Chapter 34

Vander leaned in his chair at the head of the table, casting a stern gaze at everyone as murmurs filled the room. "Your Highness you cannot, with a human." Vander didn't care for their words, so he didn't listen to everything they said. What he could tell was the feeling behind everything they said. Their opposition was clear to Vander, but he felt that all these old fools had forgotten what type of person he was. 

"We cannot have that dirty blood corrode the Royal family." Vander sighed at these words and moved his gaze to the side. "What is your opinion on all this Rudech?" Rudech who was standing by Vander's side flinched when he heard his words. 

Silence descended upon the room as everyone turned to look at Rudech. When he felt all their gazes on him he straightened his back and placed both his arms behind his back. "Your Highness you are the symbol of our people, your actions change their views, but your image is always important to uphold. As your loyal retainer, I will not tell you what I believe is wrong or right it is you who has to decide what path you want to walk."

"Elegantly said Rudech, it is imperative Your Highness that you do not tarnish the image you have built for many years already." Rudech's words were vague, but some believed he was against Vander in this discussion.

Vander who remained silent held his chin while he pondered. "Alright, all of you may leave I will announce my decision tomorrow." While everyone left, Vander stared at Rudech as he recalled his words.

The next day, people gathered inside the throne room. Vander Stared from his throne at everyone as he could clearly tell they were glaring at Roana who sat on a smaller one next to him.

"Silence!" When Vander spoke the murmuring around the room died down and he stood up. As he walked down a short flight of stairs he opened his mouth. "Today we are here for something very important. With the battle between us and the church having finished, we find ourselves at a new turning point."

At the bottom of the stairs, he glanced at everyone before turning to Roana who still sat on her throne. "Roana Ere can you please come stand before me, so we can decide your fate."

Roana looked at Vander with shaking eyes. When she stood up she walked towards him and stopped a few stairs above him. 

Vander sighed before opening his mouth. "Who is in opposition?" This caused the silence in the room to break. Vander could tell at least ninety percent of them were against, but what surprised him more were the ones who didn't say anything.

After looking up and into Roana's eyes, Vander lightly smiles. "They do not accept you, for you are a human and I am a vampire." While Vander spoke he raised his arms towards his chest. "Roana to change that." His hands turn into claws, and he digs them into his flesh. As the sound of Vander's bones crunching echoes through the room everyone even Roana looked at him in surprise. 

While he pulls his hands back out of his chest the sound of something throbbing reverberates through the throne room. "I give you my heart." In Vander's hands was his heart, which was still pulsing. "Will you become one with me?"

"Your Highness!" Voices shouted through the room, but Vander didn't care he stared at Roana who placed her hand on his beating heart. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Roana smiled at Vander who sounded worried for her wellbeing. "Yes."

When she said that the hole in his chest closed up and his voice dominated the room. "Shut up! Prepare the dungeon for a ritual of kinship."

In the dungeon, Vander held a box while he walked into a slightly large cell. Small bugs and webs infested the cell showing how little it was used, and in its center was a stone ritual bed. 

"Could not bother cleaning it up before we came?" When they heard Vander's words four vampires in black robes swiftly began to clean the cell.

"We shall begin then." When Roana sat down on the stone ritual bed Vander bit her on the neck. While he did this a sap left through his teeth inside her body causing her body to morph. These changes happened until the beautiful Roana had stopped being human and turned into a grayish monster with wings protruding from her back. Laying the now unconscious Roana on the ritual bed Vander turned to the robed men.

With that done, the four robed individuals begin to prepare everything. While they placed candles, one walked towards Vander with a gorgeous golden ritual knife in their hands. Vander took off his robes and let the person create cuts over his body while he suppressed his regenerative abilities. As blood flowed down his body and towards the ground, they used it to draw symbols on the ritual bed.

