He woke up in a cell reeking of the corpses that were lying beside

  him. The cell seemed to be made from very powerful steel and

  was protected by four Vaermiraiit guards. They were wearing

  void-black robes with silver belts on them. Hoods covering their

  heads and each of them was wearing a bizarre steel medallion

  and a silver ring with a red gem attached to it.

  ‘What?! What is this? Where am I?!’ He shouted.

  He tried to stand up, still very injured from the recent battle. He

  put his hand on his aching head. He was exhausted, nauseous,

  heavily dehydrated and weak. He felt strong and sharp pulses

  of pain going all the way from his head to his toes.

  ‘What have you assholes done to me?!’ He asked.

  He suddenly noticed he was naked, his skin full of semi-healed

  bite marks. His waist, chest, neck, hands and legs were filled

  with pairs of holes surrounded by dry blood.

  ‘Wha-? AAAAA!!! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?! AAAAAAAAA!

  I’LL KILL YOU!!! I’LL KILL ALL OF YOU!!! YOU SICK MON-

  STERS!!!’ He screamed in utter fright and began sobbing.

  ‘Shut up back there!’ The second guard from the right shouted.

  He couldn’t control himself and continued screaming even harder.

  He walked his fingers around the wounds, feeling the cuts and

  the coagulated blood. He could not fathom what he was seeing.

  ‘I told you to shut up!’ The guard yelled and bashed his spear

  on the metal bars, staring straight into Alduin’s frightened eyes.

  ‘FUCK YOU! YOU KILLED MY PARENTS! YOU KILLED EV-

  ERYONE! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU!’ He shouted,

  his cheeks soaking with tears.

  The leftmost guard nodded to his friend, as a way of approving

  of his next act. He opened the cage door swiftly with the key and

  punched Alduin straight back to the ground, almost rendering

  him unconscious. Alduin spit out blood and continued cursing.

  ‘I told you to shut up didn’t I?!’ The guard yelled and began

  kicking Alduin fiercely in the stomach.

  He kept trying to stand up using his weakened arms to get his

  face off the ground, but was immediately met with the force of

  the prison guard’s foot. Eventually, and fortunately, the guard

  got bored and exited the cage, locking its door to prevent the

  gravely-injured child from escaping. Alduin was puking relent-

  lessly but was nothing aside from his digestive juices came out.

  He barely managed to get back on his feet, hunching forward.

  ‘How... How much time was I out for?’

  ‘About four days by now,’ the second guard from the left

  chuckled.

  ‘W-what?! What is wrong with you?! You’re fucking mon-

  sters! Why did yo-How could you do this to me?! To us?! We’ve

  never done anything to you so why did we deserve this?! You

  murdered everyone I loved! Why?! Tell me why?! I hope god

  smites you down in your sleep, along with your children, you

  monsters! You’ll see! I will get justice! All of you will see!’ A few

  more tears fell out of his eyes. ‘There are only six gods and believe me they don’t give a flying fuck about you! You’re nothing!

  Food shouldn’t even be talking in the first place, so shut up!’ The

  rightmost guard yelled out.

  Alduin fell down to his knees, his legs spread out to the sides.

  ‘Why did you let me live? Why me?!’ He said desperately, his

  empty eyes staring at the earth beneath him.

  ‘SHUT, UP!’ The second guard from the left yelled out in

  anger, he had finally lost his cool.

  The cell had become his new home. They gave him old and ragged

  clothes and were providing him with two meals a day, not fitting

  of an Elf his age but just enough for him to stay conscious and

  alive. In terms of water... Well... Let’s just say he had to use a

  few of his survival skills when it came to staying hydrated. Days

  went by where all he had been doing was kicking the rotten bod-

  ies in his cell, shouting, screaming, sobbing or just annoying the

  guards that were unlucky enough to be assigned to his cell. He

  would occasionally eavesdrop to the their conversations, learn-

  ing their native tongue as he thought it would come in handy

  someday... Maybe... Probably... It was hard for him to remain

  optimistic though he knew he would lose his mind the moment

  he would lose his temper, therefore staying positive was the key

  to keeping his sanity intact.

