PLEASE READ
Hello everyone sorry for the late chapter again I was busy moving and couldn't really write consistently and was only able to this week, and even then not really as I no longer have a laptop so I'm writing on phone and it's hard to focus on phone because well one swipe and now I'm distracted by some random video on YouTube. Anyways
I kind of had a change of plans in the middle of writing this because I chose to write the Valerie section first(This chapter was intended to have three sections because I thought it wouldn't be that long) but while writing this section I realized if I include the other sections this chapter would be like 6k-10k words which would take a while for me to do so I decided to only include this section in this chapter so take this as basically a side chapter I guess.
Oh and because only two people replied to the question(I know damn well more than those two people read the story) I flipped a coin to see which option I would do since both comments were the opposite of each other and take a break from DxD won. But don't worry this specific part is here mostly to serve as a time skip for DxD while also getting to see more of Ashtart so it won't be that long especially because of what the person rolled from the wheel.
Anyways, Enjoy I guess. Auf Wiedersehen
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The Tepes faction castle was alight with frantic movement, within its walls complete chaos reigned. Screams of dying vampires scratched the walls though what they were dying to seemed quite strange. Attacking the vampires it seems to simply be a green butterfly? Though that was obviously not the entire story when the butterflies would touch the vampires in only a few seconds a wisp like object floated out of the vampires' bodies and then like their lights were flipped off their bodies dropped to the floor. These Ghostly butterflies were siphoning away the souls anything they touched.
Though the Tepes faction vampires tried to fight back nothing seemed to work, everything they through at them whether physical attacks or magical worked, not even their signature blood magic they were so proud of had any sort of effect, everything simply phased through the butterflies as though they weren't there in the first place, all these attempts did was lead to a quick death. And those who chose to run weren't served a much different fate, though they survived for longer it wasn't by much. If there is something vampires have over other supernatural races is their speed, firstly they are simply naturally faster due to where their magic energy centers and circulates. Most races magical energy centers around an important body part like the heart or lungs, then circulates through veins and other organs.
Vampires are one of the few races that do not have any sort of necessary organs or a type of core. So instead of centering at any organ the magical energy of vampires circulates from their waist expands down to their legs then circulates back to the upper body. This gives them not only a natural increase in speed but also a higher aptitude for movement type magic. So, with this on top of their advanced uses of shadow magic their ability to run away is truly unparalleled, to catch a competent vampire who is ready to run away you'd have to have already prepared traps before the fight even began. Too bad the entire castle is just a big trap now.
Many of the vampires who tried to run managed to run from the butterflies, they thought they were home free. As they step foot outside the castle they saw something that made them realize maybe they should've just stayed in the castle and left their fates to the butterflies. Surrounding the castle an army of ghostly monsters stood ready for anyone who tried to leave the vicinity. From dragons to giants the monsters were all ranging as though someone took a monster from every mythology and plopped them down in the Tepes faction yard.
A gulp resounded in the group of vampires, the butterflies looked a lot more endearing than this, at least they are a more peaceful thing to die to. Before they could act on their desire to return to the castle walls a wave of fire consumed them. Nothing remained of the vampires' bodies not even ashes.
"CAHAHAA" Mighty laughter boomed through the midnight air "Just another batch of weaklings! Is this what's considered a faction in this age?!"
The voice came from one of the many ghostly dragons, However this one looked far more powerful than the others and a lot different than the typical dragon. Unlike most dragons this one has three heads, though that isn't truly what makes him unique in comparison to other dragons. His body was almost entirely humanoid, the only part of his body that remains distinctly dragon in appearance is his hands, feet and obviously the head. He looked like someone took a human body put some dragon heads, feet and hand on it.
His scales a deep dark purple almost bordering on black, the scales blended into each other closely locking together appearing almost skin like in texture. Though being who he is it would indeed make sense as to why he is so different when compared to other dragons. His name is Azi Dahaka an ancient evil dragon who rather than being born naturally was created by the Evil God, Angra Mainyu of the Zoroastrian faction. Azi Dahaka was created as a weapon to help Angra Mainyu fight against the army of the Zoroastrian god and while that was successful he later died to the hands of Θraētaona the chosen hero of the Zoroastrian god. And like many others he's been brought back to the living world.
Calming down the humanoid dragon huffed, "What could that girl even have to say to her imprisoners." Without another word three pairs of dragon wings burst from his back and he took off back into the sky. To continue patrolling for any vampires trying to escape.
Moving to the one who caused this chaos we see a blond haired girl sitting at a large dining table, And she isn't sitting alone. She sat at the very end of the table, and to the exact opposite of her sat an older looking man, like Valerie he has blonde hair and piercing red eyes. His face wore a grimace lines of age lining his face.
