The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 390: Demonic Raven Blood

“What is this place?” Yulian asked, looking at the cave that, as they walked further inside, slowly turned from a normal one to a carefully built temple-like structure with stone walls and marble floors.

The transition was so natural that he didn’t notice when it happened. It was as if this place was fused with the cave by some unnatural force…

“A Ruin…” Lily, who was feeling a little agitated for no reason, said. No, she knew the reason, Victor was having a ton of fun, she could tell if he had strong emotions because of their soul connection. The problem was that Victor having this much of a reaction meant only one thing… THAT BASTARD MUST HAVE GOT A NEW GIRL!

“A Ruin?” Yulian asked.

“Ah… Yes… A piece of another world that got merged into ours… Don’t worry about this, there is nothing dangerous here,” she replied as she walked Yulian through the maze-like structure as if she had been there hundreds of times. “Although this place has been ransacked many times throughout history, the most important thing here is still protected!” she added, noting the signs around of someone trying to pray the marble slabs out and failing… How could they even dream of doing that? Those slabs weighed more than 10 tons each.

“Another world?” Yulian asked with a frown as he began to look around. On the stone tiles on the walls, he could see faded pictograms of cat people worshiping a crow who had a crown on its head. That picture was similar to the one his family had in their ancestral hall… Without the cat people of course.

“Yes… This place was once dedicated to our Ancestor, and it will be our secret base in the future!” she said.

“Our what?”

“Ancestor, he is not from this world…” she said. “And I already told you that the apocalypse is near. We need to build our own force!” she scolded then stopped as they finally reached their destination.

It was the most inner chamber in the ruin, a completely empty hallway that had only one big round balder in its center.

Lily slowly walked toward the stone, put her hand on it, then uttered a phrase in a language that Yulian never heard before, yet for some reason sent a shiver down his spine as if he was facing something ancient.

“ꌈꃔ꒒ꊿꏳꈵ ꒐ꃔ ꋖꁝꑀ ꃔꁲꂵꑀ ꊿꊯ ꋖꁝꑀ ꏳꌅꊿꅐ,” she said coldly.

Nothing happened.

“ꌈꃔ꒒ꊿꏳꈵ!!!” Lily shouted as she pressed her hand harder.

Still, nothing happened.

She frowned, thought for a moment then as if realizing something activated her power, making the entire room shine as she tried again.

“ꌈꃔ꒒ꊿꏳꈵ ꃳꑀꊯꊿꌅꑀ ꒐ ꏳꌅꁲꏳꈵ ꐔꊿꌈꌅ ꊯꌈꏳꈵ꒐ꃔ ꃳꁲ꒒꒒ꈜ!” she shouted angrily.

The large boulder flickered twice as if acknowledging Lily and then began to shine. Moments later it shook and then slowly began to roll, revealing a flight of stairs going down.

“This place is so old that its mechanism needed some maintenance…” Lily said. “Let’s go…”

Lily quickly descended followed by Yulian.

The chamber below was not big, it just had a few boxes to the sides around a pond of some black liquid that shimmered with a strange light. 

There was also an old skeleton that had a weird-shaped skull.

“Now what…” Yulian wanted to ask, but before he could he gasped as Lily took a hammer from somewhere and cracked the skeleton’s skull.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH….” a painful wail resonated in the chamber then everything returned normal.

“What the fuck?” Yulian asked as he stepped away.

“Just some random old soul who was bidding it’s time… You find those a lot in old ruins, so always remember to check…” Lily said. In the other timeline, the soul of a cat priest took the body of the guy who discovered this place and caused all kinds of troubles in the family before he was discovered. “Now strip and jump in the soul water!” she told Yulian as she began to take off her clothes.

“What are you doing?” Yulian, who covered his eyes with his hands, asked. Although he was a pervert and a siscon, she was still his fucking sister and his mother would literally shred him to pieces if he were to do something.

“I am not going to let you take all that energy here for yourself!” she said as she slowly entered into the pond, wearing nothing but a necklace. “You better hurry!” she said as she got fully submerged. The lake was about 5 feet deep.

“YOU…. DON’T YOU HAVE NO SHAME?” he asked, making sure she was in the water before he opened his eyes. The water was so black he could see nothing.

“First. We are siblings… Second, if you try anything funny, I will erase your dear balls from existence!” she stated as she relaxed in the pond; this place was monopolized by her cousins in the other timeline when it was discovered a few years after the reckoning. Now it was hers! 

