章 175: The girl in the stone

Deep in the darkness of the labyrinth, behind a pair of thick stone doors guarded by a pair of Cyclopses, was a cube made of a peculiar stone, and a girl entombed within it with only her head exposed. The girl was the princess of the vampire clans, and an Atavist, meaning she was able to use magic naturally and had a special skill. To use magic required one to use a chant and prepare a magic circle unless they had a strong affinity with the type of magic they wanted to use, Atavist's on the other hand were capable of using magic naturally without use of a chant or magic circle, and were considered the closest to the gods lineage. She also possessed the ability to automatically regenerate any physical injuries, even if her head was cut off she would be able to heal as long as she had magic. This also granted her immortality, which caused her to stop aging around the time she was thirteen years old, and preserved her all this time in the darkness.

Because of these abilities she was considered a threat to her uncles ambitions, and he had her sealed away since she couldn't be killed. She didn't know how long she had been down there, years, decades, centuries? All she had was darkness, until suddenly,

BOOM

CRASH

The doors that had always been standing in front of her, sealing her in darkness for all this time, were suddenly blown open. The girl was suddenly blinded by the first light she had seen in years, before a silhouette appeared. The figure was obviously muscular, had spiky hair, and seemed to have a tail dancing in the air behind him. She was dumbfounded for a moment, before she realized that this was her chance, and her horse voice sounded out,

"Please... help me..." She hoped this person would free her, that at last she would get to taste fresh air again. The man walked down the pile of destruction he caused, and asked,

"And why would I do that? How do I know you're not some kind of criminal or something, being sealed down here?" The girl panicked, worried he would leave her down there still, and hurriedly explained,

"I'm the princess of the vampire clans, I was betrayed by my uncle who wanted my power. They couldn't kill me so I was locked down here!" She hoped he would believe her, she pleaded within herself with everything she had that he would help her. The man walked up to her, and examined the cube holding her before saying,

"I can break this, but it would hurt you doing so." When the girl heard him she hesitated for a second. She had the ability to regenerate almost instantly, but she had no energy to do so without blood, she didn't want to ask him to let her bite him and risk scaring him away. The man sighed and said as if he knew what she was thinking,

"I guess as a vampire princess you need blood, right?" She looked away sheepishly, not wanting to admit the truth behind his words, before an arm was suddenly thrown into her vision. She looked at him in confusion, only for him to say,

"Go ahead, I'm not the one biting here." The girl hesitated for a second, then bit down on his arm. As the taste of blood filled her mouth for the first time in who knows how long, nothing tasted sweeter to the girl in her whole life. After drinking only a little bit of his blood, she felt more power in her body than she ever did before. Was his blood some kind of miracle drug? Soon his arm disappeared, and something impacted the cube holding her. It shuddered slightly, before it was impacted again. From seeing the state the Cyclopses were left in and what happened to the doors the girl knew that he would be able to destroy the cube holding her easily, but was holding back out of concern for her. A second later the most melodious sound she ever heard echoed throughout the cavern,

CRACK

A another hit, and the cube holding her split apart, dumping her body onto the cold stone floor. The girl didn't seem to register this however, as she simply looked at her hands for the first time in forever. As some footsteps approached her, the girl looked up and had tears starting to form in her eyes, she was free. She almost started crying, as she got out the words,

"...thank you..."

To which the man smiled in return. He then said,

"I have some companions here as well waiting a ways away, they'll get your clothes settled before we move on. Don't worry, they're girls as well." At his words she looked down and noticed that she was completely naked, and that her body was on display. She covered her intimate areas with her hands, and simply muttered,

"...pervert." To the man, even though he didn't do anything wrong. He only laughed in response, before she was suddenly scooped up in his arms as he flew out of the cave. She was suddenly being held close, and his hand was tightly grabbing onto her ass, making the girl think he was trying to suddenly take advantage of her. She was about to curse him, when there was suddenly a boom and the entire area started shaking. She looked over where her former prison was, and saw a giant monster standing there. The man suddenly said,

"It was probably a fail safe for if you tried to escape, hold on tight." She simply wrapped her arms around his neck, and held on as he instructed, no longer even caring where his hand was. The monster was like a giant scorpion, except with four pincers and two tails to use. The tails suddenly sprayed a purple ooze at them, which the man dodged with ease. The girl noticed that once the ooze contacted the floor the stone started melting away.

The man then used his free hand, and summoned a storm of flames that engulfed the monster, before it became a swirling vortex. The girl had noticed the man didn't use any form of chant or magic circle, and realized he was the same as her, an Atavist. While the monster was engulfed in the roaring inferno, and the man focused on his opponent, the girl simply stared at his face while it was lit up by the light from the flames. Several minutes later the flames started dying down, once more revealing the monster, except it's exoskeleton was glowing from being super headed by the flames. Suddenly the man holding her moved at impossible speeds to arrive right on top of the monster, before he thrusted his fist down and completely crushed it under his blow.

The monster and the labyrinth floor both caved in, leading to a crater forming under them. The monster shuddered a few more times, before all life left it. The girl was starring down at it dumbfounded, before the man said,

"My names Alex by the way, what's yours?" The girl was brought out of her thoughts at the simple question, a simple question she didn't have an answer for. She decided she didn't want to cling to her past, and said,

"You decide." Alex shrugged at her words, and seemed to think for several moments before saying,

"How about Yue?" The girl was taken back by the name, and said with a questioning tone,

"Yue?" Alex nodded and said,

"It means the moon, here in the dark labyrinth you kind of look similar to the moon." The girl, no, Yue smiled at his words, and said,

"Then from now on I'm Yue!" With a smile on her face, the first one since before she was sealed. While Alex was still holding onto her they made their way back to the companions he claimed to have. Yue didn't mind about being carried by him now, or that his hand was still on her ass. She simply enjoyed the feeling of being close to him, until she saw the rest of his party, and recalled him mentioning they were all girls. It seemed she wasn't the only one to have this kind of reaction, as all of their faces screamed 'what the hell?!', while the dark skinned girl even stood up and yelled,

"The police! Who knows how to the call the police here?!" Causing both Yue's and Alex's eyes to twitch. Though she didn't understand what exactly the girl was talking about, she could tell she was referring to her as a child. After several minutes of Alex explaining what happened, while Grayfia hurriedly clothed Yue, the girls stopped looking at him like a criminal. Though there was still a few glares, especially when Yue sat in his lap like it was the most natural thing. And so, Alex's group had another addition.

(A.N. About how Alex interacted with Yue at first, someone showing up and knowing everything about you when you've been locked away for several centuries is shady as hell, so I had him pretend not to know anything about her. Same with the details of her being sealed, after just being released she wouldn't be ready to hear the truth.)