Making my way carefully through the gloom I tried my best to put aside my swirling thoughts to focus on the task at hand. Not matter how much I struggled, the sensation of her lips against mine, the memories of how she tasted and smelled and the feeling of her hand caressing my face was ever present. Even when the vampire rose to the surface and the mask covering my face pressed forward with my lengthening jaws I could still feel the ghost of her touch.
The depths of Nornalhorst were alien and unfamiliar despite the standard style of their construction. The smell may have seemed all too familiar but I quickly found myself wishing for the stench of minotaur spoor instead of the horror that I found myself in.
There was no doubt that these ruins were home to others who shared my curse. The stench of blood and barrows dirt was gagging in its intensity and death was a cloying fragrance that seemed to bypass the mask and nose to worm into the guts. Nausea struggled to gain control even as I was left salivating at the stench of blood permeating through the depths. The ancient welkynd stones were scattered and rare; their light no longer shining for some, others left little more than broken shards where something had systematically shattered them one by one.
Corpses were found everywhere. Some, ancient and rotting were no more than shrivelled, blackened husks of leathery flesh pulled taut over fossilised bones. Others were fresh, bloodless and gnawed upon, throats torn open and long, deep cuts into arteries up the arms and legs to allow dozens to feed at the same time. There were animals, vermin and the corpses of several dozen people scattered about, all in various states of decay and intactness. This was a lair of creatures more debased and animalistic than any minotaur herd or goblin clan.
Within the halls where ancient Ayleids once prepared and held great feasts were now nothing more than rotting slaughterhouses. Decaying meat of dozens of unidentifiable kinds hung from great hooks suspending in the ceilings where they had been rammed into the stonework with bone shattering force. There were signs of dozens of the creatures making this their lair but with every step that I took I couldn't find any of the creatures responsible for so much death and pain. Empty tombs and worm-eaten wooden coffins were placed haphazardly throughout the undercity, providing nothing more than empty shells for long corrupted beings.
In one hall, two dozen caskets and coffins rested where it they had appeared to have been thrown. Some were shattered and ruined, breaking the legs of carved marble tables and chairs with the impacts and leaving the floors strewn with more than just the detritus of their feedings. The vampire within me was growling now, its warning of danger building with every step even as I folded the darkness around me with its unnatural abilities. With the stealth born of the darkness there was little fear of being found by regular mortals but in such a lair I wasn't taking any chances.
It was just before I left the ruined feasting hall that I encountered the first of the parasites. Completely invisible to my ability to detect life, it was instead the beating of its cancerous heart that drew my attention. To my eyes it was as grey and lifeless as the stone coffin that it resided in, curled up like a sleeping child and nuzzling a thighbone that had been yet picked clean of flesh.
My guts roiled with the proximity as I slid up alongside the coffin where it lay, the darkness coiling and swirling around me like smoke as I gazed down upon the creature. There was a similarity in our appearances, and so too with the creature that had inadvertently sired me in faraway Vvardenfell. Mine however was infinitely worse a visage, showing the vampiric curse and the daedric corruption that pumped its way through my veins. Like me, its skin was pulled taut over a frame that throbbed with unnatural power and ability, but where I was swollen with strength and vitality, it was wasted and emasculated as though it hadn't eaten properly in weeks. Each bone pressed out of its taut skin, strips of clothing maintaining what little modesty it had left and overall showing an outward appearance of fragility and weakness.
As the very first of my kind that I had seen in the flesh that wasn't latched onto my throat I studied the creature, looking over it and burning the sight of such a monster into my mind. It was terrible to behold, but strangely enough I knew that I was by far the stronger. Three centimetre long fangs jutted from between its lips in a grimace of savagery, the bones of its face pushing forward and revealing a high boned facial structure like the twisted union of a Khajiit, Altmer and mummified corpse. Whatever race it had once belonged to there was little left remaining to identify as its cheeks and brow jutted forward, the jaw clenched with unnatural strength and muscles like iron twisting and pulling under its leathery hide as it dreamed of further bloodletting.
