Chapter
3 – Saving a Soul on the Edge
Many serfs come after Nevar, and
yet, he barrels through them all as the fear that was in him is completely
buried at the prospect of finding his wife to be and a helper in his destiny. He
doesn’t even notice the hanging bodies some of which are still alive used as
decorations in the castle that his angel says his wife is in. Because of this,
it’s a complete surprise to him to find his wife to be skinned alive and hanging
from the ceiling with hooks in her hands and feet.
Stunned by this, Nevar says, “Is…is
she even alive?”
The fear of his situation begins to
enter him again as he finally realizes what’s around him. Bodies and the skins
of humans, vampires, and serfs alike decorate this castle. This morbid sight is
contrasted by the beautiful furniture, statues, and paintings that would typically
decorate the house of a royal who would buy exotic and expensive items from across
the world. All of this is being cleaned by the serfs in an attempt to keep all
the normal furniture clean and the morbid ones somewhat clean.
“Yes, she is alive, but just
barely. She is kept alive by dark sciences and her own will to survive strengthened
by her God-given power as she was told that her husband to be would save her.
You must find the girl that is wearing her skin, take it back, and give it back
to your wife to be,” Nevar’s guardian angel says.
“Okay! Please, point me in her direction!”
Nevar’s guardian angel turns into a
light that shines ahead of him to guide him in the right direction. To his surprise,
the serfs in the castle don’t go after him and are instead going to other
places to fulfill their duty with some even fighting each other for a reason he’ll
find out soon. The hallways and rooms he is guided through subtly change and
sometimes massively change with some being completely morbid with bodies both
dead and alive in them and others having mostly furniture and art. He doesn’t
think too long about why this is especially since he almost runs into a vampire
lord that leaps by him. It seems like he’s going to have to fight them until he
sees the blessed weapon in the lord’s hand and wonders why they would have it.
The lord then leaps past him and clashes weapons with another lord.
“You’ll never inherit grandfather’s
inheritance!” one says to the other.
“And you’ve held on to mother’s
possessions for far too long! I will be the favored son of the family then its ruler!”
the other responds.
Seeing this display of infighting
makes Nevar unsure of what to do.
One of the lords looks at him then
says, “Get involved in this and you die!”
Unsure of what to do, Nevar looks
up to where his guardian angel’s light is and sees that it’s away from the
fighting.
“I’m sorry! I’ll leave you two
alone then!” Nevar says with his hands up.
He then follows his guardian angel’s
light through fights of vampire lords fighting each other. Some of these lords are
clearly wearing human skin like hunters in the wild wearing the skin of their
prey. This sight makes Nevar anxious hoping that his guardian angel’s light
shines over one of them so that he can save his wife to be. Eventually, he does
find the lord that his guardian angel’s light shines over. This lord is a young
woman about the same age as him who wears a purple dress decorated in warped
crosses, gold stars, and stained with blood along with the skin that he was
looking for. She’s in a room not decorated in the slighted with corpses as decorates
but with corpses on the floor of a recent fight that she is still finishing with
another lord. The young woman is not at all concerned with Nevar’s arrival, but
the other lord is distracted and gets his arm cut off. She then tries to finish
him off as the two lock blades with the other lord desperately trying to hold
her off with its one last arm that holds its blade with sweaty hands.
“There…there he is,” the injured
lord says, “The son of Raven Aurora. He’s the one we should be killing-”
“Shut up! I decide who I want to
kill and it’s going to be you! Your allies and you interrupted our family’s fight
for each other’s possessions and for that, you will die!” the young lord
responds before killing the other.
After cutting off the lord’s head,
the young woman spits on the vampire’s corpse before cleaning his blood off her
blade.
She then begins to walk by Nevar
while saying, “I don’t care who you are. Get out of my way and I’ll let you
leave this tower just to spite the other lords.”
“I…I won’t let you leave! You have
the skin of my wife to be so you must give it back,” Nevar says as he prepares
for a fight.
The young woman stops walking and
appears to be visibly furious as her skin suit stretches because of it.
“That girl…that wretch is your wife
to be? She is nothing more than an overrated peasant! Your ‘wife to be’ was loved
unjustly by everyone in the town we lived in and enjoyed every second of it.
