Power backlash & Syndicates meeting being set up

Days began passing inside Sagletius as time fast forwarded, for Vlad and maybe the people around him.

When the following day, since Sofiya stayed the night inside the orphanage building, the next day, together with Elisabeth, taught the orphan kids by telling them stories.

They didn't go to dine at old Marcus place, which probably gave the old man a smile on his old face, glad that he didn't have to be on all short of places around the kitchen.

As for Ricardo, he missed a bit the whole atmosphere Vlad's group would bring whenever they came.

While back to the secluded settlement, Vlad took a break from reading the old book, feeling that he shouldn't rush with the information accumulation.

He pondered on the last note on the book, in which the grandmaster wrote the backstory of how he walked the path which leads to the book's inception. The old man monologues a lot, but Vlad draws the conclusion in his mind.

'So for you to draw all those intriguing ideas, you had to bisect more than 40 cadavers. Heh, not bad old grandmaster. Then it will probably be easy for me to continue your work and see what else is left to discover.'

'With the help of my blood powers, it's easy to draw conclusions on aspects that require the blood usage.'

'I also need to balance my powers, or else I will suffer in the long run. It's unknown when that energy will wake up inside of me and run wild again.'

'There's even this power slumbering in my body, but there's no response whenever I try to break that barrier.'

While his thoughts continue to run around all directions, he walked out to see how the little orphans he brought were doing. He enjoyed himself whenever they were smiling from ear to ear and enjoyed their lives as it should be done by kids their age.

However, a break to this norm was Robert, who was rather closer to his heart. He saw himself a lot in Robert. It reminded him of when he, too, was young, mentally wise. That desire to get stronger, he obviously felt it and was happy to see Robert train without him having to remind him.

As he walked slowly inside the orphanage building, he noticed the young ladies telling the kids some stories, which this time he didn't bother himself to keep in mind.

When the two ended, it made the orphans take notice of Vlad. The little girls, Fay and Alicia, also the boys looked at him with smiles and greeted him as respectfully as possible. It felt too formal, which pondered him a bit.

Turning his head to look at Sofiya and Elisabeth, he asked them. "Did you tell the kids to be more respectful with me? You shouldn't, I don't care that much about these pleasantries coming from them."

Then as he focused on the orphans, he said to them. "It seems you began learning some interesting things. Ethics of society was it called?"

Fay and Alicia nodded their little heads and responded in their cute tone. "Yes big brother, big sister Sofiya told us that having good manners with people we see important should be always done."

"I see, very good you little guys. However, don't use it with me, I'm the big brother, not some stranger." As he said that, he walked to Alica and Fay and ruffled their tiny heads, and with this chance, he also observed the progress of their recovery, which was going well.

He could see the complexion on their cheeks getting better. Then after that, he nodded at Sofiya and Elisabeth before exiting the building.

Slowly he began walking towards the water stream and turned out to see Robert training himself, whereas Aerius also ran around the shore of the water stream. Nodding his head, seeing them train, especially Aerius, who was precisely doing what Vlad was telling him to train, his agility.

Not disturbing them, he walked in another direction of the water stream at a greater distance. Taking a seat on the ground, he entered a meditative state.

Surrounded by the sounds of nature, he slowly closed his senses with each minute passing. The sounds dimmed with each minute passing. After some minutes, the world around Vlad's closed eyes darkened. Controlling his breathing and letting himself being devoured by the darkness without even giving a slight frown.

Then he got a feeling and opened his eyes. He could see a boundless dark and red world while he was seated on a high throne.

'Good, the first stages of this power seems to be unlocked properly. My guessing was right, using my powers, regardless that is the blood or dark energy in this world can improve my mastery slightly more.'

As he thought that, from the high throne, he extended his white hand, and with his dark-green eyes shining with some blood-red color, some particles of blood-like substance began gathering in his hand.

Quickly, the frame of a claymore, similar to Nemesis, was formed in the life-like version, only that this sword was crimson in color. With a grasping motion, he grabbed the sword while still seated on the throne.

