The royal library is in the eastern side of the castle. Its been dug about half a floor below ground level, so it should be in decent shape compared to rest of the castle unless the tremors have damaged it badly. I can have some hope, right?

My mind starts wandering to places as I’m heading towards the library from my memories. My thoughts keep steering to the shocking view that opens some kilometers north from here.

The image of the man who ordered the catastrophe floats to my mind: King Jonathan the First. I had come to quite like the man who cared for his subjects, was easily amused and didn't have a very kingly air to him. Not that I ever met him personally. He’s probably dead too.

These memories I have make me feel more than a little conflicted about this all. This place feels like home, despite being totally foreign at the same time. I feel nostalgic while thinking about people who are long since dead and are complete strangers to me. I feel weirdly sympathetic for the corpses scattered all over the capital, despite them being just lesser undead or just bones, with nothing left inside them that would identify them as whoever they were while they still were living Cresta’s citizens.

Without even realizing, my feet start leading me towards the king’s work office on the third floor.

I wonder how he would feel if he knew what his actions have resulted in. He wanted to save his citizens, but instead ended up wiping his kingdom off the map overnight. Of course, he couldn’t have known that in advance, but still...

The sound of my footsteps are getting somewhat softened by the dust on the stone floor. I turn to the familiar hallway, which is in surprisingly good shape. The sun, Solas, is still low, but is starting to shine down to the city below, behind the broken windows of the castle. I’m on the western side of the castle so I don’t have to worry about the sun shining in for a while. I turn my face back towards the place I’ve visited several times, and find the door to the king’s work office to be open.

I tilt my head in confusion while walking closer. They were never left open in my memories. Has someone been here since then?

The remains of the two Royal Guards, who were always standing on both sides of the door, are lying faithfully on their assigned posts. The heavy armor and broadsword are in surprisingly good condition, same for the staff. It must be some special wood of some sort to last in so good shape after all these decades. I wouldn’t even be surprised if it’s of elven origin.

I would take the sword as a replacement for my spear, but it’s a bit too large to be practical to lug around. It’s over two thirds of my height. I’ll rather stick to my spear, which is has better reach and is thinner, making it easier to carry. And I have the daggers for very close combat.

But couldn’t I use the staff? It has almost the same reach as the spear, being two meters long. It’s slightly thicker but not too much. Even if it’s meant to be used for magic, it can probably be used as a decent blunt weapon since it has lasted decades without damage. If I need something sharp I can just use my claws or the daggers.

The staff is also much better looking than my rusted iron pole, with its beautiful silvery inlays. The thicker end has some kind of fist sized and hard looking blue crystal orb, firmly attached into a shiny bluish metal setting. The looks are a totally important factor!

I wonder what has been used for the carvings, it looks like silver but I don’t think it is that. It probably wouldn’t look this good after such a long time if it was just silver. I’ll have to look for an expert sometime to appraise the staff and its materials. 

“Sorry,” I mumble to the corpse, while I switch its staff with my spear. I had gotten a bit attached to my first ever ‘self-made weapon', but I’ll eventually have to let it go anyway. It’s not a proper weapon.

I step away from the skeleton and walk into the work office.

The room is empty, not to my surprise. It’s difficult to assess from the layer of dust if anyone has walked here… I can maybe see a couple of trails with less dust across the room, but it’s hard to say. Regardless, it's been a long time if someone was here since the Wave of Death.

The desk doesn’t have anything on it. I glance at the bookshelves on the left wall and both the shelves and their books seem to be in quite bad shape and nobody seems to have touched them. Well, I guess I got excited over nothing when the door was open.

Before finally going to the royal library, I decide to check the personal bedrooms of the royal family on this floor since I’m nearby anyway and the throne room in the first floor. Something’s nagging at me in the back of my head but I can’t quite place my finger on what is it.

It has struck me as a bit odd, that there are no undead anywhere inside the castle. All of them are just immobile corpses (there’s a lot of them), unless I go to the courtyard. Well, it’s not like I’ve seen any undead inside other buildings either, other than Mr. Skeleton. Maybe they seek to go inside only during daytime? I suppose I’ll find out soon enough, since day is approaching.

…

I find only two corpses inside the Crown Prince’s chambers. One of them is the prince himself, deducing from the jewelry on the skeleton. The other is probably his maid or adjutant. I bow before leaving the room and close the doors behind me.

I stop for a moment in front of the princess’s bedroom, hesitating. I don’t want to enter. I have a feeling like I need to keep these doors closed or something would break. I don’t know what would break, but something would, maybe. It’s already enough for me to know she has died at the Tower. She seemed like a fun and nice person, though she had some silly habits. Thinking about them brings a smile to my face.

