Chapter 11: The Household of Myrddin Emrys

The land that was surrounded by dead trees and blackened earth is known to the people who live near it at the Remains of Heaven. The reason why it was called so was because many years ago, in the medieval ages, it was once a gorgeous garden that harbored millions of flowers and the trees were strong and could grow endlessly. But a great tragedy had taken place which had destroyed the land making it remains of what it once was. What specifically that tragedy was varied from the different storytellers.

Some say it was greedy humans who cut down the trees and pillaged the resources of the land. Some say it was an enraged dragon that scorched the entire area with its fire. Some think it was a famine that came over and took all life from the land. Others believed it was a wicked witch who placed a curse on the very soil to make everything that grows immediately decay.

Despite all these stories and theories, no one knew of the truth of the Remains of Heaven. No one except for the Myrddin Emrys, for they lived at the very center.

It was the perfect home for a vampire family since the skies were always dark and the sun's light could never peak through. The Myrddin Emrys were able to move around the forest as they pleased and even invite guests. But more importantly, because humans feared the legends of the Remains of Heaven, it was a perfect place for the undead family to proceed with their experiments with no interruptions.

Inside the dark library was Merlin who used her magic to levitate a hundred books at a time. He made the flying books circling him as he read each and every paragraph particularly. On the other side of the room, concocting some sort of formula on a chalkboard was George and his son Ivan. They drew the patterns of a complicated magic circle but each time the vampiric men seemed to be frustrated and erased the drawing to start anew.

On the second floor of the mansion, in the kitchen area were Hans and Annabelle. The young man was slouching on his chair eating a plate of eyeballs while his mother was silently sipping a cup of dark red blood. Sitting near the window and sleeping was the black cat Lilith, who was then rudely woken up by Hans purposely stepping on her tail.

The cat screamed and turned back to hiss at the vampiric boy.

"JERK!"

Hans cackled in response, but none of the servants in the kitchen nor Annabelle shared his humor.

"Hans," Annabelle said. "Stop messing around with Lilith and finish your food."

"Aw~! But these eyeballs taste bland!" Hans complained. "You can't trust these stupid corpses of servants to get the job right! Let me go out to town and go hunting for some human meat~!"

"Absolutely not."

Annabelle quickly replied as she sipped from her teacup again.

"We have six months' worth of reserves in the freezers and the Catholic Church is beginning to investigate us. Father says that we need to be careful from now on. The project must not fail."

"Oh, Mom! I promise I'll be careful!"

Annabelle stared at her son with an irritated look, her eyes flashing.

"Now I know that's a lie. Last time you went "hunting" you went overboard and killed nearly a hundred people! Because of that, the exorcists are looking into this area!"

"One of the human girls pissed me off by calling me gross!"

"I had to kill one of the exorcists and it wasn't easy!"

Annabelle pulled down the top of her dress to reveal a scar on her chest.

"See this? This is from the exorcist I fought! Despite how small it looks it hurt like hell and I was almost done if I didn't make a run for it! Seriously, the exorcists in this day and age are savages…"

Hans leaned over and stared at the scar in amazement.

"Was the exorcist you killed really that powerful?"

"Hm? Oh, this wasn't done by the exorcist I killed— he was a weakling. The one who gave me this scar was a young apprentice. I played with him but then he unleashed a…devastating power and I had no choice but to run away. He gave chase but I think his superiors called him back before he could continue looking for me, which was lucky on my part because he was relentless!"

"Ha! I'm surprised that the church even still has young apprentices! Aren't kids nowadays abandoning their faith in God?"

Hans placed his elbows on the table and began giggling like a maniac.

"For a young exorcist to hurt my mother like that? That dude sounds strong…I wanna fight him so bad~…"

"You're weird Hans," Lilith said aloud. "Where did Annabelle and George go wrong with you?"

"Hey!" Annabelle shouted. "Don't call me a bad mother! I did my best raising him the right way!"

"Nope! You pampered him too much and now is a junky for trouble!"

"Argh! Whatever Lilith, you have no clue what it means to be a parent!"

