Withered Bride

Inside an almost demolished building, a whirlwind suddenly appeared from out of nowhere. Slowly, it traveled into the dungeon below that building. It crossed several prison cells and entered the golden coffin that was placed at the end of the pathway.

The next second, the coffin opened, and a pale-faced, blood-thirsty vampire screamed on top of his husky voice,

"Who in the hell dared to wake me up in the middle of my slumber?"

Even after he waited for a long time, he didn't get any response from anyone. He opened his scarlet eyes and looked around him. As he could not find anyone nearby, he closed his eyes once again. Just when he was about to close the lid of the coffin to continue his sleep, he felt something moving near him.

To be precise, someone had taken his space in the coffin. He lazily half-opened his eyes and saw a beautiful young maiden dozing off next to him. He stared at her flawless face and plump lips. Before he could take a bite of the beauty, she opened her butterfly eyelids and stared at him innocently.

Slowly, her face turned into horror when she noticed the two sharp teeth that were poking out of his mouth. With a stuttering voice, she muttered, "You... You... you are a vampire!"

She hastily crawled behind her but something stopped her from going any further. At that moment, she noticed that she was inside a coffin. She jumped down from that box and the minute, her feet touched the ground, a system got activated in her head.

'Welcome to the immortal vampire cultivation ground. In this world, you will be playing the role of the withered bride to a thousand-year-old vampire, Marcus III Cymbal. In this cultivation game, I will be your partner and will guide you through the process until you get familiar with the system. Your game starts now!"

"My game?" She mumbled.

She stared at the handsome youthful thousand-year-old vampire with sharp teeth in fright. When she saw Marcus III cymbal flew out of the coffin and landed in front of her, she shivered and cautiously moved behind.

"If this is a Halloween prank then you can stop right there. I have no interest in participating in this event or activity," She said and started to run from there.

"Withered Bride, you cannot run away from him. He is faster and more powerful than you at this moment. All you have to do now is let him bite you and let nature takes its course. This is the only way for you to become immortal in this world." The system tried to explain the process to her.

"Who are you calling withered? I am a young woman with no wrinkles on my body. I am hardly… wait… What is my age and who am I?" She asked in confusion.

She couldn't recall anything of her past. She was like a clean blank page with no entry of her life tale.

"To know all the answers you need to increase your power by playing this game. With every success, your cultivation level will increase and you will be pushed a level up. Also, there will be gifts and magical potions that would help you to achieve your goals. Watch out, he is just right behind you," The system shouted and processed a shutdown immediately.

"To hell with you and your cultivation." She shrieked and jumped high in the air.

Without her knowledge, she hung on the roof of the dungeon upside down like a bat. Just when she thought she finally got rid of the vampire, a voice next to her ears whispered, "Booo…"

Her body shivered in horror and all of a sudden, she started to fall from the top. Just before her head could smash on the hard floor, Marcus caught her legs. He flew out of the dungeon and landed on the top of the building.

Then she understood that it was he, who lifted her in the air and made her look like a bat. She didn't have any special power to jump so high or even hang upside down.

"Who are you? What do you want? Let go of me," She screamed and tried to get rid of his hold on her legs.

Being upside-down for so long made her head dizzy. She wanted to escape from that place and the blood-thirsty vampire, who was gripping her legs. Marcus didn't reply to her and once again started to fly in the air. He flew above the town next to the castle and saw that there was no one around.

"Boom," The building that they just left collapsed and dust raised high in the air around the whole area.

Without stopping anywhere, he flew across the town and reached near the dark forest. He dropped her on the dry grass bed and checked the perimeter.

"Stay here. Don't move an inch," He ordered and one more time, he took flight.

"As if I would listen to you!" She mumbled and stood up from the ground.

Her head started to spin and the system came back online.

"Welcome Withered bride! It looks like you managed to stay alive till now."

"Shut up and tell me who I am. And why I am here?" She asked the system.

"As I said earlier, you need to play this game and all your questions will be answered," Before the system could finish talking, she interfered and said,

"Stop your nonsense. Do you know it is illegal to abduct me and bring me here without my consent?" She inquired.

"There is nothing illegal in this process. We have set the rules and only after you signed the contract did we bring you here," The system announced but later regretted it.

"What contract?" She asked.

"I am sorry. That is confidential and I cannot disclose the details with you yet," The system said.

"Fine. Don't tell me anything." She uttered and started to walk straight into the dark forest.

"I think you should listen to him and wait until he returns. Only he can save you in this world and help you achieve your goals. If you prefer another method to become immortal in this world, then I can give you multiple options. But I am against your decision to enter the dark forest so early," The system warned her.

"What, dark forest? All I see is some pine trees around the field. Also, I could even see the beach around the corner from here. This is no dark forest. It's brightly lit with the scorching sun above my head." She mumbled and looked above her head.

But all she could see was darkness everywhere. She turned around and noticed that there were no pine trees and also the beach that was just around the corner was missing. All she could now see was darkness around her.

"What in the world happened here?" She asked.

"I warned you before you entered the forest. Now, even I can't help you. Good luck. We will meet later if you are still alive," The system informed her and once again went offline.

"Hello… anyone there?" She tried to walk forward but just could not see anything at all.

"Should I just turned around and get out of this dark forest?" She decided to walk back the way she came in.

But there was no way she could find her way out of this forest which had now been completely immersed in darkness.