POV: Haruki
The first story I ever heard as a child was the tale of Cain and Abel. An elder brother killing a younger out of envy, committing the first murder in human history. And here he stood before me; the father of murder, the vagabond, the kinslayer.
He was tall, no, towering. At least seven and a half feet. His skin was darkened, his hair raven-black, and his features were so perfectly symmetrical it was unsettling. My hands trembled before I could control them. He is strong, I thought. Far beyond my reach.
Cain looked upon us all with the bored disinterest of one glancing at gnats. King Tepes, Marius, Queen Carmilla, and Sorina fell to their knees, bowing with reverence.
I did not.
"You woke me," Cain said at last. His eyes rested only on me, dismissing the others as though they were less than shadows.
"Greetings, Cain,"I replied evenly. "Yes, I am the one who woke you."
"The stasis spell," he said, "was not particularly complex, but it was crafted to adapt to the energy of any who sought to break it. You overcame it with both holy and demonic power. What exactly are you, Haruki Yamashiro? A devil? A human? A vampire? An angel?" His voice remained calm, but there was something merciless in his gaze.
I blinked, and suddenly he was before me, close enough that the air seemed to press down.
"Fascinating," he murmured. "You are like Lilith. A human turned devil, yet wielding holy power as though it were your own, like Lucifer."
"How do you know my name?" I asked, more curious than unsettled.
"I am the Firstborn," he said. "I know every name of my younger siblings."
"Must be a convenient gift," I said. "Though I must admit, it is a surprise to see you here with the vampires. Does this mean the Cainite myth of the vampires is true?"
"Partially," Cain answered, his expression faintly thoughtful. "It was during the height of Babylon. I was drowning in my own weariness, lost in what you might call a 'woe is me' phase. A cult approached me. They begged my aid in forging a ritual to overcome death. I saw in it a chance to wound God, and so I helped them. I gave them the foundation. They performed it in secret, and in their folly they succeeded, becoming immortal at the cost of their humanity. I laughed when I learned of it. To me it was a triumph, proof of man's corruption, a monument of defiance against Him. The folly of the damned."
He spoke as though recounting some petty amusement. strangely, I found him less monstrous than expected. He seemed … exhausted.
"How did you end up with the vampires then?" I asked. "And earlier you said I woke you. Did you cast the stasis spell yourself?"
"Yes," Cain said.
"Why?"
"I am tired, Haruki." His voice, though steady, carried the kind of fatigue that seeped into the marrow. "So tired. It has been eons since I was cursed. A wise man once said nothing is certain in life, except death. For me, even that is denied. I was cursed to wander without end. I have been here since the beginning of the human race."
Cain's eyes lost focus as if seeing through the walls of centuries. Then he spoke, not to me, but to the void itself.
"You cannot imagine the burden of immortality. You cannot understand what it means to see everything. I have seen civilizations rise from mud huts to towers that pierced the sky. I have seen them fall back into ash and ruin, devouring themselves with the same hands that built them. I stood among kings who declared themselves gods and among beggars who died nameless in ditches. I have seen every cruelty a man can devise and every kindness swiftly buried beneath blood. I have lived through man's triumphs, his heights of art and thought, and I have seen him set it all aflame for the sake of conquest.
"I was there when Sumer dreamed of the first cities, when Akkad stamped its name into clay, when Egypt raised tombs that scraped the sky. I watched them fall. I saw Rome conquer the world, and I saw Rome burn. I saw great kingdoms built in the east, shining dynasties that spanned centuries, and I saw them torn apart by ambition and fire. I was present when men raised the cross, when they slaughtered in its name, when they proclaimed peace while drowning nations in war. And through it all, nothing has changed."
He lifted his head, his gaze cold.
"Man is a creature made for violence. That is his essence. Not peace, not harmony, not brotherhood. Those are lies told in the lull between slaughters. War is the heartbeat of our kind. We kill because we must, because without struggle we wither. It is not greed alone, nor hatred alone. It is nature. To seek. To dominate. To master. You may call it survival, justice, glory; but it is all the same. Blood upon blood, until the soil itself grows fat on it.
