The first thing she ever experienced was the red copper tasting liquid being poured into her mouth. Granted at the age she was she had very little idea what copper tasted like. Still she would never forget the feeling of that first taste, of power rushing through her veins, of her mind waking up from a fuzzy dream. The drug that would keep her alive and sane flowed into her and from that day her mind grew at a prodigious rate. Her world expanded from a population of one and soon she grew to know the face of her mother and father. Her father was a tall, blonde, distinguished looking man with a sharp chin and eyes that only softened when he looked at her mother. Her mother had raven hair and a full figure and soft eyes. Or perhaps that only happened when she looked at her. Both had eyes of purest crimson that they used to watch over her as she grew.
Living together with them and the serving staff that worked in the castle, Altrouge passed her first ten years living in relative comfort. Unfortunately this state of affairs came to an abrupt end when she walked into her father's room one day to see the lifeless body of her mother at his feet. Looking back nowadays with her current experience and insight she could easily see the signs. Her father had been looking tired, his eyes had stopped softening and he had spent long periods of time away from her and her mother. Still little Altrouge wasn't thinking anything of the sort. In fact while a lot of the events of that day were blurred she was pretty sure that the only thing on her mind was running away from the rampaging berserker that her formerly loving father had become. Dozens of servants with burning crimson eyes interposed themselves between her father and herself, trying in vain to hold him off but he cut through them with barely any pause. And yet the girl could only run away as the retainers that she had grown up with, who were precious to her, were cut into ribbons.
She faced him in the throne room and as he stepped over the dead bodies of his former subordinates, amidst the pit of despair that she found herself in, she learnt for the first time how to command the powers of Earth, a spectacular feat that only one dead apostle has achieved since. While the battle between the two of them felt like it went on for hours, in hindsight it was probably over in less than a minute. She still remembered the look on his face as the wind tore him to nothingness at her command.
She felt no relief however, only an emptiness as she sat leaning against her father's throne for an eternity of dark thoughts. She cried, tried to deny reality and contemplated finishing off her father's work herself multiple times, but something always kept her from succumbing to those dark thoughts.
A movement from the pile of corpses drew her eye and she felt her shattered heart start to beat again at the thought that somebody had survived. Diving into the pile of body parts she grasped the twitching arm and tried to pull its owner from out of the corpse pile. The arm came off in her arms and she panicked briefly before she dove into the pile of bodies throwing the dead left and right in an attempt to uncover the living.
Her attempts were successful and from the pile of meat, she dragged the still living man into the fresh air. His skin was uncharacteristically dark and it took Altrouge a scarce few moments to remember his name.
"Mr. Rizo," she said trying to elicit some response from the weakly twitching man. "Mr. Rizo are you okay?"
She still remembered those foolish words and the absurdity of her inquiring about his wellbeing while kneeling next to his severed arm and broken body. His wounds were not any lesser in scope then the others, in fact they might have been greater, but his sheer will to live kept him out of death's door even as so many had passed on. In the end Altrouge had poured out her own blood into his mouth saving his life.
The recovery was almost immediate. In under a minute the man called Rizo-Waal Strout was once again able to open his eyes. His response when he woke up had shocked her fourteen year old heart. Tearfully with a demeanour that belied his rough looks, he wept and begged for her forgiveness. That simple action set her off and soon the pair were both weeping with an absolute loss of dignity. That's when she spoke the words that changed her life.
"Mr. Rizo," she blubbered inelegantly. "Mr. Rizo I forgive you; just be my friend and I'll forgive you. There's nobody left if you go to… Mr. Rizo."
She was cut off at that point as she was drawn into a one-armed hug by the man that would become one of her two knights in the future.
"I'll won't," he said, his voice hoarse. "I'll never leave you."
The two of them mourned for long hours before they regained the will to move. As if in by one mind they took all the items of value they could carry from the castle, buried the bodies of the people that they lived with and then set the ancient structure on fire.
"What should we do now," Rizo said his now reattached arm holding a large black sword that he had retrieved from her father's armoury. The weapon was imbued with countless curses that made Altrouge very glad that her father didn't wield it when fighting against it. Still Rizo was able to expertly control the blade despite the strong feelings of hate it gave off. Yet even with his power, age and experience and he still deferred to her decisions.
