"No, Mr. Porto!" Elena cried out. She quickly rushed to where his body was laying, crouched down, and gently touched his back. A single tear fell from her left cheek. "It was an honor fighting by your side."
"Leonidas! Get back here!" Carlos shouted from the top of his lungs, his voice echoing with fury as he saw his prey escaping.
Rebecca wasted no time and dashed toward Decker, who had already got back to his feet. She jumped forward and delivered a powerful kick directly into the dark-skinned vampire's ribs. The vampire flung through the air, but Elena was already present in the air with her sword. With a quick downward slash aimed at his head, she sent Carlos descending back toward the ground, causing a small crater where he landed.
Rebecca, like before, did not want to give the dark-skinned vampire any chance to catch his breath. She poured a vast amount of spiritual force into her fist, ready to end the battle if possible. As the Head Maid got closer, Decker's right arm was already transformed, full of dark energy and taking the form of a long, obsidian blade.
As they both reached striking distance, Decker swung his arm, and the vampire maid's body split in two. Blood gushed everywhere onto the ground, even the maid's guts were spilling out.
"No!" Elena cried out, filled with grief and rage. She rushed in and swung her sword downward, but the dark-skinned vampire was too fast. He dodged her desperate attack and drove his arm-blade directly into her abdomen. Blood instantly spilled from her mouth.
Decker leaned close to her, his voice low and mocking. "You did well, maid, but this is where you die. You promised that brat that you are going to live hehehe. Sorry, but I am going to have to break that promise."
Decker retrieved his arm from her abdomen with a sickening pull. The dark-skinned vampire gave a light, contemptuous chuckle before lifting the female vampire into the air by her neck, his right hand gripping her throat like a vice. Elena's feet kicked uselessly in the air as she desperately grabbed his crushing arm with her left hand.
"Any last words?" Decker mocked, his eyes gleaming with anticipation.
Her right hand was busy fumbling through the small satchel that was strapped around her waist. Her eyes, filled with blood and fading life, found a last, impossible reserve of strength. "I… I love him," she gasped, the words ragged and barely audible, a final declaration for the boy she was dying to save.
"Hehehe. Good, time to die." Dark energy started to violently envelop Decker's right hand as he squeezed the female vampire's throat. He began to laugh maniacally as his fingers dug deep into Elena's frail flesh, trying to crush her neck.
Then, for a split second, he felt something cold and sharp entering his mouth.
The cold was instantly followed by a blinding, agonizing burn that felt like acid eating his flesh, and some of the liquid managed to enter his throat.
Decker immediately let go of the female vampire, roaring in pain. Elena dropped to the floor on her knees, clutching her ripped throat and coughing, half-dead but alive.
Carlos also dropped to his knees, convulsing as he coughed up a mouthful of thick, black blood that hissed as it hit the stone floor. "Holy water! You threw holy water in my mouth, you stupid bitch!"
Elena lifted her chin, blood running from her lips and abdomen, but a faint, triumphant smile touched her face. "It tasted good, didn't it?"
Decker continued to cough the black blood, utterly consumed by the chemical agony. But vengeance was instantaneous. A dark shadow clone tore itself from his back. It got to its feet and walked behind where Elena sat, weak and defenseless. The dark shadow clone grabbed Elena's head with both hands. The vampire maid let out one final, terrible scream as the shadow clone brutally ripped her head from her neck.
====
Meanwhile, John was sprinting down the corridor with Leonidas on his back. "Old man, what is the plan now that the teleportation thingy is broken?" John asked, his voice strained from the effort.
"I don't know," Leonidas admitted, his voice ragged with defeat and paralysis.
John immediately came to a dead stop. "What do you mean, you don't know? There has to be another way!" he insisted, turning to look back down the hall.
"Oh, hey, there you two are?" a chilling voice cut through the air.
John whirled around. Right down the hallway, they could see Decker, standing amidst the wreckage left by the loyalists' sacrifice. "I have been looking for you," Decker said with a predatory smile.
"Run, boy!" Leonidas urged, his voice filled with panic.
