(3/4) Succession of Rome

-Mehmed vs Constantine and Vlad vs Ladisluas

“And now I remember the day you went your way and I went mine”

After the tumultuous Hunyadi War, both Hungary and the Ottomans were in a transition period. Murad II and Mehmed II would both rule as partners. Murad decided now would be the time to teach Mehmed how to use the Sword of Osman. The sword is an enchanted scimitar that can call upon the 4 natures of the Steppe; fire, ice, water, and wind. It is an incredibly powerful heirloom. At the same time, Mehmed performed a ritual that combined his two wolves into one giant wolf like his father’s. The two would attempt attacks at Skanderbeg’s Albania with failure. 

For Hungary, the estates (counts and bans) elected 7 different captains-generals to foster peace within the kingdom while the new king was yet to be chosen. Among the 7 were Miklos Uljaki in Transylvania, Fruzhin Shishman in Temes, Janos Hunyadi in , Ulrich Celje in Croatia, Jan Jiskra in Nitra (north), Lazslo Garai in the Transdanube (east), and Mihaly Szilagnyi in the south. These 7 were just supposed to be generals of their armies in these zones but military power in a monarchy also means political power. The estates elected Ladislaus Habsburg to be the king but not everyone agreed with how to acquire the toddler. Also Ulrich downplayed the necessity for Hunyadi to be in this position because of his failure in Varna with killing the last king. “At least he fought the Turks” and “Wladyslaw isn’t even confirmed dead” were counter arguments against the envious man. Coming from the city of Cilli, Ulrich was also least concerned about the Ottoman threat while Hunyadi practically lived on the border. Eventually though, they agreed it should fall upon the White Knight to rescue Ladislaus. 

Ladislaus, of course, was being held captive by his uncle; “Sleepyhead” Frederich Habsburg the Duke of Styria and King of Germany. The man is known to be so patient in diplomatic meetings that he even falls asleep. With this tactic, he was uncontactable for Hunyadi so it took a while to retrieve the next King of Hungary. Then Captain Jan Jiskra started acting independently from the Hungarian government by forcing the Hussite faith in his region. Hunyadi was sent to defeat him and found difficulty against the Czech. Ulrich started acting a bit independently as well in Slavonia but again Janos could not bring the Stryian to heel. Ulrich and Lazslo Garai are related so those two and Jiskra created their political party with other bans and counts that would be anti-Hunyadi. This was after making Hunyadi ‘Governor of Hungary’ to serve as a scapegoat to all of the clans in Hungary. The Szekelys, the Magyars, the Saxons, the Romani, and the Slav. He didn’t get to have too much power as Lazslo Garai also became the Palatine which is the second highest position in government. 

A dark haired slim man approached Hunyadi while he was traveling across Transylvania. “I am Vladislav Danesti. I heard you helped my uncle to the throne of Wallachia and would appreciate your own assistance. Vlad Dracul acts independent but to be truly safe and moral, Wallachia needs to be a vassal to Hungary if not entirely within its crownland like Croatia.” 

Looking for a W, Hunyadi agreed. On the dragon, the two flew over with his son Lazslo and the currently bored Fruzhin. Vlad Dracul was surprised again to find the dragon blowing off the roof. This time, there was no help coming from any beyberley as Dracul and his son fought the invaders. Hunyadi ended up slaying Dracul personally. The Saxon boyars of Wallachia then found Mircea’s hiding place and blind him. Stakes were brought deep into his eyes as of Greek tradition. A blind king is not a king. Vladislav then had Mircea publicly burned for days. He told the people the burning lasted so long because of his vampire blood. Vlad did not hear about the ordeal for years. Voivode Vladislav II rose in Hungarian Wallachia. 

Despot Durad Brankovic was disturbed by such an attack but he did not immediately do anything about it. At the same time, Gjergj “Skanderbeg” Kastoriti–once an Ottoman bey and now the Lord of Albania–sent a call for Crusade to Hunyadi. Skanderbeg’s Albania included his capital region of Kruje along with the outlying parts around it. He was one of the tallest people anyone knew, basically a buzz cut giant, with hulking muscles and glowing eyes. In his hands was the sword of Alexander the Great, Gene-Kataigida or ‘Storm bringer’. How he found the sword is a story for another time but it literally summons lightning at the user’s will. Kruje was impenetrable with this in his hands. Now, after 4 years of disobedience, Skanderbeg asks Hunyadi to gather Crusaders, “because I am about to kill the sultan no matter what.”

Durad was second to know about the campaign as the Albanian stormed through Serbian Montenegro. Murad and Mehmed decided to gather a large army in Sofia made up of ghazis, janissaries, and sipahis. Sipahis are super professional cavalry units good for close and long range attacks. Hunyadi was willing to join the Crusade and called upon armies all over Europe. Vladislav donated some troops but he himself is not a warrior. Bohemians and Balkans armies. Excluding the Celje party, the other Captains of Hungary joined Hunyadi. There was also Franjo Talovac, Ban of Severin and pro-Hunyadi, leading his army. 

From Belgrade, the troops marched down Serbia as they expected Durad to join him and he did not. He could not even be found. They were to rendezvous with Skanderbeg in Kosovo, Serbia anyways. As they waited for the Albanians to catch up, the Ottomans suddenly appeared on the horizon. Hunyadi set up the ‘Wagonberg’ formation with his calvary. 6 calvary men would form boxes as ‘tanks’ which they could mobily defend themselves with while shooting cannons and arrows. There was still heavy cavalry in the wings led by Uljaki, Mihaly, Fruzhin, and Lazslo Hunyadi. Janos sat in the center with his dragon. They had 30,000 troops!

