In ancient times, a family had just welcomed their third child, a girl who was a twin to the second. This child, devoid of any power, was greatly despised by her parents and her older sister. Only her brother always defended her against all this oppression. He received a blessing, a power as immense as it was terrifying, no one wanted to confront him.
- The creation...
- Oh, at least you remember that.
Everyone was afraid of him, and one day, when the young man set off on a journey to discover the world, the parents went to the church and asked to purify their daughter because, according to them, she was being deceived by her brother, who was seen as a threat to the religion. Their parents wanted to make him an enemy of the church.
- That very evening, they took their daughter to the church.
- And they torture her, passing it off as purification.
Back from his trip to the neighboring city, he did not see his sister. Using his heightened sense of smell to detect mana, the thing that exists in the blood of living beings if they have it, he sensed his sister. The mana was all around her, scattered. Terrified, he started running towards his position. As he opened the doors of the church, some clergy were waiting for him. He shouted:
"Get lost, you bunch of degenerates!"
The religious figures did not share this opinion… They drew their swords, ready to fight. The young man created his sword in a second, the religious man on the right began to run towards the young man who prepared to strike him. Their swords clashed, creating a deafening noise, the impact sent the young man's sword flying backward, and it was then that the second of the three religious figures dealt a violent blow to the young man. When he checked the state of his wound, he noticed that it couldn't regenerate. He got up as best as he could and asked them what kind of sword they had. The priest held his sword right in front of his face.
- These swords, offered by the gods themselves, are made of Lélimo, the metal crafted from the bones of demigods to punish demons like you.
The young man understood that even the gods had abandoned him; he took a breath to clear his mind. He punched himself, lifted his head, and gazed at the face of the religious man blinded by their cult. He retrieved his sword that was lying nearby and shouted at the top of his lungs:
"Get out of the way!!!"
He threw his sword, which embedded itself in the skull of the religious figure in front of him, then he lunged at him to retrieve it. When he pulled it out, the blood gushed forth like a fountain. The other religious figures take a step back as the young man is covered in the religious figure's blood. His wound closes up.
- Demon!
- Me, a demon...? No, unlike them, I'm not power-hungry. I just want to get my sister back!
The flow of blood stopped, the young man was covered from head to toe. His smile terrified the religious men, they rushed forward to finish off this bloodthirsty monster. One of them dangerously approached with his sword, but the young man broke it with the sheer force of his fist, which also injured him, yet despite that, he continued his trajectory into the face of the man in front of him. The individual was propelled towards a wall, so hard that he passed away on the spot. His spine couldn't withstand the shock. Paralyzed with fear, the last priest watched as Io grabbed the corpse of the man at his feet. He gulped down the deceased's blood in large swallows.
- I did well to modify my body to recover mana more easily, it feels incredibly good too.
- Filthy monster!
Still standing, he took to his heels. The young man turned towards the religious figure and threw his sword, which lodged itself in his skull. His body fell like a puppet whose strings had been cut, crashing to the ground in a macabre dance.
- Well... aren't you supposed to kill me? he said, looking around him, but no one could hear him, they were all dead.
After this moment of madness, the young man regained his composure, he looked around him. By breaking a statue, he found the entrance to the dungeon. He went inside and saw the horror that had happened… His twin sister had both arms chained to the wall. Her battered body trying to fall to the ground, the chains held her back. Saddened and furious, he unties his sister and notices all the wounds, not a single area of her hands was spared. He screamed, trying to infuse her with mana as a last resort, but nothing worked; his sister had already succumbed.
- I will kill you all, every last one of you!
- But that's what I have...
Blinded by anger, he razes the village, retrieves his little sister, and goes to hide the body of his deceased twin sister in a so-called secret place. After going to destroy all the churches one by one, it was not enough for him. One fine day, the order of vampire hunters was created and their sentencewas given. The man was sentenced to death and the first Vampire was born, the Original. The first holy war began, and their enemy was the young man as well as all his kind, called Semi-Humans. The victory was hard to achieve for the vampire hunters, but not having said his last word, the young man created a second holy war. This time, the young man emerged victorious.
- I don't understand anything...
- It's clear, isn't it? You, Io Andromeda, are the Original, the most feared Vampire of all, because of you. People died, allowed others to find happiness, and then they themselves died as a result of the second war. We kill, we smile, we cry. You are one of the events that has shaken our world the most. But from what I can see, your memory is still far from complete.
The whole story told by his troublesome double. Io. Impossible to respond. He felt nothing but confusion. He knows full well that when he regains his memory, his relationship with Nova and his friends will no longer be the same.
- How do you know what I don't know?
- I told you, I am you and you are me.
- I know that, what I don't understand is how... How do you remember those parts as if you were de...
