For as long as humanity can remember, darkness and the unknown have always been great sources fear… a fear so old… so primal… that it manifested into what are known in history and myth… as monsters.
As to whether these monsters have ever been real, science – the engine of civilization has proven otherwise. And yet, the past echoes with voices of their passing as they have come to exist within myths, stories, and fables. Again, as to whether these monsters, gods, and demons – beings beyond human comprehension – have truly existed, man can never truly know… but it is a fact… that for these tales to exist… there had to have been… a cause.
[A.D. 2118, Londinium Novus, the “Black Cradle”]
It seemed a night like any other; only colder despite the suffocating congestion that is the city. In the smelly backstreets of a residential area devoid of even a few lampposts, the lone figure of a girl, seemingly in the prime of her youth, is walking while humming and carrying a bag of groceries.
One would question why would anyone be so naïve or foolish as to traverse the hidden backstreets late at night, alone, and even while being conspicuous. However, this can also be taken in the opposite way… If one knows the situation they’re in and yet continues to act in a foolish way, then it can mean there’s a reason why they’re trying to be conspicuous at all.
Yet, not many would think about this second point, especially not in the presence of potential ‘prey.’
Hiding in the shadows, a large figure suddenly lunged at the girl, grabbing her, and dragging her into one of the dead end alleys. Mounting her, the figure of a large man in a dirty coat began to laugh maniacally.
“Hehehe… *slurp* you’s bein very foolish, girlie! But no worries… this daddy’s gonna’ hav’ ta teach you a lesson in bein’ a good girl! We is gonna’ hav’ sum fun, ya?”
With the smell of alcohol permeating the air, the man in his drunken stupor could not sense the unusualness of the situation… that the girl isn’t even struggling.
“Now how’s abou’ you give papa a kiss? Smooo – hrk!?”
Just as the man was about to bring his face to the girl’s, one of her arms easily broke free from his grip and in a flash grabbed him by the cheeks. Before he could even register what had happened, the girl tore off his entire lower jaw, unleashing a shower of blood with the crunch of bone.
“GAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”
With a heart-wrenching scream, the man fell on his back while cupping what remains of the bottom half of his face as if to keep the blood from spilling. In the middle of his pained thrashing, the girl slowly stood up. The man noticed her and tried to get up, but in a blink the girl already tore into his brain through his eyes using her hand.
Blood and brain matter dripped from her hand as she ripped the rest of the man’s head off from the neck. With incredible strength, she lifted the headless corpse as if one was going to take a swig from a tankard and drank the blood, fluids… and stomach contents.
“Bleaaaargh! Blech! Ptoo! Ptoo!”
Throwing the carcass away while emptying her own stomach, she cringed, clawed at her tongue, and gagged as if she just had the foulest thing in her mouth imaginable.
“Uuuuugh… I didn’t wanna have to bite such a dirty thing so I thought I could just let the blood pour from its neck… but what came out with it was even worse! Bleeech!” complained the girl as she wiped her mouth of the bloody drool while hugging her knees.
“Perhaps it would have been better if you hadn’t tipped him all the way, Milady.”
A tall fae-like handsome man in a long black coat with silver ornaments appeared as if the shadows coalesced to form into him. With long grey hair, pale skin, and blood-red eyes, the man before her exuded a ghastly aura of death akin to the walkers of the night as told in myth and fiction.
“… what do you want, Kain?” the girl said with obvious displeasure as her faced scrunched up at his appearance.
“Don’t be like that. You know I’m only here to protect you.” replied Kain, while smiling in a gentle manner as if she was his adorable little sister.
“Hmph! You know I don’t need protection. After all, I’m already more powerful than you after I’ve undergone the Blood Rites and inherited my family’s legacy.” she said after looking away from him and folding her arms.
