Free Web NovelChapter 146: Meanwhile, in the stands.
In the main stands of the ritual arena, the atmosphere remained very different from the forest inside the artificial dimension.
There, there was no smell of fresh blood or destroyed wood. There were no screams of monsters dying among black trees, nor the sound of blades passing through flesh. There was only the constant murmur of vampire nobility, the cold glow of chandeliers suspended from the vaulted ceiling, the whisper of expensive clothes shifting over luxurious seats, and an enormous magical screen floating above the center of the arena, displaying fragments of the Ascension Ritual in real time.
The stands were divided by status, bloodline, and influence. Lesser families occupied the outer sections. Vassal houses and administrative branches sat higher up. The seats near the center, however, belonged to the names that truly mattered.
Valentine.
Thorne.
Cross.
Other lineages too ancient to ignore and too proud to mingle.
Serafall Valentine sat in one of the most reserved areas, her posture impeccable and her expression calm, like someone who had already endured too many wars, intrigues, and unbearable banquets to be easily impressed. Beside her, Natasha had finally appeared, settling in with complete naturalness, as if she had not just entered late into one of the most watched events of the vampire aristocracy.
The strange detail was that her pockets were moving.
Serafall noticed.
She slowly glanced sideways.
Two small dark snouts emerged from Natasha’s clothes almost at the same time.
One little bat had intense red eyes, an irritated expression, and its wings crossed as if it were outraged by the very existence of the world. The other seemed a little smaller, but it stared at the magical screen with such intense concentration that it was almost threatening.
Natasha remained perfectly serene.
As if carrying two ancestral vampires in bat form inside her pockets were an absolutely ordinary situation.
Carmilla was the first to partially emerge, bracing her tiny claws on the edge of the pocket while looking at the enormous screen with obvious irritation.
"I still think it is absurd that I had to wait for that idiot patriarch to leave before I could watch my husband’s performance," she complained, her voice small because of her bat form, but still carrying enough arrogance to make a lesser noble faint if they heard it up close. "So much spectacle, so much ceremony, so much superior posturing... and here I am, hidden like some cheap criminal."
Scarlet immediately poked her head out of the other pocket.
"Mother, shut up," she said, without taking her eyes off the screen. "I want to see my husband."
Carmilla slowly turned her little bat face toward her.
"Your husband? Our husband."
Scarlet froze for a fraction of a second.
Natasha, sensing the danger before it evolved into a miniature family war, discreetly placed one hand between the two pockets.
Serafall let out a low, tired sigh. It was not a sigh of surprise. In fact, it sounded much more like the sigh of a woman who had accepted that her family now included dragons, primordial vampires, possessive bats, and a son who attracted trouble as if he were a gravitational force.
"Natasha," Serafall called calmly. "Where exactly were you?"
Natasha turned her face toward her, maintaining her elegant posture.
"We waited for Kayn and the Heavenly Demon to leave so we could watch from their quarters," she replied without showing the slightest guilt. "Carmilla and Scarlet did not want to be identified too early. Their presence here could cause... reactions."
"Reactions, huh. Well, in a certain sense, learning that the original matriarch is alive now would indeed cause an uproar," Serafall commented, looking at the two little bats in Natasha’s pockets.
Carmilla raised her head with pride.
"Exactly."
Scarlet made an irritated sound.
"I am important too!"
Serafall closed her eyes for a brief moment.
"Yes, you are. Trust that."
Chysis sat a little ahead of them in an armchair far too wide to look comfortable, one leg crossed over the other and her gaze fixed on the magical screen. She seemed completely uninterested in the conversation, but, as always, she was listening to absolutely everything.
"Kayn is not exactly known for his perception," Chysis commented without turning her face. "He is powerful, but his sensitivity is crude. If you kept your presence suppressed, he probably would not notice."
Natasha nodded calmly.
"That was what I imagined."
Chysis narrowed her eyes slightly as she noticed a change in the images on the screen.
"The Heavenly Demon, on the other hand, would definitely notice. No matter how much you tried to hide, he would identify some anomaly. Waiting was the correct decision."
Carmilla huffed in bat form.
"I hate when correct decisions force me to wait."
"You hate anything that is not done your way," Scarlet said.
"And that is a flaw in the world, not in me."
Serafall brought a hand to her face for a moment, gently massaging the bridge of her nose.
