Chapter 31

In the regent's suits, Chamberlain vs Meohle.

In the room that served as Seiran's mother's living room, nothing resembled a room designed for receiving guests. The furniture had been massacred, reduced to rubble, the fabrics gutted and the floor and walls painted red. A bright red that traced the length of the light-coloured wall. A bright red that seeped between the floorboards of the precious wood. A red that flowed unabated from the regent's body on the floor.

From the chamberlain's hand, a strange shape like a pointed horn protruded from his sleeve. Blood dripped from the tip like an hourglass, ticking away the seconds of life remaining to its owner. The chamberlain stepped forward and lifted the demon's manton from the tip of its strange extension, but it fell inertly to the ground.

He smiled cruelly. Suddenly, he felt the satisfaction of having one of the greatest generals in the demon army at his feet. The feeling of power and might intoxicated him. What a sweet pleasure it was to beat someone so powerful and have them lie at your feet. He laughed quietly, his whole body shaking with the spasms of his mirth. How he had waited for this moment! How he had waited for this day to come! At last, he would be able to indulge his deepest desires. At last, he would have his revenge on his long-standing enemy!

"Lou, wait for me, you're the one I'm aiming for at the end of the road. You are my goal." he whispered, watching the demoness's face at his feet. Then he lost his smile. She was barely alive. He couldn't let her die, she was going to be his bargaining chip for his next plan.

He stood up and opened his hand, revealing a translucent, human-sized cylinder filled with a blue liquid. He grabbed the demoness by the neck and lifted her effortlessly, then placed her in the cylinder, which absorbed the regent's body as if it were alive. Satisfied, the chamberlain observed his work with a victorious smile. Sensing no further danger around him, he deactivated the energy distortion zone, and was about to make the object disappear as he had made it appear, when he saw a blue flash to his right. He only had time to lower his strange horn on it before the flash disappeared in the blink of an eye, taking with it the cylinder containing the demoness which vanished before the bewildered eyes of the hooded creature.

The action had only lasted a fraction of a second. The blue flash had left behind a puddle of blue blood in which a left arm bathed before disappearing into nothingness. The arm, as blue as the blood that surrounded it, was like a taunting leg for the victim who could only acknowledge his loss. It was an abject failure.

"No....That's not possible...NO! A leech? Since when has there been a leech in the castle?"

The chamberlain was seized with panic. A key element of his plan had just been taken away from him. In a fit of rage, he sent the debris flying from a table that was miraculously still standing, sending it crashing against the wall, which crumbled a little further. His breathing quickened under the stress and he was panting.

Too bad. He'd lost Seiran's mother as a negotiating tool, but he still had the upper hand in terms of strength. He had got rid of Mischien, Eviris had taken his side for a while, and this angel was no match for him. He would get his way no matter what. He would just find it harder to control the demon after that, that was all. He wanted to turn him into a docile little dog who would obey his every command with his mother's life in his hands, but he'd have to do without. He gritted his teeth. He had no choice. Despite the loss he had just suffered, he couldn't afford to waste any more time.

Activating his dematerialised chip, he brought up a card with a flashing blue dot. Perfect. His target was closer than expected. She must not have known where to go in the situation she was in. He approached the window and climbed onto the balustrade. He then spread his hideous wings, half feathers and half skin, and leapt into the void. He quickly disappeared into the blue of the sky.

-----

On the outskirts of Yerpena's palace

Yousmaïl was curled up on the ground. Nervous, she was biting her nails. She had escaped from the castle almost an hour ago. She had acted on impulse and fled without thinking. Now she found herself trapped on Ornikarn, with no way of leaving. Confident as she was in herself and her ability to turn the situation to her advantage, she hadn't taken any interdimensional portals with her. Only now did she realise how much she had sinned through pride.

She had to find a solution quickly. The squadron would soon find her if this continued. But she had nowhere to go, and the nearest galactic port was the palace. She had no option but to wait, camouflaging her presence as best she could and luring the guards with the shadows she had sent running in different directions.

But it wasn't going to last. She had twenty minutes at the most before the guards realised the subterfuge and retraced their steps. In the urgency of the situation, she had found no other solution than to hide as close to the castle as possible. That way, the members of the squadron would have to travel twice the distance when her shadows disappeared.

She broke a nail and sat up. She couldn't stay here anyway. She was going to hide in the city for a while before stealing an aircraft from the palace. That was all she could do anyway.

She was about to leave the cave when someone landed right in front of her entrance, blocking out all the light coming from it. The vampire instinctively stepped back and took up a defensive position. She was exhausted, but she wouldn't let herself be beaten so easily.

