Christopher[Owen]'s men had successfully survived one of the first battles of this new Oregon[Dalki] war. What's more everyone had worked together to protect their leader behind them. Now that the fighting had come to a complete end, each of them had a large smile on their weary faces.
Knowing how exhausted their leader must be after his fight against the four spiked Oregon[Dalki], the men turned around intending to celebrate with Christopher[Owen], only to see that one of their own was already standing in front of him.
'How did he reach the head that fast? Did Anderson hold back in the fight ?' One of the Meshack[Graylash] members wondered. Still, he wasn't worried. Anderson was one of their own, someone they had known for a number of years already. Belonging to one of the factions under the Meshack[Graylash] family. He had been with them through a lot and all of them would entrust their lives to him… However, his next actions proved that doing so would be a big mistake.
Everything seemed to play out in slow motion in front of their eyes. Their faces went from smiles to disbelief as they watched Anderson's hand pierce through Christopher[Owen]'s body. The look on the latter's face spoke volumes as he had not expected this betrayal after they had just beaten back the enemy.
"Noooo!" The people screamed as they rushed forward, but before they could even reach the person, a tunnel of ice shot straight past them and the edge of the walls hit the attacker, freezing him in place.
Drake[Oscar] quickly ran forward, and when the arm that was lodged through Christopher[Owen]'s boyd started to freeze. He pulled him, breaking the arm off and placed Christopher[Owen] on the floor while he placed his sword on top of him as well.
"Damn it! ALL HEALERS IN THE AREA ARE TO COME OVER ASAP!!" Drake[Oscar] shouted, as his sword was freezing the wound to prevent the other from losing too much blood. Honestly, he didn't know how much it would help. He was no doctor, but blood was filling up Christopher[Owen]'s mouth, whose eyes remained closed. The blow was awfully close to one's heart, perhaps even a part of it had been hit.
———
Back on the second fleet's ship, Innu had just finished telling everyone the tale of what had happened to Christopher[Owen].
"Someone betrayed the family head!" One of the Meshack[Graylash] men shouted who was close by, but Hermes quickly moved his hand over his mouth, telling him to keep quiet.
"Did you forget what happened here? How many who we thought we could trust betrayed us today? The one who did that must have belonged to the same traitorous faction! The important thing is to prevent this news. We can't risk morale dropping even lower right now. Is Christopher[Owen]….." Hermes gulped down before he could finish the question. "Is he alive?"
Archer[Quinn] couldn't believe it. Christopher[Owen] was the ideal world leader. Someone he himself regarded as strong and wise. Alas, it seemed like he had been forced into such a miserable situation. If the one responsible was really the same as the 'humans' on board… then it would mean that the ones responsible were once again, vampires.
"His condition is critical at the moment." Innu answered. "They have healed the wound to the best of their abilities. Unfortunately some of his wounds refuse to heal. Luckily the blow had only taken out part of his heart, and they were able to use artificial parts to help him get through it. Still, he is in a very weak state right now and any complications could be deadly."
'Can't heal the heart? Is this something similar to when vampires suffer Qi attacks? Did vampires have such an effect on humans?' Archer[Quinn] asked.
'I can think of two things.' Odom[Vincent] replied. 'Either that vampire has a certain skill[ability] that repels the healing effect, or something has entered Christopher[Owen]'s body. Perhaps, their true goal was never to kill Christopher[Owen].'
If their goal wasn't to kill Christopher[Owen], then Archer[Quinn] could only think that maybe someone was trying to control him. It made sense, all this time Archer[Quinn] was thinking that this was a war with the Oregon[Dalki], and not the vampires, but somehow they had gotten involved, and unfortunately not as humanity's allies.
As long as humans remained unaware about the existence of vampires, they would just think that there was a faction of humans out there, working with the Oregon[Dalki] for some reason. Also if they were going up against vampires, then they could do vampire things, such as turn people.
If someone had successfully managed to turn Christopher[Owen], then the turner could get them to follow his commands to a certain extent, and with Blake[Jim] working with them, who knows what else they were planning on doing.
"What happened to the assassin?" Archer[Quinn] asked.
"For now, he remains frozen. They carved him out carefully and have imprisoned him on one of the Yatai[Bertha] sh.i.p.s. Drake[Oscar] is planning to interrogate him, but they need to make sure that the person won't be able to kill themselves, so we are being extra careful." Innu replied.
'Is the world going to find out about vampires? Should I tell Drake[Oscar]? No, not yet, for now I need to get information from that vampire first and I need to do so before anyone else!'
"I'm going to visit Christopher[Owen]!" Archer[Quinn] said. "Please inform Drake[Oscar] that I wish to talk to the assassin as well. Also it's vitally important that he doesn't go in there without me. I'll explain later why.."
And with that, Archer[Quinn] used his shadow to connect and transported himself back to the Cursed ship to inform the others about what he was going to do.
