Ancestral Lands of the Vampires

Sydiche, A Secure room at the bottom of the keep

 

In a stone room at the bottom of the keep was a pale elven woman bound in thick chains, securing her in the center of the room. These chains wrapped her arms, legs, and torso. The walls of this room were covered in random scribbles in a black tar that was ink-like. These scribbles were also on the floor and the ceiling.

 

They appeared completely uniform, as if the brush that had penned the large scribbles in a single stroke, and they didn't vary much in size. Following the chains back to the woman, you would find she was whiter than paper. Black veins pushed against her skin, slightly raising above the white flesh. This blackening had also invaded her lips and gums, but the most striking was her eyes.

 

Her face was blank as if she was trapped in some fever dream, her eyes not focused on anything in front of her. Out of the neck, a change happened, as a long back tendril seemed to stretch out of her skin. It looked like a liquid that was pouring out of her, as it stretched towards the ceiling in a straight line. Once it contacted its ceiling, it began to madly dance around, as if searching for something.

 

This dance that the tendril made left behind a line of black ink on the ceiling. The bound woman seemed completely unaware of all of this, as the tendril stretched back down to her body, and sank back into her skin. This process repeated a few moments later, as a new tendril reached out towards the wall, adding another black scribble on the wall.

 

A large metal door on the far side of the room was slowly opened, as a man with blonde and white hair walked into the room slowly. The bound woman seemed to undergo a transformation, as she began to violently struggle in her chains. Inhuman shrieks like the sound of a banshee were issued repeatedly from the women's lips, as she struggled with a fierce expression against the chains.

 

The man was middle-aged, and he had a fanatical gleam in his red eyes. His blonde hair was now shot with a deep gray, and he was covered in deep pockmarks. The man smiled widely, showing a single fang, all the teeth on the right side of his mouth were shattered.

 

“My daughter, the queen of the Black Scrawl” The man said with a quivering voice. “The Demon God has not abandoned the vampires!”

 

The man pulled open the robes on his toned body, showing a horrifying scene below them. The man's skin was covered in black frozen welts with shards of metal buried inside. Sometimes when the man would breathe out, a cloud of cold mist would appear. Digging out the accursed metal would involve ripping his fragile, frozen bones apart.

 

The man took a step forward as an array of black tendrils all reached forward and began to compete to reach the man. The tendrils all seemed to have a limit to how far they could reach, as they seemed to lose cohesion and were suddenly retracted back to the woman. A new tendril would soon form and stretch out from her body, like black oil leaking from pale white paper.

 

The man took one slow step after another, spreading his arms widely the robes, turning into a red fluid and retracting into his body through the soles of his feet. It made him seem almost like a hungry plant, as the pool formed of his clothes was greedily sucked up.

 

“I shall become your apostle, and spread your message to those foolish demons!” The man said with a drunk expression as he moved forward as if in a trance.

 

From the doorway of the stone room, a young face peeked through the door. She saw the bound woman and her father moving towards her. A look of horror appeared on her face as she called out.

 

“Father! No, Don't!” She screamed out in anguish.

 

-

6 months earlier...(3 days since the last chapter)

Ancestral lands of the vampires

Sydiche, Over the main town

 

Anna could see a small stone keep coming into focus below her, it was tucked into the valley of a canyon. The grounds were a type of deep brown sand, completely different from the hard brown rock that surrounded the canyon. In the courtyard of the keep were the remnants of a pond that once stood in the center of the canyon. The first vampire had come from an extinct desert race of four-armed monkey beastmen.

 

This pond is where he became infected by the vampire plague. Its carrier was a thick black leech that carried a special parasite inside of its blood. Her father had been the progenitor's first victim, and the first to retain his sanity. He later turned on, and killed his creator, then established the Corvollin line of vampires. Her father retained all of the same abilities as the progenitor, including the ability to subordinate lesser vampires who shared his blood.

 

The vampires had chosen to remain at this location for several reasons, the main one being the large network of tunnels that ran underground. These tunnels connected to an ancient dwarven settlement the vampires had slowly extinguished and turned into their minions. The original food source of these dwarves had been a type of monster worm that looked like a large white earthworm. The new dwarven minions were used to raise these creatures, to provide a stable food source for the vampires.

 

The main keep was in a mockery of high elven style, they built tall round structures that resembled towers with domes. This was all made of a stone material that used a special plaster made from clay. Even though he was just a measly woodcarver, he still held a large amount of pride. This ruined and half-maintained keep was his pride and joy. This is where he raised his son and his two daughters.

 

Vampires had two ways to pass on their blood, one was by infecting another target with their blood, and the other was finding a host with a similar physical body. As long as the two vampires were of a similar species, then a child would be born between them. This would be made possible through their blood, even beastmen races that weren't normally able to breed together.

