Venatores Noctis: Unlikely Foundations: Chapter 3 – Saving a Soul on the Edge

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.

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.

Venatores Noctis: Unlikely Foundations: Chapter 1 – Pushed into Destiny

Chapter 1 – Pushed into Destiny

Nevar dreams about the day he lost his family a memory that haunts him to this very day. He was seven at the time and afraid of bringing home his bad test scores from school, so he wandered through the town until he realized that he would get in even more trouble if he came home late. By the time he went home, he saw some strange people enter the house, which stopped him from going any further. He was always afraid of talking to weird looking strangers, but this time, his instincts were correct as these people hypnotize the rest of his family and exit the house with his family in tow. Despite wanting to do something, he was frozen in his fear and didn’t go anywhere near his house until his family was far in the distance.

Turning to look at the house, he remembers the reports of what vampires do to their victims that they use in their blasphemous sacraments. He sees the broken, bloodied, and desecrated bodies of his family with his eyes focusing on the cut throat and torn out heart of his infant brother. Seeing this is enough to make him fall down in tears and not want to do anything about it.

“I’m useless. I couldn’t do anything then and I can’t do anything now to save those who are suffering the same fate,” he says to himself.

“Stop being so hard on yourself,” a familiar and comforting voice says to him.

Nevar looks up to see his father looking at him with a smile.

“Father…I’m not worthy to be called your son. I can’t be the same hero you were,” Nevar admits.

“You will be. I know it. Don’t doubt yourself and remember to trust God to help you in everything you do,” his father says.

“I do trust God. I trust Him more than myself.”

“As you should. Do that and you will never fail.”

Nevar feels himself beginning to wake up and he tries his best to will himself to stay in the dream.

“Wait, don’t let me wake up, father! Tell me more! Grant me your intercession from your Heaven!”

“I will and I’ll never leave you. You needn’t worry so much. You are my son after all.”

The young man calls out to his father again as he wakes up. Even though he is disappointed that he is awake, he puts aside his feelings to focus on his morning prayers. After his prayers and getting dressed, he takes his family’s whip and heads out for training. Nevar passes by several others that are his age that are practicing with warrior priests and knights from the army teaching them. Many of his peers ignore him while others take note.

“Why bother coming out if you don’t fight?” one of them says as they pass by him.

“I…I’m training to,” Nevar answers.

“With the ‘skill’ that you’ve shown on our assignments, I’m surprised that you train at all.”

The young knights walk away and leave Nevar to sulk in his embarrassment. That is until his teacher comes to him after overhearing the conversation.

“Do not worry about what they say. They only want you to be able to defend yourself. If not, then I expect to see them soon in the confessional,” his teacher says.

“Uncle Rinaldo! I’m ready for today’s training, sir,” Nevar says as he follows his teacher to the training site.

“Are you? You look like you’re letting what your peers said get to you.”

“No, it’s not that. At least not completely that. I saw my father in a dream and was reminded of him and what the vampires did to my family.”

“Then you received a message from Heaven and your saintly father. I wish my brother would visit me in a dream sometime. What did he say?”

“He reminded me to trust in God, not to doubt myself, and that he’ll never leave me.”

“That’s great! Why does this trouble you?”

“I wish the dream could’ve lasted longer so I could be with him longer and so he could give me more of his wisdom.”

“Follow me and listen to what I have to say then if it is wisdom that you want. Today, we’ll train outside the noise of the city and judging eyes of both your and my peers.”

“Yes, uncle.”

Nevar and Rinaldo go out to a homestead outside of the city. While looking at it from a distance, Nevar appreciates looking at it from the outside and the surrounding area.

“Beautiful even from a distance. You’ll never find a city like Rome anywhere else in the world,” Rinaldo says.

“Yes, she is though I can’t say the same for sure since I’ve only been to one other city besides this one. Thank you for bringing me out here, uncle. Despite the city’s loveliness, the change of scenery is refreshing,” Nevar says.

“Your peers mock you for your combat ability and cowardice in battle. Prove that isn’t true by fighting me with all your strength.”

The two begin to fight and Nevar manages to fight on even ground even as Nevar uses a whip and Rinaldo uses a sword and shield.

“Good, good! Those friends of yours don’t know what they’re talking about,” Rinaldo complements.

“They’re not my friends nor do I fight the same way on assignments. Most of the time, I cower behind everyone and only come out when absolutely needed.”

“That isn’t so bad.”

“What do you mean?”

“You come out when you’re needed. What else can be asked of you?”

