As the moon rose up high in the sky, shining over the world, the whole village in which Adui was staying got shrouded in a veil of silence. Everyone was asleep, Clair, the girls, and even all the mercenaries. But for some reason, sleep eluded him, he was staying in the biggest room of the inn, the bed was coveted by Clair and her girls, while he sat on a chair, keeping a watch.

He didnt know where Jarad was, or what happened to him. What he did know was that he had to take care of that man’s family, he owed it to him. The problem was ever since he had taken the responsibility of looking after them, he had been a mess. His paranoia had taken over his thinking process, everyone that he comes across seemed like a monster to him, ready to pounce at Clair or the girls, if he were to let his guard down.

He was being excessively paranoid, he knew that, but he was all new to the responsibility of a woman and kids stuff. And he didnt know how to handle it. As he sat idly by, he started thinking about the next steps, he had a lot of money courtesy of the Ulapas family, he had enough that he would be able to give Clair and the girls a good life.

After making sure that they would live a good life, his second concern was revenge. Those pale bastards were too powerful for him to handle, the only way that he could even get an equal footing with them was to go through with the Demonization, but he was hesitant about that.

He still remembers the line from which Franc described the power of Demonization, left behind by him in the trunk…

‘Such power was never made for a mere man, it was made for a god. There is no way that to test the extent of the power that one would possess after the ritual, but if it is anything like the Vampas, there is a chance that the ritual would grant its user a power, that many would droll for. But the price to attain such power is unknown.’

From the ominous words left behind by the great mage, he knew that the power would come at a price, and he did not know whether he was ready to pay up or not. At first, he had decided that he would do the ritual, and attain the power that was left behind by the great mage, but now he had too many concerns.

‘From the way the power is described, I would be changing my body. What if it alters my personality? What if I lose my rationality? His concern was genuine, even after using the shards of red crystal, the repressed side of one’s personality comes out. That is why he killed those bandits so brutally, when he was with Ben. The repressive part of his personality, greed and anger acted up. That is also the reason why he took the Rose, greed took over him.

It was then he glanced at his hands, one of them was done for, while the other one was surviving but barely, his face was a mess, and he was missing one leg entirely.

‘Well if I think about it, I dont have anything to lose. Like what even would I lose if I were to go through with the Demonization?’

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense to him. He cannot live this way, like a pathetic vegetable who could even wipe his own ass properly. It is then he decided that after he had taken care of his responsibilities, he would go through with the ritual, the worst-case scenario would be that he dies, or he would be able to be reborn as a new leaf…

As he was thinking about the ritual, he remembered that he still hadn't used the key and the other cube, the amazing artifact that Franc Ulaspas had spent his whole life and money to research still locked behind a 3 by 3 cube.

Immediately he grabbed his crutches and pushed himself up, after making sure that the girls and Clair were sleeping, he made it to the other side of the room. He then immediately took out the metal cube left from his spatial pouch and the key that was hanging from his neck.

As he sat down, he immediately brought the key close to one of the faces of the cube, immediately a small keyhole formed in the cube, as he pushed the key into the hole, the cube started vibrating crazily, and it all it took it was one twist, and the upper side of the cube popped open, and inside was the most powerful artifact that Franc discovered.

It was a purple chunk of rock, and this was the greatest discovery of Franc Ulaspas, he called it the Soul Stone…

While researching the ways to get stronger, Franc dabbled in some other dark arts, and while doing so he came across many dark creatures, and one of them was dryads, small humanoid creatures, whose outer skin resembled that of a tree.

These creatures would trap their victim with wood magic, and then feed off of them until they are no more. While studying these fascinating creatures, Franc realized something strange, all the books and all the studies that he had read about the creatures, every single one of them told him that these creatures would feed on mana and nutrients were trapped inside the victim's body.

