[... Present ...]
In the morning, Christopher woke up and his heart with his mind were immediately hit by yesterday's events.
"God, why is this happening to me?" he asked himself as a memory of losing Melina flashed through his mind.
"Stop speaking that filthy name in my presence," the Darkness spoke from one of the corners of the room as black veins began to cover the walls.
Christopher turned his face to the source of the voice but he couldn't see anything.
"That's why you are so weak and pathetic," the Darkness noted, disappointed by his host.
"You are using your normal, physical eyes and not the eyes of your soul. You are not seeing the full picture of things, just their pieces and before you can put them together, it's already too late."
Christopher narrowed his eyes but did what the Darkness mentioned and when he focused while using his senses together with his system's special vision, he could see a face with purple eyes surrounded by a cloud of shadows, smiling at him widely from that corner he was looking at.
"That was pretty quick," the Darkness laughed, amused.
"I'm not that stupid," Christopher replayed, rolling his eyes.
"If you are not that stupid, why did you let that pathetic vampire Rox steal what is considered by you, yours!" the Darkness noted, his voice painted by the colors of anger and disappointment.
Christopher, in a fraction of rage, teleported himself in front of the Darkness' face, ready to punch it any time.
"I TRIED!" he shouted at the entity, madness glowing in his eyes.
The Darkness didn't even flinch, it did right the opposite.
The entity laughed right into Christopher's face, mocking him while reminding him "Don't forget you are using my powers... not yours!"
Christopher sighed and instead of being so aggressive, he asked "Why are you here again?"
"You just came to mock me?"
"The first question was the right question," The Darkness smiled.
"I'm here to tell you that you should hurry. Your 'friend' is enjoying that you let your wives unprotected."
Hearing this, Christopher tried to remain untouched but after a few seconds, he gave up and spoke the name he hated the most.
"Lazarus?"
"Correct."
"What is happening?"
"A war is about to begin."
"A war? Between who?"
"War between two ancient races, two ancient rivals... Vampires and Werewolves."
"Huh? Why?" Christopher asked.
"I can't tell you..."
Christopher rolled his eyes but immediately regained hope when he heard what the Darkness spoke next.
"I can't tell you, but I can show it to you. Pull out that dagger I gave you."
Christopher pulled the dagger and when its blade, engraved with similar runes that Christopher had on his chest, started glowing purple, Christopher with the Darkness disappeared without a trace in the purple light that filled the entire room.
A few seconds later, he opened his eyes and saw the Darkness again, but now it looked like the dragon.
"Styx?"
"Yes, welcome back to my prison cell."
"Why I'm here?"
The dragon facepalmed "Stupid puppet, I already told you that I'm going to show you what happened. I can tell you but showing it would be more interesting and better for what you mortals call 'hope'."
Suddenly, a purple oval mirror made from silver and with dark essence flowing around its edges appeared in front of Christopher.
Seeing his extremely pale appearance, Christopher was surprised at how much he changed from his previous self.
Now, he had incredible pail skin like a ghoul with red eyes not with his previous dragon gold eyes.
He lost his beautiful horns and he little missed his serpent tentacles, they were like the pets he never had.
The only thing he gained back was his tattoos and that showed him that he had a long way until he gained his previous abilities, appearance, and strength back.
"Shall we?" the Darkness asked with little nostalgia in his voice, remembering something similar from the past.
Christopher nodded and the dragon immediately opened its mouth and sent purple flames towards the back of that mirror, forming a sight of Christopher's wives with their mothers, sitting in the living room of Elizabeth's mansion in Redwilnet, the kingdom of blood.
A few tears fell from Christopher's eyes when he saw them, clearly showing that he missed them.
Even when only two days passed, for him it was like an eternity, thanks to the fact that he was now a plebeian vampire who had the strongest struggle with their emotions.
While looking at them, Ardelean appeared from shadows, walked to him from behind, and placed his hand on his left shoulder.
Christopher turned his face and smiled "Heh, you are here too friend?"
"Yes," he nodded and continued "This happened two days ago, after the ball in Redwilnet's castle."
Christopher turned his face back and looked at the sight in the mirror.
...
"Why did you do that!" Isobel shouted at her daughter.
"What you just did was a declaration of war from our house to the Royal Werewolf family!"
