Chapter 246: Chapter 255: “Should We Pack Stakes?”

When Carl finally returned, the others were not in a good mood, but it was the single most comforting sight he’d seen in ages.

The kids were all either crying or ranting on one side of the room gathered around a board game littered with various plastic buildings and little metallic pieces, the massive number on the currency slate in front of Raziel telling a story of her beating the others so badly they cried and then beginning to cry herself when she felt guilty.

The adults were playing a game with cards and plastic chips, though judging by the fact that all the chips were in the middle, either someone had bankrupt them all and bailed or they somehow all lost.

Either way Carl was glad that he had not been present, it was a typical occurrence when he played, that he would beat them all and ultimately be the villain. It made a nice change for him to be the hero for a change as he comforted everyone, before he realised the irony in that sentiment and made the others think he had gone insane as he burst into laughter.

In the end, explaining why he was laughing so hard was all they needed to feel better as well.

As they all sat down to eat, they filled Carl in on what he had missed and asked him how the Realmcraft went, not really surprised when he explained how much of misnomer that was.

“…On the bright side though, it taught me something valuable. I was able to use the process to study the structure of the laws and I have figured out how to fight these villains.

Each of the laws exist in a unique sequence, like the base pairs of DNA. By figuring out exactly what laws a creature has affinity with, I think I can essentially seal their divinity like I did with Dracula, but without hoping I figure out the whole devoted conduit in some miraculous moment.”

“How did you even notice that?”

“Well I was doing it for about two days, when Infinity begins establishing the flow of time in the new realm, it dilates around the one they are creating it for. Honestly if this keeps up my growth is gonna be well and truly stunted by lack of nourishment.”

As everyone laughed initially, they suddenly realised that Carl had exposed himself to several years of time without nourishment or proper rest on Bakunawa as well. In the end, that led to him being practically force fed a mountain of food.

The end result was a food coma, that they honestly thought might take him out of the following day’s events, but luckily he woke up on the couch he had unconsciously claimed a few hours later.

At that point, Carl decided they might as well get to it since the sooner it was all done, the sooner they could retire.

With that in mind they went to see the vampires, who had been notified of the plan and been preparing.

“…You sure? Personally, I don’t think I’m the right choice, my father’s allies w-”

“They’ll bow before the ten-star of the species like every other creature. Even if one happens to become an embodiment of a law like Illerion, they’ll end up the same way she did.” Carl assured him as he patted Narcissus on the shoulder.

“Should we pack stakes?” Grenda’s question earned a laugh from the other vampires, but went over the heads of the others as Kyubi retrieved a few packs of steak from her bracelet which she had packed as supplies for their holiday.

“I know it’s a long shot, but we do have steaks you could use as peace offerings, even if it’s not a likely route to peaceful submission…” The vampires blinked dumbly for a moment, then erupted into laughter that was borderline insulting.

“…I’m sorry Kyubi, really, but that’s not what I meant. You lost your memories so you probably didn’t know, but a long time ago humans had a long list of ridiculous ways to deal with vampires.” Grenda explained in a hurry, to bring them in on the joke.

“Yeah. They had loads, like crosses, a wooden stake to the heart, or my personal favourite, garlic.” Narcissus laughed, while the newly enlightened tried to figure out what the hell gave the ancient humans those kinds of ideas.

It turned out that it was the vampires themselves, those that found their way to Earth over the millenia entertained themselves by occasionally letting humans think they had slain them in ridiculous ways and then wait until they heard another vampire got attacked with that method.

As twisted and sadistic as it was in actuality, they had to admit that the idea of a vampire suddenly being attacked with a garlic bulb and deciding to play dead was pretty funny. On top of that, the vampire that came along after must have been beyond confused.

“Okay. My daughter would never forgive me if I didn’t say well done. Feel free to do stuff like that in future. It might be even funnier if you find out that a human, maybe even a half-vampire bursts their bubble.”

It was a strange and unexpected moment of bonding, even if the origins were a little grim, none of them could call it fair to hold a grudge for things so far in the past.

With permission officially granted for the vampires to mess with humans, the group got started with the first step of the plan, namely making a grand entrance.

Narcissus opened a portal to the realm they once called home and intended to again.

When they all stepped through, they arrived at the outer limits of Dracula’s castle as planned. Why? The plan was created around the idea that fighting their way through the entire castle would make them think twice about attacking even if Narcissus’ orders leave exploitable loopholes.

The vampires were a race of beings that were a slave to their instincts, so the best method really was to hardwire them to instinctively avoid doing anything that might place them at odds with Carl and the faction.

