Chapter 4: The White Princess
Arcueid Brunestud. The White Princess of the True Ancestors. The last of the True Ancestors, and the strongest one to ever live. She appeared to be a young woman about 20 years old and was 5'6. Her body was well developed and she had an almost perfect hour-glass figure. Her face was beautiful with large crimson eyes and short blonde hair. Arcueid could easily pass for a model if she wanted to, but as she was unaware of what models even were, it would be quite a challenge. Her usual attire consisted of a long-sleeved white shirt, a dark blue skirt, high leather boots, black leggings, and a silver pendant. She had also never truly lived, never had a childhood, never had a friend or enjoyed herself. She had never been allowed to.
The True Ancestors were flawed from the start. An unfortunate and unexpected side effect of being modeled after the vampiric Type-Moon was that they retained his vampiric impulses. Although they had no need for blood, they constantly thirsted for it and had to turn a portion of their power upon their vampirism to maintain sanity. However, as a True Ancestor aged their vampiric impulse grew. Eventually, after a millennium had past, it became so great that they were unable to resist their vampirism and became Demon Lords, beings of immense power and no restraint.
At first the True Ancestors, being flawed servants of Gaia, the will of the planet, and Type-Moon, decided to create their own servants through granting power to humans- the Dead Apostles. The apostles were even more flawed than the ancestors and were unable to function without blood making them as dangerous as Demon Lords, especially once they had escaped their servitude.
And so the True Ancestors, faced with rampaging Demon Lords and mighty Dead Apostles, decided to create the strongest true ancestor to use as executioner against their enemies. And so, Arcueid Brunestud the White Princess of the True Ancestors was born in the 12th century. She was raised in the Millennium Castle Brunestud, the ancestral home of the True Ancestors, ignorant of the outside world. Her only purpose was to be a weapon, a tool, an executioner.
It was a cold environment, one where she was taught only that which was necessary to hunt her targets. The first time she saw a smile was when Zelretch attended her coming of age ceremony. Arcueid had no childhood, no friends, no family, nothing but her targets and ability to destroy them. The other True Ancestors even kept her ignorant of her own vampiric nature as her bloodlust had not manifested. This led to their downfall.
Sometime later, when she was a young adult, a priest named Michael Roa Valdamjong arrived seeking perfect immortality. He easily tricked the ignorant Arcueid into drinking his blood, triggering her vampiric impulses. The majority of the True Ancestors were slain that day during her rampage while Roa achieved his original goal, stealing 30% of her power, and becoming a Dead Apostle. After regaining her sanity, Arcueid locked herself away in the castle to prevent future rampages and fell into a slumber only awakening to do her duty as an executioner as well as hunt the one responsible: Roa. The few remaining True Ancestors were hunted down by their former servants until only the strongest was left. Arcueid eventually succeeded in killing Roa, but he had mastered reincarnation and soon returned. At present, in 1984, Roa had just reincarnated for the 17th time, though Arcueid would not learn of this for many years.
Arcueid Brunestud opened her eyes surprised to see herself staring at what appeared to be wood. She was certain that she had gone to sleep chained to the throne as always, and it was not yet time for her to pursue Roa as she had defeated his 16th incarnation only 10 years ago. What was going on?
She slowly pushed herself into a sitting position and looked around blankly. In front of her was Altrouge Brunestud who appeared to be shocked. There were chairs and a table nearby, an overhanging roof, a few stairs down to a vast meadow overlooking craggy mountains... Altrouge?! An enemy. Enemy? Enemy. ENEMY. ENEMY! End her. Kill. Atta-
Zelretch placed his hand firmly on Arcueid's shoulder causing her to turn and notice him. The tension instantly drained from her body, her hard expression being replaced with confusion.
She looked around once more, taking in her surroundings more carefully. Altrouge was indeed standing before her, the earlier shock replaced by an impassive mask, she had taken a guarded position. There was a book on the table near her, obviously recently read. Looking in through the large glass windows beside her was a well-furnished room with several filled bookcases along the back wall. The house was very secluded, and it obviously did not belong to Zelretch as he travelled constantly when bored of driving magi insane. She was at Altrouge's house?
