Vampire: World of Blood

"Now then, devil thing, is this price sufficient enough to buy your loyalty?"

Michelle inquired as he gazed through the veil of darkness and saw a ravenous but equally shocked smile from the she-devil, who responded immediately.

"How wonderful thou are generosity is; this is truly my lucky day; with thy offer, thine great self can ascend to the second realm in no time when required of it. As such, thee have made my job a hundred times easier." Very well, I, Xana Eldenblood, a great devil of hell, countess of the Avgrada hell mountain in the infernal world, tribe chieftess of the blood lamias, and ruler of ten legions of demons, pledge my complete fealty to the Elderblood’s name."

Xana replied as she placed her hands on her chest, a bright, ominous red light shining all over her body from behind the curtain of darkness, upon accepting the terms of their agreement.

And as soon as she did so, the darkness faded, revealing a lovely demonic entity, more accurately described as a diabolical beauty. Before Michelle’s eyes, a gigantic, lamia-like devil appeared. She had clear skin, her most defining features being her long red snake half that stretched three meters in length, with blazing hot red scales covering most of her body and crimson eyes that matched her pair of long red horns. Her hair was long and red, and she towered above Michelle, staring down at him with a sly smile and asking.

"So tell me, contractor, when can I expect to get my first pay? Of course you know the universal consequences of breaking a contract between two parties, right?"

"Hmm, here, devil thing, here is an advance; you work first, then you get paid; excellent conduct is rewarded with bonuses, of course. When you have time, introduce yourself to my son and explain that I hired you as a guardian to protect his archive; your bonus is based on his satisfaction with your work; he is, after all, the family head of the Eldenblood name because he founded the branch family in the first place; I am simply establishing it as an official family."

Michelle replied as he began to pull out a gigantic blue crystal from his shadow, with multiple rainbow-colored lights emitting from within. The crystal itself was a little larger than a basketball and abstract in shape, yet when Xana saw this, her eyes widened in surprise.

"How... in my 9968 years of life, I’ve never seen such a pure soul stone as this. Even the royal family does not have soul stones of such high grade; pray tell contractor, Where the hell did thou art acquire this from?"

"Hmmm, this failed rock... yeah, I make my own soul stone devil thing; I never acquire anything from nature since it is beneath me. After all, my ichormancy makes this quite easy. Although this is a failure, the good stuff is locked up in my vault; at best, this can only house the souls of 100,000,000,000 high-grade souls or 10,000,000 divine souls, but either way, there are five divine souls of the highest caliber inside this thing and 5,000,000,000 high-grade souls in total; consume them in your spare time, devil thing, and by the way, you can keep the rock; that thing is a failed product anyway."

Michelle commented, leaving Xana stunned, as she told herself.

’Is this vampire fucking insane, or am I the one tripping? He called this valuable relic a failure. What sort of distorted common sense does he have? This soul stone alone makes the soul stone back in hell, particularly in the royal palace, appear like commonplace items. And he calls this precious, priceless relic a failure—a fucking failure. What the fuck!! The highest-grade soul stone alone can only house roughly 10,000,000,000 high-grade souls and 1,000,000 divine souls, but this object alone can house ten times that number. But what makes it even more ridiculous is that this soul stone is smaller than others that can hold so much. The one I know of is the size of a lion or a bear in the human world.’

Xana murmured to herself inwardly but swiftly returned to her senses, reminding herself of this.

’Well, it doesn’t matter; I’ll profit anyhow; just wait till I tell the girls back home about the gold mind that I’ve landed on; to think a progenitor would have summoned me, I almost didn’t even respond to the summons since I had already done one prior to this, and was a little tired mentally, but I am glad I did. Hehehe, they’ll be boiling with envy, but this vampire must adore his son to invest so many souls in him. Not even the emperor’s royal guards get paid that many souls in a month.’

’But with this much soul, I can do anything I want—ah, yeah, create new spiritual texts, construct soul weapons, have enough spiritual cash to buy whatever I want in hell or the underworld, and even utilize these souls to strengthen myself—the possibilities are unlimited.’

’Hehehe, how marvelous! If he is paying me this much to keep his son happy and secure, then I, too, should respond with only the best service, after all, I want that bonus. *lick lips*, yes, I wonder, maybe if I can seduce his son, I can get even more things to fill my needs. That Ichormancy of the Elderblood family is so fucking broken that anyone who goes up against it never lives to tell the tale afterward. That inherent power alone could easily challenge the arcane arts of the Devil Emperors down in hell. Hahaha, yes, yes! I am a genius now I’m really keen to see this so-called young master.’

Michelle glanced at Xana as he read her thoughts, unaware that he was reading all of her inner secrets. Michelle, of course, had a bored expression on his face, his hands folded as he glanced at Xana as if she were the most usual thing he had ever seen.

