The dilapidated temple drowned in the silvery moonlight breaking through a massive hole in the roof. The air here was thick, smelling of old dust and iron. Shiro breathed heavily, leaning her back against a cracked pillar. The pain in her shoulder, where a crossbow bolt was deeply lodged, throbbed in time with her frantically beating heart, echoing with a deafening hum in her ears.
Little Kru sat on her knees nearby. Her unnaturally pale, thin little fingers desperately pressed the edges of Shiro's wound, trying to stop the blood. The girl was trembling. But it wasn't out of fear. Shiro opened her eyes slightly and noticed how Kru's gaze had changed. The foggy shock and confusion had vanished. Now her red eyes glowed in the semi-darkness — hungry, feverish, terrifyingly deep. The girl swallowed, and that sound seemed deafening in the dead silence of the temple. For a newly turned vampire, whose body had just rejected human food by turning it to ash, the smell of fresh blood was unbearable. But Shiro's blood — the blood of the Demigod race — didn't just smell like food. It carried the fragrance of concentrated mana, like the purest nectar, intoxicating the mind.
— "Kru..." — Shiro called out hoarsely.
The girl didn't answer. Her breathing quickened, becoming ragged and scorchingly hot. She leaned forward slowly, as if in a dream. Her thin fingers, stained with Shiro's blood, glided higher, touching her exposed neck and collarbones. At the touch of her icy, porcelain skin, a violent shudder ran through Shiro's feverish body. Instincts were taking over. Kru was no longer in control of herself. She brought her face closer to Shiro's neck, noisily inhaling the scent that made her head spin. Her lower lip trembled, exposing sharpened fangs.
Shiro understood everything. The girl was going mad with thirst, and she herself had nothing left to lose. Overcoming the pain, Shiro smiled faintly and used her good hand to gently cup the back of Kru's head, burying her fingers in her blonde hair.
— "Drink," — Shiro exhaled quietly, pulling the girl closer to her. — "It's alright."
In the next second, Shiro let out a muffled cry, involuntarily arching her back. Fangs as sharp as razors bit through the tender skin on her neck. But the expected burning pain didn't follow. Instead, liquid fire instantly surged through her veins. The bite brought with it a wave of such piercing, intoxicating euphoria that colored circles swam before Shiro's eyes.
The girl drank greedily, swallowing frantically, her small hands digging into Shiro's shoulders as she pressed her entire body against her. Shiro felt every beat of her own heart, pumping blood straight into Kru's thirsty lips. It was terrifyingly intimate — the heat of her own body mingling with the icy essence of a progenitor. Shiro gasped for air, her fingers unconsciously gripping Kru's hair, pulling her closer while a sweet, heavy languor clouded her mind.
— "More..." — Kru moaned barely audibly through the bite, as if delirious, trembling from the incredible energy overflowing within her.
The demigod's blood acted like the purest adrenaline mixed with a drug.
Suddenly, heavy footsteps and the clinking of metal echoed from the arched entrance. Mercenaries. They had tracked them down by the blood trail.
— "There they are!" — the archer barked hoarsely, raising his loaded crossbow. — "Take the girl alive, finish off the other..."
He didn't have time to finish.
Kru abruptly tore herself away from Shiro's neck. A thin red stream trickled down her chin. There was no longer any childish weakness or fear in the girl's eyes. Only an absolute, blood-chilling abyss and primordial fury. The sound of her dashing forward was like the pop of tearing silk.
Shiro, whose vision was still swimming from the loss of mana and blood, didn't even have time to blink. The small, fragile Kru appeared in front of the mercenary in that exact fraction of a second. The strike of her tiny palm caved in the brute's chest with such a gruesome crunch, as if it were a dry branch. The archer flew backward, smashing his back through the stone wall of the temple. The second mercenary, the lanky one with a dagger, screamed in terror and tried to strike her, but Kru simply caught the blade with her bare hands, crumpled it like foil, and with one imperceptible movement, snapped his neck. It was all over in three seconds.
Kru froze amidst the dust and blood of her enemies. The frantic energy that had rushed to her head along with the demigod's mana began to drop sharply. The girl swayed, her knees buckled, and she collapsed unconscious onto the stone floor. The newly turned vampire's body couldn't handle such a sharp surge of power and sensory overload.
— "Kru!" — Shiro tried to rush toward her, but her strength finally failed her.
She braced herself to lose consciousness from blood loss, but suddenly felt a strange, burning itch in her pierced shoulder. The area around the crossbow bolt glowed with a soft, golden light. The muscles pushed the foreign piece of metal out on their own with a dull, wet sound, and it fell to the floor with a ringing clatter. The torn tissues began to knit together right before her eyes, intertwining with golden threads of light, leaving not even a scar.
