Chapter 19: Schemes of Lilith

"Heh, you want Generals too? Can you even control them? You aren't my Lord Castiel after all," Lilith let out.

"I'm just curious. Did he turn anyone?" Atlas inquired.

"He…" Lilith went silent in the middle of her sentence as if she had changed her mind. "You have no Generals. My master didn't like turning people. I think he felt that giving people eternal life while turning them into a Vampire was more of a curse than a blessing."

"Many people begged him to turn them, but he never selected even one person. Maybe he didn't find anyone worthy? In any case, he was a gem of a person. I can't wait for his return."

"He does sound like a good person. If only these bastards were good like him too, I wouldn't be in this mess." Atlas glanced at the guards in the hallway again.

"He was indeed the nicest person I met. He always told me how happy he would've been if he was born a human and died a human instead of being immortal. Spending time with him was a blessing for me." Lilith's tone sounded like she was missing Castiel a lot. Her voice also grew a bit emotional.

"May I know what you are? Are you a magical beast created by him to accompany him?" Atlas asked.

"That's none of your business." Lilith snapped. "Focus on the task ahead unless you don't want your sister's body back?"

"I know, I know. I'm just trying to think of a way to get to the lab. I think it's impossible to convince these humans that I'm one of them. It'll be a headache. It's impossible to get through to the other side without fighting them."

"I think there is only one way at this point," after thinking for a few seconds, Lilith commented.

"I'm all ears."

Lilith whispered the plan in Atlas's ears, keeping her voice low. Atlas found her actions a bit odd. Did she forget that only he could hear her? Until a few moments ago, she was yelling, and now she was whispering?

"You understand?" Lilith asked after telling the entire plan.

"I got it. That might just work. I just hope they won't recognize the difference in voice."

Slightly suspicious at the plan, Atlas went down a few steps before he yelled, slightly modifying his voice. "I need help in getting the kid up. Can two of you come down?!"

He made sure to control his voice, so only the closest guards heard him.

Four guards heard the call for help. They looked at each other momentarily.

"You two are closest to the stairs. Go help them."

The two guards that were assigned the job rolled their eyes in frustration as they walked toward the stairs. "These idiots can't even do one thing right. Even to bring one kid out, they need help! So embarrassing!"

The guards reached the stairs, which were completely empty. There was not a single person on the stairs. They went down the stairs and ended up in the long hallway in the basement.

Swiss~

As soon as they landed in the basement, a figure leaped before them like a ghost.

Atlas grabbed the neck of both the guards. Before they could even let out a call for help, he crushed their necks.

With a crunching sound, the necks of the two guards broke. Their bodies plopped on the ground with a thud as soon as Atlas released their neck.

Atlas sat before the guard who was closest to him in height and started taking off the uniform of the guard. He also took off his own clothes. It was after a long time that he had experienced what it felt like to wear expensive clothes, and now he had to take them off to get into a guard's uniform.

After wearing the uniform, he stood up and patted his clothes. The clothes were a bit loose for his physique since the guard, who was close to his height, was a bit chubby. On the other hand, Castiel had a perfectly fit body.

Atlas wore the loose clothes and tucked the loose shirt inside his loose pants that he had wrapped tightly with the belt to ensure it didn't slide down. Still, it looked like an awkward arrangement of clothes.

"You look silly. You know that?" Lilith mocked Atlas sarcastically. "You think they won't recognize they aren't your clothes?"

"I know. I'm not done yet," Atlas responded. "Let me finish up."

To fit the clothes more accurately, he used another trick. He picked up the clothes of Castiel and tucked them inside his guard clothes, making himself look chubby. As he used the extra clothes, the guard uniform was much more fit now.

"That looks much better." Lilith nodded in satisfaction. "This might just work."

Atlas' face was still a bit different, but he couldn't do anything about that. He couldn't pretend to be the guards that came downstairs. He knew the guards upstairs weren't going to be that stupid, so he decided to pretend to be a different guard.

He went up the stairs again, but instead of entering the hallway before the guards, he flashed past it to get to the stairs that were going upstairs to the ground floor.

No one noticed Atlas as he was only in the hallway for a fraction of a second and that too in a corner.

After reaching the upper stairs, Atlas started coming down. This time, he didn't step silently. He made sure that everyone heard his footsteps this time.

The guards looked towards the stairs, hearing someone coming down.

Atlas stepped into the corridor on the same floor where the lab was. All the guards watched him come from upstairs, not finding anything suspicious.

Even though most of them didn't recognize Atlas' face now, they didn't feel suspicious. There were many guards in the Palace they didn't realize after all. It wasn't rare to see a new face once in a while.

Atlas faced all the guards. "I have orders from above."

He started walking towards the lab.

"What orders?" One of the guards stepped before Atlas.

"It's confidential. I can't tell you, but if you want to block my path for that, I would be more than happy to go back and inform them that you want to block me?"

Hearing the threat, the guard started sweating. They didn't want Atlas to go back and complain if they indeed sent him. The guard stepped aside. "If it's confidential, I won't force you to tell me. You can pass."

Atlas nodded expressionlessly as he walked past the guards. He didn't seem to be in any hurry. He walked confidently and stopped before the blood collection lab. He pushed the door open and stepped inside.

The entire lab was the same as before. Everything was in the same place. The blood was also cleaned on the floor. The door closed in the back on its own as Atlas stepped inside.

He observed the bed where he had left the body of his sister. Her body wasn't there anymore though.

Inside the lab, he could see a white-robed man that he hadn't seen before. As the last doctor was killed by Atlas, a different doctor was sitting in his place, taking care of the lab. The blood donation had just finished, and the doctor was still sorting out some documents on how much blood was collected today.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, the doctor glanced towards the door.

"May I help you?"

"I was sent here to bring the body of the girl that was killed recently upstairs. Where is her body?"

"Her body?" The doctor frowned. After taking a long pause, he responded. "I wasn't told that someone would be coming for it?"

"Now you know. It's the command of His Lordship." Atlas took a step forth, using the exact words that he had seen the old man use before for Lord Severis.

"It's in the freezer there. But I'm curious why are the Lords asking for her?"

"I don't know. It's none of our business. Maybe they want to see her again." Atlas started walking to the freezing chamber in the back.

The doctor also followed him as he stood up. "You'll need the keys to open it.

Using the keys, he unlocked the door before stepping back. "Take her."

As soon as the door was open, freezing air escaped the chamber, falling on Atlas's face. The sub zero winds didn't have even the slightest bit of effect on him, though. Pulling the door, he stepped inside the freezing storage.

Inside the chamber, he could see many bottles of blood, which were kept there as reserves for the future in case there was ever a disturbance in supply.

Aside from the bottles, there was one table there as well. On the table, a freezing body was lying. Seeing the body, Atlas's expressions changed.

His eyes looked left and right as if trying to find something, but other than the body and the blood bottles, he couldn't find anything.

"Is this a joke?!" he exclaimed, only to hear the smacking of the metallic in return.

The doctor smacked the door shut behind Atlas, locking him inside. Only the sound of his laughter could be heard by Atlas.