’Oh, very typical! I’m not shocked she’d turn to seduction to fatten her pockets even more. But, oh well, Merciless is my son, and I have a lot of faith in him. This woman will be just another crazy pussycat that will fall in line and purr at his feet. That lad is like me, *lick lips*; we both appreciate a good challenge, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he tames this wild devil to his liking.’

’On the other hand, everything is set; all I have to do now is give her this stone and tell her to conceal herself and watch over the archive. That item is too vital to be left alone, and by the looks of it, this slime is incapable of doing anything independently without Merciless guidance.’

"Ohhh well, it is what it is; I helped, either way head’s up devil thing!"

Michelle muttered as he kicked the soul stone toward Xana like a football, his face showing a cruel grin. In a panic, Xana hurriedly went and caught the soul stone in mid-air. Before it fell to the ground, she desperately saved this precious artifact from annihilation; at this moment, she was more concerned with the carrier than with the souls.

But the force of the kick was so powerful that it caused Xana to soar and crash into the demonic alter, destroying it in the process. At the very least, the soul stone was rescued from destruction, but Xana couldn’t help but question Michelle’s actions, which she spoke out to herself.

"Just great! Abuse on day one."

But before she could analyze the situation any further, Michelle called out to her and started to give her his first set of directions.

"Either way, devil thing, because you have pledged fealty to the Elderblood name, here is your first order. Do you notice the blond, stoic-looking girl over there? Her name is Substance, and she is comparable in race to a mimic demon in Hell if such beings were given eldritch steroids. But, in any case, that child over there is a really important part of your new young master’s life. It’s his archive; I won’t explain what it is because I’m not in the mood, so ask him when you have time; your major task from now on is to protect this lady at all costs, by whatever means necessary; do you understand what I’m saying, devil thing?"

Michelle questioned Xana, who, at that point, began to look at Substance, and to her amazement, she discovered that this entity has no soul, but it is also not a vampire, despite sharing their characteristic

’Honestly, is their anything that is vividly normal about this family?’

Xana questioned herself before nodding her head in confirmation, prompting Michelle to conclude the talk by adding.

"Good, now get to work, devil thing; I have other matters to attend to, and if possible, hide your miasma. After all, since you are guarding this woman, I would prefer that you maintain the element of surprise at all times in case something terrible occurs."

Michelle instructed Xana, who nodded in agreement. Michelle actually had a point there. As a result, she placed her hands on her chest and responded accordingly.

"It shalt be done according to thy wishes. Thou art has nothing to worry about; she is in good hands."

"Only time will tell devil thing; now then make yourself scarce. I don’t want the children to see you after unfreezing the flow of time."

"Of course, contractor, if you need me for anything else, just call me, and I shall respond to your call immediately."

With those final words, Xana began to melt into a dark mass, fusing herself into Substance Shadow. All of the remaining Miasma in the air was drawn within Substance Shadow, almost as if the Miasma were a part of Xana’s body itself.

Leaving just Michelle to exist in this unmoving universe, as he was now fully finished with everything here since everything had been preserved to his satisfaction. There was only one thing left to do: complete the task for which he had come here.

As a result, he began walking towards the same location where Jordan was questioning Hector, and from there he willed for time to resume its natural flow, at which point everything returned to normal.

"As such, that is why I need to know who Merciless si... agh!!...

"..."

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"LORDDDD SEVENNNTH!!... wh... what are you doing here?"

Jordan stopped, his head and heart pounding with confusion and panic. On the other hand, almost in unison, the other vampires bent their knees in anticipation of the progenitor’s quick entrance; even Zalana, the beautiful purple-haired Succubus, joined in and bent her knee.

"Jordan was naturally not affected by this, given that he was also of royal blood. Nonetheless, he was perplexed by the circumstances, which he had not anticipated in the least."

However, Michelle just gave everyone a bored look and replied as such.

"So this is the squad that my dear Merciless is on; thankfully, it is not made up entirely of saquats, which is wonderful to know, but it is also not of the lowest order, which is exceptional at the very least. Lucy from Clan Jahad, Alucard from Clan Nosferatu, Albedo and Abadis from Clan Loviatar, and Jordan from Clan Solomon, very interesting set-up indeed."

Michelle announced, causing some of the saquats to tremble with rage, but what could they do? They were in front of a man who was capable of destroying all vampiric clans in a matter of hours if he truly wanted to, their only saving grace being Eos laws, but the fact that they were in front of a progenitor meant they had to show respect whether they liked it or not either way.

Jordan, on the other hand, naturally wanted to assess the situation and took the initiative in asking Michelle as such, his voice and manner of speaking not being sarcastic at this time, but rather unnaturally courteous.

"So, Lord Seventh, why exactly are you here?"