Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire Chapter 641: Keeper of the Blood

Caius raised the orb and peered into it at the Blood within, ignoring the intense glower Philip was giving him.

"Caius," Philip said, "Hand it over."

"Why would I do that?" Caius asked airily while still peering at the Helix-shaped blood within the Orb.

"Because I demand it!" Philip growled, "Hand it over!"

"No," Caius said.

"Now!" Philip yelled.

"No," Caius repeated.

Annoyed, irritated, and impatient, Philip dashed toward Caius. He was so fast that the movement appeared instantaneous to the peripheral vision of Fifth Circle Caius. Philip struck before Caius could react.

His blow, packed with his immense magical and physical might, and backed by his Emissary designation, struck Caius but never really made contact. The outline of Arcane Scripts around Caius blocked the attack, sending a portion back at Philip and forcing him to slide many steps away and almost fall off the platform entirely.

Caius blinked, seemingly realizing how ’close’ to death he had just been.

Philip seemed to see the outline around Caius for the first time

"What the— what is this?!"

"He has become the Keeper of the Blood and by my creator’s final spell, he will now be armed with the protective enchantments that keep the Blood safe.

With those enchantments, he will now be safe from all attacks and outward influence until he has rend the Blood from the Orb and destroyed it," Conscience said calmly, his shimmering, shrewd eyes on Caius.

"Keeper..." Philip repeated the word, confused, "How did he become the Keeper? Why did the Blood go to him?"

"The second trial," Athenodora said in realization, "That’s why you volunteered to face it."

"You would have failed the Trial anyway," Caius said with a shrug, "Anyone who wishes to use the Blood would have been smote by Valeria’s shadow before they could even muster resistance.

It’s as Conscience said; the First Trial was just about making progression difficult. The second Trial is the one that really mattered. It explains to you what is required and searches your intent to ensure you are willing to destroy the Blood."

"You think I’ll let you destroy something so precious. My Lord’s ticket to true dominance?" Philip asked and laughed without mirth.

"You can’t stop me," Caius said, "you heard Conscience; Until the Blood is out of the orb and destroyed, I am protected."

"Well, we’ll just see about that," Philip said and resumed raining attacks on Caius.

He didn’t rely just on his magic and strength as well as his Emissary designation but began to pull out Formation scrolls and various magical items from his storage ring that he believed would succeed where he had already failed.

Even while believing he was safe, it took a lot for Caius to ignore Philip’s threatening visage striking at him but once he was able to, he returned his attention to the Blood.

Athenodora said nothing while Philip kept trying to attack Caius. Not because she hoped he would succeed—she had a strong feeling he’d fail—but rather because she was starting to get a bad feeling. A feeling like she had been played.

When Philip eventually took a break from his fruitless attacks and was doubled over, taking labored breaths, Athenodora took a deep breath.

"Caius," she called then, "Remember my order; No matter what you have planned, that blood is mine."

As she spoke, Caius felt the tug of her authority urging him to comply. But unlike the feeling of an intense and unbreakable bind that it used to have, this seemed more like a gentle pull that he could easily ignore.

"I’m afraid not," Caius said, "Viktor spent three millennia reluctantly under Valeria’s authority. He knew better than anyone how essential it was for the Keeper of the Blood to not have their autonomy stripped from them.

There are provisions in the enchantments to null your authority over me."

"And of course, you knew it beforehand," Athenodora said.

"Of course," Caius said with what looked like a graceful bow.

"Foolish me. I miscalculated," Athenodora said with a self-deprecating smile, "I believed my authority over you was infallible."

"I hoped you would," Caius said, "I hoped so much that you wouldn’t make your orders more specific. I hoped you wouldn’t make me give you a play-by-play of what was in the dimension and simply trust that I’ll get you through."

"Bah, who has the time for a play-by-play?" Athenodora waved her hand,

"None of that mattered. What mattered was, after you’d put all your inexplicable knowledge to use and gotten through the obstacles to the Blood, you would hand it over to me.

My order had no loopholes. No matter your schemes, I’d still get the blood."