"My father and mother left Paradise because they could not be content," Cain went on, "It was not in their nature. They reached for what was forbidden because to be still, to accept, was death to them. That seed is in every one of you. You must struggle, you must reach, you must break. And so you kill, for what is killing but the purest act of mastery? I have seen every age, Haruki. Every faith, every empire, every philosophy, every dream of man. And I tell you: they all end the same. War consumes them. Because war is not an aberration. It is the truest expression of man."
He lowered his eyes, voice absolute.
"War was always here. Before man was, war awaited him. It is the oldest law. The only inheritance we truly hold. We worship gods, build nations, craft machines, but always you return to it. For it is your god, though you dare not call it so. Conflict is your blood, peace a lie whispered to children before sending them to die. War is not an interruption of peace, it is the state you crave. It is the only certainty.
"I once thought I could resist it. I wept at my curse. I begged for release. I raged at Him. But there is no release. Not for me. Not for mankind. You call me cursed, but truly, I am only the mirror of what we are. I have endured long enough to know that all we do, all we build leads back to conflict. It is the only constant. So I chose silence. I chose to sleep. A thousand years ago, I laid myself down, for I had seen enough. I am weary. Weary of blood and weary of futility. And yet even in my absence, war endured. It always does."
The silence grew heavy. His words lingered, suffocating.
And damn it, part of me almost agreed. For indeed, war seems etched into our marrow. My younger self might have clung to such a conclusion with religious certainty. Life feeds on life; that much is undeniable. But Cain's words suggested something darker still: not killing for sustenance, not for survival, not for gain; but killing for its own sake. A drive not for life, but for self-assertion. An endless cycle in which, even when wars end, men claw toward the next pretext to slaughter. His argument implied that conflict was not simply human nature, but the very logic of existence, that the universe itself yielded no meaning but domination. The existence of God could be an argument against this belief, yet God is dead and war is not.
The thought of it pressed down on me, suffocating in its bleakness. And yet, something in me refused. Something compelled me to speak against him.
"You are wrong, Cain," I said, my voice steady.
"Wrong?" he asked, his eyes glinting with interest. "You do not agree that war is our highest calling?"
"No," I admitted. "Though I acknowledge violence shapes the world. That cannot be denied."
"But?" he pressed, curious now.
"When have you ever seen a lion refuse to eat when hungry?" I asked.
He remained silent.
"Humans have starved themselves to death for ideals you would call petty. They have also consumed more than they could ever want or need. We are not bound by instinct. We transcend the wants and needs of our flesh daily. We carve reality into the world by sheer will. You are half right, but your view is nihilistic. You believe meaning is found in the will of what is inflicted. Like Caesar bringing meaning and shaping the world by waging war and conquering. It's undeniable, his will did shape the world. And yet, what has prevailed time and time again, even over the will of emperors? Against the inevitable? Against nature's floods, its famines, its disasters?"
The words rose within me with unexpected fire.
"The indomitable human spirit. The will to endure. No suffering that cannot be endured. No ruin that cannot be rebuilt. No pain that cannot be forgotten. No obstacle that cannot be conquered by man. In hardship, in disaster, in utter collapse, humanity has always risen again. What's left is for the ones that endured to rebuild. As humans always do. While war and conflict will always be true, humans shall always transcend. What you see is merely one truth of a much bigger picture. A nihilistic view following the logical conclusion. War is indeed eternal, but not unconquerable. We resist because it is difficult, because resistance itself is meaning. We defy the waters that drown cities, the mountains that bar our way, the void that keeps us from the stars. And yet we reached the moon. Not because survival demanded it, but because we dreamed it. That is what sets us apart.
"We are destroyers, yes. But we destroy to create. If we wish peace, then it must be forged through the monopoly of violence, mastered so completely it becomes unnecessary. Perhaps it will take millennia. Perhaps longer. But that is the trajectory. That is the greater truth your logic ignores. War endures. But so does man. And man transcends."
Cain chuckled, and then laughed. It grew into hysterical laughter, until tears welled in his eyes.
"So your answer to my lament is simply 'we will endure nonetheless'?" he said, his voice alive. "To think I would hear those words again."
"Those words? What do you mean?" I asked.
"My father said those words to me," he said.
