Zerinia sat in the guild meeting room, one of the most important places to the guild, a place only guild members were allowed in, a restriction made by the Divine Unbreaking development team. Now likely one removed all together saying this world was real and all.
“It’s been three days and the Wight Ghouls still haven’t found the ‘Brown Wizard’ that entered that fortress…I still have no knowledge about this ‘Solmara Theocracy’ that apparently invaded the Rearil village and I still have all these things to do to get a better understanding of this world.” There was a pause in Zerinia’s thought before she forced her hand into a fist, lifting it up and slamming it onto the table. “FUCK!!” She yelled with intense stress in her voice, at a genuine lose of what to do.
“Nanilk has been a great help recently, apparently just a few more months and his undead should have built a small kingdom. One with roads, markets and all. Maybe I could introduce some of things from my old world like trains, blimps and other transport stuff.” She said out loud before smirking, the thought was actually somehow humorous to her, like seeing a steam train or blimp in a modern world could make genius inventors in this world go wide eyed or confused. Then again, it would help positively affect the views of those from outside her circle.
“How am I even here, in this new world? I mean, I got hit by a train, people don’t survive those…and yet I got reincarnated as my avatar, here in this new world with all my items, stats and lore from both the avatar and all my guild. What kind of weird joke is that?”
She paused again, standing up and walking over to a part of the wall. There was a staff, with many jewels at the top, the one she had created when she was first founded the guild with her, or at the time, his friends. The item sat in a glass case, staring back at her like she owed it money. “Whatever the reason, I’ve been given a second chance, and I intend to live it to the fullest. To do that, I need to begin with the most important stuff first.”
She looked down at her own hands and turned her back to the staff. “Vampires…I am a Vampire, more specifically a True Vampire, meaning I have a final form too which I already used…but what other vampire abilities do I have? I know sunlight doesn’t do anything as already tested, then again, vampires in this world were based off original novel material so sunlight and holy items didn’t affect me…hmm, I wonder if I can turn into a swarm of vampire bats, turn into a wolf, read minds, mind control…maybe do the other True Vampire exclusives too like turning into a singular fruit bat or into mist, only one way to find out.”
Up on the ground floor, Graveheart was wandering the castle with Maura, giving her a personal tour of the estate. She had personally chosen to go to the hot spring later than the others by exploring the castle, getting lost very quickly about where she was but luckily ran into Graveheart who was now showing her around, both of them walking at a matching speed with one another.
“Of course, this is the main hallway, the double doors there lead to the living room.” Graveheart said while pointing to the huge double doors at the end of the hallway, they seemed pretty intimidating even from this distance. Maura couldn’t help but look at the walls with interest, mainly at the paintings of many different creatures, some she was familiar with already and many others she was yet to meet.
“Who is this?” She asked, pointing at one with a Dark Elf, with beautiful pitch-black robes with purple and white lining that were like stars in the night sky, it was probably the first humanoid thing she had seen native to the castle, not to mention it was a creature similar to herself. Graveheart turned and walked over to where she stood. “Ah, this is ‘Lady Silara Nighthart’, one of the respected ‘Princes’ of the castle, I could always respect her ability to fool enemies so seamlessly, one couldn’t see her tricks from miles away…in truth, I too have seen her use tricks I and even Nanilk would have fallen for.”
“Prince of the castle?” Maura asked, looking at Graveheart. Attempting to make eye contact with him but to little success, the tint making it incredibly difficult. “Yes, you have already met one…Lady Zerinia herself, though, she is not the strongest of them, she is still our leader and one we are all most proud to have, I couldn’t imagine another baring the role she has graciously taken upon her shoulders…the princes act as the leaders of the guild and castle, pinnacles of power only we can only witness.”
“If she isn’t the strongest, who is?” Maura asked, the question held an unspoken weight in her mind, she saw what Zerinia could do first hand. Killing an Orc Lord with a stare, kill a small army of angels with her aura, slaughter even more humans with her bare hands. So, if she wasn’t the strongest ‘Prince’, then who was? And what can they do?
