Chapter 84 (Patreon)

Chapter 84

The girl removed her mask, allowing Riven to confirm that it truly was her.

It was Allie.

His little sister broke down into violent sobs and rushed towards him and he met her in the middle, sweeping her up off her feet and crying along with her as he hugged her to his chest in a death grip.

They just stood like that, neither one of them saying anything as they shook and held one another for well over a minute.  Riven’s breathing was ragged, and he was experiencing a flood of mixed emotions that included relief, horror, confusion, and worry.  Eventually he let go of her, looking down and wiping tears out of his eyes while smiling at the sister he’d grown up with all his life.

“I’m glad you’re alive.” Riven said shakily, laughing when Allie grunted something intangible and refused to peel off of him - keeping her arms wrapped around his chest with her face buried there.  “I… Uhm, I’m glad we didn’t kill each other.”

There was a pause, and then the two of them erupted into laughter intermixed with Allie’s continued sobs.  She eventually snorted, pushed off of him, wiped her own eyes and glared up from her shorter stature.  “I was kicking your ass.”

“Was not!”

“Was too!”

Riven let out a sigh and grinned, ruffling her hair when his smile began to fade.  “Allie… Why were you killing those people?”

*CRASH*

White light exploded from behind Riven’s back, but it was met with an unholy barrier that crackled to life when Allie’s body shelled itself in bone over the course of an instant.  The bone armor she’d previously dismissed was now back in full force, and the runes lit up again to produce layers of these shields while battle cries and shouts from beyond the magical clash went skywards.

“They’ve killed my remaining minions, it’s just us.” Allie stated curtly, ignoring Riven’s question for the time being and glaring out beyond the explosion when the magic began to fade.

Riven’s face soured, but he slowly nodded while evaluating her - then turned around.  All of the men who he’d saved were now barreling towards them with glowing white weapons under some kind of buff, while the lone caster behind them prepared another magical attack.  Some of the charging melee fighters drew out guns and started blasting, others blurred right or left to flank the vampires using movement abilities, and the bigger, tankier guys just went charging full speed ahead.  They had a variety of weapons and makeshift armor on them, and looked more like a street gang than anything else.

A cold sensation crept over Riven’s body.  Perhaps they were attacking after seeing him embracing the girl who’d been chasing them.  Perhaps they’d seen he was a vampire and thought Riven would turn on them too.  But they’d had the chance to run, and they’d had the chance to try and broker peace.  Instead they’d not given Riven a single chance, immediately turning on him in a sneak attack and attempted assassination.

He couldn’t help but feel like this had to do with his negative charisma, and his mood darkened even further.  Was this truly what his life was going to become?  First the elves and their reaction to him.  Then the comments from the people at the hospital about how he felt ‘creepy’.  Now this.

A wall of crimson ice shot up to block incoming bullets after a couple pierced Riven’s shoulder and gut, though he didn’t think much of it as his vampiric body started pushing the small caliber bullets out over the course of seconds here in the dark.  Looking over at the women and children who were watching their brothers and fathers rush the two vampires, Riven couldn’t help but feel disgusted at what he was about to do.

He turned to Allie, nodded once, and began to summon crimson power along his arms.

***

Riven’s gut twisted into knots after paving the ruined ground with the bodies of the charging men.  They hadn’t stood a chance, but some kind of strange conviction had led all of them to fight to the very last - even though it was futile.  “I don’t understand.”

Allie snorted in disgust and finished raising another corpse - the flesh melting off its bones while the skeleton stood erect with pale glowing eyes.  “Don’t understand what?  Why these fuckers attacked us?”

Riven blinked, a little bit disturbed at how brutal his little sister had become.  He turned his gaze to her, seeing no remorse whatsoever for the way they’d slaughtered these people or for the sobbing, fleeing families of those who they’d killed.  Then he noted how the system identified her armor as ‘soul-woven’.

Realization struck him then.  All unholy bloodlines had been present in Chalgathi’s trials, that would include his sister since they were related - and he obviously had been there.  So she would have been too.  Not only that, but she’d chosen to sacrifice her tutorial group for legendary tier items?

Just what the fuck had happened to the timid, happy girl he’d known before?  It’d only been a month or two, but the system had already shown its hand in terms of time warping so perhaps it’d been longer for her.  Regardless, it bothered him.  He’d need to address these things, but not now.  Not after he’d just found her.

“... Yes.  Why would they attack us when they knew they’d lose?  They saw what we did fighting one another.  There was no way people this weak could take us individually, let alone both of us.”

