Author's Note:

Hey guys, I'm not dead! *Confetti falls from the ceiling* Okay, so it's been WAAAAAAAY too long since I uploaded another chapter. It's been... what, almost two months? Sorry about that, I fell into a slump and then school was on me for a while, but I'm back now! I had some "free time" since I just finished my exams, so I decided that I should write another chapter to let you guys know the story isn't dead yet. Anyways, I'm rambling, so here's the new chapter! But first, Disclaimer!

Disclaimer:
I do not own Hyperdimension Neptunia or any of its characters. All content belongs to its respective owners.


Virtua Forest

"And here I am again, back where I started. This place hasn't changed a bit."

It had been a day since Vladimir's fight with Neptune, and he was entering an old, crumbling temple to wait out the sunlight.

Vladimir sat with his back to a wall, before wincing and holding his chest.

"Think she broke a rib..." he muttered, before feeling the scar running across his face. "She definitely had me, so what made me...?" Vladimir thought back to his fight with Purple Heart, and remembered the drop of blood that he drank before he went into his frenzy.

That must've been what helped me. But I can't believe that I almost killed her! I swore I'd never do it again after...

Vladimir's train of thought crashed as his thoughts started to wander toward painful memories.

This place is getting to me, I need some sleep.

Vladimir then stretched out on the floor, wincing as he did so, wrapped himself in his trench coat, and slowly drifted into an uneasy slumber.


"James! Stay with the group!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

A group of teenagers walked through the forest, surrounded by six instructors. In this group, a small group of friends were talking with each other.

"I can't believe we got authorization for this trip!" the smallest one said, practically bouncing with excitement.

"You said it, Tim," The largest one said, nodding towards him. "I'm glad I got my form in on time."

"What do you think, Vlad?" Tim said, looking towards the last friend in the group.

"We got really lucky," he answered. "The guild only organizes these trips every few years."

Tim smiled before saying: "Pretty special occasion huh? So is today the day you ask out Stephanie?"

Vladimir blushed and pushed away Tim, who was laughing the whole time. He glanced over at the aforementioned girl, who was currently talking with her own friends.

Before he could answer his friend's tease, they entered a large clearing, and slowed to a stop. One of the instructors then turned to talk to the teenagers, while the others began scanning the perimeter.

"This is one of the main spawning areas for dogoos," she said. "Can anyone tell me how often they spawn?"

Vladimir's hand went up, and the instructor nodded to him. "A new group spawns every half-hour, and the groups can range in size from as little as three to as many as twenty."

"Excellent! And how do you know when a new group is going to spawn?"

"Each area has its own timer, so you have to memorize the spawn times for each one."

The instructor smiled. "Well done Vladimir. Now if everyone can follow me, we can-"

"FENRIRS!"

One of the instructors yelled, and Vladimir whipped around before three fenrirs jumped into the clearing.

The instructors formed a wall between the fenrirs and the students, and one turned around, yelling: "SCATTER!"

The students began running away from the fenrirs; some went for the path they came from, others ran for the path ahead. Vladimir and a small group of others ran for the trees.


It had been only five minutes since he had started running, but it felt like an hour to Vladimir. He entered a small clearing to take a break, and he stopped and leaned against a tree, catching his breath and trying to think.

Ok, I've gotten far enough that the fenrirs shouldn't be able to track me, so now... Now I need to find shelter.

Vladimir looked around the clearing, and saw a crumbling temple. Better than nothing, he thought, and headed inside.

The inside of the temple was in better shape than the outside, with most of the walls and support beams wholly intact. The walls were covered in faded text, so that only a few words here and there were legible.

Vladimir walked slowly through the crumbling building, examining the walls and reading whatever text he could. From what I can tell, this was some sort of anti-sun cult, he thought. I wonder why somebody would hate the sun so much?

Just as he had this thought, Vladimir saw a piece of text that was almost completely intact. Cool, maybe I can figure out some more about this cult. As he stepped closer to read it though, the floor beneath him began to give way.

"AH CRAP, NO!" he yelled, before the ground gave way beneath him, and he fell into a room below him.


