This story is rated R.
It contains graphic violence.
Reader discretion is advised.

=====

    As Renaku remembers the terrible events he experienced so long ago,
the pain returns. The pain of guilt, guilt for the deaths of so many
innocents. Not just the Fumu and their dark compatriots...Renaku himself
has proven to be both a blessing and a curse for the people of Ventana.
    The pain does not ease. With every year, it grows stronger. So does the
hunger. Renaku breathes in sharply, remembering......

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                Vampire Legend R
 The Fumu Coalition, Chapter 3: Into the Darkness
             Written by Ben Overmyer
--------------------------------------------------


    Clouds covered the sky, hiding the silver face of the moon. A fierce
wind whipped through the valley and tore at Renaku's cloak. Beside him,
her side wrapped in strips of her cloak and red-tinged, was Leandra, her
face a mask. She had been very quiet, ever since Renaku was forced to
reveal his vampiric nature. Not even polite conversation sparked up, and
Leandra now walked behind him or beside him, her tentative trust in him
shattered. 
    It was now, with the fortress of the Fumu before them, that the silence
was broken.
    "From here on in, we will face the greatest danger. The Fumu don't like
having their stronghold attacked, I imagine," Renaku said softly, at the
same time remembering Unoeno's words with a mental shudder. From what they
said...Renaku might actually be welcome among the Fumu.
    To be welcome anywhere was a rarity for Renaku, and to say he wasn't
tempted by the Fumu offer would be lying. Somewhere inside him, the 
vampiric half of his soul was growing stronger. Forcing his mind away
from such dark thoughts, Renaku turned to Leandra.
    "Maybe they won't mind having you there," she said coldly, echoing
his thoughts. He turned away, not wanting to meet her hard gaze. Though
she had swallowed her initial fear...no, terror....of traveling with a
vampire, Leandra acted with the coldness and minimal tolerance that
Renaku had come to accept as the standard human attitude towards him.
Very few people in this world knew of his true nature, but the majority
still regarded him as an oddity that they'd rather not have amongst them.
    The reluctant travelers stared in silence at the twisted building
before them. It was a cruel mockery of a castle, and the very sight of it
was enough to make even the vampire-knight shudder. Four towers, warped
into unnatural curves and overgrown with blood vines, spiraled towards the
sky from each of the fortress's four corners. The walls were made of a 
very dark grey stone, almost black. The gate of the fortress looked like the
maw of some gigantic demon, its raised portcullis giving the impression of
razor-edged fangs. 
    If the fortress itself was forbidding, its inhabitants were nightmares
brought to life. The shadowy Fumu walked or floated everywhere, their flapping
cloaks making them look like wraiths...which they were, in a sense. The Fumu
were not the only creatures there, however - every once in awhile, a lesser demon
would make a brief appearance outside the fortress, and would sometimes spare a
glance towards Renaku and Leandra.
    The pair had given up trying to move stealthily towards the fortress, since
every move they made was seen by at least one dark watcher. They had known this
ever since they left Melegorazi. Both of them could feel the presences. Renaku,
with his supernatural intuition, had even managed to catch one of them...but
it died before it could be questioned. They were raven-like, though somewhat
larger, and radiated evil. There were five in the trees now, watching and
waiting.
    After another few minutes, Renaku began walking. The rain increased in
intensity, and brief flashes of lightning told him that Leandra must be
preparing herself for what was to come. A wizard and a vampire, walking
into the heart of darkness...even for an undead such as Renaku, it seemed
hopeless. Yet, the memories of what the Fumu had done pushed him onward...

