The news that sovereign Kane was dead spread like wildfire throughout both factions.
The official report that came out said that Ravan Bloodfall and Max Rajput held off the demon sovereign, preventing him from fleeing until emperor Cervantez arrived and engaged with Kane in battle.
Everyone in the light faction knew just how strong Cervantez was, so there was no shock in him being able to take down Kane.
What was shocking in the report was the fact that Ravan Bloodfall and Max Rajput were able to stall Kane enough for Cervantez to be able to arrive before he fled away.
They were given massive credit for this and were being called instrumental in the defeat of the dark faction sovereign as a result, when in reality they did nothing of the sort.
If the hype around the two was already not massive after the news of one stunning victory after another, this piece of news completely broke the perception of the vampire society towards the duo as Ravan was deemed as the strongest warrior in all of vampire society after Regus, Vega and Julian.
The Blackfang camp was obliterated, the captive women were rescued and Ferox Blackfang was dead.
Although the report said that Kane himself killed Ferox for failing to protect the orb, the credit still fell in the lap of the Bloodfall forces for having destroyed the orb and hence by proxy to Ravan Bloodfall as he was the leader of the clan.
Although he was personally out cold for a full two days, when he eventually did wake up, he found himself surrounded by the best doctors of the Aurelius clan as he groggily began refreshing his memory.
The clone had apparently merged with him after bringing him to safety, making his headache after waking up even more worse as memories from the clone's POV flooded his mind.
It took Max a lot of time to sort out his hazy memories and there was a lot of sorting for him to do, however, the most pressing issue from the whole ordeal for him was the old man.
The old man had arrived in the middle of the battlefield out of absolutely nowhere and had known about him being able to summon Angakok.
It was only because of the old man's timely warning that he was alive today, as there was no way in hell he could have survived an encounter against Kane by himself.
" Old man….. where is the old man? " He said groggily, his head hurting as he tried to sit up, however, he was pushed down by a very familiar hand as when his eyes refocused he saw Asiva standing over him with a frown on her face.
" Oh you're here? " Max said surprised that Asiva was in the dimensional battlefield, before he became confused on whether she was there or he was in Dombivli.
" Wait where am I? " He asked as Asiva smacked him lightly on the head.
" You're still in the dimensional battlefield, I'm here because you made me worried, you were out cold for two days and the first words out of your mouth are not ' Asiva ' or ' Honey ' but it's ' Where is the old man ' " Asiva said sounding absolutely pissed as Max couldn't find any retort to her anger.
He was going to be a father now, and he was already making Asiva run the state while being pregnant.
She already had a lot on her plate but he still made her feel anxious by fighting stupid fights against opponents that were way out of his weight class.
" I don't care how strong you are - , I don't care if you think you can defeat monarchs and score points for the light faction.
You are not going to fight opponents that can kill you in the blink of an eye.
You have to be more sensible than that " Asiva said, her eyes watering up with every passing word as she truly believed that Max had willingly stalled Kane, as it sounded a Max like thing to do.
Max who did not even know what all he was being credited for had no defence for himself as he sat there taking all the abuse from Asiva like a mum doll, all the while wondering internally as to where the old man was.
" Behold - The monarch of the vampire society, the sun of the - "I think you should take a look at
" No need for that " Regus said as he cut off the guard announcing his entry as he walked into the infirmary to meet Max.
Immediately Max sat upright and Asiva gave him a little space as Max tried to look dignified in front of the monarch.
He had no idea as to why Regus Aurelius was visiting him in the infirmary personally, but by the looks on his face it did not seem to be such a bad thing as he seemed to have a kind demeanour.
" Lord Ravan, you have completed the mission assigned to you very bravely, you have not disappointed the monarchy " Regus said as Max nodded and accepted the praise gracefully.
" You have went beyond your scope of mission and assisted the Emperor in killing sovereign Kane, an achievement whose importance cannot be expressed in mere words" Regus said as Max turned blank as to what the hell he was talking about but did not interrupt the king.
" For your repeated excellent service towards the monarchy and your personal valour in this war, I give you my word that you can ask for any one wish that you want and if it's within my power to fulfil it, I shall do my best for you.
You can take your time to decide what you want, but the Aurelius clan is indebted to you and it's patriarch will make good on the debt. " Regus said as he bowed slightly in respect towards Max before leaving the infirmary with the same grace that he entered it.
The whole exchange left Max speechless as sometimes he found it extremely hard to hate Regus Aurelius as a King.
As the monarch he did not need to personally visit him, yet the moment he received the news that he had regained consciousness he personally came to visit him and even gave him the promise to fulfil any one wish.
It was a big win for Max, but before he celebrated it with Asiva he first needed to understand what exactly happened and why was he being credited for stalling Kane.
" Okay, siv, please explain to me what's going on? What are they telling the people I've done? " Max asked as Asiva frowned at the question but began to explain the flow of events as they were presented to her.
When everything was said and done, the urgency Max felt within himself to meet the old man doubled, as he looked into Asiva's eyes and instructed her instead of asking her this time " Find me the old man "
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( Meanwhile Rudra )
Rudra was back at the Bloodfall camp within the Aurelius fortress and there he was being shot some of the most ugly looks by Anna, DarkSorrow and the rest.
However, none shot him worse glances than Sebastian who absolutely made it a point to do normal things aggressively around him and give him a side-glance to try and intimidate him.
What Sebastian did not understand was that his attempts only made the whole ordeal even more amusing for Rudra who couldn't care less as to what the Bloodfall people thought about him.
His brother was alive and the outcome of the battle was even better than if he had maybe devised the plan himself.
Everything else was secondary for him.
When the news came that Max had woken up and was looking for him, he wasn't the least bit surprised, his brother wanted answers but unfortunately he was going to get none.
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/// A/N - This bonus sponsored by patron Cervantez91, please thank him in the comments for this one ///