She didn't answer immediately, instead looking into the flames that ravaged the place that she had spent the first fourteen years of her life. "I don't know," she said averting her eyes from the scene of destruction. "But I just can't let this… No," she shook her head. "I will never let this happen again. As long as I live I won't let people I care about die."
xxx
That was an easy task at first considering her circle of friends had shrunk to a size of two and her companion Rizo was very strong. With her command over the Earth and Rizo's command over his sword the pair fought against many beasts, vampires and humans as they travelled the world. In fact this state of affairs continued until the pair met a pirate by the name of Fina. Rizo managed to beat him in a contest of drinking and upon sobering up he had gladly joined them drinking her blood and becoming her friend. The three travelled around a little further before they settled down in the Castle that she managed to summon. And for the first time for a long time she was happy.
"Delicious," she said wiping the red liquid from her mouth as she reclined on her throne. "Thanks Rita," she said waving at one of the crimson eyed maids that dotted the place. The maids had all been taken from the streets and offered immortality and in return they became her trusted servants.
"It was my pleasure my lady," she said bowing her head before leaving the room.
That was pretty much how a lot of life went back then. However that day was soon to prove to be very different.
"Altrouge," the white haired pirate captain said stepping into the room. He looked quite dashing in his colourful high-class clothes and for a while she had harboured a crush on the man. He had quickly dispelled any possibly of further entanglement when he had informed her that she lacked certain attributes that he looked for in a partner, certain male attributes. Still she was fond of him and he had proved to be a most reliable subordinate. Therefore it was distressing to see him in an anxious state.
"What happened," she said scrambling to stand up from the throne.
"Well," he said taking a deep breath. "You know that city that we've been taking blood from for a while. It's not there anymore."
A beat went by, then… "What," she exclaimed. "What happened?"
"Wiped out to the man I'm afraid," he said. "Not a soul survived. We'll have to look for a new source of blood soon."
"Yes, but how," she said shocked. "There were thousands of people. Was it a volcano, a plague, a phantasmal beast?"
"The last one I'm afraid," he said sympathetically. "Whatever that thing was, trampled over the population in less than an hour. They didn't stand a chance."
She sagged back into the chair and then leapt out of it. "Let's go after it," she yelled pointing her finger to the door.
"Have you been drinking," Fina replied to her, his voice disbelieving. "That thing flattened a city like it was nothing. Altrouge I know you're not the kind of person to risk our lives on an impossible venture. What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking that this creature could have just as easily torn through my castle and killed all of you if that's the case," she said seriously. "If I feel it is out of our league then I will retreat and hide, but I need to know what this is."
Such simple words didn't persuade them, but she didn't give up and after a couple hours of relentless badgering, both of her best friends left the castle with her to track down the creature that had wiped out the nearby city. Honestly he wasn't that hard to track down. Massive paw prints littered his path of travel and his very presence was written in the Earth as he went passed. As they travelled the miles her companions became more and more nervous, but their footsteps didn't waver even as they crested the hill and came across a huge phantasmal beast in the shape of a wolf.
Both Rizo and Fina stepped back warily but she pressed forward. In that second she had managed to catch a glimpse of the wolf's eyes and a thought had popped into her head.
"He looks lonely," she said walking slowly forward. "I'm going to make him my friend."
xxx
She still looked back on that day with a smile as she thought of how the pair had metaphorically exploded in a desperate attempt to stop her, but she had persisted. It had taken many years of food and talking and friendship moments like the kind you would see on a montage on a Hollywood movie but in the end he had succumbed to her charisma and become her friend. Over the next few hundred years the four of them had basically moved as a unit and amazingly each individual one of them managed to obtain the title of Dead Apostle Ancestor with Altrouge herself obtaining the designation of Brunestud due to her summoning of the Millennium Castle, a family name which she gladly used in the place of her old one from then on. However right now she was receiving news about another Brunestud that caused her veins to burn with anger.
"So what you're saying," she said, her voice livid. "Is that Arcueid Brunestud, the supposed princess of the True Ancestors, snapped and murdered every other True Ancestor."
"Yes Milady," the messenger managed to squeak out.
"You can relax," she said to the messenger. "I'm not angry at you. I can give you a massage if you want. I'm pretty good at those."
"No need Milady," he said. "I'll just retire if that's all."
As he left Rizo stepped forward from his place relaxing on the side of the room. "What do you want to do," he said, as direct as ever.
