HP: Sacred Gear Chat Group (2) - Chapter 33 (Patreon)

Chhapter 33 - Bloodsucker's

Thick fog shrouded the land as our feet touched the ground just outside Morthal. The moment my boots sank into the damp earth, I put away our Brooms.

Something was wrong.

My by-now very sharp instincts were screaming at me that something was watching us from beyond the fog.

Yet, thanks to the mist, we landed almost inside Morthal. Usually, there was little danger this close to a city. Bandits rarely dared to come this near the guards, and the local wildlife kept its distance from settlements.

But this wasn’t normal.

There were no Guards in sight.

I wasn’t the only one feeling it.

Agnar already had one hand resting on the haft of his axe. His eyes moved slowly through the fog, searching for movement, while he gave me a sharp nod.

Neither of us spoke.

There was something in the silence that made even breathing feel too loud.

Then, without warning, strong arms wrapped around me from behind.

Sharp pain tore through my neck.

“Fuck!”

I lashed out on instinct, driving my elbow backward with all the strength I could muster. Something shrieked and staggered away from me.

But I wasn’t the only one in Pain.

I had felt the demonic power within my body lash out on its own. It surged through my veins like fire, violently rejecting whatever had tried to feed upon me. A high-pitched female scream erupted beside me, so shrill that it seemed to pierce straight through my skull.

I spun around.

A pale-skinned woman stood a few steps away, clutching her face with both hands. Wisps of smoke poured from between her fingers and billowed from her mouth. The smell of something burning, something that had once been alive, filled the air.

Her eyes met mine through the gaps between her fingers.

They were red.

“Die, you vile bloodsucker!” Agnar roared.

He stepped forward and swung his axe with brutal precision.

The blade smashed into the Vampire’s skull.

There was a wet crack.

Her body collapsed, already beginning to crumble into ash before it even hit the ground. Within seconds, only a small pile of blackened remains remained on the muddy street.

The fog swallowed the last traces of her scream.

“Of course it is Vampires…” I muttered and opened my bag.

Agnar glanced at me.

“Looks like your body has no taste for being fed upon.”

“No, it doesn’t seem so.”

I pulled out a bottle and uncorked it.

“Still better to drink some Cure Disease. Just to be safe.”

“Aye. That’s one thing we can agree on.”

I swallowed the potion. Its bitter taste lingered on my tongue as I put the empty bottle away.

Neither of us relaxed.

If there was one Vampire this close to Morthal, there could easily be more.

And if there were more, where were they?

The fog didn’t help the situation either, covering even the sun in the sky above us.

We continued towards the city.

“By the gods! What in Oblivion is happening here?” Agnar questioned as we encountered a shriveled corpse in the middle of the Street. There were also more piles of Ash scattered around the City.

“I have no idea. Let’s find my Mother and the others.” Worry was swelling up in my chest.

While I remember that there was a bit of Vampire-related stuff in Morthal, I can’t say that anything in the Game was like this.

Using Clairvoyance, we followed the glowing Path, passing a burned-down building, towards what seemed to be the Moorside Inn. Giving it a try, I realized that the Door was locked.

But I could hear voices from the inside.

“Don’t open the Door, you beast! It could be one of them! They could have come back!”

Yet, even though there was some kind of disagreement, the Door opened and revealed Ghislaine in her full combat bikini, with her blade ready behind it. Allowing me to relax slightly.

“Ghislaine! What’s going on here? Where are Mom and the others?” I asked immediately as I saw the beast swordswoman.

“Vampires tried to take over the City. Your Mother is inside. Daphne, Astoria, and Tracey went missing before the attack.” She gave me an immediate rundown of the Situation, causing me to worry again.

She let us in under the suspicious gazes of the other inhabitants. Only the older Redguard Woman behind the Counter, probably the Innkeeper, looked at us calmly. Meanwhile, Ghislaine remained quite unbothered by it.

Ghislaine led us through the Inn’s Main Hall, passing several Rooms along the sides where we could make out some wounded people resting on makeshift beds. Once again, I had to notice that the World was bigger and more populated than the in-Game Version.

At the end of the Hall, we could hear several voices arguing in the very last Room to the right, exactly where Ghislaine had been leading us.

“I won’t wait any longer. They got my daughters and their friends!” I could hear Mom arguing.

“This is foolishness. You will be heading into certain death! Most of my Men are out of Commission or have turned. You and your friend are the only defence we have besides myself, my daughter, and Falion,” an elderly female voice argued right back.

