The landscapes arrayed outside the window's bounds was like another world to Lilith. Lights dancing around like spirits, buildings so large their imposing presence washed over her in waves and the sky… Oh the sky. She looked up in mute awe, staring at the magical blue expanse.
It was a mix of colours she'd never experienced. Blue, orange, white. They all blended together seamlessly like the layers of a cake had been squashed together. The sight felt just as sweet as that cake would've been and Lilith was savouring it.
She didn't have long. She could hear the clunking of metal all around her. She could hear their heartbeats jump every time Lilith moved. She could even hear the shouts from Wyatt. Shouts that were slowly turning to a growl every moment that passed and Lilith knew she didn't want to be here when he regained himself.
She couldn't help but stare however. The world was so beautiful. She was so beautiful. Observing the world like this would be so much more fun. If she was right, Lilith now had all the time in the world for just that. Once she left here of course.
Lilith pushed herself off the floor finding it surprising that there was no pool of blood beneath her to slip on. She also couldn't hear her siblings. Whether they escaped or were killed she didn't know yet. She didn't have the time to focus her hearing in the palace to detect where Nadia and the twins were.
Lilith scratched her palm with her nails. She wanted to check something. She proceeded to watch with fascination as her palm barely oozed out a sliver of blood after being cut. Then she blinked. That was all it took as the wound disappeared before she could even see how it was regenerating. The small droplet of blood remained on her palm.
It was black but not yet forming a layer around itself. Her body was most certainly dead and likely still within the pallor mortis stage of death. Would it remain that way? She had some means of resisting rot but was that the rot of her own body or the affect of corruption magic? Perhaps both.
Looking over to Wyatt Lilith saw him hunched over. It appeared his transformation was significantly more painful than her own. He deserved it. Lilith felt a sense of superiority over him for this fact and despite never being interested before, now she felt that was a good thing.
Deciding it was time she escaped she turned to the guards. Their heartbeats all raised a notch when she looked in their direction. They were fast before. Now however they were beating a constant rhythm in Lilith's ears in a desperate tone. She smiled forcing her dead lips upwards.
That was the correct reaction to a predator. To a progenitor. The beginning of an entire species and their very apex. 'Wait what?' Lilith thought as the world slowed around her. She didn't recognised that line of thought nor that information. It was a fascinating discovery. Something else to investigate later.
She quickly calmed and the world re-started again. 'Thought acceleration.' Lilith mused examining the guards. Their faces were nearly as pale as her own and held a mix of confusion and fear as they looked between her and Wyatt.
Lilith's mind exclaimed two things at once. 'Prey' came the first instinctual voice. Her second more calm and rational voice stated 'Test subjects' in a cold tone. They both seemed to merge and come to an agreement. 'Prey, then test subjects.'
They all seemed young and the majority were male. Smelling the air instinctually Lilith detected a number of scents from them. She designated them by those scents. The first guard now named spicy pork was the first to react.
"She just recovered. We simply have to kill her again! Do not be afraid! Charge for His Highness!" Shouted spicy pork before practising what he preached.
"Wait captain! Don't you see this Status thi-" Warned another guard but it was too late. The man had reached Lilith faster than most normal humans could replicate. He had the strength of an athlete and his sprint may have broken records.
Yet Lilith felt his approach was slow. She watched with slight boredom as the metal toothpick came towards her at a snail's pace. She could dodge but did she need to? No she would demonstrate her dominance over these lesser beings.
The sword hit Lilith's skin with all the force this guard could muster. He felt it dig into Lilith's flesh. Her right arm now had a small cut barely deep enough to be considered one. It didn't even draw out a drop of blood. The guard didn't notice it heal in milliseconds.
Lilith turned her eyes to her nails casually examining them while the guard stood there stunned. He stood there in a moment of confusion. Upon seeing he was starting to regain his senses Lilith intervened. "That's not how you greet a progenitor. Kneel." she commanded turning to look him in the eyes.
"Of course boss." He said his voice dull and emotionless. He placed his sword down by his side and knelt down in front of her. It brought a satisfaction to Lilith that she found somewhat alien. She had never abused her royal status before and she never much cared that she didn't have servants. Now, she found herself somehow offended by the very idea.
The guards looked on stunned as their captain was reduced to a puppet in front of the strange dead woman. Lilith ignored their stares. She turned to the captain turned puppet and mumbled. "Hmm prey or test subject first." Weighing the decision in her mind.
"I do not believe I was a fan of spicy foods before now. That belief would likely not change. In which case." Lilith spoke aloud to herself. With no more hesitation she bit down on the man's neck and injected venom through her fangs.
