Legendary Vampire in the Apocalypse
Chapter 35: Who Am I To You?

Chapter 35: Who Am I To You?

Anastasia had not had many thoughts once she had heard him call for her with that name. Her legs had carried her forwards before she could think anything of it beyond what she felt.

The last thing that she had expected though, was what she had heard, and how it overwhelmed her as without thought her arms had returned his embrace delicately

"I understand you made the decision for my sake, and it was too much to ask of you when I knew what happened to him. I will learn to handle the heightened emotions that have come with my transformation better, all I ask is for your patience."

As Dion’s arms eased off of her, Anastasia retreated a few shaky steps backwards, the cold of her ability flowing through her body to hide her flush.

"My Lord, you need not apologise, it was my own fault. Had I not underestimated his importance to you, I should have thought of a different way to fulfil your wish while preserving the sanctity of your renascence."

Anastasia’s head briefly hung, and her voice fell a little lower, "It is as you said, I.. My greatest failure as your attendant has been my absence from your side for so long. By consequence of this... I no longer understand what you have come to value over time."

Dion shook his head faintly, and he glanced away from her for a moment, to the destruction that he had caused.

The bedroom could hardly be called what it should have been anymore.

He then glanced back to her, and he raised his hand.

Anastasia’s gaze rose as she felt him rub his palm over her head, saying to her, "It’s fine. You came when it was most important, to save my life."

When his hand fell from her head, she had to hold herself back from stopping him.

And in that moment of her hesitation, he had walked past her, deeper into the bedroom.

"Then, please, my lord," the words rushed free from her, having him turn back to where the mist that had gathered in the bathroom began to spill from the door into the room, "allow me to renew my pledge of fealty."

Without pause, Anastasia had drawn her bearing into solemnity.

"I, Vasilisa Yusupova, who you welcomed into your sanctuary and salvaged from ruin, offer once more my undying loyalty to Lord Asmodeus, venerable Emperor of Babylon. As First Sanclair, I pledge that those who bear that name shall remain your shield and the sacred blade of your judgement.

So long as a sliver of my crown’s soul remains, no fear, force, plague, death, dismemberment, distance, torment or catastrophe shall turn me from your side. Henceforth, it will be my conviction to learn better how I must aid you."

Dion had remained silent through it his expression remaining solemn.

"Anastasia, what sort of individual am I to you?" Her head rose as he spoke, "And I am not asking about my titles, but your perception of me."

"...You are the singular being before whom I find submission neither humiliating nor burdensome, who I rather consider it the greatest privilege of my baneful existence to serve. And thus, the man who commands both my reverence and deepest affection. There is none other whose will I would permit to stand above my own. "

"Wonderful," he said, though there was little vanity in his voice. "Then do not say you will aide me and think you should keep proprietary distance, Anastasia. You are my vassal and assistant, not my servant."

Dion turned and he walked himself out of the room, leaving her behind with those words.

Throughout everything, his internal expression had only fallen more wry from feeling increasingly as if he had somehow stumbled into the coronation of a man far greater than himself.

*’And that name...’

Dion had only called his in game character Asmodeus because it should have been precisely that: a game.

Who didn’t use names that they would never all themselves in real life in games?

Now, he had to live with the strangeness of having it attached with his new status.

’Not to mention, reverence? And affection?’

For a moment, at that thought, perhaps because he had been in such an indulgent mood, the cravings of his desires being awakened, but he immediately wondered about the depths of her affection.

’Anastasia wouldn’t use the terms lightly...’

Dion felt himself faintly swallow, both in slight trepidation, and at whatever strange, powerful well that had begun stirring in him as he thought more about her oath, and opinion of him.

The sensation withing himself felt dark and ferocious, to the ends of where he had to deliberately control his blood to ease its increasing rush.

In the game, as much as his sandbox had mainly been the Hanging Garden of Babylon, it was not as if he had nothing to do but watch over the garden at all times.

An emperor needed vassals, and thus, there had been optional quests that he could take, which were whole events centred around the recruitment of them.

The only way to successfully recruit a vassal was through a perfect completion, exploring every sub-quest, dialogue choice, and quite literally combing through every nook and cranny associated with the event and thus by extension, everything tied to the main character of it, the potential vassal.

In the four years since he had been playing he had only managed to do this for, not including her, six others.

To spend an average of at least 7 months going through a single event for those characters, it was only natural that he had bonded with them all.

But that had been with them as game characters, and after what she had just done, understanding what kind of feeling was burning within him, it was almost disorienting how easily what he had become had begun erasing the line between his consideration of her, by extension, them, as mere NPC’s.

’...Does being a vampire come with being possessive?’

Herein, Dion had brought his attention to what had awakened within himself, different from his feeling from the others.

For whatever reason, there was some different sort of bond between him and Anastasia that he could feel. It was a strong, and pulling bond that dried his throat. He could almost taste her heart in his mouth.

’How am I hungry again? The gnoll blood might not have been the best tasting, but I’m sure it had filled me more than enough...’

If his ravenous appetite continued like this... really, it would be a problem.

Meanwhile, Anastasia’s eyes had gradually widened as he had spoken, and she could no longer mask her expression.

A smile flowered on her expression, her eyelids lowering into a tenderness so rare. She gradually rose to her feet, and indulged herself in the sensation of a heart beating within her chest.

Her legs carried her after him, her eyes patiently scanning over his back as she brought herself to his side once they had returned to the living room.

"My lord, I will excuse myself to kill the zombies. I will only be gone shortly."

Anastasia had stopped before the door as she said that, waiting for his response.

Meanwhile, Dion had walked ahead, his legs taking him down into the kitchen area that had only been loosely separated from the living room.

"Leave them alone for now. If they come, then we can deal with them. I had only told you to do it because I was upset."

"What of the person with the... gun?"

With him having said so, she carried herself back into the room, after him.

However, she didn’t go directly where he had been heading.

Dion had faintly laughed to himself briefly then. Her pronunciation of it had been amusingly off.

"If they are still in the building, they aren’t going anywhere tonight. Humans can’t see in the dark as well as we do, and since he used a gun, he might not be awakened at all, so his means are limited to ammunition. The person wouldn’t rashly leave the safety of their apartment now if they haven’t done so already. There is more than enough time to find them later."

Dion had immediately brought himself before the rack of alcohols that the family kept lined in a column against the wall, between shelves.

He smiled faintly at the sight of them.

’After everything, I’ll need a drink before I go back out there. I wonder how it’ll affect me considering I’m a vampire now. Would I still get drunk?’

His hands had reached up for them, the glass faintly clattering against each other.

At the same time that he was doing this, the crackle of ice resounded from behind him.

Dion took three bottles from there with him and turned to see Anastasia freezing over the last zombie corpse in the room and reducing it into flakes of ice that dispersed into the air.

"More than anything, there are questions I have for you, and things that should be clarified."