- You understood. I am a complete vision of you, I can't tell you everything because I don't know what you don't know. We are what you are.
- But my memory loss should have erased you.
LaVoix shook his head with his index finger, reminding him that it's not a small memory lapse that will erase his power, that as long as he is who he is, he will remain there... But for now, he prefers to stay with Nova because he hasn't recovered everything he doesn't know. If he leaves now, it could have serious consequences. What LaVoix said started to become clearer in Io's mind. He asks his double to take over his body because all this information has shaken him up, he didn't want to worry his friends.
How many? How many years had it existed? And his little sister, is she alive? Too many questions were coming to his mind, and even his double couldn't answer them. He fell back asleep and let LaVoix take his place. When he woke up, all the girls were around him, asleep. He stroked Nova's head while smiling foolishly.
- It's true that thinking about it, you look a bit like him.
- Mmm…
- Sorry, did I wake you up?
Nova opened her eyes slowly, and when she noticed that Io was awake, she started crying tears of joy and threw herself into LaVoix's arms.
- Are you alive? Tell me you're alive?!
- Yes, I am alive.
She ran to the door and urgently called for a doctor. With all the noise Nova was making, it woke the girls, who then looked both surprised and joyful, as if they weren't quite sure whether he was alive or not. LaVoix, surprised by their reaction, asked the girls what had happened. Nova's expression darkened. The doctor comes to interrupt them and explains everything to LaVoix while performing tests. His heart had stopped for at least five minutes due to a brain issue. They didn't find the exact cause, but his brain had an excessive accumulation of information, which caused all functions in his body to stop.
- Normally, a person should be in a coma or have incurable diseases, but in your case, you have nothing at all, not even a cold!
As the doctor begins to have doubts about the nature of the young man, someone comes to his aid. This person turns out to be Nova's father, Jupiter, the most powerful of the 9 vampire hunters. He interrupts the doctor and asks him to leave, he now vouches for this boy. Jupiter approached LaVoix and placed his hand on his head while telling him that he is very lucky to be alive. These words warm LaVoix's heart.
- I have learned everything that has happened over the past two months. Thank you.
After tying up her hair and leaving the hospital, LaVoix sighed with relief; she had been allowed to leave early thanks to Jupiter, who casually informed her that her day was not yet over.
- But leave me alone!
Once they got home, LaVoix was feeling down, dreading what Nova's father had said. Apparently, someone absolutely wanted to see him. LaVoix directly asked him who it could be, but Jupiter told him, while entering the living room accompanied by Nova, to ask the person concerned directly. He opened the door that led to the hallway and saw a little girl about 10 years old, with black hair tied up, a ponytail to be precise, and emerald green eyes.
- She looks like Io but with about ten years less... and as a girl. Haru, who is squatting at Nova's house, specifies.
- Hey, insolent! I forbid you to speak to me in that tone!
- She's got some spunk!
"You said it..."
Another person emerged from the shadows, a maid with short white hair and red eyes. Her outfit was different from the one who had attacked him. This maid wore a white and red outfit, adorned with gold embroidery. LaVoix found the maid magnificent, her graceful silhouette only drew his gaze towards her chest.
- "There's a crowd in the balcony!"
"Stop staring at her, you're going to attract her attention."
The maid shot LaVoix a glare that made him shiver in place, the room's temperature dropped drastically.
- Hahaha! You haven't changed, as far as I can see! Always that same wandering gaze! said the little girl, laughing out loud.
LaVoix rubbed his head, his monkey-like face would have discredited any excuse anyway. Nova turned to him with a menacing look. LaVoix received from Io the response that whoever had employed this maid had good taste.
"I don't think it's the right time to think about that, in my opinion."
- I'm going to teach you how to check people out! screamed Nova.
She is quickly interrupted by the little girl who pretended to cough to regain attention on herself.
- Would you be so kind as not to make a scene, if you please?
- Jupiter, what is this young girl doing here? asked LaVoix.
Jupiter spat out the coffee he had just made, he turned to the young girl who had puffed out her cheeks in a pout.
- What they say is true.
The little girl suddenly looked up and grabbed Nova's father's jacket and yelled at him. A tension builds in the room. The maid asks the little girl to calm down, but the latter was determined to get answers to her questions. She asked what he had done to become like that. Jupiter might deny everything the little girl said, but she always found a counterargument.
- Answer me! Why doesn't he remember me?
- Calm down, I don't know what else to tell you!
But Jupiter, about to raise his voice, was suddenly overwhelmed by a great terror when he saw the maid shoot him a piercing look. Watching this scene, LaVoix intervenes and asks the little girl and Jupiter to calm down. LaVoix began to look at the little girl with a dark glare.
- I don't know who you are, but right now you are bothering Jupiter.
