The Fallen Vampire

After all of these years, she was seeing not one, but two individuals reach this highly commendable stage together.

"It is quite the sight, is it not?" Keran smiled proudly.

"I-Indeed it is… and such a gorgeous man to boot… let me marry him too."

"Mother!"

"Oh come on, Keran, look at him. You probably don\'t even know what to do with a man like that."

"I assure you that I\'ve had more than enough time to figure it out! You couldn\'t even do anything with him anyway, he\'d split you in half in the first minute!"

"Sounds right up my alley if I\'m honest…"

Annoyed, Keran finally stopped supporting her mother and let her fall to the ground.

Ayame\'s face became bright red and her embarrassment was evident. "Y-You pushed me!"

"I did no such thing. Seems like you needed my help more than you led on, huh?" Keran smirked eevily.

"Why you…!"

"Are you alright, my lady?"

The women momentarily stopped their bickering when an unknown voice snuck up on them from behind.

\'Who is this..?\' Ayame wondered.

The woman who\'d arrived was different from any she\'d ever seen before.

For starters, she was around 6\'3 with a lean, yet noticeably muscular build.

Her skin was a rich chocolate color that paired well with her dark coverings and intricate black war paint.

It was difficult to determine whether she was pretty or not; as half of her face was covered by a large black Afro.

The only visible features of her face were her thick, full lips and pierced nose to match her elongated ears.

Unlike Ayame, Keran did not seem surprised by her sudden appearance.

She even smiled fondly as she reached up to pat her cheek affectionately.

"I\'m alright, Shakti. Just dealing with an old woman who doesn\'t know right from wrong."

The sound of Ayame\'s teeth grinding together was even louder than the sound of Taira and Vermeil breaking through.

The woman Keran had called Shakti didn\'t seem to be the expressive type, but her ears did twitch happily a bit.

"Who exactly is this..?" Ayame grumbled as she stood up.

"This is Shakti." Keran introduced. "Taira and Aveena selected her as our family hand."

"An honor I am most grateful for." She bowed.

The \'hand\' of a sect is similar to a hall monitor or a head disciple.

Their purpose is to ensure that all policies and procedures set in place by the Grandmaster; as well as playing the role of body guard if need be.

Shakti was chosen by Taira and Aveena unanimously.

He liked her because she didn\'t talk a lot.

She liked Shakti because she didn\'t seem to stare at Taira lustfully.

Vaal and Tiche would have been chosen, but one of them was a bit too much of an overzealous chatterbox, and the other frequently abandoned her duties as Youn Wouj.

Shakti was truly the obvious choice to make.

*Whoosh!*

Finally, the winds returned to normal and the pillars of light surrounding Taira and Vermeil dissipated.

Together, the two of them rose to their feet and approached the group of onlookers standing on the riverbank.

Shakti immediately clasped her hand and fist together while lowering her head as they approached.

"My Lady. My Dai-Shi. Allow me to congratulate you both on a successful breakthrough."

Vermeil still wasn\'t used to all this formality, so she smiled bashfully as her cheeks turned pink.

"Thank you, Shakti. I have to admit that I forgot how good it felt to breakthrough a major realm. I feel like a new woman!"

Though Taira didn\'t say anything, he too was having similar feelings.

The difference between his current strength compared to his previous power was like night and day.

He felt like he could plunder a whole kingdom by himself in only a week\'s time.

"Oof!"

Ayame let out a small yelp when Vermeil suddenly wrapped her into a tight hug.

"Thank goodness you\'re okay! You have no idea how worried we have been since we got separated. Keran was especially freaked."

"D-Don\'t tell her that…!" Keran hissed.

"Hehehe, I\'m sorry!"

Ayame wasn\'t really the touchy-feely sort, so she had a hard time adjusting to this human girl\'s sudden burst of affection.

"Y-Yes, well… everything seems to have worked out for the best… Get off me now, half pint."

"Aww…"

Vermeil went back to hugging Taira\'s arm mere seconds later; making Ayame feel just a little bit jealous.

"My mother was attacked and poisoned when one of the parties brought her here with Aja." Keran finally revealed. "I was hoping that you had a detoxifying pill on hand to help her get over the last of the poison?"

"Oh my god, of course I do! Here!" Vermeil pulled out a small dark green pill and held it out for the curmudgeonly werewolf to take.

Upon ingesting it, dark liquid started to trickle out of her pores in front of everyone.

\'Wonderful… As if I didn\'t already need a bath before all this.\'

"What exactly attacked you?" Vermeil asked.

"Not what… who. They were humans from the outside world and they seemed to belong to a Sect of some sort."

Aja and Ayame were traveling together when the two finally stumbled upon an abandoned temple.

Together, the two investigated and Aja ended up getting her hands on some sort of special medallion.

But not long afterwards, the two of them were swarmed by a squad of sovereign level cultivators.

But the odd thing about them was that they were all poison martial artists.

Poison arts are considered cowardly and loathsome by the races of light and fallen alike.

But this also makes them rare, and because of that Ayame wasn\'t prepared to deal with them.

Leading to one of the most humiliating moments of her life where she succumbed to the old \'powder blown in the face\' scheme.

Retelling it out of her own mouth, she only felt even more embarrassed.

"Is Aja injured as well?" Taira finally asked.

Ayame couldn\'t help notice the difference in care was quite substantial.

"She has a few scratches, but nothing major." Keran revealed. "If our disciples hadn\'t gotten there in time, things could\'ve been much worse. I thought she\'d be here bothering you honestly."

It was barely noticeable, but Taira did seem to relax a bit.

But he was still Taira.

"Were they all eliminated?"

"I\'m afraid not, honey. Two managed to get away clean. I\'d imagine our people\'s baseline resistance to poisons was a bit too much for them."

Taira seemed unsurprised by this as he glanced at Ayame.

"Can you give me a description of the cultists?"

"Green robes, bandaged eyes, annoying as all hell, why??" Ayame asked.

Taira ignored her and turned his head towards the towering Shakti.

"Make sure all of our riders know that description by heart. If they should find any of these men on their hunts, they are to be brought to me alive."

Shakti bowed deeply. "Is there anything else, Dai-Shi?"

"…Bring me the ones who are responsible for saving finding my mother-in-law. I wish too reward them personally."

The normally robotic Shakti cracked her lips into a small smile.

"I am sure that they will be elated to hear it."

She vanished right before everyone\'s eyes and left them by their lonesome.

Ayame could not help but stare at the young man she had practically watched grow up.

Now a full fledged adult; she still couldn\'t believe that this was somehow their \'useless\' child.

If only they could have seen him now… Stay tuned with mvl

"It seems the secret realm has been kind to you all. Mind filling me in on everything that has come to pass?"

The beginnings of a smile formed on Taira\'s lips.

"…I do not mind. But first I should find Aja and ensure that she isn\'t bothering the humans first."

Ayame\'s ears twitched uncontrollably.

"Forgive me… do you mean humans as in plural??"

Keran chuckled as she led her mother back towards the camp.

"Come along, Ma. Let\'s get you into a bath and then we\'ll introduce you to Big Country."

"I\'m not some feeble old woman, Keran, you don\'t need to treat me like… What the fuck is a Big Country?"

As the mother daughter pair walked away, Taira and Vermeil took their own path back to the village.

It had been quite a while since he had seen his so-called best friend, so he wanted to lay eyes on her for a moment and ascertain her wellbeing for himself.