She tapped her fingers angrily on the arm of her throne. "I don't know," she said throwing her hands up. "I'm tempted to just rip the last Demon Lord from the world." She sighed and slouched in her chair. "But both Blackmore and Solomon have given her their support. If I tried I might not win even with Primy's help. No," she said. "I want to fight the one who stole her power."
"What would that achieve," Fina said examining his drawn cutlass. "That guy is going to be sitting on a whole lot of power right now."
"And if I can beat him, then I can drain him of that power."
"Nope," Rizo said. "Please give the real reason."
"Ughh," she replied. "He's stole the power of that damn True Ancestor. If I can beat him then it will be as if I can beat a rampaging True Ancestor."
"Like your father," Rizo said and Altrouge remembered cursing his insight.
"Yes like my damn father," she said through gritted teeth. "You can come and watch but I'm going to take him down with my power."
Rizo looked like he was going to say more but he was interrupted by Fina holding up his hand. "We will gladly watch your moment of triumph," he said with a smile that made Altrouge regret that his interests didn't lie towards her gender.
"Hmph, that's okay then," she said standing up. "Let's go."
xxx
The fight didn't go well, Altrouge contemplated as she knelt in the dirt. She had been confident that her own strength could defeat the younger magus using the borrowed strength of the other Brunestud.
She was completely and utterly wrong.
From the first exchange of blows she felt like she was fighting a natural disaster. She dealt over twenty fatal wounds from which he instantly recovered or ignored and his magic was powerful enough to singe the flesh from her bones forcing her to use regenerate swiftly. It took her less than a minute to realise the overwhelming difference between them and four further minutes to accept it. Eventually Rizo and Fina were forced to jump in to prevent her death, but the mad magus just escalated his own strength to deal with them. Just as it looked like all three of them would perish in this place; Primate Murder stepped in and tore him to shreds until he was forced to flee in a much diminished state.
"I lost," she said feeling immense gratitude towards her friends that was overshadowed by a colossal amount of fear. Blood flowed from her hands as her nails broke the skin. Both Rizo and Fina nearly died in front of her. Drops of water hit the earth as she wept at the thought of living the rest of her life without the pair.
Suddenly she felt a different wetness on her face and she opened her eyes to see a metre tall version of Primy licking up the tears.
"Altrouge," Fina said stepping forward and placing his hand upon her shoulder. "We're all okay; all of us are alive and well."
"I'm sorry," she said. "Because of me you almost died."
"I can think of no better way of dying, then that so you could live," Rizo said brushing off the blood and dirt from his clothes.
"You can't say that," she replied with a sudden burst of anger. "If you two die then I will also pass away."
"Then we just have to make sure that none of us die," Fina said playing the peacemaker. "Although perhaps we should avoid the other Brunestud for that sake."
"Okay," she said standing up from the ground and brushing off dirt from her ripped and torn dress. "I might hate her, but I like living more. I'll leave her alone for now."
In hindsight that promise was poorly kept considering that in less than a century she fought Arcueid and stole her hair. Oh well, it worked out in the end.
xxx
The bloody corpses on the floor spoke to her utter failure as a ruler. Hatred swelled in her chest and the air went berserk in an attempt to crush the offending woman into paste but with a smile she turned the wind into a sea breeze and the water level rose again. She had blonde hair and blue eyes with a winning smile that hid the murderous attempt that emitted from every pore in her body. Curses in their thousands bathed the area she stood a moment before, poured out from Rizo's sword, but she was gone disappearing from space and reappearing behind Rizo delivering a kick that sent him into the wall.
"You know I'm surprised you haven't asked me why I'm doing this," Sumire the Water Demon said. "I've walked into your castle and killed almost everybody and you don't seem to even care why."
"You've murdered my friends," she replied back trying to convey the hate she felt by tone alone. "I don't need to know the reasons of a dead woman."
Rizo attacked again but the water that was flooding the castle weakened both of them,evoking tangible despair, and Sumire was able to fend off his attacks.
"You killed my apprentice," Sumire said. "No don't bother to think back, I'm sure you've killed a lot of people."
"I'm about to kill one more," she replied. She didn't even bother trawling her memory of people she killed, every fibre of her being ached to destroy this bitch in front of her. Not since her own father had she ever felt this kind of hatred. "You will soon follow your apprentice into the afterworld."
