In a dark room illuminated by five strange glowing stones, An ominous-looking, bald, old woman sat on the ground in a meditative pose. She was closing her eyes as she tried to control the poison that was ravaging her body.
Smoke seemed to be slowly wheezing out of her burnt left hand, while her right one was melting to a green goo and then reforming in a cyclical manner.
“FOUND THEM?” she asked in a horse as soon as an old man entered her underground chamber. Not even caring to open her eyes.
“Sorry, Ancestor. This descendant is incompetent…” the old man said as he knelt on the ground, making sure not to look at his ancestor or at the half-melted golden coffin to the side.
“HOW DID YOU LET THEM REACH MY SACRED CAVE?” she asked angrily. “WHERE YOU ALL BLIND? ARE THERE NO GUARDS!”
“Sorry… We don’t know how they managed to pass through all of the security layers. This place can’t even be reached easily by the elders… Perhaps patriarch Martin would be able to enlighten us, he is the one responsible for the security outside…” the elder said, stepping to the side to reveal his chosen scapegoat, the nervous Martin behind him.
“This unfilial child has seen the ancestor…” Martin greeted as he bowed with his face to the ground. Sweet was slowly oozing from behind his ears.
He always thought that the ancestor hidden beneath the crypts was a real giant slug… He was feeling ashamed of himself.
“YOU ARE THIS GENERATION'S PATRIARCH?” the old woman asked, opening her eyes for a brief second to look at him before closing them again. They had no white in them, they were black and ominous. Filled with death.
“Yes, Ancestor…” Martin said nervously. “We don’t know how the intruder came… We don’t even know how they left… We suspect it has something to do with demons though, we found that one of the demons we had been keeping is missing…” he reported nervously. He didn’t dare lie or make excuses.
“DEMONS?” the old woman pondered.
“Yes. It was a corpse demon that we signed a contract with a few months ago to target another family…”
“IF THERE IS A CONTRACT, THE DEMON WOULD NOT DARE TO ACT AGAINST IT… THEY MUST HAVE TARGETED IT AS A DISTRACTION… OR IT WAS ABLE TO DETECT THEM AND ENDED UP DYING AS A RESULT!” the old woman said. “WHAT DID THEY DO OTHER THAN TARGETING MY CAVE?”
“They… They ransacked the treasure vault and destroyed our server room…” the patriarch said nervously.
“WHY WOULD THEY TARGET THE SERVANTS? ” she asked. She was sure she discovered something there.
“Ah… they didn’t…” Martin replied with a frown.
“YOU JUST SAID THEY BLEW UP THE SERVERS ROOM!” The ancestor got angry, making the elder who was standing to the side smile smugly then quickly hide it.
“Ah… It is called The Servers room. It is not for the servants… It…ah… It is where we keep our secret information ready to be served…” Martin quickly explained, remembering that his old-fashioned ancestor had no idea what the word ‘Server’ in the current age meant.
“OH…” the ancestor nodded. “… IT SEEMS LIKE THEY BELONG TO SOME OTHER FACTION…” she said after she cleared her throat. This was embarrassing…
“Seemingly…”
“WAS THERE ANY IMPORTANT TREASURES STOLEN? DID YOU CHECK THE SAFETY OF THE AWAKENING ARTIFACTS?” she asked.
“The awakening artifacts are perfectly safe, it is just that all our treasures below the rank of S have been stolen,” Martin said.
“EVEN THE JADE SKELETON KEYS?” the ancestor opened her eyes and asked angrily.
“No… Those are on me…” the patriarch said, reassuring the ancestor. “Most of the really important and crucial treasures are already in the custody of the elders…” he explained. “Sadly, the war chest we had been collecting for the last 500 years is all gone…”
“OH… AS LONG THE BASE IS THERE, WE CAN GAIN THOSE BACK ANYTIME…” the ancestor said as she looked at Martian and then at the keeper elder with disgust. It didn’t take someone smart to realize that the family had some kind of internal strife.
