Lord Of Puppets
Chapter 242 – Long awaited reunion – Part 4.
"Hm... Interesting question." – said Ariva with a smile, while Porai herself couldn’t really hide her fear as her hands shook.
"Your question isn’t just about what I’m about to do with the empire."
"But also what I’m planning to do with you."
"..."
"The empire...."
"Well, I don’t really feel like destroying it."
"..."
"..."
"What did you just said?" – asked Porai as the information just clicked in her head.
"I’ve said I’m not planning on destroying that little empire of yours."
"You and your kind often mistake me for a monster."
"Or more exactly, you think I despise with the bottom of my heart the entire vampire race."
"For crying out loud, if a human child parents were killed by the dwarves, does that mean that the entire dwarven race are nothing more than animals and monsters?"
"No."
"Vampires were the ones that always picked a fight with me."
"Tell me. Where did my name originally appeared in?"
"..."
"In the vampire city called Mivun." – replied Porai nervously... Yet somewhat trying to keep herself together.
"Yes... Honestly speaking? I originally wanted to just take revenge on that piece of shit father of mine." – said Ariva.
"However, the city itself decided to exterminate me once they found out about my existence."
"They picked the war with me."
"And I just ended it."
"The same with the three vampire dukes."
"They didn’t wanted to avenge the city or countless vampires I’ve had slaughtered."
"No."
"They just wanted to boost their own name."
"Pride, ego."
"Call it whatever you want."
"Either way, I’ve hunted them too."
"It was always vampires that picked the fight with me."
"But do you really think I’ve went out of my way to exterminate every single fucking vampire I’ve encountered?"
"Heck! Sometimes they hired humans or other races to attack me when the three dumbasses were around!"
"But you don’t see me burning every single nation I was in!"
"I’m not saying that I’m just a victim. Sometimes I was the one that picked the fight."
"That I was the aggressor and that I sometimes started something."
"All I’m saying, I’m not stupid enough to not tell who is enemy and who was not."
"Back then.... Well, I was bit hot headed."
"So I do admit... I often went overboard without control."
"So I somewhat understand why some people think that I despise vampire race as a whole."
"But that isn’t really the case."
"..."
"Anyway, I don’t really see any reason to exterminate the whole empire."
"I can just.... You know.... Have a friendly chat."
"..."
"Should I be asking?" – asked Porai as her idea of a ’chat’ that Ariva spoke of wasn’t really... ’FRIENDLY’ in nature.
"Don’t worry." – said Ariva.
"I will try to keep it as clean as possible."
"And, I will make sure that Thauma here will get what he wants."
"The peace."
"..."
(What?) – thought Thauma as he was beyond shocked upon hearing what Ariava what just said.
["Is it true!? You will give me the ’peace’?!"]
"Of course." – said Ariva.
"I mean, you don’t want to the war with the empire in the first place, right?"
"Don’t worry."
"You will get it."
"..."
Thauma.... Straight up let his papers and pen hit the floor.
The golem.... It straight up stopped moving.
(So.... Is it.... Possible?)
Thauma.... Well, it gave into the despair.
It understood the reality.
That its enemy would not let it be.
That they would stop nothing at either exterminating or enslaving the dungeon.
Thauma was fully aware of the situation.
It gave up.
...
But at the same time, it didn’t.
It decided to fight back.
It decides to obtain its peace through blood of countless foes that would dare to stand in Thauma’s way.
...But... Something weird happened.
The peace, the option that should stop existing right now of all the times.... Somehow suddenly appeared right back?
And not only that, it wasn’t just an extremely slim chance, but instead something that may really happened?
An option that should be physically impossible.... Straight up became possible once again?
This.... Thauma straight up couldn’t "understand" the situation correctly.
It straight up made Thauma’s brain to just lag, trying to understand the information bit by bit.
Thauma.... It knew that Ariava was strong.
And it at the same time knew that it didn’t fully comprehended how truly powerful Ariva was.
But... It understood something the way the conversation was going so far.
The way that the vampire reacted when she spoke about the "destruction of the empire".
(She can do it.) – Thauma understood that Ariva wasn’t speaking random promises.... No. She can do it.
If she wishes to, she can exterminate the empire, all by herself.
She can exterminate the empire that Thauma is terrified off.
A nightmare.
...
That can be just erased right on the spot?
Thauma’s head was... Well, it was beyond messed up right now after Ariava just casually said stuff about giving Thauma the "peace" it wanted.
"..." – the golem in total silence reached for the pen and paper, before then starting to writing once again.
["Is it really possible?"]
["Is it really possible to end this war? That I can obtain peace?"] 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎
"Well.... It should be. But there will be definitely some deal." – said Arvia.
"But don’t worry."
"There won’t be enslavement involved."
"And if they were to try to do this? Well.... Let’s just say I might really exterminate the whole empire."
"But then again, it is for the best if I want destroying it."
"Despise this being possible some sort of extremely big scheme, these bastards had proven themselves... Useful."
"As said before, this part of continent was pretty much getting consumed by greed and chaos."
"Pretty much, snowball, down the hill, yada, yada, yada and stuff."
