The moon hung in the sky casting a warm glow. Lights adorned the streets making it look like daytime. Even though it was night, the streets were still filled with people. Some were chatting while some were selling their various goods.
In an apartment within one of the towering skyscrapers, a boy of about sixteen years old was lying down on the bed with a smile on his face. "He's finally coming back," the boy said.
Suddenly his eyes closed, and not long after, they opened.
The boy stood up and started looking around. He had a confused expression on his face.
"Where am I? What am I doing here?"
Slowly, fragments of his memory started coming back. The last thing he remembered was entering the forest and seeing a beautiful lady before she turned into a beam of light and then seeing someone in the sky and lastly the energy blast that occured.
"Wait! Mom, Dad, Vera. Where are they?"
Panic set in as he ran towards the window. The beauty of the city and the lights mesmerized him but he didn't have time to savor the sight. He had to look for his parents and his sister.
"It would be best if you calm down first," A feminine voice said startling Nathan.
"Who are you?"
"You've just been asking questions since you woke up," the voice said again but this time with a slightly irritated tone.
"I'll explain everything to you if you calm down."
What surprised Nathan was that he was hearing the voice directly in his mind. It was as if the person was there.
"Okay, I'm calm now," he said though he was still afraid.
"First of all, my name is Siena Crimson and I was the queen of the vampires."
"WHAT!! Is this some kind of joke? What do you mean by vampires?" Nathan said angrily. His anger issues was already kicking in.
"Well, I wasn't expecting you to believe me in the first place, you humans have been in the dark and are still oblivious to what really is happening but if you listen to me, I'll explain everything," Siena said.
"Alright, but what you are about to tell me, will it lead me to my family?"
"I can't guarantee that, but it will at least give you clues," Siena replied.
Nathan calmed down a little after hearing what she said but he was still careful because he could not completely trust a stranger and he still doesn't know what he's going to meet once he goes outside.
"As I was saying, when I was the queen I had six generals and everything was going smoothly. I completely trusted my generals and I thought we were all friends bu~"
"Shit, just go straight to the point and tell me where my family is," Nathan cut her off. From his facial expression one could easily tell that he was annoyed.
"Okay, Okay, they betrayed me and I had to use one of the "artifacts" my dad gave me before he died to escape and that's how I ended up in your "realm" and found you," Siena said.
"As for your family, I don't really know the details because sixteen years has passed since then."
"Wait, What!! Sixteen years!!" Nathan couldn't believe his ears. His mind raced with questions.
Where is my family? Are they still alive? He had lots of questions but no answers. To him the cause of the problem was only one person.
"YOU SIENA OR WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS, YOU ARE THE CAUSE OF THIS!" Nathan screamed. "If you hadn't entered my body I would have still been with my family," he continued.
If anyone was in the room with Nathan they would think he was mad because it just looked like he was shouting at himself.
"And do you think I had any other choice?" Siena asked. "I was also in a desperate situation, I had no other choice so instead of you shouting it's better if we think of how to solve each of our problems," she said calmly.
Nathan slowly sat down on the bed. "So how do I solve this problem?" he asked. He reasoned that shouting wouldn't help in this situation.
"What if I told you that I can give you the power to be able to look for your family?" Siena asked. Nathan's expression changed for a moment.
"What kind of power?" He asked.
"I'll tell you but I will have to explain some things first. Do you promise to listen to what I'm about to say without interrupting?" She asked.
"Alright, go on," he replied shortly. He suddenly felt that he would need her help if he wants to search for his family.
"Firstly, we can communicate through our thoughts so you don't have to talk out all the time."
Nathan finally understood how they were able to communicate even though she was not physically present.
"After I entered your body, I used my power to teleport you to the dryad realm. The queen of the dryads is a very good friend of mine. I still had a hard time trusting her because of what my generals did to me but I just had to," she sighed.
As promised Nathan didn't interrupt her.
"When I got there, I started transferring my powers to you. I stopped time around your body so that you'll be able to adapt quickly to the powers. I knew it would take time but I didn't know that it would take up to fifteen years."
"After the transfer process, I removed the time barrier but I was in control of your body. I didn't want to put the dryads in trouble because of my presence because I knew the six of them would be looking for me so I came back to the human "realm" and started gathering information."
"I have some questions," Nathan said. "Instead of using an "artifact" why didn't you just use your teleportation powers to go to the dryads "realm"?
"Vampires and dryads are not compatible infact vampires and other races are not compatible except the human race," she replied.
"Second question, you said you'll put the dryads in trouble if you stay there but aren't you putting humans in trouble now?" he asked
"The human realm is the last place they'll think of. "Patterns" are used to go from one realm to another and apart from my late father, I'm the only one who knows the pattern to go to the human realm. Even the six of them don't know it, they only know the pattern to some specific realms."
"Then why did the transfer process take fifteen years?" He asked.
"My "powers" are too immense, it needed time to assimilate with your body," Siena replied.
Nathan was about to ask something again but this time Siena cut him off.
"You want to know about that "person" you saw in the sky right?"
"Who was that?" He asked curiously.
"That's something I'll tell you later but for now you need to know about your powers and how to control them," Siena said. It was clear to Nathan that it was a very serious topic.
"Okay but where am I?" Nathan looked around and the only things in the room was a bed, a chair and table and there was also a toilet and a glass jug of water on the table.
"This is a rented apartment. After I came back to the human realm, I started gathering information on what had happened during the fifteen years."
Nathan listened to what she was about to say because he was also eager to hear what had happened during the last sixteen years.
