Vampire Game

Vampire Game (吸血遊戯) is a manga by the Japanese author and artist, Judal. It originally ran in the monthly manga magazine Wings, with its last chapter serialized in the November 2004 issue. The series has 15 volumes in all. It was licensed in the U.S. by Tokyopop.

The story
One hundred years ago, Vampire-King Duzell led a war against the humans and kingdom of Pheliosta, because... he was bored. In the epic last battle, King Phelios defeated Duzell by using a powerful spell, La Gamme, which uses the caster’s life force as a weapon to destroy the enemy, but kills the caster in the process. Before King Phelios cast the spell however, Duzell asked him what was the point of victory if they were both going to die, Phelios didn’t answer instead he cast the spell. As both lay dying, Duzell swore that they would be reborn in a century's time; Duzell would then find Phelios' reincarnation, and when he did, he would "drain his blood, rip his body limb from limb and laugh while his soul writhed, damned for eternity to a lake of fire." Way to pass time immortal Duzell. Ninety-nine and a half years later, Duzell is reborn and he approaches a wildcat called a kyawl, offering a partnership, before though, the kyawl’s kittens had been killed and the she-cat was seeking revenge. She let him share her body for a few hours so they could talk this over inside her head. She explained to him that she only wanted to kill whoever was responsible for the torment and death of her kittens. The kyawl killed an innocent man in the process of revenge leaving a little boy, Roy, fatherless. After watching the boy cry over his dead father, she told Duzell after she avenged her kittens she would give birth to a son and Duzell could take refuge in his body; however she would sacrifice herself on the sword of Roy to stop the cycle of revenge. Before all this happened, Princess Ishtar of Pheliosta was in the middle of a lesson with her advisor, Sir Keld; he was explaining to her the history of her family, or more specifically the battle between Vampire King Duzell and Good King Phelios. During the lesson, Ishtar revealed how much she despised her great-grandfather, King Phelios, through her words, “ If I ever run into Phelios’s reincarnation I’ll spoon out his eyes and flay him myself, instead of waiting for an old moldy vampire to do it,”. After her advisor and her bodyguards, Captain Darres, Jill, and Krai show their shock she says, “Just kidding, I’d use a fork not a spoon”. During that lesson everyone else reveals how Ishtar turned from a sweet little girl to a royal pain-in-the-butt. After her lessons she sneaks out and visits the village where the kyawl attacks took place. There she disguises herself as a knight as she steals the holy sword, Sidia, from the castle as well. Sidia was the ruelle, an item that requires the sacrifice of many monsters, holy sword Phelios used to fight against Duzell. She encounters Roy after his father was found dead. Duzell sees the sword and tell the Kyawl that he needs to taste Ishtar’s blood in order to find if she if Phelios’s reincarnation. He attempts to attack her, but Darres shows up and kills the kyawl. Ishtar calls him an idiot for killing the kyawl, but he retorts that if he was a minute late she would’ve been cat chow. As the kyawl dies she gives birth to a son which Duzell takes over. He bites Ishtar, and she screams for Darres to kill it (she didn’t mean it). Princess Ishtar takes home the kyawl kitten and names him Duzell. During her holy magic lesson, Ishtar asks her tutor Yujinn for an easy spell, one that could “Turn your opponent inside out”. Darres reprimands her and says that everything that is worth learning does not come easy, but Yujinn smiles and tells her there is only one spell that is easy yet powerful. He shows her the La Gamme spell, but Darres yells at him and tells him the spell is dangerous. Ishtar however is fascinated in the spell until Yujinn tells her she would die if she cast the spell. Later, Ishtar tries to feed Duzell, whom she calls Duzie or Du. When the food arrives she takes an apple and gives a platter of milk to Duzell telling him it tastes good. Ishtar takes a bite out of the apple and she realizes its poison. Instead of screaming for a doctor, Ishtar tells Duzie not to eat the food. Darres and Yujinn are having a heated argument about Phelios and if it was wise to show her the La Gamme spell, during their argument a servant boy shows up and tells them about Ishtar’s poisoning. They rush to the dining hall where Duzie is sitting and where Ishtar is lying on the table. Someone says “We’ve given her a wide variety of poisons, in small doses of course regularly since she was a child. I thought she was immune to all of them. Over and over I’ve told her she needed a taster, but after the death of the third one she refused to put any others at risk”. Duzell thinks over what just happened and uses a spell to save her. Duzell can turn into anyone as long as he’s tasted their blood before. Ishtar runs into Duzell who was using her form. At the end of volume one, Duzell reveals to Ishtar that he’s the Vampire King Duzell who killed her great-grandfather after she tells him that if she ever found something that she really cared about(Duzell) she would take good care of it. She also told him two other things: One, that she’s never given so much as a rat’s butt of thought to most everyone else, and two, that she loves Darres and he’s the most important thing in the world to her so much to the point she would cast La Gamme for him. Princess Ishtar has decided she will go to La Naan to visit her aunt and her three cousins telling Duzell if the moment was right he could bite them. Ishtar's got her own problems with the monarchy, and the spunky princess turns this tale into a comical, witty adventure of a search for, and desperate battle with, Phelios. It will span throughout the kingdom - and affect everyone in it.