Then came the Turks in a simple line formation, with a back row of cannons. The janissaries would remain in the middle led by Beylerbey Kasim Pasha. To the left of him was the Anadolu Ordu led by Mehmed and his great wolf. To the right was the Rumelia Ordu led by Murad and his great wolf. Zaganos and Vlad were vice-captains in the Anadolu Ordu. “Don’t fuck up and run away Dracula,” Zaganos warned. Vlad didn’t respond as he saw Wallachia’s flags but didn’t see his father or brother. Why is there a Croat at the head? he thought when he spotted Talovac. Mehmed is now 16. Altogether the Ottomans had 60,000 troops!

Meanwhile, Turahan Bey was getting bullied by his old ally Skanderbeg.

War erupted with bombings. There was no winning edge for the Christians…only whenever troops got close to the dragon or Hunyadi. But Murad kept Hunyadi at bay with his special sword and Hunyadi realized he could not match the old sultan in battle anymore. At least Uljaki easily disposed of Kasim while Fruzhin kept his opponents frozen. Lazslo was able to score a double-u against Zaganos and Vlad kept walking his troops into traps. “Whoops.” Suddenly, the janissaries were crushed while the sipahis cleaned up the Christian wings. Hunyadi rushed toward the center only to meet destruction. Eventually, Murad was high in the air and used “Altin Gökyüzü” bringing down the four elements on the battlefield. 

Hunyadi was lying on the grassfield and shook awake. He looked over to see the Turks packing up. Durad suddenly spoke, “it was here 59 years ago that the Nemanjic Tsardom was decimated.” Durad stood there in the rain looking down on Hunyadi who was already shackled. Hunyadi raised an eyebrow but continued, “then the branches of the family continued to squabble over petty territory most important to them but a simple stepping stone for the Turks. Well I told Murad, we have a peace treaty and since you’re in my country, I’m free to capture you. He killed the lot of your Catholics while Fruzhin and the other captains escaped with the dragon. I will arrest you for your betrayal against the Order. Sleep,” and Durad knocked out Hunyadi.

Vlad landed next to Durad, “hey Brankovic, where is my father? My brother? Who is the ugly Croat?”

“Oh, the Ban of Severin, Talovan. He was in Varna. He already rules over some Vlachs so I guess Vladislav II gave him his own troops to command. Couldn’t do anything better than command them to death.”

“What!? Vladislav!”

“A Danesti. So you’re Dracul’s child. Vlad was a great man but Hunyadi could never like him. The last of the original generation of the Order of the Dragon is dead. Technically I count but I was originally an enemy and again I will be an enemy.”

“A fucking Danesti, ‘nuff said. Stop yapping Serbo.”

Durad was reminded of the feud between the Lazarevics and Brankovics which ravaged Serbia. “Is it best to continue fighting your cousins? To bother your own countrymen with something that could be solved with marriage?” Vlad summoned his raven and flew away. “But then again, is love and war the only options for mankind?”

Vlad flew to Erdine long before the sultan could get there. He rushed to his bedroom where the 10 year old Radu was doing the sunset Muslim prayer. “What the hell? You’re fully prostrate like a…like a…WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” But had to stand there while Radu continued praying. Vlad started packing his things anyways.

Then Radu finished and asked fully in Turkish, “what’s wrong? Are you feeling okay brother?”

Vlad responded in Romani, “the hell is wrong with you?? Who were you praying to?”

“The one true God, Allah.”

“Oh jeez, pack your bags.”

“Are we heading for Mecca?”

Vlad shuddered down his spine. “I see, I was stuck with Mehmed all these years. I neglected my real blood brother. I should’ve protected you from Islam.”

“Inshallah, we should go before we get too preoccupied with life. You know we must go once in our lives.”

“Hooooooly shit, bro, Hunyadi killed our dad and older brother. Come on, remember Mircea?”

“I pray they meet us on the other side and that Hunyadi finds a better way to deal with his problems.”

Vlad was a bit hesitant. There’s no big reason to take his brother with him outside of family connection but the man has been culturally converted. It might be even better to take him later when the situation is more stable. 

Vlad found Mara on his way out. She was holding a cup of coffee but half asleep on the couch. “Woman, you’re still Christrian right?”

Mara shook awake and hit his head, “I’m your mother, don’t call me ‘woman’. Of course, I’ll always love Christ. I go to church every time I can and you would too if you didn’t like teasing Mehmed.”

“Why’d you let Radu convert!? He’s almost unrecognizable.”

“Then do you truly love your brother? This is the way of the world.”

Vlad was highly frustrated now. He thought of something to hurt her. “Your father might kill Hunyadi.”

“So you saw him? That’s good. Is he healthy?”

“Ugh, because Hunyadi killed my father. Do you see?”

Mara lowered her voice in a mock, “just guys being dudes.” Then she returned to her normal voice, “Well what are the bags? Finally going to leave the child you stupidly have beef yet? Mehmed’s going to be so much greater than you. I raised him to be so,” she smiled widely.