John immediately started sprinting again. Leonidas glanced behind him and noticed that Decker had already begun to walk quickly in their direction—no need to run when his prey was so burdened.
As John reached the main stairwell, he had been planning on heading downward, but the huge explosion they had heard earlier had happened below. The stairs that headed down were completely broken. He looked into the void and saw a huge amount of fire and smoke below; only the stairs that climbed upward were in good condition.
"I think we have to go upwards," John suggested, breathing heavily.
"Then let's go!" Leonidas agreed immediately.
John headed up the stairs. His feet pounded the steps, and even though he was running upwards with a grown man on his back, John's legs did not get tired. The surge of adrenaline and vampiric strength pushed him past exhaustion.
After a couple of minutes of relentless running, John and his grandfather finally reached the roof of the castle. He shoved the heavy door open, and rain immediately began to lash them. John ran to the corner of the roof, frantically scanning for ways to escape. He did notice a man lying in the corner with a sword through his chest, a previous victim of the chaos.
"Boy, leave me here and run," Leonidas ordered, his voice flat with command. "This is your only chance."
"I can't leave you here," John refused, shaking his head stubbornly.
"Don't you want to live?" Leonidas challenged him.
"Yes," John answered simply.
"Then leave me here! I am only a burden!" Leonidas argued, frustration clear in his tone.
"No can do, old man." John surveyed the sheer drop. "You're hopeless. There is nothing here so far as I can see. Let's head down and find another way to escape."
John was about to turn back toward the door, but a voice, cold and cutting, sliced through the drumming rain and wind.
"There is no escape," Decker announced from the doorway, having finally caught up to them.
Decker stood silhouetted in the doorway, rain lashing at his face, yet his voice was strangely composed. "Why did you have to come back here, Leonidas? Why didn't you just run away? Instead, you came here to die. Did you really think your little plan was going to succeed?"
John noticed that Decker had some sort of object in his left hand, wrapped in cloth with blood clearly leaking out of it. Ignoring the dark-skinned vampire for a moment, the young vampire slowly backed up to where the dead man was lying. He gently placed his grandfather next to the body, resting Leonidas against the cold, wet stone wall.
John then pulled the sword free from the dead man's chest. The action was difficult and sickening.
"What are you doing, boy?" Leonidas rasped. "You're not planning on fighting him!"
John hefted the heavy blade, rainwater washing the fresh blood from the steel. "What else is there to do, old man?" John's voice trembled slightly, but the resolve was steel. "I am fucking afraid, but if you are going to die, then it will be over my dead body."
Leonidas looked at the boy for a long moment, seeing not the child he remembered, but a fierce, loyal determination he had never witnessed before. He turned his gaze to Decker, his voice cracking with a final plea. "Please, don't let the boy suffer, Decker."
"Oooh, but you don't get to decide that, Leonidas." Decker chuckled lightly, the sound swallowed by the storm. "I won't kill the boy immediately. I'm going to play with him for a little bit."
John gripped the sword with both hands, the metal cold and heavy. He walked forward and stood still, keeping a respectful distance between them on the slippery roof. "Decker, before we get this party started, I was wondering one thing."
"And what might that be, young master?" Decker asked, tilting his head.
"Do you have any connection to the werewolf that wanted to kill me?"
Leonidas, focused entirely on the immediate crisis, had completely forgotten about that incident. Now, thinking back, he was also curious to know if that attempt was all Decker's doing.
The dark-skinned vampire dropped the bloodied object he was holding to the ground. The object was shrouded in a disheveled mass of torn fabric, remnants of a maid's uniform that had seen better days. The once crisp white apron and dark dress were now frayed and tattered, draping haphazardly over its sickening, unnatural shape. Dark, fresh stains seeped through the fabric, crimson rivulets marking the cloth like a sinister tapestry. Blood trickled down, pooling at the base, while the shredded edges fluttered slightly in the wind.
