Red Fang II

Chapter 30 (Intermission): We Just Wanted To Help

We last read Chapter 29, in which Lord Balfort Ladair finally divulges the truth behind his and Prince Boripedes's complicated relationship; a dynamic filled with bad blood, betrayal, ambition, and misguided intentions. The love triangle between him, Prince Boripedes, and the woman now known as Lady Amber Ladair drove Balfort to betray his own flesh and blood in order to make Amber his, and he unknowingly birthed centuries of hardship and distance between him and his brother as a result. Following the story, his daughter Mavis Ladair a.k.a. Red Fang and her husband Garson are incredibly quick to voice their great disapproval over how Balfort handled the situation, albeit with Mavis still having lessened her wrath somewhat since Balfort did give birth to her—and her older brother Theo Ladair—as a result of his marriage to Amber. Balfort then goes on to reiterate that although he regrets turning against Boripedes greatly, he has treasured the time he has gotten to share with Amber and his children, pointing out that Theo and Mavis's births—as well as Lily Ladair's adoption—would not have been possible if Boripedes had ended up with Amber instead. Deciding that it's time for him to get closure with his younger brother, Balfort instructs Mavis and Garson to bring him with them to Prince Boripedes's island, a task which they are very reluctant to do, for fear of Balfort's life. Though Balfort insists on going, Mavis instead decides to table the matter for the time being and focus on the OVX pandemic sewn by Boripedes and Virulis's latest concoction. Informing Balfort that she and Garson already have a decent idea on where to start, she promptly invites Balfort to accompany them on that instead, which he agrees to. Amusingly enough, when Garson lets Mavis know that he has to use the bathroom before they depart, Mavis readjusts their departure time to five minutes later.

This time, the vampiric servants whom Balfort has sent to assist in the OVX pandemic finally arrive in Cluj-Napoca, prompting Chef Cedric to put the next part of his plan into motion. Meanwhile, back at Prince Boripedes's island, the prince empowers his blood creature assistant Virulis in preparation for Mavis and co.'s return to the underground base......

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-Nuka Bistro, Cluj-Napoca, Romania-

In the area in and around the Nuka Bistro—which was still swarming with both OVX-afflicted victims and highly protected medical personnel—action was quickly being taken to help the infected.....or, at the very least, attempt to help them. No matter how many procedures the EMT workers performed, however, nothing seemed to be doing any favors for the conditions of the contaminated.

Everyone impacted was still in tremendous pain, and it didn't seem as though any of it would stop anytime soon. The chest and stomach pains, crippling indigestion, and constant ejection of blood was outright harrowing, to the point where the afflicted might have actually preferred to die than go another second enduring these kinds of horrors.

Thankfully, right when another infected person had been loaded onto an emergency vehicle, the vampiric servants whom Balfort had sent to the capital to help with the pandemic finally arrived, albeit still with stripped visages and name tags to distinguish them and their identities. It was as though the emergency healthcare personnel's spirits were immediately lifted the moment they spotted their backup; perhaps the vampires would be able to do something about the virus that they could not.

And soon, they were proven right.

The OVX virus was, of course, per its namesake, a type of virus, and since it was a virus, it required cells to serve as sites of replication, including blood cells; the particles would bind to the cell membranes and "inject" more copies of itself inside, therefore spreading the infection.