"I…I am...Order of Death…my lord" Vibius stuttered. Michael was bewildered. Maxine stared at Vibius in shock. No one should know about the order unless they were high up in the Guardian guild. Vibius didn't seem like he held any position in the Guardian guild.
"I can prove myself" Vibius's words confused Connors. He was wondering what the hell Order of Death is.
"My inner pocket" Vibius looked down at his chest,
Michael gave Maxine a nod to take whatever was inside his pocket. After taking the Crystal from unconscious Connors, he was too focused on the Crystal as he didn't bother to search Vibius. Yet he ordered Gibson to do a thorough search but it seemed Gibson failed the task a bit.
First Maxine ran her hand through Vibius's chest, shoulder, and arms to find if he had any weapons hidden. Making sure he had none, she put her hand inside Vibius's toga. Surprisingly Maxine found a hidden pocket in his toga. The tiny pocket was very well hidden. No wonder Gibson failed to find the pocket, Maxine thought.
"My Lord" a moment later, Michael saw Maxine's eyes open wide in shock. He looked at her hand to see a glowing coin. The coin looked exactly the same as the medallion he found on Maxine's neck when he first fought her.
Connors stared at the woman handing over the glowing coin to Lucifer. Gibson on the other hand wondered why Vibius was not able to rip off the ropes that tied his hands. He knew the medallion on her chest is the reason for her monstrous strength. If he used the ropes to tie Maxine, she would rip it off in a mere second.
Vibius could have done the same if he had worn the medallion from his birth. He kept the medallion in a locker instead of wearing it. His ancestor worried that the medallion was making the wearer a slave to the Dark Lord.
Hence, Vibius chose not to wear it just in case.
Plus, he never believed in the Dark Lord's existence. In his mind, he thought it was all made up by the elders of the Order to scare people into submission. After all, he knew fear makes people submit.
For a few moments, Michael just stared at the glowing medallion on his palm. He could feel the pulsating energy coming from within the coin. The energy pulses were not as strong as Maxine's coin. Somehow the medallion felt weaker than Maxine's. Anyway, this proved Vibius was one of the descendants of the elders who survived the Guardian attack.
Before seeing the medallion, Maxine wanted to end Vibius's life. She started to have as the medallion basically made them brother and sister in arms. Loyalty to the Dark Lord and the fellow members of the Order was what made the Order so powerful enough to rule the world from shadows for centuries.
But a betrayal from one elder collapsed the entire order as though it was a house made of cards.
"Your ancestor"
"Damien Zayne. We are the Zayne family, my lord"
Vibius hoped the Dark Lord dont know about his ancestor's secret deals with the Guardians. Only one in the world knew about Damien's betrayal and it wasn't the Dark Lord.
"You are a descendant of my worshippers. Hmm," Vibius saw him rub his chin,
"Since you are a descendant, I'll let go of your sins. But only if you tell me where did you get the crystal"
Obviously, the crystal was found in Stormveil mountain. Why else would Vibius have sent his troops to occupy the mountain despite the peace talks and agreements?
Still, Michael wanted to hear it from Vibius, just to make sure he was telling the truth.
"Stormveil mountain, my lord. I can show you the operation"
Vibius was not an idiot to lie to the Dark Lord. If he was right, the Dark Lord would already know about his attack on Stormveil castle. He always had a weird feeling about what happened in Gisel. The entire senate wiped out in an explosion, Caius being the sole survivor and then him replacing the senate with his underlings seemed too coincidental.
The Dark Lord definitely had a hand in what happened in Gisel. Everything that happened a few moments earlier made sense to Vibius. He was able to quickly connect the dots. Caius must be Dark Lord's man, the Dark Lord took out the senator for Caius, Decimus started an investigation to prove what happened that day, the Dark Lord found out through Caius about the investigation and the rest was history.
"How big is the operation? Who else knows about the crystals?"
"Hundred and twenty slaves are mining the crystals as we speak my lord. Except you and me, only guardian Connors and my spartan captain Hostus knows about the existence of the crystals"
Michael could hear a hesitation every time Vibius addressed him as 'my lord'. He then turned his gaze towards Connors.
"Guardian Connors, did you tell anyone about the crystals?"
