Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire Chapter 644: Before the Editors

The dimension collapsed completely.

The exit Gateway closed, plunging them all into total darkness and Caius could no longer sense Athenodora by his side. And then, suddenly, his feet were on solid ground. A spotlight shone down on him from above, causing him to squint a little.

Even though it had only been a few seconds, it seemed Caius’s eyes had adjusted to the total darkness and so he was now feeling assaulted by the sudden, very bright light.

But he shouldn’t have been so affected. Even just at the Fifth Circle, he was still resilient enough not to feel almost blinded by sudden light.

‘Wait,’ Caius thought with a pause and raised his hands, clenching his fists, “My magic… my strength… It’s all gone.’

He hadn’t felt like this in… well, months. Not since he was Kevin.

“As you must be realizing, your extraordinary abilities are currently unavailable to you,” said a voice.

Another spotlight shone down, revealing a lady in a pantsuit. Caius recognized her as the authoritative voice that called his name right before the dimension collapsed into darkness.

She had dark hair tied in a bun at the top of her head. Her expression was serious, and her sunglasses blocked her eyes from view. She was wearing a pantsuit that fit her figure quite well. She was wearing shiny black high-heeled shoes that completed the all-business look she was clearly going for.

“How?” Caius asked.

“How what?” The lady asked.

“How did you strip me of my powers?” Caius asked.

“Ah,” the lady said with a little smile, “Well, it is inaccurate to say we stripped you of your powers. You are simply no longer in the ‘world’ that power originated from and means something. Here, you are normal. Unless, we say otherwise.”

“And where is ‘here’?” Caius asked.

“Oh, don’t play dumb, ‘Caius'” the lady said, “You know exactly where you are.”

“No, I don’t,” Caius said promptly with a shrug.

There was movement on the upper part of the lady’s face that let Caius know she had just narrowed her eyes at him.

“You lie well. But we know you know. We’ve studied and investigated you enough to know. Otherwise, we won’t go through the hassle of bringing you here.”

Caius frowned.

Of course, he knew who they were and why he was here. They were dressed in suits and that was simply not a kind of dressing native to the world of [To Kill A Demon Lord…]. That was dressing native to the world Caius originally belonged to. And who from Caius’s original world could enter the new one and carry themselves with such authority?

The answer was clear;

The Editors.

They finally caught up to him.

Caius took a breath and looked around though he couldn’t see anything beyond the two spotlights in the hall.

“Where’s Athenodora?” He asked.

“She’s fine,” the lady said.

“Boy, is she fine,” a male voice said with a groan from within the darkness.

The lady turned toward the voice.

“Jared, she’s a fictional character, remember?” She said and even through the dark lens of her sunglasses, Caius could tell she was glowering at the salivating Editor.

“Sorry, Merida,” said Jared the Editor, “It’s just…”

“Shut it!” Merida snapped and then turned back to Caius as she said,

“The character Athenodora was holding on to you when we took you. We had to take her along. She’s currently in stasis until we’ve decided.”

“Decided what?” Caius asked.

“Decided whether her world should still exist or not,” Merida said shrewdly, “If we’re going to be erasing her world, why bother taking special care to eradicate her. And on the off chance, though very unlikely, that we let the world of [To Kill A Demon Lord…] remain, it would be a shame to have eliminated her. The character of Athenodora is quite important to the story. Despite how little she appears in it. At least originally.”

As she spoke, it was clear Merida was observing Caius for his reactions. Caius was sure she must have seen his horror at the thought of the world of [To Kill A Demon Lord…] getting erased and he didn’t try to hide it.

“How can you speak so easily of something so terrible?” He asked.

“Considering you showed no confusion at the title of Sam_Ellis’ work, and no surprise at the accurate labeling of Athenodora as a character, I guess we can assume you are dropping the pretense.”

“A dialogue will be difficult if one side insists on playing dumb,” Caius said with a shrug, “It helps no one.”