On the screen, the images constantly shifted between different areas of the Ritual. Some participants fought monsters. Others hid in caves or ruins. Small temporary alliances had formed, though anyone with common sense knew most of them would end in betrayal before the twelve hours were over. In one corner of the screen, a scoring list glowed discreetly, changing as deaths, eliminations, and achievements were registered by the dimension itself.
The top names had already changed several times.
But Victor Valentine remained the greatest anomaly.
Not only because of his score.
Because of the kind of scenes that appeared whenever the screen found him.
Destroyed forests.
Too many corpses.
Marks of Black Ice, White Fire, and, more recently, violent traces of something that looked like lightning but carried a dark, oppressive color that made even some older members of the audience frown.
Then the screen changed again.
This time, it showed a rocky formation distant from a clearing filled with ruins. On top of it, Victor stood beside Grace. The two observed a large group gathered below, speaking too quietly for the screen’s magic to capture clearly. freewёbnoνel.com
Chysis finally reacted.
She tilted her head slightly, staring at the image with a mixture of surprise and resignation.
"My God," she murmured. "And here I thought they would hate each other and start fighting... instead, they ended up forming an alliance."
Serafall looked at the screen attentively. Victor looked wounded, but not weakened.
’It looks like he turned off his regeneration to train his body... what an irresponsible son.’
His posture was looser, sharper, as if some part of his body had just understood a new form of violence.
Grace, on the other hand, maintained that cold and calculating expression Serafall had already learned to associate with dangerously intelligent people.
"Grace is sensible," Serafall commented. "She probably realized that fighting Victor right now would be unproductive."
Chysis let out a dry little laugh.
"Grace is many things. Sensible only when it benefits her survival."
Natasha observed the two figures on the screen.
"And Victor?"
Chysis rested her face on her hand.
"Victor is Victor."
Carmilla stretched her neck out of Natasha’s pocket, trying to see better. Her tiny red eyes narrowed immediately when she saw Grace standing too close to Victor.
"Why is that girl so close to him?"
Scarlet reacted at once.
"Too close!" she shouted, flapping her little wings inside Natasha’s pocket. "They are too close!"
Before Scarlet could continue, Carmilla moved one wing and smacked her daughter on the head with a sharp little slap.
"Be quiet."
Scarlet froze.
The impact did not truly hurt. Not in that small body. But the emotional offense was enormous.
She slowly turned her little face toward Carmilla, her bat eyes growing wet in an almost theatrical way. For an instant, it seemed as if she really might think about defying her mother. However, Carmilla’s expression, even in bat form, was completely twisted by a jealousy so intense it almost looked like a visible curse.
Scarlet retreated a few centimeters into the pocket.
"...Yes, Mother."
Natasha looked down at the two pockets.
Then she looked at Serafall.
"Do they do this often?"
Serafall remained silent for two seconds.
"I am beginning to discover that they do."
Carmilla completely ignored the comment and went back to staring at the screen.
"She is looking at him too much."
Chysis let out a lazy sigh.
"Grace looks like that at everyone she is evaluating as a possible threat, resource, or future corpse."
"That does not make it better."
"It was not meant to."
Serafall watched Victor for a few more seconds. There was dried blood on his clothes, fresh cuts, and clear signs of prolonged combat, but he did not seem shaken. On the contrary. His energy was more controlled. Denser. More dangerous. It was strange to perceive it through a screen, but Serafall knew her son well enough to notice when something had changed.
"The Ritual will probably end early," she said calmly.
Chysis did not look away from the screen.
"I agree."
Natasha raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Because of Victor?"
"Because of everything," Chysis replied. "Victor defeated Leon, Charlotte, and Emma. The main names have already fallen. Grace is still active, but he will not fight her now. It would make no sense for either of them. That leaves Jake as the only real point of tension."
Serafall observed the scoring list at the side of the screen.
"Do you think he will look for Jake?"
"He is already watching him," Chysis said. "Look at his posture. Victor is no longer hunting. He is trying to end the situation."
Carmilla lifted her snout with absurd pride.
"Of course he is. My husband is efficient when he decides to stop playing."
Scarlet opened her mouth to respond, probably to correct the "my husband," but closed it again when she noticed Carmilla still had that dangerous expression.
Chysis continued, completely ignoring the miniature marital drama.
"Victor must have already realized there is external interference, since only now has he turned off Concealment. He will try to cut off the problem before it grows."
Natasha looked at Chysis.