"Your father.. You mean the first human, Adam?" I was amazed.
"Who else?" he said laughingly. "Back when the world was young and we were innocent. I do not recall what but we faced a grave hardship. It was so difficult in fact even father and mother quarreled. My father then took me to explore, to get fresh to calm our mind he said. It was one of his favorite things. Exploring the world, we rarely stayed at one place for too long. We traveled the world and saw the beauty within it. He would often jest that if mother hadn't eaten the apple first, he would have done it out of curiosity. And he is right, he is not one to be content with one thing, he constantly seeks challenges and new things, new things to study, to learn, to see, to create. We liked doing that too, my siblings and I. We often traveled with him and mother," he spoke fondly, and it occurred to me that he probably misses his family dearly.
"In any case, we took this journey to get a fresh perspective, it was only me and him. I said to him then, 'if we had been Eden. This wouldn't have happened' and he agreed. Then I asked if leaving paradise was worth it and if he would have done it again if given the chance. And he answered, 'everytime'. I told him that we will suffer, that hardship would be our lot forever. He answered, 'we will endure nonetheless'," said Cain.
There was mirth in his eyes as if he were remembering something precious.
"Many years later, when age had withered him and his body was little more than a cage, I sat at his bedside. His sight was dim, his hands weak, yet the moment he turned to me, I saw the spark of recognition. I had not changed, but he had, frail, shrunken, nearing the end. I asked him then, as I had when I was a boy, whether freedom had been worth the price. Whether, if given the chance, he would have chosen differently. He laughed, though it was a weak, rasping sound, and said: 'Freedom is worth all sorrow. Freedom is worth all toil. If pain is our portion, then let it be so. For I would choose freedom always, even unto death'," reminisced Cain.
Cain's voice softened. "I often wondered if he would answer the same if he saw what I have seen. But your words answered me."
There was silence.
"Do you know how God died?" I asked suddenly. Someone as old as him might know.
"How He died? There are two reasons," Cain said. "Do you know of the emperor beast of the apocalypse?"
"The beast mentioned in the book of Revelation?" I asked.
"The very same. It is called Trihexa. During the great war it had awoken for a bit, it would have destroyed everything had it done so, but God found it before it could fully awake and he sealed it. But it had weakened him greatly, to seal being as powerful as Trihexa," said Cain.
"How powerful was it?" I was curious.
"Equal to the dragon of dreams, the mightiest being in existence," he said, and I felt goosebumps upon hearing the name.
"What was the second reason? The Satans?" I asked.
He chuckled. "The Satans would never have been able to defeat God even at his weakest. No, the second reason is something else. However if I were to tell you right now, you would go insane. Become at least Satan-class and I will tell you," he said.
I was curious but I had other concerns to deal with at the moment. The sub-dimension we were at was rumbling. It seemed it was collapsing in itself.
"Can I ask for your help?" I said.
"It depends. What do you need from me?" He asked.
"The vampire dimension was isolated from the world with this artifact," I said, holding up the Shears of the Firstborn.
"The Shears of the Firstborn. Interesting. Why did the vampires separate their realm?" he asked.
"They offended strong individuals," I said, and briefly explained the Hero Faction.
"I see. So what do you want from me? The ritual used me as sustenance, but you broke that by waking me," Cain said.
"There are humans imprisoned all over the dimension, kept as cattle for these vampires. I want to free them all. Can you create multiple portals that connect this dimension with the human world and allow the humans to get out of here?" I asked carefully. Cain is not a vampire so I doubted he would care for them, however he could as easily say he doesn't care about the humans.
"I suppose I owe you, for waking me as I was getting used by these vampires. Consider it as me paying my debt," he said and disappeared.
I was a bit relieved that he would help. I put the Shears of the First Born in my shadow. The place had started to shake.
"Take us out of here," I commanded the queen and the king. The king obeyed but Carmilla tried to protest, but a light spear convinced easily. Since I had cut both the queen and Sorina's feet and hands, they used their wings to fly. A door appeared and we walked out.
I appeared in what seemed to be a forest just outside the capital. I narrowed my eyes at the queen.
