Reaching the room that Quinn had been in not too long ago, the smell of blood hit his nose, yet this time it was different. This time it was far stronger, and it took him just a moment to realise where it originated from.
The smell seemed to be coming from behind the stage. Quinn still had his Shadow cloak on, but the moment he started fighting the Shadow cloak would disappear revealing himself.
'Please just let me be wrong this time and this is actually only the lingering blood smell from earlier…' Quinn prayed as he headed to the back of the stage.
Before that though, he was carefully inspecting the room for any hidden cameras. He mostly focused on certain spots that were the most likely ones to have those. In the end he found nothing suspicious, but Quinn looked a little longer than he usually would have, being thorough.
'Are you just delaying checking it out, because you're afraid to find something you don't want to see?' Ray asked.
'Yeah, I'm sure of it now, I definitely prefer the silent Vincent.' Quinn answered sarcastically.
'Please don't forget that I never asked for my consciousness to be transferred over to you, o cocky descendant of mine, that decision was yours alone. That aside, you haven't answered my question.
'Just because you smell blood doesn't mean that they're dead. However, by not hurrying you might have just let them bleed out to death. Did you ever consider that?'
Hearing this, Quinn did think he was being stupid and decided to head to the stage. He was delaying going back there but there was a reason for it, he was pretty sure they were already dead. The Vampire Lord didn't just rely on his sense of smell, no, his hearing had been unable to pick up even a single heartbeat from behind those walls.
Lately he had been seeing enough death. Too many people around him were dying, but in this case, he could have saved them.
Eventually, Quinn turned the curtains though there were no cameras he could find here either. The Cursed faction leader cancelled his Shadow cloak. If there really was someone watching him, potentially alarming the Board, he would have loved to demand an explanation for the sight in front of him.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtBehind the stage, all of the women that had been gathered to make a blood sacrifice for the vampires were dead. On top of that the way they had been killed indicated that it had been done by one person. Some of them had their heads lobbed off, while others had a deep cut around their throat.
'Why is the Board doing this…why…didn't I..just place them in my Shadow?' Quinn thought to himself.
At the time, the thought had crossed his mind that perhaps he could have placed them in his Shadow space, using the skill Shadow lock. That way he could have ensured their safety until they got it. The reason why he had not done so, was because he would have acted against their will.
It had been clear that all those gathered women had greatly feared him and that they had considered it a once in a lifetime opportunity to get chosen to be there. Although he had offered them protection and even payment, all of them had chosen to trust in the Board, rather than him, so he had chosen to respect their decision.
Now he realised that once again he had made the wrong choice.
'What are you going to do? And please don't tell me you plan to go to war with them for a dozen strangers you didn't even know up until today. I'm just a consciousness, so it's not like I can stop you, but I feel the need to point out that doing that would put the whole human race at risk.' Ray gave his two cents.
It was true Quinn was angry, but Ray putting it that way was right.
'No, I'm going to find out why they consider it so important that nobody finds out about this event that they don't even hesitate to silence a dozen women this way. ...and at least these women can help out in some way.' Quinn thought as he went to touch their bodies with his gauntlet one by one.
The Vampire Lord was naturally using his Blood gauntlet for that, after all the other was currently with Vincent to make his ancestor look more like him. Since Quinn mostly had it equipped at all times and he would need it to register in the VR game anyway.
Still, after draining their blood, Quinn could see the numbers go up.
[15/10,000]
'I still didn't have time to gather all the blood before we left, but at least they won't be wasted this way.'
Quinn then placed all of them in his Shadow space. He would ask Logan to figure out their identities, so he could at least return their bodies to their friends and families. That was the least they could do.
After that, before exploring the place further, Quinn wanted to get in touch with another group to see how they were doing, or more accurately to learn what exactly they were doing right now. Eventually, the call connected through to Sam and the Vampire Lord had explained to him everything that had happened so far.
"I guess when they said 'nobody but those on the invitations' should know about this event, they really meant it. I wouldn't be surprised if all those butlers and servants will get killed after all of this." Sam commented. "Well, after Logan was summoned we decided to make our move as well.
"We used the device Logan left us to trace the teleporter's last location. After inputting it, we found ourselves at the military base. It looks like they left the teleporter in the middle of that strip that you described.
"There is one problem though." Sam reported. Currently his group was in one of the hangers nearby that looked to be empty. It seemed like it had been in use before, but due to the Board clearing the nearby area it was empty of personnel and just filled with crates.
"To get to where you are, we're going to need a ship, and the only ships nearby belong to the military and those in the Earthborn group. We might have to steal one if you want us to make our way over to you, and doing that without hurting any of them could be a struggle."
Quinn thought about what to do for a while, other than what he had found out, there wasn't enough suspicion to act, not just yet. Now that the bodies were gone though, a scent started to waft into Quinn's nose.
It was the smell of blood once again, but all the bodies had been cleaned up and it wasn't coming from the traces of blood on the stage or walls. Looking around, he could see there was a door left open possibly leading to the other places.
"For now, I'll continue searching for this place. Everything feels like a trap, and we need to find it before they spring it on us. If you don't hear from me in an hour, then make your way here, and Sam… do your best to not to kill anyone if you make your way over here, but prioritise not doing over that."
The call ended there, and Sam was scratching his head a bit, but he had a smile on his face. The request to not kill anyone but not die while fighting was a hard thing to do, unless one was far stronger than the other.
However, only someone like Quinn would request that, and Sam was happy that he still hadn't changed.
The reason why Quinn had made the request was because of something that Nathan had said before they had arrived at the place. That they should treat the Earthborn group and the Board as two separate groups.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHe shouldn't punish those just for following orders, not when they were likely being blackmailed like the women had been, and especially not when there was a good chance that Pure might somehow be behind all of this.
Walking through the door Quinn continued to follow the scent. He used his Shadow cloak again, which would not only make him invisible, his footsteps would be silenced as they were incased in the shadow.
Looking on the ground, Quinn could see drops of blood, and it had come from the women, he was sure that following this track would lead him to the killer. Eventually he found some stairs and after climbing them to the top there was another door, leading him into a large reception room.
There was a bar, sofas, and relaxing tables all over the place. Quinn didn't know which section of the stadium he was in, but he could see someone. A person holding a scythe in his hand who was whistling as he made his way back to where had come from.
"Oh… I can feel the presence of someone who's not supposed to be here. Is someone here who is not meant to be here?" The traveller spoke, licking some blood off his scythe.
Without a doubt this was the killer. Quinn got rid of his Shadow cloak showing himself, even then the man didn't look frightened, and instead seemed more excited.
"Haha, so it's you. I wonder how you got out without the others noticing, but it doesn't matter. You know I've never tasted a V's blood before. I'm excited to experience how it differs from a human's!" The man shouted as his eyes lit up as if they were in ecstasy.
He started swinging his scythe around skilfully and held it out in front of him.
"Drinking blood…and using a scythe to cut up those women from earlier…what are you?" Quinn asked.
The man started to run forward with his scythe out, and at the same time, Quinn formed something in his hand. Using his aura and blood control he was able to create a solid curved red blade with no handle.
Then shadow started to appear from his hands.
'Seeing that scythe like that reminds me of something I haven't used in a long time.' Quinn thought, as the shadow grew until he held a much larger scythe than his opponent in his hands, only that the hilt was made of shadows, and the blade made of blood aura.
Quinn swung it out wide, and the second it touched the other's beast weapon, the attack was so strong and the blood so sharp and powerful that it cut the beast weapon in half.
"Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions." Quinn said with his eyes glowing red.