"And is that good or bad?"
"Yes."
Natasha blinked once.
Serafall sighed.
"She means it is good because Victor may prevent something worse, and bad because his method will probably involve destroying half the scenery and traumatizing the other half of the participants."
Chysis nodded slightly.
"Exactly."
On the screen, Victor and Grace continued talking about something. The image did not transmit all the sounds, but their body language said enough. Grace seemed to be explaining the group’s formation in the ruins. Victor listened attentively, but there was a growing impatience in the way his fingers moved. At one point, a Black Ice sword began to slowly form in his hand.
Carmilla almost flew out of Natasha’s pocket.
"Look at that. Look at that. He is making that sword again."
Scarlet leaned so far out of the pocket that Natasha had to hold her by the back with two fingers to keep her from falling.
"He improved," Scarlet said, her eyes shining. "The structure is cleaner. Before, he made only a functional blade. Now there is intention in the shape. Although he is not using blood to create the sword."
Chysis watched with more interest.
"Yes. And the lightning is running through the blade without breaking it. His control is very good."
Serafall looked more closely. "Is that dangerous?"
"For the others, very," Chysis replied. "For him, moderately. The problem is the impact recoil. If he mismanages the flow, his own arm could suffer."
Carmilla let out a satisfied little laugh.
"He can take it."
Scarlet glared at her.
"You should not say that so happily."
"I am proud."
"You look excited for him to get hurt."
"I am excited for him to survive things that would kill any other man."
Natasha murmured quietly:
"This family truly is special."
Serafall heard it, but chose not to respond.
Below, in the stands, some nobles began reacting to the image of Victor and Grace. Murmurs spread when they noticed the size of the group gathered in the ruins. Some recognized youths from influential families. Others noticed the strategic position of the barriers. And a few, the more experienced ones, realized that formation did not seem natural for a ritual event.
Serafall noticed the shift in the environment.
The murmurs were no longer only curiosity.
There was discomfort.
Suspicion.
Political fear.
"They are beginning to notice," she said.
Chysis smiled without humor.
"They took long enough."
Natasha kept her expression calm, but her eyes discreetly followed the upper sections of the stands.
"Some representatives are getting tense."
"They should be," Chysis said. "If it is proven that there was external interference, someone will lose more than prestige."
Carmilla showed her tiny bat teeth.
"I hope they lose their heads."
Scarlet murmured:
"Me too."
Serafall looked at both of them.
"Could you two try not to sound so happy about the possibility of a public execution?"
Carmilla and Scarlet answered at the same time:
"No."
Serafall gave up.
On the screen, Victor lowered his body slightly. Even without sound, everyone in the reserved section perceived the exact moment he decided to move. Black Lightning lit around his legs and the sword, not like a wild explosion, but like a more organized flow. Still aggressive. Still unstable. But clearly better than before.
Scarlet held her breath.
Carmilla went completely still.
Chysis narrowed her eyes.
Serafall rested her hands on her lap and watched her son with a silent expression too deep to be reduced to concern or pride.
Then Victor disappeared from the rock.
On the screen, a black line crossed the space between the rocky outcrop and the clearing. The impact against the first blood barrier made the image tremble for an instant, and several people in the stands stood up involuntarily when the protection was crushed all at once.
The sound came delayed through the transmission magic.
A muffled thunder echoed through the arena.
Carmilla smiled.
"That is my husband."
Scarlet opened her wings, indignant and fascinated at the same time.
"Our husband."
Carmilla looked at her.
Scarlet retreated again.
"...The husband."
Chysis let out a low laugh, but her gaze soon returned to the screen. The group in the ruins began to move, Grace descended from the rocky formation, and the remaining barriers started activating one after another. This would not be a simple fight. It was a breaking point. Depending on what happened there, the entire Ritual could be forcibly ended.
Serafall watched the screen for a few more seconds, then her gaze discreetly shifted across the stands.
Something was wrong.
Not only inside the dimension.
Outside as well.
She searched among the reserved sections, analyzing faces, absences, and movements. Then she frowned slightly.
"Where did Rakshasa go?"
The question was not loud.
But Natasha heard it.
Chysis did too.
Carmilla stopped complaining.
Scarlet fell silent.
For a moment, the reserved section seemed colder.
On the screen, Victor was beginning to tear through the twenty-five participants like a black storm.
Outside it, someone dangerous had disappeared.