She watched as best she could from the angle she had to situate herself. She could see the man's skin quickly drain of colour and his body seemed to get colder. She could see the blood pooling in the leg outstretched behind him as his transformation completed itself. Soon Lilith felt the compulsion to stop.
She looked over her creation with the curiosity of a scientist observing a lab rat. His eyes flashed the same glowing red as her own before fading back to the captain's green. His mouth opened and fangs extended. A guttural sounding roar escaped from his throat and he turned back to his former squad mates with fangs bared and bloodlust radiating from every pore.
All the guards gulped and took a step back while Lilith smiled. "Truly interesting." She mused. She didn't stop him. Lilith simply watched as her newest progeny charged his previous squad mates with feral abandon. 'Is this reaction what I think it is?' Lilith asked herself.
"To arms! That isn't the captain any more. It's a monster!" The guard who spoke from before shouted. He turned his eyes to Wyatt upon saying the word monster though. He quickly averted his eyes. It reminded Lilith of his existence.
The guards pulled out their swords and readied them. Lilith counted them languidly from behind her new spawn. '9 ordinary humans versus one of my creations. Who will win? A fascinating experiment.' Unfortunately Lilith didn't have the time to watch it play out. She had to leave soon.
Lilith had many means of escaping the palace now at her disposal. The problem was the current situation. It was entirely unknown to her and Lilith was hardly arrogant enough to believe she was the only 'special' person who got new abilities. Though she was certain there was no other progenitor. Perhaps that made her special in a way.
She attempted to use one of her other abilities she'd recently learned and found that they came instinctively to her. She started to separate into a swarm of bats. Apparently the only thing her instincts would tell her was how to activate the ability however. Lilith found her consciousness fractured.
Every bat had a small part of herself both mind and body. Lilith couldn't keep a single train of thought. She couldn't even have thoughts as she had come to know them. Splitting herself up made that impossible. The small pieces of her consciousness in each bat didn't have enough of a 'brain' to think about complex matters such as escape or make any sort of decision.
Lilith reformed and her thoughts were back on track once more. She could see through the eyes of each bat, feel through their senses. Yet she didn't have the same sensory range as when she was in her original body and she didn't have the mental bandwidth to think about any of the information she gained. It simply registered as 'noise' or 'light'.
It appeared she would have to make decisions of concrete actions before becoming a bat swarm. The ability she would really need however was the mist. Lilith took a curious glance at the fight between her newest progeny and the human guards. It was fascinating.
Her progeny was lunging at each guard and trying to sink it's fangs into their necks. It's nails had morphed into thick black claws. They seemed more like blunt weapons than anything meant to stab someone with the amount of weight and girth they seemed to carry. He used them as such.
A guard placed a sword in front of his face to try and block the rampaging man. It didn't help. Her progeny swung it's massive claws at the sword and it shattered like glass. The guard wasn't surprised. Her progeny tried to lunge at him but another guard stabbed him in the neck from the side. Right through a gap in his armour.
"I got him!" The guard cheered certain of his victory. Lilith scoffed and she was right to. Her progeny pulled the sword out of him and snapped it like a twig before diving for the guard's neck. The others were too surprised to do anything. He chomped down hard and blood flowed down his throat.
As it did, he seemed to slowly regain himself. By the time his former comrade was a dessicated corpse the man had fully regained his senses. "What? Where's the princess? What am I doing here?" He seemed confused and Lilith mentally noted this fact.
Unfortunately she couldn't leave him for others to study. He had to die or come with her. She didn't trust this man as he had just attempted to come with her. Unfortunately for him, regaining his senses wasn't going to help much.
"Captain! Are you back?! What did that woman do to you!" Shouted one of the guards. The captain looked at himself confused and noticed the blood on his neck. He also seemed to notice it around his mouth.
"What did I… What am I?!" He practically screamed. 'Where's that brave facade?' Lilith thought dryly. He was perfectly capable of attacking a dead woman walking but when he becomes one himself that makes him scared.
Lilith started the instinctual process of turning into mist as she commanded "Fight Wyatt's men until your last breath." The moment her words resounded throughout the room Lilith dissipated into a blood red mist. While Lilith figured out this new form her progeny obeyed her orders.
"Yes mistress!" He said eagerly and his claws once again grew back. He charged at his former comrades and now that he was conscious, a bloodbath ensued. Lilith was too pre-occupied to notice or care however.
In this state her consciousness wasn't as divided but also seemed thinner. It felt akin to a lucid dream. Lilith was very familiar with the feeling as she had lucid dreams every time she went to sleep since she was 10. Every thought flowed to the next. She could only guide the ebs and flows like switching train tracks and couldn't concentrate her mind on one subject for too long.