"Anyway, where is Little Liz?" Hans yelled out as he leaned back on his chair. "I want her to eat these HORRIBLE eyeballs for me!"

Annabelle scoffed.

"Elizabeth doesn't like eyeballs and right now she is playing with her…toy."

"Oh…right~…"

Hans proceeded to laugh as Annabelle sighed and shook her head.

"Argh! It's impossible!"

Elizabeth was in her room, lying on her massive queen-sized bed. She threw a tantrum while slamming books into the walls, the strength of her throws managed to make cracks on the wall.

"None of these stupid books are the ones that the old man wants me to find! Where else in Luna Nova am I supposed to look!?"

Picking up the books and tidying the room Elizabeth ranted to Akko who still bore no emotion and was silent.

"And you know what's funny Akko?" Elizabeth sat up from the bed. "The grimoire I'm looking for originally belonged to that old man! He WROTE the damn thing but it got stolen from him! I don't know why he needs it so much if it's material he wrote but…hey you can stop cleaning my room I didn't order you to do that."

Elizabeth jumped off the bed and grabbed Akko gently. She dragged her to the bed and forced her to sit down with her.

"Anyway, we're on break and I don't have to go back to Luna Nova in three days. How about you Akko? It's been almost a month now and I say you've started to fit in really well~…"

Akko made no reaction. Elizabeth chuckled and kissed Akko's cheek.

"Your eyes…they're so pretty~…"

The vampire girl then softly placed Akko on her back and hovered her. She then bent down and kissed her on her lips, moaning in delight while the brunette girl herself did not move a muscle.

This caused Elizabeth to grumble.

"Come on, Akko…kiss me back."

Because it was an order, Akko embraced Elizabeth back and met her kiss with her own. The two were passionately making out with each other for minutes. Once she was done kissing Akko, she moved to her neck and bit her.

"Your blood…your skin…everything about you Akko is just perfect~…"

Elizabeth greedily drank the blood of her familiar.

"I want every day to be like this…ah, but when you become a full vampire your blood while become spoil and change into pitch-black nastiness like the rest of us."

The vampire girl then separated her bloodied mouth from the Japanese girl's neck and stared right into her face.

"I'm going to miss that tasty blood of yours. But…I guess I can be patient and wait for you~…"

Elizabeth kissed Akko again.

"Oh! That's right!"

Elizabeth then parted the kiss and forced Akko to get off her bed with her.

"Let's practice some magic today~!"

The vampire girl went to the far end of her room and took out a book that had seen better days. It was covered in dust, the pages were ripped, and the bidding was ready to fall apart. As the immortal witch opened the book it revealed paragraphs of Luna Letters and explanations of complicated spells.

"This is the spell we're learning today~," Elizabeth cheered. "It's a spell my Mom taught me when I was only a hundred! It's one that can help you contact the spirits of the dead! Let's begin!"

Elizabeth gave Akko her wand and forced her to stand in the middle of the room.

"Repeat after me, Akko…Spiritus Inmensus…"

"…Spiritus Inmensus…"

The moment Akko chanted the words, a blue boundary feel began to surround her. Appearing on the corners of the boundary field were scary-looking giants that looked malnourished with skeleton faces, yellow teeth, and visible rib cages. They were clawing away at the boundary, trying to get to Akko, but none of them could reach her.

As this spectacle was going on, Elizabeth was in the corner of the room clapping and chuckling.

"I almost forgot that we have a few evil spirits! I'm not sure if they are spirits of the humans of old or the humans that we've eaten…oh well! That was pretty good, Akko! But your barrier could be bigger!"

Akko deactivated the barrier and Elizabeth took her wand back from her servant's hands. She petted Akko's head as somewhat of a reward for her good job.

"Come on, I'm going to show you something cool!"

Elizabeth took Akko's hand and dragged her out of the room. The two of them went to the lower floor of the mansion and entered a massive room filled with strange-looking weapons.

"This is a stronghold of the ancient treasures that our family had collected over the years! And this…"

The purple-haired vampire walked over to the right side of the room where there was a sword hung up on the wall for display. It was a black curved sword that some red highlights and a bone-like hilt.

