DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

"Congratulations Isaac, you just made my efforts in town meaningless?" 

Her voice was low, seething, heralded by an intense stare that made his chest constrict. Like prey caught in the sight of a predator, he instinctively took a step back. However, shortly after doing so a different kind of feeling coursed through his chest, causing him to groan while venting chilly air out his nose. He narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw, straightening his back to face the phantom. 

To leave a community at the mercy of an undead was against everything he stood for. He was no longer a Paladin or Tiih's Guard Captain; both jobs had been an integral part of his identity, but only a part. First and foremost, he was a protector. If someone was in danger, he would not avert his eyes no matter what that despicable creature told him.

If she's upset with me, she should just kill me, he thought as he returned her glare.

"Please sock yourself in the face for me."

Isaac did not have the time to process her words, when his clenched fist rushed up to his face. The blow caught him square on the jaw, causing him to instinctively let loose a pained howl. The punch had withheld nothing and its aftermath had the entire right side of his face flaring in pain. The one saving grace was that he was no longer as sensitive as he used to be. If it had not been so, there was little doubt he would have walked away with a migraine. In spite of the sting, his eyes remained fixed on Sage, unwilling to look away.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" she demanded. 

"I was ridding the town of a threat," he replied defiantly.

His answer caused her gaze to intensify, a glare he returned defiantly; there was no way he was backing away from this. The staring contest last for several seconds before- surprisingly- Sage looked away. Her eyes fell on the chamber's other occupant.

"You," she barked. "Come here." 

The one in question bore a look of absolute terror, all of it directed at the phantom. The subsequent step she took in Sage's direction was sluggish and unwilling. If that had not been enough to shed light on her current predicament, then her scrounged up face was evidence of her struggle. She was not in control of her body's movements. The closer the distance between herself and the phantom, the greater the fear displayed in her eyes became. Her efforts, as obvious as they were, proved fruitless in the end. Soon she was standing in front of Sage. At this point, her lips were quivering with not only fear, but despair as well.

"Wh- who are you?" the she asked in a shaky voice, a vast contrast to the tone used when she had fought him.

Sage withheld her response, instead walking circles around the vampire. An uncanny amount of mana was concentrated in her eyes as she looked the bloodsucker up and down. 

If it had been under different circumstances, Isaac would have found the ordeal comical. Here was a woman standing above one hundred and eighty centimetres wearing a nervous and timid expression inspired by a woman who barely passed shoulder; in his experience, it was usually the other way around.

Sadly, the current situation was no laughing matter. The tension in the room seemed almost pulpable as Sage continued to circle the bloodsucker.

"I've never met a vampire before." Her voice was tinged with curiosity, the kind a cat displayed when in the presence of a mouse; the kind that chilled the mouse to the core.

"My sire is very powerful!" the vampire burst out. "If you kill me he will-"

"Shut up!"

And just like that, she fell silent. No more words came out of her mouth, no matter how many times she opened and closed it. The realisation caused her eyes to widen further in horror. 

But Sage was no longer paying attention to her. The phantom squatted down and put the cat on the floor, after which she held out her hand towards it.

"Knife," she ordered. "And all the empty flasks."

Nyx spat the ornamental dagger into her palm before proceeding to carefully dump the flasks on the floor. Seeing this display and guessing what was about to come, the vampire's expression was now littered with pure terror. Her expression conveyed her situation clearly to Isaac. The vampire was trying to flee, without any success.

"Don't move," Sage ordered drawing closer to her. The dagger rested neatly in the phantom's right palm while she used [Mage Hand] to float one of the flasks to her left hand. "And please don't scream. Its unpleasant and distracting."

Watching her drag the knife along the vampire's forearm, the rate at which he blew air out his nose increased. The floor before him glazed with frost as he watched the phantom telekinetically scoop the blood into the empty flask. He watched the vampire wince in agony and ground his teeth to the point where he felt they might crack.

Though the vampire had opened up her own arm when she fought him, the flow of blood had stopped quickly and the gash had healed almost immediately. This time, with Sage initiating it, the flow did not stop; or at least it was not allowed to stop. Every time it dwindled and the wound began to seal itself the phantom would reopen it with her knife. The flask filled up quickly and was soon replaced by a second one. The phantom was determined to drain the bloodsucker dry.

Inhuman monster.

Undead were abominations who deserved to be wiped off the face of Aran. Those who associated with them deserved the harshest punishments. Isaac believed this from the bottom of his heart; becoming an undead had only strengthened this belief instead of vice versa. So he should not be feeling anything from watching the vampire's silent torment. It was just that… he loathed Sage so much! Every one of her actions was anger-inducing!

"You should have listened to me Bastard Isen," a smug voice whispered in his ear.

The feeling of Nyx's whiskers against his ear drew his attention to his shoulder. The annoying cat had jumped out of his shadow and latched onto his neck. At the moment, the little bastard's green orbs were a mixture of animosity and schadenfreude, which told Isaac he was deliberately sinking his claws into his skin. If not for the fact that he did not bleed, his blood would be pooling to the floor.

"Now Master's gonna deal with you." There was elation mixed into Nyx's sneer. "Good luck with that!"