"You will soon follow your servants into the Root," Sumire rebutted and the water level increased again, the feeling of loss and failure contained in the water becoming more intense.
In the end neither of their threats came to pass. Rizo and Altrouge were able to fend her off until Fina and Primate Murder arrived and forced her to teleport away, leaving them to enjoy their hollow victory. The four of them spent a day digging out graves for the fallen and with every one dug Altrouge felt her heart shatter in a way that she hadn't felt for centuries
"From this day on my only friends will be the strong," she said to the remaining three members of her family. "I can no longer concern myself… with insects that die so easily."
xxx
"Fina-Blood Svelten has not responded to any of your messages Lady Altrouge," the vampire said, deliberately not meeting her eyes.
Altrouge nodded with no expression on her face and dismissed the servant. Sighing internally at the loss of the friendly relationship that she used to enjoy, she perked up as she felt a familiar presence at the door.
"Rizo," she said joyfully. "I haven't seen you in a while. How's life treating you?"
"Pretty good," he admitted. "Have you heard from Svelten?"
"I literally just got a message that he's not responding," Altrouge said with some slight worry creeping into her voice. "Why are you concerned, he often goes off doing his own thing?"
"I'm concerned because Sumire has been spotted in the area that he went to," Rizo said causing a cold shiver to run down Altrouge's spine.
"She hasn't done anything for years though," she said trying to ease both of their fears. "They might clash but the Water Demon isn't the type to go out of her way to finish him off."
"You're right," Rizo said after a while. "Sorry for unnecessarily worrying you. I'm sure he will be fine."
"We'll just have to be ready to welcome him back," she said clapping her hands. "I'll be sure to buy plenty of booze for when he returns."
xxx
"I killed Fina-Blood Svelten," the hideous sentence spoke by the blonde Dead Apostle Ancestor resonated in her head once again causing unbearable agony.
"I killed Fina-Blood Svelten," Altrouge cried and cried until she had no tears left to cry and then she tore her own body apart trying to lessen the pain in her heart.
"I killed Fina-Blood Svelten," Altrouge plotted revenge, but how could she take revenge on somebody who lives at the bottom of the ocean.
"In five years' time I will use the holy grail to complete the Aylesbury Ritual, and bring us all closer to the ideal that is Crimson Moon. However in order to do that I need to win the Holy Grail war. Are there any volunteers who wish to participate with me?"
Altrouge put up her hand.
xxx
"I'm not happy about this," Rizo said to her as she sat in the airplane seat holding Primate Murder in her arms. "I think that if we do this then we're playing right into her arms."
"I know," Altrouge said stroking her canine companion with a smile on her face. "But I cannot not kill her for this. Besides if we can complete the ritual then we could be strong enough so that nobody could ever hurt us. Wouldn't that be great?"
Rizo sighed and Altrouge could see him wanting to argue against this, but he couldn't. He and Fina were as close as brothers and Altrouge wasn't mourning alone when they got the news. Beneath his stoic demeanour his heart burned for vengeance just as hot as hers did.
"Just stay safe," he said. "Only the three of us are left, and I've can't talk with Primate Murder like you can."
xxx
Sumire was dead, all but one of those fake grails had been destroyed and all three of them were alive. She even took some vindictive pleasure in the fact that the Demon Lord was probably going to kill her own friend. Hopefully she would then have the decency to taker her own life.
Despite her eternal hatred of the water vampire she had to admit that she did good work with the ritual. It was incomplete and unfinished and yet she still felt her power swell. She felt giddy as she inched towards the strange crystalline orb. The culmination of her work was so close at hand. She permitted herself a small smile at the thought of how proud Fina would be to see her accomplish this.
Suddenly the hairs on her neck stood on end. Her hand which was reaching towards the orb was grasped by a set of pale slender fingers and with hate and fear in equal measures, she found herself staring into the eyes of her sister Arcrueid Brunestud.
Author Note: I'm sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out and when it did it was basically filler. I was working on Climbing the Waterfall and let the weeks pass me by far too fast.
DPSS: I'm aware this may sound too overly defensive, but screw it. This chapter was planned before. This is not a half-assed attempt to humanize the villain. It's full-assed at least.
Please read and review. Please don't yell at me to get back to the plot. I'll be back next chapter