Dragonborn Saga

Chapter 775: The New Breed

On the other side of Skyrim, a scene of ultimate brutality was unfolding. Villager women, taken from all over, were gathered in an ancient crypt by the Volkihar Vampires; all of them were enthralled and bewitched so as not to resist the pull of the vampires’ eyes.

Their purpose was shrouded in mystery, even for the senior vampire officers. However, only a select few knew the purpose of such human cattle, and if it were for blood, the number would not be so high. There was taking it too far, and then there was this, the level where madness and genius collided.

This "project", if it were to be called such, started when Volkihar went out of his way to search for his estranged wife, Valerica, by himself. It was not difficult for him to know where she had escaped to after gathering enough clues, and he travelled through the endless realms of Oblivion just to seek her advice.

This time, when he came, he requested no Elder Scroll and sought no power of his own. He said that he had had a vision, and it was of Serana having the sun in her womb. So, after investigation, he discovered that his daughter had somehow become pregnant of her own volition through an elaborate and precise arcane procedure.

Recruiting Valerica back to his side took considerable effort, but he was smart enough to mention that a vision granted to a being like him held some truth, and he gave her his noble word that his plans had changed and he no longer wanted to draw the blood of their daughter to block out the sun. Rather, what he had found after so long was their oldest of dreams: how to forever stop the Sun’s Curse against vampires.

For vampires that had existed for over a millennium, trying to break the Sun’s Curse was something that they had attempted at least once in their long lives, but from that attempt, one truth was always realised, and it was the fact that the Dragon of Time, as well as many Aedra, were not even interested in the salvation of vampires.

But now things had changed, and a new breed of vampires was on the rise. There was no longer the need to defy Akatosh if Akatosh himself was going to welcome the vampires into his fold.

While it all seemed like a tall tale, Harkon gave his noble word to never chase Valerica ever again if this vision turned out to be false. But if it were to turn out to be the truth, they should join hands for a better outcome than the prophecy of the Tyranny of the Sun. After all, not even Valerica would want to spend the rest of eternity trapped by the Ideal Masters in the Soul Cairn.

Valerica agreed to that and returned temporarily to Castle Volkihar. That is when Harkon used all his cunning to devise a foolproof plan in order to capture the moth priest, Dexion Evicus, and made him read Valerica’s Elder Scroll once found.

Then the new prophecy was recited, and Harkon finally felt that the connection within him to his grandchild was more special than ever. Even Valerica felt that connection too once she was out of the Soul Cairn, and now the two joined hands together to retrieve Serana and her child.

But unlike Valerica, who wanted to put Serana and her child first for the sake of the new prophecy, Harkon, ever the pragmatist, started working on how to hasten the prophecy at all costs, and his work led him to a new discovery.

How did Serana make life within her?

A question so baffling that it made Harkon and Valerica ponder for days, and the result they arrived at was maybe another stroke of genius from the same line. However, whereas Serana’s genius sparked from a place of longing and love, Harkon’s and Valerica’s came from a place of lust for power.

There were records of many vampire half-breeds before, but vampires had always scorned the idea, seeing them as incomplete and imperfect, but with Night Heir being a half-breed in itself, this view switched overnight, and ancient vampires like Harkon and Valerica were quick to recognise their flaw.

So, it was the age of half-breeds, and the reason why many women were kidnapped from the lightly secured villages all over Skyrim.

Harkon contemplated the mere idea of this new path of survival as he gazed upon his own creation, the newly made hybrid.

"Half-vampires, half-men."

Upon uttering those words, his gaze fell upon a figure with ashen skin, intensely crimson eyes, and hair as dark as ink. In some way, there was a great resemblance between that being and Harkon, almost as if looking at a younger version of himself.

"Is this it? Is this how we survive from now on?"

The question reverberated through the myriad thoughts he was experiencing at the moment, adding new ideas and taking down others. It was from his partner in crime, the architect of his vile new plan, Valerica. She who examined not only the being in front of him, but the hundred others standing silently and menacingly in the dark, humid cave. ȐАΝổ𝐛ËⱾ

"I don’t know," Harkon replied as he closed his eyes, "but the prophecy won’t fulfil itself overnight; there will be those who resist it. Even with the… spawns, we need the power to protect what is ours."

These spawns, while numbering over a hundred in this cave alone, were merely one part of the experiment using the new imitation Valerica developed from Serana’s masterpiece.

While Serana’s divinely sourced blood was superior to anything they could acquire, and a Blood Gem was the optimal way to harness its power for her plans, Valerica could only create the Blood Seed from Harkon’s blood, and what it was used for was a process that was morbid and frightening.

Those women who were kidnapped from all the corners of Skyrim were the fertile ground to grow such seeds, the only prospect for that seed to grow and create a Spawn, an instantly grown clone with half-vampire, half-human genes.

"So a legion of these, and we can secure ourselves an empire; is that your plan?" Valerica asked, disgusted by Harkon’s shortsightedness.

"You have always thought of me as a shallow man, ever since the day we first met," he replied, returning criticism with its kind. "No. I can summon a greater number of undead in mere seconds, more superior than this filth."

"Then what is your grand plan?"

"Nothing of the sort. One cannot build an empire with soulless soldiers anyway," he said, and held the face of one of the spawns closer after examining a few of them. "I like the face on this one."

"Just because he resembles you the most?" Valerica asked.

"Yes. It means that we are closer to our goal than we once were," Harkon said with a twisted smile, revealing his dark ambition.

"So that was your idea all along." Valerica was quick to catch on to the line of thought of the man she knew the most. "I admit that would be impressive."

"I know," he said, taking a liking to the fantastical stroke of genius that struck him. He proudly spoke: "Why make an army of these when we can make an army of me?"

Valerica knew exactly what he was thinking, and it was nothing short of horrifying to her mind rather than just impressive. But she had to admit it: only a twisted mind like his could be the tool to advance this phase of the prophecy with this practical pragmatism.

What Harkon wanted was not an army of hybrid spawns; what he wanted was an army of hybrid clones, others who could think and act like him with both his combat style and experience, a perfect legion for the perfect commander.

"Let’s send the failures to the field to get some use out of them. This time, we will change our approach. Rather than targeting women for reproduction, I want to target men and women, ones who are good combatants, preferably."

Valerica seemed to be steering off the experiment, which made Harkon frown, but he only looked at her, waiting for an explanation.

"While it is easier to follow the natural order and imitate what Serana has done with pregnancy, we do not have the luxury of time, since we will run out of opportunities to make spawns, let alone clones, in the future. What we need is to transform rather than grow; it will be a harder process to maintain, but with enough materials, we can make half-clones, which will be easier to control and already grown up," she explained.

"But this will leave them with agency and will," Harkon argued.

"Your blood will take care of one half; your ability to enthrall will take care of the other," Valerica said as she provoked his pride subtly. "You don’t think you can do it?"

"Hmph!" Harkon snorted, fully remembering what the relationship with that woman was always like.

The two of them parted ways, each to their own work: Harkon to lead the spawns and his other loyalist vampires into raids, Valerica to grow more lab spawns in their journey to make the perfect army of clones.

They had one grand ambition that united them: the Vampires’ Empire, and it was what kept them from tearing each other to shreds.

Still, as they turned their backs to one another, the look in their eyes changed, each scheming a plot of their own, and wishing the other would just drop dead the moment their goal was achieved.

However, this is the phase they needed to create their own army, the phase of the army of clones.

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