Isaac decided to look away and ignore the cat. It was what the phantom did whenever she was annoyed with him and it seemed to work better than anything else.

Time passed and half a dozen flasks were filled. By then the fear on the vampire's face had morphed to ferocity and deliriousness. 

The loss of blood triggers the Thirst in vampires. The more blood is lost, the more it grows; until the it becomes so unbearable that they lose control of themselves and attack the nearest red-blooded creature.

However, although it was evident this particular vampire had entered a frenzied state, she remained rooted without uttering a sound. It was clear as day that she wanted to move, but found herself unable to. Witnessing this, Isaac felt a bout of uneasiness encroaching as his gaze moved to the phantom…

After filling up the sixth flask, the undead in question sealed the bottles and called to Nyx, who readily responded before proceeding to jump off Isaac's shoulder and run up to her.

"Grab the flasks, and the girl," Sage ordered. "There might be use for her later."

"Yes Master!" the cat responded eagerly.

Then he swallowed the flasks, walked over to feral vampire and sucked her in, something which caused Isaac's brows to tilt upwards. Had the cat always been able to swallow a person?

As soon as the question came, it was cast aside when Sage vanished from her spot. Not a moment later she appeared in front of the throne and sat herself down. One elbow rested on an arm of the throne, belonging to the hand which was used to support her chin. She folded her legs comfortably and, with her free hand, beckoned the cat. In response, Nyx rushed to her and jumped into her lap. When Sage's unoccupied hand stroked his fur, he let out a satisfied purr.

"You went against my wishes Isaac." The phantoms eyes, honed to a glare once again, returned to him. 

"Do you expect me to apologise?" he scoffed.

"An apology that isn't genuine is meaningless. I'd rather not have it," she replied. "But I'm still curious. Why?"

"To leave a town of innocent people at the mercy of a vile undead is against everything I stand for," he answered honestly, boldly staring back. "If you truly wanted me to not interfere, you should have specifically ordered me against it."

For a second the anger in the phantom's eyes intensified. However, she did not lash out. Instead she took a deep breath and exhaled, allowing the anger to thaw in the process. If Isaac wanted to push her to eliminate him, he was going to have to work harder.

"This scenario is happening in hundreds of places around Rekke. What difference does it make if there is one more community being stalked by a vampire? Was it that hard to avert your eyes?"

"As long as it's happening in front of me, I will never avert my eyes," he replied strongly. "As an agent of the righteous Goddess I have sworn to protect the people and route out Her enemies!"

"Agent of Shea?" a scoff was added to her glare. "You were stripped of Paladin status."

"Being a member of the Order is only a formality," Isaac fired back. "As long as I worship the Radiant Goddess with all my heart, I will continue to be her agent."

An unpleasant smile wormed its way to Sage's lips. "Do you think your goddess will still accept your worship, considering what you have become?"

"Undead are an abomination," he said, foregoing an answer. "They defile the sacred realm of the Goddess and must be eliminated!"

"You can't answer my question, can you?" the phantom snarled. "No surprise there. You're a fucking fanatic. You choose only the parts of your goddess that you like while wilfully ignoring what you don't."

"Hold your tongue, filthy undead!" he snarled.

It was via the grace of Shea that life persisted. That alone was enough for him to express his gratitude. He had been a starving child on the streets when a priestess of Shea picked him up. Later he had been trained in how to serve the Goddess. His entire existence was owed to Her mercy. For that reason he would not allow anyone- ANYONE- to speak ill of Her.

In response, Sage's glare eased into something akin to amusement. She stopped leaning on her hand and sank into the throne. The shift was less than two seconds, and in that all time she never let up on stroking the cat, or keeping her eyes on Isaac.

"You continue to talk as if you are not one," she finally replied. When he did not respond back, she continued. "An interesting fact to note is that there is no mention of necromancy in records from the beginning of the Arcane Era. In fact, there is no mention of the dead crawling out of their graves until the Days of Gloom. There are texts from that time-period that speak of bringing the dead back to live. But the process was deemed a failure; [Resurrection] had been tried and deemed impossible. Yet, during the Gloom corpses were walking about and those who perished before reaching the end of their lifespan could be brought back to life.

"Pray tell, what major event happened between the appearance of Argun and that of the Dark Lord? Why did an art previous deemed impossible suddenly become viable?" Her gaze towards him turned meaningful. "Being such a loyal Shean dog, I'm sure you have already figured it out. After all, was it not the reason why the Church of Life covered it up to the point where they altered the Creation epic?" 

"YOU WILL NOT SLANDER THE GODDESS IN MY PRE-"

"YOUR FUCKING GODDESS KILLED THE ASPECT OF DEATH!" Sage yelled over him. Then, in a lower voice, she went on. "The righteous Shea saw what Rakka did to Tizhura and thought she could reciprocate it with Vatran. Shea hungered for more power, but fucked up and failed! 

"With no successor to the Sleeper's domain, the Authority of Death diminished. This is why undead exist, but it is also the reason why it's possible to cast [Resurrection]. If Vatran were still alive, the dead would not rise in any form!"

The phantom snarled further as her expression regained its original intensity.

"So you can quit your fucking comments about undead being vile abominations. Your goddess is responsible for our existence!"