Master Of Myths

After a hasty journey the three arrived before the forest for the third time, unlike before when he was to enter alone however they all went inside

The scenery shifted just the same, bringing a great visual to their eyes until they arrived at the waterfall, only to see the beautiful woman exposing her body as she leaned forward at the edge of the pool, smiling at them seductively

"My, I did not think mister would bring guests so soon, it's only been a few days since your last visit"

"These are my companions"

Stating the fact ahead he wanted to make sure no misunderstanding happened

"Oh, I see"

Even after hearing that they weren't food the tree did not disperse the illusion, perhaps to spare them the grotesque visual

"I did bring you food however"

With a smirk he threw the barrel straight into the pool, sinking into the bottom slowly before their eyes

"Much appreciated, though I prefer my meal alive, still it-Hoooo!"

The beautiful illusion was broken, shifting into the gory sight as Zero and Ika flinched back, almost running away if not for YuJu's reassurance

"What a potent heart! The power, the potential, yes! This is the kind of food I desire!"

The still branches of the tree actually started to wither and fall, then quickly grow again, this time bearing small sized orbs that reeked with the same smell of poison as the heart's blood

"Where might the rest of this heart's body be if I may ask?"

"Too far to procure, I don't want to have the rest of its comrades track me down either"

"A wise decision, you seem injured from battling them however, I must repay your kindness, come back four days later, I would have you a ripe fruit by then"

"No need to rush, it's not as if these injuries are of major concern"

"As you wish, then come three weeks later, my fruit would naturally ripen by then"

YuJu nodded and told Zero head toward their den now, wanting to get back and have some unbothered rest for a while

More than happy to leave this ugly and reeking deceptive forest she and Ika rushed with much vigour, traversing the land until they reached the fallen highrise building in which they resided

....

Pah!

The sound of a slap resounded through the large hall followed by an annoyed voice

"I've told you to be gentler, graze my skin one more time and I will have your body drained of blood"

"Yes mistress"

Replied the scared red eyes girl to the one sprawled over the throne, legs hanging over an armrest as it got massaged by a similarly scared red eyed man while her body leaned on the other armrest, being massaged by the girl herself

Nee, who was enjoying her time, had the moment ruined as a bat soon came flapping through the entrance, screeching madly in warning

"They're here?"

Quickly righting her posture she glanced at the entrance, then the two beside her, then stood up with haste

"Do you require assistance mistress?"

The man asked, hoping that there were no more tiresome ordered that put their life on the edge

"No"

Nee didn't even turn to look at them, quickly resulting to wear her clothes

"Your no longer of assistance"

"?" "?"

Both servants turned to look at each other in confusion, it couldn't be that she was letting them free could it?

The suspicion quickly turned to fear as a thought came to mind once their surroundings were covered in a shadow, but before they could utter a word they were punctured by the talon of the large winged thrall before their dead bodies were carried away, soon to be made food before being thrown away like the dry flesh bags they would become

All this didn't garner Nee's attention, as if she wasn't the least bit bothered that the two who served her wholeheartedly were just killed, instead she neatly walked next to the entrance, now fully clothed, trying to put up the most innocent and naive face one could have, just in time to receive the real owner of the throne being carried on the cold woman's back

"My Lord, was the journey fruitful?"

She asked, just before smelling the stinky blood and noting the wounds on his body, hidden behind Zero's as she carried him to the couch to lay down

"Goodness! My Lord needs some medical assistance right away! I will go get a healer from a group I know immediately"

"No need"

Before Nee could leave YuJu refused the assistance

"I can heal at my own pace, the poison isn't an issue either"

"But my Lord, if the wound festers then-" "You think I have no clue about my body's capability?"

"No bu-" "Then leave me to rest, go with Ika to fetch some of the thralls I've mentioned while Zero guards the place"

"....As my Lord wishes"

Showing a reluctant and worried face Nee bowed and left with her senior vampire sister who was a tad bit worried as well

Upon leaving Nee turned to question Ika on what exactly happened in the pretense of fretting about her Lord, and it was no secret what he did so the whole journey was briefly explained to her

"My Lord is powerful enough to kill a Thunder Mammoth?"

"Indeed, all on his own none the less, I had no idea he was that strong, I just thought he was pretty good at controlling blood and using stealth"

"Hmm"

Following this shocking revelation the remainder of their trip to the human settlement was silent for the most part as Nee seemed to enter a contemplative mood, Ika mistook her to be thinking about ways to help their Lord so she did not interrupt the brooding cheerful woman

'How intriguing, it seems there is more to him than what meets the eye'

And she was brooding, just not ways to help him

'Not only does he command so many factions from the shadows but he has great strength and the methods to increase that of others'

And she was under direct command from such a person, she couldn't hope to land herself in a better position

It wasn't something  to be taken for granted however for she'd seen with her own eyes how the useless thralls ended up as, in fact she was to procure more of the useless rabble to experiment on, which went to show how little he thought of people

'Appealing to his better nature would get me nowhere'

It wasn't like he had any

'Seducing him is….still pending, the only sure way to have him keep me around is showing my worth'

Suddenly her lips lifted into a smirk, one that she hid far too quickly for Ika to notice, after all she was supposedly 'worried' about their lord

'How humorous, men and women alike used to fight for my acknowledgment, now I am the one to seek another's attention'

Getting served her own medicine didn't upset her however, in fact she looked forward to the heights she might reach on the shoulders of this giant of a man

"We're here"

Lost in her thoughts she noted no their arrival before a super large hotel, the grandest hotel in the city

"Humans are brave enough to live here?"

"With our assistance they are, now hurry and enter stealth before they catch sight of us"

The two blended into the shadows under the cover of the night, infiltrating the place easily with Ika's lead

"Quite handy stealth is"

"Indeed, any vampire or even thrall would gain the skill automatically upon converting, and if one owns a stealth based class like an assassin it would boost the skill's efficiency, kind of like a game if you ask me"

The innocent discretion put a smile on Nee's face, her mind recalling how many of her fellow college students thought of the system as something from a game, hoping to suddenly acquire superpowers and become powerful humans, funny how they were the first to enter the beasts' bellies

The two kept conversing while they scoured the windows of the building one by one, shifting their lord's bad condition out of mind for the time being as they joyfully spoke of once peaceful times that might never see the light of day again

"And so we dressed up as almonds for Halloween, everyone thought we were nuts!"

"Hehehe, hmm?"

Amid the happy mood Ika stopped suddenly at the window sill of one of the rooms, her expression taking a complicated turn

"Anything the matter?"

Ika shook her head for a moment, but after a few seconds she nodded

"Yes, one of the people listed for having an utterly useless class is that man over there"

She pointed toward the man who was cracking silly jokes to his wife and kid as they slowly finished their dinner

"So?"

"But as you see he has a wife and a young boy, I just can't bear to take him from them despite how useless he is in this world, if I was a kid and my parents suddenly went missing I…"

Her words got clogged up in her throat, just imagining herself breaking this happy family up and furthermore using the innocent father as an experimental subject made tears well up in her eyes, it was times like these that reminded her of the dark side she'd joined

A hand over her shoulders gave her a tiny bit of the support she needed, still, she couldn't be the one to do it

"Nee, can I trouble you to…"

'No problem sister, it's easier if I do it anyway"

Not at all bothered by the fact that her actions would break up a happy family Nee put her skills to use, making the separation as painless as possible since no one would remember what happened