 

Anna flew quickly down into a hole made in the wall of the stone structure. Crawling several inches through the stone lead her into a round stone room that was surrounded by guards. The dark room was as bright as morning in her eyes, and she was able to see the blank expressions on the guard's faces. Vampirism through infection lead to a severe decrease in intelligence, these guards would only know to attack something that didn't share the same bloodline.

 

Tens of thousands of these creatures were stored throughout their ancestral lands. The vampires had joined the demon army only recently, they were only created in the last few hundred years. This guarded room had one major purpose, clothes. 4 large racks stood, but only 3 were used. Her mother's rack was to her left, and her sister's rack was to her right. At the far right was the abandoned 4^th rack of clothes. The rack contained male clothes, mostly elven formal wear, it was all covered in the dust though.

 

Anna grabbed a dress and tossed it over her frame, not caring how it fit. She immediately followed the stairs in the corner of the room that headed down. These stairs continued to pass into the dark as the walls slowly became rougher and rougher. Before long she came out in a large formal room with a large throne at one end. The large room was carved to look much like an elven throne room, and it was made of tiers that slowly rose towards the top.

 

An attendant who served the clan was waiting in the throne room for any of the main members of the clan. Anna could feel a throb in the back of her head that had started a few days ago, looking at the woman wearing robes with pale skin and pointed ears she began to yell out demands.

 

“Where is father at?” She called.

 

“He was called by the Demon Lord yesterday, and he had to depart. Your mother went to attend him.” The servant said as she bowed.

 

This had become a common occurrence since her father had replaced Kera, as the demon's spymaster.

 

“Do you know when he will be back?” Anna asked as her rage slowly began to build.

 

The servant noticed the change in her young mistress, she carefully answered with all that she knew.

 

“He never tells us anything, I just know that your mother was insistent on accompanying him. Please mistress, the longest he has been gone was one month,” The servant said carefully.

 

He was gone a month the last time her parents had gone, her mother seemed worried about him. Every time they were called it seemed to take longer and longer. This information caused the barely contained anger in Anna to snap. Reaching up she made an open-handed gesture, before snapping it closed into a fist.

 

The servant staggered and fell to her knees, as a look of horror appeared on her face. She made a heaving motion as she coughed up a stream of blood. She looked at her mistress in horror as she continued to choke out one mouthful after another. Before she could question whether her end would come, she suddenly felt relief on her body, and her blood stopped rebelling.

 

“Enough!” A little voice called.

 

A young girl who looked to be in her early teens walked into the room wearing a light dress. As Anna's younger sister, she was able to contest her blood control over the servant.

 

“What's gotten into you?!” The girl yelled at Anna.

 

The little girl got within a few feet of Anna who was seething in rage at her. The little girl's nose suddenly started to wrinkle as she took some deep sniffs at the air. Her eyes wrinkled in confusion as she looked at her sister.

 

“You stink.” She told Anna.

 

Anna was shocked for a few seconds, driving her anger away. Suddenly she sniffed her own body and realized she smelled like fish. This was because she plunged into the ocean to avoid the succubus who was chasing her, then she was forced to feed on whatever monsters that came near her. This was how she battled the minute amount of sunlight that reached through the ocean's waters. She reeked of a fishy monster.

 

This must be why I have been so angry, I have been smelling myself this whole time!

 

-

Meanwhile...

Succubus Homeland, Abandoned Succubus House

 

Chemical weapons had been banned in war, as a part of the Geneva Conventions that were signed after world war 2. Just like all things that humanity likes to put on a pedestal, it had several noticeable holes. Rex had seen chemical weapons being used constantly on people all over the world, it was in a form very few people ever even thought about.

 

An image appeared in his head of his twenties.

 

A large group of people was standing in front of their local congressman's building holding up signs. They were all yelling and screaming about what they felt was wrong with the system. Rex was trying to make his way through the crowd of people so he could enter the building and dispute the changes in his property tax.

 

The small one-bedroom house he owned had suddenly raised in value over 30,000 dollars, this caused his taxes to skyrocket. His hair had already begun receding, as he was working on getting through college. The house he was living in was gifted to him by his grandmother, she had lived there while staying close to her husband before she passed away a few years ago.

 

As it was close to his campus, it was gifted to the young man.

 

Rex looked up as he saw police wearing riot gear, walking out of the building with plastic shields and gas masks. They came out in rows and made formations. Some of them extended out batons as they began to beat the ground with them, this was followed by silver canisters flying into the crowd issuing a thick smoke.

 

The crowd instantly began to feel an itching feeling, as their eyes and nose began to run. This caused the angry mob to began running in every direction, as the cans of tear gas were tossed out.