My skinning dagger crunched into its temple, the impact jarring down the length of my arm as I twisted the six centimetres of steel in the depths of its depraved mind. There was the sudden look of shock and release in its suddenly opened eyes as the pointed tip of the dagger scraped bone, before light began streaming from deep within its body and the flesh began to combust.
The unnatural flames took me back to the moments in that cave in western Vvardenfell, how the creatures foul blood had splattered over my chest and coated my arm to the elbow as I sawed and ripped the dagger in its torso. Sizzling like fat on the fire the creature burned form the inside-out, the ethereal flames chewing through muscle, fat, organs and skin. From the jagged wound in the side of its skull to its feet it burned, spreading quickly and leaving nothing more than ruined clothing, ash and bones to tumble into a pile in the bottom of the coffin.
I wiped the ash from the blade with the hem of my cloak, shifting through the remains with my gloved fingers and feeling the fine powder swirling as I did so. It was so fine that I had never felt anything of the like but it did remind me of the grey-black slurry that had flowed through some of the rivers one year that Red Mountain had erupted.
Leaving the burnt remains of my first kill I ghosted from the room, sliding through the darkness with a liquid grace and now relying on my hearing over my sight. Confidence was building in me with the way the creature had failed to detect my presence with skills assumedly similar to its own, and the further I made my way through the depths the more of the coffin worms I began discovering.
For every coffin and stone casket that contained a sleeping occupant there were a dozen or more than were empty. It was my hope at least that the words in Threnodir's journal were true and that most had found their ends in foul necromantic rites. Such a thought was far better than the potential of dozens of the creatures lurking in the shadows, awake and waiting.
From coffin to tomb to casket I floated, like a deadly avatar of death and one by one I sent the souls of the vampires screaming into Oblivion. The smell of burning flesh and ash filled my sinuses, replacing the foul stink of the long dead with its choking embrace. One by one I slaughtered then, pushing my blade into eye sockets and into skulls rather than trusting their destruction to a cut jugular and brushing their remains from my gloves and demi-gauntlets as I went. By the time I had managed to make my way through most of the undercity I had turned the ruins into a crematorium.
With each metre into the darkness, the level of horrors I experienced and witnessed from the undead parasites tore my guts apart. All thoughts of Viconia and my previous anger was washed away in unceasing horrors; instead filling me with a burning flame of vengeance against the monsters. For the most part the vampires that I encountered within the ruin were weak and seemed little more than rabid animals. Wallowing in their own filth, smeared with blood and gore and laying in their individual coffins and tombs, most seemed to choose to live in amidst the death and pain. Some, to my disgust seemed to have fallen asleep where they had been rutting like animals, covering themselves with the limbs and rot of their meals in blankets of misery and torture. Others rested like the dead that surrounded them, filling their coffins with half eaten meals where they had not been content with the liquid pumping through veins. The level of raw cannibalism left me throwing up on more than one occasion, not only from the evidence of such despicable acts but the memories that I too had partaken in similar acts within the shrine of the Mythic Dawn.
Bloodstained altars still stained with drying blood and severed limbs could be found scattered at random through the ruins. Congealing pools of blackish ichor clung to the low laying areas where the streams of gore had flowed, intermingling with other effluents where the creatures had used the channels and cracked pools as latrines. Entire rooms were little more than wall to wall stacks of corpses of men, mer, beastfolk and creatures of the wild that had been drained, gnawed upon and discarded. Many of the corpse piles were wriggling with an unnatural life as fire-eyed rodents chewed their way through decomposing bodies and burrowed their way to make nests in the guts of the dead. I struggled against my continuously rising gorge, using nothing more than sheer willpower to stop myself from continuously wiping at the greasy sensation that clung to my skin and armour.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I misted my way through ancient portals where their doors had long ceased remaining upright, stepping through somewhat familiar corridors that were so similar to Nonungalo that the undercities could have come from the same mould. In the massive expanse of the room before the throne room doors I had been sensing movement and hearing the muffled sound of something feeding.
