Chapter 91: Hunting the Hunters!
Time had ticked by quickly, two nights had now passed since the conversation Albedo had with the captives that Seraphyne had dragged into the basement. Now, the hour had come for Albedo and Seraphyne to reap their rewards.
The night air was sharp. Not cold, but sharp, as though the very wind knew it carried whispers of death through the canals of Pantheon.
The docks were a forgotten part of Pantheon, the easternmost edge of the city where old warehouses had crumbled into ruin and the water reeked of stagnant algae and iron rust.
While the docks were very active in the past, with the advancement of various types of magic and increased accessibility to magic, the docks became rather useless
Now, it was just a graveyard for derelict ships, and by night, the docks would become an empty labyrinth where those of the underworld prowled to complete their business.
And beneath it all, hidden under collapsed stone and the wreckage of forgotten trade routes, lay the ruins.
Albedo was moving silently, his ethereal silk armor warped into a black combat attire that clung to his skin, allowing him to blend easily into the darkness.
His platinum hair was tied back tightly, no gleam left to betray his position in the shadows. Seraphyne followed at his side, her presence less like a shadow and more like the night itself, flowing, untraceable.
The two of them moved through the rooftops, while far-far in front of them was Kaela who was leading the way on the floor, shifting through the various alleyways and walking with the ease of someone who knew every step could be her last.
Her six tails swayed behind her, visible even in the dim light, a statement of pride she refused to disguise.
Every 20 seconds, her golden eyes would flick towards Albedo and Seraphyne on one of the roofs, silently acknowledging them and continuing onwards.
Eventually, they slipped through the broken entryway of a gutted warehouse and descended into the ruins below, a half-flooded tunnel system that seems older than Pantheon itself.
The air grew heavy, damp. Mana hummed faintly in the stones, old wards long since eroded but not entirely gone. Seraphyne’s crimson gaze swept the walls, her fingers brushing against the surface as though reading the echoes left behind.
"Older than the Empire," she whispered, voice soft enough only Albedo could catch. "These were not human foundations."
Albedo’s jaw tightened slightly. Judging by all the markings on the walls, this place could be perhaps Elven, or worse, something left behind by a civilization long devoured by the Abyss or a different unknown threat.
The tunnel opened into a cavernous chamber. A collapsed marketplace, maybe, from centuries past.
Stone arches half-submerged in black water, torch brackets still jutting from the walls though the flames had long since died. The floor was uneven, broken with cracks and holes that sank into darkness.
Kaela stopped near the center, where a broken pillar jutted like the spine of a buried beast.
"This is the spot," she said simply. Her tone carried no dramatics, only fact.
Seraphyne and Albedo quickly melted into the shadows using Seraphyne’s abilities, hiding away while they scanned the chamber and waited for any sight of Kaela’s contact to appear.
They waited, minutes stretched, the silence pressing against their ears. The water dripped steadily from the ceiling somewhere in the distance. Kaela stood with rigid poise, every sense alert.
Then, finally after a noticeable wait, the air rippled. Not like teleportation or a conventional spell. No, this was different. The shadows themselves seemed to fold inward, and from that fold stepped a figure.
It was tall, but indistinct. Its form was cloaked, but an intentional warping of perception. The edges of its silhouette shifted subtly, as though reality itself refused to pin it down. Its face was veiled in static darkness, features blurred into anonymity. Not man, not woman. Not anything clearly definable.
The figure paused, then tilted its head at Kaela. Its voice carried, low, resonant, and wrong. Like several whispers speaking at once.
"You are late."
Kaela lowered her head slightly, the barest inclination of deference, "Unavoidable. The target altered her routine."
"Excuses." The figure’s words hissed faintly, rippling through the chamber, "But... you arrived. That is enough. Speak."
Albedo tensed, Havoc and Ruin whispering inside his mind, eager. His aura pressed against its cage, the draconic power coiled, waiting.
Then, soft as a sigh, Seraphyne’s voice brushed against his ear.
"Mon maître... careful. That one..." Her crimson gaze narrowed to slits. "...is touched by the Abyss."
Albedo wasn’t surprised when he heard what Seraphyne said. In fact, it just affirmed his final suspicions that the Abyss had infiltrated far deeper than anyone could’ve imagined.
They were using Professor Skye like a gun, all roads would lead back to her, while they would take down crucial targets.
In the original timeline, if they had succeeded and taken down Diona, that would’ve been a massive win for the Abyss, as a Saintess of Light is one of their biggest adversaries.
He didn’t look at Seraphyne, but his thought brushed the bond they’d cultivated.
’Can you handle him?’
For a moment there was silence, then a velvet voice caressed the inside of his mind, smooth, confident, sultry.
’Mais bien sûr, mon maître, ’
Seraphyne’s laughter purred across their link, ’He reeks of the Abyss, yes, but he is not its Monarch. This one is a pawn draped in borrowed power. A whisperer, nothing more. I shall peel his mind like silk and feed his secrets to you’
Her crimson eyes gleamed in the dark, predator’s lanterns.
