She took a deep breath and began to explain. "Ahmeron is not a curse. Ahmeron is a community. A collective. The most perverse, most dangerous branch of our kind, living on the edge of this world, in the frozen lands of the northeast. They are monsters who combine the darkest forms of magic with tiny scraps of technology they've stolen from humanity. They raise emotionless killers, highly trained warriors and mages. Their sole purpose is to destroy everyone and everything that is not one of them. To them, we—all the other vampire clans—are just prey. I wasn't the evil one, Vladis. I was the only one trying to unite all the clans under one banner against this inevitable end."
Vladis was stunned by what he had heard. "You're lying," he said, but the old certainty in his voice was gone.
"Lying?" Nydra cried out. "While you were playing prince behind the warm walls of your father's castle, I was witnessing their first attacks beyond the borders! I saw them wipe not just villages, but entire cities off the map overnight, destroying whole clans just for pleasure!"
"Why did no one speak of this? Why did the clans unite against you then?" Vladis asked, confused.
"Because they were afraid!" Nydra shouted. "Because 'honorable' leaders, like your father, preferred to crush this unification effort, which they saw as my ambition, rather than accept the existence of such a threat. For them, it was easier to deal with a familiar 'traitor' than an unknown monster." Facing Vladis's disbelieving gaze, her voice softened again. A sadness, this time appearing genuine, surfaced on her face. "My methods were harsh, yes. Sometimes cruel. But I had no other choice. I was preparing for a great war, and there was no place for weakness."
Vladis was astonished. He couldn't believe it. But something was stirring within him. The vision he had seen before leaving Xara's fortress... that tortured building, those slaughtered winged beings... What Nydra was saying gave meaning to that senseless atrocity.
"That night," Nydra continued, her voice dropping to a whisper. "The night you all call the 'curse,' the one that destroyed me and the order I had built... you can't even imagine what happened."
"Tell me," Vladis said, he wanted to know now.
Nydra slunk closer to him again. This time, her closeness was not sensual, but like that of a co-conspirator sharing a secret. "We had learned that the Ahmeron were preparing a major attack. So that night, we used all our power here to cast a massive barrier spell. Our goal was to prevent them from invading our lands, to buy the other clans time. Have you ever heard of the Whisper-Wing Clan?"
Vladis shook his head "no."
"Of course you haven't," Nydra said bitterly. "Because no one is left of them. Before you reached the desert, you must have seen that ruined kingdom on the border."
Vladis's mind instantly flashed to that horrifying vision. The image of that tortured building materialized before his eyes.
"Because they were on the front line, the Ahmeron started there," Nydra continued. "They annihilated that entire clan in a single night—men, women, and children. That was just the beginning. They returned to their lands to gather their strength and come again. We had to hurry. That's why we performed that barrier spell ritual. And it was successful. But... after the spell was complete, something went wrong." Her face contorted with the disgust of mentioning a name. "My right hand, the man I trusted most... that traitor whose name I don't even want to utter... turned out to be one of the Ahmeron's men. By the time I realized it, it was too late. In the final stage of the ritual, he had added his own mysterious curse into our protection spell. The entire power of the spell reversed, and instead of a protective shield, it turned into a bomb of annihilation. My kingdom, my men, everything... and I, too, were destroyed in that explosion."
Vladis listened, holding his breath.
"But I wasn't completely destroyed," Nydra whispered. "That thing I did to you... that seal you call a 'curse'... That was my last gasp. A final hope for survival. It's not a curse, Vladis. It was a bond between you and me. An anchor that bound our blood, linked our souls. As that traitor's curse was destroying me, this bond with you kept a part of my soul alive and tethered me here, to this temple, this prison outside of time."
It felt as if boiling water had been poured over Vladis's head. He was reeling. The woman he had hated for centuries, the monster who had betrayed him, was she... a victim? The curse he had carried for centuries, the one that brought him to the brink of madness, was it actually a bond that kept her alive? His entire world, all his beliefs, the unshakeable foundation upon which his hatred was built, had shattered into dust in an instant. All he could do was stare at the woman standing before him, Nydra, who had a glint of both pain and a kind of victory in her eyes.
Time seemed to have frozen in that ancient, airless hall of the Mattuj Temple. Vladis was reeling under the echo of Nydra's final words—the words that had demolished his entire world, rendered his hatred meaningless, and turned his suffering into a lie. Not a curse, a bond. Those two words completely changed the nature of the dark parasite that had been gnawing at his soul for centuries. The woman he was looking at was no longer his mortal enemy, his father's murderer, the destroyer of his clan. She was, perhaps, a victim like himself, a pawn in a complex game, the central figure in an incomprehensible tragedy. This new reality had created such a vast emptiness in his mind that even anger could find no foothold. All that remained was astonishment and... and that old, that damned, that smoldering admiration.
