The Fallen Vampire

Provided that they have a suitable reincarnation technique at hand, they can come back to life in as many as 1000 years or as little as a day-with all of their memories intact to boot.

Previously, Taira had put an undeniable strain on his soul after using a technique far above his current wheelhouse.

By bathing in the waters of his home, he was able to lessen the strain on his body and mitigate the pain he felt, but it was far from a true repair.

Useage of immortal harvesting, a combat art that tampers with the soul, even though it should have aided him, ended up causing him a severe backlash.

After cutting off the head of the qilin with Vaal, Taira quickly lost consciousness.

Later on in life, he wouldn\'t be able to say how long this happened for, he would only recall that it felt like significantly longer than what actually occurred.

Nevertheless, in the midst of Taira\'s limp and somewhat lifeless body falling from the sky, his mind suddenly snapped back to reality.

There was a brief period where he felt wildly disoriented, but his body\'s instincts took over and he flipped to safety before he could fall into any real danger.

Once he landed on the ground, his hand immediately went to his chest as he leaned on his weapon for support.

Circulating his qi throughout his body, he searched himself from top to bottom for any abnormalities.

\'What just happened to me...? My mind is...\'

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Taira knew that he shouldn\'t be up and walking right now.

He felt his soul shatter.

Or perhaps just something within it.

And yet his mind felt so unbelievably clear and unburdened that it was like he\'d just woken up from a wonderful rest.

"WOOO!! GLORY BE TO BLOOD!!"

Well, it was unburdened.

Vaal threw his arm around Taira\'s shoulder while raising his bloodied axe to the heavens.

"Oh, how I have longed for a rigorous day such as this! These schemes of yours made felling the beast as easy as milking my own-"

"I will pay you not to finish that sentence, cousin." Taira said flatly.

"What need does a man like me have for money??"

"You can by udon and blood sausage with it."

"...Seriously?"

Vaal and Taira\'s involuntary celebration was quickly interrupted by Taira\'s wives and the rest of the hunting party.

The girls were quite concerned over the fact that their husband seemed to be in his own head quite a bit, but they eventually ceased their interrogation of him when they saw him smile.

Their husband wasn\'t a robotic man by any stretch of the imagination, but smiling in front of others was usually a big no-no for him.

So he had to be in some kind of good mood.

"Well... Should we see what the beast is guarding so fiercely?"

Tiche was the first to direct their gazes towards the great structure standing in front of them.

The Sanctum of The Mind was a large, spiraling structure that seemed entirely comprised of ice.

It sat in the middle of a frozen lake and gave off an ominous feeling that promised a boundless amount of secrets and knowledge within.

"There will undoubtedly be great treasures inside..."

"And traps too..."

"Then who is to take the lead? I confess that I don\'t really have the best mind for things of that nature."

Unanimously, everyone turned and glanced at Taira, who was still supporting himself on his weapon. He was just making sure to do it in a way that made it hard to tell that he was still a little weak.

To everyone except Tiche that is.

"You\'re hurting. Were you hit?"

"I\'m fine."

"That isn\'t what I asked you."

Taira ignored her and started walking towards the doors of the sanctum. "You\'re free to wait around asking useless things if you want, but I\'ll be leaving you outside while you do so."

"Smart mouthed fox.."

Despite her annoyance, Tiche still followed behind Taira and the girls as they entered the sanctum by pushing open the giant icy doors.

True to the group\'s expectations, the sanctum was filled with traps from the moment that they walked in.

There were no physical enemies, (much to Vaal\'s disappointment) but there were dozens upon dozens of trap doors, hidden trip wires, and chambers containing a poisonous gas.

Even though Tiche was not fully sold on Taira, she had to admit that without him here, traversing this place would have been a far more dangerous endeavor.

His eyes seemed to pick out every single faulty floor panel or shady looking door with ease.

Even she, with her eight star arcane knowledge, couldn\'t say that she would have been able to notice these small details with the same ease as him.

Her in depth observations of him were interrupted a few moments later when her brother\'s voice suddenly popped into her mind.

\'Sister seems to be watching our new kin quite closely.\'

\'I am simply observing his behavioral characteristics and trying to gain a grasp on the man who is supposedly the last of our cousins.\'

\'Supposedly? The blood doesn\'t lie, and I have literally seen him drink from the neck of his wives on several occasions.\'

\'Yes, but he doesn\'t share our values. He doesn\'t behave like us.\' She reaffirmed.

\'Do you truly believe those things, or are you just harboring hate for him because he lies with a human?\'

Tiche nearly spat on the floor from revulsion. \'It is a disgusting act.\'

\'They\'re his nuts, he can do with them what he wants. And besides… Vermeil is not so bad.\'

Tiche almost screamed. \'You\'re calling it by its name now?!\'

\'She has earned this much I believe. She saved your life, and she makes wonderful udon with perfectly seasoned cuts of meat. Aside from her being ugly, I see why brother Taira made her kin-bride.\'

\'…You\'re insane.\' The Youn Wouj shook her head.

\'Yes.\' Vaal admitted. \'But she is so clearly not like others of her same brood. I believe that at the very least she deserves the smallest amount of your hostility possible.\'

Tiche stared into Vermeil\'s back so hard that she could\'ve drilled holes into her.

She didn\'t like how everyone seemed to cozy up to this human girl so damned fast.

Now, even her own brother seemed to be turning against her in favor of this strange outsider.

Had they forgotten their history already?

Did no one remember how nefarious humans were??

\'Well I won\'t be blindsided, I\'ll never accept a damn-\'

*Ker-Chunk!*

The group finally reached a final vault door at the end of a long hallway.

A pair of thick doors made of ice creaked open slowly at Taira\'s behest and welcomed them into a grand hall.

Once everyone was fully inside, torches lit up every dark corner of the room and revealed that the rows of treasure waiting to be claimed.

The only problem was, they were trapped behind an invisible barrier made of solidified qi.

The only clue to obtaining these treasures was the throne all the way in the back of the room.

A decayed skeleton sat upright on the seat; forever impaled by a myriad of rusted weapons.

Suddenly, the entire temple trembled and the corpse began to shine.

A booming voice filled with power suddenly spoke.

"Come forward, wise man of valor and wit…"

Taira glanced behind him and found everyone giving him a look that seemed to say; \'Well he\'s for sure not talking about us.\'

Begrudgingly, the fox-kin walked forward just as the aura of the skeleton took shape.

Now, Taira and the group could see what the skeleton looked like when he was alive.

It was an older gentleman with a snowy white beard and a set of long pale blue robes.

He exhaled and a brutal chill swept through the entire room that only Taira and his wives could withstand comfortably.

When the figure opened his eyes, his gaze slowly settled on Taira.

"Now, let me see who will be the one to inherit my… Ah, shit. It\'s a blasted fox…"

A throbbing vein bulged in Taira\'s forehead as he tried to convince himself he hadn\'t heard those words just now.

Meanwhile, the specter seemed to be having a very serious conversation with himself.

"Curses… I really don\'t want to give my resources to a member of that clan, but there may be no choice in the matter… this stings my pride." He grumbled.

\'I wonder if I kill him then will everything inside here still be up for the taking..?\' Taira really wasn\'t willing to lose out on such high quality items even if his life depended upon it.

These things could very well serve as the foundation for his and Aveena\'s new sect!

Eventually, the specter decided it had come to a decision as it clasped it\'s hands behind his back authoritatively.

"Procede closer, descendent of Bao Si. Allow this honorable immortal Velreth to test your worthiness once more!"