Empire Of Souls - Chapter 164

Somewhere in a large mansion within Kordusk, a scene of chaos was taking place. Everywhere one looked, there was destruction. Expensive vases had been smashed on the floor, famous paintings and portraits slashed across the face, furniture broken and mangled. But most of all, the blood that soaked the floors and the sight of dead servants across the entire mansion. Even the family who owned the mansion were dead, still in their sleepwear within their beds. Only one person was left alive.

It was a sight of carnage, needless slaughter, and the death of innocence.

“Now I am a monster just like you, brother.”

Shelise stood over the corpse of a maid, knife in hand dripping with blood. Eneran stood at the entrance of the mansion and stared up at the grand staircase in the main hall. He had only just arrived and seen such a sight. He walked in slowly, but the shock was clear on his face. As he walked the hallways of the mansion, he found everyone dead. He was no stranger to death, having killed many in his life, but not like this. He had never murdered innocent people in cold blood within their home.

“Why have you done this?” He called up to her in shock and anger.

“They looked happy.” Shelise replied somewhat lost.

Eneran sighed, this wasn’t something he knew how to deal with and he especially did not want to deal with it. She killed someone because they were happy? What kind of insanity was this?

“You are seriously messed up. I don’t know what has happened to you, but I don’t want anything to do with this anymore. My job is done here, you can clean this mess up yourself. Goodbye. I hope we never meet again.”

Eneran turned around and left abruptly. He was sickened by what he saw and there was nothing more he could gain from such a crazy individual.

Shelise didn’t even turn to look back at Eneran. She continued to stare at the maid she had killed. She then walked through the silent halls for a time in a daze. Her beautiful dress and her exposed skin was covered in splashes of blood. She looked like a murderous doll, without emotions, lost and confused.

The entire time, she continued to repeat one word as if it were a mantra.

“Brother… brother… brother…”

__________________________

An organized and well disciplined army was marching in an orderly fashion through a mountain pass. The sound of drums accompanied their footsteps and scarlet red flags with a strange and archaic symbol fluttered in the wind. This was a border army stationed between the borders of the Steppes and the Scarlet Blood Empire.

Each soldier wore scarlet colored hardened leather armor, and carried a blood red spear and shield. They were an elite force known as the Blood Guard and they had guarded the borders of the Steppes and the Scarlet Blood Empire for a long time. Each soldier had gone through an extreme and dangerous form of training since a young age. Only a small percentage of those put through this training survived, and every one of the ten thousand soldiers was an advanced class being.

This was an extremely powerful army which could devastate most others. The several dozen officers were all vampires and Master class beings of great power. This army was the sole reason that none had ever dared invade from the Steppes and it had kept the peace for many years along the border. With such a mighty army guarding its border, even the Horde would find it impossible to cross through. This elite army was part of the Imperial forces and were not beholden to any of the vampire lords, they served the Blood Sovereign alone.

In the past, there were several attempts by the Horde to invade the lands of the Blood Sovereign. However, they had always been defeated by this very army. Even though there was no Legendary being among this force, the many Master class vampiric beings were more than enough to handle a Legendary being and they had never been defeated in battle. Of course, if necessary, there were several Vampire lords who were Legendary beings and ultimately there was the Blood Sovereign who was a Demigod. Any invasion of the lands of the Blood Sovereign would need to be considerable powerful in order to succeed.

Currently, this army was marching through the pass and this was something that had not happened for at least the past one hundred years. Although they were strong, they would ultimately lose out to the Horde if they invaded the Steppes without the support of their Legendary beings or the Blood Sovereign. In essence, they were a defense force and not one meant for invasions. However, with the news of the death of the tribal ancestors and the fall of the Harkul, the army had been ordered to cross into the Steppes for the first time in a very long time. Their purpose? Only those closest to the Blood Sovereign knew. These soldiers were bred solely for being instruments of war and they followed orders without question.

The army had reached halfway through the canyon pass when a halt was suddenly called. Flags designating orders were waved all across the army lines and were a simple way to communicate. Although there were more sophisticated methods of communication, these flags were a tradition and many armies still used such primitive means. They didn’t require the use of magic and were simple enough for any soldier to understand once they were trained sufficiently.

At the head of the army, several vampire commanders rode forward on shadow horses. These horses appeared as dark as night and they had two horns protruding from their foreheads. Their eyes were crimson and they had a fierce and aggressive personality. The vampires were equipped with a type of blackened mail and were clearly different from their soldiers. This was both a mark of distinction and also a symbol of their superiority as most of their army consisted of humans and a few other races they considered inferior. Their armor also had several enchantments placed on it for protection from a variety of the elements as well as the sun. Even though Vampires had a natural weakness to sunlight, in the modern era this wasn’t a serious problem. There were many ways for them to protect themselves from the sunlight.

The vampire commanders looked at each other with some confusion and then they turned to look ahead where stood two hooded beings of an unknown origin. They had quickly called for a halt as soon as they noticed the two. These were the first living beings they had seen since beginning to cross through the pass and they were surprised to see the two there. No one ever crossed through the pass so it wasn’t normal to see travelers here. Anyone who tried to cross would be killed once found. After conferring between themselves, one of the vampire commanders rode ahead of the others and addressed the two hooded beings.

“Who are you and why are you attempting to cross through the pass? Don’t you know that all who cross will be killed on sight?”

Normally they would have just killed the two and moved on, but their presence here was strange. Was it purely coincidental that they would come across the two at such a time when their army was moving through the pass for the first time in over a hundred years? What was even more strange was that the two seemed to be waiting for them here.

One of the hooded figures took a step forward, it was clear that the body was much more curved than the other and appeared to be female. The figure’s body contour, although hidden beneath a strangely dark and exotic armor, had the shape of a woman. The other figure was much more brawny and stood much taller at over 3 meters tall. There was an enormous and menacing looking broadsword on his back whereas the female looking figure didn’t appear to have a weapon that was visible at first glance. However, if one looked closer they would see a barbed snake-like, metallic, and scaled weapon wrapped around her body.

“Who we are doesn’t matter. If you wish to pass through then you need to pay the cost.”

A sultry voice accompanied the hooded figure as she stood unafraid against an entire army. Her words caught the vampire commander by surprise and he looked back towards his companion with a questioning look. They then broke out in laughter after the realization of what the person said hit them.

“You two are clearly insane.”

The vampires all couldn’t contain their laughter and they mocked the two with clear derision.

“I don’t believe I said anything humorous.” the female hooded figure replied while looking back at her companion, “were my words funny Cladem? I don’t understand mortals at all.”

“I don’t believe that they are taking you seriously Anathema, that is why they laugh. It seems that they are looking on us with disdain. They are too weak to even realize who it is that they face.”

“Ah, I see. I am in a particularly bad mood as it is. Not only did we have to fight through five levels of Hell losing two of our companions, but the closest exit we could find was in this barren place. We now have to dirty ourselves with this inferior trash. If not for our master’s orders…”

Cladem pulled the enormous broadsword off his back and slammed the edge into the ground.

“That is enough. We are not far from our destination. This is a good opportunity to release some of your anger. I will permit you to have a bit of fun.”