“Now get in here and let your little sister help you rub your back and activate your pathetic bloodline!” she scolded. She needed to upgrade his bloodline if possible in the process and this meant she was to be with him in the pool. She made everything sound easy, but it was going to be a very complex process!

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO SAY IT LIKE THIS!” he exclaimed. She was not helping at all! “LOOK AWAY!” he cursed at her.

“Fine…” she spat. “Like you have anything worth looking at…”

“What is this black water anyway?” he asked as he went in, deciding to ignore her last sentence. It was cold! OK!

“Demonic Raven Blood….” she said solemnly.

…

Rita looked at the simple building in front of her, it was right in the corner of the management complex near the door of the mines. From the outside, it looked like some abandoned unnamed research facility. The entrance was locked by an old chain and there were no guards around… Still, she felt signs of life from the inside. After eating that demon soul inside of her, she became very sensitive to such things.

The ethereal thread that she was following headed inside of it so she knew what she needed to do without Victor telling her.

She carefully made sure that the disguise was still active as she reached for the back wall, activating a sensing talisman to make sure, she nodded and then passed right through the was into an abandoned room that seemed to be being used as a warehouse. 

She slowly walked toward the door and from its cracks, she could see the empty corridor outside.

“I am in…” she whispered. He was a little busy earlier and told her to inform him once she found the source.

“Oh… I will activate my disguise skill now… Stay safe…” Victor’s voice said. He sounded as if he was busy doing something, but she couldn’t tell for certain.

Going into the corridor, she slowly walked, passing through a few assistants who were totally oblivious to her existence.

“They belong to the second branch…” she said.

“Um…” Victor said.

Continuing, She followed the thread’s direction, reaching a stairway that went down.

Why did all those people like hiding things in basements… She wondered as she descended, reaching an empty room… The thread passed through the wall. A hidden door? Probably.

She just passed through the wall ending up in an empty corridor that had no doors.

Following it she finally reached a room where three old men were standing around a 3 feet tall pyramid-like glass sculpture placed inside a pentagram.

They were dripping blood onto it, making spirit-like things slowly form and then slowly float and drill into the ground.

“That should be enough to corner those bastards…” one elder said. “We don’t want to repeat the mistake earlier where one went out of control!”

“Look! Can you stop blaming me for that… I don’t know what happened either. Those things tend to go astray sometimes!” the other elder who was sitting at the head of the pentagram said. “I can only use my connection with this thing to control three targets at a time, so once I set their destination, it is out of my hands!”

“You wasted 20 years and all you can do is this!” the last man said.

“IF YOU ARE NOT CONTENT TRY DOING IT YOUR…”

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” The first man scolded. “We are almost there at the last stage, don’t ruin it for a stupid reason or Antoni would really kill us all! Just make sure they don’t attack our kids,” he said, “We need to finish this before the patriarch and the supreme elders return to check on the things here… Olaf can only buy us so much time!”

Both men nodded as the one controlling the golems closed his eyes as if he was trying to focus on his mission.

“What should we do?” Rita asked.

“... “ Victor, who was watching what was happening through Rita’s eyes, paused. Olaf? 

He was pondering if he should foil the scheme here or let them carry on, both choices had their merits.

He activated his appraisal skills at the Pyramid.

As expected. Victor sighed. This place kept getting stranger. 

From what the men said, this shard was probably found down below, and they must have found a way to control it by accident… Or the demon hiding inside of it was slowly manipulating them.

Still, this made things easy!

“Take the bottle I gave you and draw the symbol I will show you on the pyramid…” he said. 

Rita nodded, sneaking past the men who felt nothing, then took a vial of golden blood from the storage space, dipped her finger in it, and began to draw the symbol that Victor projected to her on the Shard.

It took a second, the pyramid flickered twice and then everything returned to normal.

“What just happened?” one of the men, the one who was standing further from the pyramid said.

“What?” the other asked. He felt nothing. Neither did the one who was closing his eyes.

“I… Nothing… I am just a little edgy,” the man said as he looked at the pyramid with a frown. The connection with his master Taran the Great had just been abruptly cut… The last thing he heard was the demon wailing in pain.

…

It was 3 hours later when the hut’s door opened and from inside a handsome young man walked out with a content smile followed by a pretty girl who had a long freshly combed hair and was wearing a frilled maid dress. She was holding the young man’s arm with passion.

