Unaware that one more troubled person was coming to visit him, Victor was currently in the basement of a church operations base in Texas.
Violet, June, Eve, and Bruna were helping Ruby get everything she wanted.
Victor was accompanied by Sasha and Kaguya, who intelligently ran away from the girls. After all, they are the women who are quite useful in that kind of situation.
Sasha, who used the power of lightning, could enhance herself with her power and get things done at high speed, so she was very useful in streamlining the process of collecting little things and packing everything they needed.
By contrast, Kaguya could put the big things in her shadow; although the girls didn't know if Kaguya had an exact limit on how many things they could put in her shadow, it would definitely help take the big pods.
But if it was so easy for them, why didn't they help at all?
Well, they didn't want to work...
It's not that they didn't want to help the girls. Far from it, they were super happy to help the girls, but they were pretty sure if they stayed in that place, the girls would abuse their powers.
The girls would treat them both like workhorses, and because of that, they ran away!
Definitely not because they wanted to be close to Victor.
And definitely, it wasn't because they were lazy.
Trust me, for I am the voice of God.
Cough. The narrator cleared his throat, returning to the story.
"Master? Why are you standing there looking at the wall?" Kaguya asked with a neutral look as she looked at Victor.
"Hmm..." Victor didn't say much and just made a sound like he was thinking about something.
Victor was currently staring at a wall of ice with a thoughtful look on his face. The entire basement had been frozen by Victor, and because of that, the room itself felt like everyone was in a freezer.
Sasha could warm herself using the power of her lightning, how was she doing that? Well, she was just going to use her power to run around, and it would warm her body.
Kaguya could go into Victor's shadow anytime, and so, because of that, the girls weren't worried about the cold.
But that didn't mean they weren't cold...
"Did you find something, Darling?" Sasha asked Victor, as she seemed to trust Victor's special vision a lot.
"Hmm..." Victor kept making these sounds as he stared at the wall while he seemed very focused.
"Master?" Kaguya called Victor again, but just like the other times, he didn't seem to be listening.
"...?" Kaguya and Sasha looked at each other blankly. Why isn't Victor responding to them?
Suddenly, Victor crouched down, and he touched the bottom of the wall with his fingers and, seeming to find something, he lifted one of his fingers upwards, and then pure fire started coming out of his fingers.
"..." Kaguya and Sasha looked at Victor curiously, wondering what he was doing.
Victor adjusted the power of fire he was using on his fingers so that the flame pierced like a blowtorch.
And as if he were a seasoned pro, he started using his finger to drill symmetrically into the wall.
"..." Sasha and Kaguya didn't know what Victor was doing, but they couldn't help but be impressed with this way of using the power of fire. They'd never seen Agnes, Violet, or anyone from the Clan Snow use fire that way.
Usually, they'd only seen the two of them use their power to wreak havoc on a large scale or to burn someone alive, something Victor did in fights where he fights using the power of fire.
They had never seen this practical way of using that power. Wasn't it like he was a human torch?
"HmmmHmmm." Victor seemed to be singing a song while cutting the wall with his finger, he cut the wall with a drawing of a door, and in less than two minutes of delicate work, he said:
"Done."
Victor got up from the floor, placed his hand gently on the wall, and soon a cold air came out of his hand.
A kind of ice hook came out of Victor's palm and pierced the wall on the other side, and then, with some force, Victor pulled the wall.
'This is bigger than I thought.' Victor knew the wall was thick, but he didn't expect it to be that big. So what were they hiding behind that wall?
Somehow he couldn't help but be curious about it.
Clap, Clap.
Hearing the girls clapping, Victor looked at the girls with a confused look. Why are they clapping all of a sudden? Has this turned into some kind of show?
"…Oh, don't bother with us, we were just curious about what you were doing…" Sasha spoke for herself and for Kaguya.
Understanding that the girls were curious, Victor said:
"It's no biggie, I just found this wall weird, and when I looked through the wall with my eyes, I found a secret passage." Victor didn't tell them everything. He hid the fact that, like some parts of this underground, he could see that, behind this wall, there was only 'darkness', which meant something was blocking his view.
But how did he notice this place? Well, even though it was completely dark, he could still see a small red gap.
Looks like someone didn't do the job of hiding what was behind that wall properly.
'Or is it because the place is abandoned?' Victor thought.
Despite having a few scientists working in this underground, Victor realized that an installation of this size would need a lot of people to keep this place going.
And because of that, he deduced that this place is abandoned.
Another question that Victor had was: Why did that man invite Maria to come to this place?
It was like he was begging something like;
"Please look at my research, look at my secret laboratory!"
Victor knew he was overreacting, but that was the feeling he got.
"Secret passage...?" Sasha's eyes sparkled a little as she looked excited.
Victor woke up from his thoughts and said, "Yes, come with me."
Victor walked through the door he created and started walking forward.
"…" Kaguya and Sasha looked at each other again and seemed to be wondering what they should do.
But since they were already here, they decided to go ahead and follow Victor.
Kaguya and Sasha started to follow in Victor's footsteps, who was walking around with his eyes glowing blood red, while he seemed to be looking around like a country boy who had visited the big city for the first time.
They entered a dark room, but, as creatures of the night, darkness wasn't an issue.
Victor stopped walking and looked up, where he saw several chandeliers with candles on the ceiling, and with a snap of his finger...
Fushhhhhhh
The whole place was lit up.