“They’re religious fanatics, that’s why.  They think they’re fighting for some higher purpose.  That, and they thought we were weakened after beating the shit out of each other.”  Allie spat at a dead man who she hadn’t raised yet, then planted a bone-covered boot on his face while grinding it into the ground in an act of overt disrespect.  Suddenly though her features fell into a hard grimace, and then one of sadness.  She clasped her hands together, the bone gauntlets partially covering her hands grating against one another.  “Uhm… Riven, there’s something you have to know before anything else.”

The seriousness of her tone caught him by surprise considering she’d treated the killing of all these people as a trivial act.  And when she looked up to hold his gaze, his heart suddenly clenched.  Unspoken words were traded in those moments, and Riven felt his blood run cold.  He looked around, not seeing Jose anywhere, and a lump started to form in his throat.

She merely nodded, and tears began to collect under his eyes.

Beginning to tremble, Riven silently stared at the ground where a pool of blood had collected from a recent victim.  Allie didn’t move.

“How did it happen?” Riven eventually asked in nothing more than a whisper.  “Did you bury him?”

Allie slowly nodded.  “I buried him.  It was the same group of people we just fought.  They’re led by a man called Prophet, who found some sort of holy book - a relic delivered to this world by the system.  They think he’s the second coming or something like that… and his followers are real nutjobs.  When Jose and I first came out of the tutorial, they demanded he join their group.  When I appeared and they realized what I was and who he was with, and after he’d told them that he wasn’t going to join some religious cult, they called him a race traitor and… they killed him before I could do anything.”

Riven’s eyes didn’t leave the ground, and Allie eventually continued.

“One bullet to the skull was all it took.  They tried to kill me too after that, calling me a monster.”  Allie’s voice began to tremble slightly, but her composure remained solid after a few deep breaths.  Her long brown hair whipped about in the night breeze, and a clap of thunder in the distance echoed out across the ruined city.  “I… I am responsible for his death.  Because he wouldn’t have-”

“You were not responsible.  Don’t ever think that.”  Riven said in a low whisper, feeling hollow inside and clenching his fists.  He looked up again, walked over to her, and lifted her chin to meet his eyes.  “He wouldn’t want you to ever think that Allie.  He was essentially a brother to us, we grew up with him, and he would never blame you for what happened.  Do you understand?”

They were the words that Allie had been needing to hear, and with trembling lips she mumbled a half-hearted ‘yes’ before being wrapped up in another hug.

“Is that why you were hunting them?” Riven eventually asked after a few minutes of standing there in the decimated parking lot.

“Yes.”

He nodded once and brushed his fingers through her hair before kissing the top of her head.  “I see, and I think I understand.”

[Quest Update: Finding Your Friends - You have successfully found Allie.  Congratulations!  This quest is complete.  Pings will now be deactivated.]

Riven nearly scoffed in disgust at the pop up notification.  Yeah, some help the system had been with that one.

“You think you understand?”  Allie pushed herself off of him and sniffled, a confused glare holding him almost contemptuously.

He didn’t waver, but shoved his hands into the pockets of his ruined cloak.  “This ‘Prophet’ person… he’s going to die for this.  The followers of his who actually did the deed should die too, but I assume you already killed them.  However, slaughtering his followers like this tonight… Especially when they’re so much weaker than you?  They were terrified of you.  They had families and friends dying in front of them.  You made them experience what you went through a dozen times over just tonight, let alone any other times you may have acted similarly.  Allie, that isn’t who you are.  Just how many people have you killed because of this?”

Anger flared across her features and she quickly bit her lip to bite back a cutting reply, then she swallowed and closed her eyes.  “Lots of them.  Hundreds.  Maybe a thousand.  Maybe two thousand, I don’t know.”

Riven frowned.  “How many of them do you truly think deserved it?”

Allie’s mouth opened to reply, but then it quickly shut.  Thinking the question over seriously for a time, that tight-lipped smile turned into a full on grin of pride.  Confidently she straightened her posture, and took a step towards him with fangs exposed in a blindingly white smile.  “All of them.”

***

Riven had a lot on his mind to think about concerning the changes his sister had undergone, the loss of his best friend, and this new Prophet character he’d heard about.  Regardless, Allie was family - and although he didn’t necessarily agree with her choices he did understand them.  In some ways, he felt like they were even justified - but not to the extent she’d taken it after the stories she’d told him.  He’d seen the looks of shock, anger, denial and extreme grief of the families who’d fled after he and his sister had cut down Prophet’s men tonight.  There had been emotional agony written all over those people, and he couldn’t help feeling guilty even despite his own emotions over a friend who’d been in his life since he was little.

