Chapter Twenty Four: Status of the Castle and Lore of LCO

An hour has passed since Eris' battle with Lucina. She's currently walking through the halls of her castle, now wearing the dress and accessories she wore before fighting. At her left side is Chrono and at her right is Lulu.

As the three of them travel, the vampire can't help but smile as she thinks, "I know that this entire situation is strange, but this is so cool. Lulu and Aragon are two of my favorite NPCs that I created. Lulu is an Ultimate Amalgamated Homunculi, an artificial organism made with magic, and she has the ability to form weapons out of her hands. Chrono is a Purgatory Archdemon Punisher and he can create and manipulate weapons called the Chains of Purgatory. They're both so cool."

"And what's got you in such a good mood, you highness?" Chrono asks.

"Oh nothing in particular. I'm just happy that I still have my original strength in this world. It's obvious that Lucina hasn't changed much, but what about the rest of you? Have you had any problems that I should know about?"

"Archdemons are immune to illnesses just like vampires, so there are no problems with that. If you're talking about our abilities, I can still summon and fight with the Chains of Purgatory."

"Negative. I too am immune to illnesses. I can also still create armaments with my body and use them efficiently," Lulu answers with an expression void of emotion.

"I'm glad. I don't know if I'll be able to defend myself in this world if my forces are all too weak to fight. Speaking of which, what are our current forces composed of?"

"The entire eclipse army, the Ten Commandments, The Seven Deadly Sins, the Four Horsemen, and the Nine Rulers of Purgatory are all accounted for," the archdemon answers.

"The entire eclipse army is here?" Eris asks with widened eyes.

"Indeed. They are currently resting within the realm of shadows, but they are ready for battle at a moment's notice," explains the homunculi.

"And how many are there?"

"There are 2 million shadow infantry, 1 million shadow cavalry, 1 million shadow archers, 1 million shadow magic support, 1 million shadow magic attack, 1 million shadow stealth, 2 million shadow aerial units, 500 thousand shadow war beasts, and 500 thousand shadow war machines, and then there are the units that don't fight, the shadow workers that number 100 thousand," answers Chrono.

"Holy hell. Well, have a few of the shadow stealth units survey the city. If they find something, order them not to attack. We don't really want to be provoking anyone or anything at this point in time."

"Understood, you highness," says Lulu.

"Where are we going now, if you don't mind my asking?"

"We're going to the library. There are a few things that I want to confirm and I want to do a little bit of research," she answers the archdemon.

"You could just ask your servants like us to do the research for you. There's no need to trouble yourself, Empress."

"This is a personal matter."

"Oh. Understood."

The three of them arrive in front of a large door and open it up. Inside they find a massive circular library. There are three different floors, each with over one hundred large, full shelves of books. The room is lit by multiple chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and lamps hanging on the walls. In the center of the room is a large, circular, wooden desk and ten chairs with it.

"Let's split up. Lulu, I want you to go and find me several books on the usage of magic. I also want you to look for books having to do with the different species of the world we come from. Specifically I want books on vampires and their evolutions. Chrono, I'm starting to feel a bit dizzy. I would appreciate it if you could get me something to drink."

"It would be my pleasure, Empress," says Chrono before disappearing with a small flash.

"I'll begin searching," says the homunculi before setting off towards the bookshelves.

When the two of them go, Eris moves towards the table, sits down, and thinks to herself, "Legend Conquerors Online had a ton of game lore. I used to buy books in the game just so I could read some of the lore. Each race had different gods and goddesses as well as a different story about how the universe came to be. But the 'truth' of the creation is actually very complicated. In the beginning there were the gods, the celestial gods, the dragon gods, the demon gods, and the spirit gods. The gods created eighteen realms, including Necron, where I first spawned in the game. The many different gods and goddesses within these five groups then created various races to inhabit these realms including humans, elves, dwarves, dragons, and spirits. The demon gods however, were left out of the creation and wanted revenge. So they went to the most powerful of the gods, the goddess of darkness, war, and death, Aesira. They tricked Aesira into thinking that the gods were afraid of her power and wanted to destroy her. So, she set out to destroy the gods and all other races by birthing the vampires, ghouls, dark elves, chaos elves, demons, anti fairies, and all forms of undead. Once her army was established, she set out on her campaign with the backing of the demon gods. The war was long, and in the end, six of the realms that the gods created were completely destroyed. The goddess of war and death was sealed, the demon gods were all destroyed, and many of the gods, celestial gods, and spirit gods lost their own lives. The dragon gods stayed neutral, because they thought themselves above war. Right now, I need to confirm whether the info or lore of the game has any relevance in this world."

Chrono suddenly teleports right beside Eris, surprising her a bit, and hands her a wine glass filled with a red liquid, "Here you are, Empress."

Eris takes the glass and then asks with a bitter smile, "Um… this is?"

"Fresh blood," he answers.

"Did one of the artificial blood generators get transferred here?"

"No ma'am. This is fresh from a human corpse."

"Huh? But where did the corpse come from?"

"There have been a few idiotic humans who have tried to enter your sacred domain in these past thousand years," he answers with a smile.

"And you killed them?"

"Yes. Is that a problem, Empress?"

"I think it would have been good for you to capture at least one or two of them to get information out of them," Eris says with a blank expression.

"Oh um… well, at the time we were just concerned for your health. And we thought that you'd probably be hungry after sleeping for a thousand years. Please forgive us."

She sighs, "Oh well. I guess that I am happy that you all were so concerned for my safety." Eris then looks at the decorative wine glass in her hand, "Still though, I'm kinda hesitant about drinking human blood, being that I was a human before now. Damn. I guess I am a vampire now. I'm just going to have to accept it." She takes a big gulp of blood. The warm liquid fills her mouth and goes down her throat, and as it does so she can instantly feel her dizziness start to fade away, "Wow. It's a lot better than I thought it would be. It's sweet like strong, cherry-flavored water."

Eris drinks the blood until the wine glass is completely empty and Chrono asks, "Would you like another?"

"Yes please," she answers calmly, even though she feels like her body is trying to compel her to drink gallons of blood.

Chrono teleports once more and Eris puts her hand in the center of her chest and breathes, trying to control her breathing and the urge to consume more blood, "This is going to be irritating if I keep feeling like this everytime I drink blood. Maybe this is a side effect of the Sin of Gula skill."

"Mistress, are you alright?"

The vampire looks up to see Lulu in front of her, holding a large stack of books in both hands. Though her voice held a tone of concern, her expression is completely emotionless.

Eris finally gets the urge under control and answers, "I'm fine. I just haven't drunk human blood in a while. My body is just trying to adjust."

Lulu sets the books on the table in front of Eris, "You shouldn't ignore your body's urge to drink blood, mistress. You may be an Eclipse Vampire Goddess, but that doesn't mean that you can't lose yourself in your thirst for blood like any other vampire."

Eris smiles, "Thanks Lulu."

"If you want, mistress, you could drink my blood. Although not as nutritional as a human's, it should be enough to satisfy you."

"Thanks for the offer, but Chrono has just gone to get me a fresh glass." On que, Chrono shows up at Eris' side and sets the glass of blood on the table in front of you, "Thank you."