Chapter 28- Counterattack

Italy, Volterra

Author POV

A man with shockingly translucent pale skin and contrasting dark black hair stood in a room full of artifacts, his crimson eyes hazy and horrifying. There was an almost powdery feeling about his skin, like it would break at the slightest wind.

*Tock*

*Tock*

The sound echoed in the hall as the man walked on the marble floor.

He stopped by an archaic-looking case.

The unremarkable case had the power to attract the attention of one of the oldest vampires.

This case had a special place in Aro's collection; it was kept right in the middle of the hall, situated at a height higher than the other artifacts.

Beside the archaic case, there was another stand. Maybe for a dagger or knife, it wasn't clear as the stand was empty.

Aro slowly grazed the case with his ghastly white nails; this seemingly normal graze would leave the massive pillars with indentation, but the case was fine.

Aro's cloudy eyes were calm, as if he already knew the uniqueness of this archaic case.

"Woosh"

A man with a similar appearance blurred in the room.

The new man stood still, attentively staring at the archaic case.

"Formidable little thing, isn't it?" Caius initiated the conversation.

Aro didn't reply, his gaze still on the case.

Caius didn't get irritated at being ignored; he looked at the empty dagger stand nearby.

"Why give the dagger to twins? Aro, what are you planning?" Caius questioned, completely unbothered by being ignored.

Aro finally broke free from his daze, and with one look at the dagger stand, he shifted his attention to Caius.

"Intuition," Aro replied in a concise way.

Caius didn't get angry at the one-word answer; he was clearly used to Aro's antics after staying together for three thousand years.

"Tock"

"Tock"

Aro ignored Marcus and continued walking around the hall, looking at his collection for the millionth time.

"Intuition is not your forte, old friend," Caius snickered, unwilling to let this conversation end before he found the reason.

"Tock"

Aro, unbothered by his provocation, continued walking around. The twinkle in his cloudy eyes increased as he walked around, like he was seeing the artifacts for the first time.

Caius stared at the quaint case; complicated emotions flashed in his cloudy eyes before it disappeared.

"Remember when we found this thing?" Caius asked, grazing the edge of the case with his finger.

" Tok"

Aro, unconcerned. Walked around the hall.

Caius continued, uncaring about Aro's lack of response.

"Back then, when we were young, we made a bet to see who could destroy this thing," Caius said, a reminiscent smile on his thin lips.

His finger exerted force on the case.

"Kaach"

A line of cracks ran down the exhibition stand, but the case remained unharmed.

"Sturdy old thing," Marcus remarked with a wry smile.

"The six of us—you, me, and Marcus," Caius continued before pausing for a while.

"Athenadora, Sulpicia, and your little sister," Caius continued, his tone hesitant and his body tensed as if expecting an attack.

"Kaach"

Aro's leg exerted force on the marble floor; in an instant, cracks ran wildly on the floor, and it looked like the floor might cave in.

The cracks soon stopped spreading, and seeing as Aro was still, Caius continued.

"But we all failed; finally, we gave it to humans a few decades ago," Caius continued.

Aro stood very still, as if listening to this story, but the

The truth couldn't be further from this.

"They failed too, and we had to slaughter them," Caius said, shaking his head.

Lifting the archaic case in his hands, Caius caressed it.

"This case is made up of unearthly material; it's age can't be determined and is indestructible." Caius recited the qualities of the case.

"Woosh" 

Caius blurred right in front of Aro, stirring up the dust from cracked floors in his wake. His expression was serious, unlike his usual bored face.

Aro gazed into Caius's hazy eyes with his own, and seeing his resolve, he sighed.

Aro blurred to a corner, not liking Caius being in his personal place.

"The dagger has helped us a great deal in the past; a single stab can kill any supernatural creature," Aro remarked.

"Vampires, shapeshifters, and children of the moon. All of them die by a single strike," Aro continued explaining.

Caius, seeing where this was going, shook his head vehemently.

"Don't try to fool me, Aro," Caius replied in a shrill metallic voice.

"With the dagger, they will have a better chance at taking down the anomaly," Aro continued, disregarding Caius' expression, which was getting increasingly distorted.

Aro paused and took in the sight of Caius.

With his lips pulled at his teeth, a feral growl seemed to be slowly emanating from his throat. His usually cloudy eyes were suddenly piercing.

Aro completely disregarded Caius's aggressive stance, bending over and picking up the archaic case.

