Callista's Recompense

Eden stares at me with hollow eyes and a green face I can hear her swallow the bile in her throat. Meanwhile, Audrey is in the corner, crying and vomiting.

I turn toward Audrey, "...Quiet down. You're too loud."

Audrey puts her hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her sobbing she shacks her head up and down vigorously. I guess standing here holding a scythe in one hand, and a head in the other can make people see you differently. As for Eden, I decide its best just to leave her to her thoughts and not expect an answer right now.

I place the head in my storage ring as I have a use for it later. I look at the ground and pick up the captain's hat and put it on my head. Why? Because I want to. This is a stressful situation I am currently in, and little things like this can really help reduce the anxiety. I walk to the dresser and search through the drawers until I find an old revolver. I manage to open the chamber and find six bullets loaded.

'Who keeps a fully loaded revolver in a drawer? Whatever I guess, I'll take it.'

I search but don't find any more bullets, which is a bit illogical. Searching the room a bit more, I manage to find an officer's saber probably from Hitchcocks navy days.

'Not very practical, but I don't actually have that many weapons besides my magic and talent.'

Taking a moment to think, I decide it would be best to level before leaving the captain's cabin.

[Ding!]

[Achieved Level 3!]

'Status.'

Name: Eira Callista

Gender: Female

Race: Vampire {Pseudo True God}

Level: 3 (0/50)

Health: 330/330

Mana: 87/150

Strength: 16 -> 18

Endurance: 16 -> 18

Agility: 18 -> 19

Intellect: 13 -> 15

Constitution: 32 -> 33

Talents: Paranormal

Skills: Intermediate Blood Magic; Novice Scythe

Titles: Heir of Blood

Essence: 14

'Good. This should help me over the coming days.'

I turn to the two people that couldn't be quieter if they were dead, "Okay, you two, I have an errand to run you both stay put. Eden, I need your card for entering guest rooms."

Without speaking, Eden hands me the card. As I'm closing the door, I make eye contact with Audrey.

"Audrey, if I find out you tried to escape, there is a very unpleasant end awaiting you."

Slowly walking down the hall, I don't bother trying to hide. Everyone excluding staff is in their room, still waiting for staff to verify their identities. Also, with what I am about to do, I don't particularly care to hide.

'System is that thing we talked about still an option.'

[Yes, Host. However, the Host will incur a debt of 300 Essence.]

'What?! That's so expensive!'

[Additionally, no essence can be gathered from any of the victims.]

"Robbery!" I accidentally yell out loud.

[Host this system feels like it is being very generous. The 300 essences asked for from the Host is only a fraction of the actual cost.]

**Sigh**

"No, no, you're fine. I already knew the nature of this ritual. It would be impossible for me to do this without you."

Quickly I make my way down the stairwell before the system makes some smug remark. I exit and enter a hallway with rows of guest rooms.

"Let's just get started."

Hearing multiple people laughing and talking through the door of one of the rooms, I put away the saber and take out the keycard. I press the keycard against the sensor and enter. Once the door opens, I find a family of four sitting around talking and laughing. They would appear to be a mother, father, brother, and sister. All at once, they turn to look at me.

I shut the door and give them a small frown, "I'm sorry, but honestly, you're probably the lucky ones."

Before they have the chance to react, I let the blood flow from my wrist and send chains to encircle them. They try to resist, but it only takes a moment before all four are tied up by their own set of chains.

"What the...!"

I show them the revolver before they get too loud or ask too many questions. To be honest, I feel ridiculous holding something like a revolver, but these people understand that a gun is a threat which eliminates the need for me to show them anything more than this.

"Little girl...put the gun away, and let's talk."

I walk over and press the gun against his temple, "Mister, please shut up."

One of the teenagers looks at me and yells, "You demon bitch don't point a gun at my dad."

"Shut up! Pl...please don't kill us; my brother is an idiot!"

"Whatever, no, whoever you are, please, don't hurt my babies!" a woman who I assume is their mother shouts.

I look toward the two teenagers, "Babies? They look at least old enough to be in high school or maybe even college."

"They're still my babies!"

I tilt my head a bit in confusion, "....whatever it doesn't matter."

I shut the door before they can make any more noise and walk into the bathroom. I grab some rags and towels and make my way back to the four people.

"Now, just cooperate, keep quiet, and I won't hurt your...babies."

The woman looks at the man and back at me; she nods in agreement.

I stuff the rags into their mouths and also tie the towels around to prevent them from spitting the rag out. It's pretty makeshift, but it doesn't matter; it just needs to last until I am finished. I toss the people onto the bed and push it to the corner. I then do the same with the rest of the furniture, making a wide area.

Next, I take out one of the corpses I saved from the mission trip students and then cut his throat. Once the blood has pooled, I stick my hand in the blood and begin drawing two circles. Between the inner and outer ring, I write in words and symbols in the language of the blood race. In the inner ring, I draw a pentagram.

I walk to the family, who is now squirming around and struggling frantically.

"It seems you've all realized you are a bit in over your heads."

While preventing them from moving around, I use my nail to carve a word into each of their foreheads: judgment for the father, justice for the mother, punishment for the brother, and revenge for the sister. I place each person at one end of the pentagram and take a position at one corner.

'Okay, system everything should be ready.'

[-300 essence]

I look at my hands as red sparks begin to spark between my fingers. I lower myself to my knees, prick my finger, and hold my finger above the pentagram, allowing a drop of blood to fall.

Just as the drop of blood hits the pentagram, I say the spells name, "Callista's Recompense".

My body immediately becomes covered in bright red flashes. The sparks flow from my body and into the four people. Their bodies begin to spasm and convulse violently. Their skin begins to lose all pigment, and their nails begin growing long and sharp. Their hair begins to lose color and then falls out while their skin becomes smooth and unnaturally tight. The four's arms and legs stretch, becoming long and thin as their heads flip around upside down. Finally, their pupil expands, encompassing the entirety of the eye and turns dark red.

The ritual I just performed is one that the Scarlet Elves and Vampire Family worked on together toward the end of the war. In the end, however, it wasn't viable as any creature with even a small amount of mana within their constitution was immune to the effect. In fact, mana was downright deadly to them, and back then, mana was in pretty much everything, so it was a heavy flaw, but that was then, and this is now.

I can't help but have a conflicted expression, "A weapon made out of desperation and desire to help save the blood race 70,000 years ago finally serves its purpose...our war continues."

To summarize what I've just done, I've basically just released a biological weapon onboard the 'Moonlight'.

'This is an extreme solution, but something tells me whoever is waiting for me at the port when this thing arrives will forget about me really quickly.'

I turn and leave the room hastily as the four begin to stir. I walk out, leaving the door open and start walking to other rooms. I use the keycard and throw open the doors. People walk out yelling only to find me covered in blood and ignoring them.

Finally, from the room of the family, horrific high pitch noises begin emanating from behind the door. I watch as four horrific creatures sprint out of the room their chests face the ceiling and they run on thin inverted arms and legs. They immediately attack the nearest person.

"Well, now I understand why these things were called 'Crawlers'."

I continue to watch as one man's carotid artery is ripped open. He falls to the ground, motionless for a short time until his body begins convulsing and turning pale.

"Anyways, I should go introduce myself to the crew before the situation develops much further. After all I am the captain." I laugh.

As I enter the stairwell amongst the screams and cries, I reach out and pull the fire alarm.