Venatores Noctis: Unlikely Foundations: Chapter 2 – A Place of Self-Made gods

Chapter 2 – A Place of Self-Made gods

Inside the Tower of Blasphemy, Nevar cautiously walks around as if the ground is covered in bits of glass with very few safe places to step. The castle that he’s entered is currently full of beastmen, half human beasts, and fully human serfs all of which are cleaning and awaiting their orders. They watch Nevar with curiosity as he doesn’t seem to be their savior and is instead a fool who wandered into the wrong place. Nevertheless, a birdman serf informs his vampire lord of Nevar’s arrival, which makes the lord drop everything to meet the young man. The lord is carried by his servants right to Nevar who jumps at the sight of him and takes the head off one of the serfs in response leading to the vampire lord falling on his face.

Trying to correct his mistake, Nevar tries to whip the vampire on the ground but misses again. The lord then hastily gets some distance between him and Nevar by retreating back and throwing his serfs at him that Nevar dispatches, however, he can’t close the distance so he can kill the lord who is already at the top of a balcony.

“How rude. A host is supposed to introduce himself and make his guest feel comfortable as soon as they arrive,” the vampire lord says.

“I don’t need your introduction,” Nevar says before really looking at the man’s clothes. The vampire lord wears black and red robes with various twisted crosses decorating him similar to that of a royal bishop. “What bishop did you steal those clothes from?”

“I didn’t steal these clothes. I was a royal bishop before I turned into a vampire. You don’t seem to be the type of person who can be convinced with words to join my side, so I’ll save you the speech and force you to become one of my servants instead.”

More of the lord’s serfs throw themselves at Nevar at their lord’s command.

“Guardian angel, I’m going to need your help here,” Nevar says.

“Jump,” his angel says.

“Uh, okay? Woah!”

As soon as he jumps, he is thrown into the air and catches one of the many chandeliers in the room. Nevar jumps in between the chandeliers while being pushed in the right direction by his angel so that he doesn’t fall. Meanwhile, the serfs jump from the higher floors to catch him while the flying ones are brought down by his angel and Nevar who can barely whip the serfs in mid-air and on the chandeliers. Eventually, Nevar gets close enough to the vampire lord to whip his arm off so that he can’t escape through the door before he finishes him off by whipping him in half, which was actually an attempt to whip off the other arm that the lord was trying to use to open the door.

Nevar then attempts to jump to the balcony, but only manages to get his foot on the railing before falling off. His angel slows down his fall to the ground as the serfs make a mad dash to leave the castle.

“That was easier than I thought it to be. It’s all thanks to God and to you,” Nevar says to his angel.

“That was one of the first of many lords and the lowest of them all. There’s an apeman serf nearby still in this castle that isn’t leaving. He that will help you understand it better and through some of your challenges. Find him,” his angel says.

Doing as his angel says, Nevar searches the castle until he hears the noise of someone dropping and hitting things. He cautiously follows the noise to its source until he finds an apeman trying out an armory of weapons. This apeman wears the attire of a priest with half of his body being that of a monkey.

“Hey! My guardian angel told me to find you,” Nevar says to him.

The apeman looks at him strangely then says, “Really? I guess I can assume that’s right from your earlier display, but still, I have my doubts. What do you want to know?”

“Can you tell me more about the tower?”

“What is there to say other than to be careful when you enter each castle? Every lord has their tricks in the event of an intruder entering. They even have rooms full of blessed weapons like these in the event that they want to betray a lord who shows weakness so they can take their possessions and serfs.”

“That must’ve been why those serfs ran out the door. Why didn’t you run?”

“Because I want the lords to pay for what they did to me. I was a respectable priest before I was kidnapped and forced to help them bless these weapons, be their serf, baptize the infants so they could kill them for their baptisms, and hear them pridefully embrace their sins as part of their blasphemous version of confession.”

The apeman tries not to sob as he shakes in both anger and despair.

“I’m sorry you went through that.”

“Don’t be. I deserved it for being so weak as to allow them to force me to do it. Many times I could’ve said no. Many more times I could’ve chosen death over evil, but I didn’t. Now, I will make things right.”