  His cell was positioned in such a way that he could see

  their social gatherings, mostly consisting of slave trade or grand

  feasts of humans, or ‘livestock’ as they used to call them. He

  could see vampires eating and raping men, women and children

  and their screams kept him up at night. If not already killed

  the raped women would end up giving birth to mutated hybrids

  who were only human in their appearance, their brain and in-

  ternal organs mutated to the point of never-ending bloodthirst.

  In short, the babies ate their mothers; some during the preg-

  nancy and some only after their birth. His eyes grew darker and

  darker as time passed by... They used to enjoy torturing him but

  at this point it seemed like it didn’t bother him quite as much

  anymore. As though he had gotten used to the mental and physical pain. The bites didn’t hurt him anymore nor their ‘research’

  on the Snow Elves’ regenerative abilities. He didn’t cry for help

  anymore. Didn’t really talk much anymore. He became neutral,

  apathetic or maybe that is just how his brain decided to deal

  with these mental traumas. Sometimes the guards would slip

  him an extra piece of bread, excusing it by saying thin bodies

  are just not as tasty. In those situations he would keep a logi-

  cal mind and save it for later, burying it in the ground so they

  wouldn’t steal it from him.

  ‘I need to survive as much as I can... If they wanted me

  dead they would have killed me already,’ he would say to himself

  hoping it would cheer him up.

  He woke up and found it hard to stand up. Yet again he tried to

  keep a positive mindset.

  ‘Good morning,’ he whispered to himself.

  It wasn’t clear if it really was morning as he was living in a cave

  but it mattered not. The guards felt the sudden vibration in the

  ground and realized he had woken up.

  ‘Good morning, insect! Did you sleep well? My friend here

  decided to make it extra hard for you to fall asleep yesterday!’

  Zera laughed and shouted with glee.

  ‘Yes, yes, I realized. Anyways, where is my breakfast?’ He

  sighed.

  ‘Do not speak to us that way! I will excuse your rudeness for

  now. Here,’ Zera said and threw him an apple.

  It was already half eaten.

  ‘This will be your breakfast, less than the usual because you

  made me upset. Enjoy!’

  She smiled with her teeth fully showing.

  ‘I am already used to your mind games, Zera. Thank you for

  the food. Now let me eat in peace please.’

  Zera took her spear and threw it at him, hitting the ground

  about one millimeter away from his foot. He didn’t even try to

  evade it. Did not even flinch.

  ‘You are walking on very thin ice, mortal! Mind your man-

  ners or I will make tonight’s feeding extra painful for you, do

  you understand?!’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Yes, what?’

  ‘Yes, lord Zera,’ he sighed.

  ‘Good. That’s better,’ she laughed and smirked.

  He ate half of the remaining apple and kept the rest in his pocket

  for later. He knew that his meals were not satisfactory and

  preferred staying hungry in the morning rather than dealing

  with starvation post-lunch. During his time in the cage he had

  invented a few games for himself to pass the time. In one, he

  would take a few of the human bones that were lying around

  and would try to juggle them. In another, he would test how

  many sit-ups and push-ups he can manage to do before losing

  his consciousness. After all, losing consciousness is like forcing

  sleep upon yourself and it wasn’t like his time while conscious

  was in any way more fun than the imaginary and infinite world

  of one’s dreams.

  Another game included testing how long he could hold his

  breath for or how much time he could stand on one leg without

  falling et cetera. These games were all so terribly boring but

  he had a lot of time on his side and absolutely nothing more

  interesting to do. A few hours flew by as he was playing around

  until he began hearing the familiar noises of screaming he had

  started to enjoy. I am obviously kidding of course...

  ‘Don’t you ever get bored of torturing people?’ He said to

  Zera, pushing his luck again.

  Was he trying to get himself killed?

  ‘We love human meat, what else can I say? Would you like a

  slice of a woman’s butt-cheek for lunch today?’ She laughed.

  ‘No, thank you.’

  ‘Like I’d ever share my food with you! Keep dreaming!’ She

  shouted and laughed.

  ‘Fucker...’ He whispered to himself.

  ‘What did you just say?’ A guard seemed to have heard him.