— "What the..." — Shiro touched her completely intact shoulder in surprise, where only a hole in the fabric and dried blood remained.
— "Oh, right. 'Demigod' race. Passive regeneration. That's damn convenient."
Getting to her feet, she approached the unconscious Kru and carefully picked her up in her arms. The girl was as light as a feather. Her face had become peaceful, and a trace of Shiro's blood still lingered on her lips.
— "Well, little bloodsucker," — Shiro chuckled softly, adjusting her torn cloak to cover Kru from the night cold. — "Let's go find your people."
Shiro stepped out of the ruined temple towards the ancient city. She didn't know a single street here, but her heightened demigod senses had already picked up a powerful, cold source of energy in the distance.
The night city met her with an icy, indifferent calmness. Leaving behind the ruined temple that reeked of death and iron, Shiro stepped onto a marble-paved street. The ancient architecture, which just a couple of hours ago had seemed to her like nothing more than pretty scenery from a history textbook, now pressed down with its grandeur. The tall columns cast long, black shadows, and the wind carried the bitter scent of sea salt and blooming olive trees from the coast.
Shiro walked slowly, trying not to disturb Kru, who was sleeping in her arms. The girl was frighteningly light, like a porcelain doll. Her breathing had become steady, and the icy skin pressed against Shiro's warm chest gradually stopped feeling so deathly cold. On Kru's pale lips still glowed the faint trace of demigod blood — the only reminder of the primal horror that had taken place in the temple.
«Wow» — Shiro chuckled to herself, looking at the girl's peaceful face.
«Who would have thought that my first day as a Multiverse Administrator would end with me becoming a walking blood bag for a loli vampire.»
She didn't know where to go. The streets intertwined into a complex labyrinth plunged into darkness. But Shiro no longer relied on her sight. After Kru drank her blood, it was as if some invisible seal had been broken inside Shiro. Her passive regeneration awakened her dormant demigod instincts. Closing her eyes for a second, she concentrated.
The world around her lost its outlines, turning into a web of energies. Warm, dim lights — people sleeping in their homes. Tiny sparks — nocturnal animals. But there, far ahead, beyond the wealthy districts, pulsated a massive cluster of power. It was an aura woven from primordial cold, heavy and oppressive. It resonated with the very same energy that was currently sleeping in Shiro's arms.
— "We need to go that way, little bloodsucker," — Shiro whispered, shifting Kru for a better grip, and confidently stepped into the thickest shadow.
The journey took about an hour. Shiro moved silently, avoiding the rare night patrols with torches. The closer she got to the source of the energy, the more luxurious yet gloomier the buildings became. Finally, the street led her to massive wrought-iron gates, behind which hid a grand mansion surrounded by an overgrown garden. The branches of old trees intertwined above it like gnarled fingers, hiding the house from the moonlight.
Shiro stopped ten paces from the gates. Absolute, ringing silence surrounded her. No crickets, no sound of the wind. Suddenly, the shadows by the gates flickered. The air thickened, and out of the darkness, silently like ghosts, stepped three figures in long dark cloaks. Their movements were fluid and unnaturally fast. The narrow blades of drawn swords gleamed in the semi-darkness. Their aura pressed down with such force that an ordinary person would find it hard to breathe. Vampires. The High Guard, remaining loyal to the Tepes bloodline, or newly turned servants of the First Progenitor — Shiro didn't know for sure.
— "Freeze" — a cold, emotionless voice rang out. A tall vampire with ashen hair took a step forward. His blood-red eyes narrowed, boring into Shiro's face.
— "Human... No. You smell different." —The other two vampires tensed. Shiro saw their nostrils flare slightly. They had caught the scent of her blood soaked into her torn tunic. Blood mixed with divine mana. To them, this aroma was unbearably alluring, akin to the purest drug. One of the guards involuntarily licked his lips, gripping the hilt of his sword tighter.
Shiro didn't take a single step back. Her heart was beating fast, but her mind remained crystal clear. She held Krul tighter and raised her chin. A faint but authoritative golden glow flared in her own eyes — a tiny spark of divine essence warning that she was not mere prey.
— "I brought your mistress," — Shiro said firmly and loudly, her voice cutting through the night silence. — "She was attacked in the port slums." —
The ash-haired vampire shifted his gaze to the sleeping girl. His red eyes flashed with recognition and carefully concealed worry.