"I did what I needed to do Mother! He was asking me to marry him?! A fucking marriage!"
"I'm already married, loyal, and devoted to Christopher and ONLY to him!" Vicki shouted back at her mother, her possessiveness filling the room.
"I know but what if he is already dead!" Isobel exploded, her voice echoing through the mansion even when extreme pain hit her heart every time she thought about the slightest possibility of Christopher being dead.
Suddenly, everything went quiet as if a supernatural entity sealed every single noise.
When Vicki heard what her mother said, her eyes turned lifeless with a cold golden glow as the room temperature started rising significantly.
"What did you just say, mother?" Vicki spoke in a cold tone, really different from her usual voice while looking at her mother with a hostile gaze and crazy smile.
"Possible facts," Isobel replayed, untouched by her daughter's tone, but still with small signs of grief that could be heard in her voice.
Isobel may seem heartless, but as a Countess, she needs to think about her people first before her own happiness.
Her people can't suffer again like before... Just like Elizabeth's and Celeste's.
After the answer from her mother, Vicki's mood even worsened as a small wave of extremely hot and yellow plasma started escaping from her body.
Before Vicki could do anything, Elizabeth who was sitting on her favorite chair got up at excellent speed and pointed her hand at her.
Immediately, an arctic wind combined with ice flew from her hand and covered Vicki who was on the edge of exploding.
"One of my mansions is already destroyed. I don't want to pay another Witch for repairing this one. It's my favorite after all. This is the place where Rose grew up!"
"Ivy is here too so stop being destructive Victoria Phoenix!" Elizabeth's voice carried a tone of order.
After a few minutes, Vicki was in her usual state again except for her eyes, which were still fully black, glowing with gold reptilian-like irises.
Isobel sighed with sadness in her eyes "Hah, how do you even know that he is still alive?"
"We don't know anything except for what Rose provided to us. I don't want to be cruel my daughter, but we need to think about this possibility too."
Vicki shuddered from that cold temperature Elizabeth sent towards her and turned her face towards a window.
She sighed, "I feel he is still alive. I can feel his heart beating."
Isobel narrowed her eyes when she heard the last sentence.
It remained her, her past self when she felt the same connection with her husband and Vicki's father.
"Me too!" Rose stood up from the blood-red sofa and approached Vicki from behind, hugging her while looking at Isobel.
"We know that he is alright."
Claudia joined her friends "He may be trapped but not dead. I mean, his soul is still okay."
"Connection?" Celeste narrowed her eyes at her now adoptive daughter "How can it be so strong?"
After the ball, Claudia and Celeste had a small talk and when it ended, Claudia became Celeste's adoptive daughter.
Claudia shook her head and looked at Celeste "We don't know how Mother, but from that day we drank our blood together in Phoenix mansion on Earth, our connection only we three shared got stronger and another individual joined in. It was our Darling!"
"The connection we gained marrying him merged with our personal one," Vicki explained in ten words.
Another silence fell on the room until Rose asked "What are we going to do now? We need him here and fast!"
"Only with Darling's powers we can stand a chance against the Royal family and their army."
Celeste shook her head "We can't do anything until the two kings are done with their 'talk'. But to tell the truth, I'm siding with Rose. I don't think Vlad will help us in this matter."
Isobel sighed in annoyance and walked to her daughter "You know I didn't mean to hurt you, but we don't know what he is going through now. I just wanted to prepare you for the worst."
Vicki nodded even without arguing with her mother while Isobel placed her hand on Vicki's shoulder.
"I'm sorry my dear for being so harsh..." Isobel spoke and bit her lip, small tears falling from her eyes.
"It's okay Mother, I'm sorry too" she replayed and turned her face at the window in front of her.
'Christopher is alright. I know it! He is different and not just any other pathetic man! We find you darling I promise!' she thought, but then added: 'Because you can't escape, you gave us a promise! You promised us a date!'
Rose and Claudia who shared similar thoughts smiled and while thinking about him, their eyes turned just like Vicki's.
Dragon-shaped irises with golden color, looking straight into Christopher's glowing, blood-red eyes.
...
The dragon closed its mouth and the image with the mirror slowly disappeared.
Christopher shuddered from the excitement.