"This is the legendary sword, Hrunting!"

Elizabeth took the blade off the wall and showcased it to Akko.

"This sword is filled with ancient magic and has powers similar to that of a wand. It said that those who wield can cut almost anything in the world! Now Akko, I want you to try doing that same spell from before but using this as your conductor!"

After gently putting Hrunting in Akko's head, Elizabeth stepped back and clapped in excitement.

"Now cast the spell! Spiritus Inmensus!"

"…Spiritus Inmensus…"

The magical boundary was conjured again but this time it looked like a siren. The force of the force field incinerated the undead spirits that were near Akko and created massive cracks in the wall. Elizabeth was taken aback by the sudden power and quickly tackled Akko. She removed the sword from Akko's hands and the spell dispersed.

"That was some crazy power! Where did that rise of magic come from?"

"Everyone."

The voice of Hans rang in Elizabeth's ears causing her to wince.

"B-brother!? Why are you using telepathic magic now!?"

"Come to the library. The Old Master has something he wants to show us."

"Huh? Oh, okay…follow me Akko!"

Elizabeth grabbed Akko's hand again and led her to Merlin's Library. By her side were Annabelle, Hans, and Lilith. On the far corner of the library was Ivan and George who stood at attention with their hands behind their backs.

"Welcome everyone!"

Floating down from the ceiling was Merlin who had Fantasia in his hand. The gems of the magic staff glistened like stars and let off a dense magical aura that made the air in the room thin. Everyone bowed as the old vampire made his appearance but then he raised his hand to indicate to stop the show of respect.

"Fantasia has unlocked the first note…"

Everyone by the door gasped in surprise while Ivan and George left with cocky smirks.

"Thanks to father and I's research we were able to help the Old Master generate a conduit to the 'Fair Realm' as he instructed!"

"Please," Hans commented with rolling eyes. "Most of that research was done by me…"

"All I recall was you goofing off and eating any human who walked by!"

"Enough!"

George said aloud, stopping the twins from arguing.

"Allow the Old Master to finish."

Merlin raised his left hand which then brought into existence a portal that resembled a leyline. The only difference it's that it was dark blue and the silhouette of a million ghostly hands and moaning came from there.

"On the other side are the souls of the long-forgotten people. For the next act to be activated I need to make the connection with the core in that world…however…"

The Old Master stuck his hand in the portal and instantly it turned to dust. The other members of the family screamed in shock while Merlin still retained a calm and neutral expression.

"Because I am an undead, the Holy Land no longer welcomes me, despite the blood that flows through my veins."

"Then what can we do?" Annabelle asked. "The rest of us are all vampires like you! How can we enter the 'Fair Realm'?"

Merlin smiled and pointed over at Akko.

"Well…it's a good thing Elizabeth decided to bring her "pet" now, is it?"

Everyone turned to Akko who still showed no reaction.

Author's Note:

This is the official start of Act 2! I can't wait for you guys to see what the future chapters intel! By the way, for this story, I have a co-author who is going to help me get out chapters faster! His name is Angry9guy and he will help write some of the chapters whenever I can't (you know, due to other projects and stuff). I have relayed to him notes of the future chapters and he has also given some pretty cool story points himself! So please go check out his stories if you are interested and stay tuned!

Also, the form of the sword Hrunting is based on the sword Beowulf uses in his story but the image of the sword resembles the blade that this character uses (art done by Yoh Yoshinari): en/artworks/43380005

en/artworks/43374174

Please check out my own original web novel, "The Branded Hero Volume 1: Baxter the Failure". The tale of a hero who has been outcasted by the world since releasing The Demon King: /series/The-Branded-Hero-Volume-1-Baxter-the-Failure/info

And please check out my webcomic, "The Curse of Gringerfield" on Webtoon and Tapas!

Webtoon: en/canvas/the-curse-of-gringerfield/list?title_no=970667

Tapas: /series/The-Curse-of-Gringerfield/info

Next Chapter: The Wailing Noises of Forgotten People