Raising from the throne and using a bit more of his [Enhancement], he slashed towards the bright light he could see from the throne. With this slash, instead of only containing the slashing force, it also had a blood drain following along.

Then as he stared at the [Blood Slash] moving along the light, as it was approaching more and more, it suddenly scattered like the force of that light was stronger than his attack. This outcome instantly made Vlad frown hard and ponder on his next set of actions.

Climbing the steps of this throne down, and with Nemesis lowered towards the ground, he began walking down the stairway while the sword touched the stairs and made a trail of blood.

This time he had the intention of checking again on the light shining in the world of blood and darkness. With that setup done, he began walking towards the light while also training his swordplay in different ways. From drills of his first life swordplay to making new attacks using his blood and dark energies, from even going to increasing the intensity of his footwork.

This place, apart from what someone would call it, was all in his mind, his inner world. How he managed to awaken this ability was unknown to Vlad. Since the time that he entered in a small comatose, this ability awakened in him.

Still, there were limitations to this inner world ability. He only had 30 minutes of time to stay here and train without feeling his body's limitations. The amount of blood he had here was larger than what he could muster on the outside, and so making his training more proficient than if he did it outside with his real blood.

Like this, minutes passed while Vlad, who did all short of sword combination attacks and seemed to be dancing while leaving a trail of blood going forward to light in the world horizons.

Slowly but surely, he began approaching that horizon which was illuminated by the light, but each of his steps he did to move forward was countered with an intense pressure running down on him. This pressure was stronger than what he ever felt from Aerius adult form or Charles, the old general of his ancestor.

His eyes began shining with blood-red lights as he pushed his [Enhancement] ability to the limit just to keep up with the pressure running him down. He felt that each of his steps would react with a stronger recoil, but he didn't give up on trying to reach that light. As if his madness took over him, he also began to give off some dark mist from his chest that surrounded him in a protective shield.

But it was in vain. All the protections he placed on his body were useless in the face of this light, giving off a pressure unimaginable for Vlad. His eyes, nose, and mouth started bleeding hard, while his knees had their protective skin and flesh being torn apart.

Yet, in the face of all of this resistance, Vlad still kept pushing himself towards that light that seemed to lament his choice. After doing some more steps successfully towards the light, as if it was offended, the light in the horizons shined brighter, which in exchange blown Vlad's jet-black hair that had some remains of blood inside that give it a more crimson look.

This was the final response of the light which almost crushed Vlad, but as he was being crushed by this pressure, the dark and red world that seemed to be illuminated by a bright light began shattering, flowing apart like sand.

Vlad still looked with a hint of madness in his eyes at the light over the horizon, not being demoralized by his failed challenge.

Then with the shattering of the world, he closed his eyes, and suddenly a splitting headache, so strong that it made him scream in pain madly, began manifesting.

Gritting his teeth to fight back the nightmarish headache, he later felt his eyes also burning him hard, then as if it was a reaction to his failed attempt, his vision blooded, making him not see properly.

Then he touched his nose and eyes and felt the warm liquid that was his blood flowing continuously. Not being able to cope with the pain, he screamed again so hard that it shook the birds flying around his secluded spot.

Dropped on the ground, he felt his heart beating madly as if trying to protect his master from the side effects of his powers. Yet this didn't change anything concerning the pain he felt, such pain, the tortures he passed by regardless that they were in his first life or second life were child play in comparison with the side effects of his failed attempt at forcing his way to the light.

He screamed and teared up blood so madly that his screams were heard by Aerius' keen senses.

[Aerius POV]

'This is not fun at all, running and sprinting along the waterway is such a pain in the ass. But I have to do it, so I don't seem useless. This would be an insult to the great gryphon race, to have a human laugh at me constantly.'

'Hmm, I have sensed Vlad moving around here not too long ago, how long it was, 20 minutes or was it 30 minutes? I don't remember since I've constantly been running around here.'