And suddenly, this woman had no more power over Vlad. He punched her and left on his raven. When he landed in Tirgostiv, Vladislav was not home. Vlad sneaked through the palace painfully as memories flashbacked with every step. He made it to the main room and went to Mircea’s hiding place. There was Mircea’s charred corpse, with stakes still through the eyes. Vlad shivered. For the next few weeks, he didn’t leave the palace at day. He took care of some administrative concerns as he could anonymously and then watched the civilians sleep at night. Eventually Vladislav returned with a Hungarian army so Vlad decided to leave. The Hungarian army continued their movement into Moldavia placing a new voivode there.

Vlad flew north to the capital of Moldavia, Suceava, and met Voivode Bogdan II Musat and his son Stefan Musat. After explaining who he was, Bogdan was fine with the man bunking with Stefan. Stefan was only 15, had a blond mop head, and was a little chubby. For the first time, Vlad appreciated his education at Enderun as this kid was just a little stupid. Smart for the average 15 yo but stupid for Vlad. They hit it off though. They liked the same women, hated the same type of men, and they spared a lot finding they liked the same tactics. Vlad showed him that his bloodline could summon ravens while Stefan’s family could summon bulls. These weren’t real animals, just manifested spirits. The only thing they disagreed about was the greatness of Hunyadi.

Bogdan’s ruled over Moldavia including the region between the Dniester river and Carpathian mountains with the Polish border a few miles north of Suceava and the Wallachian border at the Siret River. Casimir, the current Polish King, cared not much for Moldavia which is why Bogdan and Hunyadi were able to usurp the previous ruler. Moldavia was thusly Hungarian. 

As for Hunyadi, Durad let him go when Laszlo begged to replace his father in captivity. “I agree, it may teach him the lesson of ‘hostage’ and why he should’ve left Vlad Dracul alone.” So now Hungary was at peace with Serbia and the latter country was neutral. 

So Stefan always praised Hunyadi for placing his father on the throne of Moldavia. “He’s the White Knight of Hungary! He’ll beat the Ottomans eventually,” Stefan said and Vlad always countered him with a battle that Hunyadi lost to the Ottomans. For a full month, disagreement about Hunyadi stopped as the whole Balkan region celebrated the death of Ghazi Sultan Murad II against the lightning bolts of Skanderbeg. 

But now Mehmed II became the full sultan of the entire country at 19. Vlad snuck up upon him that night and watched Mehmed complete the final succession ritual with Mara and Radu. Blood would be poured out of the neck of his father’s wolf into a huge pot. The blood would be set to boil and then Mehmed stood on the edge, naked. From there he jumped into the boiling blood. Screaming intensified throughout the night as the heat increased in order to boil all of the blood. Gray smoke covered the room.  At sunrise, Mehmed stepped out of the empty pot look just as he did before, if not a more stern face. He told Mara and Radu, “I will succeed Constantine.” Vlad hung his head in great worry about the future of the world.

Constantine XI Drageses Palaioglogos was the current Autocrator of Constantinople, the last city of the Greek phase Roman Empire. Well, there was also Trebizond in Anatolia and the island of Morea. Vlad wondered what to do about him but realized it was all bigger than just himself. “Stefan, I am the last Prince of Wallachia. I’m going to focus on that and then I will make Wallachia big. Your Moldavia can be big too when we beat up Poland and Lithuania.”

“True. Then, when one of us has a daughter, we can unite our kingdoms and make one big Romanian Tsardom. Stretching from the Adriatic Sea to the Dnieper River…”

Then Petru Aron Musat, a cousin and rival claimant, usurped Bogdan II with help from Poland. Moldavia became Polish again and the two boys escaped to the Saxon city of Brasov, Transylvania. 

Buying an apartment atop the city’s mainstreet, Vlad and Stefan would learn to adapt to Brasov. It was a bustling town filled with many craft jobs and Saxon merchants. Vlad already knew this as the Saxon merchants here had their trade route with Tirgositv and then all of the way to the region of Saxony within Germany. The ones here spoke German and Hungarian. There were many young men who didn’t take too much liking to Vlad. Stefan would be approached with investment deals and company contracts, for if he ever became voivode. The girls were also more attracted to Stefan but Vlad excused himself, “Musat literally means beautiful so you’re cheating with your good bloodline, hahaha.” The town was also very colorful with Saxon architecture. There was a castle, Bran, in the lush green hills that was subject to the burghers of the town with red roofing and white marble. They visited it often to meet with passing generals and women. Vlad once stated, “I could never live here, something so gaudy about it.” As they became acquainted with more and more Saxon businessmen, Vlad warned, “we can’t get too close to them, Saxons did holocaust to my brother. They are simply funding our future empire.” 

“Now I see what you have become.”

Eventually the succession situation came to a head in Hungary. The Austrian lords defeated Holy Roman Emperor “Sleepyhead” Frederich III with tumultuous revolts. He let go of the 10 year old Ladislaus Habsburg who would be a ‘triple king’. Duke of Austria, King of Bohemia, and King of Hungary. With his capital in Buda, the Bohemian lands included the region around Prague, Moravia, and Silesia. In Austria, it was just the upper region closest to Vienna as Frederich held onto the south. In Hungary, the only region that did not heel to him was Jiskra’s Nitra. But the young Ladislaus still had a Big 3 of governors that looked over for him; Ulrich Celje in Austria, Jiri Podebrad in Bohemia, and Janos Hunyadi in Hungary. Eventually, Ulrich got Jiskra on their side.

