Chapter 155: Chapter 81: Beauty Of The Neverending Night (Part 1)
Ignis: "Blasphemous!"
Ignis, the Vampire General of Rage, said as he heard what had happened.
It was only a day after the attack on one of their battalion's hideouts that the news of it had reached the Vampire Kingdom's leaders and they were all called on for a meeting.
Aquarius: "It is rather hard to believe that, isn't it?"
Looking troubled and pondering on everything he had been told, Aquarius, the Vampire General of Serenity, leaned back on his chair as he said so.
Gaiz: "I ... have to say, Achlyz, are you sure that nothing in this report is exaggerated?"
Despite looking calmer than the other two, Gaiz, the Vampire General of Storm, was more shocked after hearing about the incident than anyone else present there was.
Achlyz: "How many times do I have to say it, Gaiz? No matter how unbelievable it seems, that is what happened."
Finally, Achlyz, the Vampire General of Silence, sighed and said it once again in a loud enough voice for all present in the meeting to hear clearly.
Achlyz: "Everything that you have been told is the one and absolute truth."
Hearing him say so, not only were the rest of the three Vampire Generals finding it hard to believe but Valdis, the queen of the Vampire Kingdom, was having a hard time swallowing everything as well.
Valdis: "..."
She had chosen to remain silent at that moment, probably because there were too many thoughts in her mind and she needed to organize them before saying anything.
Using that chance however, the leader of the Vampire Generals asked,
Reid: "Barry, isn't the Spirit-user mentioned here the same as the one who stole a dead tiger's teeth from one of our hideouts a few days ago?"
He asked so in a cold voice, showing no emotions. And that voice was easily the scariest of all.
Barry: "Well, what can I say? I believe you already know the answer."
He said so with a slightly hinging smile. He surely was conflicted about this whole incident and was probably chiding Sona within his mind for doing something like this, turning the Vampire Kingdom against her.
Even with all the influence Barry had, he was not sure he would be able to stop them from considering her an enemy of the Vampire Kingdom.
Reid: "And what about the other one? That Psychic. Do you know anything about her too?"
Barry was not sure how to answer.
Sure, he could have just told the truth but maybe lying could lead to a more beneficial scenario. Maybe he could play that Psychic up as a really fearsome opponent that the Vampire Kingdom shouldn't go up against to make sure Sona, being her ally, got some leeway.
But then again, that Psychic ran away from Achlyz without even fighting back once. How far could his lies have taken him?
Reid: "Oi, what's wrong? Do you know her or not?"
With his eyebrows twitching in irritation on receiving no answer, Reid asked again.
Barry: "I, well,"
But then, the one man whose expressions hadn't changed at all interjected in the conversation,
Bronzer: "Now, now. I think there is something more important to focus on here rather than if Barry knows that woman or not."
With a smile, the strategist stated so.
Sighing, Reid looked his way with a blank expression, asking him to go on.
Bronzer: "Whoever that Psychic was, she was certainly skilled, wasn't she?"
Achlyz: "Yes, she had a few tricks up her sleeve, I guess."
Achlyz wasn't that impressed with her, especially seeing as how she had run away just from sensing his aura. He was far more impressed by the Spirit-user who had done considerable damage to the battalion's hideout.
Bronzer: "Then, she may become associated with Vermillion at some point in the near future, if she already isn't, that is."
Reid: "Tsk!"
His irritated expression was to say that he understood what the strategist was getting at.
Reid: "You are saying going after her could lead us into a direct confrontation with Vermillion?"
Bronzer just smiled like an innocent boy who was enjoying the conversation going on there.
That said though, the truth of what Bronzer had pointed out was quite worrisome for more than one reason for the four Generals, Valdis as well as Reid.
Darcy: "Even so,"
And surprising all, it was Darcy who came up with an argument against Bronzer's point instead of anyone else.
Darcy: "We should at least do a little digging, find out more information about her. Who knows? She may not be a member of Vermillion yet and we may be free to go in on her."