"Why are we here?" I asked. We should be in the royal castle. Since the king was still under my control, it must have been the queen who decided to manifest the door here. And since I only said to take us out of the dimension, the king didn't alert me of it.
The queen laughed, wicked and sharp.
"Haruki Yamashiro, was it? Did you think I would follow your orders meekly?" Her voice dripped with sadism.
I heard them before I saw them: the shuffling of boots, the beating of wings. Within seconds the forest was choked with vampires. The air stank of blood and arrogance.
"I contacted the soldiers while you were talking with Lord Cain," she said, her voice triumphant. "You dismissed me. A foolish decision. Your arrogance will be your undoing."
The king and Marius moved to stand as if to guard me, but the queen continued, her eyes glinting with venom.
"You have somehow enslaved the king and his son, that is high treason. You are a devil who could use holy light, just like Lucifer once. I will dissect you and find out your secret," she sneered. "Give up now, you are surrounded," she said.
I looked at the many vampires surrounding me. There were at least two thousand, some flying, some on the ground. Perfect.
I looked amused at the queen.
"All I am surrounded by is dead parasites," I said and took out an artifact from my shadow. The Fragment of the Ark of the Covenant. It was gifted to me by Lavinia and it would be put to perfect use now.
The queen's eyes narrowed.
"Kill him," she shouted.
Too late.
As they charged towards me, I activated the artifact.
The fragment pulsed in my hand, its surface veined with cracks of radiant light, as though a storm had been caged within stone. The moment my will touched it, the world itself seemed to shudder. The air grew impossibly heavy, charged, suffocating, before splitting open with a sound that was neither thunder nor explosion but something far older, a verdict cast from the heavens.
The first bolt fell like a hammer of judgment, striking the earth with blinding purity. Then came another, and another, until the sky was nothing but white fire, a lattice of divine lightning that tore through flesh, wings, and shadow alike. Screams rose only to be drowned by the next peal, cut short as bodies dissolved into ash. The storm spared nothing that was impure. Every vampire was annihilated where they stood, their forms unmade in an instant too swift to even comprehend.
The queen's voice, once dripping with mockery, broke into a shriek as the light devoured her. Her flesh blackened, her crown melted, her body twisted into nothing but cinders scattered on the wind. Even the king and his son, loyal in their chains, were not spared. The judgment of heaven had no patience for slaves. Their forms collapsed in silence, gone before they could even fall.
When the last echoes faded, silence reigned. The air was clear, the stench of blood erased, the ground scorched clean as though the hand of God had swept it bare. Not a single vampire remained.
Only I stood untouched at the center of the storm.
I closed my hand, and the fragment's light dimmed once more, its hunger sated for the day. Then I waited, a storm of pain assaulted my body and mind. It was far worse than when I ascended into high-class. No, not even comparable. But I endured all the same.
After what felt like an eternity of pain, my demonic energy began to rise. Doubling. Tripling. By now my disguise as Dorian Thornevald had shattered. Still the energy rose, faster and faster, until it was twelve times greater than before. The pain stopped. I laughed. The euphoria was pure, sharp.
"I am an ultimate class devil now," I said.
Sacrificing those thousands of vampires, many of them high-class, was a suitable price for the sacrementum. But there are still many things to do. No rest for the wicked.
I unfurled my devil wings and took to the air. My first destination was Valerie. I had hidden her in the forest. She was still asleep under my spell when I arrived. I woke her gently. Her eyes opened, and she quickly became aware of her surroundings.
"Where… are…?" she asked hesitantly.
"Somewhere far from the capital. But we must go now," I told her.
She did not argue, only nodded with determination. I carried her in my arms and flew toward my second destination.
The castle of House Thornevald. I descended directly to the aquarium where Ariel was imprisoned. I looked over the pool, the glassy surface shifting faintly in the dim light, and whistled as Dorian once did. Movement stirred. Then she surfaced. Ariel.
Valerie looked astonished. A mermaid, real and alive. Ariel, on the other hand, looked at me with confusion and wariness.
"W-who are you?" she asked, trying to sound brave.
"Come on, Ariel. You know who I am," I said softly. I let my demonic power bleed outward, showing her the truth.
She froze, stunned. Then she realized.