  ‘Nothing... Nothing...’

  ‘I haven’t heard you complain in such a long time, I almost

  started missing that angry whiny voice of yours! Hey, you know

  what? If you manage to make one of us laugh tonight I’ll give

  you an extra piece of meat! What do you say?’ He chuckled.

  ‘How exactly? Your sense of humor is really hard to under-

  stand,’ Alduin asked, confused.

  ‘Dance for us!’ The other guard said, smirking and grinning

  with a huge smile on his face.

  Alduin obeyed because more meat meant he could grow stronger,

  maybe even enough to break out of here someday. He started

  mimicking his fallen sister’s dance moves, a traditional snow

  elvish dance that the villagers would do during matrimonial cer-

  emonies, named ‘Shenze’. It consisted of a few stomps on the

  ground in a specific rhythm, followed by a long-lasting pirouette,

  followed by two backflips and then a pirouette while standing on

  one’s hands. Then, one would take his partner’s arms and they

  would both throw each other in the air performing a slightly

  tilted pirouette and landing in a broad split. This would be re-

  peated a few times with periods of free-styling in between, to

  the sounds of traditional music in the background. The dance

  routine would end with a showcase of self-chanted fireworks

  using snow Elvish magic. He was too weak for this ancient

  routine. As he started stomping on the ground his steps grew

  slower and slower until he fell on his face on the dirty mud, a

  few millimeters away from dried-up feces.

  ‘You’re lucky you didn’t fall on your shit, child! Fine, you’ve

  earned your extra slice! Hey, Zera, go get a piece of meat for

  him. He deserves it!’ The guard said and continued laughing.

  Zera tossed a cow’s leg to Alduin and he was almost too weak to

  catch it. It was both raw and overcooked at the same time. Some

  parts were all black and some were almost completely pink.

  ‘This is better than nothing...’ He said to himself and nod-

  ded in thanks.

  Many days went by in this manner and it seemed like they were

  growing shorter. Alduin would occasionally entertain the guards

  for extra food. Days turned into weeks, and then a month and fi-

  nally a whole year. Suddenly, Zera opened his cage and shouted.

  ‘Yo, wake up! Our leader wants you to see him! On your feet!

  Move! Do you want me to hit you again?!’

  He stood up and let Zera cuff him up before escorting him to

  the clan leader’s court.

  ‘Fine,’ Alduin sighed.

  ‘Stay quiet,’ she said.

  They began walking and finally entered the main hall.

  ‘Oh, finally. Hello! Did you sleep well? Oh, who am I kid-

  ding? Anyways... Let me get straight to the point. Do you see

  this general over there, the one I am pointing at? You are familiar

  with each other I presume?’ The lord said, smiling and laughing.

  ‘Yes, I’ve met him,’ Alduin sighed.

  ‘His name is Gozo. For some reason he decided that you

  should go through our traditional trial of the necklace. Have

  you heard of it?’

  The leader had long brown hair, a silver tear tattooed onto his

  left cheek and eyes glowing in the color of roses. He was wear-

  ing dark-brown royal robes with platinum decorations. His

  expression was neither serious nor playful. He was pointing

  at a Vaermiraiit wearing a crimson mask attached to his long,

  black hair. His dark-blue shirt had black bear fur connected to

  it using golden strings.

  ‘He would never pass... It always ends the same way. With

  a fresh body to feast on...’ The clan leader thought and grinned.

  ‘No, what is it? I fucking hate tests,’ Alduin responded.

  ‘Understandable. Though you have heard of Vaonie, right?

  One of The Originals, or The First.’

  ‘Only in legends and books. We are not allowed to pray to

  them,’ he responded, very confused by the situation.

  ‘Well, I don’t know what lies they used to teach you so I’ll

  just tell you in short. Vaonie, alongside Austomia, was the parent

  of the gods your kind follows, those whom we call The Second,

  or The Overseers. The First created together the realm we live

  in, Vanthea. For some horrendous reason Austomia refused

  to let Vaonie interfere or even interact with it. Eventually a

  battle ensued and The Second picked a side to fight for. One of

  them was killed and the others were banished into the realm

  of Tyronah alongside Vaonie. The ones who picked Austomia

  were later known as The Pure or Sarathiin and the ones who chose

  Vaonie’s side were named The Unpure or Araqhaiit.’

