《Vampire's Revenge》 Ch 1 The siege The castle shook again as the human forces continued their siege for the 8th day. The catapults and trebuchets fired non-stop since the start of the battle and continued to pound the magically enhanced walls and magic barrier behind them. With every explosive payload fired by the siege engines the whole castle would shake a little as the walls protecting the keep showed signs of cracking and wear. In the keep''s main hall sat a family of 3, leisurely eating while being attended to by tens of servants. At the head of the table sat a middle aged man with short and neat black hair and a small, well kept beard. His crimson eyes looking at the beautiful woman on his left while his hand held a silver fork carrying a small piece of meat. "I have to say, the recipe your cousin got from the South really brings the spicy flavour of the beef to life." "He did say he got it from a famed restaurant during his stay, Dear. I would expect no less from an establishment that made itself famous for its spice and flavours." "You are right Dear Wife. As expected." "And how are you finding it my sweet little Pandora?" "It''s a little too spicy for me but apart from that it tastes good." "As expected, the young body does not tolerate the spicy flavour too well." "It''s ok, I''ll still finish it." "Stubborn girl. Don''t regret it later when your lips burn painfully from the spice." "I''d rather do it and regret it later than not do it at all." "That''s my girl." The chat was interrupted by the butler. "Sir. The outer walls are beginning to show signs of wear and some cracks have begun to form in places." "Damn, so quickly? What about the barrier?" "The barrier will hold for another day at most. But judging from the conditions of the walls, they have come prepared and found a way to get through our enchantments, enhancements and barriers. There may be little time left before it too falls to the siege engines." "Put everything we have to strengthen the barrier. Divert power from the walls. They are a lost cause already. Give the barrier everything we have and buy us as much time as you can." "As you command my Lord." The butler left and the atmosphere at the table turned heavy. "Do we have to run away?" "No my little princess. We are not going anywhere. This is our home and no one can make us run from our own home." "So we fight?" "It would see so Dear Wife. It apart to be the best chance we have." "Can I go too?" "No my Dear Pandora. It is too early for you to participate in such a large scale battle. We will take you to the safe room and let you sleep while we deal with this. It should take no more than a few days." "I understand." "Thanks you for being so good. When this is over we will take you to train with some smaller groups. With your unique powers, combat is what you will naturally excel at." "Okay." The girl smiled at her parents, small tears collecting at the corners of her eyes from the burning pain on her lips. "Let''s move you to the safe room and get you comfortably asleep. We will come and wake you us once we''re done outside." Moving from the main hall to the grand staircase, the 3 walked down from the 3rd floor to the groups floor. On the groups floor the 3 moved down a well hidden and narrow secret passage to get behind the grand staircase. Behind the grand staircase, in a small room was a set of crude stone stairs leading further down. At the bottom of the stone stairs lay a large underground room supported by huge, carved, square stone pillars. In the centre of the room lay 3 coffins. 2 large adult sized and 1 small child sized coffin. The edges of the room were lined with layers upon layers of thin glass pipes reaching from floor to ceiling. Each pipe, filled with blood, was connected by smaller pipes to a device sat between the coffins. The long glass pipes all had a stamped copper plate reading ''1 week'' labelling each as having enough blood inside to sustain a sleeping vampire for a week. "Come, child. Lay down. I will activate the blood supply while your mother inserts the supply needle into your arm. I do not expect you to need it, since we will most likely be back in a few days, but just in case, I will set it to use all the blood if needed." "Come, lay down and relax. Everything will be fine. We will come back in a few days and go back to our normal lives. Now relax your arm and let me put the needle in. Just like that. There, now you''re ready to sleep." Turning to her husband at the machine, Pandora''s mother spoke in a low and serious tone. "Set the machine to it''s independent power source and have it funnel the blood from the surface to fill the empty blood pipes." "Why? We''ll only be gone for a few days at most." "Just in case anything happens to us. I want her to take the best chances of survival." "Fine, it''s done." The machine gave a soft whirl and the room was filled with a deep red light. A few of the blood pipes which happened to be empty were surrounded with a red glow while a small magic circle hovered and rotated about the open top. "That should be everything. Sleep well and see you soon, my daughter. I love you." "Bye dad, be careful." "Your mother will make sure I am. For you and for me." "Sweet dreams my daughter. I love you." "Bye mum. Keep dad in check and keep yourselves safe." "We will." With a final goodbye, the lid of the small coffin was closed and little Pandora went to sleep. Unknown to any of them, aboveground, outside the walls, a vial concoction of the deadliest poisons, diseases, curse spells and alchemical compounds was being prepared by a group of hired alchemists. The vial brew would spell disaster for any that so much as sniffed the fumes. The curses would weaken the vampires natural resistance while the alchemical compounds ignored the resistance all together to lower their responsiveness and reflexes. The poisons and diseases would then wreak havoc in their weakened bodies till they died or were killed. Each vampire hunter was equipped with a small hand crossbow and quivers of bolts that were dipped in the special potion as well as a long, curved knife, also coated in the potion. An important looking man with a golden chest plate under his cloak stood near the alchemists tent, overseeing the distribution of the weapons and potion. "Remember, never waste more than 2 bolts per target. There is a lot of the potion, yes, but we don''t know their exact numbers. Point is, don''t waste it if you don''t have to." A young soldier with a ''Messenger'' badge ran up