Decker began to clap his hands slowly, the sharp sound barely audible over the rain. "Amazing. Yes, boy, it was all part of my plan. I wanted to shake things up. I thought Leonidas was going to lose his mind and attack the werewolves, but he was quite composed."
Decker walked a little to the side, taking a short, casual stroll as if they weren't cornered on a battlefield. "The werewolf's name that your grandchild killed was Jones."
"I don't care about his name!" Leonidas demanded, resting against the cold wall. "Why would a werewolf even work for you? Did you offer him a lot of money? Why would a werewolf risk his life in vampire territory?"
"I blackmailed him, Leonidas. I had his daughter in my grasp." Decker started to laugh out loud, a harsh, joyful sound. "He did everything I said, and in the end, he died."
"You bastard! What did you do to his daughter?" John cried out, his voice raw with fury.
"I killed her, boy. She became troll food. I think her name was Dona... Dina... Dena, yes, that's her name, Dena."
John's grip tightened on the sword. Decker turned to look at him, and John noticed his left eye was already a searing, crimson red. John held the sword tightly. "You won't get away with this, Decker," he swore.
"Do you see me running, boy?" Decker countered, his smile vanishing. "Your grandfather killed my little girl. Why are you not angry at him? Is it because she is not a Crimson? She was my daughter!"
Decker took a step closer to John, chuckling again, though the sound was laced with genuine bitterness. "This is life, my dear boy. Remember, only those who have the power make the rules."
"Yeah, I have heard that before," John spat back. "But have you heard that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind?"
Before anyone could react, a figure suddenly materialized directly in front of John. It was Carlos. The general, annoyed by John's comment, slapped the young vampire hard across the face with his right hand.
"Boy!" Leonidas yelled, stunned.
John stumbled and fell backward onto the wet concrete, the heavy sword flying from his grasp and clattering to the ground. He looked back up at the dark-skinned vampire, his hand touching his stinging face.
Carlos stood over him, radiating cold anger. "The saying you are talking about are those only the weaklings would say," Carlos sneered.
The young vampire gritted his teeth, scrambling awkwardly to pick up the fallen sword as he got back to his feet. "You bastard," John muttered, locking eyes with Carlos.
"No, boy, don't attack him!" Leonidas shouted a warning.
Ignoring the warning, John rushed towards Carlos with the sword held clumsily in both hands. He swung the wet steel as he lunged into striking distance, but the skilled vampire easily dodged the wide, amateur attack.
"You bastard, stand still!"
John attacked Carlos again and again, but each strike missed its target by a wide margin. The dark-skinned vampire seemed to be effortlessly dancing across the slick concrete, barely moving as he evaded every desperate swing John dished out. Decker stood watching, clearly enjoying the sight, like a cat playing with its food.
"You killed a bunch of your own kind today," Carlos suddenly sneered, his tone conversational despite the chaos. "You killed kids, moms, dads... don't you feel bad?"
Without warning, Carlos released a small spirit force sphere attack. The projectile struck John squarely in the chest, knocking the wind and the air out of the young boy. John coughed, spitting a small amount of blood onto the wet concrete as he dropped to his knees, clutching his chest. Tears of frustration and pain welling in his eyes as he balled his fists. I am so weak, he thought bitterly.
John was looking at the ground until he saw a pair of polished leather boots enter his limited vision. Decker reached down, grabbed John's collar, and effortlessly lifted the boy entirely off the ground, dangling him in the air. "What the hell do you know, young master? The amount of people I killed in my lifetime is a drop in a bucket compared to your grandfather, the old cunt."
John was suspended in the air, his feet dangling. "I know," he said softly.
"Huh, what did you say?" Decker narrowed his eyes.
"I know Leonidas is a piece of shit. He is a vampire after all. He even tried to kill me because I am different."
Decker's eyes stood still in his eye sockets as he processed the statement, holding John suspended for a long moment before abruptly loosening his hands and letting the boy go. John's feet struck the concrete first, but he was too weak; his legs gave out, and he fell heavily onto his knees.
The dark-skinned vampire then shifted his gaze to Leonidas. "You tried to kill your own blood, Leonidas. You truly are vile," Decker said, snickering afterwards.