"Calm down princess, I brought you here for lunch, not battle."
Her confusion instantly became disbelief. Lunch? He had woken her from her self-imposed imprisonment for lunch?! If she wasn't careful she could lose control of her bloodlust and destroy much of the world with her powers, she kept herself locked away for that very reason and he frivolously used his powers to bring her here for LUNCH?
"Why?" Arcueid asked in a whisper. A whisper that held an edge capable of cutting steel. Zelretch did not notice.
"You are always cooped up in that stuffy old castle, and when you are out and about it is only so you can kill Roa's latest incarnation. That's just so dull! So I brought you here for lunch."
"You woke me up, for lunch?"
"For lunch with Altrouge, yes."
Arcueid looked down at the floor, her bangs overshadowing her eyes. Her hair began blowing gently upwards, but there was no breeze. She began to chuckle ominously.
"You have 3 seconds, start running old man," she said.
"Huh?" was Zelretch's intelligent reply.
"Three." Arcueid looked back up at Zelretch, her eyes hard.
He paled and lifted his hands in a placating gesture. "Now don't be hasty Arc..."
"Two." The wind gathering around Arcueid was becoming more violent.
"Just calm down a minute," Zelretch said slowly backing away.
"One." A crimson aura seemed to bleed out of Arcueid's body; an immense bloodlust filled the air. Altrouge backed up a few steps not wanting to get caught in Zelretch's education.
At that Zelretch turned and fled down the mountain, moving so fast afterimages were created.
"Zero."
Zelretch did not move nearly fast enough. He only made it half way to the forest before he was caught. Altrouge sat back down in her seat and watched the show with amusement while Zelretch's high-pitched screams drifted up the meadow from where Arcueid was "educating" him.
Fifteen minutes later Arcueid returned dragging the quivering pile that was once known as Zelretch along behind her, a serene smile on her face.
"Beating Zelretch into a pulp is wonderfully therapeutic, is it not?" Stated Altrouge once Arcueid was near.
The White Princess laughed lightly before tossing the unfortunate Wizard Marshal under the hammock.
"I do believe I am ready for lunch now, educating idiots is hungry business."
"Would you like to help me prepare it?"
Arcueid opened her mouth, about to reply, then closed it with a frown. After a few seconds of silence she spoke "I'd love to, but I've never cooked anything before."
"Well there is a first time for everything, and pasta is quite simple. Come with me." And with that, Altrouge turned walked into the house.
30 minutes later
"Arcueid."
"Yes?"
"Why is the pasta moving?"
"Is it not supposed to?"
Altrouge sighed. The True Ancestors really had not done Arcueid any favors in raising her the way they did. She knew absolutely nothing.
"I'll take care of it, why don't you go set the table instead."
"Ok! How do I do that?"
*THUD* *THUD* *THUD*
Arcueid watched Altrouge repeatedly slam her head on the counter in exasperation wondering if that was also part of making lunch. She really was an odd person.
Altrouge sat down on the couch exhausted. Defeating the Pasta Abomination and then making lunch with Arcueid's "help" was quite taxing. Who knew someone other than Zelretch could be so bad at cooking? It was practically an art form! To cause food to gain sentience and then wage war against its natural enemy- the kitchen- required immense magical abilities bordering on True Magic! And to do so unconsciously...
Altrouge sighed and rubbed her temples, a headache was rapidly building and threatened to become a migraine if this kept up. At least the beast was slain and had become a surprisingly high-quality meal once dead. It had to be her origin, there was no other explanation. At least Zelretch had the Cthulu excuse when this happened, not that that was much better.
She groaned and fell face-first into the couch and remained there unmoving for a few minutes until she heard the very much recovered Zelretch chuckling at her plight. Altrouge threw a pillow at him, nailing him in the face and knocking him over. Her task complete, she returned to lying on the couch, ignorant of what took place around her until a small bundle of endless energy and joy attacked.
