Chapter 17
He never felt anything like it before.
Bad could feel the power seething out every pour of his skin, every fiber of his being was enriched and stood at the ready. He didn't need his shadows for this, the legion will fall by his hand! But first thing's first. "Bloodbore…" he said. "Don't show yourself but guide me here… these seals, can I break em?" Bad asked.
{Yes, my King,}
"Good, tell me how. I want all of them shattered… but the sealing one that is keeping the legions in this area. They ain't running away from me."
Bad was thinking how he was going to take all of them down, yet there was a part of him billowing inside his body, and it was growing stronger by the moment. It took everything to suppress it for the time being, but he needed to ensure he can break the spells that are hindering his victory.
{Truthfully my King, your blood can break these seals with ease. After all, they are to ward off death. How can it when Death is within the sanctum of the seals?}
Bad smirked. Looking about, he found his metal bat, his forehead had been bleeding for a little while, all he needed to do was get his blood on the bat and then, take his position. He smirked as his eyes spotted the first one. Seal of recover, one solid strike and the symbol shattered.
"What… IMPOSSIBLE" shouted the elder Crimson.
Then, the seal of ages, broke in one swing. Then, the last one, seal of reformation was the last to shatter. With the three gone, the legion of 10,000 could now face their punishment. Bad could not longer hold back. He felt something slither and build up from his stomach, creeping up his throat and into his jaws. His mouth opened, black wisps of smoke began to escapes, and then grow into strong, barbed fibers. The wisps broke off and began to slink across the earth, heading towards the vampires. Bad couldn't keep his mouth closed, he started to panic slightly to the notion as his mouth appeared to stretch wider and wider apart!
{My King, do not kill them all.} Bloodbore warned. {If you displace the balance among the vampires, they will attempt to regain their numbers and break out into civil war. The humans will pay a terrible price for it. I suggest leave five of each coven alive, from there, use the survivors to work out a peace treaty, but endure the elders responsible for this war, and their strongest minions are consumed…}
Bad understood, yet didn't quite know how to tell who was from what… either way… he didn't care for the moment, he surged again, but this time, he unleashed what he held back, the desire to end this war, to make the elders pay for what had happened, their punishment was about to be given as the wisps of smoke lashed forward, embedded themselves into the vampires through their mouths, nose and eyes…
#
"He's not getting away with this… We'll keep his sister hostage and demand that he…"
"Igris…." Zenko said calmly.
Even Amai Mask froze in fear as Zenko's shadow spread across the ground, it kept growing bigger and bigger until they were lifted up off the earth and onto the back of a shadow dragon! "Uh… this… is Igris?" Amai whispered to her.
She merely smiled. The dragon glared down at the underling vampires, left outside of the barrier looking in. Amai however turned and froze to what was happening. "Uh… Zenko. I am going to suggest you not see this." Amai said gently. His hand carefully went over her eyes just to be certain she doesn't see.
"What? Is something wrong with Bad?" she asked.
"Uh… How do I explain this… what he is doing… isn't for the faint of heart…"
#
Garou froze.
Flash turned a different shade of white as Bad's full power was unleashed. His full shadow King persona has emerged, and he was going to be certain it's the last thing the vampires see.
Garou tried to get to his feet, yet the loss of blood was too great to contend with. He had yet to fully digest what he took from Bad, and yet, he felt this was wrong. "We can't let him do this…" Garou whispered.
He tried to stand, but was stopped by Sonic! He stood before the two and stared them down. "You cannot interfere with the King's will." He warned.
"Screw you! What if he hurts himself!?" Garou demanded.
"My King knows what he is doing…"
"How can he when he has never done something like this before?" demanded Flash. "Sonic… he needs to be stopped!"
Yet it was too late. Garou froze as he watched as the shadows of nearly ten thousand vampires get ripped from their physical bodies! The black wisps that came out of Bad's mouth made certain to keep a firm and solid grip on his prey. The torn out shadows kicked and screamed as were dragged across the earth and towards his mouth. The shadows suddenly condensed down the closer they got to his lips. His body swelled up and contorted as Bad fed from the damned. Garou even had to look away as Bad's body continued to shift and contend with his feast. He gave a deep and gratifying gulp. Yet after the meal, Bad muffled a burp before passing out shortly after.
"BAD!" Garou called. But now wasn't the time to focus on that, the surviving vampires all rushed to Garou. They hit the ground begging for their lives. "We concede to you!" Fifty vampires remained, Garou accepted their surrender, after all, Bad spared them for a reason didn't he?
"We make a treaty here and now. You no longer come after me, my family or anyone I associate with! You will not call upon me for a vampire war, the wars among clans ends here and now!" Garou demanded.
"Whatever you wish, just please… don't have him devour us!"
"Perhaps it is best we get Snek to draft an official agreement?" Flash whispered. However, Jima came out of Bad's shadow. At first he was startled to his King passing out from a very full stomach, but soon realized he was needed elsewhere.
