“Wakey wakey Mr. Blud” an unseen voice sang, as Maxwell Blud felt a gentle tap on his cheek. “You have much work to do” it said as he opened his eyes.

“What? Who are you? Where am I?” he asked as he slowly returned to consciousness

“I am your new master, please call me Asteroth” he replied

“Master?! What’s going on here?!” He said struggling futilely. He realized he was in a seated position with his hands and ankles tied in chains.

“What is the last thing you remember?” Asteroth asked as Blud’s head began to throb

“You… You tore off my leg! You bastard!” He said with bared snarling teeth

“But where is it now?” Asteroth asked, and Blud looked down to see that he had two legs, just as he did before Asteroth snatched him out of his home and tore it off

“But how?” he gasped

“We had a bit of an… exchange” Asteroth said. Asteroth lifted his pants sleeve to show a leg that was much tanner than the rest of his body.

“You…” Blud said looking down seeing his right leg was abnormally pale and had a thick scar right above his knee “You insane bastard”  

“Now you are one of mine, one of my apex predators.” He laughed then whispered “A vampire” Maxwell ripped the chains apart and seized Asteroth’s throat.

“See, you already have my strength” he said unfazed by the choke hold.

“Oh my, already collecting friends aren’t we… so handsome, can we keep him?” A female voice cooed

“Yes Alicia, he’s all yours”

“What are you going to do to me?”

“Make you a god”

 

The damages from the attack were devastating. Over thirty dead and twenty wounded. Property damage was massive and the fear in the air was thick enough to taste.

“What are these?” Reginald asked himself as he examined a deceased blood drinker “Sharp fangs, white hair, red eyes…” he noted as he opened the demon’s mouth “We’ll take a few back to the manor to examine them” he said as Jonathan attempted to reassure the townsfolk that everything was under control

“Though it pains me we must put training on hold to investigate this matter more thoroughly” he said “Ajora, examine the deceased, find out as much as you can regarding their physiology, Church, you will become well acquainted with the manor’s library, go through every single demonology book until you find something that lines up with these… things”he ordered “I will be visiting the surrounding towns and protecting this one, there may be other occurrences in Ebren”

 

“Strange” Ajora said as he examined the bodies in the well lit med ward of the manor. He had a body on a marble slab in a bright room with medical equipment on shelves wall to wall. “These teeth, so sharp… they must be designed for extracting blood from the body… but no sign of blood transfusion in the body, all these fluids are of a single type, so why drink blood if not to remedy a blood deficiency?” he asked himself. He examined the corpse and found that the muscle density dramatically decreased with the coming of day “Their anatomy is practically human now… what kind of demon changes form based on the coming of night and day, even after death… this is peculiar…”

 

“Damned books” Evangeline yawned as Claudette entered the library parlor with a coffee tray “I’ve been here all day researching but haven't found anything!” She groaned

“Here, have some coffee, it’ll help you get a better frame of mind” Claudette said with rosey cheeks.

“Thanks” she said as she sipped the coffee

“My brother instructed me to tell you to narrow your search to demons that alter their form based on time of day” she relayed

“Time of day?” Evangeline scoffed “There isn’t a demon in this book that does that sort of thing!” she said slamming the book closed. “What the hell are we dealing with?” she sighed “I should be out there, fighting them, not sitting in here reading”

“When fighting demons, preparation is as potent as silver” she said refilling Evangeline’s cup “According to my brother’s research on the corpses, these monsters are not as responsive to silver as other demons, perhaps they are not true blooded demons” she smiled

“I guess that rules out them being the underlings of Demon Lords…” Evangeline said scratching her chin

“See, you can’t give up hope!” she smiled in a way that made Evangeline’s knees weak “Here I’ll help you read” she said grabbing a book and nestling herself against Evangeline, fitting her skinny frame into the empty space in the arm chair.

“Th-Thank you Claudette” she blushed. Claudette blushed in return

“I love helping you Evangeline!”

The library in which they studied was massive, encompassing the entirety of the west wing. The shelves filled to the brim with demon fighting literature were wall to wall, filling the massive gold tinted room, with only a few cushioned arm chairs and a coffee table at its center.

“What did you do, before you came here to the manor?” Claudette asked, breaking an hour long silence

“I traveled mostly… Fighting demons and brigands and mercenaries along the way.” she said

“All alone?”

“Yep… My family died a long time ago, that’s why I’ve become a demon hunter, to find the monster that killed them”

“You’re so brave Evangeline!” Claudette fawned with stars in her eyes “All on your own for so long, the world against you! I’d be so scared, you are really incredible!” Evangeline’s face turned bright red.

“Yeah…” then suddenly a thought hit her… she began thinking about the demon that orphaned her… Asteroth. She rushed to the catalogue, searching for any reference to ‘Asteroth’ only finding one in a book titled “Ambiguous Silhouette”. She opened the book and looked for the catalogued page find a single entry with sparse detail and a single drawing of a fanged grin

“Here!” she yelled “Asteroth, an entity only rumored to exist; presumably separate from demon lords entirely, those who believe in his existence debate whether he is a demon at all. Characterized with the ability to syphon life energy from other entities. motive : chaotic; Threat level: inconceivably dangerous” she read “This thing is what killed my family!”

“Are you sure?” Claudette asked

“I’m positive, I spent five years after being orphaned looking for information about a pale, white haired man with the tattoo of a bat on his collar bone, I found out his name was Asteroth and here he is” she said, reliving the painful memory.

“Why do this, how?”

“All the book says is that he has a ‘Chaotic motive’... whatever that means. We can assume he’ll be difficult to track and predict” then suddenly there came a fierce pounding at the manor door

“Excuse me Evangeline” said Claudette with a bow “Excellent work, I’m so proud of you!” she called before answering the door “Hello?” she said opening the door

“Good afternoon madam, may I speak to the master of this estate?” a young redhaired man said politely. He had a very nice buttoned shirt with a light leather coat and a red suit vest underneath, his eyes held a sort of intoxicating presence… he stood with his weight primarily on his left foot and spoke calmly to Claudette

“I’m afraid not, the master is away on business and may take some time to return” she said apathetically

“I see…” he said removing his beaver skin hat

“And who may I presume you to be?” Evangeline said, standing behind Claudette defensively

“My name is Maxwell Blud, and the pleasure, M’lady, is all mine to see such a radiant beauty” he said looking deep into Evangeline’s eyes