Chapter 57: Immortality, Such A Fickle Thing
Karpov spun around his leg that could belong to an elephant and broke the sound barrier as he kicked Vanity in the chest. Her petite body caved in from the impact, and despite her incredibly resilient body, she found herself in two pieces embedded in the cave wall. Yet despite her body’s condition, her eyes looked as bored and soulless as ever. She waited a moment for her lungs to regenerate before saying, "Brother, do you have to kick me every time I mention Jack? Stop being so paranoid and jealous of him."
Karpov was definitely the strongest out of the three siblings of House Wilson. In fact, out of the entire vampire race, he was considered the most powerful. Vampires acquired power by consuming the vitality of others and raising their Blood Magic. What made vampires the second most powerful species on the continent was the lack of an upper limit on their power. As time flowed, the vampire would naturally become more powerful.
Karpov looked insane as he laughed while clutching his head. "Why was that bastard the inheritor of the soul? Why does the watchful wrath of the Sun God not weaken him? I AM THE MONARCH, SO WHY? WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY? AHHHHHHHHH! FILTHY WEAKLING IS A DISGRACE TO THE BLOODLINE, YET HE INHERITS THE DAYWALKER? HE DIDN’T INCREASE HIS STRENGTH THROUGH FEEDING LIKE THE REST OF US!"
"Karpov, stop it. Our bloodline is already so weakened. There are only the three of us left. Our influence over the other three major houses is weakening by the day. Stop being paranoid. Jack has no wish to inherit the throne from you."
During this short exchange, Vanity had fully healed and removed herself from the indent in the wall. Brushing the dust off her naked body, she continued, "So what if Jack inherited the soul and can walk under the Sun God unimpeded? He is considered an elder like you and me, yet he was weaker than a thrall."
Karpov calmed down a little and spoke between clenched teeth. "He escaped to the mortal plane. He has access to unlimited prey out there. Who knows? In a few hundred years, he may be strong enough to fight me."
Karpov was so strong he could rip an adult dragon in half with his bare hands, assuming it descended from the skies. Dragons were the kings of magic, while vampires preferred utilising their immense speed and physical strength gained through vitality to fight.
Vanity laughed at the thought of her weak brother ever being able to match her strength, let alone Karpov’s.
"Why don’t you bring him back, then? Lock him up at home and deny him the ability to grow like you have done the last few centuries."
Karpov snorted. "If those livestock could kill Father, then I will never risk my life out there. We are cursed existences, Vanity. The world wishes us to perish and shall take any opportunity to do so. But you’re right. I’ll send some vampires from House Thornvlad to deal with him after court. Naturally, they would jump at the opportunity to slay a Wilson. As a compromise, I will demand they provide me with the corpse so I can finally devour his soul and no longer fear the gaze of the Sun God’s wrath."
Aldric Wilson, the original noble vampire, was an S-grade existence, yet a small group of A-grades could kill him with a few casualties. Vampires were stronger than dragons. Yet unlike dragons, they had fatal weaknesses that were easily exploited, such as silver and certain schools of magic. This threat led to the vampire’s paranoia of the outside world.
Vanity was displeased with her brother’s hatred for Jack, yet she was too bored to care all that much. If her little brother was defeated by some mere vampires from House Thornvlad, then he was too weak for eternal life.
Vampires had the intelligence of a well-trained dog and were the preferred choice for carrying out noble vampires’ more complicated tasks. Unlike a thrall, an undead human corrupted by their master’s blood, vampires were created through a ritual and therefore retained a small portion of their original soul and abilities but were relatively mindless. Noble vampires stood at the top of the food chain as perfect existences. Yet, like vampires, they had a fractured soul, which led to their twisted personalities and their weakness to the sun. But unlike vampires and thralls that disintegrated under the Sun God’s gaze, noble vampires became sluggish and greatly weakened but would not die under the sun’s watchful eye.
Except for a single bloodline that stands above the rest: the Wilsons. They alone had the potential to be daywalkers—noble vampires that could walk under the sun like a human.
* * *
Vanity followed Karpov’s imposing back as they entered the courtroom through a grand tunnel. The familiar sight of a volcano’s extinct magma chamber greeted her. The sun’s evening glow could be witnessed through the hole in the ceiling. A throne surrounded by flora stood in the center of the kilometer-wide chamber, a rare sight within the Aldric Mountains. Surrounding the garden and throne in the middle were hundreds of noble vampires. All naked and standing in their various houses.
"The Daywalker has arrived! The court is now in session!" a Destrym House member proclaimed as Karpov sat on the throne. The sun’s gaze was weak due to the time of day, yet the discomfort of Karpov was obvious to the trained eye. Of course, the true Daywalker would be unaffected by the sun, but Karpov stubbornly hid his pain and nodded to the fellow noble vampires.
The Destrym was very plain looking with brown hair. They were by far the weakest of the Four Great Houses. Aldric Wilson—the original noble vampire—had many blood queens of various races serving him during his life. The different houses were all descended from Aldric yet were slightly different due to the blood queen that birthed them. House Destrym’s lack of strength and typical features were due to their birth mother being an average human.
Karpov beckoned for the Destrym to continue. "Honourable Daywalker, House Vernius has encroached upon our hunting grounds in the west. Since humans have fled the hunting grounds to the south for unknown reasons, our livestock supply has suffered immeasurably. I plead to the honourable representative of House Vernius for a justification for their house’s actions in the west, as we can no longer shoulder the burden to our supply chain."
The Destrym representative sat down, and the House Vernius representative stood. House Vernius were unusually tall and lanky with feminine features since their queen was a high elf. Their average height was between two and three meters. However, the elders of the House Vernius were a bit taller than Karpov’s, towering three meters.
The towering Elder with blond hair from House Vernius spoke in a prideful voice. "House Destrym, a war is occurring within the human realm. Villagers have been drafted into the war and have fled from the hunting grounds in the west. Therefore, we are forced to expand westward."
An average-height man with fiery red hair from House Thornvlad just rolled his pitch-black eyes from the sidelines. He knew this court session would take at least a few months, if not years. Noble vampires were prideful, arrogant, and stubborn creatures, and since they didn’t have defined laws, it was simply one vampire’s word against another’s.
Vanity sat next to House Thornvlad, just outside the garden to avoid the sun’s wrath. Unlike Karpov, who wished to prove he was the true Daywalker, she had no desire to suffer the discomfort. House Wilson’s birth mother was a fallen angel, hence their resistance to the light. Vanity was, therefore, extremely uncomfortable sitting next to a Thornvlad as a demon birthed them, hence their pitch-black eyes and red hair.
Each House had around a hundred members consisting of a couple of noble vampires and many vampires in service to them. As noble vampires only needed to feed every few months, these court sessions could proceed uninterrupted for weeks at a time.
House Wilson was in a unique position. Despite their pathetic number of nobles being at three and the number of servants countable on a single hand, the ability to resist the sun and be proclaimed as Daywalkers made them natural kings. The Aldric Mountains were a prison to the vampires, protecting them from the outside world. In this analogy, the Wilsons could be considered the wardens, as they could come and go as they pleased.
Vanity smiled as she thought of Jack. "Good luck, little brother. Don’t perish out there and disgrace us. Instead, have a delectable feast, for Karpov will never let you go. Time is ticking; immortality is such a fickle thing."