Ariella
Thornhill city,
Vankar Island
Northern Isle Region,
Kingdom of Ashtarium
October 12th 6414
6:54 pm
Dusk had arrived along with the disappearance of the Dome's sun, the night sky shined bright with the artificial stars littered around it. I was outside Enoch's mansion, sitting by the stairs, waiting for Lil's return. It's been more than an hour since we left the Dungeon after Lil's fight with Jennifer Mcclough and she had lost the fight. I still couldn't believe the request that the human had asked for. A date with Lil. I felt my cheeks burning red at the thought of Lil going out with that girl. Lil hadn't given her an answer, instead, she had returned to us and we had left the arena, the emotions within her were hard to read. Instead of continuing to explore the Dungeon, we decided to leave and rest for the day. After dropping me off, Lil had disappeared. Gone to the woods behind the mansion. I decided to wait for her here, knowing that she wanted some space to vent her frustration. But for how long would she keep me waiting? I wondered. The sun was completely gone, so I got up and went inside the mansion. Waiting for me was Hector, ready to attend to my needs.
"Is Sanders around," I asked.
"No, your highness," Hector said. I nodded my head.
"I'm going to be in the training room." I said. "I don't wish to be disturbed."
"Of course," Hector said. There was a lot of rooms in the Mansion, both on the upper and lower floor. I hadn't gotten a chance to explore the whole place yet, but the training room was something Sanders had revealed to us. The training room was like a gymnasium, all sorts of practice equipment were in it. Also places that one could use to meditate and cultivate their Spirit power. I was still dressed in my fighting gear, with my bow and arrows. So I went to the Archery side of the room where there were target practice for me to use. I got my bow ready, the brown wood weapon that Sanders had bought for me. I took a deep breath, concentrating and focusing my senses. I didn't activate my Mana, relying solely on my physical prowess. And then I made a move. I aimed, pulled and fired. I didn't wait to see if I hit the mark or not. I moved on to the next target. My muscle was being pulled, my senses were being sharpened, and yet I didn't pay attention to any of it. My mind kept going back to the fight Lil had with Jennifer Mcclough. The ice human user had been powerful. Not just powerful, but extremely skilled. It wasn't impossible to find powerful and talented humans. I of all people should know that. I came from a line of powerful human bloodline from my mother's side. But could I fight Jennifer Mcclough? The answer was a pure no. Even though I was an Old blood Vampire with noble blood which made me superior when it came to physical strength, I still would not be able to fight her. I knew because I couldn't even defeat Lil. My hand went for the next arrow but I came up short of it. I was out of arrows. I looked at the target pieces, seeing that I hadn't missed a single one. I took a deep breathe in, noticing my lack of exhaustion due to my near-infinite stamina. Before I had awakened, doing something like this would have exhausted me entirely, with me sweating and panting. I would push myself so hard that my hands would be bleeding. That was how intense my training had been. But now, I was a full blood Vampire, and that came with a near perfect constitution. Which wasn't exactly good for body cultivation. When it came to cultivating Battle power, an Immortal body like mine wasn't exactly good. Body cultivation was the improvement of the physical body to go past it's limits. To reach a new height than it's current state. This meant going through torturous training that would break the body down and then forge it back anew. How can an Immortal body be broken down? It was impossible. Our bodies could survive without the need of mortal nutrients, didn't suffer from physical exhaustion, we could instantly regenerate fatal wounds that would kill most other race. Our vitality was extremely dense and powerful that without any active threat, we could basically live forever. We were strong, fast and durable. So what was the need to even cultivate? We were perfect, right? The answer was no. The Long war had shown that we Vampires weren't as perfect as we thought ourselves to be. With the right power, our Immortality vanished. Our Strength was gone. Everything that made us what we were was rendered useless. Lil was a perfect example of it. Without cultivation, she had the power to kill a Vampire, his Immortality useless against hers. Which was why after the war, Vampires began to take cultivation as serious as the humans did. But how can a Vampire cultivate when it was near impossible to break our bodies apart to build it back up? The answer was simple. The Vampire starves themselves to the point that they were as weak as humans. Not drinking blood weakened us both mentally and physically. During that time, we could train to the point of almost dying. And after that, we then feed and meditate to improve our Soul core. The stronger our soul core, the higher up the rank we could reach. But it was for this reason, why cultivation took longer for us Vampires than it did for humans. Before my awakening, I had already began to cultivate my Soul core, and my advancement had been quicker back then. But after my awakening, I had seen a decline in my cultivation speed. I checked the status of my soul core. The tiny organ within my solar plexus flared with the color of a light shade of yellow, indicating I was still in the middle phase of an Advance rank. The rank of one's soul core depended in the color one's soul core had.