*Then Vlad's screams of pain began to be heard by Aerius, which instantly made him stop running and look to where Vlad was with a confused yet worried face.*

'What's wrong with that Vermilion to scream so loudly, that even I could hear him from here? Let me quickly check on him.'

[General POV]

Like this, Aerius began moving towards in a rushed manner to the secluded spot Vlad picked to meditate, and with each tree, he was passing, the intensity of Vlad's screams of pain increased.

He increased his speed and, in a moment, arrived at where Vlad was dropped on the ground, with hands placed, grasping hard his head.

There was a small blood puddle around him as if he bleed extensively. Looking with a panicked face, he asked Vlad, not knowing what to do.

"Boss, what happened to you? Are you okay, do you want to call others to help you out?"

Vlad, who held his head on the ground, couldn't hear or sense Aerius, who was staring with a worried expression. It was as if someone took away his senses, so hard the pain washing over him was.

Yet after some minutes passed, he could feel his heartbeat which was beating madly in his chest. His head pain also began dropping down slightly, which enabled him to hear Aerius.

He raised his head from the ground and opened up his eyes to look at Aerius. Still blurred, he could make out the outline of Aerius from his long hair dropped on the ground. He only said to him in a horse tone.

"Don't worry little guy, it's fine, I'm fine. No need to bother anyone with my mistakes."

When Aerius looked at Vlad's opened eyes from behind the strands of hairs, he noticed that his eye was blood red, while he also teared up blood. Not believing what he told him, he got closer to him to check on him, and as he got in close proximity, he could hear Vlad's heartbeat resounding in his sharp ears.

Then after 30 minutes of waiting, around Vlad, hearing his hissing and grunts caused from holding his screams, Aerius could hear Vlad's stabilizing his breathing. He began taking long breaths, and after 5 minutes, the blood around him began to get back in his body.

After some more minutes, he took a meditative position and gently grabbed Aerius who was around his legs. His complexion was a bit paled, but with a calm voice, he said to Aerius.

"Little guy, what you have seen today remains between us. Tell Robert if he asks you what happened, but there's no need to worry the girls or the little kids with this problem of mine."

Looking still a bit worried about Vlad, Aerius nodded his head, yet still asked. "But what happened to you, that made you scream in pain so hard? You seem like a guy with high pain tolerance."

Hearing the question Vlad's eyes grew serious and a bit cold, yet he responded with a guess while frowning.

"There's something slumbering inside of me that I shouldn't disturb yet. I did this and as a consequence, my head almost felt like exploding and eyes popping out."

Aerius, when hearing that he felt confused and looked at Vlad with some doubt. "It's there really such a thing inside of you that is able to harm you in such a manner? You better not try your luck on that thing you're referring or you'll get killed. Then there wouldn't be Louis's descendant to look after me before I grow back?"

"Sigh, I know little guy, stop worrying after old me. I will wait a longer time before pushing towards that power, for now, I'll train in what I can handle."

As he said that, he showed Aerius his two hands. Slowly Aerius began to see how in his hands there began to gather a mass of blood in it, while the other one began releasing dark mist, enveloping the hand. Letting Aerius to see his powers, he took it back inside his body, like everything was an illusion.

When Aerius saw the dark mist in his right hand, he jumped a bit and said to Vlad with a surprised tone.

"You can summon and control that cold power, great. Does this mean you'll no longer turn into that cold manner?"

"I don't know yet little guy, all I can do is train those powers and keep them in check, especially the dark energy, there's more to that then I can even think. As for the blood powers I got from the devil fruit, it's more about trial and failure, kind of training, and reading a lot of books on the human body, like the book I got from Sofiya."

Slowly began talking something softer, not specifically targeting Vlad's powers. Instead, Aerius would ask him again about certain confusions he had when he trained. He even told Vlad that he hated doing all this training, which instantly made Vlad chuckle a bit.

"Running, you shall run to build your strength, when you can finally spread your four wings wide open and take off, flying, I shall see your training changed."