The man smiled wryly then sighed over her reaction but soon his expression turned grim as the air around him tensed. From beyond the dark alleys, a tendril-shaped red mist snaked its way in the air and soon arrived in front of Kain. As he held out his hand with the palm facing upwards, the ‘blood mist’ coalesced into a sphere above his hand. When all of the mist was fully fused, he raised it to his face as he opened his mouth revealing his fangs. The sphere formed another tendril that let itself be absorbed into his mouth.
When he fully absorbed the mist, he closed his eyes and looked as if he was deep in thought. Soon, he opened his eyes with a start, obvious distress on his expression.
Noticing this, the girl couldn’t help but speak up in light of the seriousness of Kain’s expression.
“Kain? What’s wrong? Is it from father?”
“… Milday, it’s time we moved. The ‘Blood Mongers’ have been seen scouring this area and I’m afraid it’ll be a matter of time before we’re discovered.” replied Kain, tension clear in his voice.
“What!? Blood Mongers already!? It can’t…” as she trailed off, she suddenly remembered something of great importance and as she turned to Kain with obvious determination in her eyes she spoke, “Kain, please let me get home first. There’s something I need to do. I know we don’t have much time and I understand the risk, but… please.”
Kain looked at her sternly as he crossed his arms, but soon shrugged as he gave up knowing his Mistress’ conviction whenever she’s made up her mind and said, “Alright, but please finish it as soon as you can. We really don’t have much time.”
“Thank you!” cheerfully replied the girl, as she jumped and turned into a small flying beast of the night.
***
Londinium Novus was a very large city. Two-thirds the size of New York, it shares the same atmosphere as with another famous city that was described as ‘Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November.’
And in this particular night, a bat can be seen flying towards an old three-storey apartment. Although a bat is a rare sight in this city, this wouldn’t be unusual… unless of course the bat turned into a girl as soon as it landed on the roof.
The girl wasn’t tall being at a height barely over 150 cm, but her frame was quite well proportioned and even had the right curves despite her size. Her skin was ghostly pale, but not sickly and instead appeared white as snow. Her hair glowed moon-like silver while her eyes shone a beautiful scarlet. The contours of her face were angled proportionally like a doll’s and her thin lips would have made her look absolutely charming… had it not been retching earlier in the night.
Wearing something akin to skin-tight black robes, she altered the shade of the whiteness of her skin, changed the color of the right side of her hair to black. She then shifted her clothes into long black boots, micro shorts, a white graffiti shirt, and a fur-lined parka.
Seeing the change, she nodded satisfied and entered the apartment building from the roof. On the third floor, she stopped in front of one of the rooms and took a deep breath as she knocked on the door.
“…”
Ten seconds… thirty seconds… 1 minute… After 5 minutes, she knocked again, only harder this time.
She waited for another 5 minutes again until she grew irritated and kicked the door while yelling, “Steve! I know you’re awake and in there! Hurry up and open the door!”
“Alright… Alright…”
Hearing the dispirited reply, she pouted while she crossed her arms and tapped her foot. Soon the door opened, and there stood a plain looking youth a head taller than her with frizzy hair and headphones slung over his neck. He was unkempt and wore a simple jersey and shorts, and his face looked like he needed sleep since yesterday. Seeing the girl, he rubbed the sleep off his eyes for a bit while failing to stifle a yawn.
“Lily… do you know what time it is? Also, quit yelling or you’ll wake the neighbors…” the boy named Steve said disinterestedly.
“What neighbors? You know there’s only the landlady and she’s out at this time, and I know you’re still awake playing your games. Anyways, hurry up and let me in!”
“Geez… alright already… how annoying…”
As Steve got out of the way, Lily entered the room more nervous than usual. It had been over 3 months since she met Steve. While she had her reasons, Lily was in hiding and was looking for shelter before she met him. It was simply by chance after a chase that nearly cost her life that she was found by Steve and he hid her. Afterwards, without asking questions, he took care of her wounds and helped her set up a room so she could stay in the same apartment. At first she was suspicious as to why he was so nice, but through her own means she was able to find that it was simply how he is – a hypocrite who claims to hate people yet can’t bring himself not to help others. She found this strange, but because of this her interest in him grew until eventually, she even forgot that he was normally prey.
