By the time Samuel truly felt like himself again, he'd apparently been asleep for nearly ten thousand years. Trying to recall what happened between his awakening as a vampire and falling asleep brought him little more than a few things he'd heard people say, but for such a small selection, they explained a great deal about what he'd missed and why.

"...but I know the Sanctuary spell. I could make him human again!"

"After the amount of blood Carmilla drained from him, it won't be that simple. You'd be left with a human, but not a living one."

"Then what can we do? As hostile as he's being, he's still only a child, and I can't bring myself to fight back…"

"The best I can do is put him into a deep sleep, and even then he may be stuck like that for millennia."

That had apparently all been part of one conversation, and Sam had an uncertain feeling that the second of the voices belonged to Arikado. What he remembered next was apparently some time later, and featured the same voice.

"I'm glad I've finally found you here in the dream world. Dracula's control over you shouldn't be as strong here, and given enough time, I may be able to lift it completely."

And finally, the last thing he heard before waking up came from a voice that almost had a deathly chill to it, but at the same time there was something surprisingly jovial about it.

"I told you to be careful with your father's umbrella… the worst is yet to come! Hee hee hee!"

So now here he was, in a castle that had once belonged to Dracula, surrounded by a number of monstrous creatures that were impressed with him for accomplishing something he couldn't even remember. Among these monsters, the one with the most helpful answers happened to have the same chilling speech as the last voice he heard in the dream, only considerably more serious.

"Most of these creatures are convinced that you single handedly defeated an invader by the name of Galamoth," said the monster, a being who called himself Death with an appearance to match. "The truth is more complicated. Are you familiar with this object?" He produced an item strikingly similar to the umbrella that Soma had brought home from the funeral.

"It's my dad's umbrella, right?" Sam said.

"Almost," Death said cryptically. "I wouldn't expect you to remember the differences when the original has been missing for most of your slumber. But you can think of this one as a counterpart of sorts to your father's, from another world."

"Another world?" Sam repeated. "What kind of world?"

"It's generally referred to as 'the Paroverse'," Death said. "It's a dreadful place. A distorted mirror image of our own world, where humor takes priority over logic. Artifacts from the Paroverse, when carried by the right person, can lead to something of an identity crisis for that person. Do you remember your brother Alucard?"

Sam did, but he wasn't sure why. The sound of the name brought a face like Arikado's to mind, only now he felt more inclined to call him 'Adrian' for some reason.

"Alucard possesses a number of powerful artifacts that bear his name," Death continued. "But once, after losing those, he stumbled upon something strikingly similar, with one key difference. The name 'Alucard' was now 'Alucart', and when carrying these items he believed that to be his name, with a change of personality to match.

"In the Paroverse, 'Alucart' is the name of a weak man who can only succeed at a task when dumb luck allows it. Alucard briefly adopted these traits until he realized the effect the equipment was having on him and managed to get rid of it.

"Rather than a group of items, it was only this umbrella that lead to you declaring yourself 'Kid Tracula' and humiliating Galamoth in battle."

Sam wasn't sure how to respond to all of this information. "...am I still dreaming?"

"I understand your confusion," Death said, "but I can assure you that things will return to normal soon enough. Your father's resurrection is underway as we speak, and one he is risen you will once again be his rightful heir."

That didn't sound normal to Sam, but he kept quiet. All things considered, he was looking forward to seeing his father again.


Flandre Scarlet did not want to be seen as a killer. But if killing people meant seeing a smile on her sister's face for the first time in nearly ten thousand years, then she was willing to slaughter as many as it took.

Remilia didn't realize just how important her smile was to her sister. As far as she knew, the reason Flandre had agreed to this was so she could finally be freed from the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

The occasion momentous enough to both free Flandre and restore Remilia's smile was, of course, the resurrection of Dracula himself. Vampires all over the world didn't even need to hear about such an event. They could all just feel it.

It was Dracula's brief return in the late 2040s that marked the point when humanity could no longer deny the existence of supernatural beings and forces, but it was ironically after that incident that vampires in particular seemed to disappear, even from places that had already accepted them as fact for centuries if not longer.

Remilia didn't know about the rest of her kind, but she had her own reasons for becoming so reclusive. While only she and Flandre were related by blood, she couldn't help but see the others who lived in the Scarlet Devil Mansion as her family as well. That is, until they ditched her.

The first departure from the mansion wasn't exactly voluntary. Sakuya Izayoi was an extraordinary maid with power over the flow of time, but in the end she was only human, with the lifespan that entailed. Once she was dead, the others just left, suggesting to Remilia that they were there more for Sakuya's company than hers.

So after being bitter and alone for ten thousand years, Remilia was all too eager to join Dracula's cause and help him begin a new age of vampires. Only a fool would turn down an opportunity to have Flandre's destructive power at their disposal.

As they approached an acre of impaled corpses, Remilia concluded that this was a sign that they'd reached their destination.

"Flandre," she said, "our new life begins here."


A/N: Even during long periods of time where I'm not writing a story, I'm still thinking about it all the time, and I think that may be to blame for the massive load of info I felt the need to dump in this chapter.

Credit for the new cover image goes to Pixiv users 宗太 and 油, or something like Souta and Abura if this website can't actually manage those characters.