135 Consorts Of The Progenitor (2)
A week had passed since the Bloodborne House had invaded the Elven Forest.
After the High Elder’s defeat and the Consorts’ capture, the Bloodborne House’s momentum completely stalled. At first, they were confused about how their supreme leaders could be taken down so quickly, but once it became clear that the ritual had failed and Dracula wasn’t going to be revived, the troops’ morale completely collapsed.
The arrogant Bloodborne Vampires went on their knees one by one as the Elves and the Shadowgarden House completed their capture. The Elves, in particular, were enthusiastic about meting justice to the idiots who dared invade their territory.
The vast majority of the Bloodborne House had perished during the raid, and less than half of them remained. Weakened and without a leader, the remnants of the Bloodborne House could only rot in jail while at the mercy of their captors.
Initially, the Elves sought to execute every single one of them. After all, they burned down much of the Elven Sanctuary and penetrated deep into the heart of the Forest, where the World Tree stood. However, the Shadowgarden House intervened. They wanted the Bloodborne House to face the music in front of the Nine Guardian Houses and announce to the Vampire World that the once mighty Royal Lineage of the Vampires… was finally exterminated.
With the dust settled, many of the highest-ranking members of the Bloodborne House were put in front of a council, where they were forced to confess their sins and give up every piece of information they knew.
All of the secret lands that the Bloodborne House controlled. The remaining wealth they owned. Which minor Houses assisted them in this disgusting little project of theirs… Everything was laid out to bare in front of the committee.
And when the dust settled, every single member of the Bloodborne House was forced to carry out a sentence that satisfied both the Elves and the Vampires.
The minor actors, such as the foot soldiers and maidservants who assisted in the ritual, were enslaved to the other Houses, and some were even bound to the Elves. They would rebuild the Elven Sanctuary and serve as loyal servants to those affected most by the Bloodborne House’s bloodthirsty war.
Mid-level agents, such as the Shadowfiends or the Vampires that actually attacked the Elven Forest, were sentenced to a thousand years in isolation. They would be exiled into a small crevice in the tectonic plates, never to be seen by the outside world, and their existence would be forgotten by the outside world for the rest of time.
As for the highest level of Bloodbornes… They all suffered from the same fate.
Death.
There was no exemption. Horatio Bloodborne, the three Consorts, ancient Vampires that had lived since Dracula’s time… They will all be sentenced to death.
The last bloodline that has any links to the First Vampire, the Original Progenitor, and the man who was once the greatest living creature of them all… Will cease to exist. The memory of the old era where Vampires thrived under Dracula Bloodborne will fade away, and with their passing, the final chapter of the Bloodborne House will be closed.
However, when one chapter finishes, another moves to take its place.
And the next chapter of the Vampire story doesn’t begin with Bloodborne. Neither did it begin with any other great Houses that sought to take over the prestigious throne of the once mighty Bloodborne House. The next era of Vampires starts with a new name.
Jin Valter.
After the death of the Bloodborne House, the Vampire World was shocked by a new revelation.
A new Progenitor had been born.
And the Vampire who became a Progenitor had not lived for thousands of years. Neither was it someone from the great Houses with endless resources to train the next generation. The new Progenitor was a young boy, a former human who had recently been turned into a True Vampire. And in just four seasons, the young man had ascended to the top of the Vampire world.
In the Winter, he awakened his powers. He participated in the Everwinter House’s Winter House, where he first showed the early signs of his greatness when he drilled a hole through the protective barrier of the Winter Graveyard.
In the Spring, he fought against a Shadowfiend captain when the Bloodborne House attempted to wreak havoc in the Moonreaver Dimension and came out victorious. Not only that, he challenged Sirius Moonreaver to a duel and won decisively by smashing a hole through the elite Moonreaver’s chest.
In the Summer, he did the unthinkable when he destroyed Eyghon, the unkillable Demon Lord that had terrorised the planet since the advent of the Outer Demons’ invasion.
And finally, in Autumn, he ascended to the final stage that all Vampires sought to become and yet, none had before Dracula himself.
Jin Valter had become… the next Progenitor.
Jin single-handedly crushed the Bloodborne House and its dreams of retaining its former glory with his new power. He killed the High Elder, possibly the most powerful Vampire in the Bloodborne House. He stopped the ritual to resurrect the First Vampire and used the magic power for his own ascension and, most importantly… He had obtained power beyond any regular human or Vampire.
Although the Bloodborne House had failed to revive their ancestor, in a certain sense, they had created a second Dracula.
The entire world waited in trepidation to see what kind of Progenitor Jin Valter would be.
Was he going to enslave the entire Vampire population just like Dracula did? Or was he a benevolent Progenitor who didn’t care for thrones and titles? Would he abolish the Nine Guardian Houses and create his own House, which ruled over all Vampires?