“A beautiful question, my friend…that, would be him.” Graveheart responded, walking in another direction and stopping a few metres away, turning to face another painting. Maura followed soon after.
The painting depicted a Lich in clean black robes with gold trim and frills along the neck. The gaze was of the skeleton was intense, and even though the creature was incapable of making any kind of facial expression, it was more than intimidating. The green eyes pierced deep into all those who looked at the image. Boned hands glowing with an aura that matched his eyes and in the surroundings behind him, many other skeletons with weapons of their own, clearly well-co-ordinated enough to rally with one another or all simply under one beings control, making room for failure impossible.
“This, my dear dark elf friend, is Morovith…his title, the Lich Emperor.” Graveheart declared, holding his arms out to it like he was going to hug the painting. “He is the master of my superior, Lord Nanilk.” Maura could only stare in fascination, awe and absolute terror. For the first time in her life, she felt small, weak, insignificant and powerless. Comparable to how a tsunami is seen by an ant: an unstoppable force of nature but with a will of its own.
“He is…something, where is he now anyway?” She asked, the words barely held together by whatever little bravery she still had, how can a painting make her feel so much terror? “We’re not sure, he went missing a while ago now along with most of the others, I can only wonder where they all are now, regardless however, I’m sure they will find their way back to us.” Then the realisation hit Maura, these ‘Princes’ weren’t just their superiors, but comparable to literal Gods to them and if they were roughly as powerful as Zerinia, they probably weren’t far off either.
Before either could respond, a little girl between 12 to 14 with pale white skin, red eyes and long black hair ran towards them. A black cloak with red lining covered her body while showing only her head and hands. It was Velkira.
“Graveheart! You have to hide me, please!” She begged, looking up at him with a desperate look in her eyes. For someone as chaotic and sinister as her, something like that was unheard of. “Please help me!”
“Miss Velkira! What is the matter?” Graveheart asked while looking down at her, his voice filled with genuine panic and curiosity and whatever could make Velkira so terrified. Before Velkira could explain, a new voice spoke from down the hallway. It was soft, calming and soothing to the ears.
“Apologises Graveheart and Maura my friends for the issues Velkira is causing you. She has a lesson with me and very insistent on not having it.” A woman said approaching. She looked to be around Zerinia’s age in her late 20’s to early 30’s. Her eyes red and hair long and white. She wore a black general uniform with black boots and thin white gloves. On her soft face was a small, knowing smile and narrowed eyes as she approached.
“How do you know my name?” Maura asked, looking at the woman, but instead of getting an answer, Graveheart responded first. “Nysera, my favourite genius…don’t tell Nanilk I said that I haven’t seen you in ages! How have you been keeping?” The woman’s smile widened into something more courteous almost immediately. “Yes, it has been a while since we last spoke. I am keeping myself in good health as to best serve the lady. I wish I could stay and chat longer, but I must be off to teach Velkira, we’re working on advanced sciences.”
“I hate learning.” Velkira said, finally crossing her arms and walking off with Nysera, admitting defeat as Nysera quickly followed after her. Graveheart could only chuckle to himself while Maura looked disturbed and bewildered at the interaction. “So…who were they?” Maura asked, looking at Graveheart. “Them? Those are Velkira and Nysera, two members of the 5 Gehenna Troop.”
“Gehenna Troop?” She repeated, the word unfamiliar to her completely. “Yes, there’s the two you met already, Velkira the Gehenna Princess and Nysera the Gehenna general. The others are Ifrit the Gehenna Executioner, Abaddon the Gehenna Knight and their leader, Zyrella Noctil the Gehenna Queen, one of the Princes.” The names seemed to fall out one by one, overwhelming Maura but before she could ask anything about anything, Graveheart continued. “Come, we have a tour to finish.”