Enormous and priceless engravings and statues looked down with marble visages onto the creatures defiling their once proud city. Each of them were covered with blood splatters, some long since dried within red-black flakes and others fresh and almost dripping with moisture. In the shadow of the enormous gates the collection of vampires were busily feeding; the first that I had come across in my search who were awake.
Salivating behind the leather mask at the coppery tang of blood I slid through the darkness, feeling the leather sticking to my lips and nose but proving to be little of a distraction. The smell was overpowering but with every step I made deeper into the room it was becoming more sickly and potent, no longer just of blood; but of flesh and other bodily fluids. Where disgust clung to my heart and stomach I suddenly found myself stopping in my tracks, looking over at the inconceivable sight before me at the group of creatures hunched over on the ground in the middle of the entry hall.
The four of them scampered and bickered amongst themselves, pushing and shoving and swiping at each other with lengthened fingernails. They were lost to the thirst, covering their faces with the stuff as they struggled to force more of the ruby liquid and flesh into their maws. Incisors and eyes shining with madness glinted in the darkness where a single varla stone throbbed with lost potency in the high ceiling, but with my vampiric sight I could unfortunately see all too much detail of the scene in front of me.
The four vampires like their recently slain kin appeared immeasurably ancient, but unlike the others these still wore the accruements of their long lost humanity. Their gnarled leathery hides pulled taught over bones that had wrenched their features apart but pieces of blood stained clothes and rusted pieces of armour still clung tenaciously to their torsos and limbs. One still wore a heavily battered kettle helm, pushed back over its forehead to allow it to more easily feed. Their eyes were little more than pools of black fire within sunken sockets with razored fangs permanently splitting their gash-like lips in sickening parodies of smiles.
The true nightmare was in their feeding. Everything that I had learned of my kind, my brief discussions with Threnodir and my own intimate knowledge of the curse never led me to believe that vampires were like this. Even the cannibalistic ogre tribes or troll packs who were renowned for their feeding frenzies of wayward travellers paled in comparison to what I witnessed in those tainted depths.
Their meal was nothing more than the torn apart remains of a young child who was yet to see their tenth winter. Little more than bloodstained remnants of clothing, a mess of bloody muscle and protruding bones remained of her after what could have only been several hours of feeding from the four creatures. Tearing and gnawing on stringy bands of sinew, snapping and suckling on shattered bones for the marrow and snorting through overstuffed, dribbling mouths they consumed her flesh with abandon.
I felt the acidic taste of bile in my mouth at the sight, feeling suddenly faint as I saw one rip out a hunk of flesh and organs from within her peeled-open ribcage. Stuffing its meal into its mouth with scoffing and bared fangs it added a fresh layer of gore that ran down its face and chest in spurts. It was only made worse by the fact that the only part of the young girl that remained untouched was her face with the tiny curls of golden hair and pale skin splattered with flecks of blood. Her face was twisted into an expression of life ending horror and undefinable pain that showed me that she was far from dead when they had begun eating her.
The disgust vanished, the taste of vomit in my mouth fading into nothingness and I lost all control on my bubbling emotions. Rising with the waves of hatred the vampire split the bones of my face, tapering my incisors to vicious points as they slid out of my gums. Sunchild was gripped tight in my fist as I strode forward, the darkness falling away from me with the merest flicker of will and leaving me visible for all to see.
They initially remained unaware of my presence, so intent on their consumption of their corpse that it took more than me becoming visible for them to realise the threat. Only when I hissed with white hot rage did their heads snap around with the speed of a releasing bowstring, stopping them in mid meal as their black, soulless eyes appearing as though they were startled deer. The lack of comprehension was their undoing as I strode across the gore flecked marble, growling with vampiric hatred as I beheld the way the shredded remains of their meals clung to their faces and chins.
Almost as a single entity they realised that although I was one of their kind, I was not one of them. Some form of instinct, or unnatural awareness either by my scent or vampiric nature alerted them to the danger. Hissing and growling incoherently at my breach of their territory they initially acted as though I was an animal from a different pack, acting more concerned with the fact that I threatened their meal more than my intent as I redrew my dagger in my spare hand.