“A dialogue?” Merida repeated and laughed, “There will be no ‘dialogue’. You have basically admitted to your wrong and I now have the right, as apportioned to me by the Archive of Stories, to prune a problematic story and all it entails.”

Merida reached into the inside pocket of her suit and retrieved a smartphone which she tapped a few times before returning it to her pocket.

“But you are only one part of this terrible breach of story structure. The other, and more important part, must come and answer for her crimes.”

A few seconds later, a third spotlight appeared, and within it stood the redheaded Samantha Ellis. Dressed in her usual green gown, with bracelets jingling around her wrists as she placed her hand on her waist, she struck a posture that thrust her large tits forward.

There was an appreciative whistle from the shrouding darkness. .

“Jared, I swear to God!” Merida growled.

“Sorry!” Jared said promptly.

“And you,” Merida said and looked back at Samantha, waving her hand at her visage, “What’s with all that?”

“I could ask you the same question,” Samantha said, “What’s with the suit? Trying to be intimidating?”

“Are you intimidated?” Merida asked with a smirk.

“Because you look like budget Men-in-Blacks?” Samantha scoffed, “Please.”

But Caius could tell she was intimidated. Not by the suits but rather by what the Editors could do to her story. She had made sure to impress on Caius what would happen if the Editors ever found out what they were up to.

At the time, she had said she hoped that once they got things rolling well enough, it would be too late for the editors to do anything even if they did find out.

Either they hadn’t reached that point yet, or there was never a point where the world would be immune to erasure.

“Should I list your charges?” Merida asked.

“Charges? This isn’t a courtroom,” Samantha said.

“It may as well be,” Merida said, “You involved a reader in the truth about the archives, solicited said reader to manipulate the events of established canon, throwing the entire story structure into flux. You are guilty. That much we know.”

Samantha frowned but said nothing.

Merida turned to Caius.

“And you. Your sentence could he lighter. You were foolish to go along with her ploy but we can simply return you to your body, your world so you can live the rest of your life thinking all this to have been a strange, no doubt exciting dream.”

“I can’t go back,” Caius said with the air of someone pointing out the obvious.

“What do you mean?” Merida asked, “Your body has likely been in a vegetative state for a good while but with story-time flux, we can get you back just in time to avoid total brain damage.”

“I mean there’s no body at all,” Caius said with narrowed eyes, “You didn’t know?”

Merida’s eyes widened so much that they were visible outside the lens of her sunglasses. She turned to Samantha.

“You didn’t—!”

“It was the only way,” Samantha said insistently.

“No, it wasn’t,” Merida said and turned to Caius, “What was the name with which you accessed Sam_Ellis’ story? The name with which she reached out to you through the Archive?”

“Kevin_The_Man,” Caius said. He heard sniggers from one of the editors shrouded in darkness. He suspected it was Jared. He didn’t care.

Merida pulled out her smartphone, tapped on it a few times, and then whatever she learned made her mouth fall open.

“You performed total submersion?” She asked Samantha.

“It was the only way,” Samantha insisted.

“A partial submersion would have been just fine!” Merida said.

“No. No, it wouldn’t have,” Samantha said, “You’d have noticed someone hopping in and out of a story within the Archives. Total submersion made him a part of the world. Undetectable.”

“Undetectable?” Merida laughed, “We found him!”

“Because he began to change canon,” Samantha said.

“As I should,” Caius said, “Why should I have to die because it’s what the Editors want?”

“Why should you…?” Merida started to say slowly and then sneered at Samantha,

“Ah, so it was all about saving your favorite character. Precious Caius Von Helsing who you just couldn’t help but elevate even to the detriment of your Main character! If we didn’t guide you every step of the way and let you indulge in your worst impulses, that book would have been an unreadable mess!”

“But it’d be MY book!” Samantha flared up,

“They are MY characters. How dare you dictate how I should write them? How dare you think you get to choose who lives and who dies in MY story!!!”