The Prometheans

  Tamamo and I ran quickly through the previous corridors, our goal being to find a staircase. Time was ticking and I had to act quickly if I wanted to save Maria's life. The advantage of having bad luck like mine is that it's easy to predict with certainty - there were only two places my sister could be: either at Dracula's side at the top of the castle, where the main party would eventually arrive, or in the lowest, darkest dungeons of the castle, where few would dare to go alone. So I decided to start my search there.

  The lower part of the castle led to a series of filthy stone passages and caves, horrible and neglected, with decorations that clearly indicated that this was more than a prison - it was a place of torture and suffering. Blood and chains seemed to grow from the ground, and the echoes sounded like the screams of ancient victims reliving their final moments of despair. A cursed place, stained by countless gruesome deaths.

  Suddenly we came to a door that was different from the others. Instead of cruel, corroded iron, carefully crafted mechanisms guarded this one. Locks gave way to anchors and airtight seals. A security door stood out in this medieval setting, as did the access computer next to it. But nothing could withstand the merciless tamamo blue flames - no metal could stand firm when it was reduced to liquid.

  Behind the door, we found far more than the exterior had suggested. We entered a laboratory - surprisingly advanced for a vampire approaching a thousand years of existence. Electricity and computers, precision instruments and vials filled with a Thousands of vials of every colour, from cyan to crimson, golden instruments, silver clocks, energy flowing through the walls, monitors displaying strange text with readings. A technological tangle that was impossible to decipher. None of us were engineers who could make sense of what we were seeing or what was being studied in this place; we could only move forward, knowing that the questions would come later - when my sister was safe. Where had this been acquired all this? Even Tamamo needed time to adapt, even though he already knew about space travel and starships.

  As we ventured further into the facility, we came to a very different part. The corridors lined with computers and electricity gave way to a more ornate, carefully maintained area - a place where all research seemed to pay homage to its subject. The blue marble walls were adorned with exquisitely crafted works of art, illuminated by a mysterious, magical blue glow that felt terribly familiar, tied to my terrible past. But signs of battle had begun to appear - shattered walls, destroyed stone murals, and burned tablets and scrolls reduced to ashes. The place lay in ruins, rivalling the devastation of a city levelled by war.

  As we passed through a nearby doorway, we came upon a body sprawled on the floor - a white-furred werewolf, lifeless, clutching a single stone tablet. It seemed to be his last act before death.

  "A werewolf? What was it doing here?"

  "Has he been separated from the group? No."

  "Now that I think about it, wasn't one of the kidnapped ones? Albus was mentioned, I believe, by the leader of the Umbra Venatores," Tamamo said coldly, looking at the body lying dead on the ground.

  "Surely he escaped on his own, probably trying to get back to the others."

  "But why stop here?"

  "Is it something to do with the tablet?"

  "I've had the feeling all night that something big has gone wrong, but I'm the only one who hasn't realised it."

  Looking more closely at the cause of the werewolf's death, I noticed that the language written on it was again none other than Atlantean - just like what had been on the outside walls of the castle. Filled with intrigue and desperate for another clue as to what was happening here, I picked up the inscribed stone and began to read.

  "In his vision of the future, the Great Cardinal Dominus was granted a revelation of the glorious destiny awaiting all of Atlantis - to rule the skies, the seas and the earth. Mysterious creatures and their muses whispered into his ears how to prepare the Elixir of Immortality, the ultimate panacea: the exact lives to be extinct, the souls to be stolen and tortured, and the exact age the children must reach before the harvest of their essence. The ingredients and preparation of Draconic Blood - part of the ancient secrets of the Celestial Army that had betrayed us since the Age of Eternal Winter - had taken years of preparation and research. The moment was at hand; all that remained was a single sample of the liquid of the first life, from those who came before us."

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  Unfortunately, some sections of the tablet were in very poor condition, making it impossible even for me to decipher the full meaning of certain parts. I did my best to reconstruct a coherent message from the fragments that could be read with some clarity.