"So, being something like-"
"I’m hero of justice! And I came to save the people from the evil and manipulating vampires!"
"BOOM!"
"I SAVED YOU ALL!"
"I EXTERMINATED ALL THE VAMPIRES!"
"YOU ALL ARE WELCOME!"
"And the next day everybody just dies."
"The entire empire, the kingdoms around it, everybody goes to war and everybody dies."
"This is pretty much the situation in nutshell."
"The moment this empire disappears? A hell will break loose."
"So yeah."
"Smart person would just say leave them be."
"The vampires and that king may had used this chaos as opportunity to create their empire."
"But at the same time, their empire is something that this part of continent desperately needed."
"A powerful nation that will keep the others from doing stupid shit."
"Or just conquer the idiots and be done with them."
"..."
"That is my answer regarding the empire."
"And now for you." – said Ariva as she looked directly at Porai.
"Honestly speaking.... I don’t want to kill you."
"But at the same time, I don’t want you to go free."
"You are interesting and can be quiet useful to me."
"On top of that, I think I can make things interesting for you as well."
"I mean, you are not with them, you are only hired by them."
"And that is pretty much your relationship."
"Honestly speaking, I still didn’t decided to do with you."
"But don’t worry. You won’t be harmed."
"For now."
"..."
(So unless I fuck up in some way, I could be possible exterminated right on the spot.) – thought Porai as she understood her situation.
(Pretty much, I’m her slave right now.)
(God fucking dammit!)
"..."
(But still, she doesn’t want empire to fall apart.)
(And she knows that the empire desperately needs me.)
(So the chances of her letting me go are...)
"..."
(FUCK!)
(FORGED SKILLS!)
(She may fucking exterminate my ass in order to keep it a secret!)
(Yeb.... I may really fucking die.)
(And there is no physical way I can escape her.... So.)
"..."
(Why???) – thought Porai who at verge of just breaking down and crying out of despair.
"Anyway, that is pretty much the situation." – said Ariva.
"Does that work as an answer?"
"..."
"?"
"Guys?"
There was.... Well, bit of thought storm going on in both Porai and Thauma’s heads.
Simple put, the information that they had obtained regarding their current situation, as well as the revelation may had left them in the state of.... Chaos.
"..."
"Em.... Break time." – said Ariva as she realized that she may really somewhat messed with both her child and vampire’s heads.
[One extremely long break later.]
"So.... You fine now?" – asked Ariva as Thauma and Porai started somewhat calming themselves out.
"I’m.... Really tired." – said Porai with extremely exhausted voice.
["I myself... Don’t really know what to say right now."]
["Just.... Situation changed too much too suddenly."]
["Need time to wrap my head around it all."]
"..."
(Yeb. I think I may had went overboard today.) – thought Ariva.
"Well then, it seems that it just time to call it." – said Ariva as she stood up and began stretching.
"How about we do the round of questing for the next time, and instead just explore the dungeon as well as rest up?"
"....Fine." – said Porai.
"I really need freaking time.... And I mean like LONG amount of time, maybe even a nap."
"Can we do the dungeon exploration later?"
["I’m fine with it."]
"Same here." – said Ariva.
<<Honestly speaking.... It seems that this vampire also had a lot of thing wrapped around her head... Sometimes she looked extremely happy, while at the same time straight up.... Well... Despair?>>
<<She looks extremely scared of Ariva.... Did she done something?>>
<<Either way....I just...>>
<<...>>
<<SHE JUST CAME IN! AFTER THE YEARS!>>
<<NOT ONLY APPERENTLY SAVING ME FROM THE DANGER THAT WOULD 100% ENSLAVE ME!>>
<<BUT AT THE SAME TIME, OFFERING WHAT I WANTED THE MOST BUT COULDN’T POSSIBLE OBTAIN IT RIGHT NOW!>>
<<PEACE!?>>
<<This is....>>
<<Just TOO MUCH!>>
<<I mean, it is not like I’m not happy!>>
<<HELL! I’M BEYOND JOYFULL!>>
<<THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED ALL THIS TIME!>>
<<...>>
<<But....It.... Feels.... Weird.>>
<<I mean, I suffered.>>
<<I was stuck in this dungeon, consumed by fear, consumed by possibilities, consumed by the freaking terror of the future.>>
<<I was scared.>>
<<Because I understood the situation!>>
<<That I may or may not be fucked big time!>>
<<AND I WAS!>>
<<I WAS FULLY CORRECT!>>
<<THAT VAMPIRE EXISTANCE PROOVES IT!>>
<<I WAS REALLY FUCKED!>>
<<But.... Ariva just shows up.>>
<<Cleans up all the trouble.>>
<<And also tells me that the "peace" will happened?>>
<<I just... Isn’t this too easy???>>
<<I was expecting to go to the massive war!>>
<<I’VE SLAUGHTERED COUTLESS PEOPLE! A PEOPLE THAT WERE NOT INVOLVED WITH THE CONFLICT ONE BIT!>>
<<I was getting ready, for the battle that could possibly take out everything I have, even my current life, in order to survive.>>
<<But now.... I just....>>
<<Wow....>>
<<How....>>
<<How the hell am I suppose to react to all of THIS?!>>