Dracula: Patient zero

Chapter: 5

A new world

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[1000 BC]

In the city of Felsina near what would become (in modern days) the city of Bologna, North of Italy. In a temple made of a giant stone base and stone columns with luxurious drapery between them serving as a wall and room divider, a man approach a group of elders sitting at a long table at the end of a corridor facing the entry.

Once arrived a few meters away from the elders, the man kneeled and bows to show his respect to the visibly important figures sitting ahead of him. The bowing man's name was Velthur Tlesnasa, an important political figure in the Etruscan civilization.

In 1000bc, Rome was still a small colony that territories included no more than 1/10 of Italy. The true rulers of these lands in those days were the Etruscans. Their territory expanded from north to south surrounding the small city of Rome.

While the rest of the world was mostly forging bronze, the Etruscans were already mass-producing iron and were master seafarers. They built massive ships capable of transporting twenty tons of cargo across the Mediterranean Sea. Truly a remarkable civilization but let's go back to Velthur Tlesnasa for now.

«Elder #1» Velthur, what is your reason for visiting us here today?

«Velthur» Great elders, I have most displeasing news to transmit to you... He said showing a serious expression.

«Elder #2» And what bad news may that be?

«Velthur» Some of my men reported discovering a group of individual who worship the Egyptian God of chaos 'Set'

«Elder #1» Sacrilegious!

«Elder #2» More and more of these pagans keep appearing...

«Velthur» I have knowledge of the location they gather at, to worship under the cover of night.

«Elder #1» Thank you for reporting this to us... We shall take actions aimed at sending a message to those who which to worship those 'foreign Gods'...

[Later that day]

Velthur is walking through a dark hallway lightened by oil burning torches. Velthur is walking down a set of stairs, then another long hallway. Under the dim light Velthur's steps are echoing throughout the entire underground complex.

After a few minute he finally reach a dark room with a luxurious bed and what looked like a throne carved in wood. Velthur is quickly walking in front of the 'throne', kneeled and start addressing a dark figure sitting on it.

«Velthur» Master, I have accomplished what you have asked of me. He said still staring at the ground, not daring to look at the dark figure in the eyes.

«Dark figure» Excellent my dear Velthur, you did well. Pack our things! I assume you made preparation for my ship to depart tonight.

«Velthur» Yes master, may I ask where we are heading to?

«Dark figure» We shall take my ship and cross the sea heading south. We need to get as far away as possible from here...

«Velthur» Yes master!

Velthur then left in a hurry to execute his orders. The dark figure then reached for a book place on an altar to his left. The incredibly old looking book had pages made out of dried human skin, and written with blood as ink.

This book would be known later under the name 'Necronomicon' the book of the dead. The dark figure then delicately opened the book to a page marked with a golden marker and started reading it out loud, his words echoing inside the deep and dark underground complex.

«Dark figure» ”His coming shall be drenched in the blood of men. With chaos and destruction as his mistresses, he shall bring forth dominion to creatures of the night over men.”

«Dark figure» You called me an heretic... Someone believing in fantasy, plagued by wishful thinking... We shall now see who was in the wrong. Mwahahahahahaha!*

[A few days later]

In the dead of night, a group of dark cloaked figures wearing bronze ceremonial masks were slowly gathering in the middle of an ancient stone formation hidden deep in the forest. The figures carrying torches are humming what sounded like religious chant while taking position around a stone altar in the middle.

Many bronze bowls holding wine, fruits and different offerings were presented while they were reciting prayers their eyes toward the sky. One of them, wearing a mask representing an animal called a 'Sha*' approached the altar a chicken in his hand.

Sha: It is approximately the size of a fox or a dog. Its ears are squared at the ends, and its stiff, nearly-always upright tail may either be forked, or tipped like the tail of a lion. Its snout slightly curves downward.

The deity 'Set' is often represented with the head of such an animal, and so it is unknown if the creature is truly fictional, or a beast that existed, but is now long extinct. More likely, the animal simply doesn't exist on this planet, in this dimension, or on this plane of existence anymore, but otherwise, it is a thriving species (as is the case with many supposedly extinct animals).

The 'Sha' masked man then brings the chicken to the altar holding it by the neck, drew out a dagger and stab the chicken through the heart, filling a bronze bowl with it's blood. Then as the man readied himself for his monologue, Etruscan soldiers started appearing from every direction circling them.

