Landing her copter on the outskirts of the town of Godhreg, Videl jumped out of the cockpit and landed on the grass covered soil.
Godhreg was a small countryside town. She could see sveral small villas and farmland spread across the land beyond them. And right at the very end of town, with a large plateau hovering over it, lay a gigantic mansion. The mansion seemed to be the only part of the town that was shrouded in darkness even during day light, due the the shadow of the plateau constantly covering it.
Videl could feel nothing as of yet, but looking at the mansion gave her an ominous warning. Her instinct was telling her that there was indeed something wrong with the mansion.
Videl slowly started to walk towards the mansion, and as she passed through the small town, she realized that even the townspeople were behaving oddly. Infact, no one seemed to be outside their house. Videl saw a few faces peeking out of the window, and those faces did not seem to be happy to see a stranger walking down the street of their town. Even the shops were all closed!
What kind of a town was this? She kept walking towards the mansion. Suddenly she noticed something odd, and immediately stopped in her tracks.
The remainder of the town seemed to be covered by some sort of shadow. It was just a light shade darker than the outer town. Videl hadn't noticed it before due to that. But the odd part was that this darkness didn't seem to be caused by the plateau that lay in front of the town, covering the mansion. It was as if darkness had just been scattered across the area. Like a dispersered fog of dust, that made everything a shade darker.
Videl walked up to the very border of the darkness, then taking a deep breath she put her right hand inside of it.
Suddenly she could now hear whisper. She did not know where the whispers came from. It was like someone was simply whispering into her mind. Videl pulled her hand back, and then taking another deep breath, she walked into the darker part of the town.
The whispers began again. She slowly started to walk towards the mansion. Suddenly the whispers were louder...And they seemed to be more demanding...they seemed to be commanded her, but she could not make out what.
She took a few more steps towards the mansion, and then gasped as the whispers suddenly turned into yelling. Like a hoard of people were just yelling right into her mind. The yelling grew louder and louder until it was painful. Videl cried out in pain and then fell to her knees when the yelling grew louder still. It was unbearably loud now.
She started to scream herself, scream because of the pain of a million voices yelling into her mind. She could make out what they said.
"YOU CAN HEAR US! YOU CAN HEAR US! TAKE US OUT OF HERE! YOU WILL TAKE US OUT OF HERE! WE HAVE BEEN HERE TOO LONG! TAKE US WITH YOU!", the voices said in unision.
"I...I can't...please...I have to go", Videl stuttered. She started to crawl, crawl away from the mansion, crawl towards the light.
"NO! WHY ARE YOU TURNING BACK! WE TOLD TO TO TAKE US WITH YOU! COME BACK! WE WONT LET YOU LEAVE! COME BACK!", the voices yelled. They were angry now, but Videl didn't stop, she continued to crawl away from the mansion, towards the light, she need to touch the light.
She could see them now. Bodies formed purely of shadows, faces made of sheer darkness, with hollow black eyes and hollow black mouths. She was completely surrounded by them. She couldn't even see the light anymore.
They were grabbing her now, and pulling her, pulling her towards the mansion. She was one, one against a million. A mob of a million shadows, how could she protect herself against this.
"Please! Let me go please! I can't help you! I can't save you! But I promise I will return! I promise I will come back one day! And I will save you! But not today! I can't! Not yet!", Videl begged, she begged and pleaded, hoping that they would leave her.
But they didn't. "YOU ARE LYING! WE WONT LEAVE YOU! NOT UNLESS YOU TAKE US WITH YOU! WE WONT! YOU CAN HEAR US! ONLY YOU! SO YOU WILL DO AS WE SAY!", they yelled into her mind.
And as they pulled Videl closer and closer to the mansion, the ominous feeling that she could sense from the mansion turned into utter dread. If she went any closer to the mansion, she knew she would die. She would die, she knew she would. She wasn't powerful enough to fight whatever the hell was inside that mansion.
But Videl didn't want to die, she couldn't die yet. In one last desperate attempt to free herself, Videl shut her eyes and yelled, "LET ME GO!", but this was not a pleading request, this was a command.
And then she was suddenly released, the voices were screaming in agony now. Videl opened her eyes. And she realized that her body was aflame. But she wasn't burning. No...this wasn't fire, it was blue, and buring from inside of her. She was the fuel for it. She could feel it getting depleted with each passing moment. Then she realized that this was her aura...Her ki. And the light that was being produced by her ki was the cause for the voices screaming in pain. She cried out in relief. The shadows couldn't come close to her anymore!
But she noticed that she was burning through her ki fast, really really fast. If she ran out of this energy, then no doubt the shadow would catch her again, and they wouldn't be very pleased either.
Gritting her teeth, Videl ran, she ran faster that she had ever run before. And she suddenly realised how fast she was only when she stopped and realized that she was already far away from the town of Godhreg.
Videl sighed in relief, and suddenly the ki that was burning out of her stopped. And the body was aflame no more. How the hell did she do that? Well it didn't matter. She was alive, that's what mattered.
Videl ran to her copter and then jumped inside it. She was getting the hell out of here and she was then going to have a long chat with Mr. Nam. And she would ask him...ask him what the hell those shadows were. Videl shuddered at the very thought of them. And a shiver ran through her spine as she recalled the feeling of pure rage that they expelled. But along with that rage was something else, something that Videl hadn't noticed in their aura until now...what ever those shadows were, they were angry, but deep within, was simply fear...fear and sorrow.
And that's when Videl realized that those shadows weren't commanding her at all...But instead they were perhaps...begging her to help them.
And that thought sent a second shiver down her spine.
Videl started the copters engine and then began her flight back to Satan city.
Nam sensed the girl long before she banged open his apartment's door. Sitting cross legged on the ground, Nam opened his eyes to look at the girl called Videl Satan.