"Are they back already?" she panicked, cursing inwardly.

The newcomer took a few steps and entered the cave. The vampire's heart was racing. Strangely enough, the person who had just entered, whose silhouette she could only make out because of the darkness of the place, looked nothing like a demon.

She squinted. Eventually they became accustomed to the darkness and she raised her eyebrows when she recognised the person standing in front of her.

-Chamberlain?" she asked in surprise.

She heard the person in front of her snigger.

-I'm offering you the chance to achieve your goals in exchange for a little help. You can marry Prince Seiran, I'll get rid of your rival in love and you can take the throne without losing the favour of your family. What do you say?"

-What do you want in return?" asked the vampire, who wasn't fooled.

-Nothing, I told you. I need some help with a search that would be tedious if I did it alone, three times nothing!

The demoness frowned a little more and growled in her deep voice, urging her interlocutor to stop toying with her.

-If you can't be more precise than that, I'll be sorry if I can't be of any help to you."

The chamberlain paused for a moment and looked into the young woman's sparkling eyes.

-I don't think you're really in a position to negotiate, Yousmaïl," he said. "You've got the whole squadron after you, and no safe way to escape. Besides, I doubt your family will welcome you back to Amadeus with open arms. After all, you've just ruined a relationship with the demons that has benefited your people for centuries..."

The vampire tensed. She gritted her teeth. There was no denying it, the fact was that she was in a bad way. Not only had she failed to achieve what she had come here to do, but she had also caused harm to her family through her actions. She didn't have much choice, but she feared this request from someone she didn't know and whose power she had no idea about.

-Mmh...I can keep you informed after all, it won't change the programme much," finally conceded the chamberlain, who could see the intensity of his interlocutor's inner conflict. "I want to rescue Niyari. To do that, I need someone powerful enough to search for the fragments with me."

As she understood what she had just heard.

-Resurrect...Niyari? But that's impossible, she was solidified by the last master of blades...."

-Impossible is not a demon spirit," he interrupted, "We don't know much about these beings, we don't even know why they existed, and we don't know how to make them disappear. Niyari never really disappeared. It's a lie that was told by the organisation to allow people to live in inner peace. But as long as her fragments exist, she could very well come back to life!"

The vampire straightened up, her eyes darting from right to left as she thought about what she had just heard.

-But we're talking about Niyari, she's not just any spirit! She's far too powerful to be controlled!"

The chamberlain smiled again, a smile that sent a chill down the vampire's spine. The more she talked to him, the more uncomfortable she felt around him. He exuded a disturbing aura of coldness that would unsettle even the most seasoned soldier.

-Not if it's channelled into a bodily envelope," he finally said.

-But nobody's natural energy is pure enough or powerful enough to channel such a monster..." raised the Amadean, who couldn't quite see the folly of the plan.

-There must be someone capable of it, though," said the chamberlain, who had resumed his comings and goings.

The vampire looked at him quizzically. If someone like that existed, they'd know!

-Jangta Okram, or should I say...Niris of Egea?"

-What angel...? And began Niris...d'Egea? Wait, what are you saying? Isn't his real identity that he's the son of the Lord of Meripaea? But rather..."

-The son of Emperor Aroslan of Egea, no less," the chamberlain finished, punctuating his sentence with a pause.

The vampire couldn't help but open her mouth wide in amazement. It seemed unbelievable to her, and at the same time, it all made sense. The quiet confidence that exuded from the little angel, too refined to be a simple country prince. His eloquence and natural aura, his extensive knowledge of the institutions and rules of the high nobility. It all made sense. Everything became so clear, so obvious, that she couldn't believe she hadn't noticed it earlier.

-You mean...Emperor Aroslan has a son? And that he's been hiding his existence all this time? But how? Why?"

-Are you curious too?" poked the chamberlain. "What a discovery it was when I found out! And to think that he had hidden his existence so well that I didn't believe it for a while. But not only does Emperor Aroslan have a son, he also has a third of the Niyari fragments implanted in him. That day, I rejoiced like a child."

He took a few steps and then continued.

-I desperately tried to locate the Niyari fragments so that I could go and get them back, until one day I only had a few fragments left to locate. But it was impossible, they were nowhere to be found! Then one day, by chance, I came across them. Through a report that had been destroyed and forgotten by the Egyptian authorities, I tracked them down. About twenty years ago, they disappeared in an unusual place: the imperial palace of Sophianopolis."

He stopped again and faced the vampire who was listening to him, eyes and ears wide open.