"Alpha Guardian of Hunter guardians know. They must be looking for me as we speak" Connors didn't show any fear in his voice. The way he saw it, he had very little chance of getting out of the ship alive unless he could make Lucifer think he has to keep him alive. If the Alpha Guardian was searching for him, Lucifer might decide to keep him hostage.
Every Guardian undertaking a secret mission had a handler assigned to them. Connors's handler was in Maven and every night, Connors had to report to him. If he didn't, the handler would know something happened to him and look for him. The last time Connors met the handler, he told the handler he was going to meet with Vibius. Hence, the handler would definitely start to look for him from Vibius's manor.
If Vibius was spared by Lucifer, the handler would investigate him and hopefully realize something was wrong. Otherwise, the handler would investigate both Vibius and his disappearance. These investigations would often lead to calling the hunter guardians who were specialized in tracking and investigating.
Connors just hoped the hunters would somehow find him. All he had to do was stay alive until they did.
"Is that so?" Connors heard him chuckle.
Michael already decided what to do with the guardian. Therefore, he wasn't worried about whether he was lying or not.
He turned his gaze back at Vibius,
"Are you willing to serve me and honor your ancestors, Vibius Zayne?"
Gibson had a bad feeling in his gut. When Caius was telling about what Vibius was doing to amass military power, he saw Lucifer's eyes flicker in red. This often led to a death or multiple deaths.
"Yes, yes my lord" Vibius heaved a sigh of relief inside. He just needed to get out of the ship, sneak past the Dark Lord's security measure if he had any, warn the guardians, and help them kill the Dark Lord.
Thousands of years ago, his ancestor destroyed the Order and now he was presented with an opportunity to cut the head of the snake. As far as Vibius was concerned, The Dark Lord pushed him to do this.
"Good good. Let me welcome you to the Order with a little gift" Michael stood up from his throne.
As he was walking towards Vibius, he flicked his wrist. In a few blinks of an eye, several syringes appeared yet again. The bluish syringes immediately stabbed the senators who were on the ground in the neck. Their eyes were abruptly opened. Their bodies shuddered as though they were hit with an electric bolt.
The senators didn't dare to utter a word because Lucifer was standing so close to them. They were afraid of pissing off this monster.
Michael lifted Vibius from the ground by his shoulder with one hand. He then ripped off the ropes that tied his hands while a blade of wind cut the ropes that tied his legs.
"Senators of Maven, we have a proposition for you" Michael placed his hand on Vibius's shoulder, talking to the senators.
Their eyes were glued to Lucifer,
"You have two choices. The first choice, swear you loyalty to me and you will not only get out of here with your lives but also get rich and powerful"
Michael paused for a moment before continuing,
"The second choice, you can choose not to swear your loyalty and you can hope someone would come and save you from me" Vibius saw Lucifer's hands slowly moving from his shoulder to neck,
"Like our senator Vibius here"
The very next moment, the senators saw Lucifer clutch Vibius's neck. He lifted Vibius off the ground by his neck as Vibius began to squirm in his hand.
"HRGGMMM" Michael's hold was too strong as Vibius's face turned purple in a few mere moments,
"He was hoping the guardians would come and rescue him. The man behind you is a guardian and I see no one coming to save him"
The senators looked over their shoulders to see a woman holding a knife against the youngster's throat.
"Let me show you what will happen when you go with the second choice" The surrounding air became a bit chilly as he spoke in his cold voice,
Pulch!
Suddenly Michael punched Vibius in the chest. For a moment, Connors's eyes closed when the blood splashed on his face. As he opened his eyes, he felt a chill running through his spine. Lucifer's hand was sticking out of Vibius's back. In his hand, he saw the beating heart that oozed blood on the ground. Vibius was violently shaking in his arms but his body gradually stopped squirming as the light of light slowly left his eyes.
"AH!"
One of the senators couldn't help shouting in fear. Michael put the lifeless body of Vibius on the ground before stepping towards the senators. The heart was still in his hand.
"Time to make your choice, Senators"
Creech!
Michael crushed the heart in his hand, spraying blood on their faces. Their faces were as pale as a white sheet. He could even see one senator wet his toga in utter terror.
"You are next darling" Connors heard the woman whisper into his ear before everything turned dark.