Chapter 13 – Lord of the Vampires

When the clock struck at the hours of nine the Nameless Circle members with Theia were teleported away into another dimension. A red moon looms in the night skies. A dark mansion in the far back. From the left and right dead trees lined up into rows. This place is surrounded by dense woodlands. There before the entrance into the estate stood the vampire Demon Lord Alistair in his Victorian styled tuxedo and cape.

"What's with this stupidly festival mood around you trash?" With an irritated tone of voice Demon Lord Alistair greets the Nameless Circle.

"Ahn? You're depressing as hell if you don't let some light into your life." "Was that intended to be a joke?" "Nah I just said it for the hell of it." As usual the two did not see each other eye to eye they saw the other as pure enemies.

"Tch whatever you picked your prize yet?" "Yeah we want the Lumen's Lamp for some lighting in our manor and some cash to go with it.

As much as we can get." "Fair enough. Contract." Two golden pieces of parchment appeared in front of Alistair and Akatsuki detailing the game.

Game - Lord of the Vampire Host - Alistair Alucard Vermilion Dracular Player(s) - Kurogami Akatsuki, Inaba, and Shirayukihime Objective(s) - 1) Escape from the Lord of the Vampires 2) Acquire the Impaler Prince 3) Skewer the heart of the dragon's scion 4) Defeat the host Wager of the host - Lumen's Lamp and 500,000 Gold Wager of the player(s) - Theia Alucard Vermilion Dracular Condition of defeat: Death of all player(s) or resignation of all player(s) This time a losing condition was attached as well. Seeing the prize money Akatsuki called out to Theia.

"Uwah mosquito apparently you're only worth 500,000 gold..." "..." She grits her teeth as if holding in her anger.

"Hmph you trash don't see her true value so all I can give is that much." "For such a doting older brother you sure are cold aren't you?" "Just sign the damn Contract." "Fine, fine." "Maids." "Wait what...?" Alistair snaps his fingers and immediately a squad of maids appeared. Two grabbed Theia from under her arms. Another two grabbed her by the legs. And just like that she was carried off screaming.

"...Good luck Theia-chan." "Must be rough..." "The game board we will use shall be the Vermilion household's manor replica. You may feel free to smash up anything to bits without worrying about paying for it." "How generous." Akatsuki quickly signed the Contract and flung it away signaling the start of the game.

"The first strike is half the battle!" He dashes forward immediately closing the distance that separate him and Alistair in mere seconds!

"Fool." "Tch." The Shield of Achilles is activated surrounding Alistair in a purple sphere preventing Akatsuki's fist from connecting and bounced him back. "Cut them to pieces." Invisible blades of wind whipped the surroundings dragging up the earth! They were not headed for Akatsuki but rather the ones behind him.

"Ah shit. Inaba, Shirayuki run!" "Futile." Akatsuki's sharpened hearings made out the sound of howling wind. It was headed for Shirayukihime and Inaba!

"Lunar Tide!" Inaba summons forth a wave of water that went pass her and hit down on the incoming blades of wind smashing them to nonexistence.

"Cold Mist." From Shirayukihime's body a white mist steeps out. It was getting denser like a heavy fog after a rain shower. With this they could escape!

"Hmph." By the time the mist had cleared the Nameless have already disappeared.

"Ah that was close almost got taken out before we could even do anything..." After initiating the start of the event Akatsuki had attempted to throw Alistair off course to make time for Shirayukihime and Inaba to run. But the plan didn't exactly go off without a hitch as such they went into improvised plan B.

"So this supposed to be old man Count Dracula?" The front room of the mansion had a giant portrait of the man known as the legendary vampire plaster on it with a red carpet rolling underneath. It showed the man in his prime with white hair and fangs dressed in the same Victorian style suit down to his chest.

"Looks like it." "*Sigh*" Shirayukihime sighs as if already tired.

"I can see why the odds are not in our favor." That one exchange nearly costed them their lives.

"For now what should we do?" "Let's go over the objectives again." 1) Escape from the Lord of the Vampires 2) Acquire the Impaler Prince 3) Skewer the heart of the dragon's scion 4) Defeat the host These are the four conditions of winning. The last one was obvious enough to understand. The first one also easy to understand it means to not fight but just run.

"But the second and fourth..." "That's when it turns into that of a game of wits..." Inaba and Shirayukihime turns to Akatsuki as this was supposed to be his forte. He puts a hand to his chin as he thinks.

"Impaler Prince... Going by these numbers there's a specific order into doing this. First we run.

This will last throughout the game till after we accomplish the second or third objectives." "Acquire the Impaler Prince what does it mean?" "Let's not get into the straight answer ideas." To acquire something that one does not have means to search and find it.

"As for Impaler Prince..." The only thing that came to mind is Vlad III who was also known as Vlad the Impaler, Vlad Tepes, and Vlad III Dracula. He was the Ruler and Prince of Walachia born in 1431 and died in 1476 in 15th century Europe. His name was renowned for being a cruel torturer of many. The torture method that made him famous was to impale his victims on a stake and then leaving them to die. His evil deeds made the Ottoman Empire fear him but he was also a folk hero in the regions who opposed the Ottoman. 1462 was the highlight of his torture method as he fled and left a field of thousands impaled on stakes to ward off his enemies and pursuers.

"He sounds like quite...a sadist..." "That's not important but you can see some connections right?" "Ah..." The name Dracula was in both.

"Originally the story of Dracula by Bram Stoker received its inspiration from Vlad III's deeds.

Although that's a debatable theory. However! The title of Impaler Prince from the Contract and Vlad's title goes hand in hand." Nodding as they listen to Akatsuki's explanation Inaba raises her hand.

"So are we supposed to find this person to help us?" "Bringing a dead person into this game? I highly doubt it. Most likely it's a weapon or tool of some sort that we need to use, related to Vlad of course." "Basically it's telling us to search for the key to victory." "Yes." "Then the fourth part." Once more Akatsuki thinks it through. Skewer means to impale so that further proves Akatsuki's point on Vlad being related to the Impaler Prince as Vlad was also a prince as he was a ruler.

Heart of the dragon's scion is probably the vaguest if one didn't understand the previous riddle. "Scion means the son of or spawn of. Dragon's, belong to means a dragon's scion." Equals to Dracula. The Latin root draco refers to dragon. Dracula is the son of a dragon making him the scion of a dragon. His name meaning translates to that title.

"And heart." In the story by Bram Stoker Dracula was killed by being impaled through the heart with a stake.

But it can't be that simple can it?

"Do we use that weapon to impale Alistair-san?" Imagining that in his head for a second Akatsuki's chuckles dismissing Inaba's idea.

"As much as I would like to but that's not possible." His damnable shield was in the way after all.

"Let's take heart as a location for now." "So it's the place or spot we need to pierce." "Right." "It probably also acts as the game's turning point." That means that by clearing the third objective Alistair will be weakened putting Nameless in the advantage.

"For now let's find the Impaler Prince." BOOM! The front door was crashed opened violently as the Lord of the Vampires walked into the mansion which is Nameless's cue to escape.

"I'm surprised it took him that long." Invisible blades of wind assaulted the interior of the mansion as the trio escaped to the second floor.

"You will not get away." "I think we will." They escaped into the left wing of the mansion. Their first order of business they must attend to is searching for the Impaler Prince that could be anywhere in the mansion.