Vae victis an apocalypse.., p.1
Vae Victis: An Apocalypse LitRPG, page 1
VAE
VICTIS
BOOK I
Ivan Kal
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission from Podium Publishing.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2024 by Ivan Kalinovic
Cover design by Antti Hakosaari
ISBN: 978-1-0394-5547-4
Published in 2024 by Podium Publishing
www.podiumaudio.com
Contents
My Last Day
The Beginning
The First Day
The Ruin
The Rift
Unit
Not Out of the Woods Yet
Carving
Boss Battle?
Loot
What Now?
Skills
Discovery
The Vision
Interlude: The Burning in the Stormlands
Task
The Meeting
A Whole New World
A New Day
We’re Fucked
The First Hunt
Shelter
The Second Hunt
Revelations
Future
Bond
Woe
Interlude: The Terror in the Stormlands
Through the Jungle
The Ambush
The Taste of Death
Invoker
Adult
The Blood Dance
The Connections That We Forge
Moments and Tears of the Stormlands
A New Dawn
About the Author
My Last Day
The barrio was lively, even at this time of night. I could hear the music blasting from wireless speakers on tables where people played cards, the kids laughing on the steps of their homes or just on the street, playing on their phones. The elderly sat on benches, gossiping as always. An old, grandmotherly woman glanced in my direction, then nudged the woman next to her and pointed. A man wearing an expensive suit in this part of the town without showing fear stood out. But perhaps more than the suited man, I was the one who caught their eyes. I saw them looking at me, a woman in her late twenties, wearing tight black pants and a tank top with a short vest over it. I was used to the looks, but soon enough their eyes moved from the more obvious targets of their gaze to notice the knife and gun holstered on my hips.
Then, they paused. I could almost predict the way they thought about it for a second and paid closer attention. Next, they would see the way I walked and realize that something was different about how my body moved. From there, it wouldn’t take long for them to register what I was. I saw the moment it dawned on the first person, who whispered something in a tone that carried. And then the streets emptied, people started walking back into their homes or nearby shops hurriedly. Windows were closed, and shutters dropped. It was all familiar to me. People tended to stay out of the business of the cartels. Especially here, in the place that was considered neutral ground. I saw and heard them phoning their friends, warning them not to come around. I followed after the cartel’s envoy, Pablo, keeping my eyes and ears open for any threats. I saw more deeply in the dark and heard better than any human could. After all, I was a vampire.
We reached the meeting place, a small, abandoned warehouse at the edge of the block. They were waiting for us already, six of them, and an additional two in the other room whose heartbeats I could hear. Four of the ones in front of us were human, I could smell the sweat on them. Three wore combat gear, and held their hands on the butts of the holstered pistols on their hips. The fourth wore a suit, and was probably a big shot of some kind, I didn’t know him. I didn’t deal much with other cartels. The two people in the other room were also human based on their heart rates. The fifth in front of us had the scent of the forest and wild things—a wolf. The last one had no scent at all, which told me that he was a vampire, not like I could miss it anyway. He was tall and had pale skin, but it was his eyes that betrayed him. His pupil was cracked, and pale blue was leaking into his brown iris, sending spirals of it that painted his eyes in a chaotic spiderweb pattern. It was a mark of an Adult vampire. Suddenly, I felt a lot more unsure. I couldn’t match an Adult. I was still a Fledgling vampire, turned barely five years ago. He would be much stronger than I was.
This was not supposed to be a serious meeting, which was why I was sent. The envoy paused a moment after me, once he had a moment to take them in.
“Hernando,” he said, slowly. “I wasn’t aware that this was that kind of a meeting.”
“Pablo, Pablo,” the one dressed in a suit, Hernando, said as he shook his head. “We have a lot to talk about, hermano.”
Pablo frowned, then glanced at me. I saw fear in his eyes, which in turn frightened me. Pablo was one of the cartel’s best fixers. He had talked us out of trouble more times than I could count. He dealt with issues with words and deals. It was why the Master sent him to deal with other cartels. I wasn’t even supposed to be needed. If he was afraid, then we really had a problem.
I took a step to the side, making some room between us. Both the vampire and the wolf noticed. They smiled at me.
The man in the suit called out. “Bring her!”
The doors behind them opened, and a human walked in, dragging in a kid. Her hands were bound with a white rope, a gag placed in her mouth. Her pink hair tie with a small embroidered cartoon cat on it was loose, her black hair falling down the side of her face. She couldn’t be older than thirteen. Through her hair, I could see multiple bruises on her face. The man dropped her in front of us. I looked in the child’s teary eyes and recognized her then: she was the daughter of one of the storekeepers in the barrio owned by the cartel. I saw her often doing homework behind the desk at night, after school, when I came in to buy something.
“What is the meaning of this?” Pablo asked.
Hernando smiled. “You don’t clean up after yourself, my friend. Remember the drop last week? Well one of our shifters found a scent. We were observed; you know the rules,” he said and pulled out his pistol, then offered it to Pablo.