Main Character
Ishtar - Princess Ishtar is only fifteen years old and controls the throne of Pheliosta due to her parents' deaths earlier in her childhood. Defiant and stubborn, Ishtar gets what she wants and is known for running away and causing trouble. Though loyal to a fault, she often hurts situations more than she helps, which Duzell or Darres have to fix. Ishtar is in love with Darres and would cast La Gamme for him - the very spell Phelios cast to destroy Duzell at the cost of his life. At the end of the manga she marries Darres and gives birth to twin boys, Phelios and Duzell. These two are the actual reincarnations of their namesakes, due to a promise Ishtar made to Duzell.

Duzell - The dreaded Vampire King. When he was still alive, before his battle with Phelios, Duzell struck fear into every heart, human and vampire alike. He was quite cruel and began "world domination" because he was bored with his immortality. Now, in his reincarnation, he has been considerably softened by Ishtar. Though his true form is a kyawl (a cat-like creature) he is able to change into any being from whom he draws blood. Eventually he becomes strong enough to take on his original vampire form. When in this form, Duzell masquerades as Ishtar's doctor. He later sacrifices himself to save Ishtar and Darres at the end of the manga, using La Gamme to kill Lassen and, as a result, himself. Five years later he is reincarnated as Duzell, prince of Pheliosta and twin brother of Phelios. His appearance is of his male Ishtar form, looking identical to his mother. He gets kissed numerous times in the place of Ishtar because he shape-shifted into her. At the end, it's revealed that Duzell fell in love with Ishtar, and she loved him too, in a different way. He learned that what was important was to love and be loved. And he knew that Ishtar loved Darres more. He still tried to make her happy throughout the series, and got mad at himself when he failed.

Darres - Ishtar's 27-year-old bodyguard who was first employed ten years ago, when he was seventeen and she was five. He is a master swordsman. He often has to chase Ishtar when she runs away or tries to fix things she has screwed up. He is actually quite dense to many things (especially women) and is oblivious to Ishtar's deep love for him. At the end he marries Ishtar and becomes the father of Phelios and Duzell. Considering his approval of both names, Ishtar told him everything after Duzell's death

Yujinn - Yujinn is actually Ishtar's cousin Yuujel masquerading as her spell tutor. He is known to be quite the ladies' man but also flirts with men and, possibly, Ishtar's kyawl. Lucy suggested that Yuujin is quite taken with Ishtar that he would put himself on the line for her.

Sharlen - The Vampire Marquis. He is the son of Diaage a vampire countess, and St. Phelios. He has used his mother's face and name as an alias to hide his true identity, while bargaining with a mortal. Phelios used Diaage and other vampires as sacrifices to create the ultimate ruelle called Sidia. Sidia the holy sword can only be drawn by someone of Phelios' bloodline. Sharlen is half human, and wants to kill Phelios' reincarnation because he sacrificed his mother. He thinks that Ishtar is Phelios' reincarnation. He respects Illsaide because Illsaide reflects a part of himself, being half human and half monster. He hates Duzell because his mother chose to sacrifice herself to get revenge on Duzell by helping Phelios. Sharlen is uncertain in the end who Phelios' reincarnation is so he helps Lassen start a war in hopes that all the descendants of Phelios will be killed. Sharlen was killed by the King of Razenia and Vord with Sidia when Sharlen was possessing the king's body.

The Royal House of La Naan
Queen Ramia - Ishtar's hot-tempered widowed aunt and queen of La Naan. Ramia is bent on getting one of her sons on the throne (though only Seiliez is truly eligible) by any means even if it means setting one son against the other. Because the marriage was childless due to his unwillingness to consummate the relationship, they adopted Seiliez, Vord, and Laphiji, even though Seiliez was the bastard son of a prostitute and the lord of La Naan.

Vord - One of Queen Ramia's adopted sons. Vord would be considered the "heart-throb" of La Naan for his good looks and muscular stature. He fell in love with Ishtar to the point that he would do anything to be with her. Vord is actually the son of the king of Razenia. He was one of twin sons, and Razenian superstition held that the younger of the twins would be evil; Vord was youngest "chosen" to be the evil one and was abandoned into the care of the Lord and Lady of La Naan. At the end he is married to Falan, with no children, although if they succumb to Ramia's demand they may soon have some. In the tournament he challenged his brother, Laphiji, to show everyone Laphiji's great power. He was badly wounded, but the wizards temporarily healed him.

