Chapter 9 - The Princess in the Castle

A/N sup guys, this chapter I'm trying for the first time to write from the perspective of another character.

I honestly don't know if I did it right but if it's wrong I can just clarify that this entire fic is AU and get away with my dastardly plan.

(Valerie 1st person pov - 10 minutes before the attack)

I'm alone, once again, alone. I've got nothing and nobody to cherish or rely on.

Why are people so cruel?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Everybody who's ever been kind to me is gone. My mother, I barely remember her smile, now I only remember her screams when they dragged her away in front of me. That was the last time I saw her.

The servants who once tried to help me? Gone, and the screams never went away. Now nobody dares to help me, they only have looks of either pity or scorn.

The worst was when I lost my little brother. He was the only shining light that remained in this dreary place, the only moments that I could enjoy. I loved to dress him up as a girl, he was always so shy but he never looked at me with pity or sadness, he made me happy. We were the same.

And then, he was gone, gone like all the others. We tried to escape but now I realized how stupid we were, we could never escape, not from here. We failed miserably and it's all my fault, my only light was gone. All that was left were the darkness and the screams.

I later learned why it all happened, I was at fault. It was all my...fault…

I learned this when my so-called brother came with another bad man, someone named Rizevim, a devil. They came and talked about something called Sacred Gears, apparently, I had one and they wanted to use mine. That's when my hate started to sing in a choir with the screams.

As years passed, they used my Sacred Gear, they used me to experiment on other vampires. First the slaves, then the servants, then the guards, and then some members of the noble families. I tried to resist at first but resistance only brought more pain. I had to give in.

That's when I learned the name of my curse, the Sephiroth Graal.

At first, my brother did the experiments by himself. It started slowly, with one vampire per week, but then it accelerated.

I saw their souls and the screams only got worse as I was forced to change their very being. It came to a point where I couldn't take it anymore, I could sleep, I kept seeing their faces.

That's when the devil came and everything got even worse. They kept me from overusing my curse for long, but that only meant that, in the long run, more and more people were changed.

It kept going on and on and on and on and on for years.

Until last year, then it happened. Both my 'brother' and the devil came in, talking about some mutation and how they could hasten the process. It turned out that my curse was even more special. They talked about it being three instead of one, I couldn't really understand. What I did understand was that they wanted one of them.

That day I lost something, I don't know exactly what.

It all started with a device and pain, more pain than I've ever felt before. The pain came from inside, that's when I lost a part of me I never knew I had.

With my loss, the experiments didn't stop at all, they continued with greater fervor than ever before because they achieved their success, or as they called them:

'A new breed of perfect warriors'

The experiments continued for the last year but they suddenly came to a stop a month ago. I don't know why.

Do I dare to hope?

Do I dare to dream that this is the end?

Will the screams finally cease?

I do not know but at least I had a temporary reprieve from the pain. Now I only had the ghosts.

I was down in my cell, looking at nothing, then I came, the sound that would change my life forever.

*BOOM*

And the castle trembled.

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(1st person pov of our favorite dispenser of murder)

*BOOM*

The hunt was on.

The attack had begun.

With the defenses of the castle breached, I ran. I ran around the castle to the place where the defenses were still standing strong and everything was expected. During my relocation, the majority of the vampires guarding the castle were rerouted to the new beach, to stop the incoming tide of the rebellion.

Their strongest defense point suddenly became their weakest.

I arrived at the location and, concentrating on my BAMF, saw my entry point. Before going in, I left a magical anchor at my point, I would use it later.

Turning towards the defenses, I supercharged my blood with my magic, and, using it, I bore a hole through the castle, small enough to not be noticed until it naturally regenerated but big enough for me to pass through. Turning into a small bat, I slipped through.

After gaining entrance to the courtyard, I needed to find Valerie, nobody outside the castle knew who or where she was but the servants and slaves might.

Turning into my shadow form, I began hunting for information. (A/N pic here for shadow form, I forgot to add it before, it's not exactly like this but it's quite similar)

I had no time for admiring the medieval architecture with its beautiful arches, the sturdy cobblestone, and antique paintings. If I wanted to know I would come later for a guided tour.

Sprinting through the winding hallways, I saw a panicking servant and I lunged. My shadowed arm tore through his chest like a heated knife through butter and my teeth sunk deep into his neck. This was no time for determining whose innocent and who's not, let the afterlife sort them out.