  ‘Mhm...’ Alduin responded in confusion.

  ‘Do you see this necklace I am holding? This is one of Vaonie’s

  artifacts in our planet, it sends mortals through Vaonie’s trials

  in order to find a fitting successor for Lodus, the fallen Araqhaiit.

  Gozo believes you would be able to pass it, or at least that it

  would be very entertaining to watch you try. Refusal is not really

  an option. Take it and begin immediately.’

  ‘Right now? Can I at least eat before I begin? I need my

  entire potential for this test after all,’ Alduin responded, trying

  to sneak his way into an additional meal.

  ‘I said now,’ he grabbed the raven-black spear that was sit-

  ting on his back and pointed it toward him.

  ‘Fine, fine! Here! ’ He shouted.

  When Alduin wore the necklace it pierced his skin and he imme-

  diately collapsed to the ground. It felt like his consciousness was

  being transported to another realm. He suddenly woke up in a

  strange place, very dark. The sky was crimson red and he stood

  on a circular platform that seemed to be floating. He could not

  see any ground beneath this platform so he would better not

  fall.

  ‘Where am I? What is this place?’ He screamed in panic.

  Then, he heard a voice shouting to him.

  ‘Welcome! I will be brief. This test consists of several seem-

  ingly infinite rounds. In each round you will be given a weapon,

  with which you must try to defeat a shadow of yourself who also

  has that exact same one. Shall you die, you will be resurrected

  here with a different armament. The moment I run out of ideas

  for weapons will also be your last, and your body in Vanthea will

  rot and die. This is it. Good luck!’

  ‘Wait! Who are you? What am I doing here?’ He shouted

  but to no avail.

  A few seconds later a shadow of himself had appeared right in

  front of his eyes, wielding the same weapon he had – a spear

  with black gems attached all around it. He had never fought

  with a spear before, only with a dagger, a sword and a bow.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  ‘How am I supposed to defeat myself exactly? I don’t even

  know how to use this thing!’ He said.

  The shadow began charging towards him, trying to cut him up

  with its spear. Alduin dodged all of its attacks but forgot he

  was fighting himself. After all, the shadow possessed his mind

  and technique and knew exactly which weaknesses he had, very

  specifically. With a swift round kick that took Alduin off the

  ground the shadow spiked him with the spear right through the

  heart. It was over for him. He shouted from pain as he began

  losing consciousness.

  This time he held two black daggers. A green gem was at-

  tached to each handle. When he practiced slashing with it, it

  seemed the daggers were producing strange green-colored light

  beams. The beams looked as though they could cut through

  objects. He began his regular routine of sidesteps and quick

  slashes. Each slash produced a projectile slash of light which

  the shadow had decided to rudely avoid. A change in pace, mo-

  mentum, angle and so forth only brought Alduin to his knees

  from exhaustion.

  Suddenly, the shadow decided to use Alduin’s signature

  move. It was a frontflip that then turned into an upside-down

  pirouette with the dagger pointing towards the enemy. An airborne spin attack of sorts. Alduin was familiar with this move as

  he had a habit of abusing it against low-class enemies in order

  to further enhance his self esteem. It seems that the shadow

  had also inherited his arrogance... He used his supernatural

  eyes to make his perspective of time a lot slower. When he got

  his opponent’s head in his line of sight, he immediately stabbed

  it in the head. It fell to the floor and began making screeching

  and screaming noises. Victory was closing in, slowly but surely.

  Alduin started stepping towards it cautiously. It was covering

  its head with its arms and appeared to be harmless now.

  The shadow’s hands began glowing in gold so he decided to

  make haste and not let it heal itself. If the shadow manages to

  regain its power his first chance at ending this nightmare would

  be over. He stood behind it and prepared a vertical final strike.

  One full of glory.

  —

  ‘We have gathered you here, children, for a very special reason.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘I will explain in just a bit, Hanali.’

  ‘Alright.’

