102: The Great Danger

(Jacob POV)

*BANG*

With a single punch, I broke the door blocking my path. I entered the room with no hesitation at all. There was absolutely nothing I was afraid of. I could see everything from my vision. There were no traps. Just three people in the room.

I entered and took a look around.

"you took your sweet time. You are slow as always. Jacob." I heard a really obnoxiously familiar voice. I recognized everything about that voice. I had not heard it many times in my life but it had left a great impact on my memory.

"Why is it that every time there is a mess anywhere in the world, you people are involved." I massaged my temples. I could not believe that these people were the ones who were behind this incident.

"Because I am awesome." I heard Maxwell say. I could recognize him. How would I not? He had held the title of the strongest swordsman as long as he had been in the family. His personality was the absolute worse. I remembered him from my younger days as he taught the sword to the children of Morningstars. He had an extremely narcissistic personality. He considered everyone but himself unworthy.

"What are you doing here." I asked them. There were three of them. I recognized two of them.

There was Xeros. An's uncle. And then there was Maxwell. The strongest swordsman to ever live in the history of the Morningstars. Then there was the third person. I did not recognize her. She had a disheveled appearance. She too had white hair but her hair was not exactly like those of us Morningstars. It was closer to blond. Honestly, speaking, I could not beat them. If they all tried to attack me at once, then I could not take them. I would have died. But dying did not matter. I would have used everything in my arsenal. I would stay alive no matter what. Because I had made a promise that I needed to fulfill no matter what. I had already decided in my mind that I was going to win.

"I don't have the time nor the mental capacity to deal with you people here. So start by telling me who killed my subordinate and who trapped the children here. And who is responsible for...….." I paused for a moment.

There were no proper words to describe linen and her condition that I had seen outside. I mean there were. It was called by a name but I did not want to say it. It felt disrespectful. And now that I knew it was made from a human, more so a child, I could not say the word. So I struggled to come up with a word.

"You mean the chimera." The girl spoke before I could come up with a word to say.

A chimera. That was what they called such a creature. A creature born through some kind of experiment by combining the body parts of different organisms to make an overall stronger creature. It was something that was banned by the Ministry of Magic. It was a horrible field of magic. Some dark aspects of the magical world that no one should dirty their hands with. It was a form of black magic. One of the most heinous ones.

"You are asking about the Chimera right?" She asked again. Was she dumb or was she doing this on purpose, I did not know. But if she was doing this to anger me, then it was working really really well.

I turned my head a little and looked at the girl. She seemed weak. I wanted to kill her.

"Can he not hear me?" She looked towards Xeros.

"I have no clue actually." And he simply shrugged his shoulders.

She looked back at me.

"Hey, I am talking to you, Mr. oh-so-mighty vampire. Or are you above me and would only answer to Maxwell here?" She mocked me again.

"Will you shut up woman," I growled. Out of anger, my fangs popped out.

"OOOO scary." She pretended to be scared of me. "Well, whatever. I am asking you if you were talking about the chimera out there that attacked you." I snapped at that.

Before anyone could move a muscle, I jumped toward the girl as fast as I could. I stabbed her with my dagger with all the force I could muster.

"Oh oh oh oh." But I was blocked. "Hold your horses, young man. You really think you can hurt her while I am here." Maxwell had reached the girl before me, and he had stopped my dagger using his sword.

"You did not need to do that." I heard her speak. "I can defend myself well." She said to Maxwell.

"Yeah I know that but, no one can attack my people when I am around." He replied.

"WHO IS YOUR PEOPLE...… HAAAAANNN" She screamed in rage.

"Besides." But Maxwell neglected her anger. "He is after the one who killed his subordinate." Then he turned towards me. "If you are talking about the lowlife that had died outside, then yeah it was me." Maxwell revealed that he was the killer of the vampire.

Anger made my blood boil.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN LOW LIFE. HE WAS A GOOD SOLDIER. HE WAS MY SUBORDINATE." And with that, I slashed at him again using both my daggers.

"Oh...…. You are feisty." But Maxwell simply blocked all my attacks without exerting much.

"Get out of my way damn it." I slashed his face which he simply dodged and then made a swing at my leg. I had to jump to evade but that was a mistake. It resulted in me getting the hilt of the sword straight in my stomach.

"UGH." I cried as I was sent flying backward.

(What strength.)

