Chapter 70: The Truth

Mary told us her story. Of how she was once a servant of the Blood Queen Elizabeth. Of how Elizabeth was a benevolent ruler who tried to create a Haven for both mortals and vampires to live in harmony, where the vampires would give up drinking blood along with their powers so they can co-exist with humans under the sun.

But those peaceful days ended when the Red Moon occurred 1000 years ago. Elizabeth, a progenitor vampire who cannot stop craving for blood, was tricked by Crimson into consuming blood at this time, sending her into a rampage that destroyed her own Haven and three other nearby kingdoms.

When she regained her senses, Elizabeth took her own life in order to prevent the same tragedy from happening again. But her body was stolen by Crimson, who intended to resurrect her tomorrow so he can re-enact the Red Moon tragedy once again.

"But… that doesn't explain why you should die!" I said. She only gave me a sad smile in response. Then I realized something… She's a vampire… And besides her, there is one other vampire hunter here… and Mary was very intimidated by him…

"You threatened to kill her after this is done, didn't you!?" I exclaimed angrily at the old man called Van Helsing.

"And if I did, what would you do?" He simply said with a cold gaze that intimidates even me...

I want nothing but to teach this asshole a lesson… but I know I'm no match for him even with the new powers that I gained. I can't afford to die here… Not before I save Cid…

I felt Mary put her hand on my shoulder. "It's alright, Claire. It's my fate. I have to atone for my sins. If I am to die here, so be it." She said.

"I can't accept this!" I said in frustration. I can't accept such a bad ending!

"Let's go." The old asshole said whilst walking towards the hole in the wall before us. We had no choice but to follow.

Frustrating. First I was being forced to work together with a criminal organization and then forced into a team with this asshole… But I have little choice. In order to save Cid… I'd gladly sell my soul to Diablos if I have to.

"Hm? You called?"

"Huh?" I looked around for a familiar woman's voice I just heard, a woman who's not here… or anywhere.

"Claire? What's wrong?" Mary asked, oblivious to what I just heard.

"No. It's nothing. Let's go."

Man. That was an interesting lore dump. But why did sis suddenly gets mad at me? Is this part of her chuunibyou act? But I don't understand her scenario at all! Oh wait. Maybe it's the "My powers are running out of control and I'll soon go berserk!" shtick? I don't know how to deal with that right now so I ignored whatever she said and just gave her an intimidating glare in response. That seemed to work.

Anyway, when we passed through the hole in the wall, we found piles of corpses. Corpses of ghouls filled the room we are in, which looked like a dungeon.

The cells are empty and some of the iron bars are bent and broken, presumably because all the slaves have been turned to ghouls and were slaughtered, presumably by Epsilon's team. The iron collars strapped to the necks of the ghoul corpses seems to support that theory.

I sensed the wolf beastkin nearby. So Epsilon's team are hard at work disposing ghouls around here.

"L-Lord Sha—Van Helsing!" The wolf beastkin exclaimed nervously as she noticed my presence. She looked exhausted, wounded and are drenched in blood, both hers and her enemies'.

"What's the situation?" I asked her.

"O-Our team split up to defeat the hordes of ghouls! B-But there have been complications because I s-suddenly encountered stronger ghouls and g-gargoyles! I was sent h-here to rescue the prisoners in order to prevent them from being turned into ghouls but… I-I was too late! I-I need to regroup with Lady Epsilon because… t-this is too much for a single person to handle!" She said nervously, not noticing the dangers behind her.

"And there are more ghouls behind you." I said.

"A-And there are more ghouls behind—Huh?"

I moved to cut the bestial ghoul who jumped at her from behind.

"A-Ahhh...! Lord… Van Helsing…!"

"Stay vigilant. There are more of them." I said as I stood besides her, facing the horde of monstrous ghouls with large claws and fangs blocking our path.

"Y-Yes sir!" She brandished her sword and adopted a fighting stance beside me. Sis and Mary followed suit.

"HAAAAA!" We all shouted as we charged towards the horde of ghouls.

We cut through the hordes of ghouls… well… I cut through the hordes no problem but the others struggled to keep up. My sister struggled because she's not used to fighting these kinds of creatures and the wolf beastkin because she's exhausted.

Mary struggled a bit but with the silver sword I gave her, she performed better than the other two as the silver sword burns through the flesh of the ghouls and cuts them apart like hot knife through butter.

Few minutes later we cleared the dungeon from the hordes of ghouls.

"Haaah… Just how many ghouls did they have…?" Claire complained in between heavy breaths.

"Crimson was left in charge of a human trafficking business after a crime lord named Don Jon took over the city by storm. This very dungeon is a facility where they kept their slaves. And since the cells are empty and most of the ghouls here wear iron collars, that means the ones we just killed were the slaves." Mary answered.

"A human trafficking business… I bet they kidnapped my brother and smuggled him to this city through that network." My sister said while clenching her fist. Seriously, I still have no idea how you came to that conclusion!

"Lady Epsilon was worried about the slaves kept here being turned into ghouls, which is why she sent me here. But the ghouls were much stronger than we thought." The wolf beastkin said. Wow, she's not nervous at all when she talked to them. Maybe she's just uncomfortable around guys? Makes sense since most Shadow Garden members are women.

"For now we must continue. Crimson would likely perform the ritual at the rooftop in order to receive as much light from the Red Moon as possible. We must stop him before then." Mary said.