——
Thanks to Archer[Quinn]'s position as a world leader, it didn't take long for him to hear back. On top of that, they were happy to hear that he had successfully saved the second fleet from the attack. Drake[Oscar] had agreed to his somewhat strange request and promised not to interrogate the man until his arrival.
With this deal accepted, Archer[Quinn] decided to head to the Meshack[Graylash] family's main spaceship base. The others were still on the planet where the Demon tier had been, and Archer[Quinn] asked them to remain there. He told them that he would go to Rachael[Linda] with the shadow skill[ability], once he had dealt with this.
Honestly, the main reason Archer[Quinn] wanted them to stay there was to keep an eye on Ryo[Eno]. Archer[Quinn] wished to find out everything he could himself without Ryo[Eno] having any chance to play any of his tricks, and it was safe to say Archer[Quinn] still didn't trust him a hundred percent either.
If Christopher[Owen] really was in the middle of turning, then Ryo[Eno] might perhaps decide to kill him on the spot. Before leaving, Archer[Quinn] had made one specific request to Tobias[Logan] as well, and after what he asked for was completed, it was time for him to get to work again.
Archer[Quinn] didn't arrive at the Meshack[Graylash] base on his own, he brought along one important leader, Joseph[Sam].
They walked past temples and were being escorted by Hermes at the same time, until they eventually reached the golden palace where Christopher[Owen] lived.
"Wow, is this whole place made out of real gold, this place is so…fancy." Joseph[Sam] couldn't help but say, but the other two weren't in the best of moods to be amazed by everything around them.
Entering the palace, they were allowed to head to the top floor, where several guards and doctors with medical abilities were watching over Christopher[Owen]. He was lying in a large bed that had pillars on each side, and the room itself was as large as a training room back on the Cursed ship.
At the moment, Christopher[Owen] was sitting upright. He looked thinner than the last time Archer[Quinn] and the others had seen him. It was obvious that it was hard for Hermes to see his leader like this. He clenched his fist, and hated the fact he hadn't been by his leader's side to have shielded him.
"Hermes, I'm glad to see you alive, it looks like the Cursed faction got my message after all." Christopher[Owen] spoke weakly. He waved his hand telling the doctors and guards to give them some privacy as he called his visitors forward.
Now that they were closer to Christopher[Owen], they could see the large hole that was in the centre of his c.h.e.s.t. A strange device was placed in the centre made of mechanical parts making him look like a certain superhero with a full body iron suit.
"I'll have to apologise that I can't get up to greet all of you properly, but the doctors have instructed me to restrict my movements to a minimum. My heart is still weak and I can't even use my powers at the moment." Christopher[Owen] explained with a thin smile.
Archer[Quinn] could tell it was a painful smile.
"Archer[Quinn], I owe you a lot for saving my second fleet. I don't even want to think what would have happened if you hadn't been in the area. These are not your people, yet from what I heard you personally went to save them. Thank you." Christopher[Owen] looked at Archer[Quinn], deep gratitude in his eyes.
"I'm sure you would have done the same if you had been in my position." Archer[Quinn] replied. "About what happened to you. I have some questions. However they are rather s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e, so do you mind, if it would be just the two of us."
Christopher[Owen] looked at all the others, and Archer[Quinn] looked at Joseph[Sam] as well who nodded to leave the room. However Hermes had remained.
"Hermes, I think he means you as well. Don't worry, I'm certain he will not harm me." Christopher[Owen] instructed his subordinate.
When everyone had finally left the room, and Archer[Quinn] and Christopher[Owen] were finally the only ones in the room, Archer[Quinn] decided to ask Christopher[Owen] to personally recount what exactly happened. Christopher[Owen] went into detail about the fight, how strong the four spiked Oregon[Dalki] was, and even talked about his own skills, as if he was showing off to Archer[Quinn].
He paused for a brief moment, before he spoke about the betrayal at the end.
"And when that person attacked me, all I could remember was the smile on his face, and his glowing red eyes." Christopher[Owen] concluded his recounting.
After listening to everything, Archer[Quinn] now needed to confirm it.
"Christopher[Owen], can you please let me have a look at you? It's hard to explain, but I need you to trust me. I have a hypothesis why you aren't healing and if I'm right, I might be able to help you in some way." Archer[Quinn] requested.
"Go ahead." Christopher[Owen] shrugged his shoulders. "It's not like my life is worth anything anymore."
Archer[Quinn] pressed his hand against Christopher[Owen]'s c.h.e.s.t and closed his eyes. He started to sense the energy inside the other's body. The powerful strong yellow Qi energy that humans had. Even Christopher[Owen] seemed to have quite a significant amount of Qi, despite never having studied it, but then around the c.h.e.s.t Archer[Quinn] could see it, the red aura that only belonged to vampires, and it had spread out slightly from his c.h.e.s.t.
'So it's true, they were trying to turn him.' Archer[Quinn] thought worriedly. 'But why hasn't it worked? Did Drake[Oscar] interrupt him in the middle of it? Does that mean he is safe? Will he turn eventually… or could he be somehow immune to the process perhaps?'
To be continued....
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