Red for Novice, Orange for Intermediate, yellow for Advance, Green for Expert, Teal for Master, Cyan for Grandmaster, Azure for Semi-saint and Aqua for Saint.
It was going to take a while before I could even reach Expert rank. I sighed, feeling so frustrated. I had to get stronger.
***
Lilith's POV
I opened my eyes, the sound of birds, and little critters crawling on the grass bringing me out of my pain. What the hell? I was no longer with Ella, having dropped her off back at the Mansion. Now I was laying down on the side of the road by the Woods. How did I get here? I looked around, the white sun of the dome was gone, the night sky with it's tiny dots of stars twinkling above me. I got up, confusion and disorientation the least of my trouble. The pain was back, my head felt like it was being squashed under a nine foot boulder. Ever since the fight with Jennifer, my headache had gotten worse. To the point that it felt like my head would rip open. I knew what I had to do to get rid of the pain, but I couldn't do it close to Ella. I didn't want to put her in danger. What I needed to do was to unleash the torrent of power that was building up within me. I ran straight into the woods, the canopy of trees shielding me from the night sky, the heaviness of the silence sharpening my senses as I finally came to a stop. My inside felt like it was burning, not the hot burning feeling, but the freezing kind that can burn one's skin off. The power began to leak out of my body, a palish aura crawling out of my skin and I couldn't take it anymore. I let out a guttural scream as a blast of energy exploded out of my body. The explosion of Spirit energy flowed through the woods, destroying the entire area around me, the trees, the plants, the little critters, and every living thing that was within a distance of me. I felt the cold settle in, the icy presence of death felt all too familiar. And then it happened, all the energy from the living things I had killed within me including the plants flowed right into my body, settling within my Soul core. The sensation of the lifeforce was so intoxicating, that the pain was washed away. I blinked, taking in the new feeling of strength within my body. I had made a five meter clearing around myself that I could see the sky. If I had done this in my fight against Jennifer, I could have killed everybody there. Including Ariella. I tried to control my breathing, not letting the fear push me into a panic. I have to get back to Ella. Her presence would make- A shriek in the air stopped me from moving my leg. Whoosh! Something moved quickly in the corner of my eyes. Whoosh! Another sound of movement. It was quick, whatever it was. I silently turned around, trying to catch a glimpse of what it was. But it was fast. Shadows were moving within the inner part of the woods, where the darkness was thriving. Against my better judgment, I stepped outside my clearing and back under the roof of the trees. I walked around, the sound of the movement following me as I got deeper into the woods. I remember Neil saying something about the woods containing Mana beasts. The movement stopped, silence returning back again. But this silence was different. It was the silence before an-
Boom! Something shot down towards me, the reverberation of the crash sent me flying through the woods. What the hell? I got up from the ground as the dust cleared away, revealing an hideous creature. It was tall, slender wearing black robes, but its body was that of a bird, with an upright stance, a large, board head and a heart shaped face. The monster resembled a human shaped Owl. It raised its arms, large brown fur covered it, and behind it was its wing. The monster's head twitched like an owl, turning around in a semi circle before it sprinted off at me. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! What the Fuck was a Demonic beast doing in the woods of this damned town. This wasn't a Mana beast. I sprinted off, trying to get as far from the monster as possible but the creature was fast. It zoomed and caught me by the shoulder, lifting me off the ground. But my strength was greater than it, as I lunged my arm off its talon leg. I landed on the ground, rolling on it and getting back on my feet. The creature came for me, and then I focused on gathering power within my two palm. Palish energy formed, electricity crackling around my fingers. And then I released it as a bolt of power which blasted the monster. The creature disintegrated, turning into pure energy and returning back into my body. It's vitality became part of mine, my strength increasing ten-fold. I breathed in loudly, dispelling the chill that had settled within the atmosphere. And then they came, more of the damned monsters. And this time there was a dozen of them, swarming out of the trees at me. And that was when the hunger clawed its talons within my gut. And this time I let it in, relinquishing my self-control for wantoned bloodlust. I ran headfirst into the first monster, catching it by its mouth and