Skipping the princess's room, I head for the last bedroom. The king and queen’s chambers only have two corpses, but I can’t identify either of them. They are lying right next to the door so I believe them to be guards or something. However, they are not the regular Royal Guards, since they are lacking the very distinctive armor or weapons. They have beautifully crafted short swords next to them.

...

I have to move to the throne room much more carefully, which is a bit further away and two floors lower, as the tendrils of my shiny nemesis are invading inside more frequently in this more damaged portion of the castle.

The double doors of the throne room are open and there are several sets of Royal Guards’ armors with their corpses scattered on the floor. There are various other less-clothed corpses as well along with their staffs. I can see the queen’s corpse, with a crown on its skull, sitting on the left side of the king’s empty throne.

Frowning and scratching the back of my head, I look at the scene for a moment. Sighing, I bow at the queen, turn on my heels and start finally going to check if the royal library is still in okay condition. I took quite a detour overall, so it will take a while to get there while avoiding spots where the sun shines into. My eyes are getting a bit irritated at the brightness.

So I couldn’t find what I was looking for after all.

 

---

 

I’m standing in front of two beautifully decorated white wooden doors, almost four meters in height and two in width. Looks like the library’s doors are intact, at the very least. I hope the inside is in as good shape, I’d really like to learn more about the world and myself. The ‘book of knowledge’ inside my head still has many chapters ripped off of it.

I push the doors in.

The doors feel really light (when will I learn?) and what opens in my eyes is not the library I expected, but a semi-transparent yet solid looking black wall, right behind the doors.

“Eh!?” with a shocked yelp  I stumble forward as I had put way too much weight and force into my push. My eyes close and I throw my arms instinctively forward to prevent my face from slamming into the wall.

I regain my balance after a couple of meters, without hitting a wall.

“Huh?” opening one eye carefully, I notice I’m inside the library. A quick glance tells me there are no windows here and the ceiling seems intact. I look behind me, eyes wide open with confusion.

The black… wall thing is still there, barely visible in front of the doors, which had closed down on their own as they should. It doesn’t look nearly as obvious as it did from the other side.

“What the..?” I carefully stretch my hand towards the doors. My hand slips through the dark veil, sending ripples through its surface.

“Is this… shadow magic? But why?”

A realization pops to my mind and I spin around, scanning the inside of the library frantically in more detail. Against my expectations, I can’t see anybody. I’d thought the person or thing that is behind this magic would be here with me.

I breathe out, as tension leaves me. I’m not actually sure if I’m relieved or disappointed about being alone now. It’s probably better that I’m alone, but I had felt a strange sense of exhilaration at the possibility of getting to talk with someone.

Just to make sure that nobody’s hiding here, I walk around the room and check between and behind all the rows of shelves. There are some pieces of the ceiling on the floor and the shelves, which leads me to realize that the roof has been patched up on the northern end of the library with seemingly random pieces of wood and metal. I’m not sure how they have been attached, but it’s a really crude looking patchwork.

Someone has definitely been here. There’s quite a bit of dust everywhere, but there are signs that things have been moved around and someone has walked here over the past years and months, maybe even recent weeks. Some of the few desks and tables only have a thin layer of dust on them. Most of the books seem to be in a fairly good condition. There are some piles of books laid next to a smaller round table near the corner of the room.

The library itself is quite large, probably about 50 – 70 meters in each direction with a height of six meters. I can't help but wonder just how valuable this place is, considering how rare and expensive books are. There are a few ladders scattered around, leaning on the shelves.

This place holds all the history of the kingdom and probably a lot of other hard to come by knowledge. I can finally fill the blanks still left in my knowledge about the world, this continent and maybe most importantly, myself. I hope there are some books that give me more details about pure vampires or vampires in general so I don’t have to… experiment on myself. And maybe other undead too, it will be faster to read than to do what I did with Mr. Skeleton.

It’ll probably take quite a long time, even if I don’t bother with more specific and detailed books, since this library is quite huge. Oh yes, and this library should also have a good amount of books related to magic. I’ll probably end up spending several nights and days here. I’ll go hunt at night and read in the day. Yes, that’ll be the plan. What a treasure trove, I’m glad this place is intact! If only the royal armory was accessible too.

I shouldn’t get too comfortable though. I could run into the person who’s been here earlier. I’m not sure if the person knows about my existence yet, I should keep vigilant while moving around the castle from now on. Just because the person uses Moon magic, doesn’t mean they’ll be friendly to a vampire.

