"This is impossible, we were meant to summon humans alone, no?" a red-robed mage shouted from the front lines, his voice cracking with panic and outrage. He wildly waved his twisted staff toward the center of the room.
From the opposite side of the grand hall, a hulking knight encased in gleaming silver armor took a heavy, threatening step forward.
"What is a vampire? Is it yet another undiscovered race of the demon realm?" the knight bellowed, his hand dropping instinctively to the massive hilt of the broadsword resting at his hip.
The nobles flanking the throne abandoned all pretenses of royal decorum.
"Return him," an older aristocrat spat, glaring down his hooked nose as if looking at a diseased rat.
Another nobleman standing nearby scoffed loudly, waving a dismissive hand in the air.
"No, that can’t be done. Let’s kill him and be done with it, he is of no use to me," he declared callously, the cruel words bouncing off the high stone ceilings.
Standing directly in the center of the hostility, Lucius felt his stomach drop into a bottomless pit.
’What the hell is going on here? Vampire? This has to be some kind of joke,’ Lucius screamed internally, his mind scrambling to find a rational explanation for the glowing text floating above the black orb.
He had lived nineteen utterly mundane, exhausting, normal human years on Earth. He bled red blood, he walked in the sunlight, and he ate cheap instant noodles.
None of this made any sense. Lucius turned his face slowly, his heart hammering wildly against his ribs as he looked at the multiple faces that were entirely focused on him.
Every single pair of eyes held the exact same mixture of profound disgust and murderous intent.
’Shit i dont like this at all. Why the fuck would they want to kill me? Not like i asked to be here in the first place,’ he panicked, taking a small, involuntary step backward away from the encroaching knights.
The cold, biting grip of fear had slowly began to creep on his face, twisting his features into an expression of pure dread as he felt the intense, judgmental glares of the people all around him physically pressing down on his shoulders.
After what seemed like forever, enduring the agonizing seconds of the crowd screaming for his immediate execution, a sudden movement caught the corner of his eye.
The princess of the kingdom, seated delicately to the right of the king, raised her slender, pale hand gracefully into the air.
It was a simple, quiet gesture, but the authority it carried was absolute.
The motion forced the angry, shouting people to go completely silent in an instant, swallowing their murderous words like obedient dogs.
She stood from her velvet-lined chair, her posture radiating elegant command.
"What is wrong with you people? Can you not see the hu- the vampire is just as confused," she reprimanded the crowd.
She paused, folding her hands neatly in front of her flowing silken gown. "We summoned it here, so we should take care of it as we see fit," she stated firmly.
Lucius blinked, a small tremor running through his jaw.
’It?’ he thought, the dehumanizing word cutting through the haze of his panic.
However, the princess quickly shifted her attention away from the crowd and directly onto him.
"Vampire stranger, may we know your name please?" She asked gently, her long blond hair dancing slightly behind her as she leaned forward with a huge, welcoming smile on her beautiful face.
The shift in her demeanor was incredibly jarring, yet deeply intoxicating.
Out of everyone who was present in that terrifying, oppressive room, she was the only one who radiated a warm light of familiarity with him.
Thus, clinging desperately to the lifeline she was throwing him, he granted her the conversation she seeked.
He swallowed hard, forcing his dry throat to work. "Lucius... Lucius moonwalker," he croaked out, his voice barely louder than a whisper in the silent room.
The princess smiled even more at his response, her eyes crinkling at the corners as though she was genuinely happy that she could hear his voice.
"Lucius, its an honour to have you in the kingdom of Eldia. While you do not pass the requirement to be a hero in this world, you may still reside here, till we can send you back to your own world," she promised sweetly, her tone dripping with reassurance.
A massive, shuddering breath escaped Lucius’s lungs. "Uhm.. thank you," he stammered, the paralyzing tension slowly beginning to drain from his stiff muscles.
When compared to the horrific thought of being killed on the spot by magic and broadswords, this peaceful alternative was far more forgiving.
He felt a wave of profound relief wash over him, especially with so many hostile people currently watching his every single move.
The princess then stood up fully from her throne, her layered gown swishing elegantly over the stone floor, and faced the old king sitting beside her.
"The soldiers are clearly hostile around him, father. Please allow me take him to his quarters myself, and have a talk with him regarding his lineage," she requested smoothly, bowing her head in a display of filial piety.
The ancient king stroked his long, silver beard. He surveyed the tense faces of his royal guard and then looked back down at Lucius, his eyes filled with lingering suspicion.
The king hesitated for a while, letting the silence stretch tightly across the room once again.
"Very well. But do be careful, and take extra security with you," the king finally commanded, his deep voice leaving no room for argument.
"As you wish father," the princess replied obediently.
The princess then turned gracefully on her heel to face Lucius once more, extending a delicate hand toward one of the grand side exits of the hall.
"Please come with me," she said warmly.
Lucius did not need to be told twice.
He quickly followed behind her, flanked by four hulking knights whose armor clanked ominously with every step.
