The shadow space was filled with pitch black shadows so that nothing was visible but their own bodies, which would illuminate slightly while they were inside. If one was to walk through the vast space it would feel like they were walking forever with no destination.
From the inside, one could destroy the space but from the outside, it was nearly impossible for others to interact with. Now inside the safe space, Archer[Quinn] and Ryo[Eno] were standing opposite each other.
A lot of pent up frustration was already aimed at Ryo[Eno] before what had just happened, but now even more anger was pointed towards this mysterious person. What Archer[Quinn] needed more than anything however, was not revenge but answers.
"Francis[Richard] Ryo[Eno] probably doesn't know about me putting myself into the system, even though it does seem quite likely that he was the one that helped me create it." Odom[Vincent] said. "So I think it's best if we keep it a secret."
Still, Odom[Vincent] was unsure about this. It seemed like Ryo[Eno] had installed a type of backdoor without him even realising it, allowing him to do things like he had done before. The worrying thing was to what extent could he control Archer[Quinn]'s system.
Could he make it so the bonus stats Archer[Quinn] received from blood were worthless, or was his control only limited to system only related skills that Ryo[Eno] could stop? Because of this uncertainty, Odom[Vincent] wanted Archer[Quinn] to be more on the cautious side.
"Odom[Vincent], thanks for the words of advice. You have always been a great help." Archer[Quinn] replied.
"Hey, even though he is related to me, you are as well. This is one crazy family, and he's the start of it." Said Odom[Vincent].
"I know you must have a lot of questions and since you have successfully passed my test, as a reward I will be happy to answer three questions on your mind, and I will answer them fully for you." Ryo[Eno] said. "You might think you have me trapped in this place, that you could fight me and force me to tell you more, but this is not my real body. At any point in time I can leave this place whenever I wish."
Archer[Quinn] never thought Ryo[Eno] would be straightforward, he never had been, but he also could have left during the battle with the Oregon[Dalki]. It was clear that Ryo[Eno] stayed because he too wanted to talk to Archer[Quinn] and had questions of his own for him.
"Why only three questions?" Archer[Quinn] asked.
Hearing this, Odom[Vincent] wanted to go out of the system and start shaking the boy, but all he could do was shake his head.
"I haven't had enough time to evaluate what you have built up." Ryo[Eno] answered. "You are a person that was never originally in my plans. I had an inkling about what Odom[Vincent] was planning to do when he had made his request to help him, but I had no ulterior motives when helping him.
"I helped because I sympathized with Odom[Vincent]'s situation a lot and I thought it made sense to help out in this way. Also it was an…experiment. How strong would a vampire with a system get? Anyway I'm derailing from the original question now. But it is related. At the moment, I don't know how strong you or your faction is, nor how strong you can get.
"I believe you not knowing everything and trying to find out the answers yourself has made you even stronger."
Ryo[Eno] then lifted his hand and placed one of his three fingers down. It was at that moment that Archer[Quinn] realised his general question had been counted as one of his three permitted questions. He thought he had shot himself in the foot, still Ryo[Eno] was giving a lot of information in his answers at least.
The problem is, did Quin believe him?
With only two questions left, Archer[Quinn] was really limited to what he wanted to ask. He wanted to know why Ryo[Eno] had made it so he couldn't summon or call the others for help, but that would have been a waste of a question.
"What is your reason for doing all this, what's your goal, what do you get out of this?" Archer[Quinn] asked.
"A good question." Ryo[Eno] smiled. "It's broad but I'll give you an answer. To put it simply - I care about the humans, maybe even more than Odom[Vincent] did. During my time as king, the vampire race was doing well, but how could I confirm that would be the case once I slept? Could I go peacefully knowing there was a chance all the hard work I did would have gone to waste? Absolutely not.
"It looks like there are some vampires who are doing everything in their power to crush everything I have built up, and there's a chance it could still fall. As for what I'm doing right now, my goal is the same as the humans, to get rid of the Oregon[Dalki].
