The Fallen Vampire

The two halves of Taira's body started to congeal before they finally came back together in a horrifyingly grotesque manner.

As he sat up on the cold stone floor, he contemplated just how he should get back at Fenris for making him do this uselessly annoying favor.

'I wonder if pissing on his alters will work… can he tell when they've been desecrated…?'

Taira picked himself up from the floor and found Enyo already waiting above him.

She immediately dusted off his clothes for him while sending him all kinds of possessive messages telepathically.

'If she touches you again, I am going to impale her to her throne and leave her there to die.'

'How dare she touch your heart?! That belongs to Lucia and I!'

'…cute.'

Feeling significantly better and with more energy, Taira gave Enyo a small kiss on the forehead before inevitably moving past her.

Coming to a stop in front of Ayame and Keran, he loomed over them expectantly like he was waiting for an answer.

Ayame met his gaze and seemed to be thinking about something very carefully.

Taira softened his blood in her mouth to free her teeth and allow her to talk.

"This problem… what do you mean that it has already made it's way into our backyard?" She asked.

Liking where this was going, Taira casually stepped on the broken arm of the human lying at their feet.

Immediately, a scream filled the throne room yet no one really seemed to be bothered by it.

"Time to spill." Taira said.

Shin looked up at him with hate filled eyes."F-Fuck you-"

"Nevermind."

Taira stomped onto the human's head hard enough to send him spiraling into unconsciousness before he looked over his shoulder at Theodore.

The boar-kin let out a small squeal before stepping forward as he fiddled with the rings on his fingers.

"M-My Queen… it is my utmost honor to-"

"Get to the fucking point."

"Yes, right away."

Theodore gave Ayame a brief but concise summary of the past few months, and it was hard to tell if she was more horrified or enraged.

How had something like this gone on unnoticed for so long?

Why hadn't anyone told her about this?

How could someone feel bold enough to do this in her own city?!

Moving past Taira, Ayame grabbed the sleeping human by the neck and slapped him awake.

"W-Wha..?"

"Are there more of you slinking about my home? Tell me now and I will kill you so quickly that you will not feel a thing!"

Shin smiled somewhat drunkenly as if he found this situation somewhat amusing.

"You don't have the luxury of taking my life. I strongly suggest that you let me go, because if you don't then my sworn brother, The Hero of Unbreakable Ice, will storm this place after his next battle and skull fuck all of your- AAAGGHHHH!!!"

When Ayame pierced the midsection of Shin, she relished in the the sound of his screaming.

Perhaps because of Taira's non-reaction when she tried to torture him earlier, she was feeling quite a bit insecure about her own lethality.

This was a welcome pick-me-up.

"The Hero of Unbreakable Ice is your brother...? I find it interesting that you say he will be unable to kill me now and has to wait for later? Why might that be?" She asked.

"Ha! I'll never tell you any-AAAAGGGGHHHH!"

"By the gods... You all infuriate me terribly." Taira growled.

Taira snatched the human away from Ayame by the neck and made him stare into his hypnotizing red eyes.

"Tell us everything we ask without saying unnecessary nonsense...Quietly." He emphasized.

"Yes sir..."

Taira dropped the human at Ayame's feet and sat down on her throne before pulling Enyo into his lap.

Whether his actions were considered disrespectful or not, no one really seemed to care at this moment.

'I'm hungry...' he thought.

With Taira's compulsion taking full effect, Shin spilled everything he knew without batting an eye.

"What was your purpose for coming here?" Ayame asked pointedly.

Unsurprisingly, Shin answered honestly and immediately.

"One of our men had the idea to keep you fallen from getting rare items by raiding your auction house, but I thought that to be inefficient.

Instead of stealing from you a single time and ending up with items that we didn't need, I thought it would be better to have constant access and take whatever we needed most as it appeared.

We grabbed Theo's son on a night when he was outside of the gates and used him to establish a clear line of infiltration within the auction house.

Our plan was to only take from you for a year, but we have reaped more benefits than expected, so we no longer need your little trinkets and manuals."

"I don't understand." Ayame said with a furrowed brow. "You infiltrated our city yet you were only focused on stealing? Why would you not attack us?"

Shin's robotic voice only made his next words all the more disturbing.

"The heroes have decided that they don't want to end the war. You fallen are too convenient of an outlet.

We can beat you, dismember you, even use you like public toilets until our junk falls off, and no one in society bats an eye.

They understandably don't want to give something like that up."

In the heroes' official reports to the king, the heroes tell him that the ongoing war is a much more difficult last stand then it actually is.

Truth be told, if the heroes were less lazy they could drive the fallen into extinction within two to four months.

But as of now, all of their focus lies on keeping the fallen suppressed, despondent, and without adequate resources to rise up against them as they played with them however they liked.

It was the reason why Shin's plan was so easily accepted.

Getting to take rare items that could be used against them and keep them for themselves while cutting up a few more miserable fallen and worsening their odds of gaining power?

That was killing three birds with one stone!

Understandably, Shin's robotic answer enraged every fallen within the room.

Kohaku and Kuro, Leopold, Ayame, Enyo, Keran, and even Taira.

All seven of them were vibrating with so much murderous intent that the walls of the room had begun to crack.

Theodore was also infuriated, but his focus was on another's matter entirely.

"My son, Trevor… Is he truly still alive or is that another falsehood?"

For the first time, Shin faltered as if he wasn't sure how to answer a question.

"Probably not… We gave him to Valus at the camp. He isn't exactly gentle with his sodomy."

It was like someone had come up to Theodore and punched him in the chest with all of their might.

Tears fell from his eyes instantly, and his knees hit the ground as he lost all the strength needed to stand up.

"No… NOOOOO!!!!"

He hit the ground until his knuckles were broken and bloody, but even then he did not stop.

Eventually, Kuro chopped him on the back of the neck and knocked him out before carrying him outside.

Even after he was gone, the entire scene had left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and drastically worsened their mood.

Only Taira seemed to be able to move on in spite of everything, but if one looked closely they could see a mix of blue flames and purple lightning running across his body.

He was almost done learning everything that he needed to know, but there was still one thing missing.

"What is the benefit that you have reaped that was so grand that even your hero is preoccupied with it?"

As always, Shin's voice was quick and robotic.

"One of the women we robbed and killed outside of the city… we discovered that she belongs to a sect, and she had a map leading back to their location on her person.

Duncan is going to either break them of their neutrality, or strip them of all of their recourses after he encases the entire mountain peak in ice."