Setting
Notable formations in the Descent are the following:
Echo Chamber: A large room seemingly carved from the icy rocks. Located roughly in the center of the Descent is it able to hear all that goes on throughout the entire cave system.
Round Circuit: A large half-sphere circuit that surrounds the entire structure of the cave. It is accessible from many points in the Descent, but goes on for long stretches of brilliantly lit nothing.
The Fold: A peculiar formation near the bottom of the Descent. Several sections of corridor like chamber nestled on top of each other, with each end connected either to the fold above or below.
The Spire Downs: A series of drops and cliffs from which large impressive icicles hang. When it rains water cascades downward in a torrential continuous waterfall. This is the most dangerous stretch of the Descent, covered in slick ice and dangerous runoff from other sections of the caves.
Soon too she would leave this place behind.
A firepit had been built within one of the vaster caverns, but the lack of proper ventilation left the air thick with the smell of charcoal and smoke as she seated herself beside it. A hare was roasting over the flames, adding the aroma of cooked meat to the mingling of odors that permeated the cavern.
She sniffed at the hare, and glanced at her counterpart. "This is we, now?" she said, gesturing to the cooked meat. "We cower in caves, char meat?"
She turned, looking longingly at the icy peaks, a small smile etching into her face. "We should hunt. Maria should hunt, feel the kill. We know we want to,"
She would eat, then she would sleep, and then in the morning she would resume hunting. The lands here were harsh and barren of life, certainly not the ideal conditions for a lone woman to be making a life for herself, but Maria was a resourceful survivalist. She had fallen steadily into this routine, putting other matters from mind.
"We eat. We sleep. We hunt," she said, slowly standing from her seat on the floor. "Maria wastes her time in shadows and frozen places. How long can we hide?"
The woman rubbed both hands, slowly down her stomach, absent fingers trailing over furs and animal hides, stroking the life within her. Slowly, the stomach extended, filling outwards, the skin throbbing and thrashing, as if something demented and furious clawed to escape.
"For as long as is necessary," Maria growled lowly.
She let her steely eyes roam briefly over her double before turning her attention back to her meal. Throwing bits of bone into the fire, Maria was making short work of the hare.
"You do not belong here. Why do you persist."
She tore into the meat once more, leaving no scrap of flesh to spare in her haste.
The belly churned; the shape of jaws lunging out of the distended belly, ripping open the furs that covered the woman. She hissed in pain as the pregnant flesh was revealed; black and scabbed, with dark blue veins streaking across it in lightning bolt patterns. The muzzle and jaws of the creature inside the other woman revealed themselves; jagged edges inside sickened skin.
"We-belong," the woman gasped out, staggering backwards as the skin distended, stretched, contorted, "hunting-for-blood."
The disturbing spectacle being put on by her double was unnerving, but Maria had come to terms with the fact that this specter that haunted her was a figment of her mind and nothing more. The wolf-mind given form.
She tossed the rest of the stripped bones into the firepit before lying down atop the pile of furs that made up her bed. She kept her back to the other, not caring to continue watching the gruesome display it was putting on.
It was often said that those of her line were destined to succumb to insanity, a fate that she had kept at bay these many long years, but perhaps it had finally descended upon her.
The darkness stirred around the desolate corpse... it appeared human as the explorer of the cave, a man in his thirties, approached it. As he drew near to the broken and run down Zero... a sensor activated. A living being, blood, life, an objective to prolong activity... a thought to kill. It took mere moments and the woman was upon him. His screams were drawn out and distorted as in an instant as, with monstrous ferocity and machine like efficiency, Zero drained the man clean of all blood... her power restored. She had no recollection of her past... whom she was... where she was going, her robotic sensor went off the map... no longer could she be tracked. Heck she didn't even know that she was a robot, in her eyes she awoke a beast but now, fueled with anothers blood she had gained clarity. She was a human, a vampire and her name? The only memory that remained? Was a number. "0"
Using her newfound energy she clawed her way up from the frozen abyss, her newly charged body falling to its knees at the pinacle of her ascent. Before her stood a party of four men, allies of the adventurer perhaps? Either way they didn't seem too happy to see her. One of them pointed at her in anguish, "There a vampire, look she is stained in the blood of our brother!" Another chimed in. "Beast! As hunters of the dark we will destroy all vampires prowling these lands, Vankroyth scum!" Zero froze. These men seemed to be hostile towards her... hunters of the dark? Vankroyth? She didn't know what was going on... however she got a fair idea when one of them drew a silver blade to attack her.
Charging forward the man slashed with a blinding silver streak which barely cut Zeros flesh but other than that had no negative effect, the man who had attacked, utterly stunned, dropped his sword and backed away in terror. "T... the silver does not weaken it..." In anger and anguish Zero picked up the silver blade which stung only slightly and (much to the horror of the other vampire hunters) sliced the attacking man clean in half, her artificially enhanced vampiric strength easily cleaving through the mans body. The other members fell to fight or flight reflexes, two lashing out and one, the youngest, running in terror. Both men tried and failed to run her through only to share the fate of their friend and end up sliced in two on the ground. Not without mercy she decided to allow the boy escape... after he helped her out. Easily catching up to the boy and pinning him down, she questioned him.
"Who are you? Why are you here?" She asked, her eyes burning a deep blood red. "We're vampire hunters! Commanded by our lord to destroy the dark!" The boy spoke with false pride... but it was clear he was terrified. "Who are the Vankroyth?" She asked, the boy frowned in anger. "You should no Beast!" Zero formed an iron grip around the boys neck. "Who are they?!" Squealing for his life the boy replied. "They're a coven of vampires *Gack* we came here to hunt them when we found you in this cave!" The boy spoke struggling for breath but zero did not let up. "Perhaps they know of my existence... at the very least they are my kind... perhaps they can help me..." She frowned at the slowly suffocating boy. "Where can I find them!" The boy barely managed an answer. "Their castle... the cursed woods... I..." He couldn't handle anymore and Zero realised he had been knocked out from lack of oxygen. Standing triumphantly she left the boy to find his own place in the World... as for her. She needed to find some answers and if anybody could help her surely it would be other vampires? So with that thought in mind the girl left the frigid descent and began to make her way to the ominous cursed woods the boy had mentioned.
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