Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 625: I’m not sure

”I suppose I’m supposed to keep going straight,” Philip grunted.

”Yeah,” Caius said airily, ”Yeah, keep true.”

Philip turned his head as though to tell Caius he hadn’t been asking him but Caius was already walking away. Caius left the cockpit, and went into a cabin at the back end of the Sky-Carriage, already activating his Loqui-link to make a call.

It took barely a second, and Caius had just closed the door of the cabin to engage its soundproofing, when the call was answered and Arlette’s voice rang out.

”Four weeks!” She cried instantly.

”Nice to see you too,” Caius said, smiling at her holographic projection.

”Four weeks without a word!” Arlette said, her voice at a normal volume but intense with her anger,

”Do you know how horrible it was to hear from outside channels that you were getting hunted down in the North?!”

”Oh, you heard about that, huh,” Caius said with his lips twitching at the corners.

”Gold-Black Vampires sighted driving through Northern-Star. Of course, I heard,” Arlette said and then she scoffed, ”You should have seen Aylin when she heard the news.”

”She was worried?” Caius asked.

”More frustrated. You were in her city, and she wasn’t there with you. She seems quite upset about that,” Arlette said.

Caius smiled.

”Tell her I was thinking about her while I was at Khione,” He said.

”I mean, you could tell her yourself,” Arlette said.

”Yeah, I’ll call her soon after this,” Caius asked.

”Or you could tell her now. I can probably call her over,” Arlette said.

”You can?” Caius looked surprised, ”Shouldn’t Lochxen be on break? Aylin should either be at Khione or heading back to the Capital now.”

”Oh, she never went home for the break,” Arlette said, ”None of them did.”

”Why not?” Caius asked, taken aback.

”Why do you think? Because they felt responsible for dealing with the Demonic invasion. You know, the one you never told them it was fine if I got involved with?” Arlette said with her eyes narrowed at Caius.

”They did, huh,” Caius said, looking amazed.

”A good thing too,” Arlette said, ”I dare say without them, Aurelius may not have made it.”

”Wait, what?” Caius said, genuine surprise on his face.

”Yeah, there was a demonic attack. Last week. Happened at the Aristide Manor. Aurelius called the ladies for help and they went to aid him...”

And so, Arlette filled Caius in on the incident. The more he heard of it, the more Caius’s expression became downcast, almost to the point of abject horror. Just the image of Delia impaled... of them all so close to death and he wasn’t there to help...

The ladies had filled Arlette in on everything that happened, so she could relay every detail to Caius, including, of course, yet another divine intervention from Nyx that helped them win. Again.

”Fuck,” Caius said when Arlette was done.

”It all worked out in the end, of course,” Arlette said but as she spoke, she was observing Caius’s expression and body language and what she noticed prompted her to add,

”It did all work out in the end, right?”

”For now, sure,” Caius said, ”But if Hell already sent Klever, things are about to undergo a serious change.”

Klever, the Effigy Demon, was a threat the ladies and Aurelius were ill-equipped to deal with at their current levels of magical advancement. Even Caius, at their Fifth would have struggled. Nyx’s intervention was necessary and Caius hated that.

His goal, as pompous as that might seem, had always been to use Nyx for his own ends— Invoking her for favors while giving up the least he possibly could. He was fairly confident he could maneuver the negotiation with things he knew about the original canon, but the ladies didn’t have that knowledge. He dreaded to think what Nyx could get them to agree to.

And then, there was the change in the schedule of Aurelius’s challenges;

In the original canon, Aurelius had faced the first challenge with Baler and Doran by his side. Neither Baler nor Doran were much help so technically, Aurelius did face the challenge alone. It was a long time, and a few challenges after that, before Aurelius’s companions—which at that time included Caius, Kaya, and Delia—were strong enough to assist him.