“I just want to do more like my father.”

“What about like your uncle?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you, uncle.”

“Haha, you didn’t. Your father wanted to be lots of things and he was. He brought honor to your family when it had less than none by being an honorable knight of the Church. When we first met on the battlefield, I thought he was an arrogant man who wanted nothing more than glory and honor. Even after getting to know him better, he would always say that he was a better fighter, but it was through fighting with him, I saw the God loving man that he truly was.”

“Are you saying I should be in the kind of battles that he was in?”

“No, not at all. Besides, our wars were fought against heathens and heretics rather than monsters. I’m just saying that you’re like him in the way that you’re there where you’re needed even when others don’t want you. When your father came back as a vampire, he was bothered by the fact that he came back in the way that he did and couldn’t save your mother and siblings. In spite of that, he saved us from the powers of evil and came back when he was needed, so what I’m also saying is that you never really know the moments you are actually needed and when you are, you can accomplish great things.”

“Thank you for your wisdom, uncle. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Rinaldo spares with Nevar for a time with breaks in between until the sun begins to set. At this time, Nevar makes the two dinner as they enjoy the sky and each other’s company.

“I’m glad you’re becoming a fine cook as well as a knight,” Rinaldo says.

“Thank you for all you’ve taught me. I don’t know what I would do without you,” Nevar says with a gentle smile on his face.

“It’s the least I can do. I just pray that I can stay the man you look up to and better. Ha! After all this talk about wanting to be more than what you are, you have me talking the same way. Another thing you should learn is that God provides us with the skills and resources necessary for the day’s work. Don’t worry about tomorrow because the same loving God that gave you the gifts of today will do the same for you tomorrow.”

“I’ll be sure to remember that as well and the many blessings I’ve already been given.”

Nevar and Rinaldo go back to the barracks to rest for the day. Because of today’s hard training, Nevar doesn’t bother taking off his armor nor putting away his family’s whip and just falls on his bed to immediately fall asleep. As he dreams, Nevar hears someone calling out to him. He doesn’t know who this voice belongs to, but in his drowsiness, he follows it since it sounds familiar to him. Following it outside of the barracks to its source, Nevar looks around until he is directed by the voice to his horse. Again, he looks around for the source of the voice and begins to finally wake up.

“Wait, what am I doing here?” he asks himself.

It is then that he sees two hooded figures wandering around the area.

He asks them, “Hey, are you the night guards? Have you seen anyone around here or am I going crazy?”

“That’s the son of Raven,” one of the strangers whispers to the other.

“We should kill him and bring his head back as a reward,” the other stranger whispers back.

“No, we should bring him back in pieces or force him to be like us like how we did with his father. Maybe make him into a serf. Perhaps, he will be different.”

“Perhaps, we should have our fun with him first then go from there. Do you agree?”

“I agree. That is the better option.”

The whispering of the two is barely audible to Nevar, so he takes out his whip and shakily prepares for a fight.

“Get out of here you two! You don’t want to mess with someone like me,” Nevar says in a failed attempt to intimidate them.

“What can you do to us, boy?”

“You’re nothing like your father. You can’t possibly do anything to us.”

The two strangers reveal themselves to be vampires with hollow black eyes and skin as pale as the moon. This scares Nevar into taking action and whipping off the arm of one of them as the vampire narrowly manages to escape a quick death.

“You’ll pay for that,” the vampire says before charging at Nevar.

Thanks to his training, Nevar anticipates this and whips the vampire in half before it can reach him despite its inhuman speed. Following up his attack, Nevar whips the head off the second vampire before it can react to what happened to the first. Despite this display of skill that would impress anyone, Nevar stands frozen in fear unsure of what to do next because he fears if there are any more vampires lurking in the darkness. It is from this darkness that shadows leap out, but don’t attack Nevar. Instead, after what feels like agonizing minutes of waiting, Nevar retreats back to the barracks to report the vampire attack, however, explosions and the sounds of fighting stop him from doing so.

All this sudden commotion scares Nevar’s horse and by the time he takes his horse out of the stable, it runs off while not listening to his instructions and hardly goes where he wants it to as it tries to avoid the fighting. Nevar tries to make the most of this predicament by killing whatever vampires and beastmen that he comes across while appearing to look like a child on a horse. Eventually, his horse makes it outside of Rome where the vampires are attacking from. They come out of portals that connect to the place they’re coming from.

“That’s the son of Raven! Get him!” one vampire says.

“Why here of all places?” Nevar says as he still struggles to control his horse.

