Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 462 462: Be at peace

There's something quite evil, and maybe a little sad about not wanting someone around so much, and yet repressing all that hatred until it becomes imbued with Mana and gains life to exist independent of you.

When Kaya first returned home and the atmosphere felt stifling, with an aura of unwantedness, she was ready to accept it as normal. It had been normal her whole life.

However, her refined perception picked up on the aura as an entity that could be faced and maybe defeated. She spent the days following her return working on introspection and trying to learn what magic would work best.

It became very obvious early on that the only magic that could help face off this entity was the same magic that had allowed Kaya to sense it at all; Nature Magic.

Alas, Kaya's Nature Magic was self-taught. There was no one she knew to ask for advice. Sure, she could help herself along by studying Light Magic, but at best she would just be sinking in some blanks and left with a picture she couldn't really see and didn't quite understand.

Kaya spent so long agonizing over what to do next. She had wondered if her knowledge of Mature Magic thus far would be enough. All the while, the unwanted air continued to grow more and more stifling. Getting to the point where falling asleep was a chore.

It was as though spending months away from home had been enough to acclimate Kaya to how the atmosphere should normally feel. All the pressures of school were nothing compared to this pressure that made her feel like she didn't belong at home.

Now back at the Grand Manor and struggling to fall asleep, Kaya found herself remembering her experiences growing up. She remembered how for years, she was never not wearing a hat or head tie with the tips of her ears tucked in to hide them away.

She remembered being scolded whenever any of her ears slipped out of her hat/head tie. She remembered how it all created a complex in her that made it so even whenever she left the Manor and its unwelcome pressure behind, it seemed to weigh on her shoulders still.

She remembered how when she became a teenager, the biggest act of teenage rebellion she could think of was to stop wearing hats and be proud of her ears. And oh, could she remember how her stepmother wouldn't even look at her on those days and wouldn't deign to be in the same place as her.

Kaya remembered how she never really made friends. She remembered how every waking day, she felt like a freak that didn't belong. Even after she eventually let her ears out for show, that didn't change. It seemed to get worse in fact.

Even acts of kindness and words of admiration from a very select few—most of them workers at the Manor—seemed to her like they were observing her. Like she was locked in some cage and they were peering in trying to get her to do tricks for them like a zoo animal.

Every time they cooed or liked something that she did with her ears, with her magic, it always seemed to be more about her half-elf heritage rather than being about her as an individual.

Accepting that that was never going to change was Kaya's first step into pseudo-adulthood. While it might be irritating, she now understood the curiosity. There weren't many half-elves around. She was indeed a rarity.

She stopped caring how her presence affected anyone in the Manor. She sat at the dinner table with her family and didn't act like she saw whenever her stepmother turned her nose up at her.

She stood her ground against her brothers and even though her magic was nothing compared to theirs, she pushed it to its absolute limit to make sure she wasn't pushed around.

And her father? Well, it's hard to have memories of doing anything different with someone you hardly ever saw. All her life, the number of times Kaya had seen and spoken with her father was in the single digits. And conversations were usually limited to passive greetings.

'He's a busy man,' Kaya had rationalized to herself.

All in all, Kaya began to actually live for the first time. She chatted with the Manor workers—the closest she had to friends—and refined her conversation skills.

She became more open about practicing her Nature Magic as well as the other Elements she felt affinities with.

But even though she became less of a shut-in and actually developed her personality, the aura remained. It didn't change no matter how well she lived. And it was one of the reasons that the day she headed off to Lochxen became Kaya's happiest day ever as of then. The prospect of spending months away from that unwelcome aura was a delight.

And what an experience it had been.

Kaya smiled when her reminiscing reached this point. She remembered making a friend for the first time— well, one that didn't work at her father's Manor anyway. She remembered meeting Caius and everything else that happened after…

It was only a few months but Kaya got very used to normalcy. Not just in atmosphere but in relationships. She got used to tenderness. She experienced an actual rivalry—mostly with Aylin Khione—that didn't make her a perpetual bullying victim but one where she was very much her opponent's equal.

She got used to feeling a wild variety of emotions—including rage, anger, annoyance, and others—and not feeling ashamed of feeling them.

She got used to truly living.

So, of course, when she returned home, she couldn't help lying in bed, tossing and turning while being sure this atmosphere was abnormal. Kaya was sure the new normal she experienced in Lochxen was what aided her refined Perception to sense the issue at hand.

And now, after she had become convinced she had the magic needed, she picked a hall in the Manor and prepared a ritual of sorts that pulled the Unwelcome Aura from all over the Grand Manor, forcing its consciousness to gather and gain enough depth to expose the crux of the emotion that gained life.

*GRRRRRRRRRRRR*

A growl thrummed out with a tremor so deep that it shook the Hall and likely the building it was in.

Kaya opened her eyes, a luminosity shone in her leaf green eyes as her lips turned up in a tired smile.

"There you are," she said in a low voice, "Took you long enough to show up."

Above Kaya's head was a deep blue haze that collected and took on a form that looked like a mask with its lips turned in perpetual sadness, pain, and regret.

The lack of definite features made it impossible for Kaya to know whose face the Mask was supposed to represent and that caused her to frown. She had been hoping for a clue on whose emotions exactly this thing had originated from.

Fortunately, she didn't need that information to exorcise it.

"You've existed long enough," Kaya said as she stood to her feet glaring at the deep-blue mask of sadness,

"You've cast your doom and displeasure for long enough. Be at peace."

For an answer, the mouth on the mask remained closed, but a sound thrummed deep from its hazy blue form, rocking the building even harder as it roared.

"RARRRRRRRRR!!!"

The force of the roar smacked Kaya and pushed her back but she struck her staff into the ground, sinking it in for an anchor as she gritted her teeth and let loose Nature energy to combat the force.

"Fine," she said resolutely,

"If it's force you want, so be it. One way or another, there will be peace."