But he also felt angry.  Angry that this vampiric curse of theirs had in some ways been responsible for Jose’s death.  Angry that it was now responsible for a pseudo-war between this apparent undead faction Allie was creating in downtown Brightsville, and the outskirts of the northern city where groups of humans were banding together to purge the undead.

She’d told him all about it.  About her friends Nin, Vin, and Mara.  About the bone garden at the top of a skyscraper she was now using as a home base and terraforming with death mana to better suit undead.  She’d told him about their battles, won and lost, and how she’d experienced far worse than he had when trying to contact other groups of humans in earlier days.

She’d apparently even begged others to take her and her three undead friends in after Jose’s murder.  It’d been another, separate group from the holy new-age crusaders gathering in the north, but even they’d looked at her with both fear and hatred.  They too had called her a monster, and they’d also tried to kill her without any real reason.  They’d just seen she was a vampire, and they’d attacked.

No doubt this was likely due to them thinking she was another system-spawned monster, a vampire trying to trick them into trusting her.  Or perhaps it’d been the negative charisma at play again, perhaps it was both.  But it was hard to tell whether or not those people had just been skittish, or if this vampiric curse had really been the cause of their choice to strike out.

Regardless, those people were all dead too now, fuel for the bone garden Allie had built where new undead - mostly a humanoid variant of ghoul, were being created as independent and sentient creatures.  They were being reborn from the void, from the fragments of souls that’d once been the people whose bodies they inhabited.  But they were not the same.

It was all very concerning… Especially given that Riven had two elves and a bunch of refugees holed up underneath a hospital right now with Azmoth.  Were they all going to turn on him too?

His vision snapped up and he focused when a light touch of Allie’s fingertips brought him back to this world.  He’d been internally pondering all of these things without really looking where he was going, too deep in thought to care, but her soft touch and warm smile reminded him that this was still his sister - regardless of how much she’d changed or the choices she’d made.

“We’re almost to the perimeter.” Allie stated, gripping her older brother by the hand and walking beside him to pull him along.  Their footsteps echoed through a dark alley, and they came out the other side between buildings to gaze upon the remnants of downtown.

Riven’s eyes widened slightly and he took in the sight that’d obviously been a warzone for quite some time now.

Buildings had been demolished for blocks.  Fires burned in scattered piles of debris or from smoking ruins, and crumpled vehicles lay smashed and destroyed.  Light Poles had been knocked down, bloodstains were occasionally seen in patches, but there were no bodies - likely due to harvesting them for the fledgling undead faction.

Beyond all of this desolation was downtown.  A couple skyscrapers still stood relatively intact, with scattered office buildings inbetween.  But one stood out above them all - towering overhead and radiating power.  Teal and black flickers occasionally trickled along the sides of this large structure, the tower showing spots of ivory bone where metal beams had once been, and even from here Riven could see undead patrolls hidden in ambush along various nooks or crannies.

From the shadows of one of these crevices between rocky debris, a woman stepped out - only to be followed by four skeletal warriors that were heavily armored; carrying large shields and swords.

The cloaked woman clasped her hands in front of her and bowed her head slightly, her raven hair drifting out from the hood she wore and her pale white eyes giving her a very gothic appearance.  She was beautiful, but her body was stitched together in patches that she’d likely carved off other bodies in the past - and an aura of calm, submissive power radiated out from her when she addressed the two vampires.

“My lady.” The ghoul said with a sweet smile directed at Allie.  Then her dead eyes flickered and she evaluated Riven with a curious cock of her head.  Her gaze shifted to the way these two were holding hands, and her eyebrows raised instantly.  “Allie, who is this?”

Allie’s hand clenched more firmly around Riven’s fingers, and she gave her friend an eyeroll.  “It’s not what you think.”

Another clap of thunder echoed out from the storm rapidly closing in on their location, and the pitter patter of raindrops began to splatter across the stone.

She stepped forward, letting go of Riven and putting a hand on the ghoul woman’s shoulder.  Turning back, she softly smiled in the dim light of the stars and embers around them.  “This is my brother, Riven.  Riven, this is my new best friend Mara.  Get to know one another as we walk, I want to show Riven all that we’ve built in the time that he’s been gone.”