 320 galleys blocking the access on every side of the city as if the Anadoluhisari and Rumelihisari toll forts weren’t enough to stop sailors come by. 140,000 troops standing in a massive array across any possible escape routes on land. 71 large Orban™ cannons in a line ready to fire all at once. And then Mehmed watched the siege atop his giant wolf. Constantinople was going to fall no matter what. Despite Autocrator Drageses’ pleas as the siege continued, Mehmed did not relay any form of peace. Any possible crusade was too far away and would have to deal with the new Beylerbey Zaganos Pasha. Walls fell week after week. Garrisons emptied and troops scattered. There was a lunar eclipse. The poor began to die due to lack of food that still had to be bought even in this battle. Dragses and Cardinal Isidore hosted a final mass in Hagia Sophia, between Catholics and Orthodox Christians. Finally, a breach into the main city. Mehmed could hear his janissary commanders shout in Greek “stin poli, stin poli, stin poli” or “into the city, into the city, into the city!” Mehmed teleported in. 

He landed in the street right before the Palace of Caesars. This place has been housing emperors for nearly 1000 years. I wonder what Vlad is doing right now. Vlad and Stefan were drunk at the bottom of a pile of whores. Mehmed said to himself, “Then Romulus killed his Remus, then Brutus killed his comrade Julius, Constantine killed his brother-in-law Maxenentius, and Mehmed kills…” The 20 year old Mehmed still only stood at 5’0” with a decent build. His hair was wrapped in a dome of cloth on top his head. He grew a slight beard. He wore a red and green coat over his light armor and brown pants. The coat had many swirls and patterns along with one red crescent moon and one green crescent moon. On the back was a grey double headed wolf. 

Drageses stood at 6 feet with a strong build. He had black hair descending from his Byzantine crown and bright eyes. He slammed open the front gates wide, surprising Mehmed. Citizens of the city suddenly flooded their streets from their homes and the battered palace. “Autocrator, do you surrender? I’m not taking prisoners.”

Drageses brandished a hand cannon. “Does this look like a surrender?”

Mehmed raised a finger to spell at him but then he lowered it as Ottomans scrambled into the city. Mehmed said, “What about Orhan, the cousin we paid you to keep away from causing a succession crisis, where is he?”

“Not here,” Orhan said, dressed as a monk. 

“You’re my cousin but…well we weren’t raised together. “Firtina” and lighting rained down on Orhan killing him. “Mehmed kills…” he whispered.

“Okay so leave,” shouted a Greek.

“Fuck you fuck you,” shouted the Ottoman troops and the citizens got all angry. Mehmed fired a fireball at the Palace to shut everyone up. He then brandished the Sword of Osman. “As the next Roman Emperor, I need to take this city.”

“You can take this city as a drawing on the map but all of us have risen to see it differently. And if this city falls, it will be with me! Poté min ta paratás!!” 

The Greeks raged and turned on the Ottoman troops next to them. Mehmed fired a spell at Drageses who already teleported behind him. Then Drageses unleashed Greek Fire upon Mehmed’s back, already majorly damaging the boy. Mehmed fell on all fours and Drageses kicked his sword away before firing again. This time Mehmed tanked the blast and forced the gun to be pointing at the ground. Then he called upon the Sword which flew into his open hand. Drageses blasted at the ground sending the two into the air. Up there, Drageses fired “Sokárei” from his hands, sending ten zigzaging strings of electricity across the sky. Mehmed swung his sword to summon water negating the lighting. Swinging his sword behind him, a breeze then carried him over to Drageses who casually flipped over Mehmed. He could fly with the Sandals of Hermes he wore. Mehmed sent a wave of fire that Drageses splashed through in order to drop kick Mehmed into Hagia Sophia. Mehmed opened his eyes to some graffiti on a pillar. It read “Hakon was here”. Who the hell- but then Drageses crashed through on the Kommenoid. It was a giant two headed eagle adorned with gold feathers. It wore a cross necklace and had the Palaiologos symbol engraved on its chest. It swallowed Mehmed whole and then took to the sky. 

“Altin Gökyüzü”, Mehmed tore through the immortal bird spirit but was then caught by a point-blank blast by another one of Drageses’ hand cannons. But Mehmed floated there, all charred, and swung his sword, “Sibirya Gecesi”. A cold iceberg enveloped Drageses and then fell toward the Palace. It crashed through the damaged roof and then through top side floors before finally stopping as it stabbed into the basement. Mehmed landed safely into this…the treasure room. Mehmed looked behind him to see many legendary weapons and tools. He noticed a crown of snakes. The Medusa, he thought as he remembered one time he told some poor girl all about Perseus. And next to it was the Reflector of Perseus. 

Drageses melted out of the iceberg and crashed on his knees. He continued to hear fighting outside and was glad. “Mehmed, we will make history today. I could kill you and at least restore Greek domination in Europe. You beat me and take one measly city.”

“No, I can be Roman Emperor.”

“You Turks destroyed Rome! Where are you even?” Drageses whispered the last part.

“You might feel the same about the Germans then but they too can be apart of Rome. Rome is not a people or a state but a world. Here I go.”

“To the grave?” 

But Mehmed pushed Drageses toward the mirror and he fell on his face. Drageses raised his head, glanced at the mirror but quickly closed his eyes.

