Corrupted blood lord

Teclos woke up in the middle of the night.

For a moment, he simply lay there, staring at the dark wooden ceiling above him. The tavern was quiet. No voices or drunkards could be heard downstairs. Only the faint creak of old beams and the distant sound of wind brushing against the windows.

He was well rested now and free from the wyvern’s ice.

The only thing left was for him to get the egg back and have a nice breakfast.

His eyes narrowed when he felt the commotion on the edge of the village. A carriage was being prepared with twenty-five men guarding it.

And guess who came out from his house at the same time with a suspiciously large box strapped to his back.

The chief and the wyvern’s egg.

Teclos smiled.

"I guess I’ll be leaving sooner than I thought..."

He sat up, swung his legs over the side of the bed, and leisurely stretched for a couple of seconds. Summoning his dark dimension, he took out his gear and put it on. After this was done, he would have to return anyway, so he might as well be fully equipped.

The chief had obviously lied. He was quite good at hiding it.

A shame for him that Teclos was not just an ordinary man.

If he had not been a vampire, he might have even believed him, as to most people, the man’s face would have looked calm. His words would have seemed reasonable.

Alas, he had picked the wrong opponent, and now the idiot was trying to flee with it.

Putting on the last pieces of his armor and strapping on his sword, Teclos was ready.

For a moment, he looked toward the door. Fred, Selma, and Bruno were probably sleeping.

He had planned to leave properly in the morning. Maybe eat one last good meal and say goodbye, since they had treated him better than most people had any reason to. He felt like it was a shame that he could not say goodbye to Fred, Selma, and Bruno in person, but he did write a quick thank-you and goodbye note, which he left on the nightstand.

Black mana gathered around his body, swallowing him whole in the blink of an eye, and he disappeared.

The village was already fast asleep when he stepped out of the darkness near the road.

It looked peaceful. Snow covered the rooftops and fences, smoke rose from the chimneys, and beneath the moonlight, it looked breathtaking. Though that peaceful feeling quickly disappeared when he looked ahead. Lanterns still burned near the chief’s house, and beyond it, several men hurried through the cold with nervous expressions, moving as silently as possible.

They did not seem like mercenaries or guards.

Just the chief’s trusted men, it seemed. They were hauling big crates and chests around. And their getaway seemed to be one wagon, a carriage, and a few horses.

Teclos shook his head as he watched them for a moment from the shadows of a nearby house.

Then he casually walked out, and one of the men noticed him and dropped his crate. The others turned a second later.

Teclos wanted to give them a chance to run away, but before he could speak, the men reached for their swords.

Since they threw away his last bit of mercy, Teclos crossed the distance before the blades left their sheaths.

And in a swift, clean arc, he beheaded the first man.

The others panicked, which made it even easier for Teclos.

They were not warriors and were more like street thugs. Disorganized, clumsy, and sloppy. Against Teclos, they died like pitiful insects.

He did not even use mana on them and just physically overwhelmed them, breaking their necks or chopping off their heads. It was so easy that he started questioning the chief’s ability to pick qualified people.

Speaking of the chief, once Teclos massacred them all, that bastard had just left them and escaped with the egg on the carriage.

Teclos looked at the tracks leading farther down the road.

’Of course’... he sighed.

"No honour among thieves."

The carriage was moving fast along the mountain road, the horses foaming at the mouth as the driver whipped them harder than it was humane. He still had two guards, and they sat at the back, constantly looking behind them.

"I don’t think this was a good idea!" one of them shouted.

"Ya think?! Have you seen how quickly he killed them? That man is a monster, and we stole from him..." the other said with a pale face.

Teclos was already on the roof of the carriage without anyone noticing, listening in on their conversation.

The first guard had a bad premonition, and sure enough, when he looked up, Teclos was already standing there and looking at him with those sinister red eyes. The guard screamed like a girl before Teclos snapped his neck with a dark hand.

The second guard drew his weapon, but after a pathetic overhead strike—which Teclos easily blocked with one finger—he was slapped so hard across the face that his neck also snapped, and he fell off the carriage dead.

The driver panicked and tried to slam the carriage into the wall of rocks on his left side, trying to shake Teclos off. Before he could do it, one dark hand caught him by the back of the neck and snapped it. The carriage wheels skidded across the frozen road before Teclos drove a massive black spike through the whole carriage and pinned it in place.

The whole thing stopped with a violent crack, and inside, the chief shouted in terror.

Teclos then jumped down and opened the carriage door.

The chief sat inside, clutching the wyvern egg with both arms. His face was pale, sweaty, and afraid.

"I can explain," he said quickly.

"I am sure you can..."

"I only wanted to protect the village’s future. Do you know what this is worth? With this, I could rebuild everything. I could become rich... powerful even. I was going to sha—"

Teclos grabbed him by the throat without any words and pulled him from the carriage. The egg rolled onto the seat behind him.

The chief clawed at Teclos’s hand as he choked.

"You were too greedy, old man," Teclos said.

