The fighting at each of the castles had almost come to an end and unlike during the first attack, the vampires had been prepared this time, leading to a decrease in the number of their losses. However, this still left the families with one worry in their mind.
After this, just what exactly should they do next? Having received the message from Jill, all the vampires were at a loss. The leaders didn't know who to turn to.The King had betrayed them, the one person that they should have all trusted, the one that they relied on in tough times and the one that they had voted into that position.
Still, they were also having trouble against Arthur in these times. Was it really the time for them to dethrone Bryce? After dealing with the invaders, the leaders had decided to do something about this question on their mind.
A strange phenomena occurred next. All of the surviving leaders had collectively decided to head to a certain castle. There was no communication between them. It was something they knew they had to do. All had headed towards the first castle and were waiting outside of the first family castle.
The castle where Bryce was originally from. They were there to demand answers and to confirm whether what they had heard was true. Being strict creatures of tradition, they felt like they were unable to storm the King's castle, so this was the next best thing in their minds.
At the moment, certain leaders had gathered. Jin Talon, Sunny Kent, Jake Muscat, David Scutter and Lee Sanguines. They were the leaders of the 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th and 13th families. The other families hadn't decided to come, or simply had no one that could come at the moment.
When meeting with each other, the leaders exchanged their opinions on the matter.
"It seems that we all got that message from Jill. I still can't believe it, has the King really been sacrificing his own kind?" David asked.
Muka was the first to nod.
"We have been looking into this matter, and it all adds up. If we look at the eighth castle there are no longer any crystals on the outside that are lighting up. Her message must have gotten interrupted by Bryce killing her. I'll be honest, we suspect that certain vampires have been helping him."
"The ones…that Arthur has been killing." Jake said, having figured it out. "I already knew. When the other leaders were getting eliminated, I remember that they were ones who had traveled with my brother a long time ago!"
"With my brother gone, I was left in charge of the family for the meantime, of course. Vadeen Muscat was already dead so Arthur was unable to go after him, but I had no idea that Bryce was doing this. Why would he be doing this, and where is he right now? I didn't see him in the pooling area."
"That's why we are here." Jin stated the obvious. "We need to get some answers, and we need him to be honest. Bryce won't tell us the truth, but there is someone else who should know the truth at this very place."
Not wasting time, Jin got his shield ready, tapping the top of it, making the small blades shoot out from the inside. The blades went around the entire shield dripping with blood. Then throwing it out, it approached the gate. All of the castles had closed their inner castle gates for fear of an attack and the first family wasn't an exception to this.
The only thing they didn't suspect was that there would be an attack from one of the other families. The shield started to spin, throwing out the blood against the wall and in seconds multiple explosions went off. When the explosions stopped the wall could be seen partially destroyed.
"What is going on? Oh no, are we under another attack?!"
"We just managed to get rid of the Dalki and Masked! Is this the Punisher?"
They looked towards the entrance, and could see the other leaders walking through the doors of the inner area. The vampires there were at a loss of what to do, for they too had heard the message that had been broadcasted to them all.
In the end, they decided to do the only thing they could do. They bowed their heads in shame towards the leaders. They kept their heads down, their bodies at a 90 degree angle never lifting it up. While the leaders walked through.
Even the vampires that were injured remained still, letting their wounds bleed out. The vampires were simply embarrassed at what their former leader had done, their current King. They didn't need an explanation as to why the other leaders were here.
In the end, they didn't even need to reach the castle for there were two people who they wanted to speak to were waiting for them.
"Kazz, Nicu." Sunny called out to them. "Both of you have been under your father for a long time. Kazz as his trusted Vampire knight, and Nicu as the son he was raising to take over his leader position.
"I'm sure you are aware why we are here. We wish for you to tell us now what your father has done. Please comply, else we will have to storm the castle and look for evidence on our way. The worst case, we will lock you up until we can bring in the King himself."
"You idiots!" Nicu shouted, stepping forward. "My father would never-"
Before Nicu could say much more, Kazz fell to her knees with her face full of tears.
"I never thought…I never thought…..he was doing the wrong thing. He wouldn't have done this..he wouldn't have if it wasn't for Arthur."
There were some of the leaders that still had their doubts whether or not Bryce was behind such a thing, but this confirmed in their minds that the King was unfit to lead.
"Will you tell us why he was sacrificing members of our family? Their families will want to know whether their death at least had some meaning to it.." Muka requested.
"My father has always stayed true to his word…he has done everything for the sake of protecting….no he wasn't protecting us, everything he has done was for the sake of getting rid of all those with the Shadow power. I knew this, and he had done so using underhand methods that had damaged the settlement he promised to protect." When speaking, Kazz was biting her lip. She didn't even seem to realise that she was bleeding.
Ironically, the person who had pounded into her how important it was to follow the rules had been none other than her own father. It was because of that that she knew how much he had broken them as well. After that, she confessed everything she knew to the leader, about what exactly the King had done with those that he had taken from the other families, and their eyes winded as they heard the tale.
Some of them felt bad, that they hadn't noticed it even though it had been happening right underneath their noses. However there was one thing Kazz didn't know, and that was what he had done to the bodies of the deceased.
Due to this, they had decided to enter the castle, and Kazz led the way, leaving Nicu in charge of all those on the inner castle ground area.
It was the worst day in history for the first family.
——
Bryce, himself, had finally arrived at the fourteenth castle. He entered the inner castle area, which was filled with buildings that had been abandoned for years, yet he didn't care. Wasting no time he started destroying everything around him.
The blood from the pooling area was brought along with him, and covering his arms, there were now two large vortexes of blood constantly spinning in place. As Bryce stood in the centre. He looked towards the castle.
"Arhur show yourself! I will destroy every single thing in this place until you do!" Bryce shouted, as he let out the large blood vortexes on either side, making them grow ten times in size. They began ripping the houses around them in seconds. It was as if thousands of Blood swipes were hitting the buildings again and again and they were unable to survive. Eventually, both of the vortexes had met up with each other and the blood had disappeared .
However, along with it, so had all of the houses in the fourteenth's castle inner area, now only the castle remained. Chuckling at the site, Bryce was over the moon, because the person he had been waiting for had arrived.
"You were meant to be the last person on my list." Arthur stated, standing in front of the castle, the shadow waving behind his back. "I see that it was wrong to leave you for this long. It's time for you to be gone from this world."
"You're taking the words out of my mouth!" Bryce shouted back.
The battle between the two strongest vampires was to begin, and the whole vampire settlement could feel what was about to occur.
********
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