“You expect to fight me blind?” Mehmed said, wearing the Crown of Medusa behind Drageses. “Look, just do it and end this fight. You’ll be immortalized as a trophy. Hell, petrification can even be healed if you contact witches. Look.” Drageses turned around and fired his gun. A miss. “Okay, predecessor, you took your shot.” Dragases moved forward to shoot again but Mehmed flicked a pebble off Dragases’ nose and so he opened his eyes only to become like stone. He was a statue caught fighting to the last moment. Afterwards, Mehmed closed off the treasure room with some stone. There was still fighting outside but he walked through the decrepit palace feeling dissatisfied. “The spider spins curtains the Palace of Caesars and the owl hoots victory in the Palace of Timur”. For this conquest and many more, Mehmed would be known as ‘the Conqueror’ or ‘fatih’. 

Vlad brought Stefan to Castle Hunyad when Hunyadi was away at some meeting. Vlad took him to the underground dungeon where the dragon slept. “This is where the Order of the Dragon used to meet…when Sigismund was alive. Now I guess Hunyadi just lives here or whatever.”

“Wow, amazing,” Stefan said. “I’m walking on ground that Janos walked on.”

“Jeez, pull his pants up when you’re finished.” Vlad entered the secret passcode onto the door to open the final door. The dragon rose slowly and roared. “Relax, I have the claim to inherit you.” The two fought the dragon and tamed it for themselves before flying it over to the mountains in Maros. They had a huge pot and some Karamanli witches who knew the ritual. Stabbing into the dragon’s neck, they poured out most of the blood of the dragon. 

“This doesn’t look so good Vlad.”

“It’s totally safe, just incredibly painful to be boiled in.”

“And you’re getting boiled?? What’s the point of this?”

“I swear Mehmed somehow got stronger than what he was afterwards. We need to be strong enough to be tsars.”

“I mean…you can do it alone. I’ll be strong through regular means.”

“More dragon power for me. Everyone’s always calling me the Son of the Dragon, time to prove it.” Then in Turkish he asked the witches, “hey are any of you necromancers?” They looked at each other and nodded. “If I kill myself and you hold my soul or whatever, can you put me back in the body after the ritual? That way I’ll avoid the pain.”

The first answered, “that’s possible as a theory.”

“But thats completely unheard of.”

“Reanimating their corpse like that. Even your Jesus Christ simply came back in spirit.”

“Unheard of? Don’t worry, once we finish, I’ll be the only thing anyone hears of.”

And then he stabbed his heart and pulled out the knife. His body fell into the boiling dragon blood and steamed his body. His soul slowly left the soup and then the girls caught it in a bottle. His body boiled for hours until sunrise. Midway, the dragon realized he could leave so he left for the Carpathian mountains he came from. The pot was empty so the girls quickly filled his soul’s bottle with water and then poured him back down his throat. Stefan wondered is that all to necromancy? The three girls marked the Seal of Thanatos,  an inverted candle, on Vlad’s chest in ash. The ash was heated with an actual candle and eventually Vlad opened his eyes. 

He leapt off into the air feeling feeling stronger than ever. “Yes! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES! I FEEL INCREDIBLE! IM THE STRONGEST IN THE WORLD!!” 

The girls were wowed along with Stefan. Vlad flew around freely and summoned many ravens at once instead of just one. But black mist proceeded from his body when he did so. One of the witches said to him, “Wait, you’re buying away your blood. I think you’ve become a vampire!”

“Oh, one of those folklore creatures? Does it matter if I’m losing blood? My heart isn’t beating.”

“And you aren’t breathing.”

“But obviously if you want to use any magic, you’ll need to drink blood.”

“I see. Otherwise I feel like I have great control over vitality. You girls are quite ugly.” He touched ground and grope the three of them. Suddenly they grew a bit taller, with huge boobs, fat asses, and a bulging bellies. “Now you’re sexy goddesses. Stay by my side!” They followed him immediately. “Stefan join me. I’ll just power you up.”

Something inhumane just happened. “Okay but just an ounce of power. We’re besties but a man should only rely on a woman for strength.” They clasped hands and suddenly Stefan felt his stomach drop as he felt the empty pit of Vlad’s body. He suddenly bulked up and grew a little in height. All the while, Vlad burned away more blood. “Vlad, that’s enough!” Vlad stopped but then smirked at his friend. “Well, thank you.”

Vlad turned away and summoned his grimoire, the book of magic he knows according to his memory. The witches followed close and he said, “not that close”. Flipping past the Enderun spells, he found new pages as his imagination of magic expanded. “Yes, I’ll be a Tsar this way. But first I need to be Prince of Wallachia. Then we subjugate Hungary and then Devlet-i-Aliyii.” The Sublime State. 

The now 27 year old Vlad stood at 5’10” with his clay colored skin. He had his long brown hair twisted into braids. He had a thick mustache straight across his upper lip. He wore a long thick red coat and yet still the black cape on top with the points. At night, he disguised himself as his own father in Tirgostive. He allowed everyone to spot Vlad Drcual step back into the palace. He tied the sleeping Vladislav to his bed and then started to torture him with heated metal roads. The witches chanted in Turkish to really put the fear of God in Vladislav. Vlad laughed in his face, “MWUAHAHAHAHHAHAH!” and this laugh echoed through the town. “The Draculesti are back!” Then he bit into Vladislav, drying him of all his blood. 