to him. "Sir. The walls have begun to crumble, but the barrier appears to be getting stronger. We assume the vampires have diverted mana from the wall enchantments to the barrier." "Indeed, with the walls already cracking the enchantments will loose efficiency, it is a smart choice to abandon them. The barrier, however, will not be so simple to take down." Just then, a tall, thin man wearing a long robe and face mask left the alchemists tent. "Do not worry about the barrier. We have something for that too." "Another potion, I assume?" "Indeed. The Mana Devouring Potion. It absorbs mana from whatever it touches and releases it into the air. Specifically designed to take down large scale barriers." The tall man pulled a bottle of purple liquid from his belt. "Get me a trough big enough to roll the siege engine ammo through." "I''m on it." The messenger ran off and soon a trio of large men carrying long wooden planks and buckets of nails came to the tent. "We don''t have one big enough but making one shouldn''t be a problem." Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site."Make it close to the siege engine ammo stockpile. And make it as water tight as you can, don''t want to be wasting resources." "Will do." The trio took their long planks and headed for the large pile of siege engine ammo. "We''ll be ready to begin soon. As soon as everyone is equipped with their poisoned bolts, we can start." "Very well. I will go oversee the siege engine ammo." The trough was wide enough for 1 and long enough for 4 siege engine ammo. The tall alchemists made his way to the newly built trough and began filling it with the purple potions from his belt. Bottle after bottle emptied and after the 14th bottle, the floor of the trough had a finger thick layer of purple liquid sitting in it. "Bring me an iron ball for a test. Carefully set it down on one end and roll it to the other. Good. Now carefully lift it out and set it in a free catapult. Good. Now aim high. Top of the barrier if you can. I want it to be in contact with the barrier for as long as possible." Receiving a nod from the catapult crew the alchemists nodded back and shouted. "Fire!" The large iron ball sailed through the air and struck near the top of the barrier. It bounced back slightly before falling and hitting the side of the barrier again where it rolled down to the floor. It maintained constant contact with the barrier and left a long, fain line where it appeared to be thinner than the rest of the barrier. "Good shot! Perfect! It works just as intended. You never know with these monsters, you may think they''re using mana but in fact it turns out to be the blood of some poor unfortunate. But it seems the barrier would take too much blood to power and they used mana instead. Lucky for us. Not so lucky for them. Inform the rest of the siege engine teams! Get their ammo rolled through the potion before they fire! I''ll go get more potions and have more troughs built around the stockpile." The alchemists left for the tent as the catapult crew spread to tell the rest of the teams about the potion and where to aim. Inside the castell, the butler found the now childless duo and informed them of the changes to the situation. ¡°Sir. The barrier is draining more and more mana by the second. It¡¯s almost like every hit it takes wastes more mana than it should.¡± ¡°Are we sure there aren''t just more attacks hitting the barrier at once?¡± ¡°There definitely are more attacks hitting the barrier now that we''ve abandoned the walls, it¡¯s just that the mana consumption for each hit has gone up significantly.¡± ¡°I see. They must have an alchemists. Only an alchemists could do something like that with their siege ammo.¡± ¡°I see. It makes sense now. A potion to increase the amount of mana each hit takes sounds plausible with their tendency for warring with each other.¡± ¡°Indeed. Inform everyone, we fight. The barrier won''t hold much longer. When it falls, they will likely try to storm the castle. When they do, we set up an ambush at the gates. They will only be able to move through them a few at a time. We take bows and crossbows for those less versed in magic and let the ice and lightning mages pepper them with Piercing Spikes and Chain lightning. We take as many of their back lines out as we can while they are blocked by the bodies of the ones in front.¡± ¡°What if they make other entrances?¡± ¡°Then we rely on claws, fangs and speed to take as many as we can before we fall.¡± ¡°It seems like your intuition and foresight have proven correct yet again, Dear Wife.¡± ¡°How so, Dear?¡± ¡°Turning on the independent power for the blood machine and letting it use all the blood and blood from the surface. It seems like we won''t be able to keep our promise to little Pandora after all.¡± ¡°Wait you mean...¡± ¡°We won¡¯t live through this battle. I can smell the horrible concoction their alchemists has brewed up from here. All I can say is try not to get hit or hit as little as possible. Although from the smell of it, anything deeper than a scratch with a coated weapon will leave you dying or worse.¡± ¡°I just hope they don¡¯t find her.¡± ¡°Me too.¡± The butler arrived in front of the pair after listening in. He bowed respectfully to the pair. ¡°Sir. Madam. I strongly advise you both to retreat. We will hold them off for as long as we can.¡± The pair looked thankfully at the butler and all the nodding servants around them. ¡°Thank you, my friend. Thank you all. But, that, that is not an option anymore.¡± Hearing the words, all the servants looked to the sky to see the barrier flickering out of existence. As the last of the huge iron balls meant to take out the barrier slammed into the castle, the gate exploded into chunks of wood and metal. Human after human poured in through the gate, only to be met with arrows, bolts, ice spikes and lightning bolts that snaked from one victim to the other. As countless more pushed from behind, the pile of corpses grew by the minute. Chunks of flesh scattered as piercing icicles ripped through the bodies, sometimes tearing a limb off as they passed through joints. Outside the walls the commander and alchemists watched the situation just beyond the gate. ¡°This isn¡¯t working. They don¡¯t even have time to aim before they are killed. We need to do something quick. Or we wont have the numbers to take them out if this continues.¡± ¡°Your right. Someone get me 4 large wooden tubs, some lengths of rope and as many quivers of bolts and arrows as you can fit into 2 of the tubs!