But his research proved that this was not possible, if these creatures' diet was solely based on the nutrients and mana left behind by their victims, they couldnt possibly generate the amount of energy that they make. The energy that they would suck from the victims had one another energy mixed in it, the one he based his research on.

After doing a lot of research and experiments he came to know that this creature sucks in the energy that is found in every living being, he coined this energy as Soul. The more he researched the soul, the more fascinating it got, and at the peak of his research he found this stone, an unknown stone that is capable of harnessing the soul from any living being, through countless experiments on the stone he made the Vampas.

Vampas were creatures made from an amalgamation of different types of animals, they have the ability to suck the soul of their victim, which acts as their main source of nutrition, and because of their ability to suck souls, they dont need to feed on anything else, they dont need to drink and have very fast regeneration power…

While looking at the purple stone before him, he couldnt help but be impressed with the artifact before him, it was nothing as he had ever seen before, and the stone itself smelled like the Rose, which made him wonder whether Ulaspas family’s Rose and this stone had something in common.

The smell of the thing before him was so enchanting, that he felt like it could even lure back even the dead from their grave…

***

It was a typical night for the Ulaspas family, they were currently raiding a city, feeding their babies, the only thing different today was that Gloria and Kaisel had also joined them today. All the awakened ones in the city had been disabled, so now the Vampas could freely roam around creating havoc, while everyone in the family had to do only one thing, look after the babies…

While sitting on the highest tower in the city, Gloria hugged Kaisel’s arms, silently looking at the destruction before them. “I can never get enough of this.” She commented, to which Kaisel grabbed her waist, and brought her closer to him.

“You should really work on your hate of humans.” He knew that it was a sore topic for her, but he had to say it, this type of hate was not good for them.

His words were enough to piss her off, she let go of his arms and made some distance between them. “How can you say that?” she asked.

“You know how it is Gloria, your hate had always come in the way of your radical thinking. It would be for the best if you let the hate go a little bit.”

She looked calm on the surface, but he knew better, her calmness was like a silence just before a storm. “NEVER,” she said in a venomous voice.

He sighed. “I am not saying to forgive all of them. I am just saying that you should try to not let your hate cloud your judgment.”

“It happens once.”

“What about the Opera job, then what you did do in the embassy? The bigges one of all, you are the reason Bishop Yuriel is after us.”

She took offense at his words. “So do you think that all of this is my fault?”

“Not solely your fault, but you are responsible for half the shit we have to go through.” It was then she lost it, she got from the ledge, he thought that she would start berating him and cussing at him. But he was surprised that she didnt do anything, and just stared at something behind him.

Now curious, he turned around to see what she was looking at, he followed her gaze and then spotted a Vampas on the roof of the nearby house, facing South, as he looked around, he saw that every Vampas in the city was facing south.

All the Vampas in the city stopped behaving like rabid animals and were all looking facing south as if they could hear or smell something from that direction, something more appetizing than the meal before them.

‘What the hell is going on? They have never done something like this before.’ Before he could contact girls to know what was happening in the south, he saw that all the creatures abruptly started running, and all of them started heading towards the south.

Seeing the whole herd heading south, leaving behind their food, both he and Gloria paused their fight for a moment and went after the Vampas, heading South.

***

While clutching his crotch, the old man ran further away from the camp, he had to pee, and he could not hold it anymore.

‘I will kill that fucker when he would return. I am an old man, why the fuck does that fucker think that he deserves to sleep on a bed, and I dont. He should have asked me, “Ben would you like to sleep in the village tonight?” but no, that fucker didnt. He went with that ungrateful bitch, and left me behind this smelly bunch in cold’

As soon he reached a suitable distance away from the camp, he immediately unzipped his pants and let everything go, as the hot stream of liquid exited his body, he felt like he had reached nirvana. With closed eyes, he started enjoying every second of it, and he only opened his eyes when heard the crackling of dried twigs.

He opened his eyes to see a white creature with no eyes or nose, as big as a bear, standing on its two hind legs looking straight at him