"You are master Dorian," she said.
"No. He is long dead. Surely you know Dorian would never treat you kindly as I have," I said calmly.
Her face collapsed in shock. "Master Dorian is dead. Then what will become of me? Am I to die as well?" She began to hyperventilate.
"Enough," I commanded. "You are not Dorian's pet or property. You do not need him to live," I said.
She looked confused.
"You are free, Ariel. That monster is dead. You are free to go. I suggest you escape now," I said.
"B-but I do not have anywhere else to go. My f-family are all dead. Where am I to go?" she said, trembling, crying.
"There are other mermaids. Your own people. You are not alone," I told her. She calmed faster than most would. Proof of how much work I had done to untangle the identity Dorian had crushed within her.
"My people? No, no, I cannot. I cannot go to them after what I have done. I, who murdered her own family. I cannot," she cried.
"Then go anywhere else but here. Because if you stay, you will be hurt again. Go to the ocean. Or the human world. Anywhere but here," I said softly.
"No, no. They will know. They will know that I am nothing but a monster who killed her family. No, no… sob… sob…"
She thinks everyone will just know what she has done. As if people carry detectors in their heads that announce sins. Likely another of Dorian's poisons planted in her mind.
I sighed. "Then do you truly wish to stay here?" I asked.
She shook her head violently.
"Then come with us. I am going to explore the world and be free as well. Do you want to do it together with me?" Valerie spoke gently, her voice kind.
I turned to her, curious.
"Really? Can I really do that? You will take me with you, even knowing what I have done?" Ariel's eyes welled with tears.
"You were forced to kill your family. You would have died otherwise," I said calmly. "Do you wish to come with us?" I asked again to be certain.
"Yes. Yes. Even if you were only pretending to be master Dorian, you were truly kind to me. I wish to thank you for making me happy. If you would allow me to serve, I would be immensely happy, master," she said sincerely.
"I have no need of a servant. If you are to come with me, then do so of your own will. Not because you think you owe me," I said firmly.
"Master is kind. But it is my will to serve you," she whispered.
I was annoyed at that. But there was no time to argue.
"Very well. Come with us. Can you take on a human form?" I asked.
"Yes, master. Though not for a long time." She climbed from the water slowly. Her fish half shifted, bone and flesh reshaping, until long, soft human legs stood where scales had been. She was completely naked. I summoned one of my shirts and gave it to her. It covered her down to her thighs. I had no women's clothing to offer.
"How long can you stay in that form?" I asked.
"For twelve hours, master," she answered eagerly.
"Good. Also, do not call me master. Call me Haruki," I said, then swept up both Valerie and Ariel in my arms and carried them into the sky.
The air hummed with power. I could feel it clearly. Thirty sites across the dimension, each a concentration of immense energy.
I flew to the nearest. Within a minute I arrived.
A portal loomed before me. A gate of staggering size, a hundred meters across and fifty meters high, anchored into the ground as though the earth itself had been forced to yield. Its surface shimmered purple, the color restless, alive. Below, humans poured through it in a ceaseless tide, desperate to escape the vampire dimension.
I felt a presence at my side.
"You kept your word," I said, pleased.
"I always do," said Cain. His eyes passed over the humans with cool disinterest before turning to me. "You have gotten stronger," he observed.
"I have," I replied.
"Interesting," he said. "In any case, I have created thirty other similar gates at different points. They should be large and stable enough to transport all the humans here. I have also broken most of the so-called human farms. I have fulfilled my end of the deal. The rest is up to you."
"Yes. Thank you for your help," I said sincerely.
He nodded once and vanished.
The vampires were coming. I felt them, dozens, hundreds, racing toward the gates to reclaim their livestock.
I will not allow it.
I set Valerie and Ariel down and cast a barrier around them. "Stay here," I ordered, then turned toward the approaching horde.
A few hundred vampires. To me now, they might as well be insects.
I snapped my fingers. Spears of light erupted in their chests. They disintegrated into ash before they could even scream.
With my speed and strength greater than ever, I moved from portal to portal, striking down every vampire in my path, ensuring the humans escaped.
But halfway through, a premonition gripped me. A chill cut through my spine.