Nydra was looking at him, too. There was neither mockery nor triumph in her eyes; rather, one could read the weary understanding of someone who had unburdened herself of a centuries-old weight. She seemed to be able to see the storm in Vladis's mind, that silent war. Finally, the first words fell from Vladis's lips. His voice was hoarse and fragile, as if forcing open a rusted door. "You..." he said. "You... killed my father." It wasn't a question, but a final attempt to cling to a truth he wanted to deny.
Nydra smiled painfully at this weak accusation. She closed the distance between them with slow, almost reverent steps. When she stood right in front of him, she looked into his eyes, affecting the innocence of a child. "It wasn't me, Vladis," she whispered.
"How?" Vladis asked, a part of him wanting to believe this simple denial.
"It was one of the Ahmeron sorcerers." Nydra's voice tensed with hatred for a moment. "You don't know them, my love," she said, changing the subject, raising her hand in a playful gesture and tossing her long, silky hair toward Vladis's face. Vladis flinched for a moment at the familiar, intoxicating scent that wafted from her skin and hair. Nydra continued: "I wasn't even there at the time. My efforts to unite the clans were constantly being thwarted by your father and the others. So, I had secretly gone north, to the Najor Forest, to meet with an ancient, neutral clan that lived there. Before that, incidents on the borders and rumors of the Ahmeron were spreading. But neither your honorable father nor the other council members... they wouldn't believe it. Their arrogance had blinded them."
She paused for a moment and looked even deeper into Vladis's eyes. "Do you remember that woman who was always by your father's side? That woman who was silent as a shadow, always listening but never speaking?"
An image instantly surfaced in Vladis's mind. A woman with red hair, pale skin, and eyes as cold and expressionless as a snake's. He replied in a hiss mixed with a whisper: "Merilda."
"Yes, darling. That's the one," Nydra said, the disgust in her voice almost palpable. "She was one of the Ahmeron's whores. While I was gone, she used one of the most powerful illusion spells to take on my form and appearance. She poisoned your father and created chaos within the clan in a way that would pin the blame on me. Then, she vanished like smoke. By the time I returned, it was too late for everything. The culprit was already prepared: Nydra, the ambitious, the dangerous, the one who wouldn't hesitate to even kill her own father. I was stunned. My own clan had turned against me. I had to flee and continue my true purpose—the task of building an army against the Ahmeron—all by myself."
Nydra moved closer to Vladis again. This time, her proximity was more personal, more intimate. "But I was aware of your strength and... that old admiration you had for me," she whispered. "I knew that somewhere, in the depths of your heart, you knew I could never be a patricide. I knew you would never truly betray me." She raised a hand and touched Vladis's cheek with her fingertip. "That moment you looked at me from the balcony... that night in the garden... I had felt that fire in your eyes, that complex desire."
She moved into his breathing space. She was whispering now. "I knew how you wanted my flesh and blood. I could hear how that young, proud heart of yours was beating for me. And I admired you, too." She placed her hands on Vladis's armored arms and, pressing her fingers firmly, slowly ran them over his muscles. "I knew that powerful body and the uncontrolled force you carried within it."
Vladis couldn't utter a single word. His throat was tight. His mind was paralyzed under this new information and the woman's overwhelming presence.
"If the two of us were to unite," Nydra continued, her voice now like a prophecy. "I believed we could perhaps change this decrepit, this corrupt order. That's why... that's why I bound you to me. I sealed you to myself. It was the only way to protect you and to find you again one day."
It took Vladis a long time to digest all of this. The pieces in his mind were slotting into place with a painful screech. His father's death, the scattering of his clan, his own exile... It was all part of a much larger, darker plan. Finally, he asked the first logical question that came to his mind. "How... how could you not convince them... my father and the others... with this persuasiveness, with this story you've told?"
Nydra responded to this question with a bitter smile. "I knew you still wanted me and missed me," she said, avoiding a direct answer. Instead, she slowly wrapped her arms around Vladis's shoulders. She pressed her body against his, bending her legs slightly so the warmth of her velvet skirt and bare skin touched the coldness of Vladis's armor. "Not everyone wants to hear the truth, Vladis. Not everyone wants blood and war. Indulgence, lust for power, a comfortable life... those are far more seductive." She tilted her head slightly and whispered. "Pleasure... is something else entirely."