"Uncle Zelly said it's time for lunch," the tiny terror said, bouncing on her back.
She did not move; she did not want to move. Maybe if she ignored it, it would go away. There was some whispering above her, but she paid it no heed.
"GET UP!" The bouncing boy yelled into her ear.
Altrouge jumped up with a wince, knocking him backward on to the couch. Zelretch was standing a few feet away with a smug grin on his face. She nailed him with another pillow, this one aimed below his belt with a subtle use of alteration to make it hard as a rock. Zelretch instantly collapsed in agony, his eyes bulging comically, before curling up on the floor in fetal position.
"Uncle Zelly so funny!" Harry stated giggling at the idiot's fate.
"Have you washed up yet?"
"Uh-huh."
"Let me see your hands."
Harry quickly hid them behind his back attempting to look innocent. He began backing away while his guardian looked at him sternly, before suddenly making a break for it. Altrouge easily caught him, scooping up the once more giggling boy and carried him into the kitchen to wash his hands.
"Did you have fun this morning Harry?" She asked as she carried him.
"Uh-huh! Big Doggy went all over the mountain! We even saw a horsey, but it had this weird horn thing."
"You saw a unicorn? I didn't realize there were any in the area. Now come on, to the table you go."
Arcueid and Zelretch, who looked as if he hadn't just been hit between the legs by a hard object, were sitting at the table waiting. There was a large salad and pasta covered in Alfredo sauce with bacon and parmesan crumbled on top. Altrouge thought she saw it twitch but passed it off as merely being her imagination, the pasta monster had been slain after all. She sat down at the table, but Harry had stopped and was looking carefully at their guests. Suddenly he ran back into the kitchen shouting "we forgot their drinks!"
He returned a few minutes later with a pair of glasses filled with a crimson liquid, a look of concentration on his face as he carefully brought them over, placing one in front of Zelretch and the other in front of Arcueid.
Arcueid looked at the glass carefully, before jumping back in realization. The kid had just brought her a glass filled with blood. She began pushing it away, but was stopped by Altrouge.
"It's safe for you to drink, in fact it may help with your problem. There seems to be something special in his blood, probably because of his element or origin. It is quite beneficial to our kind, you should be no exception."
So, Arcueid cautiously took a small sip, and then stopped in shock. Unlike the first time she had had blood, it did not activate her bloodlust. In fact, it appeared to reduce it. She took a larger sip, she hadn't imagined it. Her bloodlust was slightly reduced. If this wasn't a fluke and the effect remained it would be a miracle. She already had to use 70% of her available power to keep it in check. Even with such a large portion of her power locked away, as she was only able to use about 20% of her original strength, Arcueid was equal in strength to most of the Ancestors. If she no longer had to deal with her bloodlust, defeating Roa when he next reared his ugly head would be easy!
"Now, I do not believe the two of you have been introduced yet," said Altrouge breaking into her thoughts.
"I'm Hawwy! I'm four!" Exclaimed the child while holding up three fingers.
"And I'm Arcueid Brunestud. Nice to meet you young man."
"Awcud... Arcid... Arced... Arc! Nice to meet you Arc!" Said Harry excitedly. He then thought for a minute, his face scrunched up as he did so. "Bruns... bwunstod... uh... are you related to Alt?"
"In a sense we are."
"They are sisters!" Zelretch interjected before Altrouge could finish. She glared at him.
"Sistows? I thought Alt was my big sistow... that means that Arc is also my big sistow!" He said with a smile, pleased that he had figured it out.
Zelretch began to laugh again, but quickly turned it into a cough when he saw Altrouge's angry glare. "Now then," he said. "Why don't we eat our lunch before it becomes cold and we can keep talking later."
After lunch was finished and the table cleared, they retreated into the living room to talk.
"Now, let us get down to business." Zelretch said seriously. "My reason for visiting today is to see Harry."
"What for?" Asked Altrouge defensively.