  ‘Vaonie and I decided to gift you something. Activate your

  aura detection and tell me what you feel.’

  ‘I feel an unfamiliar aura.’

  ‘Very good, Kans. Can you try to locate this aura?’

  ‘I feel like it is coming from an unknown source. Not from

  this realm. Did you create a new one?’

  ‘Very good observation! We created three new realms for

  you to explore. The first one I named Vanthea, the second I

  named Tyronah and the last one I have neither found a name nor

  a purpose for. Why did we even create it, Vaonie?’

  Imagine in that fabulous brain of yours that Vaonie’s orb-shaped

  body shrugged in response.

  ‘What is the purpose of Vanthea and Tyronah then?’ Anor

  asked.

  ‘The realm of Vanthea will be inhabited by mortals. Tyronah

  is where bad mortals shall forever remain. Heonmeyu, our cur-

  rent location, will be inhabited by the good mortals, the one that

  succeeded in following our rules.’

  ‘What are mortals?’ Fema asked in her curiosity.

  ‘Mortals are a new type of being we created, existing for

  a period of time that is specific to their species and are later

  judged for their actions.’

  ‘Don’t forget, Austomia, we also decided on meanings for

  your names!’ Said Vaonie.

  ‘Oh! What are they?’ Anor asked.

  ‘Vanthea has twelve laws in total, one for each of you chil-

  dren. For each of you we picked the most dominant personality

  trait that we deem positive and assigned it as your name’s sig-

  nificance. However, this gift also comes with responsibilities.

  Each of you must make sure that the mortals keep and stay true

  to your virtue. In short, your names are now commandments

  that mortals must follow and should you witness a mortal break-

  ing it you are allowed to punish them accordingly. Should it be

  a drastic break of your tenet, kill them so Austomia and I will

  judge them accordingly. Should it be a minor violation, you may

  punish as you see fit.’

  ‘Ah, are we their gods then?’ Fema said and sounded very

  excited to hear the news.

  ‘Yes. You and us rule and oversee the mortal realm of Vanthea’

  Vaonie said.

  ‘I feel bad for those mortals. To have been created strictly

  for the purpose of being judged, especially when they are born

  with a shred of evil in their hearts...’ Kans responded.

  ‘I think that we should see ourselves more like guides rather

  than gods,’ Pholexu added.

  ‘I agree with you, sister. In general, I think we shouldn’t

  look down on them but rather see them eye to eye. They lack the power we possess and therefore may actually grow stronger

  than us in character, in their ability to face hardship and pain,’

  Fema said.

  ‘You can count on me!’ Hanali said in excitement.

  ‘Our goal was to simply make you happy, my children,’ Vaonie

  said.

  ‘Entirely and strictly that! Therefore, we grant you almost

  complete autonomy over this. I hope you will enjoy it!’ Austomia

  added.

  ‘Thank you!’ They all said in unison.

  ‘Now, go and explore! I am not quite done creating every-

  thing yet so new things will continue to appear!’ Austomia de-

  clared.

  —

  The shadow moved its left leg a bit, probably stretching it out so

  it could resume the battle. It was unaware of Alduin standing

  right behind it with his weapons drawn. The dagger touched the

  top of the head but instead of successfully piercing it, Alduin had

  stopped midway. He felt a sudden shock of coldness and blood

  was dripping down from his mouth. He looked down and saw

  a blade coming out from the front of his chest. He turned his

  head around, gazed at his back and witnessed a dagger piercing

  it all the way through. It was attached to a chain and when his

  eyes began following it in order to locate the other end – there

  lied the shadow’s left leg.

  It was then that he realized that the shadow wasn’t simply

  stretching its legs. It was launching an attack that was strate-

  gically delayed just for the purpose of surprise and seemed to

  have worked wonderfully. Alduin choked on his blood and began

  losing balance, falling on his chest. He felt dizzy.

  ‘Oh, did I forget to mention? The shadow every fighting

  style that exists in Vanthea. Try to beat it!’ The unfamiliar voice appeared again, laughed, and then faded away instantly.

