The Fallen Vampire

When Enyo finished telling her story, silence rang throughout the forest.

Indra was deep in thought, meanwhile Lucia was having several major realizations.

'500 years ago?? The last of his kind?? Royalty?? He's the reason why the princess looks so young??'

Lucia decided to shove all of her concerns to the back of her mind for now and do the one thing she knew needed to be done.

Indra was surprised when the beautiful young lamia suddenly bowed until her head was touching the ground.

"I won't ask you any questions about anything I've just heard, a-and I know I still have yet to repay you for earlier but I beg you... please save the princess!"

Before Indra could even say anything, Enyo was furious.

"Are you insane?! Do you even know what you-"

"Enyo."

Indra's calm voice easily cut through all of her irritation and anger, and she turned around with a huff.

The vampire held out a hand to the still prostrated lamia. "Get up."

Lucia hastily complied, and now she was looking deep into Indra's scarlet red eyes.

"What makes you think that I can save the little wolf?" From what he'd heard so far, the death of the werewolf princess was all but a certainty.

"Y-You must be very powerful! I can't sense any sort of aura from you at all, I couldn't even follow your movements earlier!"

The vampire resisted the urge to laugh out loud.

The only reason the lamia could not sense anything from him is because he was actively concealing his aura.

As for her inability to follow his movements... he just assumed that she was not very observant.

Before he could tell her the truth about his level of power, Lucia began prostrating once again.

"T-The princess is the kindest person imaginable and she does not deserve to die at the hands of those filthy humans! I-I know you may not remember but it sounds like the two of you were very happy together so maybe you might-"

"Do you understand the risk!?" Enyo finally couldn't take it any more and was back on the offensive. "You said that she was captured by one of those heroes! Indra is still in the mortal realm so he cannot possibly-"

"The mortal realm!?" Lucia was so shocked she almost fell over. "I thought you said that he could not cultivate??"

"Circumstances have changed." Indra replied with a shrug.

"I-I thought you may have been an arcane user like me, only a much higher level."

Indra's ears twitched reflexively and he started looking at Lucia like she was a goose that could lay golden eggs. "You can use arcane?"

"Y-Yes..." Lucia did not understand why Indra was suddenly staring at her so intensely, but she had yet to decide if she hated or loved the attention.

A grin spread across his face that revealed his two gleaming white fangs.

"Let's make a deal, little snake."

"O-Okay... What kind of deal?"

Only Enyo was vaguely aware of what her prince might be thinking. "Indra you can't be serious!"

"I'll be fine, Enyo. You know that something on this level is child's play for me."

"No I don't!" The poltergeist was making it very clear that she would not go along with this foolish plan.

"Look at me, Enyo."

She obliged but the look she was giving him wasn't a friendly one.

"You will not lose me. I've already promised not to leave you alone, haven't I?"

The poltergeist nodded her head weakly as her gaze drifted to the ground below.

"Indra... this is incredibly dangerous."

"I'm well aware of the potential consequences." Indra nodded without batting an eye. "But if I do this I can gain an arcane teacher and get a good look at one of those heroes."

Lucia's heart clenched slightly when she heard that. 'Doesn't he care about the princess at all..?'

After hearing about their intense and passionate love affair, Lucia couldn't believe that Indra truly seemed not to care about his former lover.

Seeing as how her former master was going so far to convince her, Enyo sighed in defeat and resigned herself not to get in the way of his plans any longer.

"Alright... I will not stop you." She muttered.

Sensing her depressed mood, Indra kissed Enyo on her cheek as a bit of a pick me up.

The effect was instantaneous as her expression shifted from disbelief to awe, to obsessiveness all within a few seconds.

"Hehehehehe...."

"...Is she alright?" Lucia asked.

"She's fine... probably."

While Enyo continued to giggle madly in the corner as she rubbed her cheek, Indra came back to kneel in front of Lucia.

"Here's the deal, little snake. If you want me to save your princess then you are going to teach me everything you know about arcane arts." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝑒𝒷𝓃𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝑚

Lucia's big amber eyes became as wide as saucers. "You.. are like the heroes?? You can cultivate and use arcane?"

"I can."

The lamia felt like her head would explode.

This man in front of her... If he grew well he could change the course of this entire war and save all of their people!

She almost did not feel as though she was qualified enough to teach him!

But if she did not try, her princess would never be saved and the fallen would lose one of the few beacons of hope that they had left.

"I'll teach you... B-But you have to save princess Keran first!" Time was running out for the werewolf princess and her guards and they could not afford to waste even a single moment if they wanted to save her.

Indra's gaze became hard. Truthfully, he was going to ask her to teach him right now but he could see in her eyes that she wasn't going to back down.

'Should I compel her?'

The vampire briefly considered using such a tactic before ultimately deciding against it as it would leave a bad taste in his mouth.

He only wanted to use a power like that against enemies who were being less than cooperative.

He also thought it might be beneficial to foster a good relationship with Lucia so that she might earnestly teach him everything she knew.

"Alright, little snake. Where is this captured princess of yours?"