Slowly cleaning the dust from the case, he turned around and made his way towards the exit at human speed.

Marcus stared at his back in anger before calming down. A smirk was back on his face, his blonde hair was no longer disheveled, and his eyes were filled with haze again.

"Woosh"

With inhuman speed, he left the hall, leaving Aro behind.

Aro continued at a human pace, slowly exiting.

The guards outside got into action, fixing the destruction in the hall.

"Tock"

"Tock"

Aro continued walking in the lonely corridor, his footsteps echoing in the great corridor.

In his mind played the memory from a week ago.

1 week ago

It was a usual night, and with the stress caused by Jason mounting up, he had to calm his mind, so he took a stroll around his collection.

The only thing that calms him is seeing things from different eras. He picked up this habit when he was 500 years old.

Seeing things from past civilizations gives him a sense of high; it reminds him of his immortal nature and how he is almost controlling the world of mortals from the background.

Maybe it was his wariness against humans or the feeling of his dominance over them; only he knows.

While walking around the great hall, his eyes stopped at the exhibit at the center.

The unremarkable dagger and case lie side by side. Under the darkness, they were almost invisible, as if merged with the darkness.

Aro's eyes stopped on the dagger. After losing the connection with its master, the dagger turned completely pitch black with a dull edge.

But hidden underneath that dull edge was world-rending might. Aro, unaware of this, used it to take care of the troublemakers in the supernatural world.

Aro hated the children of the moon with passion. Once out on patrol, he was torn apart by these savages. Completely limbless, he lied in a small pit, waiting for these mindless freaks to wrench his head off.

But he was rescued, and after that, the Volturi hunted werewolves across the globe, driving them extinct.

Soon, Volturi became the peacekeepers of the supernatural world, and with fewer troublemakers, the dagger was reduced to a showpiece of Aro's collection.

"Woosh"

Aro picked up the dagger in a blur; his arm moved so fast that not even afterimages were produced.

Empty slashes in the air were so strong that almost a vacuum was formed. The void became completely isolated from the air before air madly rushed back, creating mini Sonic booms.

Satisfied, he put the dagger down and turned to exit.

The time to relax is over; he has to deal with the mess caused by Jason.

"Kaach"

For an instant, the dagger glowed with an eerie black light; its edge had a silver sheen, which illuminated the entire great hall.

The runic patterns appeared out of nowhere on it, crawling on the hilt, as if wanting to swallow everything. They spread further before being stopped by the otherworldly silver light.

In the next moment, it was as if all of this was just an illusion. The dagger lost its luster, turning into a quaint dagger.

"Woosh"

Even with Aro's vampiric physique, he only saw the silver light dying out in a reflection; before he could set sight on the dagger, the changes disappeared.

Holding the plain dagger in his arm, he rotated it, checking every edge.

But as if mocking him, the dagger looked as unremarkable as before.

Unwilling to believe that his senses were giving up on him, his super brain got to work, calculating the trajectory of light from each exhibit.

"Woosh"

Aro blurred around the room, calculating and trying to find the culprit.

All his calculations were pointing towards the unremarkable dagger in his hands.

Aro raised his palm, bringing the dagger close to his eyes and trying to see through it.

"Interesting." Aro smiled in defeat.

Putting the dagger in its place, he disappeared.

The Present

After a little drama with Caius, Aro reached the balcony. Under the twilight moon, everything looked so gentle and beautiful.

The night was carefree; far away, he could see human couples holding hands and walking under the moonlight, their hearts beating so loudly that any vampire would hear it over a dozen miles.

Aro looked at this coldly before thinking about Jason.

The Undying, the Progenitor.

Jason has gained many titles and names in the last two months.

But the most striking name is "Doom Bringer.".

Destroying entire towns across Western Europe, one after another, towns became lifeless.

The Volturi guards are stretched thin now; all of them were doing damage control.

"Jason," Aro whispered through clenched teeth, venom dripping in his tone.

The utopia built by him was about to collapse.

If humans find out about the supernatural, just this thought made Aro's face lose even more color.

To prevent this, he even sent his strongest guards with the dagger.

His hold on the railing tightened, and the metal groaned under his grasp. Before he managed to calm down.

The cold breeze of the night slowly calmed him down. Looking at the full moon, a thin smile formed on his lips.

Not noticing the sheen of silver light deep within his cloudy eyes.