Chapter 25 Deadly Thirst

Multiple Guards walked past the storage room where John was hiding, not knowing that someone was already inside, doing something that was going to shake the entire castle.

After spending twenty minutes inside, John finally stepped out of the room with the trolley. However, this time his trolley wasn't empty. Not only was it heavier, but it was also filled with something.

His entire body was covered in sweat as if he had done a lot of hard work in the last twenty minutes. John took long and deep breaths to keep his heart calm. He was like walking on a thin wall, with death on both sides. One accident and he was going to fall to his death.

He wiped the forehead from his sweat. "This wasn't how I imagined my day would go."

He started pushing the trolley and left the place. John moved from one place to another, stopping only for a few minutes at each stop after making sure that no one was there to see him.

Throughout the way, there were times when he came across some guards. The guards stopped him to ask him what he was doing here since he was supposed to be in the lab.

Fortunately, John already had an excuse ready for this situation.

"I'm taking the blood packets to the storage," he told all the Guards as he opened the trolley to show packs of blood inside.

Unfortunately, no guard checked the Tolley thoroughly before letting it pass. If any of them would've checked the trolley thoroughly, they would've noticed that the blood packets were only on the top, being used as a camouflage. Under the blood packets, there was something else entirely… something much worse.

After finishing up everything, John went back to his lab with an empty trolley. He sat on the bed, tired. In his entire lifetime, he had never worked as hard as he did today. However, he was happy that at least he wasn't caught. Now all he needed to do was put the next part of the plan in motion.

....

Back in the main hall, Atlas just finished the second story about the appearance of Progenitor Ramiel. He was so good at making up the stories that he managed to stretch each story for half an hour.

Even as he told the story, in his mind, a countdown was going on. He had given John ninety minutes to finish everything. According to that deadline, he just needed to distract them for around twenty more minutes.

Everything needed to be on time according to the plan. Nothing could be too fast or too slow; otherwise, the entire plan was going to come crashing down.

"That Empire was wiped off the face of this Earth, and according to the description of the one who did it, there is no doubt that it was Lord Ramiel."

One thing that helped Atlas make up these believable stories about someone he had never met before was the support of Lilith. Lilith knew the personality of Ramiel, but she also knew the skills that he would've used. Her knowledge, mixed with Atlas's Stories, made the whole thing even more convincing.

Lilith was helping him by telling him everything about Ramiel, which Atlas was using in each of his stories to make them believable. Moreover, his accuracy was so amazing that even Lord Severis was forced to believe the story.

"And the third and the last appearance was barely thousand kilometers away, in the..."

This was the last story and the last twenty minutes that Atlas needed to survive. If he could successfully do what he did for the last hour, everything was going to be fine; however, something changed.

Things became more complicated as the doors of the main hall opened. It was as if the destiny was toying with him.

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Three servants entered the hall, two of them carrying jugs filled with blood while one was carrying glasses. None of the servants raised their gaze as they walked toward the Vampires.

Fortunately, all the servants were adults, unlike last night. They didn't use children this time after the mess that happened last night. The duty to serve was back to the main servants now.

Even though these people were adults and not children, seeing the same scene play out again, Atlas was forcefully tossed back to last night, where he was on the other end of the stick. Last night, he was serving, but tonight, he was being served.

Seeing the way these people served, Atlas couldn't help but wonder how things would've been if they had served like this as well. His sister would've been alive, and his life wouldn't have changed massively.

"Calm down. Don't get anxious. You are before Severis. If you make one mistake, everything will go haywire. Keep the persona; you've been doing great so far."

Atlas stopped looking at the men and shifted his attention back to Severis as he continued with the story.

The servants gave a glass to each of the Vampires in the room after filling it with blood. One such glass was given to Atlas as well.

Seeing a glass of blood in his hand, Atlas felt something. The dark red blood... Even the thought of drinking blood would've been disgusting to him in the past, but now that he had it in his hand, there was an urge inside him to drink the blood.

The urge was slowly increasing, trying to overwhelm him. The smell of blood was so delicious. Seeing how he was feeling about the blood, Atlas felt disgusted at himself!

This was the same blood that was taken from the helpless children! It was quite possible that the glass in his hand was filled with his own blood! How could he even have the thought of drinking it?

He wanted to crush the glass and toss it away, but he couldn't even do that. He needed to play the part. No vampire was going to throw blood or feel disgusted by it! He couldn't let them know what he was feeling.

He held the glass in his right hand as his left hand clenched tightly.

"Is something wrong?" Lord Severis asked, noticing some kind of hesitation on the face of Atlas.

Atlas was so immersed in his own thoughts that he didn't even hear anything. He wanted to drink, but at the same time, he didn't want to drink. There was a struggle going on in his head which Atlas felt like he was going to lose. It was as if the urges which came with the body were overpowering him.

At the moment, he couldn't come to think of anything else. It was as if he was trapped in a cage, surrounded from all sides and the only way out was to drink.

Everyone from Severis Clan looked at Atlas, frowning. He was behaving oddly.

Atlas couldn't care any less for them at the moment though. He was fighting himself at the moment.

"Atlas, bring yourself out of it! You are stronger than this! Don't let a bit of blood make you lose yourself! Collect yourself and get out of it!" Even Lilith kept calling out to Atlas, but it was as if her words were falling on deaf ears.

The more Atlas looked at the glass of blood, the more he lost himself and went farther and farther from others. His eyes lost their focus. It was as if he stopped resisting. His hand moved up, bringing the glass of blood closer to his lips.

Slowly, the glass of blood touched his lips. The smell of blood was oh so sweet and savory. It was as if it was the most delicious dish that he had ever held, even though he hadn't tasted it yet.

Atlas opened his lips slowly and started tilting the glass of blood...