When they were done Vander opened the box he brought took out his heart inside it, and stopped in front of the ritual bed with it in his right hand. While blood still moved down his body he stretched his right arm above Roana's body. The one holding the ritual knife gave it to Vander, before Vander cut open his wrist the robed men began to chant causing the symbols they had made to glow. 

While they chanted in an ancient language the heart in his hand melted away and went along with the blood. Like a loop, the blood came down from Vander's arm, moved over Roana and when it found itself on the floor of the cell it moved up Vander's body and into the wounds that had been created on Vander's chest. 

Around the end of the ritual, this cycle was broken when the blood began to create a cacoon around Roana's body. When they stopped their chanting, the cocoon around her relinquished its form and Roana was drenched by the blood. 

Before letting his body regenerate, Vander controlled the blood and guided it back into his body. "Your Highness I think we should stop here, now that she is a half-blood." Vander moved his gaze and stared at Rudech who was standing outside the cell, but he didn't say a word just showed his disappointment on his face.

Even though Rudech could see this as well he didn't back down. "Your Highness if you continue you could-" Vander knew what Rudech wanted to say and talked over him. "I could die, I know that, but I have already steeled myself for if that were to pass."

"But your Highness you have no heir once you die the royal bloodline will vanish."

"I understand your feelings Rudech, but weren't you the one who told me to walk down my own path?"

Rudech straightened his back and before he left he opened his mouth. "I wish your Highness the best of luck."

Vander smiled as he walked towards Roana who had been cuffed to the ritual bed by the robed men. 

Alone in the cell, he used to ritual knife to create a small cut in his finger and hovered it above her nose. When the smell of his fresh blood filled her nostrils Roana shot awake while her body transformed back into the monstrous form. 

Vander looked at Roana who couldn't let him out of her sight. her expression told him everything he was like a delicious meal in her eyes. "Don't make me wait for too long, alright."

When two hours had passed Rudech reappeared. Inside the cell, he saw Vander who sat on the floor with a book on his lap, while Roana tried to break free from the cuffs that kept her in place. "She is still in her primal form?"

Vander turned his head towards him, he still showed a calm expression while Rudech's eyes were shaking. "The average is two hours she will wake up soon."

After four hours, Roana was still in her primal form, six hours, and still nothing had changed, twelve hours was when more people began to come by and show concern. At the end of the day, Rudech stood outside the cell and looked at Vander who was still waiting. "Your Highness, what will you do now?"

"If she doesn't wake up after a week went by I will let her devour me."

Rudech's eyes opened wide hearing Vander's words. "Why did you feel the need to do this, Your Highness?"

"This is a risk I was willing to take if it was for her, now leave if you have nothing important to say."

"I will get going then, Your Highness." Rudech bowed towards Vander before walking away.

When five days had passed by, Vander could hear someone making their way towards him. Out of everyone who had come by, Rudech was the only one who would do it regularly, but it wasn't him who stopped before the cell railings. "Why are you here, Arloc?"

"It must hurt doesn't it being drained of all your power until you become the easiest target for a beast that only has the thought of devouring you running through their head." 

Vander furrowed his brows while the man spoke. "What are you trying to get at?"

"Who would have thought that a man of your power would end up in this precarious situation no matter what you die unless she wakes back from her slumber? Maybe you shouldn't have offered your heart, Vander."

Vander swiftly gets up and stops a needle made from blood that was aimed toward Roana's head. "What's the meaning of this Arloc, has the Rivenblood family forgotten its place?"

"You know Vander I hate you, a man with no ambition that withered most of his life away deep underground has reached a peak many wish they would attain before they pass. But now look at you protecting a human!" From behind Arloc, figures slipped through the bars of the cell, by turning into blood. When they regained their form they stabbed swords inside of Vander's body.

While the blades pierced into his flesh a smile appeared on Vander's face. Blood originating from the wounds they had made surged up their blades and swiftly propelled itself toward the heads of the assailants. some could escape this surprise attack, but the others dropped lifelessly to the ground after having their skulls punctured. As his wounds began to heal, the swords slipped out of his body and dropped to the ground.

