I marked August 18th, 2880.
Atom PL 3010
Jason PL 4050
The month was only half over, but we made massive progress. Food, seals, and our own effort did most of the work. I could see both of us passing the 20k limit if we didn’t hit a wall in our training. We planned for 10k but underestimated how effective gravity training truly was. Father knew the issues with concealment, so he forbade it to us while we learned the basics.
“Steak again,” Emily growled.
She wore only her bra and panties to the table and looked bored. The vampire hunter had several face piercings, but Ember only glared at the cross around the girl’s neck. I couldn't figure out what a Roman torture implement meant to a vampire. The religion peddled by the VHA was odd, often sounding self-defeating.
Their god’s hatred of the people called the Juden and paradoxical love for Israel and its people. A woman cucking her husband for a god that punished people for infidelity. None were hated more than the sorcerers or loved more than mages. I think Jason wanted some of that love for himself. Maybe she would love him if he became something Emily’s religion praised like a cuck.
Ember reached out and took my hand. The cold bothered me less than it had before my concealment mastery. Her hand felt soft and comfortable.
“We aren’t eating chicken soup when there are cows to butcher?” Jason said while looking through his PL growth chart on his cube. “I think we should focus on weight training more and limit our spars to once a week to stay sharp.”
There were problems with weight training under high gravity. It was hard on our joints at the best of times.
“Or he can stay out of your training room altogether. Do you really need your little brother to save my family?” Emily asked.
Ember snorted. “You talk big for a mere mage.”
“I am the daughter of a grand inquisitor. There is nothing mere about me or my bloodline. My lineage has no equal, not even you.” Emily said.
“Emily, she’s just trying to get a rise from you. I know who you are.” Jason said.
Emily gave my brother a glare that stopped him cold. “You didn’t tell me your brother slew Edgar Style. Why did you kill him? He was a friend of my father; his son was one of my suitors.” Emily said.
He served Grand Inquisitor Ludwig, but that didn’t matter to the girl. It was getting harder to care the stronger I became. That might have been another reason Father didn’t let us train under high gravity until we were older. Our power had grown multiple times in less than a month. I couldn’t imagine how arrogant I might have been if we always had this strength. Jason was a little shit to me, and I was a little monster to any mutant I found weaker than me.
I would like to think I was a fair and balanced person from my experience of being weak. That made me think, what if our sister was a real young miss with all the rumored faults that came with it. Imagining her acting like Emily, complaining about steak and eggs every morning, was a nightmare.
“Woe to the vanquished,” I said, and Ember snorted.
“What does that mean?” Emily asked.
Jason slapped his face. “You allowed my brother to quote Rome’s boogie man. A Gol mercenary that might not have been from Gol. As for Edgar Style, I’m glad that bastard’s dead good riddance to trash.” Jason said.
Emily seemed to be on the verge of throwing spells. My vampire reached under the table for her relic. All she needed was an excuse to run Emily through. Instead, Emily left her seat and fled to Jason’s room.
“It looks like I will meet you in the training room late,” Jason said.
He stood up, and Emily narrowed her blue eyes. Jason picked the girl up like a hat and vanished into the bedroom. I shook my head. This was the first time Jason showed such initiative that I witnessed.
“Your brother has suddenly become bold, have the two of you made up?” Ember asked.
That she asked at all was endearing. While I might be looking too much into it, Ember seemed to care about my relationship with my brother. I remembered she also had brothers and sisters and smiled. We had something in common: another board to the bridge to cross the gap of our species.
“Do you fight with your siblings often?” I asked.
“Mostly with sisters Alice and Claudette, my brothers are overprotective and have killed boys who tried to pursue me.” She gave me a grave look, and I rolled my eyes. “We speak about missions and politics but never about how we feel. They are men and, like you, don’t want to show me weakness.” Ember said.
I raised an eyebrow, and she chuckled.
“It was worth a shot. I competed with my siblings for missions and a higher kill count. As a vampire, I am a mage’s natural enemy. They can not sense me, no rune blade can match my strength, and no wizard’s spell can easily slay me.” Ember boasted.