=====

    "Greetingssss, my lord," the reptilian demon hissed, its slitted eyes
unblinking and fixed on Renaku. Renaku and Leandra were surrounded by
Fumu, and this eight-foot monstrosity that spoke seemed ready to either
tear them apart or do something even worse.
    The greeting, as it were, shook Renaku far worse than any physical threat
could have done. Fear rose in him...fear that he was, in fact, one of them.
Leandra drew her swords, and Renaku did the same. His blade was burning with
such an intensity that it seemed on fire, and the Fumu actually backed away
a step. The demon, however, did not seem perturbed.
    "My lord?" Renaku asked, and he glanced at Leandra. She had looked at him
with a renewed distrust, and he wanted to assure her that he was not allied
with these creatures of darkness. 
    "You ssstill have not accsssepted that you are one of ussss," the demon
observed, then curled its lipless mouth into a twisted version of a smile.
    "How ironic, that the one desssstined to lead usss is so eager to ssslay
usss."
    At this statement, Renaku screamed a battle-cry and leapt at the demon,
his sword arcing downward in a killing swing. His fear compounded his rage,
adding to his power....and subtracting from his control. The demon easily
avoided his strike, and swiped at him with its long claws, cutting into
his side. Renaku gritted his teeth and spun around, again swinging his
sword, this time with more control. The white-hot blade cut straight
through a Fumu and scratched the demon's hide, causing the reptile to screech
in pain. Renaku's undead senses caught the presence of two Fumu behind him,
and he rolled to the side just in time to avoid their dark blades. He dropped
out of his roll into a Raging Dragon stance, something he had learned from
Aiger Nova. His upraised sword flashed once, twice, three times, and three
more Fumu dropped. The demon charged him, its jaws open and full of razor-sharp
teeth. Renaku dropped to the ground just as the demon reached him and rolled
under it, using his sword to slice open the creature as he did so. It screamed
again and collapsed into a putrescent pool of dark green blood.
    Leandra was holding her own, but for how long? Her sword techniques, Renaku
saw, were not as effective now that she was wounded. She already had a few shallow
cuts from Fumu attacks. Renaku, on the other hand, had drained enough life force
within the past two days to feed a whole clan of vampires for a month, and was
operating at top level. He intercepted a Fumu that was charging Leandra, then
went back into the Raging Dragon stance and bisected another demon. His blade
glowed and drew in the dark essence of the creature, and Renaku's side-wound
healed.
    In that instant, he heard a sound that cut to his soul. It was half a
shriek, half a wail, and entirely inhuman. He looked around wildly, then
identified the source - a trio of banshees, advancing on Leandra. She was
frozen by their eerie cry, and if Renaku did not act NOW, she would not
live another day. Ignoring a pair of Fumu that sliced at him with axes, he
leaped toward Leandra. Renaku's sword flashed, cutting into the crowd of
Fumu that surrounded them. The banshees floated slowly towards them, their
haunting female faces emanating malice. Renaku touched Leandra's forehead
with his blade, hoping....
    It worked. The sword's evil-draining powers shook Leandra from the
banshees' spell. She shook her head, still a bit dazed. The banshees opened
their pale lips, about to wail again...and Renaku drove his sword into the
mouth of the closest. With a soft "pop," the banshee faded into nothingness.
The other two turned to Renaku and directed their wail towards him, to no
avail. Renaku swung his sword in a long arc, cutting through both apparitions.
They vanished like their sister. 
    The fight was over. The few remaining Fumu were standing quite a distance
away from Renaku and Leandra, who had regained her senses and was glaring at
both them and Renaku. Renaku raised his sword and the essences of all those
he had just slain flowed through it into him. Leandra paled but said nothing.
Just then, a hollow, rasping sound arose from the balcony in front of and above
them. Both Renaku and Leandra looked up, and saw a humanoid figure wrapped in
an all-concealing black cloak, typical of the Fumu. The sound was familiar...
then Renaku remembered. Unoeno's laugh.
    "Well done. I expected no less of you, Renaku," the figure said, and leapt
down from the balcony - at least 30 feet. He landed softly on his feet, and
walked towards Renaku, stopping a few feet away from the latter. The voice,
though old and worn, seemed familiar to Renaku...and not just because the
laugh reminded him of Unoeno's.
    "Do I....know you?" he asked the figure, and in response, the figure
pushed his hood back. The face it revealed was an old one, and mostly
human, if you discounted the pale complexion, pointed ears, and long fangs.
A mix of emotions ran through Renaku...chief among them, anger and hate. The
vampire that stood before him was the same one that, 40 years ago, had
transformed him into the creature he was now. 
    "You know me, then. Good. I've been expecting you, Renaku. You're
late," the vampire said, then looked at Leandra. The bloodlust in his
eyes was evident.
    "I see you have brought someone with you...and, I might add, a very
choice someone." Leandra's glare intensified, tempered by fear. She
again glanced at Renaku, who did not even look at her.
    "Creature...you have plagued this world long enough. It is time I
sent you to the netherworld, where you belong," Renaku managed, his voice
on edge. They were alone now, just the three of them. The Fumu had disappeared.
The vampire chuckled.
    "'Creature?' You and I are the same, Renaku. We are brothers. And as
for my death, well, that happened over 189 years ago. I doubt you could
destroy me if you wanted to...even with that accursed blade of yours. You
are young yet, and from what I hear, you have only faced three others of
our kind, all of them younger than you."
    "I know that you, and the Fumu, are creatures of darkness, and hence my
enemies. My enemies do not live long," Renaku retorted, not liking this
conversation at all. He leveled his sword at the vampire, slipping into a
combat stance he himself had invented for fighting vampires - the Dagger
of Light. The vampire smirked.
    "When will you realize that you are a creature of darkness? Evil is
a part of you...I can see your soul, Renaku. The darkness is growing with
every life you take. It is only a matter of time before it completely
envelops you, and you truly become one of us."
    "You're wrong...you HAVE to be," Renaku said quietly, half to himself.
Leandra was definitely getting worried about this turn of events, and
began building up the power churning in the storm overhead. 'Soon,' she
thought, 'just keep him talking a little longer....'
    "Renaku...your destiny is to become the Lord of the Fumu Coalition,
the lord of the five shadow-clans. When darkness wars with darkness, the
deepest shadow is lifted, or else grows to cover the world. With you and
I at its head, the Fumu Coalition would be unstoppable! The only thing
that has ever stood in its way is you."
    At that moment, Renaku struck. He charged forward, swinging in a
diagonal arc at the vampire. The vampire, however, was not there when
the blade should have connected. He had moved faster than even Renaku
could follow, and produced a long black-bladed sword with an iron hilt.
The vampire was still smiling, though, and met each of Renaku's blows
with a counter-strike of his own. His black sword got through Renaku's
guard several times, slicing through cloth and armor and sometimes cutting
flesh. 
    The wind and rain had grown stronger, almost to gale force. The two
combatants had become a whirl of color, moving faster than any human
could possibly move. Small flashes of lightning illuminated the whole
courtyard of the fortress, revealing Fumu warriors who watched the battle
from the shadows. Oddly enough, Leandra remained untouched, and unnoticed.
The focus was on the blazing private war...the war between darkness and
darkness. 'Only one kind of winner could come out of a fight like that,'
Leandra thought. She closed her eyes.

