A tenuous howl trailed across the lightless skies of the vampiric kingdom.
From the towering window of his chamber, Mars gazed upon the sprawling structures of Dragon City. He took notice of the towering buildings, the rich vampire elites, the shadow-bound creatures, and so much more. Life in the luxurious city was fast, purposeful, and showed no concern for things of the past. Everyone living here seemed to share that same mentality, treating every new occurrence with utmost attention and discarding the past for the bookkeepers to remain concern about.
'It's so… sad, if you really think about it,' Mars' thoughts trailed off, his hands cradling a cup of bioluminescent blood as he brought it to his lips for a sip. 'Everyone's so concerned about the here and now. No one cares about how all of this even came to be. Their roots, their ancestors' dreams and desires. All of that knowledge is simply tocked away in the libraries of this kingdom.
'Worse, this empire has really lost its edge. What happened to the time when vampires worked together to achieve a common goal? Now, all they do is seggregate one another as they battle for opulence and supremacy. Because of this, those who aren't strong enough to keep up with the times are cast aside and left for dead.
'The lower towns, the people who struggle to withstand this corrupt regime, they're dying with each passing day. Even my father showed no concern for them. No one cares about the weak. Only strength matters.
'Why does this philosophy even exist? Who even came about it? Even Kaiser recognized the importance of all vampires. The Empire wouldn't exist without his choices,' he remembered a certain name from one of the books he read in the past, his eyes narrowing as he hissed:
'Cyrus. That scheming bastard is the reason the kingdom is the way it is. He was the one who broke the system Kaiser worked so hard to build. The fighting, the bloodshed, the hatred, this is not the kingdom of vampires Kaiser created. This… is not the Empire I wish to live in.'
From the corner of his eye, Mars caught sight of a group of young vampires around his age surrounding a frightened-looking girl. From the guys' expressions, it appeared as though they were engrossed in coming at such close proximity to her, their hands eagerly raised to…
Before anyone of them could do anything, one felt a scorching pain spread across his hands. The next second, a trail of crimson light circled around the boy's wrist, the arm falling off right after. Blood, flesh, and bone splattered across the ground, an unimaginable amount of pain assaulting the boy's senses in mere seconds.
He screamed, eyes suffused with malicious agony as he glared dementedly at his friends. The other two boys rushed back in fright, bodies shaking as sweat trickled down their faces. One of them was just about to run away when he felt a dreadful pain spread across his lower abdomen, and the next moment, his life flashed before his eyes. His body was instantly torn in half, blood and guts splashing all over the other's bodies as they stared in horror.
Seeing an opportunity to escape, the girl made a run for it, uncaring for whether what was taking out these rascals would deal with her next.
The last remaining vampire shuffled between the bodies of both of his friends, his trembling words drawing attention from passerbys. Many had already gathered after witnessing the grousome scene of those vampires being mercilessly killed out of nowhere. However, what drew their attention, above all else, was the fact that whoever was responsible for this was nowhere to be found.
"Help! Please! My friends! I don't know what happened! They-" before the remaining vampire could even finish his words, he froze, eyes brimming with terror. The next moment, a thin red line appeared right in the middle of his head, running all around his body on both sides.
A massive spray of blood followed, and his body collapsed into two on both sides. A complex and nauseating network of bones, flesh, and internal organs came into view, the vampire's blood crystal shattering and dissipating right after, same as with his friends as the audience watched with gaping expressions.
'Huh? What just happened?' Mars asked himself, gripping his glass cup tightly as he stared down at what was happening in the streets. 'Who could've done this? Unless it's a royal, I can't think of anyone who could possibly pull something like this off. Even though, to kill three elite vampires without even being spotted, just who could be responsible?'
Suddenly, Mars heard a knock on the door. Forcing himself to look away from the grusome scene, he straightened himself and said in a clear voice. "Come in."
His doors were pushed open the next instant.
A petite girl with long straight black hair stood at the entrance, her hands hugging her elbows as she fixed her eyes on the floor. With unsure steps, she walked into his chamber, the noise of her boots colonizing the once somber atmosphere of his living space. Her steps soon came to a halt, a series of muffled sounds escaping her lips as she willed herself to look up, watery eyes meeting the gloomy gaze of her elder brother.
For a couple seconds, both just stood there, looking into each other's eyes. The weight of the silence communicated what the other person desired to say, but couldn't will themself to speak up. The walls mimicked the girl's sobs, her hands slowly raised to wipe off her accumulated tears. Her sharp eyes gained an unhealthy shade of red, their typical appearance acquiring a disturbing puffiness from prolonged periods of crying.
Time seemed to still.
Mars grabbed his chest, feeling the familiar agony resurface. His mother's pain-striken invaded his thoughts in that moment, his eyes battling to hold back his tears. Too many times had he forced himself to withhold himself from crying in such a short period of time. From the point of his father's abduction, to now, despair had quickly become a piercing parasite that accompanied him wherever he found himself in, unwilling to let him have a single moment of reprieve.
'How long? How long until this nightmare finally comes to an end?'
"...I'm sorry, big brother. I'm sorry for being so foolish with my actions," Raven eventually spoke, her voice cracking with each word as she sniffled. "It was just… just that I couldn't stand back and watch that girl insult father like that. What had he done to deserve all this hatred? Yeah, sure, he killed his cousins for power, but that's just the custom these people authorized.
"They are the ones who created this whole system of death in exchange for the throne. If father had died in those matches, no one would hsve batted an eye. Still, I can't even be sure if that's why they hate him so much. The real reason must be far more deep-rooted than that.
"Still, whatever the case may be, does it really matter? Does it justify all the harsh things they've done? I admit, what I did was wrong, but the way I went about being punished, it was absolutely unfair. No one even stayed back to try explaining things to the man. Heck, the whole academy has recording gems that allows anyone to see what actually happened. Margaret had access to those gems, yet she still decided to go ahead and give me indefinite suspension.
"She wanted this. She wanted me to suffer her wrath. She doesn't plan on enforcing justice. All that witch cares about is satisfying some deeply-held grudge that makes no damned sense! Tell me, brother, what curse did we commit to have to live such an accursed life? What crime is our father guilty of that makes him hated to be so much by everyone?"
Mars felt it all—her pain, her sadness, her disgust. It struck him all at once like a sword strike to the chest. He could only feel the deep pain intensity with every new word she spoke, tears now streaming from his eyes as he imagined just how much pain his sister was in.
"No, Raven. I should be the one apologizing to you! I should've been there. I should've stopped you. I should've been the big brother you expected me to be, but I wasn't. I was carried away, and now, look where that has gotten you. Look what it has turned out mother into!
"I'm the one who's supposed to hold this family together in father's absence, but I failed. Raven, please forgive me!" He got on his knees, pressing his head against the floor as he cried non-stop.