“Only wizards are known to slay vampires on occasion, even royals,” I said.
“The drones have done us more damage than any coven or college,” Ember said.
“In two months, I’ll punch them into scrap,” I said.
“Maybe they will come crawling back to us eager to renegotiate after.” Ember giggled, then turned serious. “So why haven’t the two of you already left for this doomed rescue. They have barely traveled south. The sooner you strike, the better.”
We both knew that wouldn’t happen; that bridge had burned. As for striking early. “We aren’t training the fight the drones.”
The sounds of Jason pounding Emily filled the room, and Ember and I fled like a grenade was about to go off. She had her parasol out, and we went to the training room. Fog covered the ground, masking the ghouls feasting on the corpses we left across the fence.
“Oh yeah, you bit Edgar,” I said.
“He has risen as a ghoul too weak to become a vampire. Edgar’s feasting will somewhat fill me with dividends of lifeforce, but I will slay him if you desire.” Ember said.
“We could hide you and claim a noble vampire from World Gov slew him. That might give us time if someone comes to investigate. It's been a while. I expected some trouble.” I said.
An air drone flew overhead and dropped its package. Its parachute opened, and I watched the barrier register a package was dropped, scan for dangerous materials, and let it through. Seals were far more flexible than runes; they could make human decisions that didn’t have to be based on binary thought.
“Finally!” She looked at me, momentarily shocked, before coughing in her hand. “I needed my order,” Ember said.
I won’t judge; I ordered small arms-resistant body suits for everyone. A weight suit from Florida with Xianxia talismans of heaviness, a few standard weight sets, and I think Jason bought lube.” I said.
There was much more to my order than weights and black spandex for the girls. Full Restore pills from the Everglades Li Clan were expensive, but we spent a small order on a rush order. 25 pills would help us through our training easier.
I pulled an ingot of Mythril from the crate and tossed it in my workshop. That wasn’t something I would mess with until closer to time. The mage killing weapon would have its uses. I wanted to print a hammer for hard-to-kill mages. There was a chance there were mages in the convoy.
World Gov was reported to hate mages and kill them on sight. Reality rarely followed propaganda.
Ember pulled her black spandex suit from the crate and gave me a knowing look. I looked away and whistled nonchalantly.
“Well, since Jason won’t be in for a while, I might as well get to training,” I said.
If Jason was right through his analysis of our 18 training days, the times when we focused on calisthenics were when we saw the most gains. Using weights combined with gravity would multiply our gains.
After mastering concealment, figuring out where I should go was difficult. My energy blade technique was coming along. Soon, I would be able to use it on instinct. All I needed to do was swing it 1,000 times a day.
Old martial artists claimed they weren’t scared of the man who knew 1000 different kicks but the man who had practiced 1 kick 1000 times. That was the path I planned to take. I could make some awesome techniques or take my aura to the next level. I was sure at my current power, it was possible, but it would be a mistake.
Sometimes, the best thing to have was speed and a sharp knife. I planned to practice my laser 1000 times a day as well. Really, my training was easy from this point. Jason would have to get used to like 10 different spells Emily was loading into his aura. A shiver ran down my spine at the thought.
“Come back to reality with me, Atom,” Ember said.
“I need human blood, not now, but I will need some soon. The cow blood is filling enough, but I can’t change my nature.” Ember said.
Ember looked flighty, and I didn’t doubt she was serious. Vampires were made to keep human populations low. I had an idea that would annoy Jason and Emily both. A smile spread across my face. I typed a message to Jason and sent it off. No response, but I didn’t expect anything.
“What are you doing?” Ember asked.
“I told Jason we were going to Tish for a night on the town to get rid of some cabin fever,” I said.
Ember gave me the sincerest smile I’ve ever seen. She pointed her finger at me, and blood emerged and spread around me. A shifting glob wrapped around me, forming a red tuxedo with a mask only covering my eyes.
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