KarmicWhim t1_jdnqhj8 wrote
^(Placed summary below, in my reply to a reply, if you don't feel like reading all that.)
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The dagger clattered onto the floor.
"Say, could you remind me about why you're all trying to kill me again? Sort of forgot."
Her struggling halted as I held her forearm in my grasp. Her already racing heartbeat increased in cadence. Had I said something offensive? Her gaze lowered to where I could no longer see her eyes due to the overhang of her light brown hair obscuring them.
"After the hundreds of years it took to discover your hiding spot, I have to say that you truly are as evil as Grandfather described you. Do our lives really mean that little you to you? Do you truly see us as nothing more than cattle, you wretched parasite?"
"... Look, I don't really know or care about whatever your prattling on about. I just asked a reasonably simple question. All I wish to do is live in peace and that is proving to be difficult with you people constantly showing up for the past few days to try to kill me. The least you can do is explain why."
"Live in peace? You've killed millions of us each day since time immemorial. My family has sworn their lives to eradicate you and your kind for generations and now you are saying that you forgot!? "
"..."
My head tilted in confusion. I had no idea what this lady was talking about. I haven't killed anyone in a long time, save for past few days. Though I'd say those were justified, after all I was only defending myself.
"Hey lady, your friends over there wouldn't be dead had they not tried to kill me. You all attacked me, not the other way around. If you would just explain yourself then maybe we could simply talk things through. No one deserves to die."
This caused her to once more to meet my gaze. Her eyes analyzed my face as if she was searching for something. The scowl she wore before slowly morphed to be more akin to disgust then, pity, then finally amusement. She burst into laughter.
"Oh I understand now. Y-you poor pathetic thing, [laughs] you're being sincere aren't you!? Your evil has become so second nature to you that you aren't even aware of it anymore, are you? Tell me, is it confabulation or is it delusion [laughs]!? H-have you been hiding amongst our kind for so long that you believe you're human now!? Or were you so unable to live with your sins and transgressions against humanity that you repressed your memory or fed yourself lies!?"
She wiped tears from her eyes, had she gone mental? Her heart was calm when her smile faded and her face grew calm.
"Though it matters not. You wish to know why we will never stop hunting you? Why you'll never live in peace? I will remind you you blood craving devil among devils with the satisfaction of shattering this illusion you have casted upon yourself! Do you remember what this does?" She asked, pulling a small device from her pocket and stabbed it into her forearm which I still held. I was clueless as to why she'd stab herself with a fancy looking dart and inflict self harm.
Blood craving? That bothered me more than it should. What was she talking about, I don't crave blood, plus that sounds utterly disgusting. I much more perfe- ... wait, ... what ... did I eat again? I honestly cannot remember what the last time I had a mea-
#💥
An explosion occured between us. I still remained in my original position while she had flown back. Through the settling debris stood the lady using her free hand to clutch the nub that was once her forearm. The explosion had instantly cauterized it. She glared at me as she breathed heavily.
drip
I looked down to my arm. It too was now a nub. Unlike the lady's, mines had been farther from the explosions focal point. It had not be cauterized and still bled. Squirted even.
drip
We stood still for a while as the dust still settle. It seemed so surreal looking at the empty space where my arm use to be spouting blood like a water gun. I began to feel woozy. This would kill me, wouldn't it?
drip
There had to be some way to prevent this ... I-I've had an injury like this before haven't I? How did I do it last time again? My body involuntarily took a step backwards to prevent myself from falling. I looked around for something, anything, until my ears focused on the one constant sound they'd always heard.
Ba-dump
My eyes focused the chest of the lady who still hadn't moved. They focused on what lie underneath the flesh. The fruit that beat and pulsated and filled her body with life ... oh that's right ... I remember now. It's been a long time hasn't it?
KarmicWhim t1_jdnqmup wrote
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Unphased it stood as the debri settled, eyes trained the stump that spouted its impure blood. I clutched my own which had been cauterized. Unlike the devil before me, I would not bleed out. If it truly did not remember itself, then this would have proven a golden opportunity to end our troubles once and for all. If only ...
I watched the wretched take a step backwards. It disgusted me it seemed to not comprehend that it's life was ending. We'd taken too long to find it once more and given it enough time to live in such peace among our kind that it had forgotten how to fear death.
Behind me were the bodies of my cousin and my great uncle. The beast had merely slain them with its bare hands, out of character of how grandfather had described it's method. I made no sudden movement as to not trigger any instinct of it. If I lived, that would be fortunate though I understood that if it did not die from this then I would not be the one to kill it, it'd already proven too formidable for even I.
And it seemed so that fate did not shine upon me. The predatory crimson red eyes that illuminated through the smoke and locked onto me seemed to be look directly through me. It's reactions had made be begin to doubt myself. That maybe, just maybe, we'd been attacking the wrong individual, but the eyes that stalked me now left no room for doubt.