"What is this place?" Sasha asked curiously as she looked around. Did they seem to be in some kind of aisle in a church?
"This place looks pretty old," Kaguya spoke while looking at the pillars of this place.
"Do you know something, master?"
"Umu." He looked at the girls and said, "I have no idea." He spoke with such convincing certainty that it was as if he really didn't know anything.
"..." Of course, Kaguya and Sasha didn't believe Victor, why didn't they believe him?
"My vision is being blocked, and I can't get much information.." Victor spoke with a smile on his face.
Looking at Victor's smile, the two women thought; 'He definitely knows something.'
He couldn't deceive them! This trick is old!
…But the truth was, Victor really didn't know anything… He was just excited since he was feeling very adventurous right now.
As if he owned the place, Victor started walking with a small smile on his face, and as he walked, he kept looking around.
Sasha and Kaguya started following Victor again as they looked around.
Suddenly Victor's smile died, and he seemed to remember something, "Oh, I forgot to say, this place has-."
Click, Click.
Kaguya and Sasha seem to have stepped on something.
"Eh-...?" The two were surprised.
Sasha looked down and said, "Fuck." Her eyes suddenly glowed golden yellow, then her perception of the world began to slow down.
Rumble, Rumble.
Lightning began to cover her body.
"..." Victor exhibited a small smile when he saw Sasha's reaction, since, just like her, he also has the power of lightning, and because of that, he could see clearly what she was doing.
In the time it took to blink, Sasha grabbed Kaguya and stood beside Victor.
And, when she reached Victor's side, they heard the sound that seemed to come from a gun.
Bang, Bang, Bang!
"Sigh, I was rushing for nothing, it was just a gun…-" Sasha was about to keep talking.
But suddenly, Victor touched her shoulder and pointed to a spot.
"...?" Sasha looked at Victor and then looked where he was pointing, and soon her face darkened.
Although it appeared to be a gun sound, what came out of the trap was some type of huge spike that was covered in strange runes.
"What the fuck is this?" It was definitely not designed to kill humans!
"Are you guys okay?" Victor asked.
"Yes..." Kaguya said while Sasha nodded, and then Kaguya looked at Sasha and said:
"Thank you, Lady Sasha."
"... It's nothing." She displayed a gentle smile, "If something happened to you, I would be sad, and so would my husband."
"...Oh." Kaguya exhibited an imperceptible small smile.
"..." Victor displayed a faint happy smile when he saw the interaction of the two women, and then he walked towards the spike.
He looked like a very experienced rogue as he walked around avoiding any traps, as he brought his face close to the spike, and saw the runes carved into the spikes.
"Interesting..." Victor noticed something while watching the runes. He couldn't 'see' the spike and the runes in his blood world, and it was as if this object that was in front of him now didn't exist, which was impossible. After all, he was looking at the object, he was sure that object existed.
"Runes?" Sasha, who at some point got close to Victor, said.
Victor looked at Sasha and then looked back at the place where she was previously, he was looking for Kaguya, but he couldn't find her.
[I'm here, master.]
"Oh." Victor understood what happened now, Sasha used her lightning, and Kaguya went into his shadow.
"Do you know what this is, Honey?"
"I don't know, but…" Lightning started to appear in Sasha's hands, and soon two daggers appeared.
"Aren't they similar?"
"Hmm..." Victor observed the runes with his gaze, and, unlike the spikes, Victor could see the daggers in his blood world.
"Can I try?"
"Sure." Sasha handed the daggers to Victor.
But just as Victor went to grab the daggers, something happened.
The daggers emitted golden lightning and rejected Victor's approach.
"Oh?" Victor withdrew his hands.
"…" Sasha looked at all of this with her mouth open. It happened differently than she imagined.
"Why can't you use the daggers?"
"Umu, maybe because I'm not the descendant of your clan?" Victor thought aloud, but he wasn't sure if that was it.
"But can't you use lightning?" Sasha turned her head confused, as she looked very cute now.
"Hmm... What happened to me was something more like."
Victor made two air quotes with his hand and said, "My blood selfishly devoured your blood, Violet's, and Ruby's, and absorbed the characteristics of your blood for me."
"Oh..."
Kaguya came out of Victor's shadow and stood beside him:
"That means Master is not the descendant of your Clan, he just greedily stole your power."
"As expected from my master! He's an abnormal being, he's accomplished the feat of 'stealing' 2000 years of efforts from the Clans of the Counts of Vampires."
"An abnormal being indeed." She nodded her head several times.
Victor's eyes narrowed a little, "...That's one way of saying it."
Victor looked at Sasha and waited for her answer:
"Well... I think so?" Sasha wasn't sure. She just knew that daggers only accepted being wielded by Clan Fulger descendants, and if they rejected Victor, it's because he's not her Clan descendant.
"Anyway, let's keep walking, follow in my footsteps-" Victor was about to say something, but suddenly Sasha jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck, and Kaguya stepped into Victor's shadow.
"Carry me!" She demanded with a happy smile on her face.
Victor showed a small smile and held Sasha like a princess, "...My wife is very spoiled sometimes."
"What? You do not like it?"
"I did not say that." He hugged Sasha and kissed her mouth.
"!!!" She didn't expect something like that, this was unfair!
But that's not to say she didn't like it!
Sasha quickly hugged Victor and kissed him back with love!
A few seconds passed, and then he stopped kissing Sasha and said, "Let's continue." He started walking down the trap-lined hallway.
...
