Vampire Nightlife

"Corruption." Cerisedel spoke the word with a slight grimace. She looked at Lukas and knew that when he looked at her, all he could see was the raw power and potential that she had portrayed to him.

It was her fault—but the thought of being seen as anything less with her heritage and ancestry placed on her shoulders was unacceptable.

"Yes. We need to go down and eliminate the threat." Lukas said as he jerked a thumb out the cave. "The faster, the better."

"Let\'s not be hasty." Cerisedel said and slowed as she took a step back. Without her dragon body, she felt bare and weak—but even the idea of transforming into her dragon self was not enough.

"What is it?" Lukas asked. "Do you have something that might help us? Magic? Spellbooks? Anything of the like?"

Cerisedel looked at Lukas and noticed the slight amount of greed in his eyes, a hunger for knowledge and to devour them. If anything—that was also a terrifying thing to encounter.

"Maybe some special weapons?"

"Yes… I suppose so, but I wished to check on the records that my ancestors has left for me. There is a chance that this threat that you are speaking of has been already conquered in the past and I only need to check on how it occured, following the traditional path is not bad sometimes."

"If they did a good job at dealing with the threat of the one in the Dark Forest, I don\'t see as how to why this thing has woken up again, unless whatever they used was weak in the first place or they didn\'t know how to deal with the threat in the first place—er, I bet it isn\'t like that." Lukas managed a grin.

It was a nervous one, Cerisedel could feel it, but even she shared the same hesitance as he did and so she didn\'t want to point it out.

"Okay, very well. This will be another secret between us, mortal. If you dare to share this information with anyone then you risk everything and everyone you know to oblivion."

"Understood." Lukas said.

Cerisedel sighed but then turned to the cave and lifted her hand. Magic coursed through her body as she opened the seal on the cave and unlocked the other area that had not opened for anyone except herself.

Even the strongest of the wyverns had no access to it, only she, of dragon blood managed to open it and found the treasures that lay in them.

The cave rumbled slightly, like an earthquake before another opening revealed itself and showed itself to Lukas and Cerisedel.

"After you." Lukas said.

"Of course. If you dared enter here by yourself then you\'d be torn into pieces." Cerisedel haughtily said before she stepped into the new opening, Lukas following after her.

Once they stepped inside, the opening closed immediately and prevented anyone from following them.

Lukas didn\'t know what to expect—or rather, he just didn\'t know what he\'d see in particular, but the almost natural and beautiful design of the cave from earlier was trumped by the fact that what they entered next was akin to a magical and enchanted library crossed with a treasure room.

There was a typical dragon\'s pile filled with gems, gold coins and other shows of wealth, treasure chests, artifact-like objects like handheld mirrors, swords and other things that Lukas was tempted to grab and maybe store for next time.

\'I\'ve never been rich in terms of Nyx Credits, but there\'s no doubt that if I were to grab some of these? Everything being online or not, they\'d still pay a hefty sum for these."

"Do not think of even becoming a thief. You won\'t escape this room alive, stranger-kin." Cerisedel called out to him as she padded all the way to a beautiful crystal ball and placed her hand on it.

It first showcased the beautiful skies above Ilstad Mountain, there were wyverns that were flying in the air and enjoying themselves and the sight of that made her smile.

She knew that they were capable of taking care of themselves, but if there was truly a big threat that would endanger them all then she\'d need to interfere.

"Dark Forest." Cerisedel said.

Nothing appeared at first. The crystal ball only showed the same scene of her people and it made her frown.

"What are you doing?" Lukas asked.

"If I know of the place and where its proximity is, then I am able to peer into the location from the place where I\'m standing in but right now it isn\'t working. Perhaps it needs a bit more magic." Cerisedel fed it more mana, and the orb flickered slightly showing a fraction of the forest, but then disappearing again.

To Lukas, it was like someone had glitched a security camera.

"Unacceptable. I do not accept this—show me, show me Dark Forest." Cerisedel frowned hard and forced her magic into the crystal ball.

And soon it revealed itself.

But unlike what Lukas and the others had seen earlier, it was a completely different scenario in Cerisedel\'s crystal ball. What appeared like trees now seemed more like grotesque dark flesh that were melded together, less of trees and more of a being.

There was once again a sense of wrongness in Lukas\' vision and before he could stare more, the crystal ball dimmed.

Or rather, Cerisedel forced it shut and her eyes widened.

A passage from a line in a book, in a journal transposed itself into her mind and she recited it with a haunt in her tone.

"The Unknowns let it fall forever into a deep slumber and let nobody ever wander, for when it dreams, it controls everything to its whims and when it wakes, the world you know separates."

"That\'s…" Lukas looked at the expression on the dragon\'s face and knew that even with her as an ally, it would be a tough battle.

Could they actually survive this and make it to the next day?