I sharpened my senses.
Four gates to my right, figures were crossing through the portal. I knew the man leading them.
Cao Cao. The Hero Faction had arrived. Exactly as I feared.
I could not hear what they said, a silencing spell cloaked them. But their presence was good. They would aid the humans' escape.
So I returned to Valerie and Ariel.
"Are you finished, master?" Ariel asked.
But I was too distracted to answer her. My eyes caught movement, Cao Cao standing tall, his spear held before him as though it were a conductor's baton commanding the very air. His voice rang out, amplified not by sound but by presence, every word carrying the weight of inevitability.
"To all the humans bound in this prison," he proclaimed, his voice deep, unwavering, like the echo of the heavens themselves, "hear me! Rejoice, for your sufferings have ended. The chains that have bound your flesh, the darkness that has smothered your souls, are shattered this day! Rise from your oppression! Cast aside the bonds of your tormentors and run, run to the portal, to freedom, to life reclaimed!"
He paused, and the air itself seemed to bend to his will, humming with righteous authority. Then he spoke again.
"And to all vampires who have feasted upon the misery of man, who have dwelt in cruelty and thrived upon blood and fear, know this: judgment has come! The wrath of those you have oppressed rises against you, and none shall shield you from it. You will fall before the light of justice, before the force of those you sought to enslave. There is no refuge, there is no mercy, and there shall be no tomorrow for you!"
He lifted his spear toward the crimson moon. His next words were soft, yet the entire dimension heard them.
"Let there be light."
And there was light, brilliant and blinding, that swept the entirety of the dimension. I could see vampires burning from it, screaming as they died.
"When should we start to kill the vampires?" said a green-haired boy standing near Cao Cao.
"Not yet Leonardo, we must get all the humans to safety first. Have you stationed your creatures in each of the portals?" asked Cao Cao.
Leonardo nodded. So that must be the wielder of the Annihilation Maker.
"Now let me concentrate. I can use the true idea of the True Longinus to perform miracles," said Cao Cao. He closed his eyes as if in meditation.
I flew once more to my destination, with Valeri and Ariel by my side. I remembered Casmir's party, where he introduced his so-called new humans. My guts tell me to check upon them. And my gut feeling has gotten borderline premonition-like ever since I awakened holy power, as if it were telling me things. That is why I trusted Lavina and am wary of Le Fay.
I flew to the territory of House Vladi, to Casmir's castle. I arrived at his castle and I saw vampires there hiding from the light. Before they could react I slayed almost all of them, leaving only a couple alive.
"Take me to Casmir's human farm," I commanded.
They obeyed in silence, too terrified to question me.
The descent was long, a spiral of damp stone stairs leading deeper and deeper into the earth, until the air grew stale and heavy. When the iron doors opened, the stench struck me first. Not blood, but rot, sweat, and the sour stink of too many bodies crammed together.
It was an underground maze, vast and cavernous, its walls reinforced with steel and wards. And within it, humanity was reduced to livestock. Fifteen thousand men, women, and children filled the pens. The place was laid out in endless rows of cramped enclosures, cages no bigger than stalls. Each human was allotted barely enough space to sit or curl up. No privacy, no possessions, no dignity.
Feeding troughs lined the cages, enchanted pipes dribbling foul nutrient paste at set intervals. The humans crowded around them, swallowing mechanically, their movements dull and slow, like cattle conditioned to routine. Filth pooled beneath grates in the floor; the air buzzed with the hum of magical filters that never fully cleansed the stench.
The design was cruel in its efficiency. Every inch of the farm was meant to maximize yield, more bodies per square, less wasted space, less wasted food. They were herded, tagged, and numbered. Some were bred deliberately, their children taken from them and raised in separate pens, stripped of family, of memory, of even the concept of freedom. Rebellion had long ago been bred out of them; their eyes were glassy, hollow, uncomprehending. They did not look at me as a man would look at another man. They looked at me as beasts do, too broken to even hope.
Overseers patrolled the corridors, vampires with whips, rods, and sigils branded into their flesh as marks of authority. I saw one strike a boy across the face for moving too slowly. Another dragged a woman by the hair to a breeding chamber. Their cruelty was not rage. It was a habit. Cold, rehearsed, systematic.