Because of all the vampires and beastmen around him, Nevar focuses on defending himself. Even while doing this, he can see an invisible force kill the enemies he can’t reach and just assumes that a group of Rome’s defenders are fighting alongside him. His horse charges through the enemy until it goes through the portal. This is where the horse finally listens to Nevar’s instructions, but it is too late for him to go back through the portal as it has closed. Wondering exactly where he is so that he can get back home, Nevar looks around to see that he’s in front of what’s known as the Tower of Blasphemy.

“Of all the places to end up. Why, God, does it have to be here?” Nevar says as he begins to fear for his life.

This tower is home to most if not all vampires in the world where the most powerful vampire lords meet to coordinate their plans and make deals with one another. Its construction is otherworldly as different bits of large castles are grafted to it, and yet, it manages to stand with all its pieces set in place. At this moment of desperation for a way out, an angel manifests in front of Nevar. Two swords float by its side along with two eyes that each look into three directions at once. The angel’s golden wings also float to its side with three bits of it floating downward like hanging crystals. It doesn’t seem to have a face nor a body in its gold and black cloak. Instead, only a mouth and hands folded in prayer can be seen.

“Oh, thanks be to God you’re here! Please, holy angel, you must get me out of here,” Nevar says to it.

The angel’s head twists in confusion in a way that a normal human head would break before it says. “Why would I do that? It is I who brought you here because God needs you to be here.”

“Wait, was it your voice that I heard calling me in the night?”

“Yes, and I was the one leading your horse and defending you from the slaves of evil. I am your guardian angel.”

“My guardian angel? It’s an honor to finally see you after talking to you so much, but can you tell me why God wants me here?”

“Because you are to defeat the vampires and save the world from their influence like your father did.”

“Me? I’m hardly one of the best knights. Even if I was, I’m only one man and that castle contains armies. It’d be better if I went back to Rome, helped them, and got their aid. We could also use the help of my uncle!”

“Do not worry about them nor your uncle. They will take care of themselves. You, on the other hand, have a task and an enemy before you.”

“How can I possibly do this by myself?”

“You are not alone. I am here with you, your family and the saints in Heaven are interceding for you, the holy souls that you offered your rosary for are praying for you. God got you here and He will get you out. Are you beginning to lose your faith in Him?”

“No, not at all.”

“Then you must proceed with the task at hand. Your destiny awaits you.”

Nevar swallows his fear before looking at the tower that seems to reach past the clouds. He takes out his whip, grips it, then swings it down as if throwing away his cowardice and walks to the building hoping that God hasn’t abandoned him to a terrible fate.

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My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 
Even if you try to be faithful to God and pray for help, you'll still find yourself falling into sin every now and then. These dark fairy tales set in a rotting world that is washed by blood then blessed by fire tell the tales of people who are trying to be faithful and despair in their imperfection, but find that even in this, they find that they are still loved and mercy is always available to those who ask for it with pure intentions. 
This book includes; Rotting in a Sinful World, Drowning From Sin, Washed by Blood, Clothed With Grace, and Sanctification Through Fire along with Behind the Story details for each book.

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Raven was once a notable knight of the Church who brought honor to his family's name, but he wakes up as a vampire after fighting off temptations in his mind. He then finds himself in a world ruled by vampires where there are very few places safe from their terror. The truth behind his transformation will terrify him as he searches for the reason why he is a vampire and what God wants him to do.

Soulless Men and Vanities: Chapter 4 – Sacrifices from the Dead for the Living

Chapter 4 – Sacrifices from the Dead for the Living

The spies of the vampires report to their lords the news of what happened because of Rinaldo and Raven.

“Who cares about those rumored Corpus! All they do is sulk in the shadows and do their penance. They are bound by God and rarely if ever pose a problem for us, which is our sign of victory. God has abandoned this world and given it to us just as the demons have told us,” a vampire lord says.

“Still, we must give them the bodies they desire. We have enough corpses for them to start bringing their army over,” another says.

“Why rush our complete takeover of the earth? Savor the desperation of the humans because when they’re gone, we’ll only have ourselves to fight over,” yet another lord points out.

“If it’s desperation you want, perhaps we should bring a single demon over or maybe multiple demons in a single body. That will cause absolute despair in the hearts of those cowards in Rome and be more for the Corpus to handle.”

“Oh, dear, you know better than to tempt me with that, but because I’m so curious, let’s try it out. Prepare the ritual and the corpses for the ceremony.”

