A short brown haired Vampire wearing a butler’s uniform peeked down the hallway before letting out before letting out a sigh of relief.

[Infiltration Status?]

“Infiltration successful.” He responded.

[Well done, Situation report?]

“It looks like all of the Vampires were wiped out and they’ve already recovered from the damages.”

[…Reason?]

“The one that wiped them all out was the Devourer, Sangrea Redblood’s rumoured husband. The mission failed.”

[Probability of successful assasination?]

“Very low, based on what I’ve seen, he’s scarily sharp. If I try anything it’ll give away my position.”

[…]

[…Good work. Carry on with the project, under no circumstances must you give away your position.]

The brown haired Vampire showed an expression of relief before responding to the command. [Roger.]

He stopped peaking down the hallway before leaning against the wall and letting out a sigh of relief once the connection was cut off.

“That being said, I did one hell of a job.” He muttered with a smirk. ‘Sneaking in was incredibly easy…’

He re-adjusted his uniform’s collar and realigned the tie before a confident expression overtook him.

‘Well, anything’s easy in life when you’re a Marquess.’

“Now then… I wonder who I should check on next…”

“No one.” A voice echoed from behind him.

The man felt shivers rush down his spine as he leapt forward, barely dodging a blade as it swung past his back.

*Swoosh!*

With narrowed eyes he rotated his body mid-air, landing on the wall with his feet while getting a good look at the attacker behind him.

It was Sangrea, she was emerging through a shadow on the wall. Her plump chests jiggled as her body quickly slid out of the shadow.

Realising that his cover was blown, the man instantly turned down the hall to retreat, his eyes widened however once he noticed both of his legs were stuck on the wall. Binds had emerged out of one of the shadows on the wall trapping his legs against it.

“So I wasn’t imagining it… Someone actually dared to infiltrate my home.” Said Sangrea with dark cold eyes as she stepped in swinging her scythe down at his face.

*FWOOSH!* *Pierce!*

Sangrea’s scythe dug into the ground having completely missed it’s target. A burst of wind surged down the hallway as the man’s figure appeared a few steps away from Sangrea.

A surge of wind was visibly drawing around him. As he gathered up air, the windows in the other rooms began to slam and close repeatedly.

“Aw man, looks like my cover was blown. Oh well, guess I’ll have to just kill you.”

Sangrea looked over at him before looking over at the wall where he was standing. The shadow binds were cleanly cut off.

“I held back too much…” Sangrea muttered.

A confused expression loomed over his face as he drew a sword from the inside of his butler’s outfit. It had been strapped onto his back.

“Held back? Shouldn’t you be running instead? You probably can’t recognise me before this outfit but-“

The man’s figure vanished, appearing before Sangrea in an instant. The swing of his sword was in motion towards Sangrea’s neck. “I’m a Victor, a Marquess.”

*Swoosh!*

A grin grew on his face as she sliced cleanly through Sangrea’s neck, the grin quickly faded however as he noticed that not even a drop of blood was split.

Her head had slid off her neck yet all which had come out were shadows.

While staring at the standing decapitated body, a voice emerged from behind him once again.

“My husband’s not here… So it should be fine… I wouldn’t want to scare him after all…” She muttered with a sigh of relief.

The man turned around only to find Sangrea standing behind him without so much as a scratch. Realising that it was her ability in play, he quickly moved to attack. Two wind spheres manifested his feet in a fraction of a second.

[Gale Manipulation: Gale Hunting Rifle-]

*BANG!*

The sound of a gunshot resounded as the wind spheres burst, launching him towards Sangrea at unparelled speeds.

With the edge of his blade right before Sangrea’s face however, he noticed it, a bored emotionless expression resting on her sweet and pretty face.

*Swo-*

In that instant, the man’s eyes widened as his entire body had halted in place.

Looking around whilst in the middle of the air, he noticed that even more shadow binds had emerged from all over the place. Rather, Sangrea’s shadow was slowly expanding engulfing the entire hallway.

“What the hell…?” He asked as he desperately tried to break free.

