chaos crystal part 3 back up jan 7

chaos crystal part 3:

   -Three Months later-

   "This is all the Adventurer Guild's Fault!" yells the mayor of Shokun City.

   Across from his desk, with a lovely window view of the bay and the fishing boats there, sits Killia, Kumo, and Jura, and just walking in behind them into the office is a tall man in weird plastic looking armor and short cropped purple hair.

   "I heard you had a grievence with the adventurer guild," says the man, "Ah, Killia's party is here, so I take it a demon general has appeared in Shokun city. Will you still be needing my assistance?"

   "There, that right there," says the mayor glaring at the man, "is the attitude I detest, and definetly not the attitude we need right now."

   The man looks confused, "Now mr. mayor."

   "These three," says the mayor, "are heroes I get it, they fought back the demon lord and her army; and have to wander about our nation whenever one of her generals crops up and starts their evil plans again. But before the demon lord all we have were the occasional ghost, maybe some exorcism needed done here or there, a little yokai haunting some old abandoned shrine...and of course the 500 step monsters of the red goddess' mountain...."

   He pauses, "But then more monsters started to appear,"

   "Which is why I came here," says the man with a broad smile, "why the gods sent me to protect you;"

   "Horse shit!" shouts the mayor before composing himself, "after you showed up, after you started that adventurer guild and got every soldier of fortune and highway man looking to flex their muscles to join it; then the monsters got worse, then these...children or daughters or whatever of chaos started to show up; which your guild has accomplished nothing but to ward them off; at least Killia here kills the demon generals and their minions, and now this...this...this death....this disease...this new monster..."

   The man looks down at Killia's party and up at the mayor, "Um...sorry, but I seem to be out of the loop here. I was away on an adventure among the heavens for a few months someone want to fill me in please?"

   The mayor glares at the man.

   "Sir Mormak," says Killia standing and gesturing to the mayor who hands him a scroll, which Killia hands to Mormak, "we have vampires,"

   Mormak looks confused, "I...wasn't aware someone taught you that term, but yes...the daughters of chaos are a type of vampire..."

   "The blood drinking kind," says Killia, he can see the color drain from Mormak's face and a look of shock in his eyes.

   "H..how," whispers Mormak.

   "Two months ago," says the mayor, "three bodies were found just outside Leaf village, two hunters and their adventurer escort. A few days before this one of the victims of a daughter of chaos who was under observation just vanished. There had been sightings of her wandering the woods at night, naked except for a see through red gown of some sort, little more than sheer fabric with sleeves by the description. These three men were found, their skin was little brittle glass, their veins turns to crystal, their eyes...I can't...its all in the scroll, those are the now seventeen cases, five abductions of the victims...only for them to turn up haunting the woods; we confirmed they were doing the killings and it wasn't some new disease. Their victims are left drained of blood and their bodies as your guild puts it...partially petramorphed...nice term for turned into fucking sand and gemstones!"

   "Crystal Vampires..." whispers Mormak.

   "So you DO know what they are!" shouts the mayor.

   "We have a very extensive database on monster," says Mormak his tone suddenly serious and even his voice a bit deeper, "These shouldn't be here. They arn't from ANY of the monster types found here so far. They are not Mystic Monsters, the 500 step demons are Suih....they are Daemons, special hybrids between Mystic Monsters and demonic energy, the daughters of chaos are at least partially related and likely as we told you back when we founded the guild a response by the cave of the daemons to the presence of demons from Hell...Crystal Vampires though..."

   His voice trails off, "and you are certain they are targeting the chosen victims of the daughters of chaos?"

   "Yes," says the mayor.

   "We have confirmed it as well Sir Mormak," says Killia.

  Mormak gets a very serious looks in his eyes, "Then they arn't alone, we have a new enemy, something brought them here, something that likely can also command the daughters of chaos."

   "We have that something's image captured," says Killia.

   "That was quick," says Mormak looking stunned, "I mean...wait...what do you mean?"

  Jura holds out a card as Killia nods to her, the image shows two forms side by side, Rhulan standing outside the tavern, and the second is the Queen of Darkness standing atop a roof in a laughing posture with two Crystal Vampires beside her.