Somehow, he could hear his wives' thoughts and they were pretty crazy, but not for him. He loved them from the depth of his heart.
"Your wife rejected the Werewolf King's son and now the Vampire King is trying to stop a possible war with his words which is almost an impossible task thanks to the Werewolves' pride."
"They are a pack so if you hurt or insult one..."
"...You'll insult everyone" Christopher added.
"But maybe, he can. They are friends after all." The dragon added with an innocent face.
"Do you know why I chose you to bring me the eye?"
Christopher thought 'Not this again' but nodded.
"Because you can't do it yourself and you wanted me to prove myself that I'm worthy of everything I gained thanks to Ardelean bla, bla, bla right?"
"Yeah, that's half of it but the main reason is, that almost no one can enter Aragos... The planet was sealed by the Light when it brought the eye there."
"Another bunch of shit I don't understand again! Why can't you just have one reason like any other B-class villains?!"
"Haah, what do you mean this time?" Christopher raised his eyebrow in frustration.
The Darkness smiled in amusement "Only a few beings can enter the sealed dimensions, planets, or spaces. Beings like Gods, Entities, and Witches. Do you understand now?"
Christopher narrowed his eyes "Not much?"
The dragon rolled its eyes now in annoyance "Are you a chicken or what!"
"I'm not! Only you can't tell everything at once!" Christopher shouted back, the two facing each other like equals until the Darkness backed out with a sigh.
"Hah, I guess you are right. Well, the first beings who can walk across a sealing barrier are Gods. If their divinity is powerful enough to give them authority bigger than the one who sealed the place, they can enter the place without worries or damage being taken."
"If not, they can still enter but every second, their soul would receive damage bigger than a hundred atomic bombs landing at once. But, the main point is that you do not look like a God right so that's not why you can enter Aragos."
Christopher rolled his eyes 'He is an annoying Basterd sometimes.'
"Second beings are entities like me, Light or Primordial entities like Time, Space, etc. You have a few drops of my essence in your soul but that's not enough for you to enter so that's not it."
"The third are Witches. Your mom is a Witch right?"
The dragon's eyes glowed purple and after a few seconds of scanning Christopher's body, the dragon smiled.
"I can see a powerful pool of white energy inside you... that's interesting."
Christopher looked at his hands with widdened eyes "Are you telling me that I can use magic?"
In Christopher's opinion, this information was worth the Darkness' annoyance a few seconds ago.
"Yes," this time, it was Ardelean who answered, "But it's too small to use it for combat or protection."
"But enough for you to enter the sealed dimensions. You are a walking jackpot Christopher, the son of the strongest White Witch on the planet Earth who can also use this magic. That's why I told Ardelean to look for you."
"When the news about the son of the White Witch arrived here, I was shocked and I didn't trust it at all. For Witches, it's impossible to have a male child due to them being only women faction, but here you are now. Right in front of me."
Hearing this, Christopher almost choked "What did you say? My mother is the strongest Witch on the Earth?"
Christopher looked at Ardelean in disbelief "I knew from a young age that she was a Witch but the strongest White Witch on the Earth? Naah, that must be false info."
"Do you remember the time when you came to your parents after everything that happened on that field and with Elizabeth?" Ardelean asked.
"Yeah, I walked home and... my mom exploded in... rage?"
"Yes, she was mad that you became the opposite of her. A being of night and host for the Darkness. A being with so many dark and evil titles."
"Do you remember the power she used?"
Christopher started thinking and after almost a minute, he nodded "Yes, a green pillar of power exploded from her body. I feared it but I wanted to embrace myself in it at the same time. It was a weird feeling."
The Darkness and Ardelean nodded together "That's the power of the White Witch and because my powers fought with yours, you had the instinctive fear. My instincts fought against yours. Your two halves fought against each other for dominance."
The Darkness continued "Your dark side as a Vampire and host for me fought against your White Mage side. Something like this never happened in the past. No one ever became something so balanced. You can be either bad or good but you, you are one of a kind. A Progenitor of the entire new race of beings. A Balance Breaker!"
"Use this power and knowledge to free yourself, me, and return to the Earth where you belong. We are destined to become one."
"We are destined to rule this and other Universes!"
"What are you talking about? I don't want to die because of your revenge!" Christopher spoke but suddenly, everything around started trembling, cracking, and shuttering and a blinding white light started coming inside through the cracks.