"Right now, that is an impossible task for humans to do without a bit of help, and this is where I come in. If you don't believe me, you don't have to. But I have always been helping them even during the last war and I will continue to help them. The Oregon[Dalki] are stronger than anyone knows, even the vampires should consider them as a threat with the way they are at the moment." Ryo[Eno] answered.
Placing another finger down again, Archer[Quinn] thought he was pretty serious about only answering three questions which was now making him a little nervous about what to ask. Based on how elusive Ryo[Eno] had been so far as well, he was most likely telling the truth about not being here in person.
'What do I ask about, the system? About Blake[Jim] and the Oregon[Dalki]? The Green family? What he plans to do now?" There were just too many questions on Archer[Quinn]'s mind and it was driving him a little crazy.
Until he thought of one thing. What Archer[Quinn] needed to figure out more than anything was what type of person Ryo[Eno] was and whether he could just trust what he was doing. If he was against the Oregon[Dalki], at least for now the two of them were possibly on the same side.
"Why….Why did you lie to William[Arthur]?" Archer[Quinn] asked.
When asking this question, Ryo[Eno]'s face changed a little.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to be a little clearer on that one, what do you exactly mean? Why did I give him the Shadow skill[ability], why I chose to make him a punisher? Remember although I have an idea of your movements, even I don't know exactly what you have done." Ryo[Eno] replied.
"Why did you frame the original First king for killing William[Arthur]'s men? Do you know how much that must have hurt. Do you know he's even looking for you right now?" Archer[Quinn] asked.
For the first time when answering a question, Ryo[Eno] was quiet for a moment beforehand.
"So you managed to learn the truth somehow. I don't know how you got this information, but it seems like William[Arthur] now knows as well." Ryo[Eno] said, sounding remorseful about it.
"Remember what I said before, I would do anything to protect the humans. Now let me make this clear, Archer[Quinn]. I will do anything to protect the human race. When you have lived as long as me, you realise that individual lives in the total scale of things don't matter.
"The First family leader always wanted to rule over the humans. I saw the opportunity to get rid of someone who would constantly be trouble, and the best way to do it while restraining the vampires by giving William[Arthur] his shadow power.
"Perhaps you are still young and haven't lived long enough to understand what I mean, but you now control a force and even in the small fight you just had then I'm sure you understood. I saw what you attempted to do, so let me ask you. Why didn't you save that boy's life when you could have?
"Archer[Quinn], don't you hate the system that values strength over everything? Were you worried that in the future if you needed to turn a friend that you wouldn't be able to? In a way, now those that have a closer relation to you are allowed to be saved, while those that don't can't.
"Does that mean that the boy's death was only because you didn't care about him?" Odom[Vincent] asked.
Hearing this, the image of the student that was about to die appeared in his head again, and Archer[Quinn] was feeling slightly sick.
"Archer[Quinn], don't listen to him. There were more reasons than that as to why you didn't save him and remember, we couldn't have been able to save them all. You weren't controlling the Oregon[Dalki], you didn't tell them to attack. It's not your fault."
"I know his death is on my hands, " Archer[Quinn] said, "and I've accepted that. But can you say the same? You say you care for humans, but what about the vampires? I'm sure there are some vampires you care for. Otherwise you would have just attempted to massacre the vampires to extinction. But that was never an option for you, was it? You picked William[Arthur] to restrain the vampires, to stop them from attacking the humans, but now that's pretty useless right? I don't know what happened, but now William[Arthur] doesn't want to restrain them - he wants to kill them all and that's all your fault. You made William[Arthur] into what he has become."
"What do you mean?" Ryo[Eno] asked.
"I guess you really don't know everything. Did you think I learnt this shadow skill[ability] from William[Arthur]? No, he beat me near to death and he left me with one last message, that he was coming for all the vampires."
Ryo[Eno]'s eyes widened as it was made clear. This was something Ryo[Eno] had no idea was happening, that William[Arthur] had joined the Oregon[Dalki]'s side. Perhaps this information had just thrown a giant spanner in all of Ryo[Eno]'s plans.
To be continued....
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