The next morning, civilians had to attend the coronation of the ‘Prince of all Wallachians’ and were in awe at his great power. He did some magic tricks for them but didn’t empower anyone. At night, he invited all of the pro-Danesti boyars to a field out of the city and used his new spell on them, “Teapa” which created a field of shadowy pikes that stabbed through the bodies of the boyars. It was an incredibly powerful spell, burning two cups of blood. But Vlad recovered anyway, drinking the blood of these boyars. In the morning, some civilians found these lords still hung by the pikes and grew in fear. Later, Vlad and Stefan would usurp the Moldavian throne thus completing step one of their plan. Voivode Stefan III still kept Moldavia close to Poland diplomatically speaking. The last thing to check off was a defense pact with the city of Brasov since Tirgostiv was a big trade city for the Saxons. This was completed and it led Laszlo Hunyadi to investigate a mystery. 

Now 24, Laszlo stood just as tall as his father with dirty blonde hair and a marble complexion. As of a few years ago, he became Ban of Croatia and Dalmatia. During a Mehmed invasion of Serbia, Laszlo could not locate his father’s dragon (which Jiskra did find but kept secret) and so they had to fight without it. Janos would over extend himself in defeating the young sultan at Belgrade and die of illness. Now Laszlo could potentially take his position as a Captain of Hungary. 

Those in opposition were Ulrich. That’s it. But before he took the office, Laszlo looked into the disappearance of the dragon and discovered that Vlad had released it back to the wild. King Ladislaus called a Diet in Buda to discuss all things. The Balkan rulers were also called upon, even if they didn’t want to go. 

So among the many counts and bans of Hungary, Austrian and Bohemian nobles were also Ujlaki, Stefan Musat, Vlad Draculesti, Fruzhin, Jiskra, Mihaly, Skanderbeg, Ulrich, Laszlo Garai and Jiri Podebrad. A large assembly sat before Ladislaus on stage with all of these lords sitting in the auditorium seats. As Palatine, Garai sat next to Ladislaus on stage with a pile of papers. Garai invited Vlad on stage, “so the first issue is a suit between Dracula and Hunyadi”.

“Hehehe, this is gonna be a shit show,” Vlad said to Stefan as he stepped on stage. 

Laszlo Hunyadi gave a thumbs up to his younger brother Matyas who is about 12 years old. The two faced each other on stage. “First, some preliminary questions, Dracula. Last year, Danesti had allowed Ottoman troops to pass into southern Hungary for raids and you sent a letter to my father, correct?”

“Yup.”

“And it said ‘yo do you mind if a slide in?’ correct?”

“Yup. And he gave me the go ahead.”

“Okay, what resource did you use to achieve such a goal?”

“Some grit and smarts. Maybe torture.”

“And you didn’t use the dragon, Sigismund’s dragon or release it in anyway?”

“You lost the dragon?” Ulrich exclaimed. 

“Funny you should say that, I have no access to the dragon. Did you forget I haven’t been this side of the Danube since childhood? I wouldn’t even know where it is. Celje would though.”

“Sure I would know but so does Shishman.”

“Why are we just passing blame?” Fruzhin asked.

Vlad continued, “I’m just saying, I know where this shitshow is going but it didn’t start with me. Garai, who’s the next discussion between?”

“The king will decide when that is announced,” spoke Habsburg.

“Anyone in this room can kill you and take the three crowns buddy.” Everyone leaned back in their seats in shock. “Let us know, Palatine.”

“First of all, unnecessarily rude for an illegitimate noble. You must understand your place,” Garai answered. 

“MY place?” Vlad snapped his fingers and switched positions with Habsburg with the spell ‘inversa’. The people rose in anger while the child king stood in shock. Garai immediately equipped a hatchet and swung. Vlad switched again and the hatchet just barely cut into Habsburg. “Whoa, you just hurt the king!? A secret ally of the Turks?” Garai brought back his hatchet and profusely apologized to the king. Vlad continued, “I’m just kidding. All of our ‘places’ are subjective and God can flip them at any time.” They started booing Vlad and throwing tomatoes at him but none hit him despite him ‘standing’ still. “Let us know, Palatine.”

Garai looked at the second paper, “well Ulrich wanted to sue Hunyadi about something.”

“Well I don’t have no damn dragon but I’ll stay up here if you wanna talk with me after Ulrich.”

Jiskra stood up, “its true he doesn’t have the dragon. I spotted it weeks ago on Maramures. It seemed all the livestock in the region was dead and it was prowling the forests.” People began to murmur while Vlad shrugged. “But I don’t know who released him.”

“Crazy, didn’t this wacko commit other crimes against the kingdom?” Vlad asked. 

“But he doesn’t have the passcode to the dungeon,” Hunyadi argued.

“Hey I’m as confused as you. Come on up, next contestant.”

Ulrich rolled his eyes but came up to the stage and avoided being near Vlad. Ulrich was a chubby man in a blue and gold coat. He was about 5’5”. “Yes, son of Janos, I have an issue with you. The entire Kingdom owed your father greatly for his defense against the Ottomans and so he was paid awfully well. At the same time, his own bank accounts dipped deep into red and according to the Medici Bank, all this money is owed back to the kingdom.”

“Oh brother, this bore is just interested in pocket watching,” Vlad said loudly. People murmured. 

Ulrich did not mind. He needed to do this to decrease the political power of the Hunyadi family, if it worked. “Laszlo, we’ll cut you a deal. Simply give back a number of the 300 castles you father owned and return some of his cities to the Kingdom. Thus you’ll pay even less taxes to King Habsburg.”

