Chapter 11: A Lot Of Enemies...
Lance, seated near the window, was painfully reminiscing the horror he felt years ago; the night when he got his head almost beheaded.
--
Surrounded by the lifeless bodies of his men, and himself drenched with blood, he covered and cried shamelessly, begging for his life. With his tendons cut, and his right eye gouged, he crawled backwards on the muddy floor, trying to move away from the 'Man' who was approaching him with a cold glare; especially since his army of hundreds of assassins were slain by him.
"Yohan! Stop it... Please! Spare me... At least for Diana's sake... You know that we are in love, right?"
Wearing a semi-torn, battered black suit, Yohan had absolutely no life in his eyes. All he felt running through his bruised and bleeding body was contempt and anger from betrayal. With an icy stare, he spat the useless blood bleeding from his mouth's insides, out and faced dead straight at Lance, sending shivers down his spine.
"You turned the entire Underworld against the Emperor... and also attempted to kill the princess. And you claim to be in love with her now? Have some shame, Lan..."
Lance's fear reached unknown bounds as he felt Yohan's words carrying no mercy and no self-doubt. He could sniff the dead-set seriousness of Yohan's resolve to kill him.
And for a man who never ever felt fear in his life, Lance felt his bones shuddering from a mere gaze. His internal wolf went MIA and made no noise.
He considered Yohan, his childhood 'punchbag' friend, as nothing but a lowlife born to merely serve him; and now, being at the mercy of his punchbag's hands, felt like the worst nightmare came true for him.
He raised his hands and bowed, stuffing his useless head in the mud. The lightning on the cloud flashed behind Yohan's back, casting his giant shadow on the slain warriors who were laying like a pile of waste in front of him.
Though Yohan absolutely had no reason to let Lance go scot-free, something whispered to his heart, pleading him to reconsider. His eyes twitched, as nameless memories flooded his head, mellowing his rageful, bitter heart. And mumbling to himself, he dropped his Katana, much to Lance's relief and humiliation.
"Live to the fullest, Lance... You may walk away for now," Yohan, with a heavy sigh, turned back and walked away, keeping his head high but also distraught and disgusted with himself. His hands trembled to shake off the stains of the blood and his feet shuddered to cross his dead comrades slain by his own hands.
But behind him, Lance's hands lusted towards the katana lying all alone on the muddy ground burdened with the curses of the dead. He too felt humiliated by his own self, for being alive due to the mercy of the man he considered a pest all along. His twisted mind and his vengeful eye craved to pick up the sword and go after the man who left him in a filthy pool of humiliation.
'How am I going to face my kind? How will they accept me as a king? What am I going to say to them? They Will Laugh At ME! Laugh at my failure! Laugh at my kind for failing against one man...' his horrifying doubts drowned his sanity, but suddenly a new voice arose.
'STOP IT!'
A screeching, grumpy voice screamed from nowhere. Lance searched all around to see who it was, but found no one around; no one was alive.
'YOU CAN'T, MY DEAR BROTHER... YOU CAN'T!' a voice deep in his mind, advised him. Lance slapped himself, to shake off his mind, but the voice only got louder.
'DON'T FIGHT IT... I AM YOU! I AM WHAT YOU NEVER FELT! ACCEPT HIS MERCY YOU KING OF WOLVES... YOU'LL DIE THE MOMENT YOU PICK THE SWORD.' The fear took a whole new personality and whispered to his ears, running its filthy hands all over the shocked Lance; who had no choice other than to live with the newborn 'fear' with his life.
--
"Sir!" the driver helped Lance to snap out of his 'deep' thoughts. He told him that the destination had arrived. Lance nodded and stepped out, entering the entrance of the forty-two-floored skyscraper. He smiled at the receptionists bowing down to him and proceeded to walk into the elevator.
He pressed the button '40' and the elevator door slowly closed which mirrored the spliced personality of Lance as he saw himself on the reflective door of the elevator being split in two - a courageous king of the Wolves, the shameless coward living under the mercy of his enemy.
"You just wait... Yohan. It will be my dagger that will pierce through your skull first!"