"…Where is Gasper." Without any warning Valerie's soft voice chimed out. Her statement less of a question and more of a demand for the answer. Her eyes stared straight into his own completely unblinking.
Opening his mouth as if to respond his lips quivered and closed. He didn't know what to say, he, the lord of the Tepes faction was hesitating and didn't know what to say to a simple question. And the reason? It's simple really, it's because of fear. He wasn't sure how Valerie would react to the information he had.
Truthfully he had no idea if Gasper was even still alive, last he heard the kid managed to run away several years ago and that's the last he heard of him. In all likelihood he probably died to vampire hunters as they are always not too far away in this region. But he doubts that's the answer his oh so lovely daughter wants to hear from him. He knows he can't win in this scenario, he can sense the power of the spirits she's summoned and quite a few of them vastly out power him at best he believes he could run away, which he has no issues doing.
Thinking about it for a second he realized that he could do this little thing called lying, he has no clue where Gasper is, but she doesn't know that. "Well last I heard h-" "You don't know where he is do you?"
Before he could even finish his attempt at lying Valerie interrupted. "I can tell from the frequency spike in your soul, you were going to try and lie to me. If you don't know his location then you don't really have any use to me." Waving her hand a swarm of her signature ghostly butterflies formed in the air and began to swiftly fly towards the Tepes lord.
Gritting his teeth lord Tepes shouted out "How do you know he's even alive!? That kid Ran away just before the vampire hunting season the Vatican organizes, he's probably nothing more than dust now!" His frustration boiled, was he seriously going to die here? No he couldn't let it happen so easy. Instantly he hit the jets, dashing dashing away the shadows converged on his location and as though skating though the world he zipped through room and almost instantly out of the castle. Knowing he couldn't take the front entrance and sensing the many flying entities he knew he couldn't fly and feeling that the entities at the back weren't as powerful as the ones on any of the other sides.
He truthfully should've thought a little longer as when someone can direct and summon powerful monsters seemingly with no drawbacks why would they leave a weak spot in the defenses?
Valerie now standing alone in the dining hall began to speak, "Maybe I am just being optimistic but I believe he still lives" saying this her once blank face now infected with a small smile. "Gasper is strong I'm sure that he managed to survive back then." But after those words the smile dropped from her face and was replaced with a deep frown "Brother Marius has already been taken care of, it's your turn now, father"
The single father of three continued to run for his life. As a master in shadow magic he is basically able to slide through the world like wind through a tunnel, with swiftness worthy of the title as lord of the Tepes faction he dodged all the summoned and created monsters. He zoomed through the forest surrounding the castle, he even thought he was home free, but as was said before, there's a reason the defenses were weaker than the rest. As his feet hit the edge of the forest floor an explosion of Spirit elemental energy erupted from beneath him.
The eruption sent him flying backwards and interrupting his shadow enhancement. In the wake of the explosion a seven headed dragon arose, its scales a metallic silver that covers its body heads to toes, though its underside is a dark black that was also metallic looking, and keeping with the aesthetic of Valerie's summons it's kept a deeps ghastly green aura while also being slightly translucent.
Tepes's eyes widened "A Balaur…"
Balaurs are a multi-headed dragon species that all have a minimum of three heads and a maximum of seven. Depending on the dragon each head signifies a different element. This one specifically is a forger dragon and is more unique even among Balaurs. Forger type Balaurs embody the concept of forging, the main and leader head has control over the main element of forging and each of the other heads containing elements that correspond to forging. Fire, Water, Wind, Shaping, sharpening and Metal. Though a disadvantage Forger type Balaurs have is that they are completely wingless and have no ability to learn generic flight magic.
For a moment it was just silence, both parties stared at one another as if waiting to see what the other would do. But as if already fed up the Balaur let out a roar the split the air with haste six heads releasing their magic. Flames flashed forth, a stream of high pressure water jetted out, blades of wind ripped forward, metal formed in the air then shaped into a legion of sharpened blades.
Hastily, Tepes formed a circular portal like shadow between him and the attacks, the attacks sunk into the shadows like a rock through water and with a swipe of his hand a second portal appeared and from it the previous attacks were sent right back at the dragon. Seeing its own attacks being sent back it the Balaur huffed and simply dispelled the attack mid-air. Though before it could respond once more it noticed a disturbance in its shadow and the shadows surrounding it. spikes of darkness shot into existence from all angles, reacting just in time it was able to use its metal magic to enhance its scales though it wasn't fast enough to cover its underneath.