“Wait… magic?” with a loud slap I hit my palm on my forehead as thoughts of self-contempt rush my head.

How could I forget? How did it never come to my mind before? I’m able to use magic! Why didn’t I even think about it? How stupid can I be!? I feel like an idiot now. Yes, I’m an idiot.

I’m not sure if I would’ve had an easier time over the past day and two nights, but it would've probably helped with hunting in the woods.

Vampires are supposed to be, like, super strong at magic. Especially us, the pure vampires. There are not many races in the world that can rival the magic potential of a pure vampire. Ancient dragons and old elves are probably the only ones who are stronger from the ones that have lived on this continent.

We are practically Moon element mana and mass of mindless spectres that have condensed so densely overtime,  that they gain a physical form. I did gain the knowledge from Moon Goddess Lunea about my natural abilities upon birth, but somehow magic still completely slipped my mind soon after. Maybe it’s just all the new information that overwhelmed me.

Now I’m super curious about trying all magic. For now I can probably only use the magic that is natural to vampires though: shadow magic, including the vampires’ unique transformation. It should be pretty easy for me to learn other forms of magic too, once I go through some books here and gain some actual experience outside. But for now, I should probably stick to practicing natural magic, for the sake of this library’s safety, if for nothing else.

Never mind that! More importantly…

I close my eyes and imagine the darkest form of darkness I can, which is fairly easy for me; I spent a good time in such a space. I imagine it spreading from the core of my body to the floor surrounding me. I feel like something’s flowing down my legs and open my eyes.

Semi-transparent, barely visible dark substance similar to the veil at the door is unevenly spreading three meters around me. I crouch to touch it. It’s a bit weird; it acts a bit like gas, but feels like very thin liquid or soft cloth. I concentrate on moving it around, and the 'shadow' spreads to the direction in a way I imagine.

I can even lift it off the floor, make it create shapes and have it climb the walls and bookshelves. The range seems to reach as far as this room, so I’m not sure what my range limit is. It’s at least 30 or 40 meters in all directions, as I’m about in the middle of the room.

“Wow, this is really easy! As expected of a natural ability,” I imagine pulling in the shadows and they recede back into my body. What an odd feeling, is this how a towel would feel like when dumped into a puddle? I don’t feel wet, though. How confusing.

I’m pretty sure shadow magic is supposed to block the sense of vision. Does that mean my eyes can see even through that? After all, I can see through my own magic and the wall of shadow at the doors. There’s always been a tiny bit of light coming in from somewhere in places I’ve been in before, no matter how small it is. Or maybe it’s the vampires’ supposed immunity to Moon element magic in general. Hard to say, before I learn more about the subject.

Shadow magic should also be able to block any sounds and smells. I need to practice how that works tonight, it should be useful in hiding my footsteps while hunting. ‘But wait, shadows are not supposed to work like that,’ is what foreign scholars are known to claim sometimes. The name of the magic has come from a common misconception, caused by how the magic looks dark and shadow-like. How it works is closer to how illusion magic can cause hallucinations.

Okay, next up the transformation.

I inspect my body for a bit and close my eyes again. I try to feel every part of my body and form a mental image of myself. Then I imagine the said image dispersing into the surroundings. A weird…lack of feeling, like I was still floating in the darkness before I saw my first of the 56 memories, washes over me as I lose all sense of touch.

I open my eyes again and see that I’m in middle of a dark mist. I try moving around and my point of view moves within the room as I imagine, followed by the mist. Wow, this is so cool!

I can move in all directions, even high up close to the ceiling, but can’t seem to be able to touch objects: the ‘mist’, or my ‘body’, just moves through or around objects. I get back close to the floor level and imagine my physical body again.

The fog concentrates fast and to my confusion, instead of standing normally, I suddenly fall straight down to my face without time to brace myself.

“Huh? Why?”

A weird tingling sensation spreads downwards from my ankles, followed by a sharp pain soon after. Somehow I manage to swallow the cry from the unexpected pain.

A quick, teary glance at my feet reveals that they are missing, cut from the ankles. Blood is pouring out, but the feet are rapidly growing back. My eyes grow wide in shock, but after less than four seconds, before I even have any time to panic, the feet are in as good shape as ever with no sign of the pain I had been feeling for a moment.

Sighing deeply and rubbing my feet to make sure they are really okay, I come to the conclusion that I must’ve materialized myself too close to the floor and my feet ended up inside it. There’s a puddle of blood on the spot where I was supposed to be standing when I materialized. My mist can't pass through solid objects but my body's dimensions will always be the same when I materialize.