She had a look of anger on her face, and a look of inquisition...The girl wanted answers. She had gone to Godhreg then. Well, Nam was going to give her exactly what she wanted. That was the only way to get her to help him.
"What the hell was that place!", Videl hissed.
"You know miss Videl. When my son died I had really given up hope. Then when Tristan found me and offered me his help, it didn't really matter much, because I knew no matter what he did he couldn't bring down Vaccula. Then he offered me the help of Hercule Satan", Nam chuckled, "when he offered Hercule's help I had to put in genuine effort to stop myself from laughing. Then Tristan brought you and your other young friend to meet me. And when I saw you...when I saw you miss Satan...that's when I truly regained hope. You are nothing like your father...But perhaps you already knew that".
Videl growled, "don't fucking beat around the bush. Tell me...What. The. Fuck. Was. That. Place", Videl aura was practically exuding rage...And disgust.
"That, miss Videl, was the town of Godhreg. Hope of count Vaccula, and his legion of Vampires".
"His legion of Vamp- OK STOP FUCKING AROUND OLD MAN!", Videl quite obvious, did not belive in blood sucking demons.
"I am absolutely serious Miss Satan. Count Vaccula is indeed a vampire. A vampire that is far more powerful and far more deadly than any other of his kind", Nam said.
"Oh come on. Stop bullshitting me. You told me that if I went there I would feel the reason for why I should help you. I went there...And I felt that...whatever the fuck that was. But if you are not going to be serious I-", Videl was cut short by Nam yelling, "I AM BEING ABSOLUTELY SERIOUS GODDAMN IT!"
Videl was stunned by the Nam's sudden outburst, and was immediately scilenced.
"Do you think I would be joking? I lost my son to Count Vaccula's fiends", Nam then took a deep breath and said,"forgive me for yelling...that was uncalled for. Sit down miss Videl, sit down and let me explain to you what you saw".
Videl hesitated for a moment, but then sat down on the floor of the apartment.
"Miss Videl, to explain to you what that darkness in Godhreg really is, first I must explain to you the purpose behind count Vaccula collecting ancient artifacts. You see miss Satan, whenever a person becomes attached to a certain object, say perhaps a child to her doll, or a man to his car, a very small part of his life energy, an almost microscopic part of it, gets linked to that object".
"So, you are saying that my childhood doll probably had a part of my ki?", Videl cut in.
"If you were really fond of it, then yes, without a doubt it does. The ki bonded to the doll is extremely small, like I said, almost microscopic...no, smaller than microscopic. You won't be able to sense it, in fact even the world's greatest ki sensers wouldn't be able to sense it. And you do not even need to be ki sensitive to form this bond. You see, this bond is subconscious, a spiritual bond, for man woman and child in this world, no, in this entire universe, possess ki. Without ki, nothing can live. Ki is life. And when you are fond of something, it becomes a part of your life for a short period of time. And hence, you form a linkage to it, a linkage through your ki".
"So, that's why he steals ancient artifacts? How is this even related to that?", Videl asked.
"Miss Videl, try to think in a spiritual sense. Imagine you loving a doll a lot, that love forms a bond between you and that doll. It doesn't matter if that love eventually fades away as you grow older, the doll will still possess the link, and the link will call back to the memories of the time when you did love the doll. The link is absolutely permanent, unless the object is destroyed of course. But now image an idol of relegious worship. An idol to which hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of people have prayed to. They attach their hopes, their dreams, their wants, to that idol, for in that idol lives their god. And those prayers, those aspirations, are what form a linkage between the idol and the people. Same for a kings crown. A crown is the untimate sign of power for a monarch, for the one who wears the crown rules and the crown is what the citizens look up to, for protection, governance, and guidance. You see Miss Videl? Again a million people could form a bond to that single crown".
"Ok...But what does count Vaccula do with these artifacts?"
"I told you before miss Videl, that count Vaccula is in fact a vampire. A vampire is a demon that needs the life force of the living to survive itself. For obtaining that life force, vampires usually drink the blood of the living. But count Vaccula found another way to absorb the life force of human spirits. You see miss Videl, even when we die, our ki does not abandon us, for out ki is in truth our life force, the ki is our spirit. So when we die, we become pure beings of ki, nothing else. Now, imagine the number of people who have formed a bond with an ancient and powerful artifact miss Videl. Imagine that, then imagine if someone found a way, to use this linkage, and bring back all those spirits into the world of the living once more. And after bring these spirits to the living world, imagine what happens to them if all their ki is sucked out of them, leaving behind nothing but a hollow husk...A shadow of their former self...A shade of darkness".
"Oh...oh my God...so all those...those shadows", Videl gritted her teeth in disgust. All those people...that is why they were full of hate...that is why they were so afraid.
"Once their life force is gone...all that is left in them, is the desire, to be free. And by freedom, I mean the desire to be just dead again", and saying that Nam shut his eyes again, and prayed to the gods of the other world to guide those hollowed souls back to their resting place. But Nam knew that there was no point in that, for once a spirit was hollowed out, once it's ki was lost...there was no way to save it. All that would give those shades freedom now was utter oblivion.
"So...now will you help me, miss Videl?", Nam asked.
Videl looked up at the old man, and with complete determination she said, "I will! I will in any way I can! But ...But I don't think I am powerful enough".
Nam looked at the girl, then peeked into her untapped potential, just like he had the first time they had met. Nam's own ki was a combination of his own ki and the ki of the ancient *Bahadur Youdha*, for he had bonded with the spirit of his patron warrior, that was present within the bronze idol, long ago in his youth.
But this girl, her ki was vast. Even more so than Nam's...And that ment that the girl was an even more powerful warrior than the ancient *Bahadur Youdha*.
"Oh trust me miss Videl...you are more powerful than you think".