Luciel was only halfway there where an old town was, but the sun was already up in the sky.
Luckily the tree leaves did provide him some cover from it, but each time the sun rays would make contact with his skin, a painful expression on his face could be seen.
It felt like someone took a lighter and started to burn his skin and this pain was not dull, unlike the bite he had received earlier.
After a painful journey, he stopped on one of the branches and gazed toward the old abandoned town that was in ruins.
He had to squint his eyes as he stared forward, he wasn't even directly under the Sun, and the light in front of him was already blinding him.
He felt a lump forming in his throat when he saw that there was no more forest in front of him and he had to cross at least 1000 meters to reach the first shade that one of the buildings was throwing on the ground.
He already felt how a tiny bit of sun would feel on his exposed skin and now his whole face and hands would need to be exposed till he reached his destination.
He got down from the tree and approached the boundary between light and dark.
Gulping, he waited a little, gathering his courage before extending his arm forward. It felt only right to try and experience how a vampire feels under the sun.
During his first second with a hand fully exposed to the mercy of the sun, there was only a tingling sensation, but that soon turned into an intense burning sensation like someone put his hand in a raging fire.
His instincts were telling him to pull away, to get to the safety of the shade, but he decided to grit his teeth and wait for a little while longer, wanting to see how bad it would get.
He stared at his hand and noticed that the skin started to get darker and darker until it turned black, like burning charcoal, but at the same time, he could feel his hand healing as it was getting damaged.
Not being able to take it anymore and feeling like he reached his limit, he finally pulled his hand away, to the safety of the dark.
'If my inner clock is correct, it looks like ten minutes is my limit.' He stared at his hand while a smell of burnt flesh finally hit his nose.
The moment Luciel took his hand away from sun's gaze, the burning sensation had stopped and it took only around five minutes for his hand to return to the way it was.
Seems like putting a vampire under the sun was a perfect torture method since it doesn't look like they are going to die from it immediately.
The question was, for how long would their healing factor keep up before it finally weakens?
So far, no one dared to expose a vampire to the sun for a very long time in fear that it might die.
Catching a live vampire was a challenging task, harder than killing, and losing one of the specimens would be a big loss. Besides, Luciel didn't feel like doing an experiment on his own body under the sun either.
He took off his jacket and put it over his head, trying to cover most of his skin as much as possible, at least his face.
He took a big breath and finally made a run for it toward the closest shadow.
It took him around three minutes to reach it whereas it would take 6 to 7 minutes for an average human, less if they were well trained.
Luciel's current speed for a vampire was below average, but that was to be expected since he felt like his body was ready to collapse at any moment.
He took a small rest while in the shade, letting parts of his skin heal from the exposure of the sun. It felt like he was tossed into hell and back.
Once he recovered, he headed out towards the nearest house.
Cursing under his breath, he reached the door handle to open the doors so he could enter.
He finally got in and let out a sigh of relief, closing the door behind him.
Luciel wanted to check the whole town to see if there were any vampire hunters still lingering around.
There might be some crazy ones waiting for his arrival, waiting for the right opportunity to jump on him once settles down and lets his guard down. But he didn't have enough strength in him or patience to do so.
With nothing left to do, he went to inspect the house, but there was nothing left to see.
On the ground floor, there was a living room, bathroom, and a kitchen while sleeping rooms were on the 1st floor.
The house was almost empty with a bit of furniture that was too heavy to carry around.
Everything was out of place, clearly already searched.
The windows were broken, same for some parts of the floor and let's not mention a giant hole in the ceiling in the living room that connected it to the bedroom above it.
Luciel wanted to barricade the doors, but that would be useless since anyone could just get in the house through a broken window.
After making sure that most of the house was safe, he finally went to remove his clothes that were still soaking wet from the recent rain and tossed them on a random chair, leaving only his underwear on his body.
He didn't want to catch a cold, he didn't even know if vampires could even get sick in the first place due to their fast healing.
He yawned, his body was searching for sleep, but before finally taking a well deserved rest, Luciel went to lower the blinds, making the house even darker than before, and went towards the bathroom.
It was the only room he still didn't check and there was something he was dying to see.
He opened the door to the bathroom and could see a spider crawling around on a web in front of him.
Focusing on it, Luciel could see the spider in detail like someone zoomed it in with a special camera. He could even see the tiny hairs on its body.
Luciel entered the bathroom and went to clear the spider webs and that's when he noticed.
The bathroom was pitch black, but he could see clearly as day. Even while he was outside in the forest during the night, he noticed that it was way brighter than before, but he never had time to think about it.
He wouldn't even notice that it was pitch black if not for the fact that the bathroom didn't have any light source and there was no electricity in the house, so he couldn't turn on the lights.
It was hard to admit, but this vision did seem useful, not only that, the newfound strength and reflexes weren't bad either, and his claws also had a good use. Even if it came with some disadvantages, maybe becoming a vampire wasn't so bad-
"No, no, no! What are you thinking!" Lucian shouted at himself, pulling his hair as he growled.
He knew that he needed to put his growls under control somehow since he started to notice a pattern when that would happen, but he just didn't know how.
He glared at his clawed hands before turning around, going to punch the mirror that was behind him until he stopped his fist right before contact as he stared into his reflection.
His short, wavy hair with bangs covering parts of his forehead still seemed the same, except that it was extremely messy due to all the fighting that took place.
There were even some leaves and branches in it, but after that, he could clearly see the changes he wanted to check.
He couldn't believe his current situation if he didn't see it with his own two eyes and even then, he refused to accept that this monster in front of him is his new self.
Luciel bared his fangs at his own reflection, but he quickly relaxed his face and took a step back.
"This is not me…" He whispered quietly as he stared into his eyes that were radiating with a small glow till it completely disappeared, leaving behind only his natural, crimson red, eye color.
Getting closer to the mirror, he lifted a corner of his lip, revealing a sharp fang and he did the same action for the other corner.
Finally, he opened his mouth and touched the tip of his fang. It was extremely sharp to the point he almost made a tiny puncture wound on his finger just by gently pressing it against a fang.
Those fangs really were made for one purpose only.
He closed his mouth and continued to stare at his face and anger started to build up inside him again as his eyes turned vibrant red.
"God dammn it!"