Universe Tales: Virtual Log of the Fallen One

Since Ash was most familiar with this world, Maria simply let him take the lead. She quickly checked her mini-map, and from the looks of it, they were currently traveling in the southwestern direction of their current location.

Maria was a bit disgruntled at the fact that she couldn't travel by air anymore. It was much too strenuous for her to stay in the air for too long so she and Ash could only travel on foot. The journey was rather eventful as there were plenty of monsters here.

Unlike her previous planet, Vanhal's monsters were all really aggressive. Even the low-leveled ones would unconditionally attack them if they so much as stepped a single toe into their aggro range.

At first, it was rather fun for Maria since she really liked swinging around her Calamity and cleaving apart all of the monsters in her way, but very soon, it became more of a hassle as they continued to encounter more monsters along the way.

"Hey, Ash, are you sure this is the right way? Since we're going to a place with civilization, shouldn't there be fewer monsters? How come—URYAH—there are more instead?" Maria asked as she swiftly cleaved a level 40 Blood Wolf in two.

"I'm not sure, my Lady... we should be close by now and I'm sure the lord of the barony wouldn't let this many monsters roam free in their lands..."

"Hundreds of years have passed, Ash... maybe the barony that you know of no longer exists?"

"My Lady, we vampires are a long-lived race. Well, I'm sure you understand this since you're a Fallen Angel, an existence with an immortal lifespan, so the time of only a few hundred years shouldn't warrant such drastic changes for us, no?"

"R-right, good point! Ehehehe..." Maria could only chuckle nervously at Ash's words. She was no angel, she was just a human. To her, a few years were enough for many things to happen, let alone a few hundred.

'This game is just too realistic, sheesh. I'm not an angel, I'm just a human... but I guess this is the 'role-playing' part of this game, huh?" Maria inwardly thought.

They continued their walk and while Maria, Ash, and Lilah were clearing away the monsters that confronted them, Maria was thinking about the reason why the monsters were so abundant in an area close to civilization.

Since the vampires were a rather sophisticated race, it was only natural that they'd have the capability to build cities and settlements. Since Ash was saying that he was a duke, the concept of kingdoms shouldn't be foreign to the vampires.

"Ah, Ash, maybe the barony was simply moved!" Maria called out to Ash who had suddenly stopped in place.

"...My Lady...I guess you were right...the barony is no more..."

"Huh?"

Maria quickly rushed forward and looked down the hill they were currently on. A distance away, Maria could see the ruins of what seemed to be a town or a village.

"...Uhm... maybe they moved away?"

"Not likely, my Lady. Low-rank vampires don't tend to move away from their territories after they've established a Blood Fountain."

"Blood fountain?"

"My Lady, I'm sure you've heard legends of how our race is weak to sunlight. The low-ranked vampires are naturally very weak under the sunlight to the point where they might even die from it."

"Y-yeah, I've heard about that. How come you aren't though?"

"As we grow in strength and rank, our immunity to our weaknesses naturally strengthens and we're no longer burdened by it. Ytula, the vampire who should be governing this area, is a baron-ranked vampire so he wouldn't have the tolerance or strength to withstand our planet's sunlight. That's why the low ranks establish a Blood Fountain to alleviate the effects of the sunlight which will give them and their kin a slight resistance to it," Ash explained.

Maria thought for a moment before saying, "Hmm... so the ruins down there can only mean one thing then."

"Whether it was done by monsters or another vampire, Baron Ytula and his kin were driven away or are now dead."

Lilah had also taken notice of the ruins down below and added in, "Judging from how worn out it is even from this distance, it's probably been like that for a couple of hundred years now~"

Ash had a rather pained expression on his face when he heard Lilah deduction so Maria couldn't help but ask, "Hey, Ash, who is this Ytula to you anyway?"

"...Ytula Garm, he's my young yet feeble little brother. Unlike me who was born with unimaginable talent and strength, he wasn't as blessed. Even after a hundred years, he was only able to rise from a knight to a baron..."

"..."

"I guess Siegfried didn't spare anyone who was related to me..."

"We should still go check out that place. Maybe we'll be able to find something?"

"...Alright."

Maria ran and jumped off from the hill and glided down towards the ruined town. Ash and Lilah followed suit and the group quickly arrived at the town's entrance. There was a wall surrounding the town but it was thoroughly aged and ruined.

"...It seems that a few hundred years did pass by since this place was destroyed..." Maria mumbled.

She wasn't an expert, but from what she saw, this place was practically ancient to her.

*DING*

[You are under the influence of a Damaged Blood Fountain!]

The notification popped up just as she walked past the town's walls.

"...Ash, are Blood Fountains able to survive hundreds of years even after they're damaged?"

"What?" Ash quickly walked through the town's entrance and his eyes widened in surprise. "How is this possible?"

"Let's go look for the fountain!" Maria said before quickly dashing into the ruined town.

