"My Lord, what shall we do?"
"We don't need to do anything, the prey has just served themselves to us on a silver platter, the spirits of the damned will devour them all!"
An angry-looking vampire lord was sitting on his throne while looking towards something that looked like a red mirror. This was not a simple mirror as it rippled whenever changing the view or angle instead, it was a vertical puddle of blood. At this very moment, they were looking at a large armada of strange flying ships that had halted their progress just outside the range of one of their protective spells.
"My lord, they have stopped, they seem to be aware of our blood magics!"
"I can see that you idiot!"
The lady vampire that was giving the vampire lord information found herself losing her head after a quick finger movement. She quickly burst into a puddle of blood that just soaked into the dark brick floor. Another lady that looked exactly the same took her place but remained silent out of fright of punishment.
"Is it that bastard?"
Valentine the leader of this vampire tribe squinted before motioning the pool of water closer. There he focused his gaze on someone that he recognized and was still furious with. The man was clearly the same person that forced him to use his rebirthing technique that took hundreds of years to prepare. Now if he died there would be no coming back like before and running away was not an option.
"If I leave, the Emperor will kill me…"
The man slammed his fist down making the hand rest crumble into dust. By pointing out toward the pool of blood an image above the whole castle came into view. He started mumbling some occult words that produced a bubbling in the moat made by many of his victims. Soon the souls that were being gathered started rising out and focusing their rage on the targets he specified.
"All these souls have been corrupted by me, even if that idiot can absorb them he will surely be tainted by my blood magic!"
All of the souls here had been infected by his own will. They would not only contaminate the soul of whoever they touched but also their body. It was like a curse that would spread from body to body and soon turn everyone into a mindless slave to his will.
"Wait, what is that?"
While he was commanding all of those souls towards the flying ships he saw the man push all the mist to the side to reveal the sun. Even though it was there it could not pierce through the barrier of darkness that was around his castle. At first, he thought that his enemy made a poor choice but soon enough he started seeing strange contraptions being put into place.
"What is their intention?"
Even though he didn't know what all of those ships were doing he didn't like it. There was something they intended to do with that sun. The souls were slowly on their way but the sun would slow them down slightly.
"Use the sacrifices! We must protect my castle!"
"As you command my lord!"
The replacement vampire woman bowed before quickly running out of this throne room. In but a moment of time screams could be heard around the whole castle. All the pools of blood started bubbling up while filling up with fresh blood from some of the prepared offerings.
Outside the castle, the moat that was reacting in a similar fashion started shooting out torrents of liquids into the sky. It was as if several geysers had erupted from five locations close to the focal points of the pentagram locations. They pushed themselves outwardly creating a large-scale shield that was meant to keep everything out.
This was in the nick of time as their enemies from the United Element Sect had completed their formation. The Golden One that they had now identified as Long Dong was shining brightly like a stare before that giant lense and even the vampire leader could feel the energy here.
"Kill more sacrifices!"
Valentine was astonished by what he was seeing and quickly ordered the slaughter. It was clear to him that his opponents were aware of their weakness, which was the sun. After more groans and shouts, the blood fountain expanded even more to produce a dark crimson barrier composed of thick blood.
Soon the ray of golden light was shot towards the giant lens in the sky. Like a huge magnifying glass the solar beam was condensed towards a large array of mirrors that were on one of the ships. Various strange symbols appeared around this ship before the beam spread out to other side vessels that pushed the beam towards the occult barrier.
The vengeful souls that had left the confinement of the castle were instantly burned up by the mix of holy and solar energies. Due to the high amount of corrupted energy in them they were only more susceptible to them than regular souls. With the evil spirits out of the way the big solar spotlight illuminated the whole vampire palace from the outside.
Thanks to the barrier created from blood the vampires on the inside could relax. All of them looked to the leader that had saved them by thinking fast and activating it before their enemies could finish their plan but something was wrong. Before they could congratulate Valentine on his quick wits they saw his facial expression, one that they didn't see often.