— "Lady Krul..." — he appeared right in front of Shiro in a lightning-fast movement.
The scent of her sweet blood hit his face, making him wince slightly as he fought his own instincts.
— "Give her to me."
— "Immediately." —He reached out his white-gloved hands, intending to take the girl. But Shiro took a sharp step back, dodging his hands.
— "Yeah, right," — Shiro cut him off coldly, looking straight into the monster's burning red eyes. — "I risked my life pulling her out from under crossbow bolts, and gave her my own blood so she wouldn't go mad from thirst."
— "You guys obviously screwed up with the security." — — "So I'm not leaving her on the doorstep like a package." —The vampires froze at such audacity. The one standing on the right hissed threateningly, raising his blade.
— "You dare dictate terms to us, pathetic..." — he began, but the ash-haired one raised a hand, stopping him.
He studied Shiro intently. Her torn, blood-soaked clothes, the absence of a wound on her shoulder, and most importantly, the peaceful face of Krul, who in her sleep was tightly clinging to this strange girl's cloak. The guard understood that an ordinary human would never have survived whatever left such marks, much less be able to feed a progenitor without dying of exhaustion.
Grinding his teeth, the captain of the guard slowly lowered his sword and took a step aside, clearing the path to the mansion's massive doors.
— "Go on," — he spat through gritted teeth. — "But if this is a trap, your unusual blood won't save you from being drained dry."
Shiro merely scoffed and, without lowering her head, walked past the deadly guards straight into the territory of the ancient Tepes bloodline.
Ahead of her lay a few days in a monster's lair and long conversations in the dark.
Two days passed.
Time in the Tepes mansion flowed thick and slow, like resin. For the high vampires, left without their true masters and turned into guards for a newly turned mistress, the presence of a human within their walls was an unbearable ordeal.
Shiro smelled too sweet. Her blood beckoned, making the monsters grind their fangs in the dark corridors. But none of them dared to even approach her. Krul had given her first and absolutely ruthless order: «Anyone who touches her even with a glance will meet the dawn on the roof».
Shiro sat on the edge of a massive marble fountain in the mansion's inner garden. The murmuring of the water was soothing. Her torn, blood-soaked tunic had long since gone into the fireplace. Now Shiro wore a luxurious Greek dress made of the finest, almost weightless white silk, gathered under her chest with a golden cord. The vampire servants had brought her the best fabrics, aromatic oils, and brushed her hair. She felt strange in this antique splendor, but the cleanliness and comfort were exactly what she needed right now.
Light footsteps interrupted her thoughts. Krul emerged from the shadow of the cypresses.
The girl looked much better. Her pallor had become aristocratic, not sickly. She wore an elegant dark dress, contrasting with her blonde hair. But a deep, unchildlike sorrow still splashed in her red eyes.
Krul silently approached Shiro and, without asking permission, sat down next to her, pressing her shoulder tightly against her side. For Krul, Shiro had become an anchor in this ruined world. The warmth of the demigod's body and the phantom taste of that alluring blood on her lips were the only things keeping her sanity from plunging into the abyss of bestial instincts.
Shiro smiled softly and with a familiar gesture placed her hand on the girl's head, slowly sorting through the blonde strands. Krul closed her eyes, almost purring from the touch.
— "Can't sleep?" — Shiro asked quietly, looking at the reflection of the stars in the fountain's water.
— "If I close my eyes, I'll see him again," — Krul's voice trembled, becoming very quiet and broken. — "My brother. Ashera."
Shiro stopped stroking her hair and gently hugged the girl by the shoulders, pulling her closer.
— "That... monster," — Krul swallowed, and her little fists clenched on the silk fabric of Shiro's dress. — "He took him. He turned us into this, and then just led Ashera away into the darkness."
— "We were just children... of a noble family. And now I can't even look at normal food. I'm a monster, Shiro. A monster that feeds on other people's lives."
A heavy silence hung in the garden. Shiro felt how finely Krul's shoulders were trembling.
— "You are not a monster," — Shiro said firmly, without a shadow of a doubt.
She took the girl's cold face in her palms and forced her to look straight into her eyes, where gold faintly flickered.
— "Monsters don't cry for their brothers. Monsters don't hide in the shadows, afraid of hurting others. You are the victim of a cruel bastard who was simply bored. But who you become next, only you decide."
Krul froze. Her red eyes flew wide open, absorbing every word, every nuance of Shiro's voice. Something painfully clenched in the newly turned vampire's chest and immediately blossomed with a scorching warmth. This strange girl, smelling of divine mana, wasn't afraid of her. She protected her. She understood her.