"Christopher, I don't have much time left. Ignore my revenge, that's something I'm already done with. What matters is that The Light is preparing something with that Lazarus Vampire. She gave him her ESSENCE, you know what that means right? You should hurry if you don't want to come back to Earth only to see your wives' graves!"
"As you may know, he was madly obsessed and in love with your Rose but that changed very quickly after you died. Now, he wants all of them, but that doesn't mean that if they reject him continuously he can't kill them. With the light essence, it would be easy to kill a being on a dark Supernatural scale. So hurry Christopher! FREE ME! FREE YOURSELF! We need to make this END!"
A strong wind started pulling Christopher away from the dragon so with all the power he could muster, he tried to resist and pulled his sword out from his back.
Piercing the ground with it, he bought himself time for only one last question.
Suddenly 'ERROR! Dangerous entity detected!!!' The voice of his system started speaking in his head but he ignored it and with all of his might, he asked.
"How I can gain the eye?" he shouted and the dragon looked at him with sad eyes, knowing who was coming and that he was completely powerless against her torture.
"I already told you where you need to look, Christopher. Use your brain and let Ardelean guide you. At the right time, you'll understand everything. Trust me and your friend! Now GO, before she can catch me and then YOU! My life is in your hands!"
Then the Dragon spun and slammed its tail against the ground, making Christopher's sword break free and the ground under Christopher started cracking.
"Just trust yourself and your abilities. You are going to make it," these were the last words the Darkness said before the ground under Christopher broke and he started falling into an endless darkness.
Closing his eyes, he touched the dagger, which started immediately glowing purple and before he could reach a big white platform that suddenly started materializing around with a distance of ten meters, he disappeared into thin air.
But, not before something hit him and a female voice shouted.
"A trespasser?! Catch HIM!"
...
Appearing in his room again, he fell from the ceiling on the ground with a loud thud sound.
"Ugh, that was a pretty tough landing," he joked and slowly got up.
["Are you alright? You should drink some blood. Your stats are slowly decreasing,"] Ardelean's voice started resonating in his mind.
"Yeah, I'm on it," Christopher said and ran out of his room, holding a weird-looking wound on his left hand which was healing extremely slowly.
Arriving at the bar, he saw Mark dressed like an adventurer.
"Hey Mark, where are you going?" Christopher asked in confusion.
"I was waiting for you. Our horses are waiting outside. I'm going with you." Mark responded with determination and when he ended his speech, he took a sip from a bottle of brandy that was placed near the table.
Christopher walked to him and placed his hands on Mark's shoulders.
Looking into his eyes, Christopher unconsciously used his Vampiric charm he didn't know he had.
"No Mark, I'm going alone. Stay here and protect the village until I and Melina return." Christopher spoke.
Mark took a deep breath and looked into Christopher's eyes for a minute, until "Fine!... You are right. I trust you as you trust me. I stay here then."
Christopher smiled and walked to Jack.
"Give me all the blood you have brother."
"Yes," Jack nodded and gave the three last flasks he had containing Melina's blood to Christopher "Here."
Christopher took them with sad eyes and placed them into his inventory "Thanks."
Leaving the tavern, Mark, Jack and all the men that survived the Vampire attack followed him out where stood two horses.
One was black with white hair and tail, while the other one was fully white.
"Which one do you want?" Mark asked.
Christopher looked at them closely and, seeing their low stats, he shook his head "I don't want them but thank you. See you soon guys."
Mark narrowed his eyes but then a literal light bulb appeared above his head and he whispered something to Jack who was on his left.
Jack nodded and quickly went back into the tavern, walking out through a back door.
After a few seconds, Jack walked from the background of the tavern, and behind him walked a fully dark black horse with golden eyes.
"What about this one?" Jack spoke and when Christopher turned and his eyes met the horse's, the horse broke free from Jack's grasp and started running toward him like he saw an old friend.
The horse's hair flew in the wind like shadows and it's eyes glowed with power.
Changing his vision, he tried to look for the horse's stats but was surprised when he couldn't see them.
Instead, he saw a silhouette of a woman running towards him.
The horse stopped in front of him, Christopher took a step forward and placed his hand between the horse's eyes.