While this is happening, Rinaldo and Raven enter a large cave big enough for their horses and themselves to enter with enough room to fit wagons for supplies to go in and out, and the wheel marks in the dirt show that wagons, horses, and people have gone in and out of the cave. There are no torches or sources of light in the cave, which forces Rinaldo to light a torch as they continue further deeper into the mountain. The sound of stones moving and footsteps put the two on high alert as they look around for the source of the noise.

“Hello? We mean you no harm. I am like you in search of answers to my God-given purpose,” Raven says.

“Ha! Harm. If you could harm or even end our lives, that would be a grace. If you are like us, then you are not in search of anything and are instead directed here like how your horse was directed to this mountain,” a hissing voice says from the dark.

“Then help me understand. I’m begging you!”

Dark figures approach the two from the darkness. Raven thinks these figures are cloaked in shadow, however, on closer inspection, it is revealed that these figures are actually pitched black. They are like a walking skeleton with the teeth of a vampire, very few bits of flesh left on them, and a hollow center and eyes. Both Raven and Rinaldo are a bit startled by their appearance, but the horses are not because of their holy presence. Many of them look the same with small differences in their bodies in faces though all look eerie to an ordinary person.

“So, you want to learn?” one of them says.

“Yes,” Raven answers.

“Wrong. You are being given the grace of this information through us who are simple mouthpieces. Follow us as this truth is told.”

On cue, Raven follows the Corpus further into the cave with Rinaldo following from behind.

The Corpus continues, “You want to know the answer to an obvious question. When we are alive, it is through grace that we are able to change for the better, and through sin, our behavior decays. When we are dead, the state of our souls is frozen in place for God to judge and nothing can change it, but just like the souls in Purgatory, we are only perfected if we reach Heaven. This is why you still may commit the same evil deeds you did when you were alive, however, you will not be held accountable for them since you have no control over yourself and because you are already dead.”

“My brother, Raven, is no unrepentant sinner,” Rinaldo points out.

“I have sinned many times in my life and many of the times that I confessed, I confessed to a different confessor so that you would not hear my shameful acts,” Raven admits without really wanting to, “Even though we prayed for our enemies before battle and fought for justice, I did feel lost in the slaughter every now and then.”

“That would explain your loss in control, but your virtue should’ve outshined your vices. Why would God resign you and these Corpus to the fate of a vampire?”

“It is something God only knows and God has resigned most of us to a fate of penance in the dark as you can see,” a Corpus says as they reach the inner chamber of the mountain.

Though Rinaldo cannot see very well, he can see hundreds of Corpus in the area all of which have the same eerie appearance.

“Here, we all starve both for food and for a purpose. We all came here against our will and yet not against our soul’s natural inclination to follow the Divine Will’s command,” the Corpus continues, “Some of us were no different from the vampires outside. I was once a lord who commanded many armies until the grace within my soul caused me to repentant and embrace an eternity of penance. Some of us even leave this cave to do the same things we did in life only to come back much like how we sinned and eventually came back to God over and over again.”

“Is there no end to this penance?” Raven asks.

“If God so wills it. There are some who simply fade into the dust after a period of time or leave the cave to do some deed then never return and share the same fate as the first that I mentioned. Still, we do not know if all of us will enter Heaven, but that could just be the despair that I struggled with talking. Perhaps we all will enter Heaven since our bodies are holy enough to fight the vampires hand to hand. Even still, we have few to no one who prays for us unlike the souls in Purgatory, so our pain is all the more amplified by the length of this fate.”

“Isn’t this a bit much even for you whose bodies follow the will of God?” Rinaldo asks.

“The price paid for each of us to be vampires is the death of an innocent infant and the price paid for our redemption was that of innocence and truth itself on the cross. Even one sin is one sin too many. The cost of a single sin is too steep, too expensive for any of us to pay, and yet, we’ve acted like the price was worth it. We trade our souls for the vanities of life and in the end, come out with less than what we had because of it.”

“Enough of your sulking. If you want to be freed from your penance, then pay the price to the last penny. I’m here to find what God wills of me to do,” Raven states.

Many of the Corpus look at him because of what he said.

“If you are knights, then you are probably here to fight with us in a very particular battle. One that may finally give the vampires control over the world if they win it.”

“If they win? We are invincible against them. How can we not win?”

“Remember that we are completely subject to God’s will and if God wills that the vampires win, then they will win.”

“What is this battle fought over anyway?”