--
CURRENTLY IN AN UNKNOWN ALLEYWAY
"Achoo! I think someone is cursing me from somewhere," Yohan muttered to himself after sneezing aloud. Sana, clad in a sultry school uniform cosplay, was sulking in anger for unknown reasons. She drew out her dagger hidden under her pink skirt.
She kept her chin down religiously and strolled towards Yohan, who was perplexed and found the entire event random. He could see the girl behaving oddly and kind of unnaturally around Ramika, but her being an assassin? That thought never occurred to him. And it still didn't.
"So... You befriended Diana, because—"
"She is the only one who could bring you to me... She fulfilled her purpose in that way. I was actually searching for you for years... Mister Yohan."
"Can you elaborate on why?"
"Remember the name... Grim-Reaper?" she said after getting awfully close to Yohan, lifting her head up, and displaying her sadistic smile.
*SWOOSH* With no warning, Sana swung her dagger across Yohan's face, who flinched back, stepping his feet back. But a small smirk from Sana warned him of something.
Sana immediately threw her dagger up in the air, and turned her back towards Yohan and kicked right at his chest, catching him off guard. Yohan could feel Sana's strength in the kick and deduced she was not a human.
"A goblin? whoa..." he muttered, pressing his hands against his chest. Sana's eyes looked around for the dagger coming back, and with athletic moves, she danced around and kicked the dagger right towards Yohan's eyes.
But much to Sana's surprise but also living up to her expectations, Yohan caught the dagger with his bare hands. His black glasses shone with the moonlight and Sana chuckled like an evil maniac.
'Is that the same girl?' he thought, looking perplexed with his tilted head.
"So, the sodas are part of your plan? Who sent you?"
"No one... I am a freelancer, Mister Yohan. You see, I joined the underworld with the sole aim of exacting my revenge and I thought it might be harder to track you down and reach your throat..." she paused, chuckling with her mouth covered, before revealing, "You have a lot of enemies down there, Mister Yohan... A lot who are waiting to cut you down and eat you up..."
Yohan calmly observed the vengeance shining on Sana's eyes and wondered why, but her almond-shaped face and her familiar appearance rang some inconvenient bells in his mind.
"Are you...?"
"I already gave you a hint, sir... Do you remember the name... Grim Reaper?"
Yohan's eyes widened, and he exhaled a deep breath, processing the mild shock he felt.
"No way..." he whispered. Flashes of his dead friend flashed in front of him. And the haunting face reflected back to his eyes when he looked at the girl in front of him.
"Ashon Aries, the OG Grim Reaper. Son of a low-level Goblin father and a human mother. Fought his way to the upper echelon of the Underworld... But ended up being killed by a mere human... A human named Yohan. Yohan Karvakarn."
"It was an accident—"
"You Killed My Brother! Killed him and stole his hard-earned title and his hard-earned legacy... You swine!" Sana, with tears, confessed her reason. She reminded herself of the days she spent trying to befriend Ramika and snitching her whereabouts to John Devitto, her mentor.
"Words can't explain the rage I felt that day... The day when I met you. The day—"
"Hold on, hold on... Hold—Will you believe me if I said that your brother's death happened because of self-defence?"
Sana's eyes twitched, and she shook her head slowly, disagreeing. Her eyes screamed a loud 'No' for reasoning. All she wanted was vengeance.
"How about this, then?" Yohan's pitiful, guilt-ridden voice swiftly changed into a more serious one. Sana felt startled but maintained her rage-fueled icy stare.
"Your brother knew very well about what he signed himself up to. And he accepted his death like a professional... And I dealt the blow like a—"
"LIES!" she screamed, shaking her head in denial. "Why the fuck everyone is trying to convince me with the same thing? It is simply illogical!"
Yohan frowned. Sana continued to stare like a hungry beast, while she groaned and growled in denial.
"He cannot be defeated by a mere Human, Yohan... Either you must have stabbed him in the back or you must have poisoned him—"
"If that's what you're confused about... How about you test the theory by yourself?"
"Huh?"
