Vlad 'Dracula' the Impaler's Story

Leli blinked, and furrowed her brow in confusion. He didn't want to be young? He was able to appear any way, like she was, and yet he chose to stay looking war-worn? It made no sense to her, but she was young, so of course it was scary.

"So you...don't have a family?" her eyes glimmered. To her, having noone seemed like freedom. Noone to scold her or tell her what she had to do, and when to do it. Her father didn't understand what being different meant, all he cared about was making her seem normal, keeping her "safe" at home, making sure she listened and obeyed orders. He was such an obnoxious person, having no family sounded great. But then again...

"That sounds...really lonely." She stared, holding back her instinct to walk towards him. He would still slaughter her at any given moment, that was what he did...wasn't it?

"I don't believe that you're a bad person," Leli said simply. "You've had bad things happen to you, and to get even, you did bad things to other people. But you aren't a bad guy. You could've killed me the moment you laid eyes on me, but lookit! I'm still here. I'm still breathing." She closed her eyes, the images of dead and tortured people burned into her memory, and she shuddered slightly.

"I think that someone can only be judged by the last memory they made to someone. You showed me that you have feelings, so I judge you as a fairly decent person. No, I don't think killing is ok, and no, I won't allow thoughtless murder, and while that's part of my memory of you, it isn't the whole thing. I don't know a lot about life, about people, about betrayal or anything like that. I'm not immortal. I haven't lost any of the people I've ever cared about. I haven't even really loved anybody, besides my father." She smiled a bit, thinking of him; he had to be worried, knowing that she had been in some way involved in the fray earlier. A scolding would come that night, to be sure, groundings and threats, but mostly yelling and fighting. Leli tucked her hair back, suddenly annoyed with the short crop, and looked up at him again.

"Whatever you've done before this means next to nothing to me. I didn't see any of it, so it doesn't affect me. How about this for an idea? I'll be part of your family. And see, you aren't alone anymore, now that you have family. But, there are conditions. One," she placed a hand on her hip and held up one finger, "I am not your servant. I won't run errands for you, not without very good reason. Two," she pricked up another finger, "I do not kill for you. I'm not some vigilante. And three, I am strictly neutral. If someone attacks you, I'm neither on their side, nor yours. I'm on my side."

Leli smiled ruefully, "Ah, world domination, and all that jazz? Well, fine, I wish you luck with that. If things don't go over well tonight, there's a guest house on my property that you can stay at if you don't have time to get home." She bent down and grabbed her bag, then stood up tall again, still grinning. "Thanks for not killing me, it was nice to talk to you, even for just a little while. Well, I'll be going now, Dad's real ticked, I can tell. I'll be going then."

She turned on her heel and started out of the forest, humming under her breath. "Oh, yeah," she glanced over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out, "call yourself whatever you want, but I don't think you're a monster. Bye-nee!" She waved once, then continued on her way, winding her way through the streets of her town, only the sound of her steps echoing in her ears.

The lights were still on when she got home, everything familiar besides. She swept inside and up to her room, ignoring her father's out-raged cries, locked her bedroom door, and settled into her bay window, staring out at the sky. Something told her she wasn't done here, not yet.

"Because if you could bring something back to life, you would not jump around screaming about Rupert, but I can also give life, Nerry." Kul said with the same patience he had before. Necromancy was the art of controlling life and death. It allowed a mortal to transcend into the realm of Gods, but elves were always willfully blind to such things. It was amusing for someone to consider his magic to be 'purple'. She must not have been used to it at least not at his level. Sure some people used it to heal, to bring back the dead as zombies and other minions, but his magic was so much more advanced. He highly doubted she had ever seen someones soul torn from their body and placed inside another body forever locked inside eternal servitude and never allowed to rest. If the body was destroyed, the soul was not freed, it was destroyed utterly. She had never seen someones soul torn to shreds and heard that unearthly wail that followed.

Vampires drank the blood of victims, but he could suck the very life from someone, their bodies starting to wither and decay under his touch turning to dust... but there he was getting worked up over a jab again. She did not have his age nor did she live through all the types of magics he had seen, so it was reasonable that she should be afraid of this vampires power, but the vampire would pass as all beings did. He would make a ruckus and then be slain by some valiant hero or some crueler villain. It was the way the world worked.

"Come Krell, it is time to go. I am thinking of a romance book this time." Kul said leaning on the large wraith once more.

Sahlidain arrived into town with the sound of hooves in the distance. With ease he teleported across the town near the church to see quite a sight. Kanaye was fighting with the blood sucker and the elves were being chased down by a group of horsemen. Kanaye seemed to have it under control so he instead focused on the horsemen. He summoned a Bone Devil in front of the horse men, right behind the elves, to block their way. Then the devil summoned its own minions, lemures. There was now an entire wall of demonic flesh block, fighting, and butchering the cavalry. "Get out of here now! Thisss isss no placcce for you!" He shouted at the elves as he created a long stone wall separting them from the battle field, just as a precaution.