“We can do this together.”

“No, this is a penance I must do on my own. God has abandoned me to my weakness and will only take me back if I do this.”

“He hasn’t abandoned you. I’m-”

“Don’t follow me, boy. Your guardian angel is enough company to protect you. I’ll just slow you down.”

The apeman runs out of the room at inhuman speeds similar to that of a vampire along with many blessed daggers.

“Wait!” Nevar says.

He chases the apeman going up staircase after staircase until he tires himself out.

“Do not worry about him. He’ll soon repent and see the error of his ways,” his guardian angel says.

“Yeah, but still, I want to help him.”

Suddenly, serfs from the upper floors come down weapons already drawn.

“Get the son of Raven for our master!” one of the serfs says.

“Why am I always running into groups of people who want me?” Nevar asks himself before running back down the stairs while killing whatever serf that gets in his way. “I could use your help, my guardian angel!”

“You are on the right path. You do not need my help,” his angel responds.

“If you say, so.”

Nevar keeps running and tries to slow down the mob behind him by whipping the chandeliers above him in the hallways so they fall on them by the time they pass under them. This works, however, the mob doesn’t start coming as more and more come to chase after him. Eventually, he comes to a dead end where there’s only a door to a single room where trash, the dead bodies of serfs, and other vampires are in it along with a hatch to throw them in. Nevar enters the room and hastily barricades the door with the trash in the room and starts to panic to find his next move.

“What do I do now, angel? I could play dead among the bodies and hide myself in them, but that’s too obvious,” he says.

“Go down the hatch that the trash is dumped into,” his angel answers.

Looking into the hatch, Nevar considers it then says, “I thought I was supposed to go up the tower, but-” At this time, the door is nearly open. “Okay, okay!”

Once he closes his nose, Nevar goes down the hatch and finds himself where he expected, a place full of rotting corpses and trash. He gets up and wades through the corpses until he hears the sound of something moving in the pile. Mutilated corpses from the pile that are somehow still alive then emerge ready to drag Nevar in with them. Nevar fights them off until he can get to solid ground and exit the room. The hallways and rooms of this castle are predictably less luxurious than the previous one above it since it appears to be more like a combination of a hospital, garbage disposal site, and an alchemist’s lab than a place for a royal lord.

Further in, Nevar finds many mutilated beastmen, people, and even vampires twisted and turned into furniture and used as decorations. A single one of these serfs breaks his bones until he is back to normal and introduces himself to Nevar.

“I am the lord of this castle. I must thank you for ridding the tower of that pompous ex-bishop so that I may take his place. As thanks, I will let you leave this section of the castle without being harmed. I will even tell you that some of my underlings will not listen to me, so you should be careful around them, which I’m sure you may already be aware of,” the half beast half vampire man says.

Part of the beastman was ape-like and another part was like that of a lion. His head is that of a wolf while his legs are that of a goat. This entire mismatch of body parts leaves Nevar speechless as he tries to comprehend this lord’s appearance, whether or not he is speaking the truth, and how he can possibly be a lord.

“I thought serfs couldn’t become lords,” Nevar says.

“Through hard work and some well intentioned backstabbing, I became a lord. A lord of the lowest castle, but still a lord nevertheless.”

“Still, I thought lords can only be vampires.”

“They can. The thing is that I improved my body before I became a vampire. It’s one of the favors that I did for the lords before I became one and it’s one that I gladly accepted. You see, serfs are constantly experimented on so that the vampire lords can have strong defenders and fodder to throw at their enemies, but vampires cannot improve their original bodies once they take their blasphemous baptism. Their bodies can only be cut by blessed weapons and this makes them unable to be experimented on and turned into a half beastman half vampire such as I.”

“I see. Nevertheless, I must shun your thanks because I am bound by divine command to destroy the vampire lords in this tower.”

“You said that you see, but do you really? Look at me and look around you. The vampire serfs that I have are no mere weaklings. They were once great vampire lords that had their own castles that were above mine. Look at yourself. I can see the fear inside you as you struggle even to stand still.”

“That doesn’t matter. I still have to do this.”

