Chapter 705 - Map

Newest Chapter for Highest Tier (September 2021)

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Archdemon Empress Luna

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"I also found my wings beautiful so I made sure I have them behind me  to mesmerize you with the patterns." Luna giggled softly at that. 

Her husband was too shy to admit that he liked his Faerie wings anyway if his blush and the way he scratched his chin was any indication. 

His last resort was to clear his throat awkwardly and slid one forearm around her shoulder and back to lift her body slightly.

As she clenched her jaw, Luna pressed her lips in a tight line to keep herself from moaning in pain due to sore muscles.

Apollyon positioned himself near her head and squatted, making his lap her pillow.

She sighed with relief when Apollyon finally stopped moving and lifting any part of her.

It hurt so bad but still, her heart melted at her husband's consideration even if she insisted that her flowerbed would suffice.

He didn't take no for an answer as he kept her head elevated. 

"Is there anything I can help  you with?" Apollyon asked as his chiselled face hovered above hers. 

Luna closed her eyes to reduce her headache from looking at her upside down. 

His Prussian blue eyes narrowed at her with both suspicion and concern, "I think you are too talkative for someone who just used too much energy fighting an Archdemon inside you."

She opened her eyes and raised a hand to point a finger to the sky, "Last  time I recalled I was free falling from that top of the cliff up there. Did you accidentally grow Faerie wings just so you could fly and save me?"

"Yes. My birthright as a Summer Monarch had saved you. You should know that this will be the first and the last time I will be grateful for my mother's bloodline since I will never forgive her for trying to kill you while my grandparents tolerated her behavior without punishment even if she is in the wrong. We had nothing to go back to in that Kingdom, Luna." Apollyon's blue eyes glittered dangerously before he changed the subject. "Here. I gathered flowers for you."

Luna barely noticed that Apollyon was holding a bunch of flowers in one large masculine hand of his until he placed a foot over her face. 

Perhaps, Luna was too focused on her husband's new Faerie wings that she didn't notice the oddity of a ruthless Vampire King handing out flowers he carefully picked for his wife.

Apollyon was, indeed, different from all the Kings in the Vampire Realm. 

"Every time you see a garden full of beautiful flowers, you pluck some of them and give them to me."

"Always." 

Apollyon picked what he thought were the best florets of the colourful bunch and slid the stalk behind each ear.

"Thank you. They are beautiful, Apollyon. But next time, Just leave them be." Luna said, "I told you about this before."

He grinned, "I did make you happy, didn't I?"

As she nodded her head, Luna knew intuitively what her husband would ask her next when his countenance grew sombre. 

"What did Lilith do, Luna?"

She sighed. "Lilith had summoned the Archdemon of Lust to help her while I buried her consciousness somewhere deep where she would find it hard to return. Yet, I can't guarantee its success. So I am still watching out for her and remaining vigilant."

The wrinkles of  Apollyon's forehead increased as he rubbed his chin in contemplation. "She must have seen this coming and executed her secret plan right away the instant she figured out that I wouldn't buy her act anymore."

"That is true." Luna exhaled another sigh of regret. "Then, Lilith gathered enough strength to force  a switch between us. My mind was so disturbed about the sudden events that I had allowed her to distract me."

Little did Lilith knew that when push comes to shove, Luna will always get the long end of the stick during their mental brawls, but that didn't mean that she had no moments of weakness.

There will be times when she will struggle. 

The Archdemon will strike at her like a predator she was, and then she would take the reins at the right time where everything on Luna's side goes wrong.

"Apollyon, sometimes…" Luna trailed off as she weighed down her words, "I think it's hard for me not to blame myself when I am in this predicament."

As his hand gently cradled the back of her head to raise her mouth against his, Apollyon bent his neck and kissed her.

Her eyelids fell shut when her husband nibbled her top lip.

She opened her eyes to gaze at him when her husky murmur seduced her ears, "You don't have to think about blaming yourself right now, wife." 

"Brother." Luna's eyes widened the instant she heard Princess Sapphire's voice, and her head snapped in the direction of where it came from.

Meanwhile, Apollyon stopped giving her playful nips and a look full of love and longing before he raised his head to regard the young Fae.

"I'm sorry to ruin your moment with the Empress but I just came back from the cave like you told me to do." Princess Sapphire said as she stood within their hearing distance with a wet canvas in his grasp.

Droplets of water dripped onto the grass that Luna was tempted to grab from the shapeshifter so that she could squeeze the sogginess out of it. 

The last time she saw these two was when both of them stood at the edge of the cliff and watched her, horrified, as she plunged from the sky. 

The Summer Princess added further,  "I want to inform you that the Archdemons are still there for some reason."

"Good." Apollyon said.

Princess Sapphire scowled at the Vampire King, hoping he would explain, but he kept his mouth shut.

"I don't understand why these demonic creatures couldn't get out by themselves if they are as powerful as they say they are. It wasn't like the rock shelter had no exit. All of us entered at the same time but why can't they get out of there except us?" Now, her hand gestures grew more dynamic as her frustration increase as if she was disturbed by sight.

Luna bit her lip.

She could understand the spy master's concern.

It was all Luna's fault for commanding her Familiars to stay there and not leave until the morning came, and Princess Sapphire had no idea.

"They sat there like willing prisoners, waiting for the two of you to return and fetch them and the paintings." She added further, "To be honest, I was tempted to show them the way out just to be sarcastic about it." 

It was no wonder Princess Sapphire found two docile Archdemons creepy because if she were in the girl's place, she would.

Unfortunately, Luna was the Master who coerced these two Archdemons into a binding contract, and it was a secret where she and her husband agreed to keep.

"According to what Xerxes told me on our way back, it seemed to him like the Empress of the Vampire Realm could issue verbal commands to the Archdemons. Is it true?" Princess Sapphire crossed her arms over her chest, and she didn't even give Luna a second glance as she focused solely on Apollyon, "I hadn't seen this personally when you knocked me out cold."

The majestic white werewolf—which owned a stunning coat an observer would want to stroke for hours--padded closer to Princess Sapphire and positioned himself in front of the girl as if he was shielding her from Apollyon's potential wrath.

Apollyon merely turned his head towards Luna that he might as well dismissed his own sister at that moment.

As he peered at her beneath his lashes, Apollyon said, "Yes."

Xerxes' large head butted against the wet canvas in the spy master's hand, successfully drawing Apollyon and Luna's attention. 

"But I found something else." Princess Sapphire said as her fist clenched on the wet linen cloth. "The portrait that my mother created about her first family with the Vampire King and you…. It was drenched from the rainfall and it emitted this sickly sweet scent that even I could detect and I had to find out what happened  to it. Some colors of that particular painting had come off only to reveal a map…." Princess Sapphire paused dramatically, "--with the Fall Courts as the starting point."