Suddenly, he could hear a female voice in his mind.
"Hello, stranger."
He shuddered and immediately took his hand down as shouted "I take this one!"
Not knowing why, he just felt it was a good decision.
Jack nodded and walked to the front of the tavern while Christopher placed his hand on the horse's head again.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"What a silly question~, I'm a spirit."
"Well I know that already, but we are going for an adventure so I should at least know your name right?" he said and the horse went on her rear legs.
"My name is Samantha. I'm a spirit of dark nature from the forest called Saigia."
The horse released an incredibly strong aura of a warrior which made Christopher smile.
But only then did he realize what he heard and raised his eyebrow "From the forest near The Kingdom Of The Full Moon?"
"And Credia Empire and Sangruil, the forest is big and it's a part of the borders of those three kingdoms not just one. But to answer your question, I'm from the middle part of that forest." The horse added so Christopher asked.
"But what are you doing here? On the north in the territory of Vampires?"
"I was kidnapped by Cravensworth house because my mother is the queen of the Saigia forest. Later, I managed to escape, but I don't trust you that much to reveal more... Sorry."
Christopher nodded "I understand," and Samantha winked at him "Do you want a ride?"
He smiled and waved to the men in front of the tavern but not for too long because, before he could react, he was sitting on Samantha's back and was flying away from the town.
["Well, I didn't expect this,"] Ardelean agreed, Christopher noted.
"Me neither."
Then, he touched Samantha's hair and sped up even more.
"Show me how fast you are Samantha!"
The horse smiled internally and asked, "What is your name stranger?"
"I'm Christopher, Christopher Salvatore," he replayed and whispered into her ear "And I'm a Vampire too~."
Samantha shuddered when she heard that, not from the fact that Christopher was a Vampire but from the tone he used.
It was a gentle, kind, and loving tone she never heard before from a male.
'I think I'm in love,' she thought all of a sudden because none of the males from her kingdom ever spoke so gently to their women, even her own father.
They spoke to them just like they were some extra to their lives, like they were their maids or something but immediately threw these thoughts into the trash and sped up.
"Let's see if you can handle me," she spoke with determination and her speed went to the 10% speed of the light.
'Heh, I have six psychopathic wives waiting for me in my home. I can easily handle a girl like you,' he thought and made a gesture for Samantha to speed up even more.
[... A few minutes later ...]
"This is weird," spoke Christopher after seeing the town he flew from every three seconds under him.
Reaching 30% of the light speed, the world under them looked like lines of colors as Samantha spoke "That's because you can't normally leave sealed destinations like this one in Aragos."
"You need to open the portal to leave kingdoms and places and if you want to enter them, you need a portal too. The portal is going to open when we reach the speed of light."
"Oh, I didn't know that. Common then, more!" Christopher shouted and after a few seconds, their speed was reaching 50% of the light speed.
"Faster!" he ordered and Samantha nodded with a big smile on her face.
'He doesn't judge me like others for my powers. He's actually enjoying it! I don't want other riders.' Samantha thought as their speed was slowly reaching 70% of the light speed.
'It's because he didn't meet any other spirits? Hmm,' she thought again.
In her home, spirits with teleporting powers were often abused for their powers by Adventurers or mocked for them by their fellow spirits.
No one liked this type of power because spirits with them were considered one of the strongest in the past. Therefore, everyone, mainly the royalty mocked them so they could break their mentality.
In Samantha's case, her father was the one who mocked her for them the most.
Suddenly, the objects around them like trees, clouds, and others, that were forming a line around them thanks to their speed, started forming a single black singularity in the middle of the horizon, between the ground and sky.
"We are almost there Samantha. But you need to speed up more," Christopher ordered once again and Samantha sped up.
Reaching 90% of the light speed, they saw a big black hole in front of them and when they reached the full speed of light, they finally flew through the black hole and disappeared.
Everyone who stood in front of the tavern just saw Christopher on Samantha levitating in the air because of the speed.
They were so fast, that before their reflection could disappear, they flew through it so it looked like they were still in the same spot and then they just vanished when they flew through the black hole.
"Hah, see you later my friend," Mark spoke when he saw Christopher disappear and went back to his table where his favorite book and glass of brandy were already waiting for him.
...
... ... ... ... ...
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