My blood boiled. Children reduced to chattel. Women herded like broodmares. Men broken into docile drones. The insult of it, the desecration of what it meant to be human, burned hotter than any flame.
I did not hesitate. With a flick of will, I tore through the overseers. Their bodies fell in silence before the humans even registered what had happened. Screams broke out then, raw and frantic, not from joy or understanding, but from terror.
The farm erupted in chaos.
I released my holy aura, it has a calming and peaceful effect on people. They stopped their panic and stared at me in awe and reverence.
"Listen, you are all humans, not cattle to these parasites. You are free from now on. Leave this place and escape your captivity," I said.
But I saw their eyes looking uncomprehending. They probably did not understand the meaning of the words. So I turned them into simple commands.
"Get out of here. Leave," I commanded, and conveyed my intent to their minds through magic.
They understood and they started to move. I told Ariel to lead them out of here. They followed her. It took a long time. I used my powers to take hundreds at a time too, lifting them up with holy power. It took us thirty minutes to get the fifteen thousand humans out of the underground maze, and as soon as we were finished I felt a huge surge of holy power in the sky. My eyes rose at once. Cao Cao was preparing for something.
Dots of light shimmered everywhere in the dimension, enveloping the scattered humans. Even the ones I had freed were wrapped in it. Then the lights vanished.
I understood. He had performed a miracle, teleportation on a scale no sorcerer alive could rival. Nearly nine million humans torn out of captivity and carried into safety through the portals.
However, the fifteen thousand I had personally dragged out of Casmir's farm remained behind. They were not teleported. Could it be there was a limit? According to my estimation, there are almost nine million humans imprisoned here. Could it be that they were too much to teleport? Yet the pit in my gut told me otherwise.
I extended my senses. Nothing. No other humans remained anywhere in the dimension. The only ones left were the ones here.
So. Not a failure of power. A choice.
Cao Cao had deliberately left them behind.
But why?
"Move!" I commanded. "March to the portals."
The humans started to frantically run toward the portal. I looked from the sky, making sure they could get to safety.
Then Cao Cao's voice rolled across the heavens: "All the humans are brought to safety now. Slay all the vampires in the dimension."
What?
This bastard. What of the humans still running, the ones below me? They are not safe at all.
I cannot approach him directly. He would kill me outright.
I created a clone. It should not be this easy, but demonic energy answers to feeling and I am pretty desperate right now.
I saw countless light spears fall from the sky. They would strike everything. I looked down at the humans, trying to reach the portal. They will be slaughtered, I realized. Cao Cao, why are you doing this?
I raised a barrier woven from both holy and demonic energy, intercepting as many of the spears as I could, at least those aimed at the people beneath me. Meanwhile, my clone flew toward Cao Cao at maximum speed. He reached him within seconds.
"Cao Cao, what the hell are you doing? There are still humans down there!" my clone shouted.
He looked at me first in surprise, then with recognition. His lips curled. "I see. So it was you who broke the dimension isolation. You have my thanks for that." He sneered.
"Cut the bullshit. Why didn't you teleport those humans?" my clone snapped.
"Watch your tone, boy. But since I am in a good mood, I will humor you, devil." His voice dripped with disdain. "Those things are not humans. Do not let their appearance deceive you. They were bred to be food, nothing more. No intelligence. No spirit. Hardly different from livestock."
He said it as though it were obvious, beneath even discussion. "They are a disease. A poison meant to weaken mankind. I will not let them sully the human race."
"Death to those who defile mankind," I said, my voice low with fury. "Were those not your oaths? Yet you would slaughter them yourself."
"You understand nothing," he replied coldly. "They are needless baggage. I will grant them the release of death."
His spear stretched suddenly, faster than my clone could move. It pierced my chest, and the clone dissolved into ash.
"Kill all those non-humans," he commanded.
The hero faction descended like carrion crows, shadow beasts and armored men alike, falling upon the remaining vampires, the dhampirs, and Casmir's new breed of humans.
