A Pain in the Neck

[Alain the Carnedge]

The dark sigils spread across the crimson when he started to move, Alain and his attire fading into shadows as he walked past his client and down the path. Guess I'm on my own. Shocking. He continued moving while thinking about how to find a bloodsucker who was undercover,but suddenly stopped in his tracks as the ground trembled, accompanied by the incredibly unpleasant sound of wood and stone getting crushed. Oh, don't forget the screaming. Alain turned around with an exasperated sigh, greeted with the sight of a building-sized monstrosity which now replaced the house that used to be there. Well, it was still "there", just under the foot of the hulking abomination that was now stepping off the remains of what used to be a person's home, albeit not exactly a well-maintained one. A few sprinted out of the remaining buildings half-naked, likely in the interest of not getting decimated by the monster, dignity be damned. The creature apparently deemed them unworthy of it's wrath...but not the houses though, it still smashed those to pieces without a care in the world, along with the people who probably stayed in and hoped for the best or tried to get dressed instead of saving their own lives. The monster eventually passed what remained of the village and probably went to go annihilate something else, the remaining residents retreating into either the inn or the houses it didn't wreck. Alain maintained his invisibility as he observed the survivors, then decloaking after they had shut their doors. He immediately searched the Dataverse in hopes of finding out what he just witnessed, and only found one result for "Building Sized Monster That Hates People and Actual Buildings": Tarrasque. Cool. I'll go kill it later, but I've got stuff to do for now. He waited outside the buildings for his time to strike; Bloodsuckers do need sustenance, after all.

It says a lot about a person when they get used to a stench of death within maybe a day, perhaps two. Also says a lot about a person when they're conjuring dark knives (which weren't actually sharp, go figure) and throwing them up and down in one of their hands while using the other hand to search stuff on what's essentially a super-internet. Didn't take long for him to give up on that course of action, though as he started walking towards one of the doors,another one opened. "Hello?" Alain activated his invisibility immediately, sneaking behind the suspect as they walked out the door. Hell with it, if I guess wrong, wasn't part of the agreement that I couldn't kill any of the villagers. The red flash caught the attention of his target, but too late; the blade had already cut through their neck like butter, severing the head in one swing. He crouched down to examine the head and didn't see a mark. "Well, oops." He got up to continue his "investigation", if all else failed he could just ditch 'em. "And where do you think you're going?" Oh, god damn it.

He woke up in a giant, old-fashioned coach, the windows showing nothing but black outside. The only other passengers were an Obviously-Vampire, their clothes completely drenched with blood plus their fangs were showing, and some of the villagers who got squashed. The Headless Horseman materialized on one of the seats, his head tucked under one arm and their village clothes replaced by black armour. "So. Should we get down to business, then?" the head spoke in a slight echo. "You're a Dullahan. Though one who seems to be slacking off from the looks of things, apparently haven't killed anyone, that's part of your job pal." "You use your humor to disguise your fear." "On the contrary, I use my humor because it amuses me and annoys you. But yes, we should get to whatever your business with me is. So what does a Dullahan want with me?" The Dullahan's head gave him a glare and continued. "You're a Prime and you cannot well...die, exactly." "So I'm...where, then?" "Inbetween the place where those who aren't primes go where they die. That, however, does not matter. For starters, your vampire has been killed." He pointed a finger at the blood-soaked figure beside him, who merely gave a blank stare. "He was destined to die is the Tarrasque attack, so I stopped to collect the souls of those who died. Second, I attempted to collect yours in the hopes that you were just an especially powerful secondary, so you can leave. You will reappear at the Inn not soon after you disappeared. Now, go." The Dullahan waved their other hand at the door, and the Vampire got up and bolted for it. Alain summoned Sresveltr and almost went for the stab, but the Headless Horseman had conjured a whip that looked suspiciously like a human spine and bound them in it before he could go for the strike. "Farewell, Prime."

Alain landed on his head and almost got a concussion. "Oh, it's you." The Innkeeper "somehow" didn't sound happy to see him. "Not pleased to see me? "Not especially, no." "Well, Vampire's dead." The Innkeeper looked skeptical. "Where's the body?" Alain gave a shrug. "It's around. Also somewhere around the bloody house wreckage." "Ugh, whatever. We'll just try our luck I suppose. Guess you can...come along..." Clearly wasn't pleased with having to say that. "Yeah whatever. Let's go." The survivors of the Tarrasque and Alain walked to Darkshire, a few vampires appearing but reconsidering their attack when they saw a Prime, messing with the Dataverse or not. They weren't all complete idiots, in other words. Anyway, it didn't take long for them to arrive at Darkshire, likely due to how the villagers didn't move too far from it in the first place since they were going back after they rooted out the Vampire.
They arrived outside and waited for the guards to greet them instead of going straight in. That would end badly as Undead were all over the walls, carrying all kinds of weapons. It took a minute or two, but eventually some soldiers came to investigate their presence. "Hold, what's your business here?" "We want to enter Darkshire." The soldier opened his mouth to respond, but Alain continued. "The Vampire problem's been taken care of in case that's what you're about to ask about." "Oh. Well in that case, I suppose you can enter. Just don't cause any trouble, alright?" "Yeah, whatever." They followed the guards into Darkshire, and Alain glanced at the undead once more. This should be interesting.