The Fallen Vampire

He heard the sound of movement behind him, but he could make no moves to turn his head.

Everything hurt too badly for him to even consider doing such a thing.

All he could do was look up at the doorway that had been kicked open by Vance and begotten this whole mess.

"It\'s alright now, love. Lessen your burden just a bit." he heard a male voice say.

A moment later, the space in front of the doorway shimmered, and Vincent saw a sight he couldn\'t believe.

Slowly being revealed were a group of four different women and a bound man.

The one who drew his attention the most was the one with black hair and nine tails swaying behind her back.

Her eyes were closed as if she were concentrating on something with all of her being, and there was a faint trail of sweat running down her brow.

Standing next to her was a human woman he knew very well.

Even on the verge of death, his anger soared as he thought of all of the scrutiny Vance had suffered through because of her weak heart.

"Y-You..!"

"..." Vermeil maintained a bank stare as she held up one of her fingers to flip him off.

Standing beside her, Aveena decided to repeat the gesture.

The building rage Vincent felt was bubbling up more and more when he saw the man staring back at him on his knees.

He knew it immediately to be some kind of trick, because it was the same man that he had just killed.

However, he was in for quite the surprise. |le|mp|yr

"Vin... I\'m sorry for this." Vance said honestly.

As soon as he heard his voice, Vincent knew this to be the real one.

But if he was real then... whoever or whatever he had just fought against was nothing more than a fabrication.

"What...this...?" he struggled to say through an esophagus that was filling with blood.

"Don\'t think about it too much."

Suddenly, a man squatted down in front of the hero and allowed Vincent to see his face.

Too handsome to be real, with a glowing red mark on his forehead and long silver hair like that of woven steel.

Like another of the women in the group, he had a set of nine large and fluffy tails that were equally majestic as they were captivating.

His red eyes were somehow the coldest thing he had ever witnessed and also the brightest.

"All you need to know is that you will buying my people some much needed time. While you races of light fight against yourselves, we will do what we must to wipe the rest of you out."

Suddenly, Taira removed his scythe from Vincent\'s back and used his mental power to hold him in the air.

He opened his palm and Vance\'s broken greatsword came flying into his hand like it already had acknowledged a new master.

The last thing that Vincent saw before his eyes closed for good was the fallen man getting into a stance that was eerily familiar, and utter words that he knew just as well.

"Tidal Blade Art : Massacring Waves...!"

-

Vance watched Taira execute his very own blade art with such precision and finesse that it seemed like he\'d been practicing it for years.

Even now, he still couldn\'t believe that this monster was able to replicate it perfectly after only seeing it performed a single time.

It was such an inconceivable thing to be able to do that it was literally unheard off, and even they who were supposed to outclass everyone else couldn\'t dream of doing such a thing.

\'Wait... that\'s it...!\'

Suddenly, it was as if all of the synapses in Vance\'s brain connected and he knew exactly what was about to happen.

This entire time, he couldn\'t figure out why on earth this group was keeping him alive.

They hadn\'t asked him anything, aside from where to find Vincent that is.

And now that he was watching his friend die right before his very eyes, he knew that he would be soon to follow.

"This was your plan, wasn\'t it..? That husband of yours can copy any combat art he sees at a glance. He\'s going to kill me with Vin\'s wrath of raijin art next, isn\'t he?"

""Uh-huh."" Aveena and Vermeil said without batting an eye.

"Why..? Why are you doing this...? Just kill us normally and be done with it." Vance said pitifully.

"Fat chance, dipshit." Vermeil said as she rolled her eyes. "We won\'t have you all turning into martyrs for the races of light. Not after everything that you\'ve done."

She pointed to the people in the stands who were locked in some kind of hypnotic trance, unmoving and unblinking.

"Right now, my sister is using all of her concentration to show these men a scripted scenario of you fighting against Vincent.

They will wonder why you are so out of control and irate, but ultimately they will be powerless to stop you because, let\'s be honest, they couldn\'t do jack shit anyway."

But after you are both dead, they\'ll search your body and find these letters on your person." Vermeil pulled out the stack of letters between the two friends in addition to Vance\'s storage ring.

"From there, I\'m betting the people will start to put their own clues together. Like how exactly your entire army was killed yet there were no signs of a large battle, only needless slaughter.

You will be the one they blame for all of it. They will have absolutely no reason to doubt it because you have already said in your letters that abusing the quintessence alters your mind and you don\'t know how long you can put it off.

And since you have also said that all of you have the art, our expectation is that the kingdom will collapse in on itself almost over night as you all go from heroes to devils who are even worse than the fallen you so callously hunt."

Once the letters were back inside the ring, she grabbed one of Vance\'s fingers and stuck it back on without difficulty.

"Haa... I guess we picked the wrong side of the war, huh?" Vance said with a pitiful smile on his face.

"No shit. The men, women, and children being brutally subjugated around you should have been a pretty big indicator." Vermeil said coldly.

At that moment, Vance lost the chance to respond because Taira had finally finished.

Vance\'s sword was left buried in the chest of Vincent, and the rest of his body was cut to hell from the use of his art.

Lifelessly his body started to fall over, but not before Taira caught him and lowered his body at the angle he wanted.

Once he was done, he stood up and called for Vincent\'s sword that had been dropped earlier.

Unsheathing the blade, he gestured for Aveena to bring Vance before him, and she happily complied.

On his knees, Vance lowered his head to the ground without an ounce of fight left in his body.

"Just... make it quick and painless." he said in a dejected voice.

"...No."

-

Taira looked down in satisfaction at the scene he had created in front of him.

The Hero of Cleansing Rain and The Hero of Surging Lightning were both lying dead, each of their bodies cut to hell by their individual sword arts and holding onto their weapons as they pierced each other\'s chest.

It was clear that they had both died at the same time after a very heated struggle.

\'An abhorrent tragedy indeed.\' He thought with a malevolent smile.

"Hey... It\'s okay now. No one is going to hurt you."

Taira was spurred from the thoughts of his malicious deeds and turned around to follow the voice he\'d heard.

Enyo was kneeling in the corner of the room, still trying to get the children who had seen everything to not be afraid of her.

But naturally, she was failing miserably.

Taira approached the three of them and waved his hand over each child; putting them to sleep instantly.

Enyo caught them all in her arms easily enough as they were ridiculously small and underfed.

She looked up at her husband with slight pain in her eyes and asked the only logical question.

"What should we do with them?"

Taira thought about it momentarily before coming up with an immediate answer.

"She shouldn\'t be far from here, so we\'ll take them to her and get them properly taken care of. For now, we have to go before the bodies get cold."

Nodding, Enyo and Taira quickly joined the rest of the group and exited the compound just as easily as they had gotten in.

However, it was no surprise that after they left, the entire base spiraled into complete and utter pandemonium.