“Nothing. I am sorry for your sister.”

‘She is saying sorry? Why? It wasn’t her fault. It was mine! I was the pathetic brother who couldn’t even save Misella while she was killed. All I could do was watch her being tormented right before my eyes before she was tossed away like a toy.’ Atlas thought, laughing inwardly at his weakness.

“It wasn’t your fault. I will certainly kill the person who hurt my sister… I’ll make it just as painful as well. I’ll make him experience the same helplessness that I felt. Now I have the means to do it as well.”

“No, you don’t. You can go outside and fight them. You’ll die!” Lilith exclaimed.

“What? But you just said I’m in the body of the Progenitor! You even called the other Vampires pesky before your master? How can I die?” Atlas asked, confused. Her words didn’t make sense.

“That was the case for Master. But you… You aren’t him. You just have his body. You don’t even know how to do what he could do,” Lilith explained. “It’s like you have a weapon, but you don’t know how to use it.”

“I… I will figure something out,” Atlas responded. “I still have the strength! I was able to use it!”

“Figure something out? Strength and speed is the most basic thing which most Vampires have. It’s nothing special! You can’t even draw out the full potential of that strength!” Lilith exclaimed as she circled around the body of Atlas.

“You’ll just get my Master’s body hurt. And you won’t be able to help your sister that way either. You aren’t allowed to fight them. Listen to me. I’ll help you get out of this place. I can teach you to be better, and then you can come back. Don’t take the risk now!” she added, trying to persuade Atlas.

Seeing her discourage him, Atlas looked at her in confusion.

“I don’t understand. Why would I even need to fight?” Atlas asked. “You know I’m not the Progenitor on the inside. You know I don’t know how to use the abilities that your master possessed, but they don’t know that! For them, I’ll be the real Progenitor. I just need to pretend to be the real thing!”

“To them, just the name should be enough! All I need is to intimidate them to return my sister for now!”

Lilith couldn’t help but burst into condescending laughter as she heard Atlas.

“You naive human!” She exclaimed. “That won’t work either. My Master went to slumber a really long time ago. The vampires that knew him must all be long gone by now. And no one would remember how he looked. The new Vampires won’t believe you either.”

“Moreover, your aura is very weak as well since you don’t have my Master’s soul. You can’t use the aura to stimulate their bloodline to fear you either. In essence, they’ll never believe your words. They’ll just think of you as an intruder and attack you without asking any questions.”

“I don’t think you can face the attack of so many Vampires,” she further added, trying to persuade Atlas. “In essence, you might have my Master’s body, but you aren’t him! There’s still a long way for you to tread to be even a fraction of what he was!”

“You can’t be telling me just to run away and leave my sister behind?” Atlas asked in disbelief.

Lilith didn’t answer his question and went silent. Her silence contained her answer though. She didn’t want Atlas to go for his sister as he was now!

Atlas was unable to wait for her answer. He started walking to the stairs. “I don’t care what you say. I’m getting my sister back! I won’t fail her again!”

Even though Lilith seemed to be someone special, for him, she was nothing! He didn’t need to listen to her. His priorities were straight.

“Let me ask you a question,” Watching Atlas attempt to leave, Lilith finally spoke.

“Ask.” Atlas stopped just one step away from the stairs. He waited patiently for her question.

“Why do you want to sacrifice yourself one more time for a person who is already dead?” Lilith inquired, seemingly confused. “You received a second chance at life. Why waste it? Do you think this risk is worth it? Your life against the dead body of a person? Aren’t you scared of death? Why put your life on the line for a dead body?”

“Scared of death?” Atlas glanced back at the coffin. “I was scared of death my entire life. I was scared of death a lot. I did everything I could do to live since I didn’t want to die. But it was not because I cared for my life.”

His voice was filled with loneliness as he lowered his gaze.

“Then why was it?” Lilith asked. “Why were you scared of death?”

“I wanted to live. I wanted to live so that I could protect someone that looked up to me. Someone who believed in me. Someone who cherished me… Someone who was my family.”

“But I failed that someone,” Atlas said in a defeated tone. “I failed the person I lived for. I failed her in life; I won’t fail her in death. Moreover, I’ve already died. Without her, I’m all alone. What’s even the purpose of my life? At the moment, I’m a dead man walking. Why should I be scared of death?”

Lilith once again went silent, but this time Atlas was the one asking her a question instead. “Lilith, what would you have done if you were in my place?”

“I…”

As expected, Lilith had no answer.

“Alright, let me ask you a different question,” Atlas took a step back and turned around, looking at the shadow before him. “What would your master have done if he was in my place? If he needed to save someone, but the other three Progenitors were his enemies, and he was weak, would he have run away? Or would he give it his all?”

“What would Progenitor Castiel have done?” Atlas asked.

“What would he have done…” Lilith muttered, losing herself in memories as she went silent.

~~~

“Castiel, are you really opposing us just to save the life of that girl?”

“Have you started growing senile? Her mother tried to kill us so many times! We can’t let her bloodline live! If she lives, she can be a threat to us in the future!”

“Castiel, stop standing in our path! Kill the girl or step out of our path and let us kill her!”

Three young men stood before another young man in a town which was burning. All four men were wearing long robes and had an intimidating aura around them that was enough to make everyone around them tremble in fear.

There were flames everywhere. Dead bodies were lying everywhere. Not a single place existed in the town where a dead body couldn’t be seen. Almost everyone in the town was killed in the destruction except one person.

It was a young girl with long red hair. The girl appeared to be twelve or thirteen years old. Her beautiful Violet eyes were filled with fear. She was standing behind another proud looking man who was facing the three men who wanted the girl dead.

“We killed the witch who wanted us dead. We are done! I don’t believe we need to kill the girl. She has nothing to do with it. And I won’t let you take an innocent life.”

“Hahaha, are you joking with us? Look around us! The entire town is burning! Everyone here is dead! We already took the lives we wanted! Now we just need one more so we could finish the entire witch bloodline!” A man exclaimed as his dark red eyes glared at Castiel.

Another man chimed in. “Castiel, give the girl to us, or we would be forced to try other methods! All four of us should work together! The entire Vampire species depends on us! We don’t want to kill one of our own! Step aside, Castiel!”

The red-haired girl was holding the back of the robe of the silver-haired man, who could feel her shivering.

Castiel turned around, feeling the trembling of the girl. He went down on his knees.

Watching Castiel turn, the three men smiled. They were sure Castiel was going to finish her off.

“Heh, good decision, Castiel! Now kill her!”

Castiel glanced into the eyes of the small girl. His beautiful green eyes met the deep blue eyes of the little girl. The girl didn’t know why, but as soon as she looked into the beautiful eyes of Castiel, she started getting calmer. It was as if she wasn’t scared anymore.

She was sure it wasn’t because of his Compulsion since that didn’t work on Witches. It was something else. It was as if she could see in his eyes that he was genuine and that he couldn’t hurt her.

Castiel raised his right hand towards the girl, who didn’t take her eyes off from his eyes, even as his hand reached closer to her neck.

Castiel’s hand didn’t stop on her throat though. It kept going up and ended up on her cheeks.

“What is your name?” Castiel asked, gently touching the girl’s cheeks.

By now, the girl’s tears had started flowing as if a dam was broken. “Li-Lilith.”