I could halt the spears raining from the sky, but I could not stop the humans who now slaughtered the others. I had believed the Hero Faction, who called themselves protectors of humanity, would save them. Only when I saw their blades fall did I realize, too late, that only the Hero Faction decides what constitutes a human.
I began to laugh hysterically. I looked down and saw fifteen humans butchered by their fellow men for not being human enough, denied even recognition as their own kind. And I laughed. I laughed until my throat burned.
It was all so hysterically absurd.
I flew away, Valerie and Ariel with me, heading toward the capital.
By the time I arrived, the city was already burning. Vampires writhed in the streets, slain by light or by steel. I ignored them and went deeper, to the heart of the royal castle. Amidst the flames, I found her.
Elmenhilde, crouched behind a statue, trembling as her world collapsed.
I landed behind her and pulled her out of the inferno. My demonic magic shielded her from the light's effects. When I stopped far into the forest, she looked at me with fear, only then realizing she was no longer in the castle.
I had been too fast for her to notice.
"Are you okay, Elme?" I asked softly.
Realization struck her. "Lord Dorian…?" she whispered.
"Call me Haruki. That was only an alias," I said. "You understand, don't you?"
She nodded, her head moving fiercely.
"The hero faction intends to wipe out every vampire. I will not give them that satisfaction. Will you come with me, even knowing I am not one of your kind?" I asked, my tone even, detached.
The truth is, I am not doing this out of goodness. This was spite. A deliberate defiance against Cao Cao and his self-righteous crusade.
Elmenhilde clasped her hands, desperate.
"Yes, yes," she said frantically. "I will serve you eternally. Please save me again as you once did, master. I do not care that you are not a vampire. I will serve you."
I nodded. I placed her with Valerie and Ariel, wards and protections cast around them. There were still others I wanted to save.
I returned to the capital. Another clone split from me and I sent him toward my other target. Two clones were my limit.
I myself went to the castle. To Liliane.
I found her drenched in blood, striking down a human of the hero faction. She turned to me as I approached, her face hard, her movements brutal.
"Liliane," I called, my voice calm amidst the chaos.
She turned, confused, then realized as my demonic power allowed her to see the truth.
"You…? Dorian… all this time. You were only deceiving us… me?" Tears welled in her eyes.
I felt the weight of her gaze. I felt guilty. I felt sorry for her.
"I am sorry, Liliane. But there is still hope for you. Come with me, or you will die here."
Her voice hardened.
"Tell me, were you the one who killed Marius? And my father?" Her voice was cold.
"Yes," I answered, unflinching.
"How could you? I trusted you," she cried. "Was anything even real? Or did you scheme from the beginning to destroy my people?"
I did not answer.
"I killed my husband for you," she wailed, "orchestrated his family's death for you, all for the sake of our dream. For a lie. You never intended for those dreams to come true, did you?" Her voice cracked between laughter and despair.
I looked at her impassively.
"Go away," she said finally, her voice breaking. Tears streaked down her cheeks. "I do not want to see you ever again. How cruel you are, Dorian, to use one who loved you so dearly. Go away!"
I obliged her. I flew out of the castle. I looked back and saw Liliane throw herself into the fire, crying.
I returned to the forest. Valerie, Ariel, and Elmenhilde waited. To my surprise, Selvara and Vaelith were there as well.
When I arrived, my clone vanished. I looked at the sisters curiously.
Selvara spoke first. "We suspected from the beginning that you were an impostor, that you were not our brother. Yet you were more of a brother to us than Dorian ever was. So we agreed to come with you and live. Your clone gave us that chance, and we accepted."
Vaelith added carefully, "Your clone promised us you would not mistreat us. That you would grant us freedom if we desired it."
I nodded.
I took Valerie with one arm, Ariel with the other. "Take each other's hands," I commanded.
I coated them all in demonic energy, weaving my teleportation circle beneath us.
The dimension collapsed behind us as I activated the spell.
We vanished.
AN: So, the vampire arc is finally wrapped up and, well, the vampires got absolutely massacred. Haruki's now reached the level of an ultimate-class entity, but even with that power he still couldn't save the humans. That's one more reason added to his growing hatred for the Hero Faction.
I find Haruki's answer to Cain's aruguments hailrous. It is basically, "fuck it, we ball"
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