Suddenly, Io screamed at LaVoix, who heard her and calmed down. It was already too late… The little girl was already crying, clutching her white dress. Her straw hat hid most of her eyes, only the tears were visible. The only thing that came to his mind was:
"Is she messing with me?"
He tried to calm her down, but the little girl pushed LaVoix and started running towards the exit. He couldn't help but follow her; anyway, it was the only thing to do. The maid apologized for her mistress's behavior, to which Nova replied that it wasn't a big deal. Once outside, he ran after her. The little girl, out of breath, stopped in front of a lamppost. It must have been around one in the morning and the night was already well advanced. The young man, no less out of breath than she was, joined the little girl who had her back to him.
- Calm down and tell me who you are!
The girl leaned forward. What LaVoix said touched a nerve:
"What a jerk..."
- Oh shut up!
- …
Io took on a guilty expression, seeing this girl cry in front of him and being unable to comfort her, he felt immense guilt. Suddenly, his own head started spinning; he had already experienced a similar scene. The little girl noticed him and began to panic. The screams of the young man howling in pain began to wake the people nearby, the lights of the neighboring houses turned on one by one. As his head throbbed with pain, fragments of his memories surfaced from the depths of his subconscious, but only one memory held his attention.
- Tell me, big brother, why do we excite the vampires?
- Whoa! Why this question?
- You know, at school the other semi-human children make fun of me, apparently I look too much like a human.
- You see, our current world is facing a lot of injustices. We vampires have the characteristics closest to humans, but there are elf-vampires, dwarf-vampires, trolls, humans... We still call them semi-humans, even if they are elves. Thinking about it, they are just taller humans with long toes who are a bit too fond of nature.
- Why do you fight against humans then?
- No! The difference with them is that I don't care about humans. They can all die with their mouths wide open and I wouldn't even move. I don't put them all in the same basket, but I fight against the Vatican so that all species in this world can.?See the sun rise in the morning. Don't worry, tomorrow you'll be able to get up, Élara.
- Will you promise to always remember me and this promise when you get up in the morning?
- I promise.
After seeing this memory, he stared at the ground, his face red as a tomato.
- How could I have said such a cliché!?
"Sometimes I wonder..."
Elara's sobs fell to the ground. The Voice raised his head and began to hug the little girl tightly. Surprised, the little girl didn't know where to put her hands.
- Sorry, Élara, sorry I broke my promise!
The little girl hugged her brother and began to cry. After a few minutes, she calmed down, and he asked her what she was doing here.
- I fled the kingdom to find you, but those vampire-hunting dogs captured me.
She tilted her head to the right; a collar was around her neck. The voice grew angry and grabbed the collar, but a powerful electric shock struck Elara, causing her to faint. He barely caught her as she fell to the ground. At that moment, the maid arrived.
"I didn't even notice... does she have a collar too?" said The Voice.
- I'm taking the young lady back!
- I'm counting on you to make sure nothing happens to her.
- All right, Master.
- Master ?
- "I haven't fully recovered my memory. What's her name again? Ah, it's coming back to me."
As he searched his memory, a person identical to her struck him.
- Thank you, Irina.
The maid moved her index finger from left to right, which made The Voice very uncomfortable. She turned and left without saying another word, disappearing into the darkness. After returning to Nova's house, he sat down by the door. Nova checked who was at the entrance. Since it was only Io, she sat down next to him and told him that Jupiter had gone back to work and Haru had gone home. He stood up and looked at Nova blankly. A cold sweat ran down her entire body. She stood up abruptly and drew a sword made of magic. He narrowed his eyes.
- Since when do humans use magic?
She didn't understand his question, even though he'd seen her use it at least ten times. As she tried to say a word, she noticed she couldn't open her mouth; her legs were shaking. It was already an achievement just to have stood up. With a little effort, she managed to say a few words.
- Tell me... who am I talking to?
- You can call me The Voice, I'm the man who knows without knowing.
Nova stared at The Voice, who smiled back.
- You... are the one who beat Yota...
- Very good deduction, my dear.
- Where... Where is Io?
- "Damn, I'm having too much trouble talking!" Nova said to herself.
- He's just asleep.
- He's asleep?
Don't worry, I'll give him back his body. But I must warn you that we are not the people you think we are; the future is no surprise to us.
Io suddenly fell into Nova's arms. She replaced his hair, shaken by the fall; it had been white, but immediately turned black again. This time, at the tips of his black hair, white hairs were growing. She hugged him; their relationship would never be the same again. Yet, her heart ached terribly, and it began to beat very fast. She leaned against the door and hugged him. She looked up at the ceiling and sighed.
- "Why did it have to happen to you?"
She leaned closer to his lips and kissed him.