1 Prologue

"Father! Father! Where are you?!" A young boy called out.

The young boy was frantically calling out to his father while searching for him. Around him, his surroundings were filled with utter chaos as he was in the middle of his burning village.

Around the boy, many people around the village were trying to escape their attackers. Some people were even caught by their attackers and were getting their blood sucked from their neck. It didn't take long for the boy to figure out that their attackers were vampires.

One vampire took notice of the young boy's carelessness and approached him with the intent to kill him. Just as the vampire was gonna attack the boy, a sword appeared between the boy and the vampire, and slashed the vampire's throat. 

"Sebastian! Where's your weapon?! You always need to have a weapon on you at all times!" A grown man shouted at the boy named Sebastian.

"Father! Who are these people?! Why are they attacking us?!" Sebastian cried out to the grown man.

"This is war, my son! These vampires only want what's in their personal interest! Take this sword and follow me to the rest of the survivors!" Sebastian's father replied, handing him a short sword.

Following his father, Sebastian took notice of his surroundings as the moon was blood red and the snow that was falling was red. The nearby forest was set ablaze and many people were dead on the ground.

Sebastian and his father arrived at a big wooden hut with survivors but it didn't look so good as the survivors were surrounded by the vampires. Sebastian's father rushed in and engaged in combat with the vampires, which were taken by surprise by his swordsmanship. 

Sebastian's father and the other grown up survivors dispatched of the group of vampires. The group of survivors consisted of a couple of grown ups and a lot of children. The children were frightened as their bodies were shaking and their eyes were full of tears.

"Dammit! This is your son's fault for bringing these vampires to this village! He's a cursed child! If we survive, we'll have you and your son executed!" A grown man shouted at Sebastian's father.

While the adults were arguing, Sebastian took notice of the group of vampires approaching them including one vampire, which stood out from the rest. Sebastian looked into the vampire's deep crimson eyes and saw many bloody scenes in his eyes including their death. 

Time appeared to have slowed down as Sebastian could hear his heart beat loudly. He looked around and saw the snow painted with red, and saw blood red snowflakes slowly fall to the ground.

"Sebastian! Sebastian!" Sebastian's father's voice slowly became louder as time resumed.

Sebastian looked at his father and saw blood on his face. Sebastian looked behind his father and saw a vampire dead on the ground. Some of the adults had died to the vampire as the vampire had the element of surprise.

"You need to take the children and run into the forest while we hold the vampires off so you can escape! You're the only one who knows swordsmanship to defend them!" 

Sebastian's body shook as he heard his father's words. Defend the children? Why? Why couldn't some of the adults come with?

"Listen to your father, boy! As much as some of us hate your guts, you're the only hope for our children's survival!" An adult shouted at Sebastian as a vampire lunged at him.

"Calm yourself, Sebastian! You must go now or our sacrifices will be in vain. Your mother is safe so find her, if you can find her and tell her to fin-" Sebastian's father almost finished his sentence but was interrupted by the vampire.

Sebastian's father quickly reacted and parried the vampire's attack and slash towards the vampire's throat. The vampire fell to the ground and Sebastian's father shouted for Sebastian to leave immediately.

Sebastian and the group of children fled to the forest as they were instructed to do so. Once they were far away, Sebastian looked back and saw his father, armless, on his knee in front of the vampire that had the deep crimson eyes.

As if he felt Sebastian's gaze, his father looked at him and smiled before being decapitated by the vampire. Sebastian felt many emotions but the most prominent emotion was sadness and staring at the vampire that decapitated his father, he swore revenge. 

The vampire that executed Sebastian's father stared at him and smiled while sending one vampire after the group of children. Realizing it was time to go, Sebastian and the group ran deep into the forest until one of the children tripped and sprained their ankle.

Sebastian immediately instructed one of the children to pick the injured child but they didn't listen, which meant they only cared for their own survival. Sebastian picked up the injured child and ran until they all ran out of breath.

Thinking they were safe, they all sat down and waited till they regained their breath but that was a mistake. The vampire, who was following the children, caught up and appeared in the middle of them and had a creepy smile.

Quick to react, Sebastian slashed toward the vampire but instead of landing the hit against the vampire, Sebastian found himself a great distance away from the group of children and bleeding through his abdomen. 

Ignoring the pain, Sebastian rushed forward and prepared to slash at the vampire but this time, he fainted his slash into a thrust. The sudden change in his attack caused the vampire to get injured and angered by his attack.

The vampire punched Sebastian, which slammed Sebastian against a tree. Sebastian coughed up a mouth full of blood and all the children rushed toward him with worry on their faces.

"Is that all you got?! Pathetic!" The vampire slowly walked towards the group of children while Sebastian's vision was slowly fading away.

'Am I going to die?' Sebastian was thinking.

"Rest easy, kid. I'll take it from here" A voice said, soothing Sebastian's mind and worries for the children.

The last thing Sebastian saw, is the vampire's head being decapitated from its body and a mysterious person casting a green light on Sebastian's body.

—----------------------------

Ten Hours Ago

"You can't catch me!" A girl shouted toward the boy as he chased around trees.

"You wish!" The boy shouted as he touched the girl's back and caused her to trip on the ground.

"Haha!" A boy laughed.

"Did you think you could really outrun Sebastian?" Another girl said, in the trees.

"Are you ok?" Sebastian asked the girl on the ground as he reached out his hand.

Accepting Sebastian's hand, the girl said "I wouldn't be talking as you were the first to be caught, Sophie."

"Calm down, it's just a friendly game of tag." The boy spoke again.

"Baron, there's no point in trying to calm them down." Sebastian said.

"True. Haha!"

Walking away from the girls, Baron and Sebastian started to talk and found the remaining children in the forest. After they found everyone, they walked back to their village and greeted the adults in the village but some of the adults didn't greet Sebastian as they had done to the other kids.

When children are born, they have to take an aptitude test to determine their magical element but Sebastian didn't register on the magical aptitude test, which caused concern for the villagers in the village. 

Once word got out about Sebastian being manaless, the village began to take advantage for their own personal interest. Sebastian's father was chief of the village and many villagers wanted the position due to their greed. Many villagers accused Sebastian of being a bad omen to the village and will only bring death.

Sebastian parted ways with his friends and opened the door to his home. He saw his father kneeling down with a sword by his side and another sword opposite of him.

Sebastian kneel'd by his sword and counted to three then both him and his father lunged at each other. They interlocked swords together and stared at each other's eyes until Sebastian's father used more strength to end the stalemate.

Sebastian slashed into a thrust against his father but only got parried into an incoming slash. Reacting, Sebastian ducked and slash toward his father's abdomen but instead he received a kick to the face and suddenly his father's blade was near his throat.

"You're getting better but you're still far from becoming a knight." His father spoke while putting his blade away.

The spar between father and son ended but Sebastian could hardly care as becoming a knight was a hard process. Sebastian walked into his room and laid down on his bed while thinking about his dream to become a knight.

Sebastian slowly drifted off to sleep and happily dreamed of the next day but it wouldn't be a good day no matter what.

Waking up in the middle of night, Sebastian heard screams and opened the door of his home. Once the door was open, Sebastian saw his father, armless, on his knees and smiling to him while a sword slowly descended on his neck.

"Father!" Sebastian shouted as he woke up in a room with lanterns and knight armor aligned along the walls.