Leonidas did not say anything; he simply sat against the wall, drenched in rainwater, his silence damning.
John slowly struggled back to his feet, holding his stinging chest. He looked straight at Decker. "I know Leonidas is a piece of shit. You're right. But you're not him. Why would you stoop down to his level? What would your daughter think if she finds out that her father became a bitch!"
"Do you think she would be proud that you also became a piece of shit after she died? Do you think she is dancing in heaven?" John countered, his voice dripping with venom, exploiting the rawest point of Decker's grief.
"Shut up, you cunt!" Decker screamed.
Decker didn't hesitate. He punched John hard in the face, and a spray of blood spurted out into the dark, rainy air. John could do nothing as gravity took over; he was flung backward and fell hard onto his back on the cold, wet floor
Leonidas could not move; all he could do was scream, "No! Stop!" The vampire lord was forced to watch as Decker was suddenly on top of John, punching the boy repeatedly in the face. Decker eventually stood up, taking a few sickening seconds to look at John, whose face was already covered in blood. "You are not going to dance," Decker sneered. The dark-skinned vampire lifted his leg and brought it down with crushing force, snapping the boy's femur in two.
John's scream was raw and piercing, like that of a hunted animal. "Haaaaaaahhhhh!" he shrieked, clutching his shattered leg.
"I like you, John. That is why I am going to let you watch while I beat your grandfather," Decker announced.
The young vampire, in severe, blinding pain, tried to speak. "No," he managed in a hoarse, broken tone.
The dark-skinned vampire then switched his attention to the vampire lord. He clapped his hands once as he walked towards his prone enemy. "I must commend you, Leonidas. You are truly one of the strongest vampires I have ever seen. How did you survive the venom of a werewolf lord that was also enhanced by a witch?"
"Hehehe, as you can see, I'm still here, but it did take my ability to walk. So I'm alive, but not kicking," Leonidas chuckled weakly.
"I'm about to change that."
It was not long before Decker reached Leonidas. The vampire lord looked up at the dark-skinned vampire as the heavy rain fell upon them. "Do your worst."
Blackened teeth protruded from Decker's mouth as he smiled, a monstrous expression. "I will try." Leonidas steeled himself, knowing that nothing but pain was coming.
Decker reached out his hand, grabbed Leonidas's right leg, and began to drag the vampire along the cold, wet floor of the castle roof. The vampire lord did not struggle, knowing the effort was futile.
John was still on the floor, powerless and crippled, watching as his grandfather was dragged away.
In one swift, savage motion, Decker swung the vampire by his legs into the air and straight down to the concrete. Leonidas was slammed to the ground, landing brutally on his face. His body bounced once on the hard floor, and the bones in Leonidas's face cracked audibly.
Decker let go of Leonidas's leg and turned the vampire onto his back. He held out his right hand, and his dark nails started to extend into wicked claws, before he plunged his entire hand deep into Leonidas's abdomen. The vampire lord did not scream, but he grunted sharply as the nails pierced his body. "I like how you are not making any noise, Leonidas. However, I want to hear you squeal."
The dark-skinned vampire twisted his hand that was still lodged in Leonidas's body. Leonidas's face turned crimson as he fought desperately to keep himself from screaming. John, on the other hand, had managed to somehow lift his upper body, but the young vampire could not move his lower body much. "Leave the old man alone! Come fight me, you asshole!"
Decker heard the young vampire's desperate challenge and turned his head. "Wait your turn, boy."
He then focused his attention back on the vampire lord. "Where were we? Oh yes, you are supposed to squeal, right?"
Leonidas grabbed Decker's wrinkly right hand. "Don't touch me!"
Decker ripped out his arm, blood spraying across the wet concrete. He then grabbed Leonidas's right arm with his own left hand. With his newly freed right hand, he sliced off Leonidas's right hand. Blood spurted from the stump. Leonidas could not help but let out a loud grunt; blood oozed from his mouth, and thick veins pulsed across his neck.
