Chapter 674: Guillermo
Guillermo was startled seeing the shadow warp around him. It almost made him think that another Vampire was around them casting it.
But then, he realized that the shadow was coming from the golden-haired boy.
Then a few seconds later, the shadow subsided and Guillermo found himself in a completely different location, far away from the bustline city life of Metropolis.
A slow sense of realization showed on Guillermo’s face. He had completely underestimated the boy because he knew that manipulation of shadows was not an easy technique, and certainly not something that could be used to transport people at incredibly large distances.
Reed then nudged him with an elbow, waking him up from his stupor. "What do you think, eh? The boy’s good, huh?"
"I think even the High Bloods will be impressed to learn that a human could command the shadows just as well as them," Guillermo replied.
This impressed Reed, as he knew that the High Blood Vampires were considered to be royalty among their species.
"Michael, I didn’t know you were good at magic," Reed said, completely unaware that Michael had other talents besides creating rollercoasters.
"It’s nothing," Michael shrugged. "Anyway, what do you think of our rollercoasters?"
Guillermo looked up and saw the giant statue of Cthulhu looking down at him.
Chills ran up his spine. Looking at this figure made him feel as if he was looking at the real primordial beast of the sea.
Then, he saw the humans and mermen alike riding on a metal vehicle that slowly scaled up Cthulhu before ending up entering in its mouth.
After hearing the echoing screams of the people as they descended into the darkness made Guillermo worried.
"Shouldn’t we save them?!"
"Hahaha! Brother, that’s not screams of distress. That was screams of excitement!"
Guillermo couldn’t understand the reasoning as to how people would feel excited being swallowed whole by Cthulhu.
Then, a few minutes later, the vehicle was spat out of Cthulhu’s mouth, releasing a gust of mist that sprayed in the air.
The rollercoaster slid down back the railings before stopping at the base.
Reed approached the vehicle, welcoming his daughter with a huge smile on his face.
"Having fun dear?"
Nixie looked back up at him and nodded excitedly. "...yes!..."
Guillermo walked forwards, seeing the liveliness in Nixie’s eyes first hand.
"She talked..."
Not only that, but as a vampire, Guillermo had an inherently strong sense for blood flow within a person. When he first met Nixie, he almost thought that she was undead like them because of the lack of activity in her heart.
But now, it was pumping healthily like a normal child! He couldn’t believe it! The curse was being cured!
"Amazing... I didn’t believe it was possible," Guillermo muttered.
"My daughter can even jump now! Nixie, come show you godfather," Reed said proudly.
But before Nixie could say anything, she suddenly heard her friends call out to her.
"Nixie! Come on! We’re going to go for another one!"
The Duchess’ four royal grandchildren were already in their seats, with one of the seats reserved for Nixie.
The little mermaid showed longing in her eyes. She wanted to be with her friends. However, Reed was still busy proudly showing off her improvements in health.
"Reed, I think Nixie wants to be with her friends," Michael reminded Reed.
"Oh! My bad, dear. Go on, then," he said, pushing her back towards the rollercoaster.
Then, they all watched as the group of kids went on another merry ride through Cthulhu’s mouth.
"This is truly unbelievable. This rollercoaster... it raises everyone’s heart rates to the maximum! Their Dao Hearts are getting nourished and fulfilled! You created this?"
Hearing that praise made Michael proud of his creation, which was why he wanted to create more.
"Yes I did. And I’m planning on creating another one soon," he replied.
"He wants some fossils of sea animals. The more ancient, the better," Reed added. "I told him you have that in your collection, right?"
Guillermo nodded. "I do."
"Michael, Vampires are really good collectors of antiques. Their long lifespans allows them to gather a lot of items from history that others would consider ancient. If they have a really good supply of high quality blood, then they can go toe to toe with the elves in matters of longevity," Reed said, hyping up his friend.
"If fossils are what you need, then I can help you with that," Guillermo said to Michael. "After the parade, I shall let you have a tour in my coffin."
With another source of fossils, Michael was one step closer to creating the second rollercoaster.
And while he was thinking about the future, he suddenly realized something.
"Guillermo, if Vampires go through this rollercoaster, do you think they’d like it?"
He didn’t just want to target the mermens. He wanted to target all the beastfolks. If he could expand his market to Vampires, then he could surely increase his income of Sand Dollars by manyfold.
"I can see some of us become excited at the novelty," Guillermo honestly replied. "However, we are not as scared of sea monsters than the Mermen. I don’t think it’s going to have the same reaction you would want."
Guillermo had a point. After all, Michael only designed ’Into Cthulhu’s Void’ for the Mermen demographic.
If he wanted to build something that would attract the Vampires, then he needed to find their likes, dislikes, and weaknesses just like he had with the Mermen.
"What do you think would work?" Michael asked. "Is there something you find interesting in this place?"
Guillermo pursed his lips. "If I am going to be honest, we have yet to find something interesting in Metropolis or the Royal Continent.
Right now, the things that people offer us are still superficial. For example, they’re trying to sell us blood, but why would we buy it from them when we have already perfected the production of high quality animal blood?
The only interesting thing I’ve seen is your ’rollercoaster’.
But we are probably going to move out of Metropolis as soon as the parade ends to explore the Royal Continent in its entirety. But hey. We might visit this place again once I tell everyone about this," Guillermo said with brutal honesty.
"What do you think is missing from Metropolis?" Michael asked.
"Most people in the surface world don’t know that we Vampires are very religious. Some think it’s paradoxical for us Vampires to praise divinity, but we actually believe that divinity is what gives us power.
But we’re not the conservative type. We like all religions, and we’re curious about the beliefs that humans have that differ from ours. That’s one of the main reasons why we have ventured out of our territory. We want to expand our horizons.
So to answer your question, if there’s just one thing that would have attracted our attention, then it would be... churches," Guillermo said.
Immediately, Michael waved his hand and tried to stop Guillermo from speaking any further.
"Shush! He might hear you," Michael said, panicking. "Don’t give him any more ideas!"
Reed and Guillermo looked at him funny. They didn’t know why Michael was acting this way.
But unbeknownst to the two of them, there was a certain violet slime that was smiling with an evilish grin.