¡± Soon after, 4 soldiers carrying a large wooden tub came running. 2 of the tubs were filled with arrows and bolts while the other 2 held lengths of rope. ¡°Put them down here. You 4 now quickly fetch me some cloth. Anything will do. Torn clothes, old blankets, anything that would soak in water. Go quickly.¡± The soldiers once again ran off searching through the camp. The alchemist grabbed a tub and walked off towards the alchemists tent. Disappearing inside for a few minutes, he came out with another person carrying the tub filled with a bubbling green liquid. Setting it down outside the tent, the tall alchemists came for the second empty tub. Repeating the process, 2 full tubs sat outside the tent. The 4 soldiers ran back with rags, scraps of cloth, old clothes and old blankets. ¡°Cut them up into small parts and dump them over the arrows.¡± ¡°What are these for?¡± ¡°The mixture if only effective if it gets through the skin. The arrows and bolts have sharp tips, but the mixture is a very thin liquid so by itself it will just slide off the skin. We added a special formula designed to reinforce leather armour into the mix this time. It will make the cloth scraps stiff and rigid, extra shrapnel.¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t get the whole tub part though.¡± ¡°Aah, right. When we put them together, top to top, we get makeshift catapult ammo filled with the mixture. When it¡¯s fired it will hit the ground and because the tubs are made of wood they will shatter and explode all over the place spraying the area with shrapnel like the arrows and bolts.¡± ¡°Ooh, as expected of Sir Alchemists. Genius idea.¡± The alchemists directed the soldiers to tip the content of the arrow tubs into the mixture tubs. Them the empty tubs were upturned and placed on top to create a sealed contained for the mixture. The soldiers tied the tubs together tightly and carried them over to a catapult. ¡°Load this in and aim at the ground in front of the mage vampires. Not too close to them, I want the splash to cover as big an area as possible.¡± On the vampires side things were going much better than expected. ¡°Don¡¯t give them time to fire! Keep hitting them. They will stop eventually.¡± ¡°Master Alexander! They appear to be doing something to one of the catapults! I think they want to hit us with something!¡± ¡°Everyone scatter and take cover! Keep shooting as you retreat!¡± ¡°It¡¯s coming down on the mages! Run!¡± The makeshift projectile shattered against the stone floor spraying wooden shrapnel, broken bolts and arrows, sharp stiff cloth scraps as well as droplets of green liquid all over the vampires. It was soon followed by another. Many of the hit vampires began to scratch at their wounds, trying to dig out the pieces of wood and metal stuck in them. For a while nothing seemed wrong as the battle continued as it had before, but soon some of the vampires began to cough and feel faint or sick. Some had blurry vision and some got head aches. Most were hit by severe muscle pains and cramps. Eventually they became unable to fight. More and more human soldiers successfully made it past the gate to attack the weakened vampires. The soldiers charged at the few vampires still barely able to fight and overwhelmed them with numbers. ¡°I am sorry, Sir. I will be unable to keep you company any longer.¡± ¡°It is fine my dear friend. Rest well, and may we meet again, in another life.¡± The butler smiled and plunged his claws into the 2 soldiers on either side that had stabbed him in the chest while ripping out the throat of the soldier in front of him with his fangs. Soon after the 4 bodies crashed to the floor, dead. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Dear Wife, but it appears as though I will be unable to accompany you any longer.¡± ¡°Stop with your nonsense, we have a daughter to go back to.¡± ¡°And for that I am truly, deeply sorry.¡± ¡°What are you...¡± Turning to look at him, she saw the countless bolts stuck in his arms and back as he stood over her, protecting her with his body from the soldiers who had made their way around to their backs. ¡°I am so, so sorry.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be. She would be proud of you. As proud to call you her father as i am proud to call you my husband.¡± With tears in her eyes she kisses him softly on the cheek. Feeling the warm trickle of mana he was sending her through the kiss she opened her eyes wide. ¡°Do it, and take all these bastards with us. For her. For everything she will loose because of them, and for us. For all the time with her we will never get to spend.¡± Taking the over condensed and unstable mana thread from him she compressed all of her remaining mana into a similar thread. Holding each in one hand, she forcefully slammed her hands together. The unstable, compressed mana ignited like a fuse, creating a wave of pressure so great it compressed and ignited the loose mana in the air creating a chain reaction that covered the plains and nearest cities in a fire so hot it instantly vaporised anything it touched and sent a shockwave so powerful it levelled city walls and building on half of the continent. And so, for over 95 thousand years, little Pandora slept. The machine dutifully feeding her blood from the near 5 million blood pipes. Ch 2 The Awakening In the Southeast corner of the Old Continent a group of archaeologists sat around an ancient map in the middle of a large tent. A tall blond man in his mid fifties, a short grey haired man of over eighty and a red haired woman in her thirties discussed the ancient topography of the land they currently stand on and how much it differed from the time of the map. ¡°This entire area is at least 5 metres higher than the time this map was in use, we need to dig much deeper to find anything like foundations and basements.¡± ¡°She''s right, old man, we simply aren¡¯t digging deep enough to find anything. If we want anything out of this we need to start looking further down.¡± ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll tell my team to take the gate square and go to 6 metres.¡± ¡°My team will take the back of the castle, the barracks and the storage buildings.¡± ¡°I guess that leaves me with the main keep and castle grounds. Hmph, leaving all the hard work to the woman.¡± ¡°Hard work you say? I say we''re being gentlemen and leaving the best parts for you young lady.