“Suit yourself then. I can always use another serf, a piece of art, or furniture in my castle. You’ll make a fine first trophy of mine on my ascent to the top.”

If Nevar were to be honest with himself, he doesn’t know what he was talking about and was going to take the lord’s offer, and yet, his duty compels him to fight. The vampire lord moves faster to Nevar’s surprise as Nevar misses the first strike leading to Nevar being punched in the stomach and sent falling backward while still standing.

“Ah, I thought that would’ve knocked you down,” the lord compliments.

“I have a good teacher that taught me to stay standing,” Nevar says.

“You won’t be standing for long.”

Nevar tries attacking faster to catch the vampire lord and manages to just scratch him because of his speed. He keeps up the attack so that the lord cannot get in another attack, however, he doesn’t see a way that he can hit him. In a moment of inspired risky creativity, Nevar hits the chandelier of skulls where he thinks the lord is going to land based on his pattern of dodging. His guess is correct as the lord is unable to change his direction mid-air leading to him falling to the ground and Nevar being able to get a hit in. This isn’t enough to kill the lord as he is still able to stand despite being nearly cut in half. The lord lacks an arm, half their body, and face, but still has both legs.

“That was good, boy. Tell me your name so that I can distinguish you between my top serfs,” the lord says. To answer him, Nevar attempts to finish the man off but misses as the lord anticipated his attack and dodges out of the way at such a fast speed that makes it look like his severe injuries don’t matter. “I shall call you Stubborn or Stupid. Stub-id maybe. I’ll give the name some more thought once I’ve torn you apart and put you back together in an appropriate way.”

The lord then leaps at Nevar until he is caught midair by the apeman priest who stabs his blessed daggers into the lord’s head and heart. Once on the ground, the priest stabs more daggers into the lord’s chest to finally kill him.

“Did you need to stab him that many times?” Nevar asks.

“Yes, he had multiple hearts,” the priest responds, “I’m sorry it took so long for me to get here. There were many serfs to sneak around.”

“Thank you for your help! I never got your name. My name is Nevar.”

“Nevar…Nevar. Oh, do you happen to be the son of Saint Raven the hero?”

“I am!”

“Your father’s fighting style inspired my own. I used to be a warrior priest in the prime of my life. My inspirations are people like your father and his friend, Confessor Rinaldo. I’m sure you’re familiar with him as well?”

“Yes, my uncle taught me how to fight.”

“No wonder why you were able to hold your own then. Anyways, you shouldn’t be down here. Instead, you should get to the heart of the tower that lies in the center of it above and destroy it so that the entire tower will crumble.”

“But that won’t kill all the vampire lords.”

“Sure, but it’ll get them out here and force them to fight amongst themselves. They can hardly live with each other now with so many possessions. Imagine how they would live with none.”

“So, why did you come down here?”

“To save you and to kill this particular lord. He’s the one that experiments on most of the serfs. With him dead, a good majority of serfs will be free from his torture and the lords above will lack his powerful creations. Also, you’re heading in the wrong direction. Beneath and to the side of us are more castles known as the underworld castles for the lower lords.”

“Ah, I see. Thank you!”

“Don’t mention it and don’t get into trouble again.”

“Wait, before you go, you have to tell me your name.”

“No, I don’t. It’s not worth remembering. Continue to ascend the tower while I grow a rebellion of serfs. I pray that you succeed, Nevar Aurora, son of Saint Raven.”

The apeman priest leaps away from Nevar.

“I guess he’s right. Having more people to fight would help,” Nevar says to himself.

“He is. Though your paths are separate, they will still cross and you’ll aid each other when the time comes. Speaking of that, you are going to meet another who will aid you soon. Someone who will help you for the rest of your life and will be your wife,” his angel says.

“Really?! I must meet her then.”

“Hurry. She is in the next castle above us and needs your help. I will guide you to her.”

“I will!”

With a new exciting goal, Nevar rushes ahead without question in the hopes that he’ll finally have help in this destiny of his gleefully ignorant of the future horrors and challenges that lie in wait for him as news of his arrival and defeat of two vampire lords conspire against him and against themselves for the glory of killing the son of Raven Aurora.