"After the energy blast occured, some weeks later people started going missing. At first it was just reports of a few people but as time went on the report of missing people increased and at the same time some people started exhibiting weird abilities."
"Eventually they found out that the abilities were due to the energy blast. Everyone had their own special ability and they were called the "gifted."
"Later, the missing humans came back but they had weird tattoos on their bodies and they started attacking humans. Animals mutated and even the domestic ones became wild beasts. It was hard for the humans to fight back due to the relationship they had with the former humans and the addition of the beasts but they had to if not they would end up dead."
"These weird humans that came back were later called the "rouge humans." The battle continued with humanity winning but the rouge humans made an abrupt retreat and have not been seen since then," Siena said.
"What happened to earth after the battle?" Nathan knew that earth will surely be affected after that kind of battle.
"Due to an unknown reason, earth increased in size and the terrains even changed."
"The rest of humanity gathered in one stronghold and a barrier was formed around it using the energy from the blast."
"The beasts inhabited the rest of the earth outside the stronghold and these places were divided into areas. Each area had a different terrain."
"Using a mechanism, gifted were able to go outside the stronghold to hunt beasts for their bones and other parts because they were used to make weapons."
"Countries no longer existed and instead the stronghold was divided into cities and academies were formed to help the gifted control their abilities."
"This city is called Vina city and this skyscraper is the dorm building of the Vina Academy," Siena explained.
"Wait, what am I doing in an academy?" Nathan asked. He didn't expect to be in an academy.
"If you really want to look for your family, the academy will be a good place to start because at least your sister must have attended one so it'll be easier for you if you can get any record on her."
"Then how were you able to enter, isn't there a payment needed to attend?"
"No, it's completely free but you must be seventeen years old to be able to attend. This rule was put in place so that the academy won't be crowded."
"Okay, I get it," Nathan said with a sigh but he knew he still had to know about the new powers he had aquired.
"What do you want?" Nathan suddenly asked. "You want to help me find my family but I'm sure you want something in return."
"Yes, in return for giving you the power to find your family, you'll become the king of the vampires," Siena said.
"Huh, what do you mean by king? I don't even know about all this vampire and race shit and you're telling me to become king?" Nathan snapped.
"I'll gradually explain everything to you but I promise to help you find your family in return." Siena explained.
Nathan was genuinely confused and he didn't know what to do but he still has his family to look for.
"Okay, but my family comes first," Nathan said.
"I understand, it's time to see your vampiric powers now and your gifted ability."
Now that Nathan reasoned it, he's practically a vampire now and he also has a gifted ability. He couldn't help but be curious about his new abilities.
"I created a system to make it easier to understand and unlock the full potential of your ability," Siena said.
"System? As in the one in video games?"
"Yes, so just say the word "system" and you will be able to access it."
Nathan followed her instructions and a second later a red transparent screen appeared in front of him.
[STATUS]
[Name: Nathan Langley]
[Age: 17]
[Race: Vampire]
[Level: 1]
[Ability: Elemental manipulation]
[Strength: 15]
[Agility: 15]
[Defence: 15]
[Stamina: 15]
[Ability Energy: 20]
[Blood Energy: 25]
"These are your basic stats. The average human has 10 points in all stats but you are quite different," Siena said.
Nathan looked at the screen then he noticed his ability. "Elemental manipulation, so I can control the elements?"
"Yes, but for now some of them are locked. You can unlock then by levelling up and doing special quests," she explained. "And you can level up by completing quests and killing beasts."
Nathan immediately understood what she meant by levelling up. "Now for the skills."
[ VAMPIRE SKILLS]
[Blood spike: Uses hosts blood to form a spike made of blood that can be controlled by the host]
[Cost: 2 blood Energy / 1 blood spike]
[Rage: This skill increases the blood flow of the host heating up the body in the process causing a temporary rise in strength of the host.
[Cost: None]
[Effect: +7 strength]
[Note: After use, the host will be in a weakened state for five minutes]
[ABILITY SKILLS]
[Elemental Manipulation]
[Earth spike: Create a spike made of earth that can be controlled by the host]
[Cost: 2 ability energy / 1 spike]
[Earth wall: The host can summon a wall made of earth to block attacks]
[Cost: 5 ability energy / 1 wall]
[Note: Other elements will unlock as the host levels up]
Nathan observed his skills, he noticed that using his vampire related skills reduces his blood energy while using the Elemental manipulation ability reduces his ability energy.
"How do I use the skills?" He asked
"Just think of using it and it will activate," Siena replied.
Nathan walked towards the table then he pointed his right hand towards the jug of water. He thought of using the earth spike skill and suddenly a brown rock-like spike formed in front of his hand.
Nathan observed the spike for some seconds before willing it to move towards the jug. The spike immediately moved and pierced the jug. The glass broke and water splashed around the room.
Nathan looked at his ability energy and noticed that it had gone down by two. To be honest, Nathan was amazed by this power and ended up trying all his skills except earth wall and rage.
When he used blood spike, he had to make a cut on his hand in order to form the spike.
Nathan walked towards the window and opened the curtain. He gazed at the stars and then he looked down. The city was beautiful and the lights added more charm to it.
He had received too much information for the day and he had to rest.
He gazed at the city once more before lying down on the bed.
"Rest for now, tomorrow is the academy's welcoming speech and you'll have to be in top shape for it," Siena said.
They still had alot of things to talk about but she decided to leave them for another day.
"I hope you guys are safe, I'll make sure I find you all," a look of determination appeared on Nathan's face before he closed his eyes and slept off.