Laszlo did feel caught off guard because he was in the middle of potentially replacing Dracula in Wallachia but now suddenly he has to deal with thousands of ducats of debt. He met eyes with Vlad who suddenly entered his mind. Inside, Vlad pulled out the boy’s worst demons but then was pulled out when Laszlo blinked. Laszlo answered Ulrich, “well actually I’m willing to negotiate which territories to give up and such. I have most of my papers in Belgrade if you would like to come with me later.”

Ulrich was shaken while the people murmured positively. Not losing his professional demeanor he said, “well of course we can talk later. That’s all. You can go back to talking to the dreaded Dracula.” Ulrich returned to his seat. Habsburg thanked Laszlo personally. 

Vlad thought I gotta stick around here for the drama that rises. “Dracula, do you have anything else to say about your suit? We can have you investigate more broadly later on anyway,” Habsburg said.

“Oh I’ll just come out and say that I did borrow the dragon to blast Turks but then I returned it. Obviously. If you just lost it, Laszlo, just say that. No need to cover your ass by blaming others.” The crowd murmured in agreement.

“Nothing more, my king,” Laszlo said. 

King Habsburg kept dealing out other noble disputes for the rest of the day including a reconciliation with Jiskra who did not actually command his mercenaries to force heresy on the Nitrans but he did have to defend himself against the White Knight. Laszlo Hunyadi remained a Captain-General of Hungary as soon his deal with Ulrich was resolved although the king reminded everyone that such titles were not hereditary in the first place. During the ending, Skanderbeg and Stefan reaffirmed their vassalships with Aragon and Poland respectively, disappointing Ladislaus. Vlad declared independence (displeasing everyone) while the Serbian diplomat reaffirmed a Serbo-Hungarian alliance. Jiri Podebrad was made permanent governor of Ladislaus’ Bohemia. It was lastly decided that the seven Captain-Generals needed to recapture the dragon by the end of the year. At the post-dinner, Vlad asked Stefan about the dragon as he himself completely forgot about it. But Stefan admitted he fell asleep and also forgot about the dragon. “So we accidentally let it loose…”

Ulrich, King Habsburg, and the Hunyadi-Szilagyi family traveled down to Belgrade in a large caravan. Matyas looked out the window and spotted a flock of ravens (Vlad) following them. Matyas childishly summoned a crow to go up and meet the ravens but one raven simply flew through it. Ulrich noticed this and asked, “a familiar? That’s a bloodline trait, is that something Hunyadi had? I know the Szilagyi don’t have it.”

Laszlo nodded, “yes but I don’t think my father also needed the help of a crow in battle.” He summoned a small crow that circled the car and then landed back in his hand.”

“I really like crows,” Matyas announced.

“That’s fine, I don’t care,” Ulrich said. Katarina Brankovic, his wife, hit him. Katarina is sister to Mara. While they have no children now, just two years ago, their only daughter was betrothed to marry Matyas. 

Then Katarina said, “well its a nice bird at times. Maybe you can be ‘the Crow’ of Hungary.”

Habsburg asked, “a familiar is based on bloodline? I can’t summon any animals though, would every bloodline have an animal?”

Ulrich answered, “no. Adam was made master of animals by God but God made other humans at the same time. Those descended from Adam might still have prominence over animals and that’s why they have familiars. That’s a theory out there. It’s okay, if you find the right wife, your children can have familiars.” Habsburg nodded. Laszlo took note as Ulrich has been as much a ‘captor’ of the child Habsburg as the Sleepyheaded Emperor. Because of that, there were those in the Austrian estates who wanted him dead. Laszlo then reasoned it was his fate to kill Ulrich, his father’s biggest hater. 

Elisabeth Szilagyi, Laszlo’s mother said, “I hope you understand how greedy you are trying to grab up my husband’s domains like this. You sit there in Cilli all safe from the Ottomans and he has to die of plague! You’re a monster for bringing it up.”

“It’s not just me, the king is receiving all of this.” 

Habsburg nodded and said, “the Count thinks we will soon not be the richest nation in Christendom. We need to be conservative and Janos honestly received too much from Wladyslaw. I expect to come up with entirely different feudal zones.”

“So he had you practice that line too,” Laszlo unexpectedly said. Everyone looked at him but he was unaware his inner demons spoke.

Mihaly hugged Elisabeth, “its understandable. These two are aware of the on coming bullion famine as the gold mines loose volume.” From the air, Vlad groaned loudly but they didn’t think anything of it. 

They arrived at Belgrade. Ulrich also had his Austrian guards follow him along with the Hunyadi bringing their Transylvanian guard. The troops entered the still reconstructing fortress first and then the nobles. The nobles went to sit in a lounge while Laszlo went to get his book of properties. A raven sat in the window of the lounge. Laszlo found his papers but then had to go poopy. Another raven followed him into the crapper and told him, in Janos’ voice, that Ulrich’s troops wanted to see him in the back. Vlad, disguised as Laszlo, told the Transylvanian guards to kill whoever crosses to the room in the back. He kept the lights off and told them that the assassination must be kept secret. Laszlo left the bathroom saying, “Ulrich, I wanted to start right away but your troops seem to need you immediately in the backroom”. Meanwhile, Vlad has already impaled the Austrian guards in a basement. Ulrich went to the dark backroom and was suddenly stabbed nine times. The guards didn’t even look at who they killed and left out the window following the ravens disguised as crows. 