— "Krul," — the girl said suddenly, covering Shiro's palms with her icy fingers.
— "What?" — Shiro didn't understand.
— "My full name. Not Kru. Krul Tepes," — the girl looked at her with such desperate, piercing seriousness that it took Shiro's breath away.
— "Remember this name, Shiro. Because from now on, my life, which you saved, belongs to you."
Shiro laughed warmly, tucking a stray lock of hair behind Krul's ear.
— "It's a deal, Krul Tepes. And you remember that I won't abandon you. We'll figure everything out..."
The words got stuck in her throat.
The air in the garden suddenly rang like a taut string. A blindingly red system window flashed before Shiro's eyes, blocking out Krul's face.
[SYSTEM: Initialization Scenario successfully complete]
[Subject "Krul Tepes" physically and mentally stabilized.]
[SYSTEM: Initiating forced return protocol for the Administrator... 3... 2...]
— "What the hell..." — Shiro breathed out. Her voice sounded muffled, as if from underwater.
She looked at her hands. The edges of her fingers began to disintegrate into glowing blue and golden pixels, dissolving into the night air.
Krul blinked uncomprehendingly, and then her face contorted in absolute, primal terror.
— "Shiro?" — the girl's voice broke into a scream.
— "Shiro, what's wrong with you?! What's happening?!"
— "Krul, I... System, stop! Cancel the return! God damn it, cancel it!" —
Shiro tried to grab Krul, but her right hand had already turned into a translucent hologram that passed right through the girl's shoulder.
[SYSTEM: ...1. Return.]
— "NO!" — Krul threw herself forward, desperately trying to hug Shiro, to hold her, to press her close.
Her fingers frantically closed around the white silk of the dress... but the fabric crumbled into sparks right in her hands.
— "I'll find a way to return!" — Shiro managed to shout before her face was distorted by systemic ripples. — "I promi..." —
A flash of light. And silence.
Shiro had vanished. The garden instantly emptied, as if she had never been there. Only the water in the fountain continued to murmur monotonously, and the barely perceptible, maddeningly sweet scent of her blood still hung in the air.
Krul collapsed to her knees onto the cold stone slabs. Her hands, still gripping emptiness, trembled. She slowly lowered her gaze to her palms. Nothing. She had lost everything again. First her home. Then her humanity. Then her brother. And now the universe had taken away the only person who had given her warmth in this endless icy night.
A quiet sob escaped the girl's lips. But it didn't turn into weeping. The tears, having barely welled up in her eyes, dried out. The air around Krul sharply dropped by several degrees, covering the edges of the fountain with a thin crust of ice. The ancient vampire mana, enhanced by demigod blood, erupted outwards, suppressing all living things within a kilometer radius.
The guards in the mansion fell to their knees, crushed by this monstrous aura.
Krul slowly rose to her feet. There was no longer any pain or confusion in her red eyes. A black, all-consuming obsession blazed there.
— "You promised," — Krul whispered, and her voice sounded like a death sentence.
She didn't know where her savior had vanished to. She didn't know how many worlds she would have to burn to find her. But she knew one thing: Shiro belonged to her. And no one, neither humans, nor demons, nor gods, would dare stand between them.
— "I will find you, Shiro," — the Vampire Queen smiled coldly at the moonlight.
— "And I will never let you go anywhere ever again."
Somewhere in interdimensional space. Training Room:
The space of the room without windows and doors suddenly rippled with pixels. Tomoko, who was still sitting on the floor, nervously clutching the edge of her skirt, threw her head up in surprise. For her, only a few seconds had passed since her new acquaintance with a crazy smile poked the "Mythical" banner and literally vanished into thin air. Tomoko had already begun to panic that she was left here all alone, face-to-face with her growing debts.
A bright neon flash illuminated the hall, and Shiro landed with a dull thud on the white marble floor.
— "God damn it, System!" — Shiro barked at the ceiling, trying to keep her balance.
— "Couldn't you have somehow warned me before yanking me out?! I didn't even get to say goodbye properly!" —Tomoko turned pale, her huge green eyes widened to their limits. She remembered that Shiro had disappeared in a strict black administrator suit with a red cloak. But now... now standing before her was a girl in a luxurious, flowing white dress made of the finest antique silk, gathered under her chest with a golden cord. A subtle aroma of expensive essential oils, night-blooming flowers, and... something imperceptibly sweet, resembling the smell of blood, emanated from Shiro.