“The vampires are giving a legion of demons a single body made of an uncountable number of human sacrifices. If the demons obtain that body, then many more will despair and fall into the hands of demons while the few remaining become lifelong slaves.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s head out to where this is taking place so we can put a stop to it.”

“Again, we move when the will of God moves us, and right now, it appears that you were the one we were waiting for,” a Corpus interrupts as a large portion of them gather around Raven.

“I haven’t done anything but starve and pray for years despite wanting to do something, and now, I feel like I have the strength of a hundred men. I am ready to fight,” another Corpus says.

Many more say similar things in how they are ready to fight the vampires after being inactive for so long.

Raven gets off his horse then says, “Thank you for showing me my purpose. Together, we will do this great deed for our penance to save not only ourselves from the pains of our sins but also the world.”

The Corpus cheer and quickly clear out of the mountain at lightning fast speeds as they finally have something that will pay for a majority if not all their penance.

Raven is about to join them until Rinaldo calls to him and says, “Wait for me! I must join you in this battle, brother!”

“This is our penance to do. If you want to join, then try to keep up,” Raven says before quickly catching up with the rest of the Corpus.

They exit the caves of the mountain and go through the forest moved by the will of God in the direction of their target. By the time they reach it, it is almost time for the sun to rise, however, instead of the sun being on the horizon, there is only a black sphere that gives off an uncomfortable warmth to the mortals who see it. The humans who look at the black sphere become tempted with a multitude of demons and the typical ways of resisting their influence such as prayer, ignoring it, and renewing the trust of their soul in God’s hands hardly works. On the other hand, the Corpus aren’t tempted at all and briskly continue on their way to the huge castle where the legion of demons is being summoned at. This castle is an amalgamation of parts of churches and kingdoms the vampires conquered like how the lords decorate themselves with the flesh and bits of the kings, popes, generals, and more men and women of valor that they killed.

As the vampires start the ceremony, the Corpus give the guards outside no time to react to them as they assault the castle head on and from the sides. Raven leads the attack and wastes no time charging through the enemies as thoughts about the innocent people and his son who could be affected by the demon’s arrival fill his mind. He soon arrives at the site where the demon is going to be summoned and finds that this area is covered in the corpses of a seemingly uncountable number of bodies and a portal made of black stones that have various carvings in it and flames spewing from it. The vampire lords sit in their thrones with their weapons drawn. One lord sits in a throne of gold, another of naked mortals, one in a throne made of flesh, and the final one being made of exotic kinds of food. There are other destroyed thrones near them some of which look to be in the process of being made.

“We expected either vampires or humans to come to stop us, but we didn’t expect a corpse to come to us, and you least of all, Raven,” a lord says.

“It’s over, you wretched sinners. The Corpus and I will stop this ritual of yours and there’s nothing you can do,” Raven says.

“Speaking about that, the ritual is nearly complete so whatever you do is useless, and you call people like us vain. The one thing you can do is go through the portal into the Hell to shut it off from the other side. That is the only way to stop it. From what I’ve heard, you have no real control of yourself, and your soul is bound for Heaven, so will God abandon you and send you to Hell just to save the world? I’m curious to see how this plays out.”

More Corpus enter the room in time to hear the way to stop the ritual. They look at each other and wonder what to do, especially Raven.

That is until Raven sets his heart on his goal then says, “Whatever happens, I submit all of my being to serving God. Even if I must enter Hell and stay there forever, I will do so if it means that God’s will is done. I’m already dead after all.”

The Corpus fight the vampire lords while Raven leaps into the portal. He feels in sync with the will of God that moves him as he enters the fire. In Hell, Raven sees a multitude of demons around the portal and many more sinners burning in Hell below them. Not wanting to waste time, he breaks the portal with his two hands. The demons are about to attack him but are then stopped by a tornado of flames that consume him. To his surprise, this tornado transports Raven further into Hell until he appears in Purgatory where his flesh burns away until only his soul remains.

Now that his soul is purified, Raven enters into Heaven and is happily reunited with his family and united forever with the Heavenly family. The battle quickly ends after this as the Corpus overwhelm the vampire lords with might and sheer numbers. In the sky, the black sphere disappears signaling the vampires’ defeat. News of this defeat quickly spread throughout the world and faith is restored to many kingdoms as the vampires are fought back to near extinction within a month. During this time, Rinaldo teaches Raven’s last son, Nevar, how to fight in appreciation for his brother and way to apologize for being late to the battle. Meanwhile, a small band of vampires plot their evil schemes in the dark, but as long as the light of faith and love of God shines in the hearts of men, sin will not rule the world.

 

The End