Narcissus set to work dismantling the others, they were alive, but all of them bore injuries that would never heal naturally. The most shameful by far, was the wound they all bore, being stripped of their fangs, arms and armour.

"You had the best move, find shade before the sun comes up." Narcissus said, looking to the east where the sun was only a few hours from rising.

As they fled, Narcissus turned around and offered Carl the armour. "It's nice, but not really my style."

Narcissus chuckled again. "No, this is the easiest way to fulfill my first order. This is called twilight day armour, it protects even full vampires from intense sunlight. In the hands of your half-vampire, she should live an almost perfectly normal life if she wears this."

"Great, thank you! Is it the material, or is it some kind of magic or blessing?"

"The material, it absorbs all sunli-" Carl snatched one of the outfits with unexpected enthusiasm and pulled out some of squidge's slime and some inert nanites that Alysse had given him incase he found anything cool to try synthesising.

He was about to say "Activate Neo Synthesis", but then remembered that Tiamutael had already developed an obsession with kid-vids and chose not to, activating it mentally instead.

The materials merged and became a kind of lotion. "Any volunteers? This stuff should replicate and spread across your skin, protecting you from sunlight without the armour."

The four of them looked skeptical, there was no way that a mortal human had just created a remedy to the greatest plight of their species so easily. "I'll go first. This armour is barely worth the pros it has so many cons."

"Great. Sorry, what was your name?" He asked, a little surprised the woman seemed most eager to trust the new solution, assuming that if it didn't work as well, she could sustain permanent burns.

"I'm Grenda, don't be surprised, I'd rather risk burns than be doomed to wear this armour every time I step in the sun. Believe it or not, a lot of our kind didn't wish to become what we are."

Carl nodded and she removed a glove, revealing a hand of ashy-grey skin with painted nails of pale-purple, the sight of which made Carl pull a face and the vampires laugh at his surprise.

He dabbed a few dots of the lotion on her skin, wondering if it would self replicate like the nanites and luckily it did.

It spread across her skin and though it was uncomfortable at first in certain areas and initially burnt her eyes as it coated them, she adjusted relatively quickly.

Clearing her throat and squirming a little, she finally spoke. "Well, that was, strange and a little violating, but it seems to have passed. I guess I can only wait for the sun to rise to see how well it works."

"Sorry, I didn't realise it would get... Everywhere."

"No, it's fine, just unexpected. If it means I can walk in the sun, it will be worth it. Will I need to do any kind of maintenance?" Sorry, don't know. I'll have Alysse and Lydia check you over every morning and every night."

"Alysse, Lydia?"

"My favourite engineer, apologies in advance if she does anything weird and my closest medical practitioner, she might be a succubus, but she's safer than Alysse so don't worry."

"Well, it seems I am no longer needed. Carl, enjoy your night."

"Thank you Gaia, you as well, take care and visit whenever you want."

"Thank you, be good vampires, this is your chance to choose your future. Will you let your nature make you act parasitic or symbiotic? They are both the same process, but hopefully you're smart enough to know the difference."

Narcissus nodded with a kind of solemn respect and the others followed his lead.

"Hang around until morning, whether it works or not, Aegis will take you to Lydia first and then bring Alysse to you." As he turned back towards the shack,he created a jar the lotion into it.

The female vampire asked why it hadn't spread across his skin, but Carl just shrugged, making her realise that he wasn't just being over cautious, but he genuinely had no idea about the substance he created.

"I have to admit, I only agreed because I thought you were playing dumb."

"It's never existed before, how the hell would I know anything about it?" Carl asked, sincerely curious how they expected him to have knowledge of something completely new.

"Well when you put it like that... By the way, what kind of creature is that." She asked looking at sentinel.

The question reminded him to tell sentinel to update everyone, then he explained that it was one of his creations, like Aegis.

"Not to pry, but is Aegis the strongest of your creations?" Narcissus asked.

"Haha! I am barely even top five. The strongest at present is Equinox, the one with greatest potential is the you young master who watches us even now..."