After stalking him for some time, she found that he was often rude, rotten, and was generally disliked by people when he opens his mouth, yet somehow he always helps those he could despite complaining how troublesome it is. She even remembers how much he kept saying how annoying it was to help her settle in and that she owes him big time, yet he never really pushed her to pay him back. There was even a time where he went half-way across the city in his bike just so he could purchase a cake she wanted just because she mentioned how it reminded her of her mother.
As a side note, vampires can actually consume regular food, but it is only through blood that they can receive nourishment.
In any case, she trusted the boy called Steve as much as her family since he has been the only one to treat her like a regular girl. Even if that was only because of ignorance in what she truly is…
“Anyways, what brings you here in the middle of night? It better be good if you had to ruin my hunt with my friends online…” he said after drinking from a milk carton he got from the fridge.
Staring at him, she smiled despite his vulgarity. Back in the Coven, anyone caught being rude to her would have immediately been tortured and beaten, even killed. Yet, despite how the boy is, she could never hate him. He was her one and only friend outside of the Coven… and had he been a vampire, then…
Dropping that line of thought, she finally voiced out, “Steve… I’m sorry… and I won’t be long, but can you please return it to me? It’s that time already.”
Steve paused when he heard what she had to say. Staring at her for a few seconds, he sighed and went into his bedroom. Coming back out, he said, “Catch” as he tossed an ornately designed silver dagger over to her.
As soon as she caught it, he said, “I’m gonna miss that thing. It was great for cleaning my toenails.”
Typical response she thought. Despite his disgusting claim, she knew it was a lie. After all, when she lent it to him for safekeeping and to keep him safe, it was crusted with blood and dirt. Seeing it polished and well maintained shows that he was truly taking care of it.
“Thank you, Ste – !!”
“Yeah, no problem, it’s not like I did any – *SMASH*”
But before Steve could finish his response, a man with shades in a black coat and battle gear broke through the ceiling and immediately stepped on Steve’s head, pinning him face down with a nasty audible crack.
“STEVE!!”
Lily immediately lunged towards the man stepping on Steve as she cried out. But just before her extended claws could tear at his composed face, a familiar voice called to her from the back.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Princess. After all, he’s barely alive after that. You wouldn’t want him to accidentally crush his head like a fruit now would you.”
Behind her, another man in black stood there with a relaxed expression. He had pale blonde hair and had the face of a Caucasian celebrity. His clear red eyes would have given him an exotic charm if it weren’t for the cruelty and malice shown in them.
“… Jean… why?”
Recognizing the man before her as Jean Olivander, one of her father’s most trusted warriors known as the Sanguine, she couldn’t help but be shocked as she slumped to the floor.
“It should really come to you as no surprise, Princess. After all, I was among those who agreed with Sir Roderick’s views. It’s unfortunate, but after all these years we can no longer let your father resume power in light of his current senility.”
His words laced in mockery, Lily’s eyes could only open to the truth before her. She indeed knew that there were those who were against her father’s decision to make peace with the wolves, but it was still being discussed with the other elders in the Coven. There were those, however, who took a more extreme approach that it split the very Coven – her very family – apart into two factions. The extremists called themselves the “Blood Mongers” and were led by Roderick Kain, the very man who her father trained to be the next Head Elder himself.
She knew there were others who showed mild dissatisfaction like Jean, but never did she expect that one of the Sanguine was willing to go this far despite all of them making a vow that they would not involve themselves in the conflict. After all, as an order created for the sole purpose of preserving the Coven itself, it wouldn’t end well for the vampires if their own martial authority would destroy themselves. Also, as they are the most trusted order of vampire warriors whose authority supersedes even the Elders during times of conflict, the strength of their members cannot be questioned.
“Now then, while we still have some form of civility… Princess Lillum Maval Nosfiera, by my authority as one of the Sanguine, you are under arrest for endangering the existence of the Coven… and for stealing the sacred relic for our Blood Rites.”
