Blood Thirst in the Dark

by erttheking

Lucina has known peace for several years, but something dark and powerful is lurking at the corners of her world. Something that came from beyond the boundaries of what she knows. Patreon sponsored story

It was the third town this week. Lucina looked around in discomfort. The small town on the border of the Halidom of Ylisse was utterly empty, not a single person to be found. Normally, such an occurrence would suggest that the town had been abandoned, possibly due to failing crops or the threat of an impending invasion, but there were clearly signs of a struggle. Broken windows, a barn that had been burned down, slaughtered livestock, blood and broken weapons scattered across the ground, with one house having been peppered with arrows. It looked like a bandit raid, or an attack from a foreign power. But there was one thing that made the situation strange.

"Just like the other two," her brother, Morgan said. "All of the bodies are gone." Lucina nodded, walking through the town with Morgan and his betrothed Noire right behind her. "Have you ever seen anything like this? In either of the timelines?"

Lucina frowned. Nowadays, years after the defeat of Grima, she found herself trying to not think about the future she had come from. It didn't exist anymore, and there was a strong possibility that it technically had never existed in the first place. Maybe. Time travel was a confusing concept. She herself still existed, so it was unsure what the state of the terrible future she had come from was. Which was another reasons she didn't like to think about it. Nevertheless, she forced herself to go through her memories of those times.

"No," she said slowly, double checking her recollections to make sure. "Even when Risen attacked a village they left bodies. I don't know if it's because they didn't think about it or they were trying to dishearten those who would resist Grima. They never dragged them off like this." Lucina hoped that they had been dragged off. She could think of a couple of other explanations for why, but none of them made sense and all of them were very horrifying.

Noire swallowed but didn't say anything. Her bow was fitted with an arrow and was taught, while Morgan and Lucina both had their swords drawn. Lucina wasn't expecting a fight, but it was better to be safe than sorry. "Morgan, see anything that could help?"

Her brother reached into his pouch with his free hand and produced a local map. "No, but I am working on a theory," he said, unfolding it, both Lucina and Noire stepping in to take a closer look. A couple of Xs had been drawn on the map, marking the villages that had been attacked. "I've been looking at the places where the attacks have been happening, at least I assume they're attacks, and they're all fairly close, but obviously we knew that already," he said, pressing it flat against the side of a building.

"So I'm thinking whatever is causing this is staying in the area, if they're on the move and attacking as they go, they're going at a rather slow pace, and someone would've seen them. So they most likely have a base of operations in the area. Based on terran, distance, how long it took for us to realize these villages had gone silent and a few other factors, I think they're somewhere in this area." With his index finger, he drew a circle around a rocky outcrop that was near the three xs. "A fair bit of terrain, and an ideal place to hide. Probably a few caves in the area."

Lucina took it all in. It made sense, hiding in caves was hardly an originally concept, but it was one that worked. So long as the people who were looking for you didn't know that you were hiding in a cave. "Morgan, write up a quick message for Mother and Father," she said. "Send our outriders back with it. We're going to head there ourselves and deal with this if we can."

A small squeak came from Noire. Lucina and Morgan both turned to face her with concerned looks as she clamped down her hand over her mouth, clearly embarrassed at her outburst. "We're...we're not going to wait for backup?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady but still not able to keep slight trembles out of it. "Just the three of us?"

"I've thought the situation through, and I've concluded that there can't be that many of whoever is doing this," Lucina said. "There haven't been any reports of soldiers or mercenaries going missing in the area, even smaller patrols. Whoever is doing this is doing everything that they can to avoid drawing attention to themselves. They're afraid of encountering even small amounts of resistance, so there's a couple of possible conclusions to draw from this. They aren't very well trained, there aren't a lot of them, they would break very easily when faced with a true threat, or some combination of the three. Any flaws in my reasoning Morgan?"

Her younger brother shook his head as he rolled up the map. "Nope!" he said cheerfully. "They're all reasonable deductions. No idea why they're stealing the bodies, but all the signs point to them being a small scale operation that can't handle a straight up fight. And considering everything the three of us have handled, we're probably more than enough to take care of them. Right Lucina?"

