Army of the Damned

VOLUME 14 Chapter 1

"So what? He built over the entire lodge and turned it into a ridiculously large palace with a gigantic garden?" He then looks closer at the painting, his body leaning almost to his imbalance, which made Alana to gently rest her hand on his back as he looked as farther up as he could and noticed there was also a small manmade river inside it. "It's crazy that they'd even source concrete from the Vampires just for this. All this because the God of Man and those other two chose him?"

"Yes, exactly that M'Lord. He was a King chosen by the Gods, no one could say no to him. His power alone bested multiple Elven Nobles. He even hired the Dwarves for the engineering and architecture, captured a Wood Elf Chief as his gardener and hired us, the Vampires, to supply them with our self healing concrete."

"Dang... the logistics of that must've been absolutely horrendous. Multiple species, he hired multiple differing species to work together after the collapse of an Empire. I couldn't imagine the time and wealth it took to build that."

Alana with her hands now together, elegantly parted her fingers from its hold and rested her left hand into Jackson's arm. Already versed in etiquette, he tightly takes her offer. The Countess then walked the man over to the side of the room, where large painted glass doors would look over to the outside. Where the servants of the Castle were hard at work in cleaning the garden.

Outside the terraces was a large garden, full of ornamental grooves and statues with the most colorful flowers that money and power could buy lined up as Elves in suits and robes took to checking and guarding the rare and alluring pieces of nature as some of the guests far from the Region took their time to gander at the estate. The young couples in their lasciviously expensive gowns and uniforms took a painstakingly slow walk through it even with the cold climate till present.

"Seeing all these things in their full glory, not like the ones back on Earth when they're hundreds of years old and been through many wars will never bore me." as they continued to walk, Jackson took it all in. "We've been to so many of these kinds of places, and my eyes never get bored at just... looking and thanking that I am alive right now to witness this." Alana's fingers then tighten on his hands. "You've been through so much, M'Lord. When you say stories of your time in the Earthling Military you served in, you seem to never truly enjoy much about it. Except the camaraderie and brotherhood, you've built."

Jackson then stops and his hand tightens too. "It wasn't only men who fought. I got sisters too as the war prolonged." He sighs, turning to the calming garden. "You know it's bad when even women are being sent to fight in the trenches." He then coughs and looks down on his polished sharp tipped shoes. "Because before the women, it would be the elderly, those in their sixties. After that, it would be the women... and soon, the children." he looked at Alana, deeply breathing in. Directly looking straight into her golden eyes surrounded by her pale porcelain skin.

She wasn't Human, but as he looked into her. His eyes say differently. "I... I never want to return to war. That is why I rejected all efforts for us to be sent to Schon and help in invading the Demon Kingdom." Alana then raises her free hand and cups his chin. Slowly and calmly stroking it. "M'Lord, this is the curse of Mankind that you must bear to carry. Man loves war, even here, their paintings are adorned with the wars they victoriously won. But you aren't like the Nobles here. You were a soldier, you saw how it was." he then takes her hand that was stroking his chin and grips it.

"I just hope we can all go home. I miss my home so much." chatter then began to fill the room more, making them look at the main room.

Turning around, the huge hall was even more full of people of varying types of uniformity. The older ones wearing pompous curled wigs full of ornaments while their tunics and breeches were stylishly weaved into colorful arrays as there shoes had high heels, making them look taller than usual even the ones whose spines were no longer as strong, while the younger ones were more flamboyant in there clothing, rather than wigs, they had oily hair either pulled back or curled like that of the powdered wigs of their elders and wore gold or silver buttons while they had multiple articles of extravagant clothing put on top of one another. Layered and zipped open to show the other jackets inside that are just as good looking as the ones on the exterior.