Dark clouds hovered high above the city of Simperty, rain and wind tapped on the windows of the houses, fell on the streets and chased after the few pedestrians going to work in the early hours of the day.
An ocean of droplets had covered the ground, streams led into the drain covers on the side of the pavement before falling like a waterfall into the sewer.
The sewer was organised like a maze of corridors with a long canal between two walkways. On occasion, you would see a bridge crossing the canal to facilitate the work of the sanitizing agents.
However, in recent years, the degradation of the bridges had become a problem and made it much more difficult for the city workers in charge of the sewer to do their job. One issue leading to another and the city had decided to reduce the number of personnel in charge of carrying the cleaning and maintenance in the sewer.
Unbeknownst to them, the degradation wasn’t caused by the rise of the polluted water, the vagrants that could sometimes be seen wandering in the darkness below the city or the few rare beasts that had made the sewer their home.
In a dirty tunnel that was on the farthest range of the sewer, there was a cardboard sticking to the ground, it had been stamped on too many times and was now sticking to the dirty walkway. An unknown substance had covered most of its initial appearance, turning it into an orange toxic item that would take a long time to get rid of.
Without a sound, a few figures covered in dark cloaks approached this tunnel.
One of the figures made a motion with his hand, creating a vivid red flame before it vanished, bringing back total darkness to the tunnel.
As if answering a call, the cardboard on the ground was lifted, revealing a man holding the hatch with one hand, his head peeked from the underground entrance at the strangers.
When he saw the red flame appear from one of the figures, he climbed the steps to let them in.
[Welcome to the Enigma shelter, all vampires are our friends, make your way in.]
The hidden figures moved to the stairs in silence, they disappeared one by one below the bunker’s entrance.
During this time, the guard who had opened the latch examined them with attention, in particular, he paid attention to their eyes.
Each of them had red eyes, telling proof of belonging to the Vampire race.
…..
At this early hour of the day, the residents of the Enigma shelter were gathering in the common hall to share breakfast. A vast majority of the vampires in attendance were children and teenagers. The adults, only representing 20% of those present in the hall.
There was one exception to the rule of having to gather in the common hall to share meals. One family in the shelter, the members of an unique lifeblood were allowed to have their meals in private.
Two adults and 2 teenagers sat around a metallic table, eating in slow, careful movements the simple dishes presented to them.
They all shared the same last name: Enigma.
A young man that still had traces of being a boy yet had the calmness of a man sat straight on his chair, he placed the knife and fork on the dish before serving himself a cup of water.
[Eribea, would you like some water?]
His sister, Eribea, broke eye contact with her green lentils to glance at her little brother with his hand still on the jar of water.
She swallowed the food in her mouth before answering in a clear tone.
[Sure, thank you.]
On the other side of the table, a woman with dark hair stared at the interaction of her two children with attention. Her red eyes had followed every movement her son made ever since he placed his cutlery on the empty dish.
She seemed satisfied by something as she nodded her head and focused back on her meal.
During and after the meal, they did not voice a word, unless it was to ask for bread or water.
Eribea and her brother had to wait for their father to finish before they were allowed to leave.
[Have a good day, Mother, Father, Ocelio.]
Eribea trotted outside as soon as her father spoke the traditional “Thank you for the meal.”, it was directed at no one in particular since the cooks were the ones who had made their meal.
However, it was a value that was dear to their parents to express gratitude, even when the person in question wasn’t present.
Ocelio waited for his parents to leave before following them.
He put dark gloves on his hands and started pushing both of the wheels on the side of his chair.
In the corridors of the bunker, people would glances at him on occasion. When he looked at them, they would lower their head in a slight incline before looking away.
He appeared to be used to this, he was born in this bunker and always claimed to his sister during their arguments that he had remained the same during all these years. Which was true in a sense, his body did remain the same.
In the morning, Ocelio would often visit his father’s office to borrow a book or remain in his room alone.
However, today was an unusual day for him.
Instead of going to a familiar place, he dragged his wheelchair to a place that he hadn't visited for months.
Every child below 18 years old would be considered by their community as immature and thus weren’t given work.
Instead, when they had free time, like early in the morning before school, they would gather in hall 11 and 13 to play and bond with each other.
Ocelio was still 1 year away from being considered an adult but apart from going to school, he was never seen with vampires his age.
Even now, as he sat inside the hall 13, he remained far from the group of young vampires. He watched them with an emotionless face, showing neither interest nor willingness to join them.
A few adults were also there, chatting with each other or playing with the younger children. Everyone was doing something, except the young man sitting on a wheelchair, his long dark hair was tied in a ponytail behind his back, it spread into two long bangs on his face, covering parts of his cheeks.