¡± ¡°The best parts? You get the area with possible remains of battles and battle camps, he gets the storage buildings and barracks which are most likely to house the weapons and armour and I get the living quarters which will most likely have furniture and daily items. How, exactly am I getting the best parts?¡± ¡°Calm down, we most likely won¡¯t find anything. From what I¡¯ve read, the explosion my ancestors saw from our family home on the North coast nearly 100 thousand years ago originated from this area of the continent. The aftermath was so bad the residual heat made the area uninhabitable until just a few years ago when the temperature dropped to this sweltering heat which is barely survivable.¡± ¡°That kind of explosion would most likely take anything but the deepest foundations with it. That is why I¡¯m saying you''re getting the best parts. The foundations of the walls and the main keep are likely the only things left in this area.¡± ¡°Then why bother with anything but the keep. Let¡¯s divide it between us and start digging. It would be a lot faster that way.¡± ¡°That is true. I suppose Anton can take the barracks and storage buildings, since they are likely to have underground areas while you and I take half the keep each.¡± ¡°Hey, wait, old man, why are you with her while I¡¯m so far away?¡± ¡°Because I am more interested in the structure and layout of this castle, rather than the valuable items one could uncover while digging.¡± After the short argument each called for their team leaders and told them of the new plan. Less than 2 hours later all of the equipment was moved to the new dig sites and all preparations were completed. ¡°Lets get this show on the road!¡± Anton shouted from his perch on the digger as the giant engine roared to life. Pressing some buttons and pulling the joystick towards himself the huge scoop tore through the earthy soil, leaving a 5 metre wide and 2 metre deep dich. Following his lead, the rest of the teams began digging and removing layer after layer of soil from the new dig sites. In the following 10 hours, a gigantic square of earth was removed to a depth of 5.5 metres. At this depth some of the digger operators began to notice what looked like the foundations of buildings. ¡°We got some more over here!¡± ¡°Label it 23!¡± ¡°Got it!¡± ¡°More here on this side!¡± ¡°Throw down a 31!¡± ¡°On it!¡± ¡°This should be the last one! The corner is empty so I don¡¯t think we''ll find anything else past this one!¡± ¡°Good job! Give it a 58 and we''re done!¡± ¡°Will do!¡± After all the uncovered foundations were marked in order of finding them, the 3 head archaeologists were informed. Back in the tent the 3 sat around the map again. When the message that all markers have been placed down arrived the old man tapped a finger on the table. The holographic display blurred and came back with 58 red dots on it. Each red dot lined up near perfectly with the buildings on the old map. Tapping the red dots to connect them, the old man created outlines of each building. ¡°We have an L shaped storage building here. A rectangular barracks there. Another L shaped storage building. Maybe a stables here. A T shaped building here. Probably more storage. And 3 more L shaped building. And the final 12 in a huge cross shape must be the castell keep itself.¡± Once all the dots were connected the trio looked at the distribution of digging space. The old man looked at the map and nodded to himself. ¡°Anton will get the 7 smaller buildings, you take the front of the keep and I¡¯ll take the back half.¡± ¡°Sounds good. Lets get to work.¡± The teams split and under the directions of the 3, the whole area was excavated an extra half a metre. The digging crew in heavy, yellow and black construction power suits cleared the areas around and inside the foundations to an even deeper level to get a clear look at the inside. After 35 hours of careful clearing and finding nothing at all one of the teams at the front of the keep found a hole in the ground with crude stone steps leading deeper down. ¡°What do you think it is?¡± ¡°Either a private wine cellar, a dungeon or a safe room. I¡¯ve seen a few similar castells, all more recent than this ancient thing, and all of them had one or all of those.¡± ¡°Look at the steps, too crude to be a wine cellar. If it were a wine cellar the steps would be smooth to avoid tripping and dropping a bottle. This is either a dungeon or a safe room.¡± ¡°The old man is right Anton. No one would have stairs like this leading to a wine cellar. Too much chance to trip and drop a bottle. I''d say its a safe room since it''s at the front of the keep.¡± ¡°Get someone trained into a construction suit and 2 guards in mill spec suits to check what''s down there. We never know. Better safe than sorry.¡± ¡°Let my personal guard go. He is a weapon specialist and carries all his weapons on him at all times.¡± ¡°Good idea little girl, my guard is a heavy weapon specialist. The two of them should be able to take care of anything that could be down there.¡± ¡°Hey, Anton, don¡¯t you always take that walking slab of meat you call a guard with you? He here somewhere? We could use him in a construction suit now.¡± ¡°Yes, he¡¯s here. I¡¯ll go call him over.¡± As the 3 personal guards got ready for the trip down, the old man shined a laser down the hole. ¡°Impressive, 100 metres deep.¡± ¡°That must have been very difficult to do nearly 100 thousand years ago.¡± ¡°It would seem, whoever this castell belonged to was not simple at all.¡± The 3 guards met up at the stairs. Anton''s guard was clad in a huge construction power suit. 2.5 metres tall and strong enough to lift 10 tons, the construction suit was perfect for digging and clearing rubble. Felicia''s guard wore a military power suit suited for fast and agile movements. 1.5 metres tall with advanced stabilisers, cloaking abilities and locking arm and shoulder joints to aid snipers, the suit was designed for stealth. Ferdinand''s guard wore a heavy military power suit. With ground anchors at the ankles, a shield generator on the back and able to lift up to 5 tons, the heavy suit was a heavy weapon specialists wet dream. With the suit a single human could effectively use any weapon up to a tank''s main gun.Stolen story; please report. Both the military suits were covered in overlapping and interlocking armour plates while the construction suit was uncovered and unarmoured save for the cage above the operators head to act as a helmet. As the guards began to descend down the stairs the old man, Ferdinand realised how tall the passage really was. The construction suit had no problem going down the stairs without having to bend down. At the bottom of the stairs a 15 metre tall doorway blocked by a fallen pillar greeted the guards. Felicia''s guard jumped up to the top of the doorway and tried to squeeze through the gap between the top of the doorway and the top of the pillar to no avail. ¡°The suit is too big to fit through. You''ll have to lift it out of the way.