"Your majesty" Just as the two of them were about to discuss the terms of their deal, a soldier entered the throne hall. Connors quickly hid the crystal with his robes. The Senator gave the soldier a death glare as the soldier's face went pale behind his metal helmet.
"What?" Vibius growled like an animal,
"Senator Caius is here to meet you"
Vibius was taken aback by surprise. He didn't receive any report of Caius's visit to Maven from Gisel ambassadors or his spies.
"Why wasn't I informed about his visit?" Vibius asked the soldier,
"Your majesty, Senator Caius just suddenly appeared with another one. They are requesting an audience with you"
Yet again Vibius was surprised by the soldier. He couldn't help but raise his brows. Even Connors who was standing beside Vibius had a frown on his face.
"Weird" Vibius rubbed his chin,
The soldier remained in the hall waiting for Vibius's orders. After pondering for a few moments, Connors opened his mouth,
"The other guy you mentioned, does he pose a threat to the Senator?"
"No my lord, they are both unarmed. The Spartans already confirmed they have no weapons on them" Connors listened to the soldier patiently.
"What do you think, Lord Canus?" Vibius asked Connors.
Connors was confident in his combat ability as he was trained by the best coaches in the Guardian guild. In addition to his training, they had Spartans waiting outside the throne hall. If Caius or the other guy tried to do any harm, they would be dead before they could reach Vibius. Besides, if Connors could broker peace between the two kingdoms, his job of getting the crystals to the Guardians would be much easier. Otherwise, the guardians would have to allocate resources such as an army and weapons to Maven to fight Gisel.
"I say we should ask Caius why is he here"
Vibius racked his brain for a few minutes before nodding at the soldier. Connors quickly put the crystal deep within his inner pocket.
"Send them in but make sure the Spartans are within a shouting range" Vibius ordered the soldier as the soldier bowed before leaving the throne hall.
"What if Caius becomes a problem guardian Connors?" While they were waiting for Caius to enter the throne hall, Vibius asked Connors,
"Then we deal with it in the Guardian way" Connors waved his hands casually,
"And what is that?"
"Solve the problem or make it disappear" the cold smile that emerged on Connor's face indicated the true meaning of his words. Vibius was thinking the same. If Caius became too much of a nuisance, he was planning to assassinate Caius. It would be difficult to assassinate a head senator in his own kingdom but Vibius had connections with the Grim Reapers. Only a handful of few knew the existence of Grim Reapers in the Southern continent. Vibius was one of those few people.
The two of them were already planning on killing Caius. They had zero clues that the Dark Lord himself was coming to greet them. After waiting for the guests to appear for a few minutes, Vibius finally saw Caius wearing a white toga and golden laurel on his head walking towards him with a tall youngster in a long gray coat and black pants. His dress was not of a Southern noble but was similar to Connors's robes. He seemed like he came from one of the cultivation continents. Nonetheless, Vibius paid little attention to the youngster because no matter who he was or where he came from, when he stepped inside the void line, he was nothing but a mere mortal.
Vibius put on a fake smile to welcome Caius. Vibius noticed the fake smile on Caius's face as well as the cold sweat drop on his forehead.
"Senator Caius, I didn't expect you to visit me suddenly" Vibius and Caius shook their hands as Connors stared at the youngster behind Caius. He had an uneasy feeling in his gut.
Connors noticed the youngster looking at Vibius but soon, his gaze slowly turned towards him.
"Ouch" when Vibius was shaking Caius's hands, he suddenly let out a muffled cry. Connors was shocked. Still, before Connors could react, he saw the youngster behind Caius suddenly disappear. His mind went blank as he felt a sharp pain. Within a second after he felt the sharp pain, everything around him turned dark.
*********************************
"Argh" Connors let out a moan slowly regaining his consciousness. He tried to move his arms and legs but he simply couldn't. He opened his eyes, fighting the pain in his head.
"Finally he's awake" Connors was not sure what he just heard. The voice he just heard didn't sound like a human. Struggling to move his body, he opened his eyes to see nothing but an endless ocean around him. The half-moon and the millions of stars in the sky were the only light source. He looked down at his hands to see his hands and legs are tied up with ropes.
He gritted his teeth trying to get himself out of the ropes.