"Jima, can you write…"
"I already did by Bloodbore's suggestions. We have constructed an agreement to satisfy both parties. Once it is sighed the barrier that is erected now will be taken down, ending ragnarok." He explained.
Garou nodded as he turned to the surviving vampires. "Sign this… and you won't be eaten by him." He warned and pointed to Bad.
They all eagerly did. A simple drop of blood made it official, the last to go on was Garou as the treaty then glowed and went back into the hands of Jima. "I will protect this incase of conflict…" With that, the barrier vanished, the surviving underlings to the elders rushed to their covens and announced they have to leave immediately. With that, the vampires made a mad dash to the skies, into the forests, anywhere but there!
With a sigh, Garou turned as Bad moaned aloud. "Shit man… what the hell did I do?" he grumbled.
A small smirk came over him. "I think we need to get him to the association…" Garou announced.
"I got your ride!" called Zenko.
#
Bad woke with the mother of all stomach aches.
He tried to ignore the pain for a while, but now it was getting too much to contend with. He felt as if he were being stabbed on the inside, like thousands of sharp fingernails were clawing against his stomach. His eyes slowly opened, he peered about his surroundings yet jumped at his own body.
"What the hell, how did I get fat!" he demanded.
Garou was sitting in the corner, laughing his ass off at him. "You really let yourself go there, the moment you became Shadow King and you become that!" he snickered.
Bad was about to say something until he swore he heard Tatsumaki in the halls being sick. "BLEH!" she wrenched.
"Huh, that's the fifth time today…" he snickered.
Bad glared at Garou, he was about to demand an answer when his stomach churn, he jumped himself as he swore he felt movement… then heard screaming. "What… the… fuck…" Bad said slowly and fearfully.
"9,960 shadows… that's got to be a record somewhere…" Garou said offhandedly.
"What…"
"That's now many you devoured. 9,960 shadows… or souls… vampire souls… hard to digest…" Garou explained in spurts.
However Bad was confused. "Wait… I saw you get stabbed with a silver dagger… that… that should have killed you, right?"
Garou appeared rather offended. "You WANTED me dead?" he asked sarcastically. "Geeze, pick your priorities next time…"
"No, I mean… it should have killed you right? How come it didn't? I didn't get to you that quickly…"
"I wonder that too…" Garou said and scratched his head oddly. "Something is going on, I don't know what yet. But I know this. You saved my life… again…"
"Huh? When was the first time?" Bad asked.
Garou smirked. "Each and every day you allow me to feed off of you, to take your blood to keep myself sustained and alive. If you knew how hard it was to suppress the urges I get to feed when I didn't have my match…" he paused. "I could have killed a lot of people before meeting you. Thanks to you, I don't have to worry about it, that burden is gone"
Bad muffled a burp. "Excuse me… shit man…" he paused and sighed. "Why the hell did I eat all those vampire shadows?"
"Oh they pissed you off big time." Garou said and laughed. "Man, all I can say is, I'm glad I'm on your side!"
Bad tried to rub some relief into his bloated belly, but it wasn't working. "How is our patient doing?"
Snek wondered in, human form and snakeskin suit as he looked over Bad and was rather impressed. "I didn't think you could fit that many souls into a human body!"
"Shut the hell up and tell me there is some sort of relief to this!" Bad demanded.
Snek smirked and sighed. "Sadly, the only remedy is time. You ate these rather quickly, not to mention vampire souls could take awhile to digest, being old and all."
"Shit… I can't go around looking like Fat Bat!"
"Hehe, Fat Bat…" Garou snickered.
"Shut it!"
"Just rest, I don't know your digestion rate on this either, so it's going to be a mystery until we know for sure… besides, I think we ought to take you home. Every time Tatsumaki is near you, she throws up. Sensing soul energies and all, she can see all the vampires you ate… and it disturbs her…"
Bad rolled his eyes as he flopped on the bed in defeat. "Just… let me rest up for now…"
Garou nodded. "Let's go Snek and fill in Pig God." The two left the room. As the door closed, Bad saw him in hidden behind the doorway.
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
Sonic smiled as he approached his bedside. "My King, you are in great spirits after your first devouring of the enemies… I must say it was very impressive, your legions were quite terrified…" he said and bowed to him in great admiration.
"I wasn't doing it to scare them!" he snapped back. "What do you want and go. I ain't in the mood."
Sonic nodded as he stood once more, he left a drink of water with antacid tablets. "Rest well my King, I will tend to you the moment you return home. Your sister is in safe hands, and is being well looked after."
"Thanks for that…" Bad said begrudgingly. Sonic left shortly after, Bad sat himself up and took the antacids with water, he felt a little better, yet still he wished he didn't do what he just did. He didn't even feel sick about it!
With a sigh he decided to try and get some sleep.
It wasn't going to happen easily since his stomach kept screaming…