When he came to, Vladimir was lying on the floor of a stone chamber, surrounded by rubble. The back of his head throbbed in pain, and he groaned and rolled onto his side, clutching the back of his head.

After a while, the pain died down to a dull ache, and Vladimir slowly brought himself into a sitting position. He looked down at his right hand and winced; it was covered in blood, and it didn't take a doctor to know who's it was. He looked around the room, and saw a door barred with a large metal beam, and a pedestal on opposite sides of the room.

After just looking at the beam Vladimir knew that he wouldn't be able to lift it, so he stood up and, after fighting back the wave of nausea that caused, slowly made his way over to the pedestal.

Upon closer examination, the pedestal was covered in faded text much like the walls upstairs, only none of it was legible. On the pedestal was a blood-red stone, shaped like a droplet. Against his better judgment, Vladimir picked it up and examined it.

Other than it's color and shape, there's nothing really remarkable about it, he thought, and he turned it over. It was almost identical on the other side.

Then Vladimir noticed something strange. Though his right hand was still very much covered in blood, there was a lot less than there had been before, and there wasn't any left on the stone. Confusedly, he covered as much of the stone as he could with his right hand, but none was left on it, and his hand had lost some.

After repeating this process a few times, he noticed that the stone was starting to glow. It was faint at first, but it soon was bathing the entire room in crimson light.

Realizing that maybe playing with a strange stone that seemed to absorb blood might not be the best idea, Vladimir put the stone back on its pedestal, but this only seemed to make the stone glow brighter.

Vladimir began backing away from the pedestal, but it seemed that he had passed the point of no return long ago. The stone continued to glow brighter, until it was so bright that Vladimir had to cover his eyes, and then something hit him in the chest and he blacked out.


"Vladimir? Is that you?"

Vladimir slowly opened his eyes to see a girl looking down at him from the floor above.

"Don't worry, I'll be down in just a minute!"

Oh, it's Stephanie... ...I'm glad she's here... and thirsty...

Stephanie tied a rope to one of the pillars, and used it to climb down into the chamber. She rushed to his side and checked for a pulse, sighing in relief when she found one."You're gonna be ok Vladimir, I'm gonna go get the others."She turned to leave, but stopped when she heard Vladimir say one word:"...thirsty..."Stephanie turned back to him, kneeling beside him and bringing a water bottle out of her inventory.

...She's so close... ...I can hear her heart beating...

Stephanie leaned closer to Vladimir, bringing the water bottle to his lips.

...her pulse going...

"Drink, Vladimir."

...her blood pumping.

Faster than is humanly possible, Vladimir sprang up and bit into Stephanie's neck. She screamed and tried to stand up, but Vladimir already had an iron grip on her.

Eventually, the screams turned to whimpers, and the whimpers turned to silence, and what used to be Stephanie was now a dry, empty husk.


Vladimir woke with a start, breathing heavily. This place really is getting to me. I haven't had that dream in centuries.

After calming himself down, Vladimir stood up and stretched, pleased to find that his rib wasn't broken anymore. He felt his face as well, and the scar was also gone.

Seeing that the sun wasn't quite down yet, Vladimir decided to read the scripture one last time. He walked over to the only wall where the text was still legible, going around a familiar hole in the ground, and stopped before reading aloud:

For those who walk in the shadows of crimson,
yet yearn to see the light once more,
there is hope for you if you listen,
and wait for a time that is postwar.
High in the mountains a shrine does wait,
with the power to change your dark fate,
but if your intentions be not pure,
you will never be able to find your cure.

"Time that is postwar - check. Pure intentions - as close as they can be, so check."

Vladimir turned away from the wall, walking until he was outside the shrine.

He looked back at the shrine, and up to the moon, before saying:

"I've waited more centuries than I cared to count for this. It better not be a waste of time."

And with that, Vladimir walked out of the clearing, determined to finish his quest.


So, you got some backstory this chapter! That's always fun. As usual, feel free to review, it helps motivate me to keep writing. Even if it's just a little 'Nice chapter' or something like that. Although lengthy reviews telling me how I can improve are also appreciated! Anyways, have a good day/night!