“Ancestor, what about you… “ Martin asked nervously. “Can you tell us anything about the attackers?”
“...” the ancestor shot him a glare and then sighed. “I COULD ONLY TAKE A GLIMPSE AT THEM AS THEY ESCAPED… TOO BAD THE WORLD TRIBULATION STRUCK ME BEFORE I COULD GET MY HANDS ON THEM…” she cursed raising her burnt hand. She was abruptly awakened by that poison, so she tried to retaliate without thinking, going out of the hidden space and earning herself a bolt of thunder… Strange. How did the thunder manage to reach this deep underground? She wondered. One can never underestimate the world’s means.
Martin and the elder kept their silence, waiting for the ancestor who casually took a healing pill, to continue her explanation. They had no idea that the old burnt light bulb in the room above was the source of the thunder that struck their ancestor. Without it, she might have been able to react and escape in time after feeling the world’s intent.
“I CAN TELL YOU TWO PIECES OF INFO ABOUT THEM…” she said. “THE FIRST ONE IS THEY ARE VERY PROFICIENT IN USING POISON… THIS THING THEY INFECTED ME WITH IS PURE EVIL! EVEN WITH MY NATURAL BLOODLINE RESISTANCE AND SSS POISON MASTER CLASS, I WAS BARELY ABLE TO LIVE… EVEN NOW, I CAN’T FIND A WAY TO CURE THIS POISON IN MY BODY!” she said.
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“Noted…” the patriarch said. She was telling him to check all those with poison classes.
“THE OTHER INFO IS THAT THEY ARE USING SPACE WRAPPING POWER…” she said, pondering.
“Teleportation?” Martin frowned. “I thought this place had teleportation disturbing Talismans…”
“NOT TELEPORTATION… THE POWER I SAW WAS A KIND OF SPACE WRAPPING…” she paused. “COULD IT BE THE VOID LORD? NO… THAT WOMAN IS LOCKED… AND THIS IS NOT HER METHOD,” she pondered to herself.
“Void lord?” Martin frowned.
“THIS IS NOT SOMETHING SOMEONE AT YOUR LEVEL CAN CONCERN HIMSELF ABOUT… FOR NOW, CHECK ALL THOSE WITH SPACE POWERS. WHOEVER BEHIND THIS, MUST BE AT LEAST LEVEL 100!” she said finally.
“Ah… I understand! We will also keep a close eye on anyone trying to sell a huge amount of treasures… And the missing sacrifices will also be investigated!” Martin said, earning himself a nod from the ancestor.
“Ancestor… you are not going to punish him?” the elder asked in surprise.
“NO… THE ENEMY THIS TIME WAS BEYOND OUR LEAGUE… “ she said. “BUT MARTIN… NOW THAT I HAVE WOKEN UP, I WILL BE WATCHING YOU… YOU BETTER NOT COMMIT ANY MISTAKES!” she added before the relieved Martin could sigh in relief.
“I understand!” Martin said, ignoring the elder’s hateful gaze. He had survived a close bullet, and it was time for him to make a move!
“Ancestor… Do you mean you are not going back to sleep? Don’t you need to heal?” the elder asked nervously.
“NO… THE RECKONING IS NEAR, I CAN FEEL IT,” she said. “IT IS NO LONGER WORTH IT TO SLEEP. THERE IS MUCH TO DO!” she added, hiding the fact that she didn’t dare to sleep, fearing the poison might finish her off if she got careless.
…
Mavis sat in shock in the middle of the endless grass field.
Was it not a dream?
What was this place?
She wondered.
Looking around, she saw all the women who were imprisoned with her collapsed on the grass, looking aimlessly.
Most of them had long lost hope, and maybe their minds. This was true, especially the ones who had been imprisoned for more than 5 years. There were only a handful of those, as it is very rare for purple to live that long.
She was just a schoolchild when she responded to a part-time advertisement, wanting to earn some money to support her family.
She recalled being tested with a strange device then it all went blurry and the next thing she remembered was waking up in that hell.
