Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 612: Blood Reservoir

"Of course, it was," Caius said with a frown.

"Why do you sound upset?" Athenodora asked him with an amused expression, "I’d think learning you don’t have to spend a decade with me would make you happy. You’ve been moaning about it all week. You’ve been hard at work seeking an alternative to avoid the decade-long commitment and now there is one..."

"I just don’t appreciate being lied to," Caius said.

"I didn’t lie to you," Athenodora said.

"You lied by omission," Caius retorted.

"And you didn’t?" Athenodora said with a raised brow and stepped even closer to Caius, her voice dropping to a low and enrapturing tone,

"You just said you considered the Blood yourself. And yet, you never thought to suggest it to me."

"How did you learn of the Blood’s location?" Caius asked.

"How did you?" Athenodora asked.

"I asked first," Caius said.

"And I could simply order you to tell me," Athenodora said.

"I read about it," Caius said shortly with a shrug, "Now you."

"The same," Athenodora answered.

"Please, be serious," Caius said, closing his eyes.

"I am," Athenodora said, "Was bored and began to pore through some dusty tomes. Call it a flash of inspiration, call it a stroke of luck, or something else entirely but suddenly, a bunch of incoherent scribbles finally made sense."

Caius didn’t argue with her. What she said actually matched how the reveal occurred in the original canon: Books that had long been researched and interpreted in every way possible just suddenly had clues that people suddenly understood. The Blood of Strigoi wasn’t the most well-integrated plot detail in [To Kill A Demon Lord...].

But why now? And why was it revealed to Athenodora of all people?

In the original canon, the location of the Blood of Strigoi was revealed to characters with little involvement in the plot until then. Characters who were quickly killed off for what they knew after they had their ’fifteen minutes of fame’. Important characters received the information last because once they had it, the plot surrounding the Blood raced to the finish.

"How were you planning to go after the Blood?" Caius asked in an equally low voice.

"Who said I was?" Athenodora asked slyly, "I’m frail and weakened by the curse so obviously I can’t make a play for it."

"Let’s drop the pretense. I know you’re not sitting it out. Otherwise you would have told Philip what you know and be done with it," Caius said.

"Maybe I want the knowledge to die with me. Maybe I have someone else to hand it to. Information like this should fetch a nice price," Athenodora said in a musing tone.

"Money is the last thing you care about. And that’s even without the fact that you clearly have too much of it already," Caius said.

"You flatter me."

"Tell me how you were going to go after it," Caius pressed.

Athenodora smiled and eyed him from head to toe, her tongue trailing out of her mouth as she licked her lower lip.

"Take a guess," she said.

At first, Caius opened his mouth to protest her insistence on secrecy and then he paused and took note of her expression.

"Me?" He said.

"Yes."

"You were going to order me to get it for you?" Caius asked.

"No, I’d get it myself. Sure my order might bind you to obey me and bring it here but that’s hinging on you being capable of actually bringing it to me," Athenodora explained,

"You’ve proven yourself talented and resourceful—advancing to the Fifth Circle so young—but there is so much you still don’t know and so many obstacles you are Ill-equipped to face. And just thinking of the great obstacles that are sure to be placed before that much power...

No, it has to be me. You’ll just supply me with the resource I need to do it."

As she spoke, Athenodora walked about the room she had named her cocoon and after taking a breath, she turned to face Caius again, a dazzling smile on her face.

"You can’t believe my relief when your blood proved to be what I needed. I mean my theories are usually correct but this one really made me nervous. I have lived many centuries, Caius, and I have never once been made to face my mortality as I did. Hell, I had lived long enough to practically convince myself I truly was immortal. And to be faced with the reality that I’m not and my time alive is ticking down fast..." Athenodora paused to sigh and then continued with a more upbeat attitude,

"After my theory of your blood being capable of keeping me alive proved correct, I decided to test another; The Blood Reservoir.

The ability to process the life energy within Blood and then store it away when in excess to tap into at a later time. Simply store enough away and I can be independent enough to go after the Blood myself."

