Legendary Vampire in the Apocalypse
Chapter 31: His Vassal ~ 2

Chapter 31: His Vassal ~ 2

Ahead of her, a group of five people broke through the large glass panel of the restaurant down the path that she had been walking through, some lingering cold mist in her wake.

Two of them had fallen—the two that had been ahead—breaking through the glass. One of them was a one a male, and the other a female, and in their rise they had both shouted different commands to each other and the other people who were following them:

"I don’t have any more mana to use, Felix!"

"Edna, we won’t get out of here without killing them!"

They had scurried to their feet, the group rushing up after them, screaming. One of the men had thrown a chair against a zombie close to them, hardly any distance between them all.

Having fallen, Edna and Felix were the most in danger. Edna especially, because from a glance, Anastasia could see that she was suffering the effects of mana deprivation, struggling to stand on her own, thick beads of sweat falling down her face and her brows creased with her throbbing head. She likely could hardly see as well.

A zombie had lunged specifically for Edna first, her eyes snapping wide as she tried to retreat; then she suddenly pulled for Felix beside her and threw him into its path.

Felix had been too stunned to speak in the immediate moment, and the only sound that he then made was his blood-gurgling, broken scream as the tainted tore through his neck with its widened maw.

The other three had been too occupied defending themselves to see what she had done.

Suddenly, they were all halted in their motions as several ice spears skewered through the heads of the attacking tainted, as well as that of Felix, who had yet to transform.

"Oh, thank god!"

"She awakened as well..."

They all showed varying degrees of surprise at her appearance. Edna had, however, had her eyes then wildly flickered between Felix’s corpse and her. Even suffering from mana deprivation, the need to survive had allowed her to maintain some sense of faculty about herself.

Only once she had seen Anastasia’s attention entirely disregard her for more than the briefest moment did she relax as the rest did.

The group of them then hurried towards her, where she had stopped, while she at the same time drew back in the ice that she had crafted to restore some portion of what she had used.

"Thank you so much," the words spilled from the mouth of the grown woman that had come before her first. "We might have all died without you, even if we made it away from here."

Briefly, the others who had approached had glanced at the path behind her where there were corpses of some other zombies littered across the road, with all of their heads broken through. Their eyes filled with wonder, and their relief only strengthened.

Most of the people that were there were grown and mature, except for the one called Edna; she was younger, as was Felix.

"We should get out of here before more of them gather, find a place to hole up." One of the older men was somewhat greyed in his hair.

The other was younger, though still mature, and he was the tallest of them. His eyes had drifted down her figure, then lingered on her majesty.

Only moments later did he bring his gaze back up to her face before he had spoken, "How is your mana holding up? Killing so many of them at once should have drained you a lot. I can carry him for you while we move."

"...Thank you..." Edna had walked up, still gasping for breath as she wandered over, clutching her head.

This whole time, in those several moments of them speaking, for the most part Anastasia’s gaze had remained over the first woman that had spoken to her.

"There is no need for that. I will carry him myself."

"Ah... alrigh—"

"Let’s go, now!"

Suddenly, the sound of a door smashing open had resounded, and the woman had screamed as her hand snapped to rise, pointing to their backs, somewhat diagonal of them.

"More of them are coming!"

Thereupon, without her having glanced back, two ice spears skewered through the head of the zombies that had broken out of the building beside the restaurant. A portion of the mana she had used returned to Anastasia within the next moment, and the people, recoiling from their surprise, had gone silent once more.

"Might any of you know where Pemberton Residences on Selwyn Road is? Apartment GY-624."

"I—" Edna had immediately jumped to respond. "I do. I live in that building, as a student."

Then, the more mature woman hurried to say as well, "I’m one of the lecturers living there."

Anastasia’s attention drifted between the two of them. Then she gave the faintest nod, "Very well, then might I trouble you with directing me there?"

The moment that Anastasia had seen them agreeing, the sclera of her eyes rapidly began to blacken. "Thank you all."

"She—"

All of them harshly flinched backwards at the sight; however, they did not have anything longer than a few moments until most of them, but a single one, froze where they stood.

Their eyes quivered madly where they stood. The tallest man had tried to raise his hand to attack her, but his hand was stuck mid-rise, and the mature woman—the only one amongst them that could still move—fell to the ground, scurrying herself back and away from Anastasia, towards the back of them where Anastasia had left the zombies in her wake, her expression torn with fear.

A cold, baleful aura had begun to ooze out of her; then her mouth parted slightly. The two men could not speak in the slightest; meanwhile, Edna could barely manage desperate whimpers. And then Anastasia drew in a long breath.

Within the next several moments, translucent bodies began to rip free from the three people.

Their ethereal souls wailed incoherent desperations inaudible to the common ear as she pulled them free of their physical bodies, sucking them into her mouth.

One was particularly more emotive than the others, the one of Edna, the awakened.

The bodies collapsed lifelessly as the faint sound of her gulping came. Anastasia felt her body fill with a rush, and her mana immediately began to regenerate, largely supplemented by Edna’s soul in comparison to the others.

’My... she possessed quite the soul,’ The thought flitted through Anastasia’s mind.

And in that same thought, her satisfaction grew because of her own recovered mana; through her connection with her lord, she could feel the ease of her draining on his mana.

"Woman, did you not say you would guide me? Why are you running?"

When Anastasia had spoken, the lecturer had only just pulled herself to her feet. She was moments from escaping when Anastasia had turned, her brows furrowed with dissatisfaction.

The crackle of ice resounded, and the woman’s legs had been frozen in place as she had turned, fearing that she might get speared in the back, her arms raised to defend herself.

"Why am I running?! You killed them! We’ve done nothing to you, and you killed them! You’re a monster like the rest of them! You’re evil!"

"Evil?" Anastasia’s brows only furrowed deeper at the woman’s nonsense. "You consider me feeding myself evil?"

The clicking footfalls of Anastasia’s heels throbbed through the ice that encased her legs, until the devil had brought itself before her.

She had not noticed when tears had begun to spill from her eyes, staring into the inhuman blackness of Anastasia’s sclera.

In the brief silence between them that lingered, the world’s chaos disturbing it, the darkness receded from her eyes, and the furrow between her brows deepened.

"I will only ask once more. Will you guide me to where I need to go, or must I relieve myself of you and find someone else?"

The woman shivered where she had been held in ice, her breath caught in her throat. Then, she muttered in a weak whimper, "I’ll take you, just please... don’t kill me."

"What is your name?"

"...Xaviera."

Anastasia nodded faintly and gave the faintest of bows. "Then, Xaviera, you may address me as Vasilisa."

The ice that had encased her feet dissolved, returning to Anastasia’s body some slight part of the mana it had used.

"And I have no intention of killing one who would help me."

Then Xaviera immediately began leading the way.

They then made their way through the streets of the city, but they did so without hurrying. Anastasia kept them at a measured, gentle pace that constantly worried the woman.

She had, through their journey, already been seriously overwhelmed by the anxiety of worrying for her life the whole way, glancing incessantly behind herself towards Anastasia. Her eyes would often then bounce down to her slumbering majesty, then she would look back ahead.