Hero of Darkness

A soft and refreshing breeze passed by the two young men who were expressing their honest thoughts to each other after summarizing the events of the past couple of months. 

"Oh, you're realizing that now?" asked Kahn as he chuckled. 

"Not exactly. It's something I always knew but never truly realized the weight and depth behind those words.

You may as well call me someone born with a golden spoon for that… but my world has always been different than other people. 

Till now, I've never truly worked hard to become strong. I had resources, people, excellent teachers but not even once did I give my best at achieving anything. 

And after becoming a peak master rank magician… I haven't been able to move forward for more than 2 decades now. If I was strong, no one would have thought of my life as expendable." said Szayel as he sighed deeply. 

"The last part, I agree. If you think about it, both of us were nothing but small pawns for your father & the pureblood faction if I'm being honest. 

They used your life being targeted as an excuse to justify killing their enemies & used me after saving you as means to set a bait. Who knows how many people are involved behind all of this." said Kahn as he folded his hands behind his back. 

Szayel who heard it knew that Kahn's insinuation was indeed true. His father used Kahn as bait while his grandfather used the whole thing as means to kill more than 50 thousand members of the Demi-Human faction under the pretense of exacting revenge. 

In the end, both were just means used to hide their true intentions and mask a rivalry.

But since beggars can't be choosers, both of them had no choice but to swallow down this punch in the face simply because they were weak & powerless in front of the true powerhouses who sat at the top. 

Both of them shared a sense of similarity in that aspect. 

"Oh, by the way… there's something I wanted to tell you. It's not out of the clan's close circle yet but after the execution ceremony, the cores of the traitors that remained were gathered. 

Unlike others, the core of a saint can't be destroyed easily. 

There was a 5th stage saint amongst the traitors, an elder of the clan to be precise. His core was given to my father for him to absorb it and become a 5th stage saint in the upcoming decade." said Szayel and revealed a top-secret of his clan. 

"What?! Doesn't that mean all the other clans also have the cores of their saints gathered after the execution ceremony? And why are you telling me this? Isn't it too risky?" asked Kahn in a surprised tone. 

"Because it is indeed related to you in a way. So I felt like I should warn you." replied the vampire heir. 

"Me? How? Don't tell me I provoked someone from your clan again.." said Kahn with a grim expression. 

"Nothing like that. But something weird happened recently. Do you remember Kereberos, the first stage saint magician?" asked Szayel.

"Of course. What about him? Wasn't he also burned along with the others?" asked Kahn curiously. 

"Yes, but during the gathering procedure.. 

His core went missing." explained the silver-haired vampire. 

Gasp! 

Kahn gasped in surprise after the revelation. 

This old mage was the one who targeted him and had the chamber of commerce create trouble for him and even had his people killed. 

After the vampire lord caught him that day, this old and bald mage was used as a means to find the other traitors within their clan and then those people to find the other traitors hidden within their entire faction of three hundred powerful clans. 

The old mage was the very reason Kahn learned a very harsh lesson recently. But to have his core gone missing, and that too in the main headquarters of their clan. This was something completely unexpected. 

Watching Kahn's surprised face, Szayel nodded and spoke again. 

"Don't worry. It's not coming to bite you back this time. There was an investigation in the clan but the culprit hasn't been caught yet. But we are certain that it was one of the clan's inner people because I went to oversee the harvesting process and found out about the missing core. 

We've taken enough security measures to find the culprits. I just felt like you should know." said Szayel. 

For the rest of the night till midnight finally came.. Kahn & Szayel spent the rest of their time chatting about their future plans and in a way, ended up deepening their friendship. Not just for the sake of it but to truly become friends with each other. 

Both of them let go of their previous pretenses and fake acts of helping each other. 

Since both of them were in a similar situation now, a form of kinship was formed between and for the first time.. Kahn felt like he indeed found someone who also related to him albeit in a completely different way. 

But during the moment he was shaking hands with Szayel to bid the vampire heir farewell… a black shadow suddenly jumped from the shadow of the vampire and mixed with Kahn's. 

After Szayel & his entourage finally left and everyone went back to their rooms for sleeping.. Kahn stood in his new master bedroom. 

He quickly used the domain artifact again to seclude the entire space around him and a lean and muscular, long black-haired man with green eyes who was clad in black assassin clothes appeared next to him. 

"So, I assume you succeeded." said Kahn. 

The figure in front of him was none other than Ronin who appeared for the first time after a month. 

"Yes, Master. It did exactly as you commanded me to do." said Ronin in a ghastly and stoic voice. 

The next second, he took out a box from his space ring and handed it to Kahn. 

Kahn then opened the lid and the entire domain was filled with bright light and a white orb that sized as big as Kahn's fist was revealed. 

Kahn grinned happily after looking at this orb and spoke with a greedy & excited expression. 

"Finally… the core of a First Stage Saint!"