The southern side of the Starfall Forest.
The Kingdom of Ariel.
The border region where the kingdom met the Starfall Forest.
A human city named Tecabelo stood quietly here.
This city was sharply divided, with the extreme disparity between the rich and the poor visible at a single glance.
In the upper-class noble district at the center of the city, blue-brick roads were lined with towering buildings and exquisite shops, their gilded signs gleaming in the sunlight. Well-dressed nobles and wealthy merchants bustled about amidst the clamor of carriages, radiating luxury and prosperity.
Meanwhile, the outer areas of the city were a sprawling expanse of low, dilapidated slums.
Muddy dirt roads crisscrossed, and dilapidated thatched cottages were packed tightly together, shrouded in a perpetual blanket of dust and gloom.
Occasionally, a luxurious noble carriage would speed past with its curtains tightly drawn. The dignitaries inside looked out with disgust, unwilling to spare even a sidelong glance at the commoners struggling to survive by the roadside.
Prosperity and ruin were separated by a single wall, yet they seemed like two entirely different worlds.
At this moment, within a manor named Merol in the noble district.
In a dim basement, an elegant figure clad in a tailcoat slowly descended the stairs.
He possessed a pale, handsome face, and on his finger was a ring set with a dark red ruby. He walked with a calm grace, as if heading to a grand banquet.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, he stopped outside a cell.
“Lord Ricks,” the two blood thralls standing outside the cell greeted him, bowing with utmost respect.
“Mm.”
Ricks's voice was indifferent, his crimson eyes gleaming with a faint, cold light in the dim basement. “Open the cell.”
“Yes, My Lord.”
The iron lock turned, emitting a harsh creaking sound.
The moment the cell door was pushed open, a strong musty odor wafted out, causing Ricks to frown imperceptibly.
In a pile of straw in the corner of the cell, a brown-haired girl curled up.
Her clothes were tattered and stained, her hair disheveled, and her cheeks pale and haggard. Her lips were dry and cracked, yet her eyes shone with startling intensity, filled with unvarnished rage as she glared at the man who entered.
“Have you made up your mind?”
Ricks stopped in front of her, looking down with a gentle tone that carried a casual, seductive quality.
“Tell me where the others are hiding, and I will immediately have a sun-facing room, new clothes, and hot meals arranged for you. Everything you could want. I might even... grant you the First Embrace, turning you into a noble vampire and freeing you from this fragile, short-lived mortal shell.”
“In your dreams.”
The girl's voice was hoarse and weak, but every word was clear. She stubbornly lifted her chin and stared intently at him.
“Even if I die here and rot in the mud, I will never betray my companions. Give up on that idea.”
Ricks narrowed his eyes.
A cold glint flashed through his crimson pupils.
He took a step forward, his pale, slender hand suddenly clamping around the girl's neck. With a slight exertion of force, he easily lifted her into the air.
With her toes dangling off the ground, she was instantly overcome by a powerful sense of suffocation. The dizziness from the lack of oxygen made her vision turn dark in waves. She instinctively reached out with both hands to pry at his iron-grip fingers, her nails scratching a few faint white marks on the back of Ricks's hand.
“Cough, cough... You bastard... Let... go—”
Ricks watched her calmly with his crimson eyes, the strength in his hand tightening slightly instead.
“Woman, my patience is limited.”
His voice was cold, entirely unmoved by the girl's painful, violent struggles.
“You had better think this through.”
Just a second before the girl was about to lose consciousness, a flurry of hurried footsteps echoed from the stairway.
“Lord Ricks!”
The newcomer's voice carried a hint of gravity, but his steps did not falter.
He quickly walked down the corridor and appeared at the cell door. His gaze briefly swept over the brown-haired girl dangling in the air before he quickly retracted it and bowed.
Ricks released his grip.
The girl collapsed onto the cold floor with a thud, clutching her neck as she coughed violently and gasped for air.
The distinct red imprint of five fingers on her neck was a shocking sight.
Ricks pulled out a pure white silk handkerchief and slowly wiped the palm that had just touched the girl's neck. His movements were elegant, yet they exuded an extreme coldness and aversion to filth.
“Kate, is there any news on that matter?” he asked softly, without turning around.
Kate nodded, lowering his voice. “Yes, Lord Ricks. Those trolls... have all vanished.”
Ricks paused slightly, his crimson eyes flickering as he fell into deep thought.