This closeness, this scent, this voice... it was reawakening that old volcano inside Vladis. The admiration and desire he had suppressed for centuries were flaring up from beneath the ashes. "So," he said, his voice thick. "Is it possible... to free you and me... from this situation?"
Nydra didn't pull back. Still in the same position, she looked into his eyes and said, "Yes. It is possible." She turned her head slightly toward the altar. "The keywords are simple, my love. Blood... and passion. On this altar, our blood will merge again and flow into that hollow. But this will not be a simple blood oath. It must be fed with passion, with lust, and with desire. With the suppressed energy of centuries." She turned her head back to Vladis. "Only then, can this bond around our necks, this seal, separate itself from each other. It can set us free." She paused for a moment, her eyes shining defiantly. "But... do you want this, Vladis? Can you risk letting go of that old hatred and trusting me again?"
Vladis had completely let go. His logic, his doubts, they had all melted away in the face of this woman's overwhelming presence and the incredible reality she had presented. "For you," he whispered. "For you to be free from this prison... we must do this."
Nydra's lips pursed with victory and desire. "Vladis..." she murmured, the single word was like a promise.
Just then, one last doubt entered Vladis's mind. "But what about my delusions? My uncontrolled power surges? If this was a bond, why did it cause me so much pain?"
Nydra brought her face close to his neck. Her warm breath burned Vladis's skin. "Because I had no other way," she whispered. "From this prison, I could feel you. Thanks to our bond. I could slip into your mind, enter your dreams. It was the only way to call you to me, to guide you. Provoking you, angering you, making you desire... I tried every way to get your attention. I sent you bursts of power so you would understand you weren't alone, that there was a power inside you that wasn't your own. I know it caused pain. But if there had been any other way to call you to me, I swear I would have taken it."
This final confession destroyed the last shred of resistance inside Vladis. There was no doubt left. Only this complex, dangerous, and fascinating woman standing before him, and the inevitable ritual they had to perform.
As Vladis watched the entire reality he had known slip out from under his feet, he found himself doing something he hadn't done in centuries: apologizing. "I..." he whispered, his voice like a breath lost in this vast, silent temple. "I... I didn't know... For the centuries of hatred I put you through... I'm sorry."
For a moment, a real emotion passed across Nydra's face, beneath that mocking mask—perhaps a fleeting grief. "It doesn't matter," she said, her voice soft. "Hate is sometimes the most passionate form of love. At least you didn't forget me." After these words, as if to escape the crushing intensity between them, she slowly moved away from him, taking a few steps toward the altar. The hem of her red, black, and gold-embroidered dress hissed across the stone floor, leaving a trail behind her.
But Vladis didn'B;t want the warmth radiating from her skin, that intoxicating scent, to move even an inch away. The glacier that had frozen his soul for centuries was beginning to melt for the first time, and he didn't want to escape this new, dangerous warmth. As Nydra moved away, he, instinctively, almost unconsciously, took a step toward her. Then another.
Nydra, noticing his movement, paused and looked back at him over her shoulder. That provocative, all-knowing smile reappeared on her lips. "You still want me," she murmured, not a question, but a statement. Then she turned fully toward him, her eyes glowing like embers in the dim light. "Good," she said, her voice no longer a whisper but a growl, vibrating with lust. "Because I want you, too, Vladis. For centuries... I've been so hungry, too."
She had spoken this last sentence as if it were a declaration of a centuries-old thirst. She turned her back and continued to walk toward the altar, swaying her hips with an exaggerated elegance. "You know," she said, her voice echoing off the temple walls. "I remember those boring feasts in your father's castle... Everyone was so noble, so civilized. But behind their eyes, they were all monsters. Just like us."
It was as if Vladis didn't hear her. His eyes were locked only on the woman's swaying body, on the smooth skin visible through the slit of her dress, on the muscles that tensed with every step she took. Nydra reached the edge of the circular altar and, with a single fluid motion, stepped into the indented area. There, in the middle of the ritual bed, she turned to him and opened her arms wide. An invitation, a surrender, a challenge.
This image shattered the last control mechanism inside Vladis. He couldn't hold himself back any longer. A primal sound, somewhere between a shout and a growl, ripped from his throat. Centuries of suppressed desire, hatred, regret, and want surfaced in a single explosion. He lunged at Nydra, like a predator pouncing on its prey.
Nydra seemed to have been expecting this savage attack. As Vladis lunged at her, her speech turned not into a scream of pain, but into a deep, lust-filled moan. "Yes..." she whispered. "Come to me..."