A few vampires seemed to have noticed his presence. They whispered amongst each other before going away.
A few teenagers remained on the field, appearing to be ignorant of Ocelio’s presence. They raced each other, each vampire showing incredible agility as their legs seemed to float above the ground.
Their figures shifted direction in mid-run to spare against each other, sending kicks and punch as if they were going for the kill.
One of them appeared to have attracted Ocelio’s attention as he disappeared from sight after jumping in the air, only to reappear behind someone else's back after delivering an elbow strike to his head.
He could hear them shout in protest: [You’re a cheater, no usage of nature’s ability in the playground…]
However, the youth who had become invisible grinned without paying attention to their protest.
What was interesting was that Ocelio had continued to follow the young vampire’s movements before and after he became invisible.
His dark eyes focused on the changes on the ground as the vampire landed and dashed to his target’s location.
When the vampire prepared his attack, Ocelio’s eyes had risen to the air behind the man’s back, perceiving the air fluctuate as if influenced by a disturbance.
He released a sigh from his lips as he massaged his eyes.
[Hey, it’s the cripple. His sister isn’t here, let’s see what the genius can teach us today.]
[You better forget it, don’t forget what happened to the family of the last one who played with him. Just ignore him.]
Ocelio could hear their whispers even though they remained far from him.
He appeared to know they were talking about him as “the genius” became a nickname attached to him after he asked too many questions in classes.
His curiosity during the lessons only aggravated his schoolmates' enmity toward him as the teacher extended the class just to answer his questions.
He made his way to his room, along the way he met many vampires, some of them ignored him, others gave him a greeting with a polite smile.
He kept his mouth shut, only moving his hands to drag his wheelchair forward.
Only in the safety of his room did he show emotions on his face.
Pain and sadness seemed to want to overwhelm him as his eyes became moist.
He held his waist while dragging his body to the bed. A groan escaped his lips, he grabbed the bed with his fingers and tried to haul his body on it, however, the strength seemed to have left his arms, leaving him short of falling on the ground. His physical strength was reduced to nothingness as the illness nibbled at his body like an army of ants.
He heaved short, constricted breaths with a pain-filled expression.
All of a sudden, a knock came from his bedroom door. He seemed to have been so focused on the pain that he didn’t hear the person approaching his room.
[Son, it’s me.]
He pushed himself against the bed to regain his position on the wheelchair. Taking a comfortable position, he gritted his teeth before answering to his mother.
[Enter, it’s open.]
As if it has been an illusion, all the pain and suffering he had shown a second ago were gone from his face. He moved the wheelchair to face her, his lips came to form a smile as he greeted her.
[How are you this morning?]
Her face was brimming with concern and love, she came by his side before carrying his body to the bed almost with no effort. Ocelio remained silent, his dark eyes stared at the two legs dangling in the air as if it was a foreign object.
She sat by his bed before taking his hand and stroking it in a gentle manner as if she wanted to transmit her energy to him.
[I’m doing fine mother, rather what about you, with Eribea reaching her 25th birthday soon yet still having no suitable suitor, you must have your share of worries.]
She gave a tired smile when he mentioned his sister. It wasn’t the first time she came to talk to him in his bedroom. She always knew where he was without having to look for him.
[You don’t have to worry about your sister, she inherited your father’s temper and my beauty, the more she matures, the more desirable she’ll be.]
A short silence befell the room. Their eyes met before she made a pained smile.
[Were you not in such a state, with your high lifeblood purity, you would have already acquired a power comparable to a Patriarch. You are still young, once your father acquires a revitalisation serum, your life will be different…]
[Mother, please don’t cheapen the title of Patriarch. There's a reason why only the Progenitor could create one, it's not something a random vampire can become. You don’t have to worry about me, I’ll be fine.]
He gave her a smile as if to prove his words.
His actions seemed to have improved his mother’s mood as she responded with a playful smile.
[You are still young, you should look forward to the future. I can’t wait for the day you give me a grandchild, with your smart look and high bloodline purity, I know many girls who would be eager…]
Ocelio’s smile disappeared, instead, a sigh came out of his lips as he interrupted his mother once more.
[Mother, please don’t. I just want to rest, please leave me.]
A pained emotion appeared on her face as she turned around, she was about to open the door when she gave him one last glance.
[One day your father will surely find a revitalisation serum to make you better. Just hang on until then.]
As soon as she left his room, his eyes widened as he held his waist. He clenched his teeth, squirming in his bed in pain yet only letting out muted groans every few seconds.
The room temperature rose from his body heat, in just a few minutes he became covered in sweat. His lips were bleeding, he grasped his bedsheet with his fingers until the pain subsided. He took long breaths and slow exhalations, he continued until his perception of reality became elusive, instead, he now saw a world of whiteness.