That’s super dangerous! It’s fun and useful, but oh my Lunea is it dangerous! I don’t want to guess what happens if I materialize when halves of my mist body are on different sides of a heavily built desk.

A bit traumatized by the incident, I decide to leave further experiments to a later time. Speaking of later time, I wonder how long I’ve spent here.

A peek into the corridor rewards me with a headache and blotches in my eyes after having been in dark for so long. Without delay I slam the doors shut and walk over to the small round table to see what kinds of books the previous visitor has been reading.

They are mostly books about death magic and theory behind magic rituals and spells performed by several casters.

Rising my eyebrows in surprise, I’m again reminded of the scene north of the city.

The Wave of Death, why did it fail? I had completely forgotten about it when I realized I could use magic.

It is probably related to these books. Or it’s perhaps better to say the result is most likely an inherent flaw in magic cast by multiple people.

Let’s just read what these books say first, maybe I’ve missed something. I’m grateful to my memories for giving me the knowledge to read the common continental language.

 

---

 

Closing the fifth book, I rub my temples and look at the doors that have remained shut since I came here. I need a break.

I walk outside, holding my hand in front of my eyes just in case. It’s quite bright, but not painfully so. It’s early evening, probably looks so bright because I’ve been in the dark for so long. I can probably go hunting in an hour or two.

Well, that’s convenient. I can mull over my thoughts about what I already knew and what I learned from the books.

I dust off a sofa on the right side of the library while covering my nose (I've learnt to hate dusting) and bring one of the magic theory books plus a couple of history books and leave the latter two on the floor. I slump on the sofa and riffle through the book while stopping at the most crucial parts.

I think I’ve confirmed my theory. It’s pretty clear why this all happened. It all comes down to the third law of magic.

The first two laws of magic are simple. The caster just needs the elemental energy the countless elemental spirits are radiating into their surroundings. Then they need to sense and absorb the spirit energy into their magic cores, and convert the elemental spirit energy into elemental mana. Most beings are capable of doing that at least to some extent. Those who can’t are unable to use magic at all.

I flip a few pages ahead on the book.

The third law is the hardest one: the filtering. The magic user can’t absorb just one specific element of spirit energy into their magic core. It comes in from all spirits equally. The key is to mentally filter the different elements inside the magic core. Only the element used in the spell must be left, the others must be expelled.

Then the caster needs to imagine the effect of the magic. It’s quite mentally straining for most people and requires strong imagination and understanding of the element, which is why only a portion of the populace is able to become proper mages, at least among most races.

If the filtering fails and mana of multiple elements is mixed into the spell, it backfires on the user with high risk of mental or physical damage and/or corruption. For trained mages filtering mana is not difficult. It just requires concentration.

Technically, only the caster’s imagination and the amount of mana their magic core can hold are the limits for what kind of magic can be used. Incantations are often used to help in forming the mental image of the spell. It’s pretty simple when you think about it objectively.

I close the book with a slap, throw it on a desk and sigh.

However, magic becomes exponentially more difficult as multiple casters are added into the equation. Their mental image of the spell needs to be identical. It’s not hard to realize why things can go wrong when multiple people are added in.

Fifty-six people. That’s how many sorcerers were casting the same spell.

Did they all have an identical image of the effects of the large area death magic? A spell, which had probably never been used in the history of the country or the continent before, which would kill only those who the caster considers enemies, while protecting those they wanted to protect.

I doubt it.

My face crumples as I think about it.

They all were strong sorcerers. They and the king were not stupid. They had the same knowledge as I do. They should’ve seen the risks of a large spell which had to be cast by so many people. Why would they gamble on something like that?

Well, I know why they did, but I still can’t accept it.

I don’t even know why I’m feeling this way. Humans are food for me. Why should I care? I haven’t seen any humans, but when I try to imagine one, I don’t feel a shred of doubt about feeding on it. So why do I feel so annoyed when I think about what has happened here? Is it the memories? But they aren't even mine, even though I keep saying 'my memories'! I can’t think of an answer and it’s really gnawing at me.

Quickly sitting up, I grab one of the books from the floor and throw it in frustration at the doors some distance away. It impacts the door with a bang and the the book breaks apart into a flurry of pages.

“Haa… what’s wrong with me?”

Shaking my head I grab the other history book from the floor, titled The Era of Wars and Unions (1600 – 6200 ACS).

Year 6200 huh, so I guess that’s over 400 years ago, if I remember the year from the memories even remotely correct. Never hurts to learn more history. Guess I’ll spend a moment with this to distract my thoughts before heading outside.

 

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