Chương 658: The Prince and the Lich

The halo had dropped Luke and the group inside a massive structure that trembled constantly. The architecture looked almost Greek, but not quite. The stone was gray instead of white marble, and the walls were covered in symbols that looked part hieroglyph, part something stranger. The whole place was crumbling, veined with moss and age. They walked for hours before reaching a long passage so narrow they had to crawl through it on hands and knees.

"Stop staring at my gorgeous ass, Luke," Evangeline said.

"It's the only thing in front of me."

"Master Luke," Charlie's voice came from behind him.

"Don't fall for the ninja woman's bait."

"And stop looking at my ass too," Eleanor said.

"It's the only thing in front of me, Eleanor," Evangeline replied. They kept crawling. When they finally emerged, they found themselves in a vast chamber tilted at an angle. A series of low, guttural sounds echoed through the space. Huge crustacean beasts were moving through the wreckage. Eleanor immediately started firing arrows. There were a lot of them. The whole place was inside the ocean, and the creatures had gotten in through an opening. It was a rectangular entrance, but the water did not flood the chamber.

Some kind of magical barrier built into the structure was keeping it out.

"I get chills every time I look at that exit," Evangeline said. They were all staring into the dark water beyond.

"It's not... scary," Anne said.

"I must've caught a little of Jack's phobia. Or maybe you're the one who should be scared," Evangeline muttered. Then they left the structure and entered the dark ocean. Below them, Luke could see countless distant whirlpools spinning endlessly. And beyond those whirlpools, deep at the bottom of that stretch of sea, was where that phase's Beacons lay. But trying to swim straight down was practically begging to get caught in the currents.

So they began swimming upward instead, toward the city floating above the ocean. Sunken structures drifted all around them, some still connected to the city. Moss, coral, and other marine growth had claimed the ruins that had torn loose. The rest had sunk all the way to the bottom.

"Luke, do you see anything? What about you, Charlie?" Eleanor asked. Using Luke's mask, she could speak underwater. He shook his head. Then he saw something. Luke signaled. Something was moving through the water. Not one thing. Several.

"A school of fish?" Luke shook his head again. Then everyone saw them. Cutting through the school, tearing into it with snapping jaws, came three enormous sharks. They looked like the one Luke used to have as his Spectral Beast. [Deep White Megalodon - Lvl 107] The creatures split apart and began circling them. One lunged in fast, jaws wide. The group scattered. Evangeline and Eleanor took one. Anne and Charlie took another. Luke went after the third alone. He threw a knife.

[Witch's Thread activated] The skill yanked him straight to the shark, and he landed on its back, slashing into it with both kukris. [Crimson Fang activated] The fight took several minutes, but in the end the shark died. Your class [Demonic Predator] has reached Level 93! (+10 Lethality, +7 Perception, +6 Agility, +6 Vitality, +6 Intelligence, +5 Endurance, +8 Free Points) The others had killed theirs too, and Charlie had leveled as well. [Charlotte Vespertilio has reached Level 84! Vampire (Rank E)] (+2 to all stats, +7 free points.) Then they kept swimming upward. When they finally broke the surface, they moved toward the shore of an island. It was a city. A spread of islands, all linked together.

"And then three sharks showed up," Charlie said.

"I can't tell whether that was bad luck or good luck," Eleanor replied.

"But it gave me the last bit of experience I needed to level up again."

"Same here," Luke said. They started moving through the area. The buildings were enormous, all made of dark green stone. At the top of one of them, a glow began to gather.

"It spotted us," Luke said. They ran for cover. Something launched. A massive bolt. The tower was firing like some kind of giant ballista. Luke threw a knife, and it exploded.

"We've got one more hour." The city's weapon repaired itself every time it was destroyed, which Luke found strangely interesting.

"If that tower is still active, then Triss probably isn't close," Evangeline said.

"We stick to the plan if we don't find her," Luke replied. For the next hour, they moved through the city. Beasts kept appearing to attack them. Charlie took on a giant crab, something like the one Luke had fought in the Battle Royale. She drove one crushing punch into it and tore off one of its claws, then finished it with her sword while Anne moved in to help. They kept walking.

"Human bodies," Charlie said.

"I smell blood." This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. They followed the scent and hid while they watched the area. Once they were sure no one was there, they approached the corpse.

"It's probably been here about a day," Eleanor said.

"It's not anyone from Triss's crew, right? I only memorized, like, two faces," Evangeline said. Anne crouched and examined the wound.

"Let's move," Luke said. They kept going for a few more hours until they found someone standing in the middle of the street. The man drew a revolver.

"This is a robbery," he said, pointing it at them. Then he grinned.

"Just kidding."

"It stops being funny when you do that every single time we meet," Luke said.

"It's still funny to me," Marten replied.

"Come on. Triss is up ahead with the others in a hideout. And thank God you showed up on the right day. We need a healer." The group followed Marten. He had come to the island with Triss.

"How many... injured?" Anne asked.

"Just one," Marten said, and they went inside. Before entering, Luke looked up at a massive green cylindrical tower. That was the only way through the vortices. Over the past few days, Luke and the others had been diving beneath the islands, searching for some route through the vortices, but there was none. What they had found instead were stone structures descending into the depths. The towers. They had figured out the secret to advancing through the challenge area.

To move forward, they would have to enter the structure on the surface, inside the city, and descend through it.

"I brought them, Triss." Luke stepped inside. He saw members of Triss's crew, including Randall and Doug. The moment they entered one of the tents, they saw the injured woman.

