The First Pope - Chapter 144
Chapter 144
Ever since the Vampires occupied Thacker Plain, the sky here had been perpetually shrouded in dark, heavy clouds. Only the central region could see the bright sunlight, but even this last bit of sun was disliked by the Vampires. Castles crowded the area, and layer upon layer of the Blood Domain descended, casting a bloody shadow over the golden sunlight.
Thacker Plain had been transformed into the Vampires' favorite environment. It was only dusk, but the place was already pitch-black. A red figure and a white figure appeared one after the other at the border of Thacker Plain. Avira walked alone in front, while Kate followed behind, brushing the yellow sand from her clothes and muttering to herself with a frown, "These damned dragons, sooner or later I'm going to rip off their scales."
During this time, she and Avira had gone to the Mentos Desert a few more times, but they returned empty-handed every time.
Moreover, the dragons in the temple seemed to know they were after the Blood Coffins. They deliberately hid the coffins and toyed with them as if they were playthings to relieve their boredom.
Ever since their Second Generation Vampires took control of this continent, Kate had never been treated this way. It made her want to run back to the Blood Domain, bring out all the Gangrel Vampires, and teach these dragons a proper lesson.
As Kate was grumbling to herself, Avira, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped. Kate looked up, walked over, and asked, "What's wrong?"
The darkness did not affect the Vampires' vision. Avira looked down at her feet. Beneath the withered yellow weeds was earth cracked from drought. The cracks were sparse and ordinary, with nothing suspicious about them.
"A formation," Avira said, bending down to part the withered weeds. She gently ran her fingers over the cracks in the ground, her scarlet eyes lifting slightly to carefully scan the surroundings. Sure enough, she found a crystal in an inconspicuous corner.
Kate followed Avira's gaze and also saw the crystal. She scraped at the cracks on the ground with the tip of her foot and asked doubtfully, "Did that bunch of Witches leave this behind?" Or the Sethite wizards?
As far as she knew, only the Witches on the Sitatul Continent liked to study such things. Now, she might have to add the Sethite wizards who had defected to the Lasombra clan.
"It could also be the God Race." Avira walked over, picked up the crystal, and tossed it in her hand. She said lightly, "Cynthia also likes to study formations."
"What do you mean?" Kate turned and jumped onto a nearby tree trunk, sitting with her legs dangling leisurely in the air, the ornaments on her body jingling. "Does she still want to run wild in Thacker Plain?"
That member of the God Race was impressive in terms of both strength and other aspects, but so what? Did she think she could fight their entire Vampire race all by herself?
If the matter of the Blood Coffins hadn't been so troublesome and kept her occupied, she would have gone to face that God Race member again long ago.
"She and the God Race were originally the pawns I prepared to deal with Talia and the Lasombra clan." Avira played with the crystal, her eyes lowered, making her emotions unreadable.
Kate's dangling legs stopped, her expression subtle. "So that's why you were always hanging around the God Race."
Avira glanced at her and snorted coldly. "If Talia hadn't come out to stir up trouble, I'd still be sleeping in my coffin right now."
Knowing she was in the wrong, Kate avoided her gaze. Staring at the not-so-fresh leaves beside her, she pouted, "The Lasombra clan just has that restless nature. If Talia were from the Toreador clan, wouldn't she be quietly painting in the Blood Domain?"
The Lasombra clan was arrogant, controlling, and loved to wield power. In the Blood Domain, they were suppressed by the Ventrue and Brujah, two clans too powerful to resist. Of course, their only option was to come to the Sitatul Continent.
As an elder of the Ventrue clan, Avira already looked down on the restless Lasombra clan, so Kate changed the subject after a few complaints. "You just said you wanted to use the God Race and Cynthia as pawns to check the Lasombra." She glanced at the crystal in Avira's hand and raised an eyebrow. "It seems your pawn is quite obedient, but the timing doesn't seem to be to your liking, does it?"
Avira had been ordered to deal with the Lasombra and Tzimisce. After arriving on the Sitatul Continent, she discovered that the once-inconspicuous God Race was quietly rising. Her plan was to use the power of the other races living on the Sitatul Continent to fight against the two restless clans, Lasombra and Tzimisce. After a bloody battle, both sides would surely suffer losses, and Avira would just watch from the sidelines. This kind of balancing and scheming was a favorite tactic of the Ventrue clan.
Avira tossed the crystal to Kate. Her scarlet eyes were dim in the darkness as she said in a low voice, "The pawn stopped being obedient long ago." When she saw Cynthia in the Mentos Desert, she had guessed that Cynthia wouldn't let this opportunity pass.
And with the current strength of Cynthia and the God Race, the pawn was more than just disobedient; she was already controlling the game.
Thacker Plain was vast, semi-encircled by a winding river that acted as a natural barrier. It was summer, and the river's current was swift and turbulent, carrying logs downstream. Suddenly, a beam of ice-blue light descended from the sky and fell into the water. The once-turbulent river instantly froze still, and a dense white mist rose, nearly blotting out the sky.
A strong gust of wind blew the mist away. As it cleared, dozens of giant white wolves stepped onto the ice to scout the path. Behind the wolves, Elves walked barefoot on the ice, holding their staves and chanting spells in low voices. An ice-blue light covered the entire river.