The nobles waited but Ulrich never returned. Mihaly went to look and found him dead. Katarina screamed in fear. Matyas announced, “we’re being haunted.” Habsburg immediately ran away but Laszlo immediately caught up to him. 

“What’s wrong king?”

“T-t-t-the ghost of Janos Hunyadi. He killed Ulrich! Ulrich always told me to watch out for you Hunyadis.”

“Hey, it’s okay King. Look, I’m not going to hurt you, I agree you should rule over Hungary. I even still agree to give back just a few territories to the Kingdom.”

Habsburg shrugged off Laszlo and said, “you don’t need to give anything back. Just continue paying the 120,000 ducats tax.”

Laszlo got greedy and said, “and the title of Horsemaster? At the Diet you said you were looking for one.”

“Yes, I found one. Horsemaster Hunyadi! And a Captain-General!” 

“Oh thank you king,” he fell unto his knees and kissed the hands and feet of Habsburg.

“What an unholy glazer, but this wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be,” Vlad said to himself. 

Later on, one of Vlad’s spy ravens heard that the Hunyadi were invited to a personal meeting with King Ladislaus. There was still politics raging in Hungary which is why they haven’t attacked Wallachia as Vlad trained his troops. Mehmed was also in Asia conquering others and did not bother about Wallachia. Vlad quickly flew over to Buda. There, he found the Hunyadi brothers already imprisoned. He turned into a raven and sat in the window of the cell. “Bro the Hunyadi are a bunch of criminals. How many times have you guys been sent to prison?”

“This is unfair, Dracula. You’ve shapeshifted and are mocking us while we are unjustly held here,” Laszlo responded.

“Whoa, a talking bird!” Matyas exclaimed.

“How did you even shapeshift? Are you a witch now?”

“I’m kind of him bro. The one who will conquer the Roman world.”

“If anything, you’ll terrorize it. Now I remember, you were the reason I killed Ulrich but I dearly wanted to so anyway.”

“Got him boss,” a guard said, stepping into view. He opened the door while Laszlo protested. Vlad broke out of bird form as he started laughing outrageously. Matyas cried for his brother as he was taken away, which Vlad mocked.

“Bleh bleh! Bleh bleh! What a fucking baby, Corvus! Oh holy shit,” Vlad reached threw the window and extended his arm to grab Matyas by the neck. He raised him to his face and licked off the tears falling down his cheeks. His tongue was sharp and extremely rough besides his dead breath which caused Matyas to cry and scream even more. Vlad was delighted with the taste, “mmm, baby tears so good!” Then he roughly threw Matyas against the wall. Guards came over to see why he was screaming and by then Vlad disappeared so Matyas looked like he was having a schizo episode. “There’s nothing in the window, stupid kid.”

A raven flew over to Masco, near Belgrade, while Vlad personally watched Hasburg’s guards execute Laszlo Hunyadi. In Masco was the Szilagny family who did not like to hear what the raven said. Mihaly rode the raven back to Buda and bombarded the palace. Then he completely demolished the roof as he crashed in. The Austrian troops were already leaving. He followed them outside to the streets where there was the King’s caravan. Matyas screamed from it, “Uncle! Save me.” The horses were hit to gallop at high speeds and Mihaly followed on a random path. “To Wien!”

But eventually, Habsburg reached Vienna. Mihaly could not really follow him out of Hungary. Still, the Hunyadi-Szilagny Party rose in a large rebellion causing a civil war with the Habsburg Party. “Oh this is great, divided like this, they are powerless against me. I’m kind of goated,” Vlad said of himself. In Vienna, Habsburg relaxed in his Austrian Palace. Matyas was chained down in the dungeon but he used his crow’s long beak to pick the lock. Then he thought of ways of revenge and a new spell popped up in his grimoire. It summoned a plague crow that dived into the castle’s water supply. Habsburg and all his servants drank the poisoned water unknowingly and died of disease. Later, Sleepyhead Frederich was cleaning out the castle (and annexing Upper Austria into his domain) and released Matyas who returned to Buda. With Mihaly in a positive position, he made the 15 year old Matyas king of Hungary. Matyas’ Hungary included everything but Jiskra’s Nitra which was semi obedient.

But during the civil war, Vlad Draculesti invaded Transylvania. He might’ve wanted to annex the territory of Brasov and the region around it but he just ended up impaling hundreds of Saxons. The Saxons then dubbed the name “Tepes” or “Impaler” on him in his own language. First, Uljaki’s subordinate, Voivode Janos Rozgonyi,of Transylvania fought the vampire who one-shot him with “Despica”. Then Captain-General Uljaki came after Dracula himself, along with Dan Danesti. The people found their bodies impaled outside of Brasov the next morning. Uljaki was still breathing. Fruzhin arrived in Brasov soon to deal with Vlad but was assassinated by the Turkish witches. Rozgonyi and Fruzhin were both Mihaly allies in the civil war and losing them both to a simple raider was maddening. Mihaly simply opened up free trade between Brasov and Wallachia in order to quell Vlad who still sometimes impaled.

Meanwhile, Mehmed did a final invasion of Serbia thus successfully taking land that belonged to his Mara and thus to him. This land included all of Serbia. The Brankovics died. Mehmed then killed the Palaiologos brothers in Morea, annexing the island for himself. Next was the city of Trebizonid in Asia, the last successor of the previous Roman Empire. A successful invasion. 

“Well I guess all those achievements are kind of great,” Vlad muttered to himself.