In front of him stood a furnace, a long table with delicate tools and a storage box.
Everything else was just pure white as if the world had no boundary.
Through the years, this space in his mind had become his refuge.
As if his illness was just an illusion, he walked to the storage box and took out a delicate yellow vine, when he brought it out of the box, it started coiling around his wrist, however, a simple tap from a copper hammer and the vine became inert.
It wasn’t the first time Ocelio conducted experiments on this magical plant, he conducted the process of extracting the elemental energy from within the plant with nimble movements. The magical vine had lost consciousness when the hammer hit its membrane. With the last drop of fire elemental energy escaping its body, it vanished from the illusory space.
Ocelio had gathered the yellow liquid within a vial, taking a paintbrush from his collection of tools, he started drawing intricate lines and shapes on a rectangular piece of dried winter owl skin.
His red eyes were solely focused on drawing lines, his face started showing strain as strange symbols filled almost the entire piece of skin.
Without warning, a red flash of light erupted from the coloured liquid, the fire elemental energy consumed the paper in just a second before a thunderous explosion destroyed the table and sent Ocelio flying.
He stood up while coughing blood from his throat. Half his clothes had been destroyed by the explosion and his upper body showed serious burn injuries, however, his eyes only stared at his failed experiment in a thoughtful expression.
In just a few seconds, his wounds closed and his clothes stitched themselves back to their original shape.
He stepped forward as the table rebuilt itself with wood appearing, being cut and fastened together to form an intact table. All the tools that were present before the explosion happened were spread in order as if nothing had happened.
The sheets of skin materials were piled on his left but there was no sign of the fire elemental liquid or the failed product.
[I was almost there. It’s as if I’m missing something to complete the fireball talisman. It’s a different process compared to the fire spark talisman. I hope it’s not my understanding of the ingredient that is lacking. Though I don’t think so, I’ve already researched the strangling fire vine for two months already, I couldn’t get anything more out of it...]
He went to the box and took a series of ingredients; his table became filled with a variety of magical plants and fruits. All of them belonged to the same element as shown by his action when he extracted the lightning elemental energy by compressing or cutting them.
[Lightning is easier but is more expensive. Were it not for the illusion I wouldn’t be able to gather so many magical ingredients to learn talisman crafting.]
He released a sigh from his mouth while his hands continued to extract the precious liquid with experienced movements.
It has been 4 years already since he started experimenting in this space.
Every ingredient, every piece of matter that was created in this space required for Ocelio to have already touched and understood their nature in a thorough manner. If he failed to do so, only an incomplete material would appear, which would lead to a failed experiment as the ingredient lacked some properties of the original.
The laws of alchemy would only allow success with a finished product, any other result was bound to end in an explosion as if it couldn’t be tolerated by the world.
After extracting all the materials he needed, he took a brand new winter owl skin which served as talisman paper and started brushing the liquid elemental energy on it.
The process was similar but the shapes and lines were different as if he was using a different alphabet.
2 hours later, a victorious smile emerged on his lips.
He had painted the last line and the talisman remained in a stable state.
He took the talisman in his hand, the table and storage box disappeared, instead, a man in armour with a sword in hand was now facing him.
It was the source of the vampire’s fears. A human.
He tightened his grasp on the talisman, a hint of anxiety appeared on his face, at the same time, his bloodline energy seeped into the talisman and activated its spell.
An arc of lightning appeared from his hand, coursing through the air and smashed on the human soldier.
The thunderous sound still echoed within the small world, then the smoke disappeared from the soldier, revealing the amount of damage it had suffered.
The armour was burnt pitch black; the sword had fallen to the ground and his arms and neck were burnt by the magic, however, there was no fatal wound.
Ocelio seemed interested in the effect of his lightning talisman, he came close to the human, picked the sword on the ground and penetrated the man’s skull in a quick thrust.
Only then did he start to examine the corpse and record the damage incurred.
[Let’s see, 60% damage to the arm. Disabled. 20% damage to the legs. Function intact. 40% damage to the neck. Impaired. Hmm, the chest was protected by the armour but the shock from the impact still did some damage, about 8%, negligible.]
When he was done, a door appeared within the space, when he traversed it, he woke up in his bed still covered in sweat.
He grabbed two crutches beside his bed to go take a shower. Taking off his clothes was a long process in which he had to sit on the bathroom chair to take off his clothes one by one. This chair was a specific product to help older people take showers, his parents had offered it to him after his mother stopped washing him.
When he was done, he came back to his wheelchair, he still had an hour before lunch. Time didn’t flow at the same rhythm when he was using his power to trap his mind into an illusion.
Instead of leaving the room, he waited with his eyes closed, adopting a meditational state to recover his soul energy.
