Discipline

Vincent Lionysus hadn't been having the best week. Although he despised the girl, Dahlia was a useful asset and now she was on death's door. He felt like an absolute idiot to have so recklessly followed his impulses.

Now he was in his office, unable to sleep. Under the pretext of doing paperwork to make him tired, what he was really doing was nursing bourbon for the fourth night in a row. While at first he still had felt justified, the more time went on, the more he realised his error. It didn't help that his wife had progressively gotten more and more cold to him.

"She's a hypocritical bitch." He slurred. "She was bouncing off the walls to whip her just that morning. Now she's acting holier than thou just because I got to have my fun before her."

He had begun to loath Sabrina. Secretly of course, but recently ever since Dahlia's aspect and bloodline had manifested, her entire personality had shifted. She seemed far livelier and more self assured and he hated that.

Where was the meek woman he married? Where was the woman who would do exactly as he said? She had been such an obedient and passive wife that he treasured her. The moment she began to get some light in her eyes, the Baron began to view her as a nuisance.

It wasn't instant, but more and more their relationship had devolved. Now that 'the incident' had occurred, their relationship may as well be non-existent. He almost wanted to see Dahlia die. Sabrina was overly attached to the girl and if she died then not only would his daughter no longer be an eyesore, but maybe the light in his wife's eyes would fade as well.

"Heh, who knows? Maybe if the brat dies I can just turn to Sabrina as a punching bag. It'd make up for all the times she made me look inferior around our peers. Sure we'd be poor, but I'm certain I could make do somehow"

It was as he was saying his deranged thoughts out loud that a click could be heard. The office door was unlocking and that could only mean that his wife was here. He began to panic, imagining what would happen if she had overheard. But before he could even speak up to welcome the Baroness, he instead saw someone else entirely.

Valentina looked around the office. It was tidy and filled with lavish furniture and art. The entire place reeked of false posturing, but there was something else. A literal smell. It was faint, but the floor and some cabinets had the lingering scent of blood. It was old and faint, but it came from nearly all angles.

'This room… This bastard really is sick huh? Well whatever, I only feel more justified in what I'm doing. I'll give him no quarter. He deserves the worst.'

"My Lord, what a lovely evening to meet with you. I apologise for coming in uninvited but you see, I had some important matters to tend to."

She had walked into the room with a calm smile suitable for nobility. It was only her eyes that gave away her intentions. The Baron however was both too startled and drunk to see the undisguised fury within her crimson gaze, so instead he began to stand, flustered at the sudden arrival of a remarkably high profile guest.

"Ah! Your Grace! I, uh, apologise for the state you found me in. Please understand, things have been quite hectic recently. If I had known you were coming I would have been sure to host you better."

The Baron was doing his best to come across apologetic but he couldn't help but be completely thrown off his game. Why was she here? Why was she dressed in such disgusting clothes? And why does something feel off? He thought things through and came to a conclusion. He nodded and smiled to himself as he realised how clever he was.

"Ah. You must be here because of what happened at the debutante. I'm sorry, I don't know what happened but Dahlia, my daughter, is something of a family disgrace. She never listened to her lessons so she never learnt her place. I assure you she was properly disciplined. She won't cause any problems for you from here on."

He had said it all as though he had done the best possible thing. Like he expected praise for everything. Instead there was a palpable silence. He looked up to see what was wrong but only saw the Archduchess smiling. For the first time, he then truly understood something was wrong.

Her eyes carried the same deathly glare from earlier and now her smile had twisted. No longer could she hide behind a false smile; the expression she currently wore an unquenchable primal fury. It felt like time had slowed as he watched her start to approach. He could see her canines protruding and almost glinting in the faint moonlight coming through the window.

He wanted to talk. To say something. Anything. But his voice caught in his throat and before he could even process what had happened, the vampiress was already upon him. She took hold of his hand. She was gentle, as if she were about to lead him away, but after a moment she just remained there, with her grasp ever so slowly tightening.