 

Rex shook his head at the contradiction that was left inside the conventions. It was more of a silent agreement that all of the nations agreed to look the other way on. The effects of tears gas exposure weren't even fully understood, a lot of governments would forcefully stop any kind of report like that. That was because even short-term studies found that tear gas usually had many negative effects on the body.

 

Tear gas was a very interesting weapon when you found out just how it worked. That was because it was an exothermic reaction that worked much like an explosion that produced massive amounts of smoke and oxygen. Charcoal, potassium nitrate, potassium chlorate, and calcium carbonate. These are what Rex was using to produce a thick oxygen-rich smog, this would be used to carry the gas he had produced.

 

Reactions like this one were also used in submarines, but with slightly different chemicals. They were used to produce candles that released a massive amount of oxygen when they burned. The heat was used to boil ethanol that would carry the toxins, these would then be pushed into the air and the fog. Rex was very experienced in making tear gas, his company was one of the largest manufacturers.

 

The grenade in his hand looked like an aerosol can, the top had a lever and a pin. Squeezing the lever against the body of the can, he was able to draw the pin out. Rex stood holding it as he ensured the lever had no way to detach while it was in his hand, he was carefully checking the fit. Rex shook his head in disappointment, as he saw several defects in its manufacturing.

 

Rex tossed the grenade in the corner of the room as he picked up a notepad and paper, carefully taking notes of the problems he saw. The lever snapped off the can by a mechanical spring as soon as it left his hand. A loud click was heard as the striker engaged the fuse, and smoke was released from the grenade head. This was followed by a loud cracking noise that shot the head of the grenade off, before thick smoke began to violently push out of the grenade, causing it to spin around on the ground.

 

“That was 3 seconds, they barely even put a fuse on it! Are they trying to blow themselves up?!” Rex remarked in shock as he furiously wrote notes.

 

His white wig and thick eyebrows still stood on his head. Whatever that succubus guard had used as an epoxy, he wasn't able to get it off. Rex was devastated to find out he would have to wait for it to slowly peel off. His dirty blonde hair had started re-growing again, but it was currently just stubble on his scalp. Rex stood up and started breathing in the smoke deeply.

 

“Oh yeah, that is really poisonous!” He said as he was instantly given a headache from it.

 

Rex shook his head, as he walked to the door with the clipboard in hand. Pushing it open, he instantly walked out into the air.

 

“Blue.” He called to the two slim bracelets on his wrists.

 

The creature instantly began to liquefy, as it cleaned out all of the bacteria on his body. Rex had just finished testing the gas grenades, the explosives had worked very well. They used only C4 as the main explosive compound, they tended to vaporize their targets. Toluene was gathered from gasses that were released when you burned wood at high temperatures, it was then reacted with nitric acid and sulfuric acid.

 

TrinitroToluene was the color of a mustard yellow powder that was originally marketed as a dye for clothes. It was used as a yellow dye for three decades before its explosive nature was recognized. If you were born in the late 1800s in Germany, and you bought an ugly yellow coat. There was a very good chance it was dyed with TNT.

 

The yellow powder was considered so insensitive it was harmless, its destructive capability was discovered completely by mistake. The story goes they were using nitroglycerin to try to find more powerful explosives from it. During this process they spilled some on an ugly yellow jacket, it was then detonated by mistake. The force of the nitroglycerin was able to activate the TNT, ripping the table to pieces.

 

This was also how almost every nation ended up with access to the explosive, they had been selling it for decades without even realizing what it was capable of. TNT was often mixed with C4 to tamp down the explosions it released in wars. It was also really easy to use in mining. The mixture the island used was closer to the dynamite that Nobel invented, but lacking some of the ingredients.

 

Chemicals were always easier to work with than production machinery, that was because you usually only needed glass to start. Once you had glass, a hot plate, and ice, you were ready to go. These new explosives were expected to be put into rapid production, that was because these were way better than anything they were using before. Lead azide, C4, and Modern TNT would be the explosive trifecta of the succubi. Finished with his cleaning, he was finally ready to get back to work.

 

Rex was making his way to the site of his ruined lab, Bob had finished the entire project early. Rex was quite excited to have a proper lab again. Looking around his guards were keeping a distance, as they secured the perimeter of the abandoned house. Kira had been rotating them in batches since she returned, the two of them talked a lot that night. For the next few days, her mother would be helping her set up a defense network for the island.

 

Right now the plan was simple, build new weapons manufacturing plant using parts manufactured from the new machinery plant. The entire factory would be built into the mountain, and a chemical plant would be built on top of it. The plans were currently being drafted by Guffrey, who was an experienced architect. The two men had eagerly discussed making it the perfect place for the two of them to retire in. It would have everything the two men needed to scratch any project off their bucket lists.

 

It will be my dream job!

 

Guffrey had quoted him the insane time frame of 2 months to complete it. This was provided he had enough explosives and concrete to construct it. Kira had guaranteed him that this would be no problem, this was after he had done a demonstration of the C4 the other day. This was because their plans were accelerating, the situation on the mainland was getting bad for the beastmen.