  "This individual," says Killia, "showed up, just before the Crystal Vampires, by only a few days, her face is an exact match for this new demon. She was the one that told us the word; vampire."

   "Going by that outfit," says Mormak, "I would have guessed a Nighshade or a Crimson vampire..."

   He looks directly at the demon like form, "But this here, hmm...at first glance a Sethian or a Litkin...but those don't have tails."

   "Just how many kinds of vampires are there?" asks the mayor the color from his face fading away at the thought of more nocturnal nightmares stalking the forests and back alleys.

   "Alot," says Mormak matter of factly while still studying the image, he points at Rhulan's head, "but look here, the hair is vines, it seems familiar, but...I can only guess at this time it is a variant of a daughter of chaos; maybe like a vampire queen version of them. Many vampire species have a distinct royal sub-category that is stronger and smarter than the others; almost always with command over them."

   He looks sternly at the mayor, "Don't worry, mayor, this now has my top priority. We swore to protect you, its bad enough having a demon lord, but a vampire queen is something else entirely. Right now it is clearly building its numbers, before it makes its move."

  "Move?" asks Killia.

   "Well," says Mormak, "royal vampires tend to build castles and claim dominion over an area, otherwise they act in secret and subvert government officials. But given this area, the former is more likely. Our problems get worse if it manages to get people and other monsters working for it, right now our biggest advantage is the daughters of chaos sleep during the day, and Crystal Vampires are harmless in light..."

   He pauses and looks around, "Unveil sight!"

  A purple wave of energy cascades around the room, Jura blocks her eyes, which no one sees flash from the light.

   "Good," says Mormak, "Mayor, I am going to send a request for veil peircer crystals for all of the guild operatives. Crystal Vampires are robbed of their physical forms in sunlight...however they become invisible ghosts as a result, and turn back when they return to their shadows and darkness. They can spy on anyone who can't percieve them as a result. Also..."

   Mormak takes out a tablet and taps on it, "Ah, thought so, unlike the daughters of chaos Crystal Vampires are among those with special weaknesses much like yokai and ghosts; here we are...cherry wards them off. I recommend planting cherry trees by the entrances of towns and cities, keeping big ones near the center of towns, and regularly using cherry in foods and keeping them around for the scent alone will ward off Crystal Vampires."

   "That...sounds...dumb," says the mayor slowly.

   Mormak *shrugs*, "its an allergy...I don't get it, but that's what it says here. I mean normally its garlic that wards off vampires or some type of flowering weeds."

   "Can they be turned back?" asks Killia.

  Mormak looks around and slowly puts the tablet away, "Sorry, no...nor can they be easily slain and put to rest. Crystal Vampires are...notorously difficult to put down, at best they are usually sealed away inside an object."

   He *sighs*, "First thing is first, we have to hunt down the vampire queen, once they are disorganized we can stem the tide of infection and murder and..."

   He stares out the window, "I intend to put a stop to this vampire stuff, I will bring you what we need from the heavens, to put down those daughters of chaos as well. If they are going to be drawing more vampires to this world then we have the case for clearing them out."

  As they make arrangement and leave Jura eyes Mormak from behind, "So after the crystal huh? If nothing else this did lure Mormak out...drat...if she was after a bounty on the crystal...she may not have known about Mormak...now she wants his bounty as well and is willing to go to extremes to get it."


   ******

   "Fire King's Slice!" shouts the swordsman as he brings his katana down against the Crystal Vampire; unfortunatly for him she vanishes in a puff of red mist, only for the second Crystal Vampire to grab his wrist from behind, her twisted smile inches from his eyes as he looks in horror. To his right are his two dead companions, violet mist rises from their bodies to the figure crouched in the tree limbs above. The flames from his sword turn into violet mist as well and rise up to the silent shadowy figure, the winged and armored body creature that was Rhulan, now the Queen of Darkness. Her vine like hair twitches as the purple mist rises. The two Crystal Vampire chomp down on the man's neck and shoulders, his screams filling the night air, they feed on his blood, but his mana is being absorbed by Rhulan. These adventurers have far more mana than blood so even their bodies feed her.