Her smile had recovered, going back to its less terrifying state, but now Vincent knew what was hidden beneath. Though calm on the exterior, he could now see the rage in her eyes and as she tightened her grip more and more, the man had totally frozen in place petrified by his fear. At this point Valentina began to speak. It was in a soft, almost endearing tone, though just beneath it lay a cold and venomous intent.

"So? I take it this is your dominant hand? With so much ink on it, I assume you must have been quite busy… But, I think it's done enough, don't you?"

Before he could process what she asked, a searing pain flooded through him. Valentina's hand had begun to clench down tight. Like a glacier, her hand closed slowly but without even a moment of struggle. It felt like he was confronting a force of nature and there was no room for resistance. He could feel moment by moment each bone in his hand begin to fracture and then shatter.

He was already shaking and he couldn't hold back a scream of agony, but when he looked up, all he saw was that smile. At this moment, Vincent began to comprehend just how terrifying the Vampiric Devil was. Even as she kept smiling, she reached out her other hand and grabbed his left.

"Now then, I think it's about time I explain some things. These hands? They're worthless. You won't be using them again."

Again she began to press down and the Baron writhed in pain. All the while as Valentina continued to speak, she would squeeze a bit extra to emphasise her points only leading to his hands turning to destroyed purple lumps.

"Do you understand why this is happening? What did you call it earlier? Discipline? Think of this like that. I'll discipline you just like what you did to your daughter. I'm going to drive this lesson home until it's the only thing you know before you die. Am I understood?"

He almost said no. He almost refuted her. And the moment he was about to put up a hair's breadth of resistance she kicked out his leg so hard that, with a crack, his knee inverted and bent backwards. He immediately fell to the floor, no longer able to even scream any more. All he could utter were faint gasps and wheezing as he became totally overwhelmed by the unyielding pain and fear.

"Hmm, seeing you act up like that means you clearly don't respect my authority. As an archduchess, it falls on me to punish those nobles I deem deserving, didn't you know? Well, because you just had to show resistance, I'll be sure to be uncompromising in your treatment."

That sadistic smile was playing on her lips and the grin she showed only reinforced the man's fear. She looked as if breaking the Barron was the only thing she ever wanted. She looked down at the fallen over and weeping man and began to consider her options.

'Hmm, well the most important parts are done. Those hands needed to pay recompense before anything else, but if we're talking about suffering then there's really two things that I can think of. This is going to get ugly but… I really don't care at this point. If I give this bastard even a hint of mercy, I'll never be able to live with myself.'

And with that in mind, she got to work.

"So, now that I've given it more thought, you sure have a lovely set of bones don't you? But I don't think you're going to need those anymore. See your hands? I'm going to make all of you like that, how does that sound?"

At those words, Vincent began to panic. He struggled to shift and bow. He wanted to beg for mercy. Instead, as soon as a sound came out his mouth a boot crashed into his jaw. Immediately his face was damaged beyond recognition with the lower jaw being turned into a jumbled bloody mess.

The Archduchess' grin went wider as she was driven by pure sadism and a desire for recompense. She began to talk, emphasising every few words with a stomp that crushed and shattered bone.

"Now. Where. Should I. Begin? Your daughter. Is mine. And for what you did. I. Will have. You pay. One thousand fold."

By all means, the Baron ought to be unconscious, bleeding out and even dead by this point, and yet Valentina continued to pummel his bones and he continued to remain alive and awake in this unbearable hell of an existence.

Although she struggled to focus, Valentina had been using her magic in the background. While the blood aspect and hexcraft weren't particularly suitable for healing, they were very well suited for keeping people awake and alive. It was like she was magically maintaining the man's body so that he would be just lucid enough to comprehend his pain.

By the end of it all, only the most integral bones needed for his survival were left, and even those had been cracked and fractured. The person in front of her could hardly be recognized as a person but she knew she wasn't done.

'He beat her and tortured her for at least 9 years, and even longer if the Baroness was to be believed. That combined with how I found Dahlia… he deserves far worse than what I'm doing right now but, without more time, going to extreme measures is all I can do to make things right.'

She recollected her thoughts before the next and final stage. This would take a huge deal of concentration both with finesse but also with her maintenance of her life support magic. After a deep breath, she looked at Vincent and then leaned in. She traced a well manicured fingernail along his skin and what was left was a long thing cut.