Recently whenever the Golden one was brought up their leader had a look of anger. Many lesser vampires were sacrificed to ease it through the weeks after the resurrection ritual took place. Yet never did they see him be scared or falter.
"M-my Lord? Are you feeling unwell?"
Asked one of the vampires as they weren't sure what that expression foreshadowed. It was a new mannerism that they were not familiar with, it was fear. Everyone expected the lackey to be instantly murdered but instead, their leader kept his eyes on the blood screen that slowly began bubbling even more.
"No, this is impossible… How can they do this to me? Where are the other tribe leaders, contact them, they must all come here to protect the fortress, the Emperor will be furious with them!"
Instead of killing the vampire that dared to speak up, he started screaming at everyone else. The vampire tribesmen started shaking as they knew that the other tribe leaders would not be coming.
"My Lord, the other tribe leaders are occupied…"
"Occupied? Those scoundrels!"
With a wave of his hand, he forcefully crushed two of the lesser vampires to add their blood to the vertical pool of blood. With the addition of their blood, it was able to show him the other tribe leaders. One of them was fighting what looked to be a man clad in golden armor while the other was fleeing from some kind of demonic creature made from fire energy.
"Useless, everyone is useless… prepare for battle, it won't hold!"
There was nothing that he could do, if he decided to flee then the Emperor would kill him. This fortress could not fall into the hands of the Golden One that proved himself to be more than just simple prey. If he managed to conquer this location then their access to this bridge here would become questionable, perhaps even the Emperor would need to move to reclaim it.
"If the Emperor is forced to move then I will be done for!"
He grabbed a crimson-colored heavy rapier from the side along with a long black cape. The moment he did he could feel the blood walls caving in on them. Soon his enemies would pierce through the defenses he thought were impenetrable…
…
'Just a bit more…'
Zhang Dong was floating up in the sky while focusing all of his holy energy on the lense. Thanks to knowing his enemy's weak point he had his blacksmiths develop this magnifying lens. It would focus the solar rays along with his holy energy and spread it out towards the enemy fortress.
To his surprise, they had some kind of strange barrier composed of blood. Luckily it was also susceptible to the solar rays and divine energy mixed inside of it. While this ray of spread-out light would not be able to crush a regular defensive barrier it was quickly dismantling this evil one.
It wasn't an easy feat though, this place was supposed to be one of the main bases. He expected a lot of resistance if he went by just brute-forcing his way in. Without his cultivation methods being the weakness of his enemies and having help from Argus and the knights there was no way of him getting in there without losing half of his own forces but now the barrier was cracking.
'Hold on a little more…'
The lens that he created could barely contain the energies it was focusing down. It would certainly not last forever and it was the same for the many mirrors that were spreading the energy out.
Suddenly he heard a strange explosion that caused a massive tidal wave. It connected with the mobile defensive formation which barely managed to hold it back. He could see some of the cultivators on the ships passing out along with others losing all spiritual energy they had in their reserves.
Almost simultaneously the lense he was focusing his energies on finally gave out. It just started melting from the center and then outwardly until there was nothing left than the golden outer shell.
'I guess we were lucky again this time around…'
He wasn't sure if he was the luckiest man alive or not. While the lens was now broken and most of the mirrors along with it, the path forward was now clear. The explosion that occurred was just the last bang before the bloody barrier collapsed before them. Yet this had also taken out the mobile protective barrier from around his armada which put all of his people in danger.
'Ten percent of the cultivators were knocked out but they are still alive…'
The people that suffered from Qi deprivation were being quickly pulled away by the medical units. No one had died yet but they would have a hard time coming back to aid them in the coming fight. On the other side, he could feel many demi-humans in that ghoulish castle.
"Everyone, this is what we were waiting for, take no prisoners! Let none of these evil creatures survive!"
"In the name of the Sect!"
"For the Patriarch!"
Everyone cheered as they descended towards the unknown fortress, their morale high as their Patriarch was with them, and with him, there was no way of losing.
'It all starts with this…'