I drank into the memories as fast as I could, searching for an answer. This guy didn't have any but he knew who did, some servant spoke in hushed tones about a dhampir in the dungeons.

Progress, now I needed to find that servant. The now mummified husk saw the servant going into the castle pantry before the whole kerfuffle started.

I asked the mummy and swiftly made my way to the pantry, luckily I had newfound knowledge of the castle's layout. Weaving and dodging my way through I arrived at the pantry to find my target huddled up in the corner, panicking.

Was he alone? No, the kitchen staff were also there but I didn't care. Concentrating my magic, I spread my shadow through the room, blinding everyone in it so that they couldn't even see their noses. I went in, swiftly approaching my target.

Teeth and claws, meet unwilling victim no. I-couldn't-be-bothered.

The same process as before and now I had the location in mind, it was time to go to the dungeons.

I left the pantry, leaving behind some terrified servants who would have nightmares forever if they survived this.

5 minutes later I was bearing the entrance. Guards were still present, 2 to be exact, guess not everyone got to participate in the slaughter-fest outside. Well, they were unlucky, outside they might have had a chance to survive. Here? With me? Slim to none.

I jumped on the ceiling before they could see me and slithered my way so that I could be above them, then, using so acrobatics that I gained from an Olympic gymnast I had fed on in Germany, pirouetted down in front of them in a maelstrom of shadow blades, leaving nothing but minced meat behind, Gordon Ramsey would be proud.

Quickly opening the door, I made my way into the dungeon proper. Valerie was on the deepest floor, one specifically for her. There was no time to further dally with the odd guard still present there. Though I made a note of each of them.

Then, a couple of minutes later, I was in front of the door to her cell. I transformed back to my adult form and opened it quickly but cautiously by flash freezing it and crumbling it from a molecular level.

Then I saw her and my heart filled with sadness.

Yes, she was gorgeous, she had blonde hair and red eyes, a beautiful face and everything in between. But what took me away from all of that was the sad look in her eyes, the way she was huddled in the corner, looking at nothing.

"Hello, are you Valerie?" I couldn't just straight kidnap her without saying anything.

"Y-yes, who are you? W-why are you here?" She looked at me, scared and I understood.

"I'm Hiro or you can call me Julian, whatever you want. Listen, Valerie, I'm here to get you out, we can talk about anything you want once I get you out of here, ok?" I put out my best smile, trying to reassure her that everything would be better.

"You're here to take me away? Away from here?"

I saw a sliver of hope behind her eyes, one she was trying to suppress. She was more hurt than I thought.

"Yes, let's get out of here, ok?"

"Ok" She murmured.

"Good, now I'm going to need you to come near me while I set something up" I gently urged her to come by my side while I set up my second anchor point.

She slowly got up and joined me.

"What's that, what will it do?" questioned the dhampiress.

"This is going to take the both of us out of here unnoticed," I told her while finishing up the magic circle that comprised the anchor. This was a concept that I had to devise since I didn't know yet how devils teleported as I hadn't seen any even in my 6 months of travel. Thus I devised the anchor points, it was relatively simple quantum magics, really, 2 magic points anchored to one another, whatever happens to one happens to the other and if, let's say, a person or persons were standing in one, it was like standing in the other at the same time. So, with proper knowledge as to how to operate them and with the proper keyed magical formula, one could choose which anchor they stepped out of. The key was needed because without it, anyone could either use them freely or become lost in quantum fuckery, I don't know, I've never tried quantum fucking myself, I didn't want to chance that without proper security.

"There, everything is set. It will take about a minute for the connection to be established and for the powering up. Do you have any quick questions you want to ask before we leave?" I finished my job and smiled at her.

"J-just one, what will happen to the other prisoners after we leave, can you take them with us?" She was still kind at heart despite everything that happened.

I sighed, I should've known that this was coming.

"We can't take them with us Valerie, we can't risk jeopardizing our escape."

"I understand" She sighed and looked down dejected.

"Well, I can't take them with us but I can do something to help them, give them an opportunity. Then it's all up to them really" I could do this, it wouldn't slow down my plans and it would create more chaos.

"Really?!" Her look brightened and I could see a shadow of a smile on her face.

"Yes, now stand back, near the magic circle but don't step on it just yet" I told her to move while I envisioned the thing I would use.

She complied and stood back.

I stepped back while facing her, my back against where the door used to be. Then I began concentrating.

This move would drain quite a bit of my magic but I would regain some of it after using it and that would be more than enough for our escape.

