The Bemused Ruse

'This can't be!'

Athan clenched his jaws as his face got livid from what happened before his eyes.

'No, this is just her hidden ploys. I knew they're alive.'

He raised his hand, about to punch the windows when he heard a subtle hoot sound that perked his ears.

He took a sharp turn, and it was a silhouette of an owl. 'Sentinels!'

However, from afar, he started to notice the pair of dark azure orbs that lit like wisps on one of the trees afar.

'No! This is a Winter Sentinel!' he breathed out of horror and conjured an arrow of crimson flame. It struck the owl's chest instead of its head as it tried to flew away from him.

Once the snow owl got reduced to ashes, he scoured around. His vision began to heighten, zooming in and out, checking every nook and cranny of the array of naked trunks nearby the lawn. Afterwhich, he arched his neck and gazed at the higher floors and its canopy.

Amidst the white and pale shades from the structure of the house, there were no signs of vibrant veins—even the Melbourne family now became frozen scriptures.

'God damned! Right after coming back, I got too complacent… I got recorded!'

He then peered sideways at the location of the ashes.

So far, he only managed to find one sentinel that was present in the vicinity. He leaned by the window ledge, reflecting on the current situation.

'As much as I wanted to believe its His Grand Highness, the Grand Duke, the perpetrator of the sentinels. But with this occult manifestation of ice magic and the existence of winter sentinels; there's no way Mystique is out of my list…' He clicked his tongue before turning around.

'I was too late…' Tucking his hands inside his pockets, walking away, with his trails easily covered with the large packets of snow that befell him.

For all he knew, Iris meant to monitor Mystique for as long as he could. The latter had yet to suspect the former.

Looking back, soon as Mystique fell into eternal slumber, Arnold began to take over with the schemes. Just for his last kin, he ought to seek vengeance.

Athan never cared what happened as Mystique vanished afterward as even Iris and the closest person to be with her, the Commander of Arctic Order, Keith, had no idea where she had been.

While trudging back to where Nero stayed, he lifted his gloved hands. Despite well-insulated from cold, it still shivered. Perhaps he remembered having to face the true power that laid dormant within the Grand Duke of Blackwell, and it was almost a stalemate with the Emperor.

A scary noble has yet to unleash; he couldn't help but gulp as he thought he already dug the grave himself.

'Perhaps it's true that one supposed villain might disappear will get replaced by even terrifying individual.' He shook his head. 'Is this why I have returned? No, I can't jump just yet. Mystique is my enemy…'

But instead of his thoughts wavered, he became resolute. Seeing what happened inside the manor, it's highly probable that Mystique came back, even with her sinister ways remained intact.

Athan scrunched his face as though he tried to remember whatever she did. Her evil goals knew no bounds, but it was hard for him to believe how it could make things better.

For instance, live vampire experiment for a prototype magic augmentation...

He didn't want to remember the horrors behind the Imperial Academy doors back then. It wasn't something he tolerated.

Enough said for this kind of sentinel as well.

Yet, it bore fruition when it came to the battlefield. Even saved his life from her powerful arsenal—an eye-opener.

"What took you so long?" Nero, in the distance, yawning, raised its majestic stony head from his furry limbs that curled into

sleeping position.

"...Change of plans, Nero," he replied without considering his question; he dusted off the thickets of snow that piled on him.

If not for his glamorous green streaks of light, he would turn out like some stony mounds covered with snow.

"I got too careless; there was a sentinel—"

"Oh, you mean those tasty owls?"

"You knew?!" Athan's eyes almost gouged out of the sockets.

"Right, I ate them. It was just one when a couple came in rounds from that direction." Nero peered in the peculiar direction. He cackled while rubbing his belly. "I love a good meal. Breakfast for dinner."

From the Starbrooke Castle...

Nero might have taken it lightly, but it was different with Athan as he held a grave look.

"Wait, did their eyes glow?'

"When I snapped their necks? Definitely, a quick glint before turning dull. Bloody delicious!"

Athan got stumped from his claims.

'Huh? Did I miss something?'

These kinds of familiars thrived on scouting prowess, their agile and vision capabilities considered top-notch. Different forms of sentinels in several territories but had the same function.

'If I remember well after Mystique revealed all of her tricks up her sleeve before she died, she called this… What was it?' He rubbed his chin after giving a thought. 'Camera?'

After affirming the proper term, camera, he gulped hard about the remote ability the moment its azure orbs flashed.

Athan already prepared himself confronting the reincarnated Mystique, but knowing how Nero reported. Things didn't match up.

There was no need for sending reinforcements as a single familiar was enough. But knowing it otherwise, there was still a problem with the transmission of information.

This meant the other party only got a warning signal but never knew the underlying cause. His thoughts gave him to conjecture that it has yet to come out as a military boon.

Only the late Mystique could achieve this feat.

Athan was somehow safe and out of the radar.

Although, so much he connected the dots already, after making it thus far. The familiars failed the checklist.

He clenched his jaw, so hard streaks of veins on his forehead and neck. It caught his familiar's pleased face into a spoil.

"Nevermind, hop on. We're going to the last destination, to the Starbrooke Castle." Nero jerked his head up.

"We shall; let's go." Athan jumped, swiftly sailed midair, and onto his back. With a pat, they flew high.

The blizzard, as strong and chaotic it got, was no different from the cast of doubt in his head.

'Had Arnold planned this after all? So, what's going on with Mystique? Maybe they are working together?'