Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire Chapter 563: We need a plan

Delia snapped back the present after her dive into the events that followed her near-death experience. And as she rolled her shoulders, with anger at Nyx still bright in her eyes, she looked around and did a swift count of Klevers.

And then, she paused.

When the hell did they become eight?

The last thing she remembered was getting stabbed by Klever and the last count she made had been two Klevers. Looking at the now eight Klevers who were all glaring at her with a mixture of trepidation and purpose, she felt like she had missed quite a bit.

But no matter. Hefting her Warhammer, and still feeling Nyx’s divine might surging within her, she prepared to face the challenge squarely. Bashing in a few demonic heads seemed like just what she needed to work through her anger at the Goddess of Primordial darkness.

"Come at me," she sneered, "Come on!"

But none of the demons moved toward her.

They didn’t even continue their battles with the others and seemed to drift closer to one another until they were in a unit. Their lips did not move but there was something about their body language that suggested a conversation was happening.

"What are you?" Delia asked, "Cowards?!"

And then she felt something wrap around her waist. Her knee-jerk reaction was to break free but she stopped when she felt a comforting trickle of Kaya’s familiar nature magic and allowed herself to be pulled away.

Kaya had conjured vines to pull Eloise Aylin, and Aurelius as well.

"What?" Delia asked with gritted teeth. Her anger seeping into her tone.

Kaya wasn’t put off.

"You’re alive," she just said.

Delia paused. Her anger ebbed away gently—it was still there, just directed at the one who actually deserved it—so she was left capable of letting warmth flood her at the look in Kaya’s leaf green eyes.

"Thanks to you," Delia said and was surprised to hear her own voice a bit choked up.

Kaya wrapped her arms around her neck then and the two embraced. They felt the arms of Aylin and Eloise as it turned into a group hug.

Aurelius looked awkward, then directed his attention to the Klever Unit—There was definitely a conversation happening there.

Kaya broke up the group hug.

"No, no," She said and sniffed once, "This can wait."

"Hey, you started it," Aylin pointed out, rolling her eyes at Kaya but she still had an arm around the half-elf beauty.

Kaya bit her lower lip lightly.

"I know," she admitted, "But we do need to think about what to do about the Klevers."

"You mean Klever," Eloise corrected.

"That’s what I said?" Kaya said with a raised brow.

"No you said Klevers," Eloise said, "But there’s really only one. So it’s just Klever."

Kaya had never known Eloise to be so pedantic. The golden-brown-haired songbird was always easy-going.

"Um, maybe you’re blind unlike the rest of us but I count eight demons," Delia said to Eloise and then looked at the others to add,

"Unless I’m missing something."

"You are," Eloise muttered.

"No, you’re not," Aylin countered, "They’re eight."

"No, it’s just one," Eloise said with a groan. She didn’t sound frustrated that they didn’t understand her, and seemed more creeped out by what she knew to be true.

Now the others, including Aurelius, who had been following the exchange, looked at Eloise like she might have hit her head one too many times.

Kaya thought differently. They-the ladies—had all come to know each other very well and spent a lot of time together but of them all, Kaya dared say Eloise understood her the best. And vice versa.

So, Kaya sounded a lot less dismissive and actually curious as she asked Eloise.

"Why do you say there’s only one?"

Eloise frowned.

"Well, it’s a few things really. The first thing that struck me was their harmony. When they speak alternatively, it sounds like one person just from different lips.

You guys might not know this but the sound produced by an individual to create their voice is actually very unique. Even those capable of imitating another person’s voice can only truly fool someone who can’t hear the finer details— They can only fool someone who is not a Sound Mage.

My father once said that not even a person’s clone will have the original’s voice. Because a clone is capable of independent thought and is its own person even if it’s an offshoot of another. And once you are an individual, no matter what, your voice is unique.

In other words, no matter how similar two people look or sound, there is always a difference. Some tiny inflection, or change in tenor, or difference in decibel that can go unnoticed to an untrained ear."

"I mean, I guess they did sound the same," Aylin admitted. "And creepy too," Kaya added.

"Oh, it’s worse than creepy. It’s unnerving, it’s disconcerting, it’s abnormal, it’s unnatural, it should be impossible—"

"We get it, Eloise," Aylin said to stop the songbird who seemed to still have many words to go.

Eloise shook her head.

"Sorry, but I was trying to find the words to properly express why this *shivers* bothers me so much. To you guys, they just sound similar but to me, who should be able to hear the finer and tiny differences and can’t—because there are none—they sound exactly the same.

Not multiple-sounding Klevers, not clones, just one singular organism, likely one singular consciousness, that is somehow able to be separate.

The more I hear that voice from different lips, trying to hear a difference I know is not there, the more frustrated I get— The more it twists my insides with its weirdness."

"Effigies," Aurelius said in a bit of a whisper.

The ladies turned to him and he looked at them with his brow furrowed.

"It’s what Klever called itself the master of," Aurelius said, "Remember? It boasted of getting rid of loneliness or something— of never being alone again. Of never getting outnumbered."

"So one demon split itself to have... friends?" Aylin said and although her tone suggested it was pathetic, she didn’t have a sliver of a smile on her beautiful face.

Even if it was pathetic, it had certainly proved a problem for them.

"That kind of thing must have consequences. It’s way too powerful to have no drawbacks," Aurelius said,

"Able to be split into separate formidable beings that can act on their own, and likely even create a form of immortality. That can’t be unchecked."

"Oh, I’m sure there’s a limitation," Kaya said, "For one, it has run out of Effigies. The horn was its resource and I don’t think it can create any more with that tiny tip."

"I’d assume it’s something to do with its nature," Aylin said with an agreeing nod, "Demons have horns so Klever must need to have something that suggests it’s a Demon at all times so that tip must remain."

"Nothing changes though," Delia said and her desire to battle was getting roused again, "We still have to kill every one of them."

"It won’t be easy," Eloise mumbled.

"It will be," Delia insisted and with a sneer in her tone, she added,

"We have two Goddesses on our side."

That sparked a question in the minds of the other ladies but it was Kaya who spoke first.

"Assuming the first is Aether, who is Aurelius’s patron, is it safe to assume the other Goddess is the one we have to thank for letting us into the Sealing Cube?"

"Anyxyl," Aurelius said.

"Nyx," Delia corrected on a reflex and then swore loudly.

’Nyx’ was a colloquial and almost loving moniker for Anyxyl and it was used most exclusively by vampires who, besides the most pious devotees of the Goddess, are closest to her divinity. After all, she created them and she owns all their souls.

Caius called her Nyx and Delia had picked it up without any particular inclination. It was simply what she knew the Goddess as. But now that her soul belonged to Nyx, Delia truly understood what it meant to call the Goddess by that three-lettered name.

Before today, Delia would never correct anyone who called Nyx by the more generally known name but just now she had been driven by an impulse to do it. An impulse that was the result of Nyx’s manipulation.

"She has received more than enough thanks," Delia said through gritted teeth.

Kaya looked concerned by the almost savage anger in Delia’s eyes but there was a pressing matter at hand and she decided to leave the questions and consolations for later.

"I don’t deny that it’s great to have two Goddesses with us for this and it has already caused Klever to pause and commune giving us this time to... catch up.

Still, will it be enough or do we need a plan?"

Aurelius frowned.

Even with Aether’s backing, Aurelius felt he had not been up to snuff today. Now that the enemies had doubled, he was essentially back to where he had been when he called for help.

"We need a plan," he said firmly.