There were ten vampires outside the main gates of the castle, each of which was equipped with the same sunlight blocking fabric that acted as an inner lining for a set of black plate mail armour that could only be described as sinister. On top of the armour, each one also wielded a matching black halberd with a thick serrated edge.

The moment they had stepped through, the ten halberds lowered to threaten them, but before anything could be done with them, Klaire, Kyubi and Narcissus drove two each into the wall whilst the other four drove one each.

They then took a step back and watched them slide down the wall, before Klaire and Kyubi sighed as they noticed Carl sulking a little bit because he wasn’t left a target.

“I guess I’m just an emergency torch if things take a dark turn…”

Narcissus covered his mouth to hide his chuckling, knowing full well that Carl could literally become a living sun and wipe them all out instantly, or a demon prince and rip them apart without effort, or a Lycan alpha and shred them to ribbons, but instead he was relegating himself to third-wheel to keep casualties down and sulking about it.

That generous perspective had doubt cast over it however, when Klaire and Kyubi took a second to dote on him.

“Hey, Narcissus. I’m starting to think he might be even crueler than your dad. Getting those two to fuss over him in front of four single guys is pretty spiteful.” The other vampires began to chuckle as Grenda tried to say she was single too.

“Single, yes. On the market? Who do you think you’re fooling? You hang over Noah every chance you get in training!”

As the three heads’ heads turned in unison to reveal their “tell me more” expressions, she changed the subject back to the matter at hand and in the end Carl allowed her to rain-check that conversation until they were done.

The eight of them refocused though, taking a moment to take in the frigid landscape and infernal/gothic architecture. Rather than intelligent design, the palace gave the impression it was more like a collection of spires Dracula had assembled from various other palaces and rebuilt them into common structure.

The main reason it gave that impression, was because of the vast differences in both style and material, ranging from ones similar to those that decorated Venusiah’s manor, to some which were rectangular prisms seemingly made from the same material as Gilgamesh’s armour.

It was then that Narcissus confirmed that insight, explaining that Dracula used to collect heads as trophies but the smell became intolerable, so instead he decided to seize a piece of every enemy palace he raided.

It was a pretty cumbersome collection to keep, but between heads and towers, they weren’t going to argue that towers were preferable.

The surrounding landscape was a collage of medieval ruins, dead flora, snowy tundras and frozen hellscapes kept at bay by intermittent pyres that towered hundreds of metres into the sky.

The countless infernos reflecting of the thick cloud blanket in a way that made it seem as though the sky itself was on fire.

It didn’t take long at all for them to grow sick of the scenery and decide to proceed with their siege and “knocked” on the door.

As the ten metre tall, eight metre wide, iron-clad, wooden panels were reduced to splinter that flew inward like a storm of wooden stakes, pained screams echoed through the halls as dozens of vampires were struck.

The grand halls of black marble painted with streaks of crimson that the sconce flames illuminated.

In mere seconds the thunderous echoes of legions of plate-mail armoured, halberd armed vampires marched through the corridors at top speed to repel the intruders.

It was both brutally intimidating and also an impeccable distraction, as long before the armoured forces came into sight, the shadows came alive and birthed dozens of vampires equipped more like Narcissus and the others had been.

Klaire, Kyubi and Narcissus took on their true-forms and began their attack, sending scores of their enemies flying like ragdolls into the surround columns, some hitting the sconces and finding themselves catching ablaze.

Again Carl tried his best to stay out of it, but when several purposely targeted him, he took on the fiery humanoid form he had created during his battle with Suzaku. “Sorry Narcissus, I’ll leave their choice to live up to them.”

The several who had targeted him found themselves unable to pull back and passed through his incinerating form that left him a glowing silhouette behind an ash cloud.

“Think nothing of it, the shadow-stalkers have all taken their fair share of enjoyment in torturing innocents over the years. If anything, I thank you for your restraint.”

Upon hearing the name Narcissus, several fell to one knee. It was as surprising to him as their allies, who suddenly saw them as traitors and included them in their target list.

Luckily for those defectors, they had stirred Carl’s curiosity who with a gesture of his hand created a wall of protective flame around them.

“Seems you’ve got some admirers, their sincerity will need to be verified, but not a bad start considering we were expecting every vampire in the castle to see you as a traitor and go for the kill.”

“Thanks for keeping them safe for now, don’t worry, I’ll make sure I don’t get assassinated the moment I’m crowned.”

The talk of Narcissus being crowned seemed to inspire an all new level of savagery in their enemies, who began lashing out with magic as well as the sleek daggers that they held in each hand.

Their movements also became more intricate, resulting in the occasional ash cloud as a blade got too close to one of Carl’s allies for comfort.

In the end, the body count crept higher than Carl wanted and he resorted to copying Narcissus’ form before going on a rampage of his own.