  "But the traitors of the heavens, moved by Orion's struggle and his indomitable will, came from distant lands to aid the Emperor in his crusade for glory and honour. They helped to quell the insolent rebellion of the inner lands. But they were no fools; they kept their identities hidden, even from the Emperor's closest allies, knowing the terrible price they would pay for betraying the heavens and stealing the Vial of Primordial Life. These brave ones, who defied the terror of the incomprehensible gods of the cosmos, were known as the Prometheans. The only two beings we have ever encountered since the declaration of war for Atlantean greatness made their presence known in these very halls, answering the prayers of the Great Cardinal Dominus in his last attempt to save the Emperor from his mortal wounds.

  "A hooded figure took the dagger, cut the palm without hesitation - and yet no blood flowed. Instead, a strange, viscous liquid emerged, blue and radiant with light and mystery. A single drop fell into the cup. The concoction came alive - pulsating, vibrating, roaring - life and power in its very essence. Without delay, the chalice was brought to Emperor Orion, who drank from it as if fulfilling the great destiny that was rightfully his. Thus was born the first dragon, and with it the origin of his legendary bloodline, destined to rule over all others".

  "But the Prometheans vanished, leaving no trace of its existence. Fearing our enemies, they are believed to have sought refuge somewhere on the continent. The Emperor summoned them, but they have not been seen since. But thanks to them, the fate of Atlantis was changed forever.

  That was all the tablet said; the other half had been destroyed by some kind of heat-based weapon. It was surprising that it was still in one piece. After reading it aloud for Tamamo to hear, I took a moment to think about its contents.

  Unfortunately, I couldn't say that the names Dominus or Orion were unfamiliar to me, nor that their story didn't set off alarms connected to my past adventures. It all fit together like pieces of a puzzle that seemed to haunted me across time and space, repeating over and over again the beginning of such a tragic fate - how the legend of the fall of Atlantis was neither swift nor sudden, but rather the result of an endless series of selfish and arrogant decisions made by its leaders and subjects. The tragedy was nothing more than the result of a thousand schemes, driven by dark motives and fuelled by unbridled ambition - the exploitation of the weak and needy for the personal gain of the king in power at the time.

  Although the tablet itself revealed nothing I didn't already know, it was just another clue to the origins of the whole place. Together with the hallways, murals, statues and dungeon corridors, it confirmed my deepest suspicions of the night.

  "This means that this castle is not just some strange place summoned by Dracula's magic."

  "This castle originates from Atlantis."

  "It is the Great Cathedral of Vaelyra."

  "The Great Church of Light and Truth."

  "The religion that Orion himself pulled out of his ass to further inflate his endless ego."

  "Where the elixir was formulated and created, given to Orion on his deathbed."

  "...."

  "Where Nanami was supposed to be a goddess of this made-up religion, living as a goddess trapped in a box."

  "Before everything went wrong, of course."

  "It was Cardinal Dominus himself who oversaw the treatment to create her from the time she was just an embryo."

  "....."

  "Life works in strange ways - she was the one who banned the religion when she came to power as Empress of Atlantis."

  "Persecuted all its members and worshippers as traitors to the Empire, and used her Inquisitors to wipe out every last remnant of those bastards."

  "It was the same goddess, Orion's daughter, who burned every book, rewrote every record, leaving nothing for the future of her people."

  "Though by then it mattered little as the dragons slowly destroyed what was remaining by then."

  "If the lab is filled with Atlantean knowledge,"

  "Wouldn't it be safe to assume that magic and inventions from it are scattered all over the place?"

  "Doesn't that mean you hold the keys to the entire castle?" theorized the kitsune goddess.

  "And if Dracula was stupid enough for all the monsters..."

  "Then you must be careful. Use it only when necessary."

  "The last thing we need is for the other Inquisitors to start asking why the monsters are suddenly obeying orders."

  "As if they could do anything about it."

  "....."

  "Sorry about the friend sleeping on the floor, but I still need to find my sister."

  "I don't have time to mourn the death of a stranger; but I'll try to get you to your people when I have the chance."

  I hid the werewolf in the shadow of an unfinished statue of the adult form of the goddess she never became, trying to keep him out of sight lest his body be profaned by the foul creatures that haunted these walls.