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Bloodborne Mansion. Bloodborne Throne Hall.

The Bloodborne House. They were once a formidable noble Vampire House, with over a hundred thousand followers and millions of people lying under their feet. At the peak of their powers, they were a force that could compete with the top countries in the world and had once stood toe-to-toe with the Holy Church.

Ever since the Vampire Progenitor had changed the entire world by creating Vampires of all shapes and sizes, the Bloodborne House had been accumulating their wealth and influence. There was a point in history when the Bloodborne House was easily the wealthiest family in the world, with their net worth rivalling entire countries.

Gold, diamonds, property… Anything valuable in the world was hoarded in the coffers of the mighty Bloodborne House.

And yet… The once mighty and opulent Throne Hall with towers of gold and crystal hallways… was now completely empty.

Very little of the Bloodborne’s inherited wealth remained, and with the reparations, they needed to pay to the Moonreaver House, the once affluent House was now completely empty. They had no influence, no money, and most importantly, no societal presence in the Vampire World anymore.

They were just… A fallen House.

But that was just on the surface…

“Talon Bloodborne, do you admit your sins?”

Standing within the great halls of the Bloodborne House, one red-hooded figure stood menacingly with his hands behind his back. His facial features were obscured by the heavy hood, and his body structure was completely hidden, but one word from his commanding voice was enough to send shivers down one’s spine. And for the man kneeling right before him, he was desperately trying to hold back blood from spewing out from his mouth.

“High Elder, I was wrong!”

Talon Bloodborne, the man who led the most elite Shadowfiend squad and the man who was once considered to be a rival of Sirius Moonreaver, was now shivering like a squirrel in front of this plain old man. He didn’t even dare to raise his head to address his crimes.

“We’d given you a simple task. Kidnap the Moonreaver lass. It’s one thing to be stopped by an Asterias, but to lose to a mere child… You have disappointed me, Talon.”_-.

“Please punish me, High Elder!”

“Punish? Oh, we’re far from that now.”

The red-robed figure stepped down from his high chair and gently tapped his feet on the marbled floor. Almost instantly, Talon felt gravity increase tenfold as his knees created cracks on the ground. His head fell with a thud, nearly cracking his skull and bursting his brain free. The pressure didn’t let him go scot-free, with it mounting every given second. Talon tried his best to resist and remain conscious, but there was nothing he could do against the man punishing him.

“You’d failed your mission one too many times, Talon. I remember vividly telling you that this was your last chance.”

“I-I a-apologise for…”

“No need to apologise for anything,” the High Elder scoffed and pointed his finger at the trembling Shadowfiend. Magic power trickled down from his fingers, and the gravity around Talon doubled every single second.

Talon’s body did well to resist the immense force under which he was placed, but even the mighty thousand-year-old True Vampire could not go against the might of the High Elder. Before long, blood was squeezed out from every hole in Talon’s body. Be it his nostrils, eye sockets, ears, mouth or even the numerous pores on his skin. Shaking desperately, the Shadowfiend mustered all of his strength to raise his head, hoping to get one last plea for his life.

Alas, the sentence had already been meted out.

“May your soul rest in hell.”

The High Elder crushed his fist, and like a balloon squeezed too hard, Talon popped. Flesh and blood flew around the empty hall, staining it in a deep crimson hue. The mighty Talon Bloodborne, one of the most prolific killers of the Bloodborne House, had been killed… just like that.

“Why did you kill him?”

Horatio Bloodborne, the man in direct command of Talon, finally spoke up when the High Elder’s punishment was completed. However, it wasn’t due to love or camaraderie that the Lord of Flies spoke.

“We are currently lacking manpower. While he failed his mission, he was a valuable asset. We can’t go killing our own comrades when the rest of the world is out to get us.”

The High Elder smiled and rubbed the blood off his red robe.

“… It’s to set an example, Horatio.”

The High Elder didn’t look bothered in the slightest that there was a mangled corpse in front of him and set forth to educate the ignorant Prince. Rubbing his hands, the High Elder gestured once, sending the signal for a few maids to clean the place up. Only then did he switch his full attention to the man who asked the question.

“The Bloodborne House is at a crossroads now. Morale is low, and many of our followers and servants are thinking of abandoning us. Killing Talon, while regrettable, is a way to send a message to those who even entertain the thought of jumping ship. Also, it’s a way to show that while we’re still an organisation that doesn’t tolerate failure.”

Horatio thought about it for a while before finally rubbing his head in shame.

“Argh!!! All these brainiac subtleties are lost on me! Well, since you’re our strategist, I’ll trust your judgement, Uncle.”

“That’s what I like about you, Horatio.”

The High Elder flashed a rare smile, delighted that his nephew was smart enough to do his bidding without any questions. Moving away from Talon’s crushed body, the High Elder invited Horatio to the side and poured him a glass of red wine. Well, it only looked like red wine, but it was actually freshly squeezed virgin blood from one of the many farms the Bloodborne House harvested.

“How is the Fifth Consort?”

“Not that good,” Horatio shook his head and took one sip of the wine. “She lost to Sirius and a bunch of Asterias. It was a shock to her, and she’s been refusing to meet anyone ever since then.”

