23: The Capital, Vallath Imperial State.

The night had fallen upon the city. Azarian and Humphrey were cooped up in their apartment In the rough side of the city. It had been a few days since Azarian had last had a taste of blood. He could go on days or even years without the taste but as of late, he had found it hard to control his blood lust and let alone his rage.

He laid his head to rest and all he could see and hear was extremely violent memories of the battle of Sarania. His commanding General was giving his squad a debrief about the impending attack from The Vallath. He was sitting next to Samuel during the debrief. He was nervous, heck all of them were. Sarania had never been at war since the war against the Vampires. Samuel's thigh was shaking against Azarian's. He turned to Samuel and whispered,

"I've come to accept that death is always going to be there. We can't run from it."

Samuel was confused, "Is that supposed to make me feel better?", he whispered humorously.

"All I'm saying is that we are bound to die eventually but dying a hero.", he said beneath his breathe, "Is the most honourable death there is. You will be remembered."

Samuel stopped shaking and they continued to listen to General's brief. The General spoke about the Vallath's style of battle.

"Scorched Earth!", he shouted in enthusiasm. "It has been well documented that the Vallath burn everything to ash and build a foundation on those ashes. If we limit the amount of damage they can cause we have a chance of winning this."

Azarian flashed into the battleground. His fellow soldiers had been slaughtered like cattle and left to rot in the scorching sun. There were dead bodies everywhere. Azarian looked at his hands and they were coated in blood. He gently touched his face, he licked his lips and felt his fangs sticking out pressing against his lips. He walked in the field of the dead and he came to realise that his fellow comrades weren't the only ones that had been slaughtered. He saw bodies of Vallath soldiers laying side by side in the sand with Saranians.

Azarian came across a young boy with his internal organs being not so internal. He looked the boy in his eyes and he looked very familiar. His dark silky long hair, his blue eyes and the dark spot just above his lip seemed very familiar. Then it hit him, he had met a boy just after the fall of the vampire race. Azarian needed a place to stay. He was the same age of the boy at the time. He had not had anything to eat in days. The boy found him laying under a tree in the woods at the brick of death. The boy offered him a cozy warm home and food. The boy helped Azarian get up and they walked to his home in the woods. The boy's parents welcomed him with open arms. His mother had been preparing dinner and it was just twenty minutes away from being ready. Azarian's hunger was slowly getting out of control. Those few minutes seemed like an eternity and his bloodlust began to kick in.

He tried fighting it but In the end his bloodlust consumed him. He leaped at the boy's mother and pinned her down to the ground. He severed her head from her body with his bare hands. Blood was oozing out of her. He drowned himself in her blood.

The boy's father put his hand on Azarian. Azarian sunk his teeth into his muscular arm and the man screamed in agony. He pulled away and Azarian jumped on top of him. He sunk his teeth into his neck and he was paralyzed. He continued to feed on him like the prey he was. The boy watched in absolute shock, he didn't even move. Azarian looked at the boy and he was petrified. He attacked the boy and left him begging for his life.

In the battlefield, the boy was laying in a pool of his own blood. Azarian stood over the boy and he could hear his fading heartbeat. The boy coughed softly and blood gushed out of his mouth. He opened his eyes and he looked at Azarian. His eyes widened in fear.

"You monster!", he shouted in horror.

His eyes slowly shut and his fading heart beat had finally stopped. Azarian saw the inhumane claw marks all over the body of the boy. The scaring on him ran deep into this skin exposing his bone. The scars on his face had his skin pealing off the bone.

Azarian continued to walk amongst the dead. He looked at each of their bodies and he saw they all had his claw marks.

"I did this.", he said softly.

Samuel appeared from thin air, standing face to face with Azarian. He looked perfectly fine compared to the last encounters he had with Samuel's ghost. Azarian was startled, "Samuel I'm sorry about what happened.", he said, "I just lost control and i don't know what happened."

"You have to stop.", he said.

"Stop what?", Azarian was confused. He had no clue what so ever about what Samuel was referring to.

"Trying to be what you are not.", he pointed around the field of dead bodies, "Look at this! This is what you are!"

"I didn't mean to-"

"But you did and you need to stop apologizing for what you have always been."

"I'm tired of killing people." , he said.

"The universe is aligning itself. A series of events about to unfold that will lead to the very existence of our realm and the many realms being at stake.", he said, "I traveled the valley of the resting to relay this message to you not because you are my friend but the fate of everything that we know depends on the last vampire of the mortal plane."

Azarian awoke from his dream, frightened. He got out of bed and went for a glass of water. He drunk the water while staring outside his window. The bright lights of the city really made nights in the Vallathian Capital a must see attraction. Azarian couldn't help but think about what Eraius said to him about the girl.

"Is there more to this mystery than what meets the eye.", he said to himself.