— "S-S-Shiro?!" — Tomoko's voice broke into an ultrasonic squeak. She crawled backwards in shock, pointing a trembling finger at her. — "W-why are you... in a dress?! And where is that smell of incense coming from?! Did you, while I was gone, go to an elite interdimensional spa salon on credit?!" —Shiro looked over her outfit, gracefully smoothed out the folds of silk, and chuckled nervously.
— "Long story, Tomoko. Let's just say I visited a strict-regime sanatorium," — she rubbed her neck, where fang marks had recently gaped.
— "And the food there was... quite specific." —At that moment, a cascade of system interfaces flashed before Shiro's eyes, blocking out Tomoko's terrified face.
[SYSTEM: Initialization successfully passed. Administrator "Clumsy" confirmed their status.] [Hidden title acquired: «Blood Ties of the Progenitors». Effect: Passive reputation with the "Vampires" faction increased. Your blood is recognized as a top-tier delicacy.]
— "Um... thanks, I guess? Sounds like a dinner invitation acting as the main course," — Shiro muttered, swiping the window away.
Right after it popped up another one, colored in the gold of Midas Bank.
[Midas Bank Notification: Activation of Emergency Regeneration (Race: Demigod) recorded in combat conditions.]
[Generating bill for medical services and mana restoration... Attempting to debit funds...]
[ERROR. Transaction declined.]
[Status: Bill fully covered by an Unknown Sponsor. Current balance of the black card: Immeasurable.]
Shiro blinked in surprise, feeling the heavy obsidian card in the folds of her dress. It pulsed mysteriously with a purple light.
«An unknown sponsor?» — Shiro choked mentally.
— «Immeasurable? Is this some hidden VIP feature of this black card? Or did the System just catch a critical bug?»
She didn't complain. If a bug works in her favor and saves her from eternal debt — let it work.
— "Hah, so this weird unlimited card really saves lives," — she smirked, feeling a little more confident.
— "Thanks, mysterious System bug." —She shifted her gaze to Tomoko, who still couldn't recover.
— "Alright, spas aside" — Shiro put her hands on her hips.
— "And who did you pull? Let me guess, you clicked on the Standard banner because you got scared of hidden fees?" — Tomoko guiltily lowered her head, her shoulders slumping.
— "Y-yes..." — she sniffled, pointing a trembling finger at a strange translucent puddle at her feet. — "I was afraid to borrow money. And I got... him." — The puddle slowly spread across the marble floor, forming a small jelly-like grey slime. The slime looked at Shiro with sad beady eyes, and then let out a sound surprisingly similar to the heavy, doomed sigh of an office worker who was denied a bonus.
— "Uuuuuhhh..." — the slime bubbled and drearily spread out into a pancake.
Shiro covered her mouth with her hand to stop herself from bursting out laughing. The contrast between her bloody drama in Ancient Greece and Tomoko's depressive slime was simply phenomenal.
— "Perfect, Tomoko. I can already see it - the terror of the Multiverse,"— Shiro squeezed out through suppressed laughter.
— "Okay, time to look at my reward. I bet my loli vampire will look way more epic! System, open the Chat Group interface!"
She rubbed her hands in anticipation. The air in front of her shuddered, and a wide holographic panel unfolded, looking like an advanced messenger. Shiro was already imagining writing the first message to Krul to calm her down after the sudden disappearance.
But the panel was empty.
No member list. No chat logs. No avatars. Just a single system notification blinking a dull red in the very center of the screen:
[Moderator Lists:] [Slot 1 — Krul Tepes (Temporarily unavailable)]
The smile slowly but surely slipped from Shiro's face. She stared at the inscription, not believing her eyes.
— "What do you mean... 'unavailable'?" — she uttered quietly, with a growing threat.
— "Hey! System! I paid for her with blood! I got a hole in my shoulder! Why the hell is she unavailable?! Did you scam my gacha pull?! Give me my moderator back!"
[SYSTEM: Warning. The Administrator is forbidden from directly interfering with the personality formation of Mythical moderators.]
[The subject requires a prolonged mental adaptation in their timeline.]
[SYSTEM: Please await unlocking. Reminder: Initialization Gacha summoning results are final and non-refundable. Have a nice day.]
Shiro groaned in defeat, grabbing her head and almost tearing her hair out. It was all for nothing. She had survived a crossbow barrage, drama, and tears, only to return to an empty hall with an absolutely empty chat.
— "Uuuuuhhh..." — Tomoko's depressive slime sighed sympathetically.
— "Shut up" — Shiro grumbled, slumping right onto the floor in her luxurious silk dress.
— "Just ten out of ten, System. A great start."