Heart of the issue

Viette's soft laughter echoed in the room. Even after stabbing with a pencil she did not lower her guard as she kept the pencil in the chest while keeping her complete attention on Boian's movements. She then twisted the pencil.

"Pencil is so amazing. It looks so harmless and can be used like this."

"Just the pencil?" Boian shook his head. His eyes were locked with Viette's.

"If not for your energy enhancing it, can a mere pencil penetrate my physical body? You surprised me, girl. What are you?"

Even though she maintained a confident smile, Boian could tell from her eyes that she had a feeling of uncertainty in her mind as he had talked back to her. She might have the assurance that it penetrated his heart, but she could be unsure whether the small pencil could do to cleanly.

"Based on the movies I saw and from what my aunt told me, vampires will die when stabbed in the heart. Even you yourself confirmed that heart is important for you."

She then asked doubtfully.

"Are you going to shrivel and become a corpse or like in some movies, are going to just turn into dust? I prefer the latter because I can always wash my bed if it's dust. I don't want to deal with the ugly corpse. That will be…. awk…..Disgusting. Why are you taking this long? Hurry and die please."

"ehhe ehh..." Boian coughed and his breathing became ragged.

"Why?"

"You know why?" Viette replied with an expression that the answer was obvious.

"You came to harm me. Why do you think I should not do anything to protect myself?" Viette rebuked.

Boian coughed lightly. He kept his eyes locked on Viette's face and with a smile he turned to dust. Viette who laid above couldn't help fall to the bed all of a sudden. Looking at the scattered dust and the pencil that had no trace of blood, Viette sighed. "That's it?"

"You were expecting more?" Boian appeared right behind Viette and whispered in her ears. Viette was surprised by the noise that her body jerked but she was held down by a strong force. Boian used his left hand to hold both of Viette's hand together on her left side, her right hand under her body and her left hand pushed on top of it. He pushed her to lie face down with him above her.

"Ahhhhh... Why are you still alive? Leave me alone."

Viette screamed and resisted by bashing her legs on the bed. But Boian's attention was not on her. He was looking fixedly at the wall with his right arm raised up. His palm was half folded with all fingertips touching together while facing upward. His pupils had a red glow in them.

"Nothing Personal, Umbra Araneus." He whispered before attacking.

"BOOM. Multi-vertical Burst."

He unfolded his fingers making an explosion gesture. From each of his fingers, a slight black energy came out and separated from the finger to become an energy blade that moved vertically towards the direction each finger pointed toward. The energy blade made no damage to the room as it spread to all sides of the room. One blade passed through the TV in the room that was playing the movie with no damage but a slight disruption on the screen for a few seconds.

"I was waiting and did not want to use force. But I can't have you attack me for using force against this girl." Boian said while looking pale.

"How can you see it?" Viette was stunned she forgot to resist anymore.

"Umbra Araneus. Shadow illusion of the spider. Pretty good skill but I am too experienced for these traps." Boian with his red eyes could see the countless spider webs that were made in the room. These webs had a strong weakening effect on the soul of a person. Getting trapped by it means certain death to many people.

With five blades made of his special soul energy, he could cut the main webs that hold the trap together and the shadow spider. He looked at the torn apart spider with a cold sweat. He was lucky it was a male shadow spider. Unlike the fearsome females, it had a much smaller and more elongated abdomen, longer legs. Its timid nature made it wait for all this time and prepare a well-made web trap before confronting him. Soon both the spider and the webs turned to nothingness.

If he did not notice the spider that entered the room when Viette went to the kitchen to get snacks and drinks, he would be trapped like an insect anytime the spider completed its trap.

He had to destroy it the moment he retaliated against Viette or it will be him who will be attacked as the spider's primary goal here was to protect Viette and trap him.

That means the one behind the spider wanted him alive before.

He was startled to awaken from his thoughts by Viette who had already woken up from her stupor. She had resisted with increased force compared to before.