The reason Darcy was doing something she did so rarely, that is, arguing against Bronzer's point, was simply because she knew that the strategist had something more in mind and needed someone to argue against him to make that point. As he got the opportunity to do so, he mentioned it with a smile.
Bronzer: "See, that's the thing. The Phoenix would have already reached out to her by this point in time."
Reid: "And how would you know that?"
Bronzer: "Um, let's just say I am good at predicting what people will do."
An evil, creepy and strangely alluring smile creeps up on his face, one that leaves all but Darcy astonished.
Bronzer: "I can predict people. I can predict a lot of people, be it Walter Schmidt or Reid Vezalius Rosevelt."
Silenced by astonishment, no one said anything for a good while, until finally,
Valdis: "Both these women should be labelled as enemies of the Vampire Kingdom, but they are not to be actively hunted. We cannot afford to lose more men in trying to capture one of the two only to end up in a direct confrontation with Vermillion before we are ready."
The queen gave her verdict, and no one objected.
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Having escaped from the battle, abandoning Sona, Angela Holystone couldn't bring herself to meet Sona even after learning that she was able to escape safe and sound.
Even if she did go meet her, what would she have said to her?
'Sorry, even though I acted like a strong and arrogant Psychic, I couldn't do anything and ran away because I was afraid.'
Just saying that line inside her head made her want to curl up in a ball and die.
Even after a day or so, she could only curse her weakness as she fled from one place to another to carefully avoid being caught by the Vampires who would probably be looking for her.
She realized that while she may have thought herself capable of being promoted from a Flare to a Volcano just from her potential alone, she isn't worthy of such a title at all. Not at all.
But then, out of nowhere,
"Are you Angela Holystone?"
Surprising her when she was busy drowning in self-pity, an emotionless and powerful voice resonated in her ears.
As she was in the middle of a market in a rural area with lots of people around, she couldn't quite make out who that voice belonged to, especially as it seemed to have resonated within her mind directly rather than come from any particular direction.
"W-who-"
"I'll take that as a yes. Come to the bridge 100 metres away from the intersection to your right."
The voice seemed to be ordering her rather than telling her, something she found scary at the time.
"W-why would I listen to you? I don't even know you."
The voice in her head resonated with a little irritation at that retort,
"I guess we are doing it the hard way then."
As soon as those words resonated within her head, she felt something happen to her, something she couldn't quite put into words, but it felt like flicking a switch to turn it from 'on' to 'off'. But, what was it that was turned off. What exactly happened?
She got the answer shortly as she realized that the scenery around her was moving backwards, only to then realize that she was walking forward. What more? She was walking right in the direction that the voice in her head had told her to go in. And no matter how much she tried to stop, she couldn't even twitch a muscle.
It was like the connection of her mind from her body was broken down and someone else had taken over her body.
If this was the doing of the one whose voice she had heard earlier, that man must be a monster.
And soon enough, she found out who that monster was.
It was right as she arrived at the mentioned bridge and saw the figure of a man, disguised as an ordinary man, who maliciously smiled at her. To a Psychic, the disguise wasn't very hard to recognize but more importantly, the aura coming from him said for itself.
That aura far dwarfed that of Achlyz. While against Achlyz it felt to Angela that she could land some hits but eventually lose, against him it was clear as day to see that she would be evaporated in an instant if he so wished to do so.
There could only be two Psychics with this powerful of an aura. And from what she had heard, she doubted that Walter Schmidt would have so much malice in his aura. Hence, this man could only be
Angela: "The Phoenix?"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Zyanide100
Zyanide100 The second part of this chapter is quite long, as long as some of the shorter chapters are by themselves (which is kinda funny seeing as how before writing the chapter I was thinking that it wouldn't even be big enough for me to divide it into two parts). But anyway, keep that in mind is all.
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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Stay Healthy!
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Also, a fair bit of new information has been added to the auxiliary chapter "Codex". In case anyone wants to check it out, it's right before the chapter in which Arc 1 Poll Results were announced.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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