When Vladis reached her, he seized her by the waist and pulled her to him. This was not an embrace; it was a conquest. With the want and desire of centuries, he buried his face in her neck. As his teeth touched that smooth, pale skin, Nydra's body convulsed in pleasure. As Vladis tasted her flesh, biting that forbidden fruit, Nydra was not idle. She responded with the same passion, the same savagery. She threw her head back, winding her long, raven-black hair around Vladis's neck like a snake. Her fingers dug into the hardened leather armor on Vladis's shoulders and, with superhuman strength, tore the metal and leather like a rag. As the armor ripped apart with a deafening sound, Nydra turned her head and sank her sharp teeth into Vladis's exposed neck.
They had merged into a single being, clinging to each other, moaning in pleasure even as they hurt each other. Nydra, with greed, brought her hands to Vladis's chest and ripped away the rest of the shattered armor and the cloak beneath it, tossing them aside. Vladis's ancient, pale but muscular torso was completely exposed. Their blood, seeping from the open wounds, began to flow like red rivers on both their skins and drip onto the cold stone of the altar. Vladis's hands had also targeted Nydra's clothing. He mauled that magnificent dress of red, black, and gold embroidery, tearing at it with his fingers. The sound of the fabric ripping mingled with their moans. When the chest part of the dress was torn, Vladis lowered his head and lunged at Nydra's throat and full breasts.
As Vladis's mouth roamed over her skin, Nydra threw her head back, trembling with pleasure. Moaning, she spoke in broken gasps. "Yes, Vladis... take it... taste it... this body... has waited for you..." With a perverse desire, she pressed her body against his, moving her hips in a rhythmic motion. As Vladis suckled her breasts, biting them gently, Nydra's hands clamped onto his forehead, her fingers raking through his hair.
This savage, predatory lovemaking continued for a long moment, suspended outside of time. Finally, panting, they separated for a moment and looked at each other. Their faces were covered in blood and sweat. Their eyes shone with lust and hunger. There was no need for words. Both at the same time, with an irresistible force, pulled each other back toward themselves. With this sudden, harsh movement, one of Nydra's slender high-heeled shoes scraped against the stone floor and broke with a sharp "crack". But they didn't even care.
Their lips crashed together, like a collision. This was not a gentle kiss. This was an invasion. As their tongues warred in each other's mouths, their sharp, claw-like vampire teeth bit each other's lips and tongues, opening new wounds. Their blood mixed in their mouths, a unending cycle of feeding on each other from the wounds they inflicted. With their tongues locked together, inside this bloody and passionate kiss, both of them, without speaking, seemed to be screaming with their souls: "I want you."
There was almost nothing left of Vladis's armor. Nydra's top was now just a tattered piece of fabric, the work of a tasteful destruction, leaving her chest and stomach exposed. As they continued this savage kiss, spinning each other around in the middle of the temple, that elegant, beautiful crown on Nydra's head couldn't withstand the harsh movements, slipped off her head, and fell to the stone floor with a clatter. But no one cared. Their only reality was each other's lips, blood, and skin.
Their blood, now flowing more heavily, merged and streamed into the hollow on the altar. And as it flowed, they both felt that ancient burden on their necks, that cursed bond, slowly lightening, beginning to dissolve.
After parting from his lips, Vladis, with an insatiable greed, buried his face in her hair. He kissed and bit her hair and scalp, as if trying to inhale the scent of her soul. Nydra's hands and legs, meanwhile, were not still for a moment. Her legs wrapped around Vladis's waist, her nails leaving deep scratches on his back. She was in a constant state of reaction, of contact. "More..." Nydra whispered. "Give me more, Vladis! Avenge the pain of centuries!"
As their blood continued to flow, slower now but steady, they both felt something move under the skin of their necks, as if something that had taken root was being torn from the earth. It felt as if something was about to fall off. With this sensation, the primal desire within Vladis flared even hotter. He lowered his head and attacked Nydra's leg, now completely exposed through her torn dress. He kissed her skin, licked it, left marks on her flesh with his teeth. Nydra wrapped her leg around him and, as if to trap him within the slit, closed her skirt over him. As Vladis suckled and licked her flesh, a long moan of pleasure and pain escaped the woman's mouth. She pressed her arms from behind Vladis, making her body even more rigid.
As Vladis pulled back for a moment, he tasted the skirt at the corner of his mouth and then, with a growl, caught the fabric with his teeth and tore it away from where he was trapped. Now, there was no barrier left between them. They embraced. Their hair, matted with blood and sweat, was tangled together. They were no longer two separate bodies, but a dark and passionate entity, moving with a single will, a single desire. This was not just a union; it was a rebirth. They were being baptized in each other's blood, burning centuries of hatred in the fire of passion, turning it to ash. And the pool of blood on the altar was the silent witness to this new, this dangerous beginning.
