, the head of a very well armored skeleton turns towards the girl with her back turned. She turns another corner, and from the wall comes a translucent pale woman. “That girl, could she possibly...” but the spirits echoing words are interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps. She quickly phases back through the wall as the pale people run past.
The girl enters a room with a single sarcophagus in the middle of the room. Various more corpses litter the room, but each one seems to be lying next to a pillar. Almost as if they were standing guard. There appears to be no other exit from the room than the way the girl came in. She was about to turn around when a voice called out,” This way! She’s close!” The girl panics and starts looking for a place to hide. But the room is completely open. She turns to the sarcophagus, then back to the hallway behind her, before facing the sarcophagus again. Nodding her head, she rushes to it, making the light she was holding dissipate. She puts both hands on the lid and pushes it open enough for her to climb in. She closes the lid shortly after climbing in.
The girl lays there in the dark sarcophagus, hearing footsteps enter the room. “WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?!” a voice calls out.
“I don’t know, the scent ends here.”
“WELL, FIND HER! I WILL NOT LET A MERE HUMAN CHILD GET THE BETTER OF VAMPIRES OF ANYKIND!”
The girl lets out a quiet sigh of relief. But that relief is short lived when she feels something move. With great trepidation, she resummons her orb of light. Now illuminated, she sees that she is on top of a skeletal corpse. It is covered in dark black robes lined with purple and blue embroidery that despite appearing a bit tattered at the edges, are in remarkably good shape. She looks up towards the top of the corpse, seeing it holding a jet-black staff with a large amethyst on top and a strange glass-like orb. But what truly catches her attention is when the skull lifts to look at the girl. “AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“AH HA!” Soon the lid of the sarcophagus is blown off and a hand reaches in and lifts the girl up by the neck. The girl starts to choke as the vampire brings her in close. “Thought you could get away bitch?” Unknown to either of them a skeletal hand places itself on the sarcophagus's edge. “You shouldn’t have run girl. Now prepare to suffer an existence of endless hunger.”
The vampire bares his fangs and approaches the whimpering girl’s neck. Just as he is about to bite down, however, a loud yawn interrupts them. Confused, everyone stops what they are doing and turns towards the source of the yawn to see the sarcophagus’s corpse suddenly rise into a sitting position. It then proceeds to stretch its arms up, letting out a few cracking sounds. It then climbs out of the sarcophagus, gently putting the glass orb back in. It then taps the tip of its staff against the ground, and nearby braziers to sound light up with blue flames. It is then that the corpse notices the people in the room with it. “Hmm?” it says with an echoey male voice. “Blood-kin? What are you doing in my tomb?”
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The lead vampire tosses the girl to one of his subordinates before addressing the undead being. “What the... What the hell is that thing?”
“Thing?” the undead says confused. “Do you not know what I am?”
“I know you are a talking skeleton of some kind. Must mean you belong to a high-ranking lord. Who do you report to skeleton?”
The undead while having no face, it was clear from its body language it was just more and more confused. “You misunderstand Blood-kin. I am not in the service of any of your lords.”
The lead vampire just started to laugh. “Haha, good one. There is no way you are an independent undead. Those haven’t existed since we wipe out the liches centuries ago.”
The corpse reeled back in shock. “You Blood-kin did WHAT?!”
“Geez, something wrong with your head or something. Like I said, there hasn’t been any independent undead since we wiped out the liches centuries ago.” While the vampire spoke, energy seemed to flow out of the undead. It slithered its way to the corpses in the room, and their eyes started to glow blue. “Something wrong with you if you both forgot the war and the lord you served. Ah well, after we take care of this girl, we will take you to a corpse forger to get you fixed and....” The vampire stopped when it noticed green and blue energies started to swirl around it.
“YOU... YOU DAMN POX RIDDEN, NARCISTIC BLOOD-KIN! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!?” A shockwave blasted out of the undead, knocking everyone back and down. The girl, seeing an opportunity, quickly crawled away and hid behind one of the pillars. “IT IS THE JOB OF US LICHES TO KEEP THE NECROTIC ENERGIES OF THE WORLD STABLE! WITHOUT US, THEY’LL RUN WILD AND CAUSE MASSIVE HORDES OF FERAL UNDEAD TO APPEAR! Then again, what else can I expect from you Blood-kin. The descendants of those who perverted our order’s most sacred ritual.”
It was the lead vampire who was now shocked. “WAIT! You mean you are a.... Shit.”
The lich now started to wave his arms around and started chanting in an arcane language. Several vampires charged forward, only to be repelled by a force field of some kind. At the same time, all the corpses around the room started to shake and move. They started to stand up, some of them regaining flesh when the lich said,” ARISE MY GREAT WARRIORS! THE BLOOD-KIN HAVE DONE THE UNFORGIVEABLE! THEY HAVE DISRUPTED THE NATURAL ORDER, AND NOW DOOM THE WORLD TO A SLOW DEATH! THESE SPAWN WILL BE THE FIRST TO PAY FOR THEIR MANY CRIMES! ARISE AND STRIKE THEM DOWN!” Several undead rose to their feet, clutching their weapons tightly. The vampires just stood by in shock. Then a zombie let out a guttural battle cry and charged forward. The vampires were quick to respond, cutting down any undead that got close. But for every single one killed, two more took their place. Eventually, a vampire got bitten by a zombie. He let out a cry as quickly other undead swarmed him, beating on him mercilessly with weapons as with the skeletons or being devoured as with the zombies.
Soon, this battle of attrition started to wear the vampires down. Any that tried to get away were quickly shot down by a spell from the lich. A single vampire ran up to the lead vampire. “Boss, we can’t keep this up. We’re just spawn, not full born lords. What are we going to do? Boss?” The lead vampire then grabbed this one by the shoulders and ran towards the exit. When the lich tossed a spell at the vampire, he tossed the man he was carrying right into the spell’s path. It killed the vampire instantly but allowed the lead vampire the chance to escape.
The vampire ran and ran through the corridors before coming to stop and punching the wall. “DAMN IT! This was supposed to be an easy job. Get the cattle and punish her for trying to escape.” He then noticed a familiar cloaked figure sitting down around the corner. “YOU!” the vampire pointed as he began to approach. “THIS IS ALL YOU FAULT BITCH! IF YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE IN TROUBLE BEFORE, NOW YOU ARE GONNA...” However, the words got caught in his mouth when the cloaked figure suddenly began to float in the air.
The figure threw off the cloak to reveal a beautiful ethereal woman with long white hair in a long dress. “You know, no matter what we tried, we were never able to wake our lord up. Only contact with the living could do so, and you chased that girl here. We would thank you if we didn’t already know what kind of monster you were.” The vampire tried to take a few steps back but suddenly the ghost let out a loud wail, forcing him to put his hands around his ears. As soon as the screaming stopped, a sword pierced the vampire’s chest. A heavily armored skeleton with glowing blue eyes standing right behind him. It pulled out the sword and kicked him to the ground. As he started to get up, a figure appeared above him. He looked up to see a towering zombie standing above. He let out a scream as the zombie lunged at him.
Back in the sarcophagus room, the last of the vampires have been killed. As the lich inspects the corpses of each vampire, the girl peeks from her hiding spot. The lich quickly notices, and the girl hides again. “Do not be afraid child, I mean you no harm.” The girl hesitantly looks to see the lich approaching her. He stops only a few feet in front of her. “I am the Arch-Lich Kralxak, and I only wish to help.” He extended his hand out to the girl, who after a minute hesitantly gripped it.