"To see his potential for magecraft."
This caught Altrouge off guard. She had believed that because Harry was from a Wizarding family, he would be unable to use magecraft. Occasionally someone would be able to use both, but that had been more common in the past and she usually did not pay much attention to the denizens wizarding world.
"The Potters are a family of Wizards able to use Magecraft," Zelretch continued. "Due to complicated reasons that boil down to politics, there are several families like this. They were thrown out of the Mage's Association over a millennium ago but remain capable of magecraft."
"Very well, what do you need to do?"
"I need to set up a formalcraft circle, which will take a few minutes, and use it to analyze his circuits. Don't worry, the process is painless."
And with that Zelretch pulled out a piece of chalk and began drawing a complex magical circle on the living room floor. A few minutes later he checked the completed circle over, and stood up pleased.
"You had better clean that up once you are done."
Zelretch waved off her concerns, picked up young Harry and placed him in the center of the circle.
"Now just lie there for a few minutes, as still as you can. It may feel a bit odd, but it won't last long."
And with that, Zelretch began to channel prana into the circle activating it, causing the symbols to glow. A few minutes passed and the spell was complete.
"Well," Zelretch started, "I must say that I am surprised. Young Harry has very high potential, even for a Potter. Unfortunately, he does not have a magic crest. It may have been lost during the chaos Ol' Tommy created if not earlier."
"Why don't you take Harry for a while Arcueid," he said turning to her, "I need to discuss this with Altrouge. There are some interesting caves farther up the mountain."
The caves were a series of dark openings and passages leading into the mountain at the base of the cliff above the house. Harry had never been allowed to explore them, much to his displeasure. Primate Murder was simply too large to enter the caves. But now he finally had the chance to explore! He was positively vibrating with excitement as he and Arcueid approached the cliff. His excitement was contagious, and Arcueid soon found herself just as excited about the coming adventure as little Harry.
After what felt like ages for the duo, but was no more than a few minutes, they reached the caves. The black maw of the mountain stood before them, daylight only penetrating a few feet into the inky darkness. They entered and were swallowed, unable to see once they were within the twisted passages.
Arcueid created a ball of light that floated above them to illuminate their surroundings. The passage was rough and appeared to be crudely hewn from the rock. Or perhaps some great tunneling worm had gorged itself on the stone of the mountain, and after its passage left behind countless twisting tunnels. The tunnels themselves were roughly spherical in shape, about 10 feet in diameter, but with a fairly level rocky floor. They were clearly not natural, as those caves tended to be formed by water or great shifts in the earth, and were filled with stalactites and stalagmites which appeared almost to be great teeth. These were absent in this passage.
The duo moved forward into along the passage as it twisted and turned, seemingly at random. For a while it appeared to be corkscrewing its way down until it reached a fairly large chamber. Arcueid's orb of light did not illuminate the entire cavern and small hunched shapes could be seen scurrying about. After a minute she was able to identify them.
"Erklings. Small elfish creatures that like the taste of children. Nasty little things."
They moved forward into the chamber, ignored by the creatures. The ceiling was high, perhaps 30 feet, and covered in stalactites. A large pool of water could be seen in the center of the chamber, dark and menacing. Many passages wound out of the room, most too small for humans but a few so large that even giants could use them.
Suddenly one of the erklings began cackling madly and rushed them. The rest simply stopped and watched, their long sharp noses pointing at the duo, as if attempting to decide whether to swarm the intruders. When the erkling was close enough, Arcueid stepped forward and kicked, sending it rocketing backwards into one of the smaller passages. The rest of the erklings fled the chamber quickly after that display.
"GOAL!" Yelled Harry running in circles around her.
She smiled, "Arc 1, monsters 0!"
They decided to take one of the larger paths on to left and continued on their adventure. Unlike the last passage, this one was straight as it bored through the rock. Occasional glitters could be seen along the walls where crystals had been unearthed. Half an hour later they found a fork in the path, the one on the left sloped downward and a foul stench wafted from it. 'Trolls' thought Arcueid. So they took the passage on the right. It sloped gently upwards and had numerous side passages emanating from it.