Lucina nodded. "And there's the larger concern I have. If we wait for Father to rally a party to go and deal with it, it will take a few days are the very least, even if it's a small party. By the time his forces arrive, another village might have been attacked. People that might die or who knows what else that could have been saved. And, well, I think there's a chance that some of the people gone missing might still be alive. I don't want to think about what's happening to them, but I want to stop it before it gets any worse."

Fear was still evident in Noire's eyes, but she forced herself to nod. "O-ok. I understand." Lucina hear the scratching of a quill on paper behind her, and she knew that Morgan was already almost done writing the message, which was quickly rolled up. Leading the way, Morgan headed back to the outskirts of town where a few riders were waiting for them, tending to the horses that they themselves had ridden here.

"Please take this back to the castle, tell Mother and Father that we're going to stop whoever's causing this if we can and that we'll head back if we can't," Lucina said. The head rider looked concerned, but she took the letter without question, gave her horse a soft nudge, and rode off with the others. With a nod to Morgan and Noire, the trio mounted the horses that had been left behind and were now rested and watered, and began to ride in the direction of the rocky outcrop that Morgan had outlined.

Their journey stretched on for hours, even this relatively short distance taking quite a bit of time to cover. They stopped once at a small pond to let the horses rest and drink, doing the same themselves, before pressing onward. Doubts ate at the back of Lucina's mind. What were the people attacking these towns doing with the bodies that they were stealing? Were they enslaving the survivors and trying to hide how many there were? Were they burying the dead out of some twisted sense of respect? Or, and Lucina's stomach turned at the thought, were the dead being eaten?

Eventually, after a long time alone with her thoughts growing steadily darker and darker, they reached their destination. After finding a place to affix the horses in a makeshift manner, they once again drew their weapons and moved in. Lucina's eyes darted back and forth as they clambered over rocks and boulders, looking for sentries that might be nocking an arrow or readying a spell. Noire was of the same mind, her bow trained on the tops of ridgelines and at any other place where a sniper might be lurking.

For a quarter of an hour, they proceeded, not encounting a single person, living or dead. Then, they came across the entrance to a cave. Wide, gaping, and pitch black, it stretched out before them. Lucina heard a slight shaking of wood on wood behind her, and had a bad feeling that Noire was trembling. No doubt she had realized that this cave was of a good size for a band of bandits to hide out in. But there was something more to this cave. It wasn't just large and dark, that played upon a primal and understandable fear. Something seemed different about this cave. Sunlight didn't seem to enter it properly, dying around the edes, and the darkness within it didn't seem naturally. It seemed to go beyond the mere absence of light, there was something active about it. Malicious.

Muttering a few words under his breath, Morgan held his hand out. A ball of flame burst to life, rising up and hovering over their heads. Even when the artificial light leaked into the cave, it felt dimmer than it should have been. Something here wasn't right.

With Falchion in hand, Lucina stepped forward into the cave, Noire and Morgan right behind her. It was impossible to see more than five feet in front of her, even though Morgan's flame burned as brightly as a roaring bonfire where the light did fall. "Be ready for anything," she said, her grip tightening. They continued to inch forward, and the passageway felt like it was stretching on before them without end. No matter how far they seemed to go, nothing came into sight.

And then, a flicker of light. Blood red light. Torches were lining the walls now, their sickly light unpleasant and coming from an unnaturally colored fire, but now they could see. They could see the cavern stretching out before them. And they could see the dead. Dozens of skeletons and long dead bodies, the stretch of their rotting carcasses filling the room. But that wasn't what disturbed Lucina. What disturbed her was that all of them were standing upright, weapons in hand, starting at them. And, as soon as they came into sight, they charged.

