Julius ducked, barely dodging them.
"Wait-."
As if she had only just heard his voice, she became calm and yawned.
"Calm? I am calm. But the issue is I am trapped, in this cellar. Despite being a hero, these chains are quite annoying."
"So..." Julius raised his gaze to the girl hanging from the ceiling, her body confined by the chains wrapped around it.
"If you're a hero..." His mind flashed back to Kaelan decimating hordes of monsters on the other side.
"Why can't you just break those chains?"
Julius had noticed the chains were by no means menacing, they looked flimsy and rusted.
The girl simply began to groan loudly.
"They're enchanted. Plus, I'm running on an empty stomach. Do you think I didn't try breaking them?"
"Well, after trying to eat me you didn't exactly appear as intelligent."
She looked at Julius and licked her lips.
"You can give me strength, but at a price. How about you give me a bite? I'll break us both out."
"Unless you're saying that in a romantic context I'm not interested." Julius shivered, hugging himself tight. He didn't know if he was willing to sacrifice his limbs right now. "But how much stronger would it make you? Theoretically of course."
"Yes, perhaps even enough to break these chains."
"What happens if you bite me and you can't break them?"
"Then I'll bite again."
"It sounds like this plan benefits you a lot more than me..." Julius sighed. "I forgot to ask… When they say you're a hero, does that mean you save people?" She seemed a far stretch from Kaelan.
"I'm a hero." She grinned revealing fanged teeth. "Vielli, the Devourer. I find myself often saving people from the burden of being alive. But that treatment is only for the bad guys..."
Vielli, the Devourer?
"That's a hero's name?"
"I only devour bad people obviously… Unless I get too ravenous."
"Then..?"
"It's simply because I'm a ghoul, it's in my nature! I can't survive without living flesh."
"I see. And now you want my flesh, to break us out of here?"
"Yes…Exactly! You get it! You can totally trust me!"
"Why were you acting so… Maniacal earlier?" Julius hoped it was just an act.
"I think I've been in this basement for 3 months."
"EH?" Julius almost jumped out of his seated posiiton. 3 months? "Don't tell me I'm going to be stuck here for that long too…"
Julius met her gaze, her violet eyes sprawled the shadows ahead as they cast out faint rays of purple light.
"How did the count get you? If you're a hero, surely you could've just broken out the day he put you in the chains, since you wouldn't have been hungry by then."
"I hadn't eaten for many days when he caught me, when he offered me food I felt happier than I had ever felt! Then the moment I tried to take a bite I was put to sleep. I awoke hanging from the ceiling and he kept trying to pry information from me about certain things…"
"Like?"
"I can't tell you… Only heroes of the highest order are told such things…"
"You're a hero of the highest order?" Julius muttered. "Did you get knighted or something?"
"It may seem strange to you because you are clearly extremely weak but I'm one of the most powerful heroes in Thesia. I even got a special ring-. Even though I lost it. As I said though, you're too weak to detect my power. Otherwise you'd be cowering right now."
"I just arrived here… Give me a break." Julius felt like crying.
A few minutes passed, Julius spent the time nervously scratching his limbs.
"About what you said earlier… Is that our only way out?"
"You mean me chomping on you? Yes, that is the only way out."
"How much would you want? Hypothetically?" Julius started measuring his attatchment to his various body parts.
"Enough to get me raring. Probably enough flesh to fill a large bowl."
"Hold on… Won't I just die to blood loss then?"
"It's best that one of us gets out. And if that person is a powerful hero, you should probably be glad to sacrifice yourself for the cause." She smiled sweetly. "JUST DO IT." She cried out loud. "I've been here for so long! I'm so lonely! I need to be free."
"I can't believe you're a hero…" Julius moaned. "Chalk skin, fanged teeth, glowing eyes… You look like a vampire."
"I'm a ghoul."
She said it with a sort of spite in her tone, as if she had been offended to have been called a vampire.
Julius stared at her. Vielli's violet eyes gleamed hungrily in the dim torchlight, her body trembling with hunger, anticipation… maybe both. The rusted chains rattled as she shifted, her sharp teeth bared in a grin that was too wide to be comforting.
Julius swallowed hard. "And if I refuse?"
Vielli sighed dramatically. "Then I suppose we wait until he eats us instead."
A cold, slithering sensation crept down Julius' spine. He still didn't like the idea of letting a ghoul eat him, what if she juste ate him whole once she got out?
Then—footsteps.
Slow, deliberate, wet-sounding footsteps. Like something soft pressing into the stone. A deep, gravelly growl reverberated through the dungeon.