With a smug grin, Jean, nodded towards the shadows as another vampire appeared while holding onto a thorn-riddled collar. Seeing the collar, Lily shivered knowing the effects of the device they intend to put on her.
With a hoarse whisper, she cried “The Sinner’s Crown…”
“Oho, so you know about it. Indeed, the very device we use on our worst criminals. A parasitic object that inserts thorns onto every vessel and vein within the body as it slowly and painfully draws blood. As the daughter of the fool who would doom our kind, you deserve no less.
No worries, we still need you alive, Princess, so we’ll remove it before you expire… but by the time you’ve outlived your usefulness I’m not sure if you’d still have kept your mind by then. Hehe…”
As the vampire drew near with the ghastly collar, Lily couldn’t stop her tears. All things seemed to slow as she remembered all the moments in her life and the events that lead to the current situation. Quite young for a vampire at only 48 years, most of her time was spent with the love of her mother and father within her Coven. Being the only daughter of the Head Elder, she was doted on more than others, hence her naivety to the world.
This joy did not last long, however, as tensions rose between the Coven and the Pack, ruled by the werewolves, despite centuries of no conflict. With the cause unknown, this sudden hostility came with sacrifices, but wanting to preserve the balance and not cause a war amidst the humans, talks among the leaders lead towards marrying their young to strengthen their bonds.
A vampire and werewolf couple after all, could actually produce children of each other’s race as dictated in each of their records. However, many between both parties did not take this decision kindly. Not wanting to poison their lineage with each other’s blood, many opposed this decision. With the wers, the opposition was easily silenced as their community followed the rule of the strong, but it was not as simple for the vampires. Splitting their Coven, Roderick Kain created the Blood Mongers and rebelled against her father.
Of course, it wasn’t easy facing Lily’s father who was the strongest vampire that possessed the powers of their Ancients, so they chose an easier and more vulnerable target, Lily.
With this, it will soon be over… Father… Mother… I’m sorry… she thought as she prepared herself. Looking at her friend who had been unmoving all this time, she cried, “Steve… I’m really sorry… for dragging you into this… if I have the chance… I wanted us to have hung out some more… perhaps then, we could… maybe we could have been…”
But her voice failed as soon as the vampire with the collar was in front of her. Her vision slowly blurred from fear and her tears. In fact… it was so blurred, she could have sworn the vampire wasn’t there at all.
*CRASH*
If she could believe what she saw, it looked to her that the collar disappeared because the vampire holding onto it was thrown to the side as one of the others smashed into him.
“What!?” cried Jean when he saw who threw one of his men.
“Geez… *crack* if you wanted *snap* to hang out some more *pop* you could have just asked, you know?”
Shockingly, while cracking his neck and arms, Steve was there standing as if the situation was normal. The greater oddity was that one of his arms was shining an eerie silver and indigo, as if it were made of metal.
“All you needed to do was ask in a cute way then –“
Before Steve could finish his sentence, as he was distracted with giving Lily a lecture, Jean tackled him until he smashed him onto the wall. As one of the Sanguine, Jean’s surprise didn’t last long and he acted immediately as soon as he saw an opening. Seeing his daggers stuck onto Steve’s chest, he nodded as he spat at Steve in mockery.
“I don’t know what you are, but prattling away like a fool while knowing your enemy’s in front of you has cost you. You should be honored to die even if you were nothing but garbage in front of I, Jean Olivander of the Sangui – Hck!?”
While prattling away like a fool as well, Jean failed to notice a simple matter due to him flaunting his ego… and that despite stabbing Steve, there was no blood visible on his chest.
While grabbing Jean’s neck with a silvery claw attached to a shell-encased arm, Steve raised his head to stare at Jean in a bored manner as he said, “You know… for being one of those ‘noble’ vampires, you sure lack some manners. I mean, come on… did you have to spit on my face?”