   "More," says Rhulan as the two nude save for the red flowing garments Crystal Vampires finish their meal, "I can feel it...my power, is not yet full...I must have more."

   A dark flame erupts from her claws and her now clawed feet as her boots split into three demonic toes, the flames cascade down the tree withering it, violent mist flowing from it to her; "do I need to devour this entire forest...this nation...this world to be full?"

   "We will find you another our mistress," says one of the Crystal Vampires.

   "A worthy meal we will find mistress," says the other as the two of them take off into the night.

   -Pathetic-

   "Who Dares?" demands Rhulan as she lands down onto the forest floor looking around, "I am the Queen of Darkness, I am..."

   -A pathetic beast-

   Rhulan...no...the Queen of Darkness's tail erupts into black flames, shifting into three thorn covered vines that extend over her head and turn their tips towards her face before morphing into three white masks in the likeness of her face with glowing blue discs in the eye holes.

   the one to her right speaks, "This is pathetic, this is the power of darkness? I would have expected more than this psychotic mana hungry beast."

   The center one speaks, "No, this form is only a toy, a creation to play fair, an incomplete form thanks to how the dark power was awakened."

   "How dare you," growls the Queen of Darkness, who are you?"

   "I am you," says the one to her left, "and you are I, we are all one and the same being, only modified senses of morality, ethics, and overall personality with different forms. In a sense not unlike a psychosis, only self inflicted to make things more interesting. But you are incomplete, only a partial transformation. Barely above those chaos plants made into human shapes we spawned."

   "We?" asks the face on the right, "When was this? No..wait...let me guess, one of you is the me from before I was a baby on Odafen."

   "Indeed," says the head to the far left, "That is the personality represented by this mask, you and I are exactly alike, eventually with enough power our memories will merge again and we will be as we were before."

   The mask on the right makes a *grr* sound, not sure what to think of that.

   The central masks speaks, "I am the Primal Shadow, I am you, but not you, I am the subconcious, I am the true beast, the true hunger, the true lust, this mockery of me is a bland mix of the sorceress form and just shy of the Netherian Succubus. It was nothing more than a reduced transformation to make it possible for our enemies to stand a chance to make things more interesting. We must be more."

   "I agree," says the mask on the right, "I came here for the chaos crystal, being some wandering vampiric demon beast may be cathartic but it hardly accomplishes my goal. and look all this dream like introspection has robbed this form of motion and mind, realizing we are all one, and like a dream with many people in it, realizing in truth I am only talking to myself."

   "I am only talking to myself," says the Queen of Darkness standing up, and looking at her clawed hands, she looks behind her to see her two Crystal Vampires watching from the shadows. The tail and masks turn to shadow and retreat, she no longer has a tail. The carapace armor turns to shadow, becoming tight leather like pants, boots, a corset like top, and the wings fold into shadow and become her cape. Crimson flames erupt around her tendril hair changing it to a blood red color...as well as back to hair. Her eyes become blue again.

   "Mistress?" asks one of the Crystal Vampires timidely.

   Rhulan gives a wide smile showing her fangs and looks at her hands with their sharp black finger nails.

  "I am the true Queen of Darkness," says Rhulan, "I am the Mana Vampire, Rhulan, Empress of the Night!"

   She holds her arms out as she expresses this and the two Crystal Vampires rush to her arms to embrace her.

   "I am not my hunger," says Rhulan, "I am not a mere animal that needs to constantly find food."

   She holds the two women, "But apparently I did this," she thinks to herself, "Very well, let us begin again."

   She looks down at the two crystal vampires, "Tell me...my...vampire brides, what are your names."

   One looks up, "I am Anza," and the other says, "my name is Emeri."

   "Good, good," says Rhulan, "but that said...I could litterally eat a whole cow right now I am starving."

   ******

  Somewhere else in a vast luxurious hall where paintings of great battles adorn the high cielings Mormak and a tall man with a long nose and traditional Japanese garb are standing and talking.