¡± Anton''s guard moved to the centre of the door way, bending down to the floor to slide his hands under the pillar. Engaging the suit''s power assist, he pulled up with all his might. The pillar shifted slightly and some dust fell from it before the suit issued an overloading alert. ¡°It weighs more than 10, somewhere around 12 or 13 tons. I cant do it alone, we''ll have to lift it together.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve had enough. Move. I¡¯m blowing this thing to pieces.¡± The weapon specialist pulled a large anti-material rifle out of his storage crystal and without further warning pulled the trigger. BOOOM The 40mm armour piercing shell slammed into the face of the pillar and exploded into tiny pieces, leaving a small dent and some scratches on the pillar. ¡°Was...not...expecting that.¡± ¡°Your telling me? That thing could go through both our power suits one after the other 4 times over at this distance.¡± ¡°I have 1 gun bigger than that but if this is any indication, that one wont do much better than this one.¡± ¡°I guess the only thing we can do is lift it now.¡± Both the construction and heavy suit stood side by side at the door way ready to lift the pillar. Just then the com link of the specialist''s suit opened. ¡°What was that ungodly noise?¡± ¡°We are currently at the bottom of the stairs. There is a door way, but it is blocked by a fallen pillar. It is too heavy for the construction suit alone so I thought I would shoot it to break it apart.¡± ¡°If it''s a pillar why don¡¯t you just roll it out of the way?¡± ¡°This a very peculiar pillar in that it is square. It also completely stopped my anti-material rifle bullet as if it were nothing. The 40mm shell shattered on impact leaving a tiny dent.¡± ¡°Wait, seriously? A square pillar that stopped your shot?¡± ¡°What is it Felicia?¡± ¡°Hey, old man, listen to this. They found a door way at the bottom of the stairs but its blocked by, get this, a square pillar and that loud noise just now was a 40mm anti-material rifle being fired at said square pillar.¡± ¡°By the tone of your voice, I¡¯m guessing the pillar did not turn to sand on contact with the shell?¡± ¡°No, in fact, quite the opposite. The shell turned to sand on contact with the pillar.¡± ¡°Ooh. Oooh. That is interesting indeed.¡± ¡°We''ll be down there immediately.¡± The com link closed and the specialist informed the others. ¡°Guys, wait. They''re coming down. They want to see the pillar.¡± ¡°At least someone is enjoying their time here. I can''t stand the heat. I hate it. At least the suit has climate control.¡± ¡°Quit complaining. They''re close, I can already hear them.¡± Less than a minute later the big 3 arrived at the doorway to inspect the pillar. Poking and prodding the pillar with his knife, Anton discovered he couldn¡¯t leave so much as a scratch on the seemingly crude and uneven surface. Looking over at Felicia and Ferdinand, he found them investigating the dent left by the shell. ¡°It appears the pillar is indeed made of some kind of stone. What kind of stone though, I couldn¡¯t even begin to guess.¡± ¡°Yes, this dark grey colour is almost blue and looks very strange.¡± ¡°The density of this stone is incredible. It must have come from very deep to be this dense. Its a wonder how they got to it and got such a large piece here 100 thousand years ago.¡± ¡°Ok, the rock is nice and all, but I would very much like to see what is on the other side of it.¡± Anton¡¯s impatience annoyed Felicia, but she had to admit he was right. The room beyond this doorway must be important. To have pillars like this, it must have been very important. ¡°At least the square shape makes sense now. The material is too hard to be carved into a cylinder so they left it as a block.¡± The 2 large suits moved towards the doorway again and started to lift the pillar. The huge block slowly turned, eventually tipping and falling onto it¡¯s other side with a deafening doom. The room on the other side was huge. At least 2 thousand metres long and a thousand metres wide while the ceiling stood less than 100 metres above them. While walking around the pillar they noticed the glass tubes on the walls. They covered every spot available on the walls and stood in layers upon layers. Each tube was less than 1 centimetre wide but the layer on the wall came out over 1.5 metres. ¡°There must be millions of them here. Hey, old man, is ancient glass valuable?¡± ¡°No, and even if it was you would have no way of getting them out whole.¡± ¡°What could they have been used for?¡± ¡°Look at this plate. I recognise the number 1 but the word next to it... I don¡¯t recognise the language.¡± ¡°Before coming here I tried to find books about this place from 100 thousand years ago, but all of them were written in a language I couldn¡¯t read. So I did some research and found some translations by my ancestors. The word means something like ''seven moons'' or something like that.¡± ¡°So a length of time, like a week? But why would all of them be labelled 1 week?¡± ¡°Maybe the content would expire after a week? Or maybe last a week?¡± ¡°Guys! You definitely want to see this!¡± Anton¡¯s shout came from far behind them. Looking in his direction they noticed the many tubes snaking along the floor towards the centre of the room. They all converged at the place Anton was calling them from. ¡°You carry us to Anton, and you, try to find some small chunks of that pillar.¡± Ferdinand¡¯s guard sighed as he watched the construction suit bound towards the centre. He went on to look for pieces of the pillar. At the centre of the room stood a waist high metal pillar with many circular buttons at the top. It gave off a soft humming sound as if it were a machine at work. Around the pillar lay 2 large, open coffins, and one small, closed coffin. Anton stood looking at the small metal pile leading from the metal pillar to the small coffin. The metal pipe was connected with glass pipes every now and then allowing him to see the red liquid running through the system. Following the pipe back to the machine, he saw the pipe that was feeding the red liquid into the machine. ¡°I found something fairly interesting here.