And once they did, Hell began to up the ante by sending more and more demons for each attack and also extending the battle beyond strict arenas i.e while Aurelius and his companions were sealed in Sealing Cubes battling the main attack force, Hell sent lesser minions to various regions, wreaking havoc with a non-stop stream of reinforcements until Aurelius and his companions prevailed within the Sealing Cube.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is: That situation was similar to what happened during the mid-semester tests when Belron infested the Magical beasts of Lochxen Forest with Demonic energy.

The justification for the attacks on various regions by minions of Hell in the original canon as well as the one for Belron’s Demonic infestation, was the same; The Divine champion had ’cheated’ and so the contract that bound Hell had loosened, allowing them to push the envelope ever so slightly until the eventual nulling of the contract entirely.

The moment Caius and the ladies developed Divine seeds and had divine energy within them, Hell decided the challenge had become unfair and rather than send Tiberius, an entry-level challenge for Aurelius, they sent Belron who the trio of Caius, Delia and Aurelius—who was blessed by Aether—couldn’t defeat without Nyx’s intervention.

Even though he accepted his ’fault’ for interfering with Canon and causing so many changes, Caius felt Hell was the one that cheated during that challenge at the Mid-Semester Tests; They didn’t come for the challenge in good faith before then evaluating the terms of the contract. They just went straight into sending a representative the Divine Champion never had a chance against and began to attack outside the battle arena. On the first challenge!

Frankly, Caius had expected a conference to take place between Aether and Hell after that first challenge, reassessing the terms of the contract and leveraging Hell’s quickness to breach the contract into forcing them to be mellow.

But Aether clearly hadn’t done that. So Hell grew bolder, sending another representative that was even worse than Belron just a mere two months after the last challenge.

”How serious of a change?” Arlette asked after staying silent for a few minutes to let Caius work through his thoughts.

”It’s difficult to tell,” Caius said, ”Everything I knew— they all seem so worthless now.”

Arlette’s expression became worried. This was the first time she got a feeling of uncertainty from Caius. And she could feel his mental state very clearly even with the great distance between them.

”Caius, what’s wrong?” Arlette asked, ”I let you have your secrets because I believed there must be a reason. But if you’re this troubled, this unsure, then I think you should let me help,” Arlette said earnestly.

Caius sighed.

”Aurelius shouldn’t have been attacked again. Not now. Not yet,” he said.

”When should he have been attacked?” Arlette asked.

”According to his speed of magical advancements? In about six months,” Caius said, ”And Klever shouldn’t have been his opponent. It wasn’t time yet.”

Arlette took a deep, shaky breath. She pushed aside questions bubbling in her head about how exactly Caius knew what he knew and soldiered on.

”So what will happen now?” She asked.

”I’m not sure—” Caius started.

”Just make a guess,” Arlette told him gently.

”My guess is Hell will be preparing to launch another attack. They’ve pushed Aurelius to the limit and seen the most he and his companions can do so they’ll be confident of ending him with the next challenge,” Caius said.

”I hear a ’but’ coming,” Arlette said, almost hopeful.

Caius allowed a smile to cross his lips at how well she could read his speech patterns.

”But, they might not get to,” He said.

”Why not?”

”Because of Nyx,” Caius said.

”The goddess of Darkness?”

”The very one,” Caius said, stroking his jaw with a musing expression on his face,

”The deal that’s causing these challenges was between Aether and Hell alone. But twice now Nyx has had to get involved. Two times she has had to lend her power to a matter she is in the dark about. She is not one to sit for that.

I bet right now, she’s locked in talks with Aether and Hell, working herself into that deal or at least working out a way to gain something from it.”

”And that makes you sure Hell won’t get to attack?” Arlette asked.

”Yes. Because Nyx likes to enjoy her benefits. She likes to be entertained. Hell increasing the difficulty of the challenge so quickly to kill Aurelius with the next challenge threatens to stop Nyx’s fun. She probably won’t stand for that.

This is all guesswork but if I know Nyx, and I think I do, she’s becoming something of a mediator. A voice of reason to calm both sides and return the terms of the contract to their original state for her own selfish reasons.

And we should be glad because her selfishness benefits us.”