These soldiers wore leather and bronze armor and wielded bronze swords and spears. In their left hands, they held a 20kg bronze shield depicting scary figures with tantalizing white eyes. Etruscans excelled at adorning their shields with a convincingly ferocious-looking god. It was used to signal to the opponent that the gods were on the side of the Etruscans. Perhaps the God-On-Shield also served as psychological reinforcement for them.

The masked men immediately started panicking and drew daggers while facing toward the soldiers. Then one of the soldiers wearing a luxurious engraved bronze chest plate and helmet coiffed of beautiful red hairs called a 'crest' stepped forward.

Crest*: There are several helmet designs found at Etruscan sites, the most distinctively Etruscan being the so-called “crested helm” variety. The crest is fashioned by joining two embossed plates (or laminae) into a high peak pointed crest. The high crest is frequently embossed with decorations. In addition to the Crested Helm a number of other varieties of helms have been found in Etruscan tombs. Often the design is a semi-spherical cap, with no decoration or with appliqués. Another variation to the common semi-spherical cap is cheek guards attached by hinges. (Romans will later inspire themselves from these helmet to design their famous Galea (helmets)

The important looking soldier then addressed the surrounded cultists who were still in panic.

«Soldier's leader» In the name of imperium 'Larce Vipinas', currently elected ruler under this year's 'Fanum Voltumna*', I hereby condemn you heretics to death!

Fanum Voltumna*: Each Etruscan city state was under the command of important representatives of the city oligarchy. As each city sent delegates once a year to Fanum Voltumna to elect a common leader, this could indicate in times of war when joint operations with other Etruscan cities was planned, a supreme commander (imperium) was elected, but the literary evidence seems to suggest the election of a common leader at Fanum Voltumna was more likely a religious function as Voltumna was the Etruscan chief god. The title of the president of the League is not known and there is no recorded instant of a federal Etruscan army. From the literary evidence it appears an Etruscan army consisting of various city-states did not have an overall unified hierarchical command structure.

«Soldiers» KILL THE HERETICS!!!! Roared the soldiers.

Carnage then occurred, the cultists being outnumbered and competing against armored and armed soldiers couldn't offer any proper resistance and got annihilated in a few minutes. Having been decimated, the cultists were left lying on the ground, their blood dyeing the dry earth red.

Their blood drenched the ground making it turn into a stinky dark brown mud. The soldiers then started gathering the corpses into a pile after looting them of any valuables. They then started pouring oil on them, lighting them on fire preventing the corpses from rotting and transmitting diseases.

As the soldiers were gathered around looking at the burning corpses, they failed to notice what was happening behind them under the cover of darkness. The blood drenched soil started swelling, slowly moving up and down.

As if the ground itself was alive, movements were perceptible. After a few minutes, as the moon was theatrically starting to emit a reddish hue, a skinless arm suddenly appeared coming out of the ground. Then a head, and a torso... Like a zombie crawling out of his grave, Valdr was digging himself out of the blood soaked ground.

He had been brought back to life... Reborn under a crimson moon, Valdr was confused and slowly gathering his thoughts... What was happening? He wondered... Then a soldier who happened to finally look behind him saw a skinless corpse, slowly rising up from his previous crouching position.

«Soldier» Wh..W..wh..w.What is that?.... MONSTER!!!!!

All the other soldiers immediately reacted by unsheathing their weapons and turning around to face the menace. As he was suffering the worst pain imaginable from being skinless, Valdr was looking at them in silence.

Then opening his mouth wide as his canines were growing and his eyes turning black, Valdr made his move. In a flash Valdr appeared in front of the nearest soldier and thrusted his fist through the man bronze chest plate and rib cage, crushing his heart before finally coming out through the back layer of his bronze plate.

The other soldiers awestruck were frozen in place for a few seconds as Valdr quickly moved to the next one shredding heads and limbs to pieces in his path. The soldiers finally composing themselves fought back as hard as they could.

After a few minutes of fighting and at the price of many serious injuries, Valdr manages to kill the 30 soldiers. He kept two of them alive since he knew that feeding on live prey would give him more of their memories and knowledge.

The weird animal skins they wore to protect themselves had immediately intrigued Valdr. What animal could shine this brightly and be as hard as stone? They also wore strange clothing that seemed to come from a different world.

He didn't recognize anything, the people looked alien to him... There was only confusion in his heart so he hoped to understand a bit more after feeding on his prisoners, which he did quite brutally soon after. Immediately inundated by to many information to quickly understand, Valdr was amazed.