This was most definitely the one. This creature that stood before me, wearing human flesh, that creature was undoubtedly our long eternal enemy. This was the living vampire, the first vampire, the one with a beating heart unlike the rest of its unholy kin and an enemy to humanity as a whole. The first demon to roam earth.
The only one to have gained life ages ago, overcoming its natural deathly state and circumventing its decay by feeding directly off of human life span. My family will forever seek to destroy it for we know its history.
Our family would instill into the young why we must not let it go unchallenged. Why we must eradicate its existence:
> If not for it, humanity would have 1000 year life spans, however it was the one who snuck the serpent into the garden. Upon the ejection of Adam and Eve from the protection of the garden, it was bold and had taken 70 years, causing them to die at 930 years of age. It grew stronger and more efficient as it siphoned their life and as more humans ... more food for it appeared. It was the one who convinced Cain to kill Abel. Being less capable of defending against the vampire without his brother, it managed to increase its strength and steal another 200 years from humanity, Cain died at 730. By the time of Abraham it had reduced us to 175 year and by Moses, 120. It was at it's peak strength during the middle ages, it's strength manifesting in physical nature, the plague, until my ancestors fought it to within an inch of its life and forced it into hiding. It was weakened to the point that it hand to relinquish 70 years of its efficiency to remain alive and heal its wounds without alerting my family to its whereabouts. While we're once again able to live past 100, we shan't allow it to continue to feed of of us.
I could feel my life fading as it began to walk towards me and focus its siphoning on me. A strand of my hair began to turn gray and in turn its bleeding stopped and its arm began to pulsate. I used my fading strength to leap towards the corpse of my uncle where my amulet had fallen during our fight prior. The beast had unintentionally ripped it from my neck in reaction to it burning its skin. It was the only thing that could stop what it was trying to do. It of course would recognize this to move in a blur to smack my body away before I'd even landed on the ground.
My sight blurred due to developing cataracts and my body grew frail. My thin arm slowly moved reach into my pouch but the abomination would crouch before me and gently overpower my strength, gripping my forearm before snapping it. I was too weak to release any sound of pain. It would stop taking my life for but a moment to meet my eyes that were now level with its own.
I would see such hate and abhorrence in its pupils. Hate that I'd shattered is brief era of joy, that we'd found it, that it knew exactly what my motive was. Despite my attempts to preserve my life, I did not fear death. My death would only serve to reignite my family's flame. My death would mean we'd gone too soft. They would train my young kin to be better warriors than I, those of equal caliber to the ones that had driven the creature into hiding many centuries ago. Warriors that would now have the technology easily cause mortal harm to it such as I did.
It now understood that its stolen time is running out. It is not us who must seek it, now it is it who must seek us. It would have to eliminate my family before we could breed its demise.
Kill or be killed.
My body would slump as it took its final breath. The last thing I would see is a dark mass spreading its large wings to take flight. Even if we failed, even if it took all our lives, it would not be able to cover up the deaths of a family as prominent as ours. There were many contingencies .... and many .... failsafes ... we had set in this new era. We are ... no one's ... prey.
Inageby t1_jdo1pyo wrote
I really enjoyed that. Thank you.
I loved the lore you imparted in part 2, really solidifying the conflict on the human side and lack of awareness on the vampire's side, I wonder if it's beginning to remember now. Hope you have a nice day.
KarmicWhim t1_jdobwk3 wrote
Thank you as well.
> I wonder if it's beginning to remember now.
Yup. Definitely remembers now.
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For anyone that is confused:
Idea was that unlike the other vampires that were undead, fed off blood, and slowly withered; this one found a way to feed directly on life spans and inturn gained a life span of its own (and because it has a life span that means it must be living, and not undead).
At some point it had become so efficient at feeding off the life span of humanity as a whole that the process became second nature to it, like breathing. Since it didn't have to focus on manually doing so for so long it just sorta kinda forgot it was a vampire since it's not really doing anything different from a normal person at this point.
The lady practically forced it to have to manually heal itself or die (which killed her in the process), in turn causing it to remember:
"Oh yeah, riiiight, I'm not just some random immortal guy, I'm an immortal monster that took everything from them and am still currently feeding off of them as we speak. Mmm, yeah and this family got pretty darn close to killing me some centuries ago, I should probably go deal with that family while they're still rusty from not fighting me in so long. But gotta be careful not to draw too much attention, humans have some pretty crazy tech now, don't want myself to go too public."
Shallurian t1_jdp8qrv wrote
Honestly, with the way the vampire was acting, thinking that it was a mostly human immortal, that family could have found a way to negotiate with him before attacking. Like, he can still take life energy, just way less of it, considering how many people there are in the world now.
ireadthingsliterally t1_jdprbew wrote
I really enjoyed this. It was thought out quite well :)
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