"Hmph, but when I get bigger I wouldn't need your help, I shall be the one to look after you." retorted back Aerius when he heard Vlad about changing his training regardless if he grew in size.

Vlad only smiled at Aerius and said to him. "Sneaky brat, so what if you grow in size? I'm older than you anyway, you'll listen to me like a good boy regardless of your size. Until you grow I will be able to place even that grown size of yours in his place. Now stop pestering me, and get going back to your training."

Then like that, Aerius, with some mumbling under his breath, went back to running while Vlad walked back to his water stream spot and submerged half of his body, feeling his body refreshed and normal once again.

Like this time flew by, and afternoon came. Vlad stopped his relaxation and walked back to the wooden house, where he took some dried meats with bread to eat. Sofiya, this time didn't stay the night and took her leave with some reluctance before checking on Vlad to tell him that she was leaving. When she entered the house, she saw Vlad reading with a smile on his face the old book she brought him.

Thinking that Vlad didn't notice her entry, she also gave a slight smile before saying to him. "Well, Vlad, I should call it a day for today. I will also have to take care of my grandfather shop, but I will come when time would let me, to visit the little guys. It also seems you really got into that book I bought from the market, is it any good?"

Taking a pause from reading the book, he turned his head to Sofiya and looked at her with a calm, casual manner, saying to her starting with her question.

"Is it any good you ask? This book is a masterpiece, rarely to be seen in the world. The knowledge inside this book would increase my blood powers by a large margin, just by understanding how my body works properly. If you ever encounter other books like this one, buy them for me, regardless of price. Even if you encounter someone who wants to sell it immediately, make him wait, and I'll give him as much money as he desires."

Hearing Vlad say this about the book, she really got curious and approached Vlad and looked at the page he was reading, and seeing those drawings that looked nice to the eye, containing different body parts, made her confused a bit.

"Hmmm, still confusing as ever this book. Whenever I see these bisected parts of human, I get this weird feeling in my stomach. The writer of this book should have killed or bisected a lot of people to write this book."

"Not killed, the grandmaster, never killed. He took from morgues the fresh deceased bodies of people to conduct his research. Anyway, Sofiya, I'm really thankful for everything you did, for me and especially the kids. If you ever have a request from me, or you encounter any problem, I'll be there to listen to you."

Tapping on Vlad's shoulder, Sofiya began walking towards the exit and said calmly. "You have nothing to thank me, especially the kids. It takes me nothing to teach them in my spare time. As for the book, just take it as a gift because you made me understand some things that maybe it would take me longer to realise. Also, I'll remember what you said about the request. Look forward to it." ended Sofiya giving Vlad a slight smile before exiting the house.

As she exited, her calm-looking face gave a smile before starting to walk back to the district.

The following day, as a break from reading on the book, he walked to check on Robert. But to his surprise, he found him staring with a sad face at the little kids gathered around the water stream, especially when looking at Fay and Alicia.

'Sigh, boy be strong. It will only be some years before I can take you back home and also see what that nightmare you got from my dark powers was all about. Who knows maybe my dark powers even have prophetic powers?'

The kids played around until they got tired and walked back to the orphanage, welcomed by Elisabeth, preparing something for them to eat. Vlad also dined inside with Robert and Aerius, and not long after that, they walked back to their house.

Night fell over the world, days passed, about a week since the backlash effects on his power happened.

Robert constantly trained each day. Aerius also kept on training, even if he felt a bit weird doing so. The little orphans showed signs of getting towards a full recovery after having constant filling meals. Meanwhile, for Elisabeth, the first week she spent together with the kids at the orphanage, the time with Sophia, and the peacefulness of this zone made her more calmer and not disturbed by the effects of her encounter with the syndicate members.

She was really thankful to Vlad, treating him more like a benefactor, regardless of what he used to tell her, in changing the way she addressed him. Still, she continued on doing her things, which Vlad didn't bother compelling her to stop.