¡± Hearing the footsteps of the power suit come to a stop next to him, Anton continued. ¡°It appears this is some sort of feeding system. I looks like a hibernation chamber disguised as a tomb. The glass tubes were probably filled with nutrients to keep the sleeping occupants alive. What''s more, it appears to be active. Right now. There is someone. In that coffin. Sleeping. Since nearly 100 thousand years ago.¡± ¡°How can you be sure?¡± ¡°Look at the pipe leading from the metal pillar to the coffin. It has red liquid flowing through it towards the coffin. We can follow the pipes back to check the nutrients part of the theory.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go check. It would be great to find out if your right.¡± The trio followed the red liquid filled pipe back, past the metal pillar and towards the centre of the back wall. After nearing the wall, a faint red glow caught their attention. One of the pipes had some faintly glowing red liquid at the bottom of it. Watching the strange glow for a while Felicia spoke. ¡°I guess you were right. Although, I don¡¯t really like the look of those nutrients. They look...creepy.¡± ¡°Look, the tube is about to empty.¡± ¡°Ooh, look. It emptied. Now it¡¯s just whatever is in the pipe that¡¯s left.¡± ¡°It¡¯s going towards the machine. Shall we follow it?¡± ¡°I suppose there isn¡¯t much more we can do. We don¡¯t understand how any of this works or the real purpose of it all.¡± The trio walked, following the slowly emptying pipe back towards the centre of the room. Once there was no more red liquid going into the machine, it gave a short, deep humming noise. As the last of the red liquid reached the coffin the machine gave off another, even deeper hum. A red light began to blink on the side of the metal pillar and the coffin lid began to move. As the lid of the small coffin began to lift the trio slowly walked around it to look inside. When the lid was fully opened they got their first look at what they could only describe as the most beautiful and perfect little girl they had ever seen. Flawless skin, if a little pale. A stunning, unforgettable face. Long crimson blond hair flowing around her. In her left forearm was a long silver needle where the last drops of the red liquid just disappeared. Ch 3 First contact Waking up after what felt like forever, the first thing I noticed was my head and feet both touching the coffin. I must have grew a couple centimetres while I was asleep. Opening my eyes, my attention was immediately drawn by the strange coloured light near my coffin. It was not the soft orange glow of fire nor was it the piercing blue of a magic light. It was a sort of bright white light I had never seen before. Looking for the source I looked to my left, away from the coffin lid. There stood 3 figures shrouded by a white light coming from behind them. I couldn¡¯t make out their appearances because of the light but by their smell and the scent of their blood it was a human woman no older than 40, a human male, around 55 and another human male, this one over 80. Why are there humans here? ¡°\{*~!*¡±€},{%!%''€&>¡ê{*!€''€''¡ê¡­¡ê<{%!%''¡ê''¡ê¡­€<€{%!*!!['']¡­|<|^£¤^[''£¤¡ì|}¡± One of them spoke, the older man, I think. I can¡¯t seem to understand the language they are speaking. Could they be new servants here to wake me up? ¡°€}~%!*''£¤¡ì€}\{~%!*!£¤'',¡ì£¤<€{\~~*''%¡ì€<¡ê}\^%!€}^€''%''€¡ì}£¤}*>=>^*''£¤}¡± This time the woman, looking very closely at my face while bending down. ¡°She''s a real beauty, isn¡¯t she? And so young too.¡± ¡°Look at the colour of her eyes. I¡¯ve never seen an eye colour like it.¡± I attempted to speak but my mouth and throat are so dry I can¡¯t even make a sound. Sitting up slowly, I use my water magic to create some drinking water for myself. Such a simple but useful spell. The newcomers seem startled by the water. Maybe they haven¡¯t seen magic before? ¡°>=}%<%{]=~^€¡ì¡­|&|>=}~%~*''£¤¡ì£¤<<¡ê%a][£¤\|€^¡ì£¤&¡ê&$¡ì~€^*<\>=>{*]*~^£¤^£¤}={%~,€}]==~\~^%^%{^£¤''£¤{£¤>?^¡ê~=!!£¤^*¡± The woman seems fascinated by the bubble of water I created. I¡¯ll make another one for her. ¡°<=}%{~*^*''€¡ì}<=}?¡° She shouts in excitement. She looks funny. ¡°This is amazing! She''s using some kind of force to extract moisture from the air and condensing it into drinkable water!¡± ¡°Is this one for me?¡± She presses her lips against the bubble and drinks some of the water. I think she likes it. I should really be getting up now, father and mother are probably waiting by now. Intending to get out of the coffin, Pandora gripped the side tightly. To her, and the trio¡¯s surprise, her small delicate hand effortlessly crushed the stone to fine powder with no resistance. Looking at her hand with stone powder stuck to her palm, Pandora shrugged. ¡°It seems I have grown stronger during my nap, too.¡± ¡°<\{]%~*!£¤''¡ì¡ê$<¡ê<€{~{\{~%~%!€''¡ê''¡ì$^%~¡ê^\<\>>=<{¡° Hearing her speak, seemingly to herself, while looking at her palm the 3 slowly backed away. ¡°Think she''s complaining about dirtying her hands or something?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be silly Anton. Look at her face. She¡¯s as surprised as we are. The coffins must be old and fragile after so long.¡± ¡°What are you blabbering about, girl. The coffins are made of the same stone as the pillar that was blocking the door! Look at the inside. The same as the bullet dent!¡± ¡°What kind of freakish strength is that?¡± Carefully getting out of the coffin, Pandora stood with her bare toes tapping the floor. Lifting her arm like her uncle did when he was trying to show off, she bent her arm and poked the barely defined muscle. Feeling as if she poked a stone wall, she became very surprised. ¡°I seem to have become much, much stronger. This is strange. Could the blood in the pipes have something to do with it? Maybe it was really concentrated? Never mind, let¡¯s get out of here first.¡± ¡°Just who, exactly, is this little girl? How can she possibly be so strong?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, Ferdinand, but I don¡¯t think I want to find out now that I think about it. I mean look at this place. Can the explanation be anything normal? No, it can¡¯t. And anyway, just why is she here? All alone? There are clearly 2 more, large coffins. Most likely belonging to her parents. Where are they? Why are their coffins empty? These questions, I don¡¯t want to find out the answer. The things in this room alone make me regret coming here and poking my nose into ancient secrets that should have been kept as secrets, never to see the light of day.