Seeing this, Kate spoke tentatively, “Lord Ricks, should we... report this to the Seventh Progenitor?”
Ricks glanced at him and slowly shook his head.
“Do not tell anyone for now.”
“After all,” his voice was steady and cautious, “we don't know what the truth actually is. If we are accused of ‘spreading rumors,’ although we won't face any substantial punishment, it will still negatively affect my reputation.”
“Furthermore—” He paused, a meaningful coldness creeping into his tone. “There are quite a few people eyeing this territory of Tecabelo.”
Kate hesitated. “Do you mean the vampire nobles under the Seventh Progenitor?”
“Those people?” Ricks chuckled softly, but the mirth did not reach his eyes. “While they do have great ambitions, the Seventh Progenitor is keeping them in check. Even if they want this place, he won't let them come.”
“Then who do you mean...?” Kate asked in confusion.
“Those of the Ninth Progenitor's faction,” Ricks said gravely. “The Ninth Progenitor has long wanted to interfere in the affairs of the Kingdom of Ariel and turn this place into his own sphere of influence. I cannot give him the opportunity to plant his own people here.”
Hearing this, Kate suddenly understood. “I see.”
The Ninth Progenitor was a rising power among the vampires, unlike their Seventh Progenitor, who had established his own influence in the Kingdom of Ariel long ago through the division of territories at the Progenitor Council.
Currently, the Ninth Progenitor only possessed the initial territory obtained in the vampire stronghold—the Kingdom of Blood and Thorns. He had no territory of his own elsewhere on the continent of Aenoria. Thus, he was eager to plant his own people to achieve rapid expansion, and the Seventh Progenitor was one of the weaker ones among the nine Progenitors.
As for the Eighth Progenitor, they were just like the Ninth Progenitor—a rising power with no independent territory of their own outside.
Kate then recalled another matter and quickly added, “Lord Ricks, there is one more thing. There seems to be some movement in Windhaven Town to the east of the Starfall Forest recently.”
“Windhaven Town?” Ricks's brow twitched. “Those remnants of the Church of Light?”
“Yes,” Kate nodded. “I discovered that they specifically dispatched several humans to quietly leave the town. They moved very stealthily, but our people still managed to catch their trail. Their destination seems to be... deep within the Starfall Forest.”
Ricks's frown deepened.
“What are those people from Windhaven Town doing in the Starfall Forest?”
He muttered to himself, various possibilities flashing through his mind.
“Are they going to pray to the fallen Goddess of Light again, trying to awaken her?”
Having said that, Ricks suddenly recalled the events of last time.
He instinctively rubbed the ring on his finger.
This ring was a pseudo-divine artifact bestowed by the Seventh Progenitor, crafted in imitation of the true divine artifact of the True Progenitor. According to the Seventh Progenitor, it could detect existences up to the level of Weak Divine Power at most, and nothing higher.
The warning intensity last time had been extremely strong. It was the first time he had felt such a powerful warning since obtaining this pseudo-divine artifact.
Fearing the unknown, terrifying power, he had retreated very decisively back then.
The extreme warning of danger from that time was still fresh in his memory.
Connecting the three strange occurrences—the complete disappearance of the trolls, the believers from Windhaven Town secretly entering the forest, and the mysterious warning from his pseudo-divine artifact—a ridiculous thought uncontrollably surfaced in his mind:
It couldn't be... that the Goddess of Light has actually returned?
But in the next second, Ricks dismissed the conjecture himself, chuckling as he shook his head.
Impossible!
In the divine war a thousand years ago, the Goddess of Light, Devilitafil, died in battle. Her Divine Spark shattered and her divinity dissipated. This was an acknowledged fact by all top factions across the continent of Aenoria, a finality etched into the annals of history.
How could a deity who had completely perished a thousand years ago return to life?
As for the warning last time...
He looked toward the Starfall Forest, and an answer formed in his mind.
North of the forest was the Corrupted Mountain Range, where an undead city lay.
Three hundred years ago, the Undead Scourge swept across the northern part of the continent of Aenoria. It was only normal for a few high-level undead, or even liches, to be hiding in the Starfall Forest.
Last time, a powerful undead had probably just happened to pass by, triggering the warning.
The trolls' disappearance was also likely because they ran into that undead.
“Just a bunch of undead hiding their heads and tails,” Ricks said softly, his tone carrying a hint of relief and a touch of contempt.
Rate on N.U.