One paths to their left had horrible grinding noises coming from it. A quick look showed a very short tunnel with large, almost 7-foot-tall, bipedal insectoid creatures at the end of it apparently carving out a new passage which gave the reason for the noise.
"Umber hulks, I was right about these tunnels not being natural," Arcueid commented.
Down another path to their right was a large creature with the head of a lion, the body of a giant goat, a pair of scaly wings, and a snake as its tail. Harry immediately ran to it.
"Harry get back here immediately, that's a chimera!"
He did not heed her and quickly reached it, and began petting it. It lay down and he began scratching it behind the ears. A loud rumbling came from the chimera.
"Harry, stop petting it, it's dangerous!"
"But Arc, its puwwing!"
"Chimeras don't purr."
"This one does. Can I keep it? I pwomise I'll take good care of it."
"No!"
"Pwease!"
"No, and that is final. It is too dangerous."
"So is big doggy. Pwetty pwease?"
"Alright alright, just stop making that face already!"
"Yay! I'm going to name you Chimmy (A/N the 'ch' is hard as it is in chimera)." And with that Harry climbed onto his new chimera's back. "Now on to adventuwe!" He said pointing ahead. Chimmy stood up and lumbered forward until it stood next to Arcueid. She gave it an odd look before they continued.
They carried on taking turns at random and became increasingly lost in the maze of tunnels. After one turn in particular about an hour later, they literally bumped into several graphorns. They were large greyish-purple creatures with tough skin, a hump back, and two large golden horns. The graphorns immediately turned and charged forcing the duo (plus chimera) to flee down the winding passages completely losing their sense of direction. They eventually lost the creatures, they were very persistent.
Sometime later they found themselves in a huge cave with a ceiling a hundred feet high that was covered in luminescent moss. A large dark lake dominated the room and water gently lapped the shore next to them. A small island could be seen far out in the lake. On that island was a misshapen creature, small and hunched with very pale skin. It was apparently staring intently at an object between its fingers, only Arcueid could make it out in the gloom.
The creature was staring at a small, unadorned, golden ring which could have been mistaken for a wedding band. The aura of sheer malevolence exuded by the artifact quickly banished that notion. Soft mutters of "my precious" drifted across the silent waters. The creature was clearly mad, most likely poisoned by the evil ring. They decided to move on quickly, not wanting to draw the ire of the demented thing.
The tunnel out climbed up steeply, and though it twisted and turned, there were no side passages to be seen. After a long while it deposited them in the largest chamber yet. The walls glittered with gems and the ceiling soared up hundreds of feet. There was a hole in the roof which let in light, a waterfall poured through it into a pool which ran out of the chamber to their right. As it turned out, it was the stream that ran under the house and fortunately provided an easy way home.
Along the walls of the room were hundreds of suits of armor, many appearing to be of great age because they were rather scorched and rusty. A large amount of treasure dominated the center of the room, most of it gold. Upon that pile was an enormous dragon, the likes of which had not been seen on earth for centuries: a millennium-rank phantasmal dragon. It was over 100 feet long from head to tail and was covered in large spikes. Its back appeared to be a dark dull purple, and what little they could see of its stomach a pale green. The spikes however, were a deep dark green.
It was sleeping. Not wanting to wake the beast they quietly moved towards the passage home. They had nearly made it when a large green eye opened. They froze in place, hoping to avoid its ire, and then it spoke.
"I've been stuck in this room for centuries you know," the beast said with what might have been a sigh, the conversational tone surprising them. A jet of flame shot out of his nose as he did so, narrowly missing Harry, his mount, and Arcueid.
"What caused that?" Ask Harry.
"When I was a very young dragon, I was enslaved in a land of magical ponies. They were always going on and on about friendship being magic and crap like that while treating me worse than the dirt beneath their hooves. They called me 'Spike', as if I was a pet of some sort." He said with a snort, another great jet of flame striking the wall next to them. "I much prefer the name 'Sophocles'."
