Logan told all about how their battle went. Tiberius thought only Lucifer and the Dark queen could use magic but now, there was another one. He couldn’t wait to get some answers from Lucifer.
Luckily he didn’t have to wait any longer as Michael appeared in the room out of thin air.
”My Lord”
Maxine immediately dropped to her knees, then Caius and finally Tiberius did the same.
”Rise” Michael approached the chair before willing the system to replace the chair with his throne.
”You must be Caius” The moment Michael placed Vedora on the oak table, Ayag locked her gaze with Caius.
Except for Maxine who met Vedora a couple of times, Tiberius and Caius were startled to hear the menacing voice of the white head among the three.
”Yes”
”Yes my lady” Ayag emphasized the word ‘my lady’. She was extremely overbearing and dominant that despite her stature, she exerted enough pressure on Caius to turn his face pale.
”Tiberius I presume, nice to meet you”
Sarba talked in an exactly opposite way of how Ayag spoke to Caius.
Tiberius was surprised by how polite and respectful the silver head was.
”Well,” it took a couple of seconds for Tiberius to find the right words to greet the majestic creature looking at him,
”Fuck it” Tiberius pushed away the thought of finding fancy words,
”Nice to meet you too” Tiberius went with a simple greet as Sarba nodded,
”Enough pleasantries,” Michael raised his arm,
”Before we move to the obvious, tell me, how’s everything on your end? Caius” Caius saw the dark eyes staring at him and it felt as though he was staring into his soul itself.
”We have no problems on our side, my lord. In a week, Maven will be merged with Gisel with the support of the people of Maven”
The civil war he incited in MAven was going to finally pay off. He was glad to hear this update.
”General Quintus has recently started invading the lands of Prerid”
The name General Quintus rang a bell in his head. He pondered for a moment before remembering everything about Quintus. He was the man who invaded Aria’s homeland, Wesite. He decimated the kingdom completely, removing Wesite from the map and expanding the territory of Kingdom Miral.
”What’s our stand in this war?”
”I was thinking we should support Prerid my lord” Caius stepped forward and pointed at the map on the table,
His finger was on the kingdom Prerid adjacent to Maven. And the Kingdom of Prerid was located between Maven and Miral.
”General Quintus has been expanding his territory for decades and typically every three or four years, we have to change the map because of him. If we conquered Prerid, the possibility of him trying to invade Maven is high”
Everyone in the room agreed with Caius.
”Cain, you think you can handle this?” Michael asked Cain instead of guiding Caius on what to do next. He decided to treat this situation as a test for Cain.
”Yes,” Cain said confidently. He already plotted a plan in his head.
Then Michael turned his gaze towards Maxine,
”What about you Maxine? How is the mining going on?”
”The new machines and the pulley system will be installed next week my lord. After that, the mining process would be 300% faster”
”Good” Michael nodded,
Finally, he turned his gaze to Tiberius. However instead of asking for an update, Michael gave Tiberius an update,
”We are going to capture that vampire dead or alive”
Tiberius has to say, he was indeed relieved to hear Lucifer.
”How’s Logan doing?”
After what happened to Logan’s village, Tiberius offered Logan to settle in Freedom city which Logan wholeheartedly agreed, not that Logan had any choice. The big man needed a safe place for the surviving villagers and his wife.
”He’s adjusting,” said Tiberius,
”Caius, prepare the airship”
”Yes my lord” Caius bowed before leaving the room.
”My lord, what is that thing? It called itself a greater vampire?” Tiberius doubtfully asked,
”That’s what we are gonna find out. One thing for sure though, these creatures are extremely dangerous”
Michael was fascinated by the vampires. However, he was also cautious since they could sue Arch energy. His highest priority was to know more about the vampires, mainly, what are their strengths and weaknesses? How strong are they? Their hierarchy, how many of them are there, and finally,
What’s their purpose? Michael needed answers to all these questions.
”I am sure Sarba here could help you locate that soon to be dead piece of shit” Ayag menacingly said as Sarba bobbed his head up and down.
Tiberius sensed the temperature suddenly dropping a bit. He then saw the intense murdering intent in the white head’s eyes. Somehow, it reminded him of the Dark Queen which made him wonder where the Dark Queen was.
Cain remained silent without participating in Ayag’s conversation. He was ironing out the tiny details in his plan until Michael said something related to the upcoming war between Prerid and Miral,
”The slavery will soon come to an end after this war,” Michael said looking at Tiberius. He truly felt grateful to Lucifer in this regard. Just like he promised, Lucifer helped him build a new kingdom for all those who’ve been enslaved by the rich. Whether Miral and Prerid would be merged with Gisel and become a single large kingdom or not, Tiberius knew the slavery is coming to an end soon.
