Another half month passed, and Kai’s physical injuries have recovered for the most part, even the corrosion has vanished after enough treatment. However his mana veins showed no signs of healing, his core was still cracked and the stars were still dim.

The camp was shrouded in darkness, save for a few spots where the light passed through the dense canopy. On its far south was a training ground, with only two poorly made wooden dummies and a fence surrounding them.

The dummies were covered in shallow and imprecise cuts, signs of poor swordsmanship.

Kai’s white clothes stuck to his skin as sweat drenched his body, and he clutched the purple sword hilt even tighter as blood dripped from his banged hands.

He swung relentlessly at the wooden targets, fury, and anger fueling his every action, desperation driving his sword toward the enemy. His lack of technique didn’t impede him from mindlessly slashing and thrusting, sometimes hitting the dummy with the side of his blade, sometimes it got stuck, but most of the time he’d make shallow cuts that weren’t even one centimeter deep.

His chest heaved up and down as he took a deep breath, the hilt of the sword trembled in his hand as he planted the blade onto the ground, using it as support. He wiped the sweat off his face as he raised the heavy sword above his head.

“Stop it!” A deep and hoarse voice rang in his ears, and he suddenly felt a strong pressure descend upon his body. He fell to his knees, his sword clanking as it lay beside him.

Struggling to turn his head, he was just able to make a figure out of the corner of his eye. “What is the meaning of this?!” He demanded as his voice cracked, glaring at the old man as he fought against the magic.

The old man’s eyes seemed to be staring at nothing as memories of countless years ago flashed in his mind. His face darkened and he looked sternly at Kai, “How many days has it been since you started doing this?!” He yelled back, his caring voice now filled with anger. “Isn’t it enough? Look at your hands and your body, for how long are you going to mutilate yourself like this? How would your parents react?

What do you think you will achieve by doing this? Do you think it will bring back your parents? Do you think that by swinging that damned sword around all day you’ll be able to defeat Haniard?!”

His hoarse voice rose higher and higher, cracking by the time he had finished his speech, and his old, wrinkled eyes looked deeply at Kai, his young self and the boy before him merging briefly before he removed his magic. “Let’s go to the tent, you need to heal first…”

He had just turned around when a tired, cracking voice echoed in his mind, “What do you know?!” Kai stood up, leaning on the sword as he glared at the old man, his eyes burning with hate, but not directed at the elder.

His chest heaved as blood rushed up his throat, which he coughed out before parting his lips. “Do you have any idea how much it hurts to lose everything you hold dear?! To feel powerless? To not be able to do anything but rot in a pool of guilt and regret? Wha… What does an old man like you know?!”

Kai’s face flushed red as he held back tears, and a few red veins appeared on his forehead.

Silence,

He stared at the old man’s back, a faint aura of loneliness and grief exuding from his body, but he remained quiet. Kai realized he had said too much, and his trembling lips parted as he tried to excuse himself. “Elder… I-”

“I know,” the old man cut him off as he turned his head slightly, sadness visible in his sunken eyes. Once again facing forward, he beckoned Kai to follow him, his voice lingering behind as he slowly made his way toward the camp, “Come on, let’s treat your wounds for now.”

Kai followed silently behind the old man, slowly making their way to the large tent situated in the middle of the camp.

He curiously looked around and noticed that the children had stopped running around. The skin of the older ones began to stick to their bones, and even the younger ones began to show signs of Blood Rotting.

The men were few and far between, and those extremely sick had disappeared completely. The women weren’t doing that much better either, a large number of them had vanished as well, leaving behind those younger ones whose skin had almost completely withered.

Kai’s face darkened, and he gritted his teeth in frustration How have I not noticed this until now? His vision drifted toward the elder’s hunched back, which suddenly seemed much larger than before.

“Elder…” His lips parted, however, the old man cut him off before he could continue.

“Call me Grandpa,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Kai halted his footsteps, taken aback by the elder’s sudden request, but he quickly adjusted his speech before asking. “Gra-grandpa, if this Blood Rotting is such a horrible disease, why do these people…” he cut himself short, not daring to continue however his question was obvious.

The old man let out a heavy sigh, stopping as he straightened his back. “Look around you, these people, the children, and their parents. What do you see? Are they not in pain? Are they not suffering? Yet they still persevere, they still keep a smile on their face. Why is it so?”

Kai remained silent, pondering over the question however he was unable to find an answer even after a few minutes.

The old man turned toward Kai, locking eyes with him as he parted his lips. “They’re hopeful. They hope that one day this curse will be lifted from our race, that maybe someone will find a way to free them from this constant suffering. I’ve been watching over them for a while now, and none of them ever complained.”

He inhaled deeply before he continued in a shaky voice “When it was time for them to turn… they left this world with a smile on their face…”

After finishing his speech, the old man headed toward the tent, leaving Kai standing in the middle of the camp as he pondered over what he had said. He walked toward a large tree, and leaned against it as he sat down, quietly watching the camp’s residents go about their life.

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The sun changed positions, and the darkness that veiled the camp deepened even further as the cold night descended upon them.

The wind blew in his disheveled hair, and a warm shiver ran down his spine as his body attempted to heat up. Yet, he remained unmoving, watching the sickly residents prepare for a night that may as well be their last.

The children, although sick and tired, still chased each other as they played. The women watched over them with a faint smile.

A small boy who was about half Kai’s size approached him with caution, holding a small fruit. He tore it in two as he arrived next to him, and handed one half to Kai, who subconsciously grabbed it.

His pupils suddenly enlarged as he broke out of his daze, and he looked at the boy who had already run away in fear. He stared at the fruit in his, slowly bringing it to his face before taking a bite.

