Peyton’s face was messed up as though the vampires were drinking her blood and beating her up for some sick pleasure. Michael hated the guardians but no one deserved this.
”You” Peyton could barely say the word,
”I think we should put her out of her misery,” Ayag sighed. Even Ayag who inherited the personality of Gaya couldn’t help feeling pity for Peyton.
”No” Michael gently grabbed her bloodied shoulder, injecting her with a little bit of healing potion to keep her alive and with the Blood Tonic to end her life if she tried to be a hero although Michael doubted she would.
”Are you the dark lord?”
Instead of answering Peyton, Michael retrieved a piece of cloth and covered her naked body before removing the nails.
”System, teleport us to the crypt”
Michael willed the system. Since Michael was with Peyton and Victor, he couldn’t use the runic teleportation. Hence, the system happily bought a teleportation scroll for 10,000 badass points and used it to teleport them away from the vampire castle but not before leaving a teleportation rune.
Dular and Jessie were attaching mind controlling chips inside the alpha undead when they say Dark Lord suddenly appeared in the middle of the hall out of thin air.
”Carry on” Michael was too focused on the task at hand to notice the twenty alpha undead standing at ease like super-soldiers,
First, Michael injected Victor with a whole lot of paralyzing poison and fear toxin. Then, he forced Peyton to sit on one of the chairs in front of a large oak table and his throne.
Peyton was too traumatized to even look around. Her dead eyes had lost the glow Michael saw in them when they met before. He could only imagine what she may have gone through.
”You should see this” Michael waved his hand as a giant mirror appeared before Peyton,
Peyton’s attention was immediately drawn by the feed that appeared. She saw the familiar faces of Tiriana and the person she looked up to the most, Tanulia AKA the Alpha Guardian of Hunter Guardians.
”Peyton recruited these guardians and…”
”What is it Tiri?”
”The last member she recruited…is Sabrina”
”Sabrina Winston, Noah’s little sister”
”What the fuck was she thinking?!”
”She recruited someone who’s not even a guardian?!”
”That bitch is expendable. But not her”
”If we are to lose Sabrina and Noah found out that his little sister died because of us, everything will be ruined”
The feed stopped as Vedora expected some anger outburst from Peyton. However, Peyton didn’t react as they expected. Only tears were rolling out of her eyes. No one knew what she was thinking in her mind.
Michael began to play the mind games with her by putting the feed on a loop.
”That bitch is expendable. But not her” Peyton was feeling so many emotions at once.
”We have to find her no matter what. Immediately contact every single guardian in the Southern Continent. I’m authorizing Code Red. Use all and any resources, I need Sabrina found asap. I will contact the other Alphas”
After Tanulia spoke these words in the feed, Michael tapped the table,
”Your devotion is misplaced, Peyton. You heard her, for them, you who dedicated your whole life to the guild is simply” Michael paused for a moment,
”Expendable”
Michael willed the system to play the feed again, fanning the flames of anger within Peyton’s heart. Peyton couldn’t move her eyes away from the mirror. She felt so betrayed because she was betrayed. She lost the count of days being tortured and getting her blood sucked out by vampires in that torture room. All that time, she had hope, hope in Alpha guardians and the hunter guardians that they would come to her rescue.
The vampires tortured her every single minute without a break. Every single day, they sexually abused her, they sucked her blood from every bit of her body, cut her flesh for fun, and healed her up so they could start all over again. Nothing was able to break her spirit as she endured everything they did to her. However, Tanulia’s words hurt and caused her more pain than the vampires ever could.
”This is the real face of the so-called guardians Peyton”
It took several minutes before Peyton opened her mouth,
”Why did you save me?” she looked directly in his eyes, completely avoiding eye contact with Vedora,
”Because you don’t deserve what you went through and I only punish those who deserve to be punished. You’re free to go”
”I bet they will welcome you with a parade,” Ayag said sarcastically,
”Even if they don’t throw you in the prison or whatever the guardians have, your career ends here” Cain informed Peyton,
After hearing his siblings talk, Sarba also decided to give her a piece of his mind,
”You should really think about what you’re gonna do next Peyton. They don’t deserve your faith and loyalty anymore. If it wasn’t for him, who you people branded evil, you would have been still in that hell. Your guild calls themselves guardians but they failed to guard their own. If they wanted, they could have used the resources they are spending on locating Sabrina to save you, your team, and eradicating the vampires”
Michael let Sarba talk. He could see Peyton trembling in anger and her blood-red eyes as well as the veins bulging out of her skin was evident of her anger.