Images of escaping the castle passed through her mind. Images of Wyatt in their childhood. A scene of Wyatt and Lilith escaping the castle together came for some reason. Lilith felt a wall was in front of her. She continued through it as though it didn't exist and continued to do so. Walking through wall after wall.
Every time she walked through a wall her thoughts felt like they were getting away from her. She dragged them back in. Then everything felt right again and she continued to process her dream-like state. Yet every wall was the same. Lilith attempted to consciously hold her thoughts together as she walked through one of the walls and this time she felt the tug but they did not leave.
The scenes around her were chaotic and Lilith only had a moment to process them before moving on. A maid punched through a wall while laughing. Two older guards fighting a group of the younger ones. Wyatt's men. An image of Wyatt nipping at their heels. Lilith laughed internally but her mist form did not have lungs.
'More organised thoughts mean denser mist. Thoughts escaping mean mist dissipates. Must maintain organised thoughts. Exit soon.' While Lilith was starting to figure this out a number of thoughts were suddenly released from her grasp. She saw something metal go through her. The speed of the big metal obstruction was far faster than she had run into those walls and Lilith couldn't maintain some of her thoughts.
They vanished into the ether and Lilith felt like her mind cracked a bit. She reformed to check the disturbance. As her body returned she noticed several changes after returning from her mist form. Having solid thoughts made identifying problems easier. To start with her entire torso was missing and she was only held together by what looked like a few flimsy tendons.
The person holding his sword as though she just swung it in front of her seemed shocked. She was wearing a scullery maid's uniform. Her face was covered in blood and she was wearing a smile with wide and bloodshot eyes. Around her were a number of guards' corpses. All hacked to pieces and only some of them being recognisable because their heads were still intact. More of Wyatt's men.
"Hehe I'm really strong. I didn't think I'd hit the mist so hard it became a person. Hi I'm Claire!" She cheerily greeted completely ignoring the fact that Lilith's entire torso was missing. To be fair Lilith didn't care much either. She watched as the bones, skin and tendons regrew first before replacing her internal organs as though they were just extra bits she didn't need.
Lilith calmly observed the entire process and counted how long it took. She also noted the lack of pain she was currently experiencing in a manner similar to the blanket over everything she touched. She felt small amounts of pain. Mostly however she felt that tingling sensation that had accompanied her since awakening in the audience room.
The regeneration took several seconds and Lilith noted the time. A small cut would take less than a second but it appeared losing her entire torso took a significantly longer time to regenerate. 'Now what to do with her?' Lilith wondered looking at her attacker.
The girl's uniform was in tatters yet she didn't have a single wound on her. Those were definitely sword marks. She seemed incredibly durable and she was holding the large metal sword in one hand like it was made of hollow wood.
Her face was freckled and her hair was brown and scraggly. Her eyes were a deep brown and the lines of blood pumping through them made them no less ordinary. She seemed like she hadn't got enough sleep rather than having become a psychopath over night.
Her frame wasn't muscled. It wasn't thin like Lilith's either but there was no way she had enough power in her frame to do what she was currently doing. Her stance was sloppy and amateurish too. She wasn't getting by on technique but brute force and her body didn't look like it was built for it.
"My name is Lilith I suppose and you just removed my torso. I am not particularly bothered but I do admit to finding the experience unpleasant. Your frame does not match your strength young maid." Lilith said cautiously. This woman clearly gained abilities as she did. The question was how many and what did they do. Perhaps Lilith could recruit her.
"Not any more! I'm a berserker or something now apparently. I mean can you imagine some robotic sounding text telling you that you're something like a berserker?! I'm just some country girl! Why couldn't my job here be simple! Ahhah" Claire laughed seeming utterly deranged. She smacked her sword into the wall and the wall crumbled with a loud bang.
"You're not gonna try and stop me too are you!" She roared her bloodshot eyes peering into Lilith's own. Before Lilith could respond however the woman charged.
"I'll just slice you up too! Wheehee" She squealed as she swung the sword with such force that Lilith could feel the wind buffeting her before the sword arrived. Her technique was poor however. Lilith took a step to the right. The sword slid straight past her and hit only air.
She wasn't done. The woman didn't care she was off balance and simply swung again. Diagonally upwards this time. The swing was telegraphed and Lilith tilted her body to the left. The woman didn't care. She continued to swing again and again trying to hit Lilith with her sword.
The more she swung the better Lilith got at dodging. She went from taking steps to tilting her body and then she barely needed to move at all. Lilith hadn't moved from her spot apart from the first few steps. 'This was good practice.' Lilith thought as she finally decided to retaliate.
The woman's next swing aimed for her head. Lilith leaned her body backwards and the blade passed in front of her. This gave her a several millisecond window. Lilith's right hand grabbed the woman's wrist. Then she twisted.