She was lost in her thoughts when suddenly, from thin air three masked girls walked. A tall one and two short ones.
“Let’s get to work!” the tall one said.
The other girls nodded and then quickly walked toward the collapsed women.
The one they chose was sitting on the grass looking at the sky with blurred eyes. Mavis knew that this woman didn’t have much time to live. She had seen women die just weeks after they started looking like that.
“Severe soul damage… Too much corpse energy!” the little girl said as she touched the woman. Who shook then relaxed as white and green wisps of energy began floating from the little girl right into the woman.
“How is it going?” the other short girl asked nervously moments later.
“I can heal her mind and body, but the soul damage is irreversible…”
“Don’t worry about that, just focus on healing her!” someone suddenly said. It is a young man with golden flowing hair who also walked out of thin air with three other women who were also masked…
Mavis, who was watching, almost forgot to breathe, not even caring to look at the woman and focusing on the young man’s angelic face. Can someone be this handsome?
“But her soul…” the girl who was healing said.
“This emperor has some spare soul energy stored around here, we can pour it into anyone, so you just tell this noble one when it is enough!” he said. “ Don't forget to redirect the corpse energy in them toward the talisman this emperor gave you..."
The girl paused a moment and then nodded before she began to operate on the woman who in no more than 15 minutes seemed to have regained her senses and quickly bowed deeply to the girl and the young man who was obviously the boss here.
“Thank you… Young master…” she said.
“It is this emperor’s duty to help those in need!” he said casually as he said as he waved his hand, making a golden chair materialize out of thin air. He casually sat on it and watched as the girls got to work and began helping the injured women. Some took only two or three minutes, others took as long as 10 minutes to regain their senses. It was magical!
After more than three hours, it was Mavis’s turn.
“Shit… A dark scion… Any ideas?“ the young man looked at her then turned and said casually to the masked girl beside him she shook her head.
Mavis frowned as the little girl began to heal her.
What did he mean? She wondered but quickly forgot about it as all the pain her body had suffered during the last two years began to be washed away.
It finished fast, just as the young man cleared his throat.
“Listen up…” he said. “Welcome to the hidden magical world of the Imperial Army!… We are an organization that is dedicated to saving the world and destroying evil!” he announced. ”This noble one is the emperor, you can call me using the pronoun ’Your Majesty’ and please use ‘His Majesty the Emperor’ when you are talking about me behind my back or touch your........!” he added then paused as one of the girls beside him began to pinch him.
The women all frowned as they turned to face him and then quickly looked to the ground. Damn... His looks were making their hearts pound hard!
“Now, let’s get to business… Although we saved you, Unfortunately, we failed to eliminate your captors, the Von Zwei family, so… “ he paused. “For the foreseeable future, I can’t let you leave this place…” he announced directly.
“What?” one woman said nervously.
“Don’t worry… This is only for the next few years until the Von Zwei family is eradicated. You will have to live here, and work a little as a repayment for saving you… It was not for free you know…” he said. “And even if I let you go… Do you know how long it would take you to be captured again? Let me tell you… Less than 48 hours! The Von Zwei family has millions of facial recognition cameras around the world searching for you at this very second… Not only you would be in danger… Any loved ones that you are yearning to meet would be too if even one of you got captured back!” he said, making a point.
The women looked at each other and then warily at the emperor… They looked away. Damn, he was too handsome to be looked at directly.
“This emperor recognizes that most of you are worried about someone on the outside, so don’t worry about that, we will make sure to get you information about them!” he added reassuring the women.
“For how long do we have to stay here?” Mavis asked. She had some revenge to do on the outside.
“Oh… This emperor can’t tell you that… But if our noble calculation is correct, not for long…” he said with a mysterious smile. “Don't worry, you will not be bored working for me… This emperor plans to put you to good use… I have some very nice trees that need planting here, and I will use this time to train you to be stronger… If you become strong enough in time, you might even be able to enjoy some revenge!“ he added mysteriously with a smile that reminded Mavis of the way her cat used to look at it's toys.