”It’s ready my lord” Maxine said after being told by Caius through the earpiece. Her words brought Tiberius out of his imaginary world where slavery existed no more.
”Finally” Tiberius was relieved. Although it was only five minutes since Caius left, it felt like an eternity. The safety of his people was the most important thing to Tiberius. Now that the vampires threatened the very thing he was trying to protect, Tiberius was royally pissed off and wanted nothing more than to kill that bloodsucker.
Tiberius and Maxine moved closer to his throne while Vedora jumped back on Michael’s shoulder. The next moment, Michael activated the runic teleportation to teleport themselves to Caius’s airship. Tiberius hated teleportation but closing his eyes helped him deal with the after-effects. When he opened his eyes, he was standing in the airship.
”Set a course to where Logan fought the vampire” Maxine ordered Caius as though she read Michael’s thoughts.
The daylight arrived as such intricately woven threads of gold so light that its creator could only be divine.
On their way to the destination, Michael remained with his eyes closed. He was meditating and organizing his thoughts. Ever since he merged himself to become whole, he felt extremely powerful which might unstable his mind as it did to Spectre. Therefore, he continued the meditation which helped him control and connect with the dormant powers within him.
After almost half an hour of flying, they finally reached their destination. From above, there was nothing but forest beneath them. Rather than flying down as Maxine and Tiberius expected, Michael took out several drones from his system storage.
”Open the door” Michael ordered Maxine as she walked to the door followed by the drones.
WHOOOSHH!
As soon as she opened the door, a loud howling sound coupled with a powerful suction force tried to suck everything out of the airship. Maxine quickly shut the door and the drones were already out in the air.
Michael closed his eyes yet again monitoring and controlling all the drones manually. The drones buzzed through the forest like busy bees trying to get honey out of flowers. Only in this scenario, they were surveying the area for the vampires.
Maxine and Tiberius noticed his eyes were abruptly opening after a few minutes.
”Did you locate him?” asked Ayag,
”You two stay here” Michael’s face was serious underneath his mask. They couldn’t see the look on his face. Still, they didn’t try to disagree with him, even Tiberius who was unable to wait patiently for the vampire.
As he was walking towards the door with Vedora on his shoulder, Maxine followed him behind.
Whoosh!
Michael opened the door and everything happened just like before. Without wasting a second, Michael jumped out of the airship. He soared through the air like a meteor. Breaking through the canopy and countless branches, Michael and Vedora landed on the ground.
Michael noticed the broken trees and the clearing which were clear signs of the battle between the vampire and Logan. Although the rain that day wiped away the prints and the blood, Michael had a way to bring back the traces he needed.
”What’s the plan?” asked Ayag looking around the forest,
”I’m sensing strange vibrations coming from that direction” Sarba looked at their right side as Michael expected. Still, Michael needed one more test before pursuing the vibrations Sarba’s been sensing.
Michael waved his hand around him, spraying a translucent liquid in the air. When the tiny particles of the potion melded with the ground beneath, several glowing footprints began to appear in their sight. This potion was the better version of the potion he used at Jack’s murder site. The potion would reveal the blood stains even after days or even months.
Almost ninety-nine percent of footprints were chaotic and human, except for the remaining one percent. It looked like a human footprint, however, only that pair of footprints were leading to the place where Michael noticed an anomaly.
”If that’s the footprints of the vampire, I have to say, it awfully similar to a human’s”
”System, teleport Vedora back to the airship if things go south although I doubt it will” Michael ordered the system,
[Yes]
Since Vedora was familiar, he didn’t have to pay extra as he already paid upfront before making Vedora his familiar.
Michael followed the footprints while closely monitoring the Environmental scanning map. In addition, the drones were also hovering around them to make sure no one ambushed them.
There was nothing out of the order in the forest they noticed while following the tracks. The forest was dark and gloomy. The trees danced to an unheard beat, whispering their songs to the wind. Here, sheltered by the mighty trees, was every kind of life, from the humble beetle to poisonous snake.
Their journey came to an end when they noticed the glowing footprints were no longer to be found. That’s where Michael’s X-ray vision came into the picture. What seemed like countless trees, and muddy ground intervened with veins and roots, what seemed to be the perfect picture of rainforest wasn’t a forest at all. It was an illusion and Michael could see through this illusion thanks to his X-ray vision.
”Ignitia” Michael pointed his finger at a tree branch directly above them. The moment the lightning bolt hit the branch, Vedora saw the scenery before them flickering. Soon, the forest they saw just a moment ago completely vanished from existence.
A gloomy grayish area welcomed them and in the distance, they saw an ancient castle under a blood-red sky.