“That’s a shame,” the High Elder sighed. “Who would have thought that Sirius could contest with the Fifth Consort? That was a miscalculation on my part.”

“No, it’s not your fault. The Moonreaver House wasn’t known for its combat prowess. So sending the Fifth Consort was the right move as she naturally counters them. No one could expect this generation’s Sirius to be so powerful.”

“Still, it seems like I owe the Fifth Consort an apology. I’ll visit her once we settle the reparations for the Moonreaver House.”

The High Elder casually put the issue at the back of his head and continued to taste the sweet virgin blood that was recently harvested for his gluttonous self.

“Yeah, speaking of reparations… Can I ask you a question?”

“What is it?”

“Why did you agree to those harsh terms? A hundred billion dollars is no small sum, and we lack money right now.”

While the Bloodborne-Moonreaver War ended in their defeat, and it was natural for the Moonreaver House to demand reparations, the Bloodborne House didn’t have to agree to that first amount. They could have haggled and possibly reduced the sum by a few billion. But before any complex negotiations even began, the Bloodborne House had signed the ink to paper, fully agreeing to the terms the Moonreaver House had given them.

The High Elder looked at his nephew with a cryptic smile before answering the man’s question with yet another one.

“Horatio… Have you ever played Chess?”

“Chess? Of course, I have.”

“And how do you win a game of Chess?”

“You capture the enemy’s king, of course.”

“Precisely,” the High Elder laughed and swirled his goblet of blood around. “It doesn’t matter if you’re down all your pieces. As long as you take the opponent’s king, you win. Our grand scheme doesn’t rely on external vices like money or influences. What we need to do is aim for the king.”

The High Elder turned around and took out an unappealing stone orb. There was nothing special about the sphere. There weren’t any ostentatious ornaments, and there definitely wasn’t anything valuable about the unassuming ball. However, the High Elder caressed it gently as if it were his own precious baby.

“Is that…”

“Yes, yes it is.” The High Elder smiled in response to Horatio’s mumbling. “While the whole world believes that we’re looking for the Ancestor’s arm, our true motive was this stone orb. The Moonreavers had it hidden in their old vaults and either forgot or didn’t know its true identity. That’s why they left it in the mortal world rather than safeguarding it in the Moonreaver Dimension. The entire war was just a ruse for us to obtain this orb.”

“And we’ve finally obtained it!”

At this point, Horatio was unable to contain his excitement. He bounced happily as the High Elder placed the stone orb into a magical glass seal, suspending it in midair. With a maniacal smile on his face, the High Elder slashed his own hand, sending down a river of blood onto the unmoving orb.

It didn’t take long for the unassuming stone to finally change. Cracks emerged on the surface, and the orb began to change within seconds. The glass seal that was protecting the sphere shook violently as if it was containing a magnitude ten earthquake within.

Magic power, one that felt far more oppressive than any Vampire could ever feel, sent shockwaves through the Throne Hall as the stone orb finally broke free from its shell. Blood from the High Elder stained the insides of the stone orb in a deep crimson hue, which was fitting as it now housed the organ that loved blood the most.

“The Progenitor’s Heart… Father’s heart.”

“We finally obtained it.”

The High Elder and Horatio smiled so wide that their lips could touch their ears.

“We’re now one step closer to Father’s revival!” The High Elder couldn’t help but exclaim. “Once Father is resurrected, the whole world would kneel at our feet! This Guardian House nonsense will cease to exist, and everything will return to how it should be! All Vampires united under one House. The Bloodborne House!!!”

“Congratulations, Uncle!”

Horatio bowed respectfully, complimenting the High Elder for a job well done. The whole world thought the Bloodborne House was crazy. Waging war against the Moonreaver House only to lose so terribly. However, what they failed to see was the thousands of years his Uncle spent planning this development.

People thought that the Bloodborne House only wanted the Ancestor’s arm from the Moonreaver House. But in truth, there were over twenty objectives the High Elder had planned for. One of which was obtaining the Ancestor’s arm, and another to kidnap Lilith so that they could control the current Moonreaver Lord.

And while those two plans failed miserably, the other hidden objectives had been obtained without anyone knowing. The most important one being the Progenitor’s Heart.

With the numerous sacrifices they harvested under the watchful eye of the Holy Church and the centuries of preparations, the Ancestor’s revival was already ninety percent completed. Who cares about losing a hundred billion or being kicked out of the Guardian Houses?

As long as the Vampire Ancestor was resurrected, the whole world would have to serve the Bloodborne House once more.

That was the main reason the Bloodborne House didn’t care about some useless reparations. Wealth, influence, status… They were all insignificant in front of absolute power.

“Thank you, Horatio. However, the job is not done. We still need to find an appropriate vessel to call Father’s soul from the dead.”

“Ah, speaking of that… I have some news to tell you, Uncle.”

“Hoh? What is it?”

The High Elder sealed the Progenitor’s Heart and turned to his beloved nephew. Horatio, being the astute follower that he was, had never let the High Elder down. If he had news to tell him, it was likely worth listening to.

Delighted that he had gotten the High Elder’s approval, Horatio smiled widely, revealing every single one of his pearly white teeth:

“You see, I met this boy in the Moonreaver Dimension…”