I powered my BAMF to the max, I could already feel the headache coming. I didn't need the full analysis that came with it, I only needed the position of the guards, the doors to the prisoner cells, and the nearest wall to the outside.

I concentrated, my blood churned in my veins, feeling like fire come alive, a volcano waiting to erupt. I fell on my knees due to the strain. Then again let it all out.

"ARGHH!"

With a painful howl I let it all out. Tendrils made of blood and shadow broke out from my back heading for my targets. They broke through the ground, through the walls and finally, through the guards. The blood skewered the guards, not killing them instantly but draining them of their own blood.

The other tendrils broke the doors of the cells without harming anyone inside while the strongest one broke the wall to the outside, a couple of floors above.

Then it was over, the tendrils retracted into my body, leaving holes and destroying the back of my clothes but bringing with them the blood from the guards. This would keep me up for the next part of the escape.

Yes, I did indeed copy the devastator attack from prototype, no I am not ashamed.

*huff huff*

"There, everyone is freed and they can escape to the outside. It's all on them now" I told Valerie while recovering from the strain.

"A-are you alright?" She asked, concerned for my well-being.

"Yes, I will be, but now we must go. Quickly, grab my hand!" I extended my arm to her.

"Yes!" She latched on quickly.

"Okay, everything is set up. I'm going to step into the anchor, do not, and I repeat DO NOT let go of me"

"I won't ever let go!" weird response but okay.

With everything good to go and the girl on my arm, we stepped into the anchor. For Valerie, nothing would change but for me, I would see the world in double, each vision overlapping one another in a maddening sequence. It was weird being in 2 places at the same time. Valerie was not affected because she wasn't consciously trying to use the anchor, no, I was the fulcrum and bore the full effect.

Focusing on my destination and letting the magic stabilize into a set point of parameters, our location changed to the initial point of the system. Once observed, the quantum fuckery stabilized and everything went back to normal, the new normal, consisting of us being outside the castle. For Valerie it was easier, one moment we were in her cell, the next moment we were outside.

"W-what just happened?" questioned Valerie, clearly perplexed.

*huff* "Long story short, we teleported. I'll tell you exactly how later, we must go now" I told her, a little tired from everything that happened.

"Okay, but where do we go now?"

"Don't worry, leave everything to me, just relax and enjoy the ride"

"Ride?"

"Just watch"

I concentrated on my magic and summoned a plethora of bats that proceeded to surround us. Half of the summons went under Valerie and I, scooping us up and creating a makeshift sofa. The other half formed a circle around us.

The whole ensemble then took flight in the moonlit sky. The circle of bats then changed and activated their power. They became transparent so that we could see the outside while we became invisible to the eye. If one were to look up they wouldn't notice us as the bat-balloon was bending light around us, enabling the magic soft to fly unhindered.

We rose up higher and higher into the night sky.

"Wow, so pretty!" Exclaimed Valerie while looking around from high.

"Haah, I know" I couldn't say anything more, I was dead tired and getting sleepy but I didn't worry. The bats knew where they needed to take us.

"Are you okay?" She asked me, concern filling her voice.

"Yes, I just need to sleep it off. Don't worry, enjoy the ride, my summons will take care of everything while I doze off" I told her through half-opened eyes.

I couldn't hear her response or if she said anything because I fell asleep then and there but not before feeling a gentle hand on my head.

(3rd person pov)

If one were to look at the star-filled sky and manage to actually see what was going on, they would notice a flying ensemble upon which something out of a fairytale happened.

A blonde and gentle girl was slowly stroking the head of a sleeping black-haired prince.

She was smiling gently, a single tear falling from her eye. All the while thinking that maybe, maybe.

Hope didn't forget and leave her behind.

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A/N

Hope you enjoyed the 9th chapter of the fic.

We finally meet Valerie and rescue her from the Tepes faction.

I don't know if you would enjoy how I wrote Valerie or her character but in my mind, someone who was used to create an army of super-soldiers, exhausted every day to the point of almost being broken would not have the mind of a chipper chipmunk.

Don't worry, she's not broken or an emotionless machine, she's a bit damaged but damage can heal with proper care.

What happened to the vamps? Who cares? Certainly not Hiro, they served the purpose he needed them for. Maybe, they'll come into play later, well, the fallout certainly will with the Carmilla.

If you want, I'll create an omake of what happened during the rebellion and what the Carmilla's response was.

As always, feedback is appreciated.

See you next time!