"After the Greek playwright?" Arcueid asked.
"That's the one! Now where was I... ah yes. Now, eventually I grew large and strong enough to throw off their mind control and ate most of them. They were delicious and came in so many flavors! Pinkie Pie tasted like cotton candy, Applejack tasted like spiced apple cider, and the best one of all, Twilight, tasted like dark chocolate. Good times, good times. Anyway, after consuming most of the local populace I, rather predictably, fell into a food coma. When I awoke, I was stuck in this dismal place and found I had grown too large to leave while sleeping."
"Where did all the gold come from?"
"Oh that? Plenty of knights and adventurers decided to 'test their luck' against me in the past. My luck prevailed every time. They eventually got the hint so you happen to be my first visitors in centuries. I do hope you can keep me entertained." Sophocles finished ominously.
At that Harry and Arcueid stiffened and readied for a fight.
"To be or not to be, that is the question."
"What?"
"Oh come now you uncultured swine, you know of Sophocles but not Shakespeare's Hamlet? Act 3, Scene 1 you know."
Harry and Arcueid stared at the beast blankly, completely thrown off by this development.
"If you could be so kind as to bring the entire works of Shakespeare next time you visit, I'll let you live. I love theater with a passion, but it has been increasingly hard to come by new plays over the centuries while trapped here. I'd have asked my previous visitors, but they were of the attack first ask questions never type, so I had to eat them. Anyway, now that it's not just me for once," Sophocles said raising himself, "Let us run through Act 1 of Hamlet. I'll make fine actors out of you yet!"
Late that night
Arcueid stumbled into the living room with Harry sleeping on her back, the chimera padding behind her. It curled up on the floor and went to sleep. Altrouge was sitting in a very comfortable armchair reading her book. She looked up when Arcueid entered the room, then at the chimera, then back to Arcueid.
"Harry decided one deadly pet was not enough," Arcueid said, answering the unasked question. "Did you know that chimeras purr?"
Arcueid carefully laid Harry on one of the couches before collapsing on another. She mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "damn confusing dragons and their damn theater. I'll have this headache for a month" before falling silent.
A few minutes later she visibly worked up some energy and turned her head towards Altrouge saying: "Is the geezer still around, I need to return home."
"No, he left a few hours ago. He did leave this message for you though," Altrouge said, closing her book and bringing the letter over.
Arcueid,
I see you had a fun time exploring the caves with young Harry. That is good; you need to spend more time in the outside world. With Harry around, you no longer need to worry about losing control of your bloodlust and can remain outside of the castle. Altrouge has a spare bedroom so staying with her will not be a problem. To ensure that you do not return to hiding in your castle, I have used my powers to seal it from you.
Zelretch
P.S. I will be out of this dimension for at least the next year
Arcueid put the letter down, her right eye twitching violently.
"It seems I will have to reeducate the old man upon his return."
-End Chapter 4-
Author's Note:
I had originally decided to give Harry a crest, then later decided that that might be overkill. It could have easily been lost with Fleamont Potter or James Potter's deaths to Voldemort or somewhere farther down the line. As the Potters are now simply wizards who do a bit of magecraft on the side, they likely would not be too concerned with keeping and maintaining the crest.
Omake: Arcueid's Housework Adventures, Part 1
After breakfast was finished and Harry had run off with Primy and Chimmy, Altrouge decided it was time to clean the house. It had been getting messy now that three people lived there.
"Arc, why don't you clean the living room while I straighten the kitchen." She said handing her a broom.
A few minutes later Altrouge smelled smoke. Funny, the fireplace was off so why would there be...
She rushed into the living room to find pure chaos. Arcueid was in the corner trying to fend off pixies with her broom. The couches were on fire. The carefully arranged books had been randomly reorganized. How did this happen in less than 5 minutes?
Altrouge groaned. It was best not to think of how it happened and instead simply fix everything. She jumped into the melee.