"Your strength." Boian couldn't help but get surprised by the increasing amount of energy she emitted.

"LEAVE ME," Viette screamed.

Boian pressed Viette back to the bed with a tremendous power that the bed legs broke making it touch the floor with a heavy sound.

"THUD."

The Viette screamed again, but this time out of pain. She cried while trying to look back at Boian who used to treat her gently so far. Boian now was unlike the nice person Viette had seen earlier. He had a fierce expression and his eyes emitted a red glow that scared her.

"Why didn't you die before? I was sure I stabbed your heart." Viette cried with tears all over her face.

"Why? You are asking me why? I asked you the same 'why' before. Remember?" Boian did not want to play nice with her. He wanted to let her know he won't be controlled with her weird manipulative ability. He slowly bent his head forward. With his face so close to Viette he told her what she wanted to know.

"You think you stabbed my heart. Did you? HaHa...

Believe it or not.

I am

HEARTLESS."

*****************************************

"How could this be?" Lisa shuddered suddenly. She felt her legs go weak. Her mind went blank she did not realize her supply of soul energy to the ceremonial pendant had been cut off.

The crystallized Evil energy in the air wavered due to this sudden fluctuation. The sudden disturbance had caused all other six elders to feel heavy pressure.

"Lisa, What the fuck are doing?" Lewis shouted. His anger rose as the fruit of their work, the Evil energy, they gathered to sustain for the next couple of years was struggling to exist. He increased his energy output while giving Lisa a deathly glare and willed Margaret to come back.

The portal was shaking continuously and the energy flow from the other world faced obstacles.

The other give elders had a pained and worried expression. They know they now have to do Lisa's portion as well to continue the last portion of the ceremony. It's not they couldn't, but they were afraid to spend their limited soul power on to this. They could be attacked by other elders after the ceremony to gain possession of their portion of the Evil crystal. Even the people they think of as friends will betray them for the limited quantity of crystals.

"You bitch." Nightmare puffed with anger.

"Lisa, whatever issue you have, get back and finish this. We are almost done." Congressman persuaded.

Lisa paid no attention to their bickering, she was focusing in her mind on the male shadow spider she activated for Viette's protection. 'It's dead. He noticed it and perfectly destroyed it.'

"I am sorry everyone. I have to leave now." Lisa bowed slightly before turning her attention to the cloaked elder who has not spoken a word yet.

"Hey, I can sense your immense strength. Please don't hold back anymore. Can you take over my part as well? You can take half portion of my share of Evil crystal and I, Lisa, will owe you a favor." Without even waiting for the cloaked person's reply she turned to leave trying to open the hexagonal barrier.

Two green glows appeared in the dark and concealed face of the cloaked person while looking at Lisa.

"You are not going anywhere after causing this much trouble." Margaret came into the room with energy bursting out of her body. She enforced the barrier to prevent Lisa from leaving.

"Let her go, Margaret," Lewis ordered. He did not look at Lisa or Margaret but appeared to have completely focused on stabilizing the portal. But he knew that letting Lisa go was safer than keeping her here forcefully and thus starting a fight that could only make the mess more disastrous.

He had increased his output to the pendant but soon found another person had also increased the output that almost matches his own. He couldn't help but look at the mysterious cloaked person. 'She had such eyes? But that will not save you from my wrath, Lisa."

After Margaret opened the barrier, Lisa rushed to her home.

"It's my fault. It's entirely my fault. I shouldn't have left her alone."

She couldn't help worry about Viette. If anything happened to her, Lisa could no longer live peacefully. She could only kill herself in guilt. Her face shone in wrath when thinking about the person who made this trouble, the one who had the audacity to broke into her home.

"I have underestimated you. I really underestimated you, Bastard. Even though I usually deal others using my soft illusions, but I will let you know the darkest side of my illusion. I will tear you apart many times that you beg me to kill you."