    In a flare of light and power, a bolt of lightning crackled down out
of the sky. It was immense, at least five times larger than any natural
lightning. When it reached halfway to the ground, it splintered into dozens
of smaller bolts, and those into smaller ones. When it finally hit ground,
thousands of branches had grown out of the original. Each of those branches
struck at the shadows, though at least a couple hundred struck at the area
where the vampires were fighting. The death-screams of hundreds of Fumu
echoed through the fortress, and the castle itself began to crack and crumble.
The most devastating damage, however, hit the vampires.
    Renaku swung his sword in a blow intended to disarm his opponent. The other
vampire did the same. The swords met with a ringing clash, locking together for
a brief moment as the combatants struggled for the upper hand. At that moment,
the lightning struck the crossed swords. Magical energy surged through the metal,
and both fighters flew backward in an explosion of power. Both screamed and dropped
their weapons. Smoke concealed the whole courtyard.

    The storm abated immediately. The clouds, wind, and rain had vanished with the
lightning strike. The cold, silver light of the moon shown down on the smokey
courtyard, illuminating hundreds of charred bodies. Leandra walked towards the two
vampires, wondering if she had succeeded in her goal...
    She didn't have a chance. Spent by the magical attack, she didn't sense the
vampire's consciousness until she was directly over him. He grabbed her arm and
stood up, locking her gaze with his own. He was clearly in bad shape, but even
in this state he was far stronger than she was. She screamed shortly, then was
cut off as the vampire sank his fangs into her neck.
    Renaku groaned and slowly stood up. His eyes widened as he saw the vampire's
dark embrace.
    "NO!" he screamed, and grabbed his sword. If he was too late...if too much of
her blood was drained.....
    The vampire broke away from his victim, blood dripping from his fangs. Leandra
collapsed, half-conscious...the last thing she saw before she drifted into blackness
was Renaku's glowing sword thrusting deep into the other vampire's chest.

=====

    Renaku walked away from the ruined fortress, no longer under the surveillance of
the raven-demons. In his arms was the limp form of Leandra. He couldn't tell if enough
of her blood had been drained to kill her, or worse, to turn her into a vampire. He 
bled from dozens of wounds that had been too deep for even his amazing healing powers 
to heal quickly, and he knew that he had to feed his blood-hunger soon, or he would
die.
    He laid Leandra down on a soft carpet of moss at the edge of the forest. Taking out
his blade, he laid it next to her. The last thing he wanted was to have to fight another
vampire so soon....least of all, one that he helped create. Renaku blamed himself for
allowing Leandra to go with him against the Fumu.
    Her eyes fluttered open, and Renaku steeled himself. If she was a vampire....

