Chapter 4215: Hidden Agenda (part 2) |
'Don't you dare die on me!' Erion said via a mind link while he swam deep underwater, where no Dragon could ever follow him. 'I need you alive to explain to the Dead King that it's all your fault if our mission failed.'
'Fuck… you.' Akhton replied before losing consciousness.
'Fuck you too, bastard.' The Jormungandr snarled as he regenerated the section of his body vaporized by the Hungry Void. 'I took this easy, safe mission because I wanted to prove my loyalty to Orpal.
'Success or failure were irrelevant, I only needed to show him my value without compromising my cover or putting anything at stake. Because of you, not only have we lost the race for the fungus folk, but we have also compromised our foothold in Verendi.
'If the Bastets take the news of Akhton becoming an Upyr even remotely as bad as the Griffons did with Jorl, they'll scour the continent for clues that might lead them to Akhton and derail any operation we start here.
'The only two silver linings in all this mess. The woman recognized Akhton from Lutia and found him by following his smell, but she couldn't tell an Upyr from a regular Awakened until I revealed my powers.
'Which means that our undercover agents are still safe, and I have one more good reason to avoid field work. After all, the Shadow Dragon only saw my human disguise and Upyr form.
'I never gave her my name, and Abominations can't see my energy signature. The only way she has to recognize me is my smell, and that's not something she can write on my wanted poster under my description.
'Last, but not least, everything went south because of Akhton. If only he had kept his cool, none of this would have happened. He should have called the Eldritch's bluff and contacted his siblings, giving the rest of us plausible deniability.
'He'll rely on me more than on that idiot Jorl and share with me his plans and secret abilities. And once I'm done learning everything I can from him, I'll return to my family and be hailed as a savior!
'The Jormungandrs will be the ones to bring the Dead King to heel and become famous as the destroyers of the Black Night. Also, between my Upyr bloodline and the Hydras' research, we'll have more Divine Beast forms available than anyone else.
'The Awakened Councils will pardon me in exchange for my information, and then I'll use the Hydras' procedure to stabilize my Upyr half. I might become a Vurdalak, or maybe something even better, like a Tiamat.'
As Erion grinned from ear to ear, Xenagrosh stared in amazement at the trail of destruction that the Jormungandr had left in his wake.
"I've met many shameless people in my long life, but that guy takes the cake." She said. "All that speech, and he didn't even try to fight. He didn't hesitate one second to sacrifice his soldiers to cover his escape."
"And what an escape." Theseus had already fully recovered from his wounds. "He Spirit Warped away right after the Doom Tide to ensure only an Awakened dimensional mage could follow him.
"Anyone else has to wait until the world energy in the area stabilizes again."
"It's worse than that." The Shadow Dragon reopened the Steps thanks to her tracking spells, discovering it led to open waters. "He must have dived down, because there is no trace of his and Akhton's smell.
"Even if I had already regained my Awakened powers, I can't go underwater without losing most of my strength. Unless the one chasing the Jormungandr was also an aquatic Divine Beast, following him would be suicidal.
"Still, I discovered and memorized the smell all Upyrs carry. I can now sell my services to the Awakened Council for a high price and expose traitors wherever I go. It's an unexpected gain, but not good enough to stop our hunt.
"Are we done with your family drama, or is there something else you need to do?"
"I need just the time to make one call." Theseus took his communication amulet out of his dimensional item and pressed the rune of the only Bastet the Garlen Council knew.
Xenagrosh had acquired the rune on Theseus' behalf, under the pretense of wanting to rebuild her diplomatic relationship with Verendi as the Council's liaison with the Organization.
She had given it to Theseus, and neither of them had ever used it.
The rune belonged to someone too young to have met the original Theseus, which increased the Eldritch's chances of having a polite conversation.
Moreover, no matter how low in the bloodline hierarchy the Bastet was, he would still have access to the family network.
"Who are you, and how did you get my rune?" Seeing the features of a fellow Bastet didn't reassure Ikitor one bit.
Shapeshifting made it too easy to steal someone's appearance, and a hologram had no energy signature or smell. There was no way to confirm the identity of an anonymous caller.
"I'm Theseus the Red Carnival, brother Ikitur." Unless, of course, the caller introduced himself with a name no one in their right mind would use. "I bring dire news."
"You bloodthirsty monster! How dare you contact me after what you did to Verendi? After what you did to Mother? You are a disgrace-" The Bastet's outrage remained, but his voice disappeared when Theseus muted him.
"The rumors are true. One of our brothers has joined the Dead King and has plans for Verendi that Mother won't like." The Meneos-Eldritch said as he sent a recording of his encounter with Akhton. "If Garlen falls, we'll be next."
Theseus restored the volume to listen to Ikitur's reply after he was done watching the video.
"How can I believe any of this?" He hated Theseus, but doubt coated his words like poison. He had heard the rumors about an Upyr-Bastet attacking Lutia, but until that moment, Ikitur refused to believe it.
"How do I know you didn't make this all up to garner our family's goodwill at the expense of an innocent brother? I'm aware there is a Light Master in your new family. You could have done this with a bit of air and light magic." Ikitur asked.
"I'm not asking you to believe me." Theseus replied. "Come to Phiresia. See the destruction our brother caused with your own eyes and listen to the survivors' testimony with your own ears.
"Light Mastery can't reproduce bloodline abilities, and our lost brother put on quite a show."
"Maybe I will." Ikitur snarled. "Bu this doesn't-"
"I'm done. Thank you, Xenagrosh." Theseus hung up the call and stored his amulet to keep the Bastets from tracking his position.
"You're welcome." The Shadow Dragon nodded. "Let's hope we didn't waste too much time on this and no one beat us to our prey."
'I've delayed us for as long as I could, Solus.' She actually thought. 'If you're also after the fungus folk, I hope you're done by now. Otherwise, when we meet, we'll face each other as enemies.'
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