I was flabbergasted. He was strong.

"I told you not to butt in Maxwell." I heard the woman say.

"But he is looking for the one who killed his subordinate. And I was the one who killed him. So why should I back down." Maxwell replied.

"Just do as she tells you, Max. She will handle the vampire. We need to go." I looked towards the third one who had not said anything since the beginning.

He raised his hand and then a staff appeared in his hand. It was the same stuff I had seen.

(Why had I not thought about this before.)

The staff Xeros had, was some kind of battery. There were fairies trapped in it. And he used the pure magic produced by the fairies to enhance his own magic. Just like the black crystal that had the demonic attribute imbued in it. It also used the power of demons to absorb the magic.

(The one who made the staff, is also the one who is responsible for making that crystal)

My brain connected the threads and the picture became clear.

"XEROS." I growled and got up. At least I tried. As soon as I stood up, I felt like vomiting.

I let it all out. It was all blood.

(What????)

I was confused. Maxwell had hit me but once with his sword. And I had gotten an internal injury. I knew he was strong but this was simply absurd.

(It must be his troublesome ability.)

The ability to inject his magic into anything to enhance its performance. It did not seem much but in the hands of a sword and battle genius like Maxwell, this simple ability became the most troublesome thing to deal with.

(Now I am sure he injected his mana into me when we came in contact for that brief moment.)

"STOP….." I yelled out to Xeros.

He looked back at me and then ignored me.

"Come along Max. We need to leave. There are many things that need to be done." He raised his staff and I saw as a fissure appeared. It seemed as if the air had cracked like glass. It emitted azure blue color.

(WHAT IN THE BLAZING HELL.)

I could not believe my eyes. I did not know what actually was happening but it seemed that Xeros had torn open space and was using it as a means of transport. Inside the building there were wards placed that did not allow apparition. And now I was looking at someone who had simply found a way to bypass those wards easily. That was unbelievable. That was revolutionary. That was..... scary.

They could go anywhere like this. There was nowhere safe now. They could open a fissure to Hogwarts, or into Gringotts the wizarding bank or even........ Then a realization occurred to me.

(The Pandora's box.)

The horror structs as I realized that they could simply teleport into the Pandora's chamber and open the Pandora's box.

This was a horrible thing. It had so many implications. I had to stop them here. Or else everything we had worked for would die out.

"STOP." I forced myself to get up.

(MOVE DAMN IT.)

"OOOO...…. It's so good to be young right?" Maxwell passed another comment.

I forced my body to move. His mana was still lingering inside my body and slowing down my innate healing. But there was no time. They were about to walk out of the fissure and then God knew where would that be. I had to stop and kill them right here right now.

(There is no other way.)

I hated doing this. It was a part of me, but I did not like it. But right now, there was no other way. Magic accumulated around me and blood rose from the ground making a halo. I was going to use blood magic. Immediately I used the blood to reinforce the damaged organs. That allowed me to move my body. I used my own mana to drive out the mana he had injected into my body while using the blood to accelerate myself.

"XEROS." I shouted as I pounced at him almost like a rabid beast.

By that time Maxwell had already passed through the fissure. And Xeros was following him. But as I shouted, he turned to look at me but his face remained expressionless.

"You foolish night crawler." He spoke as he waved his staff vertically in an arc as if making a slash with a sword. A thin almost transparent layer of yellow light appeared in the path that the staff had followed. I collided with that light and it felt like a steel wall.

"UGH." I said as many bones in my knuckle broke.

"Give it up night walker, you can't break through this barrier." Xeros smirked.

"You need to stop calling me nightwalker." I screamed as I punched the barrier again. But it did not budge.

"I said give it up. The likes of you can't break this barrier." He was adamant. But was I going to stop? No!

I raised my hand and many strands of blood rose from my body. They floated in the air and in seconds, they formed spears made of blood and then all of them fell on the barrier.

"UGGGHHHHH." I applied more and more force, but the barrier did not move.

"I told you to leave it. It's out of your league." He said as he turned to walk away.

*CRACK*

A crack resounded in the hall we were in. Xeros immediately stopped in his tracks. Slowly he turned to look towards the barrier that had a dagger passing through it. And there were various cracks around the point from where the barrier was broken.

"It's out of my league!......... I can't break it!......... Says who?" I said before slamming my other dagger which was also surrounded with blood into the barrier as well. It also passed through. The points where the blood spears were exerting pressure also had cracked.