"What happened to you? Get run over by a ship?" Evangeline asked.

"You should've seen the other guy." Anne looked at Luke, and he gave a small nod. The doll maid began healing her.

"I pushed forward with the others through the city. We're at the edge of it, but farther toward the center, on the other islands, there are other people. A lot of other people," the woman said.

"And there's a war going on in there."

"A war?" Luke asked.

"A lot of people killing each other."

"We figured that would happen," Eleanor said.

"But there are worse dangers in there..." Triss said, pulling aside part of her collar to show the wound on her neck.

"What?" Evangeline asked.

"Vampires."

Alastair studied the figure standing before him and his lord. An undead, but not an ordinary one. A lich. The man's name was Tobias. He belonged to the Reaper Court, a major force in the underworld. Their symbol was a Reaper, fittingly enough. Anywhere power could grow in the shadows, they were already there. Smuggling, trafficking, coups. The organization was vast. Their reach touched people across the world, from the Twelve Daimyos of New Japan to the nobles funding and engineering coups in distant kingdoms.

"Vampire Prince Damian," Tobias said.

"Just Damian," his master replied.

"And this is my butler, Alastair." Then his lord turned and continued down the corridor.

"Why don't you tell him how we met, Tobias? You know, back when we ran into each other in that dungeon some fifty years ago."

"I'm not interested," the lich said.

"Why not? It's a delightful story. Back then, you had a bit more... flesh on you." The lich let out a low, irritated sound. Curious. He still clings to some trace of humanity, even as a lich. Unlike vampirism, the process of becoming a lich stripped pieces of the self away. People said it began with smaller things, emotions, simple empathetic reactions. But Alastair knew better. The road to lichdom stole memory itself. The inner self was erased, suppressed, until only the present remained. The lich self.

And eventually, the original person was gone entirely.

"Do you even remember how we met, Tobias? I rather doubt it," his master said.

"I remember very well the fool I spared."

"Ah, see? I made you tell the story after all," Damian said.

"And where is the Assassin? Wasn't your king's plan to have you travel at least in pairs during the event?"

"She was not fortunate enough to be sent to the same region as I was. And I care very little what happens to that woman," Tobias replied. The Assassin was the woman who had only recently become a Reaper. The only way to claim that rank within the organization was by killing a Reaper first. No one had ever managed it before her.

"A pity. Perhaps she would have made a suitable bride. The last time I saw her, she wore a mask. But now, nothing would stop me from seeing what lies beneath it."

"I did not come here to trade pleasantries. I came for information about the Apocrypha," Tobias said. Damian sighed.

"Those Looking Glass people and their little obsessions. And somehow I'm the eccentric one." His lord handed Tobias a piece of parchment. Damian's Rank Skill was extraordinarily valuable.

"A poem?"

"What they do with the poem is their concern, not mine." Tobias tucked it away.

"Ah, and take this back to them as well. I adored the story," Damian said, handing him a book. It was Alice in Wonderland.

"Lord Damian," said a beautiful woman in a nightgown, and three others came with her.

"Please come back to us, Lord Damian." He sighed.

"Leave. Immediately."

"Lord Damian, please..." A blood bullet hit her in the face.

"I will not repeat myself. Take her away." The other women dragged the injured one out. It was not fatal. Her vampiric powers would heal it.

"It's hard being beautiful. You don't have that problem, do you, Tobias?" The lich let out a low, ugly grunt.

"Where is the heir of Lasiurus, the future vampire lord of your bloodline?"

"He is where he needs to be. Before long, he will reach Rank D."

"That must be difficult, Tobias. Being some weakling's little hound. How do you stomach it?" The lich grunted again.

"And how did things go for you and your little brood during the event? Times got hard, didn't they? You lost your human farms when all of you were thrown into this mess. Within ten days, most vampires under your command would start to wither. Imagine how many of your soldiers suffered during those three months of Stage One, dropped onto some island in the middle of nowhere. Many of them died."

"You know a great deal about withering, don't you, walking corpse?" Lord Damian shot back. Tobias raised a hand, his dead fingers curling.

"Be careful, Vampire Prince. Keep doing what you do best. Lock yourself in a room and bury yourself in women. Ah yes, a mighty lord indeed." Damian laughed.

"You know, I can afford nights of pleasure, not with one woman but with several, while I search for someone truly exquisite to spend eternity beside. But you... you're a walking cadaver. Can you even piss with a dead man's cock?" The lich fired a bolt of lightning. His master did not dodge. He took the strike head-on. His face burned. His clothes blackened.

"L-Lord Damian!" Damian walked toward the lich, charred, and within seconds everything regenerated, even the clothes.

"I knew the old Tobias I once knew was still in there somewhere. It will be fun to continue this conversation the day you become a vampire." His master picked up a bottle of liquor.

"You still irritate me, even after decades," Tobias said.

"Give my regards to your master when you see him." The lich turned to leave.

"You have potential, Damian. But you stagnated. You became a fool enslaved by pleasure." Alastair remained silent while his lord savored the drink. Tobias had been gone for some time now.

"The man is still as sour as ever," Lord Damian said.

"He never changed. What a shame. I could reanimate a skeleton for him one night, try to liven him up a little. Maybe he only gets hard for women with no skin, no flesh, no organs." His master took a long drink from the bottle and then went still, looking out the window. Far off, part of the city was surrounded by snow.

"What rotten luck for those event competitors. The challenge just had to take place in the exact city where the Rhiannon made his home."