A group of several dozen people stood on the bank, watching the white wolves and Elves on the ice. The person in the lead wore a wide black robe, with strands of long silver hair falling to her waist. A hood half-covered her face, concealing her expression, revealing only her slightly upturned red lips. She played with a pure white staff in her hand. When she looked up at the sky, her pair of golden eyes looked exceptionally mysterious against the night. "What a dense dark aura."
Cynthia tapped her finger on the staff, and a thread of golden light exploded in the air. Golden flames devoured and burned the black clouds shrouding the sky. The sky turned from dark to light. More than a thousand years after the gods had departed, daylight finally arrived on time in Thacker Plain.
With the branch from the Goddess of the Forest as a medium, Cynthia found it increasingly easy to use the Light Crystal. For some less complex Light Magic spells, she didn't even need to chant.
"Can you sense the Temple of Light?" Helen turned her head toward Cynthia and asked.
Cynthia reached up and took off her hood, saying with a smile, "Although I can't sense it, my intuition tells me this is the right place."
"Even if the Temple of Light isn't here, the Vampires here can forget about remaining on the Sitatul Continent," Olivia said coldly as she took the longbow from her back. She took half a step back, her fingers touching the bowstring, gathering an arrow as she spoke.
She released the string. The arrow, formed from the power of nature, left several afterimages in the air before vanishing. A few seconds later, a thunderous roar echoed from the sky, and the ground beneath their feet began to tremble.
Helen raised a hand and gestured to her clan members behind her. The white and grey wolves, who had already transformed into their true forms, roared and charged onto the ice, rushing past the scouting Elves to pounce on the Vampires who had sensed the disturbance and come to investigate.
Seeing that the Wolf Race had already charged ahead, Sophie requested permission from Cynthia and then led the team of Light Knights onto the ice. The purpose of the Light Knights was to protect the God Race and the Light Believers. Even though facing the Vampires head-on was extremely dangerous and could even cost them their lives, they advanced without hesitation.
The Sitatul Continent was "sick," and "curing" it was everyone's mission.
The Wolf Race, Elves, God Race, and human knights entered Thacker Plain in a mighty procession across the ice. Within this large force, a team dressed in black robes moved against the flow. Chelsea, escorted by the Wolf Race, found Cynthia with her people and handed her a map. She said in a low voice, "A few places weren't suitable for setting up formations, so I made some changes."
"The locations are all marked on the map."
Cynthia took the map, unfolded it, and studied it for a moment, committing the revised locations to memory. She smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Chelsea."
"It's nothing." Chelsea shook her head. She glanced toward the God Race contingent and saw that Darcy had returned. After a moment's hesitation, she asked, "How is Eunice?"
"Eunice was rescued in time, but she's still in a coma due to mental exhaustion." Cynthia handed the map to a Wolf Race elder beside Helen, then turned to Chelsea and said, "There's a Sacred River outside the Temple of Light, left behind by the Goddess of Light. Perhaps it can awaken her."
Chelsea nodded silently.
While Cynthia and Chelsea were talking, the wolves protecting the Morgan Witches were reporting the Vampire situation in Thacker Plain to Helen. "Judging by the intensity and aura of the Blood Domain in the central region of Thacker Plain, a Second Generation Vampire of the Tzimisce is also here."
The Ventrue and Brujah had explicitly forbidden their elders from setting foot on the Sitatul Continent. The Lasombra clan had blatantly violated this order, but the Tzimisce clan had only ever sent Third Generation and younger Vampires to the Sitatul Continent.
Now, a Second Generation Vampire of the Tzimisce was actually here... Helen's brow furrowed slightly.
"Our enemies aren't just the Tzimisce Second Generation," Cynthia said, glancing toward Thacker Plain. Her voice was gentle. "Don't forget Avira and Kate."
No matter how many times they had cooperated before, or how harmonious their relationship seemed, their identity as Vampires could not be ignored.
Standing beside Helen, Hanni suddenly seemed dazed upon hearing Avira's name. She lowered her head and stared blankly at her feet, lost in thought.
In a white castle in the central region of Thacker Plain, Talia was leaning back against her chair, her hand pressed to her forehead as she rested with her eyes closed. The small table next to the throne suddenly trembled slightly. She snapped her eyes open, her paper-white face instantly turning grim.
A tall, slender figure leaped in through the window and walked straight to Talia's side, sitting down. His handsome face was tinged with a hint of sorrow as he sighed, "The Elf Queen's arrow pierced the outer layer of the Blood Domain."
Harris propped his forehead with one hand, his long brown hair slipping past his fingers. "How troublesome. We haven't gotten the Blood Coffins back yet, and now we have to deal with these people."
Vampires had already reported that large numbers of werewolves, Elves, and God Race had appeared at the border of Thacker Plain. In the past, they were the ones who hunted these other races. She never expected them to dare gather together and provoke the Vampires.
If the Blood Coffins were still safely in their hands, Harris wouldn't mind playing with these other races. But in the current situation, he had absolutely no interest.
"Elves, God Race..." Talia was silent for a long moment before slowly rising from her throne. The dull ache in her shoulder was a constant reminder of the humiliation of being pierced by Olivia's arrow in the Earth Mother's temple.
"It seems these bold non-humans have forgotten who the masters of this continent are."
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