This repeated a few times. The cuts themselves were so clean that, compared to the agony he was already in, the Baron could hardly feel anything happen to him. Despite still reeling from his recent treatment, when he felt that the new form of torture was less intense he couldn't help but relax and lower his guard. That was until a horrendous sound accompanied by visceral pain followed.

Valentina had begun to flay the Baron. Ripping and tearing off sheets of skin piece by piece until what was left behind was a bloody slab of meat. She looked down at the man with sheer and utter contempt. There was a strong sadistic side to her personality, and she certainly enjoyed what was happening to some degree, but her feelings with this were mixed.

'I want him to just die but I also want him to suffer. I want to drive him to insanity only to make him sane and destroy him all over again but, I don't want to look at his face another moment. I want to make him pay for his sins but… Dahlia is unconscious and waiting for me.'

Letting out a heavy sigh as she nonchalantly tore another sheet of skin off, Valentina began to speak as if she were casually going about her chores.

"Now listen worm. You caused years of suffering, but all I can do is give you as much agony as I can for a short period. I want you to listen closely because I'm about to introduce you to your new fate."

At this moment she began to focus more and more on her magic. Hexcrafting was an unusual type of schema. It combined constructive schema similar to runecrafting with channelling schema. A hexcrafter would use a medium to channel their magic through to bind them to their target. While different casters used different methods, it should be no surprise that Valentina fused her and her target's blood together to create a powerful link.

It was this exact methodology she began to use and trails of her blood could be seen glowing and mixing into the Baron's body. Although hexcrafting had more prerequisites than some may like and it could take longer to implement, once properly used it could be shockingly powerful. Hexes and curses weren't feared across the continent for no reason and the Archduchess was planning to show Vincent exactly why that was.

As her enchanted blood entered his system, she came to control more and more what would be happening over the next few days. A hex to keep him from bleeding out. Another to maintain hydration. A couple more to ensure he would remain awake and then finally a tracking hex that would make her aware if anyone tried to rescue him. With the amount of curses she had in him, she would even be able to kill him remotely in the worst case scenario.

She refused to let him have a single chance of escape.

"So, what's going to happen is that I'm going to be very preoccupied nursing your daughter back to health. I can't spare time for an insect like you. So what I'm going to do is leave you here to rot and suffer. I'll be keeping you alive and just on the brink of consciousness, all while you feel never ending pain as you starve and your injuries begin to fester."

She looked down at the man and relished the dread in his eyes. Tears were streaming out of them and it must have stung on the exposed flesh, but that was certainly the least of his worries. Thanks to Valentina's magic, he had already been fully conscious for actions that had ought to kill him dozens of times over, yet now all he heard is that days were planned for him to die in an even more horrific way.

"Listen here. Dahlia would have died of infection if it weren't for my intervention, all thanks to you. The suffering you feel now and until you die will be to make up for all of these years, but I've specifically chosen for you to die from rotting instead of anything else. I want you to feel the death you would have sentenced her to."

With that she stood up, scowling at the man at her feet. She desperately wanted more but the image of a girl on the verge of death flashed in her mind. As if to release the last of her pent up frustrations, she kicked the man in the stomach causing all the shattered bones in his body to shift and a horrific sound came from him that no human body should make.

Instead of being bothered by the sound though, Valentina just smirked with a sense of accomplishment. After a quick check to confirm no important organs were punctured and his death wouldn't be too quick, she finally began to walk out toward the door.

"I can only hope this was an introduction to the suffering that waits for you in the afterlife. I hope you burn in hell Vincent Lionysus."

And with that she slammed and locked the door behind her, leaving only the ungodly mockery of a human body in the room behind. At first, there was some weight still on her shoulders. She felt like she didn't do enough. That she may have let Dahlia down in the way the man paid his recompense.

But with each step she became less concerned. There were new things to worry about and more important actions to be taken. With a faint smile and a skip in her step she headed back to the room she first came from.

'Now, I think it's about time I take my sweetheart home~'