"Why won't you scream!" Decker roared.
He stood up and began to continuously stomp on the Crimson vampire. Each stomp the dark-skinned vampire delivered was harder than the previous one.
John watched in horror as his grandfather was brutally beaten. The young vampire could not help the tears from falling as he cried, "Please stop! Please!"
Decker did not listen as he continuously stomped his foot harder on the vampire lord's body. Huge cracks started to break out in the concrete floor underneath the old vampire. After about five minutes, Decker stopped his assault, but his primal anger did not fade. He looked back at John and began to grin. He turned his head back to Leonidas. "My lord, I'm going to play with your grandchild for a moment. It's not fun beating a helpless cunt, but I will come back to you."
Decker then grabbed Leonidas's clothes and, with one hand, violently threw the vampire lord high into the stormy sky. Leonidas could feel the cold breeze rushing past his face as his body was flung upward.
Decker channeled Spirit Force into his right fist, charging so much energy that his fist started to emit a faint, malevolent glow. "I hope you don't die, my lord."
Decker jumped a little higher than Leonidas, who was still ascending. He struck his glowing right fist directly into the middle of Leonidas's chest. A huge shockwave blasted the rain away in a perfect sphere. Leonidas's bones exploded within his chest, and his internal organs were violently shaken to the core. Blood splurted from every orifice of his body.
The vampire lord descended through the roof of the castle. Not only did he smash through the concrete roof, but he also plummeted through multiple floors and ceilings below.
"No!!" John reached out his hand, screaming in despair.
In the immense cavity far below, Leonidas was lying mangled, utterly still. His chest was caved in, and his eyes had rolled backward inside their sockets.
Decker stood before John, whose eyes were red and swollen from crying. "Young master John, I want to show you something."
John looked up at the dark-skinned vampire with a mixture of raw anger and crippling pain. He still could not move with the broken leg. Decker reached down, grabbed John from behind at the collar of his shirt, and began to drag him along the cold, wet floor of the castle. John twisted his head to look back at the gaping hole where Decker had punched his grandfather through. "Don't worry about your grandfather, boy. I will fetch him shortly after I'm done with you," he said, chuckling darkly.
"I don't like to hurt children, boy. I even own an orphanage," Decker said, lightly shaking his head. "But you are a different case. Blame it on your last name."
John, being dragged with both legs trailing on the ground, felt a fresh wave of severe pain shoot through his shattered femur. "Well, there is something you don't understand, Decker," he gasped.
Decker stopped and paused for a moment. "And what is that, young master?"
"I did not choose this last name."
Decker gritted his teeth, his expression twisting into a mask of pure hate. He quickly grabbed the boy by his head. "Blame the Heavens, then!" The dark-skinned vampire forcefully slammed his opponent's head into the concrete floor, the impact echoing in a jarring, sickening thud. As John's forehead struck the hard surface, it burst open. Blood seeped out and pooled quickly around him, painting the ground a dark, glossy red.
The dark-skinned vampire grabbed John by the back of his collar again and dragged him toward where the mysterious object was laying. He first lifted the boy partially up, forcing John to watch. He then used his left hand to channel Spirit Force, gently lifting the cloth-wrapped object from the ground.
John watched as the object floated in front of him. He felt fear constrict his throat; his eyes shifted frantically, not knowing what to do. "What is this?" he whimpered.
"Oh, it's just a small present I thought I should get you," Decker replied, his tone sickeningly gentle.
Decker then swirled his index finger, and the cloth that was wrapped around the object began to unravel itself slowly, cruelly.
The boy's eyes stretched wide with dawning horror as he saw the back of a human head, instantly familiar. The head slowly spun, rotating until John saw the face right in front of him. Tears leaked from his eyes. His mind was in shambles; he desperately wanted to believe that all of this was only a dream. He stopped breathing as he looked at the face of the person who was very dear to him. It hurts, it hurts, he thought, feeling like his heart was being devoured by hungry rats.
"Please God, no." He slowly stretched out his trembling right hand.
"Elena," he whispered.