slamming it onto the ground. Blood and brain matter fell out of my palm, as I went for the others. I slammed my hands in a clap, releasing shockwaves that was mixed with the pale energy that was part of my Ability factor. Blood and guts splattered through the air, staining everything around me. More Demonic beasts came flying at me, so I pulled out the Enchanted blade I had won, quickly slashing and cutting my way through the monsters. Blood poured, intestine flying through the air, as I happily cut each of them down. As I slew each of the creatures, I could feel their life ebbing its way towards me and I happily drank each of them into my body through my mouth. The more I killed each of them, the stronger I became. The last creature hovered high up in the air, its screeching halting more of the movements deep within the woods. There was more of them, I could feel their presence. The one in the air landed on a branch, it head moving around like an owl, its eyes appraising me. It had finally dawned on the monster that it wasn't the predator, but the actual prey before my presence. It clawed its way farther up the branch, its scarlet eyes on me. It opened it mouth, serrated fangs was set up in a row within its mouth, fangs that resembled Vampires. There was an intelligence behind its eyes, an intelligence that felt pretty old...and familiar. It let out a roar and then the movements began to move further away from me. And then the creature jumped from the branch and flew off, leaving me alone with the corpses' of its brethren's, dripping with their guts and blood.
"Hmm! That look suits you so well," An irritating familiar voice said. I turned around to see Jennifer leaning on a tree, her green eyes on me. There was a look on her that I couldn't understand. I didn't really want to understand.
'What are you doing here?" I said. "How did you find me,"
"You may not possess Mana, but you still have Spirit energy," Jennifer said. "I recognize your Spirit signature." I rolled my eyes at her. Since I used my Ability factor against her, she must have gotten familiar with how my Spirit energy felt like.
"What do you want," I said.
"You didn't give me an answer," Jennifer said. "You owe me a date."
"Wh...what do you mean a date?" I said. "I don't know you."
"That's the whole point of a date," Jennifer said. "To get to know each other,"
"I..I don't like you," I said.
"Is that so," Jennifer said. She shortened the distance between us, moving away from the tree and staring me in the eye. Even though I was covered in intestines' and blood, she didn't flinch or cover her nose. She was very close that I had to take a step back to create some distance.
"Someday, I'm going to kill you," I said, not liking how forward she was.
"Hmm, dying in battle doesn't sound so bad," Jennifer said with a crazy glint in her eyes. I was stunned by her expression that I was at a lost for words. Jennifer seemed to have noticed my expression and grinned. "What!"
"Are...Are you one of them? A Battle junkie," I said. I've met my fair share of psychoes who love the thrill of combat to the point that it became a drug to them.
"Look's who talking," Jennifer said.
"What do you mean," I said. We had left the place were I had killed all the Demonic beasts, walking by the roads that lay outside the Woods.
"I saw the way you looked when you were killing those Estries," Jennifer said. "You looked like you were having a great time,"
"That's not-" I stopped as Jennifer raised an eyebrow at me. I closed my mouth and kept on walking. There were times when I would lose control and give in to the murderous impulse that was within me. I had thought I had finally gained control of it...but meeting someone for the first time who almost felt like an equal had bought out that side of me.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Jennifer said as they finally came across the Enoch Mansion. "You're a Warrior, just like me. Loving the thrill of battle isn't something to be embarrassed about." Jennifer stopped outside the gates of the Mansion, her eyes scrutinizing the estate.
"Thanks," I said.
"So about our date," Jennifer said.
"Jennifer-"
"Call me Jen," She said with a smile. "When I say date, what I mean to say is to have more duels,"
"You want to fight me again," I said. Jen smiled, the glint in her eyes was so strong. I could feel the atmosphere get chiller.
"Yes," Jen said. "To be honest, I felt like you were holding back a lot in that duel of ours," I snorted, having felt the same way about her too. "So did I. Can't blame me when you weren't taking the fight seriously."
"So you want another duel," I said. To be honest, I was interested in fighting her again, as I wanted to see how strong she truly was.
"What do you say," Jen said. I opened the gate to let myself in, and then turned around, using my facial expression to show my hesitation.
"Fine," I said. Jen chuckled, and then turned around. As she left she began to wave her hand in a goodbye.
"See you later," Jen said. And then in a single movement, she was gone.