Julius turned toward the iron bars just as Count Leonold VII emerged from the corridor, accompanied by two guards in heavy clad iron armor.
He was licking his lips and rubbing his hands together.
His slightly pushed out stomach pressed against the velvet of his fine noble robes, which looked stretched too tight around his pale, clammy skin. A long, thin tongue flicked out, dragging across his lips, twice. His beady eyes darted from Julius to Vielli, then back again.
"Oh, what a delightful evening we have ahead of us…People will be eaten tonight" He let out a breathy chuckle, but his stomach rumbled, loud and wet. He patted it absentmindedly. "You know, I was going to save you both for separate courses, but now I'm simply ravenous. I think I shall have my appetizer and my main course together. It's been too long... I must eat you both tonight."
Julius felt bile rise in his throat. He felt terrible thoughts roam his mind.
"Tonight?" Please let her be the appetizer.
The Count leaned against the bars, his too-long fingers tapping against the iron. His nails were sharp, curved—not human. "Julius, my dear guest, you shall be first. Starving prey tastes the best, after all…"
"Seriously? But she's a ghoul! There's no way she'll taste better-."
"She'll be my second course simply because I want to savour her flesh."
Vielli snarled. "Ugly pig. You're going to regret keeping me here."
Leonold laughed—high, wheezing. "You've been hanging there for months, little ghoul. Do you think you're still a threat? I can't believe I'm going to get to eat a hero. I knew trusting those gods was a great idea."
Julius exhaled sharply, mind racing. This was it. He had to make a choice.
He turned back to Vielli. Her teeth glinted in the torchlight. Waiting.
Screw it.
"Fine," Julius hissed. "Take your damn bite."
Her grin widened. "Good decision."
The moment his arm got close enough—she lunged.
Her teeth sank into his shoulder.
"H-hey, I said a bite!"
Pain exploded through him. It was like a sequence of bombs bursted through his body as she tore through his skin and flesh like there was no tomorrow.
"Huh?" Leonold was confused. "No matter what you do, you won't be able to break those chains."
Julius screamed through clenched teeth, his body jerking violently, but Vielli's grip was iron. Her fangs dug in deeper, ripping through flesh. She better be able to break through those chains.
He could feel the blood rushing from the wound, warmth spreading across his clothes. A deep, gnawing pressure—like his body was being chewed from the inside out. This wasn't just a normal bite it felt like something was being transferred inside of him when she bit him.
Vielli's body convulsed. A rush of heat erupted from her core, traveling through her veins like fire. Her violet eyes shot open wide as the chains around her arms creaked. Her glowing violet hair became even brighter and lit up the dark cellar malovelently.
Leonold's face shifted—from amusement to unease.
The air in the cell changed completely. The walls seemed to tremble and shiver.
Then—CRACK.
Vielli ripped her arms free.
The rusted metal chains snapped like twigs as she dropped to the floor, crouched like an animal. The torchlight flickered, shadows warping around her.
The guards standing behind Leonold barely had time to react before Vielli moved.
One blink—and she was already at the bars. She was a violet blur, moving faster than the eyes could follow.
A deafening clang rang out as she shattered the iron gate with her bare hands, sending metal shards flying.
Leonold stumbled back. "W-wait, now hold on—"
Vielli's claws tore through the first guard's throat.
Blood sprayed in an arc.
The second guard managed to draw his sword, but Vielli was already at his throat. She drove her knee into his stomach—**ribs crunched—**before she grabbed his head and bit deep into his neck.
Leonold shrieked, attempting to back away through the door. "We can talk this out-."
Julius, still clutching his bleeding shoulder, forced himself up, his head spinning. "I guess she wasn't lying." A small smirk crept up on his face, despite the horrific pain coming out from his shoulder.
Vielli turned her glowing violet eyes toward Leonold, her face and hands dripping red. "What's wrong?" she purred. "Didn't you say someone was going to be eaten tonight? I guess you didn't think that applied to yourself."
Leonold took one trembling step back. Then another. His hands were shaking. His tongue darted out to wet his lips—but now it was out of nervous habit.
"I can offer so many things, just let me go and-."
She exhaled menacingly.
Julius watched as realization dawned in the Count's grotesque eyes. He had made a mistake.
Leonold turned to run.
Vielli blitzed him and ended up bulldozing through him like a truck. His remains splattered over the floor, he had been wiped out in an instant, literally. As his flesh and blood coated the walls like paint.
Vielli then turned to Julius, who could only become more nervous himself.
"You're still in there... Right Vielli?"
Her demonizing violet eyes spoke a different tale.