Vampire's Slice Of Life

1128  Calculated Risk

"What did you find?" Taking a sip of beer, a man with a goatee asked the blonde man seated opposite to him.

"It's not an external threat." The blonde man answered and took a bite of the soft, chewy bread. "Someone from within was helping them."

Maxim placed the beer cup down and pinched his brows. "To think that it would be this troublesome…"

"Things are getting out of hand lately. The higher ups aren't stopping and fixing the internal problems. Instead they're charging towards more difficulties and making matters worse for everyone involved."

Maxim was still pinching his brows and thinking. "There are so many troublemakers that I can't point at one single person."

The blonde man sighed and asked, "Are you even listening?"

"Yes, I am." Maxim answered swiftly. "There's nothing that can be done about the higher ups. We need to keep fixing the mess they cause."

The blonde man sighed once again. "In any case, there's a few individuals I have my eyes on. It took me a lot of effort to find their traces and preserve them. Let's go take a look at them."

"Give me a minute." Maxim replied and focused on eating the bread with stew, and finishing his beer. For some reason, the food was really tasty here. If it wasn't for the damn mission, he would've spent some more time here. …..

"Where is it?" Maxim looked around in an alley and asked. The blonde man walked towards a certain spot and bent down. Taking out his staff from his space ring, he traced a circle on the ground and began chanting something.  Soon, clear footsteps of someone could be seen on the ground. They brightened up and hovered in the air, vanishing shortly after. "Someone teleported here. This matches the time the army got defeated. They finished their job and made their way to this place, then, left the stronghold as if nobody could trace them." The blonde man gave his conclusion. Maxim frowned and squatted down, gazing at the magic circle with hostility. He touched the edges and felt a familiar pattern.

"This…"

Maxim's expression immediately changed as a grave sense of danger coursed through his body. He turned to the blonde man and looked at him with an agape mouth.

"What happened? Why does it look like you've just had a nightmare?" The blonde man asked with concern. "…I-i-ts… the clan's secret arts…"

"…what?" The blonde man felt he didn't hear correctly. "We are doomed." Maxim said and chuckled in fear. "We are so doomed…"

"Snap out of it." The blonde man shook his shoulders and said. "What has gotten to you?"

Smiling, Maxim pointed at the magic circle his hand was on. "See this? I've put my hand on a land mine. The moment I take it off, an explosion will engulf the very essence of me. I'm doomed…"

The secret arts of the Asuras was a well kept secret. So much so that even the Evure God Clan had trouble seeking it. Those that tried to, all met their demise. Despite being in a helpless state, Maxim clearly explained the dread he felt and why he felt so to the blonde man.

To learn the arts, one had to be a pure Asura, and they could only learn it under a master. The secrecy was maintained to such a degree that simply coming across it and knowing it would make one lose their mind. Touching was therefore out of question. Whoever the person was, they had meticulously crafted this trap. There was no way of figuring it out in advance as the secret arts were literally unheard of. While Maxim and the blonde man chatted, faint footsteps approached them. As it sounded nearer, the two turned their heads to look at the person.

It was a tall man in layered dusty clothing, possessing black hair and sharp red eyes.  The two Asura men stared at him in silence, their eyes looking at him with a hint of pity. Why did this man had to walk right into a trap? He was going to die too along with them.

Contrary to their expectations, the man did not talk to them. Instead, he walked past Maxim and squatted down, staring at the magic circle. Then, he touched it.

"!!?!!??!"

Maxim and the blonde man both looked at him with widened eyes.

The red-eyed man made unknown gestures on the magic spell, then took his hands off, shocking Maxim and the blonde man further. He stood up, stared at Maxim, and said, "Want to live?"

Maxim blinked his eyes repeatedly and stared at the red-eyed man with astonishment.

The red-eyed vampire, Lith, shifted his glance to the blonde man. "Want to live?"

The man gave a similar reaction like Maxim, then shook his head and said, "Why would you ask me that? I am not even in dange—"

A shudder ran through the man and he swallowed the words he was about to speak when Lith stared at him.

His gaze was neutral, but the man could see an abyss of murder within it. Getting into conflict with this man would put them to a point of no return. It was best to shut up and listen to what he had to say.

Lith walked close to the man and put his hand on his shoulder. "Are you coming along?"

The blonde man gulped and looked at Maxim, his superior. Maxim gave him a nod and didn't say anything else. "I'll be back in a bit. Don't kill yourself." Lith left with the blonde man after saying those words, instilling a greater sense of dread in Maxim.  So far, the things Lith has done were completely outrageous. They made no sense, no matter from which angle one looked at.

However, the risk he took was calculated. He jumped in because he knew what he was doing. Lith sedated these guys after tampering with the food. The sedation was not done to mentally regard them or cause harm, rather, it was to enhance their mental capabilities and heighten their sense of dread. Becoming more intelligent led to them finding the trap. Lith had only guided them to a particular spot he found suspicious, and it turned out to possess such a killer magic circle. Next, once the two were here at the magic circle, Lith kept a close watch and found that the magic circle wasn't anything noteworthy. It was called the secret arts, and something that only the Asuras could learn, but frankly, they were subpar. Being taught things directly by Lilith, and indirectly through the materials she places in the library and archives, Lith possessed knowledge of quite a lot of things. To understand what Vanessa was doing, he learnt magic circles and arrays. To understand Lizbeth, he learnt alchemy. And similarly, such knowledge he obtained to understand others helped him today.

The secret art that Maxim was talking about was surely deadly, but not unlearnable or customizable. It worked like an explosion switch. When pressed, the explosion would be activated, but Lith would have to take his finger out to make it work. Lith had no idea what type of explosion it was, meaning what secret art it was, but he did not know the mechanism behind triggering the conditions. He tweaked these conditions, similar to applying glue to the key to fix it in place, and moved his finger, aka himself from the magic circle without any problems. As for scaring those two, it was all thanks to the sedation placed into their food. The effects wouldn't last for long and Lith had to hurry to get as much information as he could out of them. Lith took the blonde man away to put pressure on Maxim. He scared this blonde guy, who was actually called young yellow by his boss, old yellow. He scared him by showing him a future where he was being tortured mercilessly by Lith for not obeying. The vision was instilled deep into his conscious, and every waking hour, he would tremble without even thinking about it, and would unknowingly do actions to avoid such a future. Scaring him wasn't easy, and once done, Lith sent him back to Maxim. He watched the two's conversation from afar and once he saw the dread get more intense in Maxim's eyes, he sent him a letter. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

This letter had instructions on what he was supposed to do from here onwards, and in return for it, he would give him a method to break free from the magic circle. There was a soul contract that he had to sign, and without much thought, Maxim signed it. He feared that there wasn't much of a choice. If he rejected, he would die, and if accepted… well, at least he won't die unknowingly as his actions would decide his outcome. The steps to break free from the magic circle were relatively easy to follow. This alone served as a proof that the man Maxim was dealing with was someone of a caliber of the top officials of the clan.  With such thoughts in mind, he wiped out any signs of rebellion he may have unknowingly thought of, and moved to follow the instructions sent to him by this mysterious man.