Reincarnated into a New World As a Vampire

"What exactly is going on?" Aldritch asked himself as he marveled at the level of power being displayed.

The crack in the sky directly above the dragon held within it an infinite darkness of mystery shrouded in nothingness, and although the purpose was unclear, Aldritch could only wonder if that was also the doing of Lodestar or perhaps something else.

As Aldritch looked on, the air around him seemed to thicken under the oppressive might of Lodestar's display. The crack in the sky widened, shimmering with a deep, unnatural energy that distorted reality itself. The swirling storm converged around with the crack in the sky as it's centre, feeding its power into a single, pulsating form. Lodestar was locked in an intense confrontation with the abyssal entity, their battle, looking to tear at the very fabric of the world.

As time went on by the second, the surrounding pressure only doubled instead of calming. Aldritch was still persisting and on his feet, but the same would not be said for any normal person or anyone of insufficient strength. If anyone was caught under thus pressure, then they would have probably fell unconscious if they were a normal person or completely suppressed if they were mages or warriors.

This phenomenon went on for another five minutes, the pressure ever increasing. Aldritch watched closely, observing the dragon's reaction to the crack above it.

The battle raged on as Lodestar and the abyssal entity clashed in a terrifying display of power. Though the colossal dragon hovering overhead was a mere manifestation of Lodestar's will, an embodiment of his unyielding and divine spirit. Their exchange shook the air and sent waves of energy rippling outward, threatening to shatter the city.

As time passed, the dragon kept getting closer to the crack above, and even though he was unsure, Aldritch could feel that the dragon was being sucked in by this abysmal crack in the sky. The struggle continued for a few minutes, the dragon almost being sucked into the crack above it. There was definitely resistance, as it fought and eventually shrank instead. The crack in the sky sealed, the raging storm ceased, and the lightning died, leaving only a faint echo of the battle that had raged moments before.

Once the dragon started shrinking, so did the pressure it exuded. In no time, Aldritch regained himself and could move again, so without wasting anymore time he sprinted towards Lodestar's location to check on how things went. Judging from the dragon earlier, he couldn't say whether or not the abyssal entity would survive, he could only see for himself.

Aldritch hurried towards Lodestar, tracking him using the dragon from earlier. It took several minutes, but Aldritch soon reached the location.

Locating Lodestar, Aldritch approached him, carefully picking his way through the debris left by the fierce battle. Even better than what he had predicted, he found Lodestar standing, only lightly injured and breathing calmly, though a faint exhaustion on his face hinted at the strain of the fight. Looking at him now, his strength was surely undeniable, few could have faced such an opponent and emerged victorious with so little harm. Even with the most injury and damage done to self, Aldritch could not think of anyone who would be able to achieve the same result.

Nearby, Aldritch noticed the abyssal entity lying on the ground in the body of Aeress, her dark aura gone and her body still. She lay motionless, barely breathing, as if the fight had drained the last bits of her very life force.

Aldritch's gaze redirected towards Lodestar for a brief moment, holding a ting of admiration observing the power displayed earlier. He did expect Lodestar to emerge victorious, but not as overwhelmingly so.

"I'll go ahead and finish her off completely." Aldritch said to Lodestar before turning to the abyssal entity lying a couple metres away.

Lodestar quickly interjected, raising a hand to ask Aldritch to stop for a moment as he explained something.

"Calm down, Aldritch, there is still a chance for the original soul to return to this body." Lodestar said to Aldritch who hesitated for a moment.

"How are you sure? For all we know that thing could wake right back up and we begin again from square one."

"You don't have to worry about that. We just have to wait for some time to see how this pans out. Of course, if it goes wrong, I can just get rid of the threat for good this time."

"Mmm…"

Respecting Lodestar, Aldritch held off for the time being. He also recalled the witches telling him about something similar, and since Lodestar mentioned it even though he hadn't told him about it, Aldritch was willing to wait it out. If the supposes great mother that was to come happened to awaken, then no problem, otherwise, Lodestar who had said he would handle it wouldn't fail.

Aldritch was still curious nonetheless, but Lodestar reassured him as he explained what was going on at that moment.

From Lodestar's perspective, who was a great magician and well versed in magic and spirituality, at least knowledgeable in respect to the latter, he was able to see the underlying struggles within his opponent, enough to take a different route of approach and not kill her.

Even though Lodestar could have killed the abyssal entity inhibiting Aeress's body, he chose not to, seeing that there was someone else trapped in the body who fought to take control instead. As he explained, Aldritch tallied his words with what he had heard from the witches.

"Do we just wait here until she awakes up? Or do we bring her along with us?" Aldritch asked.

"It won't be long now, we can wait."

"Very well then."

…

Elsewhere in the spiritual world, Aeress was hard at work trying to regain herself without any issues. Because the abyssal entity only inhabited her body and was yet to fully acclimatize to it, even if it eventually did, killing its physical body would not kill its soul. It would surely damage the soul, but it would live on. At the moment however, Lodestar had forcefully disassociated the abyssal entity's control from the body and broken its link to it. If it wished to take control again, it would have to reestablish the connection.

For now, Aeress just had to be quick and inhabit her body before it was too late. To do that without any attachment to the abyssal entity, she followed through with her plan.

...

A/N: My sincerest apologies for the lack of updates. I'll improve on that going forward.