With a filthy smile on his face, Vander looked at everyone in front of him. "It was getting boring sitting around in silence."

Arloc who stood in the back shouted at his men. "Kill the woman and he will die as well."

As light slowly appeared in her eyes Roana found herself in a room with broken walls, and the pungent smell of blood filled her nose. She could hear footsteps making their way towards her, the person who walked into her vision filled her heart with warmth. They began to release the cuffs around her arms and legs and when she sat upright she could see bodies littering the ground. "You sure know how to make someone wait." Roana could feel their arms grab her back and legs, they lifted her and held her like a princess while they left the dungeon.

The bullets rushed through the air but didn't go for the target Roland expected. One after another, the council members drop to the ground. Vander who watched this turned his head towards the enforcer who had recently entered the room. he glared into their eyes and could see a green glow.

"Reginald what's the meaning of this!?" Roland stared at the head enforcer in disbelief at what had just taken place.

"That is not the man you once knew, he has long died. A hollow shell puppeteered by a putrid individual." Vander glared at the group of enforcers from above their heads and body parts he could see green strings stretching up into the sky.

With a swipe of his hand, a burst of energy charged towards them. The pure force caused the walls behind them to explode and a portion of the floor. 

"Father, what have you done?" Rosalia appears out of the same hole in the wall as Vander and stares at the state of the room in shock. Nobody inside was alive except for Vander and Roland. "Have you forgotten the promises you made, those to Mother, those to the people of this city?"

Vander looked at his daughter with a heavy gaze and was incapable of uttering a word. 

"Why are you even here didn't I ask you to leave this to me?" Vander could tell Rosalia was emotional about the situation, her love for her mother carried over to the beliefs she held, and in her eyes, he had violated them. "Rosalia, I have-"

"Aren't you a terrible father?" Vander stopped speaking when he heard these words, as he could feel the strength in his body being drastically lowered. Before he could act Vander felt a dagger slip into his back. 

"Father!" Rosalia yelled out loud, seeing her father cough out black blood.

"Next time you should listen more to your daughter and take better care of your wife." When Vander heard this word he placed his right foot forward and turned his body. He gave a piercing look at the current leader of the Camrel clan and noticed for the first time the green strings attached to his body. In pure rage, Vander grabbed the man's head and crushed it into bits, before falling to the ground himself. 

As he lay on the cold floor he could see a small girl with long red hair running towards him. "Father!" His vision had become hazy and he felt his life slipping away. "I'm sorry for being an inadequate father." He mustered out these last words not just for her but all his children that he felt he had wronged.

Rosalia picked up Vander's body and shook him but he didn't move he was completely lifeless. "Father!" Tears moved down Rosalia's cheeks as hugged his corpse.

While she held him Rosalia could hear a shot go off. When she moved her head backwards she saw a bullet flash by her face. From inside the dust that had appeared due to Vander's energy wave, a figure appeared, half of their body was mangled, but somehow they could still stand. 

"What's going on here?" Natasha came from the same hole as Rosalia and Vander and stared at the trashed council room in astonishment. Her eyes darted around, she saw Roland standing to the side, a woman with long red hair holding onto a body, and someone she certainly didn't expect.

"What are you doing here Reginald?" Natasha quickly picked up something strange was going on. "Old man get over here. Now!" With strange and creepy movements, Reginald dashed towards Roland.

Not wasting a second Natasha ran at an inhuman speed and pulled her sword off her back. She quickly placed her left hand on her blade and blocked the claws that had grown out of Reginald's hands. "Who are you?"

"Hahaha, I had different plans for him, but to think I did something even the great first herald of infinity couldn't accomplish, What a delight." The smile on the green-haired man's face grew while he stared at Akiyoshi and Suki who were fighting Daniel.