Two days after the fall of Nixlas' Shadows...",
The sect's former headquarters was still covered in darkness, its surroundings desolate, similar to what would happen in normal situations, given the sect's strength.
Amidst the calm circulating around the newly generated ruins, two humanoid beings passed one entrance to Nixlas' Shadows territory, crossing the area's dark, dense fog.
The two stopped flying in front of the hill where the sect's gigantic headquarters castle should be, where they both felt the powerful aura of death and saw the result of Vicente's actions.
The place now bore battle marks all over its structure, with signs of blade cuts on practically every structure not destroyed by the storm Vicente had generated days ago.
The bodies had rotted, but neither of the two newcomers bothered to cover their noses.
"Someone has totally exterminated them," commented one of the two, while his blood-red eyes were wide open, for the first time in his life seeing a massacre like this happen so close to his home.
They were both from The Ivory Desert, located just a few weeks from this point!
The other vampire looked at the body of the former sect master of Nixlas' Shadows, clenching his fists as he felt what had happened.
"The elements in their bodies have been completely obliterated, along with their souls. Someone strong from the Dark Path came to this place and did to these magicians what we're seeing now," said this Mid-level Paragon, as his colleague finished scanning the area.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"There's no spatial ring on the corpses and I can sense that there's nothing of great value in these ruins. The enemy took everything they could before they left."
"Can you feel your opponent's trail?"
"No. There's something blocking me. This being's Dark Path aura is strong enough to hinder our investigation." The stronger one replied, his expression difficult.
"What are we going to do?"
"We'll notify the clan and the alliance about this event and the existence of a powerful Dark Path being on the continent. As soon as one leader leaves their seclusion, they must move to hunt down this enemy."
That was how formidable the enemy responsible for this disaster was, enough to force the group of vampires to use their major pieces to eliminate the one responsible for this incident!
...
Luckily for Vicente, when he completed the requirements to master the Throne of Darkness, he could control not only the powers of this magical form, but prevent people far away from him from sensing the quality of his second gem.
When he met Lauren in the Andoria Kingdom, he had drawn the attention of the Congregation of Revelations without realizing it. But when dealing with Nixlas' Shadows, he left no strong trace in the area to alert the continent's strongest beings of his existence, or even guide anyone to him.
After two days on the run, he and his group had gotten quite a distance from the location of the enemy headquarters.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})They still hadn't stopped to rest, as they were still in dangerous territory. Also, the further they got from the place they had destroyed, the larger the search area would be for pursuers. So they intended to keep moving for the next few days until they entered the Valley of Lightning again.
As Onyx and Vicente's five allies had not been injured in the confrontation at Nixlas' Shadows' palace, the group could continue their journey without stopping for the short term.
Lauren continued to be difficult to deal with, with a sharp tongue that often made threats and negative comments about the group's plans. But all the group could do was ignore her.
Their journey would unfold over the next 16 days until they entered the Vinia Empire and the Valley of Lightning.
...
As soon as they arrived in the Valley of Lightning, the group found a cave to cultivate, with Vicente's companions taking up their positions in the area to recover from their mental and physical condition.
Even though they hadn't been injured, traveling on the run was stressful and consumed a lot of mana. The group had reached the limit of how far they could go without stopping to meditate, so all the Sovereigns were pretty tired today.
With them all starting their meditations, Vicente sat down next to Lauren, Onyx, and Torne, the cave protected by several 5th grade artifacts and even a 6th grade item that they had got in Nixlas' Shadows.
As long as no Intermediate Archmage came to them, it would be impossible for anyone to identify or even threaten them!
"We're all going to die, you know that?" Lauren muttered as she looked at Vicente, now with her hands and feet restricted by artifacts capable of blocking the mana in bodies like hers. "As soon as the vampires find out what you've done—and they've probably already found out—they'll send Paragons to investigate and kill us."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Vicente looked at Lauren, sad at the way she was now, but happy that she was by his side. "The vampires are already my enemies, Lauren. What difference does it make if they now have another reason to kill me? And since you recognize that you too will be in their sights, why don't you change your attitude? It would be better for all of us to unite our powers."
"Tsk! I'll never do that! I gave you a chance to work with me. Do you remember that? You rejected me and then attacked me, destroyed my sect and took me as your hostage!" She retorted, the veins in her neck trembling, her face as red as a tomato.
Vicente ignored the droplets of saliva flying from Lauren's mouth amid her angry speech.
"Things were different back then. If I'd known it was you, I would have done something different."
"Humph!"
"Changing the subject, since we're in the same boat, tell me about the agreement your sect had with the vampires. What did you have to do for them? What were you going to get?" Vicente asked seriously.
She was silent for a moment, her face turned towards where she was listening to Vicente's voice, almost as if she was looking him in the eye. She clenched one of her fists, but didn't let her anger at Vicente interfere with what was necessary for her survival.
In the past, she had been valuable to vampires. She was a precious weapon in the vampire cause. However, with the fall of Nixlas' Shadows, her value had changed.
Some vampire would surely rather steal her ability sucking her blood than let her go free.
Thinking about how to keep her life, she answered Vicente after a few moments of thought. "Our agreement with the vampires was an alliance between equals. The vampires would give us resources they obtained from the continent's great cultivators, while we would kill targets chosen by the vampires.
We were to share information, warn each other of dangers, and act together to neutralize threats to both sides.
The vampires wouldn't enter our territory as long as we followed their rules and we wouldn't betray their trust. Ultimately, they would help us steal the Congregation of Revelations' ancient method of cultivation."
"Oh? What are you talking about?" Vicente narrowed his eyes, noticing something important.