¡± ¡°Calm down Anton. It¡¯s not like she¡¯s going to kill us now is she?¡± ¡°Your tempting fate with those words, old man. You know what happens when you tempt fate like that. Last time you did that we nearly died in a train crash! Have you not seen the crazy strength she has? She could take out the 6 of us in the blink of an eye! And look at the way she''s looking at us, examining us. I see hunger in those creepy, glowing eyes. I tell you, she is bad news. I¡¯m just not sure on what kind of scale that ''bad'' is.¡± Pandora quietly watched the 3 humans talk in their funny language which she could not understand. The tall one sounds and smells scared. He also looks pretty tasty. The high class ones always have the best diets. Makes their blood taste real good. ¡°I wonder why dad and mum would send these 3 when they can¡¯t even understand me. Maybe dad just hasn''t got around to teaching me this language yet. Let¡¯s see. Maybe they will understand some other language I know?¡± ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°Hello?¡± As Pandora tried the different languages she knew, the 3 stared as the words she spoke got weirder and weirder... ¡°<{]*£¤|~¡± ¡°{={~\|€~%^¡ê¡± ¡°{\]%|!*¡± ¡°{=]|\|\~%^%^¡± ¡°]=]\||%?%¡± Until. ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°What?!¡± Felicia shouted, startled. The girl had spoken in the ancient language of the Dragons. Felicia¡¯s family, having a long history and many great individuals, had at one point made contact and befriended one of the giant creatures. One of her ancestors helped a dragon escape his pursuers and in return the Dragon shares with the ancestor the secret of their language. The language of the Dragons was a very complicated one. Unlike what most would assume, it does not consist of growls and snarls. Instead it is comprised of many complicated sounds, some difficult to make with a humanoid mouth. ¡°What is it girl?¡± ¡°She...she speaks the Dragon language.¡± ¡°How is that possible? I thought only Dragons can speak in their language because it¡¯s impossible for other races to produce the same sounds.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not impossible. One of my ancestors, far down the line, was bestowed with the hereditary memories of how to speak in their language. Apparently, Dragons hatch already being able to speak thanks to the memories they get from the parents.¡± ¡°So, can you speak it?¡± ¡°Well, yes. The Dragons hereditary memories that were passed to my ancestor behaved in the same way as they would for a Dragon and since then all the members of the main branch family have been able to speak it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s amazing. Anyway, what dis she say?¡± ¡°She said hello.¡± ¡°Really now. She must have been testing other languages she knows to see if we could understand any of them. Ask her for her name.¡± ¡°Ok.¡± ¡°Hello, my name is Felicia. What is your name?¡± As Felicia replied in the Dragon language, Pandora beamed a smile. Finally a language they understand. ¡°Hello Felicia, my name is Pandora. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you.¡± ¡°The pleasure is all mine.¡± ¡°May I ask if my father or mother sent you to get me?¡± ¡°Your parents? The coffins over there belong to them?¡± ¡°Yes this is the safe room my father had built in case of emergencies like this. But since your here and I¡¯m awake, that means you woke me up to bring me back to the top, right?¡± ¡°Err...I¡¯m not quite sure? Emergency? What emergency?¡± ¡°The battle must be over then? The danger passed?¡± ¡°There hasn¡¯t been any battles or any danger aside the heat in nearly 100 thousand years. The last battle that took place here ended with a huge blast that covered half the continent in unbearable heat.¡± This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.¡°Wait...you mean...it¡¯s been more than a few days since I went to sleep? It wasn¡¯t my parents who sent you to get me?¡± ¡°I apologise, but I do not know when you went to sleep. I can¡¯t answer your question on how long you were asleep, but we were definitely not sent by anyone. We are archaeologists. We dig underground to find things from the past to learn about the things people used in the past.¡± ¡°The past... Time... Aahh! How many tubes are empty?! Quickly tell me! How many of the tubes hanging on the walls are empty?¡± ¡°What? Tubes? The glass ones? Well... All of them. They are all empty. We watched the last one finish just before you woke up.¡± ¡°What?! All of them?! All 5 million? It cant be. 95,890 years. It can¡¯t be. No. An explosion thousands of years ago. Mother? No, it can¡¯t be! It cant!¡± Pandora screamed and diapered from their sight. All they felt was a slight gust of wind. A second later, a huge crashing sound drew their attention at their backs. There, behind them, in the distance, they could clearly see the door way. The pillar that was blocking it now lay in 2 pieces on either side, against the wall with a large amount of debris on the floor at the foot of the stairs. ¡°She¡¯s incredibly fast.¡± Anton spoke with a pale face and trembling lips. ¡°Never mind her speed. Her strength is on a whole other level.¡± Ferdinand spoke as his legs suddenly felt weak. Just then the 2 guards in military suits came running over. ¡°What was that noise?¡± ¡°And what happened to the pillar?¡± ¡°Quickly, let¡¯s go!¡± ¡°We''ll explain on the way up!¡± The guards all carried their charge up the stairs in a hurry. ¡°We found a girl. She was asleep in the coffin with a machine feeding her nutrients while she slept.¡± ¡°Impossibly beautiful, insanely fast and monstrously strong. She may have been asleep for a very long time.¡± ¡°She may be from a race of people who went extinct long ago. She talked about some kind of danger and a battle.¡± ¡°We think she may be referring to the battle that happened right here, which ended in the huge explosion.¡± ¡°But that would make her nearly 100 thousand years ago wouldn''t it?¡± ¡°Like I said, asleep for a very long time.¡± ¡°The reason she woke up seems to be that the machine just happened to run out of nutrients as we came in.¡± As they reached the top of the stairs they noticed the girl standing in the dig site, looking around, looking lost. ¡°It was...right here. *sniff* Where did it go? Where did everything go? *sniff* Where did everyone go?