Having no time to issue orders, Lucina took a step back and swung Falchion at the nearest corpse as it lurched at her with a sword. The blow was strong enough to take its head off with a single pass, or perhaps the flesh was just that rotten, but either way, more swarmed behind it. A bolt of lightning arched past her, tearing through three more of the corpses, reducing them to ashes within seconds, but the horde was upon them now. She and Morgan locked ranks as best they could, their swords tearing into every corpse and skeleton that came at them, while Noire's arrows flitted past the both of them.

The corpses on their own were not particularly difficult enemies. If anything, they were rather fragile, a blow or two being enough to fell them, but they were massive in number. Dozens of them poured out of the cave, brandishing swords, spears, axes, and one even held a pitchfork. Again and again, Falchion cut through diseased and graying flesh, becoming coated with grime, blood, and other filth, while Morgan did the same next to her. There were more than a few close calls. A spear that nearly took her head off, only to only graze her cheek. A sword that nearly stabbed her in the gut. An archer that Noire spotted just in time.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, it was over. Lucina's chest heaved as she held Falchion in a guard stance, just in case any more came. A corpse that had been slain and a corpse that hadn't were hard to tell apart. "Lucina?" Noire whispered. "There could be more down there. There probably are." She took a deep breath. "W-what should we do?"

Lucina knew that Noire hadn't wanted to go down into this cave in the first place, and that she very much wanted to leave now. Despite this, she was asking for orders from Lucina. Saying, even if she didn't realize it, that she would press on if Lucina ordered her to. Lucina felt pride for her future sister-in-law's bravery in the face of this new threat. Thankfully though, it wouldn't be needed.

"Back to the horses," she said, "everyone needs to know about this. We don't know how many more are down there, and this is worse than we thought. If we die, they may run and set up camp elsewhere, attacking more towns to swell their ranks. Father and Mother need to know the true nature of these...things. I'm willing to bet that they can somehow control the bodies of those they kill."

"Correct," an irritated voice said from behind them. All three of them spun around, weapons at the ready. A man in obsidian black armor was standing behind them, a sword in its sheath at his side. None of this was anything special, but what truly drew Lucina's attention was the man's face. The man's skin was, unmistakable even in this poor like, pale gray. Pale gray skin and milky white eyes. Something about it gave off a sense of wrongness that coupled together with the unnatural darkness, gave Lucina a very bad feeling that they had stumbled into the lair of something very powerful.

"Dogs of the Emperor?" the gray man asked venomously. "Or foolhardy knights seeking the approval of a spectre in a lake? Or perhaps you wish to become like me and wield the power that I do? Then again, unlikely. I doubt that they followed me. Either way, it matters not." He drew a sword from his side. A thin, silver one, with a thick ruby set into the hilt. "You've set my plans back by weeks. All the careful planning in building up forces without being seen. Wasted. Now you'll help me rebuild it."

"Who are you?" Lucina asked, shooting Morgan a look out of the corner of her eye. It was a look she had only given him a couple of times, but one he knew well. I'm going to keep them distracted, you come up with a plan. "One of Grima's old followers? Validar's sorcerers?"

The gray fleshed man sneered in disgust. "I do not follow, I lead," he said. "The only one I ever followed was Manfred von Carstein, and only because I was smart enough to never challenge someone as strong as he was. But Manfred isn't in this world. I'm the only Vampire that is. I tower far over you mortal, both in strength of arm and in magical might. The Winds of Magic are strangely calm here, but I can still use them. Now then. You have two choices. You can fight me and fall, becoming just another corpse for me to raise for my budding army. But I see some potential in you."

"You want me to just join you out of fear?" Lucina growled, anger boiling up in her. She had no idea what this thing, this Vampire, was talking about. So much of what he said made no sense, and he kept referencing things that Lucina had no frame of understanding for. The only thing that she could conclude was that he had traveled to her world via a secondary realm of some kind. But what kind of realm would house a monster like this? "I've faced monsters like you time and time again, triumphing every time. Do you really think I'd just give in? That I'm afraid of you?"