"It’s why you always fell asleep after feeding on me," Caius said slowly.

Athenodora nodded.

"It’s more like a trance. But yes, just as it did while I was waiting for you, ’sleeping’ within my Cocoon helps conserve energy, allowing an excess so I can store something away," she said.

Caius had an errant thought of how those times he had tried to contact Athenodora while traveling here from the Acheron Empire and she didn’t respond, she must have been in that trance state.

"How much longer before your reservoir is full?" Caius asked.

"It can never be full," Athenodora said.

"Okay, how long before it’s enough to carry out your grand plan," Caius said and he put a sarcastic spin on ’grand plan’ to make it clear that he didn’t like how any of this had played out.

Athenodora caught his tone and smiled.

"A few more days. A week at most," she said.

"And how strong will you be then?" Caius asked.

Athenodora sighed with melancholy.

"Alas, I could empty the reservoir and still be a far cry from my true strength. But with a few things prepared, mostly Formations and potions brewed by the Venuzzian Blood Alchemist, I think I can manage," She said.

"You can’t," Caius said.

"What?"

"How much does your clue actually tell you about the Blood’s location?" Caius asked.

"I know how to find the gateway," Athenodora answered.

"That’s it?" Caius asked.

"Is there more to know?" Athenodora asked in turn.

"No. Not for you anyway," Caius said.

"What does that mean?"

"It means you found the only information anyone could possibly find about the Blood’s location but there is still much you don’t know.

You were right to expect obstacles— there are a lot of them and they are designed to be surpassed with the pinnacle of magical might. Be it spellcasting or physical magic. If you can’t be confident of achieving your true strength and maintaining it, you can’t get to the Blood."

"And you know this how?" Athenodora asked.

"I told you. I read about it," Caius said.

"And you trust this information," Athenodora asked.

"Absolutely," Caius answered.

"So how were you planning to go after it?" Athenodora asked and when Caius gave her a look, she waved him off and added,

"Oh, please. You weren’t going to reveal it to me even though me getting the blood would free you of your obligation to keep me alive. The only reason you’d do that is if you were always after it for yourself."

"I was going to wait until I was strong enough," Caius said.

"Ah, so the decade wasn’t going to be wasted," Athenodora said in realization.

"Exactly," Caius said, tapping his nose.

"How strong do I need to be?" Athenodora asked.

"It’s quality parts strength and equal parts consistency. The reservoir barely helps with the first and does nothing for the second. Not unless you’re willing to wait a year to fill it up," Caius said.

"I could be that patient," Athenodora said with a nod.

"Maybe you don’t have to," Caius said in a musing tone as his mind worked out his most daring and maybe also his most stupid plan yet.

"Elaborate."

"Well, we happen to have someone right outside those doors with the kind of strength and consistency we need," Caius said.

"You mean Philip?" Athenodora asked in surprise.

"He has an Emissary designation on top of his formidable magic circle. With him, we can get through the obstacles fine," Caius said, his tone still musing.

"You can’t be serious," Athenodora said.

"I am," Caius said absentmindedly.

"So you want him to get the Blood?" Athenodora asked and that snapped Caius back to himself.

"Of course not," he said, "But we need to get to the Blood first, and until then, I think he could be useful."

"Surely there are others that could get to the Blood just as well," Athenodora countered.

"Unless they’re at the Eleventh Circle, then no, they can’t," Caius said.

Never did he even consider the Leopolds because the danger of the Blood’s location was such that he didn’t want to risk them. Ordinarily, Caius always planned to go after the Blood on his own time when he believed he was capable enough. It was always to be a personal quest because of the danger and the rewards involved.

But things had changed.

If Athenodora knew about the Blood’s location, then it was only a matter of time before it became widely available knowledge and competition grew. He had to strike while the iron was hot.

And since Philip was eager to acquire the Blood for his Lord, he could be manipulated. And should he die so Caius could claim the Blood for himself, well, all the better.