With a deep squelching sound the spikes made of shadows pierced through the Balaurs dark hide and into its body, in this fight the first blood went to the man running for the milk. Though it doesn't really mean much.
As a spirit it didn't truly have a physical body worth mentioning so injuries that would've affected it in life doesn't particularly mean anything to it now, stomping it broke the spikes of darkness and writhing seconds the wholes the spikes created began to close. retaliating with more blasts from its heads but rather than do nothing, this time the leader head acted as well. Its eyes flashed a glimmering Gold, the earth itself was then forged into a new fighting area of nothing but lava and fire, heat exploded into the air and the forest that remained caught fire.
"Shit!" Not expecting this Tepes took to the night sky, dodging the attacks of the Balaur. Sadly it cannot fly so he gets a chance to think
'These entities are are all spiritual beings so they are unaffected by conventional attacks not enhanced by magic, blood magic seems to have no affect because of the incompatibility between blood and spirits. The convention weaknesses of spirits are fire, light, holy, pure iron magic… Which are all weaknesses of vampires and completely out of my repertoire' A Grim expression crossed his face, for the first time the multiple centuries old vampire felt like he wanted to cry 'And while they are affected by other types of magic the damage it would inflict wouldn't be significant enough for the energy drained, as seen with my attempts with shadow magic.'
Realizing that he didn't have anything in his repertoire that could deal damage to these spirits he chose to simply run once more "Even if the Tepes faction falls, as long as I still live we can start anew…!"
Making up his mind he took off once more. But before he could move even an inch he found himself back inside the castle walls sitting at the dining table.
"Hello again father, did you like your trip?" Looking up Tepes could see the giggling face of Valerie though that isn't all he saw. Standing next to her was a humanoid dragon that clearly should be too big to fit inside the room.
Perspiration dripped down his back, his eyes as wide as saucers. "How…." His head drooped down eyes filled with pure despair, he could tell death was near. "I didn't even feel anything.."
From the humanoid looking dragon he heard a deep but mischievous voice "Well, don't feel too bad I'm just far stronger than you" his voice trembled as though on the verge of laughter.
You see once someone reaches the level of Ultimate class it's no longer just a linear growth of strength and even in the peak of Ultimate class there are separate classifications. It goes from C-Class, B-Class, A-Class, and S-Class. To reach these different classes rather than simply gaining more magic power one must start to cultivate their power into a higher tier for example some type of divinity or authority though dragons are an exception to this due to their possession of dragon aura which allows for the creations of conceptual power. And example of each tier would be Kuroko at C-Class, Serafall at B- Class, Tiamat at A-Class and someone like Loki is S-class.
The likes of Azi Dahaka is beyond Ultimate class and all its tiers and have reached into the depths of "God class" which when translated to the dragon tiering system he is on the level of the Heavenly dragons Y Draig Goch and Albion Gwiber. This dude Tepes is barely middle ultimate class. Though not everything is night and day in a real fight, with a power difference this massive any sort of unique ability means almost nothing, if you can't even react to what your opponent is doing what do you really do?
Letting out an utterly wickedly condemning laugh Azi Dahaka's voices boomed out "For you see! I am Azi Dahaka the Diabolism Thousand dragon! The one who fought off an entire faction army on my own to the point the only option they had was to seal me and could only kill me after I was weakened!" His voices calmed back down to his regular mischief level and let out a huff "But even if I wasn't here you wouldn't have gotten away anyway, once you started flying you'd have been met with even more traps that were set up."
"Well enough of that" Valerie's soft voice resounded, the pitter-patter of her shoeless feet could be heard as she walked towards her despairing father. As she reaches him she raised her hand and asked "Do you have any last words?" For a second it was silence before he whispered something she could hardly hear "Huh?"
"If I'm going down I'm taking you with me!!" Stabbing himself his blood boiled and burst, his skinned cracked as though he was made of stone , deep blood red flame burst from the cracks in his skin, he was ready to blow. But in an instant the world went grey, time stopped.
With a small chuckle Azi Dahaka says "They all do the same thing, backed into a corner they choose to go out on their own terms, can't say I don't at least respect it a little. Kill him quick I can't keep up this type of time stop for that long"
"Okay.." she said in a slightly disappointed voice. On her finger tips her signature ghostly green energy shaped into claw like appendages, and with a quick swipes she decapitated him shredding his soul.
As time resumed his body lost all the magic it was gathering and slowly crumbled to nothing, in seconds it was like the Lord of the once existing Tepes clan never existed.
Taking a breathe she dropped her hand back to her side. "It's time to find Gasper"
In one night, the Tepes faction fell.