"Afraid? No. Of course not. Normal men would have turned tail and run at the sight of that many zombies in such close quarters," the Vampire replied. "You were outnumbered fifteen to one. I've seen hardened veterans fall to better odds, and there is a problem I have been struggling with. I am but one Vampire, and zombies can only do so much. I need another of my kind by my side. Agree to work with me, and I will turn all of you into Vampires."

"How does that work?" Lucina asked, curiosity getting the better of her, and trying to drag out the conversation as long as she could. "And what is a Vampire? You keep saying that like I have any idea what it means."

The Vampire snarled. "The Blood Kiss is our most sacred ritual," he hissed. "Not to be idly discussed, even among my kind." He composed himself before continuing. "As for what a Vampire is, a Vampire is true superiority. We do not age, we do not grow sick, the weakest Vampire could easily crush the strongest man, and we possess powers beyond their imagining." He gestured to the pile of corpses behind Lucina. "Necromancy is one of them, the ability to make the dead live again. All we require is to feed off of the blood of the living, and all of this and more is ours."

"And why do you think any of this appeals to me?" Lucina asked, shifting Falchion back and pulling the hilt closer to her chest, an ideal position for thrusting. "What makes you think I want anything to do with the type of person that kills innocents and uses their bodies as tools for selfish gain?" Images of the form Grima had taken, twisting her mother's kind face into one of sadism and cruelty, flashed through Lucina's mind. Whatever a Vampire was, it sounded a great deal like Grima and his ilk. Her blood boiled a little higher at the mere idea that someone would even consider asking her to become anything like the things that had destroyed her world.

Anger spread across the Vampire's face. "I should have known you were a lost cause. The type of mortal who stubbornly clings to their inevitable death with misplaced pride. I suppose your companion will have to do as my ally, given that a woman with such talent is determined to martyr herself to satisfy her sense of righteousness."

"Hey, what makes you think I want to join up with you?" Morgan barked, his normally happy face stern and calculating. "I've been through everything she has by her side. You face one of us, you face both of us." Lucina wanted to hug her brother, but forced herself to stay focused on their enemy. There would be time later.

"Not. You," the Vampire said, glaring at Morgan with contempt, before raising his free hand and pointing. "Her." Lucina blinked. There was only one other person in this tunnel that he could be talking about. Noire let out a small squeak, and the hand on her bow trembled. Out of the corner of her eye, Lucina could see the archer shaking her head.

"Oh?" A smile spread across the Vampire's face, his outrage fading for the first time. "I don't think so. I can feel something in you. Normally I wouldn't look twice at a sniveling coward such as yourself, but there's something in you. Something much darker. I have a feeling that whatever is in there, just below the surface, would make an excellent Vampire. The offer is simple. Turn, and you don't have to die with the other two."

"S-shut up!" Noire said, the impact ruined somewhat by how badly her voice was shaking. In fact, there was a little bit of shimmering in her eyes. Lucina took a step to the side, making sure that she stood fully between Noire and the Vampire. As she did, a single thought echoed inside her head. Somehow, this thing knew, or guessed, about what Tharja had done to Noire. About the darker Noire. What did he plan to do with that?

The Vampire gave a long, annoyed sigh, his frustration starting to flow back. "I suppose I too impulsive here," he said. "My patron would have been furious at me for being so idle with my offering. There's no excuse really, I panicked. Being alone and afraid that your bloodline can be snuffed out at any second will do that. Pity. I'll simply have to be more reserved next time," he said. And then, with a blur of black and gray, he lunged forward.

Lucina's eyes widened as she brought up her sword to defend herself. It was staggering, the Vampire flicked his wrist in what should have been a light, probing blow, but Lucina had to fight to make sure that Falchion wasn't sent flying out of her hands. Step by step she was forced back as a flurry of blows rained down on her, looking deceptively light, but each of them hitting like a rage fueled berserker heaving a warhammer.

A bit of panic shot through her system. When the Vampire had said that the strongest man would be crushed by the weakest Vampire, he had not been boasting idly. This wasn't natural, someone of his size simply shouldn't be able to hit so hard with so little build up. It took every last bit of skill she had just to keep that blur of silver at bay.

