The dragon's harem

The entire room was dark, even darker than anyone could’ve ever expected. Ginger looked at her torn finger for a second, and then regenerated it. Capsella on the other hand approached the door and tried to look inside. ”What’s this?”

Ginger shook her head in dejection. ”Anti-life and anti-unlife magic. This isn’t darkness, but pure magic running and consuming everything it touches. But that isn’t where it ends. It works similarly to a barrier that only allows those that Father approved of to pass.” She looked at her. ”Now that he is dead, no one gets approved.”

”Then how are we supposed to get past this?” Capsella reached into the darkness with her hand, and like what happened to Ginger, her fingers were erased. ”Strange... It’s not like this magic is directly erasing our flesh or tearing it apart. It felt like... it got vaporized from the inside.”

She then turned toward Ginger. ”Is it based on Blood Magic?”

”Yes, that was Father’s whole thing. I bet that someone like Eris or Arad could walk right through it, but not us. I consider myself powerful, but not at the level to resist the will of a Blood Lord.”

Capsella smiled from ear to ear as her hair started standing up, and her nails burned with pink light. ”Oh... only a Blood Lord can walk through it?” She closed her eyes, and for a second, it was like nothing had happened.

Her will flew from one link to another, passing by several vampires before making its way back and reaching directly into Eris’s mind. She had made the connection successfully and without Arad jumping in as he did with the paladin, and for that, Capsella found herself standing alone in pure darkness.

She smiled and looked up, seeing a massive, violent, and blindingly bright Neutron star of purple light spinning above her head at horrifying speed. She then looked in front of her and could see a titanic throne, and on that throne, Eris sat. Their size reflected the difference in power between them, and Capsella wasn’t big enough to even reach Eris’s toenails.

Eris’s eyes moved, and when they glanced down at Capsella, she could feel her bones crack as she was forced to kneel.

”I request power and authority to pass through a barrier set by Vlad, the former Blood Lord.” Capsella spoke, and Eris finally replied.

”Request check, target check, Capsella...” Eris’s face started changing; her hair turned blond, and her eyes turned dark. ”Capsella, why not use regular channels? You know we archons handle such calls.”

Capsella smiled. Indeed, this titan wasn’t even Eris, but the priestess she recently turned into an archon. The power gap itself was real; this Archon is that much stronger than Capsella... so Eris should be even more horrifying.

”I didn’t want to bother her Lordship. This isn’t a subject that should require her attention.” As Capsella replied, the archon shook her head. ”I don’t care about what you think. Eris’s orders are absolute. She ordered us to forward any personal request directly to her, so this is what I’ll do.”

The archon disappeared, and the throne was left empty for a second. Capsella gulped, waited, and then she felt it: a foot resting on her head. Eris was behind her, but she didn’t dare turn around.

”So Vlad left a barrier at that tomb? You want my power to get through it?” Eris asked, and Capsella replied in a shaky voice. ”It’s as you say; the barrier is a pit of darkness that only allows vampires approved by him to pass.”

Eris started putting more of her weight on Capsella’s head. ”You know I’m not a Blood Lord. As powerful as I am as a Vampire, I still fall beneath Arad. Yet, you came to me with a request that I might not be able to fulfill. Do you have any excuse?”

”Sadly, I do. We must get past the darkness to retrieve the mask Sir Alcott needs. Your Lordship is our best option.”

After a few seconds of silence, Eris sighed. ”Fine, let’s give it a try. But I won’t just give blood magic, but divine magic as well. That should make it easier.” She then sighed. ”Any other request?”

”I wanted to ask... why are you stepping on my head? Barefoot at that.” As Capsella asked, Eris giggled. ”Am I now? I’m just forwarding my thoughts. Whatever you’re experiencing is generated from your own thoughts.”

Capsella closed her eyes for a second and imagined Eris standing in front of her. When she opened her eyes, she could only see Eris extending her foot toward her for a fraction of a second before the call ended.

As Capsella opened her eyes again inside the tomb, she growled. ”Damn it! She cut the call...”

”Did Eris refuse to help?” Ginger asked with a worried face, and Capsella quickly shook her head. ”No, not that... It’s something else...”

The Vampire Paladins and nuns all started at Capsella with disappointed faces as they knew how Capsella though of Eris and how much she wanted to get punished by her. So they could easily figure out that she tried something rude or indecent and got blocked for it.

Capsella lifted her hand, and a tiny purple sun the size of a grape emerged between her fingers. As the purple sun illuminated the entire place like a light bulb, the darkness could be seen receding in fear of the divine light.

”Let’s go; Eris’s light shall protect us. Stay close, and don’t stray.” As Capsella walked forward, everyone followed her closely. When they were all inside the darkness, they could clearly see a line where their bubble of safety ended, and seeing the tiny sun spinning and roiling, everyone knew that they were running on a timer.

The limit wasn’t Eris, but Capsella herself, and how much power she could pull, and for how long. As they walked deeper and deeper into the darkness, Capsella eventually asked. ”We’ve been walking for a whole minute... where is the end of this room?”

”We should’ve already reached it...” Ginger looked around with a worried face. Only darkness surrounded them from all directions. ”This is strange.”

”Strange or not, I won’t be able to maintain this purple sun for long. We should make a run back to safety. We can’t risk staying here.”

Ginger had to think about it for a second, but then one of the nuns called. ”Hey, didn’t anyone see that?”

”See what?” a paladin replied to her, and she pointed at the darkness. ”For a moment, I thought that I saw two red eyes there.”