"Tiamutael, get to bed already or no kid-vids for a week. Sorry, continue."

"...The dragons, Aldra and Omedra are joint third and fourth is Majesty without question."

"What manner of creatures are this Equinox and the young master?"

"They are dragons also, but Equinox was made by exploiting a gap in the system, which allowed the master to create a being vastly more powerful than himself. The young master was made with several powerful base creatures merged into Master's pets, then those pets were merged into two chimeras, then those creatures were merged into the young master. He was also infused with a massive amount of divinity."

"What about Majesty, another dragon?"

"No, she was based on The Carrion, she could devour an entire world in days if she wanted to."

"What!? Why would you ever make something like that?"

"Watch your tone. Master created her as to act as a shield between the faction and The Carrion and remove the need to eradicate them completely. Master is both great and merciful."

"Okay Aegis, you need to tone down the "all powerful saviour of all" spiel. Chill out already, I'm going back to sleep."

Carl laid down and was snoring in seconds, leaving the vampires and Aegis to stand in awkward silence.

When he awoke a few hours later, he was startled by the sight of them all staring intently at him. "Okay, what the hell? Why were you all just watching me sleep like creepy stalkers? Aegis, did you think to explain anything about the faction, or did you simply stay quiet and glare at anyone who made a sound?"

"I guarded your sleep and yourself." Aegis responded with dutiful pride.

Carl announced that from now on the only one allowed to watch him sleep like that was family, then shook of the unsettled feeling their disturbing pass-time had instilled in him.

"Okay Grenda, let's see if the lotion works." Carl marked where the sun was shining through the window, then covered it. Grenda then placed her hand half way over the line, took a deep breath and nodded for Carl to uncover the window.

After flinching instinctively, she realised she wasn't burning and leapt for Carl to hug him in thanks, only to be blocked by Aegis. "I'll warn you now that only the mistress is welcome to make romantic advances on the Master. Even Lady Kyubi is awaiting a response."

"Aegis! For crying out loud, she was just happy, chill."

Aegis scoffed and lowered the arm, head shaking in frustration. "Master, you should at least try to treat them as prisoners to some extent."

"I am, you take prisoners to rehabilitate them. if I was just going to reject them, it would have been more efficient to kill them. We don't have resources to waste on lost causes."

"I understand, Master. Would you like me to take them to Lydia now?"

"Yeah, as soon as the others are lotioned up." Carl dabbed each of them with the lotion, then when they were done squirming Aegis took them back.

[ PRIVATE MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM LYDIA: THANKS FOR THE PATIENTS, FYI: LILLIM IS ALREADY PLOTTING THEIR TRAINING. SEEMS THEY ARE GOING TO BE PUT TO WORK AS GROUP LEADERS IN THE MILITIA TO REINFORCE WEAKER GROUPS. ]

[ PRIVATE MESSAGE SENT FROM CARL: JUST MAKE SURE THEY TEACH SOPHIE AS MANY TRICKS AS POSSIBLE ABOUT VAMPIRISM, SHE MAY HAVE OTHER TRAITS SHE SIMPLY DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT. ]

[ PRIVATE MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM LYDIA: UNLIKELY, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN IMPOSSIBLE, GOOD SHOUT I'LL HAVE THE WOMAN ASSIGNED TO HER AND THE OTHERS DOCUMENT ALL THEY KNOW. ]

"Well, do I bother wasting time here now? No. that would be pointless, I'll go to Archyon and finish it."

[ FACTION MESSAGE SENT FROM CARL: PLEASE VACATE ARCHYON OVER THE NEXT TEN MINUTES, I'M GOING TO FINISH IT AND CLEAR MY HEAD THERE. ]

Carl was surprised when no one replied to the message, but chose to believe that they were just trying to be respectful and not jump to conclusions.

Ten minutes later, carl opened a portal to Archyon and stepped through it. "Wait a minute. I did that without thinking, but how the hell did I do it? There isn't any pets here for me to gate to."

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