Corrupted blood lord

Three days passed after the Skallion mission.

Teclos spent most of that time exactly where Luther had told him to stay. In his room. On standby. Waiting like an obedient dog while many servants and nobles walked past the door, and guards stood in the hallway outside.

Many took pity on him, though nobody visited Teclos. Most people were afraid of Luther’s butcher.

At least, that was what it looked like from the outside.

In truth, Teclos used every hour that nobody bothered him to study.

He read through the ledgers and documents he had taken from the locked cabinets again, then placed them back exactly where he had found them. Names, locations, routes, payments, hidden facilities, research notes, and noble connections. He forced as much of it into his memory as he could.

One day, all of it would be useful. He was sure of it.

He only needed to survive long enough to use it.

—

On the third evening, a servant knocked on his door.

"Lord Luther has summoned you," the woman said.

Teclos looked up from a harmless report spread across his desk.

"Ok," he answered without questioning and stood up.

"Follow me. He is in a private chamber."

That made him pause for half a second. Since it was not the throne room or Luther’s study, something serious was happening.

Teclos followed her.

The servant led him through several quiet corridors, down a narrow stairway, and into a section of the castle where there were fewer guards, but all of them were highly loyal and trained. The air felt colder there. Not that it bothered him, but he could see the human in front of him starting to shiver from the freezing cold.

When the servant opened the door, Teclos immediately knew something was off.

Luther waited inside, seated behind a working desk, but he was not alone. Two men stood before him, both dressed in full combat gear.

Both were powerful vampires.

They looked battle-hardened and cold, carrying themselves like sharpened weapons waiting for their master to draw them. Their black plate armor caught the candlelight with a dull shine, making them look more like executioners than servants.

One had brown hair and a massive greatsword strapped across his back.

The other was blond and leaner, with two daggers resting at his waist.

Both turned their cold eyes toward Teclos as he entered.

It was a look filled with disdain and cold assessment.

The servant closed the door behind her and left.

Teclos walked closer without a word, then knelt in front of Luther. "You called, my lord?"

The two vampires turned back toward Luther as well, waiting for him to continue.

Luther looked at the three of them.

"We have an emergency," he said. "The Western Facility has been exposed. The Church somehow got wind of its existence and dispatched inquisitors to investigate. You are to go there immediately, recover all research material, and destroy the facility completely. Leave no trace behind."

Teclos lowered his head, and the other two did the same.

Luther’s gaze sharpened. "Kill everyone involved, including the researchers. If the inquisitors reach the facility before it is erased, then eliminate them at all costs. You are dismissed."

They moved at once without questions.

There was no room for hesitation, given how serious Luther was.

The three of them left the chamber and headed straight toward the stables. The urgency in the air was clear from the way even the servants stepped aside before they got close. Stable hands rushed to prepare their horses, barely managing to finish before the three vampires mounted them.

A moment later, they galloped out of the castle courtyard.

Several civilians on the road were too slow to dodge and move out of the way.

One was thrown aside by Teclos’s horse. Another was trampled beneath the hooves of the blond vampire’s mount. They did not stop. No one even looked back.

The western road opened before them, and Lupos quickly shrank behind them in the distance.

The facility was two days away by horse.

Running there might have been faster for vampires, but arriving tired before facing inquisitors would have been risky. Even Teclos understood that much. Inquisitors were not ordinary priests with shiny robes and prayers. They were the Church’s hunters, trained specifically to kill monsters like them.

For a while, only the sound of hooves filled the forest road.

Then Teclos finally spoke.

"What are the details of the mission?"

The brown-haired vampire glanced at him.

Teclos knew him already from the ledgers. His name was Tepesh.

One of Luther’s favored servants. A willingly turned vampire who had sworn absolute obedience without needing a slave pact. Strong, disciplined, and old enough to be his grandfather. The greatsword on his back was not decoration either. The ledger described him as direct, brutal, and reliable.

The blond one was Dallion.

Also willingly turned. Also favored. Faster than Tepesh, more agile, and apparently fond of cutting the tendons of his victims before their throats.

Neither of them knew that Teclos had read about them.

Tepesh answered directly. "The mission is simple. Kill everyone involved, take the research material, retrieve the relic, and destroy the facility. If we encounter the inquisitors, we kill them."

"What is so valuable there that Master had to send three of us?" Teclos asked. "Is there something specific I have to look out for?"

This time, Dallion answered.

"Anything from that place falling into the hands of the Church would be detrimental to us," he said. His voice was smooth and almost bored. "But yes, there is something specific. A relic belonging to Master. A ruby-like gem that siphons ambient power from its surroundings."

Teclos looked ahead, pretending to consider it normally.

They were telling him everything, of course they were.

Why would they hide anything from him? As far as they knew, he was bound to Luther by an unbreakable slave pact. A reject, perhaps. A newly turned vampire who did not understand the master’s grand vision.

But still loyal because he had no choice.

Teclos almost let a smile slip.

This was a big mission and his chance.

He was secretly hoping those inquisitors would reach the facility in time.

A compromised laboratory, a relic, research material, and inquisitors. If he played this right, he might get Luther’s prized little servants killed and screw the bastard over again.

They rode through the night and most of the following day, stopping only when the horses needed rest. None of them slept or complained. The road grew narrower as they passed villages, fields, and the last traces of civilization, until a dense forest swallowed them whole.

By the second evening, they reached a rocky hillside covered in moss and roots.

At first glance, there was nothing there except a small cave entrance half-hidden behind hanging vines.

Tepesh dismounted and looked around.

Dallion did the same, his fingers already near his daggers.

"No signs of forced entry," Dallion sighed.

