Out of all the leaders that Leo and his group could have selected to try and interrogate, it appeared as if their luck had made them choose the very same one that Arthur had decided to go for. Seeing him appear, confirmed their thoughts that the twelfth family had been on the original Punisher's hit list.
Leo had managed to figure out something else as well. The low amount of forces in the twelfth castle… it was done on purpose.
The number was just perfect to make the intruders seem like a menace, but not to the point that the leader had to come out and deal with them. As such, Kim Prima was still in the throne room, which was exactly where Arthur had wanted her to be.
When seeing Arthur, the others had expected Kim to order an attack, to further the distance or to fight for her life but her next actions were something none of them had expected. A leader was a position that was respected and feared by all others, the only person they would ever have to bow to would be the King, yet…
Kim Prima had suddenly gotten on the floor, and repeatedly lifted her head up and down begging.
"Please, Arthur, spare me! I really didn't know what they were planning to do back then! Killton took me along without saying anything and after that I just followed orders!"
The three were frozen in place, everyone was.
Silver didn't know how to proceed with the plan. Whether they should abort and turn away. However, after hearing the words spoken from Kim's mouth she wanted to stay.
'With Arthur here, maybe we can learn why he is so going after the other families.' Silver thought, yet there was one thing worrying her. 'Are we even allowed to learn his reason or will Arthur attack us if we do? What if his revenge is just on the whole vampire settlement in the first place. There has to be a reason why he chose to switch sides instead of acting on his own.'
Out of everyone there, the first one to make their move was Arthur himself. He lifted up his hands, and the other ones that were in the room and by Kim's side, started to vanish into the shadows.
"My Shadow lock should be able to keep them in there for a long time, no matter how much they struggle." Arthur stated. Finally, he turned around and looked at the three strange people who had entered the throne room.
The Punisher had used his Shadow cloak skill to enter the room and he had seen what the three had attempted to do. This had told him that they weren't on the same side as the twelfth leader.
However, Arthur also didn't recognise the masks or outfits that the three of them were wearing either, so he had to make a decision what to do with them. For the time being, he lifted his hand.
"If you do that, we'll break out." One of the voices said. It was a female voice, but it hadn't come from Silver. Instead it was another one that sounded confident, and had her hand held on the large sword on her back.
The confidence was something Arthur wasn't expecting. Even if all three of them were leaders, they should have some fear after seeing how easily he had taken care of those around Kim. Yet they seemed completely unfazed by what he had done.
To top it all off, Arthur felt like the voice sounded familiar, although he was unable to recall who it belonged to. Rather worried about the person that was behind him, he decided to turn his attention to the three in front.
"Why…are you here?" Arthur asked, as he put his hand down.
The three looked at each other, but the best person to speak they all thought would be Silver, knowing that she stepped forward but not too far from the other two. She wasn't as confident as the others.
"We know you are going after the vampires, but it doesn't seem like you are going after all the vampires. We've come here to gather information about what happened. It's one thing for you to kill one of the leaders, but why did you put her body out for everyone to see?" Silver asked.
Arthur started to chuckle.
It seemed like his hunch was right. There were still some vampires in the settlement that were trying to find out the truth, not that changed the situation much anyway.
"I'm glad to know that not everyone is blindly following what the other says, but is it really enough?" Arthur asked. "I don't know how old you are, or if you were alive during my time of reign, but have they really made me out to be someone who would really disrespect someone's body like that?"
"I won't deny that I was the one to kill Suzan, however until her last breath she had denied to provide me with the information I sought. What would be the point of my desecrating her body after that? I was not the one that plastered her body on her castle walls like that. It is a shame, but he was right about how the King, or the others would react."
Hearing this, Silver was slightly confused. What did Arthur mean? He stated that he wasn't the one that had placed Cindy's body on her castle wall then who was and for what reason….
It was then that the reason hit her.
Who was the one who had benefited the most after that? In the first place, they were trying to make it, so all the vampires believed that Arthur was the enemy. That he was coming for them all. Arthur had helped Quinn and some of the leaders last time, and even had favour of the old King, so they needed to make sure that all the leaders were against him.
If it wasn't for Kazz confessing that her father was behind the missing people, then perhaps all of the leaders would have been fooled into believing that Bryce was doing everything for the sake of the vampires and not just to save his own backside.
"As for why I am doing this?" Arthur's body started to sink down, only to reappear directly behind Kim. He picked her up by the back of her neck and lifted her in the air.
"Why don't you tell them? Tell them why you are so frightened and why you are asking for forgiveness?" Arthur instructed her.
It was strange to see Arthur act in such a way. Silver had only seen him a few times before, but she got the expression of him being a calm man, who had been smiling most of the time. Had the smile been just a facade, or was his current behaviour due to him already deciding to go down this path?
"It-it-it was the expedition. At the time, Bryce had received permission to take a few leaders out for training! He…. He had lied to the King, and had secretly brought along a few of the leaders. They all knew the real reason. All of these leaders had lost a lot during the war of the Punishers against the vampires."
"All of them had felt that the Punishers had gotten off lightly. Some of them were scared that the Punishers could grow into a force that would be even bigger than the vampire settlement, so they decided to deal with them before it could happen."
After everything had been answered, before the others could even react with the strength in his hands and fingers, Arthur snapped Kim's neck, in front of them all.
"Now that you know the reason behind my actions, I hope you won't get in my way. I have a list to get through with and I would prefer not having to add you to it. I am determined to finish myself no matter what with my own hands." Arthur said, dropping Kim's body to the floor.
"Those people died just because they knew me. They died because we were asked to help the vampires, forced to live a life punishing vampires for their crimes and when we wanted to leave we had to fight for our freedom, and even then it wasn't enough. They chased us down to get rid of us."
"I went to sleep thinking that I had finally found a happy life, but instead of helping them, I only ended up leaving them to an even curler fate. The vampire's reign is over, but before they go, I have decided that I will personally take care of their revenge before that happens."
At that moment, a loud scream could be heard behind the three, and they soon jumped out of the way, to see a certain vampire run past all of them, holding his rapier in his hand.
"Arthur!!!!" Prima shouted, as he went forward ready to do battle.
The three of them watching this, now having learned the truth, had to make a decision. Who should they side with in this fight?
Arthur, or the vampire settlement?
*****
Many of you might have noticed that the number of typos has gone down and the quality of my writing has improved in recent months. I have my editor, Devils_Advocate, to thank for that. I'm calling him out today to thank him for his work and to congratulate him on his birthday. If you also appreciate his work, consider sending him a small donation through his ko-fi.
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