San could feel a mysterious aura draping around Yohan, and his eyes grew colder and colder with every passing second, which, for some reason, felt suffocating for her.
"Come at me with everything you got, little girl... I'll decide whether you're fit for avenging your brother or what...."
Chapter 12: Yohan's New Path
The children, fueled with insane energy, jumped and ran around the small playground, playing with rubber swords and hammers. And Sheila, the kindergarten teacher and 'trainer' carefully observed the eight-year-olds as she noted down some important points regarding them, profiling them.
Immersed in her job neck deep, she didn't even notice the presence of the 'Emperor' standing behind her, evoking a chuckle from the eight-foot-tall man with a silver-haired, long beard and a black wig.
"Emperor! Sorry, for the negligence... I deeply apolo—"
"Don't sweat it, Miss Sheila... It's totally fine. You were just doing your job. And nothing gives me happiness other than seeing my child working diligently..."
"Oh, please, sir... It's an honour to be adopted by you and to serve the princess—"
"How about the children?" Emperor, Edward Jones, asked, immediately stopping Sheila from speaking anything about his daughter, Diana. Sheila, understanding what her majesty meant, nodded, dropping the 'princess' topic altogether.
"Well, the children are almost ready for the experiment... Some are natural. They have that inborn sadistic quality and sheer hunger for blood naturally."
"Blood-cravers, huh... This time, how many?"
"Hmm... If you observe them deeply, the kids, Ashon, Jennifer, and the princess—"
"Just call her Diana."
"As you say, my lord... And Diana. These three show immense potential in acing the program and they exhibit qualities of the blood-cravers as well." Sheila said, with heavy breathing, nervous and excited to report to the king by herself. But she felt puzzled at seeing a dry expression on her majesty's face, disappointed and not thrilled.
She observed his eyes wandering around, searching for someone but failing. Reading through it, Sheila obediently requested.
"May I know what you're looking for, my lord—"
"The kid... The human cub. Where is he?"
Immediately after hearing her majesty mention him, Sheila gritted her teeth in silence. Edward could smell the raging anger in Sheila, but he very well knew that it was totally natural and bound to happen.
"Yohan Karvakarn, son of a human father and a human mother, but holds ancestry of an unnamed clan of the Underworld. Not enough muscle mass. Slow. Coward nature... and defective eyesight. He is losing his eyesight at a very steady rate. They are becoming increasingly sensitive to light, and it almost kills his brain nerves if he makes any attempt to focus or concentrate due to sunlight. So, we have made him a pair of special glasses to assist him, but I don't think he can recover from this. Probably he'll end up wearing a pair of sunglasses always. Both day and night."
Though Sheila was placing complaint after complaint, she saw a joyful pride in Edward's eyes looking at the small Yohan, infuriating her.
"Lord, I seriously don't know why are so affectionate towards that human scum, rather than your own daughter... I believed that my lord might have seen something in that kid, that we, me, failed to see. But, my lord... He's simply a waste of time."
As Sheila continued to rant, Edward's eyes widened and lit up, as he eventually found the kid he was looking for. Near a garbage dump and almost at the end corner of the ground, small Yohan, aged six, wearing round big spectacles was playing with a puppy, distanced from everyone else playing on the ground. His uniform was torn and multiple bruise marks were visible on his face, including a black eye. But the kid kept smiling with full positivity, enjoying the companionship with the puppy.
"Why the other kids are not playing with him? Call them! Ask them to include him—"
"Lord, that kid is a weakling... I really respect you, but I can't encourage my kids, the kids who are going to shape up our clan tomorrow, to soften up for a mere human cub..."
Edward could understand the words well. After all, the kids were coming from a lineage of cold-blooded warriors, whose blood naturally contains the genes for craving violence and bloodshed.
The fake swords and not intervening in the bullying practices were all part of the process of bringing the dormant madness within the kids to light. It was not some goody shoes, welfare for kids kind of orphanage. It was a breeding ground for the 'Vampire' Clan's next generational warriors.
There are a lot of such camps functioning within the Underworld, aiming to produce the best slew of assassins ranging from almost all age categories. But as someone who saw and went through the worst of the worst, Edward wished for something better.