"You seriously need to stop underestimating me." I say as his pupils dilated and he raised his staff to cast some sort of magic. But I was faster.

"Reducto" I simply chanted as two spells emitted from my daggers sizzled towards Xeros. I wanted to turn him to dust.

"Protego." I heard Xeros say and then.... an explosion resounded. I was flung backward and so was Xeros. His fissure came undone. And his staff also went flying. I had lost my daggers as well when I fell but that was no big deal because as of right now, I could simply use the blood magic to end Xeros. And that was what I had planned. I broke the fall using blood magic. The blood accumulated beneath me and acted as a cushion. I made a hand gesture pointing towards Xeros and the same cushion lunged me towards my target. I flew towards Xeros at a great speed. But he was no amateur. By that time he too had recovered his posture. He saw me fall and then come his way. Quickly he pointed his hand towards his staff that was laying far away from him.

"Come." I heard him say.

The staff complied with the command and went towards him flying.

(I am not going to make it before him.)

I pulled out my wand midair and pointed it at Xeros. If I was not going to make it, I was going to kill him from where I stood. There was a single thing that could be donr in order to have a sure kill.

A curse that no one could stop.

One of the unforgivable curses.

The killing curse.

I was going to use it. I honestly did not want to use a black magic spell. It was a taboo but there was no other way.

"Avada...….." Time slowed down as even Xeros understood my intentions. Horror appeared on his face. It seemed as if I could read his mind. He was begging me not to do it. The staff was still far away. He could have cast magic without the staff but it would not be nearly as effective. And a simple portego could not even block the killing curse. There was nothing he could do in such a short time.

"KA...." I chanted. But then I saw something. A hand.

I looked towards the right and saw a hand. And on the palm, there was something written.

(Ieherketa?)

I thought as I recognized the Rune of explosion. It was one of the very basic runes taught to us. But it was not the Ieherketa itself. There was something else as well. It had been modified somehow and I could not read it well.

(What the?)

And then it exploded.

Exploded right in my face.

I was flung back with a force that was greater than the Reducto I had cast. The world blurred around me as I felt the strong gust of wind hit my back. And then the stone wall.

*BAM*

I came to a hurling stop as my back hit the wall with overwhelming force. I fell down, limp, not able to move. The explosion had rendered me powerless. I had several fractures and I assumed there was much internal bleeding as well. Naturally, my healing kicked in quickly and started to heal my body. But my mind was hazy. It was painful. Really painful. And I could not think straight in all that pain. I simply lay there doing nothing. As my body healed, I got some clarity back. I moved my head to look at what had happened to Xeros. I saw him standing near another fissure. Talking to the girl. Then he looked towards me. We locked eyes. And then he bowed.

"I am really sorry Mr. Morningstar." He spoke in a surprisingly humble way. "I apologize for my rude behavior towards you. And I promise that if you survive and we meet again, I shall never underestimate you. But for now, some matters need my attention." And with that, he turned and walked into the fissure.

"No" I wanted to scream but only a whisper came out. But Xeros was long gone by then. And the fissure closed behind him.

"DAMN IT." I punched the ground with what little strength I had.

My body was healing gradually but it needed a minute or so.

"TCH TCH TCH." I heard the girl speak.

I looked towards the sound. And saw her sitting on a table.

"I am very upset you know." She spoke like an old friend. "I am really really upset Jacob. Why did you assault those two inside my lab."

(What??? What the hell is this woman saying.)

"Well, that was because you did not provide a colosseum." I mocked as I tried to stand.

"No, I don't mean that I mind you fighting in my lab. What I mind is you ignoring me." She answered.

"Why would I not ignore you? You are a child whom I don't even know." I stood up. I was almost back in my peak condition.

"Well I actually would not have minded you ignoring me in regular circumstances but, you had asked about me and then you did not pay any attention to me at all. That made me feel as if you were undermining my art." She said.

"WHAT ART." I was not in the mood for jokes and if it was her idea of some joke, it was horrible.

"The chimera of course." She said nonchalantly.

"The?" Suddenly the realization occurred. I had forgotten the promise made to the children. It was then that I realized something.

(Where the heck am I? What the hell is this place.)

"Welcome to my laboratory, Mr. Morningstar." She giggled as she presented all the horrible things that were scattered in that place.