chsdbacks Chapter 257 – Towards the meeting.
Chapter 257 – Towards the meeting.
The emperor.
The duke.
The vampire.
The trio of the men who ruled the empire did not trusted Ariava one bit.
That by now is extremely obvious.
But at the same time, it was extremely obvious that if the trio were to say "NO", they would have the third disaster to deal with.
//First disaster//
The sudden birth – problem with control and stabilization caused by the empire being founded way too quickly – the empire can destroy itself if the stabilization and control isn’t’ dealt with in time.
//Second disaster//
Greed of fools – the rulers of the neighboring nations wants to start off wars, not carrying about the possible consequences it could have not only on them, but also their people as well as other nations.
These two disasters alone respectfully were somewhat enough to destroy the newly made empire.
And now?
They could have something far worse on their hand.
//Third disaster//
Ariava Byrawa.
An extremely random disaster in form a nightmare that brough fear to the vampire kind.
The Witch Of Mad Lust.
She alone can be considered as something far more dangerous than the first and second disaster.
The empire were dealing with both disaster nonstop, making sure that they are dealt with for good, but there was no way for them to predict that the third disaster would had ever occurred in the first place or the fact that the disaster is already here before they had realized it.
And to make even things worse, they did not possessed any counter for the third one, like they were not prepared in any form, be it physically or mentally to deal with THAT problem which could wipe them all out.... Which pretty much means that their situation gotten far more far grimmer and more hopeless for the empire out of nowhere and it wouldn’t be surprised if they were to give into the despair.
However, the third catastrophe offered a "Deal", where instead of being the empire doom, it would instead provide them with help.
...
Well, in reality the empire really had no possible choice but to take the peace meeting option that the woman had provided them with.,
The empire had straight up no psychical way to fight back or do ANYTHING.
And it is not like they could just do nothing either beside going for the meeting, since again, Ariava could possibly annihilate the empire.
In other words, they really had no choice but to take Ariva’s meeting invitation, either they liked it not, there was never truly any "option" from the start.
With that being said and explained, the vampire leader alongside the emperor went and headed to the "peace meeting" location, while the duke Arthur was left behind to manage the situation while the two leaders were gone.
[Several days later.]
"And this is pretty much the overview of what the monster we are currently dealing with." – said vampire Korwan.
"I’ve tried looking bit up some information before we headed out... But I couldn’t obtain them fast enough."
"Well.... It is better than nothing." – said emperor Gustav.
"At least I have somewhat better understanding regarding the monster we are dealing with." – said the emperor Gustaf as he alongside the vampire Korwan were traveling via carriage, while being escorted by the group of an empire elites.
"Still... Even after listening to all of your stories.... Something is still bothering me."
"I mean, WHY would she even pull something like that?"
"Is she just fucking with us?"
"I don’t know... Maybe she was bored?" – replied the vampire.
"Bored? A being that can destroy our whole empire was just bored? Is that what you are saying?" – asked visible angry emperor.
"Hey.... I don’t fucking know." – said the vampire as he looked defeated.
*Sigh*
"Fine." – said annoyed emperor.
(Honestly, I would like to gather information about her for at least a week before we would head out.... But again, we don’t know what exactly we are dealing with.) – thought the emperor.
(Korwan told me everything he knew as of right now about her... But I don’t believe that is nowhere near enough.... I somewhat get her "picture" from the stories... But there is also a good chance that it was warped by fear and what not.)
(Still, the fact remains that she fucking just shown us middle finger out a blue while we were minding our own business.)
(She suddenly appeared out of nowhere, demanded a meeting and then just left before showing off her power and making us all shit our pants.)
(She did it in all one go.... From what we are getting here at, it seems she wants to have it done over as soon as possible.)
(Well... For her it may be a "waste of time" somewhat, but for us is fucking important like hell!)
(Are all beings like her acting the same way? Just thinking that they can do....)
(Well, technically they can get away with everything they want to? I mean, if you say NO, they just respond by straight up erasing you and your entire blood line from existence.)
"..."
"And there is also that meeting spot." – said the annoyed emperor.
"She wants us to HOLD the meeting at the forest that is currently infested by those golems!? Who in their right mind would even go there?"
"..."
"Then again, that forest is ruled by the golem dungeon." – said the vampire.
"..."
"And now a real fucking question." – said the emperor.
"Do you think she was fucking with us from the start?"
"..."
"Honestly? I don’t know." – replied the vampire.
"The golem dungeon.... I’ve talked with the dungeon master in the past."
"Back then before the dungeon committed that genocide or even before the Crow Watchers attacked the forest... The dungeon master came and wanted to have peace talk."
"He fought in more passive way, aiming to reduce the casualties from the adventurer side as much as possible."
"Simply put, it was holding back."
"All in order to have the peace talk."