“It’s bitter…”

…

The tent’s entrance slowly parted as Kai made his way inside, and noticed the old man sitting next to the fireplace. He made his way over and sat opposite the elder, who raised his head to look at Kai, the heat from the fire distorting the air between them.

The buzzing of the cicadas and the owl’s hoots broke the tense silence every so often, and Kai pondered the old man’s words as he stared at the dancing flames of the fireplace.

“What do you mean to say?” his voice cracked slightly as he turned toward the elder. “To not lose hope? To keep fighting and moving forward? What is there to hope for? What should I do?!”

His voice rose into a yell as he jumped up, blood dripping from his clenched fists, staining the pelt carpet.

The old man raised his head toward Kai, his sunken eyes revealing the sadness hiding deep within his soul. He shook his head as he looked at the boy whose eyes burned with hatred, and he sighed before his lips parted.

“What can you do right now? Do you want to give up? Your mana veins are crippled, your body barely healed to half a decent state, and your mind is a mess too! Do you want to go and kill Haniard? Do you really think that by swinging a sword randomly you’ll get somewhere? Fool!

The only thing you’ll achieve is self-mutilation, you will only become weaker! You need to hold on to hope, hope that you can heal your veins, hope that you can become stronger, hope that you will have enough strength to kill that bastard!”

Kai stared at the fireplace as the old man’s words entered his ears and engrained in his brain, and he softly whispered to himself as a glint of determination appeared in his eyes, “Strength…”

“That’s right, strength…” The old man took a puff from a pipe as he looked toward the ceiling, seemingly reminiscing about a long-forgotten past. “I don’t know how old I was back then… maybe fifty or sixty, it wasn’t that rare for me to wander the human kingdom, despite the restrictions imposed on us.

It was in one of my outings that I saw her, a girl as beautiful as the full moon. Her eyes shone like the sun, and her smile made me feel something for the first time in my life. Back then I had no responsibilities or family, just myself and a derelict home.

I wasn’t sure how to approach her, but one thing I know is that I never thought about the consequences…” he paused as he sighed, taking another puff as he continued.

“I thought I could run away if push come to shove, after all the Inquisitors had no power in the Vampire Kingdom after, but I underestimated their viciousness-”

“Inquisitors?” Kai interrupted with a confused expression.

“Ah, don’t worry about them… they’re nothing but a legend now.” the old man said before he continued his story.

“So as I was saying, I eventually had the guts to meet with her after disguising my eyes, and we immediately got along. She was shy in the beginning, real shy, and couldn’t even get a word out without her running away… but we did start to talk. A few words here, a few words there, it didn’t take long for her to fall for me, and I didn’t even use our powers!”

Kai’s lips parted, looking as if he wanted to say something, however, he got shut down quickly by the old man, who didn’t seem to want to dwell on the subject.

“We had been going for half a year at this point, I knew a lot of things about her, but I had to make up things for myself, lying to her like that didn’t feel right but what other choice did I have?

It seemed like your usual day when I went to her house, ready to pick her up for another date or to help do her chores and whatnot. However, when I got to her house I felt my blood boil, my temper got the best of me the moment I laid my eyes on her.

“She was crying, her eyes and face were as red as the blood flowing through my veins. Her arms were held tightly by another’s, a man that I had never seen before, dragging her away from her home.

But I knew what that man was, his shiny black uniform decorated with red roses gave away his identity in a split second, an Inquisitor.

They were never up to any good, besides killing and torturing vampires the only other activity they did was torment the population.

At that moment… I didn’t care about my identity anymore, I didn’t think about the consequences or about the girl. Anger flowed through my veins and before I knew it… the man was dead, laying in a pool of blood and scattered brains.

My eyes had returned to normal, and humans surrounded me. The girl looked at me with her teary eyes, which were filled with fear even greater than before.

I knew I fucked up, I wasn’t safe anymore. I panicked… and so I ran away.”

Kai listened attentively, almost sitting on his toes as sweat ran down his back, but the old man only took another puff from his pipe and leaned back, struggling to find his next words.

“What about the girl?” Kai asked curiously, now intrigued by the old man’s half-finished story.

“The girl?...” he sighed heavily before his lips parted, “They knew I loved her, she had told them herself, apparently she hated me now. However, she was foolish, the Inquisitors used her as bait.

Of course, I went, wishing to save her but… there were too many of them. I could hear whispers from the bushes they were hiding in, their silhouettes through the houses they stole, and the girl’s anxious expression gave it all away even more.

I watched quietly from afar, from a bush hidden behind a rock, I watched her and the others grow restless, but I didn’t expect what was about to happen.”

The old man’s voice trembled as his tone turned heavy, but he continued in a painful voice.

“Once the Inquisots grew bored, they attacked the girl… they did… unspeakable things to her… Screams of agony, of terror, of despair, rang in my ears but I could do nothing except look away… I hid behind the stone until they were done.

Counting the hours… it was no less than seven grueling and painful hours, not only for me but for the girl… who had probably given her last breath by the fifth hour…”

Kai gasped in shock at the elder’s words, whose eyes were red with tears. The awkward silence was only occasionally broken by the old man’s soft sobs, and Kai could only wait in silence until he calmed down.

“What about that weird form?” He asked after a slight hesitation, and the old man’s eyes widened as he stood up, looking sternly at Kai.

“Don’t ever use it again! He ordered simply, and refused to elaborate no matter how much inquired, but ultimately said something that sent shivers down Kai’s spine “It’s a secret tied to the Genesis, I don’t know much about it either so I strongly advise you not to use it.”

Kai went to sleep after allowing the old man to clean his wounds, feeling perturbed but also slightly excited as he saw life in a different light.