Raphael Magiano had been alive and walking the earth for a very long time. As one of only five vampires on earth who had been alive for more than eight hundred years, he was something of a symbol of nobility for his entire race. With his age came knowledge, and he was able to see the rise and fall of various civilizations and learn from them in the same manner that a student would a book. After the centuries passed by, he learned that there was only one challenge preventing the inhuman races of this world from truly thriving without worry over the hunters.
And that was the unity that could be brought about from all of their collective participation.
So like the natural leader and idealist that he was, he had no choice but to enact a plan himself to make that reality possible.
Once he settled on a safe haven, he immediately began discreet construction.
Haiti was a near perfect choice.
It was one of the poorest countries in the world, but it wasn’t the poorest.
This way vampires could capitalize on the incoming donations and funds that were sent over by humans who wanted to feel like they had ‘made a difference’ without having to deal with their constant vigilance and film crews.
And with violence running rampant across the land by his own design, any missing person was just chalked up to be someone who ran across a gang at the wrong place at the wrong time and was simply fated to never come back.
From there, he started to bring more members of the supernatural into the fold.
Making pacts with the werewolves, promising the witches a place where they would never be hunted, that sort of thing.
With the age old rivalry being put to bed and fostering friendships with a hidden class, vampire numbers were thriving more than they had since Vlad the Impaler’s rule.
In addition, since witches were specifically forbidden from being mistreated, they were forging friendships with vampires instead, and now the number of night walkers who could do magic was scarily high.
And yet all of this was built on the backs of human ignorance and blind faith, so it slowly became lacking for Raphael.
Since the Necropolis thrived on compartmentalized information, that meant it’s existence was largely a secret to not only the humans but 60% of the supernatural world as well.
Some saw him as more of a droll fable than a true king, leading him to grow weary of hiding.
A change needed to be made; one that would ensure that he not only was not only respected, but exalted as well.
And when a goddess showed up to offer him grand promises in exchange for a small favor, he was elated beyond description.
She told him more than she should have, about a dragon that was coming to this world for a certain item and would stop at nothing to get it.
He had no choice but to believe her, since he had just received a rather disturbing report only a day before her arrival and had been searching for the creature ever since, but it was difficult.
Now, a goddess had appeared in front of him to tell him who the dragon was, what he wanted, and how he could meet him.
This was exactly what Raphael needed!
With the legends about not only dragons, but the first dragon’s power in general, he was sure that appeasing him would provide a great opportunity.
In the event of establishing friendship, word would spread like wildfire of the Vampire King who had received the Black Dragon as a backer, and he as well as everyone associated with him would be untouchable.
But there was more.
If he got to the sword before Abaddon, the goddess had promised that she would give him something that he would so desperately need if he wanted to acquire more power.
Her very own blood.
She told him that god blood had a way of cleansing impurities from monsters bodies after a millennium of being watered down on earth.
He would be faster, stronger, better, more capable in every single way.
So it was no surprise that he jumped at the opportunity to compel a few museum workers and have the sword brought all the way from Wuhan.
But, he had one small condition before he revealed its location to her.
He made her promise that they would both present the sword to Abaddon together, in the hope that he would reward both of their shared efforts.
Raphael could not properly describe what happened to him next. Before he knew what he was doing, he had just leapt over the balcony to land calmly in front of Abaddon.
He took his fingers and jammed them into his chest dramatically without being able to stop himself.
Like the all too famous scene of ‘Superman’ revealing his suit beneath his disguise, Raphael pulled his own chest cavity open and revealed his lungs and heart hidden behind his breast bone.
“AAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!”
“Well what’s this? You did have a heart after all. I wasn’t expecting there to be much there.” Abaddon said with a laugh.
“?Ay, Dios mío…” Mateo quickly went pale, and it seemed like he was about to fall over from the traumatic sight in front of him.
“Hm? Ah, stay whelmed, new friend. If our hosts act irreverently then this may be the least violent thing that you see me do today.”
“N-Noted…”
Raphael gripped his sternum with both hands before snapping it apart like a wishbone.
Reaching inside of his chest, he pulled out his heart and presented it with both hands to Abaddon.
