Zesshi entered the room, Alucard closed the door behind her and made his way back to the bed, still uneasy on his feet, the vampire took a seat on the edge of the bed and motioned her to seat on a chair next to it. The half-elf oblidged, as she walked towards the chair she could help but feel how heavy the air was, the look on Alucard's face was a completely new one, he was visibly unsure, it transmitted loss and weakness. Emotions that in her mind didn't belong on his face, someone like him shouldn't have a reason to look so lost, so weak.
"A while ago, you asked me if I had always been this strong. At the time I gave you a empty answer, ignoring what you really wanted to know. Now, after being with you, I want to ask you a question. You told me that you used to say that if a man could defeat you, you would marry him… I wonder if we would be together if it wasn't for my strength."
As he spoke, the vampire kept his head down not bothering to make eye contact with Zesshi, his tone was flat and emotionless. He went silent and Zesshi knew what he wanted to know, and knew what the answer was, no they wouldn't be together, they most likely wouldn't have meet if he wasn't as powerful as he was. Zesshi's lips opened slightly, just to close back up, she couldn't say those things to him, there was no need for him to know that, after all she was sure if he asked deep down he already knew her answer. What mattered was the present and that, Zesshi felt her chest tighten as the thoughts took form in her mind, she would be by his side whatever happened.
Zesshi's thoughts came to an abrupt end when the door opened, the new comers were the Brides, not knowing why they were there the half-elf was readying herself to tell them to leave and not to interrupt their conversation.
"I called them via Message. Come in, take a seat." Alucard said, gesturing to the other chairs scattered around the room
Touka closed the door, they each picked a chair and placed it closer to the bed so they would be facing Alucard, all of them noted the expression in their creator's face, it was strangely serious, it showed them that the situation was grave.
"Given current events, and in an effort to clear my mind, I will now share with you my story. All of you, except Nyx, have in one way or the other been exposed to the truth. And to avoid any further problems, I will tell you everything, however what I tell you here must never leave this room. Is that understood!?" Alucard growled, his eyes glowing slightly as they moved from woman to woman
"You have my word, that we will not tell anything to anyone." Talia replied
"I won't tell anyone." Zesshi replied
Alucard gave them a mechanic nod, he looked at them, his mind arranging his thoughts, his memories, for a moment his fatigue vanished and he entered a state of great focus. Everything that he had to say became clear, there was no reason to lie to them, especially after what Talia and Touka had seen, however there were a few things he would have to alter, for their sake.
"…My original name is Jack Briefs, and I was a human."
Silence fell upon them, Talia and Touka kept a composed yet unnerved expression, both Brides thought back to what they had seen, they had considered the options the Elite had created some kind of metaphoric hallucinations and the only reason Alucard reacted to them was to free himself from them. Now they knew that was only wishful thinking, Alucard himself had confirmed their other impossible theory, the Supreme Being had at one point been a human.
Nyx blinked her eyes a few times, and then looked at the other 3 women, did they understand his words better than she did? Their expressions didn't transmit that, however her sisters did seem to be the less shocked out of them all, what had she missed when had they seen something she hadn't. That wasn't important, Alucard a human? The idea went against everything she thought she knew about the Supreme Beings, about her creator.
Zesshi froze, surely it wasn't impossible for a human to be turned into a vampire, however for one to become this powerful it wasn't a simple transformation or ritual. The way he spoke was enough to take that idea away, there was something else, that must be the reason he was making such a big deal out of this. Her mind cleared and she went back to what he has talked about before, had he been weak would things be the same as they are now, he must have meant had he been human would she be with him, certainly not.
"I was born on the planet Earth, in a realm different from this one, or YGGDRASIL. I was born into nothing, thrown into the streets along with several others, I was homeless and nameless, a simple afterthought."
The Brides suppressed the urge to dismiss him saying such things about himself, it was unfitting of a Supreme Being, but now wasn't the time for them to interrupt Alucard.
"However, we were of possible use to some people, abandoned children presented the perfect opportunity to recruit soldiers, we had no family, no lives to put at risk, we were clean boards for them to write on. Some left before I had my opportunity, we actually used to bet on who got the luck of leaving that day… When my time came, I was taken to this large house, I was presented to a man called Bartram Briefs, the man that I would end up calling Father and the one that gave me my name."
"T-That man…" Talia mumbled
"Yes, he was my father figure and mentor, the man who trained me for the job I would, then, one day fulfill."