I felt my heart sink. The girl tried to rise and started thrashing, her screams muffled by the rag in her mouth. The man’s grip was too strong. He drove her to the ground on her knees as Pablo took the pistol almost absent-mindedly. His eyes were wide, looking at the young girl. Pablo was a hard man. You had to be when you lived this life, but there were things that only the blackest of hearts were able to do without flinching.
“She is one of ours,” Pablo said, raising his head to look at Hernando. “She won’t speak.”
I tensed. The vampire and the wolf were watching me. Hernando shook his head. “That’s not how this works, you know that. You either shoot her, or we shoot you all.”
It was a power play, simple as that. They had been pushing into our territory, slowly trying to force us to give up ground. This was just another brutish attempt at costing us something. Immediately, my right hand started moving closer to my pistol and the other to my Ka-Bar on my left hip.
“Cálmate, niña,” the vampire said, his tone low and even, freezing me in place. The wolf next to him growled.
“This isn’t necessary,” Pablo said slowly, taking a step back. “You have my word.”
“A word isn’t enough,” Hernando said with a mock sadness on his face.
“I’ve never broken trust, you know this,” Pablo added. “Give the girl to me, and I’ll make sure that she disappears.”
Hernando tsked. “This is the issue with you people, you are too soft. Your Master doesn’t deserve his position.” He waved his hand, and faster than a blink of an eye, the vampire pulled his gun and fired. The girl’s blood splattered all over Pablo, a few stray drops hitting me. I looked down at the girl, dead at our feet. I froze in shock.
“If you had paid more attention and secured the area, this wouldn’t have happened.” Hernando was speaking, but I barely heard him. All I saw was red blood spilling over the concrete. The thirst swelled inside of me, not at the sight and scent of blood, but in rage. We were meant to be hunters, we stalked and killed after a good hunt. This was not a hunt. My sire taught me that we were the ones who were supposed to master our nature, that to kill indiscriminately was to fail. I knew that the cartel was not filled with good people, that my Master wasn’t a good person. But we at least had lines we didn’t cross. We didn’t rule through fear. My sire is a good man, I thought, and he follows the Master. It was the only thing that I had ever known. They had killed someone under our rule.
I remembered the little girl asking me questions, smiling up at me. She had known what I was, and had talked to me anyway.
“Marianna.” A voice stabbed through my anger. I turned, looking at Pablo as he reached to touch my hand. “Calm down, let’s go, we need to get out of here.”
I pulled my emotions back, my rage and anger at what they had done, and nodded curtly at him. He was my superior, I followed him. Not that I could do much against them. I stepped to the side, turning around, when the vampire spoke.
“That’s it, little bitch, run away to your Master now,” he mocked. “Time is up fo
The wolf laughed.
Endeavor to never start anything. I heard the voice of my sire in my mind, one of his many lessons. But if you have to, if your hand is forced, or matters of honor demand it. Then end it quick; we do not play with our prey.
They killed a little girl. I snapped.
I moved as fast as I possibly could, a hand reaching down and pulling my knife out in a practiced and flawless motion, the other pulling out my pistol. I stabbed, as fast and as precise as my sire taught me.
End it quick, his words echoed. And I knew that I had to—an Adult was stronger than me. My steel found flesh, but instead of stabbing into the neck, it pushed through the shoulder. The vampire moved, but not fast enough to fully dodge. In the back of my mind I knew that was strange, but I didn’t have the time to think about it.
“The fuck!” I heard him whisper with wide eyes filled with bright blue cobwebs. One of his hands held my right one, twisting my gun away from his face; the other held my left, preventing the knife from sinking deeper. His gun clattered to the ground as he blocked my attacks.
I saw the confusion in his face, and I snarled at him, a wordless cry filled with my anger. It made him take a step back, and I followed.
I heard shouting, heard guns sliding out of the holsters.
We are vampires, human concerns are not ours. My sire’s voice tempered my old human instincts. I didn’t move to avoid them as they took aim. Analyze, pick the shortest path between you and victory.
The humans were in the company of a wolf and a vampire. They wouldn’t be carrying silver. The wolf charged. I glanced in his direction and saw his eyes turn yellow, claws growing out of his fingertips. I relaxed my right hand which made the vampire’s grip push it toward me. With the extra room I twisted as my sire taught me and aimed my gun to the side.
I fired three bullets in the span of a second as the wolf got close, two in the chest, passing through him, the small caliber doing little to halt his momentum. The last one was meant for his head, but he twisted and jumped to the side, and the bullet lodged in his neck instead. He tumbled to the ground past me. It wouldn’t stop him for long. The humans fired, bullets ripping through my side and back. I twisted my head, presenting the smallest profile and ignored them.
I heaved and kicked the vampire, sending him flying back and forcing him to release his grip on me. As he flew, I turned and jumped on the wolf, who grunted as bones cracked and shifted, as he tried to take his wolf form. Fur rippled through the skin in a wet display of skin tearing apart and thick hide growing from beneath the layer. My Ka-Bar came down on his neck, severing the spine and ending him before he could become a threat. I twisted and cut out, half decapitating him. Blood sprayed over me, drenching me in his death.