 

The elves shared a long border with the beastmen separated by a long river that connected to the sea. The beastmen's side was a long plains on the south that slowly turned into a large rain forest and swamp the further north you went. They were pushing in two directions, along the coast, and along the north using a path through the swamp. Rex was certain they were after the large amounts of oil that were in that swamp, it seemed to be the base of their chemical weapon.

 

The two beastmen were going to be showing up on the mountain the next day to be fitted for weapons and armor. These would be sold to their new beast kings in return for resources in the beastmen's lands. Since Rex had finally had a breakthrough in the production of magical metals, he wanted to make even more. This meant he needed access to a lot of rare metals he just didn't have access to on the island. There were all kinds of metals that weren't commonly used, that might be used to make new things.

 

Rex had started to think that mana could be broken down into two categories, stable, and unstable. Stable compounds were like magical metals, as well as alchemical potions. Rex had yet to come into contact with these, he thought they were just snake oil originally. Now he was sending a mission to Dora to collect as much information on alchemy and spell casting as possible. Even if he couldn't use it, it would help him understand mana on a more fundamental level.

 

A thought suddenly occurred to Rex.

 

I'm done with explosives for a while... I don't need to worry about them anymore...

 

Rex paused as he was walking down the street, flanked by his guards. Tears began to lightly run down his eyes.

 

I need to design guns that the beastmen can carry when they run on all fours.

 

The next thing he would need to do was create machinery to allow the production of new magical engines. Then he and Kira would meet up in the new lab, and begin to rapidly research enchanting. Rex had realized that the vampire that attacked him had been exposed to the bacteria he produced, he hoped it was enough to kill her. Rex didn't have a whole lot of faith in this though, they were just that resilient.

 

Rex had come to terms with the fact that creatures would exist in this world that he wouldn't be able to explain. That was until Rex used some kind of weapon to kill them, then he could dissect them and figure out how they worked. This was important as Guffrey had informed him of something interesting, some monsters had natural circuits in their bodies that could mimic enchantments. This was a method he could use to safely increase his store of enchantments.

 

His guards were all staring at the man who looked like he was in deep concentration, as his eyebrows made his neutral expression seem very serious. Rex began walking forward as he carefully planned out the time he would be spending before the conference in a month.

 

Right now the image of Kira leading a large group of succubi in the air over a metal ship, and the construction workers acting as the crew holding guns and controlling cannons. Their boat would be smaller than the large elven ships, it would also be twice as fast as them. Their crew would be 40 men and 10 succubi per boat, with a fairly large cargo hold. They would also need to construct their dock, one that would be completely temporary.

 

These docks would be stockpiles that the succubi could use to store things near water. They could then work together to fly it to the ships, this would make it safer and easier. This was just until one of their beast kings could be used to take over a section near the ocean to build a new dock. They would need to push the elves out of the beastmen plains at the very least.

 

Rex suddenly paused as a large structure came into full view, his jaw almost hitting the floor. It was a giant 3 story structure, painted a pearl white color. It had large round pillars made of concrete to support a large slanted ceiling. The front of the building featured a large round atrium, and it was open air to cover a set of stairs that wrapped the base for a statue.

 

The building was 3 floors that were supported with large white pillars, and the walls were a mirrored glass. This was a treatment that used thin silver film mixed into plastic to produce a tint. It looked like a modern building had mated with a Greek temple. Walking into the atrium his breath was taken away again by what he saw being done to the ceiling.

 

A large mosaic was being painted of a beaverman standing on a damn that stretched as far as the eye could see along an ocean. The beaver had a reverent look as he pointed a finger toward the sky. Reaching from the sky was an image of Rex with the temple painted behind him in the clouds. He was reaching down and the man and beaver were connected at the finger. Rex had a very serious expression as he was being painted into the clouds.

 

What the hell is this painting!

 

Looking over he could see a beaverman standing with an excited expression on his hairy face. His teeth were messed up from all of the metal he chewed on. Rex was convinced he looked worse now than when he first saw him. The clean clothes only made his patchy fur all the more noticeable, he also looked like he had rabies if you just saw his eyes.

 

“Bob, what the hell is this?!” Rex yelled at the beaver.

 

“I fixed your lab.” The beaverman said in excitement.

 

When Rex saw the giant open space, he realized he would never be able to use it all. It was almost eighteen times the size of his old lab, it was massive. All three floors were giant and wide open. It was clear that Bob was waiting for him to figure out the internal floor plan for the walls. Looking around Rex could see his 100 workers, as well as 100 people from Charlice, and the Pride of Men. Doug was sitting in a corner with a lifeless expression on his face.

 

I got played by a damn beaver!