”They’re probably not even aware of the vampires because they are too busy searching for one person. The moment you return to your guild, they will treat you more like a traitor than a survivor. Do yourself a favor, don’t believe the guardians and the great clans blindly. They are not what you think”
While Peyton was staring at Vedora, Michael moved a Spyder into her hair, then into her skin through the cut on the back of her neck.
”Take a long look in the mirror and think about where your loyalty should be. I know you joined guardians wanting to change the world for the better, if you still want to do that, come find me” Michael slid a card marked with the location of somewhere secluded in the Elon continent.
The very next moment, Michael waved his hand as Peyton disappeared from the crypt. Vedora did not expect Michael would teleport Peyton away as they thought he was going to turn her against the guardians or at least get some valuable information about the guardians from her.
”What the hell did you do? I thought we were getting close to turning her against her people” Ayag frowned,
”She is too emotional now. We just put the seed of anger and betrayal in her heart. Let’s give it some time to grow and become a giant tree. Then, we don’t have to go to her, she will come to us” Michael was pretty confident. There was no turning back for Peyton after hearing Tanulia and Tiriana. She was betrayed by the people she trusted, which would do some serious damage to her and shake Peyton’s beliefs.
”I hope she doesn’t blabber about us and everything,” said Ayag,
”She won’t,” Michael shook his head slightly. If she tried, Michael would know and he would activate the nanites in her body to kill her instantly.
*********************************
The sun was slowly rising on the horizon from its slumber painting the green hills of the Sun Rise sect with its golden rays. The early morning arrived as a promise kept for the disciples to spend yet another day in their wonderful sect.
A group of students was flocking toward a gigantic dome made of glass with bright faces. Today they were going to harvest the ripened fruits and herbs from the largest herbal garden in all the sects on the Elon continent.
Unlike two years ago, the Sunrise sect was filled with disciples. The place looked lively as never before. There were many new buildings, teachers, fountains, and carriages going in and out. Most of these carriages belonged to various nobles who were trying to put their kids into the sect because the Sunrise sect had become one of the best in Elon.
At the moment, a green haired beauty was running through the crowd of students carrying a stack of books in her hand towards the herbal garden.
”Good morning Miss Olivia”
”Good morning Miss Olivia”
”Morning Miss Olivia”
”Good morning”
”Good morning”
”Good morning”
The students were greeting Olivia while moving away from her path. Today was the last day of the assignments Ghost gave her and she had to harvest a hundred and twenty-eight herbs to be exact.
In her hurry to the garden, she dropped one of her books. She didn’t notice that until someone called her from behind.
”You dropped this” Olivia’s mind realized the chit-chatter of the students suddenly disappeared as though someone switched off the noise around her.
Her body froze in its path when she recognized the face. As expected, she turned around and saw her mentor; Ghost smiling at her.
”Teacher!” she almost put the stacks of books in her hand down in shock,
Most of the students who were new to the sect and hadn’t seen Ghost in person were stunned too. They were just gawking at him with their eyes wide open.
Michael walked towards Olivia who was trembling due to the surprise he gave her. She hadn’t expected Ghost to be back for another three months.
”Teacher, you’re back”
”Yep. Let’s go see Sect Leader Claire and everyone”
Michael loved the sound of notifications ringing in his head awarding him with badass points. It had been three months since he left the sect and if his math was right, fifty million gold coins would be sitting there for him to collect. It was time he turned those coins into badass points using the Banker function and upgraded the system so he could have more subordinates.
As soon as he finishes here, he could finally start interrogating Victor back in the Dark forest.