Chapter 253: The Cavalry

"What's with the cold stares? I mean you no harm… If I wanted you all dead I would have killed you all by now…" The Vampire's deep voice was casual but his words were cold, his power unquestionable, no one daring to respond, other than 1 crazy girl...

"A-Alex… I-is that you… Your back! You finally woke up you jerk!" Abby yelled with an absurd look in her eyes, running up and hugging his cold, almost lifeless body tightly before she was respectfully pushed to the side by that same man she was hugging.

"Alex? Who is this "Alex" you speak of mistress? Are you referring to the name that belonged to this body before my arrival? If so then I am sorry to inform you that he is no more… Only I, Alucard remain… Mistress, death is a permanent process… Once a soul is gone there is no retrieving it back… The same applies to us undead, once our soul is crushed, we are no more… However, I was a special case since I had been given extraordinary powers and privileges from my old master and that is why I am here to complete his wishes… To serve you, the follower of the future demon lord as your greatest weapon, although in my current state I am far from my full power… You are the followers of Avilia's successor are you not?"

Everyone did not move an inch, the atmosphere cold and ominous around that man calling himself Alucard, the vampire soul that had possessed Alex's body. 

Everything going on was too unreal, the turmoil in their mind unimaginable as the feeling of death ran down their spine from that one entity, the safety of Moby and the death of the shalker still eating away at the back of their heads.

They were not sure if this vampire could even be trusted, or even worse, if Abby in her current state could be trusted to control him, and they were not willing to test it out...

"A-Avilia? Who's that? Alex, why are you talking funny? I find it cute..." 

Abby spoke with uncanny puppy dog eyes, asking the same question going on in everyone's minds.

Alucard looked at his master with wide eyes and a hint of confusion, clearly sensing the distress in her soul.

"Hmmm? You all are demons and you do not know about her? Time must have changed many things... Very well… Allow me to explain. Avilia Graymore is the most powerful demon in history, born a weakling with no powers and rose through the upper echelon to absolute supremacy. On her journey, she managed to recruit several different demons that she trusted with all of her might, and as a demon of sin, she assigned a sin to seven of her strongest, most trusted allies. My former master belonged to one of these sins… Shadar Baal, the sin of pride, a necromancer, just like you, only more powerful than you could even imagine, and even he paled in comparison to Avilia Graymore. Seeing that your leader was entrusted with the power of sin and is the clear demon lord successor, that must mean that-"

"COME ON! IT SAY'S THEY'RE IN THERE!

"What!? Are you sure!"

"Yeah! The signal is going haywire but I think I know what I'm doing!"

"They're in that cave! They must be scared out of their minds! Let's get 'em!"

The sound of screaming and many footsteps were heard coming from the exit of the cave, catching everyone's attention, their voices sounding oddly similar.

At first, instinctively, due to their frightened, hazy minds of confusion, they thought that they were shalker troops from within the ship, sent by the shalker to pinpoint their location and kill them. 

Then, the sudden realization hit them that those men were speaking English, not shalker or that weird other language Moby was speaking prior.

"N-no… It can't be…"

Jayden mumbled to herself, unable to believe her own ears as the shadow of a man began entering the cave, the sound of his clanking armour echoing in the air. 

Instinctively, she knew what she had to do, firstly storing the teleport pad along with Ray's robots back into her inventory and trying to open a mind-link with Abby so she did not make any noise.

'ABBY! Quick! Store that vampire in your inventory! If he's seen by them we're all going to be fucked!'

Yet, despite her best efforts, all she received was a staticky mess trying to contact her, making her inwardly curse, not knowing if it was due to the fact that her mind-link had yet to reconnect or if her mind had broken down to such a point that mind-link had become impossible…

Yet, despite the discomfort of knowing that Alex's undead lookalike might be discovered, she could not help but cry tears of joy without even knowing it, a unique feeling of comfort in her soul as the man's full body entered the cave and was now on full display… 

"DAD!? How are you here!?"

She blurted out loud seeing her father's face, unable to hide her expression. 