"Yes. Let's waste no more time!" Exclaimed sis in agreement.

"M-May I accompany you? I-I… need to regroup with the others…" The wolf beastkin said nervously.

"I don't see why not. The more the merrier!" Said my sis. The wolf beastkin is still glancing at my direction nervously though. I gave her a nod and she smiled while wagging her tail.

"T-Thank you sir!" She exclaimed happily. Mary and Claire is… probably weirded out by her behaviour. I myself am confused. No time to think about it though as we proceed to climb the stairs up.

*CRAAAASH*

A giant bat… no, a bloodstained woman wearing provocative dress with huge bat wings on her back, crash-landed on the rooftop of the tower, shaking the whole tower. Crimson, who stayed in the rooftop to guard the coffin and the sacrifice as per his new master's orders, was shocked by the new arrival.

"Wh-What!?" Exclaimed Crimson as he shielded his eyes against the dust and debris which were sent flying by the crash.

"Crimson…" An ominous but familiar woman's voice graced his ears.

"This voice… Carmilla!?" Muttered Crimson in disbelief as he saw a silhouette of a large pair of wings from within the dust.

"Crimson…!" The voice was heard again and this time he was able to see Carmilla… though he was barely able to recognize her in her current form, which looked like a mix of both human and bat.

"Carmilla…? Is that you…? How did you…?" Crimson was unable to hide his surprise when he saw Carmilla's bestial features. Both her hands have been elongated and sports huge claws. Large pair of bat wings is attached to her back. Her body is more muscular and her face no longer the face of a woman but resembles a vampire bat, with huge nose, large fangs and pointy ears. Her shining red eyes glared at him with hate.

"Crimson… You bastard… Because of you… dear Laura is dead…!" The creature spoke with bestial hatred in her voice.

"I-It wasn't my fault! It was your sister's idea!" Crimson said while trembling in fear.

"DO NOT LIE TO ME!" The creature roared as she impaled Crimson's stomach with one of her clawed hands.

"Aghh…! I-I didn't lie…! It's the truth!" Crimson said in between gasps.

"I said…" Carmilla gazed into his eyes with her blood red eyes and imposed her will upon his mind. "DO NOT LIE TO ME!"

"I…" Crimson, with his will no longer his own, spoke genuinely and honestly. "I wasn't lying."

"What!?" Carmilla was flabbergasted as she was sure that she has completely taken over his mind with her spell.

"Although I did left out one tiny detail." Crimson spoke with monotone voice, a sign that his will is not his own.

"Then tell me everything. Every single detail!" Carmilla ordered while gazing at his eyes, imposing her will into him once again.

"I was in need of a pawn to lure Mary out that time. The plan was to separate her from her companions and set up an ambush. Your sister, being weaker than even you, was chosen. But she made a deal with me."

"What deal?"

"That in exchange for sparing her and letting you be the bait, she would reveal the names of other vampire hunters who accompanied Mary at the time."

"What…? Mary was indeed accompanied by a group of vampire hunters that time… though she obviously didn't reveal her true nature to them and didn't bring them along when she persuaded us to leave our vampirism behind… But how did my sister learn of their names?"

"She simply said she did her investigation. I accepted her deal and learned the names of Mary's companions, allowing us to dispose of them one by one and even turned some of them against her by leaking her secret. But the final phase of the plan was to lure her out by using you two as bait. Yes, I betrayed her by sending you both to die."

"You… so that's…!" Carmilla was shocked by this revelation. Memories that were once buried came flooding in… supporting Crimson's story.

"So that's why she… brought me to that house… and tried to force me to stay… but was killed by Mary before she could leave…!" Carmilla muttered, tears of blood started to flow out of her eyes.

"I lied to her about our schedule in order to make sure she couldn't run away. The trap we sprung didn't succeed in killing Mary but we managed to get rid of her allies, leading her to fight alone from then on. Your survival was never part of the plan but…" Crimson continued before stopping himself with a grin.

"I didn't mind it because you were so gullible and you didn't know the truth. I thought that perhaps a trash like you could still be used as bait again later." Crimson finishes with a satisfied grin, proud of his handiwork even in his trance.

"GRAAAAHHH!" Carmilla roared as she proceeded to tear Crimson's body apart. Crimson, in his trance, didn't even feel the pain and kept grinning as even his heart is torn apart.

"So that's… why… Lord Necromancer… erased my memories of her… Because he loved me… Because he wants to spare me the pain of learning this truth…" Carmilla came to her conclusion as she reverted from her bestial form to her humanoid form.

"Ahh…. My Lord Necromancer… I will love you and you only…. Hee hee hee… A ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Carmilla hugged herself as she both cried and laughed at the same time.

Author's Note:

More of Carmilla's backstory is revealed. Even more fucked up than before but this brought opportunity for another Eminence in Shadow style misunderstandings. Also this backstory gave Crimson a bit of villainous accomplishments. At least his villainy is redeemed a bit.

I wrote this chapter while listening to "Mary" from The Eminence in Shadow Season 2 OST. Give it a listen. It's a cool BGM for a tragedy.

Test1771: This fanfiction is honestly fantastic. It's very much as funny as original. I am super impressed by around 150000 words fanfic in two months. It's incredible.

Answer: Thanks! Glad you think so! I wrote as much as I can while I still have lots of free time because I will most likely not have much time next year.

Wholesome07: I'm itchin to know when Van Helsing vs Alucard

Answer: Soon, my dearest. Soon.