Legendary Vampire in the Apocalypse
Chapter 23: Before All the Killing ~ 2

Chapter 23: Before All the Killing ~ 2

{ Sobriquet: Blessed of Her for Whom Dragons Rose Singing from the Sea }

{ This title records the great feat of possessing the blessing of a divine entity. You are the chosen saint of Her for Whom dragons Rose Singing from the Sea, hallowed with the highest grade of her blessing. }

’Seriously... to think the gods are real? What specific goddess related to dragons is it even talking about? This is too broad a description! Would she even be like any of those that are already mentioned in mythologies, or like the gnolls, would she be a Goddess that was made manifest from something that should have been fiction?’

There were so many questions he had only from looking at this, but there was ultimately nothing that he could do to answer them, only helping to worsen his mood.

After all, if said goddess had blessed him, and he was her saint, why not save him and his family?

Leaving him to struggle through the apocalypse didn’t make him feel very blessed, or saintly.

And thus, with nothing to answer his questions, he moved his attention back onto the other descriptions. At the back of his mind, he had assumed that if there was anything about this he could understand, it was in some ways, considering the context of his attributes, perhaps the Titles worked something as they did in games, and they were tied to his attributes.

What he had not expected was to fall wistful and nostalgic at the descriptions.

{ Attribute: Divine Sanctification }

{ When you were returned from the sea, a goddess had bestowed her blessing upon you. You have borne the gifts of her sanctification ever since. }

{ Attribute: Born of the Sea }

{ In childhood, you were inundated by the sea, and its blessing has since remained within you. }

✧✧ ~ ⚜ ~ ✧ φ ✧ ~ ⚜ ~ ✧✧

Ten Years Ago

Had his mother not, by whatever whim, decided to enter a promotional competition after buying rice and cooking oil, the Borealis family could not have afforded to be on this cruise. And while Dion, internally buzzing with everything, didn’t show it on his face, he had understood that at thirteen.

His parents had, on the other hand, been very much more expressive about their excitement.

They had taken him shopping for once, for new clothes—something that had been quite infrequent because they had always bought him a few sizes larger to grow into so they would last.

They spent weeks comparing prices of places, and entering whatever other promotional competitions that they stumbled upon along the way, so long as they demanded an affordable purchase of something that they would have already needed, his father quite diligent on this part as his mother took him shopping.

"Romeo, stop looking at the prices. Just order anything. You look like I did weeks ago."

Dion almost silently snickered to himself hearing that. He barely hid himself by lowering his head, remembering how almost conspiratorial his father had made his mother sound when she had heard the news.

The man had played it cool then, and throughout their preparations, but looking at him now, he could hardly keep his eyes off the prices of things, occasionally checking in with the agent that had been assigned to them for the trip.

When the call came back then, his mother had hung up thrice, convinced someone was trying to scam her.

And then the fourth time, she had reported the number and blocked them.

Only after the company sent the official documents had she believed they had actually won.

Dion’s father sat beside him in the dining hall, staring at the card listing the meals, and the price tags attached to them. He had his wallet in his pocket, his card filled with money that he had secretly withdrawn from an emergency fund that he kept for them.

Their trip was an all-expenses-paid one, but even with such great allowance, he wasn’t intent on leaving them without their own means.

"I’m looking at the ingredients, Hera."

His mother scoffed, and Dion hid his laugh behind his juice.

They teased his father even after they heard him call up the agent, asking if he would have anything as well. These sly methods didn’t escape them.

Thereafter, the family ordered, and they ate with a humming fluffiness between them.

When they were finally leaving the dining area, Dion had caught his father slipping along with them, wrapped bread rolls because, free or not, he refused to waste food.

Dion had rushed back to their table to sneak his own after that.

By afternoon, fuelled to full by food, Dion had spent more time on the outer deck than in their cabin, staring out into the nothing that seemed so vast and full to him even when he could not see anything beneath it.

The sea seemed endless, dark blue and tinted silver beneath the clouded sun. He leaned against the railing while the wind pulled through his hair, and every few minutes his mother called for him to stop leaning so far over.

"You hear me, Dion?"

"I’m not even leaning!" He lied through his teeth, his eyes shimmering as he looked down into the water at something that he hadn’t been able to identify, looking like a type of shark.

Land animals weren’t his thing, and he hated those stinky biology classes whenever he had to learn about them instead of the ones in the ocean. They were spooky, and the dog bite on his leg still hurt whenever he had thought about it, even though it had healed four years ago, and amongst them were things like rats. Urgh! He hated rats!

Fortunately enough, he had grown skilled at killing them.

His father came beside her, looking toward the darkening sky as the wind brushed against them.

"Listen to your mother before the wind takes you and they charge us for losing a passenger."

Dion turned, his expression falling flat as his mother laughed.

Then, without the slightest warning, the ship lurched. From his mother’s eyes to his father’s, he watched them through his own widened eyes as shock overtook them. His father had lunged forward to catch him, the first amongst them to react.

"Dion!"

The laughter was smothered under the grinding thunder travelling through the lower deck and up to them. Whatever the ship had bumped into had not been small at all, perhaps a whale, he had thought.

His father hadn’t been able to catch him in time.

Dion’s shoulder struck the railing as people stumbled, their belongings, as well as others beside them, falling over, tumbling amongst each other as they screamed, grabbing for the nearest holds that they could see.

The vessel lurched again, much harsher this time, and bodies crashed into one another. He had been screaming just as everyone else had, and he hadn’t been able to gather himself when people were thrown in his direction, swarming him as they were all thrown by the ship.

Dion, in his screaming blur, saw his mother and father reaching for him through the crowd before a wave broke over the side.

The water struck with such violence that this time he hadn’t been afforded the grace of tumbling around or being squashed amongst the pool of others that had been trying to grab on for their lives. Dion lost his footing, and he was thrown high and far off the railings.