Laphiji - Laphiji is the middle son and the quiet one of the three. He is rarely seen with a smile and is often called creepy by several of the other characters. Like Vord, Laphiji was adopted. Being the son of a mercenary, his life was just another thing to sell in which Lady Ramia of La Naan was the purchaser. However, three months later, the mercenaries kidnapped him to finish a tribal ritual which is where the mark on his fore head comes from. This basically means that his body is living magic so any ban of magic placed upon him is ineffective. It is also insinuated that he may be in love with Seiliez.

Seiliez - The last, and eldest, of the three princes of La Naan. Days before the tournament he met Ishtar and had fallen in love with her, he competed in the tournament to win Ishtar's heart, but he could not fight, so he made a deal with a vampire, Sharlen, to gain more power to fight in the tournament.However,Sharlen later made a deal with Seiliez by force after rejecting Sharlen's offer. It seems that Ramia hates Seiliez because he is the product of an affair between her husband and a prostitute. Seiliez is actually quite gorgeous being the pretty boy that he is and inherited his mother's eye and hair color. In his first appearance in the manga, he is dressed in drag to sneak off in order to see his mother, who his foster mother forbids him to go near. It is also insinuated that he may be in love with Laphiji.

The Royal House of Ci Xeneth
Jened - Ishtar's uncle and king of Ci Xeneth. He has had dealings with Sharlen and conducts secret experiments to create ruelles from the souls of monsters. He is Falan's father and plots to kill Ishtar so that his daughter can become Queen of Pheliosta. Jened is later revealed to also be Illsaide's father though he does not care for his son. At the end of the Ci Xeneth act, he is killed by one of his guards.

Falan - Ishtar's cousin. Falan is a sweet girl and is one of the only relatives who Ishtar is fond of. The two are frequently chatting over a special mirror. She is in love with Illsaide, but is unable to marry him due to their blood connection. Later, Vord falls in love with her.

Illsaide - Nicknamed "The Holy Warrior". He is a taciturn and powerful fighter who is adept in all types of magic. He is in love with Falan, although they find out that they are half-siblings since Jened had Illsaide with a sea nymph, the daughter of the Lord of the Sea. Because of his sea-monster blood, Illsaide is exceptionally powerful and that power amplifies when it rains.

The Royal House of Zi Alda
Sonia - Ishtar's favorite aunt and queen of Zi Alda. A nice woman who succeeded in marrying outside of the family and has one son, Yuujel. She is found with a terminal illness and passes away. In her will it "Reveals" that Sonia had a bastard son (Sir Darres) before marrying Yuujel's father. (Darres is not truly her son, but Yuujel convinced her to write that in her will, so that Ishtar, who loves Darres, could marry him legally.)

Yuujel - The prince of Zi Alda, also known as Yujinn. He left Zi Alda to become Ishtar's tutor one year ago. His best friend is Ashley, and Leene is in love with him although he does not return her feelings. Ashely and Leene are married also.

He has beforehand come to realize that he only wants what he can not have.

The Royal House of Mil Seii
Lassen - The illegitimate Duke of Mil Seii. He wants to rule Pheliosta, and killing Ishtar is part of his plan. His holy magic abilities and his years of studying poisons have made him one of the most powerful members of Phelios' bloodline. It's rumored that he poisoned his own parents. He despises Duzell and is in love with a sorcerer known as Lailis, the reincarnation of Duzell's lover Rishas, because Lailis was the only one who showed him kindness. Lassen teams up with Sharlen to kill off Duzell and Ishtar. He succeds in trapping Duzell in a room full of ruelle crosses. However, Duzell escapes thanks to the help of a she-vampire. Duzel uses holy magic to try and destroy the vampires present who sided with Lassen. Lassen tells Duzell that holy magic is useless on humans like himself but Duzell says he is incorrect and casts La Gamme on him, sacrificing himself to kill Lassen.

Lailis- 'Queen of the doomed land Lodoc' Lailis is the reincarnation of Rishas, Duzells favourite puppet in their past lives. Rishas was a human that Duzell was gradually turning into a vampire. However, as Duzell says, 'when Rishas died he was still human, he was incomplete.' Though it was not completely known to the Vampire King, Rishas loved Duzell with all his heart. Duzell did love Rishas in his own way, but he could not show it as it might be considered a weakness.

Lailis knew Lassen in his youth, and only stayed in contact with him because he was part of Phelios' blood line and knew that eventually Duzell would come looking for him. After telling Lassen about Duzell, Lassen started modelling himself after the vampire king in an attempt to make Lailis love him. Even though he loved Lailis, he tortured her and even paralyzed her legs. At the end, when asked if she had any last words before her execeution she tells them to make it quick because her love is lonely down in hell.

Other Works by Judal
Carbuncle, Diva, Makai sangokushi CHIMAERA, Nerva shinjuuki, Nighteye (Night Eye), and Yoru no Hitomi (published by Bonita Comics)