“Mother, please calm down!” A younger woman interfered soothingly, acting as an intermediary between both parties. “If we stay and wait here, we will just be waiting for certain death. We need to strike back and get the Leader of the Coven!”

“It will leave us defenseless here!”

“Then what are you suggesting? Sitting here until the captured are dead?” Mom countered directly.

“I will send People to the other Holds to get support from them. Jarl Elisif will support us!” the older woman announced confidently.

“This will be far too late. Gathering any meaningful strike force will take Days. It will be weeks before they are here.”

Having heard enough, this was the moment I chose to step into the Room.

“WHO DARES!?” the older woman cried out immediately.

“Alistair, you are finally here! Good!” Mom said with relief, enveloping me in a hug.

Besides Mom, three more People were Inside. An older male Redguard wearing the blue Robes of a Mage. An elderly dark-haired Woman who must have been quite the beauty during her youth, which I still attribute to someone having installed Mods on this World, wearing the typical Clothes of a Jarl. And a younger dark-haired, green-eyed Woman, also a real beauty, who closely resembled the older one.

Definitely a replacer Mod at work here.

I wonder if this is generally a modded reality instead of the canon Skyrim one? How else should I explain this entire escalated Situation?

Bringing up one big question: what other Mods are installed here?

Unfortunately, this isn’t the time to ponder that.

“We came as soon as I got your Message. Is that why you called me?” I asked, surprised at myself by how calm I managed to stay even though Tracey, Daphne, and Astoria seemed to be missing.

“No, this Situation suddenly developed yesterday.”

“Tell me everything.”

“It all began when we arrived at Morthal. While I’ve been doing my trade and contacted you about another matter, I allowed the Girls to gain a bit of experience by accepting a Job from Jarl Ravencrone.”

Realizing who the older woman was, I immediately turned towards her.

“What did you ask the Girls to investigate?”

“If I had known the depths of this matter, I wouldn’t have. It was supposed to be an investigation into an unfaithful Husband who may have had a hand in the death of his wife. You may have noticed the burned-down house. That’s Hroggar’s House, said Husband. He lost his wife and daughter in the blaze. Many folk thought he set the fire himself, having suspiciously moved in with Alva the very next day. Turns out Alva was a Vampire, and had enthralled him. She also forced his wife to lay the fire herself. I asked the Girls to investigate that.”

That is the entire Vampire Quest!

But how did it escalate so much?

“Turns out this was related to a Master Vampire’s Plot targeting the entirety of Morthal for a secret takeover,” the Jarl tiredly continued. “They turned quite a bit of our population and enthralled even more. Once the Plot was uncovered, we managed to fight back with the support of your Mother, Ghislaine, and Falion.” She pointed towards the Redguard Mage.

I think he was the Mage who can cure Vampirism in the Game.

Mom chose to speak up next. “It seems like the Vampires have been planning to take over Morthal for a while, slowly converting the Population into either Vampires or Thralls. They even turned Jarl Idgrod’s Husband. That’s probably how they realized their Plot had been uncovered and decided to force the Issue. It outright turned into a Civil War, Guards against Guards, Neighbours against Neighbours, even Family against Family. We managed to fight them back, but in the middle of it all, they kidnapped the Girls and some other Citizens. Probably to turn them.”

Yep, that escalated quite a bit more than in the Games.

“How long ago was the kidnapping?” Agnar, who had been listening beside me, asked.

“Just earlier today,” the younger woman, who I assumed was Idgrod the Younger, the daughter of Idgrod Ravencrone and next in line to become Jarl, replied.

Agnar gave me a nod before I replied, “Alright, that’s enough time. It takes three days for the reversal of Vampirism to become more complicated. For now, visiting a simple shrine or drinking a Cure Disease potion is enough. Agnar, Ghislaine, and I will storm the Vampire Hideout. We will take care of them and their Leader and free the kidnapped. The rest of you stay here to protect the City.”

I didn’t bother waiting for their agreement. I simply moved, with Ghislaine and Agnar directly following me. Mom would have no problem with my plan.

And what do I care if I step on the toes of a passive Jarl?

———

The Lair of the Master Vampire Movarth was a small cave system north of Morthal, filled with Vampires and their Thralls.

There honestly wasn’t really much to it.

Seriously, they didn’t even have any guards outside.

We reached the Lair pretty quickly on our Brooms, quickly disposing of the Frostbite Spiders guarding the first Room of the Cave before moving on towards the deeper parts, which were filled with Vampires and their Thralls.

Honestly, the Vampires weren’t much of a Challenge, especially if you had Magic that could specifically deal with them.