"And you would have, if it hadn’t been for Viktor’s foresight," Caius said.

Athenodora let out a breath.

"You know I always hated the relationship between creator and spawn. It just seemed like so much work, coming up with orders that have no loopholes, constantly having to keep an eye on those who serve you so they never get to stab you in the back.

Those Lords always claimed they enjoyed it all and when it’s about organizing gladiatorial combats and getting their rocks off abusing and torturing the weak, I can maybe buy it. But they never fooled me... I could tell it was all fucking exhausting.

So I said I’d never bother with it.

And yet, there you were..."

Athenodora paused here to regard Caius and she couldn’t help the genuine smile that crept across her face.

"Your father wasn’t the first human to annoy me, you know. Not even the first vampire hunter. And yet, I never created a spawn before you.

For some reason, I looked at you sleeping and wasn’t satisfied with just killing you to hurt him. I wanted to do more and I couldn’t help but break the one rule I set for myself."

"Are you trying for my sympathy?" Caius asked with a little scoff.

Athenodora laughed a little.

"I’m saying I finally understand those Lords; It’s so fun to have a spawn but somehow, someday, they’ll stab you in the back. It’s just the way of vampires, it seems."

"Hmm," Caius intoned.

There were a few seconds of silence.

"You’re not going to destroy that Blood," Athenodora said with a smile.

"You think?" Caius asked with a smile of his own.

Athenodora shrugged.

"You could have simply let me go after the Blood myself. As you said, I’d never get the Blood since I will never be willing to destroy it. I’d have died in this dimension. Philip too. And you could simply bide your time to come after the Blood at a later time.

But you thought; what if someone somehow managed to get to the blood before you? And so, you took the chance that Philip could help you get past the First Trial and came so you could get here and claim the blood for yourself."

"Well, I don’t think you’ll blame me," Caius said lightly, "Incredible power and all that."

Conscience had been passively following the conversation but as he heard Caius’s admission, his expression became dumbfounded.

"Wait, you wish to claim the Blood?" Conscience asked.

"Yes, I do," Caius said.

"Then you cannot be its Keeper!" Conscience said.

"And yet, I am," Caius said, raising the Orb pointedly with a smug smile.

"Give it up," Conscience said.

"Yeah, you tell him," Philip said, glad to have support.

"Oh calm your pants, Philip," Caius laughed, "Conscience can’t help you get the Blood from me. Conscience exists as the consciousness of the dimension whose singular directive was to hold the fort until a Keeper who could and was willing to destroy the Blood arrived.

Once I became the Keeper, Conscience was stripped of his authority to dictate what becomes of the Blood. In other words, he has done his part and now I must do mine."

In the original canon, once Aurelius became the Keeper of the Blood, he asked Conscience to help after which Conscience admitted he not only had no advice on how to destroy the Blood, but he had no right to interfere in the dealings of the new Keeper.

"But you just admitted to not being willing to destroy the Blood!" Conscience said angrily, "By all accounts, you shouldn’t be the Keeper!"

"Again, yet, I am!" Caius said, amused, "Seriously, we’ll just keep going back and forth and getting nowhere so I might as well tell you why I’m the Keeper despite my desire to use the Blood;

It’s because I figured out Viktor’s Blindspot. A blind spot he passed on to you;

Divine Energy."

Conscience paused.

"What?"

"As much of a genius as Viktor was, he could never manipulate Divine Energy. That’s power reserved for the gods, after all. And when he tried destroying the Blood, he never considered Divine Energy. There was no mortal with Divine Energy in the world at the time after all and no god was descending into the Mortal realm to do Viktor a favor. Nyx turned her eyes away from him long ago.

Anyway, Viktor as a real living being could learn and improve. And if he had the time and ever thought of it, he may have fixed that Blindspot.

You, however, are a Construct. You can imitate ’learning’ but are not really capable of the real thing. You can’t evolve. You are stuck in the state Viktor created you in. A state of ignorance to Divine Energy.

So long as I shroud any part of my thoughts, emotions, desire, will, and such within my Divine Energy, I can appear to you however I want."