   "I was surprised," says the tall man, "that is," he pauses and flutters his tiny angelic wings and magically produces a feathered fan in his hand, "I was surprised twice this week, one to hear from my yokai that yet another new monster or two has begun to haunt my mountains; and a type of monster we agreed would never come to this island nation, that blood drinking nightmare race of the undead would remain far to the west in those forests where they may haunt far and wide and not endanger the monster races or the humans as a whole. Things like that, in a place like this, get humans active, doing things..." he eyes Mormak, "things that make them want to find ways to exterminate every monster; for while a handful of my yokai may prey once a year upon a lone traveler, or trick someone to the point of madness, make a succulent meal of chi off a man for years; most only play tricks....but these...vampires. They kill, and kill, and kill some more."

   He stops and points his fan towards Mormak, "those children of chaos only haunted that one accursed mountain of that evil goddess; but I hear of two new types, preying on your adventurers, preying on livestock, men's blood turned to dust; and I hear this night a man was found boiled alive without water, cooked from within, a farmer who had tried to defend his prized bull from this new vampire...it tore his bull apart I hear..."

   The tall man narrows his eyes are Mormak, "with tentacles made of darkness, covered in thorns, and a yokai of mine haunting that farm tells me her hair transformed into white masks whose mouths opened and feasted upon the flesh of the beast even as its true head licked the blood from its clawed fingers."

   "Hold on," says Mormak taking out a device, "it sounds like,"

   "It is here," whispers the tall man, "The horror has returned, the Primal Shadow that brought vampires to the west so long ago, whose body I am told is from which the children of chaos were born as well; their queen has come, and looks to expand her empire. So tell me Mormak of the Dimension Police, how exactly do you intend to deal with this problem?"

   Mormak looks at his device, "I am not getting any alert, it might be masking its self, I will investigate further, but I am not going to raise a full out alarm unless I can confirm the Primal Shadow has returned to this Earth."

   "So tell me," says the tall man, "how did your people drive it off last time?"

   "To be honest," says Mormak, "I wasn't there and the reports make it sound more like it got bored. It just stopped what it was doing and declared *time has expired* and vanished. All those undead it made and other monsters just scattered after that...unfortunatly it opened up this Earth to the Inferverse as well, the mystic monsters have been the main reason we've stayed behind. If we can find the device being used to bridge this Earth to the Inferverse we can stop the cross-dimensional contamination."

   The tall man *sighs*, "Are you curious about the second surprise I recieved this week?'

  "Second?" asks Mormak.

   "Indeed," says the tall man, "I the chief of the Tengu, was approached by a pale man with red eyes...a vampire. Not at all it seems related to the ones in the mountains. He came from a ship in Shokun City's harbor, a vessel from across the seas here to open up trade. So we are being invaded by vampires on two fronts, the progenitor monster of their kind on one side, and a happenstance encounter with another in Shokun city. He however has shared my concerns over humans getting too...active in their defenses, after all he alone would be part of the trading group and feeding perhaps on one young maiden or as he put it effeminate man he has developed a taste for, in the city till they leave. But you have every village and adventurer on alert my; friend. Granted your methods are not aimed at him or my yokai, but the humans will realize that these tree plantings, and scrolls, intended to work against two types of monsters alone; will not work on others, and if one thing has a weakness, surely others have special weaknesses as well...and so it begins with the humans...especially with your people giving them such a boost in magic and power.:

   "We don't care," says Mormak with a serious tone, "Yokai are natural creatures from this planet. If we determine this vampire ally of yours is a natural breed we will ignore it as well, if not, we will exterminate it. I am here more to warn you Tengu chiefen of the yokai, to keep your heads down and out of sight, because we are going to move in and exterminate these Crystal Vampires, drive off, capture, or exterminate this new breed, and I have placed a request to also obtain and remove the item on that mountain drawing these things here. If it is just going to draw more here, especially if one of those things actually is the Primal Shadow as you suspect, then we have to remove it."

   "The treasure," sneers the Tengu chief, "What we yokai and those demons you ignore; are they not also cross contamination...puh fah don't answer I know what you will say, you so called Dimension Police are nothing but hypocrits when it comes to demons. I am surprised you even care about the Primal Shadow, you sure didn't care about that Yorn octopus thing that took over that weird island in the sea...your definition of what is a natural...eldritch, puh fah."

   ******

    Still else where in the night, upon the roof of an inn in Shokun city.