[Shadow Manipulation: Binds Of The Abyss.]

One by one, more and more binds emerged from the shadows, trapping and restricting the Marquess’s movements. Before he even realised it, his entire body from the neck down was entrapped in something resembling a cocoon.

“There’s a reason… Why my abilities were sealed…” Sangrea muttered as the darkness of the shadows progressed down the hallways. “It’s because I can’t control them… Or rather, it.”

Not understanding her words, the Marquess’s eyes widened as he saw the figure of something strolling towards him from down the dark hall.

It made no sounds, it had no smell, it didn’t even seem like it was physically there. But within the darkness, it was all he could see.

A giant shadowy hand slowly strut towards him from the darkness, it slowly creeped up from behind Sangrea, before thrusting towards him.

Simultaneously, even more smaller shadowy hands emerged from the floor and walls, thrusting towards him before grabbing a hold of him.

The moment the tiny hand’s finger touched him, his eyes bulged out with red veins running through them. The man groaned out in excruciating pain and fear as the giant hand stopped before him.

“W-Wait… N-No… P-Please stop this- PLEASE!!!”

Sangrea looked away, muttering only a few words in response with her cold eyes.

“Thank god, Xavi wasn’t here to see this…”

“!?”

“WHAT DOES THAT MEA-“

*Splatter!*

The man wasn’t able to finish his sentence as the giant hand grabbed a hold of his body and dragged him away into the darkness of the shadows.

*Snap*

Sangrea narrowed her eyes as light returned to the halls once again. Her expanded shadow reverted to normal and all that was left of the Vampire Marquess, was his shoe which had fallen off.

Sangrea glanced at it before averting her eyes. She proceeded to walk down the hall without saying anything else.

A hint of the shadow’s darkness could be seen in her crimson eyes as she narrowed them.

–

–

–

“This… This is…!” Xavier muttered as he stared at the cube which Sophie held onto with sparkling eyes.

The puzzle was around 90% completed, most of the cube’s outlined parts were sticking out, exposing the dark red sphere in the centre.

Sophie let out a sigh of relief once she realised just how far they’d gotten. She had goten so immersed in it that she hadn’t even realised.

“What does this cube do anyways?” Sophie asked as she turned to Xavier.

“Hm… I’m not sure. All I know is that it’s an ancient relic.”

Sophie’s eyes widened, her body twitched for a second before trembling as she asked. “A-Ancient relic…? Y-You’re making me hold onto such a valuable thing?”

At the mention of the words Ancient Relic, Sophie’s attitude completely changed. For her, a bounty hunter, an ancient relic was like a treasure chest full of gold.

She’d always dreamed of finding and selling one.

“Why are you shaking? Are they worth that much?”

“A-Are they worth that much?” She repeated in disbelief.

She turned to him with a frown before quickly explaining. “Of course they’re worth that much! No one knows the origin of these things, they’ve existed since the times of the Ancient Vampires! These Relics can’t be recreated with the current technology we have available!”

“But what’s so special about them?” Xavier asked.

“What- S- Y-You! Don’t you know how much power they hold? Just one of these can disrupt the balance of power in an entire country of Vampires! Even the highest ranking nobles can barely manage access to one.”

Xavier placed his hand beneath his chin and nodded as he listened in.

“Oh, that sounds like a big deal-“

“Of course it is!”

‘Judging by how much she lost her cool, I should probably avoid mentioning it.’ He thought to himself.

“…”

“…”

Silence was exchanged between the two as Sophie stopped moving.

“Hey, Xavier… It’s not too late. We can still sell this and make a quick buck-“

“No-“

“But-“

“No-“

Sophie became teary eyed as she slowly nodded her head in understanding.

Selling it and buying more assets wouldn’t really be helpful for them in the apocalypse. They needed more power, and that Ancient Relic could grant it.

That being said, Xavier didn’t know what he could get from selling it, maybe it’d be more useful than the Relic itself? Who knows.

‘I’ll see what I do with it once I use it. If it’s useless, I’ll sell it.’ He thought to himself.