The Crimson Reaper-Chapter 80: Traversing Through the Forest (2)

The two vampires chilled in the trees while observing the hunters walking on the ground.

Luciel and Melisa had to slow down so the humans wouldn’t lose sight of them. They were already hard to track down as it is during the dark.

At least it was late autumn and thanks to the illuminating moonlight that lighted up the sky, they could track the vampire’s silhouettes.

Luciel was sitting on one tall tree, on one of its thickest branches. He couldn’t believe that he was actually returning to Nosferatu’s nest.

He shivered a little after imagining him getting furious over Lady Seline’s death.

"Hey, Melisa," Luciel started after some period of silence.

He couldn’t stop thinking about Nosferatu and his human farm now when they were getting close.

Each step toward his nest felt heavier, his mind replaying the possible reactions Nosferatu might have to Lady Seline’s death

How would Nosferatu react? Would he lash out, demand vengeance? Try to kill him? Possibilities that gnawed at his being were endless. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Hm?" Melisa who was on the opposite tree looked up at Luciel. Even if there was some distance between them, there was no need to shout.

"What do you think about Nosferatu?" He asked her, having a serious expression.

"Nosferatu? Huh..." Melisa placed her finger against her cheek, looking up at the night sky.

"Well... He’s basically my dad. Has a loose screw. Despite being so old that he lost track of age, he still cares." She replied, not knowing how she could describe him exactly.

Nosferatu had an eccentric personality. He would always have some crazy ideas like trying to make a liquor that copied the taste of blood, but... That didn’t work well and it was confirmed that even vampires could get food poisoning. No one knew what he had put inside of that beverage, but it was still delicious.

There were also his questionable design choices like their nest. He insisted on keeping everything natural as much as possible. He rarely made an exception.

And he didn’t allow the vampires to have their own private space. Anyone could go and peek inside someone else’s sleeping room.

But thanks to his uniqueness, the nest felt like one, big family.

"He cares for us," Melisa added with a soft voice, staring into the distance until her expression suddenly turned dark, "But you do not cross him. Ever."

Luciel stayed quiet, biting his lip. He could go around his main question and find out how would Nosferatu react upon seeing him, but he liked to be direct.

"And how would he react to Seline’s death?" He finally asked after switching to another branch that was a few meters away.

"Well... He won’t be happy." She tried to recall the last time something like this had happened, "But I wouldn’t worry too much. He might task you with some chores."

"What chores?" He questioned. Melisa told him that they were child’s play, but vampires weren’t known by the goodness of their hearts.

"Just maintaining the farm. Fixing some stuff and supervising the vampires who came to get some food." She answered, sounding proud as she talked about the farm, forgetting about Luciel’s life before he became one of them. In fact, she didn’t actually care about that.

There was only one problem with the farm. Due to the vampire population increasing, there weren’t enough humans for everyone if they didn’t want to kill them. That’s why there were limits on how much one could take. Because of that reason, many vampires were still forced to go outside and hunt, but there were no complaints.

The wild stock was always better than domesticated. The humans inside the farm were under artificial lights while the ones outside basket under the warm sun.

Melisa started to ramble on, but Luciel’s world went deaf at the first sentence she spoke.

"You knew about that?!!!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, his body temperature rising. He clenched his fist, making it bleed due to the claws that were out, and hit the tree, making a dent.

"Yeah, it’s a common knowledge." Melisa rolled her eyes, staying ignorant to Luciel’s anger.

"And you are just gonna support that?!" He questioned, rising his voice as tension in the air settled in.

"Yeah," Melisa tiled her head innocently, "Nosferatu has one of the most humane farms and without him, Paradise would be a different place. You might even see a rise to one more Alukah to feed the nest."

"Besides, humans are happy in those farms. It’s well kept. They are healthy, have roof under their heads, food, what else would they want?" She skipped playfully from one branch to another, but stopped when she noticed that Luciel wasn’t following her.

He stood in one spot, his hand placed on the tree trunk, scratching the rough bark with his claws. The wound in his palm already healed.

"So you are telling me that those people are more happy being locked up instead of being up in the surface?" He growled, getting ready to attack as his eyes started to light up in crimson.

The more he listened to her, the more he wanted to eradicate the whole nest. Vampires were nothing more than parasites.

"What? We usually pick up those that the society casted away." She replied, not being able to understand why was Luciel so mad. No one cared about those people, so why shouldn’t they provide them shelter with a price of course.

They were picking other people, no matter the social rank, only during critical situations like now. With the people living from Paradise while the rest was hiding in refuges, food became scarce.

Luciel finally growled after having enough of this. His claws dug a little into the tree as he extended his other hand, forming a gray mist bullet in front of him before shooting it with great speed at Melisa.

Hearing something coming towards her, Melisa moved to the side, but the bullet managed to leave a thin cut on her face as it continued to travel before dispersing into thin air.

"Now you’ve done it." Melisa growled back, hissing at Luciel before starting to approach him, leaping from branch to branch before reaching him.

She jumped at him, but before she could land on the branch Luciel was standing on, he kicked her into abdomen, sending her away.

Melisa turned in the air, grabbing the branch and climbing back on it.

The trees were huge, making those below feel like ants. The trees had thick branches that were strong enough to endure some pressure that the vampires were putting on them.

Luciel jumped on the tree where Melisa was, aiming at the few branches below hers.

He looked up and was about to attack her, but soon changed his decision once Melisa opened her mouth.

Luciel went onto another trunk, observing how Melisa’s sound waves managed to crush the branches below it before she turned toward Luciel, preparing for another attack.

He gasped after noticing how he was perfectly aligned with Melisa who had a clear shot on him.

There was no way to avoid the attack, so if he was going to get hit, he would make sure to return the favor.

He sprang at Melisa, going for her neck with his claws while she released her sound attack at point blank, bursting his eardrums, making his ears bleed. He would be dead if he was a human and if Melisa didn’t adjust the strength of her attack. Killing Luciel would mean dooming her brother.

Both vampires panicked after the exchange. Melisa quickly placed her hand on her neck, Luciel’s claws went deeply, but not enough to put her life in danger, but even then, her life flashed before her eyes.

Head, neck and the heart were the only three weakness vampires had unless you could cut their bodies in half.

Panicking, with a blurry vision, seeing how he was going to fall from the greatest height yet, Luciel grabbed onto Melisa’s leg, causing her to slip.

Both of them started to fall down towards the ground and couldn’t find a branch to hold on to.

****

"What was that?" Alex asked after hearing Luciel shout and looked up into the air alongside Scarlet.

"Watch out, I think that they are going to fight!" Scarlet warned him, taking a step back. She didn’t want to get in the possible crossfire and didn’t really care if they were going to fight. She came for them after all. Scarlet was fine if they don’t save that Kai of theirs.

"We should do something!" Alex’s voice trembled in worry after noticing how the fight was getting more violent between the two, but before any actions could be done, an old figure appeared in front of them.

He had gray hair and a black top hat on his head. His red eyes pierced through the sky as he hit his crane against the ground as he looked up.

"There is no need for that." He said to them before returning his attention to his two vampires, taking a small step backwards after they started to fall down from the trees.