The world was not what he once knew... These people had memories and knowledge unimaginable to him back in his days... Mathematics, science, biology, star reading, etiquette, reading, writing, history and more and more....

He only had factional information but was none the less awe struck.... As his body finalized his reconstruction leaving him bald, Valdr was still analyzing his new gained knowledge... Yes Valdr was bald... The body reconstructs itself but hairs need to grow at their normal speed...

He was naked, covered in blood and mud, looking delirious as he laughed and showed various confusing facial expressions. Valdr was amazed, the world was now a much more interesting place to be. He had memories of past and present civilizations, major wars and religious/superstitious beliefs.

He remembered clearly dying as someone with no desire to live on but in this new world... Power wasn't only through the body but also through politics, money, celebrity, status, and through the mind of geniuses and revolutionary men....

Valdr was now hooked... Knowledge... Is something he wanted. He wanted to know everything, all the mysteries of this world he wanted to conquer. But then another feeling went through his mind. While Valdr had been dead he could remember being conscious in some other page of existence.

He was there, yet nowhere. He was conscious, yet unconscious... It felt like eternity but he had a lot of time to think about his life... His biggest regret was to throw away his humanity and let himself being manipulated by the Gods.

His most vivid memory was of him taking the resolution to never let himself be manipulation in any way. He was going to sober up, take control of his destiny and if possible regain his humanity. And from what he knew so far, this was the world to do just that.

Valdr looked around, the moon was high up… He only has a few hours... In a flash he disappeared, running south looking for a shelter before sunrise. He ran and ran, then suddenly stopped... Up ahead he could feel the highest concentration of human he had ever felt in his life.

A town on a scale unimaginable back in his days... As he wanted to control his blood urges, it probably was best for him to stay away from such a place... Even though he felt a powerful attraction to it... Curiosity? Or simply thirst... His entire soul wanted him to go there.

Luckily, Valdr was well fed at this moment so he mustered his courage and circled around the town. (Which truly was a city) As the sun was soon to raise Valdr started to panic a little... In this new world, there was nowhere to hide... Humans were everywhere.

Having failed to find a 'lair' he was now worry about his chances of survival. He then turned his attention to a relatively big house on the outskirt of town, isolated in a swampy area. Valdr quickly ran there and felt the presence of one human sleeping inside.

He needed to simply kill the person and sleep there for a day but he now wanted to avoid acting too harshly... The door was locked, so Valdr circled the house looking for an entry point that he found almost immediately.

There was an opening up in the corner of the roof leading to an attic. Valdr crawled in and took in his surrounding... The attic was dusty, many weird contraptions were stacked everywhere. There were bales of hay, chests filled with clotting and other miscellaneous items.

Looking through the wood plank, Valdr could see an old bearded man sleeping in a hammock down below. The house was filled with strange sculptures, potteries, manuscripts and other weird contraptions. Everything Valdr looked at was a mystery... Something he had never seen had no idea what it was or what it was used for.

Seeing as the sun was going up, Valdr scattered a bit of hay around making himself a bed and went to sleep still overflowed by his new found partial knowledge. His brain still on overdrive, Valdr couldn't find sleep... The man eventually got up, and started crafting intricate potteries made out of clay.

Valdr who couldn't find sleep, observed the man craftsmanship attentively instead. Observing everything through the cracks of the wooden planked ceiling, Valdr was mesmerized by the man finesse and abilities.

Then later that day, the man placed his potteries into a big furnace and seemed to be preparing for something. A while later, a young boy came running and entered without knocking as if he owned the place.

«Young boy» Teacher Quintus! Teacher Quintus!

«Quintus» There you are Sethre!! Quickly take your place... Today I will teach you the basics of mathematics.

«Sethre» Awwwwww Said the young boy looking disapointed.

«Quintus» Hahaha if you still can't see the necessity for mathematics, then that means that you are still immature young man. Hearing that the young Sethre quickly took a seat while pouting.

Valdr's interest was piqued, if he listened to the old man, he could apparently learn many things... Obviously Valdr spoke only a broken version of the language thanks to what he had learned from his last meals memories but was still lacking when it came to normal conversations.

Doing the best he could, Valdr listened to the old man teaching from the attic, absorbing every bit of information he could understand. While the young boy, Sethre, could barely keep his eyes opened at the old man teachings, Valdr was glued to his words.

This old man, Quintus would become Valdr's second teacher after his deceased father.

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Many thanks to gcman01 for proofreading this chapter!

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