"Aghhh!" She screamed and a metal clank came from below. Lilith yanked towards her. The woman followed. She fell towards Lilith but wasn't done yet. She tried to scratch at Lilith's face with her other arm. Her feet kicked furiously at Lilith's knees.
Lilith simply pulled on her arm and the woman spun around. Lilith was now facing her back. Lilith kept her balance and composure. 'I believe it was…' Lilith reminded herself as she pushed the woman's arm up her back and locked it there.
A small squeak unlike the other cries the maid had been making came from her mouth. Lilith ignored this as she kicked her leg. The woman fell to her knees. Lilith's nails grew into sharp claws slightly thinner than the captain's. Lilith placed them against the woman's neck.
"You have lost." Lilith stated coldly but the woman wasn't listening. She was wriggling about trying to hit Lilith with her free arm despite the sharp objects pressed against her neck. She wouldn't listen at all.
Lilith sighed and yanked her head back by the hair. The woman's bloodshot eyes once again stared into Lilith's own. This time Lilith would make use of that. "Calm down and do not attack me." Lilith said as soothingly as she could manage. That was another skill she would have to learn as he voice came out rather threatening.
"I'm trying. I feel like I should attack everything in sight." The maid said surprising Lilith. Her tone was monotonous and robotic. Yet her words suggested a desperate panic and fear. She didn't know what was going on. She didn't listen to what Lilith told her either. She was still thrashing about as she said it. What Limits does this charm ability have?
Apparently she wouldn't get enough time to answer that question. Lilith could hear the clanking of armour as guards rounded the corner. She didn't need to see them. She knew who they worked for and what that meant for both her and the woman in front of her. Lilith decided she may as well try it.
Lilith sniffed the woman's neck and noticed the scent she was releasing. It was akin to tangy strawberries combined with passion fruit. Very different from all the guards. Lilith would have to look into these issues later. For now Lilith bit the woman's neck and injected her venom.
Once again Lilith watched as the woman became pale. Unlike her previous victim however no blood pooled in her legs and her body was only slightly cold. You would barely notice it. Her eyes flashed red for a moment and returned to her normal brown. They weren't bloodshot any more.
Lilith let the woman go expecting this to have solved her berserk problem. It didn't. "Roaghhh" 'Ah forgot that part.' The woman roared in a mad frenzy. Claws far thicker than the captain's grew from her nails. She started smashing everything around her. Then her nose raised and she sniffed the air.
Her attention was immediately drawn to the incoming guards. Lilith could see her face this time. It was completely blank with only a gluttonous hunger in her eyes. She immediately charged the guards. She didn't even wait for them to round the corner.
Her body blurred and she was suddenly in front of them. Lilith's mind whirred at that. While she did the confrontation happened. The guards met the newborn and seconds later they were minced meat. She slammed her claws into them like battering rams moving at such a speed even Lilith couldn't keep up.
The guards soon became splatters on the wall and the woman started lapping their blood off the floor. She didn't seem to mind the dirt. Her eyes were flashing red at the carnage and her fangs were extended. Lilith was fascinated by her behaviour. 'They seem emotionless yet pounce like predators who found prey. They also appear to have different reactions.' Lilith noted. She was studying her creations.
'Will she turn back to normal however?' Lilith wondered. She realised that she may have just created a monster she can't control. The woman was rampaging even before she became a frenzied blood monster. If she had enough blood would she really be satiated? There was also the matter of this berserker class.
Lilith calculated the odds of survival if the woman turned on her. In theory, Lilith could order her to halt and she would have to obey. Did that always work though? What if she didn't have enough of a mind left to obey commands?
Lilith remembered the miscalculation she made with Wyatt. 'Even a small chance of death is still small. I've made the mistake before.' She reminded herself and immediately turned to leave. The woman likely didn't know how to use any sort of shapeshifting yet. If she even had the mind left to use it.
Lilith would simply run through the walls. Leaving a specimen for others to investigate was more than just unfortunate. 'This was not well-planned. Perhaps I am too reckless? I will need to curb this in the future.' Lilith mused as she started to dissipate into mist. Lilith made sure to keep a strong grip on all her thoughts.
She walked through the wall in mist form and kept all of her thoughts together as she analysed the encounter in her flowing mind. Wyatt investigation unlikely. Happened before. Expect investigation. Knowledge in hands of enemy. Must acquire knowledge faster.
As Lilith reformed on the other side of the wall she was determined to discover more about her vampires than Wyatt and his men could from the maid. She would know their weaknesses and account for them. The amount of effort required would be large. Unfortunately she had just necessitated that.