Chapter 123: No King



"How's the situation out there?" Khal asked in a cold tone, looking away from Lyla.

"Everything is under control. The church is being kept at bay, and the rest of the forces are handling their parts accordingly." Lyla responded, drawing a nod from Khal.

Since Rindher was supposed to be the one in charge in the absence of Aldritch, Khal was in a rather foul mood as the responsibility had been placed on his shoulder out of nowhere without warning. Rindher for some reason became unavailable and Khal had to be the one to take command.

"Lord Khal, we've found a safe room underground. May we proceed with the breach?" Desmond asked, as he approached Khal.

"Very well, I'll join you there." Khal said, sending Desmond away to fulfil his order. Turning to Lyla, he asked her to supervise the activities outside and coordinate the different groups before he left. Well, that was her duty, so he hadn't given her any particularly new order aside from asking her to coordinate them.

He descended the palace into one of the several underground tunnel routes, this particular one being well hidden and accessed only through the king's personal chambers.

After a couple of minutes, Khal came before a huge metallic door that felt at least several metres thick, though, nobody present believed it would be that thick in diameter, perhaps just a very heavy metal.

"It's locked completely shut, we can't force it open." The others complained.

Khal looked around but he still couldn't find Rindher amongst the others present. "Stand back."

Taking out his larger sword that was half as wide as his own back, Khal wielded it against the metal door, cracking it open within ten strikes. If for nothing, the sword was not of the same quality as the weapons he owns back in the higher world. This one was custom made by a blacksmith within the kingdom, but even then, materials to make really exceptional weapons seem to be the problem.

As soon as the metal door was torn open enough to allow entrance, Khal and the rest found several people within the safe room. They swiftly raided the place, arresting any movements for those that attempted to run away, taking total control of everyone present.

After searching the entire room though, the king and queen were nowhere to be found. Several vampires immediately got to work, interrogating the people within the safe room as to where the king and queen were.

The moment Aeress was to lose control over her body, that would be the time when the entity would strike, and specifically, if it happened before Helga and Naiha completed the task she gave to them.

Helga at the moment made her way to meet with the others, using a teleportation spell to hasten the process, though she was expending much valuable mana, it could not be helped. It was for that very reason that she had brought along various supplements to remedy that situation.

Out of nothing, Helga appeared beside Naiha with a leather bag across her body, "we have to leave now."

Naiha stood up, severing her link with the husk of the great mother to follow Helga. Once she was standing close to Helga, both of them disappeared again, this time appearing beside Veronica.

"Why are you two here?! What about the great mother's body?!" Veronica panicked.

"You don't need to worry about that for now, just get up and come with us, now." Naiha said to her in a partially vexed tone.

"I'll explain everything to you while we work, Veronica. For now, just come with us, we don't have time to waste."

Hesitating for a moment, Veronica eventually agreed and stood up after disabling the protective barrier around herself.

"Whatever we need to do, I'll suggest we get rid of that man before he tears the great mother's body into pieces." Veronica said, stretching her back a little as she walked towards the other two.

"That won't be possible, we need the barrier to remain active to prevent the loss of the souls for the ritual." Helga explained just before teleporting three of them away.

"I don't understand, what do you mean?"

"First take your position, I will explain everything now."