After another full night of traveling and another stop with its own shenanigans, Luna and Ryan finally arrived at their destination: Noctem.

The city of vampires, the darkest city, the blooded ground... It had many names, however, none of them had any real foundation to base themselves on.

In truth, Noctem was merely a single, gigantic mountain filled with tunnels and small zones for vampires to live in. It could be said that vampires rivaled dwarves in their love for underground homes, as staying above ground meant risking to be exposed to sunlight.

As the two landed at the main entrance of the city, a large balcony on the top of the mountain specifically made for vampires to land on, a number of converted vampires instantly came up to them to receive them.

Without so much as glancing at these servants, Ryan ordered, "Bring us to the main conference hall."

Used to it, the 'guards', which in truth were only there to do tasks vampires didn't want to deal with, for example, the yearly 'tax collection', instantly obeyed Ryan and brought showed them the way.

It could be said that these guards were not even really guards. After all, no pureblood would ever make trouble here, and any other race who came here would find it very difficult to scale the trap-filled mountain. The only way to get here safely was to fly, and other than vampires and dragons, there were no other races that had this ability. Perhaps wind mages, but vampires had formations built specifically to deal with them.

The real reason for their existence was to please their lords in various ways. One of such ways was, as mentioned, the tax collection. In truth, this 'tax' was blood, and the collection was based on forcing every single human, beastkin or elf in the city's territory to give up all the blood they could provide without dying. 

Those who disobeyed would, naturally, give up all of their blood, along with the blood of all their relatives and friends. Hence, very few chose to disobey the absolute rule of the vampires, and the majority who didn't want to would just leave the area.

However, although the purebloods didn't care if the 'blood bags', as they were called, left, the guards did. After all, each guard had to turn in a certain amount of blood, usually around what 200 people could give out. And if they didn't, they would become blood bags themselves, so naturally, they wouldn't allow it. 

Purebloods did not really care what guards did or anyone else did as long as they obeyed, however, there was one single rule, a rule so important to them that any transgressors were eligible to be brutally tortured.

As the guards lead the two purebloods deeper into the mountain, one could occasionally see a vampire walking around or flying. Most of these vampires were rather young, ranging from 600-1500 years old. Almost all of them also held a book in their hands or otherwise some other kind of entertainment.

Occasionally, there would be huge stone mansions coming out of nowhere, with several servants running around carrying various things. These were the homes of purebloods, shadowing even royal castles.

After around an hour of walking, as they were passing, a guard that was carrying a huge bucket filled with blood walked in front of the group. Ryan raised an eyebrow but kept walking.

Ryan and the guard obviously collided from this, however, Ryan didn't seem to care. However, the guard did. "Hey! Watch where you're going you bastard!"

Hearing this, all of the people, be it guards or purebloods, turned their eyes on the scene. Looking at who had tripped him, the guard found Ryan staring at him with cold eyes. 

Cold sweat began to flow down his back in rivers as he instantly prostrated and banged his head on the floor as he begged and begged for mercy non-stop. 

Ryan's eyes were still cold, however. Slowly, he said, "I'll have mercy on you..."

Hearing this, the guard raised his head to look at Ryan, however, what he found was a foot falling on his face at a speed he couldn't even see.

With a loud, squishy sound, the guard's head exploded. As he retracted his foot, Ryan added, "... And kill you quickly."

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This was the number one rule in Noctem. No being, be it a guard or a blood bag, or even visitors, could disrespect a pureblood. In fact, if a pureblood even just felt like it, he or she could kill all the guards in Noctem and nobody would say anything. Rather, they'd sit back and enjoy the show.

Purebloods held absolute power in Noctem. Here, they were as high as the stars and as untouchable as the moon. Furthermore, just like the fat man from the city, all converted vampires would experience a change of the very roots of their mentality, hence, they wouldn't even think of rebelling.

Some of the stubborn ones would resist this change, however, those people would meet their end very quickly. Bullying between converted vampires was normal and even encouraged by purebloods since they considered it 'entertaining'. For them, it was like watching two ants fighting: There were so many of these ants that even if a hundred thousand were killed, no one would even notice.