  ‘Goddamn it! How am I supposed to defeat such a fighter

  when I am not even a Hekket yet?! This is impossible! Morale

  is important but also being realistic, I just can’t!’ He thought to

  himself while losing his consciousness.

  He failed the task again and again. Each time it seemed as

  though his spirit was being sucked away from him. He’d already

  passed ten different weapons and was beginning to lose hope

  almost entirely. This time he was given a black sword that was

  floating around. It had dark red wings attached to the handle,

  a silver horned skull and a little medallion hanging on it. Its

  sheath was also floating around, crimson red with a black Deovhaiit eye in the middle. Once he tightened his grip, the black

  core in the middle of the blade started glowing and produced

  black and white flames in monochrome that engulfed it. He

  started charging forward. He slashed his opponent and then

  dodged the upcoming attack as an utter reflex. He began rec-

  ognizing his own moves being used by the shadow and tried to

  adapt to them. A swift kick there, a punch there, a twirl there

  and vertical slash there. Despite this iteration being the most

  successful one so far he still possessed many grave injuries and

  hope was very hard to keep intact.

  His opponent went for a pirouette and then two horizontal

  strikes. One for Alduin’s legs (for mobility related injuries) and

  the other for his heart. At the same time he also shot ice spikes

  in order to lure him in a specific spot while also trapping him in

  place. He was suddenly reminded about the whirlwind spider.

  Despite not having mastered it yet he bravely decided to try it

  out again. He managed to dodge only the slash to his heart

  which meant he had lost one leg. Then, he did a backflip but

  landed on his stomach rather than on all fours like the technique

  demands. It seemed the shadow, like him, was just incompetent

  enough to not take advantage of this opportunity. It took less than a second for Alduin to enter the next step of the technique

  and he launched himself in the air for a vertical strike aiming

  for the head. He missed by just a slight bit but managed to

  slice the shadow from its right shoulder to its left leg. Mission

  failed successfully. The shadow produced a screeching sound

  and faded out of existence.

  ‘Very impressive mortal, follow me to my court!’ The strange

  voice appeared again.

  A portal appeared out of thin air and opened a pathway to a very

  strange looking throne room. Entirely out of breath and very

  scared out of the upcoming (and recent) events, he rushed inside

  the portal.

  ‘What the hell is happening?’ He said to himself.

  He found himself kneeling in a large room in front of a throne

  as big as a mammoth. An orb of ‘light‘ was sitting on it and then

  transformed into a man.

  ‘Greetings mortal,’ Vaonie said.

  ‘Who are you? Where am I?’ Alduin asked.

  ‘Welcome to Tyronah. I am Vaonie, lord of this realm. To

  your left and right you will find different torture chambers, mil-

  itary dormitories, training camps, towers and hoards of Deovhaiits. Demons, as you mortals call them.’

  ‘What-, the fuck,’ he murmured in confusion and fear.

  ‘Don’t you dare interrupt me!’ Vaonie’s eyes glowed fero-

  ciously as their voice echoed across the room, ‘These five are my

  children. Do you know their names?’

  ‘You... You are Vaonie? The banished god? I thought you

  were just a legend... No, this cannot be... They told me you

  are evil. We were not even allowed to utter your name when

  studying about you... Why am I here? Let me go.’

  He suddenly fell to the ground, unable to get up. An invisible

  force was holding him down and choking him.

  ‘Stop testing my patience!’

  ‘Kill me then. Just do it. I’m not scared of you,’ he said,

  breathing heavily and gasping for air.

  ‘I offer you a chance for a new life, you foolish mortal,’ they

  weakened their grip on his body.

  ‘What do you mean? In exchange for what? There has to be

  a catch, I just know it. You are known as a selfish god.’

  ‘For passing my test I can make you one of my own. Your

  name will no longer be Alduin Fa?li, but rather Alduin Lodus

  Fa?li, as you will serve as a successor to my fallen child. Look at

  what you could become... An end to your pain....’

  A big mirror appeared in front of him, showing him his new

  body. His white hair seemed to grow a lot longer, his eyes were

  shining in the color of blood. His ears seemed a bit pointier. He

  appeared taller, more serious, refined and mature. His eyes had

  a certain shadow to them that made his depressed glare way

  more frightening.

