The Fallen Vampire

It was a name that Aveena would never forget for as long as she lived, because it marked the worst day of her entire life.

Now that she could finally put a true face to the name, her anger immediately ran out of control.

"Y-You… YOU BASTARDDD!!!!"

Aveena\'s eyes glossed over as she lunged through the air as the immortal spectre.

Red tattoos appeared all across her body; causing her already proud musculature to swell considerably.

"I\'LL KILL YOUU!!!!" Aveena\'s roar was more destructive than a full force strike from most venerable realm cultivators.

Her actual fist attacks were so destructive that she could put a hole in a mountain at full power.

A fact that Velreth would soon learn well.

Aveena raised her arm and lashed out with anpunch so powerful and fast that it easily broke the sound barrier.

"Impudent!" Velreth summoned an array of defensive magic without even waiving his hands.

Once Aveena crashed against the barrier, there was a severe discharge of electrical energy, but none of that seemed to deter the frenzied Aveena in the slightest.

"I WILL KILL YOU!! YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!!"

"Foolish girl. I do not even know you. A shame our first meeting will result in your demise."

"AS LONG AS YOU ACCOMPANY ME!!"

"How rabid."

Velreth increased the energy output on the barrier and Aveena was finally sent hurdling back.

Taira leapt into the air and caught her body before she could hit the ground.

"Aveena, stop." He hissed.

"Release me, Taira! I will kill him for what he\'s taken from me!!"

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"I know you grieve, but pay attention! And trust me when I ask you to stay your hand!"

Aveena was very hardheaded like most oni were, which typically meant Taira had to tamper her fire with his own if he was going to get her to listen him.

She\'d gotten considerably better over the years, but this situation had reverted her back to a walking minefield.

Aveena bit her bottom lip until blood ran down her jaw.

With her muscles trembling, Vermeil and Lucia came over to pat her on the back while Taira turned to address Velreth.

It wasn\'t as if he wasn\'t upset himself.

He understood just how important Aveena\'s family was to her, but he couldn\'t shake the feeling that there was more here that they were in danger of overlooking.

There were certain things about this whole ordeal that made his senses go out of wack.

"...You don\'t remember me?" He asked.

Velreth sneered. "I am quite certain I have never seen you before in my life. And yours is certainly a face I would remember."

Velreth had never seen a nogitusne like Taira before.

His physical appearance aside, there was something quite different about him that he couldn\'t really place his finger on…

"Fifty years ago you descended to Tayar through your hero and wiped out my wife\'s entire clan. And tried to kill us."

Velreth visibly gagged at Taira\'s perceived stupidity.

"Boy... let us get two things correct before we proceed any further.

I would never voluntarily step foot in the cesspool that is the lower realm for any reason.

Besides, this immortal has been entombed here for over 20,000 years... And what in the cosmos\' great name is a \'hero\'?"

If Taira weren\'t so good at controlling his own facial expressions, he would have already let his jaw hang open from disbelief.

"... I believe it may be best if we engage in a small information exchange before we speak of more tests."

"...So be it." Velreth agreed.

-

The lower realm is practically a joke to the men and women who dwell within the nine heavens of the upper realm.

It is enormously inferior to those heavenly lands in every way possible, from beauty, to qi thickness, to living conditions.

Those in the upper realm see those who live below as barbarians.

They bicker with each other needlessly over things like race and worship practices, while the only discrimination in the upper realm is between the weak and the strong.

Though that may make it better or worse depending on who you ask...

The beings known as the great gods whom lower existences worship so fervently are no more than twelve high level cultivators who fell down into the lower realm ONCE due to a particularly nasty heavenly tribulation.

They spent around six months there before inevitably going back like nothing had ever happened.

Apparently after they left, the people started worshipping them as \'gods\'.

But the great gods never once turned their gazes to the lower realm; as they had no interest in the murmuring of insects.

However, after they returned and shared the embarrassing story of their fall, five nonhuman deities came together to discuss the potential usefulness of cultivating lower existences to bolster their forces.

Soon, they too descended and amassed followers that mostly consisted of those from their distinct racial lines.

Because these were all the sons of influential powers within the higher realm, they had a sort of tentative friendship with one another.

But when they each faced difficulties in cultivating lower existences into worthy aides, pressures began to rise and a sense of rivalry was brought about.

They ended up leaving after four months and engaging in a 10,000 year war before inevitably calling a truce; forgetting about the lower realm almost entirely.

Velreth wasn\'t quite sure how the flames of racial discrimination ended up getting stoked up among the lower existences, but he just attributed it to the folly of mortality and looked over it.

Around the same time that the fabled beast of ruin descended onto Tayar, Velreth, and the original twelve other great gods ended up getting into a war of their own.

Because their powers were practically equal, they all ended up killing each other.

Save for Astel... the most enigmatic and willy of them all.

Some of the great gods had heirs and clans remaining, so together with the \'fallen\' gods who had finally inherited their positions, they established the ruling powers of the upper realm.

The True Celestial Spirit Palace.

The Supreme Dao Temple.

The Origin of Humanity Empire.

The Flame of Beginning.

Ancient Stargazer\'s Mountain.

Immortal Taoist Association.

The Nine Tailed Divine Demon Clan.

The Heavenly Dragon Sect. ( Later renamed The Crown Jade Dragon Dynasty due to a certain red-haired stranger...)

The Blood of Rebirth Cult.

And Velreth\'s own Eternal Ice Palace.

This was the end of the deceased immortal\'s knowledge, as his soul soon lost the power needed to linger about and observe the world after his flesh was destroyed.

So he sealed himself within this very tomb hidden in a pocket dimension within the upper realm- intending for one of his descendants to come and find him so that he could officially pass down his position.

-

After a real mind fuck of a conversation, the immortal Velreth looked as if he needed to lie backdown for another thousand year nap.

"So I\'ve fallen back down to the lower realm once again... My dream of choosing a proper successor has been torn asunder and burned... Oh, how I rue the day of my demise."

While Velreth was agonizing over his fate, Vermeil stepped forward with a question on her lips.

"Pardon me, Heavenly Immortal... but I want to know… if the twelve Great Gods are not the ones responsible for summoning humans, then who is...?"

Velreth temporarily tore himself away from his fit of disdain and instead turned to observe Vermeil.

He stared at her for quite a long time before finally deciding to speak. "You are one who needn\'t worry... I can actually sense the touch of Astel on you. Figures, since he always did whatever he wanted without caring about how it made him look... loser."

"L-Loser??"

"Well what else would you call adults who play around with children\'s toys in their free time? That\'s all that the lower realm is, a discarded children\'s toy that should have been thrown out long ago.

And to answer your question, little girl... whoever is bringing over otherworldly humans and bestowing them with power under the guise of \'saving\' your so called Races of Light... they most certainly are not myself or my old friends.

Meaning you lower existences are likely being played with by an individual you can\'t even lift a finger against."