As Steve complained, his body slowly changed while making cracking and popping sounds. Slowly, an armor-like shell started to cover his body like an exoskeleton as his height increased.
Jean realized that he was up against something he could never have imagined and tried to free himself from its grip, but… for the first time in his life, his vampiric strength failed him… making him realize that the creature in front of him… outclassed a vampire in power.
As Steve’s face continued to be incased by the shell, soon… what stared at Jean as it continued to mock him… could only be described as… a ‘monster’.
With a head like a beetle’s that’s haphazardly shaped like a man’s, it spoke, mandibles clicking with fangs bared, “Right… for being so rude, I should pay you back the favor.”
Opening its maw, liquid could be seen bubbling while emitting noxious fumes. Seeing this, Jean understood what it meant to do and started thrashing harder as he broke his fingers over clawing its arm. “Steve” then “spat” at him in the face.
“*hssss*GAAAAAAAAAAHH!!*hsss*”
Horrible sizzling sounds could be heard as the creature let go of Jean. He thrashed on the floor with his hands over his face, but bits of melted flesh can be seen seeping through his fingers.
“Hurts, doesn’t it? Now think about my feelings when you spat at me. Oh, and of course you should apologize to Lily as we – *SMASH* – Hey!”
It was surreal to see a large insect-like “man” trying to argue his point to a vampire with his face half-melted, but due to the creature’s negligence and an impressive strength of will in Jean’s part, he managed to smash through the window to escape.
Cursing the tediousness of having to chase after him, the monster followed suit. Seeing Jean as he crashed onto the pavement, the monster landed right on top of him with a nasty *crunch* and *squelch* as it crouched over from on top of him.
“Nice try, but don’t think there’s any hope for you to run. After all, the spit isn’t all that I owe you for.”
Despite the monster mocking him, Jean started to chuckle as he spat out blood.
“Foolish abomination… I don’t know what you are, but you’ve made a mistake if you think I tried to run. MONGERS!! KILL THIS MONSTROSITY!”
As soon as Jean yelled out, more than twenty cloaked figures appeared from the shadows while surrounding the monster. Jean was confident that if he alone wasn’t enough, then two-dozen Mongers that he trained himself should suffice. No matter how strong, any creature would fall to a continuous onslaught especially from trained vampires that could almost match the Sanguine.
“Hehehe… *riiiip*”
That is of course… only if the creature followed the norm…
Ripping out one of its arms as it laughed, Jean and the other vampires couldn’t help but think the monster was insane. But soon, horror enveloped their faces as they saw the monster opened its maw to take a bite.
“*CRUNCH* GUUUUUAAAAAGH!”
As Jean screamed once more from having his entire right arm chewed off, the monster greedily devoured it from the shoulder to the fingers. Soon, the terror didn’t end there as the abomination’s torn left arm started to pulsate and burst. Soon, a fresh new arm grew in its place.
“Heh… if you can kill me, I daresay… you all better give me your best shot!” yelled out the monster as many limbs of scythes, rippers, and blades grew from its back as it looked upon them all not as enemies… but as prey.
***
Back in the apartment room, Lily stayed seated on the floor still in a daze. What happened? she thought, as the recent events still weren’t quite real for her. Steve… or at least she thinks it was… turned into a grotesque bug-man, and saved her from Jean and his men. With what happened being so bizarre, she started pinching herself. Feeling the burning pain, she was sure she wasn’t imagining things.
Steve was… a monster? But wait… I’ve never heard of an insect wer… and how was he able to hide it from me? I should have been able to smell his blood to know if he was a wer!
Getting confused in a different way showed how closed her upbringing was from the world. She instantly convinced herself that Steve was actually some kind of wer. As she was wracking her brain, the monster soon entered from the open window covered in blood and gore. Startled, she soon turned to stare at Steve.
“… uh… well, how do I put this… um, boo?”
“STEVE!”
“Gack!”