"However.... The guild master at the time, refused the peace deal and instead wanted to exterminate dungeon."
"Which I didn’t liked, as I’ve had my people kill her and then have myself attempt to the peace meeting personally."
"Which it then didn’t worked out, since you wanted to enslave the dungeon in order to maximize the benefits while keeping any possible dangers to maximum minimum."
"I fully understand that part."
"But I’m asking if the DUNGEON MASTER from back then was really the dungeon master?"
"..."
"Honestly.... That is still confusing." – said the vampire.
"The chances are... Extremely high."
"She may had truly exterminated the dungeon and replaced it, pretending to be a dungeon, or instead took control over the dungeon."
"That dungeon master I’ve spoken in the past may had been Ariava instead."
"But again, something is still not fitting."
"Why would she do that?"
"I don’t think this a simple fucking around bit."
"No... Pieces are not fitting up correctly no matter how I think about it.... Honestly, I think there is a good chance that golem dungeon is still around...."
"But then again, SHE wasn’t present during the war between the dungeon and the Crow Watchers."
"But this begs a question."
"What is the relationship between the dungeon and that monster?"
"..."
"Honestly.... We don’t have anything to go on right now of."
"We are straight up blind right now."
"And it is not like we can gather information either.... Since there is good chance that the whole Mevon territory may had been already fully taken over by her."
"..."
"So... No tricks, just head straight to her?" – asked the emperor.
"Pretty much, that is it." – replied the vampire
"The only way to find anything would be meet her face to face."
(But again, what could she possible want? She could had "dealt" with us back there or "enslave" us... Or just anything!) – thought nervous vampire.
(So why the hell she wants to make a "deal"?)
(How the hell is she going to benefit from this!?)
"..."
"Well.... I guess we should give up about thinking about anything, and instead just head to the Mevon territory."
"With the help of schwer horses, we should arrive there long before we would be anywhere near the time limit, she gave us." – said the emperor as he stared through the window at the massive horses that were pulling the carriage, alongside few other massive horses which were rode by 2 to 3 people at once.
[Schwer Horses]
[Appearance wise they are massive horse creatures which are usually two times bigger and longer than regular horses, sometimes two and half or even possible close to three times.]
[When it comes to endurance, strength, stamina and speed, they are several times better than regular horses, allowing them to traverse way longer distance on just plain slow pace compare to the regular horse slow pace.]
*Sigh*
"If you say so.... Still, I think we should deal with that business as soon as possible, before then heading to the forest.... I don’t think we should keep that monster waiting for too long, or who knows what she will do?" – said the vampire.
For the countless days, the two leaders traversed the empire, traversing a long distance.
But still, thanks to their schwer horse as well as thanks to the fact that the adventurers were doing their job, keeping the roads safe by exterminating the monsters that were on the loose as well as the bandits, the roads were completely safe at the time, allowing the two leaders’ group to quickly travers the roads.
Which in turn ended up were able to somewhat arrive at the somewhat acceptable amount of time at the Mevon territory.
However, before heading to the golem infested forest, the group had no choice but to visit one specific place.
The Maw city.
[Current location: Maw city – Lord’s mansion.]
"I bow down to your majesty! Emperor Gustav!" – the lord Vincent Berkur, the lord of the Mevon territory, instantly bowed his head alongside the city mayor upon the emperor’s arrival at the mansion.
"Please, raise your head." – said the emperor.
"..." – the two men raised up their heads.... With the lord showing off his visible extremely exhausted and stressed expression to the lord.
"..."
"Is everything alright?" – asked the concerned emperor.
"Y-yes! Yes! I’m fine!" – replied the panicking lord.
"..."
(NO, YOU ARE BLOOD NOT!) – thought the emperor, as he remembered reading the message left by Ariava.
{"By the way. To make sure that the lord of Mevon territory won’t pull anything, I may or may not had taken his family hostage, specifically, I’ve told him that the emperor will exterminate his blood line if he refuses to fallow orders."}
{"So yeah. You can deal with this yourself when you got here."}
(She fucking made him believe that the one that is threatening his entire family is me!) – thought the annoyed emperor.
(For crying out loud... In his eyes he is currently starting right in the face of a guy that is straight up holding a gun next to his family’s head.)
(Not only that... The vampires gathered the info about the city and things are not looking good.)
(People are panicking and arguing about the dungeon... Heck, who wouldn’t after a freaking genocide happened in this territory!?)
(According to Korwan, the situation was about to straight up "break" at moment... And it could possibly lead to the knights as well as soldiers straight up ignoring the lord’s direct command and attack the dungeon....)
(If he bloody did that, the whole city could had been wiped out by Ariava in retaliation....)
(We barely arrived just in time to stop it all from happening.)
"..."
"Excuse me.... Mayor, correct?" – asked the emperor.
"Y-yes!" – replied the mayor as he stood up like a soldier.