The only thing she’s worthy of is a slow death!”
“Even if you’re telling the truth,
she’s my wife to be. I’ll love her no matter what.”
“Then you’ll die a slow death like her.”
Blinded by her emotions, the lord
charges at Nevar without considering his skill and loses a leg because of it
and is then quickly finished off by him whipping her head off.
“She must’ve been incredibly angry
if she was this reckless. How am I going to take the skin off her?” Nevar says.
“The young woman had gone through many
battles today as you can see and her fury at your wife to be led her to disregard
her safety,” Nevar’s angel says.
“Can you help me take my wife to be’s
skin off her? I don’t know how to do it myself.”
“That is no problem for me. I’ll
reattach it to your wife to be as well.”
“Thank you so much. It would’ve
been too much and too meticulous of a process for me to handle.”
“Come, let us hurry to her.”
“Right!”
Hurrying back to his wife to be,
Nevar follows his guardian angel while also defending himself from relatives of
the young woman he defeated who swear their vengeance on him. Thanks to the help of
his guardian angel, he is able to defeat every lord and serf in his way flowing
through them as if they were no more than a stationary obstacle than a living
one, and make it back to his wife to be in time. His angel’s light envelops his
wife to be as it reattaches her skin to her while taking her off the hooks in
her hands and feet. Finally, Nevar’s wife to be has her skin on her body with
stitches keeping it together. Nevar covers her nakedness with a nearby purple curtain
and helps her sit up as she awakes.
“Hey, are you okay?” Nevar asks her.
Being this close to her lets Nevar
see that she doesn’t exactly have the kind of appearance that would turn heads
even if her skin wasn’t stitched on her body, however, something radiating from
her that Nevar can’t see makes her a wonder to behold. The young girl opens her
eyes and is surprised to be alive and safe with her skin on her body as she
looks at it as if she’s seeing it for the very first time.
She then looks at Nevar and asks, “Who
are you? Are you my husband to be that God promised me?”
“I am. My name is Nevar. What’s
yours?”
“Vanina. Ah, do you know what
happened to the girl that took my skin?”
“You won’t have to worry about her
anymore. I killed her.”
“You did?”
“What’s the matter? You sound sad.”
“I did feel sad for her despite
what she did for me. Is that strange to say?”
“Yes, it is. Why would you feel sad
for a vampire like her?”
“When we were younger, she was
always jealous of me for whatever reason. Maybe it’s because people would
always come to me to help them? I was popular in my hometown because I’d
help anyone who’d ask and didn’t ask. It couldn’t have been because she was
jealous of the way I look. I’m not that pretty after all especially now.”
“That’s nonsense. I think you’re
pretty despite your scars.”
“People always said that the
radiance of my soul showed on my body, which I thought was a funny compliment.
Still, the girl must’ve worn my skin thinking that she captured what other
people saw. One day while we were in here, she came to me to complain that my
skin wasn’t working for her even though she said that she made her family proud
by doing what she did. She still couldn’t become the center of attention like
she wanted.”
“That’s what happens when you just
see things on the surface. Now, come on. I have to bring you to safety.”
“There he is! There’s the one that
murdered one of our own and brought the other lords upon us during our sacred
fight!” a vampire lord says as many of them enter the roof with their serfs.
Even though they are surrounded, Nevar
still stands up ready to fight, and yet, he finds that his fear begins to
overtake him as he feels that he is unable to move. He keeps telling himself to
move, but his body won’t listen to him. Now, of all times, he is unsure what to
do and most afraid because he doesn’t know how to protect himself in a way that
would save both himself and Vanina. At the very least, they would end up
wounded, which would make the rest of their journey next to impossible to
complete as if it doesn’t appear that way already.
“Blessed Mother, come to our aid!”
Vanina calls out.
A small light that the lords are blind
to starts to shine within Vanina as she prays.
“The deluded girl will think her
lady will save her when her praying hasn’t worked before!” a vampire lord
mockingly says.
The lords then leap on the two,
however, a barrier of light sharp as swords form around them and pierce the
lords and their serfs while leaving Nevar and Vanina unharmed. With the threats
to the two now dead, the swords of light disappear.