Eventually, the small procession came to a halt at the end of a particularly dark, narrow hallway.
Creek!
The heavy metal door at the end of the corridor opened slowly, the rusted hinges whining in protest against the movement.
Lucius stood hesitantly at the front of the doorway, peering past the threshold, staring blankly into the pitch-black, dark empty room.
Suddenly, a huge, incredibly thick rotten smell forcefully went through his nose, assaulting his senses. It smelled of stagnant water, decaying meat, and old blood, forcing him to immediately raise his arm and cover his nose in a desperate bid to stop the noxious smell from entering his lungs.
’Argh..’ he groaned inwardly, his stomach lurching violently as a primal alarm bell began ringing in his head.
Every instinct he possessed screamed at him to run.
He desperately wanted to take a step back, to demand answers, when entirely from nowhere, the kind and gentle princess used the hard, reinforced heels of her boots to kick him squarely in the middle of his back from behind.
The sheer force of the unexpected blow sent him airborne, causing him to tumble wildly forward into the pitch-black room.
He hit the damp, jagged stone floor hard, scraping his palms and knees. As he landed painfully on the ground, he immediately scrambled and turned around to look at her, his eyes wide with betrayal and confusion.
"..." Lucius opened his mouth to speak, but the words died in his throat.
Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the flickering torchlight of the hall, the princess sighed heavily.
Her warm, angelic smile had completely vanished, replaced by a sneer of pure, unfiltered disgust.
"Honestly, things was going so well till you arrived. Dammit," she cursed bitterly.
Lucius looked past her.
The other heavily armored guards standing behind her were no longer hiding their hostility, having the exact same disgusted, hateful look on their hardened faces.
"Just why did you have to ruin everything, what the hell even is a vampire?" she demanded angrily, glaring down at him like he was an insect that had tracked mud into her pristine castle.
Panic finally broke through Lucius’s shock.
He pushed himself up onto his knees, holding his hands out pleadingly. "I am not a vampire, i swear, this has to be some kind of mistake, i have always been human," he begged rapidly, his voice cracking with terror.
"Hey...shut your mouth," the princess pointed a sharp, accusing finger directly at his face.
She took a step closer to the threshold, looking down upon him in the dirt.
"Do you have any idea the kind of stress you’ve just put on us? We can’t have a failed species as a hero, and we cant kill you because then the other heroes will become suspicious of us. If that’s the case, then we have no choice but you let you rot in there for the betterment of your days."
"WHA-" Lucius gasped, the absolute horror of her words sinking into his bones.
She wasn’t just throwing him in a cell; she was burying him alive so the other Earth stud
ents wouldn’t ask dangerous questions.
"Oh dont worry," she interrupted him, a dark, sadistic smirk curling the edges of her lips.
"We recently locked a witch in here as well, perhaps she would kill you faster than your hunger does. In truth, i dropped you here, and you attacked me before running away, isnt that right, vampire?" she stated, perfectly crafting the vicious lie she would tell the others to justify his disappearance.
Tears of absolute despair pricked the corners of his eyes. "Please dont do this. Send me back, just send me back to my world, thats all i ask," he pleaded, his voice breaking into a pathetic sob.
The princess looked at him with dead, uncaring eyes.
"Unfortunately we can’t do that. This is your fate, so you will live by that fate and take it. Be good now," she said, her voice dripping with finality. She reached out and grabbed the heavy iron handle of the metal door.
"No wait!" Lucius screamed.
He scrambled off his knees and ran forward desperately to stop her from closing the only exit, but he never made it to the doorway.
Only a few feet away, one of the royal guards stepped in front of the princess to stretch his armored hands forward.
A complex magical circle flared to life in the guard’s palm, and with a swift motion, he sent a condensed ball of roaring fire directly his way.
The impact was devastating.
The intense flames not only melted the skin on his hands as he reflexively threw them up to protect his face, but the concussive, explosive force of the spell sent him flying backward through the air, slamming violently against the back stone wall of the dungeon.
The breath was knocked completely out of his lungs in a sickening crunch.
Before Lucius could even attempt to stand to his bleeding feet through the blinding agony, the princess had already slammed the heavy metal door shut, the complex locking mechanisms clicking loudly into place.
He lay in the darkness, struggling to breathe over the smell of his own burnt flesh, as she had began to walk away, her faint murmurs and the clanking boots of her guards echoing just outside the room until they faded into complete silence.
Groaning in pure agony, as soon as he somehow managed to stand shakily to his feet, he tried to reach out blindly in the pitch black for the door. But his legs were entirely devoid of strength. He took a single, desperate step forward, but slipped once again on a patch of wet slime coating the dungeon floor.
....
[The System has successfully chosen you.]
[Devour the body of the vampire god- Completed.]
[Complete synchronization with true vessel- completed.]
[Resurrection from death- completed.]
[All requirements have been met.]
[System can now integrate itself into host’s being.]
[Wake up!]
In the absolute darkness of the sealed dungeon room, Lucius’s red eyes widened sharply as they snapped open.