Chapter 444: The tenth’s name
For a brief moment, both Quinn and Peter froze in place, as they waited for the lights to go out. They were unsure of what had just happened. Even Quinn could only assume the system and the castle itself were all connected somehow.
"What was all of that?" Peter asked.
"I have no idea." Quinn replied.
It seemed like the AI system had no clue either. With Quinn pressuring him with what was going on, the system could only answer a few simple questions that he had.
"This might not be a good thing." The system replied. "I did not expect this. When a leader has relinquished his seat, or has been put into internal sleep, the castle will go off as well. The leader and the castle are linked."
If Quinn really was now the tenth leader, then this would explain the first set of messages Quinn had received before the error messages had appeared.
"The lights having reappeared means that the leader has returned. The link between the new leader and castle would be set. As you are not yet a vampire lord, I didn’t expect this to happen. It looks as if the link between you and the castle tried to activate, yet failed due to some reason."
There was also another theory the system had, but he chose to not elaborate on that as it was a complete guess on his part.
Quinn thought about what the system said, and the second message he had received matched with his guess. When he became a vampire lord and completed the task of adding ten people to his cursed family, he wondered what would happen if he was to return to the castle.
Would he receive a new set of skills, or would it be something else entirely?
"So where to now?" Quinn asked.
The room and the whole castle were completely pitch black, but both Peter and Quinn could see clearly due to their special vision. They were in a quite large reception area that had two spiraling staircases in front of them that led up to the second floor.
"Head to the throne room. Perhaps we can find the person we are looking for there. If not, there might be some other things that we can use." The system replied.
Walking forward, the two of them looked at the many objects and architecture. It was a mixture of old and new. Some of the things that were out on display such as knightly armour looked to be before Quinn’s time. While there were certain hi-tech objects lying around, trinkets of sorts that Quinn had never seen before that looked to belong in this century.
Instead of heading straight up to the second floor, Quinn was a bit interested in exploring the items that were on display on the first floor and so was Peter. All of the objects reminded him of Logan’s room.
Quinn had approached a glass cabinet and behind it was a strange glove like creation. It had indents in-between the knuckle areas and out from them were three blades.
"What a strange design?" Quinn thought.
"You mean you haven’t heard of him?" The system replied. "When I was alive, there were many movies and such created based on this character. Therefore, I decided to create a weapon based on it."
"I can’t say I have." Quinn replied. "But you created this? I thought you were just a vampire leader?"
"I was a researcher and inventor." The AI replied. "Although most of my creations weren’t on the technological side, it was far too complicated. I mostly dabbled in strange magic and alchemy. I would say you could give the weapon a try for yourself, but unfortunately all these here are replicas, the real ones are stored in a different place."
Looking at the item, Quinn was about to use his inspect skill. Perhaps it would give him more information on the tenth leader. So far it sounded like he was the mad scientist type, but there was one thing he didn’t even know about him, and that was his real name.
However, just as he was about to use his inspect skill, the sound of the door unlocking behind them was heard once again. After entering the castle, the door had sealed itself up behind them. Now the sound of someone entering was heard.
"Should we hide?" Peter asked.
"It should be okay right?" Quinn said. "If someone is entering the tenth castle, then they should be an ally of yours."
"That may not be the case." The system replied. "The council may have made a decision allowing them to enter the place, giving the code out. I would say it’s best to proceed with caution. Maybe hiding or running away is a good idea."
Looking around the room, Quinn could see no way out but up. But before he could move or decide what to do, the door had already opened and following it a mist like fog had entered the room. It slowly creeped its way on the floor and started to move around with an intent.
"Intruders, who dares to enter the tenth castle!" A loud deep booming voice said. Both Peter and Quinn tried to look around to see if they could see anything, but they couldn’t locate an exact position. The fog that had entered seemed to have created a complete mist in the whole room. Surrounding them completely.
They were now even unable to see the walls or staircases they could see earlier and at best could see each other as they stood near.
"This is the tenths domain. Tell me who sent you here, if you have no reason to be here, then leave!" The voice shouted.
A part of the fog in front of Quinn and Peter started to form a certain shape as it swirled around. When it finished the fog had created a fairly large head that looked like an old man with a beard as large as the head part. "Answer me!" The fog’s head shouted. With its lips and head moving as if it was alive.
Seeing this, Peter did what he thought was best, and threw out a fist at the fog head using all his strength.
"Shut up! Old man."
"Peter wait!" Quinn shouted but it was too late. ever since changing to a Wight he had always been a little more hot headed than before.
His fist had hit the fog head, causing it to split apart and the smoke had dispersed. A few seconds later and the fog moved again and a head had now formed in a different place off to Peter’s side.
"So this is your answer. Very well." It replied.
The fog head had disappeared, and suddenly something was felt grabbing Peter’s arm. It yanked him forward, and a strong force was felt directly hitting him in the face knocking his head back. Peter tried his best to attack, but his fist felt like they were hitting nothing but thin air. He threw punch after punch in the direction he was hit from but there was nothing.
Another punch was thrown at him, hitting him in the head again.
"Damn it!" Seeing this, Quinn also rushed forward, unsure of where to attack, but knew if something was hitting Peter, then he should have been able to hit it as well. Throwing out punches of his own, though at where Peter was getting his from, the same thing would happen, but it was met with nothing but air.
Then something was felt on the back of his collar and it had pulled him down, slamming his body against the floor. Before he could even get up another fist was felt right in his stomach.
"Master!" Peter shouted, rushing to his aid. Out from the mist a hand had appeared and had slapped Peter right across the face. It wasn’t a simple slap, for its hit was powerful enough to cause Peter to fall to the ground.
"You are simply just kids!" The voice said. "I don’t know how you got in, but get out of here now!"
Quinn could tell there was anger in the man’s voice, but he didn’t know why.
"You brats got my hopes up for nothing!" The voice continued to say.
The punches weren’t powerful, but the skills being used were far greater than what Quinn was capable of. After all, Quinn had only learnt the basic vampire martial arts from Fex. As for things like the flash step and hammer strike. It was something that the stronger vampires already knew and Quinn felt like for this one it would be no exception.
"Shadow voi..."
"Wait, Quinn!" The system shouted, interrupting him before he could cast his skill. "I know this man, this is the man who we need to speak to."
While the system was busy explaining, Both Quinn and Peter were continually getting beaten. Quinn was trying his best to try to block the attacks like he did during the block game, but he quickly released how much he relied on his site.
Usually, he would look for the smallest of movements from the person to predict where the attack was coming from, but here in the mist, it was blocking out his senses. It was even messing up with his hearing, and he was unable to tell where the attacks would come from until he was eventually hit.
"Then can you get him to stop. How do we get him to stop!" Quinn shouted, as he got hit across the face again. This time the attack had drawn out blood as the attacks were getting harder.
"I told you to leave! I will not allow anyone to disrespect the tenths castle any longer! Even if you are kids, I shall not go easy on you if you refuse to go!" The voice shouted.
The mysterious person was getting more frustrated and both of them could feel his strikes getting heavy and heavier with each blow.
The system had told Quinn to simply repeat after him.
"Halt, Vampire night of the tenth family, Edward Eno. I have been asked to come here by your past leader Vincent Eno. The new tenth leader has returned."
Immediately the punching had stopped, and the mist started to settle down, eventually revealing an old man standing in there looking at the two kids in silence.
However, Quinn was equally stunned, for at the time he was repeating the words of the AI system, but now he had processed what he had just said. The tenths leader’s family name was "Eno?"
******