As for Vlad, in this week that passed, he would overlook the orphan's progress to recovery, watch Robert training in silence, similarly do the same for Robert. Whenever Sofiya would come to visit the kids, he would talk for a bit about the situation inside the district or the other districts.

It felt like he only overlooked the zone, but he was also training, gathering strength in his body.

Then came the following day where Sofiya came again to his secluded zone, but this time he came holding an envelope.

Looking at Vlad with a calm expression, she said to him. "Guess for who this envelope is?"

"Ohh, did Aldenis already finished setting up the meeting and gathered my information, come inside my lady. Let me see what that old man planned."

Hearing Vlad guesses accurately from where the envelope containing a message was, she entered inside and saw that things changed since she last came inside. There was an extension of the house, which she walked being led by Vlad.

Entering inside, it was a small study room that had a desk fitted with some chairs containing some cushions of a bear or other animal's hides. There was also a small library that looked empty. The room was illuminated by an oil lamp. Sofiya looked around with curious eyes, a bit impressed by how quickly Vlad acted upon her, saying that he should make a study room for himself. Looking at the desk, there was a lot of writing paper with an inkwell and quill pen. It felt very old-fashioned to her to see someone actually use a quill pen and inkwell.

"Come let's take a seat and see what the old man sent me. Do you like my study room?"

"Yes, it's quite comfy here, a bit old fashioned, like some ancient study room." responded Sofiya in a casual manner while taking a seat Vlad offered her next to the desk.

'Hmph, not my fault I was born in such era, that's how my study room looked.'

Saying that in mind, he also took a seat next to Sofiya and opened the envelope. He took the oil lamp closer to him so he could read the contents.

After some minutes, Sofiya just looked at Vlad's face going from a serious face to a slight smile. Curious, she looked at the letter in his hands and also read the contents.

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[ Sir Blood, I hope this message of mine reaches your hands safely. It's still unknown to me how trustful the young lady you made me sent this letter to is, but I will show my trust in your people.

The meeting between the other two syndicate members and me is set to take place in 1 week time, at midnight, in the old hangar of the port area. You better get prepared young man, because I've placed all my money on your head with this move.

Also, in the second letter inside the envelope, there's a list of noteworthy people inside those syndicates. Still, they might be criminals, thieves, bandits. Yet, from my sources, they are valuable people, knowing a respected craft, from leatherworking to shipbuilding, construction guys, even some thinkers that it would be a shame for them to die in just seconds under your cold hands.

I'll end by saying this to you, sir Blood. Don't expect that I send any of my people to help you. As you planned, they will only come after you cleaned the syndicates out to cover you.

Signed Aldenis ]

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Ending reading the letter and noticing Sofiya also focused on reading it, he placed it in her hands while switching on the list of names he would spare from his killing.

Taking the note, he only saw 20 names on the list. Nodding his head, he placed the letter somewhere else so he would use it when the time was right.

He turned to look at Sofiya while smiling a bit and said to himself out loud.

"See how trustful my young lady is old man, she didn't even open the envelope to take a look inside. Hah, what's with that look Sofiya? Don't you like compliments?"

"Hmph, not like this you moron, be more subtle. Ahem, so you really are going to war with those syndicates? How sure are you of getting alive from this mess?" said Sofiya while looking in Vlad's dark-green eyes, while her tone held some uncertainty.

"First I'm not a moron, young lady. Second of all, you're worrying to much, those bastards don't even have the power to defend from my attacks, it's also very unlikely for them to even have someone with his Haki awakened. So you can sleep well at night because I will not even get a scratch on my back or face."

Hearing how arrogant Vlad's words sounded, she shook her head and said. "Why do you make it sound so arrogant, don't you fear death at all?"

"There's nothing to fear if you know yourself and your capabilities, as for death. I will fear it at the time it does happen." as he said that, his eyes flickered a bit with some dark lights before quickly vanishing as if nothing happened, unnoticed by Sofiya.

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