Abaddon took it forcefully, ripping away all ventricles and aortas that were attached and causing blood to spill across Mateo’s shoes and pants.
“Ah… that won’t do at all. Go and get my new friend a change of your best clothes.” He asked without using his authority.
One of the men on the balcony looked downright horrified and insulted.
“F-For that half breed? Are you- Ack!”
No one could say exactly what happened next, but suddenly the man clutched his chest while making a pained expression.
Right before their eyes, he dried up like a raisin before falling to the ground like a bag of bones.
It was as if all of his vitality had simply left him in an instant.
‘Look at that… using life force manipulation on one target is so much easier than using it on an army of nephilim.’ He thought proudly.
“Alright, does someone want to try this again? Go get him some fresh clothes please… and some food if you have it.”
“Eh?”
“I don’t mean to offend, but you’re looking a little underweight. You’re the first aneorexic vampire I’ve seen in two worlds.”
“…I’m just on a tight duet.”
“Wow, such discipline.” Abaddon said while sounding fake impressed. “I could’ve used that when I was in high school.”
“Que? You went to high school? And you were gordito?”
“…Tell you about it later, just go get changed.”
Mateo didn’t really know what Abaddon had been doing all this time and was certainly curious, but he followed one of the suited men upstairs nonetheless.
“Why…?”
“Oh?”
Abaddon looked down at his feet at Raphael, whose heart was beginning to grow back and chest was starting to close.
But still, it was happening pretty slowly.
“A bit different from the other riff-raff, huh? Color me surprised.”
Abaddon grabbed Raphael by the head and lifted him up as if he were as light as a plastic bottle.
“You know… I’ve heard all about you earlier today. While there are certain things I can applaud like the unification of my descendants, I find your methods to be… woefully hard to swallow.”
“Guh..!”
“I wondered how the loa could have possibly let something like this go by on their lands without stepping in, and now I know why. They aren’t aware.”
Generally, hiding things from the gods is impossible.
That secret folder filled with questionable porn on your laptop? They’ve seen it.
The awkward face you make when you take a dump? Seen it.
Those times you cried because someone close to you broke your heart? They’ve seen it and laughed.
However, their vision can be impeded if you hide in one special place.
Underground.
Since the earth is made up of the body of Gaia and the remains of Tethys, they cannot see through it.
Meaning that if one goes underground, they are free to hide from the watchful eyes of the gods as long as they so choose.
And with the earth mother constantly sleeping unless she is called and the mother of Mesopotamian monsters long dead, there is no one who could tell them what is happening.
“Do you know… I met a polite little mermaid earlier tonight.”
“!” Raphael’s slowly regrowing heart nearly stopped beating in an instant.
“She told me that they found out what you were doing here and threatened to tell Mami Wata all about it if you didn’t stop disturbing their food supply.
But do you know what you did? You caused an oil spill in their home that killed millions of them in a day. I find that to be rather reprehensible if I’m honest.”
Raphael began spitting out rampant apologies as he felt Abaddon’s grip on his skull tightening.
“I-It was my mistake! My mistake, I promise! I’ll make amends, I’ll do whatever you want just please forgive me!!”
“You’ve truly made such a mess of this place… I think not. But your idea, though flawed in execution is not without merit… It will live on without your participation.”
“WAI-”
*Crunch!*
Raphael’s body dropped to the ground a moment later, his head completely crushed by a single light squeeze of Abaddon’s hand.
He let out a sigh as he manipulated the blood off of his hands and chucked Raphael’s useless heart over his shoulder.
“You…are different from what they said.”
Abaddon’s eyes met the goddess’ once again, and he noticed that she had the sword that he had come for in her hand.
“Oh..? I’m unsure of how you want me to take that.”
The goddess wavered momentarily before she appeared right in front of Abaddon with her hands outstretched.
“I would like to give this to you… but in exchange I would ask for safe haven for my mother and sister… and that you answer only a single question of mine.”
This proved to be a turn that Abaddon wasn’t expecting, and he raised a brow in slight interest.
“Alright… ask your question first.”
The goddess looked up at him with grey eyes burning with endless curiosity.
“I want to know… why did you kill that man?”