Io the Lost
Io didn't have a father, nor mother, only a little sister.
A bear of a man, Io worked both in the fields and in the militia, capturing and repelling criminals and bandits with the same dedication he tilled the ground and milked the cattle.
When he stopped working, he returned to her sister, who also worked, mostly mending cloth for the villagers but now and then doing odd jobs.
So it was that Io's village was filled with hope and happiness.
But one day the cattle slowly began disappearing.
Shortly after a soldier looking into the mystery also went away in the dead of the night.
So it was that the people grew fearful and desperate as more of their fellow men began to vanish, one by one.
Eventually, Io's sister was gone too.
Struck with grief and remorse, he abandoned his jobs, searching for leads to her sister anywhere.
Alas, not a trace was left, not a single witness, not a clue.
It was then that he decided to search the one place he had never seen the insides of: the Lord's Manor.
Quietly he infiltrated the place, like a mouse in a labyrinth he searched the insides of the lair, avoiding guards and... other things.
Eventually, within the manor, he found the basement.
An intoxication darkness was lying within but the love Io had for his sister breached through it like dawn upon the night, so he headed inside.
As he shined his lantern he found... a nightmare.
Pieces of flesh, laying about.
Human bodies, attached to hooks, like pigs ready to be butchered.
The Lord of the Keep, lying down on a victim's neck.
And on a pile, discarded like trash... the lifeless corpse of his sister.
As the vampire noticed the intruded it screamed, an unholy alarm that in turn called a choir of similar screams, all around the manor.
Righteous rage dictated for Io to charge in and murder the criminal... but he knew that rage makes one blind... so he turned his rage into hatred and escaped the manor... then he kept running, away from the village... for revenge is a dish best served cold.
Io lived in the wilderness for a long time, occasionally turning towards local villages to learn more about this foe... to prepare to bring it down and vanquish its presence from the world.
He turned himself into a weapon, a mindless tool with a sole purpose.
Vengeance.
One day, he returned to the village... a now unholy place where only the dead dared to walk upon.
With razor sharp mind, stone cold heart and an arm wielding holy resolution, he cleansed all within.
Corrupted, familiar faces, all cut down, destroyed... and finally free.
Io, who once tilled the earth, now tilled flesh.
Io, who once culled trees, now culled bone.
Io, who once protected his fellow men, now came back to give them proper rest.
Such was his devotion to this cleansing that even the animals summoned by the unholy beast turned against their masters, to rid their presence upon the world.
Step by step, Io approached the Lord, bleeding for each painful progress he made.
It was so that they fought, two beasts who had lost their humanity, being dictated by their hatred and unnatural desires.
It was Io that stood, where the vampire fell.
Io that followed the cloud of malice into its chambers.
Io that lit the coffin the cloud attempted to find refuge within on fire.
Io that found out the Lord was a mere victim.
Other vampires came and so overwhelmed was Io that they almost devoured him entirely, ripping apart his arms and draining him of his very life essence.
Deemed too vengeful to turn into one of their own, he was left within the basement of the manor, the village now void of both life and unlife, to live his last days chained... gazing upon the now mummified remains of his sister.