“Change of plans, I’m going to charge ahead with your buddies and cause some chaos until I just happen to find my way to the throne room, you guys head straight there and claim it!”

The four vampires fell in behind Carl and together they battered their way through both the ones Narcissus called shadow-stalkers and the armoured soldiers alike.

As he did so, the fiery wall around those few who yielded petered out. “If you truly wish to serve, I suggest you inform everyone that I am the intruder and to gather them together and hold until we have seized the throne-room.”

The moment he finished speaking, their heads lowered and they melted into the gleaming black floor, then the vampire, the fox and the banshee charged through the solid mass of bodies that tried to halt their progress.

They kept their non-lethal rules of engagements, but decided to take some of the padding out of their gloves, crushing them enough to put their vampiric regeneration to the test.

With Klaire and Kyubi’s level of power, their halberds and daggers were essentially just toothpicks trying to pierce tanks turning to shards of shattered metal and splintered wood on contact.

The unluckiest of the vampire forces were those whose halberd shafts flexed and launched their wielders into their brothers-in-arms and found themselves skewered on allied weapons.

When the commanders mixed in finally noticed such occasions, they ordered weapons down and conjured weapons drawn. It wasn’t a particularly bad decision, in the face of situation it was the most tactical solution available to them, but that was only true in the face of no-surrender situation.

It became clear in that moment, that whoever was in charge, had no intention of letting it come to an end whilst one side still lived.

Narcissus was sickened by it, his kind had always been an oppressive one, one where might meant right and the weak are but fodder to be sacrificed. The thing that made this new display hard to witness, was that in the wake of their progenitor’s defeat, it was a pointless sacrifice that wreaked of genocidal self-destruction.

The simple fact was, that his father was a twisted, ruthless tyrant, but he didn’t engage in battles he couldn’t win. If the masses did find themselves in a meat-grinder with no chance of victory, he would step in and demonstrate his power, even if he did do so in a way that let him rub his involvement in the faces of the saved.

“I’m changing the plan as well! Commanders who send subordinates to a pointless death deserve their own, feel free to cut the heads of those damn snakes!”

Kyubi and Klaire shrugged with indifference and in an instant the commanders found themselves either being burned mind, body and soul or simply having their souls extracted and feasted on.

The sudden leadership crisis in the face of overwhelming power, saw the first good development since the shadow-stalkers kneeling.

Without their commanders to intimidate them, the forces hesitated to continue on their suicide mission, an opportunity for Narcissus to announce his claim and make his intentions clear.

“I am Narcissus, son of Dracula. I am sick of seeing us enslaved by our instincts and dwelling in the shadows of our ruinous realm! I am here with my allies, but I will be taking the crown, if you don’t wish to die, or to live as the parasites we have been for centuries, then kneel and make way!”

Murmurs spread up the vast hall with Narcissus as the epicenter, then after a few moments the rhythmic rumbling of armoured knees hitting the ground followed it, shortly followed by the rumbling of them standing up and making way.

The vampires who knew him could scarcely recognise him. Narcissus, the prince of disappointment unable to earn more than his fifth star, walked the halls he once haunted to claim the castle’s throne.

What was even more unbelievable, was how much he had grown since he had left on his fool’s errand to find Walter. He hadn’t broken through his limits it was true, but he had refined the power at his disposal to an edge so fine that he could cut through the power of those once his betters.

It wasn’t just his offensive abilities that he’d refined either, his aura formed a condensed barrier that hugged his form and made him as hard to harm with their weapons as his companions that radiated the undeniable aura of a ten-star being.

It was a feeling they had had lorded over them by Dracula for thousands of years, for him to bridge that kind of gap to any degree made it clear he hadn’t been simply licking his wounds in exile and the hard work he had always demonstrated was not as laughable to them now as it had been then.

As they marched through the armour lined walkway, the mood had changed to them from the rapturous storm of violent warfare, to the silent reverence and heavy footfall of ceremonial reception.

For a few moments, the silence reigned supreme, then the ground shook beneath them all as the other groups effort made the castle itself tremble in fear, unifying the trio’s thoughts into a single hope.

’Please leave the castle standing, Carl.’

At that time however, Carl was deaf to their hopes. He had followed the same steps up ahead of them, but at Grenda’s advice that taking the left path would lead them away from the throne room, Carl had charged through the legion with brute force whilst the vampire quartet’s blades whistled through the air and sliced through the gaps in their armour.

In the wake of their charge, scores of blood-stained, crippled enemies littered the hall. As they made sure to prevent the fallen pursuing too quickly however, Carl had gotten a substantial lead and taken a route they’d have preferred him not to see.

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