"Don't bother" While Connors was trying to get himself out of the ropes, he heard a voice from behind. This time the voice sounded human.
"Hrggh" Connors growled as he turned back to see a Spartan soldier behind him. The Spartan soldier was in no better shape than him. His hands and legs were tied using ropes too. If it wasn't for the red cape, golden chest armor as well as a crimson red tunic, Connors wouldn't have recognized the man as a Spartan. The red feather-covered helmet indicated that the man was not a mere soldier but someone who held high rank in the Spartan army. At the moment, the spartan's ranking didn't help him as he also remained a prisoner.
Connors then turned his gaze away from the Spartan and saw several other figures kneeling on the floor with their hands and legs tied. Looking at their togas and golden laurels on their heads, Connors could tell all of them were nobles.
"Vibius" Connors mumbled when he saw Vibius among the nobles. However, Vibius didn't notice Connors as all the nobles had their eyes covered with a cloth. Except for him and the Spartan, everyone had a cloth around their eyes.
"What happened?" Connors asked himself. He tried to recall what just happened. One moment, he was in the throne hall looking at the youngster behind Caius and the next moment, he felt a sharp pain and then he woke up here.
His memory was clouded. He tried his best to clear out the fog. As he thought deeply, he remembered the youngster suddenly vanishing into thin air.
For a few moments, Connors just looked around to see where he was. Even though they were on the upper deck of a ship, Connors saw no crew members. In addition to the lack of crews, he also noticed the lack of cannons around him. The upper deck was void of any cannons.
"Where are we?" Connors asked the Spartan.
The Spartan soldier looked around before sighing,
"The better question is how did we end up here? Where were you before this?" The Spartan soldier asked,
Connors didn't immediately answer the Spartan. Despite the confusion of how he ended up here, Connors was able to tell that he was either poisoned to lose consciousness and transported here or he was teleported. But the latter possibility seemed impossible as no one could use teleportation within the void line. Hence, Connors bet on the poison theory which made sense as he felt a sharp pain like a bee sting in the back of the neck before he lost consciousness.
Connors couldn't trust the spartan. What if the Spartan was one of those who kidnapped him?
Suddenly Connors realized something as he quickly touched his chest.
"Shit" Connors cursed out loud. When he touched his pockets, he couldn't find the crystal inside.
"If you are searching for a weapon, don't. They stripped all the weapons" The Spartan told Connors.
"I'm not looking for any weapon" Connors growled. His mind disregarded the possibility of him being teleported. Instead. He thought someone poisoned him and transported him with the others to the ship.
"You have no idea who you are messing with!" Suddenly Connors shouted loudly. He was so pissed as he wanted to kill whoever kidnapped him.
"I tried that" the Spartan soldier shook his head,
"Shut up Spartan" Connors snickered. As far as Connors was concerned Spartans were nothing but glorified slaves to the senators. They were pawns.
"Did you hear the voice?" Connors asked the Spartan as he nodded,
"It didn't sound human, did it?" the Spartan asked,
The Spartan seemed to be more worried about something else than escaping his bonds, unlike Connors. Connors was struggling and trying to bite the ropes that tied his arms.
"A Guardian" While Connors was struggling to escape from the ropes, he yet again heard the animalistic voice. This time he heard the voice coming from above him. The Spartan and Connors looked at the sky as their eyes immediately went wide open. Their jaws dropped a couple of inches down in complete shock.
"What?" Connors couldn't believe his eyes. A figure enveloped in a black cloud of smoke was slowly descending to the ship. His heart skipped a beat as he started to shiver. He kinda recognized the figure. He had seen the vague images resembling the figure on Peyton's board during the New Dawn operation.
"Lucifer" Connors mumbled as the dark figure landed on the ship. The black smoke enveloped the armor but Connors could vaguely see the black armor and the crimson red eyes. The last time he talked to Peyton before ending the New Dawn Operation, Peyton told him Lucifer had been dealt with. He believed Peyton because she also told him the Alpha guardian of Hunter Guardians herself came to apprehend Lucifer. Since the guardians kept the matter of Lucifer extremely secret, he couldn't get any more information.. Plus, he was too busy partying and spending his time in the arms of beauties to think about Lucifer.