-They reappeared there and then disappeared, as if by magic. It was impossible to find any other traces after that. So I deduced that they'd never left. But they weren't appearing. Fragments of demonic spirits lost in the wild always emit a distinct aura that allows them to be identified. But they weren't emitting any. So I did my research, and by dint of hard work I found another trace: that of the most renowned mage of our time Miire."

The vampire frowned. She wasn't sure she was following. The chamberlain finally decided to give her the details she was missing.

-As it happens, Miire was in Sophianopolis at the same time as the last time the fragments appeared. Why would that old crouton Miire who's been retired for years suddenly make an emergency trip to Egea, if not to do something only he can do: implant fragments of a demonic spirit into a newborn baby?"

He laughed with an assumed sadism that sent a chill down the Amadean princess's spine.

-As for finding out who it was, it wasn't very difficult... It's difficult to hide a child, especially one who is active in intergalactic politics, even under a false identity. It's true that he doesn't look like his parents, so no one could guess his affiliations, but he does resemble his mother's ancestors, one person in particular. The resemblance is quite striking to anyone who knows about it, and I was lucky to be one of them. I quickly deduced that this diplomat was none other than Niris of Egea, the son of Emperor Aroslan.The emperor wouldn't have sacrificed anyone else but his son to be Niyari's gatekeeper..."

Yousmaïl's mind began to race. This was too much information at once. First Emperor Aroslan had a son, then he had fragments of Niyari implanted in him, and now some madman wanted to revive Niyari through the angel who had stolen her fiancé?

She shook her head, trying to clear her mind, but it was recalcitrant and making the task difficult.

-So... you mean... Niris can be used as a vector to... revive Niyari?"

-Not a vector, no. A shell. I want to use him as a vessel. I want to turn him into a living weapon capable of destroying any enemy!" the chamberlain replied.

-You're mad..." breathed Yousmaïl, his eyes wide with the fear that the idea he had just expounded represented.

-No, just greedy for revenge," corrected his interlocutor.

The vampire decided not to pursue the subject. She knew how pointless it was to argue with someone who had lost all sense of reason.

-You have nothing to lose in this partnership. I give you what you've always dreamed of, and you simply help me recover the fragments I've located. After that, you can do what you like, I don't care as long as I fulfil my own objective."

The Amadean princess did not reply. She took a moment to think. She was in a delicate situation with no way out. All her ambitions were about to collapse suddenly and she was going to find herself with nothing, overnight. In the worst-case scenario, she might even end up in prison.

On the contrary, the chamberlain was offering to get all this back, in exchange for purely material help that would not be too difficult to provide. The scales were clearly tipped in one direction. Having analysed all this, the vampire's greed gradually began to take over again. After all, what did she care if the chamberlain was mad? What did she care if he wanted to revive a thousand-year-old demonic spirit? All she wanted was power and might. And he was capable of giving it to her. Right here, right now.

-Time is running out, tell me your answer, I must act now," urged the chamberlain, who wasted not a second of his time.

-How do you intend to make Seiran obey you?" she then asked.

The chamberlain smiled cruelly.

-I've got his mother's life in my hands, there's nothing he can do."

It didn't matter if he told a little lie. He'd make it up later. The vampire smiled back in the same way. It was perfect. Nothing could be more effective in making Seiran bend than using his mother. He would die for her!

-I see," she said. "And what about the Prince of Egea? That doesn't really concern me, but I'm curious about the feasibility of your plan. The Emperor of the Angels won't let you get away with it so easily," she questioned.

-Even Aroslan of Egea has a weakness," replied the chamberlain enigmatically.

-A weakness? What exactly?"

-Not what, but who," continued her enigmatic interlocutor.

The vampire frowned before understanding. She laughed slightly.

-I see. That makes sense. Any sensible parent would die for their child," she solved the riddle.

-So, are you interested?" asked the chamberlain, who was beginning to lose patience.

-Count me in!" replied the vampire.

To get the throne, the man and the power she wanted, and on top of that to see an angel transformed into a human weapon, all that delighted her enormously. Blinded by greed and a thirst for power, she sealed her pact with the chamberlain with a knowing handshake, without asking herself whether she would later regret having taken this path. It was easier to indulge in evil than to fight for good.

-Use this portal and wait for me there. I've got to go back to the castle to finish some business and I'll meet you there," he said, handing her a blue floppy disk typical of interdimensional portals.

The vampire nodded and took the disk. Without wasting any more time, the chamberlain left the cave and flew away. For her part, Yousmaïl turned on the diskette and a portal opened up before her. Without a second's hesitation, she stepped inside. Once she had disappeared, the portal closed, leaving the small cave to its usual dark dampness.