Not that Ghislaine or Agnar had much trouble with them either. But the good old Sunlight Charm, Lumos Solem, was a powerful Weapon against them. It created a powerful gust of concentrated Sunlight, immediately burning them to Ash.

Fire was also very effective.

Their Thralls, Humans who had been slowly hypnotized over time to do a Vampire’s bidding, were more of a Challenge since they didn’t have such an obvious weakness. But most of them weren’t even experienced Warriors and were easily disposed of.

There was no point in saving them, since they had been completely mind-broken into thralldom over long periods of time. Different from the freshly kidnapped Citizens somewhere deeper in the Cave.

The only slight challenge in the entire Cave was their Leader, the Master Vampire Movarth Piquine, a several-centuries-old Vampire who had been born during the Second Era. And by Challenge, I mean I had to cast the Sunlight Charm a few times instead of once.

Yeah, if the entire Devil Thing doesn’t work out in the long term, I definitely won’t choose to become a Vampire.

And I will have to become stronger fast so I can resist Holy Power better, maybe find a few methods to counter it. Having such a weakness is just shit! These Vampires are the best proof of it.

They weren’t even underfed, and yet couldn’t handle my Sunlight Charm simply because they were being hit by concentrated rays of Sunlight.

With Movarth, I also found the Bags belonging to Tracey, Daphne, and Astoria. The Vampire had just been studying them, suggesting that either not much time had passed since he turned them, or they had done something stupid and been caught.

At the very end of the Cave, we finally encountered a Room with a large Cage Door.

“Quiet, someone is coming!” Some Girl I didn’t recognize whispered.

“Why would they even come again? He was just here. Don’t tell me he already wants to start with us?” Another female Voice pointed out.

“Maybe they got hungry?”

That was clearly Astoria, to my great relief.

With a silent Alohomora, the Door flew open.

“Or the rescue Party is here,” I said calmly as I stepped into a Room filled with nervous-looking young Girls. Tracey, Daphne, and Astoria were among them, unarmed, with their Clothes slightly ripped apart, revealing their pale skin and underwear.

Great, Movarth was a pervert.

Was he planning to go full Molag Bal on them? Please tell me they hadn’t gotten that far yet.

With a wave of my Wand and a Reparo Charm, the Clothes mended themselves back into a proper State.

And the moment they recognized me, I was wrapped up in a group hug by three nervous Girls.

“Alistair!”

“Big Brother!”

“You came!”

“Shh, I am here,” I said soothingly, not wanting to startle them. But there was a Question I had to ask. “Did he do anything to you?”

Tracey shook her head.

“Not yet. But he told us what he was planning to do.”

“I can imagine what that was,” I said quietly before pulling out a few bottles of Cure Disease and handing one to each of the Girls in the Prison. “Here, drink these.”

“What are they?” one of them asked suspiciously, understandably not trusting me.

“Cure Disease. Even if they didn’t bite you yet, it’s better to be on the safe side with Vampirism.”

Next, I returned the Girls’ Stuff to them.

“Here are your things. Why did they take your Portkeys?”

“They were able to sense that they were Enchanted and took them while we were unconscious,” Daphne explained as she grabbed her Bag.

“I see. Something to keep in mind. Alright, we should head back to Morthal and tell them that the Threat has been taken care of.” I nodded before turning towards the three Girls. “So, how was your first Adventure?”

To no one’s surprise, I received the stink eye.

———

Back in Morthal, once we had returned the kidnapped Girls to the others, we still helped out with the Repairs. The Reparo Charm was a true boon once again.

Only at Night did I finally manage to get some time to have a Chat with Mom.

“Alright, now that this unpleasantness has been taken care of, why did you really ask me to come here?”

“Wanting to see my Son in such a dangerous Land isn’t enough?” Mom asked teasingly.

“I didn’t force any of you to come with me… I even warned you! And you said earlier that you needed me for something else.” I wasn’t in the mood for teasing after just having to save my Sister and Friends from a perverted Vampire.

Clearly, she was just trying to lighten the atmosphere. Earlier, she had been rattled too.

“Alright. Before coming here, we visited a reclusive but brilliant member of the College in the Sea of Ghosts.”

“What did you want from him?”

“He was apparently an expert on Elder Scrolls. Quite a fascinating topic in this World,” Mom admitted.

“And a dangerous one,” I deadpanned.

“Well, the expert is quite mad, so fair point,” Mom admitted. “But it didn’t hurt to get a bit of his Knowledge. And it wasn’t pointless. He agreed to share his Knowledge with us if we help him with the last parts of his Life’s work. Unfortunately, the Tasks are quite dangerous.”

[-- End of Chapter --]