An idea sprang into Lucina's head, one that she hopped Morgan would be able to understand quickly. She began to take even larger steps back, more than was necessary for her to escape the reach of the Vampire's blade. A cocky smirk spread across the monster's face, doubtless believing that he had Lucina on the ropes. He wasn't exactly wrong, Lucina was just letting him think the situation was worse than it was. He kept pushing forward, not realizing that, as Lucina retreated deeper into the cave, they had both passed by Morgan and Noire.

The Vampire moved to strike again, but was stopped as an arrow erupted from the center of his throat. He hissed in pain, but it wasn't a hiss of someone who was fatally wounded. It was the hiss of someone who had sustained a wound that was more annoying than harmful. He turned around just in time to see Noire nock a second arrow and let loose, this one piercing the Vampire's skull.

Meanwhile, Morgan extended his free hand and another bolt of lighting cracked to life, surging forward and tearing into the Vampire. Roaring in pain as he was pushed back a few steps, the Vampire darted to the side, making random lurching moments as he went, doubtless to throw off any incoming ranged attacks. Without even meaning to, he put himself out of Lucina's reach, her overhead strike clashing harmlessly on the rocky floor. He was closing the distance fast, Morgan only getting off one more spell, which was narrowly dodged, and Noire one more arrow, which was swatted out of the air by the Vampire's sword. The silver blade glinted in the cave's blood red light.

Bearing down on Morgan, the Vampire flashed. Blade clashed on blade, and there was a sickening whining noise as Morgan's blade burst into a dozen different pieces. Stumbling backward, he extended his hand to cast another spell, but the Vampire was already ahead of him. The Vampire's free hand shot up, dark claws shining in the unholy light, and slashed at Morgan's spell hand. A cry of pain filled the cave as blood spurt out of Morgan's wrist, and the Vampire darted in for the killing blow. For Lucina, time seemed to slow down. The Vampire had moved too far ahead too quickly, she knew that she wouldn't get there in time.

Luckily, she didn't have to. As Morgan stumbled back and fell to the ground, a third arrow pierced the Vampire, this one hitting the vampire's chest, just below the neck. Right above where the armor started. Changing tactics in the blink of an eye, the Vampire turned and shot towards Noire. Something had changed in her. Her eyes were hard, her face was twisted in anger, and her hand was as firm as a rock. She was seething with silent anger. She nocked a pair of arrows and let both fly, the Vampie stopping to deflect both with his sword.

In the fraction of a second he stopped to handle both arrows, Lucina bolted forward, thrusting with Falchion. The Vampire was durable, more durable than anything Lucina had ever met aside from Grima himself, but he seemed to fear injury. If he went out of his way to block and deflect attacks, then he wasn't indestructible. They had to just keep pushing him until he broke. With that in mind, she slammed into his side while he was distracted, driving Falchion's tip into him.

The Vampire screamed. He had let out grunts and hisses of frustration when he had been hurt before, but as Falchion cut into his flesh, he screamed with agony. Lucina pushed forward, driving them both back until they hit the wall of the cave. All composure in the Vampire slipped away, as he howled like an animal, clawing at Falchion with his free hand. As he did, a strong burning smell reached Lucina's nose, along with a faint sizzling noise. She realized, with a pang of shock, that both were coming from the Vampire's side and hand. Falchion was burning him.

"ACCURSED HOLY WEAPONS!" the Vampire roared, ripping Falchion out of him, badly burning his hand in the process, and swinging wildly with his sword. Lucina, throw off balance when her sword was thrown back, gasped in pain as the Vampire's sword cut through her tunic and into her chest. She could hear and feel the top of the blade chip at her ribs, and had to fight to stay on her feet.

The Vampire swung viciously and randomly, treating his sword like a club that he was trying to bash her head in with. Normally, this would be easy to deflect, but it was made hard by the Vampire's speed and the burning pain in her chest. Again, Lucina was forced to struggle to keep up with the blur of silver that shone through the air, trying to kill her.