Blood pumped through my veins, the thirst pulsed in my mind.
One of the humans looked at me and went white, then tried to run. I jumped on the humans, bullets striking me all the while, yet doing nothing to stop me. A cut to the side, and my knife passed through one’s throat, sending a spray of blood high in the air. I twisted evading the shots at my head, and fired my own gun at two more. My aim was true, and the bullets lodged in their chest and head each. I ran around them as they fell, faster than a human could follow, using them as cover to reach the fourth one. Him I kicked in the knee, shattering it, before I rammed my knife through his temple. The one who tried to run had just reached the doors when I fired a bullet through his head. My ammo spent, I dropped the gun and whirled just in time to meet the vampire.
He swiped at me, and I dodged to the side, not fast enough though. His nails ripped through my shirt and shredded my shoulder. He was enraged, and he continued to attack. I dodged again, evading as much as I could. He was faster and stronger than me, I could tell, but … not as much as I had feared. I had never faced an Adult vampire before, but he wasn’t anywhere as strong as my sire. Not that that comparison was a fair one.
I saw an opening, then I lashed out with my Ka-Bar. He dodged to the side, then snapped a swipe at my head. I jumped back, but he caught my hair, then wrenched me back. His other hand punched forward with his fingers extended. His clawlike nails stabbed into my stomach, burrowing deep. With a flick he threw me aside, and I hit the ground rolling, blood flowing from my stomach. If I still had a human digestive system, I would’ve been in deep trouble. The bullet wounds had already closed, and I felt my stomach start to do the same. But the pain was shock enough.
He started walking my way.
“Bitch,” he yelled my way, passing by the body of the girl. He grimaced at it, then kicked it aside. My rage boiled inside of me, the thirst consumed me. I pushed myself from the ground and ran at him snarling. I saw red: there was only him and me left in the world. My left hand, still gripping my knife, moved with the precision of my sire’s teachings.
He blocked my first swipe with his forearm against mine. I kicked at his knee, forcing him off balance. My other hand stabbed forward, an imitation of his attack against me. Off balance, he tried to block, but only managed to move my hand lower. Instead of his heart, I punched through just below his ribs. I lifted him up then moved to stab with my knife. He grabbed my attack by putting his palm in the way, letting the knife pierce it, then grabbed hold of my fist in an iron grip. His other hand came down on my other, trying to pull it out of his stomach.
With all the rage in my body, I pushed, bringing my knife closer, while my fingers in his body grabbed onto the bone of a rib and held firm.
“No, no,” he whispered as my knife came closer to his head. “How?”
I didn’t know myself. I pushed, snarling in his face, unable to talk for the anger.
He turned his head, tried to shy away, but my knife caught him. Slowly it slid into his eye, wide with disbelief, pushing deeper and deeper until it sank into his brain. I felt his body grow slack and my hands go free. In one smooth move I ripped my hand out of his body and caught his shoulder with one hand and his head with the other.
Then I twisted and pulled, roaring at the top of my lungs as I tore his head off. It snapped from his body and flew across the room. Thick blood pooled up and then spilled out of his body like a thick sludge—there were no sprays of blood for a vampire.
I stood over his body, breathing deeply and quickly, trying to calm down as my wounds closed up and healed. It was at least a minute later when I calmed myself enough to look around at the blood-soaked room. That’s when I noticed Pablo. I rushed over and looked down, seeing the bullet wound in the middle of his forehead.
“Fuck,” I whispered to myself, then closed my eyes and sank to my knees.
It searched across the vast universes beyond its own, Weaving the Source as it pleased, looking always for the answers, for something to help it fulfill its purpose. It had been called many things, Last Intent, Horror of the Ages, Armageddon, God, The Great Mistake, The Grand Spell. Most of those were not even close to the truth. The name it was given on the day it was created was the Systematic Re-structure of Reality. Some had called it the System, the Structure, or just SROR for short. It was birthed as a spell, one made by a person that had touched godhood, whose knowledge and mastery far surpassed that of all others. The System’s purpose was long forgotten, lost with the deaths of all who knew its origin. None of those who now lived under its ever-watchful eye knew the truth. But it never forgot. It still searched for the answers its creator sought; that was the meaning for its existence. It explored, both inward and beyond, seeking, always seeking that elusive answer.
Then, a burst of life, a new reality became known, another world that could be added to the equation. It sent its tendrils in, evaluating and discovering. It found a race, and a curiosity. This race had sub-races within its numbers, but no Source, no connection to the Weave. It was an anomaly. It evaluated, then it calculated. It knew that the Origin World had grown stale, that it had grown accustomed to order and peace. And order bred decline, it brought with it the wanning of knowledge and greatness. The very things that were needed above all others. It decided that it was time for another Great Expansion.
