Chapter 488 Gaining the Shadow ability
Presumably, life couldn’t have been any better for the life of Arthur and his people. Not only had they vampires helped him in great battles, but the technology that they didn’t have access to was taught to their people and spread around. Medicine and knowledge were passed that saved hundreds and thousands of lives. The kingdom name fame and fortune was spreading around because of these things.
The things that had happened he could have never dreamed of, but there were problems in all this. The first being that Arthur seemed to never age. Most vampires could control their ageing process and slow down, but as for those that were deemed the first vampires, including himself. It was as if they were stuck. Never growing older or younger. Soon others around would start to notice. While some thought he was blessed by gods, others did believe that it could have been the work of demons.
To quell these rumours, Arthur started to see his people less and less. And rumours of him getting sick had appeared. He was preparing for his time when he would no longer be their king.
The second being, he knew the vampires wanted something for all they had done for him, and quite honestly he was happy to give it to them, even at the cost of his own life.
He had been asked to meet the vampires at the settlement they had made for themselves. All Arthur had done was given them a plot of land, and the materials from time to time to get them started. The plot of land was located bin the high hills. A terrain that was unfavourable for most to get to, and it would be hard for one to build land on. This place had been kept secret and removed from all the charted maps.
When Arthur was younger, he had gone to such a place to train himself. There he had seen the most beautiful peaceful land that had a stream like a river running throughout it, surrounded by hills. Untouched.
This was the land he had given them. He hadn’t visited the place, since the vampires would have always come to him, so it was his first time seeing it since back then.
When he had finally scaled the top of a hill, he looked down, and he could see what seemed to be an entire city that had been built. There were thirteen castles built in a semi-circle like shape around the settlement but a large space left untouched in the middle.
"How did they do this so fast, it would have taken many years for us to create something like this." It was comparable to Arthurs own kingdom, only it was built in a fraction of the time. With a little more help and time, they would soon grow.
’What would have happened if the vampires were to try and attack humans?’ Arthur wondered, if the human race didn’t outnumber the vampires, then it would be a different story. Before they were never able to grow but for the first time, they were allowed to, and that was thanks to Arthur’s help.
But there was one thing that vampires needed the humans for... their blood.
Entering the settlement, Arthur was welcomed by one of the First. The first vampires were now changed to the leaders and the leader that greeted him was the one who would often come and see him. The tenth leader...The same person who had turned him.
At first, Arthur was weary about him, he seemed stranger than the others, but then he realised that he was strange in a good way. Often more times than not, he would be the one to convince the others if Arthur wanted something.
While walking through, Arthur could smell that all of them here were vampires, and they didn’t bat an eyelid when he walked through because he was one of them.
As for where they were going today, the tenth leader continued to walk him forward when they had finally arrived at the centre empty space between all the castles. Here all the other leaders were waiting for him, and they were standing in front of what appeared to be a large gravestone.
But the strangest thing of all, was one of them was holding onto a human. He could tell from his smell.
"Arthur, although our relationship started off sour, I think we have grown to be good partners." The tenth leader said. "You gave us a place to live, stopped humans from chasing us, and in return, we gave you power and technology to help your people. In a way, I feel like you are a part of us."
Some of the leaders were nodding in agreement with the tenth, while some of the others seemed to scoff or pull faces as they heard this. Just as much as Arthur and his people’s lives were changed, so were theirs. But even if he was a vampire, some felt like he was not like them and never could be.
The tenth leader then went on to explain what they wished Arthur to do. To be the law keeper. The grand judge in what vampires had done. They explained why they couldn’t harm their own people and him who didn’t have a direct connection with them could.
Not only for those reasons, but because many of the rules were to do with a vampire and human interaction. He thought him who was once human, and now vampire would be the fairest when coming to making a decision of punishment.
But in the end, they weren’t telling him all of this because he had a choice. They were telling him this because it would now be his job.
Learning of their past, Arthur understood why they had come to a decision such as this, but there Was still a major problem in all of this, and that was power.
Arthur was strong before, and when he was turned into a vampire, he grew stronger. The tenth was the one who had mostly taught him, and it was safe to say, due to his skills as a human and vampire, he was now on par in terms of strength with the others.
But this was the problem. Nearly all the leaders’ strengths were equal to each other. If a leader had committed a crime, then how would Arthur who was weaker than them enforce it. In his own kingdom, the knights had armour and weapons compared to the civilians, and this was what was used to sway the advantage, but there was no advantage here.
"And that is why we are here Arthur." Eno said to him after he had voiced his concern.
"This is the first king’s grave. We had once tried to have an absolute leader, but it did not work out when he had broken the rules, but there was a reason why he was elected to be king over all of us at the time." Said Eno. "That was because he was stronger than us all, we thought that was the most important factor for a leader, but it wasn’t.
"Still, there was a reason why he was stronger than us, it is because he had an ability that is not known to us vampires. It was the ability to control shadows. When he died, we gave one of the leader’s places to one of the strongest vampires to replace them, but the ability was not passed on nor taught to any others."
Abilities?
During his time as king, there were very few rare reports of people with abilities. Still, it was just reported as witchcraft and when Arthur learnt of the vampires. He assumed most of them must have just been them. Were there really people and vampires with abilities?
’But with the first king dead, then I guess his abilities would now be lost as well.’ Arthur thought.
"We would like to give you his ability," Eno said.
He didn’t know how they would do such a thing, but it seemed like the process had already started. The leaders had clearly planned everything for a long time. They had also made a set of safety measures in place just in case Arthur was to turn on them.
But honestly, after the tenth leader had explained all of the rules and the vampire code to him, he was more than happy to comply. The rules were designed not just to protect the vampires, but humans as well. To keep the two worlds separated.
If Arthur was to be the peacekeeper in between these worlds, then he was fine with that.
On the floor in front of the large tombstone was a circular like combination lock. They spun the circles in a certain order, and then, steam started to pour out from the top. Soon it raised revealing a cylinder like casket, with a glass pane screen and behind the clear screen, a person could be seen.
A pale old man.
The class container slid to the side in its oval-like shape, and the body remained upright with its arms placed across its chest.
"Is he dead?" Arthur asked.
"Not dead, but the most we could do at the time was force him into eternal slumber. But he is practically dead. The only thing that is able to wake a vampire from eternal slumber is the blood of a vampire that belonged to the same family as him and all his family is dead." Eno explained.
They told Arthur to stand in front of the body. He looked at the dead king, and even though they had said he was dead, Arthur was afraid at any second he would spring up and grab him, but no such thing happened.
One of the leaders had brought the human over.
"Okay, Truedream it’s time for you to do your thing." The vampire said, pushing him forward.
"And you promise to let me go after this right?" The man nervously said, looking around.
The vampire nodded, and the man got to work, he went over to the vampire king and closed his eyes as he gave him a kiss.
"What is this man doing?" Arthur said.
"Don’t worry it is all part of the process," Eno replied.
Shortly after, when he was done, it was time for the same to be done to him. The man looked at Arthur before saying. "Sorry."
And forcing a kiss upon his lips.
Arthur wanted to push away, but with the other vampires not reacting he knew it was part of the whole process, and soon he started to feel a strange energy that was entering his body. Finally, the shadow ability was passed onto him.
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