Everyone waited eagerly to see what kind of Progenitor Jin Valter would be and if the Valter House would follow the tyrannical route of the Bloodborne House.
But as for the members of the newly established Valter House themselves…
“ROSA!!! Let me go!!! I’m going to kill you!!!”
A high-pitched voice echoed through the Elven Sanctuary. A familiar white-haired fair maiden was bound up in smooth vines, her body was firmly restricted, with her hands bound behind her back and her legs wrapped all the way down to her ankles.
By her side, three other girls stood by with varying expressions. The blonde-haired girl looked rather annoyed by the incessant screaming of the restrained woman, while the black-haired maiden flashed a worried expression.
As for the one who had placed her in chains…
“… Noisy.”
“What do you mean noisy?! You motherfucker! Just wait until I get my hands on you!”
“Hah… Rosa, can’t you release her? It’s been an hour?” Ysabelle attempted to intercede for Irina, but Rosalyn wasn’t listening to any of it. Instead, she returned to her idle ways and stared out the window.
“Dangerous…”
“The one that is dangerous is you, Rosa.” Lilith sharply argued, her voice clearly showing that she bore a grudge. “You attacked us when we entered the Elven Forest and placed us into a coma. Then, you kidnapped Jin and chained him up for weeks. If not for Jin pleading for you, I would have claimed your head for my own.”
“… Dangerous too?”
Rosalyn looked back at Lilith, her vines twirling around like tendrils waiting to strike. Lilith was tempted to retaliate but quickly remembered the last time they fought. When they first woke up from their coma, the three girls joined forces to attack and possibly defeat Rosalyn so that they could have their revenge for what she did.
Alas, even though they were the top young talents in the world of Vampires, they were nothing compared to Rosalyn’s Progenitor-level powers. Like children attempting to steal candy from a bodybuilder, the three girls were mauled and battered until they had no other option but to give up.
At least, that’s what Lilith and Ysabelle did. Irina, on the other hand, never forgot that grudge. Since then, she’d been attempting to break down Rosalyn and hopefully regain her dignity.
The result?
Irina was still wrapped around by vines even though a whole week had passed since they got free. And Lilith wasn’t dumb enough to suffer the same fate as her.
“Tch, suit yourself.”
Lilith cursed straight at the emerald-haired maiden, hoping to get some form of vengeance. However, Rosalyn barely looked at Lilith as her eyes focused on another person. The man who was just about to enter the room that they were in.
“Girls! I’m bac… Huh?”
Jin entered the room with a merry face, only to be stopped by the odd sight of his little sister dangling from the ceiling. All four of the girls snapped their heads towards Jin, each with their own looks of desire. In the end, Jin sighed and said:
“Rosa, stop playing with Irina.”
“… okay.”
Rather than see it as domestic abuse, Jin thought his four companions were playing a game, albeit a stupid one. Perhaps his love towards Rosa and Irina had blinded him, but he couldn’t sense the apparent animosity Irina was shooting at the Shadowgarden heiress.
“ROSA!!!” Irina lunged forward, ready to continue the fight with Rosalyn. Still, before her vicious claws could inject themselves into Rosalyn’s supple flesh, Jin appeared in between them and stopped Irina with a simple hug.
“Irina, you stop playing as well.”
“Brother! Let me go! Let me tear that vixen up, and we’ll…”
“Alright, alright… Stop playing. I have a gift for you guys.”
Even though Jin had access to charm magic, he didn’t need it to soothe Irina’s seething rage. Simply stroking her silky white hair and caressing her nape, the man managed to bring Irina back to normal before placing the girl down gently.
“Gift? What gift?” Ysabelle, always happy and optimistic, came forward with a burning gaze.
“Hehe, have you ever wondered why the Consorts of Dracula were considered one of the strongest women in history?”
“… Wasn’t it because they fed on the Progenitor’s blood?” Lilith added her own hypothesis.
“Well, that played a factor, but it’s not the main reason. The real reason why the Consorts are so strong… Is because of these.”
Jin opened up his clenched palm and revealed four glistening jewels. Each housed dense, enigmatic magic, similar to Jin’s rings. They were coloured with a rich empyrean, sky blue, identical to that of Jin’s natural eye colour, and they all possessed a mysterious aspect that none of the girls could comprehend.
Lilith, the only one who knew something, gulped nervously as she asked.
“Jin… You can’t mean…”
“Yes,” Jin smiled jubilantly. “I’ve been working for seven days and seven nights to develop these jewels, and while they were modelled after the original ones that Dracula had made, I did make some improvements.”
Jin moved his gaze over the four girls, and he proudly declared:
“Girls… It’s time for you to become the new Consorts of the Progenitor!”