The man’s eyes bulged. "Please—"

Teclos smiled, and this time, he let his fangs show, making the chief freeze.

All color drained from his face.

"Do you understand now?" Teclos asked quietly. "What you tried to steal from? And you didn’t even make the damn cloak that I asked for..."

The chief trembled.

"V-vampire..."

"Sadly."

Teclos leaned closer.

"But against punks like you, I am kind of glad that I became a monster."

The chief tried to speak again, maybe to beg, maybe to lie, but Teclos was no longer interested in what he had to say.

He drew his sword, and the chief’s head fell into the snow.

After a second of staring at the headless corpse, Teclos wiped the blade clean and turned toward the carriage.

The egg rested inside, the mana within it pulsating violently. It seemed nervous.

Teclos reached for it.

And the egg attacked him, but this time, he was ready.

The repulsive force slammed into him again, but he braced for it. The carriage cracked behind him, and snow scattered in every direction.

But Teclos stayed still.

"Not this time, you little asshole." Teclos remembered those two days of torture that felt like an eternity, and he became a little petty toward the baby egg.

He placed his palm against the shell.

Blood magic flowed from his hand, seeping through the surface of the egg, reaching for the life and power inside. The egg tried to resist. Its mana twisted, pushed, and tried to reject him again, but it was too young to fend him off.

Teclos pulled at its life force, and the power inside of it started flowing toward him.

The egg’s glow started to dim.

Surprisingly, it had a lot of power that Teclos could consume.

Not even close to comparing to the heart, but enough to make a difference. If he refined it properly on the way back, it might even bring him halfway toward his next Core circle.

The shell cracked beneath his palm when he finished absorbing its power.

Teclos exhaled as the last of the power settled inside him, which he immediately started refining into his Core.

He looked at the dead egg for a moment.

A small smile crossed his face.

"Mmmm, can’t beat eggs for breakfast, haha."

No one was alive to hear him, which was probably for the best.

Teclos left the carriage where it was and turned toward Lupos.

Then he started walking in a straight line.

No road or detour.

Just the shortest path back.

He traveled through the rest of the day and into the next morning, constantly refining the egg’s power. The mana path he drew already started to faintly form the sixth circle in his Core.

He smiled. Another step closer on his long road to escaping Luther’s grasp.

By the time the walls of Lupos rose in the distance, his body also felt slightly stronger.

He stood in front of the gates near midday, and the guards recognized him immediately.

One of them straightened so fast his spear nearly slipped from his hand.

"Lord Teclos," the guard said, bowing his head. "We are happy to see you returned safely."

Teclos paused.

"Lord Teclos."

It left a bad taste in his mouth.

He was not a lord here, nor anywhere else. They treated him like one because Aweq had used him multiple times like a dog on a leash, and everyone knew better than to insult the hunting dog of a powerful man.

Axel was treated the same way.

Useful dogs that were dangerous should their master release them on someone. Feared and respected only because nobody wanted to insult the owner of these lands in front of them.

Teclos gave the guard a small nod and walked through.

He walked straight to the castle, and the city crowd swallowed him quickly.

When he entered the premises, no one stopped him.

The servants moved aside, and the guards opened doors for him. The nobles’ children glanced at him from behind the walls and quickly looked away when they noticed the blood still dried near the edges of his clothes.

Eventually, he reached the throne room.

Count Aweq sat inside, speaking with Luther and several nobles around a table set with wine, fruit, and small plates of food. It looked less like a meeting and more like a tea party for people who enjoyed pretending they were discussing serious matters.

Luther noticed Teclos, and his eyes sharpened.

Then he stood up and excused himself.

"Excuse me," Luther said to the others. "I have an urgent business matter to attend to."

He walked toward Teclos without wasting another glance on the nobles.

Once they were far enough aside, he held out his hand.

"Give me the heart."

The order was final, and Teclos felt it wrap around his mind like a chain.

His body began to move as he opened his dark dimension.

The crystallized heart appeared in his hand, and he placed it into Luther’s palm.

But something strange was happening... he felt like he could resist him to some extent.

That was...different.

Like a tiny rift had opened up between the absolute order and the obedience he previously could not go against.

Teclos kept his face blank and still carried out his order like usual.

Luther inspected the heart and nodded once. "Good. Go back and remain on standby for the evening. You are going out with Axel. There is a noble who has become an eyesore."

"Yes, my lord," Teclos said.

Luther turned away and returned to the meeting. He ignored Teclos once he got the heart.

Teclos, on the other hand, remained still for a moment.

Then he walked out.

Only when the door closed behind him did a smile slowly draw itself across his face.

"Well, I’ll be damned..."

He had resisted the order for a few seconds and was alive to tell the tale.

It was only a little, but that changed everything. That small resistance was the first breath of fresh air Teclos had felt in a long time.

And the only thing that could have changed something, that Teclos could think of anyway, was the altar.

That ancient torture device had something to do with this. He was sure of it.

Whatever had been pumped into him for two days helped him resist Luther to some extent.

Teclos’s smile widened.

It seemed he would have to move his plans up quite a bit.