"Oh, come on, Sheila... A maniac with nothing but hunger for blood is not gonna cut it. Good thing that the number of natural *blood-cravers* is reducing with each generation, especially now, since we have only three. Hope it becomes null—"
"Lord, what is it, that you are aiming for?"
Edward playfully chuckled and again placed his eyes on the unassuming Yohan, playing with the puppy. Looking at him with all pride and contentment, Edward said,
"Enroll him in the assassination program... And no matter how bad his grades are, make sure that he gets promoted... Mark my words. He's the one who's going to save our clan from its downfall... You'll thank me, then."
--
PRESENT--
Sana was knocked out cold and dropped on the floor, while Yohan was panting, with a small cut on his lips. Though won the fight, he was still surprised by the skill set of Sana and her grip on the textbook assassination methods.
"She is... utterly disappointing. Who the fuck taught her?" he muttered, let down by the short fight, which lasted no more than thirty seconds.
*RING* *RING* noise was heard from the unconscious Sana. It was her mobile. Yohan sighed, as he slowly speculated, who will it be? And seeing the number displayed, he confirmed his suspicion.
"Has it been long, Yon? Is she alive, at least?" Diana, with a smirking smile, taunted, Yohan. Seated in her car, which was parked in a nearby bar, she received a glass of wine brought by the bar owner himself to the car. She smiled at the owner with an overflow of pride on her face and nodded at him, letting him know her appreciation.
On the other side, Yohan was on the verge of sadness and anger, struggling to form sentences. Internally, he doesn't want his tone to be harsh on her.
"Why?"
"Why, what?"
"Why her?"
"Haa... Sana. The little girl. I actually got tired of warning her. She was so deluded by her bloodline, believing herself to be superior to a human... Of course, she didn't know how skilled this particular human was—"
"She could have died!"
"And her blood would have been on your hands..." she softly said, ticking the rage clock of Yohan. An air of silence struck between the two, with Diana silently giggling to herself, while Yohan held himself back from venting.
"What the hell do you want?"
"Back to the underworld. Immediately. No reasons, no conditions... But as your queen, I'll honour your wishes, though. I promise that there won't be a situation that demands you get your hands bloodied... PROMISE."
Yohan frowned. He expected more cruelty from Diana, but surprisingly, her demands were tame and fair.
"Then why do you need me? If not for my hands—"
"We want your name, Yon... Your title. Having a king of assassins on our side is enough. I'll get you a softer position within the system. Just give us permission to exploit your legacy... Fair deal?"
"If I refuse?"
"Haaa... If you refuse? Then... there will be death. Hundreds of death... again. By your hands. I'll send as many as possible and they'll die as per my wishes under your blade... One way or another, you'll do the dirty work. If you agree, you will be associated with us but won't get your shoes on blood, but if you won't—"
"FINE!" Yohan asserted loudly, sounding irritated, which Diana found endearing. She snapped her fingers towards her secretary, Anya Rose, a green-haired, half-goblin and half-vampire, who immediately started typing the agreement on her laptop.
"So, Yohan... Are we cool?"
Yohan rolled his eyes, sighing. He picked up Sana and put her on his shoulder.
"Please, end your problems soon... I wish to keep the promise, in case you forgot."
*BEEP* Yohan hung up the phone, while Diana's face dulled, hearing the mention of 'promise'. Her eyes moistened, and she snorted her nose, and flinched her face to the window, hiding it from her secretary.
'He still remembers it, huh? Stubborn bastard, why can't he forget that one thing?...'
Throwing the emptied wine glass away, Diana signalled the driver to start the vehicle. Though many things were running through her mind, she found herself mildly thrilled for making the crucial move of her 'plan' a huge success, though saddened by something only she knows.
"I hope you take care of yourself, Yohan... Once this ends, we have an entire lifetime of opportunities to kill each other..."
And like that the scheming Diana and the peace-loving Yohan's individual lives merge once again, bringing their personal stakes to co-depend on each other.
What does the future have in store for them? What does Diana really want?
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
0 Power
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