Return to Jorgaldur Volume V: Reunion (2)

Loose ends (II)

"Hurry up! Surround the area! Activate the sealing devices!" the draconian ordered.

"There's no time left, they've triggered destruction magic. We only have a few minutes left," another warned.

"Let's get in! Quickly! We have to capture someone alive before it's too late," the first ordered.

"Group two, entering," a third reported.

"Group one, prepared."

"Support group, in position."

They had been sent as soon as they had discovered the location. A couple of mages were on the ground, breathing heavily, exhausted. Forced teleportation to new coordinates was as dangerous as it was exhausting. They had surpassed their limits, and wouldn't be able to manipulate mana for at least a week. Nonetheless, if they achieved their goal, it would be worth it.

At that time, a vampiress contacted her father.

"Self-destruct activated. We're leaving," she informed him.

"Well done. It's a shame that it ends like this," her father lamented.

"What do you mean...? Aaarrrghh!!"

Immediately, her lifeless body collapsed. The rest of the vampires saw her fall, stupefied, and immediately realized what was happening. They were being sacrificed. They were horrified, but had no way to defend themselves.

Another fell a couple of seconds later. And another. And another. And another. After less than a minute, only three remained.

It was then that one of them was caught by two strong arms. They had lost all hope of survival when they realized that their father had decided to eliminate them. They had stood frozen, motionless, ignoring their surroundings, the incoming enemies.

He saw another of his companions die. The only remaining companion was also immobilized without resistance.

"If you don't want to die, stay still. We can isolate and protect you if you collaborate," a draconian offered them.

Both vampire and vampiress nodded. They had been betrayed and discarded, they had nothing left to lose.

"Let's go! We have less than half a minute left!" another draconian urged. She could perceive the violent mana fluctuations.

With no time to waste, they grabbed the vampires and left in a hurry. Just seconds after they escaped, a terrifying explosion engulfed the vampires' midbase. Both the rocks and the shock wave threatened to destroy them.

Luckily, they were prepared. The mages outside formed powerful mana barriers one after another. Those barriers were extremely powerful, in exchange for a large expenditure of mana and a short duration. Despite this, barrier after barrier was destroyed.

The draconians ran in a hurry, while the protections behind them fell due to the powerful and chaotic mana resulting from the self-destruction. It could be seen in the paleness of the mages how their mana reserves were quickly depleting, in addition to the tremendous effort they were making.

When the last barrier gave way, what was left of the explosion rushed towards them lethally. Luckily, they had reached their companions. Sturdy shields guarded their backs, along with powerful defensive skills. They managed to stop the already weakened shock wave, in addition to quite a few rocks, with just a few dents.

It had been exhausting and dangerous, but they had done it. They had witnesses, who would undoubtedly collaborate.

"Father... They have captured two of my children before it exploded," Kriglod confessed.

He knew that hiding it from him would be worse. He still remembered the cries of pain from one of his brothers after making that mistake. To this day, after more than forty years, that brother was still alive and being tortured every day in the dungeon. It was a warning to everyone.

Kan Golge clenched his fists. For a moment, he thought about killing him, but that wouldn't eliminate his son's children, plus he was a valuable asset. It was better to keep him, at least for now. He had already had too many losses in recent times

"Come immediately to the base. Bring those you can, and eliminate those who're expendable. If you have agents outside, eliminate them if they could be exposed. I want a report on those remaining," he ordered.

Kriglod nodded, saddened. That was a hard blow for him, the cancellation of his plans, and the loss of his autonomy. From now on, he would be under the direct orders of his father, and could no longer compete with his siblings. At least he was still alive.

One of the things that irritated him the most was not knowing how the plans had failed, why he had suddenly lost all contact with the group that operated in the underground base.

Of course, it was normal that his children hadn't warned him. Since the gates were disabled, and no reinforcements could arrive, there was no reason to do so. They knew that warning their father could only hasten their death at his hands. He would execute them through their bond.

If it weren't for that, perhaps they would have warned him earlier, and he would have had time to react. At least, he could have safely destroyed the intermediate base.

While his son lamented his fate, Kan Golge was furious. Aside from the failure itself, it would force him to dispose of all gates and bases related to the operation.

"Damn! Why do all the plans go wrong lately!?" He cursed.

Krovledi had died, and with her death, the plans to use her to regain power through her. Ironically, her daughter's efforts to get rid of him had been the key to her being useful to him.

The attempt to capture the ancestral vampiress had been an absolute failure. He had lost many members of a valuable vampire squad.

Regaining his dominion of the Blood Kingdom through his children had gone well at first. Until the appearance of the new Blood Queen. Over the next few years, all presence of his children had been swept away.

Things weren't going well with the corrupted area either. He had lost track of his main target. Inexplicably, the survivors had escaped with the valuable jewel, and there was no trace of them. As if that weren't enough, somehow, his enemies had found a way to eliminate the corrupted spirits, the generals, which had left them in a passive position.

Not to mention the blood knights, who had been freed, and he had never known how.

Something had even happened in the Death Valley. It wasn't his project, but he had seen some value in it, some interesting experiments could be carried out there. For some reason, the death aura had noticeably decreased.

What he didn't know was that there was a certain vampiress who, along with her companions, were to blame for most of those failures. Had he known, he would have done everything in his power to get rid of them.