He looked up at the bloodsucker with a face filled with disdain. Sahlidain launched five magic missiles at the blood sucker for there was no way to dodge all of even this weak of spell. He hoped that he could get the demon's attention so that Kanaye could fight with more ease.

Nerwen
Nerwen nodded at Sahlidain for saving them. "Thank you." She called back to him before starting to run again. When they reached the shop, Nerwen made all forms of plant life surround the building, then she ran into her room and grabbed her book of spells and potions, she searched for potions useful against the undead, vampires and werewolves. "Wolves bane, Bane of the undead, Circle of light, Sun fire." She looked at the last 2 and gathered the ingredients. She quickly mashed and stirred them together. The circle of light was a clear and bubbly potion and the sun fire was a dark orange with red foam forming on the top. She quickly put the potions in easily-broken potion bottles, perfect for using as a bomb. She opened her window and climbed outside.

Morwen
Morwen went into the back of the shop, the room in which she told fortunes, she sat at the table and gazed into the glass ball, the ball was clouded and changing from black and white and grey. "By the gods, why can't I see anything?" She grabbed her spell book and looked at the fire spells, knowing they would be more effective against a Vampire, an ordinary Vampire. She ran up the stairs and into her sister's room. She climbed out the window and joined her sister on the roof. They were looking down at the people in the streets, getting ripped apart and killed, their blood flowing down the streets. "What sort of a monster could do this?" Morwen asked her sister and she replied, "Vlad the Impaler, Dracula."

Kul sat on the park bench reading, and ignoring his surroundings. He could feel the souls under Vlads control wailing, and he could feel the magical ties that held them to this plain of existence. They were merely spirits, normal spirits. The vampire may have been powerful physically, but his necromancy needed a little work then again, Kul was rather hard on anyone who commanded spirits and whose ability did not match his own... which was everyone.

He licked his finger and turned the page of the book continuing to read. While he was ignoring the spirits, they were not ignoring him, pushed on by the will of their master, unfortunately they met a fate worse then what they suffered already, that of Krell.

The large being was no longer held under Kul's illusion as it just slowed him down. The mighty, dominate form of the great armored skeleton made a wonderful image as the black blade slid through spirit after spirit. His burning eyes holding no remorse, no pity, but also no enjoyment or rage. The spirits may have been able to reform or return to their master if they were being struck down by a normal blade, but sadly, it was not a normal blade. It was Kul's Blade of Horus, the mighty blade containing a piece of the great liches soul. With every swing the sword cut the ties connecting spirit to master, sucking it into the blade forever; destined to be imprisoned until the sword erodes the soul away making the blade even stronger.

Krell did not tire, Krell did not sleep, Krell knew no fear... Honestly, Krell could keep this up for all eternity. These level of spirits were no threat to an undead creature of Krell's level. Kul turned the page chuckling to himself over a rather interesting passage in the book.

Leli could do nothing but nod. An angel? Well, stranger things had happened. She closed her eyes and let the transformation run through her body quickly, wincing slightly as her bones crunched into new positions, her muscles tore and mended in new places. Soon, she stood merely as a large Bengal tiger, whiskers twitching at the irony smell as the blood steamed in the streets.

"Grab on, kid. We're going straight for him." She crouched down and nudged the boy, letting him drape across her back, and took off in a dead sprint, paws sending up sprays of blood with each step she took. As she neared the church, a growl tore through her throat; Vlad was really doing this. He kicked a man off the roof, who luckily was caught by another girl.

Leli came to a pause in a doorway and turned to look at the kid. He was definately worried about EVERYTHING. "Kid," she panted, forcing herself through another shift, human with large, leathery bat wings, "I need you to get into the church." She slowly worked him into her arms, and glanced up at the roof, and swallowed nervously, "Get somewhere we can heal for a little while if we're hurt, and gather some more fighters."

Putting the boy down, she pushed up and flapped to the rooftop, staring in horror at the vampiric man. She touched down, noticing for the first time her legs and hands were coated in blood. Feeling sick, she reeled slightly, but stayed standing, and gazed at the man before her, and his cloak that had started this darkness.

"Vlad," she whispered, "why are you DOING this?" Fighting tears, she scowled, and clenched her hands into fists. "Now I don't think I can forgive you."

"Death is a poor test!" she hollered, "Humans will fail, of course! They're weak, and easily slain. Your test is over, Vlad, now stop this!" She walked towards him slowly, and tears began to leak down her cheeks. "My father is human. And I cannot lose him. And I will die if I have to, to protect him, and to protect the people I care about." She stared at him, anger pouring out of her body.