Down below, Kaela stood patiently as she listened to what the cloaked being said.
The cloaked being’s head swiveled slightly, as if sniffing, "You hesitate," it said, its chorus-voice thrumming like echoes in a cavern, "The girl’s routine is irrelevant. We gave you the final order to take her out or bring her to us not long ago, why are both of them still breathing and safe?"
Kaela bowed her head, her jaw tight, "She was surrounded. Protection tighter than expected. To rush would have exposed the entire cell."
A hiss of overlapping whispers passed through the chamber, irritation incarnate. "Perhaps. But delays breed weakness. The Saintess must die before her awakening. Every moment you waste risks the prophecy unraveling. Also, the other girl, she must die or be brought to us,"
Albedo’s pulse jumped as he heard that, anger flaring in his eyes. His fierce gaze flicked toward Seraphyne, and without words, she understood. Her lips curved in the barest smile.
The figure tilted its head again, voice dipping lower, "Regardless. The watchers report you lost contact with half your unit. Where are they?"
Kaela’s hands curled at her sides. "Dead."
"Dead?" the thing repeated, "Or captured?"
Her silence was answer enough. The whispers flared louder, a storm of dissonant voices bleeding from the shifting cloak, "Careless. If they talk"
"They won’t," Kaela said, firm, "Their seals..."
"Seals can unravel." The voice was cold, dissonant, "If your failure compromises the chain—"
It didn’t even get to finish that sentence, because Seraphyne had moved.
One instant she was at Albedo’s side, cloaked in the shadows of a collapsed arch. The next, the entire chamber trembled with her presence, a tidal wave of killing intent that swallowed the darkness whole.
Her figure flickered into existence before the whisperer, tall, elegant, monstrous.
The air thickened as scarlet runes spiraled outward from her body, a web of vampiric dominion. Blood itself answered her, seeping from the cracks in the stones, rising in threads like a thousand red serpents.
The cloaked figure tried to recoil and vanish into the shadows but Seraphyne was faster. Her pale hand shot forward, talons of crystallized blood piercing into the shadow-warped chest.
The thing shrieked, a sound that definitely wasn’t human or mortal. The shadows rippled violently, trying to scatter and flee into cracks of nothingness.
"Non, non, non..." Seraphyne’s voice dripped like honey, lethal and amused, "Stay with me, petit ver. I need your whispers."
The crimson chains tightened, burrowing past veil and distortion, sinking into the Abyss-touched flesh beneath.
The shadow peeled back in ragged tatters, revealing glimpses of the creature’s true form: half-human, half-nightmare. Skin gray as ash, veins crawling black with corruption, eyes like pits weeping darkness.
It screamed again, a chorus of ten thousand voices now, rattling the stones. Water sloshed violently in the half-flooded chamber. Kaela staggered back, shielding her ears.
But Seraphyne only smiled wider.
"Mon maître..." her voice sang across the bond, silk-wrapped steel, "...I will give you what you want."
Her powers plunged directly into the thrashing being’s soul. Not delicate, not gentle. This was violation made art, the sheer dominance of a predator feasting on prey.
Crimson tendrils pierced its skull, its chest, its spirit. The creature convulsed, body arching, voices warping into fragmented echoes as she tore memory from its essence.
Albedo watched with narrowed eyes, unmoving. It seemed to easy for Seraphyne, this was the benefit of reaching a rank this high.
Her eyes rolled back, glowing with abyssal resonance as stolen memories cascaded into her mind. Fragments slipped across the link to Albedo:
- A throne of black stone, cracked and bleeding shadow.
- Professor Skye, kneeling, her face void of arrogance, eyes hollow, a puppet bound in chains of ink.
- A great sigil burning across the Empire’s map, spiderwebbing toward Pantheon.
- The word "Eclipsing Dawn." A codename, a plan related to the Academy that was already in motion.
The figure thrashed harder, its voice breaking, "Nnnnooo... you cannot!"
Seraphyne purred, blood coiling tighter, crushing bone, "Shhh. I told you. I always take what I want."
The runes flared, brighter, brighter, until crimson light drowned the chamber. Then, with one final wrench, she ripped the core of its mind free.
The shadow collapsed instantly. Its distorted form shriveled, unraveling into black smoke that stank of rot. All that remained in her hand was a flickering shard of darkness, trembling, screaming silently.
Seraphyne regarded it with faint amusement, then crushed it between her claws. The smoke hissed, dissipating into nothing.
Silence slammed back into the chamber. Only the slow drip of water and Kaela’s ragged breathing broke it.
Seraphyne turned, her lips wet with someone else’s memory, crimson eyes gleaming like a predator in ecstasy. She licked a drop of blood from her finger delicately.
"It is done," she murmured, voice a velvet purr.
Kaela sank to her knees, tails coiling tight around her. The bravado she’d carried as leader of her cell was gone, replaced by stark terror. She had just seen a being of the Abyss dismantled like nothing.
Now more than anything, she knew just what she was messing with.