Then, for the fourth time that day, an arrow pierced the Vampire. It had been aimed lower this time, slipping in between a cap in the Vampire's armor, between the leg and foot. The Vampire stumbled, taken by surprise, and Lucina seized her chance. With a roar, she swung her blade directly at the Vampire's neck. It wasn't a clean or full cut, but it hit. Her sword went halfway through the Vampire's neck before it got stuck, possibly on the spinal cord.

Blood openly flowing out of his opened neck, the Vampire gurgled, swinging his sword a few more times in a desperate attempt to fend Lucina off. Spotting the reduced speed of her opponent, she batted his sword away before striking at his neck once more. The Vampire's head rolled to the ground, far away from its crumpling body. Lucina let out a deep gasp, leaning against a wall as the pain in her chest spiked.

"Oh-oh no," Noire whimpered. Whatever had come over her during the fight, it was clearly gone now. "Lucina, Morgan, I-" she whispered, looking back and forth between the Lucina leaning on the wall, and Morgan struggling to get into a sitting position on the ground. "I...I…"

"Go to him," Lucina said, "I'm fine, patch him up." Noire stared for a moment, before she gave a small nod of appreciation and ran towards Morgan. Lucina let herself slide to the ground, sitting next to the dead Vampire. She glared at the body in disgust, before noticing a bouch on the Vampire's back. Curiosity getting the better of her, she reached into it and felt a leatherbound journal, which she pulled out.

It was an old and torn thing, with odd symbols branded onto the surface, along with strange runes. Curiosity getting the better of her, she flicked it open. The Vampire had written on every last inch in tiny writing, packing it to the point where reading it was almost impossible. Skimming it, she noticed a few words appeared multiple times. Empire of Man. Bretonnia. Dwarves. Elves. Lizardmen. Once or twice the journal mentioned something about Tomb Kings. Over and over again he mentioned Vampires. However, as Lucina flipped through the book, something began to pop up more and more. The End Times.

She looked over the last few pages, and the End Times were mentioned time and time again. What little she could read filled her with horror, although there was a small comfort to it. The Vampires would most likely not be troubling them ever again.

XXXXX

Author's Note: Full disclosure, I'm not terribly familiar with Warhammer Fantasy, I'm much more of a 40k guy. Most of my exposure with Fantasy comes from the Total War games which are, to put it lightly, fantastic. (Even if some of the DLC practices are a mixed bag. Wood Elves and Beastmen are stupidly overpriced, Norsca is more around what I think an expansion faction should be priced at. I'm glad they calmed the hell down with II and only had the Tomb Kings for DLC. You know, aside from the arbitrary gorn DLC. Even if the Tomb Kings are fucking expensive) I did my best to do research on Vampire Counts and what they're like, but I only had so much to go on, namely what I learned from those games and what I could rip off the wikis.

Speaking of which, after I came up with the idea of the Vampire offering the Blood Kiss, part of me really liked the idea of exploring that, but then I reminded myself that I've got a massively over clogged backlog as it is, and I keep adding to it, so maybe I should teach myself self control.

Also, I thought I'd include the End Times because I like the End Times...as a concept. From what I've been reading the End Times gets a lot of flack for basically being "You know all those different battle lines all throughout the world? Yeah, the bad guys won every last one of them." I kept it in because universes like Warhammer Fantasy and 40k are universes I really can only see ending in total destruction (or an outcome where the good guys win a very costly victory). Though, frankly, I'd prefer it be written as more of a mutual annihilation thing. Also there's the problem of the End Times getting a lot of flak as just being used as a reboot to sell Age of Sigmar, which a lot of people despise. I guess there's a reason why so many people prefer to talk about the new Total War games instead, seeing as how they've more or less become an alternate reality.

I would like to thank my Patrons, SuperFeatherYoshi, xXNanamiXx, Ryan Van Schaack, RaptorusMaximus and Davis Swinney for their amazing support.