"So if you want to kill them all...you'll have to kill me first." Leli vaulted at him, slamming into his body and pushing as hard as she could muster. She knew she was small, and weak, snd she couldn't do much, but she would do what she had to to protect her father.

So the girl was a shapeshifter? Apparently so, because Aaric wasn't sure there was another reason for her suddenly transforming into a large cat and whisking them away to a... church? The angel stared, wide-eyed, at the figure on the roof. A sort of hot anger rose from within. How dare he choose such a place to attack the town? The boy listened to his ally's instructions.

Aaric swallowed, and nodded. "Uhm... th-thank you so much for helping me!" The angel flashed the honey-eyed girl a smile. After the shapeshifter put him down, he stumbled into the church, searching for 'somewhere we can heal'. Aaric bit his lip nervously, and walked quietly through the aisle. Something... something about the church seemed to... welcome him? It might have been his imagination, but Aaric was certain that the church was trying to help. Trying to concentrate, the angel opened his mind to his surroundings. He knew, in a church, there was always a room behind the altar wall. Sometimes you just had to look more carefully.

After hauling himself onto the stage, the young boy stepped past the podium, and made his way to the altar. After taking in an eyeful, he brushed his hand against the wall. When his finger's touched a seam, Aaric ran his hand down the line before finding the catch and popping the door open. The boy smiled wearily. Normally churches aren't so secretive about their back rooms... He shrugged, and poked his head in. It was a simple storage area, with a table surrounded by shelves holding assorted boxes and random objects. Personally, Aaric thought that if they needed to find a place to heal, the best thing would be to run away as fast as possible. Oh well, he trusted his companion's plan. Now, to find some troops...

Aaric froze. He was staring at the window, and the entire pane of glass was drenched in blood. The angel sucked in a breath. The red seemed to be flowing up? What was happening on the roof!? The boy began moving before he was conscious of what was happening. He was outside the church in a flash, and was looking for a way to get to the roof. Clear blue eyes locked on a retaining wall for climbing vines, and the angel set to climbing it. "So if you want to kill them all...you'll have to kill me first." The nine year old body was just strong enough to haul itself onto the roof desperately. Aaric saw her ally slam herself into... a man? No. Not a man. The human-angel narrowed his eyes with recognition. Definitely not a man.

"What are you doing!?" the little boy raced over, and wedged himself between the two with surprising strength. His skin was crawling with the prospect of being so close to an evil being, but protecting the shapeshifter held the priority. With a burst of force, Aaric shoved the human away from the monster. He grabbed her hand. "Do you think any good is going to come from your death!? Don't offer your life on a silver platter!"

Aaric whirled around and locked his heavenly blue eyes on the vampire's glowing red orbs.

Since his attack failed and the elves survived, Sahlidain felt that the best way to serve a purpose now was to find the elves. Searching the streets he found them eventually found them helping the young Samurai in battle. Waltzing over casually he looked over the battle. The bloodsucker the little on called Vlad was dominating so they obviously didn't stand a chance. Sahlidain could start acting serious...but that would require so much work. He would much rather simply persuade his way out of this. At this he lightly twitched his right index finger to cast a suggestion spell on Vlad as well as a telepathic message.

The ideas of Sahlidain poured into Vlad's head: "Why not leave them be and continue the fighting on a planned battleground. Fighting on schedule, consistently, within different types of games each time. Perhaps large battlegrounds between other races could be an option? Why have the battle end now? I say we make this last much longer." The spell was heavy with charms so even if Vlad was strong minded, he'd still be greatly influenced by this idea.

Nerwen
Nerwen used her magic to heal Kanaye, she looked up to see Sahlidain pointing to Vlad. "Pointing at him isn't going to do much." She sighed and shook her head. She looked up to her sister. "When did you see this?"

Morwen
She rolled her eyes when he sister talked to Sahlidain, "He's using magic, Nerwen." She looked away from her sister when she asked about it. "Awhile ago, that's why I tried to keep you away from the forest." She turned around and looked at the destroyed house. "But he didn't come from the forest, he came from the pits of hell, not even the Gods can save him." She looked back up to the vampire. "By the gods, that's a child!" She shouted before using her own magic and lifting herself up onto the roof. "Please stop this madness!"

Leli sobbed and grabbed the boy, holding him tightly to her chest. "Knock it off, kid!" she shouted, "If you get hurt, bad things will go down!" She pushes him further away from Vlad and smiles weakly, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes. A girl boosted up onto the roof, and she pressed the small child into her arms. "Please, please, take him away, somewhere safe!"