“That was amazing!” Vanina says as she
jumps to her feet and is additionally surprised by this. “I can stand too! It
feels like nothing happened to me!”
“Glory be to God,” Nevar says in a
somewhat less than enthusiastic tone.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, nothing at all actually.
I’m really happy that you’re feeling okay and your prayers were answered. It’s
just that…I’m disappointed that I froze up and didn’t act as fast as I should’ve.
It’s stupid to be concerned about that and I’ll do better I know. Forget I said
anything.”
“No, I get it. I was losing my
faith off and on when I was hanging without my skin and without any sign of
hope.”
“But I’m expected to be better. I’m
expected to be brave.”
“I think you’re the bravest man I
know for coming here to save me.”
“Thank you. That really helps me.
Now, we should get you out of here.”
“Why? I can help.”
“That barrier only happened once.
How do we know it will manifest again?”
“It will when God wills it,” Nevar’s
guardian angel interrupts, “She will go with you and be integral to your victory.”
The angel then disappears as fast
as it appeared.
“You see? I should go with you.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll allow it because
my guardian angel says so.”
“That was your guardian angel?”
“Yes, it got me here and has been
helping me through this entire thing. It even put your skin back on.”
“Wow. Thank you, angel!”
“You’re welcome,” the angel says as
it appears then disappears again, which gets a chuckle out of Vanina and Nevar.
The two exit the room and continue
their way upward through the castle. Along the way, they find that the lords and
their serfs are still fighting each other despite recent events.
“Why do they keep fighting each
other?” Nevar says.
“Vampire lords are vain, in
general, especially this family. They want whatever their sinful hearts crave
and this family wanted fame, fortune, possessions, and more. It’s one of the
reasons why I felt bad for the girl that skinned me alive. She was pressured by
her family to go above and beyond and nothing she did could truly satisfy them.”
“I’m still surprised you feel bad
for her.”
“I’m surprised as well. A priest
that I visited once said that it’s a particular God-given grace that makes me
feel the same way that Christ did for us when He was crucified that being
feeling pity for those who don’t deserve it.”
“That is a great blessing. It’s no
wonder why your soul radiates so much.”
“It’s all thanks to my family, my
parish, and my devotion to Our Lady, her husband, the saints I pray to, and the
holy souls in Purgatory.”
As the two continue on their way
up, some of the lords and serfs decide to go after them, however, they are
undefeatable together. Nevar’s strength and skills are boosted by having Vanina
around him and her compliments of his fighting abilities. That is not to say that she
doesn’t help as her blessing activates when she pray to the Blessed Mother and
when that doesn’t work, she uses the blessed weapons on the ground and gets in
the fight when she can. When she can’t, she breaks the expensive statues,
vases, and other novelties in the castle to distract the lords of this castle
so that Nevar can easily kill them. Eventually, the two come across the apeman
priest and his freed serfs.
“Father, wait up!” Nevar says to
the priest.
“It’s good to see you’re okay in
this vampire lord civil war madness. Who is this with you?”
“I am his wife to be, Vanina,”
Vanina says.
“Did the vampires take your wedding
rings? I could send some of my serfs to help you find them.”
“Oh, no. We just met,” Nevar says, “My
guardian angel brought us together and helped me save her life, and the Blessed
Mother even saved us.”
“I shouldn’t even be surprised that
miraculous things happen around you, Nevar. I think I’ve gathered enough serfs
to attack the center of it to bring this tower to the ground.”
“We’ll join you in your assault.”
“I expect it, but we have our own
way of doing it that I’ve already put in effect, so you should take your own
way. You already have enough help in Heaven, whereas we slaves need to make it
up for ourselves first.”
The apeman priest runs away to join
the serfs that he’s leading.
“Wait, hold on! You still haven’t
told me your name!”
“He must be confident about our
victory.”
“He’s also stubborn about not
working together. We should get going as fast as we can since they’re already
attacking the center.”
Nevar and Vanina hurry on their way
to their destiny while the vampire lords now realize the threat approaching
them and decide to make plans for it.
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