"T-The man, who was unfazed by your outburst." Touka said, surprising both Nyx and Zesshi
"He was already in his 40s when he picked me up, by that time he was already a veteran, even after that he didn't stop, made everyone younger than him look bad. We all thought he would die in the field, on a mission… instead he passed away in his sleep… Point is he was hardened, to the core, not many things would make him flinch, not even monsters."
"My life at the time was relatively simple, I woke up, eat, trained, eat, trained, eat, had some free time to relax, slept and woke up once more. This every day, for many years, till finally I was sent in my first mission, I was successful and was placed into a team named Silver Eagles. My job there, and after that, was to do whatever was asked of us, being it simple things, things that only we were skilled enough to do, or the missions that would brand us as criminals if we failed. While on this team 2 things happened, one I met the first woman I had ever loved…" Alucard paused, as his attention momentarily went to Talia
"Her name was Talia Levett, and she was part of the Silver Eagles…"
"T-Then what that woman s-said was true?" Talia asked
"Yes. Her image was what I used as a base for your creation… it was a way to show how much I liked having her on my side, since she wasn't there with me in YGGDRASIL."
Talia gave him several slow nods in reply telling him that she understood what he was saying, internally she didn't know what she should feel. Part of her was happy that she was based on her creator's first love, perhaps that in some way had influenced her feelings for him, but Talia knew her human counterpart was dead, which meant that when he looked at her Alucard was reminded of her death. The Bride restrained her hands not to move them up to her face, perhaps that was why he had chosen Zesshi over her, he couldn't bear showing affection to the face of a dead woman. Talia quickly pushed away those thoughts, she could be so selfish as to think of herself during a time like this, she needed to fully devote her mind to Alucard.
Zesshi couldn't help but ogle at Talia and more than ever wonder why Alucard had chosen her over Talia, someone who seemed to love him without waver and was equal in form to his previous lover, certainly he would want to be with someone like that.
"The 2nd thing was YGGDRASIL… But before that I need you all to understand that my original world was one where things like magic, monsters, and resurrection were nothing but fantasy. We had different way to go about things, we used science and technology, it was a method that ended up sickening the planet, however it was also through those advances that our scientists found a new world."
"A world where what we saw as fantasy became reality, a world known as YGGDRASIL. It was a new world we could explore, outside of the fact we humans weren't built to survive in that world, because we were too weak and our bodies weren't adapted to this new world's rules…" Alucard said, being interrupted by Zesshi
"When you say weak, how weak were the humans in your world?" she asked reluctantly
She looked at Alucard, who gave her a weak and playful smile in return, followed by a loud sigh as he stretched his back, letting out a small laugh.
"The strongest human in my world, we the best gear and weapons we had for him to use, would still be an afterthought for any of you…"
"T-Then that means…" Talia mumbled, almost horrified
"That any of you, on your worst day, could have easily waved me away without a thought."
Zesshi held back a crazed laugh, such a transformation was beyond her imagination, for someone to go from a weakling to being able to rival the gods, should be near impossible. Even she, she was the daughter of a powerful godkin, everyone she knew that was strong was born with the potential. There was no one who was born with nothing and grew to such level of strength, yes, they could be fantastic warriors but nothing on a level worthy of consideration.
The Brides were in shock, before them was one of the last Supreme Beings, their creator, the only being they saw fit as to stand in the position mortals gave to gods, and such an existence was now telling them he could have been easily destroyed by any of them. It attacked, their already weakened, beliefs to think that the Supreme Being was at a time an ant, the thing they saw as an easy win.
"Back on topic. To be able to explore this world, we were given bodies that were made to be able to survive in that world, bodies made to our liking and that could evolve in strength, the mind would be placed in that body, and the body would be sent to YGGDRASIL."
"Is that why the Supreme Beings wouldn't always be there? Why Alucard, left from time to time and went on his business trips?" Touka asked
"Y-Yes. I did return to my original body, sometimes because I had missions to go on." Alucard replied
"I continued to advance in my career and was allowed to create my own unit, which I was the Commander of, they were the Black Hounds. I managed to get some people I already knew to join it, some were my friends, others were recommended to me, amongst those people was Talia…"
"Everything was going smoothly, we were one of the best units doing the jobs we did, that was till I made the wrong choice and 6 of us died, i-including Talia…"
Alucard fell silent, as his hands went up to his head going through his hair, the vampire let out a breath and lowered his head once more. Zesshi looked back at Talia, was that the reason, why he had not chosen Talia over her, because it pained him to be reminded of the love he once felt, the love that was forcefully taken from him. Her eyes widened, was that the pain Kaia had mentioned, the pain of those he lost, the pain brought about by those that were killed by his mistake.