    Leandra turned her head, and the first thing she saw was Renaku. She was too weak
to defend herself against him....but suddenly, she realized something was different
about him.
    When she was a little girl, she had always been able to tell if a person was good
or bad. As she grew, that ability gradually disappeared. Her master, the storm-wizard
who had taught her to use magic, had commented on it once before it vanished completely.
He had said it was like looking on a person's soul...that such an ability was extremely
rare. 
    She 'saw' Renaku now. Somehow, during their foray into the Fumu fortress, her ability
had once again manifested itself. When she looked at Renaku....she sensed a lightness
that hadn't been there before. The darkness covering his soul...the taint that the vampiric
lord of the Fumu had spoken of...was receding, and almost gone.

    When Renaku saw the look on Leandra's face, he knew she would not become a vampire.
Even if she died from blood loss, she wouldn't. Suddenly, a ferocity rose up within him...
at first, he feared it was his blood-hunger. Then he realized that it was something else.
'She WON'T die,' Renaku thought. He looked around, and noticed his sword. It was glowing.
There was still a life essence trapped within its blade. He could either use it to heal
himself, or heal Leandra. The choice was simple, and Renaku made it in half a second.
    
    When Renaku pointed his sword at her, Leandra thought for a moment that the darkness
had overcome him, and that she had been wrong. Then life began to flow into her from the
sword's blade, and she grew stronger. The puncture wounds on her neck closed up. The sword
had captured the powerful dark essence of the vampire and transmuted it into pure healing
energy. She slowly sat up, then turned to Renaku and smiled. When she did that, she 'saw'
the last trace of the shadow on Renaku's soul vanish. Realization dawned on her...the darkness
hadn't receded. It had been pushed back. Her smile disappeared almost immediately. This
wasn't something she had counted on. 
    "The Fumu..." she began.
    "Are gone. At least, this clan is. There are four others," he replied. 
    "I guess I owe you my thanks for saving me," she said, picking her words carefully.
She had an idea of what had pushed the soul-shadow back, and wasn't really sure what to
do. Renaku smiled, a smile that revealed his fangs. Leandra stared at them, and Renaku
turned away.
    "I'm sorry...I...," he said softly. Leandra got up and walked over to him. She touched
his shoulder.
    "It's OK...it must be hard for you. I mean, living like that," she said. Renaku walked
towards the forest, shaking off her hand.
    "I'll manage. I've done so for 40 years, I can do it for another 40."
    "I know what you're thinking, Renaku. That prophecy was right. The deepest shadow has
been lifted."
    "What do you mean?"
    "Think about it. When you saved me from that vampire, why did you do it?"
    Renaku looked confused. "I had to! Only one of them wouldn't have," he said, then
comprehension took hold. 
    "That's it, isn't it. Because I'm not limited to hate, anger, and fear."
    Leandra nodded.
    "You know, you're not such a bad guy, for a vampire," she said. "Maybe we'll meet
again some day."
    Renaku looked sad for a brief moment, then covered it immediately. He nodded and
smiled again, this time being careful not to show his fangs. He looked up at the sky.
    "Dawn is coming soon...I'll have to find someplace to sleep. You're going home now,
right?"
    "No...I'm going to find the other Fumu clans. This time, though, I won't go alone.
I'll find some help first. I think, though, that you shouldn't come...the others might
get nervous, with a vampire as a traveling companion." Renaku nodded, smiled briefly,
then vanished into the forest.

    "Goodbye, Renaku," Leandra called, then left in search of the path that would lead
her to a non-demonic town. 
    From the shadows of the forest, Renaku watched her leave. As had happened often on
this trip, he felt a mixture of emotions. But this time, rather than hate and anger,
he felt sorrow, relief, and hope for the future. 
    "Goodbye, Leandra," he whispered.

=====

    As Renaku remembers the last time he saw Leandra, he smiles sadly. It was the last
time he saw Leandra...and the first time he felt hope.

=====

This Vampire Legend R part written by Ben Overmyer.
Vampire Legend R was created by me.
It is not copyrighted.
My email is: darklance@hotmail.com