"My Lady, follow me, I know where it is," Ash quickly said as he dashed after her.

"Alright, lead the way."

The trio rushed into the town and quickly arrived at the most majestic, yet ruined, building in the town. From Maria's observation, this building was most likely the baron's estate.

"This is Ytula's house. The Blood Fountain should be inside."

"Let's go, let's go~ I'm pretty curious to see what the fountain is like!"

Ash pushed opened the gate, which immediately collapsed after a slight nudge, and led the group into the estate. They entered the mansion that looked like it was nearly on the brink of collapse and right as they entered—

"My Lady, watch out!" Ash quickly stepped forward and was about to shield Maria behind him but the little girl quickly took action and pulled out her scythe.

Maria swung it furiously in front of her and repelled the shadow that had suddenly come rushing at her when she had stepped into the mansion.

"UWAH!"

"Hehe, are you trying to pull a fast one on me? I don't think so~" Maria giggled before she immediately rushed forward in pursuit of the shadow that had attacked her.

"M-My Lady, wait—"

"NO! Please!"

Hearing the voice, Maria quickly stopped her attack. She was already in mid-swing so the blade of her axe was narrowly pressed against the face of her attacker.

When Maria took a closer look at the thing that had tried to attack her earlier, she noticed that it was a pale and skinny young girl. The little girl, whose head was almost cut in half by Maria's axe, had already stiffened up in fear with tears streaming down her face.

"Oh, it was a little kid! [Inspect]!"

[Alexa Garm Lv. 5

Race: Vampire

Rank: Knight

HP: 145/500

MP: 20/80

Status: Terrified]

Seeing the Yellow highlight of her name, Maria immediately knew that the girl wasn't a monster but an NPC. She was a little surprised to see the name, however.

"...Hey Ash, how come this—"

"Y-you...you have a familiar scent..." Ash said as he quickly approached the little girl.

Maria quickly retracted her weapon and the girl collapsed onto the ground.

"Hmm, I nearly killed her~"

Maria raised her hand and aimed a [Fallen's Cruelty] at Ash.

"Ack!"

She took away 25% of his HP and quickly transferred it over to the terrified NPC girl. When the healing light of Maria's [Fallen's Cruelty] was injected into her body, the little girl's countenance brightened, though the paleness of her face didn't go away.

"There, all better now! Sorry about earlier, you really shouldn't surprise people like that!" Maria said after healing the little girl. The girl was still a little guarded, but at least her status showed that she wasn't terrified anymore.

"..."

"Hey, Ash, why are you collapsed on the ground like that?"

'This was your doing, my Lady!' Ash screamed inwardly. He didn't have the gall to actually say it out loud.

"S-sorry, I tripped earlier..."

"Oh! Well, continue what you were saying earlier. You said this little kid has a familiar scent?"

"Y-yes...she smells like...me..."

"Huh?"

The girl turned to look at Ash, but her expression was still distrustful. She bared her fangs at him, but after looking at Maria, she immediately turned timid.

"Hey~ mind telling us who you are?" Maria asked.

"...I'm Alexa..."

"Nice to meet ya, I'm Maria. This dude is Ash, and this fairy is Lilah. Do you mind telling us why you're here?"

"...My home..."

"Hm?"

"This is my home..."

"O-oh..." Maria scratched her head when she heard this. Now, it wasn't a surprise why the girl had attacked her. They had trespassed into her house after all.

"Well, sorry for intruding. If you don't mind me asking, but do you know what happened here? How come this place is in total ruins? This idiot champion of mine insisted that there was a town here, but all we found were ruins!"

Ash only coughed to hide his embarrassment and slight complaint while Lilah only laughed at him.

The little girl who looked no older than 10 years old remained silent and guarded. Maria looked at her with pity and noticed how malnourished she was. Maria took out some food from her [Inventory] and offered it to the girl.

"Here, you look like you haven't eaten in a while!"

The girl's eyes immediately brightened when she saw the food presented to her. Her mouth began to drool and her expression was quite cute. She was just about to reach out to take but quickly took her hand back.

"..."

"It's okay, you can have it," Maria approached the girl and took her hand. She placed the food into her hands and stepped back.

In all honesty, the little girl wanted to run away when Maria had suddenly begun walking towards her, but she felt her feet rooted in place. She couldn't forget the fact that she had nearly been cleaved in two by the 6-winged lady in front of her.

After Maria stepped back, the girl looked down at the food in her hands and looked back up at Maria who had placed it into her hands. Seeing the lady smile gently at her, Alexa immediately started to eat it up.

"Huhuhu~ she's so cute~" Maria giggled delightfully.

She wasn't so sure before with Ash, but now that she found another vampire to compare with, Maria quickly deduced that the vampire race all had a default beauty attribute to them. Even though the little girl in front of her looked severely malnourished and dirty, it couldn't hide her extremely beautiful and cute face.

"I've decided, you're going to be my first follower!"

"Hrm?"