The Valtler Line Prologue (Patreon)

That stench. The stench filled the man’s nostrils as he stepped into the church that he was here to ruin. The scent of blood was easy to pick apart from the smell of flames and fire from the small city around him. It was a smell that he knew well from all the people he had sucked dry over the decades. “Come now, Sister… You know that having someone like me… One of your Lord’s “unholy creatures”, step into a church burns us if we don’t leave.”

The Sister covered her mouth as she could feel her own warm blood dripping down her neck. She didn’t know just what had gotten or, whether it was just a scrape that had managed to break the skin or if something had gotten to her without her noticing. All she knew was that she wasn’t safe behind this pue and she had nowhere to go. The only few rooms that she could hide in were behind the man she could hear stepping along the wooden floor.

“You know-- You really are just being quite the fucking bother, Sister. You can’t even have the decently to come out and let me kill you!” With every step he took, the scent of blood was only growing stronger. She was close. All he had to do was keep talking until he found her. “I hope you realize that it won’t be long until I find you. Just another few steps and--” He fell silent at the sound of a gasp.

The Sister watched as his red eyes peered over the pue she was hiding behind, meeting her own gaze. Her hand was still clamped down over her mouth but the fear on her face was just as clear as the moonlight that peered into the church.

“Such a pretty blue color in your eyes. Almost reminds me of the night sky.” Stepping his way past the seating, the menace attacking the church allowed the Sister to see the wounds he had earned so far. Burns on his arm, singeing marks on his face and neck. All while a small flame crackled in his hand. “I’ve been thinking--” Once he was fully in the Sister’s field of view, she jumped to her feet from her spot on the ground and dashed away from him. He stopped and watched as she put her back to the farthest wall away from him. “Now that’s just rude. First, you make me enter this house of your lord and slowly burn as a result. And then you run from me?! If I wasn’t already going to kill you….”

She could hear the frustration in his voice as she made her way down the aisles and against the side wall of the church, planting her back to it. The Sister could see the look of anger and disappointment on his face. As well as the fangs in his mouth that were covered in blood. “W-Why would you want to kill me?! I-I haven’t done anything to you! I don’t even know who you-”

“Think about it. I burn because this is a house of your precious Lord. If I kill you, eliminating the believers in the area, this is no longer his house. He will turn a blind eye because there is no one here to praise and worship him.” The flame in the vampire’s hand only grew larger as he spoke. “So, just do me a favor? Sit still and let me kill you!”

In a split second, the Sister’s eyes shut tight as she watched fire spew from the vampire’s hand. All hope had vanished from her mind and heart as the area around her suddenly grew hotter.

All she could see was darkness.

All she could feel was heat. But she didn’t burn.

“Ow! Jeez, I knew that dealing with fire attacks from a vampire would be a pain, but this certainly isn’t what I expected!”

Opening her eyes again, the Sister could see the figure of a man standing in front of her with a sword sheathed onto his back. She could barely recognize the insignia on the sheathing as the fire around her made her eyes water but, she could make out the form of wings on it. “V-Valtler…?”

The flames disappeared from around the Sister and the man standing before her. 

Now that it was gone, she could see a man clearly standing before her. A black cloth hanging over his shoulder and covering his arm, his clothes and skin singeing just like the man that tried to attack her.

“Yeah, it’s me.” There was a kind tone in the man’s voice as he spoke to the Sister, a soft smile coming to his lips as he kept facing forward to the vampire in front of him. “Apologies for entering your House, Lord. I know just how much you dislike unholy creatures like me. But I’m just here to keep my favorite Sister save. If you’ll forgive me, then I’ll be happy to leave.”

A simple moment later, the burns on Valtler’s body and clothes faded away.

Both of the men looked at each other in shock, neither of them having expected a vampire of all creatures to be forgiven by such a pestering Lord.

“Well well… Looks like this will be a bit easier for me than it will for you, won’t it?~” Valtler slowly drew his sword from its sheath as he kept his eyes on the clearly angered man in front of him. “I’ll tell you what. If you want to make this easier on us both, what do you say we just take this outside?”

“As if! I’m going to murder this Sister and take over this church in order to launch our attack!”

Just barely able to react in time, Valtler managed to dodge the flame that came his way. Only for it to start burning the wall above the Sister he was here to protect. Immediately, the cape that hung off his shoulder started to singe away once again. “That can’t be good.” Valtler took a step forward with his blade pointed toward the enemy, almost appearing in front of him in the next. He thrust his sword forward in front of him, watching as it pierced the other vampire’s stomach. Without any hesitation, he turned his body and stabbed through the pue that his enemy was next to. His eyes went wide as he felt the same stabbing sensation travel through his arm, blood starting to mix in with the black of the cloth that hung off his shoulder. “It’s always nice to carry something with a silver tip, but I guess any damage done to the church while I’m around… Is done to me as well.”

The Sister watched as the vampire that had come to attack her fall limp against the very pue she had been sitting in earlier in the day before the sun was up. She didn’t know what to say, couldn’t find the words to express her gratitude to Valtler for saving her, and couldn’t think of how to even approach a vampire to say something as simple as ‘thanks’. “V-Valtler… Where have you been…?”

“The same place he has. Something is happening and I wanted to make sure you were okay.” There wasn’t any concern on his face as Valtler turned around to face the Sister he came to save. “But… Since it seems I’m allowed in a church again, even if it’s just this one, I’ll be coming back around far more often.”