Tepesh walked to a random stone near the cave mouth and twisted it. "Keep your guard up."

The air shimmered, and like a cloud in the wind, the rocks around it dissipated.

A door appeared from thin air, carved into the stone where only a blank wall had been before. Its surface was heavily covered in runes.

Tepesh urged them both on. "Let’s move quickly before those inquisitors arrive."

They entered the cave, and the first thing Teclos noticed was the smell. It was the familiar stench of blood, alchemy, rot, and heavily oversaturated mana.

And again, everything inside was cleaned thoroughly. Every tool and apparatus was spotless.

The facility reminded him of the torture dungeon beneath the castle, the one he had seen when he searched for his mother.

But this place was far more sophisticated. It looked almost modern.

Tile floors stretched throughout the whole facility, polished enough to reflect the light of the mana lamps built into the walls. Metal tables stood in several rooms. Glass containers lined the shelves. Pipes and thin cables ran along the ceiling, feeding mana deeper into the facility.

The test subjects behind the cages were already a mess, but the ones outside them were even worse.

Several people were submerged inside tall tubes filled with strange liquid. Each tube was nearly twice the height of a man, sealed with metal rings and connected to thick cables that pulsed faintly with mana. The people floating inside were thin, little more than pale skin and bones, their mouths hanging open with expressions that made it clear they had died screaming.

Mana was being siphoned from them.

Teclos watched the faint streams of power leave their bodies, travel through the tubes, and flow along the cables deeper into the facility.

Toward the relic, most likely.

Tepesh quickened his pace.

"Research takes priority," he said.

They moved through the halls quickly, ignoring the prisoners who were still conscious and begging for their lives.

Some pressed themselves against the bars and clawed at them. Others whispered prayers in the corners of their cages.

When Teclos passed by the last cage, one man reached through it and grabbed at Teclos’s cloak.

Teclos looked at the hand and then at the man.

He could have killed him instantly, but Tepesh was already moving ahead, and Dallion was beckoning him to move on quickly.

Teclos pulled his cloak free and followed them.

They reached the last door at the end of the main corridor. Tepesh pushed it open without knocking.

Inside was a large workroom filled with desks, shelves, charts, tools, sealed boxes, and fifteen people in clean gray robes. Alchemists and their assistants. Several of them looked up in surprise when the vampires entered.

One older man’s face lit up.

"Lord Tepesh! Lord Dallion! What a pleasant surprise." He hurried forward with a wide smile, completely unaware of the reason they were there. "Come, I must show you the results of our latest breakthrough."

Tepesh stared at him for a few seconds.

"Have you documented everything?" he asked. "Including this breakthrough?"

The man smiled even wider, clearly waiting for praise. "Why, yes. I am always on top of such things, your lordship."

Tepesh nodded once. "That is good."

Then he drew his greatsword and beheaded him.

The head hit the floor before anyone even realized what had just happened.

For half a second, everyone stood still, frozen from shock and disbelief.

Then the room exploded into panic.

The people screamed and pushed one another while trying to run away.

A woman reached for an alarm crystal on the desk, but Dallion was already behind her. His dagger slid across her throat, and she fell forward, choking on her own blood.

Tepesh moved like an executioner.

Every swing of his greatsword split someone in half.

Dallion was as fast as lightning, cutting people’s throats, wrists, and spines with a bored expression.

Teclos gladly joined them in killing those atrocious people. Darkness snapped out from his hands, binding two assistants before crushing their necks.

Within moments, the room was silent again.

Fifteen bodies lay scattered across the floor as Tepesh shook the blood from his blade. "Gather everything."

They quickly searched the room and took anything that looked valuable.

Research notes. Ledgers. Sealed folders. Alchemical formulas. Blood samples. Maps of supply routes. Records of test subjects. Reports bearing Luther’s seal. Everything important went into the enchanted storage rings or Teclos’s dark dimension.

Then they moved to the sealed compartment in the back of the facility.

It took both Tepesh and Dallion to open it. Runes unlocked one after another, and the thick metal door finally groaned inward.

Inside, a ruby-like gem floated above a black pedestal.

It was beautiful and disgusting at the same time, like it had been corrupted.

Dozens of cables were attached to the pedestal, supplying the stolen mana from the tubes throughout the facility. The gem pulsed slowly. It had gathered quite a lot of power.

God knew how long these experiments had been taking place here.

Teclos felt his hunger stir just by looking at it.

Dallion carefully removed it, then sealed the gem inside a reinforced case.

"All right, we got what we came for," he said.

Tepesh turned away and started walking. "Kill the test subjects and then burn everything."

They moved back through the facility and quickly started killing them one by one.

The prisoners screamed when they realized what was happening. By the time they were done, no living thing remained inside the Western Facility.

Dallion scattered alchemical fire across the workrooms. Tepesh carved through the support runes, and Teclos used darkness to tear the facility apart.

The facility began to burn behind them.

Smoke crawled along the ceiling as they returned to the entrance. Heat spread through the tunnels, and the clean tile floors were clean no more.

Tepesh opened the hidden door, and cold night air rushed in.

For a moment, all three of them stood at the cave entrance, surrounded by smoke and darkness.

Then Dallion raised a hand, his expression changing from bored to serious.

Tepesh’s expression shifted as well.

Teclos sensed them too, though later than usual.

Several powerful presences were moving through the trees. They had brilliantly bright mana.

Dallion’s fingers settled on his daggers.

Tepesh slowly reached for the greatsword on his back.

"Inquisitors," he said.

Teclos looked into the dark forest, where several pale lights were already beginning to appear between the trees, and smiled.

Looks like he would get his chance after all.