"JAYDEN! JAYDEN! I'm so, so, so, happy you're safe…"

In the blink of an eye, as if he had teleported from his place, he appeared directly in front of Jayden, giving her a warm, tender hug around her bloody, injured body, tears running down both of their faces, everyone around them looking with a mixture of emotions at the scene ahead of them, unable to believe what had just happened and how they were found.

"You must have been so scared honey boo… But don't worry… You're safe now… You're safe now... Daddy is here..."

"How did you even get here?"

"Oh, I had an extremely powerful tracking chip installed in your body since birth, and I only just reactivated it now… Which may or might not be illegal in a lockdown. For some reason, the signal was all messed up like your body had eaten half the chip or something, that was why it took me so long to arrive and find your planet…"

Jayden slightly looked away, knowing the exact reason for it, her eyes landing straight on Alucard who was almost completely invisible, cloaking himself in the darkness of Abby's shadow, Jayden only able to see him most likely due to her demon eyes.

"Ryker! You fucking idiot! I'll kill you! How could you let this shit happen!? I thought the school was in full secure mode! Look at what happened here!"

Mason yelled, only for a fully armoured Ryker to enter the cave behind him, wearing a magnificent set of black armour fit for a military general. 

"It was fully secured, Mason! I swear it on my life! I'm telling you the truth! It must have been the doing of a shalker! You saw the security footage too! They went into that corner and disappeared! No teleporter is that small! And it needs to be plugged into a power source for it even to work!" 

"Shut your crazy ramblings! You're just trying to save your ass with the only excuse you got!"

Ryker inwardly cursed, praying in his heart of hearts yet confident of his theory as his gaze caught onto someone else in the cave.

"Yami!? What are you even doing here! You were supposed to be in your elite private classes! You're gonna need it where you're going! If anything happened to you… I might have been-"

"Shut the fuck up General! I'm not your fucking plaything! I can do what I want!"

Her voice and emotions were unlike anything he ever heard from her. Her rage and negative attitude were normal behaviour for her dark side yet there was something else underlying everything.

Mason then looked up at everyone else, a mixture of hope and fright on all of their faces injured, All except for 1 red-haired girl that looked completely far gone from everything around her, grasping into the air as she spoke.

"Hey… Where did you go… Y-you can't leave me like this… Not after you said you loved me, that you would always be there for me… and pledged your loyalty to me too…"

Abby Reid… The youngest daughter of the Reid family, one of his daughter's best friends… She must have seen or experienced some extremely heinous stuff for her to turn into something like that… Her mental health seemed almost beyond repair… He just hoped that such a thing did not also happen to his precious daughter and that her friend's state did not tear her down too much as well…

The other faces he saw in the cave was the little girl who was meant to be top secret, only known by a few and a random light blue-haired boy, staring at him with shaky eyes.

He also noticed that Jayden's boyfriend, although seen with them prior when they were at the back alley, was nowhere to be seen.

Yet… Other than him... He could not help but feel like someone else was missing before it suddenly hit him in the head.

Yet, before he could even speak, another voice interrupted him, almost like he was reading his mind…

"Where's Alex? Where's my son? Why is he not with you? Where is he? Please... I need to know..."

Another elegantly armoured man entered the room, his keen eyes looking around the cave, his purple hair and beard on full display on his middle-aged face.

Mason lifted his body away from Jayden's wounded, blood-stained armour, looking at her dead in the eyes and spoke...

"Also Jayden, where is your boyfriend? And the older Reid sister? And where is that other boy, Jason that went with you? Are they safe? Why are you in the state you're in? Why did you even come here? Please tell me what happened…"

"F-father… We don't have much time, so I'm going to make this short and simple… Emilia was actually a shalker and is now dead, defeated by Moby. Abby was brainwashed by her and was forced into doing things she didn't want to do. HikariYami was also manipulated by her as well. After Emilia died, her master, another, far, far, far, more powerful shalker appeared and was about to kill us all, but decided to kill the brainwashed Abby before everyone else. That was when Alex stepped in to save her… Alex is now dead, incinerated, no trace of his body left… And in a display of rage, Moby transformed into his spirit mode and distracted the shalker enough for us all to flee, and now he is all alone fighting it in the north… But at this rate, he is undoubtedly going to die… F-father… Please save him… Save us all... I beg of you..."