Many miners who were secretly watching the fun here since the very beginning frowned… They all had the same question.

“Who the fuck is she?” Luke, who was sitting outside with the supervisor all this time, asked in shock. “Where is tat bitch?” he asked looking inside. It was empty.

“I… I am Kuu…” the pretty girl said, resting her head on her smiling young master’s arm.

“Yes… She is Kuu, I couldn’t believe that she turned this pretty as soon as we Kissed!” he said. “It seemed to be a curse that had been cast onto her!” he nodded. “All she needed was a kiss from this Prince Charming!” he said.

Kuu nodded, squeezing Victor’s hand harder. 

“WHAT CURSE? ARE WE LIVING IN A FAIRY TALE OR SOMETHING?” Luke who didn’t believe this exclaimed. He simply couldn’t believe it. This was impossible… IMPOSSIBLE!

“Ah…Well… It just happened! One must never measure a girl by her looks!” Victor said. Luke had not yet been educated on the true nature of the world. “Now, where is Zoe?” he asked.

“If the young master meant the girl who was with you, she went away earlier with old Alto…” the supervisor said.

“Oh… I see…Another ungrateful girl…” Victor nodded and turned to Kuu, “Are you an ungrateful girl too?” he asked.

“NEVER!” she exclaimed.

“Good! Then can you guide me through the tunnels, darling?” he asked.

“Ah… Although I am not very proficient, I have lived here since I was a kid and I know a few paths…” she nodded, feeling happy to be of use to her young master. He called her darling…

“Good girl!” Victor said, rubbing her head and making Luke, who was still in shock swallow.

“Did you get me what I asked for?” Victor asked the supervisor who quickly gave Victor a folder containing a few pieces of paper. Kuu’s file.

Victor quickly leafed through it and then folded it and put it inside his jacket… In the storage ring.

Kuu, who was 19 at this time was born here, her mother was pregnant when she was sold here by some slave traders… There was not much information about her.

As for why Kuu ended up in the shittiest place in the Mines, it was simple… Her mother who managed to hide her real identity, was assigned to be a maid at one of the outer halls, ended up castrating one of the young masters who worked there and tried to rape her.

She was killed briefly and her young daughter back then was sent here as a punishment.

As for the culprit, it was none other than Bill’s father… That’s why he had only one son.

Still, according to the document, Kuu was ugly from birth, so the curse probably had nothing to do with her mother… He needed to ask Alpha about this.

“Is there anything wrong, young master?” Kuu asked as she noticed Victor’s annoyed expression. For her, he became the entire world. As for Luke… She didn’t even care to look at him anymore, she was an idiot for even expecting anything from a brat!

“No… Just something random…” Victor said, turning to Luke. “Little brother, I wanted to spend some time talking to you, but It is already late and I need to go to complete the mission…” Victor lied, making Luke almost explode. 

 “Ah….” Luke didn’t know what to answer. He didn’t let his eyes from Kuu since the moment she left the hut… DAMN SHE WAS HOT… How the fuck did he lose her to his brother… WHY, JUST WHY?

“Are you ok?” Victor asked.

“Ah… Yes… Yes…. She had a curse?” Luke asked again.

“Oh… It is about this…” Victor said. “I think it is already ok to tell you, but curses really exist in this world… That’s one of the things they will tell you before the ceremony…” Victor whispered.

“What?” Luke exclaimed. Did it include such things?

“I can’t speak anymore or father would punish me,” Victor sighed. “But I can tell you that in a few days, you should expect to hear some very good news! You might be able to go home!” he added.

“Oh…Really!” Luke asked. Forgetting momentarily about Kuu.

“Yes…” Victor nodded, “Supervisor… Can I have a word with you…” Victor said, letting go of Kuu then grabbed the supervisor to the side and began whispering some things in his ear while stuffing something in his hand.

“I understand…” the old supervisor who was frowning said with a strange greedy look.

“He is my brother you know… So nothing wrong must happen to him until the end!” Victor repeated. This was the only thing Luke could hear, and it made him feel a little happy. Victor the idiot was completely unaware of their plan to get rid of him!

“I know… I know… I have what’s needed to take care of this!”

“Good, then. Let’s go!” Victor told Kuu who ran to his side. “See you later, ‘bro’!” he told Luke as he walked toward the village’s exit.