That mutual, savage desire echoing in the deepest parts of their souls had now reached an irreversible point. Nydra, moaning from the sweet pain of Vladis's teeth on her skin, whispered, "Come on, Vladis... More..." Her voice was less a plea than a command; an irresistible order given to end the longing of centuries. These words were the spark that burned the last shred of logic in Vladis to ash. He was no longer a prince or an avenger; he was just a being, hungry and insatiable, moving on his most primal instincts.
He moved his face from her shoulders down to her arms. When the warmth of his tongue met her cold skin, Nydra's body jolted as if struck by electricity. As Vladis suckled her arms, the sensitive, vulnerable skin of her armpits, leaving bruises with his teeth, Nydra was not idle. She, too, had transformed into a predator, a monster. She wrapped her hands around Vladis's head, her fingers roaming through his hair like claws. She kissed his head, bit it, took his earlobe between her teeth and tugged. What she was tasting was not just blood, but his pain, his power, his very existence. They were devouring each other's essence, their souls.
With the violence of this savage dance, they lost their balance and fell onto the smooth, blood-stained surface of the altar. But this fall did not separate them; on the contrary, it locked them together even tighter. Their legs and arms were entwined like a living, impossible-to-untangle knot. When the coldness of the stone floor hit their backs, they both moaned at the same time, but it was not from pain, but from the perverse pleasure of the contact and the savagery. They began to roll. The blood-soaked altar had become the stage for their primal ritual of union. As they rolled, their positions constantly changed; one moment Vladis was on top, the next, Nydra. But their mouths and hands never parted. They continued to taste each other, to drink each other's souls.
"Come on Vladis... almost there!" Nydra cried out, her voice thick with pleasure and anticipation. "I can feel it... The bond is weakening!" And it truly was. With every second they rolled and drank each other's blood, they felt that ancient burden on their necks, that invisible shackle, growing lighter, threatening to dissolve. This feeling drove them even wilder, urging them to go further.
Finally, in a sudden moment of embrace and convulsion, the last resistance of Nydra's already tattered skirt broke. The fabric, with the tension of her legs and hips grinding against Vladis's skin, tore with an ear-splitting sound, all the way down from her waist. Now, not even that last rag of civilization remained between them. This was the final act. As Nydra locked her legs even tighter around Vladis's waist, one of her hands grabbed the last piece of fabric on the inside of his thigh. With perfect force, she ripped that fabric away in a single motion. This wasn't just the tearing of cloth; it was the removal of the final barrier.
And at that moment, a moment when the entire universe seemed to stop, when the dim light of the temple seemed to intensify on a single point, centuries of separation, hatred, and suppressed desire ended with a single, irresistible movement. The joining of Vladis's penis and Nydra's vagina was not just the collision of two bodies, but of two souls, two fates, and two curses. It was sealed with a shared scream, both of agony and triumph, that ripped out at the moment of union.
Now their movements took on a primal rhythm, serving a single purpose. With thrusts back and forth, they heated the cold stone of the altar beneath their bodies. Their moans and kisses were like a ritualistic music accompanying this rhythm. Each thrust was not just a physical joining, but a magical act, untying the knots in the depths of their souls, transferring their energies to one another. Sweat and blood slicked their bodies and mixed with the pool of blood on the altar, bearing witness to this most intimate moment.
Right at the peak of this passion, a sharp, metallic sound broke the temple's silence. "Ting..." It was as if the final link of a heavy chain had snapped and fallen to the floor. With this sound, both of them, at the same instant, felt that ghostly weight they had carried on their necks for centuries, that physical and spiritual pressure, completely, utterly, vanish. The bond was completely broken. They were free.
This sudden feeling of freedom caused one last, powerful convulsion in their bodies, and both of them, at the same time, with a final moan, released themselves to the climax of this passion. Locked together, they remained motionless. Only the rapid rise and fall of their chests was proof of what they had experienced. Their breaths mingled in the ancient silence of the temple. Neither Vladis nor Nydra spoke. Words could have defiled the sanctity of this moment. With their eyes closed, they just felt each other's warmth, the scent of their skin, the shared rhythm still throbbing in their veins. This was not just the satisfaction of lust. This was two half-souls, having passed through the darkest and most savage paths, finally finding and completing each other. This was their first moment of rebirth, written in love and passion, in blood and pain. And in this moment, they wanted to stay forever.