It was something she didn't understand as she had always been nothing but a soldier and had never been placed in the position of leader, even now the one that was truly in control of their group was Alucard. Something else came to her mind, in their first night, Alucard had said that he was a soldier just like her, it wasn't a lie, but not true either, since he was not a soldier like she was, he was a Commander, in the eyes of his military he was much more qualified than she was.
Once more the Brides were taken aback, for a Supreme Being to so openly admit to have committed a mistake wasn't an option, yet Alucard continued to shake their notions and how their perceived their superior.
"I didn't take it well… I took some time from my work, spent a lot of time in YGGDRASIL, Touch Me helped me a lot during those times, but in the end not even that worked. I spend some more time by myself, when I went back to work I stepped down from my position as a Commander, and limited myself to being just a regular member of the unit."
"Is that why you want me to be the one to be the face of the leader in this group?" Zesshi asked
"No, that is because our enemies have to believe that you are the one that holds the power, and that we follow you."
"One day it happened, from our guild only I and Ainz were in YGGDRASIL, when we were transported to this new world, inside these bodies, along with Nazarick and its denizens." Alucard said, finishing his story he waited for someone to say something
Nyx took in everything Alucard had said, she was fascinated by the story he had told them, it had never crossed her mind that her creator had had such a life, truly she would have never imagined a Supreme Being going through such hardship, and much less being a weak human. That was the most troubling thing, he had been a human, a human from a completely different world from YGGDRASIL, still that was not a problem. Why should it be, he was the creator, whatever is name or race was in Nyx's mind it didn't matter, he was her creator, her father, that was all she cared about. It would be insulting, if she decided to change how she viewed him because of this, it hadn't matter till now, it wouldn't matter after this.
Nyx jumped off her seat, catching the attention of her sisters, Zesshi and Alucard, the small vampire looked at her creator and ran at him, she hit him full force wrapping her arms around his neck in the process. Alucard did his best not to fall back, replying by placing his own arms around Nyx, who took the opportunity to borrow her face into his shoulder, when she finally moved back to look at him she spoke.
"I don't care if Alucard is a vampire or a human, if he's weak or strong, if he's a Supreme Being or not. As long as Otō-san stays, I don't care." she said, with a delightfully childish manner
Alucard placed his hand on her head, warmly patting her head, his weak, saddened and overall pitiful expression, was now bright and fatherly. He was so relieved the first reaction was so positive, he could only hope the rest would react in the same manner, it wasn't impossible for someone to react negatively. His main concerns were Talia and Zesshi, the one's that he believed to hold him in the highest regard, in one way or the other.
Touka looked at how Nyx reacted, and couldn't help but agree, no her devotion to him reinvigorated. After all his story was so cool, to think that their master, was not only a great warrior in YGGDRASIL, but also in his original world. That in that world he was amongst the elites, as she would no doubt expect of him, this only showed her why he was who he was, why he was so cool, and why she would never regret being his subordinate.
Nyx took her seat, and Touka got back to her feet almost immediately, the Bride straightened her posture as best as she could and did the same salute that she had seen the members of the Black Hounds do, much to Alucard's surprise.
"I am honored to serve under you, my creator. There would never be anyone else, not even amongst the Supreme Beings, that I would prefer to serve." Touka proclaimed, with a mischievous grin
Alucard gave her a playful smile back as he got back to his feet, another good reaction he was happy, he straightened his posture and saluted her back, letting his arm fall to the side soon after.
"At ease, soldier."
"Yes, sir." she said, going back to her seat
"A-Alucard…" Talia managed to speak, her face painted with unmasked doubts
"…M-My apologies!"
Talia rushed back to her feet, gave him a quick bow and ran out of the room, both Alucard and Touka called out to her but got no reply, and if that wasn't enough Zesshi also rushed out of her chair and exited the room, seemingly to go after Talia.
"I should go after her." Touka said
"No, let her be. You two are dismissed, go and get some rest."
"Are you sure?" Nyx asked
"Yes. Now go and rest, you've both earned it."