A flash of silver rippled through the darkness and the skinning dagger thockked to the hilt in an eye socket. There was a moment of silence as they watched one of their number suddenly slump forward hard onto its face, flesh burning from within even before it came fully to rest.
Bursting into forms of pure animalistic fury the remaining three vampire ancients rushed me, dropping the last vestiges of their meals to the blood-soaked floor. They moved as shadows, exploding with powerful strength and energies as they charged. I met their hatred with my own, but I still had enough sanity in my mind to see how that two of them drew weapons of their own despite the darkness of their souls.
Unlike the others I had killed in their crypts, these three were not decrepit or frail creatures to be cut down while they slumbered. They were unfathomably old, powerful from their natures and the time that they had existed and between the three of them they would have been more of a match for me if not for my daedric fuelled corruption.
The first exploded into ash and bones as it ran shrieking onto Sunchild. For a second I had to wrench the suddenly heated blade from where it had been trapped in a smouldering spine, kicking the burning remains away to meet the pair of weapon wielding fiends head on.
All forms of finesse may have been lost from whatever portions of their minds remained intact in the depths of bloodlust, but their very natures ensured they were capable adversaries. Even before Sunchild was freed from the burning remains I had to twist aside from a downwards swing of a crudely forged mace. The wind coming off the heavy lead and iron lump of metal fluttered my cloak and mask with its passage, giving a fraction of a second for the other vampire to attack me from the other side.
Dancing my way between the two of them I dodged and weaved through their blows, shrugging off hits and grasping hands and parrying what strikes I could with Sunchild. They were hissing with rage and frustration while I merely used my anger and disgust to fuel me on, busting my knuckles in the throat and mouth of one of the Vampires with a pair of bone crunching blows that sent it reeling.
Spitting fangs and choking horribly on its ruined teeth, it rushed back into the fray. Both were suffering wounds while I had remained untouched, the corroded shortsword that one of them wielded with questionable ability failing to do anything more than bounce off the protection of my incredible armour. One lost a hand to a deadly backswing of my sword, squealing like a goblin even as I rammed the full length of Sunchild into its sternum until the point erupted from between its shoulders.
Hurling the combusting corpse into the path of the vampire spitting bone fragments, I forced it to back away for just long enough to retrieve my Ayleid blade. The creature had to twist away to stop from being tangled in the tumbling ruin of its kin, suddenly finding itself facing me with in the ash strewn hall surrounded by its fellows that I had slew with an almost casual ease.
The moment of hesitation seemed to last for an hour as the creature paused in mid pounce, glancing between me, my sword and the remains of its kin with a growing need to survive. What I had never expected from a vampire was fear, and it did little but galvanise my will to slay every and all of the creatures responsible for such death and pain. It quivered for a moment, hissing in distress as it turned to flee further into the ruins.
It managed to get half a dozen metres from the shredded remains of the child it had been consuming before I caught it. Roaring with anger I hurled myself forward with incredible speed, I took it in the lower spine with Sunchild and left it mewling and grasping at its suddenly nerveless legs. With its spine severed, and feeling every centimetre of cold metal twisting in its lower back it struggled to crawl away from me, even as I strode closer to it and pushed it into the gore streaked floor with a plated boot.
Whatever pleas or curses it may have had for me were cut off as I pulled Sunchild out of its flesh, kicking it over so it could look up at my darkened form. It knew that I shared its taint as we mutually stared into the pits of corruption that we had for eyes, but the knowledge brought no benefit as I pushed the toe of my boot into its throat. The crackle of its trachea shivered up my leg as I pressed down hard, ignoring the way that it began scrabbling on my armoured calves before beginning the drawn out and painful process of suffocating to death.
While the creature gargled and choked on the floor, grasping at its throat with razored fingernails I walked over to one of its dead fellows, stomping on an ash coated skull before pulling my singed dagger from where it had been trapped. The creature behind me began burning in places as it clawed at its throat, shredding away strips of flesh in its attempts to clear its crushed airways. Every chunk of skin and sinew that splattered to the floor sparked and flamed in the darkness like cooling embers lifted up from a campfire. Ignoring its desperate plight I simply turned and walked through the towering portal and into the throne room.