As monstrous as it was, she only saw the monster as ‘Steve,’ so she didn’t even hesitate to jump tackle him, knocking him over.
“Hey! Hey! What are you? Are you some kind of bug wer? Bugbear? Are those real? C’mon, tell me!”
As if his head wasn’t already shaken before, being suddenly tackled then bombarded with questions while mounting him, Steve was just utterly stunned.
“Heeeey! Why aren’t you answering me? Huh!? Could it be you’re actually hurt!? Tell me so I can help you!”
“Alright, alright! Keep your panties on, geez! For starters – gack!?”
With his rude remark that made her turn beet red and teary eyed, she stuck her thumbs in his mouth then started to pull at his lips while saying, “This dirty mouth needs to learn its lesson!”
“Awrigh, schtahp owreay – blech! Do you see these mandibles? You could have lost your thumbs if I wanted to bite you!”
“But I know you wouldn’t, so there!”
“Ugh…”
As the both of them soon calmed down, they soon sat facing each other while staring at each other with a different expression. While Lily looked excited to listen, Steve on the other hand looked like he was trying to find a way to run away. The first to break the silence, is Steve…
“First off, I’m not a wer… but I guess you could say I’m close? Like I was designed to be?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that I was made… not born… I was made into this… thing… by people who thought they were above everything in this world.”
With hesitation evident, it was clear that Steve didn’t want to talk about this, but Lily in her curiosity tried to get him to talk some more.
“Milady, I believe that’s enough. It would be rude to Master Steve if you continue to pester him about his personal matters.”
A familiar voice spoke from beside them and as they both turned, they saw a devilishly handsome man with lustrous gray hair and red eyes with a part of his face covered in dried blood. Kain, Lily’s guardian stood there as if he was enjoying the scene before him while covered in blood.
“Kain! What took you so long? And you know Steve?” Lily asked in confusion.
“I’m truly sorry for being late, as unfortunately I was forced to fight as well. As for Master Steve, I met him some time ago as he helped me take care of some business. During that time when you were chased, I soon found you and saw that he was taking care of your wounds while you were asleep. Afterwards, I requested for his aid in taking care of you.”
“Yeah, now that I think about it, that was a pain. I mean look at this! My apartment’s ruined! How are you gonna pay me back for this? You even still owe me!”
“I truly cannot apologize enough…”
While the two were having this exchange, Lily on the side was pouting since she found that she didn’t need to keep her friend a secret after all. A vampire and a human could never truly be friends unless the human was willing to turn, so she felt betrayed when it turned out that Kain knew all this time. But soon, she pushed these thoughts away as she remembered something important.
“…Steve.”
“Hmm?”
When Lily called out to him, he slowly changed back to his human form as he faced her.
“You said you’d hang out with me more, right?”
Normally, he’d make fun of her here by claiming otherwise, but after seeing how serious Lily was, he knew it wasn’t the time.
“Right, I did say that.”
“But we can’t hang out while the Blood Mongers are still after me.”
That’s a given, so what is she trying to say? Steve thought to himself, although he felt he already knew the answer.
“I know it’s dangerous and to be honest… I’m still scared, but… I want us to be able to hang out some more, so… will you help me?”
Staring at him with intense eyes, Steve couldn’t help but look away. Seeing his reaction, she couldn’t help but frown while looking down and thinking maybe it wasn’t right for her to ask. But soon, she felt a warm hand pat her on her head.
“Geez, what’s with you? I was gonna come along anyway since these bastards tore my place apart. I mean, seriously! The landlady’s gonna kill me! I’m gonna need to shake down some cash from those guys so I can pay for all this!”
Although his reasons are different, it didn’t stop Lily from showing the brightest smile he’s ever seen and running to hug him. At a loss on what to do, Steve turned to Kain, but he only smiled and said, “With Master Steve’s help, I’m sure we’ll be able to easily stop my brother.”
With that, Steve sighed and looked at the happy little girl still hugging him. While patting her head, for the first in a long time... he had an honest smile.