"Em... Would you mind.... Well, is it possible for only me and the lord here to be alone?" – asked the emperor.
"!" – the panicking mayor looked towards the lord, who in turn just nodded his head, giving the mayor and all the servants in the room a signal to quickly leave the room, instantly making the room completely empty and leaving only both the nervous lord and the emperor.
"..."
"First thing first." – said the emperor in calm voice.
"I’m sorry what had happened."
"I’m talking specifically about the assassins."
"They.... They were truly under my command."
"!"
"What?" – said the surprised lord.
(But.... Wait, that means the emperor was really the one?!) – thought panicking lord.
"I really didn’t wished that it came to it.... But stuff happened, which ended up forcing my hand to take this action.... Which is also tied to the reason why I came to this territory personally."
"And don’t worry! Your family is already safe! There won’t be any harm coming their way."
"Honestly speaking, I didn’t wanted to use that method.... But because how the situation changed to suddenly... I really had no choice."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Your majesty...." – spoke up the nervous lord.
"If I may.... Can I know what is going on?"
"...."
"I’m sorry... But you can’t." – replied the emperor.
"Is it.... Fuck... How do I say this?"
"..."
"It depends."
"Right now, I need to directly deal with the situation."
"And right now, for you to know anything is.... Dangerous to say the least."
"For anybody."
"There may be a chance that I will have ability to let you know stuff, if everything goes as planned, but right now, you cannot know what is going on, or this will put you and all of your loved ones in danger."
"You can talk to that knight captain of yours regarding this, about how it was my direct order to stop you from attacking the dungeon, if that will calm the situation somewhat from outside."
"....I understand." – replied the still visible nervous lord.
"But.... If I may."
"What should we do now?"
"Well... Em... Regarding the dungeon? Are we allowed to exterminate it?"
"..."
"No." – replied the lord.
"In fact, nobody is allowed to go anywhere near that forest as of right now."
"Or even get near the territory where the forest is located."
"The ban still stands in place and I want you to reinforce it further."
"Only me and my people are allowed to enter the forest from now on."
"!"
"But your majesty! The dungeon is still there!" – said the panicking lord.
"I’m sorry if I’m speaking rudely now, but that THING! It needs to go!"
"And I’m worried about your safety!"
"..."
"Again. I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you anything as of right now." – replied the emperor.
"And unfortunately, I will have to go to that forest."
"As for you?"
"I’m sorry."
"But you will have to fallow my order."
"Either you like it or not."
"..."
"I.... Understand... Your majesty." – replied the lord.
"..."
(Yeah.... I think I will have to somewhat compensate that guy for everything that he had endured.) – thought the emperor.
(But this will have to wait....)
(...)
(Honestly speaking, I would like to have a moment of rest here... But considering the current situation, my presence alone could straight up cause some crap to pop up... It is better if we just camp outside the city for now.)
Upon brining order to somewhat chaotic Maw city, the two men alongside their elite knights instantly left the city, before then creating their camp after making a noticeable amount of distance away from city.
And upon arise of the new day.... The emperor’s group instantly headed towards the golem forest, a forest ruled by the dungeon master of the golem dungeon.
And the place that will be serving as the meeting location that was arranged by Ariava.
"..."
"Anything out there?" – asked Korwan, while looking through the carriage window.
"No sir... None of us see anything weird or sense anything." – said the hooded knight who was riding the giant horse creature alongside another full armored knight who sat on the same creature, controlling the beast that the duo were riding.
"We don’t even see any enemies or anything else.... The entire vicinity around the forest seems completely safe." – said the hooded knight, as the group started finally approaching the golems’ forest.
"Maybe we should slow down a bit and quickly sent some scouts a-"
"No!" – said the vampire, instantly shooting down the man’s request.
"Don’t do anything stupid right now, or we all will pay."
"Understood?!"
"..."
"Yes sir." – said the hooded knight as the giant horse walked away from the carriage.
"..."
"Nervous?" – asked the emperor as he looked towards the vampire who was wearing a composed and focused expression.
"Of course!" – replied the vampire as he started talking after shutting the window, revealing his terrified expression.
"I’m fucking losing my shit now.... We are really about to have a talk with that monster! And it could either end up in two ways!"
"We die or we survive...." – said the emperor who couldn’t really hide his fear either."
"Still... If we give up on talking... Well, you know what will happened too, right?"
"Death.... Fuck me." – said the vampire as he covered his face with his hands.
"..."
*Sigh*
"Fuck it."
"Let’s do this." - said the vampire as he tried putting up his composed poker face.
*Knock* *Knock*
"..." – the emperor slide off opening near him.
"Sir, we are here." – said the carriage driver through the opening.
"...You ready?" – asked the emperor.
"Nope.... I’m not.... But again." – said the emperor.
"We really never had a choice, did we?"