However, if even a single pureblood was to die, like what happened in the Daughter of Ice incident, the entire vampire world would fall into a murderous rage.

After the small distraction, Ryan and Luna continued their journey. Noctem truly deserved its reputation as the most confusing city, as the layout of the entire place was completely random without even a hint of uniformity.

Sometimes, there would be giant mansions all attached together. Other times, there wouldn't be a single thing in miles. This made it confusing for even those who lived there for centuries, but nobody really cared enough to fix it. 

 Finally, after even Ryan's lips had started twitching in annoyance, they arrive in front of a huge door. There were no other entrances and no windows, only this door.

The guards stopped at the sides as they bowed whilst saying "Your esteemed lordship and ladyship, we've arrived. Your guards will take their leave..." Before quickly running away. They feared this place, basically, all non-purebloods did. After all, behind these doors was where the real pureblood area began, and also where the torture chambers laid.

Everything before this was just jokes in the eyes of vampires. Some would come to visit and collect blood every once in a while, however, a vampire's true home laid behind these doors. After all, how could purebloods let themselves live next to these filthy slaves? Or at least that was their mindset.

With a slight push from Ryan, the doors instantly swung open. Despite their impressive size, they were relatively light. However, that was only to purebloods. Anybody who did not have pure vampiric blood would find these doors heavier than a mountain.

As Ryan and Luna entered, Luma couldn't help but gasp in admiration. Tall, beautiful buildings scraped the fake sky who even had a fake, bright moon. Numerous vampires socialized, playing chess, talking, joking around and some even kissing. Some of those vampires glanced at them and nodded before going back to what they were doing.

However, some of those vampires instantly stopped what they were doing as they walked up to Ryan. Luna reflexively hid behind his back, embarrassed. She realized what she was doing, but at this point, her man's pride had long since been shattered time and time again, and in reality, she never had much 'man's pride'. In fact, even back then she once disguised herself as a woman to seduce a king and convince him to go to war. Naturally, she killed him afterward.

One of the approaching vampires stepped forward whilst the others stayed back, looking at them. "Ryan. The council is waiting for you. Come."

Nodding, Ryan followed. As Luna followed too, she soon found her hand grabbed by Ryan.

She didn't mind it too much. Now that she had formed her core, she had changed her looks to look more like a 16-17 years old girl, having kept mostly the same features except a slightly larger chest and having grown up to 160cm tall. For vampires, appearance was just that: appearance. She could change her age at will, hence, she decided to do so. In fact, to truly determine a vampire's age, one could only see it from their aura.

Therefore, although the sight of a middle-aged man holding a now 17-years old looking Luna should have been somewhat weird, nobody even noticed it. After all, in their eyes, it was like a grandpa holding a 5-years old by the hand.

However, there was one question in all of these people's minds. 'Who in the world is this young girl?'

Vampires had great minds. This was a fact. There were no dumb vampires, and whilst some excelled in some areas more than others, they were all smart. Hence, all of them could remember each other. For them to not know this kid made them feel somewhat stupid, but in reality, they had no way to know.

After a while of walking in absolute, tense silence, the group arrived in front of a relatively small building.

Unlike the others surrounding it, this building was not majestic. However, it seemed to carry an aura of absolute authority and power. This was the Chamber, nicknamed this way due to its circular shape.

Ryan entered first, followed by Luna and then the other vampires. The building only had one room, and this room had a single, huge circular table with chairs surrounding it.

A vampire sat in every chair, and every one of them gave off auras of absolute might. Their eyes were harsh, carrying the defiance of time in them. Each and every one of these vampires was considered an old monster, the true powerhouses of the vampire world.

As Ryan walked up to a specific chair, he gestured for Luna to come near him. Hesitatingly, she did as he gestured, and when she got there, he pulled her up into his lap.

After a while, a vampire suddenly got up, and with a wave of his hand, the door closed shut. Looking at everyone surrounding them, he lightly said: "Let the meeting begin..."