*sniff*¡± With tears in her eyes, little Pandora searched left and right, high and low, but there was no sign of the castle. Or the walls. Or the people. [Time itself will answer my call! Time itself will show me the truth! Or time itself will bare my fury, my rage, my wrath!] As she finished the chant, a huge red magic circle appeared in the sky. A red outline of the castell and the walls materialised in mid air and red silhouettes formed from the light cast by the circle. The scene of the alchemist and the battle played out. Right to the final moment of the explosion. Pandora stared, wide eyed at the events recreated by her own magic in disbelief. This can¡¯t be happening. Why is this happening. What did they do to deserve it. What did we do to deserve it. What did I do to deserve this! With a mental scream, a formless wave of pressure erupted form her tiny body. Her pupils contracted into slits. Her fangs elongated and her claws grew long and solid. At that moment everyone present heard a loud voice in their head. ¡°Despicable humans! You dare take my family! In exchange I will take your lives!¡± The moment the words fell, so did the dead bodies of over half the digging crews. Pandora, with her tiny body and a speed too fast for the human eyes moved from one victim to the next, shredding the throats till only the spine held the head to the body. Seeing the gruesome scene, chunks of flesh flying around and dead bodies dropping like sacks of potatoes, the 3 guards in power suits sprang into action. Anton¡¯s guard ran towards her, Ferdinand¡¯s guard moved to one side and Felicia¡¯s guard moved back. Pulling out a large calibre pistol, a rotary heavy machine gun and a rifle respectively, each prepared for battle. The suit''s high speed processor and surveillance systems allowed them to track her movements even at her superhuman speed. Opening fire at the location predicted by the computer, Felicia¡¯s guard watched his rifle round slamm into her shoulder. The impact of the large round while moving so quick caused her to miss the target of her leap. Landing on the ground, well past her target, Pandora inspected the red mark on her pale shoulder. The glowing blue one is troublesome. He shoots large, heavy projectiles that move really fast. They can knock me off course when I¡¯m in mid air. Need to stick to the ground. Seeing that lunging and diving at targets was no longer an option she dug her claws into the hard ground and took off in the direction of the one who shot her. Faster than he could react, Pandora appeared in front or him, less than an arms length away. She inspected the strange looking armour and weapon before gripping the barrel of the rifle and pulling it effortlessly out of his hands. The rifle, longer than she was tall, began to take on a crimson colour before melting into a blood looking liquid, quickly absorbing into her palm. Taking the moment of inaction from her as a chance, the now disarmed guard pulled a shotgun out of his storage crystal and quickly fired a shot into her chest knocking her back and making her stumble on the soft, uneven ground. Seeing the man she had just disarmed now had a new weapon in hands, she quickly closed in and snatched it too. Melting and absorbing the weapon, she looked in satisfaction at the empty handed foe. The hands did not stay empty for long, however, as he soon pulled out another weapon to replace his lost one. This cycle continued 17 times, until Ferdinand¡¯s guard, who until now was looking for the enemy, noticed his fellow guard in trouble. ¡°So that¡¯s where you disappeared to all of a sudden.¡± He swung the heavy rotary machine gun in her direction and opened fire. Letting loose a literal wall of bullets, he gave her no chance to escape his barrage. Feeling her body shake from the many impacts on her back, Pandora crouched, turned and took off in his direction. The big glowing red one has something that shoots very fast. It¡¯s like I¡¯m being fired at by hundreds of soldiers one after the other. As the 3 barrels chased each other, the bullets kept on spraying out in her direction. Even as she closed in on him, he stood his ground and never stopped shooting. Eventually you''ll be too close to dodge and I refuse to believe your eyes are as hard as your skin. One of these bullets will hit their mark eventually, and when it does it will all be over for you. Using an arm to cover her face and relying on her smell and hearing she closed in on him and pounced on his gun. Gripping the red hot barrels with her hand, the gun gave off a horrible grinding noise and exploded in his hands. She had destroyed the inner workings of the gun by applying her vice like grip to the part that was never supposed to come into contact with anything while it was spinning. He dropped the broken gun and watched it turn to blood coloured liquid before being absorbed into her hand. The soft, little white hand that showed no signs of having just touched a burning hot gun barrel. He looked at her blankly wondering if she would attack him, and for a second she looked like she was considering it, before a deafening boom rocked the area. A huge, 40mm shell slammed into the back of her head sending her tumbling across the floor. Feeling dizzy, and with swimming vision she watched the biggest of the 3 approach her and lift his leg to send a kick down on her back. She lifted an arm to meet the kick and stopped it with little effort. Closing her fingers around the metal, it squeaked and bent under the force of her grip. Yanking her arm towards her she relieved the large black and yellow suit of its leg. Pandora used her blood power again and absorbed the power suit''s leg, analysing its structure and purpose. These are empty inside and have these things that slide inside to fill the empty space? Then these things turn on and force these to slide out and extend. This makes the knee part straighten out. Hmm, it¡¯s kind of like a real leg, but made of metal. It makes them stronger? Able to lift more and work longer without getting tired. Interesting. I need more complete samples. The people i killed over there were also wearing these. I¡¯ll go take those. Shaking her head to clear the dizziness, she quickly scurried across the floor to the power suit wearing corpses. Going from one to the other, she quickly absorbed them all while being careful to avoid the large projectiles from the big, loud pipe. ¡°Don¡¯t let her get away!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think she intends to escape. More like trying to take as much stuff as she can before it gets too badly damaged by the stray bullets from your heavy gun.¡±