  ‘You are now part Snow Elf part Araqhaiit, an immortal

  god amongst men. I will give you access to the ever-burning

  Ut-obliryne u Tyronah which cannot be put out by normal means.

  The tattoo you have on the back of your left hand is called the

  Yur u Vaonie and it holds sacred power. All of this can become

  your reality if only you vow to obey me.’

  He stared at Vaonie without the faintest idea on how to respond.

  ‘And yes, there is a catch. As an Araqhaiit your Olons are

  all god-activated, which means that they can only be controlled

  by fully divine beings. Since you would only be half divine any

  movement your body would wish to make, may it be walking or

  simply producing heartbeats, cannot happen by your own voli-

  tion. Your brain would send its orders through me, as a proxy,

  and only then to your muscles. I control your body, not you. And

  if you ever dare to betray me you will face dire consequences.

  That is all. You will now be transported back to the mortal realm to be trained by the Vaermiraiits.’

  ‘Wait, I didn’t say ye-,’ he tried to say but was already back

  in the lair.

  The clan leader suddenly saw him and his jaw dropped. Alduin

  expected a shout or some sort of degrading remark, but instead

  was facing hundreds of vampires, including the leader himself,

  kneeling in front of him.

  ‘Welcome, Lodus! Welcome back to Vanthea!’ They all chanted

  together.

  ‘Fucking hell. Since when do they pass this exam?! Am I to

  follow his orders now? This little insect’s orders?! Fuck!’ The clan

  leader thought to himself. ‘Vaonie has instructed us to train you,

  but only after a feast! The training will be tough so you need to

  rest. Come, come!’ He proclaimed.

  Alduin stared at the crowd, bewildered.

  ‘What? Just a few days ago you tortured me and now you

  kneel? After everything you’ve put me through you expect me to

  play along with this stupid game?’ He said.

  ‘You simply must. My word is the word of Vaonie. Disobey-

  ing me is disobeying them, and the day you do that would be

  your last. Surely you understand that? Or are you that bloody

  foolish?!’

  Alduin froze in place, unable to respond.

  ‘Follow me to the feast,’ the leader commanded.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you need to eat,’ he said and smirked.

  ‘Humans? No.’

  ‘You’ll come to find that normal food now utterly disgusts

  you as your taste buds have been altered. Your body needs fresh

  meat and blood, believe me.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Now!’ The leader’s eyes glowed fiercely as he looked straight

  into his eyes with a menacing glare.

  Alduin was at a loss for words. He hunched forward in defeat

  and obeyed, his eyes empty of emotion.

  ‘We must celebrate that we finally have a successor to Lodus!

  After all these years of waiting!’ The leader shouted and started

  running toward a big room with Alduin following him.

  In the room he saw a few hundred vampires sitting on royal

  chairs. Each one of them kneeled the moment he entered. Then,

  they all started eating from a pile of corpses and drinking from

  a big chalice filled with blood-looking liquid. It was probably

  blood, right? They were all staring at him when he sat down. The

  clan leader started eyeing him toward the ‘food’. Alduin was to

  pick a corpse from the pile and consume human flesh for the

  very first time in his life. He knew he had no choice so he picked

  the oldest looking human he could find. He ate it with his eyes

  closed, trying to escape from the realization that he had become

  a monster. It tasted weird. Surprisingly juicy, strange but not

  at all disgusting. He wanted to puke it out to feel mortal again

  but it just didn’t happen.

  ‘What have you done to me?!’ He shouted desperately and

  tried to sob but seemed physically unable to produce any tears.

  ‘Keep eating, you need your body to recover!’ The leader said

  with a big smile that revealed his sharp fangs and laughed.

  Alduin obeyed and kept eating, whimpering with each and every

  bite.

  ‘What the fuck is wrong with you?! Puke it out! Why aren’t

  you puking?! Why... Why couldn’t you just die like the rest of

  them?!’ He thought.

  From just a lowly slave of vampires he turned into a slave of the

  strongest being he had ever heard about. Which was worse? He

  had no clue.

  ----------

  Author's note - I hope to get reviews and feedback. Thank you :)